Deal With The Devil (Part Two) by J. Gunnar Grey

Rating: 5 Stars 

Title:  Deal With The Devil (Part 2)

Author:  J. Gunnar Grey

Publisher: Astraea Press

      Cover Art: Elaina Lee

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Length: 206 Pages

Summary:

Wehrmacht Major Faust has a dangerous secret: he likes England. But it’s May 1940 and his Panzers are blasting the British Army off Dunkirk’s beach, so he keeps his mouth shut even though it hurts. When the Waffen SS try to murder their English prisoners of war, Faust helps the POWs escape. Now it’s treason, with his neck on the line.

Then a friend gets him drunk, straps him into a parachute, and throws him out over Oxford during a bombing run. He’s quickly caught. Because he helped type the battle plan for the invasion of England, Faust cannot allow himself to be broken in interrogation. Two German armies depend on it. But every time he escapes, someone rapes and murders a woman and the English are looking for someone to hang. He’s risking disaster if he stays, someone else’s life if he runs, and execution by the Gestapo if he makes it home.

Major Stoner, professor turned British intelligence officer, sees three possibilities. Faust perhaps was joyriding in that bomber, as he claims. Or he’s on a reconnaissance mission for the German invasion. Or he’s a spy. Stoner must break Faust to learn the truth, no matter how it strains his old heart. He must save England, and his granddaughter.

Their battlefield is confined to a desktop. Only one of them can win. Someone must break. Someone must make a Deal with the Devil.


Review: 

If you haven't read my review of Deal with the Devil, Part One, you can read it here. 

To be honest, there's not a lot that I can add to the review of Part Two about the quality or style of writing. It is still, very obviously, extremely well written and well researched. The characters, once again, grabbed me and drew me in. The suspense still kept me on the edge of my seat. The intellect behind the verbal sparring of Faust and Stoner is still intriguing and mind boggling, especially if you think about all the consequences and things that need to be considered before they utter a single word to each other. The growing interest between Faust and Jennifer, Stoner's granddaughter, becomes more and more interesting throughout the book.

The suspense builds as the story continues to unfold. The question of who is committing the murders continues to plague the small community culminating in a fast paced, action packed series of events with twists and turns galore. The two detectives made me think of the famous duo of Holmes and Watson and made me smile. I was, naturally, trying to solve the mystery before I learned who it was through the book along with our two detectives. Usually, in most books and movies, I can figure out who it is before the big reveal. This one kept me guessing all the way through!

I definitely enjoyed my trip back to the world war two era, which surprises me since it's not an era I have ever really been interested in. I love books where I can learn things that I didn't know before and these two books certainly accomplished that. They kept me entertained, on the edge of my seat and trying to figure out what was going to happen before it happened. If you enjoy these types of books, I would definitely encourage you to check them out. 


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Royal Opposites by Lori Crawford

 

Rating: 3 1/2 Stars
 

Title:  Royal Opposites

Author:  Lori Crawford

Publisher: Astraea Press

      Cover Art: Elaina Lee

Genre:  Contemporary Romance

Length: 193 Pages

Summary: 
 
What can a coupon queen possibly have in common with a Crown Prince? Everything.

After being accused of attempting to rob a bank that was actually trying to rob them – legally – a coupon queen goes on the run with a Crown Prince who’d been living in the U.S. anonymously for the past year. Armed with only her coupon binder, the two flee the area in an effort to meet up with his royal head of security for protection. But first, they must elude the two very determined bank guards who will let nothing stop them from retrieving the damning video of the bank incident from the couple. 


Review: 

I hesitate to describe a book as "cute", but that is the first word that comes to mind with Royal Opposites. It is a cute, fun read.  It really is. There are definitely parts of it that aren't "cute" but for some reason, that's the word I want to use. Maybe because some of the concepts used in this book are different than what I've seen before. A coupon queen and a prince? Really not the pairing you expect - at all. And when the situation calls for Joan (the main female) to teach Tom (the main male) how to use coupons to survive, the reactions are hilarious.

Joan is a down to earth, just trying to get by, hard working woman. She does what she has to do to survive and be responsible for (what she perceives to be) mistakes that she's made. That alone was nice to see, given some of the attitudes you see these days in society. To be honest, I kind of wish Joan was real and I knew her so that she could teach me her methods of extreme couponing! I could live with knowing how to go to the grocery store and get four hundred dollars worth of groceries for twenty bucks.

Tom seems to be just a regular, white collar, sort of guy - who just happens to be a crown prince. He is a genuinely nice guy that has his country and his people's best interest at heart. He has also been enjoying his last year of freedom, incognito, before he takes over the running of his country.

Circumstances throw the two of them together in a situation that quickly escalates in suspense and danger. Suddenly, they are find their fates are intertwined and they are on the run together. The relationship between Joan and Tom is different. Funny, intense and not at all what you would expect the other to fall for, given their backgrounds. They have each been noticing the other for several months, but neither of them have acted on it, nor did either of them have any intention of doing so. Now, however, in such close quarters with each other they are both thinking about it. Hard.

There was a couple of things that I felt would be improbable if this was real life but hey, this is fiction and what's more fun about writing or reading fiction than making the improbable probable? It wasn't so far out as to be unrealistic and it was written in such a way that makes it believable. I loved that they are a bi-racial couple and that it didn't have an impact on anything. I also totally love both characters. Well written, fast paced, fun, interesting and different - this story is well worth the read and the author has made it on to my "watch" list.

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Amazon Copyright Laws?

A couple of weeks ago I was going through my spam folder and found an interesting email from a stranger. To my knowledge, I have no idea who this person is or how legitimate this information is but it is causing me a little concern and making me wonder.

I don't want to reprint the information from the email, obviously, without permission but the gist of it is this:

• Through research that she has done while writing another book, and discussions that she has had with various people around the Amazon world, she has discovered that Amazon can and does remove reviews without notice or explanation.

• Amazon retains total and irrevocable ownership of every review that anybody posts on their site.

My standard practice with my own reviews is to write them here on my site, then copy and paste them to Barnes & Noble, Amazon, and Goodreads. I don't necessarily always have time to write a second (or third, etc.) review to post elsewhere.

This concerns me. This will impact how many reviews I can keep up with and the way I write them. Has anyone else heard anything regarding this? Please let me know.

Deal With The Devil (Part One) by J. Gunnar Grey

Rating: 5 Stars
 

Title:  Deal With The Devil (Part 1)

Author:  J. Gunnar Grey

Publisher: Astraea Press

      Cover Art: Elaina Lee

Genre:  Historical Fiction

Length: 286 Pages


Summary: 

Wehrmacht Major Faust has a dangerous secret: he likes England. But it’s May 1940 and his Panzers are blasting the British Army off Dunkirk’s beach, so he keeps his mouth shut even though it hurts. When the Waffen SS try to murder their English prisoners of war, Faust helps the POWs escape. Now it’s treason, with his neck on the line.

Then a friend gets him drunk, straps him into a parachute, and throws him out over Oxford during a bombing run. He’s quickly caught. Because he helped type the battle plan for the invasion of England, Faust cannot allow himself to be broken in interrogation. Two German armies depend on it. But every time he escapes, someone rapes and murders a woman and the English are looking for someone to hang. He’s risking disaster if he stays, someone else’s life if he runs, and execution by the Gestapo if he makes it home.

Major Stoner, professor turned British intelligence officer, sees three possibilities. Faust perhaps was joyriding in that bomber, as he claims. Or he’s on a reconnaissance mission for the German invasion. Or he’s a spy. Stoner must break Faust to learn the truth, no matter how it strains his old heart. He must save England, and his granddaughter.

Their battlefield is confined to a desktop. Only one of them can win. Someone must break. Someone must make a Deal with the Devil.


Review:  

If you were to come into my house and look at my bookshelves, you would find exactly one historical fiction. It's one that I bought as a teenager because it was based on the true life story of a young girl kidnapped by Comanche Indians in the 1800's and adopted into their tribe. Needless to say that historical fiction, even though I love history, doesn't seem to be a genre that I typically read. And the world war two era...even less so. You will find nothing from that era on my bookshelves. If I'm being honest, I was actually dreading reading these books a little. I didn't think they would hold my interest. Boy, was I ever wrong!

Faust, the captured German soldier, must run the gambit between not committing treason and giving the British enough to save his own neck from being stretched during the interrogation sessions he has with Major Stoner. The problem is, he happens to like the British. He likes England, their customs, their refinement and, in particular, he likes his interrogator and his oldest granddaughter.

He is wounded and not dealing with a completely clear head. He is afraid that he is going to slip up, or maybe that he already has. After convincing himself that he is required to at least attempt escape, he takes his every opportunity to do so. That opens the door to other problems presenting themselves. Each time he attempts escape, he not only re-injures himself, but a young girl is also brutally murdered. Naturally, he is the prime suspect. And the first victim is someone close to the situation, making his predicament that much more precarious than it already was.

The amount of research that had to go into this novel astounds me. It's easy to tell just by reading it how well researched it is, even without your own knowledge of the era. The knowledge accumulated, and passed on, is simply amazing. The twists and turns in the plot are well thought out and well executed. The head games the two lead characters play with each other is fun to follow but also enough to make you stop and think. You can never be completely sure if the word play is based on animosity, respect, a means to an end for their country or the fact that they genuinely like each other and are enjoying, just a little bit, being pitted against one another. And usually, you're left trying to keep up and figure things out yourself. It definitely keeps you guessing.

For most people, thoughts of World War II engenders thoughts of Nazi's and concentration camps. This is not so with this book. Obviously, these things are going to be mentioned but it's not at all what you might imagine. Then, just as you are deeply engrossed in the story...it ends! Luckily for us, part two is already out so you won't have to wait to see what happens.

Part puzzle, part head game, part mystery and part suspense, this book kept me entertained for hours. I love puzzles. Definitely an author that is going on my "must read" list. I loved it and immediately started reading part two.


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