Last Words by Stacy Green--A Review

SYNOPSIS:

A teenaged girl’s tragic death appears to be an accident until Criminal Investigator Cage Foster discovers evidence of a hit and run. 

Cage’s investigation reveals more than one person might have wanted the young girl dead. As Cage navigates through the web of lies and anger, a break finally comes. But just as Cage is ready to set a trap for a killer, his world is turned upside down. 

With his unborn daughter’s life hanging in the balance, Cage must decide between his family and finding justice for an innocent victim.

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE: 

This is the final novella in the Cage Foster series.  It is a very short read at 98 pages, but we get to see more of the Investigator's personal side.

Although this is supposedly the last in the series, I certainly hope he is revived at a later date.   He is the type of character I would want investigating my situation if I were murdered or harmed.

Green writes great characters, twisted and deviant crimes and is a great storyteller.   Her writing is easily read, satisfying and a bit disturbing.   I would encourage anyone who loves mystery/suspense to read her books!

I rated this four winks!

Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I purchased this novella for my personal E-Book Collection.

Flash & Dazzle by Lou Aronica-- A Review

SYNOPSIS:

What happens when everything you thought was true changes all at once? What happens when each relationship that means anything to you suddenly becomes far more real than you ever thought it would be? What happens when every moment becomes invaluable as all of them pass far too quickly?

Flash and Dazzle is the story of two friends who have known the best of times who develop a true taste for life during the worst of times. It is the story of the friends and lovers who enter their orbit, some for a long time and some only for a moment. It is the story of legacies, burdens, and the kinds of secrets that are only revealed when theres nothing left to tell. 

It is a funny, moving, deeply honest novel that will inspire you to call everyone you care about and thank everyone you know for what they`ve given you.




ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Lou Aronica is the author of the USA Today bestseller THE FOREVER YEAR and the national bestseller BLUE. He also collaborated on the New York Times nonfiction bestseller THE ELEMENT and the national bestseller THE CULTURE CODE. 

Aronica is a long-term book publishing veteran. He is President and Publisher of the independent publishing house The Story Plant. 

http://www.louaronica.com 








EXCERPT:FROM THE OPENING CHAPTER:


It wouldn`t be fair to call Daz a slug. After all, he had been a third team all-conference striker in college, and he was still slim and fleet. However, getting him out of his apartment in the morning had always been a considerable task. There was the ringing the doorbell seven times before going in with my key part. There was the, don`t you remember we have that meeting at 9:30 part. There was the, I really don`t give a shit what your hair looks like part. Then there were the inevitable battles with toothpaste choices (Daz was the only person I ever met who kept multiple flavors of toothpaste in his bathroom), Cap`n Crunch (the only thing he deigned to eat for breakfast), and Power Rangers (which appeared on ABC Family at 8:30 every morning and from which Daz took surprising delight for someone his age).

On most days, by the time I got to his place to pick him up, I`d already read the relevant sections of the Times and the Journal and surfed three or four entertainment, media and business sites on the web. About a year ago, it finally dawned on me that I could sleep fifteen minutes later in the morning if I brought my bagel and coffee with me so I could have breakfast while I waited for Daz to get ready. On certain days I thought it might be smart to bring a lunch as well. 

It was this way from our first days in the City. The only difference at the beginning was that we were in the same apartment and Daz sometimes dragged himself out of bed earlier if I made enough noise or if I did something like flick water on his face after my shower.

The other difference was the nature of our living quarters. The place on Avenue B had been only moderately better than sleeping on the street. The lobby was tastefully adorned in crack vials, hypodermic needles, and spent condoms, and our "doorman" was a sixty-something guy with more jackets than teeth who squatted in front of our building. My mother came to visit exactly once, sneered at my decision to live here rather than commuting from a garden apartment in Hastings, and told me that if I wanted to see her in the future, I knew the Metro-North schedule. She didn`t even give me her little faux kiss on the cheek on her way out the door. This irked me until I thought about the possibility of her being propositioned by a male prostitute before she could get a cab out of the neighborhood. I imagined her scandalized expression and smiled.

A year later, when we were recruited as a team by The Creative Shop, we made our first "big move." It was a walkup in Hell`s Kitchen - not exactly Fifth Avenue, though a huge improvement over what it had been only a few years earlier - but the space was a lot better and a much higher grade of junkie and hooker hung around outside. When we got our first major bonus checks - one of several to come our way in the past few years - we knew it was time to find someplace a little more respectable, someplace where we could have a party and not worry if our guests could make it in and out of the building alive. 

It was my father`s accountant who first suggested we consider buying. The thought had never even crossed my mind, though admittedly we did a terrible job of managing the money we made and got brutalized on our 2011 tax returns. He also told us that if we bought, we had to buy separately to get the most bang for our tax deduction bucks. It was an odd thing to think about. We had lived together for eight years at that point and while we knew we`d eventually find romantic partners to move in with, the notion of no longer being roommates for financial reasons seemed incongruous. In the end, though, it really did make the most sense. And with Daz at 89th and Broadway and me at 91st and West End, we were nearly roommates anyway.

"Who do we have a meeting with this morning?" he said, coming out of the bathroom with a toothbrush in his mouth. He had different colored toothbrushes for the different flavors. The gray brush meant fennel. 

"It`s just us."

"Us? Like you and me?" He returned to the bathroom to spit.

"And Michelle and Carnie and Brad and Chess."

"Sounds like the meeting we had at Terminal 5 last night." 

We`d all gone there to see Beam, an incredible British trance rock band.

"Except this time we`re going to have a serious business conversation and it won`t look as cool if your head lolls back and forth."

"And what will we be talking about again?" He`d asked this question from his bedroom, where he was almost certainly trying to decide if it was a red flannel shirt day or a blue flannel shirt day.

"The Koreans."

"Motorcycles, right?" he said, sticking his face out the door. 

"Cars. Affordable luxury for twenty-somethings."

"Twenty-somethings want luxury?"

"They do if it`s affordable."

"That`s why you`re the word guy and I`m the picture guy. I wouldn`t have a clue how to pitch this."

"Good thing I`m around then, huh?"

He disappeared back into the bathroom, meaning we were somewhere between eight and fifteen minutes of departure time, assuming I kept him away from the Power Rangers.

I finished my bagel and scrolled through my Twitter feed. Not finding anything to capture my attention, I stood up and walked around the apartment. The morning crowbar exercise notwithstanding, we spent much less time in Daz`s place than we did in mine. This was primarily because I had the better toys - the sixty-inch TV, the foosball table, the multiple gaming systems, the Bang and Olufsen stereo with full theatre sound (the potential of which I never got to exploit because of the co-op rules) - and also because I actually kept food in the place. Daz hadn`t done particularly much with his home space. The obligatory Crate and Barrel couch and coffee table, the Mondrian print squaring off against the Dave Matthews Band poster, the formal dining table that he never explained why he bought (I don`t know; maybe he wanted me to have my bagel and coffee in comfort), the airbed he propped up against the wall next to the couch rather than deflating, and not a hell of a lot else. 

Other than the air hockey table. And the massage chair. The latter was Daz`s first significant purchase once he bought his place. I asked him why he wanted one - he never seemed in need of a massage - and he gestured toward the chair to suggest that I give it a try. Once I did, I understood immediately.

I sat there now and set the chair to knead. I would have loved to have one of these in my office, but one of the unspoken deals Daz and I had was that we wouldn`t spend a lot of money on something the other guy already owned. What was the point? I kicked the massage level up to medium and switched from kneading to tapping. I thought about taking my shoes off to use the foot massager and then checked the time on my phone instead. 

"I mentioned that the meeting was today and not in August, right?" I said, my voice vibrating from the thumping my back was receiving.

"I`m done," he said, walking over to stand in front of me in blue flannel. "Just a quick one-on-one with the Cap`n and we`ll be out of here."

I turned off the chair and got up. Daz opened the box of cereal and poured it directly into his mouth. "Let`s go," he said, taking a swig from a milk carton and grabbing his keys. 

I gathered my stuff and we made our way out the door. Daz locked the two deadbolts and my eye fell on his keychain - a plastic hot dog that he`d burned with a cigarette lighter in honor of our first (and only) camping trip. He`d toted that thing around for the last ten years. 

"I think Michelle and I had a little thing last night," he said as we walked out onto Broadway to begin our search for a cab.

I laughed. "I was with the two of you the entire time. You didn`t have a thing."

"No, I think we might have. It was an eye thing."

"An eye thing as in she saw you and said hi?"

"Don`t be a schmuck. I can tell the difference, you know. I think she kinda likes me."

"Daz, everyone kinda likes you. See that woman who just stepped in front of us to steal our cab? I`ll bet she likes you. You`re a likable guy. I just wouldn`t get my hopes up about Michelle if I were you."

"She came to my office just to see my drawings the other day. She`s never done that before."

"Daz, reachable goals, remember? Reachable goals."

"I think you might be surprised here."

"Surprised wouldn`t begin to describe it. Stunned speechless maybe. Or shocked to the point where I needed a defibrillator."

He regarded me sternly. "Why do you think I couldn`t get a woman like Michelle?"

"Did I say that?"

"Pretty much exactly that."

"You`re misunderstanding me. I`m speaking specifically about Michelle. A woman like Michelle - you know, gorgeous, smart, clever, burgeoning career - you could get a woman like that. Anytime you wanted, probably."

"But not Michelle specifically. Translation, please."

"A translation isn`t necessary. Right now, the only thing that`s important is that we find some way to get the hell downtown."

Eventually we took a gypsy cab, one of those out-of-town car services that roamed around the City skimming off fares from Yellow cabs during rush hours. I hated doing this - I was very loyal to my city - but at 9:05 on a weekday, it really was the best we could do. 

"If we left earlier, we wouldn`t be riding in a fifteen-year-old Impala right now, you know," I said.

"If we left later, we wouldn`t be doing this either."

"You know, it`s a good thing you`re an artistic genius. Otherwise you`d be working at Burger King. No, you`d lose your job at Burger King because you`d always be showing up late. Then you`d be out on the street collecting bottles to exchange for cheap liquor."

"Never happen."

"You don`t think so?"

"Nope. Cause you`d be around to drag my ass out of bed so I could keep my job making french fries."
  "Don`t be so sure."

FROM MY MIND'S EYE:

Words for describing Flash and Dazzle:  a tearjerker, brilliant, heartbreaking, thought provoking, memorable....I will never forget this book!

Here's what I thought I was going to read.    I thought this book was a man's read.    A story about two men and their friendship.   I thought I would have to push myself through it.   I thought I would maybe be bored and I thought I wouldn't care for it.     Could these suspicions have been any further from the truth?  I came so close to not responding to the request for a read and review.

Well let me just say, that decision would have been to my detriment and a great loss, knowing what I know now.   Flash and Dazzle is a story about love and friendship and the sins friends can commit against even their very best friends.   It is about life changing events and how we respond to them.  It is a story of life, in all its wonderful goodness and badness.

Aronica has a very engaging writing style and tells his story with  refreshing candor and humor.   I felt as if this was the most honest story I have read this year and one that I will not soon forget.   It touched my heart and soul in a very deep and profound manner.

To say I loved it is a much lesser representation of how I truly felt.   I love authors who speak to my heart.   I rated this read 5 Winks!

Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I received a copy of this book from the author or their representative in exchange for an honest review.

Living Victim by Stacy Green--A Review

SYNOPSIS:

Reader favorite Cage Foster returns in the Delta Detectives Series! 

If you loved the Delta Crossroads Series, you know Cage Foster as the one who tamed the Damned Yankee and helped to solve one of the grisliest crimes in Adams County history. Now a newly minted Criminal Investigator for the Adams County Police, Cage's life is once again turned upside down. His fiancée is expecting, Cage is terrified of being a bad father, and he's determined to prove himself worthy of his new position.

Living Victim (Delta Detectives #1) January 2015

When a hoarder is found dead in his bathtub, Cage Foster believes he's dealing with a natural death. A perimeter search reveals a hidden horror, and clues point to the kidnapping of a local girl once presumed dead. Cage must find the living victim before it's too late. Will he lose himself in the process?

FROM MY MIND'S EYE:

Cage Foster is a favorite character of mine and I enjoy Green's novellas--short crime suspense reads.    One thing about a novella is they are short and you can read a complete tale in one sitting, which lends itself to immediate  gratification rather than stretching the suspense for several days.

Green has a unique and refreshing writing style.   Her stories incorporate a lot of desperation to resolve the crimes, but the story is never rushed and flows smoothly to a satisfactory conclusion.

I highly recommend Green as an up and coming crime writer.   I have rated this a 4 Wink Read.

Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I purchased a copy of this book for my on personal E-Book library.

The Girls of Mischief Bay by Susan Mallery--A Review

SYNOPSIS:

Nicole Lord wants to be a good wife, but there's a difference between being supportive and supporting her husband, who quit his job to write a screenplay she's never seen. He won't even help take care of their son, leaving Nicole to run the house and work full-time at her Mischief Bay Pilates studio. Can she say enough is enough without losing the man she loves? 

Sacrificing a personal life for her career is how Shannon Rigg rose to become vice president in her firm, but she wonders now whether she made the right choice. An exciting new relationship with a great guy convinces her that it might not be too late—until he drops a bombshell that has her questioning whether she can have it all. And if she can, does she want it? 

Although Pam Eiland has a beautiful house and a husband she adores, she feels… restless. She wonders who a stay-at-home mom becomes after the kids are grown. Finding sexy new ways to surprise her husband brings the heat and the humor back to their marriage, but when unexpected change turns her life upside down, she'll have to redefine herself. Again. 

Through romance and heartbreak, laughter and tears, three very different women will discover that friends can become family, and that life is richer with sisters at your side.

FROM MY MIND'S EYE:

I haven't read much of Susan Mallery, but I wanted to be in on the newest series about the women of Mischief Bay,California.   Thus, I pre-ordered The Girls of Mischief Bay.

I was impressed with the realism of Mallery's writing.   I could empathize and relate to her characters so deeply.  I felt I had walked in Pam Eiland's shoes.   I felt I had shared the regrets about Nicole Lord's marriage.   And I had definitely felt the newness of love between Shannon Rigg and her new beau, Adam.   Each of these women was encountering a real life scenario and each wanted to lose as little possible in the process.

Definitely character driven, this story was about friendships and relationships and the effects of time on those relationships.  For me the stories within the story ran close to home and my own life situations, resulting in a highly emotional read.

I rated this 4 Winks.    Thank you Ms Mallery.   I'm looking forward to the rest of the series! 

Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I purchased this book for my own personal collection.

Keep the Ends Loose by Molly D Campbell---A Review

SYNOPSIS:

Miranda Heath is a quirky fifteen-year-old with cinematic dreams and a safe, predictable family. That is until she decides to pull at the loose end that is the estranged husband her aunt never divorced. What seemed like the best way to allow her aunt to get on with her life sets off a series of events that threaten to turn Mandy`s world upside down. Suddenly, she`s embarking on adventurous road trips, becoming the center of an increasingly unstable household, meeting surprising strangers, and seeing everyone she knows in new ways. Sometimes loose ends just want to stay loose. But what happens if they want to unravel completely?

Warm, funny, and uniquely perceptive, Keep the Ends Loose is an irresistible novel filled with characters you might recognize - and will not forget. 

EXCERPT:


I will always remember that exact moment. There we were, in our kitchen: big and square, with black-and-white linoleum. We sat at the red Formica-topped table (Mom is very vintage), and the sun was pouring in from the window over the chipped old farm sink (again, vintage: Mom is a flea marketer extraordinaire). As a matter of fact, the sun was kind of blaring into my eyes and making a big bright stripe down the middle of the table where Mom drummed her fingernails like castanets or something.

Here we were, having what I thought was just a regular afternoon. Mom had put out a plate of my favorite molasses cookies. Sidebar: these cookies are to die for. They are big, soft, and chewy. Just a little bit spicy and full of raisins. She sprinkles granulated sugar on top before she bakes them, so they are both soft and crunchy. I must learn to make them before I leave home.

I thought we`d just be kind of chewing and chatting, you know? Happy teen with her favorite sugary fix, passing the time with her mother. But then Mom hit me with Frank Fletcher and Don Horley and Aunt Iris.

"Mom, Mom, Mom! Back up! I grant you, Aunt Iris seems to have a thing going with Don Horley. Who wouldn`t? For an old guy, he is pretty ripped, and bald men with muscles are very nice. But this is none of our business."

Winnie straightened up in her chair and adjusted her apron (the one with the cherries and red rickrack on it. You know, vintage). She gave me what I`d have to describe as a very steely look.

"Mandy, your Aunt Iris isn`t getting any younger. This whole thing about being happy living all alone in a gilded cottage is something out of one of her British WWII novels. It`s not enough."

AUTHOR INFO:

Molly D. Campbell is the winner of two Erma Bombeck writing awards. A long-time blogger and lover of quirky characters, she wrote her first book, Characters in Search of a Novel, with illustrator Randy Palmer.

Molly lives in Dayton, Ohio, with her accordionist husband and five cats. 

FROM MY PERSPECTIVE:

Oh the mistakes we make when we are young and learn from the repercussions..   Hopefully, they are not mistakes that will at some point rear their ugly heads and destroy the lives we have been fortunate to live.

That is the long and short of this humorous novel, Keep the Ends Loose, as told by fifteen year old Miranda Heath.  Nicknamed Mandy, we learn that she enjoyed being a teenager and was in no hurry to grow up.   Her fifteenth summer had other ideas in mind for her young life and those of her brother, Adam and her best friend, Barley.

Campbell's character based story thrives with well rounded characters that are as realistic as you or I.   They have made mistakes, lived with them and tried to rectify them.   And as usual, Murphy's Law prevailed.    The story is further spiced with Campbell's quirky sense of humor and told from a teen's naive perspective.   The story is easily read and flows smoothly.

In particular, I enjoyed Mandy's loving descriptions of her father, the pharmacist, and her Aunt Iris.   I enjoyed most of the conclusions the three teens arrived at during this one long summer and felt that the story reached a satisfactory ending.

I rated this a 5 wink read and enjoyed this story immensely.

 Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I received a copy of this book from the author or their representative in exchange for an honest review.

Dangerous by Sylvia McDaniel--A Review

SYNOPSIS:

The Hunt of a Lifetime Becomes a Journey of the Heart

Annabelle McKenzie stays at home and takes care of the farm and the bookkeeping for their family bounty hunting business while her two sisters take all the risks. Except that she’s grown bored and longs for adventure. The chance to show her sisters that she’s just as capable of bringing a man to justice and collecting a bounty as they are. When opportunity bumps into her at the bank, she recklessly follows her prey out of town. Only she soon realizes she’s chosen the wrong man to hunt.

Beau Samuels has a dark secret that goes beyond the price on his head. And now there’s a wanted poster with his face plastered in every small Texas sheriff’s office. As if things couldn’t get worse, now he has a novice in a skirt brandishing a gun and determined to collect his reward. Could he get away from the blonde spitfire with his heart intact?

When Annabelle unlocks the secrets to his heart and reveals the true man behind the wanted poster, can she lay aside her scruples and allow herself to love an outlaw?

FROM MY MIND'S EYE:

What is it about bad boys that pull the heartstrings of fair and unfair maidens alike?   I certainly have no answer for that question, but I can attest to the fact that I rooted whole heartedly for our bad boy outlaw, Beau Samuels in this rolicking western romance, Dangerous by Sylvia McDaniel.

What a great idea for a premise of the story.....bounty hunting sisters.    And what a time in history for women to be seeking justice for their male counterparts.   I loved this storyline, the internal conflict that had both the heroine and the hero warring between their heads and their hearts and the passion that brewed from the get go between them.

The story was definitely character driven and moved rapidly from beginning to end.   I found it refreshing and enjoyable although the romance scenes were a bit explicit for my taste.    But I sure loved how McDaniel created such believable and rounded characters.

I rated this a 4 wink read!   Very enjoyable.

Disclaimer:  I read for my pleasure.   I may receive ARC copies for review purposes, but I am not compensated for my reviews .  I like to read and I like to share my reviews.   I post my thoughts without prejudice or bias.  The words are mine and I write reviews based on my humble opinion.  I will admit, I seldom meet a book I don't like.  I received a copy of this book from the author or their representative in exchange for an honest review.

February 2015 Reading Recap

Is it true?    Is it really the first of March?     We have survived the throes of winter!    Spring is right around the corner!!!

Did you have a successful February for your reading aspirations?    I stayed in as much as possible and enjoyed my lovely little library with reading 9 books.   Some were short and sweet, some long and tedious.    Some were whimsical, some mystical, some mysterious...all were interesting and all were fun and stirred my heart.

                                                      Mystical
                                                                              and        

                                                               Paranormal

    And Then there were mystery suspense                                                                              

YOUNG ADULT

And so concluded my reading for February 2015!   Let me know how your February Reading went.

Together, we'll keep those pages turning!  Eyes and heart open reading friends!

God Bless!

Miss Beth