Novel Review: Mischief 24/7 (Sunshine Girls, #3) by Kasey Michaels

Rating (Out of 5): ~2.5

Genre: Adult Contemporary Mystery Romance

Publisher: Harlequin/HQN

Release Date: 2009

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

Jade Sunshine isn't one to back down from a challenge. That feisty spirit is what made billionaire business-whiz Courtland Becket fall in love with the sexy detective. It's also what led to their divorce. Now, with the murder of Jade's father, the exes are working together to catch a killer, though the chemistry still crackling between them makes it almost impossible to focus.Jade is still as fearless as ever, and Court will move heaven and earth to protect her. And he just may have to. A lot can happen in twenty-four hours. They could be swept away on a wave of rekindled passion. Or end up the next check mark on a desperate killer's "to do" list.

The Cover:

I rather like this cover. It's cute, very eye-catching, especially because of the bright color. I suppose the look works for the book as well, as it's very much a contemporary romance, but that it has some mystery that takes up a lot of time. Plus, the covers in the series look really well together.

Quotes:

• "'Always be the one pulling the strings, Jade, honey, never the one dancing to someone else’s tune at the end of them.’”  (Mass Market Paperback, pg. 89)
• "'...we are who we are, not what we want to be, yes?’” (Pg. 156)
• "He could exist without her. He’d proved that. He couldn’t live without her.” (Pg. 370)

Review:

This was a bit of a disappointing read, possibly because I thought I’d like it. Mostly it was just slow, not intense enough, I didn’t care for the characters or the plot enough. Possibly some of this is because I didn’t read the previous books first.

This is one of the few adult romance novels where I think that reading the books in order might be a better idea than not, which I wish I knew before I got it.

I think the other books would have given me a better connection to the characters, the girls relationship to each other, and their father. Particularly their father, because I just didn’t really care much for him or the mystery around him at all. It was kind of like I was thrown in the middle of a mystery case where over half of it is already done and I have no idea how it got to where I was. It made it hard for me to form a connection. Which, when most of the book focused on that, made it hard to get through.

One thing I did like, though, was the flashbacks for Jade and Court. They were done really well, I liked the pattern of it, and I really enjoyed finding out how their relationship got to where it was. I enjoyed their relationship's progression, and I did like their attraction to each other.

Overall, though, I didn’t particularly care for this book. It didn’t pull me in enough, and I’m not interested enough to pick up the previous books to figure it out.