Book & Author Details: Killer Runway by Daria White (Bianca Wallace Mysteries, #2) Publication date: January 25th 2022 Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery
Synopsis:
Bianca’s determined to live a normal life in Edenville with her family, and she has no intention of getting involved in another case. While attending a fashion show, a model, also a childhood friend of her sister, collapses off the runway. Dead. Not the show Bianca planned on attending.
Detective Sims shows up to solve the case, but Bianca can’t keep silent. Too many clues are surfacing, and with a month-long fashion event in town, the suspects remain in Edenville. There’s no harm in Bianca investigating one more time, though Detective Sims wants her to stay away.
Can she discover the motive behind this unexpected death? Bianca’s life at risk with another killer isn’t wise. Not to mention the lives of her loved ones.
Daria has lived in Texas for most of her life. She never liked reading as a kid. In fact, she almost hated it. However, as she grew up that all changed. Though she received her degree in healthcare management, Daria kept her writing as a hobby. She meant it to be private and her own way of expressing herself. It never crossed her mind to publish until she was in college. She took a chance and published. It worked!
Thank you to Rachel for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for marvellous Finn and Fred’s Arctic Adventure by Jocelyn Porter! Just look at this cover- it’s bound to put a smile on your face!
Finn and Fred’s Arctic Adventure
“My bus takes off with a sonic boom, straight through the wall and out of my room…”
Finn and Fred Octopus are off on a magical adventure to the Arctic. They meet a kindly seal, a hungry polar bear and an angry walrus. The whales sing to Finn, and Finn arrives home with an important message to share…
Writing Finn and Fred was a joyful experience. I set out to write a story about a lonely child who went on imaginary adventures with his toy octopus, but when I found a battered old suitcase under Finn’s bed, the story took a whole new direction. The suitcase turned into a magic bus, and Finn and Fred ended up in the Arctic Circle.
At the end of the story, I discovered Finn was not lonely. He had many school friends who he recruited to help him look after the oceans and sea creatures. The environmental message in the story informs young readers, in a gentle way, there is a role they can play in protecting this world. Hopefully it will be a role they remember throughout their lives.
For 15 years I was writer/editor of preschool magazines that were sold in the UK, Australia and South Africa. Every month I wrote a short story, along with rhymes and activities. Thinking up plots and writing at speed became second nature. When I left that role, I couldn’t get the writing bug out of my system, so I decided to write books instead.
My first book, Three Times Round the Corkscrew Tree, is a magical fantasy and Kate, the main protagonist, is an 8-year-old girl who loves baking and has ambitions to cook on television with a well-known chef. A volunteer presenter at Hospital Radio Plymouth found my book at a local bookshop and asked if I could provide stories for Hospital Radio to broadcast for the children in hospital.
I happily agreed, and with many short stories sitting in my filing cabinet, I set to work editing them for radio. This new venture gave me a reason to continue writing books. I was fortunate enough to find Nick Jones of children’s book publisher Full Media Ltd. Nick is a great believer in charity work, and he’s already published two of my picture books, with a percentage of profit of each book going to charity.
Much of that joy of writing Finn and Fred came from the wonderful illustrations created by the amazing Leo Brown. He brought my story to life with realistic and amusing images, each image an education in itself.
The second joyful experience was dedicating the book to the Cornish Seal Sanctuary. We have already given the Sanctuary 100 books to sell in their shop. The full purchase price of these books goes directly to the Sanctuary, to contribute to their much-needed funds.
Check out the Seal Sanctuary website or follow them on Facebook or Twitter. They would really appreciate your company and support. You will see the amazing work they do, rescuing, nursing and releasing seals back into the wild, and creating a loving home for seals that can no longer look after themselves at sea.
I’m delighted to say the staff at the Cornish Seal Sanctuary love the book. Leo Brown created a wonderful cover for my book featuring Finn and Fred and three beautiful seals with entrancing eyes. The Sanctuary staff encourage visitors to bring their dogs. In the safe conditions of the Sanctuary, dogs and seals seem to interact with each other in an extraordinary way; it’s all in the eyes and whiskers! No wonder baby seals are called pups.
Writing in rhyme requires patience. Sometimes the rhymes fall into place, but sometimes you end up at a brick wall. Then it takes hours of searching, often re-writing several verses. RhymeZone.com and the thesaurus become your best friends. That’s when you appreciate the richness of the English language; it has so many words that can mean the same thing.
Writing in rhyme is a bit like exploring a maze. Before setting out you need a metaphorical picnic hamper, a cushion and a sense of adventure. Every time you take a wrong turn or come to a brick wall, sit down, open the hamper and relax for a while. You will find your brain will sort its way through a variety of options, and when you set off again you will be on the right track.
I hope other writers enjoy writing in rhyme as much as I do. It’s not easy; it can take as long as writing a chapter of prose to get one verse right. Near rhymes are not good enough, the rhyming words have to be perfect or they will jar when read out loud. Rhyme is a song where the words are the music.
Author Bio – Jocelyn’s writing career began when she was asked to write a story for a preschool magazine. That story was the first of many. Jocelyn became the writer/editor of several preschool magazines and continued in that role for 15 years. Writing one new story every month, plus rhymes and activities was a tough gig, but very exhilarating. Time is the big difference between writing for a magazine and writing a book. You see your work on the supermarket shelves within a few weeks of completion. A book takes longer – a lot longer. Jocelyn has to be patient now – not something she’s good at. Before becoming a writer, Jocelyn worked in higher education as International Students Officer. It was a rewarding and interesting job even though she was on call 24/7. Jocelyn also trained as a counsellor and volunteered at drop-in centres. She never knew who would arrive for counselling and had to be prepared for anything. This work gave her insight into some of the darker corners of life. Motor sport was one of Jocelyn’s early loves, she had the spine-tingling thrill of taking part in a 24-hour national rally as navigator – those were the days when rallies were held on public roads! Jocelyn worked as an au pair in Paris in her teens. Having visited the city on a school trip, she fell in love with it, and always wanted to return. Jocelyn’s first book published by Full Media is The King Who Didn’t Like Snow, illustrated by Michael S Kane. Finn and Fred’s Arctic Adventure is her second book under Full Media and is illustrated by Leo Brown.
Book & Author Details: Violet Spark by Elsa Jade & Erin Kellison (Butterfly Witch, #1) Publication date: January 24th 2022 Genres: Adult, New Adult, Urban Fantasy Synopsis:
Imogen Taylor: Artist. College dropout. Gamer. Screwup.
I had big plans for art school in California, but when the best mom in the world—mine—needed help, I came home to Arbolito, Arizona instead. I even got my old high school job back, making smoothies at the Desert Freeze…in winter.
So, yeah, by day, my life is a cold, tropical-hued hell. But at night, I escape reality by plugging into my favorite video game, Legendelirium, to become a powerful, sexy witch, going on epic quests while vanquishing baddies.
Until a cute guy from my gaming world shows up at work, gives me the worst kiss ever, and my reality and fantasy lives get blended by purple goo laced with lethal, nanorobotic technology.
Now, I’ve got powers—strange, witchy ones. Scary people are after me, and I don’t know who to trust. And, get this. Somehow, it’s up to me to defeat them, or it’s game over.
Enter the fast, fun, urban fantasy adventure of the BUTTERFLY WITCH series, where magic and science become one—mostly accidentally.
* This is a standalone first book in the brand-new BUTTERFLY WITCH series. Contains swearing, some intense action scenes (low gore), super-slow-burn romantic interest (also low gore), and does not end on a cliffhanger—but, yeah, there’s more to come! *
Paranormal romance and science fiction romance for everyone who howls at the moon or looks up at the stars to dream. Learn more about Elsa Jade and the worlds of the Mating Season, Mating Fever & Intergalactic Dating Agency — and sign up for the New Release Alert — at http://elsajade.com
Latest News: See the profiles of the sexy aliens of the #IntergalacticDatingAgency in the free sneak peek at Instafreebie. http://instafreebie.com/book/15688
Erin Kellison is the bestselling author of the Dragons of Bloodfire series, the Reveler series, and the Shadow series. She writes urban fantasy, paranormal romance, and science fiction romance. She loves other worlds and visits them as often as possible via movies and books and her kids’ imaginations. When not daydreaming or writing, she’s goofing off with her family in sunny Arizona.
Damaged Grump: An Enemies to Lovers Romance Nicole Snow Publication date: January 21st 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Synopsis:
Wall Street Journal bestselling author Nicole Snow returns with a hysterical office romance where the grumpiest boss claims the good girl and loses his scorched heart.
Our meet cute was one big sip of ugly. He pushed my hell-no buttons, wearing an indestructible smirk. I offended his warped morals in front of his starry-eyed minions. Then I got my sweet reward for doing the right thing. I found out I’d be calling Roland Osprey “boss.”
A filthy rich tabloid king. Emphasis on filthy. A gorgeous villain who sold his soul—if he ever had one. A tyrant who stole my sensitive, uplifting music magazine. Welcome to my bait and switch.
Apparently, disasters come in threes. His perfect vests that leave me delirious. The way he stares at my lips—painted for torment with an arsenal of lipstick. Our shared love for sad songs that makes me cry. So does the big fat secret assignment he drops on my head.
I hate that he has a good cause. I wish I could hate the wicked ways he makes me feel divine. When my guard slips, I’m in free fall. One all-consuming kiss in an alley seals our epic mistake. How many times can one damaged grump make me sing the blues? How do you ever fall out of love with the bad guy?
Full-length enemies-to-lovers romance doused in biting words and sizzling slow-burn tension. The worst boss ever finds his missing piece in the woman who loathes him—and an unlikely Happily Ever After worth all the lumps to the heart.
Nicole Snow is a Wall Street Journal and USA Today bestselling author. She found her love of writing by hashing out love scenes on lunch breaks and plotting her great escape from boardrooms. Her work roared onto the indie romance scene in 2014 with her Grizzlies MC series.
Since then Snow aims for the very best in growly, heart-of-gold alpha heroes, unbelievable suspense, and swoon storms aplenty. With over a million books sold, she lives for the joy of making two people fight with every bit of their soul for a Happily Ever After.
Current fan favorites include her Enguard Protectors series, accidental love novels, plus long beloved MC romance thrillers like the Grizzlies and Deadly Pistols.
Book & Author Details: Spindrifts by A-M Mawhiney Publication date: November 24th 2021 Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult Synopsis:
Racism, climate change, and violence are in the past. The new world values respect and collaboration with others. But are there secrets lurking in the shadows of the Land of Hope? What truth about the past is being covered up?
When fifteen-year-old Fania returns from Immersion, she is shattered to learn that the next phase of her education is at home with Alicia, her granny. She had hoped for something far grander that would prepare her for an important role with the Earth Project. Their two strong personalities clash as Fania begins to learn more about the past and her family’s role in it.
As Fania grows in confidence and power, she starts to wonder exactly what secrets Alicia is keeping in her underground lab. After Fania discovers the truth, she finds her calling: one that has the power to change everything.
A-M Mawhiney was deeply moved by the events of 2020 and the cries from advocates fighting for equity and justice for people living precarious lives because of structural barriers and discrimination. As a former social worker and academic she has spent her career seeking ways to improve lives of marginalized learners through inclusive education for all students. Mawhiney has hope for a better future for us all. Her vision of what this might look like inspired her to write Spindrifts.
Anne-Marie lives in Sudbury, Ontario, in the territory of the Atikameksheng Anishnawbek in the Robinson-Huron Treaty Area, with Dave McGill and their canine companion, Charlie.
Book & Author Details: Nothing Left To Lose by A.J. Wills Publication date: January 10th 2022 Genres: Adult, Psychological Thriller
Synopsis:
When you’ve lost everything – revenge is all that’s left…
After securing the convictions of two violent murderers for a horrific and brutal attack on a pensioner in his own home, Henry’s wife, Abi should be celebrating.
With the nation watching, it was her biggest test as a criminal lawyer.
But someone’s not happy.
First, there’s the hooded stranger who follows her home in the dead of night.
Then comes the attack on her car and a death threat in an anonymous hand-delivered letter.
Someone’s trying to scare them.
Someone wants revenge.
And they’ll stop at nothing until they’ve brought the couple to their knees – and exacted a deadly retribution…
Nothing Left To Lose is an electrifying psychological thriller from the No. 1 bestselling author of his Wife’s Sister.
AJ Wills is the number one Kindle bestselling author of multiple psychological thrillers.
He was a journalist for 20 years and also ran the communications department at a national charity in the UK.
He has been writing full time since March 2021 and runs the small independent publishing company, Cherry Tree Publishing, with his wife, AJ McDine, a fellow thriller author.
“I’ve always loved thrillers, but psychological thrillers hold a special interest for me because they’re about the scary, insane, disturbing things that happen to ordinary people – and we can all relate to them on some level,” he said.
He lives in Kent in the UK with wife, Amanda, their two teenage sons and two cats.
You can find out more about him by visiting his website: ajwillsauthor.com
Or contact him directly at adrian@ajwillsauthor.com
Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for A Plethora of Phantoms by Penny Hampson.
A Plethora of Phantoms
What makes Freddie shiver? Is it the spooky happenings in his family’s stately home? Or is it Marcus, the handsome antique dealer who Freddie thinks he can’t have?
Freddie Lanyon has it all: a loving family, a privileged background, and a stately home filled with antiques. What his family don’t know is that Freddie is desperately unhappy.
Troubled by spirits that only he can see, Freddie Lanyon, the heir to Lanyon Park, is also in denial about his sexuality. It takes a meeting with handsome and psychic antique dealer, Marcus Spender, to convince Freddie that he might need to change.
When Freddie’s latest purchase of an antique dressing case triggers fresh poltergeist activity, he is awakened each night by an anguished spirit seeking help. Contacting the previous owner of the dressing case leads Freddie and Marcus on a journey to Cornwall, but what starts out as a straightforward quest soon turns into a challenge to their growing relationship.
Will Freddie’s restless spectral visitor be finally laid to rest? And will Freddie find the courage to be true to himself at last?
Author Bio – Some time ago Penny Hampson decided to follow her passion for history by studying with the Open University. She graduated with honours and went on to complete a post-graduate degree.
Penny then landed her dream role, working in an environment where she was surrounded by rare books and historical manuscripts. Flash forward nineteen years, and the opportunity came along to indulge her other main passion – writing. Penny joined the New Writers’ Scheme of the Romantic Novelists’ Association and three years later published her debut novel, A Gentleman’s Promise, a historical mystery/romance. Other books in the same genre soon followed.
But never happy in a rut, Penny also writes contemporary suspense with paranormal and romantic elements. Her first book in this genre is The Unquiet Spirit, published by Darkstroke.
Penny lives with her family in Oxfordshire, and when she is not writing, she enjoys reading, walking, swimming, and the odd gin and tonic (not all at the same time).
Can’t-Wait Wednesday is a weekly meme hosted at Wishful Endings, to spotlight and discuss the books we’re excited about that we have yet to read. Generally they’re books that have yet to be released. It’s based on Waiting on Wednesday, hosted by the fabulous Jill at Breaking the Spine. If you’re continuing with WOW, feel free to link those up as well! Find out more here.
And the book I am waiting for is…
From the blurb:
Richly emotive and darkly captivating, with elements of Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery,” and the imaginative depth of Margaret Atwood, Elsewhere by Alexis Schaitkin conjures a community in which girls become wives, wives become mothers and some of them, quite simply, disappear.
Vera grows up in a small town, removed and isolated, pressed up against the mountains, cloud-covered and damp year-round. This town, fiercely protective, brutal and unforgiving in its adherence to tradition, faces a singular affliction: some mothers vanish from their families. It is the exquisite pain and intrinsic beauty of their lives; it sets them apart from people elsewhere and gives them meaning.
Vera, a young girl when her own mother went, is on the cusp of adulthood herself. As her peers begin to marry and become mothers, they speculate about who might be the first to go, each wondering about her own fate. Reveling in their gossip, they witness each other in motherhood, waiting for signs: this one devotes herself to her child too much, this one not enough—that must surely draw the affliction’s gaze. When motherhood comes for Vera, she is faced with the question: will she be able to stay and mother her beloved child, or will she go?
Provocative and hypnotic, Alexis Schaitkin’s Elsewhere is at once a spellbinding revelation and a rumination on the mysterious task of motherhood and all the ways in which a woman can lose herself to it; the self-monitoring and judgment, the doubts and unknowns, and the legacy she leaves behind.
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Expected Publication Date: June 28, 2022
Publisher: Celadon Books
Pre-order ISBN 9781250219633, 1250219639
208 pages
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Alexis Schaitkin is the author of Saint X. Her short stories have been anthologized in The Best American Short Stories and The Best American Nonrequired Reading. She received her MFA in fiction from the University of Virginia, where she was a Henry Hoyns Fellow. She lives in Williamstown, Massachusetts, with her husband and son.
Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources for inviting me to participate in the blog tour for A Stranger’s Revenge, a new legal thriller by K.J.McGillick.
What the FBI Art Crime Division cannot determine is if Abigail is an innocent bystander or a co-conspirator in her sister’s art fraud crimes.
Compelled to uncover all her family’s secrets, nothing prepares Abigail for the disastrous meeting with her murderous brother and crime boss father. Her life is irreversibly changed the more she becomes mired in her family’s treachery. She soon finds herself drawn into a game of cat and mouse by the vengeful killer who methodically plans to execute every member of her family, holding each one of them ultimately responsible for the murder of his own family thirty years ago.
This is my second book by Kathleen Mcgillick and I knew this newest book is also going to fast-paced, action-packed and impossible to put down. Exactly what it proved to be!
Abby Clark is an attorney specialising in art law, so when a new client asks her to accompany him to an auction and assist him in purchasing two paintings, she sets aside her irrational distrust of the man and flies to Boston. The auction house unexpectedly withdraws the offer which clearly infuriates Abby’s client. On her return home Abby finds out that FBI have identified her…as a possible murder victim. In fact, even Abby herself can’t deny she looks a veritable doppelganger of the girl strangled in a dark alley in Boston. A quick DNA analysis confirms what was already obvious to everyone- the victim was Abby’s twin sister Aisling Dolan, an Irish national. Abby herself was shot and left for dead at the age of two. While she has a loving family, great friends and fantastic career, she is also suffering from anxiety and abandonment issues related to her early childhood. Time to find out what exactly happened to Aisling and who exactly were her biological parents.
Now Abby is quite an interesting character. She is loyal to her friends and her family, but she is obviously quite impulsive, even reckless. Some of her comments about Ireland rubbed me the wrong way- it was as if Abby was determined to see only negative things about her birthplace to simplify her complex feelings about what happened to her as a child. I wasn’t so sure about her ‘in-built lie detector’. One thing you have to give to Abby- she is decisive and always ready to act. Abby’s grandma Stasha with her little thermos of Dutch courage (shhh, don’t tell anyone) was a real hoot!
I loved the little legal details introduced here and there in the book, from Abby giving her psychiatrist friend Maura help with her unusal predicament to Abby’s ‘hypothetical’ conversation with her partner Gregory. It’s clear that the author knows what she is writing about and knows how to pique and keep the reader’s interest.
The pace is fast and there is quite a high body count in this action-packed thriller. Some settings were extremely evocative and I could easily see this book adapted for the silver screen- Hollywood, are you listening? Overall, this was a very quick, compulsive read, perfect for anyone who enjoys suspense, action, international settings and books about stolen art. Looking forward to Kathleen’s next book!
Thank you to Rachel from Rachel’s Random Resources and the author for the review copy, provided in exchange for an honest opinion.
Author Bio – Kathleen McGillick is an attorney by education and writes mainly suspense and thriller novels. She earned a B.S.N. from the University of Miami, and an M.S. from Adelphi University, after which she practiced nursing for seventeen years. In 1994, while working as a Registered Nurse, she earned a Juris Doctorate from the John Marshall School of Law in Atlanta, Georgia. Her solo law practice in which she specialized in Family Law for twenty-seven years, centered on meeting the needs of women and children. While practicing law, she turned to novel writing and has self-published ten novels that have recurring themes of legal intrigue and stolen art. As an avid international traveler, she incorporates many of the places she has traveled into the settings of her books. For the last fifteen years, she has immersed herself in the study of art history and the intrigue of crimes related to fakes and forgeries which she weaves into her character-driven complex plots. Born and raised in New York, she now resides in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. Kathleen is a grandmother of two teenage grandchildren and a mother to four fur babies.
Top Ten Tuesday was created by The Broke and the Bookish in June of 2010 and was moved to That Artsy Reader Girl in January of 2018. It was born of a love of lists, a love of books, and a desire to bring bookish friends together.
How it works:
Jana from That Artsy Girl assigns each Tuesday a topic and then posts her top ten list that fits that topic. Anybody is welcome to join and create their own top ten (or 2, 5, 12, 20, etc.) list as well. You can put a unique spin on the topic to make it work for you!
New-to-Me Authors I Discovered in 2021
In no particular order, here we go:
Trish Doller
Anne Frasier
Holly Black
Alix E.Harrow
Catherine Bybee
Christina Lauren
Lisa Cassidy
Mary Burton
Rachel Lynn Solomon
Martha Wells
Leigh Bardugo
Amanda Foody
Upcoming Top Ten Tuesday Topics:
February 1: Books with Character Names In the Titles (Submitted by BookLoversBlog and Lucy @ Bookworm Blogger) February 8: Love Freebie (come up with your own topic having to do with love) February 15: Books Too Good to Review Properly (I have no words!) (Submitted by Dedra @ A Book Wanderer) February 22: Dynamic Duos (Submitted by Elley @ Elley the Book Otter)
Thank you for stopping by and reading the post! Have a wonderful Tuesday!
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