Tear ME Apart by J.T. Ellison

Synopsis via jtellison.com:

The follow-up to her critically acclaimed Lie to Me, J.T. Ellison’s TEAR ME APART is the powerful story of a mother willing to do anything to protect her daughter even as their carefully constructed world unravels around them.

One moment will change their lives forever…

Competitive skier Mindy Wright is a superstar in the making until a spectacular downhill crash threatens not just her racing career but her life. During surgery, doctors discover she’s suffering from a severe form of leukemia, and a stem cell transplant is her only hope. But when her parents are tested, a frightening truth emerges. Mindy is not their daughter.

Who knows the answers?

The race to save Mindy’s life means unraveling years of lies. Was she accidentally switched at birth or is there something more sinister at play? The search for the truth will tear a family apart…and someone is going to deadly extremes to protect the family’s deepest secrets.

With vivid movement through time, TEAR ME APART examines the impact layer after layer of lies and betrayal has on two families, the secrets they guard, and the desperate fight to hide the darkness within.

Miss Ellison is a favorite of mine. She is from Nashville and I get to see my city through someone else's eye. Though, in this particular story, the setting is outside of Nashville, but there are a few references to it. She also has a special place in my heart because she portrays the Nashville Police Department is such a positive light (and we know how the police are ragged on right now). You see, my husband is a retired Nashville Police Officer.
But, this is not the first novel of hers that I have read, and it definitely will not be the last!
Miss Ellison really knows how to weave a good suspense story. She takes you round and round, up and down, and has you guessing all the way through the story. She weaves the lives of her characters so well. It is like a spider's web, you have all these concentric circles and then there are these straight lines that intersect the circles all over the place.
The characters are very well thought out. She has a knack for making you feel for each of them, even the bad guy. The intensity of each of the relationships is what really draws you into the heart of the story and the suspense is such a natural part of the flow. I have read some suspense stories that feel like the author was struggling to figure out a way to add that element of suspense. but not Miss Ellison. Oh no, she is a natural at making her story flow like a meandering stream. it is so inviting and easy to follow, but you never get bored of being along for the ride

The President's Henchman by Joseph Flynn

Synopsis via Amazon:

Imagine the United States has elected its first female president. That would make her husband — what?

Well, if he's the ex-cop who solved the murder of the president's first husband and brought the killers to justice … and if he's not the kind of guy to stand on formality … and if he doesn't want to be the head of the FBI … and if he takes out a license and becomes the first private eye to live in the White House … 

That would make him The President's Henchman.

Jim McGill's first case is to find out who is stalking a member of the White House press corps, before that stalker turns the tables on McGill and maybe even threatens the president herself. He's also called upon to be a shadow advisor to a young Air Force investigator who is looking into a he-said she-said charge of adultery leveled against a female colonel working at the Pentagon, a case with the potential to derail the new president's administration before it has a chance to begin.

First of all let me say this, I actually paid for this book through Kindle. I know I do a lot of reviewing for authors, but not this one.
Generally I do not read political thrillers. Heck, I rarely even read the blurb about them. But for some reason, this stood out for me. I can't say it was the book cover because it's pretty generic. But, the blurb really intrigued me. I did go into the book expecting there to be a ton of politics and for the author to take this opportunity to push his own political views. I was also expecting the story to be a "What if Hilary Clinton was elected?" rhetoric. Boy was I pleasantly surprised.
The story line flows very well with just the right amount of politics to tie the president into the story and help the reader to understand the premise. But the truth is, the story isn't about politics, it's about the human spirit, right versus might, and good overcoming evil. But one of the points I really liked was that good didn't wipe out evil. No, he wrote this from a realistic point of view.
So, what did I NOT like about the book? Well, there were a few times when he got very technical with the specs on boats. I found myself starting to skim over those points and then skipping forward to the point where he went back to the story. My personal opinion is that the story was bogged down by these little forays. But, there were only a few times this happened.
Overall, I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the next book in teh series.