Hot Shot – Rosepoint Publishing

Rosepoint #BookReviews – August Recap Wrap-Up – #rosepointpub

Welcome to September! August alternately had some very hot days tempered with cool but an alarmingly little amount of rain. We normally don’t water in NWI, relying on rain. This year I had to water my tomatoes which ended up looking puny and unhappy anyway. And my fairy garden turned swamp garden became so dry the soil was cracking. Still, you can see it doesn’t look much like a desert garden either! It is, however, a work-in-progress. (Yes, the leaves are already beginning to fall.)

Spending so much time outdoors this time of year, I struggled with getting reviews posted. Perhaps you’ll remember I tried for one from Berkley that was declined and then WON Life and Other Inconveniences by Kristen Higgins from Stephanie at Stephanie’s Novel Fiction. (Or find her at #stephlvsbooks.) Holy smokes that is one riveting read! My associate reviewer, the intrepid CE, read The Plain of Jars by N. Lombardi Jr. which he absolutely loved and gave a glowing five-star review.

In spite of the time spent on my withering gardens, my count of books read in August totaled eleven, which included a biography, thrillers, historical reads, mysteries, and a humorous, LOL-worthy book by Worthen. Review links are listed below the pics.

The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe

Grateful American: A Journey from Self to Service by Gary Sinise

The Hallows by Victor Methos
The White Feather Killer by R N Morris
The Turn of the Key by Ruth Ware
The Daughters of Temperance Hobbs by Katherine Howe
In the Line of Fire by R J Noonan
Desolate Shores by Daryl Wood Gerber
Bark of Night by David Rosenfelt (an Audiobook)
Grateful American by Gary Sinise
Thicker Than Water by Johnny Worthen
The Firefly Witch by Amanda Hughes
Hot Shot by Fern Michaels

Still lagging on my Goodreads Challenge, hoping to catch that up come fall. However, going some time between giveaways and winning, I actually won a second book in the same month–now waiting to receive from across the pond Portal to Murder by Alison Lingwood from Kerry at Chat About Books. Excited? You betcha! You may remember I posted an article about Goodreads Giveaways simultaneously offered on NetGalley. Never win anything? Have you tried recently? Keep trying–someone wins.

I see many of the same books being reviewed by you and always love to read your comments. Was Rewind your favorite of the month? Did you also read one of the above? What were your thoughts on it? (Hard to beat Gary Sinise’s book.) Have one you’d like to recommend? Is it a thriller?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read and like my posts and leave those comments and welcome to my new followers!

Hot Shot by Fern Michaels – a #BookReview

Hot Shot (The Men of the Sisterhood Book 5) by Fern Michaels

Book Blurb:

Loyalty is a way of life for the Sisterhood and their significant others. When lawyer Lizzie Fox’s husband, Cosmo Cricket, is left critically injured after being shot by an unknown assailant, the men of BOLO Consultants head straight for Las Vegas to comfort Lizzie—and to uncover a dangerous enemy in the City of Sin.

As head of Nevada’s Gaming Commission, Cosmo has powerful enemies. Yet the shooting seems to be related to one of his private projects. Built in the desert outside Las Vegas, Happy Village is a flourishing community for seniors who have lost a spouse. Cosmo’s widowed father found new purpose in running the venture. But the neighborhood that’s now home to Happy Village was once run by rival gangs, a complicated past that has come to haunt the place. Jack, Harry, and the rest of the crew need to remove the threat, risking everything to take on a vicious and mysterious gang leader known only as Hot Shot. And while the men of the Sisterhood fight for justice for their friend, Cosmo is fighting for his life—and the stakes have never been higher . . .

My Review:

Loved the cover, the blurb sounded interesting. Then what? Perhaps you have to have read the first four of the series, or the Women of the Sisterhood first. Either way, I was totally missing something with this book. My first experience with the series and the author; perhaps mea culpa.

The narrative starts slow, stays slow, and turned into a snoozer for me. A large list of characters, I guess Jack Emery is the protagonist. He’s the one with the large shepherd, Cyrus, and you know I’m a sucker for a book with a dog. But this one? Not so much. I’d read books that anthropomorphize the canine-human relationship, but this one is a bit over the top (even for me). I couldn’t warm up to Jack, Harry, or any of the crew, though really they were not that well-developed in this entry.

Then there is Happy Village, a senior facility now overseen by a rich and powerful half-partner, Cosmo Cricket who is gunned down early in the book and his wife Lizzie Fox, pretty powerful in her own right, sends out the missive for help. Cosmo left in place after he rehabbed the complex a gang to protect the Village from a rival gang that previously ruled the area in a seedy part of Las Vegas. I’m not a fan of Las Vegas, so references to the boiling desert heat hit a nerve reminding me of the two weeks we spent stranded after our vehicle quit. (The repair dealer is as big a rip-off as are the casinos.)

As the plot moves into ever more characters and them into the dark web, things proceed from slow to nasty. Jack and his cronies set up a plan of action to look into what is going on with the shooting of Cosmo, resident disappearances at Happy Village, and the person controlling the gang of despots. The antagonist(s) is no surprise. Difficult to become engaged with characters you can’t identify with, nor have empathy or interest.

The conclusion rolled into a climax that becomes horrific. I actually had to slow down and read that part to really understand they were doing what I thought they were doing. There were edit misses along the way and words together with no space and words separated by a space (i.e., Cy – rus, ada – mant). A reference to the biker gang having nine or ten Har leys (sic) which “translates to nineteen or twenty gang members” was almost funny. (Not unless nine or ten Harley-riding gang members were riding “bitch.” (Or “two-up” And I don’t see that happening.)

I had a few other nit-picky issues, but you get the idea. I received this digital download from the publisher through NetGalley. Sad to say, it just didn’t work for me.

Book Details:

Genre: Sisters Fiction, Crime Fiction
Publisher: Zebra

ISBN-10:1420146025
ISBN-13:978-1420146028
ASIN: B07L2GKGCL

Print Length: 336 pages
Publication Date: (Reissue edition) August 27, 2019
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Hot Shot

Two-point Five of Five Stars

The Author: Fern Michaels is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of the successful Sisterhood series and the Men of the Sisterhood series and dozens of other novels and novellas. There are over 150 best-selling books with 110 million copies in print. Fern Michaels has built and funded several large day-care centers in her hometown, and is a passionate animal lover who has outfitted police dogs across the country with special bulletproof vests. She shares her home in South Carolina with her four dogs and a resident ghost named Mary Margaret.