Sorry I’ve been M.I.A, we were on holiday in Italy and it was aaahhhhhmmaaaaazing!! Two weeks, four cities, and more pizza, pasta, and gelato than you can shake a stick at! The only reason I didn’t come back big as a house was because we walked and walked, and walked some more, every day.  Tours, sometimes two a day, would make us walk even when our legs were screaming in agony.  Our first stop was Torino, which upon first glance, I wasn’t a fan of but after getting out and checking out the city, I fell in love. Such an amazing place filled with kind people, dogs running around without leashes, and squirrels you could feed by hand. While there we checked out the Egyptian Museum which was crazy good, I think probably one of the best in the world.

Next was Rome, where we did the Roman ruins, Colosseum, and Vatican tours. I’m not even remotely religious but I can’t even get over the Vatican and St. Peter’s Basilica. It’s huge and beautiful and over the top. We only had 2 days in Rome but we made the most of it, that’s for sure!

Then it was a train to Florence, where we stayed right on the Ponte de Vecchio, a view that is a requirement to see. The duomo was also glorious, but by this point the kids were churched out. They had more interest in staying in the hotel room, but I couldn’t blame them, it was the best we’d had thus far on the journey. Ferragamo doesn’t do anything bad, does he?!

Finally we set off for Venice. It was as cool as I imagined it to be, nearly as smelly but hey, it wasn’t summer yet so the worst smells were yet to come. We had a blast being typical tourists, taking gondola rides, feeding the pigeons in the piazza, and wandering the streets getting lost. None of us wanted our Italian journey to end but eventually, it’s back to the grind.

Back to the task at hand. So this review  is actually a bit old, I had forgotten to post it way back in February so here it is!

From Amazon:

In his first case in private practice, Oregon lawyer Cal Claxton came to the aid of a tagger calling himself Picasso, a Banksy-like figure in Portland. Dividing his time between a wine-country town and the city, the ex-L.A. prosecutor now encounters another urban teen at risk, Kelly Spence, also a tagger. Using climbing skills learned from her much-loved deceased father, a mountaineer, Kelly places angry tags in visible, hard- to-reach places. A runaway from an abusive foster home and alternative high school student, she lives with her father’s former girl friend. Kelly is four stories up at 3:00 one morning when she looks down and witnesses the brutal murder of a woman in the parking lot below. Unluckily the killer spies her but Kelly escapes. The police soon seek her as a witness. Desperate to stay anonymous, she seeks help from someone on the street she trusts. Too soon she finds his mutilated body and becomes even more afraid. Cal is drawn into the case by his volatile Cuban friend and landlord who is devastated by the murder: the dead woman had just become his fiancée. Her ex is the obvious suspect, but Cal’s instincts lead him in a different direction where he will run into Kelly. Can he get her to talk, or will the killer find her first?

My Take:

I really enjoyed this book. I thought the characters were rich and well-developed. I loved the Cal Claxton character most, as I assume I’m supposed to being that he’s the protagonist. As for the story line, I thought it was good but a little unbelievable. I mean, he made Kelly sound like Spiderman, climbing buildings like it was no big deal. I had a hard time buying it but beyond that, it was a totally fun read, great for a ski weekend trip cozied up by the fire (can you guess where I read this, lol?!)

Overall, I’d definitely recommend and will be seeking out other Warren Easley books!

PS. Try not to judge the uber cheesy cover, I think they could have down waaaaaay better than that!

**Full disclosure: I received this book for free in exchange for an honest review