.Since I posted this, T. Joseph Browder has made a book trailer that you may want to check out. While you are here, read my review and, if interested, you can pick up the book at the end of the post.
These 7 short stories take a ride on the wild side. They are dark, creepy, and end of the world scary, except for the first one, which I think T. Joseph put in just to mess with us.
TOBY
My father got me a Saint Bernard, Toby, when he was a puppy. He saved my life when I was only eight years old. Little did I know, that when he passed away, it would not be the last time I saw him.
A touching and uplifting story for the paranormal lovers. Just because someone is gone, it doesn’t mean that they aren’t looking out for you.
A personal note from the author:
“Toby is my personal favorite, possibly because most of it, right down to the boy falling off the roof, being punctured through the leg, and being saved by the dog, is true. And yes, I did bury him at the base of a lightning split elm in the back yard.”
ROUGE
When Jessie crashed his truck and rolled over the cliff, he thought the worst thing he would have to worry about was the freezing cold weather. Think again Jesse. You may wonder, what does a bear have to do with a car accident?
What goes around comes around and sometimes it is worse than you can imagine.This was my favorite story of the book. I guess it is probably because I love any kind of horror story that includes a creature of a critter of some kind.
HAMMERFALL
He heard a voice, but didn’t hear it clearly. Where was he? It was the Livestar operator. She said no one could respond at this time because of Hammerfall, an asteroid. Everyone had disregarded the Mayan prophecies. would they pay the price now?
Well, you’ll have to read the story to find that out. What do you think would be the end result? Would there be anyone left? Would you want to be one of them or be taken out in the first BIG BANG?
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THE VISITOR
Lucas had a run in with Nicholai before, thus his ill-health. Lucas’ plan to destroy him was so out of the ordinary, that he felt Nicholai would never see it coming.
Just goes to show how far some people will go to see justice served.
THE CONTRACT
He hired me to kill him. I thought he was out of his mind, but when I heard the price, I jumped on it. I wasted no time, I shot him on the spot. Uh-0h. I should have waited until he told me the details.
I sure didn’t see the ending coming on this one.
AFTER HAMMERFALL
What do you think would be left? How many humans would survive? How many plants? How many animals? And what would they be like?
EDUCATOR
I was beaten nearly to death, stomped on, then shot in the face. No one knew why it happened. I kept secret, that I no longer needed the cane. I did not want people to know what I was really capable of, because I had a mission to fulfill.
How far would you go to seek revenge for the death of a loved one?
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4 STARS – Would Highly Recommend To Others
It’s funny how many of the books I review have trees on their covers, in some shape or form. This cover is beautiful and fits in with the season. It brings back many memories, of when I lived in the wintry, northern states.
The stories were well written and flowed smoothly, making them very easy to read. Pick it up at lunch time, while waiting at the doctor’s or dentist’s office, anywhere you are when you have 10, 15, maybe even 20 minutes. Depends on how fast you read.
The characters are easy to love, hate or feel like they got what was coming to them.
The first story is a “make me feel good”, lovely story. I think T. Joseph Broder did that to set us up for what was to come, because he quickly moves on to things that are not so pleasant, in fact they are down right horrific..
I always find short stories very hard to review. I want to get across how interesting and unexpected so many of the stories are without giving away the good stuff. So how do you do that? I hope I did it well enough to peak your interest and wonder, “What in the hell is she talking about?” ^_^ Then pick up your copy to find out.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
After an extremely interesting childhood rich with the writings of Poe, King, Koontz, and many others, I left the real world in 1995 and lived for thirteen years in a timeless, soulless void. While there, I spent countless hours reading and studying Philosophy, Psychology, Parapsychology, and, oddly enough, Business. Ultimately, I returned to the real world (with virtually no identity or personal history and no official history whatsoever) and set about the business of making a life for myself from scratch, the pitfalls and hurdles of which, in this post 9/11 world, could fill an entire book.
I now live in Ellinwood, KS, with my wife and four granddaughters (the comedy and drama of that would fill an entire series of books) and published my first book, a short story collection of horror, science-fiction, and suspense, in April, 2012. I am currently working on a novel that defies genre classification with the greatest editor in the world.
T. Joseph Browder invites you to listen to a recent podcast review:
“I got a great one in a podcast from The Library Police starting at the nineteen minute mark:
To pick up a copy of the book from Amazon, simply click on the cover below.
GIVEAWAY
T. Joseph Browder is offering for the Giveaway, 10 (ten) ebooks. International. Easy entry as always, just leave your email address and answer the question:
I know there are a lot people who love short stories. Are you one of them and why?
GIVEAWAY IS CLOSED.
CLOSED. WINNERS are: Pragya – Alana Perumal – Emma Meade – Joseph – Lada Ray – Lee (JaxGrampy) – Dia Palaez – Marianne – Vickie Evans and Cecilia.
Congratulations and thank you everyone for stopping by and commenting.
You might also be interested in stopping by The Linden Chronicles and say hi to Patrick Jones and check out his novel about the Dire wolves, who really existed until they became extinct 4,000 years ago.
Hadassah’s father, the Vampire King, punished her harshly for her choice to love a human. Now her brother, the only person in the world who still matters to her, has fallen for a human girl. Determined to keep the girl safe, the three of them flee from their home in New England and find themselves cornered with their father’s minions closing in. If they want to escape, their only hope may be to join forces with the mortal enemies of their kind…
Be ensnared in this dark tale of enduring love, revenge, and suspense from teenage author, Elisabeth Wheatley.
To order any of Elisabeth’s books from Amazon, simply click on the cover below.
(The NOOK and paperback editions should be available by the end of the week.) Now, the plan was to have a blog tour starting today, but my tour organizer has been out of touch, so I’m really sorry about that! But if I can’t reschedule, I will be setting up my own tour (ah, the joys of a small publisher) and there will be some awesome giveaways either way. Yay!
To join in, copy and paste these rules and the above banner into your Fanged Mania post and add your link to this week’s Fanged Mania post at Elisabeth Wheatley’s Blog. Fanged Mania is a Friday meme counting down to the release of Fanged Princess and displaying all things vampire and awesome. Fanged Mania posts can be a review of a vampire book, a quote from the latest Vampire Diaries episode, a showcase of a cool vampire book’s cover, or whatever you like so long as it is vampire related. Don’t forget, participants will be entered in the drawing to win a fanged-abulous prize pack!
The prize pack I mentioned includes Vampire Diaries and Breaking Dawn posters as well as a paperback copy of Erica Steven’s Captured (my review here) and the complete collection of The Vampire Hunter’s Daughter stories by Jennifer Malone Wright, in paperback, too! =D
Oh, and the contest is international. And the more Fanged Mania posts you have, the more entries you get! So what are you waiting for? Hop on the bandwagon!
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As Tabbruis held Charmeine, he asked her if she thought the Prophecy would be revealed today.
Tabbruis had fed from the stag and was ready for a hot shower. He hopped in his Dodge Charger SRT8 and drove to the hotel.
After his shower, he looked in the mirror and saw her. She appeared in the steam, a vision to behold. He knew it wasn’t real, but he couldn’t forget her.
For some reason, he felt an urgent need to go to New York City. He always stayed at the Ritz Carlton, in the Penthouse Suite. He loved it there and Ferrell always took such good care of his needs and wants. He was alone, but he liked his luxuries and some of the things he required were above and beyond the normal.
Charleen was a school teacher and Shane, her best friend, called to tell her he had to cancel their Billy Joel concert date. Ferrell, his boss, had a super job for him that was too good to pass up. Charleen ended up going to the concert by herself.
In the orphanage, Charleen and Shane had become like brother and sister.They were drawn to each other, but never had the desire to take it further.
While Shane drove Tabbruis around, they listened to a Billy Joel CD.All Tab could think about was her. He listened to the CD and felt as if he was being called to the concert.
Charleen watched the concert, until a feeling of fear overcame her. She felt she was in great danger and knew she had to get away. Tabbruis had felt it too and was heading towards her. He came upon her, lying on the ground with a Blood Hunter standing over her.
Charleen saw Tabbruis was losing the fight. She reached out to him. Before he lost consciousness, he saw her face and a brilliant white light.
Tabbruis had one friend, Dimitri. They were both Blood Drinkers and Dimitri had helped him when he had lost everything. He had told him about himself and the others, the Blood Hunters and the Light Bearers. The Light-Bearers are the good of God, God’s Angels. Dimitri also told him about The Prophecy – a special Light- Bearer, along with her mate, a Blood Hunter, and her family, would bring justice and harmony to Earth.
Tabbruis was in a desperate situation. It was time to call Dimitri for help.
3 STARS – Would Recommend To Others
**********************************I am not surprised that the story started out slow, I feel it is just setting the foundation for the series. The first three books were meant to be one BIGBOOK. So don’t be discouraged, you really need to read on********************************
The cover is pretty and caught my eye. I love brilliant, saturated colors.
I love hot cars, so any time I can slip one, especially a super cool one, into my post, I do. ^_^ I felt if Tabbrius drove such a hot car, he had to be hot, too. ^_^
I had heard and seen so much about this series, I felt I had to read it for myself. I am not a huge romance fan, so I wasn’t sure if I would like the book. I really want more to the story than love and happiness. I like a lot of action and as I read along, the story began to pick up the pace. By the time I reached the end of the book, I was ready for more. A love story, but so much more. You can feel the love oozing out of the pages, the sexual tension builds until …………
Emily Guido’s writing will draw you deeper into Charmeine’s and Tabbruis’ lives as they discover their true purpose. Is it Fate? Is it Destiny? Have their lives already been written?
What would you do, if in the blink of an eye, everything you believed in was no more?
Do you believe in angels? If you believe in good, there must be bad.
As Emily described the fight, I could picture it. I love it , when the writing is so descriptive, I can picture the scenes. The story unrolls like a movie in my mind. When Emily says she pictures the characters and scenes in her mind, I can definitely relate, as the scenes played out in my head because of her deep and thorough descriptions.
Emily wants you to know that Charmeine is just the tip of the iceberg in the series….to really get to the lip-smacking gravy part, you really need to read Charmeine, Mactus and Accendo, which were one book. That is why, for the giveaway, if you already have Charmeine and Mactus (which were free on Amazon, which is how I got mine), Emily will replace your win with Accendo.
By the time I got to the end of Charmeine, I was ready for Mactus. Some people look at a big book and won’t even pick it up. It seems all the publishers want authors to make two books instead of one, but I can get into long books. So the series are good because it’s like a really long book and I can get so into the story, that when I’m done and the last page is read, it is such a let down, that I almost go into a depression from such a deep feeling of loss. It’s kind of silly really, it’s just a book, and the characters are not real, but I have always been emotionally involved in my reading. I love traveling into new worlds and meeting new people through the characters in books.
I picked up this book on a FREE day on Amazon and I am very glad I did. I see many hours of traveling through time with Charmeine and Tabbruis.
A Couple Of My Favorite Quotes
“Semper tuus ero……I am forever yours”
“You quiet me and stir my passion all at the same time.”
Emily Guido has her first book signing coming up February 2 at the Book Expo in the Birmingham Library in Birmingham, Alabama.
Emily will also be at the County College of Morris in Randolph, New Jersey on March 4 in the college bookstore.
How exciting for her. If you are in the area, you too, can be a part of it.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Emily Guido is a very new Young Adult, Paranormal Romance Author. She was inspired to start writing “The Light-Bearer Series” because one day she got an idea of two light and dark characters who have an epic romance. A week later, Emily had over a 100,000 words written. When she writes, she pictures the characters in her head going through vivid descriptions of each scene. She has written five novels, “Charmeine” “Mactus” “Accendo” “Seditious” and “Ransom” The sixth novel in “The Light-Bearer Series,” is entitled “Conundrum” and will be released in 2013.
Notes to Reviewers and Readers:
First, the Blood-Hunter race or Elders have been on Earth for thousands of years. Because of this, they do not use contractions like I’m, don’t or can’t. They communicate in a more refined way because of their age.
Second, there are several OLD editions out in circulation of my books. Please leave a review on the current edition. Please feel free to contact me, Emily, at guido.emily@gmail.com to check the edition you have is the recent edition.
To order any of the books, simply click on the cover.
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GIVEAWAY
Emily Guido is generously offering 5 ebooks (PDF, MOBI, Epub and HTML) of Charmeine for the Giveaway. If you already have Charmeine and Mactus, Emily will give you Accendo instead.
International. Easy entry as always, just leave your email address and answer the question:
Who is your favorite hunk or hunkess in a book, movie………?
Giveaway will run from 1/18 – 2/1/2013.
CLOSED. WINNERS are — Lacey G – emaginette – Jenny – Kylie – Pragya.
I hope you will tweet this out and share it with your friends, family and followers.
You don’t want to miss more of my posts, so take a moment to become one of my followers. ^_^
I am going to be featuring Emily Guido’s Light-Bearer Series until the story is told, so be sure and stay tuned for more wonderful adventures of Charmeine and Tabbrius.
So I went over 1000 followers a couple of weeks ago! Yay! Thank you guys so much!
Anyway, this means it’s time for a giveaway!
What can you win?
£30 in books from book depository!
(your choice!)
Here are some of the books you could get to give you an idea of what you could win:
£9.60 + £4.19 + £4.94 + £5.24 + £4.94 = £28.91
£6.22 + £5.22 + £4.68 + £7.97 + £5.47 = £29.56
Obviously prices change, and so do your wishlists, so you’ll obviously be able to pick the books if you win ☺ These lists are just to give you an idea! You pick which books you want!
Ella was sitting in the coffee shop, studying the German language on her Ipod, when Rowan approached her. Even though she was immediately attracted to him, she thought, I’m moving to Heidelberg, Germany soon and I don’t need any complications.
Rowan was hard to ignore. He wore a cowboy hat and was tall, dark and handsome. He worked as a US Marshall, but was on medical leave and staying with his parents until he recovered from an injury. Then he would go back to Dothan, Alabama.
The next time she saw him, he was rescuing her from two robbers, who were going to kidnap her from the coffee shop . He asked her to dinner. How could she say no? He had just saved her. After dinner, they went back to her, packed up and almost empty, apartment and she told him about her move. She was really glad when he said, “Maybe we’d better not waste any more time.”
They went to Waffle House for breakfast. As they ate, they both thought about the other. Rowan felt he had found the perfect woman, but she was leaving. Ella felt the same way about him, but she was very independent and was going anyway. She said they could Skype, write and visit, but right now she wanted to be back in bed with him. They spent two wonderful days together and now they were at Atlanta airport and she was leaving him.
Heidelberg was everything Ella thought it would be. She missed Rowan, but as the days passed, she was busy with everything new and tired after work, so sometimes she didn’t even call him.
Ella called her dad and he mentioned there could be some of her mom’s family still in Germany. Why would he mention it now, after all this time? Should she look them up? Was her dad hinting that something wasn’t right about her mom’s death?
Ella did some research and found a couple leads to people who might be able to help her. She decided to let Hugo, her co-worker, drive her to check them out. She would end up regretting that decision.
At the first place, the woman slammed the door in her face. She hit the jackpot at the second. She met her aunt who was also named Ella. She had been separated from the family at an early age. She told Ella what she knew about the past and her grandfather, Rudolph Vogel. Ella didn’t know he was known as the butcher of Auschwitz. He had been hung by the allies at the Nuremberg Trials in 1945.
Hugo had seemed very interested, was he too interested? Ella began to wonder, what was Hugo’s job? How could she have worked with him this long, even went out with him once, and didn’t even know what he did?
Tuesday started out as a typical day, until she arrived at work. Why was Heidi acting so strange? Why was everyone looking at her?
It had been a month since Ella had spoken to Rowan. She felt desperate to talk with him. She decided it was time to go home, but her route was one she could never have foreseen.
4 STARS – Would Highly Recommend To Others
Susan always tells a good story and they are well written, easy to read and flow smoothly.
Atlanta is familiar to me and I always like when places I know and love are mentioned in a book. It draws me further into the story. Waffle House – what can I say about Waffle House? If you’ve ever been in the south, you know it’s an icon. The best breakfast you will ever eat, especially after a night on the town.
The cover caught my attention immediately. I love a rough and tough female heroine. And she was. Ella was very independent and not one to avoid doing what she felt was necessary, even at the risk of her own life. Rowan fell hard for Ella. It was the strength of his feelings that would reunite them. When they re-met, my eyes watered and I smiled, even though I knew it had to happen.
I was reading along, about her caught in the storm, but what came next brought my reading to a screeching halt. I was puzzled. What? What’s happening? I was so caught up in the story, I forgot where it was going. I was waiting for someone to jump out and get her, instead she walks into………
I suspected Hugo of being a bad guy. He was, but not quite the way I thought he would be. He was vindictive and didn’t like being snubbed by Ella.
When Ella went back in time, the story really picked up. I was already into it, now I didn’t want to put it down. I was trying to write it in my mind and make it go where I wanted it to go. I kept thinking, you can guess where it ends, Sherry, don’t worry. It was a great ride getting there, with a loop and a twist here and there.
My Favorite Quotes
“fucking poster child for love-sick puppies”
“What a wild ride life is with you Rowan.”
“You do know we can’t solve all of history’s problems, right? God I’m going to miss this shit back in Dothan.”
That put a big smile on my face, as I thought, where will they travel to next.
The Cairo Effect, 2nd book in the Tempest Fugitives Time Travel Series, is scheduled for release in the spring 2013.
I received this book in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.
For my review of Finding Infinity by Susan Kiernan Lewis, goHERE.
Best-selling author Susan Kiernan-Lewis is an Air Force Brat who has traveled the world and racked up over 40 addresses in her life (and she’s not finished yet.) Her fascination with world travel explains why nearly all her books are set outside of the US. Her apocalyptic women’s suspense, FREE FALLING, is based in Ireland and was a semi-finalist for Best Indie Book of 2012. Her Maggie Newberry Mysteries (which take place in France) have won multiple awards. Presently living in Atlanta, Susan writes in several genres including mystery, romantic suspense and women’s fiction. Professionally, Susan is an advertising copywriter and video editor. Contact her at sanmarcopress@icloud.com and follow her at her website: susankiernanlewis.com.
My father got me a Saint Bernard, Toby, when he was a puppy. He saved my life when I was only eight years old. Little did I know, that when he passed away, it would not be the last time I saw him.
After an extremely interesting childhood rich with the writings of Poe, King, 
3 STARS – Would Recommend To Others
Emily Guido is a very new Young Adult, Paranormal Romance Author. She was inspired to start writing “The Light-Bearer Series” because one day she got an idea of two light and dark characters who have an epic romance. A week later, Emily had over a 100,000 words written. When she writes, she pictures the characters in her head going through vivid descriptions of each scene. She has written five novels, “Charmeine” “Mactus” “Accendo” “Seditious” and “Ransom” The sixth novel in “The Light-Bearer Series,” is entitled “Conundrum” and will be released in 2013.
Best-selling author Susan Kiernan-Lewis is an 
