Thirsty
by Tracey Bateman

"Hello, I’m Nina Parker.and I’m an alcoholic." For Nina, even in recovery, the truth of the declaration has demolished her hopes and condemned her to return to the town she ran away from nearly two decades earlier-Abbey Hills, Missouri. But the place she once called home is no safe haven. A ritualistic-style murder.

Animals disappearing from the Ozark reserve where Nina works, and turning up slaughtered. And someone-or some thing-watching Nina. Wanting her. Stalking her with a 250-year-old desire that burns like a raging wildfire.

Nina’s ex-husband Hunt shows up, hoping to protect Nina and Megan, the angry teenage daughter who followed her to Missouri. But another man has entered the picture, testing Nina as she attempts to walk the tightrope of recovery-and the power of thirst. Much more than Nina Parker’s love hangs in the balance. The battle between love and obsession is destined to unfold to its startling, unforgettable end.

NOTE FROM TY: I will be posting a review soon and also check out Touched by a Vampire.

Related Posts

No related posts.

Steve Conroy is a lawyer who’s about to run out of options. He’s divorced, sorely missing his ex-wife, struggling in the courtroom and trying to keep clean from his drug habit. When an opportunity arises out of the blue, Steve takes this as a sign to get his troubled life back on track. As he learns more about his new client, he starts to questions whether this opportunity is for real, especially when the client appears to be a blast from the past. Or the dead?

At age five, Steve witnessed his older brother’s abduction. Threatened by the abductor to not to tell, Steve has lived with the loss of his brother, the loss of his father to suicide and later his mother to illness. The guilt and sorrow has taken a toll on his life, career and marriage.

Then, along comes recently released, Johnny La Salle. The ex-con hires Steve and then claims to be his long-lost brother. With all his heart, Steve wants to believe what seems to be impossible.  He will soon discover all is not what it seems. Despite the brother’s reunion, Johnny has ties to the La Salle family. Johnny wants to make up for lost time, but Steve wants nothing to do with the family who raised his brother. With his brother once lost and now found, Steve has an incredible choice to make.

Legal Grounds, was my first James Scott Bell read. Next, I read Try Dying. He’s definitely a master of the legal suspense thriller in the Christian Fiction market. While most of his main characters are lawyers, they are people you can empathize with instead of despise as most people like to do with lawyers. The arrogance is there usually veiled in humor, but the character has usually been humbled in some life-altering fashion.

In the beginning, I wanted to pull for this reunion between the brothers, but once I read about the people who raised Johnny, it didn’t sit too well with me. In some cases, it made me angry because there really are people like this in the world. I won’t give away the full details here in the review.  I will say Bell created a stunning plot with some real curveballs in The Whole Truth.

Related Posts

1. BOOK REVIEW | No Legal Grounds
2. BOOK REVIEW | Try Dying
3. BOOK REVIEW | The Truth About Love

I have had the opportunity to read the Hidden Faces and Kanner Lake Series by Brandilyn Collins. Last November, she released a stand alone book, Dark Pursuit.

Darell Brooke is known as the "King of Suspense,” but right now living up to that name has become a struggle for the first time in his career.  After ninety-nine books, he can barely keep his thoughts coherent long enough to string together a complete scene. His loss of memory and feeble attempts at writing have come as a result of a car accident that left his seventyish body changed forever.  Darell is not the only one with issues. Seems he has a relative with even bigger issues.

When Kaitlan Serig comes home from work one day she finds a dead body in her bedroom. She immediately suspects her boyfriend was responsible for the murder. Even more horrifying is the thought, he could he be connected to other murders in the area. There is a real problem though.  If she goes to the police, Kaitlan knows no one would believe a former drug addict. It also doesn’t help that her boyfriend is a cop and the son of the police chief. Estranged from  her grandfather due to her former drug habit, she runs to her grandfather for help, not  knowing if he would welcome her.  Fortunately for Darell, Kaitlan’s reality-based story sounds like the perfect plot for his next bestseller.

I consider Brandilyn an expert on creating a series and developing characters in such a way each book in the serial has a fresh perspective.  Collins certainly knows how to come up with some unique crime scenes or ways to stumble across a body.  From the beginning to the end, Brandilyn takes her "Seatbelt Suspense" up another level with Dark Pursuit. The scenes are tight and attention-grabbing.

I thought it was pretty cool to have a suspense writer, writing about another suspense writer. The only  difference with this novel, I guess because it was a stand-alone, the action seemed to move too fast for me to absorb. I’m still not quite sure I cared for the ending – the twist just threw me because it really wasn’t on my radar while I was reading. Other than that, I enjoyed the adrenaline-rush.

Brandilyn’s next book release, Exposure, another stand-alone, will hit bookstores May 2009.

Listen to the podcast I did with Brandilyn for Christian Bookworm Podcast.

Related Posts

1. BOOK REVIEW | Amber Morn
2. BOOK REVIEW | Web of Lies
3. BOOK REVIEW | Violet Dawn

I’m also always reading at least 2 or more books at the same time. So, I’m determined NOT to start another book until I finish this set I have going. Should be easy, but  there are so many around me I want to read. LOL!

Amber Morn
by Brandilynn Collins

Amber Morn is the fourth and final book in the Kanner Lake series.  In this novel, the infamous Scenes and Beans bloggers (yes, there is a real blog) are center stage. The members of this town have been through a lot in the past few months, resulting in the loss of one innocent life after another (read previous books). Finally, it seems this group will be able to breathe easier again, putting the past behind them. They have gathered at the Bailey Truit’s Java Joint coffee shop to support their favorite science fiction writer, Ted Dawson, as he signs his book contract. In the midst of their celebration, the unthinkable happens and yet again more lives could be lost.

Three gunmen enter the Java Joint with a well-laid out plan. The father, Kent Wicksell, and his two sons are desperate to get someone’s attention by any means necessary. They intend to get their youngest son and brother released from prison. If their demands are not met, people were going to start dying. More people.

When the Wicksell men seized control of the coffee shop, one of the gunmen shoot an off-duty police officer.  With one of his men down, Police Chief Vince, and his staff are racing against the clock to negotiate with three ticking time bombs.

I recently joined Brandilynn Collins Fan page on Facebook.com. She asked the question, “Which book is your favorite?” I still have a hard time choosing one favorite out of the four Kanner Lake books.  I do have to say Amber Morn was the most dramatic and action-packed. There were quite a few characters (points of views) to read, but Collins expertly made sure each individual voice shined through even when there were several conversations going on in the coffee shop. This is an author who grows and grows with each of her signature “Seatbelt Suspense” novels.

I will be posting my review of her stand-alone novel, Dark Pursuit, soon. This book was released November 2008. It was a bit different reading a novel from Brandilyn that wasn’t a part of a series, but she didn’t disappoint.

Here is a listing of all my book reviews for the Kanner Lake Series.

• Crimson Eve – Book Three
• Coral Moon – Book Two
• Violet Dawn – Book One

Related Posts

1. BOOK REVIEW | Crimson Eve
2. BOOK REVIEW | Coral Moon
3. BOOK REVIEW | Violet Dawn