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Gower and Saxon #2
Random Elements
Actress Nikki Gower loved portraying a kick-ass federal agent on her hit TV show, Trace Elements, and got an even bigger thrill when she was brought in to work a real case alongside sexy Special Agent Josh Saxon. When her show was unexpectedly canceled and she was given the chance to join the real FBI—and make her hot romance with Josh permanent—she knew it was destiny.
But there are other men in Nikki’s life determined to add a more permanent plot twist, including her predatory director, who gets the show un-canceled for six more episodes, and the shy stalker who sends her white roses and creepy but seemingly harmless poetry.
When Josh goes undercover in Miami and Nikki stays behind to shoot the remaining episodes in Hollywood, the conflicted actress is sure Josh’s new gang-related assignment is dangerous. Little does she know, she’s the one who might not survive Season Two.
As a special bonus, this book includes Episode Seven of the hit TV series Trace Elements. You can also read that and the show’s pilot episode online at the Beyond the Page website.
About the
Kate Donovan is the author of the Gower Saxon Books and the Play Makers series, including Play by Play, Playing for Keeps, and Play Date, in addition to numerous novels and novellas published in genres including fantasy, historical romance, legal thriller, romantic suspense, and young adult science fiction. Kate lives in California.
But there are other men in Nikki’s life determined to add a more permanent plot twist, including her predatory director, who gets the show un-canceled for six more episodes, and the shy stalker who sends her white roses and creepy but seemingly harmless poetry.
When Josh goes undercover in Miami and Nikki stays behind to shoot the remaining episodes in Hollywood, the conflicted actress is sure Josh’s new gang-related assignment is dangerous. Little does she know, she’s the one who might not survive Season Two.
As a special bonus, this book includes Episode Seven of the hit TV series Trace Elements. You can also read that and the show’s pilot episode online at the Beyond the Page website.
About the
Kate Donovan is the author of the Gower Saxon Books and the Play Makers series, including Play by Play, Playing for Keeps, and Play Date, in addition to numerous novels and novellas published in genres including fantasy, historical romance, legal thriller, romantic suspense, and young adult science fiction. Kate lives in California.
354 pages, Kindle Edition
First published May 17, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
May 31, 2015
2.5 stars.
Didn't care for this one as much as the first. Josh and Nikki weren't physically together for the majority of the book. I know that's supposed to add some suspense and all but it left out the romance part...
There's kind of a lot of drama. Like almost too much. I think and example of that is that there is still one more book to come out. Honestly this whole thing could have been wrapped up in one. More than likely, two. It would have been preferred actually.
Didn't care for this one as much as the first. Josh and Nikki weren't physically together for the majority of the book. I know that's supposed to add some suspense and all but it left out the romance part...
There's kind of a lot of drama. Like almost too much. I think and example of that is that there is still one more book to come out. Honestly this whole thing could have been wrapped up in one. More than likely, two. It would have been preferred actually.
August 8, 2015
Well written and the humour I enjoyed in Trace Elements was still there, but I'm afraid I didn't engage with Random Elements as well as I did the first.
I think some of that was due to the way it began. Josh is obviously on edge about the extra episodes that Nikki is doing, and he doesn't really like anything about the Hollywood scene that has been such a large part of Nikki's life up to this point and he isn't shy about showing it. This attitude meant that instead of being in sympathy with him for being a fish out of water, I just found him really unsupportive. I think if this situation had happened later in the book it wouldn't have seemed as bad, as hopefully by that point we would have already seen some more of Josh's good points in action. As it was it occurred very early on and portrayed Josh very negatively, so I found that disappointing.
I thought the situation that Nikki was facing with her stalker and the one Josh found himself in in Miami were really interesting and kept the pages flying by, but the fact that they spent so little time together was also a disappointment. I loved their interactions in the first book, and I expected that to build in the second. They went from adversaries/reluctant colleagues to friends/lovers in the first and I wanted that relationship to progress, but in many ways for a lot of the book it felt like there was no progress being made with their relationship at all.
Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy it, but I was just hoping for more. Fingers crossed book three Criminal Element will deliver on that score!
* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review *
I think some of that was due to the way it began. Josh is obviously on edge about the extra episodes that Nikki is doing, and he doesn't really like anything about the Hollywood scene that has been such a large part of Nikki's life up to this point and he isn't shy about showing it. This attitude meant that instead of being in sympathy with him for being a fish out of water, I just found him really unsupportive. I think if this situation had happened later in the book it wouldn't have seemed as bad, as hopefully by that point we would have already seen some more of Josh's good points in action. As it was it occurred very early on and portrayed Josh very negatively, so I found that disappointing.
I thought the situation that Nikki was facing with her stalker and the one Josh found himself in in Miami were really interesting and kept the pages flying by, but the fact that they spent so little time together was also a disappointment. I loved their interactions in the first book, and I expected that to build in the second. They went from adversaries/reluctant colleagues to friends/lovers in the first and I wanted that relationship to progress, but in many ways for a lot of the book it felt like there was no progress being made with their relationship at all.
Don't get me wrong, I really did enjoy it, but I was just hoping for more. Fingers crossed book three Criminal Element will deliver on that score!
* ARC provided by NetGalley and the publisher in return for an honest review *
May 30, 2015
Second in a series, this is a story of an actress in love with an FBI agent, who has to juggle strange relationships with her director/auteur/muse recipient, her co-stars, and most of all a stalker who goes from being poetic fanboy to all-out flasher in her house. Due to the fact in the first book—I imagine—she helped the FBI agent solve a crime, she’s going from action heroine to the real thing with the series cancelled. . . only to have it uncancelled, while her new boyfriend goes away on an undercover assignment.
Billed as a romance, but even though there’s the big relationship it feels like the romance took place in the previous book. So this one comes across as more of a mystery/thriller, which of course makes me happier. There haven’t been many times when I’ve enjoyed a book so much I want to instantly read the previous one, but the writing and characterization here is excellent; if I had to choose one thing I love more than anything else, it would be the sense of humor and humanity of the lead character. And like everyone who meets her (them?) I’m in love with both Annika (the TV character) and Nikki (the actress).
As a bonus you can go to the author’s website to view samples of what she thinks the TV show would be like; I imagine it’s on cable, for there’s a lot of cussing.
Billed as a romance, but even though there’s the big relationship it feels like the romance took place in the previous book. So this one comes across as more of a mystery/thriller, which of course makes me happier. There haven’t been many times when I’ve enjoyed a book so much I want to instantly read the previous one, but the writing and characterization here is excellent; if I had to choose one thing I love more than anything else, it would be the sense of humor and humanity of the lead character. And like everyone who meets her (them?) I’m in love with both Annika (the TV character) and Nikki (the actress).
As a bonus you can go to the author’s website to view samples of what she thinks the TV show would be like; I imagine it’s on cable, for there’s a lot of cussing.
May 29, 2015
Another very good romantic suspense by Kate Donovan. While I prefer her Playmakers series the Gower and Saxon books are very good as well. This book is the second in a planned trilogy and it definitely reads like it, while in theory you could read this story as a stand alone you would understand the characters and their relationships far better if you read Trace Elements first and while there isn't a cliffhanger per say there are definitely some open ended storyline threads.
I really enjoy the chemistry between Nikki and Josh, they are incredible together and Josh is excellent hero material. Nikki confuses me sometimes though, she's so smart but occasionally comes off as TSTL. There are people in her life who manipulate her, she sees it (kinda) and seems completely unable to do anything about it. I'm really hoping that in the third book something will finally be done about it. There is plenty of suspense and plenty of suspects to go around, it took me a while to figure this one out, unusual for me and a nice change.
If you enjoyed the first Gower and Saxon book I have no doubt you'll enjoy this one as well, if you haven't read the first one you may enjoy this one on its own but like I said I highly recommend reading Trace Elements first. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
I really enjoy the chemistry between Nikki and Josh, they are incredible together and Josh is excellent hero material. Nikki confuses me sometimes though, she's so smart but occasionally comes off as TSTL. There are people in her life who manipulate her, she sees it (kinda) and seems completely unable to do anything about it. I'm really hoping that in the third book something will finally be done about it. There is plenty of suspense and plenty of suspects to go around, it took me a while to figure this one out, unusual for me and a nice change.
If you enjoyed the first Gower and Saxon book I have no doubt you'll enjoy this one as well, if you haven't read the first one you may enjoy this one on its own but like I said I highly recommend reading Trace Elements first. I received an ARC of this book from the publisher through Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.
June 8, 2015
I received this book through Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.
I read this book without having read the first in the trilogy and was positively surprised by the thorough explanations of the previous history between Special Agent Josh Saxon, who is our male lead and the heroine Nikki Gower, who is an on-screen Federal Agent and soon-to-be FBI Agent.
Random Elements included pesky rivals, weird friendships, wonderful action elements and a whole lot of crime laced with love.
The brilliance that is Nikki and the understanding of Josh's undercover assignment, which could have very well broken up their whirlwind romance, was amazing to witness and the complex relationships between Nikki, Josh and their co-characters we're misleading to the point that everyone was a suspected stalker on Nikki's behalf.
Though the best surprise for me was that the second book made me want to read the first in line, which is vert untypical for me as I don't see the point in reading something to which I already know the continuation or ending, but I feel that even though I didn't have problems reading the second book without any preceding knowledge of the characters, there is much to the story that I have to uncover before I'm satisfied.
This is the first, but definitely not last book by Kate Donovan, that I read.
I read this book without having read the first in the trilogy and was positively surprised by the thorough explanations of the previous history between Special Agent Josh Saxon, who is our male lead and the heroine Nikki Gower, who is an on-screen Federal Agent and soon-to-be FBI Agent.
Random Elements included pesky rivals, weird friendships, wonderful action elements and a whole lot of crime laced with love.
The brilliance that is Nikki and the understanding of Josh's undercover assignment, which could have very well broken up their whirlwind romance, was amazing to witness and the complex relationships between Nikki, Josh and their co-characters we're misleading to the point that everyone was a suspected stalker on Nikki's behalf.
Though the best surprise for me was that the second book made me want to read the first in line, which is vert untypical for me as I don't see the point in reading something to which I already know the continuation or ending, but I feel that even though I didn't have problems reading the second book without any preceding knowledge of the characters, there is much to the story that I have to uncover before I'm satisfied.
This is the first, but definitely not last book by Kate Donovan, that I read.
June 18, 2015
***Received an arc copy by netgalley for an honest review***
In the second book of the series, we meet back up with Nikki and Josh as they adjust to life out of the limelight and with the FBI. Things are on schedule until Newt enters back in the picture with an offer to come back as Annika. Nikki puts her life on hold to finish Annika's job but will she come to regret her decision as Josh finds himself in danger with his new case?
The relationship between Nikki and Josh was perhaps the best part of the book (even though at times I got frustrated with how Josh would just roll over for Nikki). Josh is that knight in shiny armor for Nikki but sometimes he was a little 'too' perfect. I would have like to have seen them have more 'trouble in paradise' kind of deal going on.
The chapters ran a too long for my taste. There were times when she could have cut down the chapters that would have made it a whole lot easier to read.
It felt like Donovan rushed the book at times and she was all over the place. I would have liked to have seen more development of Nikki and Josh's character in this book and especially their relationship.
The climax was thrilling and made up a little for what I didn't like in the rest of the book, but not a whole lot. I would have liked it more if Donovan developed the story more instead of just rushing to the end point.
In the second book of the series, we meet back up with Nikki and Josh as they adjust to life out of the limelight and with the FBI. Things are on schedule until Newt enters back in the picture with an offer to come back as Annika. Nikki puts her life on hold to finish Annika's job but will she come to regret her decision as Josh finds himself in danger with his new case?
The relationship between Nikki and Josh was perhaps the best part of the book (even though at times I got frustrated with how Josh would just roll over for Nikki). Josh is that knight in shiny armor for Nikki but sometimes he was a little 'too' perfect. I would have like to have seen them have more 'trouble in paradise' kind of deal going on.
The chapters ran a too long for my taste. There were times when she could have cut down the chapters that would have made it a whole lot easier to read.
It felt like Donovan rushed the book at times and she was all over the place. I would have liked to have seen more development of Nikki and Josh's character in this book and especially their relationship.
The climax was thrilling and made up a little for what I didn't like in the rest of the book, but not a whole lot. I would have liked it more if Donovan developed the story more instead of just rushing to the end point.
June 2, 2016
I read this book without reading the first in the series. I was glad the author explained what was happening thoroughly enough to help you read it without reading the first. the chemistry between the characters was fab, they worked really well together. the story has plenty of suspense to move it along at a good pace.
highly recommended
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highly recommended
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October 4, 2015
I really enjoyed this book! It had a unique storyline and the plot had some twists I didn't see coming!
June 3, 2015
I didn't think this was as good as the first book there just seemed to be something missing for me in it. Was a good read with characters and writing just lacked something the first book did
July 27, 2015
This book referenced the previous story too much and made it difficult to get engaged with the characters and story in this one. Didn't really get into it.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews