Customer Reviews

Ninja Soccer Moms (Samantha Shaw Mysteries)

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I'm having a hard time with this series. I like the author's style of writing, but I really can't stand Sam and Gabe. Sam is a shallow dingbat who, for some reason, finds dressing like a tacky hooker empowering. A woman can look and act sexy while still acting her age. Gabe is an arrogant jerk who uses sex as a substitute for dialogue. And SURELY he can call Sam something other than "Babe". The supporting cast of characters are far more likeable. It's an enjoyable, predictable, light murder mystery, if you can stomach the annoying main characters. Check these out from the library, and save your bookshelves for a series worth keeping.

While this book has, by far, one of the best titles I've seen in a long time, I can't say the same for the rest of the book. Rife with one-dimensional characters and rip-offs from the Stephanie Plum series, Ninja Soccer Moms should have been benched. And there should be a federal law against using "Omigod!" more than once in a book -- unless it's an Archie comic.

I read the first two books in the "Sam Shaw" mysteries and enjoyed them right away. They are light and funny and full of odd ball antics. In fact if you read the "Stephanie Plum" series you will love this one and you will recognize a few similiarties. I truly enjoy this series. Sam Shaw is a mom and super slueth..(almost)who truly loves her children. The book revolves around her life in Lake Elsinore (near my hometown of Temecula)where she lives with her grandfather and two boys. Now this book is the third in the series and for me the characters really took heart in this one. I definelty felt better connected and the antics were just as funny as the first two. I recommend reading the first two to truly understand all of the funny,odd and heart warming characters. The book comes off as funny and full of strange antics like her tendencies to damage clothing and fall over dead people. But Jennifer Apodaca created wonderfully complicated characters that jump off the page and make you feel like a part of there world. This is a definite "lite" read with some heart string tugs and tons of belly laughs. Ninja Soccer Mom will leave you mostly guessing until about 2/3 into and then you should know who did it but boy is it funny finding out the end. Sam shaw is mom,friend,daughter,business woman, and pretty much like all of us...('cept for all of the dead people she finds)On a minor note I love that she placed the book in Lake Elsinore I live bout 10-15 mins away and go there often to visit and to me it makes the story even more realistic when its set in your own backyard.

The title of this book should've been "Ninja Boob Moms" for all Sam talked about her implants.

The series was okay when it started, but this one is God-awful. There's nothing even remotely likeable about Sam -- she's stupid and shallow. She was so broke she had to move herself and her two sons in with her grandfather, yet she used her husband's life insurance money for a boob job and slut wardrobe, rather than for her kids' future?

This series tried to be Stephanie Plum from the beginning, but Jennifer Apodaca will never ben Janet Evanovich. Perhaps if she'd realized that from the start, her series would've worked. Exchanging ruined clothes for blown-up cars and private investigating for bounty hunting doesn't work, and this series has just become so flat-out bad that I won't even pick up the next book in the series.

Samantha Shaw runs the Heart Mates Dating Service. But more often than not, she is off doing amateur sleuthing. Luckily her boyfriend, Gabe Puluzzi, is a P.I. and often lets her doing her sleuthing under his license.

Janie Tuggle comes to Sam asking her to help her get evidence that her ex-husband, Chad, has been stealing from the soccer league for years. Since he is the Coach that everyone loves since he's taken them to victory, she knows no one will believe her without solid proof. Sam got out of the soccer mom scene after her divorce, and she is very reluctant to set foot back there. But, once Janie tells Sam that Chad let the insurance for her kids run out, but he's still living high on the hog in their former home, Sam can't tell her no. Sam is a sucker for the underdog.

When Sam meets with Chad, a very fun scene develops having to do with her clothing. You'll have to read it for yourself. Wouldn't want to give anything away!

Then Chad is found murdered. Janie is a suspect, but so are many other people, including Sam herself. She gets into some sticky situations with Detective Vance. They go round and round more than once, and in more ways than one! And Gabe is not very amused with Detective Vance and his actions.

I love this series. It is always a laugh out loud read. For the most part I'd call it a cozy, but this book had one sex scene that in my opinion was beyond a cozy.

Sam, Grandpa, Sam's boys, Gabe, Gabe's mom, and Det. Vance will keep you in stitches and definitely wanting more!

I highly recommend this book and the whole series. It is fabulous! You won't want to put it down.

When her husband dies, Samantha Shaw learns that he was cheating on her and everyone in town knew it but her. She decides to change her image so the soccer mom gets breast implants, wears chic clothing, and opens up Heart Mates, a dating service for people desiring to meet their significant other. While she enjoys her business, she also likes working as a private investigator under her lover Gabe's license.

Janie Tuggle, former wife of the soccer coach, asks Sam to investigate whether Chad embezzled funds from the soccer clubs of Lake Elsinore. Sam tricks Chad and soon downloads his financial records. She and Janie realize that $16,000 is missing. Shortly afterward, someone murders the coach. Janie asks Sam to learn who and why because any one of the suspects he was blackmailing could be the killer. Now Sam feels it is more critical to locate Chad's ominous files so no one else gets hurt.

NINJA SOCCER MOMS is a quirky charming romantic mystery with a plethora of suspects. When the heroine is not aggravating the lead police detective, she aggravates her sleuthing boss with her efforts to prove her independence and that she is his equal in everything. Yet the attraction between Gabe and Sam is so hot, it is a wonder that sparks do not fly off the pages. Jennifer Apodaca writes an appealing who-done-it that will keep her audience interested in more books starring this soccer mom.

Harriet Klausner

Reviewed for ReadersRoom.com, http://www.readersroom.com

Ninja Soccer Moms, the latest installment in the Samantha Shaw series, is a title that deserves its own wild applause. You expect a lot from a book with a punchy title like that, and author Jennifer Apodaca delivers. Janie Tuggle is a woman seeking revenge. Her husband, the widely lauded hero soccer coach who led the local team to three consecutive championships, dumps her for a younger model, and like many a woman scorned, she is determined to get back at him.

She comes to Sam with knowledge. Chad, she claims, has been stealing from the soccer league for years, and she knows it. Since Janie used to do the books for the league, Sam is inclined to believe her, but how to get proof? Janie wants to hire her to do just that. Sam is reluctant to set foot back in the nest of vipers otherwise known as soccer moms, but Janie is persuasive. Chad, she tells Sam, has let the insurance run out for the kids, while he is still living the high life in their former home.

So Sam, always a sucker for the underdog, agrees, and she sets out to get a copy of the computer files where Chad keeps his books. In usual Sam-style, what ensues involves destroyed clothing (hers of course), a dead body (his) and a slew of suspects (everybody from Sam to Janie, to Dara, Chad's new girlfriend).

Jennifer Apodaca is giving herself a reputation for a fast-paced, funny, sexy read and she doesn't disappoint in Ninja Soccer Moms. While life is pretty much happening the way it always does for Sam, we are still surprised by the situations she gets herself into-and usually pretty amused, too. Heartmates, the dating service she bought after her cheating, drug-dealing husband dies (in Dating Can be Murder), is still struggling to survive. Sam is still in a relationship with a younger man she is sure will leave her sooner or later to start a family of his own. And her mother still wants her to go into real estate, a curse worse than death, at least in Sam's eyes. Still, Sam plugs along trying to convince herself that she is a professional businesswoman, who sometimes masquerades as an amateur sleuth.

Along for the ride is Sam's sexy ex-cop private investigator boyfriend Gabe Pulizzi, her nemesis Detective Vance, Grandpa and the boys, a plus size model and the ever-trusty sidekick Angel, Sam's best friend and confidante.

As Vance investigates the murder of Chad Tuggle, a whole slew of people who are happier with him dead come to light, and Sam discovers that the beloved hero coach was actually not a well-liked man or very nice man. Just who killed Chad Tuggle is a total surprise, and the quirky "outings" of the private lives of Lake Elsinore's residents along the way make this a read impossible to put down.

As before in the past books, the chemistry and sizzle between Sam and Gabe is explosive, although one cannot discount the love/hate relationship between Sam and Detective Vance--especially Gabe, who is simmering over the fact that Vance seems to want more from Sam than just to put her in a pair of handcuffs.

Samantha Shaw, as a heroine, is alternately quirky and ditzy, at times vulnerable, and very believable. You really want things to work out for her, even though they usually don't.

As usual, Apodaca has done a fine job, and this charming cozy mystery--parts of which are laugh-out-loud funny--is highly recommended by this reviewer.

This new mystery series has a great main character and lots and lots of plot twists. Samantha Shaw, a divorced single mom who runs a dating agency in a small town, just keeps finding herself in all kinds of scrapes -- since it turns out that her real professional calling is solving mysteries. THe writing is fast-paced and the scrapes are very amusing (at one point while investigating a case, she gets her blouse caught in the paper shredder and the man she's investigating definitely gets the wrong idea). Personally, I would have liked a little less action and a little more characterization, mostly because Jennifer Apodaca does such a great job of describing and making fun of the universe of characters that moms of small children find themselves interacting with (PTA moms, hypercompetitive sports moms and the like). Would definitely read another by her!

This is a funny novel, the main character is Sam who has a dating service and is also a sleuth. She is funny and smart this character keeps your interested, not to mention her two sons, she is also a romance book reviewer , you can really relate to this character, she is hilarious. In this book she solves a mystery about stealing soccer money. I like her ex-husband, I hope to see more of this series!

Samantha Shaw and her friends and family lead a much more exciting life than most of us. The balance of family, work, and needy friends rings true, if a bit over the top. If Sam were a bit smarter and would stop to think before she acted, she'd be better off but the readers wouldn't have as much fun.