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Wheels Up: A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival by [Jeanine Kitchel, Jill Logan, Jennifer Redmond]

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Jeanine Kitchel

Wheels Up: A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival Kindle Edition

by Jeanine Kitchel (Author), Jill Logan (Illustrator), Jennifer Redmond (Editor) Format: Kindle Edition

49 ratings

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"Author Jeanine Kitchel has flipped the script on mobster novels, giving us a strong, nuanced female lead character. In Wheels Up, the dialogue crackles as deals and death guide the journey through the Mexican drug world." -- Self-Publishing Review

When her notorious drug lord uncle is recaptured, Layla Navarro catapults to the top of Mexico's most powerful cartel. To expand cartel influence she accepts an offer to move two tons of cocaine from Colombia to Cancun by jet. Along for the ride are her abusive bodyguard/lover, the laidback Canadian pot grower who set up the deal, and a coke-addicted Vietnam vet.

The deal takes a bad turn during a stopover in Guatemala when Layla unexpectedly uncovers a sex-trafficking ring. Plagued by self-doubt, she must navigate the minefield of Mexican machismo, fight off gangsters, and outsmart government officials. Against a backdrop of lush tropical settings, Layla plots to succeed, wreak vengeance, and find herself--not to mention stay alive.

If you liked The Queen of the South, you'll love Wheels Up.
"Readers who enjoy fast paced reads that are based on the insane world of drugs and cartels will absolutely love Wheels Up: A Novel of Drugs, Cartels and Survival." -- Artisan Book Reviews

Print length

306 pages
Language

English
Sticky notes

On Kindle Scribe
Publication date

April 27, 2018
File size

5356 KB
Page Flip

Enabled
Word Wise

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Enhanced typesetting

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Jeanine Kitchel
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Kindle Edition
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Editorial Reviews

Review

Reviewed By Greg Rideout for Self-Publishing ReviewKitchel has flipped the script on mobster novels, giving us a strong, nuanced female lead character. Sympathetic drug lords are hard to find, but Kitchel creates one in Layla...Wheels Up is a fast-paced read, reminiscent of sunny South Florida crime novels. Like the novels set in the Keys, drinks abound and colorful side characters roam in and out of the narrative...It's not a lightweight story by any means, but there's a breeziness mixed with intrigue that makes for a perfect summer beach read.
Reviewed By Joel R. Dennstedt for Readers' Favorite
Wheels Up promises to deliver an adventure about drugs, cartels and survival--and it does. It does not mention on the cover, and is left to the curious and immediately hooked reader to discover, that it also comes embellished with compelling and interesting characters, prominent of which is Layla, the new female head of a dominant Mexican cartel, a headstrong, independent, and strangely principled young woman--and a wonderful array of exotic and Yucatan-based locales, with enough adventure packed into its fast-moving pages to satisfy the most ravenous armchair thrill-seeker. The book begins with a drug-loaded plane crash into the jungle and never relinquishes its momentum after that.

Layla Navarro, the Latina heroine of this intensely engaging, drug-based escapade, is a uniquely likable if questionable example of a powerfully ambitious woman determined to take her rightful place at the top of a very dangerous food chain. She is equally intimidating and attractive to the men conscripted to protect her, and to those determined to liquidate her. Goaded to the limits of her already rather compromised ethics through the discovery of human trafficking by her so-called business partners, she seeks vengeance for the deaths of her beloved bodyguard and a Guatemalan girl she meant to save. This is where the fun, or rather the race for survival, begins. Kitchel gives the avid reader no further chance to breathe as she narrows her exciting plot down to its final, deadly confrontation. No spoilers here. Get your own self hooked.

About the Author

Jeanine Kitchel's ongoing love of Mexico led her to the Yucatan in 1983, and slightly more than a decade later, she left San Francisco for a relaxed lifestyle in Puerto Morelos, a fishing village on the Quintana Roo coast.
TRAVEL WRITER Kitchel writes about Mexico, the Maya and the Yucatan. She's written for The Miami Herald, El Universal, The Herald/Mexico City, and Fodor's Travel Guides.WHERE THE SKY IS BORN, a travel memoir, details how dream became reality when she and her husband left Silicon Valley jobs to pursue the goal of living in Mexico, and explains how they coped with buying land, building a house and retiring in a foreign country.MAYA 2012 REVEALED takes a realistic look at the 2012 end date debate that surrounded the Maya calendar.CARTEL TRILOGY/WHEELS UP: A NOVEL OF DRUGS, CARTELS AND SURVIVAL Kitchel's first novel, Wheels Up, publishes spring 2018. Once again, Mexico sits center stage. Her Latina protagonist, Layla Navarro, catapults to the top of Mexico's most poweful cartel when her notorious drug lord uncle is recaptured. Layla struggles to survive in one of the cruelest institutions the world has ever seen. --This text refers to the paperback edition.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07CQDK8MY
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Jeanine Kitchel (April 27, 2018)
Publication date ‏ : ‎ April 27, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 5356 KB
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Sticky notes ‏ : ‎ On Kindle Scribe
Print length ‏ : ‎ 306 pages

Best Sellers Rank: #1,553,438 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #1,465 in Hispanic American Literature
- #3,513 in Hispanic American Literature & Fiction
- #5,266 in Organized Crime Thrillers

Customer Reviews:
49 ratings

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Jeanine Kitchel

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Jeanine Kitchel's love of Mexico led her to the Yucatan in 1983, and in 1997, she left San Francisco for a relaxed lifestyle in Puerto Morelos, a fishing village on the Quintana Roo coast.

TRAVEL WRITER

Kitchel writes about Mexico, the Maya and the Yucatan. She's written for The Miami Herald, El Universal/Mexico City, The News/Mexico City, The Herald/Mexico City, Baja Times, The Mexico Files and Fodor's Travel Guides.

WHERE THE SKY IS BORN

Her first book, a travel memoir, Where the Sky is Born: Living in the Land of the Maya, tells how dream became reality when she and her husband left Silicon Valley jobs to pursue their goal of living in Mexico, and how they coped with buying land, building a house and retiring in a foreign country.

MAYA 2012 REVEALED

Maya 2012 Revealed: Demystifying the Prophecy, gives a journalistic view of the 2012 end date debate regarding the Maya calendar phenomenon.

CARTEL TRILOGY/WHEELS UP: A NOVEL OF DRUGS, CARTELS AND SURVIVAL

Kitchel's first novel, Wheels Up, published in May 2018. Once again, Mexico sits center stage. Her Latina protagonist, Layla Navarro, catapults to the top of Mexico's most poweful cartel when her notorious drug lord uncle is recaptured and imprisoned. Layla struggles to survive in one of the cruelest institutions the world has ever seen.

Wheels Up is included in The New York Book Review Fall Issue September 27, 2018, under Independent Press listings.

TULUM TAKEDOWN

In book 2 in the Wheels Up trilogy, Layla Navarro's chance encounter with a Mexico City journalist leads her to the Yucatán Peninsula where she helps to search for the woman's missing niece. In a desperate race against time to find the girl, Layla teams up with a fellow dealer and a cartel fixer. Now she must piece together a complex puzzle of money laundering, dirty politics, and million dollar land grabs before another innocent victim is lost to the shady world of human trafficking.

Her website--www.jeaninekitchel.com-- has updates on her writing and blog, jeaninekitchel.blogspot.com/ with current posts on author life, Mexico and the Maya, titled Maya Musings.

Customer reviews

4.5 out of 5

49 global ratings

5 star		66%
4 star		25%
3 star		5%
2 star		4%
1 star 0% (0%)		0%

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Top reviews from the United States

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David S.

She Knows Mexico!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 7, 2018

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Writing is hard. Writing well is even harder. But, even so, there are a lot good writers. They fill a page with good, crisp sentences filled with meaningful words and proper punctuation. They have a good grasp of the language and are generally smart people. What isn't so easy is making the eventual reader want to go to the next page. And the next. And the next. This is what separates authors from writers.

I only finish about 30% of the books I start reading these days. If I'm not all in by about page 40 I stop and try another. Of course I keep the discarded book optimistically thinking I'll go back to it later - but I never do. My garage is filled with these books that I always promise my wife I'm taking to Goodwill. She's getting a little pissed now.

So I picked up a copy of Wheels Up written by Jeanine Kitchel (full disclosure - I have known Jeanine for years and consider her a friend). Jeanine lived for years in Mexico and owned a bookstore in Puerto Morelos with her husband, Paul. She knows Mexico, the good and the bad, and it shows throughout her story. And what a fun story it is, featuring protagonist Layla Navarro, the somewhat reluctant and conflicted head of Mexico's premier drug cartel since her uncle, the real boss, is in the slammer. Layla, despite good intentions, gets into a bad situation and the reader gets to come along for a roller-coaster ride, action filled with a cast of characters Fellini would admire.

Unlike many books on Mexico, Jeanine's book always sounds true to life. She "gets" the country and the people and it shows all the way through. Despite the natural, colorful beauty of Mexico, much of the country reflects shades of grey, with pragmatism a major driver. Who are the bad guys and who are the good? It is often hard to tell.

I highly recommend Wheels Up, available electronically and in hard copy. You will want to turn every page.

3 people found this helpful

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MB reads

Scenes of Mexico through a female drug lord's adventures

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on July 18, 2019

Verified Purchase

All that was missing while I read about Layla's drug cartel adventures was sunshine on a Mexican beach. Fortunately, Jeanine Kitchel knows Mexico so intimately she made me feel like I was back in Yucatán as I read her delightful, spot-on descriptions and followed the adventures of Layla, up-and-coming drug queen. There's plenty of action in Kitchel's take on drug cartels, but it's the protagonist's personal development that grabbed my interest. I enjoyed watching a woman evolve as a drug lord. Kitchel's many scenes are so well-written the descriptions, facts and dialogue come together seamlessly. I found some explanations to be a bit long, but I'm familiar with Mexico and its many quirks. And Kitchel was introducing characters who will be with us in the future and was laying the groundwork for her readers. The final chapter is a gem, filled with action and hints of things to come in Kitchel's next installment.

2 people found this helpful

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Sally Nellor

A fun romp through the rough and tumble world of Mexican ...

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2018

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A fun romp through the rough and tumble world of Mexican drug cartels. Layla, the niece of famed cartel capo El Patron, finds herself battling the big boys and learning to make her own way as the head of her family’s business.

While the cartel trade itself is ugly business, Layla has scruples and a deep love for the people of her country, Can’t wait to see if she changes the seedy cartel business and shows the big boys “the woman is coming!”

Anyone who has lived or traveled in the beautiful Mexican Yucatan will enjoy reading about areas you know. A great summer beach read for your next trip to Tulum. Excited for book 2 of 3.

Helpful

karen haddigan

Fascinating look into a dark subculture

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2018

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A timely and suspenseful look into the world of cartels, drugs and Mexican culture. Kitchel draws us in and holds us with a suspenseful and all-too-real story, going against type to cast a woman as head of the country's most powerful cartel after her drug lord uncle is jailed. The novel is rich with subplots, captivating characters and local color. A must-read!

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Ida

Mexican Drug Cartel Heroine

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 19, 2018

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In this novel set among the drug cartels of Mexico, the author demonstrates a flawless command of subject and place. I appreciated her ability to guide me through the inner workings of a cartel while keeping the story moving. Danger, excitement, and characters who realistically carry a story from beginning to end: I finished the book in two evenings.

2 people found this helpful

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jes merrell

Max velocity thriller!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 30, 2018

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A warp speed run thru the adventures of a gutsy heroine bringing together continual suspense, great language and keen insight into the shadowy and violent world of Mexico’s narco industry. We are long time expat residents of Mexico and this book breathes authenticity. So many great surprises to spoil in a review, so let me just suggest if you enjoy Baldacci give this thriller a read. It compares quite favorably to his best.
Still cannot believe this is a first timer novel!

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Dana Law

More complex than expected

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 31, 2018

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Some interesting insights into the complexities of the cartels. Liked the portrayal of the main character even though she is more prone to mood swings than a teenager. Hope there's a sequel so I can find out what happens next. It's sure to be complicated and dangerous.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2018

Verified Purchase

Wheels Up is a captivating story that blends adventure, danger and suspense, culture, traditions and human nature. A great cast of characters, including the heroine, Layla, whom you’ll be rooting for. And, for anyone who’s studied Mexico or traveled to Mexico, especially the Yucatan, the authentic descriptions and references to local settings, history and mystic traditions will be deeply appreciated. Can’t wait for the sequel!

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Top reviews from other countries

Karen Allen

Deadly Mariachi

Reviewed in Mexico 🇲🇽 on April 20, 2020

Verified Purchase

A quick and thrilling read - well written & descriptive. Very enjoyable. Wish Layla had landed back with the Cartel and she had truly been acknowledged as the legitimate leader.

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