"I Close My Eyes" by Regina Puckett

 

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The last thing The Duke of Greystone wants is a wife, until The Lady Jane Blackmore seeks out his quiet corner of Earl Braxton’s ballroom. But there she stands, attempting to shut out the rest of the world by simply closing her eyes, but the duke understands better than most that life is never that simple.

The last thing Jane wants is a husband, until she opens her eyes to find the scarred and much too handsome stranger secluded in her chosen quiet corner. Why can’t the obstinate man understand she just needs a brief moment of solitude before returning to face her tormentors? But no matter how many times she tells him to go away, he remains. So is it her fault that her father misunderstands the young duke’s intentions?

Whilst marriage isn’t on Phillip—as she learns the duke is called—or Jane’s mind, when society’s trials and tribulations come, they soon become each other’s touchstone, and by it discover that joy is tantalisingly within their grasp, although others seem intent on thwarting their every wish.

I liked Jane and Phillip. He rescued her from her oppressive and terrorizing father and stepmother. She saved him from his choice not to love and have children. The author was able to convey their chemistry without overt sexual content. I didn't really understand why so many people were "out to get" Jane. I also thought Phillip gave up his vow not to have children without much thought. Also, he disappeared at one point without explanation until later on. Viola's fate felt lacking, and I was disappointed in how that played out. The ending was touching and sweet. This story entertained enough that I read the story in one sitting. 

"How To Flirt With Women" by Ray Asher

 

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How To Flirt With Any Woman Successfully – The Ultimate Guide

Are you happy with your dating life?

Are you craving for female attention and sex, but not getting them?

Do you secretly feel unattractive because of some rejections you've faced in the past?

If you want to stop all these in your life, then keep reading…

Research shows that most women – even those who appear tough – are secretly looking for romance.

But no matter how you look like, how much money you have, or how muscular your body is…if you don't know how to flirt with women, you'll appear as:

• Needy
• Desperate
• Boring
• Lacking social intelligence
• Simply …unattractive.

Flirting is the art of small talk. It includes a lot of playfulness, smooth conversation skills, and high social intelligence. In fact, with the right words, right tonality, and right "approach" – you can make ANY woman highly attracted to you.

In this book, Ray Asher will show you how to flirt like a pro.

Ray Asher used to be an introverted teenager who didn’t have the courage to approach girls. He started dating a girl he liked in college – only to find she was cheating on him regularly. His pain drove him to go out every night and day, speak with women, and discover what makes them attracted. After thousands of rejections, a few "friends with benefits" and lots of notes – he discovered the power of flirting, and decided to share his knowledge with any men who wishes to become good with women.

When reading this book, I found much of its information and advice repetitive. Most of it is common sense. There are a few confidence boosters and sympathetic stories of flirting gone wrong worth reading. But, it could definitely be reduced to a much shorter 'guide.' Reading the same things over and over again grows annoying, for example: is she facing you or away from you? If she's facing you, she may be interested. 

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"A Familiar Sight" by Brianna Labuskes

 

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Psychologist and criminologist Dr. Gretchen White is a specialist in antisocial personality disorders and violent crimes. She’s helped solve enough prominent cases for detective Patrick Shaughnessy that her own history is often overlooked: Gretchen is an admitted sociopath once suspected of killing her aunt. Shaughnessy still thinks Gretchen got away with murder. It’s not going to happen again.

When a high-profile new case lands on Shaughnessy’s desk, it seems open and shut. Remorseless teenager Viola Kent is accused of killing her mother. Amid stories of childhood horrors and Viola’s cruel manipulations, the bad seed has already been found guilty by a rapt public. But Gretchen might be seeing something in Viola no one else does: herself.

If Viola is a scapegoat, then who really did it? And what are they hiding? To find the truth, Gretchen must enter a void that is not only dark and cold-blooded, but also frighteningly familiar.

I was stuck between 3 and four stars for this book. The characters' real stories, once revealed, shocked, amazed, and horrified me. The way the author chose to uncover the secrets proved distracting and meandering. The timeline jumped around instead of being straight forward. Dr. Gretchen White annoyed most of the time, and hinted that we should feel sorry for her because she'd been falsely accused of murder as a child, but then she'd never admit that to be fact. She rambled on too many occasions defining the characteristics of empaths, sociopaths, and psycopaths and where they fall on spectrums of behaviors. We get it already. Explaining she would or wouldn't say or do something as pertaining to her diagnosis as a sociopath became tedious. Tess, Reed, Claire, and Ainsley's story grew clouded by this, and their tale was what kept me reading the book. It could have been cut way down, eliminating all these narratives explaining thoughts and behaviors and been a much better, shorter, more engaging and harder to put down novel.

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'A Killer's Wife' by Victor Methos

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Fourteen years ago, prosecutor Jessica Yardley’s husband went to prison for a series of brutal murders. She’s finally created a life with her daughter and is a well-respected attorney. She’s moving on. But when a new rash of homicides has her ex-husband, Eddie, written all over them—the nightmares of her past come back to life.

The FBI asks Jessica to get involved in the hunt for this copycat killer—which means visiting her ex and collaborating with the man who tore her life apart.

As the copycat’s motives become clearer, the new life Jessica created for herself gets darker. She must ask herself who she can trust and if she’s capable of stopping the killer—a man whose every crime is a bloody valentine from a twisted mastermind she’s afraid she may never escape.

Wow! I wanted to LOVE this book. So many possibilities, so many thrilling aspects. If you can ignore the fact that all the legal matters were handled in a way that would never happen, you still have to believe that this brilliant woman was duped in her personal life more than once and with the same horrific consequences. The main character was a tough cookie, annd yet when forced into a corner that could have ended in kill or be killed, she couldn't pull the trigger? The final twist was a bit too much for me; it dulled the last of the shine. I understand this character was painted as a genius, but still, I couldn't fathom it happening. If the second bad guy wasn't written into the main character's life the way he was, and the final twist had been written differently, I would have enjoyed it far more. This author has entertained me with other works. This one seemed stretched too far, but I will continue to read his novels.

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