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SECRET BOND

Aug9

Secret Bond (Jamie Bond) (Volume 2) by Gemma Halliday and Jennifer Fischetto

MY REVIEW 

I have read all of Gemma Halliday’s High Heel series and enjoyed them. I am not familiar with her new writing partner Jennifer Fischetto, but I don’t notice a change in the Bond series as far as writing style. When you pick up Gemma’s books you know you will get a good mystery that will not disappoint and a touch of romance as well.  They make a perfect  read when you’re at the beach or taking a flight. Jamie and secret bondDanny or Jamie and Aiden do not appeal to me like Maddie and Ramirez did. Actually all the characters are fine, I just miss the old ones I suppose. Especially Mrs. Rosenblatt. Although Maya’s (Jamie’s receptionist) mother shows promise along with her friend Ruth of becoming suitable replacements for Maddie’s mother and Mrs. Rosenblatt. And a writer can grow tired of the same characters all the time – even if the readers don’t. But you have a good mystery here with Jamie investigating the shooting of her father Derek, three years earlier, when new evidence comes out at a trial of a dirty cop. And there is a fun secondary storyline where Jamie and her investigators go undercover at a nudist colony. Perhaps undercover is the wrong word 😉 . Pick it up today, it is definitely worth the read. ♥♥♥½

BLURB 

Her name is Bond. Jamie Bond. And she is licensed to kill any pre-nup you can throw at her. Catching cheating husbands became Jamie Bond’s life when her father was shot and wounded on the job, forcing Jamie to take over the family business: The Bond Agency. But three years later, the PI is shocked when the gun that wounded her father surfaces during a high-profile murder trial. Is this the connection Jamie’s been waiting for to finally nail her father’s shooter? But, oddly enough, Derek Bond doesn’t seem interested. In fact, if Jamie didn’t know better she’d say he’s even trying to stop her from looking into it. Along with her team of bombshell investigators, Jamie suddenly finds herself in the middle of a cold case that’s heating up the media, dodging old grudges and new enemies, while questioning the motives of those closest to her. If she can live with the truth, the secrets Jamie uncovers may bring down more than a marriage this time.

AUTHOR BIOS

gemmaGEMMA HALLIDAY In her previous life, Gemma worked in such diverse jobs as a film and television actress, a teddy bear importer, a department store administrator, a preschool teacher, a temporary tattoo artist, and a 900 number psychic. Luckily, she sold her first book, Spying in High Heels, in 2005, ending her string of eclectic employment.

Since then, Gemma has been the recipient of numerous awards, including a National Reader’s Choice award and three RITA nominations. She now makes her home in the San Francisco Bay area, where she is hard at work on her next book.

jenniferJENNIFER FISCHETTO When not investigating suspects, burying evidence in her yard, cooking another batch of poisonous brownies, or dealing with ghosts and other supernatural baddies, she sits in the corner of her creaky, damp basement, writing contemporary stories of mystery and suspense for young adults and adults. With the occasional fun, humorous tale to cover her tracks, so no one notifies the FBI or calls for a straitjacket.

WHY DO WE LIKE COZIES AND WHAT IS IT WITH THE HIGH HEELS???

Jul3

I love cozy mysteries above all other genres when it comes to reading for pleasure. I don’t know why. Up until about 2009 I was a normal cross genre reader. Heck, I love cozy series so much, I wrote one. Well the first is done, the rest are yet to come. I like to go to the Cozy Mystery List and find a good long series and get all the books in the series and read them one after the other. Usually getting the older ones from the library and the newer ones on my Kindle.

Sometimes, the first book is so bad I put it, unfinished, along with the rest of the series, right back in my library bag to return. Luckily, that does not happen too often. As a matter of fact, I have been having such a good run with good series from the library, my new stuff on my Kindle is not getting read. I will have to stop ordering from the library for a while. But there are just so many series out there I haven’t read yet. I resolve that starting soon, I am going to stop ordering from the library and make a dent in the over 1000 books on my Kindle. Some of them are the latest releases in series I have already read and some are new authors with just one or a couple in a series out so far.

Once in a while, a series has some element to it that bugs the hell out of me. Usually that means back in the bag. Once, I kept reading because of what bugged me. I forget the name of the series or the author. But it was about a librarian with a cop boyfriend. That does not narrow it down when it comes to cozies. What bugged me is they never had sex. Now cozies do not push the sex angle. That is part of what makes them cozy. But it is subtly referred to. You know they are doing it. But this series made a point of the fact they weren’t doing it. And it was a looooong series. That poor cop. And the librarian was getting a little long in the tooth. I kept reading just to get to the point where it happened. One day I came to the last book. I looked at the date and said, well there must be more. Checked the library. Checked Amazon. Finally Googled he author. She had died!!! She up and died (and not that old as I recall) leaving behind a very frustrated cop and librarian. Not to mention me!

But what really gets me are the high heels. What is up with cozies and high heels? I admit, I too am guilty. But my main character is based on a real person with a high heel fetish. But they are for dress up, not chasing murderers. And may not ever get mentioned again after the first book. (Because if you have been following me you know my series is really a serial, no repetitive back story.) But we have journalists, detectives, and all sorts of characters who are wearing, admiring and talking about their Jimmy Choo or Manolo Blahnick shoes throughout the books. I mean aside from the fact they could not afford them in the jobs they hold, how the heck are we to believe they are running after or away from the perp in those heels? Seriously. Gemma Halliday actually has a series called The High Heel Mystery Series. But there are dozens of others out there.

But I love cozies. sigh… So I guess I will just have to put up with the high heels.

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