"Beguiled" and "Never Say Never"

While on vacation, I had a chance to catch up on some "leisure" reading. I had received a number of books from Bethany House Publishers to read and review, plus I picked up a number of books from our library (and we won't mention the books we bought at the $5 Christian Bookstore at the outlet mall while we were gone), so I had plenty to choose from! In the end, though, I ended up only making it through two books (both at the beginning of the week) from BHP: Beguiled by Deeane Gist and J. Mark Bertrand; and Never Say Never by Lisa Wingate.

Beguiled immediately struck my interest, as I have enjoyed previous books by Deeane Gist, and I'm a huge fan of suspense fiction. Beguiled had a little bit of everything in it: romance, plot twists to keep the reader guessing, and plenty of suspense.

From the back cover:
Rylee Monroe, a dogwalker in Charleston's wealthiest neighborhood, never feared the streets at night. But now a thief is terrorizing the area and worse, someone seems to be targeting her.

Reporter Logan Woods is covering the break-ins with the hope of publishing them as a true-crime book. The more he digs, the more he realizes this beguiling dogwalker seems to be at the center of everything.

As danger draws ever closer, Logan must choose: Chase the girl, the story, or plunge into the shadows after the villain who threatens everything?

As I finished the book, I was satisfied with the ending (everything seemed to be resolved), but I felt as if part of the development of the resolution was missing. I'm not sure if it was because I read in little snippets (15-20 minutes at a time) or if something was actually missing in the story. I guess you'll have to read it for yourself to decide...

Never Say Never was my first exposure to Lisa Wingate. Living in the heart of Texas, Lisa writes Texas romance fiction from a first-hand knowledge of the culture and people. Reading the book was like walking into a small town in Texas and watching life go on around me.

In Never Say Never, Kai is transplanted from the coast to a small town inland during a hurricane. Everything she has in life, save what she has in her microbus, had to be left behind. With no family to her name and a road life, she has no idea what she is in store for when she meets up with Doretta and her friends on the road to evacuate the coast. Meeting Doretta means being introduced to Kemp. Readers learn the true meaning of "home" and are reminded to tell their loved ones, "I love you," in this touching story.

From the back cover:
Kai Miller floats through life like driftwood tossed by waves. She's never put down roots--and she doesn't plan to. But when a chaotic hurricane evacuation lands her in Daily, Texas, she begins to think twice about her wayfaring existence. And when she meets hometown-boy Kemp Eldridge, she can almost picture settling down in Daily--until she discovers he may be promised to someone else.

Daily has always been a welcoming place of refuge for those the wind blows in, but for Kai, it looks like it will be just another place to leave behind. Then again, Daily always has a few surprises in store--especially when Aunt Donetta Bradford has cooked up a scheme.

I enjoyed reading this book, and I look forward to reading more books by Lisa Wingate.

Thanks to Bethany House Publishers for providing me with copies of both of these books to read and review.