From a Distance, book #8

Enjoyed my foray into nonfiction, but absolutely LOVED getting back to the pioneers and ANOTHER AMAZING BOOK BY TAMARA ALEXANDER!!!  Just like all her other ones, enough detail to make you feel like you were there, but not enough so that you lose the story line!

What happens when the realization of a dream isn't what you imagined. . . and the secret you've spent a lifetime guarding is finally laid bare?

Determined to become one of the country's premier newspaper photographers, Elizabeth Westbrook travels to the Colorado Territory to capture the grandeur of the mountains surrounding the remote town of Timber Ridge. She hopes, too, that the cool, dry air of Colorado, and its renowned hot springs, will cure the mysterious illness that threatens her career, and her life. Daniel Ranslett, a former Confederate sharpshooter, is a man shackled by his past, and he'll do anything to protect his land, and his solitude. When an outspoken Yankee photographer captures an image that appears key to solving a murder, putting herself in danger, Daniel is called upon to repay a debt. He's a man of his word, but repaying that debt could bring secrets from his past to light. Forced on a perilous journey together, Daniel and Elizabeth's lives intertwine in ways neither could have imagined when first they met . . . from a distance.  (picture and description from Amazon)

Only problem is, this is book 1 in a series of 3.  And I got other books to read!  

Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa

The Pretender: My Life Undercover for the FBI, book #7

Needless to say, it's been a while since I have read some non-fiction.  I can't help it, I'm a fiction junkie!  But Rebecca brought this book home from school and I knew I had to snag it and read it first.  I do love my pioneers and indians in my books, but I love me some good detective/FBI shows on TV.  

This book was amazing!!!  Marc is an excellent storyteller, mixing in super scary stories with hilarious anecdotes.  It took me a while to plug through it, with everything else going on, but I loved every word in it!!  It's 5 star for me!!

Of all the tools available to law enforcement, the living, breathing undercover operative remains the gold standard. This is true in TV shows and in the real world. In the era of electronic surveillance, UC work enforces accountability; it prevents mistakes, and of all the boots on the ground, undercover agents are often the most valuable.  The FBI generally has about 100 UC agents working full-time in the field. In the 1990s and 2000s, Marc Ruskin had the most diverse, and notorious, case list of all, and the broadest experience within the bureaucracy, including overseas. He worked ops targeting public corruption, corporate fraud, Wall Street scams, narcotics trafficking, La Cosa Nostra, counterfeiting―and gritty street-level scams and schemes.  Sometimes working three or four cases simultaneously, Ruskin switched identities by the day: Each morning he had to walk out the door with the correct ID, clothes, accessories and frame of mind for that day’s mission. Meet Alex Perez, Alejandro Marconi, and Sal Morelli, just a few of Ruskin’s undercover personas. And how is the right UC agent chosen, how is a bogus identity manufactured and “backstopped,” how is the Bureau's long-term con painstakingly assembled? No one has ever given us the inside story like Ruskin. The Pretender is the definitive narrative of undercover ops―the procedures, the successes, the failures--and the changes in the culture of the new-era FBI. (picture and description from Amazon)

So now it is less than one week to Book Club and I haven't even cracked my book!  I gotta get on the ball!


Happy Reading!

O:)
Melissa