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
1940 Liverpool. The pressures of war threaten to tear apart two sisters traumatised by their father’s murder of their mother.
With her new husband, Will, a merchant seaman, deployed on dangerous Atlantic convoy missions, Hannah needs her younger sister Judith more than ever. But when Mussolini declares war on Britain, Judith's Italian sweetheart, Paolo is imprisoned as an enemy alien, and Judith's loyalties are divided.
Each sister wants only to be with the man she loves but, as the war progresses, tensions between them boil over, and they face an impossible decision.
A heart-wrenching page-turner about the everyday bravery of ordinary people during wartime. From heavily blitzed Liverpool to the terrors of the North Atlantic and the scorched plains of Australia, Sisters at War will bring tears to your eyes and joy to your heart.
Clare Flynn is the author of thirteen historical novels and a collection of short stories. A former International Marketing Director and strategic management consultant, she is now a full-time writer.
Having lived and worked in London, Paris, Brussels, Milan and Sydney, home is now on the coast, in Sussex, England, where she can watch the sea from her windows. An avid traveler, her books are often set in exotic locations.
Clare is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, a member of The Society of Authors, ALLi, and the Romantic Novelists Association. When not writing, she loves to read, quilt, paint and play the piano.
Sarah Blair gets an education in slicing and dicing when someone in culinary school serves up a main corpse in Wheaton, Alabama . . .
Between working as a law firm receptionist, reluctantly pitching in as co-owner of her twin sister’s restaurant, and caretaking for her regal Siamese RahRah and rescue dog Fluffy, Sarah has no time to enjoy life’s finer things. Divorced and sort-of dating, she’s considering going back to school. But as a somewhat competent sleuth, Sarah’s more suited for criminal justice than learning how many ways she can burn a meal.
Although she wouldn’t mind learning some knife skills from her sous chef, Grace Winston. An adjunct instructor who teaches cutlery expertise in cooking college, Grace is considering accepting an executive chef’s position offered by Jane Clark, Sarah’s business rival—and her late ex-husband’s lover. But Grace’s future lands in hot water when the school’s director is found dead with one of her knives in his back. To clear her friend’s name, Sarah must sharpen her own skills at uncovering an elusive killer . . .
Includes quick and easy recipes!
About Debra H. Goldstein
Judge Debra H. Goldstein writes Kensington’s Sarah Blair mystery series (Three Treats TooMany, Two Bites Too Many, One Taste Too Many). She also authored Should HavePlayed Poker and IPPY Award-winning Maze in Blue. Her short stories have been named Agatha, Anthony, Derringer finalists. Debra serves on the national boards of Mystery Writers of America and is president of SEMWA. She previously was on Sisters in Crime’s national board and president of SinC’s Guppy Chapter.
Publisher : Bragi Press Pub Date: December 2020; Audiobook May 2021 Language : English 336 pages Hardcover ISBN-13 : 978-1087946375 Paperback ISBN-13 : 978-1736377345
ABOUT THE BOOK
In this post-apocalyptic sci-fi thriller set nearly 100 years into the future, the earth has been decimated by pollution and civilization has fallen into ruin. The war between nature and humanity has no winner. Humanity’s drive for energy and technology was its downfall. In this polluted world, survivors fight on and endure the world destroyed by their ancestors. From what was left, they will rebuild and struggle to make a better place for their descendants.
Three time periods, four characters, each fighting for their future:
2099: Oliver, a lone rider bearing the scars of the old world, flees east into the untamed lands beyond the Rocky Mountains. He spearheads the frontier and carries the burden of civilization into the new world, destined to rebuild from the ruins. He has to survive the wasteland where the earth is toxic, and the very air itself is a corrosive poison.
2154: London, a veteran of the wasteland, shields his adopted daughter Rose from an unforgiving world. They live in a new age that’ll soon draw them into the bitter feuds between fledgling nations. London will sacrifice anything for Rose. Unbeknownst to London, they are about to be drawn right into the scourge of war.
2185: Simon, a man born and raised on the great Arcadis space station, faces suppressive pressure from The Peacekeepers and The Leaders. Ever the tinkerer, Simon needs to be careful as he breaks the authoritarian rules in the world he has to live in.
Together they may be the last hope for humanity.
A compelling and action-packed novel where nothing less than humanity is at stake. For those who have read The Gunslinger and Mad Max, Forgive Us presents a similar ride that spans three generations of a destroyed earth.
E.T. Gunnarsson is an 18-year-old post-apocalyptic thriller author who suffers from dysgraphia and cannot write by hand easily. He grew up on a horse-rescue ranch in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. He is a home/ online schooler and will soon pursue college online.
He is a purple belt in Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, a brown belt in Judo, and trained with the Judo and Grecco-Roman Wrestling Olympic teams at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. Knowledgeable in Norse mythology and religion (he writes in Futhark!), he manages an online community for Norse pagans. Forgive Us is his first book. Abandon Us, the prequel to Forgive Us, is scheduled for release early 2022.
Audiobook Narrator Craig Bowles is a graduate of The Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London, where he gained a BA in Acting. His talents are focused on the creation of audiobooks and other voice work. He likes nothing better than getting totally immersed in a great story. The winning combination of superb acting skills and a love of literature, allows him to create high quality audiobooks with his rich, silvery, properly British voice.
PRAISE FOR FORGIVE US
“Gunnarsson Presents A Horrific And Brilliant Future in ‘Forgive Us’” – HorrorFuel
“Readers seeking a solid work of social evolution, technological advancement, and dystopian power struggles will find Forgive Us a compelling piece that draws the reader with realistic characters and a satisfyingly complex series of subplots.” — Midwest Book Review
“Author E. T. Gunnarsson delivers a powerhouse of post-apocalyptic prose in this highly engrossing and cinematically styled novel…For its edge-of-your-seat thrills, inviting character work and deep conceptual realism, I would highly recommend Forgive Us to fans of dystopian worlds, suspenseful horror and for survival fiction fans everywhere.” — Readers’ Favorite
“The world-building was phenomenal in this brilliant and entertaining novel. The author gave readers exceptional characters that drove the story forward and allowed them to form a relationship with each of them…Forgive Us is an incredibly complex yet refreshing story!” — Readers’ Favorite
For Savannah Fraiser, her one-night stand with billionaire Michael Asara changed her life forever. But becoming a family will be harder than expected when fighting for those you love are threatened by power and greed. Readers will devour this billionaire blackmail romance featuring one sexy reluctant dad. Fall in love with your next book boyfriend with Savannah’s Salvation by Louise Lennox, the first book in the Single Dad’s Romance series.
For one night, I had the one man that millions of women worldwide fantasize about.
My time with the French billionaire Michael Asara shouldn't matter, but it does. Because one night left me with so much more than a good time.
Except, he has no idea that he left me with more than a smile on my face, because I fled without a good-bye. And planned to never look back.
Until I'm forced to tell Michael about the product of our one-night stand while on assignment a year later in Paris.
Already a devoted dad to a little girl who was abandoned by her gold-digging mother, Michael isn't looking to get burned twice.
Unless that fire is between the sheets, where our chemistry is off the charts. Reconnecting and proving to him that I'm not like everyone else quickly has Michael staking his claim on me and our son.
For a moment, we're almost like a real family.
But when a blackmailer comes along and threatens to take what belongs to him, he vows to do anything to protect us...even if that means letting us go
My daughter is my entire world, but my father views her birth as a blemish on my record. He loves Gabrielle and treats her like spun silk. But whenever I talk of taking over the family business, he mentions the circumstances of her birth and accuses me of poor judgement. And because I still wet my wick more often than my father likes, he thinks I haven’t changed.
I need to prove to him I am more than a pretty face for the cameras and women to love. I can run the business. Closing this deal in America will show him that.
However, coming to SAX Lounge before I head home and being loudly called an asshole by one of the most beautifully ballsy women I’ve ever seen will not.
She is breathtaking... whoever she is.
She’s taller than most women, but still at least a full foot shorter than me. Her legs went on forever in that dress and her skin is the color of browned butter. It looked smooth and touchable. She wore little make-up and when she spoke to me, her full lips begged me for a kiss.
I almost obliged them. But I can’t take chances like that. I’m in America, but that kiss could end up all over the French tabloids before I landed back home. Plus, I don’t know her angle. She could be just as predatory and traitorous as Gabrielle’s mother, Eve.
I need to feel her out; to get her close and away from the crowd… on the dance floor.
I didn’t notice her at first, which is probably a good thing. If I had, I would have charmed her until I talked her right out of what I imagine being very sexy panties. Instead, I was accosted by one of the many groupies I tried to shake off when I entered the bar. I can’t believe women over here even know who I am, but I should have known better.
Gold diggers do their research.
But the feisty woman at the bar doesn’t strike me as a groupie. Everything about her screamed refinement and respect.
She looked moved like she commands any room she enters.
Her eyes were an intense chocolate brown with specks of gold that demanded my attention.
Her ebony hair swung confidently down her back as she walked away. And that ass… C’est manifique!
Meeting her made my decision to get my own drinks for the night a worthy one.
When our drinks got mixed up, I wanted to play with her. I knew she was there first; I should have given her the drinks, but I wanted a reason to talk to her. Plus, I didn’t like her answer when I asked a favor.
I really needed to go. Leaving my cousin Kwame alone too long in a place like this is not a good idea. He’s a magnet for mischief and trouble. Her defiance made my dick throb, but it also made me want to discipline her. I can’t be told what to do and when she begs me to fuck her, because she will, she will learn she can’t boss me around.
Which is what I’m sure she does to everyone else in her life.
So instead of getting on my plane, I am planning how to get her into my bed.
Another night in D.C. won’t be bad at all if I have her shapely legs wrapped around my waist. Gabrielle is at Disneyland Paris with her maternal grandmother for the week, so I can spend an extra day here to have some fun with the mystery woman.
When she called me a fucking asshole, I wanted to take her pretty mouth and cleanse it of those filthy words. But I held myself, which is a feat. I usually take what I want. No one speaks to me with such disrespectful words. But if I have my way, she will apologize through multiple orgasms.
When I reach the booth Kwame secured for us, I slide his drink to him, but he barely registers my presence. He’s wrangled three women, and they are all practically naked and chomping at his rich bit. I do not have time for this. One woman licks her lips and gives me a look that says I can do anything I want to her... for the right price. But that’s not what I’m looking for.
Tonight, I want the woman who I’m pretty sure won’t do whatever I want without being perfectly persuaded. I want the woman who had the gall to call me an asshole.
“You all look cozy.” I shoot Kwame a look, and he squirms. My plan was to keep a low profile, and this is the exact opposite. “If I knew we were having company, I would have ordered more drinks.”
The women smile, and Kwame laughs nervously.
“No worries, cousin, this is VIP. Bottle service will start soon. Why don’t you sit down and join us? The ladies were just telling me about their favorite places to visit in D.C.”
“Yes.” The lip-licker purrs while patting a space beside her. “Why don’t you come and take a seat next to me.”
I conjure up the best smile I can. “No, I don’t think so. I’m actually looking for a friend.” Her face drops, and I can see the flash of annoyance in her eyes. She’s used to men just falling face-first into her fake cleavage. But I am not most men.
“Kwame, I will check on you later.”
He doesn’t protest, but I know he’s annoyed. I doubt he will keep those ladies interested without the major cash cow in the booth. But that’s his problem. And so is drinking.
Kwame drinks and gambles way too much. He boasts about power and money that he does not have. And he’s always dragging me into foolishness. I’m practically his babysitter, but tonight I have other plans. I have a woman to find.
I stop by the bar to grab another drink. Hennessey neat. I scan the lounge, and it doesn’t take me long to find her. She is sitting in a booth on the opposite side of the bar, holding court with two women.
She looks even more beautiful, relaxed and with her girls. The two women with her are also beautiful but can’t hold a candle next to her. She reminds me of a young Diahann Carroll. Her deep golden skin shimmers under the lights, making her beauty stand front and center. They are celebrating something. I hear her table scream congratulations as they toast their glasses.
Now is as good a time as any to introduce myself.
About Louise Lennox
Contemporary romance Author Louise Lennox is a hopeful romantic writing steamy romances full of heart and healing.
A Spelman College and Georgetown University graduate, Louise provides women with diverse and meaningful representation in romance novel pages. Not seeing enough women like herself headlining positive love stories, she launched #HappyBlackRomance; a community of readers and writers committed to the creation and sharing of positive romance stories featuring Black heroines.
Louise Lennox plots highlight the joys of Black relationships across the diaspora; pushing readers from all cultural backgrounds to admire them for their strength and downright sexiness. In her novels sparks always fly; the sex amazes; and the characters always leave the world better than they found it through their love.
When she’s not writing, Louise is enjoying her work as a school leader, wife, and mother of the two cutest dragons to ever walk the earth!
To learn more about #HappyBlackRomance and to score a free book or two, check out her website www.lovelouiselennox.com .
Seven single dads, all from different walks of life and doing the best they can to raise their children - are ready to make you fall in love.
From the celebrity dad just trying to protect the ones he loves from the spotlight...to the silver fox who's out to prove it's never too late to have a family of your own - this single dads collection guarantees to bring you a whole lot of love and of course, a happily ever after.
Look no further, your next book boyfriend is here!
Twelve months after a violent injury ended her career with the Florida Fish and Wildlife Commission, Kate Parks discovers a corpse washed ashore in Tampa Bay. Then another. And another. What’s worse: the bodies all seem to have one thing in common: a connection to the tragedy that took her young nephew’s life.
Now, as the Florida west coast braces for an approaching hurricane, Kate launches an off-the book investigation into the mystery. And in a brewing storm of rage, guilt, and childhood secrets, someone watches. Someone stalks. Something hides in the darkness.
About the Author
JC Gatlin is an award-winning author with Millford House Press, the mystery-suspense imprint for Sunbury Press. His 2019 mystery H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word won “Gold – Top Mystery or Crime Fiction of 2019” at the Florida Royal Palm Literary Awards. Prior to that, he wrote three Indie mystery-suspense novels set in Florida, including 21 Dares, which went to Number One on Amazon’s Top Mystery Suspense and Top Young Adult charts. His newest book, Darkness Hides, was published in April 2021. JC lives in Tampa, Florida and is a member of the Florida Writer’s Association and a board member of the Florida Writer’s Foundation.
Kate found a battery-operated Coleman lantern discarded on the kitchen floor and flipped it on. It lit up the room, and she carried it upstairs, where Elise sat alone in Noah’s bedroom.
“I want to be alone,” Elise said, sitting in the rocker.
Kate didn’t respond, listening to the rain and wind pummel the house. The walls creaked so eerily in the gale-force winds that she wondered if they could collapse around them. Stuffed animals above the bed trembled. Her pet squirrel, Doc, raised up on her shoulder, swishing his bushy tail. The lantern cast a pale glow around the bedroom. With the windows boarded up, any area outside the lantern light was lost in thick, inky blackness. Though she couldn’t see the lightning, she could hear the angry thunder compete with the rain beating the roof.
The bookcase rattled, keeping her on edge. She glanced at Elise, huddled in the rocking chair. Her sister wrapped the afghan tighter over her shoulders and locked her arms around her knees.
The walls trembled with another thunderclap, shaking the bookcase, and knocked the worn copy of Where the Darkness Hides to the floor. Kate jumped at the loud thump. Doc jumped too and leaped to the floor to investigate. She raised the lantern and looked around the room. Many of the stuffed animals had fallen onto the small bed. A model airplane dangled from the ceiling, swaying violently from the turbulence. A toy box sat positioned under the window.
Letting out a breath, she shut her eyes and focused on the rain thumping the roof. It intensified, then quieted. The sound was hypnotic, and she didn’t even hear Doogie enter the bedroom. He shined a flashlight in her direction and paused in the doorway.
“Sebastian made landfall”—his voice rose above another loud boom of thunder—“south of Sarasota.”
Kate couldn’t see him behind the blinding light in his hands, and when he lowered the flashlight, it still took a moment for her eyes to adjust. She sensed him stepping beside her. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Doc dash across the floor toward him.
“We’ve just got to make it through the night.” He walked over to the rocking chair and put a hand on Elise’s shoulder.
Doc followed, cautiously investigating the cuff of his right pant leg.
“It’s about to get worse,” Kate said.
A corner of Elise’s mouth turned upward, but her smile was without humor. She turned to Doogie. “Why didn’t you sell her to gypsies or leave her in the woods somewhere?”
The wind howled at the window, and a sudden gust ripped the plywood from the casing. The glass shattered. Wind and rain blew into the room.
Elise screamed. The rocker overturned, spilling her to the floor. Kate and Doogie rushed to the bed, flipped the mattress off it, and forced it to the open window. They fought the incoming wind. The force bent the mattress, folded it like a sheet of paper, and pushed them back. Doogie shoved the mattress against the window and held it there. He yelled at Kate to move the bookcase. She got to one side of it and scooted it across the carpet to the front of the mattress.
The mattress shuddered in front of the broken window. The wind squealed and screamed like a dying thing. Kate and Doogie were silent for a couple of minutes, staring at each other.
“It’s not going to hold,” Kate yelled to him over the wind.
“We need to go downstairs.” He pointed toward the bedroom door. “It’s not safe in here.”
Interview JC Gatlin
What do you find most challenging about the writing process, and how do you deal with it?
The first four or five chapters are the toughest. I tend to rewrite them over and over, trying to make sure they are as engaging and suspenseful as they can possibly be while introducing plots and characters. If I can’t hook the reader in the beginning chapters, then I know they won’t continue reading.
When and where do you do your writing?
I write everywhere – at my desk in my home office, at the kitchen table, on the couch, at restaurants, at the mall, at the library, at the park. I can’t tell you how many times I wake up in the middle of the night from a dead sleep with inspiration and have to flip open my laptop. I’ve stayed up till dawn many a night rewriting a chapter or restructuring a subplot.
What have you learned about promoting your books?
You can’t get discouraged by marketing results. Something that worked for the last book may (and probably will) bomb for the new book. So, you have to always be learning, trying new marketing channels, and be prepared to spend some money.
What are you most proud of as a writer?
I’m most proud of my core readers. They have been so incredibly supportive of promoting my books, posting reviews, and just getting the word out. I owe them a world of gratitude and appreciate them more than I can describe in words.
If you could have dinner with any writer, living or dead, who would it be and what would you talk about?
This is a tough question, because I have a long list of authors, plus I love to eat! However, if I have to choose one, I’d pick Donald J. Sobol – the author of the Encyclopedia Brown series. I read all those books as a kid, and they inspired both my love of mysteries and my aspiration to become a mystery author. I would definitely want to know which of his books was his favorite, and who the inspirations were for Leroy “Encyclopedia” Brown and Sally Kimball, his best friend and bodyguard.
Solving a murder might raise her spirits. But will it spring her spectral friend from Purgatory?
Mabel Gold still isn’t sure what happened. Traded by her husband for a busty bimbo the same age as their youngest daughter, the feisty sixty-something rejects the retirement community and heads west in a vintage camper. But the RV comes complete with a ghost who needs a good deed to get into Heaven, and cracking open a homicide at their first stop in Savannah could give them both a new lease on life.
Determined to dig up the dirt on the dead wheeler-dealer, Mabel and her phantom companion tackle the crime. But with two rich dudes from Dubai, a Willie Nelson lookalike mobster, and a widow nicknamed The Barracuda all on the suspect list, conjuring up the truth could take a real live miracle.
Can Mabel catch the killer before she’s the next soul crashing the Pearly Gates?
Wheeler-Dealer is the high-spirited first book in the hilarious Ghost & the Camper kooky mystery series. If you like golden-girl sleuths, zany characters, and sardonic humor, then you’ll love Rita Moreau’s witty whodunit.
About Rita Moreau
Rita Moreau is the author of the Mary Catherine Mahoney Mystery series and the Ghost & Camper Kooky Mystery series.
A workaholic by nature, upon retirement, Rita Moreau began work on her bucket list, writing a book. Traveling the national parks with her husband George in a vintage Bluebird motor home, (on George’s list), Rita completed her first novel Bribing Saint Anthony. Back home she completed Nuns! Psychics! & Gypsies! OH! NO, Feisty Nuns and The Russian & Aunt Sophia and The House on Xenia. Last year when we entered the Twilight Zone Rita wrote the first two new novels in the Ghost & the Camper series. Rita and her husband live in a postcard called Florida where he has fun telling everyone he is the author’s husband. When not writing she joins PatZi Gil on the Joy on Paper radio program with Book Buzz Mysteries, or you can find her teaching SilverSneakers fitness classes and doing her best to keep busy. She loves connecting with readers. Visit her at www.RitaMoreau.com or find her on Facebook at facebook.com/RitaMoreauAuthor. She would love to hear from you.
