About These Books, El Paso Sunrise & El Paso Sunset
- Publisher: Morgan James Fiction
- Pub Date: September 24th, 2019 | January 5th, 2021
- Pages: 292 | 238
- Categories: Thriller / Terrorism / Conspiracy
- Scroll down for giveaway
El Paso Sunrise
From a Constitutional Republic to a Marxist Dictatorship led by a Muslim President in a Second American Civil War
“Kill him,” the gravelly voice said on the speaker to the cream of the Russian and Muslim terrorist assassination squad infiltrating America from Canada and on their way to El Paso to kill lawyer Steven Vandorol. Steven was leading the Texas prosecution of Federal government corruption and with national implications before the fall presidential election.
El Paso Sunrise is the first of two stand-alone novels that together tell a grand story of love, passion, intense hate, violence and horror all brought keenly alive against the intentional radical transformation of America in a Second American Civil War by progressives, Muslim radicals and the American Left from a Constitutional Republic. It is also a portrayal of a future with the literal choking of Canada, Great Britain, Europe, the Middle East, particularly the sovereign State of Israel by Islamist radicals, ISIL, Hezbollah, Hamas and the spreading cancerous malignancy of a worldwide Muslim Caliphate.
Steven Vandorol had it all but lost everything when he fell hard from grace in the ultra-rich Sunbelt. Escaping to Washington, D.C., he found himself embroiled in evil, corruption, sexual obsession and addiction but, confronting his own demons, found peace and serenity in El Paso.
Then stunning Vanessa Carson, Steven’s attorney friend and confidant amid the evil of D.C. brings her sunshine smile back into his life in El Paso and together as one, face their worst nightmares or rape, kidnapping and murder during the ultimate crises of a second American civil war started by powerful forces and only Steven and Vanessa stand in their way . . .
While El Paso Sunrise is a graphic story of evil in this world, it is also a timeless love story about goodness, faith, grace and friendship blossoming during a national emergency — a clarion call to the world to remember what truly matters — asking the question . . .
Can Steven force his own country and government to face their own demons before it’s too late?
Buy, read, and discuss this book:
*Louis Bodnar | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads
El Paso Sunset
Within El Paso Sunset, Steven and his friend, Vanessa Carson, face their worst nightmare of rape, kidnapping, and murder during the ultimate crisis of a Second American Civil War started by dark, sinister, and shadowy forces and only Steven and Vanessa stand in the way. El Paso Sunset is the second and continuation of two stand-alone novels that together make a story of love, passion, obsession, intense hate, pure evil, violence, and horror, all brought keenly alive against the panorama of the radical transformation of the great American Constitutional Republic.
Buy, read, and discuss this book:
*Louis Bodnar | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Goodreads
*Note: There is a special discount if you buy both books from Louis Bodnar’s site.
About the author, Louis Bodnar
Louis Bodnar is a retired attorney currently living in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma, with his wife Joan. As a naturalized American citizen, he was born in Vilshofen, Germany, immigrated to Brazil with his mother and brother, and came to America in 1958.
He was educated in the United States in Oklahoma, receiving an undergraduate degree from Oklahoma State University, a Juris Doctorate from the University of Oklahoma, and was a candidate for an LLM in International and Comparative Law at Georgetown University Law Center in Washington, D.C.
Connect with Louis:
Website | Amazon | Facebook | Twitter | BookBub | Instagram
My Thoughts:
As the characters in these books share a political ideology that does not mesh with mine, I read Louis Bodnar’s pair of books, El Paso Sunrise, and El Paso Sunset, with an even more critical eye than usual. But the thing is, a good story is a good story – I don’t share the same worldview as the characters in Tom Clancy’s work, either, but I’m a massive fan of his writing – and Louis Bodnar wrote not one, but two, really good stories.
Each of the El Paso books can be read as a stand-alone novel without the reader feeling confused or ill-informed. (I actually read the opening chapters of book two first, just so I could confirm that.) Reading them in order, however, is a much richer experience because you get to watch Steven and Vanessa develop individually and as friends. As well, you get to watch the way the events of book two result from some of the events in book one.
What I loved about these books was that Bodnar has an ear for dialogue. Lawyers sound like actual lawyers, rather than television approximations, and when dark characters are represented (heavies) the sense of malice and danger are strong. As well, Bodnar’s use of structure, and particularly the device of having another character talk about the main character, is both intricate and deftly crafted. The plots of both novels were well-paced, and the attention to detail was impeccable.
Of course, the El Paso setting of the stories was also a selling point. Bodnar is a man who clearly knows and loves the city, and that region of Texas, and he really does make it another character in both novels, in much the way the Dallas and Red October submarines were characters, as much as places, in Tom Clancy’s The Hunt for Red October which I’ve recently re-read. In fact, I found Bodnar’s writing style to be reminiscent of Clancy’s at times – I think because they both rely on deep research and have analytical brains.
What struck me about El Paso Sunrise, specifically was the opening line. “Kill him,” the hushed, gravelly, almost hoarse voice said on the speaker to the four assassins slouched around the rough-hewn oak table, three of them sipping Stolichnaya vodka straight, while the fourth drank hot tea.” Not only did this sentence set the tone for the entire story to follow, but it also dropped me right into the scene. I could feel the table-top, smell the tea, hear the click of glasses being put down and picked up. It’s an extremely catchy opening, and the rest of the story is equally compelling.
What struck me about El Paso Sunset is that it didn’t feel like a sequel, so much as another story in the same universe. It opened with a rather grim scene, that involved a deliciously creepy rendition of the Beatles’ “Michelle,” that made me shiver and squirm. Immersive storytelling at its finest!
Overall, this pair of novels is jam-packed with espionage, terrorism, and conspiracy theories in a fast-paced format full of bigger-than-life characters and situations. Definitely worth the read.
Goes well with: a vodka martini and a grilled t-bone steak.
Giveaway
ONE WINNER receives autographed copies of the two-volume set of the El Paso books.
(US only; ends midnight, CDT, July 2, 2021)
Check out the other great blogs on this tour!
(Visit the Lone Star Literary Life Tour Page for direct links.)
| 6/22/21 | Excerpt Book One | Texas Book Lover |
| 6/22/21 | BONUS Promo | LSBBT Blog |
| 6/23/21 | Review Book One | Forgotten Winds |
| 6/24/21 | Guest Post | It’s Not All Gravy |
| 6/25/21 | Dual Review | Bibliotica |
| 6/26/21 | Excerpt Book Two | StoreyBook Reviews |
| 6/27/21 | Excerpt Book Two | Chapter Break Book Blog |
| 6/28/21 | Review Book Two | The Clueless Gent |
| 6/29/21 | Author Interview | Hall Ways Blog |
| 6/30/21 | Dual Review | Reading by Moonlight |
| 7/1/21 | Series Spotlight | Missus Gonzo |
At breaking point Jo deserts her dysfunctional family and possessive boyfriend, making an uncharacteristic escape to the Himalayas in a bid for freedom and self-knowledge. The peace she finds there helps her to unravel her turmoil, but unexpected challenges test her new-found equilibrium to the limit.
A career as a journalist/PR led to health writing for UK nationals newspapers and consumer magazines. Out of the blue I was inspired to write a novel, Finding Jo, which has taken some years to come to fruition, self-publishing in January 2021. I travelled a lot in my 20s and I have drawn on my three months’ trip to India in Finding Jo.
Many times during my read of Frances Ive’s Finding Jo, I felt like I was reading a real-life travelogue and not a novel. This is not a bad thing, as it only makes Jo and the rest of the characters feel more dynamic.
A Texas Multi-Billion Dollar Lure!
