Review: The Garden Plot, by Marty Wingate – with Giveaway

8 May 2014 by Melissa

About the book, The Garden Plot

Publisher: Alibi (May 6, 2014)
Sold by: Random House LLC

In an entirely appealing mystery debut, Marty Wingate introduces readers to a curious Texas ex-pat whose English gardening expertise on occasion leads her to unearth murderous goings-on.

Pru Parke always dreamed of living in England. And after the Dallas native follows an impulse and moves to London, she can’t imagine ever leaving—though she has yet to find a plum position as a head gardener. Now, as the sublet on her flat nears its end, the threat of forced departure looms. Determined to stay in her beloved adopted country, Pru takes small, private gardening jobs throughout the city.

On one such gig in Chelsea, she makes an extraordinary find. Digging in the soil of a potting shed, Pru uncovers an ancient Roman mosaic. But enthusiasm over her discovery is soon dampened when, two days later, she finds in the same spot a man’s bludgeoned corpse. As the London police swarm her worksite, ever inquisitive Pru can’t quite manage to distance herself from the investigation—much to the dismay of stern Detective Chief Inspector Christopher Pearse. It seems that, much as he tries, even handsome DCI Pearse can’t keep Pru safe from a brutal killer who thinks she’s already dug up too much.

Read and discuss The Garden Plot

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About the author, Marty Wingate

Marty Wingate is a regular contributor to Country Gardens as well as other magazines. She also leads gardening tours throughout England, Scotland, Ireland, France, and North America. The Garden Plot is her first novel. More Potting Shed mysteries are planned.

My Thoughts

There are books that fall into your life at exactly the right moment. For me The Garden Plot was one of them. It was a murky weekend, I was sick in bed, and I needed something light enough that I could focus on, but with enough substance to keep me interested. This novel delivered that in spades – spades of rich, loamy, literary soil.

First, I loved that the main character, ex-pat Texan Pru was not some twenty-something girl with no life experience. I also liked that she was independent, often to her detriment, but that she also knew her stuff, with regard to her chosen field. I’m not single, but I still have moments when running away to live in another country is incredibly tempting, and I really identified with her.

The supporting characters are also amazing. DCI Christopher Pearse could have been a by-the-book detective, but morphed into a well-rounded character and love interest in a way that felt completely organic. Similarly, Pru’s friends and clients were all three-dimensional.

But for all it’s romantic elements The Garden Plot is also a mystery, and I found the plot to be well-crafted and compelling. While it’s possible my semi-drugged state made me less able to predict the outcome, I prefer to believe it was author Wingate’s talent for storytelling, because this novel has all of the traditional English cozy mystery elements – a fish-out-of-water protagonist, upper-class locals with secrets and hidden connections, and a dashing detective, and instead of feeling at all trite, The Garden Plot feels fresh – as fresh as the first sprouts of new plantings after a spring rain.

Goes well with Hot tea, cucumber sandwiches, and scones still warm from the oven.

Enter to Win

This tour includes a Rafflecopter giveaway for a Grand Prize of a $30 egiftcard to the ebook retailer of the winner’s choice, and a First Prize Mystery Prize Pack of three mystery mass market paperbacks and a gardening title from Random House!

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This review is part of a blog tour hosted by TLC Book Tours. For more information and the complete list of tour stops, click here.

Spotlight on The Black Song Inside by Carlyle Clark

13 January 2014 by Melissa

About the book, The Black Song Inside

Atticus Wynn and Rosemary Sanchez, newly engaged private investigators, have seen the dark and violent side of life. Nothing, though, has prepared them for an explosive murder investigation that threatens to tear their relationship apart as they struggle to solve a case that could leave them in prison or dead.

Atticus’s manipulative ex-girlfriend bursts back into their lives wielding a secret about Rosemary’s family that she exploits to force the couple into investigating the execution-style slaying of her lover. The case thrusts Atticus and Rosemary headlong into the world of human trafficking and drug smuggling, while rendering them pawns in Tijuana Cartel captain Armando Villanueva’s bloody bid to take over the cartel.

The Black Song Inside is a vivid crime thriller rife with murder and madness, melded with gallows humor and the heroism of two flawed and compelling protagonists who, if they can save themselves, may learn the nature of redemption and the ability to forgive.

Buy a copy!

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Join the conversation!

Goodreads

About the author, Carlyle Clark

Carlyle Clark

Carlyle Clark was raised in Poway, a city just north of San Diego, but is now a proud Chicagolander working in the field of Corporate Security and writing crime and fantasy fiction. He has flailed ineffectually at performing the writer’s requisite myriad of random jobs: pizza deliverer, curb address painter, sweatshop laborer, day laborer, night laborer, security guard, campus police, Gallup pollster, medical courier, vehicle procurer, and signature-for-petitions-getter.

He is a married man with two cats and a dog. He is also a martial arts enthusiast and a CrossFit endurer who enjoys fishing, sports, movies, TV series with continuing storylines, and of course, reading. Most inconsequentially, he holds the unrecognized distinction of being one of the few people in the world who have been paid to watch concrete dry in the dark. Tragically, that is a true statement.

His latest book is the mystery thriller, The Black Song Inside.

Connect with Carlyle

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

Pump Up Your Book & Carlyle Clark are giving away a $100 Amazon Gift Card!

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the Accelerate Your Power Grand Prize.
This giveaway begins December 2 and ends February 28.
Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, March 3, 2013.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!
ENTER TO WIN!
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Spotlight on External Forces by Deborah Rix

10 January 2014 by Melissa

About the book, External Forces

External Forces

Treason, betrayal, and heartbreak.

A lot can happen to a girl between her first kiss and her first kill.
It’s 100 years since the Genetic Integrity Act was passed and America closed its borders to prevent genetic contamination. Now only the enemy, dysgenic Deviants, remain beyond the heavily guarded border. The Department of Evolution carefully guides the creation of each generation and deviations from the divine plan are not permitted.
When 16-year-old Jess begins to show signs of deviance she enlists in the Special Forces, with her best friend Jay, in a desperate bid to evade detection by the Devotees. Jess is good with data, not so good with a knife. So when the handsome and secretive Sergeant Matt Anderson selects her for his Black Ops squad, Jess is determined to figure out why.

As her deviance continues to change her, Jess is forced to decide who to trust with her deadly secret. Jess needs to know what’s really out there, in the Deviant wasteland over the border, if she has any hope of making it to her 17th birthday. Because if the enemy doesn’t kill her first, the Department of Evolution probably will.

Buy a copy:

External Forces at Amazon

Join the discussion:

External Forces at GoodReads

About the author, Deborah Rix

Deborah Rix

Deborah Rix’s favourite position for reading a book is head almost hanging off the couch and feet up in the air with legs against the back of the couch. She’s been reading too much from Scientific American for research and ideas and needs to get back to some fiction. She has a long standing love of science fiction, some of her favourite authors include William Gibson, Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Douglas Adams, Iain M Banks. A bit old school.

Deborah enjoyed a successful career in entertainment publicity, live music promotion and event management. Which means she slogged through muddy fields for music festivals, was crammed into concert halls with too many sweaty teenage boys and got to go to Tuktoyaktuk (that’s in the Arctic Circle) for a Metallica concert. She lives with her family in Toronto, Canada, where she is the proprietor of The Lucky Penny, a neighborhood joint in Trinity-Bellwoods.

External Forces is her first novel.

Connect with Deborah:

Website
Facebook
Goodreads
Twitter
YouTube

Watch the Book Trailer:

Enter to Win a Kindle Fire HD

ACCELERATE YOUR POWER GRAND PRIZE

GRAND PRIZE: Winner will have a minor character named after them in Acceleration, the second book in The Laws of Motion Trilogy by Deborah Rix. PLUS: 1 (One) WakaWaka Power – a solar powered charger and light, 1 (one) Limited Edition EXTERNAL FORCES Black Ops Beanie, and 1 (one) signed copy of External Forces.

The fine print: Grand Prize winner will have a minor character named after them in the forthcoming book, Acceleration. The winner can choose a name other their own as long as it is mutually agreeable with the Author, Deborah Rix. That means nothing obscene, stupid or ridiculous, as decided at the sole discretion of the author. Winner agrees that the gender, race, physical description, sexual orientation or any other characteristics of the character are at the sole discretion of the author. Winner agrees that the character may suffer some sort of gruesome downfall or may be a heroic figure in the story, it is at the sole discretion of the author what the role of the character will be and to what extent the character will be part of the story. The author assures the winner that it will be a real character in the story and part of a sub-plot or major plot.

Terms and Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive the Accelerate Your Power Grand Prize.
This giveaway begins November 4 and ends January 31.
Winner will be contacted via email on Monday, February 3, 2013.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

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Spotlight on Buried Threads by Kaylin McFarren – Read the First Chapter & Enter a Giveaway Raffle

25 November 2013 by Melissa

About the book, Buried Threads

Rachel’s mouth sagged. “You mean you’re really a monk? But how’s that possible? You’re not even wearing a robe, and your hair…”

He simply smiled.

A disturbing prophecy sends a treasure hunting duo on an urgent race to rescue a country in Kaylin McFarren’s heart pounding new novel, Buried Threads. Full of erotic suspense and wild adventures, this is one trip that readers will never forget!

Rachel Lyons and Chase Cohen work together as the successful owners of a treasure hunting company. But a seemingly simply assignment – to track down a priceless gem that is believed to buried in a shipwreck deep within the Sea of Japan – takes a starling, and dangerous, turn.

Faced with a monk’s dark prophecy that a natural disaster will soon strike Japan, killing millions, Rachel and Chase must embark on the mission of a lifetime in order to uncover the three cursed samurai swords that can avert the catastrophe.

Chaos ensues as their adventure takes them from shark infested waters and creepy caves to haunted hidden tombs and a confrontation with Yakuza gang members.

Time is running out as the prophecy’s day of reckoning draws near. Will Rachel and Chase succeed before disaster strikes?

Buy a copy from Amazon.

About the author, Kayin McFarren

Kaylin McFarren is a California native who has enjoyed traveling around the world. She previously worked as director for a fine art gallery, where she helped foster the careers of various artists before feeling the urge to satisfy her won creative impulses.

Since launching her writing career, McFarren has earned more than a dozen literary awards in addition to a finalist spot in the 2008 RWA Golden Heart Contest. A member of RWA, Rose City Romance Writers, and Willamette Writers, she also lends her participation and support to various charitable and educational organizations in the Pacific Northwest.

McFarren currently lives with her husband in Oregon. They have three children and two grandchildren.

Connect with Kaylin:

Website: KaylinMcFarren.com
Facebook: Kaylin.McFarren
Twitter: @4Kaylin
Goodreads: Kaylin_McFarren

Read the First Chapter of Buried Threads

The mystery begins…

Kenji Otadidn’t fit the description of a bloodthirsty killer. Upon meeting him, it would be difficult to believe he’d gotten away with murdering at least twenty-five men. He was intelligent, intuitive and physically attractive. His black hair was kept short and neat, and from the professional manner in which he dressed and carried himself, he could have been mistaken fora television announcer or successful business executive. He socialized in mixed circles – with stockbrokers, politicians and street-smart hoodlums alike – and his charming, larger-than-life personality drew the attention of women everywhere. However, after meeting Mariko Abe, his taste in the fairer sex had been spoiled forever. No one in his mind would ever compare to Kyoto’s most beautiful geishaorbe foolish enough to keep her away from him.

Click to read the rest of Chapter One & Enter a Giveaway!

Spotlight On: Through the Withering Storm, by Leif Gregersen

20 November 2013 by Melissa

About the book, Through the Withering Storm:

Mental illness is something that is a great deal more common than many think. Statistics show that 1 in 5 North Americans will require treatment for a major disorder at some point in their lives. This means either you or a family member or friend close to you are very likely to be stricken down by a failure of our most essential and complicated organ in our bodies.

When I was first treated for a mental health issue there was so much stigma and misunderstanding about mental illness that I completely denied I had a problem. Despite that mental health issues ran in my family, no one talked about them, everyone shunned those who were different, and as a result I wasted years of my life not understanding that there was help available and that I didn’t just have to ‘tough things out’. My denial and pain was so bad at one point I tried to join the military during the first Gulf War just to find a way out of life, I thought I would either gain the discipline needed to overcome my illness or die trying. I needed neither.

Some find my story funny, some find it sad, but it is a story that is being played out among more people than you may think right now, right around all of us.

Depression, Schizophrenia, Anxiety, Addiction. It‘s something we can no longer avoid, especially with America now deploying and redeploying troops en masse to combat zones where even the strongest among us can succumb to the pressure of such a situation. It is my hope that those who read this book can walk away from it having had a look inside the mind of someone who lost his mind and one day regained it, but not without first going through incredible pain and suffering. This suffering doesn‘t have to happen. What has to happen is that attitudes and knowledge have to improve.

Buy a copy from Amazon.

About the author, Leif Gregersen:

From a young age I showed promise in writing and poetry, and did well in school. Even in grade five I used to draw and write stories for my own comic books and post them on the bulletin board in class. When I got to high school, I began to read voraciously, and though I failed my first academic English course, I took continually more advanced courses and got higher and higher grades in them.

I was hopeful to attend University and study English, but before I finished school I was stricken with a severe breakdown and had to be hospitalized where I was diagnosed with Bipolar Disorder. From that point, family and friend relationships broke down and I ended up sort of drifting until I signed up for Flying School in Vancouver, BC.
In the middle of this training, I took off for the US with a friend and tried to join the US Army as a helicopter pilot.

All of these adventures are detailed in my memoir, which covers my life from the age of 13 to 21 which was the point at which I decided I had to stay in one place (I had returned to Edmonton near my home town and where my parents lived) and I took treatment for my disorder and began to write seriously.

I spent some years just studying and writing poetry and then moved on to short stories, and my book, Through The Withering Storm is actually partially short stories I wrote and collected at that time. Now, since I turned 30 I have been living in an assisted-living house for males with Psychiatric Disorders and life has gone quite well.

I landed a great job doing labour work/stage hand/security work for the stage and screen Union, IATSE. I have seen many concerts, worked closely with some big stars, and made enough money to continue writing and self-publishing my books, which have already paid for themselves in sales for the most part.

Watch the trailer for Through the Withering Storm, by Leif Gregersen:

Enter to win:

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Introducing: Drowning by Rachel Firasek (with Giveaway)

19 November 2013 by Melissa

About the book, Drowning:

“I dare you.”

Those words would change adrenaline junkie, Alice Harrison’s life forever. She’s a party girl that doesn’t believe in love until she meets a man that only writes about it.

Seth James escaped his overbearing father and moved into one of the James family’s vacant condos, hoping to create the music he loves in peace. But the fragile calm he’s envisioned shatters when a tiny woman with a world full of energy bounces out of the elevator and nearly takes him out.

With the patience of a saint, Seth seeks the dark that keeps Alice from enjoying life. He challenges her to exorcise the demons in her past in order to discover the true meaning of love. But when the walls fall down, the hidden deceptions will bare the ugly truth about a woman drowning in sorrow and a man who may not know how to be her hero.

Buy a copy at Amazon.

Read an excerpt from Drowning, by Rachel Firasek:

He tucks a hand into the waistband of my shorts and drags me into the hall, pulling my door shut behind me. “Where did you get that?” His gaze lingers on the small bump decorating my forehead.

I reach up and touch the sore knot. “Oh, I fell.”

“How?” He raises his free hand and traces the swelling.

I don’t even feel the careful prodding. No, my concentration is solely focused on the fingers tucked inside my shorts and only inches away from becoming way too familiar with me. “Um…I was doing yoga when you guys came down the hall.”

“And?” He tugs me closer. His thumb rakes a small path below my belly button.

Oh my. “Uh…I fell out of…of…my pose and banged my head on the floor.”

His eyes darken and those beautiful lips part. I want to snake my tongue across the bottom one to find out if it is as soft as it looks.

He winces and lowers his eyes to mine. “So this is my fault?”

I grab onto his wondering hand and pull it free of my shorts. If I didn’t, I’d be asking him for a wallgasm in less than two minutes. Random teasing and fleeing was a no go for me now. “No. It was an accident. Lighten up, G.”

“I don’t want to cause you pain.”

Wow, that feels like a loaded proclamation. “Okay. Well, keep the noise down and we should be good.”

He drops the hand that had been rubbing away my bruise. Funny, I’d totally forgotten it. “I don’t want to cause you pain. It’s a personal thing.” A deep shudder races over him, and for some reason, I don’t think he is with me anymore.

“You didn’t. I’m fine.” I lift a hand and cup the side of his face, bringing his gaze to mine. It is the gentlest moment I’ve ever had with a man, and we’ve just met. “I’m not sure what this is, G., but I think I should go inside.”

He glances down the corridor, takes a deep breath, and nods. “Yes, you should.”

About the author, Rachel Firasek:

Rachel Firasek spends her days daydreaming of stories and her nights putting the ideas to ink. She has spent a dull life following the rules, meeting deadlines, and toeing the line, but in her made up worlds, she can let the wild side loose. Her wonderful husband and three children support her love of the written word and only ask for the occasional American Idol or Swamp People quality hour.

She has a philosophy about love. It must devastate or it isn’t truly worth loving. She hopes that you all find your devastating love and cling to it with all your heart!

Her latest book is the new adult contemporary romance, Drowning.

Connect with Rachel:

Website: RachelFirasek.com
Facebook: Rachel Firasek, author
Twitter: @RachelFirasek

Pump Up Your Book and Rachel Firasek are teaming up to give you a chance to win a $25 Amazon Gift Card!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate or Paypal Cash.
This giveaway begins November 5 and ends November 29.
Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, December 2, 2013.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!
ENTER TO WIN!

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Review: Weak at the Knees by Jo Kessel – Enter to Win a Gift Basket

11 November 2013 by Melissa

About the book, Weak at the Knees:

“We got so busy living life that we forgot to live our dreams.”

Danni Lewis has been playing it safe for twenty-six years, but her sheltered existence is making her feel old ahead of time. When a sudden death plunges her into a spiral of grief, she throws caution to the wind and runs away to France in search of a new beginning.

The moment ski instructor Olivier du Pape enters her shattered world she falls hard, in more ways than one.

Their mutual desire is as powerful and seductive as the mountains around them. His dark gypsy looks and piercing blue eyes are irresistible.

Only she must resist, because he has a wife – and she’d made a pact to never get involved with a married man.
But how do you choose between keeping your word and being true to your soul?

Weak at the Knees is Jo Kessel’s debut novel in the new adult, contemporary romance genre – a story of love and loss set between London and the heart of the French Alps.

Buy a copy from Amazon.

About the author, Jo Kessel:

Jo Kessel

Jo Kessel is a journalist in the UK, working for the BBC and reporting and presenting for ITV on holiday, consumer and current affairs programs. She writes for several national newspapers including the Daily Mail, the Telegraph, the Guardian, and the Express, and was the anonymous author of the Independent’s hit column: “Diary of a Primary School Mum.”

When Jo was ten years old she wrote a short story about losing a loved one. Her mother and big sister were so moved by the tale that it made them cry. Having reduced them to tears she vowed that the next time she wrote a story it would make them smile instead. Happily she succeeded and with this success grew an addiction for wanting to reach out and touch people with words.

P.S Jo’s pretty certain one of her daughters has inherited this gene.

Other books by Jo Kessel include Lover in Law.

Connect with Jo:

Website: JoKessel.com
Facebook: Jo Kessel
Twitter: @jo_kessel
Goodreads: Jo Kessel

My Thoughts:

Jo Kessel’s novel Weak at the Knees is a breezy sexy romp with some deep self-examination mixed in. Written in first person (something many authors struggle to pull off, but Kessel handles amazingly well) this is Danni’s story, and she tells it in a such a fashion that I felt as though I was sitting on a couch, drinking wine, and chatting with an old friend.

Danni has been in an exclusive long-term relationship with Hugo (whom she’d maybe chuck in favor of Hugh Grant if given the opportunity, but whom she recognizes would be seen as Hugh Grant by a significant sector of the world’s population (namely American women) just because he’s British. Technically un-married, they live together, and have a very old-married-couple lifestyle.

Enter Olivier, the sexy French ski instructor. He’s hot. He’s willing. He’s French. But he’s also married, and so the rest of the novel is a balance of desire vs. responsibility, possibility vs. practicality, and all of the other life-choices that become so much more intense when they involve matters of the heart as well as matters of bedroom heat.

Kessel has drawn her character’s well. If Danni is like a best friend giving you a couch cushion confessional, then Hugo and Olivier as seen in her eyes are not merely the relationship equivalents of the angel and devil sitting on her shoulders, but real, dimensional men with thoughts and feelings of their own.

While this book isn’t really a comedy, it has many of the comic elements that come from life. Situations have both a funny and a tragic side, and Kessel shows us both.

Weak at the Knees is a fast read, incredibly enjoyable, and far more complex than the cover blurb implies. Read it. You won’t be sorry.

Goes well with hot tea, Milano cookies, and a comfy sofa.

This Book is Part of a Giveaway!

Pump Up Your Book and Jo Kessel are giving away a $100 Amazon Gift Card & a French Gift Basket that includes a whole lot of goodies associated with the book, including a bottle of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, a famous wine from the Rhône wine region of southeastern France!

Terms & Conditions:

By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $100 Amazon Gift Card and one winner will be chosen to win the gift basket.
This giveaway begins October 7 and ends January 18.
Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, January 20, 2014.
Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Enter to Win:

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Review: Ade’ by Rebecca Walker (giveaway copy available)

4 November 2013 by Melissa

About the Book, Ade’, a Love Story:

Ade, a Love Story

In Adé, a free-spirited American woman and a Swahili Muslim man fall in love on the exquisite island of Lamu, off the coast of Kenya. There, they create their own paradise: living in a traditional small white house and creating their private language of intimacy. After an intense courtship, Adé asks for Farida’s hand in marriage.

But when Adé and Farida are forced to leave the island in preparation for their wedding, Farida is faced by the unsettling and often violent realities of life on the mainland. And just as the Persian Gulf War begins, Farida succumbs to a disease that almost kills her, and alters her relationship with Adé forever.

A transcendent love story turned tale of survival, Adé explores what happens when one couple’s private idyll is interrupted by a world in the throes of massive upheaval.

Buy a copy at Amazon.

My Thoughts:

Magical. Lyrical. Haunting. Those are the three words that came to mind from the first page of my copy of Rebecca Walker’s amazing novel Ade’, a Love Story, and by the time I was just a few more pages into the story, I was already swept into the tide of Farida’s life – from college student to world traveler to lover, to, finally, just WOMAN, she seemed as real to me as many of my own friends. I could see her in my minds eye, asking local people in various desert countries to help her broaden her vocabulary, until their words felt like her own, and I could feel her thirst for connection and passion.

Her friend Miriam also reminded me of people I knew – still know – and while I can’t say that I disliked her, there were times when she annoyed me a little. “Stop trying so hard,” I’d tell the version of her in my imagination. But then I’d remember my own feelings of being an outsider.

Ade’, the title character himself, was also very real to me, but I saw him in soft-focus, through Farida’s eyes. Maybe it helps that my mother dated an Iranian man when I was a toddler (my father was never in the picture) or that I grew up in a diverse group of people from many different cultures, but I could almost hear his accent, his speech patterns – almost smell this skin.

It’s no secret that I read in the bath a lot. Even though my copy of Ade’ was a digital copy, and an uncorrected proof version at that, courtesy of TLC Book Tours and NetGalley, I took my Kindle into the bath with me to read this novel, and didn’t come out til the water was ice cold and my fingers and toes totally pruney. Why? Because this book is THAT entrancing. The language, the settings, the characters – all so vivid and so real.

Rebecca Walker, I know from her bio, writes for Marie Claire so it’s possible that I’ve read some of her stuff without knowing it, as I’m a long-time subscriber to that magazine. At times her voice seemed incredibly familiar, and that only made me enjoy the book more.

Ade’ is a love story, and I am in love with Ade’ and with Ms. Walker’s writing. Brava!

Goes well with: falafel, sweet potato fries, and yellow lentil soup.

About the author, Rebecca Walker:

Rebecca Walker

Rebecca Walker is the author of the best-selling memoirs Black, White and Jewish and Baby Love, and editor of the anthology Black Cool. She is also the editor of the anthologies To Be Real, What Makes a Man, and One Big Happy Family. Her writing has appeared in Bookforum, Newsweek, Glamour, Marie Claire, The Washington Post, Vibe, and Interview, among many other publications, and she blogs regularly for The Root.

Connect with Rebecca Walker:

Website: Rebecca Walker
Twitter: @RebeccaWalker

The lovely people at TLC Book Tours have given me the opportunity to make a gift of this book. Leave a comment telling me about YOUR one true love, and you could get a copy of your own.

Review: The Diabolist by Layton Green (with Giveaway Raffle)

25 October 2013 by Melissa

About the Book, The Diabolist:

The Diabolist by Layton Green

In this gripping thriller, the bizarre murder of a Satanic priest in San Francisco draws Dominic Grey and Viktor Radek, private investigators of cults, to the scene. Witnesses claim a robed figure, seemingly able to appear and disappear at will, set fire to the priest. When the leader of another Satanic cult in Paris dies under similar circumstances, the case only grows stranger… and more dangerous.

Convinced that a charismatic New Age prophet is behind the murders, the investigators undergo a perilous journey into the world of the occult as they try to penetrate the prophet’s inner circle. From the catacombs of Paris to London’s nefarious East End, from the haunted walls of York to a monastic fortress in the Sicilian wilderness, the case plunges Viktor and Grey into a vortex of black magic, ancient heresies, and the dark corners of their own pasts.

The Diabolist is a chilling novel that not only pulsates with action and suspense, but also mines a trove of fascinating historical, philosophical, and paranormal research to probe some of our closest held beliefs. From the opening pages to the astonishing conclusion, this latest installment in one of today’s most original new thriller series is not to be missed.

Buy your copy from AMAZON.

My Thoughts:

It’s always odd when you come late to a series of novels. In the back of my mind, as I was reading The Diabolist was a vague curiosity about the first Dominic Grey installment, and some questions about the development of the character. Those thoughts were very far back, however, as Layton Green plunges you into his story from the very first paragraph.

The journey, from there, is an amazing collection of dark ritual, detailed detection, and delicious description. From San Francisco to Paris, and more, I felt like I was traveling with Dominic and Viktor, and while, at times, I wanted the warmth and safety of four solid walls and bad television, I was, nevertheless gripped by Green’s story.

My perception of The Diabolist may be colored, somewhat, by my love of horror and dark supernatural stories (this was the latter, not the former), and the fact that I read this in October. I kept imagining this book as a movie because both the story and the settings felt so cinematic.

The confines of a page are not enough for Layton Green’s writing. His work beg to be translated into 100-foot high IMAX images, rendered in 3D, and given a score by Hanz Zimmer (John Williams is too sedate) or something akin to what Philip Glass wrote as the alternate score to Dracula.

I’m babbling, but the practical upshot of all this is that The Diabolist is a well written story. The supernatural element serves the mystery but stands on its own. The puzzles never get in the way of plot. The characters all crackle.

Layton Green has a new fan.

Goes well with: Chicken chili and homemade cornbread, with apple cider on the side.

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Spotlight on: Phoenix: The Beauty in Between by Lilliana Anderson

21 October 2013 by Melissa

I’m always happy to help support women authors, so I’m happy to be part of the group of bloggers introducing you to Lilliana Anderson’s latest work.

About the Book, Phoenix: The Beauty in Between:

nix The Beauty in Between

After being unceremoniously kicked out of home at a young age, Paige was forced to fend for herself.

In a bid to survive, she did things that most people would never dream of, and stopped caring about herself as a result.

When the fastest way to get food and shelter was to sell her body, and the fastest way to forget was to take drugs, Paige embarked and a steady downward spiral. Until, finally she hit rock bottom…

In A Beautiful Forever we got to know Paige as she battled the demons of her past to move forward with her future and find her happy ever after. Now, in Phoenix, we get to see the moments those demons were created and how she managed to get her life back on track.

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About the Author, Lilliana Anderson:

Lilliana Anderson

Bestselling Author of the A Beautiful Series, Alter and the Confidante Trilogy, Lilliana has always loved to read and write, considering it the best form of escapism that the world has to offer.

Australian born and bred, she writes New Adult Romance revolving around her authentically Aussie characters as well as a biographical trilogy based on an ex-Sydney sex worker, named Angelien.

Lilliana feels that the world should see Australia for more than just its outback and tries to show characters in more of a city setting.

When she isn’t writing, she wears the hat of ‘wife and mother’ to her husband and four children.

Before Lilliana turned to writing, she worked in a variety of industries and studied humanities and communications before transferring to commerce/law at university.

Originally from Sydney’s Western suburbs, she currently lives a fairly quiet life in suburban Melbourne.

Her latest book is the new adult contemporary romance, Phoenix: The Beauty in Between.