Distant Thunder had me on the edge of my seat, it made me a little sick to think of the games people of power play with others and it made me hope that at some point the good guys will win and the Rush family will get their due. ~ Slick, Guilty Pleasures
Description:
Secrets, Sex and Scandals …
Welcome to Storm, Texas, where passion runs hot, desire runs deep, and secrets have the power to destroy… Get ready. The storm is coming.
As Sebastian and Marylee plot to cover up Sebastian’s sexual escapade, Ginny and Dakota continue to reel from the fallout of Dakota’s announcement. But it is the Rush family that’s left to pick up the pieces as Payton, Brittany and Jeffry each cope with Sebastian’s betrayal in their own way…
Review copy provided for an honest review
I am constantly amazed at how much the authors of the Rising Storm series can pack into a 
novella sized story. Distant Thunder was jam packed with more drama, a new character introduction, new allies, and proof that people who often think they are in charge are really pawns in someone else’s chessboard of life.
Marylee Rush proves in this book that she is was more conniving and vicious than anyone thought and that her scumbag son is a figurehead. Sebastian is falling into line with his mother’s wishes as his dalliances have put his reelection campaign in jeopardy. My only hope is that his wife Payton will come to her senses soon and side with her children that have expressed no interest in helping their father with anything.
Sadly Ginny Moreno is still grieving the loss of her friend Logan after not telling him the truth about the possible paternity of her child and even worse she has no clue the storm that the Rush’s plan to rain down upon her and her family.
The Alvarez family is in for a shock as well as Marylee Rush has put all kinds of things into motion to mess with their lives.
Distant Thunder had me on the edge of my seat, it made me a little sick to think of the games people of power play with others and it made me hope that at some point the good guys will win and the Rush family will get their due.
4.5 stars
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Amazon
Distant Thunder by Larissa Ione Excerpt (541 words):
It had only been three days since the Great Founders’ Day Disaster, but it felt like a month. For the first twenty-four hours after Dakota’s revelation, the town had been mostly shell-shocked. Then the story started spreading through social media, and last night after Marcus dropped Brittany off after dinner at Murphy’s, she discovered that someone posted the Founders’ Day Disaster on YouTube. The media had descended on Storm like locusts this morning, and her father, whom she’d only seen in passing since Founders’ Day, had adopted a shelter-in-place stance.
Brittany had given him suggestions on where he could shelter in places that were much, much hotter than Texas, and then she’d run out the front door toward her car, only to be swarmed by reporters.
“Ms. Rush, is it true that your best friend is pregnant with your father’s baby?”
“Ms. Rush, how do you think this scandal will affect your father’s reelection campaign?”
“Ms. Rush, did you know about the affairs your father was having with your friends?”
Ugh. She and her mother shouldn’t have left Francine’s cabin so soon, and Jeffry certainly should have remained with one of his buddies. But when Marylee snapped her fingers and went into crisis mode, everyone came running and fell in line like good little minions.
“This blows,” Jeffry said, looking up from where he was lounging on the couch with his iPad.
“What blows?” She sank onto the love seat across from her brother. “The game you’re playing? Or the fact that we’re trapped like animals? Or maybe the fact that our father is a lying, cheating bastard who slept with our friends? Or the fact that my best friend is going to give birth to our little brother or sister?”
Yep, she might be a little bitter. And it was ex-best friend.
He tucked his feet under him on the couch and sighed. “Yeah.”
“I can’t believe Mom thinks we need to be here for him—”
She broke off as their mother, Payton, came around the corner with a tray of finger sandwiches and a pitcher of lemonade. They hadn’t spoken much about any of this, and Brittany wasn’t sure how to go about it. As far as she could tell, her mother hadn’t so much as shed a tear over the fact that her husband had knocked up a girl young enough to be his daughter and had probably slept with a dozen more.
“I brought you something to eat,” Payton said, and if she’d heard Brittany talking, she was choosing to ignore it. “Your father and grandmother are finished with their meeting with Mr. Stayton, and they’re on their way up to talk to you.”
“This should be good.” Jeffry reached for a sandwich as their mother put them on the coffee table. “I was wondering how long it would be before we got the circle-the-wagons lecture. Five bucks says he tries to convince us that everything Dakota said was a lie.”
“I know you two are angry and confused and you have a lot of questions,” Payton said as she took a seat next to Brittany, looking all prim and proper in a subdued green dress and gray scarf. “But we’ll get through this. I promise.”
After the Storm by Lexi Blake Excerpt (513 words):
“I didn’t know I was pregnant until I woke up from the accident.” Ginny’s voice was an impassioned whisper. “I found out two things that changed my life in that moment. I found out that my best friend was gone and that I was pregnant. And I prayed so hard that I hadn’t lost all of Jacob forever.”
Forever. That’s what she was looking at. She was looking at an entire lifetime of being a mother without a son. She loved her daughters dearly, but she would mourn Jacob forever. And this selfish girl was equating her pain as though they were the same. As though one night of spreading her legs gave her the right to mourn him.
“I think you woke up and realized you had two options. Take care of that baby alone or worm your way into Jacob’s family and his money.”
“I never cared about the money.”
Celeste wasn’t going to listen to that tripe. “Of course you did. Not enough to keep your legs closed. You say you loved Jacob but how long did you wait before you hopped into bed with that Murphy boy? Did you even break it off with my brother-in-law? How many men do you need on your string?”
“I’ve never slept with Logan, but I will admit that I’m in love with him. I love him in a way I never loved Jacob. Jacob was my best friend, but I know now that he wasn’t my soul mate. I pray with everything I am that this is his child, that we receive a miracle because I don’t want him to be lost forever, but I won’t hide what I feel for Logan and I won’t pretend it’s nasty. Not even to placate you, Celeste. I want to make things right between us and that means apologizing to you. Celeste, I’m so sorry I hurt you. I never meant to. I should have been braver. I should have been stronger, but I woke up and the world had crashed around me and I wanted the love you could give me. That all of you could give me. I’m sorry that it brought you so much pain.”
Something about the way she was standing there enraged Celeste. How could she stand there looking so innocent? How could she say exactly the right things to garner empathy? Celeste didn’t want to empathize. She wanted to fight and tear up things and destroy the world around her because it seemed so damn intent on destroying her. She wanted to burn it all down.
She didn’t feel her hand snap back, didn’t quite understand what she was doing. The world seemed tinged in red at the corners as though rage now filtered her vision. And it slowed everything down. In horror she realized she was going to strike Ginny Moreno. Her hand was going to bring justice her words never could.
And then it slapped against flesh. A strong hand circled her wrist and Travis stared down at her like he had no idea who she was.
Thanks Slick