Jeff Sexton

Reading The Last Book First? WHAT???? Ok, real confession time: I've bought every single book in this series - and this is the *only* one I've read, specifically because I also received it as an Advance Review Copy. So why did I buy the other 16 books? I'm familiar with the work, and in many cases the person, of the authors in question, and I trust them to give me solid stories.

This one is yet another such solid story, perhaps of a bit of a Hallmark Movie type vibe - but that is really the intent of this entire series, so it works. Bratt in particular is truly capable of so much more emotional depth (check out her By The Seas series or my own first encounter with her work, Dancing With The Sun) and even outright action/ drama (check out her Hart's Ridge series), but she shows here that she can contain those other impulses and write on theme and on brand for a collaborative effort - and that too shows great strength and talent as a storyteller (or any group participant), to be able to blend just so well.

So, there it is, really - if you like the Hallmark Movie vibe (and clearly *many* do), you're going to enjoy both this book and this entire series. If that isn't really your think, this likely won't be either.

Oh, and one other strength to both the book and the series: They're all super short. I read this (120 age ish) book in about 2.5 hrs or so this afternoon. In other words, great for those busy with other things that are looking for quick breaks to enjoy something well written and quite enjoyable that won't really offend most anyone not actively looking for something to be offended by.

Very much recommended.

No Matter Your Thinking About 'Christianity', This Will Challenge You. This is one of those excellent books that truly no matter what you think of Christianity or any given Christian-type theology, Bezner is going to find ways to challenge you - in the manner of the classic pastor joke as follows:

Man comes up to the Pastor after the service. "Preacher, you were stepping on my toes in there!"

Pastor replies: "I apologize. I was aiming about 3 feet higher." (For his heart, in case that is unclear.)

In other words, yes, Bezner is a pastor and yes, this is written in that general style - but it also isn't a book seeking to destroy everything you hold dear so much as gently goad you in areas where maybe you're wrong - or maybe Bezner is.

And I'm not joking when I say no matter your thoughts on Christianity here. Bezner goads the conservatives with his talk of their lily white - or coal black - churches and the need for churches to be more multicultural. Bezner goads the liberals with his insistence that sex is only for straight married couples - and goads everyone with his insistence that more needs to be done to support single adults, no matter their sexual choices. He even manages to goad the Anarchists by *actively citing 1 Samuel* - the very passage where YAHWEH decrees that obedience to an earthly king as a rejection of Himself! - and arguing that earthly kings are necessary, but that a "prophet" is needed to stand outside their court and hold them to account.

If you're looking for a book "taking down" "Christian Nationalism".... this isn't your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. If you're looking for a book that decries *all* politics in the American Church and instead calls for complete separation between the Church and politics... this isn't your book, and Bezner never intended it to be. It is quite clear that he sought to write exactly the kind of book he did - calling Americans of *all* political persuasions and telling them that according to his own beliefs, they're wrong. As with anything else, at that point your mileage absolutely varies. I do believe that we can all gain something from reading this book, but I do NOT believe that Bezner is as correct as he clearly thinks he is.

Ultimately two stars were deducted here. One for the prooftexting, even though it only *blatantly* happened as quotes to begin chapters - I don't really recall seeing it anywhere else. (For those unaware, "prooftexting" is the practice of citing Bible verses out of context in support of some claim or another.) So while not as bad as some others in this space, it is a practice that is an automatic star deduction from me *any* time I see it.

The other star deducted was for the near absolute dearth of any bibliography. While this book was indeed more pastoral in tone, it was still a nonfiction book and should have been cited much more thoroughly than it was - 20-30% bibliography is my general expectation based on my experiences overall, though I'm a bit more willing to come down to 15% as the lower number with more recent (2021 and forward or so) texts seeming to indicate this is a general shift in nonfiction books of this era.

Still, despite the two star deduction here largely on technical matters, this really is a solid book that every American needs to read - perhaps particularly during election seasons.

Very much recommended.

Southern Gothic Amuse-Bouche. This is a short story (really short, with barely enough pages to qualify as a review in some sites if page count were word count in the review) that has one specific goal: To get your mind in the world of the Outer Banks Secrets and the Southern Gothic tone the series is built around. (Which is interesting indeed, given that Marsh is an Australian who I don't know has ever been to North Carolina's Outer Banks at all... but more on that momentarily.)

Y'all, as someone who has *been* to the Outer Banks and has lived every day of his (non-vacationing, and even some vacationing) life no further north than 30 minutes or so below the Georgia-Tennessee State Line and has most of the last decade barely six miles off the coast not far from St Augustine... Marsh *nails* Southern Coastal life, at least the parts of it she chooses to expose and explore here, and she absolutely uses it *perfectly* in her Southern Gothic approach. Yes, this isn't *all* that the American South is, and perhaps it isn't even a great representation of all that the American South *can be*, but on the creepy/ gothic side? Marsh captured it quite well indeed, particularly if my assumption is true that she's never actually been here.

Truly an excellent short story that does everything it is intended to do *and* serves as a nice lunch break read when you want something a bit creepy but don't have much time to read for whatever reason.

Very much recommended.

Dark. Dreary. Dismal. Oppressive. And Then The Candle Flickers To Life. This is one of those books that takes the hyper-dark and hyper-oppressive feel of the singular worst book I've *EVER* read - The Road by Cormac McCarthy - and does what McCarthy never could: Provide just that flicker of a spark of a candle lighting. *Just* enough to provide *some* level of hope. Even when most everyone in this book is so broken by the central issue - a child going missing decades ago - and their secrets about that night that none of them *really* *want* that hope, the reader *needs* that smallest flicker... and Whalen provides it in particularly dramatic form.

For those who are not fans of multi-perspective books... this one isn't going to change that, sorry. There are a lot of perspectives going on here, and a lot of sudden switching that can get a touch confusing at times, particularly as we switch between "then" and "now".

But really, that was the only *potential* flaw here, and not everyone has that particular hangup. (I don't, I actually thought the multi-perspectives made the story work much *better* in this particular case, as we get so many views on what happened here and how different people are reacting differently.)

The tie in to Richard Jewel of the Centennial Park Bombing during the 1996 Olympic Park Bombings in Atlanta was interesting, even if Whalen actually meant that particular character to be a more general representation. (And to be clear, it is only my own mind that made the connection at all, though perhaps others who were living in the Atlanta region during that time also might make it. The actual characterization is far more generic and could represent any number of people in similar situations.)

Overall a strong, if extremely dark and depressing, tale extremely well told. Very much recommended.

Explosive From Start To Finish. This is one of those books that starts out as a somewhat classic spy caper - someone is trying to flee from their home country with hyper sensitive material (and knowledge) and is doing the whole "take two steps. stop. turn right and go 3 steps. stop." thing trying to avoid detection and give the authorities the slip.

But then it takes about 1/3 of the book to get back to that... because we're now involved in *another* spy thriller such that both will come together - and get even more explosive when they do - but now we need to get back to our series heroine, Ms. Drenna Steel, and find out what she is doing and how she is going to get involved with the first scene.

No matter where we are in the tale, the bad guys are always a shadow away and it is up to Ms. Steel and her allies to keep the good guys safe and handle the bad guys... well, in the manner in which bad guys get handled in such tales. ;)

But then that ending. Wow. On several different levels. Yet again, Sneeden manages to make you want the next book... how about right freaking NOW?!?!?!?!

Very much recommended.

Explosive Spy / Revenge Thriller. When we catch up with our heroine of the series in this book, she is hiding and hurting – but still righting wrongs where she sees them, in badass and brutally effective fashion. And shortly thereafter, she gets roped into yet another mission that turns out to not be as it seems, which leads to even more action which tends to also be brutally effective at times. Yet again Sneeden does an excellent job of providing a seemingly shortish (no official page count as I type this review, but it *felt* like it was in the sub-300 page area) bit of pure escapism, this time highlighting various areas of Europe in the process. Perfect for fans of Lee Child’s Jack Reacher or J.M. LeDuc’s Sinclair O’Malley, or (sadly now late) Matthew Mather’s Delta Devlin. Very much recommended.

With Remorse. This is a book that has a lot of similarities to Tom Clancy's Without Remorse (soon to be in bastardized form on your screens), but a lot of key differences. As with the Clancy text, here we get to see a bit of a retired super spy/ assassin falling in love... before we see that ripped away in brutal fashion, with the spy surviving what the bad guys think has killed them. And as with the Clancy text, the rest of the tale is essentially the spy doing whatever it takes to send their lover's killer(s) straight to Hell - Do Not Pass Go, Do Not Collect $200. The key differences here are that while the Clancy text was more of a coda to an already existing character, this one is intentionally set up as Book 1 of a potential new series, and thus there are some of the standard-ish “book 1” mechanics of working to set up a universe, allowing a few plot threads to dangle, setting up an overarching mythos that can be strung out or wrapped up as the author (and, likely, sales) demand, etc. And arguably the real difference here is the lack of utter brutality in this text. Here, Steel is quite capable, and often underestimated - and we see her use her skills in situations that many might deem “less realistic”, but which are plausible enough to work within the story. Still extremely hard hitting and with a decent body count of bad guys genre readers expect, just nowhere near the outright savage brutality of the Clancy. But fans of Clancy, either long time or new ones picked up from the upcoming movie, will do themselves a great service in reading this book. Very much recommended.

Hallmarkie "Messy Family Comes Together" Type. This is a Susan Mallery book, and it is Christmas book from Susan Mallery - so you know you're going to get a lot of drama, but in a very Hallmarkie manner where the drama never gets *too* intense and everything wraps up with a nice dose of Christmas magic by the end. Considering the popularity of both Mallery and Hallmark Christmas movies, this isn't exactly a losing strategy... if a bit "been there, done that".

Where Mallery manages to spin things with this particular one are, well, the particulars - and there are a lot of things here that aren't exactly typical. Irritable Bowel Syndrome shown in all of its complexities in a book? Happens some, not exactly overly common in my experience. Female tow truck company owner? I actually am related to one - a cousin - but she's literally the only one I had ever heard of before reading this book. Age gap romance where the *woman* is the older *and* is on the back side of "middle age" to boot? Done, somewhat, but rarely in this particular combination/ age range. On and on it goes.

Oh, and for anyone who says that this gets way too far out there with just how "together" everything gets... if you've read a few of my other reviews over the years, you know about my own family history - same side as the cousin above, actually. You see, both sets of my grandparents were divorced long before I was ever alive. But my mom's parents in particular? My grandmother remarried, also before I could ever remember anything. My step grandfather was my "second grandfather" (the other died 5 weeks after my birth). And yet there was more than one instance of my grandmother and step-grandfather living on my grandfather's land over the years, including at least one stint in his house with him. So my sense of "weird family relationships" may be a bit skewed, having seen this type of thing - along with several of the exact scenarios Mallery includes in this book - in my own (extended) family over the years.

Ultimately a solid book of its type, and one for anyone looking for a good Christmas family drama to check out.

Very much recommended.

Weather Machine : Political Machine :: forge : weave. Hey, first time I've ever used an analogy in that particular format in the title of a review. The answer, of course, is that all four are ways of making different things. Forging is the process of creating metal objects, weaving is the process of creating cloth objects. Similarly, a "political machine" is the process of creating some political outcome, and according to Blum in this text, a "Weather Machine" is the process of creating a... weather forecast.

Blum begins with a history of some of the earliest attempts at forecasting the weather for a given location, moving from the realm of religion and superstition to the realm of science - religion and superstition by another name, but sounding better to the "modern" ear. The history largely culminates with a discussion of the early 20th century concept of the "Weather Machine", a giant warehouse full of human computers using slide rules to run calculations based on observations placed into a mathematical model in order to predict the weather.

An admiral goal well ahead of its time... but once computers (and particularly supercomputers) became a thing... perhaps an ideal no longer ahead of ours. It is here, in the era of computing, that Blum spends the rest of the text, showing how the first and earliest computer models found success all the way up to showing how certain modern models and teams work to forecast ever further out ever more rapidly... and how all of this now largely happens inside the computer itself, rather than in the suppositions of "trained meteorologists".

In other words, this is a book not about weather itself, but about the process and, yes, *business*, of creating a weather *forecast* and the various issues and histories tha come to bear in this process.

Ultimately a very illuminating work about the business side of forecasting, Blum could have perhaps spent more time showing how say hurricane and tornado forecasts are formed and how much they have progressed in the last few decades, rather than forecasting more generally - but he also ultimately stayed more true to his general premise in staying more general, showing how forecasting *as a whole* has gotten so much more detailed without diving too deep into any particular area of forecasting itself.

Ultimately a rather fascinating look at a topic few people truly understand.

Very much recommended.

A Warning For The Entire US Eastern And Gulf Coasts. This book is fairly comprehensive in its history of coastal development, with particular emphasis on the back bays of New Jersey but also discussing development all the way South to Florida and up along the Florida Gulf Coast all the way to Galveston Bay and Houston, with detailed discussions of Mobile and New Orleans along the way. And even discounting its heavy emphasis on global warming / global cooling / climate change / whatever the alarmists are calling it these days, the book paints a very stark picture about just how much coastal redevelopment costs people all over the country, including the landlocked midwest, due to heavy Federal subsidies in the post-WWII era. Its ultimate points are solid, yet it is also extremely realistic that the best solution to the problem is extremely politically unlikely. Very much recommended reading, and certainly a discussion that should factor into election discussions going into the 2020 Presidential race.

Solid Sigma Tale. Unlike a certain reviewer who claimed that this was a standalone book, I'm going to tell you right now that you need to read at *least* books 14-17 (ish) before coming into this one in order to fully understand and appreciate it. But once you've read those other books, you're going to want this one anyway... and you *will* appreciate likely the very same things I liked about this book - namely, certain elements of its ending. Which is all I'll say without going into spoiler territory.

Beyond those ending elements, this is a standard-ish globe trotting Sigma Force action/ thriller, emphasis on the action. And yes, it is about as plausible as the Fast and Furious franchise at this point, but you don't come into these kinds of tales wanting or expecting the ultra-realism of say Andy Weir's The Martian. You come into these types of books *wanting* to see the motorcycle vs attack helicopter fights, the desperate and last second escapes from traps of various forms, the ultra close quarters action where blades get left stuck between arm bones... and, yes, with now *two* very well trained war dogs, Tucker and Kane and Marco's scenes damn near steal the show every time they come up, ala the "motorcycle ride with the raptors" from the first Jurassic World movie that Universal's Islands of Adventures' Velocicoaster captures so well with its initial launch. Because *that* is the kind of adrenaline rush you want in a rollercoaster and in a tale like this, and by God James Fucking Rollins is going to give you that in *spades*.

Some people like Hallmarkie romance books. Others like This Is Us level dusty-rooms-every-other-scene dramas. Others like more pure scifi ala the aforementioned Weir or the more scifi based Rollins type action of Jeremy Robinson. Some like their fiction to be ghost chili level damn near erotica spicy, others don't like reading the word "fuck" at all in anything whatsoever. There are all kinds of books for all kinds of readers, in other words, and if you like the type of book that Rollins continues to write, well, you're gonna like this one too.

Very much recommended.

Forced (Yet Needed) Christmas Break. Another year, another Sarah Morgan Christmas tale. And yet again, if you like Hallmark Christmas movies - and so very many people very clearly do - you're going to like this one. Perhaps more drama than many of those movies here, Imogen is truly broken - and with good reason, when we get her full backstory. She's coping - she thinks - but even then, she *barely* has her ducks in a row. They're more like cats than ducks, and they *really* don't like walking in rows. Of course, much of this - she admits - she brought on herself.

Let's face it, this is 2024, and it almost doesn't matter your generation, from Boomer all the way down to Zoomer, far too many of us can identify *all too well* with Imogen.

But really, it is the *rest* of the tale - where Imogen is forced into exile and ultimately comes face to face with her past and all of its traumas that created the version of herself she now knows - that is where the true heart of this story is, the true magic - yes, with a bit of Christmas "magic" thrown in to boot. It is this part of the tale that gives it both its gravitas and its wonder, even as it also makes its characters ever more *real*.

Christmas has few Santas, but also few Scrooges. Few Grinches. Just a lot of Whos living their who-lives in their little who-world, doing the best they can.

And here, Morgan hits that particular message out of the ballpark. Kudos to Morgan, and, since I'm writing this review on the day my beloved Atlanta Braves begin their extremely unlikely 7th straight Major League Baseball postseason run, let me just toss in a "Go Braves" and a #ChopOn as well - even though it has *nothing* to do with the book at all. :D May they get a bit of the magic of this book and make a *truly* unexpected season.

Very much recommended.

If Bobby Flay and Candace Cameron Bure Had A Baby. Particularly a "baby" in the business sense (aka, a company ;) ), this is probably what it would look like. Fans of both the Hallmark Channel and the Food Network are going to love this, as the plot itself *is* very stereotypically Hallmarkie (and, given that their Christmas movies in particular seem to be looked forward to all year by *millions*... perhaps this isn't a bad thing) and yet the level of detail Kelley goes into when describing the food... well, I daresay Gordon Ramsey himself would have a challenge trying to make words on paper sound so utterly delectable.

Now, if this isn't your scene... eh, maybe you like the women's fiction and/ or romance elements here and don't care so much about the foodie side or the Hallmarkie side. In which case, you're still going to enjoy this book. But if you're looking for Michael Bay action where there are explosions just because the "camera" turned... yeah, this isn't that. If you're looking for a Jeremy Robinson style balls to the wall scifi action... yeah, this isn't that either. But for what it *is*, it is done quite well - well enough that if Kelley can get this into enough hands, she's going to have quite the success on her hands.

Very much recommended.

Solid Story Suffers Slipshod Storytelling. Wait. Sexton. You rated this thing 5* and yet you're telling me *in the title of the review* that it actually had major problems? Yes. Why? Because just because *I* thought the multi-perspective/ prologue-as-flashforward approach didn't work as well for this story as Ms. Boyer had hoped doesn't mean that *you* will. And beyond that disagreement on storytelling (or perhaps even editing, really) approach, this actually was a solid story akin to a South Carolina Low Country version of Malibu Rising by Taylor Jenkins Reid, perhaps without the atmospheric nature of how Reid chose to tell that story. It has the same level of overall drama and mystery, and the actual tale being told here was just as good if not better - really depends there on whether you prefer a more genteel Old Money East Coast lifestyle or a more glitzy Nouveau Riche West Coast lifestyle. As a native Son of the South who grew up in the trailer parks of Georgia but rose to become a Vice President at a Fortune 50 global megacorporation (which sounds more impressive than it was, fwiw), yeah, I'm far more familiar with and a fan of the East Coast version. (Though this level of neighborhood snobbery, pettiness, and gossip are all aspects of the South that I've truly despised for most of my life.)

Still, ultimately Boyer tells a strong women's fiction/ drama tale that does both her characters and her setting justice, and is a great mind vacation to the area for those looking to escape whatever in your "real" life has you needing it.

Very much recommended.

Strong Premise Reminiscent Of The Flatliners. Ok, this is possibly a bit of a stretch even for me, but that is where my mind is going as I think about this book, and I think it applies *enough* to give you, the reader of my review, a sense of both the overall tone and style of this book, at least to a point. In both this book and that movie, you have a group of people coming together to test the bounds of medical knowledge... and things go wrong, of course. Add in the "time travel" (ish) element of the book (which could have used a great deal of internal clarification, fwiw, but worked well enough), and you've got an interestingly dark, almost goth/ emo/ gothic kind of vibe going on throughout, which the overall setting of our "current" timeline really helps to establish, particularly down the stretch into the endgame.

Overall an intriguing debut, and I'm looking forward to seeing what this author does next.

Very much recommended.

Freaking Hilarious. With Several Dusty Rooms. And Old People Sex. This is ultimately a romance novel, so it is no spoiler to note that the couple winds up together. But as the couple are both 70 yrs old... yep, old people sex. Though to be clear, "damn near erotica" isn't exactly Lamb's style, so we see them nude in bed together... and then we move on. For some, even this will be too much. For others, it won't be "spicy" enough. And yet for others, specifically those clamoring for more "elder tales" in romance... hey, here ya go. :D

But seriously, you're reading this as much for the hilarity as the romance, and it really is great in that department. Particularly the screaming rabbit that causes the pig to snort that startles the dog. :D And all the other creatures doing their things. :D And yes, Ruthie herself is one of those old grandma "firecrackers", as We Olden People used to (and still) say. She's 70 yrs old, and by God she's gonna say and do what she wants to say and do, and aint *nobody* gonna tell her any different.

But there are also several dusty rooms throughout this tale, enough to give the otherwise largely comedic tale a true heft of heart. I mean, Ruthie is 70 yrs old and human. Yes, she's suffered some losses - and we get to hear all about them, sometimes seeing them as flashbacks, always told in Lamb's whimsical humorous manner.

Add in perhaps a dash of "Sister don't miss when she aims her gun" (to quote the 70-years-old-next-year-as-I-write-this-review Reba McEntire), and this book really does have a bit of everything, at least in the real-world drama department.

Oh, and that there's quite a bit of "reality television" commentary thrown in (well within story) to boot? Chef's kiss.

Very much recommended.

*Almost* Deceptive Marketing. This is one of those books where the title has *just* enough to do with the book itself that it isn't *actually* deceptive marketing... but you can look to the lower starred reviews and see that many readers felt that the title and book had little to do with each other. (And they're right.) There is really nothing in this tale about banning books or anything related to the topic, other than a sentence or two of setup that is also (currently, as of publication day) in the description of the book.

Instead, the tale we *actually* get is a version of the Prodigal Son. One sister left years ago after having her world shattered in HS, the other sister stayed in their hometown and has now been taking care of their mother as her mother's health rapidly fails. As mom's time is nearing its end, the prodigal sister is convinced to return... and now, *everyone* in town is going to have to come to terms with the fallout from all those years ago.

In the process, we get a lot of different things, some discussed more than others - spousal abuse/ controlling spouse, sexual harassment/ teen molestation (to be clear, the age of the student in question is *not* "child molestation" in all States), breast cancer, coming home, uncovering family secrets, really quite a bit, such that even in a 350 ish page book... like I said, not all of it is covered n much depth.

And of course we also get a romance plot here... and maybe more... because, well, why not? ;)

Overall, for what it *actually* is, this tale is actually quite strong in many ways. Yes, it has its weaknesses at times, but I think overall this ultimately comes out on the stronger side of resiliency and overcoming your demons. But this is also a tale where your mileage truly will vary, so give it a read and make your own call.

Very much recommended.