Don't Let Them Find You by Brandy Isaacs

RELEASE BLITZ & REVIEW - Hook & Ladder 69 by Multiple Authors

Title: Hook & Ladder 69: Eighteen Authors...One Sexy Firehouse.

Genre: Romantic Short Stories/Anthology

Release Date: June 16, 2016

BLOG TOUR AND REVIEW - Every Pane of Glass by H.B Stumbo

Title: Every Pane of Glass

Author: H.B. Stumbo

Release Date: June 1, 2016

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REVIEW - Fire Girl: A Tale of Witches and Wolves by Andy Mulberry

Fire Girl: A Tale of Witches and Wolves by Andy Mulberry

Ocean's Daughter by Lisa Barton Review

Ocean's Daughter by Lisa Barton Book Review

AOI Ink Nymphs Los Angeles by Tim Stephens, Ebony McIver, Nelson Blanton

Tell Me You Want Me - Amelia James - Review

Review

Tell Me You Want Me - Amelia James Excerpts

Tell Me You Want Me - Amelia James

First Chapter First Paragraph (from Prologue)

"They're fighting again." Charles Austin Sinclair III looked up from his Nintendo football game toward his bedroom door. His parents' angry voices reached him even though his solid oak door was closed.

Page 34

His smile was just short of heaven, but his blue eyes promised all sorts of sin. 

Page 56

He didn't quite get it, but as long as Janie still wanted to go out with him, he didn't need to.

Freeing Lost Souls by Tracy Kincaid - Review

Review

Freeing Lost Souls by Tracy Kincaid Excerpts

Freeing Lost Souls by Tracy Kincaid

First Chapter First Paragraph

This is my first time going to Gettysburg. I've always wanted to go there and see the place I've grown up hearing about. My dad is a huge Civil War buff. Since before I was born, he's always watched movies or read about it. I'm not sure why he never became a history teacher since he seems to know so much about it. It also turns out that we have Civil War in our blood, as well. Some distant cousin on my dad's side was in the war. That makes it even more special for me. 

34%

You can't tell when he wears clothes just how well built he is, not body builder built, but hard-working country boy built.

56%

The sun peaks out from behind the trees as we walk. I've never seen anything so beautiful. "I wish I had brought my art supplies with me."

Quotables

He'll retrieve anything you want him to, occasionally. Mostly he gets what he wants and gives you what he wants you to have. 

I hear an occasional clap of thunder, like a sound of a cannon being shot far away. 

Good God, it has been way too long since I've been with a man. And Bruce is all man from what I've seen. 

"Yeah, Benny. It's no big deal, buddy. Let's show this lovely lady a good time tonight. Show her how we live up out here in the sticks." We all laugh at Bruce's attempt at talking like a country boy. 

"It's romantic, you know, in a morbid kind of way...."

It is important to keep track of history. If things hadn't happened the way they did, we wouldn't be here right now. History is important. Other people's mistakes and their accomplishments give us something to learn from.

Ice Lake Review

Ice Lake Review

Ice Lake - Stone Cold by Julie Miller

Stone Cold by Julie Miller

First Chapter First Paragraph

"I found her."
Daniel Stone turned his face to the wind and braced against the crystals of snow biting into his skin.
This storm was going to be a bad one. The certainty came from the years he'd spent growing up on this mountain, as much as from the weather warnings that were shutting down this region of the northern Rockies in Montana. The blizzard was almost here. He could read it in the rising wind speed and in the moisture that turned the dry snow, so perfect for skiing, into icy shards that meant trouble for all but the most experienced of mountain survivalists like himself. He knew Mount Atlas the way mamas knew their babies, the way a shaman knew the earth itself. And he knew that in the next few days - in the next few hours, even - everything around him would change. The storm would bring whiteout conditions, windchills, closed roads and buried landmarks.

Page 34 (pg 241 of Ice Lake)

Other than the fact they were using candles and kerosene lanterns instead of electricity to add more light to the meager sunshine seeping through the windows, it could pass for any afternoon at the resort lodge during the height of ski season

Page 56 (pg 263 of Ice Lake)

The older man was already backing toward the hallway.  "I need you to come and look at something," he said.

Review

This last story added an element that the other two stories did not. The author gave us insight to the character of the second strangler. The insight given gives clues to the readers of his identity before the Deputy figures it out for herself. While the added insight was appreciated, and I enjoyed it better than Gone Cold, it still failed to hold my attention as well as Cold Heat.

Ice Lake - Cold Heat By Delores Fossen

Cold Heat by Delores Fossen

First Chapter First Paragraph

Special Agent Leah Gray stared out at the ice-scabbed landscape and thought about the woman she'd gotten killed. She squeezed her eyes shut for a moment, hoping to block out the images.

Pg 34 (pg 137 of Ice Lake)

Normally, Leah wouldn't have taken the alibi at face value, but everything in the room indicated that the two had been at sexcapades for hours and hours. Maybe even days.

Pg 56 (pg 159 of Ice Lake)

'When I went running into that house and found you nearly dead, I wasn't thinking like an FBI agent. I reacted like your...friend. Your former lover.'

Quotables

He could put up a front. The cool facade of a badass federal agent. Unfortunately, a cool facade wasn't worth spit when it came to convincing her that they had to get out of here.

She shook her head. 'I Should have known.'
'Right. Because of the ESP that the Bureau issued you when you became and FBI agent.'

Yeah, that was Leah, all right. A woman of contradictions, who had a rebellious side.
'Hell's bells, Leah, I can still see his handprint on you.'

She'd be terrified, and probably was having the mother lode of hellish flashbacks.

Review

I enjoyed Cold Heat better than Gone Cold. There was more romance than the first story. Also, the prose had a sense of humor to it that Gone Cold did not.  The characters were better developed. I was pulled in to all aspects of this story.

Ice Lake - Gone Cold by B.J Daniels

Gone Cold by B.J Daniels

First Chapter First Paragraph

'Is everything all right, honey?'
Morgan Sinclair stirred from her dark thoughts as Tom turned off the highway onto a snowy narrow road. She suddenly felt anxious as she looked at the glistening, cold white mountains ahead.

Pg 34

She surreptitiously studied the other guests, wondering who was staying in the cabin closest to them. Morgan didn't lie to herself; she was searching for 'A.'

Pg 56

Had he gotten the SUV stuck on purpose, so she couldn't leave him once he told her the truth?

Review

Gone Cold was straight forward suspense from the first page. Morgan's new husband Tom gets a text message that has her concerned and she slowly realizes that she knows very little about the man she recently married. I enjoyed the suspense of the first story as it kept the pace and makes it easy to finish the almost 100 page suspense story.

Adopt a Shelter Dog!

From the title of the post you're probably wondering what does shelter dogs have to do with books? Well, Guinnevere Shuster decided they needed a book all of their own!

Readathon - Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson - REVIEW

Readathon - Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson Quotables

Finished Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson during readathon. Uploading Royal Street Quotables

Royal Street Suzanne Johnson

Quotables

What should a wizard pack when fleeing a hurricane? It sounded like the opening line of a bad joke.

The sentinel in Las Cruces, New Mexico, was a self-absorbed, Elder-wannabe asshat monkey. I’d walk to my grandmother’s before I’d voluntarily spend time with him.

If normal hurricane frenzy ranked five on a scale of one to ten, Katrina hysteria had ratcheted up to fifty in the past twenty-four hours. ….. .Without a miracle, the City That Care Forgot (or, as we liked to call it, the City That Forgot to Care) would be in trouble.

We had an unwritten belief system: God watches out for fools and New Orleanians.

If Gerry had tried that stunt, we wouldn’t have to worry about a hurricane. We’d be so deep-fried you could roll us in powdered sugar and sell us as beignets.

I finally broke down and visited my father – Gran had told me it was his off-day. I didn’t feel too badly about waiting so long. The roads worked in both directions, and he hadn’t come to see me either.

I’m an empathy, not a psychic or telepath. I can tell what an arrogant letch you are but I can’t read your flipping mind.

‘The fight wasn’t over,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘I’d have wont.’ Probably.

‘Right,’ he said. ‘And something just flew past your window. It was oinking.’

‘Do you think you brought enough firepower?’ Talk about overkill. He could take down a small third-world country.

‘Kindergarten is over, DJ. As we say in Mississippi, if you want to play with the big dogs, you have to get off the porch.’

Tonight, as long as he left me alone, Mr. Fixit could do whatever charges his chain saw.

‘So why aren’t you driving some big studly truck with Playboy Bunny mud flaps?’

‘Why aren’t you riding a broom?’ he muttered to himself….

First, I got rid of Alex, telling him I had cramps and wanted to rest. Mention cramps and guys get a panicked, deer-in-headlights look and develop a sudden urge to go hunting or drink beer. Like hormones might be contagious. Too bad they’re not. The world would be a more equitable place. Or more violent. It could go either way.

Great. That would help find Gerry. To stay busy till the magical desk jockeys got their horses lined up….

Anything magic couldn’t fix, duct tape and WD-40 could.

An iron? Was he kidding? God made knits so people didn’t have to iron.

Jake, who knew only that I had some nebulous relationship with his cousin and was missing an uncle, apparently didn’t find the subject of my needing a gun the least suspicious. Gotta love the South.

Sorry, Jake, but the world isn’t exactly what you thought it was.

‘Quit trying to be so tough, DJ. I’m here. I’m not leaving.’

‘Everybody leaves.’

Given enough time, people say, everything heals.

Royal Street 1st Paragraph, Page 34, and Page 56 Excerpts

First Chapter First Paragraph

A secluded Louisiana bayou. A sexy pirate. Seduction and deceit. My Friday afternoon had the makings of a great romantic adventure, at least in theory.   - When DJ says at least in theory....sorry folks that's as far as it goes so far....hoping for at least some romance before the book ends since it was alluded to at the beginning. 

Page 34

A red-faced man in a white polo shirt that failed to camouflage the evidence of a few too many Budweisers ranted to nobody in particular. “I heard there’s over a million people running from this dadburned storm.”

He had to be from Mississippi. Nobody from Southeast Louisiana says “dadburned.”

 - These two lines made me feel right at home. It's been awhile but I used to hear older folks like my grandparents use "dadburned" when I was younger. A moment of nostalgia and made me smile when I read it. 

Page 56

I felt like Alice, but I’d slid down the rabbit hole past Wonderland and straight into hell. - Being a fantasy book and references to the Beyond, an undead realm, I liked the reference to Alice in Wonderland and the rabbit hole - very fitting. 

I will post additional excerpts once I finish the book. I originally planned on doing these elements separate - which I may if I'm reading an ebook and going based off of percentages. However, 56 pages is easy enough to get through in one day; therefore, when I'm reading a physical book I will probably try to keep these elements together in one post. I like having more than one or two sentences when I post. Leave your comments below what you prefer and any additional current read features you enjoy!

Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson

The newest book I picked up at the library is Royal Street by Suzanne Johnson. I didn't realize it until I got home and searched for the book on Goodreads but Royal Street is actually book 1 of a series called Sentinels of New Orleans. It is a fantasy book.

Summary:
As the junior wizard sentinel for New Orleans, Drusilla Jaco’s job involves a lot more potion-mixing and pixie-retrieval than sniffing out supernatural bad guys like rogue vampires and lethal were-creatures. DJ's boss and mentor, Gerald St. Simon, is the wizard tasked with protecting the city from anyone or anything that might slip over from the preternatural beyond.

Then Hurricane Katrina hammers New Orleans’ fragile levees, unleashing more than just dangerous flood waters.

While winds howled and Lake Pontchartrain surged, the borders between the modern city and the Otherworld crumbled. Now, the undead and the restless are roaming the Big Easy, and a serial killer with ties to voodoo is murdering the soldiers sent to help the city recover.

To make it worse, Gerry has gone missing, the wizards’ Elders have assigned a grenade-toting assassin as DJ’s new partner, and undead pirate Jean Lafitte wants to make her walk his plank. The search for Gerry and for the serial killer turns personal when DJ learns the hard way that loyalty requires sacrifice, allies come from the unlikeliest places, and duty mixed with love creates one bitter gumbo. 

Just One Damned Thing After Another by Jodi Taylor REVIEW - For an Adult Audience