[W1H]∎ Download Gratis Garden of Lies Amanda Quick 9780399165153 Books

Garden of Lies Amanda Quick 9780399165153 Books

Download As PDF : Garden of Lies Amanda Quick 9780399165153 Books

Garden of Lies Amanda Quick 9780399165153 Books

Like all of JAK's books these days, whether or not you enjoy this book will have a lot to do with how many of her other books you've read. As so many of the other reviewers have said, JAK has basically been republishing the same book for a while now. So if Garden of Lies is your first JAK book, then you'll probably love it. The writing is good, as always, the characters are drawn well and the mystery is good enough to be going on with. But if, like me, you're a long-time fan then you'll find this book to be a boring stamping out of the exact same story you've read a dozen times before. There truly is nothing new on display here.

The story goes that Ursula is a widow (a real widow this time, not a virgin pretending to be a widow) who runs a successful secretarial service. One of her girls has recently died under suspicious circumstances and Ursula decides to investigate. In order to pursue this plan, she has to break off her current post working with Slater Roxton. He's secretly attracted to her and unhappy about having their connection severed before he even got to first base so he demands to be part of her investigation. This proves fortuitous when Ursula quickly gets in over her head and needs Slater's money and position to keep things rolling. Throughout the book they work on solving the mystery and of course start sleeping together and ultimately declare their love by the end.

Along the way you'll see these typical JAK stock elements:
1) Heroine with an undeservedly scandalous past
2) Hero with an unconventional past that involves learning secret martial arts from forgotten monks
3) Hero whom the world considers "dark" and "mysterious" but who is really all gooey on the inside
4) A man who believes he's got a reason to hate the hero but who will become an ally through the heroine's insistence that the hero reconcile
5) Standard 2 sex scenes (though for once, none in a carriage)
6) Unconventional servants who are devoted to our protagonist(s)

Like I said, this book isn't breaking any new ground at all. It's the same formula JAK has been using for decades now. And it's a fine formula...the first half-dozen times you read it, but after that it starts to get old. I started reading this book and put it down just before Act III and ended up not coming back to it for a couple of weeks, which pretty much says it all. It's not that there was anything wrong with the story, it was just that I couldn't get excited about it when I'd read the same story dozens of times before.

As for the story, I liked both Slater and Ursula for the most part. Towards the end Ursula basically threw a tantrum because Slater said something she didn't like and rather than talk to him about it, she instead turned into a harpy and started snapping at everyone she met for about a day. This little scene was pretty gratuitous in my opinion. She and Slater never actually talked about what had pissed her off and he never figured out what was bothering her. It just kind of went away. The same can be said for Slater's former business partner and his issue with Slater. In the first half of the book it was played up like it was a big deal, then they had the requisite scene where, at Ursula's insistence, they hashed everything out and realized neither of them was actually mad about anything. But that happens about halfway through the book and unlike other JAK books, that guy completely disappears from the story after that without ever playing much of a part, so it felt like JAK included it just because it's part of the formula.

All in all the book was fine but nothing new.


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Garden of Lies Amanda Quick 9780399165153 Books Reviews

As a longtime Jayne Ann Krentz fan, I eagerly await her every release. I’ve even taken to pre-ordering them to make sure I don’t miss a beat. Her style of writing (across all platforms) totally entertains me, and this book was no exception.

Slater Roxton, an illegitimate son of a peer, teams up with Ursula Kern, a woman who runs a secretarial firm, for a rollicking adventure into whodunit land.

Ursula’s employee Anne died, and even though authorities claimed her death was suicide, Ursula knew different. When she puts Slater’s cataloging project on the back burner to investigate, he decides to help her.

The quest for truth leads them into all kinds of jams. At each twist and turn, one thing is for certain, the attraction they feel for each other strengthens. Both hero and heroine have strengths and flaws, both are equally engaging to this reader.

I hesitate to say more about the plot because I don’t want to spoil the story for anyone. Chances are that you, like me, will be guessing right up until the end over who is the true villain of this piece.

This book is a keeper for me, and like all my JAK books, I will read it again.

Maggie Toussaint, also known as Rigel Carson, for Muddy Rose Reviews
Garden of Lies is one of the better crafted novels from "Amanda Quick" (Jayne Ann Krentz). While I also would like to see some of her previous series novels expanded and completed, such as the third book from the Ladies of Lantern Street, I think that she has made a good decision in returning, for a time, to the stand alone stories. Someone wrote that the book was formulaic. Well duh! - its a romantic suspense! We know that the hero and heroine will end up in love and most likely married. We know that the "bad guys and gals will end up dead or come to a bad end - in jail, transported, utterly ruined, etc. It's the nature of the beast. However, the interesting part is the journey - how it begins, what happens in the middle - and how it ends. Stories that are well crafted will pull you in, keep you involved with the characters and action, and make you itch to peek at the ending, but you don't - because you know it will spoil the whole experience. This is one of those well crafted novels. Some parts are a little predictable, some parts have surprising twists, and in the end, its a very enjoyable read!

I liked that Slater wasn't some Alpha Macho Man. He was strong, he knew when to intervene and take care of business, but he also respected Ursula's instincts and intelligence.
I am glad that Ms. Quick has gotten over the supernatural/psychic kick she was on for so long. I enjoyed them, but they were getting more and more outlandish as, I suspect, she began to run out of ideas for characters with psychic abilities. This story is reminiscent of her earlier works. It is a stand alone story with her signature strong heroine and alpha male hero with a mysterious past. They join forces to investigate the murder of a friend of the heroine and become embroiled in a complex web of drugs, organized crime and betrayal. Sounds good...but here are some of the reasons for only three stars. I felt like the story began abruptly, with not enough introduction. As I read, I often felt that I had accidentally skipped forward. I lost threads of the story a time or two and had to flip back a few pages to try to figure out what the heck was going on. (And I have excellent reading comprehension, by the way). I didn't feel as much empathy to and connection with this heroine. I will end this by saying that although I finished the book, it took me a couple of days. When Ms. Quick/Krentz is at the top of her game, I can't put the book down. This one was easy to lay aside, I'm afraid.
Like all of JAK's books these days, whether or not you enjoy this book will have a lot to do with how many of her other books you've read. As so many of the other reviewers have said, JAK has basically been republishing the same book for a while now. So if Garden of Lies is your first JAK book, then you'll probably love it. The writing is good, as always, the characters are drawn well and the mystery is good enough to be going on with. But if, like me, you're a long-time fan then you'll find this book to be a boring stamping out of the exact same story you've read a dozen times before. There truly is nothing new on display here.

The story goes that Ursula is a widow (a real widow this time, not a virgin pretending to be a widow) who runs a successful secretarial service. One of her girls has recently died under suspicious circumstances and Ursula decides to investigate. In order to pursue this plan, she has to break off her current post working with Slater Roxton. He's secretly attracted to her and unhappy about having their connection severed before he even got to first base so he demands to be part of her investigation. This proves fortuitous when Ursula quickly gets in over her head and needs Slater's money and position to keep things rolling. Throughout the book they work on solving the mystery and of course start sleeping together and ultimately declare their love by the end.

Along the way you'll see these typical JAK stock elements
1) Heroine with an undeservedly scandalous past
2) Hero with an unconventional past that involves learning secret martial arts from forgotten monks
3) Hero whom the world considers "dark" and "mysterious" but who is really all gooey on the inside
4) A man who believes he's got a reason to hate the hero but who will become an ally through the heroine's insistence that the hero reconcile
5) Standard 2 sex scenes (though for once, none in a carriage)
6) Unconventional servants who are devoted to our protagonist(s)

Like I said, this book isn't breaking any new ground at all. It's the same formula JAK has been using for decades now. And it's a fine formula...the first half-dozen times you read it, but after that it starts to get old. I started reading this book and put it down just before Act III and ended up not coming back to it for a couple of weeks, which pretty much says it all. It's not that there was anything wrong with the story, it was just that I couldn't get excited about it when I'd read the same story dozens of times before.

As for the story, I liked both Slater and Ursula for the most part. Towards the end Ursula basically threw a tantrum because Slater said something she didn't like and rather than talk to him about it, she instead turned into a harpy and started snapping at everyone she met for about a day. This little scene was pretty gratuitous in my opinion. She and Slater never actually talked about what had pissed her off and he never figured out what was bothering her. It just kind of went away. The same can be said for Slater's former business partner and his issue with Slater. In the first half of the book it was played up like it was a big deal, then they had the requisite scene where, at Ursula's insistence, they hashed everything out and realized neither of them was actually mad about anything. But that happens about halfway through the book and unlike other JAK books, that guy completely disappears from the story after that without ever playing much of a part, so it felt like JAK included it just because it's part of the formula.

All in all the book was fine but nothing new.