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.
Emma Hammond is a normal
young woman living in New York City whose life changes forever when one
misstep brings her very close to death. Luckily, Alex Thompson, a
handsome stranger (who also happens to be a vampire), jumps in to save
her, turning Emma into a vampire. She quickly discovers the numerous
advantages (no more allergies, glasses, or acne) and slight drawbacks
(wanting to eat her boyfriend) of joining the ranks of the creatures of
the night. But Emma soon finds out her new undead life isn’t all it’s
cracked up to be when she gets pulled in to an age-old dispute between
two feuding vampire clans.
I picked this up on an Amazon free day on 4.12.13. I am all into vampires, so this one is a no brainer. It’s only 216 pages, so it should be a quick read.
The Devil and Dayna Dalton by Brit Lunden is my fourth story in the Bulwark Anthology. This cover really caught my ‘eye’ and I was excited to return to the small town of Bulwark, George and get the lowdown on Dayna.
WOW, The Devil and Dayna Dalton by Brit Lunden is the best of the Bulwark Anthology…so far.
Dayna Dalton is a small town reporter in love with someone she can never have. She is considered white trash, just like her mother. She is relegated to writing fluff stories for the paper but dreams of that big story that has some meat on its bones.
I love when she ripped off the T shirt….LOL And that was at 10%, so I am really looking forward to reading on.
Don’t tell her not to do something, because that only makes her more determined to do it.
Hmmm…who is that caped man?
Mrs Sweetpea, well I have a weird feeling about her.
There are strange happening in this small town, but no one is sharing the secrets. It’s all hush hush, so when Dayna hears someone calling her, luring her into the woods, she follows. Now…that can’t be bad, can it?
I love Dayna Dalton. I feel she has been treated unfairly and now that some of my questions are answered everything starts to come together and I can see some happiness on the horizon.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Devil and Dayna Dalton by Brit Lunden.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Reporter Dayna Dalton’s reputation has been ruined since birth. The daughter of wild child, Becky Dalton, is expected to follow her mother’s footsteps; never given a chance to prove she’s different. Dana’s been in love with Clay Finnes since she was a teenager. Her unrequited love for Sheriff Finnes leaves her empty. He’s happily married and unavailable. Instead, Dayna finds herself stuck in the revolving door of bad relationships. But this is Bulwark, Georgia, a town where strange things are always happening. Dayna is doomed to this loveless life until she can find someone who will appreciate the depth of her character. Can she overcome her fears and look beyond her own perceptions to accept a greater love?
ABOUT BRIT LUNDEN
Brit Lunden is a prolific author who’s written over 50 books in assorted genres under different pen names. Bulwark was her first effort in adult fiction and was chosen by several of her fellow authors as the basis for a new series, A Bulwark Anthology. Using her characters, they are creating new denizens in spin-off stories to this bizarre town. Brit Lunden lives on Long Island in a house full of helpful ghosts.
Eventide by Mae Clair is the third book in the Hode’s Hill series. Do you believe in monsters? No? Maybe, after reading the Hode’s Hill series, you will change your mind.
Madison knew about tending graves and was not bothered by the three in her backyard. She would tend them as if they were her ancestors.
Her welcome was creepy and I’m not sure it’s a good thing.
We flip from past to present, learning the history of the house.
Uh oh, me thinks they better not touch that stone lid.
Madison has a gift…empathy. But, since the death of her husband, where she felt his death as if it was her own, her gift had left her. She wanted her independence after the time it took to recover from her husband’s death, and now she has it. Knowing Madsion, if anyone can uncover the mystery of the house, it’s her.
Dante…OMG…I’m freaking out for him, yet he’s as cool as a cucumber.
Mae Clair writes a wonderful gothic novel filled with creepiness, eeriness, and subtle menace. I have my thoughts on where the story will go and I am eager to see how close I come. We have danger, ghosts, friendship, love, rage…We have plenty of supernatural goodness, creatures from the beyond and things that go bump in the night. BEWARE:
“Dusk is the perfect time.”
“Or in the old vernacular – EVENTIDE.”
“At EVENTIDE, the veil between worlds grows thin.”
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Eventide by Mae Clair.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
The darkness is coming . . .
The old house near Hode’s Hill, Pennsylvania is a place for Madison
Hewitt to start over—to put the trauma of her husband’s murder, and her
subsequent breakdown, behind her. She isn’t bothered by a burial plot on
the property, or the mysterious, sealed cistern in the basement. Not at
first. Even the presence of cold spots and strange odors could be
fabrications of her still troubled mind. But how to explain her slashed
tires, or the ominous messages that grow ever more threatening?
Convinced the answer lies in the past, Madison delves into the history
of the home’s original owners, only to discover the origin of a powerful
evil. An entity that may be connected to a series of gruesome attacks
that have left police baffled. No matter where she turns—past or
present—terror lingers just a step away, spurred on by a twisted
obsession that can only be satisfied through death…
ABOUT MAE CLAIR
Mae Clair opened a Pandora’s Box of characters when she was a child and never looked back. Her father, an artist who tinkered with writing, encouraged her to create make-believe worlds by spinning tales of far-off places on summer nights beneath the stars.
Mae loves creating character-driven
fiction in settings that vary from contemporary to mythical. Wherever
her pen takes her, she flavors her stories with conflict, romance and
elements of mystery. Married to her high school sweetheart, she lives in
Pennsylvania and is passionate about writing, old photographs, a good
Maine lobster tail and cats.
Just looking at the colorful, gorgeous cover of Meow, and the title, and Catnip Assassin, how could I possible resist. I devour my Amazon freebies when I travel and do mini reviews to share them.
So many delicious supernaturals abound in this purrfectly exciting, sexy tale of cats, kitties, wolves, and humans, and Meow Investigations tackles many problems that exist in the human world, murder, poisoning children, slavery, making Kat, an assassin, change from working alone to gathering a team that will do whatever is necessary to stop The Pack and I can hardly wait to read more of their adventures.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Kat is used to
killing people, but for a blank cheque, she’s willing to do the opposite
and help solve a murder – even though it sounds boring as hell. That
is, until she finds some body parts in her fridge, makes friends with
the neighbourhood cats and realises there may be an assassin better than
her…
Suddenly, things have become purrfectly exciting.
An urban fantasy full of cats, secrets and murders. This is a
slow-burn reverse harem where Kat will find her love interests over
time. Book one in the Catnip Assassins series.
3 TALES OF TEENS TACKLING THEIR DARKEST RITES OF PASSAGE
Acclaimed storytellers Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, and Patrick Thomas each present an original novella brimming with enough danger, intrigue, and murder to get readers’ blood pounding and hearts racing.
In Colchamiro’s RED INK, a paperboy with an overactive imagination witnesses a brutal killing on his route—or has he taken his fantasy spy games a step too far?
In Hatton’s THE DEVIL’S DELINQUENTS, a trio of teenage misfits in pursuit of success, power, and revenge practice amateurish occult rituals… with deadly consequences.
In Thomas’s A MANY SPLENDID THING, a sultry high school teacher enrolls one of her students to get rid of her husband. But will the young man really graduate to murder?
Book Details:
Genre: Crime Published by: Crazy 8 Press Publication Date: October 1st 2019 Number of Pages: 250 ISBN: 0998364185 (ISBN13: 9780998364186) Purchase Links:Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Goodreads
The Turnback – You Kill Me:
“You Kill Me” is the official soundtrack to the book MURDER IN MONTAGUE FALLS (Noir-Inspired Novellas by Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton & Patrick Thomas). Russ Colchamiro (a long time friend and fellow creator) asked the band to write what would be considered a closing credit tune for the book. We were happy to do so!
Read an excerpt:
RED INK
An infrared scope cut through the suburban tree line.
Perched on a high-angle branch in the neighbor’s spruce tree, Isaac could see her through the living room window, six houses away.
The M21 semi-automatic sniper rifle with fiberglass stock and 20-round box magazine was snug against his shoulder.
One bullet. One body.
Though camouflaged within a thicket of evergreen leaves, he had a clean shot.
“Come on,” he whispered, his eye against the scope. “Give me the signal.”
Natalie exits her room with the ritual kit, locking the door behind her.
Her father, swathed in a cornucopia-pattern quilt, sits in his wheelchair in the den, positioned near enough the window so that he can be in the daylight. Maybe he enjoys it, but one cannot tell for certain since his face registers no enjoyment, nor any other emotion.
Natalie kneels down before him, flips up the quilt, and undoes the bottom three buttons of his shirt, exposing his stomach. Between her fingertips, she wields the double-edged blade for a safety razor. She carefully nicks the skin above his father’s belly button. She looks up at him, detects no reaction.
She makes intersecting six-inch-long slices into his stomach, then carves a large circle around the lines, working around the seeping blood. Upon finishing, she evaluates her work and nods.
“I’m going to bring you back, daddy,” Natalie says to him, kissing his knuckles. “I promise.”
A MANY SPLENDID THING
Rosa went from smiling to bawling in less time than it took to blink. I pulled her in and held her against my bare chest. She pounded my ribs with her closed fists.
“Why won’t you understand! There is no other way! If we don’t kill him soon, you’ll come to school one day and find that he killed me. How are you going to feel then? Especially if he figures out that you’re my lover! You would follow me to the Pearly Gates.”
“Rosa, this talk of killing is crazy.”
She pushed herself back and slapped me hard across the face. “You think I’m crazy?”
***
Excerpt from Murder in Montague Falls. Copyright 2019 by Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, Patrick Thomas. Reproduced with permission from Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, Patrick Thomas. All rights reserved.
Russ Colchamiro:
RUSS COLCHAMIRO is the author of the rollicking space adventure, Crossline, the zany sci-fi backpacking series Finders Keepers, Genius de Milo, and Astropalooza, editor of the sci-fi mystery anthology, Love, Murder & Mayhem, and contributing author for his newest project, Murder in Montague Falls, a noir novella collection, all with Crazy 8 Press.
Russ has contributed to several other anthologies including Tales of the Crimson Keep, Pangaea, They Keep Killing Glenn, Altered States of the Union, Thrilling Adventure Yarns, Brave New Girls vols. 3&4, Camelot 13, TV Gods 2, and Footprints in the Stars.
He is now finalizing the first in an ongoing SFF mystery series featuring his hard-boiled private eye Angela Hardwicke and has several other SFF, crime fiction, and children’s book projects in the works.
Russ lives in New Jersey with his wife, their twin ninjas, and their crazy dog, Simon.
SAWNEY HATTON is an author, editor, and screenwriter who has long loved playing in the dark. His published works include the Dark Comedy novel Dead Size, the YA Noir novella Uglyville, and the Dark Fiction short story collection Everyone Is a Moon. He also edited the Sci-Fi Horror anthology What Has Two Heads, Ten Eyes, and Terrifying Table Manners?
Other incarnations of Sawney have produced marketing videos, attended chili cook-offs, and played the banjo and sousaphone (not at the same time). As of this writing, he is still very much alive.
PATRICK THOMAS is the award-winning author of the beloved Murphy’s Lore series and the darkly hilarious Dear Cthulhu advice empire.
His 40+ books include Fairy with a Gun, By Darkness Cursed, Lore & Dysorder, Dead to Rites, Startenders, As the Gears Turn, Cthulhu Explains It All, and Exile and Entrance. His is the co-author of the Mystic Investigators series, The Santa Heist, and the Jack Gardner mysteries.
Patrick is the co-editor of Camelot 13 (with John French), New Blood (with Diane Raetz), and Hear Them Roar (with CJ Henderson), co-created The Wildsidhe Chronicles YA series and is the creator of the Agents of the Abyss series.
He has had more than 150 short stories published in magazines and anthologies, with his work for YA and children including the Ughabooz books, the Undead Kid Diaries, the Joy Reaper books, and the Babe B. Bear Mysteries as Patrick T. Fibbs.
Visit these other great hosts on this tour for more great reviews, interviews, guest posts, and giveaways!
Enter To Win!!:
This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners in Crime Virtual Book Tours for Russ Colchamiro, Sawney Hatton, and Patrick Thomas. There will be 1 winner of one (1) Amazon.com Gift Card. The giveaway begins on December 1, 2019 and runs through January 2, 2020. Void where prohibited.
OOOO Savage must be my first freebie from Willow Rose and it has been sitting on my Kindle for a very long time. I downloaded this from Amazon on 9.24.12.
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.
The year is 1983.
Christian is 22 years old when he leaves his home in Denmark to spend a
year in Florida with a very wealthy family and go to med-school. A
joyful night out with friends is shattered by an encounter with a savage
predator that changes his life forever. Soon he faces challenges he had
never expected. A supernatural gift he has no idea how to embrace. A
haunting family in the house next door. A spirit-filled girl who seems
to carry all the answers. An ancient secret hidden in the swamps of
Florida. One life never the same. One love that becomes an obsession.
Two destinies that will be forever entangled.
Savage is a
paranormal romance with some language, violence, and sexual situations
recommended for ages sixteen and up. The sequel is Broken.
I am super excited to find this sitting on my Kindle, since 9.24.12. Apparently I didn’t realize how fantastic an author Willow Rose was at that time. I sure do now and grab everything I can when I see her name. I can hardly wait to get to the swamps of Florida to see what’s what. I added it to my TBR 8.22.12.
I would like to send out my thanks to Anita Dickason for the opportunity to read Not Dead. I fell in love with the creepy cover and could hardly wait to find out what’s ‘between the covers’.
The creepy cover for Anita Dickason’s Not Dead drew me in. I love suspense and the supernatural, so this was a perfect fit for me.
There is a long list of characters, which Anita lists in the beginning of the book.
Mandy, a four year old girl, is missing. Meridian, Oklahoma, is a small town, so I am thinking it has to be someone who knows her. Strangers would be noticed.
Chief Chad Bishop is sitting at his desk, rounding up help and doing the basics, amber alert, reward….when in walks HER.
She is the niece of the missing girl and the new editor of the Tribune, Ashley Logan. She is a hotshot reporter from Baltimore, and knowing Chad had left the Atlanta Police Department abruptly to come to to Meridian, she investigates…HIM, while investigating Mandy’s disappearance. Why did he leave such a great position to come to the small town of Meridian. Of course, we could ask the same of her. We will find out all the details.
Ashley thinks she can pump the secretary for details, but she is mistaken.
Anita Dickason’s descriptions of the characters make them easy to picture in my mind.
At the end of Chapter Three there is an eerie moment that ramps up my anticipation for this new element. I wonder, will it be a good thing…or a bad thing.
The story keeps getting more interesting the more I read. It’s nice to see something good coming with the bad. I’m not sure what to share without spoiling things. There is so much more going on than just a missing child and the villains that are truly evil.
The fog…is all fog hiding evil? I didn’t anticipate where the story would go and that is a very good thing. I loved it.
It’s not hard to predict that Ashley will run straight into trouble. She’s persistent, dogged, and determined to find Mandy before her time runs out. She’s not going to leave it up to the coppers to do it.
We switch character’s points of view and I love hearing from the horses mouth, so to speak. It allows me to understand their motivations and feelings that lead them to do what they do.
I love the mix of child trafficking and the supernatural. I can overlook a problem or two that I had with Chad and Ashley working together. After all, it is fiction and I allow the author to take me where they will, as long as there is a good story to go along with it. Not dead did not blow me away, but I loved the mix of romance, suspense and the supernatural…AND THE DOLL.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
A small-town Texas cop who is haunted by his past. A reporter who risks it all, even her life. A kidnapping that crosses into an unearthly realm.
Focused on the abduction of four-year-old Mandy Norton, Chad Bishop, Meridian’s Police Chief, ignores the twinges of foreboding triggered by an eerie fog that shrouds his town. What he can’t ignore is the editor of the Tribune.
When Ashley Logan becomes embroiled in the search, nothing stops the hard-hitting, investigative reporter, including Chad’s threats to throw her in jail. She’s Mandy’s aunt.
As the mystery of Mandy’s disappearance deepens, unnerving details emerge. Chad refuses to believe they’re connected to his past until the case turns deadly. He’s forced to face the terror that haunts him. It’s waiting in the shadowy depths of the unearthly fog.
This time, it could cost Chad more than his sanity.
ABOUT ANITA DICKASON
Code Name: Trackers: The elite of the elite. FBI agents, each with a secret, an extra edge, that defies reason and logic.
Characters with unexpected skills—that extra edge for overcoming danger and adversity—have always intrigued Anita. Adding an infatuation with ancient myths and legends of Native American Indians, and Scottish and Irish folklore creates the backdrop for her characters.
Anita is a retired Dallas Police Officer. During—what she refers to as an extraordinary career—Anita served as a patrol officer, undercover narcotics officer, advanced accident investigator, and SWAT entry/sniper.
Upon retirement, she became involved in a research project that dealt with the death of a witness to the Kennedy assassination. The research led to her first book, JFK Assassination Eyewitness: Rush to Conspiracy, that details the results of her reconstruction of a 1966 motor vehicle accident that killed Lee Bowers, Jr., a key witness to the assassination.
Once the Bowers book was written, Anita reached the same point many authors ultimately face: I’ve written it, now what do I do? Answering that question has become another career, one she has wholeheartedly embraced. The publishing field is in a constant state of flux, offering unlimited possibilities for an author, but also endless landmines.
Anita started a new company, Mystic Circle Books & Designs LLC, offering cover design and manuscript services. In addition to her works as an author, she enjoys helping other authors see their dream become a reality.
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.
Ran-Del Jahanpur is a warrior of the Sansoussy Forest, trained in both the mental and physical Disciplines of his people. He thinks he’s prepared for any danger the forest might hold, but his skills prove useless when he’s caught in a hi-tech trap. Soon Ran-Del finds himself in a city so alien it might as well be another world—machines speak, vehicles fly, and his captors’ weapons can inflict pain without touching him. Every time Ran-Del tries to escape, he’s foiled by a technology he doesn’t understand. As terrifying as the city is, his kidnapper, the enigmatic Baron Hayden, exudes a jovial affability that worries the Sansoussy even more. What can such a powerful man want with a Sansoussy warrior, who can neither read nor write and knows nothing of city ways? The Baron’s daughter Francesca clearly knows more than she’s saying, but Ran-Del’s psy sense tells him only she’s being truthful, not what she’s thinking. And it’s only after it seems that Ran-Del has escaped the city and its dangers, that he finds out how thoroughly he has been caught.
I downloaded The Sixth Discipline from Amazon on 7.7.12 and added it to my TBR on 7.28.12. I love paranormal stories, so this is one I will keep on my list, hoping to get to it.
Love Dragons? Abigail Owen has a fabulous series for you. I have loved meeting and getting an in depth look into each character. This is a series that keeps on giving.
I am so excited to be back with these HOT firefighting dragon shifters, and to meet some new ones in The Enforcer, the third book of the Fire’s Edge series by Abigail Owen.
Drake was the only one who could save the family surrounded by fire, but because he is unmated, his body rebelled in his hurry to save them. It is Cami’s family that he rescues.
She is not afraid of him. She has issues of her own, no one to turn to for help, until…Rune. He just happens to be in the vicinity. He is a rogue, a dragon shifter with no clan and gathers those who need his help, offering them a safe refuge
Dragons come in many colors, each with their own special abilities, other than the normal fire breathing and such. If dragons do not mate, they begin to age and death is not far behind. Drake is one of those dragons. They have their own political intrigue and narcissistic rulers.There is betrayal, danger, love and sacrifice. The kings make the laws, the enforcers, enforce them. Going rogue is a death sentence.
Cami finds a friend in Skylar, who has her own secrets. For some reason, she is drawn to Cami and offers to help her, teaching her martial arts, while she is nursing Drake. At first she doesn’t know why she is drawn to him, but as she learns the ways of dragons, it becomes clear to her. At the moment, she is the stronger one.
“…is your default setting asshole?”
“I’m surprised he left you alone with me.”
“He didn’t want to, something about you being a scary motherfucker…”
Oh man, when a shifter dies…it brought tears to my eyes. Abigail Owen’s descriptive writing brought the scene to life and I could picture it in my mind. BUT, I’m not telling you who will no longer be with us. And Drake, that is his biggest fear. If he were to mate with Cami and not be healed, they would both die.
We have a lot of fun verbal foreplay that turns HOT, steamy, sexy, playful, HOT…ADULTS ONLY HOT.
“Did you know some dragon shifters can shift a single part of themselves?”
I know what first popped into my mind and I wonder what pop into yours. LOL
I love dragons in any shape or form. They are people first, doing all the things that humans do, after all, someone has to cook dinner, do laundry, and all those menial chores that need to be done day after day. I love Drake, Cami, and their merry band of misfits. Makes for some wonderful moments as their individual personalities are revealed. It has been a marvelous visit and I look forward to returning.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Enforcer by Abigail Owen.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Death comes for everyone. Even Drake Chandali. The aging process that twists all unmated dragon shifters’ bodies into something useless has taken hold of his body centuries early. A mate could have reversed the process, but now it’s too late. To protect his team of enforcers, he leaves, and comes face to face with the woman he’d thought was human when he saved her from a fire months before.
Except she’s not human. She’s a mate.
Camilla Carrillo almost lost her family to wildfire. To discover she’s fated to mate a creature made of flame and rage, and become one herself, should be terrifying. But somehow a rightness settles inside her, especially when she’s around the glowering red dragon shifter who wants nothing to do with her.
When Drake learns Cami bears his mark — the same mark as the High King — he refuses to believe she’s meant to be his. It’s too late. How could he turn Cami only to take her with him to the grave? At the same time, he can’t walk away. Hiding her from the corrupt, rotting High King might be the last honorable thing Drake ever does with the little time he has left.
ABOUT ABIGAIL OWEN
Award-winning
paranormal and contemporary romance author, Abigail Owen was born in
Greeley, Colorado, and raised in Austin, Texas. She now resides in
Northern California with her husband and two adorable children who are
the center of her universe.
Abigail grew up consuming books and
exploring the world through her writing. A fourth generation graduate of
Texas A&M University, 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.
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.
I’m dying, I
thought. This was unexpected and not at all how I envisioned my death. I
was supposed to die gardening in a flowerbed as a hundred-year-old
woman, not as a seventeen-year-old trapped in a lake beneath inches of
ice.
Llona Reese is used to living on the run. After the
Vykens killed her parents, she knew they would eventually come for her
too. She can’t take any chances. But when she starts to make friends for
the first time in her life, she gets careless and lets her guard down.
Big mistake.
As an Aura, Llona can manipulate light and harness
its energy. But if she wants to survive, Llona will have to defy the
Auran Council and learn to use her power as a weapon against the Vyken
whose sole desire is to take her light. Now she’s caught in something
even bigger than she can understand, with a power she can’t wield, and
no one she can trust, except, just maybe, a mysterious stranger.
In this breathtaking and romantic adventure, Rachel McClellan delivers a truly mesmerizing story that will keep you guessing to the very end.
I won an ebook and I do have every intention of reading it….eventually. 🙂 I added it to my Goodreads TBR on 7.23.12.
