Blog Tour: Chasing Amanda

Author: Melissa Foster
Publisher: Solstice Publishing (April 2011)

Nine years ago, Molly Tanner witnessed a young girl’s abduction in the busy city of Philadelphia, shifting her occasional clairvoyance into overdrive. Two days later, the girl’s body was found, and Molly’s life fell apart. Consumed by guilt for not acting upon her visions, and on the brink of losing her family, Molly escaped the torturous reminders in the city, fleeing to the safety of the close-knit rural community of Boyds, Maryland.

Molly’s life is back on track, her son has begun college, and she and her husband have finally rekindled their relationship. Their fresh start is shattered when a seven-year-old girl disappears from a local park near Molly’s home. Unable to turn her back on another child and troubled by memories of the past, Molly sets out to find her, jeopardizing the marriage she’d fought so hard to hold together. While unearthing clues and struggling to decipher her visions, Molly discovers another side of Boyds, where the residents--and the land itself--hold potentially lethal secrets, and exposes another side of her husband, one that threatens to tear them apart.

I really enjoyed Chasing Amanda. The story had me hooked from the beginning and I didn't want to put it down. This book is a perfect glimpse into small town life. Small towns tend to hold many secrets for a long time. The author does a great job of slowly revealing those secrets to the reader. The plot of the book is very well planned out so that the reader learns the truth along the same timeline as Molly. I wasn't able to figure out how all of the pieces fit into the puzzle until Molly did. I really enjoyed that aspect.

I liked Molly's character. She is strong willed and willing to risk everything, even her marriage, to save a little girl's life. She has rebuilt her life after learning that she could have saved a child's life and didn't. I can see why she would be so adamant about helping with this one. There were 2 things that didn't ring true for me. I felt like her husband should have been more sympathetic and more believing of her "knowing". I also felt that in real life, a cop would follow up on any lead for a missing child, budget issues and false leads aside.

I highly recommend you give this one a try. I haven't read Ms. Foster's first book, Megan's Way, but it is loaded up on my Kindle and at near the top of my TBR Pile. I look forward to seeing what Ms. Foster comes up with next.

--Kari

* note: I read an complimentary copy of Chasing Amanda supplied courtesy of the author as part of her virtual blog tour. I was not compensated in anyway for this review. By receiving a complimentary copy, I am in no way obligated to write a good or bad review. I am an honest reviewer and my reviews are based on my own opinion and only written by me.*

Virtual Book Tour - Recovery

Author: Alexandrea Weiss
Publisher: Self

A killer is lurking among the ruins of Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

A killer she knows.

Still devastated two years after the mysterious murder of her beloved David Alexander, Nicci Beauvoir surprises everyone in the Big Easy by returning to her hometown with a new admirer: the cool and contentious Dallas August. But the attractive stranger is asking a lot of questions about David’s death, making Nicci’s family and friends speculate about his true intentions. Only Nicci knows that Dallas, a high-priced corporate spy, has come to New Orleans to flush out David Alexander’s killer. Playing the part of her lover, Dallas escorts Nicci around town hoping to get closer to his possible suspects. But hiding amid the city’s elite is a jealous maniac waiting to make Nicci suffer. As the days pass and the danger grows, Nicci’s relationship with the handsome spy turns from adversarial to amorous. Desperate to unearth the identity of David’s murderer, Nicci and Dallas decide to lure the killer out of the city for one final showdown. It is a deadly decision that could cost Nicci everything. But it may be her only chance for… Recovery

Recovery is a great, well written book filled with wonderful characters, intense emotion and suspense. Nicci is slowly trying to find her way back to herself after losing her lover, David. She meets Dallas, a friend and co-worker of David’s, and is soon plunged into an unexpected adventure of revenge and justice. Dallas and Nicci are very similar. They are both rediscovering themselves. Dallas has been working in his profession for so long that he doesn’t know who is anymore. At first, his coldness toward Nicci put me off and I wondered how she could ever have feelings for him. But as I read the novel, I realized that, in a way, they really needed each other to heal. One of the best parts of the book is Nicci’s family. I just loved the banter between her father and her uncle Lance. Some of those scenes really cracked me up and provided some comic relief when things were getting intense. I really liked the comparison between Nicci’s recovery and the recovery of post-Katrina New Orleans.

Recovery is the second in a series about Nicci Beauvoir. I did not know this going into this book. The author did a nice job of catching me up to speed, so I never felt like I was missing something. I will probably seek out the first one because I hate to miss any part of a series. I definitely recommend this one and look forward to the next Nicci Beauvoir adventure.


--Kari


* note: I read a complimentary copy of Recovery supplied courtesy of the author. I was not compensated in anyway for this review. By receiving a complimentary copy, I am in no way obligated to write a good or bad review. I am an honest reviewer and my reviews are based on my own opinion and only written by me.*

Virtual Book Tour - Easter's Lilly

Author: Judy Serrano
Publisher: Black Rose Writing

It was Easter Sunday; the day Lilly's life went from safe and comfortable to dangerously unfamiliar. Her transformation takes her from a small town girl having an affair with a low ranked gangster in the Montiago crime syndicate, to a woman of grace and fortitude married to the head of the organization.

Easter's Lilly is an inspired journey from the idyllic to the darker side of self-discovery. Read as the over-privileged brothers embark on their journey that twists and turns down the road of unbridled passion in this first book of the series.

Easter's Lilly by Judy Serrano follows Lilly through an interesting life journey. An affair with a drug dealer leads her into a life of danger and darkness. She also finds love and in a twisted way, family. What I liked about this book is the concept. I think the idea for the story was really good and had great potential. I did like the characters in the book. They are pretty well written. Lilly is grows up a lot in the book and I had a lot of sympathy for her situation.

What I didn't like about the book is the amount of stuff that is packed into it. It was filled with so many twists and turns that seem to come out of nowhere. The pacing of the book didn't work well for me. I feel like there was a lot that could have been cut out of this book and the story would have still worked well. Clearly this is not a stand alone novel as the book ends with a huge cliff hanger. I will probably read the next one because I want to know what happens next.

--Kari

* note: I read a complimentary copy of Easter's Lilly supplied courtesy of the author. I was not compensated in anyway for this review. By receiving a complimentary copy, I am in no way obligated to write a good or bad review. I am an honest reviewer and my reviews are based on my own opinion and only written by me.*