The Dog Gone Giveaway!

1 Lucky Winner

10/15 to 10/30
Open to US 

Sponsored by:
Cherish Your Pet, Heritage, Pet World, Tasty Bone, Zeus, Zoe

One Lucky Winners will receive their very own Dog Gone Giveaway Pack (ARV $245+) including

Cherish Your Pet Hip & Joint Supplement My Review Here
Pets World Dog Feeding Mat My Review Here

Chicken, Beef, & Peppermint Tasty Bones My Review Here
2 Zeus Bombers Balls  My Review Here
2 Heritage Dog Treat Bags  My Review Here

2 Zoe Treats & 1 Pill Pops My Review Here

A very special thank you to my awesome Co-Hosts. I appreciate all of your hard work.

Deliciously Savvy
IMHO Views, Reviews, & Giveaways
Big Foot Tribe
Sunshine Girl Blog
Animal Bliss
Davids DIY

Thank you so much to all of the bloggers participating in this giveaway. Without you, it wouldn't be quite as exciting!

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Winner will receive the  prize directly from the company. None of the Bloggers Participating in this giveaway are responsible for shipping the prize. 

The Sisters of Versailles by Sally Christie Review!

Set against the lavish backdrop of the French Court in the early years of the 18th century, The Sisters of Versailles is the extraordinary tale of the five Nesle sisters—Louise, Pauline, Diane, Hortense, and Marie-Anne—four of whom became mistresses to King Louis XV. Their scandalous story is stranger than fiction but true in every shocking, amusing, and heartbreaking detail. 

Court intriguers are beginning to sense that young King Louis XV, after seven years of marriage, is tiring of his Polish wife. The race is on to find a mistress for the royal bed as various factions put their best feet—and women—forward. The King’s scheming ministers push Louise, the eldest of the aristocratic Nesle sisters, into the arms of the King.  Over the following decade, she and her sisters—ambitious Pauline; complacent Diane, and cunning Marie Anne—will conspire, betray, suffer, and triumph in a desperate fight for both love and power.

 

The Sisters of Versailles is a treat through and through – the characters are witty and engaging and come together to create an undeniable page-turner.  Sally Christie has a wonderful sense of pace and the book unfolds in front of you like a delicious gift. Even as the scandals pile up and the intrigue mounts, you can’t help but fall in love with these sisters and their competing infatuations with the King.

 

In the tradition of The Other Boleyn Girl, The Sisters of Versailles is a clever, intelligent, and absorbing novel that historical fiction fans will devour. Based on meticulous research on a group of women never before written about in English, Sally Christie’s stunning debut is a complex exploration of power and sisterhood—of the admiration, competition, and even hatred that can coexist within a family when the stakes are high enough.

 

About The Author

Sally Christie was born in England of British parents and grew up around the world, attending eight schools in three languages. She spent most of her career working in international development and is currently settled in Toronto. A life-long history buff who wishes time travel were a real possibility—she’d be off to the eighteenth century in a flash! The Sisters of Versailles is her first novel.   Learn more about the sisters and the mistresses in the Versailles trilogy at www.sallychristieauthor.com

Inside Cover Picture

My Thoughts

Who are the Sisters of Versailles? 

Louise Julie de Mailly-Nesle, was Comtesse de Mailly, the eldest of the de Nesle sisters, first to become the mistress of King Louis XV of France. She comes across as a very passive person, accepting of her life in the background and watching her sisters become mistresses after her. I was not really crazy about her character as I thought she should have taken a stand against Pauline.

Pauline Felicite de Mailly, was marquise de Vintimille, the second sister to become mistress to King Loius XV, pushing Louise out of the way. Pauline was very manipulative and was determined to be mistress. She begged her sister Louise to invite her to court. Louise did not at first do this but after a while she relented, much to her dismay, King Louis fell in love with her and made her his mistress. Pauline became pregnant, was the child the King's? There was a supposed strong resemblance to him and he was called demi Louis. Her reign as mistress was cut short as she died in childbirth.

Diane Adelaide de Mailly was the third eldest of the de Nesle sisters also known as Duchesse de Lauraguais. Diane was a very happy and plump person, loved food and loved life at times called simple. She also became mistress to the King but was happy to not be involved in court intrigue. I liked this sister the most I think, the only one of the sisters that was not vain and not out to work her way up the ranks in court.

Hortense Felicite de Mailly, marquise de Flavacourt. Hortense was the only sister who was not mistress to King Louis. She lived a long time, dying at the age of 84, outliving all of her sisters.

Marie Anne de Mailly, Duchesse de Chartaeuroux, the most political of all the sister's and the last to be his mistress, and after her death she was succeeded  by Madame Pompadour. Of all of the sisters, she had the most sway with King Louis.

The Sisters of Versailles is a very historical, because it tells the story of not only King Louis but of all the women in his life, his queen Marie Leszcynska, of Polish descent. She spoke broken English and was often ridiculed by the women in the court, but she managed to give birth to numerous children by King Louis and was very virtuous.

This novel is very well researched and depicts life in France during King Louis XV's reign which was filled with court intrigue, religious feuds, lost wars, but he reigned from 1715 until his death in 1774. A very long time indeed. Before reading this novel I had not read anything about the de Nesle sisters and I found this book to be very enjoyable and look forward to the next in the trilogy, The Rivals of Versaille and after that The Enemies of Versailles.

I received a copy of the book for review and was not monetarily compensated for my thoughts.

New Holiday Labels and Personalized Books for Kids at Mabel's Labels! #Ad

**This post contains affiliate links and I will be compensated if you make a purchase after clicking on my links.

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Glistening Swarm by Jill Cooper Release Day Promo!

Man’s reign is over. Now fear the day of the dragon.

The human resistance bands together—to fight for their very survival. Staying ahead of the glistenings led by the savage Victor is their top priority, but as the children they have sought to protect fall ill, their days are numbered. Fighting is their only chance of survival and it’s one that the passive glistening, Jake Monroe, has been dreading for over a year. But, he will have no choice but to meet the dragons head on. No matter the cost, no matter the personal sacrifice.

What happens when a dragon first tastes blood?

 

Buy on Amazon (currently in pre-order)

 

Pre-order the box set | Glistening Haven: Book 1 | Glistening Rebellion: Book 2

 

Join us as we celebrate Glistening Swarm's Release Day on October 26th at 10 am EST! There will be fun prizes and games.

Glistening Swarm's Facebook Release Day Party

 

About the Author:

I could write this in the third person. I could tell you what I like, where I was born, and what my favorite things are.

But instead, I'll say I don't want to write like everyone else. I don't want to craft stories you've read a thousand times before. I want my novels to be a cinematic experience, blending themes, genres, and situations unlike any you've ever read.

I want to break the rules. I want you to break out in a cold sweat as you read my books out of fear, love, and excitement. I want my books to be an experience. When you finish, I want you to feel something. Good or bad.

If you do, then I'll have succeeded. If not, I'll keep trying.

Website | Twitter | Facebook | Newsletter | Literary Addicts | Goodreads | Tsu

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Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: The Varcolac's Diary Book Blitz!

CHARLIE SULLIVAN AND THE MONSTER HUNTERS: THE VARCOLAC'S DIARY

by D.C. McGannon, C. Michael McGannon

Publication Date: April 2012 (Original), April 2015 (Revised)

Age Group: Young Adult, Teens, Middle Grade

Genre: Fantasy, Science Fiction, Mythology, Bullying

Book Summary:

Monsters are real. They have always been here, even when we choose not to see them.

Now, for the residents of Hunter’s Grove, the choice is no longer theirs. As a power-hungry varcolac—a Greater—tries to break through the magic holding him back and lead his army of monsters to vengeance against human-kind, there are five who unknowingly possess the power to finish what centuries of humans before them have been unable to do. Charlie Sullivan and his band of new friends will be tested as they attempt to strengthen the magic that can lock the monsters and their evil prince away for good—even if the cost is their lives.

This is the story of five unlikely friends who uncover the sinister past buried under their sleepy hometown of Hunter’s Grove. This is a story about looking past differences, overcoming fears, and rediscovering what is truly important in this life. This is the story of Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters of Hunter’s Grove.

All New, And Even More Exciting, Revised Edition for 2015! ​​

Goodreads Link: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16091606-charlie-sullivan-and-the-monster-hunters

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1jhEO6W

B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/charlie-sullivan-and-the-monster-hunters-d-c-mcgannon/1112550339

Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/charlie-sullivan-and-the-monster-hunters-the-varcolac-s-diary-1

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/id1041054275

What Reviewers Are Saying:

"D.C. and Michael pack a wealth of wonder and fantasy into this young adult adventure. Incorporating some of the most fascinating legends…I found myself being drawn to the depth of the characters and enjoyed watching their bonds grow as they explored the gifts hidden deep within them as well as the evil that hunts for them.

I recommend this story for anyone who loves folklore and monstrous fun! From vampires to dragons, from witches to eerie ferrymen, this tale has it all."

- Solomon J. Inkwell, Author of Vickie Van Helsing  

"A must read for all young adult fiction fans!" - Amazon Reviewer

"I picked this book up for my oldest daughter. I thought she might enjoy it and asked her to let me know what she thought. She loved it! I ended up reading it with her and I have to say that I enjoyed the story as much, maybe more, than she did." - Amazon Reviewer

"The characters are real enough that I found myself cheering them on and hoping they succeed in their mission. I look forward to reading the next installment." - Amazon Reviewer

"Great book with a great cast of characters. Keeps your attention and makes you want to come back for more. I really appreciated the underlying theme of bullying and how it was addressed, but I especially loved the unique challenges and monsters the Monster Hunters faced. Can’t wait for more!” - Goodreads Reviewer ​

A Message From the Authors:

We began this journey together, as father and son, with the goal of writing a story that spoke to friendship, overcoming obstacles (and the ultimate evils in our world), and of the power of working together to face the biggest challenges in our lives. Yes, it's full of monsters, peril, and steeped in exciting mythology and folklore, but it centers around the powerful bonds formed between an unlikely group of friends as they face a unique set of challenges. We wanted to write a story that we would be proud to read aloud to our then newborn son/baby brother (who now, years later, has read them through twice more). It has turned into the adventure of a lifetime as we are meeting people from all over the world who are falling in love with Charlie Sullivan, Darcy Witherington, Nash Stormstepper, and the twins Lisa & Liev Vadinknov - along with a wild, often humorous, and mysterious cast of humans and monsters alike.

Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters: Witch Moon in the next adventure in the series, which takes us across the ocean to the Old Country, then on to Book 3: Council of the Hunters, where the group's character and loyalty face the ultimate tests when they meet a surprising and spooky new cast of characters. The Dragon Gate (Book 4) will be released soon, and there will be a total of 6 books in the series!

We'll leave you with more kind words from another Amazon reviewer:

"In my opinion, this series deserves to be a huge hit ... I can guarantee you'll be hooked!"

About the Authors:

D.C. McGannon

D.C. McGannon is finicky about his coffee. And loves tea. And lemonade. Sometimes together. He has had a lifelong love of things that lurk in the dark, and is quite comfortable under the light of a full moon. A writer, director, painter, and doodler, McGannon is co-author of the Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters (Wyvern’s Peak Publishing) series of novels for young adults, and KAOS Obsidere: The Nightmare Has Begun (Dark Waters Press). He plays a mean air guitar, and lives and dreams with Holly, Michael, Nathaniel, and their sweet puppy, Jewel, somewhere in the Midwest.

https://www.facebook.com/DCMcGannon

https://twitter.com/DCMcGannon

https://instagram.com/dcmcgannon/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5820838.D_C_McGannon

http://dcmcgannon.com/

C. Michael McGannon

C. Michael McGannon appreciates weird fiction, perhaps a bit more than one should at any given time. It has made him particular, fostering strange phobias, and even stranger dreams. He is fond of dragons, Japanese mythology, and the fine art of delivering timely and inappropriate puns. McGannon is an artist of diverse talents, and is co-author of the Charlie Sullivan and the Monster Hunters (Wyvern’s Peak Publishing) series of novels for young adults, and KAOS Obsidere: The Nightmare Has Begun (Dark Waters Press).Sushi is his delicacy of choice, if he has any say in the matter.

https://www.facebook.com/CMichaelMcGannon

https://twitter.com/MichaelMcGannon

https://instagram.com/cmichaelmcgannon/

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5820839.C_Michael_McGannon

http://www.monsterhunters-thebook.com/

You can also sign up to review!

LIEP Promotions is organizing a review opportunity for CHARLIE SULLIVAN AND THE MONSTER HUNTERS: THE VARCOLAC'S DIARY by D.C. McGannon and C. Michael McGannon, a young adult/middle grade fantasy. The review opportunity closes NOVEMBER 3, 2015. Reviewers will have 3 weeks upon receiving the book to have a review posted. The eBook will be provided in PDF, Nook and Kindle formats.

PLEASE NOTE: Not only is this book perfect for a Halloween themed post, but this book also addresses bullying themes, which is an important topic for the authors, and October is National Bullying Prevention Month.

Sign up Link: http://lieppromotions.weebly.com/blog/charlie-sullivan-and-the-monster-hunters-the-varcolacs-diary-review-opportunity

Strong Light of Day by Jon Land on Tour October 12 - November 13, 2015

Book Details:

Genre: Thriller

Published by: Forge

Publication Date: Oct 13, 2015

Number of Pages: 352

ISBN: 978-0765335128

Series: Caitlin Strong, #7

Purchase Links:   

Synopsis:

Caitlin Strong is a fifth generation Texas Ranger as quick with her wits as her gun. Over the years she’s taken on all manner of criminals and miscreants, thwarting the plans of villains to do vast damage to the country and state she loves. But none of that has prepared Caitlin for an investigation that pits her against ruthless billionaire oilman Calum Dane whose genetically engineered pesticide may have poisoned a large swath of the state.
How that poisoning is connected to the disappearance of thirty high school students from a Houston prep school, including the son of her outlaw lover Cort Wesley Masters, presents Caitlin with the greatest and most desperate challenge of her career. And, as if that wasn’t enough, she also has to deal with a crazed rancher whose entire herd of cattle has been picked clean to the bone by something science can’t explain.
The common denominator between these apparently disparate events is a new and deadly enemy capable of destroying the US economy and killing millions in the process. An enemy different than any Caitlin has faced before, and a foe it will take far more than bullets to bring down. But there’s another player in the deadly game Caitlin finds herself playing in the form of Russian extremists prepared to seize upon an opportunity to win a war they never stopped fighting.
Caitlin’s race to save the country weaves through the present and the past, confronting her and Cort Wesley with the most powerful and dangerous foes they’ve ever faced, both human and otherwise. The Cold War hasn’t just heated up; it’s boiling over under the spill of a strong light only Caitlin can extinguish before it’s too late.

Reviews:

Land's exciting seventh Caitlin Strong novel (after 2014's Strong Darkness) finds the fifth-generation Texas Ranger pursuing two cases: one involving a herd of cattle that has been picked clean to the bone and another revolving around the disappearance of a busload of students from a Houston prep school spending the night at a nature center. Caitlin realizes that the key to solving both may be found in an ingenious Cold War conspiracy involving "agroterrorism" that her own father investigated decades earlier, along with outlaw Boone Masters, the father of her boyfriend, Cort Wesley Masters. A convoluted narrative -- with Russian mobsters, rate Texas militiamen, alien invasion theories, cattle rustling, and a corrupt oil baron -- slows the momentum early on, but Land pulls out all the stops in the latter chapters. More than a few bombshell revelations and jaw-dropping plot twists will satisfy longtime series fans.

~ Publisher's Weekly

Caitlin Strong is a kick-ass Texas Ranger and one of the toughest female protagonists in crime fiction. In her seventh outing, she's called to investigate the disappearance of 30 children, who all seem to have vanished while on a camping trip. One of the missing children is the son of her boyfriend, Cort Wesley Masters. On top of all that, she's asked to negotiate with a crazed rancher who is holding his family hostage, claiming that aliens have taken his cattle and that he will kill his family before he lets the aliens take them. Other subplots include a billionaire businessman who has created a genetically engineered pesticide that is causing cancer, Navy SEALS in Afghanistan back in 2003, and some really Russians. This is a complex, multifaceted take, but it moves at lightening speed, even allowing time to provide some background on Strong's family - she is a fifth-generation Texas Ranger. Fans of the series and readers who like their women fearless and smart will love this story.

~ Stacy Alesi, Booklist Online

Top Pick! Land's seventh novel featuring Texas Ranger and action heroine extraordinaire Caitlin Strong demonstrates why he is one of the best action thriller writers in the business. The mix of history, character development and baffling storylines will enthral readers.
Summary: A group of prep school students vanishes on a field trip, including the son of Caitlin Strong's boyfriend, Cort Wesley Masters. Folks with secret agendas are involved, and they don't care who they hurt or destroy to get what they desire. Strong has her hands full, but, thankfully, she is more than capable of saving the day.

~ RT Book Reviews

Read an excerpt:

CHAPTER 1
Zavala County, Texas
Caitlin Strong stopped her SUV at the checkpoint on Route 83 heading toward Crystal City. The sheriff’s deputy approaching her vehicle seemed to recognize her as soon as she slid down her window, well before he could see her Texas Ranger badge. He was an older man, long and lean with legs crimped inward from too much side-to-side stress on his knees riding horses.
“You got no call to be here, Ranger,” the deputy said, having clearly been warned to expect her, his light complexion turned a rosy pink shade by the sun and heat.
“You mean driving on a public highway, Deputy?”
“I mean heading into the shit storm that’s unfolding a few miles down it.” He had brownish-purplish blotches on the exposed flesh of his right forearm, the kind of marks that cry out for a dermatologist’s attention. Then she noticed the bandages swathed in patches on his other arm and realized they were probably already getting it. “We got enough problems without you sticking your nose in,” the deputy continued. “Wherever you go, bullets seem to follow and the last thing we need is a shooting war.”
“You think that’s what I came here for?”
The deputy folded his arms in front of his chest so the untreated one stuck out, the dark blotches seeming to widen as his forearm muscles tightened. “I think you’ve got no idea how Christoph Russell Ilg will react when a Texas Ranger shows up. You don’t know these parts, Caitlin Strong, and no stranger known for her gun is gonna solve this problem the sheriff’s department has already got under control.”
“Under control,” Caitlin repeated. “Is that what you call an armed standoff between sheriff’s deputies, the highway patrol and that militia backing Ilg? I heard they’ve been pouring in from as far away as Idaho. Might as well post a sign off the highway that reads, ‘Whack jobs, next exit.’”
“If the highway patrol had just left this to the sheriff’s department,” the deputy groused, face wrinkling as if he’d swallowed something sour, “those militia men never would’ve had call to show up. We had the situation contained.”
“Was that before or after a rancher started defying the entire federal government?” Caitlin asked him, unable to help herself. “The goddamn federal government can kiss my ass. This here’s Texas and this here’s a local problem. A Zavala County problem that’s got no need for the Texas Rangers.”
The deputy tilted his stare toward the ground, as if ready to spit some tobacco he wasn’t currently chewing. Then he hitched up his gaze along with his shoulders and planted his hands on his hips, just standing there as if this was an extension of the standoff down the road.
“You should wear long sleeves,” Caitlin told him.
“Not in this heat.”
She let him see her focus trained on the dark blotches dotting his arm. The breeze picked up and blew her wavy black hair over her face. Caitlin brushed it aside, feeling the light sheen of the sunscreen she’d slathered on before setting out from San Antonio. She’d taken to using more of it lately, even though the dark tones that came courtesy of a Mexican grandmother she’d never met made her tan instead of burn.
“Better hot than dead, Deputy,” she told the man at her window. “You need me to tell you the rate of skin cancer in these parts?” He let his arms dangle stiff by his sides. “You really do have a nasty habit of messing in other’s people business.”
“You mean, trying to keep them alive, sometimes from falling victim to their own stubbornness.”
“Who we talking about here, Ranger?”
“Christoph Russell Ilg. Who else would we be talking about?”

CHAPTER 2
Zavala County, Texas
Caitlin reflected on what she’d learned about Christoph Russell Ilg for the next two miles down the road. His second wife had just given him his ninth child, and sixth son, even though he was somewhere close to either side of seventy. His parents were German immigrants who came to Texas as migrant farm workers. He’d been born on one of numerous farms they worked in the immediate years after World War II when birth certificates were optional. Ilg himself swore he didn’t even know his own birthday and, as a result, celebrated his and all his children’s on the same day in June exactly six months after Christmas.
For more than a century, ranchers and feedlot operators had been grazing their cattle on South Texas grasslands. Then the Environmental Protection Agency, working in concert with the Army Corps of Engineers, interpreted the Clean Water Act as giving them the right to redefine cattle ponds and even ponds formed over flooded land into what they called “waterways of the United States.” The Bureau of Land Management then crafted a law requiring ranchers to get permits for land on which they once free grazed. Short of that they could be fined for polluting or contaminating those newly proclaimed federal properties.
The fact that EPA’s efforts were as well intentioned as the ranchers’ protests were strident probably hadn’t registered with Ilg, who’d paid none of the two dozen citations he’d been issued amounting to nearly fifty thousand dollars in fines. In fact, he’d been purposely setting his cattle to graze near those waterways on a regular basis, including the day the sheriff’s department came to serve him with an arrest warrant for the unpaid levies. The first of the militiamen who’d come in expectation of exactly that moment sprang from positions of cover, training their guns on the four deputies who had the sense not to draw theirs in response.
By the time those the reinforcements they summoned arrived, more militiamen had spilled in and more continued to show up seemingly by the hour. They formed a perimeter around the area Ilg had staked out and returned with his cattle every day to graze, further inciting the potential of violence the militiamen seemed to thirst for while pawing the triggers of their AR-15s and hunting rifles. One had been arrested during a routine traffic stop after a highway patrolman had spotted a Gatling gun in the back of his pick-up.
The standoff had been going on for three days now with neither side showing any signs of giving in or up. For his part, Ilg had no reason to acquiesce either to the demands of the EPA to stop grazing his cattle amid federally protected waters or to the attempts of the Bureau of Land Management rangers to collect the bulk of the fines levied against him. For their part, the militiamen who’d gathered at Ilg’s ranch not far from Uvalde likely saw his faux crusade as another last stand to preserve the so-called real and free America. They wore the fatigues and gear of real soldiers, imagining themselves to be as brave and skilled as true servicemen fighting real wars instead of imaginary ones. Annointing themselves as the only just moral arbiters, when all they really wanted was an opportunity to parade around with their weapons in the hope of someday getting an actual chance to use them.
Caitlin saw the second roadblock at the head of a side road off the highway leading straight to Christoph Russell Ilg’s ranch. From this distance the scene had the look of a child’s play scene with toy soldiers staged to confront each other on a paper maché battlefield. Drawing closer, Caitlin was able to see the true scope of the danger with heavily armed highway patrolmen poised in flak jackets behind their vehicles while even more heavily armed militiamen peeked out from behind various boulders, trees and thick fence posts. A television truck bearing the markings of a national cable news channel, meanwhile, was parked between the rival fronts, a technician unloading equipment while a reporter Caitlin thought she recognized looked on casually.
She pulled her SUV over and was met by a highway patrol captain she’d worked with before as soon as she climbed out.
“Morning, Frank,” she said to Captain Francis Denbow.
“You got no call to be here, Caitlin,” he said, mopping the sweat from his brow with a sleeve.
“That’s what they told me at the checkpoint back up eighty-three.”
“Well, you should have listened to them.”
“Thanks, anyway.”
“For what?”
“Not telling me you have the situation under control.”
“Because we damn well don’t. A car backfiring could set off a whole shooting war here over waters not fit to drink. Last thing we need is you stirring the pot. Hope you don’t mind I called Austin to get them to call you off.”
“Too bad my cell phone’s not working,” Caitlin told him, reaching back inside the SUV to grab a set of tri-folded pages from the visor.

CHAPTER 3
Zavala County, Texas
Caitlin continued into the open space of road and land between the two armed camps, ignoring the threats shouted her way by the militiamen. She walked on without slowing, heading straight into more guns than she could count while making sure her SIG-Sauer P226 remained in plain view in its holster. She held the pages before her as well, feeling them rustle in the breeze lifting off the prairie. It picked up briefly, hard enough to whisk the hat off a militiamen lying prone over the rim of an arroyo holding a rifle with telescopic sight fixed on her. She caught the heavy whomp-whomp-whomp of a helicopter circling overhead, this network or that sure to be getting shots of the standoff.
That’s when she spotted the man in the light colored suit and graying ginger-shaded hair striding her way from the side of the road where most of the media had gathered, hands tucked into his pants pockets.
“Well, well, well,” grinned Congressman Asa Fraley who represented Texas’ 32nd District, voice droning as if he were still giving an interview, “look who it is. Just what we need right now, some gasoline sprayed on the fire.”
“I’m just here doing my job, Congressman,” Caitlin said, standing stiff before him.
Fraley stopped close enough to Caitlin for her to be able to smell the spearmint lacing his breath. “The problem, Ranger, is I’m here doing my job too. In this case that means putting out a fire, not fanning the flames.”
Caitlin nodded. “I couldn’t help but notice which side you’re standing with, sir.”
“I’m just trying to defuse the situation. That man’s a patriot, Ranger,” Fraley said, looking back toward Christoph Ilg holding court with any media type who’d listen. “I would’ve thought you of all people would see that.”
“Really? Why?”
“Because the Texas Rangers were birthed to lend justice to a frontier not all that much different than this one.”
“Oh, it was plenty different, Congressman,” Caitlin said, blowing out her own breath to chase the spearmint back. He’d stopped close enough to leave them contending for the same space, Fraley treating her more like another reporter with whom he needed to establish an instant familiarity. “Back then, my ancestors had their hands full with Mexican bandits and marauding Indian tribes. They never had to deal with the likes of anti-government militias and politicians looking for any soapbox to shoot off their mouths.” She spotted a man glaring at her, having drawn closer to Ilg’s right flank and packing a cannon-sized pistol. “Do you have a brother, sir?”
“That’s none of your business.”
“Because I just noticed a man who looks an awful lot like you. That twin of yours maybe, the one who can’t keep himself out of trouble? As I recall, even in Texas a felon carrying a gun is a probation violation. Maybe I should run him in.”
Fraley took a step back, aware suddenly the space wasn’t his to command as he was normally accustomed. His gaze grew flat and harsh, his eyes narrowing to mere slits barely revealing his grayish pupils. Caitlin had never seen a man with gray eyes before, nor one with a dye job gone so wrong, Fraley’s strands of coarse hair evenly mixed between shades of orange and corn yellow.
“How many men have you killed exactly, Ranger?”
“One less than maybe I should have, Congressman.”
“Is that a threat?”
“No more than that subpoena you keep promising to slap me with to drag me before that committee of yours in Washington.”
“It’s called the Government Oversight Committee and you’re going to find that we take our work very seriously.”
“So do I, sir,” Caitlin said, peering past him. “Speaking of which, please step aside so I can do my job.”

Author Bio:
Jon Land is the USA Today bestselling author of the 38 novels, including seven titles in the critically acclaimed Caitlin Strong series: Strong Enough to Die, Strong Justice, Strong at the Break, Strong Vengeance, Strong Rain Falling (winner of the 2014 International Book Award and 2013 USA Best Book Award for Mystery-Suspense) and Strong Darkness (winner of the 2014 USA Books Best Book Award and the 2015 International Book Award for Thriller). Caitlin Strong returns this October in Strong Light of Day, to be followed by Darkness Rising, his sci-fi collaboration with Heather Graham coming from Forge in June of 2016. Jon is a 1979 graduate of Brown University, lives in Providence, Rhode Island and can be found on the Web at jonlandbooks.com or on Twitter @jondland.

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Giveaway:
This is a giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Jon Land. There will be multiple US winners of 1 copy of Strong Light of Day by Jon Land. The giveaway begins on October 12th, 2015 and runs through November 14th, 2015. For US residents only. 

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