Tuesday, September 13, 2011

Out There Bad by Josh Stallings

The first book (Beautiful, Naked & Dead) by Josh Stallings had me pole dancing in my dreams. In all honesty, I was hoping for the same night life while reading the second book. I mean, really... what girl wouldn't want to be flawless at pole dancing and possibly skilled in the art of... the lap dance?

Unfortunately, no matter how much I wanted those dreams to appear, I knew it wasn't gonna happen.

From the beginning, Out There Bad took on a different tone from the first novel in the series. Instead of nights dreaming of my life as a stripper, this second book had me dreaming about my childhood when I was living in Hawaii. The time when I would pray daily that my father would find me and bring me home, and mark each day off a calendar with an X. 

Sent to live with relatives after a my father and step-mother divorced - I was under the impression that my time there would be brief and stress free - I was forced to endure many things that are still not spoken of in my family. While reading Out There Bad, the second book in the Moses McGuire series by Josh Stallings, I became painfully aware of just how badly I wanted to be saved during that time.  I specifically remember how when the phone call came that my father was making arrangements for me to be on the next flight home... I didn't believe it was over. Even after the plane took flight... I didn't believe it was over. 

Thirty years later... it still isn't over.

At the end of Beautiful, Naked & Dead, Moses has taken revenge on the people responsible for brutally murdering the only woman that he truly loved, and he also managed to fall in love and out of love with her twin sister during his quest for vengeance.

When we meet up with Moses again in Out There Bad, he's working the rounds as a bouncer for the same strip club in LA, when he notices odd behavior and suspicious living arrangements with some of the new Russian women that have come to town to play. Soon Moses finds himself out of a job and blowing off some steam at another strip club after a beat down in the parking lot with a customer wanting more than the usual lap dance gets a little rough.

And that's when she walks in. The beautifully seductive, Anya.

Swaying those hips just right on the dance floor leads to some back room levi-lovin' between Anya and Moses.  And I'm not quite sure how it happened, but Moses fell in love. And he didn't fall in love with just any girl. Moses fell in love with a woman that has fallen victim to a scam that has left her and many others forced into a life of prostitution. Even worse, Anya's thirteen year old sister is on her own journey to a life of unfulfilled promises and training as a sex slave by the same men that has taken control of Anya's life.

In the story you'll read about Moses giving his heart and soul to another woman,  being betrayed by the man that's he's been loyal to for years, traveling to Mexico to save children being forced into a life of prostitution, and fighting alongside a kick-ass, female, tarot-card-tossing assassin.

But most importantly you'll read about Moses being tortured and forced to participate in acts that will forever alter his sense of being. A sense of being that has already been damaged by a past stained with violence, loss and betrayal.  And when the book is finished and Anya and her sister have been saved and Moses returns to LA... you won't believe it is over. When the next book in the series is written and the next memory is made... you still won't believe it is over.

That's because for them... it will never be over.

Out There Bad by Josh Stallings is an incredible addition to the Moses McGuire series. And if you ladies didn't fall in love with Moses while reading Beautiful, Naked & Dead, not only will you be in love with him at the end of Out There Bad, you'll be wishing for a part in his next novel as... his savior. 

Out There Bad is available in PAPERBACK, on the KINDLE and on the NOOK.


Josh Stallings is your average ex-criminal, ex-taxi driver, ex-club bouncer, film making, script writing, award winning trailer editing, punk. Over his time in Hollywood he wrote and edited the feature film “The Ice Runner,” a Russian/American co-production. “Kinda Cute for a White-Boy” an independent feature he directed and co-wrote with novelist Tad Williams, won best picture at the Savannah International Film Festival. He also wrote “Ground Zero Texas,” a best selling Sony video game with Edward Neumeier (writer of RoboCop). His first novel BEAUTIFUL, NAKED & DEAD is garnering great notice from readers and reviewers alike. and OUT THERE BAD (Moses #2) is receiving the same attention. He is currently working on the third Moses McGuire novel. He lives in Los Angeles with his wife Erika, his bullmastiff Nelson, Lucy the lab pit mix and Riddle the cat.

4 comments:

Paul D Brazill said...

Spot on post.

Fiona Johnson said...

You are too good Sabrina...best ever review!! I feel the love!

Anonymous said...

That is the BEST summation of Josh'es masterpiece I have read. Excellent work, Sabrina. I'm dazzled.

Josh Stallings said...

WOW, this so moving and amazing. "Awesome" was what Erika called it and not in some trite surfer way, but as in it causes the feeling of awe. Your willingness to be vulnerable combined with how clearly you got the book is a powerful brew. Thank you, thank you, thank you.