I'm an award-winning romantic suspense novelist, but in my free time I love to review books and my fave TV shows, as well as pass along great book deals, and eat Canadian chocolate---not necessarily in that order.
Thursday, October 31, 2019
Wednesday, October 30, 2019
Children's Book Review: Meet Olive Ewe!
As a mom and a grandma I'm always on the lookout for books that will entertain, but also start discussions. Olive by Michelle Wilson does both of those and in the cutest way!
Olive is a sweet little sheep who has all kinds of good intentions, but still manages to make a mess and land in a bit of trouble. She's worried her family and friends won't love her with all the mistakes she makes, but the end of the book shows her just how loved she is!
I thought the illustrations were bright and fun and they really attracted the little ones in my house. We felt bad for Olive and laughed a bit at the messes she made, but we also talked about what it means to love someone no matter what. (There are great Stop and Think questions at the end of the book to prompt discussions as well) I think this is a book that should be in every child's home library because it has a message that will resonate and a fun way to tell it. We are definitely Olive fans at our house!
Get your copy here
Here's the back copy: Meet Olive. She's optimistic and well-intentioned . . . and a magnet for mishaps. When Olive's day goes from bad to worse, she wonders if her family and friends can love her in spite of her flaws.
About the Author:
Michelle lives in the Northwest with her family, three indoor dogs, and a totally stuck-up cat. And somehow, they all get along. She writes inspirational nonfiction and women’s fiction. Olive is her first children’s book and the most fun to write. Olive came to life in a poem Michelle wrote for her adoptive daughter as a way to express unconditional love for her. Family, faith, and fun are important to Michelle. She loves watching movies, playing Guitar Hero, and taking long walks to the fridge. You can find her at www.michellewilsonwrites.com
About the Illustrator:
Angie is a married mom of three spicy boys. She is an artist at heart, with interests spanning from drawing to painting, crafts, and photography. She runs a successful photography business. Olive is her first illustrated book. She loves watching movies and reading books. She has a collection of crayons her children aren’t allowed to touch and loves everything Disney. Like, a crazy amount of love. You can find her at www.angiepenrose.com
Book Trailer:
Book Review: Glass Slippers, Ever After, and Me
I was so excited to have another book by Julie Wright. She just has such a witty and fun writing style I always look forward to reading books by her. Glass Slippers Ever After and Me is a slow-burn best-friends-to-something-more romance that will leave you with a smile on your face.
This one is a modern-day Cinderella re-telling with our heroine, a writer named Charlotte, who goes by Lettie. (Being a writer myself, I identified SO MUCH with a lot of Lettie's thoughts and feelings about the business.) She goes on such a twisty-turny journey not only professionally, but personally, and this story will give you all the feels from tearing your hair out in frustration to swooning with aww moments. This book has all the emotions.
Charlotte has a best friend Anders who is so supportive and kind and while it seems obvious to us he has feelings for her, it really isn't to Lettie. She is focused on her dreams and doesn't want anything to mess up their friendship, though she is jealous when Anders seems to be serious with another girl. The push and pull between these two for the entire book will push all the reader's buttons and frankly, there were times when I wondered if they would ever be able to find a happily-ever-after!
There is a lot for them both to work through, especially as Lettie's life begins to change and she's trying to be everything to everyone. I loved Lettie's sister Kat and how she was there just when she was needed. What are sisters for? Really, all of the characters in the secondary cast were stellar. Ms. Wright adds so many layers to the lives of these characters that they truly feel real and someone you would want to be friends with. My only complaint was that the beginning was a bit slow, but I'm so glad I stuck with it, because the rest of the story is so worth it. Lots of great little messages of what's truly important in life and having the courage to be who you really are. Loved it. Can't wait for the next Julie Wright book!
A modern, reimagined Cinderella story.
"If fairy godmothers existed, there would never be an empty space in the freezer where the ice cream goes. Any responsible fairy godmother would keep that space magically stocked at all times."
When aspiring author Charlotte Kingsley finally gets published, she thinks all her dreams are finally coming true. But the trouble begins when her publicity firm reinvents her quirky online presence into a perfectly curated dream life. Gone are the days of sweatpants posts and ice cream binges with her best friend and downstairs neighbor, Anders, replaced instead with beautiful clothes, orchestrated selfies, and no boyfriend. Only, that carefully curated fairytale life is ruining her self esteem and making her feel like a fraud.
When another bestselling author takes Charlotte under her wing--almost like a fairy godmother--she helps Charlotte see the beautiful person she already is and the worth of being authentic. But is it too late to save her relationship with Anders? The clock is quickly ticking toward midnight, and Charlotte must decide between her fairytale life and the man she loves while she tries to figure out if she is the woman in peasant clothes or the woman in the ball gown.
Tuesday, October 29, 2019
FREE Spooky Romance for Halloween!
Perfect for Halloween reading!
Download your free copy here
Here's the back copy:
The Grim Reaper has been collecting souls of the dead for hundreds of years, but even the Master of Death has to pass on his reign. Unfortunately, his progeny is not quite ready to replace him.
Cora Grim, daughter of the Grim Reaper, is suddenly thrust into her father’s role. Leaving the Underworld on her own to bring back the dead souls, she discovers that the Master of Death neglected to tell her one thing. She can still fall in love.
Monday, October 28, 2019
Hawaii Five-0---The Halloween Episode
I can hardly believe it's time for the spooky Hawaii Five-0 Halloween episode! Not generally one of my favorites because I'm a scaredy-cat, but that's only because this episode is usually pretty tension-filled. This one was no exception!
We start out with kids trick or treating at an older woman's house until two grown men are at the door, one pulls a gun and shoots her. So sad! They quickly go inside and head down to the basement where they break into a heavily locked vault. Only there aren't any valuables inside, merely a bed and a cabinet/dresser?---and something else that bursts out and attacks them! Blood everywhere. Ew.
Cue music.
Trick-or-treaters are at Steve's house and none of them are afraid of his "scary" mask or his lion dog. (Eddie just stretches out on the floor and shows his belly, haha. He was a cute lion, though!) Steve gets a call from Noelani who is dressed as Elton John asking if he's coming to the party. He says he'll be there soon, after he's handed out a little candy. (I love that he's thinking about the little kids!) But wait! Noelani hands the phone to a mystery person, but Steve guesses right away it's Max. Yay! Max is enjoying Africa, but he misses Hawaii and the camaraderie of the Five-0 team. Steve tells him he'll see him when he gets to the party. While at the party, Max is greeting Flippa while Quinn and Tani are talking about Junior. Quinn tries to ask Tani where Junior is and she denies knowing. When Quinn asks what Tunior are to each other, Tani doesn't know that, either. (Hmmm... ) They go over to meet Max (who is dressed as John Wick 2) and we also get to meet Max's son who is dressed as John Wick 3! He's a cutie. Quinn is dressed as Maverick from Top Gun and Tani points out that Top Gun is McG's favorite movie, so her costume is fitting since they were basically separated at birth. (Honestly, they compare every single woman to McG and try to portray them as awesome as he is. I was sort of hoping Quinn wouldn't get that treatment and be her own woman. Oh well.) We get a scene of Flippa's mom freaking out when Tani tells her that friends sometimes get a ten percent discount at the shrimp truck, but the ohana discount is only five percent. (Yawn)
But the shrimp truck talk is curtailed when Quinn gets a call and they caught a case! Max goes along, too, and Grover and Adam are very happy to see him. (The team all did a super quick change before they got there since they're in civilian clothes and not costumes. I guess professional is best, but it would have been funny to see Maverik, John Wick, and a mermaid show up to the crime scene) Max's son stayed behind with Noelani for trick or treating, so Grover doesn't get to meet Max's son yet, but they do let Max accompany them into the crime scene. First stop: the older woman who was shot was named Edith. Trick or treaters found her body because her door was wide open. Second stop: the basement and victim Ralph, the guy who shot Edith. Poor Ralph was in prison for B&E and had only been out for a month. The team opens the vault and see the cell bedroom and realize Edith was keeping someone locked in that room. PoorDumbRalph was probably thinking he'd get a big score and instead got killed by whoever was trapped in there instead. Max notices the guy's left and right jaw injuries, crushed torso, and extensive soft tissue damage which is a rare way to kill someone. And Ralph must have had an accomplice since there are fresh black scuff marks on the floor and Ralph has beige soles and Edith was barefoot. Since it took six inches of reinforced steel to keep whatever was inside that room locked up, it might not be human. But whatever it is, it's out now. And then we cut to a guy being chased by a growling shadow. After running in such a panic, he backs onto a road and is hit by a car while the shadow watches.
Kamekona is giving MaxJr some trick or treating advice on bringing empty bags to show so people feel bad for you and give you more candy to fill it up. Noelani gets a call and has Flippa turn on the TV to watch a submerged car being brought to the surface with a missing girl's body in it that was found in the trunk. The missing girl vanished two months ago after leaving a frat party and now with the body discovery, Noelani has to go in to work. It's okay, though, Flippa will take MaxJr trick or treating. Noelani also changes out of her costume pretty quick and starts the autopsy. (They do show the girl's body, but after being in the water for two months, she would not look that good. I had to research it once for a book and water does terrible things to a dead body.) Before Noelani can really start, the lights go out and there aren't any backup lights. Creepy! She hears a noise and goes to investigate. (And doesn't take a weapon! At least take the scalpel.) She's walking around in the darkened halls with the scary music when a security guard comes around the corner and scares her. He says the circuit breaker was tripped and when they get the lights turned back on, they find the girl's body is gone. Dun, dun, dun.
Steve gets called down to Noelani's office on his way to Edith's house. Duke tells him that whoever took the body didn't just trip the power, but took out the cameras. And there's no sign of them. The building is on lockdown, but we all know how well lockdowns and perimeters are when the HPD is in charge. Everyone has been following the story since the girl disappeared so her killers must have been, too, and decided now that the body had been found they had to take it before it showed any incriminating evidence. Duke tells Steve that Noelani is taking it hard so he goes in to talk to her. Apparently, Lana's parents were there two hours ago to ID the body and really wanted answers, and sadly, Lana's sister can hardly get out of bed, and now Noelani had to call and tell them their daughter/sister is missing again! And it's her fault! She should have stayed with the body! Steve looks confused and tells her this has nothing to do with Noelani (I agree! It's so emotional and weird!) The responsibility belongs to the person who took the body, not Noelani. Steve assures her they'll find Lana's body and bring her back.
Adam and Quinn have a moment where she says she doesn't want to be awkward new coworkers that are polite and trying to laugh at each other's terrible jokes. Adam agrees and says they'll just jump to being rude and tired of each other coworkers. (Okay, whatever. As if Adam could ever be rude.)
Chatting Table Roundup Report: Adam reports that HPD is on alert, but it's hard to issue a BOLO with no description. Quinn called the dead thief's parole officer who told them Ralph was working as a window installer and his friend replaced a window at Edith's place. So that's how they saw they vault and thought it was something valuable. HPD is tracking the coworker down. (HPD is very busy tonight!) Lou's report is that Edith was eccentric and her neighbors say she hardly ever left the house. Quinn looks up her public records and after high school graduation Edith went off the grid then showed up twenty years later on utility bills. Where was she for twenty years? Lou throws in that he's going to stay home on Halloween from now on and go full old man Grover. (Ha! Danny would probably say the same. If we ever saw the guy anymore.)
Tani is poking around Edith's house and finds books on exorcisms and deliverance prayers, as well as a crucifix and bible. Max gives her a scare when he comes in with a warning about touching other people's clothes because there could be a moth infestation and eggs are easily transferable by touch. Since Edith was apparently a former nun, Tani thinks they might have a Rosemary's baby situation on their hands where she got exiled from the convent because of her pregnancy and gave birth to the son of Satan. Lou is pretty much rolling his eyes because for him, Edith was just a crazy old bird who abducted some guy and locked him away in her fruit cellar. Only he eviscerated poor Ralph, but yeah, thirty years in a vault would give anyone anger issues. TaniLou go to the convent but the nuns don't know anything and the creepy Mother Superior who has two different colored eyes (one is almost glowing blue) shepherds her nun friend away from TaniLou. Tani is sticking to her Edith-was-pregnant theory and Lou thinks that maybe Edith was exiled for her pregnancy then punished the child his entire life because of it. But before they can put on their super sad faces, Quinn calls to inform them that HPD located Ralph's accomplice---he was hit by a car! And they put him on a psych hold because he can't stop screaming about being chased in the woods by a demon. Creepy.
Duke is running down the Lana case for Steve and Junior. She never made it home after she left a frat party after 11 p.m. It was a terribly attended frat party, though, since only thirty-five people were there and HPD got statements from them all. Duke had three guys from the mainland who were members of the frat throwing the party that he liked for the crime. Privileged, entitled, and spoiled Todd Hughes, Remy Mitchell, and Zac Wyatt. They were seen talking to Lana, but the interest wasn't mutual and they left the party thirty minutes after she did. The problem is, they have alibis. Steve asked if any of them were on the sailing team because the ropes on Lana's hands are nautical knots. Junior quickly pulls up an Oahu State Sailing Team pic and Todd Hughes is front and center. They go to Todd's house, but he's dead on the floor with the initials LN written in blood beside his body.
Noelani comes to the crime scene and finds a long, brunette hair on his body, so maybe he was at the morgue helping to steal Lana's body! She also tells Junior and McG that Todd couldn't have written the initials as a dying act because he died instantly from blunt force trauma. So Duke wasn't the only one who thought Todd participated in Lana's death and the killer is making a statement, killing him for his role. LittleMax is with Flippa talking about how he's worried about what to do if the people handing out the candy ask him for a trick and all he can do is solve puzzles. Flippa says they'll just move on to the next house, but while he takes a call from his mom LittleMax runs off with some other kids.
Junior and McG split up to find the last two suspects in Lana's murder. They're too late. Zac isn't home and Remy Mitchell's dead. His hands and feet were bound and the place has blood everywhere with the initials LN written on the walls and floor. The killer is mirroring Lana's death by beating Todd, binding Remy, so they need to find Zac before the killer finishes their performance art and drowns him.
Back at the Chatting Table People at a Halloween party called the cops when they saw something weird on their home cameras. It could be their guy from the vault, casing the house to find somewhere to lay low, so Quinn and Tani go check it out. Max also has news; Edith had a hysterectomy and her pelvic bone reveals that she's never been pregnant, so it wasn't her child in the vault. It was a human being held in there, however, but no DNA matches in the system, so Max is going to check for genetic mutations, because, well, we don't know why. (And does Max still have access and privileges to do that checking? Where is the ME in charge of the case?) They have reached the conclusion that whoever this is, he has genetic mutations and just because he's different doesn't mean he's dangerous. (Um, what about Ralph? He's dead and VaultMan killed him!) At the Halloween partygoers house the fridge is open and Tani makes a joke about their guy being hangry and the owners being out of town. (Didn't we just hear they were at a party? LOL) They hear a crash upstairs and go to investigate. Quinn finds their guy and gets a good look at him before he knocks her down and runs away. Tani wings him in the shoulder before he gets away.
HPD is on the case and has all available units out looking for guy! And now they have a blood trail too. Quinn describes him as a Caucasian, well over six feet tall and was asymmetrical, like things had grown at different rates, oh, and his eyes were two different colors. And that fits nicely with the genetic mutation theory! Where have they seen someone with two different eyes? Oh, Mother Superior. Max and Grover go visit her and confront her with what they know. Edith left the convent to raise a child that wasn't hers because she couldn't bear to abandon an innocent baby. Instead, she locked him in an eight by ten foot cell for thirty years and now the child has escaped and is a danger to the public. Mother Superior tries to say she doesn't have anything to do with this, but the mismatched eyes are inherited from a parent. She admits that she had a child and asked Edith to take the baby to a hospital, but she decided to keep it instead. She visited the boy a few times when he was eight and he seemed happy. His name is Kimo. When she met up with him he pointed at her eyes and covered his brown eye with one hand and mine with the other "Two blue eyes," he said. His appearance is the byproduct of a genetic condition that causes overgrowth in bones and tissue, so he wasn't cursed, he was just different. Mother Superior says Edith tried to get him help, but the outside can be cruel to someone who looks like that and it broke her heart. So she didn't keep him inside because he was dangerous, she was trying to protect him from the outside world who would have hurt him. (Um, he was in a LOCKED VAULT!) So Max and Grover pressure Mother Superior into trying to help her child now and not abandoning him again, especially since he just lost the only mother that cared about him. (What? He's been in solitary for thirty years! That's not caring!)
Junior and McG can't find Zac anywhere and no one knows where he is. He even turned off his phone! Well, maybe he's already dead. But McG thinks maybe he's the killer. What if Zac convinced his friends to help him steal the body to cover up Lana's murder and then he kills them so they can't ever roll on him when they're caught. He even makes it look like revenge killing with the initials at the crime scene to take heat off himself, then all he has to do is dispose of her body once and for all. We cut to Zac randomly standing near his car with Lana's body in the trunk before he gets hit in the back of the head. He's groggy and thinks it's Lana standing over him and he apologizes before she hits him again.
Back at the Chatting Table they've got that hair analysis back and it was a familial match to Lana, but the DNA was female. They pull up a pic of her mother first, but it can't be her, not the right hair color. However, the sister has hair that's a match. They ping her phone while Zac wakes up in the trunk and is bound with Lana's body right beside him. He kicks out the taillight and water rushes in. Uh oh. He's screaming.
A bunch of kids are at a picnic table near a beach while Kimo watches. When he approaches all the kids run away except LittleMax who offers him candy (an unwrapped sucker!) and asks him his name. They're smiling when the police roll up and snatch LittleMax away and scare Kimo by pointing their guns at him and yelling to put his hands up.
Junior dives in to save Zac and pulls him out. He's rambling that it was Lana trying to kill him and Junior assures him they have a nice safe cell for him. McG finds Lana's sister Emily sitting on a rock in the dark and he takes her into custody, telling her they would have caught them. She says I know. (Really anti-climactic, honestly.)
Back to the scared Kimo, Tani and Quinn are there and Duke is saying if Kimo won't stand down, tries to run, or endangers his officers, they'll have to use lethal force. (There is a battalion of cops surrounding him and the guy is unarmed, but okay.) Everyone's yelling for Kimo to put his hands up and sit down. He's scared and tries to run, knocking over an officer. Tani shouts to hold fire and realizes it's too loud for Kimo since he's been inside for thirty years. Duke is all yeah, well, if he doesn't back off we'll take the shot! (Oh, Duke. Really?) But Max comes in to de-escalate the situation since HPD just wants to keep yelling and threatening to kill him. Max tells Kimo about his son, that they're all adopted and that his son is different from other kids, too, just like Max and Kimo. Oh, and both Max and Kimo lost their mom and they both felt angry, scared, and alone. (Did everyone forget that Edith locked this guy in a vault for thirty years? He's definitely used to being alone. And what about poor dead Ralph? Sheesh.) Max says Kimo isn't alone and brings Mother Superior to stand in front of him. Kimo puts his hand on her brown eye and one on his and says, "Blue eyes." They hold hands and Kimo falls to his knees and hugs her. (What? Does he even remember some woman he met a few times when he was eight?)
The end is a musical montage of Junior watching Duke take Zac in, and there's a vigil going on with people holding Lana pictures and candles as Zac is frogmarched through the middle of it. Adam, Max, Grover, LittleMax, Flippa, and his mom are back partying and laughing, while Quinn and Tani are toasting. McG is with Lana's body, bringing her back to Noelani and the look of "Yep, kept my promise."
What did you think? Did you watch?
We start out with kids trick or treating at an older woman's house until two grown men are at the door, one pulls a gun and shoots her. So sad! They quickly go inside and head down to the basement where they break into a heavily locked vault. Only there aren't any valuables inside, merely a bed and a cabinet/dresser?---and something else that bursts out and attacks them! Blood everywhere. Ew.
Cue music.
Trick-or-treaters are at Steve's house and none of them are afraid of his "scary" mask or his lion dog. (Eddie just stretches out on the floor and shows his belly, haha. He was a cute lion, though!) Steve gets a call from Noelani who is dressed as Elton John asking if he's coming to the party. He says he'll be there soon, after he's handed out a little candy. (I love that he's thinking about the little kids!) But wait! Noelani hands the phone to a mystery person, but Steve guesses right away it's Max. Yay! Max is enjoying Africa, but he misses Hawaii and the camaraderie of the Five-0 team. Steve tells him he'll see him when he gets to the party. While at the party, Max is greeting Flippa while Quinn and Tani are talking about Junior. Quinn tries to ask Tani where Junior is and she denies knowing. When Quinn asks what Tunior are to each other, Tani doesn't know that, either. (Hmmm... ) They go over to meet Max (who is dressed as John Wick 2) and we also get to meet Max's son who is dressed as John Wick 3! He's a cutie. Quinn is dressed as Maverick from Top Gun and Tani points out that Top Gun is McG's favorite movie, so her costume is fitting since they were basically separated at birth. (Honestly, they compare every single woman to McG and try to portray them as awesome as he is. I was sort of hoping Quinn wouldn't get that treatment and be her own woman. Oh well.) We get a scene of Flippa's mom freaking out when Tani tells her that friends sometimes get a ten percent discount at the shrimp truck, but the ohana discount is only five percent. (Yawn)
But the shrimp truck talk is curtailed when Quinn gets a call and they caught a case! Max goes along, too, and Grover and Adam are very happy to see him. (The team all did a super quick change before they got there since they're in civilian clothes and not costumes. I guess professional is best, but it would have been funny to see Maverik, John Wick, and a mermaid show up to the crime scene) Max's son stayed behind with Noelani for trick or treating, so Grover doesn't get to meet Max's son yet, but they do let Max accompany them into the crime scene. First stop: the older woman who was shot was named Edith. Trick or treaters found her body because her door was wide open. Second stop: the basement and victim Ralph, the guy who shot Edith. Poor Ralph was in prison for B&E and had only been out for a month. The team opens the vault and see the cell bedroom and realize Edith was keeping someone locked in that room. PoorDumbRalph was probably thinking he'd get a big score and instead got killed by whoever was trapped in there instead. Max notices the guy's left and right jaw injuries, crushed torso, and extensive soft tissue damage which is a rare way to kill someone. And Ralph must have had an accomplice since there are fresh black scuff marks on the floor and Ralph has beige soles and Edith was barefoot. Since it took six inches of reinforced steel to keep whatever was inside that room locked up, it might not be human. But whatever it is, it's out now. And then we cut to a guy being chased by a growling shadow. After running in such a panic, he backs onto a road and is hit by a car while the shadow watches.
Kamekona is giving MaxJr some trick or treating advice on bringing empty bags to show so people feel bad for you and give you more candy to fill it up. Noelani gets a call and has Flippa turn on the TV to watch a submerged car being brought to the surface with a missing girl's body in it that was found in the trunk. The missing girl vanished two months ago after leaving a frat party and now with the body discovery, Noelani has to go in to work. It's okay, though, Flippa will take MaxJr trick or treating. Noelani also changes out of her costume pretty quick and starts the autopsy. (They do show the girl's body, but after being in the water for two months, she would not look that good. I had to research it once for a book and water does terrible things to a dead body.) Before Noelani can really start, the lights go out and there aren't any backup lights. Creepy! She hears a noise and goes to investigate. (And doesn't take a weapon! At least take the scalpel.) She's walking around in the darkened halls with the scary music when a security guard comes around the corner and scares her. He says the circuit breaker was tripped and when they get the lights turned back on, they find the girl's body is gone. Dun, dun, dun.
Steve gets called down to Noelani's office on his way to Edith's house. Duke tells him that whoever took the body didn't just trip the power, but took out the cameras. And there's no sign of them. The building is on lockdown, but we all know how well lockdowns and perimeters are when the HPD is in charge. Everyone has been following the story since the girl disappeared so her killers must have been, too, and decided now that the body had been found they had to take it before it showed any incriminating evidence. Duke tells Steve that Noelani is taking it hard so he goes in to talk to her. Apparently, Lana's parents were there two hours ago to ID the body and really wanted answers, and sadly, Lana's sister can hardly get out of bed, and now Noelani had to call and tell them their daughter/sister is missing again! And it's her fault! She should have stayed with the body! Steve looks confused and tells her this has nothing to do with Noelani (I agree! It's so emotional and weird!) The responsibility belongs to the person who took the body, not Noelani. Steve assures her they'll find Lana's body and bring her back.
Adam and Quinn have a moment where she says she doesn't want to be awkward new coworkers that are polite and trying to laugh at each other's terrible jokes. Adam agrees and says they'll just jump to being rude and tired of each other coworkers. (Okay, whatever. As if Adam could ever be rude.)
Chatting Table Roundup Report: Adam reports that HPD is on alert, but it's hard to issue a BOLO with no description. Quinn called the dead thief's parole officer who told them Ralph was working as a window installer and his friend replaced a window at Edith's place. So that's how they saw they vault and thought it was something valuable. HPD is tracking the coworker down. (HPD is very busy tonight!) Lou's report is that Edith was eccentric and her neighbors say she hardly ever left the house. Quinn looks up her public records and after high school graduation Edith went off the grid then showed up twenty years later on utility bills. Where was she for twenty years? Lou throws in that he's going to stay home on Halloween from now on and go full old man Grover. (Ha! Danny would probably say the same. If we ever saw the guy anymore.)
Tani is poking around Edith's house and finds books on exorcisms and deliverance prayers, as well as a crucifix and bible. Max gives her a scare when he comes in with a warning about touching other people's clothes because there could be a moth infestation and eggs are easily transferable by touch. Since Edith was apparently a former nun, Tani thinks they might have a Rosemary's baby situation on their hands where she got exiled from the convent because of her pregnancy and gave birth to the son of Satan. Lou is pretty much rolling his eyes because for him, Edith was just a crazy old bird who abducted some guy and locked him away in her fruit cellar. Only he eviscerated poor Ralph, but yeah, thirty years in a vault would give anyone anger issues. TaniLou go to the convent but the nuns don't know anything and the creepy Mother Superior who has two different colored eyes (one is almost glowing blue) shepherds her nun friend away from TaniLou. Tani is sticking to her Edith-was-pregnant theory and Lou thinks that maybe Edith was exiled for her pregnancy then punished the child his entire life because of it. But before they can put on their super sad faces, Quinn calls to inform them that HPD located Ralph's accomplice---he was hit by a car! And they put him on a psych hold because he can't stop screaming about being chased in the woods by a demon. Creepy.
Duke is running down the Lana case for Steve and Junior. She never made it home after she left a frat party after 11 p.m. It was a terribly attended frat party, though, since only thirty-five people were there and HPD got statements from them all. Duke had three guys from the mainland who were members of the frat throwing the party that he liked for the crime. Privileged, entitled, and spoiled Todd Hughes, Remy Mitchell, and Zac Wyatt. They were seen talking to Lana, but the interest wasn't mutual and they left the party thirty minutes after she did. The problem is, they have alibis. Steve asked if any of them were on the sailing team because the ropes on Lana's hands are nautical knots. Junior quickly pulls up an Oahu State Sailing Team pic and Todd Hughes is front and center. They go to Todd's house, but he's dead on the floor with the initials LN written in blood beside his body.
Noelani comes to the crime scene and finds a long, brunette hair on his body, so maybe he was at the morgue helping to steal Lana's body! She also tells Junior and McG that Todd couldn't have written the initials as a dying act because he died instantly from blunt force trauma. So Duke wasn't the only one who thought Todd participated in Lana's death and the killer is making a statement, killing him for his role. LittleMax is with Flippa talking about how he's worried about what to do if the people handing out the candy ask him for a trick and all he can do is solve puzzles. Flippa says they'll just move on to the next house, but while he takes a call from his mom LittleMax runs off with some other kids.
Junior and McG split up to find the last two suspects in Lana's murder. They're too late. Zac isn't home and Remy Mitchell's dead. His hands and feet were bound and the place has blood everywhere with the initials LN written on the walls and floor. The killer is mirroring Lana's death by beating Todd, binding Remy, so they need to find Zac before the killer finishes their performance art and drowns him.
Back at the Chatting Table People at a Halloween party called the cops when they saw something weird on their home cameras. It could be their guy from the vault, casing the house to find somewhere to lay low, so Quinn and Tani go check it out. Max also has news; Edith had a hysterectomy and her pelvic bone reveals that she's never been pregnant, so it wasn't her child in the vault. It was a human being held in there, however, but no DNA matches in the system, so Max is going to check for genetic mutations, because, well, we don't know why. (And does Max still have access and privileges to do that checking? Where is the ME in charge of the case?) They have reached the conclusion that whoever this is, he has genetic mutations and just because he's different doesn't mean he's dangerous. (Um, what about Ralph? He's dead and VaultMan killed him!) At the Halloween partygoers house the fridge is open and Tani makes a joke about their guy being hangry and the owners being out of town. (Didn't we just hear they were at a party? LOL) They hear a crash upstairs and go to investigate. Quinn finds their guy and gets a good look at him before he knocks her down and runs away. Tani wings him in the shoulder before he gets away.
HPD is on the case and has all available units out looking for guy! And now they have a blood trail too. Quinn describes him as a Caucasian, well over six feet tall and was asymmetrical, like things had grown at different rates, oh, and his eyes were two different colors. And that fits nicely with the genetic mutation theory! Where have they seen someone with two different eyes? Oh, Mother Superior. Max and Grover go visit her and confront her with what they know. Edith left the convent to raise a child that wasn't hers because she couldn't bear to abandon an innocent baby. Instead, she locked him in an eight by ten foot cell for thirty years and now the child has escaped and is a danger to the public. Mother Superior tries to say she doesn't have anything to do with this, but the mismatched eyes are inherited from a parent. She admits that she had a child and asked Edith to take the baby to a hospital, but she decided to keep it instead. She visited the boy a few times when he was eight and he seemed happy. His name is Kimo. When she met up with him he pointed at her eyes and covered his brown eye with one hand and mine with the other "Two blue eyes," he said. His appearance is the byproduct of a genetic condition that causes overgrowth in bones and tissue, so he wasn't cursed, he was just different. Mother Superior says Edith tried to get him help, but the outside can be cruel to someone who looks like that and it broke her heart. So she didn't keep him inside because he was dangerous, she was trying to protect him from the outside world who would have hurt him. (Um, he was in a LOCKED VAULT!) So Max and Grover pressure Mother Superior into trying to help her child now and not abandoning him again, especially since he just lost the only mother that cared about him. (What? He's been in solitary for thirty years! That's not caring!)
Junior and McG can't find Zac anywhere and no one knows where he is. He even turned off his phone! Well, maybe he's already dead. But McG thinks maybe he's the killer. What if Zac convinced his friends to help him steal the body to cover up Lana's murder and then he kills them so they can't ever roll on him when they're caught. He even makes it look like revenge killing with the initials at the crime scene to take heat off himself, then all he has to do is dispose of her body once and for all. We cut to Zac randomly standing near his car with Lana's body in the trunk before he gets hit in the back of the head. He's groggy and thinks it's Lana standing over him and he apologizes before she hits him again.
Back at the Chatting Table they've got that hair analysis back and it was a familial match to Lana, but the DNA was female. They pull up a pic of her mother first, but it can't be her, not the right hair color. However, the sister has hair that's a match. They ping her phone while Zac wakes up in the trunk and is bound with Lana's body right beside him. He kicks out the taillight and water rushes in. Uh oh. He's screaming.
A bunch of kids are at a picnic table near a beach while Kimo watches. When he approaches all the kids run away except LittleMax who offers him candy (an unwrapped sucker!) and asks him his name. They're smiling when the police roll up and snatch LittleMax away and scare Kimo by pointing their guns at him and yelling to put his hands up.
Junior dives in to save Zac and pulls him out. He's rambling that it was Lana trying to kill him and Junior assures him they have a nice safe cell for him. McG finds Lana's sister Emily sitting on a rock in the dark and he takes her into custody, telling her they would have caught them. She says I know. (Really anti-climactic, honestly.)
Back to the scared Kimo, Tani and Quinn are there and Duke is saying if Kimo won't stand down, tries to run, or endangers his officers, they'll have to use lethal force. (There is a battalion of cops surrounding him and the guy is unarmed, but okay.) Everyone's yelling for Kimo to put his hands up and sit down. He's scared and tries to run, knocking over an officer. Tani shouts to hold fire and realizes it's too loud for Kimo since he's been inside for thirty years. Duke is all yeah, well, if he doesn't back off we'll take the shot! (Oh, Duke. Really?) But Max comes in to de-escalate the situation since HPD just wants to keep yelling and threatening to kill him. Max tells Kimo about his son, that they're all adopted and that his son is different from other kids, too, just like Max and Kimo. Oh, and both Max and Kimo lost their mom and they both felt angry, scared, and alone. (Did everyone forget that Edith locked this guy in a vault for thirty years? He's definitely used to being alone. And what about poor dead Ralph? Sheesh.) Max says Kimo isn't alone and brings Mother Superior to stand in front of him. Kimo puts his hand on her brown eye and one on his and says, "Blue eyes." They hold hands and Kimo falls to his knees and hugs her. (What? Does he even remember some woman he met a few times when he was eight?)
The end is a musical montage of Junior watching Duke take Zac in, and there's a vigil going on with people holding Lana pictures and candles as Zac is frogmarched through the middle of it. Adam, Max, Grover, LittleMax, Flippa, and his mom are back partying and laughing, while Quinn and Tani are toasting. McG is with Lana's body, bringing her back to Noelani and the look of "Yep, kept my promise."
What did you think? Did you watch?
Friday, October 25, 2019
Friday Freebie for Regency Romance Fans!
Marrying Miss Milton by Ashtyn Newbold is free today! I haven't read this author before, but the back copy looks good. Maybe just the book to cuddle up with this weekend!
Get your free copy here
Here's the back copy:
When a simple kiss is turned to scandal by a conniving mother, can a forced marriage transform two regretful hearts?
Tall, dark, and brooding, the Viscount of Barnet stole Jane Milton’s heart the day she saw him astride his black horse in the woods. When she learns of his upcoming trip to Brighton, she grasps at an opportunity to be a companion to an elderly woman there, in order to follow—er—accompany Lord Barnet to the seaside town.
Mr. Philip Honeyfield has suffered the dreaded misfortune of inheriting a title. Ungainly and shy, how can he perform well in the eye of society? To navigate his new role, Philip seeks advice from an unlikely source. When he is smitten by his grandmother’s new companion, Miss Jane Milton, his advisor offers one final piece of counsel: he must kiss her at the upcoming ball.
But a moonlit kiss can be catastrophic when witnessed by a cunning mother, a marriage can be inconvenient when forced, and a woman’s heart can be difficult to win when it belongs to another. Can an unexpected love conquer Jane’s resentment and Philip’s regret? Or will that simple kiss turn out to be his greatest misfortune of all?
Thursday, October 24, 2019
Cover Reveal for My New Regency!
I got the cover for my new Regency romance, The Viscount's Vow, today. I am so excited to share it all with you! Isn't it gorgeous?
And here's a little excerpt from the first chapter, just for you!
"Even just hearing her name caused his chest to constrict.
Charlotte.
His mind had provided a vivid picture of her as he'd endlessly marched and fought on the battlefields of Spain. Her long, brown hair, the same color as good Spanish coffee, her dark, teasing eyes that crinkled up at the corners when she laughed, and hands that always reached out to rescue every wounded animal in her vicinity. How he'd longed to hear her voice one more time. She was the only woman he'd ever loved, but now she was the one he was trying to forget."
I can't wait to share Edward and Charlotte's story with you!
"Even just hearing her name caused his chest to constrict.
Charlotte.
His mind had provided a vivid picture of her as he'd endlessly marched and fought on the battlefields of Spain. Her long, brown hair, the same color as good Spanish coffee, her dark, teasing eyes that crinkled up at the corners when she laughed, and hands that always reached out to rescue every wounded animal in her vicinity. How he'd longed to hear her voice one more time. She was the only woman he'd ever loved, but now she was the one he was trying to forget."
I can't wait to share Edward and Charlotte's story with you!
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
Movie Review & A Giveaway!
I was so thrilled to be with my good friend Michele Ashman Bell at the premiere of A Candle in the Window, the movie based off her book of the same name. I loved her Christmas story when I read it years ago and was excited to see it made into a movie. When Michele was at our book club a few months back she gave us the behind-the-scenes of what it was like to visit the set and see your words come to life. What a fantastic experience! I am so happy for her and for how well this movie turned out.
A Candle in the Window features a family who has lost their mother and is experiencing the holidays without her for the first time. The littlest girl has such faith that her mother will visit them on Christmas Day, but the middle child is still upset about not having her mom there for all the things they used to do together. I thought the man who played the father did an excellent job in portraying his hidden grief while trying to be there for his girls. All of the performances were well done, but the littlest girl truly stole the show with every scene she was in. Adorable!
This is a story about miracles and love and is definitely one your family will want to watch every holiday season. We really enjoyed it!
Don't forget to scroll down and enter the giveaway!
See the movie trailer here
Get your copy here
"Papa, would it be okay if we put a candle in the window so Mama can find her way home?"
John's family is struggling to face Christmas without his loving wife. However, six-year-old Emily is full of faith. Even though her older sisters try to gently lower her expectations, the young girl truly believes her mother will visit on Christmas Eve. In fact, she is so certain her mother will come that she puts a candle in the window to guide her mother on her journey home. Before she passed away, their mother made sure the most cherished holiday traditions would still be there—beautiful handmade dresses, new patent-leather shoes, and a lovingly crafted doll for little Emily. But on the way to a Christmas Eve celebration, the doll is lost, and Emily is heartbroken. Emily—and her grieving sisters—need their mother more than ever. Inspired by true events, A Candle in the Window is a beautiful reminder that our loved ones never leave us and prayers really do get answered—especially when you have the faith of a child.
John's family is struggling to face Christmas without his loving wife. However, six-year-old Emily is full of faith. Even though her older sisters try to gently lower her expectations, the young girl truly believes her mother will visit on Christmas Eve. In fact, she is so certain her mother will come that she puts a candle in the window to guide her mother on her journey home. Before she passed away, their mother made sure the most cherished holiday traditions would still be there—beautiful handmade dresses, new patent-leather shoes, and a lovingly crafted doll for little Emily. But on the way to a Christmas Eve celebration, the doll is lost, and Emily is heartbroken. Emily—and her grieving sisters—need their mother more than ever. Inspired by true events, A Candle in the Window is a beautiful reminder that our loved ones never leave us and prayers really do get answered—especially when you have the faith of a child.
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
Facebook Live THIS Thursday With Prizes!
I am SO EXCITED to be welcoming author Karen Tuft this THURSDAY at 6:15 p.m. MST over on my Facebook Author page for a Facebook Live event. She has an amazing giveaway of an ADVANCED COPY of her brand new book Kit and Elizabeth that won't be available in stores until December!
And one of you could be the lucky winner!
All you have to do is ask her a question in the comments, then join us for our Facebook Live event on Thursday to see if your name is called! Don't miss this one!
Monday, October 21, 2019
Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review: The One With The Awesome North Korean Spy Moves & Plot Twist
We start out with previouslies of Cullen's house blowing up (my fave part was Steve's face when he gets out of the truck and heads toward Cullen. The square-jawed determination and the look in his eye!) then we cut to Adam at the Chatting Table. (I guess he changed out of his blue shirt. Luckily, Steve is still in blue.) Adam tells Steve that several components from the bomb at his house match the one at Cullen's! (Awww. Matching bombs. How sweet.) And Adam also figured out that Cullen's real estate business was being used to launder huge amounts of cash coming in from Asia. (How come they didn't know that when they first investigated him? Weird.) But whoever he was laundering money for must have been unhappy to have law enforcement sniffing around so they offed him. I guess it really *is* much bigger than Steve thought!
Cut to a dark street with a young, teenage girl in a school uniform walking alone with ear buds in. (Wow. Definitely not a good idea.) She notices a white kidnapper van and gets spooked, hurrying away, but the van cuts off her escape. Uh oh. Nine hours later HPD finds the abandoned van with an obvious blood stain on the bumper. But when they open the door, all three kidnappers are in the back shot in the head. (There have been a ton of execution-style killings on the show lately!) But where's the girl?
Cue music.
Steve and Danny are at a dog park, trying to help Steve get a date by "not being himself." Danny's plan is that women will come over to pet Eddie and then have to talk to Steve since he's standing there and maybe he'll get a date.
(Okay, wait. I've been with this show through some pretty unbelievable storylines. Remember the giant claw with Wo Fat? Or how about lifting a cabin out of the woods? Yeah. I went with it. But saying that Steve "Smooth Dog" McGarrett needs help getting dates is pretty hard to believe. Remember the cases where Steve would be standing there and women would approach him? Or when Lori had to leave because she developed feelings for him? Has anyone seen Steve McGarrett? The man is a former SEAL, and has the looks and presence to stop women on the street. But, yeah, here we are, in a strange McG universe where Steve is now insecure and unsure of himself around women. Okay then.)
Anyway, Danny is pointing out women in the park, one doing yoga, one talking to friends, one with an English mastiff. He throws the ball near the English mastiff and Eddie goes to get it, but the mastiff attacks and bites him. They end up at the vet so Eddie can get stitches (Poor guy! So sad.) Not deterred in his FindSteveADateQuest, Danny starts telling the vet she can call Steve to walk her dog (because he has so much time on his hands?) and Steve can call her to walk Eddie and mouthing to Steve to get her number. It's all very teenager-ish and silly, but mercifully, Steve is finally able to send Danny out on a case.
Junior meets Danny at the kidnapper van scene and Danny mentions that Steve and Eddie are no longer welcome at dog park (why? Eddie wasn't the aggressor) He also comments on Quinn being early and helpful. She gives them the rundown that 911 got a call last night when a witness saw a teen girl forced into van by two men. They found the van and the dead kidnappers with no sign of the girl and no idea who she might be. All they know is she had dark hair, there are no missing person reports and that two of the kidnappers had records for assault and robbery. The third guy was clean and worked as a doorman at a condo building. (The victim was probably someone from his building. I'm calling it right here) Maybe this is a ransom play, but once they got the girl back, why didn't they report? Well, maybe because all three men were killed by a pro. They're definitely looking for a trained killer.
Back to DannytheDatingGuru. He gets a call from Steve and he didn't get the vet's number. Danny can't believe it! Why does he have so many rules when it comes to women? Is Steve afraid of rejection? Well, DannytheDatingGuru advises to just keep striking out and moving forward. Steve talks about a measured approach to dating and says he wants to meet someone organically and not force it. Danny tells him a story about asking a girl out over a PA system in high school and he struck out, but her friend liked his approach so he went on a date with her. Danny mocks Steve's organic approach and mentions that he and Eddie have a beautiful friendship and their anniversary is coming up, so Steve hangs up on him. *claps* (Can this storyline be over soon? It feels so forced, like the restaurant storyline, just filler to have some sort of interaction between Steve and Danny.)
Back to the Chatting Table Roundup & Report: Adam dumped the kidnappers' phones, and one called a Client Services rep at a bank who is in charge of wire transfers and foreign transactions several times. CSU scrubbed the van and the lab found wool fibers under the fingernails of the kidnappers and in van, and they likely came from girl. But, wait, who wears wool in Hawaii? No one unless they're being forced to, like private school kids who have to wear uniforms! And there's a private school within two miles of kidnapping. (Convenient!) Tani is going to go with Quinn to check on the five girls that didn't show up to class this morning. While in the car, Tani is talking about how she can't understand why the parents wouldn't immediately go to police, especially after they got their daughter back, but Quinn says maybe it wasn't the parents' choice if the girl wanted to keep her kidnapping secret. Also, it might have been more than just a kidnapping since she was in the van for over an hour with three grown men. Tani still can't figure out why she wouldn't come forward, (really?) so Quinn ends the endless "why" questions from Tani with "we can't imagine because it didn't happen to us, so stop trying to guess what we would have done or felt." (I sense some Quinn backstory here!)
Lou talked to the Client Services rep and BankerBoy got wrangled into the plot by his cousin who was the doorman, but they never got any money because they were killed before they could make the ransom. He mentioned that they chose the girl because she lives in same high end building as CousinDoorman worked at (called it!) and it's on Lure Street. (Lure street? Really? For a kidnapper.) She's a tenth grader named Yumi Chung. She's new at the school and only been there a month. Quinn and Tani go to talk to Yumi, who is alone, but lets them in. They sit down and Tani starts droning on about how they know what happened, she was forced into a van, must have been terrifying, and they're here to listen (only not really because she won't stop talking) Yumi says nothing happened, but Quinn is all you must want to forget about what happened last night, but the men that took you were murdered and we want to find out who killed them. She holds Yumi's hands and tell her they want to help, but no pressure. Back at HQ Adam has learned that the ballistic analysis points to all the shots fired inside the van coming from Yumi. Uh oh. He calls Tani and tells her, but Yumi attacks! She lays out Tani and Quinn and runs away. (Plot twist! Loved it)
Well, they got HPD searching the neighborhood, so of course she got away. Yumi isn't the innocent schoolgirl she was pretending to be (ya think? LOL) and so they search her house and find a hidden bag in the vent. It has a gun, cash in three different currencies and four passports. Apparently, Yumi is wanted for questioning in China, is in her mid-twenties and fled arrest in Germany. She was also part of a company that led a North Korean cyber-attack on U.S. power grids a few years ago. Everyone is standing around the Chatting Table chatting about why Yumi chose a schoolgirl alias and how that private school she infiltrated is super elite and a lot of powerful people send their kids there, even high-ranking military officers. She could have been invited into their houses! So the team decides to see who her friends at school were and if they have parents who serve.
Yumi isn't standing around waiting to be caught, though. She's at a cafe, telling NerdyGary, who is there with his laptop, that her phone is dead and she needs to check her email, so can she borrow his computer? He says yes and he'll even get her a latte. (I guess he's just so shocked a cute girl talked to him?) While he's walking away he tells her to do her worst which was super odd. Worst what?
There's a bunch of people checking out Major General Avea's home for bugs. The Major General isn't too concerned, since he never talks about work at home or met the girl since he was out of town. But hey, Yumi went to a lot of trouble to get into his house because he's with the DOD and they need to figure out why. They finally find a wifi enabled camera in a lamp that was positioned right over the desk where the Major General worked with his DOD laptop and has been transmitting video since it was installed. Oops. She probably has his password and access to all the classified documents his security clearance grants him since he logged in that morning. (That's all you need is one little password and you have classified clearance? Yikes. Our military needs a security update if that's the case.) Quinn calls CCIU to get his password revoked, but Yumi is at the cafe, sending NerdyGary back for an iced latte (oh Gary) and the screen says her upload is complete. That can't be good.
Back at HQ Lou reports that CID cyber crime said Yumi accessed the account before they disabled the password, but they don't know what she took. Loyal Adam asks if they should get Jerry, but Lou doesn't think he could help and besides, McG has an idea that Adam won't like! They're going to Halawa to talk to Aaron Wright! They offer Wright a cappuccino, in exchange for doing them a favor, but he wants minimum security with furlough privileges. No deal. They start to leave, but Aaron decides to help them in exchange for just the cappuccino after all! Way to negotiate.
Lou updates McG that according to Wright, Yumi accessed the Major General's account a few minutes before the password was revoked and the IP address traces back to Coffee Talk in Waikiki. Steve sends a unit over to figure out which computer she was using. Wright gets introduced to Quinn as a "homicidal oil slick" and he seems pleased with his nickname. (I really enjoyed the bantering with Wright. Witty and funny.) Wright sends them a screen of all ten terabytes worth of the classified docs she downloaded, but none of them are relevant to North Korean national interests or have anything to do with U.S. military plans for North Korea. Steve has Wright check for keywords North Korea and Oahu and personal files of intelligence assets come up. The newest one was updated two months ago, and was a North Korean defector living in Hawaii under the alias Sam Hong. He was responsible for one of the most successful mass escapes from North Korea in modern history and got away with five families.(Five? That's it for the "mass escape?") So he's a hero, but to them a traitor and Yumi's here looking for him. They send CID to his address with HPD for backup. (That's not going to end well, I can feel it.) Tunior will meet everyone there and they'll try to get this guy out of the building before Yumi gets there.
Dang, she's already there. CID pulls up to form a perimeter and protect him, while Yumi goes into the building manager's office and creepily shushes him. She throws a pen on the floor to distract a CID guy who falls for it. (Must have been a rookie or not watched any horror movies in his lifetime.) She breaks his neck, then goes after more guards with just a PEN! (It is a crazy awesome fight scene and stunt work.) When everyone is down, she runs for SamtheDefector's apartment. He's just leaving and has one guard left, but Yumi easily kills him. Before she can leave with SamtheDefector, though, Tunior roll up. They're looking at all the carnage and see the elevator is coming down. Yumi has taken Sam hostage and tells them that all the classified info about Special Forces movements, location of hidden bases and memos on detainees held in U.S. black sites is on a timed 30 minute release onto the dark web and it will go live to all the U.S. enemies if she isn't on a plane back to North Korea before then. Well, that's a dilemma.
Next thing we know Yumi is in a car talking to Steve. (Where did she get the car? One of the dead CID guy's cars? And where is HPD? Just didn't come? Too busy?) Yumi has a gun on SamtheDefector yapping about how she didn't think Steve would make the right decision, but letting her go is the only way to stop the documents from going live. Oh, and if he tries anything funny, she'll just kill Sam. So here's the scenario: They're six minutes from the plane with Tunior in position behind them, and Wright is working on Gary's laptop that Yumi used. Thankfully she was in a hurry since Gary was coming back so Wright finds the dark web portal she used. He needs more time to access it, though, and Lou pulls a Rudy Gobert and knocks Wright's drink off the table. (You can see Rudy here)
Adam uses reverse psychology that if Wright can't open the portal then he's not even a good hacker! And they'll just leave and never come back! Nooooo! (Honestly, that's what they threaten him with? Haha!) Anyway, Wright humors them and gets back to work. Sam and Yumi are talking in Korean about him leaving and how he abandoned his friends and family. Oh, and they used to work together. Oddly, Steve forgot he speaks Korean and they all defer to Quinn to translate. Sam wants Yumi to reconsider working for a regime that would force her to bring back her oldest friend to be executed. She said she volunteered. Oh, snap! (I wish we would have had more story here. I mean, that is a great plot twist, too!) Sam says he's not getting on a plane and jumps out of the car and runs away. Yumi wings him and Tani shoots her dead. (Like, immediately dead, staring at the sky, dead. Where did that bullet hit exactly?) Wright has ten seconds to stop the classified documents going live on the dark web and he does with one second left. (So, Yumi really wasn't going to wait until she was on the plane to release it? Or did her death speed up the time frame? I was confused there. ) Anyway, everyone is relieved and Wright says that surely deserves a change of scenery but Lou mocks him and says life isn't where you end up, but the friends you make along the way and that the cappuccino they brought was decaf. (Honestly, I wish they'd been a little nicer. He did help them!)
Sigh, we're back at the vet's office, and McG is getting last minute instructions for Eddie from the vet. McG is glad to hear that Eddie behaved himself, unlike his partner from that morning. It's super awkward and then Steve leaves. But Eddie is giving him a look (so cute!) and Steve chats with him about conspiring with Danny about going in there and maybe getting shot down in front of everyone. He makes a decision and heads in (leaving Eddie in the car, though). The vet is back out front talking to another patient's owner with a lot of people in the waiting room. (With a crowd that big, she should probably do less talking and more treating, but I digress) She makes Steve ask her out in front of everyone and he invites her to dinner sometime.
Steve meets the gang at a bar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They're all happy he got the date and clap for him. The convo comes around to Quinn and what she thought of her first day. Despite being beat up by a North Korean secret agent and translating the hostage-taking of some of America's most dangerous secrets, she's still in! Cheers!
What did you think? Did you watch?
Cut to a dark street with a young, teenage girl in a school uniform walking alone with ear buds in. (Wow. Definitely not a good idea.) She notices a white kidnapper van and gets spooked, hurrying away, but the van cuts off her escape. Uh oh. Nine hours later HPD finds the abandoned van with an obvious blood stain on the bumper. But when they open the door, all three kidnappers are in the back shot in the head. (There have been a ton of execution-style killings on the show lately!) But where's the girl?
Cue music.
Steve and Danny are at a dog park, trying to help Steve get a date by "not being himself." Danny's plan is that women will come over to pet Eddie and then have to talk to Steve since he's standing there and maybe he'll get a date.
(Okay, wait. I've been with this show through some pretty unbelievable storylines. Remember the giant claw with Wo Fat? Or how about lifting a cabin out of the woods? Yeah. I went with it. But saying that Steve "Smooth Dog" McGarrett needs help getting dates is pretty hard to believe. Remember the cases where Steve would be standing there and women would approach him? Or when Lori had to leave because she developed feelings for him? Has anyone seen Steve McGarrett? The man is a former SEAL, and has the looks and presence to stop women on the street. But, yeah, here we are, in a strange McG universe where Steve is now insecure and unsure of himself around women. Okay then.)
Anyway, Danny is pointing out women in the park, one doing yoga, one talking to friends, one with an English mastiff. He throws the ball near the English mastiff and Eddie goes to get it, but the mastiff attacks and bites him. They end up at the vet so Eddie can get stitches (Poor guy! So sad.) Not deterred in his FindSteveADateQuest, Danny starts telling the vet she can call Steve to walk her dog (because he has so much time on his hands?) and Steve can call her to walk Eddie and mouthing to Steve to get her number. It's all very teenager-ish and silly, but mercifully, Steve is finally able to send Danny out on a case.
Junior meets Danny at the kidnapper van scene and Danny mentions that Steve and Eddie are no longer welcome at dog park (why? Eddie wasn't the aggressor) He also comments on Quinn being early and helpful. She gives them the rundown that 911 got a call last night when a witness saw a teen girl forced into van by two men. They found the van and the dead kidnappers with no sign of the girl and no idea who she might be. All they know is she had dark hair, there are no missing person reports and that two of the kidnappers had records for assault and robbery. The third guy was clean and worked as a doorman at a condo building. (The victim was probably someone from his building. I'm calling it right here) Maybe this is a ransom play, but once they got the girl back, why didn't they report? Well, maybe because all three men were killed by a pro. They're definitely looking for a trained killer.
Back to DannytheDatingGuru. He gets a call from Steve and he didn't get the vet's number. Danny can't believe it! Why does he have so many rules when it comes to women? Is Steve afraid of rejection? Well, DannytheDatingGuru advises to just keep striking out and moving forward. Steve talks about a measured approach to dating and says he wants to meet someone organically and not force it. Danny tells him a story about asking a girl out over a PA system in high school and he struck out, but her friend liked his approach so he went on a date with her. Danny mocks Steve's organic approach and mentions that he and Eddie have a beautiful friendship and their anniversary is coming up, so Steve hangs up on him. *claps* (Can this storyline be over soon? It feels so forced, like the restaurant storyline, just filler to have some sort of interaction between Steve and Danny.)
Back to the Chatting Table Roundup & Report: Adam dumped the kidnappers' phones, and one called a Client Services rep at a bank who is in charge of wire transfers and foreign transactions several times. CSU scrubbed the van and the lab found wool fibers under the fingernails of the kidnappers and in van, and they likely came from girl. But, wait, who wears wool in Hawaii? No one unless they're being forced to, like private school kids who have to wear uniforms! And there's a private school within two miles of kidnapping. (Convenient!) Tani is going to go with Quinn to check on the five girls that didn't show up to class this morning. While in the car, Tani is talking about how she can't understand why the parents wouldn't immediately go to police, especially after they got their daughter back, but Quinn says maybe it wasn't the parents' choice if the girl wanted to keep her kidnapping secret. Also, it might have been more than just a kidnapping since she was in the van for over an hour with three grown men. Tani still can't figure out why she wouldn't come forward, (really?) so Quinn ends the endless "why" questions from Tani with "we can't imagine because it didn't happen to us, so stop trying to guess what we would have done or felt." (I sense some Quinn backstory here!)
Lou talked to the Client Services rep and BankerBoy got wrangled into the plot by his cousin who was the doorman, but they never got any money because they were killed before they could make the ransom. He mentioned that they chose the girl because she lives in same high end building as CousinDoorman worked at (called it!) and it's on Lure Street. (Lure street? Really? For a kidnapper.) She's a tenth grader named Yumi Chung. She's new at the school and only been there a month. Quinn and Tani go to talk to Yumi, who is alone, but lets them in. They sit down and Tani starts droning on about how they know what happened, she was forced into a van, must have been terrifying, and they're here to listen (only not really because she won't stop talking) Yumi says nothing happened, but Quinn is all you must want to forget about what happened last night, but the men that took you were murdered and we want to find out who killed them. She holds Yumi's hands and tell her they want to help, but no pressure. Back at HQ Adam has learned that the ballistic analysis points to all the shots fired inside the van coming from Yumi. Uh oh. He calls Tani and tells her, but Yumi attacks! She lays out Tani and Quinn and runs away. (Plot twist! Loved it)
Well, they got HPD searching the neighborhood, so of course she got away. Yumi isn't the innocent schoolgirl she was pretending to be (ya think? LOL) and so they search her house and find a hidden bag in the vent. It has a gun, cash in three different currencies and four passports. Apparently, Yumi is wanted for questioning in China, is in her mid-twenties and fled arrest in Germany. She was also part of a company that led a North Korean cyber-attack on U.S. power grids a few years ago. Everyone is standing around the Chatting Table chatting about why Yumi chose a schoolgirl alias and how that private school she infiltrated is super elite and a lot of powerful people send their kids there, even high-ranking military officers. She could have been invited into their houses! So the team decides to see who her friends at school were and if they have parents who serve.
Yumi isn't standing around waiting to be caught, though. She's at a cafe, telling NerdyGary, who is there with his laptop, that her phone is dead and she needs to check her email, so can she borrow his computer? He says yes and he'll even get her a latte. (I guess he's just so shocked a cute girl talked to him?) While he's walking away he tells her to do her worst which was super odd. Worst what?
There's a bunch of people checking out Major General Avea's home for bugs. The Major General isn't too concerned, since he never talks about work at home or met the girl since he was out of town. But hey, Yumi went to a lot of trouble to get into his house because he's with the DOD and they need to figure out why. They finally find a wifi enabled camera in a lamp that was positioned right over the desk where the Major General worked with his DOD laptop and has been transmitting video since it was installed. Oops. She probably has his password and access to all the classified documents his security clearance grants him since he logged in that morning. (That's all you need is one little password and you have classified clearance? Yikes. Our military needs a security update if that's the case.) Quinn calls CCIU to get his password revoked, but Yumi is at the cafe, sending NerdyGary back for an iced latte (oh Gary) and the screen says her upload is complete. That can't be good.
Back at HQ Lou reports that CID cyber crime said Yumi accessed the account before they disabled the password, but they don't know what she took. Loyal Adam asks if they should get Jerry, but Lou doesn't think he could help and besides, McG has an idea that Adam won't like! They're going to Halawa to talk to Aaron Wright! They offer Wright a cappuccino, in exchange for doing them a favor, but he wants minimum security with furlough privileges. No deal. They start to leave, but Aaron decides to help them in exchange for just the cappuccino after all! Way to negotiate.
Lou updates McG that according to Wright, Yumi accessed the Major General's account a few minutes before the password was revoked and the IP address traces back to Coffee Talk in Waikiki. Steve sends a unit over to figure out which computer she was using. Wright gets introduced to Quinn as a "homicidal oil slick" and he seems pleased with his nickname. (I really enjoyed the bantering with Wright. Witty and funny.) Wright sends them a screen of all ten terabytes worth of the classified docs she downloaded, but none of them are relevant to North Korean national interests or have anything to do with U.S. military plans for North Korea. Steve has Wright check for keywords North Korea and Oahu and personal files of intelligence assets come up. The newest one was updated two months ago, and was a North Korean defector living in Hawaii under the alias Sam Hong. He was responsible for one of the most successful mass escapes from North Korea in modern history and got away with five families.(Five? That's it for the "mass escape?") So he's a hero, but to them a traitor and Yumi's here looking for him. They send CID to his address with HPD for backup. (That's not going to end well, I can feel it.) Tunior will meet everyone there and they'll try to get this guy out of the building before Yumi gets there.
Dang, she's already there. CID pulls up to form a perimeter and protect him, while Yumi goes into the building manager's office and creepily shushes him. She throws a pen on the floor to distract a CID guy who falls for it. (Must have been a rookie or not watched any horror movies in his lifetime.) She breaks his neck, then goes after more guards with just a PEN! (It is a crazy awesome fight scene and stunt work.) When everyone is down, she runs for SamtheDefector's apartment. He's just leaving and has one guard left, but Yumi easily kills him. Before she can leave with SamtheDefector, though, Tunior roll up. They're looking at all the carnage and see the elevator is coming down. Yumi has taken Sam hostage and tells them that all the classified info about Special Forces movements, location of hidden bases and memos on detainees held in U.S. black sites is on a timed 30 minute release onto the dark web and it will go live to all the U.S. enemies if she isn't on a plane back to North Korea before then. Well, that's a dilemma.
Next thing we know Yumi is in a car talking to Steve. (Where did she get the car? One of the dead CID guy's cars? And where is HPD? Just didn't come? Too busy?) Yumi has a gun on SamtheDefector yapping about how she didn't think Steve would make the right decision, but letting her go is the only way to stop the documents from going live. Oh, and if he tries anything funny, she'll just kill Sam. So here's the scenario: They're six minutes from the plane with Tunior in position behind them, and Wright is working on Gary's laptop that Yumi used. Thankfully she was in a hurry since Gary was coming back so Wright finds the dark web portal she used. He needs more time to access it, though, and Lou pulls a Rudy Gobert and knocks Wright's drink off the table. (You can see Rudy here)
Adam uses reverse psychology that if Wright can't open the portal then he's not even a good hacker! And they'll just leave and never come back! Nooooo! (Honestly, that's what they threaten him with? Haha!) Anyway, Wright humors them and gets back to work. Sam and Yumi are talking in Korean about him leaving and how he abandoned his friends and family. Oh, and they used to work together. Oddly, Steve forgot he speaks Korean and they all defer to Quinn to translate. Sam wants Yumi to reconsider working for a regime that would force her to bring back her oldest friend to be executed. She said she volunteered. Oh, snap! (I wish we would have had more story here. I mean, that is a great plot twist, too!) Sam says he's not getting on a plane and jumps out of the car and runs away. Yumi wings him and Tani shoots her dead. (Like, immediately dead, staring at the sky, dead. Where did that bullet hit exactly?) Wright has ten seconds to stop the classified documents going live on the dark web and he does with one second left. (So, Yumi really wasn't going to wait until she was on the plane to release it? Or did her death speed up the time frame? I was confused there. ) Anyway, everyone is relieved and Wright says that surely deserves a change of scenery but Lou mocks him and says life isn't where you end up, but the friends you make along the way and that the cappuccino they brought was decaf. (Honestly, I wish they'd been a little nicer. He did help them!)
Sigh, we're back at the vet's office, and McG is getting last minute instructions for Eddie from the vet. McG is glad to hear that Eddie behaved himself, unlike his partner from that morning. It's super awkward and then Steve leaves. But Eddie is giving him a look (so cute!) and Steve chats with him about conspiring with Danny about going in there and maybe getting shot down in front of everyone. He makes a decision and heads in (leaving Eddie in the car, though). The vet is back out front talking to another patient's owner with a lot of people in the waiting room. (With a crowd that big, she should probably do less talking and more treating, but I digress) She makes Steve ask her out in front of everyone and he invites her to dinner sometime.
Steve meets the gang at a bar at the Hilton Hawaiian Village. They're all happy he got the date and clap for him. The convo comes around to Quinn and what she thought of her first day. Despite being beat up by a North Korean secret agent and translating the hostage-taking of some of America's most dangerous secrets, she's still in! Cheers!
What did you think? Did you watch?
Friday, October 18, 2019
Freebie for Romance Fans!
If you are looking for a billionaire romance to read this weekend, The Australian Billionaire, is free today! I haven't read this author, but it looks cute.
You can get your copy here
Here's the back copy:
A self-made billionaire, his real estate agent and three weeks to find the right property.
Jackson Walker hasn't had the best family life. Growing up in the foster system in Australia, it wasn’t until he met his college football coach that he understood what a normal family looked like. When he gets the call that Coach has passed away, he returns to California for the funeral and to find a place to honor the man.
Hailey Montgomery threw herself into real estate soon after breaking up with her boyfriend nearly five years ago. She’s been working to build a name for herself and when the chance to make partner at her firm becomes available, she jumps at the chance. But the only way to achieve that distinction is to find a commercial property for the guy she’s nicknamed ‘Golden Boy’ from all the stories her father told about him.
As spending time together brings them closer, the trust between them is called into question. Can they work through what’s happened in their individual pasts to create a relationship that will last?
Thursday, October 17, 2019
The Captain is Now Available in Audio!
I was so happy with how well the name fit the character and I loved Brenna and Colt's story! The Captain went on to be a RONE award finalist for Best Suspense, won a Crowned Heart Award for Excellence, and was a #1 bestseller in Action/Adventure romance.
And TODAY, it is finally available in audio book form with an amazing narrator named Tristan Wright. He really captures the heart of the characters and brought the book to life. I can't wait for you all to hear it!
Here's the back copy:
Captain Colt Mitchell is part of the elite Griffin Force team hunting down terrorist Nazer al-Raimi. After an attack on the Canadian Parliament buildings, the team gets good intel on Nazer's whereabouts. They plan to grab him, but when the mission goes wrong, Colt is captured and dragged away. Bruised, restrained, and disoriented, Colt is stunned to see Brenna Wilson, the Canadian intelligence officer who broke his heart years ago, standing next to Nazer. But how deep is she in the operation and can she help Colt escape?
After the devastating attack on Canadian soil, Brenna is recruited to go undercover to find out what Nazer is planning next. She's close to her goal until her former flame Colt Mitchell is taken hostage. Walking away from him has always been her biggest regret and she knows she has to save him, even if it blows her mission. Taking matters into her own hands, she pulls off a daring escape, but Colt and Brenna must learn to trust each other again if they want to stay alive. With their hearts and their lives on the line can they survive long enough to stop Nazer from ravaging another country's sense of security?
Wednesday, October 16, 2019
Book Review and Giveaway: Mistaken Reality
I had Traci Hunter Abramson as our guest author a couple of months ago and I was looking forward to reading her new book, Mistaken Reality. Suspense fans will definitely love this one!
Hadley Baker finds herself in the middle of a bombing, barely escaping with her life. Handsome FBI agent JD Byers manages to save her, but then has to protect her when Hadley realizes that the man she once thought of marrying wasn't who he said he was and her life could be in danger. JD takes her in and together they try to unravel the mystery of Hadley's former boyfriend and the underworld he seemed to be involved in. The story also includes characters from previous Abramson books, though I admit, I was a little confused because I didn't recognize some of them. The story still stands well alone, but I think the reading experience would have been richer for me if I'd known who they were.
Ms. Abramson deftly handles the multiple threads in the story, from Hadley's job as a schoolteacher and the challenges her students face all the way to Kelsey's emotional mission to "Abolstan." There were a lot of characters to keep track of, which can be challenging, but they all kept the action moving with just the right pacing. This book deals with human trafficking and does a believable job in shining a light on an ever-growing problem. Plenty of twists and turns in this exciting story of rescuing souls and healing hearts.
Get your copy here
Don't forget to scroll down and enter the giveaway!
Here's the back copy:
Hadley Baker can't believe her boyfriend finally invited her on a fancy hotel dinner date only to break up with her in public. Even more unbelievable is the moment FBI Agent JD Byers finds her crying in the women's restroom and demands she evacuate. Seconds after JD ushers Hadley outside, an explosion shatters the building. Could her life be any more disastrous?
JD didn't anticipate seeing Hadley, the beautiful schoolteacher, again after he saved her from the hotel attack. But soon after her ex-boyfriend became a lead suspect in the hotel bombing case, the man turned up dead—and now it seems that Hadley herself is a target. Determined to keep her safe, JD shelters Hadley as they join forces to put together the pieces of the perplexing case. When they discover the horrifying truth behind her exboyfriend's nefarious work, Hadley realizes her life is far from the only one being threatened. Countless others are in danger, and she and JD might hold the key to saving them.
Tuesday, October 15, 2019
Hawaii Five-0 Recap & Review: The One With A Lot of Duffels
We start out with an airplane flying in 1983 (the good old days) with Hungry like the Wolf in the background, a lady reading a Jackie Collins book, tons of leg room and a guy lighting up a cigarette. All of the sudden the plane lurches, oxygen masks come down (that can't be good with the cigarette lit) and the plane crashed. (Good thing I didn't see this episode before my trip to Hawaii!) Fast forward to present day where there's a salvage mission going on and they find a dead diver in the wreckage.
Cue music.
New Girl Quinn surprises their bombing/murdering suspect Cullen and sits down to breakfast with him. She reminds him of who she is, then starts buttering a croissant while she fills him in on how some incompetent planted a bomb at McG's house, but luckily, McG has a bomb-sniffing dog. Cut to the shiny red truck where McG is listening to this convo and smiling when Eddie is mentioned. Cullen asks if they have any suspects and Quinn gives him "the look" like um, duh. That'd be you. Cullen points out that they must not have any evidence to back up the allegation. She sidesteps that and mentions how delicious the breakfast is and how she's clingy, that once she's interested, she can't let go, so basically, he'll be seeing a lot more of her, McG and the Five-0 task force, all up in his business 24/7. She takes a croissant for the road and leaves, going to the shiny red truck and giving Steve the croissant she took. McG says she did great and obviously got under his skin since Cullen's making a phone call to tell someone he has a job for them and meet him in an hour! McQuinn can't trace the phone because it's a burner, but luckily Quinn got the day off because their stakeout just turned into a tail. (I really like Quinn so far.)
Back at the ME's office. Tani calls Grover out because he seems cranky and he says he can't find an apartment in their price range. (Yawn.) The ME tells them the dead diver was Jay Kahale and he wasn't a member of the salvage team, but was killed with a bang stick at close range. Maybe his partner killed him, but what would be on the plane worth killing for? They go back to the Chatting Table to watch the news report of the wreckage being located and everyone is hoping the black box has answers on what caused the crash. Adam tells them that the JaytheDeadDiver's phone was turned on hours after his death and they found his burned out boat. So they need to find out who he was diving with. (And Adam has on a blue shirt today, too, just like Steve! Both of them look good in blue).
McQuinn is following Cullen, but they're not being very sneaky. First of all, they're in a shiny red truck, not to mention they're running red lights and pretty much staying close behind him. (I think "tails" learn to be inconspicuous the first day of spy school, but whatever I guess.) Quinn says you can tell a lot about a person by how they drive and Steve, who is so used to his driving being criticized, gets defensive and reminds her that this is a pursuit, so normal rules of road don't apply and last time she told him he wasn't driving recklessly enough. When he finishes, she says she was talking about Cullen, but now she knows what triggers him. Ha! She gets a phone call and answers in Kurdish. When she's done, Steve asks her if everything is okay and she says it's nothing. (Hmm...I wonder if Steve had any flashbacks to Cath speaking in Kurdish?) Cullen turns off, so they go a little further and set up to watch with binoculars and take pictures of Cullen sitting in his car. His boy finally shows up, though they can't hear anything because they're at the airport, but hey, you don't go to this much trouble to hide what you're talking about unless it's illegal. Quinn says she'll get the pics to Adam to see if he can identify Cullen's friend and Steve adds on to tell him to put an HPD detail on Cullen, and then they'll follow his boy see what he's been tasked to do. They leave on a deserted road and Steve must think they're invisible or something because they are not hiding that they're following the guy. At all.
Back to the airplane crash. TaniLou go to see a passenger's brother and he talks about finding out about the crash and wanting answers as to why it crashed. He doesn't seem too shocked about the diver's murder, so I'm calling it here, he's the bad guy. BadBro thinks that the truth will be covered up and tells them there are a bunch of conspiracy theories out there. Adam backs that up at HQ and tells the Chatting Table Crew that one theory is that the manufacturer is covering up a mechanical defect that took plane down, or it went through a wormhole and passed through another dimension, or it had to do with the Star Wars Defense project where the U.S. could take out Russian nukes with lasers from outer space. Apparently the Star Wars program has close ties to Hawaii and the Pacific Missile Range facility on Kauai was a center of the Stragetic Defense Initiative. Maybe some Star Wars testing accidentally downed the plane. So, JaytheDeadDiver could be from the military, trying to retrieve incriminating evidence before the plane is brought to the surface! Lou calls Adam Jerry and says he looks different since he's shaved his beard. Ha! JaytheDeadDiver was former Navy, so maybe the military went offbook to outsource the job to him so they have plausible deniability. Junior phones in that JaytheDeadDiver had been contacting a bunch of other divers over the last several days, saying he had a one day job for them that paid $30,000. So, whoever took the job, probably murdered Jay to cut him out of the take, then reached out to the contact so they could renegotiate the deal which would explain why his phone was turned on after his death. Oh, and also, Jay needed a diver who specialized in underwater welding. Which you would only need if you were retrieving the black box. Hmmm...
Back to the pursuit, McG roars up to a building still not sneaky at all and McQuinn heads upstairs. They barely have any cover, but since they're invisible, it's fine. They watch four or five men load duffel bags into the back of a car and it's not for a weekend getaway! Adam calls to tell them that Cullen's friend is Sam Bishop and he's been arrested for aggravated assault, criminal trespassing, and attempted murder. So, Quinn tells us, since Cullen has already tried to murder McG once, and now has reached out to a guy with attempted murder on his jacket, who then picks up four DuffelDudes, well, their next stop is probably McG's house to try and kill him again. Dun, dun, dun. They get in the truck to see if she's right about that.
TaniLou has a Mr. Pollack in Blue Room of Doom. He's on online conspiracy theorist who bankrolled five failed attempts to locate the wreckage. He also believes the military is behind the whole thing and will destroy incriminating evidence. Pollack denies any involvement in diver's death and truly has a creepy blank expression on his face. He does tell TaniLou that there are way bigger wackos out there, like Delphi's Son who is the Godfather of Flight 912 conspiracy theories. Lou tasks Tani to look into Delphi's Son.
McQuinn are probably only thirty feet away from the four DuffelDudes, kind of hiding in the trees taking loud clicky pics of them. DuffelDudes are walking down a path with shovels, then digging something up. Quinn thinks it might be McG's grave (how morbid!) but Steve thinks they're moving a body. It's actually a barrel of money that they haul back to their truck. McQuinn go back to the shiny red truck to follow them, but the tire is slashed. They were made. Sad!
Chatting Table RoundUp and Report: Junior found gear that survived blaze from boat. Tani reports that Delphi's son generates 80 percent of posts on plane crash so they're tracking his IP address. Oh, and Adam says the NTSB has the black box that was still on board the plane and are analyzing it. They also found out that a welding gun was used to remove several seats from first class cabin, so one of the passengers must have hidden something worth killing for under their seat .
McQuinn are standing around waiting for the tow truck. Quinn's blood sugar is low and she's floating the idea of driving back on the rims. Steve offers beef jerky, but she turns that down and would rather eat her own fingers, since jerky is only meat trying to do a plywood impression. They just have to sit and wait, but luckily HPD has eyes on Cullen and Bishop hasn't shown up with money yet, so there's still time to catch Cullen and the money in the same place. Quinn asks Steve if he has any ideas on how they can kill some time while waiting for the tow truck, but quickly backs off and says that sounded so different in my head. (And also reminded me of another Cath scene when she says that came out wrong. Huh.) Anyway, she says she was going to suggest they play Tic Tac Toe, but Steve doesn't want to do that, so she suggests Twenty Questions, but Steve guesses right away she's thinking about a croissant. (Haha. It was a funny scene.)
The B Story Crew have found out that Delphi's Son is the brother they talked to earlier. (Called it!) His brother was actually a jewelry thief who pulled off a heist in New York (and killed a woman) and was coming home on that plane with 4.1 million dollars in jewelry that's worth over ten million today. That's what JaytheDeadDiver was looking for. Since BadBro worked for the insurance company that held the policy, he would know all about the worth of the jewels taken. So now one diver has killed the other and are probably shaking down Joe so they have to find him. He's not at home or his office, but luckily the DNA on the gear from the burned out boat came back and it's female! There aren't many female welder divers, and only one that JaytheDeadDiver knew, so in less than ten seconds they already have a location on her since she left work and took a company boat with GPS.
BadBro is there to pay her off with a duffel of money. (There are a lot of duffels in this ep!) She gives him the briefcase full of jewels, but he pulls a gun, so she shoots him in the side. Police sirens sound and she runs away with both the money duffel and the jewelry briefcase. Tani is in pursuit and there's a little shootout on the dock. (Maybe Tani could run faster if she wasn't in heeled boots, but whatever) She wings the diver and the lady falls in the water, but is surprisingly able to shoot at Tani from underneath the dock. Tani dives in the water and an underwater fight between the two women ensues. Tani gets slashed on the arm, but manages to elbow and kick the suspect in the face. Junior is racing to scene, but stops to take off his Kevlar and earpiece. By then, Tani has surfaced, but he still jumps in. She's okay, it's the suspect who needs help. They get her on the dock and even though she's breathing shallowly, they do chest compressions. When the lady spits out water, they inform her she's under arrest. While Tani's arm is being bandaged in the back of an ambulance, Junior comments that he didn't know they taught underwater fighting in Mermaid School. She gives him a grin and says he should see what she can do with a tail. Ha. BadBro is already headed in surgery, (that was fast!) but he'll make it. Oh, and Adam mentions that the NTSB has finished nalayzing black box. There wasn't any data. Someone wiped it. *cue Twilight Zone music* (Jerry would have loved this little conspiracy theory I think!)
McQuinn pulls into the HQ parking lot in the shiny red truck. Steve seems contemplative, then says that the call Quinn got earlier was from a woman in Iraq whose husband was a police officer that was killed in Mosul last year. Quinn seems surprised he traced her phone call and says he could have asked her. Steve goes on that he knows she was stationed there for a time training local police forces. So he's asking. What happened? She tells him the story of how two weeks after she finished training the guy, he was gunned down by local insurgents, even after months of training them and teaching them everything she could. Steve reminds her that they are talking about one of the most dangerous places on the planet right now, and so no amount of training would have saved that guy's life. Quinn says she keeps in touch with his widow since it's nearly impossible for the widow to make a living over there, never mind support two kids. She helps out when she can. (Hmm...also interesting that Cath kept in touch with a family she met while stationed over there as well.) Quinn wonders if Steve's always up in everyone's business, (she says that a lot) but he says it's just her because when when he works with someone he likes to know as much as he can about them. He puts an H50 badge on the console between them and tells her that he had a feeling she'd be a great fit for the task force. Quinn laughs and says when we were pointing guns in each other's faces? Yeah, he has a gut instinct on these things and since she's had disciplinary issues it probably won't be hard to get an official discharge. Quinn says she'd be honored and they shake on it and Steve tells her welcome aboard. But the words are barely out of his mouth when the military police show up and arrest Quinn. Steve is telling her to sit tight and he'll get to the bottom of this while she's put in car with her new badge in her handcuffed hands. One of the MPs tells Steve they got an anonymous tip and found a lot of currency associated with a money laundering operation in Quinn's apartment. (Ohhh, that's what the barrel of money was for!)
Cut to Cullen getting home with Steve right behind him. Steve is angry and confronts him, telling him that he made a phone call to the governor and Quinn is being processed out as they speak, but hey, if Cullen wants to dance with him, he'll do it every day and make his life so miserable he'll be begging for an 8x10 cell just to get some peace. Cullen is so smarmy, smirking and telling Steve he has no idea what's going on here and doesn't have the whole picture. But hey, he's smart, maybe he'll figure it out at some point. Steve assures him he will and Cullen goes inside. Only to have the house blow up in a big fireball.
What a great ending! I'm liking Quinn more and more, but there are some pretty big similarities to Cath beyond looks, as in the similar dialogue of last week and similar backstory this week. Maybe next week she'll mention how Chicago makes everything better! We shall see.
What did you think? Did you watch?
Cue music.
New Girl Quinn surprises their bombing/murdering suspect Cullen and sits down to breakfast with him. She reminds him of who she is, then starts buttering a croissant while she fills him in on how some incompetent planted a bomb at McG's house, but luckily, McG has a bomb-sniffing dog. Cut to the shiny red truck where McG is listening to this convo and smiling when Eddie is mentioned. Cullen asks if they have any suspects and Quinn gives him "the look" like um, duh. That'd be you. Cullen points out that they must not have any evidence to back up the allegation. She sidesteps that and mentions how delicious the breakfast is and how she's clingy, that once she's interested, she can't let go, so basically, he'll be seeing a lot more of her, McG and the Five-0 task force, all up in his business 24/7. She takes a croissant for the road and leaves, going to the shiny red truck and giving Steve the croissant she took. McG says she did great and obviously got under his skin since Cullen's making a phone call to tell someone he has a job for them and meet him in an hour! McQuinn can't trace the phone because it's a burner, but luckily Quinn got the day off because their stakeout just turned into a tail. (I really like Quinn so far.)
Back at the ME's office. Tani calls Grover out because he seems cranky and he says he can't find an apartment in their price range. (Yawn.) The ME tells them the dead diver was Jay Kahale and he wasn't a member of the salvage team, but was killed with a bang stick at close range. Maybe his partner killed him, but what would be on the plane worth killing for? They go back to the Chatting Table to watch the news report of the wreckage being located and everyone is hoping the black box has answers on what caused the crash. Adam tells them that the JaytheDeadDiver's phone was turned on hours after his death and they found his burned out boat. So they need to find out who he was diving with. (And Adam has on a blue shirt today, too, just like Steve! Both of them look good in blue).
McQuinn is following Cullen, but they're not being very sneaky. First of all, they're in a shiny red truck, not to mention they're running red lights and pretty much staying close behind him. (I think "tails" learn to be inconspicuous the first day of spy school, but whatever I guess.) Quinn says you can tell a lot about a person by how they drive and Steve, who is so used to his driving being criticized, gets defensive and reminds her that this is a pursuit, so normal rules of road don't apply and last time she told him he wasn't driving recklessly enough. When he finishes, she says she was talking about Cullen, but now she knows what triggers him. Ha! She gets a phone call and answers in Kurdish. When she's done, Steve asks her if everything is okay and she says it's nothing. (Hmm...I wonder if Steve had any flashbacks to Cath speaking in Kurdish?) Cullen turns off, so they go a little further and set up to watch with binoculars and take pictures of Cullen sitting in his car. His boy finally shows up, though they can't hear anything because they're at the airport, but hey, you don't go to this much trouble to hide what you're talking about unless it's illegal. Quinn says she'll get the pics to Adam to see if he can identify Cullen's friend and Steve adds on to tell him to put an HPD detail on Cullen, and then they'll follow his boy see what he's been tasked to do. They leave on a deserted road and Steve must think they're invisible or something because they are not hiding that they're following the guy. At all.
Back to the airplane crash. TaniLou go to see a passenger's brother and he talks about finding out about the crash and wanting answers as to why it crashed. He doesn't seem too shocked about the diver's murder, so I'm calling it here, he's the bad guy. BadBro thinks that the truth will be covered up and tells them there are a bunch of conspiracy theories out there. Adam backs that up at HQ and tells the Chatting Table Crew that one theory is that the manufacturer is covering up a mechanical defect that took plane down, or it went through a wormhole and passed through another dimension, or it had to do with the Star Wars Defense project where the U.S. could take out Russian nukes with lasers from outer space. Apparently the Star Wars program has close ties to Hawaii and the Pacific Missile Range facility on Kauai was a center of the Stragetic Defense Initiative. Maybe some Star Wars testing accidentally downed the plane. So, JaytheDeadDiver could be from the military, trying to retrieve incriminating evidence before the plane is brought to the surface! Lou calls Adam Jerry and says he looks different since he's shaved his beard. Ha! JaytheDeadDiver was former Navy, so maybe the military went offbook to outsource the job to him so they have plausible deniability. Junior phones in that JaytheDeadDiver had been contacting a bunch of other divers over the last several days, saying he had a one day job for them that paid $30,000. So, whoever took the job, probably murdered Jay to cut him out of the take, then reached out to the contact so they could renegotiate the deal which would explain why his phone was turned on after his death. Oh, and also, Jay needed a diver who specialized in underwater welding. Which you would only need if you were retrieving the black box. Hmmm...
Back to the pursuit, McG roars up to a building still not sneaky at all and McQuinn heads upstairs. They barely have any cover, but since they're invisible, it's fine. They watch four or five men load duffel bags into the back of a car and it's not for a weekend getaway! Adam calls to tell them that Cullen's friend is Sam Bishop and he's been arrested for aggravated assault, criminal trespassing, and attempted murder. So, Quinn tells us, since Cullen has already tried to murder McG once, and now has reached out to a guy with attempted murder on his jacket, who then picks up four DuffelDudes, well, their next stop is probably McG's house to try and kill him again. Dun, dun, dun. They get in the truck to see if she's right about that.
TaniLou has a Mr. Pollack in Blue Room of Doom. He's on online conspiracy theorist who bankrolled five failed attempts to locate the wreckage. He also believes the military is behind the whole thing and will destroy incriminating evidence. Pollack denies any involvement in diver's death and truly has a creepy blank expression on his face. He does tell TaniLou that there are way bigger wackos out there, like Delphi's Son who is the Godfather of Flight 912 conspiracy theories. Lou tasks Tani to look into Delphi's Son.
McQuinn are probably only thirty feet away from the four DuffelDudes, kind of hiding in the trees taking loud clicky pics of them. DuffelDudes are walking down a path with shovels, then digging something up. Quinn thinks it might be McG's grave (how morbid!) but Steve thinks they're moving a body. It's actually a barrel of money that they haul back to their truck. McQuinn go back to the shiny red truck to follow them, but the tire is slashed. They were made. Sad!
Chatting Table RoundUp and Report: Junior found gear that survived blaze from boat. Tani reports that Delphi's son generates 80 percent of posts on plane crash so they're tracking his IP address. Oh, and Adam says the NTSB has the black box that was still on board the plane and are analyzing it. They also found out that a welding gun was used to remove several seats from first class cabin, so one of the passengers must have hidden something worth killing for under their seat .
McQuinn are standing around waiting for the tow truck. Quinn's blood sugar is low and she's floating the idea of driving back on the rims. Steve offers beef jerky, but she turns that down and would rather eat her own fingers, since jerky is only meat trying to do a plywood impression. They just have to sit and wait, but luckily HPD has eyes on Cullen and Bishop hasn't shown up with money yet, so there's still time to catch Cullen and the money in the same place. Quinn asks Steve if he has any ideas on how they can kill some time while waiting for the tow truck, but quickly backs off and says that sounded so different in my head. (And also reminded me of another Cath scene when she says that came out wrong. Huh.) Anyway, she says she was going to suggest they play Tic Tac Toe, but Steve doesn't want to do that, so she suggests Twenty Questions, but Steve guesses right away she's thinking about a croissant. (Haha. It was a funny scene.)
The B Story Crew have found out that Delphi's Son is the brother they talked to earlier. (Called it!) His brother was actually a jewelry thief who pulled off a heist in New York (and killed a woman) and was coming home on that plane with 4.1 million dollars in jewelry that's worth over ten million today. That's what JaytheDeadDiver was looking for. Since BadBro worked for the insurance company that held the policy, he would know all about the worth of the jewels taken. So now one diver has killed the other and are probably shaking down Joe so they have to find him. He's not at home or his office, but luckily the DNA on the gear from the burned out boat came back and it's female! There aren't many female welder divers, and only one that JaytheDeadDiver knew, so in less than ten seconds they already have a location on her since she left work and took a company boat with GPS.
BadBro is there to pay her off with a duffel of money. (There are a lot of duffels in this ep!) She gives him the briefcase full of jewels, but he pulls a gun, so she shoots him in the side. Police sirens sound and she runs away with both the money duffel and the jewelry briefcase. Tani is in pursuit and there's a little shootout on the dock. (Maybe Tani could run faster if she wasn't in heeled boots, but whatever) She wings the diver and the lady falls in the water, but is surprisingly able to shoot at Tani from underneath the dock. Tani dives in the water and an underwater fight between the two women ensues. Tani gets slashed on the arm, but manages to elbow and kick the suspect in the face. Junior is racing to scene, but stops to take off his Kevlar and earpiece. By then, Tani has surfaced, but he still jumps in. She's okay, it's the suspect who needs help. They get her on the dock and even though she's breathing shallowly, they do chest compressions. When the lady spits out water, they inform her she's under arrest. While Tani's arm is being bandaged in the back of an ambulance, Junior comments that he didn't know they taught underwater fighting in Mermaid School. She gives him a grin and says he should see what she can do with a tail. Ha. BadBro is already headed in surgery, (that was fast!) but he'll make it. Oh, and Adam mentions that the NTSB has finished nalayzing black box. There wasn't any data. Someone wiped it. *cue Twilight Zone music* (Jerry would have loved this little conspiracy theory I think!)
McQuinn pulls into the HQ parking lot in the shiny red truck. Steve seems contemplative, then says that the call Quinn got earlier was from a woman in Iraq whose husband was a police officer that was killed in Mosul last year. Quinn seems surprised he traced her phone call and says he could have asked her. Steve goes on that he knows she was stationed there for a time training local police forces. So he's asking. What happened? She tells him the story of how two weeks after she finished training the guy, he was gunned down by local insurgents, even after months of training them and teaching them everything she could. Steve reminds her that they are talking about one of the most dangerous places on the planet right now, and so no amount of training would have saved that guy's life. Quinn says she keeps in touch with his widow since it's nearly impossible for the widow to make a living over there, never mind support two kids. She helps out when she can. (Hmm...also interesting that Cath kept in touch with a family she met while stationed over there as well.) Quinn wonders if Steve's always up in everyone's business, (she says that a lot) but he says it's just her because when when he works with someone he likes to know as much as he can about them. He puts an H50 badge on the console between them and tells her that he had a feeling she'd be a great fit for the task force. Quinn laughs and says when we were pointing guns in each other's faces? Yeah, he has a gut instinct on these things and since she's had disciplinary issues it probably won't be hard to get an official discharge. Quinn says she'd be honored and they shake on it and Steve tells her welcome aboard. But the words are barely out of his mouth when the military police show up and arrest Quinn. Steve is telling her to sit tight and he'll get to the bottom of this while she's put in car with her new badge in her handcuffed hands. One of the MPs tells Steve they got an anonymous tip and found a lot of currency associated with a money laundering operation in Quinn's apartment. (Ohhh, that's what the barrel of money was for!)
Cut to Cullen getting home with Steve right behind him. Steve is angry and confronts him, telling him that he made a phone call to the governor and Quinn is being processed out as they speak, but hey, if Cullen wants to dance with him, he'll do it every day and make his life so miserable he'll be begging for an 8x10 cell just to get some peace. Cullen is so smarmy, smirking and telling Steve he has no idea what's going on here and doesn't have the whole picture. But hey, he's smart, maybe he'll figure it out at some point. Steve assures him he will and Cullen goes inside. Only to have the house blow up in a big fireball.
What a great ending! I'm liking Quinn more and more, but there are some pretty big similarities to Cath beyond looks, as in the similar dialogue of last week and similar backstory this week. Maybe next week she'll mention how Chicago makes everything better! We shall see.
What did you think? Did you watch?
Monday, October 14, 2019
Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!
So very grateful for my blessings and can't wait to celebrate with my family today! My turkey is in the oven and the house smells amazing. There's just something about celebrating in October when the air is crisp and the leaves are turning. I love this season.
Friday, October 11, 2019
Freebie Friday for Thriller Fans!
Get your free copy here
Here's the back copy:
Omar Zagouri should have known that the hunt for an ordinary art thief in London would end up being far from ordinary. Abducted and carted across several countries until he’s locked up in the middle of Jordan’s desert, Omar becomes the target of an underground crime organization that dates back to the Crusaders era. As Omar works to uncover the deadly secrets that connect centuries of deceit, he finds himself trying to prevent a scheduled honor killing from turning into another tragedy, while exposing the ancient crime organization for generations of lethal corruption.
Thursday, October 10, 2019
I Have A Question For You
Say you have a friend who loves an author, buys every book, loves every story. You have also read that author and didn't enjoy their writing style and probably wouldn't read anything else by them. Do you tell your friend you didn't like it? Or keep quiet?
For me, I just assumed that if someone didn't like a book or author, they would feel comfortable in telling me, just like I would feel comfortable in telling them. But a friend mentioned to me today that it probably isn't a good idea to do that, so I wondered what everyone else thought!
So, tell me, would you say something or keep your opinions to yourself?
Wednesday, October 9, 2019
Book Review of Secrets and Suitors AND a Giveaway!
I've enjoyed Joanna Barker's books before and I was excited to see that she had a friends-to-something-more romance coming out. I was not disappointed with Secrets and Suitors! It was the perfect, swoony, historical romance read.
Nora is entering her third season and her parents are pressuring her to marry. She has some prospects, but none of them measure up to the man she's always loved---her childhood friend, James. But James is in Jamaica and doesn't return her feelings anyway. Nora is trying to move on with her season and bow to her parents wishes, when James suddenly appears. All her old feelings come rushing back and maybe, just maybe, he might return them. But secrets come to the surface and Nora is forced to make a choice that could ruin any chance she would have with James. Do you see why it's an un-put-down-able book? Who wouldn't be turning pages as fast as possible to see what happens?
I loved the characters in this book. Nora is so adorably introverted, but trying valiantly to participate in the season. She loves her sister and brother and James truly understands the person she is inside. But outside forces seem to be combined against them, and Ms. Barker draws out all the feelings on this twisty-turny journey to love. I loved the setting, the secondary cast of characters, and even the villain was well-drawn. But my favorite character was James. He's such a sigh-worthy hero and readers will definitely be rooting for James and Nora to get their happily-ever-after! Definitely one for the keeper shelf.
Don't forget to scroll down and read the author interview with Joanna Barker AND enter the giveaway!
Here's the back copy:
Reluctantly returning to London for yet another Season, shy Nora Hamilton has nearly given up hope that she will ever find the love match she longs for. After all, the one man she does harbor feelings for—her closest friend, James—has made it perfectly clear he views her as just that: a friend. With James traveling half a world away and Nora's father pressuring her to marry for wealth and status, Nora is forced to set aside her desire for love and accept the future she has always dreaded.
Until James returns unexpectedly and Nora's feelings once again rush unbearably close to the surface. Determined to save what is left of their friendship, Nora ignores her own heart and allows herself to be swept up in the London Season, soon finding herself the object of two very different gentlemen's affections. Though she should be thrilled, both men come with a glaring fault: neither is the one man who holds her heart.
But there is much more at stake than heartbreak. When long-kept secrets are laid bare, Nora must face the fears that have plagued her all her life and decide what true love is worth.
Interview with Joanna Barker:
1. Will you use any of the characters in Secrets & Suitors for another book?
2. What do you hope readers will gain from this novel?
I hope readers will be able to relate to Nora’s struggles. Of all my heroines, she is probably the one I relate to the most, and I loved being able to create a story where she learned and grew from her experiences. A lot of Regency romances feature fiery, sharp, independent heroines (which I LOVE), but I wanted to write a character that spoke to readers in a different way. She has a quiet strength, and I hope you will love her.
3. If you could live in the regency time period, would you? Why or why not?
This is a tricky question, haha! I would LOVE to visit the Regency, but I don’t think I could quite bring myself to give up modern conveniences. If I had to choose, I think I’d rather relive the period by reading books and watching movies, and keep my hot showers and AC.
4. Since you write historical fiction, what is the most unusual thing you've come across in your research of the time period?
3. If you could live in the regency time period, would you? Why or why not?
This is a tricky question, haha! I would LOVE to visit the Regency, but I don’t think I could quite bring myself to give up modern conveniences. If I had to choose, I think I’d rather relive the period by reading books and watching movies, and keep my hot showers and AC.
4. Since you write historical fiction, what is the most unusual thing you've come across in your research of the time period?
While researching a certain scene for the ending of Secrets and Suitors, I came across the most hilarious event. Two Frenchmen in the 1830’s were said to have fought a duel using billiard balls! I can’t even imagine, but I sure laughed a lot when I read that.
5. Do you have any future books in the works? I would love a story about Ralph!
I’m currently working on a sequel to my debut novel, The Truth about Miss Ashbourne. This new book features Rebecca Rowley, the sister to the hero of that story, and I am having so much fun with it! But one day I would so love to write a story for Ralph! He deserves his own happy ending, doesn’t he??
6. Was there something that inspired you to write Secrets and Suitors?
6. Was there something that inspired you to write Secrets and Suitors?
I wanted so badly to write a best friends love story, and I went through about eight different versions of this story before deciding on the plot. What finally helped me nail down the idea was hearing Ed Sheeran’s “Perfect” on the radio and realizing it described so perfectly the story I wanted to write. This song brought to life James Allen’s character, and if you listen to it after reading Secrets and Suitors, you might see how the chorus inspired the garden party scene J
7. When is your favorite time of day to write?
7. When is your favorite time of day to write?
When at all possible, I love to write in the afternoon! I am neither an early worm or a night owl, and so my brain functions better in the middle of the day. Unfortunately, that seems to be the time when my kids are determined to distract me the most, so I rarely get to write then. But early evening would be a close second, once the house gets quiet after bedtime.
8. Is there another genre of books that you would like to write about?
8. Is there another genre of books that you would like to write about?
I adore YA fantasy, and I have an idea that’s been itching at me for a while! It’s pretty far down the line, but I hope I get to it one day!
9. What is your favorite genre of book to read when you have the time?
10. What was an early experience where you learned that language had power?
Author Bio & website : www.authorjoannabarker.com
9. What is your favorite genre of book to read when you have the time?
This would probably have to be fairy tale
retellings! It doesn’t matter the specific genre, but if an author can twist a
familiar tale into something new and unique, I’m all in! My favorites are The
Lunar Chronicles, The Goose Girl, and Ella Enchanted. In fact, I love
retellings so much, I wrote a Regency retelling of Beauty and the Beast, titled
(appropriately, haha), Beauty and the Baron. It was so much fun I might have to
do it again one day!
I thought a lot about this question, so thank
you for asking it! When I was in fifth grade, I wrote my first—terrible—book. I
had a teacher I really loved, and so I showed the first few chapters to her.
After reading it, she asked if she could read the first chapter out loud to the
entire class! I said yes for some reason I really can’t remember, and was so
embarrassed when she actually did read it. But then she came up to me after and
told me she couldn’t wait until I finished because she was dying to read the
ending. It was the first glimpse that I had of the power of storytelling, even
though I’d been a reader all my life. The idea that my words could create an
emotional response in someone else? It was incredible, and I’ve never forgotten
that experience.
Joanna Barker was born and raised in northern California. She discovered her love for historical fiction after visiting England as an eleven-year-old, and subsequently read every Jane Austen book she could get her hands on. After graduating Brigham Young University with a degree in English, she worked as an acquisitions editor before devoting herself full-time to writing. She enjoys music, chocolate, and reading everything from romance to science fiction. She lives in Utah and is just a little crazy about her husband and two wild-but-loveable boys.
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