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Showing posts from September, 2020

To Kill or be Killed

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TO KILL OR BE KILLED: A TRUE CRIME MEMOIR FROM PRISON Joni Ankerson True Crime Memoir Obviously, I knew better than to take a life — but that was before. Before him. The day we met in October of 1997, I was working at the District Court in Traverse City, Michigan as a Deputy Clerk. It was like most other days with arraignments, sentencings, civil case hearings and the like. People shuffling in and out, everyone taking care of their important business with court appearances, document filings, paying tickets, fines and bonding loved ones out of jail. I loved my job. It was extremely satisfying and interesting with constant interaction with all walks of life, including people on either end of the judicial spectrum and many in between. Suddenly, there he was. Tall, handsome, and looking so impressive and important in his Michigan State Police uniform with his hat, gun belt and badge. A powerful man who had chosen a profession to serve a

Chasing North Star

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  Germany, 1940. While struggling to survive at an orphanage, young Didi crosses paths with a rebellious, quirky girl who will either help her escape a life of abuse and uncertainty or lead her down an even darker path. Fast-forward to 1970. With help from a worn leather journal, another young girl learns the story of Didi, who escaped war-torn Germany for a better life in America―except her life didn’t turn out as expected. The stories of these two girls intertwine and eventually collide one Christmas night when Didi, all grown up, finally remembers the secret she buried long ago. Chasing North Star  looks back at a time when four free-range siblings, cigarettes in hand, roamed the streets ’til sunrise and hid from a gun-toting, mentally ill mother who couldn’t help herself. Stingray bicycles, transistor radios, and late nights in the cemetary―just another day in Alamo. That is, until the youngest sibling stumbles upon Didi’s story. My Review This is a good book but at the same time a

Toward That Which is Beautiful

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On an ordinary day in June of 1964 in a small town in the Altiplano of Peru, Sister Mary Katherine (formerly known as Kate), a young American nun recently arrived in this very foreign place, walks away from her convent with no money and no destination. Desperate and afraid of her feelings for an Irish priest with whom she has been working, she spends eight days on the run, encountering a variety of characters along the way: a cynical Englishman who helps her out; a suspicious Peruvian police officer who takes her in for questioning; and two American Peace Corps workers who befriend her. As Kate traverses this dangerous physical journey through Peru, she also embarks upon an interior journey of self-discovery―one that leads her somewhere she never could have expected. My Review This is the first book I have read by this author. I just fell in love with the rich landscape and history intertwined in this story. Instantly I was transported to Peru. The whole time I was reading, I was on

Secret Crush Seduction

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  She’s done waiting for what she really wants… “If I don’t have you after that kiss, I’ll burn to dust from the inside out…” Aspiring fashion designer Adelaide Song wants to prove she’s more than just a pampered heiress. All she needs is a little courage—and the help of deliciously sexy Michael Reynolds, her childhood crush  and  her brother’s best friend. But when her secret crush turns into an illicit liaison, Adelaide realizes mixing business with pleasure spells trouble for all her plans… From Harlequin Desire:  Luxury, scandal, desire—welcome to the lives of the American elite. Love triumphs in these uplifting romances as Jayci Lee transports you into the glamorous world of high fashion where passion clashes with familial duty—don’t miss the  Heirs of Hansol  series: Book 1:  Temporary Wife Temptation Book 2:  Secret Crush Seduction Book 3:  Off Limits Attraction My Review This is the third book I have read by this author. This trilogy of books are some hot ones for sure. Take ex

The Parisian Professor

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  A POWERFUL POLITICAL NOVEL RIPPED FROM THE HEADLINES AND WRAPPED IN A  LOVE STORY   It is late winter, 2020, and Nick has been pulled out of the CIA's Kabul office and sent to Paris for what sounds like a simple assignment. Posing as a graduate student at a local polytechnic institute, his task is to build a case against Abdul Haqq, a brilliant engineering student suspected of building bombs for Hezbollah. What should be an open-and-shut case soon becomes a tangled mess as Nick finds himself drawn into a friendship with the charismatic young engineer, then falls hard for Abdul's adopted sister, the beautiful but troubled art student with a tragic past, Gabrielle. As tensions in his personal life rise against a distant backdrop of geopolitical conflicts in Russian-dominated parts of Ukraine, Nick soon finds himself struggling to balance his passion for Gabrielle and his friendship for Abdul with his growing sense that something is rotten at the highest levels of the American g

The Cipher + Giveaway

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  THE CIPHER by Kathe Koja RELEASE DATE: 9/15/20 GENRE: Horror / Dark Fantasy BOOK PAGE:   https://www.meerkatpress.com/books/the-cipher/ SUMMARY: Winner of the Bram Stoker Award and Locus Awards, finalist for the Philip K. Dick Award, and named one of io9.com's "Top 10 Debut Science Fiction Novels That Took the World By Storm." With a new afterword by Maryse Meijer, author of Heartbreaker and Rag. "Black. Pure black and the sense of pulsation, especially when you look at it too closely, the sense of something not living but alive." When a strange hole materializes in a storage room, would-be poet Nicholas and his feral lover Nakota allow their curiosity to lead them into the depths of terror. "Wouldn't it be wild to go down there?" says Nakota. Nicholas says, "We're not." But no one is in control, and their experiments lead to obsession, violence, and a very final transformation for everyone who gets too close to the Funhole. BUY LIN

Rootlines

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Rikki and her sister, Linda, fell out with one another four months ago. They are not speaking when Linda emails that she has lethal abdominal tumors, that her only hope of survival is a total bone marrow replacement. Linda claims Rikki is too old to donate, and explains there’s only a slight chance she is a good match anyway―but Rikki refuses to accept that. Despite the wounding between them, Linda’s email ignites a wild aspiration in her sister: she will become the perfect donor, the perfect match, with the healthiest, most vigorous cells possible. She rises with intent to heal herself, her sister, and their rootlines, the patterns formed in their family of origin that have quietly shaped their lives. Rikki walks through the science while confronting dogma that limits how mind can transform body. She builds herself into a stem cell factory using Muay Thai kickboxing and vegetarian nutrition. Working through childhood wounds and mental limits with meditation and yoga, she finds her

A Circle Of Dead Girls + Giveaway

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    A Circle Of Dead Girls by Eleanor Kuhns on Tour September 1-30, 2020 Synopsis: In the spring of 1800, a traveling circus arrives in town. Rees is about to attend, but sees his nemesis, Magistrate Hanson in the crowd, and leaves. On the way home he meets a party of Shaker brothers searching for a missing girl. They quickly come across her lifeless body thrown into a farmer's field. Rees begins investigating and quickly becomes entranced by the exotic circus performers, especially the beautiful young tightrope walker. Other murders follow. Who is the killer? One of the circus performers? One of the townspeople? Or One of the Shakers? Book Details: Genre: Historical Murder Mystery Published by: Severn House Publication Date: March 3rd 2020 Number of Pages: 224 ISBN: 0727890085 (ISBN13: 9780727890085) Series: Will Rees Mysteries #8 (Each book "Stands Alone") Purchase Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads Read an excerp