{"id":15517,"date":"2013-09-06T18:36:11","date_gmt":"2013-09-06T23:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=15517"},"modified":"2013-09-06T18:36:11","modified_gmt":"2013-09-06T23:36:11","slug":"red-dawn-rising-by-sue-duffy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/?p=15517","title":{"rendered":"Red Dawn Rising by Sue Duffy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour<\/a><\/strong><\/span> book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason it is called a FIRST Wild Card Tour is that you never know if the book will be fiction, non~fiction, for young, or for old…or for somewhere in between! Enjoy your free peek into the book!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

You never know when I might play a wild card on you!<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Today’s Wild Card author is: <\/strong><\/div>\n
Sue Duffy<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
and the book:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Red Dawn Rising
\n(Red Returning Series #2)<\/a><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
Kregel Publications (April 8, 2013)<\/span><\/div>\n
***Special thanks to Sarah Krueger for sending me a review copy.***<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:<\/span><\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n
\"\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Sue Duffy is an award-winning writer whose work has appeared in Moody magazine, The Presbyterian Journal, Sunday Digest, and The Christian Reader. She is the author of Mortal Wounds (Barbour, 2001) and Fatal Loyalty (Kregel, 2010). Sue has also contributed to Stories for a Woman\u2019s Heart (Multnomah). She and her husband, Mike, have three grown children.<\/p>\n

Find out more at www.sueduffybooks.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/span><\/strong>
\nSHORT BOOK DESCRIPTION:<\/span> <\/span><\/strong><\/div>\n

\"\"<\/a>Twenty-seven-year-old Cass Rodino is a hardworking, dedicated set designer on Broadway. But, like the actors who take the stage every night, she is masking a different reality. Her secrets lie deep within past wounds too severe to expose to anyone.<\/p>\n

Evgeny Kozlov has secrets of his own. A former KGB assassin, he is trying to outrun the underground revolution he once served. Trying to right his wrongs, he’s in a race against time and against a former colleague, Ivan, who has sinister plans to bring down the United States, including an assassination attempt on famed pianist Liesl Bower.<\/p>\n

As Cass and Evgeny separately set out to save Liesl from an impending doom, both are hurled into a fierce CIA\/FBI dragnet, not knowing that their formidable opponent\u2014a most unlikely predator\u2014is already closing in on them.<\/p>\n

Book 2 of the Red Returning Trilogy, Red Dawn Rising mixes suspense, action, and romance in a tale of personal tragedy and triumph that will keep readers pivoting between the evil desires of world powers and the redeeming powers of personal faith, life, and love.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

Product Details:<\/strong>
\nList Price: $
\nSeries: Red Returning Trilogy (Book 2)
\nPaperback: 288 pages
\nPublisher: Kregel Publications (April 12, 2013)
\nLanguage: English
\nISBN-10: 0825442664
\nISBN-13: 978-0825442667
\nAND NOW…THE FIRST CHAPTER:<\/span> <\/strong>
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

The Moscow night had frozen in place. But at three in the morning, a lone figure hurried along the back streets and alleys of a worn and grizzled neighborhood, leaving tracks in fresh yet impure snow. It was the safest hour for Evgeny Kozlov to surface from his warren. Once a warrior spy for Soviet intelligence, he had fallen to his own conscience and the conviction that everything he\u2019d believed in was a lie. Now, the liars hunted him.Where an alley emptied onto a main boulevard, Evgeny stopped and peered cautiously through the brittle light of a streetlamp. He would have to cross the street to reach the bookstore where, in a back room with shades drawn, the only person he could trust waited for him. He resisted the urge to sprint headlong to safety. Instead, he pulled the hood of his coat lower over his face and emerged slowly from the alley onto the sidewalk, nearly colliding with an old woman long past sobriety. Ragged and absent-eyed, she hardly looked his way as she shuffled around him, hunched and rattling in her breath. He watched after her a moment and wondered how many others like her might perish this forbidding night, within reach of the gilded Kremlin, home of the government charged with tending even the least of its people.He veered into the street, ambling in the fashion of the old woman, his heavy boots slurring against the pavement, the backpack that never left his side slung over one shoulder. To anyone watching, his boozy charade would make no impression. They wouldn\u2019t see the gun he gripped firmly inside his coat pocket.<\/p>\n

When he reached the front of the bookstore, he was about to turn into the alley running toward the shop\u2019s back door when a face stopped him. In the display window lit by the streetlamp was a rack of CDs. He knew better than to linger in the exposing light, but he couldn\u2019t move. The face on one of those CD covers wouldn\u2019t let him. She was a striking young woman in a shimmering green gown seated at a concert grand piano, her long amber hair cascading over one shoulder. The title read Liesl Bower Plays the Russian Masters.<\/p>\n

He stared into the eyes that couldn\u2019t see him. Eyes that had, on three occasions, flashed with terror for what he might do to her. Now, gazing at her fixed, radiant smile, Evgeny brooded. Liesl, forgive me. I did not know the ones I served then. But now I do.<\/p>\n

He remembered his last words to her. He\u2019d slipped into her dressing room at Avery Fisher Hall just moments before a performance and warned her about those he would serve no more. \u201cNever stop watching them,\u201d he\u2019d told her. Regrettably, though, he had.<\/p>\n

After a quick scan of the street, he darted into the alley. At the back of the shop, he tapped lightly on the door and waited. When it opened, the spidery hand of Viktor Petrov reached to pull him inside. \u201cHurry! They are near!\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThey found me?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes. You cannot return to the apartment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evgeny searched the older man\u2019s face, the hollows beneath his fierce eyes, the sagging jowls that belied the ramrod strength that had sustained his double life. The old-guard member of the KGB secret police had transitioned easily into that agency\u2019s post-Soviet successor, the Federal Security Service. Viktor Petrov had served the new Russian Federation with exemplary dedication\u2014while secretly plotting with other revolutionaries to overthrow it.<\/p>\n

But no longer. He and Evgeny had penetrated the heroic, all-for-the-people veneer of Vadim Fedorovsky\u2019s anarchist movement to discover its corroded underside. Fedorovsky and his mounting legion of Kremlin and military recruits had so dazzled themselves with the promise of a powerful new Russian empire that they had cultivated a callous disregard for the everyday plight of their own people.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut how?\u201d Evgeny rasped as he slipped inside the store, his joints protesting the cold. \u201cNo one ever finds me.\u201d He raked his fingers through his dark, thinning hair. His fifties had pressed hard against him, and he\u2019d felt himself begin to wither.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy friend, you are not as invisible as you once were,\u201d Viktor said. \u201cSomehow, you left a trail. And now you must flee. But first, there are things you must know.\u201d He motioned for Evgeny to follow him to a small room in the back of the bookstore where they\u2019d met several times before. Viktor had once saved the store\u2019s owner from arrest and certain imprisonment for his part in a riotous demonstration against the sitting president. The owner had given Viktor a key and unrestricted access.<\/p>\n

Without turning on a light, Viktor set a small flashlight on a shelf and aimed its beam toward the wall, allowing only a dim glow in which to see each other. \u201cSit,\u201d Viktor instructed. \u201cWe do not have long.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evgeny pulled a straight-backed chair beneath him and waited. Viktor eyed him gravely. \u201cIt is far worse than we thought. I have just struck the richest vein of intelligence yet. Hear this. For all his authority, Fedorovsky is only a puppet and always has been, even before he went to prison.\u201d When Evgeny\u2019s brow arched, Viktor held up a hand to halt interruption. \u201cJust listen. There is someone else who commands Fedorovsky and his coconspirator Pavel Andreyev. Someone who is the mastermind of it all. He is called the Architect by the few who know he even exists, a man removed from Russia but whose roots are deep in her intelligence network. He has immense wealth and power beyond our own president.\u201d<\/p>\n

Viktor paused long enough for Evgeny to respond, \u201cDo you know this man?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere is he?\u201d Already, Evgeny\u2019s mind calculated the inevitable mission of stopping him.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is believed he operates from the sea, headquartered on one vessel or another within his fleet. He could be anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFleet?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is a man of uncommon means. He\u2014\u201d Viktor quickly raised a quieting hand and looked toward the open door to the room. \u201cListen,\u201d he whispered.<\/p>\n

Evgeny leaned far enough to peer through the doorway, but he saw and heard nothing. Then a beam of light pierced the front window and arced through the store. He jerked back out of sight and glanced at the flashlight above him. Dousing it would only signal that someone was in the room.<\/p>\n

Already hidden, Viktor remained still, but Evgeny could hear him wheeze. When the light retreated and didn\u2019t return, Evgeny leaned forward in his chair and whispered, \u201cA policeman making rounds.\u201d It was both a statement and a hope. Surely his skills hadn\u2019t failed him so miserably that he\u2019d led others of his own trade to this place and to his trusted compatriot.<\/p>\n

A cautious interval passed before either spoke again. Then, \u201cThere is something else,\u201d Viktor said, his shoulders sagging. \u201cYour uncle and cousins.\u201d<\/p>\n

Evgeny stopped breathing. But he already knew, in the way that assassins such as he knew death and those who forced it on others.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey are all dead,\u201d Viktor announced bitterly.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen?\u201d Evgeny struggled to ask.<\/p>\n

\u201cLast night, as they slept.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through the years, others had met the same fate at Evgeny\u2019s own hand. How dare he mourn now. But how could he not? These innocent peasants had died for no other reason than their tenuous kinship with him. A solitary spy, Evgeny had long since severed the distant and fragile ties to family, to spare himself and them any harmful entanglements.<\/p>\n

Fedorovsky had ordered their execution even from prison, Evgeny was certain. His late mother\u2019s brother and his two sons, the last of his family, had scraped a bare living from the soil with no hope of improving their lot. Evgeny was certain they had never heard of Fedorovsky, never knew of the man\u2019s raging quest to overtake their country. They wouldn\u2019t have cared anyway. Their country could fail them no worse under his reign than at the hands of all the despots past.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am very sorry,\u201d Viktor offered.<\/p>\n

But Evgeny had already shifted from the hateful news to something within his control. Vengeance. \u201cI must go,\u201d he told Viktor as he rose from the chair.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhere?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSomeplace where Fedorovsky\u2019s people will not look for me.\u201d Evgeny hoisted his backpack to his shoulders. \u201cHis house.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\"divider2\"
\nMY REVIEW:<\/strong><\/p>\n

With a tightly woven and exciting plot, Red Dawn Rising<\/a> can certainly be classified as a page turner. Broadway set designer Cass and her shoe salesman friend Jordan find themselves smack dab in the center of international intrigue while innocently attempting to determine if her stepfather was cheating on her mother. With their apartments ransacked and their lives possibly in danger, the friends are soon working with a former CIA operative and even a Russian spy in an attempt to identify the “Architect” in charge of sleeper cells that are waiting for the signal to launch attacks on the U.S.\u00a0 When every minute counts will their efforts be enough?<\/p>\n

In a story where every bad guy is not necessarily bad and even the good guys may not be whom they seem, the plot is filled with danger, twists and surprises. Several characters return from the first book of the series – one of them in a surprising role reversal.\u00a0 A bit of romance and humor help lighten the tension in critical places but Red Dawn Rising<\/a> is essentially a political thriller.\u00a0 The events are so realistic that at times it is a bit difficult to separate the fiction from reality. I believe Duffy’s tale could easily serve as a warning to our citizens about the hidden dangers that surround us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time for a FIRST Wild Card Tour book review! If you wish to join the FIRST blog alliance, just click the button. We are a group of reviewers who tour Christian books. A Wild Card post includes a brief bio of the author and a full chapter from each book toured. The reason […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,60,33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-contemporary-fiction","category-suspense"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=15517"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15522,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15517\/revisions\/15522"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=15517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=15517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.daysongreflections.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=15517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}