Suzanne Trauth’s What Remains of Love begins with the discovery of a family secret.
Siblings Kate and DJ meet with their late father’s lawyer to go over the contents of their father’s will when it is revealed that a woman named Emilie had been added without their knowledge. DJ, an all-business, no-nonsense person, wants to deny the request. Kate wants to fulfill their father’s wishes even though they don’t understand the reason behind it. When they send a letter to Emilie, her daughter replies, stating Emilie has passed away and that she will not accept the money.
Her brother’s curiosity is satisfied, but Kate can’t help but feel there is more to the story, especially given that their father withheld his experiences in the war from them both.
Who was this mysterious woman, and why did their father have such a powerful connection to her? And why did he need to keep their relationship a secret?
While going through her father’s things, she comes across a memoir written by Emilie during the later years of the war. Fans of historical fiction, romance, and books such as Kelly Rimmer’s The Things We Cannot Say will love Suzanne Trauth’s story of love, family, and the passage of time.
Trauth’s novel builds on several subtle layers that beautifully blend to create a profoundly moving story.
The most obvious of these layers is the experience of grief in many forms. After their father passes, Kate and DJ grieve differently from one another. Many times throughout the novel, grief opens opportunities to see the deeper parts of others that are usually hidden, brings family closer, and finds common ground between strangers.
There is also the grief of things had and lost and of life’s what-ifs – that sadness of knowing the past can’t be changed and why things happened the way they did. Through the grief in this story, there is also so much love. The title of this book perfectly fits its message that no matter what happens in life, whether good or bad, love will endure through it all.
What Remains of Love defies simple categories.
One could say it’s a mystery, and readers will turn the pages rabidly like Kate trying to discover what happened to Emilie so long ago. This book is a historical fiction novel with a beautiful love story and a contemporary fiction about a family dealing with life after losing a loved one. Trauth expertly establishes her characters, that they soon feel like they are sitting next to you, telling you the story themselves.
A phenomenal story of life and everlasting love, What Remains of Love will remain with readers long after the last page. Highly recommended.
Defense lawyer Joe Turner encounters and defends the worst that Oakland, California has to offer in T.L. Bequette’s mystery novel, Blood Perfect.
Turner promises to join the ranks of other beloved protagonists in mystery novels. He carries a cynical and hard-boiled approach to the realities of life and his work. Blood Perfect has some elements of Scottish Noir; the protagonist’s personal crises weave into the main plot. He has a personal reason for defending the accused and debilitating flashbacks from a childhood trauma. His struggles engender in him a strong sense of right and wrong.
Turner’s college girl-buddy, the object of his unrequited lust, hooks him into a case that seems to defy logic. Alston Walker, a middle-aged black man with an unforgettable ugly face stands accused of stabbing Jefferson Beauregard Devaney, a middle-aged white man, after an argument over rent. Seventy dollars. Alston has an alibi and Devaney has no reason to lie. But why would Devaney accuse the wrong person?
This mystery hasn’t yet shown all its parts.
P.I. Chuck Argenal, an aging deadhead with a penchant for flip-flops and cargo shorts, and Deputy District Attorney Matt Eisner, an old friend of Turner’s deceased father, join his posse. They can prove Walker’s innocence. But when he learns the fraudulent truth of their key witness, Joe must report it—the verdict cannot stand. Yet, in his gut, he believes whole-heartedly in Walker’s innocence. He drives hard to discover who truly attacked Devaney. That truth arrives with an epiphany that may change his life forever.
Different voices tell this story in a sometimes-non-linear chronology. The complex characters will engage readers as much as the questions of the mystery itself. Their yarns within yarns conceal and reveal their personalities and their part to play in the case.
The murder of his father has haunted Joe since he was twelve years old.
He suffers troubling flashbacks throughout the story, adding an intriguing dimension to his character. In fact, the finale holds a final twist regarding the “who” in the whodunit leaving readers ready for more.
T.L. Bequette masterfully builds his series, creating growth in his characters through each novel. Combining supreme character building and a fast-paced mystery with enough twists and red herrings, readers won’t be able to set the book down until the final page.
In short, Joe Turner is well on the way to becoming a fixture in contemporary mystery fiction.
We are deeply honored and excited to continue to announce the 2021 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs) with our third and final of three official postings.
CIBA Grand Prize Ribbons!
The winners were recognized at the CIBA ceremonies held on June 25th, 2022 in-person and by ZOOM webinars at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
The CIBA announcements were made LIVE with Chanticleerians participating and interacting from around the globe and North America.
Raising our glasses to cheer the CIBA Winners!
We want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 25 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!
We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increasing exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division. The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division.
This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for the
Seven Non-Fiction Divisions:
Journey, Hearten, Harvey Chute, Mind and Spirit, I & I, Military & Frontline and Nellie Bly
along with the FIRST Winners for the
Short Story, and Book Series Awards,
and concluding with the
OVERALL 2021 GRAND PRIZE WINNER
for the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards
J.W. Zarek will also be awarded $1,000 USD in recognition of her 2021 BEST BOOK of the YEAR – Chanticleer International Book Awards – Sponsored by Chanticleer Reviews & Media.
A Chanticleer Review ofThe Devil Pulls the Stringswill be featured in the in the Chanticleer Reviews OnWord Magazine (print and epub) along with other promotional and marketing opportunities along with an interview with the author, J.W. Zarek.
Thank you J.W. Zarek for participating in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards. We look forward to receiving future work in our CIBAs.
CONGRATULATIONS J.W. Zarek!
Six Grand Prize Winners with J.W. Zarek, the 2021 Overall Grand Prize Winner!
From all of us at Chanticleer International Book Awards and Chanticleer Reviews.
Looking for your Division? Check out our previous posts:
Be sure to register early for the 11th Chanticleer Authors Conference that will start on April 23rd, 2023 with the 2022 CIBA banquet and ceremony scheduled to take place on Saturday, April 25th, 2023 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether in Bellingham, Wash.
Be well. Stay Healthy. Take Care!
An email will go out to all 2021 CIBA award winners prior to October 30, 2022, with instructions, links, and more information about the awards packages. We appreciate your patience. As stated many times before “One does not need to be present at the CIBA ceremony and banquet to win. But it sure is a lot more fun!”
As always, please contact us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com with any questions, concerns, or suggestions!
We are deeply honored and excited to announce the 2021 Winners of the Chanticleer International Book Awards (The CIBAs). The Finalists were recognized at the Virtual Chanticleer Authors Conference and Awards Ceremonies, and the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners were announced June 25th, 2022 at the luxurious Hotel Bellwether, Bellingham, Wash.
The 2022 Chanticleer Authors Conference and the 2021 Chanticleer Int’l Book Awards Banquet and Ceremony took place over June 23-26, 2022, with the CIBA Banquet happening on June 25th. Each year, Chanticleerians from around the globe come together to celebrate and cheer each other on at the annual CIBA banquet and awards evening at the luxuriousHotel Bellwetherthat is situated on beautiful Bellingham Bay, Washington State.
Meeting in-person for the first time since lockdown began brought such joy into our lives. The ability to celebrate, hug, and learn together with the extra space provided by the Hotel Bellwether made this a truly unforgettable experience. Champagne was poured and shared as the 2021 CIBA Grand Prize Division Award Winners were announced. Thank you to all who joined us in-person and virtually to make the CIBA Ceremonies a success!
The 2021 Grand Prize Winners in attendance!
After two virtual conferences, it was a joy and pleasure to feel the energy of an in-person crowd! It was amazing to have such a marvelous event with presenters like Cathy Ace, Judy Gaman, Betsy Graziani Fasbinder, Jessica Morrell, Nicole Evelina, Jodé Millman, Oriana Leckhert, Diane Garland, and more!
We are already excited and gearing up for our next conference in nine short months! Save the date for CAC23 April 27-30, 2023.
At the June 25th, 2021 Ceremonies, we were overjoyed to recognize the 18 Fiction and 7 Non-Fiction CIBA Divisions for the First Place Category and Grand Prize Winners!
First of all, we want to thank all of the CIBA judges who read each and every entry and then comment, rate, and rank within each of the 25 CIBA Divisions. Without your labors of love for books, the Chanticleer International Book Awards would not exist. THANK YOU!
We want to thank all of the authors and publishers who participated in the 2021 Chanticleer International Book Awards (the CIBAs). Each year, we find the quality of the entries and the competitiveness of the division competitions increases exponentially. We added a new level to the judging rounds in 2019—the premier Level of FINALIST per each CIBA Division.
The CIBA judges wanted to add the Finalist Level of Achievement as a way to recognize and validate the entries that had outstanding merit but were not selected for the very few First Place Award positions within each genre division. Promotional Stickers are available to those who have advanced in the CIBA Tiers of Achievement here.
A Recap of the CIBA Selection Process
The 2021 CIBAs have 18 Fiction Divisions and 7 Non-fiction Divisions.
First Place Category award winners were selected for each one of the 25 divisions from an overall field of titles that progressed to the Premier FINALIST Division Level from the Division Semi-Finalists positions from the Shortlists, the Long List, and the infamous beginning slush pile rounds.
One Grand Prize award winner was selected from the First Place Category Award Winners for the 25 CIBA divisions.
One Overall Grand Prize award winner was selected from the 25 divisions of Grand Prize Award Winners
This post will recognize the First Place and Grand Prize Winners for Cygnus, Ozma, Paranormal, Global Thrillers, M&M, Clue, Little Peeps, Gertrude Warner, and Dante Rossetti Book Awards.
As always, if you have any questions, concerns, or suggestions, please email us at Chanticleer@ChantiReviews.com — We will try to respond within 3 business days.
Thank you for joining us in celebrating the 2021 CIBA Winners! –The Chanticleer Team
Are the sins of the father destined to burden the children? Or is it the sins of the mother that create a child’s worst nightmare? Find out in Paul Attaway’s riveting Southern mystery, Blood in the Low Country (The Atkins Family Saga).
Rose Atkins is weighed down by a lifetime of desperate secrets. The mother of two teenage sons and wife to a lawyer, Monty, Rose goes to great lengths to keep her past hidden. Her attempts to conceal all details about this sordid history may bury both of her sons. With the passage of time, secrets become harder and harder to keep. The pressure builds and leads to cracks in the foundation that Rose carefully manufactured for her life. If she falls through, it may be her family that will pay the heaviest price.
Rose’s brutal efforts to maintain a blissful family illusion is designed so she will be admired by all in the community.
Behind closed doors their dysfunctional home life erupts. Rose idolizes her younger son, Walker and loathes her older son, Eli. Both extremes are destructive. Her misguided actions reflect her feelings about their different fathers.
Despite their mother’s constant interference, sons Eli and Walker develop a close bond. They work to brighten their futures, creating their own secrets as they try to live undetected by their mother’s intrusive radar. At the same time, they can’t help but engage in a never-ending series of individual attempts to earn love from Rose and Monty. All their efforts end in disappointment. Rose and Monty always want more.
The boys become discouraged and distraught by the pressure of their parents’ requirements of acceptance – of earning their love. Why does love have strings attached? Eli and Walker are caught in a sad cycle. If only Monty could find a way to unite the family, but he is mystified by his wife’s actions and unsure what he can do.
Catastrophe strikes when Eli’s girlfriend, Kimberly is found murdered.
Last seen in an argument with Eli, the boy becomes the prime suspect in her murder. Eli declares his innocence and naturally seeks support from his mother. She coldly turns her back on him. Abandoned, can her desperate son find justice on his own?
The shock of this tragedy has forever altered the lives of Eli, Walker, his parents, and all those in Kimberly’s family. In the meantime, there is a killer on the loose who is emboldened knowing that all accusing eyes are distracted by Eli.
Author Paul Attaway creates intriguing characters with complex interrelationships, presented in such a realistic way readers will find it difficult to put the book down.
The characters’ reactions to their situations as the plot moves forward is compelling and heartbreaking. In short, those who enjoy their Southern Mysteries with an intricate plot and highly relatable characters will line up for more. Blood in the Low Country is one mystery we highly recommend.
Author Paul Attaway is a master at showing a series of events from such varying characters’ perspectives. It’s so intriguing to discover the motives and actions of the different personalities when confronted by the same events. The writing is artfully paced, stimulating the reader with a constant curiosity of what can happen next.
These characters, often at cross purposes, drive circumstances forward to an inevitable, explosive conclusion. The author ignites this climax by skillfully revealing surprise twists. While presenting this enticing drama, the story also contains a thrilling mystery and hunt for a killer. Readers follow the clues as they are uncovered, finding themselves caught up in the case and cheering for the families, and for justice. But, once Blood in the Low Country is spilled, can secrets be forgiven, love triumph, and trust be restored?
In Shadowed by Death, the second novel in writer Mary Adler’s World War II mystery series, we’re taken back to America in the forties, and to a time when human kindness and human soullessness battled for the soul of the world.
Homicide detective Oliver Wright, a Marine wounded in the Pacific and his service dog, Harley, are back home in the San Francisco Bay area. Despite recovering from a nearly shattered leg, the military calls on Wright to investigate the near-fatal battering of Irina, a young woman found bruised and beaten on a local military base. The assignment leads to an equally complex assignment, protecting Sophia Nirenska, a Polish Jew whose life’s mission is to raise American awareness of the atrocities committed by Russia against her countrymen. She also proselytizes aiding orphaned Jewish children strewn across the world after the war is over.
Someone is trying to shut her up, at minimum, or kill her. Wright is given the task of protecting her at all costs. It’s not easy. Sophia is a survivor of the Nazi’s unrelenting attacks against Warsaw and a severe critic of Russia’s unacknowledged attacks against her countrymen. She is also uncompromising about being self-sufficient after having survived the horrors of the Warsaw ghetto and the disintegration of her family.
The question is who wants her dead the most: anti-Semites, Nazis, or Russians? Protecting her is no easy job.
Harley, Wright’s military-trained service dog, becomes a major player in his master’s twin investigations, both protecting Wright and helping to track down the people who are trying to hurt her.
More than just a thriller, this novel seemingly has a mission to educate 21st Century readers about some aspects of World War II that few may be familiar with. While the Holocaust is well known, the Russians capture and massacre of thousands of Poles at Katyn is less so. It took modern scholarship to prove Russia did it, not the Nazis. The dogged resistance of the U.S. to take in more Jews during the war years becomes part of the book’s informational side. Readers are given a detailed description of the bureaucratic quagmire that made emigration of European Jews here virtually impossible despite knowledge of the atrocities being committed against them.
These and other facts are expertly interwoven into the narrative as Wright tries to get to the bottom of who wants Sophia and Irina dead, and why.
In many ways, Wright becomes a surrogate for most Americans who never experienced the full impact of the war in Europe. As one character says, in part, “We must think of [these refugees] as having brought their own justice system with them, and for the duration, we will suspend ours where they are concerned… The communists who infiltrate the Polish underground inform on them to the Gestapo. The Poles who survive will be killed or imprisoned when Russia takes over Poland. [Those who] betrayed the resistance for years… will be the cause of suffering for even more years to come. We can only imagine how many people were tortured and killed because of [them], and how many more will be.”
Shadowed by Death is a powerful inventive thriller and a provocative look into some chilling aspects of World War II that have lost none of their relevance in today’s explosive international political climate. Highly recommended.
Religions and personalities collide, mix, and meld in this vibrant multicultural, multinational mystery by author Henry G. Brinton, set in the engaging town of Occoquan, Virginia.
Harley Camden never heard of Occoquan before he is assigned there by his bishop. She insists on a change of venue for him because both his sermons and his management of church affairs have lost their flavor – understandably – after his wife and daughter were killed in Brussels, by Islamic terrorists who used nail bombs to make their horrifying statement.
Camden realizes that he needs the change, and soon finds that, despite his inner pain, Occoquan has many charms, and many charming residents who go out of their way to make him feel at home.
Tim, who lays claim to no religion, introduces him to the remarkable history of the region, staunchly abolitionist during the Civil War. Tim also tells him about the Bayatis, an Iraqi family who operate the local bakery. Not long after Camden’s arrival, the complacent riverside town is rocked by sudden tragedy when Norah, the baker’s daughter, is murdered; the presumption made by law enforcement is that her father Muhammad is guilty of a ritualistic killing because Norah had consorted with a man, thus dishonoring her family.
To preach the Christian gospel, find forgiveness in his enraged anti-Islamic mind, and to find a way to bring together the many strands of spirituality in the town – Christian, Jewish, Muslim – will be a task that Camden never expected to take on.
Tormented by strange, seemingly prophetic dreams, and guided to meet a Coptic Christian couple and a Jewish woman about whom he receives psychic “messages,” Camden will also befriend the Bayatis and begin, almost without meaning to, to investigate Norah’s murder. In doing so he will uncover obscure but meaningful lore with a bearing on the town’s dilemma, providing regenerative fodder for his emotive sermons. In seeking Norah’s actual killer, he will also imperil himself, and ultimately uncover a terrifying danger hovering over Occoquan.
Brinton knows whereof he writes, as a Presbyterian minister and well-known journalist whose articles often encompass the themes of multiculturalism, religious understanding, and tolerance.
Examining as he does the thorny religious and political issues gripping the nation and our world today, Brinton makes Camden a spokesperson for those crucial themes. Mining materials from the history of the Galilean city of Sepphoris as the “city of peace” brings his story into broader focus, while the real-life town of Occoquan is almost a character in the book’s plot, so deeply does Brinton delve into its unique and admirable qualities.
The first in a series of Harley Camden sagas, City of Peace is a tale of disruption and chaos – followed by reconciliation and interfaith resolve – that will fascinate readers of intelligent mystery fiction and make them seek more offerings from this talented wordsmith.
What is lurking in the shadows? When did these footprints appear outside her house? Anna is sure she’s being followed again in Courtney Leigh Pahlke’s mystery thriller, Life Force Preserve.
What is it that follows her? She’s still recovering from the last dire, grave accident. Now Anna can only wonder if that dark day, the worst day of her life, even was an accident. Someone or something is after her. With no idea why, Anna doesn’t know where to turn for help. How will she find her way, now that something beyond her control has knocked the life she loved out from under her?
Anna is suffering from disabling injuries after a shocking car accident that killed her beloved mother. Her father, brother, and best friend are all a phone call away and dedicated to helping Anna recover. Sometimes it’s surprising how far away that phone call can be. When Anna takes a terrible fall in the snow outside her house and regains consciousness, there’s a figure rushing nearby her, moving erratically and watching her. She can’t get a good look at it. Is it her imagination? She has to get away, to find safety. She has to get herself back to the hospital where they can help her.
Anna is able to make it to a cab and the hospital. What she discovers there is good news and bad news.
Tests reveal that her healing is miraculously ahead of schedule. It’s truly a mystery to the doctors how she is mending. They order more tests and procedures to be sure what they’re seeing is real. For Anna, this heartening news is quickly overshadowed by suspicious strangers in the hospital corridors. An ominous movement in her direction, a watchful stare, several others giving her too much attention and Anna is once again on the alert and on the run.
Anna’s fears are confirmed when she’s approached by Bryan. He’s a stranger yet knows about her situation. His concern and his actions to help are puzzling, but he convinces her to trust him. They leave for a safe place where Bryan introduces his associates. That’s when he explains what is after Anna and why. Her only hope, according to Bryan, is to join them in their own desperate fight against these brutal beings. Their efforts are the last chance to stop these villains from achieving their terrifying goal. Bryan offers no guarantees, and Anna must decide if she can trust him.
Author Courtney Leigh Pahlke’s Anna is a most thoughtful and courageous protagonist confronting a life altering crisis.
Now we see how Anna has to rethink what remains of her life and gather her remaining strength and judgement to find her way forward into a turbulent future. The author skillfully immerses the reader deep into Anna’s point of view so we can see the world around her as she does, feel her emotions, and weigh her choices right along with her. Anna is surrounded by an engaging group of characters. The plot pacing builds subtly at first, then intensifies with the suspense of what may be following Anna. The excitement compounds with the revelation that the risk is even bigger than Anna ever imagined. As threats close in, Life Force Preserve stands guard.
How does one avoid family at all cost? A change to name and identity? Participate in AA? Use of a drug or alcohol as a coping habit? Live in a trailer home?
Check out Marian Exall’s third book, A Splintered Step, in the Sarah McKinney series to find out what happens with her in Wales!
In the second book, Sarah lands an offer to help her mentor locate his distant daughter, and this adventure takes her to rural Dordogne, France. She also must confront her own inner challenges and dangers. Now, McKinney faces her family fears and the origins of her demons in a heart-stopping and heart-breaking story!
We learn more about a special someone in Sarah’s life who asks her to visit during the time between Christmas and New Year’s Day. She reconnects one evening with a musician named Deke. He ends up being her long-lost brother Shane who is in hiding from their abusive parents and plays covers of Rolling Stones songs. Exall describes all her characters effortlessly, making them lifelike, vivid and dynamic.
Even though the conflict of McKinney’s family is troubling and for some hard to read, her supportive journalist beau Dykstra leads her on a fact-finding mission that is impossible to ignore.
The pair reconnect over a cozy meal, where he surprises her with a lovely and sentimental family heirloom as a gift. They decide haphazardly to travel after attending the funeral of Dykstra’s beloved mentor, whose death came suddenly. While on their travels, they spend the first part of their trek getting to know Sarah’s musician brother, Deke. The two continue and after hours of driving into the white and cold dark winter, the snowbanks pile up and force them to reconsider their choice. As luck would have it, they end up at a bed and breakfast and spend the night, which is the scene for a plot twist!
Sarah’s story and family origins make for good imagery and believable characters with great dialogue. Some transitions didn’t flow effortlessly and seemed out of place such as the bird sanctuary at the B&B, but overall, the story is well crafted and is hard to put down. The chemistry between Dykstra and McKinney uses their professions to their advantage to solve the case: Dykstra is a journalist; McKinney is an international advocate. Dykstra is no fuss and only out to get the next big story, but McKinney loves a good adventure which helps the two balance each other out.
Although the descriptions of Wales as a location are sparse, the dialogue between a local host and his uncle (Uncle Georgie & Michael) give us a clearer understanding of the rural setting.
The love and tenderness that Sarah shows her brother is also a bright light in their dark and abusive family’s past. Plus, the plot-lines pulling on Dykstra and McKinney compel readers to devour this whodunnit page turner.
Readers will enjoy the story with or without the first two books in the Sarah McKinney series. A Splintered Step is a tale not for the faint of heart as there are some violent scenes, but it is worth continuing to see if the two can solve the case. The best audience for this book is someone who likes a good mystery, likes to travel in Europe and enjoys the Rolling Stones.
Aura Montgarten needs to find her sister, Natalie, in Danica Winters’ paranormal romance, Montana Mustangs.
At first, Aura hopes that Natalie just went off with friends and didn’t bother to call. But the silence continues for more than a week. Aura jumps in her truck to search the last place Natalie’s cell phone had been used, a mountain near Somers, Montana, behind a place called the Diamond Ranch. Before she can get onto the mountain to search, Aura becomes embroiled in a darker mystery when she finds a mutilated hand near where Natalie had been staying. With the gruesome discovery, she fears that Natalie ran into more serious trouble than she had first suspected.
When a handsome sheriff’s deputy questions her, Aura feels a stirring she hasn’t ever experienced.
Dane Burke, a no-nonsense lawman, has a case to solve. He shouldn’t be thinking about the mysterious, beautiful drifter in any way except as a possible suspect. With one failed marriage and a non-existent relationship with his estranged brother, he can’t allow himself to feel anything, not even lust. Little does he know, Aura feels much the same, but for very different reasons. Aura keeps her true identity hidden: a shape-shifting nymph. As part of her supernatural nature, any man who loves her or that she loves will die. The two delve deeper into the mystery and the search for Natalie, and their feelings become impossible to deny.
Dane and Aura have juxtaposing relationships with their respective siblings.
Aura and Natalie couldn’t be closer. As demigods, the two nymphs have lived for over five hundred years. They share the same curse, connecting them by something else–the need, but inability, to love. Because they cannot allow themselves to find love in a mate, they only have each other. Though Natalie has often “gone wild” and let her Mustang side free for days or weeks at a time, she always returns to her sister who hasn’t shifted in many years. In fact, the two have never gone seven days without speaking before. Aura will do anything to find her sister, even if it means using her nymph powers of seduction to force Dane to help her.
Dane and his brother, Zeb, couldn’t be further apart. For over twenty years, Dane has stayed away from the Diamond Ranch, once his childhood home and owned now by Zeb. Dane vowed to never return to the ranch when he caught his wife in the arms of his brother. Absence has not made their hearts grow fonder. When Dane shows up at the ranch to question his brother, Zeb meets him with a shotgun, and when Dane releases Zeb from custody, the two brawl in a parking lot. Aura can’t understand their interactions because of her closeness with Natalie.
Aura and Dane must both face their fear of love.
Dane was hurt before, however Aura knows that for her, life and death hang in the balance of her love. She wants to protect Dane from her curse. This presents an ironic twist considering Dane, the consummate protector, has sworn to save lives even at the cost of his own. Aura seems fearless, but in truth her fear of love controls her to the point she has never shared her secrets with any man. She uses her hundreds of years of watching humans cruelly hurt animals as part of her excuse—how could she possibly love them?
Despite her fear, Aura can’t deny she actually enjoys Dane’s controlling nature, the predator and prey feelings that excite her nymph nature. Her feelings go beyond lust, though, coming from “somewhere hidden,” a place no man has ever touched. These new feelings make her consider allowing herself to love and be loved. Though she has always prided herself on being free, she knows she has never truly been so because of her fear of love. Dane’s love becomes the very thing to break her from the bonds of that fear.
In Shadowed by Death, the second novel in writer Mary Adler’s World War II mystery series, we’re taken back to America in the forties, and to a time when human kindness and human soullessness battled for the soul of the world.
What is lurking in the shadows? When did these footprints appear outside her house? Anna is sure she’s being followed again in Courtney Leigh Pahlke’s mystery thriller, Life Force Preserve.
How does one avoid family at all cost? A change to name and identity? Participate in AA? Use of a drug or alcohol as a coping habit? Live in a trailer home?
Aura Montgarten needs to find her sister, Natalie, in Danica Winters’ paranormal romance, Montana Mustangs.
