Joyce Zeller - Maddie's Choice - Review and Giveaway

About the Book

Romance writer Maddie Taylor is fed up with New York City. She is getting nowhere with her latest manuscript and does not believe true love exists outside of her imagination. When a friend, Jonah Spartman, dies and wills her half of his Arkansas cattle ranch, she sees the chance for a new beginning. Jonah has also left behind two orphaned great-grandsons desperate for affection and an accounting book in the red.

The other half of the failing ranch belongs to Gideon Spartman, Jonah’s grandson, who believes all capacity for love was torn from him during his tour of duty in Afghanistan. Rugged and sexy, Gideon is the enthralling physical manifestation of the hero in Maddie’s current manuscript. He is far from happy to be sharing an inheritance that is rightfully his. As she senses the need behind Gideon’s rough and unwelcoming exterior, Maddie acknowledges her own yearning for love and family.

Jonah’s will requires Maddie to stay on the ranch for three months. When that time is up, will she return to her comfortable but emotionally barren existence or embrace the challenges of her new life, which include cattle rustlers and drug dealers? Maddie’s choice proves to be far from simple.

My Review

Maddie Taylor is one of those complicated heroines. She's dealing with a lot of serious issues - crippling depression, writer's block, lackluster sex. Even though she's a successful romance novelist, her Manhattan lifestyle doesn't equate to the passion and excitement found in her books. Her lonely reality pales in comparison. In fact, she's on the verge of believing she has no life. All of her hopes and dreams are confined to the page.

Maddie knows she's lost her way, so she uproots herself to rural Arkansas. Due to an unexpected inheritance, she becomes co-owners of a farm with an Army sniper turned cowboy. But Gideon's better than any leading man residing in her imagination. Too bad, he frustrates the heck out of her. He's a male chauvinist to the nth degree, and he doesn't want to share his financially strapped cattle ranch with anyone, let alone her. He wastes no time in insulting and demeaning her, making it clear that the only thing he's interested in is a roll in the hay and nothing more.

Maddie knows she needs to let more people into her solitary existence, but she picks a hell of a guy to take a chance on. Gideon's dealing with a severe case of post traumatic stress disorder from his time in combat, and he's stuck trying to make ends meet for his two orphaned nephews. He's not exactly ready and available for a tortured soul like Maddie, but she makes the best of what he has to offer.

It seems her attraction to Gideon is too strong to ignore. She even turns the tables and takes sexual advantage of him during a moment of weakness, making him take her on the floor of the barn 'like a bitch in heat.' She continually battles Gideon for dominance in their relationship resorting to calling him childish names from 'ungrateful worm' to 'arrogant cockroach.' At times, she acts immature when squaring off against a guy with such a massive superiority complex.

Deep down, Maddie's character is determined by her confidence level. When she's feeling sure of herself and on top of her game, she acts nobly, unafraid to follow her heart when she aims her horse at a fence and soars right over, leaving Gideon with his mouth hanging open. When she second guesses herself or is made to feel uncomfortable in her new surroundings, her decisions aren't as admirable like when she starts flirting with another man on the dance floor in front of Gideon.

Overall, Maddie's at her best when she tries to help Gideon, instead of taunting him. Her ultimate choice is whether or not she can put someone else's needs ahead of her own, while refusing to offer herself up as a doormat. It's a tricky balance, finding equality in romance, but by the end she comes pretty darn close.

***

Maddie's Choice can be purchased at:
Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 274
Publisher: Camel Press
Release: September 1, 2013
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About the Author

Joyce Zeller has written articles for a magazine and a cooking column for a chain of suburban newspapers north of Chicago. She has written five books and published two, The Hidden History of Eureka Springs, and Accidental Alien, a work of science fiction, both available on Amazon. Her short story, “Love is a Seed,” is featured in Embrace: A Romance Collection, (2012 Goldmine Press). Joyce has served in the United States Army. As a professional perfumer (School of Perfumery, London, England) and an aroma-therapist, she made custom fragrances in her store. Her creation, Mountain Air, was declared the Arkansas Sesquicentennial Fragrance in 1965. Her latest achievement was getting elected as Alderman to the Eureka Springs City Council. Maddie’s Choice is a romance with her favorite theme, that being human is a lonely business, but for everyone there is somebody to love. It’s a matter of finding them. There will always be kids and animals in her books, and always, humor, “because life without humor is unthinkable.”

Links to connect with Joyce:
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John A. Karr - Ghostly Summons - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Lars Kelsen doesn’t believe in psychic phenomenon. To him, visions of murder victims are a form of mental illness. Once they begin, options are limited; he can try to ignore them or deal with them by exposing a killer. Only the latter provides any semblance of peace. Temporarily, anyway. Five years into his new life as a programmer, Kelsen—ex-crime beat reporter with a penance he can never fully satisfy—sees a victim.

In person. Upright. Staring.

Typical of such past "Visits" as he calls them, he doesn’t welcome this one. The nude form of a beautiful millionairess in his cubicle means murder has come to the vacation haven known as North Carolina’s Outer Banks. It means he’ll have to go places he'd rather avoid. See things he'll wish he hadn’t. Do things that don't come naturally, like in-your-face confrontation and bending the law. Actually, breaking the law ... but with good intent. It also means dealing with one very attractive county coroner, who pushes his buttons in a not entirely unwelcome way.

So begins Kelsen's return to investigative reporting—complete with attempts on his life, fights, deception, and all the technological tricks, such as GPS and computer hacking, at his disposal. And maybe even finding a new love interest.

My Review

Lars Kelsen is one tough son of a bitch. Death is after him in more ways than one. He nearly takes a bullet to the back of the head in his own home. He jumps eighty feet off a bridge to escape a motorcyclist with a gun. He takes on three muscle-bound thugs with nothing more than a baton. But that's just the living, he also has to put up with the dead. He's haunted by the ghostly apparitions of murder victims who refuse to go away unless he cracks their unsolved cases.

He's a guy with a lot of anxiety. His young son was abducted and killed. His wife left him. He quit his job as a crime reporter. So he escaped to the reasonably tranquil lifestyle of North Carolina's Outer Banks and went back to school to become a part-time computer programmer for the local hospital. He refurbished an old home on the water where he spends his off-days fishing or jogging with his dog, Hooper. Although, he turned into a bit of a ladies' man, he's not serious about anyone and he likes it that way.

When he starts seeing the naked, beaten corpse of Jeannette Broughton, he's once again thrown back into his former role as an investigative writer, much to his chagrin. He's not one for the back-biting atmosphere of office life and truth be told he doesn't mind walking away from his computer terminal all that much. He knows how to talk to people. He's a smooth operator who doesn't mind greasing some palms and planting illegal GPS devices in order to get what he wants. He flirts with a sexy female coroner over a cadaver. He yanks a snarky young lifeguard off of his stand for giving him attitude. He doesn't take no for an answer when security guards and receptionists try to limit his access to a particular location. He goes looking for danger, so it's no surprise when it eventually catches up to him.

***

Ghostly Summons can be purchased at:
Kindle, Nook, Kobo

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, paperback
Pages: 312
Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing
Release: March 14, 2013
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

John A. Karr believes fiction writing each day helps keep the demons at bay. Ghostly Summons is his first full-length novel for Dark Continents Publishing. DCP has also published his Weird West novella, Ujahwek. He is the author of a handful of other novels: Death Clause, Hippocrates Shattered (scheduled for reprint by World Castle Publications as Shattered), Rhone, and Van Gogh, Encore. His short stories have appeared on webzines Allegory, The Absent Willow Review, and Danse Macabre. More works are in progress and in the marketing queue.

Karr is an ardent believer in the quote by Carl Van Doren (1885-1950), U.S. man of letters: Yes, it's hard to write, but it's harder not to.

Links to connect with John:
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Michael F. Stewart - Assured Destruction - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Sixteen-year-old Jan Rose knows that nothing is ever truly deleted. At least, not from the hard drives she scours to create the online identities she calls the Shadownet.

Hobby? Art form? Sad, pathetic plea to garner friendship, even virtually? Sure, Jan is guilty on all counts. Maybe she’s even addicted to it. It’s an exploration. Everyone has something to hide. The Shadownet’s hard drives are Jan’s secrets. They're stolen from her family’s computer recycling business Assured Destruction. If the police found out, Jan’s family would lose their livelihood.

When the real people behind Shadownet’s hard drives endure vicious cyber attacks, Jan realizes she is responsible. She doesn’t know who is targeting these people or why but as her life collapses Jan must use all her tech savvy to bring the perpetrators to justice before she becomes the next victim.

My Review

This is a groundbreaking young adult novel. It handles characterization in a whole new way. Janus, our technologically savvy heroine, splits her 16-year-old personality into multiple social media outlets. She calls her new family Shadownet. She sits in her basement surrounded by computer monitors each displaying a different avatar. They tweet, blog and update their Facebook statuses automatically. She interacts with them as if they were real.

But they did start off real. Janus' mom owns a computer shop accepting discarded models for destruction, but Janus swiped a few for her own use. Scouring the hard drives looking for details about their previous owners, Janus recreated them as digital profiles she can control. Her father abandoned them, her mother is wheelchair bound and she has no friends at school. Her utter loneliness prompts her to fashion an online fantasy world driven by her imagination, but available for the world to watch in real time. It's like Sybil meets Lisbeth Salander.

Shadownet includes:

JanusFlyTrap
A cartoon version of Janus, black straight hair, overlarge dark brown eyes, pale complexion, pointy chin, but without the zits.

Gumps
Her conscience, grandfather, confidante, and Magic 8-ball. This computer is so old, it's pre-Internet, but Janus trusts the advice that he spits out like a fortune cookie. His monitor doesn't display an avatar, just a blinking dash.

Heckleena
A set of screaming lips. She's a tough cookie—33 years old, single, baby clock ticking, no relationship prospects. She serves as the release for Janus' anger and frustration. She constantly heckles people on her Twitter feed.

Frannie
A doll head from Janus' childhood. She's 10 years old, naive and startlingly innocent from a rich, white, urban Canadian family. She replies to spam emails asking help winning a lottery prize or collecting an inheritance.

Paradise57
A cartoon version of Janus' classmate, Jonny. He's a graffiti artist who's infatuated with her, but she rebuffs his advances.

Hairy
Chewbacca the Wookie. Modeled after another of Janus' classmates, Harry. Teaches Janus how geeky, late-to-puberty boys think. A great online chess player.

Tule
Modeled after Janus' arch rival at school, Ellie. Janus tweets in Ellie's voice through Tule and allows everyone to trash her online.

Michael F. Stewart is an author to keep an eye on. His mix of social media awareness and today's youth culture is fresh and cutting edge. His exploration on how a teenage girl handles abandonment and an above average intelligence is smart, funny and authentically real. It's a fascinating look at how Janus tries to hide behind the anonymity of technology while discovering more about herself, and the effect she has on others.

***

Assured Destruction can be purchased at:
Amazon (paperback), Kindle

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $8.99 paperback
Pages: 185
ISBN: 9780981269948
Publisher: Non Sequitur Press
Release: March 22, 2013
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About the Author

After crewing ships in the Antarctic and the Baltic Sea and some fun in venture capital, Michael anchored himself (happily) to a marriage and a boatload of kids. Now he injects his adventurous spirit into his writing with brief respites for research into the jungles of Sumatra and Guatemala, the ruins of Egypt and Tik’al, paddling the Zambezi and diving whatever cave or ocean reef will have him. He is a member of the International Thriller Writers and SF Canada, and the author of the Assured Destruction series, 24 Bones, The Sand Dragon, Hurakan, Ruination and several award winning graphic novels for young adults.

Links to connect with Michael:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
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Blog Tour Site



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