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romancelibrary's review against another edition
1.0
I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
1.5 stars
Murder at Sunrise Lake is the most painfully boring, repetitive, and predictable book I have read so far this year. It's a romantic suspense with a paranormal element. The heroine has psychic dreams of serial killings before they happen and her visions lead her to believe that a serial killer will soon disrupt her idyllic small town.
What I liked:
- The romance:
There's no steam, but I liked Stella and Sam's relationship. They've known each other for 2 years. Their friendship and mutual attraction are already established. My only complaints: 1) lack of steam and 2) lack of flashbacks showing us how they met and how their friendship started and grew. I wish there had been more build up between Stella and Sam.
- The setting:
The story is set in the Eastern Sierras, so the setting is incredibly atmospheric and beautiful. I truly enjoyed the landscape descriptions. It was very immersive and added a layer of eeriness to the mystery plot line.
What I didn't like:
The plot is interesting enough, but it is so dreadfully slow-paced. This book could have been significantly shortened. There is a massive information dump about every single one of Stella's friends, which takes up at least 20% of the book. Stella has long and repetitive inner monologues about how sexy and protective Sam is: "He was Sam" or "Sam is this and that" or "Wow Sam is so hot." All of this is repeated a MILLION FUCKING TIMES.
Stella's group of friends reminded me of a group of high school girls or college freshmen girls. They did not read as grown ass adults. Stella has about a million friends even though she's described as a reserved woman who has a lot of secrets. Oh, and by the way, all of her friends are super hot women who attract all the men in town. You will never forget just how hot and perfect these women are because the author will remind you of their hotness in every single chapter. This also applies to all of the men in this book. The author will remind you on every other page that the men have ~oooooooh muscless babyyyy~ and that they are veeeeeerrrryyyyyy sexaayyyy. She will repeat this over and over again until all your brain can think about is "wow these people are SO HOT." 70% of this book is all about how Stella's girlfriends are hot supermodels who make the sexy muscular men pant like dogs.
Instead of wasting so many pages on this repetitive bullshit, the author could have spent more time writing an interesting and fast-paced mystery to keep the reader's attention. The killer's identity was so obvious from the very beginning. The author didn't even try to conceal his identity lol. I also wish that the romance was spicy. Regrettably, I yawned my way through this book.
P.S. One of the two ~ethnic~ female characters escaped an unwanted arranged marriage because obviously that's the only way you can add diversity in your story.
1.5 stars
Murder at Sunrise Lake is the most painfully boring, repetitive, and predictable book I have read so far this year. It's a romantic suspense with a paranormal element. The heroine has psychic dreams of serial killings before they happen and her visions lead her to believe that a serial killer will soon disrupt her idyllic small town.
What I liked:
- The romance:
There's no steam, but I liked Stella and Sam's relationship. They've known each other for 2 years. Their friendship and mutual attraction are already established. My only complaints: 1) lack of steam and 2) lack of flashbacks showing us how they met and how their friendship started and grew. I wish there had been more build up between Stella and Sam.
- The setting:
The story is set in the Eastern Sierras, so the setting is incredibly atmospheric and beautiful. I truly enjoyed the landscape descriptions. It was very immersive and added a layer of eeriness to the mystery plot line.
What I didn't like:
The plot is interesting enough, but it is so dreadfully slow-paced. This book could have been significantly shortened. There is a massive information dump about every single one of Stella's friends, which takes up at least 20% of the book. Stella has long and repetitive inner monologues about how sexy and protective Sam is: "He was Sam" or "Sam is this and that" or "Wow Sam is so hot." All of this is repeated a MILLION FUCKING TIMES.
Stella's group of friends reminded me of a group of high school girls or college freshmen girls. They did not read as grown ass adults. Stella has about a million friends even though she's described as a reserved woman who has a lot of secrets. Oh, and by the way, all of her friends are super hot women who attract all the men in town. You will never forget just how hot and perfect these women are because the author will remind you of their hotness in every single chapter. This also applies to all of the men in this book. The author will remind you on every other page that the men have ~oooooooh muscless babyyyy~ and that they are veeeeeerrrryyyyyy sexaayyyy. She will repeat this over and over again until all your brain can think about is "wow these people are SO HOT." 70% of this book is all about how Stella's girlfriends are hot supermodels who make the sexy muscular men pant like dogs.
Instead of wasting so many pages on this repetitive bullshit, the author could have spent more time writing an interesting and fast-paced mystery to keep the reader's attention. The killer's identity was so obvious from the very beginning. The author didn't even try to conceal his identity lol. I also wish that the romance was spicy. Regrettably, I yawned my way through this book.
P.S. One of the two ~ethnic~ female characters escaped an unwanted arranged marriage because obviously that's the only way you can add diversity in your story.
teresaalice's review against another edition
2.0
I finished it, but all of the "woman", "man", "her sex" things were worth all of the eye rolls.
january313reads's review against another edition
dark
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.5
pelicanfreak's review against another edition
4.0
An atypical serial-killer / suspense-y read with a slight paranormal twist, likable characters, lots of mystery and set in a lovable small town that I’d move to right now if I could.
This puts relationships, friendships and otherwise to ‘the true test’, packs a smidge of violence, and a budding, slow-burn romance, in addition to the suspense-y vibes.
It wasn’t really twisty, but it was entertaining enough that I finished in and would read more by this author.
I felt like that narrator did a great job and almost made it sound full-cast. Well done all-around.
4 stars.
This puts relationships, friendships and otherwise to ‘the true test’, packs a smidge of violence, and a budding, slow-burn romance, in addition to the suspense-y vibes.
It wasn’t really twisty, but it was entertaining enough that I finished in and would read more by this author.
I felt like that narrator did a great job and almost made it sound full-cast. Well done all-around.
4 stars.
cassies_books_reviews's review against another edition
4.0
I love paranormal romance/mystery the more books I read in this genre the more I get excited when a new one comes out. This book had me falling in love with characters.
Stella Harrison is rebuilding her life in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She’s well loved and looks out for the other smaller business. When she begins to have nightmares about a serial killer, who is staging their murders to look like accidents she’s immediately thrown back to her childhood.
When Stella was four, five and six the nightmares of a different serial killer had began, the only person in her life that has ever believed she was telling the truth and who helped her through them was her foster mother. When the killer was caught Stella went to college and put the nightmares behind her. So Stella is shocked when the nightmares have started again after so many years have passed. With a new romance with her handy man Sam who seems to have his own dark dark she finally feels the love she so desperately looked for. She enlists the help of her close set of friends, Raine who does secret work for the government, Zehra who refused her arranged marriage in her home country, Vienna who is a surgical nurse and happens to be a senators daughter and Shabina who runs her own cafe. Stella is determined to use the clues in her dreams to save the innocent people that this serial killer is stalking. Four stars!
Stella Harrison is rebuilding her life in the Sierra Nevada mountains. She’s well loved and looks out for the other smaller business. When she begins to have nightmares about a serial killer, who is staging their murders to look like accidents she’s immediately thrown back to her childhood.
When Stella was four, five and six the nightmares of a different serial killer had began, the only person in her life that has ever believed she was telling the truth and who helped her through them was her foster mother. When the killer was caught Stella went to college and put the nightmares behind her. So Stella is shocked when the nightmares have started again after so many years have passed. With a new romance with her handy man Sam who seems to have his own dark dark she finally feels the love she so desperately looked for. She enlists the help of her close set of friends, Raine who does secret work for the government, Zehra who refused her arranged marriage in her home country, Vienna who is a surgical nurse and happens to be a senators daughter and Shabina who runs her own cafe. Stella is determined to use the clues in her dreams to save the innocent people that this serial killer is stalking. Four stars!
whimsically_roberta's review against another edition
2.0
I am starting to believe I’ve perhaps outgrown Feehan books. I think this book had SO MUCH potential. I love the premise. I liked the hero and heroine well enough, but I didn’t particularly feel like I knew them that well. Her fifty closest friends however….
amcael's review against another edition
1.0
If you like Christine Feehan’s romance, this is not that. You’re better off sticking with her paranormal romance stuff. Idk what was happening with this, I guess it’s supposed to be a paranormal romance that is light on the romance? The romance was still integral to the story and pretty much center stage but very closed door.
I hated the way the main character and the love interest called each other “man” and “woman.” I hate the main characters constant vacillating. For someone who is allegedly so smart she repeatedly did very dumb things. Idk if Christine’s usual editor was not available but this book repeated information so often it was insane. Also we learn way tmi about the back stories of all of the secondary characters.
Lastly, the murderer is so obvious, idk if anyone was surprised by it but it was insane how thick the heroine is that she didn’t put any of it together.
I hated the way the main character and the love interest called each other “man” and “woman.” I hate the main characters constant vacillating. For someone who is allegedly so smart she repeatedly did very dumb things. Idk if Christine’s usual editor was not available but this book repeated information so often it was insane. Also we learn way tmi about the back stories of all of the secondary characters.
Lastly, the murderer is so obvious, idk if anyone was surprised by it but it was insane how thick the heroine is that she didn’t put any of it together.
amysbooketlist's review against another edition
1.0
DNF
I honestly can’t believe this is Christine Feehan. The paranormal was barely there, the romance was one of the worst and completely bland. Soooo repetitive and often filled with irrelevant information, like the backstories of supporting characters that don’t serve the main story. At one point, after the hero was said to have been great at fixing anything, I groaned out loud, rolled my eyes, and said, “I get it, he’s handy! Move on.” So disappointed in this one.
I honestly can’t believe this is Christine Feehan. The paranormal was barely there, the romance was one of the worst and completely bland. Soooo repetitive and often filled with irrelevant information, like the backstories of supporting characters that don’t serve the main story. At one point, after the hero was said to have been great at fixing anything, I groaned out loud, rolled my eyes, and said, “I get it, he’s handy! Move on.” So disappointed in this one.