SECRETS OF THE LAST NAZI by Iain King

July 17, 2015
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Myles Munro Action Thriller Series

The story opens with the discovery of a well connected Nazi SS commander dead in Berlin in 2015. Werner Stolz guarded the last secret of  Hitler and the Nazis for 70 years. A secret so deadly that if discovered could plunge the world into a fight for power because of it. Military historian Myles Munro and an international team he leads are tasked with piecing together the complex puzzle left by Stolz.

When one of his team is killed, Myles realizes that the stakes are much higher than originally perceived and quite possibly his group includes a traitor. The hunt for the secret and its ramifications broadens all across Europe. What comes out are factors that might be useful in predicting future events. It appears that the Nazis had used the secret to try and ascertain major future happenings. King indicates in an afterwards that the ingredients of the secret were used successfully in the real world for much of recorded history and have applications for our future.

What the secret is and where and when it originated comprise one of the most original and carefully thought out stories that have yet to appear in print. King introduces facts and dates to substantiate his thesis making this a mesmerizing novel with the distinct possibility that it introduces new truths in a world of science previously debunked as fakery. Great thinkers out of the past are introduced as discovering and using these ideas.

Not only a better than average conspiracy book, but one also backed up by research that brings new ideas into the possibility of reality. A book that will thrill and one already followed by another Iain King novel featuring Myles Munro and delving into further proof of the ideas that he espouses.

7/15 Paul Lane

SECRETS OF THE LAST NAZI by Iain King. Bookouture (July 14, 2015). ISBN: 978-1910751107. 454p.

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Posted by Stacy Alesi

ONLY A PROMISE by Mary Balogh

July 5, 2015
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Survivor’s Club Series, Book 5

Just to recap, this series focuses on a group of men who all sustained injuries during the Napoleonic Wars. The Duke of Stanbrook, having lost his son in that war, had invited this group of men with various serious injuries, and one woman who had the misfortune of seeing her husband tortured and killed, to recuperate at his estate. They spend a few years there healing, form an eternal bond, and after they have healed enough to return to the world, they meet up once a year at the estate to renew their bonds.

By this fifth book, four of the men have married – all but Ralph Stockwood, next in line to be the Duke of Worthington. He lost his childhood friends in the war, and suffers extreme guilt that he talked them into fighting. While physically scarred from the war, it is the emotional scars that have truly crippled him.

With the Duke more than 80 years old, his mother and grandparents are pressuring him to marry quickly and produce his own heir. But Stockwood feels cold and empty inside, and hesitates to make a union when he knows he will make his bride unhappy. Nevertheless, with his title and his money, girls are lining up for him.

The Duchess has a young companion, Chloe Muirhead, who has had quite a bit of scandal and heartache in her young life. At 27, she has no prospects at all. When Stockwood arrives for a visit, he overlooks her presence and has a frank talk with his grandmother about his marital prospects. The next morning, Chloe steels her nerve and makes him a proposal –  a marriage of convenience. Neither wants nor expects love, but Chloe would like her own home and a family, and Ralph needs a wife and heir. They marry quickly, and prepare to face society.

Chloe and Ralph overcome many obstacles, which of course bring them closer together. Theirs is a slow growing love, which takes them both by surprise. The sex scenes were surprising to me, almost chaste and somehow seem fitting for the time period and this marriage – but that eventually changes.

Once again Balogh creates wonderful characters and a magical romance. I loved it.

7/15 Stacy Alesi

ONLY A PROMISE by Mary Balogh. Signet (June 9, 2015). ISBN 978-0451469670. 400p.

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FOUR NIGHTS WITH THE DUKE by Eloisa James

June 23, 2015

FOUR NIGHTS WITH THE DUKEDesperate Duchesses (Book 8)

Eloisa James is my favorite romance writer. She does historical romance, this one set in late 18th century England.

Fifteen-year-old Emilia (Mia) Carrington is in love with her father’s paramour’s son, Vander, the future Duke of Pindar. In her adolescent fantasy, she writes an incredibly sappy love poem that her father decides to share with the boy’s mother. The poem goes further than that, and Mia overhears Vander say some spurious things about her and the poem with his friends.

Fast forward several years and Mia is engaged to be married, but her fiancé strands her at the alter. Mia has lost her parents and her brother, and is guardian to her nephew but her Uncle wants to assume that guardianship and all the wealth that comes with it. The terms of her brother’s will state that she must be married within a year of his death or everything reverts to the Uncle.

Desperate, Mia blackmails Vander into marrying her. He thinks it’s because she is still in love with him and he decides teach her a lesson. He agrees to marry her but makes her sign a contract that he will only bed her four times a year and she must beg for it. And so the games begin until Mia realizes that she really is still in love with him and he slowly understands that he feels more than lust for her.

This is another wonderful romance, filled with likeable characters, enough drama to make the pages fly by and as always, lots of passion. I loved it.

6/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

FOUR NIGHTS WITH THE DUKE by Eloisa James. Avon (March 31, 2015). ISBN 978-0062223913. 384p.

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THE PRESIDENT’S SHADOW by Brad Meltzer

June 16, 2015
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The Culper Ring Series

Brad Meltzer brings back Beecher White, a member of the staff working at the National Archives in Washington. His function there is the safekeeping of important documents, as well as on occasion, secrets important to the nation.  He is also secretly a member of the Culper Ring, agroup founded by George Washington.

The Ring’s mission is to protect the presidency, both the incumbent and the institution. The current President calls for the Culper Ring’s help when not one, but two severed arms are found on the grounds of the White House. Each arm is holding something, clearly not meant for the President but for Beecher himself.

The questions of how did the person bringing the arms get past White House security, what do the messages mean and why deliver them there when they were meant for Beecher, and not the President. The answers are found after an investigation that goes back to a period three decades earlier when Beecher’s father, then in the army, was stationed on an island off the coast of Key West, Florida.  It is the island that political prisoners were held on, and in particular, Dr. Samuel Mudd.

Mudd was implicated in the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and sentenced to life in  prison on the Island.  He was later pardoned when he fought a disease which hit the island and credited with saving many lives.

What the secret is, and why is it brought to life today comprises the theme of the book.  Meltzer creates a very taut plot revolving around the answers to the questions about the severed arms.<

There is no need to have read the previous novels involving the Culper Ring since references to these are sufficient to understand the current situation, so this book can stand alone and be enjoyed by the reader.

6/14 Paul Lane

THE PRESIDENT'S SHADOW by Brad Meltzer. Grand Central Publishing (June 16, 2015). ISBN: 978-0446553933. 416p.

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CENTRALIA by Mike Dellosso

June 14, 2015
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Centralia is an adventure into the surreal with questions and puzzles from beginning to end. The reader is led into a fascinating adventure in which many clues to what is going on are recorded but final answers only at the end.

Peter Ryan awakens one morning with a big question in his mind. He has been told that his wife and daughter were killed in an automobile accident, but suddenly he knows that they are alive. His phone call to a neighbor gives him the information that indeed his wife and daughter are dead, and both Peter and they attended the funeral several months ago. But Peter is now becoming more and more sure that both are alive, and that fact is supported by the discovery of a note from his daughter in her handwriting.

At the same time, his home is broken into by armed men who attempt to kill him. Skills that Peter did not remember having return and he takes out the killers like a professional without knowing where he learned them.

Ryan leaves his home and begins a search for his missing family believing only that they went to Centralia due to information on his daughter’s note. In searching for them he unearths information that leads further into the investigation. There are many twists and turns making the plot one of working within the surreal in order to find answers. The novel is a fast read, keeping the reader locked into it and wondering what is the truth in all of these findings, including who is Peter Ryan and what was his background.

6/14 Paul Lane

CENTRALIA by Mike Dellosso. Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. (May 21, 2015). ISBN: 978-1414390413. 400p.

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CONSTANT FEAR by Daniel Palmer

June 12, 2015

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Jake Dent was a hot prospect for major league baseball when his dream fell apart due to a drunken driving accident. His baseball days were over, and to top off the matter his wife left him and his son Andy to go and find herself. Jake finds some relief in the annals of a popular survival blog and raises Andy also to prepare for the doomsday he foresees is coming. He also obtains employment as a custodian in the prestige private school “Pepperell Academy and manages to enroll Andy in that school and maintain him there due to the employment he has with them.

Andy becomes friendly with a group of four other students that have picked up the practice of pirating small sums of money from very rich people via computer hacking. They then disburse the funds taken to people they deem needy of such charity. Generally the money taken is not missed by the wealthy people they take from, but one such robbery results in getting the huge amount of several hundred million dollars held in the form of bit coins. Unfortunately the amount belongs to a Mexican drug cartel that sends a hit squad to get their money back. These people trace the theft to students at Pepperell and stage a chemical truck spill as a ruse to get to the students that stole the money – the group of five that Andy belongs to.

Jake’s survival training and the cache of weapons and equipment he has stored in tunnels under the school are brought to bear when Andy’s group are taken hostage by the cartel soldiers. It appears likely that the computer group will be killed if they either do or don’t give up the bit coins which are held solely as online deposits.

The novel is fast, engrossing and keeps the reader glued to the book. Palmer presents various twists and turns to arrive at a logical conclusion. A good read and one guaranteed to bring the reader back again and again for books by Daniel Palmer.

6/14 Paul Lane

CONSTANT FEAR by Daniel Palmer. Kensington (May 26, 2015). ISBN: 978-0758293459. 416p.

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MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci

June 9, 2015

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Amos Decker series
David Baldacci introduces another protagonist into his very wide field of principal characters. Meet Amos Decker, a man who has had his taste of personal glory and lost it.

He began as an athlete with a promising career in football. Unfortunately, on the very first play in the first pro game he played he was knocked out by a vicious block from a member of the opposing team. As a result, he was no longer physically able to continue in pro football, but as recompense he found that he strangely remembers everything that happens to him; what is termed an eidetic or photographic memory.

Amos becomes a police officer and then a detective, using his talent as a means of solving cases. Unfortunately, a second incident occurs about two decades after his football injury, which changes his life forever.

Returning home one evening, he comes upon the horror of finding his wife, daughter and brother-in-law brutally murdered. Decker’s world collapses; he leaves the police force, loses his house and ends up living on the street, taking private detective jobs when he can to keep his head above water. His eidetic memory continues to keep the discovery of his slaughtered family fresh on his mind, living with the knowledge that after a year no clues have been found.

A year after the killing, a man comes into the police station and confesses to the crime. At the same time the city where he lives experiences a horrific crime. Amos is called in to help with both incidents by the police department he had worked for.

At this point, the reader will be treated to an Arthur Conan Doyle/Sherlock Holmes type scenario where Amos builds up to solving the cases by logic. One bit of accrued knowledge after another builds towards the solutions and allows Amos to work out the details which will solve the mysteries.

Baldacci has created another interesting protagonist to utilize to full effect in his books.

6/14 Paul Lane

MEMORY MAN by David Baldacci. Grand Central Publishing; First Edition / First Printing edition (April 21, 2015). ISBN: 978-1455559824. 416p.

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THE FATEFUL LIGHTNING by Jeff Shaara

June 6, 2015
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A Novel of the Civil War

With the writing of The Fateful Lightning, Jeff Shaara brings to a conclusion his monumental work about the Civil War in the West.

The book follows the style of the preceding presentations in the series. It is painstakingly researched and documented. Studied examinations via writings, written accounts and third person descriptions of a select group of participants bring them to life for the reader. Using literary license based on careful study, thoughts, conversations and opinions read, conversations and remarks of the characters involved allow supposed dialogs to be attributed to the leading protagonists  presented as pivotal to the story told.

The book opens as the city of Atlanta is captured by union forces, burned and creates a departure point for General William T. Sherman’s famous march to the sea. In the eight months covered by the book there are no major battles fought, but a long series of skirmishes between the opposing forces that push the Confederacy back and lead to their ultimate surrender.

Leading characters involved and followed in the narrative go from General Sherman, who was second to Ulysses S. Grant commanding the Union armies, to General Joseph Johnston, Confederate general who agonized over the need to surrender to Sherman in order to avoid further unnecessary bloodshed. The adventures of a slave freed by the Emancipation Proclamation, named only Franklin, are included, indicating his need to follow Sherman’s army in order to eat and find protection.

Franklin’s adventures are chronicled in later reports about him, indicating that this man actually lived and experienced the trauma of becoming a free man and finding a place in society for himself and his wife.

Shaara’s disdain for the Southern president Jefferson Davis and his inability to recognize talent is evident in the blame placed on him for his major contribution to the defeat of the Confederacy. The normally accepted surrender by Robert E. Lee to Ulysses Grant is shown to be just the first surrender of a southern army. Sherman and Johnston’s later dialogs and decisions regarding surrender are considered by Shaara to be of greater import than the short meeting between Grant and Lee.

The attempt by the Union’s Secretary of War to impose harsher sanctions on the south and Sherman’s fight to retain the original conditions met in the surrender at Appomattox courthouse are an obstacle not covered by most historians.

A brilliantly conceived and written series of historical works delineating the agonizing conflict of Americans against Americans is brought to a satisfying conclusion by The Fateful Lightning.  One wonders if Shaara can find the proper field to bring forth his next book. I hope that his energy level will permit this to be done in the near future.

6/14 Paul Lane

THE FATEFUL LIGHTNING by Jeff Shaara. Ballantine Books (June 2, 2015). ISBN: 978-0345549198. 640p.

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THE LAST BOOKANEER by Matthew Pearl

May 29, 2015

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A Bookaneer is a term probably made up by Pearl, although he claims that he has seen the word in writings of many years ago. It is used in bringing us a novel based on facts surrounding the actual stealing of works by famous authors. About one hundred years ago, an international treaty was signed to guarantee  authors’ works as intellectual property and ensuring that those writers would have the income from their works protected.

Prior to the protection of the copyright treaty, it was fair game for works to be literally stolen from their creators and sold by the thieves. Matthew Pearl sets up a well written novel about people that would dedicate their activities to stealing authors’ works and rapidly selling these to publishers. A public hungry for books to read set up a market eager to get new material.

Using a bookseller, E. Fergins, as the narrator of the story Pearl brings us into the last days of the cutthroat era of theft by the Bookaneers. They are all aware of the imminent implementation of the copyright treaty and are looking for one last big score before being forced out of business. Fergins meets the leading Bookaneers and describes their activities.

Authors such as Dickens, Poe and others are mentioned as being victimized. But the top prize seems to be Robert Louis Stevenson, who has moved to Samoa with his family.  Fergins is forced to take a trip there with Pen Davenport, one of the leading Bookaneers, and his employer. Also arriving on Samoa is Belial, another Bookaneer, and Davenport’s arch rival.

Pearl has done a major job of researching and fleshing out Robert Louis Stevenson, his wife and his two step children. They have built a beautiful estate on the island and live the life of royalty. Stevenson is quite ill, but still working to finish what he indicates will be his masterpiece. The conditions that existed on Samoa at the time of this story involved conflict between the U.S., England and Germany for control of the islands. Each of these countries had interests which they sought to enlarge. There was also the importing of slaves captured on other islands in the south Pacific in order to work on plantations.

The interaction between the attempts to get Stevenson’s next novel coupled with the political scene make for a great read.  We are brought successfully into the period and the literary world that existed through Matthew Pearl’s research and skillful handling of the plot.

5/15 Paul Lane

THE LAST BOOKANEER by Matthew Pearl . Penguin Press; 1St Edition edition (April 28, 2015). ISBN: 978-1594204920. 400p.

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RULES TO CATCH A DEVILISH DUKE by Suzanne Enoch

May 7, 2015
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Scandalous Brides Series (Book 3)

As usual, I’m starting a series somewhere in the middle of it and I don’t mind a bit. Suzanne Enoch is a new writer to me, and one that I will be reading again.

Sophia White is a heroine that can win anyone over, even the Duke of Greaves. One of his closest friends married one of her closest friends, so the Duke invites Sophia to spend Christmas with her friends, and many others, at his estate.

Sophia is the offspring of a Duke and his maid, and society turns up their noses at her. Her father paid for her education but never really acknowledged her, forcing her to make her own way in the world. She gets a job as a card dealer at a gentlemen’s club called the Tantalus Club, which has a bit of a reputation. When her father finds out, he is determined to get her out of his way before she can embarrass him. He arranges a marriage with a vicar far outside of London society, and the vicar is delighted – he considers her his project, reforming a Jezebel.

So when Sophia receives an invitation to the Duke’s home for the holidays, she decides to have some fun before she has to marry the vicar. On the way there, the bridge collapses and the Duke saves her. None of his other guests can get to his estate until the bridge is fixed, and that takes weeks, leaving the two of them, plus the Duke’s snob of a sister, to pass the time.

The Duke is entranced with Sophia, and she with him. Among the other expected guests, however, are several marriageable women. According to the Duke’s father’s will, he will lose his estates, money & title to his sister’s young son unless he marries very quickly and produces an heir so he invites this group in hopes of finding a bride. Sophia knows she is not in the running but nonetheless wants to have some fun. And they do, but they also fall in love. Can the Duke marry an illegitimate bride?

I loved the humor in this book, and there was a lot of hot sex, but it was the characters that really won me over. I am looking forward to reading more of Suzanne Enoch.

5/15 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch

RULES TO CATCH A DEVILISH DUKE by Suzanne Enoch. St. Martin’s Paperbacks (September 25, 2012). ISBN 978-0312534530. 352p.

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