Category: iRead tour

The closer we get to the killer, the more confusing it gets – who is behind the murders and mutilation in Dead Gold?

About Dead Gold

The dazzling lure of Olympic gold fame is a spotlight glare hotter than any fifteen minutes of fame. During plans for a cross-country ski vacation, Aspen Police Department Criminal Investigation Division Detective David “Spinner” Krespinak and SEAL-bud Craige Ingram are ensnared by glamour, upmarket glitz and bling, and greed in the deadly champagne powder world of a money-gets-you-anything high-country ski-mecca. Body parts start turning up in the most unlikely places. As the two friends start their investigation, a hornet’s nest of the local elite do not want the publicity. For good reason it seems, they may be part of the mystery of bodies and body parts piling up at the morgue.

The closer they get to the killer, the more confused they become. Who is behind the murders and mutilation? The list of suspects grows as they close the net on the killer. The tender underbelly of Aspen is not what it seems. It is a raw open sore that oozes blood, drugs, and murder.

My Thoughts

This novel is excellent thriller from start to finish that will keep you on your toes!

Body parts, murder, lies, drugs and more can be found in this novel where you never really know what’s coming next. The plot is complex and I found myself having to reread a couple paragraphs over again but it was well worth it. The novel starts out with a murder that goes cold and this seems to be the theme – a lot of death with no answers. The detectives have their hands full and almost don’t seem to know where to start.

Spinner and Craige are in a race to solve these crimes especially when one of the murders hits close to home. This is when the stakes get high and the novel really builds up.

This is an excellent, well thought out novel with a lot of plot twists. You need to pay attention but it is well worth it in the end. I never saw the end coming! But it truly fit the theme of the novel. A fantastic read from start to finish.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 4.5/5

About the Author

Hawk MacKinney served in the US Navy for over 20 years. While serving as a Navy Commander, he also had a career as a full-time faculty member at several major state medical facilities. He earned two postgraduate degrees with studies in languages and history. He has taught postgraduate courses in both the United States and Jerusalem, Israel.

In addition to professional articles and texts on chordate neuroembryology, Hawk has authored several works of fiction—historical love stories, science fiction and mystery-thrillers. His titles are not genre-centered, but plot-character driven. Moccasin Trace, a historical novel nominated for the prestigious Michael Shaara Award for Excellence in Civil War Fiction and the Writers Notes Book Award, details the family bloodlines of his serial protagonist in the Moccasin Hollow Mystery Series—murder and mayhem with a touch of romance. Hidden Chamber of Death, the first book in the mystery series, was followed by Book 2, Westobou Gold and his latest, Book 3, Curse of the Ancients. All have received national attention. The Bleikovat Event was Vol I in The Cairns of Sainctuarie Science Fiction Series followed by Vol II, The Missing Planets. Vol III, Inanna Phantom is in final galleys.

Book Trailer

The Giveaway!

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Two families escape the tyranny of their homelands, and their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

About The Revolutionist

Two different families escape from the political tyranny of their respective homelands, the Josephsons from Sweden and Matias and Kurt Bauman, brothers from Germany and Austria Hungary, with the aid of a Viennese opera diva, Sophie Augusta Rose, and Jean Guenoc, a former Jesuit priest, family friend and protector and partisan of the French underground. Their journey brings them to America in the throes of the industrial revolution during the 1890s and early 1900s.

Ingrid and Olaf Josephson settle on a small wheat farm in North Central Minnesota to raise their children, Newt and Julie. Among the Jewish entrepreneurs forced to leave Germany and Austria-Hungary, Matias and Kurt Bauman re-establish their transportation company in Chicago, Illinois. In search of a secret list of insurgent social democrats, the bounty hunter assassin, Luther Baggot, tracks his victims to the American heartland. Following the murder of their mother and father, Newt, Julie, and their friends, Aaron and Beth Peet, hide from the killer in a Northern Minnesota logging camp. Believing the children have taken possession of the list, Luther tracks them down and they are forced to flee again, this time to Chicago where a different world opens up to them as they are thrust into the turmoil and violence of an urban society and economy careening into the new century.

My Thoughts

This is a fantastic, well written novel from start to finish, I could not put it down.

It starts off with the daring escape of two families from Sweden and Germany and Hungary. They are forced to escape and leave behind their world due to the political views and being supports of the socialism movement. The families escape to America and you would think that their nightmare is over but someone is determined to ensure that they will not escape. Luther, a hired bounty hunter, follows them to America and kills Ingrid and Olaf when they refuse to give him the secret list of social democrats.

This sets their children down a very unique and interesting past. With no parents and no one to protect them, they must seek out their own future – first in a lumber camp and then in Chicago. The children are exposed to the good and the bad of the world. You are never really to sure if the children have escaped the clutches of Luther.

This was an excellent, well written and planned out historical novel. He touches on some difficult topics but does so with fact and respect. It is a novel full of hope and loss that you will not want to put down. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Robert is published by Tell-Tale Publishing Group LLC / Wise Words Publishing under a multi-book contract. The author of four previous earlier novels, Robert infuses his books with unique dynamic stories and characters that portray social and cultural conflicts of their time. His career encompasses many years as a business consultant that have given him access to a wide range of organizations and an appreciation for people in all areas of society. His life experience is reflected in the literary quality of his work. Born and raised in the Middle-West, he has traveled throughout the United States and abroad.

Now retired, he resides with his wife in Southern California where he devotes full-time to writing. Robert is a graduate of the University of California, Santa Barbara with a Masters Degree in Communications at the University of California, Los Angeles where he received the Samuel Goldwyn and Donald Davis Literary Awards.

Book Trailer

The Giveaway

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

Is having faith in yourself and doing the right thing always possible?

About What We Do for Love

Thirty-eight year old Nicole Adams has given up on finding love. Instead, the single mother focuses on the things she cherishes most—her sixteen-year old son Justin, her friends, and her art. When she convinces a prominent Los Angeles museum to feature a piece of her work, a large-scale installation, she thinks her life has finally turned a corner. Then Justin brings a girl, Daniela, home to live with them. Daniela’s angry parents have thrown her out of the house, because she’s pregnant with Justin’s child.

Shattered, Nicole takes Daniela in and, in so doing, is drawn into the inner circle of Daniela’s family—a frightening world of deceit and violence. Nicole struggles to keep life going as normal. Forced to deal with people she doesn’t trust or like, fearful for the future of both her son and the grandchild they’re expecting, Nicole wonders if she can do what she tells Justin to do: always have faith in yourself and do the right thing.

My Thoughts

I fell in love with this book immediately – I felt so connected to Nicole and her struggles as she raises her sixteen year old son on her own. She is such a strong, giving, kind person who faces the same struggles so many of us do. Your heart just warms to her and you want to reach out and hold her at times to give her comfort.

True to how life is, just when Nicole thinks she can move forward in life and lift her family of two up, life throws that curve ball. This time in the form of her son’s girlfriend who is pregnant. Nicole is terrified for the two, as she herself was a young mom and knows the struggles. She has to come to terms with a lot but she is always there to support the young couple. She is the type of mother that people could only dream of having. Although I do feel for her as she does sacrifice a lot of herself in order to be there for others. When you throw in her sister’s crisis, you sit there and wonder how is she going to make it through everything?

The ending through me right off and was not what I was expecting but definitely added a fantastic twist to the plot.

This is an excellent read from start to finish and I have already re-read the book twice, it only gets better. You will love the characters and their honestly and connect with how their very real struggles and pain. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Award-winning novelist Anne Pfeffer grew up in Phoenix, Arizona reading prodigiously and riding horses. After working in Chicago and New York, she escaped back to the land of sunshine in Los Angeles.

She has worked in banking and as a pro bono attorney, representing abandoned children in adoption and guardianship proceedings. Anne has a daughter living in New York and is the author of four books in the YA/New Adult genres. You can connect with her on her website.

The Giveaway!

Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.

A shocking discovery leads one scientist down a dangerous path in Brian Power’s compelling debut novel, Song of Atlantis.

About Song of Atlantis

When Amon Goro, master architect of Atlantis, discovers a way to harness the earth’s forces into an infinite source of clean energy, it seems destined to change civilization as we know it.

But 4,500 years later, Atlantis exploration team leader Palen Golendar is brutally captured by a Native American tribe in modern-day South Dakota—derailing any hope Atlantis held of utilizing its energy secrets.

Eight thousand years in the future, Native American anthropologist Gordon Tallbear and his team of highly skilled researchers stumble across a connection between the recent discovery of Golendar’s remains and an intricate cavern system deep in the mountains of Antarctica…a connection that finally reveals the Atlantean secret of perpetual energy.

While Tallbear and his team plan to recreate the energy source that will change the world, a wealthy group with deep ties to carbon-based fuel producers decides this newfound energy source must be destroyed—and they will stop at nothing to assassinate the researchers in order to bury what they know.

Can Tallbear’s newfound knowledge survive?

My Thoughts

The first thing that attracted me to this story was the legend of Atlantis – how can you not be a fan of this legend? There is always so much conspiracy, thoughts and myths around this magical place. I remember as a young girl, wishing I lived there! I wanted to be a mythical princess of this land of technological advances and perfection. So I couldn’t wait to dive into this story and this novel did not disappoint.

Brian Power writes a well written and researched story that has a little bit for everyone – history, fantasy, mystery and more. It is full of attention to detail that really gets your mind thinking. I loved the way he wrote the story and the way it unfolded, as it allowed you to draw the story together and match up the missing pieces, while still leaving you not quite too sure what was going to happen next.

The plot itself was incredible and one that makes you really think about good versus bad and how do we harness the power of technology to do good not harm. Is this technology everything that it is meant to be? Is it worth death? Could this happen in modern times today?

This is an excellent well written novel with a lot of work done by the author to really pull the plot together. It has many complicated layers that will engage you and really make you think. It had me reading long into the night as I had to know what happened next. A definite must read!

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

Rating: 4/5

About the Author

Brian Power is an educator who has taught at both the high school and college levels. He earned a BS degree in English and Secondary Education, and an MA in International Relations. A retired corporate consultant and trainer, he is also a retired Marine Corps Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who served for 24 years on both active duty and in the reserves. He lives in Rhode Island with his wife. SONG OF ATLANTIS is his first book. You can connect with him on his website.

The Giveaway!

Disclosure: I received a copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.