THE LOST GIRLS by Helen Pryke is a thriller that is the first book in a new series featuring a female investigative journalist and it will keep you on the edge-of-your-seat. The author had me anxious and squirming with each revelation about the antagonist’s past.
Four years ago, a young boy is kidnapped and his dead body is discovered a few days later. The same week his family is grieving, one girl is abducted as she walks home from school and another is abducted just a week later in front of the same school. All three cases go cold with no resolution.
Michael and Chloe want resolution to their sister’s disappearances. They approach investigative journalist, Maggie Dupont for help. Maggie is willing to write a piece to bring the girl’s case back into the news, but as they uncover clues that the police missed they suddenly find themselves in a race against the clock to find the kidnapper before their sisters become replacements for his sisters who died sixteen years earlier in a house fire.
Maggie is a wonderfully complex protagonist. With a traumatic past and her present health issues, she is still willing to help Michael and Chloe. Her curiosity and search for justice will not let her take the easy way out. Maggie and the kidnapper in alternating chapters reveal their pasts and the events in present time. The plot was fast paced and built to an exciting climax, but I did have a problem with Maggie not notifying the police, especially when they uncovered important information from a witness and they found the house in which the girls were first hidden. Up to that point, I would have said this story was believable, but that changed my mind. I did think the author did a good job of demonstrating the rescued girls’ PTSD in the epilogue.
I enjoyed this start to the Maggie Dupont series and am interested in reading more.
***
About the Author
Helen Pryke is a British author who has been living in the north of Italy for almost 30 years, learning everything about Italians, their culture, and their way of life. She now considers herself more Italian than British, even though she has never lost her British accent. Addicted to coffee and chocolate, she has also developed a passion for good food, having married an Italian who is a wonderful cook!
As well as writing suspense novels, Helen also writes emotional women’s fiction set in Italy that deals with the difficult subject of abuse in a sensitive way. She also writes middle grade fiction under the pen name, Julia E. Clements. You can find her books here: author.to/JuliaEClements
When she’s not writing, she works as a proofreader for indie authors and a translator (from Italian to English). She loves reading, and will read anything and everything.
Today is my turn on the Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tour for the start of this new thriller series. I am very excited to share my Feature Post and Book Review for DANGER IN PLAIN SIGHT: A CALLIE JAMES THRILLER by Burt Weissbourd.
Below you will find a book synopsis, my book review, two excerpts from the book and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
***
Book Synopsis
It took fourteen years to construct a safe world for her and her son–and only one night for her ex to unravel it.
Celebrated Seattle restaurateur Callie James is more than a little thrown when her ex-husband, French investigative reporter Daniel Odile-Grand, shows up after fourteen years asking for her help. Even more disturbing: as she throws him out, Daniel is deliberately hit by a car, hurled through the front window of her restaurant–broken, bloody and unconscious. He flees from the hospital and breaks into Callie’s apartment, where he passes out. Reluctantly, Callie hides him. When she gets back to her restaurant, two assassins walk in, insisting that she find Daniel for them by tonight or pay the consequences.
Overwhelmed and hopelessly out of her depth, Callie hires the only man she knows who can help her: Cash Logan, her former bartender, a man she had arrested for smuggling ivory through her restaurant two years earlier, and who still hasn’t forgiven her.
The assassins blow up her restaurant. It’s Callie’s nightmare. And the worst is yet to come as she and her unlikely, incompatible ally discover that the most perilous dangers are far closer to home than they’d imagined.
Genre: Thriller Published by: Blue City Press Publication Date: May 5th 2020 Number of Pages: 224 ISBN: 1733438211 (ISBN13: 9781733438216) Series: A Callie James Thriller, 1
DANGER IN PLAIN SIGHT: A Callie James Thriller (Callie James Thriller Book #1) by Burt Weissbourd is a thriller featuring a protagonist that I look forward to following in many more books in this new series. I could not put this book down as the characters evolved and the action reaches a fevered climax.
Callie James has worked hard for years to make her French restaurant in Seattle one of the best. It has provided the security and safety she needed to raise her son after divorcing her cheating husband, Daniel in Paris.
Daniel shows up in Callie’s restaurant after fourteen years and asks her to hide him bringing danger to her door. Not knowing what to do, she does know someone who will, Cash, her former bartender. She is not sure if he will be help her though since she had him arrested for smuggling two years ago.
As Callie’s world spins out of control, Cash and friends pull Callie into the fire. Callie and Cash have to deal with international money launderers, illegal weapons dealers, professional killers and terrorists. Cash will find out what Callie is truly made of and he may never be able to call her “Frosty” again.
This book took me completely by surprise. I sat down expecting from the title and cover that I would be reading about the usual kick-butt female protagonist, but that is not what happened. Callie starts out in the story by being so by-the-book and black and white in her values, but as the book progresses, so does Callie. The more that happened, the more Callie evolved and came out of her “Frosty” persona to become the kick-butt protagonist I was waiting for. Cash is the perfect foil and ultimate partner for Cassie. He and his band of friends, with their murky pasts and specialized abilities ramp up the action with every twist and turn of the plot Mr. Weissbourd throws at them.
This thriller has a cast of memorable characters, has fast paced action and an intricate plot. I cannot wait for the next book in this series to see what Callie and Cash get involved in next.
I can highly recommend this first book in this new thriller series!
***
Excerpt
It was 1:15 a.m. when Kelly and Gray returned. They must have been watching, because they came in as the last patron left. Will showed them to the bar, where Callie was waiting at her table. They sat facing her, different suits this time. Gray wore a thin gold square-link chain around his neck and a matching gold earring—stylish and expensive. Kelly wore a similar gold necklace with a floating diamond solitaire pendant. As Will was asking where their suits had been made, Callie interrupted. “A drink?”
“Another time,” Gray said, all business now. “Have you found Daniel Odile-Grand?”
“No, as I said before, I have no idea where he is.”
“That’s unacceptable,” he said matter-of-factly. He turned to his partner, who nodded, regretfully smiling her agreement.
Callie was prepared. Cash had told her to hit her “ice mode” button—a phrase he’d coined for her chilliness when irritated—at any sign of trouble. He’d recognize that and take it from there. “I beg your pardon?” she replied, classic subzero. She sipped her tepid San Pellegrino with lime.
“As I explained, urgent matters are at stake.” Gray waved his hand to include the dining room downstairs. “I’m told this fine restaurant is underinsured.”
“Yo, Callie.” Cash had materialized behind her, carrying chips and guacamole for the table. “I thought you said we were well insured.”
“We are, in fact, well insured,” she agreed.
Cash leaned in. His physical presence didn’t seem to faze these people. “So we don’t need insurance, then, we’re fine,” he pointed out.
Gray leaned in, too, measuring Cash, finding him wanting. “Listen carefully, cowboy, this is not your concern.” He said it slowly, advising a dim-witted child.
Kelly shook her head and spoke for the first time. “No, surely not.”
Cash’s eyes locked onto Gray’s. “Then this is your unlucky day, pardner. From now on, to get to the lady, you go through me.” He flashed a shit-eating grin. “Did you call me Cowboy?”
Gray grinned ever so slightly. Kelly smiled, picture perfect.
“Cowboy?” Cash repeated, frowning now as he emptied the bowl of guacamole on Gray’s cream-colored silk suit.
Gray was up, going for his gun. He fell to the floor, writhing, when Andre planted his metal prosthetic in the hit man’s groin. Cash already had Kelly’s arms pinned at her sides. Andre took her gun from its shoulder holster and trained it on Gray, who was on the floor, covered with guacamole.
“Let this go,” Cash told Gray. “You don’t want a war. Not with me.”
“Nice suit,” Andre added, and lifted Gray’s gold necklace with the black metal toe of his prosthetic leg. “Love the bling.”
More from Danger in Plain Sight
Cash closed his eyes. He had to do something to divert his mind from these horrific insects. He turned away, stretched his sore arms, flexed his tense back, focusing on Callie. Callie James . . . Okay, it was working. Picturing her face, the corners of his mouth turned up and his spirits soared.
Callie James . . . Why did he feel so wholly in love with her?
He stood, arms extended behind him, as he considered his on-again, off-again history with women.
Women found him attractive, and he’d been with many of them. His relationships, however, rarely lasted as long as he expected. There was some part of himself that he held back, and women sensed this and eventually moved on or asked for more of a commitment than he could make. Over time, he realized that it wasn’t a part — like a piece — but rather some portion of his unusual intensity. He understood that he was very accepting of other people and only offered as much as a woman looked for — some essential emotional minimum — to sustain the relationship. It wasn’t a conscious decision. It was a strong, keenly sensitive person’s way of protecting a partner from unwanted, possibly unsettling intensity. It’s who he was. Everything that he did, he did well but sparingly. So in some way he didn’t understand, he was choosing women who were less intense than he was.
Callie was the first woman he’d ever been with who demanded one hundred percent at all times. She was relentless, and even when she wasn’t aware of it, every bit as intense as he was. He didn’t hold anything back with her — yet she always wanted an explanation, an elaboration, an argument, or an answer to a difficult question. She’d never idealized him, that’s for sure. And he never pretended with her. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but the out-of-the-blue way this had happened between them, the strength of it, was something entirely new for him. Did he trust it? Yes, unequivocally. Did he know why? Yes, unequivocally again — it was because Callie James could never be untrue to herself.
Cash sat down, and turning back, he watched the horrible insects squirming in the jar.
No, he couldn’t lose her. Not now.
More from Danger in Plain Sight
He opened the back door and then led Christy up the stairs to apartment 2D. Will opened the apartment door, held it for her. Christy came through the door into the living room. Will closed the door behind her.
“Christy,” Callie called from where she’d been standing behind the door.
When Christy turned, confused, Callie whispered, “You miserable bitch,” and she fired two barbed, dart-like electrodes from her Taser into Christy’s chest. The electrodes created a circuit in the body, essentially hijacking the central nervous system, causing neuromuscular incapacitation.
Christy fell to the floor, writhing in uncontrollable muscle spasms. When the writhing stopped and she’d curled into the fetal position, Callie and Will cuffed her hands behind her back.
When they were able to get her on her feet, Callie said, “We’re trading you for Cash Logan and Amjad Hasim.”
“What are you talking about?”
Callie slapped her, as hard as she was able. The blow tore Christy’s lower lip, drawing blood, and bruised her cheek. Callie hadn’t planned to do that—it was her second time, and she’d never hit anyone nearly so hard in her life—but red-hot rage was coursing through her veins. She was trembling, though her ever-present anxiety had receded, and she sure as hell didn’t feel helpless.
“Are you crazy?” Christy cried out.
“Don’t even try that. I know what you and Avi have done—to Daniel, to my restaurant, to my friend Doc. You almost killed us all on the boat. And now you have Cash, damn you!”
Christy’s face changed; she got it—Callie had somehow put it together. “You low-life skanky cunt, I’ll kill you myself.” Christy spit in Callie’s face.
Callie slapped her again, a fierce crack, astonished, yet again, by the rage she felt welling inside. And in that moment, she understood that her usual internal restraints—her rules and regulations—were no longer in place. It was as if an anvil had been cut loose from around her neck.
Blood dripped from Christy’s lip, her left eye was partially closed, and tears streamed down her face.
Callie stepped closer. “If anything happens to Cash, if you hurt him again, I’ll kill you, Christy Ben-Meyer. I swear that on my son’s life.”
Five minutes later Christy was standing on a stool in the center of the room. Her hands were cuffed behind her back. Her feet were bound. Her mouth was covered with duct tape. There was a noose around her neck that was tightly tied off to the pair of sturdy eyehooks that Will had screwed into the ceiling beam earlier. Christy’s head was tilted back and up; the rope was that tight. Another rope was tied to the leg of the stool. If the stool were pulled out from under Christy’s feet, she would hang.
Callie held a handgun to Christy’s kneecap.
Will was shooting a video with Callie’s iPhone.
Callie spoke to the camera. “Avi Ben-Meyer, I promise you that I will shoot out Christy’s left kneecap in fifteen minutes if you haven’t arranged the exchange with Itzac by then. In thirty minutes, I’ll shoot out her other kneecap and hang her. Believe me on this — if Cash Logan is hurt in any way, I’ll torture her without mercy before she dies.” Callie nodded, done. She walked to a corner of the room, fighting for breath. Dear God! What had she just said? Torture Christy? Damn it, if they hurt Cash . . . She gasped — she’d never even known that she could have feelings like that.
Will placed a calming hand on her back, and he gave her the phone. Callie noted the time, then sent the video to Itzac.
More from Danger in Plain Sight
The martinis arrived, each one with an extra inch of refill in a glass tumbler. “The angel’s share,” Cash explained. He raised his drink, a toast. “To you, Callie, to what you could become.”
She clicked his glass with hers. “I’m not sure what you mean.”
“You have a shot at extraordinary.”
“You think so?”
“Possibly. But it’s an entirely different kind of extraordinary than turning-me-over-to-the-cops-for-smuggling-erotic-netsuke-into-your-restaurant extraordinary.”
“I deserve that. Jesus what an unforgiving, righteous gal I was.” She raised a palm. “Your words. And you were right. I’m sorry.” She touched his arm. “I was mean-spirited, foolish—just plain wrong — and I’ll always regret that.”
“Suppose we let that go.” Cash raised his glass again.
She touched her glass to his. “Thank you.”
“Speaking of regrets, honestly, I never anticipated that this past week would be so difficult—the anxiety, hiding Lew, the mace, the damage to your restaurant, the explosives on the boat . . . It was especially hard to lose Doc . . .” He let it drift.
She nodded, found his eyes. “I misjudged you early on . . . Conventional thinking sometimes blinds me—how you look, how you dress, what your job is. Long story short, you’re not at all what you seem. I listened carefully to you with Detective Samter today. You’re so smart, so able in the world. And in your way, though you’d never admit it, you try to get it right. Yes, you present whatever you’re proposing as practical, a calculated, opportunistic thing. What I’m learning, though, is that with you that’s also, as you see it—after carefully weighing pros and cons—the best for all involved. Or as I would say it, theright thing. How you get there is often confusing to me, but you do get there, way ahead of me, and, well, I admire you.”
“Thank you . . . That’s a two-way deal.” Cash watched her, surprised by her expressiveness. “Truthfully, this past week, I underestimated you. You’ve been right there, as hard as that must have been for you. You kept defying my expectations. Just when I was ready to give up on you, you did the smart thing, the hard thing, under protest, but you did it. And now, I’m watching you in the eye of a serious storm, just when I’d expect you to cave in, fall apart. But no, you manage. You even stand tall. Callie, you have a fine, strong heart.”
She smiled. “I’m a restaurateur. I never knew what to do outside my restaurant. I was always afraid.”
“I didn’t know that.”
“It took a lot of work and a huge amount of energy to accomplish that deception. I mean you can’t imagine what it was like for me to find you — ask for your help — at the Dragon. It was all I could do to look at you, to keep even a semblance of composure.”
“And that’s changing?”
“Yes, I think so. I hope so.”
“How did this happen?”
“It’s you, Terry.” She looked at him, eyes serious. “In your tenacious, patient way, you dragged me—kicking and screaming—out into the world, step by baby step, and though it’s every bit as frightening and even more unsettling than I imagined it, I’m okay with it. Yeah, I’m even getting my sea legs.”
“Bravo, then, Callie James. To both of us.”
She raised her glass. They toasted silently.
“Truthfully, Cash, at times I even like it out here.”
“Well, it suits you.” Cash watched her smile.
“I even like talking with you . . . And I was never a talker.”
“I’m guessing we have some great, contentious conversations ahead of us.”
“I like the idea of that.”
“Likewise.”
“Cash and Frosty, tête-à-tête.”
He took her small, delicate hands in his big, busted-up mitts.
Their kiss was tender, sweet, Cash thought. After, there were tears in Callie’s eyes.
***
Author Bio
Burt Weissbourd is a novelist and former screenwriter and producer of feature films. He was born in 1949 and graduated cum laude from Yale University, with honors in psychology. His book, Danger in Plain Sight, published on May 15th 2020, is the first book in his new Callie James thriller series. His earlier books include Inside Passage, Teaser, Minos, and In Velvet, all of which will be reissued in Fall 2020.
Today is my turn to post on the Blog Tour and share my Feature Post and Book Review for BLACK MAGIC’S PREY (Black Magic Book #1) by Kristin McTiernan.
Below you will find a book blurb, my book review, an about the author section and the author’s social media links. Enjoy!
***
Book Blurb
Hiding is no longer an option.
Tess has been stalker-free for fifteen years. She’s been living in trailer parks and preparing to run at any minute—all because in ninth grade she turned down the wrong Brujo. He comes from a long line of male witches and even back in high school, his powers were terrifying.
He used those powers to punish Tess. To make her do things. Awful things.
Now she has a new life. She’s got a good job, a decent Airstream trailer, and a best-friend-maybe-girlfriend. She’s careful not to reveal too much about her dark past.
But none of that matters. No matter where Tess goes, he will always find her. Unless she’s willing to trust a man who may be even more twisted than her stalker’s curse.
BLACK MAGIC’S PREY (Black Magic Book #1) by Kristin McTiernan is the start to a new paranormal/urban fantasy series by a new to me author.
Theresa “Tess” Cooper is an HR consultant who has been living in her own trailer and ready to run at a moment’s notice for the last fifteen years of her life. You have to be able to move quickly when you are stalked by evil.
Tess has been stalked by a psychotic Brujo since she turned him down for a date in the ninth grade. The entire male only line of Brujo lived across the street from Tess and her parent’s home. When he catches up with her again, she decides it is time to return to her childhood home in Kansas City and ask for forgiveness and get help from his father, Luis.
Is Luis willing to help Tess against his son? Could his help be worse than her stalker’s curse?
I enjoyed this first book in this new series. For such a short book, only 175 pages, Ms. McTiernan does a good job of pulling me in to invest in Tess’s story and the worldbuilding was unique. The main storyline of this short book was tied up, but this is an episodic first-person saga so it leaves questions that lead you into the next book. The sex throughout the book is basically behind closed doors except for one scene which is intense and a pivotal point in the story, so I cannot discuss it. No spoilers here.
I recommend this paranormal/urban fantasy. It is a different world that I am not used to reading about and I have already purchased the next book in the series to find out where the series goes.
***
About the Author
After waffling between joining a convent and enlisting in the Marines, I settled on the latter at the age of seventeen. After finishing my enlistment, I studied English literature with the intent of becoming a teacher. But after realizing I loved words more than teaching others, I used my degree to become a professional writer and editor, first with the federal civil service and then with the private sector. A lover of all things spec-fic, I wrote about women in weird situations, whether it’s magic or time travel, and enjoy the journey I take my characters on.
Today is my turn to share My Feature Post and Book Review on the Blackthorn Book Tour for A KNIFE’S EDGE by Eliot Parker.
Below you will find a book description, my book review and the author’s bio and social media links. Enjoy!
***
Book Description
Six months after a drug cartel infiltrated Charleston, Ronan McCullough continues to fight the drug war that plagues the city.
His investigations are halted when the body of a mutual acquaintance, Sarah Gilmore, is found in the trunk of a burning car. In an investigation that takes him deep into the professional and personal life of the victim, McCullough discovers secrets lurking in her past, and a tangled web of personal and professional conflicts, suspicion, and betrayal. Was Sarah killed for those reasons or something larger?
As Ronan seeks answers, his life and the lives of those closest to him are used as pawns in a deadly game that has no ending.
A KNIFE’S EDGE (A Ronan McCullough Novel Book #2) by Eliot Parker is the latest edge-of-your-seat police procedural/thriller featuring Sgt. Ronan McCullough set in Charleston, WV. Even though this is the second book in the series and begins soon after the end of book one, it can easily be read as a standalone.
Sgt. Ronan McCullough has been battling the drug war in his town for most of his career. While surprising Ty at a formal function, a Hummer comes barreling through the plate glass wall of the convention center. Ty works to save lives while Ronan inspects the wreckage. A dead man is at the wheel with a gun shot to the head and the restrained and slashed body of Sarah Gilmore, a mutual friend of Ronan and Ty’s is found dead in the trunk.
Ronan and his partner Eric are not assigned the case, but he cannot stop himself from becoming involved. When Sarah was killed she was working for BTech, a new tech company which will be taking over all of the crime scene blood testing for the Charleston PD. As Ronan investigates, he discovers Sarah and BTech have secrets and the more he uncovers the more danger his nephew and his boyfriend are in.
Ronan is a veteran detective who is as intelligent as he is prickly. He has difficulty playing nice with others at work, but he is brilliant at what he does. His boyfriend, Ty is a head nurse in the ER at the local hospital and is the softer side that Ronan needs. Mr. Parker does a wonderful job of bringing them to life as well as Ronan’s partner and nephew.
The plot is well paced and intriguing. I was continually trying to figure out who I could believe and trust.The surprise twists and turns kept me turning the pages. There is a lot of action, blood and murder, but I never felt it was gratuitous.
I loved this police procedural/thriller and Ronan. I am looking forward to many more books in this series!
***
Author Bio
Eliot Parker is the author of four novels, most recently A Knife’s Edge, which was an Honorable Mention in Thriller Writing at the London Book Festival, and is the sequel to the award-winning novel Fragile Brilliance. His novel Code for Murder was named a 2018 Finalist for Genre Fiction by American Book Fest. He is a recipient of the West Virginia Literary Merit Award and Fragile Brilliance was a finalist for the Southern Book Prize in Thriller Writing. He recently received with the Thriller Writing Award by the National Association of Book Editors (NABE) for his novels.
Eliot is the host of the podcast program Now, Appalachia, which profiles authors and publishers living and writing in the Appalachian region and is heard on the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network and Blog Talk Radio. A graduate of the Bluegrass Writers Studio at Eastern Kentucky University with his MFA in Creative Writing and Murray State University with his Doctorate in English, he teaches English at the University of Mississippi and lives in Oxford, Mississippi and Chesapeake, Ohio.
Today I am very excited to be sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for Jamie Beck’s new novel – IF YOU MUST KNOW (Potomac Point Book #1).
Below you will find an author Q&A, a book summary, my book review, an excerpt from the book, the author’s bio and social media links and a Rafflecopter giveaway. Good luck on the giveaway and enjoy!
***
Author Q&A
How do you describe your newest novel If You Must Know?
This book is a “beach book” in the best sense. It’s not angsty, yet it has a page-turning plot and a bunch of interesting, relatable characters. I think it’s entertaining and heartfelt at the same time, which is exactly what many enjoy reading while on vacation.
What inspired the novel?
The external plot came to me as a result of the influence of two people in my life. My dear friend’s husband is a forensic accountant, so some of his stories about how people hide money and flee their families provided one point of inspiration. The second is my mother’s best friend who, in her seventies, sold her house and bought a boat, which she and her husband live on full-time. The impetus for the oil-and-water sisters was to provide myself an opportunity to explore the sibling-rivalry dynamic.
Tell us about the two main characters in the story—sisters Amanda and Erin.
Amanda is the middle child. She’s diligent, earnest, hard-working, and generous. She wants the people she loves to be happy and feel her love. Her weakness is a deep-seated insecurity—a sense that she is not interesting enough to be lovable. This leads her to overlook when she is being taken for granted because her need to be pleasing is omnipresent.
Erin is the baby of the family and her late-father’s pet. She is outgoing, fun-loving, and views her average intelligence as a blessing (rather than lamenting that her siblings are smarter). She is willful and has her own way of moving through the world. The big weakness she has is her impulsiveness, whether with jobs or relationships. As she approaches her 30th birthday, she’s looking to mature and create a more stable life for herself.
What kind of relationship do the sisters have?
I think they share a typical relationship insofar as their differences cause many misunderstandings and instill in each a sense of being judged by the other, and yet they do care about and love each other, too. They simply do not know how to be true friends and trust the other—at least not at the outset of this tale.
This book focused on the main female characters growing and learning about themselves. What prompted this ‘women’s fiction’ approach to the story?
Partly market forces and partly my own need to stretch. At 53, it was becoming more difficult to write a 20-something woman facing the challenges of dating. The shift to women’s fiction allows me to write late-30 and early 40-something characters, which comes more naturally to me. I also enjoy exploring family and friendship dynamics, and absolutely love having endless options for story arcs (as opposed to having to follow a traditional romance arc).
What does your new Potomac Point series have in common with your previous books?
All my books to date have focused on critical relationships and some type of redemption theme. I find damaged people to be very interesting and believe that there is good in most everyone, so I prefer to populate my stories with flawed people who must confront their inner demons in order to be happy. My new books will also focus on relationships and redemption, but the non-romantic relationships (or even the relationship with one’s self) will be more central.
***
Book Summary
Sisters Amanda Foster and Erin Turner have little in common except the childhood bedroom they once shared and the certainty each feels that her way of life is best. Amanda follows the rules—at the school where she works; in her community; and as a picture-perfect daughter, wife, and mother-to-be. Erin follows her heart—in love and otherwise—living a bohemian lifestyle on a shoestring budget and honoring her late father’s memory with a passion for music and her fledgling bath-products business.
The sisters are content leading separate but happy lives in their hometown of Potomac Point until everything is upended by lies that force them to confront unsettling truths about their family, themselves, and each other. For sisters as different as these two, building trust doesn’t come easily—especially with one secret still between them—but it may be the only way to save their family.
IF YOU MUST KNOW (Potomac Point Book #1) by Jamie Beck is her latest contemporary Women’s fiction and the start of a new series. Ms. Beck has written an emotional and realistic story with dysfunctional family members in upheaval that I found difficult to put down.
Amanda and Erin Turner are sisters that have gone about life differently and have never felt close. They lead separate lives as adults. Amanda was the middle child and always wanted to please by being perfect and was closest with her mother. Amanda followed her plan and went to college, got married and is now expecting her first child. While Erin was the baby of the family and always felt different and was closest to her father. Erin has always led a bohemian life and while she teaches yoga and makes her own soaps and scrubs has never really worried beyond the current day.
Suddenly everything changes.
Amanda finds out her marriage is not as perfect as she believed. Amanda’s mother loaned her husband the majority of her dad’s death benefits for a business deal and he has taken off. As these secrets are being kept, Erin moves home to help with her mother’s inability to take care of herself. Erin does not know if it is because of her mother’s continued grief over losing her husband a year ago or the stress of the missing money. Suddenly all three women are together again and must deal with unsettling truths about themselves and their family.
I loved the different and difficult family relationships. The characters and emotions were to me believable because having grown up in a large family I could relate to all their character traits. Ms. Beck has written a complex and fully fleshed sister-to-sister relationship that had to evolve from childhood hurts and misunderstandings to grow and help each other in the present. Amanda and Erin’s mother’s past also played a large role in the present family dynamics.
I enjoyed this first book in the series and I will be looking forward to more.
***
Excerpt
I rolled onto my side with a groan, coming face-to-face with one of my favorite family photos. We’d taken our annual family summer trip to Hilton Head—the one real splurge my dad had made sure we enjoyed every year. We had a tradition of having lunch at a little open-air cabana bar and restaurant called Coco’s on the Beach.
Between the deck and the volleyball court in the sand stood a tall pole with colorful arrow-shaped signs pointing in different directions. Each one was painted with the name of a different city somewhere on the globe, along with the mileage to get there. We’d dream about all the places we might go, and after high school I’d had the chance to see many. In this picture, our whole family is standing around that sign, smiling at the camera. My dad has his hand on my shoulder, and if you look closely, you can see Amanda holding my hand. I must’ve been only five or six—young enough that she hadn’t given up trying to be my second mother. At the time, I’d felt smothered by her attention, but looking back, I’d also felt loved.
I grabbed my phone and called my sister, but it went to voice mail. A heaviness pressed on me, but I couldn’t tell if it was from looking at that picture of our family that would never again be whole or from the fact that I’d disappointed my mom and sister today.
They loved me in their way even if they couldn’t love and accept me as I am. My dad had, though, and to honor his memory and wishes for our family, I couldn’t continue to drift out of their lives as I’d been doing.
After the beep, I said, “Hey, it’s moi. Surprise! My plans have changed and I’ve got a little time. If you get this message, let me know where you are and I’ll try to catch up.”
I hit “End,” my feet restlessly kicking the foot of my bed. The small bedroom seemed claustrophobic, but I didn’t want to talk to Max. Not that I could avoid him in here, either, where his dirty laundry, sandals, and other items lay about. Rather than take a match to it all, I decided to organize some of his things to help with his packing. Hauling myself off the bed, I then went to the armoire to get to the vintage albums my dad had left me in his will.
Some were fairly valuable, like the Beatles collection box set from 1982, valued at roughly a thousand bucks. Or the Led Zeppelin first pressing with the turquoise label, which should net around eight hundred or so dollars. U2’s Joshua Tree collection box set from 1987—maybe worth six or seven hundred. Then there were others worth less than one hundred dollars. But each one had infinite sentimental value.
Every song resurrected a specific memory of time spent with my father playing cards, washing cars, grilling hot dogs … anything. Whatever he’d wanted to do, I’d done with him, and he’d always chosen the perfect background soundtrack for every activity. Those stolen moments had also been a great way to escape my mom’s endless lectures and demands. She’d never yelled at me for skipping out on chores or being messy when I’d been spending that time with him. Probably because he wouldn’t let her.
At present, my restlessness matched the mood of a typical Bob Seger song, so I grabbed Beautiful Loser and slipped the record from its sleeve, resisting the urge to hug it as if it were my dad. I set it on the old turntable he’d also left me. As the few first drumbeats clangored, my heart kicked an extra beat or two—partly happy, partly sad. I glanced toward the bedroom door, picturing Max on the sofa, and then got to work.
It didn’t matter where life led me next. I had faith because my own personal angel was looking out for me now.
Que será, será.
***
Author Bio
Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author Jamie Beck’s realistic and heartwarming stories have sold more than two million copies. She is a two-time Booksellers’ Best Award finalist and a National Readers’ Choice Award winner, and critics at Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, and Booklist have respectively called her work “smart,” “uplifting,” and “entertaining.” In addition to writing novels, she enjoys hitting the slopes in Vermont and Utah and dancing around the kitchen while cooking. Above all, she is a grateful wife and mother to a very patient, supportive family. Fans can get exclusive excerpts, inside scoops, and be eligible for birthday gift drawings by subscribing to her newsletter at http://eepurl.com/b7k7G5. She also loves interacting with everyone on Facebook at www.facebook.com/JamieBeckBooks.
Today I am very excited to share my Feature Post and Book Review for this fast-paced, exciting start to a new series – THE GIRL BENEATH THE SEA (Underwater Investigation Unit #1) by Andrew Mayne
Below you will find a book description, my book review and an about the author section. Enjoy!
***
Book Description
For a Florida police diver, danger rises to the surface in an adventurous thriller by the Wall Street Journal bestselling author of The Naturalist.
Coming from scandalous Florida treasure hunters and drug smugglers, Sloan McPherson is forging her own path, for herself and for her daughter, out from under her family’s shadow. An auxiliary officer for Lauderdale Shores PD, she’s the go-to diver for evidence recovery. Then Sloan finds a fresh kill floating in a canal—a woman whose murky history collides with Sloan’s. Their troubling ties are making Sloan less a potential witness than a suspect. And her colleagues aren’t the only ones following every move she makes. So is the killer.
Stalked by an assassin, pitted against a ruthless cartel searching for a lost fortune, and under watch within her ranks, Sloan has only one ally: the legendary DEA agent who put Sloan’s uncle behind bars. He knows just how deep corruption runs—and the kind of danger Sloan is in. To stay alive, Sloan must stay one step ahead of her enemies—both known and unknown—and a growing conspiracy designed to pull her under.
***
My Book Review
RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars
The Girl Beneath the Sea (Underwater Investigation Unit Book #1) by Andrew Mayne is the start of a new suspense/thriller series featuring a female law enforcement diver. This book has everything I look for in a thriller: a strong protagonist, realistic fast-paced action and continual escalating threats with surprise twists and turns. This book also has the added intensity of being set in the world of professional divers in south Florida.
Sloan McPherson comes from a long line of scandalous smugglers and treasure hunters, but she has chosen the path of law enforcement. She is an auxiliary officer who dives for evidence recovery to pay her way through school working towards her PhD. and to support herself and young daughter.
She surfaces from a dive, looking for archeological artifacts, to discover the recently murdered body of a childhood acquaintance. The former family ties set up Sloan to be considered a suspect.
As Sloan tries to find out what really happened, she finds herself entangled in a plot that involves dirty public officials, secret government agencies and a ruthless cartel with only one ally; the cop who put her uncle in prison.
This is a new-to-me author who blew me away. I was completely immersed in all the action and intrigue even though I have never scuba dived in my life. All the descriptions made me feel as though I was right there under water with Sloan while never slowing the pace and they never felt like a lecture or info dump.
Sloan is a protagonist that I hope to follow for quite a while. She is intelligent, determined and strong, has an intense need for justice no matter what and is a loving and protective mom. I am also hoping that Run will play a bigger part in her life. This is the first book in the Underwater Investigations Unit (UIU) series and I am looking forward to seeing what investigations Sloan and George Solar get involved in in future books.
I highly recommend this new book and thriller series and I cannot wait for more!
***
About the Author
Andrew Mayne, star of A&E’s Don’t Trust Andrew Mayne, is a magician and novelist ranked the fifth best-selling independent author of the year by Amazon UK. He started his first world tour as an illusionist when he was a teenager and went on to work behind the scenes for Penn & Teller, David Blaine and David Copperfield. He’s also the host of the WeirdThings.com podcast. AndrewMayne.com
