The Rogue's Fate - Missy De Graff

Synopsis:

If your life hung in the balance, would you choose to make your own destiny or leave your life to fate?

Lucinda Raven is being hunted by her ex-lover, a controlling rogue Alpha, who is determined to perform the sacred mating ritual that will bind them together forever. Knowing nothing will keep him from carrying out his ruthless plan, Lucinda is on the run and seeks refuge in the territory of an old friend.

Caidan Moone, cursed Alpha of the Blood Moone Pack, has a tortured history that haunts him daily. He sees the arrival of this beautiful and alluring nomad as a chance at redemption from his prior failures and invites her to stay, despite the danger it brings to the entire pack.

As Caidan and Lucinda grow closer, her two worlds collide and Lucinda must face the events of her dark past in order to save the future. Will Caidan be able to protect her without sacrificing his pack? Or will she end up bearing the mark of her psychotic ex?


Review:

I must admit my expectations were very average for this book before I went into it of course. I don't often read werewolf/shifter books so of course this was a sort of breath of fresh air for my reading head. what is great about is this book has been written by an author who was able to give the whole werewolf thing a twist that gives anyone reading its a pleasant surprise.

The plot was well thought through and very well executed with many nice twists a long the way, The new twist to the werewolf book scene allows the author to take the story to a whole new level, The pacing was perfect, It was never a victim of rushing through the story missing out details and all the good stuff or drugging it out for too long to make it enjoyable.

Lucinda is a very like able character, you can't help but feel for her and her situation. It's a clear representation of being caught between a rock and a hard place and She doesn't understand the actions of Dylan but is determined to make the best of her life and what she's got. She will Stop at nothing to do what she feels is best for those she cares for and loves, even when those people would happily leave her to fend for herself. Lucinda is a strong character I held to. It was lovely to see her grow throughout the book.

Caidan is what I like to call a 'typical' alpha werewolf, driven by hard honour and what he thinks is right even If he cant seem to make sense of any situation.

As said previously, as a werewolf /shifter book It's great s has a lot of action and a heavy amount of romance running throughout. Thanks to the new twist Missy bought to the table, the book is above any of the usual 'shifter' Stories. I massively enjoyed this breath of fresh air to my reading habits and I definitely recommend this book to any far of the paranormal (werewolf (shifter needs.
A well deserved 5/5 from me and I'd like to thank Renzo Boggio from Inkitt for bringing this book to my attention.

Breaking Bones by Robert White - BLOG TOUR

Synopsis: 

The Streets of Pretson are alive with music and banter.
But nothing can drown out the sound of breaking bones. 

Inseparable since childhood and feared by their community, Tony, Eddie and Frankie are beyond the reach of justice. 

The brutal gang, The Three Dogs, are a law unto themselves. 

Detective Jim Hacker has watched The Dogs grow from thuggish youths to psychotic criminals. He seems to be the only one who wants to see their empire fall. 

Meanwhile Jamie Strange, a young Royal Marine, finds himself embroiled in the lives of The Three Dogs when his girlfriend, Laurie Holland, cuts off their engagement… to be with the most dangerous of The Dogs: Frankie Verdi. 
Jamie Vows to save Laurie, before Frankie damns them both

Every dog will have its day. 

Review:

The prologue we receive allows us as the reader to see the back story and understand a few things and sets us up pretty neatly for what we can expect throughout the story. The plot itself isn't seen to be particularly fast-paced, but it works, delivering a well developed and complex storyline

Character-wise, I found them to be fascinating and this made me want to follow their character arc's to the end. For me and many other people I suppose, characters are what drive a story.  They are there to be loved no matter their overall appearance of being portrayed as villains or the goodies. You can have the best plot in the world but without the right characters to carry it, it can fall flat, right on its face per say. 

There were interesting characters in this novel, but I’ll only write about a few that are really key to me, beginning with The Three Dogs themselves: The novel centres around a criminal gang The Three Dogs. All the way from their early years adolescence through to their adulthood criminal empire. The Three Dogs as a gang, form an interesting mixture of violent gangsters. Preston’s answer to the Krays but set in the 1980s.

The leader of The Three Dogs is Frankie Verdi. A violent psychopath, with no respect for anybody outside of his gang. He's pretty much a terrifying individual, one you would hope never to meet,(and thankfully I havent yet).

Tony Thompson is the biggest in size of all of them, but with learning difficulties, he is merely just the muscle of the organisation and I would say that Tony is the only one of The Dogs that even comes close to having any empathy/sympathy for others.

Finally, we have Eddie Williams, Eddie is a complex character indeed, He is a man living with a secret and a deep obsessional love for womaniser Verdi. He is ruthless with his ambition and devoted to the gang.

All three ‘dogs’ have a extremely strong bond of brotherhood. One that has already withstood many tests. By adulthood the bond is simply unbreakable. Making them an untouchable, savage and brutal gang!

Detective Jim Hacker, the police man working on bringing The Dogs down, is hard-working and I admired his stamina in wanting to deliver justice. Jim Hacker is close personal friends with Harry Strange, meeting when Hacker worked the investigation into Harry’s wife’s death. Harry’s young son Jamie is in the Royal Marines and throughout the novel he comes to face war in the Falklands and the troubles of Northern Ireland but usually with his best friend and fellow squaddie Richard ‘Birdman’ Valance, by his side.  However Jamie is dumped by fiancé Laurie Holland, as he returns to camp after his mother’s funeral and Laurie has set her sights on Frankie Verdi, a decision she will no doubt come to regret.

Laurie’s character has had a turbulent and abusive childhood, leading her to believe that access to power, respect and fear will bring safety! Laurie is sadly misguided in this belief.

As the plot unravels we see all of the characters mature and develop; Jamie experiences the brutality of war, which changes every man it touches, The Three Dogs rise in their criminal enterprises and Laurie learns some harsh truths, as the life of a gangster’s moll. This novel is incredibly detailed, and I most definitely recommend! It has violence, gangs, drug empires and portrays the life of a violent gang kingpin. It vividly depicts how the love of money is the root of all evil! Its an easy 5/5 from me and if you're into gang stories or Martina Cole, Roberta Kray and Stephen Leather. 

About The Author:

Robert White is an Amazon best selling crime fiction author.

His novels regularly appear in the top ten downloads in the Crime and Action and Adventure genres.

Robert is an ex cop, who captures the brutality of northern British streets in his work. He combines believable characters, slick plots and vivid dialogue to immerse the reader in his fast paced story-lines.

He was born in Leeds, England, the illegitimate son of a jazz musician and a factory girl.

He hated school, leaving at age sixteen.

After joining Lancashire Constabulary in 1980, he served for fifteen years, his specialism being Tactical Firearms.

Robert then spent four years in the Middle East before returning to the UK in 2000.

He now lives in Lancashire with his wife Nicola, and his two terrible terriers Flash and Tia.

An American Cage by Ted Galdi

Synopsis:

Three inmates break out of a maximum-security prison in Texas, one of them Danny Marsh, a suburban kid in his twenties who landed in jail because of a crime he never intended to commit.

An American Cage follows Danny and his two escape partners over a twenty-four-hour period as they struggle to cross Texas to freedom in Mexico. On this dangerous journey, Danny has to evade the rabid Texas authorities, and even worse, the schemes of one of his closest allies, who isn't who he seems.

Review:

So I managed to read this book in like 6 hours, it was so good I really couldn't put it down so it wasn't much of a surprise for me to read it all in one go. 

Danny Marsh is 24 years old, after one error of judgment one night after a dinner out with his colleagues he ends up behind bars at Crick Maximum Security Prison located in Texas. He was often a victim of panic attacks until he was housed with a new cellmate, the soft spoken Professor Phil Zorn who's forty-ish and a neuroscience researcher and was able to offer Danny father-like support and encouragement. It is then no surprise that when Phil plans a prison break, Danny, as well as ghetto raised Monty Montgomery support the escape plan.

I don't want to run through the book bit by bit and ruin it from anyone so I'll leave it there but as soon as you open the book you are thrown right into the action, it's a gripping piece of writing all the right way through. We see all of this over a 24 hour period, the time is filled by great characterizations and relentless action which helps the time pass super quickly. The characters are perfectly crafted and well developed throughout the story which juts makes it all the more wonderful. 

Although there are three main characters and point of view, we see some of the story through other characters eyes which only deepens the link between story and reader. It was lovely to see the book broken up by changes in the POV which helped give the reader a look a all angles of the story including the police and the family of those involved. 

I wasn't expecting the ending to play out like it did, it was a great surprise and I actually loved it more than I probably should. This books was truly great, even much so that on Instagram where I was hosting a book tag in August I named this book my favourite book of the year so far. Ted Galdi crafted a great book with great characters and executed it all perfectly and even though I didn't know what exactly to expect from this book when I first opened it, I fell in love with what came from it in the end. I cant give this book anything less that the 5/5 it deserves, and I can only recommend this book to anyone out there who wants to be surprised and immersed in action.

Than you to Ted who provided a copy of the book for an honest review, it was an honour.

Corpse In The Kitchen - D.J.Reid

 

 

 

 

Synopsis:

 

Off-duty police officer Danny Sullivan comes home from shopping to find a corpse lying on his kitchen floor.

 

 

Review:

 

So what can I really say its like a 20 page short story which was really something I read just because it seemed like it could have been funny and just because I was intrigued by the one line synopsis as it allowed me to start thinking about what happened etc. before I even read it.

 

It kicks off automatically as it should when only being a short story and in honestly I cant understand why I was really thinking so deep into the story but I was anyway. First off Danny reacts kind of too casually to a dead person lying in his kitchen yet alone the fact when the police actually arrive followed by the 'lab guys' Danny is just treated like he was a cop who had been called to a dead body in a kitchen it was just so weird for me to read that he wasn't technically treated like anyone should be when in those circumstances but hey ho I watch too much crime related TV shows its my fault I expected it to be those standards.

 

After following a trail of blood they find where the victim worked and was staying where they find further evidence and also gain information on how could have done it. Turns out in this neighbourhood you can run into a cops house when you're in trouble, in some stories that's really not something a character would do unless they were family or really trusted which Danny must have been. In the end they find who does it literally sat on ice which to me was something I laughed at, it was a funny ending for me I suppose.

 

What really did my nut in though is the fact the questions and theories the officer and Danny put together always seemed to go too nicely together and to plan and all questions they both had were answered exactly how they wanted them to be which I just started to ignore in all honesty.

 

Altogether I have to give it a 3 out of 5, it was well written and the plot had substance I just wish it wasn't a short story and then it could have been padded out more and possibly altered so everything could have been done how it really would have been done. I recommend it if you want a quick read to pass the time or fill in a short break its bound to work for you in those circumstances.