I learned something new about my husband of eleven years on our last road trip. He, who can solve an issue in a chemical reaction, spout dates and facts from WWII at will and re-plumb a water line as a matter of course, had no idea how many shenanigans King Henry VIII had been involved in.

I discovered this when I, historical fiction fan that I am, offered to read Kings and Queens, a contemporary retelling of the saga that was Henry VIII, aloud to him on our last road trip.

I like thrillers. A good dose of running-in, guns blazing while the world blows up, just as the good guy outsmarts the bad is good for the soul…  Ok maybe not good for the soul, but certainly good fun.

But in your typical thriller those good guys, can be a little, well, male. They seem to like to swear a lot and there’s a lot of talk of, to put it not near as bluntly as they seem to, boobs. Throw in the manly stuff that men do and women roll their eyes at and I’m sure it’s all quite realistic when you are down in the trenches with the fellows. But that eye rolling us women do? That’s realistic too.

In The Cull, a series that’s as suspensefully gun blazing as one could wish for, the two main characters are ladies.  Ladies, I might add, that can get by on a reasonable amount of swearing. And between their super brains and super computers, general kickassedness and sass, those typical male protagonists hardly stand a chance in a contest of pure awesomeness.

But that’s not the point.

The point is that unlike many women featured in thrillers, these girls have two things going for them. First off they have, so far, not fallen head over-heels for some hunk they are partnered with. Because once someone starts doing that, then they require rescuing and before you know it the whole world is going to shit they are stuck on a ledge over a giant void and they choose that moment to start kissing.

Seriously…

And these ladies from The Cull actually excel at what they do because of their skills instead of getting by on dumb luck and hunky male backup.  Two women, getting the job done with a bit of giggling that the men don’t understand.

Perfect.

Despite the look of their covers…

…I’d call them thrillers for women.

Also, if you are going to have a psychopathic vampire in your book, I appreciate that they are given a sense of humor and a good Irish Brogue so they can use the phrase “me darlin” often.

Would I recommend them? Yes!

Bloodstone is the second of The Cull series.  Not as edge-of-your-seat-I’m-never-going-to-sleep-again suspenseful as the first but still plenty of drama and lots of plot thickeners. Good suspense, in a way that had me avoiding responsibilities to keep reading and yet still let me sleep at night.

Blood Feud continues the storyline and as the characters continue to develop so does the reader’s knowledge of their “grey” sides- nothing is black and white after this one! I read this waiting in line at the DMV and found myself in the unusual position of wishing the lines were longer!

There are two more books coming and I’m ready and waiting to hear what these ladies do next!

“Am I going to have to stage an intervention?” asked John as I tore myself away from the book and hopped into the kitchen arms flapping talking about vampires, secret services and possibly never sleeping at night again.

“No.”

“Honey?…”

“No, it’s just that I think I know what’s going on, but I’m not quite sure, but it’s all crazy, and then… but… AHHH!”

And then I dove back into my spot on the couch in front of the fire, burrowed up to my chin into my hooded sweatshirt and used the rest of a singularly icky April day to finish the rest of the book.

Would I recommend it? Yes, and don’t tell John but I’m going to have to read the next one…

4,377 pages.

That was a number large enough, and out of context enough, as to be almost meaningless – until this morning. Now, I can tell you what 4,377 pages means.

4,377 pages means that if you think that the book you’ve been staying up too late reading can probably just be finished quickly because you are 77% of the way through – you are wrong.

4,377 pages means that even if it’s spring break and you can hear the kids happily playing upstairs, giving you no pressing need to get out of bed, you should not give in to the desire to know what happens next.

And 4,377 pages means that when you do finish it, because of course you will – it’s the dramatic conclusion, you will still be in the kitchen looking for your first cup of tea when there is a knock at the door. And even though you were expecting your friend, it will still be a little bit shocking.

FYI 4,377 pages on my Kindle app is a 364 page book. Had I been holding a paper copy I would have known that it’d be best not to finish the last 84 pages of a book before I brushed my teeth when company was on the way.

Thankfully, she’s a good friend.

Would I recommend it?  When you read it, plan in some time for that ending. After all, if you consider that the story needs to wrap up a mass murdering assassin, a device that’s not quite within the realm of normal, which is being sought out by high ranking government intelligence, and two authors that have become mixed up in it all, 997 pages seems pretty minimal.

 Extra thanks to Barb Taub (She’s a recurring theme lately, have you noticed that? Do you follow her blog yet?) for reviewing the book and to Eric J. Gates for hosting a giveaway with her.

While I did receive this book for free in the giveaway, this honest review was given just because I liked it!

I sat down to write this review, ready to say that nothing huge and dramatic happens in this book.

I was about to tell you that this is a lovely little book, set in dramatic Colombia, amongst the beauty of rain forests on a coffee farm, where a woman leads her life the best she can, as she finds her own place in the world.

But then I remembered the volcano.

It’s hard to claim a volcano isn’t huge and dramatic – it’s a volcano.

So I did some more thinking. How had my faulty memory managed to marginalize the volcano, and quite a few other notably dramatic events?

Eventually, I came to the conclusion that it was the main character’s unique attitude. As an American who has lived for many years in Colombia, she handles things with an amazing blend of the two cultures.  Stepping back and forth between them so well  that the big drama fades into the background,  leaving the focus of the book right where it should be, on the young woman in search of her place in the world.

It just so happens that her world is run by men, contains active volcanoes, guerrilla fighters, monkeys, a bit of political turmoil, coffee crops and an occasional iguana in the water tank – making it infinitely more interesting to read about than our own.

Would I recommend it? I would. Drama aside, the information on the culture, rain forests and coffee growing would have been enough to keep me interested.

This honest review was given in return for a free copy of the book from its author.