Customer Reviews

Riding the Thunder (The Sisters of Colford Hall, Book 2)

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Okay now just in case you missed the fact that the title of this book is Riding the Thunder (even though it is of course on the front and back cover of the book), no worries! You'll see that phrase about a billion times throughout the book. So even when you want to forget it, there's no possible way you could! I know you must be as relieved as I was...

It made me wonder if the title of the book was decided first and then an experiment of whether the characters could say/think those words a thousand times was conducted. Or if those words were used so often, there's no way the book could have been called anything else.

The book begins with a good prologue. It's the best part of the book. We are introduced to Tommy and Laura, who are quickly killed off because they are actually interesting. So obviously they must die so the cookie cutter romance Hero and Heroine can shine in the spotlight without fear of being upstaged by the secondary characters.

Yeah sucks to be Tommy and Laura. But before you start feeling really bad for them, they still end up being the most fleshed out characters of the book. And for ghosts that only get a handful of pages dedicated to them, that isn't too bad in my opinion!

Then we meet Jago. (Pronounced Jaygo or so we are told - and it's a form of the name James. Oh I'm sorry... you don't care? Too bad! I had to listen to the endless explanation so therefore you have to hear my condensed version *insert evil laugh here*) So Jago sees Asha and immediately starts comparing her body to his Harley. 'Cause nothing says ROMANCE like a MOTORCYCLE. Asha is of course stacked (Hello 34Ds!) and beautiful, and owns most of the town. Jago is of course on a mission to avenge his father's suicide which was caused by Asha's grandfather, who is also dead. So her family must pay.

Never mind the fact that Jago's father entered into a risky business deal, and didn't research his "partner" (a.k.a. Asha's grandfather) to discover the old man was a bit shady and didn't have anything set up as collateral should the business deal fall flat. Like it did. And never mind the fact Jago's father could have, you know, decided to stick around long enough to find a job to help support his sick wife and their three kids instead of offing himself. Logic? Bah we have no place for you! This is a revenge sub-plot!

Then we get to enter into the labyrinth that is Asha's mind. She wigs out because she is automatically hot for Jago's irresistible body, but distrusts him because once upon a time she was cheated on by a good looking man. So therefore in her mind, pretty = evil. Never mind the fact she is drop dead gorgeous or the fact her brother who she dearly loves is also drop dead gorgeous and neither one of them would ever consider cheating on a loved one. Again, logic? Bah we have no place for you! This is an old relationship hang-up conflict!

Asha freaks out when Jago asks for a beer... because he may be a warlock (aren't all handsome men?) and handing them something with salt in it is apparently a big no no. But as I was soon to find out, Asha has a memory with a strong resemblance to a gold fish's. Short term doesn't even begin to describe it. Only a few hours later he invites her to have dinner with him, and she completely forgets that she was wigged out by him earlier and brings him a pie... which I'm pretty sure has salt in it.

I think there were so many things standing in between these two, they had trouble keeping up. Asha finds out Jago is with the company trying to buy her brother's horse farm. That leads to hate! For like a minute then she forgets and we're back with lust... oh I'm sorry not lust but love! Because they fall in love at first sight and actually acknowledge that on like day 3.

At one point Jago thinks about how he feels obsessed and fascinated with Asha and can't think of any word to describe it except for love. (This happens on page 129.)

Seems Jago needs to invest in a dictionary. I can think of several: "Lust" "Desire" "Crazy Stalker Feelings"

But if you wait for them to actually say the word love OUT LOUD to each other, you shouldn't hold your breath. Really. Unless someone is nearby to revive you.

Both of them are constantly mumbling to themselves. They prefer to save their "thinking time" for being emo so they say important thoughts out loud all the time. Annoying? Yes.

Page 173:
"I won't have to," he said under his breath. "He'll be mine, too, when I marry you."

Jago decides this is very important to tell himself when Asha jokingly says he can't buy her horse like he just bought her brother's.

Page 343:
"Sometimes, the white knight does come in time," she whispered the reassurance to herself. "even if his armor is a little tarnished."

This was said in the middle of Asha fighting for her life at the end of the book.

Oh and before I forget, for those readers that have a hard time knowing when to emphasize a word and when not to while they are reading, the author has found a handy solution. Italicized words! And they are everywhere!

Asha begins having weird visions of things that went on in Laura's life around the town. Now we learn in the prologue Laura and Tommy died tragically in a car accident in the 60's, when they were run off the road by a man in a black pick-up truck. Gee I wonder who it could be... and yes it was painfully obvious to everyone but the characters in the book.

Now did Laura send Asha those visions to save her from the unknown killer? Nope. Asha comes to the conclusion Laura wanted Asha to love the town as much as she and Tommy had so that she doesn't sell it to Jago's company...

Thanks Laura but a heads up about the psychopath would have probably been a bit more helpful, don't you think? Then you could have moved on to the "save the town" plan. Just a suggestion.

Okay I'm going to sum up everything that didn't work for me because this review is getting monstrously long.

Asha and Jago barely have any interaction before finding themselves in "love" and then Asha plays the doormat to Jago's dirty shoes. Jago chooses to continue the Revenge Plan even after falling for Asha, which didn't really convince me that he had any sort of feeling for her, other than the feeling he had in his pants of course. At one point he ditches Asha, lies about where he's going for no good reason, calls her twice in one month and then when he decides to show back up she forgives him in two seconds. THEN when she finally discovers the Revenge Plot that has been staring her in the face the entire book, again automatic forgiveness instead of kicking him out of town like she should have. And nobody picks up a phone during most of the novel, because then things might actually get resolved in four pages instead of three hundred and fifty four.

Train wreck? Why yes it was.

Gah and the way Jago talks!!

Page 209-210:
"I needed to be with you last night, lass. You're under my skin, in my blood. Desire is too mild a word for what you evoke, provoke, conjure within me-and it crawled under my flesh until I couldn't think. I was nothing but a caged tiger prowling my room, a beast wanting its mate."


Who talks like that!?!?!?

This book doesn't even deserve a rating but since I have to I'm giving it 1-Star. I suggest you stay far, far, far away from this one. I know I won't be reading anything else written by this author. Self-inflicted torture just isn't my thing.

I bought this book when it came out. And it sat for a very long time on my TBR pile. Every couple of weeks I would pick it up, get a page further in it, and then send it back to the slush pile it came from.

I've never been quite so bored. The beginning started off smashing, but withered away the further I got into the supposed plot. I won't be recommending this. I think I'll donate this book to the library to save them the money.

Not as good as The Invasion of Falgannon Isle or The Restless Knight. I'm struggling just to get through it.

I wrote a review for this book I read. It has mysteriously disappeard. So, from memory..... I read this book and the gist of it is.. the the book just couldn't keep my interset. It is just a silly book that is not worth anyone's time or money. The author might need a class in writing.
A humble reviewer.P.S. Leeanne Grant, I do not appreciate you watching my every move. I kindly ask you to remove me from your interesting people list. I do not consider myself your friend. Not even close. I see now that is how you watch my every move, you have been spying on me. People who review books should not have to feel like they are being watched. That is how and why the abuse button gets pushed so often and so quick.
Thank you so much.

RIDING THE THUNDER
DEBORAH MACGILLIVRAY

Rating: 3 Enchantments

Jago Mershan is on a mission to right a wrong done to his family when he was a child. When he meets his target he is shocked by the desire he feels for her. Asha Montgomerie is the granddaughter of the man responsible for ruining Jago's father. Her first reaction is to distrust him, even though she is desiring him and his Sexy Lips.

Soon they are tangled in a mystery including a haunted jukebox, two teenage ghosts, a cat with no name, and a possible madman on the loose. Can they overcome their differences long enough to solve the mystery and fall in love?

This was just a ho-hum kind of read for me. I really had a hard time getting into it and finishing it. Though it did pick up about ¾ of a way through. As the granddaughter of Jago's family's most hated enemy, I felt no hate nor anger that is usually projected toward ones enemy, projected at Asha. Actually I didn't really get any emotion from him except lust. I did feel the distrust she felt for Jago, but that was short lived. Also, I was really put off with Asha and Jago being "in love" after barely knowing each other for 4 days; sometimes I can buy it, but there was no real build-up to it. They had hardly spent any time together, I didn't feel that there relationship was allowed to grow. Then I found myself continuously rolling my eyes at the sex scenes...I was annoyed by the comparisons she used in her descriptions of sex and I was distracted by the over use of adjectives, they just didn't work for me.

On a brighter note, it was amusing how Jago wanted to buy everything, I liked the haunted setting of The Windmill, the cat What's His Name, Asha's brother Liam, and Netta's secondary romance, and the storyline of Tommy and Laura's ghosts. I was pleased with the discovery of who played a major role in their death.


Aemelia
ENCHANTING REVIEWS
April 2008

I bought this book and its predecessor based on the reviews here, and feel very misled. I was expecting them to WOW me, but I found both to be below average. Weak characters, lame dialogue and distracting subplots made them difficult to finish. I will be sticking to better known authors from now on.

After his brother's successful INVASION OF FALGANNON ISLE, Jago Merschon heads to Kentucky to perform his part of avenging their father. His Montgomerie target is Asha Montgomerie, who owns a Kentucky motel. This makes it easy for Jago to go incognito as a developer temporarily renting one of her rooms.

Asha is attracted to the outsider, but also fears him although she is not sure why. When she tells him about the ghosts that haunt her place, he scoffs at her. However, Jago is not ridiculing her when a local intimidating thug decides Asha will be his girl whether she wants to or not; instead he turns jealous and protective while the paranormal bully him to keep their hostess safe.

Deborah MacGillivray is two for two with her Mershan brothers' avenger romances. RIDING THE THUNDER is a delightful fast-paced paranormal romantic suspense that hooks the audience once Jago arrives undercover in Kentucky. A second tale of love between the ghostly couple Tommy and Laura augments a fine contemporary with early 1960s nostalgia starting with Ray Peterson's "Tell Laura I Love Her" and proving over four decades later that their love will never die. However, this M&M thriller belongs to the feuding Montgomerie-Merschon couple falling in love.

Harriet Klausner

I like this better than the first book in the series. Its a good read like the first but the heroine was a bit more spunkier than her older sister--therefore more likable. She was still wayyyy too trusting especially considering how she's portrayed in the book. I don't get why Macgillivray would make sure to somehow insert that these women are warriors but turn out to be sooooo naive about certain things. Especially when certain aspects of Jago's business activities were practically staring at her. Plus if a man up and leave me for a month with only 2 vague phone calls I'd be a lot more peeved than how she reacted. Another thing that gets to me is that, do these women know birth control? Sheesh the first sister was the same. It was like her brains flew out the window when her [...] came off. I mean come on, yes..you love the guy..but you haven't even known him for that long. Both sisters didnt even know the brother's pasts. It was just so out there that she'd just forget something that important. Anyways, I'm still going to read the next book--these annoyances are just minor things. I just hope Macgillivray deviates from how she portrayed the first 2 sisters. It'll be maddening to find annoying similarities.

[...]

The dialogue was incredibly weak in this book. So, if that is important to you, pass on this one...

One thing that was ridiculous was in the beginning of the book, the male lead character is describing the lead female character's body (34 double d's, etc...). It is done is such a juvenile way that you can't help but see it as very immature. Described differently, you would still feel the desire towards the female, yet it wouldn't be so empty and ridiculous.

I am so frustrated, I'm probably not reading any other books from this author..

[...]

Speak up, readers :)

Deborah MacGillivray's latest, Riding The Thunder, is a sheer delight to read if you remember the '60's... That's the early 60's, before Hippies and LSD, when young lovers danced to romantic tunes like "Tell Laura I Love Her"...which just happens to be the theme for this book.

Lovers Tommy Grant and Laura Valmont were murdered in 1964 by the town bully of a small, tucked away spot in central Kentucky. When Asha Montgomerie, the new owner of The Windmill cafe, a place where Tommy and Laura loved to dance, takes over, she inherits a crazy jukebox that plays its own tunes. But it isn't until Jago Fitzgerald, the black-haired, green-eyed man that has been sent to buy her out, arrives do things get really interesting. To him, the small spot, complete with it's old-fashioned drive-in movie, is like Time stopped.

The bully, Montague, Faulkner, recently released from a sanitarium, returns to the area, convinced that Laura and Tommy have returned as Asha and Jago. He's gotten away with murder before...

But will the ghosts that linger, dancing the night away in the old diner, finally have revenge?

An excellent read that will bring back memories of an era passed.