DJ Wilson - Ride to Redemption - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Righting another's wrong landed D in WITSEC, the witness protection program and cost him family, friends, and everything of substance in his life.

Loneliness is his constant companion until he meets Candi, the girl of his dreams. He and Candi embark on a three-week ride to redemption where they deal with mind-numbing deceit, perilous treachery, their overpowering lust for each other and their personal demons.

Nevertheless, new opportunities bring a chance to begin again. And, it doesn't hurt that he's got 200 pounds of illicit diamonds to use to ease the pain of those wronged. He will continue the redemption process by way of a well thought out plan involving a 5,000-mile adventure through the Western United States and Canada.

When D meets Candice, aka Candi, she captures his heart, mind and soul the instant she 'inadvertently' almost runs him down in the Starbucks drive-thru. Candi joins him on his three-week, two-wheeled ride to redemption, where they're forced to face their personal demons, while dealing with wanton lust, mind-numbing deceit and perilous treachery.

Spectacular scenery and a cast of unforgettable characters they meet along the way makes the journey memorable, but nothing prepares them for the sacrifices they must eventually make midway in the ride.

"The more things change, the more they stay the same," sadly, does not ring true for Candice and D throughout this first of a two part series. Lust and greed are forever game-changers, even for those who desperately seek redemption.


My Review

I hopped on the back of D's motorcycle and went for the ride of a lifetime! I loved spending three weeks with him through the western U.S. and Canada. I felt the explosive rush of a geyser in Yellowstone. I could see the icy blue of the lake in Glacier National Park. I got a first hand look at Montana's Beartooth Highway through Montana, named one of the most scenic roads in America. Let me tell you, D did a great job playing the role of tour guide extraordinaire.

This is a travel book and I love when an author can take me places I've never been before. The way Wilson writes it's like he's letting us in on the tricks of the trade - the restaurants with the best food, the most comfortable places to stay, the most picturesque routes to choose. I think anyone would enjoy taking some time off and seeing the sites with this guy. He's the real deal.

But while D might be an expert when it comes to booking B&Bs that feel like a home away from home and finding the tastiest grub in town, he's clueless when it comes to dating. He wants a woman in his life, he's just not sure which one. He's just starting something new with Candi, a pampered princess he hopes he can "train" into the type of girl he wants. But then there's Victoria, the seductive, dirty-mouthed attorney he can't stop thinking about and who lets him know that she's available at every opportunity.

He wants to make it work with Candi, he's just not sure she can give him what she needs. Sure, she's a handful in the sack, but why is it so hard for her to open up to him about her past? If she can't be forthcoming with him from the beginning, D doesn't know if they have what it takes for the long haul.

Victoria is more his match both in terms of age and lifestyle. They're both risqué and rather promiscuous. Yet they're not ashamed of it, it's what attracts them to each other. Victoria teases D for remaining faithful to Candi and repeatedly turning her down, but deep down she knows that all it's going to take is one slip up by Candi and she'll be replacing the young tart in D's bed in a heartbeat. She just has to wait it out and eventually her young rival will mess up.

The novel ends in a cliffhanger with just that particular scenario. After a long, scenic bike ride through Native American reservations and Wild West towns, all three end up in Canada when a motorcycle collides with a moose and an unexpected accident turns D's world upside down. A chain of events is set in motion that can't be stopped. Through shootouts and double crossings, D doesn't know who's on his side and who's not.

By the final pages, he ends his trip right back where he started - looking for love in all the wrong places.

***

Ride to Redemption can be purchased at:
Amazon, Smashwords

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, $10.95 paperback
Pages: 282
Genre: Erotic Romance
Release: December 2, 2013
Publisher: Fideli Publishing
ISBN: 9781604147773
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Raised in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains of East Tennessee, I graduated from Cumberland University, located in a small town you've never heard just inside Kentucky quite a few years ago. At the present, we're living beside beautiful Dale Hollow Lake.

Blessed to travel, blessed with health, blessed with second chances, too numerous to list here.

As a blogger, featured on many sites, including the Huffington Post, I have been humbled beyond measure, more times than not, by all that life has thrown our way.

Successful, that's me, catastrophic failure, that's me too. We've been there, done that and have the life changing scars to prove it.

Our writings reflect life through the throes of heartache and loss, as well as through the joys redemption brings.

"Life is not waiting for the Storms to Pass, It's Learning to Dance in the Rain."

Links to connect with DJ:
Web Site
Twitter
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Ken Dalton - Brother, can you spare a dime? - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Bear’s planned afternoon of beer and baseball is interrupted by a phone call from a man he hardly remembers from their years at Elko High. So begins the tale of a cold-blooded murder and the theft of a dime worth two million dollars!

Faced with bi-coastal murder suspects, Pinky hands Bear, and Flo the sweaty task of tracking down one of the suspects along the hot, humid North Carolina shoreline while he chooses to pursue the other on the Kona coast of Hawaii. But Pinky, after imbibing too many Mai Tai’s with a bevy of sky-goddesses, and a moved-up court date, is forced to return to Carson City, sans suspect.

Bear and Flo hit pay dirt and with the identity of the killer in hand they fly across the Pacific Ocean to the smoggy Beijing airport where they meet Joe, the uncle of Pinky’s Chinese secretary. The enigmatic Joe quotes Confucius and Shakespeare as he purposefully guides the dynamic duo to their final destination— oxygen sparse Lhasa, Tibet.


Cliff hanger contest

Brother, can you spare a dime? ends with a prize winning cliff hanger that defies all logic.

Let Ken know how you would answer the question and he will choose the two answers he likes the best. Both winners will receive a complete paperback set of his Pinky and Bear mystery series.

The Bloody Birthright
The Big Show Stopper
Death is a Cabernet
The Tartan Shroud
Brother, can you spare a dime?

Five books, each one personally inscribed!

Email your cliff hanger answer to ken@kendalton.com and in a couple of months Ken will post the winners' names on his Facebook page.


My Review

I like an author who writes what he knows and pays attention to detail. Ken Dalton is a connoisseur of the human experience. He captures those little tidbits of life that make us laugh, that make us shiver, and holds them up to the light for all of us to enjoy and examine. He picks up on signature personality traits and oddball behavior as well as the sights, smells and sounds of a location that are the things we remember the most about the people we meet and the places we've been. It's the stuff we tell others about when we get back from a trip or how we explain the impression someone makes on us when we encounter someone interesting. It's all about those small, stand out moments that not many writers write about. And that's why I like Ken Dalton.

For me, the plot was secondary. I know that in a murder mystery it should be of the utmost importance, but I had a feeling that Bear and Flo would solve the case for Pinky and every wrong would be righted, so I wasn't too concerned about the outcome. I just liked following them all around the world whether it was from Nevada to North Carolina or from Hawaii to China. I laughed at Bear getting sick of having hushpuppies at every meal in the South while tracking a lead at what seems like a hole in the wall coin shop. I enjoyed soaking in the perfect air temperature with Pinky poolside in Hawaii while he inwardly bemoaned his failed marriage while trying to hit on a bevy of young flight attendants. I admired Flo's knowledge of Buddhist customs and communist history while trying to find one woman in the midst of a billion people. These three proved to be just as enlightening as they are entertaining.

But I was thrilled after finishing BROTHER, CAN YOU SPARE A DIME? to read that Ken Dalton traveled to China and even visited Tibet. I loved how he included pictures from his trip in the author's notes at the end of the book. For me, this added such a layer of authenticity to his story and one - as a reader who hasn't seen much of the world - I deeply appreciated. He made me yearn for a glimpse of the sun through the pollution laden air of Beijing. He left me gasping for breath amid the dizzying heights of the Himalayas. He had me cringing at encountering a dried-up bat on a stick. The clash of cultures is vividly portrayed even as our guide, Joe, keeps assuring us that everything is, "five stars, top class, very American" while the stench coming from the public restrooms makes it clear that it's anything but. I have an inkling that Dalton was told much the same thing during his Asian excursion, and nothing makes for great fiction like the stuff of life.

***

Brother, can you spare a dime? can be purchased at:
Amazon, KenDalton.com (personalized inscription and free shipping)

Prices/Formats: $4.99 ebook, $14.95 paperback
Pages: 310
Genre: Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
Release: April 9, 2014
Publisher: Different Drummer Press
ISBN: 9780578140391
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Ken was born in 1938 at Hollywood Hospital. He grew up in Los Angeles with his parents, his older sister and younger brother.

In a turn of bad luck, the dreaded Polio virus attacked Ken at the age of five. By the age of sixteen, after eleven years of operations, therapy, and braces to mitigate the effects of Polio, Ken’s luck changed when he met the girl of his dreams. A few years later they married, produced three wonderful children, and settled into a happy life in Southern California.

In 1966, Ken and his family moved to the green hills of Sonoma County where they bought a home surrounded with apple trees.

Some time later, Ken, designed, built, and operated a small winery that produced award winning Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay.

Then, in a moment of madness, Ken began writing. His first article was published in Golf Illustrated. Many more golf articles followed in national and regional magazines including Golf Magazine and Fairways and Greens. Eventually Ken felt the urge to write his first novel.

Now, after the publication of The Bloody Birthright, The Big Show Stopper, Death is a Cabernet, and The Tartan Shroud, Ken has published his latest Pinky and Bear mystery, Brother, can you spare a dime?

Links to connect with Ken:
Web Site
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Diane Daniels Manning - Almost Perfect - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

An old woman who has given up hope and a boy who believes the impossible wonder if life would be perfect at the Westminster Dog Show.

Seventy-year old Bess Rutledge has dreamed of winning the Westminster Dog Show all her life. Despite her decades-long career as one of America’s top Standard Poodle breeders, she has decided she’s too old to hold on to her foolish dream. She sells off all the dogs in her once famous kennel except for the aging champion McCreery and his mischievous, handsome son Breaker. Part of her senses they might have been the ones to take her to Westminster, if only she’d dared to try.

Bess meets Benny, a teenager with mild autism who attends a therapeutic special school, and learns he has a dream of his own: to impress his self-absorbed mother. Benny is drawn into the world of dog shows and becomes convinced he has found the perfect way to win his mother’s attention. If he can win Westminster with either McCreery or Breaker, he just knows she will finally be proud of him. Getting Bess to go along with his plan, however, is not going to be so easy. . .

Up to 100% of the author’s profits will be donated to charities serving animals and children.


Video Trailer




My Review

I love New Englanders. They're a stalwart people with a stiff upper lip. They don't complain when the going gets tough, instead they put their nose to the grindstone and work even harder. They're resilient, surviving long, harsh winters, always keeping a hopeful eye toward spring even in the midst of a raging blizzard.

That type of mindset best explains the character of Bess in ALMOST PERFECT. She's been experiencing a lot of dark days recently. She's closing her kennel. She's birthing her last litter of pedigree poodles. After that, she's done. She's washing her hands of a lifetime of work. She's doing what no self-respecting New Englander would do - she's quitting.

It turns out Benny knows a thing or two about quitting. He can't even be depended on to empty the dishwasher, never mind train a top prospect dog, but that's what Bess entrusts him to do, much to her chagrin. She can't help herself, she likes the kid. He gets through to her when no one else can. He revives her almost extinguished hope in herself, and in her dogs.

Bess and Benny live in an area steeped in Revolutionary War history that celebrates a bunch of rebel soldiers who took on the greatest military powerhouse of the era, and won. Many would say the American patriots were the biggest underdogs of all time, so it's not surprising when two long shots like Bess and Benny think they can beat the odds when it comes to pulling off a championship at Westminster.

Benny's an unseasoned rookie handler, and Bess is a has-been, a respected one, but a has-been nonetheless. No one thinks that they'll be able to pull it off and score a victory. In the dog show world, things like that just don't happen, or do they? Without giving away the ending, Bess and Benny do make history in their own special way. Between a dog kidnapping and a puppy going through an ill-timed "ugly" stage, the two of them persevere to be champions in their own right - because Benny got Bess to try - and sometimes that's all that it takes in order to succeed.

***

Almost Perfect can be purchased at:
Amazon

Prices/Formats: $3.99 ebook, $8.99 paperback
Pages: 330
Genre: Pet Fiction
Release: January 29, 2014
Publisher: Beltor
ISBN: 9780578136394
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Diane Daniels Manning is the co-founder and director of The New School in the Heights, a therapeutic school in Houston, Texas which helps children dealing with social-emotional challenges find success in school and life. She has a Ph.D. in Education and a post-doctoral M.P.H from Harvard and is a practicing child psychoanalyst certified by the American Psychoanalytic Association. Formerly, she was the Director of the Reading and Learning Disabilities Clinic at Tufts University, Lecturer and Research Associate in the Department of Behavioral Sciences at Harvard, and Chair of the Department of Education at Tulane University. She learned the inner workings of dog show kennels by writing an authorized oral history of a lifetime President of the Poodle of Club of America. Her writing awards include the Faulkner-Wisdom Novella Prize and the Women in Film and Television Short Script Competition.

Links to connect with Diane:
Web Site
Facebook
Goodreads
Blog
YouTube
Blog Tour Site


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Michael J. Bowler - Running Through a Dark Place - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

King Arthur and his extraordinary young Knights used ‘might’ for ‘right’ to create a new Camelot in the City of Angels. They rallied the populace around their cause, while simultaneously putting the detached politicians in check. But now they must move forward to even greater heights, despite what appears to be an insurmountable tragedy.

Their new goal is lofty: give equality to kids fourteen and older who are presently considered adults only when they break the law. Arthur’s crusade seeks to give them real rights such as voting, driving, trading high school for work, and sitting as jurors for their peers charged with criminal behavior.

Understanding that the adults of California will likely be against them, Arthur and his Knights must determine how best to win them over.

However, before the king can even contemplate these matters, he finds himself face to face with an ally from the past, one who proves that everything isn’t always what it seems – even life and death.

The Knight Cycle Continues…

My Review

I have to admire Michael J. Bowler's imagination. He moves King Arthur and company out of the gutters of Los Angeles and into a veritable hotel-like castle, owned by adherents to the Kabbala no less. How very Hollywood!

But it's not too much of a stretch since Lance is the biggest celebrity of them all after he cheated death and was granted a second chance at life. He was too good to die, or at least that's what Arthur and his merry band of do-gooder teens keep telling themselves after one sacrifices himself so that Lance can live. Everyone loves Lance, too bad Lance can't love himself.

Lance never asked to be famous. He doesn't want his every move analyzed and recorded. He just wants to grow up and be allowed to make mistakes. But that's not going to happen, not when there's a horde of angry protestors outside his door each morning, not when he's being likened to Jesus and the antichrist all in the same breath. It's a lot for any boy to cope with much less someone with Lance's history of traumatic abuse and systematic violence.

He's the kid who should've fallen through the cracks, but didn't. Arthur pulled him out of anonymity and made him into a household name. Now he has photo ops with the president. He tweets with Harry Styles from One Direction. He's a fixture on the talk show circuit, chatting it up with everyone from Ellen DeGeneres to Anderson Cooper. The world can't seem to get enough of him, even though he's had enough of the world.

Lance goes to a pretty dark place in this one. He starts feeling sorry for himself, wishing the cost of his rebirth didn't involve the loss of a close friend. He's more willing to give into his fears and insecurities and let them control him. He's all about being who he thinks people want him to be, instead of feeling comfortable enough to be who he is. He's endlessly searching, trying to be something he's not in order to please everyone around him, except himself.

However, the foolish choices he makes come back to haunt him. Everyone expects so much from him, always placing him on a pedestal that he never asked to be on, that for a time he takes a perverse delight in doing the exact opposite of what he should be doing. It's a case of teenage rebellion at his finest. He knows what he is doing is wrong, but he does it anyway, embracing that frustrating phase that all adolescents go through, even the chosen one of the new Round Table.

Bowler once again hits the mark in setting his tale among movie stars and media moguls, the rich sequestered in their mansions in the hills, never bumping elbows with the throwaway kids on the star-lined streets. Lance flows between both cultures, at times painfully. He knows where he came from, his jaw will never fail to drop at the ostentation that surrounds him. He'll always miss the trickling water deep within the sewers lulling him to sleep. No matter how far up the social ladder he climbs, he's still acutely aware of being the only brown skinned boy at the party.

Lance might still be discovering who he is, trying to figure it out by reading people's Facebook comments about him online, but he can't fool his heart. It identifies with the downtrodden, the neglected, the marginalized. He's their knight and they'll always be his people. He's Hollywood all right, all sides of Hollywood.

***

Running Through a Dark Place can be purchased at:
Amazon

Prices/Formats: $4.99 ebook, $15.95 paperback
Pages: 388
Genre: Urban Fantasy, Young Adult
Release: May 12, 2014
Publisher: self-published
ISBN: 9780990306306
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Michael J. Bowler is an award-winning author of three novels - A Boy and His Dragon, A Matter of Time, and Children of the Knight - who grew up in San Rafael, California.

He majored in English and Theatre at Santa Clara University and earned 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.

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.

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 seven different boys with the Catholic Big Brothers Big Sisters program and a thirty-year volunteer within the juvenile justice system in Los Angeles. He is a passionate advocate for the fair treatment of children and teens in California, something that is sorely lacking in this state. 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 he and three of his Little Brothers to visit the White House and meet the president in the Oval Office.

He has already written the four continuations of Children of the Knight that complete The Knight Cycle and all will be released in 2014.

He is currently at work on a new novel.

Links to connect with Michael:
Web Site
Facebook
Twitter
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Blog
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Brian G. Michaud - The Road to Nyn - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

In a land where magic is outlawed, a young boy is living a double life. Although Kay is training to be a knight, he has been secretly studying the forbidden ways of magic with Alamin, a powerful but eccentric wizard.

After passing of the Trial of the Rings and being raised to squirehood, Kay has decided to tell Alamin that he is going to leave his magical studies behind. And why not? Kay hasn’t ever cast a spell without something going seriously wrong–like the random appearance of frogs or hungry wolves–besides, Kay could be banished from the kingdom just for associating with Alamin.

Kay’s plans are quickly obliterated when a horde of goblins attacks his village and captures his family and friends. Now, with his home lying in ruins, everything has changed. Along with Alamin and Felix, a self-serving kleptomaniac sprite, Kay embarks on an adventure that takes him across the Kingdom of Gaspar and into the dark and treacherous caves of the Goblin Realm. What Kay doesn’t realize is that his journey is leading him on a collision course with the Lord of Nyn – a being so powerful that none dare face him...not even Alamin himself!

My Review

Ah, a book that promises to take me on a mythical quest. Sign me up! Just looking at the cover of A ROAD TO NYN, I knew I was in for a rollicking good time. Guide me through an enchanted forest any day, Brian Michaud. I'm game, especially when there's a hearty banquet waiting for me at the end inside a dyad's tree. But I don't want to get ahead of myself here. There's a lot that goes on before the feast. A pissed off mermaid for being pranked with red hair dye. A bewitched elven warrior chick whose loyalties are unknowingly compromised. A castle floating in midair that stops, waiting for you to get on like an amusement park ride. You get the drift. This road ain't for the faint of heart. Only the strong survive.

And thank goodness, we have Kay as our resident champion. He's willing to do whatever it takes to rescue his parents and sister, not to mention his entire town, from a goblin prison camp. He'll walk until his feet fall off and meet a lot of interesting characters along the way. Some who mean him harm, and some who wish to help. The key is finding out who's who. Even donning the Helm of Truth, sometimes Kay can't tell the difference. Not all is as it seems in the land of Nyn when there's a Dark Lord looking to turn every fact into a lie.

But he perseveres from steep mountain cliffs to the bottom of a lake, no place is safe, not even the underside of a waterfall. Danger lurks around every corner. Mostly because there's some fantastical creature living there from shape-shifting fairy sprites to cloaked and scaly lizards.

You will never forget your journey to Nyn. Your mind will venture back there long after reading. Trust me, you'll want to return whenever you can - because it's a world where anything is possible. And in the end, I think that's what every reader's really looking for.

***

The Road to Nyn can be purchased at:
Amazon

Prices/Formats: $0.99 ebook, $8.99 paperback
Pages: 266
Genre: Fantasy, Young Adult
Release: November 2013
Publisher: self-published
ISBN: 9781493545551
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Author

Brian G. Michaud lives in a small town in Massachusetts with his wife, Kim. When he is not reading or writing books, he can be found teaching music at a local elementary school or rocking out on guitar with the band, Too Loud.

Links to connect with Brian:
Web Site
Facebook (author)
Facebook (book)
Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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Sally J. Smith & Jean Steffens - Stealing the Moon & Stars - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino, Scottsdale private eyes, are hired to find out who’s stealing from the Moon and Stars Children’s Foundation. Foundation employees are suspected, but just as the pieces start falling into place, Jordan discovers a hidden agenda that puts her in the crosshairs of a crime lord. Who can she trust?

Everyone has a dangerous secret, and the bodies are piling up. Even her partner, Eddie Marino, has a dark and mysterious past. Does she dare act on their attraction? Will it destroy their partnership?

The two have landed in a hornets’ nest. Nothing to do now but stir it up.

Book one in a new series featuring Jordan Welsh and Eddie Marino.


Video Trailer




My Review

Let me tell you. It was a treat reading about warm and sunny Arizona while toiling through an extremely long and cold winter. Between the desert heat and the sparks flying off of Jordan and Eddie, this book definitely made me feel all tingly inside. It was nice getting a visual of Eddie shirtless out on the patio soaking up the morning rays. It certainly warmed me up in a hurry!

The author duo really did a great job in setting the scene. Jordan's obsession with air conditioning was a nice touch to keep the reader immersed in the arid climate. And I liked how whenever Jordan and Eddie went on their nighttime missions, they always made sure to include a shiver here and there, indicative of how cold it can get in a desert region after dark. These little details added up to form a complete picture, making everything seem so much more authentic and downright real.

I also enjoyed the descriptions of the breathtaking landscape from the beauty of the bordering Superstition Mountains (what a great name!) to being reminded just how dry Arizona can be when Jordan related how the TV weathermen were hoping for some rain but weren't optimistic. Even in October, Jordan was still sweltering while driving around town, tracking down her next lead. The tension crackles right along with the Southwestern heat, a nice device the authors used to establish the mood.

And the way they showed the different rungs of the Scottsdale social ladder was brilliant. The community leaders and criminal kingpins sharing the same real estate for their opulent (and sometimes extravagant) mansions. Nothing demonstrated the duality of this environment like Eddie's character. He's a blue collar guy who drives a Porsche. He splurges taking Jordan out to dinner at a restaurant with a maitre d' and valet parking but he's just as happy sharing a bratwurst sandwich with her from an outdoor vendor. He straddles both worlds, opening up new horizons for Jordan, showing her every facet of society.

It's good training for a girl who went from being a trust fund baby in Chicago to a fine artist in Paris to hacking computers, breaking into safes and picking locks for a living. With Eddie, Jordan gets a true taste of the Arizona lifestyle from the top of the food chain to the bottom and everyone in between. The contrast certainly makes for a page turner of a read, holding your interest right to the very end.

***

Stealing the Moon and Stars can be purchased at:
Amazon

Price/Format: $13.95 paperback
Pages: 242
Genre: Romance, Suspense
Release: May 15, 2014
Publisher: Camel Press
ISBN: 9781603819831
Click to add to your Goodreads list.


About the Authors

Arizona native Sally J. Smith lives in Scottsdale with her husband. The rarest of breeds, an adult who was born in Arizona, she has been a writer since she could spell. These days she stays busy at her chosen professions of writing (novels, short stories, and articles) and freelance editing. When a free moment appears on the horizon, she’s out the door to a attend a play, a movie, a concert, or just take a long walk in the desert—if the temperature’s under a hundred. Other works include The Ghost Wore Polyester.

Jean Steffens also lives in Scottsdale with her family. She’s a mother, reader, movie fan, and the Steffens’ family chauffeur. She’s also active in church activities. Like Jordan Welsh, PI, Jean grew up in Chicago near Lake Forest. Jean’s mother, however, was nurturing—baking cookies, carpooling kids to school, kissing boo-boos—unlike Jordan’s mother, who’s allergic to the kitchen and thinks a carpool is a hot tub in a limo. Jean’s published work includes “The Night Before Christmas” in the Desert Sleuths Sisters in Crime Anthology, How Not to Survive the Holidays.

Work sessions between these two ladies generally result in a lot of laughter, noshing, and Internet surfing. Both authors are members of Romance Writers of America and Sisters in Crime.

Links to connect with Sally and Jean:
Web Site
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
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Blog Tour Site


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Luca Pesaro - Zero Alternative - Review & Giveaway

About the Book

“Sometimes you must destroy first.”

To stay alive, Scott Walker must bring down a corrupt international bank. And possibly shatter the world’s economy. Because finance is a black hole ready to chew up countries and people before spitting them out rich, or broken. Or both.

Framed. Hunted. In love with a woman he can’t trust. As he hides from hitmen across Europe, Walker has only one card to play – DeepShare. A silicon oracle that could predict a slice of the future, and that everyone wants. Governments and insane billionaires, criminals and anarchist hackers stand in his way, some even promising help – though with dangerous strings attached.

As Walker struggles to survive and digs deeper into the dark heart of the global economy, one question torments him: how much will the world have to pay?

Zero Alternative is an action-packed conspiracy thriller that plucks at the heart of human nature. When our grip on love, hope and morality starts to slide, the only future worth living is the one we choose for ourselves.

Video Trailer



My Review

I love when reading a book makes me feel like I've trekked halfway across the globe, and this one certainly did. Scott Walker became my traveling companion, and boy, was it nice to have a suave, handsome man on my arm. Even if he was running from the law as well as a gang of assassins, I still enjoyed the trip from London to Switzerland then on to Italy and Los Angeles before stopping along the Mexican coast. Whew, what a whirlwind! Too bad Layla had to tag along for the ride...

Just kidding. I couldn't have Scott all to myself, now could I? Of course, a player like him would be interested in the company of a drop dead, gorgeous beauty like her. I just never trusted her, that's all, since she was probably leading my Scott to his ruin. Yeah, he got involved in some kind of insider trading scandal, but that didn't mean he and his friends deserved to die because of it. He just knew how to work all of the angles when it came to the stock market, crossing lines that shouldn't have been crossed.

And I never knew if Layla was going to make Scott pay the price for his transgressions. And it put a crimp in my travel plans. We couldn't enjoy the impressive architecture of the Reims Cathedral. Nope, we had to up and run. And we couldn't soak in the majesty of the Swiss lake country. Because we were just there to drain Scott's bank account. Things started to get hot and heavy in a rustic Italian farmhouse. But Layla had to go and ruin everything by opening her big, fat mouth.

It wasn't until the final leg of our excursion that I began to relax. Layla was out of the picture (or so I thought) and I had Scott on a beach all to myself. But he was a mess and couldn't stop thinking about the one who got away. He was too far gone for me to save, but hopefully the charms of another might be able to soothe him. Did Layla come back? I'm not telling, but then I'm not in Mexico with him either now am I?

Oh Scott, I'd circumnavigate the earth for you any day. Just give me a call when you have that whole bogus passport thing straightened out. And try not to deal with the Mafia this time, if you can help it. Because I worry about you, man. I always will.

***

Zero Alternative can be purchased at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Formats: $5.99 ebook, $16.80 paperback
Pages: 269
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Suspense
Release: April 25, 2014
Publisher: Three Hares Publishing
ISBN: 9781910153086
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About the Author

Luca Pesaro was born in Italy in the early seventies, but has spent most of his adult life in the US or UK. After long years gaining a degree and masters in the pseudo-science that is Economics he got bored, jumped the gun and became a derivatives trader in financial markets with several investment banks. Now reformed, he is writing full-time.

Zero Alternative is his first novel, and he is hard at work on his second thriller.

He lives in London, is married to an awesome Italian lady and has two children who always manage to annoy, surprise and delight beyond any reasonable expectation.

Links to connect with Luca:
Web Site
Facebook
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Goodreads
Blog Tour Site


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