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Bree and Steven #1
Giving up the Ghost
Out of Print
Albany Detective Brianna “Bree” Morris is having the year from hell. A sadistic admirer has been stalking her for months and now her friend Cheyenne Wilson has been beaten and left for dead.
With her ex-lover and faithful partner, Steven Kemp, Bree thrusts herself into the case. It’s not long before they believe two unrelated British men are connected to the attack. Michael is a womanizing artist with a ferocious appetite for rough sex. Simon is a wealthy free spirit looking for love in all the wrong places, but cannot break his destructive and indecent relationship with his sister, who might have ties to the attack, herself.
Bree struggles to determine fact from fiction when it comes to Michael and Simon but her attempts are blurred by Michael's manipulation and her sexual attraction to Simon, who Steven’s convinced cannot be trusted.
Meanwhile the stalker does everything in his power to get close to Bree and his obsession evokes a spiral of violence.
Bree must trust her heart to find answers but her heart leads her to the most dangerous man of all.
Albany Detective Brianna “Bree” Morris is having the year from hell. A sadistic admirer has been stalking her for months and now her friend Cheyenne Wilson has been beaten and left for dead.
With her ex-lover and faithful partner, Steven Kemp, Bree thrusts herself into the case. It’s not long before they believe two unrelated British men are connected to the attack. Michael is a womanizing artist with a ferocious appetite for rough sex. Simon is a wealthy free spirit looking for love in all the wrong places, but cannot break his destructive and indecent relationship with his sister, who might have ties to the attack, herself.
Bree struggles to determine fact from fiction when it comes to Michael and Simon but her attempts are blurred by Michael's manipulation and her sexual attraction to Simon, who Steven’s convinced cannot be trusted.
Meanwhile the stalker does everything in his power to get close to Bree and his obsession evokes a spiral of violence.
Bree must trust her heart to find answers but her heart leads her to the most dangerous man of all.
- GenresInterracial Romance
302 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 6, 2011
1 person is currently reading
120 people want to read
About the author
Stacy-Deanne
168 books327 followersStacy-Deanne (pronounced Dee-Anne) is an award-winning and bestselling novelist of contemporary romance, romantic suspense, and women's fiction novels.
Her work includes Everlasting, Melody, Bruised, and Captivated. Stacy is a 2011 and 2012 African-American Literary Award nominee.
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Her work includes Everlasting, Melody, Bruised, and Captivated. Stacy is a 2011 and 2012 African-American Literary Award nominee.
Join mailing list:
http://eepurl.com/dFGzTL
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
February 1, 2012
DNF.
I wasn't sufficiently engaged in the story or characters so that even getting to chapter six was a bit of a slog. I believe this is the second book of a series so maybe that had something to do with it?
But moreso, I kept getting kicked out of the story by the dialogue. In conversation, every character used 'wanna' instead of 'want to' or 'gonna' instead of 'going to.' The book takes place in Albany so I wondered if it was a regional thing? But the main male protagonist used 'Ya' in stead of 'You' a lot. It got very distracting.
So, I was soldiering on until i got to this point:
The two detectives, Steven and Brianna, are investigating the beating of one of Brianna's close friends. This leads them to a suspect, Michael's house.
I was sincerely perplexed by this passage. It just read as incredibly "off' to me. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be comedy or not. But up to that point the characters had been in serious mode.
So I just gave up.
I wasn't sufficiently engaged in the story or characters so that even getting to chapter six was a bit of a slog. I believe this is the second book of a series so maybe that had something to do with it?
But moreso, I kept getting kicked out of the story by the dialogue. In conversation, every character used 'wanna' instead of 'want to' or 'gonna' instead of 'going to.' The book takes place in Albany so I wondered if it was a regional thing? But the main male protagonist used 'Ya' in stead of 'You' a lot. It got very distracting.
So, I was soldiering on until i got to this point:
The two detectives, Steven and Brianna, are investigating the beating of one of Brianna's close friends. This leads them to a suspect, Michael's house.
"Well, well." [Steve] sniffed. "You had a woman here earlier, Michael?"
"Why you say that, Detective Kemp?"
"Come on, we're all adults. Bree, I know you smell it too."
"I don't." Course she'd smelled it and it got louder each second.
Michael took a deep whiff. "You trying to say my house smells like pussy, Detective Kemp?"
"Ha,ha,ha,ha!"
"Jesus." Brianna sighed "Steven, shut up!"
"God well I wasn't trying to say it out loud, man, Ha, ha! But yes. That's what it smells like."
"Sorry if this,uh, embarrasses you, Michael."
"I'm not embarrassed, Brianna. We're all adults aren't we? We all know what women smell like."
Brianna stroked Coal [Michael's cat] "Can we just get to the reason we came?"
"I had a female over and we made love."
"Whoa." Steven sucked in laughter. "Look that's too much information, Mr. Buchanan."
"Does this offend you, Brianna? Speaking so openly about a woman's natural smell?"
"Look...."
"It's natural isn't it? Women smell and that smell gets more intense during lovemaking."
"Holy shit!" Steven leaned over, holding his stomach. "Michael I mean it when I say this is the most fun I've ever had questioning someone."
I was sincerely perplexed by this passage. It just read as incredibly "off' to me. I wasn't sure if it was supposed to be comedy or not. But up to that point the characters had been in serious mode.
So I just gave up.
March 21, 2011
First let me just start off by saying, this is one of the best crime/mystery/romance (yes there is some unrequited love) I have ever read.
The main crux of the story is finding out who attack Cheyenne. But with all the other little stories going on, you're getting whiplash--but in a good way.
There's the psycho. Really sick, scared me senseless.
There's the three way triangle. Simon, Steven and Bree, oh my!
And if you think you figured out who the perpetrator is, think again...and again...and again.
That's another great thing about Giving up the Ghost, twists and turns. Heck I was even wondering about Simon and Steven.
Let me stop before I tell the whole story
This is a great read by the fireplace on a dark and stormy night. The psycho will really scare the bejesus out of you then!
The main crux of the story is finding out who attack Cheyenne. But with all the other little stories going on, you're getting whiplash--but in a good way.
There's the psycho. Really sick, scared me senseless.
There's the three way triangle. Simon, Steven and Bree, oh my!
And if you think you figured out who the perpetrator is, think again...and again...and again.
That's another great thing about Giving up the Ghost, twists and turns. Heck I was even wondering about Simon and Steven.
Let me stop before I tell the whole story
This is a great read by the fireplace on a dark and stormy night. The psycho will really scare the bejesus out of you then!
March 13, 2011
The best thing about this book is that it's not predictable. Just when you think you've figured out who is doing what, Stacy-Deanne throws you off track and you're left going back to the drawing board to come up with another possible answer.
The story starts strong. Cheyenne is attacked, and her friend Brianna (Bree) comes in to investigate who did it. While on the case, Bree has to deal with a psycho stalker who calls her and makes sexually lewd comments--some of which were downright disgusting, which tells you how horrible this guy is. As a side note, I never guessed the correct identity of the stalker, no matter how many times I tried to guess. The final scene with him left chills down my spine. The guy was a real psycho!
But the bulk of the plot revolves around finding out who attacked Cheyenne. These were memorable characters because they were all three dimensional. Each one had their good and bad points, and I must admit even though Michael was not a 'good guy', his humor still pulled me into liking his character.
Probably the most intriguing character is Simon. It was hard to know where things fit with him. He became Bree's main love interest, and it drove Steven nuts. Since I like Steven for Bree, I actually enjoyed seeing Steven get jealous. I figure some day Steven and Bree will end up together, so I like the whole waiting period to see it happen. Meanwhile, I expect both of them will have love interests of their own, and in this book, it was Simon for Bree.
But Simon was hard to figure out. He came off as being nice, but there were somethings that made me wonder about him. I can't give away the story so I won't say what ended up happening. I'll just say it was bittersweet.
It's definitely the twists and turns that keep a person wanting to read this book. I don't think anyone will see what's coming because Stacy-Deanne is a master of suspense.
The story starts strong. Cheyenne is attacked, and her friend Brianna (Bree) comes in to investigate who did it. While on the case, Bree has to deal with a psycho stalker who calls her and makes sexually lewd comments--some of which were downright disgusting, which tells you how horrible this guy is. As a side note, I never guessed the correct identity of the stalker, no matter how many times I tried to guess. The final scene with him left chills down my spine. The guy was a real psycho!
But the bulk of the plot revolves around finding out who attacked Cheyenne. These were memorable characters because they were all three dimensional. Each one had their good and bad points, and I must admit even though Michael was not a 'good guy', his humor still pulled me into liking his character.
Probably the most intriguing character is Simon. It was hard to know where things fit with him. He became Bree's main love interest, and it drove Steven nuts. Since I like Steven for Bree, I actually enjoyed seeing Steven get jealous. I figure some day Steven and Bree will end up together, so I like the whole waiting period to see it happen. Meanwhile, I expect both of them will have love interests of their own, and in this book, it was Simon for Bree.
But Simon was hard to figure out. He came off as being nice, but there were somethings that made me wonder about him. I can't give away the story so I won't say what ended up happening. I'll just say it was bittersweet.
It's definitely the twists and turns that keep a person wanting to read this book. I don't think anyone will see what's coming because Stacy-Deanne is a master of suspense.
could-not-finish
January 20, 2012I could not finish this book. It wasn't really suspenseful, since the person who attacked Cheyenne(Clara) said they did it in the early chapters. I figured out that issue(Clara/Simon), when they said if you wanna know who's responsible just look in the mirror. Classic soap opera plot. I figured out who the stalker was, well I had it narrowed down between two people(Ryan or Michael), mind you I only read to page 52. Bree and Steven were the worst cops ever, that line of questioning with Michael was so stupid and not funny. Since when do potential suspects call police by their first names. Also Bree was a scaredy ass cop. When Michael hemmed her up in the bedroom, all she did was tell him to back up and let her go. This chick had no self defense what so ever and why would you tell your partner to go wait in the car so you can question a suspect alone. Shouldn't that be code for hide somewhere in the house. How Bree could fall in love with the man who beat the shit out of her so called best friend, I don't know. Then she whined and bitched about killing Simon and regretted that she had to kill him. Hell, Simon had already killed at least 4 people before he killed his sister and decided to become her. To make sure I was right about my prediction, I did read the last couple of chapters for verification. All in all I feel like I wasted my money on this book, the blurb was great the book was crap.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 6, 2011
I just had the joy of reading *Giving Up the Ghost* by Stacy-Deanne. This storyline had me on the edge of my seat from the very first page. Detective Brianna Morris is investigating the attack of her friend Cheyenne Wilson. While on the case, she is being stalked by someone unknown to her. There are many twists and turns in the story that leave you wondering just how it's going to end. Who really was responsible for the attack? Who all is connected to whom? Remember, it's never quite what it seems.....
While not as hot as some erotica that I've read, there was a sizzle factor to the story that delved into some light BDSM. I'd have to give it a heat rating of "spark". Some scenes left me wanting more, enticing my imagination to take it further. I enjoyed the general dynamics of the characters. The main characters interacted well together. You could feel
the tension at times.
I give the book a Five Diva Deviant Divas Rating. The book had me wanting to read ahead to find out who did what....so while it was weak in the hot factor, it made up for it in the suspense factor. Very very well done!
Reviewed by: Ginger Lilly
Deviant Divas Rating: 5
Heat Rating: Spark
Link:http://www.deviantdivaseroticbookrevi...
While not as hot as some erotica that I've read, there was a sizzle factor to the story that delved into some light BDSM. I'd have to give it a heat rating of "spark". Some scenes left me wanting more, enticing my imagination to take it further. I enjoyed the general dynamics of the characters. The main characters interacted well together. You could feel
the tension at times.
I give the book a Five Diva Deviant Divas Rating. The book had me wanting to read ahead to find out who did what....so while it was weak in the hot factor, it made up for it in the suspense factor. Very very well done!
Reviewed by: Ginger Lilly
Deviant Divas Rating: 5
Heat Rating: Spark
Link:http://www.deviantdivaseroticbookrevi...
August 1, 2013
DNF
I tried to get into this book but just couldn't. I stopped at 27% in. The storyline is just a complete bore. Yes I could see the suspense side of this book, but there has been absolutely no romance so far. I just don't want to invest any further time into this to see if it gets any better.
I tried to get into this book but just couldn't. I stopped at 27% in. The storyline is just a complete bore. Yes I could see the suspense side of this book, but there has been absolutely no romance so far. I just don't want to invest any further time into this to see if it gets any better.
September 1, 2012
A friend at death's door, a psychotic stalker, a lover with a mysterious and dark past, and a partner who keeps you on the edge, YES, I'm speaking on Detective Brianna Morris in Stacy Deanne`s "Giving Up the Ghost". Bree is a sister on a mission to find the person responsible for the vicious attack on her best friend Cheyenne before the killer strikes again. Along with her partner Detective Steven Kemp, they enter a world of clubbing and chaos. Soon Bree begins to question those around and her feelings before she has an appointment with the morgue. You must ask yourself is anyone truthfully as they appear? As a mystery reader, I thought I had the answers figured but but Deane pulls too many twist throughout the story and you find yourself back at step one. The characters are well defined with complex personalities, twisted, mysterious and life styles that keep you on the edge. All I can say is move over James Patterson, Stacy-Deanne is on the mystery writing scene!
April 29, 2013
I love any storyline where the main characters are cops and I love a good mystery. Imagine my delight when I was introduced to "Giving up the Ghost" that supplies both! Throw in a steamy interlude or two, along with a creepy stalker, and you've got a great novel. I really like the fact that Detective Breanna Morris may have been a tough-as-nails cop, but she was also human. To write this character as if she just knew everything just because she was a police detective, would have made this character unrealistic. Just when I thought I had everything figured out to this mystery, the author added a new twist. I truly enjoyed this book and look forward to reading the rest of the series.
April 16, 2011
Stay tuned for my review.
January 28, 2015
This was a pretty good book, fast paced and unpredictable. Just what I like from a mystery. Will definitely read more books by this author.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews