FOREVER. We use that word so casually we tend to forget what it means. Forever, seems a long time coming, but tends to never last long enough. The Contract series is an ode to what that one word means. Richard and Katy embody the best of love at the most heartbreaking of moments. They were and will always be my favorite Melanie Moreland couple. The Amendment is a celebration of the healing power of love.

After things start going wrong on the planet Etaa, with a captured SG team and a failed rescue attempt, SG-1 are sent back to see what is going on.
In tow is a reporter, the son of a senator who has previously tried to shut SGC down.

Jack O'Neill and the team are reluctant to have him along, but events dictate otherwise.

Bit of a slow build up, giving background characters a bit more "screen time" than they'd have in a normal episode, but the main people act like you'd expect and are well written.

It's good when it gets going, introducing new alien species and a tense ending.
Slightly more sweary than a TV episode would be (only a few scattered around) which may not be to everyones liking.

Women achieved the right to vote in stages in Kansas.  They could vote in school elections after 1861 and in municipal elections after 1887, the year Susanna Moore Salter of Argonia became the first woman to be elected to the office of mayor of any town in the United States.  The right of Kansas women to vote in state and national elections came eight years before the Nineteenth Amendment.

Leo E. Oliva, "Kansas: A Hard Land in the Heartland" (1988)

 

Received a copy of 2nd Amendment Remedies (Scott Wolfe #2) by S.L. Shelton through the First Reads Giveaway in exchange for an honest review

"I've heard you call yourself a geek, a computer nerd, 'a skinny
kid', and a whole string of other descriptors that don't actually
describe you." She explained coarsely. "I've heard you call
yourself a crappy boyfriend and scared. But crappy boyfriends
don't fly to halfway around the world to rescue damsels in
distress. Skinny kids don't get into fights with mercenaries and
win. Computer nerd, though it may describe your talent with
automation, certainly isn't the best descriptor of a man who
throws himself out of an airplane strapped to a cargo container
full of hostages."

Scott Wolfe is on the lengthy path to mental, physical, and emotional rehabilitation. After an impromptu rescue mission in Amsterdam against international terrorists, his superficial wounds may seem extreme but his inner wounds run very deep. Physically speaking, Scott was abducted, tortured, and beaten, fought Bosnian Serbian mercenaries, stabbed, jumped out of an airplane, burned by a torch, nearly drowned, was shot twice, and died three times before he got back to Germany. For many woman Scott Wolfe would be what you call a white knight, but to him it is just a case of Scott being Scott. What is so hard to imagine of a man actually doing what is right for his moral self and the ones he loves the most? After rescuing his "girlfriend" Barb Whitney, her State Department Attorney father Robert and twenty-eight diplomats with the help of his partner Katherine Fuchs, Barb is more than willingly-indebted to Scott in ensuring his bodily recovery. Back home in Fairfax, Virginia Scott's psychologist Dr.Tebron as well as Barb and friend Sarah, Scott is slowly but surely getting back on his feet and anxious to get back to work, that is in fact if Barb will let him go.

Scott Wolfe is an average young man that happens to have a dark past. He is a computer programming genius that works for a travel technology and computer security company called TravTech. Scott is also an avid rock climber which helps his functional strength training and cardiovascular health. He is also haunted by memories of an abusive father who later died in a car accident and a mother that in conjunction was admitted to a psychological facility. Through all this Scott has been blaming the deconstruction of his family unit on a municipal well contamination. Before repairing his present state he must reconcile and make peace with the past.

Scott Wolfe is a real world super hero. With an eidetic memory, graceful psychological manipulation, a gorilla grip, Incredible Hulk-esque fits of rage, as well as being a great reader of micro-expressions. Combine that with a penchant for panic attacks and a case of schizophrenia and you have yourself a whole lot of trouble. Channeling his inner Clark Kent, with the apparent visage of a "techie" one wrong move and you'll find your nasal bone swiftly driven into your cerebellum.

In 2nd Amendment Remedies Scott is diligently working in his rehabilitation trying to get back to work. Out in the real world radical political parties are causing havoc in suburbia, government officials are running scared of being ousted and sent to jail, controversially-celebrated members of the media are being killed and the whereabouts of two nuclear warheads are unknown. Scott is doing his best to push aside the thought of being a figurehead for the CIA department he was appointed boss of by Robert Whitney so he can provide CIA operative John Temple on the job Intel into catching the people responsible for all of the trouble. But how does one accomplish this feat when the people you are hunting are one of your own?

There was a whole heck of a lot lot going on with this book. At times I feel like I lost a little perspective from not reading the first book in the series, on the other hand I blame myself for a lack of attention to detail. This book was very well executed and I recommend it to anyone that enjoys a fully put-together thriller with an intriguing protagonist and a deep plot. I don't recommend this book to people who have a difficult time staying focused, are easily distracted, and like their endings wrapped up and tied with a bow.

Years ago, he had worried that his time with the CIA had turned
him into a robot. One of the agency shrinks had encouraged him
to find something that did upset him and then use it as a gauge
of his emotional detachment. As long as his 'reality check'
thought was still upsetting, he was still 'human.' The reality
check he had come up with was his sister. Picturing her in trouble
was the only thing that caused him emotional distress.
He took a moment to visit his 'reality check' thought.
Tension instantly filled his gut and a pinch formed in his chest.
'Still human after all,' he thought."

(source:  XKCD)

 

TRUTH. This needs to go viral on the internet.