16 October 2014

Goddess Born by Kari Degren Review!


Publication Date: May 29, 2014
Carina Press
eBook; ISBN: 9781426898365
Genre: Historical/Fantasy/Paranormal/New Adult/Romance

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2013 RWA Golden Heart© Finalist
2011 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award semifinalist
The power to heal is her divine gift, the fear of discovery, her mortal curse.
Selah Kilbrid is caught between two worlds. A direct descendant of the Celtic goddess Brigid, she is bound by Tuatha Dé law to help those in need. Yet as a human, she must keep her unique abilities hidden or risk being charged for a witch. In 1730 Pennsylvania, the Quaker community of Hopewell has become a haven for religious freedom—and fanaticism—and there are those who would see her hanged if the truth were revealed.
For eighteen years, Selah safely navigates the narrow gap between duty and self-preservation, until the day a prominent minister uncovers her secret. Obsessed with her power, Nathan Crowley disregards her betrothal to a distant cousin from Ireland and demands marriage in exchange for his silence. Selah stalls for time, but when news reaches the Colonies of her cousin’s death, time has run out.
Rather than submit to Nathan, Selah coerces a stranger to pose as her husband. It’s a good plan—her only plan—even though Henry Alan harbors his own dark secrets. But when she returns to Hopewell a married woman, the real fight has just begun. As unseen forces move against her, Selah doesn’t know which poses the greater danger—a malignant shadow closing in from outside or the internal fire that threatens to consume her heart.
Book Two in the Goddess Born series will be published in November 2014 and Book Three in June 2015.


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About the Author

Kari Edgren did not dream of becoming a writer. Instead, she dreamed of everything else and was often made to stay inside during kindergarten recess to practice her letters. Despite doting parents and a decent school system, Ms. Edgren managed to make it through elementary school having completed only one book cover to cover – The Box Car Children, which she read approximately forty-seven times. Things improved during high school, but not until she read Gabrielle Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude in college, did she truly understand the power of a book.
Ms. Edgren aspires to be a Vulcan, a world-acclaimed opera singer, and two inches taller. She resides in the Pacific NW where she spends a great deal of time torturing her husband and children with strange food and random historical facts. Ms. Edgren hasn’t stopped dreaming, but has finally mastered her letters enough to put the stories on paper.
For more information please visit Kari Edgren’s website. You can also find her on Facebook,Twitter, and Goodreads.
Sign Up for Kari Edgren’s Newsletter.

My Thoughts
Goddess Born is one of those novels that is quite easy to read and hard to put down. When I read the blurb on the book and it said Celtic Mythology, I was right there, as I enjoy reading about anything Celtic. It's true, I am a fanatic. Selah has a predicament that she needs to take care of right now. With a tragedy in her family, she will be forced to marry Nathan Crowly, who is a despicable individual for sure. Selah has a gift of being able to heal people and she needs to keep that secret. In 1700's, The Quaker community of Hopewell are a suspicious lot, so if word got out about her abilities she could be declared a witch and punished as such. We all know how that worked out for people in Salem. Selah flees to Boston to meet her cousin who she will be marrying, There is a tradition in the family to marry cousins so with the hopes that when she goes back home she can evade Nathan and continue to do what she is meant to do be a healer. Things of course don't go as planned and...well the story continues from there...not going to tell you anymore, you will just have to go and get a copy. 

I thought the book was well written and of course a story with a bit of humor and mystery is the best kind. There will be another book to the series and I look forward to reading that one also. Great story!

I received a copy for review and I was not monetarily compensated for my review.

Goddess Born Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, September 22
Review at Peeking Between the Pages
Tuesday, September 23
Review at By the Book Reviews
Spotlight at Passages to the Past
Wednesday, September 24
Review at The Readers Hollow
Interview at Manga Maniac Cafe
Thursday, September 25
Review at Book Babe
Friday, September 26
Review at Curling Up With a Good Book
Sunday, September 28
Spotlight & Excerpt at Casual Readers
Monday, September 29
Review at Unabridged Chick
Review at The Mad Reviewer
Tuesday, September 30
Review at Oh, for the Hook of a Book!
Interview & Giveaway at Unabridged Chick
Wednesday, October 1
Review & Excerpt at Book Lovers Paradise
Thursday, October 2
Review at Books, Etc.
Review at 100 Pages a Day – Stephanie’s Book Reviews
Friday, October 3
Review at So Many Books, So Little Time
Monday, October 6
Review at Bookish
Guest Post at Historical Fiction Connection
Tuesday, October 7
Spotlight & Giveaway at The Flashlight Reader
Wednesday, October 8
Review at A Bookish Affair
Thursday, October 9
Review at The True Book Addict
Friday, October 10
Review at CelticLady’s Reviews
Monday, October 13
Review at Book Nerd
Interview at The Maiden’s Court
Tuesday, October 14
Review at I’d So Rather Be Reading
Wednesday, October 15
Review at Let Them Read Books
Thursday, October 16
Review at A Book Geek
Guest Post at Historical Tapestry
Friday, October 17
Review at Historical Tapestry

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Music for my Soul by Lauren Linwood Spotlight!


Publication Date: May 15, 2013
Soul Mate Publishing
Formats: eBook, Paperback
# of Pages: 282
Genre: Historical Romance

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As the third wife of an abusive French vineyard owner, Madeleine Bouchard hasn’t produced the expected heir after three years of marriage. Fearing he plans to kill her, she flees during a trip to England. Unable to make her way home, she joins a troupe of traveling mummers and reinvents herself as the only woman troubadour in the land, captivating audiences with both song and story.
Nobleman Garrett Montayne’s fascination with Madeleine causes him to pay the troupe to bypass their next stop in order to journey to his estate. Though he suspects Madeleine of being a thief with dark secrets, love blossoms between them under the magical moon of summer solstice.
But Madeleine’s past is about to catch up with her, as her husband is set to arrive to conduct business with Garrett. Madeleine determines to free herself from her loveless marriage and make a new life with Garrett, no matter what the cost.


Buy the Book

Praise for Music For My Soul

“Told with humor, heartache, loveable characters and plenty of adventure, this is a story that grabs your attention from the first page and holds you captive until the very end. Much like real life, MUSIC FOR MY SOUL is a mixture of ups and downs along with a few surprises thrown in just to keep you on your toes.” -Romance Junkies, Reviewer Chrissy Dionne
“This story takes a wonderful turn into the seldom explored topic of the life of traveling mummers and musicians. Placing the heroine between the line of aristocracy and commonality is also a stroke of creative genius that makes for a delightful breath of fresh reading air! The characters are created and developed with a fine touch, making the story both believable and enjoyable.” -InD’tale Magazine, Reviewer Ruth Lynn Ritter
“This is a marvelous and intricate story of desperation, escape, finding love…also of forgiveness,mystery, danger, and righting old wrongs! The tale is incredibly well told with some humor as well as a building romance. The characters are loveable, some you can hate, and some are comic…a little bit of everything! Lauren Linwood is a wonderful writer with a fantastic imagination. I hope this is only the beginning of many wonderful tales. Believe me, it’s hard to put this one down. I found myself awake until the wee hours of the morning because I just had to know what was going to happen!” -The Reading Café, Reviewer Georgianna S


About the Author

Lauren Linwood became a teacher who wrote on the side to maintain her sanity in a sea of teenage hormones. Her romances use history as a backdrop to place her characters in extraordinary circumstances, where their intense desire and yearning for one another grow into the deep, tender, treasured gift of love.
Lauren, a native Texan, lives in a Dallas suburb with her family. An avid reader, moviegoer, and sports fan, she manages stress by alternating yoga with five mile walks. She is thinking about starting a support group for Pinterest and House Hunters addicts.
For more information please visit Lauren’s website. You can also connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, andGoodreads.

Read an Excerpt
Madeleine knew with certainty that the nobleman would recognize her. They spent too much time together in one another’s company for him not to know her upon first sight.
            She groaned aloud. Where Sir Ashby was, she was positive his friend, the brooding Lord Montayne, would soon appear. She did not care to see that one face to face, especially since he had been so angry at her when they parted.
            She decided to skirt around the crowd and make her way back to the performance area. She would plead a sore throat and have Farley allow her to take York’s place in the play. York was a decent lute player, though not much of a singer. Still, he could perform before and between their scenes while Madeleine could be in plain sight of all, disguised by the heavy costume and mask York wore.
            She moved stealthily through the throng, hoping she would avoid attention. Just as she thought she’d made her way unseen, she heard shouts headed her way.
            “Stop, thief! Stop!”
            The cutpurse ran by her swiftly, throwing a cursory glance over his shoulder. She despised people who preyed upon others’ misfortune, and she was ready to see this shabby scoundrel caught. Madeleine stepped out, ready to give chase after the fellow when she was blind-sided, being thrown to the ground, the wind knocked from her.
            She rolled into a ball, her arms instinctively wrapping around her in a protective mode. She had spent many a time lying on the floor after one of Henri’s swift punches to her stomach.  She knew she must guard her ribs at all costs. Oh, God, it hurt so much when one broke. Please, not again. Not again.
            A hand, firm but reassuring, touched her shoulder. A voice came through the fog rolling through her brain. It wasn’t Henri! She half-laughed, half-gasped, as she opened her limbs and came to lie on her back. She even reached into her pocket and stroked Henri the pebble, validating that she was alive and unharmed.
            Yet who had attacked her? She looked up into the blinding summer sun but could not see who stood above her. Then the shadow moved, covering her face from the harsh light.
            “Why if ‘tis not Lady Montayne,” said a familiar voice. “And where the hell is my favorite cloak?”

Music for My Soul Blog Tour Schedule

Monday, October 6
Interview at Mythical Books
Tuesday, October 7
Guest Post & Giveaway at Let Them Read Books
Wednesday, October 8
Review at Book Nerd
Spotlight & Giveaway at Susan Heim on Writing
Thursday, October 9
Spotlight at Griperang’s Bookmarks
Friday, October 10
Review at Tea and Inspiration
Tuesday, October 14
Spotlight & Giveaway at Historical Fiction Connection
Thursday, October 16
Spotlight at CelticLady’s Reviews
Friday, October 17
Review at WTF Are You Reading?
Spotlight at What Is That Book About
Saturday, October 18
Review at A Cup of Tea & A Big Book
Thursday, October 23
Review at The Lit Bitch
Spotlight at Just One More Chapter
Friday, October 24
Review at Devilishly Delicious Book Blog
Guest Post at Historical Romantic Lovers
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15 October 2014

Sifting Through Mud by Demetria Foster Gray Virtual Book Tour!




Title: Sifting Through Mud
Author: Demetria Foster Gray
Publisher: Amazon Digital Services
Pages: 276
Genre: Contemporary Women's Fiction
Format: Paperback/Kindle

The death of Nyla's husband comes as a shock to everyone except Nyla. What’s shocking to Nyla is her inability to grieve his death like a typical loving wife should grieve. But Nyla isn't a typical loving wife. She's a woman in desperate need to breathe. The oxygen in her life has long gone, and the astonishing thing she feels from her husband's death is relief, not grief.
Even more astonishing is the rare and unexpected friendship which develops between Nyla and her dead husband's mistress. However, Nyla isn’t aware her new best friend is a former mistress. And as their friendship deepens into an unshakable bond, Nyla is forced to face secrets her husband took with him to his grave. This means she has to sift through mud to unravel the truth. A truth that’s better off dead.
Yet through it all, the one thing which makes Nyla violently breathless, is the exact same thing that causes her to finally breathe.

For More Information

Demetria Foster Gray is a novelist, freelance writer, and communications consultant. She earned a degree in Marketing Communications and spent the bulk of her career writing for the corporate world. Creating fictional characters and building stories has always been her first love. A native of the Chicago, IL area, Demetria now lives in North Carolina with her husband and two children. Sifting Through Mud is her debut novel. Visit Demetria at www.demetriafostergray.com
Her latest book is the contemporary women's fiction novel, Sifting Through Mud.
For More Information


Demetria is giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card and 1 Free Ebook copy of Sifting Through Mud!
Terms & Conditions:
  • By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.
  • Two winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive one $25 Amazon Gift Certificate and 1 ecopy of her book.
  • This giveaway begins October 6 and ends on November 1.
  • Winners will be contacted via email on Monday, November 3
  • Winner has 48 hours to reply.
Good luck everyone!
ENTER TO WIN!
a Rafflecopter giveaway

.
October 7
Interviewed at Review From Here
October 9
Book featured at PUYB Virtual Book Club
October 13
Book reviewed at Hanging Off the Wire
October 15
Book featured at Celticlady's Reviews
October 17
Guest blogging at I'm Shelf-ish
October 20
Book reviewed and Guest blogging at Jersey Girl Book Reviews
October 22
Book featured at My Life. One Story at a Time
October 23
Interviewed at Read Your Writes
October 24
Book featured at Confessions of a Reader
Book featured at Storeybook Reviews
October 27
Guest blogging at Melina's Book Blog
October 28
Book reviewed at All Things Romance
October 29
Book reviewed at The Phantom Paragrapher
October 30
Interviewed at Literal Exposure


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Don't Forget Me, Bro! by John Michael Cummings Spotlight!



DON’T FORGET ME, BRO deals with themes of childhood abuse, mental
illness, and alienated families. The book opens with the main
character, forty-two-year-old Mark Barr, who has returned home from New
York to West Virginia after eleven years for his older brother Steve’s
funeral. Steve, having died of a heart attack at forty-five, was
mentally ill most of his adult life, though Mark has always questioned
what was "mentally ill" and what was the result of their father’s
verbal and physical abuse during their childhood.

The book unfolds into an odyssey for Mark to discover love for his
brother posthumously in a loveless family.

DON’T FORGET ME, BRO is a portrait of an oldest brother’s supposed
mental illness and unfulfilled life, as well as a redeeming tale of a
youngest brother’s alienation from his family and his guilt for
abandoning them.


Advance review by Bookreporter.com

DON’T FORGET ME, BRO

By John Michael Cummings

Stephen F. Austin State University Press


Families: they love us, they hate us, they confuse us, they support us,
they believe in us, they hurt us, they forgive us, they never forget
our mistakes …

It’s no good picking and choosing which of the above (in what could be
an interminably long list) best applies to your particular family, or
mine, because today’s assumption will become tomorrow’s irrelevance.

As author John Michael Cummings shows with such poignant and searing
skill in DON’T FORGET ME, BRO families contain all of it. There’s
simply no tidy, predictable emotional or dynamic boundary to draw
around these most primal of human units. Even those who don’t know
their biological families have collective relationships that daily test
their autonomy, individuality, self-worth and dreams.

Cummings, who’s spent more than three decades writing about human
beings, mainly of the everyday American persuasion, excels in
uncovering those beneath-the-skin familial stories that realistically
probe uncomfortable, often invisible, areas of life. And even in our
current decade of sociological transparency, perhaps nothing is more
resistant to illumination in this context than mental illness.

As a broad collection of chemical, biological and/or psychiatric
disorders of the brain, it eludes clear-cut treatments and solutions as
successfully as families elude pat definitions of who and what they
are. When families and their perceptions of mental illness collide, as
happens with such gritty persistence in DON’T FORGET ME, BRO all the
discomfort of relationships, normal and otherwise, comes to the fore.

Returning home to West Virginia to deal with the premature death of his
older brother Steve, long diagnosed as schizophrenic, Mark Barr carries
plenty of his own emotional and psychological baggage, including a
deep-seated distaste for a father he remembers as abusive, a mother who
seems a passive bystander to life, and a middle brother who comes
across as just plain weird. With a number of failed relationships on
record – including the one that’s falling apart even as he sets out
from New York – he’s not so sure about his own mental health either.

“Going back home” stories are often based on narrow cliché-filled
themes that focus on a single character or experience. Like series TV
shows, they are easier to control and wrap up in a satisfying
sentimental or tragic package at the end.

Fortunately, DON’T FORGET ME, BRO isn’t one of them. It’s a gripping
emotional and literary journey that hits just about every pothole one
can expect to find on life’s road; that part is engaging and sometimes
oddly familiar. And when Cummings throws in a few unexpected left
turns, thanks to his character’s unpredictable relatives and
colleagues, there are moments of surprise and difference to ponder as
well. That skilfully managed dichotomy in itself sets this author
apart, drawing the reader into places that challenge assumption and
attitude.

At the outset, Mark does think this back-home story is all about him,
but he’s not driven by ego or self-absorption as much as by fear, worry
and chronic indecision.  His own identity, perhaps even his future, are
on the line.

But as he blunders into memories, people, and artifacts from the
chaotic mosaic of his dead brother’s life he rediscovers who Steve
really was. In spite of himself he grows into a kind of belated and
bewildered stewardship over his brother’s cremated remains, which
become a catalyst for revealing ever-deeper layers of family stories he
never really knew.

Haunted by the last words he heard Steve utter – “Don’t forget me, bro”
– Mark realizes that at the heart of every human existence is the fear
of being forgotten, of simply disappearing into cosmic anonymity. After
all, even families that can’t stand each other tenaciously remember
their own.

With the unexpected complicity of his equally dysfunctional remaining
brother, Mark hangs around his hometown, stumbling upon ways to build
better memories than the ones he’d fled more than a decade earlier when
he went to New York seeking success.

The Barr family changes a little, just enough for its surviving members
to actually remain civilly in the same room together. That’s about it.
Cummings doesn’t make their story television-comfortable, nor does he
eliminate the heavy reality of an uncertain future.

Set against the larger contexts of contemporary economic depression,
social despair, fear of the known and unknown, as well as multiple
shades of guilt, remorse and anger, in the end DON’T FORGET ME, BRO can
only exhale in a long sigh of acceptance.

Cummings adeptly leaves the reader suspended in that fragile moment
before the next breath must be taken, yet strangely satisfied that
compassion and justice have been attained. DON’T FORGET ME, BRO is a
rare thing, a brilliant addition to a theme in which so many other
novels under-achieve.

– reviewed by Pauline Finch, Bookreporter.com


Praise for DON’T FORGET ME, BRO (978-1-62288-078-2)

Author blurbs:

“John Michael Cummings’s portrait of a West Virginia family gone awry
brings us into a world of dysfunction, doubt, and suspense, one which
is as harrowing as it is familiar.  In spare, precise prose Don’t
Forget Me, Bro charts the Barr family’s difficult history, revealing an
emotional terrain which has been strip-mined by an abuse,
schizophrenia, and premature death.  When Mark Barr returns home, he
encounters enough ghosts from his past to cause him to question his own
stability.  This is a novel that is as powerful as it is true,
rewarding the reader with a rare, illuminating wisdom.”

—John Smolens, author of nine works of fiction, including The
Anarchist, The Schoolmaster’s Daughter, and Quarantine


"This ingenious novel is about family--the idea of family, and the
gritty day-to-day of it.  It allows you to feel a family's anger and
fear, and watch their battle with--and triumph over--mental illness.  A
tense and gripping read that adds up to something profound.”

--Darin Strauss, author of Chang and Eng and Half a Life: A Memoir


“The mosaic of moving tectonic plates that comprise the Barr family
rupture when Mark returns home after 11 years in New York City to
attend his older brother’s funeral.  Nothing makes sense—his family is
big time dysfunctional with a history of lying, childhood abuse, mental
illness, and secrets.  Not to mention, his wife Lisa keeps calling his
cell trying to dump him.  Local color and details are hardwired into
Cummings’ DNA, but what’s really electrifying are Whitey, the town’s
eccentric, and Sherry May, his dead brother’s intellectually challenged
girlfriend. The ghosts of West Virginia past haunt this novel as they
do the work of Pinckney Benedict and Breece D’J Pancake. Cummings is in
excellent company.”

—Richard Peabody, editor Gargoyle Magazine


"Don't Forget Me, Bro by John Michael Cummings is a very well-written
slice of life novel about a dysfunctional family in present day West
Virginia. It's also the story of three brothers who have escaped their
upbringing in different ways. The narrator, Mark, is the one who has
left the coal mining hills forever, or so he thinks. After a decade of
living in New York, he finally makes that dreaded trip back home for
brother Steve's funeral, and is immediately flooded with depressing
memories and reminders of why he left. Cummings is quite skillful at
showing (instead of telling) his story through details of daily life
and the interactions of his characters. Toward the end, when the
father, mother and two surviving brothers come together briefly to
honor Steve's memory, you get a glimpse of what this family could have
been. Only Mark seems to grow as a character, by facing his own demons
for the first time. If you like realistic fiction, this is your book.”

—Ruth White, author of Belle Prater's Boy and Mansions of Karma.


"Cummings situates the changing West Virginia landscape against the
changeless human heart and comes up with a fresh reminder that
constants like love, decency, and respect between a father and his sons
can’t be replaced by Wal-Marts and Home Depots taking over
West-by-God-Virginia, but these constants remain as deep in men as coal
in the earth.  The writing is taut, the story compelling.”

-Paul Ruffin, Author and Director of Texas Review Press


“As a book reviewer, I'm always on the lookout for outstanding writers.
John Michael Cummings, born in 1963 in Harpers Ferry, West Virginia, is
one of the finest I've encountered. His latest novel, "Don't Forget Me,
Bro" is a prime example of the wonderful storytelling that seems to be
part of the DNA of West Virginians. In this novel, Mark Barr, a writer,
leaves his apartment in Brooklyn to return to West Virginia for the
funeral of his troubled brother, Steve. Mark is well aware of another
writer from below the Mason-Dixon Line, Thomas Wolfe, and his novel
"You Can't Go Home Again." But Mark feels he has to honor the last
words he heard from Steve: "Don't Forget Me, Bro." The novel shows the
brilliance I discovered reading his short story collection, "Ugly to
Start With" and his novel "The Night I Freed John Brown."

—David M. Kinchen, Book Reviewer for www.huntingtonnews.net, with
reviews on Amazon.com and Goodreads


“DON’T FORGET ME, BRO is a tour-de-force of gritty realism.  Rich in
characterization and lyrically written, John Cummings has painted a
heart-felt portrait of dysfunction and inner discovery.  The complex
and utterly compelling tapestry revolves around mental illness, but
DON’T FORGET ME, BRO is that rare book—for the general, educated
reader.  Bravo, bravo.”

--Nathan Leslie, author of Sibs and The Tall Tale of Tommy Twice


“The tragedy that besets the characters in John Michael Cummings’ novel
Don't Forget Me, Bro is magnified by the narrowness of their lives and
the barriers that have existed for decades between them. Faced with the
task of addressing the death of a troubled son and brother, members of
the Barr family fight, deceive, and negotiate with one another,
ultimately revealing themselves to each other as they grapple with the
greater issues of fractured history and broken dreams. And yet, in a
plain-spoken style that often reaches us in a voice much like the hard
truth of memoir, Don’t Forget Me, Bro uncovers the extraordinary
emotional dynamics at play in this memorable family.”

—David Sanders, editor, Poetry News in Review


“The new novel from John Michael Cummings, Don't Forget Me, Bro, evokes
the strong sense of place characteristic of the best Southern
literature. His protagonist, Mark Barr, learns that you can go home
again, but he finds the journey fraught with a legacy of childhood
abuse, mental illness, and scars that never go away.”

--Tom Young, author of The Mullah's Storm, Sand and Fire, and other
novels
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