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#BlogTour: Trouble In Big Timber by BJ Daniels

For this mid-week entry in the Slide Into Summer Romance Blog Tour Series, we’re looking at a romantic suspense that while deep in a series actually works quite well as a standalone book and entry point to the series. For this blog tour, we’re looking at Trouble In Big Timber by BJ Daniels.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

Solid Romantic Suspense. This book is listed as Book 5 in a series, but I can tell you from having read it without having read any of the other books that it works totally fine as a standalone as well. The existence of people from the prior books is mentioned, but I didn’t actually note anything that could even really be a spoiler about those books in this one (other than the not-really-a-spoiler-due-to-genre-rules mentioning that certain people are together, possibly). Overall a truly solid book mostly on the mystery/ suspense side – it opens with a man attempting suicide and being stopped by what he believes is the butt-dial of a long-lost friend being murdered by his long-lost ex-best friend. But this *is* a romance, and that *does* develop, it just mostly develops later as our leading man and leading woman are largely approaching the investigation into the phone call and what it revealed from two very different angles that later become more intertwined. One of those with twists almost until the very last page (other than the epilogue). Very much recommended.

After the jump, an excerpt and the publisher details! 🙂
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#BlogTour: False Allegiance by Nick Thacker

For this blog tour, we’re looking at an explosive action/ mystery that looks into an oft-neglected global topic. For this blog tour, we’re looking at False Allegiance by Nick Thacker.

Here’s what I had to say about it on Goodreads:

False Promise? Let me be extremely clear: As far as “facing constant threat of death from mysterious operators” plot lines go, this one was solid. After what has become a usual opening chapter establishing Jake Parker just trying to live his life, we pretty well immediately go into “constantly running from the bad guys while trying to solve a global mystery” mode, and in this part Thacker is excellent. We even get a bit of real-world discussion on yet another oft-neglected topic, in this case … well, revealing that is a bit of a spoiler. But an interesting one, for sure.

But no, the “False Promise?” question from the title more has to do with the ending of Book 2 and my own expectations for this book based on that. I was expecting a lot more direct involvement from Parker’s dad, leading up to a direct confrontation between father and son where guns would be blazing both directions. That… doesn’t happen here. Though Parker’s dad *does* play a role in most of the tale and there *is* (eventually) a confrontation and even a resolution. It just wasn’t the all encompassing explosive type I for some reason was expecting/ hoping for.

But Thacker does in fact do an excellent job of telling yet another globe trotting Jake Parker tale and both wraps up this current version while allowing for new possibilities down the road. This reader, for one, hopes we eventually get to explore some of those. Very much recommended.

Below the jump, the publisher information, including a book description and buy links. 🙂
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#BlogTour: Third Kill by John Ryder

For this blog tour, we’re looking at a story of a war between assassins… playing out on the streets and in the casinos of Las Vegas. For this blog tour we’re looking at Third Kill by John Ryder.

Here’s what I had to say on Goodreads:

Assassin On Assassin Action. In Las Vegas. This is a semi-weird (in a good way) mashup of a police procedural and a straight up shoot-em-up action thriller. On the police procedural side, one half of the “problem solving” team is an FBI agent with the usual FBI agent problems, plus at least a hint of a personal life. On the shoot-em-up action thriller side, the other half of the “problem solving” team is a former Royal Marine turned mercenary turned private assassin. Now, this team is tasked with tracking down and assassinating an assassin who has been let loose on the Las Vegas strip – and whoever is paying them. It is an intriguing premise in that it hasn’t been covered a thousand times in a thousand variations of the exact same thing, and when this British author is focusing on things *other* than guns in his action, it is at minimum plausible and seemingly realistic. But his British blind spots shine through in his repeated – pretty much every time – use of “clip” when he should be using “magazine” to denote where in the gun the bullets are stored and what is replaced when you need more bullets. This is where having an American fan, particularly of the “uses guns semi-actively” sort, would come in handy in the proofreading process – a technique I’ve known even American authors who are still less familiar with guns to use to polish their texts before publication. And this *is* an ARC, so there is at least the possibility that this can be corrected in the month or so before publication – in the Kindle variant, at minimum. Still, a truly strong story such that other than this particular point, all other British to American linguistic differences are easily explained away as the one lead character being British himself. Very much recommended.

Update exclusive to BookAnon.com: I’m told that the “clip” v “magazine” issue did in fact get resolved pre-publication. 🙂

Below the jump, the various publisher details including book description and author bio. 🙂
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#BookReview: The Elimination Threat by Michael Laurence

Ho Lee Schitt! WHAT A RUSH! With this book, Laurence again ups his game and introduces a weapon that is arguably scarier than any he has unleashed yet… particularly since it seems plausibly real. The action, stakes, and sheer terror here are all off the charts, and Laurence pulls no punches. That so much of the backstory is based on documented real world events is arguably among the scariest elements of this book, even if at least some of it is in fact fictionalized so that Laurence can craft the story the way he wants. With all of this noted, this isn’t one of those books that you can just pick up this Book 3 in the series and go, you really do need to read both Book 1 (Extinction Agenda) and Book 2 (Annihilation Protocol) first. At which point you’re immediately going to want this book anyway. And when you finish this one, you’re going to want Book 4 immediately… which is going to make you rain curses of mild inconveniences down upon Laurence as you will likely have to wait a bit for it. 😀 Very much recommended.

This review of The Elimination Threat by Michael Laurence was originally written on April 21, 2021.

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#BookReview: Faithless by Steven Ramirez

Gender Swapped Universal Soldier Meets Deeper Unique Lore. This book *very* much has a Universal Soldier feel through much of it – which isn’t a bad thing at all for this particular reader, since I *loved* that movie for *years*. And yet, these sections can still feel so… “well trod”… just because it *has* been done so often before. Even the gender swapping has been done to a slightly lesser extent.

But then the book connects to a much deeper lore, to a world that it seems that the author has been developing across at least a few books – and a quick perusal of Amazon confirms this suspicion. So even while setting up a seemingly routine-ish (with a few nice wrinkles) Book 1 of a new action series, the book does well to advertise the author’s prior works and encourage an exploration of those tales as well. Great marketing strategy, and a solid storytelling technique.

Overall the tale is interesting and the ending truly does leave the reader wanting more… this reader in particular simply hopes that it does more to stand out in future endeavors. Very much recommended.

This review of Faithless by Steven Ramirez was originally written on April 11, 2021.

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#BookReview: Sin by JM Leduc

Excellent Action Story. This is the re-published edition of a book that has been around for several years, but with most/ all proofreading mistakes caught and with a new cover. And I’ve had this book for most of the time it existed – and only chose to read it now, with the third book in this series releasing this week. Man, I should have read this book years ago. Truly an awesome action story with a richly developed world and a bad-ass, take-no-prisoners type heroine. The former cover of the book had me thinking it was *vastly* different in style than it turned out to be, and the new cover (with the orange background and standing female figure) is much more indicative of the near frenetic action you get with this tale. It cannot be said enough: If you like Jack Reacher type action tales but with a bit less brooding and a bit more knives in throats… you’re going to love this book. Very much recommended.

This review of Sin by JM Leduc was originally written on December 17, 2019.