Thursday, November 20, 2014

Beauty Mark

By: Jan Moran




In reviewing, I don't like to tell the story because we want you to read it. I was honored to receive an advanced copy to read and review. I was not compensated nor was there any bartering of services.In this, the second of the Hostile Beauty series, Beauty Mark, we experience the personal and professional trials of Escarlata "Scarlett" Sandoval, an intellectual property attorney at Marsh and Gold law firm in L.A. She is acosted by her immediate superior while on an overseas busienss trip. Afterwhich he toys with her, knowing she is up for her partner interview in a week, and won't do anything to ruin that. Followed by a spokesperson blatently ruining the meet with their new client, with no plausable explaination. Then there are a series of dangerous and deadly attempts on her life, again unexplained. Until she sees a newscast in a bar.Personally, she has grown up with Johnny Silva, the handsome and ever so charming, bow-tiie wearing matre'd of Hollywood's Polo Club. He is at one with the movers and shakers of the community. He has grown up, and been in love, with Scarlett since childhood. Now, when she needs him most, he is there and the fright of her life has unleashed her true passion for him. I loved the way the author brought this into what was happening. It was a flawless transition for one emotion to another. Scarlett is also supported by the stars of book one "Flawless" Verena and Lance, Fianna Fitzgerald and Dahlia Dubois.

I am thoroughly enjonying this series. I am on my second read. The way Ms. Moran has written this, it is easy to read. You are not overwhelmed with characters-she makes up for it in drama. I don't have to go back to check something written to see if it is explained previously. This is a series you will read every year, and enjoy it every time. I look forward to Book Three.

Saturday, November 15, 2014

The Sapphire Brooch (Celtic Brooch Triology #2)







By:  Katherine Lowry Logan


I was honored to be asked to Beta-read this manuscript. I was not paid or reimbursed in any way for my services or this review. It is a true record of my feelings, as per my copious notes.


Sapphire follows Ruby as catalyst to transport whomever can open the stone and recite the Gaelic incantation. With the Ruby, it was to the overland trek of the pioneers. Kit MacKlenna meets her cousin Abraham, aka Braham, and his lifetime friend and law partner, Cullen. She falls in love with Cullen and decides to stay in the past with him.


In Sapphire, Dr. Charlotte Mallory of Richmond VA spends much of her spare time in Civil War re-enactments. She is considered very knowledgable of the era. One such re-enactment weekend, of the Battle of Cedar Creek, she recieves a box in the mail from an Edinburgh legal firm. In her hurry, she puts it aside until a break when she opens it, recites the incantation and is transported back into the middle of the real  Battle of Cedar Creek, October 19, 1864. After she acclimates herself, she recalls a certain General would be injured and so looks for, and finds, him. She cared for him until his death, with Gen. Custer at the bedside for his friend. Then she is summoned by Gen. Sheridan, who says he will burn down her family plantation, thus changing the family history, if she does not go to Chimborzo prision and rescue a Major Michael Abraham (Braham) McCabe. When she finds him, his abdominal wound is life threatening and the only thing she can do is take him back to her 21st century hospital, where longtime friend, Ken, does the surgery. Her brother, Jack help. Braham quickly recovers and begins to acclimate. His cousine, Kit, told him of her time travel. He inadvertently learns some Civil War history and the fate of President Lincoln.


What follows is a fight to save President Abraham Lincoln from assassination and preserve the history of the Civil War and the Mallory family.  It is a very exciting love story and point on history of the War, and some true characters that will make you scream. I did some independent reading of certain events she covered that sparked my imagination, and I just needed to know more.


The development of the ARC's and movement between the Civil War, at its worst, and the 21st century are not confusing. The history is not like reading a text book but an actual part of the action.  I had a few surprises as the outcome of some characters turned out to be beyond what I imagined.  Most of all...myself and you readers will love the final courtroom scene. It was and additional and unexpected scene that no one could have written better.