“Shaken and Stirred” features a friends to lover’s theme and the conflict? A woman’s desperate need for independence. Tessa Hart is a twenty-six year old Manhattan bartender, working at Prime while earning an associates degree in finance. She’s lived in New York for four years without making any real progress in her life. Well, that’s about to change.

Gabe O’Sullivan is the owner of Prime, a bar that was once a speakeasy during Prohibition and patronized by many of the famous and the infamous. The O’Sullivans consists of three brothers and a 80 year history of tradition and strong family ties. To introduce the O’Sullivans, first up is Daniel O’Sullivan. He is the oldest, an accountant and silent partner of Prime who lost his wife on 9/11. He provides for 1/4th of the angst and 100% melancholy (his story should be good).

Next is Sean O’Sullivan, a lawyer and a hot blooded male who can’t seem to get enough of the ladies (I liked him a lot despite his overactive libido) and last is Gabe, the baby brother and sensible one in the family who has set his sights set on renovating the space beside his bar. Prime was renamed and split in two with the other half sold as a bodega to pay the bills. During economic hardship, the O’Sullivans sacrificed to keep the bar business in the family and Gabe has dreams of joining the two properties together once again. The first entry in this series is Gabe’s story.

When Tessa moved from Florida to New York, Gabe helped her out. He gave her a job and helped her adapt to the big, bad city. Gabe is what you would call the Dr. Phil of the family and he loves saving damsel’s in distress. So when Tessa’s roommate bails out on her thereby prompting Tessa to find someplace else to stay, Gabe offers to share his apartment. She puts up a fight at first but then caves. Meanwhile at work, most of the staff at the bar have put up bets to see how long it will take for these two to fall into bed.

For such a short story it was shot full of melodrama. Like I mentioned earlier, Tessa is hell bent on surviving on her own two feet and Gabe doesn’t like that. Well, not necessarily. Tessa’s one bad relationship when she was a teen has her putting up her protective shields in full force. She does a lot of silly things with the first one being that she can’t seem to reconcile Gabe the lover with Gabe the friend. So she pretends he is someone else when they are making love (ouch). She does some other things as well, all because of her need to not depend on a man and to stay focused on her career.

There’s a lot of back/forth along with some angst, self-doubt, neediness, second-thoughts, determination and compromise. Friendships forged, lovers lost and then reunited. All humming to tune of: that we should never let a life opportunity go to waste. You might not get a second chance. So true.

Ok, the best parts of this story for me was watching Tessa get her life together. That was well done. I could relate to her on a certain level. Being a woman, it’s important to be independent. She befriends someone who gives her an inside track on a career that eventually works out for her. She becomes self-confident and successful, one baby step at a time. I was happy to see her succeed. Tessa was determined, a bit of a flake but she always held firm to her ideals.

As for Gabe, he annoyed me. First of all, I don’t like such perfect, great looking, hot looking heroes. He was so pretentious. I mean he’s dependable, confident and self-supporting and great looking — what’s not to like about this man. His one weakness is his neediness. He always wanted Tessa to deal. He always wanted to come first — and her job, her plans should be secondary to him. I like that Tessa resolved herself to sticking with her plans to be a success even if that meant heartbreak. My make or break moment was…will she have to throw it all away to keep the man she wanted?

Needless to say, the author tries to make some compromises. I mean what Tessa did to Gabe was wrong (and I didn’t elaborate on everything she did to him). I was lukewarm to the resolution, however. I felt that the actions of the characters should have been reversed but that’s me. Besides Tessa and Gabe’s love story there were some other subplots seeded for future O’Sullivan stories. I plan to read those, too.

There is a lot to like about this story starting with the author’s voice/style of writing. I liked it. Her dialogue sings off the page. I liked how the story’s foundation is built upon a strong family unit. The O’Sullivans came across as a tight knit family but they are not without their share of problems. The sex is hot, I mean, hello, this is a Harlequin Blaze. I skimmed most of those sex scenes, too (a bit much for me). The relationships and the growth of each of the principal characters was nice.

Let me just say that “Shaken and Stirred” went beyond _my_ expectations. That’s happened to me twice already. I’d love to read more stories that do this: thwart my attempt at predictability. Heh. I rarely read romances anymore, let alone, category romances unless forced to sooooo– I’m glad that I choose this story. It’s not a A read for me for the reasons listed (what, should I repeat them?) but it was good in most places, excellent in others and just ok for the rest. So, should that be a B or B+? I’m conflicted. After this story marinates some more in my brain, I might have a more definitive answer. I’d say a B (for right now).

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This post is apart of the TBR 2009 challenge and we are kickstarting with a category romance. Many readers have the choice to read a category or read whatever is in their tbr piles. Please, visit the other readers in this challenge here and thank you for visiting!

Angel’s Tip is a smartly written mystery that follows homicide detective Ellie Hatcher with the NYPD. This is her second outing in this purported series that started with last year’s, Dead Connection (2007).

The Manhattan nightclub scene is served up as the hunting ground for a sociopathic serial killer with a fetish. The perp seems to target single women who are late night party-goers.

Chelsea Hart, a young college student from Indiana, visits New York for spring break with two friends. The girls make one last stop at a popular nightclub, Pulse, before heading for the airport in the morning. However, the girls become separated when Chelsea refuses to leave the nightclub. It’s late, she’s alone and enjoying that one last drink of Angel’s Tip, before she wanders off alone at four in the morning.

Chelsea’s body is found early the next morning by several joggers near a construction site. She’s been strangled and her hair has been brutally cut. Among the crowd of early morning runners is homicide detective, Ellie Hatcher.

Ellie’s been with the homicide unit for one week when she is assigned the Chelsea Hart case. She and her new partner, J.J. Rogan had been doing mostly desk work while she’s supposedly “learning the ropes” of her new job. Ellie is anxious to get this case and weasels herself into this assignment.

After investigating, detecting, interviewing and arresting suspects, a grieving father’s tip to the police shifts the focus of the investigation. Instead of one random murder, there might be several that are tied together. Ellie starts to look into other cold case files that her previous partner, Flann McIlroy, nicknamed “McIlmulder” might have been looking into before his death. McIlroy was a renegade cop who was murdered following the events of a unrelated case.

A mystery, for me, is only as good as it’s villain and the detectives who go after him/her. The villain in here is methodical and predatory. Readers are briefly given the villain’s POV and I see no other purpose for them other than to frighten people into being more cautious when out late and alone.

As for the lead character, Ellie Hatcher, I liked her and since this series is about her, that’s important. I also like that she is smart and can take care of herself. Of course she has to deal with the politics surrounding her promotion to the homicide unit after five years of being a cop. This upset a lot of the men detectives who felt she skipped ahead of the line, starting with her lieutenant.

Ellie also garnered a lot of publicity with the death of her father, a cop who dedicated his life to tracking down a serial killer in Wichita, Kansas. This subplot serves as an ongoing thread that is personal for Ellie since she believes that her father’s death was not a suicide.

As for her love life, that part is interesting as well. Ellie’s been briefly dating journalist and aspiring writer, Peter Morse, who surreptitiously tries to gather info about her case to publish with his paper. Their relationship carries over from the first book. For me, Peter was a utter nuisance and I was really glad to see that he would not be Ellie’s love interest.

The man who really sets her pulse racing is Assistant District Attorney, Max Donovan. He’s working with her and her partner on the Chelsea Hart case. The two have great chemistry together and I enjoyed their frank conversations. As Ellie says in not so many words, he seems to “get it.” This scene is one that I particularly liked where Ellie and Max are on a stake out in her apartment which leads to their first kiss.

“Don’t you have an apartment of your own that you need to get to? she said.

“I do in fact have an apartment, but I have absolutely no desire to go there right now. I’m staying here until you kick me out.”

“I appreciate the sentiment, but I don’t need you to protect me. Look, big gun,” she said, pointing to the holster she’d tossed on her kitchen counter.

“If you think I want to be here so I can protect you, you have seriously overestimated my manliness. I’m a pencil-neck lawyer. You’re doing all the protecting tonight.”

There are a few other noteworthy scenes to add to that one. Secondary characters, more than a few had a couple of memorable scenes themselves. While there weren’t very many scene stealer’s in here, everybody who had a role made an impression and served a purpose.

Also, the platonic relationship between Ellie and her partner, J.J. Rogan is well developed as well. Again, great chemistry. I enjoyed the interplay between the two of them and I love how each one has the other’s back. Their relationship felt real and genuine. J.J. is black, has money (or outside money) and can dress. He’s also a looker as well but he’s taken.

Alafair Burke can pen a good story and her writing is very polished. Her characters felt real. She had a leg up in the writing gene pool since her father is James Lee Burke (I need to read his books next).

As a former deputy district attorney, the author brings a wealth of information from that perspective to this story. There were a few instances where the tone of the story felt like a lecture but it drops quickly.

Another strength of this author is that she seems familiar with the pop culture of our society. The author also has a good ear for how regular people actually talk. I felt like I was reading a book that was set in my own time period for once. I could do without the serial killers thanks. However, the violence in here is not as graphic as say Chelsea Cain or Karin Slaughter. However, this probably wouldn’t be a book I would read at night, home alone, with the lights out either.

Angel’s Tip gets a B+ from me because the book is very readable, characters were well fleshed out and the mystery, while solid, the denouement was a slight disappointment, hence the lower grade. I felt duped. While suspicion was heavy on just about everybody, I thought I knew who the villain was but I was wrong. What’s worse, the villain, after much build up, goes out with a whimper (no pun intended).

Kudos to this author for not using the same formulaic devices that befall most mysteries where the villain gives the detectives his confessions before being shot to death. Plus, Ellie said she didn’t need saving and guess what? She didn’t. I love follow-through. B+.

Angel’s Tip is available in hardcover now and Kindle ebook. Fictionwise also has this title in ebook Note: The first book in this series is only available as Kindle ebook or Mobipocket format. Yes, Angel’s Tip can stand alone.