The Callahan Split by Lisa Heidke

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The Callahan Split: No one knows you better than your sister.

In tennis, as in life, nothing ever goes truly to plan.

Samantha and Annie Callahan are successful doubles champions — the toast of the Olympics, Wimbledon, and Flushing Meadow. 

But their winning partnership spirals out of control when Annie’s new boyfriend announces their engagement at the Australian Open in Melbourne.

Bear, the sisters’ coach, guides Annie as much as she’ll allow. But when she insists on dropping Samantha in favour of a singles career, her game and rankings plummet.

Samantha is left floundering. Disillusioned, her only sweet spot is the growing passion between her and Bear. 

Amidst rising anger and betrayal, Samantha completely changes both their destinies when she does the unthinkable after a devastating Wimbledon loss.

The sisters are driven to create new lives by confronting the past and taking control of the present. 

But can Samantha and Annie both win?

Description from Goodreads

REVIEW:

The two sisters were certainly different, each had their different strengths and weaknesses. I don't think there was ever a time you felt that you needed to choose between the two or that either of them had a better point than the other. They were just at different points of their lives.

I don't think I was ever really lost while reading this book, except maybe on occasion when the tennis things got too technical but I don't think that happened more than once or twice at the most.

There were certainly several shockers that you might not be able to predict and these certainly helped to make the book a little more interesting, more so than watching the drama and intrigue of Samantha's life as well as what you know of Annie's. 

Lisa Heidke has created a good, strong novel that follows the story of Samantha and Annie. 

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A Fine Line by Jeanine Binder!

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Lori never clued into how dirty the undercover job he had taken was until he ran into Dr. Leigh Matthews in the emergency room. And luckily enough for him she didn't seem to mind his job. But Lori's getting close to shutting the largest drug operation in the country down and some people will do anything to stop it. Find the official description on Goodreads.

The writing in A Fine Line was easy enough to follow. It kept things interesting without going over the top. In other words it was realistic. I didn't really have anything that stood out about the writing that prevented me from enjoying reading this book.

And the characters were also an interesting mix. Lori certainly shows that money doesn't make happiness. He also defies expectations. You don't really expect someone who's wealthy to be working as a cop. Not that that probably doesn't happen but I mean it's a bit unusual. And Leigh was an interesting female character. She certainly was independent but still didn't fight the draw she had to Lori.

The ending was good, a mix of feelings but the lead up to it certainly had your heart in your throat and fear choking you if that wasn't enough. 

Jeanine Binder has created a great book! 

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Escape Down Under by S.M. Phillips

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"Something is wrong and I'm really not sure if I want to hear what it is." -S.M. Phillips, Escape Down Under

WARNING: Not appropriate for younger audiences

Jess broke up with Josh several months ago...but he hasn't seemed to have gotten the message. Meanwhile she's thrown herself into work, determined to get past this. When an oppurtunity comes up to go and work in Australia, it takes very little convincing for her to decide to go. But when she runs into Max, she's less sure of her decision...mostly because she's afraid of crossing the professional boundary. But when the unthinkable happens, will Jess be able to keep herself from going into a tail spin? Find the official description on Goodreads.

The writing in Escape Down Under flowed really well and although it was a different spelling and slang, it wasn't hard to pick up on a lot of the tone behind the words(and if you've watched any amount of BBC, it wasn't hard at all). So that was something that was really well done. There was no confusion and it just all really flowed well.

There were also very good descriptions of incidents. You almost felt as if you were watching it happen in slow mo because you got that good of a description. 

While we get both character's perspectives, Escape Down Under is mostly done from Jessica's perspective which is good because it allows us to have a bit of mystery around Max's actions and thus leave us wondering. But when we did get chapters from Max's perspectives, which we did occasionally, I found myself really enjoying those chapters. Mostly because Max could be humorous but not actually meant to be humorous. So he'd be trying to talk himself out of something and we're like fat chance of that buddy. It was great.

And now I'm just going to mention the ending in general terms(don't want to spoil it for you). But this was actually really, really well done. There was a cliffhanger but at the same time the way the book ended that could have ended the series. Sure, I wouldn't have been happy because I would have wanted to see what happened otherwise but it just had that tone of finality to it. Which was really well done, and it just...yeah.

Escape Down Under was a great read and I strongly encourage you to read it before the sequel Fallen Down Under comes out. 

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Reho by D.L. Denham

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"Reho wondered if there was somewhere he could escape, somewhere to start over." -D.L. Denham, Reho

Earth has been almost destroyed and invaded, the former mostly done by humans and nuclear war, the latter done by an alien race referred to as the Hegemon. Reho is a little bit different from the rest of humanity, even with all of their deformities from the radiation. When he gets the chance to sail away, he takes it and soon finds himself tangled in a web even more complex than he had thought. But there's only one question. Will he make it out alive? Find the official description on Goodreads.

Throughout Reho, we get the past and necessary information when it's needed. And it isn't told in a way that makes it seem as if it's the author trying to find a way to convey this information while staying in character. Instead it's done in a storytelling way by one of the characters or when Reho goes on a mental ramble. The information feels as if it's naturally coming to us and not just because we need it. I enjoyed that aspect of Reho. It was very well done.

Oh, and the writing was very attention grabbing. I was debating on whether I would read and review Reho but when I read the first few pages, I had to keep reading or else I would have been driving myself to madness wondering what was going on. It grabbed my attention and it held it for the most part throughout the book.

The future Earth and everything about it including the invading aliens were all imaginatively created. It was interesting to compare and contrast this new Earth with our Earth. It's not much different in some ways and yet in others it feels foreign. But I think that's what made things interesting. The fact that while it's familiar in a few, and yet there's more to discover about this new Earth.

I'm also going to give you a bit of warning. Throughout the book, the pace keeps going faster and faster until it slides right over a cliff. The ending was well played and I find myself wanting to read more of D.L. Denham's work just to find out what happened and how everything will play out. So, well played Mr. Denham, well played.

The world of Reho is very much dog eat dog, or at least Reho's world seems to be that way. So if you like action, than you are sure to like Reho. Reho  was released on July 31st, so you should go check it out, preview a bit if you'd like to and than purchase it.

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