A Blessed Day

Sunday, August 2, 2015

"Be Strong and Courageous!" Richard Crisco

BOOK REVIEW- FORCE OF FIRE

BOOK REVIEW- FORCE OF FIRE- Little does defense intelligence analyst Mark Neal suspect that the new "Missing Person Central America" case of Ana Kane is about to change his life -- indefinitely.
When Defense Department protocol is turned on its head and Mark is sent to Iberia at the behest of his cryptic boss, Mark figures there is more than patriotism at play. Prison Ana begins to suspect that, too. But when the Basque terrorists who are holding her threaten her life for the exchange of one deadly secret, will the Americans come through? Or is Ana truly a worthless Spanish-American pawn? AMAZON

Wow, wow, wow. Quite the story. I can see why now the author has these awards to her credit:
Winner of the Word Weaving Award for Excellence
Winner of the Blether.com Silver Award A 2001 EPPIE Thriller Finalist
Plenty of adventure, with surprise after surprise ready and waiting for the reader. In other words, great twists to the story. The kind I didn't really see coming. Love that! Ana, what a strong person she was and she was going to need to be. I can understand also why several men in her life wanted her. She was strong (like I said), intelligent and beautiful. She sort of looked at life in a unblinking kind of way that drew people in. If they weren't scared off by her smartness. Mark was drawn in by just the photo in her file. Of course he also had a bio of her life in that file too. Both Mark and Ana were people you just sort of pulled for. Both were smart but also dissatisfied with their personal relationships. Scott Denton, was someone that flitted back and forth into Ana's life but she feels like she might have wasted years on that relationship. There were several secondary people in the story who were of interest. It kept you busy trying to figure out who the good guys were from the bad guys. This is definitely an adult story . I don't want to add to much more about the book because I don't want to give ANYTHING away.

Now, I have read a review by someone else who thought it jumped around too much and that made it hard to follow. While I respect and understand what they were saying, for me, I don't totally agree. Yes, there was some jumping around, so I can see what they meant but it was also important to the story. I do say that I really had to pay attention to all the players though. It wasn't an easy, lazy afternoon beach reading kind of story. It did keep me interested and alert though.

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

BOOK REVIEW- LOVE (VOWS)

Was it her biker boots, her belligerent blue jeans…or her mean left hook? Jason Halloran never knew what hit him. But just as his perfectly predictable life seemed to be going nowhere, sassy, street- smart Dana Roberts began driving him up a wall! Dana Roberts had been on her own since age sixteen, and she intended to keep it that way. The last thing she wanted was some sexy, rich corporate VP playing Prince Charming and making her his helpless Cinderella. But what would she do if the shoe fit?

Vows: Love, Honor and Cherish—words that three generations of Halloran men vowed to live by. AMAZON

I liked the way the book started in the beginning. It was a sweet and surprising way to start the story.
And the way Jason and Dana first met? Hilarious! Her reaction to Jason was feisty and totally unexpected! Jason was bored with his life, not seeming to find anything to get excited about. Well, Dana turned that whole things around. Jason was described by others as someone who had a steady nature, rarely ever losing his temper. Dana changed that too! Her brother Sammy also added to what Jason probably thought was calamity. When it was said that Dana was street-wise, she had to be. She sure had shouldered a lot of responsibility at a young age. She was also very talented, and unorthodox in her approach. She was just looking for a break when it came to her designs. I liked the whole story and it had me smiling a time or two. As you can tell, I really enjoyed the sparks that flew when Dana and Jason were around. Other members of Halloran family, mainly the men had some of their own story in this one. I especially liked Brandon, the meddling but not obnoxious grandfather. I also liked some of the interesting phrases like, "He (Jason) felt as if he'd been slam-dunked by one of the Celtics and was still tangled in the net."