Bad Blood
by Pat Whitaker

Bad Blood is the first by Pat Whitaker. Usually with the first publication of a new writer you wonder if it is worth picking up and reading, well this one is well worth picking up. The author has penned a murder mystery like no other, it is written in present tense and contains a wealth of twist and turns. The author has the ability to draw you into the story and leaves you yearning for more.

The setting is England, and the author himself was born in England. He has the gift of vivid detail and the senses he arouses in you as you read is remarkable.

Upon finishing this one I was in awe and cannot wait to read future works from this author.

Beginner’s Greek

 

Beginner’s Greek
by:  James Collins

Holly and Peter meet on a flight from New York to Los Angeles and are immediately attracted to one another.  At some inner level, they each know they met their life mate.   This is an amusing chick lit romance in which one thing leads to another.  Peter loses her number and years later Holly marries Peter’s best friend, will Holly and Peter ever realize they belong together or is it too late. 

You will love the more surprising twists and turns in the lives of the various characters in this romance.  You will be amazed at the surprises that will pop up throughout and some unexpected happenings you will never see coming your way.

You will want to pick up a copy of “Beginner’s Greek” as this is an amusing romantic read and demands to be read.  No secrets or story lines revealed in this review, you will want to enjoy this one and discuss with your friends.  A very entertaining read.  And written by a male, so romance still can thrive where least expected from the male’s perspective.

Tallulah Falls
by Christine Fletcher
Reviewed by Terry South for Quality Book Reviews

Tallulah Falls is a story of Tallulah Addy and her friend Maeve and the touching story of finding out who you are. Tallulah is left behind when Maeve takes off for Florida, but soon gets a message of urgency from her friend wanting her to bring her notebooks. Tallulah being the friend she is she immediately sets out to fine Maeve. Tallulah asks Derek to drive her and everything begins to fall apart, he leaves her with her bag which thankfully still holds the notebooks she is delivering to Maeve. She is broke and left on the side of the road, she is arrested and tries calling Maeve who is not answering.

The local veterinarian’s office is her link to help, she has a job at the clinic, she is staying with Ruth the receptionist and has found a romantic spark with Kyle who also works there; all of this coming from her bringing an injured dog in.

Tallulah Falls is beautifully written and I can find no faults with this wonderful story. The story is engaging, entertaining, and a true spectacular read.

I absolutely have fallen in love with this story, and have added a great new author to my favorite’s list, I look forward to many more by Christine Fletcher. It has been a honor and a delight reading and reviewing such an excellent story, thank you Christine and please keep them coming.

Ghostwalk
by Rebeccca Scott
Reviewed by Terry South for Quality Book Reviews

Ghostwalk is Rebecca Scott’s debut novel which combines both fact and fiction.  Ghostwalk is set in present day and the 17th century Cambridge, that mixes a beautiful love story as well as a historical investigation.

The story begins as Elizabeth Vogelsang is found floating in the river just below her garden with a prisim in her hand.  Elizabeth was a Cambridge University historian, she was working on a manuscript involving Isaac Newton and the 17th century alchemists.  Elizabeth’s son recruits Lydia to move into Elizabeth’s place and into finishing his mothers book.  You will be amazed at the events that follow and at the discoveries Lydia makes along the way.

If you are looking for a thriller with romance, mystery, murder, and the supernatural this one will surely fill your desires.  I found this one to be beautifully written and it is apparent that the author has done her research.  I found that with Ghostwalk you must read with comprehension as it may leave you reading back through again to assure nothing was missed the first time.

Feels Like Family
by Sherryl Woods
MIRA Books
ISBN: 0-7783-2436-2
Reviewed by Terry South for Cata Romance

Helen Decatur has always set goals for her life and has achieved those goals; she made her way through law school, opened her own practice and is a highly respected matrimonial attorney in South Carolina. Now at the age of 42 she feels she has let life pass her by, now she wants a family and a child of her own. Helen has set back and watched her two best friends living with their husbands and their children and she desires the same life, but having seen so many devastating divorces she has held off till now.

Helen’s friend Dana Sue owns a restaurant and Erik is the pastry chef, Erik has a pain filled past and has avoided romance. There is a chemistry between Helen and Erik even amongst their arguments you can feel their romantic attraction. Will Helen and Erik unite? Or will Erik’s painful past prevent him from discovering a romantic spark with Helen? Will Helen have the family she so desires?

Feels Like Family is the third in the trilogy of The Sweet Magnolias. You will find some wonderful and interesting characters, love, romance, suspense and sexual tensions making this one difficult to put down. The plot is intriguing and fast paced, and this one is a fascinating and highly enjoyable read all while looking at some very realistic issues which face women in their late 30’s and early 40’s everyday.

I highly recommend picking up the trilogy of The Sweet Magnolias, I have not had the pleasure of reading the other two in this trilogy but found this one to be highly enjoyable and I will be picking up the first two in this trilogy.

5 stars

The Black Sheep

The Bone Whistle
by Eva Swan
Juno Books
ISBN 10: 0-8095-5792-4
ISBN 13:  978-0-8095-5792-9
208 pages,  $12.95
Fantasy – Romance
Reviewed by Terry South for Bookpleasures

The setting is Lakota reservation in Greenview, South Dakota.  Darly is a twenty year old and lives with her mother just outside of Denver.   Every summer she accompanies her mother to an isolated cabin on the edge of Lakota reservation in South Dakota.  This is no way for a college student to spend her summer vacation.

Darly is bored and has made the decision that this will be the last year she will accompany her mother to the reservation.  Darly likes seeing Grandpa Jack and this year he gives her a bone whistle that has two blue feathers attached, he tells Darly when she gets good and bored to blow the whistle.  She waits all of two weeks before blowing the whistle and learns the truth about her family and her father.  She had believed her father was dead, but he is not dead nor human, but is wanaghi.  Wanaghi are a shape changing people who left their tribes centuries before and now live in a magical land beneath the hill.

On the search for her father she is accompanied by Osni, but what she finds is a  conflict among the wanaghi.  Now she must choose her heart and feelings she has developed for Osni or her family.  Will Darly be able to resolve the conflict between them?  Before anything else she must discover own powers which puts her on a path of self-discovery.

Eva Swan combines both Native American and Celtic legends into a romantic fantasy.  The author takes us through the story by different character perspectives.  Her characters are believable and she maintains a good plot.  This is Eva Swans debut fantasy novel, the only problem I found was that as a reader you need to pay attention as the author has point of view changes into different characters perspective which can cause some confusion while reading.  I truly enjoyed the both the Native American and Celtic concepts she has incorporated into the story.

Eva Swan is the pseudonym for the author, editor, and artist, who is of Native American descent, who currently reside in
England.  I was unable to locate a website for the author to include with the review.

A New Forum for Authors and Readers

QBR (Quality Book Reviews) has just opened a new forum dedicated to and for authors as well as readers alike. I would like to invite everyone to drop by check it out and offer any suggestions to make this a better place for all. The new forum has a little of everything including a place where authors may drop in introduce yourselves, introduce your works, new releases, upcoming titles, and add links to your sites and blogs.

http://terrysouth.proboards83.com/

For readers we are developing a reading group, reading guides, open discussions, etc…

The forum categories added so far include:
General
Books & Novels
Bookshelves
Authors Place
Readers
Quality Book Reviews

Under each of the forum categories is a wide variety of sub-categories for everyone’s enjoyment.

We have also added a live chat and as we grow further would love to schedule live chats between authors and their readers.

We also would like to add to our schedule interviews with various authors to be placed on the forum as well as our site so that their readers can learn more about their favorite authors.

Thank you and I look forward to your comments and suggestions.

Terry

Quality Book Reviews

For A Few Demons More

by Kim Harrison

http://www.kimharrison.net

Harper Collins Publishers

http://www.harpercollins.com

Fiction   456 pages

ISBN:  978-0-06-078838-4  $21.95

Reviewed by Terry South for Quality Book Reviews

 

For A Few Demons More is the fifth installment in the Hollows series by Kim Harrison.

 

Rachel Morgan is a witch and freelance bounty hunter that is woken from her sleep to find a powerful demon wrecking her home and claiming she posses something of hers.  Rachel resides in a sanctified church and in disbelief and being scarred that the demon can enter the church.

 

Rachel is an interspecies consultant for the police force which is run by humans; she is called down to the morgue to look at the bodies of murdered werewolves.  Rachel starts piecing it all together and realizes the reason the women werewolves can not be traced is because they are not registered in the were registry.  What does this mean, the conclusion must be they were not born as werewolves; they must have been humans that had been changed into weres.

 

Rachel recognizes that the Focus, which is a demon artifact she has been hiding, has been turning humans into weres spontaneously.  If the artifact were to fall into the wrong hands it would start a new interspecies war between the vampires and the weres which would be disastrous for the entire world.

 

For A Few Demons More is an action packed fantasy delivering a mix of action, horror and imagination.  And some of her characters from the series are back in this edition.  Kim Harrison has introduced us to some intriguing and interesting new characters that hopefully will make appearances in future Hallows series.  I will have to give praise to the author for taking risks with her characters, and with the killing of one of her main characters. 

Harrison has intriguing plot twists and incorporates taking her characters in such amazing directions to leave you with much anticipation of the next in the series.

 

Readers will not be disappointed.  I look forward to reading all her novels for years to come.  Reviewing this title was a delightful pleasure.  I recommend it without hesitation and give it two thumbs way up.  A definite 5 stars!  I do highly recommend if you have not read the others in the Hallows series that you pick those up and start with the first in the series.

 

Bicycle Shop Murder
By Robert Burton Robinson
ISBN: 978-1-84685-611-2
Reviewed by: Terry South for Quality Book Reviews (03/07)

Are you looking for adventure, romance and murder? “Bicycle Shop Murder” has all of that. This is the first in the Greg Tenorly mystery series.

The book begins with the death of Sam Spokane, the bicycle shop owner, later in the book it is revealed that he only has a few months to live due to a recent diagnosis of prostate cancer, so why would someone want him dead now?

The setting is Coreyville, Texas, a small town where everyone knows everybody. Greg Tenorly is a divorced music teacher, leads the choir at church, and is a marriage counselor, it all starts when a beautiful red head by the name of Cynthia Blockerman, vice president at First State Bank comes to see Greg. Cynthia is in her late 20’s and is married to Troy Blockerman, she has come to see Greg as her marriage is in trouble, her husband drinks a lot, is abusive and she finds herself in a loveless marriage. Troy’s normal routine is coming home from work, drinking beer and watching TV until he passes out in the living room. Cynthia usually sleeps in the marital bed alone, which is completely fine with her as she is afraid of Troy especially when he has been drinking.

As the story continues, Greg Tenorly finds himself being called up for jury selection and is then picked and called upon to be a juror in the murder trial of Sam Spokane. Little does Greg know what troubles lay ahead for him? The troubles all begin when one Buford Bellowin a high powered attorney in Dallas wants the black man accused of murdering Sam Spokane found innocent. Greg and Cynthia are thrown together and both their lives are in danger, there have already been several other murders relating to the murder trial, a witness for the prosecution has had a terrible accident and died, one of the jurors is murdered, and the wife of the bicycle shop is murdered. Who is committing these murders and why? Who will be the next target?

Greg and Cynthia are starting to piece together the murders and who is committing them, they think maybe a hit man or maybe 2 different hit men, after driving to Dallas to see Buford. On the way back to Coreyville, they discover they are wanted for murder, and they have a killer after them, things are going from bad to worse. Will they be murder victims or will they be found guilty of murder? You will want to find out the answer to all these questions.

Although the book has a few errors and typos, it is very well written. The characters are believable and common people that you fell as if you know them. “Bicycle Shop Murder” has enough action and intrigue to keep you turning the pages. Robert Burton Robinson has done a wonderful job of bringing murder, mayhem and romance all into one book. I am anxiously awaiting the next one in the series.