Category: Reviews From Dollycas’s Thoughts
Review: The Devil’s Puzzle by Clare O’Donohue
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Review: THE SHEPHERD by Ethan Cross
This review appeared over at my old blog Dollycas’s Thoughts on May 18, 2011. I gave it 5 stars! Publisher: Story Plant, The; Reprint edition (October 16, 2012) Paperback: 328 pages ISBN-13: 978-1611880557
Marcus Williams is a retired New York City Homicide Detective that has left New York to move to a farmhouse in Texas that was willed to him by his aunt. He made a choice to save others and due to that choice it was definitely time for a change. Small town life has a great appeal.
At the same time Francis Ackerman, Jr. makes a different choice. He chooses to inflict pain and suffering to as many people as possible and happens to arrive in Texas at exactly the same time as Marcus.
They both become very unwilling pawns in a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of our government. Marcus becomes involved in a “game” with a psychopathic serial killer and a vigilante group with unlimited resources. He must wrestle his own demons all the while trying to stop one of the most ruthless killers in the world while trying to figure out and expose a huge political conspiracy.
Hold on tight, this book is going to shake you to the core!!!
A Spellbinding, Enthralling, Mind-Bending, Riveting Thriller!!!! Look out James Patterson, Ethan Cross is giving you some fantastic competition. This is an excellent book but it will definitely give you nightmares and it will be a book you will be telling everyone about for a long time to come. The best thriller I have read this year!!!
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Alice Bliss by Laura Harrington Review and Q & A
This post appeared originally on Dollycas’s Thoughts June 5, 2011.
The paperback version is being released TODAY!!
Published byThe Penguin Group
Alice Bliss is truly a daddy’s girl, they garden together, she helps him on his handyman jobs, she idolizes him. She loves her mom and her sister but Alice and her dad, Matt, had a very special bond.
Then the news comes that his National Guard Reserve Unit is shipping out to Iraq and her world starts to crumble before her eyes. There is barely enough time to say goodbye and he is gone. The phone calls home are never long enough, the letters can’t come fast enough. Alice tries to keep her life the same as much as she can with her father gone. The biggest thing is planting the garden on time. Her mother, Angie, just can’t understand Alice’s dedication to that blasted garden and tries to put roadblocks in Alice’s way so that she can not get the planting done.
Life must go on without Matt and the family struggles to adjust to his absence. With the help of time, family and friends they may be able to make it.
Dollycas’s Thoughts
This story ripped at my heartstrings and pulled on my emotions. I went between being mad at Alice’s mom for not understanding what her daughter needed, to crying for Angie as she had to deal with the absence of her husband. Trying to understand both sides immersed me in this book in a way that very rarely happens.
This book will be one of those books that will last generations and will be read again and again like stories about the families who have survived the devastating losses after all the other wars in history. It will definitely stand the test of time. Beautiful strong storytelling that will touch everyone who reads it and will forever reinforce that the casualties of war are felt well beyond the battlefield and those in combat. It brings the war home in a strong, poignant way that will touch us all.

Now for some questions and answers about this
extraordinary book with Laura Harrington.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. Receiving a complimentary copy in no way reflected my review of this book. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
Review: Friendship Bread by Darien Gee
This review was originally posted at Dollycas’s Thoughts on April 17, 2011.
Ballantine Books
Available Now!
ISBN-10: 0345525345
ISBN-13: 978-0345525345
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Ballantine Books, I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
DEAD RECKONING by Caitlin Rother Virtual Blog Tour
This review was originally posted on my old blog, Dollycas Thoughts in March 2011 and made my best reads of 2011.
Tom and Jackie Hawks were living their dream, retired living on their boat, aptly named Well Deserved, sailing around Southern California and Mexico.
They had started to think about selling their boat when Skylar Deleon and his pregnant wife Jennifer offered cash to purchase the yacht. But the trial voyage was a total nightmare. Tom and Jackie pleaded for their lives as Skylar forced them to not only sign over the boat to him, but their home and bank accounts as well. Believing if they did what he asked their lives would be spared, but before the ink was even dry, the couple was duck taped together, had the ship’s heavy anchor tied around them and where thrown overboard – ALIVE!!!
This is just the first part of this tragic story. While on work furlough from jail Deleon kills another man and orders hits on 4 other people from prison, including a hit on his own father, who granted was not the best father in the world. The devotion shown to him my his wife is cult-like as is the effect he has on others he convinces to work with him.
Rother takes us step-by-step through the case, from Skylar Deleon’s past to evidence and interviews with Deleon through the several trials that take place and I am happy to report this criminal is sitting on death row.
This is not the type of book where my usual Rating System of little pictures is appropriate. The is real life, not fiction, and I can’t say I love this story. It is wonderfully well researched and well written and I love the author’s thoroughness as she has dealt with this horrific story. I did not see the reports on the various television shows but do remember reading in newspapers and seeing on the news tidbits about this case, but had forgotten all about it until I found myself lost in the pages of this book. Now these events will never leave my mind.
There are not enough adjectives to encompass this crime, chilling, frightening, intense, etc. just doesn’t cover the raw emotion I was left with after reading this book. My feelings do not just come from the horrendous acts but from the way Rother describes, writes, handles and makes the material grab your attention and won’t let go. Don’t be intimidated by the page count. Once you start this book, it will be virtually impossible to put down. It reads just like a fiction novel and sometimes you have to stop and remind yourself, “Hey, wait a minute, this really happened!”. This book is a MUST READ for any True Crime fan, but if you are like me, a fan of the fictional thriller and suspense novels, this book should also be at the top of your Books To Read list. You will become a fan of this author instantly!!
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Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author by Pump Up Your Book. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
About Caitlin Rother

Rother, a Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist, worked as an investigative reporter at daily newspapers for nineteen years before deciding to write books full-time. She is the founder of the San Diego Writing Women blog, and her work has been published in Cosmopolitan, the Los Angeles Times, The San Diego Union-Tribune, the Chicago Tribune, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The Daily Beast. She has appeared as a crime expert on E! Entertainment, the Oxygen Network, Investigation Discovery, Greta Van Susteren’s “On the Record,” and America at Night.” She also teaches journalism, narrative non-fiction and creative writing at UCSD Extension in San Diego. She is now working on The Makings of a Monster, the story of how John Gardner grew from a caring troubled boy into an angry man who couldn’t control his compulsions to rape and murder beloved teenagers Chelsea King and Amber Dubois.”
INDIA BLACK by Carol K. Carr
This post originally appeared at Dollycas’s Thoughts December 21, 2010.
A Berkley Prime Crime Mystery
A Division of Penguin Publishing
A Madam of Espionage Mystery
Release Date : January 4, 2011
ISBN-10: 0425238660
ISBN-13: 978-0425238660
Set in 1876, we are introduced to India Black, the madam of Lotus House, a London brothel, where gentleman of of very high rank in government and military are welcomed daily. Unfortunately one of the clients dies while with one of the “bints” and India needs to dispose of the body so that the reputation of Lotus House is not besmirched.
But this client is extremely well connected and had in his possession some information many people wanted and it disappeared while India was making plans to dump the body. As did the lady he was with when he died. This makes India Black the interest of many people both from the British government but also the Russian government as well. She agrees to go undercover for the “Brits” to try to recover the information and insure it does not fall into the wrong hands.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received these books free from Berkley Prime Crime, a Division of Penguin Publishing. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
India Black and the Widow of Windsor by Carol K. Carr
This review was originally posted on Dollycas’s Thoughts September 29, 2011.
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India Black and the Widow of Windsor
The Berkley Publishing Group
Published by The Penguin Group
A Madam of Espionage Mystery
Second book in the series.
Available October 4, 2011
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THE CAT, THE LADY AND THE LIAR by Leann Sweeney
This review was originally posted on Dollycas’s Thoughts January 22, 2011
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This cover is amazing!! |
An Obsidian Mystery
Division of Penguin Publishing
A Cat In Trouble Mystery
3rd book in the Series
Date of Release: April 5, 2011
- ISBN-10: 0451233026
- ISBN-13: 978-0451233028
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
The Cat, The Professor and The Poison by Leann Sweeney
This review was originally posted on Dollycas’s Thoughts April 7, 2010.
Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the author. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
THE CAT, THE QUILT AND THE CORPSE By Leann Sweeney
This post was originally posted at Dollycas’s Thoughts on January 11, 2010
I love cats, quilting was a former passion, and who doesn’t like a good mystery.
Leann Sweeney’s first book in her new Cats in Trouble series was truly enjoyable.The characters are realistic and relatable, the cats are truly stars in this book, and the plot is well thought out. The Cat Trivia within the story are little added gifts. (I did not know a group of kittens was call a “kindle”, I thought a kindle was the new electronic gadget for reading books.)
Jillian and John Hart move to Mercy, S.C. where everyone knows everything about everybody, or do they?
John dies all too soon and leaves Jillian with their three cats, Merlot, Chablis, and Syrah and her quilting business, knowing almost none of her neighbors. When she returns from an overnight business trip she finds her home has been broken into and one of her beloved cats is missing. After reporting the break-in and the missing cat, she knows the police are not going to be of any help to find her cat and realizes she must look for him herself. While searching for her cat she also finds a corpse, and her investigation is just beginning, not only is she going to meet her neighbors, she’s going to find out one of them is a murderer.
Don’t forget to check out Leann’s other series The Yellow Rose Mysteries and her website http://www.leannsweeney.com/.
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