Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge

Book Details:

Book Title:  Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge
Category:  Adult Fiction,  371 pages
Genre:   Literary fiction , Mystery, Coming of age
Publisher:  Michael E. Burge Publishing
Release date:  June 2017
Content Rating: PG-13 (The book alludes to criminal acts and deviate behavior, but does not provide graphic description.)

Book Description:

Twelve-year-old Evan Mason’s life has been turned upside down by the sudden death of his father. His mother isn’t home much, the insurance office during the day, waiting tables at night. Evan is spending a great deal of time alone.

Now he finds himself on a Greyhound bus headed for a small town on the Wabash River where he’ll spend the summer of 1958 with his loving grandmother.

Evan soon meets his new neighbor, Katie Dobbins. She’s a feisty blue-eyed girl with a ponytail, the type of girl Buddy Holly might sing about on American Bandstand. Evan is instantly enamored with her.

It seems the perfect summer is underway—but strange things are happening in the woods surrounding the Ghost Hill Indian Mound.

There’s a dark cloud lingering over the Wabash Valley—It won’t be long before it erupts into a raging storm.

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Read the first few chapters...
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Meet the Author:

Michael E. Burge grew up in the Chicago suburbs and a small town on the Wabash River in Southern Illinois.

In the late sixties, he left college to serve on a U.S. Navy destroyer out of Norfolk, Virginia. Upon leaving the service, he transitioned to a career in the burgeoning computer industry, positions in product management and marketing.

He is now pursuing his lifelong interest in writing, publishing his debut novel, Bryant’s Gap, in 2015 and his second, Melding Spirits, in 2017.

Michael also plays piano, paints, and is an avid golfer. He and his family currently live in Illinois.

Connect with the Author:  Twitter ~ Facebook

My Review

Melding Spirits by Michael E. Burge was a well written book with likable characters that held my interest through out the entire book. Evan Mason was my favorite character, but I also liked Katie Dobbins. I liked the way the author wrote about the criminal acts/deviate behavior as the author wrote about it in enough detail to be understood without being graphic (no R rated content).

ACCESSIBLE FINE DINING

Book Details:

Book Title:  Accessible Fine Dining - The Art of Creating Exciting Food in Your Everyday Kitchen by Noam Kostucki, with Chef Quentin Villers
Category: Adult Non-fiction ,  128 pages
Genre:  Creative Cookbook / Fine Dining
Publisher:  Amazon
Release date: Dec 10, 2018
Content Rating: G
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​Book Description:

​Six months after opening my first restaurant, one of my dishes was selected as "25 dishes to travel around the world", featuring me next to culinary legend Heston Blumenthal.

Exciting and healthy food doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Over the years, I have seen some of the most exciting dishes come from the simplest kitchens and the most modest ingredients. The purpose of this book is to focus our attention away from the distractions of fancy kitchen equipment and luxury produce and instead focus our attention towards ingenuity in the kitchen and culinary innovation.

For some strange reason, cooking is taught in books as a series of mechanical steps to follow and repeat with precision. I see cooking as a creative art like painting or playing music: it is the freedom of expression that is most interesting to me. When we create from an artistic perspective, we give birth to something new and potentially magical.

The purpose of this book is not to teach you specific recipes, because the ingredients you will find in your local organic food market will likely not be the same as the ones we see here. Nor is the purpose to show you how to imitate us.The purpose of this book is to guide you into thinking about your dishes in a way that elevates them to a fine dining level, from ingredients which are easily accessible to you. Naturally, you will find a few recipes, but most importantly you will find a new way to look at food.

We will share how we think about food shopping, searching for unusual ingredients, the combinations of flavors, techniques, textures, nutritional value, and of course, plating. The purpose of this book is to guide you to become a more exciting, creative and adventurous version of yourself in the kitchen. What separates a craft from an art form is the story behind it; cooking is a craft, while fine dining is an art form.

If you want to create fine dining dishes, start to focus your attention on the different stories a dish can tell. Some stories can be told through your cooking, and others are told through words. Taking the time to present your dishes before people eat is crucial to creating anticipation for the food they will eat.

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Meet the Authors:

Noam Kostucki

MY NAME IS NOAM KOSTUCKI AND I CREATE SPACES FOR MAGIC TO HAPPEN.
I was an awkward child, so I changed school 5 times. I spent most of my life trying to please others, and be the kind of person I believed everyone else wanted me to be. I wasn't happy and I struggled to get what I want. Everything changed when I started changing.

I spent the last 12 years creating the life I dream of. I've had the privilege to be homeless twice, and to speak at Harvard about entrepreneurship. I have grown to be myself more fearlessly than ever before. I am now surrounded by people I love, and who love me.

I traveled over 40 countries, and I've helped over 25,000 people create magic. For example Patryk Wezowski who raised $500,000 in 8 weeks and Esther Perel who gave the 30th most viewed TED talk. Some less public successes include a blind eyed student who experienced his blind eye for the first time and a journalist who left an abusive relationship.

As a university drop out, I was surprised when my first book (personal branding) became required reading at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, as well as receiving the UK Business Speaker of the Year runner up award, and a honorary degree in Business from Hofstra University. As an artist, I was honored to exhibit my photography at the European Union's Innovation Conference.

My most recent venture is HiR Fine Dining, a jungle culinary adventure. I create a discovery menu of 7 plates per person for groups of up to 12 people. HiR Fine Dining became #1 fine dining on TripAdvisor in Tamarindo within the first month. Within 6 months one of my plates was selected out of 40,000 restaurants by OpenTable as one of "25 dishes to travel around the world for". I was invited to speak at Chateau 1525, Costa Rica's most reputable cooking school and our guest chefs include a blind chef who traveled all the way the United Kingdom.

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Quentin Villers

Quentin has been cooking in restaurant since the age of 18. He helped his brother build a restaurant for which they received a Michelin Star. Quentin moved to Costa Rica to consult for hotels and restaurants. He managed 3 of the 4 restaurants at Hotel Nayara in La Fortuna, for which he lead a team of over 20 people to be selected to enter Relais & Chateaux, a prestigious network of unique luxury hotels with exquisite cuisine. Quentin is a regular guest chef at HiR Fine Dining and consults for a number of fine dining restaurants in Costa Rica.

Connect with the Authors: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram 

Blessed

Title: BLESSED: THE PRODIGAL DAUGHTER

Author: A.L. Bryant
Publisher: HSW Publications LLC
Pages: 279
Genre: Supernatural Christian Thriller/Horror

BOOK BLURB:

On New Year’s Eve 2021 the staff at St. Ann’s Hospital witness a medical miracle when a semi-conscious woman walks into the emergency room. The Jane Doe has been stabbed multiple times and as the staff struggle to keep the woman alive in the end all they can do is stand back and watch as their mysterious patient revives herself.

Glory wakes up in St. Ann’s Hospital gravely injured from an attack she cannot remember. However, her memory loss is no ordinary amnesia and she is no ordinary patient. Much to the shock of the hospital staff Glory heals at three times the rate of an average person. Soon the administration hears of her unique case and waste no time convincing the recovering Glory to be a part of an experiment to discover the origins of her power.

Once outside the comforting walls of the hospital it becomes apparent that healing is just a small portion of Glory’s capabilities. Abilities that to Glory’s distress are becoming increasingly unstable. Deciding that the hospital’s experiments are in vain, Glory embarks on her own Journey to discover the source of her power, unaware that she is a major pawn in a war between two secret organizations.

The two syndicates continue to clash in their fight for control and their battles result in several casualties. The crimes of their warfare surface and draw the attention of Dennis Wilson, a NYPD Detective known for solving his cases in the first forty-eight hours. Dennis follows the trail of bodies out of curiosity. But when his curiosity causes the deaths of his loved ones Detective Dennis becomes obsessed with the case.

In his overzealous attempts to find the murderer Dennis becomes the syndicates’ next target. Now the Detective must run for his life and the only person capable of saving him is the very person he suspects.

Blessed: The Prodigal Daughter is a hybrid of government espionage and supernatural Thriller. This novel is intended for audiences 18+ that seek an edgier outlook on Christian fiction. Blessed: The Prodigal Daughter is the first installment of the Blessedtrilogy.

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Amazon

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Meet the Author

A.L. Bryant was born and raised in St. Petersburg FL. She became interested in writing at an early age; an interest that depending on the circumstance brought punishment (detention for passing out the latest installment of her novella during class) and praise (being chosen for a youth writers conference at the Poynter Institute.)  A.L. Bryant gets her inspiration from both her mother and her Great Grandmother. Her mother recently published an inspirational children’s book under a pseudonym and her great grandmother is South Carolina’s first published African-American female author and playwright.

Until recently writing had simply been a pastime for A.L. Bryant who although she attended several writing courses, graduated with a B.A. in International Business. It was shortly after her second job as a Financial Office Manager at a Goodwill correctional facility that she realized she loved writing more than anything else. It would still be some years before she would convert the short story she wrote in college into a novel.

Besides writing, A.L. Bryant loves traveling the world. God has blessed her with the opportunity to visit a total of seven countries. She has studied abroad in Seoul and has traveled throughout Kenya; two locations she researched for her Blessed series. Her dream is to visit every country in the world.

Her latest book is the supernatural Christian thriller horror novel, Blessed: The Prodigal Daughter.

SOCIAL LINKS:

Twitter Link: https://twitter.com/ALBryantHSW

Facebook Link: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100029069148653

My Review

 Blessed: The Prodigal Daughter is the first book in the series and that series is often to a great start! I liked Glory, but I really liked Detective Dennis Wilson as I loved his dedication and then I really felt for him when his interest in the case led to his life being put in danger. It added a nice element to an already great book!

The Kinfolk

Inside the Book

Title: THE KINFOLK: CULT OF SEX AND CHEESE
Author: Josh Hickman
Publisher: Polyester Press
Pages: 299
Genre: Satirical Fantasy

BOOK BLURB:

Hollywood Author Josh Hickman will release his latest brand of satirical, humorous books in mid-November. In the author’s new book, THE KINFOLK: CULT OF SEX AND CHEESE  he explores the maddening world of cults.  Mr. Hickman’s new novel follows his last satirical fantasy book, FIVE SLICES OF FEAR, that has received much critical praise from book reviewers.
Hollywood writer Mr. Hickman releases his new book as the fourth in a fantasy book series he has created and published.  In THE KINFOLK: CULT OF SEX AND CHEESE he chronicles the rise and fall of a “seductive, fanatical cult” led by the enigmatic Dillman “Papa Dilly” Bradford.
With THE KINFOLK: CULT OF SEX AND CHEESE once again fact meets fiction in the funny fantasy worlds author Josh Hickman creates. This time his fascination with cults has produced a fresh, yet familiar cast of charlatans, rubes, losers, and lucky fools, finding laughs in the cult impulse, religious fervor, and the common pathos of the average person who will do anything to find solace and belonging. Once more, author Hickman focuses his gaze on tragic comedy that is human existence–with all its fears, pitfalls, trials, and triumphs–and again he speaks hilarious truth to power in his latest entry THE KINFOLK: CULT OF SEX AND CHEESE.
“For as long as I’ve read books I’ve always been a huge fan of comedic novels,” Hickman asserted. “It was time I decided to start expressing my own comedic side of creative writing.”

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

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Meet the Author

Equally fascinated with horror movies, comedians, and true crime since early childhood, Josh Hickman spent equal time wading in the heady waters of Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine, the Three Stooges comedy shorts, and Helter Skelter while growing up in various parts of Texas. When he became a writer, Hickman incorporated his comedic sensibility and lifelong love of the horror and true crime genres into his satiric writings. His past comic novels also include the fictional comedy bio THROUGH TICK & TINN: THE TRUE STORY OF THE GREATEST UNKNOWN COMEDY TEAM EVER KNOWN and the illustrated surreal, cautionary high-seas treasure-hunt saga AMBERGRIS. Hickman lives and works in Hollywood.
His latest book is the satirical fantasy, The Kinfolk: Cult of Sex and Cheese.
Visit his website at http://www.joshhickmanbooks.com.

WEBSITE & SOCIAL LINKS:

WEBSITE | TWITTER | FACEBOOK

My Review
The Kinfolk was a different sort of book with how it followed Five Slices of Fear, yet I did not lose any understanding of this book for my lack of having read the first one. I enjoyed the humor of the fantasy world created by the author as there were spot spots that really made me laugh out loud. Overall, a great book and a worthwhile read. 

DIE BACK (Book One of the Alchimeia)

Inside the Book

Title: DIE BACK (Book One of the Alchimeia)
Author: Richard Hacker
Publisher: Del Sol Press
Pages: 332
Genre: Fantasy/Thriller

BOOK BLURB:

In 272 AD Egypt, an enemy thwarts an attempt by League Inkers, Thomas Shaw and Nikki Babineaux, to obtain the Alchįmeia, a document holding alchemical secrets. Sensing his impending death, Thomas secures Nikki’s promise to keep his son, Addison, from the League, an organization defending the time continuum. After his father’s death, Addison inherits a mysterious pen, accidentally inking himself into the consciousness of a man who dies on a muddy WWI battlefield in France. Hoping to make sense of his experience, he confides in Nikki, his best friend and unknown to Addison, an Inker. Keeping her promise to Thomas, she discounts Addison’s experience.

Fixated on the pen, Addison inks into a B-17 bombardier in 1943. The pilot, whose consciousness has been taken over by someone calling himself Kairos, gloats over killing Addison’s father and boasts of plans to destroy the League. As Kairos attempts to wrest Addison’s consciousness, Nikki shocks Addison out of the Inking. She confesses her knowledge of  the League. When Kairos threatens to steal aviation technology, she she sends Addison and his partner, Jules, to an Army test of the Wright Flyer in 1908. Believing they have succeeded, they return to find the continuum shifted and Nikki knowing nothing about the League.

Inking back to his father’s mission in Alexandria, Addison and Jules hope to get his help in returning the time continuum to its original state. Instead, Addison’s father gives him the Alchįmeia to hide in a crypt at the Great Lighthouse on Phalos. On their return to the present a Kairos agent murders Jules, her consciousness Inked into the past. Addison follows the clues, Inking into Pizarro in 16th century Peru. He finds Jules in the child bride of the Inca emperor. His plan to find the technology and save Jules without destroying the Inca civilization is thwarted by a fleet of Inca airships. Captured, he is taken to Machu Picchu. With Jules help, they find the stolen schematics, but are confronted by Kairos. He stabs Addison, forcing Addison’s consciousness back to the present and traps Jules in the 16th Century. Addison returns to another altered world. Nikki no longer exists, the world is at war with the Inca, and Manhattan lay in ruins.

Addison Inks his father, learning the origins of the League. Thomas urges Addison to uncover their enemy with the help of his colleague, Maya. Putting suspicion on another inker,  Cameron, she insists he must be killing Inkers and acquiring Pens. In a final attempt to stop him, they entrap Cameron, only for Addison to discover Maya is Kairos, his enemy.  She kills Cameron, also wounding Addison.  He chases Maya, who intimates that she holds his mother’s, Rebecca’s, consciousness. Confused he delays, giving her time to scrawl a name with her pen before shooting her dead.

Inked away when Maya died, Kairos finds himself, not in his intended host, Hitler, but in a German infantry soldier POW in the Ardenne during the Battle of the Bulge, WWII. Hoping to repair the shift in the time continuum, Addison brings the League Pens together with the fate of the world and everyone he loves at stake. He awakens to a dissimilar world, but Jules and Nikki exist. And with life there is always hope.

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

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Meet the Author

Richard Hacker is a longtime resident of Austin, Texas who now writes and lives in Seattle.

His writing has been recognized by the Writer’s League of Texas and the Pacific Northwest Writers Association. In addition to his writing, he provides editing services to other writers and is the editor of an online science fiction and fantasy journal, Del Sol Review. His three published humorous crime novels ride the sometimes thin line between fact and fiction in Texas. DIE BACK, his first fantasy thriller novel, has been published by Del Sol Press.

When not writing he’s singing in a vocal jazz ensemble, cooking with a sous vide and a blow torch, or exploring the Pacific Northwest with his wife and his springer spaniel, Jazz.

Website Link: http://www.richardhacker.com

Twitter Link: @Richard_Hacker

Facebook Link: http://www.facebook.com/RWHacker

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My Review

I really LOVED Die Back the book was unique and extraordinary. It had time travel elements which I loved. The characters were filled with life and determination and the plot twists kept me guessing until the very end. I only wish I had the second book already on hand!

Iquitos

Inside the Book

Title: IQUITOS: THE PAST WILL KILL
Author: John R. Beyer
Publisher: Black Opal Books
Pages: 353
Genre: Mystery/Thriller

BOOK BLURB:

Jonas Peters and Frank Sanders team up to solve a string of murders, starting with the intentional and fatal bombing of a local coffee shop in downtown Riverside—a usually calm city in Southern California. Dozens are dead after an explosion rips apart the Coffee Grind, leaving dozens of others gravely wounded. Frank soon finds himself up to his elbows assisting the bombing victims, especially when he discovers that Jonas was walking to the Coffee Grind to meet up with his fiancée, but he never made it. In an instant, all their lives are thrust into a trail of death and destruction carried out by an unknown psychopath.

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

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Meet the Author

John R. Beyer spent nearly ten years in law enforcement in Southern California as a street cop, a training officer and a member of the elite SWAT team. After leaving the force, he continued in public service entering the field of education. During his tenure, he served as classroom teacher, school administrator and district administrator, and was an integral part of the gang and drug force in San Bernardino. While in both worlds he earned a Doctorate in School Administration and a Doctorate in Clinical Psychology.

During all those years, he never gave up the passion for writing – both fiction and nonfiction. He has been published in numerous magazines, newspapers and the like for decades, writing on a variety of topics. His latest short stories in the past year can be found in Foliate Oak Literary Magazine (2016) and GNU Journal (2017). He is also the author of three highly praised internationally known novels – Hunted (2013), Soft Target (2014) and Operation Scorpion (2017).

He won the ‘Write Well Award’ in October of 2018 from the Silver Pen Writer’s Association for a fictional short story.

His newest novel, ‘Iquitos – the Past Will Kill’, was released in November of 2018 by Black Opal Books bringing two of his protagonists together for their first investigation. Jonas Peters and Frank Sanders will work hand in hand with an international incident which left undetected could cause a catastrophic issue for the United States. They are friends and they are good at they do. Catching the bad guys.

Website Address:    http://johnrobertbeyer.weebly.com/

Blog Address:  https://jandlresearchandexploration.blogspot.com/

Twitter Address: @Drjohnrbeyer

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My Review

So I did find myself enjoying this book, but there were a few spots that felt a little predictable, but overall I really enjoyed the book. It had quite the explosive beginning that set the book up for a fast pace mystery that continued to explode throughout the book!

Dirty Trickster, Corporate Spy by Martin D. Kelly

Book Details:

Book Title:  Dirty Trickster, Corporate Spy by Martin D. Kelly
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction, 410 pages
Genre:  Memoir
Publisher:  Strategic Media Books
Release date:  August 2018
Content Rating: PG-13 (One sex scene but humorous rather than explicit; some 4-letter words)

Book Description:

Not until Dirty Trickster, Corporate Spy does a memoir exist by one of the principal Watergate saboteurs-provocateurs that exposes the full extent of the insalubrious side of politics and negative campaigning. And that is not all: After Watergate, Kelly became a corporate security consultant that provided undercover agents for client companies to spy on their employees. Kelly also specialized in eavesdropping detection, which took him around the world searching for clandestine listening devices for clients such as Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, Bob Hope, Ferdinand Marcos, the Miami Dolphins, Eastern Airlines and even suspected drug dealers. He secretly provided debugging training for entities such as IBM, Revlon, the U.S. Navy and dozens of others.

During President Nixon's second term when the Watergate scandal erupted, Kelly teamed with Donald Segretti in a wild series of underhanded capers that created havoc in the Democratic presidential primaries. Kelly and Segretti turned a fundraising dinner for front-runner Senator Ed Muskie at the Washington Hilton into absolute chaos; hired a University of Miami coed to strip naked and parade before Muskie's hotel; released two mice and a bird that threw a Muskie press conference into total confusion; organized fake luncheons, fake press releases, and other unscrupulous acts. The aim of the Nixon White House and Committee to Reelect the President was for the dirty tricksters to sow discontent among the Democratic primary candidates so they would blame each other for the dirty tricks, making it more difficult for them to unite in the general election against Nixon. The author was one of only three witnesses who testified specifically about dirty tricks before the Senate Watergate Committee.

Initial chapters reveal how dirty tricks were covertly planned and executed, how Kelly dealt with special prosecutors, investigators, Karl Rove, Watergate Judge John Sirica, the FBI, an inebriated Senator Ted Kennedy, the seven U.S. Senators on the Senate Watergate Committee, Bernstein and Woodward, Lesley Stahl and others in the media. Mid chapters expose inside secrets on successful tactics for public-office seekers or those climbing the rough-and-tumble steps of internal party politics.

In final chapters, Kelly unveils the widespread corporate spying that is going on in America to this day, with amazing examples from his security consulting career as a covert industrial undercover agent and secret mystery shopper who spied on all levels of employees. Kelly also fully discloses his role as a polygraph examiner and interrogator with hilarious anecdotes as well as how polygraph can be beaten. Even more controversial examples are revealed from Kelly's specialized international work as a detector of clandestine listening devices, complete with the tools and tricks of the trade.

With an intriguing yet amusing style, Kelly names names and holds back nothing in Dirty Trickster, Corporate Spy.

Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Book Depository
Books-a-Million ~ IndieBound ~ Chapters Indigo, Alibris
Add to Goodreads
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Meet the Author:

Martin D. "Doug" Kelly is a successful author and freelance writer who resides in Clearwater, Florida. A rising Republican activist in college, his role in Watergate dashed any political ambitions. He thereafter engaged in a security-consulting career that included spying on the workforces of corporate America, during which time he also become renowned internationally as a locator of clandestine listening devices. When not fishing and playing golf, Kelly contributes travel- and outdoors-related articles for a variety of publications and co-hosts a weekly syndicated radio talk show. ​

Connect with Martin:  Twitter 

My Review

Dirty Trickster, Corporate Spy by Martin D. Kelly was the very first memoir that I have actually enjoyed reading! I loved reading about Kelly's involvement with Dean Martin, the Miami Dolphins, and Eastern Airlines as it really opened my eyes to what can go on behind the scenes. I found some of the ricks rather amusing and I found it rather sad how often people fell for them. Overall, this was a great book that was worth the read.

Tandem Demise

Title: TANDEM DEMISE
Author: Duffy Brown
Publisher: Independent
Pages: 225
Genre: Cozy Mystery

BOOK BLURB:

Smugglers on the hunt, a police chief on the run, lost loot and a dead wedding planner have the Mackinac Island regulars riding in circles

After solving two murders, bike shop owner Evie Bloomfield thought life on Mackinac Island would settle into boredom until she finds out Nate Sutter, island police chief and once-upon-a-time under cover cop is on the run. Some badass guys from Nate’s Detroit days think he stole money from them in a champagne smuggling operation and now they’re headed to the island to get their loot. Evie is determined to help Nate because he’s a good cop. Nate is determined to keep interfering Evie and island locals out of harms way, and the crooks are determined to get their money.

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

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Meet the Author

Duffy Brown loves anything with a mystery. While others girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Duffy longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. She is a National Bestselling author and now conjures up who-done-it stories of her very own. She has two series the Consignment Shop Mysteries set in Savannah along with rescue pup Bruce Willis and the Cycle Path Mysteries set on Mackinac Island with judgmental cats Cleveland and Bambino.

Her latest book is the cozy mystery, Tandem Demise.

Website Address: www.DuffyBrown.com

Facebook Address: https://www.facebook.com/authorduffybrown

My Review

Tandem Demise was a really great mystery with some great characters that kept me guessing the entire time. I always hate it when I can predict the ending of a mystery book within the first few chapters, so I was super happy that this one kept me guessing at the ending up until the end of the book!

The Shipwreck

Inside the Series

Lavender Shores is a charming little California town enclosed by the Point Reyes National Seashore. It has forests, wildlife, cliffs, beaches, and ocean views. At the center of it all is a fancy downtown of picture perfect restaurants and shops, surrounded by Victorian mansions and craftsman cottages.

The town was designed to be a safe-haven in the 1940’s by five families. The series follows the descents of those five founding families as they discover romance, redemption, passion, adventure, and love. Like all small towns, everyone always knows everyone else’s business. And when you’re ‘founding family royalty’ all eyes are on you, and that can make things… interesting.

While each novel is guaranteed to have you laughing, crying, sighing, and fanning yourself as you reach every happy ending, there will always be twists and turns along the way. Lavender Shores is pure storybook quality (of the grown-up variety) and the ultimate place to fall in love.

Title: The Shipwreck
Author: Rosalind Abel
Publisher: Wings of Ink, LLC
Pages: 292
Genre: Gay Romance, MM Romance, Gay Fiction

Lamont Price’s romance novels have been a hit for the past few years. With his gorgeous looks, kind heart, and tender disposition, Lamont is the darling of Lavender Shores. He’s the guy everyone wants to be their best friend, the guy everyone wants to protect. But even with his success and the love of his family, Lamont feels hidden from those around him. Maybe the first step is attending a writing conference and revealing the man behind his pen name....

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

Meet the Author

Rosalind Abel grew up tending chickens alongside her sweet and faithful Chow, Lord Elgin. While her fantasy of writing novels was born during her teen years, she never would have dreamed she’d one day publish steamy romances about gorgeous men. However, sometimes life turns out better than planned.

In between crafting scorching sex scenes and helping her men find their soul mates, Rosalind enjoys cooking, collecting toys, and making the best damn scrapbooks in the world (this claim hasn’t been proven, but she’s willing to put good money on it).

She adores MM Romance, the power it has to sweep the reader away into worlds filled with passion, steam, and love. Rosalind also enjoys her collection of plot bunnies and welcomes new fuzzy ones into her home all the time, so feel free to send any adorable ones her way.

Amazon author page: http://amzn.to/2qoiuLC

Rosalind’s Newsletter: https://www.rosalindabel.com/contact-rosalind.html

BookBub Page: http://bit.ly/2E5fgUe

Audiobooks: http://adbl.co/2w9c0be

(Read by Kirt Graves)

Facebook Author page: http://bit.ly/2rH8C4o

Rosalind Abel Website:  http://www.rosalindabel.com

Rosalind Abel Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2v6iuXI

Lavender Shores Website:  http://www.lavendershores.com

Twitter: @rosalind_abel

My Review

The Shipwreck has become my favorite of this series as I loved Lamont Price and I really connected with him being a writer. I know this is an MM series, but I do think it would be cool if the author did one book in the series that was FM just to add a change of pace to the series. Overall, I loved this book and I hope to see more of Lamont in future books!

The Veranda

Title: The Veranda
Author: Rosalind Abel
Publisher: Wings of Ink, LLC
Pages: 258
Genre: Gay Romance, MM Romance, Gay Fiction

ORDER YOUR COPY:

Amazon

Inside the Series

Lavender Shores is a charming little California town enclosed by the Point Reyes National Seashore. It has forests, wildlife, cliffs, beaches, and ocean views. At the center of it all is a fancy downtown of picture perfect restaurants and shops, surrounded by Victorian mansions and craftsman cottages.

The town was designed to be a safe-haven in the 1940’s by five families. The series follows the descents of those five founding families as they discover romance, redemption, passion, adventure, and love. Like all small towns, everyone always knows everyone else’s business. And when you’re ‘founding family royalty’ all eyes are on you, and that can make things… interesting.

While each novel is guaranteed to have you laughing, crying, sighing, and fanning yourself as you reach every happy ending, there will always be twists and turns along the way. Lavender Shores is pure storybook quality (of the grown-up variety) and the ultimate place to fall in love.

My Review

The Veranda was the third book in this series that I have both read and enjoyed. With each book of this series that I read I find myself being more and more drawn into the Lavender Shores town in California. I know this is a fictional book, but boy does it feel just so real like it could really happen. I have to say out of the three books in the series that I have read so far this one has been my favorite!

SPIKED

Inside the Book

Title: SPIKED: A RESORT TO MURDER MYSTERY III
Author: Avery Daniels
Publisher: Blazing Sword Publishing, LTD.
Pages: 230
Genre: Cozy Mystery

BOOK BLURB:

Julienne, a poisoned Private Investigator with her business card on his body, an MI5 agent taking a liking to her, and her heart on the line.

Julienne needs only three things: successfully pull of a last minute wedding relocated to her resort, work out things with her stubborn ex- boyfriend, and solve the murder of a private investigator found with her business card on his dead body. The wedding she can handle, but it comes with a flirtatious brother of the bride from Britain who manages to give Mason the idea she has moved on, and the dead PI was playing with fire before he was poisoned leaving a myriad of suspects. Two suspects are part of a scandal waiting to explode and nobody wants to be in the middle of the fallout.

Can Julienne wade through the various suspects while coordinating the wedding and dealing with a handsome amorous guest before her rival on the local paper exposes her connection and thus damages her and the resort’s reputation? Will she and Mason find their way to each other?

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Meet the Author

Avery Daniels was born and raised in Colorado, graduated from college with a degree in business administration and has worked in fortune 500 companies and Department of Defense her entire life. Her most eventful job was apartment management for 352 units. She still resides in Colorado with two brother black cats as her spirited companions. She volunteers for a cat shelter, enjoys scrapbooking and card making, photography, and painting in watercolor and acrylic. She inherited a love for reading from her mother and grandmother and grew up talking about books at the dinner table.

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My Review

I have to say that this was quite the mystery book and it kept me on my toes and the edge of my seat for the whole book. I was amazed at the author's skill at creating such an intense store with so many different plot elements that were all perfectly balanced and not overwhelming.