Book Review and Giveaway: The Secret of the 14th Room

I'm pretty sure that the first mystery I ever read was a book called The Key to the Treasure by Peggy Parrish.  In it, three siblings who are spending the summer with their grandparents endeavor to find the solutions to several mysteries hidden in artifacts that their uncle hid when he was a little boy.  I haven't read it in quite some time, but I remember how much I enjoyed the fun of solving the puzzles that the uncle hid.  And so began a lifelong interest in mystery novels.

The Secret of the 14th Room has a little bit of everything: 

Book Review and Giveaway: Matchmaker's Best Friend

One of my happy places (besides between the covers of a good book!) is the beach.  I spent part of my childhood in Southern California and would go to the beach about once a week with the summer day camp that my parents sent me to while they worked.  Although the water was colder than the Gulf of Mexico of my younger childhood, I loved to get in the water and ride the waves, get in the sand and make sandcastles.  At night I would go to bed with the sensation of the waves lulling me to sleep.  Living in landlocked Memphis, we rarely get the opportunity to go to the beach now.  I was able to take Gracie to Malibu when she was six (OK, my brother took us - I don't drive much in California) and had a wonderful time.  The same brother retired to Florida and our little family was able to go to Port-a-Passe (something like that) last November.  We had a marvelous time playing in the water and collecting seashells.  One thing I enjoy about the Independence Islands series is that I get to "visit" the beaches of the fictitious islands located off the coast of Georgia.

Matchmaker's Best Friend is

Book Review and Giveaway: Deepest Roots of the Heart

On a warm summer day a few years ago, my brother, a friend of his family, my little 6-year-old daughter, and I all popped out of his truck and scurried across a dusty parking lot, cutting through a group of low, long buildings to go find a small clearing surrounded by giant oaks where my niece was to be married the next day (with my daughter as her flower girl).  We had to make a stop to find "el bano" for tissue because my daughter had just had an hour-long nosebleed in the truck and used up all of my brother's supply of kleenex and tissue and whatever else we could find.  (That California dry air is no joke!).

Book Review and Giveaway: A Heart's Forgiveness

There's nothing worse than a conniving snake who seeks to steal what is rightfully yours.  Madeleine is put into dire straits when she is led to believe that she is near penniless.  With an infant left to her care and two servants who are more like family, she escapes what could be a disastrous future to go cross-country to New Mexico.  There, she finds friendship and safety . . . for a short time.  A Heart's Forgiveness was a really good book.  I liked the characters and I liked seeing how Jeremiah changes in the story (can't say much - a little bit of a spoiler).  I loved seeing the love between baby Pearl and Madeleine's intended Philip.  The theme of forgiveness is shown several times in this book - in a very real way.

Book Review and Giveaway: Love at First Flight

One of my top genres of books to read is historical fiction.  I love learning about the life and times of people of places and events that I would not otherwise experience.  Love at First Flight takes place during WWII.  It is a very quick and easy read.  I think it only took me one night, or maybe two, to read it.  Even though it was shorter than I expected, it wasn't too short.

Book Review and Giveaway: Heart Pressed

Two families divided by an old conflict dating back decades result in Dante and Amara never knowing each other or even knowing about each other.  I enjoyed reading the backstory and how Dante's Nonno and Nonna found love after heartbreak.  I also enjoyed seeing Dante's and Amara's love for one another unfold. 

Book Review and Giveaway: Sing in the Sunlight

I spent part of my childhood in Southern California which was a huge culture shock for this little girl who had only known of life in the piney woods of rural South Mississippi among kith and kin.  Not only were the people different (colder), but everything was different:  the schools were different, living in surburbia that was not quite ghetto was different, the stores were different, and even the landscape of the California wilderness was different.  I honestly didn't know that the biome of California had a name until I exchanged some emails with the author Kathleen Denly after I read the first book of this series.  The name is Chaparral (which is a rather neat name) and although I never knew what that was, when I viewed photos on the website link she sent me, I instantly knew what it was.  "Oh, yeah, that's California."  While reading Sing in the Sunlight, I was able to get a pretty good mental image of the setting because I knew what it looked like; after all, I had lived there, too.

Sing in the Sunlight comes after Waltz in the Wilderness which I read and enjoyed some months back. Even though they are part of a series, each can be read in any order without any spoilers or missing backstory.

Book Review and Giveaway: The Dressmaker's Secret

The Dressmaker's Secret was quite a unique book in that the multiple points of view included that of one of the little girls in the story.  Alice, her twin sister Ivy, their single mother Claire all live together in secret in hopes of no one from their past lives discovering them and destroying their lives and livelihood.  Overall, I really enjoyed this book.  There were some surprises in the middle and the end.  The ending surprised me so much I re-read much of the first chapter right away to see if there was a hint of it.  Someday, I would love to re-read the book to catch all of the hints.  I knew that some details seemed odd, but I couldn't figure out why.  I enjoyed the story and I enjoyed the characters.  This is a story worth reading!

Book Review and Giveaway: The Moonlight School

When I was a teenager, I attended a couple of singing schools in some area churches taught by my uncle who often did this as part of his ministry.  Singing Schools are a holdover from the 19th century and continued at least through the 1980s.  I'm not sure if my mother ever attended, but her younger brothers often attended a specific Singing School that I believe was sponsored by Stamps-Baxter, a company that produces gospel music.

Book Review and Giveaway: Lightning on a Quiet Night

Being from Mississippi, I was immediately attracted to this book.  The writing is very descriptive and almost poetical, and I felt drawn into the setting quickly.  I also appreciated that the vernacular of the characters was straight-up Mississippi.  Nowhere else have I heard people use what would normally be a question as an emphatic statement.  Ex:  "Hasn't nobody said....."  There's a lot of bad grammar, but that's pretty typical of Southern folk, both educated and non-educated.  I also like how the author showed a variety of people typical of Mississippi.  I'm always glad to recommend something that shows Mississippi in a favorable light.

Book Review and Giveaway: Lethal Intent

This is a great book, full of suspense, easy to read even with the medical jargon.  Learning about CAR T cell therapy was interesting.  Caroline is in a quandary -- she was just hired as the lawyer for a relatively new medical business that is researching using CAR T cell therapy to treat children with cancer.  Just after she was hired, she discovers that her boyfriend, a former football star, is a heavy investor in the company which puts both her job and her relationship at risk.  I kinda guessed who was behind all the murders, but wasn't sure until the end.  Five stars all the way around.

I received this book at my request from Celebrate Lit for the opportunity to read and review it.

About the Book

Book:  Lethal Intent

Author: Cara Putman

Genre: Romantic Suspense

 

If they expected silence, they hired the wrong woman.

Caroline Bragg’s life has never been better. She and Brandon Lancaster are taking their relationship to the next level, and she has a new dream job as legal counsel for Praecursoria—a research lab that is making waves with its cutting-edge genetic therapies. The company’s leukemia treatments even promise to save desperately sick kids—kids like eleven-year-old Bethany, a critically ill foster child at Brandon’s foster home. 

When Caroline’s enthusiastic boss wants to enroll Bethany in experimental trials prematurely, Caroline objects, putting her at odds with her colleagues. They claim the only goal at Praecursoria is to save lives. But does someone have another agenda? 

Brandon faces his own crisis. As laws governing foster homes shift, he’s on the brink of losing the group home he’s worked so hard to build. When Caroline learns he’s a Praecursoria investor, it becomes legally impossible to confide in him. Will the secrets she keeps become a wedge that separates them forever? And can she save Bethany from the very treatments designed to heal her? 

This latest romantic legal thriller by bestseller Cara Putman shines a light on the shadowy world of scientific secrets and corporate vendettas—and the ethical dilemmas that plague the place where science and commerce meet.

 

Click here to get your copy!

 

About the Author

As a preteen Cara Putman watched lawyers change legislative opinions at an important legislative hearing in Nebraska. At that time, she wondered if she became an attorney if people would give her words the same weight. An honors graduate of the University of Nebraska Lincoln, George Mason University School of Law and Krannert School of Management at Purdue University, Cara has turned her passion for words into award-winning stories that capture readers. Her legal experience makes its way into her stories where strong women confront real challenges.

An award-winning author of more than 30 books, Cara writes legal thrillers, WWII romances, and romantic suspense because she believes that no matter what happens hope is there, waiting for us to reach for it.

When she’s not writing, Cara is an over-educated attorney who lectures in law and communications at the Krannert School of Management at Purdue University and homeschools her children. She and her family live in Indiana, the land of seasons. You can read chapters for most of her books and connect with Cara at her website: http://caraputman.com.

 

More from Cara

Each novel has a unique genesis story. The spark that launches it into a journey of 90,000 words. For Lethal Intent, that journey began with a friend’s journey of childhood leukemia with her oldest. From watching their family wind through years of treatment including cutting edge therapy trials. Then it developed with the Immortal Life of Henrietta Lack and the thought what would someone be willing to do if they believed they’d found the next strain of immortal cells. The lead characters made appearances in other books, but now would have their opportunity to step to center stage. The story morphed and changed, dictated by the vagaries of the law and changes.

 

Each story has a spark. For Caroline it was a brainstorming session with my writing buddies Rachel Hauck, Colleen Coble, and Denise Hunter. That was when her backstory developed, all the things that happened to her to form her into the adult she is on the pages. One who cares deeply about others but who is fundamentally scared, longing for a place she can relax and take a deep breath.

 

Each story has a spark. For Brandon, it was brainstorming with another writing friend Tricia Goyer that lead to a creative job for a hero that wasn’t the typical law enforcement. His role with the group foster home was set and the backstory filled in quickly. What would it be like to be separated from and lose a brother in the foster care system? Would that generate this need to keep sibling groups together? And then the law changes and the fabric of your professional identity and something so much deeper is threatened.

 

Each story has a spark. The pharmaceutical start-up where ethics collides with the desire to save children. The push to do whatever it takes overshadowing the guardrails of the law. If they expected silence, they hired the wrong woman. But does Caroline really have the strength to battle and does she need to?

 

Lethal Intent grew from each of these sparks and many more to develop into a story I can’t wait for you to read. In the process I learned immense amounts about CAR-T cell therapies and foster care law. Most of all, I hope you’ll fall into the pages and be engrossed in a story you can’t bring yourself to put down until the final page.

Blog Stops

Book Reviews From an Avid Reader, January 21

lakesidelivingsite, January 21

Texas Book-aholic, January 21

Through the Fire Blogs, January 22

Sara Jane Jacobs, January 22

A Novel Pursuit, January 22

CarpeDiem, January 23

Betti Mace, January 23

Gina Holder, Author and Blogger, January 23

Book Bites, Bee Stings, & Butterfly Kisses, January 24

Blogging With Carol, January 24

HookMeInABook, January 24

For the Love of Literature, January 25

Debbie's Dusty Deliberations, January 25

Fiction Book Lover, January 25 (Guest Review from Mindy Houng)

For Him and My Family, January 26

EmpowerMoms, January 26

A Modern Day Fairy Tale, January 26

Artistic Nobody, January 27 (Guest Review from Joni Truex)

Mypreciousbitsandmusings, January 27

Where Faith and Books Meet, January 27

By The Book, January 28

Older & Smarter?, January 28

Because I said so -- and other adventures in Parenting, January 28

Inklings and notions, January 29

Simple Harvest Reads, January 29

Blossoms and Blessings, January 29

Truth and Grace Homeschool Academy, January 30

Splashes of Joy, January 30

Pause for Tales, January 30

Spoken from the Heart, January 31

Just Your Average reviews, January 31

deb's Book Review, January 31

Hallie Reads, February 1

Adventures of a Travelers Wife, February 1

Genesis 5020, February 1

To Everything There Is A Season, February 2

Hebrews 12 Endurance, February 2

Ashley’s Clean Book Reviews, February 2

Locks, Hooks and Books, February 3

Southern Gal Loves to Read, February 3

Daysong Reflections, February 3

Giveaway

To celebrate her tour, Cara is giving away  the grand prize package of a “Just one more chapter” pillow cover, a copy of the book, an Erin Condren journal, and a hand-stamped bracelet!!

Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.

https://promosimple.com/ps/10627/lethal-intent-celebration-tour-giveaway

Book Review and Giveaway: Sprinkled with Sabotage

"Miss Peach in the Courtyard with a Rope!" I announced to Robert and Gracie when I tried to guess who-dun-it in our latest game of Clue Master Detective.  I opened the envelope and was stunned to see Fountain written on the card instead of Courtyard.  I looked at my notes and, chagrinned, admitted, "I forgot I had the Courtyard."  My daughter had already guessed wrongly - because she didn't realize I had two cards when she guessed in one particular room - which meant my husband won yet again - but this time only because we messed up.  Oh well, it goes like that sometimes.

I love a good mystery with some suspense thrown in and Sprinkled with Sabotage was a good story in that genre.

Book Review and Giveaway: Restoring Fairhaven

Restoring Fairhaven is the latest book in the Independence Islands series.  If you're not familiar with the series, the books are set on different fictitious islands that are located off the coast of Georgia.  This is the last book in the series of books about Merriweather Island.  If you want to read my reviews of the other books, go to my former blog (http://21stcenturykeeperathome.blogspot.com/p/p.html) and scroll down to the list of book reviews.

Book Review and Giveaway: Justified Means

This is probably the third, maybe the fourth time, I have read this book!  It is That Good!  I love the premise of a private organization rescuing those in danger, even against their will, in order to keep them safe.  I love the characters.  Keith is a truly humble kind of hero who kind of struggles with the part of his job but does his best to ensure safety and even comfort for his clients.  Erika is a fiesty thing who doesn't just submit willingly to being kidnapped.  One of the best things about all of Chautona's books is that she infuses real life with well-thought-out emotions and actions of her characters.  Even though this is completely fictional, I felt like I was there witnessing the events that could very well be a thing in America and we don't even know it!  The book is exciting but not over the top.  I would give this book to anybody who enjoys suspense.