cjsjellybean's review against another edition
4.0
As always, L.J. Sellers did not disappoint! I love all of her books from start to finish and this was no exception. The book wasn't as fast paced or exciting as some of her others, but it still held my attention and kept me wanting more.
mad_about_books's review against another edition
5.0
DEADLY BONDS is the ninth in the Detective Wade Jackson Mysteries series, and it is a nail-biter, a real page-turner. It might just be the most thrilling tale of the series. You might be able to put it down every now and again, but the last quarter of the book demands that it be finished by making your heart pound and by making your eyes water. You want the very best outcome here for all concerned.
Jackson is a play-by-the-rules cop who suffers from his humanity. He is a cop first and foremost which causes him internal struggles when dealing with those people in his personal life he holds most dear. He investigates murder, and he knows that the first few days of an investigation mean the difference between finding the killer or not. This dedication to the job makes it hard to pay attention to those he cherishes.
This time, he not only catches the case, he makes a small friend who latches onto his heart and won't let go. The messiness of life does seem to get a little less messy and a whole lot messier with each new book.
As long as L. J. Sellers keeps writing them, I will keep on reading them.
Jackson is a play-by-the-rules cop who suffers from his humanity. He is a cop first and foremost which causes him internal struggles when dealing with those people in his personal life he holds most dear. He investigates murder, and he knows that the first few days of an investigation mean the difference between finding the killer or not. This dedication to the job makes it hard to pay attention to those he cherishes.
This time, he not only catches the case, he makes a small friend who latches onto his heart and won't let go. The messiness of life does seem to get a little less messy and a whole lot messier with each new book.
As long as L. J. Sellers keeps writing them, I will keep on reading them.
kimgabriel's review against another edition
2.0
Nothing remotely stands out about this book. It gets two stars for having grammatical English (which puts it way ahead of most Kindle Unlimited books that I have tried). It just didn't "flow" for me, the tone was disjointed at times and I found myself questioning the dialogue in places as well as the character development. Definitely some skill and talent came into play but not a great read.
snazzybooks's review
4.0
Deadly Bonds is the latest in a series of nine crime novels by L.J. Sellers starring Detective Wade Jackson, and is the only one I’ve personally read. I was interested to see if this can be enjoyed as a stand-alone novel, even if the reader doesn’t know any background or previous storylines about the characters.
The story follows the investigation by Jackson and his team into the murder of young mother Amanda Carter, whose young boy Benjie was found hiding in fear at the house where she was killed, and the separate investigation into the death of well-known college football player Logan Grayson. The two narratives intertwine as the story continues, which I really enjoyed and found interesting.
L.J Sellers seems to be really skilled at creating three-dimensional, interesting characters and Jackson is certainly one of them. His own daughter Katie has run away from home and, in trying to deal with this, we see that he doesn’t always handle things as well as he should. He is a flawed character, trying to make up for what he sees as his failure with Katie by looking after Benjie, the victim Amanda Cater’s little boy, and this only makes me like him more as a character- he recognises that is not perfect but he is trying to make amends, and he continues to try to do so with his own daughter where possible. Add this to the fact that he seems to be a talented, experienced Detective and I found him really likable as a character.
In contrast, his colleague Evans is a lot less experienced. She has been trained by Jackson and is eager to prove herself. She can be a little reckless and takes risks on a couple of occasions, but at the same time is a brilliant Detective. Both her and Jackson seem to work well together and are convincing as a team.
The novel seems well-researched and is skilfully written to move along at just the right pace, keeping me interested throughout; it doesn’t seem rushed but at no point teeters on dull. Having never read any other of her Detective Jackson books, I found that the few details I needed to know were concisely explained as I read through it and I had no problems understanding what was happening as the storyline was quite self-contained. The plot kept the tension high and the added inclusion of traumatised little boy Benjie, and other characters who pulled at my heart strings, meant I really cared about the outcome of this novel, something that I don’t always feel.
Overall, Deadly Bonds is a really enjoyable detective novel and I would definitely want to read others in the series. Highly recommended!
Rating: 4/5
(I received an advance copy of this book for review- the novel is out on August 26th)
**For more book reviews check out my blog: http://snazzybooks.wordpress.com **
The story follows the investigation by Jackson and his team into the murder of young mother Amanda Carter, whose young boy Benjie was found hiding in fear at the house where she was killed, and the separate investigation into the death of well-known college football player Logan Grayson. The two narratives intertwine as the story continues, which I really enjoyed and found interesting.
L.J Sellers seems to be really skilled at creating three-dimensional, interesting characters and Jackson is certainly one of them. His own daughter Katie has run away from home and, in trying to deal with this, we see that he doesn’t always handle things as well as he should. He is a flawed character, trying to make up for what he sees as his failure with Katie by looking after Benjie, the victim Amanda Cater’s little boy, and this only makes me like him more as a character- he recognises that is not perfect but he is trying to make amends, and he continues to try to do so with his own daughter where possible. Add this to the fact that he seems to be a talented, experienced Detective and I found him really likable as a character.
In contrast, his colleague Evans is a lot less experienced. She has been trained by Jackson and is eager to prove herself. She can be a little reckless and takes risks on a couple of occasions, but at the same time is a brilliant Detective. Both her and Jackson seem to work well together and are convincing as a team.
The novel seems well-researched and is skilfully written to move along at just the right pace, keeping me interested throughout; it doesn’t seem rushed but at no point teeters on dull. Having never read any other of her Detective Jackson books, I found that the few details I needed to know were concisely explained as I read through it and I had no problems understanding what was happening as the storyline was quite self-contained. The plot kept the tension high and the added inclusion of traumatised little boy Benjie, and other characters who pulled at my heart strings, meant I really cared about the outcome of this novel, something that I don’t always feel.
Overall, Deadly Bonds is a really enjoyable detective novel and I would definitely want to read others in the series. Highly recommended!
Rating: 4/5
(I received an advance copy of this book for review- the novel is out on August 26th)
**For more book reviews check out my blog: http://snazzybooks.wordpress.com **
labalkana's review against another edition
5.0
Jackson new case changes everything. A dead woman and a frightened little boy in the basement, who won't let go of Jackson, so that he takes him in until they find his relatives. But this makes his runaway daughter Katie come home to help him take care of little Benjie. But Katie has a secret...
It also means he has someone else to let down after constantly disappointing Katie and also Kera, his girlfriend, who currently fears for her daughter-in-law, who's in hospital with a brain injury, while caring for her grandson because Keras son died in Iraq.
And when Jacksons case starts to intertwine with a college-football-player who died of a sudden heart-attack, Evans case, who's still in love with Jackson and makes him question everything he has, his taking in Benji also jeopardises Katie...
Oh my, I used to love Jackson-mysteries, now i develop a love/hate relationship with them.
As always the writing is crisp and detailed, the back and forth between the cases, present and past and all these private issues is perfect and while I think that we wouldn't need two cases intertwining everytime here it's on point.
But also the story is repetitive with Jackson letting Kera down constantly, his problems after accidentally shooting his ex wife and his daughter Katie, who turned from his sweet girl into a troubled teenager. Plus the department is short on money which demands a lot from Jackson. Also, there's again a lot unresolved, wich isn't bad but I'd like some answers now.
And this time I really got emotionally involved. The cases sometimes do that to me. Little Benjie had me instantly, being so polite and mature, healthy eating, simply an amazing little boy, 3 years old but acting like 20. Then the conclusion, which was perfect but also so tragic, for Benjie and the man who came after him. And I was all angsty over Jacksons private life. This man irritates me! With how easily he takes in Benji but has a hard time commiting to Kera with Micah. With how he imagines his future family and then dreams of his colleague kissing him. With talking to her but not to his girlfriend. With him feeling that he's more than friends with Evans while wanting to solve his problems with Kera. With not knowing whether he's attracted to Evans because she's a free bird or it might be the reason he's not with her.
All this will they, won't they, it made me crazy. Then again him not doing things like he should makes him flawed and real. But I almost celebrated when Kera got really mad, for the first time. I just don't understand why she puts up with all of it. Because obviously he thinks of being with her but for Katie's sake, for stability and for doing right by Micah, who lost both his parents. So it's for the wrong reasons.
All in all it's a great read and one of the better in the series. The angsty drama plus two interesting cases, intertwining perfectly and becoming more complex and complicated the more we find out and surprising twists all though the story had it all.
It also means he has someone else to let down after constantly disappointing Katie and also Kera, his girlfriend, who currently fears for her daughter-in-law, who's in hospital with a brain injury, while caring for her grandson because Keras son died in Iraq.
And when Jacksons case starts to intertwine with a college-football-player who died of a sudden heart-attack, Evans case, who's still in love with Jackson and makes him question everything he has, his taking in Benji also jeopardises Katie...
Oh my, I used to love Jackson-mysteries, now i develop a love/hate relationship with them.
As always the writing is crisp and detailed, the back and forth between the cases, present and past and all these private issues is perfect and while I think that we wouldn't need two cases intertwining everytime here it's on point.
But also the story is repetitive with Jackson letting Kera down constantly, his problems after accidentally shooting his ex wife and his daughter Katie, who turned from his sweet girl into a troubled teenager. Plus the department is short on money which demands a lot from Jackson. Also, there's again a lot unresolved, wich isn't bad but I'd like some answers now.
And this time I really got emotionally involved. The cases sometimes do that to me. Little Benjie had me instantly, being so polite and mature, healthy eating, simply an amazing little boy, 3 years old but acting like 20. Then the conclusion, which was perfect but also so tragic, for Benjie and the man who came after him. And I was all angsty over Jacksons private life. This man irritates me! With how easily he takes in Benji but has a hard time commiting to Kera with Micah. With how he imagines his future family and then dreams of his colleague kissing him. With talking to her but not to his girlfriend. With him feeling that he's more than friends with Evans while wanting to solve his problems with Kera. With not knowing whether he's attracted to Evans because she's a free bird or it might be the reason he's not with her.
All this will they, won't they, it made me crazy. Then again him not doing things like he should makes him flawed and real. But I almost celebrated when Kera got really mad, for the first time. I just don't understand why she puts up with all of it. Because obviously he thinks of being with her but for Katie's sake, for stability and for doing right by Micah, who lost both his parents. So it's for the wrong reasons.
All in all it's a great read and one of the better in the series. The angsty drama plus two interesting cases, intertwining perfectly and becoming more complex and complicated the more we find out and surprising twists all though the story had it all.
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