Today is my turn on the Ground Rules Blog Tour and I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for GROUND RULES by Richard Whittle.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
Called out one night in the hope that she can identify the body of a man found in a field, Edinburgh forensic geologist Jessica Spargo – Jez – inadvertently becomes involved in the investigation of a university lecturer’s murder. The investigating officer, Tom Curtis, hands her a small glass vial and asks her to analyse its contents. She agrees to do it. The results confound everyone.
Media attention around a seemingly unconnected incident on a construction site near Edinburgh means that all work has stopped. An object discovered beneath the site confounds everyone, including the police. Employed by the firm’s owner to attempt to solve the mystery, Jez falls foul of an uncooperative site manager. Unruffled, she perseveres. Meanwhile, the murder mystery deepens. Despite her reluctance to become further involved, she has her own theories about the origin of the vial’s contents, theories the police do not accept.
To Jez’s dismay there are more deaths. As she says to Curtis, ‘I don’t do bodies. I’m a geologist, I look at rocks. If I’d wanted to look at bits of body then I would have become a surgeon or a pathologist.’
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
GROUND RULES by Richard Whittle is a mystery set in Scotland featuring a forensic geologist which is unique. This is new to me author and even though these characters are found in previous books, it is easily read as a standalone.
Jessica “Jez” Spargo is called out in the night by DCI Tom Curtis to see if she can identify a body. She realizes that it is a Chemistry lecturer from the same university she lectures at part-time. Curtis gives her a small vial with what looks like gold in it for analysis.
At the same time, Jessica is hired by a large construction firm when a tooth and small portion of skull are found impossibly deep in the ground. It has stopped construction and brought excessive media attention. The owner of the company wants the mystery solved so they can get back to work.
Jessica works at the site, but she is more intrigued by the vial’s contents and has her own theories that the police do not accept. The killing continues and these two seemingly unconnected cases only increase Jessica’s determination to solve both mysteries.
I enjoyed Jessica as the protagonist. Her character was intelligent, curious and very unique in how her education and training was used to solve the mysteries. I did feel that the beginning of the story was a little slow in pace in places, but it did pick up and I became a determined as Jessica to find all the answers and solve the mysteries. I was surprised at the end and that is always what I hope for when reading a mystery.
I can recommend this protagonist and story for a mysterious and intriguing read.
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About the Author
Richard has been a policeman, diesel engine tester, university student and engineering geologist. Writing as Alan Frost he was shortlisted from several hundred international competitors for the CWA (Crime Writers Association) Debut Dagger Award.
Today I am very excited to be included on this Release Blitz for Freya Barker’s second book in the PASS series. This is My Feature Post and Book Review for LIFE & LIMB (PASS Book #2) by Freya Barker.
Below you will find a book description, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
Growing up a military brat and spending eight years overseas with the Army Medical Corps, clinical social worker, Willa Smith, has had enough of rules and regulations. Still able to work with veterans as she did at the VA Hospital, she is much happier at the new and far more relaxed South Avenue Shelter, until one of its residents is implicated in a murder.
Former military turned security operative, Dimas Mazur, has worked for PASS security, his brother’s company, since he returned stateside after a disabling injury. The job keeps him busy, but when a homeless veteran he knows runs into trouble with the law, he doesn’t hesitate to jump in. The strong-headed counselor at the shelter where his friend stayed is an unexpected bonus.
Until she puts herself square in the sights of the man he’s trying to take down.
LIFE & LIMB (PASS Book #2) by Freya Barker is a romantic suspense that has the perfect balance of wonderfully realistic mature characters and a suspense plot line that keeps you turning the pages. Freya Barker’s romantic suspense books never disappoint.
Willa Smith is a clinical social worker who dedicated eight years of her life in the Army Medical Corps in Germany, came home and worked five more years in the local VA hospital working with veterans before getting her current job in the new South Avenue Shelter. Willa grew up an Army brat in a home with very strict, traditional role models that she refuses to follow and prefers her single life.
Dimas “Dimi” Mazur spent two tours in Iraq in the Special forces until he lost part of his leg to an IED. Now, he works for his brother’s company, PASS security. While home between jobs, Dimas gets an urgent call from a veteran brother who lives at the South Avenue Shelter that he is accused of a murder of a fellow shelter resident. With the help of the outspoken, feisty counselor at the shelter Dimi works to exonerate his friend.
As Dimi and Willa grow closer as a couple and work to find the true killer, Willa places herself directly in the crosshairs of the man they are trying to find.
I always love getting my hands on a new Freya Barker romantic suspense. Willa and Dimi and all the characters from the first book who make a return appearance are friends you want to continue to revisit continually. Willa and Dimi are mature with realistic emotions and lives. I enjoy Ms. Barker’s emphasis on older H/h’s that are never perfect, but do not play immature, emotional games. The romantic conflict is solved with communication, understanding and love. The suspense plot is fast paced, believable and intertwined with the romance perfectly. The sex scenes are explicit, but never gratuitous. Even though this is the second book in this series, it can easily be read as a standalone.
I highly recommend this new romantic suspense and all of Ms. Barker’s books for wonderful characters and exciting suspense!
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About Freya
USA Today bestselling author Freya Barker loves writing about ordinary people with extraordinary stories.
Driven to make her books about ‘real’ people; she creates characters who are perhaps less than perfect, each struggling to find their own slice of happy, but just as deserving of romance, thrills and chills in their lives.
Recipient of the ReadFREE.ly 2019 Best Book We’ve Read All Year Award for “Covering Ollie, the 2015 RomCon “Reader’s Choice” Award for Best First Book, “Slim To None”, and Finalist for the 2017 Kindle Book Award with “From Dust”, Freya continues to add to her rapidly growing collection of published novels as she spins story after story with an endless supply of bruised and dented characters, vying for attention!
Today is my turn on the Fallible Justice Blog Tour. I am excited to share my Feature Post and Book Review for FALLIBLE JUSTICE (Wilde Investigations Book #1) by Laura Laakso. This is an absolutely fantastic new magical world with compelling characters that I highly recommend!
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
In Old London, where paranormal races co-exist with ordinary humans, criminal verdicts delivered by the all-seeing Heralds of Justice are infallible. After a man is declared guilty of murder and sentenced to death, his daughter turns to private investigator Yannia Wilde to do the impossible and prove the Heralds wrong.
Yannia has escaped a restrictive life in the Wild Folk conclave where she was raised, but her origins mark her as an outsider in the city. Those origins lend her the sensory abilities of all of nature. Yet Yannia is lonely and struggling to adapt to life in the city. The case could be the break she needs. She enlists the help of her only friend, a Bird Shaman named Karrion, and together they accept the challenge of proving a guilty man innocent.
So begins a breathless race against time and against all conceivable odds. Can Yannia and Karrion save a man who has been judged infallibly guilty?
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
FALLIBLE JUSTICE (Wilde Investigations Book #1) by Laura Laakso is the first book in a new paranormal mystery/urban fantasy series by a new to me debut author. I was immediately immersed in this new world and all the compelling magical characters.
Old London is the domain of the magical races and New London is where the ordinary humans live. The two occasionally overlap, but the humans have a distrust of the magical beings, but they do trust the all-seeing Heralds of Justice to pronounce an infallible justice that no magic can pervert on any who commit a crime.
Yannia Wilde is a member of the Wild Folk working in Old London as a private investigator. When one powerful mage is convicted of murdering another, the convicted mage’s daughter comes to Yannia. She begs her to not only prove her father did not commit the murder, but that the Heralds have made a mistake and her father must be freed. With the help of her new apprentice, Karrion who is a bird shaman, the two set out to prove the impossible in just four short days with some help from their magical friends and Jamie, a human detective from New Scotland Yard.
Two things hit me immediately as I fell into this magical world, I could not believe this was the author’s first book and the worldbuilding was fantastic. The mystery plot in this story is as well written and paced as the worldbuilding throughout. It all flowed together effortlessly.
Yannia is such a complex protagonist needing the wild to recharge her magic when surrounded for too long in the city, running from a mysterious heritage in her Wild Folk conclave and if that is not enough she has a rare genetic disorder called Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. Karrion is a wonderful character that not only helps Yannia in her investigation, but is also a smart and caring friend as well as apprentice. All the secondary characters are as fully fleshed as Yannia and Karrion and I hope they are all carried over into future books in this series.
I highly recommend this book and I am looking forward to the next book in this series. Quite frankly, it is one of the best new paranormal mystery/urban fantasy books I have read in quite a while.
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About Laura Laakso
Laura Laakso is a Finn who has lived for most of her adult life in England. She is an accountant, dog trainer and author. Fallible Justice is her debut novel and the first in her paranormal crime series Wilde Investigations.
I am very excited to once again be on a Blog Tour for A Jordan Reed Mystery. Today I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for LAKE EFFECT (A Jordan Reed Mystery Book #2) by K. C. Gillis. I loved this adventure with Jordan even more than the first!
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Blurb
Mysterious marina accidents. Destroyed evidence. Can a tenacious reporter decipher the twisted clues at a small-town lake?
Jordan Reed is burned out from all the attention on her previous high-profile story. But when a new lead lands in her lap, she reluctantly postpones her vacation to investigate a classic New England marina. With hundreds of dead fish washing up on Copper Lake’s otherwise pristine shores, Jordan suspects a sinister cover-up.
But by the time she arrives on the scene, she’s surprised to discover the police chief eliminated every last carcass and seems hellbent on blocking her inquiries. And her search for the culprit takes a perilous turn when gambling kingpins descend on the city and a string of unexplained calamities plague the docks.
Can Jordan expose the corruption, or will she be the next to go belly-up?
Lake Effect is the second book in the fast-paced Jordan Reed mystery series. If you like steely female sleuths, gripping action, and clever twists that’ll keep you guessing, then you’ll love K.C. Gillis’s page-turning mystery.
Buy Lake Effect to dive into dangerous waters today!
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My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
LAKE EFFECT (A Jordan Reed Mystery Book #2) by K.C. Gillis is a mystery/thriller mash-up featuring journalist Jordan Reed. I have been looking forward to this addition to the series and I was not disappointed. This is the second book in the series, but it is easily read as a standalone.
Jordan Reed is tired of her celebrity status since her last adventure. All she wants is her much needed week of vacation, but her best-friend Travis asks her to check out an unusual occurrence at a friend’s family marina. East Bay Marina is a small oasis on beautiful Copper Lake in New England. One day hundreds of dead fish wash up on shore. The fish do not look normal and Jordan drops any plans of a relaxing week to investigate.
Jordan uses the location to spend some time with her sister and asks for Travis’ technical help once again. When she arrives at the marina, the fish have disappeared and she is warned by the local police chief to mind her own business. Luckily one of the marina workers, who just happened to be the chief’s son saved a fish that Jordan was able to deliver to Charlie Choi, her friend at the CDC for analysis.
Besides the troubling secrets surrounding the dead fish, there are multiple unexplained accidents occurring on the docks. An attorney for a state Senator and a fixer for a mob boss all descend on the marina. Is all of this tied together or are they separate players involved in multiple plots? Will Jordan be able to uncover all the plots and plans or will she learn too much to walk away?
I loved this adventure with Jordan even more than the first. Mr. Gillis was able to intertwine two fast-paced, unfolding conspiracies. While Jordan worked on discovering the two separate plotlines, I was impressed that even though they had separate motives, they had the same goal. I felt Jordan was more realistically portrayed as a dogged journalist in this story than the first. All of Jordan’s friends and all of the secondary characters, good and bad were fully fleshed and well written.
Jordan and Travis are great together and I am looking forward to seeing what they get up to in the future. I can recommend this book and look forward to many more in this series.
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About the Author
K.C. (Kevin) Gillis is the author of the Jordan Reed mystery series. Despite being a lifelong lover of stories and books, writing took a distant back seat as his professional career travelled through the Canadian Air Force, a decade as a chemist, followed by a long and continuing run in corporate America. With writing no longer in the back seat (but not quite yet in the front seat), Kevin how has the Jordan Reed series well under way. His personal interests focus on endurance and water sports. Having grown up in the Canadian Maritimes, he now lives in the US northeast with his wife, teenagers and a pair of black cats.
Today is my turn on the Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour for the first book in this new suspense/thriller saga – THE PINEBOX VENDETTA (Pruitt-Gallagher Saga Book #1) by Jeff Bond. This is a political “Hatfield vs. McCoy” thriller with hidden agendas, dirty tricks and memorable but not so nice characters.
Below you will find a book description, my book review, an excerpt from the book an about the author section and social media links. Enjoy!
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Book Description
From the author of The Winner Maker and Blackquest 40 comes The Pinebox Vendetta: a genre-bending thriller that combines a love story, cold-case murder mystery, and political blood feud – told over the course of a single breathless weekend.
The Gallaghers and Pruitts have dominated the American political landscape dating back to Revolutionary times. The Yale University class of 1996 had one of each, and as the twenty-year reunion approaches, the families are on a collision course.
Owen Gallagher is coasting to the Democratic nomination for president.
Rock Pruitt – the brash maverick whose career was derailed two decades ago by his association to a tragic death – is back, ready to reclaim the mantle of clan leader.
And fatefully in between lies Samantha Lessing. Sam arrives at reunion weekend lugging a rotten marriage, dumb hope, and a portable audio recorder she’ll use for a public radio-style documentary on the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry – widely known as the pinebox vendetta. What Sam uncovers will thrust her into the middle of the ancient feud, upending presidential politics and changing the trajectory of one clan forever.
The Pinebox Vendetta is the first entry in the Pruitt-Gallagher saga: a series that promises cutthroat plots, power grabs, and unforgettable characters stretched to their very limits by the same ideological forces that roil America today.
Genre: Thriller Published by: Jeff Bond Books Publication Date: February 19th 2020 Number of Pages: 264 ISBN: 1732255253 (ISBN13: 9781732255258) Series: Pruitt-Gallagher Saga, #1 Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
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My Book Review
RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars
THE PINEBOX VENDETTA (Pruitt-Gallagher Saga Book #1) by Jeff Bond is the start of a new thriller series. This is a political “Hatfield vs. McCoy” thriller with hidden agendas, dirty tricks and memorable but not so nice characters.
The Pruitts and Gallaghers have battled for political dominance since the Revolutionary War.
Rock Pruitt left Yale under suspicion of murdering his roommate and even as his powerful family helped him then, they never publicly backed him in his future to claim political power.
Jamie Gallagher was an idealist who left Yale and joined the Peace Corp in Africa. Everyone believes he died assassinating an evil warlord.
Yale University class of 1996 is gathered for the weekend for their twenty-year class reunion. Samantha Lessing is attending with her teenage daughter. She wants her to love Yale as much as she did when she attended. Sam has come with an agenda though besides seeing old friends. She wants to interview her classmates about the Pruitt-Gallagher rivalry, also known as the pinebox vendetta to use as a radio-style documentary for her work.
This reunion weekend once again brings all the families together. Secrets will be uncovered, plots revealed and the vendetta continues on.
At the beginning I was not sure where this story was going. It has a time and scene jumping start that had me confused at first, but once the reunion starts and the characters get sorted, the plot started to intrigue me and then I could not put it down. The author’s writing style is lean and the plot moves quickly. I was not very happy when the book ended, but I did feel the author did not cheat and leave a cliffhanger because he did reveal the solution of the mystery from twenty-years-ago before the ending.
Samantha started out so beaten down and stagnant in her life and marriage, but in just this weekend she takes control of her life and I loved her life decisions at the end. All of the Pruitts and Gallaghers are twisted, corrupt, manipulative and just plain unlikable, but they were also memorable and sadly realistic.
This is a unique thriller and even though I did not like the main characters, I do want to continue reading more of this saga to find out what else Mr. Bond has planned for them.
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Excerpt
The meeting was to take place twenty minutes after sunrise. Jamie woke, having finally fallen asleep around four a.m., to the Somalis chatting in their native tongue over pieces of flatbread. He dragged himself aboveboard, feeling at once languid and jittery.
“Bread?” Abdi offered, tearing a piece from a slab.
“Thanks, no.” Jamie reached into his rucksack instead for a piece of biltong, the wildebeest jerky he’d grown fond of. “Has the general been about?”
“Yes, Josef saw him. The hat.” Abdi made a sifting gesture above his head to indicate the general’s beret.
The day was already scorching, the sky’s blue brilliance broken only by the boiling disk of the sun. The general’s yacht rocked softly in the west, appearing quite large now, its bow sleek and spear-like.
“They’re within gun range,” Jamie observed.
“Oh yes. We are in their scopes.”
As if to prove the point, Abdi raised a hand in the yacht’s direction and laughed. Nobody joined him.
The pirate named Josef, taller and broader in the chest than Abdi, loaded the ten-million-dollar briefcase into the first of three skiffs. Jamie stepped in after, fitting his rucksack into the hull—careful of the Akpeteshie inside—and tying back his hair.
Abdi took a minute instructing the two men staying back on the mothership. Was he arranging a distress signal? Telling them what to do if shots were fired?
Coordinating a double-cross?
There was no use worrying. Jamie had placed himself between dangerous people, but dangerous people performed the same calculations benign ones did. The pirates would keep up their end so long as the benefits remained clear: not only cash, but stronger ties with the general and the establishment of a new back-channel to the powerful Gallaghers.
The skiff loaded, Adbi yanked the outboard motor’s cord. The engine sputtered alive and settled to a rumbling purr. Josef untied them, flashing a grim thumbs-up to the men staying behind.
They charted a course for the general’s yacht. The sea felt choppier on the smaller craft, which didn’t bother Jamie—a lifelong boater and varsity swimmer in college—but did compel him to pull the rucksack protectively into his lap. If the Akpeteshie somehow ruptured against the hull, the mission would be lost.
As they neared the general’s yacht, the faces of his guards became visible—wary, textured faces. The carry-straps of AK-47s sawed their necks.
Abdi cut the motor and drifted in.
A section of railing was unclipped, and a ramp extended from the yacht’s stern. After helping Josef tie up, Jamie slipped the rucksack onto his back and boarded. The Somalis trailed him with the briefcase.
“Halkan, ku siin!” said one of the general’s men.
Abdi shook his head forcefully at the request—to hand over the briefcase. The guards backpedaled, their formation hemming Jamie and the pirates into a corner of the aft deck. Abdi and Josef walked with their bodies shielding the case as if it contained plutonium.
With these uneasy field positions established, the general’s men conferred briefly and parted to form an aisle to the pilothouse. General Mahad emerged.
The general wore his full dress uniform: navy blue, epaulets, ribboned medals. He lumbered forward with a mild limp, said to have originated during the Simba rebellion of 1964.
He raised his chin to Abdi, then spoke to Jamie. “Welcome to the one and true seat of Puntland, Mr. Gallagher.”
Jamie felt the man’s deep, scarred voice in his bowels. “That’s none of my concern. I’m here for Renée.”
The general smiled, his lips fat and sly. “How fortunate she is. You are the white knight, eh? Sir Jamie?”
The characterization stung, but Jamie pushed on. “I’ve been in touch with Humanitarian Dialogue—their helicopter is ready. Give me a latitude and longitude for the exchange and let’s get this over.”
“Your friends have the money?”
Every eye on the yacht turned to Abdi, whose knuckles tightened on the briefcase handle.
“Ten million,” Jamie said. “Count it if you like.”
The general crooked a finger at one of his men, who disappeared to the pilothouse. The man returned with a machine resembling a fax with bill-sized trays.
Abdi stepped forward with the briefcase. The man with the counting machine passed a handheld X-ray scanner around the case and swabbed a cloth along each edge.
He started for the pilothouse with the cloth, likely to perform a residue test for explosives, but the general stopped him. Then gestured for Abdi to go ahead.
When Abdi undid the clasp, the lip snapped open—ten million was a squeeze, even with an oversize case—and a few packets spilled out.
The counting began.
Now Jamie reached into his rucksack for the Akpeteshie.
“I’ve heard tell around campfires,” he began, gathering himself, “that you enjoy a certain Ghanaian beverage.”
The general grinned when he saw the bottle, squat, the neck’s glass bowed in the distinctive shape of a baobab tree.
“This is true.”
“Shall we drink together?” Jamie said. “It’s early, but I find a day started well nearly always ends well.”
The general palmed his jaw. There was a risk he would set the gift aside, but Jamie was counting on this subtle challenge to his manhood—in front of his crew, in front of Abdi and Josef. People like the general didn’t back down from such dares.
Jamie thought of his old classmate Rock Pruitt who’d downed a fifth of whiskey disproving a frat brother’s claim that prep-schoolers only drank martinis and smoked reefer.
“I would quite enjoy that,” the general said. “After the bottle is checked.”
Jamie raised a shoulder, feigning indifference as two men seized the Akpeteshie and held it sideways up to the sun, testing its feel in their hands, poking fingernails along the dripped-wax seal.
They would find nothing. Jamie’s sister Charlotte Gallagher, founder of internet-of-things giant SmartWidget and the eighteenth-richest person in the world, owned 45 percent of the local distillery that produced Akpeteshie. She had allowed Jamie to follow this lone bottle through the factory. At the final step, just before corking, he’d poured out 150 milliliters of liquor and replaced it with an equal amount of king cobra venom.
For fifteen months, Jamie had been inoculating himself with increasingly larger doses of the venom. He had started, after discussing the strategy at length with a Sudanese shaman, with a pinprick diluted in a pint of water. Last week, he had managed eight milliliters of venom—the amount a shot from the spiked Akpeteshie would deliver, depending on the pour—and suffered only dizziness, blurred vision, and severe cottonmouth.
When his men were satisfied the bottle was unaltered, the general took a pair of tumblers from the yacht’s fiberglass sideboard.
Tumblers, not shot glasses. Eight ounces at least.
“To finding a middle, eh?” The general poured each tumbler to the brim. “Two parties can start from opposite ends and, with good sense, find a common understanding.”
Jamie’s teeth pulverized each other in the back of his mouth. He’d always found the rhetoric of compromise disingenuous, whether it came from television pundits or the North Carolina Gallaghers exhorting the clan to give ground at the fringes of the abortion debate.
To hear it from the mouth of a man like Mahad? Revolting.
“To the middle,” he spat.
He raised the tumbler to his lips. Calculations whipped around his brain. Eight ounces divided by one point five…
Equaled six times the amount of venom his body had previously endured.
The liquid was amber, almost orange. As the glass tilted, Jamie imagined he saw currents of venom slithering among the palm wine. His fingers trembled. Some sloshed over the side, but not nearly enough.
In his periphery, Jamie became aware of Abdi and Josef arguing with the general’s men. Abdi slapped one empty well of the briefcase. The general’s men shouted. More rushed to the deck from below board.
The general balked at Jamie’s tone. “You do not like my toast. That is your right. You are the guest, so make your own.” He smirked about. “We are democratic here, aren’t we?”
Jamie ignored the low hoots. “To justice.” He regripped his tumbler. “To justice, and fair treatment for all living things.”
The general guffawed, big and toothy. “For ten million, yes. Why in hell not?”
Their eyes locked over the tumblers’ rims. Jamie perceived something in the man’s look, some hustler’s instinct, and knew if he faltered now—even for a moment—the trap would be blown.
Jamie stared into the lethal brew, waited for bright madness to rise, and drank. The Akpeteshie burned his throat. His jaw felt weak and daggers pressed into his eardrums from inside. Still, he kept his head tipped back and drank it all.
The general and several of his men goggled at the feat. When their eyes turned to him, the war criminal downed his, too.
“…no, the release!” Jamie heard behind him. “No money before release!”
“We will keep it.”
“No, us! We will hold the money.”
A guard wearing ripped denim leveled his rifle at Abdi. Josef stepped forward to push aside the muzzle. Another guard drove the butt of his rifle into Josef’s back, crumpling the pirate.
Jamie didn’t know how long he and the general had. During his inoculation, the symptoms would begin in about a minute, but he’d never ingested this large a dose.
His heartrate zoomed and breath pumped through his chest like air from a bellows—still, this could be the effects of anticipation.
“So, um…the release,” he said, feeling a vague duty toward Abdi. “If you…so I’ll call HD and be sure Renée, er…s’all okay with the money…”
Words were deserting him. The scuffle on deck was intensifying. Josef had recovered to pounce on the man in denim. Abdi was buried in a furious tangle of fists and churning hips.
Jamie didn’t understand the fight. Let them have the money—who cared?
He began to feel disconnected from his body, Abdi and Josef blending into other people he’d known in life, Gallaghers and Pruitts, senators and reporters, grad students and business titans, all fighting without reason, finding joy and enemies, grinding their life into the larger sausage.
The general unleashed a thunderous whistle and raised his hand for calm. The struggle paused. Every eye turned his way. He began to lower his hand but suddenly couldn’t.
His arm convulsed and became some bucking stick-animal beyond his control. His fingers twitched unnaturally. He grasped his throat, staggering back. Froth bubbled in his nostrils.
The man who’d retrieved the money scale from the pilothouse pointed at Jamie.
“What is this?”
Jamie tried answering, but his tongue would not obey, dead and heavy in his mouth. Pain gored his brain. Sweat screamed from his pores, a thousand beads altogether.
This wasn’t the outcome Jamie had wanted, but neither was it wholly unexpected. He thought now of life’s best moments. In Burundi, feeling that boy’s skeletal hand squeeze as he sucked a tab of enriched peanut butter. On the vineyard, fourteen years old, swinging his cousins round and round in celebration after his mother—the senior senator from Connecticut and Democratic National Committee chairperson—had succeeded in her long-shot campaign to retake majority control of the Senate.
Above all, though, he remembered kissing Sam. Seniors on their last night at Yale, about to go conquer the world, standing together in an entryway. Emotions spiked to the heavens. Their mouths came together in the gentlest, deepest touch he’d known before or since.
Samantha Lessing. God, she was it. The life he missed.
Half the general’s men were swarming the Somali pirates while the other half moved on Jamie. There was a gap between the two, but it was closing.
Jamie willed his tongue back into service.
“This was right,” he croaked. “Here, today. This was not a waste.”
And he believed this—dashing across the deck through grasping hands, over the gunwale, into the black ocean.
***
About the Author
Jeff Bond is an American author of popular fiction. He lives in Michigan with his wife and two daughters, and belongs to the International Thriller Writers association.
Today I am excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review on the Blog Tour for Salt+ Stilettos (South Beach Romance Book #1) by Janet Walden-West.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, an about the author section with social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Good luck on the giveaway and enjoy!
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Book Blurb
Sweet Home Alabama meets Top Chef when Miami’s most determined image consultant clashes with Samoa’s most uncooperative chef in a race to rebrand him as South Beach’s newest star.
Brett Fontaine learned early that appearance matters and not to count on anyone but yourself. Trading her red-dirt roots for the title of Miami’s go-to image consultant, she refuses to let anything jeopardize her new life.
Not an influential client-turned-stalker who’s up for parole.
Not post-kidnapping panic attacks.
Certainly not the stubborn, attention-phobic chef she’s challenged to transform into a celeb in ninety days.
Will Te’o can almost taste the dream he sacrificed American Samoa, culture, and cherished family ties for—opening a four star restaurant in the most cut-throat culinary location in North America.
Unfortunately, that requires navigating it’s equally cut-throat social scene. When his first public performance ends in a social media spectacle, his only option is turning to the stiletto-wearing nemesis who’s invaded his kitchen.
Neither expected to share anything but barbs, yet somewhere between accidentally bonding over comfort food and office-wrecking sex, they’re named South Beach’s hottest pairing. Until Brett’s stalker engineers a reputation-shattering reveal. She may be going down, but she’s not taking Will’s dreams with her. Now Will’s pulling out all his new skills and cooking up a last-ditch event. He’ll prove to Brett that relying on the right person makes for the perfect recipe—or be left heartbroken in the spotlight.
Ebook and paperback: April 21st from City Owl Press
SALT + STILETTOS (South Beach Romance Book #1) by Janet Walden-West is a new contemporary romance by a new to me author with plenty of food, fashion and love.
Will Te’o is about to realize his dream. He worked his way up from his home in American Samoa to the top of the culinary scene in South Beach. With his partner, he is about to open his first restaurant but as talented as Will is in the kitchen, he has no understanding of the social scene and celebrity status he must now achieve for his and his restaurant’s success.
Brett Fontaine worked hard to raise herself up from dirt poor and hungry to the top image consultant in South Beach. Brett knows image and clothes matter. Her best friend has hired her to take on his partner, Will and get him ready in just 45 days for their restaurant’s grand opening.
Brett and Will butt heads, but slowly they learn to trust each other and the chemistry builds to a flash point. When Brett’s stalker engineers a reputation shattering reveal, Will is determined to prove that Brett can always rely on him. Can Will prove to Brett that he will always be there for her?
I fell in love with Will and Brett. Both are such contradictions and you would think opposites, but under the shell of each is someone so ready for love. Will is six feet eight of talented chef, traditional Samoan, and chief support of his extended family back home. He was so loving and that his character started out so insecure and hurt it broke me up. I was so glad that Brett was able to understand him and build him up rather than hurt him more. Will was so full of love and Brett needed it. Brett had to deal with both her terrible childhood and a stalker which left her traumatized and yet she was still willing to let Will in. When these two finally came together the sex scenes were smokin’ hot. The romance progressed at a realistic pace and the sex scenes were never gratuitous. All the secondary characters were interesting and fully fleshed.
I can highly recommend this contemporary romance and am looking forward to many more books in this series!
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About the Author
Janet Walden-West lives in the southeast with a pack of show dogs, a couple of kids, and a husband who didn’t read the fine print. A member of the East Tennessee Creative Writers Alliance, she is also a founding member of The Million Words craft blog. She pens diverse Urban Fantasy and inclusive Romantic Suspense and Contemporary Romance.
A 2X PitchWars alum, 2019 Pitch Wars Mentor, and Golden Heart® finalist, her debut multicultural Contemporary Romance, SALT+STILETTOS, is due out April 21st 2020 from City Owl Press. She is represented by Eva Scalzo of Speilburg Literary Agency.
