She’s A Truck Driver – Birth Marked by Maria Violante #MariaViolante

Posted on February 25, 2020 by fundinmental

I got this book back on 10.1.13 and Maria Violante was looking for reviews. I’m not sure when I read it, but probably right around that time. I started writing the review on 2.19.14, but never finished it. No excuse…

Amazon / Goodreads

Charlie is a truck driver and looked like one. She was a mess – overweight, bad complexion, zombie looking. She was horny and looking forward to Luke joining her on the the road, but that never happened. She had given up everything for him, and he betrayed her. Used her, then threw her away. At first she felt pity, then anger, then desperation.

She’s driving along, trying to find a radio station, making up her own words to the song playing. “I woke up alone in a bed I don’t know.” “And eat my breakfast all alone….” It made me think of my hubby and I, laughing and making fun of country music lyrics in that same way.

She stopped for a dog in the median. She could relate to it being dumped and wanted to save it. It would be mine, she thought. She named him Diesel. He was helping her already. He calmed her.

My heart pounded and I moved forward in my chair, when the truck began to wreck. Her description is so vivid it’s as if it is happening before my eyes. She looks out the window at something – what is it? It’s very large and furry. What runs through my mind – werewolf, then Sasquatch – as it grew and bared its fangs. I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when she got sick.

He was going to kill her…until he saw her birthmark.

I knew Maria’s book would need to take a twist…and it begins here.

Birth Marked reads like a Twilight zone episode. I was sorta ho hum until this point.

I loved her change of attitude. I’m feeling good about her. Her curiosity became my curiosity. What comes next?

Maria had me cracking up, “You can stare at my chubby ass stomach, assholes. You’re not getting any more looks at the jubbblies.”

A boy brought her breakfast – two pieces of plain toast and plain oatmeal. “That’s it?” “AH!!!!!!!!” “They said I a was a porker, heh?”

As the pieces come together, my interest grew. Now we’re getting to the good stuff. Even though her Master is Buckner, its his duty is to protect her, it was Shawn that saved her. I feel he will play a big part in finding the answers she seeks.

Haven’t you ever wondered why nothing turns out for you? What if you were supposed to be doing something else all along?

The monsters were unique and new to me and had comical names, but are not nice at all.

I know she’s gonna kick ass. I loved the sci-fi element, the monsters fighting in spacesuits and futuristic equipment. I find myself shivering in fear one minute, and chuckling the next.

She would learn fast or die. I felt a sense of adventure with her, stepping out of her rut of a life into mission impossible. Does the way you die determine your afterlife? This was her moment. I felt the weight on her shoulders, the heavy heart and determination to show them she belonged. She had found her place and would fight for it.

Her descriptions like ‘The little mouse that had the heart of a dragon’ brought the characters to life with a humorous touch. Describing the death of a beloved Marker was very creative.

There was a prophecy, there will be an unlikely Marker named the Lily. Is it her?

Maria Violante left me wanting more of this fantastic world.

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Birth Marked by Maria Violante.

Animated Animals. Pictures, Images and Photos 4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

For the first time in her life, truck driver Charlie Kale might have finally found her little piece of happiness. She’s got it all-her big rig, friends, a great mentor, and a man about to join her on the road. Or so she thought. One by one, the good things in Charlie’s life all fall apart, until a catastrophic accident leaves her at the mercy of a sexy but mysterious gunman. He claims to be a member of a secret order dedicated to fighting the supernatural monsters that filter over into our world. She’s given a choice-join up or die, and while the gunman might be insane, Charlie’s hell-bent on not dying. Too bad it looks like that might not be an option.

ABOUT MARIA VIOLANTE

Maria Violante is the best-selling author of several urban fantasy and science fiction novels.

Her most recent series, The Markers, is published by Hartwood Publishing.

Books by Maria Violante (currently in print):

BirthMarked (Hartwood Publishing)
Monsters and Markers (Hartwood Publishing)
Witness (Hartwood Publishing, previously two separate volumes with Liquid Silver Books)
Gambler’s Luck (Hartwood Publishing, previously Liquid Silver Books)

Books no longer in print:
Wit Awakening (now part of Witness; see above)
Wit Transforming (now part of Witness; see above)
Hunting the Five
Honor in Hell
Seven Sacrifices

I couldn’t find any valid links for her, but you can find her books on Amazon. Maybe I couldn’t find any links because she has recently been picked up by Hartwood Publishing.

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The Key To The Secret – End of Enemies by Grant Blackwood @Grant_Blackwood

Posted on December 28, 2018 by fundinmental

Continue reading →

One Sentence Review – The City by Dean Koontz @deankoontz

Posted on December 8, 2018 by fundinmental

Continue reading →

Friday 56 #147 – Love Without Blood by Raz Steel #RazSteel

Posted on December 8, 2017 by fundinmental

.
The Friday 56 is hosted by Freda’s Voice.The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your ereader and find any sentence or a few ( no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

Please join Rose City Reader every Friday to share the first sentence or so of the book you are reading along with you initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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I enjoyed Love Without Blood by Raz Steel and gave it a 3 star rating on Goodreads. I would enjoy reading more of her work.

Amazon / Goodreads

MY 56

“Are you learning impaired? No way. Not gonna do it,” Lara growled. This man fantasized. No way would she enter the Witness Protection Program. She wasn’t about to give up her life as a surgeon, let alone her dream to be chief of emergency medicine at Jefferson Memorial.

(Pages 56 in paperback published in 2009)

GOODREADS BLURB

In one fateful night, a brilliant and beautiful doctor is swept by a patient into a dangerous world of intrigue, vampires and the goverment agency created to exterminate them.

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Five Slices of Halloween Horror – Bad Apples #BadApples

Posted on October 18, 2017 by fundinmental

Bad Apples is Five Slices of Halloween Horror.

I received and read this book in October of 2014, but…

MY REVIEW

These unique, gruesome and devilishly delicious stories will have you looking over your shoulder, jumping at every noise and shadow.

Be careful of wandering dark streets at night.

The authors twisted imaginations take horror to the highest levels with surprise endings and plenty of twists and turns along the way.

Four stars all the way!

The Riggle Twins by Gregor Xane

Pretty gross and devilishly delicious with tricks and treats for the Halloween hater. Do you have a dark house on Halloween, no candy for the treaters? Beware…egging and tping are not the only tricks these children have in store for you. 4 Stars

Pumpkinhead Ted by Evans Light

What they did to Ted is so awful…I can’t tell you. You’ll have to read it for yourself. BUT, he is back, one year later, for payback. OMG. I never saw that coming. Evans Light takes me to a place that smacks me around and makes me scream UNCLE! 4 Stars

Ghost Light Road by Adam Light

Of course, someone saw the light. Of course, what happens next, had to happen. I actually laughed. Dumbasses! Here comes the badness. You think vampires and werewolves are scary, you haven’t met Uncle Jesse’s children…and you really don’t want to. 4 Stars

Easy Pickings by Jason Parent

Beware. What goes around, comes around. Like a cat playing with its prey, I know something is coming…Now…No, now….Uh Oh. 4 Stars

The Scare Rows by Edward Lorn

Children of the Corn and Supernatural on steroids. I didn’t see this story developing the way it did, but I should not have been surprised, with Edward’s twisted imagination. Horror, perverted sex and evil do go together well. I wondered how he would end The Scare Rows and I couldn’t help but laugh when I got there. Corn Whisky…HA HA HA HA HA! Excellent. 5 Stars

I voluntarily reviewed a free copy of Bad Apples.

4 Stars

GOODREADS BLURB

The five freshest voices in horror will make you reconsider leaving the house on October 31st with these all-new Halloween tales:

• A brother and sister creep out of the darkness with bags full of deadly tricks in Gregor Xane’s THE RIGGLE TWINS.

• A boy with a misshapen skull just wants to be normal in Evans Light’s PUMPKINHEAD TED.

• A group of thrill seekers learn that looking for terror is a whole lot more fun than finding it in Adam Light’s GHOST LIGHT ROAD.

• Two bullies go looking for trouble but instead find a young boy and his imaginary friend in Jason Parent’s EASY PICKINGS.

• When a mysterious, Halloween-themed attraction comes to the town of Bay’s End, everyone is dying to pay a visit in Edward Lorn’s THE SCARE ROWS.

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Friday 56 #134 – Bullet by Laurell K Hamilton @lkhamilton

Posted on May 26, 2017 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

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Bullet by Laurell K Hamilton is another book I picked up from a grocery store bin.

It must have been fate, because I rarely step foot in a grocery store. LOL

I am always up for one of her novels. How about you?

Amazon / Goodreads

My 56

“If my choice is between opening a vein to you with Jean-Claude and Anita, or making that sadistic bastard Narcissus the animal king of St Louis, I’ll donate the blood.”

( page 56, in hardback,1st edition, published in 2010)

Book Beginnings

I was worming my way through a mass of parents and children with a tiny clown hat clutched in one hand. In my navy blue skirt suit I looked like a dozen other mothers who had had to come straight from work to the dance recital. My hair was a little curly and a little too black for all the blond mothers, but no one gave me a second glance. The one saving grace as I threaded my way through the crowd of parents, aunts, uncles, grandparents and siblings was that I wasn’t one of the parent. I was just here as moral support and last minute costume rescuer.. It was just Monica Vespucci’s style to leave part of her son’s costume at her house and need an emergency save. Micah and I had been running late with client meetings so we got to ride tot the rescue, and now since the vast majority of the performers were female I was the only one safe to go backstage without scandalizing the mothers. What did little girls who only had male relatives do at things Like this? My dad would have been at a loss.

GOODREADS BLURB: The music came back up and the next group of little girls, slightly older, came out. There was a lot of that in the next hour and change. I liked dance, and it was no reflection on the kids, but my will to live began to seep away on about the fifth group of sequined children…

Anita Blake is back in St. Louis and trying to live a normal life-as normal as possible for someone who is a legal vampire executioner and a U. S. Marshal. There are lovers, friends and their children, school programs to attend. In the midst of all the ordinary happiness a vampire from Anita’s past reaches out. She was supposed to be dead, killed in an explosion, but the Mother of All Darkness is the first vampire, their dark creator. It’s hard to kill a god. This dark goddess has reached out to her here-in St. Louis, home of everyone Anita loves most. The Mother of All Darkness has decided she has to act now or never, to control Anita, and all the vampires in America.

The Mother of All Darkness believes that the triumvirate created by master vampire Jean-Claude with Anita and the werewolf Richard Zeeman has enough power for her to regain a body and to immigrate to the New World. But the body she wants to possess is already taken. Anita is about to learn a whole new meaning to sharing her body, one that has nothing to do with the bedroom. And if the Mother of All Darkness can’t succeed in taking over Anita’s body for herself, she means to see that no one else has the use of it, ever again. Even Belle Morte, not always a friend to Anita, has sent word: “Run if you can…”

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I have the second cover and some of the differences are very subtle.

Which do you like the best?

Friday 56 #133 – Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs @Mercys_Garage

Posted on May 19, 2017 by fundinmental

Please include the title of the book and the author’s name.

~~~

Silver Borne by Patricia Briggs is another book I picked up from a grocery store bin.

It must have been fate, because I rarely step foot in a grocery store. LOL

I am always up for one of her novels. How about you?

Amazon / Goodreads

My 56

“Pack existed before ceremonies,” Sam said, sounding amused. “Magic binds more obviously, more extensively, but not more deeply.”

( page 56, in hardback,1st edition, published in 2010)

Book Beginnings

The starter complained as it turned over the old Buick’s heavy engine. I felt a lot of sympathy for it since fighting outside my weight class was something I was intimately familiar with. I’m a coyote shapeshifter playing in a world of werewolves and vampires – outmatched is an understatement.

GOODREADS BLURB: Mercy Thompson, car mechanic and shapeshifter, never knows what the day – or night – may bring in a world where “witches, vampires, werewolves, and shapeshifters live beside ordinary people” (Booklist). But she is about to learn that while some secrets are dangerous whose who seek them are just plain deadly…

Mercy is smart enough to realize that when it comes to the magical fae, the less you know, the better. But you can’t always get what you want. When she attempts to return a powerful fae she previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secrets – and the fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn’t take enough of Mercy’s attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side – leaving Mercy to cover for him lest his own father declare Samuel’s life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn’t careful, she may not have many more…

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.
To see all my reviews, go HERE.
If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?
Look on the right sidebar and let’ talk.
Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.
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Thanks for visiting fundinmental!

I have the second cover and some of the differences are very subtle.

Which do you like the best?

Elisabeth Wheatley’s Fanged Series left me breathless for more!

Posted on September 26, 2015 by fundinmental

Elisabeth Wheatley’s Fanged Princess series are vampire fantasy novellas that had me racing through the pages as I was drawn into Haddassah’s journey of love, sacrifice, revenge and suspense.

I could not quit reading until the last page.

I was left hanging off the cliff by my fingertips. I have a feeling all will be well (^_^), but I have to know.

I have already reviewed Fanged Princess, but included it again, because it is now FREE on Amazon and all other venues.

You can also read her guest post by going to

How my central Texas upbringing plays into writing about a girly vampire

I love the beautiful covers. She looks so sweet, doesn’t she?

Beware of her wrath!

Add me to Goodreads now.

SYNOPSIS

I will not let my brother suffer the same loss…

Hadassah’s father, the Vampire King, punished her harshly for her choice to love a human. Now her brother, the only person in the world who still matters to her, has fallen for a human girl. Determined to keep the girl safe, the three of them flee from their home in New England and find themselves cornered with their father’s minions closing in. If they want to escape, their only hope may be to join forces with the mortal enemies of their kind…

Be ensnared in this dark tale of enduring love, revenge, and suspense from teenage author, Elisabeth Wheatley.

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MY REVIEW

..

I thought I had already reviewed this, but with her new release, Fanged Outcast, I realized I hadn’t. I am rectifying that situation right now. You are in for a treat today. I will be reviewing both books, Fanged Princess and Fanged Outcast.

OMG. I was completely engrossed in this fantastic fantasy tale of love, sacrifice, revenge and suspense! The trio are on the run from her father and she will do whatever needs to be done to let them have a life together, the life she was deprived of. But they can’t do it alone. Who would help them? The cast of characters comes alive on the pages and Elisabeth creates some surprising alliances as they struggle to survive. At one point I am leaning forward in my chair as I breathlessly read the words flowing off the page. I think short stories must be some the hardest stories to tell. How do you pack so much into such a small package and keep the reader at your mercy. Elisabeth did that splendidly and I can’t wait to read more of Haddie’s story in the Fanged Outcast.

Haddie knew her father would not let the relationship continue. After all, he had ended the relationship she had with the human, Fletcher. She is an enforcer, A Kaiju, a vampire. She had never killed anyone to feed and because of her own experience never would.

Damian, her brother is in love with a human, Madelyn. His father will never allow this, so they are on the run.

Madelyn is the human girl Damian is in love with. Yeah, this might have been shades of Twilight, but it is so much more than that. My feelings about Madelyn grow and change as the story unfolds and her love and loyalty shine through.

Chase – Hmmm. What can I say, except I can hardly wait to get to know him better.

The three humans survey me with apprehension. A fanged princess in their midst.

I received Fanged Princess from the author in return for an honest review.

5 Stars – Would Highly Recommend To Others

Add to Goodreads now.

SYNOPSIS

How much would you sacrifice for a love that wasn’t yours?

Hadassah managed to befriend her kind’s worst enemies and save her brother and the human girl he loves from the Vampiric King—once. After a month spent in quiet hiding under the protection of the Huntsmen, a surprise attack from a band of Kaiju shatters their brief reprieve. Faced with new challenges and new threats, Hadassah and the others must once more fight for her brother and the girl who stole his heart. And this time, the Vampiric King isn’t the only one they need fear…

Action, suspense, humor, and romance collide in this anticipated sequel from teen author, Elisabeth Wheatley.

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My Review of Fanged Outcast by Elisabeth Wheatley

The Fanged series starts out as a fantasy romance then turns into so much more, with political intrigue and the machinations of other races, with their own agendas, vying for their alliance. Fanged Outcast, a vampire novella, picks up where Fanged Princess leaves off and I am so happy I didn’t have to wait for the story to continue. Damian and Madelyn are all Haddie has left and she will sacrifice everything for them. She struggles to come to terms with the acts necessary for them to be able to live without looking over their shoulders every day for the rest of their life. Chase and his family will have to face the Council and explain why they are working with vampires, putting themselves at risk to help the trio. Do they have an ulterior motive for doing so? It’s a wonderful journey through Elisabeth’s fantasy world as the races adjust and adapt, changing from adversaries to allies, all with their own agendas. The sharp barbs slung from Haddie to Chase and hints of humor splashed throughout this novella has me chuckling and I am loving Haddie’s feistiness and determination to protect Damian and Madelyn. I love Bear. Who doesn’t love the faithful hound? A nice touch of the normal added to the otherwordly.

I am so impressed with the great writing of such a young author. It is obvious her passion for writing and her imagination will be taking me on many more journeys through her fantasy worlds with her marvelous characters and stories.

Drat. I knew this was coming. I ran out of pages. Book III is due out later this year. Please write faster Elisabeth!

This is the curse of the Outcast – always on guard, never knowing who might come after you next.

SUVs are not to be tackled.

I received this ebook from Elisabeth Wheatley in return for an honest review.

5 Stars – Would Highly Recommend To Others

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Elisabeth Wheatley is a teen author of the Texas Hill Country. When she’s not daydreaming of elves, vampires, or hot guys in armor, she is wasting time on the internet, fangirling over indie books, and training her Jack Russell Terrier, Schnay.

Stalk Elisabeth Wheatley. She doesn’t bite, or does she?

Blog / Facebook / Goodreads / Twitter / Amazon / Pinterest

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SOME HAPPY NEWS!

In celebration of The Key of Amatahns, going on a $0.99 sale for the first time ever, I will be sharing a post with my review, a giveaway and a visit from the author herself, Elisabeth Wheatley for The Key of Amatahns on September 30, 2015. The Key of Amatahns will be on sale for 99 cents from September 28th (Monday) and run through October 2nd (Friday), so stop by and get a copy for yourself from this amazing fantasy author.

Click on the Amazon affiliate link below to get your copy of an AWESOME Elisabeth Wheatley story.

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To see all my Reviews, go HERE.

To see all my Giveaways, go HERE.

If you like what you see, why don’t you follow me?

Look on the right sidebar and let’s talk.

~~~~~~~~~~~~

Leave your link in the comments and I will drop by to see what’s shakin’.

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