May | 2018 | Stacy Alesi's BookBitch.com™

NECESSITY by D.W. Buffa

May 13, 2018

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In the history of the United States, several presidents have been assassinated. In none of these murders has the killer ever been brought to justice and tried in a court of law for the crime. Buffa has set up a riveting novel describing how such an event might take place.

A newly elected president takes a trip to San Francisco and while still aboard Air Force One, accepts a visit from the junior senator from California. This man is seen as one that could run against the president and due to his popularity, win the next election and take the office.

While still on the plane, shouts are heard and people running into the area where Kevin Fitzgerald, the senator, had met the president who is seen lying on the floor with wounds on his body. Senator Fitzgerald is holding a bloody knife and quickly confesses to the murder. He demands a trial indicating he wants to bring out the reason that he killed the president.

Joseph Antonelli, a character used by Buffa in previous novels and known as the defense attorney that has never lost a case, is asked to take the case on behalf of Kevin Fitzgerald.

The handling of the trial and the back and forth action is guaranteed to keep the reader glued to the book. There are enough events occurring to make a very rewarding read even better than normal, including a love affair that captures Antonelli’s interest. The ending is not telegraphed and is a surprise and one not expected by the reader but upon reflection, a very apt one.

5/18 Paul Lane

NECESSITY by D.W. Buffa. Polis Books (April 24, 2018). ISBN 978-1947993082. 352p.

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THE BRIDE TAKES A GROOM by Lisa Berne

May 12, 2018

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Penhallow Dynasty, Book 3

I truly hate writing negative reviews but I stuck with it and read the whole thing, so I’m going to review it. Read on…

From the publisher:

Lisa Berne’s Penhallow Dynasty continues with a pair of star-crossed childhood friends who meet again years later—and find love where they least expect it . . .

Katherine Brooke may be a fabulously wealthy heiress, but she’s trapped, a pawn in her parents’ ruthless game to marry her into the nobility. Then Captain Hugo Penhallow—so charming, as handsome as a Greek god—comes into her life once more, and suddenly she sees a chance to be free.

As a Penhallow, his is one of the highest names in the land, but still his family is facing ruin. So Katherine boldly proposes an exchange: his name for her money. But only if Hugo understands it’s merely a practical arrangement, and that she’s not surrendering herself entirely.

Back from eight years in America and determined to give his younger siblings a better life, Hugo agrees. He’s never fallen in love, so why not? Yet neither of them guesses that this marriage will become far, far more than they ever dreamed of . . .

This is my first book by this author and it is a Regency romance, which are usually pretty witty. This one, not so much. I also didn’t care for the writing style, it seemed a bit childish to me. Or the characters were childish, I can’t say exactly. They were very one dimensional for sure.

The setting was interesting and the storyline was good but I just couldn’t get past the lack of character development and the writing. To be fair, maybe if I had read the first two books in the series the characters would have come to life for me but I’ll never know. I didn’t like this one enough to go read the first two. There are so many wonderful romances out there that this one just felt very mediocre to me.

5/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE BRIDE TAKES A GROOM by Lisa Berne. Avon (April 24, 2018). ISBN 978-0062451828. 384p.

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BEYOND THE PALE by Clare O’Donohue

May 11, 2018

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A World of Spies Mystery, Book 1

O’Donohue gives us a thoroughly delightful tale featuring two charming main characters, a plot that features international criminal activity, murder, and mayham but presented in a slightly tongue in cheek manner, blunting any horror.

Hollis and Finn Larrson are two married professors with at least PhDs teaching at the same university in Michigan. They have arrived at the top of their professions, have academic tenure, great reputations in their subject field, but have reached a point in their married lives in which they may be taking the other partner slightly for granted. Our story begins when Finn proposes a vacation involving a trip to Chicago in which he will go to Wriggly Field to watch baseball with Hollis dutifully tagging along. Hollis is not too thrilled with such a vacation but their marriage is too solid to have a big fight over it.

Right out of the blue Hollis gets a visit from a friend of hers who was a companion during a short period that she actually worked for the CIA, taking the training in preparation for a career with the organization. There are some hints that the “friend” was involved with her until she left the CIA to return to graduate school where she met Finn; they married and several years later both are teachers at the college level. But her friend is there to make an offer to the two which would set a different tone for a getaway. He indicates that the CIA would pay for a trip to Dublin, Ireland if Finn, an expert in the field would pick up a manuscript, quickly authenticate it and, if real, deliver it as directed. A twenty minute task paying for a priceless trip to Ireland Hollis jumps at the chance, and although Finn is not that thrilled with the idea he goes along with the woman he loves.

The trip starts with a bang. Their contact is not there; they run into various individuals that would love to get their hands on the manuscript, they are forced to run all over the section of Ireland that they have gone to. Their lives are at risk and a twenty minute job turns into a life threatening situation . Needless to say the book is an all nighter with enough suspense to keep one wrapped tightly into it. I can’t help but hope that Hollis and Finn can find other non academic adventures to get involved in in the near future.

5/18 Paul Lane

BEYOND THE PALE by Clare O’Donohue. Midnight Ink (May 8, 2018). ISBN 978-0738756509. 360p.

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WORTH THE WAIT by Lori Foster

May 10, 2018

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Guthrie Brothers Series, Book 2

This book is the perfect example of one of the best reasons to visit a library, and why I love my job. While helping a patron find a book, I noticed this one on the shelf and grabbed it. Serendipity, baby – Amazon can’t do that!

Violet Shaw is a tough single woman running her own restaurant. Hogan Guthrie is a single dad with the world’s best teenage son. He’s fairly new in town, working as an accountant by day and as the barbeque master at Violet’s diner on the weekends. They continually butt heads but in a fun way.

Hogan had lost his wife, but he would have left her if she lived. She was cheating on him and on her way to meet her lover when she died. Father and son have had a lot to deal with, and moving to this small town to the house next door to Hogan’s brother has helped the healing process for both of them.

There is a lot of sexual tension betewen Violet and Hogan, but she is keeping her distance. One of the ways Hogan dealt with his pain was by sleeping around – a lot. But a year has gone by and he realizes he needs to set a better example for his son and he gives up the chase. Violet, on the other hand, is a temptation that is getting harder to resist.

I really enjoyed this book. Besides the Violet/Hogan romance, there is a secondary romance featuring the sheriff and his mysterious neighbor that adds a little bit of a mystery, and Hogan’s son has a sweet romance, too. All good stuff and a very good read.

5/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

WORTH THE WAIT by Lori Foster. HQN Books (July 25, 2017). ISBN 978-0373789672. 384p.

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EXIT STRATEGY by Charlton Pettus

May 9, 2018

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A novel about a situation that may be too good to be true and the apparent answer to big problems that are not solvable and can’t be faced. It is an “exit strategy,” one that allows someone to literally disappear from their lives with no trace.

Pettus postulates the existence of a large company specializing in just that. Providing a way for an individual to simply leave his or her current life and move into another. Your death can be faked, you can have your features altered, a complete new identity supplied and launder any money you have in order to use it in an another country to start a complete new life.

Jordan Parrish is the brilliant founder of a medical technology company that finds himself in a situation with his company and his marriage failing. There seems no way out of the situation when he remembers that he was convinced by someone to set up an arrangement with “Exit Strategy,” a large company dedicated to simply provide the wherewithal to leave it all behind. He makes one telephone call and the next day is picked up by people that place him in an almost prison like area and keep him isolated from the world. In a relatively short period he is taken out and brought to Japan and helped to start his new life.

This move makes him start to doubt his decision and realize that if something is too good to be true it probably isn’t. The novel goes into Jordan’s dilemma and also provides an on going look at what his disappearance has done to his family; his wife and two children. His partner and best friend Alex attempts to keep up with the business and provides support and comfort to Jordan’s family in his absence. The question of how he got in touch with “Exit Strategy” and what are the consequences of wanting out of the situation are an important aspect of the novel. The reader will be guaranteed a different and certainly captivating read and perhaps wonder as both the author and I did if such a company and their results could actually exist. One can very correctly assume that would certainly be a great deal of interest in it’s capabilities.

5/18 Paul Lane

EXIT STRATEGY by Charlton Pettus. Hanover Square Press (May 1, 2018). ISBN: 978-1335016928. 400p.

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THE HIGH TIDE CLUB by Mary Kay Andrews

May 8, 2018

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I’m posting the synopsis from the publisher and then I’ll discuss, so read on…

From the publisher:

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Weekenders comes a delightful new novel about new love, old secrets, and the kind of friendship that transcends generations.

When ninety-nine-year-old heiress Josephine Bettendorf Warrick summons attorney Brooke Trappnell to her 20,000 acre barrier island home, Brooke is puzzled. Everybody in the South has heard about the eccentric millionaire mistress of Talisa, but Brooke has never actually met her. Josephine’s cryptic note says she wants to discuss an important legal matter, but why enlist Brooke and not the prestigious Atlanta law firm she has used for years? Brooke travels to Shellhaven and meets the cagey Josephine, whose home is a crumbling pink mansion at the edge of the turquoise sea.

Over the course of a few meetings, Josephine spins a tale of old friendships, dark secrets, betrayal, and a long-unsolved murder. She is hiring Brooke for two reasons: first, to protect her island from those who would despoil her land, and second, to help her make amends with the heirs of the women who were her closest friends, the girls of The High Tide Club―so named because of their youthful skinny dipping escapades―Millie, Ruth, and Varina. To fulfill a dying woman’s wishes, Brooke must find Josephine’s friends’ descendants and bringing them together on Talisa for a reunion of women who’ve actually never met. But in doing so, Brooke unleashes the makings of a scandal that could make someone rich beyond their wildest dreams…or cause them to be in the crosshairs of a murderer….

The High Tide Club is Mary Kay Andrews at her Queen of the Beach Reads best: a story shrouded in mystery, Spanish moss, verandah cocktails, 1940s dinner dances, love lost, and possibly…love found.

I really enjoyed this book but it was not what I expected; this is not the typical Mary Kay Andrews beach read, but rather something much more complex as you can see from the synopsis. I did miss the quirky Southern charm and humor that is the hallmark of her books, but appreciated the depth of the story.

The different storylines and different time periods made for a most compelling read, and I really liked the mystery that was at the heart of the novel and never saw the ending coming. All in all, another wonderful read from one of my favorite authors.

That said, I do have one small critique and it is a personal one. There is a minor character in this book who is a librarian, and she totally abuses her position and betrays the privacy of one of her patrons. Privacy is an issue that librarians take very seriously so if you will indulge me, I’d like to share a bit from the American Library Association:

The right to privacy – the right to read, consider, and develop ideas and beliefs free from observation or unwanted surveillance by the government or others – is the bedrock foundation for intellectual freedom…Privacy is essential to free inquiry in the library because it enables library users to select, access, and consider information and ideas without fear of embarrassment, judgment, punishment, or ostracism…

Libraries, librarians, and library workers have an ethical obligation, expressed in the ALA Code of Ethics, to preserve users’ right to privacy and prevent any unauthorized use or disclosure of users’ personally identifiable information or the data associated with their use of the library’s resources. This requires libraries and all those who work in libraries to maintain an environment that is respectful and protective of the library user’s privacy.

I was not happy with the librarian character’s complete lack of ethics and sadly, it pulled me out of the story as I was yelling at my Kindle. Yes, I know it’s fiction and the author can make her characters do anything she wants, but I felt disrespected and frankly, librarians are disrespected enough! I expect more from authors, especially one like Mary Kay who is so beloved by librarians – including this one. Rant over. Buy the book!

5/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

THE HIGH TIDE CLUB by Mary Kay Andrews. St. Martin’s Press (May 8, 2018). ISBN 978-1250126061. 480p.

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AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: Paula McLain

May 7, 2018

Paula McLain (author of LOVE AND RUIN) | What I’m Reading

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The bestselling author of The Paris Wife returns to the subject of Ernest Hemingway in a novel about his passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn—a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the twentieth century.

In 1937, twenty-eight-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly—and uncontrollably—falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.

In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, For Whom the Bell Tolls, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers.

Heralded by Ann Patchett as “the new star of historical fiction,” Paula McLain brings Gellhorn’s story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice.

Advance praise for Love and Ruin

“Wonderfully evocative . . . [Paula] McLain’s fans will not be disappointed; this is historical fiction at its best, and today’s female readers will be encouraged by Martha, who refuses to be silenced or limited in a time that was harshly repressive for women.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“McLain has perfected her dramatic and lyrical approach to biographical fiction, lacing Marty’s ardent inner life into electrifying descriptions of place and action. . . . McLain’s fast-moving, richly insightful, heart-wrenching, and sumptuously written tale pays exhilarating homage to its truly exceptional and significant inspiration.”—Booklist (starred review)

“If you loved McLain’s 2011 blockbuster The Paris Wife, you’re sure to adore her new novel, which is just as good, if not better.”—AARP

“Romance, infidelity, war—Paula McLain’s powerhouse novel has it all.”—Glamour

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RESET by Brian Andrews

May 5, 2018

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Reset is a well done science fiction novel, but one with a message that the author wishes to convey to his readers. Based on scientifically based geological evidence unearthed by experts in the fields there have been five extinctions of life on earth down through the eons. They have been caused by natural events such as comets, fire etc. Is there a sixth extinction in the near future?

The novel begins with army sergeant Michael Pitcher discovering an object in Afghanistan while he is on patrol. After interacting with it he finds that it possesses unusual powers. He also suffers a traumatic seizure and is sent back to the states for evaluation and treatment. At the same time the object: a cube is packed and sent to authorities in the U.S. for determination of what it is and what are the powers it contains.

Sergeant Pitcher is released from the hospital and sent home to recuperate in company of his wife Josie. But Josie discovers that her beloved husband is a very changed man from the one that was deployed to Afghanistan. He is coldly withdrawn from her and soon empties out their bank accounts and disappears.

Enter CIA agent Dean Ninemeyer, who is investigating the disappearance of Pitcher and coincidentally a group of scientists that were involved with him. It falls on Josie Pitcher and Dean to begin searching out answers to what is going on. What they find, and how they go about it provides the meat and bones of Reset and guarantees an interesting story for it’s readers.

As an afterward, Andrews does freely bring out his opinion that mankind itself will bring about the sixth extinction talked about in the book. He cites the failure to pay attention to what he claims is the very real menace of global warming, the explosive growth of human population and the frequent disappearance of other than human species.

5/18 Paul Lane

RESET by Brian Andrews. Thomas & Mercer (April 24, 2018). ISBN 978-1503954267. 382p.

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ACTS OF VANISHING by Fredrik T. Olsson

May 3, 2018

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Olsson presents a novel based upon the next stage of enemies of the human race. This is AI (Artificial Intelligence) the existence of foes that started out by being made by mankind, evolved their own persona and began attacking their creators believing that humans were their own worse enemies.

The events begin in Stockholm, Sweden just prior to Christmas with a sudden citywide blackout: television, radio, phones, internet and all electric lights wink out throwing the area into chaos. In the city room of a silenced major newspaper, Christina Sandberg tries to piece together the reason for the blackout and has the eerie feeling that her ex- husband William is somehow involved. On his part William who is a cyber security expert and professional code breaker had received an e-mail just prior to the blackout occurring with very specific instructions to be followed. The military police, aware of this correspondence take him into custody before he can act on the contents of the email.

We follow William, as he becomes free and begins tracking the blackout, and subsequent attacks on many nuclear plants around the world trying to find the cause of these disruptions and take action to thwart them.

Explanations of what is going on are well delineated by the author and while the novel could be categorized as science fiction, current events and discoveries do make it a near term possibility. Why is William thought of by authorities as the cause of the attacks and sought by police and military is a fair question to broach.? Will he be able to determine what is happening, why, and fix the problem? Olsson is very conversant about the area he postulates and immediately grabs the reader’s attention supplying clues and bringing his audience to accepting the events of a very engrossing novel with central characters acting as they certainly would under the circumstances. Be prepared for some missed sleep when reading the book.

5/18 Paul Lane

ACTS OF VANISHING by Fredrik T. Olsson. Little, Brown and Company (April 24, 2018). ISBN 978-0316335027. 464p.

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SOMEONE TO CARE by Mary Balogh

May 2, 2018

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A Westcott Novel, Book 4

Just when I was truly starting to think that there are more young, handsome Dukes in England than shells on the beach, Mary Balogh pulls a fast one on me. I don’t think I’ve ever read a historical romance about people in their forties. Yes, middle aged people who are lusty! Want companionship! Have fun! Until it all comes crashing down on them.

Viola Kingsley was stripped of her title, Countess of Riverdale, when it turns out their was a bit of bigamy going on. The family is lovely though, and they all stick together, but she is tired of it all and wants to escape, by herself, for just a little while.

Marcel Lamarr is shocked to see the countess all by herself at an inn. He has been widowed for many years, and has the well earned reputation of being a terrific womanizer. He always had a crust on Viola, so he is determined to try and have a fling with her now that appears to be somewhat vulnerable.

Lamarr’s plan works, and he suggests they rendezvous at a house he owns in the country. They have a lovely time, but both are falling in love and refuse to recognize it. Until their children show up, worried and now upset to find them alone like this. Lamarr announces their engagement, which mollifies everyone but Viola, because even at this age, true love can not be conquered without a lot of trouble.

Another terrific read from Balogh. Her fans will love it, as will new readers.

5/18 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

SOMEONE TO CARE by Mary Balogh. Berkley (May 1, 2018). ISBN 978-0399586088. 384p.

Kindle

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