4.7 out of 5 stars – 30 reviews on Amazon

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I LOVE covers! I guess you could call me a cover whore. And PROUD of it. 😉

We may not be able to judge a book by it’s cover, but it is most always the thing that makes me say, “I GOTTA have that book.”

WHAT DV BERKOM HAS TO SAY ABOUT THE COVERS

I did all but Yucatan Dead and A One Way Ticket to Dead–Kim Killion from the Killion Group created those. I just love working with her- she’s fast and professional.

MY REVIEW

 Yucatan Dead by D V Berkom is an action packed adventure that had me racing through the Mexican jungle, dodging danger and death with Yucatan Kate. The characters come to life on the pages with multiple stories being told.

Mexico Cenote (c) Sherry Fundin

All Kate wanted was to have a normal life with her new love, Cole. She had a family now, but the past continued to haunt her. Would she have to pay for the rest of her life or would the assassin finish her off?

Kate had made a mistake falling for a drug lord. She knew you didn’t just walk away from someone like him.

I cannot imagine how terrorized she must be. Kate is plucked from her home in Arizona and hauled out of the country to Mexico. Back to Salazar, a dangerous drug lord, who is super pissed at her. Kate had not just left him, she took some of his money too.

Kate escapes. She is on her own and being chased, hiding, not knowing which way to go. Until…..

Quinn. He is a warrior of the twenty first century kind. D V Berkom describes him as a Rottweiler kind of guy. I love it. He has a pack of dogs, always at his side and has his own war going on with the cartel. Him and his team work the jungles, shutting down the traffickers.

He nicknames her Yucatan Kate.

The cartel is blood thirsty. They are ruthless and cruel, not just dealing in drugs, but also human trafficking and the slave trade.

Your enemy could be standing right beside you posing as your friend, your ally. Trusting the wrong person could get you killed.

A touch of mysticism walks with Kate through the jungle. She had bad spirits around her, but her jaguar spirit was watching over her. I am always intrigued with mystical cultures and, even though Yucatan Dead is light in this department, it does add a special additional element that makes me wonder if D V Berkom will add to it as the series develops. Or maybe she already has, I just don’t know it yet.   😀

Yucatan Dead is a spine tingling race for survival as Kate dodges the ruthless cartel who, will stop at nothing to get her. I loved running and hiding in the jungle with Kate, hanging out at camp with Quinn, his dogs and the team, floating through the Cenote, and trying to evade the people sent to find her.

I have a feeling I will be seeing Kate again and I am eager for the next adventure. How about you Kate? Are you ready? Will Quinn be there?

“I’ll give you a worse case scenario. Yucatan Kate is going to be Yucatan Dead.”

“If I had to die, the one thing I can control is how..”

I love that and will keep that handy for future reference.

I find D V Berkom’s bio pretty adventurous itself. Be sure and check her out.

I received Yucatan Kate from D V Berkom in return for an honest, unbiased review.

   5 Stars – Would Buy It For Them (lol)

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Soooooo, let’s meet Yucatan Kate as seen through D V’s eyes 

Welcome D V. I am so excited to have you on fundinmental and I’m eager to hear what you have to say about your characters. I am always curious how authors create them. So let’s take a sneak peek into the mind of DV.

Where Did She Come From?

A Character in the Making

As a writer, I’m often asked this question. I write a couple of thriller series featuring strong female characters—both of whom frequently end up in extreme circumstances—but each one is uniquely different and have their own way of dealing with danger.

Like Kate Jones, for example.

Mexico Palms (c) Sherry Fundin

When we first meet Kate in Bad Spirits, she’s in her 20s and on the run from a huge mistake she made that I’m sure many of us can relate to—she fell for the wrong guy. And I mean the REALLY wrong guy. Turns out, Roberto Salazar is the vicious leader of a Mexican drug cartel. And, well, he’s not one to appreciate a woman who takes something that belongs to him and just up and disappears into the Sonoran desert. Oh, and did I mention she stole a bunch of his money?

She watched him slit the throat of a friend over basically nothing and in a blinding moment of insight realized if he could do something like that to a good friend, she could be next. Due to the nature of the business, drug lords often become a tad, um, paranoid, and what you don’t want to do is cross them. Ever.

So she runs, attempting to stay one step ahead of Salazar.

Until she doesn’t.

Several people have asked if I’m writing this series from memory (I lived in Mexico for a time in my twenties) and I can tell you that, to my knowledge, I wasn’t involved with a member of a drug cartel. I did meet several people in my travels who were probably connected in some way, but they didn’t talk about it. And, you know, I didn’t ask.

The truth is, I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life that had long-ranging repercussions—and yes, a couple of those mistakes involved men. That’s the thing about decisions. You don’t know what consequences might be set in motion when you make them…

For Kate, I took something I might have done in the same circumstances and then threw everything I could think of at her, putting her in the worst possible situations and then letting her figure out how to get herself out of them (because, well, if she died then the series would be over J). She’s grown quite a bit from that first terrifying adventure but she hasn’t lost what makes her Kate. She’s still dealing with the three I’s that make up her character: impatient, impetuous, and intrepid, which, in real life as well as in fiction is a sure recipe for disaster.

My other character, Leine Basso, came into being when I had a bizarre dream about a reality show where beautiful women compete for a date with a serial killer (Serial Date). The dream came to me as a promotional spot featuring women contestants and the killer-bachelor. For balance, I needed someone who would be able to go toe-to-toe against a serial killer. I love writing strong women characters and it didn’t take long before Leine showed up, fully formed and demanding a leading role. Leine is a burned-out female assassin with daughter issues who doesn’t like people very much, except for a certain sexy homicide detective named Santiago Jensen…the perfect match for a serial killer. Her character is derived from several people I’ve met through the years, shot through with a few of my own imperfections, just to make it interesting.

Both characters are a kick to write, and, what I’ve heard from readers, fun to read. If you enjoy genuinely flawed but gutsy female characters who know how to handle danger, then you just might like meeting Kate and Leine.

***Warning: Neither series is for the faint of heart***

There’s adult language and situations, dead bodies, sleazy politicians, and enough villainous characters to fill a book.

Enjoy! 

This is a fantastic guest post and I enjoyed it tremendously. I love how you threw everything at Kate knowing she couldn’t die. LOL The informative, yet light telling of your thoughts had me smiling and chuckling as I read it. I even went back and read it again. Thanks so much for visiting fundinmental and I look forward to having you back again…..soon.

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SYNOPSIS

She was a dangerous man’s lover…now she’s his dangerous enemy.

For Kate Jones, being on the run from her former lover-the vicious leader of a Mexican drug cartel-was never going to be easy. But with a new identity, a new lover, and a new life in Arizona, she was beginning to believe she’d made it through the worst.

Then, in an act of twisted revenge, Kate’s kidnapped and imprisoned by her deadly enemy, his intention to force her to pay back the money she stole before he kills her. Fate intervenes and she finds herself working against the cartels deep in the Yucatan with a group of off-the-grid commandos.

From peaceful northern Arizona to the steamy jungles of Mexico, Kate Jones must decide for herself if she’ll continue to run…

…or turn and fight the evil that pursues her.

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The next Kate Jones Thriller I will be reviewing is A One Way Ticket To Dead by DV Berkom.

Another fabulous cover that makes my mouth water and my hands itch.

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Check out DV Berkom’s other kickass female protagonist, Leine Basso in her Awesome Indies Approved novel, Serial Date.

Leine is an assassin who will stop at nothing to track down the serial killer who stole her daughter.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DV Berkom is a slave to the voices in her head. As the author of two popular thriller series (Leine Basso and Kate Jones), her love of creating resilient, kick-*ss female characters stems from a lifelong addiction to reading spy novels, mysteries, and thrillers, and longing to find the female equivalent within those pages.

Raised in the Midwest, she received her BA in political science from the University of Minnesota and promptly moved to Mexico to live on a sailboat. Many, many cross-country moves (and several years) later, she now lives just outside of Seattle, Washington with the love of her life, Mark, an ex-chef-turned contractor, and writes every chance she gets.

For more information, please visit her website at www.dvberkom.com.

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