"The City of Earthly Desire" by Francis Berger {Book Review}

Synopsis:

A gripping story of ambition, lust, seduction, and betrayal . . .

After the communists destroy his dream of becoming a recognized painter, Reinhardt Drixler escapes Hungary and moves to America to further his artistic ambitions and provide a better future for his young family.

Twenty-five years later, his son Béla falls in love with Suzy Kiss, an alluring striptease dancer whose interest inBéla can be summarized in two words: green card.

When Suzy is mysteriously deported, a devastated Béla must make a decision – should he stay in New York and continue with the noble artistic ambitions his father instilled in him, or should he follow his heart to Hungary and explore the enticing and risqué opportunities blossoming in Budapest after the collapse of communism?

"Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling" by Al W. Moe {Book Review}

Blurb:

Before "Bugsy" Siegel" opened the Flamingo casino and created the Las Vegas Strip, the Mob was hard at work stealing Downtown casinos like the Las Vegas Club and the El Cortez from their original owners. Reno casino owners resorted to arson and murder to keep their money flowing, and they had Lake Tahoe casinos in their pocket too!

Nevada's Golden Age of Gambling is a photo-rich history of the casinos from 1931 to 1981. All about the building of empires from Reno and Lake Tahoe to Las Vegas and a dozen other Nevada casino towns.

Stories detail how the casinos were built, who the major gaming pioneers were, and how they managed to build Nevada from a agriculture and mining based economy into the greatest gaming empire in the world.

Chapters include the history of casinos and their founders from Bill Harrah and "Pappy" Smith, to Moe Dalitz, "Bugsy" Siegel, and dozens of others.

"The Burning of Isobel Key" by Jen McConnel {Review & Giveaway - Ends 12/22}

Synopsis:

When Lou travels to Scotland, she’s a mess.  She’s twenty-six, unemployed, and unsure of herself.  It doesn’t help that she’s traveling with Tammy, her best friend, who is everything Lou is not.

At first, the trip pushes Lou towards the brink of depression, but then she meets Brian, a handsome local tour guide.  When Brian tells the tourists about the countless witches burned in Scotland, Lou starts to listen.  And when she discovers information about Isobel Key, one of the victims of the seventeenth century, Lou finds renewed purpose.

Lou has begun exploring the Neo Pagan faith, a dramatic shift from her wealthy Catholic upbringing.  Despite her fears of being too “hocus pocusy”, Lou turns to her new faith as she struggles to unravel the mystery surrounding the death of Isobel Key.  But faith or not, Lou must face her demons if she has any hope of righting the wrongs of the past.

"Elsa" by Simon Gandossi {Book Review}

Synopsis:

Elsa Baum dreamed of moving away from Germany a country she had watched everyday being dragged deeper into war by Adolf Hitler.

Everyone was under his spell, listening and believing in everything he told them. Elsa and her close friends were the exception, they despised the Nazi’s and were soon to learn the extent of their hatred towards others they considered a threat to their ideology of the perfect superior race. After a chance meeting with the daughter of a high ranking Nazi, feelings developed and she found herself a part of the minority the Nazis were trying to eradicate.

“I don’t want my story to inspire people nor make them sad; I want it to educate them because hate, homophobia and racism still exist today, and although the chance of another event like the Holocaust is rare; the world will never be rid of the foundations that cause hatred among us.
— Elsa Baum”