COLD by John Sweeney

July 3, 2016

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John Sweeney’s credentials are such to cause a reader to assume that any novel he will produce will immediately grab the reader, pull him or her into the story and keep them there. The elements are here in the details, the action and an interesting plot.

The problem is a myriad of details that take Joe Tiplady, Sweeney’s protagonist, into a dizzying array of events that make him a priceless target but cause the book to become more than a little cumbersome for the reader.

The book opens with Joe walking his dog in London, in the snow, but shadowed by two men. He is then rapidly immersed into troubles that become overwhelming. A retired Soviet general is hunting for his missing daughter. A ruthless assassin is hunting something he lost that is so precious he will do anything to get it back. And in the background is Zoba ruler of Russia and master of the world’s darkest operatives.

The ending solves the problems but is disappointing for those that have waded through the book and expect something more to the point. The details are tied together logically, possibly allowing for future Tiplady novels to become tighter and more interesting for the reader. That is if Sweeney thinks a bit smaller and doesn’t try to solve too many problems in his books.

7/16 Paul Lane

COLD by John Sweeney. Thomas & Mercer (July 1, 2016). ISBN 978-1503934221. 398p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes

July 2, 2016

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A Dewey Andreas Novel, Book 6

Since Dewey Andreas’ first appearance in Power Down, Coes has brought him a long way. From a job on an off-shore oil rig in which his long dormant fighting skills acquired as a special forces operator reappeared when the rig was attacked by terrorists, to First Strike, where he has become a highly skilled counter terrorist agent, Dewey has come a long way. What hasn’t changed is the author’s talent for writing a novel in which the action is nonstop. And that is certainly the case here.

The Pentagon has created a scenario in which one handpicked man would emerge as the most powerful leader in the troubled middle east. But the individual selected turns the tables on the U.S.

Tristan Nazir twists the program to create the elite terrorist army of ISIS. When the U.S. is ready to send a final shipment of munitions to Nazir, it becomes suspect that ISIS is receiving the funding to pay for that delivery in order to use the material for their own ends.

Dewey Andreas is sent into Syria to find out what is going on and where the arms are actually being sent. Arriving in Damascus, Dewey is caught and held prisoner, but with the ingenuity he has always exhibited, escapes and returns to the U.S.

The second half of the novel is centered on an ISIS attack on America, which is geared to blackmail the U.S. into releasing the last shipment of weapons to them by a threat almost beyond belief. The action is rapid during the entire novel, but in this lengthy segment is staggering and does not let up. Dewey becomes involved with thwarting the terrorists, and his actions, as well as those of a force aiding him, will keep the reader breathless.

Coes has evolved during his five books involving Dewey Andreas into a master of writing the all nighter. Extremely well formulated and guaranteed to keep his readers awaiting the next book with bated breath.

7/16 Paul Lane

FIRST STRIKE by Ben Coes. St. Martin’s Press (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-1250043177. 480p.

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DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn

June 30, 2016

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Eddy Harkness Novels (Book 2)

They call it Dark Horse and it’s a bit of an anomaly in the drug market: an almost pure heroin sold and darkened as though it’s not. And it’s deadly, resulting in death by overdose all over Boston. Eddy Harkness and his fellow Narco-Intel team members have had their eye on it for some time, but when a hurricane rips through the city a discovery of a large cache of the drug offers their first possible break in the case.

But while Dark Horse and Boston’s drugs are supposed to be the focus of their efforts, Eddy soon realizes there’s something larger going on in Boston’s neighborhoods – the Lower South End in particular. And when citizens of the neighborhood begin taking up questionably legal residence in Eddy’s old hometown, it’s inevitable that he’ll get involved.

I would love for more people to discover this fantastic series. Harkness is a man with a troubled past, much of which is covered in Dark Horse’s predecessor, Third Rail.

In this second of the series, Eddy has put much of that trouble behind him, regaining his place as head of Narco-Intel. He’s also in a much healthier relationship than his last and considering making it permanent.

A literal (and figurative) storm is brewing in Boston when the book begins, and Eddy finds himself caught in the very center. His actions have him branded a hero but it’s clear he may soon make some very powerful enemies.

This is a perfect follow up to Third Rail, another smart installment in what is a real standout series.

(I’d suggest reading them in order as there are some callbacks to Third Rail throughout Dark Horse.)

6/16 Becky LeJeune

DARK HORSE by Rory Flynn. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (June 7, 2016). ISBN: 978-0544253247. 240p.

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FIRST COMES LOVE by Emily Giffin

June 29, 2016

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Josie and Meredith are sisters with a lifelong, contentious relationship, like a lot of sisters. Added to their stress is the fact that their brother died in a car accident when they were young women.

Meredith ends up married to her brother’s best friend, and while the marriage seems great on the surface, she is afraid that she isn’t in love with her husband. She’s a successful lawyer, but hates her job. And while she loves her young daughter fiercely, she struggles with that relationship, too.

Josie is single, a teacher, and goes into a mild panic when one of her new students is the child of her ex-boyfriend, the one that got away, and his wife – who volunteers to be room mother.

Josie has a lot of guilt about the night her brother died. She also has decided to have a child via a sperm donor. Gabe, her best friend and platonic roommate, is the only one who is privy to Josie’s guilt and is also the most supportive person in her life.

As these women try and work through their individual problems, they are also trying to get past their own relationship problems. The story moves back and forth between their perspectives, making both characters empathetic.

Giffin’s a terrific storyteller and really brings these characters, and the peripheral characters as well, to life. This is a wonderful book about sisters, exploring both the joys and the heartaches that go along with that relationship. A very enjoyable read.

6/16 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™

FIRST COMES LOVE by Emily Giffin. Ballantine Books (June 28, 2016). ISBN: 978-0345546920. 400p.

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WARNING ORDER by Joshua Hood

June 28, 2016

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Search and Destroy Thriller

Second in what should become a popular and successful set of novels about the US army in battle with elements of radical Islam, Hood’s book is nothing short of an adrenaline rush. Combat is present from start to finish keeping the reader glued to the pages and mesmerized by the action.

Mason Cane, on the US government’s Black List, strikes a deal with the CIA to clear his name and throws himself back into action. He finds that he is up against a radical cell of terrorists with possible roots within the US president’s inner circle.

Moving against the cell, Cane is joined by a group including Renee Hart, a DOD operative, and Special Forces soldiers. Action is constant with no let up. Renee was apparently set to become a love interest for Mason Cane in the first book by Hood, Clear by Fire, but there is no time in this novel for any private contact for the two.

The ending finds Cane wounded in action and taking a leave in order to recuperate from his wounds. He is contacted by the individual that guides his actions, and the book ends as Mason is ordered into his next action.

The book is for any reader that appreciates combat action written by a veteran of war who has the knack to describe military action and the weapons used in the fighting. This is a well done novel of war.

6/16 Paul Lane

WARNING ORDER by Joshua Hood. Touchstone (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-1501108280. 352p.

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TRACER by Rob Boffard

June 27, 2016

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Outer Earth, Book 1

Tracer is the first of a projected science fiction trilogy. It is set in a future where the Earth has been made uninhabitable due to the mishandling by the people living there. The survivors are living in a crowded space station orbiting above the former home to our species. It is at once dirty as well as overcrowded and with hardly any room for people to live.

Riley Hale is a tracer trying to survive by delivering material sent by individuals and receiving payment in food, water or other tradeable items in conjunction with the group known as the Devil Dancers, with whom she lives. Her group has built a reputation of reliable deliveries and no meddling with the products they carry for their customers. She is secretly loved by Parkesh, a laboratory worker. It would appear that Riley is unaware of Parkesh’s adulation.

Rob Boffard’s strong suit is his ability to bring to life the station in which the action takes place. In too many science fiction stories there are situations and products that are described as being present and not really traceable to anything known today. The space station contains people and materials that are believably products of a forced exodus from a dying earth. The conditions described are certainly attributable to an overcrowded situation that is due to huge masses of people forced to flee to an area many times smaller than they are used to.

With a similarity to other dystopian novels, the space station is ruled by a hierarchy of persons whose sole interest is in retaining power and adding to that by their actions. There is also a villain that has the idea that conditions can be made right if the humans on New Earth are eliminated and a new group allowed to evolve.

Boffard’s ending this first part of his trilogy is neatly done and presents the most likely problems to be taken up in book two, Zero G.

6/16 Paul Lane

TRACER by Rob Boffard. Redhook (June 28, 2016). ISBN 978-0316265270. 448p.

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Writing about the West Bank and Palestine

June 23, 2016

Author Ben Ehrenreich (THE WAY TO THE SPRING: LIFE AND DEATH IN PALESTINE) discusses when he first began writing about the West Bank, and the ways in which Palestine surprised him.

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From an award-winning journalist, a brave and necessary immersion into the everyday struggles of Palestinian life

Over the past three years, American writer Ben Ehrenreich has been traveling to and living in the West Bank, staying with Palestinian families in its largest cities and its smallest villages. Along the way he has written major stories for American outlets, including a remarkable New York Times Magazine cover story. Now comes the powerful new work that has always been his ultimate goal, The Way to the Spring.

We are familiar with brave journalists who travel to bleak or war-torn places on a mission to listen and understand, to gather the stories of people suffering from extremes of oppression and want: Katherine Boo, Ryszard Kapuściński, Ted Conover, and Philip Gourevitch among them. Palestine is, by any measure, whatever one’s politics, one such place. Ruled by the Israeli military, set upon and harassed constantly by Israeli settlers who admit unapologetically to wanting to drive them from the land, forced to negotiate an ever more elaborate and more suffocating series of fences, checkpoints, and barriers that have sundered home from field, home from home, this is a population whose living conditions are unique, and indeed hard to imagine. In a great act of bravery, empathy and understanding, Ben Ehrenreich, by placing us in the footsteps of ordinary Palestinians and telling their story with surpassing literary power and grace, makes it impossible for us to turn away.

THE WAY TO THE SPRING by Ben Ehrenreich. Penguin Press (June 14, 2016). ISBN: 978-1594205903. 448p.

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HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt

June 22, 2016

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For three hundred years, the town of Black Spring has lived under the dark cloud of a curse. And that curse is named Katherine van Wyler, or The Black Rock Witch. Katherine, a Dutch colonist who lived in the village when it was called New Beeck, was convicted of witchcraft and sentenced to death after villagers claimed she raised her son from the dead. Since then, she’s wandered the town leaving fear and death in her wake.

Today, the townspeople of Black Spring have adapted, they even have a special office tasked with managing the witch and use an app to track her movements. Their goal is to keep Katherine contained and never to allow outsiders to discover her existence. In fact, Black Spring residents have to follow a strict set of rules meant to keep their secret from ever making its way across the town line. This is in part protection and preservation: no one knows what Katherine will do if her precarious peace is disturbed.

But Black Spring has grown lax. When a group of teens tired of the restrictions and rules begins to test Katherine, it sets off a chain reaction that could unleash an evil that will devastate Black Spring.

From the start, Thomas Olde Heuvelt carefully and quietly builds an atmosphere of utter and complete dread. When we meet Black Spring, they’ve grown a bit ambivalent and have started to take Katherine for granted. Some folks fear her, sure, but others mock the witch and flaunt the town’s centuries-old laws concerning her. This is due in part to the fact that no one has really witnessed Katherine’s powers for quite some time: the last real incident was back in the 60s, after all, and though everyone knows of the deaths that occurred then many of them have brushed it off.

It’s clear from the start of Hex that something bad is coming and that tension and suspense escalates fabulously throughout the book, bringing it to an eventual frenzied climax of some of the most awesome horrific imagery ever.

Thomas Olde Heuvelt’s US debut is exactly the kind of book any horror fan will delight in reading and I absolutely can’t wait to see more from this Dutch author.

6/16 Becky LeJeune

HEX by Thomas Olde Heuvelt. Tor Books (April 26, 2016). ISBN: 978-0765378804. 384p.

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Celebrate Pride Month with Jazz Jennings!

June 21, 2016

Being Jazz Pride Month My heart just broke when I heard about the Orlando shootings. I was at work when I got a news alert on my phone. Luckily, the library wasn’t open yet so I was able to jump online to find out what was going on. I sat at the desk just crying until I finally had to turn it off and open the library.

I am so appreciative that Crown Books for Young Readers reached out to me to work with Jazz Jennings during this very difficult Pride Month. I will be at the American Library Association Annual Conference in Orlando and Jazz is one of the keynote speakers. I’m hoping to get to meet her there and thank her personally for sharing her story.

Crown Books for Young Readers recently released BEING JAZZ: MY LIFE AS A (TRANSGENDER) TEEN by 15-year-old Jazz Jennings. The release of the book coincides with the second season of the TLC docu-series I Am Jazz, which started airing on June 8, 2016.

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BEING JAZZ is the story of an ordinary teen living in extraordinary circumstances. As soon as she could talk, Jazz Jennings—who everyone assumed was a boy when she was born—let her family know that she was really a girl. Now one of the most prominent transgender rights advocates, Jazz Jennings is also the latest featured Author Ambassador on ReadProudListenProud.com.

In her memoir, Jennings shares her very public journey and reflects on how these experiences have helped shape the mainstream attitude toward the transgender community. Now in high school, Jazz also addresses the physical, social, and emotional upheavals of adolescence, complicated by the unique challenges of being a transgender teen. This is a story that has the power to make a difference in the lives of children, teens, parents and families nationwide.

ABOUT #READPROUDLISTENPROUD

Read Proud Listen Proud, a joint effort by Listening Library, Penguin Young Readers and Random House Children’s Books, is an online resource designed to spark discussion in the classroom and at home and to encourage understanding through storytelling, celebrating everyone for who they are. The website recommends LGBTQ books for young adults and provides kids and teens, parents, educators and librarians thought-provoking discussion guides, inspiring author interviews, and audio clips, all hosted at www.readproudlistenproud.com.

Read Proud Listen Proud was inspired by the work of the We Need Diverse Books movement. Since its launch in June 2015, Read Proud Listen Proud has received an enthusiastic response from the publishing community, educators, and librarians and was nominated for an Excellence in Marketing Award by the Audio Publishers Association.

Being Jazz: My Life as a (Transgender) Teen by Jazz Jennings. Crown Books for Young Readers (June 7, 2016). ISBN: 978-0399554643. 272p.

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authorcuts: Terry McMillan

June 20, 2016

Terry McMillan’s first memorable writing

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At 17, Author Terry McMillan (I ALMOST FORGOT ABOUT YOU) composed her first unassigned piece of writing—a poem about a break-up. What it may have lacked in quality it made up for in honesty. Learn more about Terry’s writing here: http://bit.ly/1O64NfP

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