Friday, February 26, 2016

My Review Of Steal It All Donovan Thief For Hire By Chuck Bowie


The third story in the series Donovan: Thief For Hire, begins with a brutal daylight murder of an English citizen in the Canadian embassy in London, England. The ambassador calls upon a combination of Scotland Yard and the RCMP . 
Then there’s the ace up his sleeve. Sean Donovan, a thief for hire who doubles as a security consultant. 
But Donovan isn’t nearby. He’s in Canada, learning about the business of winemaking and thinking about his new girl, and contemplating his recent exit from the business of theft. 
Even as he inches away from a life of crime, an art collector he owes a favor to, approaches him: is he willing to do the tiniest of thefts? Would Donovan track down a missing piece of art? Can the collector, Gaia, be trusted? Of course not. Can Donovan resist? Of course not. Is there easy money to be made? Oh, yes. 
Nothing is ever easy for him. 
Donovan may be betting his life on this gig.

My Review:  Strong, believable characters. Sean Donovan is a thief for hire who doubles as a security consultant. What better way to solve a crime than to hire a thief. Good gripping mystery that kept me turning the pages. Touch of romance left me wanting to read more. 

Wednesday, February 24, 2016

My Review Of Search For The Red Ghost By Sherry Alexander


Thirteen-year-old Jake Thrasher’s mother is dead, and the only clues left by the beast that killed her are a few strands of red hair and a set of plate-sized tracks. 

When his Army Scout father refuses to hunt it down, Jake takes matters into his own hands. Leaving the safety of his small ranch, Jake follows a sparse trail through an inhospitable desert filled with snakes, wolves, grizzlies, renegade Apache, and the ever-present threat of death. Will he find his Red Ghost? Or, will he succumb to the inherent dangers?

My Review:  Great western, cowboy and Indian type story. Jake goes on this dangerous adventure to search for red ghost which killed his ma. Red ghost is a beast bigger than any animal Jake had hunted before. Heart warming ending. Thanks, Sherry, good read. I received this book free for an honest review.  

Monday, February 22, 2016

Cover Reveal Forgiving Nancy by Muriel Garcia



Book - Forgiving Nancy, book five in the last hangman MC Series
Author - Muriel Garcia
Photographer - Eric Battershell

Model - Robert Simmons
Cover Reveal - 22nd February
Release Date - March 22
Hosted by Hooked on books  & Cherry0Blossom Promotions



One man.
One woman.
A past full of lies.
***

That girl, that special girl. The clichéd ‘One Who Got Away’ except she didn’t get away. She was stolen from me.
We started off as neighbours but quickly turned into something more. In what felt like a blink of an eye, I found myself in love and then boom. She was gone.
After that, my life went down a dark and lonely trail. I joined the club my parents ran from and kept my heart shut off from everyone, never entertaining the thought of a relationship. If I couldn’t have her, I didn’t want anyone.

I’ve been in love and have been loved but all too soon it was stolen from me. More accurately, I was stolen from it and my life hasn’t been the same since.
To an outsider, I had it all: money, nice house, friends, anything a seventeen-year-old could want, but inside I was dying. I hated my life with my parents until him and I hate the life I’m forced to live now but I just can’t bring myself to end it. Not if there is a possibility that he is out there and that one day I might have the chance to see him again.

What happens when Nancy and Bennett are reunited once again?
Will Nancy’s past ruin the still present chemistry between them or is it already too late?
Will Bennett be able to see past her secret and find a way to forgive Nancy?


The Last Hangman MC Series




Saving Ayden (Last Hangman MC #1)           






Ayden and Anthony have been best friends forever. They did everything together and grew up around The Last Hangman MC. They've stuck together through the good and the bad, realizing that what they feel for each other is so much more than friendship. They confess their feelings and start dating but their happiness is short lived. 


Ayden's life is changed in an instant...One minute she thinks everything is perfect, that she found her happily ever after and the next minute her whole world comes crashing down, forcing her to leave New Orleans. 

She starts a new life in New York but realize it's not enough. She needs to go back to her roots, even if it means going back where the MC is. 


Anthony let Ayden leave six years ago. 

He's always regretted it and seeing her again confirms how much he wants her and needs her in his life. 
He'll do all he can to have Ayden back and get the truth about why she took off years ago. 

What happens when her past catches up with her and starts messing with her life again? 

Will she give into the fear of what took place that night might occur again? Or will she trust Anthony and let him help her get through it? 

What happens when she finds out who is behind all the bad things she went through in the past? Will she be strong enough to handle the truth? Or will it destroy her beyond repair? 


***This book contains adult material intended for mature readers only***




(New price 99$/£)



Teaching Aleck (Last Hangman MC #2)

                                          







Aleck Sanford had everything growing up, absolutely everything, except for the one thing he and his sister desired the most: the love of their parents. After many years of emotional neglect, Aleck only understood the love between siblings, his parents certainly didn’t love them or even each other. 



How do you pick yourself up when everything around you falls apart? When the only person to love you has to leave?



&l

Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Why You Shouldn't Listen To Your English Teacher

WHY YOU SHOULDN’T LISTEN TO YOUR ENGLISH TEACHER
By Sara Jayne Townsend

I used to love English in school. It was always my favourite subject, especially when the assignment involved writing a story. When I left school and started sending my stories out to publishers, though, one of the first things I had to do was unlearn everything I’d ever learned in school about writing stories. On the whole, secondary school English teachers are not teaching a generation of creative writers. They are teaching teenagers how to have a better grasp of the English language. I’ve been submitting stories to publishers for nearly thirty years now, and in that time I’ve learned that quite a few things I was told by my English teacher completely contradicts what I need to know to improve my writing. I’m listing here a few examples:

English Lesson #1: Never use the word ‘said’. There are far more interesting words to use instead.  Make use of the thesaurus.
Publishers’ Rule:  You can never over-use the word ‘said’.

This is one I remember quite clearly, when we had to write a story in Grade 8 English class and read them to the class. One person read their story and managed to completely avoid the use of the word ‘said’, using an alternative in every case, and was praised for doing so.

‘Said’ might be a boring word, but it’s functional and doesn’t draw attention to itself. If you pepper your story with characters who shout, snarl, grumble, scream or (God forbid) ejaculate their dialogue, it does come across as being amateurish. Occasionally, the narrative calls for characters to shout or snarl their words, but if you’re stuck on what to use, there’s nothing wrong with the word ‘said’.

English lesson #2: If you must use the word ‘said’, enhance it with a nice adverb or two.
Publishers’ Rule: Never over-use adverbs..

This is related to rule #1, in the fact that your English teacher will want you to expand your vocabulary. For example:  “Stop that,” she said loudly. “I won’t,” he said angrily.

I struggle sometimes with this myself.  You want the reader to know that your character is angry, but there are far better ways to show your character is angry by describing what he does in the text.  For instance, the sentence below is a better way of describing that the character is angry:  “I won’t,” he said and stormed out of the room, slamming the door behind him.

English lesson #3: Never start a sentence with a preposition.
Publishers’ rule: If your writing is good enough, you can break the rules with confidence.

To be a good writer, it’s important to master the rules of your language.  If you follow Lesson #3, you would never start a sentence with the word ‘but’. But sometimes effective writing means breaking the rules with confidence! Writing is a skill that improves the more you do it, but it’s also a skill you never stop learning. Just try and forget what you learned about writing from your English teacher when you embark on your writing career.


 THE WHISPERING DEATH BLURB

When a group of live action role-players perform a ritual as part of a game, they unwittingly unleash an ancient evil that tears their world apart.  The reanimated corpse of a long-dead magic user, corrupted by powerful dark magic, offers a promise of unlimited power, but at a terrible price.  Having helped open this Pandora’s box, Mark and Elizabeth must race against time to close it again – before it’s too late.



Sara Jayne Townsend is a UK-based writer of crime and horror, and someone tends to die a horrible death in all of her stories.  She was born in Cheshire in 1969, but spent most of the 1980s living in Canada after her family emigrated there.  She now lives in Surrey with two cats and her guitarist husband Chris.  She co-founded the T Party Writers’ Group in 1994, and remains Chair Person.

She decided she was going to be a published novelist when she was 10 years old and finished her first novel a year later.  It took 30 years of submitting, however, to fulfil that dream.


Learn more about Sara and her writing at her website (http://sarajaynetownsend.weebly.com) and her blog (http://sayssara.wordpress.com). You can also follow her on Twitter (https://twitter.com/sarajtownsend) and Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3500282.Sara_Jayne_Townsend), and buy her books from Amazon (UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B003QROE8S and US: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B003QROE8S). 

Sunday, February 14, 2016

Last Vacation By Sarah Elle Emm Release Day Blitz

About the Book:
Seven days have passed since Naples real estate agent Megan MacKenna has heard from her twin sister, Madeline, who was vacationing on the beautiful, Caribbean island of St. Croix. Though authorities are not convinced there is a case to solve, Megan knows with all of her heart something happened to Maddy. When Megan receives a direct warning to leave the island or end up like her sister, she turns to the only person who has taken her seriously since she arrived, Gabe, a breakfast cook at a local diner. 

Undercover DEA agent, Gabriel Walker has been building his cover for months, waiting for the opportunity to work his way into the infamous Torrez crime ring. When Megan shows up asking questions and Gabe realizes her twin’s disappearance might be linked to the Torrez men, he has to convince her to go back to Florida before she becomes their next victim. 

The closer Megan gets to the truth, the more Gabe begins to suspect he is missing a huge piece of the puzzle. And someone is closing in on Megan…

Buy Links:


Fun Fact:



I grew up visiting the island of St. Croix with my family. As an adult, I lived in the U.S. Virgin Islands, on both St. Croix and St. Thomas. I always wanted to write a fiction story that took place there, but I never took the time to write it until recently.



Excerpt:

Megan peered out at the vast expanse of ocean gleaming in the bright morning sunshine before her. The turquoise waters seemed to go on forever. From the Caribbean Airways in flight map, she had noted theislands of Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and St. John were in the far off distance. She had been told a faint view of the densely populated St. Thomas could sometimes be seen on a perfectly clear day, but no matter how she strained her eyes, she couldn’t quite see it today.

Had Maddy hopped on a sailboat and continued her travels to another island as the police officer had suggested? It wasn’t like Maddy not to check in. Her cell phone had been going straight to voice mail since the last photo Maddy had sent, and according to the cell company, the cell phone was out of service range. Something had happened to her sibling. The last communication with Maddy had been an unexplained picture of an iguana. No message, no text, nothing. Just an enormous, slimy, dragon-resembling lizard. Megan sunk her head to her chest. Where in the world was her sister?

“Everything okay, Miss?”

Startled from her hopeless thoughts, Megan sat upright at the sound of the low voice. Her eyes scanned the length of the man standing before her, and she pursed her lips together. She guessed he was probably about six-foot-two.

As she sat silently, observing him, the man repeated his question, “Are you okay?” His tone bordered on cautious, but concerned.

“Everything’s fine,” she finally managed with a tight voice.

With a smile, his concern faded away, and he reached behind his back to untie a grease-spotted apron. He folded the apron up, pulled out a chair at the table right next to Megan’s, about a foot and a half from her, and sat down.

An internal alarm went off, making Megan feel extremely uncomfortable with his proximity, and she fidgeted with her hands as he stared at her, finally forcing them into her lap. How could a voice so soothing go with a gruff-looking character like him? And what in the world was he doing sitting down so close to her?

About the Author:

Sarah Elle Emm is the author of the HARMONY RUN SERIES, a young-adult fantasy and dystopian series, released in May 2012 by Winter Goose Publishing. (PRISMATIC, May 2012, OPALESCENT, February 2013, CHATOYANT, September 2014, NACREOUS, August 2015) Her debut fiction novel, MARRYING MISSY, was published by Bird Brain Publishing in October 2011. Sarah is a graduate of The University of Evansville, she has lived and worked in Mexico, Germany, England, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and has traveled extensively beyond. Sarah lives in Naples, Florida with her family. When she’s not walking the plank of her daughters’ imaginary pirate ship or snapping photos of Southwest Florida scenery, she is writing.




Stalk the Author:
Website I Facebook I Twitter I Goodreads I Amazon Author Page


Tuesday, February 9, 2016

Cover Reveal For Beautifully Broken By Laura Lee

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   
Author - Laura Lee
Book  - Beautifully Broken 
Release Date  - 7/6/16 
Hosted by Hooked on book's & Cherry0Blossom's Promotions                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                  
I KNEW HE WOULD RUIN ME FROM THE MOMENT WE MET. Everything about the man screamed confidence. Sensuality. Intelligence. Worldliness. But it was how he saved me that ruined me most.


Through him, I learned to end my path of self-destruction. I no longer needed to numb the pain with mindless one-night-stands and drunken blackouts. He made me feel worthy. Treasured. Optimistic about my future.

Here I stand four years later, in a coffee shop a world away, still broken…but beautifully so. My scars no longer hold me back. Instead, they give me strength and enrich my appreciation for the good things in life. I have hopes and dreams…faith that anything is possible. I am no longer the lost little girl fighting for survival. I have direction. I have courage. I am not without possibility.

I’ll always have Gavin to thank for that—Mr. Cooper, I remind myself. That’s who he is to me now: just a former teacher. I know what you’re thinking, but don’t worry. I was eighteen when we first met. Legally, we did nothing wrong. Morally? Well, I guess that depends on how flexible your morals are

My name is Kat and this is my story.





ABOUT THE AUTHOR 


  

After working a 9-to-5 gig for many years, she happily traded it for a rewarding career as a self-published author. Laura is the author of the bestselling Karli Lane and Dealing With Love series. She is a proud member of the Romance Writers of America focusing on contemporary, urban fantasy, and paranormal romance.

Laura's passion has always been storytelling. She spent most of her life with her nose in a book thinking of alternate endings or continuations to the story. She won her first writing contest at the ripe old age of nine, earning a trip to the state capital to showcase her manuscript. Thankfully for her, those early works will never see the light of day again!

Laura lives in the Pacific Northwest with her wonderful husband, two beautiful children, and three of the most poorly behaved cats in existence. She likes her fruit smoothies filled with rum, her cupboards stocked with Cadbury's chocolate, and her music turned up loud. When she's not writing or watching HGTV, she's reading anything she can get her hands on. She's a sucker for spicy romances, especially those involving vampires or cowboys!





CHECK OUT HER AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE FOR MORE INFO!





STALKER LINKS 


Facebook <3  Twitter <3 Website <3 Blog 



Tuesday, February 2, 2016

My Review Of Letters To Daniel By Amy Leigh McCorkle

  My Review Of Letters to Daniel:  This book is Amy's memoir in a series of letters to her favorite actor Daniel Craig. This book was creatively done. Letter writing is a lost art. It was interesting to read about Amy's life through letters to Daniel. A wide range of emotions went through me as I read each letter. Thank you, Amy, for sharing part of your life with me.
I received this book free for a honest review.

  1. Tell us about your book and how the story came to be.  Well actually it all sprang from a 2012 conversation I had with MuseItUp Owner and Publisher Lea Schizas where she planted the seed for a blog with multiple bipolar authors. I filed the idea away and it gestitated. What started out as an open letter to my favorite actor Daniel Craig quickly became a way for me to share my memoirs in a safe and uninhibited manner. 


  1. What three words best describe your main character? It’s a memoir so all I can say is check out the blurbs on the back of the book. I’m terrible at describing myself lol.



  1. Do you have a method for creating your characters, their names and what do you think makes them believable? What makes the character or in this case people and situations I relate is the raw and frank manner I share my emotions about them with.


  1. Do your characters follow your plot path or do they take on a life of their own? Do you keep them in check? The story is about my road to recovery from a bipolar breakdown 16 and a half years ago, my letters at times seemed to write themselves at to whatever emotion I was feeling.



  1. Have you ever suffered from writer’s block? If so, how did you over come it? No writer’s block is not an issue for me. At times I suffer from anxiety. For that I either drink coffee or herbal tea.




  1. What types of books do you like to read? Books have influenced me greatly over the years. Movies too. Often film will inform my writing almost more so than books.




  1. What do you like to do when you aren’t writing? Watching films, hanging out with friends, reading and listening to music. God I love to listen music and make films too.




  1. What’s next for your writing? Are you working on a new story? I’m actually working on a screenplay I plan on filming in March. I have local 9 store tour set up for Letters to Daniel. And I’m lucky be hosting my first Manhattan bookstore signing at Bluestockings Books. I’m also hard at work on another screenplay No Ordinary Love, the second book in the Cooke and Cooke series and a non-fiction marketing book.


  1. What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received? Three parts. 1) You gotta reject rejection. 2) Seat of the pants to the seat of the chair. 3) Don’t get it right. Get it Written.


Amy McCorkle is an award winning and bestselling author, blogger, screenwriter and filmmaker with 10 Amazon Bestselling titles including the #1 Bella Morte: Beginnings. A 2015 Epic Finalist with a small collection of letters from the blog. This landed her an agent and she went on to collect all the letters one large volume and receive a blurb from bestselling author and producer Joel Eisenberg. Her documentary based on the letters has gone on to screen at 5 film festivals and win awards at 3 of them.

Where can readers find you and your books? 
http://twitter.com/letterstodaniel


Buy links:


Available on Amazon in Print as well.