ReviewsByRita5

Premonition
By Lynn LaFleur
A Torrid Tarot Romance
ISBN 9781419914799
Copyright © 2008 Lynn LaFleur
Edited by Raelene Gorlinsky
Cover art by Syneca
Electronic book Publication February 2008
An Ellora's Cave Romantica Publication
114 pages

Kari Winchester worked for a small Sacramento newspaper. For a good boss and friend Gifford Lansing. She created display ads. And she also had visions! No one around her believed in her visions, but they had always come true, though she had only learned that after the event had occurred and it was too late to help.

She'd contacted the police many times over the years when one of her visions revealed someone in trouble. Since she had no "proof" of anything, they'd politely escort her to the door with a don't-call-us-we'll-call-you attitude.

She had just experienced a premonition and she was determined that this time she would find the girl who seemed to be in danger and save her . This time she would not be too late.

Leon Blackstone was a distraught father. His daughter had been gone over 30 hours and still no sign of a demand for ransom. He was leaning on his son, Slade, to help him through this time. Slade, the son of his first wife, was in his thirties. When Kate arrived at the hotel claiming to know something about Brenda's disappearance, Leon and Slade thought she was probably one of the kidnappers there to talk about ransom. Slade volunteered to follow up on her.

Slade and Kari met at a restaurant where she tried to convince him her vision was real, and she only wanted to help find his sister. He acted as though she were a con artist or worse. Though both felt sparks, they parted on doubtful terms. He was convinced she was a total con, trying to get money out of his family's tragedy. At the same time he found himself very attracted to her.

When he reported the meeting to his father, Leon chided him for not accepting her vision. "Your own mother was a seer" he was told. The older man insisted that Slade check out her vision just in case she was right. Kari came to his office to see Slade. On the drive back to the hotel she had another vision, this time it included a detail of a coyote in the wall. Though he tried to attribute it to research on her part, he knew the wall she mentioned. Reluctantly, he agreed to take her to the spot she described from her vision.

The hike to the site was long and hard. Kari was not prepared, but she stubbornly continued on determined to find Brenda and prove herself and her visions were real. The two-mile hike was just the start. Would it lead to romance, or success in finding Brenda alive? This book will keep you in suspense in more ways than one. An excellent read. I would give it 5 visions out of 5.

cReviewed by Rita M., gottawritenetwork.com
March 8, 2008

No Control
By Shannon K. Butcher
Published by Forever
www.HattchetGroupUSA.com
Copyright © 2008 by Shannon K. Butcher
ISBN 9780446618663
Cover Artist: Dale Fiorello
First Printing February 2009
Romantic Suspense
Paperback 380 pages
$6.99

Lana Hancock was with a group of friends in Armenia at the wrong time. They were taken and tortured by a terrorist group know as the Swarm.

Caleb Stone was a Delta Force operative working undercover in the group. Though he took no part in the torture, he could not save any of Lana's friends and they were tortured to death one by one.

It would have all ended there, but then the Swarm was captured and all but eliminated. The splinter group that held Lana ordered her death and pulled out

Caleb was able to eliminate the man left to execute Lana and carried her badly broken body to the hospital. She survived and he sat by her bed as she recovered.

Now 18 months later and back in the United States, she has painfully recovered, and relearned how to walk. Inspired by another man, an ex-policeman, from her therapy classes, she has become involved in an effort to keep kids off the streets and help give them a chance.

Delta Force had just learned that the Swarm was trying to reform and one of its first goals was to eliminate Lana. They seemed to think she knew something that was a great threat to them.

Caleb Stone was assigned to guard Lana till they could get the information from the former hostage. Lana hates the very sight of Caleb because he brings all her suffering and pain back to her.

Things are further complicated by her former fiancee Oren. He is now running for office and wants her back as his fiancee for the publicity, sensing that the woman he deserted because he did not want to have a disabled fiancee is now a popular figure because of her effort for the underprivileged children. If she will not play it his way, he is willing to ruin her efforts.

Lana tried to convince Caleb that she did not need any help. She had nothing to reveal and there was no need for protection. But he stayed. He followed her home, and was shocked when she began to scream in the night. He broke the door down to discover her thrashing in horrible nightmares. She was in complete terror reliving the suffering of her torture.

He held her though the night comforting her and helping her. She still claimed she had no secrets, nothing to reveal. While waiting for her door to be replaced the next morning, Caleb talked to her landlord and discovered she suffered those nightmares nightly. Caleb realized that he had not fully been able to save her when he carried her from the cave and determined to protect her now.

Lana arrived at her office to find the building had been ransacked and her assistant shot. Now the police were after Lana to tell them if she had any enemies, and they found her office had been bugged. Caleb arrived to help protect her though the police interview and supported her at the hospital while she waited to see if Stacy would survive. He did not push or control her, just supported her through the ordeal.

The next shoe fell. She was planning an art auction for the after school center. They had been promised the use at a hotel, if the hotel was not booked for the weekend. The day before the deal was final, Oren booked the hotel for his engagement party. Caleb stepped in to help with finding a new venue for the auction.

Then Lana arrived at the after school center to find out that one of her newest volunteers was a woman from the terrorists group. The very woman who had filmed her torture and ordered her killed. Kara was the enemy. But Lana could not let her know she recognized her. Or that she had any idea that she was involved. Lana had to protect her family from the people.

The next event was arson! Her parents' home was burned to the ground. Lana was in a complete panic. The terrorists were not content to kill her. They wanted to cause her as much suffering as possible. Her former fiancee was using all his tools to force her to return to him and she was falling in love with Caleb, bringing him into the target sites of the terrorist group.

Lana was trying hard to juggle everything. Her secrets, her friends and family, her attraction to. Caleb. Could she do it? Time was running out for Caleb. His boss said he only had a short time left to get the information from Lana or he was going to he reassigned and another man would be brought in to work with Lana. Another man when he had to be the one to project her. He had to make up for not saving her earlier and he was deeply stricken with her.

Could he save her this time? Would they be able to admit their love? Would the terrorist group be captured? Could she testify against them? You will be turning page after page to find out. This book had such vivid characters you actually find yourself caring about the vileness and minor characters. Miss Butcher is an excellent wordsmith and you will find this an outstanding read.

I would give it five scrams out of five

c Reviewed by Rita M., gottawritenetwork.com

March 23, 2008

Bright Star Safari
By Olivia Winter
A Wings ePress, Inc.
Romantic Suspense Novel
Wings ePress Books
Cover Artist: Pat Casey
http://www.wings-press.com
Copyright © 2008 by Daphne Olivier
ISBN 978-1-59705-277-1March 2008251 pages

"Your Aunt, Mrs. Emily Rebecca Johnson was killed in a car accident yesterday." With these words Amanda Elizabeth Mary Baker found her world turned up side down. Journeying to Elandsdorp for her Aunt's funeral, she learns she has inherited a 1/3 share of Kwezi (Pty) Ltd. twenty-three thousand hectares, and Kwezi Lodge, a profit-orientated tourist facility. Her new partners will be Greg Anderson and Basil Simpson. Greg was a friend of Emily Johnson and manager of Kwezi Ranch. Basil was Emily's nephew and her bookkeeper for the ranch.

Greg Anderson immediately offered to buy her share in the ranch and Basil questioned whether she would be able to leave the city of Johnasburg to live in the bushfeld. Amanda was not one to jump at any situation and returned home to consider the situation. She lived with her father and stepmother, worked in a nursing home and had a boyfriend, Dave, they had been dating around a year, and lately he seemed to be pressing for more than a casual relationship. She was not able to put her finger on it, but she was not comfortable with a more serious relationship with Dave.

Her father was able to fill her in on her Aunt Emily and the ranch. He and her stepmother recognized this as a very valuable inheritance, but advised her to think deeply and sleep on it before she made a decision. Dave, on the other hand, forbid Amanda to go, and told her if she did they were through with staying on the ranch. She began to realize that he never asked her opinion or feeling on anything. He chose the restaurant, ordered the meal and made all the decisions, just as he was doing now about her inheritance.

Amanda decided to take three months unpaid leave from her job at the nursing home and give herself a chance to look at her inheritance and see if she liked living in the bushfeld as her aunt had.

When she arrived at the range, she found her partners seemed at odds, though what about she did not know. They were both handsome men but Amanda found herself attracted to Greg. She began talking to the staff, and become acquainted with the ranch. Amanda fell instantly in love with the scenery and the animals. She took on the duty of tending to the young orphaned animals found by the rangers.

There were also poachers killing animals on the ranch. And Basil was complaining that the Ranch was running short of income. But more of an immediate problem for Amanda was someone was trying to frighten her into returning home. Who was doing it, was it Greg, Basil or someone else? And was her Aunt's death really an accident. Questions abounded. Greg and Basil both had plans to increase the income from the ranch, Greg wanted to keep the Ranch in Eco-Tourism, and Basil wanted to turn the ranch into a hunting resort . Both wanted her to vote with them. The suspense builds. Then David shows up to take her back to Johansburg to be his wife. Who can Amanda trust? Who will win her heart.? Can the ranch be saved? You will keep reading to find the answers.

This is a exciting story of romantic suspense. It is well written and the clues are all in place, but it does not telegraph its ending. I have never been to Africa, but the author takes you there and you will feel the wonders of the land. This is a very good read. I would give it all five of the big five animals, and a few others.

c Reviewed by Rita M., gottawritenetwork.com
4/5/2008