I’ve Been Watching You – a #BookReview

I've Been Watching You by K A Richardson

Title: I’ve Been Watching You by K A Richardson

Genre: Currently #2960 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Police Procedurals

Publisher: Bloodhound Books

Publication Date: June 23, 2016

Source: Bloodhound Books and NetGalley

Title and Cover: I’ve Been Watching You (The Forensic Files Book 1) – Appropriate setting for subject

Ben Cassidy is a CSI with Sunderland City who is raising four-year-old daughter Grace by herself. She lives with Aunt Aoife who took her in as a child when her parents died in an accident. She has moved back home after living in Dunham and brings with her baggage she is yet to completely resolve. She must wrestle with the lingering psychological and physical damage while Aunt Aoife has a secret of her own.

Jacob Tully is ex-military with experience in combat and physical and mental trauma, but is coping by lecturing in Digital Forensics when Ben attends a class as part of her continuing education. He still wrestles with an occasional flashback or bout of PTSD, though has been making progress. The IUD damage to his leg will continue to cause him pain. Both are damaged individuals and seem destined to find each other. Continue reading “I’ve Been Watching You – a #BookReview”

Dark Lava (Lei Crime, Book 7) – a #BookReview

Dark Lava - a Lei Crime Novel by Toby Neal

Title: Dark Lava (Lei Crime, Book 7) by Toby Neal

Genre: Currently #1712 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Police Procedurals

Publication Date: July 7, 2014

Source: BookBub

Title and Cover: Dark LavaCover obviously depicts lava flow

I started reading the Lei Crime series back in 2014 with book 1, Blood Orchids, and have loved them all. Lei Texeira is a damaged but strong female protagonist. I’ve followed her journey in the Maui (Hawaii) Police Department as she’s climbed through the ranks. Along the way, she met Michael Stevens, also with the MPD. Their relationship was explosive, but they were obviously meant to be a couple. In book 7, they are newlyweds (finally!) and extremely committed to each other as well as their work. But Lei’s work has found her being volunteered for the bomb squad and that’s not a match that’s working well.

This installment sees Stevens participate in a much larger proportion of the story, while a parallel storyline follows Lei. In addition to the cases each encounter individually, they are met with major life-changing situations on both sides. On Stevens side, the baggage he brought with him into the relationship following their reuniting. On Lei’s side, her own family matters and the predicament presented by Stevens recent history. And that’s in addition to an underlying threat to them both regarding her previous police work.

Ms. Neal always incorporates scenes of Maui, the flora and fauna, the sights of the ocean’s unrelenting waves glistening in the sun, and the patois of the local population putting you square in the middle of the action. Information about the island and the native peoples figure heavily in this installment with Stevens investigation into the desecration of priceless artifacts.

Lei has progressed well through the series installments, becoming stronger, more confident, and less neurotic. The characters that surround Lei were well developed in previous installments, have become solid fixtures, and are beginning to feel like old friends–including her FBI contact and previous partners. Stevens is a confident, self-assured, partner. I particularly enjoy their large and sweet Rottweiler, Keiki.

Blood Orchids - A Lei Crime Novel by Toby NealI received this download from BookBub and appreciated the opportunity to read and review. I’ve enjoyed this series and watched the characters grow. Each book brings new surprises, fascinating tidbits about our fiftieth state and leaves you looking forward to the next in the Lei Crime series. (This was no exception, although somehow I jumped to book 9, so I’ll have to go back and pick up no. 8.) If you haven’t discovered Toby Neal and her Hawaii-based novels and the Lei Crime series, you owe it to yourself to give them a try. Start with Blood Orchids.  Recommended for all who enjoy mysteries, thrillers and suspense, women sleuths, and police procedurals.

Rosepoint Publishing:  Four point Five of Five Stars 4.5 of five stars

Toby Neal - authorThe Author: Award-winning, USA Today bestselling social worker turned author Toby Neal grew up on the island of Kaua`i in Hawaii. Neal is a mental health therapist, a career that has informed the depth and complexity of the characters in her stories. Neal’s police procedurals, starring multicultural detective Lei Texeira, explore the crimes and issues of Hawaii and are so popular that they’ve spawned a licensed fan fiction world on Amazon.

Neal focuses on mystery, but also writes romance and a line of apocalyptic romance thrillers, the Scorch Series, with Emily Kimelman.

Get two FREE award-winning Toby Neal books by signing up at: http://www.subscribepage.com/TobyNealNews

©2018 V Williams V Williams

Go Home, Afton – a #BookReview

Go Home, Afton by Brent JonesTitle: Go Home, Afton: Afton Morrison, Book 1 (The Afton Morrison Series) by Brent Jones

Genre: Currently #3470 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Literature & Fiction, Action & Adventure, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Suspense

Publication Date: To be released June 25, 2018

Source: Direct author request

Title and Cover: Go Home, AftonGorgeous cover totally reflecting tension-filled thriller

Animus: basic attitude or governing spirit: disposition, intention. 3: an inner masculine part of the female personality in the analytic psychology of C. G. Jung – https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/animus (including an outrageous motivation to do…something).

The title reflects a mantra within this periodically socially unacceptable protagonist. Afton Morrison is an educated, competent small town children’s librarian, more than capable of presenting an intelligent and patient twenty-six-year-old woman within the pseudo-academic life of Wakefield. She has quashed the animus within her successfully (whom she has named, quite appropriately Animus)…until now…when the demand to kill meets reason and she’s found the perfect victim. Afton can both satisfy that persistently deranged alter-ego while ridding the public of a vicious sexual predator. Continue reading “Go Home, Afton – a #BookReview”

#ThrowbackThursday – Terraforming Earth – Phase 2: “Humanoids in Sealed Habitats” (FutureSpace #2) by Dean C. Moore

#ThrowbackThursday

Renee began the #ThrowbackThursday meme on her blog, It’s Book Talk to share some of her old favorites as well as sharing books published over a year ago. Hopefully, you’ll find either a story or author that interests you and you’ll check them out. And, if you’d like to join the fun, you’re welcome to use Renee’s pic from her website. Just provide the link back to her please).

This week I am highlighting Dean C. Moore, another terrific, prolific author who wrote Terraforming Earth-Phase 2, which I reviewed on Goodreads. This is the second in a series of three, Phase 3, published March 2016. A cerebral author of mind-bending fiction (thank heaven and may it stay that way), he has actually written a number of books stretching across genres. This novel was published on October 11, 2015. He consistently runs approximately 4.5+ stars for any of his books sold on Amazon.

Originally posted December 23, 2015.

Book Blurb:

Terraforming Earth - Phase 2 by Dean C MooreWhen steering human evolution with designer plagues proves too dangerous out in the open, people are herded into domed cities. Their experiments can begin on them in earnest. Sing-Sing is tasked with containing the Singularity effect, making sure that the explosive release of creative energy continues to serve only the top one percent instead of creating an Age of Abundance. Nano Metro is tasked with preparing humanoids to migrate to the Genesis ships in low orbit, where their guided evolution will continue to ensure they will one day be fit to occupy every environmental niche in the cosmos. 

With the Earth quickly headed in the direction of its former pristine Garden of Eden state, and plans for conquering the cosmos virtually overnight well in hand thanks to a well-managed Singularity effect, Garrett Rawlings, Simone Bolivar, and the rest of the FutureScape corporate and military-industrial complex super-alliance ought to be able to relax. But they quickly realize that playing masters of the universe games pits them against alien civilizations with far more experience in this area. If they can’t hide the fact that Earth has entered Singularity state until they’re ready to fight a war for dominion of the cosmos, they’ll be blown off the map before the game has even started. It’s the first time that the all-powerful Garrett Rawlings and his lover, Simone, whose mind entered singularity state long ago, have ever played the roles of the underdogs. 

Garrett and Simone face ever-increasing problems on the home front as well. The resistance, led by Rake Cunningham and Doc Holiday, is coming on strong. If Garrett and Simone aren’t careful, the Age of Abundance they’ve worked so hard to forestall could come around sooner than anyone imagined. And that would mean a total loss of control. The one thing Garrett and Simone will not tolerate. 

My Review:

In the FutureScape series, “Terraforming Earth-Phase 1-The Plagues Era,” Dean C Moore introduced us to the concept of the super wealthy and powerful conceiving the idea of reducing the earth’s over-population to their approved manageable and intellectual level. The resulting plagues fashioned to kill off millions of conceived lower level humans apparently touches off a maelstrom of opposition as well as empathetic factions further manipulating the weeding of the earth’s population into their own designs. In Phase 2 of “Terraforming Earth-The Humanoids in Sealed Habitats,” the world’s powerful entities form separate groups which then proceed with diabolical plans of their own as they stream remaining populations into seven domed complexes designed to further future strategies. Is it really possible to weed to the top 1%?

Armed with superior artificial intelligence, the four biggest warring factions, the Quality of Lifers, Digital Nirvana, STARS-R-US, and the Unwanteds all have separate and major objectives. The populations have evolved “chipheads” with more being actively and heavily recruited to further individual faction goals.

Luckily, our major protagonists (there are more than one), Rake Cunningham and “Doc” Holiday set up camp in an effort to counter-act extreme deadly advancements. Moore’s antagonists Garrett and his lover, the beautiful but extremely lethal Simone, revise their original goal to include the evolution of the “unkillable” human. Moore introduces us to myriad characters each managing survival, contributing some facet of continued, if harrowing, existence.

If Moore weaves the plot into something becoming terrifyingly realistic, it’s because we’ve begun to realize that the evolution of our human race has gone beyond wheels to flight into realms both unimaginable and horrifyingly possible. Technology beyond the capacity to even imagine yesterday in use today. And haven’t we always suspected there is someone or something out there besides us?

Once again, Dean C Moore envisions the future with da Vinci eyes and elaborates in shocking detail those scenes brought to incredible but terrifying reality through his pen.

Add to Goodreads

About the Author

Dean C Moore - authorWhile action-packed sci-fi/techno-thrillers set in the near future are my forte, I also stray into other genres from time to time, such as space operas, paranormal fantasy, and detective stories. All my novels can be described as action-thrillers, no matter the sub-genre. You can sample my writing with a free sci-fi e-book set in the near future by visiting my website https://deancmoore.com and signing up for my email list.

I live in the country where I breed bluebirds, which are endangered in these parts, as my small contribution to restoring nature’s balance. When I’m not writing, or researching my next book, I may also be found socializing with friends or working in the garden. If you’d like to know what compels me to write, it’s simple. I write as a force for peace. Fiction has a way of engaging our whole minds, not just our intellects, but various layers of our conscious, super-conscious, and unconscious. Novels also encourage our left and right cerebral hemispheres to get in sync and, with just enough magic and wizardry, can help to transform people into more enlightened souls (the writer included) better than a hundred years of therapy or rational arguments to the same ends.

I’ve remained a lifelong student of philosophy, spirituality, psychology, science, and the arts. Mark Freeman Enterprises (MFE) is my company. I sometimes publish under that label or simply under Amazon Digital Services. Dean C Moore

More Throwback Thursday Blogs

Renee at Its Book Talk

Jill at Jill’s Book Cafe

Rebecca at The Book Whisperer

Lynne at Fictionophile

Sam at Clues and Reviews

Holly B at Dressedtoread

Deanna at DeesRadReads and Reviews

Amanda at Literary Weaponry

Annie at The Misstery

Mischenko at Read Rant Rock and Roll

Laurie at Cozy Nook Books

Ann Marie at LItWitWineDine

©2018 V Williams V Williams

Pick and Chews – a #BookReview

Pick and Chews by Linda O JohnstonTitle: Pick and Chews (Barkery and Biscuits Mystery #4) by Linda O. Johnston

Genre: Currently #695 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Kindle eBooks, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Cozy, Animals

Publisher: Midnight Ink

Publication Date: Release date: May 8, 2018 Happy Publication Day!

Source: Midnight Ink and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Pick and Chews – Beautiful cozy cover complete with dogs and kitty

First, let me thank the publisher and NetGalley for granting me an ARC of this book. I was thrilled to receive the download and went into the book with high expectations, happy with checking out a new author (to me) and her series that promised to be amazing. And, of course, it features dogs. How could you go wrong? Well, ***spoiler*** alert, something went very wrong. First, I’ll quickly list what I did appreciate here in the “upper fold.”  

Looking at the cover (and there I go again…must repeat mantra…cannot judge a book, blah, blah, blah). Absolutely too cute. Appeals to both dog and cat lovers. And the blurb? Well, okay, it sounded interesting. A woman who owns two howlingly successful businesses? Could happen. Her also being a part-time vet tech. Hmmm, now we may be stretching things a bit.

The Barkery and Biscuit is definitely a unique name for a bakery catering to healthy food and treats for animals. Also appreciated that she wrote about holding rescue animal adoption events. Super.

However, you should be warned that I periodically invoke my rule not to note less than three stars and, therefore, will not rate the book on this blog, although I’m compelled to leave a short review for Goodreads and the publisher.

So what set up the hackles? Continue reading “Pick and Chews – a #BookReview”

Better Off Read – a #BookReview

Better Off Read by Nora PageTitle: Better Off Read: A Bookmobile Mystery

Genre: Currently #2790 on Amazon Best Sellers Rank in Books, Mystery, Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Amateur Sleuths

Publisher: Crooked Lane Books

Publication Date: To be Released June 12, 2018

Source: Crooked Lane Books and NetGalley

Title and Cover: Better Off Read – Beautiful cozy cover

Pretty hard to resist any cozy mystery with that cover! Okay, the cover and the premise. The blurb describes a septuagenarian librarian who is forced to race around in a converted school bus now bookmobile after her Catalpa Springs, Georgia library suffers major storm damage. (And she tends to speed. Who pays for her tickets?)  Continue reading “Better Off Read – a #BookReview”

Rosepoint Publishing Book Blast with a Spotlight and #Giveaway

Book Blast banner for Shadow Girl by Gerry Schmitt

Welcome to my stop on the book blast for Shadow Girl, An Afton Tangler Thriller, by Gerry Schmitt.

I am thrilled to present a Spotlight for tour host Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours at Escape With DollyCas. Many thanks to author Gerry Schmitt and Dolly Cas for allowing me to join the book blast today!

Shadow Girl, An Afton Tangler Thriller, by Gerry Schmitt

Shadow Girl (An Afton Tangler Thriller) Book 2

Small Print and Book Details:

Thriller Suspense

Berkley (August 1, 2017

Paperback edition: 320 pages

ISBN-13: 978-0425281789

Kindle Digital ASIN: B01MXHV6CL

Book Blurb:

The brutal murder of a business tycoon leaves Afton Tangler and the Twin Cities reeling, but that’s just the beginning of a gruesome crime spree…

Leland Odin made his fortune launching a home shopping network, but his millions can’t save his life. On the list for a transplant, the ailing businessman sees all hope lost when the helicopter carrying his donor heart is shot out of the sky.

Now with two pilots dead and dozens injured, Afton Tangler, family liaison officer for the Minneapolis Police Department, is drawn into the case. As she and her partner investigate family members and business associates, whoever wants Leland dead strikes again—and succeeds—in a brazen hospital room attack.

The supposedly squeaky clean millionaire has crossed the wrong person—and she’s not finished exacting her revenge. The case explodes into an international conspiracy of unbridled greed and violence. And as Afton gets closer to unearthing the mastermind behind it, she gets closer to becoming collateral damage…

Add to Goodreads

Shadow Girl by Gerry Schmitt

About the Author
Gerry Schmitt - authorGerry Schmitt is the New York Times bestselling author of more than thirty-five mysteries, including the Afton Tangler Thrillers, as well as the Tea Shop, Scrapbooking, and the Cackleberry Club mysteries, written under the pen name Laura Childs.

The Tea Shop Mysteries – set in the historic district of Charleston and featuring Theodosia Browning, owner of the Indigo Tea Shop. Theodosia is a savvy entrepreneur, and pet mom to service dog Earl Grey. She’s also an intelligent, focused amateur sleuth who doesn’t rely on coincidences or inept police work to solve crimes. This charming series is highly atmospheric and rife with the history and mystery that is Charleston.

The Scrapbooking Mysteries – a slightly edgier series that take place in New Orleans. The main character, Carmela, owns Memory Mine scrapbooking shop in the French Quarter and is forever getting into trouble with her friend, Ava, who owns the Juju Voodoo shop. New Orleans’ spooky above-ground cemeteries, jazz clubs, bayous, and Mardi Gras madness make their presence known here!

The Cackleberry Club Mysteries – set in Kindred, a fictional town in the Midwest. In a rehabbed Spur station, Suzanne, Toni, and Petra, three semi-desperate, forty-plus women have launched the Cackleberry Club. Eggs are the morning specialty here and this cozy cafe even offers a book nook and yarn shop. Business is good but murder could lead to the cafe’s undoing! This series offers recipes, knitting, cake decorating, and a dash of spirituality.

She is the former CEO of her own marketing firm, has won dozens of TV and radio awards, produced two reality TV shows, and invests in small businesses. She and her husband, a professor of Chinese art history, enjoy collecting art, traveling, and have two Shar-Peis.

Laura’s Links:

Website – http://www.laurachilds.com/

Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/laura.childs.31

Purchase Links:

AmazonAmazon

Barnes & Noble

kobo

 Don’t miss the chance for the Rafflecopter Giveaway!

Find a complete book blast listing here:

Great Escapes Book Tours

2018 V Williams

#ThrowbackThursday – Blackout – Tom Barber

#ThrowbackThursday

Renee began the Throwback Thursday meme on her blog, It’s Book Talk to share some of her old favorites as well as sharing books published over a year ago. Sounded like a good reason to join! I’ll be going back over my favorite authors and stories you might not have previously experienced. Most of these early reviews were books gleaned from a freebie on BookBub and this was no exception. If you’d like to join the meme, you’re welcome to use Renee’s pic from her website. Just provide the link back to her please).

Blackout by Tom BarberThis week I am highlighting Tom Barber, another terrific, prolific author who wrote Blackout (Sam Archer book #3), which I reviewed on Goodreads. He has actually written nine in this series–I read the first three. This novel was published on January 16, 2014, as a thriller-suspense. He consistently runs approximately four stars plus for any of his books sold on Amazon.

Originally posted March 26, 2015

Book Blurb:

Young counter-terrorist cop Sam Archer arrives for work at the Armed Response Unit expecting a quiet day. But unbeknownst to him, a storm is coming. 

Three men have already been killed that morning. One committed suicide by the River Thames. Another was strangled in his car in Washington D.C. And the third was shot in the face in his high-rise New York apartment as he slept. The deaths seem random, thousands of miles apart. But they are all connected. By a shocking event fifteen years ago. And this is only the beginning.

Archer, Chalky and the rest of the Unit suddenly find themselves plunged into a ferocious and violent confrontation, fighting for their lives. The enemy they are up against are brutal, highly trained, well-armed and anonymous. No one knows where they have come from. No one seems to know who they are. But they have a vendetta. They will never forgive or forget, or show mercy. And for some reason, they’re hell-bent on killing ten specific people before the end of the day.

As the Unit tries to find out who these killers are and locate the remaining targets so they can protect them, it becomes a race against time to see who can get there first. As the counter-terrorist unit and the vengeful enemy come up against each other all over the city, Archer and the team soon realise two things.

This enemy is more proficient and deadly than any they’ve ever encountered. And one of their own ARU men is on the extermination list. Continue reading “#ThrowbackThursday – Blackout – Tom Barber”

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