Maxed Out

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Maxed Out (The Owl's Nest Mysteries) 
Author:  C.S. McDonald
​Category:  Adult Fiction, 184 pages
Genre:  Cozy Mystery
Publisher:  McWriter Books
Release date:  April 2021
Tour dates:  Jun 21 to Jul 16, 2020
Content Rating:  G. C.S. McDonald's books are appropriate for YA readers as well as adults--no bad language or sexual content.

Book Description:

The Owl’s Nest Couturier Shoppe is a huge success! Business is booming and Alexa Owl’s love life is heating up. Yet much to the seamstress’s dismay, Detective Bobby Starr is suddenly back again! Bobby isn’t your everyday gumshoe. Rather, he’s an angel who’s trying to earn a place in Saint Peter’s Guardian Angel Squad. He’s required to solve murders he had left unsettled from when he walked the earth in order to be accepted into this prestigious group. Of course, they will need to return to the time period in which the murder took place, and again, Alexa is a reluctant time traveler. Oh, and there’s one more little problem—this time, Bobby’s brought along a friend, Maxi Krogen, and she’s no angel!

Buy the Book:
Amazon ~ B&N
add to goodreads

Meet the Author: 

For twenty-six years C.S. McDonald’s life whirled around a song and a dance. Classically trained at Pittsburgh Ballet Theater School, The Pittsburgh Dance Alloy, and many others, she became a professional dancer and choreographer. 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. In 2016 she added the Fiona Quinn Mysteries. Presently, the Fiona Quinn Mysteries has nine books.

Cindy’s newest venture is The Owl’s Nest Mysteries. Once again, she has set her cozy mystery in Pittsburgh. The Owl’s Next Mysteries has a little grit, a little time travel, a little romance, and a whole lot of cozy!

Cindy 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.

My Review

Maxed Out (The Owl's Nest Mysteries) was a great addition to the The Owl's Nest Mysteries series. I have to say that I really loved the time travel aspect and the addition of Maxi Krogen made thing quite interesting. The combination of angels and time travel reminded me a bit of the Supernatural TV series, but I liked the way this book focused more on the mystery and not just the supernatural.

THE NEW ENCHANTRESS (an Alyssa McCarthy Magical Missions) by Sunayna Prasad

Book Details:

Book Title:  The New Enchantress (Alyssa McCarthy's Magical Missions, Book 3) by Sunayna Prasad
Category:  Middle-Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12),  175 pages
Genre:  Fantasy
Publisher:  Amazon KDP
Release date:   March 2021
Tour dates: May 17 to June 18, 2021
Content Rating:  PG: Some intense scenes and mild language.

Book Description:

The point of no return has come!

It’s the summer before high school and life is about to change for fourteen-year-old Alyssa McCarthy. A sorcerer hexes her with everlasting powers, requiring her to become an enchantress. If she cannot learn to control her magic pronto, she will forget her loved ones and serve as the warlock’s eternal slave.

In order to control her powers, Alyssa must gain control of her emotions. With the struggles of adolescence and disasters everywhere, catastrophes are bound to happen! It’s only a matter of time before Alyssa’s world changes, for better or worse...

BUY THE BOOK:
Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Kobo
Apple
Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Sunayna Prasad enjoys writing fantasy books for children, as well as cooking, creating artwork, watching online videos, and blogging. She has also written The Frights of Fiji, and A Curse of Mayhem. She constantly in creating and brainstorming new ideas.

Connect with the Author:   website ~ twitter ~ goodreads

My Review

The New Enchantress (Alyssa McCarthy's Magical Missions, Book 3) by Sunayna Prasad was a great Middle-Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12) book. The book ended up being the best of the series, though I have to say I really loved all of the books. The author simply did an amazing job with not only this book, but the whole series. Great for middle school kids and those younger with parental help.

JAMES DREADFUL AND THE SPELL-GUARDIAN by Alan Creed

 

Book Details:
Book Title:  James Dreadful and the Spell-Guardian (The Dreadful Series Book 1) by Alan Creed
Category:  YA Fiction (Ages 13-17),  280 pages
Genre: Fantasy
Publisher:  Creed Publishing
Release date:  March, 2021
Tour dates: June 21 to July 9, 2021
Content Rating:  PG.

Book Description:

Fourteen-year-old James Dreadful is living a normal life in a small Colorado town. But his past is anything but normal. Born in Nobrocoso—a mystical land of magic and myths—James was brought to earth at the age of three to escape sorcerous assassins after the death of his parents.

When a powerful and evil goblin arrives years later to steal a secret book that once belonged to his father, James discovers his father’s true identity—Jack Dreadful was the Dark Lord who waged a terrible war in Nobrocoso.

Now, dark forces are stirring, and James must return to Nobrocoso to confront the legacy of blood left by his father. But as James learns his father’s secrets, he fears saving himself might just cost him his soul.

​Can James survive a dangerous, mystical land haunted by his father’s blood-stained deeds? Or will he choose the path of the Dark Lord and meet the same abysmal end?

Buy the Book:
Amazon
Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Alan Creed fell in love with storytelling after seeing Star Wars for the first time as a child. When he was ten years old, his tutor asked him to write sentences containing three words: Ocean, Desert and Jungle. Instead of sentences, Alan wrote a 103-page story entitled Journey through the Desert. That's when he knew he wanted to be a writer. His 103-page story served as the source material for the Dreadful Series. Alan is currently working on the next installment in the James Dreadful series.

connect with the author: website ~ goodreads

Tour Schedule:

June 21 – Cover Lover Book Review – book spotlight / giveaway
June 22 – Character Madness and Musings – book spotlight / giveaway
June 22 - @twilight_reader – book spotlight
June 23 – Carpinello's Writing Pages – book spotlight / giveaway
June 23 - Sadie's Spotlight – book spotlight / giveaway
June 24 – Rockin' Book Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
June 25 – Book Corner News and Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
June 28 –Books for Books – book spotlight
June 29 – Pick a Good Book – book spotlight / giveaway
June 29 - Westveil Publishing – book spotlight / giveaway
June 30 – I Read What You Write – book spotlight / giveaway
June 30 - Stephanie Jane – book spotlight / giveaway
July 1 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
July 2 – fundinmental – book spotlight / giveaway
July 6 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book spotlight / giveaway
July 6 - Lamon Reviews – book spotlight / giveaway
July 7 - Splashes of Joy – book spotlight / giveaway
July 7 – GivernyReads – book spotlight / giveaway
July 8 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book spotlight / giveaway
July 9 – Elizabeth McKenna – Author – book spotlight / giveaway

REDLINED (a Novel of Boston) by Richard W. Wise

 

​Book Details:

Book Title:  Redlined: A Novel of Boston by Richard W. Wise
Category: Adult Fiction (18 +),  (9 Hours 59 Minutes)
Genre: Thriller
Publisher:  Brunswick House Press
Release date:   May 2020
Format available for review:  audiobook (audible download codes), ebook (mobi file (for Kindle), ePub,
Content Rating:  PG-13 + M. cursing throughout and violence (murder) 
​

Book Description:

The year is 1974. Boston's Jamaica Plain is a neighborhood under siege, a community skating along the razor's edge of decline. The banks have REDLINED Jamaica Plain, causing the housing market to crash, wiping out local homeowner's lifetime investments and opening the neighborhood to blockbusters and slumlords. Now, someone has begun systematically torching those abandoned buildings and the charred body of Sandy Morgan, a dedicated young neighborhood organizer, has been found among the ashes. Why? Who stands to gain?

Community organizer and Marine combat veteran, Jedidiah Flynt and Alex Jordan, his beautiful Harvard educated researcher together with a group of local property owners are determined to stop the redlining and and bring the arsonists responsible for Sandy Morgan's death to justice. Their search will lead them through a labyrinth of corrupt politicians, Asian gangsters and bent churchmen.

Two interwoven plots work their way through the narrative, one is absolutely true, the other never happened, but very well might have.

BUY THE BOOK
Amazon ~ Audible
Apple ~ Indiebound
Add to Goodreads

​​Meet the Author:

​American and received his Graduate Gemologist diploma in 1985. He founded his retail company R. W. Wise, Goldsmiths, Inc. in the early 1980s and began traveling internationally, buying gems and writing about them in 1986. In 2012 he retired from business to pursue his writing. He lives with his wife and two cats in Charlottesville, Virginia.
​
connect with the author: website ~ facebook  ~ goodreads

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Tour Schedule:

YOUR WRITING MATTERS by Colleen M. Story

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Your Writing Matters: How to Banish Self-Doubt, Trust Yourself, and Go the Distance by Colleen M. Story
Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+),  260 pages
Genre: Non-fiction Writing/Publishing
Publisher:  Midchannel Press
Release date:  July 2021
Format available for review:  print & ebook (mobi, ePub, PDF)
Will send print books out:  USA
Tour dates: June 7 to June 28, 2021
Content Rating: G

Book Description:

Does your future as a writer feel uncertain?

You write day after day. You dream of bestseller’s lists and royalty checks, but despite your best marketing efforts, those dreams remain out of reach.

You wonder if you’re wasting your time. Does your writing even matter?

Author Colleen M. Story, a long-time professional writer and writing coach, helps you decide whether you truly have a writer’s DNA. She examines why you feel pressured to make money with your work, why the search for a readership is both motivating and discouraging, and why it’s so common to doubt yourself along the way.

Step by step, you’ll gain a clear-eyed view at the challenges a writer faces in the outside world, while taking your own journey inward to discover what writing really means to you.

Should you continue on this path, or adjust your course now before it’s too late? Don’t waste your precious time in indecision. Let Your Writing Matters guide you to your truth and you’ll never look back again.

Buy the Book:
Amazon
add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Colleen M. Story inspires writers to overcome modern-day challenges and find creative fulfillment in their work. Her book on author platforms, "Writer Get Noticed!," was a gold-medal winner in the Reader’s Favorite Book Awards and a first-place winner in the Reader Views Literary Awards. "Overwhelmed Writer Rescue" was named Book by Book Publicity’s Best Writing/Publishing Book in 2018 and was an Amazon bestseller. Her novel, "Loreena’s Gift," was a Foreword Reviews' INDIES Book of the Year Awards winner, among others.

Colleen frequently serves as a workshop leader and motivational speaker, where she helps attendees remove mental and emotional blocks and tap into their unique creative powers. Her first course, “How to Finish the Creative Projects You Start,” is available on Teachable.

Go to Colleen's website for free chapters of her books.

connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ goodreads

FINDING MY SUNSHINE by Shannon Leith McGuire

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Finding My Sunshine (A Memoir)
Author:  Shannon Leith McGuire.
​Category:  Adult Non-Fiction (18+), 198 pages
Genre:  Memoir
Publisher:  Sunshine Street Press
Release date:  March 2021
Formats Available for review: print-softback (USA), ebook (MOBI for Kindle, EPUB)
Tour dates:  June 14 to July 2, 2021
Content Rating:  PG+M for bad language, anger, and suicidal thoughts, clinical depression, and assault

Book Description:

"What if that someone was you?" Shannon had been so quick to blame others for her anger. She knew she was drowning in darkness and pain; being born with a learning disability made her feel defeated by life. She tried drinking heavily in order to quiet the demons. After being kicked out of college, Shannon took a leap of faith and started working in a nursing home. That's when her angels appeared and the miracle began. The insight and wisdom she gained from those elderly new friends led her on an inspiring journey of discovery and self-acceptance. Each of us has our own path. Some of us just need angels to help us find it. This is her story.

Buy the Book:
Amazon

Meet the Author:

Shannon was raised in a small town in Eastern Montana, where you leave your car keys in the ignition and your front door unlocked all the time. The kind of place where sunsets and sunrises can be seen for miles on the horizon. Where the spring crickets and frogs resting in the irrigation ditches helped transition the days into a calm resting night. Where the winters can get so cold, air can freeze. It was only after she was academically suspended by the college she was attending, that she became a Certified Nurses Aide (CNA). She did her training in Billings, Montana and it was there she learned how to take care of others and bonded with the geriatric population. For over five years, Shannon worked in the same nursing home where she received her training. The work was hard, but it grounded her and helped her find balance in what had become a deeply unbalanced life. It was not until she was a CNA, at one of the hospitals that she had a dream-three nights in a row-that she was going to become a nurse. She currently resides in Tampa, Florida, where you may hear her laughing with her husband of over 10 years,  scuba diving in the ocean, taking walks with their rescued pit-bull dog- Darby, or dancing together to life's music.

connect with the author: website

THE CURSE OF MAYHEM

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  A Curse of Mayhem (Alyssa McCarthy's Magical Missions, Book 2) by Sunayna Prasad
Category:  Middle-Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12),  173 pages
Genre:  Fantasy
Publisher:  Amazon KDP
Release date:   July 2019
Tour dates: May 17 to Jun 18, 2021
Content Rating:  G: There is no mature language or adult content whatsoever.

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Book Description:

History, like magic, has a habit of repeating itself.

It’s been six months since thirteen-year-old Alyssa McCarthy left magic behind for good. Or so she thought…

Then the enchanted objects that protected her disappear. Now a skeleton named Errol has cursed her with magical powers that keep getting her in trouble. Suddenly strange things are happening with disastrous effects, and if Alyssa can’t remove the magic, she will lose everything she holds dear. In order to get rid of her unwanted wizardry, Alyssa will have to boost her bravery and confidence and determine who Errol really is. But every time Alyssa uses an enchantment, Errol is one step closer to getting his flesh back and becoming alive, and he will do anything to achieve his goals…even if it means destroying Alyssa’s happiness.

Originally published in 2016 as “Wizardry Goes Wild” and “The Unruly Curse” in 2019, “A Curse of Mayhem” is book two in the exciting and suspenseful “Magical Missions” series.

BUY THE BOOK:
Amazon ~ Barnes and Noble ~ Kobo
Add to Goodreads

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Meet the Author:

Sunayna Prasad enjoys writing fantasy books for children, as well as cooking, creating artwork, watching online videos, and blogging. She has also written The Frights of Fiji, and A Curse of Mayhem. She constantly in creating and brainstorming new ideas.

Connect with the Author:   website ~ twitter ~ goodreads

My Review

A Curse of Mayhem (Alyssa McCarthy's Magical Missions, Book 2) by Sunayna Prasad was a well written book that I ended up enjoying. The first book in the series is a must read before this one in order to understand what is going on with the main character Alyssa McCarthy. I really loved the whole magical set up the author crafted and the idea of a teen wanting to get rid of their magic instead of wanting to get magic made for quite a twist to the normal teen fantasy books.

Kip the Letter X by Kim Patrick/Spartan & the Green Egg by Nabila Khashoggi

 

Book Details:
Book Title:  Kip the Letter X by Kim Patrick
Category:  Children's Fiction (Ages 3-7),  36 pages
Genre: Children's Book
Publisher:  Full Cycle Publications
Release date:  June 2020
Tour dates: June 7 to June 25, 2021
Content Rating:  G.

Book Description:

Kip the Letter X searches far and wide trying to find his purpose.

Buy the Book:
Amazon.com
Full Cycle Publications
Add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

Kim Patrick was born in England, raised in Britain and South Africa, and now lives in the United States. She loves animals, books, films, the letter X, and much of the rest of the alphabet.

connect with the author:  website ~ twitter ~ goodreads

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Join us for this tour from June 7 to June 25, 2021!

Book Details:
Book Title:  Spartan and the Green Egg by Nabila Khashoggi
Category:  Middle-Grade Fiction (Ages 8-12),  95 pages
Genre: Children's Adventure: Graphic Novel
Publisher:  Full Cycle Publications
Release date:  January 20, 2021
Tour dates: June 7 to June 25, 2021
Content Rating:  G.

Book Description:

In Book 5, Land of The Midnight Sun, Egg, the friendly live alien spaceship, creatively uses an enchanting art gallery to reveal the young adventurers’ next destination. Spartan, Katie, Max, Tor, and Grimm find themselves in Greenland, home to some of the biggest glaciers on earth, and known as The Land of the Midnight Sun because, in summer, the sun never sets. Greenland’s vast and daunting landscape is almost completely covered with ice and snow.

With the help of some friendly Greenland sled dogs, they arrive in the charming village of Siorapaluk and befriend a young Inuit, Malik, and his family. They soon learn that Malik’s father and his group have gone missing while on an expedition. The team goes in search of them, at their own risk. Before long, they are caught up in a treacherous avalanche and trapped on a glacier that has broken off from the mainland. Hope arrives from a powerful source as they bear witness to an astonishing and beautiful miracle from the Earth’s living creatures.

Buy the Book:
Amazon.com
Full Cycle Publications

Meet the Author:

When her eldest son was a toddler, Nabila used to entertain him with made-up stories about a boy who traveled the world inside a live green egg that just so happened to be an alien from another planet. She turned the tales into a colorful children¹s graphic novel series, Spartan and the Green Egg, with the intention of introducing children to environmental and cultural themes around the world.

A portion of all proceeds from the Spartan and the Green Egg book series, toys and accessories is donated to The Children for Peace ONLUS. Based in Italy, this non-governmental organization helps young people worldwide who are living in challenging circumstances obtain their essential needs such as food, medical help and educational opportunities. Nabila currently lives in New York and has two sons.

connect with the author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ pinterest

DARKNESS HIDES by J.C. Gatlin

 

Book Details:

Book Title: DARKNESS HIDES by J.C. Gatlin
Category:  Adult Fiction (18 + yrs), 251 pages
Genre:  Mystery / Suspense
Publisher:  Milford House Press
Release date:  April 2021
Format available for review:  print and ebook (Gifted Kindle)
Will send print books out:  USA and Canada
Tour dates: June 14 to July 2
Content Rating:  PG-13: There are a couple of murders and mild language (damn, shit)

Book Description:

Someone she knows is watching.
Someone she knows is stalking.
And something hides in the darkness.

With a Category 4 hurricane about to make landfall, boat safety instructor Kate Parks is running out of time. Bodies are piling up--and they're not from the raging storm. An injury may have ended her career as a Fish and Wildlife officer, but nothing can keep her away from the investigation.

And it doesn’t take long for her to see that the clues have one thing in common: a connection to the recent death of her five-year-old nephew.

In a brewing storm of rage, guilt, and family secrets, Kate fights to protect her grieving sister just as the hurricane threatens everything she knows and loves. But before her world is completely ravaged, she must uncover one final truth:

Run from the water.
Hide from the wind.
Flee from the shadows where a weeper seeks revenge.

Exclusive preview of DARKNESS HIDES

Meet Kate Parks, a former Fish & Wildlife Officer who is now working as a boat safety inspector for the Sienna Key Police Department. In this chapter, she is hunkered down in her childhood home with her sister, Elise, as Hurricane Sebastian makes landfall.

Meet Elise Tyler, Kate's younger sister who is still grieving the loss of her son Noah. She refused to evacuate, and Kate had hoped to convince her to leave before it was too late.

Read the sample chapter before the storm hits and escape routes are blocked.
 

SAMPLE CHAPTER

    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.”

    Elise turned the rocker right side up and sat down. “I’m not leaving Noah’s room.”

    Doogie stepped to her, knelt beside the rocker. “C’mon, kid. It’s not safe.”

    Kate watched her sister look up at him.

    “I’m not leaving.” Gripping the edges of the afghan and pulling it taut against her back, she sank deeper into the cradle of the rocking chair. Her voice sounded raspy and tired, and a clap of thunder tapped her willpower.

    The wind grew louder. It sounded like a howling wolf for a second and then a train. The roar became deafening. Debris hit the house. The roof rattled and banged.

    Kate looked up.

    Doogie moved the box spring and bedframe to the window, struggling to position them against the mattress. He looked back at Kate.

    Elise picked up the weathered copy of Where the Darkness Hides from the floor. With the soft lantern light illuminating her face, she set the book in her lap and opened the cover.

    Doogie looked puzzled. “We don’t have time for this.”

    Elise read out loud, raising her voice over the shrieking wind.

    “We don’t have time for this,” Doogie yelled. He turned to Kate. “Do something.”

    Kate listened to the roar of the wind. Something massive hit the side of the house. The impact was loud and shook the walls. What could she do? If their number was up, she couldn't possibly do anything to prevent it. And at least they'd be going as a family, together. She dropped to the floor, next to Elise. Doc scurried to her, his tail raised high, and hopped onto her thigh. He stood on his hind legs and pawed at Kate with his single arm.

    Thunder rocked the house, and Elise stopped reading. She turned toward the bedroom door. Doc let out a series of warning chirps and clicks. Kate heard it too. A pounding that seemed separate from the rain beating the exterior of the house. BAM! BAM! BAM! Intense. Determined. It sounded different from the wind.

    It was coming from downstairs.

    The hairs on the back of Kate’s neck rose. Another BAM! BAM! BAM! She definitely didn’t imagine it. She turned to Doogie. His eyes widened.

    “That’s the front door,” he said. “Someone’s at the door.”

 

Buy the Book:
Amazon
Sun Bury Press
add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

JC Gatlin lives in Tampa, Florida, and writes mystery novels that include sunny Florida locales and quirky locals as characters. His last novel, H_NGM_N: Murder is the Word, won the coveted Florida Royal Palm Literary Award for Best Mystery in 2019. He is active in the Florida Writer’s Association and is a board member on the Florida Writer’s Foundation, a charity organization that fights illiteracy.

connect with the author: website ~ facebook ~ linkedin ~ goodreads

My Review

DARKNESS HIDES by J.C. Gatlin took me on a mystery filled journey along side boat safety instructor Kate Parks. I enjoyed the background of Kate as a past  Fish and Wildlife officer and now as a boat safety instructor. This background made her unique upon a mystery genre typically filled with officers and agents as main characters.

Aunt Truly's Tales: Enchantment for Story Lovers

 

Book Details:

Book Title:  Aunt Truly's Tales: Enchantment for Story Lovers
Author:  Laura McHale Holland
​Category:  Adult Fiction (18+ and older), 100 pages
Genre:  Fantasy: short stories/folk and fairy tales
Publisher:  WORDforest
Release date:  June 5, 2021
Formats Available for review: ebook (mobi for kindle, epub, pdf, Gifted Kindle)
Tour dates:  June 7 to June 18, 2021
Content Rating:  PG. These are all stories that could be shared with a teenager, probably even a 10 year old.

Book Description:

A dash of whimsy and a dose of wisdom for our times.

If you like stories that call to mind a simpler era and words strung in lyrical ways, this collection will take you to a wondrous world where ordinary rules do not apply.

Podcasts, blogs, movies, vlogs—people spin yarns in many ways. But nothing dazzles like a story told in person. In the right teller's hands, a simple narrative has unfathomable power. Such is the case with Aunt Truly, a spellbinding character in Laura McHale Holland's novel The Kiminee Dream. She is old, but no one knows her age; she travels, but where she goes is a mystery. One thing is certain: she collects stories.

The ten tales in this book present traditional and original stories Aunt Truly might tell you if you happened by her home, Windy Wood, where snow falls from November through April, and reality is open to interpretation. In her tales, you'll meet a determined frog, clever seamstress, wise handyman, stolen wife and more unlikely heroes who face daunting trials. Some succeed; others do not. In the process, they are all transformed.

Buy the Book
Amazon (print) ~ Amazon (ebook)
B&N ~ Draft2Digital
add to Goodreads

Meet the Author:

As a child, Laura McHale Holland loved the musicality of language and often recalled, verbatim, conversations she heard. A lost soul in her teens and early twenties, she righted herself in her mid-twenties and discovered a deep love of the creative process. In her work, she often finds hope in unlikely places.

Laura writes stories true and untrue in multiple forms from flash fiction to novels, memoirs to short plays. Her coming of age memoir, Resilient Ruin, won a National Indie Excellence Award for new adult nonfiction. Prior award-winning books include Reversible Skirt, a childhood memoir, and Sisters Born, Sisters Found, an anthology on sisterhood. Her stories have appeared in several anthologies, including The Best of Every Day Fiction Three and Wisdom Has a Voice. Two of her short plays were produced recently in Northern California; two others received staged readings. The Kiminee Dream is Laura's first novel. To connect with her, please visit her website.

connect with author: website ~ twitter ~ facebook ~ instagram ~ goodreads

My Review

 Aunt Truly's Tales: Enchantment for Story Lovers was a great read. I really liked Aunt Truly and her stories were great! I liked the laid back short story feel of this book especially with h ow I was able to read a story and walk away and then come back later for a different story.