Cold Cold Heart by Tami Hoag

Tami Hoag did a fabulous job of portraying her characters with PTSD and personalities surrounding these people. 

The plot is full of twists and many suspects in a gruesome murder.  As soon as you think you have it figured out, think again.

Dana Nolan had been brutalized by a serial killer.  She was a lucky candidate as she survived by killing the killer.  She came away with personality changes and physical problems she had to contend with.

After a year of working on herself, Dana realizes she lost her best friend, Casey, years ago.  Casey disappeared and Dana felt the need to find out what happened to her.  With a scattered memory bank, Dana tries to fill in the blanks that the police haven’t had success with.

The people around Dana include an over attentive mother, a step-father she doesn’t trust, her high school boyfriend who wants to get back together with her, Casey’s former boyfriend, John who has PTSD from being in the service in Afghanistan, and other members of the community.

So many suspects and so little time to figure out who the new killer in town is.

Happy reading,

Dawn                    

North of the Tension Line by J.F. Riordan

Set in the beautiful Washington Island of Door County, Wisconsin amidst the flurries and cold of winter, Fiona Campbell decides her life needs a touch more excitement.  She attends this idea by buying a rundown yet historic home on Washington Island, through a bet with her BFF, Elisabeth.

                                       

Fiona, originally a city girl, needed more activities and a larger number of people to do them with.  She immediately questioned her decision to move further from people and the lights of civilization.  She even missed Coffee, the coffee house in Ephraim.  The owner, Roger, a recluse as much as he could be, even made moves on Elisabeth.  So what was wrong with an outgoing former city girl?  She had almost given up on the idea of a boyfriend until she acquainted herself with the island.

Fiona met a stodgy neighbor, had a blend of odd animals trespassing, learned of the island politics, and attempted to seduce a handsome man at a Chicago wedding.  Unrealized by herself, her heart had altered and the respite of a quiet island grew into a snug fit. 

She eventually learned that the island men needed more than a stare or simple hello in order to learn they also come in many sizes and one might fit just right.

North of the Tension Line relaxes the reader, letting them remember when things were simple, yet had just as much meaning in life as our hectic schedules today.  A great novel to curl up by the fireplace in the cold of winter, or put a pair of sandals on and sit in the sun for the southern readers!

 

Happy reading,

Dawn

 

The Last Detail by Lisa J. Lickel

Lickel takes you deep into the secrets and insecurities of lives devoted to their faith and the realization that when listening to God, their issues can be turned into understanding and love. 

Amalia Kennedy has a full plate piled with a man who insists they were meant to be married, not according to herself, the desire for her own children, death of a close friend, and the appearance of the man, Merit Campbell, who makes her heart flip for real.

Merit Campbell, a medical missionary has devoted his life to his faith.  He begins to doubt his reason for his devotion; could it be to hide from a close relationship to his new acquaintance, Amalia, for fear of losing her?

Incredible romantic tension and confusion with their deep faith, Amalia and Merit struggle to allow themselves to love.  It seems to be the one thing they cannot have complete control of, yet sometimes a heart doesn’t lie.

Award-winning Lisa J Lickel is a powerful storyteller and brings her characters to life with all too real problems.

Happy reading,
Dawn

Head Games by Eileen Dreyer

 

You never think it can happen in your hometown.

Molly Burke has enough of her own nightmares to contend with from her stint in Vietnam as a nurse.  Her current position as a trauma nurse and death investigator in St. Louis is another compartment of her life that she undoubtedly experiences horrific gut scenes along with the rampant lets-hide-the-child-abuse stupidity.

Just as Molly begins to get vicious notes left on her doorstep, her not-often-seen nephew, Patrick, pays a call from across the country while his parents are working in China.  Maybe he can soften the hard edge of reality and fill a void of a childless home.  He’s a wild-child, although he does take on a job and befriends the elderly man next door.

The notes keep coming along with freshly de-muscled human bones.

Frank Patterson, a big time attorney, regularly checks on and visits Molly out of more than duty.  Fortunately, he understands her wry sense of humor as she has a hard time allowing him any room in her hectic schedule.

Molly’s forced to check her past for anyone who’d want her as dead as the gifted bones.  She keeps in mind that serial killers start out as, let’s say, misfit kids.

Dreyer takes us through a maze that has no clear ending, maybe many.  Thriller, intense, shocking, and a story that will hit you like a brick at the final revelation.

Happy reading,

Dawn

 

Low Pressure by Sandra Brown

 

When an eighteen-year-old messed-up murder case is depicted as a fiction novel, of course the nerves of those involved are rattled.  The family, the police and the investigators, and the suspects all have a bone to pick with Bellamy Lyston, the little rich-bitch author and sister of the dead.

Bellamy uses a pen name, but is soon uncovered.  She leaves New York and returns to her hometown, Austin, mainly to make amends with Dent Carter, a former suspect.

He’s not happy to see her, even if his Levi’s rise when she wants him to help her find out who really killed her sister, Susan.  

The mysterious element common in Brown’s novels is that the criminal is hard to find among all the players. 

With only circumstantial evidence, the paperwork neatly disposed of, the family, the attorney, the detectives, and the local low-life all had a chance, motive, and desire to put Susan underground.  Anyone who might be able to ferret out the real murderer will be on the criminal’s hit list.

In other words, Bellamy, Dent, and anyone else in the way have a dagger pointed at their vitals. 

Constant tension will leave you shocked at the outcome of the investigation and whether Bellamy and Dent can secure a future together.  It makes me tingle at how it’s all wrapped up.

 

Happy reading,

Dawn