Book Review: Rogue Sequence

Title:  Rogue Sequence

Author:  Zac Topping

Genre:  Technothriller

Series:  Ander Rade

Book in Series:  Book 1

Publisher:  Tor Books

Publication Date:  June 11, 2024

Pages:  342 pages

My Rating:  5 stars

Synopsis:

    Ander Rade us a syoer-soldier, a genetically engineered living weapon, and has been dutifully following orders since he gave himself to Scythe Industries Gene-Mod Programseveral years ago.  But when a miussion goes sideways, he's captured,imprisoned and forced into brutally violent fighting pits for the better part of the next decade, until agents from the Genetic Compliance Department of the Untied American Provinces appear in the visitors roo,m.

    Things have changed since Rade was captured.  Shortly after his incarceration, the World Unity Council banned human genetic engineering and deemed all modified individuals a threat to society.  Overnight, an entire subculture of people became outlaws simply existing.  But instead of leaving Rade locked behind bars, the GCD agents have come with an offer.  Freedom in exchange for his help tracking down one of his former teammates from that ill-fated mission all those years ago.

    It's an offer Rade can't refuse, but he soon realizes the situation is far more volatile then anyone had anticipated, and must take matters into his own hands as he tries to figure out whose side he's really on, and why?

My Thoughts:

    This was a really good book.  Rade has kind of been left out in the cold and captured and made to fight for his life in a prison.  Then the government decides that they need his help.  He is tasked with going after his former teammate.  

    Things get a little dicey and we see that things aren't what they seem.  

    This book was something that I have never read in this genre, but it was really good.  I am giving this four stars, due to the fact that I couldn't always understand the narrator.

About the Author:

    Zac Topping grew up in Eastern Connecticut and discovered a passion for writing early in life.  He is a veteran of the United States Army and has served two tours in Iraq, and is the author of the critically acclaimed novel, Wake of War.  He lives with his wife and dog ina quiet farm town and currently works as a career firefighter.

 

Book Review: The Devil's Fortress

Title: The Devil's Fortress

Author: Dale Brown

Series: Nick Flynn

Book in Series: 4

Genre:Mystery, Thriller, Suspense

ARC: Kindle

Published: May 28, 2024

Publisher: Blackstone Publishing

                                        My Rating: 5 stars

Summary:

    After saving the US from a Russian nuclear attack, Nick Flynn returns in what could be his most dangerous mission yet.

    Former US Air Force officer Nick Flynn joined the clandestine Quartet Directorate to continue its long standing mission; to act decisively against serious threats to the free world.  And with the backing of Russia's authoritarian president, no threat is more deadly that that of Pavel Voronin and his mercenary Raven Syndicate.  Twice they have almost succeeded in bringing the United States to is knees, only to be stoppeed at the last moment by Flynn and his team of highly trained operatives.

    But Flynn knows it's only a matter of time before one of Voronin's plans to cripple the US bears lethal fruit.  And so, taking the Russian oligarch permanently off the board is now is nummber one priority.  Operating undetected deep in hostile terrirtory and fighting their way through Voronin's extraordinarily tough defenses will require every ounce of skill, dedeication, and daring that Flynn and his small force can muster.  The slightest error could be fatal for all of them- and ultimately, for millions of Americans.

    With the clock ticking, and dangers mounting on all sides, it's up to Flynn and the others to finish Voronin before it's to late.  

My Thoughts:

    I have always enjoyed Dale Brown's books. And this last book of this series did not disapoint at all.  As always Nick and his team race against time and the bad guys to get to their target and elminate him before they are caught.

    I couldn't put the book down at all.  I kept reading and turning pages quickly to find out what would happen next.  

So this book receives 5 stars.

About the Author:

Former U.S. Air Force captain Dale Brown is the superstar author of 29 action-adventure "techno-thriller" novels: FLIGHT OF THE OLD DOG (1987), SILVER TOWER (1988), DAY OF THE CHEETAH (1989), HAMMERHEADS (1990), SKY MASTERS (1991), NIGHT OF THE HAWK (1992), CHAINS OF COMMAND (1993), STORMING HEAVEN (1994), SHADOWS OF STEEL (1996), FATAL TERRAIN (1997), THE TIN MAN (1998), BATTLE BORN, (1999), WARRIOR CLASS (2001), WINGS OF FIRE (2002), AIR BATTLE FORCE (2003), PLAN OF ATTACK (2004), ACT OF WAR (2005), EDGE OF BATTLE (2006), STRIKE FORCE (May 2007), SHADOW COMMAND (2008) ROGUE FORCES (2009), EXECUTIVE INTENT (2010) A TIME FOR PATRIOTS (May 2011), TIGER’S CLAW (2012), STARFIRE (2013), IRON WOLF (2014), PRICE OF DUTY (2015), THE MOSCOW OFFENSIVE (2017), and THE KREMLIN STRIKE (2019). Fourteen of his novels have been New York Times best-sellers. He is also the co-author of the best-selling DREAMLAND techno-thriller series and writer and technical consultant of the Act of War PC real-time strategy game published by Atari Interactive and the Megafortress PC flight simulator by Three-Sixty Pacific. Dale's novels are published in 11 languages and distributed to over 70 countries. Worldwide sales of his novels, audiobooks and computer games exceed 12 million copies.

Dale was born in Buffalo, New York on November 2, 1956. He graduated from Penn State University with a degree in Western European History and received an Air Force commission in 1978. He was a navigator-bombardier in the B-52G Stratofortress heavy bomber and the FB-111A supersonic medium bomber, and is the recipient of several military decorations and awards including the Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster, the Combat Crew Award, and the Marksmanship ribbon. Dale was also one of the nation's first Air Force ROTC cadets to qualify for and complete the grueling three-week U.S. Army Airborne Infantry paratrooper training course. He was also an Air Force instructor on aircrew life support and combat survival, evasion, resistance, and escape.

Dale supports a number of organizations to promote law enforcement, education, and literacy. He is a Life Member of the Air Force Association, U.S. Naval Institute, and National Rifle Association. He is a command pilot for Angel Flight West (www.angelflightwest.org), a group that donate their time, skills, and aircraft to fly medical patients free of charge. He is also a mission pilot with the Civil Air Patrol, flying a variety of missions in support of the U.S. Air Force and other federal agencies. He is a multi-engine and instrument-rated private pilot and can often be found in the skies all across the United States, piloting his Cessna pressurized P210 Centurion. On the ground, Dale is a soccer referee instructor and enjoys tennis and scuba diving. Dale, his wife Diane, and son Hunter live near Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

 

Book Review: Can't Spell Treason Without Tea

Title: Can't Spell Treason without Tea

Author: Rebecca Thorne

Genre: Fantasy

ARC: Audiobook

Series: Tomes and Tea 

Book in Series: Book 1

Publisher: Macmillan Audio

Publication Date: May 7, 2024

My Rating: 4 stars

Synopsis:

All Reyna and Kianthe want is to open a bookshop that serves tea.  Worn wooden floors, plants on every table, firelight drifting between the rafters all complemented by love and good company.Thing is, Reyna works as one of the Queen's private guards, and Kianthe is the most powerful mage in existence.  Leaving their lives isn't so easy.

But after an assassin takes Reyna hostage, she decides she's throughly done risking her life for a self centered queen.  Meanwhile, Kianthe has been waiting for a chance to flee responsibility- all the better that her girlfriend is on board.  Togther they settle in Tawney, a town nestled in the icy tundra near dragon country, and open the shop of their dreams.

What follows is a cozy tale of mishap, mysteries, and a murderous queen throwing the realm's biggest temper tantrum.  

My Thoughts:

I am giving this book 4 stars, because I was intiruged that it took place around the time of dragons.  The rest of the story not so much.  It sounded like a bunch of  high school  students, dealing with high school drama.  I am not into fantasy books, or romance maybe that with why I feel the way I do about this.  

My rating is 4 stars

About the Author:

Rebecca Thorne is an author of all things fantasy, sci-fi, and romantic.  She is a proud member of the LGBTQIA+ community, hails from sunny Arizona, and uses her ADHD as a superpower to write multiple books a year.

When she is not writing, Rebecca can be found traveling the country as a flight attendant, hiking with her dogs, or basking in the sun like a lizard.

 

The Bishop and The Butterfly

Title: The Bishop and The Butterfly

Author: Michael Wolriach

Genre: History/ True Crime

ARC: Audiobook

Publisher: Dreamscape Media

Publication Date: February 6, 2024

My Rating: 3 stars

Synopsis: 

Vivian Goardon went out before midnight in a velvet dress and mink coat.  Her body turned up the next morning in a desolates Bronx park, a dirty clothesline wrapped around her neck. At her stylish Manhattan apartment, detectives discovered notebooks full of names-businessmen, socialites, gangsters.  And something else: a letter from an anti-corruption commission established by Governor Franklin Delano Roosevelt.  Led by the imperious Judge Samuel Seabury, the commisssion had uncovered a police conspiracy to frame women as prostitutes.  Had Vivian Gordon been excuted to bury her secrets? As FDR pressed the police to solve her murder, Judge Seabury pursued the trail of corruption to the top of Gotham's powerful machine--the infamous Tammary Hall.

My Thoughts:

While I enjoy a true crime book as much as the next person, I have to say I was very disappointed with this book.  There was entirely to much detail in this book.  There was a lot of details that went into to much explanations.  

Again it was interesting but I became really bored with this after I listened to about 40 percent of the book.  I am giving this 3 stars.

About the Author:

Michael Wolraich is the critically acclaimed author of The Bishoop and the Butterfly (2024), Unreasonable Men (2014), and Blowing Smoke( 2010).  His writing has appeared in The Atlantic, Rolling Stone, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, Reuters, and CNN.  Wolraich grew up in Iowa and graduated froms Williams College in Massachuetts before falling in love with New York City, where he has lived since 2000.

 

Title: Random in Death

Author: J.D. Robb

Series; In Death

Book in Series: 58

Genre: Mystery, Thriller &Suspense

Arc: Kindle, Audiobook, Hard Copy

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Publication Date: January 23, 2024

Pages: 362

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis:

    Jenna's parents had finally given in, and there she was, at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A, carrying her demo in hopes of slipping it to the guitarist, Jake Kincade.  Then, from the stage, Jake catches her eye, and smiles, it's the best night of her life.

        It's the last night of her life.

    Minutes later, Jake's in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from the dance floot comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale.  He tries to help but, it's no use.  He doesn't know that someone in the crowd has jabbed her with a needle- and when his girlfriend Nadies arrives, she knows the only thing left to do for the girl is to call her friend, Lieutenant Eve Dallas.

    After everyone on the scene is interviewed, lab results show a toxic mix of substances in the victim's body-and for an extra touch of viciousness, the needle is teeming with infectious agents.  Dallas searchs for a pattern; Had any boys been harassing Jenna? Was she engaging in risky behavior or caught up in something shady?  But there are no obvious clues why this levelheaded sixteen year old, passionate about her music, would be targeted.

    And that worries Dallas.  Because if Jenna wasn't targeted, if she was just the random, unlucky victim of a madman consumed by hatred, there are likely more deaths to come.

My Thoughts:

    As always J. D. Robb has done it again.  This book as well as the whole series is just out of this world.  She continually impresses us with Roarke and Eve and their marriage and how the both can make it work and also work together.  

    As usual the sory line and plot is amazing and just flows. This series and this book is one of my favorites.

    This book receives 5 stars.

 

About The Author:

    J.D. Robb is the pseudonyn for #1 New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts.  She is the author of over 200 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death seres.  There are more than 500 million copies of her books in print

Title: Payback in Death

Author: J.D. Robb

Genre: Mystery

Series: In Death

Book in Series: 57

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Published: September 5, 2023

Pages: 364

                                          Rating: 5 Stars

                                           ARC; Kindle, Audiobook, Nook

Synopsis: 

    Lt. Eve Dallas is just home from a long overdue vacation when she responds to a call of an unattended death.  The victim is Martin Greenleaf, retired Internal Affairs Captain.  At first glance, the scene appears to be suicide, but the closer Eve examines the body, the more suspicious she becomes.

    An unlocked open window, a loving wife and family, a too-perfect suicide note-Eve's gut says it's a homicide.  After all, Greenleaf put a lot of dirty cops away during his forty seven years in Internal Affairs.  It could very well be payback- and she will not rest until the case is closed.

My Thoughts

    As always J.D. Robb knocks it out of the park with her In Death books.  She is definitely one of my favorite authors.  I love her books and can't wait for each one to come out.  

    Eve Dallas and her husband Roarke have an interesting but wonderful marriage and as always they find a way to make it work.  

    She starts this investigation with practically nothing to go on.  She has a way of finding clues and things that normally would be overlooked.  Her outlook is very simple and she always brings every case to a close.  

    This case is a roller coaster of crazy and insane.  She navigates ex cops and present cops to find out who the killer is and she doesn't let the readers down.  

    This book is defintely 5 stars!!!

About the Author:

      J.D. Robb is the pseudonym for the #1 New York Times best selling author Nora Roberts.  She is the author of over 200 novels, including the futuristic suspense In Death series.  There are more that 500 million copies of her books in print.  

     

Title: The Whispering Room

Author: Dean Koontz

Genre:Thriller/Suspense

Series: Jane Hawk

Book in Series: Book 2

Publisher: Bantam

Published: November 21, 2017

Pages:528

Arc: Kindle, Audiobook

Rating: 5 stars

Synopsis

No time to delay.  Do what you were born to do.  

These are the words that ring in the mind of mild-mannered, beloved schoolteacher Cora Gundersun- just before she takes her own life, and many others; in a shocking act of carnage.  When the disturbing contents of her secret journal are discovered, it seems certain that she must have been insane.  But Jane Hawk knows better.

In the wake of her husband's inexplicable suicide-and the equally mysterious deaths of scores of other exemplary individuals-Jane picks up the trail of a secret cabal of powerful players who think themselves above the law and above punshiment.  But the ruthless people bent on hijacking America's future for their own monstrous ends never banked on a highly trained FBI agent willing to go rogue-aned become the nation's most wonated fugitive-in order to derail their insidious planes to gain absolute power with a terrifying breakthrough.

My Thoughts

As always Koontz brings the characters to life with their complex situations. This situation is very complex.  Jane pursue's the people who have brought this conspiracy to life and also caused her husband's suicide.  She has to go rogue to catch these people.  She has to deal with people who have nanotechnology and that can be terrifying.  

This was definitely one that you need to pay attention to when listening to it or reading it.  Whispering Room has a lot of twists and turns and boy it is just a definite page turner.  It is excellently written, and a very good book.

I am giving this book 5 stars!