All Fall Down Review and Giveaway

 All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon

"Ring around the rosy, a pocket full of posies, ashes, ashes we all fall down . . . That simple rhyme turns negotiator Claire Michaels’ current hostage situation into an international incident. Claire just wants to help get everyone out safely, but as the crisis escalates she realizes she’s dealing with an al-Qaeda operative who has the means to become another bin Laden---with the potential to attack America.

Claire has her own personal reasons for wanting to stop al-Qaeda, but time is slipping away as negotiations break down. Can she overcome her scars of the past in order to get the hostage out alive and possibly stop an assault on U.S. national security? Navy SEAL Rafe Kelly is on leave to recover from a knee injury he suffered during his tour in Afghanistan and he doesn’t expect to be fighting terrorists on his home turf. But when he is taken hostage and his brother is kidnapped, Rafe teams up with a hostage negotiator in order to stay alive and get his brother back. The terrorist is always one step ahead of them, however, and the situation quickly turns from desperate to deadly. Will Rafe be able to save himself and his country without anyone he loves getting caught in the crossfire?"  (back cover summary)

 

All Fall Down is a book that sucks you in immediately in the first chapter and makes you want to keep reading. Rafe, an off duty Navy SEAL, is held hostage by his former team member, Gary. Yet Gary is just as much a hostage as Rafe is, an unknown villain is trying to manipulate them both into revealing an encryption code for a file that has information crucial to national security.  Claire, a hostage negotiation officer is sent to help them both out. When Gary loses his life both Rafe and Claire are determined to find the person responsible for this crime. Espeically since he has snagged Rafe's brother in the confusion and will only return him in exchange for the encription code.

 So, I really enjoyed reading All Fall Down and found the plot compelling, fast-paced, and full of twists and turns. I really thought Claire was a strong and very brave character, but I would have like to see her skills displayed a bit more. Her hostage negotiation skills don’t really get her anywhere good in this book. So I was left to wonder if she was good at her job or bad. I would have really enjoyed seeing her use more strategic thinking that emphasized her training and knowledge in her career. Despite that fact I really did admire her determination to get justice for Gary and help Rafe to get his brother back. In the end I found it refreshing to read an action-packed contemporary romance that tied into the Afghanistan conflict.

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Since this review is a part of the All Fall Down blog tour there is a give away!

 

Julie is generously offering 7, yes 7 awesome giveaways for the tour!! (I want to win them myself!) That means you have 7 chances at winning! (Pretty good odds, huh?!)

The prizes include:

• (2) "Book Lovers'" baskets which include a copy of All Fall Down, a hand tied lap blanket, Julie's favorite hot chocolate mix, and a copy of Janice Sperry's Christmas novella, The Candy Cane Queen
• (3) Print copies of All Fall Down
• (2) Ebook copies of All Fall Down

To enter to win these prizes, simply fill out the Rafflecopter form provided. (Each tour stop will have the same Rafflecopter form).

• Open from November 12 to December 7.
• Must be 13+ years of age to enter
• US mailing addresses only

Earn entries by doing any/all of the following:

• Leaving a blog post comment
• Liking Julie’s Facebook page
• Following Julie on Twitter
• Becoming a fan of Julie on Goodreads
• Tweeting about the giveaway (once per day)
• Subscribing to Julie’s blog

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Signed Books: Online Contests

Below are three books that I won in random online contests over the few years that I have been blogging. One was a Valentine's Day giveaway. The other two I don't remember how or exactly where I got them, but all the authors sent the books signed. Julie Bellon sent hers with a nice handwritten note. It was a very nice touch. My Reviews for All's Fair and Don't you Marry the Mormon Boys. I still haven't finished reading Dawn's Early Light. I did like the characters in Dawn Early Light, even if they were a bit stereotypical, especially in the beginning. Later on in the book the characters take unique and surprising paths that I wasn't expecting, but the plot didn't grab me a whole lot. I really can't put a finger on why I haven't finished the book yet. Maybe I'll try to pick it up again.

All’s Fair by Julie Coulter Bellon

All’s Fair by Julie Coulter Bellon

Kristen Shepherd’s wedding day falls apart when she finds out that her fiancée tried to transfer funds from her bank account without her knowing, and she breaks things off until she can get some answers from him. Things get more awkward when she has to work with him to win a political campaign for her company. They used to work well together, but Kristen isn’t sure if she can believe her fiancées stories, especially when they include involvement in a possible terrorist group in the Middle East.

Ryan Jameson helps her when she arrives at her family cabin to get herself back together. Kristen tires to hide her old feelings for him since he has proven in the past that she can’t trust him. Besides, he’s now working on the staff of her client’s political opponent. Then terrorist forces capture her brother Brandon, who is serving as a doctor in Iraq. Brandon has to make a decision between following his morals, or potentially betraying his loyalty to his country.

Kristen uses all her contacts to organize a rescue operation for her brother, and explores the link between her former fiancée and his Middle East connections to see if they have any answers.

Sorry for lack of posts. I’ve been working 50 hour plus weeks for the last three weeks. I’m way behind on reviews of books I’ve read. This newest release from Julie Bellon is a fast-paced suspense that has clever plot twists and an enjoyable story. The characters were decent, but ultimately they kind of fell a bit flat for me. I liked them, and wanted to read their story, but I kind of wished for a little bit more depth and emotional complexity from the type of situations they were put in. I felt like Brandon decided far too quickly and easily how he was going to react to his ethical situation. The internal conflict there could have been more intense, and as a result more powerful. Still, an interesting read with a look into the war in Iraq, with a strong quick paced plot with two romance threads woven throughout. I think a broad audience of people will enjoy this one.

Julie's Website:http://www.juliebellon.com/

Blogs at:http://sixldswriters.blogspot.com/

First Impressions

First Impressions This is a little series that details my experiences reading books for an hour a day in the library. I read the book either until I became disinterested in it or until I finished it.

Though Love’s Trials by Julie Coulter Bellon
This book passed the hour experiment twice, so the first time I read it I like it enough to pick it up a second time. The story starts with a prologue, which introduces Emma, who wants to have a baby badly and is excited to find out that she is pregnant. She worries a little bit about telling her husband, Paul, because he has expressed no interest in having children and instead wants to save up for a yacht and a bunch of worldly things. She tells him about the pregnancy when he comes home for their anniversary. Paul is angry and tells her that she should get an abortion and she has to choose between the baby and him. The first chapter starts with the Paul in the midst of running a successful law business and Emma apparently has divorced him and moved to Utah and became a member of the LDS church. Then he offers a partnership to a younger member of the law firm, Kenneth King. Paul hands over some files for the Kenneth to deliver to his ex-wife in Salt Lake. Then suddenly Paul is found dead in his office, and Kenneth finds himself in some sticky situations and realizes that people are after the files that his now dead employer handed off to him.
Thus starts the plot of this book. Why didn’t I read more, when the plot arch sounds promising and exciting? I was too interested in the conflict that the prologue brought up. I really wanted to see the couple work things out or at least watch things fall apart. I was way too interested in Paul’s character. I wanted to understand his motivations and wanted to see him have some depth. I really wanted to see his love for his wife battle with his selfishness, but that whole conflict was cut off and ended by the time I got to the first chapter. That just left me annoyed with Paul because he ended up being a shallow cardboard cutout, and an over the top cliché. Then there is the fact that the chances for seeing his character develop more died with the fact that he was murdered in his office. Then Kenneth who took over just really didn’t interest me. He had a dubious and interesting background story over a dead fiancée, but the conflict just didn’t interest me anymore. Then there was the fact that it took him forever to make the connection between the files and the death and so the suspense was slower pace than I wanted. To add on top of these things the prose writing didn’t impress me spectacularly. So, I decided to move on to something that I knew I would like more and didn’t have to wade through pages to enjoy the story.
Julie Bellon writes a blog at Six LDS Writer and a Frog blog.
Here is her website: http://www.juliebellon.com/