fuonlyknew

Emily Strong

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Bio:
Emily Strong is an actor, voiceover talent, and first time filmmaker. As a native of Michigan, she is a nature-lover at heart but has the mind of a city girl and moved to Chicago nearly three years ago because she wasn’t smart enough to go somewhere warmer. She takes full advantage of what the city has to offer by training at legendary places like The Second City and eating lots and lots of ethnic food (will travel all the way across the city to Pilsen for the best tacos!). Her love of reading was the catalyst for her adventurous spirit and the reason why she is always stoked to tell stories in their many different forms.

You can visit her at www.emilystrong.net

Erin Jones
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Bio:
Erin has narrated over 500 audio books including “The Hunger Games” trilogy for The National Library Services/Library Of Congress, “A State Of Wonder,” The Garden Of The Beasts,” “Anna Karenina,” “Ferdinand The Bull, and “Madeline.”

Sonja Field

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Other:

Sonja has two loves: acting and reading. Narrating audiobooks is her absolute passion. She has logged over 600 hours recording textbooks with an organization called Recording for the Blind & Dyslexic, and is currently in the process of recording a kids’ action-fantasy-adventure novel, a steamy and mysterious paranormal romance, and a non-fiction about writing. She loves nothing more than bringing vivid worlds and unique characters to life. When she’s not recording, Sonja can be found onstage, traipsing around Brooklyn, or entertaining children with a variety of dubious accents.

Erica Newhouse

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Bio:

Erica Newhouse is a film, television and theater actor living in New York City. She is a graduate of The Juilliard School.

My Review

I’ve been wanting to read Unleashed for a while now. The cover art for the book caught my eye and the blurb reeled me in.

I really connected with Joy (later to be known as Sydney Rye). I may be quite a bit older than her, but I’m still not sure what I want to do. If I could find a dog walking business where I only had three clients and made $1200 a week, I’d be sitting pretty for now. She’s like a young girl lost, no idea what she wants to do, but working on figuring it out. Her amateur sleuthing might turn into a career move.

In one day she breaks up with her boyfriend, loses her job, and buys a dog.

When she’s offered a chance to obtain a dog walking business  she takes it.

Joy ends up knee-deep in murder and mystery. The woman she buys the dog walking business from disappears, and her first day on the job she finds a dead body, and that victim turns out to be one of the her clients. She is impetuous and strong-willed and wades in to solve the mystery, putting herself in the middle of something much bigger than she’d thought and in the killers crosshairs.

Most of the secondary characters are interesting and lend to making for a fleshed out story but didn’t detract from the main ones, which I liked. She gets friendly with the ladies at the dog park and various door men and such, which gives her access to the elite’s secrets. Who’s having affairs, who’s broke, who’s being investigated?

Hugh told her to take time out and really look at people. She realizes she doesn’t even know what her take out delivery guys look like. Just pays them for her food. She’s one of those invisible people, the ones no one really looks at. This might work to her advantage.

I experienced many emotions while reading this book. Joy made me laugh. Her brother, James, and his lover Hugh were her support system and added realism to the story. I really liked them. Officer Doyle made me suspicious. Like Joy, I felt he was too good to be true, and I’m not sure I’d like someone who ordered my food for me without asking my opinion.

Then there’s Mulberry. He evoked annoyance and disgust in me when he first entered the story. But the author made me stop and take a closer look as the story evolved and he became a bigger part of the mystery. He wasn’t what he seemed.

Blue was like icing on the cake. I like it when animals play a part in the story and while Blue wasn’t prominent in this first book, he earned his place and I have a feeling he’ll be playing a larger part in future books. When Joy adopted him from the shelter, it made me think of how I acquired most of my dogs through the years. All of them were strays I took in or adopted.

A good mystery keeps you on your toes, searching for clues, dodging danger, and finally giving you the answers. You’ll find all of that here.

There was no cliff hanger, the mystery was wrapped up neatly with no lingering questions and I loved the final scene. My rating went from 4 stars to 5 because of this and I hope the series has many more books.

5 STARS

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More about UNLEASHED:

UNLEASHED is the first book in Emily Kimelman’s best selling Sydney Rye series of mysteries.

When the series begins Sydney Rye is named Joy Humbolt. She does not like people telling her what to do, so it comes as no surprise that she was just fired from her last job. When she buys Charlene Miller’s dog-walking business on Manhattan’s exclusive upper east side, it seems like the perfect fit: Quiet environment, minimal contact with people.

But then one of her clients turns up dead, and Charlene disappears. Rumors say Charlene was having an affair with the victim–and of course, everyone assumes Joy must know where she is. Joy begins to look into the crime, first out of curiosity then out of anger when there is another murder and threats start to come her way.

When police detective Mulberry is assigned to the case, Joy finds a kindred spirit–cynical and none-too-fond of the human race. As they dig deep into the secrets of Manhattan’s elite, they not only get closer to the killer but also to a point of no return. One last murder sends Joy Humbolt hurtling over the edge. Her only chance of survival is to become Sydney Rye.

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The Rest of The Sydney Rye Series:

DEATH IN THE DARK (A Sydney Rye Novella, #2)

INSATIABLE (A Sydney Rye Novel, #3)

STRINGS OF GLASS (A Sydney Rye Novel, #4)

THE DEVIL’S BREATH (A Sydney Rye Novel, #5) Coming April 2014

Emily Kimelman Biography

Emily Kimelman is the author of the best selling “Sydney Rye” series of mystery novels including UNLEASHED, DEATH IN THE DARK, INSATIABLE, STRINGS OF GLASS and the forthcoming THE DEVIL’S BREATH. Emily lives with her husband, Sean Gilvey, and their dog, Kinsey Millhone “Pup Detective”, on a trawler docked in the Hudson Valley during the summer. She spends her winters traveling to where ever the next Sydney Rye Novel takes place. Right now she is in Costa Rica working on Sydney Rye #6.

If you’ve read Emily’s work and liked it please contact her. She loves hearing from readers. You can reach Emily via email ejkimelman@gmail.com or on twitter @ejkimelman. Follow her on Instagram to see pictures from Emily’s latest adventures. Visit http://www.emilykimelman.com to learn more about Emily and the Sydney Rye series.

Links:

UNLEASHED

Amazon ~ Goodreads ~ Kobo ~ Smashwords ~ iTunes ~ B&N

Social Media

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter

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Copies of the Finished Audio Book

Signed Copies of Unleashed

Set of all 5 Books, including the forthcoming The Devil’s Breath

A $30 Amazon or Barnes and Noble Gift Card

Click on the rafflecopter below to enter.

Thanks to Bewitching Book Tours for organizing this wonderful tour.

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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