5 Star Review – Let The Dead Lie by W L Brooks @pumpupyourbook #WLBrooks

Posted on May 4, 2023 by fundinmental

MY REVIEW

WOW! I mean…WOW. I love romantic suspense novels, and from the blurbs, I thought I would enjoy the McKay Series by W L Brooks, but Let The Dead Lie is a novel that keeps on giving. I couldn’t stop reading. I know this is romantic suspense, but the girls stole the show! The excellent characters are outstanding and outshine the wonderful mystery and danger.

“Daddy, it was all a big misunderstanding. Things were said, and then one thing led to another, and well, here we are.” Alexandra explained in the wispy voice he knew she’d been practicing in the mirror.

The girls, all adopted at the same time by Emmit McKay and his, now deceased wife, Gracie: Casey, who is ten years old, prideful with a superiority complex. Alexandra, who is eight years old and a girlie girl with an attitude. Fletcher is seven. Her name was Jamie, but the tomboy demanded her name be changed. Any idea where the name came from? Charlie, the peacekeeper comes to the fold later. Their large personalities are only eclipsed by their hearts.

When the social worker is due for an inspection prior to the adoption of Charlie:

“They want a fight?” asked Casey, nodding her head. “Is that it, Pops? We gotta fight for what’s ours?”
“Seems that way. If that’s what we all agree on.” He looked at each of his daughters, Casey and Alexandra nodded. Fletcher peered up at him and grinned It was the mischievous grin that made him want to swallow.
“We’s ain’t nos sissies. They want a fight, we’s’ll fight!” Fletcher whooped.

“What?”
“I thought we agreed on a dress.”
“I’s ain’t got a dress! And possession’s nine tenths of the law,” she said, crossing her arms over her chest.

Savannah comes to the small town of Blue Creek. She is the principal of the girl’s school and is put to the test when they are brought to her office for discipline. As the days unfold, she learns more about the girls and how the town looks…down…at them.

The girls are wise beyond their years, working as a team. They are secretive, plotting and planning…and when danger comes to their home, they will rise to the occasion.

The Widow Sadie had told them to Let The Dead Lie.

The writing made the situations easy to visualize, the dialogue making me feel as if I am there, hearing the words spoken live. Let The Dead Lie by W L Brooks would make a fabulous movie or TV series. I was smiling, laughing, cowering in fear, tearing up, all my emotions coming into play.

“We’s tried to keep the blood in, but it won’t stop,” Fletcher told her.”

The ending is heartwrenching, yet I did have a smile or two. I hate to pick favorites, but Fletcher spoke to me. She will do whatever it takes to protect what is hers. These girls are more than capable of doing exactly that.

At times, I had to take a break, the book was so intense and I was overwhelmed.

I could go on and on and I quickly grabbed the next book, The Secrets That Shape Us by W L Brooks, to see what the secret was that would make one of them leave Blue Creek.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Let The Dead Lie by W L Brooks

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos — 5 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

A widower with four adopted daughters, Emmit McKay likes to keep a handle on things. But nothing can prepare the former FBI sharpshooter for the battles coming to his small hometown. Especially the one which arrives in such a tempting package.

Savannah Walker moves to Blue Creek to take over as principal of the school Emmit’s daughters attend. With a masters’ degree in education and a no-nonsense attitude, she is caught off guard by the behavior of the McKay girls and never expects to fall in love with them—or in lust with their father. But her intimacy with the family stirs up rumors and unearths secrets.

Savannah and Emmit cannot deny the chemistry which draws them together, but the closer they get, the more dangerous the stakes become. When a murderer is hidden amongst you, you can’t let the dead lie.

Fiction, Romance, Suspense, Thriller

316 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 15, 2017 by The Wild Rose Press, Inc

Original title: Let the Dead Lie Series: McKay (#1)

ABOUT W L BROOKS (from her website)

W.L. Brooks was born with an active imagination. When characters come into her mind, she has to give them a life- a chance to tell their stories. With a coffee cup in her hand and a cat by her side, she spends her days letting the ideas flow onto paper. A voracious reader, she draws her inspiration from mystery, romance, suspense and a dash of the paranormal.

A native of Virginia Beach, she is currently living in Western North Carolina. Check out the latest book in her McKay Series, The Truth Behind the Mask, and stay tuned to see what’s next!

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Heather Sunseri’s Protected In Darkness & Death Is In The Details @heathersunseri

Posted on June 28, 2022 by fundinmental

Today I have a special treat. I am sharing two of Heather Sunseri’s stories. Protected In Darkness is a novella and Death Is In The Details is a full length novel, the first in the Payne’s Creek thriller series. Both can stand alone.

Protected in Darkness (In Darkness #2.5; Special Forces: Operation Alpha)

Goodreads

MY REVIEW

Colt, being a Navy Seal from somewhere else, knew it would be a one time thing.

Kate, hiding in Witsec with her four year old daughter, knew better than to get involved with anyone in any way, but she let her defenses down when she met Colt. She is the daughter of the leader of Kentucky’s deadliest motorcycle gang, and a twin. Can she escape the life and start over?

Awesome and I am hooked, not only of the series, but Heather Sunseri’s ability to deliver so much deliciousness into a novella.

GOODREADS BLURB

Four years ago, Charley Packstone was hopelessly stuck in a miserable life as the daughter of the thug running Kentucky’s deadliest outlaw motorcycle gang and the twin sister to the gang’s future leader.

As Kate Ward, she’s built a simple but lonely life for herself and her four-year-old daughter inside the Witness Protection Program.

Kate has rules—rules to keep her and her daughter hidden from the wrath of the motorcycle club that wants her dead. But one fateful night, she lets her guard down after meeting a handsome stranger—Navy Seal Colt Callaway—at a bar along the Virginia Beach boardwalk. And after a sexy one-night-stand, Colt resolves to penetrate the steep walls that protect Kate’s heart.

A dead rat left on Kate’s front porch the next morning sends a clear message: the biker gang she ratted out years ago has finally found her.

No matter how badly Colt believes he can save the troubled and beautiful woman he just met, Kate’s only choice is to grab her daughter and vanish under a fresh identity. But can she do it before someone close to her is killed? And can she truly say goodbye to Colt forever?

Death is in the Details (Paynes Creek, #1)

Amazon / Goodreads

FREE AT TIME OF POSTING

MY REVIEW

Death in the Details by Heather Sunseri is the first book in the Payne’s Creek stand alone series.

Faith Day is a forensic photographer, which appealed to me greatly because I love photography. Adds a little something extra to some of my favorite reading genre. She is no stranger to death by fire. Her mother died in a fire and she recalls every single detail with 100% clarity, due to hyperthymesia.

Faith lives in the small town of Payne’s Creek and after 12 years since her mother’s death, the fires in town, it is brought back in vivid detail. Faith has a forensic science degree and her uncle is the Fire Chief, Sam Reid. Her brother Finch is the town vet.

Fire Chief Sam Reid depends on her. She is the best help has has until he can hire a new detective. She sees things others miss.

Faith lives in an Airstream with her guardian cat, that acts more like a dog than a feline. Someone had been in her house, had lit a fire in her firepit. After ten years in prison for the murder of their parents, her step brother had been released due to a technicality. Could he have found her? And…what if it isn’t him?

I love the way Luke Justice describes her, “…when you walk through a room, people watch you. When you exit a room, people whisper. And when you exit a building, people sigh with relief.”

As bodies fall, fires, burn, she’s at the center of it. The pieces come together as she and Luke struggle to figure out what is really going on. Things are not as they appear on the surface and….

I loved the story…and the ending. WOW. It took me a while to figure it out, because there are more suspects than meet the eye. Is it her step brother? Is it him…or him…or…The bigger mystery, who is setting all the fires, is solved and a romance is blooming, but there is more to tell…and I hope to be there. I love when an author can hook me from the beginning and keep the pace at a high level, making it hard to put down.

GOODREADS BLURB

A woman haunted by her past. A killer who won’t let her forget.

Faith Day’s condition curses her to recall her mother’s fiery murder like it was yesterday. And when the forensic photographer’s convicted stepbrother is somehow cleared 12 years later and released from prison, Faith wonders if he’ll put an end to her tortured memories. But after a string of eerily familiar fires tear through her small town, Faith starts to question every detail of her traumatic past.

Luke Justice won’t rest until he catches a notorious serial killer masking his murders in arson. Following a trail of deadly blazes to Faith’s doorstep, the FBI agent senses she holds the key to the case. But if he can’t convince her to open up, Luke fears he’ll miss his best chance to put a psychopath behind bars.

As Faith fights the resurgence of dark emotions, an arsonist begins leaving personal totems in her home. Determined to stay alive, she taps into the only weapon she has against the vicious murderer: the echoes of her childhood nightmare.

Can Faith help Luke unmask the true killer before they both go up in flames?

Death is in the Details is a chilling standalone thriller novel. If you like small-town mysteries, psychological thrillers, and spine-tingling twists, then you’ll love Heather Sunseri’s latest page-turning tale.

ABOUT HEATHER SUNSERI

Heather Sunseri was raised on a tiny farm in the smallest of towns in thoroughbred horse country near Lexington, Kentucky. After high school, she attended Furman University in Greenville, South Carolina, and later graduated from the University of Kentucky with a degree in accounting. Always torn between a passion for fantasy and a mind for the rational, it only made sense to combine her career in accounting with a novel-writing dream.

Heather now lives in a different small town on the other side of Lexington with her two children, and her husband, Mike, the biggest Oregon Duck fan in the universe. When she’s not writing or working as a CPA, she spends her time tormenting her daughter’s cat, Olivia, and loving on her son’s Golden Retriever, Jenny. MINDSPEAK is her first published novel.

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