Dark Deception by Nancy Mehl

Dark Deception is Book 2 in the Defenders of Justice series.  Kate O'Brien had experienced something horrific in her life four years earlier and she was the only survivor. She has to live in a small town under an assumed name in order to protect her while the criminal is brought to justice. She has already sat through two trials.  Something happens and her quiet life in the small town is about to end. Tony DeLuca will have to do everything in his power to protect her against the evil.

I liked the characters. I thought Kate was strong even though she had been through a lot.  This story had lots of twists and turns in the story that kept me turning pages.  I had to pay close attention because there were numerous characters that I had to keep straight in order to follow the story.  I have to admit I had a tiny inkling of who the major villains but that was only because mystery/suspense is my favorite genre to read and I have gotten pretty good at detecting who the villains are.

Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany Publishers for providing me a digital copy of this book to read and review.  Dark Deception will be released on July 6, 2017.

The Writing Desk by Rachel Hauck

Rachel Hauck does it again. She writes another outstanding book. The Writing Desk is a dual-timeline story. One story takes place in the gilded age.  Birdie, a young woman of marriageable age desires to become a writer but it was very difficult from women during that time to be taken seriously. Her overbearing mother wanted her to enter into a loveless marriage that would benefit both families. She was very hateful to Birdie and nothing Birdie could say could convince her mother. Her mother was more concerned about her own selfish wishes than the happiness of her only living child. Birdie tried to stand up to her mother and I wanted to keep reading to find out if Birdie was able to overcome what her mother wished. There were twist and turns in this story that kept me engaged. 

The modern timeline involved  Tenley Roth who has written one best seller and is struggling to write another novel. She lives in New York with her boyfriend.  At the request of her estranged mother she goes to Florida to take care of her mother while the mother undergoes treatment.  At first I did not like Tenley. I thought she was self-centered and a little too quirky but as the story progressed I began to like her a lot better.

Thanks to Netgalley and Zondervan for providing me a digital copy of this book to read and review. The Writing Desk is due to be published on July 10, 2017.

Pursued by Lisa Harris
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I have loved suspense mystery books ever since I was a child and remains to this day my genre. I had read all of my current favorite authors and needed something to read so I picked up the first book in the Nicki Boyd series at the library and was hooked. I decided to read the rest of the series. While waiting for the chance to read book 3 I read all the books in her Southern Crime series. Lisa Harris has become one of my favorites as an author that manages to keep me engaged in her books. Her books keep me up too late at night trying to finish them.

Starting with book 1 we learn that Nikki's first career was teaching school. She became interested in the Missing Persons unit of law enforcement when her teen sister comes up missing. She has been able to solve many missing persons mysteries but has yet to solve the case of her missing sister. In each book in the series she gets closer to learning the truth. In this book she is on a flight from California back to Nashville and is engages a conversation with a woman. The plane comes close to crashing and they make an emergency landing but then it is like the woman never existed. Where did the woman go? I had to keep turning this action packed novel to find out the mystery. This books has so much action in it. Lisa Harris' style of writing suspense is very much similar to Lynette Eason another suspense author I love.

Lisa Harris will be releasing the fourth in the Nickki Boyd series. I can't wait to find out what happens. Will she ever find out what happened to her sister.

Thanks to LilbraryThing Early Reviewers and Revell Books for providing me a copy of this book to read and review.


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Weaver's Needle by Robin Caroll

Landry Parker and Nickolai Baptiste are in competition against each other to find a lost map. They were hired by a client whose husband was murdered for this map. The first one who finds this map will get a hefty finder's fee. By the middle of the book they learn they must work together to find the map. Their lives are in constant danger. Someone does not want them to find the map.  Both the main characters were likeable and each had a good motive to find the map.  I did not like this book as well as I have Robin Caroll's previous books. At times I got confused with all the legend thrown on.  The book did get suspenseful toward the end.

Thanks to Barbour Press and Netgalley for providing me an e-copy of this book to read and review. Weaver's Needle will be published on June 1, 2017.

Plain Missing by Emma  Miller
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Although Rachel Mast is no longer Amish she is not fully English either. She still has her roots in the Amish faith and still loves the Amish people. She would do anything for her family she loves. She takes care of a mother going through chemo treatment even though her mother treats her like an outsider making her sit at a separate table to eat. None of her other family treat her this way. Like in the previous three novels she becomes involved in a mystery. This time it involves someone close to home. A young woman and her boyfriend turn up missing after an Amish social. The girl never made it home. What happened to her. To disappear is so unlike her. I love how Rachel and her still Amish younger cousin Mary Aaron work together to solve the mystery but will they endanger their own lives in the process?

I love how the author develops her characters. After already reading four books the characters begin to feel like old friend. They become real. I loved the suspense in the story. It kept me guessing. I did not know who the evil characters were until the end. There were a couple of loose end that were not finished up in this book such as her younger sister's interest in a local boy and Mary Aaron's future. I hope that there will be more books by this author in the future.


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True to You by BeckyWade

True to you is book one in the Bradford Sisters. They are are close knit group of sisters who lovingly always get in each other's business. Willow is the oldest and the pretty one, Nora is the middle and the smart one and Brit is the youngest and considered the creative one. This book focuses on Nora, the smart one. This book had a good balance of humor and things that are considered serious matters. Nora was the librarian and ran a museum. I felt like I could identify with her. She like books as I do and she even managed to update her Goodreads progress daily like I try to do. She is immediately attracted to John. But one of the problems is that John has a very sweet girlfriend.Since she knows a little about genealogy she helps John in the search for his birth mother. He has reasons to search for the mother but does not reveal to her quite yet. The more time they spent together the closer they got.

I loved all the characters in the book and am looking forward to reading the other two sister's stories. This book is due to be released on May 2, 2017. Thanks to Netgalley and Bethany House for providing me a digital copy of the book to read and review.

Haven of Swans by Colleen Coble

When I requested to review this book I did not realize that I had read it before because it was under a different title. The previous title was Abomination, book four in the Rock Harbor series. I still enjoyed reading it because it had been 10 years and I had forgotten much of the plot. I only remembered bits and pieces and did not even know the outcome.

A young woman and a small child is found on the side of the road by Bree Matthews. The woman has lost all of her memory. She doesn't even know her name. All she knows is that she is in danger. She does not know if it is an angry ex-husband or a stalker. All she knows is that someone is after her.

A killer is on the loose waiting for his next prey. This book is not for the faint of heart. I highly suspect that the author is a fan of Stephen King fiction.  This story kept me engaged and I stayed up late. I grew weary so I finished it the first thing the next morning.  The book under this new title is due to be released on May 2, 2017. Thanks to Thomas Nelson and Netgalley for providing me an e-copy of this book to read and review.