New Update!

Hello everyone. All of my Reviews, that I have yet to write, will be posted sporadically during the summer. After the end of this summer, I will not be posting on here anymore, as you will see the info on the right side of the blog.
Thanks for your understanding.

Sunday, September 30, 2012

What 'One Lovely Blog Award!'

This is a bit long overdue, but I want to thank Suzy @ Lowfell Writers Place & Andreia @ Tryony for nominating my Blog for One Lovely Blog Award. I really appreciate it! :) 



Here are the requirements for the award:

- Include the pic in the post.
- Thank the person who nominated you.
- Include This Set Of Rules.
- Provide 7 Random Facts about yourself. 
- Nominate at least 15 other blogs.
- Inform your Nominees by posting a comment on their blogs. 


*Now 7 Random Facts About Me*

- For starters, I was born and raised in Southern California, U.S. 

- Hmm...I love coffee and drink it pretty often, maybe too much, but for now, I see it as something much needed! ;)

- I am actually really interested in Genealogy. Ok, this is a little short story but: A relative from one of my parents side looked into their Genealogy, and found so many countries that the family is linked to, including from Greece, Italy, Ireland, France, and from Spain, there are even some Jewish roots, and I heard this all a few years ago, and thought that was pretty interesting and cool, so since I've just had the inkling to investigate more, and love the shows Who Do You Think You Are? and one from PBS, so there's that. 

-Since I was little, I've always had the urge to travel, and hopefully I'll study abroad, or just travel soon, and I have my eye on a few countries in Europe :)

- Ummmm Friends is really one of my ultimate favorite shows! I watch one here and there at times, and it just never gets old! 

- Christmas is my favorite Holiday, not just because my B-Day is in the same month... :) .... but it's a good excuse to just watch a ton of Holiday films!

- (Amazon Gift Card Alert!) CLOSED! No more Entries. 


My Nominees (In no particular order)
*I know I'm late in putting this up, but if you have already been nominated, I hope you still check out this Post, and want to say congrats to you all! You all have Incredible Blogs!* 

(Oh and if and when you decide to post about this Award, send me a link; I would love to check your posts!)
******************************************



Saturday, September 29, 2012

Bone Wires By: Michael Shean *Promo & Giveaway*

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Title: Bone Wires
Author: Michael Shean
Genre: Dark, Mystery, Science Fiction,
Publisher: Curiosity Quills/Whampa, LLC
Paperback/Ebook
Pages: 380 (paperback)

Purchase: 


Book Description

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies.

In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important - even glamorous - department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial.

A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future.


Excerpt
The scene of the crime was an alleyway behind an abandoned Roziara Deli. Crowding the street outside the deli were a pair of patrol cars, white wedges of steel with ribbon lights that stained the nearby buildings red and blue. Street officers clustered around the mouth, black body armor over blue uniform fatigues; unlike the sidearms that Gray and Carter carried, the streeties carried the blunt, brutal shapes of submachine guns close to their plated chests. A cordon had been set up; the narrow yellow band of holographic tape that stretched across the alley mouth glowed as it cycled through baleful warning messages.
“They used to have good subs here,” said Carter as they pulled up in front of the moldering delicatessen. “Slabs of capicola as thick as Annie Cruz’s ass. Just incredible.”
“Don’t know that name,” said Gray.
“Porn star,” said Carter, who produced his badge and flashed it at a streeter who was approaching them. “Way before your time. Put on your war face, here comes the Pacifier.”
Carter’s Amber Shield glowed like the very words of God Almighty in the low light. “Carter and Gray,” said Carter, keeping his identification held up so that the streeter could see it. “Homicide Solutions.”
“Lem Martin,” replied the streeter. “Pacification Officer, patrol region 927.”
“This is your beat then,” said Gray, who produced from the inside pocket of his suit coat a slim Sony microcomp and engaged its holographic display. Data from the Nexus sprang to life above the palm-sized slab. “What do you have for us, Martin?”
Martin winced a bit at the lack of ‘Officer’ before his surname – you got a lot of that with Pacification Services, of which street patrol was the biggest group. They didn’t like being talked down to. Gray outranked him, however, and didn’t give a shit besides. “Nasty stuff,” Martin said, jerking his head toward the alley mouth. “Victim’s name is Anderson, Ronald P.. Administration. His panic implant was set off about an hour ago and flatlined soon after; me and my partner were in the area, and when we found him…well. Real horror show back there, is all I can say. I called for backup. Dunno what they used, but…well. You’ll see.”
Carter and Gray looked at each other – streeters saw all sorts of things. If they said it was a nasty scene, they’d probably do well to get smocks and rain boots. “All right, Officer,” Carter said, at which Martin seemed to relax a bit. “Were there any witnesses, security footage, anything like that?”
“Nothing we could find,” said Martin. “This area’s been abandoned for years. Anyone who lives here cleared out as soon as they heard us coming. You know how it is.”
“Yeah,” said Gray. Don’t want to get arrested for just being around. “All right, thanks, Officer. If you and…”
“Conklin and Peavey,” Martin replied. “In the other car. Patel’s with me.”
“…Right,” Carter replied with a nod. “If you fellas can keep up the cordon on either side of the alley, we’ll have a look. Call the coroner while you’re at it.”
“On it,” barked Martin, who stepped away from the alley mouth while touching the side of his throat where a subvocal mic, standard issue for street patrol, had been implanted. Carter waited until Martin had backed up a few steps and was well into conversation before he gestured for Gray to follow him. The two men passed through the holographic cordon, the barrier no more solid than the air around it, and took a few steps into the feebly-lit alleyway. The space behind the deli was dark and thick with shadows, lit only by the dying bulb of a lamp set over the shop’s sealed back door. A figure slumped or lay in the cone of dim light that spilled across the building’s crumbling facade. The air was faintly tinged with the smell of ozone and cooked meat. The two men approached; Gray held his computer in one hand while Carter fished the flat, card-sized shape of a palm lamp from a coat pocket. Cupping the lamp in his hand, Carter threw a beam of bright blue- white light across the alleyway and clearly illuminated the corpse.
Lean and muscular in life, that which had been Ronald Anderson half-crouched, half-sprawled across the alleyway, his handsome face pointing down toward the filthy concrete. The corpse’s posture reminded Gray of an old girlfriend; she was a yoga fanatic and used to do something similar called the Child’s Pose. Anderson’s formerly clean white dress shirt had been cut open, straight down the back from collar to waist, and his belted slacks had also been cut down to the base of the pelvis. His back had been tattooed with a medieval Japanese wave scene.
Anderson’s flesh had been laid open. Arching upward and away in a v-shaped furrow, a deep channel now butterflied the man’s back half from the base of his skull to the top of his pelvis. Where his spine should have been there was only a bloodless, grayish-red channel. The red and ivory of cleanly clipped bone and cooked organs were clearly visible in its absence, his heart a gray and veined lump. It was as if the tattooed sea had somehow come alive, restless and roaring, and attempted to rise away from its host who could never have survived its rebellion.
Without the slightest drop of blood, Ronald Anderson had been boned like a fish.
“Damn,” muttered Carter, stepping forward so he could track with his light the awful wound. “Never seen that before. What do you make of it, Dan?” For Gray, who had only experienced the more pedestrian horrors of stranglings, stabbings and gunshot wounds in his brief career, there was no clean reply. “That’s the strangest thing I’ve ever seen,” he breathed instead, staring down at the carved gutter. Gray had said ‘strangest’ – however, what he had truly wanted to say was ‘most horrible’. Looking down at the murdered man, Gray knew that his ‘sexy’ case had arrived, just as he had wished for it, but the only thing he could wish for now was to be anywhere else.
As if sensing the truth behind Gray’s words, Carter snorted softly. “Lucky you, kid,” he replied in a wry and vaguely weary tone. “Lucky you.”


About The Author


Michael Shean was born amongst the sleepy hills and coal mines of southern West Virginia in 1978. Taught to read by his parents at a very early age, he has had a great love of the written word since the very beginning of his life. Growing up, he was often plagued with feelings of isolation and loneliness; he began writing off and on to help deflect this, though these themes are often explored in his work as a consequence. At the age of 16, Michael began to experience a chain of vivid nightmares that has continued to this day; it is from these aberrant dreams that he draws inspiration.

In 2001 Michael left West Virginia to pursue a career in the tech industry, and he settled in the Washington, DC area as a web designer and graphic artist. As a result his writing was put aside and not revisited until five years later. In 2006 he met his current fiancee, who urged him to pick up his writing once more. Several years of work and experimentation yielded the core of what would become his first novel, Shadow of a Dead Star (2011). Michael is currently signed with Curiosity Quills Press, who has overtaken publication of Shadow of a Dead Star and the other books of his Wonderland Cycle.

Find The Author


Book Tour Stop: Signs That Might Be Omens By: Billie Hinton *Book Feature & Guest Post*


Book Feature
Bingham Wade lives a solitary life. He leaves his mountain cabin rarely, mostly to do private contract work finding lost children. Cynical and lonely, bound by regret to the past, a photo of a lost girl with curly red hair forces him to his porch in the middle of the night, where he searches the internet for a woman he lost twenty years ago.
Claire Caviness is married and owns an art gallery in Savannah. When she returns to NC for a funeral, things begin to happen: she inherits money, buys a big handsome horse, reconnects with her father, and suddenly, things she lost in the past return to her.
Signs That Might Be Omens, book two in the Claire Quartet, is a story of love, loss, and illumination.
Buy Now @ Amazon
Genre – Literary Fiction / Romance
Rating – R
 Connect with Billie Hinton on Twitter & November Hill
Check out where this author will be talking about her latest release!

Guest Post
Writing to me is …
by Billie Hinton
An archaeological dig. I usually begin with either a title or a short scene that has come to mind at some point. I jot these down in a black Moleskine notebook I keep for just this purpose. I’m not sure I’ll ever get all these novels written! But the Moleskine is like a book of maps and I go to it when it’s time to start a new book.
The main character is always, at the beginning, embedded in the title or the scene, and I think of those pieces of the story, those first visible pieces, as the part that is showing – much like an iceberg sticks up above the surface of the ocean, or a shiny piece of rock sticks up from the earth. The writing process is me carefully digging out the rest of the story, layer by layer. I’ve said before that I think of it as me with brushes and fine picks, gently picking the story out from everything around it.
Since I do not write from outlines, it actually does feel like a process of discovery, an uncovering of something that is already there but simply needs to be excavated.
With the novel Signs That Might Be Omens, I already had the main characters from the previous connected novel. With this one, those characters just didn’t stop when the previous novel ended! And one character in particular, Bingham Wade, made it clear that he had a lot to say. Every time I sat down with my laptop he took over, and I let him tell me his story.
Which brings me to what else writing is for me – entertainment, for one thing, but also it is me making sense of the world. I’m sure that when this free flow of words comes forth, it is my unconscious mind working things out, much like we do in dreams. As a psychotherapist who helps clients find ways to look at this process in their own lives, I’ve realized over the years that my writing serves that purpose for me. When I don’t write, I feel a pressure building inside my head – too many stories! – writing relieves it.
The fun part, and the mysterious part, is the magic that seems to happen once I get into a story. I start seeing characters that look like the characters in my novels. Strange things happen. One time I was editing a scene in Signs that took place in a motel. I was in my writing garret with the door closed and the phone started ringing. I was working, so didn’t go out to answer it, but it kept ringing, over and over again. When I finally broke down and went out to answer it, the caller ID showed the name of the motel I’d been writing about.
I had no connection to that motel, there was no reason they would be calling. When I called back to see why they’d called, it turned out the call had come from a room, not from the front desk. A room that had no one checked in to it! Who was calling? Was it Bingham calling to tell me something about the scene I’d been editing? I have no idea, but it sure illustrated for me the power of the story, and the energy that happens when I commit to the excavation.

Friday, September 28, 2012

Circle Of Light By: Jennifer DeLucy *Guest Post & Giveaway*

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Hi everyone, thank you for stopping by! I'm very glad to be a part of Jennifer DeLucy's Circle Of Light Blog Tour! Thank you Lisa @A Life Bound By Books for letting me participate! You will see a wonderful Guest Post by Jennifer, and I thank her for providing that! Also, there's a Giveaway, where you have a chance to win an E-Book Copy, so thanks to Omnific Publishing for providing this Giveaway


Book Details
Title: Circle Of Light
Author: Jennifer DeLucy
Published: October 2012
Series: Light, book #3 


Book Blurb
Empath and Pathcrosser to the dead, Lillian Hunt has finally come into her own as a Sentient being. All seems well in her brave new world...that is, until a tragic turn sends her tight knit Sentient group on a rescue mission through lore-infested Europe. Their goal is to save the love of Lily's life—vampire Sentient, William Maddox — from both the prejudice of their own society and the dark intentions of ancient vampires. But how will they keep hope alive, even as time runs out?



Guest Post By Jennifer DeLucy

Hola, avid readers extraordinaire!!

For The Love of Film and Novels asked me to blog about what inspired the Light Series Trilogy, so I thought I’d explain what it means to me and why in the world I think other people (women and men) should read it. Now, where to begin…

How about if I spare you the boring details and cut to the chase? The fact is that, when I write, I write in a very heart-on-your-sleeve kind of way. What I feel, what I believe…it shows through, and there are definitely a few major points (super important to me as a woman) that turned the message of the series into what it is at its end. For one thing, very early on I started feeling singularly dedicated to the concept of people pursuing a life of deeper meaning and greater happiness. I see how short life was, I know we have a limited number of breaths to work with and the idea that we schlep through too many days on autopilot without really feeling and recognizing enough, well, it breaks my heart.

I believe we all have a purpose and a destiny here, and that concept plays out vividly in the Light Series. I want people to come away feeling reinvigorated and excited and passionate about their lives, no matter what gifts they have to offer the world.

The second piece is kind of a woman-power issue, because, though there are two main love stories in the series, you won’t find much glorification of the Alpha male, typical romance mystique. You’ll see a more realistic version of men and women, who are flawed, imperfect, every bit as infuriating as they are lovable. You’ll see women who must learn to come into their own strength without leaning on the protection or defense of anyone else. But most of all, you’ll see how everyone’s life comes full circle, how the connections and interactions between these silly-as-often-as-they’re-serious characters directly impact the lives of so many around them. You’ll see how important it is to follow love’s example, in spite of your fear.

So, what inspired the Light Series? I guess love did. And being a woman. And you. Your lives inspired it. Thanks for that.

Peace,
Jen


About The Author

Jennifer DeLucy is an author of paranormal fiction, most notably The Light Series Trilogy, a freelance editor and a musician who believes in combining talents to create unique and inspiring work. Born and raised in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Jennifer moved to the Midwest in her early twenties, honing her passions and publishing her first two novels before moving to Seattle, Washington in 2012. She continues to pursue new and exciting avenues in both the writing and music fields.




Thursday, September 27, 2012

So Into You (The Jane Austen Academy Series #2) By: Cecilia Gray *Review & Giveaway*

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Hi everyone! Thank you so much for stopping by! Just want to thank ATOMR Blog Tours for letting me participate, and the Author for providing a Review Copy of this story! You'll see my Review and an International Giveaway so check that below! :)


Book Description Via Goodreads


Modern retelling/based on Sense & Sensibility.

The last thing that the girls at the elite Jane Austen Academy need is guys. But over the summer the school has been sold, and like it or not, the guys are coming. And they're about to turn the Academy—and the lives of its students—totally upside down…


Meet sweet and sensible Ellie who hasn’t met a problem her mom’s yoga mantras can’t fix. But when her parents threaten to pull her from the Academy just as her flirtation with the cutest boy in school heats up, will Ellie be able to keep her cool? 



Review
If you liked Fall For You, the first book in this series, then you'll definitely like this one! I like how each story is based on Jane Austen's Classic Novels. So Into You is based on Sense & Sensibility, and I think it was very well written. You re-meet characters from the last novel, but here we concentrate on Ellie, Lizzie's best friend. Here, we get to know more about her, and her situation that threatens her to leave the Jane Austen Academy forever! We read how with her intelligence, she can obtain a scholarship, but is that enough? And, will her easygoing friendship with Edward develop into something more? Ellie certainly does want something to happen, but what about Edward? Could something or rather someone prevent from Edward making a move? Hmm well you're just going to have to read and find out, and I believe you will really like it! I now cannot wait to read the next story in this awesome series! 

My Rating: 4.2/5
I say a mild PG-13 Rating.



Author Bio





Cecilia Gray lives in Oakland where she reads, writes and breaks for food. She also pens her biographies in the third person. Like this. As if to trick you into thinking someone else wrote it because she is important. Alas, this is not the case.

Cecilia has been praised for “instilling a warmth and weight into her characters”  (Romancing The Book Reviews) and her books have been praised for being “well-written, original, realistic and witty” (Quills & Zebras Reviews).

Several of her titles - including A Delightful Arrangement (The Gentlemen Next Door #1) and An Illicit Engagement (The Gentlemen Next Door #2) - have spent, in her view, a shocking amount of time on bestseller lists for romance, historical romance and regency romance in the US, UK, Italy and Spain.

Her latest release, FALL FOR YOU, the first in a series of young-adult contemporary Jane Austen retellings received a starred Kirkus review and was praised for being a “unique twist on a classic” and offering “a compelling mix of action, drama and love.”

She’s rather enamored of being contacted by readers and hopes you’ll oblige.


Author Links


Retail Links
Kobo pending



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