Category: Italy Book Tours

In Disruption, there are two types of people: those who have been hacked and know it, and those who have been hacked and don’t know it.

About Disruption

There are two types of people: those who have been hacked and know it, and those who have been hacked and don’t know it.

Former Naval Intelligence Officer turned secret operative Jake Pendleton finds himself in a pulse-pounding race to stop a cyber-terrorist from releasing a string of the most heinous cyber-crimes the world has ever seen. Crimes that could render the world’s advanced technology useless.

Jake teams with his partner, Francesca Catanzaro, to track down their only lead, a white-hat hacker in Italy known only as The Jew. A man who might hold the key to stop a group of black-hat hackers from causing worldwide chaos—tag named Disruption.

After a search of the hacker’s flat in Rome turns up empty, Jake and Francesca follow the clues—a trail of dead bodies that leads them across Europe. Along the way, Jake discovers a possible link between recent hacks and a Malaysian airliner that mysteriously disappeared.

In the final adrenaline-charged moments before Disruption, Jake and Francesca find themselves in a high-voltage race to stop these cyber terrorists from unleashing destruction against their sworn mortal enemy.

My Thoughts

Hacking is one of the scary topics that you hear about but don’t always understand. I know I don’t understand it as much as I should! We put so much out there on the internet and it is scary to know how accessible this information is.

This novel brings hacking to the forefront in an exciting and scary way. The plot line was fantastic – I could not put this novel down it was so exciting! Between the schemes, terror plots, hacking and murders, my mind was blown!

Our two key characters Jake and Francesca play a central role in a race to try to stop the cyber terrorists from causing global destruction against the Western world that would threaten to push them back hundreds of years. The plot unfolds in a unique manner and you are never quite sure what is going to happen next. It is only near the end that the story fully comes together and you can fully understand and appreciate the plot. The murders add in a whole new level of suspense and fear to this adventure packed novel.

Disruption is a well written, exciting and suspenseful novel. I love the way he writes and have already read this novel again. It is a definite must read that will leave you questioning things you do online and share. I will definitely be looking into his other novels because of his superior writing and plots.

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

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Chuck Barrett is the bestselling author of the Award-Winning Jake Pendleton series—Breach of Power, The Toymaker, and The Savannah Project, as well as his latest award-winning blockbuster, BLOWN, the first book in his new Gregg Kaplan series.

In addition to writing thrillers, Barrett speaks and conducts workshops at book festivals, book clubs, reading groups, writers conferences, and writers groups. Some of his topics include Nuts & Bolts of Self-Publishing based on his book—Publishing Unchained: An Off-Beat Guide To Independent Publishing—as well as, Blueprint for a Successful Book Launch, Getting from ‘Idea’ to ‘Finished Manuscript,’ Mysteries & Thrillers: Fact or Fiction, and Adding the “What if” in Storytelling.

Barrett is a graduate of Auburn University and a retired air traffic controller. He also holds a Commercial Pilot Certificate, Flight Instructor Certificate, and a Dive Master rating. He enjoys fly fishing, hiking, and most things outdoors. He and his wife, Debi currently reside in Colorado.

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

Dreaming Sophia is a magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture.

About Dreaming Sophia

Dreaming Sophia is a magical look into Italy, language, art, and culture. It is a story about turning dreams into reality and learning to walk the fine line between fact and fantasy. When tragedy strikes, Sophia finds herself alone in the world, without direction and fearful of loving again. With only her vivid imagination to guide her, she begins a journey that will take her from the vineyards in Sonoma, California to a grad school in Philadelphia and, eventually, to Italy: Florence, Lucca, Rome, Verona, Venice, and Val d’Orcia.

Through dreamlike encounters, Sophia meets Italian personalities—princes, poets, duchesses, artists, and film stars— who give her advice to help put her life back together. Following a path that takes her from grief to joy, she discovers the source of her creativity and learns to love again, turning her dreams into reality.

My Thoughts

I fell in love with Dreaming Sophia! My time in Italy when I was sixteen was magical, Italy has this way of drawing you in with its culture, history and people. The streets are alive with history at every corner and instead of hiding it, history is embraced and celebrated. The art in Italy is incredible – I could have spent days just wandering around the cities I visited. You want to touch the walls, visit every Church and just sit in the streets to embrace every moment.

In Dreaming Sophia, we have a young girl who must overcome a great loss and change in her life and in order to do so she must embrace her love of art and history, as well as travelling to the place her Mother loved so much. Her dreams help guide her and encourage her during this difficult time in her life. I love how free Sophia is to love and embrace her dreams and the hope they give her. She embraces her future and we are drawn right into the Italian culture and history. You will feel as though you are with her on the streets of Florence, in the coffee shops and in her art studio. We watch her grow as an individual and as a woman and the transformation is wonderful. You feel almost like her Mother and best friend, wanting nothing but the best for Sophia. I wished the story would never have ended because I just couldn’t wait to see what happened next (to tell you would give away the story but trust me, she leaves you craving more!). Dreaming Sophia is a beautiful story of hope, faith, trust and a love of all things Italian. A truly wonderful novel to treasure over and over again.

You can purchase a copy of this book on Amazon, Create Space, iTunes, Barnes & Noble and Inktera.

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

Melissa Muldoon is the Studentessa Matta-the crazy linguist! In Italian, “matta” means “crazy” or “impassioned”. Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana. She has also studied painting and art history in Florence.

Melissa promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog, Studentessa Matta (studentessamatta.com). Melissa began the Matta blog to improve her command of the language and to connect with other language learners. It has since grown to include a podcast, “Tutti Matti per l’Italiano” and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Tours, which she co-leads with Italian partners in Italy.

Dreaming Sophia is Melissa’s first novel. It is a fanciful look at art history and Italian language and culture, but it is also the culmination of personal stories and insights resulting from her experiences living in Italy, as well as her involvement and familiarity with the Italian language, painting, and art history.

As a student, Melissa lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her Italian dictionary, assuming she’d never need it again but after launching a successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was missing in her life. That “thing” was the connection she had made with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a life-changing event! Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency-a path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in countless ways.

Now, many dictionaries and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about Italy with others. When Melissa is not traveling in Italy, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is married and has three boys and two beagles.

Melissa designed and illustrated the cover art for Dreaming Sophia. She also designed the Dreaming Sophia website and created the character illustrations that can be found in the book and on the Dreaming Sophia websites.

The Giveaway!

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Book Trailer

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

In Michelangelo’s Ghost, a lost work of art linking India to the Italian Renaissance. A killer hiding behind a centuries-old ghost story. And a hidden treasure in Italy’s macabre sculpture garden known as the Park of Monsters… Can treasure-hunting historian Jaya Jones unmask a killer ghost?

About Michelangelo’s Ghost

Filled with the unexpected twists, vivid historical details, and cross-cultural connections Pandian is known for, Michelangelo’s Ghost is the most fast-paced and spellbinding Jaya Jones novel to date.

When Jaya’s old professor dies under eerie circumstances shortly after discovering manuscripts that point to a treasure in Italy’s Park of Monsters, Jaya and her brother pick up the trail. From San Francisco to the heart of Italy, Jaya is haunted by a ghost story inexorably linked to the masterpieces of a long-dead artist and the deeds of a modern-day murderer. Untrustworthy colleagues, disappearing boyfriends, and old enemies—who can Jaya trust when the ghost wails?

My Thoughts

An exciting, adventure and educational full novel that demands your attention and leaves you never wanting to put it down.

I love history, I took the majority of my university electives in anthropology and history while studying for my Bachelor’s degree. I loved learning about people that lived hundreds of years ago, their culture and their beliefs. This story is based on one of the greatest artists in history – Michelangelo. In this novel, we find missing art, unfinished manuscripts, deception and a murder.

Jaya, a strong, intelligent young woman who I admired throughout the novel, heads to Italy with her brother and his new girlfriend to follow the missing trail of art. This is when the story gets very interesting! We find a town wrapped up in superstition (not uncommon for these parts), secrets,  lies and a garden full of mystery. Every layer of this novel is intricately woven and revealed to us slowly. The path the novel follows is not one I had expected! I definitely was not expecting the ending that happened but it was perfect and fit the book excellently.

Michelangelo’s Ghost is a well written novel that draws you in chapter by chapter, as you follow Jaya as she seeks to help discover a possible lost art treasure and hiding spot of the great artist. It is full of mystery, suspense and leaves you on the edge of your seat to the last minute. You will not regret one minute of this novel!

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

Rating: 5/5

About the Author

USA Today bestselling author Gigi Pandian is the child of cultural anthropologists from New Mexico and the southern tip of India. She spent her childhood being dragged around the world, and now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. Gigi writes the Jaya Jones Treasure Hunt mysteries, the Accidental Alchemist mysteries, and locked-room mystery short stories. Gigi’s debut novel, Artifact, was awarded a Malice Domestic Grant and named a “Best of 2012” debut by Suspense Magazine. Her fiction has been awarded the Lefty Award and short-listed for Macavity and Agatha Awards. Sign up for her email newsletter at www.gigipandian.com/newsletter.

You can connect with her on her website, Twitter and Facebook.

The Giveaway!

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