Dangerous Lies by Becca Fitzpatrick

by:  Becca Fitzpatrick
published by:  Simon and Schuster
publish date:  November 10, 2015

Stella Gordon is not her real name. Thunder Basin, Nebraska, is not her real home. This is not her real life.  After witnessing a lethal crime, Stella Gordon is sent to the middle of nowhere for her own safety before she testifies against the man she saw kill her mother’s drug dealer.

But Stella was about to start her senior year with the boyfriend she loves. How can she be pulled away from the only life she knows and expected to start a new one in Nebraska? Stella chafes at her protection and is rude to everyone she meets. She’s not planning on staying long, so why be friendly? Then she meets Chet Falconer and it becomes harder to keep her guard up, even as her guilt about having to lie to him grows.

This was one of those books I was curious to read, but I was also a little wary about as well.  It seemed like maybe it was going to be a little too angsty.  It seemed like Stella was going to be a brat and I was going to hate her.

Stella is raised in New Jersey by her mother who is a major druggie.  But she's an upper middle class kinda drug user, the kind that's in and out of rehab and mixed up with organized crime.  All this culminates one night when Stella finds her mother's drug dealer dead in their house.  So, she goes in to Witness Protection and her mother goes back to rehab.  She gets sent to Nebraska to spend the summer with a foster mother that's a former cop that has as much baggage as she does.  Then Stella, finds that living in Nebraska away from her old life isn't as bad as she expected it to be.

I ended up really liking this book.  Stella wasn't as bad as I expected her to be.  Yeah, she was a moody teenager, but I live with 3 of them so I'm kind of used to their attitudes now.  I really liked all the other characters in this book.  It was a really exciting read and I'd definitely recommend it to the YA/NA readers.

Black River by S.M. Hulse

by:  S.M. Hulse
published by:  Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
publish date:  January 20, 2014

When Wes Carver returns to Black River, he carries two things in the cab of his truck: his wife’s ashes and a letter from the prison parole board. The convict who held him hostage during a riot, twenty years ago, is being considered for release.Wes has been away from Black River ever since the riot. He grew up in this small Montana town, encircled by mountains, and, like his father before him and most of the men there, he made his living as a Corrections Officer. A talented, natural fiddler, he found solace and joy in his music. But during that riot Bobby Williams changed everything for Wes — undermining his faith and taking away his ability to play.

I fell in love with this book.  It toyed with my emotions and then smashed my heart on the ground.  I couldn't believe that one smallish book could be packed with such a powerful story.

Wes's wife has just died from cancer.  As she's breathing her final breaths she only has one request, that her husband play his fiddle.  He can't do that because 20 years earlier when he was a Corrections Officer a convict held him hostage during a prison riot for nearly 40 hours and broke 9 of his fingers.   After she dies he has to go back to their hometown where he hasn't been in many years after a falling out with his stepson.  He has to spread her ashes and decide if he's going to testify at Bobby Williams parole hearing.  The homecoming is rife with turmoil for both Wes and his stepson, two men who aren't adept at letting go of the past.

This book was so good.  I highly encourage everyone to read it.  The first chapter or two was a little iffy for me because the writing style was a little unusual, but it was worth it.  The story is amazing.  It's sad and depressing, but in the end Wes turns out to be such a memorable character.  Love, love, loved it!!

The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale

by:  Joe R. Lansdale
published by:  Mulholland Books
publish date:  September 10, 2013

Jack Parker thought he'd already seen his fair share of tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five years old. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping turn-of-the-century East Texas--orphaning him and his younger sister, Lula.

Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle's farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack's grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who's come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack's extended family to boot). 

Jack and his merry band of miscreants have to travel deep into the thicket to rescue his poor kidnapped sister Lula.  Jack is learning how to grow up fast to everyone in line and stay in control of his rescue attempt.  Jimmie Sue is speeding up the process by making a man of the virginal Jack. 

I loved this book so much.  It kinda reminded me of the movie True Grit, but at little more humorous.  I had been really looking forward to reading this book and it didn't disappoint.  The characters in this book were fantastic and defintely memorable.  I highly recommend this book and if you're looking for a last minute Christmas present, get this book. 

Tracker's Sin

By: Sarah McCarty

2 Stars out of 5

Book four in the Hell's Eight western erotic romance series. A story that should have taken weeks or months to develop was compressed into mere days. And that's what hurt the book. The heroine Ari, was barely more than a thumbnail sketch of a character. No depth, no believability. McCarty's handling of the Hell's Eight themselves is much better.

I am a huge fan of Sarah McCarty, turns out one of the nurses at my gynecologist is too. I was reading my Kindle and she asked what book (it was Sam's Creed) and that started a very fun 10 minute book club. My point here is the author is a good author, she writes well and I always enjoy the way she tells a story and I'm not the only one. It's just that Tracker's Sin was a bit forced, almost as if she was told 320 pages and not a letter more and this inhibited a much longer (in time line not necessarily word count) story.

I will keep up with the Hell's Eight Series, even when I don't adore the book, I always love her cowboys.

Before his trade became his name, "Tracker" Ochoa was a scrawny Mestizo runaway. Now as fearsome as he once was frightened, he's joined the notorious Hell's Eight…and they have a job for him.

He must rescue kidnapped heiress Ari Blake and deliver her safely to the Hell's Eight compound—by any means necessary. Turns out that includes marrying her, if he means to escort her and her infant daughter across the Texas Territory. Tracker hadn't bargained on a wife—especially such a fair, blue-eyed beauty. But the erotic pleasures of the marriage bed more than make up for the surprise.

Tracker's well-muscled bronze skin and dark, dangerous eyes are far more exciting than any of Ari's former debutante dreams. In the light of day, though, his deep scars and brooding intensity terrify her. But he's her husband and she's at his mercy. With the frontier against them and mercenary bandits at their heels, Ari fears she'll never feel safe again.

Tracker, too, remembers what fear feels like. Though he burns to protect Ari, to keep her for himself always, he knows that money, history—and especially the truth—can tear them apart.

Kindle review edition provided by the publisher.

A Book of Tongues

By: Gemma Files

4 Stars

The first thought I was able to put into words upon finishing this book was "LSD fueled coherent nightmare". And I'm going to stick with that impression.

The publisher's description:

Two years after the Civil War, Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow has gone undercover with one of the weird West's most dangerous outlaw gangs-the troop led by "Reverend" Asher Rook, ex-Confederate chaplain turned "hexslinger," and his notorious lieutenant (and lover) Chess Pargeter. Morrow's task: get close enough to map the extent of Rook's power, then bring that knowledge back to help Professor Joachim Asbury unlock the secrets of magic itself.

Magicians, cursed by their gift to a solitary and painful existence, have never been more than a footnote in history. But Rook, driven by desperation, has a plan to shatter the natural law that prevents hexes from cooperation, and change the face of the world-a plan sealed by an unholy marriage-oath with the goddess Ixchel, mother of all hanged men. To accomplish this, he must raise her bloodthirsty pantheon from its collective grave through sacrifice, destruction, and apotheosis

Caught between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, Rook's witchery, and the ruthless calculations of his own masters, Morrow's only real hope of survival lies with the man without whom Rook cannot succeed: Chess Pargeter himself. But Morrow and Chess will have to literally ride through Hell before the truth of Chess's fate comes clear-the doom written for him, and the entire world.

The author drops us boots first into a slightly skewed West where the more you see the more you realize that something just isn't right. A Book of Tongues is not a fantastic tale of wizards in the old west. Oh no, this book is a tale of blood and horror.

Every single character is unlikeable. That's not to say the characterizations are bad, because no - they are brilliant. All of them are very believable hexslingers, whores, soldiers, outlaws, lawmen, preachers, gods, the people on the street; to a one they ring true. They're all just horrible.

Brilliant and compelling, but leaving me at a loss for words. I'm still not sure how I feel about this story, but I do know I'm eagerly awaiting the next book in the trilogy A Rope of Thorns.

A few quick bullet points, warnings for some. Intense sexual relationship between male characters, blood soaked and violent, with multiple gods - could be considered blasphemous. Basically do not pick this book if you do not wish to be challenged.