GtPGKogPYT4p61R1biicqBXsUzo" /> Google+ Book Series Review: The Six Train to Wisconsin series (books 1 & 2) by Kourtney Heintz + giveaways | I Smell Sheep

Tuesday, November 8, 2016

Book Series Review: The Six Train to Wisconsin series (books 1 & 2) by Kourtney Heintz + giveaways

The Six Train to Wisconsin (The Six Train to Wisconsin Series #1)
by Kourtney Heintz
April 25, 2013
Publisher: Aurea Blue Press
ASIN: B00CJIXKG2 
ISBN: 9781481884570
Sometimes saving the person you love can cost you everything. 

There is one person that ties Oliver Richter to this world: his wife Kai. For Kai, Oliver is the keeper of her secrets.

When her telepathy spirals out of control and inundates her mind with the thoughts and emotions of everyone within a half-mile radius, the life they built together in Manhattan is threatened. 

To save her, Oliver brings her to the hometown he abandoned—Butternut, Wisconsin—where the secrets of his past remain buried. But the past has a way of refusing to stay dead. Can Kai save Oliver before his secrets claim their future?

An emotionally powerful debut, The Six Train to Wisconsin pushes the bounds of love as it explores devotion, forgiveness and acceptance.

The Six Train to Wisconsin was a 2014 National Indie Excellence Awards Winner, 2014 International Book Awards Finalist, 2014 EPIC Ebook Awards Finalist, 2013 USA Best Book Awards Finalist, and a 2012 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award Semifinalist.
An emotionally powerful debut, The Six Train to Wisconsin pushes the bounds of love as it explores devotion, forgiveness and acceptance.

The first sentence done in first person by Oliver Richter—one of the two main characters—hooks the reader: “Like any man, I loved my wife, but these 3 a.m. suicidal thoughts were killing me.” His? No, his wife’s; Kai Richter is a telepath, able to hear thoughts of others, unless she shields her mind from them. Oliver and Kai both brought past demons into their marriage with the hopes that their love for each other would bring them peace and happiness. This is not a romance, but a more complex, darker story with paranormal and suspense mixed in.

When a young girl she had been seeing as a social worker is molested and this time, killed by her father, Kai’s shield breaks. Her life with her husband in Manhattan is threatened as all the minds in that large city bombards her own. Oliver Richter does whatever it takes to save his wife, even kidnap her and spirit her away to his small hometown in Wisconsin. Problem is, after he drugs her to do this, she wakes up and finds out what he has planned, and she is not happy about it. She wants control of her own life and back in New York City with her cases. It seems the only person she will listen to is her brother, Caleb, also with abilities—by dreams. Both inherited this from their father. Interwoven romance, paranormal, mystery and family drama melds well in this tale. These are real people dealing with not-so-normal circumstances.

Kai hits me as both light and dark, most of the time, dark, and sometimes, annoying, at least for me. Oliver loves her and wants to help her and I feel his pain and love. But yet, the relationship is more like teenagers than an adult, married couple would act like. What does work for this book, is the darkness of having paranormal powers and how the people are humans, with human frailty and maybe selfish needs. Attempts to fix Kai and reconcile their relationship are stretched to the limit when a local boy is kidnapped. The whole town is searching, Kai believes her powers will help her find him, but danger lurks.

The author's vivid imagery and constructed cast of characters transported me to Butternut, Wisconsin, and the mysteries lurking in the shadows there. The telepath and dream walking parts of the story were amazing, as was the plot itself. An intense storyline, Kai’s and Oliver’s constant battles wearing, it hovers between the dark and light like Kai. The story doesn’t end with this book, but continues in book #2.

4 sheep




Pamela Kinney


Review: Highway Thirteen to Manhattan (The Six Train to Wisconsin Series, #2)
by Kourtney Heintz
November 1, 2016
Publisher: Aurea Blue Press
ASIN: B01JJ5CU4A 
ISBN: 9780989132688
His secrets almost killed her. Her secrets may destroy them both.

Kai is recovering from a near-death experience when she realizes something isn’t right. Her body is healing, but her mind no longer feels quite like her own. Her telepathic powers are changing, too. She can’t trust herself. The darkness growing inside of her pushes her to use her telepathy as a weapon.

Oliver clings to the hope that he can save their marriage, even though he was the one who put her life in jeopardy. As his wife slips further and further away from him, he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing the man who ruined his life to justice.

The sequel to The Six Train to Wisconsin is a genre-defying tale of love and consequences. Once again, award-winning author Kourtney Heintz seamlessly weaves suspense and paranormal intrigue into a real-world setting, creating characters rich in emotional and psychological complexity.


Kai struggles to recover from the near death experience she endured at the end of the first book. She also blames Oliver for his dark secrets and lies by omission. Plus, the darkness that has always been inside her grows as her telepathic powers begin changing too. She wants to use those powers to do harm, like she once did when she was younger. Once she is out of the hospital and back in Butternut, Kai discovers an ability to draw that she had before and she doesn't know what she is drawing, but it helps her forget the nightmares. And more and more she is distancing herself from her husband, the love shed felt for him dying. Her brother, Caleb and Alex (who is supposed to be a friend of Oliver’s, but falls for Kai) become the only ones she trusts. It is as she sleeps, that Kai travels to the in-between and meets the spirit of her grandmother, where she seeks answers to the changes she feels. She thinks a part of her attacker's soul is now mixed with Kai's and that staying in Butternut is making it worse. So Kai and her brother Caleb go back to New York City.

As for Oliver, he feels unwelcome in his own home. Oliver dives deep into his pain from the past, ready to bring the man who killed his childhood best friend to justice. His only ally and friend is Mickey, his friend growing up and the woman he loved since high school and to whom he lost his virginity as a teenager.

This second book in this series dives right into making Kai a darker person, teeter-tottering on pure evil, and who isn’t afraid of her telepathic power. This gives us a darker story than its predecessor. The love story is torturous and Kai no longer feels much for her husband and is turning to another. Oliver is not sure what to so, save his marriage even if he feels he already has lost Kai, or let his conscious dictate he avenged the dead friend from his past. Emotions are complex, haunting, and stark. This storyline is chilling as dynamic changes tear apart a once loving relationship, now a tangled web of interference, mistrust and supernatural darkness. The reader will go through an emotional rollercoaster where they aren't sure who is good and who is bad, where there may be shades of gray, but more likely, black and white. This book delivers a read not to be forgotten.

5 sheep




Pamela Kinney


About the Author:
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Kourtney Heintz is the award-winning and bestselling author of The Six Train to Wisconsin (2013), the first book in The Six Train to Wisconsin series. She also writes bestselling young adult novels under the pseudonym K.C. Tansley. Heintz is a member of the Mystery Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, and Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. Heintz has given writing workshops and author talks at libraries, museums, universities, high schools, conventions, wineries, non-profits organizations, and writing conferences. She has been featured in the Republican American of Waterbury, Connecticut; on WTNH’s CT Style; and on the radio show, Everything Internet.

Kourtney resides in Connecticut with her warrior lapdog, Emerson, and three quirky golden retrievers. Years of working on Wall Street provided the perfect backdrop for her imagination to run amok at night, envisioning a world where out-of-control telepathy and buried secrets collide.

Tour Giveaways
Giveaway 1 - Kourtney’s Giveaway open from October 1-December 1 - prizes include naming a character in her next book, Butternut gift basket, and a $50 Amazon gift card. Enter on her Facebook page: http://gvwy.io/bwh02f9

Giveaway 2 - 5 signed copies shipping to anywhere in the world

a Rafflecopter giveaway

6 comments:

  1. Thank you for reading & reviewing the series and for writing such thoughtful, in-depth reviews.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Replies
    1. Thanks so much, Nancy! Pamela did a fantastic job showcasing the best aspects of both books. :)

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  3. thanks sounds like a great read

    tiramisu392 (at) yahoo.com

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