TUSCAN ROSE

TUSCAN ROSE                                           BELINDA ALEXANDRA
Posted: Jan. 7, 2014

Tuscan Rose by Belinda Alexandra A magical, richly woven World War II– era saga filled with passion, secrets, beauty, and horror from internationally acclaimed bestselling author Belinda Alexandra.

FLORENCE, 1914. A mysterious stranger known as The Wolf leaves an infant with the sisters of Santo Spirito. A tiny silver key hidden in her wrappings is the one clue to the child’s identity. . . . FIFTEEN YEARS LATER, young Rosa must leave the nuns, her only family, and become governess to the daughter of an aristocrat and his strange, frightening wife. Their house is elegant but cursed, and Rosa—blessed with gifts beyond her considerable musical talents—is torn between her desire to know the truth and her fear of its repercussions. All the while, the hand of Fascism curls around beautiful Italy, and no citizen is safe. Rosa faces unimaginable hardship: her only weapons her intelligence, intuition, and determination . . . and her extraordinary capacity for love.


HUBBY'S REVIEW:
This is a story that takes place in Italy, starts in the year of 1914 with the birth of a baby girl. She is taken to a convent and left there with the nuns with only a blanket and a key. Nothing else is said of the child or were she came from. She grows with the sisters and by the age of fifteen it is time for her to leave. They have found her a job at a home of a wealthy land owner who needs a tutor for his young daughter. When she firsts arrives there the first lady she meets is not very pleasant, she does not say anything for it is not her place she feels. The second day she meets a house keeper who much more open and nice and is also taken into Florence. Once in town she forgets about time for there are many things that she has never seen before. She now knows why the sisters never went out of the convent to much temptation of things. She goes into a store and meets a man by the name Antonio and helps him makes a sell to a customer. When she is back at the villa her next few days become life changing, for in that short time she is thrown into prison. By now the beginnings of Mussolini and his reign of power has started to take over. When a priest from the convent comes to talk to her she knows that if she tells him the truth the convent along with the church will be prosecuted by Mussolini and his men. So she tells him nothing and stays in prison. She becomes friends with an older lady there who really helps her with all that she is going through. After about 6 months she is raped by the man who runs the prison and by the time she has her baby she is released. Another hardship follows by not being married and having a child. She is in and around Florence she finally meets some gypsies who help her out with food and a place to stay. After a while she finds Antonio again and he takes her in with baby and all. They marry and have twin boys. The story does not end it continues for the war is now reaching Italy and there are resistance groups forming to help the allies. They send their children to Switzerland and join the resistance groups. During this time Antonio is taken away to a camp and Rose meets up with Luciano who was part of the gypsies and helps fight against the retreating German soldiers. Luciano ends up dying and as the last of the German soldiers are leaving they the resistance group starts rounding up people who were helping Mussolini. One person that is the lady who put Rose in prison but who also gave her life. When she found out that she was her mother their words spoken were powerful especially for Rose for she took the power back. Then she went to go find her children. She found them and her husband. This was a story that had many layers to it. Also had many old stories inside of it and wise tails that you don’t hear any more. For the wolf can be bad but it can be good. There is a man in the story who is the good wolf. A very good story. I got this from net galley.

THE AMBUSH MURDERS

THE AMBUSH MURDERS                          BEN BRADLEE JR.
Posted:  Jan. 7, 2014


Do to the author not having a synopsis out anywhere this is what we have to use to tell you what the story is about.

The fact-based TV movie The Ambush Murders was adapted from a book by Ben Bradlee Jr. Dorian Harewood plays an African-American political activist who is loyal to his ideals and faithful to his friends and family. After two white policemen are killed, Harewood is charge with the crime. 49 months and two mistrials later, Harewood remains in prison. When lawyer James Brolin offers his services, Harewood doesn't trust him any more than any of the other self-serving white attorneys who've "helped" him in the past. But Brolin digs a little deeper than his predecessors, uncovering facts and evidence that may at long last spring his client. Ambush Murders was first telecast January 5, 1982. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi


HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This is a true crime story from 1971 in Riverside CA. I came across this book mainly because in the middle part of the 70s I was going to high school in Riverside I was not even aware of this or of the trials that took place. The first sad part is that two police officers were gunned downed. They were called to a home for burglary call and when they got out of the car each officer was shot by a shot gun blasts multiple times. The officer named Teel, never even got his gun out and was dead before he hit the ground. The second officer named Christiansen was able to draw his weapon fire three shots and get on the radio for help. Before he was put in the ambulance he said he say three people running away. Now comes the difficult part. Riverside police dept. had not had any officer or officers killed since the forties. Now began the investigation. They set up a task force and brought in an ada. This all sounds good but after a couple of weeks there really was not any leads and then a name come up and the investigators just stuck on that name and tried to put him at the crime scene any way possible. When they got a tip from someone who said that one of or two of the shooters might have been light skinned they said no because the person was a teenager. Someone else of the same age would come in and say they thought they say three or four men running who were dark skin they would take that information. When they finally started putting everything together they arrested 3 men. Two for the killing the third for making the phone call. Three trails and over 1 million dollars later no one was convicted. The one man was actually tired three times and on the last one the jury found him not guilty. There were many problems with this whole investigation, mainly focusing only on one person and trying to make the evidence fit him and the D.A.s office changing attorneys three so there was no consistency and pressure to make an arrest. Now forty years later I did find out that because of this some things were changed like not parking in the drive way and the dispatcher calling back the number for a call in for a burglary. So some things did change. A well written book but I don’t know if you can find it in a book store.  The True Account Of The Killing Of Two California Policemen

FIGHTING LOVE



FIGHTING LOVE                             ABBY NILES
Posted:  Jan. 7, 2014

Fighting Love by Abby Niles  Talk about kicking a fighter while he’s down.

Former Middleweight champion and confirmed bachelor Tommy "Lightning" Sparks has lost it all: his belt, his career, and now his home. After the devastating fire, he moves in with his drama-free best friend, Julie. One encounter changes everything and Julie is no longer the girl he’s spent his life protecting but a desirable woman he wants to take to his bed. Knowing his reputation, he’s determined to protect Julie more than ever—from himself.

Veterinarian Julie Rogers has been in love with Tommy since she was ten, but would love to get over the man. She’s quiet nights at home and a glass of wine. He’s clubbing all night and shots of tequila. As friends they work great. As a couple? No way in hell. She just can’t get her heart to agree. When she starts spending time with another fighter, the man who’s always treated her like a sister is suddenly not being very brotherly and enflames her body like never before.

Can two childhood friends make a relationship work, or will they lose everything because they stopped FIGHTING LOVE


MY REVIEW:


     Just finished “Fighting Love” what an amazingly sexually charged, funny, heartwarming story.  I love when stories make you feel with all your senses. 

     From the very beginning this story was endearing to me.  Something that was very surprising to me.  I was sent this book by the authors PR person for an honest review. 

     I have to say from the get go Tommy got to me.  He was this cage fighter or should I say ex cage fighter?  He was thinking of buying his BFF from childhood, who happens to be a girl, a Valentine’s gift.  If that wasn’t enough to win your heart over then hold on.

     You see, him and his dog were out on an early morning run when he is on his way back he sees smoke.  Then he figures out it’s his house that he sees that is on fire, the flames burning hot.  His first thought is just one thing, to be able to save one box.  This box means the world to him.  He had lost his family, his profession, and now his home he just couldn’t lose this box and what was in it.  He secures his dog with a neighbor and runs in.  Overcome with smoke, eyes burning and embers flying he forges on.  The roof starts to cave in when he feels his arms encircled and he is pulled to safety. 

     Once he can breathe again, he looks back at the house seeing all his memories as going up in smoke.  All he can think about is making two calls, to his landlord and to Julie, his BFF.  Twenty minutes later she’s there, once she finds him on the back of an ambulance and hugs him tight she asks what happened.  When she finds out he wasn’t even in there when it started but went in after a stupid box she slugged him twice.  Then, told him he was going home to her house after she ran him around to get what he needed.  He didn’t want to impose on her but there was nothing else he could do especially with his dog.

     When they arrived there she asks, “What was in that box?”  He explains everything she had ever given to him was in there everything.  Especially, that first hat she gave him when he was 16 years old.  He looked so lost she said like he had lost the world for him it was his whole world, her.

     Can two BFF’s make a 23 year relationship out of a friendship and make it work?  Or is someone always meant to get hurt?  Or is it just best to let things be to protect the friendship at all cost?  Or do you have to just walk away from the friendship and the possibility of the love connection to see the other one is happy?  What happens when you are both doing the same thing for the others sake?  Who wins then?  You will have to read to find out a lot of the answers to these questions.  I give this: 5 stars.

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