Wednesday, April 10, 2024

Review: Back to You + Exclusive author interview with Richard Plourde

Today I have a double feature, my thoughts on a wonderful novel, Back to You and a Q&A with author Richard Plourde
Enjoy!


ISBN-13: 978-2924099865
Publisher: Editions des Merisiers
Release Date: 01-24-2024
Length: 256pp
Source: Author for review
Buy It: Amazon

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

John Fisher will risk everything to find the anonymous bone marrow donor who gave him another chance at life.

After thirteen years of unhappiness, self-absorbed millionaire John Fisher becomes convinced that the anonymous female bone marrow donor who saved his life could be the answer to all his woes - his true love, his soulmate.

There is a problem… Donor information is kept confidential under lock and key in a secured building thousands of miles away. John believes he has found a way to get to his file, but a slight mishap will certainly land him in jail and ruin his career.

Risking everything, John embarks on an epic journey in search of this mysterious woman.

What he uncovers along the way challenges everything he thought he knew about fate, love, and the true meaning of second chances.



ABOUT BACK TO YOU…

« You just have to read this book. » Rayo Reads

« A real gem! » Christine Michaud, Le Lundi

« I was captivated by this cleverly woven tale. The storytelling was brilliant. » DJ Sakata, Books & Bindings

« Wow, what a great discovery. I had difficulty putting my tablet down. » Books With Natasa

Monday, April 8, 2024

Sophia Rose Reviews Risky Attraction by Kendall Talbot Wolf Security #1

 


Today Sophia Rose is here sharing her thoughts on Risky Attraction by Kendall Talbot
Enjoy!



Risky Attraction by Kendall Talbot

#1 Wolf Security

Romantic Suspense

Publisher:  Kendall Talbot

Published:  3.15.24

Pages:  410

Rating: 5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  author

Sellers:  Amazon


ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Blurb:

Two grieving strangers are thrust into a deadly chase, now both their hearts and lives at risk.

Ryder Westwood is still reeling from the revelation that the love of his life had lied to him before her shocking death. Now all he craves is solitude. But when the grumpy Border Force Captain rushes to rescue a yacht that's sinking after colliding with a mysterious object, his pain and anger are tested by Piper Harrison, the yacht's feisty skipper.

Piper, a single mom and grieving widow, was sailing around Australia with her rebellious teenager. But as their yacht vanishes beneath the waves, a gruesome discovery catapults them into the crosshairs of a sinister underworld.

When Piper's daughter is kidnapped, Piper and Ryder are drawn into a whirlwind of desire and danger. Bullets fly, and with the body count rising, they enlist the help of the Alpha Tactical Ops heroes to rescue Piper's daughter from ruthless enemies.

Will they save all that Piper has left?
Or will their shattered hearts remain broken forever?

RISKY ATTRACTION is a standalone, grumpy/sunshine, fight for justice, romantic thriller featuring a tortured alpha hero who doesn’t believe in love, and a feisty single mom who doesn’t think she needs saving. This race against time, romantic thriller is book one in the Wolf Security Series, which is a series of standalone books featuring interconnecting characters and appearances from characters in the Alpha Tactical Ops series.


 Sophia Rose's Review:

Risky Attraction takes to the high seas, a labyrinth of an old wharf, and an enemy not unlike a hydra who grows with each deadly strike against them.  Kendall Talbot has a gift for writing adrenaline rush romantic suspense with fully developed characters and solid romance usually in an exotic locale or unusual situation. 

 

While I’ve read the original Alpha Tactical Ops series in order before diving into Risky Attraction, I could see how a new reader might pick it up and do just fine. 

 

Captain Ryder Westwood of the Border Force is on routine patrol off the Australian coast when he and his crew encounter a hostile craft firing on them.  A storm comes up and he has to break off contact without much fire power of his own plus there is a distress call nearby.  He was in a mood before all this due to the death of his wife and her lies and actions before her death, but now, he is distracted.  His grief and bitterness feel a little lighter to bear thanks to the quietly, strong woman he rescues from the sea and the mystery she has discovered when her sailboat went down.

 

Piper is was barely keeping her head above water while grieving her husband’s death and at a loss for handling her teenage daughter and that was before their sailboat struck something in the water during a storm.  Scout, her daughter, is prone to blame Piper for everything and lashes out at Piper, but they both get a jolt from their grief and anger when they are pulled into a dangerous investigation alongside Ryder.  Someone wants the investigation dead in the water and will come after them all to keep them from discovering who is behind it all and the connection to the past.

 

Risky Attraction was a sizzling hot opener to the series for both the high-octane suspense side and for the simmering of attraction for two grief-stricken widowed leads.  Kendall Talbot didn’t hesitate to explore their different situations and how that affected them both including a hurting and lost teenager who broke my heart the way she lashed her mother and couldn’t get her footing. 

I liked the hints of a connection of this current case to what came before, but also the revelation of a new shadowy, formidable baddie.  Ryder isn’t sure he can trust locally after the corruption was uncovered and is still coming out, but it was great seeing him tap into Aria and his other friends with Wolf Security to back him up. 

 

I can’t wait to see where it all goes next with a new romance pair introduced as new side characters in this one.  A no-risk recommendation to romantic suspense fans in Risky Attraction.

 


Author Bio:

Kendall Talbot is a thrill seeker, hopeless romantic, virtual killer, and award-winning author of stories that’ll have your heart thumping from the action-packed suspense in exotic locations and the swoon-worthy romance.

Kendall has sought thrills in all 46 countries she’s visited. She’s abseiled down freezing waterfalls, catapulted out of a white-water raft, jumped off a mountain with a man who spoke little English, and got way too close to a sixteen-foot shark. When she isn’t writing, she’s enjoying wine and cheese with her crazy friends, and planning her next thrilling international escape.

She lives in Brisbane, Australia with her very own hero and a fluffy little dog who specializes in hijacking her writing time. Meanwhile, Kendall’s two sons are off making their own adventures – look out world.

Kendall’s book, Lost in Kakadu won the acclaimed title of Romantic Book of the Year 2014, and her books have also been finalists for Best Romantic Suspense, Best Crime Novel, Best Continuing Series, and Best New Author.

I love to hear from my readers!
Find my books and chat with me via any of the contacts below:
Website: http://www.kendalltalbot.com.au/
Email: kendall@universe.com.au
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KendallTalbo...



Sophia’s Bio:

Sophia is a quiet though curious gal who dabbles in cooking, book reviewing, piano-playing, and gardening. Road trips and campouts, museums and monuments, restaurants and theaters are her jam. Encouraged and supported by an incredible man and loving family. A Northern Californian transplant to the Great Lakes Region of the US. Lover of Jane Austen, Baseball, Cats, Scooby Doo, and Chocolate.

As a lifelong reader, it was inevitable that Sophia would discover book blogs and the joy of blog reviewing. Sophia is a prolific reader and audiobook listener which allows her to experience so many wonderful books, authors, and narrators. Few genres are outside her reading tastes, but her true love is fiction particularly history, mystery, sci-fi, and romance. Though, sorry, no horror or she will run like Shaggy and Scooby.

Facebook:  https://www.facebook.com/sophia.rose.7587

Twitter: https://twitter.com/sophiarose1816

GoodReads:  https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13418187.Sophia_Rose

 

Thursday, April 4, 2024

A New Road

 


It's been a challenging winter for my family and I. Ever since developing Shingles in early February my husband's health has been declining. He was admitted to the hospital on March 17th and was put through a barrage of tests and studies, long story short after a 10 day stay it was determined that he had advanced Parkinson's dementia and he was sent home on Hospice care.

So now it's all about him

My Hospice team is wonderful and I get support from nurses, aides, social workers and even a Chaplain to help me understand and accept this new road I'm on. Letting go of my insistences of making him eat every meal, take every vitamin that may help symptoms etc...

But mostly it's been hard letting go, knowing that soon I'll be on my own without my partner in crime of 46 years.

My blogging took a hit because I just didn't have the energy and I spent all those days in the hospital at his side 24/7. But I'm ready to come back to me a bit and do the things that make me happy too.

I know some of you who are my friends on social media already know this but I also just wanted to touch those of you who aren't to let you know that no I did not drop off the face of the earth.

Prayers and thoughts for the kids and I are absolutely welcome.

I'll start blogging again come Monday

Love you all!

Monday, March 11, 2024

Sophia Rose Reviews: Murder Road by Simone St. James

 

Today Sophia Rose returns with her thoughts on Murder Road a supernatural thriller by Simone St. James.
Enjoy!

Murder Road by Simone St. James

Supernatural Thriller

Publisher:  Berkley

Published:  3.5.24

Pages:  350

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  NetGalley

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads


 

GoodReads Blurb:

A young couple find themselves haunted by a string of gruesome murders committed along an old deserted road in this terrifying new novel.

July 1995. April and Eddie have taken a wrong turn. They’re looking for the small resort town where they plan to spend their honeymoon. When they spot what appears to a lone hitchhiker along the deserted road, they stop to help. But not long after the hitchiker gets into their car, they see the blood seeping from her jacket and a truck barreling down Atticus Line after them.

When the hitchhiker dies at the local hospital, April and Eddie find themselves in the crosshairs of the Coldlake Falls police. Unexplained murders have been happening along Atticus Line for years and the cops finally have two witnesses who easily become their only suspects. As April and Eddie start to dig into the history of the town and that horrible stretch of road to clear their names, they soon learn that there is something supernatural at work, something that could not only tear the town and its dark secrets apart, but take April and Eddie down with it all.

 

Thursday, March 7, 2024

Sophia Rose Reviews- A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

 

Today Sophia Rose gives us her thoughts on Deanna Raybourn's latest Veronica Speedwell historical mystery.
Enjoy!

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

#8 Veronica Speedwell

Historical Mystery

Publisher:  Berkley

Published:  3.12.24

Pages:  336

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  Net Galley

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Synopsis:

Veronica and Stoker discover that not all fairy tales have happy endings, and some end in murder, in this latest historical mystery from New York Times bestselling and Edgar Award–nominated author Deanna Raybourn.

Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why?

Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain—a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?

 

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Review - Not Your Crush's Cauldron by April Asher #3 Supernatural Singles

Today I'm sharing my thoughts on April Asher's latest, Not Your Crush's Cauldron.
Enjoy!


ISBN-13: 978-1250808035
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Release Date: 2-13-2024
Length: 336 pp
Source: Publisher for review
Buy It: Amazon/ B&N/ IndieBound

ADD TO: GOODREADS

Overview:

INSTANT USA TODAY BESTSELLER

In April Asher’s next Supernatural Singles novel, Not Your Crush's Cauldron, a buttoned-up witch takes a stroll on the wildish side, sparking an alert that lands her a familiar Guardian Angel.

Olive Maxwell much prefers teaching about the Supernatural world to taking part in it and leaves the magical shenanigans to her two sisters. After assigning her college students a project designed to nudge them outside their comfort zones, Olive realizes she’s never once stepped a toe out of her own . . . and it’s about time that changed. Her first trip into the unknown? Moving in with her longtime crush and friend . . . tattooed, motorcycle-riding, and pleasantly pierced Baxter Donovan.

Bax Donovan, Guardian Angel not-so-extraordinaire, has acquired so many black marks on his record it looks like a Scantron test. He’s been given one last chance to keep his Guardian wings―a high-profile Assignment he knows all too well. Olive is usually as low-risk as it gets. Hell, she wrote the safety manual. But something landed her on the Guardian Angel Affairs radar, and he guesses it has something to do with the heart-pounding stunts she’s determined to check off her Dare I Docket list.

Keeping Olive out of trouble is about to be his toughest Assignment. He’s at real risk of shattering the only Guardian Angel code of conduct rule he’s yet to break: Don’t fall in love with your Assignment. And he isn’t so sure that’s a bad thing.

If love doesn’t play by the rules, why should they?

Monday, March 4, 2024

Sophia Rose Reviews: Spellbound at Pemberley by Abigail Reynolds

 

Today Sophia Rose shares her thoughts on a fantasy Austen retelling.
Enjoy!

Spellbound at Pemberley by Abigail Reynolds

Gaslamp Fantasy Romance

Publisher:  White Soup Press

Published:  12.5.23

Pages:  299

Rating: 4.5 stars

Format: eARC

Source:  Author

Sellers:  Amazon

ADD TO: GoodReads

 

GoodReads Synopsis:

Fitzwilliam Darcy is a powerful mage and master of illusions. His abilities make him the perfect man for a dangerous mission to end the devastating war with Napoleon – a mission that would leave him little chance of returning alive. When he meets the enchanting Elizabeth Bennet, whose magical Talents are as deep as they are inexplicable, he knows he needs her help. And there’s only one way to get that – marriage. Immediately.

Elizabeth wants nothing to do with his plan. Marrying Darcy would mean breaking her strong and beloved magical bond to Longbourn and giving up the use of her Talent forever. Then dragons enter the war in Europe, and England's survival hangs in the balance. And Elizabeth must make the ultimate sacrifice.

In this first book of the Fitzwilliam Darcy, Mage trilogy, dragons are already watching their newlywed journey to Pemberley, and a shocking discovery will force them to question everything they believe. Can they learn to trust each other and work together to save their country--and their lives?