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
Kate Jameson married the man of her dreams. Her real-life hero. A man who wouldn’t abandon her the way her father had—or so she thought. Weeks after their son’s birth, her husband is suddenly pulled away for a business trip that takes him out of the country. But something isn’t r ight. His truths aren’t adding up. Kate digs into his past, determined to learn what he’s hiding. But unraveling this endless mystery draws her into a maze of lies, family secrets and deadly consequences.
For twenty years, undercover CIA agent Eric Wiley lived for one reason—to avenge his parents’ brutal deaths. Until he marries Kate. Eric promises her a life of love and commitment, but competing promises constantly collide, offering him little chance of keeping either. When an informant lures him to Mexico, Eric thinks his goal of apprehending an elusive killer will be realized. Leaving his family for a few short days, weeks at the most, would be worth the prize.
Can this final mission bring closure and allow Eric to be the husband Kate deserves and the father he yearns to be? Or will their destiny remain mired in the secrets of his past, leaving them powerless to embrace their present?
About the Author
When she’s not playing with her granddaughters, Pennsylvania native Claire Yezbak Fadden is writing contemporary women’s fiction. Her books feature strong women who overcome life’s challenges, always putting their families first.
There's a special spot in Claire's heart for carousel horses – quite possibly the result of watching “Mary Poppins” 13 times as a young girl. She loves butterflies, ladybugs and confetti! Just ask anyone who's received a birthday card from her.
The mother of three lives in Orange County, California with her husband, Nick and three spoiled dogs.
Claire’s work as an award-winning journalist, humor columnist and editor has appeared in more than 100 publications across the United States, Canada and Australia. Promises To Keep is the second novel in her Begin Again series. Buy Links.
He walked to where she stood and kissed her cheek before embracing his wife and son in a group hug. “I feel damn lucky this emergency didn’t come up sooner.”
He brushed her arm, noting the goosebumps prickling against his palm.
“If that call had come before Benjamin’s birth, would you have left and missed seeing your son be born?” she asked.
How could he answer without adding more lies to the growing mountain of falsehoods he’d already fabricated? As far as she knew, he was committed to his profession as an importer for his parents’ chain of discount stores. The success of his mission—and possibly his safety—depended on her believing that version.
“Of course not.” Eric told her what she wanted to hear.
KATE
Kate smiled at the way Eric’s eyebrows arched in his hopeless attempts to get Benjamin’s attention. For the past twenty minutes, she held their son in an awkward posture in front of her desktop computer camera, coaxing a somewhat sleeping baby to greet his father. Up until a few seconds ago, their son displayed little interest. She knew the squirming had more to do with hunger than his eagerness to interact with his dad.
Kate had waited all day for Eric to call. She needed to see his face, stubbled with a five-o’clock shadow, even if it was through her computer screen. She shifted Benjamin to her other arm. This must be how military families with one parent deployed feel.
This wasn’t the marriage she signed up for. Twenty minutes over a video call couldn’t substitute for his presence. It could be exhaustion or not getting regular sleep, but she wondered if the man she married was more like her father in ways she hadn’t anticipated. Eric wasn’t an alcoholic, a wifebeater or a deadbeat. But neither was Monica’s husband, Brad. Kate had witnessed how her brother-in-law’s sins nearly ripped the soul of their family apart.
There were all sorts of ways to abandon your wife and desert your family. Just because she was most familiar with the ones her father implemented, didn’t mean that she and her sisters wouldn’t suffer from other approaches. Separated by hundreds of miles without knowing when he would return qualified as desertion of a type. At least in Kate’s mind.
A cupcake baker with magical abilities suddenly finds herself competing with the unfortunately
handsome owner of the fancy new bakery across the street in Golden Heart® Winner Tara Sheets's magical romantic comedy releasing April 24th, 2018.
Rafflecopter for Don’t Call Me Cupcake First Look Celebration Giveaway: Tara is offering one (1) lucky Grand Prize winner an Alex & Ani cupcake charm bracelet and a
paperback ARC of Don’t Call Me Cupcake. Two (2) Runner-Up winners will receive a paperback ARC of Don’t Call Me Cupcake! To enter, simply fill out the Rafflecopter below:
Synopsis: There’s a very special kind of sweetness to life on Pine Cove Island … Most families have a favorite recipe or two, handed down through generations. The Holloway
women are a little different. Emma Holloway, like her grandmother before her, bakes charms into her delicious cupcakes, granting the recipient comfort, sweet dreams, or any number of good things. It’s a strange gift, but it brings only happiness. Until gorgeous, smooth-talking newcomer Hunter Kane strolls into her shop, Fairy Cakes—and Emma makes the mistake of selling him not one, but three Sweet Success cupcakes.
Hunter, it turns out, is opening a fancy new restaurant and bakery right on the waterfront—Emma’s
competition. To make matters worse, the town committee has decided to split the upcoming summer festival contract between the two, forcing Emma to work with her nemesis. But she can’t afford to split her profits. The solution: create a recipe that will make Hunter leave town permanently.
The Holloway charms are powerful. But there are other kinds of magic in the world—like red-hot
first kisses, secret glances, and the feeling that comes with falling truly, madly, inconveniently in love . . .
“You.” A woman’s voice called behind him, and he turned to see the cupcake girl marching toward him. She was still wearing that black-and-white frilly apron. With her blond ringlets flying around her delicate face and flinty sparks in her gray eyes, Hunter felt like he was about to be attacked by a sexy Goldilocks.
He searched behind him as she approached, to make sure she wasn’t talking to someone else. “Me?”
She stopped in front of him, a little out of breath from her march down the street. Her chest lifted and fell intriguingly over the white apron lace, but her rosebud mouth was pursed tightly and Hunter took a step back. He had seen that look on women before. Goldilocks was not happy.
“Yes, you,” she said through gritted teeth. “You lied to me. You’re not a tourist.”
“Uh,” Hunter glanced around for a moment. “I’m not?”
“No, you’re not.” She stepped in close, grabbing the pastry box out of his hand. She peered inside and glared up at him in accusation. “And of course. You had to go and eat all three of them, didn’t you?”
He blinked. “But, I paid for them, remember?”
“That’s not the point. You. Ate. Them.”
“Yes,” he said carefully. Maybe Goldilocks liked to spike her morning porridge. “They were delicious?”
“Ugh.” She stomped her foot and he tried not to smile. She was irritated, yes, but so damn adorable. Even if she was a little bit odd.
“Yes.” He held out his hand and gave her his best smile. “I’m Hunter Kane.”
She frowned back at him, ignoring his hand. “I know who you are. And you should have told me that before I gave you those Sweet Success cupcakes.”
“Why?”
“Because I own Fairy Cakes, and now your business is going to take away all my customers.” She looked so upset that Hunter felt a twinge of pity for her, even though she was being ridiculous. Competition was the name of the game in any industry, and restaurant ownership was no exception. “Look, I’m sorry you feel that way, but it’s just business. And why would my eating your chocolate cupcakes be a problem anyway? It’s not like I’m going to steal the recipe or something.”
“Ha,” she scoffed. “As if you ever could. My cupcakes are special, and everyone on this island knows it.”
“Oh . . . kay.” He still wasn’t quite sure what she was getting at.
“And now you’ve gone and eaten them.” She threw her hands up in the air.
Hunter frowned down at her. “Well, excuse me, ma’am. I thought that was the whole point of buying them.”
She jammed her hands onto her hips. “First of all, I’m twenty-five years old. Don’t call me ‘ma’am.’ Save it for old ladies with lapdogs.”
“Fine, Cupcake.” He shouldn’t have said it. He knew it. But something about her righteous indignation made him want to tease her. She gasped, her eyes narrowing on him like an angry feline. He was so dead.
About Tara Sheets: TARA SHEETS is an award-winning author of contemporary romance and women’s fiction.
Her work has earned first place recognition in literary contests nationwide and her debut novel, Don’t Call Me Cupcake, won the 2016 Golden Heart® award sponsored by Romance Writers of America®. Tara began her career as an author in the Pacific Northwest, inspired by the rain and the misty mountains and the rivers of Starbucks coffee. She now lives in the warm, wonderful South where she can stand outside with no coat on, and she finds that pretty inspiring too. When not writing, Tara enjoys life with her book-loving family and a book-eating dog named Merlin. She is represented by Sarah Phair at Trident Media Group.
Mankind’s greatest fear is also its greatest obsession. What awaits when we shuffle off the mortal coil of this world? We all have our beliefs based on faith or science, but both struggle to provide a tangible answer. Perhaps it is possible to prove the existence of the soul, to prove it goes on after death. Following the violent death of his parents, Jeff Granger seeks reassurance that they have moved on. After recording what he believes to be his mother’s voice at the site of the accident, Jeff’s obsession throws him into paranormal research. Realizing that most people are doing it just for fun, Jeff forms his own group. He is joined by Debbie Gillerson, a school teacher; Aaron Presley, a mortician; and Michael Pacheco, a grocery store manager. Even though they are all investigating the paranormal for very different reasons, they are all trying to fill an emptiness in their lives. The deeper they probe paranormal theory, the darker their results. The only way to truly test the ‘Death Theory’, as theorized by Aaron, is to monitor a person’s energy at the moment of death. Horrified by the immoral and unethical application, the group dismisses the theory. A darkness seems to follow their investigations and the police become involved. A former colleague of Jeff’s, a self-proclaimed demonologist, believes a demonic force is attached to the group. The police are not so sure. Evil comes in many forms as the small group is about to discover.
Book Details:
Genre: Mystery, Thriller, Paranormal Published by: Draft 2 Digital Publication Date: January 30th 2018 Number of Pages: 320 ISBN: 9781537849713 Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Google Books | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
Death is the closest thing to omnipotence we will experience in our brief time on this planet. It is an all-encompassing power, binding everything, and providing a cold certainty to an otherwise uncertain existence. The firm grip of this assurance reaches much further than the extinguishment of life; it greedily claims the hope and happiness of those who remain. It is a definite ending, but is it also a provable beginning?
Prologue
Linda Granger did not see death coming.
Sleep shielded her from the unfolding horror. The looming headlights and the panicked screams of her husband were beyond her conscious state. When her head shattered the windshield, the dream about her son ended, sending her into what’s next. Linda was gone before the car rolled seven times and wrapped around a large oak tree. Her husband, Stephen, was not as fortunate. He died two minutes later. Linda had fallen asleep from emotional exhaustion. She died with regrets.
John D. Mimms is a business owner, paranormal researcher and author. John served as the Technical Director for a TAPS (The Atlantic Paranormal Society) family paranormal research group in Central Arkansas. During his four-year tenure with the organization, he helped supervise over 100 investigations and wrote more than sixteen technical articles. Paul Bradford, of Ghost Hunters International fame, read one of John's articles titled A Christmas Carol Debunked live on the air of the Parazona Radio program on Christmas Day 2009. John also wrote a definitive technical/training manual, which is a comprehensive guide on equipment usage, investigation protocol and scientific theory for paranormal research.
In 2009 John decided to couple his knowledge of paranormal phenomena with his lifelong love of literary fiction. John's first published work, The Tesla Gate, is the first installment of a three-part, heart-wrenching, sci-fi/paranormal drama.
Book 1 of this unique, ground-breaking story released July 2014 through Open Road Media. In January 2016, Open Road Media released The Tesla Gate Book 2: The Myriad Resistance. Book 3: The Eye of Madness is slated for release September 27, 2016. Though fictional, the trilogy is based on scientific, paranormal theory.
Publishers Weekly declared about The Tesla Gate in the March 3, 2014 issue "…touching sci-fi story that takes the reader on an unlikely road-trip adventure…a fast read with some entertaining ideas and a real emotional core in the relationship between father and son."
The Examiner proclaimed in June 2014: "Entertaining as well as poignant, this book is extremely imaginative in its basic premise as well as the many colorful and emotionally compelling events that take place."
John resides and writes on a mountaintop in central Arkansas with his wife and two sons.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Giveaway:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for John D. Mimms. There will be 3 winners of one (1) physical copy of Death Theory by John D. Mimms (US ONLY) AND 3 winners of one (1) audiobook copy of Death Theory by John D. Mimms. The giveaway begins on February 1, 2018 and runs through March 31, 2018. This giveaway is open to US addressess only. a Rafflecopter giveaway