Tuesday, November 7, 2017

FP/TT: A Peace Divided by Tanya Huff

Every Tuesday Diane at Bibliophile by the Sea posts the first paragraph of a book she is reading or planning to read. She provides a linky for others to post theirs.

Here's mine:
"Gunrunners," Werst snarled, sliding over the almost buried shell of the APC as rounds impacted against the metal. "Gunrunners, they told us, not users."

 
Link up here. It is very easy to play along:
  • 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 & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers! Everyone loves Teaser Tuesday.
Here's mine:
"You didn't identify yourselves as Wardens," Ferin snarled, responding to Torin's side of the conversation.

"You opened fire before we had the chance."

"We thought you were the Berins."

"You're not allowed to shoot them either."
Both of these are from A Peace Divided by Tanya Huff. This is military science fiction and the second book in the Peacekeeper series. Here is the description from Amazon:
Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr had been the very model of a Confederation Marine. No one who’d ever served with her could imagine any circumstance that would see her walking away from the Corps.

But that was before Torin learned the truth about the war the Confederation was fighting…before she’d been declared dead and had spent time in a prison that shouldn’t exist…before she’d learned about the “plastic” beings who were really behind the war between the Confederation and the Others. That was when Torin left the military for good.

Yet she couldn’t walk away from preserving and protecting everything the Confederation represented. Instead, ex-Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr drew together an elite corps of friends and allies—some ex-Marines, some civilians with unique skills—and together they prepared to take on covert missions that the Justice Department and the Corps could not—or would not—officially touch. But after their first major mission, it became obvious that covert operations were not going to be enough.

Although the war is over, the fight goes on and the Justice Department finds its regular Wardens unable to deal with violence and the people trained to use it. Ex-Gunnery Sergeant Torin Kerr has a solution: Strike Teams made up of ex-military personnel, small enough to maneuver quickly, able to work together if necessary. Justice has no choice but to implement her idea and Torin puts her team of independent contractors back into uniform. It isn’t war, it is policing, but it often looks much the same.

When the scientists doing a preliminary archaeological dig on a Class Two planet are taken hostage, Torin’s team is sent to free them. The problem of innocents in the line of fire is further complicated by the fact that the mercenaries holding them are a mix of Confederation and Primacy forces, and are looking for a weapon able to destroy the plastic aliens who’d started and maintained the war.

If Torin weren’t already torn by wanting that weapon in play, she also has to contend with the politics of peace that have added members of the Primacy—former enemies—to her team. Before they confront the mercenaries, Torin will have to sift through shifting loyalties as she discovers that the line between “us” and “them” is anything but straight.

ARC Review: Truth Be Told by Kendra Elliot

Truth Be Told
Author: Kendra Elliot
Series: Rogue Justice Novella (Book 2)
Publication: Montlake Romance (November 7, 2017)

Description: The breathtaking companion novella to Twisted Truth from Wall Street Journal bestselling author Kendra Elliot.

A torrential two-day storm has cut off the small town of Solitude, Oregon, from the outside world. But for police officers Stevie Duncan and her husband, Zane, the ravages of nature have nothing on the nature of man. In the last forty-eight hours, a child was a mute witness to a double homicide; an unidentified body has washed up on the riverbanks; and now, at the foot of a submerged bridge, two FBI agents have been found shot to death inside their SUV. What’s worse, the young charge they were enlisted to protect has gone missing.

With the only exit out of town washed away, Stevie and Zane know that the murderer is trapped. But whatever’s going on in Solitude is far from over—because as sure as the receding water, the killer is going to resurface.

My Thoughts: The story begins with Stevie being called to the scene of a car accident to discover that the two FBI agents who had come to escort kidnapped Liam and his Uncle to Seattle have been murdered and Liam and Marcus are missing again. With rains pouring, rivers rising, and bridges under water, Stevie and her husband Zane know that they have a murderer trapped in Solitude.

Besides the missing Liam and Marcus are also the missing Dodge brothers who had escaped from police custody and a man missing from a local B&B. It is also possible that Liam's father Wade is in town too looking for his missing son. Clearly the mystery is developing twists and turns.

It is now known that Wade did not murder his wife but he is still accused of stealing ten million dollars from his defense contractor employer who is in jail for attacking Stevie's family and trying to kidnap Liam. His business rival Dawn Hazelwood is in town too. She says she's looking for the Dodge brothers but things aren't adding up.

This was an exciting, fast-paced story the kept me reading until I knew who had done what.

Favorite Quote:
"Are you certain Wade hasn't contacted Marcus," asked Zane.

The line went silent for a long moment. "It's possible. But why wouldn't Marcus tell us?"

"I can think of ten million reasons," Zane pointed out, reminding the agent of the money Wade stole.
I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Monday, November 6, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Nov. 6, 2017)

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.

I will be combining my YA and adult reading and purchases on this one weekly roundup. YA and middle grade reviews will still be posted on  Ms. Martin Teaches Media - my other blog.

Other Than Reading...

This was generally a quiet week. I thought I had my townhouse sold but the buyer backed out. I am starting to feel very unlucky. This is the second time a buyer has backed out.

Otherwise, we have had more snow a few times this week - fifteen inches for the season already - when last year we didn't get our first snow until a couple of weeks from now. Looks like we have an extra-long winter in store for us. However, they are also expecting warming temperatures and rain in the next few days which should melt some of the snow we already have but make for a slushy, icy mess on the roads.

I enjoyed watching the end of the World Series this past week and especially enjoyed that the team I was rooting for won. Now I am in baseball withdrawal and trying to decided what I will be watching on TV to take its place.

Read Last Week
Pathways edited by Mercedes Lackey is the eleventh anthology of Valdemar stories written by a variety of authors. I found the stories to be consistently entertaining and well written. I got this review copy from NetGalley and my review will be posted on Nov. 30.

The End of All Things by John Scalzi completes the Old Man's War series with a collection of four novellas. I enjoyed it. My review will be posted on Dec. 13.
The Human Division by John Scalzi is a collection of thirteen short stories and novellas in the Old Man's War series that were written serially but still make a consistent whole. My review will be posted on Nov 18.

Lure of Oblivion by Suzanne Wright is a paranormal romance featuring werewolves. It is also a romantic suspense title and a spicy romance. I got this one from NetGalley and will post the review on Nov. 25,
Rosemarked by Livia Blackburne begins a YA fantasy series. I enjoyed the characters, the romance, and the world building. My review will be posted on Nov. 17.

Currently
No Place Like You by Emma Douglas is a traditional romance novel I got from NetGalley for review.

Next Week

From my review stack:


Reviews Posted

On Ms. Martin Teaches Media:


On Inside of a Dog:


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

New Adult:


New YA:


What was your week like?


Saturday, November 4, 2017

ARC Review: Unholy City by Carrie Smith

Unholy City
Author: Carrie Smith
Series: Claire Codella Mystery
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (November 7, 2017)

Description: Despite their rocky history, Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty come together when senior churchwarden Philip Graves’s bloody body is found lying in the herb garden of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just two days before Good Friday. Upon first glance, it looks like a random act of big city violence, but it soon becomes clear churchwarden Philip’s death was the result of a meticulously calculated ploy by someone who knew him.

There are five vestry members and a choir director in addition to the ten homeless men asleep in the church basement. Any one of them could have done it, but what did Philip Graves do to warrant such a merciless death? Struggling to share the case and salvage their personal relationship, Claire, Brian and trusted Detective Eduardo Muñoz work around the clock to uncloak the desires, secrets, and resentments that find home through the iron gates and into the hidden beauty of one historic Romanesque church in Unholy City, the haunting third installment in Carrie Smith’s Claire Codella mysteries.

My Thoughts: The third Claire Codella mystery concerns the death of two members of St. Paul's Episcopal Church's vestry committee. Claire has a nice assortment of vestry members and the priest, Mother Anna, as suspects. Almost all of them had reasons why the death of Phillip Graves would be a blessing though not so much for the death of Emily Flounders. Each of them also has secrets that they are determined to keep.

As Codella, Haggerty and Munoz investigate, the suspects all try to keep their secrets. Meanwhile, Haggerty and Codella are still working on their personal relationship and Codella is dealing with a Lieutenant who is making her work life hard for her.

I liked that the story was told from a number of different viewpoints. I liked finding out some of the secrets the suspects were trying to hide before the police did. I liked seeing the dedication of the police officers as they tried to find out who killed Phillip Graves, Emily Flounders and later Stephanie Lund.

Codella is a nicely complex character whose dedication to her job as a homicide investigator grew out of her own past experiences. I liked that she was a cancer survivor forever changed by her experience.

Fans of police procedurals with nicely complex characters will enjoy this mystery.

Favorite Quote:
She opened her mouth to whisper a prayer for the dead, but the words that came to her lips were a prayer of penance: "May God our Father forgive us our sins and bring us to the Fellowship of his table with his saints forever."
I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Friday, November 3, 2017

Friday Memes: Unholy City by Carrie Smith

Happy Friday everybody!
Book Beginnings on Friday is now hosted by Rose City ReaderThe 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:
Anna kicked off her shoes in the spacious foyer of the brownstone that served as St. Paul's Rectory.
Friday 56:
When the autopsy was complete, the medical examiner peeled off his gloves and dropped the mask from his gaunt face. He apparently hadn't shaved that morning, Codella noticed, and his stubble was stippled with gray.
This week I am reading Unholy City by Carrie Smith. This is the third Clair Codella mystery. Here is the description from Amazon:
Despite their rocky history, Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty come together when senior churchwarden Philip Graves’s bloody body is found lying in the herb garden of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just two days before Good Friday. Upon first glance, it looks like a random act of big city violence, but it soon becomes clear churchwarden Philip’s death was the result of a meticulously calculated ploy by someone who knew him.

There are five vestry members and a choir director in addition to the ten homeless men asleep in the church basement. Any one of them could have done it, but what did Philip Graves do to warrant such a merciless death? Struggling to share the case and salvage their personal relationship, Claire, Brian and trusted Detective Eduardo Muñoz work around the clock to uncloak the desires, secrets, and resentments that find home through the iron gates and into the hidden beauty of one historic Romanesque church in Unholy City, the haunting third installment in Carrie Smith’s Claire Codella mysteries.

Thursday, November 2, 2017

ARC Review: Much Ado About Murder by Elizabeth J. Duncan

Much Ado About Murder
Author: Elizabeth J. Duncan
Series: Shakespeare in the Catskills Mysteries
Publication: Crooked Lane Books (November 7, 2017)

Description: Costume designer Charlotte Fairfax has another murder on her hands as she prepares for the latest performance of the Catskills Shakespeare Theater Company, Much Ado About Nothing. The company’s steady growth enables them to cast star British actress Audrey Ashley, who arrives on scene to play the lead role of Beatrice. But things immediately get more complicated when Audrey insists the company replace the current director with new, up and coming British director Edmund Albright.

Edmund plans to change the popular romantic comedy, which alienates several people associated with the production. And the list of people he upsets only grows: the laid off former director, the hotel owner’s secretary, and even Audrey herself. Just as Edmund’s plans are about to come to fruition, his body is discovered on his sofa, holding a gun in his hand. His death is quickly ruled a suicide but Charlotte thinks otherwise. Why would Edmund, on the brink of greatness, kill himself? And in such an American way?

With a whole cast of characters to investigate, Charlotte is determined to unmask each one before it’s final curtain call on the whole production in award-winning author Elizabeth J. Duncan’s third Shakespeare in the Catskills mystery, Much Ado About Murder.

My Thoughts: A new English actress. A director who abruptly quits. A new director who wants to set Much Ado About Nothing in New York after the Civil War. This isn't the smooth, trouble-free season that Charlotte Fairfax was hoping for. It doesn't help that the director - Edmund Albright - is found dead in his bungalow, an apparent suicide victim.

Charlotte doesn't believe that Albright killed himself despite evidence to the contrary. She is determined to find out what really happened. She has lots of suspects to investigate. The hotel secretary is afraid that the play will flop and she will be laid off again. The director the board wanted but the actress vetoed has stepped in at the last minute to direct but did he help create the job opening. Then there is the ingenue actress who had a one-night stand with the director and felt threatened by him. Is it the star actress who fears that Albright's vision won't give her the positive publicity she wants. Or perhaps her sister who is her manager might have killed him to clear up her sister's problems. There is even a chauffeur who is the star actress's biggest fan and becomes her stalker.

I enjoy the setting and the characters in this series. Charlotte is good at putting together clues from a variety of sources. It was fun following the clues along with Charlotte. Fans of cozy mysteries will enjoy this third episode in the Shakespeare in the Catskills series.

Favorite Quote:
"Harvey, we've got a problem with the new director."


"I'm sorry to hear that." He made a hearty you've-come-to-the-right-person kind of gesture accompanied by a reassuring smile. "How can I help?"


"I want you to fire Edmund Albright."

The smile faded and his arms dropped to his side. "I'm sorry, Mrs. Van Dusen, but I couldn't possibly do that. I didn't hire the man. The theater board did. I'm not responsible for the theater personnel. You know that."

"Does he have to know that? We're desperate to get rid of him."
I received this one in exchange for an honest review from NetGalley. You can buy your copy here.

Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Book Review: India Black by Carol K. Carr

India Black
Author: Carol K. Carr
Series: Madam of Espionage Mysteries series Book 1
Publication: Berkley (January 4, 2011)

Description: When Sir Archibald Latham of the War Office dies from a heart attack while visiting her brothel, Madam India Black is unexpectedly thrust into a deadly game between Russian and British agents who are seeking the military secrets Latham carried.

Blackmailed into recovering the missing documents by the British spy known as French, India finds herself dodging Russian agents-and the attraction she starts to feel for the handsome conspirator.

My Thoughts: INDIA BLACK was an entertaining historical mystery/espionage novel. India is the madam of Lotus House. Her problems begins when one of her clients dies in her house. The gentleman is a regular Sunday afternoon client. India's first plan is to move his body so that she and her house don't attract the attention of the law. She enlists a street urchin named Vincent and plans are going well until French interferes.

French is an agent for the Prime Minister and agrees to help move the body and arrange for it to be discovered if India will turn over to him the briefcase of government papers he had with him when he arrived at the house. This sound like a wonderful deal to India who just wants all of this to go away so that she can get back to her business.

Unfortunately, the briefcase and the girl who was with the client have both disappeared. The adventures of India and French as they try to recover the missing briefcase are all told by India in an irreverent and cheeky style and takes them to the Russian Embassy and on a break-neck trip across England in a blizzard.

The action is non-stop and laced with humor. A madam's take on the politics of the day make this an informative story as well especially when filtered through India's point of view. I liked the relationship between French and India. I liked that they both had secrets. I was especially curious about India's since she seems to have more education than the usual woman who grows up on the streets in a poor part of London.

I am eager to continue this series to find out more about India and French.

Favorite Quote:
That probably explains why, as soon as I'd relinquished my foothold on the ledge, I slid down the drainpipe at speed, plummeting to earth like a meteor. It was a lucky thing for me, but a bit unfortunate for French, who had decided to play the gentleman. For he was waiting for me at the bottom of the downspout, about to offer a chivalrous arm I suppose, when I barreled into him like a Swiss avalanche, sending him sprawling into the darkness of the snowy garden with a muffled oath.

I found him a few feet away, laid out like an effigy on a tomb, too stunned, I presume, to move.
I bought this one March 14, 2011. You can buy your copy here.