Stephanie DoyleCritiques

I enjoyed the romantic suspense aspect of the story, once it kicked in -- though I thought it took much too long to get going. The first part of the book is about the rapidly developing relationship between Caroline and Dominic, and it drags a bit. But once the murder happens and Dominic gets framed, the story really gets going. I really liked the secondary characters -- specifically the detective and Nora. They added another believable romantic element to the story, which I enjoyed. (B )

Well... This was a free ebook from joining the mailing list. I read Level up before and I loved that. This one just didn't hold my interest at all. I even considered not finishing it...

I don't know what it was. I just didn't care what happened. The wine business didn't interest me but neither did the main characters. Writing wasn't bad, I just didn't care.

If you had the chance go back and change a decision you made in the past-would you? The Comeback of Roy Walker by Stephanie Doyle had me pondering that question throughout the story. I received an ARC of this story for an honest opinion and I was very impressed. Roy Walker is a retired major league baseball player who is looking for a second chance in more ways than one. A bad business investment is forcing him out of retirement and he needs help getting back in fighting form. There's a catch. He has to start in the minors working an old baseball manager. He also needs the help of physical therapist Lane Baker, but Lane and Roy have a history. A history that Lane may not be ready to forgive Roy for. Great story.

The premise of a second chance in life and love is what drew me to Betting on The Rookie. It's easy to cheer on characters you like. Neither Stephanie or Evan trust easily but their connection turns into something bigger than the both of them. Betting on The Rookie brings a euphoric feeling to an inspirational good time.

Liza Dunning is approached by a policeman when she is found walking on the highway covered in blood with no memories. Greg Chalmers is called in to consult on the case because of his skills as a human lie detector. He determines that she is telling the truth and has no memory of what happened to her. When a man is found murdered near where Liza was found, Liza becomes the prime suspect. Since Greg believes her innocent, he sets out to help her recover her memories and prove her innocence.

Good amnesia romance with suspense. Great chemistry between Liza and Greg. It was interesting as Liza’s memories slowly returned bit by bit and surprising secrets were revealed about her. I also enjoyed the secondary characters, lawyer Elaine and computer geek Chuck, who were both really into each other but didn’t want to admit it to each other. An enjoyable read set in and nearby Atlantic City.

I won this book on Goodreads and I am so glad that I did. This is not a book I would have normally thought "I am going to just love this" but I did. I am definitely going to be passing on this title to friends of mine as a book to read. Once I started I didn't like putting it down. At the end I stayed up way too late one night to finish it. The characters had flaws but were real enough not to be horrid just human. I liked everyone involved and the flow of the book was nice and evenly paced. A very enjoyable read.

Gabby Haines is fired from her job as a TV host, only to be replaced by someone younger and thinner. She now works at a publishing company and she's starting out at the bottom. Her first assignment is to get Jamison Hunter to write the tell-all biography he's contracted to write. Jamison is a former astronaut and national hero who fell from grace in the public eye when a scandal broke out in his life. He's been living as a recluse on Hawk Island, a small island off the coast of Maine, ever since. He agreed to the book before the scandal broke, and he has no intention of ever writing it now. It's up to Gabby to find out the truth of what really happened to Jamie and to get the book written.

The story was really good and had me turning pages to find out what was going to happen. I really liked both Gabby and Jamie. They made a great couple and had good chemistry. Gabby had self-esteem issues she needed to overcome. I admired her persistence in seeking the truth behind Jamie's story. I liked the way that Jamie owned up to the mistakes he made in his past, learned from them, and tried to make himself a better person. There were also some interesting secondary characters. I really enjoyed waitress Zhanna's and island veterinarian Tom's budding romance. The book was a bit different with some surprising twists thrown in and an enjoyable read.

i dont usually like these suspense mystery romances but the visuals i got from this book were good and lasting...she is a smooth writer..i surprisingly enjoyed it

This was a book JenB recommended when I said I was looking for psychic paranormals. She hadn't read it yet but had heard good things about it.

I enjoyed certain aspects of the story, but I was bothered by a lot of the smaller details. I had to suspend disbelief quite a bit.

Cass's gift was interesting, and I liked the way her relationship developed with Malcolm. I didn't like the way the suspense plot played out. It was predictable and full of plot holes and cliches.

Not a terrible story, but not a great one either.

I got a spoiler of an issue in this book that I haven't read before and I'm really intrigued and want to read it. But I also kind of already hate the heroine (yes, for the stuff in her past, but y'all know I can't hang with people like that). Decisions decisions.

GOT GAME? by Stephanie Doyle
ISBN: 9781937776206
Golf, romance and a good story line, awesome read!
Reilly is the master and her brother, Kenny is her caddy. Love to read about what others think about while golfing. This book is a treat!
She's just won another event and now off to home to visit with her grandparents.
After their parents had drowned at sea their grandparents raised them and grandad was a pro at golf and even made his own irons still-from the machine Reilly had bought him. Their grandparents had a simple life now with her Parkinsons disease.
Water rake was another gift she had given him to get the balls out of the lake that she practiced to hit her balls into during the winter months.
I love that her grandma still bakes and knits, a woman who's content!
A new scoring/ranking system was to come out making so women to play on mens tour.
She did qualify in the top 50 to play with the men. Love this book as it is all about the rankings and what comprises them. I used to run an online golf tour where hundreds played and they got points for just playing for their team. Ah statistics!
Luke, a reporter on the tour thought she was hot stuff and was going to track down where her grandparents lived and just show up and hope his charm would win her over.
Kenny's girlfriend Ericka is also a golfing buddy of Reilly's and she's due at the homestead.
There are a lot of tangled relationships discussed through the book mixed in with the golf that people have to make decisions about what to do next.
Will the new physical training she has to go through be worth her decision?
When her family is put in harms way she rethinks her decision...

3 STARS

An Act of Persuasion is a romance story with two main characters that are afraid to
open thier hearts all the way.
Ben Tyler was a CIA Agent now he owns his own company. Ben has cancer and the chemo did not work. He is facing some hard decisions alone about a risky choice he is making.
Anna Summers has worked for Ben for six years as his assistant. Since he got cancer she is living in his home and helping him fight the cancer.
Ben is trying to hide from Anna what he is going to try next. They are on the couch and end up Sleeping together. They don't talk about it. and a few days later Anna finds out that he is going to risk his life on some new treatment. She realizes that Ben is not falling in love with her and willing to share his decisions. So Anna leaves him at the hospital and quits working for him.
Anna was in foster care since the age six when her mom left her somewhere. Anna is afraid that she can not go through that again. Then Anna finds out she is pregnant.
Mark Anna's new boss used to work with Ben in the CIA and he always went after the women Ben was attracted too. Mark was always wanting to beat Ben in work or play now he was starting his own business and has Anna working for him. He has moved to the same town as Ben because of his daughter.
This is a fast read. Thier is a few love scenes in it.
I was given this ebook to read in exchange for honest review from Netgalley.
03/05/2013 PUB Harlequin Imprint Harlequin Superromance 304 pages ISBN 0373718381

This one surprised me--I really, really liked it. (Not that I went into it expecting to hate it, but--the boss/secretary thing? Not exactly my cup of tea. Or so I thought. But this book turned a lot of things a bit sideways for me.)

There is a lot of depth here. Ben's illness, Anna's abandonment issues, Mark's surprising emotional layers, Sophie's bitterness--it was all very well done, and so much more than I expected. I was only about halfway through when I knew I had to get my hands on the first book in the series--not because I had read so much about its main characters in this one that I needed to hear their story (they're in it, but only briefly) but because I 1) wanted to see what Anna and Ben were like together before and 2) just was going to need more from this author.

I can't wait to read it, and will definitely be looking for the next in the series as well!

Reilly Carr is one of the most successful female golfers in history. But lately winning hasn't felt as good as it used to and Reilly has been slighly discontented. After returning home to Nebraska to visit her grandparents and to recharge before her next tournament, the news breaks that due to a change in the ranking system Reilly has a chance to play on one of golf's most sacred grounds and take part in the golfing event of the year - The American.I'm not a very sporty person but I do love reading sports romances. And this one was no exception. Reilly Carr is competitive and good at what she does. But she's also romantically challenged and has two divorces and a third broken engagement to prove it. Luke Nolan, two-time winner of The American is just as flawed when it comes to marriage - his third divorce just finalized. But together they work. I loved the chemistry between them and the fact that both acknowledge that the other isn't perfect.The supporting cast are another highlight of this novel. Kenny, Reilly's caddy and brother, has his own romantic sub-plot that adds to the novel's romance. I loved that in many ways Kenny and Reilly's romantic lives paraellel each other. Despite Kenny being a bit of a playboy and Reilly being extremely good at committing (it's just staying married she has a problem with), the Carr siblings are a lot alike. The sibling squabbles on the green amused me greatly - no matter how old you may be, there are times when a little petty sibling argument is justified.There was a lot going on in this novel - the romantic relationships, the golf and the stalker storyline - but Stephanie Doyle managed to tie them altogether nicely. The golf aspect was not overwhelming to a non-golf fan but instead was written in such a way that it just added to the drama and story without being too much. I was enthralled by the sport angle which surprised me greatly. I really enjoyed this novel. I'll definitely be looking out for novels by Stephanie Doyle in the future.

Four-and-a-half years ago, Talia Mooney was a diver set to win Olympic gold. When she broke fingers on her right hand during her first dive, however, the gold-and her father's dreams-came to an end. Although Talia still took home the silver medal, for her, diving for competition's sake was over. Now she could go back to doing what she loved best-swimming, diving, and being in the water for no other reason than because she loved it.

Now, though, there are problems in Mooney-land. Her father, Colin Mooney, who lives aboard a boat named Slainte and runs Mooney's Sport Fishing Tours, has always had big dreams. And when a con man by the name of Buck Rogers comes calling with maps and charts and diaries, with a story of a sunken Spanish galleon, of course Colin falls for it. The man who had raised his daughter alone ever since his wife's death now owes a wannabe-mobster named Rocco fifty-thousand dollars. So Talia heads back to her father's home in Islamorada in the Keys, and finds that her dear old dad already has a solution on how they can raise the money to pay back the loanshark. Talia's now signed up to compete on Ultimate Endurance, a reality-TV show where all she has to do is outlast her competitors on a remote island.

Colin figures it's a given. Having grown up on the water, and being an Olympic winner, Talia has a definite edge. All she has to do is make it through a few days of competition on some island, and they'll have enough money to pay off Rocco. Talia has nothing else to do with her time and energies, since finding a job as an accountant in Miami is turning out to be more of a chore than she thought it would be.

Once on the remote island, geared up for the contest, Talia is immediately attracted to another player-Reuben Serrano, a former cop with abs and thighs of steel. As Talia and Reuben fight their feelings, a body of one of the contestants washes up on shore, and suddenly Ultimate Endurance takes on an entirely new meaning. Someone is willing to take the ultimate step to make sure they're the winner of this competition. But which player is the killer? There are several people to choose from, and as the body count rises, Talia and Reuben will have to work together to solve the puzzle.

THE CONTESTANT is an entertaining addition to the Bombshell line. Full of action and adventure, passion and suspense, this is a great book for an enjoyable evening read.

Many years ago she was booted out of the CIA for "willful insubordination" at the ripe old age of 20. Ten years later they want her to help decrypt a people detecting piece of software. Her former trainer Quinlan is back and their relationship is strained again.

Not a bad read but the relationship was very strange and fairly unbelievable, there was nothing that would convince me that it was something that would last. In fact a lot of the book was quite hard to believe.

Richard Wells, a driven advertising executive, has the perfect campaign - one that will make his dream of launching his own agency come true: a reality dating show sponsored by (what else) a mouthwash company. The former soap opera star is going to choose one of fifteen beauties to be his bride, but when one of the girls has a boob job go wrong, everything looks like it's falling to pieces...

So Bridget Connor, Richard's unassuming assistant is forced into the spotlight. Richard never thinks she'll make it through the first cut, but when the heartthrob seems to be show a lot of interest in his assistant, he starts to think that maybe he's been missing out...

A funny (and cute) story about a boss/secretary crush that unfolds into something deeper. I loved the over-the-top zany situations that the characters had to deal with -very TV/movie romantic comedy- and I enjoyed the fact that despite all of that the emotions rang true. That and the sex is H-O-T, HOT.

The characters are all pretty well soap-opera stereotypes...we have the scheming ambitious bitch, the sweet-but-dumb beauty, the Cinderella figure, the secret gay love affair... but in a novel about soap operas and reality TV it mostly works (although I do wish the best friend had been a little brighter; I hate to see things play into the beautiful dumb actress stereotype). Some of the underlying emotional issues don't really get worked out, but that comes with the limited format.

Definitely worth reading as long as one accepts that it comes with Harlequin limitations - there's only so much an author can do in 200 pages.

A contestant on a reality- TV survival show, former Olympic diver Talia Mooney knows the only real competition she faces is former cop Reuben Serrano. She's attracted to him and wary of him at the same time. But when a storm maroons both contestants and crew on the island and people start getting killed, it's up to Talia and Reuben to protect everyone. Stephanie Doyle's The Contestant (4.5) leaves readers in suspense from beginning to end. Her characters are real and have flaws, while the story offers depth and excitement. A must-read!