Review: The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska #5)

The Bitter Season (Kovac and Liska #5) by Tami Hoag
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Mystery, Suspense
Release Date: January 12, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

A murder from the past. A murder from the present. And a life that was never meant to be... As the dreary, bitter weather of late fall descends on Minneapolis, Detective Nikki Liska is restless. After moving to the cold case squad in order to spend more time with her sons, she misses the rush of pulling an all-nighter, the sense of urgency of hunting a murderer on the loose. Most of all she misses her old partner, Sam Kovac.

Sam is having an even harder time adjusting to Nikki's absence, saddled with a green new partner younger than pieces of Sam's wardrobe. Sam is distracted from his troubles by an especially brutal double homicide: a middle-aged husband and wife bludgeoned and hacked to death in their home with a ceremonial Japanese samurai sword. Nikki's case, the unsolved murder of a family man, community leader, and decorated sex crimes detective for the Minneapolis PD, is less of a distraction: Twenty years later, there is little hope for finding the killer who got away.

On the other end of the spectrum, Minneapolis resident Evi Burke has a life she only dreamed of as a kid in and out of foster homes: a beautiful home, a family, people who love her, a fulfilling job. Little does she know that a danger from her past is stalking her perfect present. A danger powerful enough to pull in both Kovac and Liska and destroy the perfect life she was never meant to have.

“Masterful…Authentic, dark and intense.” - Tess Gerritsen

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Fans of the Liska and Kovac series won’t be disappointed with this latest installment. Once again, Ms. Hoag delivers a tightly written mystery with solid three-dimensional characters.

Book Blitz: The Road Leads Back

The Road Leads Back by Marci Boudreaux
Age Group: Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: April 3, 2015
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Kara Martinson and Harry Canton weren’t exactly high school sweethearts, but they did share one night neither will ever forget. Twenty-seven years later, Harry surprises Kara at an art gallery opening and discovers he left her with more than just memories when he went away to college. 

Desperate to connect with the family he never knew existed, Harry convinces his son to move to Stonehill—and pleads with Kara to come, too.

Kara hasn’t stepped foot in their hometown since the day she was sent away to a home for unwed mothers. Now Harry’s back in her life and as they put together the pieces of his parents’ betrayal, old heartaches start to feel anew. She wants to be near her family, but returning to Iowa means facing some things…and some people…she isn’t quite ready to.

Can Harry convince her to forgive those who betrayed her so they can embrace the future they were robbed of so long ago? Or will the pain of the past be too much for Kara to overcome?

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Excerpt:

Kara squeezed her way toward the crowded bar, nudging between two kids who she couldn’t quite believe were old enough to be legally drinking in public. Shouldn’t they be funneling cheap beer in a college dorm somewhere? Or sneaking shots from Daddy’s liquor cabinet?

Art gallery openings used to be much more sophisticated than this. When she was a young artist, openings were about appreciating the art and the artist, not the free booze.

Shit.

Had she really gone there? Kara shook her head at her bitter thoughts.

The bartender, a walking tattoo with spiked black hair, leaned close so she could hear him. “What’ll it be?”

Book Blitz: Falling Light

Falling Light by Dayana Morency
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Paranormal Romance
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

When seventeen-year-old Rosalynn Young pictured her summer vacation, she didn't think she would be spending it working as a maid at the Millennium Hotel. 

She imagined painting and gardening. But soon, in spite of her disappointment, she meets Victor Gregoire. Wayward and enigmatic, he sends a chill up her spine. Everything about him feels foreign--unearthly.

Dangerously drawn to Victor, Rosalynn willfully ignores his volatile mood swings. When she impulsively enters Victor's room, she finds a journal dating back to the 19th Century and a photograph of him from August 14, 1874.

He's hiding something sinister and she's desperate to find out what, even if it means risking everything. But Rosalynn fails to realize that her attraction to Victor comes at a price and she soon learns some secrets are better kept hidden.

She's in for the summer job of a lifetime.

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Excerpt:

I’ve had nightmares for years now—since the day of the fire. I dreaded falling asleep and tried my best to avoid it as long as I could. I hated the feeling of cold, sticky tendrils pulling me down into a deep, dark oblivion.

Tonight was no different. I went to bed around eleven o’clock, and soon I was drowning, plunged into the bottomless pool of fiery depths. I gasped for air, struggling to come afloat, and I woke to the sound of someone screaming.

Book Blitz: Landry in Like (Landry's True Colors #3)

Landry in Like (Landry's True Colors #3) by Krysten Lindsay Hager
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Contemporary
Release Date: January 13, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Things seem to be going well in Landry Albright’s world—she’s getting invited to be on local talk shows to talk about her modeling career, her best friends have her back, and her boyfriend Vladi has becoming someone she can truly count on…and then everything changes.

Suddenly it seems like most of the girls in school are into hanging out at a new teen dance club, while Landry just wants to spend her weekends playing video games and baking cup-cakes at sleepovers. 

Then, Yasmin McCarty, the most popular girl in school, starts to come between Landry’s friendship with her best friend Ashanti. Things take a turn when Yasmin tells Vladi that Landry is interested in another boy. Can Landry get her relationships with Ashanti and Vladi back or will she be left out and left behind?


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Excerpt:

I wanted to call my friends and tell them about being on the talk show, but Mom said we had to be at the TV station super early — even before school started. She said I could text them, but I had to turn off my phone and go to bed.

“I’m waking you up at four a.m.,” she said. “You have to be there at five-thirty.”

“Can I just call Peyton and Ashanti? Please?”

“Fine, but you have five minutes and then that phone is mine and you’re in bed.”

I dialed Peyton, but her mom said she was in the shower. I told her mom about the show tomorrow and said my mom wouldn’t let me stay up any later to call Peyton back.

Book Blitz: Destroy Me (Crystal Gulf, #1)

Destroy Me (Crystal Gulf, #1) by Shana Vanterpool
Age Group: New Adult
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: March 8, 2016
Buy Links:

Amazon ♥ B & N

Book Description:

Bach lives his life with honesty and without restraints, happy to be known as a sexy as all hell, unapologetic asshole.

When he drinks, he drinks hard.

When he wants a woman, he makes sure she knows it.

When he opens his mouth, it’s either to piss someone off or to turn someone on.

You can normally find him with one hand on a bottle and one hand on a woman, trying to forget his past.

Harley Evans is ta wenty-one-year-old year old college student. She’s a good girl who fell hard for Dylan, who’d promised her forever. But Dylan, Bach’s best buddy, lied.

He enlisted in the Army, crushing Harley with equal parts anger and sadness. She’d already lost her father to that choice. Heartbroken, she falls back into depression.

Stuck in Crystal Gulf all summer with little to do, Harley needs a distraction. Enter Bach, sexy as f*#ck distraction, ready and willing.

Dylan’s not all bad though. Before he left, he asked Bach to watch out for Harley, knowing she’d never go for a guy like Bach. She’s too good for him. Too good for anyone.

But Dylan was wrong. He never should have left them together. Bach is there to pick up the pieces Dylan left behind. Soon pieces aren’t enough. He wants more, needs more Harley.

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Excerpt:

When I lean in to kiss him he moves his face so my lips land on his cheek. I kiss it, sliding my lips over his stubble. He smells so different than Dylan. Like sweat and sadness and desire. It’s musky and intoxicating. If desire had a smell it would smell like Bach.

Wanting something you know you shouldn’t want. And wanting it more because you know deep down that want is going to break you apart. The desire is new and overwhelming, rushing over me like a wildfire. I am swept up in it.

“Harley.”

Book Blitz: The Changelings (War of the Fae #1)

The Changelings (War of the Fae #1) by Elle Casey
Age Group: Young Adult
Genre: Urban Fantasy
Release Date: February 5, 2012
Buy Links:

Amazon

Book Description:

Jayne Sparks, a potty-mouthed, rebellious seventeen-year-old and her best friend, shy and bookish Tony Green, have a pretty typical high school existence, until several seemingly unrelated incidents converge, causing a cascade of events that change their lives forever.

Jayne and Tony, together with a group of runaway teens, are hijacked and sent into a forest, where nothing and no one are as they seem. Who will emerge triumphant? And what will they be when they do?

Content Warning: Mild violence and significant foul language within. Meant for older Young Adult readers (age 15+).


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Excerpt:
I couldn’t take much more of the high school nonsense. I felt like I wasn’t supposed to be there. Where would I be if I weren’t there? ... I don’t know. All I did know was I was in the middle of all that crap, going to class, taking tests - but I was on autopilot, going through the motions, waiting for life to start happening.

Sitting in World History and bored out of my mind, I was looking at a girl one row over who was the polar opposite of me. She was staring attentively at the teacher, her pen poised above an already nearly full page of notes, eager to write down every nugget of educational wisdom he was throwing our way.