Out for Blood by Marcy Dyer

Book Blurb:

Dialysis nurse, Danielle Battershawn's, life is turned upside down when her identical twin is murdered. As she strives to deal with yet another death, the killer sets his sights on eliminating her. Can handsome security consultant, Tyler Covington, keep her alive?

My Thoughts:

I was absolutely, positively not disappointed at all by this book. It was a wonderful read packed with all the good bits and pieces suspense novels are made of.
It made me very happy to finally know what Hal's real name was. After being intrigued from the first book, I wondered what it possibly could be. I was also very happy to hear more about Ty, and see where love and duty would take him.
Out of some of the new characters brought in, I think that I enjoyed Leandra the most. She was flirting with EVERYONE!!! And the way she told her friend Dani what's what made me root for her all the way. She is a no-nonsense kind of gal, who obviously learned some very good morals from her momma.
Okay, and now about the main character...Dani. I liked her spirit and resilience throughout everything that was happening to her and the people she loved. She kept going even though she felt responsible for the actions of the protagonist in this book.
I kind of have to add a little something-something about my main man Moose. That dude is awesome. And we finally get to see where his heart is at and who has captured it. I was in the "aw" stage when it came to that moment. YAY!
The ending was PHENOMENAL and had me smiling all the way.
Cannot wait for more from this author. I just can't.

Author's Bio:

Marcy G. Dyer is a Registered Nurse and suspense author. Like so many other writers, she began writing at a very young age, but never took herself seriously as a "real" writer until about ten years ago when she began taking courses and learning the craft of writing.

She currently has two novels from the Desert Winds Series available: Down & Out and Out for Blood

In addition to writing, Marcy is a freelance editor. She does editing for individuals, Desert Breeze Publishing, and Prism Book Group.

Marcy is an alumnus of the Christian Writer's Guild and long-time member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She hosts a small critique group for ACFW and is involved in two other critique groups. For anyone seriously interested in becoming an author, she recommends a strong, diverse critique group to help authors hone crafts.

In addition to maintaining her website, http://www.marcydyer.com, Marcy hosts a blog to help those with autoimmune diseases. While many autoimmune diseases aren't visible, they still cause chronic pain and disability. If you would like more information, please visit http://ragimp.blogspot.com

As followers of Jesus Christ, Marcy and her family are active members of Crossroads Fellowship in Odessa, Texas. Sermons are carried live via the web at our online campus - http://crossroadsodessa.tv/ at the following times on Sundays - 9:30 & 11:00 and 5:00 & 7:00 central time.

She can be found at http://www.marcydyer.com and http://www.facebook.com/marcydyer

Down & Out by Marcy Dyer

Book Blurb:

Going home again can be deadly.

Suddenly jobless, enterprising Candace Downs returns to the parched and dusty oil-town of Odessa, Texas as a trainee for her cousin's towing company.

Rejecting the romantic obsessions of a maniacal stranger intent on capturing her heart throws her life into a terrifying spiral downward.

As the clock ticks, and her hunter ups the ante, the charismatic, handsome security consultant, Josiah Bradley, is determined to keep her alive – at any cost.

Will they win this harrowing cat-and-mouse game? Or will the unrelenting stalker bury them both deep in the desert?

My Thoughts:

So...I must say that I do not normally read books from cover to cover in a day. Even when I am not doing anything but reading, my normal record is finishing a book in about two days or more. However, Down & Out is one of those rare exceptions. I completely devoured this novel in a span of probably a few hours at the most. It just blew me away. The storyline is phenomenal, the characters are believable, and the dance between jealously and love between the two main characters is absolutely wonderful. The suspense, though, is what truly makes this book superb.
Books have to make me react in some way. Whether it be a laugh, a smile, a tear, or even anger, each book that I read has to create some emotion in me or I consider it a so-so story. This one caused me to react in a way that I have NEVER, EVER reacted. It caused me to shudder. Literally shudder. Every time the protagonist of the story, Candace's stalker, walked onto the page, a pit of fear would form in my stomach. My shoulders would go up to my ears, and I just wanted to get away from him. I felt like a part of the story. I felt like he was after me. Creepy, huh?
Because of that, this book blew me out of the water, and I am definitely going to devour the next book just as easily as this one. I just know it.
Kudos, Marcy Dyer, for such a phenomenal story. You definitely hit the mark.

Author's Bio:

Marcy G. Dyer is a Registered Nurse and suspense author. Like so many other writers, she began writing at a very young age, but never took herself seriously as a "real" writer until about ten years ago when she began taking courses and learning the craft of writing.

She currently has two novels from the Desert Winds Series available: Down & Out and Out for Blood

In addition to writing, Marcy is a freelance editor. She does editing for individuals, Desert Breeze Publishing, and Prism Book Group.

Marcy is an alumnus of the Christian Writer's Guild and long-time member of American Christian Fiction Writers. She hosts a small critique group for ACFW and is involved in two other critique groups. For anyone seriously interested in becoming an author, she recommends a strong, diverse critique group to help authors hone crafts.

In addition to maintaining her website, http://www.marcydyer.com, Marcy hosts a blog to help those with autoimmune diseases. While many autoimmune diseases aren't visible, they still cause chronic pain and disability. If you would like more information, please visit http://ragimp.blogspot.com

As followers of Jesus Christ, Marcy and her family are active members of Crossroads Fellowship in Odessa, Texas. Sermons are carried live via the web at our online campus - http://crossroadsodessa.tv/ at the following times on Sundays - 9:30 & 11:00 and 5:00 & 7:00 central time.

She can be found at http://www.marcydyer.com and http://www.facebook.com/marcydyer

Frisky Business by Jill Edmondson

So until now, I was a Sasha Jackson Mystery book virgin. I had never read any of these books, and I believe I had only heard or saw them in passing on this very website. When given the chance to review one, considering my inexperience with these books, I dove right in.

Immediately I was intrigued by the general storyline. It had a very true basis to it. The fact that most deaths in the sex industry will kind of be pushed under the rug due to the line of work the victim was in. Sad, but unfortunately a very real situation in these troubled times. I was also intrigued by the main character.

Sasha Jackson is extremely relatable (or is that just me) in the fact that she kind of gets in these weird and awkward, but very effective, situations in order to find her killers. This book states some of her past transgressions, including one which I believe caused her to bare more than her soul (wink, wink). I loved her, and could not get enough of her personality in this book.

I also love some of the people closest to her. They seemed real and honest and possibly a bit quirky at times, and I just could not get enough of them either.

Officially I am on the Sasha Jackson train, and I am going to have to check out the earlier novels, because one book just is not enough!

Frisky Business definitely can be read by itself, but beware, because it will make you want even more of Sasha Jackson's adventures.

Cedric of RoseThorn by S. Thomas Kaza

So, I was given this book in exchange for an honest review from the author, and this is definitely going to be an honest review. I must honestly state that this book made me angry. Not because it was not good, on the contrary it was really good, but because it ended so abruptly, with nothing but a black rose to taunt me into desperately wanting to know so much more about the book. The characters, the situation at hand, RoseThorn and Cedric's ultimate fate.

When we first meet Cedric, Lord of RoseThorn, he is witnessing yet another bout with death in his family. First it was his brother, then his children, and now his wife Milona. He watches as she desperately fights for her life in her bed, and hopes against all hope that the healer he sent for reaches the castle in time to help her. But his hoping gets him nowhere. For against his wishes, the dealer of death shows itself, sealing Milona's fate and causing Cedric to lose himself in uncontrollable grief.

When he comes to, however, it seems time may have moved a bit faster than he may have realized when he was mourning Milona. The castle has become eerily quiet. Not the quiet of a kingdom mourning a queen, but the quiet of the missing. Because that is indeed what has become of everyone. They are missing, gone, no longer a part of RoseThorn itself.

Cedric searches throughout the lands surrounding the castle and eventually finds a few peasants to help him with RoseThorn, but apart from that he finds bandits. Roamers of the wood who are willing to slaughter to get what they want. But it seems that these are not just average bandits. They have a leader. Someone who wants Cedric gone and RoseThorn for himself.

Can Cedric and those siding with him fight them off? Or is RoseThorn doomed.

This book is definitely worth the read. I totally recommend it for anyone and everyone, and I cannot wait for the next installment in the story.

Differential Equations

by Julian Iragorri & Lou Aronica

on Tour Nov 1, 2013 - Jan 31, 2014

Book Details:

Genre: Literary Fiction 

Published by: The Story Plant

Publication Date: 4/24/12

Number of Pages: 356

ISBN: Print: 978-1-61188-102-8 E-book: 978-1-61188-103-5

NOTE: Explicit sexual scenes

Synopsis:

This evocative, moving, and gorgeously detailed novel is the story of Alex Soberano, a contemporary man in crisis. A tremendously successful New York businessman, Alex finds it difficult to embrace joy and accept love. When his life threatens to boil over, he escapes for a brief respite on the West Coast. What waits for him there is something he never could have imagined. Intertwined with Alex’s story are the stories of three people from different times and places whose lives affect him in surprising ways:

• A woman from the South American city of Anhelo in 1928 that everyone knows as "Vidente." For decades, Vidente, has been one of Anhelo's most celebrated citizens because she has the ability to read colors that speak of a person's fate. However, during one such reading, she sees her own future – a future that includes her imminent death.
• A man named Khaled who left his home in Bethlehem in 1920 to seek fortune in the South American town of Joya de la Costa. He has barely begun to gain a foothold when he learns that the wife and three children he left behind have been murdered. When a magical woman enters his life, he believes that destiny has smiled on him. However, destiny has only just begun to deal with Khaled.
• A nineteen-year-old student named Dro who flies from the South American country of Legado to Boston in 1985 and immediately walks onto the campus of MIT expecting instant admission. Dro's skills at mastering complex, ever-changing differential equations intrigues the associate admissions director. However, the person he intrigues the most is the celebrated US ambassador from his country, and his relationship with her will define his life.

How the stories of these four people merge is the central mystery of this arresting work of imagination. DIFFERENTIAL EQUATIONS is a story that will sweep you up in its magic, enrich you with its wisdom, and compel you with its deep humanity.

Purchase Links:   

My Thoughts:

I love a good book that can sweep me away to far off places. To times that I would never be able to go to otherwise. So when I decided to read Differential Equations, I was hoping for a book that would do just that. I was not disappointed in the slightest.

Each character in this story is connected. However, the way in which they are all connected is gradually revealed throughout the entirety of the story. The reader is given small facts that are similar in each story, enough to make one speculate, and ultimately are not really told the true connection between them all until almost the very end. But what a beautiful end it is.

There is a review printed on the back of the book that states, "Like eating a fresh lime sorbet with saltwater in your (sex-tousled) hair." - Smallgood Hearth

And what an accurate description. I mean, I don't even have to use my own words for this review. I could just quote that, and it would sum my feelings up in one glorious sentence. This book refreshed my mind. It left me feeling as if I had just come out of a long meditation period, and my problems were gone with the turn of the last page.

This novel is a phenomenal read. It is a book that I could never get tired of reading. This wonderful book, with its natural beauty, has got to be one of the best I have read this entire year.

Author's Bios:

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 bestsellers THE ELEMENT and FINDING YOUR ELEMENT (with Ken Robinson) and the national bestseller THE CULTURE CODE (with Clotaire Rapaille). Aronica is a long-term book publishing veteran. He is President and Publisher of the independent publishing house The Story Plant.

Catch Up With the Author: 

Julian Iragorri lives in Manhattan. He has worked on Wall Street since the early nineties.

From Johann to Tannenbaum by Ashlyn Forge

Okay, so I am familiar with the Ashlyn Forge's first book in the Toys and Soldiers series, and I thought after reading that one that the world she created was really cool. But after this one, I cannot wait for future works. Now, just to clarify, this book is not a continuation of the first one, but the perspective and story of a whole new set of characters. With the occasional appearance from Liam of the first book, In Liam's Wake. 

In the beginning of this story, we first meet up with one our main characters, Johann, and learn a bit about him and his family, and then gradually we are introduced to the main secondary character, Tannenbaum. Their beginning interactions were quite funny and endearing. Since Tannenbaum cannot really interact with Johann vocally, due to a terrible act when he was younger, he does more with actions and drawings and origami than anything to get his points across. At times, I was laughing with how wonderfully sweet Tannenbaum seemed.

Throughout the rest of the book, after all the interactions, when Tannenbaum and Johann become close, you find that they are more connected than they think. That Tannenbaum is the reason behind certain aspects of Johann's life being what they are...

There is a lot of growth in this story. Johann begins an insecure man, looking for the easy way out of his problems, but finds a strength in him that he never realized could exist. Tannenbaum begins broken, but finds the one thing that can heal his long-time wounds.

I absolutely loved this book. Loved, loved, loved it. It made smile and laugh and scream in frustration. It made me FEEL! And I personally believe that only the best books can do that.

The Running Game by L E Fitzpatrick

Okay, so...I actually was not expecting to fall in love with this book when I began reading it at first. I thought it was just going to be just another story of potential murder...well that will definitely teach me to read an excerpt in its entirety. Because this is not just another story. This is a phenomenal paranormal tale of extravagant proportions.

Rachel Aaron was taught from a young age by her father to run. To never stay in one place too long. To always keep your opponent guessing as to your position, and stay one step ahead. However, she has become complacent. She originally came to S'aven to find her lost sister, but has stayed longer than intended. So when two brothers warn her that she is in danger, and that they were hired to find her by a man who most assuredly does not have good intentions toward her, she instantly packs up and runs like she was taught. But...alas, it cannot be that easy. Otherwise, where is the fun in that?

Charlie and his brother are getting back in the game of finding people. It's what pays the bills, so why not? But when Charlie finds that their recent assignment has a connection to him, he does not have it in him to betray her location to the people that want her. He abides by the Reacher code inside of him, because that is the very power, the very connection, they share. So, he decides to help her. But when you work for the big man in town, it seems that things are not always on your side.

Danger comes in many forms in this book. Whether it be a leader searching for a killer's identity, willing to do whatever it takes to get it, a wife who is willing to sacrifice anyone for the man she loves, or a man who will play whichever side gets him the revenge he so desires.

This book was amazing. I unfortunately could not read it all in one sitting, because of the reality of having a job (WHY!!! Haha), but I never stopped thinking about it when I was away. I was always wondering what was going to happen next, and that is the most important thing in any story. To keep the readers enthralled enough to wonder what will happen if they keep reading. What will happen to the very characters they both love and hate. Will a hated character become a loved one? Will a loved one suddenly turn on you? This is a wonderful book, and I will be searching for more of Fitzpatrick's stories in the future.