Customer Reviews

Stop Me (Thorndike Romance)

5 star:		(14)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Brenda Novak just keeps getting better and better. I liked Trust Me, but I liked Stop Me even more. It's edgier, creepier, darker than Trust Me. I could not put the book down. It was suspenseful and kept me guessing till the end, and the romance was touching. Jasmine and Romain are haunted, hurt characters who try not to care for each other, but together they find healing and love. The conclusion was heart-wrenching.

As with Trust Me, I would have liked a more romantic conclusion, but that didn't take away from the book.

Don't miss this series.

Stop Me (Last Stand, Book 2)

Romain Fournier wants nothing to do with people. Four years earlier his young daughter Adele was brutally murdered, and he served two years for the shooting of the man responsible. Now he's out, living a lonely life on the Louisiana bayou...until Jasmine Stratford finds him.

Jasmine is still searching for the man who abducted her younger sister Kimberly sixteen years ago. When her sister's bracelet is mailed to her in a package bearing a New Orleans stamp, she leaves Sacramento and the Last Stand office to do her own sleuthing. A similarity in the Fournier case and her sister's abduction sends her on the trail to Romain, but he chooses to keep the past in the past.

Each carries a boatload of baggage, however, an undeniable sexual attraction overwhelms both of these well-drawn and intriguing characters. As clues begin to appear and events to unfold, Jasmine and Romain are caught up in a chilling and sometimes gruesome hunt for the truth.

The sex sizzles, the suspense dominates and Ms. Novak superbly manages to captivate the reader as she delves into the criminal mind. This is a complex story that will keep you guessing right up to the final pages.

I'm a Brenda Novak fan, so I expect her books to be good. Stop Me, the sequel to Trust Me in The Last Stand trilogy surpassed my expectations and then some.

Highly recommended.

Book two in the last stand trilogy focuses on Jasmine, a woman who is determined to find the sister that was kidnapped 16 years earlier. After receiving the bracelet her sister was wearing when she disappeared in the mail, Jaz heads to New Orleans, where the package was post marked from. She finds similar traits in the kidnapping and murder of Romains daughter Adele. After her murderer is let go, Romain takes matters into his own hands and kills the guy on the courthouse steps - or does he? Jaz and Romain team up to figure out what happened to the ones the loved. They find themselves in the middle of something bigger than either of them could have imagined. Did the wrong man die for Adele's murder? Is Jaz's sister Kimberly dead or alive? Did Romain kill an innocent man? While Jaz and Romain work together to solve these mysteries - if they should happen to fall in love along the way - well, that's not so bad is it?

I read this one sitting by the pool on my vacation. My first Brenda Novak endeavor. Thoroughly enjoyed this story of a woman in search of finding her sister who was kidnapped many years earlier while under her watch. I liked it alot and I will most definitely read other titles by this author. An intense plot, with good characterization, makes this a good one to curl up with by the fire in the upcoming cold winter months.

It started out strong, I loved the characters and storyline...and the chemistry between Romain and Jasmine was great. But the ending was terrible...it just seemed very abrupt, they got their HEA but without really resolving some of the issues. There were elements that were left hanging. I don't want to give away a big spoiler but the epilogue made no sense whatsoever.

This is the first book I have read by this author. Unfortunately, I bought several at the same time - should have saved my money. It is totaly sappy and predictable and I am only in to a few chapters.

Jasmine Stratford has spent the last 16 years looking for the man who kidnapped her younger sister Kimberly, whose kidnapping destroyed what was left of her fragile family. She has devoted her life to helping other families in similar situations, and being somewhat psychic, has managed to help the FBI profile assailants and locate some victims. After appearing on television, she receives a package postmarked New Orleans with Kimberly's missing bracelet, which takes her on an odyssey to the Bayou state. She turns to Romain Fornier, the father 0f another victim recently paroled for murdering the man charged with the kidnap, rape, and murder of his daughter Adele who was released on a technicality. Romain wants no part of the investigation at first but as clues surface that he might have killed the wrong man, he wants answers too. A cunning killer has them both in his crosshairs and wants to play a game of cat and mouse while covering up a lucrative black market adoption ring.

Novak's second installment in the "Last Stand" series is heavy on the romance and suspense, as her two broken lead characters emerge from their shattered shells to find a second chance for love, forgiveness, and redemption. The culprits are a pretty unredeeming lot, and Novak manages to make them more than cardboard character typically found in many novels. Overall, it was a really good sensuous and emotional story, which can stand on its own, and Novak continues her reign on my wallet as a must-buy author.

Romain Fornier's ten-year-old daughter Adele was kidnapped and murdered four years ago. When Frances Moreau, the man believed to have killed her, got off on a technicality, Romain shot and killed him sending Romain to prison for a year and a half for the crime.

Sixteen years ago, Jasmine Stratford's eight-year-old sister Kimberly was also kidnapped. Jasmine watched Kimberly walk out the door with a stranger thinking he was another of their father's workers. But Kimberly never came back.

Jasmine and her two friends Skye and Sheridan run a charity organization called The Last Stand. They help victims of violent crimes. Jasmine is a criminal profiler and has some psychic ability that helps her solve crimes. When Jasmine receives an anonymous package in the mail with a note attached saying, "Stop Me" in blood, she heads to New Orleans, where the package came from. There, she meets the now reclusive Romaine Fornier. Jasmine believes Adele's and Kimberly's cases are similar and asks Romain for help. Romain wants to keep the past in the past, but when the evidence begins to reveal that Jasmine may be right, and the killer may still be out there, he reluctantly becomes Jasmine's partner. Danger lurks around every corner. Will Jasmine and Romain find the killer before Jasmine becomes the next victim?

An exciting mystery, a twisted killer, and a sensual romance make Stop Me the kind of book I love to read. Stop Me is a very intense and often dark story that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish. Jasmine is very guarded. Her emotions are almost mechanical at times, especially in the beginning of the story. Her dysfunctionality is a direct result of the effect her sister's kidnapping had on her and her family. Because of what Romain suffered through, he brings a lot of baggage to the table as well. His family and his daughter's murder took a huge emotional toll on him. I really liked Romain and Jasmine together. From the moment they met I thought they were a perfect match. Romain's struggle to cope with his feelings for Jasmine are genuine and tangible. There are some really great moments in Stop Me. Some are sensual, some are romantic, and others are very creepy. The villain is as psychotic as they get. Ms. Novak did an exceptional job getting into his mind and allowing the reader to see what makes him tick. I loved that aspect of the book as much as Jasmine and Romain's slow progression toward a loving relationship. The dramatic ending of Stop Me fits the story perfectly. I can't wait to read the next book in The Last Stand series!


Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

I loved Trust Me and was eager to read Last Stand, Book 2, Stop Me. I started it before an out of town "by the pool" vacation intending to have a great "beach" read. I gobbled it down on the plane! Loved, loved it. Great plot complexity and twists, fiery chemistry, smart, sexy, high conflict - EVERYTHING a superb romantic suspense should be. Can't wait for Book 3. Author - K.M. Daughters

This is the 2nd book in the Last Stand series. It was good. A little slow starting but got better. Good story. Would recommend this series and am starting third book.I did think the first book in the series was better,which was titled: "Trust Me".