The Bourbon Kings

New Contemporary Series: The Bourbon Kings

Release Date: July 28, 2015

Buy: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / ITunes / Kobo

Synopsis

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood delivers the first novel in an enthralling new series set amid the shifting dynamics of a Southern family defined by wealth and privilege—and compromised by secrets, deceit, and scandal….

For generations, the Bradford family has worn the mantle of kings of the bourbon capital of the world. Their sustained wealth has afforded them prestige and privilege—as well as a hard-won division of class on their sprawling estate, Easterly. Upstairs, a dynasty that by all appearances plays by the rules of good fortune and good taste. Downstairs, the staff who work tirelessly to maintain the impeccable Bradford facade. And never the twain shall meet.

For Lizzie King, Easterly’s head gardener, crossing that divide nearly ruined her life. Falling in love with Tulane, the prodigal son of the bourbon dynasty, was nothing that she intended or wanted—and their bitter breakup only served to prove her instincts were right. Now, after two years of staying away, Tulane is finally coming home again, and he is bringing the past with him. No one will be left unmarked: not Tulane’s beautiful and ruthless wife; not his older brother, whose bitterness and bad blood know no bounds; and especially not the ironfisted Bradford patriarch, a man with few morals, fewer scruples, and many, many terrible secrets.

As family tensions—professional and intimately private—ignite, Easterly and all its inhabitants are thrown into the grips of an irrevocable transformation, and only the cunning will survive.

Michel’s Review

Fans of J. R. Ward are in for a treat with the release of her new contemporary series , The Bourbon Kings.  This new series has been optioned for television.

The Bourbon Kings series is quite different from the previous series by J. R. Ward.  The writing and tone is in a class by itself that follows along the lines of contemporary fiction rather than romance fiction.  It does not have the fast paced, intense action that readers are used to in the Black Dagger Brotherhood or Fallen Angels series.  The characters are not the hard core alphas with loads of attitude to back them up.  This series is based upon  a prestigious family and their elite world.  The characters are elitist that have been raised with entitlement and vast wealth.

The first half of the book revolves around world building and character introductions.  It is very wordy and overly descriptive.  The pacing is slow and tedious.  I found myself getting bored and quickly losing interest and then the J. R. Ward magic happened.  The second half of the book was enthralling.  I could not put the book down.  The characters came to life.  The family dynamics became complex and mystifying.  The plot clearly started to unfold and set their world into play.  The mystery and intrigue as well as the inner workings of the family kept me captivated.  In the end there was a cliffhanger that had me interested in what was going to come next.  The cliffhanger was not angsty or a do or die moment but an integral part of the story that is beginning to unfold.

After I finished the book and tried to formulate my thoughts I could clearly see how this is written for television.  I think that this series is going to be a very entertaining television series that will have the same kind of effect on viewers that Dallas and Dynasty had.

I can’t wait to see what happens next in The Bourbon Kings series.

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Jessica Rowley Pell Bird was born on 1969 in Massachusetts, USA. She is the daughter of Maxine F. and W. Gillette Bird, Jr. She began writing as a child, penning her thoughts in diaries as well as inventing short stories. She read her first Harlequin Presents novel in a rose garden when she was in her teens. She was hooked immediately. By the time she went to college, she had boxes and boxes of Harlequins and Silhouettes. Every year, her mother would ask why all those books had to live in the house and Jess would reply that if even one of them disappeared she would know. (She’d catalogued them.)

Jess finished her first romance manuscript the summer before her freshman year of college. She attended Smith College and graduated with a double major in history and art history. She then received a law degree from Albany Law School. Shortly after that, she began working in the healthcare industry in Boston. She spent many years as one of the premier medical center’s Chief of Staff. While working as a lawyer in Boston, she completed two novels more and started a number of partials. In 2001, Bird married John Neville Blakemore III. Both her mother and her new husband kept telling her to send something in to an agent, a publisher, the Tooth Fairy, anyone. She thought they were nuts, but eventually got her nerve up and bought a lot of stamps. Since getting published, she has written contemporary romances as Jessica Bird and paranormal romances as J. R. Ward. She has been a Rita Award finalist, received two Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice nominations and has been a HOLT medallion finalist.

New England born and bred, Jess is surprised to find herself living south of the Mason Dixon line. (But that’s what happens when you marry a Southern gentleman.) She and her husband live with their golden retriever, who oversees her writing in a supervisory role.

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