Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
Would you take an anti-aging hormone? What if you could keep your youth? If someone you knew was terrified of aging, and you’d invented the hormone, would you give it to them? Even if it meant discovery would cause you to lose your chance of winning the Nobel Prize? Blue Coyote Motel is a suspense love story which begins in the barrios of Southern California and spans the globe in such diverse locations as Provence, South America, and the Himalayas. The beautiful Latina, Maria, and her husband, Jeffrey, a scientist fired from a prestigious laboratory, struggle to build a new life in a remote Southern California desert areas as owners of the motel. Along with the anti-aging hormone, Jeffrey invents a “feel-good” wonder drug to help Maria with her depression. As Jeffrey becomes insane he begins to experiment with the wonder drug. Six wayward travelers, including an alcoholic priest, a couple who own gold mines in Brazil, a depressed widow, a struggling salesman, and a Native American pediatrician find themselves spending the night at the small motel. The next morning they wake up feeling better than ever. Has Jeffrey’s miracle drug delivered? Or is the nightmare of addiction only beginning? Blue Coyote Motel presents an engaging look at the human frailties present in all of us.
I added Blue Coyote by Dianne Harman to my TBR on 2.10.13. Why? #1 – the cover. #2 – the title. #3 – the blurb. It sounds like a wild ride and I was curious. Makes me think of that saying: If something seems to good to be true, it usually is. Everything has a price and I wonder what these characters will have to pay.
Books from the Backlog is a fun way to feature some of those
neglected books sitting on your bookshelf unread. If you are anything
like me, you might be surprised by some of the unread books hiding in
your stacks.
A Minneapolis attorney inherits a small California winery, reawakening memories that have lain dormant for twenty years. One summer of her childhood is a mystery she intends to solve. But digging up her past also lays bare the skeletons of others, including her mother’s. Entangled between what she once believed and a new reality, will she be able to live with the consequences of full disclosure?
I added Entangled by Barbara Ellen Brink to my TBR on 2.2.13. The reason…the cover, of course. I am a sucker for a fantastic cover and that is a great one! Ya can’t run from your past and when it arises in a novel, it makes for some intriguing reading.
“By the time you all figure it out, you’ve got daughters of your own being stalked by jerks like you.”
“How do you live a lifetime in four months?”
I don’t know if I found one character to root for, but I feel there is always an opportunity for them to redeem themselves. Knowing you are dying gives you an opportunity to rethink what life you have left. I do love a thought provoking book, and Michael F Stewart is able to do that with ease.
Tremmy and his ‘friends’ are what you expect from the spoiled elite who think their shit don’t stink. Little do they know, they walk alone. Even their friends will betray them at the drop of a hat. Is there no one who cares about his thoughts, his feelings? I expected his fellow students and friends to act the way they did, but I did not expect the adults to be the same way. I can feel his frustration and pain as the clock ticks down.
“To die well, you have to live well.”
As days pass, so do his old thoughts and feelings.
Michael F Stewart handles a difficult subject in an unusual way, with an twisted ending that deserves a star of its own. I had wondered how he would end the story, because he has a great way of taking me to a place, making me follow a path, where I thought I knew where I was going, until I stepped off that cliff saying WTF.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of The Momentous Expiration of Tremmy Sinclair by Michael F Stewart.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Seventeen years old. Rich. Hot. Captain of the Drone War team. Head prefect of a surreally elite boarding school. Tremmy is dying.
His illness strips everything from him—including the support of his teachers and friends who once nurtured his bright future. Worst of all, his best friend’s meteoric rise has come at the expense of Tremmy’s spectacular fall. Far from going out with the bang he’d hoped for, Tremmy faces betrayal.
But his illness has the power to expose the best as well as the worst of his school, his friends, and himself. Tremmy sets out to prove that the community he loves has to overcome its fear of death in order to truly begin to live. And Tremmy receive the momentous end he so fervently desires.
ABOUT MICHAEL F STEWART
Michael F. Stewart is winner of both the
2015 Claymore Award and the 2014 inaugural Creation of Stories Award
for best YA novel at the Toronto International Book Fair.
He likes to combine storytelling with technology and pioneered
interactive storytelling with Scholastic Canada, Australia, and New
Zealand’s, anti-cyberbullying program Bully For You. In addition to his
award winning Assured Destruction series, he has authored four graphic
novels with Oxford University Press Canada’s Boldprint series.
Publications of nonfiction titles on Corruption and Children’s Rights
are published by Scholastic and early readers are out with Pearson
Education.
For adults, Michael has written THE SAND
DRAGON a horror about a revenant prehistoric vampire set in the tar
sands, HURAKAN a Mayan themed thriller which pits the Maya against the
MS-13 with a New York family stuck in the middle, 24 BONES an urban
fantasy which draws from Egyptian myth, and THE TERMINALS–a covert
government unit which solves crimes in this realm by investigating them
in the next.
Herder of four daughters, Michael lives
to write in Ottawa where he was the Ottawa Public Library’s first Writer
in Residence. To learn more about Michael and his next projects visit
his website at www.michaelfstewart.com or connect via Twitter
@MichaelFStewart.
Keep Writing by Chrys Fey includes tips that everyone can use whether
you are an author or not, such as reducing stress, especially in these
turbulent times.
Setting goals is huge. Set short, medium and long range goals.
Short chapters written in easy to understand language.
Her tips are sparks, to ignite you, to set your passions on fire.
All of us bloggers are writers and I have dabbled in writing since I was a young child too. Will I ever write…my book? If I do, Chrys Fey shares easy to follow suggestions for us to pick and choose what works best for us. If I don’t, Chry shares sparks for destressing and dealing with depression.
Chrys draws from her personal experiences. Some tips may work for you and some may not, but I feel there is something for everyone in this gem.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Keep Writing by Chrys Fey.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Catch the sparks you need to conquer writer’s block, depression, and burnout!
When Chrys Fey shared her story about depression and burnout, it struck a chord with other writers. That put into perspective for her how desperate writers are to hear they aren’t alone. Many creative types experience these challenges, battling to recover. Let Keep Writing with Fey: Sparks to Defeat Writer’s Block, Depression, and Burnout guide you through:
• Writer’s block • Depression • Writer’s burnout • What a writer doesn’t need to succeed • Finding creativity boosts
With these sparks, you can begin your journey of rediscovering your creativity and get back to what you love – writing.
Chrys Fey blogs at Write with Fey
and edits for Dancing Lemur Press. She’s also an partnered with the
Insecure Writer’s Support Group and runs with Goodreads book club.
At the age of twelve, she started
writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later
rewrote at seventeen. Fey lives in Florida where she is waiting for the
next hurricane to come her way.
Every day, she can be seen with a pen in
my hand or pounding away at her computer. Although she doesn’t restrict
herself to a single genre, she mostly writes suspense stories whether
they are romances or fantasy.
Clearing in the Woods Women’s Psychological/Crime Fiction Publisher: Independently published (October 31, 2019) Paperback: 321 pages ISBN-10: 1701629364 ISBN-13: 978-1701629363 Digital ASIN: B07ZTZMTVS
Roberta escapes her humdrum middle-class
existence and the persistent ache of her dead mother’s secrets by
fleeing to Alaska. Having abandoned everything she’d spent her life
building, Roberta remakes herself in another place, doing anything other
than responding to the demands of her self-absorbed husband, her
entitled kids, and her Pottery Barn home. Taking her first job since
college, and a small room above a tourists’ shop, she contemplates new
vistas. She never expected, however, to find romance in the form of a
handsome federal agent involved in murder and mayhem.And it is murder
and mayhem, and the discovery of other’s secrets, that causes Roberta to
run for her life into the Alaskan wilderness…
About Phyllis M. Newman
Phyllis M. Newman is a
native southerner. Born in New Orleans, she spent formative years in
Florida, Iowa, Mississippi, and on a dairy farm in Ross County, Ohio.
After a long career in finance and human resources at The Ohio State
University, she turned her attention to writing fiction. She published a
noir mystery, “Kat’s Eye” in 2015, a Gothic mystery, “The Vanished
Bride of Northfield House” in 2018, and the suspense thriller “Clearing
in the Woods” in 2019. Today she lives in Columbus, Ohio, with her
husband and three perpetually unimpressed cats, none of whom venture far
from home.
I am doing my best to finish up on overdue reviews and Duplicity by Sibel Hodge is one of those. I received the book back in October of 2016. Seems I really overdid things that year.
I will tell you that I gave Duplicity 5 Stars, so I have no excuses for not posting the review in a timely fashion. I think you may be able to relate to my problem, too many clicks and yeses. I just wanted to grab them all.
With a cover like Duplicity by Sibel Hodge, I just know there is some good stuff inside. I read Untouchable by Sibel Hodge and loved it, so I was eager to begin Duplicity.
Duplicity starts out ugly, making me think of Clarise in Hannibal…but severely damaged, twisted.
A terrible, abhorrent childhood with an abusive father, neglectful mother, screaming, yelling, isolation…I want to have sympathy…
I love this kind of book. I love to read about serial killers, psychopaths and sociopaths. To delve into their fictional, or true, mind fascinates me. No matter how much I understand it is not their fault they are what they are, they still make choices.
Psychopaths have no feelings, but are they all killers? They are smart, having to learn to fake all the emotions that ‘normal’ people have. Sometimes one pivotal moment can take someone down a path they never saw coming.
How do so many incompetents get high paying jobs that require knowledge and tact…which they don’t have? Does he have the skills to solve the case, to bring down a murderer? We shall see.
Twists! Turns! Surprises! I LOVE IT! OMG. Sure didn’t see that coming.
The writing and pacing, creativity, twists and turns, suspense and AHA moments kept me on the edge, glued to the pages, unable to stop reading, waiting for the next shoe to drop and who would drop with it. I don’t think there will be a happy ever after here.
As I flip through my notes, on paper and in my Kindle, I am even more upset with myself that I didn’t review this immediately. It is hard to express my emotions since it has been so long, but this is everything I love in a thrilling, chilling, creepalicious psychopath, and of course all the other characters. Sibel Hodge is definitely an author that will be at the top of my reading list.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Duplicity by Sibel Hodge.
5 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
There are three sides to every story: Yours. Mine. And the truth…
Max
and Alissa have a fairy tale life—newlywed, madly in love and enviously
rich. Then Max is brutally stabbed to death at their home and Alissa,
miraculously, escapes with her life. But why was she spared?
The
hunt for the killer begins, uncovering a number of leads—was Max’s
incredible wealth the motive? Had his shady business practices finally
caught up with him? Or was it a stalker with a dangerous obsession?
Devoted
friends rally around gentle, sweet Alissa as she is left to mourn the
loss of her husband and pick up her life. But not everyone is who they
seem…Deep-rooted jealousies, secrets and twisted love lie just beneath
the surface, and not all fairy tales have a happy ending.
Duplicity is a suspenseful thriller from the bestselling author of Look Behind You and Where the Memories Lie.
ABOUT SIBEL HODGE
Sibel Hodge is the author of
the #1 Bestsellers Look Behind You, Untouchable, and Duplicity. Her
books have sold over one million copies and are international
bestsellers in the UK, USA, Australia, France, Canada and Germany. She
writes in an eclectic mix of genres, and is a passionate human and
animal rights advocate.
Her work has been nominated and
shortlisted for numerous prizes, including the Harry Bowling Prize, the
Yeovil Literary Prize, the Chapter One Promotions Novel Competition, The
Romance Reviews’ prize for Best Novel with Romantic Elements and Indie
Book Bargains’ Best Indie Book of 2012 in two categories. She was the
winner of Best Children’s Book in the 2013 eFestival of Words; nominated
for the 2015 BigAl’s Books and Pals Young Adult Readers’ Choice Award;
winner of the Crime, Thrillers & Mystery Book from a Series Award in
the SpaSpa Book Awards 2013; winner of the Readers’ Favorite Young
Adult (Coming of Age) Honorable award in 2015; a New Adult finalist in
the Oklahoma Romance Writers of America’s International Digital Awards
2015, and 2017 International Thriller Writers Award finalist for Best
E-book Original Novel. Her novella Trafficked: The Diary of a Sex Slave
has been listed as one of the top forty books about human rights by
Accredited Online Colleges.
I am a huge fan of Britney King’s so I an very excited to share her newest release, Room 553, a psychological thriller, another nail biter that kept me guessing til the end…and what an ending it was.
I read the Foreword to Room 553 by Britney King and laughed out loud thinking, right Britney. Now you know I have to continue reading! OMG!
I didn’t see the direction this was going when I began. In fact, I was a bit disappointed because Britney King writes some fabulous stories and I am usually biting my nails and racing through the pages as soon as I begin. Not so with this psychological thriller. It is more subtle, slowly sucking me in, revealing the characters in starts and stops.
The story bounces between Max’s perspective and Laurel’s journal writings.
The characters, at first I didn’t think much of any of them, but as more of their personalities, sick, perverted personalities, were revealed, I began to think, there isn’t one of them worth redemption. Maybe they will all get what’s coming to them.
Room 553 gets deeper into their twisted world becoming darker, uglier more depraved as the threads are woven together to create surprises and turns that gave me a steady supply of WTFs. That ending…worth a star in itself! Love that Britney King can blow my mind making me think of the book long after I have finished reading it.
Even though I thought Room 553 was too tame for me in the beginning, the little nuggets of goodies started popping up…then, full on, psychological and psychopathic profiles were exposed and I was in my element. But, don’t judge me on my love of reading materials. 🙂
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Room 553 by Britney King.
For Max and Laurel, nothing is off limits when they meet in room
553. Their illicit affair is exhilarating, passionate—and dangerous.
Driven as much by compulsion as pleasure, Max can’t stop. His
mistress is Jesus on the streets, and Satan in the sack. But when things take a
sharp and sudden turn for the worse, he finds himself ensnared in a trap of his
own making.
Under heavy scrutiny by the police and the media, Max is hailed
as a cold and evasive womanizer. He made mistakes, to be sure. But does that
make him a killer?
Unnerving and addictive, Room 553 is a vivid and sensual psychological
thriller that weaves a story of cruelty, reckless desire, and blind, bloody
justice.
Britney King lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
When she’s not wrangling the things mentioned above, she writes
psychological, domestic and romantic thrillers set in suburbia.
Currently, she’s writing three series and several standalone
novels.
The Bedrock Series features an unlikely heroine who should have
known better. Turns out, she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy,
dangerous, forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on
revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White Female,
and Basic Instinct.
The Water Series follows the shady love story of an
unconventional married couple—he’s an assassin—she kills for fun. It has been
compared to a crazier book version of Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, Dexter.
Around The Bend is a heart-pounding standalone, which traces the
journey of a well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks
to the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted to
keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she wasn’t.
The With You Series at its core is a deep love story about
unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves, together and
apart. Packed with drama and adventure along with a heavy dose of suspense, it
has been compared to The Secret Life of Walter Mitty and Love, Rosie.
The Social Affair is an intense standalone about a timeless
couple who find themselves with a secret admirer they hadn’t bargained for. For
fans of the anti-heroine and stories told in unorthodox ways, the novel
explores what can happen when privacy is traded for convenience. It is
reminiscent of films such as One Hour Photo and Play Misty For Me.
Without a doubt, connecting with readers is the best part of this
gig. You can find Britney online here:
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her
mailing list at britneyking.com or just copy and paste bit.ly/britneykingweb
into your browser.
Flawed characters, teenagers, kidnapping, murder, serial killer, life and death, cancer.
I loved the characters, searching for answers, struggling with life.
Glad Dark is in the title, because it’s not only the villain that hides in the dark.
I am so happy this is a series because I want a whole lot more of it.
Elsa, her new partner and friend, Lex…and his brother, David. she doesn’t have much of a personal life, doesn’t strive to have one, discourages those who try to get close, until Lex who manages to earn her trust.
Deep, dark secrets.
So glad I have the next story ready and waiting…and I will begin NOW.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of A Map of the Dark by Karen Ellis.
4 stars
GOODREADS BLURB
A girl, missing A woman, searching A killer, planning…
FBI Agent Elsa Myers finds missing people. She knows how it feels to be lost…
Though
her father lies dying in a hospital north of New York City, Elsa cannot
refuse a call for help. A teenage girl has gone missing from Forest
Hills, Queens, and during the critical first hours of the case, a series
of false leads hides the fact that she did not go willingly.
With
each passing hour, as the hunt for Ruby deepens into a search for a man
who may have been killing for years, the case starts to get underneath
Elsa’s skin. Everything she has buried – her fraught relationship with
her sister and niece, her self-destructive past, her mother’s death –
threatens to resurface, with devastating consequences.
In order to save the missing girl, she may have to lose herself…and return to the darkness she’s been hiding from for years.
ABOUT KAREN ELLIS
Karen Ellis is a pseudonym of longtime crime
novelist Katia Lief. She is a member of Mystery Writers of America and
International Thriller Writers. Her novel A MAP OF THE DARK will be
published by Mulholland Books/Little, Brown on January 9, 2018. Learn more at karenellisbooks.com
Stay in touch with Karen Ellis by joining her mailing list: http://eepurl.com/cS6h_r
Britney King loves to deliver a twisted, psychological thriller that makes it almost impossible to put down. Her is another fantastic addition to my reading list and I can hardly wait for more.
The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off. Joe Klaus
With an opening like that, I grit my teeth and clench my hands tightly around my ereader, anticipating another fabulous psychological thriller from Britney King…and I was not disappointed.
When I read the Prologue, I thought, “I wonder what she is setting me up for.”
Britney King is very creative when it comes to her villains. Many times she has me rooting for them, making me love them and wanting things to work out for them.
Be careful thinking the grass is greener on the other side. It may be infested with evil.
Sadie…she is finding out that once you are in, you are never out. Now, how can I turn my back on her. I am bopping along, at a steady pace, watching her be manipulated, twisted, and perverted into keeping some nefarious secrets.
Secrets, betrayal…how can she live like that?
Britney King has a way of taking a normal neighborhood and with her casual air creates a location of danger and death. Somehow her imagination comes up with way of surprising me, jerking me out of an I know this attitude.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Her by Britney King.
4 Star
GOODREADS BLURB
“After four, I quit counting. What’s the point if you know it isn’t going to stop?”
Sadie is jealous. Why wouldn’t she be? Her life is falling apart. Meanwhile, her new neighbor is everything she is not.
Ann
is perfect—the kind of woman everyone loves to hate—and a best friend
to die for. She hosts over-the-top dinner parties, takes parenting to an
entirely different level, and makes ambition look sexy as hell.
Sadie
learns quick: the best way to cure jealousy is to befriend it. She also
learns there’s more to her new friend than meets the eye. She’s
patient, she’s kind, and possibly a serial killer.
It isn’t
until Ann’s proclivities hit a little too close to home that Sadie has
to ask herself how much she’s willing to overlook in the name of getting
what she wants.
Exquisitely paced, Her is an unnerving and electrifying psychological thriller about jealousy, passion, and the dangerous places desire can take you. Full of enough tension and twists to make even the most seasoned suspense reader break out in a cold sweat, it keeps you guessing until the very last page.
ABOUT BRITNEY KING
Britney
King writes psychological, domestic, and romantic thrillers set in
suburbia. She is currently writing three series and several standalone
novels.
The Bedrock series (psychological/domestic/romantic thriller)
features an unlikely heroine who should have known better. Turns out,
she didn’t. Thus she finds herself tangled in a messy, dangerous,
forbidden love story and face-to-face with a madman hell-bent on
revenge. The series has been compared to Fatal Attraction, Single White
Female, and Basic Instinct.
The Water Trilogy (psychological/domestic/romantic thriller) follows
the shady love story of an unconventional married couple– he’s an
assassin–she kills for fun. It has been compared to a crazier version of
Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Also, the hit series Dexter.
Around The Bend, is a heart-pounding standalone (romantic
suspense/domestic/psychological thriller), which traces the journey of a
well-to-do suburban housewife, and her life as it unravels, thanks to
the secrets she keeps. If she were the only one with things she wanted
to keep hidden, then maybe it wouldn’t have turned out so bad. But she
wasn’t.
The With You series (romantic suspense/contemporary romance) is a
coming of age, friends to lovers, second chance (plus a few) love story
about unlikely friends who travel the world; trying to find themselves,
together and apart. It has been compared to Love, Rosie.
Britney lives in Austin, Texas with her husband, children, two dogs, one ridiculous cat, and a partridge in a pear tree.
She enjoys hearing from readers and would love it if you would
connect with her at britneyking.com or the plethora of social media
accounts she posses.
To receive an email whenever the author releases a new title, sign up for the VIP newsletter at britneyking.com/subscribe-to-new-rele… copy and paste into your browser).
To get more– grab two books for free, by subscribing to her mailing list at britneyking.com or just copy and paste bit.ly/britneykingweb into your browser.
Her characters may be hard to pin down, but she’s not. She loves talking to readers, so feel free to email her at britney@britneyking.com—she does her best to respond to everyone.
