Carries Book Reviews

Streets of Glass
Michelle D. Argyle
Publication date: May 1st 2017
Genres: New Adult, Suspense, Thriller

Eighteen year-old Starry is destined to take over her father’s powerful drug syndicate. But when she finds out he has kept her only sister a secret from her, she can’t trust him anymore. Furious, Starry vows to find Emma, even though she knows her defiance could lead to losing the position she’s worked so hard to inherit.But Emma isn’t quite the sister Starry hoped for. She’s a straight-laced good girl who wants nothing more than to take down the syndicate that destroyed her family. Starry, willing to do anything to secure her place in the syndicate, accepts her father’s ultimatum to kill Emma and everyone helping her. But the more Starry gets to know Emma, and the more secrets she uncovers, the more she questions whether the price of saving the syndicate is too high—even for someone as cold-blooded and vicious as Starry.

*Streets of Glass is considered clean New Adult/Upper YA fiction**

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EXCERPT:

“There’s something I have to tell you,” Jack said as they moved forward in the line.

Emma rocked on her feet as she shivered. It was colder out here than she’d thought it would be. “Okay.”

Jack stared at the ground. “Haven’t you wondered what I was really doing in the laundromat yesterday?”

“I guess I haven’t thought much about it since then. We had a whole conversation about it. You said—”

“I lied,” Jack interrupted, his eyes intense as he searched Emma’s face. “I don’t have a job at the drugstore. I needed to clean up, but I could have done that anywhere. I chose the laundromat restroom because you were there. I’m sorry I lied to you.” He looked down at the ground, guilt spreading across his face. “I was tailing you.”

Emma took a step backward, nearly bumping into the person behind her. “T–tailing me?” she whispered, hardly able to get the words out. “Why?”

There was nobody she could trust. Not one person. Maybe the police, but right here, right now, she was not safe.

Jack shoved his hands into his pockets. “My dad asked me to watch you and make sure you were okay. I was supposed to tell him if anything seemed wrong. He wouldn’t tell me why.”

Emma took another step back. The person behind her backed up too and gave her a dirty look. She looked over her shoulder, searching once again for Jack’s mysterious father. She didn’t want to meet him now. She needed to get home. Fast.

“I gotta go,” she mumbled, and turned to leave the line.

Jack grabbed her arm and let her go a second later. She wanted to run, but stopped herself when she caught the desperate pleading in Jack’s eyes. “Hear me out,” he said softly. “Please, just give me a few minutes to explain.”

Emma inched away from him. “You lied to me. After everything I’ve been through. You lied. How long have you been tailing me? What have you seen?” Her mind raced through all the scenarios of someone watching her. Had he been looking into her apartment windows from a telescope across the street? Why would his dad ask him to do something so creepy?

The more questions she came up with, the more hysterical she felt, until she finally realized she was all the way out of the ordering line and people were looking at her like she was nuts.

Jack left the line and walked calmly to her. “Dad asked me on Friday. I’ve only tailed you to the laundromat and kept an eye on your building’s front doors to see when you came and went. That’s it. All my dad said was to make sure you were safe.”

She shook her head. “It still doesn’t make sense,” she said loud and shrill enough to get more weird looks from most everybody in the line. “Why would your dad care about my safety? Did my dad ask him to do this?”

Jack locked eyes with her. “I honestly don’t know. It’s not the first time my dad’s asked me to tail someone for him. Usually it’s just to find out if some guy he’s working with is where he’s supposed to be. I know it sounds crazy I’d do things like that for him, but he’s my dad, and none of it’s been dangerous so far.” He looked down at his feet. “You’re the first girl he’s ever asked me to tail. He seems genuinely concerned for you.”

Emma folded her arms, hysteria giving way to anger. She could run away and tell the cops Jack and his father were drug-dealing stalkers, or she could stay and maybe get some answers about who her father really was and why he’d been living a lie for who knew how long. She looked around the brightly-lit sidewalk full of restaurant patrons and decided to stay.

Author Bio:

Michelle lives and writes in Utah, surrounded by the Rocky Mountains. She’s a foodie and also adores anything Star Wars related. She loves to read and write books in the time she grabs between her sword-wielding husband and energetic daughter. She believes a simple life is the best life. Michelle mainly writes contemporary upper YA fiction, but occasionally branches into other genres.

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Lone Wolf
Anne Marsh
(A Breed MC, #4)
Publication date: May 31st 2017
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Romance

A sexy new standalone shifter romance from New York Times Bestselling Author Anne Marsh…

I don’t play well with other wolves. The pack needs muscle, and I provide it as their enforcer. My biker name is Gator—after the alligator that chewed my face up. Sure I can make a woman scream with pleasure, but the scars on my face? That’s truth in advertising right there. There’s not an ounce of pretty in me. I fight, I ride—and I do it alone. So chasing the gorgeous marine biologist who wanders into my bayou hunting for wolves is not my smartest move. She’s Beauty. I’m the Beast. That story’s already been told and life’s fresh out of happy endings.

LONE WOLF is a sexy standalone werewolf shifter romance with more than its fair share of humor, dirty sex, and alpha males who fall in love hard.

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Author Bio:

Anne Marsh is the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of more thirty romances. She loves stories about tough guys with marshmallow interiors, protective alphas, and men who live for the women they love. Because you can never have too much of a good thing (hot alpha males… we’re looking at you!), she writes about werewolf Alphas, Viking werebears, US Navy SEALs, and really smoking hot firefighters.

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For the Love of Katie by Erica Lucke Dean
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Katie Maxwell is newly married when her husband’s job takes them on a trip to Europe where she finds herself returning to her sleuthing ways when the project is surrounded in secrecy. Unfortunately Katie’s amateur detective work lands her in hot water and forces her to try to talk her way out of a Parisian jail cell.

When the French detective asks Katie to start at the beginning and what brought her to his city and the unfortunate circumstances Katie couldn’t help but tell the tale of what led up to her wedding and time in the city. Katie had been ready to give up her sleuthing on the days leading to her wedding but she just couldn’t help herself taking her on the overseas adventure.

For the Love of Katie is the second book in the Katie Chronicles. While this is the second book in the series and we did meet Katie and her husband in the first I do believe if one wanted to read just this adventure it would still read OK by itself. You get to know Katie and her quirky personality along with all the other characters quite well in just this edition.

For me with this installment of the story I found myself beginning to question Katie and her constant worry over her relationship. At some point Katie will need to trust her partner or the relationship will be doomed but Katie’s antics also lead to some hilarious adventures so I also can’t see reading her story without them. As with the first book I found myself laughing quite often and just loving the story but hopefully Katie’s brush with a jail cell with calm her trust issues in her relationship in the future.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

It’s Always the Husband by Michele Campbell
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny met in college when the three were paired together as roommates. The girls were as different as different can be but despite that they still formed a bond that has lasted into their adult lives. Bonded together all those years ago the trio could best be described as having a love hate relationship between them much of the time.

Now twenty years later the trio finds themselves back in the same town yet again with one of them standing on the edge of a bridge and someone else urging her to jump. Just how did things go this far and end up where it has? What secrets did the girls share that brought them to this place in there lives?

It’s Always the Husband is told switching the timeline back and forth between Kate, Aubrey, and Jenny meeting back in college and how their friendship forms along with what the girls endured during those years and now in the present with them coming back together. The three of them couldn’t be any more different from one another with one being the spoiled rich girl, one the local townie and then the other coming from a rough family background.

The story is one that I was on the fence throughout reading this book as to whether I was enjoying it or not. Quite honestly I never did really care for any of the three main characters at any point during the read, they’ve all got their issues and weren’t really appealing to me at all. There’s also some other issues like a sheriff that wasn’t a bit realistic and a few other things here and there I didn’t care for either. But that being said the story did rather engage me wanting to know was it the husband? Or even just what had happened in the past and present before it was revealed so I decided to rate this one right down the middle since I was still interested in answers while reading.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

The Devil’s Whisper
T.H. Moore
Publication date: May 1st 2017
Genres: Adult, Dystopian, Suspense

Take a moment and imagine your history books devoid of war. Envision entire civilizations absent of heinous crimes against humanity. A planet spared from the plagues of slavery, cultural genocides, and the colonization of indigenous nations by foreigners. Would you dare make the choices necessary to maintain this Utopia in which universal peace existed? Could you ignore the Devil whispering in your ear, luring you away from a world in which loving your fellow man was the expectation, not the exception?

In a state of reverie, an impractical idea of world peace has given birth to a culture in which the human race has chosen to live free of violent criminals. Instead, criminals have been systematically exiled to the lone prison city, Katingal, constructed in a far corner of Earth. Sentenced for the remainder of their natural lives, the wicked pit themselves against their soulless brethren. Exposure, disease, and starvation claim their victims daily. Those who survive nature’s wrath negotiate the perils of the prison city through murder and cannibalism. All the while, this inimitable death sentence satisfies civilization’s aim to punish the world’s irretrievable outcasts.

Charles “Yäbälay” Gravo is the criminal mastermind behind the world’s largest human trafficking network. As a prime most-wanted fugitive, he sets into motion events that will forever alter the realities of both civilization’s Utopia and Katingal’s Hell.

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EXCERPT:

Though Charles felt relieved to have discovered Kristoff’s lair, he could see that the savage was surrounded by his men. Nevertheless, Charles surged ahead, his heart racing in tempo with his legs as he moved closer to his objective.

As Charles drew near, a commotion broke out on the balcony. The group of men were drinking, dancing, and fighting as if the balcony were a mosh pit. One reveler grabbed another, while a third man struck the unfortunate chap with a pipe. He buckled, and with one swift movement, the two men flung their victim from the balcony. His limp body fell twenty floors to the hard pavement below. Charles heard the thump when it hit, and the cheers from a group of men who had been waiting for it on the street.

“The king is offering sacrifices tonight,” one maniac on the balcony cheered, hooting down at the dead man sprawled on the pavement.

Charles quickened his pace, staying close to the edges of the road. He ducked into a nearby building and crouched down in a dark corner, using his hands to gather a pile of dirt. He took a mouthful of the water from his satchel and pushed it around his mouth to alleviate his thirst before releasing a thin, controlled stream onto the dirt pile. After mixing the water and dirt into a dark paste, he covered his pale face until all that remained visible were his green eyes.

As he continued his trek toward the epicenter of the city, Charles heard the faint symphony of suffering. Angry yells of men coming from the east and bloodcurdling screams of women pierced the night to the west. Moments later, he slid past a band of filthy men vying for ownership of a corpse like a pack of wolves.

Another ruckus was followed by another violent assault. Just like the one before him, the beaten man was thrown from the balcony. He screamed the entire way down while the maniacs rejoiced from above. Scavengers sprinted past Charles to the man’s broken body and started ripping him apart.

Kristoff’s acolytes leaned over the balcony railing and waved their arms in the air, chanting, “Kris-toff! Kris-toff! Kris-toff! The king of K-City!”

Charles was fifty yards from the barbed wire courtyard that secured the front entrance to the Apex building. Another scream of fear, followed by another thud, a pitched body, and the scurry of the scavengers. This time, Charles was close enough to hear bones snapping against the pavement. He took cover to avoid the scavengers, and waited while they butchered the latest sacrifice with their homemade weapons.

Charles darted along the side of the building until he spotted four men guarding the back doorway.

“Four offerings so far tonight,” one of the guards warned the other three. “Two more before it’s safe to go back up there.”

“You sound like a woman, Manta,” the smallest guard said.

“Fuck you, Hiro!” He laughed. “You look like a woman. Now give me some pussy, you dwarf!”

“Curse me again and I’ll take your tongue,” Hiro seethed, pulling a short knife from his belt.

The other three guards erupted into laughter. “You call that a knife?” said one. “The only thing that knife is good for is picking your rotting teeth.”

Author Bio:

T.H. Moore is a Southwest Philadelphia native who relocated to Camden, New Jersey at the age of ten. He’s an active member of Omega Psi Phi Fraternity, Inc., and earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Morgan State University. His career as an Information Technology Consultant and Real-Estate investor has afforded him the opportunity to travel to many countries all over the world as well as the majority of the United States. Blending experience with imagination helped formulate the basis of, and inspired him to write his first novel, ‘The End Justifies the Means’.

His second novel, The Devil’s Whisper, is uniquely creative fiction that ventures away from the inspiration of his own life experiences. In The Devil’s Whisper, he dives into a darker set of dual protagonists whose sole objective is to survive the circumstances of the world they live in. T.H. Moore is the proud father of one son, Jason, and currently resides in Virginia, where he is working on the next two installments of The Devil’s Whisper trilogy.

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