Today’s review is brought to you by the Lone Star Book Blog Tour, which kindly provided me with a review copy, and I’m SO excited to share it with you. Vortex is the first book by author Kimberly Packard that I’ve read, but it definitely won’t be the last. I was blown away by this book, and I think you will be, too.

Read on to learn more about this exciting novel full of twists and turns (pun intended), and be sure to enter the giveaway for a chance to win your own copy!!!

VORTEX
by
KIMBERLY PACKARD

Genre: Women’s Fiction / Psychological
Publisher: Abalos Publishing
Publication Date: January 31, 2019
Number of Pages: 308 pages

SCROLL DOWN FOR THE GIVEAWAY! 

Constant spinning, round and round and round, temperatures rise and fall from stifling heat to chilling cold, emotions run high in anticipation of what will happen next… there’s a fine line between surviving a tornado and falling in love.

A close encounter with a tornado, during the final months of her doctoral studies, jogs a lost memory to the surface. Desperate to relive the vision and find answers, storm chaser Elaina Adams continually puts her safety at risk by placing herself in the path of dangerous storms.

When betrayal strikes, Elaina is forced to pair up with Robert Tucker. “Tuck” owns a storm chasing tour group and only cares about two things: chasing tornadoes and making his next buck.

Seth Maddux was climbing his way to the top as the star meteorologist for the Forecast channel, but an embarrassing outburst on camera sent his career on a downward spiral. Hoping to reignite his career with a promising field assignment, he meets Elaina and a different kind of flame sparks.

Family secrets surface and passions explode in this twister of a tale.

Vortex is a story of family, love, identity and determination set against the thrilling backdrop of Tornado Alley. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Let me start by saying that while the synopsis sounds great – it doesn’t come close to doing it justice. At. All. Vortex is so much more that the description allows for – like a tornado, it will suck you in, and toss you around, and make you hold your breath.

Fast paced, richly detailed, emotional, and surprising sums up this story. Both Elaina and her sweet dog Nimbus (kitted out with a pink bicycle helmet) have a remarkable way of sensing approaching storms. As a tornado breaks, a memory is triggered that tosses her world upside down. A chance dinner companion (grandma used to say there is no such thing as coincidences, right?) gives that out-of-the-blue memory more teeth and sets her on a path to uncover the secrets in her past – and it puts her on a collision course with one giant storm, both literally and figuratively.

Packard’s attention to detail brings the story to life and the scenes with the storms are particularly vivid and fraught with tension. Honestly this tale is loaded with tension, and not just with the storms themselves: it’s palpable between Elaina and Seth, who seems to rub her the wrong way every chance meeting; between Elaina and Tuck, a rather unlikable character with a gift of reading the storms; between Elaina and her mother Connie, who seems to be hiding a secret; and eventually, even between Elaina and her doctoral partner, Heath.

…Elaina couldn’t help but feel instead of digging holes for lettuce, her mother was digging a hole to bury the past.

There are betrayals and heartbreak, as well as redemption and self-discovery. Vortex is an emotional roller coaster and unputdownable.

I loved the look at storm chasing, so to speak, from three vastly different sides – from Elaina, the doctoral candidate doing research, from Seth, a meteorologist who is chasing both storms from a news perspective and to revive his career, and Tuck, who chases storms to dig himself out of debt, and has his own secrets.

“Is that the only scar you got?”
“yeah, that’s it, kid.”
It was a bigger lie than the tall tale of the fire tornado. He did have another scar, but he wasn’t about to show that to no one. No matter how much money they offered.

Growing up in Illinois and now living in Texas, I have a healthy respect for – and fear of – tornados, and so from my perspective, storm chasers are a different breed of crazy. It’s this feeling of borderline insanity that lends its own kind taut and palpable fear as the author described the storms.

The Texas air was tight with electricity. Heavy gray clouds greedily slurped up moisture, and fierce winds blowing from the north stirred a cauldron of hail and energy.

If you like a tightly written, fast-paced story that pulls you in and spits you out, Vortex is for you.

PRAISE FOR VORTEX

“Set in the heart of America’s Tornado Alley, Kimberly Packard’s latest psychological fiction swirls with discovery and betrayal. VORTEX may make you question who among those closest to you are really your friends.” — Addison Brae, author of Becker Circle

“Vortex is a fast-paced story with a strong woman at its center. Readers will be in for a wild ride full of secrets, the labyrinth of memory, and the spark of romance. Definitely one to add to your reading list.” — Christine Brodersen, author of Lip Gloss, Shame and Murdered Tomatoes 

“Kimberly Packard is an accomplished author who writes strong women characters. She blew me away with her Phoenix series (three books you don’t want to miss) and now in Vortex, we meet Elaina Adams, who, like all of us, struggles with her past, her career, and her family secrets. Action, and emotion-packed, this page-turner is a different kind of love story.” — Vanessa Foster, author of More than Everything 

Kimberly Packard is an award-winning author of edgy women’s fiction. She began visiting her spot on the shelves at libraries and bookstores at a young age, gazing between the Os and the Qs.

 When she isn’t writing, she can be found running, doing a poor imitation of yoga or curled up with a book. She resides in Texas with her husband Colby, a clever cat named Oliver and a yellow lab named Charlie.

Her debut novel, Phoenix, was awarded as Best General Fiction of 2013 by the Texas Association of Authors. She is also the author of a Christmas novella, The Crazy Yates, and the sequels to Phoenix, Pardon Falls and Prospera Pass.

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VORTEX GIVEAWAY!  

FIRST PRIZE: Signed Copy  +  $5 Amazon gift card + Bookmark

SECOND PRIZE: Signed Copy + Bookmark

TWO WINNERS: eBook copies

FEBRUARY 19-28, 2019
(USA Only)

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