Book Review of Ring Around the Rosie by Julie Coulter Bellon

I just finished reading Ring Around the Rosie by Julie Coulter Bellon. I love Julie’s writing style and how she weaves the story around the character’s relationships rather than telling a story that happens to contain people. The story is about the people. This is the fourth book in the Hostage Negotiation Series and each book takes a different member of the hostage negotiation team and highlights that person’s story. She also does a nice job of drawing in some of the characters from her other books, although I would have liked to have even more details about those other characters. They felt a little tertiary and it would have been nice to get to know them a little better and draw in more details about what happened in past books. I grew to love the characters in the other books and would like to see more of them. It was good to see some romance! It’s one of the things I like about Julie’s stories; they incorporate just enough romance to make it interesting, but not so much that you feel like you’re reading a romance novel. This one also contained a good deal of suspense, although the whole first half of the book all took place in one room. It got a little slow for a few pages. The second half of the book definitely picked up the pace, maybe even too much in some parts. Some things almost felt rushed and hurried from one scene to the next. It made me want it to slow back down a little so I could know more about what was happening all around the characters. All in all, I love all of Julie’s books and they never disappoint. Definitely recommend this one! Have you read Ring Around the Rosie by Julie Coulter Bellon? What's your opinion? –Julie L. Spencer

Read the whole Hostage Negotiation Series Here:





Read my Book Review of All Fall Down here!





Read my Book Review of Pocket Full of Posies here!

Other Books by Julie Coulter Bellon:



Read my Book Review of Ribbon of Darkness here!











I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of Ribbon of Darkness by Julie Coulter Bellon

Julie continues to take me on adventures to far-off lands where I’ve never been and will probably never go! Every one of her books whisks me away to some dangerous and exotic location to help save the world! Ribbon of Darkness was a nail-biter from start to finish. It never let up from the tension and danger that surrounds the two main characters, Ethan and Kennedy. The story never really let on what Ethan’s real ‘job’ was, nor did it explain his complicated past and how he got to this odd stage in his life where he ignores the advice of the man who seems to be his boss and walks straight into danger in a third-world country in order to avenge his father’s death. Maybe I need to re-read the first couple of chapters in order to more fully understand him. That happens to me sometimes; I get so caught up in the story that I miss certain important tidbits of character development. Luckily, this book was good enough that I would be willing to read it again just because I liked it so well. Kennedy was developed much more clearly in my opinion and Julie explained quite well why Kennedy feels compelled to live amongst refugees in Afghanistan to share their story with the world. She’s a strong, stubborn woman who won’t allow men to see her vulnerability even when her situation seems hopeless. The story is a bit predictable, but most stories are. It takes a really big plot twist to throw me off. I love Julie’s writing style and her ability to draw me in to a story in such a way that I want to rush home from work to read some more. Have you read Ribbon of Darkness by Julie Coulter Bellon? What’s your opinion? –Julie Spencer

Other books by Julie Coulter Bellon:



Read my book review of Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon here!



Read my book review of All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon here!



















I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon

I just finished reading Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon and I loved it! I loved the writing style and fell in love with the characters, even the bad guys. Sometimes the good guys & the bad guys can get blurred in a story because there is good in all of us, even when we are making bad choices. I’m not sure if this was an underlying message that Julie intended to share, but it was an impression I took away from the story. Although I was able to predict the ending, there were a lot of neat little twists & turns in the plot that took me along the characters’ journey. I liked how Julie bounced back and forth between Bart’s perspective and Lucy’s perspective. It was a bit like reading Twilight & Midnight Sun at the same time (which I’ve done and found it to be very fun! Do you think Stephanie Meyer will ever finish writing Midnight Sun?!) I’m not going to tell you much about who the main characters are in Pocket Full of Posies, or I will give away the plot before you have a chance to read it. Suffice it to say that it is obvious to the reader from the first time Bart hears Lucy’s name that they will fall in love. I like it that it took a lot of back & forth struggle between their circumstances, their personalities, what they think about one another’s lifestyles, and their own stubbornness before they finally admit their feelings…but not too long! I liked it that Julie allowed the reader to experience the two character’s attraction to one another and that there were a lot of little bits of romance leading up to a dramatic first kiss. I love first kisses! And they should be dramatic. Wasn’t your first kiss dramatic? My husband kissed me on our first date…on my forehead. It was amazingly frustrating! And I’ll never forget the way it made me feel. But, back to the book; I’m getting all off track! I liked taking a peak into the world of drug lords and terrorists and corruption and tropical island paradises. These are worlds I’ll never see in real life. Maybe a tropical island paradise someday, I don’t know. It seems far away from my little paradise in central Michigan, so I’m glad to have the chance to be transported there through Julie’s words. I think I’ll read this book again very soon. This is the kind of book I’d love to see made into a movie! Have you read Pocket Full of Posies yet? What's your opinion? –Julie L. Spencer

Other books by Julie Coulter Bellon:


Read my book review of All Fall Down here.



Read the whole Hostage Negotiation series:













Want to read about the first kiss that some of my characters have had in my books The Cove and The Farmer's Daughter? Check them out here:

First Kiss...Excerpt from The Cove.

Excerpt from The Farmer's Daughter...I told you that I tip well.

Read more excerpts from my novels here:
Excerpts from My Novels.

I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer

Book Review of All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon

I just finished reading All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon and I must say that I liked it quite a lot. It was the kind of book that I looked forward to reading. The kind of book that I wanted to leave work early so that I could get home and read some more. I liked the writing style and the story was engaging. I also have a soft spot in my heart for military men & women willing to put their lives on the line to protect Americans, and the main characters were mostly military men and one strong female detective. I liked her. Claire Michaels was in my mind a cross between Detective Joss Carter in the television series Person of Interest, and Detective Teresa Lisbon in the television series The Mentalist (two of my favorite television shows). Claire is tough and strong, yet has a sensitive side that she doesn’t want to show, especially to the men who surround her. The male lead in the story, Rafe Kelly reminded me immediately of Channing Tatum’s portrayal of the character John Tyree in the movie version of the novel Dear John by Nicholas Sparks. If you’ve ever seen or read Dear John, you would know that John is a very desirable, yet mysterious and guarded man. The story in All Fall Down is a wild chase trying to outrun several government officials in two different countries, and trying to elude an enemy who is veiled and mysterious. One of the initial characters warns Rafe not to trust anyone and it ultimately predicts the antagonist, a man who turns out to be just vulnerable enough to make the reader feel sorry for him even as he is putting the rest of the team in perilous danger. On a side note, All Fall Down was a little predictable and cliché, but most books/movies are for me. Unfortunately, I tend to judge a book, not by its cover, but by its predictability. If a book or movie can shock me with a twist or surprise ending, that’s impressive. This one did not, but it didn’t detract from my enjoyment. I’d read it again, and that’s a good sign. Have you read All Fall Down by Julie Coulter Bellon? What’s your opinion? –Julie L. Spencer

In case you've never read Dear John by Nicholas Sparks, here are a couple of links to the book and movie:





Here are some other books by Julie Coulter Bellon:

















I recently lost 42 pounds on the Take Shape for Life program! Want to check out my weight loss transition? Click here! -Julie L. Spencer