ARC Review: I Dream of Dragons by Ashlyn Chase

I Dream of Dragons
Author: Ashlyn Chase
Series: Boston Dragons (Book 1)
Publication: Sourcebooks Casablanca (April 5, 2016)

Description: THE HEAT IS ON

When Rory Arish and his two fiery dragon siblings are run out of their ancestral Irish home, it seems their luck has run out-until they arrive in Boston and find a paranormal-friendly apartment building. Finally, Rory has a place to call home. There's only one problem: Rory's new lair has simultaneously been rented to an infuriating woman who is as stubborn as she is beautiful and will not leave 'her' apartment matter how steamed he may be...

AND SPARKS FLY

Amber McNally is a down-on-her-luck flight attendant. She needs this apartment, and not even a fire-breathing dragon with his Irish charm and scorching good looks is going to scare her away. Holing up in their respective corners, a battle of wills ensues. Who will be the first to blink...or give in to their off-the-charts chemistry and decide to make this unorthodox living arrangement a little more permanent?

My Thoughts: This was a fun paranormal romance between a dragon and a modern day muse. Rory Arish and his two sisters have been kicked out of Ireland after being accused of stealing a leprechaun's gold. They have made their way to Boston. Amber is a flight attendant who is getting bored with the job when she is recruited to by the new muse of air travel. The two meet when they both rent the same apartment in a paranormal friendly building. Since possession is nine-tenths of the law, neither is willing to leave the apartment so that the other can claim it. While they are there they happen to fall in love.

Troubles aren't over because the leprechauns still want their gold and Amber is having some adjustment issues with the whole muse thing. The story is filled with a wide variety of paranormal creatures. While this is the first I've read by the author and this is the first book in a series, a quick peak at Amazon showed me that many of the characters in this story had books of their own.

Fans of paranormal romances with both heat and humor will enjoy this story.

Favorite Quote:

"How about you, Amber? Are you a sports fan?" Sly asked.

She chuckled. "The only sport I'm remotely interested in is hunting, and by that I mean bargain hunting."

I got this eARC from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

ARC Review: Silence by Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin

Silence
Author: Mercedes Lackey and Cody Martin
Series: Serrated Edge (Book 9)
Publication: Baen (April 5, 2016)

Description: Teenager Staci's father has just remarried, and now she finds herself being shunted aside by her new stepmother.  Shunted all the way to the run-down and dying Maine town of Silence, in fact, and the custody of her alcoholic mother.

It gets worse.  Silence seems to be stuck in the proverbial stone age. There's no cell phone service except at the very top of a bluff outside of town, no internet except dialup, and not one familiar franchise or business. Staci's mom seems to have gotten even worse since the last time Staci lived with her. The only bright spots in the whole place are a friendly waitress at the diner, and a bookstore where she meets a gaggle of geeks and gamers.

But all is not as it seems in Silence. There are strange things moving beneath the shabby surface, terrible plots in play, and deadly players in the game, and Staci is about to find herself caught up in the middle of it all.

My Thoughts: Sixteen-year-old Staci finds herself  pushed aside when her father remarries. They send her to Silence, Maine, to live with her alcoholic mother. Silence is the town that time forgot. The weather is always gloomy; cell phones only get a bar or so when a person is at the top of Make-out Hill; the only internet is dial-up. It is quite a change for a girl who grew up in New York City.

She gradually meets some other kids and becomes part of the nerdy group that hangs out at the local bookstore playing role playing games. The store is run by a mysterious guy named Tim. She also makes the acquaintance of another mysterious guy named Dylan who rides a really cool motorcycle. Then she catches the attention of Sean Blackthorne who is the son of the richest family in town. He begins inviting her to hang out at his palatial escape where she meets his assorted cousins and his father.

She soon learns that Sean and his family are elves from the Unseleighe court who have evil plans for the people of Silence. Dylan has come to try to disrupt those plans but needs Staci's help because she has an in to the estate. He begins to teach her magic since she has some elven blood. She proves to be surprisingly adept and and independent thinker who can use the magic she knows in creative ways.

This story has adventure, danger, friendships, and even a hint of romance. Fans of the Serrated Edge series and other fans of urban fantasy will enjoy this entertaining story.

Favorite Quote:

She wasn't a soldier; she didn't have years of training or anything like that, just a few weeks of practicing magic and almost getting killed, and she had been scared to death through it all. Sometimes anger of something else cut through that fear, but that didn't change the fact that it was there. Dylan told her that brave people felt fear, and kept going despite it; if that was true, then she and her friends must have been crazy-stupid brave, with how she was feeling.

I got this eARC for review from Edelweiss. You can buy your copy here.

Teaser Tuesday: I Dream of Dragons by Ashlyn Chase

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser:

"What about those who hit the SEND button before you can stop them, or do it despite your best efforts?"

Bliss shrugged. "It happens. Then they learn from the consequences of their own actions. If a person is determined to self-destruct, they'll find a way. No one can save every everyone, especially from themselves."

This week my teaser comes from I Dream of Dragons by Ashlyn Chase. It is the first in a new series. Here is the description from Amazon:

THE HEAT IS ON

When Rory Arish and his two fiery dragon siblings are run out of their ancestral Irish home, it seems their luck has run out-until they arrive in Boston and find a paranormal-friendly apartment building. Finally, Rory has a place to call home. There's only one problem: Rory's new lair has simultaneously been rented to an infuriating woman who is as stubborn as she is beautiful and will not leave 'her' apartment matter how steamed he may be...

AND SPARKS FLY

Amber McNally is a down-on-her-luck flight attendant. She needs this apartment, and not even a fire-breathing dragon with his Irish charm and scorching good looks is going to scare her away. Holing up in their respective corners, a battle of wills ensues. Who will be the first to blink...or give in to their off-the-charts chemistry and decide to make this unorthodox living arrangement a little more permanent?

Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop Winners

Congratulations to Heather and Debbi!

The boxes of books will be sent after I finish work tomorrow.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 28, 2016)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading... 

Our Spring Break began a day early thanks to ten inches of heavy wet snow. Since we found out Wednesday night, I was able to sleep in on Thursday. Currently we have piles of snow but the roads are clean and dry.

Since I didn't have travel plans, I have been able to do some extra reading and have just been relaxing. For the first time that I recall, I don't have masses of correcting to do this weekend. Next week is the end of the quarter and report cards so I imagine I'll be dealing with late work all week.

I spent a good part of Saturday morning setting up blog posts for May. I have forty-two scheduled posts and five reviews in draft. I have five more books to read - one adult and four YA - that will be on my April calendar but I have finished reading all of my April releases. Most of May on this blog will be devoted to finally posting the reviews for books I read earlier but had to move to make way for review books. I don't plan to accept any more May release books. I have one review book to read and then I want to read some from TBR mountain.

Read Last Week

Dying for a Taste by Leslie Karst was an entertaining cozy complete with recipes. The heroine is a corporate lawyer who disliked her career and finds herself back working in her family's Italian restaurant. When her aunt is murdered and leaves her a restaurant, Sally has to find the murderer while trying to keep her new restaurant operating and still work in her father's restaurant. My review will be posted on April 13.

Cold Girl by RM Greenaway is a gritty police procedural set in the Hazeltons in British Columbia. A local rockabilly star has gone missing and it appears she may have been the latest victim of the Pickup Killer. Told from the viewpoint of the police inspector who has been working on the Pickup Killer case and from the viewpoint of an officer who is trying to rebuild his career after a car accident and a brain injury. My review will be posted on April 14.

'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick is a Victorian romantic suspense novel complete with obsessions and madmen. It has Quick's signature independent heroine and her match who happens to be an author of popular crime novels. My review will be posted on April 16.

Alliance of Equals by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller is the latest Liaden Universe novel. This was takes place off Surebleak on the Dutiful Passage, on the Uncle's ship, and at Jamiatha's Jumble Stop in the back end of nowhere. My review will be posted on July 2 because the book won't be released until July 5 but I had to read the eARC as soon as it was available.

Currently

The next on my stack is The Black Dragon by Allyson James. This one has been languishing on TBR mountain since 2008.

Next Week

Next week, I plan to read some recent arrivals by favorite authors.

• Midnight Marked by Chloe Neill
• Marked in Flesh by Anne Bishop
• Fire Touched by Patricia Briggs

Reviews Posted

• A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden
• Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

I shopped Amazon Marketplace and bought Front Runner by Felix Francis and The Mime Order by Samantha Shannon.

I visited Baen Books and bought the eARC of Alliance of Equals by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller.

State of TBR Mountain:

• Added in 2016: 92
• Added in March (so far): 24
• Still unread 2016: 58
• Total Review Pending: 28
• Total unread: 1925 (1315 are Kindle books)

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.

Book Review: Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks

Mind Magic
Author: Eileen Wilks
Series: A Novel of the Lupi (Book 12)
Publication: Berkley (November 3, 2015)

Description: FBI agent Lily Yu’s mind is a dangerous place to be in the latest Novel of the Lupi…

Thanks to the mindspeech lessons she’s receiving from the black dragon, Lily is temporarily benched from Unit Twelve—until her brain acclimates and the risk of total burnout passes. At least she has her new husband, lupi Rule Turner, to keep her occupied.

But when her mentor calls in a favor and sends Lily to a murder scene, she’s suddenly back on active status—despite the hallucinations she can’t keep at bay.  With one touch, Lily knows the man was killed by magic, but her senses don’t warn her how far the conspiracy goes…

A shadowy force within the government wants to take Unit Twelve down, and they don't mind killing to achieve their goal. With none of her usual resources, Lily is up against impossible odds--because with her mind in disarray, she can’t trust anything she sees.

My Thoughts: Lily Yu is on sick leave because she is learning to mindspeak and is currently plagued with hallucinations until her brain makes some adjustments. Most troubling to both her and Rule is that she is also having trouble with her mate sense. Neither one can pinpoint the other's location which is especially troubling to Rule. However, before she can make her adjustments, Ruben sends her to a small Ohio town because of a premonition.

Rule is forced to stay in Washington, DC, because of another premonition. Thus when he is arrested on suspicion of having child porn, Lily isn't there. And, by the time his lawyer gets him out of jail, Lily has disappeared. Despite being under house arrest with a monitor on his ankle, Rule is determined to get to Ohio and find his missing mate.

Meanwhile, Lily and the dying werewolf who insisted on going with her are being kept under a magically induced sleep which Lily had thought was impossible since she's generally immune to magic. She had been kidnapped by brownies to help the dragon who is missing from Washington, DC, with a major problem.

A good part of this story is told by Demi who is seventeen, has Asperger's. and is a hacker genius. We learn that she is an orphan who was taken in by Mr. Smith and placed in his home for Gifted children. Demi is also a touch sensitive who identified other Gifted children for Mr. Smith. However, she went away to college at sixteen and, when she returned to the home, she learned that Mr. Smith had been lying to her about his purpose.

Mr. Smith has now launched a campaign to discredit Ruben and his Unit 12. He is the one who is behind the false accusation against Rule since he also wants the werewolves discredited, hunted, and destroyed. Mr. Smith considers himself a patriot who has the best interests of the country in his mind and feels that he is the only one who can serve those best interests. His plan puts the Dragon Accord in danger and he simply doesn't realize how powerful the dragons are and how necessary they are to the smooth running of the world.

This was a very good episode in the series. We learned lots of interesting new things about dragons. We also saw Lily learn a new skill. I especially enjoyed the portions told from Rule's point of view because they showed the world as werewolves see it. The brownies were a fun new species that I don't recall from earlier books.

Fans of the series won't want to miss this great new episode.


Favorite Quote:

Three dozen brownies came skipping out of the woods, singing at the top of their lungs, some holding hands, some holding flowers. The IFVs—which did look rather like tanks, with their treads and turrets—slowed. And were quickly swarmed by brownies, who climbed up on the vehicles, tossing flowers around like flower girls at the world's oddest wedding. A few brownies hung back, pointedly aiming their phones at the scene. The Internet community would be very interested in those videos.

The brownies were singing "It's a Small World"—one of the most insidious earworms ever invented.

I bought this one. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

The guards came as a shock.

Friday 56:

"That's not acceptable. If you know something we don't—"

"I know many things you don't, Sharon. We haven't the time to list them all, much less go into detail."

"And yet," Smith said softly, "this seems especially pertinent."

This week I am spotlighting Mind Magic by Eileen Wilks. This is the twelfth novel in her Lupi series. Here is the description from Amazon:

FBI agent Lily Yu’s mind is a dangerous place to be in the latest Novel of the Lupi…

Thanks to the mindspeech lessons she’s receiving from the black dragon, Lily is temporarily benched from Unit Twelve—until her brain acclimates and the risk of total burnout passes. At least she has her new husband, lupi Rule Turner, to keep her occupied.

But when her mentor calls in a favor and sends Lily to a murder scene, she’s suddenly back on active status—despite the hallucinations she can’t keep at bay.  With one touch, Lily knows the man was killed by magic, but her senses don’t warn her how far the conspiracy goes…

A shadowy force within the government wants to take Unit Twelve down, and they don't mind killing to achieve their goal. With none of her usual resources, Lily is up against impossible odds--because with her mind in disarray, she can’t trust anything she sees.

Book Review: A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden

A Lady in the Smoke
Author: Karen Odden
Publication: Alibi (March 29, 2016)

Description: Following a humiliating fourth Season in London, Lady Elizabeth Fraser is on her way back to her ancestral country estate when her train careens off the rails and bursts into flames. Though she is injured, she manages to drag herself and her unconscious mother out of the wreckage, and amid the chaos that ensues, a brilliant young railway surgeon saves her mother’s life. Elizabeth feels an immediate connection with Paul Wilcox—though society would never deem a medical man eligible for the daughter of an earl.

After Paul reveals that the train wreck was no accident, and the inspector who tried to prevent it dies under mysterious circumstances, Elizabeth undertakes a dangerous investigation of her own that leads back to her family’s buried secrets. The more she learns, the more she must risk. Not only are her dowry and her reputation at stake; Paul’s very life hangs in the balance when he is arrested for manslaughter. As the trial draws near, and Parliament prepares for a vote that will change the course of the nation, Elizabeth uncovers a conspiracy that has been years in the making. But time is running out for her to see justice done.

My Thoughts: A horrible train wreck injures Lady Elizabeth Fraser and her mother when they are on their way home from London, fleeing rumors of their lost fortune. They are treated by Railway Surgeon Paul Wilcox. Elizabeth helps him all night as he treats other injured passengers in the scullery of the inn where they were taken. She comes to admire him very much despite their very different levels of society.

Elizabeth also meets Tom Flynn who is Paul's friend and a reporter for a London newspaper. She overhears them talking about some things that she doesn't understand at first. Tom is convinced that the accident was no accident but was deliberate sabotage designed to bring down the share prices of the railroad line. This impacts Elizabeth because a good portion of her dowry is invested in shares in that railroad.

Elizabeth is determined to investigate and get to the bottom of the whole matter despite the fact that she is firmly discouraged by her family. After all, ladies don't behave like that. They don't risk their reputations by getting involved with men from a lower social strata. Elizabeth's determination grows even stronger when he is arrested and to be tried for manslaughter for the death of one of the people he treated.

This was a nicely plotted mystery filled with all sorts of twists and turns and all sorts of secret, and not so secret, relationships. I was firmly convinced that anyone who waxed nostalgic for Victorian times was not seeing what things were really like. No woman of sense would put up with the roadblocks that Elizabeth faced as a matter of routine. Nor would any modern person wish to subject themselves to Victorian medicine. Elizabeth's frustration was almost a character in itself in this mystery.

Fans of historical mysteries will enjoy this excellent mystery and romance.

Favorite Quote:

"What sort of man do you take me for?" he added more quietly.

The sort of man who would never chase me for my fortune.

The sort of man I could fall in love with.

The sort of man I might even marry, if you could think of me that way, and if I were allowed to choose.

But I could hardly say any of that.

I got this one at NetGalley for review. You can buy your copy here.

WoW: Alliance of Equals by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller

Waiting on Wednesday is a meme hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. She has a linky widget at her site each week for your post and to make it easy to find posts by other people.

The purpose of the meme is to spotlight books that we are eagerly anticipating. It is fun to take a look at what others are waiting for. I have noticed that it has expanded my wishlist though. Be warned!

Alliance of Equals Sharon Lee and Steve Miller July 5, 2016  

I am really eager to read the latest Liaden Universe book by Sharon Lee and Steve Miller. I love these stories which stand up to many re-readings for me. I can't count the number of times I have read each of the books in this series. Here is the description of the one I want to read NOW:

Beset by the angry remnants of the Department of the Interior, challenged at every turn by opportunists on their new homeworld of Surebleak, and somewhat low on funds, Clan Korval desperately needs to reestablish its position as one of the top trading clans in known space. To this end, Master Trader Shan yos'Galan, aboard Korval's premier trade ship, Dutiful Passage, is on a mission to establish new business associations and to build a strong primary route that links well with existing Loops and secondary routes.

But reestablishing trade and preserving the lives of the few remaining members of the clan aren't all of Korval's problems. Matters come to a head as Dutiful Passage, accustomed to being welcomed and feted at those ports on its call-list, finds itself denied docking, and blacklisted, while agents of the DOI mount armed attacks on others of Korval's traders, under the very eyes of port security systems.

Traveling with Dutiful Passage on this unsettling journey is Padi yos'Galan, the master trader's heir and his apprentice. Padi is eager to make up for time lost due to Korval's unpleasantness with the Department of the Interior. She is also keeping a secret so intense that her coming of age, and perhaps her very life, is threatened by it. 

I will be buying the eARC from Baen Books as soon as it is available to tide me over until I can get my lovely hardcover in July.

Teaser Tuesday: A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Books and a Beat. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Teaser (from 10% on my Kindle):

"That's what I need to tell you." Tom's voice dropped. "Palmer's dead. He was thrown off a train two nights ago at Chumnley Bridge."

I caught my breath. Had I heard him correctly?

This week my teaser comes from A Lady in the Smoke by Karen Odden. I got this historical mystery for review from NetGalley. Here is the description from Amazon:

Following a humiliating fourth Season in London, Lady Elizabeth Fraser is on her way back to her ancestral country estate when her train careens off the rails and bursts into flames. Though she is injured, she manages to drag herself and her unconscious mother out of the wreckage, and amid the chaos that ensues, a brilliant young railway surgeon saves her mother’s life. Elizabeth feels an immediate connection with Paul Wilcox—though society would never deem a medical man eligible for the daughter of an earl.

After Paul reveals that the train wreck was no accident, and the inspector who tried to prevent it dies under mysterious circumstances, Elizabeth undertakes a dangerous investigation of her own that leads back to her family’s buried secrets. The more she learns, the more she must risk. Not only are her dowry and her reputation at stake; Paul’s very life hangs in the balance when he is arrested for manslaughter. As the trial draws near, and Parliament prepares for a vote that will change the course of the nation, Elizabeth uncovers a conspiracy that has been years in the making. But time is running out for her to see justice done.

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (March 21, 2016)

It's Monday, What Are You Reading? is now hosted by Kathryn at The Book Date.

It’s Monday!  What Are You Reading is where we gather to share what we have read this past week and what we plan to read this week.  It is a great way to network with other bloggers, see some wonderful blogs, and put new titles on your reading list.

Other Than Reading... 

It has been another week of changeable weather in Minnesota. One day I haul out the spring jacket, the next day it's back to the winter one. I am enjoying having more daylight at the end of the day but am still trying to catch up from the lost hour of sleep. We have three four-day weeks in a row coming up at work as we get Friday and Monday off over Easter and then have the following Monday for staff in-service before we begin our final quarter.

I am hoping to get a little extra reading time with a couple extra days off. I won't be traveling except for a few hours up to the Cities for an author event. A friend and I are taking that road trip next Saturday. I can't wait to take lots of pictures and meet authors I haven't met before.

Read Last Week

Hold Your Breath by Katie Ruggle was an entertaining romantic suspense title that begins a new series. The setting is the Colorado Rockies and the heroes are part of a Search and Rescue squad or some one associated with them. My review will be posted on April 2.

Luck Is No Lady by Amy Sandas was a historical romance. I really liked the characters in this one. My review will be posted on April 7.

The Obsession by Nora Roberts was an excellent romantic suspense title. It is typical Nora Roberts in that there is a strong sense of community and strong friendships built among the characters. I liked that neither the hero or the heroine were looking for love when it found them. My review will be posted on April 9.

Currently

Dying for a Taste by Leslie Karst is a cozy mystery that I got from Crooked Lane Books for review.

Next Week

Cold Girl by R. M. Greenaway is a mystery I got from NetGalley. I've had it since last October when it had an April 19 release date. It will be released on March 26 but my review will still appear in April.

'Til Death Do Us Part by Amanda Quick is also from NetGalley. I love this author's work no matter what pseudonym she is using and was glad when a publicist asked if I wanted to read it. It will be released on April 19.

The Black Dragon by Allyson James is from deep on TBR mountain. I got it January 18, 2008. I haven't had much chance this year to read or donate books added in 2008 but it is still a goal. (I still have 97 unread from 2008.)

Reviews Posted

• Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman
• The Drafter by Kim Harrison
• Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Want to See What I Added to My Stack Last Week?

After enjoying Nightstruck, I couldn't resist adding Dark Descendant by Jenna Black when it was a Kindle Daily Deal.

Magic & Manners by C. E. Murphy was recommended by an author I enjoy and is similar to some other books about magic in Regency England that I have liked. I had to buy it.

Added to the Review Stack was To Love a Wolf by Paige Tyler. I have enjoyed the rest of these books which have werewolves in a Texas SWAT team. It will be released on June 7.

State of TBR Mountain:

• Added this week: 6
• Total 2016 additions: 89
• Still to read from 2016: 58
• Total To Read Books: 1930

To see what Young Adult books I have been reading and plan to read, check out Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.

Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop

I'm excited to be participating in the Spring Cleaning Giveaway Hop hosted by BookHounds. I have two boxes of mysteries - a combination of finished copies and ARCs - to give away to two readers. Because of the cost of shipping, this giveaway is only open to entrants in the continental United States.

Enter here.

Check out the other participants.

ARC Review: Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Fool Me Once
Author: Harlan Coben
Publication: Dutton (March 22, 2016)

Description: In the course of eight consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, millions of readers have discovered Harlan Coben’s page-turning thrillers, filled with his trademark edge-of-your-seat suspense and gut-wrenching emotion. In Fool Me Once, Coben once again outdoes himself.

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

My Thoughts: This story begins at a funeral and ends at a birth - a reverse of the natural order of things. It was a fascinating story about a woman - Maya Stern - trying to solve the mystery of the murders of her husband and her sister. Maya has an interesting story. She is a former military helicopter pilot who served in the Middle East and was forced into taking an honorable discharge after some sort of incident that we find out about late in the book. She suffers from PTSD. Her main symptom is aural flashbacks, or maybe hallucinations. She is also the mother of a two-year-old daughter that she loves very much.

When her husband is killed in an attempted robbery, Maya gains the attention of the police. She was with him when he was killed but ran for help before the final shot was fired. Her husband was the scion of a very wealthy and private family. The kind of family that has hereditary servants. His childhood nurse's daughter is now his daughter's nanny. Maya and Joe met, fell in love, and married after a whirlwind courtship when Maya found herself pregnant with Lily. They were married about three years before his death but didn't spend much time together. Maya spent some time deployed.

Maya needs closure for both deaths and finds herself investigating. As she looks into her sister's murder she finds a number of connections to Joe and his family. The deeper she digs, the more questions she has. She also doesn't know who she can trust. She finds that her sister was working with the same internet whistleblower who brought forward the incident that ended Maya's military career. She contacts him to find out what secrets her sister might have been sharing. Her close friend from the military - Shane - helps her out but she doesn't share much with him in part because she wants to keep him out of it and in part because she is keeping secrets from him.

I got the feeling that Maya was an unreliable narrator early on but I certainly never guessed where the story was going. I found the ending stunning but reasonable when I looked back over the story again. The characters were fascinating and the mystery engaging. Fans of thrillers will enjoy this one very much.

I got this book from Penguin Random House in exchange for an honest review. You can buy your copy here.

Friday Memes: Fool Me Once by Harlan Coben

Happy Friday everybody!

Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City Reader. The Friday 56 is hosted at Freda's Voice. Check out the links above for the rules and for the posts of the participants each week. Don’t dig for your favorite book, the coolest, the most intellectual. Use the CLOSEST.

Beginning:

They buried Joe three days after his murder.

Friday 56 (location 560 on my Kindle):

Maya read somewhere that the average two year old has a vocabulary of about fifty words. That seemed about right. "More" was a big one on the little-kid list.

This week I am spotlighting the latest by Harlan Coben - Fool Me Once. I was offered this one for review by the publisher. Here is the description from Amazon:

In the course of eight consecutive #1 New York Times bestsellers, millions of readers have discovered Harlan Coben’s page-turning thrillers, filled with his trademark edge-of-your-seat suspense and gut-wrenching emotion. In Fool Me Once, Coben once again outdoes himself.

Former special ops pilot Maya, home from the war, sees an unthinkable image captured by her nanny cam while she is at work: her two-year-old daughter playing with Maya’s husband, Joe—who had been brutally murdered two weeks earlier. The provocative question at the heart of the mystery: Can you believe everything you see with your own eyes, even when you desperately want to? To find the answer, Maya must finally come to terms with deep secrets and deceit in her own past before she can face the unbelievable truth about her husband—and herself.

ARC Review: Tumbled Graves by Brenda Chapman

Tumbled Graves
Author: Brenda Chapman
Series: A Stonechild and Rouleau Mystery (Book 3)
Publication: Dundurn (March 22, 2016)

Description: A missing child. A dead mother. Kala Stonechild is about to discover what one betrayal can lead to.

When Adele Delaney and her daughter, Violet, go missing, Jacques Rouleau is called upon to investigate. However, struggling with the impending death of his ill ex-wife, he sends Kala Stonechild and Paul Gundersund instead. Stonechild has been trying to adapt to life as her young cousin Dawn’s guardian, and even though Gundersund has offered support, Stonechild is at risk of losing custody.

On the second day of the investigation, Adele’s body turns up, dumped on the shoulder of the highway with no sign of her daughter. Her husband, Ivo, denies any involvement with either his wife’s death or their child’s disappearance, but not everyone is convinced. As the investigation unfolds, Stonechild learns that Adele was once entangled with a Montreal biker gang and heads to Quebec to investigate further.

As Stonechild and Gundersund juggle personal troubles and a complicated, dangerous case, they find themselves piecing together a chain of disasters leading back to a single betrayal.

My Thoughts: I have come into this series at the third book but didn't have any trouble following the story and the relationships. The case has to do with a missing mother and child. When Kala Stonechild begins to look into it, she isn't willing to take the easy way out and blame the husband Ivo Delaney. The more she looks the more she uncovers the tangled past of Adele Delaney which leads her into the shady bar scene in Montreal. The case becomes even more complicated when the mutilated body of Adele Delaney is found but her three-year-old daughter Violet is still missing - presumed drowned in the river behind the family home.

While investigating the investigators' personal lives all intrude. Rouleau, who is Stonechild's friend and mentor, is dealing with the final illness of his ex-wife who is in hospice care. Stonechild is getting used to being the foster parent of thirteen-year-old Dawn whose mother, now serving time in prison, was a childhood friend of hers. Both Stonechild and Dawn and quiet, solitary, and introspective. Stonechild is afraid that she won't be a successful foster parent because of her own past in foster care. And Stonechild's partner Gundersund is dealing with a marriage that is troubled and a wife who is also a co-worker. Since Gundersund would like to begin a relationship beyond their partnership, a jealous almost-ex-wife isn't a positive. Kala isn't willing to step between a man and his wife and isn't easily able to trust anyone. Then there is the jealous co-worker - Woodhouse - who wants Stonechild out of the police largely because she is good at the job and he isn't.

This was an engaging police procedural with nicely complex people. Fans of mysteries will enjoy this story.

Favorite Quote:

She'd never put any stock in talking through feelings or blaming her childhood for current problems. Rehashing what happened from every pathetic angle seemed like a big wallowing waste of time. But now she had someone other than herself to consider. For the first time, she could admit that stoic denial might not be working.

I got this eARC from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Book Review: The Drafter by Kim Harrison

The Drafter
Author: Kim Harrison
Series: The Peri Reed Chronicles
Publication: Gallery Books; First Edition edition (September 1, 2015)

Description: In the first explosive book in the Peri Reed Chronicles, Kim Harrison, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Hollows series, blazes a new frontier with an edge-of-your-seat thriller that will keep you guessing until the very end.

Detroit 2030. Double-crossed by the person she loved and betrayed by the covert government organization that trained her to use her body as a weapon, Peri Reed is a renegade on the run. Don’t forgive and never forget has always been Peri’s creed. But her day job makes it difficult: she is a drafter, possessed of a rare, invaluable skill for altering time, yet destined to forget both the history she changed and the history she rewrote. When Peri discovers her name is on a list of corrupt operatives, she realizes that her own life has been manipulated by the agency. Her memory of the previous three years erased, she joins forces with a mysterious rogue soldier in a deadly race to piece together the truth about her fateful final task. Her motto has always been only to kill those who kill her first. But with nothing but intuition to guide her, will she have to break her own rule to survive?

My Thoughts: THE DRAFTER begins a new series set in Detroit in the year 2030. The main character is Peri Reed who is a drafter. She can change time but as a consequence needs an anchor to help her reconcile the two memories. She works for an organization called Opti which uses drafters and anchors to maintain political stability, fight terrorists, and do other things for the good of humanity. At least, that is what Peri believes is Opti's mission and she is proud to be one of their soldiers.

The Alliance is an organization of drafters and anchors who are trying to bring Opti down because they know that Opti is not working for the good of humanity but for the good of a handful of rich families. When Peri comes upon the Alliance in the person of Silas she comes to question the memories that she has.

This was a twisty story and, since it was told from Peri's viewpoint, we only know what she knows. Since her memory is being manipulated, what she knows keeps changing. I found it confusing at first but really came to like Peri who was trying so hard to find out what was real and to reclaim herself.

I will be eager to find out what happens next for her.

Favorite Quote:

"You're nothing but a little bitty girl," he said, reaching for her.

"I prefer the term fun-size."

I got a copy of this one from Glose.com. You can buy your copy here.