Invisible Secrets by Mary Buckham – Review & Guest Post

Invisible Secrets by Mary Buckham – Review & Guest Post

 

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Description:
Kelly McAllister has a chance to uncover her true identity but only if she manages to shield a secret that threatens to destroy her IR team. On a new assignment she and sexy shifter Van Noziak are at cross purposes when Kelly becomes the unwitting protector of a teenage Seer that Noziak has been ordered to capture. Now Kelly faces a choice of protecting Van or stopping a powerful predator determined to manipulate a Seer with the ability to destroy the world.

 

Review:

Invisible Secrets by Mary Buckham is the 2nd book in her Kelly McAllister arc, which is part of her Invisible Recruits series. Invisible Recruits is an secret organization of agents who have different kinds of unnatural abilities to help them protect humans against non-humans. Kelly McAllister, who is our heroine, is just coming into her powers. A former teacher, now an IR agent, Kelly has the ability to become invisible. Alex Noziak is her  best friend, and fellow team member of IR. Alex is a witch, and in the first three book of this series, she was the heroine. Alex plays a big part in this book, as do other team members. But this belongs to Kelly, as she is charged with taking care of a 15 year old seer, who is laying in coma.

Van Noziak is our hero, and is Alex’s brother. Kelly and Van have been attracted to each other for awhile, especially when they worked together in Africa, on her last assignment. Knowing that Alex is not happy about the two of them getting together, Kelly tries to keep her distance from Van. Well best laid plans do not always work out..

What follows, without giving any spoilers is an exciting adventure, with a demi god threatening all their lives to get his hands on the young seer. With the impossible tasks for finding the predator, who inhabits other peoples bodies, Kelly and Van find themselves in danger almost from the beginning. But the action gets intense, when the predators brings all his resources to the IR compound and Kelly must find a way to kill him, before he kills all her friends.

I liked the characters within the IR group, and Van, who is a werewolf. I also liked Kelly and Van together. Even though it was an exciting storyline, it was also a fast and light read. Invisible Secrets does end with a cliffhanger, which will lead to more for Alex and Kelly to continue this case.

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Author

 

Guest Post-White and Aqua

How I came up with the idea of the Invisible Recruit series

The basis of the Invisible Recruit series was born out of the time we currently live in that’s subtlety yet radically different than the world of our mothers and grandmothers. These stories are about ordinary women who are suddenly called upon to do extraordinary things.

            Women have traditionally made sacrifices. That’s not new. It’s universal and consistent throughout history. Often the sacrifices have been hard ones, made for others. They’ve made choices for their spouses, their children, their loved ones, but their actions have largely invisible to the larger world.

            It’s a different world today. Women are still willing to make hard choices and sacrifices but they have a desire to be seen, to be acknowledged, not in a selfish way but in a way that lets others know that what they are doing matters, that they are making a difference by what they are willing to do and to sacrifice, and those choices are acknowledged and, hopefully, valued.

These stories are about understanding what’s truly heroic because most women’s actions have been quietly done, in the shadows, undervalued.

            Today’s women are no longer accepting that they must remain in the shadows or allow their actions to be left unseen. Today’s women quietly grapple with the idea that their sacrifices no longer need to be assumed as givens.

Today’s women know it’s important that their sacrifices, their choices are seen in the world for the betterment of everyone.

            The Invisible Recruit women are not quiet women. We’re not talking loud as in boisterous or blatant self-aggrandizement. We’re talking about the feeling every woman has felt at some point in her life. The feeling of invisibility—that who and what they are doesn’t matter enough to those around them.

            The IR (Invisible Recruit) women may have started their lives invisible—being seen in their familial roles as daughters, sisters—or their social roles—teacher, beautician, debutante—but never for who and what they really are. Each has hidden gifts that they must learn to tap into and accept as strengths, not flaws—not for their own gain, but for the betterment of the larger world.

            Each of these women is flawed but even those flaws, in the right situations, can be assets. They also learn, like most women do, that those flaws are called flaws by someone else’s definition of what’s appropriate for a woman to do, say, think or act.

The series is about women embracing their talents, stepping out of the shadows and laying their lives on the line for the sake of a larger good. They do this by fighting dangerous preternaturals and villains with paranormal abilities. They also do it by fighting their own inner demons—their doubts, insecurities and fears. We all have them. What we do about them is what makes the Invisible Recruits series, and the readers who love them, stand out.

In the new world of these novels, just as in the new world of today’s women, it’s about becoming visible, learning to step into our abilities, stepping out from the shadows.

 

About The Author
Mary-color-pic-mm
USA Today Bestselling author Mary Buckham credits her years of international travel and curiosity about different cultures that resulted in creating high-concept urban fantasy and romantic suspense stories. Her Urban Fantasy Invisible Recruit series has been touted for the unique voice, high action and rich emotion. A prolific writer, Mary also co-authors the young adult sci-fi/fantasy Red Moon series with NYT bestseller Dianna Love. Mary lives in Washington State with her husband and, when not crafting a new adventure, she travels the country researching settings and teaching other writers. Don’t miss her reference books on the craft of writing. Writing Active Settings and Writing Active Hooks

Her Urban Fantasy series centered around five women drafted to combat preternatural beings agitating for world domination, combines a fantasy/paranormal element with high stakes and the pace of action adventure stories. Mary loves creating thrills, spills and spells as she follows the ups and downs of fascinating characters starting with Alex Noziak, the heroine of INVISIBLE MAGIC, INVISIBLE FATE and INVISIBLE POWER, and Kelly McAllister, the heroine of INVISIBLE FEARS, INVISIBLE SECRETS and INVISIBLE EMBRACE.

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22 thoughts on “Invisible Secrets by Mary Buckham – Review & Guest Post

    • Thanks Paula for stopping by and posting. It can be challenging to write the same but different – as readers who read Urban Fantasy (and I’m one) there are certain elements we expect and want to see–intriguing new preternatural characters, fight scenes, the conflict between humans and non-humans–while also wanting new and different. Thanks for being aware of that, too!

    • Thank you Amy for sharing! Barb does an amazing job of letting readers get a good feel for a book while not giving away all the details of the story line. That’s a gift and I’m so glad she shared that gift by letting me be a guest on her blog!

    • Thank you Sandy! One of the most amazing mind-bending things as an author is to be able to connect directly with readers. Blogs like this one and bloggers like Barb make that possible. That’s as magical as any Fantasy world building I know!

    • Hi GAB! I’ve found that creating a series within a series (Kelly’s stories and Alex Noziak’s stories both being within the larger world of the INVISIBLE RECRUITS) has been very scary because they are very different characters and not every reader is going to fall in love with both key characters. Alex (part witch/part shaman) is an in your face snarky woman who often gets to say and do the things many of us women would love to be able to do and say given the situation, but we don’t. Kelly is the Nice One who has to struggle through learning that nice is not always an asset. So two very different people, facing different internal issues (like we all do) while fighting external threats at the same time. So I’m hoping that readers will be willing to enjoy the journeys of both women as they work for the greater good!

    • Mari ~ thanks so much for swinging on by and visiting. I too like a romance, but a romance that is complicated enough to stretch over several books. Guess I’m messing like that, or my characters are, because there are strong love stories in this series but not a romance that starts and ends in one book, if that makes sense.

  1. This is a great review. I’m currently compiling a list of reasons why even people who’ve never given Urban Fantasy a chance should do so. Mary’s IR series is the perfect example of the huge range of elements UF offers that other genres don’t. Great characters, an exciting plot, heart, friendship, conflict, suspense, mystery…

    • Thank you Carmen! These are some of the reasons I love writing Urban Fantasy, because there are elements of other types of stories contained within each book and within the series too. Guess I hate to be narrowly defined and trust me, each of the IR Agents in the series are complicated enough that they need several books each to grapple with their worlds!

    • Hi Fran and thanks for visiting today. Because it’s an Urban Fantasy series there’s always going ot be a set up for the next book because, like in real life, what the characters do in one book sets up ramifications that then must be dealt with. I hope that helps!

  2. Barb, this is the most comprehensive and insightful review I have read about dear Mary Buckham’s outstanding book series. Kelly McAllister is the character I can relate to on a deep level. I also love the concept of the feeling of invisibility many of us can relate to. We have the choice to give in to that feeling or to use it to our advantage and use it to find our inner strengths and use them to overcome extreme obstacles. I find these books highly entertaining as well as very inspirational and empowering to women in general. These books have something from all book genres, fantasy, fiction, mystery, adventure and romance. The suburb writing ability of this author raises the bar for Urban Fiction to another level. Thank you Barb and Mary for this outstanding review and guest post!

    • Thank you Claudia for stopping by and sharing your insights as a reader extraordinaire! I think to be female in our contemporary society means that many times we’ll feel invisible–the challenge is to know we don’t have to remain that way. We might not have to fight preternaturals (let’s hope not as some can be very nasty!) but we all have demons and doubts and wounds to overcome. That’s what makes us truly human! Thanks again for visiting!

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