Tuesday 18 August 2015

Super Bad $100 Book Blast

Super Bad
 
 Super Bad by Kai Strand The world is in chaos. Violence and thievery reign. And with the supers still balanced, it’s only getting worse. Without good versus evil, the supers care less and less. In order to restore purpose, the world needs its super heroes and its super villains, but the one who balanced them in the first place is missing. Sandra’s concern over finding her brother, Jeff, isn’t her only problem. Her pathetic excuse for super powers has left her needing a new ankle. And though she’s still very much committed to her boyfriend, Source, she’s growing unreasonably attracted to Set, the boy who double crossed Jeff by stealing his girlfriend. When Sandra is taken and held as bait by some kids who want to unbalance the super world, it becomes the inciting event that changes things for supers everywhere and forces them to answer the question, “Hero or villain?”


Excerpt
The classroom door opened and Sandra glanced toward it, along with the thirty other kids in the room. She snickered and raised her eyebrows at Lexa when a young man wearing a Hermes costume, complete with wings fluttering on his heels, floated in.
“I’m not gonna lie,” Lexa leaned over to whisper. “I hope a draft lifts his skirt so we can see what’s underneath.”
Sandra giggled. “My guess is bun huggers. Gold lame to match his shiny winged cap.”
Lexa waggled her eyebrows. “Shiny gold buns. I like.”
The teacher frowned at the young man. “Can I help you?”
“I have a delivery for Sandra Tohler.”
Sandra gulped. This couldn’t be anything besides embarrassing. A tidal wave of heads turned toward her causing her cheeks to flush with heat.
Seeing where everyone’s attention settled, the Hermes guy floated between the rows of desks and came to rest near hers. “Sandra Tohler?”
Reluctantly, she nodded.
He cleared his throat before delivering a soliloquy in a clear, resonating voice that Sandra was sure the students in classrooms across campus would hear.
“Sandra, oh Sandra, my lovely, stormy vixen, hear my humble plea. Your essence has absorbed into my every thought and now I wonder how I will sit for my exams. Will I answer essay questions by describing the intense sable color of your hair, or the enticing moss of your eyes that makes me imagine us lying in each others arms in a fairy forest?”
Sandra’s forehead hit her desk with a loud thunk, her voice a mumble against the surface. “Please stop. Go away.”
But the Hermes guy continued in his orator’s voice. “I’ve relived our kiss uncountable times. Your lips were velvet soft, but demanding.”
A chorus of “Ooo,” erupted through the room.
add to goodreads Praise for the Book I have enjoyed every minute I've spent with the characters of the Super Villain Academy world, but I have to say that this is my favorite book of the series. There's action, romance, and a show down I didn't see coming. –Mary Waibel, author This is a great series and I am disappointed that it’s over. I will miss these characters. I may just have to reread the three books again! – Amazon customer [Y]ou’re in for an exciting ride with Jeff and the other superheroes. Told from different point of view characters you get to see inside the heads of the major players. Sometimes that’s a bit scary. –Beverly McClure, author    

kaiAuthor Kai Strand
When her children were young and the electricity winked out, Kai Strand gathered her family around the fireplace and they told stories, one sentence at a time. Her boys were rather fond of the ending, “And then everybody died. The end.” Now an award winning children’s author, Kai crafts fiction for kids and teens to provide an escape hatch from their reality. With a selection of novels for young adult and middle grade readers and a short story blog, Lightning Quick Reads, Kai entertains children of all ages, and their adults.

 
   
100_Amazon_PaypalBook Blast Giveaway $100 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash Ends 9/6/15 Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
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Friday 24 July 2015

Spotlight: Fifty Shades of Truth by Josef

25783471R+++ rated

Very explicit but it has not been written as a gratuitous sex novel

A very challenging book to read and not in any way for the faint hearted

It is an autobiography, not a novel. And none of what you experienced before will prepare you for this book.

This is a wonderfully entertaining, sometimes humorous, sometimes shocking, sometimes challenging, but always entertaining account of this man’s life. Many other men can only fantasize about what he has experienced. Could the variety and extent of his sexual world really belong to one man? How did he keep this side of his life secret? What trigger­points in his life can explain his behaviour? 

EXCERPT: I asked him whether anyone ever got to this second test and ended up with a negative result.  “Sure, it happens,” he said. “But not often,” he added quickly.  He was an older cop and seemed like a nice guy, and I don’t think he wanted me getting my hopes up.

So for fifteen minutes I prayed.  I prayed to God or whoever runs the show, begging for the result to come back negative.  Losing my driver’s licence would have a great impact on my job and my life.  It wasn’t something I would look forward to trying to explain at all, but I knew I would be able to come up with something if I had to.  I am a very good liar but I didn’t want to go through that.  Every day, everything I did was a lie, and I was already telling too many.  So I prayed, and promised on my soul’s very existence that if I got out of this, I would get in my car, drive home, and never do anything like this again.  I would give up the trannies, the mistresses, the beautiful girls they call prostitutes; I’d give up the whole lot.  The focus and intensity of my prayers was all-consuming.  I felt it through every fibre of my being as I begged the heavens for just this one favour.

The officer returned from the other room and gave me the good news.  The result had come back negative and I was free to go.  The old cop on the front desk was surprised, but I could feel he was happy for me.  We had got on well in our time-killing chat while I waited.  They returned my car keys to me and I left.  I walked back to my car, with relief flooding my body, and rang the tranny girl I had been on my way to see.

“Hi, it’s Josef,” I told her when she answered, “I had a bit of trouble.  I’m running late but I’m still coming,” I blurted out.  “I’m probably about twenty minutes away.  Is it still okay to come and see you?” I asked anxiously. “Of course,” she replied, “That’s fine.  I’ll see you when you get here.”

This all happened without a second thought about God, or the Divine, and without a moment of hesitation or remorse.  Even before I got back to my car I had thrown my prayers into the gutter, and was ready to drive over to see her.  When I got to her apartment I knocked and she let me in. “Hello,” she said, greeting me warmly as she stepped out from behind the door and closed it behind me.  She was wearing a sexy top and knickers, which was standard fare.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:  The author is a man who has lived two lives; one ordinary and the other extraordinary. It has not been fabricated, exaggerated, or embellished in any way.  It’s the raw truth and he is not really sure why he wrote it, but his therapist thought it was a good idea.  Writing down his life’s story might simply be a part of the healing process, so he can finally move on with his life and live it like a normal person.  It has been written in a way that tries to depict how the author felt at the time and how he feels now, and he can only use words or terms that make that possible.

Publisher: Fontaine Publishing


                            
                                 Spotlight hosted by the GreatReads!


Sunday 19 July 2015

Suddenly One Summer by Julie James

From the New York Times bestselling author of It Happened One Wedding comes a novel about a man and a woman whose summer is about to get very, very steamy…

Divorce lawyer Victoria Slade has seen enough unhappy endings to swear off marriage forever. That doesn't mean she's opposed to casual dating—just not with her cocky new neighbor, who is as gorgeous and tempting as he is off-limits. But once she agrees to take on his sister's case, she's as determined to win as ever—even if that means teaming up with Ford…

Investigative journalist Ford Dixon is bent on finding the man who got his sister pregnant and left her high and dry. He's willing to partner with Victoria, despite the fact that the beautiful brunette gets under his skin like no other woman. He might not be looking to settle down, but there's no denying the scorching attraction between them. Still, the more time he spends with Victoria, the more he realizes that the one woman as skeptical about love as he is might be the only woman he could really fall for…

Monday 6 July 2015

Watch Out for These Novels!

Image Not Found.Young Babylon by Lu Nei, Poppy Toland
 
Knowing nothing more than the working-class life he is born into, headstrong Lu Xiaolu reluctantly starts down the path he is expected to follow. At age nineteen in 1990s China, he feels pressure to follow suit with those around him and takes a job at the town’s saccharin factory. Slowly, he adjusts to the bureaucratic factory routine, making the best of the situation by bonding with coworkers, flirting with girls, and refusing to give in completely to the expectations of those around him.

As Lu Xiaolu finds his way, a startling portrait of an economically expanding China comes into view; the propaganda of a common goal gives way to a bottom-line system that he sees as indifferent to individual happiness. But thanks to the relationships he develops, Lu Xiaolu decides to fight for the life he wants.


Image Not Found.The Hundred-Year Flood by Matthew Salesses

In the shadow of a looming flood that comes every one hundred years, Tee tries to convince himself that living in a new place will mean a new identity and a chance to shed the parallels between him and his adopted father. This beautiful and dreamlike story follows Tee, a twenty-two-year-old Korean-American, as he escapes to Prague in the wake of his uncle’s suicide and the aftermath of 9/11. His life intertwines with Pavel, a painter famous for revolution; Katka, his equally alluring wife; and Pavel's partner—a giant of a man with an American name. As the flood slowly makes its way into the old city, Tee contemplates his own place in life as both mixed and adopted and as an American in a strange land full of heroes, myths, and ghosts. In the tradition of Native Speaker and The Family Fang, the Good Men Project’s Matthew Salesses weaves together the tangled threads of identity, love, growing up, and relationships in his stunning first novel, The Hundred-Year Flood.


Image Not Found.City of Echoes by Robert Ellis

On Detective Matt Jones’s first night working Homicide in LA, he’s called to investigate a particularly violent murder case: a man has been gunned down in a parking lot off Hollywood Boulevard, his bullet-riddled body immediately pegged as the work of a serial robber who has been haunting the Strip for months. Driven by the grisliness of the killing, Jones and his hot-tempered partner, Denny Cabrera, jump headfirst into the investigation. But as Jones uncovers evidence that links the crime to a brutal, ritualized murder that occurred eighteen months prior, he begins to suspect that there’s more going on beneath the surface. When Jones discovers shocking, deep-seated corruption; a high-level cover-up; and his own personal ties to the rising body count, he’s no longer sure he can trust anyone, even himself.


Image Not Found.The Girl from Krakow by Alex Rosenberg
 
It’s 1935. Rita Feuerstahl comes to the university in Krakow intent on enjoying her freedom. But life has other things in store—marriage, a love affair, a child, all in the shadows of the oncoming war. When the war arrives, Rita is armed with a secret so enormous that it could cost the Allies everything, even as it gives her the will to live. She must find a way both to keep her secret and to survive amid the chaos of Europe at war. Living by her wits among the Germans as their conquests turn to defeat, she seeks a way to prevent the inevitable doom of Nazism from making her one of its last victims. Can her passion and resolve outlast the most powerful evil that Europe has ever seen?
In an epic saga that spans from Paris in the ’30s and Spain’s Civil War to Moscow, Warsaw, and the heart of Nazi Germany, The Girl from Krakow follows one woman’s battle for survival as entire nations are torn apart, never to be the same.


Image Not Found.The Girl at Rosewood Hall (A Lady Jane Mystery) by Annis Bell, Edwin Miles
 
On his death bed, Lord Pembroke took great care to try to ensure the future of his beautiful, unconventional niece, Lady Jane. Her debutante ball featured the most eligible bachelors of London society. But when the night of the dance arrives, things do not go as planned.

To escape the superficial drama of the party, Jane seeks refuge in the garden of Rosewood Hall, where she discovers a gravely injured girl. With her last breath, the child beseeches Jane to find another girl, Mary, and to save her from the same fate she has suffered. Lady Jane vows to fulfill this final wish, a promise that will entangle her in a dangerous intrigue and take her from the safety of home to the hard streets of London. With the faded inscription in a tattered novel as her only physical clue, Jane sets out to investigate the region’s orphanages and infiltrate London’s most elegant homes. Can she save young Mary from a swiftly approaching doom?

Image Not Found.The Good Neighbor by A. J. Banner

From a phenomenal new voice in suspense fiction comes a book that will forever change the way you look at the people closest to you…

Shadow Cove, Washington, is the kind of town everyone dreams about—quaint streets, lush forests, good neighbors. That’s what Sarah thinks as she settles into life with her new husband, Dr. Johnny McDonald. But all too soon she discovers an undercurrent of deception. And one October evening when Johnny is away, sudden tragedy destroys Sarah’s happiness.

Dazed and stricken with grief, she and Johnny begin to rebuild their shattered lives. As she picks up the pieces of her broken home, Sarah discovers a shocking secret that forces her to doubt everything she thought was true—about her neighbors, her friends, and even her marriage. With each stunning revelation, Sarah must ask herself, Can we ever really know the ones we love?


Image Not Found.About That Fling by Tawna Fenske
 
As the top PR person for the Belmont Health System, bright, beautiful Jenna McArthur knows how to spin bad news and make it sound good. But when her adorable Aunt Gertie—a secret romance writer—urges Jenna to embrace her wild side, Jenna tumbles into bed with Adam Thomas, a guy she’s just met, for a fun and fantastic one-night stand. Too bad Adam is the one guy who’s totally off-limits. There aren’t enough clever words in the world to spin the story in a way that won’t wreck Jenna’s closest friendship or destroy her job.

With the irresistible Adam always around her at work, wearing an aura of temptation like a fabulous cologne, Jenna has to hold tight to her senses to avoid falling for him. Will he take her to the heights of pleasure again—or will their attraction destroy everything she’s worked for?


Image Not Found.Pretty Dead (Elise Sandburg Series Book 3) by Anne Frasier

A serial killer stalks the streets of Savannah...
Homicide detective Elise Sandburg and her partner, profiler David Gould, are all too familiar with the terrible costs of chasing evil. Despite their wounded psyches, the detectives delve into the deranged killer’s twisted mind, determined to unravel the clues in the taunts he leaves behind.

A city gripped by fear...
When his daughter becomes the killer’s next victim, a grief-stricken mayor comes down hard on the police, demanding that they catch the psychopath—now. Feeling the pressure, department officials enlist the aid of both Elise’s estranged father and an FBI profiler who has unresolved business with David.

A cunning and elusive madman...
In a heart-pounding race to stop the next homicide, the detectives uncover their own role in the madman’s deadly game. Will they outsmart the killer before another horrific murder takes place in their beautiful city? Or have Elise and David finally met their match?

Image Not Found.That's Not Mine by Anna Kang, Christopher Weyant
 
Two fuzzy creatures both want to sit in the same comfy chair. The trouble is, they can’t agree who it belongs to. They get madder and madder, until…

With expressive illustrations and simple text, this giggle-inducing tale about (not) sharing and (not) being a good friend features the endearing characters from Theodor Seuss Geisel Award winner You Are (Not) Small.



The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello

Book Cover ImageThe Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello is an absorbing and entertaining supernatural historical mystery thriller with elements of horror, occult and a delightful dose of romance. Full of suspense, this is one story that is designed to hook you from the first page as the award-winning journalist-author has crafted an entertaining story that is both chilling and thrilling.

Set during the Second World War in 1944, the story revolves around the discovery of a mysterious relic, an ancient Egyptian ossuary, in Germany by American soldier Lt. Lucas Athan. Thought to be stolen by Hitler, the relic containing unexplained items and human skeletal remains was brought to Princeton, New Jersey, where it was thoroughly studied. And there seems to be unexplained deaths connected with the mysterious ossuary. Egyptian scholar Simone Rashid, who along with her father first unearthed the relic, joined Lucas in Princeton where Albert Einstein was also working in the same campus on a secret project. And they must solve the mystery before it is too late.

The Einstein Prophecy by Robert Masello promises a lot of excitement and thrill but as the story unfolds, some of the early expectation gave way to a sense of predictability and though the story moved along at a swift speed, there seems to be stunted progression in how it moves forward, and at one point it seems to be breaking apart at the seams. There are various threads in the story but all tied up in the end. The romance between Lucas Athan and Simone Rashid added a delightful flavour to the story. Like the unexplained mystery which resulted in several deaths, The Einstein Prophecy ended up coming short of expectation though it is still an enjoyable and engaging supernatural thriller.

Amazon Link

Finders Keepers by Stephen King

After last year’s absorbing thriller Mr. Mercedes, Stephen King returns with its sequel as the unlikely team of ex-policeman Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney tried to make sense of the City Center Massacre and also save the life of Pete Saubers from the clutches of a near-deranged Morris Bellamy. While the main thread of the story revolves around Pete and Bellamy, it also delves deep into the plot of Mr. Mercedes and the massacre which took the lives of eight innocent people, maimed three, seriously injured twelve and caused minor injuries to seventeen others.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King begins in the year 1978 with the murder of a novelist at his New Hampshire cabin by a die-hard admirer. The cloistered eighty-year-old novelist John Rothstein found himself awake when the privacy of his cabin was invaded by an obsessed fan Morris Bellamy and two accomplices. Not content with the cash available, Bellamy wants to make sure if the rumored sell-out of his favorite character Jimmy Gold in the next Rothstein novel is true, and the ensuing melee proved disastrous.

Bellamy’s plans unraveled when he was arrested and sent to prison for thirty-five years for another violent crime, but not before he stashed the loot away. A high school student Pete Saubers, whose father Thomas Saubers was seriously injured in Mr. Mercedes, and whose family is struggling to make both ends meet, found the buried treasure and sent the money to his parents concealing his real identity while keeping the drafts of Rothstein’s novels. All hell broke loose when Bellamy is released on parole in 2014 and discovered his treasures missing. It is up to King’s likeable trio of Bill Hodges, Jerome Robinson and Holly Gibney to keep Pete from harm’s way and protect his family.

Finders Keepers by Stephen King is an ambitious and well-crafted hard-boiled thriller which can be read as a stand-alone though it is the middle book of a trilogy. Its masterful pacing and riveting plotting makes it a heart thumping read, intensely thrilling and absolutely gripping. Author Stephen King as is his wont, delivers a novel that has stunned me by its shrewdness and ability to sustain interest.

Amazon Link

Sunday 5 July 2015

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel

Book Cover ImageThere are various approaches to a story. While the vast majority of the books that we have in the market are geared towards the entertainment and pleasure of its readers, there are some books which are designed to engage the readers, stimulate one to action and evoke a sense of duty, awareness and self-discovery as a result of its reading. And it is into that latter category that Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel belongs.

A suspenseful contemporary mystery thriller, Crooked Little Lies follows the events surrounding the mysterious disappearance of Bo Laughlin, a quirky character familiar to most residents of the small Texas town of Hardys Walk. Bo is also the step-brother of Annie Beauchamp, a young woman who works in the cafĂ© in town, and they both have lost their mothers. It is also the story of Lauren Wilder, an old-fashioned suburban wife and mother of two adolescents - Drew, 14, and Kenzie, 11 – and how her life unchangeably intertwined with Bo’s disappearance.

Crooked Little Lies by Barbara Taylor Sissel is an absorbing and captivating story that is strung with elements of mystery and suspense. What emphatically sets apart this particular story is how the author sets the stage for the story to fold up and the underlying refrain of how an incident can affect an individual, family or an entire community. Author Barbara Taylor Sissel's eclectic cast of characters in the form of Cooper Grant, Lauren’s her husband Jeff, Lauren’s sister Tara and drug-addict boyfriend Greg, and other secondary players make it a satisfying read. Though the ending did not come as a surprise, the mastery with which it was build up makes for an exciting read.

Amazon Link