General Fiction

Hooker Avenue by Jodé Millman

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Partners In Crime Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Hooker Avenue by Jodé Millman was a great read.  This is the second book in the “Queen City Crimes” series, and this is the first one I have read.  I wasn’t confused at all as I was reading this book, but I would recommend reading them in order if the first book interests you.  The author did a great job of giving you just what you need to know in this book without spending a ton of time giving you details that you don’t need to understand this book.  This book had just the right amount of suspense that kept me guessing but not so much that I got stressed out.  There is a fine line between having too much tension and not having enough, and this author did a great job of giving just enough to keep me reading.  I also loved that the author let crimes that happen in our world inspire this series because it makes the book more believable than other books I have read.  I can’t write enough praise for this book.  I enjoyed it so much that I can’t think of anything I would change.  This is one of those books I know I will go back and read the first book because I liked this book that much.  I also will be reading any other books in this series that the author releases because I love the characters.  If you are looking for a new series to read this summer, I would recommend this series to you.

About The Book

Genre: Thriller
Published by: Level Best Books
Publication Date: April 19, 2022
Number of Pages: 360
ISBN: 9781685120825
Series: Queen City Crimes, #2

Being a Good Samaritan is hazardous.

Single mom and attorney Jessie Martin learns that lesson the hard way.

During a violent spring thunderstorm, Jessie discovers an unconscious woman lying in a roadside ditch and dials 911 for help. Little does she know her compassion will propel her on a collision course with her estranged best friend, Detective Ebony Jones…and one of the most shocking mysteries in the Hudson Valley.

The badly beaten victim, Lissie Sexton, is a prostitute who claims she’s escaped from the clutches of a killer. She’s also a client of Jessie’s new boss, and former nemesis, Jeremy Kaplan, and fearing for Lissie’s life, he’s hidden her away from everyone.

Ebony is investigating a series of cold cases, and the missing women’s profiles bear a striking resemblance to Lissie’s. She’s willing to stake her career on the hooker being the key to solving the serial crimes. However, Jessie is the major obstacle to her investigation- she won’t give up Lissie’s location.

Jessie’s in a bind. She wants to help Ebony, but she can’t compromise her client, her boss, or her legal ethics. To catch the killer, can Jessie and Ebony put aside their past? Can they persuade Lissie to identify her assailant to prevent future attacks?

Praise for Hooker Avenue:

“Dark, dangerous and deviously suspenseful, Hooker Avenue kept me turning pages late into the night. I adored the fascinating cast of characters and the rich Hudson Valley setting. A truly terrific book!”– Alison Gaylin, USA Today Bestselling, and Edgar Award-winning author of THE COLLECTIVE

“So many skeletons are banging on the closet doors to be set free, in this heady mix of sizzle, punch, and danger. And, even more intriguing, it’s all based on a true crime.”–Steve Berry, International and New York Times bestselling author of THE KAISER’S WEB

 

About The Author

Jodé Millman is the multi-award winning author of THE MIDNIGHT CALL, and the best-selling SEATS: NEW YORK Theatre guidebooks. Her latest thriller, HOOKER AVENUE, is now available. She’s an attorney, a reviewer for Booktrib.com, the host/producer of the Backstage with the Bardavon podcast, and creator of The Writer’s Law School. Jodé lives with her family in the Hudson Valley, where she is at work on her next novel in her “Queen City Crime” series- novels inspired by true crimes in the valley she calls home.

Discover more about Jodé and her work at:
http://www.jodemillman.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @JodeMillmanAuthor
Instagram – @jodewrites
Twitter – @worldseats
Facebook – @JodeSusanMillmanAuthor

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Distorted Perception by Trish Arrowsmith

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Distorted Perception by Trish Arrowsmith left me feeling sad.  I want to say that I enjoyed this book, but that sounds wrong because of what this book is about.  I wouldn’t recommend this book to anyone if you have dealt with domestic violence or are triggered by violence.  The author did a great job of making me feel like I was there with the characters, and I understand why the characters did what they did.  This book left me broken-hearted for people who deal with this in the real world.  Even though this book deals with heavy topics, I enjoyed the authors writing.  I wish we would have found out what happened with Maxwell after the book ended.  This book gave all sorts of emotions that I wasn’t expecting.  There were times when I had to put the down because some parts of the book were very intense.  I don’t know who I would recommend this book to because I wouldn’t want to risk triggering someone. 

About The Book

Genre: Suspense, Domestic Suspense, Drama
Published by: Trish Arrowsmith Author
Publication Date: February 24, 2022
Number of Pages: 276
ISBN: 9781736755952

At twenty-six years of age, Kathleen has almost everything she needs: a fulfilling teaching career, a new car, and a recently purchased home. She dedicates her free time to her students, supporting them in a manner she never had growing up. Her days are filled with love and hope, but her nights are empty without a family to call her own. While spectating the first home baseball game of the season, she meets a man that she believes will change her evenings in the best possible way. With no children of his own, he committed his free time to bringing his young nephew to watch the game, hoping to encourage him to play. Kathleen is immediately drawn to him and sees him as a true family man.

Maxwell is handsome, successful, and charming. When he proposes marriage shortly after they begin dating, Kathleen is eager to accept as the desire to start her own family consumes her. Within months of their marriage, Maxwell’s sweet, doting personality gives way to a more sinister, controlling side. Kathleen quickly realizes that while she was looking for a partner, Maxwell was looking for someone who existed solely to fulfill his needs.

When he suggests a move to the country, Kathleen is hesitant to leave her job but believes the change of atmosphere will be an opportunity to bring them closer together. She soon realizes the isolation of the countryside only serves to enhance his power over her. It doesn’t take long for her to learn the devastating truth of who her husband really is, and she finds herself left with two choices: She can try to escape and hope he doesn’t find her, or she can stay and fight the battle in which all odds are against her.

About The Author

Trish recently moved across the country where she found her forever home, enjoying the desert sunshine and wildlife all year long. She was born and raised in a small town in northern Connecticut. Growing up, she was always fascinated by unsolved mysteries and true crime as well as the psychological elements behind them. As an avid reader, her go to books are thrillers, suspense, and true crime.

Catch Up With Trish Arrowsmith:
http://www.TrishArrowsmithAuthor.com
Goodreads
BookBub – @trisharrowsmith
Instagram – @trisharrowsmithauthor
Twitter – @author_trish
Facebook – @TrishArrowsmithAuthor

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The Wayward Assassin by Susan Ouellette

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Wayward Assassin by Susan Ouellette was an exciting book.  The author did a great job of making me want to read this book.  There was just the right amount of suspense that made me want to read this book until I had finished it.  I could tell that the author knew what she was writing about, which made the book even more enjoyable.  This is the second book in the series, and this is the first one that I have read.  You don’t have to read the first book to understand this book, but if you want to know the back story, I would recommend reading that one first.  I will probably go back and read that one when I have some time in the future.  I loved that I could see what happens in this book happening in the real world. I fell in love with Maggie right from the start, and I couldn’t want to see what was going to happen next and how she was going to solve everything.  This book did keep me guessing as I was reading, and I loved that about this book as well.  If you love spy thrillers, I think you will love this book.

About The Book

Genre: Thriller
Published by: CamCat Books
Publication Date: March 15, 2022
Number of Pages: 416
ISBN: 0744304784 (ISBN13: 9780744304787)
Series: The Wayward Series, Book 2 || Each is a Stand Alone Book

Revenge knows no deadline.

Although told to stand down now that the Chechen rebel who killed her fiancé is dead, CIA analyst Maggie Jenkins believes otherwise and goes rogue to track down the assassin. Soon it becomes clear that failure to find Zara will have repercussions far beyond the personal, as Maggie uncovers plans for a horrific attack on innocent Americans. Zara is the new face of terrorism–someone who doesn’t fit the profile, who can slip undetected from attack to attack, and who’s intent on pursuing a personal vendetta at any cost.

Chasing Zara from Russia to the war-torn streets of Chechnya, to London, and finally, to the suburbs of Washington, D. C., Maggie risks her life to stop a deadly plot.

Praise for The Wayward Assassin:

“Ouellette, herself a former intelligence analyst for the CIA, imbues the exciting action with authenticity. Readers will want to see more of the wily Maggie . . .”
—Publishers Weekly

“Every once in a decade you read a book like The Wayward Spy, which is thrilling, addictive, and sends you reading more thrillers, but you’ll go back to this stunning book by Susan Ouellette and reread this tour de force.”
—The Strand Magazine, a Top 12 Book of the Year

About The Author

Susan Ouellette is the author of The Wayward Spy, a thriller that Publishers Weekly calls a “gripping debut and series launch.” She was born and raised in the suburbs of Boston, where she studied international relations and Russian as both an undergraduate and graduate student. As the Soviet Union teetered on the edge of collapse, she worked as a CIA intelligence analyst. Subsequently, Susan worked on Capitol Hill as a professional staff member for the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI). Since her stint on Capitol Hill, she has worked for several federal consulting firms. Susan lives on a farm outside of Washington, D.C. with her family.

Catch Up With Susan Ouellette:
http://www.SusanOuellette.com
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BookBub – @susanobooks1
Instagram – @susanobooks
Twitter – @smobooks
Facebook – @SusanOuelletteAuthor

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Spent Identity by Marlene M Bell

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Partners In Crime Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Spent Identity by Marlene M. Bell was an exciting book.  This is the second book in the series and the first book that I have read.  I wasn’t confused at all reading this book. I did wish that I know some of the backstories but I didn’t need to know that in order to understand this book.  I wasn’t a fan Annalisses cousin Jeremy right from the start.  I spent most of the book convinced that he had something to do with everything that was going on.  Even as I say that, though, there were quite a few other characters that I also thought had something to do with it.  I spent most of the book jumping from person to person because I had a hard time deciding who I thought did it.  This book did keep me interested through the entire book.  It wasn’t super suspenseful, but it did have enough to keep me interested and keep me reading.  If you love mystery books I would pick up this one and check it out.

About The Book

Genre: Mystery

Published by: Ewephoric Publishing

Publication Date: December 11th 2019

Number of Pages: 378

ISBN: 0999539426 (ISBN13: 9780999539422)

Series: Annalisse Series #2 || This is a Stand-Alone novel but the reader may gain more about the character’s past if they pick up the first book.

Farm For Sale. 360-acre lot with ranch-style home. Refurbished barn. Corpse not included.

To find her missing aunt, she has to unearth the secrets of the past. But lies and deceit run through the very heart of their town…

What started out as a promising relationship with adventurer and tycoon Alec Zavos has fizzled into an uncertain future for antiquities expert Annalisse Drury. Returning to Walker Farm in Upstate New York to see her Aunt Kate should have been a welcome homecoming and distraction. Instead, she finds the childhood home she expected to inherit is for sale, without her permission. What’s worse, Kate’s ranch manager makes a gruesome discovery in the barn: the body of an unidentified man, dead by foul play.

Annalisse turns to Alec for help. She and her aunt shelter on his estate in the Catskills while the authorities canvass the scene. But when Kate herself disappears without a trace, Annalisse fears the worst: that one of the many secrets of her hometown has ensnared her family—a secret someone is willing to kill for to keep hidden.

About The Author

Marlene M. Bell is an award-winning writer and acclaimed artist as well as a photographer. Her sheep landscapes grace the covers of Sheep!, The Shepherd, Ranch & Rural Living, and Sheep Industry News, to name a few. Her catalog venture, Ewephoric, began in 1985 out of her desire to locate personalized sheep stationery. She rarely found sheep products through catalogs and set out to design them herself. Order Ewephoric gifts online or request a catalog at TexasSheep.com. Marlene and her husband, Gregg, reside in beautiful East Texas on a wooded ranch with their dreadfully spoiled horned Dorset sheep, a large Maremma guard dog named Tia, along with Hollywood, Leo, and Squeaks, the cats that believe they rule the household—and do.

Catch Up With Marlene M. Bell: MarleneMBell.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Twitter, & Facebook!

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Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks

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FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Partners In Crime in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Relative Silence by Carrie Stuart Parks was an exciting book.  As I was reading this book, I remember why I love books in this genre so much.  I always feel like I am coming home when I read them.  I enjoyed this author and her writing.  I know that I will read more books by her in the future because I enjoyed it so much and fell in love with Piper right from the start of the book.  This book isn’t super suspenseful, but that didn’t bother me because I loved this book.  I read this book in two sittings because once I started reading it, I didn’t want to put it down until I  had finished the entire thing. It has been quite a long time since I have read a book that made me want to stay up and keep reading until I had finished reading the book.  If you like suspense books, I would surely pick this one up because I am sure you will love it.

About The Book

Genre: Suspense Published by: Thomas Nelson Publication Date: July 14th 2020 Number of Pages: 336 ISBN: 0785226184 (ISBN13: 9780785226185)
A powerful family with lots of secrets. A forensic artist with his own tragedies. And a hurricane drawing bearing down on their private island. Fifteen years ago Piper Boone’s only child died in a boating accident, and Piper’s almost perfect life came to an end too. After living through a divorce and losing her job, she retreats to Curlew Island and her childhood home—a secluded mansion for the politically powerful Boone family, who are practically American royalty. But Piper’s desire to become a recluse is shattered when a mass shooter opens fire and kills three women at a café where Piper is having lunch. The crisis puts her family in the spotlight by dredging up rumors of the so-called Curlew Island Curse, which whispers say has taken the lives of several members of the Boone family, including Piper’s father and sister. Forensic artist Tucker Landry also survives the shooting and is tasked with the job of sketching a portrait of the shooter with Piper. They forge a bond over their shared love of movies and tragic pasts. But when police discover a connection between the shooting and two more murders on Curlew Island, they face a more terrible lineup of suspects than they could have imagined: Piper’s family. Unraveling the family’s true history will be the key to Piper’s survival—or her certain death.

About The Author

Carrie Stuart Parks is Christy, Carol, and Inspy award-winning author, an award-winning fine artist, and internationally known forensic artist. Along with her husband, Rick, she travels across the US and Canada teaching courses in forensic art to law enforcement as well as civilian participants. She has won numerous awards for career excellence. Carrie is a popular platform speaker, presenting a variety of topics from crime to creativity.

Catch Up With Carrie Stuart Parks: CarrieStuartParks.com, Goodreads, BookBub, Instagram, & Facebook!

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The Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez by Buck Storm

 

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Audra Jennings PR in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez by Buck Storm was a great book.  I wasn’t sure that I was going to like this book, but I fell in love with the book.  I did judge this book by the cover, and this one again showed me that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover.  It had a unique plot than I had read in a while, but I also fell in love with the author’s writing.  This book was so sweet that I am going to keep this book in my collection of books. I know I will reread it in the future.  I felt so bad for Gomez Gomez because I can’t even imagine how hard it was for him to go on after his wife was killed.  This is the first book that I read by this author, and I know that I will be reading more from him in the future.  If you are looking for a book with a unique plot, I will pick up a copy of this book because I am sure you will love it just like I did.

About The Book

Literary Americana fiction filled with humor and heart

When his wife, Angel, is killed in a head-on collision, Gomez Gomez feels he can’t go on–so he doesn’t. He spends his days in the bushes next to the crash site drinking Thunderbird wine, and his nights cradling a coffee can full of Angel’s ashes. Slow, sure suicide, with no one for company but the snakes, Elvis’s ghost, and a strange kid named Bones.

Across town, Father Jake Morales plays it safe, haunted by memories of the woman he left behind, hiding his guilt, loss, and love behind a thick wall of cassock and ritual. Then a shady business deal threatens the town–and his good friend Gomez Gomez–and Father Jake can’t just stand by and watch. But what happens when the rescuer is the one in need of saving?

The Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez is quirky, heartfelt, and deeply human. Lives and hopes collide in the town of Paradise, stretching across decades and continents in this epic story of forgiveness, redemption, and love.

About The Author

Buck Storm is a critically acclaimed author and musician whose stories have found friends around the world. His nonfiction work includes Finding Jesus in Israel and Through the Holy Land on the Road Less Traveled. Storm’s novels include The List, The Light, Truck Stop Jesus, and The Miracle Man. The latest, The Beautiful Ashes of Gomez Gomez, launches his new series, Ballads of Paradise.

Storm and his wife, Michelle, make their home in North Idaho and have two married children.

Learn more about Buck Storm, as well as his writing and music, at buckstorm.com. He can also be found on Facebook (@buckstormauthor), Twitter (@buckstormauthor), and Instagram (@buckstorm).

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