Chanticleer Book Reviews

Category: Reviews

St. PATRICK’s DAY! And the Magical, Mysterious Stories We Love! – Fantasy, Mystery, Magic, Fortunes, Poets, Romance, Ireland

According to the Census Bureau, in 2011 one-third of the United States claimed some sort of Irish heritage. But on St. Patrick’s Day, March 17th, that number shoots up to 100%.

After all, who couldn’t use a wee bit o’ luck of the Irish in their lives?

Growing up here in the United States, we would be in danger of getting pinched by our peers at school if we weren’t wearing green (I’m sure this practice would get children booted from school nowadays…). We would also eat corned beef, potatoes, and cabbage for supper and maybe watch a parade on television. Far from being a national holiday, as it is in Ireland, we would do the best we could at claiming our (supposed) 1/32nd piece of Irish blood.

I must say, the holiday became much more interesting when I was in college…

St. Patrick’s Day conjures images of leprechauns, pots of gold, rainbows, shamrocks, beer, and men in Aran sweaters with charming accents.

So, before you don your green, dig into your colcannon and corned beef, and show your love for all things Irish, we would like to offer our “pot of gold” in the form of our favorite reads that inspire us and captivate our imaginations.

Enjoy Our Selections for St. Patrick’s Day Best Reads!

Romancing the Magic!

– Love stories steeped in contemporary Ireland.

The Hopeful Romantic by Susan Colleen Browne is an old-fashioned love story that takes place in contemporary Ireland; it rings true about rediscovering happiness in what you already have, and to never lose hope

Mother Love Grainne knows exactly what her perfect man is like, the only problem is, her perfect man is getting married. Set in the Irish village of Ballydara, “Mother Love” is a story of family drama, Irish humor, and healing.

Concerning Dragons:

Elana Mugdan‘s Dragon Speaker & Dragon Child are the first two books in the Shadow War Saga and they’re all about Dragons! How’s that for starters?

S.A. Hunter‘s Elanraich: The Vow is a high fantasy with a female heroine and women warriors set within a unique story construct where not all is good nor evil.

Paul E. Vaughn’s Dragon Ascendants is about a boy comes of age when he learns his true heritage in a magical, mountainous land of dwarves, elves, men, and dragons is threatened by a powerfully malevolent force.

Dragon Ascendants is currently a SEMI-FINALIST in the 2018 CIBA OZMA Awards for Fantasy novels. Good luck, Paul!

Allan Batchelder cooks it up with Steel Blood & Fire, one of our favorite reads that may or may not have dragons within… but you won’t be sorry you picked it up!

Steel Blood & Fire is a SEMI-FINALIST in the CIBA 2018 OZMA Awards! Good luck, Allan!

A Bit o’ Magic for the Wee Ones:

Elizabeth Hamill‘s Song Magick will have you spellbound!

Song Magick won First Place in the CIBA 2016 OZMA Awards for Fantasy novels.

T.K. Riggins sets us all ablaze with his Middle-Grade fantasy, How to Set the World on Fire and Money Jane. Plenty of Magic here, trust us.

How to Set the World on Fire won GRAND PRIZE in the CIBA 2017 OZMA Awards for Fantasy novels!

Money Jane SEMI-FINALIST in the CIBA 2018 OZMA Awards is a for Fantasy novels! Good luck, T.K.!

Pot of Gold #Treasure!

Silver Kings and Sons of Bitches by Michael D. McGranahan is a rough an tumble story taken from historical source materials surrounding the California Gold Rush… all with an Irishman complementing the cast of characters.

Silver Kings and Sons of Bitches won First Place in the CIBA 2014 Chaucer Awards for Historical Fiction novels!

Tiffany Brooks‘ s Reality Gold is a Y/A novel where a girl tries to make good in a Reality television show where contestants try to find the buried treasure. Of course, they get way more than they reckoned for when the stakes are raised and the dangers are real.

Reality Gold is a SEMI-FINALIST in the CIBA 2018 Dante Rossetti Awards for Y/A Fiction! Good luck, Tiffany!

In Clevenger Gold: The True Story of Murder and Unfound Treasure, author S.E. Swapp takes us through the legend, the romance, the actual real-life treasure that is out there just waiting for you to find.

Clevenger Gold won First Place in the CIBA 2016 Laramie Awards for Western Stories.

Jeffrey Price‘s Improbable Fortunes is a satirical treasure as “improbable” as the rebirth of the woe-begotten protagonist.

Improbable Fortunes won First Place in the CIBA 2016 Laramie Awards for Western Fiction!

Camelot’s Queen and Daughter of Destiny

Come the Wind

There are no Snakes in Ireland – except the ones in these mysteries!

Kaylin McFarren is one of our favorite authors and she has the Irish in her. Please forgive us for the generalization, but like most of her kin, Kaylin can tell a story!

Check out her books! Severed Threads, Buried Threads, Banished Threads, Twisted Threads; Kaylin won Grand Prize in the 2017 CIBA competition in the CLUE category for Twisted Threads!

Poets and Historicals…

The Gentleman Poet: A Novel of Love, Danger, and Shakespeare’s “The Tempest” by Kathryn Johnson

In The Gentleman Poet, Kathryn Johnson poses an intriguing question: did Shakespeare personally experience a shipwreck before he wrote The Tempest? Find out!

J.P. Kenna‘s I’ll Take You Home Kathleen is a gripping tome of historical fiction that follows two Irish families who immigrated to the U.S. after Ireland’s Great Famine. A well-researched and well-told story of the social, economic, and political currents of the late 1800s.

Of course, Laura Navarre is our go-to-gal for steamy romance… Mistress Magick, Midsummer Magick, and Magick by Moonrise will comfort you if your pot of gold isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Choileach, Chanticleer’s Irish cousin, wishes you this:

May your heart be light and happy, may your smile be big and wide, and may your pockets always have a coin or two inside!

Happy St. Patrick’s Day from Sharon & Kiffer and the whole Chanticleer Team!

March 16, 2019
TRACK TWO ON REPEAT by Rebekah N. Bryan – Y/A, Music, Friendship

Annette Amsel is not on the popular-girl list at her school. She’s obsessed with Fuchsia Fireball, an emo band least liked among her peers, and receives more than her fair share of ridicule, which often leaves her close to tears. It doesn’t matter that Annette consistently knocks out has near straight-A grades and is involved in sports (shot put, discus, and track). It isn’t that she lacks a friend, she has a few, but they are all too preoccupied with their boyfriends to notice her misery. Ugh.

Amid her uncomfortable environs, Annette learns that Fuchsia Fireball will be performing in a sketchy area of Milwaukee. Besides requesting a concert ticket for her upcoming sixteenth birthday, Annette goes through a series of deals (including getting her driver’s license) with her parents so she can attend. One major prerequisite is for her to go with a friend, which is easier said than done. That’s when she turns to a Fuchsia Fireball fan website and begins chatting with a guy who may be a hopeful means to an end. Whether or not he is who he says he is and holds to his word remains to be seen.

In the next installment of The Fandom Collection award-winning author, Rebekah N. Bryan dishes up a lead character with whom readers will easily relate. Annette is shy, somewhat socially awkward, and just a wee bit introverted. To her, fitting in at school is critical, yet she always seems to be doing the wrong things or liking the wrong bands or, well, whatever. And even though she knows she’s got brains, she doesn’t feel like she measures up to the other girls at school. In other words, Annette is the perfect target for bullies.

Bryan’s plot may sound stereotypical, and that’s what makes the story ring so true. In a world where pressures surrounding today’s young adults lands somewhere in the too-much lane, Annette embodies these struggles, and we get to see if and how she resolves/solves them. Woven with today’s added bonuses of live chat rooms, experimental music, and online-strangers who feel like friends, bullying is the monster it always was. Readers will focus on the narrative’s underdog and follow along on her journey as she strives for self-acceptance. Bryan’s writing style is sure—a harmonious intermingling of story and dialogue (including chat lingo).

Light verbal flirtatious innuendos with Annette’s chatroom “boyfriend” help to break the continual tension as Annette finds herself in a flurry of believable and often frustrating situations that appear to block her chances to enjoy high school social life, but more importantly, attend the Fuchsia Fireball concert.

Track Two on Repeat is an engaging read and a nice addition to Bryan’s collection and won First Place in the 2017 CIBAs, Dante Rossetti, for Young Adult Fiction.

March 15, 2019
SLAVE to FORTUNE by D.J. Munro – YA Historical Fiction, Sea Adventures Fiction, Thriller & Suspense

At the tender age fourteen, Thomas Cheke is kidnapped in the dead of night by Barbary pirates from his home on the Isle of Wight. His widowed mother and sister are left behind, but Tom doesn’t know if they survive the surprise attack. During the next six years, his life will take more twists and turns than he could ever have imagined, and the resulting story is one of the most fascinating ever put to page.

Tom addresses the reader directly, and this lends a heightened sense of immediacy and excitement to an already gripping tale. He is the most sympathetic of characters, one with the deck stacked against him, though he uses his innate intelligence and wits most effectively. After the initial night when he fell “into the hands of the Turk,” an event English schoolchildren had been taught to fear, Tom is imprisoned on a corsair ship bound for Algiers where he knows he will be sold as a slave.

Keenly observant and eager to make the best of his situation, Tom helps another lad on the boat who works in the kitchen, and along the way learns much about the running of the ship, the men aboard, prisoners and crew alike, and does what he can to comfort two other children who were also kidnapped from the Isle of Wight. Why these three youngsters were targeted by the pirates is at the heart of an intricate mystery that builds throughout the book. Meanwhile, day to day life on the boat, seen through Tom’s eyes, is fascinating, especially when the crew chases a Spanish galleon laden with silver bullion and battle ensues.

Once in Algiers, Tom maintains his composure while his ankle is chained and manacled and he is sold to Ibrahim Ali, the Grand Treasurer of the city. Many surprises await Tom as he joins the household, including his growing admiration for his Master, a kind and erudite man who arranges for his servant’s learning Arabic and intense study of the Koran. As a trusted servant, Tom runs errands for Ibrahim in cosmopolitan Algiers, the sights and sounds of which are fully brought to life through Munro’s sumptuous and masterful prose. Tom’s time on the corsair ship provided him with information that will prove very useful in his master’s solving a dire financial issue that involves the weakening value of coinage in Algiers.

Key events upend his existence once more, and he finds himself on a ship headed to Malta with a new mentor in Sir Edward Hamilton, a Christian brother and knight of the Order of St. John. With his ankle chain newly removed, Tom adjusts to life as a free man and assists Edward in solving an elaborate cipher, a lengthy message coded with the suits of playing cards. This introduces a riveting subplot concerning Cardinal Richelieu and the attempted assassinations of the Duke of Mantua and the Duke of Buckingham. Computer programmers, as well as anyone interested in code breaking, will find this section of the book enthralling. Warning the intended victims that their lives are in danger requires further travels, including a trip to Venice.

You won’t be able to turn the pages fast enough! Do Tom and Edward prevent the assassinations? Does Tom ever set foot on English soil again? What will become of the young man, twenty years of age at the book’s conclusion, who has lived in Ottoman and Christian worlds as a slave and a free man? Adults and sophisticated young adult readers will find this book exquisitely captivating.

Anyone who’s read and loved Robert Louis Stevenson’s historic adventure, Kidnapped, will no doubt also love Slave to Fortune. The basis of D.J. Munro’s thrilling adventure, Slave to Fortune, is purportedly based on an original memoir by Thomas Cheke, an Englishman who lived during the seventeenth century. In the Endnote, D.J. Munro shares the research he undertook to confirm the events in Tom’s memoir and notes, “I hope that I have done it justice.” The answer, of course, is a resounding, “YES!”

Slave to Fortune won the 2017 CIBA Grand Prize in the Dante Rossetti Awards and took First Place in the 2017 CIBA Chaucer Awards for Early Historical Fiction.

March 13, 2019
HOUR GLASS by Michelle Rene – Coming of Age, Western Fiction, Tragic Drama/Plays

Hour Glass by Michelle Rene is the story of many lives, told through the lens of the young protagonist, Jimmy Glass. In non-linear fashion, Rene begins her story toward the end, when Jimmy and the infamous Calamity Jane once again cross paths. From there the story moves backward—to recount past events and the ways multiple lives are forever entangled. Hour Glass is a novel of strength, sadness, and perseverance.

Jimmy Glass’s father is dying of smallpox. With no options or way to help him at their homestead, Jimmy takes his dad and his younger sister Flower into the closest town—Dead Wood, South Dakota. A mining town is an unforgiving place, but Jimmy and his younger sister are quickly taken in by none other than Calamity Jane herself and a madam named Dora Duffran. The two siblings quickly find a home in the brothel and await news of their father’s health.

As their father’s life teeters on the edge, Jimmy’s dreams are full of visitations by his deceased Lakota stepmother Without Cage. She takes Jimmy to various times in their lives to show him things he needs to see and things he needs to remember.

Hour Glass is a novel driven by a complex cast of characters. There’s Calamity Jane, a belligerent drunkard with a kind heart. Jimmy Glass, a young boy with the burdens of manhood pushed on him far too early. Dora Duffran, the madam with a heart of gold and a spine of steel. Without Cage is seen only through memories, but her unbreakable spirit remains as strong as ever, and her character floats through the novel as any other earthly bound character with whom Rene gifts us.

Then there’s Flower Glass, Jimmy’s younger sister, a girl who many think of as peculiar for her anti-social behavior. She’s taciturn and reserved, dislikes loud noises and being touched, and appears not to pay any attention to what’s going on around her. Jane, however, seems to effortlessly bring Flower, or Hour as she comes to be known, out of her shell when others cannot.

This historical fiction manages to tell the story of many lives through only one character’s voice. Readers will find a sentimental novel that does an impressive job of recounting the meaningful ways in which lives can intersect, however briefly, and cause changes that will last forever.

Hour Glass by Michelle Rene won the 2017 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Overall Grand Prize!

March 12, 2019
Darklight 1: The Substance of Shadows by John Wells – Hard SciFi, Genetic Engineering, Military SciFi

In the aftermath of the Second American Civil War, a feisty, determined genius develops a new way to explore outer space making himself and those he cares about the central target in an interplanetary war in this first-of-a-series Space Opera, Darklight 1: The Substance of Shadows by John Wells.

Isaac “Crash” Tyson gets his nickname from refusing to give up. When faced with any problem, he just crashes on until whatever is in his way is resolved. A mathematics genius, Crash developed a new field of math, one that will open up space in such a way that earth explorers can take to the stars without any of the usual limitations. He only has to convince P-Quan, the Planetary Governor of Earth and his colleagues at the World Science Council to fund the project. They are all part of the PLAG (Planetary Government) a group of bureaucrats as crooked as they are ruthless.

Surprisingly, P-Quan goes along with Crash’s proposal; in fact, he’s had his eyes on Crash for some time. He plans to acquire all of Crash’s test data and develop the technology for the exclusive use of the PLAG. Of course, if Crash has a problem with this, P-Quan has the power and the position to crush Crash, permanently.

Crash is a genius all right, one who’s smart enough to be suspicious of P-Quan’s motivations. He takes on three assistants: the beautiful Lynn, in charge of operations, Nessi, the tech guy, and a hard-boiled policeman, DP, who is even more suspicious than his boss, and utterly loyal. After receiving the funding necessary, Crash gets busy and constructs the Spatial Exclusion Wave Generator (SEG) in a short time.

The first test of the SEG successfully canceled the spatial field’s interaction with matter and energy. To put it in layman’s terms, the SEG created a Space Hole, an enormous glass-covered hole. So formidable is its power that Nessi pronounces that Shiva, the Hindu god of destruction, has been set loose. The good news: SEG works, creating the space hole Crash predicted. The bad news: before Crash can do anything more, PLAG rushes in for the kill.

And in a distant galactic outpost, the drama on Earth is being monitored by the Cren Empire who have their own reasons for destroying Crash’s mission.

The Substance of Shadows is a classic sci-fi of Operatic proportions, positing futuristic technologies, armaments, deep thought, and hidden dimensions. It links a home planet under threat to a small intrepid group of rebels who dare to go beyond known limits, and in doing so, realize that the universe is far more complex and dangerous than any of them could have imagined.

At the offset, Wells paints a compelling, if bleak, scenario of a Second American Civil War predicated on some current political ideologies. The newly divided country will soon need what Crash can supply in the form of energy resources. In Crash, Wells offers an empathic leader for the Earthlings and other interstellar beings who will need guidance after the dust settles.

Our review of Darksight II: Conflagaration can be read and enjoyed here.

March 11, 2019
STRAIN of RESISTANCE, Book 1 in the Bixby Series by Michelle Bryan – Alien Invasion, Dark Fantasy/Horror, Parasitology

The apocalypse comes to the world one cloudy day in the form of a mist. But it’s no ordinary mist. There are tiny crystals in it, sentient crystals that once inside a victim, practically turn them inside out to birth a large worm which then takes control of the victim like a jockey riding a zombie.

On that day, twelve-year-old Emma Bixby is in the park taking refuge from the toxic home environment created by her alcoholic father. For some reason, the crystals, after entering Emma’s lungs and dropping her to her knees, reject her as a host. After surviving the initial attack, Emma rushes home to find her parents dead. And her world, imperfect as it was, gone.

Eight years later, Bix (Emma) is a hunter for a colony of fellow survivors holed up in a dilapidated hotel, The Grand. The world order has come down to three castes: colonists who live in fortified buildings behind barbed wire, guards who send out hunters to forage for food and supplies, and the ravagers. The last are roving gangs who survive through cannibalism and leeches, and in fact, are the alien invaders who ride their human hosts seeking out survivors to feast upon.

Eight years after the apocalypse, Bix is capable and strong, unwilling to back down from a fight, and fiercely loyal. But she is also impulsive, defensive, a loose cannon almost as dangerous to her friends as she is to her enemies. And though her heart is in the right place, her reactions and brash decisions frequently put her life and the lives of those around her at risk.

While resting up after a hunt, word comes down that the colony nearest them squatting in St. Joseph’s hospital has gone radio silent after what sounded like an attack of some sort. At the same time, one of The Grand’s hunting parties hasn’t returned. Bix and her group are sent out to discover what’s happened. The action is compelling and nonstop. Readers will find it difficult to put the book down.

Bryan defines and fleshes out her characters reasonably well. The opening sequence is one of the best we’ve ever read in a dystopian novel, which we’re betting will hook readers immediately. We like Emma right away, feel her pain and worry for her. Eight years later, we find a flawed and almost-impossible-to-recognize-as-the-same-girl Emma, now Bix. Here’s a character that is, at times, hard to sympathize with. Readers will find themselves rooting for her one minute and flummoxed by her brash behavior the next. The juxtaposition is that jarring.

The writing is crisp and compelling and contains elements of horror, action, as well as science fiction, skillfully mixed together reminiscent of the film, Aliens. Though present, the violence and gore of the horror elements are not over the top. And to add a bit of distraction, there are some steamy romantic scenes contained within. The pacing is fast, at times a little too fast. All in all, Michelle Bryan delivers on a first-in-series romp through a dystopian world with plenty of action and a lot of material for the following novels.

Strain of Resistance won First Place in the 2017 CIBAs, the Cygnus Book Awards for Science Fiction.

March 7, 2019
CUT: A Medical Murder Mystery by Amy S. Peele – Medical Mystery, Thriller, Cozy

With heart, compassion, and a dash of comic relief, Amy Peele’s engaging murder mystery takes us into the precarious realm of human organ transplantation. Here, as life-saving procedures become marred by money, social status, and criminal intent, a moral compass spins out of control, revealing just how far some will go to reach the top of the donor procurement platform.

Sarah Golden is a dedicated and well-respected traveling organ transplantation nurse who loves her job. She’s on the final leg of a four-month contract in Miami and plans to spend her bonus check on a wild trip to Cuba with her best friend from nursing school, Jackie Larsen. Jackie’s now a stay at home mom to son Wyatt, and married to Laura Calleghan, an Assistant Medical Examiner in San Francisco. When Sarah happens to overhear a conversation involving patient Amanda Stein, an obnoxious, over-indulged woman who oozes entitlement, it leads Sarah to believe this San Francisco executive didn’t receive her liver transplant through the proper channels. As Sarah decides to pursue her suspicions, she also learns that wealthy Amanda is best friends with the wife of Dr. Harris Bower, the renowned head of San Francisco’s Transplant Dept. who recently offered Sarah a senior position back in California.

From the back streets of Miami to the hub-bub of Chicago and the West Coast, this well-paced story plays out amidst raucous escapades of inquiry as Sarah enlists the help of her fun-loving cohort Jackie to trace the path of Amanda’s donor organ. Suddenly they’re attending high society charity events, performing Cuban gang bar surveillance, riding off with “Biker Bob” to a private speakeasy boasting 300 kinds of rum, and flirting with the local “Officer Handsome” to gain some lawful and necessary assistance. As Amanda’s nefarious Latin boy toy gets wise to the probing, the womanizing lothario is determined to stop them. Before long, this Cagney and Lacey-esque duo are entangled in an investigation as both hunters and prey.

In a well-balanced contrast to the typically dark and somber tones of a mystery, particularly one focused on such a serious topic, Peele lightens the hard edge through the wit and humor brought by the central characters. These savvy, wise-cracking women like to imbibe and enjoy throwing out a few f-bombs to relieve stress, but have a no-nonsense attitude about their jobs, and always maintain a genuine concern for friendship and family.

With a passion for organ donation, and 35 years in the field to ultimately retire from one of the most successful transplant programs in the country, Peele is able to draw from a deep well of knowledge and experience that translates seamlessly to the storyline. From enlightenment about how recipients get their organs, and distinctions between donor types, to the backlash of gaming (i.e. moving someone up on a list) that can shut down a program, these layers of detailed information woven throughout the story bring an added richness to the texture of this well-organized narrative.

Peele also brings emotional depth to this work, not only from her own nursing background but through the feisty personalities of the sleuthing duo. They are determined to find justice and hold accountable those attempting to undermine the transplant system. From sobering board room revelations about individuals denied organs due to immigration or economic status, to the heart-wrenching toll of losing young pediatric patients, the subject matter is presented as an important, timely, and volatile issue.

Cut: A Medical Murder Mystery won First Place in the 2017 CIBAs for the M&M Awards.

February 27, 2019
STORMFRONT by James Tacy Cozad – Thriller & Suspense, Mystery, Domestic Terrorism

The billionaire and founder of Gallagher Pharmaceuticals is a bad man. His stratagem: targeted biological warfare on specific groups of people worldwide. His followers, the chosen precious few, will be immune and survive. If the plan succeeds, Gallagher will be their leader. Can this supremacist leader compel his followers to execute an evil plan of worldwide, biological murder?

Meet a retired serviceman and current rancher Finn Dalton. After the trauma he experienced in his war-time service, all he yearns for now is a peaceful life, one where he can hunt rabbits and other game animals with his buddy and fellow veteran, Sam, and their beloved band of dogs. And maybe marry his girlfriend, Kiera Utsi. This peaceful existence is threatened one day during a hunt when Finn and Sam discover a mutilated corpse out in the New Mexican desert. Needless to say, Finn believes it to be a very suspicious death. The men alert authorities, but Finn is far from satisfied with the direction or progression of the investigation.

Tension and danger mount when Finn and Kiera follow perilous leads down trails fraught with unbelievable risk, uncovering more and more about the murder and how it is connected with Gallagher Pharmaceuticals. Their questions always lead back to the man in charge: Gordon Gallagher. But who will believe their theories and accusations? And now someone is trying to kill them.

The clock is ticking as to when the deadly virus will be let loose, and neither Finn nor Keira knows if they will be immune. Moreover, they’re not sure who they can confide in or join forces with. As the crisis builds, they risk fatal mistakes. Will they have to infiltrate the compound itself? Stormfront is approaching. And time is running out.

Author, James Tacy Cozad knows the territory in which his characters live, and his descriptions of the setting vividly add to the dynamic of the fast-paced plot. His knowledge of the beautiful and dangerous scenery combined with a well-researched understanding of weaponry brings to life a character that is “James Bond-like” in scope and capabilities, making this a rather fun, if not frightening, read.

James Tacy Cozad won 1st Place in the 2017 CIBAs for Global Thrillers category for Stormfront.

February 25, 2019
SALVAGING TRUTH (Hunters & Seekers Book 1) by Joanne Jaytanie – Romantic Suspense, Mystery, Military Romance

Famed marine biologist and researcher Claudia Rawlings is presumed dead. When Claudia’s research vessel goes down, her daughter Riley goes on a desperate search to discover what happened, eventually turning to Dagger Eastin, co-owner of Hunters and Seekers a marine salvage business. Dagger soon realize this isn’t a simple search and reclaim mission when someone takes a shot at him during an exploratory dive with Riley.

Former Navy SEALs, Dagger, and his partners Kaleb LaSalle and Stone Garrison are the definitions of relentless, and they quickly become embroiled in the investigation that has caught the attention of some very influential people, all seeking Claudia’s important research. And while Riley learns that her mother has left behind clues to her missing research, the Hunters and Seekers pull out all the stops to help and protect her. The wild scavenger hunt sends Dagger and Riley on a trip to discover the truth, but Russian spies, big oil cronies, and psychopathic hitmen lurk around every corner.

Much more than a pretty face, Riley is a smart, successful female main character who refuses to wait for the official investigation patiently and as a result, faces challenge after challenge. Despite being thrust into a dangerous environment, Riley is no timid female victim. But she isn’t without vulnerability, knowing instead when it is time to ask for help and rely on Dagger’s expertise. Riley is a fallible protagonist with guts and brains, one with whom readers of the genre will instantly connect and admire.

The first in a series, Salvaging Truth introduces readers to three heartthrobs destined to create an immediate book crush. The men of Hunters and Seekers are not only tall, dark, and handsome, but smart, funny, and lethal. The relationship between this “band of brothers” is touching and promises a myriad of future adventures.

The touching bond these men share creates an extended-family that is almost as close as Riley is with her mother. In fact, “created families” is a strong theme throughout the novel. Riley, an only child whose father passed away some years before the novel’s action, finds a family when she meets Dagger, Kaleb, and Stone. Many times, she relies on these men to not only protect her but to also provide the emotional stability she needs when she learns her mother has been killed. In her effort to salvage the truth behind her mother’s death, Riley relives many important familial moments while creating this new family with Dagger.

Joanne Jataynie’s Salvaging Truth (Hunters & Seekers, Book 1) won the GRAND PRIZE in the CIBAs 2019 CLUE Awards for best suspense/thriller novel.

February 22, 2019
DRAGON CHILD, Book 2 of The Shadow War Saga by Elana A. Mugdan – Epic Fantasy, Myths & Legends, Y/A

A young woman with more power than she realizes must confront the greatest evil in her cosmos in this richly conceived fantasy by Elana A. Mugdan.

In Book I of The Shadow War Saga, Dragon Speaker, we met Keriya, a teenage girl who went from being “nameless” by nature of her low social status to being given a new name of high honor – Keriya Soulstar. Book II begins as she and her friends Roxanne and Fletcher and her faithful dragon Thorion are relaxing in a Galantrian infirmary. With the vile shadow demon, Necrovar, destroyed, Keriya and Thorion can play and rest while Roxanne recuperates from her injuries.

Keriya, in fact, has never had it so good. She now has fast friends and allies, is regarded with great adoration by ordinary folk who see her as a magic-wielding warrior and has gained the respect she did not have in her early life. And to make matters even sweeter, there is a handsome young man, Max, who wants to get to know her a little more.

Imagine the surprise when she is summoned to be tried for treason.

Guided with telepathic messages from Thorion, Keriya answers her accusers and is acquitted, putting her archenemy General Tanthflame in the hot seat. It stands to reason, if she has told the truth, he must be the traitor. Now she must go to Noryk to meet with Lady Adelphia to testify in Tanthflame’s trial.

The night before her departure, Keriya has a vision. In it, she meets with Necrovar and the great spirit Shivnath from whom she derived her ability to do battle with the hateful shadow beast. Her vision clearly shows that although Necrovar is weakened, he is by no means eradicated. Keriya must abandon her peaceful niche and join the struggle against this evil once again.

Is she equal to that task? And where is her magic sword? Before her questions can be answered, Thorion is attacked and wounded, and flees, leaving no doubt where Keriya’s duty lies.

Author and filmmaker Mugdan has devoted much of her time since adolescence to constructing this grand tale of dragons, demons and a heroine who scarcely knows or understands her own powers but acts with faith that she can conquer the dark forces besetting her world.

Mugdan’s writing is charming and confident, revealing an expansive and delightful use of language. Also tucked neatly in this volume, Mugdan introduces Valerion of the Unknown Lands who has sworn to destroy Necrovar with a mystical spell and an enchanted sword. A possible love interest? Readers may expect to know more of him and his connection to Keriya in Book III, already planned for release.

February 21, 2019