Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Historical, Mystery/Suspense
Length: Full Length (312 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender
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In the mid 90s, Elizabeth Booth is a young British college student studying Arabic at Durham University. With some travel and work already under her belt, she excels at her studies and is sent to Damascus to immerse herself in the language. Taken aback by the generosity and kindness of the people there, she easy slips into a life in the ancient city. She has friends, her studies, and even a handsome boyfriend. But things aren’t always what they seem. Soon, in a world where mistrust and disloyalty are commonplace, Elizabeth finds herself navigating a web of lies, betrayals, and even murder involving MI6, deadly terrorist factions, and the shadowy Syrian secret police.
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November Book of the Month Poll Winner ~ Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach
Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach
Gazelle in the Shadows by Michelle Peach
Publisher: Self-Published
Genre: Historical, Mystery/Suspense
Length: Full Length (312 pages)
Rating: 4.5 stars
Reviewed by Lavender
In the mid 90s, Elizabeth Booth is a young British college student studying Arabic at Durham University. With some travel and work already under her belt, she excels at her studies and is sent to Damascus to immerse herself in the language. Taken aback by the generosity and kindness of the people there, she easy slips into a life in the ancient city. She has friends, her studies, and even a handsome boyfriend. But things aren’t always what they seem. Soon, in a world where mistrust and disloyalty are commonplace, Elizabeth finds herself navigating a web of lies, betrayals, and even murder involving MI6, deadly terrorist factions, and the shadowy Syrian secret police.
When someone innocent but intelligent unwittingly gets mixed up in espionage and Middle Eastern politics, the unknown looms ahead. Mix in romance and a little history, and one has the makings of a remarkable story.
Elizabeth, an English college student studying Arabic in the early 1990s, decides to be daring and go where no other of her fellow students are going at the time: Syria. Elizabeth knows no one there but bets on herself to do something amazing and make her parents proud of her accomplishments.
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She’s surprised and how helpful and friendly people are to her when she first arrives. To some readers, it may seem a little strange how far they go out of their way to help a stranger. She gets situated with a nice older couple, but then after an incident that she doesn’t fully understand, she leaves their home, and then the real adventure begins.
Readers are taken along this ride, seeing through her eyes. One gets treated to sensual details, sights, sounds, even smells and tastes. One feels fear when she does. She gets close to a man, and things go well, but then small, suspicious things start to happen. She dismisses them, but readers may begin to worry for her. One can almost feel the danger ahead, and how Elizabeth would be isolated and far away from her loved ones.
Is she being used for sinister purposes? While turning pages to find out, readers get treated to cultural lessons and the inside scoop. Not all people are as accepting of foreigners as she was perhaps led to believe when she first arrived and was treated so well.
She has contacts with embassies, narrow winding streets, small villages and ancient sights and cities, creating an exciting setting. She comes across people from various walks of life, opening the eyes of readers to many realities. The sense of danger lurking underneath this backdrop gives this modern-historical piece a dose of the thriller genre.
Elizabeth hears opposing things from people she cares about and trusts, and readers are likely to worry right along with her. The danger keeps escalating. Who can she trust? Will she be able to find a way out of the mess she’s become entangled in? Her weaknesses and strengths make for an interesting story due to how others interact with her.
When things get really serious, life and death, Elizabeth writes down her thoughts concerning her family, and especially her father. The touching words show a depth to her and growth. She looks back on her life and her relationship with her parents, and it’s a touching moment.
This is a page-turner for being such a serious story, and I’d recommend it.
Winter Blogfest: Maggie King
This post is part of Long and Short Reviews’ Winter Blogfest. Leave a comment for a chance to win a print copy of MURDER BY THE GLASS: COCKTAIL MYSTERIES, an anthology of cocktail-themed mysteries. US only.
Turkey Chili: A New Year’s Day Tradition
Black-eyed peas are a favorite New Year’s Day tradition for millions who believe eating the legume will lead to prosperity in the coming year. I haven’t heard that chili has the same mystical power to bring good luck, but, as I have yet to develop a taste for black-eyed peas, I’ll call chili my good luck charm.
Chili was a New Year’s Day tradition in my childhood home—a huge pot of it. I hated the stuff, hated the aroma of it as it simmered on the stove and lingered in the air for hours.
But I’m all grown up now and chili is one of my favorite dishes. The sweet, pungent aroma that fills my house each year on January 1 gives me great pleasure. Yes, chili remains a New Year’s Day tradition for my family—but with my own recipe: turkey chili with black beans.
This recipe is perfect for cold winter evenings, although I fix it year round. Feel free to vary the ingredients according to your taste and what you have on hand. I prefer turkey, but have used ground beef and bison. The multi-colored peppers create a pretty dish, but you can certainly use one color. In lieu of tarragon vinegar(who has that on hand?), I add a pinch of dried tarragon to ¼ cup of apple cider vinegar.
The recipe is courtesy of the Gourmet Gazelle Cookbook by Ellen Brown. It never disappoints.
1 tbsp. vegetable oil
1 onion, peeled and chopped
3 garlic cloves, peeled and minced
1 red bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced
1 green bell pepper, seeds and ribs removed, diced
1 ½ pounds turkey breast, coarsely ground
2 tbsp. flour
3 tbsp. chili powder
2 tbsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. powdered cocoa
1-2 tsp. cayenne pepper
¼ cup tarragon vinegar
2 tbsp. strong brewed coffee
1 28 oz. cans plum tomatoes, crushed
¼ tsp. salt
2 cups cooked black beans
Heat the oil over medium-high heat in a Dutch oven or deep skillet. Add onion, garlic, and bell peppers; sauté, stirring frequently, for 5 minutes. Add the ground turkey and sauté for 5 minutes, stirring constantly and breaking up any lumps with the spoon.
Stir in the flour, chili powder, cumin, and cocoa. Stir frequently over low heat for 3 minutes to cook the spices. Add remaining ingredients except black beans and bring to a boil over medium heat.
Simmer chili, stirring occasionally, for 40-45 minutes until thick and the turkey is tender (If using slow cooker, cook on low for 4 hours). Add black beans and cook for 5 additional minutes.
***
Do you celebrate New Year’s with a special dish? Tell us about it in the comments.
May 2022 be a happy and prosperous year for you—whatever you eat on Day 1!
He who laughs last, laughs longest.
Unless he’s dead.
When romance author Hazel Rose is dropped by her publisher, she sees herself
heading down a path strewn with has-been authors. While disappointed, Hazel won’t give up without a fight—she signs up for a mystery-writing class, thinking that crime fiction will jumpstart her career.But what’s a mystery-writing class without a mystery? So when Randy Zimmerman, an obnoxious classmate given to laughing at others’ expense, is murdered, Hazel tackles the case. Solving a real-life murder will surely lend authenticity to her creative writing.
She recruits her book group pals to help with the investigation. Trouble is, there are more suspects than they bargained for—even Hazel herself, who endured Randy’s thumbs-way-down review of her writing, had a motive.
A second body drives the stakes higher, and Hazel doubles her efforts to find who’s behind the murders, unearthing secrets that a killer would go to any lengths to keep hidden.
Will Hazel succeed? Or will this be “The End” for her?
Maggie King is the author of the Hazel Rose Book Group mysteries. Her short stories appear in various anthologies, including the Virginia is for Mysteries series, 50 Shades of Cabernet, Deadly Southern Charm, Murder by the Glass, and Death by Cupcake.
She is a member of James River Writers, International Thriller Writers, Short Mystery Fiction Society, and is a founding member of Sisters in Crime Central Virginia, where she manages the chapter’s Instagram account.
Maggie graduated from Rochester Institute of Technology with a degree in Business Administration, and has worked as a software developer and a retail sales manager. She has called New Jersey, Massachusetts, and California home. These days she lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and two indulged cats. When Maggie isn’t writing she enjoys reading, walking, cooking, traveling, movies, British TV shows, and the theatre.
Buy the book at Amazon.
The Power of Setting by Victoria Vane
THE POWER OF SETTING
by Victoria Vane
Aside from a solid plot and compelling characters, what makes a great story? What is the magical ingredient that brings it all to life? That transports the reader to another time and place? My answer is the setting—one that doesn’t just serve as a backdrop for the characters, but plays an equal role. Each of the following excerpts from The Sheik Retold sets a different tone and exemplifies how powerful setting can be in creating atmosphere and mood for the story.
Excerpt#1
I exited the tent, drawing a long breath and reveling in the scenery that was nothing short of enchanting in the twilight. The camp was spread out over the oasis—the clustering palm trees and the desert itself stretching outward in undulating sweeps as far as the eye could see, eventually leveling into the distant hills like a dark smudge against the horizon.
I was here at last—the place I had longed for all of my life, yet I never knew until that moment how intense my longing had been. I felt strangely at home, as if the great, silent emptiness had been waiting for me, just as I had been waiting for it. It spoke to me softly with the faint rustle of the whispering sand, with the mysterious charm of its billowy, shifting surface that beckoned me to penetrate deep into its unknown obscurities.
Excerpt#2
That night was unusually hot, and the atmosphere in the tent increasingly oppressive as the hours wore on… The stillness of the desert seemed almost sinister tonight—and the silence so intense that the squeal of a stallion in the distance made me start with a madly racing heart. Earlier in the evening a drum had been going persistently, and later a native pipe had shrilled in monotonous cadence, but I had grown accustomed to these. They were of nightly occurrence and soothed rather than irritated me. When they stopped the stillness was so unnerving that I would have welcomed any sound. I was restless and excited. I longed for him passionately and at the same time, dreaded his return…
The heat was intense, and every moment the tent seemed to grow more airless. The Persian hound in the next room whined from time to time, until he pushed his way past the curtain and stalked across the thick rugs to nuzzle his shaggy head against my knee, whimpering and gazing plaintively up at me. When I finally took notice of him, he reared up, thrusting his wet nose into my face. I caught his head in my hands and rubbed my cheek against his rough hair, crooning over him softly. Even the dog was comfort in my loneliness as we waited together for the master.
Excerpt #3
I looked out across the desert beyond the last palms of the oasis where a haze hung over the sand, shimmering in the heat and blurring the outline of the distant hills. A tiny breeze brought the acrid smell of camels closer, and the creaking whine of the tackling over the well sounded not very far away. I gave a little sigh. It had all become so strangely familiar now.
The beauties and attractions of the desert had multiplied a hundred times. The wild tribesmen, with their primitive ways, had ceased to disgust me, and the free life with its constant exercise and simple routine was becoming indefinitely dear… I was alive at last. The heart that I once doubted existed, burned and throbbed with a consuming passion. It was only here in the desert, and in Ahmed Ben Hassan’s arms, that I had come to know life and death, happiness and sorrow. As my gaze swept over his camp, I was suddenly awakened to the full force of nature that was Ahmed Ben Hassan. Everything I saw was connected with and bound up in the man who was lord of it all.
THE SHEIK RETOLD by Victoria Vane and E.M. Hull
The Desert Was Never Hotter!
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“There will be inquiries.” I choked out. “I am not such a nonentity that nothing will be done when I am missed. You will pay for what you have done.”
“Pay?” His amused look sent a cold feeling of dread through me. “I have already paid… in gold that matches your hair, my gazelle. Besides,” he continued, “the French have no jurisdiction over me. There is no authority here above my own.”
My trepidation was growing by the minute. “Why have you done this? Why have you brought me here?”
“Why?” He repeated with a slow and heated appraisal that made me acutely, almost painfully, conscious of my sex. “Bon Dieu! Are you not woman enough to know?”
Pride and passion vie for supremacy in this steamy retelling of E.M. Hull’s romance classic.
Available now in e-book and trade paperback
Buy Link: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00EV516XU
AUTHOR BIO
Victoria Vane is an award-winning romance novelist, cowboy addict and history junkie whose collective works of fiction range from wildly comedic romps to emotionally compelling erotic romance. Victoria also writes historical fiction as Emery Lee and is the founder of Goodreads Romantic Historical Fiction Lovers and the Romantic Historical Lovers book review blog.
Look for Victoria’s Contemporary Cowboy Series coming summer 2014 from Sourcebooks
CONTACT:
victoria.vane@hotmail.comWeb:
http://www.victoriavane.com
Blog: http://victoriavane.wordpress.com
Twitter: @authorvictoriav
Facebook: Author Victoria Vane
