DA VINCI CODE meets TOMB RAIDER in this multi-award-winning and #1 bestselling thriller that combines intrigue, history, science, and mystery into pulse-pounding action. A computer-app designer. An encrypted relic. Can she and the VanOps team decipher the dangerous code before extremists trigger a high-tech apocalypse? Broad-shouldered marine turned covert agent Bear Thorenson wants his … agent Bear Thorenson wants his girlfriend, Maddy Marshall, to join VanOps, but the software expert and aikido black belt isn’t sure she’s ready for a hazardous dark-operations role that might risk the life of AJ, the nine-year-old boy she wants to adopt. Things change when an armed Russian thief escapes over her wrought-iron fire escape carrying an ancient star chart. She chooses to join Bear in the pursuit, because if her royal family legends are true, the mysterious chart leads to a superconductive meteor capable of powering the ultimate quantum computer. Upon learning the lightning-fast machine would be used by fringe members of the Russian government to spark a global war, and those same extremists kidnapped AJ once before, Maddy’s heart drops and Bear’s arctic-blue eyes turn to ice.
Setting off on a mad dash to uncover the chart’s celestial secrets at a Mexican archeoastronomy site, the VanOps team unearths a clue dating back to biblical times. As they race across the globe through the dangerous bazaars of Morocco, fallen Turkish temples, and Egypt’s perilous Valley of the Kings, they must fight to stay even a half-step ahead of sinister assassins. Worse, the place Maddy sent AJ for refuge becomes the enemy’s testing ground, where hungry gangs roam darkened streets.
With millions of lives on the line, can Maddy and Bear rescue the boy and crack the chart’s secret code?
SOLSTICE SHADOWS is the second novel in the fast-paced, multi-award-winning VanOps thriller series. A standalone, it follows THE LOST POWER (“A masterwork of international intrigue.” – #1 NYT bestselling author James Rollins). If you enjoy smart edge-of-your-seat suspense by James Rollins, Dan Brown, Steve Berry, or Clive Cussler, you’ll stay up late turning the pages of Avanti Centrae’s “rousing sequel.” Kirkus Reviews.
Genre Grand Prize Winner – Global Thriller Awards – 2019 Chanticleer International Book Awards
“Fans of complex and highly detailed espionage and action thrillers are certain to dive right into this mixture between Indiana Jones and Dan Brown.” ~ Readers’ Favorite – Five stars
“Unputdownable. Avanti Centrae packs a thriller parachute with endless suspense and a rip-cord ending. SOLSTICE SHADOWS is meticulously researched, the history, science, and locales offering a rare ‘you-are-there’ authenticity. Brew a large pot of java, as you will read through the night. Brilliant.” ~ K.J. Howe, international bestselling author of SKYJACK
Bronze Medal Winner – Adventure – 2020 Readers’ Favorite Awards
An instant Barnes & Noble Nook #1 Best Seller and Amazon #1 Best Seller!
SOLSTICE SHADOWS, multi-award-winning #1 best seller, will take you on a heart-pounding mission you’ll always remember. Enjoy this wild thrill ride today!
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Avanti Centrae is a name to watch. I know that’s cliché and you see that on blurbs on virtually every book out there. But here’s the thing. Her words grab you like a python from the very first line and don’t let you go until they’ve squeezed every ounce of waking energy left in your soul, leaving you drained and desperate for more.
She utilizes powerful, evocative, gripping storytelling with characters you immediately relate to, love, or loathe.
If someone asked me how to write a good thriller, I’d say reading one of Centrae’s books would be a great place to start. Her understanding of the thriller genre and how to write for it makes me wonder if she’s even human, or some sentient AI thriller writer sent to give us otherworldly stories.
Do yourself a favor and jump on this rocket before it takes off. You’ll be able to say you knew her when.
A ticking clock, a covert operation, and global ramifications all work together to make this five-star read the epitome of adrenaline-pumping suspense. And with every chapter ending with a page-turning hook, I couldn’t put it down!
Solstice Shadows: A VanOps Thriller
By Avanti Centrae
5 out of 5 stars
I loved reading the book Solstice Shadows: A VanOps Thriller by Avanti Centrae. It is a story that pulled me in from the very beginning and didn’t let me go until the final page. It is an amazing thriller that had me on the edge of my seat wondering what was going to happen next. The story includes non-stop action, danger, and wonderful characters such as Bear Thorenson and Maddy Marshall. This book has them trying to stay one step ahead of those who want their mission to fail and have an evil agenda. Will Bear and Maddy be able to foil their plans? Read this story to find out. This is a book that has one speed, full-steam ahead. I grew to care about the characters of Bear and Maddy with each chapter that I read and was rooting for their success all the way through. Maddy is an intelligent, kind, determined, and strong woman. Bear is a man that has fallen for Maddy and would do anything to keep her safe. They make up part of a team that danger has a way of finding them. Don’t miss out on an exciting and entertaining story that you won’t soon forget. I highly recommend reading it.
Fascinating research, non-stop action, exotic settings, and a sixth sense for human nature in the battle between good and evil. It’s a must-read!
I had the lucky opportunity to read this pre-release and couldn’t put it down.
Solstice Shadows is the second in the Van Ops thriller series. The characters Maggie, her twin brother Matt and Bear, an undercover operative, come to life in this fast-paced thriller.
They’re tying to track down a powerful stone that only comes from a meteorite. As they journey across the world to Jerusalem, Mayan ruins in Mexico, Turkey and Egypt, I felt like part of an Ancient Aliens adventure. this edge or your seat thriller will keep you turning pages till the very end.
A page turner book, that is like a cross between DaVinci Code and Indiana Jones with cutting edge computer technology! A mystery that must be solved, a puzzle that must be decoded before a cultic group usher in an apocalyptic event. This book continues the series in an exciting read that whets the appetite for the next book in the series. These books work!! They are interesting, exciting and a totally enjoyable read. Don’t miss the adventure- get your copy today!!
Avanti Centrae, ‘Solstice Shadows’.
A VanOps Thriller.
As a Hidden Gems ARC reader I received a free copy and promised an honest review. Here it is.
Rating: 3 (of 5 stars).
In general: Exciting mixture of the Antiquity and the Computer world .
Main character:
– Maddy Marshall.
She’s a computer-app designer. And in her free time a teacher at an aikido dojo. Maddy, a far descendant of the Spanish royal family, is also a trained member of the Order of the Invisible Flame, an ancient sect. Now with a modern trainings center for royal spies in Jerusalem.
’Solstice Shadows’ is the second book in the VanOps thriller series. It’s a stand-alone novel, but – especially in the first chapters – some knowledge of the first book, ’The Lost Power’, would have helped me to understand the main characters better. Through her membership of the sect for royal spies Maddy came in contact with the VanOps team in book 1.
In this book 2, ‘Solstice’, Russian extremists threaten the western world with a high tech apocalypse. And VanOps, an American secret anti terrorist organisation needs to rescue the US and her allies.
Again VanOps members asked Maddy to help them as an IT specialist.
Then the author, Avanti Centrae, describes how in a race around the world the VanOps team saves the western hemisphere from chaos and defeat.
The plot has many twists and turns. Very entertaining, especially in adventures like scenes from an Indiana Jones movie.
But for me the story seemed a bit too artificial situated in some exotic sites in order to create suspense. Not real life. E.g.: Five people killed near a Maya temple and all characters who visited the victims can travel to other destinations without any investigation by Mexican authorities???
Or another example: European royalty acting like modern spies???
All in all – for this reader – an entertaining novel: interesting historical cities and monuments, a somewhat complicated but wonderful main character and action scenes with a lot of suspense more than compensated a plot that was less credible in some areas.
R. Huiszoon.
This is book two of the VanOps series and the main character is software expert and reluctant black ops operative, Maddy Marshall. Her ex-marine boyfriend, Bear Thorenson wants her to join him in black ops with VanOps. She soon gets involved when someone steals an ancient star chart, which is linked to legends from her royal Spanish family ancestors. The legends state the chart would led to a treasure that could power the ultimate quantum computer, a high temperature superconductive material. The Russian thief that stole the chart is working on behalf of his government that want to spark off a global war. The hunt for the chart will lead them to a number of different countries around the world. As they search for what the chart leads to, Maddy will need all her computer skills to crack the code the chart is hiding, to get them to the treasure before their opponents, whilst avoiding being killed by the assassins chasing them.
Lots of adventure hunting for an ancient relic, historical places to be visited and some twisted family issues to be tackled! Maddy is in the middle of adopting ten year old AJ, a foster kid from her aikido dojo. She has been trained by an organisation called the Order of the Invisible Flame and taught a technique by one of the Guardians, to use a specific brain wave pattern to help her gain an advantage in a fight. It helped to heighten her sense and seemed to slow down time. Her ex-fiancé Vincent gets injured as the chart is stolen and AJ is almost shot and recognizes the armed thief as one of his kidnappers! The thief is a Russian speaking man called Pyotr and has a distinctive feature of one dark eye and one white eye which made him easy to remember. Only a select few even knew about the star chart and that Maddy had it, and one was the King of Spain who died just two weeks previously. He would have passed the information onto his son Carlos, who Maddy isn’t a fan of. It all brings back the memories of the Russian problems hunting down obelisks, in their plan against America. Her father was killed in that set of operations and that was when AJ got kidnapped as well.
Maddy plans to get AJ to safety in Jerusalem, at the Jerusalem Testing Society, which is actually the base for the Order of the Invisible Flame, an ancient sect of royal spies! Bear tells her to contact her twin brother Will Argones, who is on his boat reminiscing about his murdered wife Maria, with one of their friends Ana Therese. He already works for VanOps and he and Bear both want Maddy to move to the East Coast and join them at VanOps. But Maddy is still haunted by the men she had to kill using the power of a shard and the obelisks, to save the lives of Will, Bear and AJ. Bear asks his boss to allow him to investigate the Russian of Spanish connection and to look for the item on the star chart which was torn from an ancient codex.
An involved story with links back to incidents that happened in the first book, an ancient spy organisation and a secret black ops group which Will and Bear work at. Everything links back to Maddy and her ancestors, with even a Russian second wife of her grandfather, a political assassination whilst hunting for information on this chart. Maddy gets hired on as a Subject Matter Expert (MSE) by VanOps and works with her boyfriend Bear and his superior Jags, as well as her brother Will, to solve the assassination of the Indian ambassador to Russia, which their boss is sure is linked to this missing star chart and the multiple attempts on Maddy’s life and those close to her. They will be safer working together, knowing where they each area and being able to protect each other at the same time. An interesting, yet complex storyline with tons of action and history, with danger all around. You get to know more of the ancient relics and history of ancient sights. The light from the Winter Solstice is important for the storyline and highlights the position of the treasure they are seeking. An intriguing read with deadly unknown relatives out to kill them and an ancient treasure to find, to stop all-out war. Another enjoyable read and I can’t wait to see what comes next in this series. I received an ARC copy of this book from BookSprout and I have freely given my own opinion of the book above.
Lots of Action
Audiobook and Book Review:
This is the second book of the VanOps series, and I had not read their first before I chose this audiobook and book at one of my favorite book review sites. While the author did explain some of the backstory and relationships, the action was so fast at the beginning—and actually throughout—that it wasn’t easy to get the full scope of what had gone before, who everybody was, and how everything interrelated as the situation melted down in the present. This book is certainly action-packed. If you are listening to it as an audiobook, I recommend doing so when you are awake and alert as the story moves very quickly and you might miss an important point that will then later lead to confusion. This is not the typical genre I read, but I liked the chase and the hunt aspects as well as the globe-trotting. I didn’t feel like the characters were as developed as they could be nor were the relationships between the people fully explored. Maddy felt a little wishy-washy at times; I would have preferred a slightly stronger heroine. This book is all about the action, not the characters, which can be fine if that’s what you’re looking for (or prefer). For the audiobook, I wasn’t wild about the narrator. For a book that seems mostly to be about a woman and what she goes through in the story, it seemed odd that it was narrated by a man. I also didn’t think there was quite enough distinction between the voices except for the subtleties of some of the characters who had accents. At least the narrator was good at accents, even if sometimes there was only a hint of one. If you like globe-trotting action stories, you might enjoy this story in either book or audiobook format.
I received a free copy of this eBook and audiobook, but that did not affect my review.
Solstice Shadows is the second book in the VanOps thriller series. While at first I will admit I didn’t think I would like it. However, by the second chapter I finished the book in a day. This novel can be read alone or you can read them in order. I love how todayish the author places the novel. The characters are just amazing and unique along with the story itself. While this is a thriller novel, I would not hesitate to recommend it to someone younger to read.
DaVinci Code meets Tomb Raider? Okay, I see that. This was a face paced, hang on to your seat and don’t let the charge go out on your device because you will not want to miss a beat. Maddy and Bear are being chased for an ancient artifact and she is one of the only people who can decode it. Sci-fi or not? This was so well written it was like watching a movie and I had this in audio form and felt like I was living it. My heart was racing right along with the characters. I didn’t read the first book and did not feel I was missing a thing. Definitely a recommendation from me!
This is the second book in the series of the VanOps thriller, where we meet Maddy Marshall a software expert, who is faced with a task to decipher a code before extremists trigger a high tech apocalypse.
A Russian thief steals an ancient star chart, and Maddy along with her Boyfriend and twin, will then go on a hunt to find the treasure.
The story takes us on some fabulous locations, such as Mexico, the Middle East and the Philippians and in each we learn a puzzle , making things very cryptic, leading clues to each new place and as a reader, this is a brilliant way of getting us involved in the treasure hunt along with the characters. The atmosphere is built up brilliantly and the book is beautifully written.
The ancient history, combined with thriller, suspense and action is very well played out and would truly recommend.
This is my first read by this author, and what a brilliant introduction to be made. This book was written with an incredible storyline that is well written, action-packed & easy to read! I was pulled into this read and couldn’t put it down, I was wondering what would happen next and left wanting more! While the read is thrilling, it’s exciting and keeps you entertained and hooked on these characters story throughout this non-stop book. I can’t wait to read more from this author and what else is to come from this series! I highly recommend this book!
Solstice Shadows: A VanOps Thriller by Avanti Centrae, was such a pleasure to read. I’m a sucker for anything historical. There was so much in this book of a historical nature, I even liked reading the notes at the end, and was inspired to look some things up. Sometimes you learn some things from books like this and you learn it without even knowing you did. I love a save our country thriller. This is an action-packed novel, but it also has a lot of introspection. It was an exciting adventure and not only that there was romance. The relationship between Maddy, Bear, and Vincent surely was touch-and-go. In the end I think Maddy made a great decision.
This was my first book by Avanti Centrae. I haven’t read book 1 but now I want to. This was a great book. I enjoyed all the characters and how fully developed they were. Our main female character is Maddy Marshall. She’s a software expert and a black-belt in aikido. Our main male character is Bear Thorenson. He’s a marine turned covert agent. Together they need to recover missing documents stolen from Maddy’s house.
Have you been bored during this quarantine? Yes? Well, then you NEED to read this book! I couldn’t put it down and read it in a day! The author does an amazing job transporting you into a fast paced adventure across the globe. Her detail to history and geography makes your mind think that this story could be plausible in reality. I appreciate how the author shows the inner turmoil the main character has with all of the things that are happening. I’m going back and getting book 1 just to get more. I can’t wait to read book 3!
Solstice Shadows by Avanti Centrae is the second VanOps Thriller book, and a great one at that. I was hooked from the first page and spent hours at a time binging on this book! This book is fast paced and will keep you hooked, and wanting to know what will happen next! I thoroughly enjoyed Avanti´s work and can not wait to see more! I look forward to reading more from this very talented author in the future and definitely recommend their work!
Wow Never thought I’d get into this style book but hey you never know until you read it I guess. The author did a great job with character build up and making the story flow very well.
This book is one action packed read, I had a feeling that I was actually seated in a rollercoaster. It starts with a bang and then the action continues non stop till the very end.
I had not read book 1, so there are some elements which I could not appreciate much for lack of prior background knowledge but nevertheless the book is still a standalone enjoyable read.
Maggie, an Aikido black belt teacher is forced to join hands with VanOps, a US Government agency involved in saving the world, because an ancient important artifact is stolen from her. There is an attack planned on the United States and the source of this attack is a super power which is charged by a meteorite to cause mayhem in the world. Now it is up to VanOps to save the world.
The action moves across multiple places in the world and it appears as if we are hopping from one place to another at a very fast pace. If you like movies like Indiana Jones, The Bourne series and Mission Impossible with lot of action, mystery and a thriller element to it, this book is for you.
I had a great time. I am thinking of grabbing book 1 and reading it too!
This adventure had me glued to the pages right from the start. Centrae started the book with an immediate dramatic flair and the adventure never let up. Centrae is a new author to me but one I am very thankful to have found. I enjoyed her writing style and thoroughly enjoyed this thriller. I hope to read more from her very soon.