Flashback Friday - Big Bad Beast by Shelly Laurenston

Big Bad Beast, Shelly Laurenston
Pride #6
When it comes to following her instincts, former Marine Dee-Ann Smith never holds back. And this deadly member of a shifter protection group will do anything to prove one of her own kind is having hybrids captured for dogfights. Trouble is, her too-cute rich-boy boss Ric Van Holtz insists on helping out. And his crazy-like-a-fox smarts and charming persistence are making it real hard for Dee to keep her heart safe...

Ric can't believe his luck. He's wanted this fiercely-independent she-wolf from day one, but he never expected teamwork as explosive as this. And now is his last chance to show Dee what she needs isn't some in-your-face Alpha male-but a wily, resourceful wolf who'll always have her back in a fight…and between the sheets.




REVIEW:
Dee-Ann Smith, former marine and resident bad-ass, doesn't really care what people think of her. She is quite anti-social for a pack animal and really doesn't like to feel "hemmed-in". Her work with The Group allows her to continue doing what she does best, and that is protect shifters, even if it's from other shifters. Still investigating the hybrid pit fights Dee-Ann is forced to play nice with the other members of a joint task force. She is also forced to put up with Ric Van Holtz, her supervisor, and his desire to always feed her.

Ric Van Holtz has been in love with Dee-Ann since the first time he saw her, but being a smart man he knows a full frontal assault will never work with her. But Ric is not your average wolf...he is a Van Holtz, and that means he is sneaky and patient and isn't afraid to use his fabulous culinary skills to get him what he wants.

While Dee-Ann, Dez and new comer to the series, Cella Malone try to put an end to the pit fights by following the money, Ric is following some money of his own. Unfortunately for him this money leads right to his Dad and the fact that he may be stealing from the pack. Neither trail is going to end happily, and one of them ends up someplace I never saw coming.

I have to say how glad I was that Ms. Laurenston stayed true to the personality traits that we saw in Dee-Ann in previous books. I was really afraid that we were going to get a kinder, softer Dee-Ann, like some other authors have done when writing the HEA (happily ever after) story of their tougher female characters. Dee-Ann was strong and abrasive but she also showed that she was there for Ric emotionally when he needed her. Ric may come across as a beta, but he was strong enough to get what he wanted. One thing that Ms. Laurenston does so well is include previous character's in all of her stories without it seeming contrived or weighing down the story. I loved the 4th of July party and how it brought everyone together again. I mean who doesn't love to see Bo with his lists, Lock dragging the Shaw brothers around by their heads, the wild dogs being wild dogs and Dez once again the only full human in the bunch more than holding her own. It was also a very nice surprise to read the cameos from Sara and Angelina. This book like all in this series had a lot of laugh out loud moments....at one point I woke my husband up I was laughing so loud. But it also has some very awwwww moments, the prologue in this book has to be one of my favorite parts. I can't wait to see where she takes us next....Rory Lee Reed, Cella Malone, Hannah, Stein or somewhere we weren't even looking. 

Prodigal by @tamoorewrites #BLOGTOUR

Prodigal, Dreamspinner Press
Release: Feb 13

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Prodigal-Lost-Found-Book-1-ebook/dp/B082FJ32PG

Dreamspinner Link: https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/prodigal-by-ta-moore-11519-b

 Fifteen years ago Sammy Calloway disappeared on his way home from school. Now he’s back… or is he?

Boyd Maccabbee has spent his life second-guessing his actions on that fateful day. What if he’d done something differently? Maybe Sammy would have made it home safe and never become Cutters Gap’s most tragic famous son. Or would it have been Boyd who was never seen again? When the police find new evidence on the disappearance, Boyd hopes to finally get some answers.

The last thing Morgan Graves needs is to be dragged into some old case about a missing kid. He doesn’t know why police hit on his DNA, but he’s not Sammy Calloway. He thinks he’d remember being kidnapped.

He knows he’d remember firefighter Boyd.

Drawn into the complex web of suspicion, grief, and anger that has knit Cutters Gap together in the years since Sammy’s disappearance, Morgan struggles to hang on to himself when everyone already assumes they know him.

And somewhere, the truth about Sammy Calloway is waiting.

First of all, thank you so much for having me! I’m thrilled to be here with my new release Prodigal, the first in the Lost and Found trilogy. Prodigal is set years after the disappearance of a child in Cutter’s Gap left the town, and the people left behind, shattered. In ‘Feet of Clay’ I revisit Cutter’s Gap in the years between Sammy Calloway’s disappearance and the start of Prodigal.

I hope you enjoy it

Three

Panic throbbed in the air as the rest of Cutter’s Gap PD lined drunk kids up in lines and tried to get them to answer simple questions and parents shouted angrily in the background. It popped at ear drums and prickled sweat in armpits as it pressured you to move faster, act now, worry about mistakes later.

Except mistakes always came home to roost sooner than you’d think.

“Lottie. You mean Charlotte Beresford?” Mac asked the sobbing girl with cropped, pixie pink hair. “The editor at the Dispatch’s kid?”

The girl wiped her drip-black eyes with the tissue he’d given her and then blew her nose. She nodded shakily. “Lottie.”

Mac didn’t know every teenager in town, but he knew most of them. He’d spent a lot of time at the school five years ago, followed up leads that ended at kitchen tables as he asked about Sammy or Shay. It was a shit super power, but it was what he had.

It helped that Lottie had kept herself fresh in his memory. She was fourteen and had run away last year, called for help from a suspicious hotel clerk’s office while her 50 year old boyfriend skipped the state. Six months ago she’d run away again and stabbed Kim—Patrol Officer Ford—with a fork when the search had caught her in the same guy’s car at a gas station.

“Beth. Bethie right?” Mac said. He snapped his fingers to get Bethie to focus on him. “Has she been talking to Leary again?”

Beth widened her eyes, lashes clumpy with tear sodden mascara, and retched violently. She clapped her hand over her mouth as she gagged, her shoulders hitched up to her ears as she turned to stagger away from him. The sound of her puking into an azaleas got the attention of one of the paramedics. He loped over to check her pupils with a desultory flash of his torch. She covered her eyes with both hands and the paramedic shrugged apologetically at Mac as she led Beth, who couldn’t quite decide if she wanted to sob or puke, away.

“Lieutenant MacKenzie, what the hell happened?” Captain Brennan asked he stalked over. “How can a kid go missing in front of one of my men?”

“She didn’t,” Mac said. He’d gotten that much from the other kids before the ambulance and half the shift arrived. “Nobody at the party has seen her for over an hour. This was just the first time that Beth, who was meant to be watching out for her, realised she’d not seen her for an hour. The last person seen with Lottie was…”

Mac trailed off and waved a hand reluctantly toward Shay, who perched on the back of the ambulance with his long legs trailing the ground. His feet were bare and studded with sharp bits of gravel and his head hung forward until his chin nearly touched his chest.

“The Calloway boy,” Brennan said. He pinched the bridge of his nose. “So damned if we do, damned if we don’t?”

It was one of the boys this time who suddenly doubled over and sprayed the ground with bile and puke. His eyes rolled back in his head and one of the medics had to run over with a basin tucked under one arm and catch him as he fell.

The sound of gravel sprayed out from under a car going to fast carried up the road to them.

“Same as always,” Mac said. “Let me talk to him?”

It was a nice car, a metallic navy Porsche splattered with mud all up around the wheels. A thin, man with a long, anxiously neurotic face tumbled out. His face was blotched red with worry under a prickle of shaved down ginger hair.

“Have you found her?” the man asked in a tightly pessimistic voice, as he expected the answer to be ‘yes, in bits’. “Lottie is only fifteen. What the hell was she doing at a party with a bunch of grown men?”

Mac faded into the background to let Brennan deal with the first parent. It was always the second parent that was hard-nosed, brittle. First parent on the scene just thought you needed to know what the kid looked like. Second one wanted to know why you needed to know, especially when she worked for the paper and already had a good idea of how bad it could be.

I mean, they all knew. Everyone in Cutter’s Gap had watched how bad it could be play out once already.

Author Bio:

TA Moore -

TA Moore is a Northern Irish writer of romantic suspense, urban fantasy, and contemporary romance novels. A childhood in a rural, seaside town fostered in her a suspicious nature, a love of mystery, and a streak of black humour a mile wide. As her grandmother always said, ‘she’d laugh at a bad thing that one’, mind you, that was the pot calling the kettle black. TA Moore studied History, Irish mythology, English at University, mostly because she has always loved a good story. She has worked as a journalist, a finance manager, and in the arts sectors before she finally gave in to a lifelong desire to write.

Coffee, Doc Marten boots, and good friends are the essential things in life. Spiders, mayo, and heels are to be avoided.

Website: www.tamoorewrites.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMoorewrites/

Twitter: @tamoorewrites

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Back in Black @Rhys_Ford #REVIEW #RELEASEDAY

Back in Black, Rhys Ford, Dreamspinner Press
McGinnis Investigations #1
There are eight million stories in the City of Angels but only one man can stumble upon the body of a former client while being chased by a pair of Dobermans and a deranged psycho dressed as a sheep.

That man is Cole McGinnis.

Since his last life-threatening case years ago, McGinnis has married the love of his life, Jae-Min Kim, consulted for the LAPD, and investigated cases as a private detective for hire. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the shocking discovery of a dead, grandmotherly woman at his feet and the cascade of murders that follows, even if he should have been used to it by now.

Now he’s back in the dark world of murder and intrigue where every bullet appears to have his name on it and every answer he digs up seems to only create more questions. Hired by the dead woman’s husband, McGinnis has to figure out who is behind the crime spree. As if the twisted case of a murdered grandmother isn’t complicated enough, Death is knocking on his door, and each time it opens, Death is wearing a new face, leaving McGinnis to wonder who he can actually trust.

Review:

Cole, Jae and the rest of the gang are back!

Some time has passed since we last visited with Cole and he is a married man, a consultant with the LAPD and an uncle, so you would think that he would have settled down and become more responsible....you would be wrong. 

I was very excited for this next chapter when I heard about it several months ago and I have to say that I wasn't disappointed. High octane and full throttle are just a few words to describe this book. Ford takes us back to the beginning all while keeping us firmly planted in the present, beautifully weaving characters from another series into this world seamlessly. 

While I love the mystery and crime of the story, my favorite parts are the personal connections and the glimpses of home and family that we get. This author could teach a master class on balance in story telling. 

If you were a fan of the original series you will love this reboot. I for one can't wait to see where Cole takes us next!

Back in Black by @Rhys_Ford

Hello! And thank you for joining the Back in Black Blog Tour! My name is Rhys Ford and I will be your guide through this serialized short story featuring Cole McGinnis and his trip to the altar. Hit each blog stop for the next bit of the story AND as a special bonus, Greg Tremblay has narrated each “slice of cake” on this wedding tour! 

As some of you know, Cole McGinnis is a former LAPD detective who found love again in a romance suspense series called the Cole McGinnis Mysteries or as I call it, the Dirty Series. It is there he meets and falls in love with Kim Jae-Min, a Korean photographer with a few secrets of his own and a tiny black cat with an attitude. I left Cole and Jae in quite a happy place five years ago in Los Angeles with a promise to come back and “reboot” Cole’s life in a mystery series. 

(You can find the first series here at Dreamspinner Press, including a special free bonus collection of shorts in both ebook and audiobook format) 

https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/cole-mcginnis-mysteries-6335-s


If you’ve already met Cole, well then I am happy to announce he’s back and well, while things are a little bit different… and he’s a hair older… his life is still as insanely jam-packed with action and more than few mysteries to figure out. All of the old gang is back along with a few new faces and I hope you all enjoy Back in Black as much as I enjoyed writing it.

And as if Cole wasn’t fun enough to write, Greg Tremblay is back as Cole McGinnis in the upcoming audiobook which is supposed to be out on Feb 13th! If you aren’t a part of my Facebook group or follow me on social media, please be sure to find me to learn about any future stuff. Because 2020 is going to be a hell of a lot of fun.

***WINNER*** Annette P***

Giveaway!

As always, there is a giveaway! Please comment with your email and follow this blog to enter to win a $25 Gift Certificate to the online store of your choice!















Nothing Else Matters: Part Five

Audio Snippet Link: https://rhysford.files.wordpress.com/2020/01/pt5_bib_wedding.mp3

“That’s a lot of coin for a bit of mirrors and plastic.” Bobby’s grumbling hadn’t stopped since I’d begged the shop owner to open up for a few minutes so I could pick up the special order I’d placed nearly two months ago. “I mean, how many cameras does the guy need? And why didn’t he get it for himself? You’re swimming in money.”

There was no explaining the distinction between equipment to Dawson. He found things he liked and stuck with them, changing up only when something caught his eye and needs. It was something he and Ichi shared. Their love of loud, teeth-rattling motorcycles and hedonism drew them together. They loved to push themselves to the edge of things, thrilling in the free-fall of an uncontrolled roller coaster drop and laughing maniacally when they survived the experience to come out the other side. I hadn’t seen it in the beginning, blinded more by the confusion of two people I held in my heart as brothers hooking up and then marrying.

All told, it was a perplexing time until I took a really good hard look at who they were and what they meant to one another.

And damn it, the bastards fit.

“Because Jae won’t spend any money he didn’t earn on his photography equipment. It’s a thing for him and I don’t push.” Like comprehending how Bobby and Ichi worked, it’d taken me a bit to understand why Jae refused to splurge and buy anything he wanted, even as I encouraged him to do so. It wasn’t pride, per se but a dignity. He wanted to carve his own path into any mountain standing in his way and the best thing I could do for him was to respect that. “It’s his, dude. But special occasions mean I can sneak a few things into his kit bag and since our wedding happens to hit just as this stuff dropped into the market, I can excuse it as a present.”

“Yeah, maybe he’ll do the same and get you a Kevlar vest,” Bobby chortled, laughing harder when I flipped him off. “Or pajamas. That’s something you need. Bullet-proof jammies. The kind with the feet on them.”

“I can’t believe Ichi fell in love with you.” It was a common refrain, usually one I reserved for when I didn’t have a comeback. “Someone must have dropped him on his head or something. That’s the only thing that makes sense.”

“He married me because we…” Bobby trailed off, his knuckles going white as he gripped the truck’s steering wheel. His gaze softened, staring out over a sea of bumper-to-bumper cars wending their way through the freeway’s afternoon traffic. “First time I got married, I thought I was doing the right thing, you know? Marrying a woman would make a man out of me. I’d forget how much I wanted to bury myself into some twinkling eyed pretty boy and live the American dream, complete with the kid, a dog and that white picket fence. I made everyone around me miserable. Hell, I was a miserable asshole myself and that twinkling eyed pretty boy just became more alluring because I couldn’t have him. So I cheated… on my wife, on myself, hell on every bit of my life until I broke everything I had.

“This time around, I wasn’t looking for a happily ever after. You know me, Princess. Last thing I wanted was to wake up next to the same guy for the rest of my life and then, bam!” He smacked the dashboard, a hard solid thwack with his flattened hand. “There was Ichiro, daring me to be better. Daring me to be someone he’d take home and keep. All of a sudden, it seemed like life was too damned short and every minute I spent without him was like liquid gold slipping out from between my fingers. That’s how you know when you’re in love, kid. When in the middle of a freaking argument about a couch, you realize it doesn’t really matter if the damned thing is brown leather or black suede, you just want to have the damned couch so you can sit on it together and not waste any of those minutes you’ve been given.”

“Notice the couch is brown leather, though,” I remarked, pointedly ignoring the misty gleam in his eyes.

“Yeah well, he pointed out that it’s easier to wipe off after a long night,” Bobby said with a leer. “And if there’s one thing I really love about your baby brother, it’s that he’s practical as hell.” 

                                                         Back in Black

McGinnis Investigations #1
There are eight million stories in the City of Angels but only one man can stumble upon the body of a former client while being chased by a pair of Dobermans and a deranged psycho dressed as a sheep.

That man is Cole McGinnis.

Since his last life-threatening case years ago, McGinnis has married the love of his life, Jae-Min Kim, consulted for the LAPD, and investigated cases as a private detective for hire. Yet nothing could have prepared him for the shocking discovery of a dead, grandmotherly woman at his feet and the cascade of murders that follows, even if he should have been used to it by now.

Now he’s back in the dark world of murder and intrigue where every bullet appears to have his name on it and every answer he digs up seems to only create more questions. Hired by the dead woman’s husband, McGinnis has to figure out who is behind the crime spree. As if the twisted case of a murdered grandmother isn’t complicated enough, Death is knocking on his door, and each time it opens, Death is wearing a new face, leaving McGinnis to wonder who he can actually trust.


Purchase Back in Black at Dreamspinner, Amazon (Globally) and other online book stores:

Dreamspinner Press (https://www.dreamspinnerpress.com/books/back-in-black-by-rhys-ford-11514-b)

Amazon (https://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-McGinnis-Investigations-Book-ebook/dp/B07YZLRMPG)

Back in Black Audiobook can be preordered here: https://www.amazon.com/Back-Black-McGinnis-Investigations-Book-ebook/dp/B07YZLRMPG





About Rhys Ford

Rhys Ford is an award-winning author with several long-running LGBT+ mystery, thriller, paranormal, and urban fantasy series and is a two-time LAMBDA finalist with her Murder and Mayhem novels. She is also a 2017 Gold and Silver Medal winner in the Florida Authors and Publishers President’s Book Awards for her novels Ink and Shadows and Hanging the Stars. She is published by Dreamspinner Press and DSP Publications.

She’s also quite skeptical about bios without a dash of something personal and really, who doesn’t mention their cats, dog and cars in a bio? She shares the house with Harley, a grey tuxedo with a flower on her face, Badger, a disgruntled alley cat who isn’t sure living inside is a step up the social ladder as well as a ginger cairn terrorist named Gus. Rhys is also enslaved to the upkeep a 1979 Pontiac Firebird and enjoys murdering make-believe people.

Rhys can be found at the following locations:
Blog: www.rhysford.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/rhys.ford.author
Facebook Group: Coffee, Cats, and Murder: https://www.facebook.com/groups/635660536617002/
Twitter: @Rhys_Ford


For more information and to keep track of his upcoming releases, visit Greg Tremblay at: https://gregtremblay.com/