Joyce Zeller - Maddie's Choice - Review and Giveaway

About the Book

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

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

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

My Review

Sometimes a cover really doesn't do a book justice. When I first saw the one for "Maddie's Choice," I immediately thought of those TV commercials for FarmersOnly.com. So boy was I mistaken, when chapter one started things off in a posh Manhattan restaurant. The juxtaposition was a little jarring, but I went with it and I'm so glad I did because the novel was great.

Zeller made a creative move by turning her setting into a personality trait. In New York, Maddie's mind is rushed, cluttered and confused. She puts up with a lot of crap, thinking she has to deal with it, when she really doesn't. The limp fish boyfriend. The endless waiting in line. The incessant city noise. No wonder the girl has writer's block.

Once she escapes to rural Arkansas, her life doesn't necessarily slow down. She's still busy planning barbecues for the whole town, and turning the ranch into a bed and breakfast, but she's happy doing these things and it shows. Plus it doesn't hurt that the rancher/soldier she's sharing a roof with is providing her with plenty of material for her new novel about a special ops hero. Yes, life is good until it's invaded by the violence of the outside world.

Men are shot. Women are beaten. War is revisited. The bucolic nature of this isolated setting is interrupted by drug deals, domestic violence and motorcycle gangs. Maddie thought she was safe in a place far from the reach of urban decay, but instead she finds a whole new level of criminal activity that's intermingled beneath the croaking frogs and dusty cowboy boots. From overdue bank debts to mental disorders, reality infiltrates Maddie's little slice of heaven.

Zeller creates a nice balance between the fiction Maddie formulates in her mind versus the tumultuous events occurring outside of her head. One inspires the other so to speak. She draws on what's happening around her to enhance her storytelling abilities, adding a flourish here and a dash of excitement there. But when her own life is in danger, she suddenly wishes these types of things only existed on the page and not in real life. She'd rather keep them trapped inside of her imagination than experience them for herself.

On the whole, Zeller expertly makes use of all the details her setting provides in order to sell her story. From the small town diner to the indistinguishable dirt roads, the book's sense of place really anchors it allowing the characters room to breathe and grow. The wide open fields, the lofty barn, the studio apartment - all add up in seducing the reader into taking an authentic jaunt through rural America.

***

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

Prices/Formats: $4.95 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 274
Publisher: Camel Press
Release: September 1, 2013
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

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

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

About the Book

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

In person. Upright. Staring.

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

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

My Review

Why did I want to read this book? Because it was set in the OBX. Otherwise known as the Outer Banks, quite possibly the best stretch of beach on the entire East Coast. And why am I so prejudiced? Yep, it's because I've been there numerous times, and reading John's novel was like revisiting my favorite vacation destination via my Kindle.

The main character Lars Kelsen lives in Kill Devil Hills the site of the Wright brothers' historic flight. He attends "The Lost Colony" play, a live theater presentation about the fate of the first English settlers at Fort Raleigh and the indigenous Native American tribe known as the Croatans. He drives by the world renown Hatteras Lighthouse. He scopes out the wildlife refuge on Pea Island. He mentions Blackbeard's sunken pirate ship, the "Queen Anne's Revenge."

But it's not just the well known locations he gets right. It's the little details that nail the authenticity of the book's setting. The thin strip of land that is Highway 12 with the Atlantic Ocean on one side and Pamlico Sound on the other. The bridges that are raised in the middle to allow tall boats to pass underneath. The naturalistic, untouched beaches surrounded by sand dunes. The laid back atmosphere where crime is virtually non-existant. Well, except in this story.

I give Karr five out of five stars for beautifully capturing one of my favorite places on earth. It was like being there all over again reading the pages of his book, and I love when an author can do that for me.

***

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

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, paperback
Pages: 312
Publisher: Dark Continents Publishing
Release: March 14, 2013
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About the Author

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

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

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

About the Book

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

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

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

My Review

Props to Michael F. Stewart for the duality of his book title. Assured Destruction isn't just a catchy turn of phrase, it's the central location of the story. It's the name of the computer shop where Janus works, that's owned by her mother. They live in the converted warehouse because Janus' mom is handicapped and her wheelchair requires a home with elevator access. They don't have much choice. Janus' father leaves them high and dry, and they have to make ends meet the best they can. Living where they work cuts back on their expenses. Janus measures the money their customers bring in with whether or not they'll be able to order a pizza for dinner. Things are that tight.

However, covering daily shifts in the shop doesn't leave much time for Janus' social life. Instead, she spends hours in the basement with her imaginary online friends. Her small town life in Ottawa, Canada bores the hell out of her. She even calls it 'the place fun forgot.' In order to liven things up, we follow her through the novel as she takes a journey across the city. She ditches school and sprays paints graffiti  at the Underpass. She calls in an anonymous tip and follows a police cruiser through the intermittent traffic lights of downtown. She hits the suburbs sitting on the curb in front of the house of the boy who likes her in order to crack his wireless network. She definitely gets around.

Stewart's story focuses more on the intangible, the internal dialogue in Janus' head and the interconnected circuitry of the digital age, but when it steps into reality the locales pop with the authenticity of a mid-size North American city in the twenty-first century. The clash of settings show the growing disconnect between the actual and the virtual. A problem that's powerfully explored in this innovative work of fiction.

***

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

Prices/Formats: $2.99 ebook, $8.99 paperback
Pages: 185
ISBN: 9780981269948
Publisher: Non Sequitur Press
Release: March 22, 2013
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

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

Links to connect with Michael:
Web Site
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