Passion Burns Hot And True In "Highland Heat"

25057532Title:  Highland Heat
(The Highland Knights #2)
Author:  Jennifer Haymore
Format:  eARC
Length:  247 pages
Publisher:  Loveswept
Rating:  5 Stars

Perfect for readers of Maya Banks and Monica McCarty, Jennifer Haymore’s seductive new Highland Knights series begins with an electrifying tale of class warfare, fierce loyalties, and forbidden love.
 
With blood still drying on the front lines at Waterloo, Lady Grace Carrington helps an injured soldier to a British medical tent. Though she believes she’s pulled him to safety, in fact she has put them both in grave danger: Because when his brilliant blue eyes meet hers, the passionate Scottish sergeant kisses her in a way that leaves her breathless and trembling. As the obedient daughter of an earl, Grace shouldn’t be tempted by someone so far below her station. But as a red-blooded woman, she longs for so much more.

As far as Duncan Mackenzie is concerned, getting stabbed in the arm was the best thing that ever happened to him. When he wakes on the battlefield, the sight of Grace’s lovely face sets his soul aflame. As an enlisted man and a farmer’s son, however, pursuing his guardian angel means facing the wrath of London society, not to mention his own superiors in the British Army. Aye, but he’d risk all that and more just to keep her in his arms.  -Goodreads


My Thoughts
It is not very often that a woman meets the love of her life by falling on him while surveying the aftermath of a battle.  But in the case of one Lady Grace Carrington, that is precisely what happens.

This is a book that will have you hooked in three chapters or less.  The second book in the Highland Knights companion series.  This is the story of Grace and Duncan.  (A bit of clarification may be in order here...due to the fact that this story breaks the Historical Romance mold in a big way.)

Unlike most HR's where the story is told from either the leading man's or lady's point of view.  The points of view found here alternate between the two.  These transitions happen so seamlessly however, that one is hardly aware that said transition has occurred until  well into his or her scene.

Leading Lady Grace
Grace Carrington is a woman who has contented herself with her lot in life.  She is very proud of the fact that she acts as right hand to her aristocratic father, and with the fact that while she is a spinster;
she has maintained a reputation that is beyond reproach.
  
That is not to say however, that Grace is a cold fish.  She is just...well practical.
That, and maybe a little gun shy.  Given the fact that she was front and center for the marital problems between her sister, Lady Claire Campbell and her husband, Major Robert Campbell.
(See Highland Heart, Highland Knights #1)

But one look into the sparkling aquamarine eyes of Sargent Duncan Mackenzie, and even the blood and suffering of Waterloo all but disappears.
Things between Duncan and Grace develop very quickly, but this breakneck pace is totally justified by both wartime politics and Duncan's later, more covert service to the crown.
The plot pacing is important enough to be mentioned here because it speaks volumes about Grace's adaptability.
She proves time and time again that she is not a woman to be denied or stifled by the hindrances of convention.
She is strong, and unafraid to risk her heart, her body, and her life for Duncan, and their love.
  
Grace is a fireball of a heroine.  She is passionate, loyal, and a fighter
In short, she is perfect of the brave and brawny Scot.

Duncan...Oh Duncan!
Known to the men of his regiment as "Unbreakable Mackenzie", Duncan has the reputation of being the perfect soldier.  
Though he someday dreams of life away from the horrors of war, and the heat of battle.  He is fully aware that his social standing as an untitled and unlanded Scot, guarantees him a common existence. 
A life that would be enough.

Until Grace...

The fact that Grace is a child of the ton, puts an entirely new spin on things for Duncan.  Because he wants this woman more than a drowning man wants rescue, Duncan is forced to confront issues of class and social ramifications that have not been issues in his life to this point.
Said issues act as a major point of contention between the two lovers.  With him erring on the side of caution, and Grace wanting to throw caution to the wind.    There are other factors standing in the way of these two, but in the interest of not being too spoilery... I leave the their discovery to
my readers

The Passion
This gets a section to itself in this review because it is so well written.  If you looked up chemistry in the dictionary, you would find these two.  The depth of their passion is fathomless as it is, but when you add forbidden fruit issues and dangers of war into the mix!
Whoa!
These are two people that readers will be willing to fight for, because they are so willing to fight for each other.
Another reason that passion and chemistry are allowed to rule the day is that the rules of society don't really apply here.  Readers are allowed to see Duncan and Grace as people, rather than social standings.

The Verdict
This is a book that you won't want to end.  There is so much emotion threaded throughout the story, that it wraps the reader in a vibrant cloak of visceral experience.  The characters are multifaceted beings; written in such a way as to never show their hands at once in any situation.
The pacing is very fast.  As a result, there is never a point at which one becomes bored.
This is a book that those who are new to Historical Romance will love.  Although it may serve to spoil readers for other books.

Jennifer Haymore is an author of the highest caliber.  Her story craft is flawless, and she is more than ready to take her place with the likes of Elosia James, Tessa Dare, and Lorraine Heath.

Reviewer's Note:
Though this is the second book in a series, it may be read as a stand alone.



About Jennifer
Jennifer Haymore
USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Haymore is the author of sexy historical and contemporary romance.
You can find Jennifer in Southern California trying to talk her husband into yet another trip to England, helping her three children with homework while brainstorming a new five-minute dinner menu, or crouched in a corner of the local bookstore writing her next novel.


 

"The Grownup" Serves A Rather Child Sized Portion Of Suspense

26025580Title:  The Grownup
Author:  Gillan Flynn
Format:  Kindle Single
Length:  64 pages
Publisher:  Crown
Rating:  4 Stars

A canny young woman is struggling to survive by perpetrating various levels of mostly harmless fraud. On a rainy April morning, she is reading auras at Spiritual Palms when Susan Burke walks in. A keen observer of human behavior, our unnamed narrator immediately diagnoses beautiful, rich Susan as an unhappy woman eager to give her lovely life a drama injection. 

However, when the "psychic" visits the eerie Victorian home that has been the source of Susan's terror and grief, she realizes she may not have to pretend to believe in ghosts anymore. Miles, Susan's teenage stepson, doesn't help matters with his disturbing manner and grisly imagination. The three are soon locked in a chilling battle to discover where the evil truly lurks and what, if anything, can be done to escape it.  - Goodreads

My Thoughts

The almost painfully candid attitude of our unnamed narrator is both refreshing and unsettling.  As she sets about the task of cluing we, the unsuspecting readers in to the rather dubious reason behind her now excruciating case of 'carpal tunnel syndrome'.

The self declared maven of the 'happy ending hand-job' then goes on to explain that her painful, albeit richly deserved title, and the job from whence it has been earned, is on the lighter of the reprehensibility scale.  
It seems that she has been trained from the cradle to defraud.
To that end she also works as a 'psychic'.(pun fully intended)

Enter Susan...
Rich, bored, and clearly distressed.  Susan Burke is nothing, if not the perfect mark.  So our girl jumps at the chance to follow dear Susan home.  So that she might intuit...ahem...the source of Susan's troubles.

This is a short story that will leave you impressed, but curious as to what exactly it is that you are impressed about.
The reason for this is...
You are never quite sure what is going on, with or between Susan and her stepson Miles.

Is he a psychopath of the first order?
Is Susan?
What really happened to dear old Dad?
Is there something else going on in the house?

These are all questions that this short jaunt into creepyville will leave readers to ponder.
Hence, the reason that this read rates 4 stars instead of 5.
Where oh where can my conclusion have gone.
Because it sure as hell is NOT in this book.

I would call The Grownup much more of a teaser, than a short story.
It is just a taste of who Gillian Flynn is as a writer.
A sweet taste, but only that...just the same.


About Gillian
Gillian Flynn is an American author and television critic for Entertainment Weekly. She has so far written three novels, Sharp Objects, for which she won the 2007 Ian Fleming Steel Dagger for the best thriller; Dark Places; and her best-selling third novel Gone Girl.

Her book has received wide praise, including from authors such as Stephen King. The dark plot revolves around a serial killer in a Missouri town, and the reporter who has returned from Chicago to cover the event. Themes include dysfunctional families,violence and self-harm.

In 2007 the novel was shortlisted for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar for Best First Novel by an American Writer, Crime Writers' Association Duncan Lawrie, CWA New Blood and Ian Fleming Steel Daggers, winning in the last two categories.

Flynn, who lives in Chicago, grew up in Kansas City, Missouri. She graduated at the University of Kansas, and qualified for a Master's degree from Northwestern University.

Review Quotes:
"Gillian Flynn is the real deal, a sharp, acerbic, and compelling storyteller with a knack for the macabre."
–Stephen King

Explore The Hidden Dramatic Treasures Of "Hidden Heat"

25614735Title:  Hidden Heat
(Brothers Of Mayhem #1)
Author:  Carla Swafford
Format:  ERC
Length:  219 pages
Publisher:  Loveswept
Rating:  4 Stars
  
 Sizzling with passion and suspense, perfect for fans of Joanna Wylde and Julie Ann Walker, the Brothers of Mayhem series revs up as a headstrong beauty faces off against an outlaw motorcycle club—and falls for the bad boy she never saw coming.
 
Cassidy Ryder refuses to be intimidated by anyone, even the hell-raising, hard-drinking Brothers of Mayhem. The daughter of their former president, she’s not above smashing a few heads to keep her teenage brother safe. But when Cassidy’s big mouth gets her in trouble, the only thing that saves her is some quick thinking from the Brothers’ bartender. He’s commanding and strong, and as smooth as the whiskey he pours: the ultimate temptation for a girl who swore she’d never be a biker’s plaything.

But Thorn Savalas is no ordinary biker. He’s a cop, and he’s worked too hard earning the Brothers’ trust to blow his cover over a female—even one who rocks a pair of jeans like Cassidy. The only way to protect her is by claiming she’s his old lady. Trouble is, Thorn can’t just pretend. He wants Cassidy, and every scorching touch tells him she feels the same. But acting on their hottest fantasies could leave them both exposed . . . even if nothing else has ever felt so real.

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title.
 


My Thoughts
21-year old Cassidy Ryder is a close to MC royalty as one can get in the world of the Alabama biker clubs.
As the daughter of a fallen Skull (president) and now the foster daughter of a former vice president of the Brothers Of Mayhem.  Cassidy should be able to do no wrong in the eyes of the rough and tumble brotherhood.
But life as it should be, and life as it is for both Cassidy, and her brother Storm are two different things entirely.

Never one to hold her tongue, or find herself cowed by any man.  Cassidy and her quest to protect her soon to be 18-year old hot headed sibling from the evils of biker life, are putting her on the wrong side of the clubhouse equation.
Enter Thorn...
A relatively new addition to the club.  It seems that Thorn is always there to save Cassidy from both herself, and other club members.
Able to both walk the walk and talk the biker talk, Thorn seems the perfect fit for the hard living and speed loving biker club.  Until his mask slips however, and Cassidy gets a glimpse of the gentleman underneath.
But Thorn has secrets that are far more dangerous than the softer side that Cassidy can't help wanting to curl into.

He is a man straddling a dangerous line.  A line between right and wrong.  A line between light and dark.  A line that if crossed too far on one side or the other, could mean the end for them both.
Given the fact that it is a given from the word "go" that Thorn and Cassidy are destined for couplehood.  The incessant necessity for Thorn to fight battles brought on by Cassidy's sass and 'tude' gets old, the further that one goes into the story.
There is also an uncomfortable sleaze factor about acting Skull, Stonewall, that rears its ugly head whenever he is within leering distance of Cassidy.
The most appealing thing about this read...is not the romance.
It is the way that all of Thorn's unexpected secrets unfold.
Showing readers that he has a bigger stake in everything than  anyone.
Be warned that there is a big disconnect between Cassidy and Thorn at book's end.  There is no way to prepare for it.

Just be ready to fall off of a really high emotional cliff into a big black hole of WTF?
Not to worry though...you are saved eventually!
By a sweet but awkwardly executed "happily..."


About Carla
Carla SwaffordCarla Swafford loves romance novels, action/adventure movies and men, and her books reflect that. She's married to her high school sweetheart and lives in Alabama. 

*Be sure to sign up for her newsletter. She sends out no more than four in a year.*

http://www.carlaswafford.com/aboutcar...


BookSparks PR Presents: Pretending To Dance

23847950Title:  Pretending To Dance
Author:  Diane Chamberlain
Length:  352 pages
Format:  Print
Publisher:  St. Martin's Press
Rating:  3 Stars

Molly Arnette is very good at keeping secrets. She lives in San Diego with a husband she adores, and they are trying to adopt a baby because they can't have a child on their own. But the process of adoption brings to light many questions about Molly's past and her family—the family she left behind in North Carolina twenty years before.

 The mother she says is dead but who is very much alive. The father she adored and whose death sent her running from the small community of Morrison's Ridge. Her own birth mother whose mysterious presence in her family raised so many issues that came to a head. The summer of twenty years ago changed everything for Molly and as the past weaves together with the present story, Molly discovers that she learned to lie in the very family that taught her about pretending. If she learns the truth about her beloved father's death, can she find peace in the present to claim the life she really wants? - Goodreads

 
My Thoughts

Molly Arnette has worked very hard to build the perfect life with her husband Aiden. Now a successful divorce attorney, living in San Francisco; Molly appears to have the life that anyone would want. But as Molly knows all too well...appearances can be deceiving.

Told through a series of flashbacks to her fourteenth year in Morrison Ridge, N.C.; Pretending To Dance follows Molly's journey away from the lies of that haunt her past, and toward glaring truths that will shape her future.

Though it is very easy to sympathize with the sheltered, naive, and very confused young lady that we meet in Morrison Ridge. The woman standing on the verge of losing everything, due to blatant lies and hypocrisy... not so much.
I say this because even though the story of her relationship with her father, and the specter that his illness and loss casts over her life is very compelling. The only reason that we the readers are taking this 'trip down memory lane' with dear old Molly to begin with...lies.

Molly is scared out of her wits that both her husband and the adoption agency from which she so "desperately" wants a baby, will find out that everything that she has told them about her past is...you guessed it! Lies.

Anybody else see a little "pot and kettle" going on here.

She runs away from home and all the people who love her, and have only kept things from her because they knew that she was not capable of dealing with them.
Then uses the betrayal that she felt to justify betraying her husband.

Hmmmm...??

Compelling family drama aside. This is a very well written book; for the most part.

The ins and outs of young Molly's life in N.C. Awesome!

The eccentricities of her rather unorthodox family. Great!

Her coming of age. Superb!

Her adult life.
Well, aside from the lie that she is so afraid is going to explode.
Unremarkable.

The only thing that gives adult Molly any emotional validity at all is the sweet 'come to Jesus' moment at the end of the book. But even that is manifests through her late father.
I was provided with a review copy of this work by St. Martin's Press.


About Diane: 
Diane Chamberlain
Diane Chamberlain is the USA Today and Sunday Times bestselling author of 24 novels published in more than twenty languages. Some of her most popular books include Necessary Lies, The Silent Sister, The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, and The Keeper of the Light Trilogy. Diane likes to write complex stories about relationships between men and women, parents and children, brothers and sisters, and friends. Although the thematic focus of her books often revolves around family, love, compassion and forgiveness, her stories usually feature a combination of drama, mystery, secrets and intrigue. Diane’s background in psychology has given her a keen interest in understanding the way people tick, as well as the background necessary to create her realistic characters.

Diane was born and raised in Plainfield, New Jersey and spent her summers at the Jersey Shore. She also lived for many years in San Diego and northern Virginia before making North Carolina her home.

Diane received her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in clinical social work from San Diego State University. Prior to her writing career, Diane worked in hospitals in San Diego and Washington, D.C. before opening a private psychotherapy practice in Alexandria Virginia specializing in adolescents. All the while Diane was writing on the side. Her first book, Private Relations was published in 1989 and it earned the RITA award for Best Single Title Contemporary Novel.

Diane lives with her partner, photographer John Pagliuca, and her sheltie, Cole. She has three stepdaughters, two sons-in-law, and four grandchildren. She’s currently at work on her next novel.

Please visit Diane's website dianechamberlain.com for more information on her newest novel, Pretending to Dance, and a complete list of her books



Delve Into The Depths Of Human Pathos In "Woman With A Secret"

23461002Title:  Woman With A Secret
Author:  Sophie Hannah
Format:  Print
Length:  284 pages
Publisher:  William Morrow
Rating:  5 Stars

The New York Times bestselling author of The Monogram Murders—in the ranks of Ruth Rendell, Deborah Crombie, Kimberly McCreight, and Tana French—makes her William Morrow debut with a dark and chilling psychological thriller in which a woman desperate to hide a devastating secret in her past is drawn into a murder investigation
Traffic on Elmhirst Road has come to a halt. The police are stopping cars, searching for something. Nicki Clements waits patiently, until she glimpses a face she hoped she’d never see again. It’s him—and he’s the cop checking each car. Desperate to avoid him, she makes a panicky U-turn and escapes.

But Nicki’s peculiar behavior did not go unnoticed, and now the police have summoned her for questioning. A resident of Elmhirst Road has been murdered—a controversial newspaper columnist named Damon Blundy. The detectives begin peppering her with questions. Why was she seen fleeing the scene? What is her connection to the victim? Why was the knife that killed him used in such a peculiar way? Why were the words “HE IS NO LESS DEAD” painted on the wall of Blundy’s study?and what do they signify? 

One simple answer could clear her. But she can’t explain why she fled Elmhirst Road that day without revealing the secret that could ruin her.
Nicki isn’t guilty of murder. But she’s far from innocent . . .   -Goodreads

My Thoughts
This is a story that is so much more expansive than the reader could ever imagine.
Saying that it is about character a or b, doesn't seem appropriate either. As the plot has less to do with the particulars of what happened ( the murder of one Damon Blundy) and more to do with how the secrets kept by all suspected, led them to be suspected, convicted, or acquitted.

Nicki Clements is a great many things: a mother, a wife, and a woman with a secret. A secret that makes her heart race in her chest, a secret that makes her burn with desire, a secret that causes her to make an ill-timed U-turn on a busy thoroughfare; not far from her home. A secret that makes her a prime suspect in a murder.

What readers soon come to learn first and foremost about Nicki, and later to a lesser degree about other suspects in the offing of the controversial columnist, is that they and the secrets they carry all form a web...with Damon's killer at its heart.

Sophie Hannah builds her story by introducing readers to the secret or secrets, before the character as person, becomes a factor. In doing so, the reader is induced into following said character down his or her rabbit hole. If for no other reason than to see how far it goes.
Plot wise this leads to a story that is very detail heavy. It also creates a storyline that wanders quite a bit. These wanderings are well worth the trip in most cases however, because they often give the reader access to deeper thoughts. Those hidden reasons for things said or done.

One example of this sort of 'circular thinking' would be the introduction of factors by Nicki's ex best friend Melissa, which suggest that Nicki's brother might have committed the murder. Though there is not the slightest hint of a connection between the two men. The author sets the reader on such a well defined path of circumstance, that the conclusion of his involvement can not be ruled out as a possibility. 

Is if the solving of a murder is not a juicy enough steak for her audience to gnaw, there are also generous amounts of psychological sides to satisfy the appetites of those with a hunger to...
Understand the effects of secrets on marriage, parent \ child relationships, as well as the relationship between the secret keeper and his or her secret.

Thankfully, because there is so much emphasis placed on the interworkings of the players within the mystery, the group of inspectors solving it seem secondary to the overall conclusion. Driving this point home, is the fact that they don't come into play in any substantive way until well after 50% of the book. The inclusion of said law enforcement is mentioned in this review because it is the only clue to the reader within the story, that suggests the book is part of a series.

While this is, on its surface, a book about the murder of a man who may or may not have had it coming. This is also an oftentimes glaring look at the human condition. How the need to feel connected, to be heard, to be acknowledged, or even to manipulate \ be manipulated can drive a person to unfathomable levels of depravity.

Reviewer's Note:
This book may be read as a stand alone, though it is part of a series.


 About Sophie
Sophie HannahSophie Hannah is an internationally bestselling writer of psychological crime fiction, published in 27 countries. In 2013, her latest novel, The Carrier, won the Crime Thriller of the Year Award at the Specsavers National Book Awards. Two of Sophie’s crime novels, The Point of Rescue and The Other Half Lives, have been adapted for television and appeared on ITV1 under the series title Case Sensitive in 2011 and 2012. In 2004, Sophie won first prize in the Daphne Du Maurier Festival Short Story Competition for her suspense story The Octopus Nest, which is now published in her first collection of short stories, The Fantastic Book of Everybody’s Secrets.

Sophie has also published five collections of poetry. Her fifth, Pessimism for Beginners, was shortlisted for the 2007 T S Eliot Award. Her poetry is studied at GCSE, A-level and degree level across the UK. From 1997 to 1999 she was Fellow Commoner in Creative Arts at Trinity College, Cambridge, and between 1999 and 2001 she was a fellow of Wolfson College, Oxford. She is forty-one and lives with her husband and children in Cambridge, where she is a Fellow Commoner at Lucy Cavendish College. She is currently working on a new challenge for the little grey cells of Hercule Poirot, Agatha Christie’s famous detective.




InkSlinger Presents: Vanquished




Vanquished-800 Cover reveal and PromotionalVanquished by S.E. Green
Release Date: November 10, 2015
Buy Links:
Amazon | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

 (Warning: For mature audiences only)

Synopsis:
For a price, the world’s most powerful people can explore their darkest desires. On a private island hidden in the ocean they may hunt humans for game, attend gladiator-style fights, participate in elaborate orgies, and freely indulge in all the deadly sins within the cosplay of ancient times.

Abducted from their life in Miami, Valoria and her younger sister wake up in this secret society, wherein Valoria is condemned to the fig
hts and her sister is taken away to become a sex slave.


Now “property” of a sadistic tyrant, Valoria joins other men and women captives who are forced to fight and maim for others’ enjoyment, to run in their hunts, and participate in deviant fantasies. And she’s under the cold, watchful eye of Alexior, a hired trainer with his own agenda for being involved in the twisted decadence.


After surviving several near-death ordeals, a defiant Valoria focuses on her training and against all odds soon becomes a favorite. But she fights for one thing and one thing only—to be reunited with her sister and to be freed.

But promises of freedom are sometimes just manipulative lies . . .

add to goodreads




Excerpt:
A muscle in the right side of his jaw ticks and my eyes go straight to it. I stare at it as it ticks a second time. A third. My vision narrows to just that one hard muscle, and warmth flushes through me. The muscle stops ticking and instead locks into tense attention.
I swallow, and my gaze trails down to his throat to see it constrict, too. The puffy vein in his neck draws my attention next and I watch as it thumps. Thumps. Thumps.
He moves a fraction closer and I draw in his unique Alexior scent. He shifts, and I realize he’s opening the door.
I don’t bring my eyes back to his. I don’t want him to see whatever it is that is going on inside of me right now. I don’t want to face the possibility there is nothing going on inside of him.
He grabs my upper arm and squeezes almost too tightly and then roughly trails his hand down the length of my arm and around to my lower back. So low he’s touching the top of my ass. He turns me and presses me forward into the room.

My Thoughts
Take every great gladiator movie that you have ever watched, make every kick-ass hero a heroine, add a dash of Caligula, and you have S. E. Green's awesome adult adventure, Vanquished.
At a time in both Adult and New Adult fiction when the hot and steamy romance reigns supreme.  It is quite the refresher,when an author goes the extra mile to bring readers an action-packed, mile-a minute survival story, set on a fantastical Roman themed island.

Main character Volaria begins her journey toward heroic infamy in modern day Miami. She and her sister Lena, in search of gainful employment and a place to live, answer the ad of one Mr. Vasquez.
After which, there is some drugging and Volaria wakes to find her sister gone and herself on auction to the highest bidder.

She proves to be quite the scrapper from the start, and ends up in the clutches of Dominus, a man whose living is made on the backs of those in his fighting stables.  This is where things really start to get both interesting and personal for our girl.  There is a great deal of rivalry among the fighters, friendships, secrets, lies, and lets not forget the plots...oh the plots.

Much more distressing however, are the tyrannical 'elite'.  Able to rule with an iron fist; these 'elite' go out of their way to prove that their depravity knows no bounds.  They take special delight in any type of sexual deviance or bloodsport.

It is in fact, the descriptions of said bloodsports, and our heroine's involvement in them, that make up the majority of the story.
 
The only detraction that is to be had in this great adventure;  the fact that the world building takes a back seat to character development just before the book's midpoint. Though this does allow for the introduction and fleshing-out of wonderful players on both the heroic and villainous sides of things.  It also narrows the scope of the novel to a rather predictable conclusion.
 
This is a very quick read that is sure to appeal to the underdog lover in us all.   
 


About S.E. Green :
S.E. GreenS. E. Green (aka Shannon Greenland) is the award winning author of the teen thriller, Killer Instinct, a YALSA Quick Pick for Reluctant Readers; the teen spy series, The Specialists, an ALA Popular Paperback and a National Reader’s Choice recipient; and the YA romance, The Summer My Life Began, winner of the Beverly Hills Book Award. Her books have been translated into several languages and are currently on numerous state reading lists.  
Vanquished is her debut novel for adults.
Shannon grew up in Tennessee where she dreaded all things reading and writing. She didn’t even read her first book for enjoyment until she was twenty-five. After that she was hooked! When she’s not writing, she works as an adjunct math professor and lives on the coast in Florida with her very grouchy dog. Find her online everywhere @segreenauthor.





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