. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
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A messy bookshelf is the norm around the Fundin household. I just cannot help but pick up another book and another and another…
Authors from Michigan are always of interest to me, seeing I am originally from Michigan, but I would grab a Daniel Silva novel anyway.
“He seems to have bigger headaches than a few boys from west Amsterdam.”
(Page 56 in hardcover,1st edition, published in 2007)
Book Beginnings
It was Professor Solomon Rosner who sounded the first alarm, though his name would never be linked to the affair except in the secure rooms of a drab office building in downtown Tel Aviv. Gabriel Allon, the legendary but wayward son of Israeli intelligence, would later observe that Rosner was the first asset in the annals of Office history to have proven more useful to them dead than alive. Those who overheard the remark found it uncharacteristically callous but in keeping with the bleak mood that by then had settled over them all.
GOODREADS BLURB:When last we encountered Gabriel Allon, the master art restorer and sometime officer of Israeli intelligence, he had just prevailed in his blood-soaked duel with Saudi terrorist financier Zizi al-Bakari. Now Gabriel is summoned once more by his masters to undertake what appears to be a routine assignment: travel to Amsterdam to purge the archives of a murdered Dutch terrorism analyst who also happened to be an asset of Israeli intelligence. But once in Amsterdam, Gabriel soon discovers a conspiracy of terror festering in the city’s Islamic underground, a plot that is about to explode on the other side of the English Channel, in the middle of London.
. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
~~~
A messy bookshelf is the norm around the Fundin household. I just cannot help but pick up another book and another and another…
I enjoy reading Lisa Scottoline and I can see why she is a New York Times Bestselling Author.
“Mrs Bott, I have a feeling that someone close to Shay, maybe her boyfriend, sold drugs. Do you know anything about that?”
(Page 56 in hardcover,1st edition, published in 2005)
Book Beginnings
Vicki Allegretti always wondered what it would feel like to look into the barrel of a loaded gun, and now she knew. The gun was a black Glock, nine millimeter, and it was aimed at her right eye. Vicki observed the scene out-of- body, as if it were happening to a girl with a better sense of humor. Wonder if black guns make you look thinner, she thought.
GOODREADS BLURB:Prosecutor Vicki Allegretti goes to meet a confidential informant, is almost killed, and a cop is gunned down before her eyes. She saw the killers, now all she has to do is find them. The deeper Vicki probes, the more she becomes convinced that the murder wasn’t random. When another murder takes place, Vicki is thrown together with an unlikely ally — The Girlfriend from Hell. Will they find the killers before they kill each other?
I have been reading Mutation Z by Marilyn Peake, a novella series, that, even with the zombies, smacks of realism.
You can find out more and check out my reviews at the links below, but for now, I will share #5 and #6, the final chapters of a truly frightening glance at the apocalypse that could make the human race extinct. Do you believe something like this could happen in real life?
Mutation Z: Dragon in the Bunker Novella #5 by Marilyn Peake
MY REVIEW
Journalist Hunter Morgan is a seriously messed up guy who has lost so much because of the Z virus, but he never gives up and I love that, because in this apocalyptic horror novella, all my conspiracy theories developed into full blown betrayal and treason showcasing an evil so potent that it makes me so angry I want to jump into my Kindle and beat the hell out of someone…or so much worse and with writing like that I say, “Well done, Marilyn,” as we move on to a new beginning in Hunter’s life.
GOODREADS BLURB:Journalist Hunter Morgan gains an unlikely ally in his search for the truth about the origins of the zombie virus. Mark Chen, youngest son of a co-owner of Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals, shows him information more frightening than his greatest nightmares. Together, they travel all the way from an abandoned meth shack in the Mexican desert to China, evading the authorities by communicating with Mark’s contacts through a video game on the Dark Web. NOVELLA. GENRES: Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Zombie Fiction, Conspiracy Fiction, Horror.
4 Stars
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Mutation Z: Desperate Measures, Novella #6 by Marilyn Peake
Marilyn Peake wraps up this novella series, exposing all the conspiracies and corruption, the perverted reasons for setting the zombies loose, and my juices were flowing as they pissed me off and sickened me beyond words, but left me with the faith that a ‘few good men/women can make all the difference in the world.
GOODREADS BLURB:Sixth and final book in the series.
As things heat up in the United States with both the U.S. military and radical militias targeting those trying to develop a vaccine and cure for the Zombie Plague, more researchers flee to Mark Chen’s bunker in China. There, they will be free to carry on their research. Bringing patients afflicted with the Zombie Virus to China on a cargo ship, they’re attacked by pirates. It becomes very clear that they’re in a race against time to try and save the human race. NOVELLA. GENRES: Apocalyptic Science Fiction, Zombie Fiction, Conspiracy Fiction, Horror.
5 Stars
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Marilyn Peake has now created a complete set of all 6 novellas for the Mutation Z series at an amazing price of $.99.
Each novella is an important part of the whole in the Mutation Z series by Marilyn Peake. Her writing amazes me, bringing the characters and the world they created to life. The Zombie Virus was developed by some of the most evil men ever to walk this earth, all for their own gain and self interest. The brutality they dealt out as the blood and guts flew, the lives that were lost as the good people struggled to expose the conspiracy, is shocking. I felt this story rang of possibilities, that something like this could really happen. Maybe not exactly as written, but when push comes to shove, the elite will sacrifice anything and anyone to get what they want. If you want to be shocked, pissed off, saddened, frightened, left with food for thought, then Mutation Z is for you.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB:Omnibus Edition of All Six Books in the Mutation Z Series
Ebola, one of the most feared of the hemorrhagic diseases, begins spreading across the borders of countries in West Africa. Soon after, the disease mutates into the “Z” or Zombie Virus. Journalist Hunter Morgan uncovers a disturbing connection between Chen-Zamora Pharmaceuticals and this mutation. Further investigation reveals a web of sinister intrigue connecting the pharmaceutical company to a treatment and research camp in West Africa, U.S. government officials, the CDC and the World Health Organization. Racing against time to find a cure, Hunter and several scientists go underground in order to hide from powerful forces trying to silence them forever.
With the fantastic price for the entire series at a shocking $.99, I did not feel it necessary to list them individually, but if you would like to see if this is for you, you can grab the first novella for FREE HERE. Grab your Amazon copy today!
. The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.
~~~
Anyone that knows me, knows I am a huge conspiracy fan and The Apocalypse Watch by Robert Ludlum fits the bill.
I used to read a lot of World War II spy novels and I had a lot of Robert Ludlum’s books, but lost them when I moved the first time…
“You really don’t know talented actors. They can walk into a building looking like themselves, then reappear on the street as someone else. A shirt stuffed under their jackets, their trousers baggy, their walk different, and God forbid there’s a clothes shop inside.”
(Page 56 in my 1st edition hardcover, published in 1995)
Book Beginnings
The Alpine Pass, high in the Austrian Hausruck, was swept by the winter snow and assaulted by ht cold north winds, while far below, a valley sprouted crocuses and the jonquils of early spring. This particular pass was neither a border checkpoint nor a transfer post from one part of the mountain range to another In fact, it was not on any map issued for public scrutiny.
My question to you: Do you believe in conspiracies?
GOODREADS BLURB: American agent Harry Latham has penetrated the fortresslike mountain hideaway of the Brotherhood of the Watch, a neo-Nazi organization that was born in the days after the fall of the Third Reich. After three years in deep cover, and on the eve of his most spectacular success, Harry Latham has disappeared.
Drew Latham, Special Officer for Consular Operations in Paris, is frantic to discover his older brother’s fate. But when he receives the sudden good news that Harry has surfaced, gut-twisting doubts arise. Has Harry’s cover been blown? And if so, why has the Brotherhood of the Watch let him live?
For Harry Latham has emerged with an explosive list: the secret supporters of the movement, among them some of the highest-ranking officials in the United States and its allies, names synonymous with honorable service to their nations. It is a document that could topple governments — but is it legitimate? Can Drew Latham trust his own brother? The search for the truth about Harry — and the growing Nazi threat — will plunge Drew into a labyrinth of deceit and death. And whoever gets out alive holds the fate of the free world in his hands.
A Conspiracy. A cover-up. And a whistle-blower who knows too much. You think you know who to trust? You’re wrong. And the truth may kill you…
~~ Inspired by real UK police investigations, this book contains scenes which some readers may find disturbing ~~
It’s Maya and Jamie’s anniversary, and she waits with excitement for him to return home for a celebratory dinner. There’s a knock at the door. It’s the police. Jamie has been found hanging in a local wood.
His death is ruled a suicide, but Maya doesn’t believe Jamie would take his own life. Something isn’t right. Someone has broken into her house. Someone is watching her. And someone has gone to great lengths to cover up what Jamie was doing before he died.
Maya’s grief turns to suspicion, and as she begins to investigate the weeks leading up to Jamie’s death, her trail leads her to a place known as “The Big House” and the horrific secrets within. Secrets people will stop at nothing to keep hidden. People linked to the heart of the Establishment who think they’re untouchable.
Now Maya has a dangerous decision to make. How far is she prepared to go to reveal the truth?
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OMG. I AM BLOWN AWAY by Untouchable by Sibel Hodge. I read a lot of romantic suspense. It is one of my favorite genres, and I just want to say, “Sibel Hodge is a master storyteller that left me screaming for more!”
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Untouchable contains some sensitive topics, so I would definitely recommend this to adults only and if you are squeamish, think twice…then read it. 🙂
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Maya and Jamie are opposites. She is loud, messy and social. He is more of a spectator, neat and tidy and enjoys his own company, yet they complement each other well.
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Untouchable is told from two perspectives – Maya in the present and Jamie in the past.
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I don’t want to give away Jamie’s story and the secret he holds, but I will say, it is terrible, tragic…Makes me soooo angry and I think it will make you angry too.
Did Jamie commit suicide?
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That age old question arises..WHY?
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It s a painful topic, yet Maya refuses to believe he would take his own life. I often wonder, when reading novels like Untouchable, how well we really know each other. We all have our little secrets, the pieces of our soul we hide from others. I wonder what I would do in her situation and, to me, that is the sign of great writing, making me get so into the story that I place myself in the characters situation.
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Would I, would you, accept what everyone was telling me, or you? Or…would I, or you, have faith in our own intuition, or own gut feeling, that they are WRONG! What strength would it take to act on it.
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I can’t imagine her pain at the loss of the love of her life, how stuck she is not wanting to forget him and move on. Wearing his clothes, absorbing the smell of him…wishing…
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Watch out you fuckers. I’m coming to get you.
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We all need a purpose to go on and now she has one.
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Would I want justice…YOU BET! I love books that present the What IF..Would I…to me.
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This is what I have been waiting for…the suspense and anticipation are making me fidgety, my eyes twitching, as I strive to read faster and faster, yet not wanting to miss anything.
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They are Untouchable, but..
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I find them so disturbing, so sickening, making me want to vomit as I scream and rage. I want to jump in my Kindle and rip them apart with my bare hands. Depraved, twisted, scummier than the bottom of the pond. My outrage makes me wince and shiver as I read on.
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When Mitchell, who comes to Maya’s aid in solving the mystery, talks about Iraq, even though it’s a novel, my conspiracy theories come out.
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“Talking to someone would be like putting a bandaid on a shark bit. What I needed was an AK-47 or a grenade to blast the people who killed Jamie to smithereens. Could I get a script for that?”
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When Mitchell talks about the media brainwashing us, I believe that too. Do you ever wonder who really controls the world? Are we being duped by our own government? How about 911, Homeland Security and terrorism…is the government, or the power people creating a distraction so we don’t see what is really going on right under our noses?
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I just don’t find any way for Maya to find justice. I don’t know how she does the things she does in Untouchable, but Sibel Hodge has created a character that rocks! The woman is very strong, committed, afraid yet fearless, brave and courageous as she struggles with her loss, fear, frustration and despair.
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Fear is a reaction. Courage is a decision.
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I was crunched forward, my foot tap, tap, tapping, racing through the pages, fighting the pain in my neck, hands, and wrists, from holding, clutching my Kindle…unable to stop. My head aches, my eyes burn and still I can’t stop. I have not read her bestseller, Look Behind You, but after reading Untouchable it is high on my wish list. Sibel Hodge has now become a MUST READ author for me.
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Untouchable by Sibel Hodge did not go the way I thought. It seemed predictable, but twisted and turned to the very end. Ooooh, THE ENDING, I never saw it coming and I sat with my mouth hanging open and I had to laugh at my astonishment. AWESOME, Sibel!
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To wrap it up, Untouchable by Sibel Hodge is a mind blowing, off the charts, out of the ballpark, hellacious rollercoaster ride that brought all my emotions to the surface, roiling and boiling.
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I received a copy of Untouchable from Sibel Hodge in return for an honest review.
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5+++++ Stars
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Sibel Hodge’s No. 1 Bestseller Look Behind You has now sold over ¼ million copies. Her books are International Bestsellers in UK, USA, Australia, France, and Germany. She writes an eclectic mix of genres, and she’s a passionate human and animal rights advocate.
Her work has been nominated and shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Harry Bowling Prize, the Yeovil Literary Prize, the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition, The Romance Reviews’ prize for Best Novel with Romantic Elements, and Indie Book Bargains’ Best Indie Books of 2012. She was the Winner of Best Children’s Book by eFestival of Words 2013, Nominated for the 2015 BigAl’s Books and Pals Young Adult Readers’ Choice Award, Winner of Crime, Thrillers & Mystery | Book from a Series in the SpaSpa Book Awards 2013, Readers’ Favourite Young Adult – Coming of Age Honourable Award Winner 2015, and New Adult Finalist in the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America’s International Digital Awards 2015. Her novella Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave has been listed as one of the top 40 books about human rights by Accredited Online Colleges.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of booksandabeat.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following: Grab your current read. Open to a random page. Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page. BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!) Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
I was lucky enough to get a copy of Bullet in the Blue Sky by Bill Larkin for a tour in September. I will be sharing my review then, but I wanted to give you a taste now.
For me, this has it all: a taste of the apocalypse, mystery, suspense, thriller, conspiracy, spies and politics, action and adventure.
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MY TEASE
“Shit, look”, Anderson said in a low voice.
Down the street, several figures walked out of the wall of smoke as if born from it. Hands covered their mouths and noses, but they strutted on. Gangbangers, vigilant and charged. Ready for something. In all, there were about fifteen of them. Several heavily armed.
(page 166 in paperback)
I love that cover and wonder where he is walking to and why. Will he make it wherever he is going safely? When I first started reading Bullet in the Blue Sky by Bill Larkin, it made me think of the Tom Hanks movie, Saving Private Ryan…only it takes place here in the US.
GOODREADS BLURB: In the chaotic aftermath of a massive earthquake that leveled much of the Los Angeles region, a LAPD deputy chief sends an elite team of detectives on a rescue mission. They are ordered to set aside all law enforcement duties, to ignore the destruction and to focus on one task: Find LAPD Detective Gavin Shaw, who disappeared just before the earthquake.
Kevin “Schmitty” Schmidt of the Orange County Sheriff’s Department joins five others on the rescue team. With rioting, looting, attacks and homicides rampant in the streets, the six cops have to defend themselves while chasing down leads on the whereabouts of Shaw. The mission takes them through the dizzying war zone and the more they encounter, the more they wonder why they are searching for one man in these extreme circumstances. Why is this man so important to the deputy chief, and why now?
Schmitty discovers that others with high connections are also after Shaw. The questions pile even higher when they learn of a shadowy history between Shaw and the deputy chief. A history with deadly consequences for the team as they uncover a threat that elevates the mission to a race against time.
Tainted Reality by Ashley Fontainne is Book II of The Rememdum Series. The books need to be read in order and Tainted Reality picks up where Tainted Cure left off. This is one horror story that will have you wondering….could this really happen?
Everett Berning had found the cure for addiction, but the cure had become Tainted with a fatal result. Some preach the end of the world by global warming and nuclear detonation, but no one had anticipated this…Apocalypse.
Who will survive? Can they find a cure for the Tainted Cure or will this be a new world that mankind will have to learn to traverse?
I love this saying: Courage is being afraid but doing it anyway.
“Normal” people’s actions will go above and beyond the horror that is worse than their wildest imagination could concoct. In a time of crises, people show what they are made of, their true character shines through. Some are leaders, some are followers. Some are able to overcome their fears, others are cattle, either saved or lead to slaughter. Which are you?
And the government…What happens when it collapses? What happens when the leaders are dead or missing and presumed dead…communications nonexistent.
The world has ended, at least any world you would recognize. The dead come to life and they want YOU!
Executions, murder, slaughter…See who rises to the top, leads when in doubt, shoots to kill.
As a read along, I am always trying to put myself in the characters place. What would I do? Would I step up to the plate or collapse, paralyzed by terror. What would you do?
I felt for the characters as they struggled to survive. I felt their sorrow and determination. Is there anybody left who can figure out the answers?
Regina and Jesse, a mom and daughter, will step up in a big way. They stand out as exceptional characters to me and I had to mention them…specifically.
Ashley Fontainne’s books I have read are unique, fast paced and anything but predictable. I was a bit disappointed as I read along…because it is predictable. After all, how many variations can there be to a zombie story?
BUT, Ashley Fontainne’s fantastic writing of such bloody and gruesome savagery, with twists and turns of the plot, filled with love and sacrifice among the horror and conspiracy, makes the predictable work all too well. It’s a new world and the more I read, the more involved I become with the complex characters. Her writing is at such a high level that even the predictable is a cut above the rest.
Now…the wait begins for Tainted Future, Book III of The Rememdum Series.
I received a copy of Tainted Reality by Ashley Fontainne in returne for an honest review.
5 Stars
AMAZON BLURB
DR. EVERETT BERNING achieved his life’s work by discovering a cure for drug addiction. Unfortunately, the formula was stolen and fell into the hands of the enemy.
DRUG LORDS from around the world unknowingly released the altered, deadly formula into their supply, affecting millions across the globe.
WITHIN FORTY-EIGHT HOURS, the entire planet is thrown into chaos as the disease spreads.
REGINA PARKER, Chief of Police of the tiny town of Rockport, Arkansas, isn’t willing to let the military kill thousands of innocent people in a rush to contain the outbreak. She leads a small contingent of survivors on a dangerous quest to keep her town safe from the soldiers and the dead.
WILL DR. BERNING be able to isolate the contagion and find a way to reverse it, or is it too late to save humanity from the tainted cure? How far will Chief Parker go to save the lives of others as the world collapses around them?
ABOUT ASHLEY FONTAINNE (from her website)
Award-winning and International bestselling author Ashley Fontainne is an avid reader of mostly the classics. Ashley became a fan of the written word in her youth, starting with the Nancy Drew mystery series. Stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters that lurk within us are her favorite reads.
Her muse for penning the Eviscerating the Snake series was The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas. Ashley’s love for this book is what sparked her desire to write her debut novel, Accountable to None, the first book in the trilogy. With a modern setting to the tale, Ashley delves into just what lengths a person is willing to go when they seek personal justice for heinous acts perpetrated upon them. The second novel in the series, Zero Balance. focuses on the cost and reciprocal cycle that obtaining revenge has on the seeker. For once the cycle starts, where does it end? How far will the tendrils of revenge expand? Adjusting Journal Entries answered that question: far and wide.
Her short thriller entitled Number Seventy-Five, touches upon the sometimes dangerous world of online dating. Number Seventy-Five took home the BRONZE medal in fiction/suspense at the 2013 Readers’ Favorite International Book Awards contest and is currently in production for a feature film.
Her paranormal thriller entitled The Lie, won the GOLD medal in the 2013 Illumination Book Awards for fiction/suspense and is also in production for a feature film entitled Foreseen.
Ashley’s decided to delve into the paranormal with a Southern Gothic horror/suspense novel, Growl, which released in January of 2015. The suspenseful mystery Empty Shell, released in September of 2014. Ashley will be teaming up with Lillian Hansen (Ashley calls her mom!) to pen a three-part murder mystery/suspense series entitled The Magnolia Series. The first book, Blood Ties, is due out the Summer of 2015.
Ashley also hosts The WriteStuff, a popular BlogTalk Radio show, each Friday night at 10 p.m. CST.
I am familiar with Steve Alten’s work, so I have been following his newsletter, waiting for this book to be released. Vostok is the sequel to The Loch and the prequel to Meg 5: Nightstalkers. I cannot get enough of his stories. (You can see the books and review links below)
AWESOME!! cover. It looks so real to me. I feel like the croc is swimming towards me, getting ready to open its mouth and eat me. Bring it on. (On the hardcover, it is embossed and looks 3D.)
Steve Alten writes some amazing creature stories that arise deep from the ocean’s floor. I have had Vostok sitting on the arm of my couch, where I couldn’t help but keep looking at it longingly, wanting so badly to pick it up and begin reading…but, I made myself wait. I wanted to savor the moment and bask in my anticipation. This creature story takes a wild twist that I never saw coming but I jumped aboard for the amazing ride through Steve’s creative and imaginative, out of this world, adventure.
In Antarctica, help is sparse, so when the Aussies asked for someone to check out something they discovered, Thomas Nilsson a marine biologist responded. They wanted him to identify not one, but two species of creatures. It’s over Thomas’ head, so who better to call in than, Zachary Wallace, the marine biologist who solved the mystery of The Loch Ness monster.
We will meet with some familiar characters from The Loch and Meg novels and I was happy to see them again. Welcome back, my friends. Of course, that doesn’t mean Steve might not kill you off. He is not afraid to make a character…disappear.
We will be going under the ice cap to Vostok Lake. When they drop the sub through the hole, I could imagine what that would feel like. I am very averse to small, tight places, let alone an under the water ice world that Steve describes so well I can see it. It made me think of Lost World, but instead of jungle and heat, picture ice, water and cold. His description of the mountain coming up from the water with the ice, like a sky, overhead make me scream MOVIE! The words opened before me as if I was watching the action. And, yes, there is plenty of that.
Thomas had died twice before, so imagine his terror facing it again…and again. He had dealt with drowning and giant creatures of the deep that wanted to eat him. How in the hell did he end up doing it again? LOL
Steve Alten has me engrossed, reading as if this is history unraveling before my eyes. Well, who knows what creatures dwell in the deepest oceans. New discoveries are being made all the time.
Throw in big business and the government, what chance does humankind have?
Now, comes the really, really, really nice spin – ALIENS. Who are they and what do they want? I did not expect this, but went with it and enjoyed the ride. Sometimes, an author will take a spin that ruins the book for me, but Steve pulled this off. I am curious how he will pull everything together in Meg 5: Nightstalker and eager to find out!
This quote sums up big business and government to me:
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“There exists a shadowy Government with its own Air Force, its own Navy, its own fundraising mechanism, and the ability to pursue its own ideas of the national interest, free from and checks and balances, and free from the law itself.
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Senator Daniel Inouye, Iran-Contra hearings
Do the elite work their hardest to keep the herd distracted? I feel there are some messages in Steve Alten’s stories, subtle, yet ones that should already be obvious to us.
If you could go back in time and change events, would you? What would it take for you to do it? This made me think of a Person of Interest episode where the machine ran through all the different scenarios, trying to find the groups best chance of survival.
There is so much more going on than I anticipated. It flows so smoothly at times I find myself relaxing too much, being jerked back into the story letting me know I wasn’t getting off that easy. If you found a UFO would you run toward it or away from it?
Steve Alten is a superb storyteller, weaving the genres together like water down a lazy stream, pulling me in, deeper and deeper (critters, aliens, conspiracy, betrayal, big business and government corruption, fantasy science fiction and horror) creating an amazing novel that will stick with you long after reading and will leave you anticipating the next book, Meg 5: Nightstalkers
Just two pages left and I read this:
“It’s a Nessie dildo so women like you can go –“
I busted out laughing.
I received this first edition hardcover of Vostok by Steve Alten for an honest review. Thanks so much, Steve and Rebel Press. It looks beautiful on my bookshelf, with the other Steve Alten books I own.
I am so excited to have Steve on my blog today, sharing his thoughts on inspiration and writing.
INTERVIEW
How did you do research for your book?
You begin with a concept and hit the Internet.
Which was the hardest character to write?
Kwan Wilson in SHARKMAN. He’s a paraplegic. I spent time interviewing a neighbor who was also wheelchair bound.
The easiest?
Dr. Vincent Cope, Boca Raton gynecologist in my comedy novel, DOG TRAINING THE AMERICAN MALE (written under the pen name L.A. Knight). A man after my own heart.
In your book, VOSTOK you make a reference to JFK being assassinated because he was going to shutdown MAJESTIC-12. How did you come up with this idea?
By interviewing Dr. Steven M. Greer, the foremost authority on Extraterrestrial Intelligence.
What made you write a book about a subglacial lake in Antarctica?
The facts about Lake Vostok are just amazing. VOSTOK is located two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap in East Antarctica, the coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Vostok is a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Marine biologist Zachary Wallace has been recruited to join two other scientists aboard a tiny 3-man submersible tethered to a laser which will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an Extraterrestrial object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.
Where do you get inspiration for your stories?
TV, newspapers, dreams…
There are many books out there about….What makes yours different?
I wouldn’t say different, I’d say additive.
What advice would you give budding writers?
Don’t write about what you know, write about things you like to read and do the research.
Thanks so much for sharing your thoughts, Steve. I look forward to reading more of your work…and soon. 🙂
SYNOPSIS
East Antarctica: The coldest, most desolate location on Earth. Two-and-a-half miles below the ice cap is Vostok, a six thousand square mile liquid lake, over a thousand feet deep, left untouched for more than 15 million years. Now, marine biologist Zachary Wallace and two other scientists aboard a submersible tethered to a laser will journey 13,000 feet beneath the ice into this unexplored realm to discover Mesozoic life forms long believed extinct – and an object of immense power responsible for the evolution of modern man.
In this sequel to The Loch and prequel to the upcoming MEG 5: Nightstalkers, New York Times best-selling author Steve Alten offers readers a crossover novel that combines characters from two of his most popular series.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Steve Alten is the New York Times and International bestselling author of fourteen novels, including the MEG series about Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 100,000 pound prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark and Domain trilogy, a series about the Mayan Calendar’s 2012 doomsday prophecy. His work has been published in over 30 countries and is being used in thousands of middle and high school curriculum as part of Adopt-An-Author, a free teen reading program, which he founded with teachers back in 1999.
I love political intrigue and the machinations of the government at work. Personal by Lee Child is a book that kept its secret from beginning to end. I do love when I cannot figure out the ending of a book. I have read numerous books by Lee Child and I will be looking for the next one.
He saw his name in the paper – Jack Reacher call Rick Shoemaker.
Jack was a retired military cop and they were reaching out to him.
Someone had taken a potshot at the president of France from 1400 feet, 3/4 of a mile away. How many snipers could there be, that are capable of making a shot like that? It didn’t take long for Jack to figure out this was Personal.
Jack Reacher had disappeared after quitting the service. He had no home, just went where the wind blew him. He is Sherlock Homeless. He is a no nonsense kinda guy. Why did they chose him? He had no resources, no contacts. When something smells, he can run through the options and eliminate the unlikely suspects. But, Jack Reacher plays by no rules but his own. He did not feel bad about his kills and felt food was wasted on some of the people he had run across. I would hate to get in a staring contest with Jack. He could stare all day without blinking.
Jack believes there are four necessities – smart people, work hard, pay attention and think laterally. He is quick and intuitive, a bad ass and shows no mercy. Jack is observant and a fast thinker. Will he be fast enough?
John Kott was suspected of killing his parents when he was 17 years old. He was recruited by the army anyway. He became a Special Forces sniper, but he had a screw loose. A dead Ranger, a guilty John Kott and Jack Reacher would be the one to put him away for 15 years. Now he is out…
Casey Nice is a rookie analyst for the CIA, working under the State Department. She feels the weight of the world on her shoulders and is determined to guard Jack’s back. She has never worked a mission. We think we know how we would respond in certain situations, but until you walk in those shoes, you can’t really know.
The characters are too numerous to list. I loved some and hated some, was terrified of some and pissed off at some. I do like that Lee Child does not let the bad guys off the hook and their actions will have severe repercussions.
Details in thrillers are very important. Careful use of them can keep the pacing, action and suspense, at a high level, making me wonder what will happen next as I quickly turn the pages. My only complaint – too much detail. The beginning hooked me. Then, I got lost in the details. The last third of the book kept my attention from wandering and I loved the ending.
Snipers, political intrigue, spies, conspiracies, corruption, the mystery abounds as I weave my way around the pitfalls of Jack’s mission, a mission that has twists and turns that kept me in the dark.
Lee Child’s ability to weave a story that does not give away the ending is phenomenal.
I received this ARC from Netgalley in return for an honest and unbiased review.
4 Stars
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SYNOPSIS
Jack Reacher walks alone. Once a go-to hard man in the US military police, now he’s a drifter of no fixed abode. But the army tracks him down. Because someone has taken a long-range shot at the French president. Only one man could have done it. And Reacher is the one man who can find him. This new heartstopping, nailbiting book in Lee Child’s number-one bestselling series takes Reacher across the Atlantic to Paris – and then to London. The stakes have never been higher – because this time, it’s personal.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment. The first Jack Reacher movie, based on the novel One Shot and starring Tom Cruise and Rosamund Pike, was released in December 2012.
Lee has three homes—an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar’s Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.
Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.
Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading.
Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page.
•Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!
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END OF ENEMIES by Grant Blackwood
I saw the tag line from Clive Cussler and knew I had to read this.
I love conspiracies and intrigue.
Throw in an adventure that could rival the likes of Clive Cussler and I have to find out for myself.
Kindle Edition, 612 pages
Published May 27th 2014 by Diversion Books
(first published May 1st 2001 by Berkley)
Original title -The End of Enemies
ASIN -B00K5HMYL6
4.2 out of 5 stars – 131 reviews on Amazon
MY TEASE
(11% on Kindle)
It could have been much worse.
If the plane had been at altitude, that much explosive would have been overkill.
The pilot had done a hell of a job.
SYNOPSIS
Veteran covert agent Briggs Tanner leaps into action when a man is brutally assassinated in front of him. His search will lead him from the depths of the Pacific Ocean, through the bullet-riddled back alleys of Beirut, to a deadly secret buried since World War II-and only Tanner can keep it from falling into the wrong hands…
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Click on the covers below to get your Amazon copy of a Grant Blackwood novel.
The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.
so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.
Authors from Michigan are always of interest to me, seeing I am originally from Michigan, but I would grab a Daniel Silva novel anyway.
Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
4 Stars
Steve Alten is the New York Times and International bestselling author of fourteen novels, including the MEG series about Carcharodon Megalodon, the 70-foot, 100,000 pound prehistoric cousin of the Great White shark and Domain trilogy, a series about the Mayan Calendar’s 2012 doomsday prophecy. His work has been published in over 30 countries and is being used in thousands of middle and high school curriculum as part of Adopt-An-Author, a free teen reading program, which he founded with teachers back in 1999.
Lee Child was born October 29th, 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV’s “golden age.” During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars’ worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
