Review: Vasquez and James Vol 2

Vasquez and James Vol 2

These books are part of a series and with one exception noted later in this review, they should be read in order.

Overall rating 4, but I’ll break it down by book for this this review.
This book is actually two novels and a novella, so three compete stories in all.

Part One is Saving Sonny James. Rating 4

Luki and Sonny are a wonderful couple! I love how they work together and don’t soft coat anything for each other.

In this book, Sonny’s life is in danger. Luki is still suffering the aftereffects of a traumatic incident and is fighting through his PTSD. Sonny is offered an opportunity to teach and participate in a promotional tour in Europe. When he leaves their home in Washington state for France, Luki stays behind because of his mental state, feeling he needs more treatment before getting on an airplane and traveling to another country. While there, Sonny runs into some serious trouble and goes missing. The only problem is, Luki is really the only person who believes Sonny is missing and hasn’t disappeared on purpose. There is truly a great bit of detective work by Luki and his team, across two continents no less. Once in France how Luki enlists help in a county where he’s not a law enforcement agent, but a visitor with limited use of the language is a strong and entertaining part of the story.

My only complaints about this book was that I felt the ending was rushed. I also would’ve liked to see more from Sonny’s point of view after he arrives in France. The little bit I did see made me want more details from his side. That was an itch that wasn’t satisfied.

Those two complaints aside, this is a solid romantic suspense in an interesting location and enough roadblocks thrown in the characters’ paths to keep me turning the pages.
 
Part Two is Yes. Rating 5

This book isn’t a suspense, I’m not even sure it qualifies as a romance. Yes isn’t the type of story I usually read or like, in fact, I only read it because of this review. When I got the end, I still can’t say it’s a story I enjoyed, or that I was glad I read it. However, that isn’t the fault of the author or the book and there are many people who do enjoy this type of story. If you are one of those people you’re in for a stunningly great treat!

The story might very well be one of the most beautifully written stories I’ve ever read. It was impeccably thought out and researched. Yes is an accurate and heartfelt portrayal of what a family goes through when one of its members has a potentially life-threatening disease. As is often the case, the whole family is affected and in many different and unforeseen ways. My personal feelings aside, I couldn’t find a single flaw in Yes.

When I came to the end, I was satisfied the story was complete. There were no loose ends I was left wondering about, and no questions were unanswered. If you’re like me and don’t enjoy a very angsty story, this part of Vol 2 can be skipped. Any information from it you’d need is in the third book. Caution to readers, do read the blurb to this story. If you’d like spoilers to how the story ends, you can find viable clues in the blurb to Because of Jade.

Part Three is Because of Jade. Rating 3

The bones of this story and the basic premise make it seem as if it’ll be a good, timely suspense with entertaining twists and turns. However, this book simply isn’t up to the standards of Ms. Sylvre’s other novels I’ve come to expect from her as an author.

I didn’t feel this book was as well thought out and researched as others in the series. In the book, Luki’s nephew and his wife die, and their child’s custody goes to Luki and Sonny. There weren’t many details about the parents’ deaths, only hints that left me to guess what happened. As a reader I would’ve like a few more facts about what happened to these people. This surprised me because normally Ms. Sylvre doesn’t shy away from or gloss over tragic events. There were a few other plot flaws, questions were left unanswered and in some cases details about characters were stated and then dropped with no real explanation. I was never quite sure what the bad guys’ motivation was, again I was left to guess. The suspense portion of the book only happens in the last third or so. Just when I felt I was getting to the good part and would see some real Vasquez action the story over too quickly with no real resolution or wrap up about why certain events happened. Not a bad book, but not a great book either.

I was given a copy of Vasquez and James Vol 2 in exchange for a fair and honest review.

I’m looking forward to reading the next series, Vasquez, Inc.!

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