Sovereignty by Anjenique Hughes

Book Details:

Book Title:  Sovereignty by Anjenique Hughes
​Category:  YA fiction,  262 pages
Genre: Dystopian
Publisher:  Morgan James Publishing
Release date:  July 19, 2016
Available for review in: print and ebook (mobi)
Will send print books:  USA
Tour dates:  May 15 to June 2, 2017
Content Rating:  PG (No F-words, no sexual content, only one kissing scene and mild profanity)

Book Description:

I used to think I knew all the answers; now I no longer even know the questions. - Goro

Under the totalitarian reign of the 23rd century's world's government- The Sovereign Regime- control is made possible by the identity chip implanted in every human being, recording everything that is seen, done, and experienced.

No more bank accounts.
No more smart phones.
No more secrets.

When Goro inadvertently overhears an exchange of sensitive information, causing him to confront the truth about his world and prompting him to choose his true loyalties, his dream of revolution kicks into high gear. Goro doesn't know he has covert intel in his possession both the SR and the resistance movement are desperate to acquire.

Determined to attempt the impossible task of bringing down the world government, he and his closest friends gain access to the key to ultimately deciding who has sovereignty.

But who will get to Goro first: The resistance or the Sovereign Regime?

​

Buy the Book: 
 Amazon  ~  Barnes & Noble
Add to Goodreads

Watch the Trailer:

Meet the Author:

​With master's degrees in education, special education, and counseling, Anjenique "Jen" Hughes is a high school English and math teacher who loves teaching and mentoring young people. She enjoys traveling and has worked with youth on five continents. Saying she is "young at heart" is an understatement; she is fluent in sarcasm, breaks eardrums with her teacher voice (students have complained when they were within earshot), and cracks sarcastic jokes with the best of her students. Her work with ethnically and socioeconomically diverse youth has inspired her to write books that appeal to a broad variety of students seeking stories of bravery, perseverance, loyalty, and success.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Twitter  ~ Facebook

Desert Melody

Inside the Book

Title: DESERT MELODY
Author: Laura Evans Serna
Publisher: New Land Publishing
Pages: 219
Genre: Sci-Fi Romance

For generations the Ahn, Voyan, and Humans have thrived living side by side. The ambitious Ahn need solitude.  The communal Voyan thought share and hear the voices of the sacred dead around them.  Now Humans are becoming more like the Ahn, and the Voyan are struggling.
Teagan is a single Voyan mother and wet nurse. She lost the ability to thought share.  Though she spends hours walking in the desert searching for the voices she once heard, she embraces her new found intellectual focus and is drawn into the Human world of Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Teagan plans to go into hiding to avoid being forced back to a Voyan community where her daughter would be an outcast. However she meets Josh, a generous and handsome man who understands her better than anyone.  She loves him, and Josh takes an active role in parenting Teagan’s daughter.
Teagan discovers that her behavior is more Human than Voyan because she has been unknowingly medicated.  She is part of a secret and manipulative eugenics program designed by Josh’s best friend. Teagan questions her faith in Josh while needing him in her life more than ever. Once off the medication, Teagan loses her focus, and her dream of helping her people through research slips away.
Teagan is kidnapped by the Voyan and put into a lucid trance for months.  During this time she feels the desperation of her people.  But Teagan hears the call of the Kokopelli’s flute. She knows she is called for a purpose, and she escapes back to Human society.  At this point, though, Teagan can no longer speak verbally.  She asks the Ahn to continue providing her the medication so she can live as a Human and stay with her daughter and Josh.  She knows she is called to help her people.

Desert Melody is available for purchase at Amazon and Barnes & Noble.

______________________

Meet the Author

Laura Evans Serna grew up in Albuquerque wandering the Sandia mountains and enjoying magnificent sunsets each night. She was spoiled by the mountain and desert wilderness and the freedom it offered. Now that she’s lived in Oxford, Washington, DC, and Tokyo, she knows how rare and precious that kind of experience is.
As a teenager Laura would lie on her concrete driveway with her siblings and friends, watching Hale Bopp slowly cross the sky. She discussed science and theology with no reservation. What are the laws of physics, and where did they come from? What do they mean? Where do humans fit into all of this? What binds society together? Laura believes that these are the questions that make us human. They don’t belong to the scientists, philosophers, or theologians. Everyone has a right to make them their own.
Laura started her undergraduate degree in Chemistry at the University of New Mexico. At the time, she was tired of Albuquerque. Until she left she didn’t appreciate the unique mix of cultures or the abundance of intellectual activity of her home town. She married a man in the Air Force and followed him to Colorado, where she spent her time teaching English with Catholic Charities and finishing up a degree in math at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Next Laura moved to the UK where she had the opportunity to study at the University of Oxford. She earned an MSc in Mathematical Modelling while pregnant and experiencing motherhood for the first time. (It was a struggle, to be sure!) Laura found Oxford to be a fantastic, walkable city perfect for pushing a newborn around in a pram. Although they only spent three years in Oxford, she will always feel as if it is a home of sorts for them.
Laura spent periods of time teaching math and doing technical editing, but motherhood suits her more than any other hat she’s worn. Her three daughters are a constant joy. She has come to the conclusion that the world over needs more, not less, of the maternal touch, and she wants to write stories featuring strong, intelligent mothers.
You can visit her website at www.lauraevansserna.com.

My Review

Desert Melody was an interesting science fiction book because unlike most books that main character was not human. There are three main races in this book they are the Ahn, Voyan, and Human. The Ahn are an ambitious people who need solitude and the Voyan are a communal people who thought share and hear the voices of the sacred dead around them. The Voyan relied on the humans, but the humans have begun to become more like the Ahn, which has put the Voyan race in jeopardy.

Teagan is a Voyan is a single mother who has lost her ability to thought share. This loss drives her away from her people and instead towards humanity where she find Josh and finds that she is behaving more like a human than a Voyan.

Teagan is a well written character that the author develops over the course of the book in a realistic manner. I found the sacrifices that Teagan was made for her child to be heart warming and I loved her caring nature. I was very upset when I learned that she was being drugged with out her knowledge as part of an experiment.

Overall, I really enjoyed reading about Teagan and her struggles to find her place in life. 

Seeing Double: An Elisabeth Reinhardt Thriller by Nancy J Alexander

Book Details:

Book Title:  Seeing Double: An Elisabeth Reinhardt Thriller by Nancy J Alexander
Category:  Adult Fiction,   318 pages
Genre:  Espionage Thriller
Publisher:   NJA Productions
Release date:  Nov 2015
Format available for review:  print & ebook (mobi, ePub, PDF)
Will ship print books to:  USA & Canada
Tour dates: May 8 to 26, 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 + M for themes of terrorism, kidnapping, some bad language, but no explicit sex or violence.


Book Description:

​"A chill ran up her spine, triggering an alarm that spread through her system. Her eyes studied him as his eyes studied her. In the recesses of her mind, a fragment of a memory tingled...a tiny blip from long ago. An image spiraled, then vanished. There was something about this young man, this Ari Ben Aviv. There was something about him she couldn't pinpoint."

On the heels of her last mystery, Elisabeth's new patient is more than meets the eye, and unraveling his secrets will throw her team into a desert storm of double agents and religious extremists. All that stands between love and war are two families, two brothers, and two conflicting versions of the truth.

Buy the Book:  Amazon​
Add to Goodreads
​

Meet the author:

​Love of the mystery/thriller genre combines with psychotherapy training and experience to produce an emotionally supercharged dramatic novel. Nancy Alexander has devoted much of her professional life to helping survivors of childhood trauma; their distress has been ingrained and works to create characters who give voice to their plight. To analyze the evil minds that prey on others and the intricacies of law enforcers who pursue them seemed a natural interlacing of professional, literary and creative interests.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

Review

Seeing Double: An Elisabeth Reinhardt Thriller by Nancy J Alexander was quite the thrilling read. I loved the fact that the book moved at a very fast pace as it kept my attention the entire time I was reading it. There were no dull moments. I found that the author did a great job in developing the characters in a realistic manner, creating an attention pulling plot, and creating authentic dialogue for the characters. 

Waves of Murder: A Fiona Quinn Mystery

Book Title:  Waves of Murder:  A Fiona Quinn Mystery
Author:  C.S. McDonald
​Category:  YA Fiction, 190 pages
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  McWriter Books
Release date:  April 11, 2017
Tour dates:  May 15 to 26, 2017
Content Rating:  G (The Fiona Quinn Mysteries are for everyone--adults love the books and they are appropriate for teens and tweens too!)

Book Description:

School’s out for the summer!

Kindergarten teacher, Fiona Quinn is looking forward to spending some quality time in her yard and with her boyfriend, Detective Nathan Landry. However, Fiona’s plans get squelched when her mother volunteers her to edit a manuscript for famous romance author, Wyla Parkes.

What’s so bad about that? The author insists Fiona must work on the manuscript at her beach cottage on Presque Isle--three hours away from her yard and Nathan. Spending six weeks in an adorable cottage on a private beach doesn’t really seem all that bad until people start turning up dead—beginning with the author! Fiona’s summer of sun and sand is instantly transformed into a murder investigation. Can Fiona and Nathan crack the case or will the murderer get away on a wave of deceit?

Join Fiona and the gang for a hot whodunit on the sandy beaches of Presque Isle, Pennsylvania!

​Buy the Book: Amazon

Meet the Author: 

For twenty-six years C.S. McDonald’s life whirled around a song and a dance. She was a professional dancer and choreographer. During that time she choreographed many musicals and an opera for the Pittsburgh Savoyards. In 2011 she retired from her dance career to write. Under her real name, Cindy McDonald, she writes murder-suspense and romantic suspense novels. In 2014 she added the pen name, C.S. McDonald, to write children’s books for her grandchildren. Now she adds the Fiona Quinn Mysteries to that expansion. She decided to write the cozy mystery series for her young granddaughters, and has found that so many adults love them too.

Ms. McDonald resides on her Thoroughbred farm known as Fly by Night Stables near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband, Bill, and her poorly behaved Cocker Spaniel, Allister.

Connect with the author:  Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

The book of greens

The book of greens was an interesting cookbook to me because I am a vegetarian and these recipes are perfect for those who do not eat meat. They focus on the vegetables and I was very surprised by all the different uses of different vegetables. I had never consider how many different ways they could be used!

The Murders at Astaire Castle

Never tell Mac Faraday not to do something.

Spencer's police chief, David O'Callaghan, learns this lesson the hard way when he orders Mac Faraday to stay away from the south end of Spencer's mountaintop - even though he owns the property. It doesn't take long for Mac to find out what lies on the other side of the stone wall and locked gate, on which hangs a sign warning visitors to Keep Out!

Topping the list of the 10 top haunted places in America, Astaire Castle is associated with two suicides, three mysterious disappearances, and four murders since it was built almost a century ago - and Mac Faraday owns it!

In spite of David's warning, Mac can't resist unlocking the gate to see the castle that supposedly hasn't seen a living soul since his late mother had ordered it closed up after the double homicide and disappearance of Damian Wagner, a world-famous master of horror novels.

What starts out as a quick tour of a dusty old castle turns into another Mac Faraday adventure when Astaire Castle becomes the scene of even more murders. Mac is going to need to put all of his investigative talents to work to sort out this case that involves the strangest characters he has run into yet - including a wolf man. No, we're not talking about Gnarly.

Dan Lawson
​Over the past several years Dan Lawson has appeared in numerous spots for radio, television and the internet. He has worked with All-State, Sprint PCS, Mountain Dew and many more. His unique ability to mimic existing characters and celebrities has landed him diverse voice match work ranging from Charlie Sheen to Morgan Freeman.

In 2008 Dan was cast as the first American voice actor for the Korean video game company, Nexon. Over the next several years Dan was the flagship voice of the company, appearing in such titles as Mabinogi, Maple Story, Vindictus, Dragon Nest, Dungeon Fighter Online and Atlantica. In total he has voiced nearly 100 characters for Nexon.

In late 2012 Dan’s voice over career took an unexpected turn into book narration. His first audition landed him the job of narrating The Psychology of Twilight, a psychological look at the wide-spread obsession of the Twilight saga created by Stephanie Meyer.  Eighteen more audiobook narrations have followed and show no signs of slowing down.

Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband and three dogs (including the real Gnarly’s klutzy nephew Sterling) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.


Connect with Lauren: Website  ~  Twitter  ~  Facebook

My Review

I would have to say that The Murders at Astaire Castle ranks among the top five audio books I have listened to so far. The narrator Dan Lawson did an amazing job pulling me into Lauren Carr's mystery. My favorite character would have to be Gnarly. Gnarly is a canine character who brings a lot of laughs into this book and the Mac Faraday Mystery series. I love the fact that he is realistically written and yet still very personable. My favorite scene in the Murders at Astaire Castle would have to be the first time the characters become aware of the wolf man. I liked the addition of a supernatural element to the mystery.For me the most moving part was when all of the pieces of the puzzle started to come together in my head as I started to solve the mystery for myself. I really loved the moment of suspense between coming up with my own theory and finding out what really happened.

The Lady Who Cried Murder by Lauren Carr

• Written by: Lauren Carr
• Narrated by: Mike Alger
• Length: 7 hrs and 24 mins 
• • Series: Mac Faraday, Book 6
• Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:03-08-17
Publisher: Acorn Book Services


Publisher's Summary
Fame comes at a price. Some pay with their privacy. Others pay with their pride. Khloe Everest paid with her life.
Determined to get her pretty face in front of the cameras, Khloe Everest fakes an abduction only to make a grand entrance in the midst of a press conference held by Spencer's Police Chief David O'Callaghan.
Three years later, after failing to catapult her notoriety into a long-lasting celebrity, Khloe Everest returns to Spencer upon her mother's sudden death and seemingly finds another weapon to propel herself into the spotlight. Unfortunately, someone kills her before she can make this entrance.
In Lauren Carr's sixth Mac Faraday Mystery, Mac and his friends come up against reality stars, politicians, has-beens, and wannabes. Mac also finds himself face-to-face with an old foe from his past who had managed to escape arrest during their last encounter. Now, Mac sees that his adversary has only become more powerful, and dangerous, with the passage of time.
Intent to not let this killer escape again, Mac and his friends need to put all of their talents together to put a stop to a cold-blooded lady killer.





Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband and three dogs (including the real Gnarly’s klutzy nephew Sterling) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.


My Review
The Lady Who Cried Murder would have to be one of my favorite audio books right up there with all of the others that I have read or listened to in the Mac Faraday Mystery Series. I have yet to find a badly written or uninteresting book that I have read or listened to by Lauren Carr.


The Lady Who Cried Murder has one of those plots that pulled me in right from the first chapter. The beginning had the typical amount of setup, but when the murders happened it began a plot that kept me on the edge of my seat with my earbuds pressed tightly into my ears. I was so enthralled that I actually had The Lady Who Cried Murder playing on my Amazon Echo throughout the day so that I could go do things around my house without leaving the book!


It would be very hard to pick out one scene in The Lady Who Cried Murder as my favorite, but if I had to it would be the scene at the end where all the puzzle pieces come together for both the characters and the readers/listener. 


I personally believe that any of the books in the Mac Faraday Mystery Series would make for a great movie. If I had to pick a tagline it would something like Don't Fear Ladies Gnarly is Here.

Blast from the Past

Publisher's Summary

In this fourth mystery on Deep Creek Lake, Mac Faraday finds himself up to his eyeballs in mobsters and federal agents.

After an attempted hit ends badly with two of his men dead, mobster Tommy Cruze arrives in Spencer, Maryland, to personally supervise the execution of the witness responsible for putting him behind bars - Archie Monday!

Mac Faraday believes he has his work cut out for him in protecting his lady love from one of the most dangerous leaders in organized crime; but when bodies start dropping in his lakeshore resort town, things may be hotter than even he can handle.

Dan Lawson
​Over the past several years Dan Lawson has appeared in numerous spots for radio, television and the internet. He has worked with All-State, Sprint PCS, Mountain Dew and many more. His unique ability to mimic existing characters and celebrities has landed him diverse voice match work ranging from Charlie Sheen to Morgan Freeman.

In 2008 Dan was cast as the first American voice actor for the Korean video game company, Nexon. Over the next several years Dan was the flagship voice of the company, appearing in such titles as Mabinogi, Maple Story, Vindictus, Dragon Nest, Dungeon Fighter Online and Atlantica. In total he has voiced nearly 100 characters for Nexon.

In late 2012 Dan’s voice over career took an unexpected turn into book narration. His first audition landed him the job of narrating The Psychology of Twilight, a psychological look at the wide-spread obsession of the Twilight saga created by Stephanie Meyer.  Eighteen more audiobook narrations have followed and show no signs of slowing down.

Meet the Author:

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!

Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, romance, and humor.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband and three dogs (including the real Gnarly’s klutzy nephew Sterling) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

My Review

I have not listened/read that many audio book as of yet, however Blast from the Past would have to be one of my favorite ones so far. I felt like Dan Lawson did a great job bringing the characters to life with his voice.

For me the most memorable moment in the Blast from the Past was when Mac got a call from David to tell him that one of the police cars had been stolen. This was a memorable moment for me because I felt the same confusion and shock as Mac at being told that a police car had been stolen. It was also the beginning of the fast paced plot.

I personally felt like the Blast from the Past as well as the rest of the Mac Faraday Mystery books would all make for a great movie. A great tag line for the blast from the past would be Gnarly and Crew vs mobsters!