A kid walks into your bookstore and… Guess what? He’s your son. The one you put up for adoption eighteen years ago. The one you never told anyone about. Surprise!
And a huge surprise it is.
It’s a huge surprise to his adoptive mother, Monica, who thought she had a close relationship with Matthew, her nearly adult son. But apparently, he felt the need to secretly arrange a vacation to Cape Cod for the summer so he could meet his birth mother…without a word to either her or his dad.
It’s also a surprise— to say the least—to Harlow, the woman who secretly placed her baby for adoption so many years ago. She’s spent the years since then building a quiet life. She runs a bookstore with her grandfather, hangs out with her four younger siblings and is more or less happily single, though she can’t help gravitating toward Grady Byrne, her old friend from high school. He’s moved back to town, three-year-old daughter in tow, no wife in the picture. But she’s always figured her life had to be child-free, so that complicates things.
When Matthew walks into Harlow’s store, she faints. Monica panics. And all their assumptions—about what being a parent really means—explode. This summer will be full of more surprises as both their families are redefined…and as both women learn that for them, there’s no limit to a mother’s love.
A LITTLE RAY OF SUNSHINE by Kristan Higgins is an emotionally intense women’s fiction family drama with romantic elements featuring a bookstore owner on Cade Cod and the son she gave up for adoption eighteen years previously. While this standalone is a great read, it has a cover which may lead you to believe this is a light summer read, it definitely is not.
Every year the Patel family takes an extended summer vacation to a different location. This year seventeen-year-old Matthew has talked the family into going to Cape Cod. He and his father arrive first, while his mother and younger sister will arrive when her school year is over. Matthew and his father go into the local independent bookstore and when the owner, Harlow sees them, she faints.
Harlow secretly placed her son up for adoption the summer between her freshman and sophomore year of college. She picked the family her son would go to, but he was not supposed to be able to contact her if he chose until his eighteenth birthday. He found her online and did not tell his adoptive family that this was his reason for the Cape Cod vacation. Now he is here for the summer and while she is excited, she is also about to have her quiet life blown up.
There is so much happening in this story. Harlow is dealing with seeing a beautiful grown son who wants to get to know her and her family. She also must tell her family about having a child at eighteen for the first time. Monica Patel is dealing with a son who has lied to the family and the fear of him choosing his birth mother over her love. The two mothers’ emotions and point of view pull you into this drama because you can empathize with both. Matthew is dealing with questions children of adoption are known to have and his emotional shifts are as heart wrenching as the two mother’s stories. There are several characters with side stories woven throughout that lighten the emotional angst at times, or bring a bit of romance into the plot, but overall this is a story where you will want to have the tissues close by your side.
I highly recommend this emotionally charged women’s fiction!
***
About the Author
Kristan Higgins is the New York Times, USA TODAY and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than twenty novels, wKristan Higgins is the New York Times, USA TODAY, Wall Street Journal and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of more than twenty novels. Her books have been translated into more than 20 languages and have sold millions of copies around the world. Kristan has been praised for her mix of “laugh-out-loud humor and tear-jerking pathos,” which the author attributes to a diet high in desserts and sugar-based mood swings.
Kristan’s books have received dozens of awards and accolades, including starred reviews from People Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Good Morning America, Kirkus, the New York Journal of Books, Publishers Weekly, Library Journal, National Public Radio and Booklist. She personally responds to every reader letter she receives, even the mean ones.
Kristan is the mother of two ridiculously good-looking children and the grandmother of the world’s cutest baby. She lives in Connecticut and Cape Cod with her heroic firefighter husband, a rescue mutt and indifferent cat. In her spare time, Kristan enjoys gardening, easy yoga classes, mixology and pasta.
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE VERY DEAD OF WINTER: A Sinner’s Cross Novel by Miles Watson on the Coffee and Thorn Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
***
Book Description
On the eve of what will be known as The Battle of the Bulge, the survivors of Sinner’s Cross are scattered all over Europe. Halleck, the tough Texan who drives men like cattle, finds himself surrounded in the snow-blanketed forests of the Eifel Mountains riding herd on greenhorn soldiers; Breese, the phony hero with a chip on his shoulder the size of Rushmore, embarks on a bloody mission of redemption behind enemy lines; Cramm, the one-eyed, one-armed German staff officer, tries to balance duty against his lust for vengeance against those who crippled him. Three men separated by war will once again converge…in The Very Dead of Winter.
THE VERY DEAD OF WINTER: A Sinner’s Cross Novel by Miles Watson is a historical fiction book I was very excited to be able to read for this blog tour. This is the second Sinner’s Cross book and while it is a continuation of the three main soldier protagonists lives from the first book, Sinner’s Cross, this book is easily read as a standalone. I recommend them both highly!
In this book, three survivors of the Battle of the Hurtgen Forest are converging in the Ardennes Forest in the dead of winter for what will be known as the Battle of the Bulge. Sgt. Halleck is battle-hardened and once again finds himself leading men into battle with the enemy behind every tree, Lt. Breeze gets sent back to the front and finds himself battling the Nazis looking for redemption, and Cramm, a German staff officer, who will fight to the death but no longer believes in Hitler and his fanatics.
The writer’s depiction of this horrific battle and the three diverse paths the main characters are on felt so realistic. Even knowing the outcome of this historical battle, I kept turning the pages because I was so invested after following these characters in two books. The moral questions about war and loss of life are ever present, but unlike the feeling of senseless loss of life in the first book and this was the largest and bloodiest battle during WWII, this battle was a turning point in the war for the Allies and the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany.
I highly recommend this historical fiction novel and I believe both books in the Sinner’s Cross series are exceptional!
***
About the Author
Miles Watson is one of the most successful independent writers of his generation. He holds undergraduate degrees in Criminal Justice and History and a Masters of Fine Arts in Writing Popular Fiction, and served in law enforcement for nearly ten years before moving to Los Angeles, where he has worked on over 200 episodes of television and half a dozen feature films. But his first and last passion is writing. His various works have won the following:
CAGE LIFE – Shelf Unbound Best Indie Book Runner Up (2016): Zealot Script Magazine “Book of the Year” (2017); Best Indie Book Award – Mystery & Suspense (2018)
KNUCKLE DOWN – Writer’s Digest S.P.B.A. Honorable Mention (2019); Best Indie Book Award – Suspense (2019)
DEVILS YOU KNOW – Eric Hoffer Award for Excellence in Independent Publishing Finalist (2019)
THE NUMBERS GAME – Pinnacle Book Achievement Award – Novella – (2019)
NOSFERATU – Pinnacle Book Achievement Award – Novella – (2020)
SINNER’S CROSS – Best Indie Book Award – Historical Fiction – (2019); Book Excellence Award – Action (2020); Literary Titan Book Award – Gold Medal (2020); Independent Author Network Book of the Year Awards – Finalist (2020); Readers Favorite Five Stars (2021)
THE VERY DEAD OF WINTER – Literary Titan Book Award – Gold Medal (2022); Pinnacle Book Achievement Award (2022); Book Excellence Award Finalist (2023)
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for NONE WITHOUT SIN by Michael Bradley on this Black Tide Book Tour.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
***
Book Description
When a Delaware real estate mogul is murdered, newspaper journalist Brian Wilder wants the scoop on the killing, including the meaning behind the mysterious loaf of bread left with the corpse. Reverend Candice Miller, called to minister to the grieving family, quickly realizes that the killer has adopted the symbolism of sin eating, a Victorian-era religious ritual, as a calling card. Is it the work of a religious fanatic set to punish people for their missteps, or something even more sinister?
As more victims fall, Brian and Candice follow a trail of deceit and blackmail, hoping to discover the identity of the killer―and praying that their own sins won’t catch the killer’s attention.
NONE WITHOUT SIN by Michael Bradley is an intriguing amateur sleuth mystery/serial killer crime thriller with an interesting historical religious hook, secrets, lies and murder. There are several murders in this standalone, but they are not overly graphic.
Pastor Candice Miller is an Episcopalian minister who is called to help with a woman and her daughter from her church when the husband is found dead when they return home from a show. The locally known real estate agent is found with a knife stabbed into his chest through a loaf of round bread.
Brian Wilder is an award-winning journalist who has started over by opening his own small town local newspaper. He meets his detective friend, at the scene of the murder and learns of the bread and the fact that a word was scrawled on the dead man’s sleeve.
As more murders occur Brian and Candice are at each scene and begin to trade information and discover the ritual meaning of the bread left on each victim goes back to the tradition of sin-eaters from the 18th and early 19th centuries. They also discover all the victims have a sin they are hiding and so do Candice and Brian. Could they become victims, too?
This is an easy-to-read interesting character driven mystery. So many secrets and lies among the entire cast of characters and yet they are believable secrets and lies. While Candice and Brian are the dual POV characters throughout the story, I developed a real empathy for Brian, and I can see the author being able to bring him back for follow-up stories. The historical information was woven into the story without slowing the pace of the investigation. The pace of the plot was steady throughout until the fast-paced climax, with plenty of twists and red herrings. While the climax was not a surprise to me, it was still well written.
Michael Bradley was born and raised in New Jersey, a fact he hopes no one will hold against him. He spent eight years as a radio DJ “on the air” before realizing he needed a real job and turned to IT. Never one to waste an experience, he uses his familiarity with life on the radio for many of his suspense novels, among them his first, the supernatural thriller Sirens in the Night (2015), a “smart, terrifying, heartbreaking” and “compelling read,” and his third, the thriller Dead Air (2020), a “phenomenal read” that will “make you look over your shoulder the moment night falls.”
Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for REMEMBER ME (Ravenswood Book #2) by Mary Balogh on this Berkley Blog Tour.
Below you will find and about the book section, my book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
***
About the Book
Philippa, elder daughter of the Earl of Stratton, grew up eagerly anticipating a glittering debut and a brilliant marriage. Then her brother caught their father out in a clandestine affair and denounced him publicly. The whole family was disgraced, and Philippa’s hopes grew dim, then were fully shattered when she overheard the dashing, handsome Marquess of Roath viciously insult her upon learning of her father’s identity. Only years later does Philippa find the courage to go to London at last to meet the ton. She is an instant success and enjoys a close friendship with the granddaughter of a duke. Only one man can spoil everything for her, but surely he will not be in London this year.
The Duke of Wilby is nearing death and has tasked his grandson and heir, Lucas Arden, Marquess of Roath, with marrying and producing a son before it is too late. Lucas, who usually shuns London, goes there early in the Season in the hope of finding an eligible bride before his grandparents come and find one for him. He is instantly attracted to his sister’s new friend, until that young lady asks a simple question: “Remember me?” And suddenly he does remember her, as well as the reason why the daughter of the Earl of Stratton is the one woman he can never marry—even if his heart tells him she is the only woman he wants.
Unfortunately for Philippa and Lucas, the autocratic duke and his duchess have other ideas and believe them to be perfect for each other. They will simply not take no for an answer. Telling Philippa the full truth is the hardest thing Lucas has ever faced, and the discovery of it will change them both before they discover the healing power of love.
REMEMBER ME (Ravenswood Book #2) by Mary Balogh is an enchanting Regency historical romance. This is the second book in the Ravenswood series, and it can be read as a standalone, but to get Phillipa’s entire backstory, I suggest you read book #1, Remember Love first.
Lady Phillipa “Pippa” Ware grew up eagerly awaiting her first London season until the public disgrace of her family. After overhearing the handsome Marquess of Roath calling her “soiled goods” when he visited a neighbor, she refused to go to London and isolated herself on her family’s estate.
Four years later, with the encouragement of her brother who is now the Earl, she leaves for her first season in London.
Lucas Arden, Marquess of Roath has been tasked by his grandfather the Duke of Wilby, who is elderly and not well, to find a bride and produce an heir. When he attends his first ton event, he is attracted to his sister’s new friend. When he asks to be introduced, he learns Lady Phillipa overheard his long-ago hurtful words spoken to his friend. Pippa wants to know why he said those words, but Lucas has a terrible secret of his own which involves her dead father that he never wanted to share.
His grandparents like Pippa and believe she would be the perfect match for Lucas, but can they overcome their pasts and discover the healing power of love?
This is another entertaining historical romance from Ms. Balogh. The characters are fully developed, and the dialogue is witty. There is a lot of family interaction and at times, I wish it was more focused on the hero of heroine’s love story. The sex scene was between an experienced man and a virgin which is expected for the time, but it also seemed a bit one sided in execution which I do not expect in a romance written today. Lucas’s grandparents are wonderful characters in this story with a beautiful love story of their own.
Overall, another emotional addition to the Ravenswood series and I am looking forward to following the other Ware family members as they meet their HEA mates.
***
Excerpt
Voices hummed all around them and glass and china clinked as the other guests feasted upon the sumptuous tea set out before them. Spoons scraped upon dishes of fruit trifle. Philippa glanced down at her plate and was surprised to see that the cucumber sandwich had disappeared. She even had the taste of it in her mouth.
But would this tea, to which she had looked forward with such eager anticipation, never be over? She felt as though she were suffocating. The room seemed unnaturally stuffy.
“I have just realized to my shame that I have not yet spoken with at least one third of our guests,” Jenny said as she set her napkin down on the table. “I was so absorbed in my conversation with Pippa before you arrived, Luc, that I neglected everyone else. And I kept you from mingling too, Pippa, though I know you have very few acquaintances in London and came here to make some. I do apologize.”
“We can put your first concern to rest without further delay, Jenny,” Sir Gerald said, getting to his feet. “I see your wheeled chair in the corner here beside the mantel. Let me get you into it, and we will move about together from table to table, greeting people we have not already spoken with.”
He was fetching the chair as he spoke. He bent over his cousin and, with what was obviously practiced ease, lifted her into it.
“That is kind of you, Gerald,” Jenny said. “But now I am abandoning Pippa after begging her to stay with me. Luc, will you be so good as to give her your company until everyone begins to move about again?”
“It will be my pleasure,” he said while Philippa smiled and her heart thumped uncomfortably and she felt robbed of breath.
The Marquess of Roath was on his feet, moving his chair out of the way so the wheeled chair could pass behind it, and bending to tuck the hem of his sister’s dress about her ankles so it would not catch beneath a wheel.
When he sat down again, he did not move his chair back to where it had been. It was now closer to Philippa than before. She was aware again of the voices around them, seeming to enclose them in a cocoon of silence, which neither of them broke for a few moments. Their eyes met. His were brown, but not very dark. There were hints of green in them. He opened his mouth to speak, but she forestalled him. She had learned something in the last seven or eight months, since Devlin’s return home from the wars. She had learned the importance of speaking truth rather than suppressing it and living with the illusion that all would be well in her world if only she kept quiet about what was not well.
“Remember me?” she said.
* * * * *
The sound of many voices talking at once had grown louder as more of the guests finished eating. A few had risen from their places and were moving about to talk with fellow guests at other tables. Lady Philippa Ware had spoken quietly. Lucas was not quite sure he had heard her correctly.
But all through tea, while the four of them had chatted amiably and shared family anecdotes and laughed over them—his and Jenny’s and Gerald’s on the one hand, Lady Philippa’s on the other—he had been dragging up a distant memory from that place in the mind where one stuffs away gaffes one would dearly love to obliterate altogether if only it were possible. It was a memory from four or five years ago of going to spend Easter with James Rutledge, a friend from his Oxford years. James lived with his parents and siblings somewhere close to the village of…Boscombe? Lucas thought that was the name. It was in Hampshire anyway. When he had accepted the invitation, he had had no idea that the Earl of Stratton lived at Ravenswood Hall, a mere stone’s throw from the village. He had discovered it within a day or two of his arrival, however. James had taken him—because he had thought it would amuse Lucas—to watch a crowd of his neighbors practice maypole dancing in someone’s large barn, or what was supposedly a barn. It had clearly not seen either animals or hay for many a year, if ever.
Lady Philippa was not going to speak again, it seemed, until he did. But her eyes—those large, very blue eyes—did not waver from his own. And though she had spoken quietly, she had also spoken quite distinctly. He did not need to have her repeat the words.
Remember me?
“Have we met before, Lady Philippa?” he asked. But he had the ghastly feeling that they had.
Mary Balogh has written more than one hundred historical novels and novellas, more than forty of which have been New York Times bestsellers. They include the Bedwyn saga, the Simply quartet, the Huxtable quintet, the seven-part Survivors’ Club series, and the Westcott series.
Today I am sharing a Feature Post and Book Review for THE PARIS AGENT by Kelly Rimmer on this HTP Books Summer 2023 Blog Tour.
Below you will find an about the book section, my mini book review, an excerpt from the book, an about the author section, and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
***
About the Book
For fans of fast-paced historical thrillers like Our Woman in Moscow and The Rose Code, Rimmer’s brilliant new novel follows three female SOE operatives as their lives intersect in occupied France, and the double agent who controls their fate.
Twenty-five years after the end of the war, an aging Marcel Augustin is reflecting on his life during those perilous, exhilarating years as a British SOE operative in occupied France—in particular the agent who saved his life during a mission gone wrong, whose real name he never knew, nor whether she survived the war. Piqued by her father’s memories, Marcel’s daughter Charlotte begins a search for answers that resurrects the unrest and uncertainty from that period of his life. What follows is the story of Eloise, Josie and Virginia, three otherwise ordinary, average women whose lives intersect in 1943 when they’re called up by the SOE for deployment in France. Taking enormous risks to support the allied troops with very little information or resources, the three women have no idea they’re at the mercy of a double agent within their ranks who’s causing chaos within the French circuits, whose efforts will affect the outcome of their lives.
As Charlotte’s search for answers continues, new suspicions are raised about the identity of the double agent, with unsettling clues pointing to her father, and more mysteries are unearthed from the last days of the war about the eventual fates of Eloise, Josie and Virginia.
THE PARIS AGENT by Kelly Rimmer is a moving historical fiction novel written with dual intertwining timelines; one set during WWII in France following two female SOE operatives and the other set in 1970 England with a survivor trying to uncover the mystery surrounding their betrayals and deaths. This is a story that pulled me in emotionally and made it impossible to stop reading. Make sure you have the tissues handy for the ending.
This story is extensively researched and believable. The author makes you feel the emotional suspense and distress of the SOE operatives while they are in France. That these young women volunteered and were sent into occupied territory during WWII with only months of training and no guarantee they would return alive demonstrates their strength, bravery, and belief in freedom. The second story line follows a father and daughter duo looking for answers twenty-five years after WWII to fill in questions the father still has after a brain injury while with the SOE in France, but many of the documents are still classified. The two storylines come together is an emotional climax that is gut-wrenching and uncomfortable.
I highly recommend this historical fiction novel featuring strong women caught up in the horrors of war and the long-lasting emotional ripples that flow through their families.
***
Excerpt
Prologue
ELOISE
Germany
October, 1944
Perhaps at first glance, we might have looked like ordinary passengers: four women in civilian clothes, sitting in pairs facing one another, the private carriage of the passenger train illuminated by the golden light of a cloudless late-summer sunrise. Only upon closer inspection would a passerby have seen the handcuffs that secured us, our wrists resting at our sides, between us not because we meant to hide them but because we were exhausted, and they were too heavy to rest on our bony thighs. Only at a second glance would they have noticed the emaciated frames or the clothes that didn’t quite fit, or the scars and healing wounds each of us bore after months of torture and imprisonment.
I was handcuffed to a petite woman I knew first as Chloe, although in recent weeks, we had finally shared our real names with one another. It was entirely possible that she was the best friend I’d ever known—not that there was much competition for that title, given friendship had never come easy to me. Two British women, Mary and Wendy, sat opposite us. They had trained together, as Chloe and I had trained together, and like us, they had been “lucky enough” to recently find themselves imprisoned together too. Mary and Wendy appeared just as shell-shocked as Chloe and I were by the events of that morning.
As our captors had reminded us often since our arrests, we were plainclothes assassins and as such, not even entitled to the basic protections of the Geneva Convention. So why on earth had we been allowed the luxury of a shower that morning, and why had we been given clean civilian clothes to wear after months in the filthy outfits we’d been wearing since our capture? Why were they transporting us by passenger train, and in a luxurious private carriage, no less? This wasn’t my first time transferring between prisons since my capture. I knew from bitter personal experience that the usual travel arrangement was, at best, the crowded, stuffy back end of a covered truck or at worst, a putrid, overcrowded boxcar.
But this carriage was modern and spacious, comfortable and relaxed. The leather seats were soft beneath me and the air was clean and light in a way I’d forgotten air should be after months confined to filthy cells.
“This could be a good sign,” I whispered suddenly. Chloe eyed me warily, but my optimism was picking up steam now, and I turned to face her as I thought aloud. “I bet Baker Street has negotiated better conditions for us! Maybe this transfer is a step toward our release. Maybe that’s why…” I nodded toward our only companions in the carriage, seated on the other side of the aisle. “Maybe that’s why she’s here. Could it be that she’s been told to keep us safe and comfortable?”
Chloe and I had had little to do with the secretary at Karlsruhe Prison, but I had seen her in the hallway outside of our cell many times, always scurrying after the terrifyingly hostile warden. It made little sense for a secretary to accompany us on a transfer, but there she was, dressed in her typical tweed suit, her blond hair constrained in a thick bun at the back of her skull. The secretary sat facing against the direction of travel, opposite the two armed guards who earlier had marched me and Chloe onto the covered truck at the prison, then from the covered truck onto the platform to join the train. The men had not introduced themselves, but like all agents with the British Special Operations Executive, I’d spent weeks memorizing German uniforms and insignias. I knew at a glance that these were low-ranking Sicherheitsdienst officers—members of the SD. The Nazi intelligence agency.
The secretary spoke to the guards, her voice low but her tone playful. She held a suitcase on her lap, and she winked as she tapped it. The men both brightened, surprised smiles transforming their stern expressions, then she theatrically popped the suitcase lid to reveal a shockingly generous bounty of thick slices of sausages and chunks of cheese, a large loaf of sliced rye bread and…was that butter? The scent of the food flooded the carriage as the secretary and the guards used the suitcase as a table for their breakfast.
It was far too much food for three people but I knew they’d never share it with us. My stomach rumbled violently, but after months surviving on scant prison rations, I was desperate enough that I felt lucky to be in the mere presence of such a feast.
“I heard the announcement as we came onto the carriage— this train goes to Strasbourg, doesn’t it? Do you have any idea what’s waiting for us there? This is all a bit…” Wendy paused, gnawing her lip anxiously. “None of it makes sense. Why are they treating us so well?”
“This is the Strasbourg train,” Chloe confirmed cautiously. There was a subtle undertone to those words—something hesitant, concerned. I frowned, watching her closely, but just then the secretary leaned toward the aisle. She spoke to us in rapid German and pointed to the suitcase in her lap.
Had we done something wrong? More German words but it may as well have been Latin to me, because I spoke only French and English. Just then, the secretary huffed impatiently and pushed the suitcase onto the empty seat beside her as she stood. She held a plate toward me, and when I stared at it blankly, she waved impatiently toward Chloe and spoke again in German.
“What…”
“She wants you to take it,” Chloe translated for me, and I took the plate with my one free hand, bewildered. Chloe passed it to Wendy, and so on, until we all held plates in our hands. The secretary then passed us fat slices of sausage and cheese and several slices of bread each. Soon, our plates were filled with the food, each of us holding a meal likely more plentiful than we’d experienced since our arrival in France.
“She’s toying with us,” Mary whispered urgently. “She’ll take it back. She won’t let us eat it so don’t get your hopes up.”
I nodded subtly—I’d assumed the same. And so, I tried to ignore the treasure sitting right beneath my nose. I tried not to notice how garlicky and rich that sausage smelled, how creamy the cheese looked, or how the butter was so thick on the bread that it might also have been cheese. I told myself the increasing pangs in my stomach were just part of the torture and the smartest thing I could do was to ignore them altogether, but the longer I held the plate, the harder it was to refocus my mind on anything but the pain in my stomach and the feast in my hands that would bring instant and lasting relief.
When all the remaining food had been divided between us prisoners, the secretary waved impatiently toward the plates on our laps, then motioned toward her mouth.
“Eat!” she said, in impatient but heavily accented English.
Chloe and I exchanged shocked glances. Conditions in Karlsruhe Prison were not the worst we’d seen since our respective captures, but even so, we’d been hungry for so long. The starvation was worse for Chloe than me. She had a particularly sensitive constitution and ate a narrow range of foods in order to avoid gastric distress. Since our reunion at the prison, we’d developed a system of sharing our rations so she could avoid the foods which made her ill but even so, she remained so thin I had sometimes worried I’d wake up one morning to find she’d died in her sleep.
“What can you eat?” I asked her urgently.
She looked at our plates then blurted, “Sausage. I’ll eat the sausage.”
For the next ten minutes we prisoners fell into silence except for the occasional, muffled moan of pleasure and relief as we devoured the food. I was trying to find the perfect compromise between shoving it all into my mouth as fast as I could in case the secretary changed her mind and savoring every bite with the respect a meal like that commanded. By the time my plate was empty and my surroundings came back to me, the guards and the secretary were having a lovely time, laughing amongst themselves and chatting as if they didn’t have a care in the world.
For a long while, we prisoners traveled in silence, holding our plates on our laps at first, then after Wendy set the precedent, lifting them to our mouths to lick them clean. Still, the guards chatted and laughed and if I judged their tones correctly, even flirted with the secretary? It gradually dawned on me that they were paying us very little attention.
“How far is Strasbourg? Does anyone know?” I asked. Wendy and Mary shook their heads as they shrugged, but Chloe informed me it was hundreds of miles. Her shoulders had slumped again despite the gift of the food, and I nudged her gently and offered a soft smile. “We have a long journey ahead. Good. That means we have time for a pleasant chat while our bellies are full.”
By unspoken agreement, we didn’t discuss our work with the Special Operations Executive (SOE). It was obvious to me that each of the other women had been badly beaten at some point—Wendy was missing a front tooth, Mary held her left hand at an odd angle as if a fractured wrist had healed badly, and Chloe… God, even if she hadn’t explained to me already, I’d have known just looking at her that Chloe had been to hell and back. It seemed safe to assume we had all been interrogated literally almost to death at some point, but there was still too much at stake to risk giving away anything the Germans had not gleaned from us already. So instead of talking about our work or our peculiar circumstances on that train, we talked as though we weren’t wearing handcuffs. As though we weren’t on our way to, at the very best, some slightly less horrific form of imprisonment.
We acted as though we were two sets of friends on a casual jaunt through the countryside. We talked about interesting features outside our window—the lush green trees in the tall forests, the cultivated patches of farmland, the charming facades of cottages and apartments on the streets outside. Mary cooed over a group of adorable children walking to school, and Wendy talked about little shops we passed in the picturesque villages. Chloe shared longing descriptions of the foods she missed the most—fresh fruit and crisp vegetables, eggs cooked all manner of ways, herbs and spices and salt. I lamented my various aches and pains and soon everyone joined in and we talked as if we were elderly people reflecting on the cruelty of aging, not four twenty-somethings who had been viciously, repeatedly beaten by hateful men.
I felt the warmth of the sunshine on my face through the window of the carriage and closed my eyes, reveling in the simple pleasures of fresh air and warm skin and the company of the best friend I’d ever known. I even let myself think about the secretary and that picnic, and feel the relief that I was, for the first time in months, in the company of a stranger who had shown kindness toward me. I’d almost forgotten that was something people did for one another.
I’d never been an especially cheerful sort of woman and I’d never been an optimist, but those past months had forced me to stare long and hard at the worst aspects of the human condition and I’d come to accept a certain hopelessness even when it came to my own future. But on that train, bathed in early morning sunlight and basking in a full stomach and pleasant company, my spirits lifted until they soared toward something like hope.
For the first time in months, I even let myself dream that I’d survive to embrace my son Hughie again. Maybe, even after all I’d seen and done, the world could still be good. Maybe, even after everything, I could find reason to have faith.
Kelly Rimmer is the worldwide, New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of The German Wife, The Warsaw Orphan, and The Things We Cannot Say. She lives in rural Australia with her husband, two children and fantastically naughty dogs, Sully and Basil. Her novels have been translated into more than twenty languages.
Don’t ask Janie how she knows. She wants to forget what they did to her and move on.
But when her witch friend has a premonition about a demon in Boston, Janie is forced to confront her fears. She seeks the help of her gorgeous friend and gargoyle shifter, Arto.
Little does she know that Arto considers her his fated mate. He’ll do anything to protect her, even if it means keeping his love a secret.
Janie wants to learn more about demons, so he shows her some books in the library. She reads an ancient script in a powerful old book and unwittingly summons an incubus.
The very tool Arto provided to help her instead brings her nightmares to life.
Now they must work together to stop a predator on the hunt while their relationship is tested by a growing attraction.
Demons have captured Janie before. Can she avoid their clutches this time?
PROTECTED BY THE GARGOYLE (Boston Stone Sentries Book $4) by Lisa Carlisle is another exciting trip into the paranormal romance world of gargoyles, witches and demons set in present-day Boston. Even though we met Janie and Arto in previous stories, this is their HEA romance story. While people and paranormal creatures in the series are explained so that this book can be read as a standalone, I feel you would enjoy it more if you read the entire series in order.
Janie is still working to heal her leg injuries from the Boston Marathon bombing and working to restore her sense of safety after being abducted and marked by a demon. Her best friend, Larissa has a premonition about a demon loose in Boston and Janie is terrified. She reaches out to her gargoyle friend, Arto to assist her in protecting herself.
Arto is more than willing to help Janie because he believes she is his fated mate. As they go through old magical tomes, Janie accidentally summons a demon. Now a demon is in Boston trying to abduct Janie once again. Janie and Arto work together to get rid of the demon and as they do their friendship ignites into much more.
Will Arto be able to protect Janie, banish the demon, and prove to her they are truly mates?
I enjoyed this addition to the Boston Stone Sentries series. I have been waiting for Janie and Arto’s romance and this story did not disappoint. There is plenty of sexual frustration and amusing internal dialogue on both sides as they move from the friend zone into a relationship. It is fun for me when I return to a paranormal world and the characters are evolving and growing. Besides the steamy romance, this story also has action and suspense woven throughout. All the books in this series are entertaining and fast paranormal reads with captivating characters.
I recommend this addition to the Boston Stone Sentries series.
***
About the Author
Lisa Carlisle is a USA Today Bestselling author of paranormal romance and suspense. She loves to write about wounded, cursed, or misunderstood heroes finding their happily ever afters. They may be shifters, vampires, witches, gargoyles, or even military, first responders, and rockstars! She especially loves stories with fated mates and forbidden love, second chances, and enemies-to-lovers romance.
Her travels have provided her with inspiration for various settings in her novels. She deployed to Okinawa, Japan, while in the Marines, backpacked alone through Europe, lived in Paris, and now lives in New England with her husband, two kids, two crazy cats, and too many fish.
