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Hi Everyone. Well, Covid is alive and all too well. I don’t know what to say any more. We have had warm weather and some sunny skies, to go with the rain. The tropical storms brewing in the southern waters have not had much of an impact on the Florida Panhandle and I am thankful for that. The pool is gorgeous and even cooled off a little after the rain. It got to 90, which is almost like bath water and now it’s down to 86, which feels refreshing. Funny how 4 degrees can make such a difference. I’ve been doing a lot of reading, as usual, and am trying to blog ahead for next month as much as possible. We are considering a road trip north in september, but I am still not sold on it. I’ll be calling family up there and seeing what they think about it. My mother is in a nursing home, so that will play a big part. We had actually wanted to take this trip last year, but Covid cancelled those plans. Will the same happen this year? And when will I ever be able to take my Pensacola to Keys via the Gulf Coast scenic route tour? It is really the only thing on my bucket list, after the family visit. I want to ride through the Everglades, swim with the Manatees, visit the mermaids, walk in Hemingway’s footprints, and I have to see the green flash (fingers crossed) in the sunset at the farthest reaches of the Florida coast.
I got the idea and the motivation to start doing Tackling The TBR from All The Book Blog Names Are Taken.
It has helped me to keep track of my reading shelf as far as current
events and I also started doing a post for Books From The Backlog,
from Carole’s Random Life in Books,
to tidy up my shelves. I feel better about my out of control TBR and
have even knocked off a couple of those old ones that had been
hanging around for years.
COME ON….JOIN IN.
Previous Total: 2251
Currently Reading
Books Read
I got Aiden’s story free after reading the first book, Silent Child, which I picked up free on 8.5.21 for free. Short but worth the read. Cover is linked to Goodreads. Traveling Eye is also linked to Goodreads and I got it free through her newsletter. Both books were probably offered on Bookfunnel.
Books Added
I added this one because of a fabulous giveaway. I don’t buy many books, so I don’t know if I will read it or end up deleting this from my TBR.
Carolyn Arnold writes some of the best police procedurals I have ever read. Midlife Psychic is her first foray into the paranormal world, but I have no doubt it will be an entertaining read, because of her ability to pen a wonderful story.
I have read a lot of Carolyn Arnold’s work and I am excited to delve into the psychic world with her first paranormal story, Midlife Psychic. I love that the female character is older and it is a refreshing change from the young adult novels I love so much. Along with hot flashes, come psychic visions.
Carolyn Arnold writes wonderful mysteries and police procedurals, so I am excited to begin this journey with her…AND…of course, we have to start with something that I am already afraid of…a plane crash.
Erin Stone is a Catholic, so anything to do with the paranormal smacks of Satan worship. She cannot talk to any family about this, but thank goodness her best friend, Trisha, has a very open mind and believes in all kinds of new age things, like the power of intuition, the laws of attraction and lucid dreaming. I love that Erin and Trisha have such different upbringings and beliefs, yet are best friends.
She is a 911 operator for the Toronto Police Services. Her parents had died in a plane crash 28 years earlier and as the anniversary of the date approaches, her brother talks her into going to the memorial, where she runs into the NTSB agent who investigated their parents crash. For some reason, she finds it easy to talk to him, and she does need help to investigate her dream and the plane crash. A little attraction makes it easier. Karma at work?
We are just cruising along, doing some talking, some investigating, maybe falling in love…until…about 60% and Carolyn Arnold takes it up a notch. Danger rears it ugly head.
There is a religious tone to the story and if you don’t believe in visions, clairvoyance, lucid dreaming and psychics, here is the chance to walk a mile in Erin’s shoes and learn how she comes to accept that a fact is a fact, a truth a truth.
Be sure and catch Carolyn Arnold’s inspiration for writing Midlife Psychic and her acknowledgments and find out how much of her personal life she shares.
I bounced a bit on the rating, but the when Carolyn Arnold added danger to the mix, it gave me that extra bit I was looking for. The ending seemed a bit off to me, but I can’t quite put my finger on why? Did I want more details? Did I want a different ending? I don’t know. If you get a chance to read Midlife Psychic, I would love to know you thoughts. Maybe it is just me wanting…MORE.
I voluntarily reviewed and ARC of Midlife Psychic by Carolyn Arnold.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Hot flashes in my forties? Expected. Waking up psychic? Not in my wildest dreams.
My
name is Erin Stone. I’m forty-three with a daughter away at college and
a successful career as a communications officer with the 911 dispatch
center for the Toronto Police Service. My life had just returned to new
normal after my divorce and everything was going along smoothly. Then
BOOM! Turns out the universe had other plans for me.
I dreamed
of a plane crash—only it wasn’t just a dream. The crash happened in real
life. Eighty-three dead. A vision, plain and simple. Not exactly. My
family certainly wouldn’t understand. And me…psychic? I’d dabbled in
new-age spirituality in the past but never plunged into the deep end.
Now I’m in over my head.
Why was I given this vision, and does
it hold clues as to what caused the crash? My best friend Trish is
convinced it does, and a handsome stranger with the National
Transportation Safety Board is willing to partner with me to solve the
mystery. But if I’m going to embrace the vision as telling of newfound
psychic abilities, I will need to keep my paranormal gift a secret from
my daughter, brother, and aunt. Little good that might do them though.
Someone
out there has their own secrets and is willing to go to great lengths
to protect them. Now the very gift I was given has put the lives of my
loved ones at risk. Will my psychic abilities be strong enough to save
them?
This work of paranormal women’s fiction features a
strong-willed heroine in her forties with enough baggage to check some,
along with a heavy dose of magic and a splash of romance.
ABOUT CAROLYN ARNOLD
CAROLYN ARNOLD is an international bestselling and award-winning
author, as well as a speaker, teacher, and inspirational mentor. She
has four continuing fiction series—Detective Madison Knight, Brandon
Fisher FBI, McKinley Mysteries, and Matthew Connor Adventures—and has
written nearly thirty books. Her genre diversity offers her readers
everything from cozy to hard-boiled mysteries, and thrillers to action
adventures.
Both her female detective and FBI profiler series have been praised
by those in law enforcement as being accurate and entertaining, leading
her to adopt the trademark: POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW
ENFORCEMENT™.
Carolyn was born in a small town and
enjoys spending time outdoors, but she also loves the lights of a big
city. Grounded by her roots and lifted by her dreams, her overactive
imagination insists that she tell her stories. Her intention is to touch
the hearts of millions with her books, to entertain, inspire, and
empower.
She currently lives just west of Toronto
with her husband and beagle and is a member of Crime Writers of Canada
and Sisters in Crime.
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.
In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer’s even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely.
Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter. It is their duty as Bearers.
Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with.
As the desert sands run out on her life’s hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun.
I added Fire Country by David Estes to my TBR on 1.15.13. I have the entire Dweller series and with this gorgeous cover and the blurb, this reads all too scary. Could this be our future? I love these kind of books and a strong female characters, so Siena has really peaked my interest. It’s the only book I have in The Country Saga, but I still want to read it. How about you? If you don’t have the entire series, do you keep the book?
The Traitor by Abigail Owen is out now. Check out the fantastic paranormal romance and be sure to grab your copy today!
Title: The Traitor
Author: Abigail Owen
Genre: Paranormal Romance
MY REVIEW
Whoa…The Prologue grabbed me and the story never let me go! It made me sad and angry and ready to fight.
Rune could fight his thoughts as much as he wants, but when he met Hadyn, he met his match. I quickly fell in love with her sassy attitude. She shows no fear, though he thinks she should. He doesn’t need dragon flames to set her body on fire.
Hadyn had tracked down Rune, and it was luck that she found him when she did. Her parents had told her to RUN to Rune., a rogue black dragon with a bounty on his head. He doesn’t know it, but he has friends and they will need them to rescue her parents from the Alliance.
Rune had been an enforcer for the Alliance, chosen to uphold dragon law. BUT, the laws were breaking down and Rune knew he could no longer continue in the same way. Now, with Hadyn, he will have to make his move.
Abigail Owen’s vivid descriptions of the characters and action, the dragons in flight, almost make my stomach lurch with the twisting and plummeting through the air. The romance is obvious, but that’s okay with me. The dialogues and thoughts are humorous, at times, and I love when danger and humor collide. Makes for some fascinating characters, with well developed personalities. Half the time I am gritting my teeth, the other half I am smiling at their antics.
Cracking up at dialogue like:
“…you’re awful cute when you get all alpha-hole-y.”
“Well, hello there Grumpalumapagus….”
Beware, the sex is fiery hot!
It’s always fun to see how Abigail Owen will take a familiar storyline and add a fresh twist. She gives her characters, at least the spotlighted ones, a happy ever after, but I am still fearing for them. I know it will not be all laughs and fun and games and I know not all of them will survive. That is what I fear the most.
The tears did flow…and flow. The minute I thought they would stop, Abigail Owen put me on pins and needles, showing me no mercy and I LOVE IT! The tears kept flowing and I kept rereading parts…because I have to. More tears…Even though I know, or I think I know how the story will end, she keeps me on my toes and my emotions roiling. This may be my favorite Fire’s Edge book yet.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Traitor by Abigail Owen.
5 Stars
About The Traitor:
Decades ago, rogue dragon shifter Rune Abaddon took a stand against the decaying, corrupt systems governing their people. He now uses his bad-ass reputation to protect the innocent as it all comes crashing down. But he’s pushed the limits one too many times. His hideout is destroyed, his few allies are scattered and hiding, and the Alliance has placed a dead-or-alive bounty on his head, making him the most wanted dragon in the western hemisphere. And then the most enticing woman he’s ever met barges into his mountain, demanding an audience.Hadyn Reece’s future was ripped away long ago. The man fated to be her mate was murdered alongside her parents before Hadyn was old enough to be turned, leaving her to be raised and trained by her dead mate’s parents in the dragon shifter world. Now, the Alliance has come for the only family she has left. It’s a good thing she was raised by dragons, because the only one who can help her save them is a traitor she’d be smart to fear.Especially when his dragon decides she’s theirs.
Multi–award-winning paranormal romance author, Abigail Owen, loves plots that move hot and fast, feisty heroines with sass, alpha heroes with heart, a dash of snark, and oodles of sexy shifters! Other titles include wife, mother, Star Wars geek, ex-competitive skydiver, spreadsheet lover, eMBA, organizational guru, Texan, Aggie, and chocoholic.Abigail grew up consuming books and exploring the world through her writing. She attempted to find a practical career related to her favorite pastime by earning a degree in English Rhetoric (Technical Writing). However, she swiftly discovered that writing without imagination is not nearly as fun as writing with it.Abigail currently resides in Austin, Texas, with her own personal hero (who she totally married!) and their two children, who are growing up way too fast.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Claire Kohler will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Briony Fairborn, a midwife in eighteenth-century Scotland, comes from a family shrouded in scandal. Left with only one friend after her mother’s death, she has little hope of gaining any others, let alone finding a husband. Instead, Briony tries to live a quiet life and avoid her neighbors’ ridicule as much as possible.
But things in Everton take a drastic turn when a storm brings foreigners to the village docks.
On the night Santiago Mendes arrives, he comes with a broken ship, a broken leg, and a broken spirit that Briony finds herself profoundly drawn to. Her scarred heart slowly starts to open, and although Briony suspects he may be hiding something, she cannot help but dream of the possibility of love.
That is, until another stranger appears in town, intent on repaying a childhood debt. A dangerously handsome stranger who shows Briony that she’s even more different than she could have imagined. And that her past is far darker than she realized.
Magic, romance, and political intrigue collide as the secrets surrounding one Scottish woman begin to unravel. Secrets that she may not be ready to face.
Read an Excerpt
“Open the door! By order of His Majesty the King!” The harsh shout from the street below wrenched Santiago out of his reverie.
The sounds of merriment abruptly ended within the house, and nervous whispers took their place. Santiago peered down from the balcony at the ten quadrilheiros standing right outside the door. He’d never seen that many gathered in one place, since they typically stayed in Lisbon near the king. What could be so important for them to show up here?
“Santiago!”
The man turned to find his sister standing before him, a nervous Andreas at her side. Her entire body was trembling as though she would fall apart at a moment’s notice, and Santiago observed the way she gripped Andreas’s arm with such intensity that her knuckles had turned white.
“Are they going to arrest us? Why are the quadrilheiros here?” Lucia whimpered in a low voice, her breaths so shallow she could barely get the words out.
Santiago reached out and patted her shoulder. “Calm down, sister. We’ve done nothing wrong. I’m sure they just need information for something—”
The door creaked open below them, and Santiago motioned for Lucia to be silent.
“What’s the meaning of this?” Tomas Cabral, head servant for the Mendes family, demanded. Santiago smirked at the older gentleman’s steady voice; it was difficult for anyone to intimidate Tomas.
“Are Senhor and Senhorita Mendes in?”
Rather than answering, the man said, “Why have you come?”
The leading officer growled and said, “Senhor Mendes is to be taken into custody and his sister brought in for questioning.”
Lucia gasped. “What!”
“Shh!” Santiago insisted.
“You’re arresting Senhor Mendes? On what grounds?” Tomas didn’t sound nearly as confident anymore, but Santiago was proud of the man for not allowing the quadrilheiros into the house yet.
“Treason! Now, stand aside!”
About the Author:
Claire Kohler grew up in Mooresville, NC, as the eldest of four daughters. Her love of stories began at an early age, and as a child, she could often be found borrowing way too many books from the library and scribbling away in a journal.
In 2016, Claire became a full-time middle school English teacher in a public school. In her second year of teaching, she also taught social studies. After becoming pregnant in 2018, Claire decided to shift careers and become an online ESL teacher so that she could also take care of her newborn at home.
She now lives in Statesville, NC, with her husband, two children, and three cats. She is also an active member of Christ Community Church Mooresville, where she often serves as a Bible study and small group leader.
Claire plans to continue creating exciting historical fantasy novels and potentially branching out into other genres as well.
Imagine a forest so dense and so filled with trees that you cannot see anything but darkness. The smell of the dead leaves, the creatures that lived there, and the stench they created.
Imagine smashed windows and abandoned satellite dishes and blocks of plaster all over the ground.
Imagine… What might the world be like if humans were suddenly to disappear?
In Population Zero by Fran Lewis, we experience several post-human worlds through the eyes of people who were allowed to visit for one day. A world covered in ice, a world in complete darkness, a world where deserts are plentiful, and others…
Get a glimpse of what our planet would look like if humans stopped existing. Get a glimpse of the future.
Book Praise:
“Fran Lewis’s newest offering is a polished, razor-sharp double-edged sword. On one hand, it is reminiscent of the old Twilight Zone series and just as chilling. On the other, it is a poignant reminder of just how precious and fragile human life on this planet truly is. A riveting read.” — Vincent Zandri, New York Times and USA Today bestselling Thriller and Shamus Award winning author of The Girl Who Wasn’t There and the Dick Moonlight PI series.
“Population Zero creatively focuses on the damage being done by Covid 19 as it ravages the human race, and our inability to deal with climate change.” — Allan Topol, national best selling author of The French Revenge
Book Details:
Genre: Science Fiction Published by: Atmosphere Press Publication Date: June 26th 2021 Number of Pages: 76 ISBN: 163752868X (ISBN13: 9781637528686) Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
Read an excerpt:
My name is Ella, and I will be your guide and voice as you take the journey with me into the future. I am an ethereal being that is not alive but has been chosen by those above to help you, the humans, understand what is going to happen if you do not work together, follow the guidelines for the virus, and learn to live in harmony.
Remember, these worlds are the imagination of the author, and she wants you to really think about what she has created. You can decide if you would want to live in any of the worlds she imagined in her mind. What if you were asked to be the only human to experience one of these worlds if you could travel back for a short while? Welcome to your future. Think about it and decide.
Sometimes I think the world would be better off without humans. For many reasons in the worlds created, people fled and abandoned their homes. Desert areas became common, providing people with the sand, the hot sun, and not even a trace of water. Recent scenes show nuclear exclusion zones, urban neighborhoods burned out, and nowhere to escape.
Think about this: A forest so dense and so filled with trees that you cannot see anything but darkness. The smell of the dead leaves, the creatures that lived there, and the stench they created are worse than the smoke from a five-alarm fire. Imagine a sandstorm that plows across a highway and darkens the daylight sky, making it hard for drivers to see even an inch in front of them.
Smashed windows and abandoned satellite dishes and blocks of plaster all over the ground. The world — Population Zero…a look into the future.
What if this really does happen?
***
Excerpt from Population Zero by Fran Lewis. Copyright 2021 by Fran Lewis. Reproduced with permission from Fran Lewis. All rights reserved.
Author Bio:
Fran worked in the NYC Public Schools as the Reading and Writing Staff Developer for over 36 years. She has three master’s degrees and a PD in Supervision and Administration. Currently, she is a member of Who’s Who of America’s Teachers and Who’s Who of America’s Executives from Cambridge. In addition, she is the author of three children’s books and a fourth that has just been published on Alzheimer’s disease in order to honor her mom and help create more awareness for a cure.
Fran is the author of 19 titles and completed by the titled A Daughter’s Promise. Fran has 6 titles in her Faces Behind the Stones series and her magazine is MJ magazine. She was the musical director for shows in her school and ran the school’s newspaper. Fran writes reviews for authors upon request and for several other sites.
Her network if MJ network on Blog Talk Radio. You can also find her reviews on just reviews on WordPress. Her latest titles are Sisters : two sisters from the Bronx, What If? and Silent Voices in her Faces Behind the Stones series and the present one Population Zero.
**images are linked to Amazon (I am an affiliate)**
Hi Everyone. I don’t have much to say, seeing each week is pretty much the same as the last. LOL I have been binging on Rizzoli and Iles, and Major Crimes a lot this week…and Below Deck. Does anyone watch it? It cracks me up.
I got the idea and the motivation to start doing Tackling The TBR from All The Book Blog Names Are Taken.
It has helped me to keep track of my reading shelf as far as current
events and I also started doing a post for Books From The Backlog,
from Carole’s Random Life in Books,
to tidy up my shelves. I feel better about my out of control TBR and
have even knocked off a couple of those old ones that had been
hanging around for years.
The Attraction: House of Illusion Rick Polito (The Attraction, #1) Publication date: November 18th 2021 Genres: Comedy, Mystery, Young Adult
From the author of Off Trail comes a hilarious mystery about what happens when a chilling trip leads to a lost fortune.
Nate and Lily knew their mother was different. All it took was a hunch or a bad feeling and the family would be uprooted and moving to a different apartment or even a different town. But when the two are torn out of their life in the ritzy North Bay for the summer and dropped in “the Mississippi of California” on the Sacramento River Delta, Nate Caldwell and his sister Lily see it as one more move in a series of lurching disruptions driven by their mother’s suspicion that something or someone is after them.
When they settle into life around their uncle’s House of Illusion roadside attraction, Nate meets Mia—who makes all the girls he knew in the North Bay seem shallow and dull—and begins to connect with local teens who couldn’t be more different than the privileged classmates he left behind.
It’s not until they learn that the story behind the attraction is more than just a tale for the tourists, that Nate begins to figure out what drove his mother’s suspicious nature.
“An entertaining, comic, but also thoughtful coming-of-age tale.” – Kirkus Reviews on Polito’s Off Trail.
As a career journalist and a former newspaper reporter, Rick Polito has covered everything from political scandals and natural disasters to taking his dog to a pet psychic seminar. Polito attended the University of Missouri School of Journalism and worked at newspapers in Arizona and California. Along the way, he won multiple state and national feature and news writing awards and fit in a stretch as a syndicated humor columnist. Jokes from that column have been quoted in places as varied as The Tonight Show and The New Yorker, with his viral Wizard of Oz synopsis tweeted, posted and shared hundreds of millions of times. Once told that he “views the world through smartass glasses,” Polito took it as a compliment and prides himself on “thinking three jokes ahead,” a skill he has taken on stage as an occasional standup comic. Off Trail is his first published novel, and Polito says he writes in the young adult genre because he appreciates the “urgency” of the teen years and believes it takes readers to a place that is both dramatic and familiar to everyone. A father of two and a native of Arizona, the setting for Off Trail, Polito now lives in Denver, sharing his COVID bubble with his girlfriend Angela and Rocket, the insane Jack Russell Terrier.
