#NetGalley – Page 20 – Rosepoint Publishing

Splinter by Paul McHugh – #BookReview – #militarythrillers

Book Blurb:

On the shore of Oslo Fjord, teenagers Kristian Thorsen and Helene Berg
watch in shock and horror as their world is upended by a Nazi invasion.

Driven apart by tragedy and trauma, Helene and Kristian take different paths to join the Resistance, but fate soon swirls them back together. Like many who rebel against the invaders, they must become spies and covert warriors on the fly, making huge mistakes along the way. Yet even on such a tortuous path, they are surprised by moments of grace.

When Helene manages to steal secret Nazi plans for precision bombing of
England, Kristian launches a life-or-death mission to get this crucial
intelligence across the North Sea and into Allied hands. He’ll try anything to
defeat the fascist occupiers—and to win Helene’s heart.

His Review:

Norway declared itself neutral during WW II. Germany needs Norway’s fjords to hide and protect its mighty warships, therefore, Hitler offers to shield the citizens of Norway with Germany’s mighty warships. They send in the SS and other secret police to round up and dispatch any saboteurs that may be hiding in plain sight.

Kristian and his friend Helena believe that the occupation of their homeland by the Nazis is in fact an act of war against their country. Norway clings to its’ position of neutrality despite the presence of so many soldiers and naval troops. The citizens of Norway resist this occupation during a war they are not a part of.

Kristian decides to assist the Allies by providing troop and naval exercise information to the British. Having access to this information is vital to the ongoing war effort.

The Germans attack and even try to sink Norway’s fishing fleet. Kristian winds up providing valuable intel regarding the activities of the Nazi war machine to the British. This is accomplished by rowing a small kayak hundreds of kilometers across the North Sea to Allied forces. The voyages are harrowing and illuminate the tough and heroic conditions encountered by the patriots.

C E Williams This story is very illuminating and reveals the tenacity of the Norwegians. The read is fast and very satisfying. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Military Thrillers, War & Military Action Fiction
Publisher: Bronzeville Books
ASIN: B0C5FZJJ8V
Print Length: 399 pages
Publication Date: May 15, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley
Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

The Author: Paul McHugh, Bio

Q: How do you accurately summarize 40 years of professional writing?

A: I can’t! Best I can do is hit a few of the high points!

One rousing pinnacle was publication of “Deadlines,” which won the 2011 Best Mystery award from the Bay Area Independent Publishers Association and the 2011 Best Mystery prize from National Indie Excellence Awards.

“Deadlines,” (“a novel of murder, conspiracy and the media”) is based on author Paul McHugh’s 22 years at the San Francisco Chronicle as lead outdoor feature writer, editor and reporter. In that period, he also won awards for his environment, resource use and sports coverage.

[truancated]

Throughout his career, McHugh has maintained an adventurous outdoor lifestyle that informs his writing and invigorates his life. He was on the U.S. National Kayak Surfing Team in 1988, when it won a world championship at an international contest in Ireland. He ran all major rapids of the Grand Canyon on a 276-mile voyage in a whitewater kayak to celebrate his birthday in 2000. In 2005, he undertook his most ambitious project for the Chronicle, launching a 40-day, 400-mile sea kayak voyage from the Oregon border to San Francisco Bay. En route, he filed 36 stories in print and online, as well as five videocasts and four podcasts, covering environmental and social issues along the North Coast.

In addition, McHugh is an accomplished public speaker and stage performer. He has given keynote addresses at the 2007 Trails & Greenways Conference in San Francisco, the Osher Lifelong Learning Institute annual dinner in 2008, the California Biodiversity Council annual dinner in 2009, and gave three visiting writer lectures at U.C. Davis in 2010

He has been interviewed about his novel “Deadlines” in 2010 by Michael Krasny on KQED-FM, Rick Kleffel on KUSP-FM, Russell Sadler on Jefferson Public Radio, and Jeff Callahan on Capitol Public Radio. In 2011, he has presented solo speaking performances at the Mark Twain Cultural Center at Lake Tahoe, at the Gualala Art Center, and benefit lectures for the Siskiyou Mountain Foundation in Mount Shasta and the Solano Library Foundation in Fairfield.

McHugh was born in Homestead, Florida. He has a summa cum laude degree in English from Florida State University in Tallahasee.

More on McHugh’s background and writing history is posted at his site, paulmchugh.net

Enjoy Your Sunday

Drowning in the Desert by Bernard Schopen – #BookReview – #murderthrillers

A Nevada Noir Novel (Western Literature and Fiction Series)

Book Blurb:

Norman “Fats” Rangle, an ex-deputy sheriff, operates a horse stabling and excursion business with his brother and sister-in-law on their family ranch in the small rural community of Blue Lake, a few hours outside of Las Vegas. But fate has other plans for him when, high on a southern Nevada mountain range, Fats discovers the wreckage of a plane that crashed two years earlier. Although he reports his find to the sheriff, he does not disclose that someone had already been to the crash site—evidence that Fats deliberately destroyed.

Soon, Fats is tracking back and forth between Las Vegas and Blue Lake in a search for a missing cousin, a briefcase full of cash, and finally, for a killer. Along the way, Fats also begins to understand that he’s searching for himself and his place in a rapidly changing West.

Angry and alienated, Fats distrusts everyone he meets, from sleaze-merchants and political power brokers to two women: one he wants to believe in, a retired judge; and one, a police sergeant, he can’t quite believe isn’t deceiving him. After all, in this Nevada, corruption is a given. Everybody lies. Much is uncertain—motives, loyalties, affections. But in Drowning in the Desert, one thing is certain: water is a precious resource that can both kill and be killed for.

His Review:

Norman “Fats” Rangle had been the sheriff in Pinenut County Nevada for over twenty years. The electorate is fickle, however, and although Fats had a very good record, a more attractive person was elected Pinenut County sheriff. He finds an old plane wreck in the mountains after a particularly warm spring and he reports it to the new sheriff. But this is Vegas. And it is Nevada.

Plans are quietly being made by a clique of people around Las Vegas to corner the water sources in the state. They are ruthless and will let nothing stand in their way.

There is missing money from the plane wreck and as evidence would have it later, perhaps a missing cousin. Someone suddenly shows up with funds to play the games.

Fats begins to suspect those he reported to might not be trusted. This is big business. Huge. It’s getting dangerous. Should he continue to look for his cousin or missing funds. Who will have his back?

The author writes an intriguing tale of the struggle for water in Nevada and the group that attempts to control the resource. There is never a dull moment in the storyline, it is fast-paced with gritty, determined characters. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Murder Thrillers, Literature & Fiction
Publisher: University of Nevada Press
ISBN-10: ‎ 1647791189
ISBN-13: ‎ 978-1647791186
ASIN: B0C7VFQ8QF
Print Length: 221 pages
Publication Date: August 22, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Bernard Schopen received his degrees at the University of Washington and the University of Nevada, Reno. He held faculty positions at TMCC and at St. Anselm’s College in New Hampshire before returning to Reno to write and to teach. Since 1995 he has taught Core Humanities courses, and he is now a full-time lecturer in the program. He has taught thousands of students in all three courses, and trained other teachers in the program as well. He designed, and continues to teach, the online versions of all three CH courses for Extended Studies. In Spring 2007 he received the prestigious Alan Bible Teaching Excellence Award for the College of Liberal Arts and the College of Science. The prize augmented an earlier significant award: Schopen is an inductee into the Nevada Writers’ Hall of Fame, an honor recognizing his three Reno detective novels, The Big Silence, The Desert Look, and The Iris Deception, all now available from the University of Nevada Press. When not preparing his now award-winning lectures for Core Humanities, he is at work on another novel, this one set in London. [pic and bio courtesy Goodreads]

Enjoy Your Sunday

The Caretaker by Ron Rash – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

Rosepoint Rating: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

Told against the backdrop of the Korean War as a small Appalachian town sends its sons to battle, The Caretaker by award-winning author Ron Rash (“One of the great American authors at work today” —The New York Times) is a breathtaking love story and a searing examination of the acts we seek to justify in the name of duty, family, honor, and love.

It’s 1951 in Blowing Rock, North Carolina. Blackburn Gant, his life irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interaction with the living. But when his best and only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well.

Sixteen-year-old Naomi Clarke is an outcast in Blowing Rock, an outsider, poor and uneducated, who works as a seasonal maid in the town’s most elegant hotel. When Naomi eloped with Jacob a few months after her arrival, the marriage scandalized the community, most of all his wealthy parents who disinherited him. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer and closer until a shattering development derails numerous lives.

A tender examination of male friendship and rivalry as well as a riveting, page-turning novel of familial devotion, The Caretaker brilliantly depicts the human capacity for delusion and destruction all too often justified as acts of love.

My Review:

Blackburn is not your average protagonist. His mind is fine. It’s his body that isn’t, so he’s found solace in the relative peace of the cemetery that he oversees. He does have one good friend. Jacob Hampton doesn’t notice his physical differences. They are simpatico. Understand and trust each other. So much so that when Jacob is drafted, he leaves the care of his young wife to Blackburn, who takes that care very seriously.

The problem is the townspeople, who have likewise shunned the child, now wife, of the prominent son of wealthy parents who promptly thought Jacob lost his mind. Their efforts to separate the two are solidly rebuked. She’s an outcast, poor, uneducated, and ignorant. But she, too, has no problem with Blackburn.

I have to admit, I was slow in engaging with the teenager who captures Jacob’s heart. Jacob is expected to take over the business his parents have painstakingly nurtured until the success has made them very comfortable. He is bored stiff with that notion and has other ideas which serve to alienate him and his parents anyway–and marrying Naomi only widens the rift.

Jacob is an empathetic character. He is not as well developed as Blackburn, but still your heart goes out to him. It is with some trepidation then that Blackburn and Naomi form a bond–one that Naomi stupidly flaunts–further alienating the townspeople. The characters, including most support characters, are vivid, fleshed, and so easy to visualize.

It is beginning to look like Jacob may not return from overseas. Blackburn begins to relax a bit with his charge, a sensitive change that Naomi, pregnant with Jacob’s child welcomes. My heart is breaking for the road this plot is apparently taking and I begin urging the writer to say it isn’t so.

Jacob’s parents love him so much, they are willing to do anything to gain their son back if only he returns safely. It’s almost despicable. I kept thinking they’d soften. But what happens in conclusion is crushing, realistic. It leaves the reader stunned into acquiescence. And silence.

The prose is handled delicately, beautifully, and often in this literary narrative. The writing style is haunting and thought-provoking.

“Learning people were so much more than you thought, wasn’t that also part of no longer being a child?”

I received a complimentary review copy of this book from the author and publisher through @NetGalley that in no way influenced this review. These are my honest thoughts.

Book Details:

Genre: Small Town & Rural Fiction, US Historical Fiction, Historical Literary Fiction
Publisher: Doubleday
ASIN: B0BR4YJ97Q
Print Length: 272 pages
Publication Date: September 26, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Ron Rash is the author of the 2009 PEN/Faulkner Finalist and New York Times bestselling novel, Serena, in addition to three other prizewinning novels, One Foot in Eden, Saints at the River, and The World Made Straight; three collections of poems; and four collections of stories, among them Burning Bright, which won the 2010 Frank O’Connor International Short Story Award, and Chrmistry and Other Stories, which was a finalist for the 2007 PEN/Faulkner Award. Twice the recipient of the O.Henry Prize, he teaches at Western Carolina University.

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A Sagebrush Soul by John Isaac Jones – #BookReview – #biographicalfiction

A Biographical Novel of Mark Twain (Great American Authors Series Book 2)

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

John Isaac Jones’s new biographical novel on Samuel Langhorne Clemens, A/K/A Mark Twain, brings the fascinating life of America’s most famous humorist to you in vivid, captivating detail.

His time – 1840s-1910 America. Westward movement begins; the trail of tears; telegraph is invented; California gold rush; War between the States; Lincoln assassinated; the golden spike; Custer massacred; invention of electric light, the telephone and the automobile; the Spanish American war; the tumultuous presidency of Teddy Roosevelt; events leading to WWI.

His loves – His strait-laced, highly-religious mother Jane who vowed he was “born to be hanged!”; Laura Hawkins, his childhood sweetheart whom he was unable to commit to; Ina Coolbrith, the beautiful California poetess and lover who vowed to hold him; his beloved wife Olivia who urged him to become “a serious writer;” his oldest daughter Susan whom he worshipped from the day she was born until the day of her death.

His genius – Samuel Langhorne Clemens, news reporter, steamboat pilot, gold miner, lecturer, world-traveler, adventurer, author of the classic Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn books; the first man to circumnavigate the world on a steamship; singlehandedly invented the travelogue genre when he wrote Innocents Abroad; later books, including A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court, Roughing it, Life of the Mississippi and the short story, The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County, earned him the title “The father of American literature.”

His Review:

Growing up along the Mississippi River, Samuel Clemens was always getting into mischief. He and a boyhood friend, Tom Blankenship, are always having problems. Finally, Sam’s parents determine that Tom is leading their son down the road of perdition and forbid him to have any further contact with him. This relationship was the basis for the character Huckleberry Finn.

Sam’s boyhood town, Hannibal, Missouri, is located on the banks of the mighty Mississippi River. The town is a major port city and with deep water is able to take in many of the steamboats that ply the river. Sam falls in love with the idea of becoming a steamboat captain and sailing the route between New Orleans and Hannibal.

But he becomes a newspaper reporter and decides to head west to broaden his experience. He is swept up in the search for gold and he and a couple other guys search for the elusive metal near Carson City, NV and then the foothills of the Sierra Nevada Mountains. The three manage to eke out $8.00 per day after grueling twelve-hour days and decide this is not for them. They take their hard-earned savings and try to double it in San Francisco.

Sam marries a young lady and they decide to move and live back east. Life gives him many harsh lessons including losing his daughters and ultimately his wife. Life is not easy for Samuel Clemens and his alternate ego, Mark Twain, who with an abundance of life experience to write about, then becomes a great traveling orator and humorist. This book, however, reveals the difficult life that this American legend lived and the many tragedies that he experienced. 5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical Biographical Fiction, Biographical Fiction, Biographical Historical Fiction
Publisher: John Isaac Jones (1^st Edition)
ASIN: B0C55VKF7N
Print Length: 506 pages
Publication Date: May 12, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: John Isaac Jones is a retired journalist and novelist currently living and writing at Merritt Island, Florida. For more than thirty years, “John I.,” as he prefers to be called, was a reporter for media outlets throughout the world. These included local newspapers in my native Alabama, The National Enquirer, News of the World in London, the Sydney Morning Herald, and NBC television. His latest book, A Quiet Madness, is a work of historical fiction about the life of Edgar Allan Poe, author of the short story classics, The Tell-tale Heart and The Cask of Amontillado. Jones is the author of ten novels, two short story collections and five novellas. You can find “John I.” on his website, johnisaacjones.com, or on Facebook at author john Isaac Jones.

Have a Great Sunday

The Final Frame by Harmony Reed – #BookReview – #PsychologicalLiteraryFiction

Book Blurb:

He sacrificed his family for ambition — but now they’re all he has left.

Cameron Parrish became Hollywood’s #1 action director by refusing to use AI-assist technology. Every film is a box office success, but neither fame nor fortune makes up for the fact that Cameron’s dying to make real cinema — an Oscar-worthy movie that will show the world he’s an auteur, not the clever hack that the critics make him out to be.

But mere hours after being greenlit for the film he knows he was born to shoot, director Cameron Parrish is diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. There’s no treatment, and if he’s lucky, he might make it another year, but more likely, he’s got a few months left.

As word gets out about his illness, Cameron realizes he has no true friends. No real family either: his obsession with finding perfection behind the camera lens has long since alienated his ex-wife and his adult son.

Desperate to make his final days matter, he signs up for an experimental program that promises to help him discover the meaning of his life — and his death.

Accompanied by an artificial intelligence named Sofia, Cameron embarks on a bucket list journey — from the Maldives and Bhutan to Toledo and Morocco — designed to round out his unbalanced life and help him make peace with his impending death.

But what if it’s too late for Cameron to see the world through a new lens?

Eat, Pray, Love meets The Bucket List in this vibrant but poignant story exploring the possibility of second chances and the unexpected beauty of an imperfect life.

His Review:

Cameron Parrish is the premier director of films in Hollywood. Beyond the best in his own mind, he looked down his nose at anyone attempting to emulate him. After all, he had two Oscar-winning films to his credit. Everyone wanted to meet him and be involved in his next project.

But all of the fame in the world cannot overcome life’s cruel journey. Cameron is diagnosed with a very rampant stage 3 cancer which has no known cure. Yes, there are cures in the works but only signing up for experimental drugs may give him an opportunity for continued living. His doctor warns that the drug may cause side effects that will make his life worse than the disease itself. Cameron decides to forego the drug.

His final journey takes him to the far east where he makes the most out of every day he has left. His situation offers no future for any female unlucky enough to fall under his spell. The book is engaging and one cannot help but be sympathetic towards this total narcissist. Read and enjoy! 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Psychological Literary Fiction, Psychological Fiction
Publisher: Sterling & Stone
ASIN: B0BWPDYX4Y
Print Length: 297 pages
Publication Date: March 22, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Harmony Reed writes revelatory stories about what it means to live, how we can become more fully human, and how we can shed the lies we’ve been living by and embrace our truth. Her fiction melds the large-scale with the deeply-personal, yielding insight into the human psyche and the world we all must move through. If you enjoy authors like Michael Chabon and Jodi Picoult, movies like Big Fish and Little Miss Sunshine, or shows like Orange is the New Black and This is Us, you’ll love Harmony Reed.

Have a good Weekend!

Hard Country by Reavis Z Wortham – #BookReview – #crimethriller

Book Blurb:

There is no peace in the hard country

Tucker Snow is as tough as they come, hardened by decades working as an undercover narcotics agent for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Through special dispensation from the governor, he and his brother Harley cut a wide swath through the criminal element of Northeast Texas. But tragedy comes calling after taking a dream job as a special ranger with the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, when Tucker’s wife and toddler are killed in a horrific traffic accident caused by a drug addled felon. Close to breaking, Tucker sets his badge aside to move his surviving teenage daughter outside of Ganther Bluff, a quiet town with enough room for them to mourn their unexpected loss.

But peace doesn’t last long for a man like Tucker Snow. Instead of settling into small-town life to heal from such an unimaginable loss, a fresh kind of hell hits them with full force.

Crimes and secrets strangle this rural community, and when a new form of meth with the street name of gravel gets too close to home, it’s enough for Tucker to put his badge back on and call Harley for help. The town will ultimately be better off with him as a resident lawman, but this unforgiving landscape will threaten everything Tucker holds dear.

His Review:

Illegal drugs have hit every population in the world. Texas is no different and the law enforcement personnel in that state are charged with helping curb the epidemic. Riches can be made in drug dealing, however, and their primary goal is becoming rich. Human life means nothing to them.

Tucker and Harley Snow are agents swept up in trying to protect the public from these criminals. A new product enters the market with terrible social consequences, but dealers and distributors will kill to maintain their territory and income.

Tucker bought a beautiful spread in the panhandle and is settling in for a well-earned retirement. Since his wife and son were killed in a tragic car accident, he is left with his daughter Chloe on the ranch. His neighbor lives in a ratty mobile home and seems to have a very profitable business. He is not about to allow this lawman to come into his territory and destroy his enterprise.

This book is very well written and harkens back to some of the old Zane Grey’s westerns. The action is fast moving and at times very descriptive. The battle to control the effects on the American public of easily accessible drugs is similar to the wild west of a century earlier. Read and enjoy for there is never a dull moment. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book.

Rosepoint Publishing: Four point Five Stars

Book Details:

Genre: Murder, Police Procedurals, Crime Thrillers, Westerns
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
ASIN: B0BK2KDJYS
Print Length: (paperback) 400 pages
Publication Date: August 1, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: As a boy, award-winning writer, Reavis Z. Wortham hunted and fished the river bottoms near Chicota, Texas, the inspiration for the fictional setting for The Rock Hole and The Red River Mystery Series. He was born in Paris, Texas, but lived in Dallas. “We grew up in the city and went to school there, but every Friday evening my parents put us in the car and made the 120-mile drive to Chicota, where we truly lived at my grandparents’ place in the country until Sunday evening, when we came back to the city. Our real home was that little scratch farm in Lamar County.”

Author Reavis Z. Wortham’s first novel, The Rock Hole, is described by Kirkus Reviews as “an unpretentious gem written to the hilt and harrowing in its unpredictability.” Kirkus also listed it as one of the “Top 12 Mysteries of 2011.”

[truncated]

Reavis also penned Doreen’s 24 HR Eat Gas Now Café. More than 2,500 newspaper and magazine articles bear the byline of this award-winning Texas writer. The Rock Hole was a finalist in the prestigious Benjamin Franklin Award presented by the Independent Book Publishers Association, is a member of Mystery Writers of America, the Writers’ League of Texas, International Association of Crime Writers (North American Branch), and International Thriller Writers.

He lives with his wife, Shana, in northeast Texas.

Enjoy Your Sunday

Overkill by Sandra Brown – #AudiobookReview – #ThrowbackThursday

Book Blurb:

#1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown delivers a riveting thriller where a conflict of conscience for a former football star and an ambitious state prosecutor swiftly intensifies into a fight for their lives.

Former Super Bowl MVP quarterback Zach Bridger hasn’t seen his ex-wife, Rebecca Pratt, for some time—not since their volatile marriage imploded—so he’s shocked to receive a life-altering call about her. Rebecca has been placed on life support after a violent assault, and he—despite their divorce—has medical power-of-attorney. Zach is asked to make an impossible choice: keep her on life support or take her off of it. Buckling under the weight of the responsibility and the glare of public scrutiny, Zach ultimately walks away, letting Rebecca’s parents have the final say.

Four years later, Rebecca’s attacker, Eban—the scion of a wealthy family in Atlanta—gets an early release from prison. The ludicrous miscarriage of justice reeks of favoritism, and Kate Lennon, a brilliant state prosecutor, is determined to put him back behind bars. Rebecca’s parents have kept her alive all these years, but if her condition were to change—if she were to die—Eban could be retried on a new charge: murder.

It isn’t lost on Zach that in order for Eban to be charged with Rebecca’s murder, Zach must actually be the one to kill her. He rejects Kate’s legal standpoint but can’t resist their ill-timed attraction to each other. Eban, having realized the jeopardy he’s in, plots to make certain that neither Zach nor Kate lives to see the death of Rebecca—and the end of his freedom.

My Review:

Have you ever found yourself requesting the same book? Or attracted by the cover and blurb, loaned the audiobook from the library a year later? I’ve done so, more than once. This time, however, it was a book from NetGalley requested last year that the CE read and reviewed. It wasn’t until I began preparing for this review that I ran across his review, a shortened version included below. We were fairly close in agreement with this one.

Zach Bridger was apparently a Super Bowl quarterback of some renown, as he was often recognized. His marriage to Rebecca was a short, unhappy one. She ended up on life support with what appeared to be Zach’s responsibility as her father could not, would not “pull the plug.”

First, a former star quarterback was a bit difficult for me to find fully engaging, although I did appreciate his philosophy regarding Rebecca. Kate Lennon has a stake in seeing that Eban should still be held accountable after his release. She is smart, driven, and effective in her role as a state prosecutor. Of course, Zach and Rebecca will become romantically involved.

“She placed her hand on his chest, ‘Thank you for saving by life.’ ‘Thank you for coming into mine.’” [Zach]

I thought the age-old struggle of the “right thing” to do was handled well, including both points of view but for me, the middle of the narrative sagged a bit going into the conclusion. What finally ticked up the interest was that little zinger in the end.

Love those twists you don’t see coming and this one caught me by surprise. The philosophy of the situation ended in a stalemate—but it’s that end run with the legalese that provides the satisfying ending.

I downloaded a copy of this audiobook with narration by Kyf Brewer from my local well-stocked library. These are my honest thoughts. 4 stars

Book Details:

Genre: Crime Fiction, Contemporary Romance, Suspense
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing
ASIN: B09WTLHHVK
Listening Length: 10 hrs 10 mins
Narrator: Kyf Brewer
Publication Date: August 16, 2022
Source: Local Library (Audiobook Selections)
Title Link: Overkill [Amazon]

His Review:

[redacted] Rebecca Pratt Bridger is confined to a hospital bed. She has very little brain activity and for all practical purposes is a vegetable. Her ex-husband, Zack Bridger, has been designated her legal guardian and the one who can tell them to disconnect the life-saving devices.

Rebecca found her husband intolerable soon after the marriage and began to sleep around. One of those times she chose a man who liked to choke the woman while having sex. She didn’t come to again.

The man who caused Rebecca to be in the coma is out of prison after four years. Eban has been spoiled his whole life. He is a person with no scruples or remorse.

The author captured the essence of a narcissist who has no regard for other individuals. It kept me engaged expecting something would happen to Eban. 4.5 stars – CE Williams

Did you read this one last year too?

The Author: Sandra Brown is the author of more than sixty New York Times bestsellers, including STING (2016), FRICTION (2015), MEAN STREAK (2014), DEADLINE (2013), LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL (2011), and the critically acclaimed RAINWATER (2010).

Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into thirty-three languages.

Brown recently was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.

The Narrator: Kyf Brewer, an Earphones Award–winning narrator, is an actor known for Serial Mom, Stop, Record, and Fallen Arches.

The CE and I

Iwo, 26 Charlie by P T Deutermann – #BookReview – #TuesdayBookBlog

World War II Navy #10

Rosepoint Publishing: Five Stars

Book Blurb:

T. Deutermann is a contemporary master of World War II military fiction: writing about the lives, deaths, dreams, fears, and combat experiences of sailors and soldiers, generals and grunts, captains and snipers, pilots and submariners, who served in the Pacific theatre war against Japan.

The island of Iwo Jima was the epic land and sea battle that produced one of the iconic images of WWII: the Marines raising the American flag on Mount Surabachi, an active volcano that was the site of intense hand-to-hand combat. In this gripping novel, Deutermann follows a young gunnery liaison officer, Lee Bishop, who during the ferocious battle for the island is pulled from his station aboard the USS Nevada to serve on-shore as a spotter, calling in coordinates for the ship to target with missiles.

But Bishop is completely unready for what he will witness and experience: a literal hell, during which 26,000 Americans are killed in a fight to the very last man, which culminates in the blistering, sulphurous tunnels of Surabachi itself, where an entire platoon of Marines is held captive. Iwo, 26 Charlie is a dramatic, utterly authentic novel by an award-winning writer.

His Review:

One of the most iconic images of the battle of Iwo Jima and World War II is the raising of our flag on Mount Suribachi. This is one of our country’s proudest moments during the war in the Pacific. This achievement took a lot longer than the citizens of our country knew. Most battles the U.S. Marines fight are in concert with the U.S. Navy. This is one of those stories.

There is a rivalry between these two branches of the U.S. military and also a bond of brotherhood. Lieutenant Lee Bishop goes onto the island with the intention to assist in firepower from the naval bombardment to “soften up” the island prior to the marine’s landing effort. The Japanese had prepared the island for the war with a myriad of caves and fortifications to thwart any attempt to occupy the island.

Lieutenant Bishop goes in to assist in fire control and direction to destroy the Japanese fortifications. His call name is IWO, 26 Charlie. The Japanese are extremely adept at killing any spotter who comes onto the island. The life expectancy of a spotter is estimated at 24 hours. The Japanese come out at night and kill anyone who is not fully awake or vigilant.

The USS Nevada has a myriad of weapons systems including 14-inch guns. Their fire control includes a rudimentary analog computer. Grids are utilized to give accurate coordinates for the placement of the ordinance. Most shells fired at the island were the 5-inch and 8-inch explosive types. The effect on the Japanese emplacements was generally minimal due to the excellent design and construction of the emplacements.

Anyone interested in the history of the Second World War will find this novel both interesting and amazing. I could not put the book down and I am sure most history buffs will have the same problem, which is a very one to have when reading! 5 stars – CE Williams

Last year I read The Last Palatine and found it absolutely riveting. I’ll be looking for anything released by this author going forward. Many thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with the opportunity to read and review this book. All opinions are my own.

Book Details:

Genre: Historical World War II Fiction, WWII Historical Fiction, War Fiction
Publisher: St Martin’s Press
ASIN: B0BQGFM2HK
Print Length: 288 pages
Publication Date: November 28, 2023
Source: Publisher and NetGalley

Title Link(s):

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo

The Author: Peter Deutermann was born in Boston in 1941. His father was in the Navy, so he subsequently lived all over the United States and also in Argentina. He graduated from the naval academy in 1963 and served in the navy for 26 years, rising to the rank of Captain. While in the navy, he published one textbook on naval operations and several professional articles in navy-oriented journals. He held three commands: a Swiftboat in the Mekong Delta region of Vietnam, a guided missile destroyer in the Atlantic Fleet, and a destroyer squadron based in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. His last tour of duty was as the division director for chemical, biological, and radiological weapons arms control negotiations on the staff of the Joint Chiefs in Washington, DC.

He retired from active duty in 1989 and began his fiction-writing career. He has published twenty novels since 1992, all with St. Martins Press, including the just-released World War II navy novel, entitled The Commodore, and the Washington thriller, The Red Swan. He has completed his 21st novel, entitled The Iceman, a World War II navy submarine story, scheduled for publication in August, 2018. See all the books on his website at http://www.ptdeutermann.com

In addition to a BS in naval engineering, Mr. Deutermann holds an MA in public administration from the University of Washington in Seattle, WA. He is also a Member of the Royal College of Defence Studies in London. He is married and has two children. Mr. Deutermann and his wife of 50 years live in Rockingham County, in the Piedmont of North Carolina, on their family pony farm.

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