tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-77618263052083184652024-03-14T14:49:21.556-04:00The Character ConnectionAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.comBlogger279125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-92135631784999019892017-11-01T00:01:00.000-04:002017-11-01T00:01:03.026-04:00Claudia Riess - Love and Other Hazards - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://loveandotherhazardsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-42HaA6DEw6c/WY4-izQkuzI/AAAAAAAAHn0/P1LgLgTgqhAHxuP60eRszZjKGkHNmGAzACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Kadx9pi8y48/WY4_jDsmiPI/AAAAAAAAHn8/PtRvybmdOX8xWNXPNs9Xg9SXkGO5JQAMACLcBGAs/s320/35111698.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Glenda Fieldston is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her seven-year-old daughter, Astrid, when Eugene Lerman comes walking by with his eight-year-old daughter, Meredith, a schoolmate of Astrid’s. The families spot each other, Glenda and Eugene engage in long-range cursory assessments, and then they go their separate ways. But not for long. Glenda and Eugene cross paths professionally soon after, and circumstances at work bring them into close association. So begins a friendship fraught with complications. Glenda’s independence is self-imposed and fierce. Eugene’s was foisted on him by a wife who left him. Although Glenda’s and Eugene’s personal demons are incompatible, their longings are, confoundedly, in harmony. Their cautious friendship is further inhibited by past and present relationships, and it remains to be seen if they can break out of their set ways to make a break for uncharted love. </i><br />
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<b>Review</b><br />
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To drink or not to drink, that is the question.<br />
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"You don't imbibe, do you," he said thoughtfully.<br />
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"I don't," she declared, as if he had challenged her virtue.<br />
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Does everyone need to be a social drinker, and if not, why not? Glenda and Eugene are a couple who confront the issue on their very first date. Glenda is close-lipped about why she chooses not to indulge in alcohol, while Eugene seeks to bring her reasoning out into the open.<br />
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For a while, Glenda wants no part of him delving into her psyche. She even warns him, "I have to watch myself with you. You make me talk." But Eugene continues to challenge her reticence, to the point of being downright meddlesome. However, due to his persistence, he finally gets the truth out of her.<br />
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As it turns out, Glenda's stepfather was an alcoholic, who sadly turned her mother into one. One night, when they were both intoxicated and engaged in a heated argument, Glenda's mother fell down the steps to her death. Not surprisingly, it's something Glenda's never recovered from, or forgiven her stepfather for.<br />
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Eugene does the right thing, initially, coaxing the story out of her. But when he spikes the tea he makes in order to get her to keep talking, that's when he crosses the line. When she finds out the next morning, she's livid with him, and rightly so. Their exchange the next day says it all.<br />
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"If you knew I had an aversion to alcohol why did you intentionally disregard it?"<br />
"Because I wanted to know you better."<br />
"What do you want?"<br />
"I want you to believe me."<br />
"I'm not sure I want to."<br />
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Glenda's the trapped bird Eugene wants to set free, but he goes about it the wrong way. In his eyes, he didn't know what else to do, especially when Glenda's cousin tells him, "On the rare occasions when [Glenda] revealed herself there was always something she kept back, something important."<br />
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The two work through their issues, but it takes time, and it isn't always easy. Trust is regained slowly. Control is relinquished reluctantly. But when they come to understand that they're miserable without each other, these two best friends discover that they might just turn into something more.
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<i>Love and Other Hazards</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071P4FLK2?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-and-other-hazards-claudia-riess/1126420588?ean=9781632991225" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/love-and-other-hazards/id1238526584?mt=11&at=10lu5f&ct=w" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Family Life, Romance<br />
Pages: 256<br />
Release: May 10, 2017<br />
Publisher: River Grove<br />
ISBN: 9781632991225<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35111698-love-and-other-hazards" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ERGnIwppIIw/VxZhsr4NQ4I/AAAAAAAAHa8/6Pr7Ava5mbYfGndKPgh1u5xZc93d-yD9wCLcB/s1600/author.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Claudia Riess is a Vassar graduate who has worked in the editorial departments of <i>The New Yorker</i> magazine and Holt, Rinehart and Winston books and has edited several art history monographs. Her first novel, “Reclining Nude,” was published by Stein and Day. Oliver Sacks, author of “Awakenings,” had said her first book was “exquisite—and delicate… a most courageous book, full of daring—a daring only possible to a passionate and pure heart.”<br />
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The author divides her time between the Hamptons and Manhattan with her husband, Bob. <br />
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<b>Links to connect with Claudia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://claudiariessbooks.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaRiessBooks" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/ClaudiaRiess" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3052782.Claudia_Riess?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://loveandotherhazardsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-70797225481829437712017-10-02T00:01:00.000-04:002017-10-02T00:01:02.197-04:00Jerome Charyn - Winter Warning - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://winterwarningblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-30LfmqfaxpA/WWjfFBXWe5I/AAAAAAAAHm0/KKoqM0Yv0-4YhRfw5MCUafuthEIIVqBjACK4BGAYYCw/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-BgiEQbnjDZ4/WWjlgFNxMfI/AAAAAAAAHm8/O7vuc1dBafssA6SbsfxVl1Z882VmYC1QACLcBGAs/s320/Winter%2BWarning-DJ-v1.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Reflecting our own world like a volatile funhouse mirror, Winter Warning lures us back to the 1980s, an era that could have been ripped right out of our most recent political upheaval. Isaac Sidel should have been vice president, banished to some far corner of the West Wing, but the president-elect has been forced to resign or face indictment for his crooked land deals—and Sidel becomes the accidental president. He’s a maverick, a crusader with a Glock in his belt, who defies both the Republicans and the Democrats. He seems haunted by Lincoln’s ghost, and the presidential palace becomes his own “great white jail,” as it did for Harry Truman. There’s never been another president quite like Isaac Sidel, New York’s former police commissioner and mayor. There’s a secret lottery created by some bankers in Basel to determine the exact date of Sidel’s death. And Sidel has to outrun this lottery in order to save himself. His greatest allies are not the Secret Service or the DNC, but a former Israeli prime minister who was a explosives operative during the British occupation of Palestine . . . as well as a mysterious billionaire who belongs to a brotherhood of killers and counterfeiters. His only companions in the capital are the captain of his helicopter fleet and a sexy naval intelligence officer who realizes that something has gone amuck at Camp David, when a band of mercenaries arrive with their sights trained on Sidel.
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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A fool.<br />
An orphan.<br />
A hopeless romantic.<br />
A loose cannon.<br />
The Jewish St. Francis.<br />
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Those aren't the typical titles one usually assigns to the President of the United States, but Isaac Sidel is not your usual president. In fact, he wasn't even elected, he's nothing but an afterthought of a V.P. upgraded by default.<br />
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As a former New York City cop, he's certainly a Washington outsider - a tough guy who's not about to change his habits no matter what his advisers tell him. He "glocked" his way to become the first Yid in the White House, and he's not about to start wearing an Armani suit in order to fit in with the political elite.<br />
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He scares insiders because he can't be bought or sold. He's not in office for his own personal gain, and that approach doesn't win him any friends on the Beltway. So it's not surprising when his presidency quickly turns into a catastrophe. He's warned, "You can offer the illusion of change, nothing more. That's why you're such a threat. You believe in your own beliefs."<br />
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In a town that doesn't believe in anything or anyone, he's now everybody's favorite child, pampered, protected, bullied and buffeted. He walks around with the doomsday codes, and yet he's told to grow invisible if he wants to survive.<br />
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This would confound anybody - president or not - but it's even more frustrating for him since the public openly admires his primitive way of connecting with them. And now that he's finally in a position to do something to help them, his hands are tied. He's a president who doesn't listen to the markets, who talks about redeeming the poor. And for the powers that be, he's not only a child, he's a child they can't afford. If he refuses to stick to the script he's given, then that leaves him with zero chance of survival.<br />
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Sidel has no political grace. He has no friends. He's isolated and alone. He can't trust anybody. But he doesn't let it stop him, even after they dub him the Ghetto President. However, he begins to turn things around, when he starts to play to his strengths, not caring if he's become a soft target or not.<br />
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All he has to do is remind himself, "Do ya know how many bad guys I had to whack to get where I am?"<br />
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Now that's the real Isaac Sidel.
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***
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<i>Winter Warning</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681773481?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/winter-warning-jerome-charyn/1125829672?ean=9781681773483" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781681773483" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/winter-warning-an-isaac-sidel-novel/id1238839750?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.biblio.com/book/winter-warning-isaac-sidel-novel-charyn/d/988271727?aid=frg&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=feed-details&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvcr33ujy1AIVnYuzCh2UoQHBEAYYAyABEgIjiPD_BwE" target="_blank">Biblio</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $25.95 ebook, $25.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Political, Espionage, Thriller<br />
Pages: 256<br />
Release: October 1, 2017<br />
Publisher: Pegasus Books<br />
ISBN: 9781681773483<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34445219-winter-warning?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3G_iLcX1ahQ/WLRrdk78FEI/AAAAAAAAHh4/xTZc4Mgf-gsW8NlRYK07O40vu9tiz5ScQCLcB/s320/Jerome%2Bcrop%2BNYPD%2Bjpg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn published his first novel in 1964. He's the author of <i>Johnny One-Eye, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham</i>, and dozens of other acclaimed novels as well as nonfiction works. His short stories have appeared in <i>The Atlantic, Paris Review, American Scholar, Epoch</i>, and <i>Ellery Queen</i>. Charyn's popular crime novels featuring homicide detective Isaac Sidel inspired a new animated drama series: <i>Hard Apple</i> debuts on the small screen in 2017, helmed by Hollywood insider James Gray (<i>The Immigrants</i>) and illustrated by famed artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka. Charyn lives in Greenwich Village, New York.
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<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook (author)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter (author)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/IsaacSidel/" target="_blank">Facebook (Isaac Sidel)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/IsaacSidel" target="_blank">Twitter (Isaac Sidel)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
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<b>Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796161" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796161/" id="rcwidget_qh72kit8" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-57168468882513858192017-09-11T00:01:00.000-04:002017-09-11T00:01:07.535-04:00A. Keith Carreiro - The Penitent: Part II - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thepenitentpartiiblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-DmyAXDK9hVI/WXJ1EdBxLQI/AAAAAAAAHnU/W-7ysQegNUI9UEiF7FMAE6xxfhwqnIoIQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-qDvZnCmbv7A/WXJ2l5TO7wI/AAAAAAAAHnc/f06XL_3GXRU5HN6h6FmwCnjY4IpGJPJbACLcBGAs/s320/THEIMM%257E1.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Hidden in the bottom of a roadside ditch as a baby, Evangel is only steps away from her viciously murdered parents. An old hermit finds her there a day later and takes her to his home in the heart of a sylvan wilderness. She is raised in a hermitage built by Matthew where he learns she is touched by a rare spiritual power. 17 years later a series of miracles occur that rock the very nature of her reality. Befriended by outlaws and a king’s champion, she is also betrayed by a woman of the cloth during a bard of the realm’s performance. That night, in a dream, Evangel envisions her future soul mate, Pall Warren, on a battlefield of death, and casts a prayer of protection around him. Thus begins a remarkable journey to save herself and those who believe in her. A hauntingly beautiful and startling tale of wonder. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Very young. Very kind. Very approachable. Very much touched by God. That's who Evangel is in the eyes of the people who encounter her.<br />
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She has a presence. She stands out from the crowd. But why? She's just a 17-year-old girl who grew up in a secluded forest cabin with her adopted grandfather. Why would someone so far removed from the world captivate and fire the imagination of so many?<br />
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Chalk it up to her forthrightness. It's because people believe she's the real deal. Her words and actions convince them of her truthfulness and depth of faith. She heals. She converts. She even brings the dead back to life. But she's humble enough to know it's not on account of her own authority. It's all thanks to the deep, abiding connection she has with the Risen One and the love she has for Him in her heart.<br />
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Her life bears a powerful testimony, and at times, it's hard for her to deal with the repercussions. She gets uncomfortable with all the attention. She withdraws. She wants to go back home. She doubts herself, thinking she made a mistake by making use of her gifts. In her mind, she's only a silly girl, thinking girlish thoughts. And yet, no one can deny the changes she's worked in the lives of others.<br />
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And that's where she draws her strength. For her, it's all about saving lives without concern for her own. It's personal. When she was just an infant, her parents sacrificed their lives in order to save hers. They were murdered in cold blood while she remained hidden in a ditch her mother placed her in. She was born into the world with death all around her, with no one to protect her.<br />
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That's why she wants to help others.<br />
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And that's why people love her.
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***
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<i>The Penitent: Part II</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Penitent-Part-Immortality-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B07176R49M?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.99 ebook, $15.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Science Fiction, Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>274<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 15, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Copper Beech Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9780997382716<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35278125-the-penitent---part-ii" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSPNJ8eH0Fw/WFA0zkh2voI/AAAAAAAAHf8/2Yfw-vKCvxkH2_ErgcwZVxggrJR0wIE4QCLcB/s1600/IMG_0387.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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A. Keith Carreiro earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, with the sequential help and guidance of three advisors, Dr. Vernon A. Howard, Dr. Donald Oliver and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Israel Scheffler. Keith’s academic focus, including his ongoing research agenda, centers upon philosophically examining how creativity and critical thinking are acquired, learned, utilized and practiced in the performing arts. He has taken his findings and applied them to the professional development of educational practitioners.<br />
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Earlier in his teaching career he was a professor of educational foundations, teaching graduate students of education at universities in Vermont, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor of English at Bridgewater State University, as well as teaching English, philosophy, humanities and public speaking courses at Bristol Community College.<br />
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He lives in Swansea, Massachusetts. He has six children and 13 grandchildren. He belongs to an eighty–five–pound golden retriever, an eight–pound Maltese, and an impish Calico cat.<br />
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Due to his love of family, he has seen his fervor for history, as well as his passion for wondering about the future, deepen dramatically.<br />
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Starting on May 23rd until October 9th of 2014, he sat down at his computer on a daily basis and began writing the first book of a science fiction/fantasy thriller in a beginning series about the quest for human immortality.
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<b>Links to connect with A. Keith:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Immortality-Wars-The-Penitent-Book-One-1023452581055756/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15959901.A_Keith_Carreiro" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
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<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796162" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796162/" id="rcwidget_pzi2ph9y" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-4745620839358554302017-09-04T00:01:00.000-04:002017-09-04T00:01:17.096-04:00R. Franklin James - The Bell Tolls - Review & Giveaway<a href="https://thebelltollsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-7IvuLrLi1ZA/WV0BLDkXc-I/AAAAAAAAHl4/9DlOuQnMdtQuousFG17MXFcE3fe47nQhQCK4BGAYYCw/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-x1s-2q3ER8Q/WV0ByAN9YII/AAAAAAAAHl8/JhrCGXldYmo4BI32ovzm-fZzkbbwnHM4QCLcBGAs/s320/bell_tolls_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Hollis Morgan has survived imprisonment, received a pardon and persevered to finally become a probate attorney. Tough as she is, her newest case will further test her mettle. She discovers her client, Matthias Bell, is a deceased blackmailer whose last wish was to return the damaging documents he collected, letting his victims off the hook. It falls to Hollis to give them the good news. But it’s revealed that Bell was murdered, and the victims of “Bell’s tolls” are now suspects.<br /><br />
Hollis’ white-collar criminal past has left her with keen survival instincts. A gifted liar she knows a liar when she meets one. A lot of people in this case are lying and one is a killer.<br /><br />
On top of that, she’s also representing a dying stripper, a wealthy widow whose estranged daughter spurns her attempts at reconciliation, but whose husband sees the potential inheritance as mending all wounds particularly financial ones.<br /><br />
Clients aside, Hollis is defensive and wary. Her mother, who hasn’t spoken to her for years, needs a kidney, and Hollis is a match, but neither are ready to put away the past. With Hollis’ fiancé and emotional support off on an undercover mission for Homeland Security, she must count on her own survival instincts. She is swept along on an emotional roller coaster as her absent love and her family’s coldness take their own toll.<br /><br />
Work is her salvation. The specter of a killer keeps her focused. Hollis has always had to rely on her wits, but now she finds that others who don’t have her well-being in mind are relying on them as well.</i><br />
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<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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A fallen angel, that's how Hollis Morgan describes herself. After having served time in prison for committing insurance fraud, now she's on the rebound, trying to reestablish herself as a licensed probate attorney. But there are people out there who won't let her forget her criminal history, and they enjoy holding it over her head like a dark cloud.<br />
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At its heart, this book examines what it means to give someone a second chance, the sheer power of it. Everyone has something they wouldn't want the world to know about them, and the unlucky ones whose past sins are made public are left to shoulder that burden, sometimes for the rest of their lives.<br />
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That's why Hollis is the last one to point fingers at anyone. She proclaims, "I know what it feels like to lose the faith of family, friends, and society, and worse - in myself. I know what it's like to be shunned, and I know I'm not going to let a scum…hurt an innocent person."<br />
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So she becomes a crusader, looking out for the welfare of those who share her lot.<br />
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First, there's young Vince, the guy with a checkered family life, whose mom is constantly in and out of rehab. His new girlfriend works in the office and doesn't think he's good enough for her, so he bends over backward to try to impress her. Hollis understands where he's coming from and decides to trust him with some additional freelance surveillance work, giving him a temporary promotion out of the mail room, and hopefully a boost in his girlfriend's estimation.<br />
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Then there's Kiki, an ex-stripper, who Hollis is trying to help reconcile with her daughter before she dies. Hollis knows the two need to finally face one another because another arms-length, third-hand conversation isn't going to help matters. After years of being unable to communicate with each other, Hollis gets Kiki to admit to her daughter, "I knew from the very first time I held you in my arms I didn't deserve you. You were an angel, and I was...what I was."<br />
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What it all comes down to is healing by being able to let go of the lingering guilt and self-righteousness on both sides. It's all about taking a person at face value for who they are now, not who they were before. There's some small part in all of us that seeks some kind of closure with the past. Bottom line, who isn't grateful to be forgiven and given the gift of peace of mind?
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***
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<i>The Bell Tolls</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071Z883NN?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bell-tolls-r-franklin-james/1126374281?ean=9781603812177" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-bell-tolls/id1238511092?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-bell-tolls" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.overdrive.com/media/3301532/the-bell-tolls" target="_blank">Overdrive</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Women's Sleuth, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller<br />
<b>Pages: </b>239<br />
<b>Release:</b> June 1, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603812177<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34518818-the-bell-tolls?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-PD3TFds_on4/WV0ByfaN-xI/AAAAAAAAHmA/dL3Z7DCv3aE29Uq_gPYpp7abNL54JD7aQCLcBGAs/s320/RaeBksh.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
R. Franklin James grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. From there she cultivated a different type of writing—legislation and public policy. After serving as Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles, under millionaire Richard Riordan, she went back to her first love—writing, and in 2013 her debut novel, <i>The Fallen Angels Book Club</i> was published by Camel Press. Her second book in The Hollis Morgan Mystery Series, <i>Sticks & Stones</i>, was followed by <i>The Return of the Fallen Angels Book Club</i>, and <i>The Trade List</i>. <i>The Bell Tolls</i>, book five was released in June 2017.<br />
<br />
R. Franklin James lives in Northern California with her husband.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with R. Franklin James:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://rfranklinjames.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/R-Franklin-James-273658892738172/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/RFJBooks" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7043359.R_Franklin_James" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796160" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796160/" id="rcwidget_ggpsyttx" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-29895607624636188952017-08-08T00:01:00.000-04:002017-08-08T00:01:19.944-04:00Rich Zahradnik - Lights Out Summer - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://lightsoutsummerblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Euf1S5X09qU/WThDicpiFmI/AAAAAAAAHlY/kyPbEt9oRSEa55RxEWNJfA9cF0RjEodLgCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-k3ybfdv9hjo/WThHUevD7ZI/AAAAAAAAHlg/BsYRfRJSFmsiIU574rJJTWQkeZc4ul90gCLcB/s320/lights_out_summer_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />In March 1977, ballistics link murders going back six months to the same Charter Arms Bulldog .44. A serial killer, Son of Sam, is on the loose. But Coleridge Taylor can't compete with the armies of reporters fighting New York's tabloid war--only rewrite what they get. Constantly on the lookout for victims who need their stories told, he uncovers other killings being ignored because of the media circus. He goes after one, the story of a young Black woman gunned down in her apartment building the same night Son of Sam struck elsewhere in Queens.
The story entangles Taylor with a wealthy Park Avenue family at war with itself. Just as he's closing in on the killer and his scoop, the July 13-14 blackout sends New York into a 24-hour orgy of looting and destruction. Taylor and his PI girlfriend Samantha Callahan head out into the darkness, where a steamy night of mob violence awaits them.
In the midst of the chaos, a suspect in Taylor's story goes missing. Desperate, he races to a confrontation that will either break the story--or Taylor.
Book 4 in the Coleridge Taylor Mystery series. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Taylor is a reporter who likes to collect scenes of New York by peering into all of its dark corners. For him, it's not just a job, it's his passion. So when he's called to investigate a murder related to one of the city's most prestigious families—think Rockefellers, Vanderbilts, Carnegies—"he doubted an army field jacket made the grade at 827 Park Avenue."<br />
<br />
A seasoned veteran, Taylor's not one to be easily intimidated, yet he's not about to let himself become the punch line to some rich man's joke. Yet as it turns out, Taylor ends up liking the older gentleman he's sent to question, even though they come "from opposite ends of the New York social solar system." Taylor knows this is New York. Nowhere is safe. But the patriarch of the DeVries family feels "separated from what the city could do to them," when in all reality, their wealth is what drew the bad right to them and they never saw it coming.<br />
<br />
After overhearing a conversation about how DeVries is "still writing the same checks to charities when [he's] going to be the charity. He has to be stopped"—the family maid almost immediately turns up dead. In a city known for transforming high profile murder cases into front page news, Taylor is well aware that the family's fall from grace is the kind of story readers are eager to read. Yet he's not looking to tarnish the family's reputation, he only wants to get the victim's story out there.<br />
<br />
And the most likely candidate for knowing something about her murder is DeVries's son, "one of those kids…handed all the opportunity in the world and get more and more confused about what to do with it." With no job, no company, he's not the kind of guy who rides the subway. After observing him in many different circumstances from high scale dinner parties to the infamous Studio 54, Taylor realizes the young DeVries lives in a whole other world from him, a world where drugs, women and any type of depravity is within easy reach, as well as the criminal element that is more than willing to provide such things.<br />
<br />
When Taylor confronts young DeVries after his father, too, turns up dead, all he can sputter in response to Taylor's line of questioning is, "[What is] this…some stupid game of Clue?"<br />
<br />
Not exactly the heartfelt cry of a grieving son. But is he in anyway guilty of what happened to his father? That's for you to read and decide.
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Lights Out Summer</i> can be pre-ordered at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/160381213X?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lights-out-summer-rich-rich-zahradnik/1126293458?ean=9781603812139" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781603812139" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback, $29.95 audio<br />
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
Pages: 288<br />
Release: October 1, 2017<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812139<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34605303-lights-out-summer" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRiDIXdZFbk/V1Hap5HbihI/AAAAAAAAHc0/odvZmwCTd50rQvOTTsQLoG-5VeuVyvf3wCLcB/s320/_45D3397.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Rich Zahradnik is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Coleridge Taylor Mystery series (<i>Lights Out Summer, A Black Sail, Drop Dead Punk, Last Words</i>).<br />
<br />
The first three books have been shortlisted or won awards in the three major competitions for novels from independent presses. <i>A Black Sail</i> was named winner in the mystery category of the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. <i>Drop Dead Punk</i> collected the gold medal for mystery ebook in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards. <i>Last Words</i> won the bronze medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2015 IPPYs and honorable mention for mystery in the 2015 Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards.<br />
<br />
"Taylor, who lives for the big story, makes an appealingly single-minded hero," Publishers Weekly wrote of <i>Drop Dead Punk. A Black Sail</i> received a starred review from <i>Library Journal</i>, which said, “Fans of the late Barbara D’Amato and Bruce DeSilva will relish this gritty and powerful crime novel.”<br />
<br />
Zahradnik was a journalist for 25-plus years, working as a reporter and editor in all major news media, including online, newspaper, broadcast, magazine and wire services. He held editorial positions at CNN, Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, AOL and <i>The Hollywood Reporter.</i><br />
<br />
Zahradnik was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1960 and received his B.A. in journalism and political science from George Washington University. He lives with his wife Sheri and son Patrick in Pelham, New York, where he writes fiction and teaches kids around the New York area how to write news stories and publish newspapers.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Rich:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/richzahradnik/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/rzahradnik" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8335771.Rich_Zahradnik" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796159" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796159/" id="rcwidget_918kg4z9" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-32887431326185270202017-08-01T00:01:00.000-04:002017-08-01T00:01:12.635-04:00Sharon St. George - Spine Damage - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://spinedamageblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-hvR9Q5fEh5Q/WS3cvUxnd-I/AAAAAAAAHk4/RPRx5ywETvweGi4BDOsA86Wu4OCm5pbMwCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hrukJY5LiAY/WS3fPwjRi-I/AAAAAAAAHlA/9euD1q9L2HsptQUp7fqVDHmVSHwADlg4wCLcB/s320/spine_damage_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Paulo Ferrara, a young Portuguese man, lies comatose in the Intensive Care Unit of Timbergate Medical Center, shot in the spine. The neurosurgeon who would normally be in charge of his care has left town to attend to an injured daughter, and the only other neurosurgeon, the rude and egotistical Dr. Godfrey Carver, is about to be suspended for not completing his continuing education requirements.
The unpleasant duty of ensuring that the staff obey the rules lies with Aimee Machado, the medical center's forensic librarian and Continuing Education Coordinator. Aimee and her pilot boyfriend Nick live together on her grandparents’ llama farm. While dealing with Dr. Carver, Aimee learns the circumstances of Paulo’s injury and enlists Nick’s help. Aimee is half Asian and half Portuguese, and her parents live on Faial, one of the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. Faial is the closest neighbor to Pico, home of Paulo and his family. Paulo came to rural Northern California in search of his fifteen-year-old sister Liliana, who vanished two weeks ago. Nick’s wealthy employer Buck Sawyer takes an interest in the girl’s plight as well, especially when they learn that she left the Azores on a superyacht. Not only is Buck a yacht owner, but he is also on a crusade against drug trafficking, and Paulo and Liliana have clearly stumbled onto a criminal operation of some kind.
The trail leads Aimee and Nick from Timbergate, to the Azores, to San Francisco. Paulo’s condition is deteriorating, and he might never be able to explain what got him shot. Can Aimee, her brother Harry, and Nick unravel the mystery in time to save Liliana?
Book 4 in the Aimee Machado Mystery series, which began with Due for Discard. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
"Man, you're making me hope I never end up in a hospital."<br />
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Apparently, there's more drama going on behind the scenes in these places than many of us would care to think care about. In SPINE DAMAGE, Sharon St. George gives us an eyeful into the many varying personality types that make up the average hospital, and the friction they cause. As a reader—let's be honest—it really made me want to avoid being stuck in one of them any time soon.<br />
<br />
"If I'd heard him call his employees his girls one more time…"<br />
<br />
It's clear that surgeons are on the top of the pecking order. They act like divas and get away with it. Why? Because they possess skills that not many people have, and they know it, and they're not ashamed to use this knowledge to their advantage by lording it over their co-workers, and even some of their patients.<br />
<br />
It's not surprising that most of them are playboys, an acceptable, albeit sadly predictable lifestyle for men with big, fragile egos. I guess it's a given in medical communities that surgeons have women on the side. And if these women aren't living in their hometown, then they're somewhere the docs are likely to travel to on a frequent basis, like Florida for a yachting trip or to visit the family.<br />
<br />
One in particular, Dr. Godfrey Carver, is labeled "the poster boy of bad behavior." His surgical privileges are about to be suspended because he can't prove whether or not he actually completed his continuing education credits. The book pivots around his crucial lapse in judgment when a young Portuguese man is shot by an unknown assailant. The police really need to talk to him, but he keeps slipping in and out of a coma, and good old Dr. Carter is the surgeon assigned to his care.<br />
<br />
Now it's up to Aimee Machado, our heroine, to verify the existence of Dr. Carter's missing educational credits, and she's quick to point out that she has "to be sure his loathsome personality isn't coloring my judgment." And that's not an easy thing to do when he threatens to have her fired by bullying her into fudging the paperwork for him. But she holds firm, not about to be intimidated by any doctor, "no matter how brilliant he was in the operating room."<br />
<br />
She's up against the "us vs. them" mentality of hospital administration vs. medical staff, but she's not about to go down without a fight. She doesn't care how much Dr. Carver enjoys the limelight. He's slip shot with his post-op work, not to mention the fact that several nurses have filed harassment charges against him. This time, Aimee's determined to hold him accountable for his actions so that a young man, far from home, can have a second chance at life.
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***
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<br />
<i>Spine Damage</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YTQ6TH?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spine-damage-sharon-st-george/1126282506?ean=2940157570613" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/spine-damage/id1234678429?ls=1&mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/spine-damage" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.95 ebook, $16.78 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Mystery<br />
<b>Pages: </b>328<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 15, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603815819<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34518537-spine-damage" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-e4hzZk41iOU/VJG35-otUGI/AAAAAAAAHNw/2yKyFWDr1DE/s1600/XG8D1047%2B300%2Bdpi%2Bfor%2Bprint%2C%2Bbook%2C%2Betc%2Bgaussian%2Bblur.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Sharon St. George’s writing credits include three plays, several years writing advertising copy, a book on NASA’s space food project, and feature stories too numerous to count. She holds dual degrees in English and Theatre Arts, and occasionally acts in, or directs, one of her local community theater productions. Sharon is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and she serves as program director for Writers Forum, a nonprofit organization for writers in northern California.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Sharon:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://sharonstgeorge.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SharonStGeorgeauthor/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/SharonStGeorge" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10908363.Sharon_St_George" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796157" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796157/" id="rcwidget_8pbi1xh5" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-25568798261461950802017-06-08T00:01:00.000-04:002017-06-08T00:01:24.443-04:00Tricia Dower - Becoming Lin - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://becominglinblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-OnbvdHuWwww/WOUIONcbUbI/AAAAAAAAHjk/9r2DJQOxySY43lojgHSlLF0gs-B2nPaxgCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-6MgVNZm2w40/WOUJ9XgZxzI/AAAAAAAAHjs/6LF6MVjE-Pke1rzyAkfieXXQM7kEnl9WgCLcB/s320/Becoming%2BLin%2BCover%2BV1%2BMED.jpeg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It’s 1965. Twenty-two-year-old Linda Wise despairs of escaping her overprotective parents and the town of Stony River where far too many know she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. Deliverance arrives in the form of marriage to the charismatic, twenty-six-year-old Ronald Brunson, a newly ordained Methodist minister who ignites in her a dormant passion for social justice. He tells her war and racial discrimination are symptoms of the “moral rot” destroying the country, conjuring up something dark and rancid in her mind, thrilling in its wickedness. He sweeps her away from New Jersey to serve with him at a church in a speck-on-the-map prairie town in Minnesota. What lies ahead for her over the next seven years is the subject of Tricia Dower’s penetrating study of a marriage and a woman’s evolving sense of self as she confronts the fear that keeps her from an unfettered future. Becoming Lin conjures the turbulent era of Freedom Riders for civil rights, Vietnam war resistance, the US government’s war against the resisters, the push for equal rights for women and the unraveling of the traditional marriage contract—an era that resonates today in tenacious racism and sexism, perpetual war and wide-reaching government surveillance.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Throughout the novel, the main character, Lin, is labeled again and again as "emotionally infantile." It's how she describes herself. It's what her parents think of her. It's how her husband treats her. And it cracks me up because…<i>really</i>…how many adults in the world today can truly be called "emotionally mature?" I don't know where they're all hiding because I certainly don't meet that many on a day to day basis.<br />
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It's a hard knock on a character whose choices are often limited by the situations she finds herself in. Growing up, she was raised in a household where her parents put her in the middle of their bitter rivalry. Later on, as an overweight girl in a small town, she's the repeated bearer of rude comments and sly insults, and quickly comes to find "females in packs menacing." And tragically when she becomes a teenager, she's the victim of a sexual assault that will haunt her for the rest of her life.<br />
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It's no wonder that when she marries a young pastor, a guy she knows nothing about, she comes across as closed off and guarded. So what if she's not a people person? There's nothing wrong with that. But instead of following her gut and just being herself, she tries to play the role her husband and his parishioners expect her to fill.<br />
<br />
And big surprise when it doesn't work out.<br />
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After years of trying to make a go of it, the numbness that seeps into her bones gets to be too much for her. All she owns are the thoughts in her head, and she wants something more, a lot more. So she separates from her husband, gets her own apartment, and a job with an insurance agency, and for the first time feels like she doesn't need to be rescued by anybody, that she can actually take care of herself.<br />
<br />
Until she finds out that her husband's been having her followed and even lets himself into her apartment while she's at work in order to read her journal to see what she's been saying about him.<br />
<br />
So what does Lin do? Does she stand up for herself? Does she go back to him? Are they able to find some common ground?<br />
<br />
Well, you'll just have to read the book and find out.
<br />
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***
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<br />
<i>Becoming Lin</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K10Q71O?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-lin-tricia-dower/1123316470?ean=9781987915075" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/becoming-lin/id1132755961?mt=11&at=10lu5f&ct=w" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781987915075" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/product/1987915070" target="_blank">BooksaMillion</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.midpointtrade.com/book_detail.php?book_id=134687" target="_blank">Midpoint Trade</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/becoming-lin" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $12.99 ebook, $22.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Women's Fiction, Historical, Coming of Age<br />
<b>Pages: </b>240<br />
<b>Release:</b> March 20, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Caitlin Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781987915075<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28481693-becoming-lin" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ttWiDS-Nb4/V4-qBuc6ctI/AAAAAAAAHdk/lqDEJ8XAza40FOmkpqsx4tB9pVmb4OwNACLcB/s320/Tricia%2BDower%2B%25231%2BsRGB%2Bfor%2Binternet.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Tricia Dower hails from Rahway, New Jersey. You can find her on the “Rahway’s Own” website with other individuals the town has recognized for innovation and creativity. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a Phi Mu, she built a career in business before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her literary work has crossed borders and won awards. She expanded a story from her Shakespeare-inspired collection, <i>Silent Girl</i> (Inanna 2008) into <i>Stony River</i>, which was published in both Canada (Penguin 2012) and the US (Leapfrog 2016). She gave a character from <i>Stony River</i> her own novel in <i>Becoming Lin</i> (Caitlin Press 2016), now available in the US.<br />
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The <i>Vancouver Sun</i> says, “Some of the most powerful and eloquent novelists of the 20th and 21st centuries…including Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence and Ethel Wilson...open up what had been cloaked in silence, the oppression of women and their self-discoveries in resistance. We can now add to this important liberation canon the name of Tricia Dower.”<br />
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A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
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<b>Links to connect with Tricia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/tricia.dower" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/TriciaDower" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796156" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796156/" id="rcwidget_938fbxg2" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-85003272609510096922017-06-01T00:01:00.000-04:002017-06-01T00:01:09.639-04:00Michael J. McCann - Burn Country - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://burncountryblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="center" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-n77sEL3WIho/WNkvjR9URKI/AAAAAAAAHjA/zuNem12QTxYtVa1Z9htDCjVGWdP1vb7rwCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Y1dH2qbkaCs/WNkyjkk3dNI/AAAAAAAAHjM/WfeNJmOQwFYVbbCUh5FUvk8AswSqFx5TQCLcB/s320/BURN%2BCOUNTRY%2Bfront%2Bcover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The latest in a series of barn fires in Leeds County turns ugly when a body is discovered inside the burned-out husk of an old hay barn near the village of Elgin. When the victim turns out to be Independent Senator Darius Lane, a renowned artist and social activist recently appointed to the upper chamber by the prime minister, Detective Inspector Ellie March of the Ontario Provincial Police finds herself coping with an RCMP national security team which must first assess whether the senator’s involvement in sensitive government business led to his brutal murder by forces hostile to Canada. While Detective Constable Kevin Walker works the case files of the previous barn fires looking for a serial arsonist within Leeds County who may have killed for the first time, Ellie discovers that the intervention of RCMP Assistant Commissioner Danny Merrick, unexpectedly polite and charming, will place her directly in the cross-hairs of a homicide investigation with national repercussions! This is the second book in the March and Walker Crime Novel series and the sequel to Sorrow Lake, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Hammett Award for best North American crime novel.
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<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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If you like ruminating over little slices of life like I do, then you'll enjoy trolling through the pages of this detective novel.<br />
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Michael J. McCann has a knack for using superfine brush strokes when it comes to crafting his characters. Admittedly, his novels are peppered with a wide variety of names and faces—from police personnel to various suspects—and admittedly I'm not all that great at keeping them straight—but what I do remember are those subtle nuances that jump off the page and hit me square between the eyes.<br />
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There are lines I simply won't forget like, "I think she'd charge admission to her own funeral, the bloodsucker." Now the elderly woman being referred to by the investigator only makes a brief cameo appearance before exiting stage left, but the humor in McCann's writing makes you take notice of her when she informs him that she intends to charge him for her coffee, her chili, and even for the use of her copy machine.<br />
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Another one is, "…an eccentric, retired academic with not a lot of exposure to the harsher side of life." Again, this person emerges only once, as someone who knew the victim, but the description resonates because I think we all know someone like this guy.<br />
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Even when capturing the feel of a vicious, angry dog, McCann describes the action of his chain as, "Snap, drop. Snap, drop," and it makes you feel the surging energy in the dog as he's ready to attack the cops on sight. It's a brilliant way to depict the danger that police officers face day in and day out when investigating a murder, showing that they never know what they're going to encounter on a minute to minute basis.<br />
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There are many other instances I can talk about such as a female cop's sarcasm at having to dress appropriately for an important meeting, "Look professional. Feel professional. Act professionally. The world according to Nordstrom." Or even a line about the victim who was beaten and then set ablaze, "He was a hard man to love, never mind like."<br />
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But hands down the one that got me was, "I've always been attracted to a man who fights back." Who makes this whopper of a statement? Let's just say she's one difficult lady to arrest. Hmmm…a possible female killer in a tale full of male suspects? Happy reading, mystery fans.<br />
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***
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<i>Burn Country</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XQPLB45?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/burn-country" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback<br />
Pages: 304<br />
ISBN: 9781927884096<br />
Publisher: Plaid Raccoon Press<br />
Release: March 17, 2017<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34668497-burn-country" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-l33yHM25m-E/WNkyiii7DPI/AAAAAAAAHjI/sAvIK8Vlm_4DcZnKhuT82Ccw1oEsPauewCLcB/s1600/author%2Bphoto%2B3.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned degrees in English from Trent University and Queen's University in Kingston, ON.<br />
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He is the author of <i>Sorrow Lake</i>, the first March and Walker Crime Novel, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Hammett Award for best crime novel in North America.<br />
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He is also the author of the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series, including <i>Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder</i>, and <i>The Fregoli Delusion. The Rainy Day Killer</i>, the most recent in the series, was longlisted for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel in Canada.<br />
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<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.mjmccann.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-J-McCann/130617140389341" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelJMcCann1" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4724806.Michael_J_McCann" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog (mystery)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://wallsofnightmare.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Blog (paranormal)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/michaeljmccann/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz3uySAROcI&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://burncountryblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796153" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796153/" id="rcwidget_1y3uih30" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-17719234353122390292017-05-08T00:01:00.000-04:002017-05-08T00:01:11.213-04:00Jerome Charyn - Jerzy - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://jerzyblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-sdc8YcXq-MQ/WLRqNyBpeHI/AAAAAAAAHhw/nYU4ImSZYCYf_BGfI30GRpqwG5RQWL48gCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-6WKq_dBmwGU/WLRrdwBExYI/AAAAAAAAHh8/tCeG8DHa9loesrCWZOxpXflh2koCIReXQCLcB/s320/JERZY%2Bcover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Jerzy Kosinski was a great enigma of post-World War II literature. When he exploded onto the American literary scene in 1965 with his best-selling novel The Painted Bird, he was revered as a Holocaust survivor and refugee from the world hidden behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. He won major literary awards, befriended actor Peter Sellers (who appeared in the screen adaptation of his novel Being There), and was a guest on talk shows and at the Oscars. But soon the facade began to crack, and behind the public persona emerged a ruthless social climber, sexual libertine, and pathological liar who may have plagiarized his greatest works.<br /><br />
Jerome Charyn lends his unmistakable style to this most American story of personal disintegration, told through the voices of multiple narrators—a homicidal actor, a dominatrix, and Joseph Stalin’s daughter—who each provide insights into the shifting facets of Kosinski’s personality. The story unfolds like a Russian nesting doll, eventually revealing the lost child beneath layers of trauma, while touching on the nature of authenticity, the atrocities of WWII, the allure of sadomasochism, and the fickleness of celebrity. </i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Let me be perfectly honest. This is a challenging novel to review. It centers around the actual flesh and blood figure of Jerzy Kosinski, yet plenty of creative license is taken by author Jerome Charyn as he views Jerzy's life through an extremely imaginative lens. Fact blurs with fiction, yet Charyn still remains true to the man, capturing how Jerzy, himself, must have projected his concocted Holocaust survivor persona to the public.<br />
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Throughout the book, the different people in Jerzy's life provide insight into who they thought Jerzy was. Yet none of them get it quite right, only catching fleeting glimpses of the chameleon here and there. He amuses Princess Margaret so she invites him over. Comedian Peter Sellers becomes obsessed with him, determined to resurrect his acting career by bringing Jerzy's book, <i>The Painted Bird</i>, to the big screen. Charyn slyly adds this about the legendary Pink Panther, "[Sellers] had glanced into the novel's crazy mirror and seen himself."<br />
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However, familiarity becomes a double-edged sword. When Charyn has Jerzy counter with, "I can see that I'll have to be careful with you now, or you'll use my own words against me." The two indulge in a cat and mouse game until Jerzy finally grants Sellers the movie rights to the book, but egotistical Sellers is so thrown off his game having Jerzy on set that during filming he kicks him out, taking away any input Jerzy had in the production.<br />
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It's sad because even after achieving some degree of success, Jerzy is still "the little boy who sees himself as a changeling who has to avoid being picked to death by his own kind." In his tortured mind, he'll always be the painted bird, who sticks out like a sore thumb among the rich and famous. The Jew who doesn't belong. Not here, not there, not anywhere.<br />
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Falling into disgrace after being deemed a plagiarist later in life, Jerzy commits suicide, leaving behind the crowned royalty and Oscar winners he had so desperately tried to fit in with, but never really could. Charyn is the only one left to tell his story for him, and tell it he does.
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<i>Jerzy</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jerzy-Novel-Jerome-Charyn/dp/1942658141?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jerzy-jerome-charyn/1123623732?ean=9781942658146" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781942658146" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blpress.org/books/jerzy/" target="_blank">Bellevue Literary Press</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $16.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Historical, Jewish<br />
Pages: 240<br />
Release: March 14, 2017<br />
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press<br />
ISBN: 9781942658146<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633908-jerzy?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<b>Excerpt</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://www.staythirstymagazine.com/p/b-rothers-and-sisters-you-cannot.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read an excerpt from <i>Jerzy</i>.<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3G_iLcX1ahQ/WLRrdk78FEI/AAAAAAAAHh4/xTZc4Mgf-gsW8NlRYK07O40vu9tiz5ScQCLcB/s320/Jerome%2Bcrop%2BNYPD%2Bjpg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including <i>A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century, Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories, I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War</i>, and <i>The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel</i>. Among other honors, he has been longlisted for the PEN Award for Biography, honored as a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York.
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<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796151" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796151/" id="rcwidget_15h0lud2" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-15284060476869157232017-05-01T00:01:00.000-04:002017-05-01T00:01:06.293-04:00David E. Grogan - Sapphire Pavilion - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://sapphirepavilionblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ksfhouV_meg/WK4LbbGG2gI/AAAAAAAAHhI/rR-nxSMxO6UUZtohkk5LYU9_-Vz76ku-gCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-xhyaqScDRog/WK4MFuZj9xI/AAAAAAAAHhU/CgdfbHqZzmAIrYXEFjUB-fi3fn8mdeTbwCLcB/s320/Sapphire%2BPavilion%2BCover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Steve Stilwell’s former Navy JAG Corps buddy Ric Stokes has been jailed for possession of heroin in Vietnam. He was found in the same room with his traveling companion Ryan Eversall, dead of an overdose and in the company of a prostitute. Steve knows his friend is a straight arrow. Was he set up? If so, for what reason? Steve travels to Ho Chi Minh City in search of the truth. In no time Steve is targeted by the people who framed his friend. A beautiful young American businesswoman insinuates her way into the case. Can she really help, or is she just a dangerous distraction? Ric and Ryan came to Vietnam in search of an Air Force transport plane that disappeared in 1968. The pilot was Ryan’s father. Before the heroin bust, they had located the wreckage. Ryan’s notebook, which Steve manages to obtain, spells out the exact location. Ryan’s widow has given Steve’s associate Casey another piece of valuable evidence, a file labeled “Sapphire Pavilion.” Someone is willing to go to any lengths to steal both the notebook and the file. From Virginia and Texas to DC and Vietnam, powerful, all-seeing forces with unlimited resources are determined to bury the truth about Sapphire Pavilion. But they have grossly underestimated Steve Stilwell and his associate Casey, a former Army pilot who lost her leg in a helo accident. And the ability to inspire loyalty wherever you go can come in handy when danger lurks behind every corner.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Sometimes a supporting character really steals the show, and in this one it's an ex-Army fighter pilot, who just so happens to be a woman.<br />
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Her name is Casey and after completing a grueling rehab stint at Walter Reed—as the facility's only female amputee, no less—she's currently in the private sector, looking for work. It hasn't been easy finding employment since she's still suffering the affects of PTSD, unable to get over the crash that claimed the life of her co-pilot. The cause was determined to be a mechanical failure, yet she can't put the sense of lingering guilt behind her.<br />
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So when a former JAG attorney turned civilian offers her a position in his law firm, she's overjoyed, especially when he tells her that he's okay with her full schedule of treatment appointments at the VA. He not only understands, but encourages her on the road to making a full recovery. He doesn't avoid talking about her leg, he accepts her for who she is, and that is pretty cool.<br />
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However, Casey faces difficulties from the get go, when on her very first assignment, she has to console a woman who just lost her husband. Not only that, but it occurs right on the heels of the annual Memorial Day phone call she makes to the widow of her co-pilot.<br />
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Casey's emotions are the brink, but all is not lost. Throughout the course of the story she battles through them, even when she feels like giving up when terrible things keep happening to her. On assignment, she's attacked by an assailant in the bathroom of her hotel room. Then she has to use her prosthetic leg to break through a window to escape a blazing office fire. But through it all, she doesn't let anything stop her. She continues on, until the case is solved.<br />
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In the end, she's even able to work through the issues from her past. At the conclusion of the book, while attending a service at Arlington National Cemetery, jets fly overhead in the missing man formation. And at that moment, she's given a rare second chance to honor her dead co-pilot, whose funeral she was unable to attend on account of her injuries.<br />
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Now, finally, after all these years, she's able to walk away with a bit of peace in her soul and a much-needed "W" in the win column.
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***
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<i>Sapphire Pavilion</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Pavilion-David-E-Grogan/dp/1603816038?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sapphire-pavilion-david-e-grogan/1125726555?ean=9781603816038" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
<b>Pages: </b>280<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 1, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603816038<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33833232-sapphire-pavilion" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-J9HoBtrbGeo/WK4MFg4CmwI/AAAAAAAAHhQ/wWjRrKtCGcEf-dXVq1A-ABM1SD-nAmLCwCLcB/s320/Dave%2BGrogan%2BPromo%2BPicture.jpeg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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David E. Grogan was born in Rome, New York, and was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a B.B.A. in Accounting, he began working for the accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co., in Houston, Texas, as a Certified Public Accountant. He left Arthur Andersen in 1984 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, graduating in 1987. He earned his Masters in International Law from The George Washington University Law School and is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia.<br />
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Grogan served on active duty in the United States Navy for over 26 years as a Navy Judge Advocate. He is now retired, but during the course of his Navy career, he prosecuted and defended court-martial cases, traveled to capitals around the world, lived abroad in Japan, Cuba and Bahrain, and deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf onboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier <i>USS Enterprise</i>. His experiences abroad and during the course of his career influence every aspect of his writing. Sapphire Pavilion is his second novel. His first was <i>The Siegel Dispositions</i>.<br />
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Grogan’s current home is in Savoy, Illinois, where he lives with his wife of 33 years and their dog, Marley. He has three children.
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<b>Links to connect with David:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.davidegrogan.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/davidegrogan/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/davidegrogan" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9060971.David_E_Grogan" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://sapphirepavilionblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796150" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796150/" id="rcwidget_zahcksml" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-56123683683960792032017-03-01T00:01:00.000-05:002017-03-01T00:01:23.430-05:00Kate Bloom - The Legend of the Dwarf - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thelegendofthedwarfblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-gO-fq7Ea-rM/WHK6bHL3WkI/AAAAAAAAHgg/-gH__U_Zy3sXvHQqZl1FjOyYsEu-b7bxgCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-heWZrXusk_Y/WHK7tSY2v2I/AAAAAAAAHgo/Otdr0-dfu9IqwTWsiA7Qt7rpXNgQBSfgwCLcB/s1600/51gXELDpFPL.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Ever Trollkiller is a young dwarf, twenty-three years old, who had lived her entire life in an isolated cave far away from the dwarven kingdom. She lives with twelve other dwarves who have raised her in complete isolation, keeping the surviving dwarves a secret from the rest of the word. They hide form Terrisino, the Great and Evil Sorcerer, who demolished their kingdom a quarter century ago. But when Ever accidentally meets an elf, she decides that she is no longer satisfied with the stories she hears from her clan. She decides to seek out the mysterious elf so that he might show her the world. But it isn’t long before she realizes that the freedom of the world and the future of the races of elves, men, and dragons will soon end like the dwarven race. Orcs run rampant in the land, killing innocents and plundering the villages. Strange creatures are given rise as they bring death to those who dare harbor the dwarf that they seek. Evil men lie in wait till they might strike. And each of them is allied under Terrisino himself. The stories of hope reach Ever. The stories of legends that all center around one strange dwarf who is destined to defeat Terrisino and ensure the freedom to the world. Convinced that she is the dwarf of legend, she unites with the unlikely company of men, sorcerers, elves, and dragons to save the races and discover who she is.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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Why would anyone want to follow a dwarf?<br />
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Well, Ever isn't your typical dwarf. Sure, she's ferocious and stubborn, fumbling about on heavy feet. And yeah, after being sheltered in a mountainous cave all her life, she's naive to the ways of the world, exhibiting a child-like innocence that's bound to get her in trouble.<br />
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Yet when she emerges from the seclusion of her exiled people, there's something about her that others pick up on. She's special, different. There's a mysterious quality to her. She's petite for a dwarf. Her ears are too pointy. Not to mention, she's able to wield the swords of a dragon like a natural. Which makes everyone who comes in contact with her want to know: just who is this girl?<br />
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As it turns out, there exists a legend about an unstoppable dwarf, a savior. But is it Ever? People seem to know more about her than she knows about herself, and it starts to unsettle her. She begs for some form of enlightenment, an inkling to her true identity. But no one can tell her. It's something she has to discover for herself.<br />
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And what she starts to uncover, she doesn't like, especially when the branding of a dragon tattoo appears on her face. Horrified that dragon blood runs through her veins, she doesn't want to be a part of what's considered to be a more sinister race. Feeling conflicted, she knows that the dwarves will never take her back now. Not when she's descended from a line of schemers, schemers who stood back and let her dwarven people be virtually annihilated.<br />
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But not everyone sees her that way. The companions on the journey to avenge her people, accept her for who she is. They see her as family. In fact, they believe she can be a game changer, if presented with the right opportunity. She could, indeed, end up having the greatest story of them all.
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<br />
<i>The Legend of the Dwarf</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ18YLN?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $15.00 ebook, $15.00 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Epic Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>260<br />
<b>Release:</b> December 18, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781540574176<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33412263-the-legend-of-the-dwarf?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-O2Zv8zNY0Bo/WHK7tv_FsII/AAAAAAAAHgs/PCaftGE7qmAZ8iOt40PWr6LsqfqBEmEpwCLcB/s320/author%2Bpic.png" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Kate Bloom is a tenacious and edgy millennial with a BS in English and history, giving her a knack for story-telling. As a fantasy writer, her mind is constantly running wild in fictional worlds, such as that of her first project, Alice in Dreamland (kindle2016). Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1994, and where she has lived her entire life, Kate found the dry dessert scenery to grow tiresome to look at. She found her escape in the fantastical worlds that played out in her head. She has fallen in love with the idea of putting those worlds in print so that everyone else might see those worlds as well.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Kate:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://kateabloom.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Kateabloom/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://kateabloom.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thelegendofthedwarfblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796149" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796149/" id="rcwidget_kirybpx7" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-42584431400674087072017-02-06T00:01:00.000-05:002017-02-22T16:08:00.672-05:00A. Keith Carreiro - The Penitent - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thepenitentblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-AzYjsLyD5B0/WFA0I-_8zKI/AAAAAAAAHf4/Hz01rlsyiHkMAOIV3H0i9EiBcCebe2kGwCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" border="1" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Z_gjS2Hbork/WFA0zzQ8AqI/AAAAAAAAHgA/nv--RECSKQAGpWIyDlcXQnNpwfGGLV3VACLcB/s320/The%2BImmortality%2BWars_The%2BPenitent_Part%2B1_EBOOK_Cover_03%2B-%2B8-8-2016.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />A baby is born and placed in his dead mother's arms. When the funeral shroud is cast over her, his father decides to name his son Pall. It will soon become a name that strikes a shiver into the hearts of those who hear it in combat. A lone survivor on a battlefield many years later, Pall dazedly recovers from the wounds of war. Despite the dead cast about him, everything he looks upon is unfamiliar to him. Wandering away from this scene of carnage, he encounters John Savage, a giant of a man who puts Pall within the sight of Savage's seven–foot, nocked longbow. What ensues from this deadly encounter is an elusive journey for truth. Yet, it is haunted not just by a ravening demon that is out to destroy Pall and John, but by the vision of a startling beautiful young woman protecting Pall from afar.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
In the midst of a post-apocalyptic descent into savagery, the tender heart of humanity is still beating strong.<br />
<br />
Where?<br />
<br />
In the family.<br />
<br />
Pall is a young warrior who is brutally tortured by a gang of marauding thugs. Before they're able to kill him, he's lucky enough to escape into the forest, where he takes comfort in his happy childhood memories. Even though his mother died giving birth to him - hence his name, Pall - he grew to love his stepmother just as much. Looking back, Pall deeply appreciates, how along with his father, the two of them created such a loving environment for him to grow up in, despite the tragic way he entered the world.<br />
<br />
As he grasps the sword his father made for him, he is filled with pride, knowing how it was forged from the metal of "heaven's own starry host." It's a blade that knows not defeat, a priceless gift, and Pall is well aware that by wielding it, he is sworn to uphold his calling to protect the weak, the ill and the aged. The job falls to him to uphold justice in a land ravaged by violence and cruelty, and Pall willingly shoulders the burden of responsibility that comes along with that.<br />
<br />
Yet even among so much hostility, Pall encounters kindness in the form of a young, married couple and their two little girls. His heart immediately goes out to them when he sees how vulnerable they are, and he agrees to help them cross a raging river with their wagon full of supplies. It's a beautiful expression of camaraderie and goodwill, knowing that even if they make it, they're still going to be facing nearly insurmountable odds to stay alive.<br />
<br />
Despite the unforgiving environment, Pall is able to see in them a reflection of his own upbringing, and it gives him hope that maybe all is not lost. A glimmer of what he remembers so fondly still remains, and Pall cherishes the love this family has for each other. For him, they are a bright light shining through the darkness, refusing to go out.<br />
<br />
And I, for one, love the message that goes along with that.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>The Penitent</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MAZDG4S?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Lulu</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $3.99 ebook, $13.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Science Fiction, Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>254<br />
<b>Release:</b> November 1, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781365287077<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32571461-the-penitent" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RSPNJ8eH0Fw/WFA0zkh2voI/AAAAAAAAHf8/2Yfw-vKCvxkH2_ErgcwZVxggrJR0wIE4QCLcB/s1600/IMG_0387.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
A. Keith Carreiro earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, with the sequential help and guidance of three advisors, Dr. Vernon A. Howard, Dr. Donald Oliver and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Israel Scheffler. Keith’s academic focus, including his ongoing research agenda, centers upon philosophically examining how creativity and critical thinking are acquired, learned, utilized and practiced in the performing arts. He has taken his findings and applied them to the professional development of educational practitioners.<br />
<br />
Earlier in his teaching career he was a professor of educational foundations, teaching graduate students of education at universities in Vermont, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor of English at Bridgewater State University, as well as teaching English, philosophy, humanities and public speaking courses at Bristol Community College.<br />
<br />
He lives in Swansea, Massachusetts with his wife Carolyn. They have six children and 13 grandchildren. They belong to an eighty–five–pound golden retriever, an eight–pound Maltese, and an impish Calico cat.<br />
<br />
Due to his love of family, he has seen his fervor for history, as well as his passion for wondering about the future, deepen dramatically.<br />
<br />
Starting on May 23rd until October 9th of 2014, he sat down at his computer on a daily basis and began writing the first book of a science fiction/fantasy thriller in a beginning series about the quest for human immortality.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with A. Keith:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Immortality-Wars-The-Penitent-Book-One-1023452581055756/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15959901.A_Keith_Carreiro" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796148" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796148/" id="rcwidget_2a032hxh" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-39373921668660684592017-02-01T00:01:00.000-05:002017-02-01T00:01:04.691-05:00Bonnie M. Hennessy - Twisted - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://twistedblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-kYrkbJfBOAA/WEhiaIZSWRI/AAAAAAAAHfY/mGOHRuQn90IHWc9wmuTRELW4hVZ2DRbgACK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" border="1" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FWrQIPtCt8Q/WEhjAq2S9RI/AAAAAAAAHfg/0HEhzik8ROMGskFsbdA5YxCDJ4gOII94ACLcB/s1600/ebook%2B300dpi%2B.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />An old tale tells the story of how a little man named Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and tricked a desperate girl into trading away her baby. But that’s not exactly how it happened. The real story began with a drunken father who kept throwing money away on alcohol and women, while his daughter, Aoife, ran the family farm on her own. When he gambled away everything they owned to the Duke, it was up to her to spin straw into gold to win it all back. With her wits and the help of a magical guardian, she outsmarted the Duke and saved the day. Well almost… Her guardian suddenly turned on Aoife and sent her on a quest to find his name, the clues to which were hidden deep in the woods, a moldy dungeon, and a dead woman’s chamber. This is not the tale of a damsel in distress, but a tenacious, young woman who solved a mystery so great that not even the enchanted man who spun straw into gold could figure it out. Not until Aoife came along.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Aoife is a strong, modern heroine, a girl who's not only out to define herself, but a girl who flat out refuses to be defined by others. She's not interested in fitting into any preconceived gender roles that are laid out for her. She's ready to wear the pants in the family if she has to. Getting all dolled up to land a rich husband … no, thank you. Her freedom is what's most important to her. She's definitely not someone who's won over by false flattery or sparkly gifts. How refreshing!<br />
<br />
All she's looking for is for someone to have faith in her abilities. That's it. Sounds simple, right?<br />
<br />
Yet even in a fairy tale setting, those around her continue to underestimate her. And I admire how their lack of insight only fuels her determination even more. She's had enough of the hypocrisy. She's not about to be subdued by anyone or anything—not if she can help it. No one's going to control this feisty lass.<br />
<br />
Until her drunk, philandering father loses her in a game of cards to an arrogant, young duke. Yet even then, Aoife doesn't let the overwhelming sense of disappointment crush her. She's good at getting herself out of impossible situations, and she's quick to hatch an escape plan in order to free herself from this hasty, unwanted marriage.<br />
<br />
But after awhile, she comes to learn that the idea of ever finding a soul mate, or "perfect" love, may not really exist. It becomes clear to her that, when threatened, darkness lurks inside every heart, including her own. When the duke finally lets down his guard and shows her the light he has burning inside his tormented soul, I really started pulling for the two of them to make it—especially when Aoife, herself, begins to hope that she can ultimately win in this twisted game of love, despite the losing hand she was dealt at the beginning.<br />
<br />
Even though she's willing to give the duke a second chance, it's still not going to be easy for her to adapt to being a wife. The insecurities that her mother repeatedly drilled into her head begin to influence her—like how a man would only ever want her for her body or that she's a woman so therefore she needs the protection of a man in order to survive.<br />
<br />
Yet Aoife is not a girl who runs away from what scares her. Instead, she courageously decides to trust her new husband, and when she does, she discovers that she may be the only true source of love he's ever had in his life. Thus, giving her what she's always wanted—a purpose.
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Twisted</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N3MC1K4?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $2.99 ebook, $12.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Mythological, Fairy Tale<br />
<b>Pages: </b>306<br />
<b>Release:</b> November 11, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781539753421<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32962973-twisted?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-VfyaxjSh4sE/WEhjAi_2MVI/AAAAAAAAHfc/CbHYbCqkC2YmCBKNVGrl0jGu3xYr2RvQACLcB/s320/IMG_8777.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Bonnie grew up a shy, quiet girl who the teachers always seated next to the noisy boys because they knew she was too afraid to talk to anyone. She always had a lot she wanted to say but was too afraid to share it for fear she might die of embarrassment if people actually noticed her. Somewhere along the line, perhaps after she surprised her eighth grade class by standing up to a teacher who was belittling a fellow student, she realized that she had a voice and she didn’t burst into flames when her classmates stared at her in surprise.<br />
<br />
Not long after that, she began spinning tales, some of which got her into trouble with her mom. Whether persuading her father to take her to the candy store as a little girl or convincing her parents to let her move from Los Angeles to Manhattan to pursue a career at eighteen as a ballet dancer with only $200 in her pocket, Bonnie has proven that she knows how to tell a compelling story.<br />
<br />
Now she spends her time reading and making up stories for her two children at night. By day she is an English teacher who never puts the quiet girls next to the noisy boys and works hard to persuade her students that stories, whether they are the ones she teaches in class or the ones she tells to keep them from daydreaming, are better escapes than computers, phones, and social media.
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<br />
<b>Links to connect with Bonnie:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.bonniemhennessy.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/twistedthebook/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/bonniemhennessy" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC23yBSLSEcbE2Bw98_4k-WQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16075736.Bonnie_M_Hennessy" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796147" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796147/" id="rcwidget_garqvb88" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-71381997661207159862016-12-05T00:01:00.000-05:002016-12-05T00:01:04.489-05:00Nancy McCabe - Following Disasters - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://followingdisastersblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-cIIW90e_mYE/V-05zANvNUI/AAAAAAAAHeQ/5cECDMIz2PUlYZzXDfJkWapbd22AXw2dACK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" border="1" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-UizKBL9HLEM/V-07BRsNgfI/AAAAAAAAHec/hGiK92qk_hwUnY_hjhJy2J_uG87jyGkGgCLcB/s320/followingdisasters-7.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />On her twenty-first birthday, Maggie Owen receives an unusual birthday gift: a house. That same day, the house’s owner, her aunt, dies. For three years, Maggie has been fleeing her childhood demons: the deaths of her parents, estrangement from her terminally-ill aunt, and a betrayal by her best friend. But now her career on the road, following natural disasters in temporary insurance claims offices, ends abruptly as Maggie returns home to face her past. But why does the house hold a mysterious spell over her? Why does she have the persistent feeling that her aunt is haunting her? Why did her aunt lie to her about the circumstances of her parents’ deaths? Who is the ghost child that may be hanging around the house? And what’s with the guy next door who seems so hostile toward her? FOLLOWING DISASTERS is tightly woven ghost story that raises questions about legacies and their influence on our choices.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
It's fascinating to see how the relationships women have with one another, inevitably end up affecting the relationships they have with the men in their lives.<br />
<br />
And what makes this book even more intriguing is that these relationships span different eras in time. We meet Maggie and her college friend, Erin, in the 1980s while getting to know Maggie's mother, Sarah, and her Aunt Beth, through flashbacks occurring from the 1950s onward. Yet, the same dynamic plays out between the two sets of women—the perks of physical beauty compared to inner beauty.<br />
<br />
Erin is the girl who can get any guy she wants, much like Maggie's mother, who's described in her day as quite the head turner. While Maggie seems to take after her plain-looking aunt, preferring not to be noticed, content to be quiet and withdrawn. However, their reticence doesn't do them any favors since both are betrayed by their more attractive counterparts. When Maggie's boyfriend and Aunt Beth's husband fall victim to the temptation of the flesh, the two of them are left to pick up the pieces of their shattered trust.<br />
<br />
When Aunt Beth dies, she leaves Maggie her house, providing her with the means to make a fresh start. But as Maggie begins the process of sorting through her aunt's things, she feels old wounds reopening, refusing to be healed. She questions whether she is doomed to live an exact replica of the life her aunt lived, now that she's trapped under the same roof. Can she forgive those who wronged her or will she live the remainder of her days mired in jealousy and regret?<br />
<br />
The kicker is: maybe Aunt Beth provided Maggie with a way out of her pain after all. Her aunt is well aware of the pitfalls she, herself, stumbled into, and as the house begins to reveal its secrets, it's clear that she doesn't want Maggie to have to suffer through what she went through. She wants more for her than that.<br />
<br />
And it all becomes apparent when Maggie meets her new next-door neighbor.<br />
<br />
Joe.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Following Disasters</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944853030?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/following-disasters-nancy-mccabe/1123466844?ean=9781944853037" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $9.99 ebook, $16.00 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Gothic, Horror, Ghosts<br />
<b>Pages: </b>234<br />
<b>Release:</b> October 1, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Outpost19<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781944853037<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29209394-following-disasters" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZSo-lyHKmwI/V-07BUMWYzI/AAAAAAAAHeY/y8_JjVb8WRc-XManN6wdqTds4Mvdym-xwCLcB/s320/Fall%2B2014%2Bphoto.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
<i>Following Disasters</i> is Nancy McCabe's first novel. She has also published four books of creative nonfiction, including <i>Meeting Sophie: A Memoir or Adoption; Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter's Birthplace in China</i>; and <i>From Little Houses to Little Women: Revisiting a Literary Childhood</i>. She is a regular blogger for Ploughshares and has published work in <i>Newsweek, Writers' Digest, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Fourth Genre</i>, and other magazines and anthologies. Her work has received a Pushcart and six times made notable lists in Houghton Mifflin Best American anthologies.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Nancy:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.nancymccabe.net/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/nancy.mccabe.92?fref=nf" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbL-vzvnBbg" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/227353.Nancy_McCabe?from_search=true" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/author/nancygracemccabe/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796146" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796146/" id="rcwidget_yrwcfwud" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-84060195972940521412016-10-03T00:01:00.000-04:002016-10-03T00:01:13.623-04:00Tricia Dower - Stony River - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://stonyriverblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/--bir2QXSLGA/V4-pdCRl41I/AAAAAAAAHdg/Y5nHo4aHUv0QMKdwHxt7jHXpxCgdq_N8wCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-gf8n1c-JocM/V4-qCD2IwnI/AAAAAAAAHdo/aeLw5BBF2cIEZTNRqdl2PUeWQKgcpOg8ACLcB/s320/StonyRiverCBSD.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It wasn’t all poodle skirts and rock ‘n’ roll. From its deceptively innocent beginning—two young teens exploring the riverbank and spying on “Crazy Haggerty’s” dilapidated house—through the intertwining story lines of paganism, murder and sexual violence, Stony River shows how perilous life was for some girls in the 1950s. Absent mothers, controlling fathers, biblical injunctions, teenage longing and small-town pretense abound. The threat of violence is all around: angry fathers at home, dirty boys in the neighborhood, strange men in strange cars, a dead girl and another gone missing.<br /><br />
The central mystery, inspired by the crimes of Robert Zarinsky as documented by Robin Gaby Fisher and Judith Lucas in Deadly Secrets (Newark Star–Ledger 2008), keeps the reader guessing until almost the very end, when the frightening truth is revealed. In this coming-of-age mystery, three girls learn who they are and what they’re capable of surviving—and forgiving.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
I really liked how the voices of these three teenage girls were distinct. Each one stood out, independent of the others. I always knew who was talking even when the point of view would change. They didn't blend together in my mind, which often happens when reading a typical coming-of-age novel where all the characters sound the same.<br />
<br />
But there's nothing typical about this book or its characters. They're all looking for that pivotal male figure in their lives, although none of them seem to find him.<br />
<br />
Tereza is the wild child, jumping from the fire right into the frying pan. Abused by her stepfather, she runs away from home, only to wind up married at fifteen to a violent schizophrenic. With below average reading skills, she thinks she can rely on her looks to get by, turning tricks in the backseat of cars in order to gain a sense of power over a man. Although, when her husband turns out to be a cold fish in the bedroom, she soon learns just how unreliable of a strategy that can be.<br />
<br />
Linda is the overweight overachiever. The good girl who never puts a foot out of place. She does everything her parents tell her to do, until their marriage begins to unravel right in front of her eyes. With more freedom, she begins to act out, accepting rides from strange men, and nearly paying the ultimate price for her reckless behavior.<br />
<br />
Miranda is the mystical fairy child. Her father hides her away from the world after she gives birth to their incestuous child. When he dies unexpectedly, she's freed from her prison of seclusion of books and pagan rituals. However, she's unable to cope in the real world, quickly becoming the gullible target of all those who believe they're "helping" her.<br />
<br />
Of the three, Miranda is the one I connected with the most. All three girls are on separate journeys of self discovery, and it's fascinating, at the end of the novel, when they all start to overlap. Yet for me, Miranda was the only one who remained true to herself throughout the journey. She didn't care about appearances or sacrificing her integrity to get ahead. She just wanted to help people. It can be argued that she suffered the greatest amount of trauma, yet her heart remained pure. She wasn't out to advance herself, she was only seeking the truth.<br />
<br />
And, of the three, I think she's the only one who found it.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Stony River</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935248863?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stony-river-tricia-dower/1123485056;jsessionid=04D1856B3A4CE64B6A66D3E483B84E76.prodny_store02-atgap01?ean=9781935248866" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/stony-river/id1135492622?mt=11&at=10lu5f" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $10.99 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Crime, Historical, Coming of Age<br />
<b>Pages: </b>320<br />
<b>Release:</b> October 6, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Leapfrog Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781935248866<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13616825-stony-river" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-3ttWiDS-Nb4/V4-qBuc6ctI/AAAAAAAAHdk/lqDEJ8XAza40FOmkpqsx4tB9pVmb4OwNACLcB/s320/Tricia%2BDower%2B%25231%2BsRGB%2Bfor%2Binternet.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Tricia Dower confesses to smoking a river punk or two in Rahway, New Jersey, where she was born and raised by perfectly fine parents who did not keep her hidden in a spooky house. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a Phi Mu, she built a career in business before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her literary work has crossed borders and won awards. She expanded a story from her Shakespeare-inspired collection, <i>Silent Girl</i> (Inanna 2008) into <i>Stony River</i>, which was first published in Canada (Penguin, 2012). Her novel, <i>Becoming Lin</i> (Caitlin Press), was released in Canada in 2016. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
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<br />
<b>Links to connect with Tricia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/tricia.dower" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/TriciaDower" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1302018.Tricia_Dower" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/silent-girl-speaks/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796145" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796145/" id="rcwidget_4t4hcp7r" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-9362696351585814492016-08-01T00:01:00.000-04:002016-08-01T00:01:00.216-04:00Rich Zahradnik - A Black Sail - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://ablacksailblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Cjp8k2CzIKw/V1HaL9paQyI/AAAAAAAAHcw/vFyVxX1sTLI-VTm4L8ENtFSa--y8aTKagCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-8YRYXfa_b0o/V1Hap0gKKUI/AAAAAAAAHc4/SPRjKg7uIwQHfog_jBONGsCENLHbMzM8ACLcB/s320/A_Black_Sail_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />On the eve of the U.S. Bicentennial, newsman Coleridge Taylor is covering Operation Sail. New York Harbor is teeming with tall ships from all over the world. While enjoying the spectacle, Taylor is still a police reporter. He wants to cover real stories, not fluff, and gritty New York City still has plenty of those in July of 1976. One surfaces right in front of him when a housewife is fished out of the harbor wearing bricks of heroin, inferior stuff users have been rejecting for China White, peddled by the Chinatown gangs.<br /><br />
Convinced he’s stumbled upon a drug war between the Italian Mafia and a Chinese tong, Taylor is on fire once more. But as he blazes forward, flanked by his new girlfriend, ex-cop Samantha Callahan, his precious story grows ever more twisted and deadly. In his reckless search for the truth, he rattles New York’s major drug cartels. If he solves the mystery, he may end up like his victim—in a watery grave.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
I like that Taylor is a reporter with a heart. Although in New York City, that's a dangerous combination. The story does a good job in showing just how competitive the newspaper business was in 1976, long before it had to worry about being supplanted by digital media. So it's no surprise that Taylor itches to be the first to shed light on the crime being committed day in and day out. However, he's more selective than most. He cares about the stories that none of the big papers cover, the victims no one cares about.<br />
<br />
That's because he allows himself to be hemmed in by the facts... <i>and</i> his conscience. It's admirable that he won't run with a lead unless he can verify it. However, sometimes when he does, a person who doesn't deserve it, winds up getting hurt. And it's to Taylor's credit that he has a hard time swallowing the guilt that comes along with that. Instead, he ends up carrying it around with him, like a dark cloud hovering over his head with only a few, intermittent bursts of light filtering in, every now and then, mostly brought about by his ex-cop girlfriend and his comical dog.<br />
<br />
Frustrated and unsatisfied with where his career is heading, at times a palpable sense of depression overwhelms him. Yet this apparent weakness goes to show how human the guy is. The paper he used to work for folded. Now he's doing AM radio spots for a wire service that are meant to make crime in the Big Apple sound scary and threatening to those who've fled to the suburbs. He's basically writing filler for the real estate advertising, paying for his work. Truth be told, it'd get any old school newspaperman down.<br />
<br />
But he doesn't let it stop him. He wants justice for a woman whose body he personally witnesses getting pulled out of the harbor, and he's determined not to rest until he does. Even if it costs him his job, his sanity, even his life. Because that's the kind of reporter he is, and it's why you'll enjoy reading about him.
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<br />
***
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<br />
<i>A Black Sail</i> can be pre-ordered at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Sail-Coleridge-Taylor-Mystery/dp/1603812113?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-black-sail-rich-zahradnik/1123845960?ean=9781603812115" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
Pages: 264<br />
Release: October 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812115<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30208460-a-black-sail" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ZRiDIXdZFbk/V1Hap5HbihI/AAAAAAAAHc0/odvZmwCTd50rQvOTTsQLoG-5VeuVyvf3wCLcB/s320/_45D3397.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Rich Zahradnik is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Coleridge Taylor Mystery series (<i>A Black Sail, Drop Dead Punk, Last Words</i>).<br />
<br />
The second installment, <i>Drop Dead Punk</i>, won the gold medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs). It was also named a finalist in the mystery category of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. <i>Last Words</i> won the bronze medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2015 IPPYs and honorable mention for mystery in the 2015 Foreword Reviews IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. <br />
<br />
"Taylor, who lives for the big story, makes an appealingly single-minded hero," Publishers Weekly wrote of <i>Drop Dead Punk</i>. <br />
<br />
Zahradnik was a journalist for 30-plus years, working as a reporter and editor in all major news media, including online, newspaper, broadcast, magazine and wire services. He held editorial positions at CNN, Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, AOL and The Hollywood Reporter.<br />
<br />
In January 2012, he was one of 20 writers selected for the inaugural class of the Crime Fiction Academy, a first-of-its-kind program run by New York's Center for Fiction.<br />
<br />
Zahradnik was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1960 and received his B.A. in journalism and political science from George Washington University. He lives with his wife Sheri and son Patrick in Pelham, New York, where writes fiction and teaches kids how to publish newspapers.
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<br />
<b>Links to connect with Rich:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/richzahradnik/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/rzahradnik" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8335771.Rich_Zahradnik" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796144" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796144/" id="rcwidget_kh0d9pld" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-73704979871231817462016-07-25T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-25T00:01:17.460-04:00Michael J. Bowler - A Matter of Time - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://amatteroftimeblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Jv80nRN3TzQ/Vz9YzWT34mI/AAAAAAAAHcI/DyhJ2_jPqckRSESXFO4pIppE2qkeFGGbQCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-Ou6NzzYEf8Q/Vz9ZobOlmNI/AAAAAAAAHcU/vfVoXBtG6JMFjL-YcMTnTjD8S4gv2tV0ACLcB/s320/A%2BMATTER%2BOF%2BTIME%2B%255B%2Bcover%2Bprint%2Bformat%255D.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The world's greatest evil stalks the world's greatest ship, and the only one who can stop him hasn't been born yet. Jamie Collins is a junior at Santa Clara University in 1986. He has friends, a professor who mentors him, and a promising future as a writer. Then the dreams begin - nightmarish memories that transport him back to a time and place fifty years before he was born: Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912. When Jamie discovers a foreign cell in his blood that links him to the famous vessel, the two timelines begin to overlap and he realizes an unimaginable truth - something supernatural stalks the ill-fated ship, something that will kill him if he can't stop it first. And the only way to stop it may be to prevent Titanic from sinking. But even if he can figure out a way to do that, should he? What will be the effect on history if he succeeds? And what about the lady he wasn't supposed to fall in love with? As her destiny becomes entwined with his, Jamie discovers the value of friendship, the power of love, the impact of evil, and the vagaries of Fate.</i><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Yes, this is a story about the Titanic and vampires and other mind-bending plot twists. But what got to me was the spirit of undying love, nestled in the book's pages. I admit I'm an unabashed romantic, and there was just something about the passages, featuring Jamie and Kate that really moved me.<br />
<br />
You just have to go with the idea that Jamie is a college student from 1986 who somehow is able to board the Titanic on that fateful night in 1912. While trying to get his bearings, he bumps into Kate, a wealthy young widow, who's below deck, attempting to procure some chocolate ice cream for her son's bedtime treat. It turns out Kate's husband died eight years ago, and she's been on her own ever since she was eighteen, resisting the idea of getting involved with another man … when she locks eyes with Jamie.<br />
<br />
The sheer emotion of that moment can be felt in the title line: "It was inevitable that he'd find her one day, it was only a matter of time."<br />
<br />
Is it a case of insta-love? Sure, it is. But it's so beautifully written that it makes you want to look past it. Jamie feels like Kate is the one he's been waiting for his whole life. She doesn't do anything to stand out, besides be herself. Beneath her soft, gauzy dress is an inner strength that he can't help but be drawn to. And let me tell you, I've read almost every one of Bowler's novels and this has to be the most touching scene he's ever written.<br />
<br />
She's someone he can't have. Jamie always believed that he'd never find someone like Kate, someone who'd love him for a lifetime. Yet they meet at the wrong time under a horrible set of circumstances. It wasn't supposed to happen this way, but it does, and it made my heart ache just reading about it.<br />
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I like it when Bowler gets, for lack of a better term, <i>romantic</i>. Although, he never lets us inside Kate's head, the thoughts running through Jamie's are heartbreakingly tender. It's painful to see how perfect they are for each other, only to see them torn apart due to the tragic events of that terrible evening.<br />
<br />
But their unexpected reunion? That's when you'll need to keep a box of tissues handy. It's a tearjerker of a moment, reminiscent of "The Notebook," or for that matter, any great love story, grounded in sacrifice. Love is glorious, but it also brings a lot of hurt and pain along with it. But Jamie makes it clear that he's willing to endure whatever fate befalls them. The few precious moments he got to spend with her on the Titanic make it all worthwhile. While after getting separated from Jamie and ending up in a lifeboat, Kate vows to never give up hope at finding him again.<br />
<br />
They make the choice to love each other, and it's moving to behold.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>A Matter of Time</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Time-Michael-Bowler-ebook/dp/B007GOAC9C?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-matter-of-time-michael-bowler/1109296752?ean=9781432787110" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/a-matter-of-time-unabridged/id1035392958?mt=3" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Formats/Prices:</b> $2.99 ebook, $12.95 paperback, $14.95-$21.83 Audible<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Historical Fiction, Suspense<br />
<b>Pages:</b> 340<br />
<b>Release:</b> March 2, 2012<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Outskirts Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781432787110<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14438165-a-matter-of-time?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ISjz4vaNqL0/Um_OkcJISDI/AAAAAAAAGxg/5IeO6ArfAAU/s320/bowler.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels—<i>A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time</i> (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and <i>The Knight Cycle</i>, comprised of five books: <i>Children of the Knight</i> (Gold Award Winner – 2013 Wishing Shelf Book Awards; Reader Views Honorable mention; Runner-Up Rainbow Awards; Honorable Mention - Southern California Book Festival), <i>Running Through A Dark Place</i> (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>There Is No Fear</i> (Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America</i>; <i>Spinner</i> (Winner Hollywood Book Festival; Honorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Reader’s Favorite; Literary Classics Seal of Approval; Runner-Up - Southern California Book Festival; Honorable Mention - Halloween Book Festival; Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards), and <i>Warrior Kids: A Tale of New Camelot</i> (Honorable Mention in the London Book Festival and The New England Book Festival; Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards).<br />
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His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.<br />
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He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.<br />
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He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II.”<br />
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He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.<br />
<br />
He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.<br />
<br />
He has finished writing a novel based on his screenplay, “Like A Hero,” and another book aimed at the teen market. He hopes to find a publisher or an agent for both.<br />
<br />
His goal as an author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world. The most prevalent theme in his writing and his work with youth is this: as both a society, and as individuals, we’re better off when we do what’s right, rather than what’s easy.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.michaeljbowler.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/michaeljbowlerauthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/BradleyWallaceM" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6938109.Michael_J_Bowler" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljbowler.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljbowler.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/michaelbowler/pins/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://instagram.com/stuntshark" target="_blank">Instagram</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://amatteroftimeblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796143" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796143/" id="rcwidget_jh8s9xxh" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-82113663394074540372016-07-18T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-18T00:01:00.147-04:00Claudia Riess - Semblance of Guilt - 99¢ Ebook Sale, Review, Excerpts & Giveaway<a href="http://semblanceofguiltblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ubMTp-OujLI/VxZgwvU93bI/AAAAAAAAHa0/H8VXTyKqmkkn5WsVCAmz8tViTub75d7HwCK4B/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-LL0zmUtUFQM/VxZhtVUyb7I/AAAAAAAAHbA/VGNjpEWjdNYC-37gWbtqFTpYdVzkGwkBACLcB/s1600/cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Ellen Davis’s husband left her for another woman. Post-divorce, she’s trying to reassert her independence and lands a job as a reporter for her local newspaper. One of her assignments is covering weekly items on the police blotter, which is how she gets to know Lieutenant Pete Sakura—a handsome, witty Japanese- American Ellen is drawn to immediately.<br /><br />
Another of Ellen’s assignments is interviewing for the paper’s “Around The Town” column, and in this capacity, she meets Graham and Sophia Clarke, newcomers to the community. He’s an administrator at Columbia; she’s his beautiful Greek wife. Ellen and Sophia become fast friends, so it comes as a great shock when Sophia ends up dead.<br /><br />
Sophia Clarke is found murdered, and to all appearances, Ellen is the last person to have seen her alive. When Ellen’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, she’s arrested, and evidence steadily mounts against her. Ellen takes matters into her own hands as her romantic feelings for Pete intensify. Closing this case could either save Ellen or lead to her destruction.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<b>Review</b><br />
<br />
Ellen Davis is a female character who challenges what it means to be a woman in today's world. When her husband leaves her for someone else, it makes her question her whole identity. So in order to hold on to a semblance of self-worth, she sets out to forge a new life for herself, vowing never to become dependent on a man again.<br />
<br />
But things start out on an awkward foot when her boss at her newspaper job, knowing she's newly single, makes a pass at her, and of course, she wastes no time shooting him down. But fate has other plans for her when she arrives at the police station for one of her assignments and comes face to face with Lieutenant Pete Sakura, a man she finds herself instantly attracted to, much to her chagrin.<br />
<br />
To say this encounter upends Ellen's dogged determination to remain single is putting it lightly. She's so distracted by the feelings Pete has stirred up inside her that she unwittingly falls into the trap of a much more devious man, Graham Clarke. He just moved to New York and she meets him to conduct an interview for the society column, but things aren't as innocent as they appear. Graham's not interested in having his name in the paper. He's looking for a willing victim to take the fall for the murder of his wife and Ellen, of all people, ends up being charged with a crime she didn't commit.<br />
<br />
For the rest of the story, Ellen struggles with the idea of victimhood. She was played for a fool by her husband and now by a smooth talking manipulator like Graham. As she battles her way through an exhausting trial, Pete wants to be there to support her, but she keeps pushing him away, afraid of being duped yet again. Her instincts are telling her that Pete's not like any of the men who've hurt her before, but she keeps refusing to believe it.<br />
<br />
All because she wants to save herself. She refuses to be any man's damsel in distress. But the question remains: Can she really find her way out of this alone?<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Excerpts</b><br />
<br />
<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
<br />
After navigating past the desks, she knocked on the door of the cubicle. No response. The second, more deliberate, rap was answered with an impatient “Come!”<br />
<br />
Ellen entered the office and was somewhat taken aback by the sight of an attractive Asian man in shirt-sleeves awkwardly poised by the side of his desk, arms out, legs spread one behind the other, the front one slightly bent, the rear rigidly locked. He looked, she thought, as if he were trying to keep his balance on a skateboard. His attention was fixed on an open book sitting at the edge of his desk. “Give me a second,” he said testily, without taking his eyes off the book and at the same time adjusting the position of his front foot to a more pigeon-toed angle.<br />
<br />
“I won’t ask what you’re doing,” Ellen said.<br />
<br />
“Smart.” There was a sound of raised voices coming from the outer room. “The door!”<br />
<br />
She closed it. “However, maybe you’d like to know what <i>I’m</i> doing?”<br />
<br />
He ignored her question. “Damn, I’m not getting it.” He glanced up. “Do me a favor, take a look at number fifty and tell me what the hell is wrong here.”<br />
<br />
Ellen approached the desk and peered down at the open book. A two-page spread of photographs showed a man in what looked like an usher’s uniform demonstrating a series of exercises. “Is this tai chi?”<br />
<br />
“This is a pain in the ass. Could you look at the picture, tell me where I’m off, please?”<br />
<br />
“‘Fair Lady works at Shuttles,’” she read aloud. She looked up from the page at him then back down again. “I see where you are. Figure fifty-A. It says: ‘Elbow bent, your right hand comes to your center line, fingers pinched together…’” She looked up. “For starters, your fingers aren’t pinched together.”<br />
<br />
“Just hold the book up so I can see it from a better angle, okay?”<br />
<br />
She held the book, show-and-tell style. He went through a variety of disconnected motions, clearly becoming more frustrated. “Shit.”<br />
<br />
Ellen had formed a perception of the Japanese male as meditative, controlled, mysterious, soft-spoken, one who quietly went about transcending the material world while politely manipulating it. She had never realized she harbored this fully defined and fallacious stereotype until that moment, as she was looking at what appeared to be its antithesis. “If your phone rings, should I answer it?”<br />
<br />
“Forget it.” He dropped the pose, took the book from her and put it back on the desk. “I’m all out of sync.”<br />
<br />
“Now I’ll ask. What are you doing?”<br />
<br />
“Getting my goddamn yin and yang together. My doctor tells me I have an ulcer and prescribes pills, but I don’t like pills. I’m taking up the eastern approach.”<br />
<br />
“But isn’t tai chi Chinese?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah, so?”<br />
<br />
“‘Sakura’ sounds like a Japanese name.”<br />
<br />
“Let me ask you a question. You ever eat chow mein?”<br />
<br />
“Well, yes.”<br />
<br />
“I rest my case.” He waved her toward the chair on the other side of the desk and dropped down into his own. “Sit.”<br />
<br />
She remained on her feet. “I’m Ellen Davis. I was told you had the data for the <i>Chronicle</i>’s ‘Blotter’ column. I’m just here to collect it.”<br />
<br />
He threw up a hand. “What’s the point of that column? All it does is stigmatize the poor saps who appear in it. There’s no investigation of circumstances, no disclaimers stating charges could be erroneous. Just a cold-blooded list of citations.”<br />
<br />
“It’s supposed to serve as a deterrent,” she said without conviction. “Actually, I don’t particularly like the column myself, but I don’t make up the rules. I’m sorry I messed up your exercise routine. May I have the material, please?”<br />
<br />
She became aware of herself as an unattached, uncompromised individual as she once was at Penn. She sensed the boundaries of her being as clearly as she felt the hem of her knit dress pull tightly against her legs with each step she took. It was as if she had never been married, had instead dressed for an interview and walked straight out of west Philadelphia into Morningside Heights.<br />
<br />
Mid-block between 109 and 108 Streets, as she was passing a shoe store and scanning the view across the way, her attention was drawn to the bright blue awning of Charlie’s Snack Bar. At that moment the door to the restaurant opened, and a tall young woman with cropped red hair and wearing a tight black turtleneck sweater, clingy black pants and black cowboy boots, stepped out into the daylight. The girl stood aside to allow the man behind her to pass, and as he emerged completely into the sunlight, Ellen recognized Graham. She was about to hail him, when he took a step toward the redhead and Ellen realized he was with her. Unable to tear her focus from the scene or insinuate herself into it, she backed up into the shadow cast by the overhanging eave of the shoe store.<br />
<br />
While Graham snapped down and adjusted the removable sun-visors of his eyeglasses, the young woman reached into the breast pocket of his blazer, drew out a pair of sunglasses he must have been holding for her, and put them on, in the process grazing her breasts against his left elbow. The act defined them as intimate friends, yet the distance springing up between them immediately afterward seemed devised to refute it. They stood apart talking to each other, their postures stiff and formal, their not touching as conspicuous as an open embrace.<br />
<br />
Ellen watched them as her years at Penn were sucked into a black hole, and all she could remember was her husband Kevin dropping the bomb, telling her he was leaving her. Watching Graham and the redhead across the street was like catching the discovery scene she had missed, seeing it replayed for her benefit, like a burlesque in which she was both captive audience and object of scorn.<br />
<br />
Almost at once she felt a connection with Sophia.<br />
<br />
Sophia pulled her hands away and struck out at Ellen in one continuous movement, throwing herself off balance and stumbling sideways. She stared in horror at the gouge one of her nails had made on Ellen’s chest, and Ellen, stunned by the violence and not yet feeling the pain, gazed in disbelief at the drop of blood tracking toward the scalloped edge of her white satin bustier.<br />
<br />
“Go—get out of here,” Sophia rasped. “I’m afraid what I might do to you. Get out, get out.”<br />
<br />
The blood trickled onto the rim of smooth white fabric, forming a small, irregular stain. Ellen looked up at Sophia. The woman she thought she knew had become a trapped animal, her eyes wary-wild.<br />
<br />
A sharp pain from the nick in her chest jolted her from her numbing inertia. She moved quickly from the room, feeling the tears coming, holding them back, postponing them as she ran silently down the hall. She descended the steps with blazing deliberation, her pace quick and even, her focus on reaching the door and disappearing into the sheltering night. She could feel her eyes, static-wide in bewildered alarm, betraying her attempt to appear in total control. Still, she focused straight ahead, concentrating on her goal, hearing Anna calling her name but moving through the sound, pacing herself to simulate haste without flight as she sliced through the clear zone of the foyer and pushed open the storm door. Midway across the porch she collided with an incoming guest, all pearls and black silk, the woman’s staccatoed “Shit!” like a gunshot in an open field of combat.<br />
<br />
Picking up speed, she hurtled down the bluestone drive, anticipating the sound of the engine starting up even before she could spot her car.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
Tuesday, March 13. First day in court. The jury sat knit-browed and entranced, leaning forward so as not to miss a word, not yet settled in their role of deliberative body. To Ellen, they looked as if they’d been caught off guard at the supermarket, a rainbow assortment of shoppers rounded up one afternoon and transported to a box at the opera, best seats in the house.<br />
<br />
Ellen sat in a heavy, slat-back chair drawn up close to a long oak table. She was wearing a gray suit and paisley print blouse because Rosenthal had told her to wear something conservative but not somber. The skirt buckled and slid around her waist every time she moved because in the last two months she’d lost ten pounds from under-eating and over-exercising. As she’d taken her seat in the courtroom, she’d snagged her pantyhose on a rough spot on the table leg and felt the rip crawl up her leg, making her feel exposed to the prying eyes in the room. She’d been unable to choose earrings that morning, vacillating between small and large, shiny and dull, gold and silver, fixating on this final aspect of her attire as if she could determine the decision of the jury by choosing the politically correct objects to hang on her earlobes. When Rosenthal blew his car horn in the driveway she’d grabbed for familiarity, the small gold hoops, before allowing herself to be whisked off to the mind-boggling unknown.<br />
<br />
Sitting next to her at the oak table, “Try to relax,” Rosenthal whispered in her ear, leaning toward and away from her in one smooth, condensed motion.<br />
<br />
Ellen sat back in the chair, her rigid spine meeting hard wood, the word “relax” banned from her body’s vocabulary. Through an impromptu technique of auto-suggestion and deep breathing, she was barely managing to bring under control the strangulating tension in her neck and the explosive blood-humming in her ears. It was not her lawyer’s fault she hadn’t been prepared for Mark Gilbert’s speech. Rosenthal had described the prosecutor’s meticulous approach, but there was no way he could have prepared her for the immediacy of the event: the way Gilbert cocked his left hip as he stood facing the jury; how his dark eyes seemed to glow from some deep passion or conviction; how he flashed her alternating looks of consternation and pity; how he stressed syllables unexpectedly, so that his words jumped against the wall of her chest—“enter the room,” “<i>points</i> of the scissors,” “<i>homicidal</i> violence”; how his brow suddenly furrowed as he reminded the jury—“You and I, we represent the People. We have been charged not to avenge a wrong, but to deliver justice.”<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
“Come up to the bedroom.”<br />
<br />
“Yes.”<br />
<br />
“Stay the night.”<br />
<br />
“Yes.”<br />
<br />
“Hurry.” She wanted to be taken on the spot, jammed against the table or pinned to the floor, but delay would set the act apart. She could foresee it, her first experience of absolute exposure—the loss of her true virginity on her sex-worn bed. The chaste and devilish nuances of amazing contradiction lifted the event to the peak of desire.
He was one step behind her, holding on to her hand as they climbed the staircase. She was aware of every footfall, every breath, every sound of this outwardly conventional drama. She led him down the hall, almost turning in at the wrong doorway, almost forgetting where she slept, his presence casting an aura of unfamiliarity on the surroundings. He caught her hesitation and uttered a short, nervous laugh, sharing her bewilderment.<br />
<br />
As they entered her bedroom, it seemed to lose all connection to her past, as if it had come into existence at that very moment just to harbor them.<br />
<br />
In rapt silence they helped each other with the shedding of clothes, marveling at the unhurried pace of the ritual, as if their bodies had agreed to temper urgency with curiosity.<br />
<br />
They lay on the white comforter, barely disturbing it in their intent exploration, the upheavals taking place inwardly, while over audacious globes and rises and along newly accessible furrows, their fingers, lips, tongues concentrated movement in targeted pressures, exacting exquisite modulations of sensation from each focal point.
</div>
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Semblance of Guilt</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DWXBGRW?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
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<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/semblance-of-guilt/id1100615156?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b><br />
<div>
<b><i>runs July 1-30, 2016</i></b><i> </i><br />
<div>
<br /></div>
<div>
Prices/Formats: <b><span style="color: red;">99¢</span></b> <strike>$3.99</strike> ebook, $21.99 paperback, $39.95 hardcover<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 328<br />
Release: April 5, 2016<br />
Publisher: Archway<br />
ISBN: 9781480827851<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29838148-semblance-of-guilt" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
"A determined amateur detective who'll garner fans with her refusal to either back down or give up." -<b>Kirkus Reviews</b>
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ERGnIwppIIw/VxZhsr4NQ4I/AAAAAAAAHa8/6Pr7Ava5mbYfGndKPgh1u5xZc93d-yD9wCLcB/s1600/author.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Claudia Riess, a Vassar graduate, has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt Rinehart and Winston. On her first novel, Reclining Nude, Oliver Sacks, M.D. commented: “exquisite—and delicate.” Her second, art suspense Stolen Light earned: “complex and intriguing” —Kirkus Review<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Claudia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://claudiariessbooks.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaRiessBooks" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/ClaudiaRiess" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3052782.Claudia_Riess?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://semblanceofguiltblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796141" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796141/" id="rcwidget_zz23gplp" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a></div>
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-44065491991974913512016-07-11T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-11T00:01:24.509-04:00Frank Nappi - Welcome to the Show - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://welcometotheshowblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-ceDQwLowssQ/VzSjprXnoeI/AAAAAAAAHbg/33d7v6Oaff4eZXbsJbuEhQQx7gy3aCQdgCK4B/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-stU4RPRrFDw/VzSldRCtJOI/AAAAAAAAHbw/9bdUv8Zs4swFbkCL9o9ovtcYKVUGg1BEQCLcB/s1600/wts.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It’s 1950 and Mickey Tussler—the now-famous pitching prodigy with autism and a golden arm—is back for another baseball season in this third installment of Frank Nappi’s critically acclaimed Legend of Mickey Tussler series. Talk of Mickey’s legendary exploits on the field has grown since his improbable debut two years prior, as have the fortunes of Murph and the rest of the lovable ragtag Brew Crew. Now Mickey, Murph, and Lester find themselves heading to Bean Town to play for the Boston Braves.<br /><br />
The call up is sweet, for all of them have overcome insurmountable odds to get where they are. But life in the major leagues is filled with fast-paced action both on and off the field. The bright lights of Boston hold a new series of challenges, hardships, and life lessons—especially for Mickey, who finds himself a long way from throwing apples into a barrel back on the farm. The three newest Braves have each other to lean on, as well as a new group of fans who are swept away by pennant fever, but balancing everything this new world has to offer may prove to be the greatest challenge of all.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
A character like Mickey Tussler captured my interest right off the bat because I've never read a book about a Major League Baseball player with autism. Autistic people aren't known for being able to express themselves verbally. So author Frank Nappi brings him to life by using the people around him to draw out his personality.<br />
<br />
I liked the approach of using several different points of view to tell the story. It allowed me to see Mickey through the eyes of the supporting characters. I was able to grasp a richer picture of his traumatic background and his day-to-day struggles to fit in. It made me realize just how big of a mountain he was trying to climb when his mom kept worrying about how the other guys on the team were treating him, and when he had such a hard time talking to a girl he really liked, my heart just went out to him.<br />
<br />
But I think I got an even clearer picture of what Mickey was going through whenever he interacted with his teammates. At first, Ozzy, the star player on the team wanted nothing to do with him, calling him names and going out of his way to be extra nasty to him. Yet after giving the kid a hard time for practically the entire season, Mickey's genuine innocence (and brilliance on the pitching mound) eventually wins over even his harshest critic.<br />
<br />
But it's the loyalty of those who are in Mickey's corner from the beginning that's the heart and soul of the book. His manager, Murph, believes in him through all his ups and downs and even puts his own career on the line when he keeps sending Mickey out to pitch, despite his inconsistencies and emotional meltdowns. He knows Mickey has the natural talent, but his ability to handle the distractions that keep coming at him, takes a lot of patience and understanding on Murph's part. And Mickey certainly wouldn't be able to succeed without his catcher, Lester, his battery mate who guides him through each and every game. He's aware of Mickey's weaknesses, yet he chooses to play to his strengths. Even an understanding friend like Lester can't get inside Mickey's head to see what he's thinking, but he does everything in his power to keep Mickey focused on the game at hand, giving Mickey the chance to shine on the field.<br />
<br />
And I think that that's what I enjoyed the most about this book - the message that we can all be great despite our disabilities, or flaws, or whatever's holding us back. As long as we're there for other people, other people will be there for us.
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Welcome to the Show</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1634508297?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/welcome-to-the-show-frank-nappi/1122378351?ean=9781634508292" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
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<br />
Prices/Formats: $9.99 ebook, $9.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Sports, YA, Special Needs<br />
Pages: 288<br />
Release: April 19, 2016<br />
Publisher: Sky Pony<br />
ISBN: 9781634508292<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898459-welcome-to-the-show" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<b>Video</b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JZfDb_i-TbU" width="300"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-FGf8L_A-p5I/VzSldUJFAyI/AAAAAAAAHbs/kN3XpxriK20smv6dBCEDqlxvtId27T_1ACLcB/s1600/nappirvc.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Frank Nappi has taught high school English and Creative Writing for over twenty five years. His debut novel, ECHOES FROM THE INFANTRY, received national attention, including MWSA's silver medal for outstanding fiction. His follow-up novel, THE LEGEND OF MICKEY TUSSLER, garnered rave reviews as well, including a movie adaptation of the touching story "A Mile in His Shoes" starring Dean Cain and Luke Schroder. Nappi continues to produce quality work, including SOPHOMORE CAMPAIGN, the intriguing sequel to the much heralded original story and the thriller, NOBODY HAS TO KNOW, which received an endorsement from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille. The third installment of Nappi's Mickey Tussler series, WELCOME TO THE SHOW, was released April 2016, and he is currently working on his next thriller, AS LONG AS WE BOTH SHALL LIVE. Nappi lives on Long Island with his wife Julia and their two sons, Nicholas and Anthony.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Frank:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.franknappi.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/authorfranknappi" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/franknappi" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/589342.Frank_Nappi" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/FrankNappibooks" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796142" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796142/" id="rcwidget_lshylnmm" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-84974916144325116262016-06-16T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-16T00:01:12.044-04:00M. Glenda Rosen - Dying to Be Beautiful series - 99¢ sale, excerpts & giveaway<a href="http://dyingtobebeautifulblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ZiI0W9yiX_E/Vwwd4zh3goI/AAAAAAAAHaE/VvbAYus6_ocHFZZkzrwC9lqb21g21qGXQ/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tuDornXXq8Y/VwwjL4byU2I/AAAAAAAAHaQ/EmHM-pgbJHgGiK0naeYhSadyuWGgV3EmQ/s320/book1cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>BOOK ONE: WITHOUT A HEAD</b><i><br /><br />Saturday Morning, 6:00am<br /><br />
The head in the sink stared up at her. Darcy Monroe, the owner of a popular, chic hair salon was used to this. Only this time, the head was there without a body.<br /><br />
Chapter One: The Murder<br /><br />
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.<br /><br />
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons. A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.<br /><br />
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish setter sitting next to her.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
<br />
<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
<br />
<b>Chapter 1<br />
The Murder</b><br />
<br />
Saturday, 6:10 A.M.<br />
<br />
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.<br />
<br />
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.<br />
<br />
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish Setter sitting next to her.<br />
<br />
As a well-respected private investigator in the area, she told the salon owner, “I’ll be right there, and don’t touch anything until the police arrive.”<br />
<br />
Jenna knew they needed to secure the business as a crime scene and Coroner Doc Bishop and Head of Forensics Lara Stern had to be brought in as well.<br />
<br />
“Troy, someone left a head, without the body, in a shampoo bowl at Darcy’s Salon. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”<br />
<br />
”Damn it, Jenna, I nearly spilled my coffee listening to this bizarre message. I’ll be there within the half hour. Meantime, I’ll ask Lara to get over there to check the crime scene for prints and other possible evidence and for Doc to arrange to bring the head to the morgue. We’ll want to look at it there, after he’s had a chance to determine how it was cut off and anything else he might find.”<br />
<br />
Detective Johnson hung up.<br />
<br />
He and Jenna had worked together and known each other for a long time. They clearly trusted each other. He knew she would follow police protocol at the crime scene.<br />
<br />
Saturday, as always was an exceptionally busy day, “in season” at Darcy’s Salon, which is why she had gotten there so early. She always wanted the salon looking perfect, ready for stylists and clients, who this day had appointments beginning at 7 am.<br />
<br />
Located off the main avenue of this posh resort at the East End of Long Island, less than ninety miles from Manhattan, the salon was known for catering to the rich and famous, as well as some of wanna-be customers, primping for weekend parties and fundraising events.<br />
<br />
The salon was truly beautiful with warm color tones and soft matching leather client chairs facing gold (well, fake gold), trimmed mirrors. There was a reception area with the latest issues of fashion magazines from Paris and Rome, and a few of the more popular Hampton rags, like <i>Dan’s Papers</i> were spread out on a marble table, next to it a coffee machine offering gourmet flavored coffee and teas.<br />
<br />
Most of the women who came to Darcy’s Salon had plenty of money, some from their own success, although others were arm candy for much older, wealthy men. Sometimes one of them would joke (maybe not) that they were “Dying To Be Beautiful” like some of the famous models and celebrities, many of who summered in the Hamptons.<br />
<br />
“Jenna, you’ve seen how difficult and fussy they can be, and their egos—they’re constantly seeking confirmation of how beautiful they look. They want to come to a high-end salon, expecting to be treated like royalty. And believe me, we do.”<br />
<br />
Darcy Monroe was only too glad to charge megabucks for her services since it included a whole lot of catering to their whims and demands. Beauty could indeed be expensive in The Hamptons. The chatter amongst the clients, the eight hair stylists, three manicurists and several assistants meant gossip was a basic ingredient of conversation. The story about the body without a head, and the head found in the salon, was sure to explode through The Hamptons. It certainly had all the elements of a soap opera.<br />
<br />
“My god, Jenna, the gossip about this mess is going to be like a volcano spilling over this town.”
</div>
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Dying to Be Beautiful: Without a Head</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Be-Beautiful-Mysteries-Without-ebook/dp/B01BTMZA16?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries-m-glenda-rosen/1123451946?ean=9781483445304" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries/id1082721139?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="color: red;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b></h2>
<h4>
<i>runs June 1-30, 2016 </i></h4>
Prices/Formats: <strike>$2.99</strike> ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 140<br />
Release: February 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Lulu<br />
ISBN: 9781483445304<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29295731-dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QjtRs23jxHQ/VwwjL6K-kRI/AAAAAAAAHaU/rRGLTWxwFVkbjECBhsumHQoYD80JEKKFg/s320/book2cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>BOOK TWO: FASHION QUEEN</b><i><br /><br />Monday, 6:45am<br />
<br />
Kevin Larson swam in his pool nearly every morning. Going on sixty-five, he prided himself on being in good shape.<br />
<br />
Walking toward the small pool house, off to the left of the pool, he noticed a light was on. He was certain he turned it off the night before. Strange, he thought.<br />
<br />
Even stranger, lying in a different sort of pool—blood—was his long time friend and lover, fashion designer Andre Yellen. Yellen was stuffed into one of the gowns he had designed and a wearing a blond wig.<br />
<br />
The gown had been auctioned off the night before at a huge Hamptons fundraiser.<br />
<br />
People in the Hamptons were certainly dying to be beautiful.
</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
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<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
<br />
<b>Chapter 1<br />
THE GOWN</b><br />
<br />
Monday, 7:30 a.m.<br />
<br />
Detective Troy Johnson was at Larson’s house when Jenna arrived. He had covered the victim with a large beach towel until the coroner and forensics arrived. [deleted “He and”] Sergeant Stan Miller, who had taken the call, accompanied him and was presently attempting to hold back the media. They had heard about Yellen’s death on the police scanner, and in no time, the active crime scene was quite a wild sight.<br />
<br />
It was 6:30 A.M. when she had received the call from Johnson that he was on his way to Kevin Larson’s house: “Jenna, there’s been a murder. Designer Andre Yellen, the Fashion Queen, was found dead this morning at the home of movie mogul Kevin Larson. He gave her the address and exactly where it was located, “past the windmill at the edge of Southampton.”<br />
<br />
“More like the situation was at the edge of reason,” Jenna thought.<br />
<br />
“Jenna, they’re acting like a bunch of hungry vultures. Help! These are your people. Well, they’re reporters like you used to be. The homeowner is either in shock or just completely uncooperative except for telling me where and when he found Yellen’s body.”<br />
<br />
Jenna sighed, “Sure, I can’t say no to such a lovely invitation.”<br />
<br />
The death of Andre Yellen was big news.<br />
<br />
Andre Yellen was squeezed—really, truly squeezed—into a beautiful ocean blue, sleeveless, silk gown he had designed and donated for a fundraiser the evening before. The size-8 dress was torn at all the seams. Yellen, in his early fifties, 5’9” and clearly out of shape, was more like a size-18-plus, and stuffed into a dress way, way too small for him.<br />
<br />
As a designer for major celebrities for nearly twenty-five years, Yellen was a man about town who loved both the ladies and the men, or so it had been gossiped around the East End of Long Island, also known as The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
After all, this is THE HAMPTONS, and all sorts of lifestyles are accepted, where choices are supposedly not judged, and relationships are not restricted by conventional boundaries. Unfortunately, there are always those determined to exercise their own brand of severe judgment.<br />
<br />
However, there was no evidence this murder had anything to do with narrow minds. Not yet, anyhow. In fact, it wasn’t clear at all what this murder was about—or who had committed it.<br />
<br />
Private Investigator Jenna Preston was familiar with many celebrities who lived or vacationed on the East End. Before becoming an investigative reporter, she was entertainment and social events reporter for the local daily paper and had interviewed quite a few of the “anointed” as she had once called them. Gossip columnists covered the rest.<br />
<br />
Jenna was regularly hired by law firms, insurance companies and businesses for corporate fraud issues. She also had an arrangement and relationship with the local police—especially when it came to murder investigations. Some of the people she had once written about also tried to hire her for personal investigations and for, what she considered, ridiculous reasons. Such complaints included some new fence being too high or people walking on the beach in front of someone’s home.<br />
<br />
Most of these cases she didn’t accept.<br />
<br />
“For me, it’s about justice. We all have reasons, even life experiences motivating our passions. I have mine for what I do,” Jenna told a local reporter whose paper was doing a story on crime in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
Jenna had a solid reputation for being smart, resourceful and most definitely charming—without an attitude—which was different from many of the people who summered in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
She did love nice clothes, including the red shoes or red boots she almost always wore.<br />
<br />
“Hey,” she laughed once when Troy made fun of her red shoes, “you wear a cowboy hat most of the time, so don’t make fun of me, Tex.”<br />
<br />
Jenna and Troy worked together professionally almost as soon as she had become a licensed private detective. It was a small police force, often stretched thin during the summer season. Because they actually had few experienced investigators, he had requested and been given approval by his captain to use a discretionary fund to hire Jenna on an as-needed basis. She was often a member of his investigative team, usually for murders.<br />
<br />
Lately, there didn’t seem to be any shortage of them.<br />
<br />
Slender and almost 5’5,” yet always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, sometimes pulled back in a ponytail when she was working. She also had deep blue eyes. With more than a hint of spunk and mischief about her, she was definitely considered attractive.<br />
<br />
Jenna’s new romance, Dave, thought so!
</div>
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Dying to Be Beautiful: Fashion Queen</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1483449157?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
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<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/dying-to-be-beautiful-mystery/id1114048910?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<h2>
<b><span style="color: red;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b> </h2>
<div>
<h4>
<i>runs June 1-30, 2016 </i></h4>
</div>
Prices/Formats: <strike>$2.99</strike> ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 132<br />
Release: June 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Lulu<br />
ISBN: 9781483449159<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29864465-dying-to-be-beautiful-fashion-queen?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-6-0bbGToPrQ/VwwjQUHaE0I/AAAAAAAAHaY/_0ZbDR1KU1Ux94PhYzYVl-u3bEm4wvCPQ/s320/IMG_1095.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
M. Glenda Rosen is the author of <i>The Woman’s Business Therapist: Eliminate the MindBlocks and RoadBlocks to Success</i>, and award-winning <i>My Memoir Workbook</i>. For over fifteen years, she helped numerous authors develop and market their books, and presented writing programs in New York, The Hamptons, New Mexico and Carmel, California, on “Encouraging and Supporting the Writer Within You!” She's the founder and owner of a successful marketing and public relations agency for twenty-five years.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with M. Glenda:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.dyingtobebeautiful.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MarciaGRosen" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/writermysteries" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bfrom_nav%5D=true&query=M.+Glenda+Rosen" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://dyingtobebeautifulblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
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Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-60959694771738371052016-06-13T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-13T00:01:12.851-04:00Jerome Charyn - A Loaded Gun - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://aloadedgunblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-wdGolsbRZoE/VvVky9LiIeI/AAAAAAAAHZQ/ylbZFYG0Sg0i9kjL0lMkwcpdt-IKuCbhA/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-tGz1tD4iV4s/VvVrjYgyhII/AAAAAAAAHZc/kOwwb11lsDY5OvJTMWyshwM2Vm4ehGumg/s320/A%2BLoaded%2BGun%2BMock%2BCover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged poet who wrote:<br /><br />
My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—<br />
…<br />
Though I than He— may longer live<br />
He longer must—than I—<br />
For I have but the power to kill,<br />
Without—the power to die—<br /><br />
Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Author Jerome Charyn would make a good detective. I thoroughly enjoyed following him as he hunted down clues about Emily Dickinson. The man certainly moved heaven and earth in order to find the "real" her, going wherever her ghost led him from shadow box makers to ballerinas to daguerreotype dealers and everywhere in between. He traced her footsteps from her sparse bedroom inside the family homestead in Amherst, Massachusetts into the dark, hidden corners of her mind, and still the trail ran cold.<br />
<br />
Charyn's agitation at being stymied time and again simmered delightfully off the page, and I felt myself getting disgruntled right along with him. How could such a pivotal figure in American literature, simply hide in plain sight before disappearing into the ether? He states his case in an anecdote about the famed "Uncle Tom's Cabin" authoress, Harriet Beecher Stowe, upon her visit to the prominent Dickinson household. Charyn hypothesizes that the two women, despite sharing a deep understanding about the power of the written word, never actually met. There is no historical record of it, and due to Emily's hermit-like tendencies, it's unlikely they crossed paths. But to think that the greater literary talent didn't receive any of the acclaim the other did during her lifetime, is one of those moments in the book where you lift your eyes to the skies and scream: why?<br />
<br />
That's where the source of Charyn's agitation stems from, and I totally understand it. He wants more for her than she wanted for herself. His admiration for her talent, her unique voice, her courage to break boundaries is expressed with unfailing admiration and respect in this homage to her. Writing this book is his way of paying tribute to a genius as he tries to get as close as he can to her, but like every man before him, he fails every time, catching merely a glimpse of her wan face before she fades right back into the shadows.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>A Loaded Gun</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Loaded-Gun-Emily-Dickinson-Century-ebook/dp/B01AR51G0K?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-loaded-gun-jerome-charyn/1121185872" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-loaded-gun/id1076133268?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blpress.org/books/a-loaded-gun/" target="_blank">Bellevue Literary Press</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $11.99 ebook, $19.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Literary Criticism<br />
Pages: 265<br />
Release: March 15, 2016<br />
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press<br />
ISBN: 9781934137987<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24796140-a-loaded-gun" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<b>Video</b><br />
<br />
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hZpXxBJRbXM" width="300"></iframe><br />
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<b>Excerpts</b><br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://lithub.com/neither-mad-nor-motherless-on-emily-dickinsons-self-creation/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read <b>Excerpt One</b>.<br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://blog.longreads.com/2016/03/15/a-loaded-gun-the-real-emily-dickinson/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read <b>Excerpt Two</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<b>Reading Groups</b><br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://blpress.org/reading-group-guides/reading-group-guide-for-a-loaded-gun/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> for a <b>Reading Guide</b>.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://4.bp.blogspot.com/-yTLLUpjpDgo/VWzHk7KyMKI/AAAAAAAAHUY/WkbMn0a0BBg/s1600/Jerome%2B%2526%2BChloe%2BI%2Bby%2BJorg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Jerome Charyn was born and raised on the mean streets of the Bronx. He graduated <i>cum laude</i> from Columbia College. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Rice, was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the City University of New York and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the American University of Paris. Charyn is a Guggenheim Fellow and has twice won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His stories and articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Paris Review, Esquire, American Scholar, New York Review of Books, New York Times, Ellery Queen and many other publications. Charyn's most recent books are <i>The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham</i> and <i>Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories</i>. His latest book is <i>A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century</i>.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with <i>A Loaded Gun:</i></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeOfEmilyDickinson/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/emilysecretlife" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24796140-a-loaded-gun?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
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<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-36449355948743502982016-06-01T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-01T00:01:00.136-04:00Kathleen Gerard - The Thing Is - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-WPg87m7yAvo/VuBINgCnHrI/AAAAAAAAHYk/dFwXbp7ziro/s1600-r/banner2.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://3.bp.blogspot.com/-eUwXO-Cp6_Y/VuBIs16lg4I/AAAAAAAAHYo/dzdccLjhZsw/s1600/TheThingIs-KGerard-300%2Bpixels.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Can a woman mired deep in the throes of grief have her heart and soul rallied by a therapy dog named Prozac who possesses supernatural wisdom and a canine Mensa IQ?
Meredith Mancuso is depressed. Ever since the death of her fiancé, she has shrunk from the world. Even with her successful writing career, she's not motivated to work. When her sister, Monica, begs for a favor, Meredith wants nothing more than to say no. But she’s ultimately roped into pet-sitting an orphaned Yorkshire terrier named Prozac.
Blessed with spiritual wisdom and a high IQ, Prozac is an active pet therapy dog. To heal broken-hearted Meredith, he rallies his fan club at Evergreen Gardens, an independent living facility, where he visits each week.
Prozac and the community of resilient older folks challenged by losses of their own propel Meredith, often against her will, back into the land of the living. Meredith learns that most people carry some sort of burden, but it's still possible to find meaning, purpose, and joy—and even love—along the way.
THE THING IS—a perfect read for fans of General Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, and Dog and Pet Lovers!</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
I never really thought about what the world must look like from a dog's perspective. But after reading the dog-centric chapters of Kathleen Gerard's new book, I now have a really good idea. Talk about living with all five senses turned up to the max. I don't know how they do it! Their noses are so sharp they can detect what we last had to eat. They feel every fiber of the carpet as they rub their backs across it. But it's a sobering reality that the majority of the time our furry, four-legged friends are at the mercy of us humans, as the surprise ending demonstrates. Thankfully, for the most part, they usually know how to outsmart us.<br />
<br />
Especially when you're a doggie genius like Prozac the Yorkie. I laughed every time he'd run under the couch (or under the bed), thinking he was out of sight, even though his little tail would still be sticking out. But the kicker was that he always ran for cover whenever Meredith had to take him somewhere. The little bugger knew just what he was doing. Knowing how depressed she was, he wanted to get her to react to him in any way possible. I couldn't blame him for misbehaving. He didn't want to become yet another household chore on her to-do list. He wanted her to pay attention to him and love on him by giving him a pat on the head or a scratch behind the ears. He was out to wake her up and get her to see what was right in front of her face instead of living inside her head so much.<br />
<br />
Being a dog owner myself it made me stop and think about how my dog may be viewing me (especially when I'm tired or in a hurry or not in the mood to play with him), and it made me strive to be better with him. Although I spoil him to no end, it made me want to shower him with as much TLC as I possibly can while he's still with me (and not with Galileo, Michelangelo, Joan Rivers or wherever he's going next … Not sure what I'm getting at? Then that's why you HAVE to read this book, just to broaden your perspective on what love is.) Thanks Prozac for reminding me that dog lives are short and I need to cherish every single moment with my little spirit guide while I have him.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>The Thing Is</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thing-Kathleen-Gerard-ebook/dp/B01B55MZY2?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-thing-is-kathleen-gerard/1123327681?ean=2940152772616" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-thing-is/id1079207409?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Romantic Comedy<br />
Pages: 299<br />
Release: February 9, 2016<br />
Publisher: Red Adept<br />
ISBN: 9781940215587<br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26014424-the-thing-is" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-uUqzHCMGDMc/VuBIugpxwGI/AAAAAAAAHYw/9kDfhU-FGjw/s1600/C1IUT2euRTS._UX250_.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Kathleen Gerard writes across genres. Her work has been awarded many literary prizes and has been published in magazines, journals, widely anthologized and broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). Kathleen writes and reviews books for <b><a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/search.html?sitesearch=kathleen+gerard&search=search" target="_blank">Shelf Awareness</a></b>. Kathleen's woman-in-jeopardy novel, IN TRANSIT, won "Best Romantic Fiction" at the New York Book Festival.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Kathleen:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.thethingis-thenovel.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/kathleengerard.writer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.twitter.com/kathleengerard" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2865523.Kathleen_Gerard" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.kathleengerard.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
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<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-53675963604510278692015-11-16T00:01:00.000-05:002015-11-16T00:01:00.762-05:00Michael J. Bowler - Warrior Kids - Review & Giveaway <a href="http://warriorkidsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Q_ZAw9Uhpcg/VfdKgoH6SGI/AAAAAAAAHXc/_hWP0NA0dzo/s1600-r/banner2.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-OQHfC_-WoLI/Vg67vZfl7aI/AAAAAAAAHXw/Xda8Z4l_dKQ/s1600/cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The future looks bleak unless eighteen year-old Lance and his New Camelot Earth Warriors can save the planet from catastrophic climate change. </i><i>Spurred by twelve year-olds Billy, Enya, Itzamna, and his ten-year-old brother, Chris, Lance creates a branch of Earth Warriors, a youth-led movement designed to save the earth from its greatest enemy – greed. </i><i>His involvement leads to Earth Warrior crews springing up all across America. Millions of kids leap into action, paralyzing the country and alarming the rich and powerful. </i><i>Having adopted his father’s philosophy of doing what’s right, rather than what’s easy, Lance makes serious enemies when he calls out New Camelot donors who represent fossil fuel or other polluting industries, and then barely escapes a series of "accidents” designed to kill him. </i><i>When he challenges the United States Congress to step up and act immediately on the climate crisis, the attacks on him escalate. With the majority of America's kids on his side, Lance and his young Earth Warriors prepare for the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, where they will call upon world leaders to stop talking about sustainability and start acting on it. </i><i>But whoever wants him dead isn't giving up. Will Lance and his crew live long enough to even get to Paris? </i><i><i>Warrior Kids</i> is a standalone tale set within the <i>Children of the Knight</i> universe.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Iztali Canche is a young environmental activist. With his mother's help, he created Earth Warriors, a movement to get kids and teens involved in getting the public to consume less and reuse more. Passionate about the cause since the age of ten, at fifteen he's now a global celebrity, well known for speaking out on behalf of the planet.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"A leader never celebrates himself - he celebrates the accomplishments of those he leads."</b></blockquote>
<br />
And that's where Iztali gets into trouble. His presentations now consist of performing hip-hop numbers to entertain the crowd instead of educating them on the facts. His social media feed is full of shirtless photos of himself. He's lost his center, giving in to the superficiality of his fame.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Shift people away from thinking about themselves all the time and spend more time thinking about others."</b></blockquote>
<br />
That's supposed to be the emphasis of his message, but instead he's telling kids in the audience that they're consuming too much even though he's doing the same thing. Taking a cross-Atlantic flight to attend an international conference on how to reduce one's carbon footprint, instead of simply Skyping from his home in New Mexico. At the People's Climate March in New York, he doesn't tell marchers to pick up their trash, and his lackadaisical attitude results in a significant amount of garbage being left on the city streets.<br />
<br />
When it comes to addressing the critics of the Green Movement, Iztali arrogantly calls them "deniers." He doesn't sit down and talk with the prominent scientists who are against global warming, stubbornly refusing to learn where they're coming from. He's right, and they're wrong, simple as that.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"We are all indigenous to this earth."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Promoting himself at nature's expense, he begins to care more about what people think of him than in mobilizing kids to get out there and do something. Since Iztali is of Native American descent, his speeches become dangerously misleading when he implies that everything from increased emissions to oil fracking is the fault of the white man, even when he's well aware that China and India are two of the world's biggest polluters. Instead of bringing people together, he's driving them apart.<br />
<br />
Until he meets up with a very special teen who's able to redirect his course—Sir Lance of Camelot. With Excalibur in hand, Lance forms a coalition with Iztali, working with him to inspire young people toward making a positive change. They address a joint session of Congress. They even speak at a United Nations summit on climate change.<br />
<br />
Even role models need role models, and Lance saves Iztali from falling prey to his ego, getting him to remember that it's not just about him. It's about the over seven billion people who call earth home.
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Warrior Kids</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/WARRIOR-KIDS-Camelot-Knight-Cycle-ebook/dp/B01686MJYE/" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
Formats: ebook, paperback<br />
Genre: Middle Grade<br />
Pages: 211<br />
Release: October 6, 2015<br />
Publisher: self-published<br />
ISBN: 9780990871149<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26530788-warrior-kids" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Special message from the author:</b><br />
<br />
<b>THE eBOOK OF WARRIOR KIDS IS FREE FOR EDUCATORS.</b> It is available in the following formats: PDF, Kindle (mobi), and ePub (Nook and iBooks). In addition, teachers can purchase the paperbacks at the per unit cost of $3.08 (plus shipping and applicable tax.) Educators can contact the author via the Warrior Kids Facebook Group (<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505241449796357/" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505241449796357/</a></b>) or directly by email – <b><a href="mailto:stuntshark2.0@gmail.com">stuntshark2.0@gmail.com</a></b>. For paperback orders, the author will generate an invoice from Createspace (the physical publisher of the book) and payment can be made through PayPal. There is no profit motive and he will earn nothing off the paperbacks sold to teachers. Per unit cost and shipping rates are exactly as Createspace charges him – no markup. As an educator, he has always sought supplemental reading material that would engage his students on important issues. Having found very little, he decided to write one and make it readily available.<br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ISjz4vaNqL0/Um_OkcJISDI/AAAAAAAAGxg/5IeO6ArfAAU/s320/bowler.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels—<i>A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time</i> (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and <i>The Knight Cycle</i>, comprised of five books: <i>Children of the Knight</i> (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>Running Through A Dark Place</i> (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America; <i>Spinner</i> (Winner Hollywood Book Festival; Honorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Reader’s Favorite; Literary Classics Seal of Approval), and <i>Warrior Kids</i>.<br />
<br />
His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.<br />
<br />
He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.<br />
<br />
He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun than the actual movies.<br />
<br />
He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.
He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.<br />
<br />
He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.<br />
<br />
His goal as a YA author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.michaeljbowler.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/michaeljbowlerauthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/BradleyWallaceM" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6938109.Michael_J_Bowler" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://sirlancesays.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljbowler.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/michaelbowler/pins/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://instagram.com/stuntshark" target="_blank">Instagram</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://warriorkidsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796137" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796137/" id="rcwidget_taovxeyw" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-52907591653700930642015-11-02T00:01:00.000-05:002015-11-02T00:01:00.201-05:00Leta Serafim - When the Devil's Idle - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://whenthedevilsidle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-Uf-24a8eGkA/Vfcw8FB8fEI/AAAAAAAAHW4/Eg2UX15tc3A/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-maFAavXgAU4/Vfcxq6-Ch5I/AAAAAAAAHXE/cLQPJc24tL4/s320/when_idle_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />In the Book of Revelation, written by St. John on the Greek island of Patmos, it was said a pale horse would appear whose rider was death, others would cry out for vengeance, and the stars of heaven would fall to the earth. Death does indeed come to Patmos when a German tourist is found murdered in the garden of one of the island’s fabled estates. Yiannis Patronas, Chief Officer of the Chios police, is called in to investigate. He summons his top detective, Giorgos Tembelos, and his friend and amateur sleuth, Papa Michalis, to assist him. What the policemen discover will disturb them long after the conclusion of the case. Only six people were at the house at the time of the murder—the gardener and housekeeper, the victim’s son and his wife and their two children, a boy of seven and a teenage girl of sixteen. All appear to be innocent. But access to the isolated estate is severely restricted. Surrounded by high walls, it has only one entrance: a metal gate that was bolted at the time of the crime. Patronas can only conclude that one of the six is a killer. He continues to probe, uncovering the family’s many secrets. Some are very old, others more recent. All are horrifying. But which of these secrets led to murder? </i><i>Book 2 of the <i>Greek Islands Mystery</i> series, which began with <i>The Devil Takes Half</i>.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Patronas is a cop. He slogs through society's underbelly for a living and when he comes home he expects some measure of domestic tranquility. But his ex-wife Dimitra was unable to provide that for him. That's why he's not married anymore.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"What he had seen had stayed with him, eaten into his soul like acid."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Now he's investigating the murder of an elderly German tourist on the culturally significant Greek isle of Patmos, the same place where, ironically enough, St. John wrote the Book of Revelation. The case doesn't get any easier when it turns out the victim was a member of the Gestapo during World War II, a sadistic Nazi, hiding in plain sight.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Better to live with the devil than a mean woman."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Patronas's job is never easy. He viewed his marriage as an escape, something that would take him away from all the darkness and death, and he's bitter that instead Dimitra only made life harder for him.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"That his wife who'd kiss the bones of dead saints by the hundreds was more than a little reluctant when it came to kissing him."</b></blockquote>
<br />
In his eyes, Dimitra was frigid, whiny, and manipulative. So when Patronas checks into a seaside hotel to set up a home base to conduct his inquiry into the murder, he's immediately taken by the voluptuous innkeeper, Antigone Balis.<br />
<br />
She doesn't hide the fact that she's a loose woman, fawning over her male patrons in sheer, low-cut dresses. Morality has no place in her life. She's out to make a quick buck and stay in business any way she can. She delights in seducing Patronas with her siren song as he struggles to resist the temptation of getting involved with her.<br />
<br />
To curb his lust, he goes swimming at night, alone, clinging to a buoy and wishing he had a good woman to cling on to instead. Antigone indicates that she's more than willing to go skinny dipping with him, but he turns her down.<br />
<br />
Things change when Patronas learns that Dimitra is leaving Greece and moving to Italy to make a fresh start. He calls her, wanting to say goodbye, and Dimitra surprises him, wishing him well and putting aside any hard feelings that remain. Her selfless act frees him from the regret that's been holding him back, more than having sex with Antigone ever could.<br />
<br />
Patronas ends up arresting those responsible for the crime, but the depravity behind the killing gives him no peace. The only thing that brings any light to his life is the blessing Dimitra gives him, hoping one day he'll be happy again.
<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>When the Devil's Idle</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603819983?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-the-devils-idle-leta-serafim/1121863864?ean=9781603819985" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/566886" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></b><br />
<br />
Formats: $6.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery Suspense Thriller<br />
Pages: 192<br />
Release: September 1, 2015<br />
Publisher: Coffeetown Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603819985<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26057071-when-the-devil-s-idle" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
<br />
<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
The police cruiser arrived later that day and Giorgos Tembelos and Papa Michalis disembarked, the priest inching down the ramp like a tortoise.<br />
<br />
“I think the identity of the old man is the key,” Papa Michalis announced when they’d all gathered in a taverna to review the case. “I analyzed it and that is my conclusion. It simply cannot be anything else. It has elements of an Agatha Christie story, one of her locked-room mysteries like <i>And Then There Was None</i>. Nobody else had access; <i>ergo</i>, one of the people inside the estate, a family member or a servant, must be the guilty party.”<br />
<br />
“Anyone could have gained access,” Patronas pointed out. “The Bechtels were careless. They didn’t keep the door locked and there were keys lying around everywhere.”<br />
<br />
“No matter. It’s got to be one of them. We can interview other people forever, but it will eventually come back to them. Them and them alone.”<br />
<br />
“I think Father is right,” Tembelos said. “The identity of the victim is the important thing here. There was nothing about him in any of the European databases I checked. I called our counterparts in Germany and asked them to run him through their system, but I doubt they’ll find anything. It’s like he never existed. We need to establish who he was. Could be he changed his name.”<br />
<br />
“Why would he change his name?” Patronas wondered.<br />
<br />
“I don’t know.“<br />
<br />
The four of them were sitting outside by the water, it being too hot to venture inside. A haze hung over the sea, and the air was very still. Suddenly, a soft breeze rose up and stirred the tamarisk trees that lined the shore, setting their feathery branches in motion. Patronas liked the rustling sound the trees made, the relief the wind brought. It was almost as if he could hear the earth breathe.<br />
<br />
I’ll go swimming tonight, he told himself, looking out at the harbor. Float on my back and look up at the stars. Frolic like a dolphin.<br />
<br />
Maybe he’d ask Antigone Balis to join him. He pictured her dripping wet, that long hair of hers hanging down over one shoulder like Botticelli’s Venus. Adrift in his vision, he subsequently lost track of the conversation.<br />
<br />
“Hey, boss, you with us?” Tembelos nudged him with his elbow.<br />
<br />
Patronas made a show of straightening his back, stretching. “Sorry, it’s the heat. Always makes me sleepy.”<br />
<br />
“You were grinning.”<br />
<br />
“So what if I was? A man’s allowed to grin.”<br />
<br />
“I don’t know, Yiannis,” the priest said. “I think when one is discussing a homicide, it might be better if one dispensed with grinning. At such a time, such behavior is unseemly. It makes one appear insensitive at the very least.”<br />
<br />
“Thank you for that, Father. In the future, I will dispense with grinning.” He tapped his pencil on his notebook. “So, to sum up, we have nothing concrete in the case, no witnesses or physical evidence, nothing that will lead us to the killer.”<br />
<br />
“Gardener’s clean,” Tembelos reported. “I ran his fingerprints and there was nothing. There was a match on the shoes, too, exactly like he told us.”<br />
<br />
“What about the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou?”<br />
<br />
“Same thing. The case is heating up. If we don’t catch the killer, it could get ugly. Ministry’s already clamoring for action.”<br />
<br />
“We need to turn the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou, inside out, also the members of the family,” Patronas said. “Check their history. Something’s going on here, but as of yet, I haven’t established what it is.”<br />
<br />
“You can’t rule out a random act of violence,” the priest said, “directed at them because of their nationality.”<br />
<br />
“Worse would be if it were a case of mistaken identity,” Patronas said, “the killer targeting the owners—the Bauers—and killing one of their guests by mistake.”<br />
<br />
He was thinking of Charlie Manson, who along with his disciples had wiped out six people without blinking an eye, not realizing his intended victim was a subletter. “Personally, I think someone targeted the family for reasons we don’t know. The cat, the old man. It stands to reason.”<br />
<br />
“I’d start with the housekeeper,” Tembelos said. “What she said doesn’t add up. That bit about coming to Patmos on holiday and staying on as a maid.”<br />
<br />
“Unlikely, Giorgos. She’s in her seventies.”<br />
<br />
Papa Michalis continued to promote the locked room concept. Citing a case in <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>, he described how the killer had released a cobra through a fake vent and activated its poisonous energy by whistling. “ ‘Oh, my God, it was the band,’ the victim shouted, ‘the speckled band.’”<br />
<br />
“Fiction, Father, fiction,” Patronas said impatiently. “Remember? We discussed it.”<br />
<br />
“My point is if you are determined to kill someone, a lock is no deterrent. Sometimes murderers are ingenious. Using a cobra as a murder weapon is brilliant when you think about it. Absolutely brilliant. No fingerprints involved, no way to trace it back to you. The snake does all the work.”<br />
<br />
“I repeat, Father, there is no snake involved here. A stone maybe, but no snake.”<br />
<br />
“A stone? What makes you think that?”<br />
<br />
And around they went again, weighing the possibilities. The victim had been hit on the head, but with what? A hammer or a rock? A shovel or pickax? Rock, scissors, paper.<br />
<br />
Forget swimming, Patronas told himself. I might as well drown myself.</div>
<br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Nr_57Vre28k/Vfcxqe8j4FI/AAAAAAAAHXA/F8elJjXm5eM/s320/CIMG0997A.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Leta Serafim is the author of the <i>Greek Islands Mystery</i> series, published by the Coffeetown Press, as well as the historical novel, <i>To Look on Death No More</i>. She has visited over twenty-five islands in Greece and continues to divide her time between Boston and Greece.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Leta:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.letaserafim.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Leta-Serafim-768335269894253/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/serafimleta" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8274457.Leta_Serafim" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://whenthedevilsidle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796136" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796136/" id="rcwidget_ysi3itcb" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7761826305208318465.post-40253127952449265322015-10-26T00:01:00.000-04:002015-10-26T00:01:00.348-04:00Scott A. Lerner - The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thewiccanwitchofthemidwest.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-z_FagTga7rc/VddzYTjronI/AAAAAAAAHV4/XONht4EPV2g/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-K6hVByOGtho/Vdc_SDGdZQI/AAAAAAAAHVk/l8QheK79dXI/s1600/wiccan_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Samuel Roberts, a lawyer in Champaign, Illinois, has just moved to a new home to escape the memories of his old place—the stray body parts left by evil entities as well as traces of his relationship with Susan, who left him because he couldn’t stop risking both their lives trying to save the world. That leaves Sam free to fall in love again. Sam falls hard, suspiciously hard, for Bridget Gillis, a beautiful fortune teller who also happens to be a witch and a member of a coven. The village that encompasses the coven was founded by Bridget’s great-great aunt, also named Bridget and a dead ringer for her descendant. The new relationship quickly gets complicated. It is two days before Halloween, and Bridget is about to be tried by her fellow witches for the crime of practicing dark magic involving the blood of children. The punishment is to be burned at the stake. Bridget needs an advocate, and Sam is the perfect man for the job.<br /><br />
Sam brings in Bob, who is suspicious of his best buddy’s sudden passion. The two of them have until the Witching Hour on Halloween to clear Bridget’s name and find out who is killing the local children. As they comb the area for clues, quiz the locals, and take a crash course in witchcraft and Wiccan customs, Sam and Bob can’t shake the question: is Bridget a good witch or a bad witch?<br /><br />
The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest is the fourth book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons and The Fraternity of the Soul Eater.
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Sam is definitely NOT looking for love.<br />
<br />
After breaking up with his longtime girlfriend, he can't even stand to live in the same house anymore.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"I could feel her presence there, as if she were a ghost haunting the place."</b></blockquote>
<br />
He makes a fresh start in the country, moving into a new home whose backyard is ten feet away from a bustling pumpkin patch. However, he adamantly refuses to start dating again, and his best friend, Bob, is starting to get really frustrated with him.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"If you are as picky about potential dates as you are about pumpkins, then you will never find true love."</b></blockquote>
<br />
So Bob takes matters into his own hands, bringing Sam to get his Tarot cards read by a sexy fortune teller named Bridget. Sam's jaw just about hits the floor when he sees how insanely beautiful she is, thinking it's love at first sight—but Bridget seems to know better.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"For men it is often difficult to separate beauty from anything else."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Being around her, Sam admits, at least to himself, that Bridget clearly intimidates him. He can't picture himself, for instance, sitting around, watching a movie with her. Yet he has no problem admitting to the one and only thought that's been running through his head the whole time he's with her.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"I could imagine having sex with her."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Even though they just met.<br />
<br />
But when Bridget finds out that Sam's a lawyer, that changes everything. She appeals to his sense of duty, begging him to help her fight a murder charge that the other witches and warlocks of her community are bringing against her. And his lust for her body overrides his common sense. In the back of his mind, he knows she may just be using him to get her off, but he doesn't care. He wants her, and he takes her, when she offers herself to him.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"The parts of my body that did not have direct contact with her were jealous of the ones that did."</b></blockquote>
<br />
When Bob finds out that Sam has already gone well beyond the fortune teller/client relationship, he goes ballistic, fearing that Sam's foolishly put himself in danger by going against his better judgement.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"When it comes to relationships you are one of the most cautious people I know."</b></blockquote>
<br />
And as the details of Bridget's case emerge, Sam begins to wonder if his friend's right. Bridget's being charged with sacrificing innocent children through black magic. She vehemently denies the accusation, but as Sam delves deeper and deeper into the investigation, he's no longer all that sure about her innocence when the evidence starts mounting against her.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"I was in love with Bridget yet hated her at the same time."</b></blockquote>
<br />
When Bridget also doesn't take him into her bed again, and withholds the physical affection that he's craving, Sam gets perturbed, hating that she's treating him more like her pet than her lover. The final straw occurs when Sam uncovers a portrait of a witch, sprawled out naked in the middle of a pentagram, a witch known for practicing the dark arts, and he's thrown by its eerie resemblance to Bridget.<br />
<br />
Love is not always what it seems, and Sam is terrified that no matter what he does, Bridget's going to have the upper hand on him—just like she has from day one.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603812911?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wiccan-witch-of-the-midwest-scott-a-lerner/1122298339?ean=9781603812917" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller<br />
Pages: 230<br />
Release: October 31, 2015<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812917<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25885209-the-wiccan-witch-of-the-midwest" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<img align="left" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-aZN1LRKZywg/Un1H-0P8U9I/AAAAAAAAGzU/Fc-l2XTv0wI/s320/Scott+Lerner+in+color.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, <i>Cocaine Zombies</i>, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is <i>Ruler of Demons</i>. <i>The Fraternity of the Soul Eater</i> is book 3. Book 4, <i>The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest</i>, will be released on Halloween, 2015.<br />
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<b>Links to connect with Scott:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://scottlerner.camelpress.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ScottALernerAuthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/scottlernerauth" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6479067.Scott_A_Lerner" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thewiccanwitchofthemidwest.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796135" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796135/" id="rcwidget_s34w1mz4" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11439831197042202751noreply@blogger.com4