#bookreviewer – Page 88 – Rosepoint Publishing

Fatal Solutions (A Crossword Puzzle Mystery Book 3) by Becky Clark – #BookReview – #cozycrafts

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

1 ACROSS: HUMAN REMAINS

Creating crossword puzzles for the Chestnut Station Chronicle won’t allow Quinn Carr to quit her diner waitress job any time soon. But it does provide an outlet for her organizational OCD, and also lets her leave subtle hints for police chief Myron Chestnut, an avid puzzler, when his investigations need some direction. Some mysteries, though, leave even Quinn stumped—like the property deed she finds in her grandfather’s old desk. The document lists Quinn’s mother as the owner of some land on the outskirts of Chestnut Station, but Georgeanne refuses to discuss it.

8 LETTERS, STARTS WITH “S”

Quinn visits the site, located near a World War II Japanese internment camp that’s since been turned into a museum. There she unearths a weathered Japanese doll…and a skeleton. Before she can uncover a killer, she has to identify the victim. Was it an inmate trying to escape? A guard? Or someone closer to home? As Quinn fills in the blanks, she finds an unexpected link between her family and Chief Chestnut’s—one that could spell more deadly trouble…

My Review:

The third in the Crossword Puzzle Mystery series and these just keep getting better.

Quinn and her best friend Loma find an old skull on a piece of property that Quinn was checking out. The property is by a WWII Japanese Internment Camp in Colorado turned museum.

The author has created fully developed and very unique individuals and we get an additional perspective of the support characters as Quinn go about quietly trying to solve several puzzling problems. Who did the skull belong to? Why was it there? And what of the Daruma doll found nearby? Why does her mother deny the property?

I get a kick out of the imaginative, quirky characters Ms Clark has crafted—so real, including her mother with the outrageous food recipes, police chief Chestnut, and the old boys at the diner where Quinn waits tables. Now there’s a bunch to draw to!

Quinn struggles with several problems. First, she has OCD. Not just the kind where you straighten objects, or check something twice. I’m talking real, classic, debilitating OCD and she creates crossword puzzles for the local paper on the QT. Once she’s given a puzzle, such as the bones on the property her mother is denying, and the Daruma doll she is beyond compelled to answer the questions. The sessions with her therapist are always fun as well.

There is a strongly connected sense between she and the support characters. They know one another, like, appreciate, and enjoy each other. I enjoy the author’s wacky sense of humor and turn of phrase.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the publisher and NetGalley and these are my honest thoughts. (Crossword puzzles and her mom’s crazy recipes at the back.) I was also given the opportunity to read the first two and thoroughly enjoyed Punning With Scissors as well. Currently on pre-order and I recommend you do so.

Book Details:

Genre: Cozy Crafts & Hobbies Mystery, Cozy Craft & Hobby Mysteries, Amateur Sleuth Mysteries
Publisher: Lyrical Press
ASIN: B08Z65YYV3
Print Length: 208 pages
Publication Date: November 9, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Becky Clark is the seventh of eight kids, which explains both her insatiable need for attention and her atrocious table manners. She likes to read funny books so it felt natural to write them too. She surrounds herself with quirky people and pets who end up as characters in her books. Her stout-hearted dog keeps her safe from menacing squirrels, leaves, and deer, but not plastic bags. Those things are terrifying.

Readers say her books are “fast and thoroughly entertaining” with “witty humor and tight writing” and “humor laced with engaging characters” so you should “grab a cocktail and enjoy the ride.” They also say “Warning: You will laugh out loud. I’m not kidding,” and “If you like Janet Evanovich, you will like Becky Clark.”

Becky won the 1st place “Best in Category” Mystery & Mayhem Award from the Chanticleer International Book Awards for Fiction Can Be Murder, book one in the Mystery Writer’s Mystery series.

Visit http://www.BeckyClarkBooks.com for all kinds of fun. While you’re there, be sure to subscribe to her “So Seldom It’s Shameful” newsletter. You’ll hear about new releases, get the chance to win fabulous prizes, find out about book promotions from her and others, read interviews from new-to-you authors, and more. (As you might have gleaned from the title, she won’t inundate your inbox, either.)

If you want to connect more often, join Becky’s Book Buddies on Facebook … https://www.facebook.com/groups/beckysbookbuddies/

Follow Becky Clark here on Amazon, on BookBub, and at Goodreads. If you enjoy her books, she’d swoon if you left a review. Yes, swoon.

The Silent Witness: (Detective Amanda Steele Book 3) by Carolyn Arnold – #BookReview – #noircrime

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

It’s 4 a.m. when her mom shakes her awake. “Get up baby, we’re going to play hide and seek.” The little girl presses back into the dark space, holding her breath as she hears the shots ring out. She knows she’s next…

When the bodies of a local family are discovered on a quiet street in the small town of Dumfries, Virginia, Detective Amanda Steele takes charge of the case. Brett and Angela Parker were shot three times each, leaving no hope of survival, and their tidy suburban home has been ransacked. But there is no sign of their beloved six-year-old, Zoe.

Zoe is the same age as Amanda’s daughter was when she died, and Amanda can’t bear the thought of another little girl in danger. She’s organizing a search for the child, when she notices something strange about the ottoman at the foot of the Parkers’ bed. She opens it to find Zoe, mute and traumatized, but alive.

With Zoe completely uncommunicative, Amanda must find another way to untangle what destroyed this seemingly perfect family. It’s clear that the killer is searching for something the Parkers had, and until she has this monster behind bars, Amanda fears that he may return for Zoe. When she learns that Brett Parker cut short the family’s recent lakeside vacation, she wonders why. What happened at that lake house, and did it ultimately get them killed?

Amanda heads out to Lake Chesdin on the feeling it might be key to the case, and when she finds a cell phone in the murky waters next to the Parker cabin, she knows she’s made a breakthrough. But then terrible news reaches her from Dumfries; Zoe has been taken from her school playground.

Someone wants to silence the Parker family for good, can Amanda catch them before the little girl she’s desperate to protect pays the price?

His Review:

Brett, Angela and their daughter were in the wrong place at a bad time. How could their first family vacation turn out so wrong? Brett loved to take pictures but the pictures he took that fateful morning should not have happened. Frantically he had the women in his life hide in their master bedroom.

Amanda Steele is a first-rate detective who loves her job. One of the down sides of the job is investigating horrific crimes. Her working relationship with her office is basically great except for her boss. For some unknown reason her boss seems to hate her and puts her down every chance she gets

Investigating the murder scene Amanda notes they are a young couple with a child nearly the age of her own. The couple is killed by apparent professionals and the little girl is nowhere to be found. Was she staying with relatives or had she been away for a weekend with a friend? The child named Zoe is found in a storage ottoman in the dead couples’ bedroom.

The killings had occurred quickly and efficiently, but why? Thankfully her mothers’ last act was to hide the child in the ottoman. Terrified she did not make a sound and stayed totally still. The killers had overlooked her. Can Amanda keep the child safe while investigating the crime?

Ms. Arnold builds a strong case for methodical investigative tactics. Her heroine is hobbled by the responsibility to keep young Zoe safe while investigating the deaths. She is aggravated by the fact that the papers in their zeal to report sensational crimes mentioned that the child was the only one to escape the massacre.

This tale develops at a fast clip and I found it hard to put the book down. The total lack of compassion or sympathy toward the two victims and their daughter raised a deep wish for revenge against the killers. How can someone kill a young mother in the same room as their daughter with no worries about the future of the child?

Amanda had lost her own daughter in a tragic accident in which she also lost her husband! She is torn between placing the child in Child Protective Service and possibly adopting her. Zoe is her daughter’s age.

The book is compelling and I applaud the author for her skill in story telling. 5 stars – CE Williams

Certainly not the first book reviewed for this author. I also enjoyed a few of the last, including Book 1 of this series, The Little Grave. We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Noir Crime, Serial Killers, Organized Crime Thrillers
Publisher: Bookouture
ASIN: B09236T3JF
Print Length: 324 pages
Publication Date: September 24, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: The Silent Witness [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

The Author: CAROLYN ARNOLD is an international bestselling and award-winning author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She has several continuing fiction series and has many published books. Her genre diversity offers her readers everything from cozy to hard-boiled mysteries, and thrillers to action adventures. Her crime fiction series have been praised by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining. This led to her adopting the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT™.

Carolyn was born in a small town and enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big city. Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive imagination insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch the hearts of millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and empower.

She currently lives near London, Ontario, Canada with her husband and two beagles.

Traveller Probo: Traveller Book 2 (Traveller Series) by Rob Shackleford–#BookReview – #TimeTravelScienceFiction

Book Blurb:

Would you survive if sent one-thousand years into the past?
Development of the Transporter saw highly trained researchers, called Travellers, successfully sent one-thousand years back in time to early medieval Saxon England.
Traveller Missions now mean enormous national prestige and the recovery of priceless lost artefacts and knowledge, so nations vie for the use of the Transporter and more daring Traveller missions are planned. Politics and power soon come into play.
To study lost peoples and civilisations, Special Forces researchers have to be even better trained, equipped and prepared to put their lives on the line.
While Michael Hunter continues to build a life in Saxon England, the tragically injured Tony Osborne finds his resurgence in a mission to ancient Byzantine Turkey, a mission Professor Adrian Taylor joins to better outmanoeuvre his calculating academic colleagues.
From the misty shores of New Zealand to the shining splendour of the ancient Byzantine Empire, it is proved how sending modern researchers into the past carries enormous rewards and tragedies.

Book 2 – Part 1 – (Redux my review)

New Zealand won the rights to receive the second team but is quickly discovered by the local Maori natives and the New Zealand Traveller mission ends on a tragic note resulting in litigation, public media, and private scrutiny.

After the initial (Saxon) mission, the public became avid voyeurs of historical life through the reality TV show (“Hunter in Saxon England) which spun off an entire industry including licensed merchandise. There are stringent new rules and regs designed to avoid the catastrophic New Zealand mission also sparking new moral arguments of invading the peoples of a millennium ago.

The decision is made that the team of researchers should next go to the Byzantine Empire where it was possible to discover art and architecture, music, and food.

Book 2 – Part 2 (my review)

The demand for the original Transporter explodes as knowledge of the equipment and possibilities spread and the ability to duplicate the original Transporter proceeds. Debate continues regarding the fair use of the machine as well as the extent of the contact with indigenous peoples.

The machine is jointly owned and funded by Helguard Security, Woomera Technologies, Transporter Corp., and the British Military. The decision had been made that the third mission was to be to Byzantinium Empire. However, there are multiple nations now vying for a Traveller slot and the political shift moves strongly to the US with a Mississippi Traveller mission (to the ancient city of Cahokia—near St Louis, Missouri), as well as to the Ukraine/Russia. A duplicate Traveller machine is apparently successful and already in contention.

The POV shifts from main characters and locations to background subterfuge and skips back again to the original Saxon Aengland location and succeeding Traveller mission locations. In addition, separate humanitarian as well as military missions, such as the Project Healthy Giolgrave mission are forming and taking place, the latter against the wishes of the original Saxon Traveller, Michael Hunter, wherein they are bringing modern day medicine to the citizens of 11th Century England. (A huge no-no!)

I would suggest your starting with Book 1, Traveller Inceptio, but if this grabs you (and it should), it could actually work as an immersive standalone.

Tune in for Part 3 for the wrap up review and my rating on Thursday, Sept 23 as I journey one thousand years into history with the Travellers.

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and these are my honest opinions. There is more to come.

Book Details:

Genre: Time Travel Science Fiction, Time Travel Fiction, Science Fiction Adventure
ASIN: B0938K6MKP
Print Length: 506 pages
Publication Date: April 22, 2021
Source: Author request

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: An English-born Australian, Rob Shackleford has lived in New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, with a varied career that has included Customs Officer, Scuba Instructor, College Teacher and management roles in too many places.

With degrees in the Arts and Business, he is mad keen on travel, Scuba diving, Family History, martial arts, astronomy, and playing Djembe and Congas. Despite that, he is actually not that boring.

Rob is father of two and has made his green escape with his lovely lady into Australia’s Gold Coast hinterland.

Crossing Lines: A Spellbinding CIA Romantic Suspense Thriller by Adrienne Giordano – #BookReview – #domesticthrillers – #tuesdaybookblog

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

CIA operative Elizabeth Aiken is on her own. After a rescue operation in Venezuela goes south and her cover is blown, Elizabeth barely escapes the country with her life. Set adrift by the Agency and with a price on her head, she seeks out the only person who can help her disappear.

Viper.

Unfortunately, the devastatingly attractive former operative wants nothing to do with her or the cartel-backed Venezuelan president who wants her dead. Worse still, if Elizabeth’s not careful, she’ll end up losing her heart instead of watching her back…and there’s no room for mistakes with assassins hot on her trail.

Helping her could destroy everything he’s worked for.

Former Marine-turned-CIA operative.
Current bar owner.
All-around badass.

Shane “Viper” Quinn has spent years constructing the perfect cover, and he’s not about to sacrifice it for a woman he barely knows. Even if she is strong and beautiful and makes him long for sultry nights that could destroy his carefully crafted life.
Still, Shane is forced to fight his growing attraction to the fearsome ex-agent while keeping her in one piece. Elizabeth’s enemies are now his enemies—and they aren’t going to stop until everyone who stands against them is eliminated. Will having the deadly Viper by her side be enough to save her?

His Review:

Killing, even in self-defense, is not always an acceptable activity. When the father of the victim is the president of a South American country, running and anonymity is the only answer. Elizabeth Aiken has changed her name and gone underground. A world class assassin is on her trail with a large bounty for her demise. Once made, an operative is no longer useful and the CIA has left her on her own!

Shane Quinn is an ex-CIA operative in basically the same position. He started a business in Chicago and is staying below the radar to survive. He takes a liking to Elizabeth and decides to help her. She is a small but hardly diminutive woman who has spent her life in self-supporting roles. Her dark eyes captivate this blue-eyed hunk of a man. Yes, he tries to shake her, but desperation keeps her around like a dirty shirt on a camping trip.

The South American dictator knew his son was a psychopathic killer and enjoyed torturing his captives, but is that any reason to kill him? One of his life’s goals is to capture this bitch and inflict a slow and painful death and running can only get an ex- agent so far. The paychecks are no longer coming from the government and Liz is on her own. Surely it is only a matter of time before her painful death will be gratifyingly completed.

The author builds a budding romance between Shane and Liz. Thrown together by the desperate need of the young woman and her Sir Galahad, this story is very entertaining and brisk. Shane tries every trick in the book to conceal Liz’s whereabouts and save her from a painful death. His background and history make this a very dangerous endeavor. Can he save her, be her knight in shining armor, and keep her alive? CE Williams

This well-developed story is very entertaining and will keep you on the edge of your seat–-or sofa. There are no dragging chapters and I feel this author will become one of your favorites as well. 5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Political Thrillers & Suspense, Women’s Adventure Fiction
Publisher: ALG Publishing
ASIN: B099X99MXY
Print Length: 376 pages
Publication Date: To be released September 14, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Crossing Lines [Amazon]
Barnes and Noble
Kobo

Add to Goodreads

The Author: Adrienne Giordano is a USA Today bestselling author of over thirty romantic suspense and mystery novels. She is a Jersey girl at heart, but now lives in the Midwest with her ultimate supporter of a husband, sports-obsessed son and Elliot, a snuggle-happy rescue. Having grown up near the ocean, Adrienne enjoys paddleboarding, a nice float in a kayak and lounging on the beach with a good book. For more information on Adrienne’s books, please visit www.AdrienneGiordano.com.

©CE Williams – V Williams

The Couple Next Door: A Novel by Shari Lapena – #Audiobook Review – #psychologicalthrillers

Book Blurb:

An instant New York Times best seller

“I read this novel at one sitting, absolutely riveted by the storyline. The suspense was beautifully rendered and unrelenting!” (Sue Grafton, New York Times best-selling author of X)

It all started at a dinner party…

A domestic suspense debut about a young couple and their apparently friendly neighbors – a twisty, rollercoaster ride of lies, betrayal, and the secrets between husbands and wives….

Anne and Marco Conti seem to have it all – a loving relationship, a wonderful home, and their beautiful baby, Cora. But one night, when they are at a dinner party next door, a terrible crime is committed. Suspicion immediately lands on the parents. But the truth is a much more complicated story. Inside the curtained house, an unsettling account of what actually happened unfolds.

Detective Rasbach knows that the panicked couple is hiding something. Both Anne and Marco soon discover that the other is keeping secrets, secrets they’ve kept for years. What follows is the nerve-racking unraveling of a family – a chilling tale of deception, duplicity, and unfaithfulness that will keep you breathless until the final shocking twist.

My Review:

Of course I’d heard of this author for some time but didn’t have an opportunity for a book. This time I saw an audiobook copy for this one, released in 2016. Mercy!

Being an older book and armed with the blurb, this gripping tale doesn’t need a lot of introduction. A young couple with a new baby backed by rich parents (hers), they have the home, a business, and the appearance of “having it all.”

Maybe.

Behind closed doors, however, is a young husband worried about his business, a new mom who is having difficulty coping with a fussy infant, and parents with attitude. It is the tangled story of couples keeping secrets from each other, the new mom feeling unattractive, her husband neglected and attracted to Cynthia next door. It is during Cynthia’s dinner party that Anne and Marco’s baby is abducted. Marco had assured her that in the absence of the babysitter, a last-minute cancellation, they could use the baby monitor and check in on her every half hour. After all, they were only next door.

Anne is a fragile personality suffering postpartum depression. Marco wanted a few more drinks, time to flirt with Cynthia, and it was late when they returned home to find Cora missing from her crib.

Here is a case for unreliable narrator. The storyline spins a lot of effort justifying leaving the baby, Anne is crazy over the top with guilt, the parents are incensed. Then there is the police who are having a problem swallowing any of it.

Something doesn’t add up.

Not easy to cozy up with any of the characters. Marco is beside himself for another reason, as are her parents. There is a lot of deceiving, misconception, and tension that intensifies into the plot. It might be faster paced were it not for the same theme of guilt and justification repeated so many times, each time, however, adding an additional little wrinkle.

Not just one or two twists but then the bomb, the final well placed bulls eye in the conclusion that totally knocks the reader off their rocker. What? NO! I hated that one and couldn’t believe that was how it ended.

Well, phooey. I didn’t expect that. Definitely a slow burning thriller with a killer (get it?) ending.

Did you read this one? Disappointed in the ending as I was? Shocked? So was I.

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Fiction, Crime Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Penguin Audio
ASIN: B01IIABQYC
Listening Length: 8 hrs 40 mins
Narrator: Kirsten Potter
Publication Date: August 23, 2016
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: The Couple Next Door [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Four Stars

The Author: Shari Lapena

The Narrator: Kirsten Potter, a graduate of the Boston University School for the Arts, has performed on stage, film, and television, including roles on Medium, Bones, and Judging Amy. An award-winning audiobook narrator.

Happy Thursday!

August Rosepoint Reviews Recap—Welcome September!

Rosepoint Reviews-August Recap

The hunt for a house for our daughter continued through July and after several offers and two failed home inspections exhausted the inventory in Missouri. The hunt for a home then progressed into Michigan. The available homes in the southern area of Michigan and slightly more temperate winters than the extremes of the Upper Penisula was very narrow and also quickly exhausted. Then, last week, the kids found a home in the southern area of Illinois.

Definitely NOT where I’d ever expected they would find the home that checked off most of their boxes. Still, it’s a cute little “dollhouse,” (real estate speak for LITTLE house) with some acreage, perfect for the two of them and their needs. The home just passed the home inspection with flying colors. Hopefully we’ll be in moving mode within weeks (even given the current crazy real estate climate which is apparently nationwide and now spreading into the rental market as well).

I’ve been trying to keep a somewhat regular posting review schedule, but social media and my graphics have suffered with little attention to either. Shamefully, I’ve resorted to shortcuts.

We posted seventeen book reviews for August that included ARCs from NetGalley, author requests, and audiobooks from our local library.

Funny Farm by Laurie Zaleski
The Long Call by Ann Cleeves – audiobook
Love in a Time of Hate by Matthew Langdon Cost
The Ghost Campers Tall Tales by Elizabeth Pantley–Paranormal–blog tour
Striking Range by Margaret Mizushima
The Good Guy by Dean Koontz – audiobook
Landscape of a Marriage by Gail Ward Olmsted
Murder on Honky Tonk Row by Rita Morea
The Secret Staircase by Sheila Connelly
Two Kinds of Truth by Michael Connelly – audiobook
Target Churchill by Warren Adler
The Final Days of Abbot Montrose by Sven Elvestad
The Sea Bandits by Amanda Hughes
Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney – audiobook
The Harp and the Rose by Jean Grainger
Frigate by John Wingate
The Necklace by Matt Witten

I still haven’t been able to keep up with my challenges. At a 127 count on Goodreads, I am well ahead of the game on that one. And my Historical Challenge has been met, anything now is gravy. Don’t forget to check them out at #histficreadingchallenge. You can check out my challenges progress (however far behind it is) by clicking on my Reading Challenges page.

In the meantime, WordPress did another number on their free bloggers and suddenly I was unable to update any of my widgets. I have several dynamic widgets, the most active being #comingsoon and totally locked out of it, frantically wrote the “happiness engineers” a number of times before one of them finally realized what I was asking.

I don’t WANT to do block widgets but seems they are bound and determined to force the block editor. Finally, managed to get in and update the top widgit a couple days ago. Have you experienced the same problem? Finally succumbed to using blocks for everything? Am I the last holdout?

Welcome to my new followers and thank you again to all my active followers, I so appreciate your continued participation and hope this new wave of Covid and all it’s variants are not impacting you and yours.

Frigate (The Cold War Naval Thriller Series Book 1) by John Wingate – #BookReview – Alternative History

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Don’t miss this gripping naval thriller! Perfect for fans of Clive Cussler, Douglas Reeman and Duncan Harding.

Is the Cold War about to turn hot?

When Captain Pascoe Trevellion of the Royal Navy is drafted on to the frigate Icarus, he knows a tense time lies ahead. With the spectre of nuclear war looming ever closer, the Cold War is entering a crucial phase, and NATO must respond to the escalating threat.

Trevellion, whose calm and dignified exterior conceals a tragic personal secret, barely has time to greet his new crew before Icarus is plunged into a war simulation exercise.

But the danger becomes all too real when an unexpected encounter between Icarus and a Russian submarine leads to a Soviet counter-attack.

As the battle arena shifts to northern Norway, the Soviets become suspicious of NATO’s motives.

Amidst sub-zero conditions, the Cold War escalates, and the world teeters on the brink of annihilation.

Could nuclear warfare become a reality? And can Trevellion and his men do anything to stop it?

Or will this clash of superpowers result in the ultimate devastation?

FRIGATE is the first book in the Cold War Naval Thriller Series, gripping military action novels written in the 1980s as futuristic fiction. They can now be read as alternative history.

His Review:

Life aboard ship is never easy. Particularly if you are stationed in the North Sea or more northerly environs closer to the north pole. Icarus is an older but very capable frigate assigned to Pasco Trevellion. New commanders to any ship in the fleet are accepted with trepidation and skepticism by the ship’s company and crew. Trevellion taking charge of the Icarus is no exception.

A shakedown cruise quickly points out the capable sailors and seamen and the ones that require special observation and discipline. The crew of Icarus in turn are scrutinizing their new commanding officer with disdain. They miss their old commander and are chaffing at the changes in operational methods aboard ship.

The shakedown cruise is to prepare ship and crew for deployment. The Icarus will join a NATO fleet in the northern waters to contain the Soviet fleet from breaking out and controlling the northern seaways from Finland and Iceland. The Russians broadcast that they are responding to a request from the countries to keep their waterways and harbors open. The Russians enjoy larger and more sophisticated vessels and are like a bully in a new neighborhood.

The dialogue in this novel is extremely well written and uses copious naval terminology. I found myself rushing to Wikipedia to decode some of the more obscure naval terminology. Newer young sailors always test their new Captain’s patience and abilities. Distrust of a new commander goes without saying.

On station, the Icarus and other ships in the containing NATO force work to contain the breakout of the Russian submarine fleet. The submarines are quicker and better equipped than most of the containment flotilla. The action becomes fast and furious as the naval blockade fails. CE Williams

Any reader who understands the Navy’s function on the world stage of checks and balances will enjoy this read. 5 stars – CE Williams

We received a complimentary review copy of this book from publisher through NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are his honest opinions.

Book Details:

Genre: Disaster Fiction, Alternate History Science Fiction, Alternative History
Publisher: Sapere Books
ASIN: B09C8YJ7KZ
Print Length: 193 pages
Publication Date: August 9, 2021
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link: Frigate [Amazon]

The Author: John Alan Wingate DSC was a successful novelist with some twenty-five books to his credit. Many of these had a naval theme. Frequently involving the submarine service, they gained much authenticity from Wingate’s personal wartime experiences. [Goodreads]

Sometimes I Lie by Alice Feeney – #Audiobook Review – #TBT

Book Blurb:

My name is Amber Reynolds. There are three things you should know about me:

I’m in a coma.
My husband doesn’t love me anymore.
Sometimes I lie.

Amber wakes up in a hospital. She can’t move. She can’t speak. She can’t open her eyes. She can hear everyone around her, but they have no idea. Amber doesn’t remember what happened, but she has a suspicion her husband had something to do with it.

Alternating between her paralyzed present, the week before her accident, and a series of childhood diaries from 20 years ago, this brilliant psychological thriller asks: Is something really a lie if you believe it’s the truth?

My Review:

Confusion reigned supreme. Well, perhaps not until about 75% into the book. Then the narrative earned the unreliable narrator stripes and I got lost. I only thought I was following along and had formed opinions. So much for that!

This is a tale of the twins from hell. I think. Were they actually twins or not? The writer’s prose fills the pages, building empathy on the one hand, derision on the other. That nasty sister! I think.

Becoming more twisted all the time, I became to question everything I’d heard. Wait a minute! Didn’t it say…a while ago…or maybe not. Wasn’t I paying attention?

What happened to the best friend, Taylor? Was that a best friend? An imaginary friend?

A sister?

I’m thinking OCD isn’t the only problem this woman has, this sister. Amber? Clare?

ARGH! At this point, I’m totally lost. Was there an Edward? What happened to him? And Madeline—that horrible boss. Or was that another lie? Was Amber really an on-air personality? Is Amber a survivor?

No character to like in this novel of chaos and mayhem. The reader may only have a modicum of empathy for Paul.

A book that prays on a fear most harbor—that of being trapped in a body, aware, but unable to manifest even the slightest notice of responsiveness. No blinking, finger twitching, or communication of any kind. Isn’t that why people were buried with a bell? A dead ringer? But if you were immobile…

So much mayhem. Why was none ever traced back?

And the conclusion. As inconclusive as the last quarter of the novel. Nothing to settle all the questions. Gees, I’m so confused, but I don’t think I’m that thrilled. Did you read this one? Agree with my assessment?

Book Details:

Genre: Domestic Thrillers, Psychological Thrillers
Publisher: Macmillan Audio
ASIN: B0771TZXW5Listening Length: 10 hrs 7 mins
Narrator: Stephanie Racine
Publication Date: March 13, 2018
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Sometimes I Lie [Amazon]

Rosepoint Publishing: Three point Five Stars

The Author: Alice Feeney is a New York Times bestselling author and journalist. Her debut novel, Sometimes I Lie, was an international bestseller, has been translated into over twenty languages, and is being made into a TV series by Warner Bros. starring Sarah Michelle Gellar. His & Hers is also being adapted for screen by Jessica Chastain’s Freckle Films. Alice was a BBC Journalist for fifteen years, and now lives in the British countryside with her family. Rock Paper Scissors is her fourth novel and is being made into a TV series for Netflix by the producer of The Crown. It will be published around the world in 2021.

The Narrator: Stephanie Racine is an actress, known for Shakespeare’s Globe: A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014), Holby City (1999) and The Royals (2015).