Force of Nature Skye Warren & Amelia Wilde Publication date: September 6th 2022 Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Carter Morelli survived a violent childhood and dangerous missions. After he emergency lands the small aircraft, he faces something even worse: having someone depend on him. Geologis June Porter wants to study rocks. She didn’t plan to be stranded on a deserted island.
They aren’t alone on the island. A man hides among the broad leaves. He’s almost feral, this man. But he provides them shelter and food.
There are secrets in his hidden cabin. Desire, too.
Carter doesn’t want to care about the bookish, beautiful June.
But he doesn’t like this strange man’s interest in her, either.
Simmering chemistry wars with the need for survival.
Will they be found before they give into temptation?
Skye Warren is the New York Times bestselling author of dangerous romance. Her books have sold over one million copies. She makes her home in Texas with her loving family, sweet dogs, and evil cat.
Amelia Wilde is a USA TODAY bestselling author of steamy contemporary romance and loves it a little too much. She lives in Michigan with her husband and daughters. She spends most of her time typing furiously on an iPad and appreciating the natural splendor of her home state from where she likes it best: inside.
Amelia is a USA Today best selling author from northern Michigan. Be her friend!
This second chance romance is full of twists and turns, emotional reunions, and drama perfect for anyone addicted to romance. Regan “Rae” Murphy has zero interest in romance and even less in love. One heartbreak in her life was quite enough, and she has no desire to get wrapped up in the sticky tendrils of love again. She thought she’d left all those messy feelings and entanglements in her past when she moved to Charlotte from Charleston, especially the devastatingly handsome portion of that past, who was wearing nothing but a towel when she walked out on him. His betrayal was the reason she left and is the reason she keeps her heart safely tucked away. But when her best friend, Kez, asks Rae to be her maid of honor, Rae reluctantly puts aside her own feelings about forever.
Love is in the air on Kez’s wedding day, and it smacks Rae right in the face when her ex, Van, appears-and he looks just as good in a tux as he did in a towel. For Kez’s sake, Rae agrees to bury the hatchet somewhere other than between Van’s shoulder blades. He makes it his mission to get Rae to hear him out-something she refused to do before she left him. The pull to listen is strong as the hope she’d buried deep within her starts to rattle its way free. Maybe everything between them hadn’t been one giant, intricate lie. But to get the chance to show Rae what they had was real, Van’s going to have to earn it. This second chance romance is full of twists and turns, emotional reunions, and drama perfect for anyone addicted to romance.
ABOUT E F DODD
A fan of all things Halloween, but terrified of scary movies. Lover of fresh flowers, with the notable exception of carnations. Don’t expect a woman to be flattered by the same flowers you paid $1.00 for back in junior high on Valentine’s Day. I’m a true romantic, which is to say I find flaws unexpectedly beautiful and think life is at its best during the in between moments you don’t find on FaceBook or Instagram. I’m lucky enough to share my life with someone who agrees reclaimed is better than new, antiques always trump contemporary and it’s a close call who should be saved first from a burning building – us, or our English Bulldog. I’m new to the writing game, but I love it and the respite it provides not just me, but also, I hope, my readers.
GENRE: Clean Contemporary Women’s
Fiction – Christian
BLURB
They
started out as strangers…but didn’t stay that way for long…
A devoted granddaughter
willing to do whatever it takes to keep everyone safe. Strangers who meet during the worst of
conditions and become friends in the midst of chaos. Unexpected romance under the most unlikely
circumstances. A puzzling mystery with
its roots in historical events that took place centuries ago. And a storm that
hides an ominous purpose that could change all their lives forever.
Sara knows before she
walks into her grandparent’s home that her grandmother’s greatest fear will
never be the storm or the threat it poses but instead the unknown that lays
just beyond her front door. She knows too its cause and grieves that there is
nothing she can do to change it.
Throughout the years of
his career John has covered numerous battlefields including those that are a
result of nature’s unyielding tempest.
He fears this might be the worst one yet.
Mel didn’t expect to
spend more than a few days in the large house where they’d taken refuge. She figured the storm would pass by and then
they’d be off to their next assignment.
The last thing she expected was David Payne.
Despite the fact that
Lance was the bane of her teenage years, Tish knows that without the help of
her father’s assistant, that the trip to North Carolina likely would have been
a lot more challenging than it was. She’d been unequivocally terrified but his
presence gave her strength she didn’t realize she had. She wasn’t certain how she felt about that…or
him…or that he no longer irritated her the way he used to.
When Gary arrived at
his family’s home in the mountains of North Carolina, he’s relieved that Sara
and her grandparents along with their elderly friends are already there. But he
is unable to take an easy breath until Tish finally arrives with Lance…and is
not at all surprised at what he hears from Lance about their trip and the
potential dangers they’d just barely been able to avoid.
He’s determined to do
everything he can to keep their location safe…and unknown. Their knowledge,
skills, and ingenuity are their greatest defense. For a time they would have to
depend on themselves…it hadn’t take long to discover that the storm was never
their greatest threat…but what is could change all their lives for the
immediate future…or longer.
“If you enjoy uplifting and heartfelt women’s fiction, young and older heroes and heroines filled with courage and compassion as they share joys and triumphs, and united they face and overcome tremendous challenges and tragedy, this book is for you.”
NOTE: The book is on sale for
$0.99.
EXCERPT
“You didn’t know?”
John wasn’t about to pretend that he had no idea what she
was talking about.
“It was pretty obvious that Ben spent a lot of his spare
time with his nose in the books, but I figured it was towards a journalism
degree.”
He stared out into the darkness. He could hear the trees moving with the wind
in the distance but beyond that he couldn’t see a damn thing. “I had no clue about the rest of it.”
And that he knew was on him.
He’d never made the effort to learn more about the young man in all the
months that he’d been working with him.
“Grandma has a way about her. In the right situation, people talk to her
about things they usually don’t with anyone else,” Sara said quietly.
“Sounds like it,” John said as he thought about what he’d
heard. People lost loved ones over the
course of their lives. There was no
getting around that one.
But from what they’d just heard Ben had lost everyone. That wasn’t normal and he knew no matter how
well-adjusted Ben appeared, it couldn’t be easy no matter how long ago it had
been. He was only…John sighed
deeply. He didn’t even know how old the
kid was.
“It explains how good he is with Grandma and the rest of
them,” Sara said into the quiet that had again fallen between them.
AUTHOR Bio and Links
Jacie
Middlemann lives in Texas with her husband and a couple of cats who believe
they rule…and sometimes they do.
When she’s not
watching classic sitcoms or working on a needlework project for one of her
kids, she loves to read women’s fiction and sometimes a good mystery suspense.
Local authors: How a nice guy got into writing thrillers (Monterey Herald)
This wasn’t his first attempt at writing. Nor was this his first
book. Jack Erickson has been writing for more than 50 years, having
started as a speechwriter in the U.S. Senate. He also wrote freelance
for the Washington Post, Washington Star, and Washingtonian Magazine,
among others. And he’s now published four books in his Milan Thriller
Series, alone. Number four, however, “The Lonely Assassin,” just might
be his most menacing tale yet.
Who conceives of a story about a deadly assassin captivated by an Italian woman who ransacks his emotional baggage to the point where the reader almost feels sorry for him? Almost.
To see the entire article by Lisa Crawford Watson @ the Monterey Herald, GO HERE.
The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson was a frightening look at Putin,
Russia, Assassins, and those who end up being the target. The Prologue
was a recap of past assassinations ordered by Russian leaders. I was
familiar with most of them and believe it is not beyond possibility
today.
Komarov had been away from work at the bank for some time. When he
returned, he found some discrepancies in the work load that his friend,
Dimitri, had been covering while he was out for surgery.
Dimitri had been working at their Bern branch, where he was
laundering money for the Russian oligarchs. What happens when you steal
from them?
So much of The Lonely Assassin rings true, showing Jack Erickson’s
research and drawing from his real life experiences. The details of both
cultures, Russia and Italy, clash. Russia: cold, brutal. Italy: calm,
relaxing.
At times, I felt empathetic with Egorov, but then his true
personality would win out and I wished for his failure. He had been to
Italy before. He had immersed himself into everything Italy to prepare
for the assignment. He would take his time and enjoy not being in some
place like Russia, or Syria, where he had been before. He felt free, at
least for a little while. He would make the most of his time, eating,
drinking, seeing the sights, while hunting Dimitri.
Simona and Dario work for DIGOS and are assigned with keeping Dimitri
and his family safe. It will not do for them to be assassinated in
their country.
I wonder…how will it end? Well, I will tell you this…the ending
certainly wasn’t what I anticipated and I loved it. It’s hard for an
author to surprise me but Jack Erickson did a fantastic job of it. My
emotions covered the gamut. I twisted and turned with the characters.
I cannot think of one thing Jack Erickson missed, when writing The
Lonely Assassin. I found it surprising that I have never read any of his
many novels before this one.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of The Lonely Assassin by Jack Erickson.
5 Stars
AMAZON SYNOPSIS
A
Russian banker embezzles millions laundering money in Switzerland for
Russian oligarchs. He flees with his Italian wife to a remote location
on Lake Como near Milan, where their daughter lives.
Putin wants him dead and sends a GRU assassin to Milan to find and poison the banker.
But
Milan’s antiterrorism police, DIGOS, cannot locate the assassin, Vasily
Egorov, who is traveling with phony documents, carrying a vial of
poison, and speaking Italian. Unexpectedly, Egorov meets an intriguing
Italian woman who probes into his emotional life. On a dangerous
assignment, Egorov realizes he’s an assassin in a deep personal crisis.
ABOUT JACK ERICKSON
My interest in fiction, especially mysteries, started when I was
about ten years old and read my first Hardy Boys books, “Secret of the
Old Clock,” I think the title was. I saved up from mowing lawns and
running errands to buy every title I could. They were only $1.00 each,
but when you’re only making 25 cents an hour, it takes time to save
those nickels and dimes.
And then I discovered shelves of
exciting books at my hometown Andrew Carnegie Memorial library just two
blocks away from our middle class home in the Midwest. By that time I
was reading “The Saturday Evening Post,” “Collier’s,” “Life,” “Look,”
“Time,” “Argosy,” “True,” “Photoplay,” that my parents subscribed to
and others I can’t remember. Needless to say, I skimmed through them
all, and devoured short stories by John O’Hara, John Steinbeck, Ernest
Hemingway, Herman Wouk, and Earl Stanley Gardner.
I believe my
early interest in reading was a major factor in liking school. Writing
term papers was no big deal, and we all know how important that is at
university. I enjoyed the many choices available with a liberal arts
education and sampled liberally from science, history, languages, art
history, literature, and political science.
Those wide ranging
interests are probably a factor in the careers I chose, including
Russian specialist in U.S. government, legislative aide and
speechwriter in U.S. Senate, free-lance writer, former publisher (Red
Brick Press) and author of several craft brewing books in the early
days of the industry. My most recent career was in financial services
from which I recently retired to travel and write.
I’ve been
writing fiction, mostly mysteries and romantic suspense, and have
several projects that will be published in the next few months.
I’m always fascinated how people become readers and writers. I’d love to hear your stories how writing chose you.
I first saw the Mind Hackers series when a tour popped up for Dark Waves, a novella, by Amanda Uhl for Goddess Fish. I have Mind Waves, Book I, and Cross Waves, Book II, that I hope to get through before the Goddess Fish tour for Dark Waves, which is a companion novella.
Ever since I read about governments having paranormal research programs for real, books like the Mind Hackers series jump out at me.
Prologue: David has worked for CMU, the US government’s Cognitive Mind Unit for seventeen years. The mind hackers work as a team with a trainer. David and Meg infiltrate minds, implant thought and steal secrets. This is to be their last mission, but…
Grace meets David at a job interview. Though she didn’t get the job, David hires her to create one of her glass mosaics for his family’s lake cottage. To make sure she will commit to the project, he tells her House Trends would be showcasing the process.
In a way, it was creepy, the way he manipulated her right from the getgo. I sure wouldn’t like it, but she really does know what’s going on.
I love that she works with beach glass. I too have walked many beaches, looking for those treasured and rare pieces.
Since Meg’s death, David had been in seclusion, but now he has to confront his enemy. A mind blowing villain who is reckless, ruthless, determined, willing to sacrifice any who get in his way. A power hungry rogue hacker has his sights on him. Why? Is Grace in danger? What makes her special to both of them? Poor Grace…caught in the middle and doesn’t even know it.
A mind blowing villain who is reckless, ruthless, determined, willing to sacrifice any who get in his way.
I am loving Mind Waves. Terrifying. Hopeful. Sweet. I love all intrigue. Complex writing, yet so easy to read, flowing smoothly, yet rapidly drawing me in, wanting…no, needing to know what will happen next. How will it end?
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Mind Waves by Amanda Uhl.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
If he can control her mind… Government operative David Jenkins is skilled at controlling his emotions. Feelings are lethal when your job is to infiltrate minds, erase and implant thoughts, and guard the nation’s intellectual capital. But even he can’t fight his strange attraction to Grace Woznisky. He’ll do whatever it takes to protect her from a madman intent on possessing both their minds. Neither suspect their dangerous enemy has a larger motive, and David may be Grace’s only chance for survival.
Can he control her heart? All freelance artist Grace wants is steady-paying work and to see her flighty sister to the altar. But after David offers her a job, she finds herself in the middle of a mental tug of war—one that has her reeling from nightmares and fighting for her life. She must decide: Are her growing feelings for her new boss authentic, or is she a victim of his mind-altering abilities?
ABOUT AMANDA UHL
Award-winning author Amanda Uhl has always had a fascination with the
mystical. Having drawn her first breath in a century home rumored to be
haunted, you might say she was “born” into it. After a brief stint in
college as a paid psychic, Amanda graduated with a bachelor of fine arts
in theatre and a master’s degree in marketing. Over the past twenty
years, she has worked as an admissions representative and graphic
designer, owned her own freelance writing company, and managed
communications for several Fortune 500 companies, most recently
specializing in cyber security. Amanda is an avid reader and writes
fast-paced, paranormal romantic suspense and humorous contemporary
romance from her home in Cleveland, Ohio. When she’s not reading or
writing, you can find Amanda with her husband and three children,
gathering beach glass on the Lake Erie shoreline or biking in Cuyahoga
Valley National Park. Visit her online at www.amandauhl.com.
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Branwen OShea will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
They thought the biggest problem they faced was each other.
After Bleu, Rana, and their new friends narrowly prevent war between the star beings and humans, they hope the upcoming negotiation will secure the peace. Newly emerged from their subterranean haven, the Northern Haven humans are clearly not suited to Earth’s ice age, and require assistance from the enlightened star beings to survive long term on the Surface. But Commander Savas doesn’t trust the suspiciously kind star beings and their unexplainable abilities. When both sides reluctantly negotiate a joint mission to find the other Havens, Bleu must somehow cooperate with the manipulative commander to keep his friends safe.
As their team confronts unexpected dangers, Bleu and his teammates begin to suspect the star beings don’t know as much about the Surface as they claimed, while Rana is torn between remaining true to her nonviolent ways or becoming more human to survive. When an unnatural predator attacks, even the nearly all-knowing Kalakanya can’t explain it. Now the team must pull together or their new discovery will pull them apart, limb by limb.
Read an Excerpt
Savas grinned. “Think of it as research. They’re a new species. You’re doing field observation.”
“I don’t think she eats at all.” Atsushi frowned. “None of the Crowned Ones seem to. They go to the gathering hall to socialize.”
“You do realize that’s impossible, right? They’re alive. They need an energy source.”
“Kalakanya said she eats air or something.”
Savas snorted. “Well, be curious. Ask Kahali when you’re alone. Later, ask the others. We’ll compare answers.”
Atsushi grimaced. “They’ll know what I’m thinking. I don’t want to upset them.”
“No, you don’t.” If he had another Medicci device to block mindreading, he’d offer it to him. There must be something the boy could do to stay safe. A tiny, guilty voice rose within him at exposing the boy to the dangers of mind-control. No kid should go through that.
“What if you keep that chant Kahali taught you running in your head? Maybe then they won’t catch on?”
“Maybe.” Atsushi was silent. “I’m supposed to be chanting that all the time, but I’m horrid at remembering.”
“Then work on that.”
Atsushi nodded and then glanced toward the fire, where the star beings suddenly sang more loudly. “You still don’t trust them, do you?”
“No, I don’t.”
“But why? They’re so nice.”
“There used to be a fish that lived in the depths of the ocean. It evolved a beautiful light that shone magnificently in the darkness. Other fish would swim close, mesmerized by the beauty, feeling completely safe. And then the light-bearing fish would tear them to pieces.”
About the Author:
As a young girl, Branwen wanted to become an ambassador for aliens. Since the aliens never hired her, she now writes about them.
Branwen OShea has a Bachelors in Biology from Colgate University, a Bachelors in Psychology, and a Masters in Social Work. She lives in Connecticut with her family and a menagerie of pets, and enjoys hiking, meditating, and star-gazing. Her published works include Silence of the Song Trees, The Calling, The Cords That Bind, and The Chasm.
I got the idea and the motivation to start doing Tackling The TBR from All The Book Blog Names Are Taken. It has helped me to keep track of my reading shelf as far as current events and to tidy up my shelves. I feel better about my out of control TBR and have even knocked off a couple of those old ones that had been hanging around for years.
I am so happy to share Marianne Scott’s latest novel, Finding Ruby Draker and to have her making an appearand on fundinmental.
Be Descriptive but not Overly Descriptiveby Marianne Scott
Writers not
only have to make readers feel like they are present in the scene, but have to
entice them to stay and continue reading. I love it when I read a book and find
myself transported into another world. The world around me vanishes as I turn
the pages.
The
necessary ingredient is vivid description. Readers need to identify with a
situation in a story, to see and feel themselves in the scene. Here is where
skillful crafting comes in, by choosing the right descriptive words to form
subconscious pictures, kind of like a movie but in your mind. These sensorial
vivid environments invite the reader to come inside.
It’s a fine
line between too much and too little detail. Sometimes to provide all the
visual information necessary, a writer can go overboard. Painting a verbal
picture is more than pulling out your dictionary of adjectives and stringing
them in front of every noun in your novel. Suppose you were describing an
exotic garden where two people are about to meet. How would you go about
describing such a visual and sensory place?
Imagine the
overload of red, pink, white, and orange beds of exotic flowers, mixed among
the dark green, chartreuse, emerald leafy, and grassy background of the garden.
It’s a true testament to the meticulous obsessive dedication of the caretakers
of Butchart Gardens, all experts of
maintaining such splendid beauty.
Oops! I
think I just exhausted my reader. Excessive use of adjectives or other modifiers
is not the answer. Choosing your descriptors is particularly important when you
consider what your story is about and how much weight to lend to each detail.
This garden could be the setting for an intriguing plot. Yet while this is
important to make the setting as vivid as possible, the actual landscape is not
part of the developing story.
Now
consider the image as a place where an encounter with a villain is about to
take place, the protagonist having been lured by a text message from a stalker
to a specific spot for an exchange of information… or worse.
“Standing
at the top of a staircase that led down to the noose-like pathway flanked by a
patchwork of flower beds in bloom, Tamara scanned over the exotic specimens
laid out over Butchart Gardens for signs of her stalker. She paused before
descending into the colorful valley of plants and shrubs. Beyond the gardens,
the mountains were framed by a misted sky. She shivered despite the warm
morning sun while she verified the message on her cell phone. “Meet Maurice by
the Sequoia grove past the totems.”
When describing a setting, adjectives are less important than capturing the essence of the setting through the context of the moment in the story. In “…the pathway flanked by a patchwork of flower beds,” the metaphor is more descriptive than the colors of the flowers. Also, “the noose-like pathway” is Fewer words might be more descriptive.
Join us for this tour from June 6 to July 1, 2022!
Book Details:
Book Title: Finding Ruby Draker by Marianne Scott Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 330 pages Genre: Mystery / Thriller Publisher: Friesen Press Release date:Original January 2016. Relaunch March 2022 Content Rating: PG-13 +M. Occasional Profanity
Book Description:
Kathleen Jones has lived a protected and typical suburban life, nothing unexpected in her carefully controlled and planned existence. She’s about to complete her college degree and is ready to start a successful career but after completing her last exam she comes home to find her
world has been turned upside down. Her home has been torched and her parents and little brother killed.
If that’s not bad enough, she is kidnapped and drugged unconscious by strangers posing as a police officers. When she awakes she discovers that everything has changed – her face, her name, and everything she believed to be true.
But things get worse. Hardly recovered from surgery, she is whisked away under the cover of darkness as more men storm the clinic with guns. It seems that the men who abducted her are not her greatest threat. Now on a private charter on its way to Nice, France, her abductors are calling her Ruby – Ruby Draker!
Finding Ruby Draker is a novel about knowing yourself, accepting change, embracing danger, and taking
risks. You never know what life is going to throw at you.
Also Available for Your Spy Thriller Enjoyment! Marianne Scott’s New Release!
Book Details:
Book Title: Shadows in the Aftermath by Marianne Scott Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 330 pages Genre: Mystery / Thriller Publisher: Friesen Press Release date:June 2022 Content Rating: PG-13 +M. Occasional Profanity
Book Description:
Ruby Draker has found new strength and is ready to move on after Felix Szabo devastated the Draker estate in Nice, France. Three Drakers are dead leaving Ruby in grief and with thoughts of revenge. The Drakers are a family built of survivors; each rescued from Felix Szabo, a psychopath, who sought to murder his former agents at the CIA whom he believed betrayed him. The Drakers’ sole mission is to stop Szabo from adding more victims to his list, and although he also perished during the invasion, his legacy continues to haunt them. When the Drakers learn that Robert Draker, presumed dead since the shoot-out at Robert’s farmhouse, may be alive and at a rehab clinic in Portland, Maine, the Drakers know it could be a setup, but they have no choice but to try to find him and bring Robert home.
Shocked that Robert may be alive, the family head from France to America to find him. It’s only when they arrive in the west that they realize finding Robert won’t be as easy as
they thought. Szabo has found a way to terrorize the Draker family, even after death. His outstanding debt with a Corsican crime family means the Drakers must now find and deliver a shipment of plutonium, which will likely be used by terrorists to create a nuclear bomb, to get Robert back. As Ruby struggles with the decision to save her brother or North America, she must also evade the CIA, who are trying to stop the Drakers from delivering the plutonium.
Marianne Scott is the Canadian author of four mystery thrillers and is currently finishing an edit on her fourth novel, a murder mystery. She has a BA and a Diploma in Business Administration from Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, CA. She studied creative writing through Conestoga College and Humber College. She enjoys writing workshops such as those offered by Brian Henry, publisher of the blog, Quick Brown Fox, and One Lit Place, a writers’ hub by creator/editor Jenna Kalinsky. She has an author’s website and blog is the president of The Cambridge Writers’ Collective and is a member of the Guelph Genre Writers. In
September of 2018, she completed a fourth-year course in Writing Fiction at the University of Guelph under the expert teaching of Lawrence Hill. Her novels, Finding Ruby Draker and Shadows in the Aftermath are self-published. She is actively seeking representation to break into the traditional publishing world with her third and fourth novels.
June 6 – Mystery Review Crew – book spotlight of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / author interview / giveaway June 6 – Rockin’ Book Reviews – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / guest post / giveaway June 7 – Jazzy Book Reviews – book series spotlight / giveaway June 7 – She Just Loves Books – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 8 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / guest post / giveaway June 8 – @booking.with.janelle – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER June 9 – Celticlady’s Reviews – book series spotlight / giveaway June 9 – Kam’s Place – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER June 10 – Cover Lover Book Review – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 13 – My Fictional Oasis – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 14 – Literary Flits – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 14 – Amy’s Booket List – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 15 – Novels Alive – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER June 15 – Novels Alive – book series spotlight / giveaway June 16 – Bigreadersite – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 16 – The Momma Spot – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 17 – Novels Alive – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH June 20 – Kam’s Place – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH June 21 – Mystery Review Crew – book spotlight of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / guest post / giveaway June 21 – fundinmental – book series spotlight / guest post / giveaway June 22 – Literary Flits – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 22- Amy’s Booket List – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 23 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 23 – My Fictional Oasis – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 24 – Locks, Hooks and Books – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 24 – Cover Lover Book Review – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 27 – Gina Rae Mitchell – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / author interview / giveaway June 28 –The Page Ladies – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH June 28 – She Just Loves Books – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway June 29 – @booking.with.janelle – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH June 30 – StoreyBook Reviews – book review of FINDING RUBY DRAKER / giveaway June 30 – The Momma Spot – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway July 1 – Bigreadersite – book review of SHADOWS IN THE AFTERMATH / giveaway July 1 – Books for Books – Book Series Spotlight
Mavis Bone and the Fledgling Killer is my first novel by B P Smythe. I have been expanding my reading, trying to include more male authors and genres that stretch my imagination. This was a good pick and I hope it will interest you too.
I included the entire Goodreads blurb, because it shares the way the book was written.
The cover didn’t do a lot for me, but that’s okay. It did make me look twice and once I read the book I knew why it was chosen. Does it make you curious?
Mavis Bone and the Fledgling Killer by B P Smyther is one of those books that are hard to rate for me. The way it was written, almost like it was short stories, made it difficult to follow, yet the characters were the ones that stole the show.
Mavis Bone and Gertrude Stick live together and run a private detective agency. To say they are lesbians may distract from how twisted and damaged they really are. Is Mavis a racist and drug addict? And what about Gertrude? I took so many notes, that I think they may be a spoiler, so I tossed them aside.
I will say they are fascinating characters that walk to the beat of their own drum. Their pasts created their present, but I will leave that to you to discover. They are not my usual kind of characters, but that was the allure, to walk outside my comfort zone.
The motto of the Mavis Bone Detective Agency – An eye for an eye makes the world blind.
Is there any character that stands, morally, above the rest?
I was entertained with this twisted story and its OMG moments. It was a wild ride with quirky characters that kept me on my toes. I think Mavis Bone has something for everyone: suspense, horror, paranormal, and most of all, the outlandish characters.
I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Mavis Bone and the Fledgling Killer by B P Smythe.
4 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
The book opens with a serial killer, whose evil roots were planted from a traumatic childhood. He makes an agenda to rob and kill women for financial gain, over the years 2008 to 2014. His crime spree efforts are checked and eventually foiled by Mavis Bone, a forty-year-old Australian, lesbian, private investigator. And with her lover, forty-five-year-old German secretary, Gertrude Stick, they operate the SW19 Wimbledon Broadway based, Mavis Bone Detective Agency. Mavis and Gertrude, live above the agency office, and share the top two flats. The walls of Mavis’s flat are adorned with pictures of Mario Lanza. Being a true fan, she has all his old records. Gertrude’s flat is full of Nazi memorabilia. In her teens she was a member of the Hitler youth. Using a Russian motorcycle and sidecar, nicknamed Lenin, for their mode of transport, they often turn up at a crime scene, wearing hell’s angel’s leathers and Nazi helmets. Mavis’s secretary, had recently purchased the storm trooper helmets from a Nazi memorabilia website. Included with her delivery, was a giant swastika patterned bedspread, and a black satin pillow case set, all decked out with swastikas and portraits of the Nazi leaders. Through the week, Gertrude rotates the pillows, so she can take it in turn to sleep on the faces of Hitler, Goebbels and Himmler. Chasing the `Fledgling Killer`, through his ingenious methodical killing spree, is hands on Mavis Bone, and she’s not afraid to get them dirty. This involves the death of her husband, and a problem client that could send her secretary to prison for a war crime. Dealing with her own personal issues through the years, Mavis has blood on her hands and sees it justifiable, even though the police wouldn’t. Her gender choices, along with her racist opinionated views, were moulded in her hard-Australian outback childhood, and were the motivation for killing her prostitute philandering husband. Mavis Bone is a real believable Ozzy crude character, who has a preference for strap-on lesbian sex and snorting Charlie – a cocaine habit she picked up in Columbia as a student, while backpacking around South America during her early twenties Mavis and Gertrude are lovers, and share a bond of tortured childhoods. They suffer each other, and are comparable to Holmes and Watson in their crime fighting gay relationship; while using sound racist logical reasoning and drug taking, to solve crimes.
Mavis Bone explained:
With my book, `Mavis Bone and the Fledgling Killer`, I hope to transform the standard thriller genre. This is achieved by using chapter heading teasers that unveil a narrative with a diverging short story structure; weaving its way through a series of connecting subplots. Subplots which are paced with peaks and troughs, through a series of scene and sequels. While never forgetting what’s at stake, through its chapter driven storyline. The novel explores in detail, Mavis Bone as a fictional lesbian detective, who is on the outside of the margins of society, while trying to achieve justice and generate change. Mavis Bone is sexualized, condescended to, and used as a pawn. And yet, when her body trembles, her gaze never wavers. Her life story is a blueprint, peppered with the ugly elements of Homophobia. The book fits into our obsession with serial killers, and our interest in their pathology, along with the suffering of their victims. Its story telling, bridges rites of passage and transformation, to create a book of terror, but not with gratuitous racism, sex or violence. A book in which, being different, is challenged, forcing us to look twice before judging another human being, whether they be a criminal, psychopath or plain mad. A book in which the human drama supersedes, and propels the plot, instead of falling victim to it. Mavis Bone’s emotions and fears, are described vividly, and the book is full of penetrating insights into her human condition, that go way beyond her sexual appetite. The moral of the story, is meant to provoke readers to see life differently, and make them understand LGBT life styles – as well as gender inequality and the inevitable discrimination, as seen through the eyes of Mavis Bone’s early sexual experiences. With this novel, I hope to achieve reader empathy – showing and creating the plotted life story of Mavis Bone. This is while inviting the reader to peek behind her intimate torrid life. Similar to a voyeur inviting the viewer to peek behind drawn blinds and through the window. And finally, drawing the reader into the psychological aftermath, revealing how killing and sexual urges can fester and go sour, when suppressed for too long.
ABOUT BARRY SMYTHE
B.P.Smythe studied engineering at Carshalton College and eventually became a member of the Institute of Quality Assurance.
Sow And You Shall Reap – http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/145677171X is his first self- published novel. Last year B.P. secured a three book deal of short stories from Bloodhound Books http://www.bloodhoundbooks.com/. His author bio is on their website.
From a Poison Pen
is his first book of short stories
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Poison-Pen-collection-macabre-stories-ebook/dp/B01BKWT4EE.
His second book of short stories From a Poison Pen VOL II has just been
released and is available on:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Poison-Pen-ii-B-P-Smythe-ebook/dp/B01LFM1032
This
year 2017, B.P.Smythe is shortly to release two full length novels –
The Medal of Purity and The Expired including two further books of short
stories – Short Tales with Long Memories VOL 1 and VOL 2 and a novella –
The Holocaust Experience.
Books by B.P.Smythe: For
information on obtaining free complimentary PDF, Kindle or paperback
copies, contact B.P.Smythe at barrysmythe@hotmail.com
This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. C.J. Carson will be awarding a $25 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.
The paranormal mystery The Veils of Parallel Times continues with “Murderous Interruptions”. Allie Callahan’s nemesis is a challenging and formidable adversary.
Travel with Allie as she finally accepts and embraces her ancestral gifts to stop her archenemy who would have her destroyed for his own lust of power. Explore the depths of her relationship with this rival in this life and beyond the veil.
Read an Excerpt
When I turned from the fire to respond, the woman hushed me. “You have much work to do, my dear, now rest.” She held me in her arms, swallowing me up in the most comforting sleep I could remember for a very long time, maybe ever.
Hours later, the warm glare of the sun’s first light sliced through the trees of the forest, waking me from a sound sleep. The air was cool and crisp, and I was laying next to the fire that had burned down to smoldering coals. Suddenly, realizing I wasn’t dreaming, I was in unfamiliar surroundings. I remembered the woman I had met the evening before, but she was not within eyeshot. Glancing around to get my bearings, it was shocking to be sitting in the middle of a small clearing of the woods. Several teepees made of tall tree branches wrapped in animal skins sat along the edge of the clearing. Standing and sliding out from under the animal skin blanket, I looked down to see myself dressed in unfamiliar clothes, and leather moccasins covering my feet. I had the strange sensation I was in a familiar place, but still not where I belonged.
Before I took one step, I scanned the area. Then something compelled me to approach one of the dwellings. As I drew closer, an Indian brave stepped out. Grabbing me by the arm, he pulled me into the teepee and shoved me to the ground. Walking to the edge of the space, he retrieved a large round basket and shot it at me with such force I thought it might fray. Shocked, I gazed up at him, he looked oddly familiar, but it was his eyes that gave him away. These new experiences were teaching me that the eyes were indeed the window to the soul. Those dark brown eyes were those of a man I knew all too well. Makya! Could this be Makya? Had I known him through other lifetimes? Although he spoke in a different tongue, it somehow translated perfectly for me.
He was angry and started barking. “You are a lazy dreamer. Why you insist on leaving our dwelling and choose to lay with the fire in place of me is a mystery. You need to do your gathering, and you are late in starting your day. I am off to hunt. You will obey me and begin behaving like a squaw worthy of me.”
I heard footsteps outside as someone was approaching. “Calian, are you coming? We are late; the morning is half over.”
Stunned, my eyes widened. Makya? Although the man called him Calian, the spirit was too familiar. It was the evil spirit I’d come to know as Makya! It didn’t look like him, but it was his temperament.
As I pushed up to my knees, Calian glared down at me, striking out in my direction. Although his hand never touched me, a force knocked me back to the ground. As I raised my hand to him, he grabbed my wrist, twisting it, and forced me back to the ground.
“You know better. Do not use your powers on me. I will strike you down every time. You are no match for me!”
Panic rose in me as I struggled to understand what was happening. If this brave was indeed Makya by a different name, how did we get here?
Pushing through the opening in the structure, he paused without turning to me. “Do not return this afternoon unless you have filled that basket with berries and some healing herbs. You must learn your place and mind your responsibilities. Do not make me the laughingstock of this tribe one more time!”
I listened to his footsteps as he jogged off, mounted his horse, and rode away before I got up from the ground.
About the Author:
CJ Carson was inspired by a great story from a very early age. What brought her to this juncture in life and encouraged her to put pen to paper are the many rich experiences and opportunities of her life’s journey.
While working in the medical field, she explored energy work and became a Polarity Therapist and Reiki Therapist.
Exploring acting brought her into the theatre world both on the stage and behind the scenes.
Painting introduced her to a group of artists that shared her passion for bringing a scene to canvas.
Her love of singing allowed her to travel twice to Europe as a soloist with conductor Sonja Dahlgren Prior, who inspired her to do something, she never dreamed possible.
CJ Carson has always wanted to write. Now she is introducing to the world her second published book, “Murderous Interruptions,” from her trilogy, Veils of Parallel Times.
