Review: Murder List by Julie Garwood

Posted May 21, 2012 by Rowena in Reviews | 3 Comments

Rowena’s review of Murder List (Buchanan series #4) by Julie Garwood.

Hero: Alec Buchanan
Heroine: Regan Madison

Hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison is flirting with danger. She agrees to help a journalist friend expose Dr. Lawrence Shields, a shady self-help guru who may have been responsible for the death of one of his vulnerable devotees. Hoping to find some damning evidence, Regan attends a Shields seminar, where the doctor his guests make a list of people who have hurt or angered them over the years and asks: Would your world be a better place if these people ceased to exist? Treating the exercise as a game, Regan plays along.

The experience is all but forgotten–until the first person on Regan’s list turns up dead. Shock turns to horror when another name from her list surfaces as a corpse. While brutal murders seem to stalk regan’s every m ove, her atteaction to the detective assigned to protect her grows. As the menace intensifies had a serial killer circles, regan must discover who has turned her private revenge fantasies into grisly reality.

I liked this book far more than I thought I was going to like it considering how much I didn’t really care for the previous book which I read years ago, Killjoy. It’s not that I hated Killjoy it was just that compared to Julie Garwood’s historical/highlander books, her contemporaries weren’t as good.

But I really got into this book, Alec was a fantabulous hero. He’s one of my favorite of the brothers Buchanan. Anyway, Regan Madison is in the hotel business. She’s in the business of giving money away. She’s really good at what she does too, everyone loves her.

Everyone but the guy that’s trying to kill her.

Alec Buchanan, who is brother to the hotties, Nick (JG’s Heartbreaker) and Theo (JG’s Mercy) Buchanan is a cop who is being recruited by the FBI, he finally takes the job the FBI gives him and his boss gets so pissed off at him that he tacks him with Bodyguard duty for the hotel heiress.

My favorite part of reading these books is watching the journey the couple go through while they fall a little bit in love with each other…bit by bit. The whole story that revolves around them forming feelings for each other, to me is just about the greatest thing. It’s why I read romance novels, that journey if written well, gets me every time.

Julie Garwood does a great job of setting up Alec and Regan’s story. The way she brought these two together and the way she tells their story really had me so engrossed in the book that I zipped right through it.

I enjoyed this book a whole lot. I enjoyed Alec’s sloppy sexiness. I loved his flirty confidence where Regan was concerned. I loved their first meeting, with him stinking to high heaven and her laughing at him. I loved how protective he was where she was concerned and I loved loved loved…him. He was the bomb, seriously.

Regan was a great heroine too. She was a great match for Alec. Their story and them two as a couple really fit and I thoroughly enjoyed reading the entire book.

I loved how Regan, Sophie and Cordie met. I loved how they became friends and stayed friends. It was really sweet. That’s another thing that Julie Garwood writes really well. The friendships between women. One of my favorite friendships is the friendship between Judith and Frances Catherine from Julie Garwood’s The Secret. The friendship between Regan, Sophie and Cordie reminds me of Judith and Frances Catherine. Solid and strong, that’s the kind of friendship they had and I loved it.

Now, what I didn’t like…I didn’t like how we were left hanging about Aiden and Cordie, do they get together or not? Are we going to get their story ever or no? JG can’t leave me hanging like this…seriously. Another thing I didn’t like was not being able to meet Walker. After all the talk about him throughout the book, I was a bit disappointed that we didn’t get to meet him at all. I’m still crossing my fingers that JG will write Walker’s book (she hasn’t written his book, has she?)

Aside from those two things, I really liked this book and totally recommend it. It’s better than Killjoy and just as great as Heartbreaker and Mercy. The mystery surrounding the story kept me guessing throughout most of the book and the story fell neatly into place which I loved. The ending was great and Alec is a sexy hero…what more could you want?

Grade: 4.5 out of 5

The series: