Series in the Spotlight: the Lori Anderson series by Steph Broadribb @crimethrillgirl @OrendaBooks #Orentober

Hi and welcome to FromBelgiumWithBookLove where the spotlights are aimed at yet another awesome Orenda series!

A word about the covers: Lori’s been revamped! The first row are the original covers, and those underneath are the new ones that will be replacing the old ones very soon. Aren’t they beautiful! But let’s not judge Lori by her covers, let me tell you a little bit about her!

Once upon a time, Jennifer Ford was an innocent young woman, married too young to a not-so-nice guy. Now she is Lori Anderson, bounty hunter…

Frankly, I tried really hard to stay away from this series, figuring I had enough books on Mount TBR, no need to add an extra series. Yet here I am, putting it in the spotlights. Nope, I will never learn ? Once I’d found out that (part of) the books are set in Florida and that the author, Steph Broadribb, has actual bounty hunter training / experience, it was a done deal. I love Florida (I daresay I love the Everglades a whole lot more than Lori does, but then of course, as opposed to Lori, I didn’t have to fight alligators when I was there, that probably explains it ?) I also love it when an author starts from their own experience, especially when that experience includes a job like bounty hunting, which is quite simply fascinating!

Lori is the best main character. She’s a tough woman doing a tough job in what’s largely a men’s world, yet she remains feminine and motherly and utterly believable. Yes she has skills, yes she kicks ass, but she gets bested too. She gets knocked down, by life, by the bounty she’s hunting, by mobsters, by alligators. She might stay down for a bit, lick her wounds, but sooner or later, she gets back up to fight for what matters, whether that’s her daughter, or the man she loves, or an innocent person she needs to protect.

The Lori Anderson series is action-packed and has a very authentic American feel to it, not just because of its setting, but also because of the narrative and the lingo. For instance in Deep Dirty Truth, Lori is talking about a man whom she doesn’t trust and says she trusts him “a whole lot less than a gator with an empty belly”.

Still, it’s not just action either, there’s also lots of emotion and characters you can’t help but love. There’s Lori’s little girl, Dakota, who is recovering from leukemia at the start of the series. She’s adorable and just about as headstrong as her mother. There’s Red, a retired private investigator helping Lori out whenever he can. And there’s of course J.T. He’s the tough broody silent type and Lori’s mentor, the reason she became a bounty hunter in the first place. They haven’t seen each other in quite some time but Lori’s never quite got over him and at the start of the series they are reunited… Not in a good way though: J.T. is the one Lori has been hired to catch and bring in so he can be brought to justice. In case you haven’t read any of the three books, I won’t spoil them by blabbing about all that happens next. Just know this: this is a awesome series that I’ve come to enjoy more with each new book.

If you’re into audiobooks and you enjoy a Southern USA accent, you should definitely check out this series on Audible (or your preferred audiobook service). The entire series so far have been narrated by Jennifer Woodward, who does an excellent job. After listening to Deep Blue Trouble, Lori and her narrator are inextricably bound to each other in my mind, while I was reading Deep Dirty Truth I didn’t hear my own voice, I only heard Jennifer’s!

Each story is neatly wrapped-up by the end of the book, but the door always remains cracked open for the next adventure. It looks like book 4 will have Lori in Chicago on an assignment for the FBI, and I cannot wait to join her! My go bag is packed and ready, let’s roll!

Thanks for joining me today! Did you already know Lori or is she someone you’d like to meet, tell me below!

If you’d like a little taste of Lori, check out the short story prequel to the series, The Last Resort. Apart from the short story about Lori’s first case, you also get the first bit of Deep Down Dead. I wouldn’t say it accurately reflects the whole series (there’s only so much you can do with such a limited number of pages), but it will give you a feel for Steph’s writing. And it’s only 99p in the Orenda eBookstore!

Orenda made an enticing trailer for Deep Dirty Truth (no spoilers to any of the previous books), check it out (turn up the volume!):