stepholiver16's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
shammons's review against another edition
3.0
I'm wavering between 3.5 and 4 stars, for this first in a series by a favorite author. I am only going to be able to read these books via Hoopla, as my library has none in print or available on Overdrive. I've read most of the books by DiAnn Mills and tend to love them, however... I have one or two very minor gripes. Sometimes the plots get a wee bit outlandish, and I've noticed in the last couple of books that I have read, that the dialogue seems... choppy. I don't really know how to describe it except to say that sometimes, she will have the dialogue read "appreciate that" or "shouldn't have mentioned it". Which is really probably closer to the way I actually talk, but something about it is getting under my skin with the repetitiveness of it in the dialogue between characters. A very minor point, but one that I have been noticing and apparently focusing on, LOL! Overall, I love her books and characters and hope that I'm able to read more in this series before my library's contract with Hoopla runs out.
mistree's review against another edition
5.0
First in a series featuring the FBI, based in Houston. Good book with characters it is easy to like and boo (bad guys).
leleedow's review against another edition
2.0
What's Inside:
Airport Ranger volunteer Stacy Broussard expected a peaceful Saturday morning ride around the perimeter of Houston's airport. What she encounters instead is a brutal homicide and a baffling mystery. Next to the body is an injured dog, the dead man s motorcycle, and a drone armed with a laser capable of taking down a 747. Though FBI Special Agent Alex LeBlanc sees a clear-cut case of terrorism, his past has taught him to be suspicious of everyone, even witnesses. Even bleeding-heart veterinarians like Stacy. But when her gruesome discovery is only the first in a string of incidences that throw her life into a tailspin, Alex begins to wonder if Stacy was targeted. As a health emergency endangers Stacy's community, and the task force pulls in leads from all directions, Alex and Stacy must work together to prevent another deadly encounter.
Who Wrote It: DiAnn Mills
Award-winning author DiAnn Mills launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has fifty books in print and has sold over 1.5 million copies.
DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America's Faith, Hope and Love, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also the Craftsman Mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. She and her husband
My Thoughts: Okay to be completely honest this book was so hard for me to get through I felt like certain scenes were forced! There were times when I was reading an felt like giving up completely on this book. Stacy got on my last nerve I felt I just wanted her to sit down somewhere. I did love how much Stacy cared for Whit that was sweet to watch. I really don't think I will be picking up book 2 in this series.
Star Rating:
Overall I give this book 2 stars
Note: I received Deadly Encounter by Diann Mills compliments of Tyndale House Publishers for my honest review.
Airport Ranger volunteer Stacy Broussard expected a peaceful Saturday morning ride around the perimeter of Houston's airport. What she encounters instead is a brutal homicide and a baffling mystery. Next to the body is an injured dog, the dead man s motorcycle, and a drone armed with a laser capable of taking down a 747. Though FBI Special Agent Alex LeBlanc sees a clear-cut case of terrorism, his past has taught him to be suspicious of everyone, even witnesses. Even bleeding-heart veterinarians like Stacy. But when her gruesome discovery is only the first in a string of incidences that throw her life into a tailspin, Alex begins to wonder if Stacy was targeted. As a health emergency endangers Stacy's community, and the task force pulls in leads from all directions, Alex and Stacy must work together to prevent another deadly encounter.
Who Wrote It: DiAnn Mills
Award-winning author DiAnn Mills launched her career in 1998 with the publication of her first book. Currently she has fifty books in print and has sold over 1.5 million copies.
DiAnn is a founding board member for American Christian Fiction Writers, a member of Inspirational Writers Alive, Romance Writers of America's Faith, Hope and Love, and Advanced Writers and Speakers Association. She speaks to various groups and teaches writing workshops around the country. DiAnn is also the Craftsman Mentor for Jerry B. Jenkins Christian Writers Guild. She and her husband
My Thoughts: Okay to be completely honest this book was so hard for me to get through I felt like certain scenes were forced! There were times when I was reading an felt like giving up completely on this book. Stacy got on my last nerve I felt I just wanted her to sit down somewhere. I did love how much Stacy cared for Whit that was sweet to watch. I really don't think I will be picking up book 2 in this series.
Star Rating:
Overall I give this book 2 stars
Note: I received Deadly Encounter by Diann Mills compliments of Tyndale House Publishers for my honest review.
fiction_aficionado's review against another edition
2.0
To be honest, it felt like I trudged my way through this book. The plot took a long time to get going, despite the homicide encountered in the first pages, and although things picked up in the second half of the book, it was still weighed down by writing that felt flat and characters who often seemed wooden.
Stacy Broussard’s home and vet clinic are located in a run-down and fairly undesirable neighbourhood in Houston, and there’s not much to say about her except that she’s Cajun, and she’s applying for custody of Whitt McMann – a twelve-year-old genius who ostensibly lives across the road with his abusive parents, but who actually spends more time with Stacy at the clinic and her home, often spending the night on her couch.
Whitt is a point-of-view character in his own right, and his story not only tugs at the heartstrings, but becomes closely entwined with the investigation. But I had trouble remembering that he was only twelve. Most of the time, he spoke and behaved like a well-brought up late-teen – just with some weighty emotional baggage and a few big words thrown in (and not always convincingly). I never really got a sense of the child-like aspects of his character – emotional or otherwise.
Alex LeBlanc is also Cajun, and from the beginning he alludes to a case where he let his emotions get involved only to have it come back to bite him; hence his caution when he finds himself attracted to Stacy. I expected that working through this would be part of his personal journey, but apart from being mentioned in passing several times, it gets relegated to a couple of sentences in the wrap-up epilogue.
He and his partner Ric have a good working relationship, but much of their supposed banter came across as wooden - something I could say about a lot of the dialogue in the book. The pacing and rhythm just felt off; sometimes abrupt or moving too quickly, as though the characters were just reading through their lines deadpan; sometimes suffering for lack of action beats – particularly ones that conveyed some kind of emotional response to the conversation. When we did get the characters’ actions or reactions we were often told rather than shown and sometimes it was just plain 'on the nose'. It was a combination of things, really, but the end result was it rarely seemed to read smoothly.
The romance wasn’t terribly inspiring either. If I was going to pick a word to describe it, it would be ‘pragmatic’. I’m not one for cheesy romance clichés like tingles and heart flutterings, but Stacy and Alex's interactions felt devoid of any chemistry at all – emotional or physical. I can appreciate that Alex was restrained in his interactions by his past experience, but I would have liked to feel the tension in that restraint.
One thing this novel did have going for it was an original plot. The homicide investigation morphed into a case of bioterrorism that threatened the lives of some of the characters, and the investigation took something of a convoluted path to get to the bottom of it all. But there wasn’t a lot of excitement along that path; at least, not until much later in the novel. I didn’t get that ‘what’s going to happen next?’ anticipation until more than halfway through the novel.
I guess you could say this one just didn't work for me, and in view of that fact, I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
Stacy Broussard’s home and vet clinic are located in a run-down and fairly undesirable neighbourhood in Houston, and there’s not much to say about her except that she’s Cajun, and she’s applying for custody of Whitt McMann – a twelve-year-old genius who ostensibly lives across the road with his abusive parents, but who actually spends more time with Stacy at the clinic and her home, often spending the night on her couch.
Whitt is a point-of-view character in his own right, and his story not only tugs at the heartstrings, but becomes closely entwined with the investigation. But I had trouble remembering that he was only twelve. Most of the time, he spoke and behaved like a well-brought up late-teen – just with some weighty emotional baggage and a few big words thrown in (and not always convincingly). I never really got a sense of the child-like aspects of his character – emotional or otherwise.
Alex LeBlanc is also Cajun, and from the beginning he alludes to a case where he let his emotions get involved only to have it come back to bite him; hence his caution when he finds himself attracted to Stacy. I expected that working through this would be part of his personal journey, but apart from being mentioned in passing several times, it gets relegated to a couple of sentences in the wrap-up epilogue.
He and his partner Ric have a good working relationship, but much of their supposed banter came across as wooden - something I could say about a lot of the dialogue in the book. The pacing and rhythm just felt off; sometimes abrupt or moving too quickly, as though the characters were just reading through their lines deadpan; sometimes suffering for lack of action beats – particularly ones that conveyed some kind of emotional response to the conversation. When we did get the characters’ actions or reactions we were often told rather than shown and sometimes it was just plain 'on the nose'. It was a combination of things, really, but the end result was it rarely seemed to read smoothly.
The romance wasn’t terribly inspiring either. If I was going to pick a word to describe it, it would be ‘pragmatic’. I’m not one for cheesy romance clichés like tingles and heart flutterings, but Stacy and Alex's interactions felt devoid of any chemistry at all – emotional or physical. I can appreciate that Alex was restrained in his interactions by his past experience, but I would have liked to feel the tension in that restraint.
One thing this novel did have going for it was an original plot. The homicide investigation morphed into a case of bioterrorism that threatened the lives of some of the characters, and the investigation took something of a convoluted path to get to the bottom of it all. But there wasn’t a lot of excitement along that path; at least, not until much later in the novel. I didn’t get that ‘what’s going to happen next?’ anticipation until more than halfway through the novel.
I guess you could say this one just didn't work for me, and in view of that fact, I don't think I'll be reading the rest of the series.
I received a complimentary copy of this novel from the publisher in exchange for my honest review.
bookd18's review
2.0
I enjoyed this book. It wasn't the fastest moving book but it grabbed my attention and I enjoyed the interaction between the main characters and all of the tertiary characters, especially Whitt. There week spots. Notably, lack of explanation of things until late in the book. For example, the main female had only recently reconnected with her family (which you learn about probably 1/3 of the way through the book) but you don't learn way until probably another 40% of the book goes by. There are some logic issues which every book has.
One of my biggest issues- not totally the author's fault- was that I borrowed this book from my library, which didn't list the book as Christian fiction. But since I'm not bothered by Christian fiction, I decided to try the book anyways. And while there were parts, I didn't love for the most part I enjoyed the book and was preparing the read the second in the series until the Epilogue. Where the main female character explains that she's basically waiting for the opportunity to speak with a Jewish woman who's husband she found dead and who's death her FBI agent boyfriend investigated about Jesus. I just...my issues knew no bounds.
But disregarding that- which wouldn't be an issues for everyone- it was a decent read.
One of my biggest issues- not totally the author's fault- was that I borrowed this book from my library, which didn't list the book as Christian fiction. But since I'm not bothered by Christian fiction, I decided to try the book anyways. And while there were parts, I didn't love for the most part I enjoyed the book and was preparing the read the second in the series until the Epilogue. Where the main female character explains that she's basically waiting for the opportunity to speak with a Jewish woman who's husband she found dead and who's death her FBI agent boyfriend investigated about Jesus. I just...my issues knew no bounds.
But disregarding that- which wouldn't be an issues for everyone- it was a decent read.
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