Saturday, September 28, 2013

My Review - Proof by Jordyn Redwood


A great debut novel from author, Jordyn Redwood!  I was first introduced to Jordyn Redwood through her second novel in the Bloodline Trilogy, POISON.  It was so captivating, I knew I wanted to go back and read PROOF.  I was not disappointed.

Dr. Lilly Reeves, an ER doctor, loses a rape victim in her ER to suicide then ends up becoming a victim herself.  Life as she knows it turns upside down when she discovers who her attacker is but DNA evidence clears him of the crime.  Not understanding how it is science is not backing up what she knows to be true, she sets out to prove the man is not only her attacker, but a serial rapist.  She starts out as the hunter, but soon becomes the hunted.  When people she’s questioned and those close to her befall tragic accidents, she knows her attacker is a cold-blooded killer that will not stop until she is silenced.  Everyone has written her off as unstable and dangerous.  That is, all but Detective Nathan Long.

Detective Long’s first encounter with Dr. Lilly Reeves is anything but pleasant.  He invades her ER, wanting information about a patient and immediately gets on Lilly’s bad side.  When it’s clear to Lilly a serial rapist is on the loose, she accuses Nathan from withholding information from the public.  When Lilly becomes one of the rapist’s victims, Nathan becomes her strongest advocate.  The only problem is, she continues to blame a suspect that has already been cleared by DNA evidence.  But somehow, even though the evidence is stacked against Lilly, Nathan feels she is right.  But proving it is going to be more than difficult, it’s going to be deadly.

There is only so much I can write without spoiling the many layers that unfold.  Just trust me when I say, PROOF is a mind-bending, fast-paced, thriller.  The romance is a little bit light, but fitting to the plot.  I have found a new, favorite author.  

 

 

Thursday, September 26, 2013

My Review - Love's Awakening by Laura Frantz


LOVE’S AWAKENING by Laura Frantz is written so well, I can no longer say that I don’t enjoy period pieces. 

Ellie Ballantyne, the youngest of the Ballantyne children, comes homes from finishing school only to find her parents gone and her older siblings more irritated with her arrival then welcoming.  Wanting to do something with her time, she decides to open a day school for young ladies.  What she doesn’t expect is for one of her pupils to be Chloe Turlock, from the infamous Turlock’s, a family long at odds with the Ballantyne’s.  Fresh from an early encounter with Jack Turlock, one that stirred emotions in Ellie that she is yet to understand, she once again finds herself with Jack, doing Chloe’s bidding.  Jack reluctantly agrees to allow Chloe to take classes from Ellie.  Ellie’s thoughts become preoccupied with Jack Turlock.  Seeing that he is nothing like the rest of his anti-abolitionist family, her feelings for him become quite personal.

Jack Turlock is smitten with Ellie Ballantyne.  Though he tries to hide his interest behind a nonchalant attitude and at times impolite banter, his feelings for her and the growing respect for her family puts him at odds with his own.  Knowing his family is up to no good, and orchestrating plots against the Ballantyne family, he does what he can to protect the Ballantyne’s without exposing himself as a defector from his family’s violent and sometimes deadly schemes.  Knowing the Turlock name would be a black mark against Ellie and her family’s stellar reputation, Jack does the sacrificial thing by pushing her away and makes plans of his own to move West, never to return.

Laura Frantz has crafted a wonderful series with rich characters, historical plots, and has changed my mind about period pieces.  My genre of choice is either contemporary or historicals set in the rugged West.  I usually shy away from anything that involves storylines that deal with the upper-crust society-types that is usually tainted with swooning and feeble woman.  Ms. Frantz has changed my mind.  Ellie has spunk as well as Chloe.  Jack was chivalrous behind his hardened façade, and the Turlock men were good enough to hate.  Though there was the obligatory ball so common in these period pieces, it didn’t matter.  I was already hooked on the characters and their subtle transformations.  I have enjoyed both book one and two in the Ballantyne Legacy series and will look forward to the third release.

Book provided for review purposes.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

  

Friday, September 20, 2013

My Review - Dangerous Passage by Lisa Harris



DANGEROUS PASSAGE is my first introduction to author Lisa Harris.  Though book one in the Southern Crimes series got off to a slow start, I will definitely be looking for book two.

Avery North is sure she has stumbled onto two victims in a serial killer’s spree.  With distinguishing tattoos as the only real link, Avery digs deep to find out what else the two victims have in common before there is a third.  While work pulls her in one direction, the care for her pre-teen daughter pulls her in another.  Add in a budding romance with medical examiner, Jackson Bryant, and Avery finds her thoughts drifting to the ‘what ifs’ of navigating a serious relationship.  

I felt DANGEROUS PASSAGE got off to a slightly clunky start.  I can’t put my finger on it, but I was somewhat disappointed since I had looked forward to receiving the book.  At first I felt that maybe I was reading the second book in the series instead of the first since the relationship between Avery and Jackson was introduced so casually and was breezed over.  But, my disappointment didn’t last long.  I quickly got into the storyline and felt the vulnerability that Avery was dealing with.  A single parent, a high-stressed job, a close-knit family, the loss of both her brother and her husband – Avery was definitely juggling quite a bit when Jackson steps into the picture.  But, she finally gives herself permission to take a second chance on love.  And Jackson – a man that experienced his own loss – is the perfect man to steer her through the stops and starts of a new relationship.  

In the end, I truly enjoyed DANGEROUS PASSAGE.  Of course, I would’ve enjoyed a little more on the romance side, but I can only hope I will get more of that in the second installment.  

Book provided for review purposes.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

My Review - The Invention of Sarah Cummings



THE INVENTION OF SARAH CUMMINGS is the third installment in the Avenue of Dreams series.  I’ve enjoyed this series from Olivia Newport, but I must say, at times I found myself more frustrated with Sarah Cummings then I was rooting for her.

Sarah Cummings is determined she will not live her life as a woman in service.  Her goal is to become a woman of society and find herself a husband that can afford her all that she thinks she deserves.  With her own invention of Serena Cuthbert-a daughter of society- she sets her sights on Bradley Townsend.  Now, all she has to do is juggle her job as parlor maid to the Banning household and time away to meet suave Mr. Townsend.  With the help of Lillie Wagner, Sarah begins to make inroads into society life.  But, managing her time and her deception is getting more complicated as time goes on.  To add to the multiple pretenses she has to balance, Simon Tewell, the director of the orphanage where Sarah grew up, is pursuing her both professionally and personally.  Though Sarah feels her heart stirred by Simon’s attention, the life of an orphanage director’s wife is not the life she has set her sights on.  But as time progresses Sarah realizes she might not be the only one keeping a secret.  Bradley Townsend-though showing his attention to “Serena”-is secretive as to where he is spending the majority of his time.  When faced with a choice, Sarah realizes to have all that Brad wants to offer her, might leave her rich in possessions but lacking the love she desires.

I have to say, Sarah Cummings was not my favorite heroines.  At times, she treated those around her with the same haughtiness that was directed at her as a maid.  You would think someone who was trying to break out of that role, would be more compassionate to those around her.  She did show some genuine compassion for Jane, one of the girls at the orphanage, but her scheming minimized my tolerance for her as a lead character.  Even in the end, though all ends well, it is only because she realized she was being strung along by Brad.  She didn’t make a choice out of deep seeded love.  Her decision was spurred on because all her calculations and manipulations were going to leave her lonely.  At least that is how I read it.  So, though I liked the Avenue of Dreams series, this was not my favorite book.

Book provided for review purposes.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.

Thursday, September 05, 2013

My Review - Unlimited by Davis Bunn



UNLIMITED . . . what a thought provoking book.  I’ve only read a few of Davis Bunn’s novels, and each one has such unique subject matter or distinctive twists, I am always glad I’ve read it.

Simon Orwell is spiraling.  But when Professor Vasquez, his advisor at MIT, asks him to join him in Mexico to help him finish a remarkable breakthrough in electricity, he figures this is his chance to make things right.  Simon has lived with the guilt of selling out his professor and he wants his chance to apologize.  But when he gets to Mexico, all his plans for apologies and redemption are out the window.  The professor is dead, someone is trying to kill him, and all roads lead to a powerful drug cartel wanting the machine the professor was working on.  With nowhere to turn, Simon must rely on the professor’s friends who run a local orphanage.  While there, Simon learns not only about the professor’s breakthrough, but he learns about himself as well.  

UNLIMITED is not only about electricity, but the unlimited powers we all have inside ourselves.  Though UNLIMITED was not a romance book (usually a heavy prerequisite for me), I enjoyed the suspense and adventure of it.  

Book provided for review purposes.
It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books.  A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured.  The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old...or for somewhere in between!  Enjoy your free peek into the book!

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!

Today's Wild Card author is: 
and the book:

B&H Books (September 1, 2013)
***Special thanks to Rick Roberson for sending me a review copy.***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Davis Bunn is a three-time Christy Award-winning, best-selling author now serving as writer-in-residence at Regent's Park College, Oxford University in the United Kingdom. Defined by readers and reviewers as a "wise teacher," "gentleman adventurer," "consummate writer," and "Renaissance man," his work in business took him to over forty countries around the world, and his books have sold more than seven million copies in sixteen languages. Among those titles are The Presence, Winner Take All, and Lion of Babylon.


Visit the author's website.

SHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:
Simon Orwell is a brilliant student whose life has taken a series of wrong
turns. At the point of giving up on his dreams, he gets a call from an old
professor who has discovered a breakthrough in a device that would create
unlimited energy, and he needs Simon's help.

But once he crosses the border, nothing goes as the young man planned.
The professor has been killed and Simon is assaulted and nearly killed by
members of a powerful drug cartel.

Now he must take refuge in the only place that will help him, a local
orphanage. There, Simon meets Harold Finch, the orphanage proprietor
who walked away from a lucrative career with NASA and consulting
Fortune 500 companies to serve a higher cause.

With Harold's help, Simon sets out on a quest to uncover who killed the
professor and why. In due time, he will discover secrets to both the world changing device and his own unlimited potential.




Product Details:
List Price: $8.99
Paperback: 320 pages
Publisher: B&H Books (September 1, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 143367940X
ISBN-13: 978-1433679407

AND NOW...THE FIRST CHAPTER:



A hot, dusty wind buffeted Simon through the Mustang’s open top. He started to pull over and close up the car. But the convertible’s electric motor did not work, and he would have to fight the top by hand. When he had started off that morning, the predawn air had carried a frigid bite. Now his sweatshirt lay in the empty passenger seat, covering the remaining water bottle and his iPod.







The car’s radio worked, but one of the speakers was blown. The iPod’s headphones were hidden beneath the sweatshirt as well. Simon doubted the border authorities cared whether he listened to music on an in-ear system. But he didn’t want to give them any reason to make trouble.







He didn’t know what he had been expecting for a small-town border crossing, but it definitely was not this. An American flag flew over a fortified concrete building. The flag snapped and rippled as Simon pulled forward. In front of him were three trucks and a few vans. One car had Texas plates, one produce truck was from Oklahoma, and the other half-dozen vehicles were Mexican. That was it. The crossing was four lanes in each direction, and all but two were blocked off with yellow traffic cones. The border crossing looked ready to handle an armada. The empty lanes heightened the sense of desolation.



As he waited his turn, a harvest truck rumbled past, bringing sacks of vegetables to the United States. The driver shot Simon a gold-toothed grin through his open window. As though the two of them shared a secret. They were passing through the only hassle-free crossing between Mexico and the USA.







Or so Simon hoped.







To either side of the crossing grew the fence. Simon had heard about the border fence for years. But it was still a jarring sight. Narrow steel girders marched in brutal regularity out of sight in both directions. The pillars were thirty feet high, maybe more, and spaced so the wind whistled between them in a constant piercing whine, like a siren, urging Simon to turn back while he still could. Only he didn’t have a choice. Or he would not have made this journey in the first place.







Simon passed the U.S. checkpoint and drove across the bridge. Below flowed the silted gray waters of the Rio Grande.The Mexican border officer took in the dusty car and Simon’s disheveled appearance and directed him to pull over. Simon heaved a silent sigh and did as he was ordered.







The Mexican customs official was dressed in blue—navy trousers, shirt, hat. He circled Simon’s car slowly before saying,







“Your passport.” He examined it carefully. “What is the purpose of your visit to Mexico, señor?”







“I’m making a presentation to the Ojinaga city council.”







The officer glanced at Simon, then the car, and finally the black duffel bag that filled the rear seat.







“What kind of presentation?”







“My advisor at MIT retired down here last year. We’ve been working on a project together.” He plucked the letter from his shirt pocket and unfolded it along the well-creased lines.



The officer studied it. “Do you read Spanish, Dr . . . . ?”







He started to correct the man, then decided it didn’t matter. The officer had no need to know Simon had dropped out. “Dr. Vasquez, my professor, he translated it.”







“You have cut this very close, señor.” The officer checked his watch. “It says your appointment is in less than two hours.”







“I expected the trip from Boston to take two days. It’s taken four. My car broke down. Twice.”







The officer pointed to the duffel. “What is in the bag?” “Scientific instrumentation.” Simon reached back and unzipped the top.







The Mexican officer frowned over the complicated apparatus. “It looks like a bomb.”







“I know. Or a vacuum cleaner.” He swallowed against a dry throat. “I get that a lot.”







The officer handed back Simon’s passport and letter. “Welcome to Mexico, señor.”







Simon restarted the motor and drove away. He kept his hands tight on the wheel and his eyes on the empty road ahead. There was no need to be afraid. He was not carrying drugs. He was not breaking any law. This time. But the memory of other border crossings kept his heart rate amped to redline as he drove slowly past the snapping flags and the dark federales’ cars.







His attention was caught by a man leaning against a dusty SUV. The Mexican looked odd from every angle. He was not so much round as bulky, like an aging middleweight boxer. Despite the heat, he was dressed in a beige leather jacket that hung on him like a sweaty robe. The man had a fringe of unkempt dark hair and a scraggly beard. He leaned against the black Tahoe with the ease of someone out for a morning stroll. He caught Simon’s eye and grinned, then made a gun of his hand and shot Simon.







Welcome to Mexico.







A hundred meters beyond the border, the screen to his iPod map went blank, then a single word appeared: searching. Simon did not care. He could see his destination up ahead. The city of Ojinaga hovered in the yellow dust. He crossed Highway 10, the east-west artery that ran from the Atlantic to the Pacific. He drove past an industrial zone carved from the surrounding desert, then joined the city traffic.







Ojinaga grew up around him, a distinctly Mexican blend of poverty and high concrete walls. The city was pretty much as Vasquez had described. Simon’s former professor had dearly loved his hometown. Vasquez had spent his final two years at MIT yearning to return. The mountains he had hiked as a boy rose to Simon’s right, razor peaks that had never been softened by rain. Vasquez had bought a home where he could sit in his backyard and watch the sunset turn them into molten gold. But they looked very ominous to Simon. Like they barred his way forward. Hemming him in with careless brutality.















Between the border and downtown, Simon checked his phone six times. Just as Vasquez had often complained, there was no connection. Landline phone service wasn’t much bet- ter. Skype was impossible. Vasquez had maintained contact by e-mailing in the predawn hours. He had claimed to enjoy the isolation. Simon would have gone nuts.







The last time they had spoken had been almost two weeks earlier, when Vasquez declared he was on the verge of a break- through. After months of frustrating dead ends, Vasquez had finally managed to make their apparatus work. Since then, Simon had received a series of increasingly frantic e-mails, imploring him to come to Mexico to present the device to the city council.







What neither of them ever mentioned was the real reason why Vasquez had taken early retirement and returned to his hometown in the first place. Which was also the reason why Simon had made this trip at all. To apologize for the role he had played in the demise of Vasquez’s career. That was something that had to be done face-to-face.







Simon found a parking spot on the main plaza. Downtown Ojinaga was dominated by a massive central square, big as three football fields. Simon imagined it must have really been some- thing when it was first built. Now it held the same run-down air as the rest of the town. A huge Catholic church anchored the opposite side of the plaza. The trees and grass strips lining the square were parched and brown. Skinny dogs flitted about, snarling at one another. Drunks occupied the concrete benches. Old cars creaked and complained as they drove over topes, the speed bumps lining the roads. In a nearby shop-front window, two women made dough and fed it into a tortilla machine.







The city office building looked ready for demolition. Several windows were cracked. Blinds hung at haphazard angles, giving the facade a sleepy expression. A bored policeman slumped in the shaded entrance. Simon entered just as the church bells tolled the hour.







The guard ran his duffel back through the metal detector three times, while another officer pored over the letter from the city council. Finally they gestured him inside and pointed him down a long corridor.



The door to the council meeting hall was closed. Simon heard voices inside. He debated knocking, but Vasquez had still not arrived. Simon visited the restroom and changed into a clean shirt. He stuffed his dirty one down under the apparatus. He shaved and combed his hair. His eyes looked like they had become imprinted with GPS road maps, so he dug out his eye- drops. Then he took a moment and inspected his reflection.







Simon was tall enough that he had to stoop to fit his face in the mirror. His hair was brownish-blond and worn rakishly long, which went with his strong features and green eyes and pirate’s grin. Only he wasn’t smiling now. There was nothing he could do to repay Vasquez for what happened, except help him get the city’s funding so they could complete the project. Then Simon would flee this poverty-stricken town and try to rebuild his own shattered life.







He returned to the hall, settled onto a hard wooden bench, and pulled out his phone. For once, the phone registered a two- bar signal.







Simon dialed Vasquez and listened to the phone ring. The linoleum floor by his feet was pitted with age. The hallway smelled slightly of cheap disinfectant and a woman’s perfume. Sunlight spilled through tall windows at the end of the corridor, forming a backdrop of brilliance and impenetrable shadows.



When the professor’s voice mail answered, he said, “It’s Simon again. I’m here in the council building. Growing more desperate by the moment.” The door beside him opened, and Simon turned away from the voices that spilled out. “Professor Vasquez, I really hope you’re on your way, because—”







“Excuse me, señor. You are Simon Orwell, the professor’s great friend?”







Simon shut his phone and rose to his feet. “Is he here?”







The two men facing him could not have been more different. One was tall, not as tall as Simon, but he towered over most Mexicans. And handsome. And extremely well groomed. The other was the product of a hard life, stubby and tough as nails. The only thing they shared was a somber expression.







Even before the elegant man said the words, Simon knew.  “I am very sorry to have to tell you, Señor Simon. But Professor Vasquez is dead.” “No, that’s . . . What?”







“Allow me to introduce myself. Enrique Morales, I am the mayor of Ojinaga. And this is Pedro Marin, the assistant town manager and my trusted ally.”







“Vasquez is dead?”







“A heart attack. Very sudden.”







“He thought the world of you, Señor Simon.” Pedro spoke remarkably clear English.







The mayor was graceful even when expressing condolences. “Nos lamentanos mucho. We lament with you, Señor Simon, in this dark hour.”







For some reason, Simon found it easier to focus upon the smaller man. “You knew the professor?”







“He was a dear friend. My sister and I and Dr. Harold, per- haps you have heard of him? The professor was very close to us all.”







“You’re sure about Vasquez?”







“Such a tragedy.” The mayor was around his midthirties and had a politician’s desire to remain the center of attention. “You came all the way from Boston, is that not so? We are glad you made it safely. And we regret this news is here to greet you.”







“I . . . we’re scheduled to meet the city council.”







A look flashed between the two men. “I believe they have completed their other business, yes? Pedro will escort you. I must hurry to the city’s outskirts. We are dedicating a new water treatment facility. Long in coming. But so very needed. It is our attempt to aid the poorest citizens of our community. Like the professor’s bold project, no? So very noble.”







Enrique was clearly adept at filling uncomfortable vacuums. “Please join me for dinner tonight. Yes? Splendid. We will meet and we will talk and I will see what I can do to assist you through this dark hour. The restaurant by the church. Nine o’clock.”



Enrique turned and spoke a lightning-swift sentence to Pedro, whose nod of acceptance shaped a half bow. The mayor’s footsteps clipped rapidly down the hall. He tossed quick greetings to several people as he departed, clapped the senior guard on the shoulder, thanked the second guard who opened the door for him, and was gone.







Simon stared into the empty sunlight at the corridor’s end, wishing the floor would just open up and swallow him whole.







Then he realized Pedro was waiting for him. “This way, señor. The council will see you now.”

Wednesday, September 04, 2013

My Review - The Promise by Dan Walsh & Gary Smalley



THE PROMISE is the second installment in The Restoration Series by Dan Walsh and Gary Smalley.  And though it was well written, I didn’t find the storyline as captivating as THE DANCE, the first book in the series.

THE PROMISE follows the lives of Tom and Jean Anderson, a dysfunctional couple, though they don’t even realize it.

Tom has lost his job and has spent the last five months lying to Jean.  He’s withheld the fact that he is unemployed and they are about to lose everything.  He never intended such an elaborate charade, but as time marched on, he got deeper and deeper into his deception.  

Jean on the other hand has just found out she’s pregnant, but since Tom has acted so odd of late, she hasn’t told him yet.  Everything comes to a head when Jean goes to the doctor’s to confirm her pregnancy and finds out they are without medical insurance.

What transpire between Tom and Jean is a reevaluation of themselves, as marriage partners, and their dysfunctional marriage.  

THE PROMISE was okay, but at times the heaviness made me feel depressed.  Since three-fourths of the book detailed Tom’s spiraling life, the redemptive story was tied up so quickly, I didn’t really feel uplifted.  I felt the revelation of Jean’s pregnancy never even impacted Tom.  It was handled in such a blasé way while I would’ve expected a little more emotion on both sides.  I did feel it was a good reminder for young parents on how you should be an encouragement to your kids and how negatively your words and actions can stunt the emotional growth of your children if you withhold positive reinforcement. Overall, an okay story.

Book provided for review purposes.

Available August 2013 at your favorite bookseller from Revell, a division of Baker Publishing Group.