Triage by Cherie De Sues

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: Triage
Author:  Cherie De Sues

Author Site: http://www.cheriedesues.com/

Buy Link: www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.aspx?i=171
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing

Genre: Action/Thriller/Romance

Length: 76 pgs.
Reviewed by: Strega

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 5

Presentation: 4

Editing: 4-a couple of errors found

Story: 4.5

Writing Ability: 4.5

Overall Card Rating: 

                                                         

About The Book: Colonel Jake McCrea's mission is to get Dr. Jessie Stevens and her bioterrorism team in the air. The clock is ticking down to a thermal meltdown at the DEEP lab in Mexico. A terrorist group has attacked the facility and only Jessie knows the combination to the GP2 virus and vaccine.

Jessie wanted the deadly level four virus to burn in the lab until she learned that GP2 may have been secretly cultivated in Florida. As tension flares into attraction with Jake, Jessie won't fall for another man in uniform, even if Jake is the bravest man she's ever met. Still, she's having a tough time concentrating on a killer virus, instead of Jake's killer smile.

Jake doesn't want to take Jessie into a firefight, but she's the only survivor of the DEEP lab scientists with immunity to GP2. He knows Jessie is stubborn and tough as nails, but can she pull the pin on a thermal device to destroy the virus? With his feelings getting in the way of his mission, could he allow Jessie to put her life in danger?

The Review: Triage is a great read. The lead character, Jessie, is female and she's tough as nails. I love women who are portrayed as tough, yet feminine; one who can kick ass and take names, and still bake a cake without missing a stride. The action in this book is non-stop and well written. I enjoyed the story of Jessie and her job as much as I enjoyed the romance between Jessie and Jake. Ms. De Sues has obviously done a lot of research and tells a credible tale of disaster in the making, terrorism and what it takes to be a woman in a man's world. This one is not to be missed.

Pagan Elements: N/A

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Lacy: A Bad Girl's Romance by Cherie De Sues

THE PAGAN & THE PEN BOOK REVIEWS

Title: Lacy: A Bad Girl's Romance
Author:  Cherie De Sues

Author Site: http://www.cheriedesues.com/

Buy Link: www.nobleromance.com/ItemDisplay.aspx?i=171
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing

Genre: Action/Thriller/Romance

Length: 100 pgs.
Reviewed by: Strega

RATINGS FOR:

Cover: 3.5

Presentation: 4

Editing: 4

Story: 5

Writing Ability: 5

Overall Card Rating: 

                                                      

About The Book: Lacy Hennessey is the enforcer for the Boston Irish mob after the boss for the Italian mafia kills her father. After so many years of an informal truce between the two families, why has the Italian boss declared war on the Irish? She'll have the time to dwell on the future while on vacation with a new lover in Hawaii. Lacy is hopeful she'll find love for the first time in her life. Dr. Josh Davenport has fallen for the beautiful, leggy blonde who isn't wired emotionally like other women he's known. As the clues to Lacy's occupation unfold, Josh struggles with his feelings of self-preservation when he learns he could be in the middle of a mob war. Josh is no saint and his past could get him killed if Lacy's boss gets wind of his shady associates. Back in Boston, Lacy's world begins to crumble around her as secrets reveal a startling truth that could cost her everything she holds dear. In a bold move, Lacy will risk her life, love and legacy to bring about a new era for the Boston Irish mob.

The Review: Pitting the Irish Mob against the Italian mob is an awesome concept and author Cherie De Sues has done just that in Lacy: A Bad Girl's Romance. I laughed through the opening paragraphs at Lacy thinking back on how she killed someone—she's a woman after my own heart!

This book has everything, sex on the beach (and I don't mean the drink!), warm sand, tropical breezes, sexy men and women, lots of violence and all the other things I like in a good action/adventure. To top it off, a woman who packs and knows how to use both guns and knives with equal efficiency. As the family enforcer, Lacy has to know all about self-defense and killing without fuss or muss. However, she also doubts her ability to actually fall in love and have a "normal" life with the man she presumably loves, Josh.

Josh seems to fall easily for feminine charms but that's the only side of Lacy he knows. But Josh isn't completely clueless, and as a doctor he's seen some pretty crazy stuff and he's pulled a bullet or two out of a few wise guys. After all, he is Italian. That might seem a little stereotypical, but this is a book about two opposing mob factions and it's written with enough humor that it doesn't get bogged down by what's right or wrong.

If you like a good adventure with a nice sensual touch, you'll love bad girl Lacy!

Pagan Elements: N/A

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

Lives-Perception Is Reality by JJ McMoon

  The Pagan & The Pen Reviews

Title:  Lives-Perception Is Reality
Author:  JJ McMoon 

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: Virtual Everything Press

Genre: Thriller/Paranormal/Suspense

Length: 323 pgs.

Other: M/F

Reviewed by: Keri Stratton Alley

About The Book: A prom queen turned lot lizard. A floundering jock. A devil-worshipping rock star. An assassin and the FBI agent tracking him. A jilted girlfriend and a telepathic psychopath. Coincidence is bringing them all together, but for what purpose? Hailed as “Stand by Me” for the new millennium, “Lives” will leave you questioning your own coincidences for a long time to come.

The Review: If we were old friends, I could simply tell you, “I never even suspected the ending!” and you’d immediately know how highly I thought of this book. I love reading mysteries, thrillers, suspense novels—and I frequently figure out who-dunnit before the answer is revealed. If it’s a well-written book, I don’t mind—watching the characters figure out the answer is enough entertainment to warrant continuing. “Lives” blew me away. The final chapter was such a fascinating, creative, bizarre twist to a story of strung-together coincidences that I was floored. I immediately re-read the entire book, just to pick up the clues that I only realized were clues after the big reveal. And I enjoyed it just as much, if not more, the second time through.

Each chapter of Lives is told from a different character’s perspective, making a chain of individual stories that connect through a seemingly random series of coincidences. For example, in chapter one we hear about a major life changing event from one character, who interacts with a second character towards the end of the chapter. Chapter two is from the perspective of the second character, who interacts with a third character. Chapter three is from the perspective of the third character, and so on. Typically in a style such as this, the writer’s voice is still dominant even though the character perspective has changed. However, Mr. McMoon does an astounding job of portraying entirely separate, distinctly different characters that each have their own voice, thought patterns, and unique, disturbingly haunting, stories. Though his writing style remains similar throughout the novel, each chapter might as well have been written by a different person.

My ONLY complaint about this book was the Readers Guide and Questions for Discussion at the end. If I was actually part of a discussion group I would love to have access to these questions. However, I felt that including them in every publication of the book was a bit pretentious.

But I whole-heartedly agree with the long list of positive reviews included at the outset of the book and listed on the website. Lives is the kind of vivid story that sticks with you, even after you finish reading. I couldn’t put it down, and when I was forced to stop for incidental things like going to the bathroom, eating, and sleeping, I couldn’t stop thinking about the characters and their stories. I read it twice within 72 hours, and thoroughly enjoyed both reads.

Pagan Elements: None

Cover (Rated 1-10): 6-The cover of the book didn’t grab me as much as the introductory blurb.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.

The Serpent and the Stag by Julie Ann Maahs

The Pagan & The Pen Reviews

Title: The Serpent and the Stag
Author: Julie Ann Maahs

Author Site

Buy Link
Publisher: Smashwords

Genre: thriller/mystery/romance

Length: 271 pgs. 
Other: M/F romance/M/F/sexual abuse

Reviewed by: Keri Stratton Alley

About The Book: A serial killer lurks in the Northern California fog, and young women are disappearing. Sarah is 16, pretty and naive. Her beloved mother now dead, Sarah must run away from her hated aunt to search for the father she barely knows. Right into the serpent's den. What she finds horrifies her. Is the strange boy she meets there the real killer? Is her father involved? Can she escape before it's too late?

The Review:

Somewhere in the middle of the third chapter I began to get frustrated. Sure the book was well written, but the sheer righteous piety of the main character was giving me a sugar rush. However, I liked her spunky determination so I stuck around for chapter four. Boy, am I glad that I did! It turns out that the first few chapters served as a pointed contrast between her Fundamentalist Christian childhood and her subsequent experiences in a Unitarian/Pagan hippy commune.

I couldn’t put this down; once I started, I read the entire book in one satisfying session.

The author has an amazing knack for storytelling that allows the reader to know exactly who the bad guy is without losing interest in the story. It’s the interaction between the characters, rather than the mystery itself, that creates that I-don’t-want-to-put-it-down feeling. With a fantastic, rotating third person perspective the reader gets to see through the eyes of many of the main characters, including the antagonist. The characters are well rounded and believable, the scenes are detailed, and the pace of the book is unflagging until the finish. A warning for those with a history of sexual abuse – the scenes between the antagonist and his victims are very well written, and disturbing.

Though there is a romantic element to the story, it is not the overwhelming theme. Rather, it is simply a spice added to the story for additional flavor. I thought the author did a great job of exploring Sarah’s difficulty with falling for a pagan man.

Pagan Elements: The commune where Sarah, the protagonist, winds up is a mix of religious preferences, but predominantly pagan. The members adopt magickal names that reflect their connection to the earth. In one scene, Sarah watches a very well written Beltane ritual.

Cover (Rated 1-10): 4

The misty quality of the book cover is an accurate reflection of the climate and environment in which the characters are interacting. I liked the simplistic nature of the image, but felt that without knowing the story, the cover is too vague.

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Disclaimer: Due to FTC regulations, any book reviewed on this site was sent for free by the author to The Pagan & The Pen. We are not paid to give reviews by Author or Publisher. Once review has been made, said books are deleted.