tasmanian_bibliophile's review
4.0
Meet Detective Inspector Eve Rock. Her festive season is not going according to plan. After her house and other prized possessions were blown up, she has had to move in with her mother, Sister Immaculata in St Immaculata’s School for Girls in Nedlands, Perth. Eve’s daughter Chastity is also living there, and things are a little tense. Sister Immaculata is not happy, Chastity is developing a crush on a man who is possibly her brother and Eve cannot decide which of her two police colleagues Quinn Fox and his son Adam she prefers. Oh, and Eve invited her father Henry Talbot as well.
To escape the toxic tension, Eve arranges a callout with her sergeant. She arranges for Adam and Quinn Fox to be called out as well. But Eve’s strategic escape from family simply signifies the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. There’s crime aplenty to investigate: a freezer full of body parts, a jewellery theft, and a body in a skip. And Eve is seriously avoiding telling Chastity who her father is.
So, where did the body parts come from? Who stole the jewels, and what is Sister Immaculata hiding? Can Eve finally make a choice between Adam and Quinn? And who are the mysterious people hanging around the school at night? Eve falls out with Chastity, meets some fairly creepy people and avoids death in three car accidents in which she is deliberately targeted.
While I will never look at body art quite the same way again, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and have added the first in the series to my reading list. Who knew that investigating crime could be so complicated and so full of laugh out loud moments? Poor Eve, I do hope that her hair grows back:
‘ [...]my hair had been singed so badly I’d had to shave it off so that I now resembled an orange bog brush.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
To escape the toxic tension, Eve arranges a callout with her sergeant. She arranges for Adam and Quinn Fox to be called out as well. But Eve’s strategic escape from family simply signifies the beginning of a rollercoaster ride. There’s crime aplenty to investigate: a freezer full of body parts, a jewellery theft, and a body in a skip. And Eve is seriously avoiding telling Chastity who her father is.
So, where did the body parts come from? Who stole the jewels, and what is Sister Immaculata hiding? Can Eve finally make a choice between Adam and Quinn? And who are the mysterious people hanging around the school at night? Eve falls out with Chastity, meets some fairly creepy people and avoids death in three car accidents in which she is deliberately targeted.
While I will never look at body art quite the same way again, I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and have added the first in the series to my reading list. Who knew that investigating crime could be so complicated and so full of laugh out loud moments? Poor Eve, I do hope that her hair grows back:
‘ [...]my hair had been singed so badly I’d had to shave it off so that I now resembled an orange bog brush.’
Jennifer Cameron-Smith
shelleyrae's review
4.0
Bad Habits by Sarah Evans is an entertaining romantic mystery featuring Detective Inspector Eve Rock.
With both her house and her car nothing more than ashes after being blown up by a drug baron, Eve has temporarily moved in to the exclusive St Immaculata’s School for Girls in Perth with her mother, former prostitute turned schoolmistress nun, Sister Immaculata, and her 16 year old daughter, Chastity. It’s Christmas, and Eve is desperate for some distance from her disapproving mother, her volatile daughter, the father, Henry Talbot, she was only introduced to a fortnight ago, and colleagues and romantic rivals, Quinn Fox and his son Adam, so it’s fortunate that the festive season gifts Eve a series of gas fires in the CBD, a multi-million dollar jewellery and art heist, a murdered man in a skip bin, and body parts in a freezer to keep her busy.
Bad Habits the same energy as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, with its mix of faintly ridiculous comedy, crime and romance. Eve isn’t as hapless as Stephanie, but she’s definitely a magnet for trouble, hard on vehicles, and torn between the men in her life.
There is plenty of drama, both professionally and personally for Eve as she tracks tattoo artists selling inked flesh as artwork, brazen jewellery thieves, and discovers suspicious behaviour in the school basement, all while attempting to dodge a sociopath bent on revenge. Eve is also preoccupied with uncooperative insurance agents, getting to know her father, a flirtatious lawyer, and finding the right time to tell Chastity that Quinn is her dad, not to mention her attraction to Quinn, and his son. There is rarely a dull moment as Eve is shot at, abducted, framed for a murder, and drugged (twice).
The story is busy, but well crafted and moves at a good pace. Evans has a keen sense of comedic timing and I enjoyed the snark and banter of the dialogue. Though Bad Habits is a sequel to Operation Paradise, it works well as a stand alone.
An engaging read, I found Bad Habits to be a fun crime caper, and I’d be happy to read more.
With both her house and her car nothing more than ashes after being blown up by a drug baron, Eve has temporarily moved in to the exclusive St Immaculata’s School for Girls in Perth with her mother, former prostitute turned schoolmistress nun, Sister Immaculata, and her 16 year old daughter, Chastity. It’s Christmas, and Eve is desperate for some distance from her disapproving mother, her volatile daughter, the father, Henry Talbot, she was only introduced to a fortnight ago, and colleagues and romantic rivals, Quinn Fox and his son Adam, so it’s fortunate that the festive season gifts Eve a series of gas fires in the CBD, a multi-million dollar jewellery and art heist, a murdered man in a skip bin, and body parts in a freezer to keep her busy.
Bad Habits the same energy as Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum series, with its mix of faintly ridiculous comedy, crime and romance. Eve isn’t as hapless as Stephanie, but she’s definitely a magnet for trouble, hard on vehicles, and torn between the men in her life.
There is plenty of drama, both professionally and personally for Eve as she tracks tattoo artists selling inked flesh as artwork, brazen jewellery thieves, and discovers suspicious behaviour in the school basement, all while attempting to dodge a sociopath bent on revenge. Eve is also preoccupied with uncooperative insurance agents, getting to know her father, a flirtatious lawyer, and finding the right time to tell Chastity that Quinn is her dad, not to mention her attraction to Quinn, and his son. There is rarely a dull moment as Eve is shot at, abducted, framed for a murder, and drugged (twice).
The story is busy, but well crafted and moves at a good pace. Evans has a keen sense of comedic timing and I enjoyed the snark and banter of the dialogue. Though Bad Habits is a sequel to Operation Paradise, it works well as a stand alone.
An engaging read, I found Bad Habits to be a fun crime caper, and I’d be happy to read more.
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