Tag: Jaden Skye

Guest Review: A Perfect Stranger by Jaden Skye

Posted August 20, 2012 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Tracy’s review of A Perfect Stranger (Tom’s River book 1) by Jaden Skye

Nestled among trees and hills, set alongside a winding river, the small town of Tom’s River, Wisconsin, so beautiful and protected, is a place where everybody knows each other, a place where nothing ever changes and where people can feel safe. But one day, all that changes. Megan’s husband suddenly goes missing without a trace.

As the search deepens, Megan discovers the truth not only about her husband, but also about the secrets he’s been hiding in their marriage. Her world is shaken as she realizes she’s been in a relationship with a man who’s been living a secret life, a man she never really knew.

Some months after his disappearance, as the snows of winter melt, Hunter, a handsome, magnetic stranger, arrives in Tom’s River. A loner with a mysterious past, he is content with his solitary job at the lumber yard. But as a tornado ravages the town, he is destined to cross paths with Megan, as she seeks help to repair her damaged home.

Once Hunter and Megan meet, nothing is ever the same again. As he repairs the roof that blew off her home, the two cannot hold back their feelings for each other. They fall madly in love. Yet Megan cannot, once again, live with a man who is keeping secrets from her: she needs Hunter to open up about who he is, about what he’s running from. And that is not something Hunter may be ready to do.

As they face a crucial crossroads in their affair, a shocking and dramatic twist takes place: one that will test their love, and will test the town. This book explores what is truly means to be a stranger to others and to oneself, and how to live a life where deep love and connection are possible. As Megan’s new relationship is tested, as she learns to break free from lies and live from the truth of herself.

At the beginning of our story Megan is being interrogated by the local police because he husband, Kyle, has disappeared without a trace and they think she might have had something to do with it. She is adamant that she has no idea where he is. She eventually passes a lie detector test and is cleared from suspicion. She decides to take a leave of absence from her grade school teaching job in order to search more deeply for Kyle as it seems that since the police’s leads have dried up everyone has forgotten about him. She refuses to give up but doesn’t have much luck with it. She did find out, early on in the story that Kyle had received a fortune from his brother when the brother died and Megan knew nothing about it. It seems that Kyle wasn’t someone she knew all that well after all.

The Chief of Police, who was a friend of Megan and Kyle’s is there to comfort her and since his wife died he’s thinking that maybe this is his chance with Megan. I thought right from the beginning that the man was moving too quickly but that kind of seemed like a theme in this book. He was a quiet guy and really wanted Megan but it came off as a bit delusional and he kept thinking that Megan liked him more than just a friend even if she said time and time again that she didn’t.  Even after she started seeing someone else he was still kind of after her. 

Then there was Megan’s best friend Angela who was stuck in a dead end relationship with a man who was her fiancé. At least I think he was the fiancé – we kept getting mixed messages on this one. It said fiancé but then it mentioned that he wouldn’t pop the question or set a date so I was confused as to the nature of the relationship. Anyway, she’d been with him for 7 years and just suddenly she was seeing him for who he truly was – it didn’t make sense as Megan had been telling her for years to take a closer look at her relationship. Angela was concerned for Megan but the strange relationship between the two was just odd. Angela wasn’t always all that nice to Megan but it was made to look like concern. They were supposed to be best friends but frankly I really didn’t get the sense of deep friendship here at all.

Hunter comes to town and he’s a handyman who moves from town to town looking for work. He doesn’t expect to stay in Tom’s River but after he gets a good job and then meets Megan and falls in love he starts to rethink his future. But he’s hiding things from Megan as well and when they come out he’s not sure how Megan will react. I did like him (the only one I did like in the book) and frankly thought he was too good for Megan.

Then there’s the new minister in town who was having problems with his wife but that’s completely different from the blooming relationship he has with a 16 year old runaway that’s supposed to be under his protection. Ew.

This book had so many incredibly dysfunctional people it was almost a chore to finish it. I couldn’t believe the crap that went on in this supposedly sleepy town – it was total soap opera material! I don’t think I really would have finished the book if it hadn’t been for the desire to find out what the heck had happened to the husband – and let me just say that when he returned he proved that he fit right into the town because he was a complete bastard.

I wasn’t a huge fan of the writing in this book and I didn’t care for the story at all. If you like a story that jumps around with too many storylines and too many characters then you might like this one but it just didn’t work for me at all.

Rating: 1 out of 5

You can read more from Tracy at Tracy’s Place

This book is available from Jaden Skye. You can buy it here or here in e-format.


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What I Read Last Week

Posted August 20, 2012 by Tracy in Features | 6 Comments

Well let’s see – the girls started school on Thursday and they are both thrilled.  The youngest got a male teacher and so far she really likes him (for the whole 2 days she was in class).  My oldest loves her schedule and her teachers – hopefully it will stay that way. 🙂

I’m home today with a thick head, sore throat, ear ache and temperature.  Boohoo. lol  Oh well, whatcha gonna do, right?

Ok, on to what I read last week.  Sorry, I think these descriptions will be abbreviated because of my head so if something doesn’t make sense just laugh and carry on. 🙂

First up for the week was Highland Bride by Hannah Howell.  This is a book that Holly sent to me and I’m so damned glad she did.  We talked about it over coffee the morning we were leaving RWA and I’d almost forgotten about it when it showed up.  Such a great medieval romance!  You can read more about the book and my review here. 4.5 out of 5

Next was Savage: Daughters of the Jaguar book 1 by Willow Rose.  This was the story of a boy from Denmark who ends up in Florida to study for a year.  His next door neighbors are odd but he ends up falling in love.  Too bad they’re not like other people.  You can read my full review here. 3 out of 5

Next up was A Perfect Stranger by Jaden Skye.  This one I read for Book Binge (the review will post this afternoon) and it was one that didn’t work for me in so many different ways.  The story is about 1 woman in particular but the series is about Tom’s River (I think it’s supposed to be in Wisconsin?) and it’s a huge soap opera.  We get to know the citizens of Tom’s River and frankly I wouldn’t want to know any of them except the character Hunter and he was a drifter that wasn’t from there.  The story was mostly about a woman whose husband disappears without a trace and then the character stories fan out from the people in relation to the woman.  A very character driven story.  If you like soap operas then this might work better from you than it did for me. 1 out of 5

Of Eternal Life by Micah Persell was another one I read for Book Binge.  This story is about a woman who just graduated from med school and is recruited to supposedly help refurbish an old military hospital to help the locals.  Instead they have no patients and are just in the lab constantly.  She comes across a naked guy in the supply closet that she feels strangely comfortable with and he ends up kidnapping her and they head across country running from the bad guys.  This was an interesting story as it was mostly a contemporary read but definitely had a bit of the paranormal involved when it came to finding the Garden of Eden and eating from  a tree.  Pretty entertaining in the end. 3.25 out of 5  You can read my full review here.

Next up was The Way to a Duke’s Heart by Caroline Linden.  This is the last book in The Truth About the Duke series and we actually get to know the heir apparent, Charlie, quite well.  He’s investigating more to try to find the person who was blackmailing his father and the clues lead to a man who is currently searching for investors in his canal project.  Charlie thinks that some woman, including our heroine, Tessa, might be in on the scheme and he tries to ingratiate himself into their lives and follows them to the boondocks.  What he finds is that his heart is on the line – oh and he finds out stuff about the blackmailer too. 🙂  Good story – I’ll review this one next week. 4 out of 5

Hard Tail by JL Merrow is the story of Tim who is basically laid off and then his wife leaves him.  Right after that he finds out his brother was in an accident and Tim ends up taking over his brother’s bike shop til he’s back on his feet.  Tim ends up having feelings for the bike repairman, Matt, but Matt’s in a relationship with someone.  This is a really great story of two men trying to find their way to each other and it was wonderful.  It was fun, emotional and humorous and had a serious issue involved as well.  I’ve only read 3 books by Merrow so far but I definitely need to read more.  Her books are always fabulous and I haven’t read one I didn’t like so far. 4.5 out of 5

Mummy Dearest by Josh Lanyon is the first book in the XOXO Files series.  We meet Drew who is in Wyoming to view a mummy in order to get published.  He runs into trouble with both his live-in boyfriend (as the boyfriend didn’t want him to leave…for his own selfish reasons) and with a film crew who is at the museum to film.  Drew and the film crew end up working together and then Drew and the host of the show, Fraser, have a little alone time together.  When they are watched, chased and run over by a mummy they think that maybe there’s more going on in the museum than they originally thought.  This was a cute story  that had me laughing out loud at times.  I felt horrible for the way that Drew was treated by his boyfriend and wanted nothing more than for Drew to get together with Fraser…and I got my wish.  I’m looking forward to reading more in this series. 4 out of 5

Last for the week was The Ugly Duchess by Eloisa James.  This is the story of childhood friends – in fact they grew up in the same house and they end up marrying.  They marry, however, because of the boy’s criminal father and though James does love Daisy and vice versa she’s not happy when she finds out the facts behind the marriage.  This was a good book but there was a lot of it that didn’t work for me.  I’ll post my review either later this week or next.  3.25 out of 5

My Book Binge reviews that posted last week:
Now or Never by Michele Bardsley
Of Eternal Life by Micah Persell

Happy Reading!


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