Death From the Druid’s Grove by Deb Marlowe

This a great second installment on Ms. Marlowe’s mystery series, The Kier & Levette Mysteries.

I adored this book as much as the first. Our main characters are back, Kara Levette and Niall Kier. They are getting ready to shut down the Great Exhibition of 1851. It has been months, their friendship has grown stronger and Kara has managed to expand her area of friendships.

At the beginning, Kara is getting brought in the Druid’s Grove, an eclectic group of people who believe that historical ideals and knowledge should not be forgotten. She has met most of them and calls them friends. As she is shown around the grove after the ceremony, she is warned about the poisonous plants by the triple Goddesses. Another is brought into the group also, a known blackmailer.

At the ending ceremonies for the Great Exhibit she falls dead, a glass with the poisonous plant pieces was seen in her hand just before she dropped. Suspicion falls on the leader of their group, but he is quickly cleared. Kara and Niall must follow the twists and turns of her life as they try to find her killer. Back, they find themselves going back to the beginning of her career as a blackmailer to find the truth of her death.

Five stars, I loved this book and cannot wait for the next one. Thank you for bring us into this new world of yours, Ms. Marlowe. Beautiful fun book with a touch of a spark of beginning romance for our two leads. You must pick up this book if you like historical mysteries, historical romances or just a good well plotted and written book.

Death by Miss Adventure by SG Tasz

WTaszWow is a wonderful book. I was sure what to expect when I started this book, which is the fun part of picking up a new unknown author to beta. I am so glad I did though. It is a wonderful story, crafted with talent and joy.

In this speculative fiction book Adina Venture buries herself in her back yard, then walks on another plane. Dispensing justice in Las Vegas. But one night, unbenosts to her, things go horribly wrong.

The Council steps in. Inquisitors show up at her door one morning. And off they went to try to solve a murder that may no sense. It was chaos as they would tug on one thread, solve one murder… But it wasn’t the one they needed to solve. Then a pregnancy comes to light, what would a parent do, what odds, would a parent, an Operator parent tapped into the various unknown realms, do for a successful delivery of their child? What Chaos would they risk?

While Adina works her way through this mystery she finds two men that make her want more. One who sees her for what she is and who’s voice drifts through her nights.

Five stars for this 1st book in the series. Can’t wait to get back into this well formed world Ms. Tasz has created.

My writers brain

Just something that came out of my pen tonight at work:

Words, they crowd the brain, crowd your thoughts. Partial scenes, snippets of conversation. An eye color, maybe a whole face, an arm, leg… piece of clothing.
People, faceless, sometimes voiceless, sometimes mouths open – but their voices just out of hearing rang. Sometimes they keep repeating whatever it is till you hear, till you can’t take it anymore, then write it down, then they are gone, no more, quiet, nothing more to say.

Words, voices, images that dance and run across my mind, or sit until I pick up a my pen… then opps…. I have a blank slate, nothing, silence. Util I try to rest…
Then they are back again.

Loving Lucy by Lynne Connolly

I love Ms. Connolly’s books. Her story telling always wraps me up in warm hugs and safety of a HEA. This book got lost in my kindle’s tbr pages. I am so glad that I finally found it and read it.

This sorry is wonderful. Delightful. Fun and exciting. An impetuous heroine, who after her young husband dies in battle not far from her, finds her sense of excitement and impetuousness again thanks to her young niece who inherited her traits.

Going along for this ride is the younger brother to the man she almost eloped with 10 years. He’s her age, and having been sent to India just before her come out, she hadn’t met him before. His sarcastic wit and world knowledge speaks to something deep within her that is waking back up.

A nephew of his and her niece trying to elope, her family that remembers and refuses to forget his youth. Plus her older sister who refuses to let her move on… From her dead husband or her home adds to the mixture making a fund read that will give you All the feels.

5* for this delight book. Now I want to know what happens Mr. Manningham and young Jack…. And her niece. Pick up for romp in the Regency era, you’ll be better for it.

Deck the Mane by Eve Langlais

I just finished Deck the Mane book 14 in the A Lion’s Pride series by Eve Langlais. I have been reading this series since book one and love everyone in it. It was a fun read with a lot of earworms. Fair warning, you will be sings the songs that make their debut for the season.(And you family and friends will look you strangely.)

Felix is a Prince from a pride in Spain. He is used to be treated like a prince. His mother, for reasons unknown to him, sends him to America to spend Christmas season with his Cousin Arik. What can go wrong?

Felix is used to being treated like the royalty he is. But he is in America, and, yeah, the pride here doesn’t play that way. And the females of this pride… yeah, they are known as the Biatches for a reason. they take him out the Christmas Tree and Honey farm. Poor Felix is not used to the winters of New York, and is woefully under-dressed, which is problem when he gets buried in the snow by a falling tree. But the She bear that runs the farm eventually finds him. And the snow cooperates for the next couple days as they get to know each other, and Felix finds a liking for soft Old Man’s cloths (they are really comfortable) and quiet nights with a pot belly wood stove and no noise. Then under orders for their King (who they do obey for the most part) the Biatches show up to “rescue” him. Chaos of normal City life resumes, until he gets one night in his she bears arms. They she leaves, for Florida, til spring. But he gets the chance the to rescue her after a beehive hist.

You have to pick up this latest book in this series. It has all the feels, you smile (dopey, but smiles), laugh, giggle and sing off key new Christmas songs that really need to be added to the Christmas lists. We really need to get this recorded, I’m sure there is a girl band out there that can growl like lionesses. Five Stars all the way and has become a holiday favorite already.

Gangesters vs Nazis: How Jewish Mobsters battled Nazis in Wartime America

  by Michael Benson

Just WOW!!!  I devoured this book, couldn’t put it down.  It was smart, funny, terrifying and interesting in the extreme to someone who loves American history and mob history.  All I kept thinking as I read this book is why were we never taught this in school? Why were we left ignorant of how strong the Facist movement was in the country in the 20’s through the late 40s? Maybe a bit of what is happening now could have been prevented.

Anti-Semitism was getting out of control Brown Shirts, Silver Shirts, and Catholic Prists.  Through other books on the era I have read I have found (scary though it is) how far back Catholicism goes to trying to kill off the Jewish people. How close the Pope was to Hitler when he came into power because he chose the Jewish people to hate. (What if it had been Catholic people? The Church had lots of money too and lots of power and was what he was targeting. Did they ever think of that?)  All this was working in concert here in America, and one Judge in New York City decided it had gone far enough.

Judge  Nathan D. Pearlman decided to do something about this.  He picked up the phone and called a local Jewish gangster and asked if he wanted to bust some Nazi up.  The only rule was no killing. They could go as far as they wanted, short of killing a man, he wouldn’t be able to legally protect them from that, but everything up to that, he was good with. He made calls to all the big cities from New York to LA over the course of about 2 years.  The Jewish Mob became the heroes of the story, instead of the villains they’d always been seen as, except by the young Jewish boys that worshiped them for getting out and having money.

Boxers, well known boxers, heavy weight, featherweight, and everyone in between, killers, racketeers, loansharks, all got in on the fun of beating up Nazis. Meeting after meeting, celebration after celebration, recruitment drive after recruitment drive, they showed and the Jewish squads not far behind (or already there) and the Nazis got the worse of it time after time.  No shot was ever fired, no Nazi ever died, but they were put on the run and had to move their meetings and whatnot, and still Jewish mobs show up. Stick bombs, sawed off pool cues, black jacks, fists, brass knuckles, rolled nickles…. They beat them up, left them bloody, broke bones, and they scattered. 

New Jersey was a welcoming place for them, the police were on the side of Nazis, they protected them, busted up the Jewish mobsters, but they still got their message across.  And none did time for anything done during this war, for it was a war. A war for their right to live, to exist, to be who they were born, American Jews.

The names in this book will amaze you, the history of Anti-Semitism in this country will sicken you, the way the government protected these people and how they used our own Constatution for their own gains will disgust you. How these outlaws became the good guys, the mobsters of the underworlds, will make you cheer.

This is a five star read, you must pick it up if you love history.  I do hope it becomes a movie, I would love to see this on the big screen. But Hollywood has always tried to keep this part of history and WWII separate.  I think it is time the story was told.

Save Me by Vi Carter

I loved this book. I’ve been waiting a month for the conclusion to this story.

In the last book we were left with the gun going off aimed at Layla, my heart stopped when I realized that was the end. After much grumbling… I wrote my review and posted it. Ms. Carter, such a crafter of words and worlds, contacted me and told me I had only a month to wait for the follow up. I sighed.

This book was so worth the wait! I was right back in Ireland, in that mansion, with that loving couple as soon as I read the first words.

Being a coming of age book, this book took a couple turns and had some teenage angst that keep you guessing. I do admit I was looking for the party that Alex tried to sabotage for Layla, never did see them going to one after the shopping spree. Would have liked to see Layla show up in something heart stopping that Jared would have shown her off in and would have made Alex furious.

The twist about his mom and dad was interesting.

And yes, there were so many twits in this one, so many loving moments and sexy ones too. I adored it all the way through.

Five stars. A must pick up to go with Deceive Me if you don’t have it already, why? You must read both. Thank you for letting us into your world, Ms. Carter and for giving me a chance to read these. .
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

Deceive Me (Part One Broken People Duet)

Deceive Me by Vi Cater is a wonderful book, all the feels are there, great character development… but it is a cliffhanger. I go so involved, then… next book out on…. It was fun, can’t wait for the next read.

Layla and Jared were in the foster care system together until something happened one day and she was taken away to the hospital. Seven years later she walks back into his life, his phys ed class at collage. He is now Jay, and life has hardened him more than he was. He had looked for her, but couldn’t find her. Layla had been adopted by the counselor that had helped her through the trauma, she had never gone back to the foster house. She had never gotten an answer on what had happened to Jared, now here he was, harder, different name, maybe not the same person she thought him to be at all.

His father is telling him one thing, she believes another, can they find their way through the maze of lies and deception before this new life comes to end them?

Five stars, a must read if you enjoy dark, edgy, collage romances. Definitely not YA but New Adult. Some trigger themes, bullying, verbal and physical abuse. But Ms. Carter pulls it together is a tapestry of words that flow and catch you from the beginning and won’t let you go to the last word. Then you are looking for the next book.

Mafia Games: Young Irish Rebels #3

Mafia Games: Dark Irish Mafia Romance (Young Irish Rebels #3)

By Vi Carter

Richard and Claire are both broken, hurt, and maybe, just maybe, they can help each other heal a little.

Clair was raised with a sadistic psychopath, her brother, and she was his favorite target. The day he broke both of her legs, so she was bound to her bed, he decided that his parents were no longer necessary, he wanted her all to himself. So, he set fire to their house, sitting with her as their parents burned to death.  She never told anyone about him.

Richard knew her brother, she was supposed to be part of the revenge he was going to get on the three men that beat him a left him for dead.  Except Clair stirs things best left alone in his dark, black heart.  He had sworn never to touch her, to leave her forever in her glass box… but best laid plans don’t always go the way you want them too.

A wonderful dark romance, with a man that will kill for his lady, whether she wants him too or not, whether she understands why or not. Can they survive the twists and intrigues? Can Clair survive another encounter with her brother? Can Liam, Richard’s father, survive his son’s take over? Or will he come out the victor with only one son left?

Five stars, a story that pulls you in and holds you as captive as Clair was in the glass box of her’s. 

The Wedding Night Affair

Ash and Juliana #1 by LC Sharp

Oh, this is a five star read from the beginning. I could not put it down once I started reading. Loved it.

The characters are well developed, even the secondary ones. This series is more mystery than romance, but you can’t miss the romantic elements that thread through. Strong and sure, connecting the two main characters and giving both a sense duty and stability.

Juliana, or Lady Uppingham (her late husband’s title) though she was born to that station in life, lifting him up a few rungs. He husband was a sadist that abused her horribly on their wedding night, then ended up dead. She was the only person in the room that could have done it. Branded a murderess, and sent to her father’s house, who was used to having his own way and was determined that he would get an heir out of his only child, his daughter. But the rules in England are changing, the Fielding brother’s who are magistrates and starting Bow Street investigations are leveling the playing field, justices for all.

Sir Edmmound Ashendon was a lawyer, a family tragedy had lead him to change to criminal law, and work with the Fieldings. He took Julianna’s case, and worked to prove her innocent, thought just getting her out of the gallows was his first job. He fought her family every step of the way. Especially once he had prof that she had been drugged and got her off the gallows, they took her away, but she found her way back.

Can these two find the man that killed her husband? Then her maid that had gotten her off the gallows? Can they find the Raven? a self styled Robin Hood, that was just a thug in the criminal underworld? Never really giving anything back to the people, but killing those that got in his way, or he didn’t need anymore. Can they find a home in each other and a stability to continue the fight?

You must pickup this book if you love the 1700’s. One of my favorite time periods. The grandeur of the time period is part of the plot and scenery of this book. It is what molds and shapes our characters. Ms. Sharp is true to her subject matter. Can’t wait for the next book to come out.