cj Sez: The following two reviews of books I’ve read (from my TBR pile) is my way of paying-it-forward, trying to help fellow authors reach
new audiences.
Love, Stock &
Barrel, by Crystal L. Barnes
Love, Stock & Barrel, launched in 2016, is the second
novel in Crystal Barnes’s Marriage & Mayhem Series. Protagonist Dinah
Lexington runs away from an arranged marriage to a genuine creep and heads to
Texas in search of a possible relative described in her dead mother’s diary.
She’s not welcomed with open arms and is forced to defend herself against suspicions
that she is not who she claims to be.
Dinah is attracted to a gentle church-going hero, but her heart
is too recently bruised to let herself be drawn into a new
romance. The novel is a fast-paced page-turner, complete with a strong, sassy
protagonist, a hunky and genuinely likeable hero, and the requisite baddies
you’ve come to expect in a historical Western. There is a good balance between
wonderful, conversational dialogue and informative narrative.
Love, Stock & Barrel is a well-written, historical,
romantic suspense with a surprise twist and a perfect happily ever after ending.
//
The Apprenticeship of
Nigel Blackthorn, by Frank Kelso
The Apprenticeship of Nigel Blackthorn, launched in 2017, is
part one of a coming of age story. I
take that back: Nigel Blackthorn doesn’t just “come of age;” he is dragged
kicking and screaming (and some whining) through his teenaged years in an alien environment. What
a fantastic period of learning and growing the thirteen-year-old experiences.
Orphaned in Texas by a marauding band of Comanche, Nigel, a naïve,
fresh-from-England, mama’s boy begins his apprenticeship in survival under the tutelage
of Pascal, a defrocked Jesuit priest turned muleskinner. Nigel, renamed Black
Wolf, continues his education in the camp of a band of Cheyenne, “The People.”
Author Frank Kelso weaves such exacting historical details and
dialogues into his story that the reader cannot help but be drawn into the
daily lives of the inhabitants of old Texas in the mid-1850s. A worthwhile, historical fiction read.
//
Written by Rebecca Barrett, the book launches on May 7 and
is available for pre-order on Amazon now.
//
What have you read and reviewed lately?
That’s it for this week’s post. You-all guys keep on keeping
on, and I’ll try to do the same.
cj
Qrtly newsletter sign-up:
cjpetterson@gmail.com
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