Concrete Evidence

Slow start but it gets GOOD!

Slow start but it gets GOOD!
Keep listening. This is a great book!! Glad I stuck with it. Can't wait to listen to next in the series.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Excellent Novel

Rachel Grant did a great job on this novel. Very interesting characters and a very entertaining plot based somewhat on real events.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

OK but boring and wordy at times..

I have admit it took a loooong time to get to what happened in the Prologue, at 60% or so but nothing was really said, a sentence or two. There was a lot, lot, lot of talk about the Menanichoch Indians and Thermo-Con. This was only a little interesting so I did found myself skimming to get out of the semi-boring stuff.

I did like Lee and Erica but the secrets she kept from him and vise-versa. It was so angsty and I had found myself wishing they would just TALK, which they didn’t do until about 90% of the book. If you like angst and secrets this book is for you.

At 50%, it was all about sex. I don’t remember anything being said in the first half the book about an erection, or desire or wanting or anything. Then he was hard ALL the time and they were going at it like minks ALL the time. And their time shopping was just stupid! First the dress then the under things. (More skimming.) I felt like I was already into the book 500 pages when I was only on about 210.

At 80% there was still nothing about the woman getting killed in the prologue. Holy hell, why was it even written in. However, at 91% we got to the answer. It was OK but nothing too exciting.

Anyway, it was an OK story but I don’t think I’ll read any other books by this author. I did a lot of skimming and that’s never a good sign.

The best part of the whole book was when Erica kicked the asses of the two of the bad guys.

All the sex was during the last 50%, again and again. There was a little bit of swearing and the F-bomb was released 41 times.

As to the narrator: She was truly awful when it came to the men’s voices. She did have some emotions but if the men sound like women that’s a bad thing. And, OMG, when Lee and Erika had sex it was like two women talking, which would have been OK if I’d been reading a lesbian book. And there were times that her voice threatened to put me to sleep, especially during that long drawn out talk the senator gave her and Lee. Good grief, she read soooo slooow. She might have gotten better in 2016 but in April of 2014 she was terrible.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

Concrete

This story was both very good(the mystery part) and very bad(the romance part). Lee Scott was an ass throughout yet Erica fell in love with him anyway, when she didn't know anything true about him except he was great in the sack. Chemistry only gets you so far. When all there is is lies between a couple, how can anything be real? And she forgave him too easily, considering how many times she'd been betrayed before him. I hate it when an author builds the conflict so high between a couple to increase tension & suspense & then resolves it too easily, with only the woman suffering. I've got 2 more books in this series to read, I hope not all the men are jerks!

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Another great story!

Intriguing story line- great characters love Lee and Erica....I found another favorite author!!! Definitely worth the read

Great suspense plot, romance story not the best.

I listened to the 3 main novels in Rachel Grant’s FLASHPOINT SERIES and loved them all. They are all stand-alones and I highly recommend them. I’m now working through her other novels and started with CONCRETE EVIDENCE.

CONCRETE EVIDENCE is the first novel in the CONCRETE SERIES. If I had read this novel first, I may not have gone back for more. On the plus side, the intrigue is very well planned out and executed with an excellent plot. The twists and turns are surprising and scary.

However, the romance left me unsatisfied. For much of the book the hero, Lee, lies to the heroine, Erica, much like a spy would do in the circumstances. For excellent reasons, she in turn lies to him. Because the relationship was based on lies told by both main characters for a very long time, I found it difficult to buy into the romance.

Also, I became fatigued by the amount of time Erica suffered in this book. Her freedom, hope and spirit were constantly being crushed by the ever-present evil forces in her life, and Lee’s actions (the continuous distrust and suspicion of her) compounded her problems. I felt very sorry for her.

I listened to ¾ of the book on Audible then switched to reading the Kindle because the narration was not to my liking. It may be a coincidence, but once I started reading, the book improved, so I’m wondering if the narration bears some of the responsibility for my dislike of the relationship between the main characters.

I’m glad I read this one, as I believe the characters will make cameo appearances in the rest of the series and it always helps to know that background, even if it’s not essential.

I’ll keep reading and listening to this writer’s novels because the FLASHPOINT series was consistently excellent in terms of both the romances and the intrigues in each story. I’m sure other novels by this author are equally excellent. I'm happily reading more of them now.

Intelligent Suspenseful Romance

I like the way the author mixed in factual elements to make the story so believable. The strong lead paired with a “bumbling intern” was a nice twist, and I didn’t see the ending coming. Be sure to stay tuned for the author’s notes for the “stories behind the story”

Concrete evidence

Lots of lying and criminal characters in this book! A twisted story and a mystery to be solved kept me entertained from start to finish.

Long, but very good

This is the first book of the series, but the last one I listened to. It got a little less intriguing about 3/4 of the way through, but it picked back up and ended with a bang. The narrator was just a bit stiff on this one, but still did a good job. Excellent plot.

Amazing!

I loved this book. The narrator is excellent! This was gripping and gut wrenching suspense. I recommend this book ten times over!