Reviews!

To any authors/publishers/ tour companies that are looking for the reviews that I signed up for please know this is very hard to do. I will be stopping reviews temporarily. My husband passed away February 1st and my new normal is a bit scary right now and I am unable to concentrate on a book to do justice to the book and authors. I will still do spotlight posts if you wish it is just the reviews at this time. I apologize for this, but it isn't fair to you if I signed up to do a review and haven't been able to because I can't concentrate on any books. Thank you for your understanding during this difficult time. I appreciate all of you. Kathleen Kelly April 2nd 2024

20 September 2017

Between You and Me By Lynn Turner Book Blitz and Giveaway!


About the Book

Between You and Me
By Lynn Turner
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Love, at first sight, strikes Seattle Scientist Finnegan Kane at the worst possible moment, paralyzing him as he’s pitching his cutting-edge idea to powerful New York venture capitalist Emanuela Monroe…

Finn survived the crash that killed his parents when he was sixteen. Twenty years later, his smart devices are about to redefine what it means to be disabled. 

Emanuela makes dreams come true for a living but still longs to fulfill her own. Despite Finn's stunning secret, she thinks his idea might be worth the risk...and he’s determined to show her that he is, too.
Book Trailer



About the Author
Lynn Turner inherited her writing gene from her mother, who created fantastic tales about witches, invisible worlds, and talking animals, and read them to her children at night. Lynn isn’t as great with the voices as her mother, but Rome wasn’t built in a day.

She discovered romance far too young when a mission to find a young adult fantasy title led her to historical romance. She spent hours skimming those sumptuous pages, drinking in the vivid descriptions of settings and clothes, feisty heroines and looming lords, and poetic language. (She may or may not have enjoyed the PG-13 bits too, tucking a new title beneath her pillow at night).

She enjoys character-driven narratives most, and anything that transports her someplace else. Passionate about food and travel, she features healthy doses of both in the stories she crafts. Above all, she is dedicated to writing inclusive stories that explore what it means to be imperfectly human.

When she isn’t writing, she’s traveling, dreaming of traveling, or watching old Samantha Brown travelogue videos and wishing she had her job. She and her husband share their home in California with their two extraordinary children and hope to add a floppy kitty to the family very soon.



AUTHOR’S GIVEAWAY
The author is giving one lucky reader chocolates and a custom-made coffee mug with a poem on it, PLUS an ebook!
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An Excerpt:
All the emotions from that night washed over him and the onslaught churned his stomach. “It was the same for me. But at the same time, I wanted to get far the hell away from you.” He watched her face for any sign of hurt, but to his relief, she just nodded.

“I know.” She frowned. “It was so strange. Almost made me sick.”

He drew in a sharp breath, noticing her stiffen in response.

“What?” she asked.

“That’s exactly how it was for me. It’s how I’m feeling right now.”

She nodded again. “We were both a little off. But your pitch was one of the more memorable ones I’ve had.”

“Don’t remind me. I don’t think I’ve ever botched it like that before.”

“Excuse me?” She smacked his chest. “Maybe I should rescind that offer.”

He chuckled. He knew she was wide open, and he wanted her to trust him. It was his turn to be exposed. He tapped his leg. “This is the best one I’ve had so far, except I can’t deep sea dive with it.”

She reached for his hand. “How many do you have?”

“Just one. But I’m waiting for the military to finish developing those bionic legs so I can lift cars with my foot.”

Her slim fingers traced his bigger ones. “You don’t have to do that, you know. Self-deprecate. You’ve already seen me naked.”

His eyes raked over her, his pulse jumping at her words. “You have no idea how much I’d like to see that again,” he said, sensing her shiver. “But first I want you to see me too. The real me.” He looked down at their hands. “Only if you’re comfortable.”

“I want to see. I just didn’t know how to ask. Or if I should ask.” She smiled. “I didn’t want to offend you.”

“You haven’t asked me to spank you with it, so this is already an improvement from my last date.”

Emanuela gasped. “No…”

He laughed at her horrified expression. “’Fraid so.” He gently removed her legs from his lap and stood in front of her. “And that was an improvement from the date before that.”

“Oh my God.” She snickered. “That’s awful.”

“Well, some kinky stuff is fun.”

“Ugh.” She narrowed her eyes. “Just drop your pants already!”

He grinned and turned away to do just that, bending to tug them off before coming back to sit beside her. Without further ceremony, he pushed on the front of the leg and a tiny motor whirred. “It’s vacuum sealed,” he said. “The button is hidden beneath this sleeve.”

He pulled down the flesh-colored skin covering his knee and the prosthetic leg. Then, he removed the prosthesis and propped it against the end table, glancing at Emanuela.

“What’s that?” she asked.

“It’s a sock. Just makes it more comfortable. Tighter fit.”

“How does it feel to take it off? Is it like taking your shoes off at the end of the day?”

“Wow.” He smiled wide. “That’s not half bad… It’s more like taking off a snug pair of jeans. Just by the way it feels.”

She nodded and he removed the sock, then peeled off the liner to leave his stump bare.

He watched her a moment, letting her take it in. Her eyes widened. Much of his leg was intact, halfway to his shin. It was smooth and conical, with a long pink scar at the tip of the stump.

“Some assembly required,” he said.

She made a sound that was half-gasp, half-laugh. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was shocked the first time I saw it too.”

Her lips parted and closed again, darkness clouding her eyes. Finn could read everything in her face, and he silently agreed with the conflict he saw there. Part of him wanted to share the details about what happened, but another part of him wanted to preserve a moment that was new and exciting and full of promise. Another time. If she gives me a chance.


Nerve Damage by J.L. Meyers Book Tour and Giveaway!



Nerve Damage
by J.L. Meyers
Genre: Psychological Thriller

A fatal car crash. The sole survivor. And the dark hooded stranger that wants her dead.

When a terrible accident—not accidentstole my parents’ lives, my whole perfect life changed. My memories are hazy, and there are scars on my wrists. I’ve been locked away for my own protection…until I prove my sanity, until I lie. There was no hooded figure on the road that day, no one standing over me as I lay paralyzed watching my parents burn.


I am Cassidy Lockheart…20-year-old orphan.

Determined to free my caged mind, I find myself far away on an unexpected trip to help return my forgotten past. The snow was part of my life before, but now it’s like a blank slate, until an avalanche changes everything. But I’m not alone. These other ‘lucky’ trip winners may not be the strangers they pretend to be. And my hooded attacker…I see him everywhere.

Is this real? Or delusion caused by head trauma?

Either way, I’m being watched. I can sense it. I can feel it. Someone is after me; maybe they’re after us all. The avalanche was no accident. It was staged to deliver us to this abandoned place. A place where the walls whisper dark secrets of a sinister past…a past no one can escape. Trapped, this snow won’t let up…it won’t let us leave. My lost memories hold clues, but they’re buried so deep, polluted and twisted in my every waking nightmare. What is real? I don’t have the answers. But I need them. Time is ticking and if I don’t figure this all out soon it will be too late.

The past is coming for us all…and it wants blood.


Warning - This book contains some graphic scenes that are only for an adult audience.
Psychological Thriller / Horror


"Think of the tension of Silence of the Lambs combined with the horror of Carrie and you have Nerve Damage. This is a psychological thriller that won’t let you put it down, yet you are almost too scared to turn the page!”

Diane Richmond (devoted bookworm) ★★★★★
This chilling tale from J.L. Myers is a suspenseful and twisted addition to other great psychological thrillers from the likes of Sarah A. Denzil, K.L. Slater, and Dot Hutchison.



Jessica L Myers' vivid imagination and quiet demeanor as a child led her to the imaginary worlds of books. Even at a young age, her love for the supernatural was prevalent, with her first loved books being R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps series. Following that she took an interest in other non-fantasy fiction, including Virginia C. Andrews series Flowers in the Attic.

In her teen years, Jessica spent many school hours writing poetry and dark short stories and took up sketching some of the terrifying things that came from the graphic night terrors she’d grown up with.

As an adult and after meeting the love of her life, Jessica got married and started a small construction business with her husband. With the birth of her son, Jessica suffered PPD and found escape in her books and their fantasy landscapes. It was at this time that her need to write flourished. In 2009 the decision was made and the first words to her New Adult Paranormal Romance novel What Lies Inside were written.

When Jessica isn’t immersed in writing about extraordinary characters with dangerous abilities and deadly obstacles to overcome, she likes to spend time with her two kids and husband, curl up with a good book, or watch anything and everything supernatural.


Website * Facebook * BB Series Facebook * Twitter * Amazon * Goodreads

Nerve Damage Excerpt 1

I trudged along a scenic, tree-winding road that saw at most a few cars every hour. In gray jeans and a black hoodie, I blended into the dreary surroundings, just another shadow below the early morning ashen clouds.
A deep ache settled in and I shrugged my clanking backpack higher once, twice, three times after a few more steps. My gloved hand on the strap kept the heavy load from sliding back down. My car was well out of reach now. Out of sight too, down over the steep drop-off to the right in an isolated parking lot no one used in these colder months of the year. Safe and hidden…until I needed it. The rain that fell was ignored, the crunch of wet gravel under my combat boots lost to the sway of wind-battered trees.
Though I stared ahead, what I saw was not the hardening downpour or the flying of loose leaves. Instead, I saw a girl’s face. Young. Innocent. Twentyish with forest-green eyes and long, almost black hair. Her smile had been infectious and the words from her pretty mouth had set my course. “…Saturday morning. At the crack of dawn. My dad doesn’t believe in waiting for sunrise. Not when the whole day is waiting. That Kananaskis Trail…”
Now I was here. Soon I’d be the one waiting.
Right before a hairpin bend on this less-traveled road, my booted strides stopped. Anticipation filled me with a flood of warmth, but a deep breath of brisk air tightened my chest. I ignored the discomfort as raindrops trickled down my brow and cheeks. After days, months, and years this was it. There was no turning back now. This was my only escape, my only way to make the past right.
Dropping my backpack with a clatter and quick stretch of my back, I bent over. A flash of cold metal came free, long like a chain but not as smooth. The long length jangled as I stretched it out over the asphalt and then the weedy grass beyond before tucking the end behind a bush.
Road spikes.
A quick jog delivered me back across the road and I reclaimed my lumpy backpack. Then I was back at the bush and crouching behind it. A quick grab and click cemented the scene as my Polaroid camera hummed out a happy snap. A memento. As I tucked the device back out of the rain, a set of headlights shone around a smooth bend back down the road and brought my head up.
“Shit!” I spat from beneath my hood as an old sedan sailed too fast up the rain-slicked road. My gloved hands tugged the length of metal back just before the sedan’s tires could claim those sharp spikes. Heart pounding like a drum, I muttered as I watched the red taillights disappear around the bend. Wrong car. Then I ran out to string those spikes back in place. An approaching white glow had my hood snapping up to see another car coming.
Right on time.
Racing back over the road, I dove for cover behind the bush. The headlights of the approaching white Merc flashed on highs for two beats.
I’d been spotted.
And then the front tires hit the spikes. With a hiss of released air, traction was lost. The man driving yanked the steering wheel and anchored on the brakes, the tires barely squealing on the wet asphalt. But it was too late. The drenched road provided a slippery passage as the sedan fishtailed then spun, sliding sideways over the edge too fast to stop. It tipped on the sudden drop-off, tumbling guts over roof, guts over roof.
The tall cypress tree that halted its descent with a deafening clap wasn’t a Godsend. Metal cried out as it curved around the tree, reshaping the driver’s side and shattering the windshield.
And then there was a moment of pure quiet, nothing but the sound of peaceful whooshing wind as the rain eased off.
Tugging back the spikes and concealing them behind the bush, I hoisted up the backpack and unhurriedly made my way down the slippery path to the wreck. The next part to come was a means to an end. My anticipation lied in the aftermath but not in this act. And yet with each step, I felt nothing. No uncertainty. No regret. Those feelings I’d shed long ago. I’d had no choice.
Reaching the wreckage, red was visible beneath the mud-caked windows. My backpack was dropped to gain a closer look. The middle-aged female in the front passenger side was out cold, with cuts that leaked blood down her face to her blouse. In the driver’s side, the man’s features were unrecognizable, covered in glossy red. There was a creak of movement. It wasn’t him. In the back, there she was, her perfect lips no longer smiling and dark bruising puffing up her pale face. With a blink of her lids over her bloodshot green eyes, she wasn’t dead.
Unfortunate for her…she was coming around.
I tugged the car’s back door open and reached in, taking hold of the young woman and dragging her out. She was pretty out of it, eyes dazed and lids twitching. She was injured too, with multiple cuts and bruises on her face and arms. A bump on her forehead was ballooning beneath the skin. Her feet trailed as I dragged her by her arms across the mushed-up ground.
Then I noticed the object she somehow clutched in her tight fingers. A phone. Relieving her of the device once we were well out of reach, I positioned her to face the wreck.
“Don’t worry. I’ve got you now.”
My combats squelched through the mud back to the car, and with a lean over the dead man, a click sounded as I unlocked the fuel tank. Back around the Merc, I found the fuel lid open and unscrewed the cap. My black Zippo lighter came free of my pocket along with a long rag. A minute or so after soaking the rag and I was yards away, the Zippo’s flame fighting the wind and rain and losing.
“Cassidy…” The woman still in the car—the young woman’s mother—was waking up. Still alive. She moved as her hand came up to her head. “Cas…talk to me.” She groaned, and then sucked air as she twisted to get a better view, seeing her husband and the empty back seat. “Cas!”
The girl’s eyes fluttered then went wide. Her voice was a painful rasp. “Mom…”
“Time to say goodbye.” There was a crunching scrape as the Zippo sparked back to life. The flame met the material’s end and I returned to the girl, turning to see the fire retreat.
“Mom!” The girl’s voice was shrill, and she swayed as she scrambled to get up. Her eyes rolled like marbles, bringing her back down. And then it was too late. With a whoosh the soaked rag below the sedan ignited in a fiery ball, climbing up the metal walls and curving inside the dry cab. The woman’s shrieks cut through the dying rain as my camera immortalized this moment in time. But the sounds of her death faded all too fast, the fire taking her pain away. Taking her life away.
As the girl I’d saved from the wreck whimpered, I readied what I needed before returning. Standing over her, the small boulder in my hands blocked the view of my face. The hefty weight of the rock returned that ache to my tired shoulders. “Don’t worry, Cassidy. This isn’t the end. I need your help…to bring them all to me.”

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!



Hair Brained (The Bad Hair Day Mysteries) by Nancy J. Cohen Book Tour and Giveaway!

Hair Brained (The Bad Hair Day Mysteries) by Nancy J. Cohen


Cozy Mystery 14th in Series 
Orange Grove Press (September 12, 2017) 
Print Length: 342 pages 
E-Book ASIN: B072XVHPPH

Was the car crash an accident or a deliberate attempt to run Marla's friends off the road?
When hairstylist Marla Vail's best friend is hurt in a suspicious car accident, Marla assumes guardianship of her infant son. No sooner does Marla say, "Baby want a bottle?" than she's embroiled in another murder investigation. Her husband, Detective Dalton Vail, determines the crash may not have been an accident after all. But then, who would want Tally--or Ken in the car with her--out of the way? As Marla digs deeper into her friends' lives, she realizes she didn't know them as well as she'd thought. Nonetheless, it's her duty as their son's guardian to ensure his safety, even if it means putting her own life at risk. Can she protect the baby and find the culprit before someone else ends up as roadkill?

 

About The Author

Nancy J. Cohen writes the Bad Hair Day Mysteries featuring South Florida hairstylist Marla Vail. Titles in this series have made the IMBA bestseller list and been selected by Suspense Magazine as best cozy mystery. Nancy has also written the instructional guide, Writing the Cozy Mystery. Her imaginative romances, including the Drift Lords series, have proven popular with fans as well. A featured speaker at libraries, conferences, and community events, Nancy is listed in Contemporary Authors, Poets & Writers, and Who's Who in U.S. Writers, Editors, & Poets. When not busy writing, she enjoys fine dining, cruising, visiting Disney World, and shopping.

Author Links
Website: http://nancyjcohen.com 
Blog: http://nancyjcohen.wordpress.com 
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NancyJCohenAuthor 
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/nancyjcohen 
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/91508.Nancy_J_Cohen 
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/njcohen/ 
Linked In: http://www.linkedin.com/in/nancyjcohen 
Booklover’s Bench: http://bookloversbench.com 
Newsletter Sign-Up: http://nancyjcohen.com/newsletter/   
Purchase Links: 
Amazon 
B&N 
kobo 
iBook 
Google Play

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TOUR PARTICIPANTS
September 12 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW
September 12 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – INTERVIEW
September 13 – Socrates’ Book Reviews – REVIEW
September 13 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT
September 14 – Community Bookstop – REVIEW
September 14 – Island Confidential – CHARACTER INTERVIEW
September 15 – Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book – REVIEW
September 15 – Back Porchervations – REVIEW
September 16 – Brooke Blogs – CHARACTER GUEST POST
September 17 – A Holland Reads –  GUEST POST
September 18 – Deal Sharing Aunt –  INTERVIEW
September 18 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT
September 19 – Cozy Up With Kathy – GUEST POST
September 19 – Bibliophile Reviews – REVIEW
September 20 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST
September 20 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

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The Keeping of Secrets by Alice Grayship Book Spotlight and Character Review!




The Keeping of Secrets
The keeper of family secrets, Patricia Roberts grows up isolated and lonely. Trust no one and you won't be disappointed is her motto. Three men fall in love with her and she learns to trust, only to find that their agendas are not her own. With secrets concealed from her by the ultimate love of her life, and with her own secret to keep, duplicity and deceit threaten their relationship. In a coming of age story set against the sweeping backdrop of the Second World War - evacuation, the Battle of Britain, the Blitz, buzz bombs and secret war work - Patricia ultimately has to decide whether to reveal her deepest held secret for the sake of her future happiness.



About the author: Born and raised in the Home Counties, Alice Graysharp has enjoyed a varied working life from hospitality to office work and retail. She currently lives in Surrey. This is her first novel, and the first title in a two book series, she is also already working on a seventeenth century trilogy. Published in the anniversary month of the outbreak of the Second World War and the Battle of Britain

Bill Character Spotlight


Q. Who is Bill?

A. Bill (William) Whitshere is Pat’s best and only friend at the start of the story. He is six months older than Pat; we meet him shortly before Christmas 1939 by which time he is 16.


Q. How does Bill know Pat?

A. Bill’s and Pat’s fathers played cricket together for the Clapham Cricket Club when Bill and Pat were young. Traditionally the husbands played the cricket and the wives prepared tea, which is how Pat’s mother and Bill’s mother met. The families have kept in touch since and have regular get-togethers.


Q. What was the inspiration behind the character of Bill?

A. Pat had traumatic times in her childhood and is expected to keep family secrets. I wondered what effect these inhibitors might have had on her ability to develop close friendships with girls who can be more demanding in friendships than boys. I thought she might find the kind of intense relationships between girls, especially teenage girls, difficult to handle, especially with the level of secrecy imposed on her. Boys tend to develop socially at a slower pace and approach friendships on a different level. I therefore thought it likely that if Pat did have a friend she is more likely to have a friend who is a boy because it would be a safer kind of friendship: ‘He didn’t demand emotional commitment or a swapping of secrets and confidences.’ So Bill was created as a brother figure with whom she could share some good times.

Q. What does Bill look like?

A. Bill has inherited his father’s shorter, stockier frame, and has dark brown hair, grey-green eyes and a generous, wide mouth. When we meet him at Christmas time 1939 he has spent a term of weekends cycling home from Reading and ‘I suddenly realised that the hand that held mine was attached to a firm, muscular arm and that he was leaner than the stocky boy I remembered.’


Q. What is Bill’s personality like?

A. Bill is a bouncy, humorous, larger than life character who enjoys a sense of the dramatic. He and Pat have developed a kind of “ta-da” greeting. He is capable of empathy; a friendly arm around her if as a child she fell and scraped her knee. However, he used to play practical jokes on Pat, but now is capable of insight and realises that she has unhappy feelings around them and apologises for his childhood behaviour. He is also developing has a deeper, more serious side which takes Pat by surprise.


Q. What are Bill’s likes and dislikes?

A. Bill likes jokes, especially corny ones, and puzzles and games. When they were younger Pat and Bill would play with his train set or pour over his collection of Champion and Hotspur, reading aloud or enacting their scenes of derring-do and adventure. He likes cricket but is not so keen on rugby or football.


Q. What does Bill want to do when he grows up?

A. Bill wants to go into the diplomatic service. He struggles at school, especially with maths which is a disappointment to his father who wants him to become an accountant. His favourite subjects are languages and he want to travel and use his languages. Whether he succeeds in achieving his chosen career…. this may be something we find out in book 2.


Q. How does Bill find evacuation?

A. Bill misses his home enough to cycle from Reading to Brixton at weekends, and he is encouraged in this by cycling with his new friend, Jon, who is billeted with him on evacuation.


Q. What can you tell us about his feelings for Pat?

A. When we meet him he appears to be the hearty, brotherly friend she has always known, but underneath he has been harbouring romantic feelings for her.  It is not clear for how long, though perhaps for some time as his Christmas present to her reveals his feelings and he later lets slip that he has always regarded her as his girl.


Q. How does Bill develop as the story progresses?

A. Well, I don’t want to give away too many spoilers but he develops a certain stoicism and acceptance and proves capable of biding his time, remaining loyal despite feelings of jealousy. Conversely this could be seen as exhibiting a certain amount of possessiveness. As to where his relationship with Pat goes eventually, you’ll have to read the book!  


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