Linda Howard Book Junkies discussion

When professional house-sitter Lila Emerson witnesses a murder/suicide from her current apartment-sitting job, life as she knows it takes a dramatic turn. Suddenly, the woman with no permanent ties finds herself almost wishing for one. . . .

Artist Ashton Archer knows his brother isn’t capable of violence—against himself or others. He recruits Lila, the only eyewitness, to help him uncover what happened. Ash longs to paint her as intensely as he hungers to touch her. But their investigation draws them into a rarified circle where priceless antiques are bought, sold, gambled away, and stolen, where what you possess is who you are, and where what you desire becomes a deadly obsession. . . .

I'll try to start this one in a few days...my reading speed has slowed down a lot, lately..

No problem. I plan on starting it soon too.

I read THE COLLECTOR in 2014 and don't remember much of it but gave it 4 stars, so it wasn't bad. Hope to reread it in August. Have to finish A Court of Thorns and Roses first.

my friend picked it up from the library today for me. I will start on it tomorrow. I also read it before, but I can't remember when.

Okay, this is a little embarrasing but I still haven't gotten into The Collector even though its already nearly mid of September. I must be getting old because time seems to fly away without noticing and there seems to be too many distractions and things to do ;)
But I will start on it this weekend!
Anyone else planning to read it?

I hope to do a reread. I read it in January of this year and gave it 5 stars, but have forgotten many of the details.

Judy wrote: "I hope to do a reread. I read it in January of this year and gave it 5 stars, but have forgotten many of the details."

Same here, Judy.
Its sort of weird how you can so clearly remember the scenes and moments from some books and nothing from others. E.g. “I'm not holding you against your will; I'm holding you against your car" instantly comes to my mind from one certain LH's book.

I'm hoping to read it next week. I got about 2-3 chapters in August of 2016 but couldn't continue...haven't felt like picking it up again since. But I'm hoping this month I will finally read it. :)

Oh I love that one, Eve...Mr Perfect is one of my all-time faves!

Tanvi wrote: "Oh I love that one, Eve...Mr Perfect is one of my all-time faves! "

Tanvi, mine too (along with Open Season, Cry No More, etc).
Jaine and Sam are one of the best and sizzling couples I've read. I love to re-read some of their bantering wheneever I'm stuck with another reading slump and non of the new books seems to interest me.

I just finished the book. I have to say it was pretty good. I read it when it was the Book of the Month before. I had forgotten all about it. All I remembered was the climax happened in Ash's home. I thought they came home and all the paintings of Lila's was destroyed. That didn't happen...well the climax did happen in the apartment but it was much different that what I remembered.

I wonder what happened to the Imperial eggs that Vasin was arrested and his property was confiscated. I am assuming it would go to a museum but which?

I'm in the middle of this story and its pretty good indeed.
I just wish it was more fast-paced and not so full of chaffy details.
I also hate it when author writes villains pov and reveals too much. I hated to read what and how exactly happened to to Ash's uncle, Vinnie!
I also hated that Lila was "the other woman" of her BFF, Julie. It sounded too weird, just as Ash's parents and all those half-siblings he had. Too mind-blowing.

I started this a couple days back and I'm about a 100 pages in...don't know what I think of it yet. Let's see. This is book has been waiting for me to read it for over a year - I really hope I like it!

Okay, I finally finished this story. It was entertaining, but I felt it lacked something. Perhaps I would have liked this story better if the main characters were different. I especially didn't like the heroine who got on my nerves. I must be getting tired of those super handsome-wealthy-successful-perfect characters who easily get everything they desire. Flawed characters can be more interesting and show more potential and growth. So in the end quite surprisingly Earl Gray was my favorite character in this one, at least he was funny, brave and cute. And he wasn't to blame that he got such a silly name!

I liked Earl Gray too, what irritated me was whenever Ashton suggested something like I want to you to pose for me or I'm buying dinner or whatever, Lila had to debate the issue. You need to ask me. She was irritating! After a few days of that I would have begged Jia to kill her or me just to get away from that.

I agree: flawed and solid protagonist can be more interesting if done well than those always perfect, all-knowing characters. I think Susan E. Phillips has ruined me with her quirky characters :D
I felt like Ash and Lila weren't solid characters experiencing genuine emotions and reactions. They sounded flat and not very believable. I also found the ending quite terrible. (view spoiler)[Why would overprotective Ash suddenly leave Lila home alone even thought the bad guys are still on the loose, and naturally Jia had to come and take another attack on Lila **rolleye**). (hide spoiler)]

Eve wrote: "I agree: flawed and solid protagonist can be more interesting if done well than those always perfect, all-knowing characters. I think Susan E. Phillips has ruined me with her quirky characters :D
I..."

I so agree with you about being ruined by SEP's quirky characters

I almost forgot - I finished reading The Collector early morning yesterday. I didn't love it but it was a good story...not one of my favorites from her, though.
I did like the characters and especially the ending. I would love to see Ashton's paintings.. Other than that, I couldn't connect with the characters in the beginning, the story seemed to drag quite a bit or maybe it wasn't capturing my interest because of all the art history sections and some of the descriptions were too long. :(
Oh and I'm glad things worked out for Julie and Luke.

I liked that Julie and Luke got together also. I agree it wasn't a favorite, but pretty good.

I hope we can get a story with Giselle at some point..I'd like to see more of Ashton's family (drama)..Haha..

That would be good. Junkies, if you happen to find a NR book with Giselle in it. Let us know