Book Review - Deadly Target

Oh, what a tangled web we weave in the name of protecting our loved ones. At least, the characters in Deadly Target by Elizabeth Goddard find themselves in quite the web of intrigue for this second book of her Rocky Mountain Courage series. With a flash and a crash, we are introduced to Dr. Erin Larson. A criminal psychologist with an anonymous true crime cold case podcast, Erin is far enough removed from her subjects that she can’t imagine why anyone would target her, so the attack must have targeted her friend. But when the body count starts rising and Erin is repeatedly involved, things start to become increasingly clear that she is a common denominator. With former flame, Nathan Campbell, thrust into the fray alongside her, Erin finds that her life isn’t the only thing at stake. Staying alive long enough to identify her attacker and find a way forward with Nathan keep Erin and the plot of Deadly Target in motion until the very last thread is untangled.

Deadly Target by Elizabeth Goddard is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Crosshairs

Patricia Bradley’s Natchez Trace Park Rangers series gets a high octane installment with Crosshairs. 

When a girl is found dead at a park along the Trace, Investigative Services Branch ranger Ainsley Beaumont is called back home to Natchez. It is good to be home with her grandmother and great-aunt Cora, but things get personal when Aunt Cora is injured and Ainsley finds herself in the crosshairs of someone bent on hiding the truth. Finding the culprit involves unraveling the motive, a task made both easier and more difficult by the presence of Ainsley’s first love.

After leaving the FBI and becoming an interpretive ranger, Lincoln Steele is enjoying his less stressful life working at Melrose Estate. A life that no longer requires carrying a gun or the chance that his actions hold another person’s life in the balance. When Ainsley returns to Natchez, the two are thrust into partnership at work and in their personal lives. Linc never stopped loving Ainsley, but his greatest anxiety also makes him unworthy to ask for a second chance. The only way to be worthy of her is to conquer it and he can’t do that alone.

In the third installment of her Natchez Trace Park Rangers series, Patricia Bradley delivers a web of intrigue as thick as the Spanish moss in the trees of her historical setting. The constant action and mystery will hook you, while the message of restoration and redemption fulfills the plots we have come to love from this amazing author. Read Crosshairs as a standalone if you want, but I highly recommend starting at the beginning and working your way through Standoff and Obsession first.

Crosshairs by Patricia Bradley is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - A View Most Glorious

Coraline Baxter does not want to fit in with proper society. Her mind is too keen and her interests too broad to play the simpering socialite, doomed to a life of comfort without fulfillment. She is one of few women who have attended college and gone on to get a job outside the home, ambitions that seem frivolous at best for a woman of her social standing in the late 1800’s. With these accomplishments in hand, Cora has been nominated by her friends to climb Mt. Ranier in the name of suffrage; if a woman can summit the grand lady, then a woman surely is capable of the vote. More than advancement of the suffragist movement is at stake, though. If Cora does not succeed, she must marry the man her mother has chosen for her; one whose appearances are greatly deceptive of his character.

To summit Ranier, Cora and her stepfather have enlisted the services of Nathan Hardee. A former fellow Tacoma socialite, family scandal prompted Nathan to eschew the trappings of the proper society which shunned him at a time when his family needed support. Determined to never be like those people again, Nathan has embraced the mountain man lifestyle, caring for neighbors and guiding those who wish to summit the mountain. The last thing he needs is to be responsible for guiding a delicate flower with a weak constitution and her privileged stepfather, but Coraline Baxter is determined to prove she’s no shy violet. Matching his strength with her determination could prove that they are stronger together. And that looking at others with compassion and understanding just might lead to a fulfillment like no other.

Regina Scott forges through several difficult social subjects with grace and passion in A View Most Glorious, the third of her American Wonders Collection series. Her writing is powerful; descriptions that make the reader feel as though they are indeed journeying alongside Cora and Nathan, as well as social statements with purpose and grace. With great attention to detail and historical accuracy, Scott brings us with her to illuminate, educate, and entertain.

A View Most Glorious is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Labyrinth of Lies

Cate Reilly is relieved to be done with undercover work. However, she is the only county detective who can pass as a seventeen year old student at a prestigious St. Louis girls’ boarding school to investigate the disappearance of a prominent businessman’s daughter. Cate can handle one last undercover assignment, befriending her new roommate to find answers about the missing girl, and she can handle the cold walks through the woods in search of evidence of foul play, but she has to work hard to handle the fact that the man who broke her heart is teaching her Spanish class.

Zeke Sloan has seen and survived it all during his time undercover with the Mexican drug cartel. He should be more safe on assignment as a Spanish teacher at Ivy Hill Academy, investigating a drug trafficking ring that is using the school for clandestine operations. Zeke never thought the biggest danger on this assignment would be to his heart, until Cate walks into his Spanish class and back into his life. As they work together to determine how their investigations may be linked, they also find themselves working together to figure out what went wrong in their relationship and if they can restore trust and repair wounds they thought would never heal.

The Triple Threat series from Irene Hannon gets an intense second installment with Labyrinth of Lies. She grabbed my attention with book one, Point of Danger, when Hannon introduced us to a family of sisters who feel like our own. Following the Reilly sisters, Triple Threat delivers intense action and swoon-worthy romance.

Labyrinth of Lies is available from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Tacos for Two

ColorMeTurqoise and StrongerMan99 have a good thing going in their dating app DM world. A mutual affinity for You’ve Got Mail spurs soul searching conversations about balancing responsibility to family with pursuing your dreams. Both are encouraged by the encouragement and support found in each other through their online relationship. If only real life was as free and easy, Rory Perez wouldn’t be struggling to save her beloved aunt’s food truck in spite of the fact she can’t even cook. And Jude Worthington wouldn’t be trying so hard to stay one step ahead of his father’s antics after declaring that he wants to leave the family law firm and open a food truck. If only Jude’s dream taco truck wasn’t a direct competitor to Rory’s Salsa Street truck, especially when everything for both trucks is riding on victory in their town’s annual food truck competition.

Betsy St. Amant serves up Tacos for Two with plenty of spice, turning up the heat on the food truck competitors’ feud and igniting both pork loins and romance in turn. While Rory and Jude both want to find their own identity, they also struggle to reconcile the online connection with the face-to-face disconnect. How can they succeed in romance when they are also working so hard to reconcile individual and family obligations, and while learning difficult truths about forgiveness.

Tacos for Two by Betsy St. Amant is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - Wolf Soldier

With the Lightraider Order scattered and the people of the Dragon Lands under oppressive rule, it is up to one shepherd boy and his four compatriots to fulfill the mission of the Rescuer and vanquish the wyrm before it gains full control of their world. Connor Enarian and four other new Lightraider initiates must train quickly and learn to rely more fully than ever on their Rescuer in order to find a Lightraider spy presumed dead and his talking wolf companion. Facing off against trolls, orcs, and fantastical beasts that bewilder and terrify is only one aspect of a mission that seems doomed in the hands of the untried cadets.

James R. Hannibal brings the Lightraider world to larger-than-life reality for readers in his new release, Wolf Soldier. This allegorical fantasy is loaded with references to the Rescuer that will seem very familiar to anyone who has spent time in the New Testament, but don’t be confused by the similarities. Wolf Soldier is an epic adventure based on the DragonRaid game created by Dick Wulf. The storyline is well constructed, skillfully honed, and superbly executed to draw in the reader and bring us along on the adventure of a lifetime. I spent hours thinking this would make a stunning movie, only to realize I’ve seen it in my mind as I read descriptions so crisp and clear I felt completely immersed into battle alongside the Lightraider cadets. 

Wolf Soldier by James R. Hannibal is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online:

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy of theirs book to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.

Book Review - The Healing of Natalie Curtis

Natalie Curtis was preparing for her debut with the New York Philharmonic, a classically trained musician with exceptional talent, when a breakdown derailed her present and her future. Lost in her identity and her feeble with poor health, Natalie is struggling to find her way forward. Her brother George’s urging to travel to his beloved western frontier spurs Natalie to explore new places, people, passions that give Natalie purpose. She discovers the beauty of the indigenous people of the west and their music. She also discovers the trials they face and the injustice of the system that seeks to assimilate them into the white man’s culture and eradicate the traditions that shape their identity. Natalie’s work to preserve their culture becomes her purpose and her passion.

Jane Kirkpatrick preserves the story of Natalie Curtis and therefore the work done to save Native American music and other cultural traditions in The Healing of Natalie Curtis. She reminds us of the treasure that is a person’s cultural identity and to embrace the beauty found in one another.

The Healing of Natalie Curtis is available now from your favorite local bookseller or online.

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Thank you to the author and publisher for allowing me a copy to read and review. All opinions expressed here are my own and are completely genuine.