Bad Day For A Bombshell by Cindy Vincent

This is the first book in the Tracy Truworth series. We are introduced to Tracy as she and her mother are rushing to catch the train back to their hometown of Houston after a shopping expedition. While Tracy's mom drones on and on about how horrible Tracy is, Tracy notices a blonde bombshell entering their train car. After all, it is hard to not notice someone who is trying so hard to gain attention! Tracy also notices a mysterious man trying very hard to remain inconspicuous. She wonders what he is up to.

An arranged marriage, a drunk and abusive woman for a mother, talk of America being brought into the war, Nazi's around every corner, stumbling onto a murder, not to mention the Bogart look-alike mysterious man from the train and Tracy's life is just about to be turned upside down!

BAD DAY FOR A BOMBSHELL is set in the 1940's. I love the characters. Tracy's new boss and look-alike Humphrey Bogart is too much! You can just imagine him saying, "Here's lookin at you kid" in that Bogart voice! I enjoyed the adventure while learning a little bit about the unrest of the times. Where Nazi's were lurking around every corner, where women were called "doll" and nobody thought it was rude or demeaning, where nightclubs offered fun entertainment, and where Tracy becomes an apprentice P.I.

Throughout the whole story I imagined in the background old swing-dance music playing, Sammy with his "awww shucks" Bogart look and all the terror that people felt when the attack happened on Pearl Harbor. I loved the mystery of the story, it played out like a fascinating who-done-it. I read book 2 in the series first, so I was happy to read book 1 and see how it all started out. A fun and entertaining read that kept me interested throughout.

Emily of New Moon by L.M. Montgomery: READ-ALONG

Another read-along! This time we will be reading EMILY OF NEW MOON by L.M. Montgomery. If you have read the ANNE OF GREEN GABLES series this is the same author so I'm sure it is going to be fantastic. Hop on over to Amber's blog at SEASONS OF HUMILITY for all of the details. A chapter a day for the whole month of March. I think that's do-able! Amber always makes the discussion questions fun and thought-provoking, and seriously, if you have never participated in a read-along please do! They are a fun way of discussing books and getting to know other bloggers! Our first discussion is March 10th and the book was only .99 on Amazon for Kindle. Come join us!

RE-READ BINGE

Do you ever re-read books? I do! There are some that are like old friends. They have to be visited over and over and over again because they are so good and they are so comforting. Since January I have been re-reading some old friends.

I started with the TWILIGHT series. I usually re-read this one every couple of years, but this time around it was only a year since I read it.

My favorite in the series is the first one, TWILIGHT.

TWILIGHT: Bella and Edward meet. Bella finds out that Edward is a vampire. They fall in love, can't live without each other.

NEW MOON: Bella cuts herself on a gift in front of a bunch of vampires. Edward feels horrible and the Cullins move away. Bella can't function for months. Takes up a friendship with Jacob. Finds out Victoria(vampire) wants her dead from the Cullins killing James. Jacob turns into a wolf. Bella goes cliff diving. Edward thinks she is dead so he goes to the Volturi(Vampire court system) and asks to be killed. Bella goes to rescue him. Jacob hurt because Bella doesn't love him.

ECLIPSE: Victoria still trying to kill Bella. Edward being over-protective and won't let her go see Jacob. Vampire's and wolves join together to fight Victoria's army of newborns.

BREAKING DAWN: Edward and Bella get married, Jacob shows up to the wedding. Edward and Bella go on their honeymoon which is cut short because Bella gets pregnant. Edward wants Carlyle to get the creature out of Bella but Bella enlists the help of Rose to keep the baby. Jacob goes through torture watching Bella slowly die. Baby born, Bella turned into vampire, Jacob imprints. Volturi come to kill the Cullins for creating a newborn. Cullins gather friends to witness that baby is not one of them. All is well and everyone lives happily ever after!

This series is my guilty pleasure. I enjoy it, it is fluff and silly, but it is also a series I turn to when I want something familiar and comforting.

The next series I read was the O'Malley series by Dee Henderson. It is one of my all-time favorite series that I haven't read in about 5 years. The O'Malley's, brothers and sisters, not by birth, but by choice.

DANGER IN THE SHADOWS: This is really a prequel to the series. We are introduced to Dave and his sister Sarah. Sarah was kidnapped as a child and has been stalked ever since. When she meets Adam she has no hope for a relationship with him because of the security she must maintain. Dave is the head of her security team. After 25 years will Sarah finally remember something new to help catch her stalker? Her future is depending on it.

THE NEGOTIATOR: Kate O'Malley is a hostage negotiator. When she is called in to a hostage situation in a bank she is less than pleased when she sees that an FBI agent is hiding behind one of the desks. Sure that he will mess up her negotiations she is pleasantly surprised and entertained that he maintains his position and even helps her throughout the situation. Dave is impressed with Kate's ability to be calm in a hostage situation. Kate and Dave must work together throughout the book to figure out who is trying to ruin Kate's career. This is the book we learn about the O'Malley sister Jennifer having cancer.

THE GUARDIAN: Marcus O'Malley is the head of the O'Malley family. Anytime any one of them needs something Marcus makes it happen. Marcus is a Federal Marshall. On assignment to protect a group of judges, he is disgusted when one of the judges is shot while he's on duty. Marcus now must protect Shari and her family since she saw the shooter. Oh Marcus! I love his and Shari's story.

THE TRUTH-SEEKER: Lisa O'Malley is a forensic such-and-such(think BONES). She has a wicked sense of humor! Like sending Marcus's partner Quinn a squid in a petri dish to tell him no when he asked her out. After all, who wants to be the 3rd sister asked out? Lisa helps Quinn solve his father's murder.

THE PROTECTOR: Jack O'Malley is a firefighter and it seems that his shift is being targeted by an arsonist. After budget cutbacks and consolidations it seems that the arsonist has a bone to pick. Cassie has spent a year recovering from nearly being killed in a fire. Being the first on the scene of one of the arsonist's fires she thinks that she may have seen the arsonist and he looked familiar to her. No longer able to fight fires because of hearing loss from her accident Cassie is brought in to roll out with Jack's team to keep an eye out for the arsonist. I love Jack's care for Cassie!

THE HEALER: Rachel O'Malley is a trauma psychologist. She goes around with the Red Cross and helps people overcome tragedies. The book starts out with a murder and flood, then proceeds to a school shooting. Cole, who is Jack's boss and friend, is present helping Rachel through all of the tragedies that hit this community in such a short time. Rachel is not only dealing with all of the tragedy going on, but she is also dealing with Jennifer's dying. Yes, this is the book that Jennifer dies! I know it is coming every single time I read it, and it still makes me bawl my eyes out!

THE RESCUER: Stephen O'Malley is a paramedic. He's burnt out and he is buckling under that his sister Jennifer has just died. Stephen decides to travel around for a while. Not sure what he is looking for, he just knows he is tired of watching people die, tired of blood and tired of tragedy. Stephen's childhood friend Meaghan lives in Silverton. Tragically Meaghan lost her sight when she was run off the road several years before. Once Stephen decides to come back home to his family he settles in Silverton. While he was gone he kept in touch with Meaghan and he likes the idea of the smalltown life of Silverton.

I loved each one of the stories of the O'Malley's. Each one the author forces the characters to face their need for a Savior in their life. Each O'Malley had one struggle or another that kept them for a time seeing their need for a Savior, but throughout the series Jennifer prayed for each one of her siblings to know Jesus. I loved that! A wonderful series!

So these are the two series I have read since January. My next series is going to be The Californian series by Lori Wick. Yes, I am still on a re-read binge!

Criminally Cocoa by Amanda Flower

Bailey and her Amish friend Charlotte are in New York to film Bailey's new TV show. When mysterious things begin to happen on set Charlotte begins to wonder if someone is trying to sabotage Bailey.

No murders in this novella, but plenty of mystery and fun characters, including Jethro the pet pig from Bailey's hometown. I enjoyed this novella in the Amish Candy Shop series. Seeing Charlotte out of her element trying to decide whether to stay in her Amish community or pursue her dreams was interesting. As always Jethro was full of trouble, but cute as a pig can be! The mystery was solid even though I found the "who-done-it" pretty obvious. Looking forward to the next full-length novel in the series TOXIC TOFFEE due out in June.

**I received a copy of this book through NetGalley. All opinions are my own** CRIMINALLY COCOA releases February 26, 2019.

The Silver Chair: Read-Along-Final Discussion

Welcome to the final discussion of our read-along. For all of the information and our host Amber's thoughts and wrap-up hop on over to her blog SEASONS OF HUMILITY.

Today we are discussing Chapters 12-16-The end of THE SILVER CHAIR:

QUOTES:

"It is not easy to throw off in half an hour an enchantment "which has made one a slave for ten years."

"The more enchanted you get, the more you feel that you are not enchanted at all."

"Puddleglum was still fighting hard. "I don't know rightly what you all mean by a world," he said, talking like a man who hasn't enough air. "But you can play that fiddle till your fingers drop off, and still you won't make me forget Narnia; and the whole Overworld too. We'll never see it again, I shouldn't wonder. You may have blotted it out and turned it dark like this, for all I know. Nothing more likely. But I know I was there once. I've seen the sky full of stars. I've seen the sun coming up out of the sea of a morning and sinking behind the mountains at night. And I've seen him up in the midday sky when I couldn't look at him for brightness." YES! You go Puddleglum!!!

"I'm a chap who always like to know the worst and then put the best face I can on it."Puddleglum!

"They say there's no roof at all there; only a horrible, great emptiness called the sky." Horrors!

"You can't really like it---crawling about like flies on top of the world!"

"That's right, Sir," said Puddleglum's voice. "And you must always remember there's one good thing about being trapped down here: it'll save funeral expenses." Snort-laughed right there!

"Well, I wouldn't have dreamt of her doing that. Even though I am a good-looking chap." Jill had just kissed Puddleglum on the cheek good-bye. Made me laugh!

"After that, the Head's friends saw that the Head was no use as a Head, so they got her made an Inspector to interfere with other Heads. And when they found she wasn't much good even at that, they got her into Parliament where she lived happily ever after."Isn't that the way it goes? You don't want to deal with someone so promote them out of the shop until they become the boss over everything? Ack!

THOUGHTS:

Once again Puddleglum is kind of my hero! He had two excellent speeches that he made that made me cheer and say, "Hurrah for Puddleglum!" I love that he knew they were being enchanted and he was not going to put up with the nonsense. I love that he stuck by his faith in Aslan no matter what the witch said or did to them. And what a great sacrifice he made for all of them by putting his foot in the fire to wake them up! Yes, Puddleglum is the hero in my opinion! Besides the fact, he is funny as all get-out! I love the quote I picked where he says he is the chap that always likes to put a good face on a bad situation! Made me laugh! ha! My favorite quote is his one about saving funeral expenses! How practical! bwahahaha!

QUESTIONS FROM AMBER:

1. Which part of the chapter featuring the Witch ("The Queen of Underland") impacted you the most?
In chapter 12 her speech that was wrapped up in a kind of hypnotic cadence along with her potions and such to get the children, Puddleglum and Prince Rillian under her spell. I saw so many spiritual parallels throughout this book. With her speech it just reminded me of the Devil using his enticing ploys to tempt us. Everything she said was filled with lies, but wrapped up in reasonableness and enticement in order to make the others question everything they believed. 

2. Would you have been tempted to visit Bism if offered the opportunity? Why or why not?

I don't think so. To again put another spiritual take on it I saw Bism as being a bunch of demons trying to entice the children once more into a world that they didn't belong. Another of the witches ploys to get more followers. I think that it was a side-track that would have derailed them just like the pitfalls that derail us when we allow satan too much sway in our lives. Don't you just love the spiritual insights that you can glean from these books?

3. How did you feel about the ending of the story—for Narnia, for Caspian, for Eustace and Jill?
It kind of wrapped up quickly and tidily for sure, but all good things must come to an end so I thought it was a reasonable ending. I felt bad for Rilian that his father died, that was sad. And I was glad that things were going to change at the school that Jill and Eustace attended, even though the Head didn't deserve her promotions!


4. What was your favorite line or scene in the whole book? If you've read the other books in the Chronicles of Narnia series, how does this one rank in your opinion?

Well I would say anything that had Puddleglum in it, but I did so love his speeches in chapter 12 where he was fighting the enchantment of the witch and standing up for Aslan and Narnia. And his willingness to do whatever it took to wake them all up. I think my favorite of the series will always be The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe, with Puddleglum being my favorite character, but The Silver Chair ranking way down the list in favorites. 

How about you? Have you read the Narnia series? I would love to hear your thoughts on the series. Do you read the series thinking about the spiritual applications, or do you read the series for the fun of it and enjoy it at face-value. Which honestly, I do most of the time with my reading! I've enjoyed the read-along and in March Amber is going to host another read-along with the book Emily of New Moon by L. M. Montgomery. Hope to see you then!

Cold Dawn by Susan Sleeman

Samantha is investigating the death of a friend in a warehouse that has been torched. While there someone tries to kill her by locking her in the building and once again setting the place on fire. Griff shows up just in time to save Sam. Sam and Griff have a past. Seven years earlier Sam walked out on their relationship. She would prefer to never have to see Griff again, but she needs his help to find whomever killed their friend. Both Griff and Sam have emotional baggage to work through. Griff is a former SEAL turned firefighter blaming himself for things beyond his control. Sam saw her parents' marriage fall apart and knows she can never trust a man with her heart. Both risk their lives and their hearts to catch a murderer.

I truly enjoyed Sam and Griff's story. I love the Blackwell Tactical team that Sam is a member of. I love how they are a family and as such they feel free to butt into each others lives! They take care of each other and they push each other to be better people. It was fun to catch up with all of the couples. Sam's fears did kind of get on my nerves a bit. I'd think she had dealt with them and could move on, but then she would be right back where she started. It kind of frustrated me, but also reminded me that our fears and anxieties do not just disappear over night. They are constantly having to be worked on. Griff was a combination of tough guy and mushy guy which always fascinates me. I love to watch a tough guys heart melt over the woman he loves! All of the Blackwell guys are kind of in the same boat where their women are concerned! Susan Sleeman captures the readers attention right from the start and keeps the tension going throughout the story.

 This is the last of the COLD HARBOR series, but fear not, there is a spinoff series coming! The Truth Seekers first book DEAD RINGER will be coming out in April of 2019. I was hoping that we would find out what Emory's(whom we met in COLD DAWN) story was and my wish has been granted! And it looks like Sheriff Blake Jenkins from the COLD HARBOR series will play a big role in the story as well...YES! I am a romantic suspense junkie and am looking forward to this new series! 

If you have never read any of author Susan Sleeman's books please remedy that! They are among my favorites!

Check out my reviews of the rest of the COLD HARBOR series:

COLD TERROR(part of a novella series that I read, but also available individually)
COLD TRUTH
COLD FURY
COLD CASE
COLD FEAR
COLD PURSUIT

Convergence by Ginny Yttrup

Dr. Denilyn Rossi wrote a book on bullying. Then she picked up a stalker. Years later Deni once again is feeling out of control. She feels eyes watching her all of the time. How can it be her stalker? He hasn't been released from jail yet, or has he? Once again Deni's life is in danger. How can this be happening to her again?

This is author Ginny Yttrup's first suspense book and I have to say I was hooked from the very beginning! It did take me a bit to get used to the flow of the book. There are flashbacks and then present scenes so pay attention to the dates at the beginning of chapters. Denilyn wasn't my favorite character at first, but as the story developed she matured and became more likable. I really liked the spiritual lessons that Deni learned and how her faith matured. CONVERGENCE kept me turning the pages and not wanting to put it down until the end. It was exciting and well developed. If you are a suspense fan then I definitely recommend it to you!