Saturday, November 30, 2013

Nike Giveaway Blogger Opp

Prize: $150 Nike Gift Card or e-card
Hosted by:The Frugal Exerciser & Femme Fitale Fit Club
Tentative Dates: December 14 – December 31
Open World-wide
Deadline of Sign-ups: December 11

Requirements to Participate:
Get 1 Free link (Twitter, Facebook or Pinterest) with announcement post.
($5 fee without announcement post)
Additional links are $3 a piece.

Co-host fee is $20 and you get 4 free links and a daily comment
 on a non-giveaway post on your blog.

The blog who refers the most bloggers will get free co-host spot. (If you paid for co-host and win the referral prize, your payment will be refunded)

Announcement Post HTML: Here
Bloggers sign up: Here

Any questions contact: Sheila/The Frugal Exerciser at sheilafit10@gmail.com

Friday, November 29, 2013

Blood Ties Review Tour

Blurb:
Kalin Moshire and his stepbrother, Shane, struggle to survive the race of people that they belong to known as the Nebu Khet. They are hunted because of Shane's heredity. He's half Homo Sapiens (sape) and Half Nebu Khet (khet). Kalin swore to protect him on the night his mother sacrificed herself to save their lives, but will he keep that promise or will unseen threats destroy them first.
From the cozy suburbs of Montgomery County, Maryland, to the busy streets of New York City, across the desert sands of Egypt, to the rocky cliffs of Ireland - Kalin must unravel the truths that have been hidden to him since childhood and fight for the right for both he and Shane to live.






Excerpt:
I know my limits have been reached tonight. As I stare at the angry pale face snarling at me from across the darkened room, I can feel the last of my strength dwindling down to nothing. My body keeps bleeding out its life’s blood and I can feel it gathering in pools around the spread fingers of my bruised and battered hands where I'm crouching on the concrete floor. I feel the weight of the power-laced air increase as my assailant hunches down into position for one last lunge and my gut tells me that this cold dark cellar may become my eternal resting place. In this moment there is an overwhelming sense that my life has become forfeit.


The rules have always been the same stretching back to the beginning of my people’s known history; Khet and Sapes can not mix.


Unfortunately for me, I was never good at following rules, nor had I experienced what I can only label as Love. That’s the one thing that really did me in.


In this place where all odds are against me, I envision her face one last time. Lifting my head slowly from the floor, I stare through the blood soaked strands of my hair at my opponent. His face is contorted into a mask of rage. His teeth glisten in the darkness and there is no mistaking the bloodlust in those ancient, glowing, yellow eyes.



Marcus will be awarding a copy of QUICK BITES ANTHOLOGY  By Marcus Twyman (For Kindle) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. So the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.





Author Information:
Marcus Twyman has lived most of his life in Montgomery County, Maryland. Since he was a child he's enjoyed writing stories, songs, and poetry - using the power of words as a therapeutic release for his feelings and emotions.


Now living in New York City, Marcus has been slowly adapting to the bustling concrete jungle and is incorporating his new experiences into his writing.



Author Website     |     Facebook     |     Twitter

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel NBtM

Blurb:
Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel tells a story of lives unfolding in different centuries, but linked and irrevocably altered by a series of murders in 1930.

Lake City, Florida, June, 1930: Al Capone checks in for an unusually long stay at the Blanche Hotel, a nice enough joint for an insignificant little whistle stop. The following night, young Jack Blevins witnesses a body being dumped heralding the summer of violence to come. One-by-one, people controlling county vice activities swing from KKK ropes. No moonshine distributor, gaming operator, or brothel madam, black or white, is safe from the Klan's self-righteous vigilantism. Jack's older sister Meg, a waitress at the Blanche, and her fiancĂ©, a sheriff’s deputy, discover reasons to believe the lynchings are cover for a much larger ambition than simply ridding the county of vice. Someone, possibly backed by Capone, has secret plans for filling the voids created by the killings. But as the body count grows and crosses burn, they come to realize this knowledge may get all of them killed.

Gainesville, Florida, August, 2011: Liz Reams, an up and coming young academic specializing in the history of American crime, impulsively moves across the continent to follow a man who convinces her of his devotion yet refuses to say the three simple words I love you. Despite entreaties of friends and family, she is attracted to edginess and a certain type of glamour in her men, both living and historical. Her personal life is an emotional roller coaster, but her career options suddenly blossom beyond all expectation, creating a very different type of stress. To deal with it all, Liz loses herself in her professional passion, original research into the life and times of her favorite bad boy, Al Capone. What she discovers about 1930’s summer of violence, and herself in the process, leaves her reeling at first and then changed forever.



Excerpt:
“Jack Blevins, where have you been? It’s after midnight.” Meg grabbed her little brother’s arm and pulled him through her bedroom window. “If Daddy finds out, he’ll skin you alive.”
  
“Well, he ain’t gonna lests you tell him.” Jack hit the floor with a thump. “Man, I’m glad to be home.”
  
Meg’s eyebrows rose. “That’s sure new. Mama says you stay gone as much as you can get away with these days.”
 
“Yeah, I guess.” Jack kicked at the edge of the rag rug beside his sister’s bed. “If I’d known you was coming home, I’d of stayed around.”
 
“Nice to know you haven’t gone completely wild.”
  
Jack grinned at Meg and winked. “Not yet, but you never know. It could happen any day now. At least that’s what Mama says.” As he picked a thorn out of his elbow, he became quietly thoughtful. His words turned halting when he spoke again. “Meg, you ain’t gonna believe what me and Zeke seen at the sinkhole.”



Linda, thanks so much for stopping by. So, why don’t you tell us a little about yourself?
Thank you for inviting me! I’ve been in love with the past for as long as I can remember. Anything old holds a special place in my heart.  No doubt it was probably all those summers spent on my grandmother’s porch or winters around her fireplace listening to the older members of my large, extended family tell stories. Since those stories were set in the South, they were peopled by some very interesting and eccentric characters, some of whom surreptitiously make their way into my writing.



How did you get started writing?
I must credit my high school senior English teacher with planting the seed to write creatively, but college and a major is history turned my writing in another direction. After a career in public education, I have come full circle back to where I started. I love the freedom that creative, as opposed to expository, writing allows. In other words, the creative process is a lot more fun!



What was the inspiration for your book?
When my family moved to Lake City, Florida, the book’s historical setting, we stayed at the Blanche for several nights. In the years that followed, we ate many Sunday dinners after church in the hotel restaurant. Those experiences sparked my interest in the hotel’s history.



What’s the one genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?
I have a character in mind for a contemporary detective series, but I haven’t yet given it the time a series needs.



Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?
I’m not really fond of erotica.  I prefer some things left to the imagination.  It’s far more sensual that way!



So, what are you working on right now? Got any releases planned, or still writing?
I’m working on a WWII historical set in Casablanca.  And no, Rick’s American Bar is not in it, but another hotel, the Anfa, is a prominent feature. I’m struggling with a title.  My husband pointed out that I have a hotel theme going, but I just don’t know.  Somehow FDR at the Anfa Hotel just doesn’t have the same ring as Al Capone at the Blanche Hotel.



Alright, now for some totally random, fun questions. Favorite color?
Green.  It’s the color of nature - quiet, calm, and soothing.

Favorite movie?     The Emma Thompson adaptation of Sense and Sensibility.

Book that inspired you to become an author?
There are too many to name just one.  I have read all of the early Victoria Holts, Daphne Du Maurier, P.D. James, Agatha Christy, Dorothy L. Sayers, Ellis Peters, etc. I seem to have a British fetish going. Anglophilia anyone?

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?
I would love to have dinner with Marten Lauridsen, composer of deeply spiritual beautiful music, Julian Fellowes (I'm addicted to Downton Abbey), and Alan Rickman, very versatile actor.

I love singing Lauridsen's choral music. Downton Abbey is the only TV show that I work my schedule around. Alan Rickman has been in some of my favorite movies, most especially Sense and Sensibility.


Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?
I suppose I am most like Meg, the hotel waitress.  Her character traits are loosely based on my mother and mother-in-law who were both young women during the Great Depression, the era in which Meg’s story is set. Meg’s fear of poverty and striving for independence that nearly cause her to lose the love of her life are reflections of the mark that the Depression left on those who lived through it. The Depression left its mark on my mother who transmitted some of her experience to me as her child.



Linda will be awarding a $15 Amazon or BN GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. So the more you comment, the better your chances of winning.

October 17: Room With BooksPROMO ONLY
October 24: Bunny's Review
October 31 SECOND STOP Andi's Book Reviews
November 21:It's Raining Books
December 5: Kit 'N Kabookle
December 12: The Write to Read
December 12 SECOND STOP: Mommasez...
January 9: Booklover Sue



Author Bio and Links:
I have been in love with the past for as long as I can remember. Anything with a history, whether shabby or majestic, recent or ancient, instantly draws me in. I suppose it comes from being part of a large extended family that spanned several generations. Long summer afternoons on my grandmother's porch or winter evenings gathered around her fireplace were filled with stories both entertaining and poignant. Of course being set in the South, those stories were also peopled by some very interesting characters, some of whom have found their way into my work.

As for my venture in writing, it has allowed me to reinvent myself. We humans are truly multifaceted creatures, but unfortunately we tend to sort and categorize each other into neat, easily understood packages that rarely reveal the whole person. Perhaps you, too, want to step out of the box in which you find yourself. I encourage you to look at the possibilities and imagine. Be filled with childlike wonder in your mental wanderings. Envision what might be, not simply what is. Let us never forget, all good fiction begins when someone says to herself or himself, "Let's pretend."

I reside in the Houston area with one sweet husband, one German Shorthaired Pointer who thinks she’s a little girl, and one striped yellow cat who knows she’s queen of the house.

Favorite quote regarding my professional passion:  "History is filled with the sound of silken slippers going downstairs and wooden shoes coming up." Voltaire

Facebook     |     Website     |     Twitter

Amazon Buy Link

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

An Impossible Mate Review

Blurb:
Loner Matt Urban has somehow ended up as alpha to a pack of outcasts and misfits.  When Jesse Turner, a scruffy stranger with a bad attitude, turns up on his doorstep one night, Matt’s blindsided to discover he and Jesse are mates. He’s still coming to terms with the realization when a hostile alpha claims Jesse as his own.



Excerpt:
“Firstly,” Matt said, “I need someone here to keep an eye on Tristan—”


“He’s nineteen years old,” Jesse spat. “Don’t give me that bullshit, Urban. He doesn’t need a babysitter.”


“He’s not like you, Jesse. Sure he’d fight, and he’d go down hard, but up against the kind of wolf you described? The kid wouldn’t stand a chance, and I’m not doing that to him.”


“So let Bryce or one of the others stay.”


“And secondly.” Authority rang through Matt’s voice in a way that made even Jesse think twice about ignoring it. “It’s you they want and I am not losing you, you stubborn bastard, no matter what you say.”


“You’ve got no right—”


“I’ve got every damn right.” Matt snarled. “This is my house, my territory, my pack, and you’re my mate. You will do as I damn well tell you.”


Jesse fought not to flinch at the power that flared so bright and hot in Matt. He could see now why even Karl and Christian obeyed him so swiftly. But no matter how scary Matt was in that moment, nobody told Jesse what to do.


“I want you to lock the door behind us, and you will stay here tonight.” Matt was already moving to the door, confident that Jesse would obey him.


Jesse was just winding himself back up to tell Urban to go fuck himself when Matt looked back over his shoulder. “Please, Jesse,” he said.


It sliced Jesse open, the sudden vulnerability and trust Matt showed him by asking. He found he had no defense against it.



My Review:
4 stars

I’ve gotten a bit tired of the overdone typical shifter book, and I was leery when I started An Impossible Mate. However, I was blown away. While this does have the usual shifter characteristics, I liked the differences that made the story stand out.

For one, I loved the characters. Matt was a typical alpha male, yet he was also unique enough to interest me and make me care about him. And Jesse...Jesse just made my day. I loved the mix of a scrappy, independent fighter and a vulnerable, caring man. Add in his attitude and his wit, and I absolutely loved him. I also liked the secondary characters in the pack, and finding out tidbits about their pasts just made me want to know more. I can’t wait to read their books and learn more about them.

I also liked the author’s writing style. The book flowed well, and was full of humor and wit. I was laughing throughout the book, and I couldn’t stop reading.

I also enjoyed the surprise twist thrown into the plot involving Jesse and his past (and that’s all the spoilers you’ll get from me), and I can’t wait to see where the author takes it.



Joy will be awarding a $15 Amazon gift certificate or BN eGift card (winner's choice) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. The more you comment, the better your chances of winning.


November 20: Books on Silver Wings
December 11: Dalene's Book Reviews



Author Bio and Links:
Joy Lynn Fielding is a sucker for happy endings. She believes, however, that if characters don’t suffer along the way, they won’t fully appreciate being happy. Not all of her characters thank her for this viewpoint, but what do they know?


Joy lives in a small English market town. She has a tendency to share enthusiastically with anyone who will listen to the latest fascinating facts she’s stumbled across in her research for books. Thankfully she has a very patient Labrador, who has a gift for looking as though he’s interested in what she’s saying while he waits for the food to arrive.


Email: joy.fielding01@gmail.com