by
Winter Austin
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GENRE: Romantic Suspense/Military Thriller
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BLURB:
Five years ago, Josephine "Mockingbird" Caruso belonged to an all-female black-ops military group named Hera Force—a team tasked with bringing down terrorists like the enigma dubbed the Chessmaster, but the faceless criminal mastermind had other plans and single-handedly destroyed the operation, ruining the women’s military careers and their lives.
Ex-Delta Force operative, now Detective Lincoln Sullivan reports to the scene of a mass-murder, learning all too quickly he knows the victims. The killer has left behind a deadly missive just for him: Find the Mockingbird or more will die.
Lincoln flies to New Orleans where Jo lives with her twin brother. Lincoln and Jo had once been co-operatives and lovers. But the fallout from Hera Force's destruction left what little relationship they had in tatters. Jo has no desire to work with Lincoln again, but the threat to her life and the remaining two operatives, Nadia “Phoenix” Roth and Jade “Dragon” Delacour force her hand. The four former teammates are thrust together once more and on the run. But there are unknown forces moving in the background and an old enemy is about to return with a vengeance.
Tensions between the ex-lovers come to a head when Lincoln learns his partner is an army agent working under Hera Force’s top general, a man who's not all he seems. Each step the four teammates take they are met with death and destruction. Buried lies and half-truths begin to unravel Jo’s shaky trust in Lincoln until all is brought to light. When the killer strikes, Jo is faced with a hard choice, be the leader she was born to be, or lose Lincoln forever.
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EXCERPT
Together, they entered the second room. Lincoln froze at the sight awaiting them. Five old men in various states of undress surrounded a scarred and battered poker table. Presiding over the whole affair, and with a lit cigar clenched between her teeth, was the grand queen herself.
“Jo! What a surprise.” Amazingly, Nadia was still fully clothed. Her once platinum-blond hair was streaked with shades of blue, pink and purple, reminding Lincoln of a My Little Pony.
“Nadia, mind if we interrupt?” Jo asked.
Nadia removed the cigar, puffed out a cloud of smoke, and set the stub in an ashtray. “Sure, why not.” She spoke to the men in rapid Cajun French.
Lincoln leaned close to Jo’s ear. “When did she learn that?”
“She probably didn’t.”
“What do you mean?”
Jo peered over her shoulder. “Her TBI did that. It did something to her brain to make her speak new languages she’d never learned before.”
“Wait, what?”
“It’s hard to explain,” Jo said.
As a former CIA black ops assassin, Nadia had a long list of languages she spoke fluently. She had been a veritable Rosetta Stone. But with her injury from the IED, Lincoln figured she’d lost some of those skills. Never in a million years would he have guessed she’d gain more. Guilt twinged inside his chest. If he’d been a better friend, and kept track of Nadia after her release from the hospital, he would have known this. He’d been too wrapped up in his own shit, and losing Jo, he forgot about everyone else.
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AUTHOR Bio and Links:
A lifelong Mid-West gal with strong ties to the agriculture world, Winter grew up listening to the captivating stories told by relatives around a table or a campfire. As a published author, she learned her glass half-empty personality makes for a perfect suspense/thriller writer. Taking her ability to verbally spin a vivid and detailed story, Winter translated that into writing deadly romantic suspense, mysteries, and thrillers.
When she’s not slaving away at the computer, you can find Winter supporting her daughter in cattle shows, seeing her three sons off into the wide-wide world, loving on her fur babies, prodding her teacher husband, and nagging at her flock of hens to stay in the coop or the dogs will get them.
She is the author of ten novels, with more on the way.
Find Winter on:
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The tour dates can be found here
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My review:
4 stars
“Mockingbird’s Cry” by Winter Austin is the first book in the ‘Hera’s Force’ series and features three very capable and efficient female operatives and one male, who were all involved in a horrific final op while they were in the military together that has left both mental and physical scars. Their estrangement from each other is abruptly terminated when a killer sets sights on “Mockingbird”, and they join forces in a race against both time and an unknown enemy determined to destroy them all.
This romantic suspense and military thriller is tension filled and action packed, and it grabs one’s attention with the very first page and keeps getting more intense. There are lots of nice twists and turns but also a lot of questions that remain unanswered, as this is the first in a series. I love strong heroines, and the trio of warriors that star in this story made me cheer and kept me invested in the action and in their lives. A couple of the developments seemed a little forced to me, and I admit to being disturbed by one of the revelations, but I still enjoyed the overall story and anxiously await the sequel.
A copy of this title was provided for review
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ReplyDeleteSounds like a good book.
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