BOOK REVIEW: THE KING TIDES BY JAMES SWAIN

Title: The King Tides
Author: James Swain
Genre: Mystery

Published on: August 1, 2018 by Thomas & Mercer

Reality and illusion blur in this Washington Post bestseller that Michael Connelly calls “a hundred percent adrenaline rush disguised as a detective novel.”

Nicki Pearl is the perfect daughter—every parent’s dream. And that of strangers, too. Wherever she goes, she’s being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing—their alarming obsession with Nicki.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex–Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help—his way. He’s spent most of his career dispatching creeps who get off on terrorizing the vulnerable. Unlicensed, and unrestricted, he plays dirty…But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents?

Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception. And the deeper he digs, the more he realizes that finding the truth won’t be easy. Because there’s more to this case than meets the eye.

 

I came across The King Tides while browsing the thriller section of the Kindle Store. The cover art caught my eye first. After reading the synopsis and checking the star ratings, I bought a copy. The King Tides is the first in a new series. The main protagonists are private investigator Jon Lancaster and FBI special agent Beth Daniels. It takes place mainly in Fort Lauderdale. The book starts right into the action, with Lancaster meeting a potential new client.

The new client is Dr. Nolan Pearl. He called Lancaster to look into strange events that started happening recently. Pearl researched Lancaster and found that not only is he an ex-Navy SEAL, he’s famous for the daring rescue of a young girl. Dr. Pearl fills Lancaster in on the details of his problem. Strange men have been stalking his daughter, Nicki. She’s only fifteen, and pretty much none of the men are younger than Lancaster. Pearl has no idea why they are so interested in Nicki. There have even been kidnapping attempts. Lancaster asks the requisite questions, like if the Pearls or their daughter have done anything to attract so much attention.

BOOK REVIEW: THE THIRTEENTH WORLD BY A.N. WILLIS

Title: The Thirteenth World
Author: A.N. Willis
Genre: Science Fiction, Young Adult

Published on: September 29, 2015 by Alloy Entertainment

Time is running out for Stel Alaster. The Corridor, the only portal between First and Second Earth, is failing and the barriers between all twelve worlds are thinning. Using her unique ability to travel through the multiverse, Stel sets out to save the Corridor . . . and ends up discovering a mysterious new world.

In the sequel to The Corridor, will the thirteenth world hold the key to the Corridor’s secrets? Or will the portal implode and take every last universe down with it?

 

 

After the last book ended in such a cliffhanger, I eagerly got a copy of The Thirteenth World. The protagonist is Estele “Stel” Alaster, an eighteen-year-old girl who can travel between parallel realities. Stel’s home, First Earth, hosts an inter-dimensional portal called the Corridor. It connects to Second Earth, a world that was ravaged when the Corridor opened. Dr. Samantha Tabor, Chair of the Corridor Facility on First Earth, has been after Stel since learning about her power. She thinks that Stel can fix the increasingly unstable Corridor. It threatens to unleash a new Pulse that could be worse than the one that hit Second Earth.

A stunning betrayal landed Stel in Dr. Tabor’s clutches. The former is now being held in the Facility. Dr. Tabor has been questioning Stel for weeks, and has gone as far as torturing her. Fortunately, an ally within the Facility helps Stel out. This person is Justin, Stel’s older brother. He is a recent deserter from the Corridor Guard. Justin is a very upstanding, by-the-book kind of person. That doesn’t keep him from protecting his loved ones, though. Together, Justin and Stel flee throughout the multiverse to join back up with their friends. The Corridor established that there are twelve Earths linked together somehow. Stel sent her group to one of them, Libra Earth, before Dr. Tabor captured her.

BOOK REVIEW: WICKED BEAUTIFUL BY J.T. GEISSINGER

Title: Wicked Beautiful

Author: J.T. Geissinger

Genre: Romance

Published on: December 1, 2015, self-published

Life coach and best-selling author Victoria Price has it all: a successful career, fabulous friends, a fantastic penthouse in Manhattan. What she doesn’t have—and doesn’t want—is a husband. Fifteen years ago her high school flame broke her heart so badly she swore she’d never love again.

Drop-dead sexy restauranteur and infamous playboy Parker Maxwell has only three rules for the women he dates: no questions about his past, no expectations for the future, and no spending the night. When he meets Victoria, however, he’s willing to break his own rules if it means sating the explosive desire she arouses in him. What he doesn’t know is that the alluring Victoria Price used to be the mousy Isabel Diaz, the girl he deflowered and dumped long ago.

Presented with a perfect opportunity for revenge, Victoria decides the game is on. But when her connection with Parker proves more than just skin deep, she has to make a choice: continue with her plan for payback, or risk her career, her reputation, and her heart by taking a second chance on love?

 

When it comes to romance novels, I tend to choose optimistic ones, like those by J.A. Redmerski or Samantha Young. I haven’t read anything like Wicked Beautiful, which is what drew me to it. The protagonist, Victoria Price, hates the romantic interest, Parker Maxwell, from the start. I found this intriguing (having read only one enemies-to-lovers romance before). This novel is written in the first-person POV. It lets you see how strong Victoria’s feelings are toward Parker. She recounts how Parker broke her heart several years ago. The experience made Victoria into what she is today.

Victoria is a famous celebrity who lives in New York. She made her fortune working as a life coach of sorts. Victoria’s fans are exclusively female. She’s known as the Queen B****. Victoria heads seminars where she teaches women how to own their power and to not let anyone take advantage of them or treat them wrong. Bitter much? You bet. As for Parker, he’s also wealthy in his own right. By this time, Parker is the owner of around 20 restaurants all over the country. Victoria encounters him again when visiting his newest restaurant with her friend Darcy. The latter’s a food blogger with formidable influence. To Victoria’s relief, Parker doesn’t recognize her. He does feel an intense attraction toward her, though.

BOOK REVIEW: BOUNDARY HAUNTED BY MELISSA F. OLSON

Title: Boundary Haunted

Author: Melissa F. Olson

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Published on: December 3, 2019 by 47North

Months after her battles in Wyoming, Allison “Lex” Luther is still struggling with the aftereffects of the psychic attack she suffered—and with the new developments in her own magic.

Then Lex’s boss, the cardinal vampire of Colorado, passes along a strange request from her counterpart in Atlanta. Hundreds of Civil War spirits have abruptly vanished in Beau Calhoun’s territory, and he wants Lex to figure out why. In exchange, Beau can help her understand boundary magic, which runs in his family line as well.

Despite her trepidation, Lex journeys to the Deep South, where she discovers that ghosts are everywhere…and that her host’s intentions are more complicated than he promised. It seems his teenage descendant is being hunted, and both Beau and Lex fear the young woman’s boundary blood may have made her a target.

With Atlanta’s history looming over her every move, Lex will have to face Beau’s ghosts—and her own—to prevent a boundary magic attack she never dreamed possible.

 

 

Here it is: the fifth (and hopefully not last) book in the Boundary Magic series. It takes place in Melissa F. Olson’s Old World stories. Boundary witch Allison “Lex” Luther is back for another adventure. This time it’s not Maven—her boss and the cardinal vampire of Colorado—who gives her an assignment. Lex is surprised to hear someone has requested her assistance. Maven got a call from Abner Calhoun, the cardinal vampire of Atlanta. He wants Lex to help him sort out a problem with ghosts in his city. Lex is apprehensive at first, though. In the previous book, she suffered a terrible psychic attack done with wraiths—the most wicked kind of ghosts. Since then, Lex has had a sort of phobia of them. Understandably, Lex isn't in a hurry to go to one of the most haunted cities in the country.

Lex hasn't told anyone about her issue, though. She mostly agrees to go to Atlanta to help Maven. The latter's been working to set up a countrywide government for the Old World. If Lex convinces Calhoun to lend his support, Maven's project will be one step closer to becoming reality. In preparation for this, Maven's also been teaching Lex about Old World politics. Calhoun is known for being rather...eccentric. Lex thinks Maven has a low opinion of him, but the latter denies this, claiming Calhoun's just unusual. The guy did earn a funny nickname, because he turned four of his buddies and dubbed them the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.