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A Piece of You: A Sami Rizzo Thriller by D.M. Annechino

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A Piece of You: A Sami Rizzo Thriller by D.M. Annechino was by far my favorite book in the series.  I think this was my favorite because I could see the things in this book actually happen.  Because of the subject matter in book one, I wasn’t able to bring myself to read it but this one is 100% better than book two was.  Even with this book being the third one in the series it can be read as a stand alone book but like I said before if want to read the whole series I would start with book one.   I really enjoyed the serial killer in this book and to be honest, I am not sure why.  I liked this book as well because I had a hard time figuring out the whole the killer was and I was interested as to why he was killing members of a certain family and not just random people.  This book was well written like the other two books were and it is a story I would for sure read again because I enjoyed it that much.  If you love thrillers I know you will enjoy this one as much as I did.

A Piece of You

About The Book

Homicide Detective Sami Rizzo is at it again! She never dreamed “America’s Finest City,” would be tormented by yet another serial killer, but for the third time in the last five years a depraved maniac is stalking the streets of San Diego. Based on her qualifications and prior successes dealing with multiple murders, who else would Captain Davison assign to head the investigation?

Different from Sami’s past experiences, this fanatic is like no other. His methods of killing defy everything profilers think they know about serial killers. As an intense investigation begins and bits and pieces of evidence emerge, no one can understand his motivation. He’s merciful, yet brutal. And just to make things even more confusing, all of his victims are blood-related. Is he settling a vendetta? Did he randomly pick a name out of the phone book and begin a rampage? Or is there a deeper story?

Based on very little evidence and a lot of gut instincts, Detective Rizzo pieces together a complex puzzle and narrows the field of possible suspects. She learns that the killings may connect in some way to powerful people within the judicial system and doesn’t know who to trust. Ultimately, she comes face to face with the killer for a battle of brain and brawn. Can she outwit the shrewd killer, or will she be his next victim?

D.M. Annechino

About The Author

Daniel M. Annechino, a former book editor specializing in full-length fiction, wrote his first book, How to Buy the Most Car for the Least Money, in 1992 while working as a General Manager in the automobile business. But his passion had always been fiction, particularly thrillers. He spent two years researching serial killers before finally penning his gripping and memorable debut novel They Never Die Quietly.

His second book, Resuscitation (Thomas & Mercer 2011), a follow-up to his first novel, hit #1 in Kindle sales in the UK and reached #26 in the USA. He is also the author of I Do Solemnly Swear (Thomas & Mercer 2012) and Hypocrisy. A Piece of You is his fifth novel, the third in the Detective Sami Rizzo series. A native of New York, Annechino now lives in San Diego with his wife, Jennifer. He loves to cook, enjoys a glass of vintage wine, and spends lots of leisure time on the warm beaches of Southern California.

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At Love’s Bidding by Regina Jennings

Winter Book Review

At Love’s Bidding by Regina Jennings was a fun book to read.  I found myself smiling throughout the book because of the crazy things that kept happening to Miranda and her grandfather as they tried to find a painting that got sold on accident.    I truly enjoyed this authors style of writing and how she was able to make you feel as though you are there with the characters.  I loved all of the characters from the town in Missouri because they all have such big personalities that you couldn’t help but love them.  I loved this book because it was light hearted and super easy to read and I was able to get through it in a few days and I was left feeling good because of how light-hearted this book was.  If you love historical fiction than I would recommend this book to you be even if you don’t I would still check out this book because I am sure you will loved it.

At Love's Bidding by Regina Jennings

About The Book

After helping her grandfather at their Boston auction house, Miranda Wimplegate discovers she’s accidentally sold a powerful family’s prized portrait to an anonymous bidder. Desperate to appease the furious family, her grandfather tracks it to the Missouri Ozarks and makes an outlandish offer to buy the local auction house if they promise not to sell anything until he arrives.

Upon their arrival, however, they discover their new business doesn’t deal in fine antiques, but in livestock. And its manager, ruggedly handsome Wyatt Ballentine, is frustrated to discover his fussy new bosses don’t know a thing about the business he’s single-handedly kept afloat. Faced with more cattle than they can count–but no mysterious painting–Miranda and Wyatt form an unlikely but charged partnership to try and salvage a bad situation getting worse.

RJennings-48

About The Author

Regina Jennings is a graduate of Oklahoma Baptist University with a degree in English and a history minor. She has worked at The Mustang News and First Baptist Church of Mustang, along with time at the Oklahoma National Stockyards and various livestock shows. She now lives outside Oklahoma City with her husband and four children.

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Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets

Winter Book Review

Breaking Wild by Diane Les Becquets was a good book to read.  I did get lost, but that is because I have been so busy that even when I sat down to read my head isn’t 100% in the book.  This is one of the few books that I know I will go back and read again once things have slowed down at work and I can take the time to really focus on what is going on in the book.  I really enjoyed this authors style of writing and the premise of the book.  I live in a state where people hunt and things like that and even though I don’t do any of those things I felt like I could relate a little bit to book.  If you love books that have suspense than I know you will enjoy this one just like I did.

Breaking Wild

About The Book

In captivating prose, Diane Les Becquets tells the story of one woman missing in the Colorado wilderness and another bent on discovering the missing woman’s whereabouts, in an unforgettably moving and thrilling literary debut.
 
It is the last weekend of the season for Amy Raye Latour to get away. Driven to spend days alone in the wilderness, Amy Raye, mother of two, is compelled by the quiet and the rush of nature. But this time, her venture into a remote area presents a different set of dangers than Amy Raye has planned for and she finds herself on the verge of the precarious edge that she’s flirted with her entire life.

When Amy Raye doesn’t return to camp, ranger Pru Hathaway and her dog respond to the missing person’s call. After an unexpected snowfall and few leads, the operation turns into a search and recovery. Pru, though, is not resigned to that. The more she learns about the woman for whom she is searching, and about Amy Raye’s past, the more she suspects that Amy Raye might yet be alive. Pru’s own search becomes an obsession for a woman whose life is just as mysterious as the clues she has left behind.

As the novel follows Amy Raye and Pru in alternating threads, Breaking Wild assumes the white-knuckled pace of a thriller laying bare Amy Raye’s ultimate reckoning with the secrets of her life, and Pru’s dogged pursuit of the woman who, against all odds, she believes she can find.

About The Author

Diane Les Becquets is a Professor of English and a faculty member at Southern New Hampshire University’s MFA Program in Fiction and Nonfiction. In addition to teaching creative writing, she has worked as a medical journalist; an archaeology assistant; a marketing consultant; a sand and gravel dispatcher; a copywriter; and a lifeguard, and is also an avid outdoorswoman. A native of Nashville, she spent almost fourteen years living in a small Colorado ranching town before moving to New Hampshire.

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Resuscitation: A Sami Rizzo Thriller by DM Annechino

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Resuscitation by A Sami Rizzo Thriller by DM Annechino was a good book.  I did at points in the book laugh because of how far fetched parts on this book was.  Even with me saying that I still really enjoyed this story.  This is the 2nd book in the series and you don’t have to read the first book if you don’t want to.  I didn’t finish the first book because of the content and it made me super uncomfortable and I was able to understand this book.  I would say though that if you want to read all the books in this series start with the first book because if you read them out of order you will ruin parts of the first book.  I love this authors writing and I did enjoy this book even more that some because part of it takes place in the medical field and I always love books that include things like that.  If you love thrillers I know you will love this book and this series.

Resuscitation

About The Book

Two years ago, Detective Sami Rizzo narrowly escaped a brush with death at the hands of a serial killer. After apprehending the killer and bringing him to justice, this life-changing event compels her to resign from the police force. In her heart of hearts, however, she struggles with the decision. But a second serial killer—a well- respected doctor gone astray—uses his charm to seduce his victims and then performs horrific surgical experiments on them. In a final act of depravity, he scatters their mutilated bodies throughout San Diego County. Feeling a sense of duty and obligation, Sami Rizzo appeals to the police chief and mayor, and they reinstate her as a homicide investigator. As the body count grows and the killer’s experiments become more and more brutal, Sami follows one dead-end lead after another, while trying to deal with a sickly mother and a turbulent relationship with her lover. But then the killer makes a crucial mistake: one of his victims survives. Sami does everything to protect the barely alive victim, but the killer has a different plan.

D.M. Annechino

About The Author

Daniel M. Annechino, a former book editor specializing in full-length fiction, wrote his first book, How to Buy the Most Car for the Least Money, in 1992 while working as a General Manager in the automobile business. But his passion had always been fiction, particularly thrillers. He spent two years researching serial killers before finally penning his gripping and memorable debut novel They Never Die Quietly.

His second book, Resuscitation (Thomas & Mercer 2011), a follow-up to his first novel, hit #1 in Kindle sales in the UK and reached #26 in the USA. He is also the author of I Do Solemnly Swear (Thomas & Mercer 2012) and Hypocrisy. A Piece of You is his fifth novel, the third in the Detective Sami Rizzo series. A native of New York, Annechino now lives in San Diego with his wife, Jennifer. He loves to cook, enjoys a glass of vintage wine, and spends lots of leisure time on the warm beaches of Southern California.

 

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Love or Justice by Rachel Mannino

Winter Book Review

Love or Justice by Rachel Mannino was a great book.  I was a nice change to get back to a book like this one because I do love this genre of book.  I have always been a fan of these types of books so much so that I have been to know to buy them even though I know I won’t get around to reading them for years.  This book was pretty predictable to me, but that is probably because I have read so many books like this one that it is easy for me to figure out the pattern and see what is going to happen before it actually happens.  Even with that being said I still loved this book and was sad when it was over because I fell in love with all the characters right from the start of the book.  I would recommend this book to anyone who loves suspense/thriller novels because I know you will love it just as much as I did.

Love or Justice by Rachel Mannino

About The Book

Laurie Shelton is the only person alive who can identify Hawaii’s most notorious mob boss…

After stumbling into a deadly kidnapping, Laurie’s life is in grave danger, and it falls to US Marshal Dante Stark to keep her safe until she testifies against Kaimi Quamboa—assuming he can be captured.

Dante knows he’ll lose his job if he becomes romantically involved with a witness…

But when he has to comfort her through constant nightmares, he finds it nearly impossible to fight his attraction to the beautiful, strong young woman he is sworn to protect. Laurie feels it too, but aware she’s in a high-stress situation and that when the danger is passed she’ll never see Dante again, she tries to ignore his easygoing smile and the security he offers.

Laurie and Dante are forced to flee again…

When Kaimi’s men descend on their hideaway, they escape to a second safe house, only to be tracked down there as well. Dante now knows there’s a mole inside the US Marshal Service, and the only thing left to do is disappear.

Kaimi will never stop looking for Laurie, and if he’s caught, showing up to testify could be the last thing she ever does.

With each choice as dangerous as the next, Dante and Laurie must confront the boundaries of what they’re willing to sacrifice, and which is more important…

Love or Justice.

Rachel Mannino

About The Author

Rachel Mannino is a passionate writer who creates characters and settings that allow readers to explore power dynamics in relationships, the empowerment of women, and the ethical and moral dilemmas love can create in our lives. Rachel also uses her writing skills to raise thousands of dollars for entities that enrich our lives and create community change around the world.  She has worked for the Peace Corps; the Humanities Council of Washington, DC; Woolly Mammoth Theatre Company; and the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Tourism and Special Events in Boston, MA. Her first novel, Love or Justice, was published by Limitless Press in November 2016. Her second novel, Fractal, will be published by eTreasures publishing in the spring of 2016. Rachel has a BA in theatre studies and writing, literature, and publishing from Emerson College, and she has used it every day since graduation.  She lives with her husband, author Christopher Mannino (http://www.christophermannino.com/), and their adorable dog and cat in College Park, Maryland.

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The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

Winter Book Review

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert was a book I knew I was going to like because it takes place during WWII and I love almost all books that take place during that time period.  I loved this book  because I really loved Gretl from the start of the book.  I was amazed at how she was able to go through what she did and still keep going.  I don’t think I could do the same if I were in her shoes.  I also enjoyed Jakob because of how he treated Gretl and how he was willing to take care of her when he could have just as easily ignored her and let her figure it out on her own.  I can’t say enough good things about this book and I know if you love historical fiction books then you will love this book like I do.

The Girl From The Train by Irma Joubert

About The Book

A sweeping international love story that celebrates the triumph of the human spirit over the inhumanities of war and prejudice.

Six-year-old Gretl and her sister jump from a train bound for Auschwitz, her mother and grandmother unable to squeeze between the bars covering the windows. The daughter of a German soldier, Gretl understands very little about how her grandmother’s Jewishness brought her first to the ghetto, then to the train, and now, to the Polish countryside where she wanders, searching for food and water for her dying sister.

Soon, Gretl finds refuge with Jakob, a Polish freedom fighter, and his family, where she is sheltered until the end of the war. Gretl is then sent away to a new life, a new name, and a new faith in Apartheid-era South Africa. As she comes of age in this strange place, she confronts its prejudices as she hides the truth of her past from her new family.

When Jakob makes his way to South Africa many years later, Gretl and Jakob are reunited in a love story that transcends time and distance and survives the ravages of hatred and war.

About The Author

International bestselling author Irma Joubert was a history teacher for 35 years before she began writing. Her stories are known for their deep insight into personal relationships and rich historical detail. She’s the author of eight novels and a regular fixture on bestseller lists in The Netherlands and in her native South Africa. She is the winner of the 2010 ATKV Prize for Romance Novels. Facebook: irmajoubertpage

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