Monday, May 26, 2014

Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens - Stealing the Moon & Stars - Review & Giveaway



About the Book

Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino, Scottsdale private eyes, are hired to find out who’s stealing from the Moon and Stars Children’s Foundation. Foundation employees are suspected, but just as the pieces start falling into place, Jordan discovers a hidden agenda that puts her in the crosshairs of a crime lord. Who can she trust?

Everyone has a dangerous secret, and the bodies are piling up. Even her partner, Eddie Marino, has a dark and mysterious past. Does she dare act on their attraction? Will it destroy their partnership?

The two have landed in a hornets’ nest. Nothing to do now but stir it up.

Book one in a new series featuring Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino.



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My Review

Jordan Welsh is one of those women who seem to have it all. She doesn't have to worry about money because she has a hefty trust fund. She doesn't have to work a mundane, nine to five job because she owns her own private investigating company. She doesn't have to worry about cleaning her house or cooking her meals because she has a sweetheart of a housekeeper to take care of her. But best of all, she doesn't have to worry about finding a man who makes her heart go pitter patter because her business partner, the oh so sexy Eddie Marino can't get enough of her. Oh, to be Jordan Welsh for a day!

But things aren't all rosy for our heroine. She's assaulted by a criminal thug until she's left sprawled on the pavement. She's nearly blown up by a car bomb. She almost becomes roadkill when a hit and run driver runs over and kills the person standing next to her. Yeah, being a PI isn't all that glamorous after all. It's about working a case until all hours of the night. It's about putting yourself in all kinds of danger. It's about depending on the one guy who can make everything right.

And Eddie sure is Jordan's weakness. He has ties to the mob. He's been in the army. He's done things he isn't proud of. But she can't resist her attraction to him. He's used to getting what he wants from women and she is well aware of that. She doesn't want to ruin their business relationship by getting involved with him, but he's just the kind of guy she's looking for. Someone willing to protect her against all odds. He wants her body, mind and soul and he won't stop until she gives herself to him completely.

Smith & Steffens have a knack for proving that appearances can be deceiving. To the outside world, Jordan might come across as a pampered princess, but the authors open up all different sides to her personality, showing how much she wants her independence from her family's money and their interference in her life. She's striving to make it on her own merits, and you can't help but admire her for that. She's gutsy, willing to do whatever it takes to nail the bad guys, no matter what they try to do to her. She's not afraid to plunge headfirst into the fray.

Eddie seems like he'd be the egotistical playboy, stringing women along for his own amusement, but buried beneath his macho persona is a real sweetheart. He cares about the women in his life from his mother to his sister to Jordan. He feels it's his duty to look after them. He'd do anything for them. He's devoted and loyal, and more of a one-woman man than you'd expect at first glance. He wants to commit to Jordan a hundred percent, but she's not as sure about them as he is. She wants him, she just doesn't know if she can handle him.

Their romance certainly had my heart pounding, and I can't wait to see how their relationship evolves in book two, especially since Jordan's left wondering if he's being completely honest with her about his actions. But throwing more obstacles in their way only seems to bring these two closer together. Do I think Smith & Steffens will have them work through their differences? As Eddie would say, no problem-o.

***

Stealing the Moon and Stars can be purchased at:
Amazon

Price/Format: $13.95 paperback
Pages: 242
Genre: Romance, Suspense
Release: May 15, 2014
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819831
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Authors

Arizona native Sally J. Smith lives in Scottsdale with her husband. The rarest of breeds, an adult who was born in Arizona, she has been a writer since she could spell. These days she stays busy at her chosen professions of writing (novels, short stories, and articles) and freelance editing. When a free moment appears on the horizon, she’s out the door to a attend a play, a movie, a concert, or just take a long walk in the desert—if the temperature’s under a hundred. Other works include The Ghost Wore Polyester.

Jean Steffens also lives in Scottsdale with her family. She’s a mother, reader, movie fan, and the Steffens’ family chauffeur. She’s also active in church activities. Like Jordan Welsh, PI, Jean grew up in Chicago near Lake Forest. Jean’s mother, however, was nurturing—baking cookies, carpooling kids to school, kissing boo-boos—unlike Jordan’s mother, who’s allergic to the kitchen and thinks a carpool is a hot tub in a limo. Jean’s published work includes “The Night Before Christmas” in the Desert Sleuths Sisters in Crime Anthology, How Not to Survive the Holidays.

Work sessions between these two ladies generally result in a lot of laughter, noshing, and Internet surfing. Both authors are members of Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Links to connect with Sally and Jean:
Web Site
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
YouTube
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

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Monday, May 19, 2014

Luca Pesaro - Zero Alternative - Review & Giveaway



About the Book

“Sometimes you must destroy first.”

To stay alive, Scott Walker must bring down a corrupt international bank. And possibly shatter the world’s economy. Because finance is a black hole ready to chew up countries and people before spitting them out rich, or broken. Or both.

Framed. Hunted. In love with a woman he can’t trust. As he hides from hitmen across Europe, Walker has only one card to play – DeepShare. A silicon oracle that could predict a slice of the future, and that everyone wants. Governments and insane billionaires, criminals and anarchist hackers stand in his way, some even promising help – though with dangerous strings attached.

As Walker struggles to survive and digs deeper into the dark heart of the global economy, one question torments him: how much will the world have to pay?

Zero Alternative is an action-packed conspiracy thriller that plucks at the heart of human nature. When our grip on love, hope and morality starts to slide, the only future worth living is the one we choose for ourselves.


Video Trailer



My Review

I think most people would agree stock traders aren't the most likable characters on the planet. After the mortgage and credit crisis of 2008, many hardworking individuals lost their homes and their retirement savings due to a marketplace that had little to no regulations in place. People were being approved for loans that banks knew they couldn't pay back.

In ZERO ALTERNATIVE, Scott Walker knows all of this, and it makes him even more jaded than he already is. He's a hot shot investment banker who worked his way up through the trenches. At thirty-six, he's in the prime of his career and arrogant to a fault. No one plays the market like he does. He takes chances when others hold back. He gambles on what's going to happen before it does. He doesn't have a crystal ball at his disposal to predict the future, but he has something darn close. A technological marvel called DeepShare that pieces together current headlines and matches them up with past events all in the blink of an eye.

But Scott isn't the computer geek behind the operation. His friend and colleague, DM is. So when DM turns up murdered, Scott's alpha dog lifestyle goes into a tailspin. He's no longer in control of what happens to him. He's unable to micromanage all the tiny details of a every transaction. Instead, he's forced into existing day to day by the seat of his pants. He's not padding his bottom line anymore. He's fighting for his very existence.

But Scott's a sucker for the ladies, the more exotic looking the better. So when a savvy senorita named Layla gives him a night he'll never forget, he's hooked. He knows that she's bad for him, but he can't help falling under her spell. For someone so meticulous about his business dealings, he lets things slide when it comes to his sex life. He has no idea who Layla is and what she's all about, but all he can think about is the curves of her body.

Allowing himself to be consumed by lust leads him into a trap. He thinks he knows who's after him, but really he has no idea. There are forces at work here that are too large to imagine and too important to fail. He's in over his head, and there's no way he can course correct his approach this time. He's dealing with big fish in a small pond and he's the minnow ready to eaten. He's not used to being on the bottom of the pecking order, and it's a rough adjustment for him as he tries to figure out how to topple the hierarchy above him. But when he does, he's unstoppable.

Bottom line, mess with Scott Walker, and be willing to pay the price.

***

Zero Alternative can be purchased at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Formats: $5.99 ebook, $16.80 paperback
Pages: 269
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Release: April 25, 2014
Publisher: Three Hares Publishing
ISBN: 9781910153086
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Luca Pesaro was born in Italy in the early seventies, but has spent most of his adult life in the US or UK. After long years gaining a degree and masters in the pseudo-science that is Economics he got bored, jumped the gun and became a derivatives trader in financial markets with several investment banks. Now reformed, he is writing full-time.

Zero Alternative is his first novel, and he is hard at work on his second thriller.

He lives in London, is married to an awesome Italian lady and has two children who always manage to annoy, surprise and delight beyond any reasonable expectation.

Links to connect with Luca:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

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