Blog Archives
Open Power
Devil’s Tango follows a veteran operative who discovers his friend’s death may be connected to a hidden network that influences governments and controls people through money, leverage, and carefully placed agents. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
The idea grew from a question that has always fascinated me: Who truly holds power?
We see elected officials, military leaders, corporations, and public institutions making decisions, but I wanted to explore the possibility that another layer exists beneath them. What if a private organization did not need to control governments openly because it had already placed the right people inside the right rooms?
That question became the foundation for the Third Estate. The organization operates through influence, information, money, and leverage. Its members rarely need to issue direct orders. They manipulate circumstances until people believe they are making their own choices.
I combined that premise with my interest in military operations, medicine, secret organizations, and morally complicated characters. The result became a story about conspiracy, but also about trust, loyalty, identity, and what happens when capable people discover that the systems they believed in may have been compromised.
What makes Lovac different from other covert operatives in the thriller genre?
Lovac is not searching for his identity or trying to escape what he has done. He knows exactly who he is, what he is capable of, and how the shadow world operates.
What makes him different is the conflict between his discipline and his personal loyalties. He approaches every room as a tactical problem. He studies exits, weapons, posture, timing, and possible threats before anyone else realizes danger exists. He is controlled, precise, and lethal, but he is not emotionless.
His greatest vulnerability is not fear. It is loyalty.
The people he cares about have begun paying for decisions he made years earlier, and asking for help does not come naturally to him. His partnership with Sophie forces him into unfamiliar territory. He can calculate angles and eliminate threats, but trust cannot be solved with the same precision.
That tension between professional control and personal responsibility makes him more than a traditional assassin or covert operative.
The Third Estate operates through influence rather than open power. What interested you about that type of control?
Open power attracts attention. Influence can remain invisible.
I was interested in creating an organization that does not need to overthrow governments, command armies, or announce its existence. The Third Estate recruits or manipulates people who already occupy useful positions. Its members understand that one carefully placed official, adviser, executive, scientist, or military officer can accomplish more than an army if no one realizes who shaped the decision.
That kind of control is frightening because it can appear ordinary. A policy changes. Evidence disappears. A contract is issued. A person receives a promotion, reassignment, or accusation. Each event may look unrelated, but together they form a system designed by people who remain hidden.
The Third Estate also believes its actions are justified. Its members do not consider themselves villains. They believe they are creating stability and protecting society from people who cannot be trusted to govern themselves. That moral certainty makes the organization more dangerous.
Can we look forward to a third installment in The Third Estate series? Where will it take readers?
Yes. The third installment is already planned, and it continues the story two years after the events of Devil’s Tango.
The consequences of Sophie and Lovac’s discoveries have not disappeared. Their actions exposed parts of the Third Estate, but the organization is larger, older, and more deeply embedded than either of them realized. New threats emerge, old loyalties are tested, and secrets connected to Grand Lake Manor begin to surface. The lines between ally, enemy, and family grow increasingly difficult to distinguish.
The danger expands, but the emotional stakes do as well. The third book will continue the mystery, suspense, tactical action, and morally complicated alliances of the series while revealing that some of the most dangerous secrets have been hiding much closer to home.
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Trying to bury her past and build a future, medical student and military officer Sophie Allard lives by precision, discipline, and instinct—until a dying gunshot victim whispers a message in her ear meant for someone else. By sunrise, she is suspended, framed for murder, and hunted by people who don’t leave witnesses. Evidence vanishes. Someone is tying off loose ends—and Sophie just became one of them.
Three years off the grid hasn’t erased Kai Lovac’s name from the kill lists. Cold, disciplined, and lethal, he knows exactly what happens to people who uncover the wrong secret. His friend died protecting Dossier 1627—a file powerful enough to expose the Third Estate, a covert syndicate that kills to remain invisible. Lovac once worked in their shadows. Now they want him erased.
Driven together by a shared threat and a past neither can escape, Sophie and Lovac are pulled into a labyrinth where assassins close in, hidden labs bury the truth, and betrayal waits at every turn. Each clue pulls them deeper. Alliances fracture without warning. Every step demands perfect timing. A single misstep carries a body count. And when the music stops, one wrong move will end everything.
Relentless, cinematic, and razor-sharp, Devil’s Tango is a high-stakes thriller of precision, power, and survival—where every turn is calculated, every secret is lethal, and trusting the wrong person can be your last mistake.
The Third Estate: Devil’s Tango
Devil’s Tango is a sprawling political-action thriller built around secret organizations, military intelligence, elite assassins, experimental research, and a conspiracy that reaches into public institutions. The story opens at a funeral where veteran operative Kai Lovac discovers that his friend’s death may be connected to the Third Estate, a hidden network that influences governments and controls people through money, leverage, and carefully placed agents. From there, the plot pulls medical student and former pilot Sophie Allard into Lovac’s investigation. Sophie is already fighting to preserve her career when she’s accused of a crime she didn’t commit, and her search for the truth soon becomes tangled with Lovac’s hunt for Dossier 1627, the mysterious Professor Milo Anderson, and the secrets surrounding Project Afterburner. The book establishes its dangerous world immediately, filling even a chapel with armed mourners, concealed loyalties, and the expectation that violence could erupt at any moment.
The book’s greatest strength is its momentum. Scenes move quickly from hospitals and military hearings to covert bases, private estates, aircraft, underground laboratories, and heavily guarded political events. Lovac approaches each environment as a tactical puzzle, constantly studying exits, body language, weapons, and possible threats. Sophie brings a different kind of energy. She’s impulsive, compassionate, stubborn, and highly capable, which makes her a lively counterweight to Lovac’s controlled intensity. Their uneasy partnership gives the story much of its personality. They argue, withhold information, rescue each other, and slowly develop trust without losing the friction that makes their conversations entertaining. The large supporting cast can take some concentration to track, but the shifting alliances suit a story in which nearly everyone has a hidden connection or competing agenda.
Readers of Robert Ludlum’s Jason Bourne novels will recognize the book’s fascination with concealed identities, compromised institutions, specialized operatives, and conspiracies layered inside other conspiracies. Lovac shares Bourne’s ability to enter a room and instinctively calculate danger, though he’s more settled in his identity and more closely tied to the shadowy professional world pursuing him. The novel also has something in common with Vince Flynn’s Mitch Rapp books, particularly in its mixture of political power struggles and direct, tactical action. Still, Devil’s Tango gives its story a distinct flavor through Sophie’s medical and aviation background, the almost ceremonial culture of the Assassins Guild, and the Third Estate’s preference for manipulating systems.
The novel ends with several major revelations and victories while leaving the larger struggle open. Sophie gains more control over her future, Lovac returns to the Guild with valuable leverage, and hidden identities inside the Third Estate finally come into view. That ending captures what the book does best: it treats trust as something dangerous, valuable, and constantly renegotiated. The Third Estate: Devil’s Tango is an ambitious thriller with a dense plot, cinematic action, and characters whose relationships matter as much as the secrets they’re chasing. It’ll appeal most to readers who enjoy long conspiracies, tactical detail, morally complicated alliances, and endings that open the door to a larger conflict.
Pages: 323 | ASIN : B0GXXCZT6X
Reflection of Forgiveness
SEAL of Honor is centered around a former Navy SEAL who is plagued by the weight of past failures and secret missions as he is reunited with the woman who vanished from his life eighteen years earlier. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I really wanted to tell a story where the hero had every reason to not want back in the heroine’s life, yet chooses to forgive and move forward anyway. That redemption is so vitally important to the story, and it’s a reflection of forgiveness and the redemption we find in Jesus Christ. No matter how far we drift, He is always there to welcome us home.
The story balances romance, suspense, and faith. How did you approach blending those elements into one cohesive narrative?
I wish I could say I had a formula I follow, but really, I just pray. A lot. When I sit down each day to write, I pray for God to guide the story, and I am so thankful that He does.
How much research went into writing the military operations and security details?
A LOT. I actually mis-aged Zane originally, and didn’t find out until I’d already written SEAL of Honor. So his nickname ‘Cap’ was left despite my having to adjust his rank to match his age.
Looking back, what part of Zane and Tessa’s story are you most proud of?
Her redemption arc. Learning to love yourself after you’ve made so many mistakes is such a struggle. And to see Tessa move on from the girl who never even remembered her own birthday was such a wonderful journey.
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Zane Knox is a man who doesn’t exist.
A former Navy SEAL forced into off-books missions for a shadow government agency, he’s spent years living in the dark—where trust is dangerous and walking away isn’t an option.
Because if he does, the secrets he carries will send him straight to prison.
He’s learned to survive as a ghost.
Until Tessa Lane shows up on his boat.
Battered. Desperate. And running for her life.
The woman who left him at the altar.
Tessa doesn’t know who’s hunting her—or why. Only that nowhere is safe anymore. Not even with the man she once loved…and the one man she swore she’d never trust again.
But Zane isn’t a man who walks away.
Now he’ll do whatever it takes to keep her alive.
Even if it means stepping straight into the line of fire.
And the deeper they’re pulled into the danger, the clearer it becomes—this isn’t just about survival.
It’s about faith. Redemption. And a love neither of them ever truly escaped.
A fiercely protective hero. A woman on the run. And a second chance that could cost them everything.
You’ll love this story if you enjoy:
Navy SEAL / military heroes
Second-chance romance
Women on the run
High-stakes danger and suspense
Faith-driven redemption arcs
Clean, swoony romance with depth
SEAL of Honor
Jessica Ashley’s SEAL of Honor is a Christian romantic suspense novel built around danger, second chances, and the kind of love that refuses to fade with time. Zane “Cap” Knox is a former Navy SEAL living under the weight of secret missions and past failures, while Tessa Lane is the woman who vanished from his life eighteen years earlier. When she returns injured, hunted, and unsure who to trust, the story brings them back together in a way that feels emotional, urgent, and deeply tied to their shared history.
At its center, this is Zane and Tessa’s story. Their connection has the ache of unfinished love, but it’s also shaped by trauma, guilt, faith, and survival. Zane’s protectiveness comes from a place of devotion, not control, and Tessa’s fear feels rooted in everything she’s endured. One of the most telling lines comes when Tessa thinks, “My life is expendable; his isn’t.” That moment captures how little she values herself early on, and it makes her later growth feel meaningful.
The suspense side of the book keeps the pace moving. There are attacks, kidnappings, secrets, corrupt operators, and a larger conspiracy tied to the missions Zane and his team have been forced to carry out. The action scenes are tense, but the book doesn’t lose sight of the emotional stakes. Zane’s team adds a strong brotherhood element, giving the story a found-family feel that supports the romance.
Faith is woven through the story in a direct and heartfelt way. Tessa’s journey back toward God is one of the book’s strongest threads, especially because it’s tied to her sense of worth and her ability to believe she’s not alone. Her realization that “God may not deliver us from our pain, but He will always bring us through it” reflects the heart of the novel. The faith elements aren’t just background details; they shape the characters’ choices, their healing, and the way they face danger.
SEAL of Honor is a fast-moving blend of romance, faith, and suspense, with a couple at its center who have to fight for both survival and trust. It’s emotional, action-heavy, and hopeful in a way that fits the characters’ wounds. Readers who enjoy protective heroes, second-chance romance, military brotherhood, and Christian themes will find plenty to connect with in Zane and Tessa’s story.
Pages: 386 | ASIN : B0FSLYQYJM
The Man in the Dam
Andrea Barton’s The Man in the Dam is a contemporary cozy-style mystery set around Mansfield and Lake Eildon in Victoria’s High Country, where journalist Jade Riley is meant to be writing a feel good arts piece about a local production of The Importance of Being Earnest. Instead, she wakes after a tense night with her partner Brett, spots a body in the property’s paddock dam, and the week turns into a knot of interviews, small-town suspicion, and a mystery that widens beyond that first death into family history and hidden motives.
What I liked most is how Barton anchors the book in everyday texture before letting the plot accelerate. The opening has that sharp, slightly painful intimacy of real life: Jade replaying a relationship argument, noticing mess on the counter, trying to steady herself, and then the sudden wrongness of seeing “something” in the water that becomes a person. The writing is clean and easy to move through, with lots of forward motion. And I enjoyed the author’s playful structural choice to use song titles for chapters, plus the nod to a playlist, which fits the creative-arts thread without turning the novel into a gimmick.
Barton’s bigger swing, though, is the way she braids “performance” into everything: the literal theatre production, the public masks people wear in a small town, and the private selves they protect when grief and money and reputation start pressing in. That theme lands because it shows up in character choices, not speeches. Jade is a journalist, so she has a believable reason to ask questions, notice tells, and keep pushing even when it gets uncomfortable. I also appreciated that the story doesn’t stay simple. It adds layers of family backstory and a second mystery that turns the book into something closer to a puzzle box, where one answer opens the next door and you start wondering how far back the damage really goes.
I’d recommend The Man in the Dam to readers who like character-driven mysteries with a strong sense of place, a community cast, and an investigation that feels like it’s happening over cups of coffee and awkward conversations rather than car chases. If you enjoy amateur-sleuth stories, theatre and arts settings, and mysteries that mix present-day danger with long shadows from the past, you’ll have a very good time with The Man in the Dam.
Pages: 310 | ASIN : B0GGWHFPY9
From Misfit to Mastery
Shamaness: The Silent Seer follows a young girl born mute but also psychic, who, despite a childhood filled with cruelty, grows into a powerful shamaness. What was the first image or moment that sparked this story for you?
I literally dreamed the story of Kreya, the psychic but mute girl whose destiny takes her on a journey from misfit to mastery. Start to finish, including the main characters and events! It’s the only time that’s happened to me, and it took years after that dream to craft the story.
The shamanic teachings unfold slowly, almost as if the reader is being trained alongside Kreya. Was that intentional?
Yes. In high school when my classmates were exploring psychedelics, I was hunkered down on the floor of the dusty stacks at the local library, reading about ancient cultures and healing traditions. I wanted to share those traditions and beliefs in a way that makes sense for today’s readers. As a corollary, I also teach yoga:).
Kreya’s grandmother’s “rainbow voice” is a striking image. How do symbols like that function in your storytelling?
As a clinician working with individuals of all ages and brain-based conditions, I came to appreciate the role of multisensory experience and understanding. I perceive people in five senses! For me, sounds can inspire colors, just as sights can inspire physiological responses smells inspire memories. Amma’s presence seemed to me like a rainbow, so her speech carries that aspect.
You frame the novel between Kreya’s childhood and her sixtieth summer. Why was it important to tell the story from both ends of her life?
I rewrote the story three times, experimenting with different beginnings/endings and timelines. My wonderful critique partner read the second one and told me to “shred this and start over.” It was the best advice! I realized that the reader needed to know from the beginning that Kreya would not be defeated, that her future was solid.
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SHAMANESS – The Silent Seer
Shamaness: The Silent Seer is a spiritual coming-of-age fantasy that follows Kreya, a gifted but marginalized girl who grows into a powerful shamaness. The story moves between her sixtieth summer, when she is grieving her husband and preparing for a final journey, and her childhood at Sky Lake, where she faces cruelty, discovers her abilities, and learns the foundations of healing and mysticism. It feels part myth, part memoir, part adventure, all held together by a steady emotional core.
I found myself drawn in by Kreya’s honesty. Her voice is reflective and calm, even when she is recounting childhood humiliation or danger, like the moment she can’t warn a boy about the bobcat in clear speech or the time she senses Sholana’s peril before anyone else understands what is happening. Nothing feels rushed. I liked that she didn’t try to make Kreya flawless. Her frustration, her longing to communicate, and her flashes of humor make her feel real. The writing leans into sensory details in ways that feel earned; when Kreya describes Sky Lake or her grandmother’s “rainbow voice,” the images land gently instead of feeling decorative.
The deeper ideas of the book stayed with me. The fantasy elements feel rooted in emotional truth rather than spectacle. The shamanic teachings are presented slowly, almost like the author wants the reader to learn them alongside Kreya. I found myself curious and occasionally moved, especially by the repeated lesson that healing involves choice, not force. The scenes connecting past and present add a wistful tone. Watching Kreya train her great-grandson while carrying the weight of her promise to scatter her husband’s ashes, I kept thinking about how wisdom is passed forward and what it costs the person who carries it.
The tone of the book never turns grandiose; it stays grounded even when touching on visions, spirit companions, or the mysteries between worlds. This blend of accessibility and quiet wonder is what makes the fantasy genre work so well here. If you enjoy character-driven fantasy, spiritual journeys, or stories that move at the pace of memory rather than battle drums, this book will speak to you. Readers who like reflective narratives with a strong emotional core will probably appreciate it most.
Pages: 265 | ASIN : B0FZDB3RM9
The Soul’s Reckoning
The Soul’s Reckoning follows Charlotte Elisabeth as she passes through the Barrier into a vivid, confusing, and emotional afterlife. She travels through stunning flower fields, meets a strange calico guide, and collides with old wounds that stretch from her family to the spiritual beings watching over her. The story shows her struggle to grasp her new form, face the truth of her first death, and confront relationships she thought she had left behind. The book blends cosmic mystery with raw memory and pushes Charlotte toward a reckoning she never expected.
Reading this felt like being pulled into someone’s dream and sitting there with my heart in my throat. The writing swings between soft, bright moments and sharp emotional punches. I found myself leaning in during scenes where Charlotte battles her own disbelief because the author captures that messy mix of fear, awe, and irritation so well. I loved the strange charm of the world-building. The cat who talks in feelings, the towering flowers, the people who know her before she knows herself. It all surprised me and made me grin even when the story turned heavy. The pacing sometimes jolted around, yet that uneven rhythm matched Charlotte’s inner chaos, so I rolled with it.
The book tackles death in such a personal way that I felt myself tensing up, then softening as Charlotte pushes through each truth she avoided in life. I was moved by the mix of grief, wonder, and unexpected humor. I also caught myself getting frustrated on her behalf when Heaven came across as bossy or confusing. That tension hooked me. I wanted her to find her footing, and I wanted the people around her to stop lecturing her. The author’s voice carries a lot of honesty, and that honesty hit hard.
I walked away feeling like I had watched someone peel back the layers of their own soul. The journey is strange in the best way. I would recommend The Soul’s Reckoning to readers who enjoy emotional fantasy, introspective stories about life after death, and character-driven narratives that sit close to the bone. If you like books that make you feel a little off balance, a little curious, and a lot reflective, this one is worth your time.
Pages: 369 | ASIN : B0G3DW3DH9
