Carrots by Colleen Helme

Carrots (A Shelby Nichols Adventure)
Synopsis:

Shelby Nichols is an average woman who is married to the only guy she ever fell for. Her life is organized and predictable, revolving around her husband and two children. All that changes the day she stops at the grocery store for some carrots. As the cashier rings up her purchases, a gunman is busy robbing the bank inside the store. When a customer grabs the robber's mask, he is shot and everyone runs for cover. Everyone except Shelby, who finds herself face to face with the killer. The next thing she knows, she's lying on the floor with a bullet wound to her head. Luckily, the bullet only grazes her scalp, and she doesn't suspect any lasting affects until later, when she suddenly 'hears' what people are thinking. With this uncanny ability, her life takes on a whole new dimension. Her kids think she's bossy and too old to understand them, but that's nothing compared to her husband. He says he loves her, but what is it about the redhead at work that he doesn't want her to know? As if that isn't enough, the gunman knows she can identify him, and he's out to silence her forever. In her fight to stay alive, she is saved from certain death by a handsome hit-man with ties to organized crime. This pulls Shelby even deeper into danger, where knowing someone's thoughts can not only hurt her feelings, but get her killed.

Review:

When I first started reading Carrots I thought it was going to be a serious read. I quickly realized it was not, it is more like the Stephanie Plum books, and really enjoyed reading it. It starts off with Shelby stopping at the grocery store for some carrots. At first I was like this book is odd. The descriptions were just a little over the top describing her running for the store in the rain. Again I thought it was a serious book, not a humorous one so that might have had something to do with it. Once I got into it though it was just fun.

Shelby gets shot by a robber and has her head grazed by the bullet. Somehow this now makes her able to hear what people are thinking. The description makes it seem like her husband might be having an affair with the redhead at the office, but really that is not it at all. The redhead is just throwing herself at him, and he doesn't want anything to do with her in that way. It was nice to see the husband and wife together and still in love. It wasn't like super romantic or anything, but more the normal what it would be like after so many years. He doesn't want anyone else, she doesn't either. Yes, they have some issues with the mind reading thing and whatnot, but they work on it.

Shelby does get mixed up with Uncle Joey, but it is kind of fun. Ramos is a great character, and there is some attraction on his part, but Shelby is happily married so...maybe in future books there will be issues with her marriage and something might happen. Kind of like Stephanie and her men. She goes back and forth. We shall see. Uncle Joey didn't seem that bad, but I loved how Shelby kept trying to find a way to get out from under his thumb. She kind of don't know what she is doing so it is fun to watch her stumble through everything. I look forward to reading more of these books.

Rating: 3.5/5