Saturday, September 6, 2014

Ring Around the Rosie by Julie Coulter Bellon + $30 and book giveaway!

Ring Around the Rosie Blog Tour and Giveaway!




Today is the kickoff for the blog tour for my new novel, Ring Around the Rosie! There are some awesome prizes being given away, so be sure to scroll down and enter to win!  

Ring Around the Rosie



Revenge is a dish best served cold . . .

As the ex-wife of a law enforcement officer, Sarah Reed has known loneliness and loss. In order to cope, she makes a life for herself that's full of routine while building a wall of ice around her heart. Everything about her is as predictable as she can make it until a tiny detour for her ex-husband, Ron, changes her life forever. Caught in a bomb crisis, Sarah is taken hostage by a man who wants Ron and everyone around him to suffer---and his idea of suffering is more terrible than Sarah had ever dreamed.

Captain Ron Reed has seen the worst of humanity in his job with the Hostage Negotiation Team, but he never expected his past to come back with a vengeance---literally. Aaron Starks, a criminal explosives expert, has stolen next-gen bomb technology and uses it to force Ron to bargain for the lives of his team and his ex-wife, Sarah, the woman he still loves. But the situation escalates when Ron discovers that Starks has an even bigger objective in mind---using the bomb to show how vulnerable America and her people truly are.

Ron is willing to risk everything to save his country and those he loves, but when negotiations break down, will his sacrifice be too little too late?

Excerpt 

Her words were cut off by a blast of hot air and fire, an explosion so large it blew them all backward. Ron hit the floor hard and lay there dazed and groggy. Glass and debris rained down. Confetti-sized menus and napkins floated like snowflakes in slow motion all around him. For a second the entire world was a silent tunnel with him at the end of it. It would be so easy to just close his eyes and let the blackness suck him down into unconsciousness. But he couldn’t. Not yet. Get up. Get everyone out.

“Sarah?” he croaked. He tried again. “Sarah?” His legs felt like lead and the urge to just lie back was stronger than ever. No. Keep moving. “Claire?” He coughed and tried to catch a breath, but couldn’t get the oxygen to his lungs. With a shallow intake of air, he turned over on his stomach and used his arms to raise himself to a sitting position. The inside of the diner looked like a destructive madman had rearranged it. The booths were toppled or stacked on top of each other. The hostess station was next to him now. The only thing that was still standing where it had before the blast was the four walls, the ceiling, and the antique counter. “Sarah,” he called again. “Bart? Colby?” The little girl. Was she still in the back with her mother?

No one answered. Where is everyone? He crawled forward. Sarah had been nearly right beside him. Now there was no sign of her. He rubbed his eyes and coughed. Moving slowly, he prayed she was alive. It didn’t take long to find her sandwiched between an overturned booth bench and the podium for the hostess station. With some effort he managed to maneuver close to her, the adrenaline kicking in as his blood pounded through his system. Don’t let her be dead. Not like this.

Purchase Your Copy

Being a reviewer sort of has its ups and downs.  Sometimes you read books you don't love and it's really hard to get through them.  But most days it's the most awesome job ever.  Some days you feel like a kid on Christmas day.  When you get your hands on the newest, latest book by an author you love, it's Christmas day.  That's how I felt when I finally got to read Julie's latest book.  Yes, I'm a fan.  I've read all her books and I always love them.  I only just recently joined up with her "swat team" and I still feel a little giddy over it.

This book is the latest in the hostage negotiation series.  All the titles from this series have a line from the Ring Around the Rosie rhyme.  It's sort of creepy and awesome all at the same time.  Each book revolves around characters from Captain Reed's Hostage Negotiation Team but I don't think one is dependent on the others.

One of the things I love about Julie's books is the suspense.  I feel that charged air feeling and the desperation to get through a scene because I have to find out if the characters make it and how they are going to make it, but I never feel overwhelmed.  The tension in this book is almost always there.  It starts off with a bang (quite literally) and never really lets up.  

Captain Ron is a giant of a man.  He is a protector.  He cares about people and he has great intuition.  Well, great intuition about his job but not so much about his ex-wife, Sarah.  He made a mistake years ago letting her walk away but he never stopped loving her and wishing for a way back to her.  Ron is willing to give his life to save the lives of everyone on his team, strangers caught up in the hostage mess and especially Sarah but that creepy bad guy, Sparks, has other ideas of retribution and torture in mind.

This was such a great read.  It was easy to get caught up in this book and forget that I had other things to do.  I loved the pacing, the characters and the crackle of tension.  I also love that this book is squeaky clean.  (no swearing or sexual scenes)


About the Author



Julie is married with eight children and eleven published books. She loves to travel and her favorite cities she's visited so far are probably Athens, Paris, Ottawa, and London. She would love to visit Hawaii, Australia, Ireland, and Scotland someday. She loves to read, write, teach, watch Castle, Hawaii Five-O, and eat Canadian chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.        


Giveaway

Prize #1---$30 Amazon Gift Card 
Prize #2---Booklovers Basket
Prize #3---Four Book Set of Hostage Negotiation Team series 
Ends 9/15/14 

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by Rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

6 comments:

  1. I would go to Scotland, I have always been fascinated on its described rough beauty. I would love to see and explore it.

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  2. I'd like to go to Paris, because that city always intrigued me.

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  3. i want to go to comic con in USA
    thx u :)

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  4. I would love to travel to Florence,Italy. And to Japan, to Norway and and lot more goes on.

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  5. Nice review, Aimee! If I could go anywhere, it would be to Bogota, Colombia, so I could visit the LDS temple there and find some friends from when I lived there.

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