Book Review: Beneath the Stones by Susan Coryell

Beneath the Stones by Susan Coryell

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Susan Coryell continues the saga of Ashby Overton she began in A WILD WILD ROSE. Five years later, Ashby prepares to marry her boyfriend Luke at her family estate, Overhome, which she discovers, much to her dismay, is deep in debt. It is up to her to find a way to save her horse farm.

Ashby sorts through mounds of bills run up by her aunt. Rather than holding a grudge, Ashby decides the only ways to save Overhome are to sell off 50 acres and expand her boarding and horse training business. When she hand her 12 yo nephew explore the acreage she want to sell, she discovers an old stone house and one very angry ghost. Ashby's only experience with ghosts has been with a benign spirit Rosabelle who saved her from peril in the first in this series.

To be able to more forward with her plans, Ashby must determine who the ghost is and why he wants to harm her.

A new character, a Civil War

Book Review: Weakest Lynx by Fiona Quinn

Weakest Lynx by Fiona Quinn

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Fiona Quinn has crafted a unique new crime fighter in Lexi Sobado. At just twenty, she has more skills than any normal human being should have. She's a Reiki master. She's a master shot. She's a martial arts expert. And, by the way, she's psychic. When she finds herself stalked, she calls on all of her skills to protect her.

Her stalker sends familiar poems rewritten to send her a message. Newly married with a husband deployed in Afghanistan, she turns to Dave, an old friend and mentor to help her. She buys a house in a run-down neighborhood to be near him. Her neighbors form a loose protective barrier around her, while Dave brings in experts to provide physical and electronic security. The security breaks down when the stalker gets inside her house and slashes her. He's driven off before he can kill her, leaving her for dead in pools of her own blood.

One of her mentors works for a private security firm, a cross between the NSA, the CIA, and the FBI. They take her to a safe house where they put her under round-the-clock monitoring. Lexi exposes layers of her backstory when Spider, the head of her team, lets her help with a couple of kidnapping cases. What happens next is the stuff of reading late into the night. The reader roots for Lexi to solve the kidnappings and identify the stalker even though she nearly dies trying to go behind the Veil and see through the victims' and kidnappers' eyes.

I tried to find similar characters to Lexi. She's not Stephanie Plum, but she is funny at times. She's not a female Jack Reacher, because she has family and friends who care for her. She's not normal, but she is unique. Quinn's is a fresh voice in the often overpopulated thriller genre.

I highly recommend Weakest Lynx. I can hardly wait for the next book in the series to be available.

Book Review: Tom Named by Horse by Dutch Henry

Tom Named By Horse by Dutch Henry

My rating: 4 of 5 stars


Dutch Henry delivers another well-told story set in the Old West this time as opposed to the current West of WE'LL HAVE THE SUMMER. Filled with fully developed characters, beautiful descriptions of the landscape and clashes between cultures, TOM NAMED BY HORSE is well worth reading.

Henry brings us a main character who has no name. Orphaned at birth, he is traded from buffalo hunter to buffalo hunter and called nothing but "boy." After years of abuse, Boy kills his tormenter and takes his horse. Shortly after he is free, Boy happens upon another buffalo hunter surrounded by a group of young Sioux braves. The hunter fells two of the young men. Boy shoots the hunter and rescues the injured braves. He takes them to their village for treatment. His act of kindness earns the respect of the Sioux chief whose son he's rescued.

When asked what his name is, Boy says it's Tom, which is the name of his tall gray horse. He feels safe in the village where he not only becomes friends with the chief's family but also with a half-white young woman to whom he is attracted.

Against a backdrop of encroaching settlers and cavalry that want to take the land from the Native Americans, Tom finds himself torn between wanting to help his new friends and protect the settlers from renegades. The story unwinds at a leisurely pace with high-tension action scenes interspersed with quiet interludes.

If there was anything I would change about this book it would be to have a better editor. I don't think Henry used the same editor he did for WE'LL HAVE THE SUMMER. While the ending seems rushed, the story sets itself up for a sequel.

Anyone who likes romance set in the Old West will surely want to read this book.