SOUTHBOUND: AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF SOUTHERN ROCK

SOUTHBOUND:ILLUSTRATED                     SCOTT B. BOMAR
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

(Book). Many of the architects of rock and roll in the 1950s, including Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis, and Little Richard, were Southerners who were rooted in the distinctive regional traditions of country, blues, and R&B. As the impact of the British Invasion and the psychedelic era faded at the end of the following decade, such performers as Bob Dylan and the Band returned to the simplicity of American roots music, paving the way for Southern groups to reclaim their region's rock-and-roll heritage. Embracing both Southern musical traditions and a long-haired countercultural aesthetic, such artists as the Allman Brothers Band and Lynyrd Skynyrd forged a new musical community that Charlie Daniels called "a genre of people more than a genre of music." Focusing primarily on the music's golden age of the 1970s, Southbound profiles the musicians, producers, record labels, and movers and shakers that defined Southern rock, including the Allmans, Skynyrd, the Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, the Charlie Daniels Band, Elvin Bishop, the Outlaws, the Atlanta Rhythm Section, .38 Special, ZZ Top, and many others. From the rise and fall of the mighty Capricorn Records to the music's role in helping Jimmy Carter win the White House and to its continuing legacy and influence, this is the story of Southern rock.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

I first thought that this book Southbound, was going to be about only southern rock music and the groups that are associated with that music. I was wrong. The first few chapters takes you through a quick history of music in the South. Through the independent labels and the singers and musicians that came from that region. You find out about blues players, country western singers, and then the begging’s of Rock and Roll. How early on some blues players like Muddy Waters, for example left the South to go north for Chess Records. There was a time when music in the south slowed a bit in the fifties until a guy by the name of Elvis, recorded a song out Memphis, the Sun Label with Sam Phelps. This would be good until 64 when the Beatles, came and started the British invasion. Then the book picks up with another label out of the South in Memphis, named Stax Records. They would have many hits throughout the 60s and into the early 70s. By the late 60’s is when you started getting the influence of Southern Rock. First with Creedence Clearwater Revival, even though they started out of San Francisco they are still considered a Southern band. Then there is an entire chapter on Duane Allman, the work he did for other artists and some of the first bands he started, Allman Joys, for example. This chapter and the next two really go into the life of the Allman Bros. The records, the people who recoded with them and the famous Muscle Sholes recording studio. Duane Allman, playing on the Derek & the Dominos Layla, album is already famous, but you also find out about their Fillmore East Concert that would put the Allman Bros, on the map when Duane Allman was killed. Then the book goes into other groups Marshall Tucker BAND FROM 73, and Lynard SKynrd, Charlie Daniels Band, Elvin Bishop, ZZTOP, Atlanta Rhythm Section, Molly Hachet, and 38 Specal. These are just to name a few the book goes into detail with every band about records and the people in the band and the last chapters are about the new artists are coming out onto the scene. I thought this book to be everything it said it would be and more. a fantastic book. I got this book from net galley.

WAYFARING STRANGER

WAYFARING STRANGER                    JAMES LEE BURKE
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

From “America’s best novelist” (The Denver Post): A sprawling thriller drenched with atmosphere and intrigue that takes a young boy from a chance encounter with Bonnie and Clyde to the trenches of World War II and the oil fields along the Texas-Louisiana coast.

It is 1934 and the Depression is bearing down when sixteen-year-old Weldon Avery Holland happens upon infamous criminals Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrow after one of their notorious armed robberies. A confrontation with the outlaws ends as Weldon puts a bullet through the rear window of Clyde’s stolen automobile.

Ten years later, Second Lieutenant Weldon Holland and his sergeant, Hershel Pine, escape certain death in the Battle of the Bulge and encounter a beautiful young woman named Rosita Lowenstein hiding in a deserted extermination camp. Eventually, Weldon and Rosita fall in love and marry and, with Hershel, return to Texas to seek their fortunes.

There, they enter the domain of jackals known as the oil business. They meet Roy Wiseheart—a former Marine aviator haunted with guilt for deserting his squadron leader over the South Pacific—and Roy’s wife Clara, a vicious anti-Semite who is determined to make Weldon and Rosita’s life a nightmare. It will be the frontier justice upheld by Weldon’s grandfather, Texas lawman Hackberry Holland, and the legendary antics of Bonnie and Clyde that shape Weldon’s plans for saving his family from the evil forces that lurk in peacetime America and threaten to destroy them all.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

Mr. Burke, transports you back in time with the cast of characters and the of a young man who is being raised by his grandfather, who was a former Texas Ranger, and his mother who is in and out of mental hospitals. Weldon, the main character finally tells his grandfather when he is a teenager to bring his mother home which his grandfather does. He then goes off to war WWII, were he is a lieutenant in the Army and he and a sergeant are then over run and buried by German tanks during the Battle of the Bugle. Later when he frees himself and then Herschel, the sergeant they make their way to a village they find a place to stay and also a women named Rosita. After a week a so they are rescued by paratroopers from the 82nd. Weldon has to go to a hospital for his wounds and before he is shipped back home he tracks down Rosita and they are married. They make it back to Texas and after a short while he tracks down Herschel. They become partners in an oil drilling business together, but they soon find out that not everyone likes Weldon’s, wife for she is Jewish. This does not bother Weldon or Herschel, but his wife and their so called friends now don’t want to associate with them. The people with who want their business now are looking for different ways to go about it like the hearings from the fifties. You get a look at life in our country at a different time but it is always the same someone with money trying to take down the little guy. They fight back in this book and though it is not a true story as you are reading the characters do feel real. That is the part of writing that Mr. Burke, is so good at making the story feel alive. This is a good book and a fast read. I got this book from net galley.

MISSING YOU

MISSING YOU                                       HARLAN COBEN
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

It's a profile, like all the others on the online dating site. But as NYPD Detective Kat Donovan focuses on the accompanying picture, she feels her whole world explode, as emotions she’s ignored for decades come crashing down on her. Staring back at her is her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart—and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years.

Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light, in which monsters prey upon the most vulnerable. 

As the body count mounts and Kat's hope for a second chance with Jeff grows more and more elusive, she is consumed by an investigation that challenges her feelings about everyone she ever loved—her former fiancé, her mother, and even her father, whose cruel murder so long ago has never been fully explained. With lives on the line, including her own, Kat must venture deeper into the darkness than she ever has before, and discover if she has the strength to survive what she finds there.

HUBBY'S REVIEW:

This is a book filled with suspense and intrigue, the main character is Kat Donovan, who is still dealing with the murder of her father 18 years ago also a NYPD, Detective. She feels that she has never gotten the truth from anyone about the death of her father. His former partner is now her Captain and her mother just does not want to talk about it. When the man who pleaded guilty to the murder dies in prison, his last words to her was I just pleaded guilty for someone else for they already had me on the first two murders and what’s a third. Kat always think that a certain mob boss had her father killed as she is working on that she is shown a missing persons case by a young man that she does not think it is a missing persons case at all. It starts with an on line dating, and during the responses back and then going through some of the photos on the site she comes across a picture of her former fiancé who her best friend now had never knew of. As all of this is going you get a look from the criminal side of the third story line in the book. This story line is some very intense writing for what is going on feels very real and the way he writes it makes you feel like you are right there with the victims. Kat who is also having issues with her partner is now finding him to be very helpful and is actually finding some information out on the boys’ mother who is in fact missing along with two other people that they know of. Kat finds out some information about her father that makes her sad not angry and does not know whether she should tell her mother and then as the missing person case gets more intense the last part of the book you really don’t want to put down. As the case of the missing person turns out to be more than just that and you see Kat and her former fiancé try to work things out you find out who killed her father. This is a very powerful story and once you get past the half way point in the book you really don’t want to put the book down. Full of mystery, murder, intrigue and just a fantastic book. I got this book from net galley.

HE'S SO FINE

HE'S SO FINE                                         JILL SHALVIS
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

For Olivia Bentley, Lucky Harbor is more than the town where she runs her new vintage shop. It's the place where folks are friendly to strangers-and nobody knows her real name. Olivia does a good job of keeping her past buried, not getting too cozy with anyone . . . until she sees a man drowning. Suddenly she's rushing into the surf, getting up close and personal with the hottest guy she's ever laid hands on.

Charter boat captain Cole Donovan has no problem with a gorgeous woman throwing her arms around his neck in an effort to "save" him. In fact, he'd like to spend a lot more time skin-to-skin with Olivia. He's just not expecting that real trouble is about to come her way. Will it bring her deeper into Cole's heart, or will it be the end of Olivia's days in little Lucky Harbor?

MY REVIEW:

     Those of you who have been a part of the Lucky Harbor Series of readers know who humorous it is.  Just about all the stories can be more outrageous than the next and this one starts off no different.  The thing is Cole Donovan, Sam & Tanner are all great friends who have lived through a very traumatic experience.

     You see when all three of them worked out in the middle of the ocean on an oil rig there was a terrible fiery blast.  Tanner’s leg was severely injured and their very good friend Gil was killed.  They were so close to their dream and for Gil’s memory they followed through ASAP.  They opened their own boat chartering business in Lucky Harbor.  Which takes care of any kind of water activity you can think of.

     When they returned none really sought out therapy so they could talk it through.  What they had been through was a blow to all of them but for Cole, being the more verbal and sensitive (a product of a household of older sisters) he would mention it and the other two would shut him down.  Macho BS!

     So, here it is two years later and it is beyond freezing out, windy, and he has to fix a light on the boat for that mornings early morning charter of which he’s the captain.  He has one foot balanced on the deck one on the boat when there’s a spark and a flashback from the blast on the rig.  At the same time needless to say he falls in the water.  All the clothes he is wearing to keep warm weigh him down so it takes him a little time to reach the surface.

     At the same time Olivia Bentley, she is overall a guarded standoffish skittish person, yells when she sees a man fall in the water.  She yells out for help to anyone but at 5 a.m. nothing so she jumps in.  Right on top of Cole taking him back under they break apart he comes up she doesn’t he goes to get her.  Now she’s holding on to him monkey style.  Sputtering water and saying something along the lines of her rescuing him and he says stop trying to rescue me!  When she ask why were you trying to kill yourself?  Cole knows it’s a lost cause tries to figure out what’s a closer swim because he can tell she is having problems talking her teeth are chattering so badly.

     He goes into care mode once on the boat and at the end he likes it and realizes that even though he was injured and Tanner and Sam grounded him for several days that he felt emotions that he never thought he would ever feel again.  Especially after the accident.  He was basically the walking dead.

     For Olivia it scared the hell out of her because she realized that she didn’t have her shit together.  That she was hiding a whole lot of secrets from the people of Lucky Harbor.  But, mostly to herself she was lying.  Namely that she is not totally dead inside, that she may want more out of life and that she’s living in fear.  That she may even be tired of being a total bitch all the time.

     Cole, Tanner, and Sam had been together forever. In fact Sam was a foster kid that his mom kept taking in because she saw something in him and Cole saw his defender, friend and brother.  They had all come a long way but they were all carrying their own personal demons.  Can Olivia be the person to help Cole find the peace and the true kind of love he is looking for?  Can Olivia push down the walls of fear to allow trust in people but especially Cole to get near her heart?

     These are just some of the many questions that will be answered in this funny heartwarming complex family saga.  Hey did I mention the erotic nature of this saga is hot too?  Sizzling at times.  I love this saga of Lucky Harbor Jill keeps you wanting more.  Her characters are people you could think of taking home.  I can’t wait to read about Tanner!  I give this 5 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.

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TOUCH & GO

TOUCH & GO                                        MIRA LYN KELLY
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

Vivacious and successful, Ava Meyers is living her dream life, except for one thing: Ever since childhood, she’s been in love with her best friend . . . and she’s never admitted it. Back then, Sam Farrow was a damaged young man with a tough past. Now he’s supremely confident, super-sexy, and totally untouchable—until the night when Sam pretends to be Ava’s boyfriend to save her from some unwanted attention. In a moment of weakness, Ava finds out that a long friendship is no match for blistering sexual chemistry.

After years of denying his own feelings, Sam finds that one amazing night with Ava isn’t enough to chase away all the pent-up fantasies. So he proposes they spend a few weeks driving each other wild, exhausting their every desire, and then return to their perfect platonic relationship like nothing ever happened. But Sam’s plan has one fatal flaw: the part where they give each other up. Because the more they let go of their inhibitions, the more they’re tempted to never go back.

Includes a special message from the editor, as well as an excerpt from another Loveswept title. 

MY REVIEW:

     How do you learn to trust enough to truly believe in someone else in order to give them your love and vice a versa?  That is what is going on in Ava Meyers, 28, and Sam Farrow, 29.  You see they met when Ava was seven and they have been best friends slash brother-sister ever since.

     Since that very moment Ava had been in love with Sam.  She was a girl that knew what she wanted but smart enough to know what it would cost her if her or anyone else found out but especially what it could cost Sam.  She knew some of Sam’s deepest secrets.  She never wanted to lose him.

     That what Sam was always afraid of once he became embedded into the Meyers’ home.  You see the day he ended up at Ava and her older brother Ford’s house he was hiding from his drunk dad.  He had luckily that time escaped a beating so when little for her age Ava came over and introduced herself he couldn’t hardly talk.  You see not many talked to him he was from the wrong side of the tracks, his dad a drunk, his mama who said she’d come back for him hadn’t, and he always looked unkempt.  Ava and the Meyers’ never cared.  By Jr. High they had given him the extra bedroom in the basement for his own, when they walked out he laid down and cried his eyes out that first day.

     For Ava she continued to be Sam’s best friend. Even when she went off to college.  Lines were never crossed ever.  As they got older sleepovers had to stop which saddened Ava but Sam felt out of respect for Ava’s parents and brother and their age.  Plus at 10 he had promised Ford that he would not marry or date Ava after all. (Have to read to understandJ)

     Now though Ava needs a man to be her date to a business party.  Sam is her usual go to guy but he said no can do because he was booked already.  But there is a guy at work that is zeroing in on Ava and wants to date her so she needs a favor and is asking her girl BFF, Maggie Lawson to let her borrow her fiancé Tyler for the evening.  Maggie says no!  So, Maggie calls Sam’ cousin Tony to take her and Ava goes ballistic because she might as well date Steven the guy that is after her at work it would be the same thing with Tony.  Tony is man whore or so he says and Ava thinks he’s creepy. 

     When Tony calls Sam to tell him that Ava finally relented and is going on a date with him Sam tells Ava NO!  So, Sam cancels his date right there in front of her and says he is taking her.  One lip smacking kiss to show Steven from work they are really a couple has them hot and bothered.  The world as they know it has been turned upside down.  So, they try another kiss and now it’s time to go home and see where it leads.

     I totally enjoy the funny erotica.  It really had a fun cast of characters.  I give this 5 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.

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BADASS (HELL YEAH! #5)

BADASS: (HELL YEAH! #5)                 SABLE HUNTER
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

Isaac McCoy is every woman’s dream. He’s a cowboy, one of the Texas McCoy’s of Tebow Ranch – tall, dark, handsome and sexy as hell. To add to the mystery, he’s a biker – clad in black leather, riding a big Harley – he makes the girls swoon. To put it simply, Isaac is the black sheep of the family. And what his family doesn’t know is that he’s also a Dom. Always a little different from his brothers –Isaac has been into fast cars, fast women – and the kinkier side of sex. Until Avery. That’s right’s the Texas Badass has fallen for the angel of Kerrville County – the Baptist Preacher’s daughter – Miss Prim and Proper. And that will never do. As much as he wants her, Isaac pushes her away – sometimes you have to be cruel to be kind. 

Avery has been in love with Isaac for years and she’s ready to make her move. But Isaac makes it clear that they come from different worlds, there’s no way she can fit in to his life. She’s not the kind of woman he needs. So, Avery decides to take matters into her own hands. What she intends to do is take lessons in how to be a bad girl. Avery is determined to learn what it takes to please Isaac in every way. She’s seriously after her Badass – and soon, he’s not going to know what hit him. 

MY REVIEW:

     Let’s be perfectly honest from the start this is a well thought out and masterfully done romantic comedy erotica.  An erotica none the less.  So, let’s not think otherwise.  Okay, now I got that out of the way.

     This story is done from the point of view of Isaac McCoy “The Badass” brother of the McCoy boys, of which there are five.  Boy, is he trying to stay away from them.  They are dropping like flies and being the good “Dom” that he is he won’t have any romantic attachments.  Especially, since he could never have the one he wants living the BDSM lifestyle.  Being the Godly girl that she is so he will just dream about her and see her in his fantasies.

     Isaac has been in love with Avery Rose Sinclair, the preacher’s daughter, for as long as he could remember.  Being the bad boy of the family won him no prizes.  No dates with good girls like Avery that is for sure.  Little did Isaac know she had been in love with him as long too?  But that was about to change.  You see Avery was about to walk into Isaac’s bar and declare her love for him, especially after the week before he kissed the stuffing out of her and said he wished she was his.

     Well, Isaac was not as over joyed as she that he would be in fact he escorted her out to her minivan and says, he wants nothing to do with her and she’s not his type.  She was knocked back but not out.  She licked her wounds regrouped and took off to change her life to meet the needs that she felt she needed to be a part of Isaac’s life and make him love her like she loves him.

     That night after closing the bar Isaac felt horrible.  He just kicked the woman of all his dreams out of his life and deeply hurt her in the process.  He went to check on her but she wasn’t at home or anywhere he looked.  After a week he was desperate and called her folks at the new church and luckily her mom answered she didn’t know where she was and it wasn’t until almost the end of the call that she figured out it was him and hung up on him.  Now it called for drastic measures, he called his friend Brody a P.I. and ex-Navy SEAL to find her.

     After a month she pops back up out of nowhere at the bar.  Just one look at her and the bar breaks out in fights.  See what Isaac thinks of the sudden changes in Avery.  See if the changes were worth making and if that was what either of them wanted or needed.

     This is a family saga that I have loved from the very beginning.  I may not be into the BDSM that the characters are into. Yet, I do understand the love and willingness they have for one another. I also enjoy the family saga part of it.  Like the story about the bull and the woman there to check him out for the serum.  Also, the one about the glitter at the doctor’s office they were both just too funny.  They have a closeness we all want to have.  I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.

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IT'S IN HIS KISS

IT'S IN HIS KISS                                    JILL SHALVIS
Posted:  Jan. 5, 2015

ONE KISS CAN LAST FOREVER
Becca Thorpe has uprooted her life and escaped to the beach. Now's her chance to get away from city living, throw caution to the ocean winds, and live in the moment. Especially if the moment includes the deliciously sexy surfer she meets shortly after arriving in Lucky Harbor. Something about the dark intensity of Sam's eyes and the thrill she gets at his touch convinces her to stay awhile.

Boatbuilder and investment genius Sam Brody is a self-made man who knows how dangerous it can be to mix business and pleasure. But he can't resist offering Becca a job just to hear her laugh and have her near. Yet when her brother comes to town asking for help, will he tempt her back to her glamorous life in the city? Or do Sam and little Lucky Harbor have a chance to win Becca's heart?

MY REVIEW:

     If love means people relying heavily on you or each other, and you couldn’t necessarily rely on them back then what?  You see Sam Brody is a man who was used to caring for his scheming alcoholic father.  At the age of ten he was already caring for the meager household budget. 

     When his father got arrested the first time you could say it was his worst and best time ever.  The reason being because he was sent to a foster home in Lucky Harbor a two hour drive from Seattle.  With the Donovan family was a big family.  The treated him like one of their own.  He made a friend in Cole his foster brother and only boy in family of three girls, Cole being the youngest.  Cole’s mom Amelia made sure every time his dad got picked up she went to pick up Sam every time driving those two hours one way.  At 18, he went to work on an oil rig to earn good pay he had dreams along with Cole and Tanner another friend from high school.

     The dreams was one day the three of them would own a charter boat service in Lucky Harbor.  That dream was almost dashed when a fire on the rig killed Gil the fourth man that planned on joining the venture that they had met on the rig and they all three instantly liked, not to mention Tanner’s leg was severally injured in the fire.  Respect for Gil’s memory they had them continuing with the dream.  Sam being the portfolio investor for the group was investing their savings and making a profit.  They had more than enough so they all came back home and never went back to the rig.

     One day coming in from an evening surf he spots a woman eating popcorn with her toes deep in the sand.  They nod at each other and he keeps walking.  Yet, his feeling a spark he hadn’t felt in years.  Later, as he is working on the current boat he is building she enters his work space where everyone and I mean everyone knows not to go.  He’s using an electric plainer and chooses not to speak to her.  So, she being a city girl unplugs the plainer and tells him she’s Becca Thorpe and what warehouse number she’s looking for.  Reluctantly he tells her.  He tells her not to expect much it’s a dump.  Which gives her pause but she has no other choice.  She says thanks and leaves.

     He wasn’t fooled though he could tell she was giving off more badass than she really has.  There was just a hint of something there in her eyes but she guarded it too fast for him to know.  He tries to shake it but he can’t.

     Then, after a late night run a couple of days later he teases her about being the “peeper.”  Then he asks her what she’s doing out near the water by herself in her PJ’?  She says just thinking.  She ask him does he always run full out.  She knows he does because she can see him/them from her window.  One kiss later and the flame is lit for them both.  One, two, three you belong to me but do they?  Their hearts are holding tight to secrets and hurts.  Can they share them and let them go?

     Yet, Becca needed a job and the guys needed a front office person.  So, that for Sam was a deal breaker for sleeping together.  Dating kinda was okay but not sleeping with her again.  Becca was running from her own issues and family, stop by and see what happens at Lucky Harbor Charters.  Laugh a lot as you see where Becca and Sam go with this relationship.  Can either learn to trust or are they doomed?

     I loved, loved, loved the characters in this book.  Sam, Cole, and Tanner are a wonderful combo of sexy comedy.  The relationship that forms is baby steps between Becca and Sam is amazing, yet her relationship with the towns people and Sam’s BFF’s, dad, and the towns people is endearing.

I give this book 5 stars.  Provided by Net Galley.

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