Before going into my review, I want you to know that you can enjoy Network of Deceit without having to read the first one in the series, Collision of Lies (though, you should). I say this because, one of my many quirks is that I cannot read books out of order and, just in case you are like me, I wanted to let you know that. Now, onto the review. 

We find police detective Amara Alvarez on a suspicious case involving a teenager found dead on a raft. What follows is an unpredictable mystery with plenty of suspense! There was a lot I enjoyed about the story - the fact that it was set at a great pace and that I didn't find it to be cookie cutter were probably the best things for me of course. The writing flowed perfectly for a suspenseful tale; I didn't feel it was stilted at any point. In fact, I found the injected humor in places to be really refreshing - a great contrast to the heavier moments. 

I am also very much a character-driven reader, and I like for characters to be somewhat grounded in reality (could I meet someone like this? is a question I often ask myself). Because of this, I enjoyed Tom Threadgill's take on making Amara a "real" character. One who makes mistakes - one that has flaws! 

Now, for those who notice - this book's publisher, Revell, is Christian-focused. Network of Deceit is definitely a "clean" tale for readers who do not want "colorful" scenes and language in what they are reading. This is more of a note for readers who would not usually see themselves picking up something from a Christian publisher: if you enjoy mystery and suspense, and a great story that has you guessing at every turn - do yourself a favor and pick up this book!

​

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE
FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 
or visit the blogs directly:
 
2/17/21
Series Spotlight
All the Ups and Downs

2/17/21
BONUS Promo
Hall Ways Blog

2/18/21
BONUS Promo
LSBBT Blog

2/18/21
Review
The Adventures of a Travelers Wife

2/19/21
Review
That's What She's Reading

2/20/21
Excerpt
The Page Unbound

2/21/21
Excerpt
Texas Book Lover

2/22/21
Author Interview
StoreyBook Reviews

2/23/21
Review
KayBee's Book Shelf

2/24/21
Review
Librariel Book Adventures

2/25/21
Character Interview
The Clueless Gent

2/26/21
Review
Tangled in Text
​

​Last Star Standing
By Spaulding Taylor
Genre: Soft Science Fiction/Speculative/Dystopian/Post-apocalyptic
 
About the Book
 
A post-apocalyptic Earth under alien rule. A lone wolf assassin with a chip on his shoulder. Can he find his way through a maze of deceit to victory?
 
 Aiden has always felt like an outsider. After the rebel operative is captured and imprisoned by the world’s galactic overlords, he awaits execution. Then a mole working for the occupying regime alerts him to a plot that could destroy the entire resistance... Engineering a daring escape, Aiden’s growing feud with the new rebel leader leaves him out in the cold – and smouldering with resentment. Faced with deceit and betrayals on every side, he recruits a group of overlooked outcasts and stakes everything on one last mission.
 
Can the restless, reckless Aiden take a stand long enough to save humanity from enslavement?

​

​About the Author
 
Alice McVeigh was born in South Korea, of American diplomatic parents, and lived in Asia until she was 13, when the family returned to Washington D.C. She then fell in love with the cello, winning the Beethoven Society of Washington cello competition, and reaching the finals of the National Music Teachers Association Young Soloists national competition. After achieving a B.Mus. with distinction at the internationally acclaimed Jacobs School of Music, she came to London to study with Jacqueline du Pré and William Pleeth. Since then she has performed with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Philharmonic and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique all over Europe, America and Asia.
 
Her first two contemporary novels – While the Music Lasts and Ghost Music – were published by Orion Publishing/Hachette in the late 90s, and her first play (Beating Time) put on at the Lewisham Theatre. (The film rights to her first book were also sold, to Channel 4, but Mozart in the Jungle got there first!)  As well as performing, Alice has ghosted or edited over 200 books. She has also scribbled a witty guide to the orchestral profession: All Risks Musical, cartoons by Noel Ford. Her most recent novel, Last Star Standing, will be published by Unbound Publishing under her pen name, Spaulding Taylor, on February 21st, 2021.
 
Alice is married to Professor Simon McVeigh, and lives in London. They have one daughter, who just graduated from the University of Oxford, and a second home, by the sea in Crete. Apart from fiction, Alice’s greatest enthusiasms involve playing chamber music, dachshunds and tennis. (She is a powerful but notably inaccurate tennis player, with the distinction of being ladies’ singles runner-up four years in succession at the - very - local Farnborough Tennis Club.)
 
 
Website: www.alicemcveigh.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/alicemcveighauthor
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/mcveigh.alice/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/astmcveigh1
Amazon: www.amazon.co.uk/Alice-Mcveigh/e/B07TDKZPVT?ref=sr_ntt_srch_lnk_1&qid=1610184384&sr=1-1
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1108881.Alice_McVeigh
 
 
 
Excerpt:
 
I caught hold of something, something which must have blended into its
background so perfectly that I hadn’t even spotted it. Something
alive, nestling under the co-pilot’s seat.
 
I couldn’t believe it. A live gromeline. Trembling, possibly with
fury, and trying in vain to squeeze back. Grabbing my trophy – I
could feel its hot little heart throbbing like an injury against my
palm – I hopped out of the plane so fast that my wound protested.
 
‘Bully!’
 
Bully raised one eyebrow. Two would have been overkill.
‘Bully, you are not going to believe this. I found a gromeline!’
The gromeline – only about fifteen centimetres – bit my finger,
hard, even though I could have easily crushed its entire body with
my fist – and probably would have, were I a real tester.
 
Feisty little gromeline. I flicked it lightly with my sausage-
sized finger. When it protested, I growled, ‘Cheese it, munchkin,’
though I could feel it struggling obstreperously against my palm.
 
Bully was intrigued.
‘Is it genuine?’
 
‘Of course it’s genuine. It just fucking bit me.’
 
Bully probably considered this no proof. But they’re rarer than
clean air these days and his fascination was obvious. (Gromelines come
from the farthest galaxy so far discovered, can speak any tongue
and own enviable mental powers. They are also brave to the point
of stupidity and ludicrously small. This one was mouse-coloured
– they can be spectacular – with tiny red eyes. Few humans have
ever seen one.)
 
‘What on Earth was Ho Chi doing with a gromeline?’
 
It was a reasonable question. A mission was no place for such
a valuable alien. Could have been bounced to pieces, even during
that feather-silk landing. I leaned down. ‘Did you stowaway on
Ho Chi’s blinguard?’ I asked, but it just slit its eyes, pursed its lips
and glared at me.
 
Bully trotted to his backpack and removed a small bag.
‘Shove it in here. Not even a gromeline could tunnel out of that.
Once we’ve had something to eat, we can find out what it knows.’
 
With some difficulty we succeeded in loosing the little creature
inside, where it immediately started gnawing on a corner.
 
‘You sure it can’t just chew itself out?’ I asked.
 
‘Not unless it’s got a small but serviceable nuclear device.'

There are books that are so personal and that delve so deep into something intimate, such as grief, that get me to think how to proceed with reviewing it. It's taking a public peek into someone's diary...someone's personal life. Likewise, these books were written for a reason. Books like At Close Range by Leesa Ross purposely gives us a look into her grief.

I was easily lost in Ross telling the story of her son, Jon, dying from a freak accident with a gun. Reading her experience, how it affected her marriage and herself as a mother, was hard to read, but so important to do so. Her writing flowed for me, which made it a bit easier to keep going with it. I've always been a bit sensitive to the "gun topic" (I don't like them), and it has only grown since the El Paso Walmart shooting in 2019 (I live in El Paso). This is, by no means, a comparison to someone who has lost a loved one, but thoughts of that day linger in the back of my mind consistently. 

What I ended up liking and appreciating from At Close Range was Ross' ability to make the case for SAFETY. It isn't about limiting people but about teaching them how they can have what they want or need while also being safe. Or even better...being able to be in the presence of a gun, and how to safely be around it. Ultimately that's what I got from this book, and as someone who is, honestly, very scared of people owning guns, it gives me some solace to know that there are people out there who are willing to emphasize how important safety is. I especially thought how wonderful it was that gun safety was being thought of with older age groups and not just the younger set. My take away from this book is that, like most things in life, our lessons do not stop at childhood. We continue to grow and therefore, we continue to experience. Because of this - we need to continue to learn. Ross gives us this perspective from her very painful experience. 

Ultimately, however you feel about guns and gun safety, this is definitely a book to pick up. If you're a parent, or someone who has younger ones in their life, read this book and discuss it with your kids and teens. This book opens up that opportunity, and we should definitely take advantage.  
​ 

Continue Breathing
By Josh Greenfield
Genre: Fiction
 
 
Book Description
 
“Continue Breathing: A Novel” follows the adventures and misadventures of its protagonist, Jordan Fineman, as he seeks to fight his way out of the depths of an emotional breakdown.  Jordan is diagnosed as both a manic-depressive, during the days when that term was still in use, and a severe obsessive-compulsive.  Before he can find his place in the world as a writer, before he can know a relative amount of peace, he must go through his trials; two hospitalizations for mental illness, a psychotic episode, more than twenty-five years of psychotherapy and swimming pools full of psychiatric medications.  In the end, it is a story of perseverance and victory, and of striving to live in the present day, made possible by one particularly skilled psychiatrist and his able successor. If Jordan begins his journey with one particular gift, it is his sense of humor.  He is able to laugh at himself.  This, in the end, is what brings him home.

About the Author
​
Josh Greenfield is a graduate of both Phillips Andover Academy and Cornell University's College of Arts and Sciences. He holds two master’s degrees from the City University of New York, one in history and one in English literature. He also completed the better part of a doctorate in English at Fordham University.  In his writing he attempt to address the recovery from mental illness with humor and honesty.
 
His work has been featured in The Cornell Daily Sun, The Riverdale Press, Appalachia, Word Catalyst Magazine, Better than Starbucks, Chaleur Magazine, The B’K Magazine, Prometheus Dreaming and Adelaide Literary Magazine.  His story “And the Doors of the Ambulance Closed,” was nominated for a Best of the Net 2019 award.  His novel “Continue Breathing,” was published by Adelaide Books in 2020.
​
Website: www.JoshGreenfield.us
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/joshgreenfieldwriter
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/1954351291/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Continue%20Breathing%20by%20Josh%20Greenfield&qid=1609414163&s=books&sr=1-1&fbclid=IwAR0l66zaPftnGyNtYwwUn2G3x2PvpBm_GW4bwCZYEVnErqWXHJMEva6RwtU
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56756845-continue-breathing?ac=1&from_search=true&qid=BuLjFs05f2&rank=1
 
 
EXCERPT:
 
The only way to look back at all this is with something resem­bling a smile. The breakdown happened when I was twenty-one years old. It was June of what should have been the end of my senior year. I’d finished three and spent one screwing around. I had a part-time job in a vegetarian restaurant. I was a waiter, though on some days I helped in the kitchen. It was com­munal in that way. I was staffing the dining room one Sunday morning, but there wasn’t a whole lot to do. The spinach had been washed, and the fruit juice bottles carefully arranged, all by people more functional than myself. The wooden interior was inviting, with the morning sun flooding in through the large picture window. In the kitchen, the corn was quietly sau­téing in garlic sauce, and the brown rice was nicely puffed. All we needed were some customers.
A man and a woman entered to the sound of the tinkling bell above the door, not that we would have overlooked them in the rush. They took a seat at a table for two against the wall. The woman wore a long maroon skirt, and the man had his hair pulled loosely back in a ponytail. Ready to serve, I approached the table and offered the couple menus. I looked at them. The woman smiled, the man nodded. They consulted the bill of fare in silence.

I stepped back behind the wait station and began to contem­plate the water glasses. Five filled, two empty glasses on the end.

I could fill them, or not…
If I fill them I’ll have to refill the pitcher, which means walking into the kitchen.
If I don’t fill them I’m going to run out of water glasses. Unless I fill them later…
It might get busy and I won’t have time. I could fill the glasses but let the water level in the pitcher drop. How much would it drop? If I got a smaller pitcher, it wouldn’t drop as much. At least it wouldn’t look like it had dropped as much.
No one is going to look at the pitcher.
I could take the empty glasses off the end of the shelf. Then at least I wouldn’t have to think about them. I could also put them under the counter.
There, now all the water glasses are filled. But three don’t have any ice. The empty glasses under the counter don’t have any ice either. They don’t even have any water.
What will people think when they see empty glasses under the counter? Nobody puts empty glasses under the counter.
Better put them back on the shelf...
There.

The couple had been ready for ten minutes. I walked over to take their order.
“I’ll have the soup and salad. With cornbread, right?” the woman asked.
I looked at her but did not fully comprehend the question. I nodded. I made some effort to write down her request. The writing was not coherent. These people had water. But the man had no ice, or very little. They needed ice.

“The choices?” she asked again, smiling a little more force­fully.
I tried to focus. “There’s blue cheese. There’s also Russian and… a French.” She ordered the French. I got something down on paper about the man’s order and retreated to the wait station. The ice glasses were still there. I counted them again: five filled, two empty. Of the five filled, three didn’t have any ice.

It’s getting warm outside. It’s going to get hot.
No ice. The ice is in the kitchen. I could fill the pitcher and get the ice at the same time. What would Corey think? Doesn’t everyone fill the glasses with water and ice before the meal, during set up? There are two glasses filled with ice. That’s enough for one more table of two. What if it’s a table for four? Two would get water with ice and two would get water without ice. Maybe they wouldn’t notice…Better get the ice now.

This process proceeds indefinitely, or until interrupted. Some prisons have no walls.
The order slip with the pencil scratch marks on it was crumpled and placed in the front left pocket of my denim apron. It remained there. The couple was quietly looking at one another across the table for two. The kitchen staff were leaning against the stove perusing the Sunday paper. Nothing was happening. Forty-five minutes went by in this condition of suspended animation. ​

I don't know where to start with how much I loved Pudge and Prejudice. Do I start with the obvious - which is the cover? Look at that cover! It's beautiful and eye catching. In a world where so many books are judged by their covers, this one definitely grabbed the interest of this reader. Then, sticking to the "face surface" stuff, we have the obvious fact that A.K. Pittman's beauty is based on Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice. I don't know about other readers, but I love most renditions of Austen's piece. I mean, hello Colin Firth, Matthew Macfadyen, and Elliot Cowan (if you know, you know). 

Okay, now that we have that said (because it needed  to be said), let me tell you about what I loved especially about P&P. Elyse Nebbit is an overall likeable character - and it meant so much to me to have a character who is chubby in a starring role. We've been seeing them more and more, which is FANTASTIC, but it never fails to make me that more happy to see a character in a book who is not only a good character, but who is treated like a person with feelings and not a supporting character meant to shine more light on the slimmer and more lovable main character. Billy was also a great character to become immersed in, as unattainable as he seems to be. What was most important about these two is that, even with misconceptions and all that, their unfolding story is one that is captivating to witness. 

Also, the setting for this book? Phenomenal! As a fan of 1980s movies and the beloved Brat Pack, I took a special liking to this part of the book. It made me want to watch all those movies again. Pitman did such a great job setting this story in Texas and in the 1980s - it's as far as Austen's backyard as you can get, but the story? Oh the story definitely reaches across that pond. 
​

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE
FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 
or visit the blogs directly:
 
2/3/21
Review
The Page Unbound

2/3/21
Review
Missus Gonzo

2/3/21
BONUS Promo
LSBBT Blog

2/4/21
Review
All the Ups and Downs

2/5/21
Review
Carpe Diem Chronicles

2/5/21
Review
That's What She's Reading

2/6/21
Review
The Adventures of a Travelers Wife

2/7/21
Review
Rebecca R. Cahill, Author

2/8/21
Review
Nerd Narration

2/8/21
Review
Rainy Days with Amanda

2/9/21
Review
Story Schmoozing Book Reviews

2/10/21
Review
StoreyBook Reviews

2/10/21
Review
Momma on the Rocks

2/11/21
Review
Book Fidelity

2/3/21
BONUS Promo
Hall Ways Blog

2/12/21
Review
Librariel Book Adventures

2/12/21
Review
Jennifer Silverwood
​