Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Water Memory, by Daniel Pyne {ends 2/22}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

The lips and crannies, flanges and straps of the shipping containers provide a slow, sore ascent for Sentro, who has clambered to the top of a short stack, where, in cover, she tries to catch her breath and discovers the mercenaries are heaving bodies of C-deck to plummet into the sea.

Awkward, angular dropping shadows are set off starkly against the slate-blue sky. One, two, three. A pink hoodie flutters away from the last of them; it floats down for a long time, like a dying bird.

Do I scare you, Aubrey?

Sentro looks away from it, eyes watering, resisting the hollow chill rising from her heart.

Say no, then. My feelings won’t be hurt.

People wink out all the time. It’s staying alive that’s hard.

When he was on death watch, she would slip away from the office and go to the hospice, curl up next to her husband on his bed, careful because just touching sometimes hurt, but watching him, counting his breaths, the pulse of his heart in his neck, wondering what her life would be without him, knowing that it would be the same. But without him.

Aubrey Sentro is very good at what she does. Now that she’s in trouble in her time away from work, she’s counting on her work instincts to keep her alive while her jumbled brain is making everything more confusing.

Official synopsis:

Black ops specialist Aubrey Sentro may be one concussion away from death. But when pirates seize the cargo ship she’s on, she must decide whether to risk her life to save her fellow passengers.

Sentro’s training takes over, and she’s able to elude her captors, leaving bodies in her wake. But her problems are just getting started. Her memory lapses are getting more frequent, symptoms of serial-concussion syndrome.

As she plays a deadly game of cat and mouse with the pirates, she pushes herself to survive by focusing on thoughts of her children. She’s never told them what she really does for a living, and now she might not get the chance.

While her memories make her vulnerable, motherhood makes her dangerous.

A forced vacation never sounds like a good time, especially to a workaholic who really has nothing else to do with her time. But Aubrey Sento’s co-workers aren’t sure what else to do with her as her hesitations and confusion could be endangering them all. She’s definitely not like other women, so a cruise on a cargo ship with a lot less entertainment sounds like the right idea for time away to her.

While she’s definitely an impressively strong female character, several of the other characters in this story stood out too. Both of her children have a high level of self-awareness about their relationship with her. The crew and other guests on the ship had unique but believable backstories. Some favorites, though, were the heroin-riddled former doctor with an uncontrollable urge to do right, the orphan girl he inappropriately loves, and her brother.

Overall, I’d give this book 4 out of 5 stars. While it would qualify as contemporary fiction, the story also followed an unexpected path. These interesting characters telling an unpredictable story provided for an enjoyable read. I’ll look forward to the sequel scheduled for the Aubrey Sentro series.

{click HERE to purchase}

Becki Bayley is a wife and mom to humans and cats. She lives in the cold, cold north and always yearns for summer. Check out how she’s been amusing herself on Instagram where she posts as PoshBecki.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Water Memory!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, February 22nd, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Water Memory, by Daniel Pyne