Book Review: The Best Man by Kristan Higgins

The Best Man is the one of the best book i have ever read. I loved Kristan Higgins writing. This has become one of my favorite Ms. Higgins book.
It is funny, sweet, and entertaining with lot of interesting characters and a good plot.

GoodReads Summary:

Sometimes the best man is the one you least expect?

Faith Holland left her hometown after being jilted at the altar. Now a little older and wiser, she's ready to return to the Blue Heron Winery, her family's vineyard, to confront the ghosts of her past, and maybe enjoy a glass of red. After all, there's some great scenery there?.

Like Levi Cooper, the local police chief and best friend of her former fiancé. There's a lot about Levi that Faith never noticed, and it's not just those deep green eyes. The only catch is she's having a hard time forgetting that he helped ruin her wedding all those years ago. If she can find a minute amidst all her family drama to stop and smell the rosé, she just might find a reason to stay at Blue Heron, and finish that walk down the aisle.

Faith is a lovable, sweet person who lost her mother at a young age and still carries the grief in her life as she thinks she was responsible for her mother's accident, which affects all her important decisions in life. Her most important decision of life being marrying Jeremy, who was her high school sweetheart and town doctor who was a perfect man but she gets jilted at the altar when he announces himself as gay. She always did good things for others to make them happy without caring for her happiness so that she can forgive herself. Thatsy she never use to understand Levi Cooper who seemed not to like her and always felt Levi was the one who ruined her marriage by outing his best friend.

Levi always thought of Faith as "Princess super-cute - spoiled, irritating and ditzy", but he was attracted to her even when she was her best friend's fiancee.
Now, after 3 years, Faith as a successful landscape designer has come back to her hometown Blue Heron to do a work on their Holland barn and end up as a next door neighbor to Levi. When both start getting to know each other, they realize what they thought about each other was far from the truth and their feelings for each other are deep. They start falling for each other and it is the best part of the story, a sweet romantic part - it is amazing.

I would say the book is lovely, the depiction, Ms. Higgins writing style and the characterizations are fabulous. Lot of humorous dialogues which makes for the fun part. Faith has a quite interesting family, with her grands always bickering, i loved pops and groggy. All her family members were interesting characters including Faith's niece and nephew, nicely depicted secondary characters. There are lot of funny dating scenes with Faith dating different people, either non-straight men or liars and also Faith fixing her dad on dates, very witty and entertaining.

One of the dialogue from the novel i loved best where Faith describes Levi:

Twice in her life, Faith had been in love. Once with a man so perfect she should’ve known there was something wrong. And now with a man who wasn’t perfect at all, who was stubborn, occasionally irritable, and mildly to moderately constipated when it came to emotions, and maybe had some abandonment issues going on, too, not to mention the weight of the world on his shoulders.
He was also the best man she knew.
There was nothing he wouldn’t do to help someone. Find a cat on a dark night, drive an hour to do his sister’s laundry, wash a dog covered in chicken poop, let his ex-wife say her piece. Go out in the middle of the night to reconstruct a twenty-year-old accident. Stop his best friend’s wedding when he knew it would only lead to misery...for Jeremy and for her.

One thing is found little bit irritating was Faith forming ridiculous conlusions of Levi. she has her own boredom scale in which she will measure Levi's expression from 0 to 10 and the she is using this scale at every time she meets Levi in the book, i don't know it was slightly repetitive and just that i was not happy reading about that part.

All in all, it was a good book, but with a predictable plot and some cliqued moments but, a lovely, romantic, fun read.
I would rate it as fantastic!!

Book Review: What She Doesn't Know by Beverly Barton

A great suspense/mystery novel i have read in a long time.

Summary from goodreads.com

It's been 20 years since Jolie Royale witnessed the brutal crime that left her mother, her aunt, and her aunt's lover dead, and Jolie critically wounded. Ruled a murder-suicide, the case was closed, although rumors of the murderer's true identity abounded. Now, Jolie is coming home with mixed feelings about her father's funeral. Those feelings turn to dread when the case is reopened--and it becomes clear the killer is still on the loose

I think this was one of the best romantic suspense i have ever read. Ms. Barton has nicely balanced the romantic and suspense part of the story in her book. It captures your complete interest from the first single page.

This is the story of Jolie Royale, the only daughter of a wealthy southern couple, and Max Devereaux, the son of a former prostitute. When Jolie is 14 years old, her family is attacked by a unknown murderer and her mother and aunt are killed with her critically wounded. Once after the incident she leaves her home town and vows to never come back as her father marries Max's mother not long after her own mother's death. The story picks up twenty years later and Jolie still hates her father's new family but still harbors the 14 year old crush for Max. Max also resents Jolie as she is bend on hating his mother and her half-sister but same time fights with an unexpected attraction for Jolie. Ms. Barton has beautifully depicted the love/hate relationship between Max and Jolie. Their relationship is really intense and the romance is sweet. The suspense part of the story unravels when Jolie decides to search for the real murderer of her family with the help from Max.

Both of Max and Jolie characters has a lot of depth, but only one thing i found odd was sometimes Jolie's reasoning was not at all acceptable. From the first itself she was under lot of assumptions based on which she makes lot of decisions which she later realizes were wrong and accepts the life as it is. Max whereas is a good man who cares about his family more than anything and i loved both Jolie and Max. There were lot of secondary characters, each having their own important part in the story. By the end, i was so sad the book was getting over, even though i wanted to know the suspense badly, i wanted the happily-ever-after to extend for some more pages.

Wow! all in all, a good read!!

Book Review: Senseless and Merciless by Mary Burton

As iam an avid ready of contemporary romance, i thought for a change i will go for suspense novels. So when i went in search of good suspense books, i came across books by Mary Burton...and i was so much interested by her titles and book summaries that i started reading her books!! Her books are of romantic-suspense genre literally, but in reality, the romance part of the novels are just sub-plots , the plots deals with. But, i wont complain as the romance in itself, even as a sub-plot, is wonderful and sweet.

The first one of Ms. Burton book i read was Dead Ringer, it  is a riveting, page-turning tale about a serial killer obsessed with a TV news anchorwoman, Kendall Shaw and the detective working on the case, Jacob Warrington. 

The second one i read - Dying Scream was , you can tell it is a kind of connected to the first as some characters are common in both books. The story's main character are Kendall's sister Adrianna Barrington and detective Gage Hudson. The book was ok, little bit boring but at the end suspense was interesting.

`

The next i read was Mary Burton's Senseless - a surprising and fantastic suspense novel, i loved it.

Here is the hardcover Summary of Senseless:

Every Serial Killer Knows. . .

The vicious burns scarring the victims' flesh reveal the agony of their last moments. Each woman was branded with a star, then stabbed through the heart. With every death, a vengeful killer finds a brief, blissful moment of calm. But soon it's time for the bloodshed to start again. . .

The Perfect Time. . .

Ten years ago, Eva Rayburn and her sorority sisters were celebrating the end of the school year. That party turned into a nightmare Eva can't forget. Now she's trying to start over in her Virginia hometown, but a new nightmare has begun. Every victim is linked to her. And Detective Deacon Garrison isn't sure whether this mysterious woman needs investigating--or protecting. . .

To Make His Mark

Only Eva's death will bring peace. Only her tortured screams will silence the rage that has been building for ten long years. Because what started that night at the sorority can never be stopped--not until the last victim has been marked for death. . .

My review on Senseless:It is a fantastic book with lots of good suspense and twists, great mystery and wonderful tension with a nice romantic sub-plot. Both the characters Eva and Deacon were full of depths with their own motivation and purpose in the story.

The female character Eva is an ex-con who is trying to establish her new life after 10 years of prison life, that also for a crime she never remembers doing. She is strong, incredibly smart, beautiful and tough. With a tragic past where Eva was attacked and branded with four-point star, she gets trapped in her sorority house fire and she barely escapes with her life. Her attacker, Josiah Cross, dies in the fire, and Eva is convicted of killing him. Homicide Detective Deacon Garrison is investigating the current case , similar to the 10-year old case where the victims are branded with four-point start and murdered. The chemistry between Garrison and Eva is good and the romance even though as a sub-plot is touching. 

The best part is the suspense of the story which leaves you on edge till the end. A good recommended book!!

Okay, so when i finished Senseless, i was eager to read the linked suspense novel - Merciless with Detective Malcolm Kier's story who was Garrison's partner in Senseless. And Merciless is the "best" one from all the books i have read of Ms. Burton.

Here is the hardcover summary of Merciless:

No Pity

Each skeleton is flawless,gleaming white and perfectly preserved, a testament to his skill. Every scrap of flesh has been removed to reveal the glistening bone beneath. And the collection is growing

No Compassion

When bleached human bones are identified as belonging to a former patient of Dr. James Dixon, Detective Malcolm Kier suspects the worst. Dixon was recently acquitted of attempted murder, thanks to defense attorney Angie Carlson. But as the body count rises, Kier is convinced that Angie is now the target of a brutal, brilliant psychopath.

No Escape

Angie is no stranger to the dark side of human nature. But nothing has prepared her for the decades-long legacy of madness and murder about to be revealed or a killer ready to claim her as his ultimate trophy

My review on Merciless:An engrossing thriller!! This is a on the edge follow-up to Ms. Burton's previous book Senseless so it would be better if the books are read in order. There are lots of references from Senseless in this book.  This book  is  an intense, mystery suspense. I liked that Ms. Burton has told the story from different povs including Kier, Angie and the serial killer's.

Not much of romance in the book, but the romantic sub-plot between Kier and Angie was interesting. Initially, the relationship between Kier and Angie was strained which slowly develops from hate to love by the end of the book. There was lot of space and time given for both of them to deal with their issues and develop a strong relationship.

The bad guys are violent and lot of gory details described in the book but the end-suspense is surprising and thrilling. The ending is unbelievable and action-packed.

A good recommended read for suspense lovers.

Dragon Chicken - An Easy Indo Chinese Recipe

I'm a great fan of Chinese food. Whenever we go to a restaurant, we have Dragon Chicken as the appetizer and both me and my husband love it. So i just had a sudden idea today to prepare it at home. It was an Indian-Chinese version as i have used some Indian spices also, but it was tasty....and delicious!! I got the basic recipe from one of the online site, but changed it to make a new recipe with my own requirements.  
As it is little bit sweet, it will be best as a starter before meal. It will be good when served with chapattis, fried rice or plain rice or you can simply munch it as snacks......

Here is my recipe for Dragon Chicken:

 

 

Ingredients Required:

450 gm Skinless Chicken cut into pieces (Boneless chicken will be better)
1 big Onion (chopped finely) 
2 tspn Garlic (minced)

2 tspn Red Chilly flakes

3 tbspn Tomato sauce

1 tbspn Soya sauce

Oil required

For Marination:

2 tspn Ginger-Garlic paste

1 tspn Pepper powder

1 tspn Red Chilly powder

1 tbspn Soya sauce

1 Egg

1.5 tbspn Cornflour

Salt required

Procedure:

1. Marinate the chicken pieces with the ingredients as mentioned in marination section   and refrigerate it for 15 minutes.
2. Cook the marinated chicken in low flame till it is half-cooked.
3. Pour oil in a pan and Fry the cooked chicken pieces till crisp and tender.
4. In the  remaining oil in the pan, add onion and garlic and stir fry for 2 minutes. Add red chilly flakes and mix it and stir for one minute.
5. Once onion mixture is done, add tomato sauce and soya Sauce and stir-fry for 2 minutes.
6. Now, finally add the fried crispy chicken pieces to the pan and saute it for 5 minutes until the chicken pieces are uniformly coated with the sauce mixture.
7. Dragon chicken is ready to serve. You can add cashews to the chicken if you want.

  

 

Book Review: Wife for Hire by Christine Bell

I was attracted to this book by its name 'Wife for Hire'. I thought it was an interesting idea for a novel. I loved Ms. Bell's writing style and characterizations. 
The book was entertaining, with lots of fun filled, quirky dialogues.

Book summary from goodreads:

He needs a wife for three weeks…

Owen Phipps is out for revenge. His mission? To expose the man who stole his sister’s money and dignity. All he needs is a “wife” who can play along. Too bad his last best hope is an actress who tries to mace him with perfume when he offers her the role of a lifetime.

Lindy Knight is a real sap. She loves too hard, feels too deep, and often finds herself saying yes when she should be saying “Let me think about it.” She can’t believe her good fortune when Owen offers her more than enough money to hold off foreclosure until she can find a job. Three weeks at a resort, money she desperately needs, and she gets to help bring a criminal to justice? Score.

It seems easy enough until the first time a couples bonding game turns intimate, and they realize how dangerous their mutual attraction could be. Can they keep their hands to themselves long enough to find the evidence Owen needs? Or are the close quarters more temptation than they can handle?

My review, Wife for Hire is just simple fun with a happy ending which makes you smile. This is a terrific one to read if you need a sweet story to just smile and laugh and not to think much. The way the story is told by the author is really good.  

The story is about Owen Phipps, in order to right some wrong done to his sister, he hires Lindy Knight to play the part of his wife for three weeks to accompany him to a couples retreat.There starts a game of attraction which later buds into a sweet romance. They are in the Couple's retreat to find any discrepancies related to Owen's sister, Cara's ex who has cheated Cara of her life-long savings and left her with a broken heart. There is the little suspense part of the story as from the first we are unaware of the wrong that is happening in the retreat, if anything at all. By the end only, every loose-end of the story ties up in a perfect package, that is, a happy-ever-after package.

The main reason for me to review the book was i loved Lindy's character. I think i will always remember Lindy as one of the best female characters from all the books i have read. She is so sweet....and so innocent, but yet strong-willed. Lindy is very talkative, funny and totally genuine, down-to-earth and i loved her from the first to last page.

Owen is a business tycoon, entirely opposite to Lindy outside but inside he is just as lonely and has a good heart. He is caring and generous towards everyone, especially Cara even though Cara is his step-sister from his father's second wife. But due to his father's betrayal, he does not believe in love and relationships. During their three weeks fake marriage in the retreat, Owen realizes and learns what is love from Lindy as she is so open to love and feelings.

Even though, i have read similar story lines , this was pretty good because of its characters and the simple, entertaining approach.

I would recommend this book if you need something to read when you are low and sweet Lindy will obviously cheer you up!!