Prey by Linda Howard
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Suspense! And romance. All neatly put together by a master of those joined genres, Linda Howard. The book was a quick read, lots of suspense and enough sweetness too. Not heavy on the "erotic" for those wanting more of that.

I tend to fall in love with Howard's male characters and Dare Callahan was no exception.

The wilderness element was new for me in Linda Howard books and she did a wonderful job of portraying the scenes with the bears, horses and other treacherous situations of wilderness survival. My heart was beating hard more than a couple times!

My only issue - so small - is that the lead, Angie, should have stopped second-guessing herself. Several pages could have been eliminated without the repetitive dialogue in her head with the same doubts running through. But I also understand that this is one of the characteristics of the genre...repetition. But the leads are such smart, complex characters usually and it's hard to reconcile so much self-doubt in a strong person.

But all-in-all, loved it for what it was - a contemporary romance with suspense throughout.

Hello, Darkness by Sandra Brown
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Again, I cannot speak highly enough of the way Sandra Brown takes a large cast of complex characters and impossibly makes them all connect with a twist (or two) seamlessly. I cannot find fault in Hello, Darkness in any of these areas. I was moved at times, I chuckled at some, I was scared in more than one suspense scene. I love reading her books at the gym...because they are Large Print but also because they keep my attention on something besides being at the gym. Great job. 4.4 at least.