"Out of Breath" by Blair Richmond ~ Runners & Vampires! New YA Fiction for Halloween Release!!

Published by: Ashland Creek Press

Pages: 268

Genre: YA Fiction

Ages: 12 and Up

Summary:

Nineteen-year-old Kat Jones has been a competitive runner since she was young, but after her mother’s death, her life begins to crumble around her. One day, she finds herself on the run in a literals sense, in a race for her very life...

Both a paranormal love story and an environmental allegory, OUT OF BREATH takes readers beyond the world of vampires and into the worlds of competitive running, of Shakespeare, and of the staggering beauty of nature.

A Dame's Fanciful Thought or Two:

One of the very wonderful things about reading books is that they take us into worlds we might never be able to experience and into the heads and hearts of characters we wish we could be. That being the case, it was a fascinating place to find myself inside the head and physical surroundings of Kat Jones.

I'm not and never have been a runner. It's something that has interested me over many years because I've come across friends and acquaintences who love to run. What makes "Out of Breath" so unique is the experiences shared about this lifestyle and its character building benefits. It was an educational and emotional experience to read.

From the perspective of strictly a YA novel, you'll find this one a treat because it's much along the lines of a "Twilight" venue. There is the dark and handsome vampire, Roman; the somewhat innocent and caring nature-boy, Alex; and Kat, who is new to town, a loner and quietly beautiful. But from that point the novel takes a direction that is explosive in character pulling us into the world of running, vegan lifestyles versus blood-feeding, and murder in the woodlands above the town called "Lithia" for its calmning drinking water.

Blair Richmond is a very strong author. Her style is not only agreeable, but engaging and it has a flow that makes one want to keep digging for answers that she poses in her story. I was hooked from the beginning, and I found the mysteries she posed in the novel grabbers! Her characters are also likeable; even the strangest of the vampires, and I'm anxious to know more about all of them.

This is the first in a series around Kat, Roman and Alex. I'm very much looking forward to reading more about them and the town of Lithia. There are open-ended questions I have and I'm dying to know the answers to.

Ease of reading and a great story will make this a sure-to-be loved novel and series. I recommend it for those who love vampires!

4 stars a running

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

"The Shattered Dreams" A Midnight Dragonfly Novel by Ellie James

Published by:  St. Martin's Griffin

Pages:  352

Pre-release Review

Released:  December 2011

Genre:  YA Fiction/paranormal

Summary :

Sixteen-year-old Trinity Monsour wants nothing more than to live a normal life. But that isn’t as easy as it seems. Trinity is different. She is special. She sees visions, and for those she’s seen, it’s already too late.
Trinity arrives on her aunt’s doorstep in New Orleans with virtually no knowledge of her mysterious heritage. She begins settling into life at a new school and even starts making friends. But all too quickly her dreams accelerate; twisted, terrifying visions of a girl locked in a dark room. And when the head cheerleader, Jessica, goes missing, Trinity knows she has no choice but to step forward with what she’s seen.
But people believe that Trinity has information about Jessica’s disappearance not because of a dream, but because she is involved. She is kind-of dating Jessica’s ex-boyfriend, Chase, and Jessica did pull a nasty prank on Trinity. Revenge seems like the likeliest scenario.
Nothing prepares Trinity for the dark odyssey that ensues while searching for Jessica, including the surprising romance she finds with Chase, or the shocking truths she learns, not just about the girl who has gone missing, but the past that has been hidden from her.

The Dame's Review :

This is going to be a best seller in YA fiction right out of the gate.  The cover is fabulous, the story is mysterious, it's a series, and the writing is fantastic!  I loved this book!

Trinity Monsour is a heroine that young women can be proud of.  She's strong,stands by her convictions regardless of peer pressures, and  tries to work through the painful episodes she doesn't quite understand in herself.  It's good to read about a young woman of such integrity and strength who doesn't really "need" her male counterpart, but loves him just the same!

The locale of New Orleans adds flavor to this story that hardly any other would. This ancient city of old streets and gothic houses shadowed by spanish moss and creeping vines creates the perfect setting.  Trinity's mysterious "gift" of vision hardly seems strange in a city so rife with the likes of voodoo and bloody history.  But in the contemporary setting of the local high school, she stands out.

It was difficult for me to put this novel aside today.  It's a day of personal tragedy for my family, and still I was drawn to finishing the book.  You can see how much it meant to me.  It's a good novel with good characters.  Very worthwhile reading for young adults of all ages!  I look forward to the next in this series.

5 glimmering stars


Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

Have You Ever Lost Someone Special?~Read "The Manicurist" by Phyllis Schieber

Published by:  Bell Bridge Books

Pages: 188

Genre:  Contemporary Fiction, Women's Fiction, Paranormal



Summary :

The Manicurist is the story of Tessa Emanuel, a young woman who is engulfed by vivid images of the past.  When Tessa is a child, both parents allegedly die in a car accident.  However, the body of Tessa mother, Ursula, is never found. Tessa is obsessed by memories of her mother, whose battle with mental illness made Tessa’s childhood a secret world of intrigue and betrayal.  Now married with a daughter, Tessa must come to terms with her own identity as a mother, a wife, a daughter, and a woman—but above all she must seek release from her haunting memories and a gift of clairvoyance that threatens to dismantle her life.  At times she wants to escape this “gift,” but eventually she uses it discreetly in her work as a manicurist—where a peculiar client changes her future forever.  Mysterious and compassionate, The Manicurist is a spellbinding novel of a woman grappling with the tangled knot of her life.

Watch the Trailer!

 

The Dame's Review :  (With apologies to Pump Up Your Book Tours for my belated review~)

Occasionally, a book comes across my apple green leather reclining chair that merits a beautiful, professionally tempered cover and a hard back that will draw in lots of readers swayed by that glitz.  I'm one of those who buy by cover art, so I know the pull it has.  "The Manicurist" would be on the best seller list today, and in every one of your hands if it had a cover like "The Lantern."  It is a quality novel with a fantastic story!

Phyllis Schieber isn't your typical author in her 20-30's with an awesome story to tell in this genre.  She's a seasoned writer with a gripping story.  Her writing has been compared to Alice Hoffman and Sue Miller...I would add that she writes like herself.  I'm a fan.  I'm anxious to read the book she's now writing. 

Here's an excerpt of her short story being featured in "The Firefly Dance Anthology" published by Bell Bridge Books:

     "I was seventeen the last time I went with my mother to the Stocking Store.  I have more important concerns now than the simple errands of childhood.  I am busy protesting the war in Vietnam and listening to rock music.  Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy have both been murdered within a few months of each other.  I am devastated by these losses, but I am also in love for the very first time.  When I tie my hair back with a scarf, he says I look like a gypsy.  Still, I say yes when my mother asks me to accompany her to the Stocking Store.  I think she is even more surprised than I am.

     I still call it the Stocking Store because I do not know it by any other name.  We call the store where we buy our buttons the Button Store, and the small cave-like shop that both repairs and sells umbrellas the Umbrella Store.  I still long for the red umbrella with the pink ruffle and the appliqued poodle with it's rhinestone collar.  I often dream about that umbrella.  I can see myself twirling it before a crowd of admirers.

     These small shops are part of our daily lives.  The Cheese Shop, the Pocketbook Store, the Hat Store, and the Toy Store are places that need no other identification.  But it is the Stocking Store that I love best.  It is in the Stocking Store that I first come to know exactly what it is that makes me different from others.


"The Manicurist" deals with the complexities of being a "good" mother,
daughter and wife who loves the other more than she loves herself.  It draws one in with a realistic peppering of the paranormal. Tessa and her mother's abilities to divine the future and cast spells are realistically a part of them.  For better or for worse, the use of these gifts mark their lives in extraordinary ways, causing them to question themselves, to cloud their choices, and to mark those they love.

I identified with Tessa very much.  Her losses and her abilities to see the future collide in her life, repeatedly leaving her in isolation from real friendships and intimacy.  Tessa's with her husband, Walter, leaves her insecure; she wonders if it was her spell on him that made him choose to love her, or his actual love for her that is the bond.  I felt for her...it felt like that old question some women used to (maybe still do) have: Did he marry me because I got pregnant?  Or because he really wants me and loves me?  It's a merry-go-round that Tessa lives with. And, while the tension between Tessa and Walter is rife with this dilemma, she balances it with the relationship she forges with their daughter, Regina, a teenager who wants her larger/estranged family desperately, and is anxious to bring everyone together.

I would love to put this book on your reading table.  It will be such a pleasant surprise for you.  You may want to rush to Amazon or B&N to get a copy for yourself, instead.  You'll love it.

5 stars for a very unexpected read!

Deborah/TheBookishDame


*Please visit others of the review on this Tour at:

Book reviewed at Peeking Between the Pages

Wednesday, October 12

Interviewed at Working Writers

Thursday, October 13

Guest blogging at Motherhoot

Friday, September 14

Guest blogging at The Book Bin

Tuesday, October 18

Interviewed at Book Marketing Buzz

Wednesday, October 19

Guest blogging at Just Another Book Addict

Thursday, October 20

Book reviewed at Just Another Book Addict

Friday, October 21

Interviewed at Beyond the Books

Monday, October 24

Book reviewed at Mad Moose Mama

Wednesday, October 26

Book reviewed at Every Day is An Adventure

Thursday, October 27

Interviewed at Review From Here

Friday, October 28

Interviewed at American Chronicle

Phyllis Schieber’s The Manicurist VIRTUAL BOOK PUBLICITY TOUR will officially begin on August 1 and end on October 28 ‘11. Please contact Dorothy Thompson at thewriterslife(at)gmail.com if you are interested in hosting and/or reviewing her book or click here to use the form. Thank you!

If you would like to book your own virtual book tour with us, click here to find out how!

Read More

"Dead Bad Things" by Gary McMahon~Twilight Zonish Horror/Thriller!

Published by: Angry Robot/Osprey

Author's website:  http://www.garymcmahon.com/ 

Release Date Scheduled:  September 27, 2011
Purchase:  Amazon - $7.79 for Kindle

Synopsis :

Thomas Usher, a reluctant psychic, has gone off the radar in London, hiding from the fall-out of a previous case involving a missing young girl and several hanged strippers. Before long, and as if to confirm that he can never truly hide from the dead, Usher starts receiving messages - a clockwork voice on the phone, a Rwandan psychic who hears voices, hellish visions in a derelict riverside warehouse. Usher slowly realises that the answers to these riddles, and perhaps to the questions he has never dared ask about his personal history, will only be revealed if he returns home to Leeds...

Sarah Doherty is a police constable in Leeds. She and her partner - who is also her lover - are drawn into a nightmare when they find the mutilated body of a young boy. Is there some kind of serial killer operating on their patch, or do these grim discoveries point to something even worse - something from Sarah's own past, and involving her emotionally damaged family?

Trevor Dove is a disgraced showman, a flamboyant theatrical medium once exposed as a fraud by Thomas Usher. But the truth is, Dove did once possess a genuine ability to talk with the dead, and when he meets the Pilgrim - a shadowy figure from Thomas Usher's tragic past - he begins to rediscover his gift and unearth secrets that will place his very soul in peril. Driven by a thirst for revenge, he is fated to bring together Usher, Doherty and the Pilgrim in a confrontation that will undermine the fabric of reality.

The Dame Reviews:

Horror fans listen up!  This book is a smash hit.  I'm not ordinarily a reader of such books; and, actually I didn't know what I was getting into when I decided to read "Dead Bad Things."  However, this book captured me from the first page, and off I went on a thrilling ride of horror and suspense unlike any I'd been on for quite some time!  This book reminded me of early Stephen King and Dean Koontz so much that I found myself grinning at the oddest times with nostalgia.  It took me by surprise...difficult to do considering the amount of books I read!

Grim and gripping from the first moments we learn that a man is lamenting over the shallow grave of a tiny boy whom he's killed, and that he's receiving a baby girl from a darkly disguised "angel;" this book never stops driving us to its final conclusion.  Gary McMahon is a horror fiction writer best known in the UK where several of his books have been previously published.  I'm glad we finally are being acquainted with his books here.  I look forward to reading more.

I found McMahon's writing style captivating and descriptive to a point of sharpness.  He made even his supernatural characters believable and horrendous.  They were well imagined and fearful...not too "out of this world," but just to the edge of it and possible enough to be plausible.  This made the story scary and charged with suspense. 

Sarah was an undoubted favorite character for me.  I always love a feisty female who can beat the worst guy at his own game.  She is a fast thinking and tough reacting police detective who walks through her fears as valiantly as any superhero we can remember.  I'd go anywhere scary with Sarah in the lead!  I'd love to hear more of her in the future.

Thomas Usher, the dead-listening/seeing "angel-like" man, who plays a huge part in this novel, is mystery-clouded and we can enjoy uncovering who he actually is and why he's come into the arena of Sarah's life.  I especially loved reading about his search in the clairvoyant area.  So much fun!

Once we meet the dark angels and torturers, it's like reading the best and worst of horror stories.  Greatly interesting, enjoyable and something that makes you want to put your hands over your eyes at the same time.  As a reader of much softer literature, I was reading with "bug eyes," believe me!  This is an adult, sophisticated horror story!

I recommend this book to those who enjoy reading horror/suspense books.  It's not, after all, a Stephen King but it is a good book for a stormy night or two. 

I really enjoyed the book for a change in pace; after all, who hasn't seen a ghost or two--I have; haven't you?  

This one to keep an eye out for...
Second in a series about Thomas Usher.

4 stars

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

"Entralled: Paranormal Diversions" Anthology of 16 "Smart Chicks Kick It Tour" Authors like Melissa Marr!

Published by:  Harper Collins

Pages:  443 

Purchase price:  $9.99/ Nook & Kindle ebooks less

Contributors:  16 authors of the genre

Edited by:  Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong



Kirkus Review :

A solid collection of stories that prove that all any supernatural creature wants to do is date or eat teenage protagonists.
These short stories are loosely connected by a very openly interpreted journey motif.Psychics, genies, angels and gargoyles join fairies and vampires to terrorize and romance their fellow characters. The diversity in authors allows for the sometimes-neglected horror implied in paranormal stories to be spotlighted, as in Carrie Ryan's zombie thriller, "Scenic Route," and Jennifer Lynn Barnes's "The Third Kind," about sisters with unavoidable compulsions. Many of the authors base their stories in the existing worlds of their other novels—luckily, most of these standalones work, though not all shake off that teaser taste. Sarah Rees Brennan's "Let's Get This Undead Show on the Road" follows a vampire in a boy-band and stands out with its perfect blend of snark and sincerity. It's followed in a one-two punch by Jeri Smith-Ready's intense and earnest "Bridge." While not every story's as strong as those (some are downright forgettable), in a buffet of so many flavors readers can always skip to the next story with a good chance of finding something more to their liking.
This collection is ideal as a sampler tray for paranormal readers looking to pick up new authors to follow or to further explore the fictional worlds they already know.



Just in case you were wondering who Melissa Marr is!   



The Dame's Take :

Please click on the link for "Enthralled" on my side bar to get a very comprehensive look at this captivating new book.  Then, please come back to me!

This is a charmingly packaged anthology published by Harper Collins.  Whom, it must be said, is just outstanding in its choices of YA literature and authors.  Harper consistently publishes books of the highest quality and content, so with their novels you can almost guarantee a good read.  The cover of this (and most of Harper's books) is wonderful and appropriate for the content.  What I like about it is the nod to the sophistication of the young adult reader.  There's no scared little girl looking out at us here!

I've perused the book like a bandit.  Absolutely love the feel of paper they've used which reminds me of the old (maybe still used) paper of the short story mystery anthologies I used to get, small packaged as magazines.  Somehow, it makes me feel like this is a secret book I can hide and read in bed like a Halloween precursor; which it is in fact. Just love it for my bedside table this Fall.

After having read a couple of stories, my favorite is "Gargouille" by Mary E. Pearson.  I wasn't familiar with Ms Pearson's books or writing, so decided to try her story for that reason alone.  This is a wonderful story!  I enjoyed it from the first sentence.  Mary's descriptions are fascinating and made me smile with the anticipation I've always had when reading a fairytale.  I love her French names and hinted connections in the story.  Great writing and a really good short story.  This one makes me certain I'll be going out to find one of her novels to read very soon.

Here's one of her trailers:

"Miles Between" by Mary E. Pearson

Latest Book:  "The Adoration of Jenna Fox"

Available on Audio, as well.

The Dame is giving this darling Anthology "Entralled" an entralling 5 stars!

A must be on your shopping list for this Halloween.

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More

Sexy, Intellectual Killer Makes: "In Syte" by Greg Kiser~ Horrifyingly Delicious!

Published by:  Amazon

Toured in Partnership with:  Nurture Your Books

Pages: 388

Paperback and ebook available

Genre:  Paranormal Thriller



 Book Summary :

It's Tampa Bay and the year is 2020. Ex-Navy SEAL Mitch "Double" Downing discovers how to tap into the internet with his mind. His new inSyte provides transparent access to the sum of all human knowledge recorded since hieroglyphics. More then mere information - Mitch can see into men's hearts  and be all places at all times (easy in an 'always on' surveillance society with fourth generation tweets). Sort of like God.

But inSyte has ideas of its own as the software discovers a politician's "divine" plan that will unwittingly slaughter millions of people. Is killing the man the only way to prevent Armageddon? The politician's daughter would probably disagree. And she happens to be the love of Mitch's life. Losing Kate would be to much collateral damage.
At the center of the conflict is a wolf-like killer who will stop at nothing to murder the Ex-Navy SEAL. And Mitch must come to grips with inSyte's dark side - a dominating addiction that soon controls his thoughts and places him on a steep slide to self destruction.

Author Bio.:

Greg Kiser graduated from Southern Polytechnic University in Atlanta with a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering.  Greg also earned his MBA from the University of South Florida.  He is currently a Technical Director at Cisco, a high tech firm that makes the equipment upon which the internet runs, lives, grows.
He has written extensively for Fortune 50 high tech firms in describing next generation networks and painting pictures of the true evolution of technology for the consumer.

Excerpt:

inSyte Chapter 51

 

Mitch could tell he was on the water.  He felt the boat sway in relatively small waves.  Every now and again, the boat rocked on a larger arc.  OK, he was in the lower hold of a moored boat.  Felt like a good sized boat.  Maybe two meter draft.  Maybe thirty thousand kilos displacement.

The space was dark.  So dark he would not have seen his hands in front of his face.  But he couldn’t move his hands.  His neck felt stiff and wooden.  He was restrained, laid out on a bed with his arms and legs tied securely to posts. 

His head ached.  Dull pain.  Chemically induced.  Probably methyl chloride or some derivative.  But there was something else.  He felt nauseous and cramped, beyond the chemical haze.  He felt… unplugged. 

In order to be this damn dark the port holes must be blocked.  Not just curtains or wooden blinds.  Something solid. 

The compartment’s unnatural quiet added to his profound feeling of emptiness.  Non-existence.  As though he had entered a dreamless sleep but he was still awake and---

OK, Downing.  Snap out of it!  Where am I and how do I get out of here?

He was in a lower cabin that was sealed tight.  This room had been specially constructed.  Reinforced with something to keep out light and sound.  Or keep it in. 

Sometimes compartments were reinforced in this fashion to act as freezers.  More common with commercial vessels, but he’d heard of personal craft that occasionally had this done. 

No signal.  He couldn’t believe it.  The metal reinforcement blocked communication with the outside world.

A cabin door opened and a bright light shone on his face.  Then the door shut and a small light was turned on.  It took a moment for his eyes to adjust. 

Then he looked into the dark face of the wolf. 

He recoiled and shut his eyes.  Whatever drug the Russian used was still affecting his nervous system.  He shook his head and opened his eyes and saw that it was just a man who sat on a stool beside his bed.  The man’s face was dark and his eyes were solid black.

“Hello, Mitch,”  the dark man’s voice was incredibly low. 

“Who are you?  How do you know my name?”  he needed time to think.

“I am Cheslov.  I know much about you.  And you know a lot about many things, I am told.”

He didn’t bother to ask about Wanda.  She was dead.  This man killed her.  That’s OK.  He’d return the favor. 

In conflict, direct confrontation lead to engagement and surprise lead to victory.  Sun Tzu’s Art of War.  He forced himself to relax.  Cheslov held all the cards at the moment.  Very frustrating.

“OK, I know a lot about a lot of things.  So why am I tied to a bed on the Chorny Volk?”

Momentary surprise flickered through Cheslov’s black eyes.  Stupid thing to say but he couldn’t help it.  Come on, Mitch!  Reign it in and calm it down.  He forced himself to abandon emotion and focus with the logical side of his brain. 

Cheslov smiled and, surprisingly, he had one of those smiles that consumed his entire face.  From across the Council Chamber the man looked evil with dark amusement.  Up close, his smile was harmless, charming.  Mitch didn’t have to try very hard to smile back. 

“You know my secrets,”  Cheslov said.  He gestured around, expansively.  “She is my pride and joy, young friend.  My pride and joy.  We did not have vessels like this in Rostov, I can assure you.”

“Why am I here?”  Mitch asked again.

“You are a most impressive young man.  Of course, they told me you have this ability.  Somehow you know things you are not supposed to know, yes?”  Cheslov’s eyes widened in reproach.  He reached beneath his coat and removed a long cigar. Snipped the tip using a guillotine cutter that looked like a worn, hungry mouth.  Lit it up with a battered, gunmetal Zippo.  Leaned back in his chair, took a deep drag.  Exhaled a thick, hot, blue stream of smoke.

“Which is why you find yourself here.  In my home.”  Cheslov’s face saddened. 

Then he continued, as if explaining to a child.  “I am sorry, young friend, to have to say this to you.  That this is not a place a man wishes to find himself.  This is not a room from which people live to see a new day.  No, my friend, this is a room in which people take their last breath, see their last light.  Hear their last sound.” 

Mitch remembered a long ago camping trip.

Cheslov smiled warmly down at him.  “Why were you meeting the Deter bitch?”

Mitch said nothing.

  Cheslov raised the cigar cutter to his face and a raven eye peered through the opening.  He smiled as he slid the blades together.  “What was your intention?”

Mitch started the process of extracting himself mentally from his surroundings.  He ran number patterns through his head to take his mind beyond the pain and the possibility of what the lunatic might do next.  There was only one place this was heading. 

Of course he wouldn’t answer any of the lunatic’s questions.  The best strategy to resisting interrogation is to simply not provide any information at all. 

“Where is the file?”

Once you start to give up information, even about minor unrelated topics, it’s hard to stop and easier to give up important information.  The answers to the current questions didn’t matter in the least.  The only thing that mattered was to protect Kate.  At any cost.

“With whom have you shared it?”

Mitch said nothing.

Cheslov walked to the head of the bed and slowly examined Mitch’s fingertips. 

“You wear your micro on your index finger.  Painted with green resin.  Quite the fashion statement.  To whom have you sent the file?”

Mitch said nothing.

Cheslov grasped Mitch’s left hand and held it the way a man might hold the hand of his son.  Mitch felt a softness to the giant’s touch.

“Why do you not answer?  Are you afraid?”  Cheslov gazed down at him with a not unkind expression.  The giant’s thick, dark eyebrows rose as if trying to coax Mitch to speak.

Mitch said nothing.

“I’ll ask you once more,”  Cheslov said and a note of sadness crept into his voice.  The hesitant father who does not wish to punish but is left no choice.  “You have nothing to gain by continuing your silence.  And quite a bit to lose.  Yes, quite a bit.”

Mitch stared at the overhead ceiling.  Focused on the intricate wood carving.

Cheslov spread Mitch’s fingers. 

Mitch said nothing.

“Tell me.  With whom have you shared the file?”

Mitch said nothing.

“Enough of these games,” Cheslov said.


The Dame's Review :


I've had in the back of my mind for some time that the evolution of computers has to be somewhat invasive.  In fact, we have been warned in a sense by the great numbers of movies and tv shows easily expanding their use going as far back as I can remember...light years back!  But, Greg Kiser's book gave me chills.  Why?  Because Greg knows computers professionally, and he has a particular "insight" into their capabilities today.


"Insyte" is a different perspective on that vision of computer capacity.  It makes the story Mr. Kiser poses so viable.  Chilling.  While it may seem a possible hopeful outlook for man and computers, I tend to think, as the Oppenheimer group found with the Manhattan Project, it carries the very real possibilities of terror and mayhem in the hands of the wrong people.


"Insyte" is a fascinating book on many fronts.  So well written.  The style is easy and fast-moving; just packed with action and drama.  I found myself reading intently and enjoying that James Bondish flow.  Kiser has an easy hand in creating that kind of thriller.


His character development is masterful. The "bad guy" is written so enticingly, it's hard not to be on his side!  Which isn't always a good thing, let me tell you! 


Through his obviously very thorough research and knowledge of weaponry, I learned a great deal about modern military combat and possiblities for it.  Very interesting, even for someone who doesn't ordinarily focus on that kind of thing.  And, I loved learning more about how Navy Seals think.


This is a book I was surprised to find I liked so much.  It was a great read, so absorbing, intelligent, masterfully written and timely. 


4 1/2 stars for a very good read.




*Please visit these other great sites for a continuation of Greg Kiser's Book Tour with Nurture Your Books:

   September 21st – Farrah K. @ The Book Faery Reviews

September 22nd – Beverly G. @ Everyone Loves A SiNner

September 23rd – Jaidis S. @ Juniper Grove

September 23rd – Deb H. @ Deb’s Book Reviews

Thanks for stopping by!

Deborah/TheBookishDame

Read More