#trilogy – Page 3 – Avonna Loves Genres

Book Review: Flirting With the Beast by Jane Porter

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

FLIRTING WITH THE BEAST (Modern Love Book #2) by Jane Porter is an emotional romance/women’s fiction addition to the Modern Love series. This is a story featuring a mature woman in her sixties moving forward after major life changes. This book is a part of a series, but each book stands on its own.

Andi McDermott has mourned for her husband and long-term marriage for five years and has decided it is time to move on and date again with the encouragement of her girlfriends. When her stepson disappoints her by not coming for her planned Christmas dinner to meet his fiancée, she refuses to mope and takes off for the family cabin at Lake Arrowhead and invites her best friend, Margo to join her. Everything is going well, until Andi once again must deal with her closest neighbor, who had been feuding with husband for years.

With the threat of a major snowstorm, Margo returns home, but Andi does not leave in time to safely get home and finds herself snowed in. When her power goes out, she turns to the neighbor who is not quite what she imagined.

Wolf Enders enjoys the solitude of living full time at Lake Arrowhead. The Marine vet, divorced father lives as he pleases and while Andi has always found him intimidating, when she comes to his cabin, she finds him kind and uncomfortably sexy. Wolf finds he is attracted to Andi and wants to take this good girl to bed, but he is not interested in a relationship. But life keeps throwing these two together and Andi just might be the one to tame the beast.

This is a wonderful read, not just a romance, but an all-around emotional journey not only for the H/h but their family members also. Andi has grown personally since her marriage ended and while she now stands up for herself and what she wants, she is still kind and loving. Wolf needs his space, is gruff on the outside and is one of those men that takes care of his family in the things he does for them and not necessarily verbally. The on again off again relationship is very believable as they both deal with family drama, grief, and fear. The sexual relationship was well written and steamy. This story is based around the romance between Andi and Wolf, but the realistic situations with grown children, friends, and life in general makes this story multilayered and memorable.

I highly recommend this mature romance/women’s fiction!

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About the Author

USA Today, and New York Times bestselling author of 65 romances and women’s fiction titles, Jane Porter has been a finalist for the prestigious RITA award six times, with her Tule Publishing novella, Take Me, Cowboy, winning the Novella Category July 2014. Today, Jane has over 15 million copies in print, including her wildly popular Flirting with Forty, a novel picked by Redbook Magazine as it’s Red Hot Summer Read in 2006 before being turned into a Lifetime movie in 2008 starring Heather Locklear.

Jane holds an MA in Writing from the University of San Francisco and makes her home in sunny San Clemente, CA with her surfer husband three sons, and two dogs. You can learn more about Jane at janeporter.com.

Social Media Links

Website: https://janeporter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjaneporter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorjanep

Book Review: Three Cowboys and a Baby by Kate Pearce

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

THREE COWBOYS AND A BABY by Kate Pearce is a heartfelt contemporary western romance full of misunderstandings, tension, humor, and love. This is the first book in a new trilogy featuring three sexy former Marines now cowboys on the Nilsen family ranch at the northern end of the Sierra Nevada Mountain range.

When Luke Nilsen left the service, he returned home to run his family’s ranch with two of his Marine brothers, Noah and Max. An old teammate shows up at the ranch out of the blue with his infant son, Sky, looking for the baby’s mother who supposedly lives in town. When he doesn’t find her, he sneaks out overnight and leaves the baby behind.

Noah Harding had to raise his three sisters while his mother worked to support them and he swears he will never have a child of his own, but until the baby’s mother turns up to claim him, he will do his best to take care of him. When Sky’s mother shows up at the ranch relieved to find her son safe, they become snowed in, and Noah learns there is more to the story and there may be more to his own feelings.

Jen Rossi knows her son’s father is unreliable and when she is delayed getting back from deployment, she never expected he would abandon their son with three men she doesn’t even know. Snowed in, Jen is especially helpful with her nursing skills after an accident. While she really appreciates the handsome, but taciturn Noah, she must consider her future with her son and the ever-present problems her ex can cause for her custody.

I like the author’s set up for this trilogy, the setting and the three friends. Their military service made them all close, but they also came back with some difficulties adjusting and the isolated, large ranch in the mountains is a perfect place to heal. Noah is gruff and has to have everything organized in a logical way which does not always line-up with emotions. Jen has grown up in foster care until her service and now whether she has found a man she can learn to trust and love; she must put hers and her son’s futures first. While I enjoyed all the back and forth while Noah and Jen are getting to know each other, there were times it went on too long for me when some things could have been taken care of by just some honest conversation. The sex scenes are smokin’ hot and explicit, but not gratuitous. All of the secondary characters are fully fleshed and realistic and I cannot wait to see who is going to meet their HEA match next.

I enjoyed this contemporary western romance and am looking forward to the other two books to come in the trilogy.

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Author Bio

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Kate Pearce was born in England in the middle of a large family of girls and quickly found that her imagination was far more interesting than real life. After acquiring a degree in history and barely escaping from the British Civil Service alive, she moved to California and then to Hawaii with her kids and her husband and set about reinventing herself as a romance writer.

She is known for both her unconventional heroes and her joy at subverting romance clichés. In her spare time she self publishes science fiction erotic romance, historical romance, and whatever else she can imagine.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.katepearce.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/kate4queen

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/688826.Kate_Pearce

Book Review: Flirting with Fifty by Jane Porter

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

FLIRTING AT FIFTY (Modern Love Book #1) by Jane Porter is a women’s fiction/contemporary mature romance mash-up featuring two college professors who are reunited thirty years after a one-night stand in Paris.

Paige Newsom is close to her fiftieth birthday and finally satisfied with her life. A respected mathematics professor in Southern California with three adult daughters which she still has good relationships with even though they are all on their own around the country. She divorced her alcoholic husband eight years previously and has no wish to date ever again.

The head of her department calls her in to his office to tell he she will be dual teaching a class in the fall with a visiting professor due to another teacher’s medical leave. What Paige is not expecting is that her fellow professor is the famous epidemiologist and biologist Jack King. The same Jack King she had a one-night stand in Paris when she was twenty. Memorable for all the wrong reasons. Paige finds the mature Jack just as intriguing and alluring as ever, but she is happy with her life and does not want to open her heart to a man again. Jack wants more of Paige than she may be willing to give.

I am always excited when I can find a story with a mature romance. I found Jack to be wonderful and his reasons for not being married believable due to his professional life. I had a little more difficulty understanding Paige. Her life and tribulations as a mother of grown daughters and her longtime friendship with Elizabeth all rang true for me and I understood why she would be happy single after her terrible marriage, but I found her insecurities overblown especially with her career accomplishments. Her reasons for putting Jack off were the same for much of the story and then very quickly at the ending everything was fine. Other than that, I enjoyed all the secondary characters and the descriptions of the trip to Tanzania. I am looking forward to reading more in this series and discovering who will be featured in the next book.

This is an entertaining women’s fiction/contemporary mature romance read.

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About the Author

Born in Visalia, California, I’m a small town girl at heart. I love central California’s golden foothills, oak trees, and the miles of farmland. In my mind, there’s nothing sweeter in the world than the heady fragrance of orange blossoms on a sultry summer night.

As a little girl I spent hours on my bed, staring out the window, dreaming of far off places, fearless knights, and happy-ever-after endings. In my imagination I was never the geeky bookworm with the thick coke-bottle glasses, but a princess, a magical fairy, a Joan-of-Arc crusader.

My parents fed my imagination by taking our family to Europe for a year when I was thirteen. The year away changed me (I wasn’t a geek for once!) and overseas I discovered a huge and wonderful world with different cultures and customs. I loved everything about Europe, but felt especially passionate about Italy and those gorgeous Italian men (no wonder my first very Presents hero was Italian).

I confess, after that incredible year in Europe, the travel bug bit, and bit hard. I spent much of my high school and college years abroad, studying in South Africa, Japan and Ireland. South Africa remains a country of my heart, the people, the land and politics complex and heart-wrenching.

After my years of traveling and studying I had to settle down and earn a living. With my Bachelors degree from UCLA in American Studies, a program that combines American literature and American history, I’ve worked in sales and marketing, as well as a director of a non-profit foundation. Later I earned my Masters in Writing from the University of San Francisco and taught jr. high and high school English.

I now live in Seattle and Hawaii with my three sons. I never mind a rainy day, either, because that’s when I sit at my desk and write stories about far-away places, fascinating people, and most importantly of all, love. I like a story with a happy ending. We all do.

Social Media Links

Website: https://janeporter.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjaneporter

Twitter: https://twitter.com/authorjanep

Book Review: The Silent Sisters by Robert Dugoni

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE SILENT SISTERS (Charles Jenkins Book #3) by Robert Dugoni is the non-stop high-octane conclusion of the Seven Sisters trilogy featuring ex-CIA agent Charles Jenkins. I believe this trilogy should be read in order to really enjoy it.

Having barely escaped Russia on his last mission, Charles is once again approached by the CIA when the two remaining Seven Sisters have gone silent. This time if he returns, he is on the Russia kill list, but he feels a sense of duty to assist in the efforts to find out if the two remaining sisters are still alive and need to be extracted.

When he gets to Moscow, he involves himself in saving a young prostitute being abused by a man in the bar where he stops to eat. His moral code will not allow him to just walk away. The man ends up being killed and Jenkins is blamed. To make matters worse it is the only son of the leader of the Moscow mafia. Now he is being chased by a matriarch out for revenge, a Moscow police investigator, a high-level assassin and the FSB as he attempts to helps the two sisters escape. This time though, he may have run out of luck.

This book was impossible to put down with everything that happens from the moment Charles returns to Russia. I did feel a few times you have to suspend belief, but no more than other spy/espionage fictional thrillers. Even when the stakes are high and the danger a step behind, the author was still able to intersperse a few moments of humor. Some of the Russian government leaders’ discussions felt very realistic and could have been right from current headlines. There are old friends from the previous book included and just the hint that they all may meet again.

I have really loved this entire trilogy and highly recommend it!

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About the Author

Robert Dugoni is the critically acclaimed New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post and #1 Amazon bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite police series set in Seattle, which has sold more than 8 million books worldwide. He is also the author of The Charles Jenkins espionage series, the David Sloane legal thriller series, and several stand-alone novels including The 7th Canon, Damage Control, and the literary novels, The Extraordinary Life of Sam Hell – Suspense Magazine’s 2018 Book of the Year, for which Dugoni’s narration won an AudioFile Earphones Award and the critically acclaimed, The World Played Chess; as well as the nonfiction exposé The Cyanide Canary, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year. Several of his novels have been optioned for movies and television series. Dugoni is the recipient of the Nancy Pearl Award for Fiction and a three-time winner of the Friends of Mystery Spotted Owl Award for best novel set in the Pacific Northwest. He has also been a finalist for many other awards including the International Thriller Award, the Harper Lee Prize for Legal Fiction, the Silver Falchion Award for mystery, and the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award.

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.robertdugoni.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@robertdugoni

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni

Book Review: The Last Agent by Robert Dugoni

RATING: 5 out of 5 Stars

THE LAST AGENT (Charles Jenkins Book #2) by Robert Dugoni is the second book in this action-packed, edge-of-your-seat trilogy featuring a retired CIA agent. I feel these books are best read in order.

In the first book Charles Jenkins survived an operation gone wrong in Russia only to return to be tried for treason. After being exonerated, he learns that the woman who helped him escape Russia and gave her life for his, may be alive and being tortured in the notorious Lefortovo Prison.

To find out if Paulina Ponomayova is still alive and imprisoned, Charles must return to Russia and once again deal with former FSB officer, Viktor Fedorov. From the moment the Russian government finds out Charles is back in Russia, they assign an assassin to take care of the problem. The chase is on to find Paulina and get her out of Russia all while not knowing who they can really trust.

This book moves at the speed of light from one twist to another. The author’s writing makes you feel as though you are right there in the middle of the action with all the main characters. Charles is a fully fleshed, idealistic protagonist and that makes Efimov a perfect foil. An intriguing plot, twist and turns that do not stop and a surprise revelation make this a wonderful spy espionage read.

I am looking forward to the next book and to finding out more about the Seven Sisters. This is a trilogy that will keep you turning the pages.

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About the Author

Robert Dugoni’s books are sold in more than twenty-five countries and have been translated into more than thirty languages.

Social Media Links

Website: https://www.robertdugoni.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/@robertdugoni

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/AuthorRobertDugoni

Blog Tour/Feature Post and Book Review: The Failsafe Query by Michael Jenkins

The Failsafe Query (Sean Richardson #1) by Michael Jenkins

#TheFailsafeQuery @FailsafeQuery @damppebbles #damppebblesblogtours

Hi, everyone!

Today is my turn on this new blog tour and I am sharing my Feature Post and Book Review for THE FAILSAFE QUERY (A Sean Richardson Thriller Book #1) by Michael Jenkins. This is the first book in an exciting, action packed spy trilogy.

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:

‘Some secrets were meant to be buried forever. Until now.’

Sean Richardson, a disgraced former intelligence agent, is tasked to lead a team to search for a British intelligence officer on the cusp of exposing thousands of secrets to the media. It includes a long lost list of Russian moles embedded since the Cold War, one of whom remains a public favourite in the British parliamentary system.

The action moves with absorbing pace and intrigue across Central Asia and Europe as the puzzle begins to unfold through a deep hidden legacy. As Sean gets closer to the truth, senior figures are left to nurse their anxiety knowing that if the secret is revealed, it will destroy their lives.

On the verge of success, his eye is taken off the ball, and the Russians step forward ready to pounce.

Tense, fast paced, and insightful, The Failsafe Query twists and turns to a satisfyingly dramatic finale.

The first in a set of spy thrillers that have been expertly crafted with stunning plot lines, magnificent locations, and twists that leave you gasping for air. Perfect for fans of Frederick Forsyth, Robert Ludlum, Tom Clancy, and Scott Mariani.

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/40696242-the-failsafe-query

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My Book Review

RATING: 4 out of 5 Stars

THE FAILSAFE QUERY (A Sean Richardson Thriller Book #1) by Michael Jenkins is the first book in a trilogy of contemporary British spy thrillers.

Post 9/11, the British government wants proof of the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Sean is an agent in Central Asia and everything his informants show him points to the Iranians buying black market radioactive materials, not the Iraqis. Sean’s informant is killed and his mission compromised so he is recalled to Britain.

Eleven years later, Sean is rescued from an Afghanistan prison after months of incarceration. He was on a civilian contract job after leaving the service and was turned on when they found out he was digging into their real business, heroin. He is rescued for a reason. With his extensive knowledge of the Middle East and the mountains of Central Asia, he is tasked with finding an intelligence officer that has gone rogue. The rogue has secret information that could make him Britain’s biggest whistle-blower.

The story takes off from this point and Sean and his team travel around Europe and Central Asia in a fast-paced action spy thriller full of plot twists, modern day espionage and military precision. Sean is a complex protagonist. He is realistically flawed, believable and a professional. All the secondary characters are fully fleshed and believable, also. Since this is the first book in the trilogy, the first few chapters are more backstory and explanatory, but once Sean is on the job, the pace increases exponentially to the climax.

I recommend this exciting spy thriller and am looking forward to reading the other two in the trilogy!

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About the Author

I started climbing at 13, survived being lost in Snowdonia at 14, nearly drowned at 15, and then joined the Army at 16. Risk and adventure was built into my DNA and I feel very fortunate to have served the majority of my working career as an intelligence officer within Defence Intelligence, and as an explosive ordnance disposal officer and military surveyor within the Corps of Royal Engineers.

I was privileged to serve for twenty-eight years in the British Army as a soldier and officer, rising through the ranks to complete my service as a major. I served across the globe on numerous military operations as well as extensive travel and adventure on many major mountaineering and exploration expeditions that I led or was involved in.

I was awarded the Geographic Medal by the Royal Geographical Society for mountain exploration in 2003 and served on the screening committee of the Mount Everest Foundation charity for many years. It was humbling after so many years of service when I was awarded the MBE for services to counter-terrorism in 2007.

Social Media Links

Twitter: https://twitter.com/FailsafeQuery

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/thefailsafethrillers/

Website: https://www.michaeljenkins.org/

Purchase Links

Amazon UK: https://amzn.to/3eM9w5V

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/35gCfN1

Blackwells: https://bit.ly/3kje98F

Publishing Information

Published in paperback and digital formats by Failsafe Thrillers on 20^th May 2020