Dark Liaison by J. D. Brown

 Blurb:

Ema Marx wishes her life would go back to normal, but there’s nothing normal about being a Romani-Vampyre with an ancestor who wants you dead. Apollyon is back, wreaking havoc on the lives of everyone she cares about while plotting her demise.

Ema thought she would find a new best friend in her trainer, Bridget, until the exotic vampire vies for Jesu’s attention. Jesu can date who he wants, right? Ema has more important things to worry about, like honing her powers. When Apollyon’s thugs appear out of the shadows to attack her, Ema knows it’s time to take action. But everyone else has other plans in mind.

One thing is for certain, being under house arrest in the German vampyre king’s castle was not part of her plan to save the day.

Review:

Dark Liaison picks up right where Dark Heirloom leaves off.  While the book can stand on its own, I highly suggest you read Dark Heirloom first, simply because it's a great ride.  If you read DH when it came out, you might want to give it a quick scan before you pick up DL because both books are fast-moving, edge-of-your-seat adventures and the transition from one to the next is seamless with no loss of quality in this volume.  Be prepared to howl at the end, though—there will be a third book and Dark Heirloom has another cliff-hanger ending.  That's what cost it half a rose.  I have to wait again, Ms. Brown?  Darn it!  Write faster!  Tell your editors to work faster. (Yeah, this from the person who takes years, sometimes decades to finish a book.  Note to self—write!)

At any rate, I highly recommend Dark Liaison, just as I did Dark Heirloom.

Length:  342 Pages

Price:  $5.95

ISBN:  978-1-77127-323-7

Buy Link:

http://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=669&category_id=311&manufacturer_id=171&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

"More Please, Ma'am..." The Coven—War n Wit, Inc., Book 3 by Gail Roughton

Blurb:

 

Daytona Bike Week. Biker’s paradise. The perfect place for Chad and Ariel Garrett to take a few days off and relax with Chad’s buddy Spike and Ariel’s little sister Stacy. But nothing ever goes as planned with that magical duo. Trouble just stalks them like a black cat. Maybe because a black cat is stalking them. A missing agent riding with an outlaw biker gang, a call from Chad’s past, and War-N-Wit, Inc.’s riding again. On Harleys! 

Review:

Writing a series is darned difficult.  People keep asking me when the next book in my Moon Rock series will be coming out and I don’t know.  I think my characters have said all they want to say, and they’re just going about their everyday lives now, and nothing exciting is happening to them.

So when someone doesn’t just manage to keep a series going, but also keeps it fresh, exciting, funny, and so- entertaining-I-couldn’t-put-The Coven-down-even-though-I was-on-deadline.  (Take a long, slow, deep breath.  There ya go.)  I only planned to take a few minutes to gulp down a quick lunch, but I sat for an hour reading and made myself go back to work.  Well, kudos to Ms. Roughton.

My only complaint is that the story wasn’t long enough.  I forgot the War N Wit series were novellas and was really disappointed at how quickly I got through it.  I worked until 11:30 that night and then finished The Coven before I went to sleep.  I highly recommend this book, but be warned—it’ll leave you wanting more! 

Length:  100 Pages

Price:  $2.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/War-N-Wit-Inc-Coven-Book-ebook/dp/B00C6QUK38/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2 

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Zero Separation by Philip Donlay

Blurb:

Donovan Nash has a secret he'll do anything to keep. But he's the prime suspect after someone steals a fifty million dollar executive jet, and FBI agent Veronica Montero puts him squarely in the crosshairs. As she digs, she discovers

Nash's secret—a revelation that, if made public would stun the world. Operating on her own agenda, Montero blackmails Nash into helping her hunt down a man she wants dead.

Powerless against the information Montero holds, Nash is forced into a situation far deadlier than either of them could ever have imagined. The man they are after isn't the criminal they expect, he's a terrorist with a plan to use the stolen jet to carry out an unthinkable and devastating act that could plunge America into the most heinous conflict since World War II.

When Nash and Montero are taken prisoner aboard the stolen jet, they will have only one opportunity to execute a daring midair attempt to stop the attack. Success could cost them their own lives, but failure could cost millions of innocent lives.

Review:

The world has changed since September 11, 2011, and it seems as though everyone is now writing books depicting apocalyptic terrorist attacks foiled by heroic Americans.  What distinguishes one from another is the writing.  Who are the heroes?  Do I care about them?  Are they fully drawn?  What drives them?  How do they get caught up in the terrorist/s plot?

Nash and Montero are broken people.  Each of them has lost a loved one.  In many ways, Nash’s loss cost him his own life—at least life as he knew it.  He’s managed to build a new one, but Montero is an FBI agent who has discovered his past and she uses that knowledge to blackmail him into going after the criminal who killed her partner/lover and shot Nash’s best friend of the past twenty years.  She pulls him away from his wife and child at a time when they need him most, placing all of them in more danger than even she realizes she is conjuring up.

Montero’s out for revenge; she has no idea the world is at stake.  All Nash wants to do is wrap up this case, get back to his family, and get as far from Montero as possible.  Saving the world is not on his agenda, either—until he realizes his family is sitting at Ground Zero, and the only way he can save them is by sticking with Montero, even if it means losing his life or his family in the end.  He can hear it in his wife’s voice.  She needs him.  She, too, knows his secret and what it will do to their lives if it comes out, but she also knows she’s living in an armed camp. And worse, Nash was drifting away before all of this began.

Zero Separation was a fast-paced book with fully-drawn characters who drew me in and made me care about them.  Yes, it was another “terrorists attack America” book, but it was one of the good ones—an engaging rollercoaster ride that kept me on the edge of my seat turning the pages to see what happened next, and it will keep you there, too.

Length:  320 Pages

Prices: 

Paperback:  $25.95

E-Book:  $14.95

Buy Link:  http://oceanviewpub.com/zero-separation

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

Dare to Believe by L.A. Sartor

The Pulitzer prize winning writer…

Catherine Hemstead Malloy has it all—riches, glamour and happiness—or so it seems. When her husband dies in an accident, she discovers she never really had anything at all. Now with nothing but a dismal bank account and her precious daughter, Cate fights to rebuild her life—until her daughter is kidnapped. Cate has no money, no resources—why would someone target her child?

And the knight in shining armor…

Jason St. Pierre doesn't think of himself as a knight, just a man who does what must be done, lives by his rules and damn the consequences. He'll move heaven and earth to protect the innocent, and his heart—he loved once and lost and won't risk it again, especially to Cate Hemstead.

Their reunion pits them against a kidnapper who is always one step ahead and takes them on a hunt from the majestic mountains of Colorado to the idyllic beaches of Hawaii. Can they solve the who-dunnit turned why-dunnit kidnapping in time to save Cate's daughter?

As usual, I figured out the ending about half-way through the book, but that’s just me.  It’s my bane—that’s how I would have written it.  Most readers won’t.  Ms. Sartor throws in plenty of red herrings and gives you plenty of people to suspect and plausible of motives for each one.  She keeps you guessing with the romance between Cate and Jason as well.  Why did Cate leave Jason all those years ago?  It’s plain she never stopped loving him and just as obvious to anyone not distracted by the loss of her child that he never stopped loving her.  How could they have lived in such close proximity to each other and not realized they still had such strong feelings for each other?  In fact, I wondered if her child wasn’t actually his.  What an elegant solution that could be.  It could either be the answer to a major dilemma or the ultimate revenge.  You’ll have to read Dare to Believe to find out whether I’m throwing in my own red herring.

Length: 282 Pages

Price:  $3.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Dare-To-Believe-ebook/dp/B008V0K1QO/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1363377568&sr=1-1&keywords=dare+to+believe+%2B+L.A.+Sartor

Thanks for visiting.  RIW