Queen of All She Reads: October 2015

Saturday, October 31, 2015

Book Blast & #Giveaway for A Stitch to Die For by Lois Winston

Welcome to my stop on the Book Blast, presented by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, for A Stitch to Die For by Lois Winston. Please leave a comment or question for Lois to let her know you stopped by. You can enter her tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.

AStitch to Die For

By Lois Winston

An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery, Book 5

Publisher: Lois Winston

Release Date: July 7, 2015

Genre: Cozy Mystery

Format: eBook/Print

Length: 240 pages

ISBN-13: 978-1940795300

ASIN: B010M9U5Q2

Buy Links: Amazon Nook Kobo iTunes Google Play

About the book:

Ever since her husband died and left her in debt equal to the gross national product of Uzbekistan, magazine crafts editor and reluctant amateur sleuth Anastasia Pollack has stumbled across one dead body after another—but always in work-related settings. When a killer targets the elderly nasty neighbor who lives across the street from her, murder strikes too close to home. Couple that with a series of unsettling events days before Halloween, and Anastasia begins to wonder if someone is sending her a deadly message.

____________________________

About The Author

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name.

Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

Author Links

Website: http://www.loiswinston.com

Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers blog: http://www.anastasiapollack.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Anasleuth

Pinterest: www.pinterest.com/anasleuth

Tsu: www.tsu.co/loiswinston

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/722763.Lois_Winston

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Tour Schedule

October 29

Minding Spot

Michele Lynn Seigfried's Blog

Babs Book Bistro

readalot

Cozy Up With Kathy

3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, &, Sissy, Too !

Griperang's Bookmarks

October 30

Community Bookstop

Girl with Book Lungs

Kaisy Daisy's Corner

Mallory Heart Reviews

Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews

Musings and Ramblings

October 31

Sapphyria's Book Reviews

Books Are Life - Vita Libri

Thoughts in Progress

Christa Reads and Writes

Jane Reads

Teatime and Books

Queen of All She Reads

StoreyBook Reviews

Read Your Writes Book Reviews

Escape With Dollycas Into A Good Book

Friday, October 30, 2015

TLC Tour & #Giveaway for Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters by Lida Sideris

Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters

By Lida Sideris

Publisher: The Wild Rose Press

Release Date: September 11, 2015

Genre: Romantic Suspense

Format: eBook/Print

Length: 408 Pages (797KB)

ISBN: 978-1509202409

ASIN: B014BVSWTE

Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

About the book:

Watch out Southern California! There's a new entertainment attorney in town and she's got game. Only problem is, it’s not the one she should be playing. Corrie Locke belongs behind a desk, not behind a Glock. She should be taking VIP calls, not nosing around a questionable suicide. Instead, she's hot on the trail of a murderer.

Luckily, she's the daughter of a late, great private eye and she's inherited his love of sleuthing…and illegal weaponry. It doesn't help matters that her gene for caution is a recessive one. Corrie finds herself in the center of a murder case, unearthing suspects in shocking places. With a cold-blooded killer on the loose, Corrie will have to up her game, or die trying.

Praise

Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters is a delightful twisting maze complete with Hollywood film production, murder and mayhem, sexy and quirky characters and a smart lawyer who is trying to make sense of it all. —Kimberley Troutte, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author.

About Lida Sideris

Like her heroine, Corrie Locke, Lida Sideris hails from Southern California and worked as an entertainment attorney for a film studio. She has written numerous magazine and newspaper articles, a poem or two and a teleplay. She shares her home with her family and an assortment of dogs and chickens. She was the recipient of the 2014 Helen McCloy/Mystery Writers of America scholarship for mystery writing.

Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters is her first novel.

Find out more about Lida at her website and connect with her on Facebook.

I have to admit I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first started reading Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters by Lida Sideris. A mystery with a lot of comedy, more than a handful of zany characters and a lawyer who would rather be a private investigator, Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters captured my attention from the very first page and never let go. If you’re looking for something different in the mystery department, you’re going to want to give this book a try.

Twenty-six and finally starting a job that promises to more than pay the rent. Corrie Locke is determined to put her crime solving days behind her. A job as a contract/entertainment lawyer might not be as exciting as working with her late, great private eye father but it will make her mom happy. Only nothing at the office is as it seems and Corrie soon finds herself being dragged into investigating the “suicidal” death of a colleague, a missing – maybe kidnapped – cat case and an alleged “alien abduction”. Luckily for her, she’s got more crazy sidekicks than the Marx Brothers.

Ms. Sideris does a good job developing the characters in this story and I easily connected with Corrie and her situation in life. Devastated over her father’s death, Corrie is down to one parent and trying to keep her happy by taking a job in a field she’s not really sure she wants to work in – she only went to law school and passed the bar to make her parents happy. I also found her attachment to all sorts of weapons, legal or not, quite useful. The secondary characters are also well developed and very amusing. I especially liked ‘Veera”, the company’s security guard who decided early on to be Corrie’s sidekick, whether Corrie wanted her help or not.

With more than one mystery to solve, Corrie gets herself into all sorts of crazy situations while trying to actually do her paying job at the same time. Ms. Sideris does a good job developing the main mystery and provides just enough clues to keep the reading guessing without really giving anything away. The side cases that Corrie gets involved in provided a nice diversion too.

Will Corrie find her clients cat and discover if her colleague really committed “suicide” or if he was murdered? Will she solve the issue of the alleged “alien abduction”? And will she still have a job as a lawyer at the end of the day? You’ll have to read Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters to find out. I enjoyed it and look forward to reading more of this author’s work.

My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 Crowns

GIVEAWAY

Prize - 1 Copy of Murder and Other Unnatural Disasters in either print or digital format (winner’s choice).

Entry – Leave a meaningful comment for Lida to let her know you stopped by.

Rules:

Must be 18 or Older (or have your parent/guardian enter)
Open to U.S. residents only
Giveaway will run from October 30, 2015 to November 6, 2015.
Winner will be notified via email and must respond to winning email within 48 hours or a different winner will be chosen.

Virtual Tour & #Giveaway for A Distant Voice by Birdie Blake

Welcome to my stop on th Virtual Tour, presented by Bridging the Gap Promotions, for A Distant Voice by Birdie Blake. Please leave a comment or question for Birdie to let her know you stopped by. You can enter the tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.

A Distant Voice

Bridie Blake

Evernight Teen

Contemporary Young Adult

72,000 words

In life you don’t find your voice. It finds you.

Violet Hayes knows how to survive the year living with her grandmother in the small town of Wandorah, Tennessee.

• Make Rose happy

• Don’t sing or play guitar

• Avoid Sally Shaw

• Ignore Carter Jenkins

It seems simple enough, right? Wrong.

• How do you keep a depressed sister happy?

• How do you deny yourself your dream?

• How do you avoid a friendship?

• And how do you ignore a boy when he’s everywhere you turn?

Violet’s to-do list just became a whole lot harder.

14+ due to adult situations

Buy Links: Evernight Teen Amazon ARe Bookstrand

Add A Distant Voice to your Goodreads page HERE

book trailer:

http://youtu.be/AVn3Bb4EQEo

EXCERPT

He smiled and reached out to pull the guitar toward him. He strummed his fingers over the strings and played a few chords before glancing over at me proudly.

“Impressive.”

He offered me the guitar. “Your turn.”

“And what makes you think I can play?”

“Your bloodlines.”

I snorted out a laugh and clapped my hand over my mouth in horror.

“Play away,” he said, ignoring my snort, and pushed the guitar into my hands.

I stared down at it with my mouth hanging open. The way my heart raced you’d think he’d pulled the pin on a grenade and handed it to me. Relax Violet. It’s an instrument. It can’t hurt you. Unless I tripped over it and broke my neck. And that could happen. Probably not entirely realistic while I’m holding it, but if I dropped it and then got up and tripped, it … oh dear god, what is wrong with me?

His mom called out his name and he gave me an apologetic shrug. “I’ll be right back.”

He left the room and I remained where I was, the guitar still burning my hands. It had been months since I’d played. Months since I’d felt that wave of joy I got whenever my fingers ran over the strings.

A yearning, so strong it sent butterflies fluttering in my stomach, washed over me and my fingers moved. They ran over the strings, playing whatever came to mind. I closed my eyes and let myself be swallowed up by it all. I allowed myself to forget and be something else. Someone else.

I didn’t know how long I stayed like that but a shuffle behind me forced me back to reality. I opened my eyes and twisted around. Carter stood in the doorway, a look of wonder on his face and it made me squirm. I dropped my hands, rested the guitar on his bed, and scrambled to my feet. “I should go.”

He moved toward me slowly, as though scared a sudden movement would startle me. “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I mumbled and folded my arms across my chest, tucking my hands into my armpits where they’d be safe and wouldn’t stray towards anymore strings.

His brow creased and I saw him trying to work out what had happened but I didn’t want to talk about it. I tried to duck out of his room before he asked me anything. He gripped my arm, stopping my quick exit. “It’s okay,” he said. “You’re allowed to enjoy things. You’re not betraying your sister by having fun or doing the things you want to do.” His voice, filled with sincerity and kindness, caused a lump to take up residence in my throat.

His hand ran along my arm and towards my hidden hand. He tugged on it until he freed it and he squeezed my fingers gently. I shook my head because he’s right, but he’s wrong at the same time. It was guilt over Rose that stopped me doing things but when it came to music, there was so much more to it.

Music destroyed Gran’s life. It ruined Mom’s childhood. I couldn’t love something like that because if I did, I’d open myself up to the same hurt. And I’m not anywhere near as strong as Gran. It would destroy me. It would be my trigger.

I wanted to tell him that. I wanted him to understand. But the words wouldn’t come out of me.

Author Bio:

Bridie lives, daydreams and writes in Melbourne, Australia. She’s happiest at her computer, coffee in hand, Tim Tams on standby and her furry companion Poppy at her feet. When not writing she’s usually found with a book in her hand or playing with her tribe of nieces and nephews.

Discover more about her at www.bridieblake.com, https://www.facebook.com/AuthorBridieBlake or @BridieBlake on Twitter!

Giveaway: $25 Amazon GC

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Book Beginnings & Friday 56 - #6

Book Beginnings on Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Rose City Reader. Every Friday we share the first sentence (or so) of the book we’re currently reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

My Book Beginning:

Midnight’s Kiss (Elder Races, Book 8) by Thea Harrison

Something happened to Julian as he stood in the San Francisco alleyway, looking down at his progeny and longtime friend.

Xavier lay curled on his side on the ambulance stretcher, the lines of his poison-wracked body rigid. Blood was everywhere- the stretcher, the concrete underneath. It had poured like a river out of him and had run in a thin red line

My Thoughts: Anyone who follows this series knows that Julian, the Nightkind King, is not exactly a calm and easy going person. Beginning like this, I’m pretty sure Julian will totally lose it and the body count will definitely be higher in this book.

What do you think? Don't forget to leave your book beginning below and to link-up at Rose City Reader.

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Friday 56 is a weekly meme hosted by Freda’s Voice on every Friday.

To Play along here are the Rules:

*Grab a book, any book.
*Turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader (If you have to improvise, that's ok.)
*Find any sentence, (or few, just don't spoil it)
*Post it.
*Add your post below.

*Don’t forget to add your post URL (not your blog url) at Freda’s Voice.
*It's that simple.

My 56 (Also from Midnight's Kiss):

Her biker pulled to a smooth stop several feet away from the hole. He had to raise his voice to be heard over the growl of all the motorcycles. “You sure this is it?”

“Yes,” she snapped. Dismounting, she tore off the helmet and ran over to the tunnel entrance.

Inside, part of her screamed, no, no, no. Desperately, she searched the ground as several of the bikers joined her.

About Midnight's Kiss (Elder Races, Book 8) by Thea Harrison

In the latest Novel of the Elder Races, two souls who have long buried their passions are about to be consumed…

Ever since their scorching affair ended years ago, Julian, the Nightkind King, and Melisande, daughter of the Light Fae Queen, have tried to put the past behind them—and distance between them. But when a war breaks out between Julian and Justine, a powerful Vampyre of the Nightkind council, they find themselves thrown together under treacherous circumstances…

Kidnapped as leverage against Julian, Melly is convinced that her former lover won’t be rushing to her rescue. But when Julian gives himself up to save her, they both end up Justine’s captives. Armed only with their wits and their anger, Melly and Julian must work together to escape. But will they be able to ignore their complicated history, or will the fiery passion that once burned them blaze again?

Frenetic and audacious, Three Days in April is a speculative thriller that raises an important question: once humanity goes down the rabbit hole, can it ever find its way back?

Amazon

Don't forget to post your meme's and link up at both host locations.

Have a great Friday!

Maria