Thrilling Extract - COLD JUSTICE by Ant Middleton

Ant Middleton - former Soldier, TV Personality, Adventurer and Writer ...

Ant has just released a book called COLD JUSTICE ... and you can read an extract of the book HERE

If you are in the UK .... there is a link at the bottom of the page to win this book.

I've read the extract and I cannot wait to get the book and finish this story.

♥

Country Heaven .... by Ava Miles

 

When famous - and infamous - country singer Rye Crenshaw saunters into the diner where she cooks, Tory Simmons is certain she's got him pegged. He's a bad boy who indulges himself in all things, women included. But while she couldn't care less about country music or arrogant men, Rye makes her an offer she can't refuse when he asks her to be his private chef on his multi-city concert tour. The job is the answer to all her prayers: It will clear out her debt and finance the fresh start she desperately needs.

Rye is certain his sassy new cook is the last woman who'd ever tempt him, but spending time with the wholesome girl next door will do wonders for his damaged public image, whether she likes being forced into the spotlight or not. Her food also happens to be the best he's ever eaten, both comforting and seductive. But spending time with Tory on the road shows him a new side to her - one that's as impossible to resist as her food. And when an emergency in his family whisks him home, he does the one thing he's never risked: he lets a woman into his heart....

Soon the emotions Rye faked for the tabloids become all too real, but will the country heaven he's found in Tory's arms survive in the real world? 

ISBN: 9781940565057    First Published : 2014    Genre : Fiction/Romance

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I have to admit .. I loved this book ... I totally lost myself in the romance of boy meets girl scenario ... you know what I mean. The story flowed really well ... there was no "downtime" with this book ... it never once made me want to skip a page.

Descriptions were covered quite well ... not too much and not too little ... I definately could form pictures in my mind of how the houses looked etc. And the characters ... oh they were covered with a depth and clarity of their style and behaviours that rang true.

Tory - she could be any one of us - trying to make our way after losing family, being alone, and struggling emotionally & financially - and then Rye walks into her life offering her a chance to work for him, on the road while he tours across the country.

Rye Crenshaw is a success story .... his music creates adoration among fans and he makes himself available to as much female attention as he can, basically to help him forget his past, and make it through day after day ... convincing himself that he is happy with his life. The story explains why Rye leaves and has nothing to do with them .... until his father takes sick and his little sister calls him home.

All in all, I think the story covered the family issues, the emotional issues, the love issues, and came out a winner. And did I say earlier that this is the first book in The Dare river Series? I will have to get the rest of the series ... shame on me for not having them already.

Little side note - at the start of each chapter this is either a recipe(Tory) or the words of a song(Rye) ... I really did like that - some of those recipes and side stories that belonged with them sound awesome 

Would you like to read this book for free?  Click this link to get it free on Kindle and Audible HERE 

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

Author Events - Dymocks/Penguin Books

 DYMOCKS AUTHOR EVENTS

Liz Byrski, Sara Foster, Natasha Lester and Judy Nunn are among the names you can see. Please check the link beside each author - to see if the event is still going ahead or postponed.

(image from Google)

PENGUIN BOOKS -AUSTRALIA 

Judy Nunn, John Safron, Sandie Docker & Monica McInerney - check the dates - some may require you to book to keep numbers within Covid Safe requirements. 

♥

REBELONGING by Sabrina Stark

 

How do you come back from the biggest screw-up of your life? That's the question for Lawton Rastor, the billionaire bad boy from Detroit, after he lets the girl of his dreams not just slip through his fingers, but run away, fast – and with good reason. How do you resist a guy who's irresistible? That's the question for Chloe Malinski, the world's most overqualified waitress, after a nightmarish night leaves her vowing to avoid her fantasy guy for good – no matter how hard he works to win her back.

Chloe finds Lawton impossible to resist. Lawton finds Chloe impossible to forget. But finding that place to belong isn't easy when neither one knows where the other truly comes from.

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This is a full length book - and I think that it could have been cut down by a few pages.

The issue I mentioned in Unbelonging ... is still here in this book for about 90% of the time. It takes that long for Chloe to say all the right words to Lawton that she is a house sitter - she does not live there - and he doesn't care! He loves her - she loves him - that is the response she should have expected.

The back story about the Parkers ... it added to the story ... but I didn't feel that it was essential. It would have been great to have seen the story of Chloe's family feature a little more predominately than in the last part of the book only. The odd phone call here or there ... it needed more I think, and the story could have grown even further.

As in most stories - there is a happy ending ... I liked this book - just felt a little let down with the story

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥

THE GLITTERING COURT by Richelle Mead

 

To escape an arranged marriage, Adelaide, an Osfridian countess, must pose as a servant and join the Glittering Court—a school designed to transform impoverished girls into upper-class ladies. Adelaide naturally excels in her training, and even makes a few friends: the fiery former laundress Tamsin and the beautiful Sirminican refugee Mira. She managers to keep her true identity hidden from all but one: the intriguing Cedric Thorn.

When Adelaide discovers that Cedric is hiding a dangerous secret of his own, together, they hatch a scheme to make the best of Adelaide's deception. Complications soon arise—first, as they cross the treacherous seas from Osfrid to Adoria, and later, when Adelaide catches the attention of a powerful governor.

But no complication will prove quite as daunting as the potent attraction simmering between Adelaide and Cedric. An attraction that, if acted on, would scandalize the Glittering Court and make them both outcasts in wild, vastly uncharted lands . . .

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I'll be honest - I was really keen to read this book but it took a long time to grab my interest. I kept waiting for Adelaide to be discovered and returned to her home ... there was a lot of contradiction - Adelaide wants to escape from the plan of an arranged marriage, so she stows away with a group of women who are being sent to a school to be taught how to groom and prepare themselves for marriage to a stranger? Adelaide never really made any attempt to escape and make a new life for herself.

I found that the characters - well some of them - left me with questions and not answers.

Breaking ground in new lands was always going to bring hardships and stumbling blocks - to add to the love story between Adelaide and Cedric. There is always a bad guy waiting around the next corner to try and spoil the best laid plans.

I don't know what genre this book falls into ... Historical romance of Fantasy Romance ... maybe a little of both. In the end, I enjoyed the book and have the other 2 books in the series (which are stand alone books I think) but I will get around to reading them at some point.

To be honest ... at times this didn't feel like a Richelle Mead story at all. 

RATING : ♥ ♥

UNBELONGING by Sabrina Stark

 

With an accounting degree that's getting her nowhere, Chloe Malinski spends her nights waitressing and her days housesitting in a neighborhood that's infinitely beyond her reach or comfort zone. But she knows all too well that no one wants a pauper in their mansion, so she's gotten good – maybe a little too good – at faking it 'til she makes it.

With more baggage than any airline, Lawton Rastor made his money through prizefighting – and not the kind with padded gloves and some bow tie-wearing referee. He made it through the gritty, back alley kind where sweaty money changed hands over beer and bimbos.

She's a poor girl from Hamtramck. He's a billionaire bad boy from Detroit. They should've never crossed paths. But when they do, thanks to Chloe's latest housesitting gig, the collision of sparks, secrets, and misunderstandings leaves both of them yearning to belong exactly where they shouldn't – with each other. 

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I thoroughly enjoyed this book - I found the characters likeable and believable. 

Chloe's relationships with her family are not great - except for her grandmother and her best friend Erika, there is no one else that she gets to spend time with. House sitting keeps her in a style of comfort that she can only dream of ... while working in a job where she gets treated badly by her boss Keith as well as some of the cutomers.

The relationship with Lawton starts off slowly and grows ... which is a nice change from eyes meeting to ending up passionately in love and sleeping together in a glance. Lawton does not live up to his bad boy name - except when it looks like Chloe may be in harm and then he steps up. He comes across at the start of the book as a party boy and player - but that soon changes and he is a business man, and someone who is trying to leave his past behind.

My one complaint with these type of stories - why does Chloe find it so hard to tell the truth about house sitting? Do authors really think that it adds to the story? No ... it doesn't - it frustrates because you know the truth will come out and a whole lot of drama could be saved by being truthful from the beginning. I think there could be a better back story with coming clean from the beginning and judging his character - his acceptance or denial of her, this would have added to the book.

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

WORKING CLASS MAN by Jimmy Barnes

THE SEQUEL TO THE NUMBER 1 BESTSELLER WORKING CLASS BOY It's a life too big and a story too extraordinary for just one book. 

Jimmy Barnes has lived many lives - from Glaswegian migrant kid to iconic front man, from solo superstar to proud father of his own musical clan. In this hugely anticipated sequel to his critically acclaimed bestseller, Working Class Boy, Jimmy picks up the story of his life as he leaves Adelaide in the back of an old truck with a then unknown band called Cold Chisel. 

A spellbinding and searingly honest reflection on success, fame and addiction; this self-penned memoir reveals how Jimmy Barnes used the fuel of childhood trauma to ignite and propel Australia's greatest rock'n'roll story. But beyond the combustible merry-go-round of fame, drugs and rehab, across the Cold Chisel, solo and soul years - this is a story about how it's never too late to try and put things right.

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And so the story continues - there are times that Jimmy comes close to self destructing - close to having the band members take off in 4 different directions - close to losing everything good that touches him.

If you loved the first book - you will love this one too .. it's honest and raw - at times it's downright brutal feeling the stumbles, but watching the climb back up to make things right.

Now both of these bookies have sold well over 500,000 - and this is not the end of books from Jimmy. There is another one called Killing Time : Short Stories from the Long Road Home

Also a Cook Book and a Kids Book - one heck of a guy ....

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

WORKING CLASS BOY by Jimmy Barnes

 

Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny - Australian legend Jimmy Barnes' unforgettable childhood memoir.

The time I have spent writing this book has caused me a lot of pain. Sometimes because of what I have remembered about my childhood and sometimes because of what I couldn't remember. It is funny how your mind blocks things out when those things can hurt you. There are a lot of things I wish I didn't remember....

A household name, an Australian rock icon, the elder statesman of OzPubRock - there isn't an accolade or cliché that doesn't apply to Jimmy Barnes. But long before Cold Chisel and Barnesy, long before the tall tales of success and excess, there was the true story of James Dixon Swan - a working class boy whose family made the journey from Scotland to Australia in search of a better life.

Working Class Boy is a powerful reflection on a traumatic and violent childhood that fuelled the excess and recklessness which would define but almost destroy the rock 'n' roll legend. This is the story of how James Swan became Jimmy Barnes. It is a memoir burning with the frustration and frenetic energy of teenage sex, drugs, violence and ambition for more than what you have.

Raw, gritty, compassionate, surprising and darkly funny - Jimmy Barnes' childhood memoir is at once the story of migrant dreams fulfilled and dashed. Arriving in Australia in the summer of 1962, things went from bad to worse for the Swan family - Dot, Jim and their six kids. The scramble to manage in the tough northern suburbs of Adelaide in the '60s would take its toll on the Swans as dwindling money, too much alcohol and fraying tempers gave way to violence and despair.

This is the story of a family's collapse, but it is also the story of a young boy's dream to escape the misery of the suburbs with a once-in-a-lifetime chance to join a rock 'n' roll band and get out of town for good. 

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Everyone knows who Jimmy Barnes is ... if you grew up in Australia .. you know Cold Chisel ... then you know who he is ... BUT you really don't know him at all. We know the musician, the man that stood on stage swigging out of a bottle - maybe to hide the pain as well as be a part of the scene ... but his upbringing was tough and you just realise how much when you start reading this book.

Learning to survive .... with little money, even less love ... his family did it tough and you totally get to understand why Jimmy wanted out of there as soon as he could.

The constants in his life, did let him know that there was another side to life ... and he took a journey to find the life he wanted, the love he desired and the music became a part of all of us that grew up with him.

I read this book when I was first in hospital when I was having open heart surgery ... I forgot that Jimmy had heart surgery too. I could not put this book down - I felt his pain, I felt his joy and I felt the numbness that came across me at times reading his story.

This is brilliant - and the follow up book WORKING CLASS MAN doesn't disappoint ... I will review that one later ... 

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥ ♥

WHISPER by Lynette Noni

 

“Lengard is a secret government facility for extraordinary people,” they told me.

I believed them. That was my mistake.

There isn’t anyone else in the world like me.

I’m different. I’m an anomaly. I’m a monster. 

For two years, six months, fourteen days, eleven hours and sixteen minutes, Subject Six-Eight-Four — ‘Jane Doe’ — has been locked away and experimented on, without uttering a single word.

As Jane’s resolve begins to crack under the influence of her new — and unexpectedly kind — evaluator, she uncovers the truth about Lengard’s mysterious ‘program’, discovering that her own secret is at the heart of a sinister plot … and one wrong move, one wrong word, could change the world.

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My niece gave me this book - and she said it's unlike other books - the story line will leave you wondering and she was right ....

I cannot imagine not talking for over 2 years ... but to keep herself and everyone else safe she does.

We follow the story of how some melt her heart and teach her to use her voice .... but for good or evil?

It's not cut and dried - so many unanswered questions .... so there is one more book in the series called Weapon - does this give you the answer as to who really is the good guy? 

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥ 

Lynette Noni grew up in outback Australia ... check out her website HERE

FAITHLESS by Julie Johnson

 

After twenty years in the same small town, Faith Morrissey throws caution to the wind and books herself a one-way ticket to Europe. She's not sure what to expect from her year-long study abroad trip, but she wants - needs - something different. Something exciting. Something that sets her soul on fire and makes her heart pound a bit too fast inside her chest.

Enter: him.

Dark-eyed, dangerous, and utterly irresistible. One look at Wes, and she's a goner - despite all the warning signs that tell her he's trouble. The more time they spend together, the more apparent it becomes that he's keeping secrets. Secrets that could jeopardize not only their future together... but their very lives.

When the truth about Wes finally comes to light, Faith will be forced to decide: what do you do if the love of your life is living a lie?

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Nice read - Boy meets Girl - and so the story begins to unfold. Faith with her innocence is mesmerized by Wes' looks and mystery ... what a combination!

The chapters alternate - one is Faith's look at events and then the next one is from Wes' outlook. The story flows quite well ... I didn't find myself trying to recall events or conversations, so I felt that everything just slotted into space nicely. I felt like the ending came quite quickly when Wes realised that he had left Faith vulnerable by not realising who the leak in the agency was before he left.

All that said - it was an enjoyable read ....

RATING : ♥ ♥ ♥

What are you reading now?

 

 

Book 2 in the series .... you can buy the book HERE

I just started last night .... will review this once finished.

 

 

Hello ... my oh my it's been awhile .....

 OMG - so hard to believe that I have not been on this blog for close to 10 years!

I bet you all thought I was done for - no longer around or stopped reading/blogging altogether.

Nothing could be further from the truth - I have my other blog which I took a break from for about 5 years - during that time I had a heart attack .... and open heart surgery. Totally recovered now - and about 10 kilos heavier due to not working and sitting on my butt - thanks Covid.

Anyway - I am going to give this blog a facelift - redo the header etc and get back to posting here. I wonder how many people will come back and check it out again .... time will tell.

I am on the look out for new and exciting Book Blogs ... TV Blogs .... Movie Blogs .... so feel free to hit me up in the comments with any you would like to share. I will be doing a drop by on the blogs I follow from here to see who is still sharing amazing books etc ....

Keep your eyes open ... I think it's going to look good and read well in here again very soon.