Tuesday, August 19, 2014

Synopsis for Counterfeit Chemistry



                                                                                                         
                                                                                
                                                           
 
Counterfeit Chemistry 
You may never look at your prescription drugs the same again.


JESSIE, a 30-year-old single mom struggles to make a good life for her and her six-year old son in northern California but still feels guilty about moving him away two years ago from their hometown, their friends, her mother and his dad TOM, her cheating ex-husband.

When she receives her mother’s frantic call for help, she uproots her son to return to FERNHILL, a small town outside Portland, Oregon to take care of TANGLES, her mother’s restaurant, while her mother recovers from her battle with cancer. BEV’S cancer is in remission, but the drug she’s getting to help boost her red blood cells and her energy isn’t working. Her mother has never asked for her help before, so Jessie knows this request is serious and she returns home.

When Jessie does research on the potential reasons her mother’s medication is not working, she reads about counterfeit drugs being infiltrated into the US market through fraudulent internet sites. She asks questions of acquaintances and authorities and in doing so catches the attention of a counterfeit drug ring. The operators resort to threats, kidnapping and murder to keep her and her mother from identifying and exposing them.

Telephone threats, a library bookshelf tumbling onto her work space, “special pills” in her mother’s desk, a mysterious red Lincoln Town Car, and three unexplained accidents suffered by her mother resulting in her hospitalization have Jessie telling her suspicions to RYAN the town detective who is her old high school sweetheart. He wants to rekindle their relationship but dismisses her concerns and tells her to leave the investigating to him. Frustrated yet feeling her theories are valid, she vows to continue sleuthing on her own.

The restaurant’s new chef MARC is romantically pursuing her and is the only one who takes her concerns seriously. But he has his own agenda, unbeknownst to Jessie. Together they set up a sting operation, but things go terribly wrong. An unexpected interruption, Jessie’s heroic reaction and the appearance of local police foil their sting and Marc suddenly disappears. Jessie is once again on her own, no longer willing to trust any man.

Jessie summons her courage and follows clues left behind by her newly deceased ex-husband. Tom was the town pharmacist and she believes DIANA, the drug representative that Tom had the affair with and continued to see after their divorce, has something to do with the fire at his house, his death, and the counterfeit drugs in her town.

Jessie takes risks and chances that endanger her well-being to fight against the evil she sees in her community. She is kidnapped by the counterfeiters and left alone, unconscious and bleeding in their warehouse. Knowing it will be impossible to physically overtake the three operators, she uses her wits to outsmart and trap them. Her suspicions are correct. Diana is the ringleader of the three and they are brought to justice for harming her mother, killing her ex-husband, and supplying contaminated and counterfeit drugs to the community.

Tuesday, July 22, 2014

Forget the Housework I'm Reading - Autumn Reflections Review




Book Review - Autumn Reflections
by Katie Mettner







About the story:

1 Corinthians 13:8: Love never fails. Grayson Hanson likes to pretend he’s a superhero, sent to earth to fight off the bad guys. In reality, he’s a seven-year-old boy who wears those same superheroes on his leg braces, and fights off bullies at school. His mother, Dr. Autumn Hanson, will do anything to protect her son, including leaving her prestigious position as one of Duluth’s top orthopedic surgeons. 

Hoping for a fresh start, she moves Grayson to Cloquet, Minnesota and opens her own clinic. Steadfast in her desire for a new life, Autumn agrees to be interviewed for a feature article in the local paper. Kade Franco is a well respected journalist, who at forty-two has had his own share of love’s regrets. As the city’s most eligible bachelor, Kade can have any woman he wants, but he’s waiting for his meant-to-be. Where he doesn’t expect to find her is in the beautiful hazel eyes of the newest doctor in town.

Autumn finds Kade Franco’s sexy chocolatey brown eyes and strong lumberjack physique to be her kryptonite. She’s spent the last seven years building a wall around her heart, but fears it isn’t strong enough to withstand a man of steel determined to show her love never fails.



 An Excerpt:


 I heard a knock and looked up. Phoenix stood at the door with a man close behind her. “Dr. Hanson, Kade Franco is here to see you.” 

She stepped aside and I stood up, my eyes locking with the very chocolate brown ones of Kade Franco. “Thank you, Phoenix.” She left and I stuck my hand out across the desk. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Franco.”

He shook my hand firmly, not too hard, but no wimpy jello-hand either. “Just call me Kade, Dr. Hanson. Thank you for meeting with me this afternoon.” 

I smiled against my will. This man certainly wasn’t twenty-two, pimply faced or eager. He was lumberjack tall, trim, and had legs that went on forever. His barely there wire rims did nothing to conceal his long black lashes and his neatly trimmed scruff surrounded his melt me into a puddle smile. A tuft of curly brown hair topped off the man. My mind was stuck on the thought of how I’d like to wrap my fingers in it. Whoa, sister, back up the boat and stop staring like an idiot.

“Please, call me Autumn. Thank you for offering to do a story about my clinic.” I gushed. Good God woman, take it down a notch. You come face-to-face with a good looking guy and you can’t rub two brain cells together. Sit. He’s sitting already. Sit your butt down in the chair.

My Review:

             In Autumn Reflections, book two of the Northern Light series, we follow Dr. Autumn Hanson from book one (Granted Redemption) as she and her physically disabled seven-year-old son Grayson move from Duluth to Cloquet to start over.


            Autumn, a forty-year old devoted single mom, has closed her heart to any new romantic involvements because of losses and rejections in the past. She dotes on her sweet, smart and loving son. The stress of moving, setting up a new pediatric orthopedic clinic, worrying about and taking care of her son, and being single and alone in Cloquet cause Autumn to think she is having a either a nervous breakdown or a midlife crisis. 

            Enter Pine Journal reporter Kade Franco—lumberjack tall with barely there wire rims and a melt-me-into-a-puddle smile. Kade interviews her for a story about her clinic and knows in an instant she is his meant-to-be. He also knows the hard part will be convincing Autumn.

            Autumn struggles to overcome her fear of letting a man get too close to her heart, but the wall starts to crumble with the power of Kade’s love. The scripture themes: love is patient, love is kind and love never fails flow through the entire story. Kade is patient yet determined to show Autumn he will stick around to be her meant-to-be. He shows her kindness by his gentle manner and calm presence. He shows her there is no fear in love because his love and God’s love will never fail.

           Katie Mettner does a perfect job of describing Grayson as a super-hero-loving determined child who worries about his momma and does whatever he can to make her smile, all the while fighting his own demons and bullies. I love Kade’s conversations with Grayson. He brings the conversation down to Gray’s level and they have a mutual connection in their love for Autumn and each other. The addition of guide dog Ace is heartwarming and special as is the description of Ace and Grayson’s first meeting which brought tears to my eyes. 

           A five star must read!



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Tuesday, June 24, 2014

Five things about my current WIP Counterfeit Chemistry

My fellow writer and friend Nancy Gadzuk tagged me to tell 5 things about my current work-in-progress, so here goes:

1. Counterfeit Chemistry is a mystery/suspense with a touch of romance novel set in a small rural fictitious town outside of Portland, Oregon.

2. Jessie is targeted by a counterfeit drug ring operating in the area when she vows to find out why her mom's medication isn't working.

3. Counterfeit drugs may be contaminated with harmful substances, may contain wrong active ingredients that may or may not treat the condition or disease its labeled for, or may have too little or too much of the active ingredient which can cause unwanted side effects up to and including death.

4. Marc, the new chef at Tangles, looks just as hot in his chef's uniform as he does in his form fitting Levis and body hugging Washington Redskins T shirt.

5. Ryan, the local police detective and Jessie's high school sweetheart, wants to reconnect with Jessie just as badly as he wants to solve the problem of counterfeit drugs in his town.

Friday, June 20, 2014

Broken Embrace by Dana Mason - Blog Tour Book Review








SYNOPSIS:

The Past…
As childhood sweethearts, Brian and Melissa's plans were simple: finish school, get married, and live happily ever after. Unfortunately, life didn’t go as planned. Melissa went away to college, and Brian married her best friend.

The Present…
Seventeen years have passed and Brian's stable family life has come crashing down around him. His wife’s a cheater, his teenage daughter is hiding things from him and Melissa is back in town to remind him of what he lost all those years ago.
Melissa's returned home, ready to forgive and focus on her future, but that all changes the day she gets a desperate phone call from Brian’s daughter, Erin. Thrown back into Brian’s tumultuous life, Melissa struggles to move beyond the pain of his broken promise.

The Future…
While working together to save Erin from the evil web she’s caught in, Melissa and Brian fight to fix the past or face losing each other all over again.


REVIEW:

                         

                                FIVE STARS

Broken Embrace, book three of the Embrace Series, held my attention from the first page. It follows characters from book two, Brian and Melissa, on their journey for a second chance at love, weaving suspense, romance and betrayal into their journey.

Brian and Melissa wore promise rings sealing their love in high school. Melissa leaves for college and shortly after that hears from her twin sister Ali that Brian has married one of her best friends Julie. Devastated and with no explanation from Brian, Melissa spends the next 17 years away from her family trying to recover.

Melissa finally trusts her heart to another man, Chase, and moves home to be with her twin sister in a time of turmoil. At home again she reunites with her old high school friends Julie and Brian. Melissa vows to mend the damaged relationship with Julie and get to know her children Cody and Erin, but she keeps her distance from the one love of her life who broke her heart, Brian.

Then the roller-coaster ride begins. Brian finds his world turned upside down by the betrayal of his wife and the dangerous secrets kept by his daughter Erin.

Melissa is brought into the family chaos by Erin who turns to her instead of her dad for help when her reputation and her family are threatened. Melissa steps forward to help Brian regain his balance and rebuild his life with his two children at the potential cost of damaging her own relationship with her fiancé.

Melissa realizes she wants to be a part of this shattered family but doesn’t know if she trust Brian to keep her heart safe a second time. 

Dana Mason takes us on a turbulent ride with this love story complete with suspense, broken promises, deceit, and forgiveness. Her fast paced writing kept me turning the pages well past my bedtime. I appreciate Dana's ability to show each character making choices that impacted the outcome of the story and ultimately helped them heal and grow. Hard lessons are learned through some pretty violent situations affecting all the characters. A must read, along with the first two books of the series Dangerous Embrace and Precious Embrace.

Will there be a book #4? How about Matty and Erin? I hope so!!



AUTHOR BIO:

Dana Mason is happily settled in a small valley amongst the California grapevines with her husband and three children. Author of the romantic suspense, Embrace Series, she's written about a group of friends from Northern California who learn just how short life can be when you don't hold on to what's important. Second chances don't come easy...but sometimes love is worth the risk.

When not writing, Dana specializes in professional development and training. She's also a board member on the local Art's Council and does what she can to support the art community.

Dana Mason Media Links:
@danamason06




PURCHASE LINKS:
Dangerous Embrace (Book #1)

Precious Embrace (Book #2)

Broken Embrace (Book #3)
Amazon: http://amzn.to/1l0Y40W
Barnes&Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/broken-embrace-dana-mason/1119569541?ean=2940045949187