Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Great Escapes Virtual Book Tour & Giveaway for Fifty Shades of Greyhound by Sparkle Abbey



Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Book Tour for Fifty Shades of Greyhound by Sparkle Abbey hosted by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours.  Please leave a comment or question for the authors to let them know you stopped by.  You can enter their tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.  You can also follow the rest of the tour here, the more stops you visit, the better your odds of winning.  My review is pending.


Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter who live in Des Moines, Iowa. They are friends and neighbors as well as co-writers of the Amazon Kindle and Barnes & Noble Nook #1 bestselling Pampered Pets mystery series. The books feature whodunits set in the wacky world of pampered pets and secrets in Laguna Beach, California. They chose to use Sparkle Abbey as the pen name on this series because they liked the idea of combining the names of their two rescue pets - Sparkle (ML's cat) and Abbey (Anita’s dog).

Pet Mysteries

It seems there are more and more pet mysteries (or at least mysteries where a pet is part of the story) on the bookstore shelves these days and frankly we’re thrilled.

We’d read these types of stories for years, but didn’t really think about writing a series featuring pets. Then a NY agent talked to us about mysteries and themes. We pondered her expert advice. It seemed to us if you were going to spend time with a series that it would be best if you wrote about something you enjoyed and cared about.

Hmmm. Neither of us have hobbies. No time. We have crazy busy lives. We write full time, and have full-time day jobs and busy families. We enjoy our families and we care about them, but writing a mystery series about them didn’t seem like a good idea. But wait…we both have rescue pets (dogs and cats) we love. Duh. What about a pet-themed series? Once we came up with the idea of doing a series with pets we had fun deciding how the series would take shape.

We thought it would be fun to cast the books with two cousins and had a ball creating former Texas beauty queens, Caro Lamont, a pet therapist, and Melinda Langston, a pet boutique owner. The two have hung up their tiaras, turned in their hairspray and relocated to southern California. They have each other’s back but that competitive streak often rears its ugly head, and so currently they’re not speaking to each other. Something about a family brooch…

Fifty Shades of Greyhound is the latest installment and follows in the footsteps (or would that be paw prints) of the previous books in the series, Desperate Housedogs, Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck. Up next will be The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo.
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Fifty Shades of Greyhound
By Sparkle Abbey
Pampered Pets Mystery, Book 5

Publisher: Bell Bridge Books
Release Date: May 8, 2014
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Length: 195 Pages
ISBN: 978-1611944532
ASIN:  B00K7KV6BA

Buy Links: Amazon | B&N | Kobo| Book Depository

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About the book:

It was a killer party.

Caro Lamont, Laguna Beach’s favorite pet therapist is thrilled to support the elite fundraising gala for Greys Matter, a SoCal greyhound rescue group. All the guests in the couture-attired crowd are clad in varying shades of grey, the champagne and donations are flowing, and there are fifty gorgeous greyhounds in attendance. But before the evening ends a stranger in their midst is dead.

Caro sets out to help the rescue group find out the identity of the mystery guest, but soon finds herself in the doghouse with homicide detective, Judd Malone. And federal agent, John Milner. When there’s a second death, Caro is convinced she’s on the track of someone who wants a secret to stay buried, but it’s a race to see whether Caro can uncover the truth before the killer decides she’s next up.

Full of adorable pampered pets, the story re-visits lovely Laguna Beach, and some of the colorful characters readers have come to love in previous titles: Desperate Housedogs,http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dollycsthoug-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B005WZL0RK Get Fluffy,http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dollycsthoug-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B007RPT76E Kitty Kitty Bang Bang,http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dollycsthoug-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00AV95HI0 and Yip/Tuck.http://ir-na.amazon-adsystem.com/e/ir?t=dollycsthoug-20&l=as2&o=1&a=B00D6RNSFI

About The Author

Sparkle Abbey is the pseudonym of mystery authors Mary Lee Woods and Anita Carter. They write the popular pet mystery series which features whodunits set in the wacky world of pampered pets, precious pedigrees, and secrets. The first book in the series Desperate Housedogs, an Amazon mystery series bestseller and Barnes & Noble Nook #1 national bestseller, was followed by Get Fluffy, Kitty Kitty Bang Bang, and Yip/Tuck.  Fifty Shades of Greyhound is the latest installment.

Author Links




7 comments:

  1. Maybe you can explore some hobbies and cal it research.
    Kill those two birds with one stone?

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  2. DogsMom, that so funny because we actually thought about that. What if we took some random adult ed classes in the name of research... Love adult ed classes and there are so many interesting topcis!

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  3. Finished 50 Shades over the weekend. Loved it--of course. :)

    I'm so glad you chose pets as your theme, and I enjoy catching up with the various animals in each book. Oh, and their people, too, of course!

    Our Doxie Lessa and I are waiting, waiting, waiting (and you know how patient a doxie can be!) for the next book!

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  4. Thanks, *lizzie! The doxie book is almost done. :-) The Girl with the Dachshund Tattoo up next!

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  5. Interesting premise

    ReplyDelete