The Newsmakers Book Review

SUMMARY:  TV reporter Erica Sparks has become a superstar overnight.  Is it due to her hard work and talent, or is she at the center of a spiraling conspiracy?
     Erica Sparks is a beautiful and ambitious reporter who has just landed her dream job at Global News Network in New York.  And while it was hard to leave Jenny, her cherished eight-year-old daughter, in the custody of her ex-husband, Erica is determined to succeed in the cutthroat world of big-time broadcasting.  She can only hope her troubled past won't come back to sabotage her dreams.
     Although the wounds from her divorce are still fresh, Erica can't deny the chemistry between her and her new producer, the handsome and empathic Greg Underwood.  But a relationship is the last thing she wants right now.
     On her very first assignment, Erica inadvertently witnesses - and films - a horrific tragedy, scooping all the other networks.  Mere weeks later, another tragedy strikes - again, right in front of Erica and her cameras.
     Her career skyrockets overnight, but Erica is troubled.  Deeply.  This can't just be coincidence.  But what is it?
     Erica will stop at nothing to uncover the truth.  But she has to make sure disaster - and her troubled past - don't catch up with her first.

REVIEW:  Erica is a character to admire.  She struggles to fit in but doesn't let it define her, like she did in college.  She admits her mistakes and tries to learn from them, even those that severely damaged her marriage and her relationship with her daughter.  Erica doesn't let her past define her but uses it to keep on the right path.  She doesn't back down from what she knows is the right thing to do.
     The story kept my attention as I tried to figure out who was behind the tragic events and why.  I like how Erica did not back down from the threats coming from the higher-ups and kept pursing leads trying to figure out who was behind everything.  This was an engaging book full of drama and intrigue and seemed to come right off today's newscasts.

This book was provided by Fiction Guild and Thomas Nelson Publishers 

for review without compensation.

Lis Wiehl is the New York Times bestselling author of over a dozen novels.  She is a Harvard Law School graduate and has serves as a federal prosecutor i the state of Washington and as a tenured faculty member at The University of Washington School of Law.  She is currently a popular legal analyst and commentator for the Fox News Channel.  Find her on Twitter at @LisWiehl; Facebook at Facebook.com/LisWiehl and at liswiehlbooks.com.

Sebastian Stuart has published four novels under his own name, including The Hour Between, winner of the Ferro-Grumley Award and an NPR Season's Readings selection; The Mentor, a psychological thriller published in the U.S. and Great Britain; and To the Manor Dead, a mystery set in the Hudson Valley.  He co-wrote (with Dr. Judy Goldstein) the novel 24-Karat Kids, a national bestseller published in eight languages; and ghostwrote the novel Charm! by Kendall Hart, a New York Times bestseller.  As senior editor of e-book publisher New Word City, Stuart has written over two dozen original non-fiction e-books.