Author: Mama Jo

Mama Johttp://mamamoj.wordpress.comMarried, mother of 4, who loves to be crafty and creative, lives to perform and never wants to stop learning!

From My Bookshelf – Imposing Saint by Jess Bryant

Where do I even begin with this one? Aaron is left at the altar when his fiance realizes she doesn’t love him the way a bride should love her groom. As the handsome, single, much-loved mayor of Nashville, Aaron’s situation will be the front page story all over the city and he would give anything to avoid the attention. So he makes plans to spend a few days at a private family getaway with no one but his personal security detail, named Isaac, to accompany him.

But how are Isaac and Aaron going to handle the close quarters after Aaron has a couple of drinks and kisses Isaac? Aaron insists he is straight . . . mostly . . . but he also has to admit that he is drawn to Isaac. And while the two of them are alone in the luxury cabin in the woods, everything is perfect. But Aaron has responsibilities and the two of them have to head back to Nashville eventually.

Isaac has been out to his friends and family for quite some time and he’s not interested in living any part of his life in the closet not even to be in a relationship with the man he has come to love. But Aaron isn’t sure that his political aspirations will survive if he comes out as a bisexual man in a relationship with another man. Will they figure out a way to navigate the publicity or is their relationship doomed to fail under public scrutiny?

It would be so easy, with a plot like this, to allow one of the characters to come across as selfish or whiny when discussing the conflict. But Jess Bryant manages to avoid all of that. The reader is invited to watch a loving couple work their way through some tough relationship “stuff” as they figure out what they really want from life and relationiships. It was the first Jess Bryant book I had read but it WILL NOT be the last! I’m hooked!

From My Bookshelf – A Spy in the Struggle by Aya de Leon

Yolanda Vance has a new assignment. As a fairly new FBI agent, it’s a bit of a surprise that they are giving her an undercover assignment but she will fit nicely into the job. Returning to the town where she attended college, her task is to infiltrate a group called Red, Black, and Green. She’s been told that it is a group of extremist activists that must be stopped.

But the people she meets aren’t anything like what she was told to expect. And her understanding of how the world works has to be altered when she realizes that simple determination to succeed isn’t always enough when you come from a neighborhood like Holloway.

As circumstances and evidence begin to point to a truth far different than her bosses have told her, Yolanda begins to question everything about the case she is working on. Who exactly are her bosses protecting and why? Does Yolanda have the courage to put another job at risk to do the right thing? And what about the unexpected romance in her life? Will she lose that once she tells him the truth about who she is?

Yolanda’s focus has always been on her own success. But what would she have to compromise this time to make that success a reality?

Well-crafted characters, a beautifully constructed plot . . . definitely found a new author to love with this book!