Michael J. McCann - Sorrow Lake - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Detective Inspector Ellie March of the Ontario Provincial Police is called in to investigate when a man from the village of Sparrow Lake is found shot to death, execution style, in a farmer's field in rural eastern Ontario.

Leading an inexperienced team of detectives, she probes beneath the wintry surface of the township to discover the victim had a dark secret--one that may endanger others in the community as well.

For young and enthusiastic Detective Constable Kevin Walker, the chance to work with Ellie March is an honour, until the situation turns ugly and unexpected betrayal threatens to destroy his promising career.

My Review

Ellie March is "the unhappiest person, like, ever."

Since she investigates gruesome murders for a living, her job probably has something to do with it. She's quite good at what she does, so good that the men she's in charge of, know it and don't necessarily like it. It's hard being the team leader, especially when:

"You're supposed to be perfect. The margin of error in this line of work is slim, at best. Forget the pity party."

But sometimes, she's still not taken seriously by her male colleagues. When they call her "our own palace princess" or make snide comments like, "she's not much to look at, but she seems pretty smart." She just tries not to let it show that it bothers her because she's sacrificed everything for her work. She's lost touch with her elderly parents after they went into a nursing home. Her ex-husband remarried, and their two daughters resent her for never making time for them. She has very few friends and doesn't have a boyfriend or a significant other. She's completely and utterly alone.

And with the grueling type of work that she does, it really gets to her sometimes. She has no one to come home to and cuddle up next to in bed and talk out her problems. She's left to her own resources. She practices tai chi to calm her nerves and methodically cleans her gun every morning, even though she's never had to fire it in the line of duty. In order to function on a day-to-day basis, she compartmentalizes, shutting out all the personal stuff and focusing only on the case at hand. In fact, she enjoys the silence her life provides because she has the time to sort out all the details of the case in her mind in order to catch the killer as quickly as possible.

But Ellie doesn't completely slip under everyone's radar. Her new partner, Kevin Walker, respects her crime-fighting abilities. He's young, and together they're working on his first homicide case. He knows he can learn a lot from her, if he just follows her lead and pays attention to the way that she handles herself. She even encourages him to continually ask questions, and not to make any assumptions, just so he can appear smart in front of his superiors.

Kevin even introduces her to his favorite hole-in-the-wall restaurant in town, The Silver Kettle, and that's where Ellie meets Skinny Jimmy, the gourmet chef who's now stuck being a short order cook. Skinny Jimmy rarely acknowledges anyone, and speaks to practically no one. He's a loner just like Ellie, but he takes a shine to her when she comes in with Kevin to pass out some police sketches of the murder suspect. He admires her no-nonsense demeanor and when she becomes a frequent customer, he has her Christmas dinner delivered to her door before a blizzard hits with detailed, handwritten instructions on how to serve it. When Kevin finds out about Skinny Jimmy's thoughtfulness, he's impressed since not people receive such one-on-one attention from him. Ellie broke through his shell.

Ellie's dedicated, and the people around her come to appreciate that. She wanted to be in law enforcement ever since her parents' shoe store was robbed when she was eleven years old. She felt terrified and helpless then, and she never wanted to feel that way again.

Sure, she may often hear, "never send a girl to do a man's job," but she doesn't care what anyone thinks of her. She gets up every morning and enjoys being a free agent, unencumbered to do what she does best—nailing the bad guys to the wall.

***

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Sorrow Lake can be purchased at:
Amazon
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Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $19.99 paperback
Pages: 316
ISBN: 9781927884027
Publisher: Plaid Raccoon Press
Release: April 30, 2015
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About the Author

Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned a Bachelor of Arts (Hons.) with a major in English Literature from Trent University in Peterborough, and a Master of Arts in English from Queen's University in Kingston, ON.

He served as Production Editor of Criminal Reports (Third Series) at Carswell Legal Publications (Western), where he was also Co-ordinator of Law Reports, before joining Canada Customs, now the Canada Border Services Agency. While at CBSA he was a training specialist, project officer, and national program manager before leaving public service to write novels full time.

Mike now lives and writes in Oxford Station, Ontario. He is married to supernatural novelist Lynn L. Clark. They have one son.

Mike is a member of the Crime Writers of Canada and the Horror Writers Association.

He is an author of crime fiction and supernatural thrillers. His Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel series includes Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder, The Fregoli Delusion, and The Rainy Day Killer. He is also the author of the supernatural thriller The Ghost Man. His most recent novel, Sorrow Lake, is the first book of his new March and Walker Crime Novel series set in eastern Ontario, Canada.

Links to connect with Michael:
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Lesley A. Diehl - A Sporting Murder - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

It's smooth sailing for Eve Appel and her friend Madeleine, owners of Second to None Consignment Shop in rural Florida's Sabal Bay, land of swamps, cowboys, and lots and lots of 'gators. Eve and her detective boyfriend Alex have joined Madeleine and her new beau David Wilson for a pleasure cruise on his boat. But cloudy, dangerous waters lie ahead. A near fatal encounter with Blake Reed, David's supremely nasty neighbor, is soon followed by a shooting death on the dividing line between David and Blake's land. Both men run sport-hunting reserves, but Blake imports "exotics" from Africa and promotes gator killing, while David stays within the law, pointing clients toward the abundant quail and turkey as well as the wild pigs that ravage the landscape. Nevertheless, when a mutual client is killed, it is David who is arrested and charged with murder.

Blake's nastiness is only exceeded by that of his wife, Elvira, who forces Eve and Madeleine out of their shop, intending to replace it with a consignment shop of her own. It seems that bad luck looms over them all, even Eve's brawny and hard-to-resist Miccosukee Indian friend Sammy, whose nephew has disappeared. As the case against David grows stronger and his friends' misfortunes multiply, Eve and her strange and diverse group of friends, including her ex, a mobster, her grandma, and Sammy's extended family, band together to take on the bad guys. But the waters are getting muddier and more troubled, and Eve and Madeleine may end up inundated in every sense of the word.

My Review

I'd love to introduce you to Eve Appel, but I think she'd do a much better job introducing herself.

"I find chasing down killers more exciting than selling fashionable used clothing." 

"Crying is not something I often give into; I'm more of a 'turn your troubles into anger and blame someone else' gal." 

"Nobody ever accused me of having generous thoughts about those I don't like."

In A SPORTING MURDER, Eve is often described as insensitive, a bully, and immune to the needs of others whenever she wants her way. Not exactly the most flattering traits one usually associates with a main character, but Eve's sense of humor redeems her in more ways than one.

"There's no worse romance spoiler than peanut butter breath." 

"How many killings can one sassy gal stumble into?" 

"There's nothing like work to take your mind off murder. Well, there are other things too. Like sex, food, dancing…"

She can be a tad self-absorbed, but her best friend and business partner, Madeleine, is the selfless balm to her constant dose of assertiveness. They run a consignment clothing shop together, but aggressive just isn't Madeleine's style. She's a petite redhead to Eve's tall, sexy blond. She worries about the money while Eve always assumes that thinks will work out. Madeleine is clumsy and naive, but she holds fast to her principles, refusing to let Eve talk her into asking a mob boss for a small business loan they so desperately need.

But when Madeleine's boyfriend, David, is convicted of first-degree murder, Eve tries to protect her from all of the ugly details related to the case. But this only angers Madeleine more when she feels that Eve doesn't think she can handle the truth, that she's too much of a wimp. Eve tries to help Madeleine by investigating what clues they do have, but she feels guilty leaving her BFF out of the loop.

"I should be a better friend to her instead of running all over, trying to play the tough little sleuth."

Alex, Eve's PI boyfriend, couldn't agree more. But Eve hates seeing others in action while she's forced to sit on the sidelines. Even when for the most part her plans never work out, she still dives in, headfirst. She thinks chasing clues will bring her and Alex closer together as a couple, but it really doesn't. Instead, she quickly turns into a problem for him, getting in the way, and endangering herself in the process.

"He wanted me to stay out of this murder investigation/possible abduction more than he wanted me naked between the sheets. Well, he couldn't have it both ways."

And that's when things start to get complicated, because there's another man, waiting in the wings, ready to take Alex's place.

Sammy is a Miccosukee Indian with dark skin and long black hair. He looks like a warrior. Eve readily admits, "I liked Sammy's understated handsome looks and rugged style." When she takes off with him to investigate and doesn't come back until morning, she knows she's in a heap of trouble.

"Alone with a handsome Indian. Talking? Who would believe that?"

Namely, Madeleine.

Eve knows she can con her into not telling Alex that she was out all night with Sammy, even though their friendship is already pretty strained.

"I waited for her anger to pass. It did. It always did between us. Nothing, but nothing could sever our bond."

But Eve's secrets soon catch up with her, putting both of their lives in danger. And as the action reaches its epic conclusion, Eve finds herself in quite a quandary.

"Here I was fashionably dressed with nowhere to go except my own death."

Will Eve and Madeleine both survive this harrowing ordeal? You'll have to read this page turner of a mystery to find out!

***

A Sporting Murder can be purchased at:
Amazon
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Formats/Prices: $4.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Genres: Cozy Murder Mystery
Pages: 250
Release: July 15, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819398
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About the Author

Lesley retired from her life as a professor of psychology and reclaimed her country roots by moving to a small cottage in the Butternut River Valley in upstate New York. In the winter she migrates to old Florida—cowboys, scrub palmetto, and open fields of grazing cattle, a place where spurs still jingle in the post office, and gators make golf a contact sport. Back north, the shy ghost inhabiting the cottage serves as her literary muse. When not writing, she gardens, cooks and renovates the 1874 cottage with the help of her husband, two cats and, of course, Fred the ghost, who gives artistic direction to their work.

She is the author of a number of mystery series and mysteries as well as short stories. A Sporting Murder follows the first two books in the Eve Appel mystery series, A Secondhand Murder and Dead in the Water.

Links to connect with Lesley:
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Kathleen M. Rodgers - Johnnie Come Lately - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Would life have been different for Johnnie if she'd been named after a woman rather than her dead uncle? Or if her mama hadn't been quite so beautiful or flighty? The grandparents who raised her were loving, but they didn't understand the turmoil roiling within her. And they had so many, many secrets.

Why did her mama leave? Would she ever return? How did her Uncle Johnny really die? Who was her father? Now Johnnie Kitchen is a 43-year-old woman with three beautiful children, two of them grown. She has a handsome, hardworking husband who adores her, and they live in the historic North Texas town of Portion in a charming bungalow. But she never finished college and her only creative outlet is a journal of letters addressed to both the living and the dead. Although she has conquered the bulimia that almost killed her, Johnnie can never let down her guard, lest the old demons return. Or perhaps they never went away to begin with. For Johnnie has secrets of her own, and her worst fear is that the life she's always wanted--the one where she gets to pursue her own dreams--will never begin.

Not until her ghosts reveal themselves.

My Review

Bulimia is a disease often associated with teenage girls, but for Johnnie Kitchen it's something she's been struggling with almost her entire life.

Growing up, the temptation to binge and purge constantly surrounded her since the grandmother who raised her bakes mouth-watering cakes for a living. Now her son mocks her, trivializing what she's going through. Even her husband who pays for her treatment wants to know why she's not better yet.

But Johnnie knows:

"Even when you think you've won the battle, you can never let your guard down."

Because the cause isn't physical, it's psychological.

Her mother took off when she was eight when the problems at home became too hard to bear, and Johnnie ended up blaming herself for the reason she disappeared. While her friends' moms get all dolled up to drop their daughters off at ballet and tap, Johnnie's mom was off God knows where turning tricks for a living. Her mom didn't even keep a baby book about her. All she knew about her birthday was that it fell in 1964 somewhere between Good Friday and Easter Sunday. Later when she looked up her birth certificate online, she found her paternity simply listed as "father unknown."

"I spewed you out, Mama, along with gallons of ice cream, bags of potato chips, leftovers I'd rescued from the back of the fridge. Cast you out like a bad demon. All your excuses, all the times you left me high and dry."

The harsh reality that a bulimic faces is unflinchingly portrayed. From shoving the bristles of a toothbrush too far down her throat in order to make herself gag to getting caught by her husband scarfing down an entire skillet full of hamburger meat, a bulimic's shame and humiliation are ever apparent.

And the disorder continues to follow Johnnie through all stages of her life.

At eight, she is pudgy and unsure of herself, hiding under a winter coat to pretend to be thin. As a teenager, she's a lonely girl who just wants to shed fifteen pounds in order to have a boyfriend. In early adulthood, Johnnie looks at someone like the singer Karen Carpenter and how she died of anorexia and wonders:

"If someone rich and famous can get sick how can a nineteen-year-old college girl get well?"

It's only when after she gets married and her husband takes an interest in her condition that she starts to make strides in her recovery. For years, she never understood why she does what she does, choosing to view it as a dark, evil thing taking over her body.

But as she reaches middle age, she has a breakthrough as she starts to grasp the foundation of her illness.

"When I binged, I stuffed all emotions down, not just food. And when I threw up, anger and rage spewed out, too. For years, I internalized these normal human feelings—and I acted them out through bulimia."

After going back to college in her forties, she meets another woman suffering with bulimia in one of her classes. Her teeth are rotten from constant vomiting. Her eyes are bloodshot and her face sallow. She asks Johnnie for the magic pill, telling her how to quit. But Johnnie explains, it's not that easy. It's only going to work if she wants to stop bad enough. There's no other way around it.

It's a fitting message to bulimic women out there who might be reading this book—who are just as desperate to make a change, but don't know how. Johnnie's story shows them to never give up, living a healthy life with this disease can be done.

***

Johnnie Come Lately can be purchased at:
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now through July 31, 2015

Formats/Prices: $4.95 ebook, $9.75 paperback
Genres: Military Family, Women's Fiction, Literary Fiction
Pages: 292
Release: February 1, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812153
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About the Author

Award-winning author Kathleen M. Rodgers is a former frequent contributor to Family Circle magazine and Military Times. Her work has also appeared in anthologies published by McGraw-Hill, University of Nebraska Press/Potomac Books, Health Communications, Inc., AMG Publishers, and Press 53. She is the author of the award-winning novel, The Final Salute, featured in USA Today, The Associated Press, and Military Times. Deer Hawk Publications reissued the novel in e-book and paperback September of 2014.

Her second novel, Johnnie Come Lately, released from Camel Press February 1, 2015. Barnes and Noble in Southlake, TX hosted the official launch on February 7, and Kathleen signed copies of both novels for three hours straight. In 2014, she was named a Distinguished Alumna from Tarrant County College/NE Campus.

She is the mother of two grown sons, Thomas, a graduate of University of North Texas and a working artist in Denton, TX, and J.P., a graduate of Texas Tech University and a former Army officer who earned a Bronze Star in 2014 in Afghanistan. Kathleen’s husband, Tom, is a retired fighter pilot/commercial airline pilot, and they reside in Colleyville, TX with their rescue dog, Denton. Kathleen is working on a new novel titled Seven Wings to Glory and is represented by Loiacono Literary Agency.

Links to connect with Kathleen:
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Michael J. Bowler - Spinner - Review and Giveaway

About the Book

Fifteen-year-old Alex is a “spinner.” His friends are “dummies.” Two clandestine groups of humans want his power. And an ancient evil is stalking him. If people weren’t being murdered, Alex might laugh at how his life turned into a horror movie overnight. In a wheelchair since birth, his freakish ability has gotten him kicked out of ten foster homes since the age of four. Now saddled with a sadistic housemother who uses his spinning to heal the kids she physically abuses, Alex and his misfit group of learning disabled classmates are the only ones who can solve the mystery of his birth before more people meet a gruesome end. They need to find out who murdered their beloved teacher, and why the hot young substitute acts like she’s flirting with them. Then there’s the mysterious medallion that seems to have unleashed something malevolent, and an ancient prophecy suggesting Alex has the power to destroy humanity. The boys break into homes, dig up graves, elude kidnappers, fight for their lives against feral cats, and ultimately confront an evil as old as humankind. Friendships are tested, secrets uncovered, love spoken, and destiny revealed. The kid who’s always been a loner will finally learn the value of friends, family, and loyalty. If he survives…

My Review

Orphans always have a way at tugging at the heartstrings, and Alex O'Sullivan is no exception. Born with spina bifida and confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life, he never knew his parents. Not only that, but he was told they tragically perished in a fiery car crash. He wasn't just given up for adoption, he was left without any living family members and thrown into an impersonal foster care system to fend for himself.

But what makes Michael J. Bowler's young adult characters so unique is how adoption can become a life-changing, transformative process for them—if they connect with the right people who are willing to care for them. Once placed in a loving, stable environment, they finally get a chance to flourish and thrive.

The novel starts out with Alex at the mercy of his current foster guardian, Jane. She's the worst of the worst, a manipulative con artist who's only in it for the money. She takes in as many juvenile offenders, former gang members and handicapped teens as she can house under her roof, siphoning every last penny out of the stipend she receives from the state. She gets away with feeding them next to nothing, and even encourages them to pummel each other while videotaping their altercations, hoping to make a quick buck on the side. This is her way of punishing them for "starting trouble."

But despite her numerous threats of intimidation and her constant barrage of verbal abuse, Jane is afraid of Alex. He has a secret power, an uncanny ability to control her emotions whenever she speaks. It's a special gift he dubs "spinning," hence making him the "Spinner" of the book's title. For Alex, spinning is the only thing he's good at.

Yet not all adults fear Alex's talent. Nathan, the father of his best friend, thinks he possesses an extraordinary gift. He welcomes Alex into his home without trepidation, seeking to adopt him and make him a permanent member of the family. He knows how close his son, Roy, is with Alex and how many times Alex has saved his boy from mortal danger, and he wants to offer Alex some kind of protection. Nathan is genuinely concerned about Alex's well-being. He knows how Jane treats him, and he wants to get him out of her house for good.

Alex is grateful for Nathan's offer of assistance until a boatload of secrets from his past begin to emerge, starting with a video message from his dead mother that Jane tries to keep from him. Is he "the boy with round legs" who's the source of an ancient Iroquois legend and the healer the Bible itself references? As he begins to sort through the clues his mom left for him to uncover his true identity, he learns that he may not be alone in the world after all. There just might be someone who shares a special bond with him that runs a whole lot deeper than blood—a conjoined power that could very well corrupt the entire human race.

Alex faces a tricky dilemma. Does he move on and start a new life with the people who mean the most to him? Or does he explore this new tie to his affections that he never even knew existed until now? It's a weighty decision for a fifteen year old to make, but the beauty of a Michael J. Bowler novel is that he always gives his adolescent protagonists the power to choose what they want based on what kind of person they want to be.

It's a dual journey of self-discovery and acceptance that culminates in an epic battle between the forces of good and evil. Will Alex be the great peacemaker or the great destroyer? Will he choose love over hate?

Bowler sums it up best, "Thoughts don't make us good or evil. Actions do."

***

Spinner can be pre-purchased at:
Amazon

Format/Price: $6.99 ebook
Genre: Horror, Young Adult
Pages: 463
Release: August 5, 2015
Publisher: YoungDudes Publishing
ISBN: 9780994667519
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About the Author

Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of eight novels—A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and The Knight Cycle, comprised of five books: Children of the Knight (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), Running Through A Dark Place (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America, and Spinner.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

He is currently outlining a sequel to Spinner.

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.

Links to connect with Michael:
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Jerome Charyn - Bitter Bronx - Review and Giveaway

About the Book

Brooklyn is dead. Long live the Bronx! In Bitter Bronx, Jerome Charyn returns to his roots and leads the literary renaissance of an oft-overlooked borough in this surprising new collection.

In Bitter Bronx, one of our most gifted and original novelists depicts a world before and after modern urban renewal destroyed the gritty sanctity of a land made famous by Ruth, Gehrig, and Joltin' Joe.

Bitter Bronx is suffused with the texture and nostalgia of a lost time and place, combining a keen eye for detail with Jerome Charyn's lived experience. These stories are informed by a childhood growing up near that middle-class mecca, the Grand Concourse; falling in love with three voluptuous librarians at a public library in the Lower Depths of the South Bronx; and eating at Mafia-owned restaurants along Arthur Avenue's restaurant row, amid a "land of deprivation…where fathers trundled home…with a monumental sadness on their shoulders."

In "Lorelei," a lonely hearts grifter returns home and finds his childhood sweetheart still living in the same apartment house on the Concourse; in "Archy and Mehitabel" a high school romance blossoms around a newspaper comic strip; in "Major Leaguer" a former New York Yankee confronts both a gang of drug dealers and the wreckage that Robert Moses wrought in his old neighborhood; and in three interconnected stories—"Silk & Silk," "Little Sister," and "Marla"—Marla Silk, a successful Manhattan attorney, discovers her father's past in the Bronx and a mysterious younger sister who was hidden from her, kept in a fancy rest home near the Botanical Garden. In these stories and others, the past and present tumble together in Charyn's singular and distinctly "New York prose, street-smart, sly, and full of lurches" (John Leonard, New York Times).

Throughout it all looms the "master builder" Robert Moses, a man who believed he could "save" the Bronx by building a highway through it, dynamiting whole neighborhoods in the process. Bitter Bronx stands as both a fictional eulogy for the people and places paved over by Moses' expressway and an affirmation of Charyn's "brilliant imagination" (Elizabeth Taylor, Chicago Tribune).


My Review

With a title like BITTER BRONX, there has to be a villain.

And that man, according to Jerome Charyn, is Robert Moses, the man who cut the borough in two.

He came in his white hard hat, posing for pictures and shoving his expressway project down people's throats. He didn't know how much long-lasting damage he was doing at the time, believing he was a savior figure to them. But what he did was create a irreparable rift through the seam of intersecting cultures that continues to grow even wider.

Moses is the antagonist that ties the collection of thirteen short stories together. Generations of Bronx residents are the sacrificial victim to his short-sighted legacy. In "Major Leaguer" the impact of the Cross Bronx Expressway (built from 1948-1972) lives on, "And the heartless din of traffic from that highway had been ringing in Will's ears now for a good quarter of a century." It becomes something that has to be endured, long after the tall man, who handed out lollipops to yesterday's children, departed without having to justify his actions to the adults of today.

Charyn goes on to blame Moses for the Bronx falling into a state of "permanent recession." He's the harbinger of nightmares for those who regret calling the place home. Charyn even likens the highway to a not so silent character, "a phantom that crawls between the lines." And the most perplexing thing is—Moses didn't even benefit financially from his idea. He didn't get rich by bulldozing these neighborhoods. He had a noble aim, a charitable ambition, that ended up sullying his reputation for generations to come.

It's amazing that one man could wreak so much havoc in such a short period of time. But thanks to him, the melting pot bubbled over. The drug lords control the turf now, forging sharp divides between all differing races and ethnicities. There's a pecking order to the lineup that continues to shift based on whoever's on top of the totem pole at any given moment. It makes for a very unstable environment, one cops won't even patrol anymore. The residents are left to fend for themselves against the outbursts of violence and petty extortion.

Sometimes, the moral of the story is: It's better to have left things alone rather than to have meddled with them at all. The North Bronx and the South Bronx should be united as one, not forever divided into two. The aching rib is slow to heal, probably because it never will.

***

Bitter Bronx can be purchased at:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble

Prices/Formats: $9.99-$12.49 ebook, $24.95 hardcover
Genre: Short Stories
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780871404893
Publisher: Liveright
Release: June 1, 2015
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Jerome Charyn's stories have appeared in The Atlantic, The Paris Review, The American Scholar, Epoch, Narrative, Ellery Queen, and other magazines. His most recent novel is I Am Abraham. He lived for many years in Paris and currently resides in Manhattan.

Links to connect with Jerome:
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Ellen March - Love on the Menu - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Jago Tanner is a loner. He works up a good hunger at his outdoors pursuits centre in Wales and looks upon each female conquest as just another meal. When he’s sated, he doesn’t go back for dessert. Until Riley shows up. A Londoner hired through an agency to assist him with activities, she isn’t at all what he asked for. For starters, with the name Riley, he expected a man. But Riley is all woman—the sexiest woman Jago has ever laid eyes on. Unfortunately she dresses like a trollop and curses like a sailor. Though ignorant about most outdoors pursuits, she’s a skilled horsewoman, able to calm even his nerviest stallion. And her lively and generous nature enchants his housekeeper Emily and his ancient friend, Tom.

In short, Jago’s new employee is a bundle of contradictions. Which is why, when Jago falls for her, he doesn’t trust his feelings. Riley seems unusually accident prone, and when her brother’s shady friends menace her, she plays the innocent. But how can anyone so self-sufficient and mouthy also be so trusting and naïve? And can a man with Jago’s volatile nature endure the jealousy a woman like Riley provokes just by strolling down the street?

My Review

Opposites attract.

The dynamic duo of Riley and Jago bring new meaning to the tried and true romantic standard. She's the "cheeky, carefree, happy" one and he's the "orderly, structured, controlled" yin to her yang. She's all emotion, and he can't interpret his feelings to save his life. Their differing personalities set them on a collision course that could potentially lead to heartbreak or the greatest happiness either of them has ever known.

Riley is a spiky-haired, big-chested gal, who's candid, crude and feistily independent. She flees London after getting 'dumped by text.' She quits her bartending job at a lap dance club for a position at an outdoor recreation center in the remote mountains of Wales. She's by no means qualified, but she doesn't care. She needs a change.

Jago is a man's man, rough and course around the edges. He's a loner with a short fuse, but he's the type of guy who stands by his word. When he hires Riley sight unseen based on her name, he assumes that she's a man. When she arrives, he reluctantly agrees to give her a trial run because he expects her to fail. He wants her as far away from him as possible because it's driving him to distraction by how much he finds himself attracted to her.

Although Jago is "a flame to moths, attracting women of all ages" and "a testosterone temple that was ready for worship," he's never had a girlfriend. He's a cold one who never opens up to anyone. When Riley shows up, she confuses him and that makes him angry. He's someone who micromanages his life from his finances to his daily routine and he doesn't know what to make of Riley's "intoxicated mixture of sex and sleaze."

What he doesn't know is that while Riley may dress slutty, she's still a virgin. He unfairly judges her, hating everything her lifestyle stands for, falsely believing that she was a lap dancer just because she worked in the club. She causes "destruction like a whirlwind" around his barn, always having to get the last word in, and she fights back tooth and nail because she's mad that he always tends to think the worst of her.

But they find out they're more alike than they think. Riley starts to fall for the quiet serenity of Jago's ranch, not missing the lights and noise of the city as much as she feared. While Jago begins to learn more about her little by little and he likes what he sees. She's selfless and generous, caring about others more than herself from her no-good brother to a temperamental stallion.

When Riley finally tells him that she loves him, Jago says nothing. He's at a loss. He can't understand his feelings, so he doesn't know how to say it back. He wants to wait until he's certain about how he feels about her, letting his iron grip on his emotions control his heart.

But his selfishness could cost him everything he ever wanted because Riley's okay with who she is. She won't let him change her while he holds fast to the notion that "she had a body he wanted to fall into and a personality he'd need to climb out of." Gradually, he lets down his guard and realizes what a stubborn fool he's been, but does his transformation occur too late? Did he already lose the girl he's come to love?

***

Love on the Menu can be purchased at:
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Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback
Pages: 244
Genre: Steamy Cowboy Romance
Release: February 14, 2015
Publisher: Fanny Press
ISBN: 9781603815680
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About the Author

Ellen March and her husband live on top of a mountain in Wales, which is ideal in the summer but not so much in the winter months or when it rains. She has three grown children, one suicidal cat--it really does have nine lives--and three Alaskan Malamutes. One of her hobbies is showing and working them. Ellen's first love, however, is reading and writing. Since childhood, she has devoured every romance and fantasy she can get her hands on and enjoys acting out her own fantasies in print. Her body of work includes erotic romance, psychological thrillers, and supernatural fantasies. Fanny Press has published three of her erotic romances--Promises, His Girl Friday, and A Ghost of an Affair--and will be publishing more in 2015 and beyond.

Links to connect with Ellen:
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Sharon St. George - Due for Discard - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Aimee Machado is thrilled to be starting her first job as a forensic librarian at the medical center in the town of Timbergate, north of Sacramento, California. Her ebullient mood is somewhat dampened by her recent breakup with her former live-in boyfriend, Nick Alexander. And then there's a little matter of murder: on Aimee's first day on the job, a body is found in a nearby Dumpster and soon identified as her supervisor's wife, Bonnie Beardsley.

Aimee's heartbreaker of a brother and best friend, Harry, just happens to be one of the last people to see Bonnie alive, but he is hardly the only suspect. Bonnie was notorious for her wild partying and man-stealing ways, and she has left a trail of broken hearts and bitterness. Aimee is determined to get her brother off the suspect list.

Aimee's snooping quickly makes her a target. Isolated on her grandparents' llama farm where she fled post-breakup, she realizes exactly how vulnerable she is. Three men have pledged to protect her: her brother Harry, her ex, Nick, and the dashing hospital administrator with a reputation for womanizing, Jared Quinn. But they can't be on the alert every minute, not when Aimee is so bent on cracking the case with or without their help.

Book 1 in a new mystery series featuring amateur sleuth Aimee Machado.

My Review

Aimee Machado is real.

She has a lot of faults. She's not perfect. And that's what makes her interesting.

For a murder mystery, a librarian is a unique choice of sleuth solver, and Aimee herself readily admits, "The only crimes I was qualified to deal with involved library fines."

But Aimee's not just any librarian.

She has a master's degree in the health sciences that includes a special forensic component, making her one of only three people in the United States equipped in such a field. That makes her a boon to Timbergate Medical Center when Dr. Vane Beardsley brings her on board to kickstart a pet project of his, hiring her to get his fledgling hospital research facility up and running.

The only problem is Dr. Beardsley's wife turns up dead just as soon as Aimee takes the job.

Her relationship with her new boss immediately becomes strained when she realizes that Dr. Beardsley doesn't seem to be mourning his wife at all. Instead, he asks her out to dinner, quickly blurring the line between their personal and professional lives.

Aimee is an independent woman with an iron clad rule to never date an employer. She's someone who's struggling to pay her graduate school loans while living in a makeshift apartment above her grandparents' barn. Her job doesn't produce any revenue for the hospital so she knows that she could be axed at any time. She resents how Dr. Beardsley has no qualms about placing her in such a tenuous financial position, but her curiosity to learn if he killed his wife gets the better of her.

At first, she finds herself jealous of the memory of his blonde, curvaceous wife, the incessant gripe running through her mind about how "some women got all the rich guys" while she has to hustle to get by and make a living. So she gives in to an old weakness of hers by making Dr. Beardsley believe she has a fiancé.

It's a telling moment because Aimee has enough self-awareness to know that she usually lies in order to avoid awkward situations, instead of having the courage to face them head on.

But her resolve soon falters and she succumbs to temptation, allowing Dr. Beardsley to take her out. But things don't go well when he abruptly exits the restaurant, leaving her sitting alone at the table, after she starts asking too many probing questions about his family.

She knows how easily forensic evidence can be manipulated, but when she comes outside and sees that her four tires have been slashed, the first thing she thinks about is how she's going to find the money to replace them, instead of the amount of danger she could be in for letting a suspected killer know that she's on to him.

But the thing that really bothers Aimee is how she's allowing Dr. Beardsley to make her feel weak and vulnerable, and she's too relentlessly stubborn to let it go. After the good doctor walks out on her in public, she's determined to see if he really is the murderer or simply a womanizing creep. There's no going back now. After their dinner date went awry, she has to put it all on the line in order to expose the truth, whether it costs her her job, or quite possibly her life.

***

Due for Discard can be purchased at:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback
Pages: 340
Genre: Detective Murder Mystery
Release: March 1, 2015
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603812238
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Sharon St. George had the good fortune to spend an idyllic childhood in a small northern California town, riding horseback and camping with her family in the nearby mountains. One of her favorite pastimes was reading fiction, and a trip to the library was always an occasion of great joy. She’s traded horses for llamas, but she still treks to the high mountain lakes near her home—always with a mystery novel in her backpack. Sharon’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.

Links to connect with Sharon:
Web Site
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


About the Giveaway

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