Saturday, November 01, 2014

The Reading Librarian's Review


MACK'S WITNESS
By Myla Jackson


Warning: Battle-hardened, ready-to-cut-loose Marine teams up with a stunning Irish lass who thinks she can handle him. You’ll need the luck of the Irish to hang onto your seat for this sexy, suspenseful race across the Emerald Isle.

The Reading Librarian rated Mack's Witness 4.0 out of 5 stars 

This review is from: Mack's Witness Kindle Edition (Hearts & Heroes) 
I received this book in exchange for a fair and honest review. Myla Jackson writes some hot and sexy heroes and places her heroines in danger so that the heroes get to strut their stuff and make us all wish we had a hot handsome hunk waiting for us at home.

Mack’s Witness is no different. This is book two in the Hearts and Heroes series, with book one being Wyatt’s War. In book two the focus is on Mack, Wyatt’s brother, but Wyatt and the rest of his family make an appearance or two. I won’t say anymore than that because I really don’t want to spoil book number one if you haven’t read it yet. If you haven’t read book number one, then I would read one before starting two. They can be read as standalone, but personally I love knowing about how all of the characters connect and relate to one another!

So it turns out that Wyatt from book one actually has lots of siblings, which surprised me because I couldn't remember any mention of them in book one, but maybe that is because I might have glossed over that part if it was indeed mentioned – he just seemed like a lone wolf to me with just himself to rely on. Anyway, Wyatt, Mack and the rest of the family are in Ireland for a wedding and Mack has been in Afghanistan and is happy to be getting some time for R & R. What he doesn’t bank on is an ice queen – an Irish ice queen who heats him up in all of the places that haven’t been heated up for a while.

Deidre Darcy is the cousin of the bride and she is stunningly beautiful - of course as an international model, she would be wouldn’t she? Despite being a model and having a lifestyle that others would kill to have, she isn’t fulfilled and I guess that she misses being part of a family – her parents are dead, and perhaps deep down she is tired of being alone. Mack also doesn’t recognize her – but then again being in Afghanistan when/where would you see billboards with female models like the gorgeous Deidre on them?
Mack is your typical alpha male but he has a great sense of humour and from the beginning when the sparks start to fly he delights in teasing the ice queen and this just helps to make her more human and down to earth and not as distant.

There were a few issues that I had and these are just my own sensitivity to what I was reading. Deidre is Irish and I know that they speak with an accent, but accents are really hard to convey in the written form – when you listen to the Irish speak it’s more of a lilt in their voice and that is damm hard to put on paper and into words, so I guess that I probably wouldn’t try too much – maybe with elderly characters, but not with a young lady like Deirdre. What made it even more confusing for me was that there were times when Deirdre had no accent at all and the there were others when she was accent only and rather heavy at that. I understand that they were in Ireland but the in and out of accents really got to me and I just began to wish for plain language, not the Irish, with all of the feckin’ etc .

Mack’s sister Abby also describing her mother ‘We got that from our mother. She was beautiful.’ was another issue and this just jerked me out of the story and had me thinking – why use the past tense – the mother is present and she isn’t dead and there hasn’t been any mention of a disfiguring accident of any kind, so what is going on? Ah dear, this is the English teacher in me coming to the fore and I apologise but this kind of thing bugs me intensely.

Back to the story and after escaping from Mack’s room Deidre sees two guys. This was after some hot and heavy sexiness under the sheets where she is thrown for a loop because Mack affects her and she doesn’t really know how to deal with what she is feeling. She drops her things and thankfully Mack comes to her rescue and there is some more fun in the bedroom – these scenes are so perfectly written and they are not in the slightest in any way just gratuitous for the sake of having a sex scene. They are integral to the development of the story and the development of the relationship between the characters.

It turns out later that Deidre is a witness, having most probably seen the murderers who killed someone in the room next to Mack’s. It also turns out that the murderers were travelers – or in plain and simple terms gypsies. They were celebrating a very gypsy wedding in the same hotel that Mack and Deidre and the others were staying at.

So, now for issue number two. Deirdre is a witness and can identify the two suspects and the local police let her run off with Mack into the Irish countryside. Now I don’t really know that much about police in Ireland, but I am sure that if you have a witness – your one and only witness, you wouldn’t let them go and traipse all over the countryside and possibly get killed. OK, I get that it’s part of the story line but the author could just as easily have put them in a house/estate under police guard and let things happen and it would most likely have been a bit more accurate. Anyway, suffice it to say they go traipsing around Ireland and end up in a castle and somehow – and this isn’t explained – these travelers find them and all hell breaks loose.

I did like Deidre who, for being an Irish supermodel was not in any way high maintenance or conceited. She was kind and down to earth. I also really liked Mack because he was a no nonsense kind of guy who tackled problems head on and despite all of his alpha maleness he was the kind of guy you could easily fall in love with – sexy, kind, considerate, great in bed…. I can see myself waiting for books about Ronin, Sam and Abby, the rest of the siblings.

I also enjoyed how Ms. Jackson made it work that these two with such separate careers could find some middle ground and start a relationship. Both were quite resistant to start with, but it takes danger and life threatening injuries to make people come to their senses and realize that whatever the issues are, they can be worked out.
A solid second book in a new series by Myla Jackson. Get yourself Mack’s Witness and fall in love with Mack, Deidre and the rest of the Magnus tribe!

ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY! 


  
For more information:
To learn more about Myla Jackson visit her website at http://www.mylajackson.comOr join her newsletter to enter in the fun with other readers:MylaJackson_Newsletter@yahoogroups.com


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