✱✱Book Review✱✱ Blog Blitz: BURNER by Mark Greaney

 

Court Gentry is caught between the Russian mafia and the CIA in this latest electrifying thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Gray Man series.

When you kick over a rock, you never know what's going to crawl out. 

Alex Velesky is about to discover that the hard way. He's stolen records from the Swiss bank that employs him, thinking that he'll uncover a criminal conspiracy. But he soon finds that he's tapped into the mother lode of corruption. Before he knows it, he's being hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the CIA. 

Court Gentry and his erstwhile lover, Zoya Zakharova, find themselves on opposites poles when it comes to Velesky. They both want him but for different reasons. 

That's a problem for tomorrow. Today they need to keep him and themselves alive. Right now, it's not looking good.

Momma Says: 4 stars⭐⭐⭐⭐

When a series is at number 12, and it's still this good, still this fresh and exciting, it's here to stay. It has been a minute since I've read an international espionage thriller, and to be honest, I'd forgotten just how nerve-wracking they can be. Burner was quick to remind me, and I found myself white-knuckling my Kindle for a whole lot of the 500+ pages. The story is fast-paced with loads of action and adventure. There are so many colorful characters - some to love and some to love to hate - and the writing is some of the best I've seen in the genre. The storyline is current, and for the most part, it's plausible, which is kind of scary when you think about it. The only drawback for me was the way the author portrays some of the women, even ones that are a major part of the story. I'd like to see the women come into the light, so to speak. Women can be very much the hero, and I just kind of felt like they were relegated to sidekick status for much of the story. That said, I still enjoyed the book. Greaney's writing is top-notch, and his gift for drawing a reader in is about as good as it gets. If you enjoy the genre, I'd certainly recommend this one.

Mark Greaney has a degree in international relations and political science. In his research for the Gray Man novels, including Sierra Six, Relentless, One Minute Out, Mission Critical, Agent in Place, Gunmetal Gray, Back Blast, Dead Eye, Ballistic, On Target, and The Gray Man, he traveled to more than thirty-five countries and trained alongside military and law enforcement in the use of firearms, battlefield medicine, and close-range combative tactics. With Marine LtCol Rip Rawlings, he wrote the New York Times bestseller, Red Metal. He is also the author of the New York Times bestsellers Tom Clancy Support and Defend, Tom Clancy Full Force and Effect, Tom Clancy Commander in Chief, and Tom Clancy True Faith and Allegiance. With Tom Clancy, he coauthored Locked On, Threat Vector, and Command Authority.

Visit him online at www.markgreaneybooks.com.

Deaf Row Tour and Giveaway

 

Deaf Row

by Ron Franscell

Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Crime Fiction

Retired from a big-city homicide beat to a small Colorado mountain town, ex-detective Woodrow "Mountain" Bell yearns only to fade away. He's failed in so many ways as a father, a husband, friend, and cop that it might be too late for a meaningful life. When he stumbles across a long-forgotten, unsolved child murder, his first impulse is to let it lie ... but he can't. He's drawn into the macabre mystery when he realizes the killer might still be near. Without help from ambivalent local cops, Bell must overcome the obstacles of time, age, and a lack of police resources by calling upon the unique skills of the end-of-the-road codgers he meets for coffee every morning—a club of old guys who call themselves Deaf Row. Soon, this mottled crew finds itself on a collision course with a serial butcher.

|DEAF ROW is more than a tense mystery novel, more than an unnerving psychological thriller drawn from Ron Franscell's career as a bestselling true-crime writer and journalist. It is also a novel of men pushing back against time and death, trying not to disappear entirely. DEAF ROW is a moving, occasionally humorous, portrait of flawed people caught in a web of pain and regret. And although you might think you know where this ghastly case is headed, the climax will blindside you.

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from CHAPTER 1

Woodrow Bell checked his watch, although he had no place to be. Nursing homes always made him feel that time was passing unusually fast.

The big man damn-near filled the cramped visitors’ foyer as he surveyed the dreary day room of the Old Miners Home. The sun was going down. It was Sunday, and the two nurses were elsewhere. Pale September twilight swathed the cheerless room as white-haired shadows silently drifted in for dinner, like dust that hadn’t yet been blown away. 

Now past seventy, Bell knew he, too, was closer to the end than the beginning. It haunted him.

It wasn’t just the drabness of the Old Miners Home, with its dog-eared furniture, folding dinner tables, or the giant craft-paper calendar on the bulletin board that was utterly empty. It was the stiff knees … the hard mornings … the shrinking social circle … caring less and less about more and more … not remembering if it was the first time or the last time … getting up twice a night to pee a thimbleful … the AARP junk mail … the unreliable pecker … the fear you can’t finish the Sunday crosswords because you must have Alzheimer’s … the daughter who never calls … the mystery of why you ever voted for Democrats … already knowing which suit you’ll be buried in ... and being invisible to the rest of the world.

It all pissed him off most days.

And today was one of those days. After months of making excuses, he’d been tricked by his closest friend, Father Bert Clancy, into visiting the Old Miners Home. It wasn’t because a priest lied, not even because a friend lied, but because Bell didn’t immediately realize he was being played. He especially hated that.

In truth, the St. Barnabas Senior Center hadn’t been the Old Miners Home since the Nixon Administration, but everybody in the trifling mountain village of Midnight, Colorado, still called it the Old Miners Home. Good or bad, small towns seldom quit on a memory.

A veteran journalist, Ron Franscell is the New York Times bestselling author of 18 books, including international bestsellers “The Darkest Night” and Edgar-nominated true crime “Morgue: A Life in Death.” His newest, “ShadowMan: An Elusive Psycho Killer and the Birth of FBI Profiling,” was released in March by Berkley/Penguin-Random House.

His atmospheric and muscular writing—hailed by Ann Rule, Vincent Bugliosi, William Least-Heat Moon, and others—has established him as one of the most provocative American voices in narrative nonfiction.

Ron’s first book, “Angel Fire,” was a USA Today bestselling literary novel listed by the San Francisco Chronicle among the 100 Best Novels of the 20th Century West. His later success grew from blending techniques of fiction-writing with his daily journalism. The result was dramatic, detailed, and utterly true storytelling.

Ron has established himself as a plucky reporter, too. As a senior writer at the Denver Post, he covered the evolution of the American West but shortly after 9/11, he was dispatched by the Post to cover the Middle East during the first months of the War on Terror. In 2004, he covered devastating Hurricane Rita from inside the storm.

His book reviews and essays have been widely published in many of America’s biggest and best newspapers, such as the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury-News, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel and others. He has been a guest on CNN, Fox News, NPR, the Today Show, ABC News, and he appears regularly on crime documentaries at Investigation Discovery, Oxygen, History Channel, Reelz, and A&E.

He lives in northern New Mexico.

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To Love and Protect Series Blitz

In Too Deep
L.K. Shaw
(To Love and Protect Series, #1)
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

In search of my missing brother, I cross paths with a sexy, but dangerous man. Everywhere I go, he watches me with a heated gaze that sets my body on fire. I’m helpless against the forbidden attraction.

But a vicious crime lord wants us both dead, and soon we’re in a fight for our lives. When the battle ends, secrets are revealed, and I discover the man I’m falling in love with isn’t who he says he is. Will I ever be able to trust him again?

Goodreads / Amazon

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IN TOO DEEP EXCERPT:

“Will you stay with me tonight? I don’t think I can be alone.” My words were barely above a whisper.

Tomás’ look was pained. He shook his head. “It’s not a good idea, Ines.”

I clasped his hand between mine and squeezed it against my chest. “Please.”

He warred with indecision, but I knew the moment he made his choice. He took the keys from my hand and led me inside, closing and locking the door behind us. I flipped on the light and removed my hat, laying it on the side table. Next, I slipped out of my heels, leaving them at the door. I padded barefoot across the living room until I reached the kitchen, my body humming with awareness of the man following behind me. Tension radiated off him, and I could hear his soft footsteps. I grabbed two beers out of the fridge and popped the top off both before turning and handing him one.

Our eyes connected, and neither of us broke contact. Tomás continued his white-knuckled hold on his at the same time I took a long pull from mine. My body thrummed, and my core pulsed. A spark lit my fingers when he slipped the bottle from them, our skin grazing, and set both mine and his on the counter. In one long stride, he was almost pressed up against me. We were so close, we practically breathed in each other’s air. My nipples hardened with arousal, and when he reached up and brushed a strand of hair off my face, tucking it behind my ear, my breath hitched.

“You’re so beautiful and far too good for me.” Tomás’ voice was husky.

Slowly, he backed me up until I ran up against the counter, out of room, his arms caging my body. Not that I wanted to go anywhere. With infinite care, like he was waiting for me to stop him, Tomás dipped his head, our gazes still colliding, and brushed a kiss across my lips. His touch was featherlight, and I wanted more.

Author Bio:

LK Shaw is the bestselling author of the sexy, sinful suspense. She resides in South Carolina with her high maintenance beagle mix dog, Miss P. An avid reader since childhood, she became hooked on historical romance novels in high school. She now reads, and loves, all romance sub-genres, with dark romance and romantic suspense being her favorite. LK enjoys traveling and chocolate. Her books feature hot alpha heroes and the strong women they love.

Want a FREE short story? Be sure to sign up for her newsletter and download your copy of A Birthday Spanking, a short story set in the Doms of Club Eden world! http://bit.ly/LKShawNewsletter

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Hacienda Moon Blitz

Hacienda Moon Expanded Edition
KaSonndra Leigh
Genres: February 21st 2023

Tandie Harrison is a police medium struggling to pick up the pieces of her life after a devastating divorce that left her without her precious daughter and her psychic visions. With a heavy heart, she escapes the hustle and bustle of New York City and moves into the alluring plantation house, Chelby Rose. Here, she meets Eric, the home’s charismatic caretaker. Despite the ghostly warnings, Tandie finds herself drawn to him, and as their affair intensifies, so does the centuries-old curse haunting them both.

Suddenly, Tandie finds herself at the center of a dark and dangerous web full of deceit and intrigue. As fear begins to consume her, she must find the courage to face the demons of her past if she is to have any chance at a future. Hacienda Moon is a captivating story full of suspense and romance that will ensnare you from start to finish.

Note to readers and bookclubs:

This is the expanded and revamped edition of the Hacienda Moon that was originally published in 2012. Please be sure to add this version to your to-read list as this edition contains more gothic suspense, intrigue, and of course romance.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

The results of Eric’s handyman skills were beautiful. The final perk was the light rose-colored exterior paint, a shade considered original to the house. Eric didn’t say a word about my upgraded paintbrushes. He was too busy making sure I didn’t catch him watching me as I bent over to paint the lowest boards on the house. However, I turned around at the perfect moment on paint day and caught him staring. His face flushed so badly, I couldn’t resist doing something to celebrate my small victory.

“Wow, it’s so hot out here today.” I stretched my arms, lifting my tee-shirt up until my belly button was exposed, basking in the warmth of the late summer sun. Eric’s mouth fell open. Success! That move totally stole Mr. Intense’s attention. Tucking my lips, I made a move toward an even more creative tease, bending over to pick up one of the three paint brushes I’d dropped.

“What are you doing?” he asked.

“What does it look like? I dropped my paintbrushes.” I shrugged and waved the brush between us. “Did I not use the proper technique for bending over and picking it up?”

He gave me a dimpled grin and moved closer to where I stood beside the house. Glancing down at the brushes beside my feet, he said, “They do look somewhat dirty. You sure you can handle that task? You strike me as somewhat of a nice girl. With that much paint and dirt all in the heads, you have to get a little rough with cleaning them.” His gaze bore into mine, smoldering me under a hazel brown sugary-colored look this time.

I held his gaze. “Oh, believe me. I have plenty of ways to clean dirty things.”

There was about a foot of space between us now. “Is that right?”

“Oh yeah,” I answered, hoping that the pulse line on my neck didn’t show the way my heart thumped inside my chest.

His gaze drifted from my eyes down to my lips and finally ended at my left shoulder. “Then why don’t you start by cleaning that big red spider off your shoulder?” An amused smile spread across his lips, but a scream shrilled out of mine.

Eric slammed his hands over his ears. “Damn it, Tandie.”

Adrenaline spiked through me. He might as well have said my breasts were hanging out. He would’ve gotten less of a response than he did with the spider statement. “Get it off me! Do you see it? Is it still there? Get it!” I shrieked, jumping around and spinning in half circles.

“I won’t help you until you stop trying to burst my eardrums,” he said, still half-way smiling. He came over and put his arms around me, pulling me into his embrace. “Calm down, Tandie. It’s gone, all right?”

Vowing to never tease Eric ever again, I waited for my breathing to normalize and for my trembling limbs to steady as I was pressed against Eric’s chest.

Author Bio:

Meet your word sculptress...

Author of the International bestselling novels, the Prelude and the Lost Immortals Saga, KaSonndra is also a mother, designer, reader, gardener, home renovator, and a slayer of undead Egyptian mummies in Tomb Raider. She believes in karma, coffee, and seriously wishes that the producers of Xena would bring her favorite show back.

KaSonndra was born in the race-car city of Charlotte, NC, and now lives in the City of Alchemy and Medicine, NC, when she's not hanging out in Bardonia (Lost Immortals Saga setting). Most of her characters are based on people that she has met throughout her travels and adventures.

People tend to stop and start conversations with KaSonndra as if she has known them her entire life. Does this freak her out? Not really. Her mom says that one day she’ll get kidnapped by one of these folks. KaSonndra's response? She told her mom that if it weren’t for these lovely people, then she wouldn’t be able to create such fabulously romantic stories!

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Secrets of Ishtabay New Release Blitz

Title:  Secrets of Ishtabay

Author: Mark David Campbell

Publisher:  NineStar Press

Release Date: 02/21/2023

Heat Level: 3 - Some Sex

Pairing: Male/Male

Length: 84700

Genre: Historical, historical, anthropologist, gay. murder, Mayan, Belize, secrets

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Description

In the western jungle of Belize, in 1962, Father Carl, an American missionary priest was found lying dead on the floor of his study. People from the nearby Maya village of San José were blamed but, strangely, no one was ever officially charged or found guilty. This is only one secret within a carefully guarded web of desire, envy, and guilt which torment and isolate people in this village.

Thirty years later, with the introduction of water and electricity, satellite TV, and the completion of the Western Paved Road, the village is connected to the outside world: people collide and their secrets unravel, sometimes tragically.

Secrets of Ishtabay takes you into a world of mysticism and antiquity and introduces you to a people who are suspended between an eroding past of ancient lost cities, half-forgotten myths, and subsistence farming, and a hostile present with encroaching global economics, illicit drugs, artifact smuggling, and civil wars.

Excerpt

Secrets of Ishtabay

Mark David Campbell © 2023

All Rights Reserved

Well before the rooster crowed, Rosalinda had stoked the fire, slapped out a stack of tortilla cakes, and roasted them on the flat iron comal cooking plate.

Now, as the sun crept into the morning sky, she stepped through her little wooden gate on her way down to the river. The warming rays had taken away the lingering chill and turned the night dew into steam which hung in the vegetation along the path. She adjusted the large blue plastic laundry tub balanced on her head.

The thick air felt so different from the cool thin air of her highland home in Spanish Honduras, but that was more than thirty years ago. She and her husband, José, had escaped here to Belize when it was called British Honduras and still a colony of Britain. They had no other choice. The coffee growers in Spanish Honduras had claimed there were Cubanos in the villages and had sent in the army to keep the Indians quiet. Bullets were fired, blood was spilled, and her village disappeared. She’d not heard from or seen her family since and didn’t know if they were dead or alive. Rosalinda delicately clasped the small wooden cross dangling from her neck and kissed it. All she had with her when she left was the gold crucifix her mother had given her, and she no longer had that. Now even her daughter, Alicia, was gone. At least she still had her son, Geraldo and grandson, young Solario.

By the time she arrived at the river the other village women were already gathered at their washing rocks gossiping loudly above the sound of the flowing water. No one looked up to greet Rosalinda as she set her tub down, hiked up her plain white cotton skirt, tucked the hem into her waistband and stepped into the cool green water. The shade from the trees on the far bank still blanketed the river as she washed out a pile of dirty socks, underwear, and T-shirts. After scrubbing and beating them clean on her rock, she rinsed out the soap, wrung out the water and loaded them into the washing tub. Then she picked up the tub, stood up straight and balanced it on her head. Now that it was filled with wet laundry, it was a lot heavier. Her feet and shoulders hurt as she walked up the hill toward home.

While she hung out the wet laundry along the hibiscus hedge bordering her yard, boys and girls wearing blue uniforms paraded past her gate on their way to school. Geraldo, her son, had already left for his milpa plantation up in the hills and José, her husband, was sitting slumped over on the three-legged stool, dozing in the shade of their wattle and daub thatched house. She said nothing to him as she went inside to hurry young Solario along for school and to set the afternoon beans on the coals to simmer.

By the time she stepped out of her gate again the sun had climbed well over the trees. As Rosalinda approached the front of the church, she saw Señora Uk coming out wearing a black shawl over her head and clutching a plastic rosary in her hand. Señora Uk came to church every morning to pray for her husband, whose body had been found in the river four years ago. As always, she looked at Rosalinda and turned away.

Rosalinda dropped her head and skirted past her through the doorway into the shadowy interior. The air inside the church was clammy and smelled of must and copal incense. She placed an embroidered handkerchief on her head, dipped her finger into the water in the small cement fount and genuflected. Then she walked up the aisle wooden benches and sat down on the third from the front, as she did every morning. When the light coming in through the blue and red colored glass window moved across the room and touched her, she would know it was time to leave.

The wooden statue of San José, the patron Saint of the village, stood frozen to the left of the altar, his brown hands stretching out to receive her, but, as always, Rosalinda refused him. She turned toward the small plastic gold-framed picture of Maria di Guadalupe, which hung on the wall beneath the plain wooden cross. It was the Virgin she had come to see. Rosalinda fell to her knees, held her crucifix to her lips and bowed her head.

“Hail Mother Mary, full of grace, for I have sinned,” she whispered, then closed her eyes, not daring to whisper more. Sounds emanating out of silence became voices, shadows floating across her closed eyelids became forms and she was carried to that morning thirty years ago when she was only a girl, herself.

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NineStar Press | Books2Read

Meet the Author

Mark David Campbell is a Canadian Italian who has lived in Italy for the past twenty years where he teaches, writes, and paints, moving between lago Maggiore and Milan with his husband. Prior to this, he spent more than fifteen years working in archaeology and anthropology in Belize and has a PhD in anthropology from the University of Toronto. He enjoys pizza, beer, swimming, and salsa. Find Mark on Facebook.

Giveaway

One lucky winner will receive a $50.00 NineStar Press Gift Code! 

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Escaping My Demons Blitz

 

Autobiography

Date Published: November 6, 2022

Publisher: Ocean Reeve Publishing Queensland Australia

 

Throughout this book we learn about the sufferance of a baby boy, unwanted by his teenage parents.

This boy grew up with an aggressive and womanising father that constantly reminded him that he was a mistake that ruined his father’s life.

While been beaten and mentally abused, all he craved from his parents was love but received nothing but humiliation and sufferance from his father.

This caused detrimental trauma to the young boy, and he grew up believing that he would never achieve anything in life.

I was this little boy, and this is my story.

 

What Readers Are Saying

"Great read, very compelling, could not put it down. Read in one sitting. You are a good guy, glad that I know you!"

- Peter Healey

 

"Reading Escaping my Demons gave me an insight into how difficult Joseph's childhood was ... This would be a good self-help book for those who have had less-than-ideal family life and the proof has shown that in the end we make our own lives and can choose toe either be a victim or a winner."

-Vicki Ebert

 

"The book 'Escaping my Demons' is Fragarazzi's road map to the emotional freedom he now enjoys today."

-Kez Wickham St George

 

About the Author

Joseph Fagarazzi was born in Venice, Italy in 1951. His life story, and his book, Escaping My Demons, are based on his strength and persistence in surviving as an unwanted ridiculed child by biased parents.

Learn more about Joseph and how his life journey took him to live in Australia on www.josephfagarazziauthor.com

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Then Came You Blitz

Then Came You
Dylan Allen
Publication date: February 23rd 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Most people dream of falling in love.
But all I know of love is that it turns smart people into fools.
So, I don’t dream, I work.
And put distance between myself and the stain my father’s betrayal left on my family.

When I land a high powered job in London,
It feels like I finally have everything I want.

Then comes Simon, the gorgeous architect with a filthy mouth
who sets my body and my mind on fire.
I surrender to the pull of attraction and the promise of pleasure in his heated gaze.
But those smoldering dark eyes of his are also full of secrets.

Playing with that kind of fire is a fool’s game. And I am no fool.

So, when our night together ends on less than happy terms, I’m sure it’s for the best.

When a work project brings us back together,
I’m determined to keep Simon where he belongs – in my rearview.

Fate, however, has a different plan.

Simon breaks down my walls one sexy, wicked smile at a time.
And I discover that behind his brooding, secretive facade, lies a heart of pure gold.
Soon, all I do is dream…of his touch, his kisses,
and of a love good enough and strong enough to last forever.

But I’ve got secrets of my own.
And when they rear their heads,
nothing will be the same again.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

I look at Simon, ready to make a quip about how they look like two kids sneaking off together. My words die in my throat at the unabashed desire in his eyes.

He doesn’t say a word. There’s no need when that look says everything.

He puts his hand out and I take it. As soon as our palms touch, I know I made the right decision. If this benign touch sends my senses into a tailspin, what’s he going to do to the rest of me?

He links our fingers and brings my hand to his mouth. I shiver at the press of his warm lips and the heated promise in his eyes. I let him lead me out of the restaurant, across the street to catch the tube. But just when I dig out my fare card, he sticks his hand out to hail a black cab.

We get in, and despite the roomy back seats, we sit next to each other, thigh to thigh, both facing forward but if the way the air in the cab cracks with chemistry and attraction is anything to go by, he’s as aware of me as I am of him.

“Where to?” The cabbie’s barked question breaks our spell momentarily and we turn to look at each other. “Is my place okay?” I ask absently, my eyes glued to his mouth.

He nods as if unable to speak. I rattle off my address to the cabbie, and he pulls away from the curb.

“Addie,” Simon’s husky voice is tinged with urgency. “You’re so fucking sexy.”

When I turn to him, his eyes are on my mouth. I lick my lower lip and he bites his.

“So are you,” I confess in a whisper and the rush of anticipation makes my whole body tingle.

“Princess, you’re killing me.” He lets out a soft groan and his head moves toward mine, and my eyes flutter closed.

Time slows making me aware of every single fraction of every single second that passes before his lips finally touch me.

They softly press to the corner of my mouth and every thought flees my mind. The touch is as light as a whisper, and yet I feel it all the way to the tips of my toes. He moves his lips across mine—brushing back and forth—and with every single touch, I am unraveling. And for once, the idea of coming apart doesn’t scare me.

Author Bio:

Dylan Allen is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author.

She’s a Texas girl, with a serious case of wanderlust, Dylan’s travels influence her writing and she loves being able to take her readers on adventures from the comfort and safety of their favorite reading nook.

A self-proclaimed happily ever junkie, Dylan creates stories where her characters unapologetically chase their own happy endings.

When she isn’t writing or reading, eating or cooking, she and her family are planning their next adventure.

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