Over Maya Dead Body by Sandra Orchard

This is such a fun series. I love this type of mystery. I love Serena but I do hope she figures out which guy is right for her. Some people just have a hard time taking a vacation. Serena must solve a case while on vacation because it is her fathers best friend. I love all the characters in this story. I especially like Serena, Aunt Martha and Nate. I received this book from Revell and the author for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

FBI Special Agent Serena Jones arrives on Martha’s Vineyard with her family, ready for a little bit of R&R and a whole lot of reminiscing as they celebrate the engagement of an old family friend. But crime doesn’t take a vacation, and she’s soon entangled in an investigation of a suspicious death tied to an antiquities smuggling ring.
When her investigation propels her into danger, Serena must stay the course and solve this case before anyone else dies. But just how is she supposed to do that when the two men in her life arrive on the scene, bringing with them plenty of romantic complications—and even a secret or two?

Deadfall by Linda Fairstein

This was wonderful. I love this group of characters. This book had many twists and turns that really had me guessing as to the bad guys. I could not put this book down. I give this a five of five stars. I so look forward to the next in the series. I received an ebook copy of this book from Firsttoread for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Hunting a killer within New York’s urban jungle becomes the biggest case of Alexandra Cooper’s career in New York Times bestselling author Linda Fairstein’s latest unputdownable thriller.

 

A wild heart beats within New York City. Amid concrete and skyscrapers, the Wildlife Conservation Society works to preserve and protect the animal kingdom both within and beyond the borders of the five boroughs. But dangerous creatures don’t always have claws and fangs, as Assistant DA Alexandra Cooper and NYPD detectives Mike Chapman and Mercer Wallace know all too well. Predators lurk close to home, and in the aftermath of the shocking drive-by murder of an important city employee—someone Alex has worked with for years—the trio must discover who the bigger snake is: the killer or the victim.

 

Investigations into the death provide more questions than answers, as a tangled mess of secrets slowly comes to light. From bribes to secret societies, from big-game hunting to the illegal animal trade, from New York City zoos to behind closed doors in government buildings, Alex will have her work cut out for her if she wants to uncover the truth—and uphold the integrity of the office she has so proudly served.

 

Deadfall proves once again why Linda Fairstein is hailed as “a champion teller of detective tales.”* 

A Name Unknown by Roseanne M. White with a giveaway.

I could not put this book down. This has been one of my favorite books this year or even ever. This is the first book of a new series(Shadows Over England) and I can’t wait for the next book in this series. I loved the characters in this book, especially Rosemary and Peter. I learned some history in this novel. I loved the twists and turns. This is a great story. I received this book from Celebratelit for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

About the Book
NameUnknown_mck.indd
Book title: A Name Unknown
Author: Roseanna M. White
Release date: July 4, 2017
Genre: Historical Romance
 
She’s Out to Steal His Name.
Will He Steal Her Heart Instead?
 
Rosemary Gresham has no family beyond the band of former urchins that helped her survive as a girl in the mean streets of London. Grown now, they are no longer pickpockets—now they focus on high value items and have learned how to blend into upper-class society. Rosemary’s challenge of a lifetime comes when she’s assigned to determine whether a certain wealthy gentleman is loyal to Britain or to Germany. How does one steal a family’s history, their very name?
As Europe moved closer to World War I, rumors swirl around Peter Holstein. Awkward and solitary, but with access to the king, many fear his influence. But Peter can’t help his German last name and wants to prove his loyalty to the Crown—so he can go back to anonymously writing a series of popular adventure novels. When Rosemary arrives on his doorstop pretending to be a well- credentialed historian, Peter believes she’s the right person to help him dig through his family’s past.
When danger and suspicion continue to mount, though, and both realize they’re in a race against time to discover the truth—about Peter’s past and about the undeniable attraction kindling between them.
 
About the Author
RoseannaJuly2016Roseanna M. White pens her novels beneath her Betsy Ross flag, with her Jane Austen action figure watching over her. When not writing fiction, she’s homeschooling her two children, editing and designing, and pretending her house will clean itself. Roseanna is the author of over a dozen historical novels and novellas, ranging from biblical fiction to American-set romances to her British series. Spies and war and mayhem always seem to make their way into her novels…to offset her real life, which is blessedly boring. You can learn more about her and her stories at http://www.RoseannaMWhite.com.
Guest Post from Roseanna White
It’s always a challenge to make a historical setting authentic—especially when it’s set in a region you’ve only ever read about. As I was writing A Name Unknown, I learned so much about Cornwall—all the more when I had the opportunity to visit the gorgeous Penzance region while the book was still in edits! I quickly learned that I had far too many trees in my story, and hadn’t quite captured the uniqueness of the coastal setting. I dove into rewrites with excitement and gusto, ready to make my fictional Cornwall more like the real one.
 
I studied the Cornish accent, Cornish foods, typical Cornish coloring in hair and eyes. I’ve now gotten rather proficient at making pasties (beef hand pies) from scratch, I’ve special-ordered ingredients to make Cornish ginger cookies called fairings, and I’ve spent quite a lot of time listening to videos of people speaking in a Cornish accent.
 
Delving into this rich region and its history was a blast! And I’m so excited to get to share the culture of Cornwall—and a taste of their unique flavors—with you. In a special Celebrate Lit giveaway, I’ll be offering not only a signed copy of my book, but also some homemade ginger fairings! Here’s the recipe I used . . . after special ordering the Mixed Spice (reminiscent of pumpkin pie spice) and Golden Syrup (a thick syrup with a bit of a toffee flavor) from Amazon. 😉 (I have a gram scale so did use the weight measurements rather than volume—also, English teaspoons and tablespoons are a bit bigger than American, so I heaped them, and I turned out deliciously.)
 
GINGER FAIRINGS RECIPE
 
100 grams butter, cold and diced
225 grams all-purpose flour
¼ heaping teaspoon salt
2 heaping teaspoons baking powder
2 heaping teaspoons baking soda
1 heaping teaspoon ginger
2 heaping teaspoons mixed spice
100 grams superfine (caster) sugar
4 heaping tablespoons golden syrup
 
Preheat oven to 375 F. Grease baking sheets or line with parchment paper.
 
Combine flour, salt, baking powder, baking soda, and spices in a stand mixer. Add the butter and beat until mixture forms coarse crumbs. Stir in sugar.
 
In a small saucepan, warm the golden syrup until it’s clarified a bit; stir into the flour mixture until a dough forms. Roll the dough into walnut sized balls and put on prepared baking sheets a few inches apart.
 
Bake 8-10 minutes, until golden. Cool a few minutes on the trays and then transfer to a cooling rack.
Blog Stops
July 18: Faithfully Bookish
July 18: These Splendid Sentences
July 18: Bibliophile Reviews
July 18: Neverending Stories
July 19: Bookworm Mama
July 19: Seasons of Opportunities
July 19: Blogging With Carol
July 20: A Reader’s Brain
July 20: Genesis 5020
July 20: Just the Write Escape
July 20: Debbie’s Dusty Deliberations
July 21: Fiction, Faith, and Fun
July 21: Pause for Tales
July 21: Connie’s History Classroom
July 22: Bigreadersite
July 22: Fiction Aficionado
July 22: Avid Reader Book Reviews
July 22: D’S QUILTS & BOOKS
July 23: Vicky Sluiter
July 23: Inklings and notions
July 23: Moments Dipped in Ink
July 24: Pursuing Stacie
July 24: Cordially Barbara
July 24: Reflections of my Bookshelves
July 24: Zerina Blossom’s Books
July 25: God’s Little Bookworm
July 25: Blossoms and Blessings
July 25: Live.Love.Read.
July 26: Black ‘n’ Gold Girl’s Book Spot
July 26: Margaret Kazmierczak
July 26: The Fizzy Pop Collection
July 26: Carpe Diem
July 27: cherylbbookblog
July 27: Christian Chick’s Thoughts
July 27: Splashes of Joy
July 28: With a Joyful Noise
July 28: Have A Wonderful Day
July 28: Christian Bookaholic
July 29: Thoughts from Mill Street
July 29: Raining Butterfly Kisses
July 29: Karen Sue Hadley
July 29: Faery Tales Are Real
July 30: His Grace is Sufficient
July 30: History, Mystery & Faith
July 30: Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses
July 31: Reader’s cozy corner
July 31: Cafinated Reads
July 31: Artistic Nobody
July 31: The Important Things in Life: God, Books, & Chocolate
Giveaway
fb157eeb-e8c3-4173-a504-a206afb22a93
To celebrate this tour, Roseanna is giving away a grand prize of a paperback copy of A Name Unknown & 2 dozen cookies from Roseanna!!! Click below to enter. Be sure to comment on this post before you enter to claim 9 extra entries! https://promosimple.com/ps/bc0e

My Heart Belongs on Mackinac Island by Carrie Fancett Pagels

I loved Maude. This is such a fun story. I love Ben and Jack also. This has some fun and romance . It would be hard to think that your father doesn’t trust that you can run a business. There are a few twists and turns in this book and everyone learns a few life lessons by the end. I received this book from Barbour publishing for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Journey now to Mackinac Island where…

A Tangled Gilded Age Love Story Unfolds.
Although the Winds of Mackinac Inn has been in her mother’s family for generations, Maude Welling’s father refuses to let her run it without the guidance of a husband. So she seeks to prove her worth and independence by working incognito as a maid at the Grand Hotel.
Undercover journalist Ben Steffans, posing as a wealthy industrialist, pursues a story about impoverished men chasing heiresses at the famed hotel. While undercover, he becomes attracted to an intriguing maid. By an act of heroism Ben endears himself to the closed-mouthed islanders—including Maude—and he digs deep for his story.
But when scandal threatens, will the growing love between Maude and Ben be scuttled when truths are revealed?
More from My Heart Belongs in Series…

My Heart Belongs in Fort Bliss: Priscilla’s Reveille by Erica Vetsch (January 2017)

My Heart Belongs in the Superstition Mountains: Carmella’s Quandary by Susan Page Davis (March 2017)

My Heart Belongs in Ruby City, Idaho: Rebecca’s Plight by Susanne Dietze (May 2017)

My Heart Belongs in the Shenandoah Valley: Lily’s Dilemma by Andrea Boeshaar (September 2017)

The Separatists by Lis Wiehl with Sebastian Stuart

This has a great storyline. I love the characters. They are so real. Each of these characters are so like real people. They all learn some valuable lessons along the way. This story has many twists and turns. There are way too many people out there that can be led so easily by someone who is charismatic. It is a spooky thought. I look forward to the next book in this series. I received a copy of this book from Smith Publicity for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

After getting the green light from her network to launch an investigative news show, Erica flies to Bismarck, North Dakota, to investigate Take Back Our Homeland, the largest secessionist group. What she finds is profoundly disturbing – a growing threat to the future of our union.
Back home, her husband Greg is drinking more and talking less—and taking an unusual interest in the glamorous author Leslie Burke Wilson. Erica’s teenage daughter has also begun acting out in troubling ways.

 
Then she discovers a potential informant murdered in her Bismarck hotel. Take Back Our Homeland might be even more dangerous than she had thought—and she’s unwittingly become one of the key players in the story. Her fear and anxiety escalate – for her marriage, her daughter, and her own life.

Bestselling novelist and former legal analyst for Fox News Lis Wiehl takes us behind the anchor’s desk in this gripping look at high-stakes reporting in a country torn apart.

The Last Train by Michael Pronko

This is a very interesting mystery. I learned things about Japan that I never knew. I liked Detective Hiroshi. He was a great character. This had many twists and turns. It was hard not to like the bad guy in this book also. I hope to read more books in this series. I received a copy of this book from Smith Publicity for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Detective Hiroshi Shimizu investigates white collar crime inTokyo. He’s lost his girlfriend and still dreams of his time studying inAmerica, but with a stable job, his own office and a half-empty apartment, he’ssettled in. 
When an American businessman turns up dead, his mentorTakamatsu calls him out to the site of a grisly murder. A glimpse from asecurity camera video suggests the killer was a woman, but in Japan, that seemsunlikely. Hiroshi quickly learns how close homicide and suicide can appear in acity full of high-speed trains just a step–or a push–away. 

 

Takamatsu drags Hiroshi out to the hostess clubs andskyscraper offices of Tokyo in search of the killer. She’s trying to escape Japanfor a new life by playing a high-stakes game of insider information. To findher, Hiroshi goes deeper and deeper into Tokyo’s intricate, ominous market forbuying and selling the most expensive land in the world.  

When Takamatsu inexplicably disappears, Hiroshi teams upwith ex-sumo wrestler Sakaguchi. They scour Tokyo’s sacred temples, corporateoffices and industrial wastelands to find out where Takamatsu went, and why onewoman would be driven to murder when she seems to have it all. 

 After years in America and lost in neat, clean spreadsheets,Hiroshi confronts the stark realities of the biggest city in the world, where insideinformation can travel in a flash from the top investment firms to the bottomof the working world, where street-level punks and teenage hostesses sell theirsouls for a small cut of highly lucrative land deals. 
Hiroshi’s determined to cut through Japan’s ambiguities–anddangers–to find the murdering ex-hostess before she extracts her finalrevenge–which just might be him.

Threads of Suspicion by Dee Henderson

I can only say that I love this story. I am so looking forward to book 3 in this series( An Evie Blackwell Cold Case). I love how Evie and David work so well together. There is just enough suspense in the story. Evie is on a missing person cold case squad in Illinois and still working for the Illinois Bureau of Investigation. She is very busy. There are many twists and turns throughout this story. Each cold case is very interesting. I did not want to put this book down. I received a copy of this book from Bethany House for a fair and honest opinion that I gave of my own free will.

Evie Blackwell’s reputation as a top investigator for the Illinois State Police has landed her an appointment to the governor’s new Missing Persons Task Force. This elite investigative team is launched with plenty of public fanfare. The governor has made this initiative a high priority, so they will have to produce results–and quickly.

Evie and her new partner, David Marshal, are assigned to a pair of unrelated cases in suburban Chicago, and while both involve persons now missing for several years, the cases couldn’t be more different. While Evie opens old wounds in a close-knit neighborhood to find a missing college student, David searches for a private investigator working for a high-powered client.
With a deep conviction that “justice for all” truly matters, Evie and David are unrelenting in their search for the truth. But Evie must also find answers to the questions that lie just beneath the surface in her personal life.