A book shrouded with mystery and sprinkled a bit of romance ~The Hometown Hazard by Dawn Lanuza
8:20:00 PM |
| Photo taken from Ms. Dawn's website |
Title: The
Hometown Hazard
Author: Dawn Lanuza
Format acquired: ebook
Format acquired: ebook
Source: Gifted
Publication
date: January 29, 2016
Goodreads / Amazon / Kobo / iBooks / Smashwords
Summary:
Jules Coronado has been away from her hometown
for almost a decade but when an intruder breaks in to her childhood home, she
finds herself coming back. Changes evidently took place in her small town,
including her childhood best friend’s younger brother, Kip – now tall, slightly
scruffed, all grown up and caught climbing into their garden wall.
Kip Villamor has a mission and despite Jules’
doubts, they team up: going on fieldtrips, tackling unsuspecting men, and
trespassing offices to dig up dirt. But Jules has secrets of her own, one that
might be exposed – unless she keeps her walls up. But climbing walls are Kip’s
forte, remember?
Will her secrets keep her on his side, or will it
force her to disappear again?
Review:
The
Hometown Hazard is a book shrouded with mystery and sprinkled with a bit of
romance. It has character development, mystery that will keep you flipping the
pages and an easy going pace. I love that the author went out of her comfort
zone to write this book. It’s completely different compared to her previous
work.
If
you have read Ms. Dawn’s debut novel then you’ll be familiar with the protagonist
in this book. Jules is the no-nonsense friend of Regina. She’s very serious and
she’s the type of woman who always has plan B up to Z prepared if plan A
failed. But in this book, we get to see a different side of her. I love how
Jules went through a character development in this book. She went out of her shell
and I guess we have to thank Crispin (his name never fails to amuse me. LOL)
for that development. Kip is the main guy in the story. He’s the younger
brother of Jules’ best friend and he’s also her childhood friend. Kip’s outgoing,
impulsive and a daredevil. His personality reminds me of Leslie. It’s like I’m
seeing a male version of Leslie with a mysterious aura around him. Kip is the
polar opposite of Jules. It’s like they’re sun and moon. But as the famous
adage goes, “opposites attract each other.” And that’s what happened in this
book. I honestly didn’t like Kip in the first half of the book. There’s something
about him that irked me when I was reading the first half of the book. I can’t
pinpoint what it was since I myself can’t understand the reason why I didn’t
like him. My best guess was that I hated how he acted in the first half of the
book. I’m that one lone girl among the sea of fangirls who didn’t swoon over
his character.
What
I love in Dawn Lanuza’s books is that it always has a believable love story in
it. That kind of love story that you would really see in real life and maybe
experience it yourself. The pace of the romance in this book was okay. Okay in
a sense that it’s not too fast nor too slow. It’s the kind of pacing that I
want to see in a contemporary book
The
highlight of this book is the mystery that surrounds the plot. I like the
feeling of unraveling the answers in the book. This book made me feel like I’m
Sherlock Holmes. The reason why I like the mystery in this book was that it
made me feel like I’m part of the Kip-Jules tag team. It made reading interactive
in a way that I’m also solving the mystery with the characters.
The
Hometown Hazard is a must read for those people that loves to expose secrets
and unravel mysteries. It’s a book that has a realistic love story, characters
that went through character development and intriguing plot.
2 comments
I haven't heard of this book before but it sounds good! I love a good mystery. Great review, Alyssa!
ReplyDeleteHaraiah @ Random Things In Action
I've never heard of this book either - but very keen to read it soon.
ReplyDeletehttp://lizziedailyblog.blogspot.co.uk/