Cocky vampires, mythical swords, steady Glocks and ghost hordes. Welcome to my world.
The vampires just woke up from a 1000-year slumber. Before nap-time they buried their fortunes around the world. Now they want their hidden treasures back.
It’s my job to get to the relics first.
My partner Rebel and I need to track down and dig up hundreds of ancient items, and fast. They’re worth, well, whatever comes after quadrillions. Most of them also happen to pack nasty supernatural powers.
Our latest target is a sword with the power to destroy the world. We just have to get past the grumpy blood suckers, the biting ghost hordes and a particularly nasty wizard.
But who am I kidding? Sneaking around won’t work. Not when it comes to vampires. There’s really only one way this can end.
On the edge of a blade.
Uncaged Review: This is the first book in an established series, and it’s a pretty good start. I was on the fence for a while during the book, it had a lot of action, a lot of snark and some good characters – but it took some time to grow on me. What I really like, is the author takes mythical relics and figures and intertwines them throughout the book. I still have a lot of questions about Kane and his group – but I’m thinking it will come through in future installments.
This a non-stop action book and by the mid-point, it’s hard to put down. I like the strange group of characters and the original storyline. If you are a fan of urban fantasy, don’t give up on this book – keep going – it’s well worth the read. Reviewed by Cyrene
After a thousand years as enemies, their paths will cross again.
Hunter Wallace’s luck just went from bad to worse. Case in point? The immortal god she’s managed to avoid for centuries just became her only hope of survival.
Destined to a life of endless conflict, Tyr could never forget the fierce Scottish princess he left behind. But a thousand years hasn’t dimmed her hatred for him, and when she shows up on his doorstep, he discovers that flame still burns bright.
With her home reduced to ashes and a heart haunted by the past, Hunter’s only chance at revenge is to join forces with the immortal god whose life has been forever intertwined with hers. In a world rocked by war, Hunter must discover why Tyr’s greatest treachery was also his greatest gift.
Uncaged Review: In the fourth book in this series, we finally find out the back story of Tyr, and his very long history with Hunter. When Tyr saved Hunter’s life with an old spell, he put a piece of dark power inside of her unintentionally. Hunter has hated him for a thousand years. But what happens when the two are thrown together in this massive war against evil. When the Orubus finally attacks, Hunter throws herself between the evil and Tyr to save his life, knowing that she was forfeiting her own. But one more deal….
If you are an urban fantasy fan, or a romance fan, you will enjoy this series with the Norse gods fighting the evil. The edge-of-your-seat action and the all or nothing love between these warriors will win you over. I don’t recommend reading out of order because of the main story arc and the recurring characters. Reviewed by Cyrene
Sydney Barrows makes a living out of digging up the dead. When the world crashes down around her, she goes from digging up the dead to worrying about becoming one of them. But a strange thing happens to a witch who hides her powers.
They find their way back.
Locked away in a stone fortress, a band of immortal gods are the only beings capable of saving humanity. When Sydney and Mir’s paths collide, the sexy God of Wisdom awakens her powers in ways she didn’t dream possible. Together, they race against time to uncover the secret of Sydney’s past before it destroys everything she loves.
Uncaged Review: In the 3rd book of this series, we read about Mir and Sydney. Again, I still don’t recommend anyone read this series out of order. Even though each book centers around a specific couple, the overall story arc continues and keeping everything straight really does mean you should read them in order, you won’t be sorry.
The main arc is ramping up, and even though the title of this book gives away a spoiler on it’s own, just like Return of the King title gave away a part of the Lord of the Rings. But it’s a wild ride, and the action and tension is ramping with each book. There are some good revelations in this book, and a lot of answers – but there are always more questions, but the author keeps baiting the readers and giving us enough to stay afloat. The chemistry between Mir and Syd is spot on, and the god is going to have his hands full with this one. The plot thickens, and I went straight to book four. Reviewed by Cyrene
Uncaged: You are releasing the 2nd book in the Emmett Hardy Mystery series, called Butcherville. Can you tell readers more about this series? How many books are you planning for the series?
The Hardy series is set primarily in the fictional small rural town of Burr, Oklahoma, located in the also fictional Tilghman County in the western part of the state. The first book in the series, Where the Hurt Is, is placed in 1965. The events in the second book occur about a year-and-a-half later; the action moves a couple of miles north to an even smaller town, Butcherville, which is the title of the book.
Emmett Hardy is Burr’s chief of police. He’s Oklahoman to the core, a Burr native who feels a strong attachment to his hometown, but is also a bit of a misfit. His mother, an accomplished pianist, passed down to him her love of jazz and literature, which—in a place where football and country & western are kings—make Emmett a kind of an oddball. One thing he does have in common with the local male population is his fondness for strong drink, which becomes an issue over time.
The ‘60s were a time of cultural and political transition everywhere in the U.S., and the kinds of crimes Emmett confronts reflect those changes.
I’ve planned the first three books as a kind of narrative arc lasting from 1965 through 1967, but I intend to take Emmett at least into the ‘70s and beyond.
Uncaged: You are also a professional musician along with being an author. How do the two professions help/hinder each other?
The only hindrance is that when I’m doing one, I can’t do the other. I also teach music. It’s very structured; there are specific hours every day when that’s what I do. The rest of my time (outside of spending time with my family, which is my number one priority), I split between writing and making music. Maybe if I only did one or the other, I’d write more books or make more records. On the other hand, doing both is a great hedge against burn-out. If I get tired of doing one, I do the other. It’s a net positive, overall. The varied experiences feed my creativity.
Uncaged: What are you working on next that you can tell us about?
I’m about fifty pages into the third book in the series. The working title is A Very Bad Thing, but I expect that to change. It picks up where Butcherville leaves off by resolving—or maybe I should say addressing—an issue that’s left hanging at the end of that book. I can’t tell you what that is, but you’ll know after you read Butcherville.
The third book features many of the same characters from the first two, although some of their circumstances have changed, not least Emmett’s. It deals with a cold case—a very cold case—and how its effects are felt many years later. Hardy family secrets play a significant role. I don’t see it as an ending, but it will tie up some things, and hopefully provide insight on what made Emmett into the kind of man he is.
Read the rest of the interview in the issue below
Chris Kelsey was born in Maine and raised in Oklahoma, the son of a jazz saxophonist and school librarian. He was educated in public schools, received his Bachelor Degree in Music Education from the University of Central Oklahoma and his Masters in Music from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He moved to New York City in his mid 20s and embarked on a career in jazz. He’s played in many of the city’s top jazz venues and performed at major jazz festivals. He’s recorded approximately 20 albums as a leader, including 2013’s Chris Kelsey and What I Say: The Electric Miles Project, which won an Independent Music Award for Best Tribute Album.
Kelsey began his writing career as a music critic, working for most of the major jazz publications in the US, including Jazz Times, Jazziz, Cadence, The All Music Guide, and many other magazines and Web sites. His first novel, Where the Hurt Is, was published in 2018 by Black Rose Writing and won that year’s Pencraft Award for Best Fiction Book. His second novel, Butcherville, was published in January, 2020 by Black Rose Writing.
Kelsey currently lives in Dutchess County, NY, with his wife Lisa. In addition to writing and playing music, he’s Director of Instrumental Music at the Trinity-Pawling School.
Butcherville Chris Kelsey Historical Thriller/Crime
The residents of tiny Butcherville, Oklahoma love their God-given freedoms so much, they refuse to hire their own police force. When they need a cop, they just call Emmett Hardy, police chief of Burr, the closest neighboring town.
Whether it’s to break up a fight, dissuade an angry good ol’ boy from hunting rabbits with an M-16, or eject an unruly patron from Butcherville’s combination strip joint/bookstore, Emmett’s always glad to oblige … that is, until a local business owner’s lust for money and power results in a deadly shootout and multiple kidnappings. Suddenly, Emmett’s good intentions are fraught with dangerous consequences. Besieged by friend and foe alike, and sabotaged by a fondness for drink that’s starting to affect his work, Emmett is the last man standing between a community of honest people trying to do their best with what little they have, and an evil that threatens not only their jobs and homes, but their very lives.
Excerpt
Prologue
If I had to cite one quality that defines where I live (that would be Burr, Oklahoma, population 1,276—down from 1,280 after we sent two father & son pairs of miscreants to the state penitentiary in McAlester last year), it would be the natural inclination of my fellow citizens to do the direct opposite of anything a person in authority says, regardless of whether or not it’s in their best interests. President Lyndon Baines Johnson himself could drop a hint to one of our farmers that it would be a good idea to water his crops. More likely than not, the farmer’d flip LBJ the bird and piss all over his own soybeans or sorghum or whatever it is he grows just to be contrary. He might even invite over the neighbors and let them join in. Anyone who pretends to understand anything about us Oklahomans knows we can be mulish and self-reliant, sometimes ridiculously so. Nobody—and I mean nobody—tells an Okie what to do.
I reckon to an outsider, our nature might seem a little hypocritical, since, after all, if our ancestors hadn’t been willing to accept a government handout (or two or three), the state we know as Oklahoma might instead be called Sequoyah, and a majority of its citizens would comprise descendants of men named Geronimo and Standing Bear and Black Kettle.
That wouldn’t do at all.
Nah, this wonderful land of black gold and waving wheat and championship football teams was gifted to us on the cheap by the boys in Washington D.C. on behalf of the much-tread-upon and lied-to American Indian, and it cannot be convincingly argued otherwise.
Indeed, our representatives’ generosity didn’t end with the gift of pilfered real estate.
Back in the Dirty ‘30s, a good number of farmers swallowed their pride and accepted a share of Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal money, or what was left of it after the sitting governor got his cut. I don’t mean to suggest they weren’t right to take the cash. It hardly rained a drop for almost a decade and the wind didn’t stop blowing just because the ground was parched and turned to dust. Most of what few crops managed to poke through got eaten by grasshoppers and jackrabbits. Nah, those fellas accepted help because they had no choice. They had mouths to feed.
Lord Percival Bretagne is used to playing games. He survived being a spy for a decade using his wits alone. But that was just life and death, now he’s playing for the most important prize of all—love.
He’ll Stop at Nothing . . .
Ten years after his family gave him up for dead, British spy Lord Percival Bretagne is back home, but his mission is far from over. Playing the aristocrat in London gambling dens and at country house parties is just a cover for Percy’s real quest. He’s hunting the man who stole everything from him—his family, his marriage, even his identity. And this time nothing, and no one, will stand in his way.
She’ll Risk it All . . .
But one night with Isabel Galante changes everything. She’s willing to gamble a woman’s most intimate prize in order to save her imprisoned father, but she didn’t expect a devilishly handsome opponent with a dangerously attractive wicked streak. Isabel would do anything for her family, including betraying Percy, but she has no idea that she’s stumbled into the middle of a decade-long quest for revenge.
Who Will Win in the Game Called Love?
Percy has been betrayed before, and now the man who destroyed his life is using Isabel to strike again. With the fate of the government and his new life in the balance, he’ll have to keep Isabel seductively, scandalously close. They begin a passionate game of truth and lies, deception and dalliance, uncovering the heart of who they really are and realizing that winning might mean losing what matters the most—each other.
Uncaged Review: This is a well written suspenseful regency romance, and the main characters sizzle together. The chemistry is spot on. I wasn’t sure when I started this book that I would like the characters as much as I did. Lord Percival has been a spy and is looking to trap Montfort, the man that left him for dead. And Isabel, is trying to free her father from prison by doing Montfort’s bidding.
This well managed plot keeps you guessing as to which way it’s heading, but the reader will see the two fall in love long before they admit it themselves. Even though this book is part of series, it’s a standalone and complete story and it’s all rounded off with a bit of humor and a bit of sexy heat. Reviewed by Cyrene
Uncaged: Can you tell readers more about Arresting Mason? Is this planned on being a part of a series?
I originally wrote this book for a bad boy anthology call, but by the time I was done, I had exceeded the max word count and still wanted to add more scenes. So I forgot all about the anthology and kept revising this story until I was finally happy with it. It’s now book one in the Arresting Onyx series.
For how I came up with the plot, I must thank my subconscious since I dreamed about it. For days after, I kept thinking about the hero, the heroine, and her brother, and the characters wouldn’t leave me in peace until I wrote out a rough plotline. Though I changed quite a bit as I put the dream down on paper (or rather computer), the main premise remained the same.
Uncaged: You’ve also written in a few other genres including western romance and time travel. What inspires you to write in the different genres?
I love writing in subgenres that I enjoy reading. Most of my story ideas and plots come from my dreams, and those dreams are pretty wild and imaginative, taking place in various settings and time periods. In order to gear up for writing something a little different from my norm, which is romantic suspense, I read any book I can get my hands on that is in the subgenre I’m planning to write.
Uncaged: What are you working on now that you can tell us about?
The second installment in the Arresting Onyx series should hopefully be out in late 2020. Arresting Jeremiah follows hardnosed parole officer Jim Borden and his obsession Calista Barlow as they stick their noses where they don’t belong and fall deep into the trouble with the criminal organization known as Onyx.
I’m currently revising book three, Arresting Benjamin, which should hopefully be released in 2021 or later. This sexy, dirty-talking romantic suspense series spans five books with a standalone HEA for each rough-and-tumble hero and their spunky heroines. The first book, Arresting Mason, is already published.
Uncaged: Past or present, which authors would you love to sit and have lunch with and why?
Jane Austen. I would love to know her thoughts about feminism (how things have and have not changed from her time) and the differences between writing styles and grammar from her time and now.
I definitely admire her. A woman writing and becoming a published author back in the early 1800s was scandalous and almost unheard of.
Read the rest of the interview in the issue below
Amber Daulton is the author of the romantic-suspense series Arresting Onyx and several standalone novellas. Her books are published through The Wild Rose Press and Books to Go Now, and are available in ebook, print on demand, audio, and foreign language formats.
Amber lives in North Carolina with her husband and four demanding cats.
Once you’re in a prison gang, you’re in it for life. That’s what Mason Harding thought until the boss accepted his resignation. After the State releases him on parole, a sexy divorcée behind the wheel of a car almost ends his life quicker than a shank. His chance encounter with Mia Eddison results in a night of passion, but her brother—his parole officer—catches them together and doesn’t approve.
Mia falls hard for the cocky ex-con, but not because of his chiseled body. She vows to break through his walls and discover his secrets, but never expects those secrets to threaten her life. When members of an organized crime ring kidnap Mia to force Mason’s return to the gang, he goes up against an old friend to save the woman he loves. Will his sacrifice be enough or will everything fall apart in a blaze of gunfire?
Excerpt
Mia scowled at her brother as he headed up the stairwell, and she used her body to block his entrance into her home.
Jim didn’t seem to notice her tense body language and pushed her aside to enter. “Good morning.” He hugged her with one arm and frowned at the hardwoods. “There’s something sticky on the floor.” He scraped his shoes over it a few times and headed toward the kitchen. “What’s for breakfast?” “Why are you here?” Mia shut the door, grabbed the towel she’d left on the sofa, and used it to cover the evidence of her desire on the floor. The last thing she needed was for her brother to realize what that sticky substance was. Her gaze darted toward the telephone and answering machine combo in the living room and back to Jim as he picked up the pancake mix. The U-shaped kitchen occupied one half of the loft’s airy floor plan, and she could see into the kitchen through a gap between the upper and lower cabinets. “You know to call first. I don’t have any messages on the machine, and I doubt you called my cell phone.”
“I’m in the neighborhood to see a parolee for an unexpected visit—well, unexpected for him—but I thought I’d stop by to see you first.” Jim sat the box aside and opened the fridge door. “You have any more blueberry muffins?”
“No, you cleaned me out the last time you showed up unannounced.” She crossed her arms and glanced at the closed bedroom door. “Jim, you need to leave.” She’d rather shave her legs without aloe-infused shaving cream or live a whole month without a hairdryer than introduce her parole officer brother to her parolee—boyfriend, perhaps?—the day after the best sex of her life. Talk about awkward.
“What’s the rush? I haven’t seen you in a few days.” He grabbed an apple from the bowl on the counter and rubbed it on his polo shirt to shine the fruit before he sank his teeth in. “Why are you so uppity?”
“I’m in a bathrobe, Jim, and you’re irritating the crap out of me. I have plans today and need to get going.”
“I bought you that robe for Christmas last year. It’s nice to know you use it.” He glanced at the food on the marble countertop. “Looks to me like you were about to fix breakfast. Pancakes are fine since you’re out of muffins.”
He’s known as the Duke of Daring…but is he brave enough to take on one feisty spinster?
The Duke of Darlington is on a mission. He needs to protect his secret gaming hell from a group of debutantes who’ve stumbled upon his covert business. The problem… Miss Minerva Chase is not the average lady. From the moment his compatriots assign Daring to keep watch over the fiery redhead, she begins stirring trouble. Not only is her tongue sharper than any sword he’s faced but her lips are achingly soft while she tosses barb after barb in his direction. He’d like to throttle her, or kiss her, or perhaps protect the very spirit that drives him mad.
Minnie knows a pompous, arrogant, infuriating man when she meets one and she will not be intimidated. So what if he’s a duke with a secret? She won’t bend, not even when she realizes that he pushes her away because he’s been hurt before; a hurt she’s experienced herself. And she will not give in to his will, even when his kiss lights her body to flame. But when he needs her help… well, that’s a little more difficult for a girl to refuse.
The problem is that once she’s seen his softer side, she’s in jeopardy of succumbing to the Duke of Daring. When it comes to love, is she brave enough to give away her heart?
Uncaged Review: When I first started this book, I was absolutely positive that I wasn’t going to like Minnie at all. Too brash and too outspoken – I thought she was a bit too cynical and too easy to throw insults without the knowledge of the person she was going after – in this case Tag. But she did redeem herself very early on in the book, and she has easily jumped up on my list of characters that I’ve enjoyed.
When five ladies discover the men’s gaming hell, in order to keep their secret – each man who is part of the business is entrusted to watch over one of the ladies. Tag, The Duke of Daring has the daunting job of watching over Minerva, or Minnie. Sparks fly between the two the moment they meet, and it’s a great time watching it all come together. This is a shorter book, and easy to read in a day and I was hooked on finding out how everything was going to play out. I’m not going to give spoilers, but the book is a fun read and a new favorite from this author. Reviewed by Cyrene
Uncaged: Can you tell readers more about your Rise series?
The Rise series has been in my head for a long, long time in one form or another. I wrote as a teenager, completing my first ‘novel’ at around twelve or thirteen. Predictably, it was horrible. However, the seeds of my heroine, Sydney, are in that book. Like Syd, my first heroine was psychic and asked to take on way more responsibility than she’s ready for. If I’ve done my job right (write?) the Rise series is quick-paced, dark and gritty, sexy and keeps the reader guessing.
Uncaged: The third book in the series releases in 2020, how many books are planned for the series? Do people need to read them in order?
For myself, I’m a bit militaristic about reading a series in order, even if the books are standalone. So I’m going to say the best opportunity for maximum enjoyment comes from reading the books in order. There is a sequence of events in the series, building up as the story goes along. There are some bits of information that have been written into book one that haven’t fully come to fruition yet. But if you happened to pick up Curse of Ashes (book two) before Pledge of Ashes, it wouldn’t be the end of the world and you should be able to understand what’s happening.
As far as how many books are planned, I do have an idea how the series ends, but I’m not 100% on how many books it will take to get there.
Uncaged: What are you working on now that you can tell us about?
I’m editing Fallen From Ashes right now, book three in the Rise series. And if things go according to my master plan, I’ll be editing a fantasy romance which will go out on submission through my agency later in the year. I’d also love to draft book four of the Rise series this year. But the creative process can be less than linear sometimes, so we’ll see!
Uncaged: Past or present, which authors would you love to sit and have lunch with and why?
I love J.R. Ward. I’ve gone to several of her signings and she’d be a riot to talk with and learn from. I’m a big advocate for women and what we’re capable of, so I’d like to have time with some of the first and most significant women authors like Mary Wollstonecraft, Jane Austin, or Harriet Beecher Stowe.
Amy Sevan has been writing about angels, demons and other super natural stuff for a very long time. In the meantime, she’s bartended, taught piano lessons, earned her stockbroker’s license, and built a dog training business. The spirit of Detroit holds a certain forbidden magic she’s drawn to, so, she usually writes about those two things. Magic and Detroit.
She’s a member of Detroit Working Writers and Greater Detroit Romance Writers. Sarah Younger of the Nancy Yost Literary Agency represents her.
Amy has a supportive husband and a home with enough creatures shedding at any given moment to knit a blanket. If she knitted. Which she doesn’t.
There’s no twelve-step program for recovering psychics, but Detroit mechanic Sydney Hoven has been working hard on her supernatural sobriety. Too bad Hell didn’t get the memo. When Syd meets Devon on her first night back out, she doesn’t have to be psychic to see ‘really bad idea’ written all over his stunningly gorgeous face. He says an Archangel wants her protected. But why?
When one of Lucifer’s lieutenants is sent to kill Sydney, the demon might be too strong for even Devon and the angelic forces he represents. With no true allies, Syd must stand on her own, destroy the demon, and claim her power. Otherwise, staying supernaturally sober might just kill her.
~~ Pledge of Ashes is the first book in the Rise romantic urban fantasy series that features angels and demons, men who have no business looking that good, and a heroine who is learning to wield incredible power.
Excerpt
Detroit came alive under the cover of darkness. Noisy clubbers laughed raucously, ear-deadening bass pounded from cars with twenty-four-inch rims, and thick steam billowed from the sewer grates.
Syd slammed the door of her cab and glanced around. Damn straight she took someone else’s ride. Like she’d risk door dings on the GTO? That’s a firm no. The Dive, looking exactly as the name would imply, leered at her with its crumbling concrete and prison-style windows, the electronic music reverbing through her chest even as she stood outside. Her booted feet seemed content to plant themselves on the broken pavement, but she couldn’t stay out here forever. In seconds, the October chill had already worked through her cropped leather jacket.
Feeling the buzz in her back pocket, Syd pulled out her phone. Nina’s text was pleading. Still coming, right? I’m @ the bar. Syd stared a moment more and put the phone away.
So here she was. Attempting the friend thing. Syd rolled her shoulders. She closed her eyes and drew her mental wall around her, thick like a shield. If she were the praying type, now would be the time. Instead, she shook out her hands and willed her feet forward. The club’s scarred oak door was cold in her grip. She pulled and was assaulted by the beating sounds, alcoholic vapor, and the sensual movement of sex-about-to-happen on the dance floor.
Syd pushed forward, jostling as little as possible, but making slow progress nonetheless. A waitress with a skimpy outfit and bored expression split the crowd, and Syd made use of the trail she left.
A shiver of apprehension traveled through her, and she stalled, losing her path. People brushed at her from all sides, and her breath hitched. She double-checked the lock on her mind, defied the warning bells in her head. Syd wouldn’t stand up Nina for some weird psychic social anxiety. She’d said she’d go out, and she would. Step by step, inch by inch, her intuition, the part of herself she understood least, fought her.
She glanced down at her deep-red polished nails with a bit of grease around the edges that wouldn’t come out for anything. Man, she wished she had stayed in the garage with her GTO. The car was a puzzle. Parts had specific places, and when you put them back just right, wonderful things happened. You went fast. Sometimes fast enough to forget.
“It is observed that in any great endeavor, it is not enough for a person to depend solely on himself.” ~ Lakota Proverb
They called it a terrible glory and the last great battle for the American West. While the battle of the Little Bighorn was the last stand by Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer against the Lakota tribes, to Lily Sinclair it was the last stand between her old life and her new beginning.
After her in-laws squander away the family fortune, Lily and her husband, Alfred, head out west to the mountains of Montana, the only land available to poor people and far away from the debts haunting them. When a band of Cherokee warriors attacks their wagon train along the way, they kill her husband and take her captive, selling her to a Lakota tribe for the price of several horses.
Widowed Lakota warrior Tahatan has vowed never to take another bride after his wife’s death. However, he soon finds himself forced in a marriage with the outspoken, yellow-haired Yankee who challenges every thought in his head.
With Custer’s sights set on the hidden gold in the depths of the Black Hills, the Colonel begins his warpath on the tribe villages. Can Lily overcome the demons of her past and defend Tahatan and his people? Or will she betray them all for the actions against her dead husband?
Uncaged Review: Lily Sinclair travels with her husband, Alfred, from their home in Washington D.C. to the western frontier. Lily’s in-laws had squandered the family fortune, so Lily and George head to far-away Montana to start over. Along the way, Cherokee warriors attack the wagon train, kill Alfred and most of the travelers, and take Lily hostage, along with a couple of other women. She is traded to a Lakota tribe for a few horses. Tahatan is a Lakota warrior who tragically lost his wife. He is not happy when the tribe’s chief decrees he is to marry Lily. Over time, trust and eventually love, grows between Lily and Tahatan. Lily integrates into the Lakota tribe and learns their ways and culture. She might have successfully rebuilt her life had it not been for the arrival of Lieutenant Colonel George Armstrong Custer and the discovery of gold in Indian territory.
The first third of this story is Lily trying to find her place in a new world, making new relationships within the tribe and going from being a captive to a valued member of the Lakota people. The middle section is the tribe balancing on the cusp of war. The sweeping conclusion comes after a series of surprises and twists.
This book is researched history meeting literary twists. It earns a solid five stars for creativity and characterization. There were a few minor typos sprinkled throughout. The drawback was the dialogue between Lily and her Lakota family. While trappers had taught some tribe members English, the slang and phrases that the Native Americans understood and used was not believable. Ms. Archer has written wonderful Native American stories before, and the dialogue has always been believable until now. Beyond those issues, “Through the Eyes of a Captive” is an entertaining story about an emotionally strong woman that will keep readers flipping pages to see what happens to her next. Reviewed by Ryan Jo
Rand, Viscount Aylesford, needs a fiancée, and he needs one now. His requirements are concise: she must not embarrass him, and she must understand he has no intention of ever marrying her.
Miss Grace Winter is the most stubborn of the notorious Wicked Winters. When her brother decrees she must marry well, she is every bit as determined to avoid becoming a nobleman’s wife. She would never marry a lord, especially not one as arrogant and insufferable as Aylesford.
But pretending is another matter entirely. She has to admit the viscount’s idea of a feigned betrothal between them would not be without its merits. Until Aylesford kisses her, and to her dismay, she likes it.
Soon, their mutually beneficial pretense blossoms into something far more dangerous to both their hearts…
Uncaged Review: This shorter read is a whole lot of fun. The Winter’s sisters are not for the faint of heart – and their brother Dev, sure has his hands full. The sisters have in their possession, a set of books that have stories that they could never let their brother know they have, with the hot scenes and images. When Grace is caught reading one of the books, she becomes the target from Rand Aylesford, who needs a fiancée and he uses the book and his knowledge of Grace reading it to his advantage.
I won’t tell the outcome, or the story itself, but this is a fun afternoon interlude with a bit of humor and some steamy scenes to warm you up. The chemistry between the main characters is spot on and the sisters are a hoot. The more I read from this author, the higher on my list of favorite authors she goes. Reviewed by Cyrene
Chris Kelsey was born in Maine and raised in Oklahoma, the son of a jazz saxophonist and school librarian. He was educated in public schools, received his Bachelor Degree in Music Education from the University of Central Oklahoma and his Masters in Music from the University of Arkansas at Monticello. He moved to New York City in his mid 20s and embarked on a career in jazz. He’s played in many of the city’s top jazz venues and performed at major jazz festivals. He’s recorded approximately 20 albums as a leader, including 2013’s Chris Kelsey and What I Say: The Electric Miles Project, which won an Independent Music Award for Best Tribute Album.
Amber Daulton is the author of the romantic-suspense series Arresting Onyx and several standalone novellas. Her books are published through The Wild Rose Press and Books to Go Now, and are available in ebook, print on demand, audio, and foreign language formats.
Amy Sevan has been writing about angels, demons and other super natural stuff for a very long time. In the meantime, she’s bartended, taught piano lessons, earned her stockbroker’s license, and built a dog training business. The spirit of Detroit holds a certain forbidden magic she’s drawn to, so, she usually writes about those two things. Magic and Detroit.