Reviews for With a Vengeance

The average rating for With a Vengeance based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2011-11-11 00:00:00 Christopher Gilpin I read this in 2004 and never forgot it. Here's my review, courtesy of Romance Junkies... Book provided by the publisher/author for an honest review. People are dying in St. Louis and Maggie O'Brien is caught in the middle of it all. Maggie is a medic for the newly formed S.W.A.T. team in the city, as well as a trauma nurse at the hospital. She should have been able to save Montana Bob because his injuries were not life threatening. Somehow, everything has gone terribly wrong and his dying words send her on a search for answers. That search leads her to the The List. It is a way for the hospital staff, police and medics to let off some steam. They formed The List, on the wall in the hospital staff lounge and put names of people on there that had given them trouble in the past. But now, The List has become part of something bigger, no longer just a list to let off steam. Maggie can't let Montana Bob's dying words escape her memory and has to find the reason for his death. Could those she had trusted all these years really be a part of something so horrible? No one will believe such a story, not even her lover, police officer, Sean Delaney. Maggie considers so many of them her family, being the daughter of a cop and surrounded by her father's friends most of her life. Can she find the answers and once she does, can she tell anyone her findings? Or, will the killer make her his final target? Eileen Dreyer has created a medical thriller that is so realistic I could see the action happening in my mind, just like a movie. I couldn't read fast enough or get any sleep, wondering what would happen next in this non-stop, action packed novel. The details of the S.W.A.T team, hospital staff and police that Ms. Dreyer put into this novel proves her expertise in this area and makes it one of the most realistic thrillers I have read. The relationship between Sean Delaney and Maggie O'Brien is as flammable as the life-threatening situations that are typical of their professions. If that isn't enough, Eileen Dreyer made me laugh at the ridiculousness of the human race in the midst of a crisis, convincing me her talent as an author will keep me coming back for more.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-10-15 00:00:00 Petr Handl "She didn't want to hurt any of them. But if she started asking questions, she would. By exposing the murderer, Maggie would expose them all. Pros Sassy Banter Is Sassy-The banter between Maggie and her coworkers was snappy, snarky, and just plain fun to read about. The subject matter may have been totally serious, but the dialogue lifted the mood at precisely the right times. Insight Into a Little Known Career-Being a nurse is hard. I'm not one, but several of my friends are. But being a nurse AND a medic on the SWAT team? That has to be akin torture. And since the author was once a trauma nurse, she knows her stuff. And she let's us know how damn hard it is for Maggie and her coworkers both in and out of the field. Having to listen to that stuff on a daily basis, I should know how it feels, but she gives a really good sense of feeling what it's like to live it day in and day out. Cons Language That Would Make a Sailor Cringe-Now this wasn't a con for me, per se. But I know that it might be a con for some people. So I probably should forewarn any future readers that the language in this book is strong as hell, and this is someone who hears them on a daily basis for work. While the plot may be appealing, the language probably won't be. Too Many Plot Lines Going on At Once-The plot synopsis the flap gives you going into this book that Maggie O'Brien, a SWAT team nurse, suspects that some of her patients are being murdered, and she needs to find out why. However, there are like five different plot points going on at the same time. We have the murder plot, a conspiracy plot, an 'angel of death' acting out on her wing in the hospital that has nothing to do with the original investigation, and a 'day in the life' summary of Maggie's day. Dude, one plot line would have been more than sufficient, thank you very much. It made the book drag on and on when it didn't really need to, thus making it an absolute chore to read. Casual Fuckboy Relationship-Throughout the book, Maggie and a coworker on her team engage in a casual 'friends with benefits' relationship. Now if by casual you mean having sex so rough you literally break the furniture relationship, then yeah, it's casual. But seriously guys. THEY HAVE SEX SO HARD THAT IT BREAKS THE FREAKIN' KITCHEN TABLE. They also seem to want to have sex every time they finished a major emergency. A mentally insane person dies? Let's have sex! A rough, sixteen-hour shift night? Let's have sex! An arson case where a six-year-old dies from smoke inhalation because his father held him captive in the apartment building. LET'S HAVE SEX IN THE SHOWER, ON THE FLOOR, ON THE COUCH, ON TOP OF THE BED, AND OUT ON THE APARTMENT DECK, WHY DON'T WE??!! (And yes, this actually happened). We get it. You two like to have sex. Real, rough sex. It doesn't progress much beyond that, and the whole casualness about it kind of annoyed me after a while. Not to mention that Delany's a shady figure and Maggie treats him like crap most of the time. The Killer Is Whom??!!-With all these mysteries and plot lines going on here, it's hard to keep track of potential suspects. But let's just say that there are multiple killers at work here, and while one of them is genius, I was kind of disappointed (and a little bit baffled) by who the other killer was. They were blatantly obvious, but their motive made no logical sense whatsoever. There are better romantic suspense novels out there, and while the dialogue was witty and the professions shown noble, this book couldn't be saved from its course language, a bad friends with benefits relationship, and so many plotlines that trying to find the main one was like playing a losing game of 'Where's Waldo?' P.S.: I just want to congratulate myself for not cussing in this review even though I REALLY wanted to.