Saturday, June 7, 2014

Review Wrap Up: Gypsy by @trishaleighKC - #giveaway


YA Science Fiction

Date Published: May 13, 2014
    

Inconsequential: not important or significant.
Synonyms: insignificant, unimportant, nonessential, irrelevant

In the world of genetic mutation, Gypsy’s talent of knowing a person’s age of death is considered a failure. Her peers, the other Cavies, have powers that range from curdling a blood still in the vein to being able to overhear a conversation taking place three miles away, but when they’re taken from the sanctuary where they grew up and forced into the real world, Gypsy, with her all-but-invisible gift, is the one with the advantage.

The only one who’s safe, if the world finds out what they can do.

When the Cavies are attacked and inoculated with an unidentified virus, that illusion is shattered. Whatever was attached to the virus causes their abilities to change. Grow. In some cases, to escape their control.

Gypsy dreamed of normal high school, normal friends, a normal life, for years. Instead, the Cavies are sucked under a sea of government intrigue, weaponized genetic mutation, and crushing secrets that will reframe everything they’ve ever been told about how their "talents" came to be in the first place.

When they find out one of their own has been appropriated by the government, mistreated and forced to run dangerous missions, their desire for information becomes a pressing need. With only a series of guesses about their origins, the path to the truth becomes quickly littered with friends, enemies, and in the end, the Cavies ability to trust anyone at all.


This book has a current Amazon Rating of 4.7*'s.
Get your copy for $3.99!




REVIEWS FROM THIS TOUR

May 26 - Mrs. Brown's Books - Review
May 27 - A Life Through Books - Review
May 28 - Clutter Your Kindle - Review
May 29 - Flashlight Commentary - Review
May 30 - Texas Book Nook - Review
May 31 - Book Junky Girls - Review
June 1 - Rhythem Poets - Review/Interview
June 2 - The Indie Express - Review
June 3 - Always a Book Lover - Review
June 4 - Simplistic Reviews - Review
June 6 - Marked By Books - Review





Trisha Leigh is a product of the Midwest, which means it’s pop, not soda, garage sales, not tag sales, and you guys as opposed to y’all. Most of the time. She’s been writing seriously for five years now, and has published 4 young adult novels and 4 new adult novels (under her pen name Lyla Payne). Her favorite things, in no particular order, include: reading, Game of Thrones, Hershey’s kisses, reading, her dogs (Yoda and Jilly), summer, movies, reading, Jude Law, coffee, and rewatching WB series from the 90’s-00’s.


Her family is made up of farmers and/or almost rock stars from Iowa, people who numerous, loud, full of love, and the kind of people that make the world better. Trisha tries her best to honor them, and the lessons they’ve taught, through characters and stories—made up, of course, but true enough in their way.
Trisha is the author of THE LAST YEAR series and the WHITMAN UNIVERSITY books. She’s represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.



Friday, June 6, 2014

Review Wrap Up: Winter's Embrace by @kballauthor #giveaway


Western Romance

Published: April 29, 2014

Ten years ago Winter’s heart was broken beyond repair by Stone McCoy. Now she is a travel agent ready to lead an Alaskan Cruise and to her surprise Stone McCoy is on her tour.  A long ago phone call shattered her trust and her self-confidence. She never planned to see Stone again.

While at college, Stone McCoy woke up, after a fraternity party, to find a girl in his bed. Weeks later she told him she’s pregnant. Calling Winter to break things off was the worst night of his life. Now he’s hoping for a second chance at happiness.

The chemistry is electrifying but old issues lead these two on a merry chase. Can they put old hurts aside and begin again? Join Rancher Stone McCoy and Winter Gavin as they try to find happiness from Alaska to Texas and finally on his Montana Ranch.

Ten years ago Rancher Stone McCoy broke Winter Gavin’s heart. Now he turns up hoping for another chance. Will one too many surprises shy Winter away?
    

This book has a current Amazon Rating of 4.3*'s.
Get your copy for $4.99!



Reviews From This Tour
May 26 - A Life Through Books - Review
May 27 - My Devotional Thoughts - Review/Guest Post
May 28 - Ramblings of a Book Lunatic - Review
May 29 - Dr. Pepper Diva - Excerpt
May 30 - LibriAmoriMiei- Review/Guest Post
May 31 - Pure Jonel -Review
June 1 - In Between the Lines - Review/Guest Post
June 2 - Texas Book Nook - Review
June 5 - Shiuli - Review




Sexy Cowboys and the women that love them...Finalist in the 2012 RONE Awards. Top pick, 5 star series from the Romance Review. Kathleen Ball writes contemporary western romance with great emotion and memorable characters. Her books are award winners and have appeared on best sellers lists including Amazon's Best Sellers List. There's something about a cowboy.



Dawson Ranch Series--- Alice's Story, Texas Haven, Ryelee's Cowboy
Lasso Springs Series- - Callie's Heart, Lone Star Joy and Stetson's Storm
Cowboy Season's Series -- Summer's Desire, Autumn's Hope, Winter’s Embrace
Twitter:@kballauthor







Review Wrap Up: State of Infection by @Zom_Novel_Frey #giveaway


Sci-Fi / Horror
Date Published: March 6, 2014
   
Just months before the Battle of Central Park and the onset of the Second Civil War, President Obama declares martial law in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut as Montoya’s encephalopathy spreads. Despite the military’s best efforts, the government falls and Manhattan is reborn as a city-state under a military dictatorship. Survivors Mike Calaf, and Avalon Calendar struggle to survive, caught between the zombies and the new ruler of New York. But long before the zombie infection, during the First Civil War, Doctor William Jackson (of the Confederate States of America) is trying to unravel the mystery behind this strange new sickness. He knows that if Complex P fails to work, there could be devastating consequences which might influence the future of mankind.





This book has a current Amazon rating of  4.8*'s.
Get your copy for $7.99!




REVIEWS FROM THIS TOUR
May 27 - Book Junky Girls - Review
May 28 - The Avid Reader - Review/Interview
May 30 - Mama Knows Books - Guest Post
May 31 - elfwitch Loves Books - Review/Interview
June 1 - Must Read Faster - Review
June 3 -Rhythem Poets - Review/Interview
June 4 - In Between the Lines - Review/Guest Post
June 5 - A Life Through Books - Review
June 6 - Texas Book Nook - Review




Michael Frey is a physician and assistant professor in New York City. He has been published numerous times as a short storyist and poet, but this is his first zombie novel. He lives in New York with his wife, two children and two dogs.




Release Day: An Etiquette Guide to the End Times by @maiasepp



An Etiquette Guide to the End Times - Cover Reveal
By Maia Sepp
Women's Fiction / Dystopian
Date Published: June 6, 2014

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   Good manners never go out of style…do they?

There aren’t any zombies (yet), but the world is still at the brink of destruction: It’s 2028 and global warming has led to rising oceans, crazy weather, and resource scarcity. On top of that, someone just turned the Internet off. Seeing as how it’s humanity’s last chance to turn things around manners are, understandably, a bit frayed.


Etiquette buff Olive O’Malley is busy microfarming her urban property and minding her own business (and her chickens) when the government comes calling. Their goal is to push the populace towards carbon-neutrality while keeping kvetching to a minimum, and they come with a proposal: transition Olive’s popular etiquette column to a radio show for the masses, and they’ll help Olive find her grandfather, who’s gone missing.


Olive doesn’t trust the hipster government officials who try to bribe her with delicious-but-probably-a-little-evil chocolate pastries, and declines their offer. (Politely, of course.) But they won't take no for an answer, and soon Olive is knee-deep in turmoil, eco-terrorism, and missing chickens. Now she has to untangle herself from their demands and figure out how to make sure her family (and her poultry) are safe before it’s too late.

*Note* This Novel is Written in Canadian English. 

Excerpt
My superhero power is definitely not sleeping. When I was looking for a house, my realtor rhapsodized about this bedroom’s perfect southern exposure, about the tastefully herbaceous wall treatment and charming old-world feel. Right now my room could be more accurately described as a floral-wallpapered sauna, full of an impossible heat, like three Julys stuffed into one. It isn’t helping.
I watch the overhead fan stop again, gyrate, and then restart before I roll over, the sheets coming with me. After a minute I shift to the other side, flinging the covers away with a sigh. The fan finally grinds to a halt, probably the victim of a wiring problem I haven’t been able to pin down, although lately I’ve been thinking it might just hate me.
I relocate to the living room and angle the pedestal fan my way. God, it’s hot. I close my eyes and lean back on the couch for a minute, hoping sleep will take me. The sofa is a faux leather hand-me-down that’s supple after years of wear, smelling faintly earthy, soft against my skin.
Eventually I switch the TV on. Our cable hasn’t worked properly in months, service so erratic it’s like the people running the company are legless, as my grandfather Fred would say–a charming Irish way of saying spectacularly drunk, even though my grandfather hasn’t seen Ireland since he was a child. My eyes land on Fred’s easy chair, a pale green monstrosity he could barely squeeze through the front door when I finally convinced him to move in with me. His pipe, his books, and his old-man slippers are still where he left them.
After flipping through a bunch of static, I shut the TV off and switch to the radio, which promptly announces it’s five-thirty in the morning. I ponder what to do next, discarding juggling, mind reading, and origami, although I spend more time thinking about mind reading than I probably should, considering I’m the only one here. Finally I pull my computer tablet onto my lap and turn it on. I write an etiquette column for a spunky arts and culture website, and my latest instalment is due on Friday; other people’s problems are always a delightful way to get my mind off my own. I start to page through the letters, which all start with Dear Olive. Dear Olive, I’m convinced my neighbour is milking my goat. Dear Olive, my neighbour’s windmill is keeping me up at night. Dear Olive, my wife is hoarding solar panels. What do I do?
Three crashing noises erupt above my head, each more ominous than the next. I wait for it to stop, but twenty minutes later I’m clinging to the side of my house, staring down a pair of raccoons who seem intent on defiling my solar array. For a long while it’s just the three of us, locked in visual combat, but it’s my roof and unless they start paying rent, they’ve got to go.  Eventually they get spooked by the noise of the six a.m. domestic surveillance drone overhead, which would make this the first time I’ve ever been happy to see a drone. I watch as it starts its first pass of the morning. They’re smaller than the military version–sleek, modern, ever-watchful. Rumour is they’re even biodegradable, although that hasn’t exactly endeared them to the population.
After the raccoons finally lumber off I pull myself onto the roof and take a look at the solar panel they’ve sullied, the wires connecting the array to my house almost stripped. It’s not easy to carry out rooftop repairs quietly at six in the morning, and it definitely wouldn’t be polite to wake anyone up, but I don’t want to be back up here tomorrow, either. If I leave the panel like this, they’ll come back and finish the job, I know it. They’re organized.
I look up when a newfangled Town Car, still boxy and authoritarian but now electric-powered, turns onto my street. I watch it as it goes; there are almost no cars on the roads these days, and the sight makes a faint sense of unease pulse through me. I hope whoever’s in that car isn’t carrying bad news for one of my neighbours.
After it eases past my house I try to concentrate on how to get myself off this roof. I’ve brought my very last roll of duct tape with me and after a moment of conflict, I wrestle a piece off and start to fix the panel, but my foot slips and my right hip ends up bouncing off the shingles. I pull myself into a sitting position to gather my wits, my stomach clenched into the size of a peanut, my breath suddenly ragged and shaky. I don’t want to go splat on the driveway beside my house. It’s a bungalow, true, and not that far to fall, but it’s still a worry.
Over my left shoulder the sunrise glows on the horizon, beautiful in a terrifying sort of way. It’s hard not to be nervous about what the sun will do to us today; so far the summer of 2028 has broken four temperature records, slow-cooking our city under our feet, making everything smell like asphalt and failure.

About the Author : Maia Sepp

Maia left the tech sector to write about sock thievery, migraines, and...the tech sector.

The Sock Wars is her debut novel. The first chapter of The Sock Wars was published as a short story/novel excerpt titled Irish Drinking Socks, and became a Kobo bestselling short story. The Sock Wars has been a top-100 digital bestseller on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and the iBookstore, as well as a genre and Writing Life bestseller on Kobo.

Maia's second novel is The Migraine Mafia, a story about a nerdy thirtysomething's quest to come to terms with a chronic illness. It is available online everywhere.

Her latest is a humorous near-future dystopian novella, titled, An Etiquette Guide to the End Times, available June 2014. To be notified about new releases, please add yourself to Maia's mailing list: http://www.maiasepp.com/mailing_list.html.

Authors Links


Buy Links

Amazon iTunes | KOBO | Smashwords

Giveaway

$10 Gift Card


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Thursday, June 5, 2014

PROMO: Late Night Campfire Chillers




Late Night Campfire Chillers - PROMO Blitz
By Rajeev Bhargava
Horror
Date Published: November 19, 2013

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The Aztec demon is unleashed. The green bottle is his “trick.” They’re his bait.
When a group of friends decide to take a break for the night, pitching camp around a crackling fire, their team leader sees a creepy green bottle embedded in the ground. It looks ancient. He pulls it out, deciding to use it as a “spinner.”
And so, they all take turns to tell their tale, unaware that within this bottle abides an ancient creepy Aztec demon spirit, vowing to teach them all a lesson; one they will never forget.
Will they make it through the night? Or will the forces of evil prevail?




EXCERPT

The kitchen curtains were never drawn. They projected silvery moonlight onto Tom’s face. Tonight he was restless. He opened the fridge door and rooted around inside. His eyes lit up when he found a wine bottle.

“Caaw...Caaw.”

“What the hell!” He shuffled to his feet and plodded to the window. The crow still sat perched on the ashes of her love letters. As long as it stayed put, Tom didn’t mind the old crow. But wasn’t it odd that a stuffy old bird, black as night, should sit in solitude, cawing every night.

“Mother would have shot you. That’s why I won’t.”

Returning to the fridge, he uncorked the bottle with his long fingernails. It dripped all over his chest. But what he saw was not wine. It was blood.

“All right, Tom, take it easy old boy. You’re still under shock. That romantic old fluff is taunting you. Go back to bed quietly.”

Consoling himself, he lay down, humming.

 “Caaw! Caaw!” It was the old crow.

Tom shuffled to his feet again, upset. His stomach stiffened and a jet of blood trickled from his belly-button. “W-what’s happening? Am I cracking?”

It was 6:30 a.m. The dimming moonlight tempted Tom to peer outside to get a better look at the crow; that was not difficult. The darn thing never moved an inch. But why was it perched there, on her love letters?

“It’s not there. It’s...not there!” Now Tom really was scared. Overcome with giddiness, he fought back. “M-must...resist...mustn’t fall down.”

But the forces of evil were bent on destruction tonight of all nights. Nine days since the night. Nine days since his mother vowed to come back for her beloved son. It was then that the crow appeared before him...and for the first time, revealed its putrefied face.

“Nighty night, Tom.”

Tom screamed until the crow’s sharp beak tore at his throat, cutting off his cries.

About the Author:
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Rajeev Bhargava lives in Harrow, Greater London.

He enjoys writing stories on various themes, some of which include horror, science fiction, fantasy, mythology, adventure and for children. He also enjoys writing poetry and doing illustrations. His writing career began in 1991, and since then, to-date, his works have been appearing frequently in various small press and main stream magazines and books. His all-time favorite publication is Night to Dawn magazine, which he enjoys reading and writing for, and where his most recent works continue to appear.

To contact him, e-mail him at: TSilverPhoenix@aol.com.

Visit him at: silver.phoenix.3591@facebook.com


Buy Links


GIVEAWAY

$10 Starbucks Gift Card


a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Monday, June 2, 2014

Cover Reveal: Just Not Mine by @RosalindJames5



Just Not Mine - Cover Reveal
Rosalind James
Contemporary Romance
Date Published: June 5, 2014

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Destiny has a way of sneaking up on you .  . . or of smacking you in the face.

Hugh Latimer's coping with a few problems just now. A broken hand, missing the European rugby tour . . . and a half-brother and sister who are playing havoc with his love life. Instead of packing down in the scrum, he's driving the carpool to ballet--or forgetting it's his turn. When he hears his neighbor wailing out bad pop in the wee hours, it's the last straw.

Josie Pae Ata is a fortunate woman. A new house, good friends, a gorgeous boyfriend--oh, and stardom, too. Getting involved with her new neighbors would bring risks she doesn't need. But life has a way of changing the rules. And when you get more than you can handle, sometimes all you can do is hang on for the ride.



EXCERPT
        
And then he was standing just the other side of the kitchen bench, and she was looking at the depth of his chest, being reminded about the size of his arms, and he was smiling at her, and her hands had stilled on her knife.

“Do the ballet run, then?” she asked him, forcing herself to start cutting through the dense orange flesh again.

“Yeh. I take it you finished the job? Get your swim?”

“Yeh.” She smiled herself. “Bet I had a better time.”

He laughed. “Bet you did. I was going to say I’d take the kids home, because we all need showers, but d’you need a hand here first?”

She needed to stop smiling at him. “Again, a hand’s what it’d be. Don’t think you could do too much with one.”

“I can do quite a lot with one,” he said, the look in his eyes letting her know exactly what he could do, and suddenly, her oven wasn’t the only thing warming up. All he was doing was standing there, and he was still sending tingles to places they had no business being, evoking every shivery, delicious sensation that the most heated on-screen kiss failed to arouse, and it took all the training she had not to show it.

She looked down again hastily, resumed her hacking progress. “Nah, got this. Go take your shower. Then come back and help me christen my new deck.”

He glanced sharply at her, opened his mouth to say something, then shut it, and she realized what she’d said and very nearly blushed. She never got flustered with men, and she’d worked with, dated, been chatted up for years by men infinitely more handsome, polished, and urbane than Hugh could dream of being, but she was flustered now.

All he said, though, was, “Right. See you in a bit. Hour or so OK? Enough time?”

“Perfect,” she said. “See you then.” And kept chopping her vegies, moving around her dark little kitchen in her bare feet, and did her best to pretend that this was about a thank-you and nothing more.


Rosalind James
Author Rosalind James photo Rosalind_zpsa49a53c9.jpg

PERSONAL STUFF: I met my husband Rick at UC Berkeley when I was 21, so I really do believe in True Love and Happily Ever After—which helps a lot in writing about them! We renewed our vows a few years ago with the help of our two grown sons. Our home base when we’re not having our own adventures is in Berkeley, California, where the summers are foggy and the food shopping is the greatest.

WHY NEW ZEALAND: My husband’s job as an engineer, and mine as a marketing consultant, have given us the opportunity to live in many different wonderful places in the U.S., Australia, and New Zealand. During the latest stint, 15 months living and working in Auckland, I fell in love with New Zealand: the beauty and diversity of the landscape (not to mention the seascapes), the Maori culture and its integration into the country’s life, and, perhaps more than anything, the people: modest, good-humored, unfailingly polite and hospitable, and so very funny.  I wanted to share what I loved so much about the country with everyone I knew—and didn’t know!

THE BOOKS: We had traveled to Wellington to watch the final of the Rugby World Cup in a pub as the start of a North Island holiday. I was absolutely overwhelmed by the intensity of All Black fever that gripped the entire nation during the World Cup, and the stature of the players themselves at all times. I had never seen anything remotely like it. I started wondering what it would be like to be so intensely admired and instantly recognizable in a country that has zero tolerance for bad behavior—and how hard it would be to find the right partner in that kind of spotlight. And that is where JUST THIS ONCE was born—walking through the rhododendron gardens of Mt. Taranaki, two days after the World Cup final. Writing that first page was terrifying, but within weeks, I knew that I’d finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

WHEN I’M NOT WRITING: I raise bantam chickens, foster Labrador Retrievers, and try to remember to cook dinner for my long-suffering husband.



Buy Link

Amazon


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