BOOK THREE
The
China Doll
By
Deborah Nam-Krane
Genre: Mystery/suspense
Hypocrisy, half truths and lies...
Sick of being treated like she's going to break, Jessie Bartolome is back to her old ways and calling everyone on their hypocrisy. Sheesh! One little breakdown and even easygoing Martin Shepard thinks she's too fragile to handle their age difference. Good thing her older and equally yummy teaching assistant Robert Lester thinks otherwise…right?
After spending so long cleaning up after everyone else, Jessie's cousin Richard has never had the time to start a life of his own. However had he managed to find his girlfriend Zainab? So what is Richard going to do now that everyone else has grown up? Marry Zainab and start a family? Things have never been that easy for a Hendrickson…just ask his cousin Michael.
Richard's mother, Lucy, is one of the most powerful women in Boston... so when is she going to put a stop to the blackmail ruthless Alex Sheldon has been holding over her for years? And if Richard knows more than he's letting on, why hasn't he gone after Alex himself? The question is, how much does he- or anyone else- really know?
Welcome to the Bartolome/Hendrickson family.
The China Doll is Book Three in The New Pioneers Series
EXCERPT
“My dad drowned. My mom
died in her sleep.”
“How old was she?”
“About twenty-six.” Jessie
shuddered just a little bit. “Just a little older than Miranda is now.”
“That’s awfully young to
die in your sleep.”
“Heart condition, they
said.”
“Who’s they?”
“Richard and Lucy.” Jessie
shook her head. “No. Just Richard.”
“What did your aunt say?”
“Nothing,” Jessie said
quietly. “She just let Richard do all the talking.”
“How old was he?”
Jessie sighed. “Thirteen, I
think.”
“And how old were you?”
“Four.”
“So how do you know you
remember it correctly?”
Jessie looked at him square
in the eye. “Because you know when you’re that age. When you’re a little kid,
you don’t have to go through the apologetic BS you do when you’re older. When
you’re eight, even. You just get it. And people think you’re crazy or in the
way or rude because you get it and then you say it. So then no one wants to
talk to you or they send you to your room. Then you start making up excuses for
why they must be right and you must be wrong. Then you grow up, and you realize
that you had it right back then, and if your world seems messed up, it’s
because you bought into someone else’s lies. So don’t lie anymore, and
everything will be just fine.”
“And when did you come to
that nugget of wisdom?”
“When I was fifteen,”
Jessie said quietly. “And I’ve been very happy ever since.”
My review
A new Pioneers mystery!
5 stars
Hotness factor: Too much drama!
I RECEIVED AN ARC IN EXCHANGE
OF THE HONEST REVIEW
Mystery, family drama,
forbidden love… The China Doll has it all! The third instalment of The New
Pioneers series starts off exactly two years after The Family You Choose ends.
It’s Helen Louise Graham’s second birthday! Emily and Mitch are parents… God
help us all! I’m not judging, but I don’t think they’re coping very well.
But I’m getting ahead of
myself. This time, the story revolves mostly around Jessie Bartolome the once
youngest member of this family until
Helen’s arrival. She’s old enough to
vote now and goes to university. After all that happened to her in the last
book, you would think that the author, Deborah Nam-Krane, would give her a free
pass, but that’s not how genius work. Jessy
is in for the ride of the life because whether we like it or not, she’s in the
centre of it all. How about that for mystery! (No spoiler)
Of course, there is drama,
enormous, jaws dropping, eyebrow raising, Oh
no, he didn’t! saying drama. Mitch is being is usual self, and I love him
for it! Classic Mitch… Emily is always in other people’s businesses, classic
Emily… Miranda is still dealing with her very unhealthy love triangle, classic
Miranda… Then you have Zainab and Richard to soften or harden the blows… or
not, classic, classic and classic.
It’s great to have the whole
cast back and finally getting to the heart of their issues, while creating or
rekindling new old ones… classic Pioneers! I love this series and I have been
recommending it to everyone. I will keep doing it so until the words best sellers are attached to it!
BOOK ONE
The
Smartest Girl in the Room
Genre:
Coming of Age
Nineteen
year old Emily wants her college diploma fast, and she's going to get it. But
when the perfect night with perfect Mitch leads her to a broken heart, Emily is
blind to her vulnerability. When the person she cares about the most is hurt as
a result, Emily's ambition gives way to more than a little ruthlessness. She's
going to use her smarts to take care of herself and protect the people she
loves, and everyone else had better stay out of her way. But shouldn't the
smartest girl everyone knows realize that the ones she'd cross the line for
would do the same for her?
BOOK TWO
The
Family You Choose
Genre:
Family Saga
Miranda
Harel has been in love with her guardian Alex Sheldon since she was five years
old, and Michael Abbot has despised them both for just as long. When Miranda
finds out why she wants both men out of her life for good and questions
everything she believed about where and who she came from. Finding out the
truth will break her heart. Without family or true love, will her friends be
enough to bring her back?
BOOK TWO AND A HALF
An Engagement: A New Pioneers Short Story
Genre: Family Saga
Annabelle Hendrickson always knew Alex Sheldon couldn't be trusted, but even she couldn't have guessed how far he was willing to go to get what he wanted.
No one was as decent as her brother Jim, but Stephen Abbot had a kind soul behind his mischief. She could accept his reprobate father- he'd be dead soon anyway- but she would never accept his longtime friendship with Alex, her father Gerald's ambitious employee. Annabelle knew it was just a matter of time before he stepped on someone she cared about.
What a pity she didn't realize who that person would be- and who was going to give him the opportunity.
An Engagement is Book 2.5 in The New Pioneers series. What happened to Michael Abbot and Richard Hendrickson's parents in 1980 is going to affect everyone three decades later.
ONLY 99CENTS!
AUTHOR INFO
Deborah
Nam-Krane is a writer living in Boston proper who has been storytelling since
she was a little girl and writing those stories down since she was eight. Any
given day will find her reading, writing, reviewing, editing and, just for fun,
homeschooling her three school-aged children (she’s very grateful the fourth is
now college-aged).
The
China Doll is the third installment of the New Pioneers series,
the sequel to The Smartest Girl in the Room (March 2013) and The Family You Choose (September 2013). While her long-suffering editor works her magic on
the fourth installment Let’s Move On, Deborah is working on the fifth.
That book will be set in the world of Boston and Massachusetts politics, and
her job will be to tone down the true stories she’s heard so they seem
believable.
Deborah
is all over the place on the internet- no, really- but the best way to keep in
touch is to follow her blog Written
By Deb and subscribe to her newsletter (only publishing news, never spam).
@dnkboston
GIVEAWAY
$10 Amazon gift card
5 copies of both The
Smartest Girl in the Room and The
Family You Choose
