The Other Florida Keys—Mai Tais and Mayhem by M. S. Spencer

Tessa Diamond, newly arrived on the Florida Gulf Coast and looking for something to occupy her time, rescues a baby pufferfish from a hungry gull. Her good deed leads her to the famous Mote Marine Laboratory of Sarasota, and she volunteers to help at the turtle rehabilitation hospital.

When she discovers a dead body where a live turtle should be, she is swept into a shady world of smuggling, Russian gangsters, and coded messages. She confronts murder, attempted ravishment, parrots, sea turtles and big fish, only to encounter blossoming romances at every turn, including one of her own.

She is torn between Cameron Mason, tiger-eyed and handsome, and Dugan Trevally, sexy and dangerous, but before she can drop her longstanding opposition to marriage and accept her true love, she must face the possibility that one of them could be a thief, and even a murderer.

In the past, Ms. Spencer has taken us to the Eastern shore of Maryland; the rapids of the Potomac River; Alexandria, Virginia; and the Alsace/Lorraine area of Europe which has been contested for centuries by France and Germany and is the ancestral land of my ex-husband’s family who have French libidos and Teutonic stubbornness.  But, I digress as usual.  Now she’s taken us to Sarasota, Florida.

I always thought Florida had one set of Keys—the ones at the bottom tip of the state Bogie and Bacall immortalized in their movies together, sung about by Jimmy Buffet, Rupert Holmes, Kenny Chesney and others.  But there’s another set of Keys on the West Coast of Florida extending into the Gulf of Mexico from Sarasota, and that’s where the Mai Tais accompany the Mayhem.

In a place with so many little bays and islands, there are plenty of places where people can smuggle all kinds of things and commit all kinds of crimes—even murder, and they certainly do try to get away with it.  But who is smuggling what?  Who killed the guy and dumped him into the turtle’s pool?  For that matter, who got the turtle sick by feeding it caviar?  Who can Tessa trust?  Her neighbor and sometimes lover of the past few months Dugan?  Or handsome, secretive newcomer Cameron who makes her melt on sight?  And since he can read Russian is he a good guy or part of the Russian mob?  If he’s a good guy, why won’t he tell her what agency he works for?  She found the body. She was with him when they met the Russian mob boss at the police station.  How much more dangerous could it be for her if she knew which agency he worked for?

As usual, the writing is tight and the characters well-drawn.  There are plenty of suspects to choose from and red herrings to follow with interesting little sub-plots.  Ms. Spencer will keep you on the edge of your seat guessing right up to the exciting end.

Length:  220 Pages

Price:  $5.99

Buy Link:  http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=advanced_search_result&search_in_description=1&zenid=09f93206ec6c3cb47ac9ad78dc393e74&keyword=Mai+Tais+and+Mayhem

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

 

Unexpecting by Lori V. Fogarsi

Shelley and David are a couple of almost-empty-nesters preparing to embark on the next stage of their lives. They just ordered white furniture and planned the vacation they’ve waited their entire lives to take when Alexandra, seventeen and pregnant, shows up on their doorstep and announces that she’s the daughter they never knew they had!

I have a love/hate relationship with books that keep me up all night reading.  Or was it the caffeine I consumed at my granddaughter’s birthday party?  I didn’t even finish the book because I had to be at the Captain James A. Lovell Federal Health Care Center early the next day.  I had two appointments scheduled before my volunteer shift, and I overslept and missed the first one.  Oh, and then I was a bit preoccupied with my clients because I was so close to the end and I wanted to see how the book turned out, but I was having a busy day helping veterans sign up for the My Health eVet program.  Thanks, Ms. Fogarsi.

By the way, this was the granddaughter who had a baby at seventeen, not long after my daughter got engaged to her father.  I have to say how proud we are of our “baby-mama.”  She finished school from home while caring for her daughter, found a job right after graduation that worked with everyone else’s schedule and night-time feedings, and now Sydney is entering the terrible twos at fifteen months because she’s extremely bright and terribly spoiled by the whole family.  She tried honey mustard with her chicken fingers and French fries.  She kept dipping the same fry and licking it until it fell apart.  She offered some to grandma, grandpa, and one of her aunts who was sitting close by.  We were all laughing so hard, she knew she’d done something cute so she applauded herself, and laughed with us.

Can't you just see the Intelligence and mischief in those eyes?

Needless to say, Unexpecting struck somewhat close to home.  However, Alexandra was not only got pregnant, she soon got into drugs—crystal meth.  And that stuff puts a whole other kind of strain on a familyand a marriage.  The product of a fling David had between marriages, Alexandra’s mother never told him about her.  She told Alexandra that her father was a good man who would want to be involved in her life if he knew about her, but since neither of them had feelings for the other, she didn’t want to burden him.  She promised to give Alex info about him when she turned eighteen.  But she died of cancer before then, leaving a pregnant Alexandra with nothing more than her clothing and a big, shaggy, slobbery dog named Tiny.

Again, this book was engaging, keeping me up all night reading.  It sucked me in on the first page when the doorbell rang, and I devoured the book, which is mainly told from Shelley’s point of view with occasional forages into Alexandra’s and David’s heads.  Listening to the teenagers’ dialog in this book, I often thought I was at my daughter’s house.  My sixteen year old granddaughter uses the word “fine-uh” all the time.  Ms. Fogarsi has definitely done time in a house full of teens and recently, at that!

And then there were Tiny and Frick.  Who couldn’t love a big, slobbery dog who bonds with an elderly cat and tries to groom him?  Of course dog slobber isn’t quite as efficient as one cat grooming another, but Frick doesn’t seem to mind.  That big ole tongue works pretty well on gunky babies, too.  One swipe and half of Patrick is “clean.”  Tiny always seems to know when he’s needed.  Or is it just that he’s always under foot?  About as much as a dog the size of a pony who thinks he’s a lap dog can be under anything.

This book will take you through a gamut of emotions.  You’ll laugh, cry, and wonder what’s happening next.  Definitely have the tissues close by.  It’s a must-read.

Length: 272 Pages

Prices:

Paperback:  $14.99

E-Book:  TBA

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Unexpecting-Lori-Verni-Fogarsi/dp/0984028439/ref=sr_1_2?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363370924&sr=1-2&keywords=Unexpecting

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Better Than a Rabbit’s Foot by S. S. Hampton, Sr.

Before I get into this review, I realized this is my 100th Review!  Wow!  I appreciate those of you who follow this blog and I'm sure the authors whose books I've reviewed do as well if I've managed to help them generate any sales.  Now, back to our regularly scheduled review.

Staff Sergeant Jerry Stanton is a young soldier serving in the War in Iraq. He is a gunner on a gun truck nicknamed “Lucky Bear,” one of those tireless workhorses that escort supply convoys from camps in Kuwait to destinations scattered throughout the war-torn country. In the early morning hours before a scheduled mission, a dust storm howls across his camp and threatens to bring convoy operations to a halt. Worse, the camp receives word that a gunner from his company was killed by an IED [Improvised Explosive Device] while on a convoy mission in Iraq. Unlike most soldiers, Jerry doesn’t carry a lucky charm, but upon receiving news of the death of the gunner, he begins to mull over the merit of a good luck charm—only, what would work for him? Perhaps mail call will provide the answer.

Jerry isn’t expecting anything special in the mail, so when he first hears it’s come, he decides to wait until he returns from his mission to read it.  The soldier distributing the mail throws the letter to him by mistake, forgetting he asked to pick it up later.  It turns out to be a fortunate mistake.

Better Than a Rabbit’s Foot is what I call a quick little “waiting room read.”  You can scarf it down in a matter of minutes, but in those few minutes you will be transported to Afghanistan and get a glimpse of what our troops endure there.  You’re plunked down into a dust storm in the early morning hours and you feel the dust seep into your clothing, trickling down your back as it mixes with the sweat.  You feel the tension and fear of preparing for a mission knowing another man in your job has just been killed.  You feel the homesickness and the loneliness—all in eighteen short pages, because Sergeant Hampton has been there and he’s brought it back for us to experience.  Thank you, Sergeant—for both your excellent writing and your service.

Length:  18 Pages

Price:  $1.99

Buy Link:  http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=514&category_id=60&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW