Wednesday, April 30, 2014

Review of "Bloodline Prophecy - Acceptance" by Shelby Everdale

Having lost the will to live, Sebastian Adario decides to starve himself to death, but it's not so easy to starve the monster inside of him. He can only control it for so long before the monster takes over and he feeds again. He should have avoided town that night, but luckily for him he didn't and the monster took over. That's when he saw the bloodline prophecy and discovered his soul mate. The only problem was that she hadn't even been born yet. Would Sebastian be able to keep her family safe until she was born, and would she be able to accept him for the monster that he is if they ever meet?

Before I get into my review, I feel I need to tell you that my view of this book may be affected a bit by having over-indulged in vampire books as of late. I think I may be getting a little burnt out on that subgenre and it may have hampered my enjoyment of "Bloodline Prophecy - Acceptance." So take this review with a grain of salt, a shot of tequila, and a wedge of lime.

I started this book at the beginning of April, and it took me until the end of April to finish it because it just didn't suck me in. I frequently picked it up to read a few pages and then put it down in favor of reading another book (a couple of times because I'd signed up for blog tours and had commitments with a solid deadline). While I always have multiple books started at once, I almost never have more than one blog review book going at the same time. I try very hard to work through my blog commitment books methodically, but just found it impossible to slog through this book before focusing on other commitments. It's not even a particularly long book, so there's really no good reason for my failure.

This book has a lot of back story, some of it a bit repetitive, and it also seems to cover all the vampire rules for this series (which is absolutely necessary when writing a vampire book) but these things made the book move really slowly, and I believe are a large part of the reason why I just couldn't get into the book. Beyond that, the major source of conflict in this book was merely the question of whether Viviana would accept Sebastian in spite of the fact that he's a vampire.

We did get some hints about things to come in future books, which actually makes me hopeful for this series in spite of the slow start. I suspect the next book will be much more action packed now that the back story and vampire rules are out of the way. While the story moved slowly, the book itself was fairly well written otherwise, and I do look forward to seeing more from Shelby Everdale.

Overall I give this book 3 out of 5 stars because it was well written, but it just didn't pull me in. - Katie

Buy Links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Author Bullying: When the Shoe is on the Author's Foot

Author Bullying
When the Shoe is on the Author’s Foot

First off, there are some things you should know about me, basic background information that is pertinent considering the messages I received in response to a review I posted. I live in Germany; I have lived in Germany for a little over three years now, the first three while my husband was enlisted in the Army were spent in government housing where we had one option for internet, and while it largely sucked it was reliably unreliable (but at least when we had access to the internet at all, it was always fast enough to connect to with my computer). Now that my husband is out of the military and working as a contractor we have moved out of the military housing and live on the economy where we thought we should have many options for our internet and signed a two year contract with a company for internet service. They immediately shipped out a router and a mobile stick so we could connect the next day while waiting for a technician to be able to connect us through DSL. The company we chose is the only one that services our area that doesn’t limit DSL internet usage (this is important because we stream a lot of stateside television). Now our mobile stick allows us 10 gigs of high-speed internet a month, before the speed is greatly reduced; the speed is reduced to such a point that I cannot access the internet from my computer, fortunately it’s still fast enough that I can get on Facebook and Safari on my iPad to stay connected. We have been trying to get our DSL internet connected for three months now, and our company tells us they can’t connect us because Company X already has a line in use coming into our house. Our address is _ _ D, and we have personally talked to the previous tenant who is good friends with our neighbors, and he assures us that they got their service transferred to their new location months ago, he even called Company X to verify that for us. This leaves one possibility. There is a single line of service for all of address _ _ A-D, and the person in _ _ A has service through Company X, so everyone else has to as well. But since our chosen internet company can still provide us with service through the mobile stick, we cannot get out of our contract with them. So we get 10 gigs of high-speed internet a month (that lasts a week in our house), and then I can’t connect to the internet from my computer.

Point number two about me. I’m not very good at remembering to post reviews on Amazon yet. I’ve only been reading Indie books since the end of October of last year. But I also don’t even bother going to Amazon to post reviews when I can only connect to the internet from my iPad because it’s a pain in the butt and I’m a bit lazy (note, most of the books I’ve been reading lately are copies received from the author so they’re not already connected to Amazon on my Kindle app). Goodreads has an app though, that is super simple to rate and review books after I’ve read them. So when I finish a book, the review goes on Goodreads immediately. When my high-speed internet resets, I copy and paste my reviews from Goodreads onto Amazon a few at a time; I don’t want Amazon to think my reviews aren’t valid because I post 20 in a single day. My high-speed internet reset this morning.

Point number three about me. I have a five year old and an almost 3 year old and I have several books to read to them on the iPad. I have made a habit of reviewing these books because they will all be Amazon verified purchases, and I have a theory that if Amazon decides to delete peoples reviews again, people with a high percentage of Amazon verified purchases will be spared the loss of their non-verified reviews. This is just a theory, but none of my reviews disappeared last time Amazon went on a review deleting spree. My criteria for rating kids books are that if my children demand that I read a book to them over and over again, it’s a good kids book and deserves five stars. It gets bonus points if it’s one I don’t mind reading over and over again, but that doesn’t factor into the Amazon rating.

Point number four about me. I’m addicted to entering giveaways. Goodreads has a First Reads giveaway program. When I enter a giveaway for a book in the First Reads giveaway program, I add it to my “to read” shelf on Goodreads. That shelf now has over 11,000 books. My “currently reading” shelf has 11 books (yes, I really have 11 books started right now). My “read” shelf has 223 books; I’ve written reviews for over 100 of those books because they are the books that I’ve read since creating a Goodreads account.

This evening I received the following message about a book I recently reviewed, a review that was copy and pasted onto Amazon today. “You are a racist! There I said it and meant it. You gave all books that had black names and photos bad ratings. Stick to reviewing kids books there are less pages and they are simple, in which you are more than eager to give a five star. Stick to what you know best.”

That message was followed less than an hour later by this message: “Here's your pattern,

You never had any intentions of rating my book good or bad. You have read thousands of books in days, and I mean thousands. You went to Amazon today 4/15/2014 to post about other books and stopped by my page, saw the positive ratings and that enraged you.

All black authors, black pics, or black names you gave poor ratings. Period. I checked and here at goodreads that other black author has 4-5 star ratings. A pattern of yours I'm sure.

The book is in audio and any issues, the book would have never been accepted by the narrator Caroline Miller, she made no changes to the audiobook and would have never put her name on it had it been the way you described the book in your review.

I can bet that you are on the list that many author's here at Goodreads has complained about and are bringing about legal actions, for false reviews, bullying, and attempt to control book sales.

You never intended to give the rating until you so happened across my page while rating others and were enraged with the positive ratings.

You read thousands of books in hours and days. I would love to read the book you have ready to publish.”

Here is the 2 star review as posted on Amazon and Goodreads (I did delete the name because my intent really isn’t to hurt her sales.) “I received a copy of this book through the Goodreads First Reads giveaway program with the hope that I would leave an honest review.

The first and most important thing that I have to say is that this book NEEDS an editor. Miss _____ may be an expert in her field, but that knowledge did not shine through the various issues and meandering thoughts in this book. The ideas were not portrayed in a clear, concise manner making them difficult or impossible to understand, and unlike if I were consulting personally with Ms. ______ in her office for assistance, I cannot ask her for clarification on the many things that were unclear while reading. Another major issue for me (although others may find it trivial) was the almost complete lack of page numbers. I cannot reference specific items on specific pages because the book doesn't have them. Furthermore the table of contents wouldn't help me reference which chapters would best help me in my job search as all of the chapters are listed as one item followed by meaningless page numbers.

I found portions of the book to be excessively wordy or redundant, while there were other areas where more elaboration would have been very beneficial to the reader (like when the author advises the reader to be careful with the information included on their social networking pages to not cross the line into the unprofessional, examples of some things that should not be included would be very beneficial. While I'm sure most of us already know to be careful of what we include on our social networking sites to present is in the best light and don't need those examples, the people that don't already know to be professional with the information they share, also have less understanding of what would qualify as unprofessional). I'm fairly certain that all of these issues that I've had while reading this book are things that a competent editor would have pointed out to be fixed prior to publication.

I did like how the author provided space for notes after each chapter for the dedicated job seeker.”


I stand by my review, and I will not be bullied into taking it down. If I have to, I can read the book again to find examples of each of the problems I listed in my review. But honestly, do I owe her a positive review because she’s African-American? Should I have to be worried about posting my honest opinions of books because of the race of the author? Was my review bullying her? And should reviewers have to worry about a lawsuit for giving a respectful but negative review? - Katie

Review of "Baby Talk" by Mike Wells

What would you do if your five month old baby, that you never wanted, suddenly started talking to you and no one else? This is the problem that plagues Neal in "Baby Talk," but beyond that, he is pretty sure she is plotting his demise, out to get revenge on him for trying to get her aborted. But that's just crazy, right?

I'm a big fan of horror novels, Stephen King is my absolute favorite author, so I was excited to get the opportunity to review this horror story. It comes in two books, which I found to be disappointing as they were both quite short. Had they come packaged as a single book, I would have finished the story much sooner, because I would have kept going when I got to the point where the first book ends, but instead I stopped and didn't start reading book two for about two weeks. This wasn't because I didn't want to continue the story, but simply because it was the end of the book, which meant that I could go read something else. My brain works a little weird sometimes.

Anyway, on to the actual story. I really enjoyed it. We spend most of the story in Neal's head as his adorable five month old baby torments him, but obviously no one believes him because five month old babies don't do those kinds of things. Neal, being a fairly reasonable guy, starts to question his sanity a little bit. Maybe his wife is right and there is a perfectly reasonable explanation for what he thinks Natasha is doing. But he just can't ignore the look in her eyes when she's looking at him.

I related to Neal, and truly believed that Natasha was evil and out to get him. I really hoped that he would succeed in killing her, and I couldn't help but picture Gabe from Stephen King's Pet Semetary while reading this book. I even cursed Neal's weakness every time he had a "rational" thought that opened him up to danger from Baby Natasha.

The book was fairly well written, with only a few minor hiccups where minor words were left out of sentences (like the, a, it...words that you will easily fill in because it's obvious what's supposed to be there) and a few spelling errors, but nothing incredibly glaring. I also really enjoyed the epilogue.

Overall I give "Baby Talk" four out of five stars for being well-written, engaging, and making me glad that I'm finished having babies. - Katie

Buy Links:
Baby Talk Book 1
Amazon (This is books 1 and 2 combined, just the way I want it!)
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

Baby Talk Book 2
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

*Blog Tour and Giveaway* for "Dark Indiscretions: Monster Unleashed" by Shakuita Johnson

full_size

Blurb

What would you do if the one fate chose for you vanished into thin air? What would you give up? Who would you become to stay with that person?

Krista Bell finally knows what it’s like to be free. The torture she endured at the hands of her psychotic father have unleashed the monster her mother tried so hard to help her suppress. The only thing she wants to do is be the shadow in the night that everyone is afraid of.

Taser is barely holding it together. He lost Kris once to her father and now he’s losing her to the monster she is becoming. He’s also barely containing his own monster since Krista decided she didn’t need her mates anymore. Nathan is still near but he may not be enough.

Nathan is on the verge of losing not one but both of his mates. One vanished without a trace. The other is avoiding him. He has run out of patience with them both.

But when the monster that Krista has become comes to them with a proposal will they take her up on it and possibly lose themselves or will they try to talk her down and get the beast to put back on her chain?


Review

Review:
Krista has gone bat shit crazy as result from how her father, James, tortured her in the first book. This book starts basically where the first one left off at. Krista is letting the crazy, in-bred, Mystic come out. The monster that her mother, Jennifer, has had caged up all these centuries. 

There is a "prophecy". It is starting to come true, now that Krista is off killing innocent people for the fun of it, she specially has a thing for virgin blood. Will she be able to bring James back from Hell? Will she stop herself from being this way, or with her mom and her mom's mates kill her? 

This does end in a cliff hanger, I will be reading the next one when it comes out. ~ Tonya





"Born from light and darkness. 
  Reborn from unimaginable pain.
  A heart once bathed in love.
  Lay hardening becoming obsolete.
  Her destiny was written, long before she
  was ever born.
  Monster.  Killer.  Hellbringer.
  The many names she was always given."

  couple-under-covers

Excerpt

1625

It had been two months. Two months since she killed her whole family. Two months since she ran and never looked back. Two months of looking over her shoulder. Something was wrong with her. Jennifer Johnston just knew it. She was craving things she had never wanted before, never ever had needed. It was getting harder and harder to resist the silent call, the cravings that started to crawl up her throat to the point of choking her with their mounting intensity. She didn’t know how much longer she could run, how much longer she could say no to these sudden scary and violent urges.

She needed to find someone to talk to, another Mystic perhaps, but she didn’t know who she could trust. She had done something no other Mystic had done before. She wasn’t like the rest of them. She was different. Some may even say defective. She didn’t want to become an inbred freak like the rest of them, but she feared it had been done. The things her uncle had succeeded in doing before she could get away from him, before she had the strength to kill him, may be coming back to haunt her.

She needed to rest for just a little while. That old barn looked like as good a place as any. She would only rest for a second more. As she quickly and quietly made her way to her destination, she heard noises in the distance. What sounded like a tiny cavalry was coming up fast behind her. She tried to duck before she was spotted, but it seemed her luck was still running thin. She braced herself for a possible fight.

“Halt! What business do you have on this land?” a male voice called out.

“I’m just a bit lost. Could you point me in the direction of an inn?” Jenny asked, trying to appear disoriented.

“Lying Mystic scum! We can smell your trickery and deceit from here. Where are the rest of you? What trap is this?” the male demanded.

Shit. Humans she could have easily dealt with, other paranormals not so much. This would be tricky. She counted eight soldiers. They should have brought more.

“I don’t want any trouble. Leave me be and I’ll be on my way,” Jenny tried to reason with the creatures.

“Grab her!” the male demanded.

Awesome! They were going to play try to capture the Mystic. Jenny did something she had never done before. She used her Mystic powers. She called upon all the energy she could muster, which was a whole hell of a lot, and let loose. Damn, something was defiantly changing with her right now, but she didn’t have time to explore it. She heard screams from all eight men. She had overloaded their nervous systems. She could see blood start to seep from any and everywhere possible. It was disgusting.

Not wanting them to suffer more than they were already, Jenny sent a final blast and everything stopped. Not a single heart beat anymore. She had killed them, every last one of them. She didn’t have time to feel bad for the lives she had taken. They left her no choice. The worst part of it all, she thought to herself, was that she should have drained at least one of them dry. She was so fucking hungry! She performed a quick spell to turn the bodies to ash and continued on her way to that damn barn.

   
About The Author
 
IMG_0556Shakuita Johnson is a 29-year-old Psychology major. When she isn’t going to school or working, she is doing what she loves most. Writing. She started writing in middle school. Starting with poetry. Then short stories in a creative writing course her senior year. Her love for paranormal and supernatural started with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps books and TV show, Anne Rice Vampire Chronicles, and Christopher Pike books. She is an avid reader with over 100 books on her bookshelf and 1000 plus on her iPad. This is her second novel. Visit her online and read her poems and one attempt at songwriting on her blog.
   

Connect with the Author

Facebook

Twitter

Goodreads

LinkenIn

Amazon

WordPress

  Krista1

Monday, April 7, 2014

Blog Tour for "Objective" by K. Larsen

ALL BLOODLINES SERIES BOOKS CAN BE READ AS STANDALONES
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 OBJECTIVE (Bloodlines #2)

My story started out cliche, good girl falls for bad boy, but one wrong move changed all that. Turns out the good girl doesn’t save the bad boy. My story goes from cliche to risque to mind blowing. My story is different from all the others because the events of my story led me to one thing...my objective.


Remembering him comes in dreams and flashbacks that I can't control. I tell myself it’s time to let go...but moving on from him is impossible when I still see our lives in my head. 


When you kill your soul mate you don’t ever really recover. 
A year of trying to forget or rather move past it has taught me that you can't. Its an impossibility to move on from that kind of horrific form of betrayal. If you you’re too selfish or scared for suicide, like me, you learn to wake up every morning and follow routine. One foot in front of the other, day after day. 


Hollow. Lifeless. Haunted. Loving him was like the sun on a summer day. Living without him is like slowly burning to death. Torture.


A Bloodlines Novel. 
*Note Tug of War is the 1st in the Bloodlines books, each book can be read as a stand alone book.*





As stated at the top of the post, the books in this series can be read as stand-alones, I can at least confirm that "Objective" fits that description as it's the only book in the series I've read at this point and I don't feel like there was any pertinent information missing from the story, but having finished it, "Tug of War" is being moved to a higher location on my TBR list. 

Cypress is a girl who fell for a guy from the wrong side of the tracks. Magnolia is a woman who shot that guy and left him for dead. Tragically, Cypress and Magnolia are the same person. Magnolia is smart, she knows that her dead boyfriend's uncle is going to be looking for her to exact revenge and recover the money she took when she fled, so she sends him on a wild goose chase to try and slow him down, but she knows she's only buying time. She knows that she needs to prepare for the eventual confrontation, and so she does as best she can. But will her training prepare her for meeting her captor?

I LOVED this story. It sucked me right in from the beginning and kept it's claws in me until the end. Magnolia is a strong heroine with weaknesses; perfectly flawed. Some days she can barely function and others she seems almost on top of the world, at least until she hits a trigger. I could completely relate to the goody-two-shoes bookworm Cypress; I was a teacher's pet, smartest in my class, nose stuck in a book kind of girl in high school and I'm still a nose stuck in a book kind of girl. I am in awe of the woman that Magnolia became. I think most people would crumble under what she endured, but she kept going, taking things one day at a time. 

This book has action, suspense, a surprise twist, and a little bit of romance just for good measure. The words transported me right into the Adirondack chair next to Magnolia, with a glass of bourbon in my hand. I was jumpy when Bentley showed up, although I personally fell in love with him pretty early on. I was terrified when we found that cypress branch. And in the end I was anxious to get the confrontation with Ezra over with. This book gets 5 out of 5 stars from me. - Katie





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PRAISE:

"I think this will definitely be a must read. K. Larsen has hit it out of the park with this little twisted story of Magnolia/Cypress. 5 Stars" -Author R.L. Griffin

"Edgy, raw, intriguing, captivating...an absolute must read. One. Two. Three. Breathe. Four. Five. Six. ~5~ Truth or Lie? ~Adapt or die~ Stars"- Book Crush Book Blog

" This story deserve 5 stars, if not more, and I cant wait to get my hands on the next book by Ms. Larsen."-This Redhead LOVES Books Blog

"Myyyy godddd. This book is everything I love wrapped up in one amazing little package. It's got suspense, mystery, and some super crazy twists. It was one of the hardest books to put down that I've read in a LONG time." - I'll Be Reading Book Blog

"Wow, one of my favorites this year. A real page turner ...." -Magic Within The Pages Book Blog
 

I have a weird addiction to goat cheese and chocolate martinis, not together though. I adore my dog. He is the most awesome snuggledoo in the history of dogs.

 Seriously.

I hate dirty dishes.
I like sarcasm and funny people.

I should probably be running right now... because of the goat cheese....and stuff.
I've been told I'm the mistress of Snark. I like that.


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BLOODLINES SERIES
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TUG OF WAR (Bloodlines #1)


Impulsive, YES. Irresponsible, SURE. Necessary, PROBABLY. Going to end badly, most likely. Does any of that matter to me, no. I decided that I can't please everyone so this week my only goal is to please me. I’m a selfish cow but I can’t seem to help it. I’m Clara Lord. I own Bloodline’s Tattoo Parlor, have a filthy mouth, no filter and a really strong objection to bossy idiots, pet names and wealthy men.

You will hate me, love me or love to hate me but either way it doesn’t matter. Everything I touch turns to crap and it’s all my fault. See, I lived through hell. Then I escaped hell and carefully spent the next eight years crafting a perfect little life until Domini Napoli screwed it all up. Now nothings right. Everything’s wrong and all my secrets are coming out.



Tug Of War has been voted:
Top 3 of 2013 list from Book Junkie Girls
Top 10 of 2013 from For The Love Of Books
Top 13 of 2013 List from I'll Be Reading

RL Griffin listed Objective as the book she most looks forward to in 2014 releasing.
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Be one of the first 50 Amazon Reviews for a chance to win $250, and signed paperback!!



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 RESISTANCE (Bloodlines #3)
(Sawyer's Story, Releasing Late 2014)

My name is Sawyer Crown, I own Bloodlines Tattoo Parlor, despise drama, and have a penchant for broken women. It's a habit I intend to kick.

The arrangement had been simple. Clara and I sleep together if and when we wanted too. We were always best friends first. We raised Allie together with love. Four years into it did people assume we were married- yes. Did people assume I was Allie's father- sure. Did I love every second of that- most definitely.

Then my world exploded. Clara left me. Moved on. I'm supposed to too. I just haven’t figured the moving on part out quite yet. The heart wants what it wants right? Or maybe the mind want what it wants for the heart. All of those scenarios are bullshit though. Clara went for the gold. She carved out the happiness she needed, wanted.

Now it’s my turn.



Prologue


I feel like I’m crawling in my skin. I’ve had this feeling for the last sixteen months just about. Time has done little thus far to mend me. People keep promising time heals all wounds. Bullshit. I call bullshit. Love is a four-letter-word.

Love is blindness. I didn’t want to see. I don’t want to see. I chose to ignore all the signs. I was in denial. I pretended that Clara and I were more than we were. I knew it was wrong. I buried that feeling deep though. Flat out refused to let it bubble to the surface where I’d have to deal with it.  I’d tear out my insides if I could go back and change it.

I didn’t give her room to breathe. I never gave her the chance to come to me, to want me. I gave her what I wanted to give and convinced myself that it was exactly what we both wanted and needed.

Our arrangement had been simple. We slept together if and when we wanted too. We were always best friends first and we were to raise Allie together with love. Four years into it did people assume we were married- yes. Did people assume I was Allies father- sure. Did I love every second of that- most definitely.

The problem is, real women don’t need you, they want you. Clara always needed me. I knew that. I liked it, hell I loved it. I thought it would be enough to keep her attached to me. It wasn’t. She put my heart in a blender and watched it spin around until it was a pureed mess. I’d love to blame her entirely, but when shit hit the fan and she told me she never asked for my love outside of our arrangement, she was right. She never did.

She was upfront, honest, clear with me from the start. I tried to change that subtly over time. To embed myself into her life so wholly that eventually she would want to submit to me entirely. My game got sloppy, I grew complacent. I used my dating life to try and piss her off and make her jealous. Sometimes depending on the woman, it worked. Mostly she held up her end of our deal and knew that we’d agreed to be able to date, therefore never bringing it up.

My weakness was that I let myself care too much. It was all a well played game between the two of us. A balancing act with no safety net. Games that never amounted to more than they were meant to, eventually played themselves out.
Stupid.

Clara is many things, but she’s not an asshole, contrary to what most think. She’s a straight shooter. Calls it like she sees it, a take action kinda gal. She loves fiercely and wholly. Even when she’s not in love with you. If she loves you, you get all of her for better or worse.
All things I love about her.

Clara makes mistakes and people view her actions as self-centered, but they don’t understand how she works. She’s not a selfish woman. She’s bold. Takes no prisoners. Driven. She gives back in so many ways.

People look at her and judge, they don’t see or maybe they choose to overlook all the things she does from the heart. Her friends, family and their and her personal well-being come first. Her two jobs follow next. She’s committed, blunt to a fault and owns her faults. It’s refreshing really. Her past was so much worse than even I knew, and I knew most of it, but when the parts I didn’t know came out- so much came to light, for me at least.   But by then, it was too late for us. There was a gap so wide between us there was no bridging it.

She loves Allie fiercely. She’s wonderful mom. I admire that about her. Sure she’s made mistakes- we both have, but she’s never claimed she hasn't.  When the school told her the chorus program was being cut, she volunteered to continue teaching the kids for free. Bloodlines thrives as a business because she puts her heart and soul into it. Even from a distance she's loyal to Marg and Amanda, staying in touch, talking often, putting in the effort to make sure they all stay connected. She’s thoughtful and kind and funny.

Dominic swooped in and threw us all off balance. I can’t say that had the situation been reversed I would have handled it any differently than she did. It was confusing. Where did we draw the line? How do you give up someone that's been an intimate part of your life without giving them up completely? How do you tell what’s right and wrong? How do we maintain our family still for Allie? When you never talk about the hard stuff together, how can you expect the other to just know what’s in your head? Bottom line, you can’t. It was a cluster fuck to say the least. We’ve found some semblance of peace. We’re just rearranged now. I’m supposed to accept that and move on. Supposed being the key word.

I just haven’t figured the moving on part out quite yet. The heart wants what it wants right? Or maybe the mind want what it wants for the heart. All of those scenarios are bullshit though. Clara went for the gold. She carved out the happiness she needed, wanted.

Now it’s my turn.

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TARGET 84 (Bloodlines #4)
(Bentley's Story, Releasing Early 2015)

My first kill was at sixteen. One might think that’s young but I'd been trained for two years before I was allowed to execute a human target on my own. I won’t ever forget him. Jackson Manning was testifying in a human trafficking case and someone didn’t want him to be heard. I'd been sloppy and careless, but excited and if I'm honest, a little turned on too. I’d found myself rather curious staring at his unmoving body. I’d been scolded for my carelessness but it didn’t matter. I’d had a taste of the real thing and I thirsted for more. My desire, my obsession took on a new form that day. It wasn’t a goal I was working towards anymore, it was tangible now. 

It is my life.
I am an assassin. I don't know my targets or why they're targeted. I am commissioned to kill without question and I am paid grandly for the service I provide. I get a text with a name and an address. I watch them. I wait. I become who I need to be. I seduce them if necessary to get close enough to execute. 

I love my job, or loved my job. Everything changed when I was assigned: ATF Agent Bentley James, last known location Christiansburg, VA.

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