Book Review Coast Guard Blues by Kenneth Arbogast

 

Title: Coast Guard Blues

Author: Kenneth Arbogast

Stars: 4

Review:

I found this to be an action packed adventure which takes the reader to Northern Michigan and the Upper Peninsula area. It highlights some of the command issues encountered every day by military Special Agents. Specifically Commanders do not like, or appreciate, that the Agents do not work for them but provide investigative services and have their own command channels. I liked the main character and his will do attitude. It was an excellent mystery and full of action. 

I have rated this book 4 stars.

I obtained a Kindle ebook from Amazon. This review is my thoughts and I have not received any incentives for providing same.

Synopsis:

A Coast Guard surfboat is found adrift in the Canadian waters of Lake Superior. The four-member crew is missing. The crew made no distress calls, and the boat's emergency distress beacon was not activated. Merchant freighters passing through the area reported nothing unusual. Facing other challenges from Congress and other nations, the Coast Guard's commandant summons a Coast Guard special agent to investigate the disappearance. The investigation uncovers a smuggling operation that threatens to disrupt a vital international shipping route through the Great Lakes.

About The Author:

https://www.amazon.com/s?i=stripbooks&rh=p_27%3AKenneth+Arbogast&s=relevancerank&text=Kenneth+Arbogast&ref=dp_byline_sr_book_1

Book Review: Someone Perfect (Westcott #9) by Mary Balogh

 

Title: Someone Perfect (Westcott #9) 

Author: Mary Balogh

Stars: 4

Review:

A story that will capture the readers heart and mind as it plays out. Two families both with their own baggage weighing them down begin a delicate dance and balancing act. But in the end they begin to see that what they perceive to be the truth is false. At this point true love and adoration come to the forefront and both parties melt into each others arms.

I have never been disappointed with an offering from this author and this was no different. I would purchase this book for others. I have rated it four stars.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

Synopsis:

As a young man, Justin Wiley was banished by his father for mysterious reasons, but now, his father is dead, and Justin has been Earl of Brandon for six years. A dark, dour man, he, nonetheless, takes it as his responsibility to care for his half-sister, Maria, when her mother dies. He travels to her home to fetch her back to the family seat at Everleigh Park.

Although she adored him, once, Maria now loathes Justin, and her friend, Lady Estelle Lamarr, can see, immediately, how his very name upsets her. When Justin arrives and invites Estelle and her brother to accompany Maria to Everleigh Park to help with her distress, she begrudgingly agrees, for Maria's sake.

As family secrets unravel in Maria's homecoming, Justin, too, uncovers his desire for a countess. And, while he may believe he's found an obvious candidate in the beautiful 25-year-old Lady Estelle, she is most certain that they could never make a match...

About The Author:

Mary Jenkins was born in 1944 in Swansea, Wales, UK. After graduating from university, moved to Saskatchewan, Canada, to teach high school English, on a two-year teaching contract in 1967. She married her Canadian husband, Robert Balogh, and had three children, Jacqueline, Christopher and Sian. When she's not writing, she enjoys reading, music and knitting. She also enjoys watching tennis and curling.

Mary Balogh started writing in the evenings as a hobby. Her first book, a Regency love story, was published in 1985 as A Masked Deception under her married name. In 1988, she retired from teaching after 20 years to pursue her dream to write full-time. She has written more than seventy novels and almost thirty novellas since then, including the New York Times bestselling 'Slightly' sextet and 'Simply' quartet. She has won numerous awards, including Bestselling Historical of the Year from the Borders Group, and her novel Simply Magic was a finalist in the Quill Awards. She has won seven Waldenbooks Awards and two B. Dalton Awards for her bestselling novels, as well as a Romantic Times Lifetime Achievement Award.

Book Review : Murder at St Anne's (Yorkshire Murder Mysteries #7) by J.R. Ellis

 

Title: Murder at St Anne's (Yorkshire Murder Mysteries #7) 

Stars: 5

Review:

Once again I travel to Yorkshire England to observe the work of DCI Jim Oldroyd as he and his team solve the brutal murder of a rector in her own church. It was mid January and the weather was bitterly cold with snow storms to hamper their efforts. The author, who has spent most of his life in Yorkshire, is able to take the reader there as if it was their own home ground. This is an excellent British Police mystery which will keep even the most jaded reader interested. I have previously read and reviewed The Nidderdale Murders and The Whitby Murders by this author. This is an author which should be on your reading list if you enjoy British Police Mysteries. 

I have rated this book 5 stars.

I received an ARC from Netgalley for my unbiased review.

Synopsis:

In the chilly depths of a Yorkshire winter, a well-liked rector is found bludgeoned to death in her own church. With no sign of a murder weapon, local superstition quickly pins the blame on the ghost of a medieval monk believed to haunt the building

About The author:

During a long career teaching English, I wrote plays for children and occasional ghost stories. I have always been fascinated by the paranormal and by mysteries, conspiracy theories and unexplained crimes.
My love of my native county is deep and the settings of my Yorkshire Murder Mysteries within Yorkshire's varied landscapes are important. I have made a study of the sub-genre of the Locked Room Mystery during the height of its popularity between 1930 - 1960 in the stories of writers such as John Dickson Carr, Clayton Rawson and Ellery Queen. I was an avid watcher of BBC's "Jonathan Creek" in its heyday. I believe the element of puzzle is essential to crime fiction and my novels contain a double mystery: the standard "who dunnit?" but also "how dunnit?!"
I avoid the dark and gruesome in my writing and I strive to include some humour and elegance in style, a vivid sense of place and a compelling mystery! My characters both innocent and guilty are mostly ordinary people.
I am a member of a writers' group in Otley which has inspired me to write poetry and various forms of short fiction.

Book Review: The Hit (Team Zulu #1) by Julie Weaver

 

Title: The Hit (Team Zulu #1)

Author: Julie Weaver

Stars: 4 1\2 

Review:

The first book in the Team Zulu series just happens to set a high bar for Julie Weaver to keep bringing her A game when writing her Team Zulu series. 

The author writes a female lead who is strong without being mean and is able to take care of herself but accepting help and isn't the stupid I can do it than get caught female.  The male lead loves her and accepts her.  The story is what readers expect from Romantic Suspense series that seems to have all the bad guys that you can imagine.

The story flows well the characters are well developed with a well placed story. Thank you to Netgalley for a advance copy of The Hit By Julie Weaver.

Synopsis:

Former member of Team Zulu, a clandestine black operations unit, Elias “Shep” Shepherd believes the only use he has nowadays is taking out human scum on home soil. After years of harrowing military deployments, the one place he finds peace is at his remote Appalachian Mountain cabin, far from civilians and the world he doesn’t fit in anymore.

When Shep accepts a Mafia contract, he doesn’t expect his mark to be a woman, or the sexiest thing in grease-stained overalls he’s ever laid eyes on. She stirs something inside Shep’s battle-hardened heart. Despite the risks, he’ll do whatever it takes to protect her, even if it means breaking his no visitors rule at the cabin.

Muscle car mechanic Cameron McKenzie only needs one look at the towering wall of muscle who’s abducted her to know he’s a killing machine. Too bad for him, she’s not going down without a fight. Hidden away in his isolated mountain home, Cameron is reluctant to admit Shep might not be the heartless beast she thought he was. And as their mutual trust builds, so too does an intense attraction for her unlikely savior.

If the Mafia discovers Cameron is still alive, Shep will need every one of his elite skills to keep them both safe. Although he’s no longer sure which is more dangerous—The Mob’s demand for merciless retribution, or the woman who makes him wish he was worthy of her love. 

Expected publication: December 3rd 2021 by Epic Press 

About The Author:

Julie Weaver is a RWAus Emerald Award finalist and author of spicy, action-packed romantic suspense novels.

Book Review: The Hunted (Bane Island Trilogy #2) by Lisa Childs

 

Title: The Hunted (Bane Island Trilogy #2) 

Author: Lisa Childs 

Stars: 3 1\2 

Review:

I was hoping for something more thriller and mystery with a little romance. Instead it was a whole lot of romance with a little bit of mystery.  The author doesn't do the best job blending the first book information into the second book instead she gives it to you all at once which can be distracting and take readers out of the story. The author created the series so that one book follows the next making sure readers need to read the last book to discover all the answers.

Confession I skipped all the love scenes to get to the meat of the story.

Thank you to Netgalley for a copy of Lisa Childs The Hunted.

Sysnpsis:

The pressures of fame and an obsessive stalker have driven pop star Olivia Smith to take shelter at Halcyon Hall, an exclusive spa on a remote island off the coast of Maine. Yet from the moment she arrives, there are rumors about women disappearing, and stories about the resort’s grisly past. Then a note arrives from her stalker, proving that nowhere is truly safe . . .

It’s been twenty-five years since Sheriff Deacon Howell discovered his first dead body on these grounds. Back then, Halcyon Hall was an asylum known as Bainesworth Manor. Others have perished here since, including Deacon’s wife. Many locals share his belief that her death wasn’t suicide. The difference is, they think Deacon killed her. But he has bigger problems than gossip, because another body has been found . . .

As Deacon investigates the increasing threats to the singer’s life, the danger becomes undeniable. Something evil lurks here—not just in the asylum’s grim history, but in the present. And there will be no rest at Halcyon Hall until every sin has been avenged . 

About The Author:

Born one dark and stormy Halloween night, Lisa Childs was predestined to write suspense novels. She loves spinning dark and twisty stories that keep readers awake because they’re either too busy turning pages or too scared to sleep. Lisa Childs is the prolific author of more than seventy published novels. In addition to romantic suspense, she also writes women’s fiction, paranormal and contemporary romance.