Posted in Blog, Reviews

Review: Sanctity of Freedom by Peter Pontsa

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)

“A gripping thriller that effortlessly combines high-stakes crime, political intrigue, and raw emotional depth.” – A Limitless Reader

A sister kidnapped and presumed dead decades ago. A brother who never stopped looking for her. A mission that could cost them everything.

Inspector William Fox and his girlfriend, Tracy Jordan are enjoying a day off together on William’s cigarette boat, The Midnight Fox. When the police scanner announces a body has washed ashore, William chooses to investigate, despite Tracy’s protests.

Uncovering a chilling note on the body meant for his friend and taekwondo master, Mr. Kim, William is thrust into an investigation far darker than he could ever have imagined.

The message confirms Kim’s sister, Mi-Cha, is still alive and is desperate to escape North Korea and her domineering husband, now head of Bureau 39.

But Kim needs William’s assistance to bring Mi-Cha to safety.

Even with help from William’s friend, FBI Agent Patrick Reilly, can Mi-Cha be rescued in time before she disappears for good?

If you are a fan of political thrillers and investigative dramas you will be thrown into a narrative packed with action, emotion, and tension, culminating in a satisfying showdown that will leave you craving more from Inspector William Fox and his team.

Deadly, dark, and action-packed, this thriller has everything to keep you on edge.

Review

From chapter one, I was hooked. Where did this dead body come from? The author wasted no time getting into the mystery and piqued my interest. 

The dialogue kept the story progressing, and I felt like I was in the room with the characters listening. The book spans locations across multiple countries, and the descriptions are perfect. I could visualize the change in locations while staying in the moment with the characters. The balance of descriptions and dialogue can be tricky to maintain, but Peter Pontsa did a great job.

It was an interesting story that pulled on the reader’s heartstrings. What would I do if a family member was held against their will? To what lengths might I go? I couldn’t stop reading until I knew what happened.

If you enjoy a good multi-country mystery, this book is for you.

Get your copy here (affiliate link – thanks for the support).

Posted in Blog, Reviews

Review: A Family, Maybe by Lane Igoudin

Synopsis (Taken from Amazon)

A gay couple’s quest to adopt their foster kids in the early 2000s becomes a spiral of legal, political, and personal challenges.

In his candid and emotional memoir, Lane Igoudin shows the human side of public adoption as he and his partner Jonathan seek to adopt their foster daughters from the Los Angeles County child welfare system. Desperately wanting to be fathers, they enter into a complicated legal process that soon becomes a tangle of drama-filled birth parent visits and children’s court hearings. Lane and Jon spend years not knowing whether they will be able to officially adopt the girls, or if the county will reunite the sisters with their birth mother, Jenna, a teenager in the state’s custody herself.

The stress of the foster-to-adopt process, compounded with the mounting, nationwide struggle for LGBTQ+ equality, erodes the sense of peace in Lane and Jon’s home. Still, the girls attach themselves deeply to their adoptive parents, while their dads do all they can to give them the best lives possible. Heartwarming moments with the kids and relatable first-time-parent woes become bittersweet as Lane realizes how much he and Jon have built—and how much they could lose. A Family, Maybe is a moving story about dedication, heartache, and love.

Review

A Family, Maybe, is emotionally tumultuous. It is an in-depth look at how fostering to adopt can be rewarding and challenging. The rawness of the ups and downs of raising children you hope to adopt has never been stated more heartbreakingly. As a parent, I identified with their need to protect the children and was devastated that they had no real control before the adoption was finalized (which took much longer than I thought it would).

However, it is more than the story of the adoption but the emotions of it, the good and the bad, intertwined with the struggle of being a gay couple (before gay marriage was legal). I did not realize it was a decade after Canada legalized gay marriage that the states finally did. That was very eye-opening for me as a reader.

If you enjoy raw, real-life stories, this book is great for you.

Get your copy here (affiliate link – thank you for the support).

Posted in Blog, Reviews

Review: Delicious Surrender by Luce Sutherland

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)

Fight me all you want. It will make your eventual submission all the sweeter.”

Brynne Larimore is going back to her three-date rule. Her judgmental ex-boyfriend is history, and her steamy BDSM novel needs an injection of real-life experience. Club Dominus promises an education, if she can get past the icy Scottish billionaire who owns the place. Too bad his arrogance makes her want to rattle his cage, not follow his rules.

Gage MacLeod has been called a grumpy alpha-hole, and he wears the label proudly. Ruthless and unyielding, he protects his London club’s elite clientele and refuses to be tempted by the willful, curvy redhead pretending to be submissive. His pr*ck might be intrigued, but rules are rules.

When Brynne attracts the attention of a notorious Russian club member known for devious tactics of seduction, Gage must make a choice: protect her or walk away. But when she betrays his trust and puts his business at risk, his wrath knows no bounds.

Review

This book went beyond what I typically read as a romance, and I loved it!

I could visualize the quaint settings and imagine Gage’s deep, attractive voice. It was an interesting way of learning a little about BDSM through the eyes of a character who was also trying to learn about it. Ivanov was a creep from the get-go, and I could feel myself cringe away, as I am sure Brynne did during every interaction with him.

The author did a great job using dialogue to show what the characters were doing and how various relationships formed. Every good romance has tension between the main characters, and this was no exception. The tension and the allure were potent throughout the book, and I couldn’t put it down.

I hope that the next book is as enticing as this.

If you enjoy a great romance with tension and more, this book is for you.

Get your copy here (affiliate link – thanks for your support).

Posted in Blog, Reviews

Review: Enigma Forced by Breakfield & Burkey

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)

Profiteers are preying on displaced souls who seek freedom, sacrificing everything. Wanting to give their children hope and a future, but they wrongly trust on a roll of loaded dice. Teens are picked off and sold into slavery. Cartels offer the choice to strong, young men to move illegal drugs over the border or die.

The R-Group and CATS team leaders want to end Mateo’s inhuman business model. The heroes must derail the human exploitation and opioid epidemic, killing people in increasingly dramatic numbers. If they can save even a few from the jaws of death, they win.

The present-day battle is in full swing, yet it can end badly for humanity unless the Enigma Heirs triumph. Who will survive the onslaught and how fast can they make Mateo pay?

Review

This book picks up where the last one left off, which I loved. The characters were content, yet they knew there was more work to be done. Once they figured out where that work was going to take place, they got right into action.

There were other standout characters in this book, especially the two computer techs. Their banter and friendship were fun, and yet you knew they meant business.

Human trafficking is not a laughing matter, and neither is the opioid epidemic. Having lost a sibling to drugs, this storyline hit home. The empire that Mateo was building needed to be toppled. The author did a great job bringing the reader on that journey and giving a satisfying conclusion.

I had the pleasure of listening to this audiobook and appreciated that the narrator used different voices for each character. I knew precisely who was speaking, giving the listener a more visual feel. I was enticed by the story and listened to it constantly (cooking and walking the dogs). I just couldn’t put it down until I knew what would happen next.

Most investigations have various avenues. The authors took that into account and led us on not just one but multiple journeys to stop Mateo. I appreciated the diversity of the missions happening simultaneously and how seamless the writing was in keeping the different investigations moving forward.

If you enjoy a good investigative book, this is the read (or listen) for you!

Get your copy here (affiliate link – thanks for your support).

Posted in Blog, Reviews

Review: Silencers by Jenna Greene

Synopsis (taken from Amazon)

Scona must choose. Protect her father, or embrace the darkness she’s been trained to destroy…

Despite warnings from family and friends, Scona Tinay enrolls in Silencers Academy.

To escape a life of poverty and hardship and ensure a stable future, Scona sets her sights on the Silencers, where the students earn a wage. She soon learns her fellow students are cutthroat and the training regimen brutal.

As Scona heads deeper into her training, she begins to question the role of Silencers, as well as the “madness” she is being taught to destroy. But each question she asks brings her under suspicion, and she soon discovers the only person she can trust is herself.

Unable to change the culture of her world, where mental ailments are deemed dangerous, she must embrace all manner of skill and courage to protect her own father…

Someone she has been training to kill.

Review

From the first chapter I was hooked. Scona’s interest with Silencers drip from every page and seeps through to the reader . I was intrigued with how different Scona was from the rest of the crowd. She was not a sheep following the indoctrination of the society. However, she had to live a double life adding to the intrigue. Her character development was perfectly fitting to what a teenage girl would go through as she learns that what she has been told may or may not be as it seems.

The author did a fantastic job describing the dominating government oversight. How far they go to keep ‘the madness’ from spreading. Without giving away anything, the madness was the most fascinating part of the book. It is more than an illness it is a commentary on society. Interwoven through the story were questions we should all ask about illnesses.

It gave me 1984 vibes but far more interesting of a read.

If you enjoy a great book that keeps you thinking and wanting to read on this is a great choice!

Get your copy here (affiliate link – thank you for your support).