Book Review: Cristina (Jake D. Parent)

Cristina

by: Jake D. Parent

Genres: Psychological, Suspense, Thriller

Driven by a desperate need to escape her past, Cristina Rodriguez moves into a picturesque hilltop home with an ocean view. The same place where, four years earlier, a young girl was kidnapped and murdered.


At first, both the house and the scenic California beach town seem perfect. Fresh air. Fresh faces. And the ocean is just ten minutes away. But as Cristina and her daughter set about rebuilding their lives, they soon discover that the past is not about to let go so easily.


A gripping psychological suspense mystery by a #1 bestselling author, Cristina will grab you from the first page and keep you guessing until the very end.

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

I'm not going to lie; I was a little worried about this one. As I've said MANY times, we accept books based SOLELY on the information that is provided (by either the author, publicist, and/or publisher)....and although I could clearly see that the potential was there, I was scared that Cristina wasn't going to stand out.

There was a chance that it was going to be like the masses.....a simple mean to pass some time.....something that I would forget as soon as I finished the final page.

Boy do I love when I'm proven wrong! Cristina delivered. Jake D. Parent had me sitting on the edge of my seat, and piqued my interest until the very end. You know when you're reading a book and it's so good that you're tempted to skin over the "filler" content to find the good stuff?? This is one of those books! It will have you drawing conclusions, gasping in horror, and literally screaming "WHAT?!?!?".

The blurb simply says it best: "Cristina will grab you from the first page and keep you guessing until the very end." I couldn't agree more, and I can confidently say that anyone (regardless of your choice genre), who picks this one up, won't be disappointed.

As always, you can find all of the necessary links below.

Until tomorrow,

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Book Review: Love's Long Road (G.D. Harper)

Love's Long Road

by: G.D. Harper

Genres: Suspense

Glasgow, 1975. How do you cope when your boyfriend kills himself because of you? 

When Bobbie Sinclair’s boyfriend commits suicide and blames her, she vows never to love again. Instead she chooses to lead a double existence, kind-hearted by day and promiscuous by night. She increasingly struggles to maintain the balance between light and dark and soon finds herself sucked into the world of a controlling and ruthless crime lord from which she must escape.

Set against a vibrant but seedy 1970s Glasgow backdrop, Love’s Long Road plots Bobbie’s desperate plight. Starting a new life but constantly afraid of her past catching up with her, she battles danger, adversity and drug addiction on the long and perilous road back to love. 

Love’s Long Road is about dealing with the guilt of terrible events in your past and the risk of being corrupted by the world around you; it is a story that captures to perfection what it was like to be young and single in the 1970s.

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

Bobbie Sinclair tries different ways of coping with the suicide of her boyfriend, which is something that most of us can relate......until she decides that becoming a narrow-minded whore is the solution. Love's Long Road had great potential, but it fell way short. I hate when I'm not able to finish a requested book, but I couldn't make it to the end of this one. The main character's mentality and shallow personality was just too much for me to wrap my head around.

As always, the links can be found below.

Until next time.......

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Book Review: Trust Me (Earl Javorsky)

Trust Me

by: Earl Javorsky

Genres: Psychological, Suspense

Jeff Fenner’s life is out of control. At the nadir of a rocky, sometimes-up-usually-down career, he has finally come face-to-face with his demons: he’s being investigated by the police, he owes money to the wrong people, and he sees an empty future shutting down in front of him.

When Jeff hears that his sister Marilyn has committed suicide, he refuses to believe she killed herself and he embarks on a tortuous journey toward self-discovery and redemption . . . and toward the beautiful but troubled Holly Barnes. Holly’s own demons have led her to a self-help cult in Beverly Hills called Saving Our Lives (or, perhaps more appropriately, SOL). Through Holly, Jeff learns of a string of apparent suicides eerily similar to his sister’s—and that Holly is the next target.

This book was good and definitely suspenseful, but it was extremely hard to follow.   There were a couple times when I was convinced that I must have missed something......one time I was so convinced that I started reading the book all over again (those of you who follow us were probably wondering why this review was scheduled to post last week and I'm just now getting to it....this would be the reason).  I was wrong.  I hadn't missed anything, I was left with the same feeling of being out of the loop, and I quickly came to the conclusion that finishing this book would be more of a job than I anticipated.  Don't get me wrong, as I said before this really was a good book, it's just the kind that you have to be completely focused on or you're going to miss something.  I found that some of the characters were better developed than others, which was weird considering they would all be labeled as "main characters".  Often times when I'm sitting down to review a "hard-to-review" book I ask myself one simple question before deciding which direction to take my review....."Shell, do you regret taking the time to read....?"  For this book, my answer was that I didn't regret reading Trust Me, but I did, and still do, believe that it would have been a little more enjoyable had I not needed to take notes to keep things straight.  
As always, see the links below.

Until next time..........

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Book Review: The Husband (Dean Koontz)

The Husband 

by Dean Koontz

Genre: Murder, Suspense, Mystery, Thriller

With each and every new novel, Dean Koontz raises the stakes--and the pulse rate--higher than any other author. Now, in what may be his most suspenseful and heartfelt novel ever, he brings us the story of an ordinary man whose extraordinary commitment to his wife will take him on a harrowing journey of adventure, sacrifice, and redemption to the mystery of love itself--and to a showdown with the darkness that would destroy it forever. 
What would you do for love? Would you die? Would you kill? 
We have your wife. You can get her back for two million cash. Landscaper Mitchell Rafferty thinks it must be some kind of joke. He was in the middle of planting impatiens in the yard of one of his clients when his cell phone rang. Now he's standing in a normal suburban neighborhood on a bright summer day, having a phone conversation out of his darkest nightmare. 
Whoever is on the other end of the line is dead serious. He has Mitch's wife and he's named the price for her safe return. The caller doesn't care that Mitch runs a small two-man landscaping operation and has no way of raising such a vast sum. He's confident that Mitch will find a way. 
If he loves his wife enough. . . Mitch does love her enough. He loves her more than life itself. He's got seventy-two hours to prove it. He has to find the two million by then. But he'll pay a lot more. He'll pay anything. 
From its tense opening to its shattering climax, The Husband is a thriller that will hold you in its relentless grip for every twist, every shock, every revelation...until it lets you go, unmistakably changed. This is a Dean Koontz novel, after all. And there's no other experience quite like it.




A little cliche, but still a roller-coaster of emotions and suspense. Dean Koontz definitely knows how to keep readers on the edge of their metaphorical seats.

The Husband is a good example of someone who will do anything to save the one they love. Whether it be stealing money, grand theft auto, or murder.

It was difficult to keep up with, sometimes. The characters were constantly moving forward in the plot, but it was good at keeping you interested in what they were doing.

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Book Review: Making Angel (Amanda Washington)

Making Angel

by; Amanda Washington

Genres: Romance, Suspense, Crime, New Adult

Heir to a powerful Las Vegas crime family, D’Angelo Mariani’s survival depends on his ability to prove his value to his father. Forced out of the technology lab and into the underworld, Angel is on the brink of pulling off the impossible when he runs into a captivating humanitarian who changes everything. 

Markie Davis is all about compassion, service, and the ultimate adrenaline rush. After a year-long stint volunteering in an African orphanage, she’s in Vegas to check up on her wayward little sister. Markie never anticipated meeting someone like Angel. 

Everyone knows Angel's family is dangerous, but the secrets Markie's been keeping might just be fatal…

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

Making Angel is simply one of those books that will make you remember why you're obsessed with reading (that is, if you're anything like me...and have your nose stuck in some kind of book every chance you get).  I might be a little obsessed with the Mariani Crime Family Series, and I'm okay with that.  Amanda Washington created characters that are easy to love, and a story that you never want to end.  

As always, you know where to find the links.  
Until next time.....

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Book Review: The Rectifier (Glenn A. Jones)

The Rectifier

by: Glenn A. Jones

Genres: Suspense, Thriller, Short Story

Frank Jackson is a rectifier, he rights wrongs caused by senseless and desperate criminals. When the court system fails, he's there to exact his own high-powered vigilante justice.

He's also a man without a past, a man desperately seeking what he has lost.

In the first of a series of electrifying short stories, a coma and subsequent amnesia thrusts Frank Jackson into an unfamiliar world of intrigue and adventure where he relies upon his gut instinct to survive.

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

I honestly don't tend to expect much from short stories.  I realize that I'm being a bit of a brat by approaching them with such a closed mind, but it's been my experience that the majority of them don't have that "wow factor" to keep me interested.  

I'm so pleased to say that The Rectifier exceeded my expectations.  It was packed full of suspenseful dialog, which led to my not being able to put it down until I finished the entire book. In fact, I completely forgot that I was reading a short story until it was over....and I then found myself dying to get my hands on Volume 2.  Frank Jackson is one bad-ass individual that has definitely gotten himself a new fan.  

I'm not sure if I can say that The Rectifier has changed the way that I look at all short stories.....but it has absolutely set the bar high for the next one I pick up.  

Until next time......

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Book Review: Daddy's Little Girl (Mary Higgins Clark)

Daddy's Little Girl

By Mark Higgins Clark

Genre: Mystery (Crime, Murder), Contemporary, 

Suspense 

Ellie Cavanaugh was only seven years old when her fifteen-year-old sister, Andrea, was murdered near their home in Oldham-on-the-Hudson, a rural village in New York's Westchester County. There were three suspects: Rob Westerfield, nineteen-year-old scion of a wealthy, prominent family, whom Andrea has been secretly dating; Paul Stroebel, a sixteen-year-old schoolmate, who had a crush on Andrea; and Will Nebels, a local handyman in his forties.


It was Ellie who had led her parents to a hideout in which Andrea's body was found -- a secret hideaway in which she met her friends. And it was Ellie who was blamed by her parents for her sister's death for not telling them about this place the night Andrea was missing. It was also Ellie's testimony that led to the conviction of the man she was firmly convinced was the killer. Steadfastly denying his guilt, he spent the next twenty-two years in prison.

When he comes up for parole, Ellie, now an investigative reporter for an Atlanta newspaper, protests his release. Nonetheless, the convicted killer is set free and returns to Oldham. Determined to thwart his attempts to whitewash his reputation, Ellie also returns to Oldham, intent on creating a Website and writing a book that will conclusively prove his guilt. As she delves deeper into her research, however, she uncovers horrifying and heretofore unknown facts that shed new light on her sister's murder. With each discovery, she comes closer to a confrontation with a desperate killer.

Gripping and relentlessly compelling, Daddy's Little Girl, a portrayal of a family shattered by crime, reflects Mary Higgins Clark's uncanny insight into the twisted mind of a killer and is further evidence of why she is America's favorite author of suspense.

The first three or four chapters were boring, you didn't really get any information about anything that was going on. After those, you get down to the nitty-gritty and find out all the details you'd been waiting for.

Once you get down to it,  I thought the book was extremely interesting. It was one of those books that holds your interest; you just don't want to put it down. It was edge-of-your-seat suspenseful toward the end.

Overall, the story really wrapped up nicely. There weren't any loose ends that I could think of. I would recommend this book to pretty much anyone 16+ who enjoys action-packed crime thrillers.

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Book Review: The Marijuana Project (Brian Laslow)

The Marijuana Project

by Brian Laslow

Genres: Mystery, Thriller/Suspense

THE MARIJUANA PROJECT a novel about medicine and morality aka "a security expert’s journey through the ethical weeds." 

Sam Burnett, a savvy security expert, is hiding in the catwalk of a medical marijuana production facility he has been hired to protect, caught in a surveillance plan he never thought he’d face. 

In fact, Sam, a conservative family man who travels the country as a highly sought after security expert, doesn’t even approve of marijuana and wonders why he’s still working there. 

Over the course of two years designing, implementing and operating the entire security program for MedLeaf, Sam faces one moral conflict after another. 

Does he favor using medical marijuana to relieve a variety of physical symptoms, easing anxiety and providing pleasure? 

Or does he see it as an invitation to more serious drug use, mental instability and irresponsible, even dangerous behavior? 

You could call it a security expert’s journey through the ethical weeds. 

At first, Sam realizes that medical marijuana needs to be protected from ending up in the wrong hands and that taking the job means he can be home much more than before. 

But even the positive things Sam learns about medical marijuana are at odds with his religious upbringing and his conservative views about drug use, legal or otherwise. 

When his son’s best friend is killed in a car accident caused by a driver under the influence of medical marijuana, Sam reaches his breaking point and takes matters into his own hands, which leads to a potentially dangerous confrontation with his employers and a group of unknown provocateurs. 

In the end, he must decide if he can personally continue to participate in the protection and perpetuation of this industry. Sam Burnett’s dilemma is similar to that of millions of Americans. His story will resonate for all those struggling to make sense of this changing landscape in our society.

I was intrigued when I initially read this books blurb.  My stand on medical marijuana is the complete opposite of Sam's, and I couldn't wait to envision what it must be like on the other end of the spectrum. 

Sam, a security genius, is a firm believer that marijuana (medical or otherwise) shouldn't be something that is legally sold.  His moral belief is put to the test when he is offered the opportunity to provide security for MedLeaf, a medical marijuana grow facility.  Sam takes us for an unforgettable ride on his moral roller coaster.   

The Marijuana Project was phenomenally written.  Brian Laslow included enough information, to ensure that the readers didn't get lost along the way.  If you're looking for an exciting read, one that shows real moral struggles, then this could possibly be the book for you!
  

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Book Review: Strays (Emma Kendrick)

Strays

by: Emma Kendrick

Genres: Romance, Action, Drama, Suspense, Comedy, Bad boy (biker)

**this book contains strong sexual situations**

Best friends Jackie and Tyler set out on an adventure to find somewhere to call home, hoping to escape the violent city life and settle down in a quiet place where they can make something of themselves. What they find instead is the notorious Red Kings Motorcycle Club, outlaw bikers that rule the city's criminal underground. 

**WE WERE GIVEN A FREE COPY OF THIS BOOK IN EXCHANGE FOR THE FOLLOWING HONEST REVIEW**

I can confidently say that I've read enough bad boy/biker books to be considered an expert on the subject.  So, an author has to do something pretty unique and original to win me over.  Does Emma Kendrick have what it takes??

Jackie and Tyler seem to have a knack for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, which leads them to live a sort of gypsy lifestyle.  The loyalty that they have for one another is admirable; and Jackie's no nonsense attitude immediately caught my attention.

Strays is a different, and almost refreshing, biker novel.  The focus was geared more toward the actual relationships within the Red Kings Motorcycle Club, rather than, the outside forces threatening them.  I really enjoyed being able to develop a relationship with the characters without constant fighting and slutty cheating scandals.     

Emma Kendrick definitely has what it takes, and has gotten herself another loyal fan, anxiously awaiting the release of her next story.  If you love bad boy bikers, as much as I, pick up a copy of Strays....it won't disappoint!

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