Author: Reluctant Retiree

Living in FL and enjoying life.
Posted in #BookTours

Tom Clancy Chain of Command (Jack Ryan Book 21)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

The United States has stared down many threats with President Jack Ryan at the helm, but what if he’s not there when we need him? That’s the question facing a nation in the most shocking entry in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.

A shadowy billionaire uses his fortune to further his corrupt ambitions. Along the way, he’s toppled democratically elected governments and exacerbated divisions within stable nations. The competitors he’s destroyed, the people he’s hurt, they’re all just marks on a ledger. Now, he’s ready to implement his most ambitious plan of all. There’s only one force standing in his way—President Jack Ryan.

How do you compel a man like Jack Ryan to bend? He’s personally faced down everything from the Russian navy to cartel killers. It will take more than political headwinds or media disfavor to cause him to turn from his duty to the American people, but every man has an Achilles heel. Jack Ryan’s is his family.

The answer is as simple as it is shocking. The billionaire has assembled an international team of the most ruthless mercenaries alive. Their mission—kidnap the First Lady.

Posted in Daily Thought

Verse of the Day January 4, 2026

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Posted in Cozy Mysteries

The Inn at Holiday Bay: Answers in the Ashes

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

A case of arson, a long road to recovery, and a new beginning built up from the ashes.

After suffering a personal tragedy Abby Sullivan buys seaside mansion, packs up her life in San Francisco, and moves to Holiday Bay, where she is adopted, quite against her will, by a huge Maine Coon Cat named Rufus, a drifter with her own tragic past named Georgia, and a giant dog with an inferiority complex named Ramos. What Abby thought she needed was alone time to heal. What she ended up with was, an inn she never knew she wanted, a cat she couldn’t seem to convince to leave, and a new family she’d never be able to live without.

Was it faulty wiring, or was it arson?

In book 34 in the series, Colt is living with Abby while he mends, and while the couple are enjoying the time they spend together, they both know that there are some hard truths that eventually will need to be dealt with. Georgia and Tanner are having growing pains as they prepare in their own way for the birth of their first child, and Alex is up to her ears in clues, confessions, and leads that go nowhere, when she tries to uncover the truth about the rash of arson fires that seem to be all tangled up with a food truck murder.

Posted in Daily Thought

Verse of the Day January 3, 2026

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Posted in #Classics

Tom Clancy Shadow of the Dragon (Jack Ryan Book 20)

Posted on by Reluctant Retiree

issing Chinese scientist, unexplained noises emanating from under the Arctic ice, and a possible mole in American intelligence are just some of the problems that plague President Jack Ryan in the latest entry in Tom Clancy’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Aboard an icebreaker in the Arctic Ocean a sonar operator hears an unusual noise coming from the ocean floor. She can’t isolate it and chalks the event up to an anomaly in a newly installed system.

Meanwhile, operatives with the Chinese Ministry of State Security are dealing with their own mystery–the disappearance of brilliant but eccentric scientist, Liu Wangshu. They’re desperate to keep his crucial knowledge of aerospace and naval technology out of their rivals’ hands.

Finding Liu is too great an opportunity for any intelligence service to pass up, but there’s one more problem. A high-level Chinese mole, codenamed Surveyor, has managed to infiltrate American Intelligence. President Jack Ryan has only one choice: send John Clark and his Campus team deep into China to find an old graduate student of the professor’s who may hold the key to his whereabouts. It’s a dangerous gamble, but with John Clark holding the cards, Jack Ryan is all in.