Friday, January 27, 2017

Book Beginnings & Friday 56 - #67


Book Beginnings on Friday is a weekly meme hosted by Gilion at 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:  

Looking to the Woods (Paris Homicide, Book 4) by Frederique Molay 



However well you feed the wolf, he still looks to the woods. - Russian Proverb. 

He tied up the body with great care, closed the suitcase, and pulled out the handle.  His breathing was calm now. 
My Thoughts:  I have read and really enjoyed the previous three books in this series and can't wait to get a chance to dive into this installment. My review for this will post early next week.   

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 at 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 Looking to the Woods by Frederique Molay – about 56% on Kindle):  

"I can tell a slacker when I see one, young man. Who do you think you're talking to? Stop playing games right now!."
"Wait a sec! I don't understand! Just because I don't know what Eva did with the video--"

My Thoughts:  I haven't started the book yet so I have no idea who is speaking to who at this point but I'm definitely looking forward to starting this. 

What do you think?  Do these teasers tempt you to read this book? Don't forget to leave your link below and to link up at Freda's Voice. 




About Looking to the Woods (Paris Homicide, Book 4) by Frederique Molay

When a ten-year-old girl’s mutilated body is found in a public park in Paris, chief of police Nico Sirsky takes action. But his elite team of homicide detectives isn’t on the case for even twenty-four hours before a second child is found murdered and left to rot inside a middle-school classroom. With the City of Light on edge awaiting another gruesome discovery, the clock starts ticking for Sirsky to catch the elusive killer who calls himself the gamemaster.

As the pressure mounts, Sirsky is also confronted with a conundrum in his personal life: his girlfriend is inexplicably pulling away from him. But he must once again put his own problems aside when the investigation turns up nothing but taunts from the killer. It will take an entire team of police psychologists, forensic specialists, and criminal investigators to uncover the truth hidden in a web of murder more tangled than any of them could have imagined.




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

Have a great Friday! 
Maria

Thursday, January 26, 2017

Virtual Tour for Heartstone by Elle Katherine White

 

Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Aurora Publicity, for Heartstone by Elle Katherine White.  Please leave a comment or question for Elle to let her know you stopped by.  I will be posting a review for this book soon.



 Heartstone
by Elle Katharine White

Release Date: January 17, 2017
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Genre: Historical Fantasy


A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen’s beloved Pride & Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay—and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers . . . something far more sinister than gryphons.

It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.

BUY HERE:
AMAZON | B&N | KOBO


Meet the Author:

Elle was born and raised in Buffalo, NY, where she learned valuable life skills like how to clear a snowy driveway in under twenty minutes (a lot easier than you think) and how to cheer for the perennial underdog (a lot harder than you think).
MEET ELLE

When she’s not writing she spends her time reading, drinking absurd amounts of tea, having strong feelings about fictional characters, and doing her best to live with no regrets.
Connect with her on Facebook at @ellewhite.author, or witness the hilarious spectacle that is a writer contending with the 140-character limit on Twitter at @elle_k_writes.
Website | Twitter |Tumblr | Facebook | Goodreads


CONNECT WITH ELLE: WEBSITE | TWITTER | TUMBLR | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS

——————

Tour Schedule

Monday, January 23
Book featured at Rolopolobookblog
Book featured at Queen of All She Reads

Tuesday, January 24
Book featured at E-Romance News

Wednesday, January 25
Book featured at CBY Book Club

Thursday, January 26
Book reviewed at RhiReading

Friday, January 27
Book featured at The Bookworm Lodge
Book reviewed at Blooming with Books
Book reviewed at Books Are Love
Book featured at I Smell Sheep

________

Monday, January 30
Book reviewed at I'm Shelf-ish

Tuesday, January 31
Book featured at A Book Lover

Wednesday, February 1
Book featured at The Dark Phantom

Thursday, February 2
Book featured at Write and Take Flight

Friday, February 3
Book featured at A Title Wave

Book Blast for The Blessed Event by Frankie Bow



Amazon has priced The Blessed Event by Frankie Bow at just 99⊄ for the month of January! (Free on Kindle Unlimited)

The Blessed Event (The Professor Molly Mysteries)
Publisher: Hawaiian Heritage Press
 (June 10, 2016)
Paperback: 344 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1943476251
Kindle ASIN: B01GW5WUAE

About the book: 
"You may wonder what my least-favorite student was doing in my living room. In a twist of fate that might seem hilarious if it happened to someone else, he was now my stepson."
Professor Molly Barda is looking forward to a quiet summer in Mahina, Hawaii working on her research and adjusting to married life. But when a visit from her new husband's relatives coincides with a murder, Molly wonders what she's married into--and realizes she might have a killer under her roof.
author-photo-b-square
About The Author


Like Molly Barda, Frankie Bow teaches at a public university. Unlike her protagonist, she is blessed with delightful students, sane colleagues, a loving family, and a perfectly nice office chair. She believes if life isn’t fair, at least it can be entertaining.

In addition to writing murder mysteries, she publishes in scholarly journals under her real name. Her experience with academic publishing has taught her to take nothing personally.

Author Links Webpage  Twitter  Facebook  LinkedIn  Goodreads

Purchase Links Amazon


  

BOOK BLAST PARTICIPANTS
January 23 – Reading Authors
January 23 – Books,Dreams,Life
January 23 – Bibliophile Reviews
January 24 – The Book's the Thing
January 24 – Maureen's Musings
January 24 – Cozy Up With Kathy
January 25 – A Blue Million Books
January 25 – The Ninja Librarian
January 25 – Readsalot
January 25 – Fantastic Feathers
January 26 – Dee-Scoveries
January 26 – Celticlady's Reviews
January 26 – QUEEN OF ALL SHE READS
January 27 – Rainy Day Reviews
January 27 – Author Annette Drake's blog
January 28 – Laura's Interests
January 28 – StoreyBook Reviews
January 28 – Valerie' Musings
January 29 – Mythical Books
January 30 – Melina's Book Blog
January 30 – Brooke Blogs

Have you signed up to be a Tour Host?
Click Here Find Details and Sign Up Today!


Wednesday, January 25, 2017

Virtual Tour for Scheduled to Death by Mary Feliz


Welcome to my stop on the Virtual Tour, presented by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours, for Scheduled to Death by Mary Feliz.  Please leave a comment or question for Mary to let her know you stopped by.   You may also follow all of the stops on the tour by clicking on the banner above.  Good Luck!

Scheduled to Death
By Mary Feliz
A Maggie McDonald Mystery, Book 2

Publisher: Lyrical Underground
Release Date: January 17, 2017
Genre: Cozy Mystery
Length:  236 pages
ISBN-13: 978-1601836663
ASIN: B01EQ2N1QM

Purchase Links: Amazon | B&N



About the book:

Professional organizer Maggie McDonald has a knack for cleaning up other people’s messes. So when the fiancée of her latest client turns up dead, it’s up to her to sort through the untidy list of suspects and identify the real killer.

Maggie McDonald is hoping to raise the profile of her new Orchard View organizing business via her first high-profile client. Professor Lincoln Sinclair may be up for a Nobel Prize, but he’s hopeless when it comes to organizing anything other than his thoughts. For an academic, he’s also amassed more than his share of enemies. When Sinclair’s fiancée is found dead on the floor of his home laboratory—electrocuted in a puddle of water—Maggie takes on the added task of finding the woman’s murderer. To do so, she’ll have to outmaneuver the suspicious, obnoxious police investigator she’s nicknamed “Detective Awful” before a shadowy figure can check off the first item on their personal to-do list—Kill Maggie McDonald.



About the Author

Mary Feliz has lived in five states and two countries but calls Silicon Valley home. Traveling to other areas of the United States, she’s frequently reminded that what seems normal in the high-tech heartland can seem decidedly odd to the rest of the country. A big fan of irony, serendipity, diversity, and quirky intelligence tempered with gentle humor, Mary strives to bring these elements into her writing, although her characters tend to take these elements to a whole new level. She’s a member of Sisters in Crime, Mystery Writers of America, and National Association of Professional Organizers. Mary is a Smith College graduate with a degree in Sociology. She lives in Northern California with her husband, near the homes of their two adult offspring. Visit Mary online at MaryFeliz.com, or follow her on Twitter @MaryFelizAuthor.

You can win your own copy! Giveaway – On February 10, the author will be giving away five ebook editions of both books to randomly selected names on my newsletter list. Here is the link where your followers can sign up for the newsletter – http://www.maryfeliz.com/newsletter/

 I have to admit that I have a bit of an “acquisition” problem when it comes to books, makeup and clothes, so I jumped at the chance to read and review Scheduled to Death, the second Maggie McDonald Mystery by Mary Feliz, hoping to pick up some organizational tips while enjoying a cozy mystery.  Colorful characters and a fairly good mystery kept me reading from start to finish.  While this is a book which can be read and enjoyed on its own, I recommend reading the first book in the series, An Address to Die For, for a better connection with the primary characters.

Ms. Feliz does a good job introducing readers to her main character, Maggie McDonald, a professional organizer, at the start of this story.  Hired to organize Stanford Professor Lincoln Sinclair’s Victorian home and office, Maggie quickly finds herself involved in solving a murder. Something she’s had a little bit of experience with in the past.  I liked Maggie’s character right from the start; she’s smart, dependable and really cares about her family and her friends.  She’s also a great judge of character. 

The secondary characters are well developed and I especially enjoyed getting to know Maggie’s husband Max better along with Detectives Paolo Bianchi and Jason Mueller, who manages to provide help while out on a medical leave.  Drawn into solving the mystery of who killed Lincoln Sinclair’s fiancée, Maggie and a group of her friends, are force to deal with a strange garden manager, foster children, graduate students and college professors while uncovering secrets and working around an incompetent cop placed in their path.  There are plenty of twists and turns to keep the reader guessing about the killer’s identity and the reason behind the murder.

Will Maggie be able to figure out who killed Lincoln’s fiancée?  Will her business be helped or hindered by her involvement in the investigation?  And will Maggie be able to manage her business, her family and a murder investigation at the same time? You’ll have to read Scheduled to Death to find out, I enjoyed it and look forward to reading the next book in the series, Dead Storage, when it comes out.

My Rating:  4 out of 5 Crowns   



Book Blitz & #Giveaway for Finally Fate by Tamra Lassiter


Welcome to my stop on the Book Blitz, presented by IndieSage Promotions, for Finally Fate by Tamra Lassiter.  Please leave a comment or question for Tamra to let her know you stopped by.  You may enter her tour wide giveaway by filling out the Rafflecopter form below.  Good Luck! 

Finally Fate
by Tamra Lassiter
Role of Fate Series, #6
Publication Date: January 25, 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance


Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | Kobo


Fate may take its own sweet time, but true love is worth the wait.

Kennedy Simms has grown weary of love passing her by, and she’s tired of her well-meaning but overprotective brother meddling in her life. When fate brings Kennedy a handsome, intelligent, and wealthy boyfriend, she thinks it’s finally her turn. But if William is her one and only, then why can’t she stop thinking about someone else?

Bryce Chambers has liked Kennedy from afar for too many years. She’s smart and beautiful and unfortunately, the sister of his very good friend and boss. Bryce abides by the Guy Code and tries to keep away from Kennedy, but when he can’t suppress his feelings any longer, Kennedy’s with the perfect William. Will Bryce find a way to move on with his life, or will fate finally bring him the love he’s been waiting for? 



About Tamra Lassiter

I live outside Washington, D.C. with my wonderfully supportive husband and two daughters, one of which is approaching her teenage years. Help us all!

If that isn’t enough, we have a Great Dane and an English Bulldog to keep us on our toes. It’s crazy around here, and I love every minute of it!

Writing is my third career. I didn’t set out to be a writer, it was just meant to be. My Mechanical Engineering degree from Virginia Tech prepared me well for my first career as an Engineer/Program Manager. My second career was in Human Resources. Long story, but I figured it out.

I believe the best start for a writing career is to be a reader first, and I’ve been an avid reader my whole life. I’ve loved to read ever since I picked up my first Nancy Drew mystery in the fourth grade. Now, I love reading just about everything, but I don’t read sad books. I don’t watch sad movies either for that matter, no matter how many awards they’ve won. Life’s too short, and who needs all that strife to bring us down?


Many of my words have been penned late into the evening, which explains why I’ve never viewed whatever television show you recommend to me. I would, however, love to hear your recommendations for a great read!




Monday, January 23, 2017

Release Blitz for Honey Bee by Heather Shere

honeybee_releaseblitzbanner

IT'S LIVE! Grab the book that has everyone BUZZING!

honeybee

BUY NOW #FREE with #KindleUnlimited!!
Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2jHB6XB Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2iKtkwA
honeybee_teaser1new

Love can be as sweet as honey, or it can sting like a bee. Bo Smith knows that if you go looking for honey, you get stung, so he has his life just how he wants it. No hassles, no complications, and no heartache. As the handsome high school athletics coach, he would be the pick of the small town he grew up in...if he was into commitment, or dating...or even calling back. But he has sworn off anything resembling a future and his mind isn't going to change.

 Then his eyes lock on the new girl in town...She’s beautiful, intelligent, and full of surprises. Just the kind of complication he has been avoiding. Sophia Brown is looking for the sweet simple life. She has it all planned out. Getting used to life alone isn't easy, but she has her garden, her bees, and her dog Triton to tend to. It's the fresh start she's been dreaming of, surrounded by nothing but open fields to stare at all day.

 Nothing at all...unless you count the high school football team and their distractingly handsome coach, practicing right across the street. But when sparks fly, Bo must choose between the sting of his past or the sweetness of the future. He may just find that honey tastes good on everything.

young couple in loving embrace kissing one another
honeybee_teaser2

About the Author:

Heather Shere is a wife of twenty some odd years and wants you to know that you get less for murder. She’s also the mother of two adult shaped kids, who she thinks she messed up just enough to make them highly successful individuals, who are also hilarious. She has a masters degree in snark and nothing entertains her more than someone who can word battle with her. She considers herself an awesome cook and an expert baker but wants to eat out most days, however, nothing is made ‘the right way’ unless she makes it herself. When she gets bored she likes to tinker with different hobbies like crocheting, scrapbooking, stamping and card making. Her newest and most fulfilling passion is writing and she welcomes you into the deep dark depths of her mind.

Author Links:
Website: http://www.heathershere.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/heathershere.author/
Twitter: www.twitter.com/heather_shere
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14441074.Heather_Shere
Amazon: http://amzn.to/2iKMP3r