Tough Karma: A Race Against Time Karma Series Book 2
Paranormal/Fantasy Romance
Outskirts Press, Inc.
January 16, 2017
224
A chilling tale of loss, tragedy, psychic warfare, and eternal love.
Amber Macklin’s world is cruelly shattered when she loses her baby girl three months after her husband’s sudden death. Her cousin, Bryce, comes to her rescue, moving her into his home for fear she will kill herself from the grief. He provides solace and a shoulder to cry on, and he has loved her as more than a cousin for a long time. Amber and Bryce soon discover they are not blood relatives, which opens the door for romance as he pulls her through her darkest hours. When Mike, a college friend of Bryce’s, stops by to visit, Amber senses a deadly secret behind his nice guy persona. She has a frightening dream that Mike is trying to kill her and recurring sleepwalking episodes where she draws detailed pictures of him torturing her. Deeply troubled, Bryce uses his ability to astral travel to investigate Mike and uncover his terrifying past. Mike has had his eye on Amber for some time, and when he learns that Bryce and Amber have become lovers, he is furious. Mike abducts Amber and takes her to his rural Georgia hideaway, and Bryce must rely on his astral abilities to track her down. But will he be too late?
Tough Karma is a stand alone novel. The astral adventures continue in Dark Karma: Sword of Vengeance.
Reviewed by: Linda Tonis
Member of the Paranormal Romance Review Team
I didn’t read the first book in the series and my first thought was disappointment since I was sure I would be lost reading this one, so not the case since the author did a wonderful job of filling me in what happened in book one.
I know all about Amber Macklin, the death of her husband and the recent death of her baby girl Belle. This book picks up after Belle’s death and with her cousins Bryce, Luke and her sister Jenny rallying around her. Bryce insists on Amber coming home with him even though he has loved her for a long time and not as a cousin. His will power will be tested when he has the woman he loves living with him but the fear of her taking her own life overrides any of his misgivings.
Amber sleepwalks and Bryce is aware of that but when she begins drawing in her sleep and the drawings are of his friend Mike torturing her and of a couple who are dead lying under a horse he begins to worry. Mike and Bryce met in college and were good friends and when Mike returned they hooked up again only Bryce is unaware of his feelings towards Amber and his desire to have her all to himself.
Thanks to Jenny and her husband a DNA test is taken and it proves that Bryce and Amber are not blood relatives, Luke and Bryce’s mother was adopted. Now Bryce is able to show Amber the love he has for her but first he has to help her get through the hardest thing a mother ever has to do which is bury her child. Bryce is able to astral project and does so every night watching over Amber and surrounding her with comfort. Amber realizes that she has also loved Bryce and after a lifetime of knowing each other they can finally be together without the fear of being related, although truth be told they had come to the conclusion that if they didn’t have children they would not let being related hold them back.
Bryce can project into the past or the future and when he does a check on Mike’s past he is shocked to discover that his friend is a monster, a human monster worse than the fiction ones we read about since we know they aren’t real and monsters like Mike exist in real life. Mike wants Amber and Bryce fears that he might just act on his desire and hurt her. I have never doubted that if someone wants to harm another they will always find a way and Mike finds it when a trip to the mall puts Amber in his sights. Unfortunately her sister Jenny let her go off by herself unaware of Mike and that she was being stalked. I won’t go into detail about Mike it is something you need to read for yourself and you definitely should read it.
The book held my interest from page one which is why I finished it in less than a day. I love it when a book holds my interest to a point where I don’t want to put it down and this was that book. There was edge of the seat suspense and amazing characters. We meet Nina in this book a woman that Luke has known for years and has had a friends with benefits relationship but now wants more. Nina helps Amber as much as possible and I have a feeling that the next book will be about Luke and Nina and I can’t wait.
I highly recommend this book, it has it all and then some.
