"Playing Dead" by Julia Heaberlin

Playing Dead by Julia Heaberlin had me baffled.  Tommie, a child psychiatrist, returns to her childhood home in Ponder, Texas, after her dad, a former U.S. Marshal and rancher died and has a nice reunion with her younger sister and niece.  Her mother is sick and institutionalized.  Tommie learns that there are family secrets she knew nothing of and the biggest shock is that her father really isn’t her biological father and that her parents kept this from her.  Not only that, but when digging to find the truth about her identity, she discovers her biological father is a mobster doing time in prison a short distance away for murdering an entire family!  Nice, huh?  She gets a letter in the mail from a lady in Chicago that says she thinks Tommie is her daughter who was kidnapped as a very young child and would like for her to come and visit so they could meet.  This lady is the mobster’s wife and a real nutcase.  My favorite part was when she was at the library and the FBI followed her so were there to rescue her from the mobster who was threatening her because she was digging up the past that they wanted left alone.

This is a story with lots of twists and turns that got me a bit confused.  I don’t know how Tommie managed to keep it all straight but she did, even when her life was threatened on a couple occasions by the rival mob of her imprisoned father.  I liked the happy surprise ending and didn’t see it coming.  I couple things I didn’t understand though—how Jack Smith—the phony reporter could just get into Tommie’s house anytime he wanted and what Rosalind was after.  If you read this, maybe you could explain this to me.  Although this book is shocking with lots of surprises along the way, it seemed to kind of drag along.   

(Karen's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

Tuesday Teasers: "Playing Dead" and "Gone Girl"

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should  Be Reading. Anyone can play along, so I thought  I  would play for fun! Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on  that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away!   You don’t  want  to  ruin the  book for others!)
• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can  add the book to their TBR  Lists  if they  like your teaser.   

Karen's:

"'I love her like she was my own.' That's what Daddy said.
There it was. My first certain step into an abyss of lies.

Taken from page 49 of Playing Dead by Julia Heaberlin.

Gerard's:

"Oh, s___," he said. "Her?"
"You recognize her?"
He actually looked stricken. "She wanted to buy a gun."

Taken from page 117 of Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn.

Happy Reading! We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"The Wings of Morning" by Murray Pura

Here's the book trailer for this one:






I enjoyed The Wings of Morning by Murray Pura very much.  This is part 1 of "Snapshots in History" series.  It is about Jude, an Amish pilot during World War I who agrees to fly for America in order to save his friends even though it means he will be shunned.  Lyyndaya and Jude develop a friendship which leads to a romance but their letters must remain at the post office because of the shunning.


This is the best Amish romance I've read because it didn't poke along and the main character was male instead of female.  I liked the description of the flying, the dog fights and the romance.  Parts were heart-breaking and very sad but it was really great to see how Jude maintained his faith while at war and managed not to kill anyone!  The ending was fantastic!

This book is so much more than just a Christian romance.  I loved this one because it had adventure, faith, forgiveness, group dynamics, clean language and romance without the sex scenes.  Murray Pura is a new author to me; I look forward to reading more of his books.
(Karen's review)



Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"Smoke and Bone" by Laini Taylor

Daughter of Smoke and Bone by Laini Taylor is about a young girl, Karou who is happy doing errands for fallen angels. All that changes when a real angel notices her and a relationship forms. I enjoyed this book a lot. The plot is pretty simple to follow and it has some unexpected twists. As for the ending, it left me wanting to know more which is why it is a good thing that a second book is to follow. I'll be reading that one too!
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.

"The 13th Tribe" by Robert Liparulo (Christian/Historical Fiction)

I'm not a huge fan of Christian fiction; however, I'll make an exception when it comes to The 13th Tribe by Robert Liparulo.  This book is really, really good!  It's about the group of people who built and worshiped a golden calf while waiting for Moses to come down from Mr. Sinai.  They were forever doomed to wander in the desert, but they wanted to get back in God's favor.  How you ask, you will have to read the book to find out.  There is a good bit of action with a great twist at the end—I loved it!  The ending is awesome!  There are also ten discussion questions in the back of the book that you might want to try answering or use in a book club.
(Gerard's review)

Have you read this one? What did you think of it? If you reviewed this too, feel free to share your link to your review in the comments. Happy Reading!

We are donating 50 cents for each legitimate comment we receive on all our blogs during June and July to The Wounded Warrior Project which helps wounded warriors and their families returning from current conflicts.