This is my stop during the blog tour for Pretty Little Creatures by Vince Milam. This blog tour is organized by Lola’s Blog Tours. The blog tour runs from 1 till 14 December, you can view the complete tour schedule on the website of Lola’s Blog Tours.
So far this series contains 2 books: The Unknown Element (The Challenged World #1) and Pretty Little Creatures (The Challenged World #2).
Read on for a Top Ten List from the author and be sure to enter the giveaway!
Pretty Little Creatures (The Challenged World #2)
By Vince Milam
Genre: Supernatural Thriller
Age category: Adult
Release Date: September 10, 2015
Blurb:
Ebola, jihadists, blood diamonds, drug cartels, and a dark force driving events. In pursuit, an eclectic team of three very dissimilar individuals.A reserved small town sheriff on a reluctant quest for justice. A beautiful and eccentric technology genius striving to piece together international clues to terrorism. An epicurean French priest committed to combat. Can they work together to challenge a nightmarish conspiracy without driving each other crazy?
The resurrection of the blood diamond trade in the fetid jungles of Ebola-infected West Africa draws the trio together. They are joined by a stunning CIA professional killer with a clear and final solution to any problem. Together they struggle against the leaders of the illicit diamond trade and the foul entity providing the child slave labor.
Have they won? The doggedness of the technology genius and the assuredness of the French priest uncover deeper plans—a game of misdirection and intrigue masterminded by a powerful source nested in the evil enclaves of ISIS.
The stakes rapidly rise as the trail leads them into the wild heartland of a Mexican drug cartel—a launching point to unleash a hellish scenario into the U.S. The final conflict looms as forces for good and evil muster for battle. Can three regular people prevent this terrorist attack? They need to, because failure will forevermore alter the life of every American.
You can find Pretty Little Creatures on Goodreads
You can buy Pretty Little Creatures here:
– Amazon
– Amazon Paperback
First book in the series:
The Unknown Element (The Challenged World #1)
By Vince Milam
Genre: Supernatural Thriller
Age category: Adult
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Blurb:
Three very different individuals. A dark force rising. The chase begins. A reserved small town sheriff in pursuit of justice. A beautiful and eccentric technology genius striving to understand. A bon vivant French priest committed to finding answers.A horrific event in a sleepy Gulf Coast town pulls them together and the trio find themselves on a quest for the truth about good and evil, travelling first to Wales and the scene of another shocking nightmare, then on to the ISIS killing fields of Syria where the stakes rise even higher.
Can these three dissimilar people find answers without driving each other crazy? Can they survive while Middle East factional war rages around them? They need to, because the potential fate of millions hangs on it.
You can find The Unknown Element on Goodreads
You can buy The Unknown Element here:
– Amazon
– Amazon Paperback
Author Guest Post
Ten things a reader may want to know about the characters in Pretty Little Creatures.
1. The three main protagonists are Cole Garza, Nadine May, and Francois Domaine—three very disparate personalities. They have grown to love and support each other despite their wildly varying worldviews.
2. Cole is the sheriff of Aransas County, Texas—a Gulf Coast county with as many boats as pickup trucks. He has more than a dollop of Comanche blood in his lineage, and while he presents a very laid-back approach to life, when faced with adversity he becomes—to quote a local citizen in his town—“all fight”.
3. Nadine May is an information technology genius, contracting to the NSA, FBI, CIA, and Homeland Security. She can break through any electronic firewall or security system and may well be the world’s best human bloodhound when it comes to finding answers. Her thinking process pinballs from one subject to the next, rarely with a logical sequence—a trait that drives most folks crazy. Nadine has a heart of gold, an OCD habit of doing things in threes, and lives with her pet, Mule the Cat. Mule cops an attitude when forced to associate with Francois. Francois more than returns the sentiment. Nadine has learned and often utilizes Francois’s Gallic shrug and pursing of lips—an attribute Cole finds less than endearing.
4. Francois Domaine is a French priest, residing at the Vatican. He has the ability to hone in on manifested evil. He is also a bon vivant—clothes, food, and wine are critically important to him. A lavender pocket handkerchief will, absolutely, be paired with lavender socks and custom Italian shoes. That said, he often dresses down to “blend in”, when he’s apt to wear jeans, orange Chuck Taylor sneakers, a T-shirt, and an orange bandana around his neck to match the sneakers. He fully expects Pouilly-Fuissé wine with his BBQ chicken, chain smokes French cigarettes, and often wafts a hand in a dismissive gesture if the subject at hand doesn’t meet his approval. He is absolutely fearless. Francois confronts evil head-on, a short, rotund bowling ball of a man rolling towards danger. This is an attribute admired greatly by Cole and Nadine, although Cole has greater faith in his .45 pistol than the Almighty.
5. In Pretty Little Creatures, the trio are joined on their quest by JoBeth Clark, a CIA assassin. JoBeth is a Mississippi belle, well educated, tends to addresses people as “Sugar” and “Honey”, is always impeccably dressed, and will kill you in a heartbeat. She is legendary in the clandestine services.
6. Cole and Nadine have a thing for each other. Cole’s laconic nature is a sea anchor for Nadine in her turbulent world. That same reserve and reticence, on occasion, drives her crazy. Nadine’s remarkable mind and ricochet conversational gambits entertain Cole. Those very traits also, on occasion, drive him up a wall. Cole and Nadine have not yet had a physical relationship, although Cole’s neighbor, the eighty year old Mrs. P., has admonished Cole to get a gym membership before such endeavors. “A hot-wired rawboned gal like that is liable to hurt you, son.”
7. Cole has a mainstream and somewhat distant perspective on spirituality—driven in no small part by the senseless murder of his wife several years earlier. Nadine has her own unique views on the subject, and struggles with connectivity between empirical data and a higher power. Francois is, well, a priest—albeit one with more than a touch of hubris. Three different paths towards one goal—stopping horrific evil.
8. In the first novel of the series (The Unknown Element), the settings include Texas, Wales, and the killing fields of Syria. In Pretty Little Creatures, they travel to Ebola-infected Sierra Leone, Georgia, Texas, and the wilds of Mexico for a final confrontation with a Mexican Drug Cartel. Francois greets each setting with aplomb. Nadine simply insures she has internet connectivity wherever they go. Cole is less than thrilled to be traipsing around the globe.
9. The novel contains a varied cast of antagonists, including Empusa (a dark and supernatural force), El Cuello (head of the Mexican Drug Cartel), Barrie Conteh (running the slave-labor and blood diamond trade in West Africa), and a cadre of jihadists hell-bent on spreading terror in the U.S.
10. Minor protagonists include Celice Powers, PhD, MD, and head of the Infectious Disease Department at the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Celice also happens to be black, lesbian, rock-solid, and—as amply demonstrated in the final confrontation—fearless. Then there’s Jeeter Johnson, head of the Texas Rangers. Jeeter believes the solution to most issues is more firepower, and has a special relationship with the Mexican drug cartel leader, El Cuello. As Jeeter puts it when asked how he knows the cartel leader, “Well, we’ve tried to kill each other several times.” A Seal Team—brought in as a final solution—and assorted clandestine players round out the cast.
About the Author:
VINCE MILAM has lived all over the world, traipsing through the Amazon, Congo, and Papua New Guinea—all the while demonstrating bourbon has medicinal qualities. Raised in Texas, he lives in the mountainous West where he proves—annually—that God doesn’t want us driving on snow. He relishes great reads, fine trout streams, family, old friends, and—especially—writing fast-paced thrillers with a dose of humor and a spiritual twist.
The first two books in the Challenged World series rank high on the Amazon lists in both Thrillers/Terrorism and Christian/Mystery. You can visit him at http://www.vincemilam.com to learn about new releases and writer’s angst. He can also be visited at https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100006177615953 or on Twitter @vince_milam
You can find and contact Vince here:
– Website
– Facebook
– Twitter
– Goodreads
– Amazon
There is a tour wide giveaway for the blog tour of Pretty Little Creatures. These are the prizes you can win:
– 5 ebook sets which include the following ebooks: The Unknown Element and Pretty Little Creatures by Vince Milam
For a chance to win, enter the rafflecopter below:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
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