tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45276634319603502852024-02-26T02:01:45.046-05:00City Girl Who Loves to ReadCity Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.comBlogger199125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-41111762957699941922017-11-03T00:01:00.000-04:002017-11-03T00:01:09.690-04:00Claudia Riess - Love and Other Hazards - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://loveandotherhazardsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpuu16JnIo6NeaFvmgrh9BgRVUKGtiIBx4pO888SUY95385CzkULmuwv0QphJru6x0wmXpnsbLxx9ROHe2ykedr-gSKTYZZbHQApoJMhHOWKXKnLIAXvZJMCg_SG20QQ4CsTB3c1V-RxQ/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhH6cIEWOLLL87crX68g1XWy_frYLmS0V00577qnkpheDQLpGOTobNrRk2F4N4ubN-fva2ZThLhyXguGq725jmQAMw2ScnBBXrf2KGb2loqKIZiys8XbzLlrVMY0EbUuAv2hBIzERrtsEE/s320/35111698.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Glenda Fieldston is at the Metropolitan Museum of Art with her seven-year-old daughter, Astrid, when Eugene Lerman comes walking by with his eight-year-old daughter, Meredith, a schoolmate of Astrid’s. The families spot each other, Glenda and Eugene engage in long-range cursory assessments, and then they go their separate ways. But not for long. Glenda and Eugene cross paths professionally soon after, and circumstances at work bring them into close association. So begins a friendship fraught with complications. Glenda’s independence is self-imposed and fierce. Eugene’s was foisted on him by a wife who left him. Although Glenda’s and Eugene’s personal demons are incompatible, their longings are, confoundedly, in harmony. Their cautious friendship is further inhibited by past and present relationships, and it remains to be seen if they can break out of their set ways to make a break for uncharted love. </i><br />
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<b>Review</b><br />
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What happens when a man views the women in his life as different countries? Take a look at who's on Eugene Lerman's map.<br />
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"Connie was a country he had little desire to visit, like Malaysia, to which an irresistibly cheap charter flight had been arranged."<br />
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"Emily was a virgin isle, a place to which compassion and curiosity had drawn him, but from which he was looking to build a getaway raft."<br />
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"Glenda was a foreign country whose natives spoke to him in a language that resonated musically with his own, but whose dictator had cancelled all the goddamn flights to its shores."<br />
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It's sort of how he thinks of romance when he stands before the rushing splendor of Niagara Falls.<br />
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"Nothing stays the same. Everything evolves… gives… no matter how tough and hard you think you are. Change is good. This isn't a still life - that's why it's so beautiful. It changes, but it endures."<br />
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He thinks about winning a woman over as being on a battlefield of sorts.<br />
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"If Glenda thought that by running out of the office Eugene was indicating he wanted nothing more to do with her, she was mistaken. He was saving his resources for the campaign. He would not be put off, as he had been in the past. Her resistance had been showing signs of fatigue…having sensed this, he planned to wear her defenses down."<br />
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Now that might sound a bit over the top to some, but Eugene is a good guy at heart. Especially since while on a business trip to Chicago and reluctantly missing Eugene, Glenda asks herself, "[This] river must have been unpolluted once. Had she ever been?" The harsh wind presses in on her, and he only wants to be there to warm her up.<br />
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Will she let him settle within her borders? Take the journey along with them and discover for yourself.
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***
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<i>Love and Other Hazards</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071P4FLK2?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/love-and-other-hazards-claudia-riess/1126420588?ean=9781632991225" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/love-and-other-hazards/id1238526584?mt=11&at=10lu5f&ct=w" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Family Life, Romance<br />
Pages: 256<br />
Release: May 10, 2017<br />
Publisher: River Grove<br />
ISBN: 9781632991225<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35111698-love-and-other-hazards" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzFZlh_f5qyAGl7sk-R6dDlNVRKvkaOwUGhWmy-6uT7Pk0nWZeaweXwe6FbCXXygXkhOVPbRvm5s2AGB7ArwoAkjpEUE-QE_bBQBBrjMkpSHrDBeq5zuPIXtegoHWGGJ0WXzdyJ3WVJA/s1600/author.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Claudia Riess is a Vassar graduate who has worked in the editorial departments of <i>The New Yorker</i> magazine and Holt, Rinehart and Winston books and has edited several art history monographs. Her first novel, “Reclining Nude,” was published by Stein and Day. Oliver Sacks, author of “Awakenings,” had said her first book was “exquisite—and delicate… a most courageous book, full of daring—a daring only possible to a passionate and pure heart.”<br />
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The author divides her time between the Hamptons and Manhattan with her husband, Bob. <br />
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<b>Links to connect with Claudia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://claudiariessbooks.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaRiessBooks" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/ClaudiaRiess" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3052782.Claudia_Riess?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://loveandotherhazardsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796163" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796163/" id="rcwidget_c4wasol8" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-50581117443434494362017-10-04T00:01:00.000-04:002017-10-04T00:01:03.947-04:00Jerome Charyn - Winter Warning - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://winterwarningblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjYXlGEXY3tIZrt9p95Q8W9B-hdGzniD8T22pSZ5joLrTZfgtz295pbEL9vTd0Re5EglCA8Vfa5yToJWoS6RITMWPdnnktoRBClnFXeFR2p9hfThx8h0OjKRg82Xuv1N1cwvtNLhN9BDan6/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjAjPBsU0DSbZkOeuA7S3Kqs5e-ygKL9NstMyw-ahTAlOceAU9K_-1Oi0UDM8-IHPfjFk4ZJhM6J6CraVuWmEs1frbOvF5ZGrxENsnNZi6B_4l4a8lvKhDl3AE74PYjpJEK5g13BonTH0O0/s320/Winter+Warning-DJ-v1.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Reflecting our own world like a volatile funhouse mirror, Winter Warning lures us back to the 1980s, an era that could have been ripped right out of our most recent political upheaval. Isaac Sidel should have been vice president, banished to some far corner of the West Wing, but the president-elect has been forced to resign or face indictment for his crooked land deals—and Sidel becomes the accidental president. He’s a maverick, a crusader with a Glock in his belt, who defies both the Republicans and the Democrats. He seems haunted by Lincoln’s ghost, and the presidential palace becomes his own “great white jail,” as it did for Harry Truman. There’s never been another president quite like Isaac Sidel, New York’s former police commissioner and mayor. There’s a secret lottery created by some bankers in Basel to determine the exact date of Sidel’s death. And Sidel has to outrun this lottery in order to save himself. His greatest allies are not the Secret Service or the DNC, but a former Israeli prime minister who was a explosives operative during the British occupation of Palestine . . . as well as a mysterious billionaire who belongs to a brotherhood of killers and counterfeiters. His only companions in the capital are the captain of his helicopter fleet and a sexy naval intelligence officer who realizes that something has gone amuck at Camp David, when a band of mercenaries arrive with their sights trained on Sidel.
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</i><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn paints a disturbing picture of what life might be like for the President of the United States. It's quite a sinister and disturbing portrait. Why? Because everyone wants him dead. There's even a lottery, taking bets on the exact day he's going to die, with everyone from corporate bankers to international criminal networks, entering the sweepstakes. For President Isaac Sidel, there's not much to feel happy about.<br />
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Yet it's even harder for him to deal with when the mortal danger he's in is soon coupled with paranoia. Besides death threats being found inside the White House, it seems as if the walls have ears. All phone lines are tapped, and every call is recorded, so that it seems like half the planet is listening in on his conversations. Every one of his moves is mapped out and diagrammed, his destination logged and recorded. On the road, there's always a Lincoln behind him and a Lincoln in front, with a body double sitting in either one of the two. Every person he comes in contact with is scrutinized as a potential terrorist or saboteur.<br />
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No wonder the poor guy feels like the shrinking man of Pennsylvania Avenue.<br />
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Yet now with a price on his head, he feels like he can't even travel anywhere because he can't trust his own mechanics. And if the President of the United States can't go out, then he can't govern, which is exactly what the lottery pundits want - to immobilize him. The White House is "a mansion in the middle of nowhere. It [can't] connect him to the nation's pulse." His supposed safe haven is now nothing but an asylum.<br />
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And on top of it all, he has to deal with the blatant disrespect and open subordination of those who are supposed to be working for him, listening to talk like, "We have to walk around on tiptoe and protect a president who's an utter incompetent, who doesn't have the least conception of his own responsibility, who's putting all of us in harm's way."<br />
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There's the sting. His intelligence teams gather little intelligence, or no intelligence at all, and he's left to fiddle in the dark. It's not his fault that there's an assassin in the White House. As a college dropout, he feels like he doesn't belong in the White House, but yet he resents being trapped in a cocoon like some kind of recluse.<br />
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He even succumbs to tears when he thinks about the Manhattan lifestyle he left behind, especially when he's barraged with gunfire at Camp David, and a bomb explodes under his feet in Czechoslovakia. However, when a hired assassin finally appears in his private chambers, that's the last straw. Sidel has had enough. He's ready to fight back, especially when the killer turns out to be someone who was right under his nose, all along.
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***
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<i>Winter Warning</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1681773481?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/winter-warning-jerome-charyn/1125829672?ean=9781681773483" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781681773483" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/winter-warning-an-isaac-sidel-novel/id1238839750?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.biblio.com/book/winter-warning-isaac-sidel-novel-charyn/d/988271727?aid=frg&utm_source=google&utm_medium=product&utm_campaign=feed-details&gclid=EAIaIQobChMIvcr33ujy1AIVnYuzCh2UoQHBEAYYAyABEgIjiPD_BwE" target="_blank">Biblio</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $25.95 ebook, $25.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Political, Espionage, Thriller<br />
Pages: 256<br />
Release: October 1, 2017<br />
Publisher: Pegasus Books<br />
ISBN: 9781681773483<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34445219-winter-warning?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKt_lhPyUFLZfEHpGQ10fPpN4mEtflbJzOqUErrsRxVNs5xXih-JaxKEZX89FNxvH9J1VK-fNh8Ityn9t6EgXb-ztXK9ZHySnHQCJiumc8pgp3PewuY209NAmO5iDhvU3PLL6LcMzwQ9s/s320/Jerome+crop+NYPD+jpg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn published his first novel in 1964. He's the author of <i>Johnny One-Eye, The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham</i>, and dozens of other acclaimed novels as well as nonfiction works. His short stories have appeared in <i>The Atlantic, Paris Review, American Scholar, Epoch</i>, and <i>Ellery Queen</i>. Charyn's popular crime novels featuring homicide detective Isaac Sidel inspired a new animated drama series: <i>Hard Apple</i> debuts on the small screen in 2017, helmed by Hollywood insider James Gray (<i>The Immigrants</i>) and illustrated by famed artists Asaf and Tomer Hanuka. Charyn lives in Greenwich Village, New York.
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<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook (author)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter (author)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/IsaacSidel/" target="_blank">Facebook (Isaac Sidel)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/IsaacSidel" target="_blank">Twitter (Isaac Sidel)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796161" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796161/" id="rcwidget_qh72kit8" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-49583608520586448392017-09-13T00:01:00.000-04:002017-09-13T00:01:05.350-04:00A. Keith Carreiro - The Penitent: Part II - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thepenitentpartiiblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4tQ5p0izeZVtv_127Jb1hi3ksYMVecAGFEZs8AcpTX8EgWwo2oKmQFWLm51RDzyrgaPm7foiqo_bFH8KPWrFseevjbRVpHQE9ELAI3SYwOCbklw1d2muStiY12IeB25puyYssY88bqAuq/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglcMGE7iJBGC5h8sVBr4r6RtFDVsJfIGBSt5MgBw7Fmjmj_cl52qnncgQEdNthmc9vqmYHMcitFHiYVhZLLm9a9fjc24WfoAVpJeFxJt5x0M7ViPirMA_9VH9QtTN_Eyx4gl4DcxUdxPfW/s320/THEIMM%257E1.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Hidden in the bottom of a roadside ditch as a baby, Evangel is only steps away from her viciously murdered parents. An old hermit finds her there a day later and takes her to his home in the heart of a sylvan wilderness. She is raised in a hermitage built by Matthew where he learns she is touched by a rare spiritual power. 17 years later a series of miracles occur that rock the very nature of her reality. Befriended by outlaws and a king’s champion, she is also betrayed by a woman of the cloth during a bard of the realm’s performance. That night, in a dream, Evangel envisions her future soul mate, Pall Warren, on a battlefield of death, and casts a prayer of protection around him. Thus begins a remarkable journey to save herself and those who believe in her. A hauntingly beautiful and startling tale of wonder. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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When the main characters live in a forest called God's Temple and name their cottage The Refuge, you know it's going to be a good book.<br />
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Matthew is a hermit. Other people distract him from God, so he'd rather not be around them. However, when he finds a little baby girl abandoned in the woods, all it takes is one smile from her and he's a goner. He takes her in and ends up raising her in a loving, safe environment, developing her seemingly innate ability for meditation and contemplation.<br />
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He shelters her, yet as she reaches the age of maturity her self-awareness begins to grow. She's the first to admit that, "the world out there and the one I grew up in are the exact opposite of one another. Yet, even though I live in such beauty and innocence, I am still part of this other, baser world."<br />
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Her spiritual encounters with the divine are an even mix of the two. She envisions a Christ-like figure on the cross whose agony is suddenly turned into glory. She relates, "When he smiled at me, he was no longer on this awful tree. We were walking on a beautiful road. He showed me many things. We went and talked together underneath the shade of a wood filled with copper beech trees and a stream flowing in the middle of them."<br />
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Her confidence and optimism waver a bit when a group of men invade her tranquil home. For the first time for her, "life had lost its simplicity. Everywhere she looked now things were so complicated."<br />
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So will she be able to adjust to the wider world of corruption, rivalry and greed? I don't know. Don't be surprised if—instead of the world changing her—she ends up changing the world. When the clouds part and a rainbow appears, it sends a galvanizing message that with her maybe anything is possible.
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***
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<i>The Penitent: Part II</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Penitent-Part-Immortality-Wars-Book-ebook/dp/B07176R49M?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.99 ebook, $15.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Science Fiction, Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>274<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 15, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Copper Beech Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9780997382716<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35278125-the-penitent---part-ii" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGGB1-RJlH3q4jSC254YbnfkmXwVs61j8IPk3cxHllxM4VLleZ-Uq_lXirKcMlT5QyVHymdidYxvp2BZF6UzW2ARKAPeeLiLm9vIaZdjW8Si75UDF1Q0-57SHBJXAtQiLt1d75iH5ppDU/s1600/IMG_0387.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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A. Keith Carreiro earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, with the sequential help and guidance of three advisors, Dr. Vernon A. Howard, Dr. Donald Oliver and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Israel Scheffler. Keith’s academic focus, including his ongoing research agenda, centers upon philosophically examining how creativity and critical thinking are acquired, learned, utilized and practiced in the performing arts. He has taken his findings and applied them to the professional development of educational practitioners.<br />
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Earlier in his teaching career he was a professor of educational foundations, teaching graduate students of education at universities in Vermont, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor of English at Bridgewater State University, as well as teaching English, philosophy, humanities and public speaking courses at Bristol Community College.<br />
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He lives in Swansea, Massachusetts. He has six children and 13 grandchildren. He belongs to an eighty–five–pound golden retriever, an eight–pound Maltese, and an impish Calico cat.<br />
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Due to his love of family, he has seen his fervor for history, as well as his passion for wondering about the future, deepen dramatically.<br />
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Starting on May 23rd until October 9th of 2014, he sat down at his computer on a daily basis and began writing the first book of a science fiction/fantasy thriller in a beginning series about the quest for human immortality.
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<b>Links to connect with A. Keith:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Immortality-Wars-The-Penitent-Book-One-1023452581055756/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15959901.A_Keith_Carreiro" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
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<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796162" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796162/" id="rcwidget_pzi2ph9y" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-63529881253306602312017-09-06T00:01:00.000-04:002017-09-06T00:01:33.839-04:00R. Franklin James - The Bell Tolls - Review & Giveaway<a href="https://thebelltollsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1VEs8fp7e2l8BvK1yn4PGEZVOo_gYDiCYoMxE163hpI6UUNN1rKsHewzjOWbjS09BshKv0jRCzeapKJjsE34OywrWqazAwIHX3asSSVt1DuoZrZ93dKFmdWLkj8LuXlpmLv-LPL_4omE/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcnla3aSfCDzuZtQV58ZJkkRwyQmrKLT1LhPkBXruAFDo5dufz-RfIk21m2351IjW8JsWXfTOashXv7Y55SW_rTr5jO5-GYCrAdRjkfSblsfPOUGFADa8HfE7Y9K7UVxojbEVJeVOnw4M/s320/bell_tolls_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Hollis Morgan has survived imprisonment, received a pardon and persevered to finally become a probate attorney. Tough as she is, her newest case will further test her mettle. She discovers her client, Matthias Bell, is a deceased blackmailer whose last wish was to return the damaging documents he collected, letting his victims off the hook. It falls to Hollis to give them the good news. But it’s revealed that Bell was murdered, and the victims of “Bell’s tolls” are now suspects.<br /><br />
Hollis’ white-collar criminal past has left her with keen survival instincts. A gifted liar she knows a liar when she meets one. A lot of people in this case are lying and one is a killer.<br /><br />
On top of that, she’s also representing a dying stripper, a wealthy widow whose estranged daughter spurns her attempts at reconciliation, but whose husband sees the potential inheritance as mending all wounds particularly financial ones.<br /><br />
Clients aside, Hollis is defensive and wary. Her mother, who hasn’t spoken to her for years, needs a kidney, and Hollis is a match, but neither are ready to put away the past. With Hollis’ fiancé and emotional support off on an undercover mission for Homeland Security, she must count on her own survival instincts. She is swept along on an emotional roller coaster as her absent love and her family’s coldness take their own toll.<br /><br />
Work is her salvation. The specter of a killer keeps her focused. Hollis has always had to rely on her wits, but now she finds that others who don’t have her well-being in mind are relying on them as well.</i><br />
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<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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<i>San Francisco 49ers by 10.</i><br />
<br />
That's John's safe text greeting. The one he sends to his girlfriend, Hollis, from his stash of toss-away phones whenever he's undercover, working for Homeland Security. It's just to let her know that he's okay and that he's thinking of her.<br />
<br />
And it's sweet because Hollis isn't one to open up to people. Living in Oakland, she's somewhat of a workaholic at her law firm, not one to waste time chit-chatting or sharing anything significant about her personal life with co-workers. As far as she's concerned, she has John, her best friend and wise counsel, and that's all she needs.<br />
<br />
Because neediness makes her feel inadequate. When it comes to needy people, she doesn't feel like she could ever give them the answers they're looking for, so she backs away from them. Yet when it comes to her relationship with John, she catches a glimpse into how needy people must feel inside. In fact, "she didn't want to think she needed him, but over the next month, it would be as if a part of her was in Washington" with him.<br />
<br />
Then everything falls apart when she gets an actual phone call, not from John, but from one of his fellow agents, telling her that John's not coming back, that he died. And for Hollis, "the finality of that - the silence - left her aching and numb."<br />
<br />
Her friends attempt to draw her out of herself, but she's having none of it. In her mind, "she didn't need friends. She needed John." She gets so closed in on herself that she doesn't even notice nature anymore the way that she used to, not taking the time "to gaze at the splash of color in the sky as the sun rose over the East Bay Hill."<br />
<br />
A young colleague in the office tries to lift her spirits by telling her how he never takes one minute of the relationship he has with his girlfriend for granted, saying, "I asked her, what if I was her 'one' and she was my 'one'? Anything can happen tomorrow, but it's today that matters. We only get one shot."<br />
<br />
Yet at the very end of the book, when Hollis's cell phone unexpectedly lights up, it raises the distinct possibility that maybe we don't get only one shot at love, maybe if we're lucky, we get two.
<br />
<br />
***
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<br />
<i>The Bell Tolls</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071Z883NN?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-bell-tolls-r-franklin-james/1126374281?ean=9781603812177" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-bell-tolls/id1238511092?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-bell-tolls" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.overdrive.com/media/3301532/the-bell-tolls" target="_blank">Overdrive</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Women's Sleuth, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller<br />
<b>Pages: </b>239<br />
<b>Release:</b> June 1, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603812177<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34518818-the-bell-tolls?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidlYLw5PmagkI7CJZBOdo5NItUM6tGCqvOv49whr2aHEC5IuCQYC3v72xGiVNMffmfkhAOPzf1EYFsnBIC-3C3wjtUfH3MqUlLjCuH-cybCb90D6ZqmodJTPlzpL1MhgaaOElbfRqwY5k/s320/RaeBksh.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
R. Franklin James grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area and graduated from the University of California at Berkeley. From there she cultivated a different type of writing—legislation and public policy. After serving as Deputy Mayor for the City of Los Angeles, under millionaire Richard Riordan, she went back to her first love—writing, and in 2013 her debut novel, <i>The Fallen Angels Book Club</i> was published by Camel Press. Her second book in The Hollis Morgan Mystery Series, <i>Sticks & Stones</i>, was followed by <i>The Return of the Fallen Angels Book Club</i>, and <i>The Trade List</i>. <i>The Bell Tolls</i>, book five was released in June 2017.<br />
<br />
R. Franklin James lives in Northern California with her husband.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with R. Franklin James:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://rfranklinjames.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/R-Franklin-James-273658892738172/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/RFJBooks" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7043359.R_Franklin_James" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796160" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796160/" id="rcwidget_ggpsyttx" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-67711198046660079742017-08-10T00:01:00.000-04:002017-08-10T00:01:03.284-04:00Rich Zahradnik - Lights Out Summer - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://lightsoutsummerblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1HLpAI5VzOgBxHHGzy596Q_pHp_zP5tpzAOhRjDl-UoYjhDN3gBdvktIitPb0C7bx6bXeYN0Ld4O2LHrWj_vJhydn4JvNYMlahROHHpmKrAOBcHbMC9Wj2KM9y6AuchbpDSEkbqAB8Fk/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
<b><br /></b>
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh_AKBY9Ri-JVWPQKWelk6OWmg0syvZkzb5uPSgvmE-SCOUEhz2Oznwq4AJP2Ucq0VtfIYkMF7oID35sYIJg7xbMrrgh8gGoy4xEH8jTPCx6lgAemRm9B-_kgg3KIf91LPyxCYdXKyEhF4/s320/lights_out_summer_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />In March 1977, ballistics link murders going back six months to the same Charter Arms Bulldog .44. A serial killer, Son of Sam, is on the loose. But Coleridge Taylor can't compete with the armies of reporters fighting New York's tabloid war--only rewrite what they get. Constantly on the lookout for victims who need their stories told, he uncovers other killings being ignored because of the media circus. He goes after one, the story of a young Black woman gunned down in her apartment building the same night Son of Sam struck elsewhere in Queens.
The story entangles Taylor with a wealthy Park Avenue family at war with itself. Just as he's closing in on the killer and his scoop, the July 13-14 blackout sends New York into a 24-hour orgy of looting and destruction. Taylor and his PI girlfriend Samantha Callahan head out into the darkness, where a steamy night of mob violence awaits them.
In the midst of the chaos, a suspect in Taylor's story goes missing. Desperate, he races to a confrontation that will either break the story--or Taylor.
Book 4 in the Coleridge Taylor Mystery series. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
The Son of Sam killer is on the loose.<br />
<br />
A massive blackout results in a night of looting and destruction.<br />
<br />
People are broke, and jobs are scarce.<br />
<br />
It's just a few years after the end of the Vietnam War and, "It didn't matter how much sacrifice. Everybody's trying to forget. Not trying. Succeeding. America only loved a winner."<br />
<br />
And in 1977, New York City certainly wasn't winning.<br />
<br />
Even a former member of the NYPD admits, "Crime I can take. This madness is…evil." It seems people are willing to kill over anything—a rent-controlled apartment, dominance in the drug trade, embezzling a family out of its Park Avenue fortune. It's as if a population of 15 million people are "banished to an outer circle of Dante's hell, with New York moving ever inward."<br />
<br />
It pains lifelong residents to look back on a time in the not-so-distant past when people actually helped each other. Back then, New Yorkers believed they could cope with anything…now they don't. And that's the difference, and what causes these downward spirals to happen.<br />
<br />
How does a corrupt, bankrupt city turn itself around? Is it economic opportunity? Is it good leadership? Do ethics and morals only hold sway in times of prosperity? The book brings up topics of conversation that are worth discussing because New York did turn manage to turn things around. Let's face it the Times Square of 1997 sure looked a heck of a lot different than the one from 1977.<br />
<br />
A reporter makes an apt remark that, "he never imagined how fast a newspaper could disappear—be forgotten. Not until he'd seen it happen. When was the last time you saw…people lined up to buy a newspaper?"<br />
Yet when the Son of Sam killer releases an exclusive letter just in time for the Sunday edition: "Everyone stayed in line, calm, polite. Surprising in New York these days, maybe people needed to hear about a maniac and mayhem to decide to be civil."<br />
<br />
I guess when the circus comes to town, it's not likely to pack up and leave anytime soon.
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<br />
***
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<i>Lights Out Summer</i> can be pre-ordered at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/160381213X?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/lights-out-summer-rich-rich-zahradnik/1126293458?ean=9781603812139" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781603812139" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback, $29.95 audio<br />
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
Pages: 288<br />
Release: October 1, 2017<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812139<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34605303-lights-out-summer" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hoHbpjOz-524QPeyrwbgNrT4SYIXn9zJZnGxakVOD5vzBfYy_B9wdp9D1uAwGzfe0vHiHaLKokAKIrBl4jtxetzRwu11reLlYZ7mOy_DAEbL8Jqf6rFzEbT96YwBwD7FEn4jGA_CEHSM/s320/_45D3397.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Rich Zahradnik is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Coleridge Taylor Mystery series (<i>Lights Out Summer, A Black Sail, Drop Dead Punk, Last Words</i>).<br />
<br />
The first three books have been shortlisted or won awards in the three major competitions for novels from independent presses. <i>A Black Sail</i> was named winner in the mystery category of the 2017 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. <i>Drop Dead Punk</i> collected the gold medal for mystery ebook in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards. <i>Last Words</i> won the bronze medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2015 IPPYs and honorable mention for mystery in the 2015 Foreword Reviews Book of the Year Awards.<br />
<br />
"Taylor, who lives for the big story, makes an appealingly single-minded hero," Publishers Weekly wrote of <i>Drop Dead Punk. A Black Sail</i> received a starred review from <i>Library Journal</i>, which said, “Fans of the late Barbara D’Amato and Bruce DeSilva will relish this gritty and powerful crime novel.”<br />
<br />
Zahradnik was a journalist for 25-plus years, working as a reporter and editor in all major news media, including online, newspaper, broadcast, magazine and wire services. He held editorial positions at CNN, Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, AOL and <i>The Hollywood Reporter.</i><br />
<br />
Zahradnik was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1960 and received his B.A. in journalism and political science from George Washington University. He lives with his wife Sheri and son Patrick in Pelham, New York, where he writes fiction and teaches kids around the New York area how to write news stories and publish newspapers.<br />
<br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Rich:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/richzahradnik/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/rzahradnik" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8335771.Rich_Zahradnik" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796159" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796159/" id="rcwidget_918kg4z9" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-49486951702324459272017-08-03T00:01:00.000-04:002017-08-03T00:01:03.628-04:00Sharon St. George - Spine Damage - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://spinedamageblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi_QHW8NdXBm6grCr0f3Gx8CQkhHuO27FnKMILygc8ygRXWKm7OaghlmOcvVjyAeSLIdS0psfYWfhjcSfwbSg8VxJUKkjQqC60GBvSL76TvZMK4PTnx-J3QrvtwUcFKthOWpnTSzgFn0s0/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4g0ac8jiQ7olzks2zCLW6qjihptSQIqzluBqVje4DbvrAEmj6vvBEC9PsJni50enxDJlUMuPWzEfuloU4C_86ZPEks0UeaTB-Tcq7dUidOWAWs4rqn53y43QL2HpaPcIzNhETQLWTRVQ/s320/spine_damage_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Paulo Ferrara, a young Portuguese man, lies comatose in the Intensive Care Unit of Timbergate Medical Center, shot in the spine. The neurosurgeon who would normally be in charge of his care has left town to attend to an injured daughter, and the only other neurosurgeon, the rude and egotistical Dr. Godfrey Carver, is about to be suspended for not completing his continuing education requirements.
The unpleasant duty of ensuring that the staff obey the rules lies with Aimee Machado, the medical center's forensic librarian and Continuing Education Coordinator. Aimee and her pilot boyfriend Nick live together on her grandparents’ llama farm. While dealing with Dr. Carver, Aimee learns the circumstances of Paulo’s injury and enlists Nick’s help. Aimee is half Asian and half Portuguese, and her parents live on Faial, one of the Azores Islands off the coast of Portugal. Faial is the closest neighbor to Pico, home of Paulo and his family. Paulo came to rural Northern California in search of his fifteen-year-old sister Liliana, who vanished two weeks ago. Nick’s wealthy employer Buck Sawyer takes an interest in the girl’s plight as well, especially when they learn that she left the Azores on a superyacht. Not only is Buck a yacht owner, but he is also on a crusade against drug trafficking, and Paulo and Liliana have clearly stumbled onto a criminal operation of some kind.
The trail leads Aimee and Nick from Timbergate, to the Azores, to San Francisco. Paulo’s condition is deteriorating, and he might never be able to explain what got him shot. Can Aimee, her brother Harry, and Nick unravel the mystery in time to save Liliana?
Book 4 in the Aimee Machado Mystery series, which began with Due for Discard. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
The crying of gulls… The pungent smell of seawater… The bright morning sunlight shining through the window of a porthole…<br />
<br />
Sharon St. George's crime novel SPINE DAMAGE takes place in the Azores, a picturesque chain of islands off the Portuguese coast. And it's a fitting locale since Aimee Machado, the character this mystery series is named after, is half Portuguese. In this installment, Aimee returns to the paternal side of her roots by visiting her parents' home with her boyfriend, Nick.<br />
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"Sunburned, wind blown and happy," Aimee's parents trade "knowing smiles that said, typical tourist," when Nick gets all excited at seeing a whale up close and personal during a boat ride. They're used to living in paradise and the book hits all the right notes in establishing a sense of island living.<br />
<br />
For example, local legend has it that a superstitious sailor once painted a small picture on the marina wall in order to ensure a safe journey home, and to this very day, sailors continue to do the same, adding color and artistry to the walkways surrounding the Horta Marina.<br />
<br />
Hospitality is also a key ingredient when it comes to the home life of the Azores people. It's common practice that a woman always takes time to bake for her guests, and the names of some of the Portuguese delicacies - such as "dreams" and "sighs" - sound just as good as they taste.<br />
<br />
The population itself is a mishmash of tourists and locals, giving a sense of diversity and worldliness to a place tucked away from the world. But things really amp up during Sea Week, when everyone is hoping to spot the American celebrities who descend upon the town.<br />
<br />
But chasing celebrities isn't why Aimee is there. She'd much rather spend time in the little white stucco house with a red-tied roof. Belonging to three generations of her family, it holds a very special place in her heart. <br />
<br />
However, this time around she doesn't get to indulge in a little family tradition by taking Nick to the top of Mt. Pico, because as it turns out, a teenage girl with dreams of Hollywood in her head, gets on board one of those fancy American yachts, never to be seen again.<br />
<br />
With Aimee and Nick soon to fly home to the United States, can they somehow try to help her distraught parents and find their missing daughter?<br />
<br />
Goodbye, paradise. Time to get back to reality.<br />
<br />
***
<br />
<br />
<i>Spine Damage</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B071YTQ6TH?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/spine-damage-sharon-st-george/1126282506?ean=2940157570613" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/spine-damage/id1234678429?ls=1&mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/spine-damage" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $4.95 ebook, $16.78 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Mystery<br />
<b>Pages: </b>328<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 15, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603815819<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34518537-spine-damage" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjt-6aiG3kZ3QWX0lsh8qWj8R1KMsOGOVvQYs4mri5qKqLnhWzyDG-zfhINTiF2Ed-xsQiwsMZJ1d72FWxYoAfOUyVYGu1MQX59VoOQvCGzx11iCQlJOpKSVzF-IWqdFv0voyivHbXcz6Wt/s1600/XG8D1047+300+dpi+for+print,+book,+etc+gaussian+blur.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Sharon St. George’s writing credits include three plays, several years writing advertising copy, a book on NASA’s space food project, and feature stories too numerous to count. She holds dual degrees in English and Theatre Arts, and occasionally acts in, or directs, one of her local community theater productions. Sharon is a member of Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America, and she serves as program director for Writers Forum, a nonprofit organization for writers in northern California.
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<b>Links to connect with Sharon:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://sharonstgeorge.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SharonStGeorgeauthor/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/SharonStGeorge" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/10908363.Sharon_St_George" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796157" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796157/" id="rcwidget_8pbi1xh5" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-62863295428052013582017-06-12T00:01:00.000-04:002017-06-12T00:01:05.179-04:00Tricia Dower - Becoming Lin - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://becominglinblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQkjT_v6cO_2nh9lSviRnid4LYRmKxHfQnN2b8rM3LRcict7fGgvwGG663g0h1ETzMv_6SmRsGZUcucjwEnOK-uKCJtdrAYM-nmWyps5KP2TsqshpIfzZphLtHfrZvgos0RYwdSLm8wt6a/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicC7c0yhwUFHKl6KUqv2aSfxe0CU2dwV11YRX-yi7KH0qDNZCLe0EUnksiRcSMPcaL8bJH-8mzFKmZI438Ad_zj-96v0x8F9sJ0d4a-aiXKP0S2rdQrqh_xxuPQH18_dwUjZiXPcPtgBn4/s320/Becoming+Lin+Cover+V1+MED.jpeg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It’s 1965. Twenty-two-year-old Linda Wise despairs of escaping her overprotective parents and the town of Stony River where far too many know she was sexually assaulted as a teenager. Deliverance arrives in the form of marriage to the charismatic, twenty-six-year-old Ronald Brunson, a newly ordained Methodist minister who ignites in her a dormant passion for social justice. He tells her war and racial discrimination are symptoms of the “moral rot” destroying the country, conjuring up something dark and rancid in her mind, thrilling in its wickedness. He sweeps her away from New Jersey to serve with him at a church in a speck-on-the-map prairie town in Minnesota. What lies ahead for her over the next seven years is the subject of Tricia Dower’s penetrating study of a marriage and a woman’s evolving sense of self as she confronts the fear that keeps her from an unfettered future. Becoming Lin conjures the turbulent era of Freedom Riders for civil rights, Vietnam war resistance, the US government’s war against the resisters, the push for equal rights for women and the unraveling of the traditional marriage contract—an era that resonates today in tenacious racism and sexism, perpetual war and wide-reaching government surveillance.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Lin Brunson finds herself pregnant during the height of the Vietnam War, and for a moment she can't help thinking to herself, "We can't bring another child into this violent world."<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>Picture it. The country is in shock. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Bobby Kennedy are dead. A hundred cities are still recovering from a fresh string of riots and not even Walter Cronkite believes in the war anymore.</i></blockquote>
<br />
Yet Lin Brunson takes it very much to heart. For this mom-to-be, the war is not just images on a TV screen. It's personal. And it becomes even more complicated for her since she's married to a pastor, and his church seems just as divided as the rest of the country.<br />
<br />
But that's what her husband, Ron, finds her so intriguing about his wife. He tells her, "How you see the world, what you believe, what's happened to you and how it's affected you? I want to know all that."<br />
<br />
It turns out Ron's a former Freedom Fighter, himself, and was even arrested down South for helping to register African Americans to vote. He's no stranger to standing up for what he believes in, and he admires that quality in Lin, even from the very first time they met, openly admitting to her, "What struck me was your spirit. A voice inside me said that is the girl I'm going to marry."<br />
<br />
Yet preachers and politicians tend to oversimplify complex issues, and the strain begins to show in their marriage when their phones are tapped and their friends start disappearing. Things are different now that they have a child. The risks they're taking don't just affect them anymore, they have a little one to think about now.<br />
<br />
Stressed, Lin tells Ron, "I married you under false pretenses, I wasn't mature enough to accept your proposal." But he quickly counters with something his mother told him about her, "God sent this woman to you. Keep praying until you understand why."<br />
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Are they able to work things out as a family? Well, for me, this particular quote from the book sums it up beautifully: "You forget that you are eternal. He has always been with you and always will be."
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***
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<br />
<i>Becoming Lin</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01K10Q71O?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/becoming-lin-tricia-dower/1123316470?ean=9781987915075" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/becoming-lin/id1132755961?mt=11&at=10lu5f&ct=w" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781987915075" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.booksamillion.com/product/1987915070" target="_blank">BooksaMillion</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.midpointtrade.com/book_detail.php?book_id=134687" target="_blank">Midpoint Trade</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/becoming-lin" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $12.99 ebook, $22.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Women's Fiction, Historical, Coming of Age<br />
<b>Pages: </b>240<br />
<b>Release:</b> March 20, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Caitlin Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781987915075<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28481693-becoming-lin" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj-4pMydgbuftosc85YKdKXwtf-QqYQ2i1JYTI5f8YcAsIbf3HGvBBACH9z9PB56EBJmXTXpY01L_ZMxA7g5fopKLDAjrRv_8nXlUgph3-2y4AY1o7Jro4-ZKBRyLF6aRWFRvy17mSIU/s320/Tricia+Dower+%25231+sRGB+for+internet.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Tricia Dower hails from Rahway, New Jersey. You can find her on the “Rahway’s Own” website with other individuals the town has recognized for innovation and creativity. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a Phi Mu, she built a career in business before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her literary work has crossed borders and won awards. She expanded a story from her Shakespeare-inspired collection, <i>Silent Girl</i> (Inanna 2008) into <i>Stony River</i>, which was published in both Canada (Penguin 2012) and the US (Leapfrog 2016). She gave a character from <i>Stony River</i> her own novel in <i>Becoming Lin</i> (Caitlin Press 2016), now available in the US.<br />
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The <i>Vancouver Sun</i> says, “Some of the most powerful and eloquent novelists of the 20th and 21st centuries…including Margaret Atwood, Margaret Laurence and Ethel Wilson...open up what had been cloaked in silence, the oppression of women and their self-discoveries in resistance. We can now add to this important liberation canon the name of Tricia Dower.”<br />
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A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
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<b>Links to connect with Tricia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/tricia.dower" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/TriciaDower" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1302018.Tricia_Dower" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/silent-girl-speaks/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796156" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796156/" id="rcwidget_938fbxg2" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-64691104811404518872017-06-05T00:01:00.000-04:002017-06-05T00:01:03.339-04:00Michael J. McCann - Burn Country - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://burncountryblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="center" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd-u9i_sEhyphenhyphen1cpU1iXZuL0eilJd6fC_XoG4iK7hCcMPfVD75Wdq9rrXjvTOiwqoWy8Y05a2-DPTdK2Busp34FfLj5oTVvTI7ytR0ldf5k2Q28FMgvHSAahuSvnv3udu8LajrLd9wsVNkqI/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis-YkpiHWEokzcPNJoNRP1iQraZ2kAAeCSGpBCrN4tGz9zOw7rng6ZVoLbq304rPKGAvDesQXLiXEYISL0WCT8VNFmRMHkYanINdKculg_c8AHDdwuXzDQOtm9torzEnBisWAKSKfgBFRY/s320/BURN+COUNTRY+front+cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The latest in a series of barn fires in Leeds County turns ugly when a body is discovered inside the burned-out husk of an old hay barn near the village of Elgin. When the victim turns out to be Independent Senator Darius Lane, a renowned artist and social activist recently appointed to the upper chamber by the prime minister, Detective Inspector Ellie March of the Ontario Provincial Police finds herself coping with an RCMP national security team which must first assess whether the senator’s involvement in sensitive government business led to his brutal murder by forces hostile to Canada. While Detective Constable Kevin Walker works the case files of the previous barn fires looking for a serial arsonist within Leeds County who may have killed for the first time, Ellie discovers that the intervention of RCMP Assistant Commissioner Danny Merrick, unexpectedly polite and charming, will place her directly in the cross-hairs of a homicide investigation with national repercussions! This is the second book in the March and Walker Crime Novel series and the sequel to Sorrow Lake, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Hammett Award for best North American crime novel.
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<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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Crime Scene Report; Homicide<br />
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Population: 600<br />
Terrain: country roads, back lanes, countless lakes, swamps and rivers<br />
Average salary: $32,500<br />
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The outlying regions of the city of Ottawa provide a study in contrasts between the haves and the have-nots, depicting a place where "well-being exist[s] on a sliding scale."<br />
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It sets the stage perfectly for the murder of a senator and why his body is found in a cabin, far from his downtown office. The likely suspects are a delinquent who set fire to a Burger King restroom after getting into an altercation with the staff behind the counter and a troubled veteran suffering from PTSD, who just can't seem to put his life back together.<br />
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They're two young men who are on the downward spiral of prosperity. The fast food fire starter has "still, grey eyes that held the emptiness of rural poverty," while the one-time soldier has to quit his new post at the volunteer fire department when his wartime flashbacks become too much for him.<br />
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One of the cops sent to interview the two men can't help but notice their lack of upward mobility, and he no longer feels so bad about having to share a small house with his girlfriend and her two kids. Reflecting, he asks himself the question, "Why be envious of people far above you…when you [are] envied by people struggling below you."<br />
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He even develops a sense of empathy for the two suspects when he sees how they can't even afford things like a cell phone, Internet service or even a place to live. One is dependent on the social services his alcoholic father receives from the government while the other is forced to crash indefinitely in his brother's basement. The cop realizes how good he has it, and why similar men in his position turn to a life of crime in order to relieve their frustration or just to make ends meet.<br />
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As a law man, he doesn't condone their behavior, but he understands it, which is what good fiction does—it paints a picture of how the other half lives.
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***
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<i>Burn Country</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XQPLB45?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebook/burn-country" target="_blank">Kobo</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $24.99 paperback<br />
Pages: 304<br />
ISBN: 9781927884096<br />
Publisher: Plaid Raccoon Press<br />
Release: March 17, 2017<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/34668497-burn-country" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8Bz6YatUSQuShK0YeqTkhbFbgwF5ps6On8KbQibhvrHNredkN47hUJKpkqZ0Xnt2iUwT7SvlOBfkPKyx15GBJuziPyge4ykm0eECk9T67d7yvstrsnzznhuELOjqhdEB83vmP_XvrSOmA/s1600/author+photo+3.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Michael J. McCann was born and raised in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. He earned degrees in English from Trent University and Queen's University in Kingston, ON.<br />
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He is the author of <i>Sorrow Lake</i>, the first March and Walker Crime Novel, which was shortlisted for the 2015 Hammett Award for best crime novel in North America.<br />
<br />
He is also the author of the Donaghue and Stainer Crime Novel Series, including <i>Blood Passage, Marcie's Murder</i>, and <i>The Fregoli Delusion. The Rainy Day Killer</i>, the most recent in the series, was longlisted for the 2014 Arthur Ellis Award for best crime novel in Canada.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.mjmccann.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/pages/Michael-J-McCann/130617140389341" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/MichaelJMcCann1" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4724806.Michael_J_McCann" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljmccannsblog.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog (mystery)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://wallsofnightmare.blogspot.ca/" target="_blank">Blog (paranormal)</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/michaeljmccann/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cz3uySAROcI&feature=youtu.be" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://burncountryblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796153" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796153/" id="rcwidget_1y3uih30" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-66241421271321647022017-05-10T00:01:00.000-04:002017-05-10T00:01:24.350-04:00Jerome Charyn - Jerzy - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://jerzyblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiA2tiEuh900FPprFcL1r35-uUt-vAeq0jteCsd34gdV_rPuqf6jIsSxkjodZD2ncWsETzkDABwAnai_TY2BBTMna8Bd1wr0BBpkW_MIPFQz6v7-bf8yMKMWplJptV2nYv-3rhyDNUgmDA/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh25jfauIa6rHl_m75mX5fZ3OTt2biXa_w8EO_9v5BAx7M_82lk7Pn6vY9mkaT2ibwykuuNiy1IM-H-XIkFFBDHlEnoE5Upqs-K0-Ia4k33fy7r8gvSOzmZ_9nnPAxBlUQArDTl3s0NeQQ/s320/JERZY+cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Jerzy Kosinski was a great enigma of post-World War II literature. When he exploded onto the American literary scene in 1965 with his best-selling novel The Painted Bird, he was revered as a Holocaust survivor and refugee from the world hidden behind the Soviet Iron Curtain. He won major literary awards, befriended actor Peter Sellers (who appeared in the screen adaptation of his novel Being There), and was a guest on talk shows and at the Oscars. But soon the facade began to crack, and behind the public persona emerged a ruthless social climber, sexual libertine, and pathological liar who may have plagiarized his greatest works.<br /><br />
Jerome Charyn lends his unmistakable style to this most American story of personal disintegration, told through the voices of multiple narrators—a homicidal actor, a dominatrix, and Joseph Stalin’s daughter—who each provide insights into the shifting facets of Kosinski’s personality. The story unfolds like a Russian nesting doll, eventually revealing the lost child beneath layers of trauma, while touching on the nature of authenticity, the atrocities of WWII, the allure of sadomasochism, and the fickleness of celebrity. </i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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What would a Russian dictator's daughter think of living in America? It's an apt question both in our time and in the post-World War II setting of this novel, when Josef Stalin's pride and joy, his dear Lana, seeks refuge in New York City. Everyone knows who she is, she can't hide. Yet the infamy that surrounds her family doesn't seem to bother her. When she's gawked at from the moment she enters the illustrious Rainbow Room, she readily admits afterward that she loved every second of it.<br />
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Fame is a fickle thing, especially when you're known not for something you did, but for your last name. Lana laughs when good-hearted people in Nebraska and Kansas write to her, offering to adopt her. Yet the only person in America she experiences some sense of kinship with is the "supposedly" exiled Polish writer, Jerzy Kosinski. After seeing his wild eyes on a book jacket, she knew that she'd found her soul mate.<br />
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The two of them never become romantically involved, but they sure act like a squabbling couple. Lana's father was notorious for playing mind games with her, kind to her one minute, and cruel the next. Stalin's bipolar behavior is what Lana's accustomed to in a man. So when she says about Jerzy, "It was my misfortune in America that Jurek revived this addiction and made it worse. I was drawn to him and his maddening games." It doesn't bode well for the two of them.<br />
<br />
Since they're both, in essence, Stalin's children. Jerzy admits that he could never relate to American heroes like Patton or Eisenhower because the Russians were the ones who saved his skin from the Germans. However, replacing one oppressive regime with another doesn't seem to bring any source of relief, even though that's what he wholeheartedly believes, illustrating the way that he thinks. No one is going to change him.<br />
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Lana recognizes this quality in him. She knows that beneath his calm demeanor, he's screaming inside, and she knows why. At any moment, the Kremlin could snatch her off the streets and send her back to the motherland. While Jerzy is convinced that the Polish secret police are out to get him. They're both paranoid, walking a tightrope they willingly stretch between them.<br />
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Recognizing the dark side in each other, they are, in fact, children of war. They hate what they've become, yet they can't stay away from it, either. As Lana adds, "His love was shot through with hate. He clawed at my weaknesses while he held my hand."<br />
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Some soul mate.
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***
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<i>Jerzy</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Jerzy-Novel-Jerome-Charyn/dp/1942658141?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/jerzy-jerome-charyn/1123623732?ean=9781942658146" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.indiebound.org/book/9781942658146" target="_blank">IndieBound</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blpress.org/books/jerzy/" target="_blank">Bellevue Literary Press</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $16.99 ebook, $16.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Historical, Jewish<br />
Pages: 240<br />
Release: March 14, 2017<br />
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press<br />
ISBN: 9781942658146<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29633908-jerzy?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
<br />
<b><a href="http://www.staythirstymagazine.com/p/b-rothers-and-sisters-you-cannot.html" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read an excerpt from <i>Jerzy</i>.<br />
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<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhKt_lhPyUFLZfEHpGQ10fPpN4mEtflbJzOqUErrsRxVNs5xXih-JaxKEZX89FNxvH9J1VK-fNh8Ityn9t6EgXb-ztXK9ZHySnHQCJiumc8pgp3PewuY209NAmO5iDhvU3PLL6LcMzwQ9s/s320/Jerome+crop+NYPD+jpg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn is the author of more than fifty works of fiction and nonfiction, including <i>A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century, Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories, I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War</i>, and <i>The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson: A Novel</i>. Among other honors, he has been longlisted for the PEN Award for Biography, honored as a finalist for the PEN/Faulkner Award, named a Commander of Arts and Letters by the French Minister of Culture, and is the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship and the Rosenthal Family Foundation Award for Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. He lives in New York.
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<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796151" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796151/" id="rcwidget_15h0lud2" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-26647785709260280852017-05-03T00:01:00.000-04:002017-05-03T00:01:17.528-04:00David E. Grogan - Sapphire Pavilion - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://sapphirepavilionblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGyjgrZKiYfFLMxnEdmv0z1oT-cdsK6GLuGdNlqafn34QonBwb-RZoLz7o9cGHHu050FWIEvazyrNN8O4ZvxVWLZX0dJCHk05htHMuegdndnhVgYBSvPImgfmMleCCLEHSNOXz9Ci5Sc8/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgC0YxlRABgchLht9W2xHJkv-cDzwfVUnYk0_gNM1jcu6nmvyXArVI7FM9AJEZR3C4AfEe5F9GsA8o39semlTxtZwUJLv9L0ZhyphenhyphenBq_CcUwgb6_Oz2KnVO3vFHWn0kw22EJMpJ7wVzFCiVQ/s320/Sapphire+Pavilion+Cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Steve Stilwell’s former Navy JAG Corps buddy Ric Stokes has been jailed for possession of heroin in Vietnam. He was found in the same room with his traveling companion Ryan Eversall, dead of an overdose and in the company of a prostitute. Steve knows his friend is a straight arrow. Was he set up? If so, for what reason? Steve travels to Ho Chi Minh City in search of the truth. In no time Steve is targeted by the people who framed his friend. A beautiful young American businesswoman insinuates her way into the case. Can she really help, or is she just a dangerous distraction? Ric and Ryan came to Vietnam in search of an Air Force transport plane that disappeared in 1968. The pilot was Ryan’s father. Before the heroin bust, they had located the wreckage. Ryan’s notebook, which Steve manages to obtain, spells out the exact location. Ryan’s widow has given Steve’s associate Casey another piece of valuable evidence, a file labeled “Sapphire Pavilion.” Someone is willing to go to any lengths to steal both the notebook and the file. From Virginia and Texas to DC and Vietnam, powerful, all-seeing forces with unlimited resources are determined to bury the truth about Sapphire Pavilion. But they have grossly underestimated Steve Stilwell and his associate Casey, a former Army pilot who lost her leg in a helo accident. And the ability to inspire loyalty wherever you go can come in handy when danger lurks behind every corner.</i><i><br /><br />
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<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
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This book is set in Vietnam.<br />
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The American author wrote it while in Vietnam.<br />
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And that's why I like it.<br />
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It's an authentic portrayal of an oft misunderstood place and it shows how it is right now, today. The author could've relied on his imagination, secondhand research, TV, movies, the Internet, etc. But he chose not to. Instead, he did the legwork and brought current day Vietnam to life from his own personal perspective. And let me tell you, it makes for a much more interesting read.<br />
<br />
I felt like I could trust him, and what he was showing me. The ever present bribery. The oppressive heat. The crowded streets of a bustling Saigon. What he saw and felt, he was letting me see and feel too. And from one American to another, he was giving me a glimpse of the generational effects that the war has had on both countries. There's a great line that I just have to quote that comes from the point of view of Steve, the American lawyer/tourist and how he views his young Vietnamese motorcycle driver, Phan.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"Keenly aware that he was insanely wealthy compared to Phan - made him appreciate Phan's willingness to reach across the divide to help him even more. He offered to help at a basic human level."</blockquote>
The encounter begs the question: Is Phan more open minded because he was born after the war?<br />
<br />
Because in a similar exchange Steve has with an older woman in a public park, he gets a much different reaction.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"The woman's hostile glare stayed with him reminding him Americans weren't the only ones scarred by the Vietnam War."</blockquote>
It's interesting that even in America today, many feel the up and coming generation is more tolerant of differences and displays more initiative to help others, even people who look different from them. It's an encouraging sign that the author noticed this in Vietnam too. It seems that the youth of both countries are able to look beyond the past and see a brighter future of cooperation and hope.<br />
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And that's what I'll take away from this book. Thanks to an author who was considerate enough to bring these two encounters to light, and what they meant to him. Whether they're fictional, based on real life, or a little bit of both—it's all good.
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***
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<i>Sapphire Pavilion</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Sapphire-Pavilion-David-E-Grogan/dp/1603816038?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/sapphire-pavilion-david-e-grogan/1125726555?ean=9781603816038" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
<b>Pages: </b>280<br />
<b>Release:</b> May 1, 2017<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Camel Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781603816038<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33833232-sapphire-pavilion" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_X5LvLd0TRHTpdH3BRJp1AaILKtYAMNyVL4w-p3J_4cb44-LcWazGCApAbcrb8rMHuzNwMobfe4JvAW03PL9wElngDvI9gEg_O1sfuUHsTzme-JbK_vGkvW9sH9_MtQmH_lG_8q0TtXI/s320/Dave+Grogan+Promo+Picture.jpeg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
David E. Grogan was born in Rome, New York, and was raised in Cleveland, Ohio. After graduating from the College of William & Mary in Virginia with a B.B.A. in Accounting, he began working for the accounting firm Arthur Andersen & Co., in Houston, Texas, as a Certified Public Accountant. He left Arthur Andersen in 1984 to attend the University of Virginia School of Law in Charlottesville, Virginia, graduating in 1987. He earned his Masters in International Law from The George Washington University Law School and is a licensed attorney in the Commonwealth of Virginia.<br />
<br />
Grogan served on active duty in the United States Navy for over 26 years as a Navy Judge Advocate. He is now retired, but during the course of his Navy career, he prosecuted and defended court-martial cases, traveled to capitals around the world, lived abroad in Japan, Cuba and Bahrain, and deployed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf onboard the nuclear powered aircraft carrier <i>USS Enterprise</i>. His experiences abroad and during the course of his career influence every aspect of his writing. Sapphire Pavilion is his second novel. His first was <i>The Siegel Dispositions</i>.<br />
<br />
Grogan’s current home is in Savoy, Illinois, where he lives with his wife of 33 years and their dog, Marley. He has three children.
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<br />
<b>Links to connect with David:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.davidegrogan.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/davidegrogan/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/davidegrogan" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9060971.David_E_Grogan" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://sapphirepavilionblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796150" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796150/" id="rcwidget_zahcksml" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>
City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-89222121351861954992017-03-06T00:01:00.000-05:002017-03-06T00:01:00.168-05:00Kate Bloom - The Legend of the Dwarf - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thelegendofthedwarfblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkldXNpzJ3bLVJ0tynarugpXn5bUa_LQHgTh04h6ElXunzF0a1R9gXdPeIScY8_d53eCv8PjhI-SKPrts31oA6DbLTraz1hRVbZU3WXvBYe9F_xorcTeCGS7sbLs_mKBecQwFJ1pmrYDVL/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiNBR7AvNeR686lVmTNTWxVIcKmNGh9xASoJj4ILxMIEDso7eVESIzroKzT0FgE9YE4GyQX64NxbwsCsZIpP9rquHUs0IojUVFyHAB2ya9hfreiv6dQ6JTkN1S7cggbhyPBySEIQzGQmzQR/s1600/51gXELDpFPL.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Ever Trollkiller is a young dwarf, twenty-three years old, who had lived her entire life in an isolated cave far away from the dwarven kingdom. She lives with twelve other dwarves who have raised her in complete isolation, keeping the surviving dwarves a secret from the rest of the word. They hide form Terrisino, the Great and Evil Sorcerer, who demolished their kingdom a quarter century ago. But when Ever accidentally meets an elf, she decides that she is no longer satisfied with the stories she hears from her clan. She decides to seek out the mysterious elf so that he might show her the world. But it isn’t long before she realizes that the freedom of the world and the future of the races of elves, men, and dragons will soon end like the dwarven race. Orcs run rampant in the land, killing innocents and plundering the villages. Strange creatures are given rise as they bring death to those who dare harbor the dwarf that they seek. Evil men lie in wait till they might strike. And each of them is allied under Terrisino himself. The stories of hope reach Ever. The stories of legends that all center around one strange dwarf who is destined to defeat Terrisino and ensure the freedom to the world. Convinced that she is the dwarf of legend, she unites with the unlikely company of men, sorcerers, elves, and dragons to save the races and discover who she is.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
It's not easy growing up as a refugee.<br />
<br />
Even if you happen to be a dwarf, living in the Earth of Eald.<br />
<br />
However, the parallels ring true to reality. When roots are stripped away, there's nothing left to ground you to your heritage. You're not where you're supposed to be, the place where you belong. You're just wherever you ended up in order to escape persecution. You didn't choose to end up in a certain place, you just did.<br />
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So how does a young dwarven woman like Ever cope? Her mother fled their homeland when she was pregnant with her, only to die, leaving her - not only an orphan - but the last surviving child of their doomed race. She went through her entire childhood without anyone her age to socialize with. Being around adults all the time made her long for the experiences they talked about, the ones of home, the ones she'll never have.<br />
<br />
Until she decides to runaway and find out for herself what remains of their forsaken kingdom.<br />
<br />
But there's just one problem. She's never ventured far from the safety of their cavelike dwellings. She knows nothing of the world since she's been hidden away her whole life with just a dozen or so other dwarves for company. That's it. That's all she's ever been exposed to. And she knows that if she leaves, something big is going to happen. She just doesn't expect what awaits her to be as monumental a mission as it turns out to be.<br />
<br />
For Ever discovers that not only does everyone think that dwarves are extinct, but she carries the fate of the entire world on her tiny shoulders. From marshlands to dragon lairs, she is hunted, haunted by a psychic vision of a dark sorcerer who wants to, in his words, "Kill the dwarf!"<br />
<br />
Oh boy, what has Ever gotten herself into? You'll just have to read the first of these fantastical tales to find out.
<br />
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***
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<br />
<i>The Legend of the Dwarf</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MZ18YLN?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $15.00 ebook, $15.00 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Epic Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>260<br />
<b>Release:</b> December 18, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781540574176<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33412263-the-legend-of-the-dwarf?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisMeeuGNLA4ECHMIjuRiXOV4U_f9lUP01-zgnhAJ9a3URbCsnCCuZpknPG7TUm0FWWyVAK-Q4eQ7zqKSU2jaCKjHNPCBnwX6fIRfV1A3cNIqcR3AW851VpHpd8Cn0C1mu-cqhlMORx8-W4/s320/author+pic.png" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Kate Bloom is a tenacious and edgy millennial with a BS in English and history, giving her a knack for story-telling. As a fantasy writer, her mind is constantly running wild in fictional worlds, such as that of her first project, Alice in Dreamland (kindle2016). Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico in 1994, and where she has lived her entire life, Kate found the dry dessert scenery to grow tiresome to look at. She found her escape in the fantastical worlds that played out in her head. She has fallen in love with the idea of putting those worlds in print so that everyone else might see those worlds as well.
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<b>Links to connect with Kate:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://kateabloom.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Kateabloom/?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://kateabloom.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thelegendofthedwarfblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796149" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796149/" id="rcwidget_kirybpx7" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-39854568771307788742017-02-08T00:01:00.000-05:002017-02-08T00:01:01.170-05:00A. Keith Carreiro - The Penitent - Review & Giveaway <a href="http://thepenitentblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiV1s6MBfdq2RoH2u_2Maj4GwJOLZt8aUwad2xS7gCc0Mu8l9pPoWyxcSInOLjuTVeUxD8F_pt0XZWeVd3Y3_CErLQQ3XLZBo-YL8latayHp3GTtvXG_FwkqrV02Q8cK976rutW7bzYOnau/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk_tbG1iRpohSUrnAeB4cqIhVJsb2VJ0YnYfS0TXJe8eUkoCGwGeDQMDVAi5nAEmR1DgO_4yNuAL1jocuM5995I1-u5VoOeOmTyI4qJV3QVQdXf3OtVcpDdhuuTsvQQucrbwMrpfjkm9fp/s320/The+Immortality+Wars_The+Penitent_Part+1_EBOOK_Cover_03+-+8-8-2016.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />A baby is born and placed in his dead mother's arms. When the funeral shroud is cast over her, his father decides to name his son Pall. It will soon become a name that strikes a shiver into the hearts of those who hear it in combat. A lone survivor on a battlefield many years later, Pall dazedly recovers from the wounds of war. Despite the dead cast about him, everything he looks upon is unfamiliar to him. Wandering away from this scene of carnage, he encounters John Savage, a giant of a man who puts Pall within the sight of Savage's seven–foot, nocked longbow. What ensues from this deadly encounter is an elusive journey for truth. Yet, it is haunted not just by a ravening demon that is out to destroy Pall and John, but by the vision of a startling beautiful young woman protecting Pall from afar.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
The year 2156 is a frightening place. Probably because it looks more like a scene out of earth's feudal past than a promising glimpse into the future. In fact, it reminded me of something you might see in a "Walking Dead" episode, where the strongest humans enjoy picking off the weakest one by one, while making them suffer. Existence in this land is a day-to-day, minute-by-minute game of survival.<br />
<br />
But evil doesn't just lurk in the hearts of men. Oh no, it takes a definite physical presence in the form of the supernatural creature called Unger, a black serpent that can break off into multiple animal shapes to devour human life in "a high mass of death." This demon-like entity is as unforgiving as it is scary. Once it has a human in its sights, watch out because there's no getting away from it.<br />
<br />
Yet there exists a ray of hope in all this gloom in a boy named Pall. He seems to have the power of heaven on his side when an angel appears to him, rescuing him from danger with its song. Not to mention how he's guarded by a forest full of illuminated trees, shielding him against the encroaching terrors of darkness.<br />
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The power of unspoiled nature, itself, delivers him from his enemies, granting him mercy from the sort "who take grim satisfaction at the fear they put in men's eyes."<br />
<br />
So when Pall utters an ancient plea for help, his prayer is heard and answered from above. And what a comforting thought, that is. He's not alone, and therefore, neither are we, as we travel with him on this perilous journey.<br />
<br />
There's a higher power watching over the good people who are left in Pall's world (and hopefully in ours, too).
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***
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<br />
<i>The Penitent</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01MAZDG4S?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Lulu</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $3.99 ebook, $13.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Science Fiction, Fantasy<br />
<b>Pages: </b>254<br />
<b>Release:</b> November 1, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781365287077<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32571461-the-penitent" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjtGGB1-RJlH3q4jSC254YbnfkmXwVs61j8IPk3cxHllxM4VLleZ-Uq_lXirKcMlT5QyVHymdidYxvp2BZF6UzW2ARKAPeeLiLm9vIaZdjW8Si75UDF1Q0-57SHBJXAtQiLt1d75iH5ppDU/s1600/IMG_0387.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
A. Keith Carreiro earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Harvard Graduate School of Education, with the sequential help and guidance of three advisors, Dr. Vernon A. Howard, Dr. Donald Oliver and Professor Emeritus, Dr. Israel Scheffler. Keith’s academic focus, including his ongoing research agenda, centers upon philosophically examining how creativity and critical thinking are acquired, learned, utilized and practiced in the performing arts. He has taken his findings and applied them to the professional development of educational practitioners.<br />
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Earlier in his teaching career he was a professor of educational foundations, teaching graduate students of education at universities in Vermont, Florida, Arizona, and Pennsylvania. He currently teaches as an adjunct professor of English at Bridgewater State University, as well as teaching English, philosophy, humanities and public speaking courses at Bristol Community College.<br />
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He lives in Swansea, Massachusetts with his wife Carolyn. They have six children and 13 grandchildren. They belong to an eighty–five–pound golden retriever, an eight–pound Maltese, and an impish Calico cat.<br />
<br />
Due to his love of family, he has seen his fervor for history, as well as his passion for wondering about the future, deepen dramatically.<br />
<br />
Starting on May 23rd until October 9th of 2014, he sat down at his computer on a daily basis and began writing the first book of a science fiction/fantasy thriller in a beginning series about the quest for human immortality.
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<b>Links to connect with A. Ketih:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/The-Immortality-Wars-The-Penitent-Book-One-1023452581055756/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/immortalitywars" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/15959901.A_Keith_Carreiro" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://immortalitywars.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796148" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796148/" id="rcwidget_2a032hxh" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-43474943480323694342017-02-03T00:01:00.000-05:002017-02-03T00:01:10.452-05:00Bonnie M. Hennessy - Twisted - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://twistedblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiShlbgQ6YYkDMwzUBpfcoefRSVw98awdwudsOY1RE-yfzcgGq_mLzfWoqXfOJS6mYFUfxVMdXMS5uK0CfRnlwoV19t8gvQieyqBmAoMLHnJSjh4Og_dPiCJgAZuKCDGVv6kRGJ_txd-Tu1/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmIhyphenhyphen03nivlkN_BHdBlnSVGYkCphnrNYYsgYAxqHvnk5KtubZb8ZX1uwFII96x8xjISyAkaOcxdvVozcLx1KAjh0dB2Ff-kEZkWV232R42lZ8UvCYe1zauJQ6RaZjvumcH45d-4M9fufpH/s1600/ebook+300dpi+.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />An old tale tells the story of how a little man named Rumpelstiltskin spun straw into gold and tricked a desperate girl into trading away her baby. But that’s not exactly how it happened. The real story began with a drunken father who kept throwing money away on alcohol and women, while his daughter, Aoife, ran the family farm on her own. When he gambled away everything they owned to the Duke, it was up to her to spin straw into gold to win it all back. With her wits and the help of a magical guardian, she outsmarted the Duke and saved the day. Well almost… Her guardian suddenly turned on Aoife and sent her on a quest to find his name, the clues to which were hidden deep in the woods, a moldy dungeon, and a dead woman’s chamber. This is not the tale of a damsel in distress, but a tenacious, young woman who solved a mystery so great that not even the enchanted man who spun straw into gold could figure it out. Not until Aoife came along.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
In a fairy tale, the forest is usually a place to be feared. But not for Aoife. For her, it's her sanctuary—a place she goes not to become as bitter as her mother. Among the sturdy trees, she's able to find something much more dependable than her father. In her heart, she knows that nature will always be there for her.<br />
<br />
Or at least, the infamous little man with the big name will be.<br />
<br />
Unbeknownst to Aoife, Rumpelstiltskin has been her faithful companion during her outdoor jaunts. When she almost drowned in a pool of water, he was the one who jumped in and saved her. But he's never shown himself to her.<br />
<br />
Until now.<br />
<br />
All because a rival for her attention has arrived on the scene—a handsome duke who wants to marry her.<br />
<br />
Aoife knows she going to need the little man's help, if she's to escape marrying the duke. But he's curious to see how she will react once she finally sees his face.<br />
<br />
And unfortunately they both end up disappointed.<br />
<br />
For a second, Aoife fights her repulsion and allows herself to imagine what it would be like to take him up on his offer and agree to live in his warm, safe, peaceful cottage in the woods. She's never known what it's like to be cared for and appreciated, and she's quick to dismiss the notion. Suspicious of his motives, it's hard for her to believe that all he wants from her is her company.<br />
<br />
During the stolen moments he's had with her in the woods, she knows he's seen all of her—the good and the bad. And she can't believe, that now that he's aware of every single one of her flaws, he'd really give so much and ask for so little in return.<br />
<br />
And sadly, her lack of faith in him causes everything to unravel, setting into motion a chain of events that will tragically end with the death of one of them.<br />
<br />
TWISTED is a fresh, gripping take on a classic childhood tale—similar to "Beauty and the Beast" but with a much more poignant ending, one that will make you stop and think: what is love?<br />
<br />
<br />
***
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<br />
<i>Twisted</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01N3MC1K4?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $2.99 ebook, $12.99 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Fantasy, Mythological, Fairy Tale<br />
<b>Pages: </b>306<br />
<b>Release:</b> November 11, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> self-published<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781539753421<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/32962973-twisted?from_search=true" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgtX7gMHRT0GFGtJybbyQqKm1hGm7CYCmEsZ8CQATpsfCUDSKzMoU4kA7C61-JnojmeX6vr3WY7BFIeiK1d3fuviCqoRxmVx5BPxDEua3WmDX_Rm6ImPJ-8pELTZh6qrdY1MeFV4c87RpHb/s320/IMG_8777.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Bonnie grew up a shy, quiet girl who the teachers always seated next to the noisy boys because they knew she was too afraid to talk to anyone. She always had a lot she wanted to say but was too afraid to share it for fear she might die of embarrassment if people actually noticed her. Somewhere along the line, perhaps after she surprised her eighth grade class by standing up to a teacher who was belittling a fellow student, she realized that she had a voice and she didn’t burst into flames when her classmates stared at her in surprise.<br />
<br />
Not long after that, she began spinning tales, some of which got her into trouble with her mom. Whether persuading her father to take her to the candy store as a little girl or convincing her parents to let her move from Los Angeles to Manhattan to pursue a career at eighteen as a ballet dancer with only $200 in her pocket, Bonnie has proven that she knows how to tell a compelling story.<br />
<br />
Now she spends her time reading and making up stories for her two children at night. By day she is an English teacher who never puts the quiet girls next to the noisy boys and works hard to persuade her students that stories, whether they are the ones she teaches in class or the ones she tells to keep them from daydreaming, are better escapes than computers, phones, and social media.
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<b>Links to connect with Bonnie:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.bonniemhennessy.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/twistedthebook/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.twitter.com/bonniemhennessy" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC23yBSLSEcbE2Bw98_4k-WQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16075736.Bonnie_M_Hennessy" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796147" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796147/" id="rcwidget_garqvb88" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-25597969634743563632016-12-07T00:01:00.000-05:002016-12-07T00:01:10.413-05:00Nancy McCabe - Following Disasters - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://followingdisastersblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnkcjzOiX9nXTs-kD33DOLtAtcJBzyPRopnWfBviVuc-59w4mV2c7-REUgMWCglF9TE1en32fHoL8FfLt7nsB5bOiZl7oOACgBR_WvVXIZEZxc1Z7oTsucB-TR5nlccV4nQSJsDTlfyB8C/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg0SQsZM_ifwtV-Srcq2KyhYrG1-SQ5Pz0lupNa6ZIBgSlGREbQ6ahZurXM0npaf2PFBzWlE8WZsGOeIgleyWixfhaS2yfDmrgdSGoqlT66y7WmXNvOuTzj3U91GmG9dPil7VoMnyCpGtf2/s320/followingdisasters-7.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />On her twenty-first birthday, Maggie Owen receives an unusual birthday gift: a house. That same day, the house’s owner, her aunt, dies. For three years, Maggie has been fleeing her childhood demons: the deaths of her parents, estrangement from her terminally-ill aunt, and a betrayal by her best friend. But now her career on the road, following natural disasters in temporary insurance claims offices, ends abruptly as Maggie returns home to face her past. But why does the house hold a mysterious spell over her? Why does she have the persistent feeling that her aunt is haunting her? Why did her aunt lie to her about the circumstances of her parents’ deaths? Who is the ghost child that may be hanging around the house? And what’s with the guy next door who seems so hostile toward her? FOLLOWING DISASTERS is tightly woven ghost story that raises questions about legacies and their influence on our choices.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Can you take on a house's personality? That's what Maggie Owen is afraid of. Her Aunt Beth always wanted to be a mother. It was her one dream in life, until she died alone and childless. When Maggie inherits her house, she doesn't know what to do with the room full of children's clothes that will never be worn.<br />
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Obsession is a strange compulsion. In a weird way, it's what kept Aunt Beth going through her lifelong battle with lupus. She knew she couldn't have children, yet she continued to fantasize about being a mother. At first, Maggie is repulsed by her aunt's eccentricity, believing it to be nothing more than her deterioration into the role of the crazy lady in the neighborhood.<br />
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But when a tornado hits town, Maggie begins to see things differently. That one night sets into motion a series of events that she never could've anticipated happening. What follows that one natural disaster seems to be a blessing from above, bestowed on her from Aunt Beth from beyond the grave.<br />
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And I loved it. What a beautiful response to quell the fears of a niece, she regarded as the daughter she never had. Ah, if only we could all have the spirits of our loved ones looking out for us like this, the world would be a far better place.<br />
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***
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<i>Following Disasters</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/1944853030?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/following-disasters-nancy-mccabe/1123466844?ean=9781944853037" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
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<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $9.99 ebook, $16.00 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Gothic, Horror, Ghosts<br />
<b>Pages: </b>234<br />
<b>Release:</b> October 1, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Outpost19<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781944853037<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29209394-following-disasters" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdFbynVqQVMsxeXNxjzKDY3NwTeZpMGKOqmQCL1gXE0NUhWByZdZo6EQm63qiPtB0JB7ElSACvQzH6qko2qrJCSal9OGAPDcZdquFyPLOxpWO13iTE-za9I72pD4Rbfde-tIHiv-iVnSxC/s320/Fall+2014+photo.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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<i>Following Disasters</i> is Nancy McCabe's first novel. She has also published four books of creative nonfiction, including <i>Meeting Sophie: A Memoir or Adoption; Crossing the Blue Willow Bridge: A Journey to My Daughter's Birthplace in China</i>; and <i>From Little Houses to Little Women: Revisiting a Literary Childhood</i>. She is a regular blogger for Ploughshares and has published work in <i>Newsweek, Writers' Digest, Prairie Schooner, Gulf Coast, Fourth Genre</i>, and other magazines and anthologies. Her work has received a Pushcart and six times made notable lists in Houghton Mifflin Best American anthologies.
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<b>Links to connect with Nancy:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.nancymccabe.net/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/nancy.mccabe.92?fref=nf" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbL-vzvnBbg" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/227353.Nancy_McCabe?from_search=true" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blog.pshares.org/index.php/author/nancygracemccabe/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796146" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796146/" id="rcwidget_yrwcfwud" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-5818661322046773412016-10-05T00:01:00.000-04:002016-10-05T00:01:07.550-04:00Tricia Dower - Stony River - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://stonyriverblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYkQyCySXurpUM6IJdy3Qozokz_m4jq_W2l8ex9CIIc0Rs71TiECE3Yl8Xkii3T4iL1SfBVmGSyTEC_SIBAmdxh66FixOvodAaa1xYrI39uYzhzJPDyfGTW2DEcVSDeOg9Z8iJorF6WSk/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhvGk5w9GJm-pz_BKEEIUs83t1BhrW2AOVWSHf1WN-wttSK25m_bTSUrcxwqIrtWZVxCj0HkmwpCzJRvWyU0JMsR0jMQ3kuvihDhJ9ftWr3IKBBw58xavwjp9SGTvqAS8zGRQ6_rbtHX3o/s320/StonyRiverCBSD.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It wasn’t all poodle skirts and rock ‘n’ roll. From its deceptively innocent beginning—two young teens exploring the riverbank and spying on “Crazy Haggerty’s” dilapidated house—through the intertwining story lines of paganism, murder and sexual violence, Stony River shows how perilous life was for some girls in the 1950s. Absent mothers, controlling fathers, biblical injunctions, teenage longing and small-town pretense abound. The threat of violence is all around: angry fathers at home, dirty boys in the neighborhood, strange men in strange cars, a dead girl and another gone missing.<br /><br />
The central mystery, inspired by the crimes of Robert Zarinsky as documented by Robin Gaby Fisher and Judith Lucas in Deadly Secrets (Newark Star–Ledger 2008), keeps the reader guessing until almost the very end, when the frightening truth is revealed. In this coming-of-age mystery, three girls learn who they are and what they’re capable of surviving—and forgiving.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Stony River is a great book. It drew me right in. In every small town in America there are secrets, especially in the 1950s. It made me glad that I didn't grow up back then, when women really didn't have a lot of choices.<br />
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For young girls, the emphasis is placed on acting like a lady in preparation for finding a husband. The mothers in the book aren't really good role models for their daughters. They don't stand up to the men in their lives, and when they do, it's usually in a meek and timid way, like complaining from a sickbed. That kind of behavior doesn't exactly inspire confidence in the next generation.<br />
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Which leads to the girls in the book making a lot of bad choices - confusing a father's love with continual abuse, looking for a man's help to flee a bad situation instead of trying to save themselves, having it drilled into their heads repeatedly that accepting bad behavior from a man is the norm, and should be expected. It's drilled into their heads that a woman needs to be attractive, likable and submissive. Not exactly a recipe for a girl power movement.<br />
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Yet the girls in the story surprised me. They questioned why they should just go along with it. Why should a teenage mother have to give her baby up for adoption? Why can't a girl rent a hotel room by herself without having to give a list of references? Why isn't the word of an unattractive, overweight rape victim found credible on the witness stand?<br />
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With more freedom, more education and more opportunities than their mothers had, the world begins to open up to them as they start experiencing what's out there for themselves. Sometimes their curiosity leads them to dangerous places, but they learn to think on their feet, and not just believe what the adults in their lives have told them.<br />
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And when that happens, it's a whole new world. One that's a lot bigger than Stony River.<br />
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***
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<i>Stony River</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1935248863?&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/stony-river-tricia-dower/1123485056;jsessionid=04D1856B3A4CE64B6A66D3E483B84E76.prodny_store02-atgap01?ean=9781935248866" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/stony-river/id1135492622?mt=11&at=10lu5f" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
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<b>Prices/Formats:</b> $10.99 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Crime, Historical, Coming of Age<br />
<b>Pages: </b>320<br />
<b>Release:</b> October 6, 2016<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Leapfrog Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781935248866<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/13616825-stony-river" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidj-4pMydgbuftosc85YKdKXwtf-QqYQ2i1JYTI5f8YcAsIbf3HGvBBACH9z9PB56EBJmXTXpY01L_ZMxA7g5fopKLDAjrRv_8nXlUgph3-2y4AY1o7Jro4-ZKBRyLF6aRWFRvy17mSIU/s320/Tricia+Dower+%25231+sRGB+for+internet.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Tricia Dower confesses to smoking a river punk or two in Rahway, New Jersey, where she was born and raised by perfectly fine parents who did not keep her hidden in a spooky house. A graduate of Gettysburg College and a Phi Mu, she built a career in business before reinventing herself as a writer in 2002. Her literary work has crossed borders and won awards. She expanded a story from her Shakespeare-inspired collection, <i>Silent Girl</i> (Inanna 2008) into <i>Stony River</i>, which was first published in Canada (Penguin, 2012). Her novel, <i>Becoming Lin</i> (Caitlin Press), was released in Canada in 2016. A dual citizen of Canada and the United States, Dower lives and writes in Brentwood Bay, BC.
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<b>Links to connect with Tricia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/tricia.dower" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/TriciaDower" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/1302018.Tricia_Dower" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://triciadower.com/silent-girl-speaks/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
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<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796145" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796145/" id="rcwidget_4t4hcp7r" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-23337675959534153632016-08-03T00:01:00.000-04:002016-08-03T00:01:19.297-04:00Rich Zahradnik - A Black Sail - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://ablacksailblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipxKGZn7Sl46bOF55J3xMPk3MCP5j0dwcL8TKbdLSu-ExsM9Whc2csqkvVEaQ_MWSNo2izJHEoFaifNsGS5dGZAhZ72tBOK-9MdTbuEUZEmAN6OA958wc2q99ePxjjwAyCPPBiu14LlDhH/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzJsqsYy_QnEjHIHYIM73EqNy3hmw3WvhrauLs2TskKVRMtZ5P8miQro2A7GKE_yEL-pbug0bxZEnQY-unD68TScecvl3KrNZQMn7271kFgHp_gj8QO6f_BEdFC_OiaXGHVxFRA5a4fjvC/s320/A_Black_Sail_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />On the eve of the U.S. Bicentennial, newsman Coleridge Taylor is covering Operation Sail. New York Harbor is teeming with tall ships from all over the world. While enjoying the spectacle, Taylor is still a police reporter. He wants to cover real stories, not fluff, and gritty New York City still has plenty of those in July of 1976. One surfaces right in front of him when a housewife is fished out of the harbor wearing bricks of heroin, inferior stuff users have been rejecting for China White, peddled by the Chinatown gangs.<br /><br />
Convinced he’s stumbled upon a drug war between the Italian Mafia and a Chinese tong, Taylor is on fire once more. But as he blazes forward, flanked by his new girlfriend, ex-cop Samantha Callahan, his precious story grows ever more twisted and deadly. In his reckless search for the truth, he rattles New York’s major drug cartels. If he solves the mystery, he may end up like his victim—in a watery grave.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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New York City is one corrupt place. Even the heroin names don't mean what they say, since the Black Sail variety isn't black at all, it's white. And that's where things get sticky. It's hot, sweat-through-your-shirt kind of hot, where on the sidewalks there's steam coming out of the grates, billowing out of the broiling subway tunnels below ground. Everyone's uncomfortable and irritated, right when the biggest party in the last 200 years is about to get underway.<br />
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Let's go back in time to 1976, the year of the country's Bicentennial. There are celebrations going on all over the country, but as everyone knows, the eyes of the world will be on New York, a city of messy contradictions. There's a nice feel for New York in this book, and how the five different boroughs are made up of varying ethnic neighborhoods. The Bronx is the Wild West. Queens is the Mets and what's left of the World's Fair. Brooklyn is making an attempt at gentrification, but not doing too well at it. And Manhattan's shoving it in everyone face that it's the best, and will always be the best (even though the view of the skyline is actually better from Brooklyn or Queens). And don't concern yourself about Staten Island. Besides the ferry, it's not even worth mentioning.<br />
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But what ties it all together is the cumulative sense of despair, hanging in the sultry air, painting a grim picture of post-Vietnam America. People aren't angry anymore. There's no point. They know the country's gone to pot, and there's nothing they, or anyone else, can do about it. There's a fatalism to the whole thing, like let's be happy for one day and pretend everything's great, before we have to wake up in the morning and realize it's not.<br />
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In the story, most New Yorkers kick off their weekend of binge drinking on a Thursday night, with the real diehards continuing well into the following Wednesday. It's surmised that they're trying to anesthetize themselves to the hopelessness of the day and age they're living in, which in turn, is heavily contributing to the drug problem infesting the city. <br />
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We tend to look back with a sentimental eye on the New York of the 1970s, but it wasn't so nice. It was a tough, gritty world that I don't think many of us would care to visit. The city had over 1,600 murders in one year. The Bronx was burning. Times Square was nothing but peep shows and porn. It's no wonder people were down about the future. I mean, what was there to feel excited about? A bunch of tall ships in the harbor? Big deal, when there are drug dealers on every corner.<br />
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This is a novel that really captures the essence of a specific time and place in American history, and does so through the lens of a crime story. In its pages, the FBI, the NYPD, the IRS, the FCC—every institution in the United States is shown to be corrupt. Everyone's on the take, out for their own self-interest. It makes you ponder the question the book ultimately raises: Can one man really make a difference… Can he now?
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***
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<i>A Black Sail</i> can be pre-ordered at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Black-Sail-Coleridge-Taylor-Mystery/dp/1603812113?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-black-sail-rich-zahradnik/1123845960?ean=9781603812115" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
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Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $15.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Historical, Mystery, Thriller, Suspense<br />
Pages: 264<br />
Release: October 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812115<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/30208460-a-black-sail" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7hoHbpjOz-524QPeyrwbgNrT4SYIXn9zJZnGxakVOD5vzBfYy_B9wdp9D1uAwGzfe0vHiHaLKokAKIrBl4jtxetzRwu11reLlYZ7mOy_DAEbL8Jqf6rFzEbT96YwBwD7FEn4jGA_CEHSM/s320/_45D3397.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Rich Zahradnik is the award-winning author of the critically acclaimed Coleridge Taylor Mystery series (<i>A Black Sail, Drop Dead Punk, Last Words</i>).<br />
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The second installment, <i>Drop Dead Punk</i>, won the gold medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2016 Independent Publisher Book Awards (IPPYs). It was also named a finalist in the mystery category of the 2016 Next Generation Indie Book Awards. <i>Last Words</i> won the bronze medal for mystery/thriller ebook in the 2015 IPPYs and honorable mention for mystery in the 2015 Foreword Reviews IndieFab Book of the Year Awards. <br />
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"Taylor, who lives for the big story, makes an appealingly single-minded hero," Publishers Weekly wrote of <i>Drop Dead Punk</i>. <br />
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Zahradnik was a journalist for 30-plus years, working as a reporter and editor in all major news media, including online, newspaper, broadcast, magazine and wire services. He held editorial positions at CNN, Bloomberg News, Fox Business Network, AOL and The Hollywood Reporter.<br />
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In January 2012, he was one of 20 writers selected for the inaugural class of the Crime Fiction Academy, a first-of-its-kind program run by New York's Center for Fiction.<br />
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Zahradnik was born in Poughkeepsie, New York, in 1960 and received his B.A. in journalism and political science from George Washington University. He lives with his wife Sheri and son Patrick in Pelham, New York, where writes fiction and teaches kids how to publish newspapers.
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<b>Links to connect with Rich:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/richzahradnik/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/rzahradnik" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8335771.Rich_Zahradnik" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.richzahradnik.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796144" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796144/" id="rcwidget_kh0d9pld" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-11088448087244684502016-07-27T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-27T00:01:00.159-04:00Michael J. Bowler - A Matter of Time - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://amatteroftimeblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKR2PPeCqgZxvxaKkJ0pJcvqNfbLpvTpxH0LowyHzfEhjYUmu3_gFC4POpyUXeyYazU3IC2JDSlZg0aF5O5K6RVvo2P9u6i9lSKRgbD5oiwg4di7i09didEAgTPiHv7vH2IBYtK-pUFJNR/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgondL_-9cFVBTFDNjme5d7O3bbms8dLG149f4N7oIYrcZ4RJbnsYrX2PnQHOow_fVrwWGUKFjQsYvakKlFLxoZZpW9-B8qFRXElYGeYnfUFSTnCCvzuqw3XCXUYTZvv4KjRBreUduWst3l/s320/A+MATTER+OF+TIME+%255B+cover+print+format%255D.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The world's greatest evil stalks the world's greatest ship, and the only one who can stop him hasn't been born yet. Jamie Collins is a junior at Santa Clara University in 1986. He has friends, a professor who mentors him, and a promising future as a writer. Then the dreams begin - nightmarish memories that transport him back to a time and place fifty years before he was born: Titanic's maiden voyage in 1912. When Jamie discovers a foreign cell in his blood that links him to the famous vessel, the two timelines begin to overlap and he realizes an unimaginable truth - something supernatural stalks the ill-fated ship, something that will kill him if he can't stop it first. And the only way to stop it may be to prevent Titanic from sinking. But even if he can figure out a way to do that, should he? What will be the effect on history if he succeeds? And what about the lady he wasn't supposed to fall in love with? As her destiny becomes entwined with his, Jamie discovers the value of friendship, the power of love, the impact of evil, and the vagaries of Fate.</i><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Most of us are familiar with the story of the Titanic. We've either seen the movie, starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet, or watched the many, many documentaries available online, or even read other books about it.<br />
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So why should you pick up this one?<br />
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Because it's downright entertaining.<br />
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Bowler did his research, unearthing little known facts about an event you think you know everything about. For example, were you aware that a cursed mummy was in the ship's cargo hold when it hit the iceberg? Apparently, the sarcophagus contained the remains of a princess of the Egyptian god, Amon-Ra. Everyone associated with owning, disturbing or transporting the mummy, ended up dead. Is that why an unsinkable ship ended up at the bottom of the ocean?<br />
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Using that fascinating tidbit of information, Bowler links two VERY different settings—a college campus in California circa 1986 and the sinking of the Titanic in 1912. The Gilded Age meets the Computer Age, all thanks to Baron von Vampire. Don't worry it's not some kind of "Twilight"-inspired love story. It's more about dreams and premonitions and what happens when we don't have all the answers to what's happening around us, and probably never will.<br />
<br />
Bowler does a great job of setting up both worlds. He starts off with the disgusting cafeteria food and dorm room hijinks of kids blasting their boomboxes to the jaunty ragtime tune the band is playing onboard one of the most luxurious vessels ever to grace the sea. <br />
<br />
For me, the first half of the book can't compare with the second half. It's just a fuller, more enjoyable read once Jamie leaves school. First, he enters a vintage clothing store in New York City, needing to look the part when he takes his place alongside historical figures like John Jacob Astor. Then he travels to a rowdy pub in a rustic fishing village in northern Canada, adding plenty of local color as he seeks to hire a boat to take him out to the middle of the ocean to ultimately embark on a journey through time to track down a vampire he needs to kill once he's on the Titanic.<br />
<br />
And let me tell you, you'll feel like you're on the ship when it crashes. All the little details really add to it. The twenty-eight degree water temperature. The booming crash of things falling as the ship goes vertical. The weariness of the telegraph operators as they send out the world's first SOS call. Bowler nails the accuracy of the event, making you feel like you're right there living it.<br />
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Does Jamie slay the vampire before the ship goes down? The depiction on the front cover displays their epic battle. But I'm not going to tell you. You're gonna have to read it to find out.
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***
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<br />
<i>A Matter of Time</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="https://www.amazon.com/Matter-Time-Michael-Bowler-ebook/dp/B007GOAC9C?ie=UTF8&tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-matter-of-time-michael-bowler/1109296752?ean=9781432787110" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/audiobook/a-matter-of-time-unabridged/id1035392958?mt=3" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<b>Formats/Prices:</b> $2.99 ebook, $12.95 paperback, $14.95-$21.83 Audible<br />
<b>Genre:</b> Historical Fiction, Suspense<br />
<b>Pages:</b> 340<br />
<b>Release:</b> March 2, 2012<br />
<b>Publisher:</b> Outskirts Press<br />
<b>ISBN:</b> 9781432787110<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/14438165-a-matter-of-time?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhambhBpsttupBxLXu7-G_KFa19nMR1m4-VdmHmwidotvAUfEHB_s2TeF0lplJjzOImn87BdB1sD0d7HzXAP_Lzmo4xEor9cFNqRmDPqKvR8USxv-IPnhaKEHmBpuDmDBWYxxQ4YoLFq_I/s320/bowler.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels—<i>A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time</i> (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and <i>The Knight Cycle</i>, comprised of five books: <i>Children of the Knight</i> (Gold Award Winner – 2013 Wishing Shelf Book Awards; Reader Views Honorable mention; Runner-Up Rainbow Awards; Honorable Mention - Southern California Book Festival), <i>Running Through A Dark Place</i> (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>There Is No Fear</i> (Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America</i>; <i>Spinner</i> (Winner Hollywood Book Festival; Honorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Reader’s Favorite; Literary Classics Seal of Approval; Runner-Up - Southern California Book Festival; Honorable Mention - Halloween Book Festival; Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards), and <i>Warrior Kids: A Tale of New Camelot</i> (Honorable Mention in the London Book Festival and The New England Book Festival; Finalist – 2015 Wishing Shelf Book Awards).<br />
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His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.<br />
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He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.<br />
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He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II.”<br />
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He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.<br />
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He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.<br />
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He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.<br />
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He has finished writing a novel based on his screenplay, “Like A Hero,” and another book aimed at the teen market. He hopes to find a publisher or an agent for both.<br />
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His goal as an author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world. The most prevalent theme in his writing and his work with youth is this: as both a society, and as individuals, we’re better off when we do what’s right, rather than what’s easy.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.michaeljbowler.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/michaeljbowlerauthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/BradleyWallaceM" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6938109.Michael_J_Bowler" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljbowler.com/blog/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://michaeljbowler.tumblr.com/" target="_blank">Tumblr</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.pinterest.com/michaelbowler/pins/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://instagram.com/stuntshark" target="_blank">Instagram</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://amatteroftimeblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796143" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796143/" id="rcwidget_jh8s9xxh" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-79919280847643218302016-07-20T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-20T00:01:00.160-04:00Claudia Riess - Semblance of Guilt - 99¢ Ebook Sale, Review, Excerpts & Giveaway<a href="http://semblanceofguiltblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjazOb2JheX8Xp3EW0XoZVUvAcz5ANfogYCP6Cnju1HemdvS_4veA8jYw_t1eAloZpbkhk-oBGeqoQ3lCOf3ZSdlyZCkinwTSChPiPJtqoJBzgd_Bbt_85H0CZeONUlFdy_gCekhTA0WrU/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" border="1" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj6glr4Q_0c8gflFPmBF5dIFcO1oU6tcR-9bnn8LapEk5s9zRqGblCUkv3A2FP8TQudAHu3KEVb1EeKxngd5bnbT4oY1wVyL7xn_YoyHqC5-4STkk9O737OAAtWbZLNDHHbBU_o1ZEeNUA/s1600/cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Ellen Davis’s husband left her for another woman. Post-divorce, she’s trying to reassert her independence and lands a job as a reporter for her local newspaper. One of her assignments is covering weekly items on the police blotter, which is how she gets to know Lieutenant Pete Sakura—a handsome, witty Japanese- American Ellen is drawn to immediately.<br /><br />
Another of Ellen’s assignments is interviewing for the paper’s “Around The Town” column, and in this capacity, she meets Graham and Sophia Clarke, newcomers to the community. He’s an administrator at Columbia; she’s his beautiful Greek wife. Ellen and Sophia become fast friends, so it comes as a great shock when Sophia ends up dead.<br /><br />
Sophia Clarke is found murdered, and to all appearances, Ellen is the last person to have seen her alive. When Ellen’s fingerprints are found on the murder weapon, she’s arrested, and evidence steadily mounts against her. Ellen takes matters into her own hands as her romantic feelings for Pete intensify. Closing this case could either save Ellen or lead to her destruction.</i><br />
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<b>Review</b><br />
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For me, the vibe of this story is best exemplified in a seedy, little rundown hotel in the West Village called the Kingsley Arms. Our heroine, Ellen Davis, is on the run. She needs somewhere to shack up for the night, and stumbles across this nook of an inn as if it appeared out the misty shadows of a Dickens novel. It's a great locale—certainly what comes to mind when one thinks of a cozy mystery.<br />
<br />
I felt myself stepping through the door with Ellen and into the lobby littered with paperbacks that patrons left behind. The front desk clerk hands over a key, but not before urging the signing of an old-fashioned clothbound guestbook. No computers here, folks. Instead, you take a seat among the overstuffed armchairs and watch the automatic elevator go up and down. It's cool how the Kingsley Arms feels more like a location out of Sherlock Holmes's London rather than the hipster environs surrounding New York's Washington Square Park.<br />
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Which is where Ellen was before, when Pete, her boyfriend found her settling in among the park's homeless population for the night. Did I mention Pete's a cop? That's where things get sticky, but he whisks her away at once and into the confines of a hole-in-the-wall pizza joint that's bustling with young college students. You see, Ellen's on the lam. She's currently on trial for killing one woman while tonight she stands accused of severely injuring another. The kicker is that she didn't commit either of those heinous acts, yet that very night, an APB goes out on her, and until Pete tracks her down she's literally stranded high and dry with nowhere else to go.<br />
<br />
So Pete hits up the local souvenir shop, camouflaging her appearance under a bulky NYU sweatshirt and tucking her hair under a Mets baseball cap. Ellen needs time—after she informs him that she's working a lead that may corroborate her innocence—and Pete intends to give it to her. He really wants to spend the night with her, and deep down she wants him to. Yet instead, she refuses his offer of comfort, barricading her heart in order to protect him from getting dragged down with her. After a quick romp in the sheets, Pete, feeling her emotionally withdraw from him, leaves, and Ellen, now alone in the hotel room bed, immediately regrets her decision to tough it out alone, believing she has no other choice.<br />
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For me, this a standout scene because it provides a nice slice of New York City life. I could picture the environment Ellen and Pete were in as I was reading it. It jumped right off the page and for me, that's what good writing is all about. Claudia Riess plays well to the grittiness of the crime genre while amping up the tension of how it's all going to go down. Will Ellen turn herself in or will she get caught? Pick it up and find out!<br />
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<br />
<b>Excerpts</b><br />
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<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
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After navigating past the desks, she knocked on the door of the cubicle. No response. The second, more deliberate, rap was answered with an impatient “Come!”<br />
<br />
Ellen entered the office and was somewhat taken aback by the sight of an attractive Asian man in shirt-sleeves awkwardly poised by the side of his desk, arms out, legs spread one behind the other, the front one slightly bent, the rear rigidly locked. He looked, she thought, as if he were trying to keep his balance on a skateboard. His attention was fixed on an open book sitting at the edge of his desk. “Give me a second,” he said testily, without taking his eyes off the book and at the same time adjusting the position of his front foot to a more pigeon-toed angle.<br />
<br />
“I won’t ask what you’re doing,” Ellen said.<br />
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“Smart.” There was a sound of raised voices coming from the outer room. “The door!”<br />
<br />
She closed it. “However, maybe you’d like to know what <i>I’m</i> doing?”<br />
<br />
He ignored her question. “Damn, I’m not getting it.” He glanced up. “Do me a favor, take a look at number fifty and tell me what the hell is wrong here.”<br />
<br />
Ellen approached the desk and peered down at the open book. A two-page spread of photographs showed a man in what looked like an usher’s uniform demonstrating a series of exercises. “Is this tai chi?”<br />
<br />
“This is a pain in the ass. Could you look at the picture, tell me where I’m off, please?”<br />
<br />
“‘Fair Lady works at Shuttles,’” she read aloud. She looked up from the page at him then back down again. “I see where you are. Figure fifty-A. It says: ‘Elbow bent, your right hand comes to your center line, fingers pinched together…’” She looked up. “For starters, your fingers aren’t pinched together.”<br />
<br />
“Just hold the book up so I can see it from a better angle, okay?”<br />
<br />
She held the book, show-and-tell style. He went through a variety of disconnected motions, clearly becoming more frustrated. “Shit.”<br />
<br />
Ellen had formed a perception of the Japanese male as meditative, controlled, mysterious, soft-spoken, one who quietly went about transcending the material world while politely manipulating it. She had never realized she harbored this fully defined and fallacious stereotype until that moment, as she was looking at what appeared to be its antithesis. “If your phone rings, should I answer it?”<br />
<br />
“Forget it.” He dropped the pose, took the book from her and put it back on the desk. “I’m all out of sync.”<br />
<br />
“Now I’ll ask. What are you doing?”<br />
<br />
“Getting my goddamn yin and yang together. My doctor tells me I have an ulcer and prescribes pills, but I don’t like pills. I’m taking up the eastern approach.”<br />
<br />
“But isn’t tai chi Chinese?”<br />
<br />
“Yeah, so?”<br />
<br />
“‘Sakura’ sounds like a Japanese name.”<br />
<br />
“Let me ask you a question. You ever eat chow mein?”<br />
<br />
“Well, yes.”<br />
<br />
“I rest my case.” He waved her toward the chair on the other side of the desk and dropped down into his own. “Sit.”<br />
<br />
She remained on her feet. “I’m Ellen Davis. I was told you had the data for the <i>Chronicle</i>’s ‘Blotter’ column. I’m just here to collect it.”<br />
<br />
He threw up a hand. “What’s the point of that column? All it does is stigmatize the poor saps who appear in it. There’s no investigation of circumstances, no disclaimers stating charges could be erroneous. Just a cold-blooded list of citations.”<br />
<br />
“It’s supposed to serve as a deterrent,” she said without conviction. “Actually, I don’t particularly like the column myself, but I don’t make up the rules. I’m sorry I messed up your exercise routine. May I have the material, please?”<br />
<br />
She became aware of herself as an unattached, uncompromised individual as she once was at Penn. She sensed the boundaries of her being as clearly as she felt the hem of her knit dress pull tightly against her legs with each step she took. It was as if she had never been married, had instead dressed for an interview and walked straight out of west Philadelphia into Morningside Heights.<br />
<br />
Mid-block between 109 and 108 Streets, as she was passing a shoe store and scanning the view across the way, her attention was drawn to the bright blue awning of Charlie’s Snack Bar. At that moment the door to the restaurant opened, and a tall young woman with cropped red hair and wearing a tight black turtleneck sweater, clingy black pants and black cowboy boots, stepped out into the daylight. The girl stood aside to allow the man behind her to pass, and as he emerged completely into the sunlight, Ellen recognized Graham. She was about to hail him, when he took a step toward the redhead and Ellen realized he was with her. Unable to tear her focus from the scene or insinuate herself into it, she backed up into the shadow cast by the overhanging eave of the shoe store.<br />
<br />
While Graham snapped down and adjusted the removable sun-visors of his eyeglasses, the young woman reached into the breast pocket of his blazer, drew out a pair of sunglasses he must have been holding for her, and put them on, in the process grazing her breasts against his left elbow. The act defined them as intimate friends, yet the distance springing up between them immediately afterward seemed devised to refute it. They stood apart talking to each other, their postures stiff and formal, their not touching as conspicuous as an open embrace.<br />
<br />
Ellen watched them as her years at Penn were sucked into a black hole, and all she could remember was her husband Kevin dropping the bomb, telling her he was leaving her. Watching Graham and the redhead across the street was like catching the discovery scene she had missed, seeing it replayed for her benefit, like a burlesque in which she was both captive audience and object of scorn.<br />
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Almost at once she felt a connection with Sophia.<br />
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Sophia pulled her hands away and struck out at Ellen in one continuous movement, throwing herself off balance and stumbling sideways. She stared in horror at the gouge one of her nails had made on Ellen’s chest, and Ellen, stunned by the violence and not yet feeling the pain, gazed in disbelief at the drop of blood tracking toward the scalloped edge of her white satin bustier.<br />
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“Go—get out of here,” Sophia rasped. “I’m afraid what I might do to you. Get out, get out.”<br />
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The blood trickled onto the rim of smooth white fabric, forming a small, irregular stain. Ellen looked up at Sophia. The woman she thought she knew had become a trapped animal, her eyes wary-wild.<br />
<br />
A sharp pain from the nick in her chest jolted her from her numbing inertia. She moved quickly from the room, feeling the tears coming, holding them back, postponing them as she ran silently down the hall. She descended the steps with blazing deliberation, her pace quick and even, her focus on reaching the door and disappearing into the sheltering night. She could feel her eyes, static-wide in bewildered alarm, betraying her attempt to appear in total control. Still, she focused straight ahead, concentrating on her goal, hearing Anna calling her name but moving through the sound, pacing herself to simulate haste without flight as she sliced through the clear zone of the foyer and pushed open the storm door. Midway across the porch she collided with an incoming guest, all pearls and black silk, the woman’s staccatoed “Shit!” like a gunshot in an open field of combat.<br />
<br />
Picking up speed, she hurtled down the bluestone drive, anticipating the sound of the engine starting up even before she could spot her car.<br />
<br />
***
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<br />
Tuesday, March 13. First day in court. The jury sat knit-browed and entranced, leaning forward so as not to miss a word, not yet settled in their role of deliberative body. To Ellen, they looked as if they’d been caught off guard at the supermarket, a rainbow assortment of shoppers rounded up one afternoon and transported to a box at the opera, best seats in the house.<br />
<br />
Ellen sat in a heavy, slat-back chair drawn up close to a long oak table. She was wearing a gray suit and paisley print blouse because Rosenthal had told her to wear something conservative but not somber. The skirt buckled and slid around her waist every time she moved because in the last two months she’d lost ten pounds from under-eating and over-exercising. As she’d taken her seat in the courtroom, she’d snagged her pantyhose on a rough spot on the table leg and felt the rip crawl up her leg, making her feel exposed to the prying eyes in the room. She’d been unable to choose earrings that morning, vacillating between small and large, shiny and dull, gold and silver, fixating on this final aspect of her attire as if she could determine the decision of the jury by choosing the politically correct objects to hang on her earlobes. When Rosenthal blew his car horn in the driveway she’d grabbed for familiarity, the small gold hoops, before allowing herself to be whisked off to the mind-boggling unknown.<br />
<br />
Sitting next to her at the oak table, “Try to relax,” Rosenthal whispered in her ear, leaning toward and away from her in one smooth, condensed motion.<br />
<br />
Ellen sat back in the chair, her rigid spine meeting hard wood, the word “relax” banned from her body’s vocabulary. Through an impromptu technique of auto-suggestion and deep breathing, she was barely managing to bring under control the strangulating tension in her neck and the explosive blood-humming in her ears. It was not her lawyer’s fault she hadn’t been prepared for Mark Gilbert’s speech. Rosenthal had described the prosecutor’s meticulous approach, but there was no way he could have prepared her for the immediacy of the event: the way Gilbert cocked his left hip as he stood facing the jury; how his dark eyes seemed to glow from some deep passion or conviction; how he flashed her alternating looks of consternation and pity; how he stressed syllables unexpectedly, so that his words jumped against the wall of her chest—“enter the room,” “<i>points</i> of the scissors,” “<i>homicidal</i> violence”; how his brow suddenly furrowed as he reminded the jury—“You and I, we represent the People. We have been charged not to avenge a wrong, but to deliver justice.”<br />
<br />
***
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“Come up to the bedroom.”<br />
<br />
“Yes.”<br />
<br />
“Stay the night.”<br />
<br />
“Yes.”<br />
<br />
“Hurry.” She wanted to be taken on the spot, jammed against the table or pinned to the floor, but delay would set the act apart. She could foresee it, her first experience of absolute exposure—the loss of her true virginity on her sex-worn bed. The chaste and devilish nuances of amazing contradiction lifted the event to the peak of desire.
He was one step behind her, holding on to her hand as they climbed the staircase. She was aware of every footfall, every breath, every sound of this outwardly conventional drama. She led him down the hall, almost turning in at the wrong doorway, almost forgetting where she slept, his presence casting an aura of unfamiliarity on the surroundings. He caught her hesitation and uttered a short, nervous laugh, sharing her bewilderment.<br />
<br />
As they entered her bedroom, it seemed to lose all connection to her past, as if it had come into existence at that very moment just to harbor them.<br />
<br />
In rapt silence they helped each other with the shedding of clothes, marveling at the unhurried pace of the ritual, as if their bodies had agreed to temper urgency with curiosity.<br />
<br />
They lay on the white comforter, barely disturbing it in their intent exploration, the upheavals taking place inwardly, while over audacious globes and rises and along newly accessible furrows, their fingers, lips, tongues concentrated movement in targeted pressures, exacting exquisite modulations of sensation from each focal point.
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<i>Semblance of Guilt</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/B01DWXBGRW?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/semblance-of-guilt-claudia-riess/1123612832?ean=9781480827851" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/semblance-of-guilt/id1100615156?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<b><span style="color: red; font-size: x-large;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b><br />
<div>
<b><i>runs July 1-30, 2016</i></b><i> </i><br />
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Prices/Formats: <b><span style="color: red;">99¢</span></b> <strike>$3.99</strike> ebook, $21.99 paperback, $39.95 hardcover<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 328<br />
Release: April 5, 2016<br />
Publisher: Archway<br />
ISBN: 9781480827851<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29838148-semblance-of-guilt" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
"A determined amateur detective who'll garner fans with her refusal to either back down or give up." -<b>Kirkus Reviews</b>
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhtzFZlh_f5qyAGl7sk-R6dDlNVRKvkaOwUGhWmy-6uT7Pk0nWZeaweXwe6FbCXXygXkhOVPbRvm5s2AGB7ArwoAkjpEUE-QE_bBQBBrjMkpSHrDBeq5zuPIXtegoHWGGJ0WXzdyJ3WVJA/s1600/author.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Claudia Riess, a Vassar graduate, has worked in the editorial departments of The New Yorker and Holt Rinehart and Winston. On her first novel, Reclining Nude, Oliver Sacks, M.D. commented: “exquisite—and delicate.” Her second, art suspense Stolen Light earned: “complex and intriguing” —Kirkus Review<br />
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<b>Links to connect with Claudia:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://claudiariessbooks.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ClaudiaRiessBooks" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/ClaudiaRiess" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3052782.Claudia_Riess?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://semblanceofguiltblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
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City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-30057703951227461812016-07-13T00:01:00.000-04:002016-07-13T00:01:00.970-04:00Frank Nappi - Welcome to the Show - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://welcometotheshowblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-BIQDMwHajNXd_9X7lWQybJepkQ3rlvXhGPsTAyGt7Ob6Km6MOmK4Xk-NtJ6fXxars_6JvsK7zoErDGeuFOMzz9E_PYmsJdNVJuEunqmS4jp1KiBjLE7LRyHHCj5EUAsc1_tKGC73MWg/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhfQrJ0MS-QvOZg7ZiaFD_7m5jJ3YdnooNJbndPAp2efDhxBDyRB0h6GkUYbumHYXzSZKlBOSGXyEhuFZWkbK-RHVTELn6bjoGflrlmJK_WWAERuQry9T7PBD1P1M0EtdCkK_Zz4O3jGtw/s1600/wts.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />It’s 1950 and Mickey Tussler—the now-famous pitching prodigy with autism and a golden arm—is back for another baseball season in this third installment of Frank Nappi’s critically acclaimed Legend of Mickey Tussler series. Talk of Mickey’s legendary exploits on the field has grown since his improbable debut two years prior, as have the fortunes of Murph and the rest of the lovable ragtag Brew Crew. Now Mickey, Murph, and Lester find themselves heading to Bean Town to play for the Boston Braves.<br /><br />
The call up is sweet, for all of them have overcome insurmountable odds to get where they are. But life in the major leagues is filled with fast-paced action both on and off the field. The bright lights of Boston hold a new series of challenges, hardships, and life lessons—especially for Mickey, who finds himself a long way from throwing apples into a barrel back on the farm. The three newest Braves have each other to lean on, as well as a new group of fans who are swept away by pennant fever, but balancing everything this new world has to offer may prove to be the greatest challenge of all.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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Beneath the surface of this little book is a real head scratcher of a debate I wasn't expecting to find:<br />
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<b><i>What ultimately brings happiness? </i></b><br />
<br />
Baseball players work their whole lives to make it to the majors. It's supposed to be where dreams come true. The title speaks for itself, "Welcome to <b>THE SHOW</b>." The big time. The pinnacle. The promised land. But is it really?<br />
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Author Frank Nappi poses this question by coming at it from two different perspectives - a man's and a woman's. Murph is the manager who's been mired in Triple-A for years. Now he finally has his shot to take the helm of a big league club in Boston. Molly, his new wife, who recently escaped a long, abusive relationship, isn't all that keen on making the move. She was okay with their life when it centered around a small market town, but life in the big city is another story entirely.<br />
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I thought the book did a great job in showing how the transition is just as hard on the woman, as it is on the man in her life. For much of the season, she's on her own. Murph is at the stadium, or on the road, the majority of the time. While Molly is a country girl, who's used to living on a farm. She prefers a simple, quiet life to the one she's living now, and she struggles mightily to adjust to a loud, often confusing, city.<br />
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Quite frankly, Molly is heartbroken and homesick, and Murph's beside himself, not wanting to lose her, but not wanting to see her so unhappy either. But this is what he's waited for, for so long, and now that it's within his grasp, he can't even sit back and enjoy it. Because as it turns out, the job itself isn't easy. He has to deal with being the owner's puppet, not to mention the veteran players who make it clear from the beginning that they don't respect him or his decisions.<br />
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But what unites Murph and Molly is their devotion to her autistic son, Mickey. He's on the team too. In fact, it's his phenomenal pitching ability that brought the two of them together in the first place. Will he be able to help them find a middle ground now? Or will his pitching for Murph just end up hurting his mom even more?<br />
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The answer to that question is found in the final chapter.<br />
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***
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<i>Welcome to the Show</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1634508297?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/welcome-to-the-show-frank-nappi/1122378351?ean=9781634508292" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/welcome-to-the-show/id1097501147?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
Prices/Formats: $9.99 ebook, $9.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Sports, YA, Special Needs<br />
Pages: 288<br />
Release: April 19, 2016<br />
Publisher: Sky Pony<br />
ISBN: 9781634508292<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25898459-welcome-to-the-show" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<b>Video</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="225" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/JZfDb_i-TbU" width="300"></iframe><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgm7NYwi1n6QCXOSBPUKmUuwAqyJ9haJLq54eo60D8MQPw43x2QizhhYEfXtLrhmKWSSewHR0QEkwZPO04obufA7gaJ9oYORx6Czw7JMRoXUqyuw9gPCRRI69MtKgkhIin4ab0tnWB0irA/s1600/nappirvc.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Frank Nappi has taught high school English and Creative Writing for over twenty five years. His debut novel, ECHOES FROM THE INFANTRY, received national attention, including MWSA's silver medal for outstanding fiction. His follow-up novel, THE LEGEND OF MICKEY TUSSLER, garnered rave reviews as well, including a movie adaptation of the touching story "A Mile in His Shoes" starring Dean Cain and Luke Schroder. Nappi continues to produce quality work, including SOPHOMORE CAMPAIGN, the intriguing sequel to the much heralded original story and the thriller, NOBODY HAS TO KNOW, which received an endorsement from #1 New York Times bestselling author Nelson DeMille. The third installment of Nappi's Mickey Tussler series, WELCOME TO THE SHOW, was released April 2016, and he is currently working on his next thriller, AS LONG AS WE BOTH SHALL LIVE. Nappi lives on Long Island with his wife Julia and their two sons, Nicholas and Anthony.
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<b>Links to connect with Frank:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.franknappi.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/authorfranknappi" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/franknappi" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/589342.Frank_Nappi" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/user/FrankNappibooks" target="_blank">YouTube</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796142" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796142/" id="rcwidget_lshylnmm" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-34152918071489481642016-06-20T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-20T00:01:01.389-04:00M. Glenda Rosen - Dying to Be Beautiful series - 99¢ sale, excerpts & giveaway<a href="http://dyingtobebeautifulblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiZV-ZRsPyYyPC2-UJok1-MlLeGSohaRf8GB0khs4mjwauscpNV3AwBaLYoj9hwX5pq22RSg74tXf4xZwlxlzIV9tHl1ZpXixobHooLiXMzDwxdNcvR437J2bK3yac6-onOotftAG3uIt_a/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjgvaNJ6M1V4vpUfYI3noEFqHfIAh3ZhcRGJ16pZLYWunZUpvh_FZsN534yN1ODbJd7qBgnb-oziEM4JCJZzpE8HB72ZSYH9qAEtu-m6Ujz-WqIXD-ayXjj0ZQIAXIAGvhul3_8SJ8CJVBV/s320/book1cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>BOOK ONE: WITHOUT A HEAD</b><i><br /><br />Saturday Morning, 6:00am<br /><br />
The head in the sink stared up at her. Darcy Monroe, the owner of a popular, chic hair salon was used to this. Only this time, the head was there without a body.<br /><br />
Chapter One: The Murder<br /><br />
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.<br /><br />
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons. A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.<br /><br />
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish setter sitting next to her.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
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<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
<br />
<b>Chapter 1<br />
The Murder</b><br />
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Saturday, 6:10 A.M.<br />
<br />
As a Private Investigator, Jenna Preston had been hired to help solve murders, insurance fraud, cheating spouses and more. This was a new one for her.<br />
<br />
She received what could only be described as a hysterical call from Darcy Monroe, owner of a popular, upscale hair salon in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
A head without its body was rolling around in one of her shampoo basins.<br />
<br />
Almost five-feet, five-inches tall, always looking taller in her two or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, blue eyes and was often seen driving around the East End in a white jeep, and in recent years, with her Irish Setter sitting next to her.<br />
<br />
As a well-respected private investigator in the area, she told the salon owner, “I’ll be right there, and don’t touch anything until the police arrive.”<br />
<br />
Jenna knew they needed to secure the business as a crime scene and Coroner Doc Bishop and Head of Forensics Lara Stern had to be brought in as well.<br />
<br />
“Troy, someone left a head, without the body, in a shampoo bowl at Darcy’s Salon. I’ll be there in about ten minutes.”<br />
<br />
”Damn it, Jenna, I nearly spilled my coffee listening to this bizarre message. I’ll be there within the half hour. Meantime, I’ll ask Lara to get over there to check the crime scene for prints and other possible evidence and for Doc to arrange to bring the head to the morgue. We’ll want to look at it there, after he’s had a chance to determine how it was cut off and anything else he might find.”<br />
<br />
Detective Johnson hung up.<br />
<br />
He and Jenna had worked together and known each other for a long time. They clearly trusted each other. He knew she would follow police protocol at the crime scene.<br />
<br />
Saturday, as always was an exceptionally busy day, “in season” at Darcy’s Salon, which is why she had gotten there so early. She always wanted the salon looking perfect, ready for stylists and clients, who this day had appointments beginning at 7 am.<br />
<br />
Located off the main avenue of this posh resort at the East End of Long Island, less than ninety miles from Manhattan, the salon was known for catering to the rich and famous, as well as some of wanna-be customers, primping for weekend parties and fundraising events.<br />
<br />
The salon was truly beautiful with warm color tones and soft matching leather client chairs facing gold (well, fake gold), trimmed mirrors. There was a reception area with the latest issues of fashion magazines from Paris and Rome, and a few of the more popular Hampton rags, like <i>Dan’s Papers</i> were spread out on a marble table, next to it a coffee machine offering gourmet flavored coffee and teas.<br />
<br />
Most of the women who came to Darcy’s Salon had plenty of money, some from their own success, although others were arm candy for much older, wealthy men. Sometimes one of them would joke (maybe not) that they were “Dying To Be Beautiful” like some of the famous models and celebrities, many of who summered in the Hamptons.<br />
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“Jenna, you’ve seen how difficult and fussy they can be, and their egos—they’re constantly seeking confirmation of how beautiful they look. They want to come to a high-end salon, expecting to be treated like royalty. And believe me, we do.”<br />
<br />
Darcy Monroe was only too glad to charge megabucks for her services since it included a whole lot of catering to their whims and demands. Beauty could indeed be expensive in The Hamptons. The chatter amongst the clients, the eight hair stylists, three manicurists and several assistants meant gossip was a basic ingredient of conversation. The story about the body without a head, and the head found in the salon, was sure to explode through The Hamptons. It certainly had all the elements of a soap opera.<br />
<br />
“My god, Jenna, the gossip about this mess is going to be like a volcano spilling over this town.”
</div>
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***
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<br />
<i>Dying to Be Beautiful: Without a Head</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Dying-Be-Beautiful-Mysteries-Without-ebook/dp/B01BTMZA16?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries-m-glenda-rosen/1123451946?ean=9781483445304" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries/id1082721139?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<br />
<h2>
<b><span style="color: red;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b></h2>
<h4>
<i>runs June 1-30, 2016 </i></h4>
Prices/Formats: <strike>$2.99</strike> ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 140<br />
Release: February 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Lulu<br />
ISBN: 9781483445304<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29295731-dying-to-be-beautiful-mysteries?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
***<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh96bzCrn466UrTqcvLFYKoCi6RgtZ93KpLFqBTzGT_83APsvd5PVygdFHhXWTTJtFPvkIc-2rM8fvH6m-W9E2F7ALjVHiJ5hfCMrl1w1RatXLAGjvw7JsShbn24Lng8Od2HYrbAXCQwz10/s320/book2cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>BOOK TWO: FASHION QUEEN</b><i><br /><br />Monday, 6:45am<br />
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Kevin Larson swam in his pool nearly every morning. Going on sixty-five, he prided himself on being in good shape.<br />
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Walking toward the small pool house, off to the left of the pool, he noticed a light was on. He was certain he turned it off the night before. Strange, he thought.<br />
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Even stranger, lying in a different sort of pool—blood—was his long time friend and lover, fashion designer Andre Yellen. Yellen was stuffed into one of the gowns he had designed and a wearing a blond wig.<br />
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The gown had been auctioned off the night before at a huge Hamptons fundraiser.<br />
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People in the Hamptons were certainly dying to be beautiful.
</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
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<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
<br />
<b>Chapter 1<br />
THE GOWN</b><br />
<br />
Monday, 7:30 a.m.<br />
<br />
Detective Troy Johnson was at Larson’s house when Jenna arrived. He had covered the victim with a large beach towel until the coroner and forensics arrived. [deleted “He and”] Sergeant Stan Miller, who had taken the call, accompanied him and was presently attempting to hold back the media. They had heard about Yellen’s death on the police scanner, and in no time, the active crime scene was quite a wild sight.<br />
<br />
It was 6:30 A.M. when she had received the call from Johnson that he was on his way to Kevin Larson’s house: “Jenna, there’s been a murder. Designer Andre Yellen, the Fashion Queen, was found dead this morning at the home of movie mogul Kevin Larson. He gave her the address and exactly where it was located, “past the windmill at the edge of Southampton.”<br />
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“More like the situation was at the edge of reason,” Jenna thought.<br />
<br />
“Jenna, they’re acting like a bunch of hungry vultures. Help! These are your people. Well, they’re reporters like you used to be. The homeowner is either in shock or just completely uncooperative except for telling me where and when he found Yellen’s body.”<br />
<br />
Jenna sighed, “Sure, I can’t say no to such a lovely invitation.”<br />
<br />
The death of Andre Yellen was big news.<br />
<br />
Andre Yellen was squeezed—really, truly squeezed—into a beautiful ocean blue, sleeveless, silk gown he had designed and donated for a fundraiser the evening before. The size-8 dress was torn at all the seams. Yellen, in his early fifties, 5’9” and clearly out of shape, was more like a size-18-plus, and stuffed into a dress way, way too small for him.<br />
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As a designer for major celebrities for nearly twenty-five years, Yellen was a man about town who loved both the ladies and the men, or so it had been gossiped around the East End of Long Island, also known as The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
After all, this is THE HAMPTONS, and all sorts of lifestyles are accepted, where choices are supposedly not judged, and relationships are not restricted by conventional boundaries. Unfortunately, there are always those determined to exercise their own brand of severe judgment.<br />
<br />
However, there was no evidence this murder had anything to do with narrow minds. Not yet, anyhow. In fact, it wasn’t clear at all what this murder was about—or who had committed it.<br />
<br />
Private Investigator Jenna Preston was familiar with many celebrities who lived or vacationed on the East End. Before becoming an investigative reporter, she was entertainment and social events reporter for the local daily paper and had interviewed quite a few of the “anointed” as she had once called them. Gossip columnists covered the rest.<br />
<br />
Jenna was regularly hired by law firms, insurance companies and businesses for corporate fraud issues. She also had an arrangement and relationship with the local police—especially when it came to murder investigations. Some of the people she had once written about also tried to hire her for personal investigations and for, what she considered, ridiculous reasons. Such complaints included some new fence being too high or people walking on the beach in front of someone’s home.<br />
<br />
Most of these cases she didn’t accept.<br />
<br />
“For me, it’s about justice. We all have reasons, even life experiences motivating our passions. I have mine for what I do,” Jenna told a local reporter whose paper was doing a story on crime in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
Jenna had a solid reputation for being smart, resourceful and most definitely charming—without an attitude—which was different from many of the people who summered in The Hamptons.<br />
<br />
She did love nice clothes, including the red shoes or red boots she almost always wore.<br />
<br />
“Hey,” she laughed once when Troy made fun of her red shoes, “you wear a cowboy hat most of the time, so don’t make fun of me, Tex.”<br />
<br />
Jenna and Troy worked together professionally almost as soon as she had become a licensed private detective. It was a small police force, often stretched thin during the summer season. Because they actually had few experienced investigators, he had requested and been given approval by his captain to use a discretionary fund to hire Jenna on an as-needed basis. She was often a member of his investigative team, usually for murders.<br />
<br />
Lately, there didn’t seem to be any shortage of them.<br />
<br />
Slender and almost 5’5,” yet always looking taller in her two- or three-inch heels, Jenna had long red hair, sometimes pulled back in a ponytail when she was working. She also had deep blue eyes. With more than a hint of spunk and mischief about her, she was definitely considered attractive.<br />
<br />
Jenna’s new romance, Dave, thought so!
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***
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<br />
<i>Dying to Be Beautiful: Fashion Queen</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1483449157?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dying-to-be-beautiful-mystery-series-m-glenda-rosen/1123791641?ean=9781483449159" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/dying-to-be-beautiful-mystery/id1114048910?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<h2>
<b><span style="color: red;">99¢ EBOOK SALE!</span></b> </h2>
<div>
<h4>
<i>runs June 1-30, 2016 </i></h4>
</div>
Prices/Formats: <strike>$2.99</strike> ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery<br />
Pages: 132<br />
Release: June 1, 2016<br />
Publisher: Lulu<br />
ISBN: 9781483449159<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29864465-dying-to-be-beautiful-fashion-queen?from_search=true&search_version=service" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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***<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicR-tJC5tdddEbfyoIoWFq53-idP8-bggePu3wUGYxcDWoZoaaQtnrhpWY4Fxj40IBOnoWk4RVevI7c1Hc7-EV9WLpcQcbYzeYR7zPZotYC8-5_2cky6lTcsEbdLokTQ6oCWZF_kWtaZ3s/s320/IMG_1095.JPG" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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M. Glenda Rosen is the author of <i>The Woman’s Business Therapist: Eliminate the MindBlocks and RoadBlocks to Success</i>, and award-winning <i>My Memoir Workbook</i>. For over fifteen years, she helped numerous authors develop and market their books, and presented writing programs in New York, The Hamptons, New Mexico and Carmel, California, on “Encouraging and Supporting the Writer Within You!” She's the founder and owner of a successful marketing and public relations agency for twenty-five years.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with M. Glenda:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.dyingtobebeautiful.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/MarciaGRosen" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/writermysteries" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/search?utf8=%E2%9C%93&search%5Bfrom_nav%5D=true&query=M.+Glenda+Rosen" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://dyingtobebeautifulblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796140" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796140/" id="rcwidget_asvmwz6w" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
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City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-196732463331521462016-06-15T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-15T00:01:23.160-04:00Jerome Charyn - A Loaded Gun - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://aloadedgunblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjDHQzYmo4DcDSCyMHfEKgL38sqNmdLS8OR_JJD-A9HS1gUlinUGfyS3cyoJzu-0yRg9BpS4WcOIxDBVImr9-GZhBf0ra551E-IIyREdBQQLqWVqPYEoCOmqRJskdFM6JSB__x0Tepw4BY/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj5tVOK4XdU3x0ALU3uITk2yVWDr7WD8jiQt6Yx7DJwaFUtWAgzh2iHnHX6aSyPqku47Rc8kMuo8-6NoLGmMBOZYgoXDJNUloXYIIBkGICZU3naTquyJv9-vi4TQ6r2jTAqpzlk5_xlygs/s320/A+Loaded+Gun+Mock+Cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />We think we know Emily Dickinson: the Belle of Amherst, virginal, reclusive, and possibly mad. But in A Loaded Gun, Jerome Charyn introduces us to a different Emily Dickinson: the fierce, brilliant, and sexually charged poet who wrote:<br /><br />
My Life had stood—a Loaded Gun—<br />
…<br />
Though I than He— may longer live<br />
He longer must—than I—<br />
For I have but the power to kill,<br />
Without—the power to die—<br /><br />
Through interviews with contemporary scholars, close readings of Dickinson’s correspondence and handwritten manuscripts, and a suggestive, newly discovered photograph that is purported to show Dickinson with her lover, Charyn’s literary sleuthing reveals the great poet in ways that have only been hinted at previously: as a woman who was deeply philosophical, intensely engaged with the world, attracted to members of both sexes, and able to write poetry that disturbs and delights us today. </i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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What sets this book apart is that the setting takes place almost exclusively inside a family home. Emily Dickinson rarely ventured outside of the Homestead in Amherst, spending practically her entire lifetime behind its walls. But she didn't live there alone. As it turns out, the dynamics within the Dickinson household provide all the drama author Jerome Charyn could ever need for this story.<br />
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Now a woman can do almost anything, even run for president, but the America of the nineteenth century was a vastly different place than the one we live in today. And because Emily Dickinson never married, never had children, never had the inclination to live like everyone else—she was effectively shunned. Which is why Charyn contends there was absolutely no way she could declare herself a writer, not when she was already viewed with a hefty share of suspicion and distrust.<br />
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She had an image to maintain since her father was a big shot at the local college, although he certainly wasn't an intellectual. The man was a tyrant, who beat his horse and ignored her mother. While vicariously living through her mother's pain, Dickinson, in turn, scorned her for accepting that kind of treatment, without bothering to fight back. So Emily took it upon herself to stand up to her father, not through verbal confrontation, but through her poetry. While her parents kept her child-like and dependent, she railed against her imprisonment. However, Charyn adroitly questions: Where else could she go?<br />
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She didn't have any novelists or philosophers in her family, no one she could talk to about her poetry. Instead, she took what was offered to her—the privacy and comfort of having the best room in the house, the shelter of having a roof over her head, and writing tools paid for by her father. In fact, her one and only possession was her devoted Newfoundland dog. It was a jail, but it was, as Charyn so aptly refers to it, a "Pearl Jail."<br />
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Dickinson was smart. She employed her cunning to survive in a man's world. She used what her father gave her, and had the means necessary to be the mistress of her interior time and space. She may not have been free, but she was able to enter the void from which her greatness sprung. Charyn even goes so far as to describe her as being impossible to live around, inferring that it might not have been so easy for her family to be cooped up with her either.<br />
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However, for a daughter whose parents never read a single one of her poems, it's worthwhile to note that the little comfort and security they did provide, allowed her to become one of the greatest poets of all time.<br />
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<i>A Loaded Gun</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Loaded-Gun-Emily-Dickinson-Century-ebook/dp/B01AR51G0K?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-loaded-gun-jerome-charyn/1121185872" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/a-loaded-gun/id1076133268?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://blpress.org/books/a-loaded-gun/" target="_blank">Bellevue Literary Press</a></b><br />
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Prices/Formats: $11.99 ebook, $19.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Literary Criticism<br />
Pages: 265<br />
Release: March 15, 2016<br />
Publisher: Bellevue Literary Press<br />
ISBN: 9781934137987<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24796140-a-loaded-gun" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<b>Video</b><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="169" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/hZpXxBJRbXM" width="300"></iframe><br />
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<b>Excerpts</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://lithub.com/neither-mad-nor-motherless-on-emily-dickinsons-self-creation/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read <b>Excerpt One</b>.<br />
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<b><a href="http://blog.longreads.com/2016/03/15/a-loaded-gun-the-real-emily-dickinson/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> to read <b>Excerpt Two</b>.<br />
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<b>Reading Groups</b><br />
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<b><a href="http://blpress.org/reading-group-guides/reading-group-guide-for-a-loaded-gun/" target="_blank">CLICK HERE</a></b> for a <b>Reading Guide</b>.<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhTd0h_yGh-zgsNIB1bMHwXXlcaiag6E3pgLYCiIiNsfldMU4JhYN6pEUBbJeW8atQqok8OFoxVGcRqsgvf0Vls4Z8Dy-S5-CgZvZODK0xleyL2kIujQBSn6JbBAip_u05VyF9qZk3-hk8/s1600/Jerome+%2526+Chloe+I+by+Jorg.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Jerome Charyn was born and raised on the mean streets of the Bronx. He graduated <i>cum laude</i> from Columbia College. He has taught at Princeton, Columbia, Stanford, Rice, was Distinguished Visiting Professor at the City University of New York and is currently Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the American University of Paris. Charyn is a Guggenheim Fellow and has twice won fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. His stories and articles have appeared in The Atlantic, Paris Review, Esquire, American Scholar, New York Review of Books, New York Times, Ellery Queen and many other publications. Charyn's most recent books are <i>The Secret Life of Emily Dickinson, I Am Abraham</i> and <i>Bitter Bronx: Thirteen Stories</i>. His latest book is <i>A Loaded Gun: Emily Dickinson for the 21st Century</i>.
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<b>Links to connect with Jerome:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.jeromecharyn.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/jerome.charyn?fref=ts" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/jeromecharyn" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/53408.Jerome_Charyn" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
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<b>Links to connect with <i>A Loaded Gun:</i></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/SecretLifeOfEmilyDickinson/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://twitter.com/emilysecretlife" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/24796140-a-loaded-gun?from_new_nav=true&ac=1&from_search=true" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
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<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796139" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796139/" id="rcwidget_vp2bt5ya" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-17680905067195466582016-06-03T00:01:00.000-04:002016-06-03T00:01:00.154-04:00Kathleen Gerard - The Thing Is - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiRnRf6PvISgTrSt0G8fUd_I6hlk9f8K9tiLFnxwaa7VVhCqRedwrPagi1IrVfUTSuXdIOGrHKxbgOfqDkefx8J7tFZf5jDneDOb3fChKWv9AYoL164R9ps0o2ZN-VJnKNX3cjPlhOXNFna/s1600-r/banner2.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjwDEOij0R0ghznVdZEDmYL_3a0TMD-Xv5X7GiWN0f3b61AUZyEskd9NSEVeFwtpdPvKz09f9VlHj9YAWY891jHdgGs_wL8Cuxg7-VbU5qbEKcyLL6Wz4vBOLGwtQbe1aWcaqHHQjtgHDHk/s1600/TheThingIs-KGerard-300+pixels.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Can a woman mired deep in the throes of grief have her heart and soul rallied by a therapy dog named Prozac who possesses supernatural wisdom and a canine Mensa IQ?
Meredith Mancuso is depressed. Ever since the death of her fiancé, she has shrunk from the world. Even with her successful writing career, she's not motivated to work. When her sister, Monica, begs for a favor, Meredith wants nothing more than to say no. But she’s ultimately roped into pet-sitting an orphaned Yorkshire terrier named Prozac.
Blessed with spiritual wisdom and a high IQ, Prozac is an active pet therapy dog. To heal broken-hearted Meredith, he rallies his fan club at Evergreen Gardens, an independent living facility, where he visits each week.
Prozac and the community of resilient older folks challenged by losses of their own propel Meredith, often against her will, back into the land of the living. Meredith learns that most people carry some sort of burden, but it's still possible to find meaning, purpose, and joy—and even love—along the way.
THE THING IS—a perfect read for fans of General Fiction, Contemporary Fiction, Romantic Comedy, and Dog and Pet Lovers!</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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I could immediately relate to this book—knowing it was set in a small town like Oak Park, New Jersey—because I'm <i>very</i> familiar with the middle class lifestyle captured in its pages. The ethnic-sounding last names. The love of the New York area sports teams. The crummy spring weather, thanks to winters that never end. All of these perfectly rendered details brought it all home for me, making the story seem much more real and poignant.<br />
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I really liked how the life of a writer in a small town is portrayed. Meredith Mancuso writes under the pen name Meredith St. John and has her photo airbrushed on the back of her romance novels, yet it's funny because everyone knows it's her. It's that kind of "everybody being in everyone else's business" that's indicative of small town life. Despite Meredith living off the grid (working from home and not having much of a social life), she still manages, much to her dismay, to draw attention to herself. She even becomes something of a local celebrity when she starts bringing Prozac the therapy dog to the local independent living facility. It's not long before she turns into the residents' most talked-about visitor.<br />
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Although Meredith doesn't venture far from home in this story, she does go on a journey of self-acceptance. She thinks her neighbors and those she comes in contact with automatically form a negative opinion about her because she's different. In her mind, they all view her as the crazy recluse writer from 22 Rosebush Lane. So she stays away from people because she's afraid to hear the unkind things she thinks they're saying about her. But the seniors she comes in contact with turn out to be her salvation. They're from a different era, one long before the advent of Facebook, when people would talk about each other, not necessarily to be mean, but because deep down they cared about each other and were willing to lend a hand to those in need. They don't mince words. They tell it to her straight. They like her writing. They like her. They just want her to get out more and live a little.<br />
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Meredith slowly begins taking their advice, venturing back into the real world after spending such a long time away from it. The story carries with it a heartwarming message. Sometimes all it takes is a gentle push, either through the nudge of a dog's nose or the tap of a cane to the back of the legs to get a person going again. It doesn't take much, just a little kindness where it's needed, a compliment here, a suggestion there. It's the kind of do-good-for-others inspiration that you don't find in most books nowadays, but it's something the world needs a lot more of.<br />
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<i>The Thing Is</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Thing-Kathleen-Gerard-ebook/dp/B01B55MZY2?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-thing-is-kathleen-gerard/1123327681?ean=2940152772616" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://geo.itunes.apple.com/us/book/the-thing-is/id1079207409?mt=11" target="_blank">iTunes</a></b><br />
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Prices/Formats: $5.99 ebook, $14.99 paperback<br />
Genre: Romantic Comedy<br />
Pages: 299<br />
Release: February 9, 2016<br />
Publisher: Red Adept<br />
ISBN: 9781940215587<br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26014424-the-thing-is" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKK9EuwkIV6ShcY0k4fdZKBYgegO_k86G9h483EjBXQ98FLIHJFQcGXZWX8gs_eUI2naLpObWEH7d9n_w_KpFhgP3yFyeRjCYT46L4naIhXXLVzz5jK9rxh6_cQCnDSwKQ73sVzS7IcCLZ/s1600/C1IUT2euRTS._UX250_.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Kathleen Gerard writes across genres. Her work has been awarded many literary prizes and has been published in magazines, journals, widely anthologized and broadcast on National Public Radio (NPR). Kathleen writes and reviews books for <b><a href="http://www.shelf-awareness.com/search.html?sitesearch=kathleen+gerard&search=search" target="_blank">Shelf Awareness</a></b>. Kathleen's woman-in-jeopardy novel, IN TRANSIT, won "Best Romantic Fiction" at the New York Book Festival.<br />
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<b>Links to connect with Kathleen:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.thethingis-thenovel.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/kathleengerard.writer" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.twitter.com/kathleengerard" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2865523.Kathleen_Gerard" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.kathleengerard.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thethingisblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796138" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796138/" id="rcwidget_msv7hnw7" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="https://widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-72188173002614277262015-11-18T00:01:00.000-05:002015-11-18T00:01:00.146-05:00Michael J. Bowler - Warrior Kids - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://warriorkidsblogtour.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKyhnRCHkZvqAN9xxmyZSzfs-n4-8TJcLQ47qRg1pqk7aKyCu_t_T5XohpmIwZA1nSixq9RNeHVcIWHQJUCk8DeeqngjE7KmwzDswqtd8mqvp3iL90AlfyoQUJxbyLJbejv2riC9tS/s1600-r/banner2.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjsiWwFGnNxI45uLTnvmdHMnrvucJGdzQLeCLCt4TwMj9mtA3WmrTsFYJj8tUcXMr7frdxhg_iqOVF60JOQiG4Ck-sBqbg4kX5QzBG_F5KyWZ-ZLRYbQ6OF76tuLVsYI4AfQUgKIZKw/s1600/cover.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />The future looks bleak unless eighteen year-old Lance and his New Camelot Earth Warriors can save the planet from catastrophic climate change. </i><i>Spurred by twelve year-olds Billy, Enya, Itzamna, and his ten-year-old brother, Chris, Lance creates a branch of Earth Warriors, a youth-led movement designed to save the earth from its greatest enemy – greed. </i><i>His involvement leads to Earth Warrior crews springing up all across America. Millions of kids leap into action, paralyzing the country and alarming the rich and powerful. </i><i>Having adopted his father’s philosophy of doing what’s right, rather than what’s easy, Lance makes serious enemies when he calls out New Camelot donors who represent fossil fuel or other polluting industries, and then barely escapes a series of "accidents” designed to kill him. </i><i>When he challenges the United States Congress to step up and act immediately on the climate crisis, the attacks on him escalate. With the majority of America's kids on his side, Lance and his young Earth Warriors prepare for the United Nations Conference of the Parties in Paris, where they will call upon world leaders to stop talking about sustainability and start acting on it. </i><i>But whoever wants him dead isn't giving up. Will Lance and his crew live long enough to even get to Paris? </i><i><i>Warrior Kids</i> is a standalone tale set within the <i>Children of the Knight</i> universe.</i><i><br /><br />
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<b>My Review</b><br />
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It's sad to think that the only exposure that some kids have to nature is by watching the Discovery Channel or thumbing through an issue of National Geographic.<br />
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The indignation behind such injustice is passionately expressed in Michael J. Bowler's latest novel, WARRIOR KIDS. He has his young characters go on a crusade to save the environment before it's too late. Lance, the adopted son of King Arthur, uses his clout for the good of others, getting the warriors exposure to the Pope, Congress, even the U.N.<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b><br /></b><b>"I want our young Earth Warriors to see what they're fighting for."</b></blockquote>
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But the greatest gift Lance gives to his energetic troupe is a camping trip to Gila National Forest, a protected wilderness area in New Mexico. The kids are amazed at the sheer beauty they discover. Tilting back their heads, they see trees touching the sky. Removing their shoes, they relax and stick their feet in a gurgling stream. They're enraptured, having never experienced anything like it before.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Let nature guide you. It won't steer you wrong."</b></blockquote>
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A lot of the Earth Warriors are city kids who grew up in and around Los Angeles. Venturing into the forest reconnects them with a part of their humanity that's remained dormant until now. Spending time outdoors eases their minds and hearts.<br />
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"[They] never felt so human as [they] did that day, so in touch with all [their] senses."</b></blockquote>
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And their reawakening couldn't have come at a better time. They're facing the monumental task of swaying politicians, delegates, CEOs—basically every adult in a position of power—to their side. But their most important task is convincing you, the reader, to implement just one of the numerous suggestions found at the end of the book into your own life.<br />
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WARRIOR KIDS is not a make believe story. It affects every single one of us, regardless if we live in Washington, Los Angeles, the forests of New Mexico or somewhere in between. We all need to be Earth Warriors, while there's still an earth to protect.
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<i>Warrior Kids</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/WARRIOR-KIDS-Camelot-Knight-Cycle-ebook/dp/B01686MJYE/" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
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Formats: ebook, paperback<br />
Genre: Middle Grade<br />
Pages: 211<br />
Release: October 6, 2015<br />
Publisher: self-published<br />
ISBN: 9780990871149<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26530788-warrior-kids" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
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<b>Special message from the author:</b><br />
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<b>THE eBOOK OF WARRIOR KIDS IS FREE FOR EDUCATORS.</b> It is available in the following formats: PDF, Kindle (mobi), and ePub (Nook and iBooks). In addition, teachers can purchase the paperbacks at the per unit cost of $3.08 (plus shipping and applicable tax.) Educators can contact the author via the Warrior Kids Facebook Group (<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505241449796357/" target="_blank">https://www.facebook.com/groups/1505241449796357/</a></b>) or directly by email – <b><a href="mailto:stuntshark2.0@gmail.com">stuntshark2.0@gmail.com</a></b>. For paperback orders, the author will generate an invoice from Createspace (the physical publisher of the book) and payment can be made through PayPal. There is no profit motive and he will earn nothing off the paperbacks sold to teachers. Per unit cost and shipping rates are exactly as Createspace charges him – no markup. As an educator, he has always sought supplemental reading material that would engage his students on important issues. Having found very little, he decided to write one and make it readily available.<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhambhBpsttupBxLXu7-G_KFa19nMR1m4-VdmHmwidotvAUfEHB_s2TeF0lplJjzOImn87BdB1sD0d7HzXAP_Lzmo4xEor9cFNqRmDPqKvR8USxv-IPnhaKEHmBpuDmDBWYxxQ4YoLFq_I/s320/bowler.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
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Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of nine novels—<i>A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time</i> (Silver Medalist from Reader’s Favorite), and <i>The Knight Cycle</i>, comprised of five books: <i>Children of the Knight</i> (Gold Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), <i>Running Through A Dark Place</i> (Bronze Award Winner in the Wishing Shelf Book Awards), There Is No Fear, And The Children Shall Lead, Once Upon A Time In America; <i>Spinner</i> (Winner Hollywood Book Festival; Honorable Mention San Francisco Book Festival; Bronze Medal from Reader’s Favorite; Literary Classics Seal of Approval), and <i>Warrior Kids</i>.<br />
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His horror screenplay, “Healer,” was a Semi-Finalist, and his urban fantasy script, “Like A Hero,” was a Finalist in the Shriekfest Film Festival and Screenplay Competition.<br />
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He grew up in San Rafael, California, and majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University. He went on to earn a master’s in film production from Loyola Marymount University, a teaching credential in English from LMU, and another master's in Special Education from Cal State University Dominguez Hills.<br />
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He partnered with two friends as producer, writer, and/or director on several ultra-low-budget horror films, including “Fatal Images,” “Club Dead,” and “Things II,” the reviews of which are much more fun than the actual movies.<br />
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He taught high school in Hawthorne, California for twenty-five years, both in general education and to students with learning disabilities, in subjects ranging from English and Strength Training to Algebra, Biology, and Yearbook.
He has also been a volunteer Big Brother to eight different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles.<br />
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He has been honored as Probation Volunteer of the Year, YMCA Volunteer of the Year, California Big Brother of the Year, and 2000 National Big Brother of the Year. The “National” honor allowed him and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.<br />
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His goal as a YA author is for teens to experience empowerment and hope; to see themselves in his diverse characters; to read about kids who face real-life challenges; and to see how kids like them can remain decent people in an indecent world.<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Michael:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.michaeljbowler.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
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<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796137" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796137/" id="rcwidget_taovxeyw" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-53767954819332962132015-11-04T00:01:00.000-05:002015-11-04T00:01:00.235-05:00Leta Serafim - When the Devil's Idle - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://whenthedevilsidle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg32gmu2vRAjdIT5acuXjxuVSax_9Zj10fKRRIr6TJAz8-y6aWicjf4sUqfxrs3-kvVAd7Lu_03rkwkYA4-eWwilggrgTk87aF9w6MjEodEUU49yC8AbE-gX4H1YQNE7QwJcV_DtejaIPIM/s1600-r/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgqgtLx-bo2ps_qDZwe_dXDMiQ6JFqBaZkD8Hq2-k8X0_UZ21ZhDGVDXejX78qMpvsg3J-5Ea0qE4FgWRZBGRP4sHUN-JG5zkPHxxYvxMOBJct_Ch_-SMTf-KdTZ9MMo1wUiiI696PEpHN_/s320/when_idle_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />In the Book of Revelation, written by St. John on the Greek island of Patmos, it was said a pale horse would appear whose rider was death, others would cry out for vengeance, and the stars of heaven would fall to the earth. Death does indeed come to Patmos when a German tourist is found murdered in the garden of one of the island’s fabled estates. Yiannis Patronas, Chief Officer of the Chios police, is called in to investigate. He summons his top detective, Giorgos Tembelos, and his friend and amateur sleuth, Papa Michalis, to assist him. What the policemen discover will disturb them long after the conclusion of the case. Only six people were at the house at the time of the murder—the gardener and housekeeper, the victim’s son and his wife and their two children, a boy of seven and a teenage girl of sixteen. All appear to be innocent. But access to the isolated estate is severely restricted. Surrounded by high walls, it has only one entrance: a metal gate that was bolted at the time of the crime. Patronas can only conclude that one of the six is a killer. He continues to probe, uncovering the family’s many secrets. Some are very old, others more recent. All are horrifying. But which of these secrets led to murder? </i><i>Book 2 of the <i>Greek Islands Mystery</i> series, which began with <i>The Devil Takes Half</i>.</i><i><br /><br />
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Greece and Germany aren't necessarily two countries that come to mind when one thinks of longtime bitter enemies.<br />
<br />
But in Leta Serafim's WHEN THE DEVIL'S IDLE, she makes it clear lingering wounds are still festering from World War II. The savagery the Nazis inflicted on the Greek people—executing them, torturing them, humiliating them—will never be forgotten.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Homicide was rare in Greece, the murder of a foreigner, rarer still."</b></blockquote>
<br />
So when a nation known for its aquamarine seas, its architecture, its philosophers is rocked by the vicious murder of a German national, the distaste Greeks still hold against their northern neighbor is brought to the forefront. And the holdover into the present day is mainly driven by economics.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"They're all over Patmos now. Couldn't get here with Hitler, so they bought their way in this time. Their weapon of choice, the Euro."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Greeks are embarrassed to be outnumbered in their own country. The detective assigned to the case can't even afford to purchase a voice recorder to collect evidence, so the victim's son has to lend him his. The discrepancy in their financial situations fuels their mutual mistrust. The German family thinks the Greek authorities are inept, incapable of solving the murder while the Greek cops resent the Germans for bringing more bloodshed to their shores, buying their way in to a land that doesn't want them there.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Politicians from both countries might well get involved."</b></blockquote>
<br />
And the last thing Greece wants is for the killing to result in an international incident. The authorities want to keep it under the radar, but when they start looking into the victim's past, things get heated when the son alerts the German embassy, hoping to put a halt to the investigation to keep what's in the past, in the past.<br />
<br />
Tensions are high as the tangled web that weaves the two cultures together through war, pain, and a deep sense of shame comes undone. Old hurts are brought to light, showing that no amount of reparation will ever be enough.<br />
<br />
If the chance at establishing a new world rests with the young, what happens when they too end up with blood on their hands? Does the cycle of violence ever stop or does it keep going, generation after generation, seemingly without end?
<br />
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***
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<i>When the Devil's Idle</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603819983?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/when-the-devils-idle-leta-serafim/1121863864?ean=9781603819985" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/566886" target="_blank">Smashwords</a></b><br />
<br />
Formats: $6.95 ebook, $13.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Mystery Suspense Thriller<br />
Pages: 192<br />
Release: September 1, 2015<br />
Publisher: Coffeetown Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603819985<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26057071-when-the-devil-s-idle" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>Excerpt</b><br />
<br />
<div style="border-color: 000000; border-style: solid; border-width: 2px; height: 350px; overflow: auto; width: 400px;">
The police cruiser arrived later that day and Giorgos Tembelos and Papa Michalis disembarked, the priest inching down the ramp like a tortoise.<br />
<br />
“I think the identity of the old man is the key,” Papa Michalis announced when they’d all gathered in a taverna to review the case. “I analyzed it and that is my conclusion. It simply cannot be anything else. It has elements of an Agatha Christie story, one of her locked-room mysteries like <i>And Then There Was None</i>. Nobody else had access; <i>ergo</i>, one of the people inside the estate, a family member or a servant, must be the guilty party.”<br />
<br />
“Anyone could have gained access,” Patronas pointed out. “The Bechtels were careless. They didn’t keep the door locked and there were keys lying around everywhere.”<br />
<br />
“No matter. It’s got to be one of them. We can interview other people forever, but it will eventually come back to them. Them and them alone.”<br />
<br />
“I think Father is right,” Tembelos said. “The identity of the victim is the important thing here. There was nothing about him in any of the European databases I checked. I called our counterparts in Germany and asked them to run him through their system, but I doubt they’ll find anything. It’s like he never existed. We need to establish who he was. Could be he changed his name.”<br />
<br />
“Why would he change his name?” Patronas wondered.<br />
<br />
“I don’t know.“<br />
<br />
The four of them were sitting outside by the water, it being too hot to venture inside. A haze hung over the sea, and the air was very still. Suddenly, a soft breeze rose up and stirred the tamarisk trees that lined the shore, setting their feathery branches in motion. Patronas liked the rustling sound the trees made, the relief the wind brought. It was almost as if he could hear the earth breathe.<br />
<br />
I’ll go swimming tonight, he told himself, looking out at the harbor. Float on my back and look up at the stars. Frolic like a dolphin.<br />
<br />
Maybe he’d ask Antigone Balis to join him. He pictured her dripping wet, that long hair of hers hanging down over one shoulder like Botticelli’s Venus. Adrift in his vision, he subsequently lost track of the conversation.<br />
<br />
“Hey, boss, you with us?” Tembelos nudged him with his elbow.<br />
<br />
Patronas made a show of straightening his back, stretching. “Sorry, it’s the heat. Always makes me sleepy.”<br />
<br />
“You were grinning.”<br />
<br />
“So what if I was? A man’s allowed to grin.”<br />
<br />
“I don’t know, Yiannis,” the priest said. “I think when one is discussing a homicide, it might be better if one dispensed with grinning. At such a time, such behavior is unseemly. It makes one appear insensitive at the very least.”<br />
<br />
“Thank you for that, Father. In the future, I will dispense with grinning.” He tapped his pencil on his notebook. “So, to sum up, we have nothing concrete in the case, no witnesses or physical evidence, nothing that will lead us to the killer.”<br />
<br />
“Gardener’s clean,” Tembelos reported. “I ran his fingerprints and there was nothing. There was a match on the shoes, too, exactly like he told us.”<br />
<br />
“What about the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou?”<br />
<br />
“Same thing. The case is heating up. If we don’t catch the killer, it could get ugly. Ministry’s already clamoring for action.”<br />
<br />
“We need to turn the housekeeper, Maria Georgiou, inside out, also the members of the family,” Patronas said. “Check their history. Something’s going on here, but as of yet, I haven’t established what it is.”<br />
<br />
“You can’t rule out a random act of violence,” the priest said, “directed at them because of their nationality.”<br />
<br />
“Worse would be if it were a case of mistaken identity,” Patronas said, “the killer targeting the owners—the Bauers—and killing one of their guests by mistake.”<br />
<br />
He was thinking of Charlie Manson, who along with his disciples had wiped out six people without blinking an eye, not realizing his intended victim was a subletter. “Personally, I think someone targeted the family for reasons we don’t know. The cat, the old man. It stands to reason.”<br />
<br />
“I’d start with the housekeeper,” Tembelos said. “What she said doesn’t add up. That bit about coming to Patmos on holiday and staying on as a maid.”<br />
<br />
“Unlikely, Giorgos. She’s in her seventies.”<br />
<br />
Papa Michalis continued to promote the locked room concept. Citing a case in <i>The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes</i>, he described how the killer had released a cobra through a fake vent and activated its poisonous energy by whistling. “ ‘Oh, my God, it was the band,’ the victim shouted, ‘the speckled band.’”<br />
<br />
“Fiction, Father, fiction,” Patronas said impatiently. “Remember? We discussed it.”<br />
<br />
“My point is if you are determined to kill someone, a lock is no deterrent. Sometimes murderers are ingenious. Using a cobra as a murder weapon is brilliant when you think about it. Absolutely brilliant. No fingerprints involved, no way to trace it back to you. The snake does all the work.”<br />
<br />
“I repeat, Father, there is no snake involved here. A stone maybe, but no snake.”<br />
<br />
“A stone? What makes you think that?”<br />
<br />
And around they went again, weighing the possibilities. The victim had been hit on the head, but with what? A hammer or a rock? A shovel or pickax? Rock, scissors, paper.<br />
<br />
Forget swimming, Patronas told himself. I might as well drown myself.</div>
<br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU0By4WGTXxeYSmcOGf0TlRX4X397Juy_VDtWxX1MvkuP18f-LblMXs5J9hFAk1n5Z_TovWydDHvgzGKPhc8ADKk-pEIQDm5H53ISmSV79HEF88IoJkXu4uwY9xAZChEx23wWEG5DDW4Nq/s320/CIMG0997A.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Leta Serafim is the author of the <i>Greek Islands Mystery</i> series, published by the Coffeetown Press, as well as the historical novel, <i>To Look on Death No More</i>. She has visited over twenty-five islands in Greece and continues to divide her time between Boston and Greece.
<br />
<br />
<b>Links to connect with Leta:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.letaserafim.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/Leta-Serafim-768335269894253/" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/serafimleta" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8274457.Leta_Serafim" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://whenthedevilsidle.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796136" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796136/" id="rcwidget_ysi3itcb" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a>
<script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4527663431960350285.post-60539898146459736352015-10-28T00:01:00.000-04:002015-10-28T00:01:00.222-04:00Scott A. Lerner - The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest - Review & Giveaway<a href="http://thewiccanwitchofthemidwest.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img align="middle" border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhU2Q8Cm2OG2BP1YAHxyxA2Wcw3_DNC8QAMmMord8txyXrxEjYoi2xbsqW7Ae3d-ar8JtgxLYGrGFh3lACGD5OZGApwXFX1NgstotgVlhDBkPczOLumfRogb7Rt8WlM2gbQx0CXZ0BMQJh2/s1600/banner.jpg" width="100%" /></a><br />
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<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEie0fERe5c54aE27hoSIAhr7SJYkgrrSG7dmffO-pKKBT294ZrYot31w2zPbh1WRL7m4vVJIfkJi8Azmj0cOQAi6m-GDZDmUBZBJKYBwNq6rh99DvoCbZKwNzvr0Ccs2Aq8GJrhBvfqDgW5/s1600/wiccan_300.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Book</b><i><br /><br />Samuel Roberts, a lawyer in Champaign, Illinois, has just moved to a new home to escape the memories of his old place—the stray body parts left by evil entities as well as traces of his relationship with Susan, who left him because he couldn’t stop risking both their lives trying to save the world. That leaves Sam free to fall in love again. Sam falls hard, suspiciously hard, for Bridget Gillis, a beautiful fortune teller who also happens to be a witch and a member of a coven. The village that encompasses the coven was founded by Bridget’s great-great aunt, also named Bridget and a dead ringer for her descendant. The new relationship quickly gets complicated. It is two days before Halloween, and Bridget is about to be tried by her fellow witches for the crime of practicing dark magic involving the blood of children. The punishment is to be burned at the stake. Bridget needs an advocate, and Sam is the perfect man for the job.<br /><br />
Sam brings in Bob, who is suspicious of his best buddy’s sudden passion. The two of them have until the Witching Hour on Halloween to clear Bridget’s name and find out who is killing the local children. As they comb the area for clues, quiz the locals, and take a crash course in witchcraft and Wiccan customs, Sam and Bob can’t shake the question: is Bridget a good witch or a bad witch?<br /><br />
The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest is the fourth book in the Samuel Roberts Thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons and The Fraternity of the Soul Eater.
</i><br />
<br />
<b>My Review</b><br />
<br />
Fall.<br />
<br />
It's a usually a happy time of year when children rustle through pumpkin patches, and tractors kick up dust harvesting the fields. It's sunlight on colorful leaves. It's apples from the orchard. It's heading out to the nearest farm and enjoying the last of what Mother Nature has to offer before the chill of winter sets in.<br />
<br />
But Sam's not so lucky. He's already starting to feel the chill when he visits,<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"A village populated by witches in the heart of Amish Country."</b></blockquote>
<br />
What he stumbles across is a community that's over a hundred years old with storefronts that resemble something out of an old Western—a candlemaker, a butcher, a booksmith. For Sam, his sense of disorientation is immediate.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"Perhaps that is why this place is so unsettling. It was the juxtaposition of the modern with the archaic."</b></blockquote>
<br />
The inhabitants who live in this isolated part of Champaign County aren't interested in pumpkin soup, pumpkin quiche or pumpkin ravioli. Instead, they're anxiously awaiting All Hallow's Eve to see if one of their own will be burned at the stake.<br />
<br />
The quaint environment doesn't seem so quaint when Sam finds out that several Amish children in this rural part of Illinois have gone missing, never to be seen again. But the funny thing is not one parent has notified the authorities. Why? They've been placed under a spell not to.<br />
<br />
Sam's heart goes out to these hard-working Amish families, even when they come at him with fear in their eyes, brandishing shotguns and yelling at him to get out. They make their living off the land, and now the land is turning against them. Their livestock is dying. Their crops are failing. Their children are being taken right out of their own homes. And they know the witches are to blame, even if they can't voice their suspicions aloud.<br />
<br />
And that puts Sam in a quite a quandary. He's been hired by the witch accused of kidnapping these kids to defend her against the charges leveled at her by the community of elders. The witches want to put her to death because she's placing their very existence in jeopardy. She's put them at risk, exposing them to the outside world, and they're not going to let her get away with it. They intend to hold her accountable for the deaths of these children.<br />
<br />
But their system of justice isn't exactly cut and dry. There's no sharing of evidence, no witness lists. There aren't even any legal precedents for Sam to follow.<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"No one has ever broken a rule of the coven."</b></blockquote>
<br />
Until one of them sought immortality by hoping to consume the fruit of the Blood Thorn, much like Eve in the Garden of Eden. When Sam checks out this voracious plant firsthand, the ground around it is littered with the bones of its young victims, turning Sam's stomach like a twisted, new version of "Sweeney Todd."<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<b>"A spell or potion could help alleviate almost any problem in life."</b></blockquote>
<br />
But not for the witches. Not this time. The Blood Thorns' fruit is only ripe one day of the year—Halloween. And it's up to Sam to prove that one witch did not seek to betray the rest by plotting to consume its powers. Or did she?<br />
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***
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<br />
<i>The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest</i> can be purchased at:<br />
<b><a href="http://www.amazon.com/dp/1603812911?tag=tributebooks-20" target="_blank">Amazon</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-wiccan-witch-of-the-midwest-scott-a-lerner/1122298339?ean=9781603812917" target="_blank">Barnes and Noble</a></b><br />
<br />
Formats/Prices: $4.99 ebook, $13.95 paperback<br />
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery, Thriller<br />
Pages: 230<br />
Release: October 31, 2015<br />
Publisher: Camel Press<br />
ISBN: 9781603812917<br />
<b><a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25885209-the-wiccan-witch-of-the-midwest" target="_blank">Click to add to your Goodreads list.</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<img align="left" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBskq62lVRDYFe1lW-2mC8FcuMGirDVf5wqv7Aj3vQox4fM5teGqajyYzaiXm_bKmMwCeoctCzqiLiK8wUvjT8GU-NYrPDlVQ9agFGVsN0-9v7Ehfqv1xG-UgjKScJq3lgxtFywi4ID9gm/s320/Scott+Lerner+in+color.jpg" width="188" /><b>About the Author</b><br />
<br />
Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts Thriller, <i>Cocaine Zombies</i>, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is <i>Ruler of Demons</i>. <i>The Fraternity of the Soul Eater</i> is book 3. Book 4, <i>The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest</i>, will be released on Halloween, 2015.<br />
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<b>Links to connect with Scott:</b><br />
<b><a href="http://scottlerner.camelpress.com/" target="_blank">Web Site</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.facebook.com/ScottALernerAuthor" target="_blank">Facebook</a></b><br />
<b><a href="https://twitter.com/scottlernerauth" target="_blank">Twitter</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6479067.Scott_A_Lerner" target="_blank">Goodreads</a></b><br />
<b><a href="http://thewiccanwitchofthemidwest.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">Blog Tour Site</a></b><br />
<br />
<br />
<b>About the Giveaway</b><br />
<br />
<a class="rcptr" data-raflid="2bf06796135" data-template="" data-theme="classic" href="http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/2bf06796135/" id="rcwidget_s34w1mz4" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway</a><script src="//widget-prime.rafflecopter.com/launch.js"></script>City Girl Who Loves to Readhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06651763492854824476noreply@blogger.com1