Review: Pumpkin Pied: A Gray Whale Inn Short Story by Karen MacInerney

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 2167 KB
• Print Length: 49 pages
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B014GPTMBC

Book Description

 It's almost time for the Cranberry Island Harvest Festival and Pie Bake-Off... and the much-anticipated annual Great Pumpkin Contest. But trouble starts brewing when the front-running pumpkin is sabotaged... and flickering, ghostly lights set island tongues wagging. When the corn maze goes up in smoke, things really start heating up... and it's up to innkeeper Natalie Barnes to get to the bottom of things. Is it really a ghost? Or is it someone's twisted idea of Halloween hijinks -- which may take a deadly turn?

About the Author

 From Goodreads: I'm the author of the Agatha-nominated Gray Whale Inn mystery series, Tales of an Urban Werewolf. the Margie Peterson mysteries and the upcoming Dewberry Farm mysteries (plus a new fantasy in the works). My reading is like my writing: eclectic!

I grew up in the Northeast, but I currently live in Austin with my husband, two kids, and a houserabbit named Bunny. Feel free to visit me online at www.karenmacinerney.com; I love connecting with readers.


My Review

 Great to be back on Cranberry Island with Natalie and her friends and family. I really enjoy the Gray Whale Inn Mysteries by author Karen MacInerney so it is great to have a short story to hold  me over until February. Lucy from Dewberry Farms makes a cameo (Lucy made her first appearance in Killer Jam which was released in July. There is also a exert of the book at the end of Pumpkin Pied. There are also some delicious recipes for desserts that were featured in the short story.

A quick but well-written read. A good story as well as a good little mystery. Great book to get you in the mood for Fall...pumpkins, corn maze, pie....well worth the 99 cents US.

Review: Dance of the Bones: A J. P. Beaumont and Brandon Walker Novel (Walker Family Mysteries) by J. A. Jance

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1066 KB
• Print Length: 373 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow (Sept. 8 2015)
• Sold by: HarperCollins Publishers CA
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00OP0JHS2

Book Description


J. P. Beaumont and Brandon Walker, two of New York Times bestselling author J. A. Jance’s most acclaimed series characters, join forces for the first time in one of the most suspenseful works of her career

Years ago, Amos Warren, a prospector, was gunned down out in the desert and Sheriff Brandon Walker made the arrest in the case. Now, the retired Walker is called in when the alleged killer, John Lassiter, refuses to accept a plea deal that would release him from prison with time served. Lassiter wants Brandon and The Last Chance to find Amos’s “real” killer and clear his name.

Sixteen hundred miles to the north in Seattle, J.P. Beaumont is at loose ends after the Special Homicide Investigation Team, affectionately known as S.H.I.T., has been unexpectedly and completely disbanded. When Brandon discovers that there are links between Lassiter’s case and an unsolved case in Seattle, he comes to Beau for help.

Those two cases suddenly become hot when two young boys from the reservation, one of them with close ties to the Walker family, go missing. Can two seasoned cops, working together, decipher the missing pieces in time to keep them alive?

About the Author

Judith Ann Jance is the top 10 New York Times bestselling author of the Joanna Brady series; the J. P. Beaumont series; three interrelated thrillers featuring the Walker family; and Edge of Evil, the first in a series featuring Ali Reynolds. Born in South Dakota and brought up in Bisbee, Arizona, Jance lives with her husband in Seattle, Washington, and Tucson, Arizona.

Series:
* J.P. Beaumont
* Joanna Brady
* Ali Reynolds
* Walker Family


My Review


I think I've read almost every book that J.A. Jance has ever written. Dance of the Bones is Walker Family Mysteries novel and a J.P. Beaumont novel. The story revolves around the Walker family much more though. When I read about Sheriff Brandon Walker's author wife Diana, I always picture J.A. Jance.

Dance of the Bones is set in the Tuscon area of Arizona which always brings up pictures of the dry unforgiving desert and drug cartels! Poor Tuscon! And as it turned it out there was a little of both. More than a Brandon Walker or a J.P. Beaumont story, this was really a Lani Walker-Pardee story. It was a good story. I really enjoyed it. The reader didn't really have a mystery to solve. It was all laid out for us. We just needed to be concerned about when the various detected would figure everything out.

Basically Dance of the Bones has moved J.P. Beaumont ahead in a new career direction. He was toying with it in the preceding novella but as he helped with this case, he came to a career decision.

I always enjoy J.A. Jance stories. Dance of the Bones is a great tale.

Review: 5 Minutes with Jesus By Shelia Walsh

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1366 KB
• Print Length: 192 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0718032535
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson (Aug. 18 2015)
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00PWOH9IU

Book Description

Spending time with Jesus will make all the difference in your busy day.

We balance so many things day after day-families, jobs, church, sports. Sometimes it feels like there is no time left for the most important thing: spending time with Jesus. But Sheila Walsh will help us do just that through these concise but substantial daily readings.

Each entry includes Scripture, a brief devotional thought, and a helpful takeaway. Even after just a few minutes of reading, you will have spent time with God's truth in a meaningful way, and be inspired to think on that truth and live in response to it the rest of the day.

Sheila is a master of short but profound thoughts such as "Peace is not the absence of trouble but the presence of Christ," which have been retweeted time and time again. Readers will be thrilled to find these kinds of encouraging words-along with Sheila's characteristic approach of combining honesty, vulnerability, and humor with Scripture-in Five Minutes with Jesus. They'll be reminded of how powerful it is to be in the presence of Jesus, and how much He wants us to stay close to Him every minute of the day.


About the Author

 Sheila Walsh (05-07-1956) is a powerful communicator, Bible teacher, and best-selling author with more than 4 million books sold. A featured speaker with Women of Faith®, Sheila has reached more than 3.5 million women by artistically combining honesty, vulnerability, and humor with God's Word.

Author of the best-selling memoir Honestly and the Gold Medallion nominee for The Heartache No One Sees, Sheila's most recent release, The Shelter of God's Promises, has also been turned into a DVD curriculum and in-depth Bible study. The Gigi, God's Little Princess book and video series has won the National Retailer's Choice Award twice and is the most popular Christian brand for young girls in the United States.

Sheila co-hosted The 700 Club and her own show Heart to Heart with Sheila Walsh. She is currently completing her Masters in Theology.

Twitter @SheilaWalsh

Facebook

My Review

Sheila Walsh is a busy woman...wife, mother, author, speaker, and singer. She recognizes that other women are busy too. Some days you just don't have time for intensive bible study but you need to spend some time with the Lord. 5 Minutes with Jesus beautifully fulfills this purpose.

Sheila is a great speaker and author because people can relate to her. She is not afraid to bare her soul. She is very honest. And she is a woman of God who witnesses to thousands of people every year. Her insights are presented to readers in her many books...5 Minutes with Jesus is the latest offering.

5 Minutes with Jesus consists of 50 devotionals. Each devotion consists of a story, then a summary sentence that wraps up the story, and finally four or five bible verses that relate to the story. And as the title of the book suggests, each devotion takes about 5 minutes.

This is a great gift for a friend who needs encouragement. Actually we could all use some encouragement. 5 Minutes with Jesus is an uplifting, honest and inspiring devotional.

Review: NIV Bible for Women Fresh Insights for Thriving in Today's World By General Editor: Angela Scheff, Forward by: Shauna Niequist Published by Zondervan

• Hardcover: 1568 pages
• Publisher: Zondervan Bibles (Sept. 22 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0310409462
• ISBN-13: 978-0310409465

Book Description


What is on your heart today? Struggles at home or with a friend? The miracle and joy of a new birth? A misunderstanding with a boyfriend or spouse? Are you grieving a loss? Are you celebrating a new job? Or anticipating a move? Whatever you face, good or bad, the Bible is relevant to your joys and sorrows, worries, fears, pain and happiness. God loves you and gave you his Word, the Bible, so you could know him more. The NIV Bible for Women contains an inspiring foreword by Shauna Niequist and writings by women who want to share their experiences—their joys and their struggles—with you. Authors such as Naomi Zacharias, Alyssa Joy Bethke, Caryn Rivadeneria, Rachel Held Evans, Katie Davis, Enuma Okoro, Kathy Khang, Laura Ortberg Turner, Kristen Howerton (Rage Against the Minivan), Margaret Feinberg, Tish Oxenreider (TheArtofSimple), and Annie Downs share their thoughts on topics ranging from cultural issues like social justice, economic inequality, and social media addiction to personal needs like prayer, decision-making, relationships, infertility, career, and calling. These thought-provoking topics are easy to share on social networks to strengthen and inspire your circle of friends while creating meaningful conversation.

The NIV Bible for Women will help your time spent with God grow deeper and richer as you dig into his Word, bask in his love, learn his ways and then in turn share your journey with others in all the situations you face.

In every NIV Bible for Women:

• Enter into the presence of God through the devotions each weekday and the Myths for each weekend for a full year of readings for your quiet time
• Apply the "Reflect" questions and the "Pray" prompts so you can take what you have read and become more intimately connected with God
• Evaluate the culturally accepted myths that are presented in articles that challenge your previous notions with truth from God’s Word.
• Utilize the topical index to enhance your personal study
• Easily understand Scripture through the readability of the New International Version Bible (NIV)

My Review

I have a very worn out, well used, stuffed with treasures, NIV Women's Devotional Bible that is over 20 years old. The brand new NIV Bible for Women that is published this month is a similar but updated bible that I know I will treasure.

The NIV Bible for Women is the type of bible that you linger over. It has 260 devotions for weekdays and 52 myths to ponder on weekends. This is a great bible for women looking for a bible that will stimulate their prayer life. It has "Reflect" questions and "Pray" prompts that will be particularly helpful for new Christians as well as those further in their walk.

The NIV Bible for Women has an introduction by Shauna Niequist who is a contemporary Christian author and speaker. I have enjoyed her books Savor and Bread & Wine. The authors of the insightful devotions are also contemporary Christians leaders and authors. I always enjoy reading a women's insight when I am spending quiet time studying the Word. Devotions such as these open up your mind and give you a contemporary context for biblical writings.

I am very pleased with the NIV Bible for Women. It is a great bible for women and a great bible to give as a gift. Highly recommend.

Review: A Cold White Fear: A Meg Harris Mystery by R.J. Harlick

• Paperback: 344 pages
• Publisher: Dundurn (Nov. 7 2015)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1459731999
• ISBN-13: 978-1459731998

Book Description

 Stranded by a blizzard at her isolated cabin, Meg Harris finds herself in a desperate and terrifying situation when two strangers arrive.

As night approaches, a major blizzard has cut off road access to Meg Harris’s isolated wilderness home, Three Deer Point. She is alone with her young friend Adjidamo, preparing for Christmas, when a knock suddenly echoes through the house. She finds two strange men at her front door, one of them bleeding. Against her better judgment, she lets them in.

At that moment, the power goes out, plunging the group into total darkness and severing all phone links to the outside world. So begin a terrifying twenty-four hours that have Meg summoning up a courage she didn’t know she had to get herself and Adjidamo out alive.


About the Author

 Called "One of the brightest new voices in the mystery business" by the Ottawa Citizen, R.J. Harlick is a Canadian writer, who bides her time between her home in Ottawa and log cabin in West Quebec. Her Meg Harris mystery series is set in the Canadian wilderness with an underlying native theme.

The fourth book in the series, Arctic Blue Death, was a finalist for the Arthur Ellis Best Novel award. Silver Totem of Shame was named one of the top ten summer crime fiction reads by the Globe & Mail.

With Death's Golden Whisper, the first book in the Meg Harris mystery series, RJ introduces protagonist Meg Harris who has fled the urban frenzy of Toronto and her failed marriage to Three Deer Point, a remote wilderness property in West Quebec, that she inherited from her Great Aunt Agatha. She lives in a century old Victorian timber cottage perched on a granite point overlooking the black waters of Echo Lake. Her only neighbour is the reserve of the Fishhook Algonquins, or Migiskan Anishinabeg. She drinks a little too much and is afraid of the dark, yet her only companion in this remote cottage is her wimpy standard poodle, Sergei.

She has fled to this northern paradise to heal her bruised soul. But her sought after peace is invariably interrupted by injustice and murder. Unable to ignore it, Meg becomes enmeshed in a quagmire of murderous intrigue.

After travelling to Baffin Island in Arctic Blue Death, Meg decided that she would love to explore a different Canadian wilderness and visit with its native peoples in every other book. Silver Totem of Shame takes place in Vancouver and Haida Gwaii, the mystical islands of the Haida.

Though the story of each book can stand on its own, there is a backstory about Meg and other characters that evolves from book to book. So avid readers of mystery series might want to start with the first book, Death's Golden Whisper.

Harlick is a member and past president of Crime Writers of Canada and Capital Crime Writers. She is also a member of Sisters in Crime.

She is a regular panelists at such conferences as Bouchercon, Left Coast Crime, Bloody Words, Malice Domestic and When Words Collide. She also does many store signings and library readings. To check out her schedule visit her blog. http://rjharlick.blogspot.ca

RJ blogs every second Tuesday on Criminal Minds - http://7criminalminds.blogspot.ca.

Visit with RJ on Facebook -https://www.facebook.com/RJHarlick
and on her website - http://www.rjharlick.ca

My Review

It is nearing Christmas in the cold, snow-filled back country in North-Western Quebec. It is very isolated there. The closest settlement is an First Nations reservation miles away. R.J. Harlick knows this rugged area of Quebec well and writes about it beautifully. If you follow Harlick on FaceBook you can see the snow photos she posts of the area...it gets amazingly deep!

I really enjoy this series featuring a very flawed, very real Meg Harris. Meg lives with her husband Eric, a First Nations leader, in a beautiful old home left to her by her great aunt. He left on a business trip in a snit that has Meg in a tailspin. Young Jid (Adjidamo), who lives on the reservation with his aunt spends quite a bit of time with Meg and Eric. While A Cold White Fear can be read as a stand-alone, it is nice to have the characters backgrounds from reading the earlier books.

A Cold White Fear is a fast paced read. The action takes place over 24 hours. It is scary good. Meg's tranquil life is interrupted by two men at the door. One of deathly injured and needs help. After much deliberation and against her better judgement, she lets them in. It is a suspense filled ride from that point onward. I could not put this book down! A Cold White Fear is a great read. I was completely stressed out about Meg and Jid's welfare. But I could not stop reading. I had to know what was going to happen next!

The setting is a beautiful area that I have only seen in the summertime. One of my sister-in-laws lives in Ottawa and has a "camp" in the area. I live in the temperate rain forest on the coast so can only imagine from photos what the winter snow there is like. I think I can wait to find out!

A Cold White Fear is a must read once it is published in November. I think readers around the world will enjoy this book set in rural Canada. I highly recommend  A Cold White Fear.

Review: Make Me (Jack Reacher #20) by Lee Child

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1307 KB
• Print Length: 417 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0804178771
• Publisher: Delacorte Press (Sept. 8 2015)
• Sold by: Random House Canada, Incorp.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00R04MDAE

Book Description

 “Why is this town called Mother’s Rest?” That’s all Reacher wants to know. But no one will tell him. It’s a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, and sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes him for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal.

Reacher has no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there, and there’s something about Chang . . . so he teams up with her and starts to ask around. He thinks: How bad can this thing be? But before long he’s plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix, and San Francisco, and through the hidden parts of the internet, up against thugs and assassins every step of the way—right back to where he started, in Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine.

Walking away would have been easier. But as always, Reacher’s rule is: If you want me to stop, you’re going to have to make me.

About the Author

 Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.

Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012.

Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.

Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.

My Review

Jack Reacher is my book boyfriend. Not the Jack Reacher in the movies but the book Jack Reacher. I've read the entire series and have enjoyed most of the books. Make Me takes us back to the Jack Reacher we know and love...the one who shows up in a small town...senses the prevailing evil...and takes the evil out.

Author Lee Child takes the reader on a quite a ride in this latest puzzle. Very contemporary themes as Reacher learns about the Deep Web and the evil that can reside there. Lots of action and Reacher gets quite badly injured in Make Me. He is feeling his age? And he meets a fascinating woman..a private investigator who is a former FBI agent. I get the feeling she could be back in the next book.

Great read! Highly enjoyable! Make Me can be read as a stand alone novel. Thanks for taking us back to the real Reacher, Lee Child.

Review: Dishing the Dirt: An Agatha Raisin Mystery (Agatha Raisin #26) by M.C. Beaton

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 768 KB
• Print Length: 305 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1250057426
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (Sept. 15 2015)
• Sold by: Macmillan CA
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00UFPY4N4

Book Description

 A therapist had moved into the village of Carsely and Agatha Raisin hates her. Not only was this therapist, Jill Davent, romancing Agatha's ex-husband, but she had dug up details of Agatha's slum background.

Added to that, Jill was counseling a woman called Gwen Simple from Winter Parva and Agatha firmly believed Gwen to have assisted her son in some grisly murders, although has no proof she had done so.

A resentment is different from a dislike and needs to be shared, so as the friendship between James and Jill grows stronger, the more Agatha does to try to find out all she can about her. When Jill is found strangled to death in her office two days' later, Agatha finds herself under suspicion - and must fight to clear her name.

About the Author

 Marion Chesney Gibbons
aka: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Marion Chesney, Charlotte Ward, Sarah Chester.

Marion Chesney was born on 1936 in Glasgow, Scotland, UK, and started her first job as a bookseller in charge of the fiction department in John Smith & Sons Ltd. While bookselling, by chance, she got an offer from the Scottish Daily Mail to review variety shows and quickly rose to be their theatre critic. She left Smith’s to join Scottish Field magazine as a secretary in the advertising department, without any shorthand or typing, but quickly got the job of fashion editor instead. She then moved to the Scottish Daily Express where she reported mostly on crime. This was followed by a move to Fleet Street to the Daily Express where she became chief woman reporter. After marrying Harry Scott Gibbons and having a son, Charles, Marion went to the United States where Harry had been offered the job of editor of the Oyster Bay Guardian. When that didn’t work out, they went to Virginia and Marion worked as a waitress in a greasy spoon on the Jefferson Davies in Alexandria while Harry washed the dishes. Both then got jobs on Rupert Murdoch’s new tabloid, The Star, and moved to New York.

Anxious to spend more time at home with her small son, Marion, urged by her husband, started to write historical romances in 1977. After she had written over 100 of them under her maiden name, Marion Chesney, and under the pseudonyms: Ann Fairfax, Jennie Tremaine, Helen Crampton, Charlotte Ward, and Sarah Chester, she getting fed up with 1714 to 1910, she began to write detectives stories in 1985 under the pseudonym of M. C. Beaton. On a trip from the States to Sutherland on holiday, a course at a fishing school inspired the first Constable Hamish Macbeth story. They returned to Britain and bought a croft house and croft in Sutherland where Harry reared a flock of black sheep. But Charles was at school, in London so when he finished and both tired of the long commute to the north of Scotland, they moved to the Cotswolds where Agatha Raisin was created.


My Review

I just adore Agatha Raisin! Have you not discovered her yet...you're lucky...you get to read all 26 books in the series. They are all so fabulous! Dishing the Dirt is a wonderful addition to the series!

 There is a new therapist in Carsely...and she is chasing after Agatha's ex James. What secrets does she know about Agatha? When the therapist is found dead, Agatha quickly becomes a suspect...so it's up to Agatha and her team of detectives to find the real murderer. It's lovely to be back in Agatha's world where she is chasing after unsuitable men and rushing headlong into danger at the drop of a hat. She is still convinced that Gwen Simple from the previous book is guilty of murder. There is always plenty happening in Agatha's world. The pages turn quickly!!!

Could it be that Charles is the big love of Agatha's life and not James? Charles is finally realizing how much Agatha means to him.

Dishing the Dirt concludes with the promise of a new mystery...cannot wait! Highly recommend Dishing the Dirt and this entire series.

Review: Last Ragged Breath (Bell Elkins #4) by Julia Keller

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1775 KB
• Print Length: 384 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 125004474X
• Publisher: Minotaur Books (Aug. 25 2015)
• Sold by: Macmillan CA
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00T331NEC

Book Description

From the night-black depths of a coalmine to the sun-struck peaks of the Appalachian Mountains, from a riveting murder mystery to a poignant meditation on the meaning of love and family, the latest novel in the critically acclaimed series strikes out for new territory: the sorrow and outrage that spring from a real-life chapter in West Virginia history.

Royce Dillard doesn't remember much about the day his parents-and one hundred and twenty-three other souls-died in the 1972 Buffalo Creek disaster. He was only two years old when he was ripped from his mother's arms. But now Dillard, who lives off the grid with only a passel of dogs for company, is fighting for his life one more time: He's on trial for murder.

Prosecutor Bell Elkins faces her toughest challenge yet in this haunting story of vengeance, greed and the fierce struggle for social justice. Richly imagined, vividly written and deeply felt, Last Ragged Breath is set in West Virginia, but it really takes place in a land we all know: the country called home.


About the Author

Julia was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. She graduated from Marshall University, then later earned a doctoral degree in English Literature at Ohio State University.

She was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University and has taught at Princeton and Ohio State Universities, and the University of Notre Dame. She is a guest essayist on The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer on PBS and has been a contributor on CNN and NBC Nightly News. In 2005, she won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing.

Julia lives in a high-rise in Chicago and a stone cottage on a lake in rural Ohio. 

My Review

Everyone has story...what if someone threatened to destroy yours..this is the dilemma posed by author Keller in Last Ragged Breath. 

Last Ragged Breath is the 4th book in the Bell Elkins series by Julia Keller. I love love love this series. Keller has opened my eyes to the beauty and the darkness of West Virginia. I have treasured every  book in this amazing series. Julia Keller is a memorable writer and storyteller.

In each book in this series we learn a little more about Bell Elkins. She is not happy in this latest book. Her mentor and friend has stepped down as sheriff. And her boyfriend is pursuing his own dreams at MIT. The previous stories have focused more on Bell's family and her past but in Last Ragged Breath we can see that Bell is coming to grips with her past. This story focuses more on others. Royce Dillard has never really done well around others. He is content to live with his dogs on his isolated property. But modern times catch up with Royce as a development company is desperate for his land. When a dead man is found on Royce's property..the same man who had been hounding him to sell his land, Royce is quickly implicated.

I love all the twists and turns at the end. The ending was very satisfying. The story was believable and engrossing. I really enjoyed this tale.

Looking forward to the next Bell Elkins book already! Highly recommend!

Review: Friction by Sandra Brown

• Format: Kindle Edition
• File Size: 1079 KB
• Print Length: 417 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing (Aug. 18 2015)
• Sold by: Hachette Book Group Digital, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00US1STWW

Book Description

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Sandra Brown comes a gripping story of family ties and forbidden attraction.Crawford Hunt wants his daughter back. Following the death of his wife four years ago, Crawford, a Texas Ranger, fell into a downward spiral that left him relegated to deskwork and with his five-year-old daughter Georgia in the custody of her grandparents. But Crawford has cleaned up his act, met all the court imposed requirements, and now the fate of his family lies with Judge Holly Spencer.

Holly, ambitious and confident, temporarily occupies the bench of her recently deceased mentor. With an election upcoming, she must prove herself worthy of making her judgeship permanent. Every decision is high-stakes. Despite Crawford's obvious love for his child and his commitment to being an ideal parent, Holly is wary of his checkered past. Her opinion of him is radically changed when a masked gunman barges into the courtroom during the custody hearing. Crawford reacts instinctually, saving Holly from a bullet.

But his heroism soon takes on the taint of recklessness. The cloud over him grows even darker after he uncovers a horrifying truth about the courtroom gunman and realizes that the unknown person behind the shooting remains at large . . .and a threat.

Catching the real culprit becomes a personal fight for Crawford. But pursuing the killer in his customary diehard fashion will jeopardize his chances of gaining custody of his daughter, and further compromise Judge Holly Spencer, who needs protection not only from an assassin, but from Crawford himself and the forbidden attraction between them.

FRICTION will keep you on the edge of your seat with breathtaking plot twists and the unforgettable characters that make Sandra Brown one of the world's best-loved authors. It is an extraordinary novel about the powerful ties that bind us to the ones we love and the secrets we keep to protect them.

About the Author

 Sandra Brown is the author of over sixty-seven New York Times bestsellers. There are over eighty million copies of her books in print worldwide, and her work has been translated into thirty-four languages. She lives in Texas. For more information you can visit www.SandraBrown.net.

My Review

You know how you have favorite authors whose books do not disappoint...Sandra Brown has become one of those authors for me. Friction is a compelling read that will keep you glued to the pages.

Judge Holly and Texas Ranger Crawford have immediate chemistry in Friction. He is reckless and she is by the book but together the passion is sizzling. Crawford had allowed his in-laws to raise his daughter Georgia after his wife passed away. Now he is ready to get her back. He is a driven man. Holly is the judge at the custody hearing...then a masked gunman busts into the courtroom and starts shooting. Will hero Crawford's recklessness doom him to a life without his daughter? Who were the bullets for? Crawford or Holly?

Great, fast moving tale that I really enjoyed reading. The suspense moves the plot along and the reader is taken on quite the ride. Be sure to read this Number 1 Bestseller!