Tainted (The ARC Book 1)

Elle lives underground in a huge bunker. A huge meteor hit earth. It devastated the surface. Only a select few made it into the bunker for safety. Elle has lived the majority of her life underground. Apparently some of the inhabitants of this underground world get sick, and when they fail their test, they are taken.


Elle and her best friend have both lost close ones who became tainted. Elle struggles with getting too close to her best friend, lest she get attached and he gets taken. Of course he does get taken. Elle had promised that she would follow him even he did get taken. Now she needs to figure that out even though nobody seems to know what happens to you when you do get taken.


There are some cool futuristic things going on down in the bunker. You get a wrist band that serves as a communicator. They have underground gardens that feed the masses. There is also a separation of the commoners and the rich. The rich are usually the ones who are connected to the governing body of the bunker. They are known as The Council, and of course it seems like they are corrupt.


Things complicate Elle's life. There is an older man that shows up every so often who Elle fancies. And Elle has a roommate and another best girlfriend that she is constantly dealing with. We never do find out exactly what happens to you when you get taken. For that you need to tune into Book 2 - The Talented.

Death Shows Up

I did not realize that Death Shows Up is book 7 in a long series. Main character Julia owns a small cleaning business. One of her clients, who is also a friend, asks Julia to accompany her to a weight loss meeting. Turns out the meeting place got usurped by a drama club. Julia's friend ends up landing the leading role in a play the drama club is putting on.


Trouble is, the playwright ends up dead after a couple practices. And Julia's friend is one of the prime suspects. Even Julia's dad is a suspect, as he joined the drama club and is in the play. The cops apparently know Julia, and tell her to steer clear of the investigation. However once it seems as though her friend is getting set up to take the murder wrap, Julia gets down to business.


Of course Julia ends up suspecting some dead ends before piecing together the puzzle. Unfortunately the murderer learns of Julia's progress and has her pegged to die next. What is an amateur sleuth to do?

Thirsty for Payback

Just powered through Thirst for Payback. Our heroine is Allyson Roberts. Book starts out and she is at the top of her game. Just got engaged to a rich guy. She herself is even richer because her dad has invented all kinds of power generating technology. Allyson is graduating from a top notch university with top notch grades. Even lined up a sweet job.


Then disaster strikes. Her dad is charged with some crimes he did not commit. Her boyfriend's family thinks it is best to postpone their engagement. Employer backs out of the job offer. What is a girl to do? Find out who framed her father. And give them their just due.


I could see all the trouble coming for Allyson. It was painful how hard and far she fell when things went south. But author Marie Astor seems to write about women who might encounter misfortune, but who dig deep and come out on top through hard work. Adversity will not keep these ladies down.


Will not give away the whole plot. But Allyson gets hired to join a covert organization. She first passes their rigorous training. Then she uses her skills and the company resources to find out who set her dad up. Almost feel sorry for the schmucks who crossed Allyson's dad. They will get their payback.

To Catch a Bad Guy

It is not time yet to get my next Kindle Prime free rental. So I had to hit the free books in the Kindle Store. This time around I chose "To Catch a Bad Guy". This is part of a series. The main character is Janet Maple.


Janet previously worked in the District Attorney's office. Unfortunately she was dating her boss, who dumped her and got her downsized. A friend got Janet a job as a corporate lawyer in the financial industry. Guess what though? The new president of the company is a crook. Janet is onto him.


The Department of the Treasury is also onto the wrongdoings. They got a man undercover in the Information Technology department of the company. This undercover guy determines that they need Janet working for the Feds to catch all the crooks involved in the scheme.


I somehow feel like Janet is going to move on to bigger and better things. There are five books in this series. I loved the book. There was excitement after Janet got recruited to bring down the bad guys. There is also Janet's personal life where she is looking to get back into the dating game that is actually quite interesting. I might just have to check out the sequel.