Today’s teaser is from The Nazi Hunter by Alan Elsner.

Synopsis:

Mark Cain – deputy director of the Office of Special Investigations – tracks down and brings to jusice ex-Nazis who have quietly slipped into the country since World War II.  But on a rainy November afternoon, it’s a woman wearing a red brooch who slips past security and into Cain’s office.  “I am looking for the Nazi hunter,” she says.  “I have documents – important documents.”  She promises to show him the documents when they next meet, but she never returns.  At first, Cain dismisses her as just another crackpot, but when the Washington Post reports that a woman wearing a red brooch has been brutally murdered, he suspects he may be on to something big.  He must find those documents!

Meanwhile, the Republicans have taken control of Congress, and the newly elected Speaker of the House can’t wait to cut big government down to size.  The thread of budget hearings hangs over Cain’s head, but he knows that the Office of Special Investigations is immune from elimination, or is it?

As Cain slides further into a tangeled web of secrets and murder, he realizes that he has entered a race for his life – one that will draw him from the vicious halls of Washington politics, through the dark heart of Europe’s past, and into the savage lair of America’s right-wing militias.

Teaser:

from page 124

“We’ll be cutting government deaparments all across the board, ” Doneghan said, his voice rising.  “Nobody’s exempt.  You boys thing you’re above everyone else? The era of big government is over for everyone, mister, and that includes you.”

It was like watching a prizefight, two heavyweights beating each other senseless.  But I was also proud of Eric.  He wasn’t backing down an inch.

“We’re not ‘big government’ as you put it.  Our department is small, our budget is tiny, and we can account for every center. If you come after us, you’ll be making a big mistake.”

Colleen Collins is a PI by day (so she knows of what she writes!) and is also an award-winning author who’s written 20 novels and anthologies for Harlequin (including a romantic paranormal thriller for Dorchester, writing as Cassandra Collins). Her books have placed first in the Colorado Gold, Romancing the Rockies, and Top of the Peak contests, and placed in the finals for the Holt Medallion, Coeur de Bois Readers Choice, Award of Excellence, More than Magic, and Romance Writers of America RITA contests.

Book blurb:

Just as washed-up criminal defense attorney, life-long Deadhead (nickname “The Zen Man”), and current PI Rick Levine decides to get relicensed as a lawyer, he’s charged with killing one and ends up in the slammer with a half-mil bail.

Released on bond, Rick and his girlfriend Laura have 30 days to find the real killer. In the course of their investigations, they dig for dirt among Denver’s shady legal backrooms to its tony corporate centers. Dodging bullets, a kidnapping, trumped-up charges and the FBI’s unwanted intervention, Rick and Laura continue tracking key suspects who have motive…eventually learning that true redemption begins at home.

 My Thoughts:

It has been awhile since I read a book with a male protagonist.  Lately I have been reading romance books or cozy mysteries where the main character is a woman.  This was definitely a nice switch.  I’ll say right off the bat that I did figure out “whodoneit”.  Now it is not because it was obvious..in fact, I was never 100% sure that it was who I thought because of the many red herrings tossed into the mix.  But it was just something in my gut that said X was the killer. (thought I was going to spoil it didn’t you?!)  There was a great mix of characters and side story lines that just added to the history of Rick and how he got to be who he became in this story.  The story has a good mix of mystery and suspense and even a little humor.  There are many clues that might help you figure it out before the end of the book…depends on if you can decipher them!

All in all I give this story 2 thumbs up and 4 stars.

The Giveaway:

Colleen has been kind enough to offer an e-book copy of her novel.  You can get it in a format for the Kindle or the Nook.  No e-reader? No problem. You can read The Zen Man on your computer, iPhone, iPad and other devices — you can even read it in your Web browser!

She will also send the winner a t-shirt (L or XL).

So sign up today!  This will close on Sunday, March 18th.

Aaron L might be a newcomer to the creation of Christian fiction but is not one when it comes to the arts and all things creative. Growing up spending a lot of his time drawing, Aaron always knew that his future lay in this field. With his first novel, Light Under the House, Aaron has chosen to focus his creative skills on the task of storytelling.

Donna Fawcett Dawsonis a multifaceted author.  She writes suspense novels, Christian fiction and has been singing since age 4.  She was brave enough to homeschool her kids (that is an admirable task by any parent!).  She has received several awards for her books.  Donna’s call to writing is centered around her purpose statement: To make a difference in the lives of many who would not see Christ but for words I write; to show his love and sacrifice in the pages of each book.

Synopsis from Smashwords:

Light Under the House is the saga of an American family—the Levis, a family of secrets. None greater than the secret of what lies under their house, a secret that could destroy them. A secret that an ancient evil will stop at nothing to uncover. The novel follows the Levi family line for a generation, exploring lives lived in the aftermath of the cultural rebellion of the late 1960′s.

Aaron was kind enough to answer a few questions for me despite his busy schedule!

SBR: What inspired you to write this story?
I feel very stongly about the breakdown of the family and fatherlessness and how there is much dysfunction and despair because of it. I wanted to tell a story to shed some light on the situations that many face and hopefully bring some type of reversal to the current dynamic in whatever small way I could. I wanted to challenge men, fathers especially, to be who they were created to be….its certainly a challenge I face myself daily. A challenge that I often fail at but keeping picking myself up to start again.

SBR: Did you model any of the characters after people you know?
I used many things to model the characters…people I know, other literary figures, actors, biblical characters, celebrities….the characters are a combination of all of these. I wanted them to be new and familiar at the same time, universal.

SBR: Why did you choose the Dallas/Ft Worth area as your primary setting?
First of all, the south has a certain reputation for is deep spiritual roots (bible belt and all). I patterned the book in part after Gone with the Wind (another book set in the south)…not in the sense of a love story but in the sense of “here is civilization that is about to cease to exist, come see it before its gone”. Dallas just seemed to have everything I needed to make the story work from both a symbolic and technical standpoint.

SBR: Do you have plans to write more books? 
I have an idea or two floating around…nothing concrete yet.

SBR: What sort of research did you do for the historical portions of your book? What did you like best about the research? The least?
My co-author and I researched deeply in ancient history for some aspects of the book….I learned alot of things….some things I’d rather forget but most of it was enlightening. What I liked best was that it comfirmed for me mostly what I already knew, there really is nothing new under the sun.

My thoughts:

 Any time a book is set in Texas I am intrigued to see how it compares to the actual setting.  Granted I didn’t realize it was set in Texas until I read the book so that was a bonus!  The novel starts off during biblical times and then moves forward in time to the 60′s to the present.  The storyline kept me riveted because I liked seeing good win over evil and there were even loose ties to other biblical stories that most everyone has heard.  Sometimes the storyline doesn’t seem possible, but it is a fiction and if we can’t suspend reality then what is the point of reading a novel?  Sometimes it was hard to keep track of the characters especially if they weren’t a prominent character in the storyline, but that didn’t stop me from enjoying the book.  Overall I would give this book 3 1/2 stars.

All in all I really enjoyed this book and am happy to share it with all the readers of my blog.  Aaron has kindly sent me a copy of the book to giveaway to a lucky reader.  All you have to do is fill out the form below and one lucky winner will be chosen.

The contest will run until Sunday, February 5th.  One entry per person (duplicates will be deleted).

 Good Luck!

I’ll be posting a review for this book along with a giveaway, it was a really good book!

Light under the House by Aaron and Donna Dawson

“Sarai Ravensbrook has never known power. She has never been in control of anything in her world. She has lived in the shadow of her step father and uncle’s abuses to both her mind and body. All she has ever wanted was to have what was hers, to control her own destiny. But when a beautiful and mysterious woman comes into her life, Sarai is guided down a strange path….a path that will lead her to a queen from the ancient past and to a destiny that is finally her own….or is it?”

Sarai Ravensbrook, the sly John Quince, the wise Dr. Levi and Tanis. All are characters involved with the Levi family and the secret lying just beneath their house that could potentially ruin them. A secret that an ancient evil will stop at nothing to uncover. Light Under the House by Aaron L. and Donna Dawson, chronicles the lives of the Levi family for a generation, taking readers on an exciting and thought-provoking journey.

This page-turning story is set in the late 1960s during a period of cultural rebellion, with a flashback to Biblical times, as well as a flash-forward to the 1980s and the present (2005). The events of this allegoric novel are interwoven within several themes that create cohesion for the story. Messages of courage, forgiveness, faith, the power of consequence, and the hope of redemption are all found within the pages of Light Under the House

Teaser:

Trying to take her mind off of her present situation, she pawed through the bag and grasped hold of the small leather wallet her mother had given her for her thirteenth birthday.  She pulled it close to her chest  and let a new batch of tears fill her eyes.

Today I’m reading Mind over Murderby Allison Kinglsey which is the pseudonym for Kate Kingsbury or Doreen Roberts Hight.  She even writes under the name Rebecca Kent.  Whew, talk about your multiple personalities!

Cousins and best friends, Clara and Stephanie Quinn run The Raven’s Nest Bookstore, where people go to find their most coveted reads. But they have no idea it’s the psychically-gifted Clara who’s reading them…

The bookstore has made an enemy of the town crier, Ana Jordon, who claims that the store’s occult collection is “poisoning” the town’s youth. Meanwhile, the store’s number-one employee, Molly, has made no secret of her anger over Ana’s antics. So when Ana is found dead, killed by the bust of Edgar Allen Poe sculpted by Molly, the evidence is stacked against her. And Clara must rely on her gift to make sense of this senseless murder…

So the teaser comes from page 161

Her first thought was that she was about to die. Hot on the heels of that thought came the determined vow to live, no matter what it took.

ooooh, I’m not this far yet but boy that has me intrigued about the book!  I am about half way through and it is pretty good and while there is the “Quinn Sense” it isn’t an overt psychic ability and Clara has shut out the voices for awhile so it is taking her awhile to get used to them again.

Can’t wait to see how this turns out!

I don’t remember who’s blog I saw this on today, but it was someone’s!  I’m just too lazy to go back and look.  But I did this last week and it might be the same blog.

Anyway, what you do is flip to a page in the book you are reading and share 2 sentences with us…make sure it isn’t a spoiler!

Today’s book for me is New York to Dallas by J.D. Robb (aka Nora Roberts)

Page 183 – “You have me, always.  Don’t cry anymore.  Don’t cry now.”

Ok so that is 3 sentences…but is it really?  they are so short how can it be considered a sentence?  Well I guess if it has all the parts needed to form a sentence it is…but just doesn’t seem like it should be a full sentence.

Today I am reading The Lincoln Lawyer by Michael Connelly for my book club.  We are meeting on Sunday and watching the movie and discussing the book…nothing like waiting until the last minute to read the book, right?!

So something I just learned by looking at the author’s website….there are several books with the same character – Mickey Haller.  I didn’t know this was a series….guess I’ll be picking up the rest to read at some time in the near future because I know I have had a hard time putting this book down to do work or go to sleep at night!

Synopsis from the dust jacket:

Mickey Haller has spent all his professional life afraid that he wouldn’t recognize innocence if it stood right in front of him.  But what he should have been on the watch for was evil.

Haller is a Lincoln Lawyer, a criminal defense attorney who operates out of the backseat of his Lincoln Town Car, traveling between the far flung courthouses of Los Angeles to defend clients of every kind.  Bikers, con artists, drunk drivers, drug dealers – they’re all on Mickey Haller’s client list.  For him, the law is rarely about guilt or innocence – it’s about negotiation and manipulation.  Sometimes it’s even about justice.

A Beverly Hills playboy arrested for attacking a woman he picked up  in a bar chooses Haller to defend him, and Mickey has his first high paying client in years.  It is a defense attorney’s dream, what they call a franchise case.  And as the evidence stacks up, Haller comes to believe this may be the easiest case of his career.

Then someone close to him is murdered and Haller discovers that his search for innocence has brought him face to face with evil as purse as a flame.  To escape without being burned, he must deploy every tactic, feint, and instinct in his arsenal – this time to save his own life.

Gloria Schumann is originally from Detroit but attended college in TN where she met her husband, Paul.  They moved to Minnesota before ending up in Austin where they still reside.  I learned from her site that she was never much of a reader growing up (oh the horror!) but quickly delved into reading whenver she could once she found her passion, stories about relationships. 

Author Gloria Schumann was kind enough to send me a PDF copy of her book, Called Home Two Hearts Answer.

Synopsis:

Emma Benson’s view of life was crafted as a child by the death of her brother, the abandonment by her father and later, the man she trusted she would marry. A teacher by training, she forgoes her chosen path to save the Wisconsin farm she calls home from financial ruin.

A tornado threatens damage, but David Schlosser—back in town after years in New York writing best-selling novels—could ruin her neatly tended life. He’s looking for the charms of the small town he once rejected and finds more than he bargained for. He risks everything to get what he wants.

The storms of life throw Emma and David together and into the world of a criminal determined to ruin their plans by any means necessary. Robbery and near death connect Emma and David to their nemesis and during the throes of securing life and limb they make every effort to resist falling for one another.

My Review:

 I enjoyed this book because it combined two of my favorite genres – romance and mystery/suspense.  Ok so the mystery/suspense part was mild but it was still there and I found myself wondering who was doing everything.  Yes it was obvious who was harrassing Emma, but then there is a twist in the story and you have to start looking elsewhere for someone else.  That I was not expecting.  I did find the character of Emma very hard headed and wondered if she really wanted to be happy or if she was going to let the past control her future.  Emma did learn to move on with her life and realized that past experiences are not always repeated but it took her quite some time to come to that understanding!

All in all I would give this 3 1/2 stars.  Definitely worth a read.  So pick up a copy at your local library or nearest bookstore.

Kate White is best known as the editor-in-chief of Cosmopolitan magazine and several bestselling career bibles including Why Good Girls Don’t Get Ahead…but Gutsy Girls Do and 9 Secrets of Women who Get Everything They Want. Then in 2002 she decided to try her hand at mystery novels and scored a hit with If Looks Could Kill featuring Bailey Weggins. There have been several follow up books in the series which have also hit the bestseller list and the books have been optioned by Lions Gate Pictures.  Then last year she wrote Hush which I reviewed and now she is back with The Sixes and it is another page turner!

From the back of the book:

Phoebe Hall’s Manhattan life is unexpectedly derailed off the fast track when her long-term boyfriend leaves her just as she is accused of plagiarizing her latest best-selling celebrity biography.  Looking for a quiet place to pick up the pieces, Phoebe jumps at the offer to teach in a sleepy Pennsylvania town at a small private college run by her former boarding school roommate and close friend, Glenda Johns.

But behind the campus’s quiet cafes and looming maple trees lie evil happenings.  The body of a coed washes up from the nearby river, and soon hidden secrets begin to surface among the students:  rumors of past crimes and abuses wrought by a disturbing secret society known as The Sixes.

Determined to find answers and help Glenda, Phoebe embarks on a search for clues – a quest that soon raises dark memories of her boarding school days.  Plunging deeper into danger with every step, Phoebe knows she’s close to unmasking a killer.  But with truth comes a deeply terrifying revelation: the past can’t be outrun…and starting over can be a crime punishable by death.

My Review:

When I was asked to review this book I had this feeling that it would hook me from the first chapter and I wasn’t wrong.  I belong to a sorority but The Sixes are nothing like a sorority and don’t cross them because they won’t forget it and will seek retaliation even if it is subtle!  There are many characters thrown in to the mix and while you might think one person is involved in the happenings on campus and in town, you might be right and you might be wrong.  Kate brings to this story a mix of complex characters and entertwining their lives so that you don’t know who is a good guy and who isn’t.  I found myself going back and forth on various characters and who might be involved and I was right on a few but not all!  There is even some romance thrown in, but not without some suspicion on Phoebe’s part.

I definitely recommend this book and suggest you pick it up when it comes out on August 2nd.  Or you could win a copy here!

So here is the contest:

I have been given 2 copies of Hush and 1 copy of The Sixes to give away.  I will sweeten the pot and also offer my copy of The Sixes (ARC).  So that is 4 books that I’m giving away!  It is open to all residents of the US and Canada.  Just leave a comment so that you can be entered.

I will even offer a 2nd entry if you blog about it or post it on Facebook.  Just leave a second comment with your blog listing or your Facebook posting link.

The contest will close on Sunday, August 7th.

John Howard Reid is a prize winning author and writing contests judge.  He has also worked as a publisher, editor, critic and bookseller.  As a fiction writer, Reid first achieved fame in England and Australia for a series of detective novels, all featuring a Miami police sergeant named Merryll Manning, who made his debut in “Merryll Manning: Trapped on Mystery Island” set in the Florida Keys.

John was kind enough to send me copies of this book to read and giveaway here on my blog.  Thank you John!

Trapped on Mystery Island is the first in a series featuring Merryll Manning, a police sergeant who has gone away for the weekend with his girlfriend for a mystery weekend on a remote island.  There are many guests who have paid to be there for a chance at a $5,000 pot for solving the mystery that is played out for them.  However, things don’t go quite as planned as some guests are murdered on the island and it isn’t a part of the script!  Because of Merryll’s background, he attempts to figure out who doesn’t belong on the island before anyone else is murdered.

I enjoyed this book because I was not able to figure out who the killer was in this book.  There were many times where I thought it was one character or another but then something would happen and I would be wrong and have to start looking at the clues again.  I also liked that it was set at a murder mystery weekend where at first the guests wouldn’t have suspected anything was wrong because that should have been part of the game.  However, once things were evidently wrong their true personalities came through.

If you like mysteries and like to be kept in suspense, check out this first book in the series and the second which is The Health Farm Murders.

To Win a Copy:

Leave a comment on this blog and I will draw 4 winners on July 12th.  Yes, John kindly sent me 4 copies to giveaway.