One Good Book Deserves Another

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Dr. Charlotte Stone, Book 2
Rating: 3 Stars
Length: 336 Pages
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballantine Books publisher Random House Publishing via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.





As far as bad boys go, you don't get much badder than Michael Garland, convicted serial killer and all-around badass. He's the worst sort of guy for someone like Dr. Charlie Stone. Rude, ridiculously self-interested, arrogant and totally alpha-male, Michael should be the antithesis of everything she wants in a man. He's certainly nothing she needs.

And that's beyond the fact that he's been dead for the past eleven days, so not exactly primo long-term relationship material.

None of that changes the fact that when the renowned psychiatrist and authority on serial killers sees Michael sprawled out on her couch four days after he saved her life then disappeared from it, the relief and happiness almost takes her to her knees. It's wrong, he's wrong, and his continued presence in her life is no good for either of them, but damn it if she isn't so very glad he's back.

You see, Dr. Charlie Stone studies serial killer psychopathy, but her real gift is her ability to see ghosts. Though...when it comes to Michael, it's still a toss-up as to whether that's a gift or a curse. She's conflicted on that one.

Before Charlie gets a chance to really work out her wildly fluctuating feelings about Michael's continued presence in her life, horror slams into her back door. Horror in the shape of a terrified and bloody young woman screaming for help and begging to be let inside before the man chasing her can catch her and kill her. And with the turn of a knob, against Michael's strenuous objections, she might add, Charlie becomes the focus of another serial killer.

The Gingerbread Man, so named for the notes he leaves in the wake of his sadistic, murderous games, has set his sights on Charlie, and this time, neither the ghost she wants, Michael, nor the man she wants to want, FBI Special Agent Tony Bartoli, may be able to save her.


When Robards introduced Michael Garland in series debut The Last Victim, it was love at first snark. I absolutely adored everything about him. Vibrant and flagrantly alive...despite being a dead guy...he stole every single scene, and the back-and-forth between him and Charlie was my favorite part of that book. I loved the tension and heat between them, and Charlie's struggle to cope with her growing feelings for a man she thinks is a serial killer was awesome. Oh yeah, and there was also a pretty good psychological thriller going on around all of that, too.

In this book, and despite a spectacular start filled with scorching sexual chemistry, gut-clenching emotion, and grim horror, the pieces weren't quite so shiny and wonderful for me.

I still love Michael. He's absolutely one of my favorite characters in an ongoing series right now. I totally dig everything about him, flaws and all. But this time, the heights of my adoration for him was matched, even exceeded, by my annoyance, aggravation, and frustration with Charlie.

Instead of comporting herself like the respected psychiatrist she is, Charlie's behavior towards and about Michael was immature and borderline ridiculous in several places in the book, and that's when she wasn't being stubbornly conflicted or obviously petulant. And her hypocrisy and inconsistency bothered me a lot.

She spends most of the time when he's around doing everything within her power to ignore him or treat him like crap, then panics and freaks out when he starts to flicker out of her reality. And the cycle repeats over and over again throughout the story, subsuming other important plot elements and squashing anything resembling relationship evolution.

Yes, Michael is often a pain in the ass and obviously delights in pushing Charlie's buttons, but the guy was convicted of crimes he said he didn't commit and sentenced to die for them, only to end up shanked by a fellow inmate. Now he's doomed to be either stuck as a ghost or slip into the bad place that wants to claim him. You think a little patience and empathy for the guy wouldn't be completely out of line.

But because Charlie is so disturbed by her growing feelings for the arrogant, all male, possessive, protective, sexy, totally yummy ghost, she's willfully and purposely dismissive of him and cavalier about how her actions affect him. It made it hard not to loathe her. And her whole "if you can't love the one you want, love the one you're with" philosophy when it came to pursuing Tony as a love interest - right in front of Michael - not only diminished the significance of her feelings for Michael but also wasn't fair to Tony, who is...if a bit dull for my tastes...a genuinely decent guy who deserves better than to be forced to serve as the metaphorical "screw you, Michael I can do who I want" in Charlie's little self-absorbed world.

Lest I forget, which would be pretty easy to do, actually, there's also a race to find a vicious and manipulative serial killer before he takes his next trio of victims. The Gingerbread Man is a sadistic psychopath, just the sort of villain I like most in my suspense reads. It would have been awesome if the plot threads into his identification and apprehension hadn't been totally overwhelmed by Michael and Charlie's seemingly never-ending battle of emotional immaturity.

I love the story potential in the arc of their romance. There's a real star-crossed lovers theme going on here that I enjoy, especially when partnered with the against-all-odds, anything-is-possible relationship potential offered by the paranormal romance subgenre. And to be honest, I even understand why Charlie is completely conflicted about her feelings for Michael. I just wish their relationship in this book had some measure of actual evolution throughout the narrative and that it had been better balanced with the suspense threads of the plot.

So long as Michael stays on this side of the hereafter, though, I absolutely plan on sticking around for what comes next. Love. Him.


The Dr. Charlotte Stone Series:

Genre: Paranormal Romantic Suspense
Series: Dr. Charlie Stone, Book 1
Rating: 4 Stars
Length: 336 Pages
Formats: Hardcover, Kindle
Disclosure: An ARC of this book was provided to me by Ballantine Books publisher Random House Publishing Group via NetGalley. This rating, review, and all included thoughts and comments are my own.



Seventeen-year-old Charlie adored her best friend Holly Palmer. The popular girl had befriended her on her first day at her new school, where they would be sharing a locker for their senior year. That's huge. Holly even invited her to spend the night when Charlie's mom forgot to pick her up after the Friday night movie they went to with two other girls.

It was a great night. Except she knew she shouldn't have drank so much. She was worried saying no would ruin her shot at popularity. Still, she paid for it. Charlie had to race to the bathroom in the basement, purging booze and bad decisions with each shuddered retch.

That's where she was when the screaming started.

Fifteen years later, Dr. Charlotte "Charlie" Stone is one of the premier psychiatrists specializing in the study of serial killer pathology. Working at Wallens Ridge State Prison, Charlie is conducting a forensic assessment of several serial killers incarcerated in their Special Housing Unit. Michael Garland is one of them. Charismatic, gorgeous, and deadly, he amuses himself by being difficult when they're in session, so when a guard interrupts to let her know she's got two FBI agents in her office, Charlie is more than ready to bring the session to a close. Until she finds out why they've come for her.

A vicious predator is on the prowl along the Outer Banks of North Carolina, and his signature is so chillingly similar to that of the Boardwalk Killer, the monster who slaughtered Holly, her entire family, and four other families fifteen years ago, that the FBI are convinced he's back. They want Charlie to return with them to the latest crime scene, then stay and help them catch him.

They are asking for more than she can give. She is in the process of turning them down, or offering to help from afar, when life in the prison takes a deadly turn. Michael Garland is shivved as he's being transported back to his cell, and he bleeds out even as Charlie desperately tries to save his life. A deeply disturbing event for anyone, but for Charlie, who isn't quite like everyone else, it's much worse.

In an abrupt about-face, Charlie's on her way to North Carolina in the company of two FBI agents. She has to go. She has to get away from the prison for a few days. You see, Charlie can still see and hear Michael Garland. To Charlie, who has always seen ghosts, he's as real as he ever was and will be until he crosses over. Facing her own fears to catch a monster seems a better choice than dealing with that one.


I'm totally in love with a serial killer. Yeah...never thought I'd think, say, or type that in my life. Then I met Karen Robards' latest character creation, Michael Garland, and I swear, it was love at first snarky come-on. In my meager defense, I don't actually think he is a serial killer. Just...um...convicted and sitting on death row...before he's murdered and turned all ghostly. Still, I could not possibly have adored him any more if I tried.

Spectral crush aside, I had moments where I wasn't quite sure what to make of this book while I was reading it. It starts out like an in-your-face, gripping, tension- and terror-filled psychological thriller. A vicious serial killer is slaughtering families, then stops for fifteen years for reasons no one knows, and is now apparently back to bloody business. Psychologist/criminal profiler/FBI team gear up to pit their wits and resources against the heinous killer to identify him and bring him down.

Love it.

But then Garland is killed, Charlie sees his ghost, and the book takes a very different turn. First off, Garland isn't a scary ghost. He comes off as more tough guy than crazy killer guy. And a mouthy, sexy (can't believe I'm saying that, either), horny, smart-ass, too. A pain in the ass sort of ghost. A ghost who makes lewd comments to Charlie, but who shows some vulnerability and even a protective streak if you look hard enough.

Charlie, in the mean time, is freaking the hell out that he's showing up all the time, keeps getting caught talking to him, and tries everything she knows how to try to get rid of him.

I really wasn't expecting to be quite so entertained by a book about a serial killer, but I definitely got caught up in the humor more than once. I don't think it's ever blatantly comedic - that probably would have been in poor taste, all things considered - but many scenes were amusing and the rest were just flat-out awesome. I loved every single second that Garland shared a scene with Charlie. So much so that it made the scenes in which he is not a part seem a little bland in comparison.

Which is actually a problem.

Lest I forget, and maybe more's the pity, but the book is about more than how hot Michael Garland is. Looking at the suspense elements on their own brought into focus a couple of things that didn't sit well with me about the tale. Charlie and Garland are both powerhouse characters with a ton of personality, but the FBI team that comprised most of the secondary characters in the book never seemed to have anywhere near as much presence on the page or impact in the story. They kept fading into the wallpaper instead of commanding their own space, and I never felt their characters were well-defined enough to have any depth.

The plot threads for the investigative arc of the suspense, though, were quite solid. If you were to remove the paranormal elements from the whole of the book (though that would've been a tragedy), you would still have a gripping psychological thriller. One I would have preferred see evolve a little differently, maybe, but it is still a strong, solid, intense read.

The paranormal elements took it to a completely different level of awesome as far as my reading enjoyment level goes, but it didn't always mesh well story-wise. I prefer a bit more focus on the psychological aspects of the killer's motives and motivations in my suspense fiction. I was a disappointed we didn't get more insight there. I was more than disappointed by the final chapter, which had what I consider a fairly egregious summation scene.

I dislike summation or "wrap up" scenes on general principle. They gloss over all the dangling plot threads and wandering story elements and tie them off during a brief discussion between two of the characters, or between the narrator and the reader. That may tidy up the story and help to answer some unanswered questions, but they always strike me as awkward and unnatural. It's a too-easy out, when the story would be more interesting if the provided information is discovered as a natural result of the featured investigation. In this book, especially, it could have made the suspense seem more substantive in the overall had it been better handled.

Those minor grievances aside, I can't remember the last time I was as happy to turn the last page of a book as I was when I finished this one. Not because the story was over. That part was a major downer; I was heartily and thoroughly entertained and wasn't ready to have it end. What thrilled me to pieces in this case was the note that said there are more books with Charlie and Garland to come. Now that was fantastic news that made my day. I just hope it's soon.