Secrets, secrets, secrets. We all know that secrets rarely stay secret. Secrets eat a person’s soul, giving them no respite from the guilt that weighs heavily on one’s shoulders. In Blood Stain everything comes to a head and lives are tested. Not all will survive.
Karina and LiAnn begin Blood Stain on a happy note. They are co owners of Magnolia House and have found someone to share their lives with. Knowing Ashley Fontainne, I figure they better enjoy it, because something wicked this way comes.
The Magnolia House story has been told and the secrets have been laid to rest. I sure didn’t see it ending the way it did but I love it. The characters can rest in peace, both those alive and those who are no longer with us.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Blood Stain by Ashley Fontainne.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Karina and LiAnn settle into their new lives, each enjoying their roles as co-owners of The Magnolia House and as newlyweds to the men of their dreams, all while spending quality time with their elderly family members.
The worries about the mob are over, and fears about testifying against the devilish owner of Jubilee Retirement Corporation are a fleeting memory, so they concentrate on making the lives of their elderly charges as fulfilling and satisfying as possible, guarding the secrets of some of the residents as if their own.
Unfortunately, sins of the past won’t remain buried, and when they resurface, reputations aren’t the only things in danger.
When a new resident moves in with secrets of his own, he brings along well-kept mysteries of the sordid past of Hot Springs, dating back centuries, but that isn’t their only problem. Someone from their past is determined to bring misery into their lives. LiAnn and Karina find themselves embroiled in a myriad of tragedies, including murder.
Genre: Fiction, Mystery,
257 pages, Kindle Edition
Published June 7, 2024 RMSW Press
Series: The Magnolia Series, Book III
ABOUT ASHLEY FONTAINNE
Award-winning and International bestselling author Ashley Fontainne enjoys stories that immerse the reader deep into the human psyche and the monsters lurking within each of us. She writes in numerous genres including mystery, suspense, horror, sci-fi and sometimes poetry.
Ashley lives in Arkansas with her husband and is the proud mother of one son and grateful daughter of co-author, Lillian Hansen. To learn more about her books please visit https://ashleyfontainne.net/
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The author will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN GC to a randomly drawn winner. Please click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
Hookers and hawkers.
Mosques and mosquitos.
Paul has had enough of Southeast Asia.
He’s only here ‘cos it’s cheap.
He’s on the run from police after leaving Australia.
No, that place wasn’t much better either.
Well, it was when he was young.
When his life was full of promise. An up-and-coming boxer. And he had friends. And fun.
Then a bit of bad luck later and he found himself on the run in outback Australia. Paranoid. Hiding from shadows. The heat. The dust. The sweat.
Next stop, Southeast Asia.
Read an Excerpt
He wondered again if they would come for him tonight. The hotel porter and counter staff were looking at him suspiciously when he last went out for food. Or was he just looking at them weird? If they came for him tonight, for which crime would they come? Would it be Interpol? What he did to the man in Bali might warrant that. He didn’t feel too bad about that one because he was only some fag who came onto him after seeing him in Kuta one night when Paul was hungry and standing alone in the darkness. The man asked if he was ok and invited him back to his house and made dinner. Paul knew his old coach would be ashamed that he had beaten the man, not to mention taken his money. He saw his coach in his mind again – this time holding pads for him in the ring. If only Paul had made more money from boxing, then he would never have had to come to Asia. He never would have been standing hungry and lost and standing with street dogs and feeling like a failure. That was the worst moment in Paul’s life and he didn’t want to remember it again.
About the Author: Gregory Pakis is an Australian author, film-maker, actor and wacky vlogger.
He has written the short story, The Lonely Australian of the Asian Night; the soon to be released horror-suspense novellas, The Regressor and He., and Memoir of a Suburban Hoe-Bo, which is partly an account of when he lived out of a van for ten years in Melbourne.
Gregory Pakis is also the writer / director of the feature films, The Garth Method (2005) and The Joe Manifesto (2013), which have won national and international awards and been distributed through Accent Entertainment, Label, Vanguard Cinema.
Gregory’s more informal video projects are the feature documentaries, Garth Goes Hitch-Hiking (2007) and Garth Lives in a Van (2011) which have screened at film festivals in Australia.
More recently, he has created the comedy series, suBURPieS and his Wacky Vlog which can found on his socials.
Gregory has been featured in articles in newspapers, The Age, The Herald Sun, Beat Magazine, Inpress, FILMINK, and the Neos Kosmos. He has been interviewed on radio by the ABC, 3RRR, SYN FM, 3CR.
I am easily swayed by covers, so I am always curious of how they are chosen. L J Ambrosio is here to talk about his covers for the Reflections Of Michael series. Take it away L J.
Please tell us about the three covers and how they relate to the books.
RESERVOIR MAN
The title is a metaphor. The “reservoir man” is the darkness of corruption. He will tempt us with a banquet of debauched temptation. That temptation could be greed, hating your neighbor, violence, sexual abuse, all the seven deadly sins plus more.
This metaphor will remain in Michael’s life. In his childhood, he would go to a reservoir near his home, waiting for the next person to sit down at his bench to talk to. Michael wanted to hear about their adventures in life but some who sat were men looking to take advantage, sexually, of any young boy. One man who walked around the reservoir took a special interest in Michael and would not leave him alone; he followed him home and attempted to get into Michael’s house. Michael ran to his sister’s house, but his pursuer followed him there as well, then attempted to break in. Michael gained the strength to push him away.
Michael carried this all his life. He had to admit he did get fooled at times, where some reservoir men came masked towards him and he did not see them for what they were. This metaphor remains consistent in three novels. In “Exiles,” the police officer beating Louie up, in “Reflections on the Boulevard,” the gang that beats up Ron and violently hurts Rhonda are examples.
REFLECTIONS ON THE BOULVARD
This a complicated metaphor as well. I am quoting the book in the concluding chapter:
“They crossed the street to the other side, he felt the parallel lives of two men meeting, only for a moment. A car passed. In the reflections of the street, one may see the image of a young man and an older man, who had come together one more time, in this place. He felt him, it was a relief, he and Michael were one. He stood now on the Boulevard Saint-Michel.”
By reflecting Michael’s image, Ron found his truth as he became one with Michael’s memory. It was a relief to know that Michael would always be with him; we all see reflections that give us the ability know what to do in our lives and what we are about. In “Exiles,” when Louie and Lily imitate the old couple in the music room of the bookstore, they are reflecting the idea of a perfect love. Louie is growing, taking another step to understanding true love. It is a part of his rite of passage. Those trials confront all the characters in these stories. Louie’s pain is in finding who he is, the ability to become a partisan. In our journey, we all pass through these challenges, using reflections from our lives, avoiding the “Reservoir Man” around each corner.
The images on the book are our two journeymen sitting on the edge of le Sien with Notre Dame in front of them. They are celebrating the incredible structure. The back cover is an image of Ron and Michel driving towards their next magnificent vista. This visual pairing of the two characters in friendship also represents the buddy story line.
EXILE
James Joyce was very clear in his beliefs that when the artist is oppressed and creatively cripple, they must leave to exile themselves. Joyce went to Paris and the continent for over 30 years before he went back to Dublin. He was not the only artist to leave, an entire generation of American artists left. They were called the Lost Generation, they found harbor in France.
Louie and Ron both find safe harbor at the bookstore, that is where they exile. I imagine the bookstore represents all the words they need to understand, they have the comfort of all those great writers.
They leave to go across America to finally find peace at Walden Pond. The native Americans believed that the dragonfly would take your soul to a resting place. Our characters do change; they are changing at the end of this novel and beyond it. Louie believes in this at the end, as he mourns Lily’s death.
To “Exile” is not to run away, but to find a new environment to grow and flourish as an artist and human being. The cover of the book “Exiles” represents this safe harbor for these individuals, the dim lights of safety and warmth, growth, and adventure as represented by the books by the many authors of the world. What better place to find a new life than at a bookstore, where many lives and stories and pathways are converging at once. The bookstore is a place with which these characters can all find a pathway to the life they individually need to live, with their own purpose.
Thanks so much for visiting us today and good luck with the tour.
A Reservoir Man
A Reservoir Man, critics have hailed this explosive and timely work as “a must-read coming-of-age story of 2022.” Twists and turns further pull the reader in to Michael’s action-packed tale, with powerful themes, from betrayal and family to secrets and identity. “Be sure not to blink because you just might miss a pivotal moment in Michael’s rousing, larger-than-life story.” —
R.C. Gibson, Indiestoday.com. “This book is a dream, a gamble, a utopia, even.” — Kalyan Panja, Bookmarkks.
Reflections on the Boulevard
Michael’s story continues from A Reservoir Man (2022) where we find him teaching at a university ready to retire. He unexpectedly meets a young man named Ron who becomes his protege and journeys in a haphazard adventure with him throughout America and Europe, each twist and turn of the road bringing unexpected adventures. The journey taken is one of joy, friendship and discovery.
Exiles
In this final chapter, Ron’s story concludes from Reflections on the Boulevard (2023). Michael’s wish was for Ron to exile himself in the heart of Paris with its beautiful culture and citizens as they protest and fight for the soul of the city. Ron’s journey is met with life-affirming friendships and lessons along the way. The final book in the Reflections of Michael Trilogy, which started with A Reservoir Man (2022).
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Louis J. Ambrosio ran one of the most nurturing bi-coastal talent agencies in Los Angeles and New York. He started his career as a theatrical producer, running two major regional theaters for eight seasons. Ambrosio taught at seven universities. Ambrosio also distinguished himself as an award-winning film producer and novelist over the course of his impressive career.
There’s something very, very wrong with the children.
Feral
by Bryan W. Alaspa
Genre: Historical
Horror
For Garland, the move to California is just what his family needs to
finally find comfort and success. After years of failed businesses,
this may be their last chance. However, making the journey across the
dangerous Sierra Nevadas is potentially deadly business in the 1800s.
The journey is long and arduous.
This time, though,
Garland’s friend Silas says he met a man who has found an easier and
safer way to make the journey. Little does he know that his son is
having ominous dreams about their trip and that something lurks deep
within the woods. The long trek becomes harder and more difficult,
taking longer than promised. Soon, the entire train of wagons,
horses, and people is trapped in the mountains.
Then, the
snow comes and buries them. As a small party sets off for rescue, no
one knows that the thing within the woods that has been calling to
the children is ready. Beneath the snow, as the travellers fight off
starvation, a true nightmare starts—an ancient nightmare with sharp
teeth that affects the children. Now, the screaming starts, and the
true horror begins.
Bryan
W. Alaspa is a Chicago born and bred author of both fiction and
non-fiction works. He has been writing since he sat down at his
mother’s electric typewriter back in the third grade and pounded out
his first three-page short story. He spent time studying journalism
and other forms of writing. He turned to writing as his full-time
career in 2006 when he began writing freelance, online and began
writing novels and books.
He is the author of dozens of books in both fiction and
non-fiction and numerous short stories and articles.
Mr. Alaspa writes true crime, history, horror, thrillers,
mysteries, detective stories and tales about the supernatural.
I am always interested in a way to make my blog pay for itself and affiliate marketing seems to be a useful tool. Google AdSense may be a no brainer for us bloggers. I have checked into it before, but never followed through. After reading Affiliate Marketing For Beginners, I aim to correct that.
Audrey K Andado has created an easy to read guide for beginners like me and I found ideas percolating as I read along. My main thing is overcoming procrastination. Quit thinking, I’ll do that later or tomorrow is a good day for taking care of business.
I recommend grabbing a copy to guide you along in your first adventure into affiliate marketing. We all want financial independence and this could be the first turn in the road for making that happen.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Affiliate Marketing For Beginners by Audrey Andado.
4 Star
GOODREADS BLURB
Embark on a journey of transformation with Affiliate Marketing for Beginners, where financial freedom is within reach for anyone willing to take the leap. Meet Audrey K. Andado, a seasoned expert in finance, entrepreneurship, and digital marketing, dedicated to empowering individuals through affiliate marketing.
The story begins with a relatable tale of financial struggle, only to discover the game-changing potential of affiliate marketing. Audrey’s passion for helping others achieve financial freedom shines through, backed by years of experience in online ventures.
This book’s purpose is crystal demystify affiliate marketing and provide a step-by-step roadmap for beginners. Expect a stress-free guide, carefully curated to simplify complex concepts and foster a community of confident entrepreneurs. Covering niche selection, content creation, traffic generation, and monetization, this book offers actionable insights and real-world examples. However, it steers clear of advanced strategies and technical jargon, ensuring accessibility for all. Ethical marketing takes center stage, emphasizing transparency and trust-building with your audience. Motivational messages peppered throughout inspire action, inviting readers to unlock their potential and take control of their financial future.
Embark on this transformative voyage. Unlock your potential, transform your life, and take control of your financial future with Affiliate Marketing for Beginners. It’s not just a book; it’s your first step towards a thriving online business. Embrace the call to action, engage with the lessons, and ignite your affiliate marketing journey today.
Genre: Business, Computers, How To, Investing, NonFiction, Technology
Be careful what you see when you shouldn’t be looking.
Residents of the posh Upstate New York neighborhood of Deer Crossing enjoy all the amenities wealth provides. From drive-up dog-grooming to monthly botox parties, these lucky suburbanites have everything they could ever want. And one thing they don’t. Stalker Caroline Case, who wheels her infant along their streets each night with just one goal…to spy on anyone too careless or too foolish to close their window blinds.
Convinced the owners of the impressive homes are living a dream existence, the troubled new mom hopes to escape her working-class life by prying secrets from the unsuspecting. But the fairy tale twists into a nightmare when she sees something she shouldn’t. Something that shatters her illusions about the people in the privileged community she’s obsessed with, even as she begins to doubt what she saw.
As Caroline investigates the event, shocking secrets are laid bare, and nothing is as it seems. She knows she must prove something sinister occurred in Deer Crossing or risk letting someone get away with murder.
Praise for I Know She Was There:
“‘Twisty’ doesn’t begin to describe this compelling and complicated story. Don’t even try to guess how this turns out—just put yourself in Sadera’s capable hands and enjoy the ride!” ~ Karen Dionne, author of the #1 international bestseller The Marsh King’s Daughter and The Wicked Sister
“In the world of thrillers, few conceits are more alluring than a ‘mostly harmless’ habit gone terribly awry. Such is the premise in Jennifer Sadera’s addictive I Know She Was There, where protagonist Caroline Case’s proclivity for sidewalk-spying on her wealthy neighbors turns into her own living nightmare. Sadera’s deeply psychological novel, echoing nicely to Rear Window, has Caroline guessing not only what she saw, but whether she saw it at all, and her struggle becomes ours through effective first-person narration. An impressive and thrilling debut . . . Sadera is an author to watch.” ~ Carter Wilson, USA Today bestselling author of The Father She Went to Find
“Jennifer Sadera’s intense debut about a troubled young mother on a passionate mission to discover the truth kept me awake all night! It’s a gut-wrenching and addictively readable thriller.” ~ Bonnar Spring, author of Toward the Light (2020), Independent Publishers’ bronze medal winner for Best First Novel, New Hampshire Literary Awards—People’s Choice winner for fiction, and Disappeared (2022) ‘Best of 2022’ from Bookreporter and Crime Fiction Lover short fiction: 2023 Al Blanchard Award, 2024 Derringer
“Twisty and compelling, I Know She Was There deftly explores how well we can truly know each other—or ourselves.” ~ Tracy Sierra, author of Nightwatching
“A knockout debut—sharp domestic suspense that combines taut prose with a complex, artfully crafted unreliable narrator, and plenty of twists and turns that readers won’t see coming. I Know She Was There proves Jennifer Sadera is a voice to watch.” ~ Elena Hartwell Taylor, bestselling author of the Eddie Shoes and Sheriff Bet Rivers Mystery series, including the upcoming A Cold, Cold World
Book Details:
Genre: Psychological Suspense, Domestic Suspense Published by: CamCat Books Publication Date: November 12, 2024 Number of Pages: 352 ISBN: 9780744310955 (ISBN10: 0744310954) Book Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | BookShop.org | Goodreads | CamCat Books
Author Bio:
Jennifer Sadera began her writing career just out of college as a junior copywriter at book publisher NAL before transitioning to the editorial departments of national women’s magazines Woman’s World, Redbook, and Beauty Digest. She’d already established herself as a freelance writer and blogger when she decided to follow her true passion: creating novels. She is an active member of International Thriller Writers, Mystery Writers of America, and Sisters in Crime; her writing has earned her multiple awards at Atlanta Writers Conferences and a fellowship at the Martha’s Vineyard Institute of Creative Writing. I Know She Was There is Jennifer’s debut psychological suspense novel. When not writing, Jennifer can be found gardening, traveling, or reading anything she can get her hands on. She is blessed with CJ, her husband of many years, two adult children, Amanda and Ryan, and two adorable rescue grand dogs named Sunny and Moonie.
They fought America’s wars, now they’re fighting for their own
freedom.
The Mutiny of the American Foreign Legion
Rebels of the
American Hemisphere Book 1
by Neal Alexander
Genre: Thriller
Hugo Ayala has burned his bridges with the Colombian military by
denouncing murders committed by his former officers. After surviving
a bloody assignment in Yemen with an American security company, he
completes U.S. Army basic training. But he’s blocked from becoming a
green card soldier by new anti-immigration laws. He stays on as an
illegal, and joins the American Foreign Legion, an immigration rights
group whose members have fought for the USA.
Meanwhile,
Immigration and Customs Enforcement is detaining and deporting
thousands of people a day, without due process. But now the
communities being targeted include Hugo and others who know how to
fight back. The leader of the AFL has his own political backers and
doubtful motives. As each side ratchets up the violence, American
political unity starts to crack.
This gripping thriller
which draws on current events and little-known facts:
–
Many non-citizens serve in the US armed forces and as employees of
American security contractors. For example, the second US Marine
killed in action in the Iraq War was Guatemalan. A recent MIT study
of these green card soldiers is subtitled “Between Model Immigrant
and Security Threat”.
– Border Patrol agents “have
gone from having one of the most obscure jobs in law enforcement to
one of the most hated,” according to the New York Times.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) deport people without due
process, including US Citizens.
– A recent Chicago Tribune
op-ed describes how current how the current “struggles over
immigration echo the conflict over slavery”. Confrontations in
Texas over immigration have been described as “civil war” in the
New York Times.
Neal Alexander was born in Newcastle, England, and lived and worked
in Nigeria and Papua New Guinea before moving to Colombia in 2004.
His is a founder member of Extraliminal Producciones and took part in
the 2006 Cali Festival of Performance Art. He has co-written
and produced short films with Extraliminal including two in Ecuador
as part of a Wellcome Trust Public Engagement award: El Shupa and
Kepa Pajta. In 2024 he published his first novel, The Mutiny of the
American Foreign Legion.
**images are linked to Amazon (I am an affiliate)**
Hi Everyone. I had a craving this week, so, even though fried foods are not the best for me, I had to have frickles (fried pickles), mozzarella sticks, and chicken fingers. MMMMMMMMM We also swung by Florabama and visited some friends that were in the area.
Did you do anything special this week? Have anything coming up? Read any good books?
Booked on Murder (A Haunted Library Mystery) by Allison Brook
About Booked on Murder
Booked on Murder (A Haunted Library Mystery) Cozy Mystery 8th in Series Setting – Connecticut Publisher : Crooked Lane Books (August 6, 2024) Hardcover : 304 pages ISBN-10 : 1639108459 ISBN-13 : 978-1639108459 Digital ASIN : B0CLKZ83SX
Librarian Carrie Singleton must catch a killer before she can say “I do” in the 8th delightful installment in Agatha Award-nominee Allison Brook’s Haunted Library mystery series.
Carrie Singleton is ready to kiss the single life goodbye. Her wedding to Dylan Avery is just a few weeks away, and a happy ending is about to be hers. But when a body is found on the lawn of their wedding venue, happily-ever-after is looking deadlier than ever.
The victim turns out to be Billy Carpenter, a young man recently released from prison after serving time for a bank robbery. The stolen money he’d buried is gone and Carrie and the police suspect Billy’s two alleged co-conspirators, his friends Luke Rizzo and Tino Valdez. But then Luke is murdered and Tino is nowhere to be found.
With no leads and only a week to go before her big day, Carrie is on the hunt for clues. She hopes to wrap up this investigation with a neat bow before she and Dylan tie the knot. Carrie has something old, something new, and something borrowed ready for her walk down the aisle. Now she needs to find the killer without becoming the ‘something blue.’
About Allison Brook
A former Spanish teacher, Marilyn Levinson writes mysteries, romantic suspense, and novels for kids. Her books have received many accolades. As Allison Brook, she writes the Haunted Library series. Death Overdue, the first in the series, was an Agatha nominee for Best Contemporary Novel in 2018. Other mysteries include the Golden Age of Mystery Book Club series, the Twin Lakes series, and Giving Up the Ghost. Her romantic suspense, Come Home to Death, was released on April 30, 2024, and her romantic suspense, Dangerous Relations, will be republished in 2025.
Marilyn’s juvenile novel, Rufus and Magic Run Amok, was an International Reading Association-Children’s Book Council Children’s Choice and recently appeared in a new edition. And Don’t Bring Jeremy was a nominee for six state awards. Her YA horror, The Devil’s Pawn, came out in a new edition in January 2024.
Marilyn lives on Long Island, where many of her books take place. She loves traveling, reading, doing crossword puzzles and Sudoku, chatting on FaceTime with her grandkids, and playing with her kittens, Romeo and Juliet.
Talk about secrets….Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold is filled with them and Robert hands them out one at a time. Ben Harper is determined to get the answers to his mother’s death. Was it really suicide? Or did someone push her in front of the train.
Ben Harper has been haunted by secrets and death. Will he write the story?
Every time I turned around, I was met with another surprise, more danger. How many bodies will fall before all is exposed? Sure kept me guessing. The more I read, the more curious I became. I do love a fast paced novel filled with mystery and intrigue, and Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold fits the bill.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Twelve Secrets by Robert Gold.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Ben Harper, true crime journalist, is about to unravel his most shocking story yet . . . his own.
The day his older brother was murdered was the day Ben Harper’s life changed forever.
In one of the most shocking crimes in national history, Nick and his friend were stabbed to death by two girls their own age. Police called the killings random, a senseless tragedy.
Twenty years on Ben is one of the best true crime journalists in the country. He has left the past behind, thanks to the support of his close-knit hometown community.
But when he learns about a fresh murder case with links to his brother’s death, Ben’s life is turned upside down once more. He soon find himself caught in a web of lies, one that implicates everyone around him. And on his quest for answers, Ben discovers one very important truth:
Everyone has secrets. But some secrets are deadlier than others.
Genre: Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
448 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 3, 2022
Series: Ben Harper #1
ABOUT ROBERT GOLD
Originally from Harrogate in North Yorkshire, Robert Gold began his career as an intern at the American broadcaster CNN, based in Washington DC. He returned to Yorkshire to work for the retailer ASDA, becoming the chain’s nationwide book buyer. He now works in sales for a UK publishing company. Robert now lives in Putney and his new hometown served as the inspiration for the fictional town of Haddley in Twelve Secrets. In 2016, he co-authored three titles in James Patterson’s Bookshots series.
