Bea Reviews Lethal Intent by Cara Putman

Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 12th, 2021
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Blurb from goodreads:

When Caroline takes a job with a promising medical start-up, she believes she’s on the side of angels . . . until she’s asked to go too far.

When the judge she’s clerked for dies, Caroline Bragg starts over as in-house counsel for a pharmaceutical start-up working on innovative adult stem cell research with the potential to save thousands of lives. But when her charismatic new boss ignores her legal advice, Caroline's left unsettled. Then the company launches into headlines when a furious family demands answers regarding how the start-up used their deceased relative’s cells for innovation—with neither informed consent nor agreement for compensation. Caroline must defend the work of the company even as she realizes informed consent couldn’t have been given and the business is operating on questionable legal and ethical grounds.

Caroline’s friend Brandon Lancaster is at risk of losing his life’s work—a group foster care called Almost Home that has provided for sibling groups needing a landing place. He’s desperate for a solution, but then the pharmaceutical company’s he invested his last dime in is losing value fast. He’s been counting on the eventual sale of the start-up to save Almost Home, but with every other effort failing, he’s out of options and out of time.

With the start-up in trouble, Caroline's and Brandon’s problems intersect. He needs the story to end so he can salvage his investment, and she wants the truth to come out. Will their relationship survive? And will they survive the changes that are inevitably headed their way?

Bea Reviews Leave No Trace by Sara Driscoll

Series: FBI K-9 #5
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Kensington Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Dec. 29th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

FBI handler Meg Jennings and her search-and-rescue K-9 partner are heading south where it’s hunting season. But this time the prey is human.

One arrow through the heart could be a tragic hunting accident. A second one, within days, looks more like a crime. That’s when Meg Jennings and Brian Foster of the FBI’s Forensic Canine Unit head to Georgia to investigate. With their dogs Hawk and Lacey, Meg and Brian are enlisted to follow the scent of a killer. At first, nothing seems to connect the two victims–a county commissioner and State Patrol officer. But the blood sport around the southern town of Blue Ridge is just beginning.

As the body count rises, the compound bow killer becomes even more elusive, appearing and vanishing like a ghost. However, with each new slaying Meg is beginning to suspect the grim design that’s escalating in the shadows. At its heart, a tragic event that reaches back nearly two centuries in Georgia’s history is now turning Blue Ridge into a hunting ground. But as Meg gets closer to solving the puzzle, the closer she is to stepping into the crosshairs of an elusive murderer with deadly aim, and motives as deep and dark as the woods

Review & Giveaway: The Forever Girl by Jill Shalvis

Series: Wildstone #6
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 12th, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Books-A-Million | Bookshop.org | Google Books | IndieBound | Kobo |

* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

New York Times bestselling author Jill Shalvis does it once again with a heartfelt story of family, forgiveness, and secrets that have the power to change the course of more than one life.

When Maze returns to Wildstone for the wedding of her estranged bff and the sister of her heart, it’s also a reunion of a once ragtag team of teenagers who had only each other until a tragedy tore them apart and scattered them wide.

Now as adults together again in the lake house, there are secrets and resentments mixed up in all the amazing childhood memories. Unexpectedly, they instantly fall back into their roles: Maze their reckless leader, Cat the den mother, Heather the beloved baby sister, and Walker, a man of mystery.

Life has changed all four of them in immeasurable ways. Maze and Cat must decide if they can rebuild their friendship, and Maze discovers her long-held attraction to Walker hasn’t faded with the years but has only grown stronger.

Review & Giveaway: Dirty Deeds: An Urban Fantasy Collection by Faith Hunter, Diana Pharaoh Francis, Devon Monk, & R. J. Blain

Read As A Stand Alone: Mostly
Publisher: Pen & Page Publishing
Source: publicist in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 12th, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo | 
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

When the going gets tough, the tough get their hands dirty. Join NY Times Bestselling author Faith Hunter, USA Today Bestselling author R.J. Blain, and National Bestselling authors Diana Pharaoh Francis and Devon Monk on a wild romp where the damsels bring the distress and what can go wrong will go wrong.

Venture into a thrilling spinoff tale from the world of Jane Yellowrock; join vacationing gods in what appears to be a quiet, ordinary town; visit a supernatural hotel where the bedbugs could very well eat you; and dive into the zany, deadly world of the Magical Romantic Comedy (with a body count) series.

In this collection of all-new urban fantasy novellas and other stories, no job is too big or too small — if the price is right.

Review & Excerpt: Agent Under Siege by Lena Diaz

Series: The Justice Seekers #2
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Harlequin
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 1st, 2021
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | BooksAMillion | Book Depository | Google Books | Harlequin | IndieBound |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from publisher:

Can they outsmart a killer …who’s already escaped justice?

The Kentucky Ripper is in prison…or is he? When no one will help Teagan Ray find the man who really abducted her, former profiler Bryson Anton agrees to investigate. But soon their search takes two jolting turns—brutal attacks from a cunning suspect…and a powerful mutual attraction.

Hello 2021! Goodbye 2020!

 

Well, 2020 sure wasn't the year I expected when it started. I didn't anticipate a pandemic, or the protests, though those were needed. I didn't expect getting laid off from work for 3.5 months. Thank you, COVID-19. Grrrrr. I didn't expect my hermetic tendencies to become such a positive thing. The shutdown, though inconvenient at times, didn't bother me as much as it did some of my family and friends who are so much more social than I am. I didn't expect to have a meltdown and spend a day huddled in bed sobbing my guts out when my state's lockdown was extended yet again. I really wanted to get back to work, and the extension revealed that I wasn't as mentally and emotionally okay as I thought I was. I'm doing better these days.

Bea Reviews The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman

Series: The Invisible Library #7
Read As A Stand Alone: Possible, but not recommended
Publisher: Ace
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 29th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A professional spy for a mysterious Library which harvests fiction from different realities, Irene faces a series of assassination attempts that threaten to destroy her and everything she has worked for.

Irene is teaching her new assistant the fundamentals of a Librarian's job, and finding that training a young Fae is more difficult than she expected. But when they both narrowly avoid getting killed in an assassination attempt, she decides that learning by doing is the only option they have left - especially when the assassins keep coming for them, and for Irene's other friends as well...

In order to protect themselves, Irene and her friends must do what they do best: search for information to defeat the overwhelming threat they face and identify their unseen enemy. To do that, Irene will have to delve deeper into her own history than she ever has before, face an ancient foe, and uncover secrets that will change her life and the course of the Library forever.

Bea Reviews Take It Back by Kia Abdullah

Series: Zara Kaleel #1
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 8th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

From author Kia Abdullah, Take It Back is a harrowing and twisting courtroom thriller that keeps you guessing until the last page is turned.

One victim. Four accused. Who is telling the truth?

Zara Kaleel, one of London's brightest legal minds, shattered the expectations placed on her by her family and forged a brilliant legal career. But her decisions came at a high cost, and now, battling her own demons, she has exchanged her high profile career for a job at a sexual assault center, helping victims who need her the most. Victims like Jodie Wolfe.

When Jodie, a sixteen-year-old girl with facial deformities, accuses four boys in her class of an unthinkable crime, the community is torn apart. After all, these four teenage defendants are from hard-working immigrant families and they all have proven alibis. Even Jodie's best friend doesn't believe her.

But Zara does--and she is determined to fight for Jodie--to find the truth in the face of public outcry. And as issues of sex, race and social justice collide, the most explosive criminal trial of the year builds to a shocking conclusion.