I love ghosts, hauntings and poker and Pokergeist has all those things.
Pokergeist is a spine tingling novel that grabbed me and never let me go.
I felt for Telly Martin. If it wasn’t for bad luck, he would have none at all.
He reaches for the brass ring, only to be shot down time after time.
I thought I knew where this was going and I did, sort of.
Michael Phillip Cash held back a surprise that I didn’t see coming and I love surprise endings. I look forward to reading more of his work.
5 Stars
BLURB
From Goodreads: Sometimes life, as well as death, is about second chances. Luckless Telly Martin doesn’t have a clue. An awful gambler trying to scrape by as a professional poker player, he becomes the protégé of world famous poker champion Clutch Henderson. The only catch…Clutch is a ghost.
Telly and Clutch must navigate the seedy gambling underbelly of Las Vegas learning to trust each other in order to win the elusive International Series of Poker, repair their shattered personal relationships and find redemption in this life and the hereafter.
ABOUT MICHAEL PHILLIP CASH
Born and raised on Long Island, Michael has always had a fascination with horror writing and found footage films. He wanted to incorporate both with his debut novel, Brood X. Earning a degree in English and an MBA, he has worked various jobs before settling into being a full-time author. He currently resides on Long Island with his wife and children.
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**The small amount helps keep my blog running**
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Another busy week playing catchup.
Thank you Mother Nature, for some sunshine. It has been dark and gloomy for so long, although it helped the weather to stay warmer. Too bad she won’t put both of them together again…for a little while. 😥
Been doing a bit of yard work and cleaned the pool.
I even worked up a sweat and I am not complaining.
How is the weather in your neck of the woods?
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FREE BOOKS
Be sure and check for the “0”.
Sorry I didn’t have chance to find some freebies for you.
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NEW to fundinmental
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FOR REVIEW
I have one I was very excited to read by H D Gordon, but as yet, there is no information available to share. I will keep you updated.
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WINNINGS
I won a $10 amazon gift card from Jody Kessler’s Unwrapping Treasure blog tour.
Midnight Burning is Book I of Solina Mundy’s paranormal/fantasy journey into the death of her brother, Mani.
She travels from a small town in North Carolina to Alaska and back again, seeking answers.
I love her new friend, Skylar, and think she will become a big part of Solina’s life. She’s an ex-Marine and backs down from no one.
The characters have distinct personalities and they shine through in the dialogue.
The dialogue is witty and snarky and I love it.
I love covers, especially when they foreshadow the upcoming story and this is a beauty. The eyes draw me in, looking for…
Midnight Burning by Karissa Laurel was not what I was expecting. The paranormal and myths and legends collide. It is sometimes hard to tell if their talents are a gift or a curse.
The story is predictable and there is a triangle. I would recommend the book and I am looking forward to more of Solina’s story in Book II.
3 Stars
GOODREADS BLURB
Solina Mundy lives a quiet life, running the family bakery in her small North Carolina hometown. But one night, she suffers a vivid nightmare in which a wolfish beast is devouring her twin brother, who lives in Alaska. The next morning, police notify her that Mani is dead. Driven to learn the truth, Solina heads for the Land of the Midnight Sun. Once there, she begins to suspect Mani’s friends know more about his death than they’ve let on. Skyla, an ex-Marine, is the only one willing to help her.
As Solina and Skyla delve into the mystery surrounding Mani’s death, Solina is stunned to learn that her own life is tied to Mani’s friends, his death, and the fate of the entire world. If she can’t learn to control her newfound gifts and keep her friends safe, a long-lost dominion over mortals will rise again, and everything she knows will fall into darkness.
. 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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MY FRIDAY 56
They’re finally putting that gold-plated spit kit of your to work, huh? What have you got?”
“I can’t say.”
CNN just broke a story about things going to hell between Argentina and Great Britain in the Antarctic. Are you getting a piece of that action?”
“Sorry, Dad. I can’t say.”
(page 56 in hardcover)
MY BOOK BEGINNINGS
“Awake and about, woman! There’s a hot plankton count to be done.”
Captain Evan York peeled the covers off his first mate and applied a hearty slap across her bare bottom. She in turn responded with a squealed curse, yanked them back up over her head, and burrowed deeper into her corner of the double bunk. York smiled down at the curl of tousled blond hair that showed from beneath the heavy Hudson’s Bay blankets. Roberts Eggerston had been sharing his life and bed for the better part of five years now and yet she maintained her own individuality. Among other things she would never be a morning person.
I can relate. I am not a morning person either. How about you?
GOODREADS BLURB
On a frigid fall morning in 2006, a sudden attack against a British scientific outpost in Antarctica heralds the beginning of an invasion of the seventh continent. Resurgent after the Falklands war, Argentina has launched an armed takeover of the Antarctic Peninsula, in an attempt to seize the last untapped pool of natural resources on the planet. The global community can only look on helplessly in the face of a continuing Argentine military buildup and a looming polar winter. One hope remains, a lone U.S. Navy vessel docked in the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. The guided missile destroyer Cunningham is at the cutting edge of naval technology, the world’s first oceangoing stealth warship. Her 580-foot hull is invisible to hostile radar, while her own sophisticated Aegis sensor arrays grant her mastery of a 250-sea-mile radius. On board she carries a bristling complement of sophisticated weaponry: two SAH-66 Sea Comanche helicopters with nose-mounted APG-65 radar, Boeing Brave 2000 reconnaissance drones piloted by virtual reality helmet, and a full spectrum of the Navy’s deadliest precision-guided munitions. She is sleek, swift, secretive – and untested. Likewise untested is her commanding officer, Amanda Lee Garrett, U.S.N. Brilliant, bold, and tenacious, she leads her crew into the storm-wracked waters of Drake Passage. Together, they confront not only the massed might of the Argentine air force and navy, but the deadly, ice-clad majesty of the Antarctic itself. At stake, the destiny of the earth’s last frontier.
At the Sharp End of Lightning by N R Bates is a fantasy with a touch of realism. What happens when one world leaks into another? The world building was fascinating and will lead us to the answer.
Yalara is a Sea Sprite from Oceanlight and has a mission. She must find the disappeared. Yalara and Einion of Earth will join forces to accomplish the mission.
I have a love of the world of oceans and other bodies of water, so when an author puts the real with fantasy, sending us a subtle message about our part of the polluting and ecological damage we are adding to our environment, it adds that special element that keeps me reading, wanting to know how our worlds collide and the end result.
As I read along, their world became my world.
At the Sharp End of Lightning is Book I of the series and lays a great foundation for more, with lovable characters and a villain that is able to make me wonder if he is all bad. What comes next? I am eager to find out.
I loved the special touches, like Sea Sprites having slime fights. Adds that little something extra that makes me love the characters more.
Politics abound in the fantasy world too.
The story does not end here and I am eager to continue the journey and look forward to reading the next book.
I received a copy of At the End of Lightning by N R Bates in return for an honest review.
4 Stars
SYNOPSIS
AT THE SHARP END OF LIGHTNING. The interwoven fantastical tale of family, of loss and sacrifice, of unexpected gifts and coping with disability and new abilities set against the backdrop of climate change occurring across parallel worlds. In Oceanlight, Yalara Narika, a winged Sea Sprite, searches for her lover over immense seas only to find catastrophe and realization that her world is in turmoil.
Meanwhile in the safe suburban normality of North Wales, Einion Morgan Alban, a restless youth afflicted by a disease of the blood, is nearly murdered by a man in a white suit. Yalara and Einion must discover the causes of their near-deaths and their as yet unrevealed connections as they both face upheaval to their lives and their worlds.
NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors.
He is an oceanographer and scientist, and has published more than one hundred and thirty scientific papers on ocean chemistry, climate change and ocean acidification. He is a Senior Scientist at the Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences and Professor of Ocean Biogeochemistry at the University of Southampton, UK.
His novels focus on epic fantasy and magic realism, and inspired by his deep love of the ocean and environmental sciences. He has also recently published a small book of short-stories set in Paris, entitled “The Fall of Icarus (The Elevator, The Fall of Icarus, and The Girl)”.
Sandra Brown is one of those authors that are a must read for me. I have read many of her novels and enjoyed each and every one. She is a master at spinning tales.
WOW! Mean Streak by Sandra Brown, a mystery romance thriller, may be her best work yet.
The action began from the opening page and I was unable to put it down.
I was like a starving person, gobbling up the words as if I hadn’t eaten in days.
I love the handsome mystery man that Dr Emory Charbonneau believes whacked her over the head and kidnapped her.
What do you think? Guilty as charged?
If you want an unputdownable thriller that will have you racing through the pages, Mean Streak is for you.
5 Stars
BLURB
From Goodreads: Dr. Emory Charbonneau, a pediatrician and marathon runner, disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina. By the time her husband Jeff, miffed over a recent argument, reports her missing, the trail has grown cold. Literally. Fog and ice encapsulate the mountainous wilderness and paralyze the search for her.
While police suspect Jeff of “instant divorce,” Emory, suffering from an unexplained head injury, regains consciousness and finds herself the captive of a man whose violent past is so dark that he won’t even tell her his name. She’s determined to escape him, and willing to take any risks necessary to survive.
Unexpectedly, however, the two have a dangerous encounter with people who adhere to a code of justice all their own. At the center of the dispute is a desperate young woman whom Emory can’t turn her back on, even if it means breaking the law.
As the FBI closes in on her captor, Emory begins to wonder if the man with no name is, in fact, her rescuer.
ABOUT SANDRA BROWN
From Goodreads: Sandra Brown is the author of more than sixty New York Times bestsellers, including MEAN STREAK (2014), DEADLINE(2013), LOW PRESSURE (2012), LETHAL (2011), TOUGH CUSTOMER (2010), SMASH CUT (2009), & SMOKE SCREEN (2008).
Brown began her writing career in 1981 and since then has published over seventy novels, bringing the number of copies of her books in print worldwide to upwards of eighty million. Her work has been translated into over thirty languages.
In 2009 Brown detoured from romantic suspense to write, Rainwater, a much acclaimed, powerfully moving historical fiction story about honor and sacrifice during the Great Depression.
Brown recently was given an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters from Texas Christian University. She was named Thriller Master for 2008, the top award given by the International Thriller Writer’s Association. Other awards and commendations include the 2007 Texas Medal of Arts Award for Literature and the Romance Writers of America’s Lifetime Achievement Award.
As the holiday season approaches, I have been looking for some fun books that may interest the younger crowd and The Big Fat Mermaid by Dweezel and Pallie fit the bill.
I love mermaids and could not resist a different kind of mermaid story.
Doesn’t it put a big smile on your face? Imagine what it will do for the kids on your holiday list.
Ahab spotted her and named her as the whale that bit off his leg. She escaped his clutches by singing a siren’s song. She followed the boats, because she loved the human’s food.
Her father, Poseidon, put his foot down…seaweed only!
She rebels and goes to the water witch for a pair of legs, where she is seen by the prince who promptly falls in love with her. She burps, farts and eats, eats, eats, so it just goes to show that beauty is in the eye of the beholder.
The humorous writing made me view this as an animated movie that played in my head as I sang along; hanging out with the mermaids, turtles and crustaceans, singing, dancing, and eating, eating, eating.
I feel there is a message in here and Dweezel and Pallie did a great job of showing we are all unique and lovable in our own way. What would the world be like if we were all the same?
My only problem was, I felt bad as I laughed at her, but it never seemed to bother Aria. She was comfortable in her own skin.
I received a copy of The Big Fat Mermaid by Dweezel and Pallie in return for an honest review.
4 Stars
BLURB
She’s nasty, she’s gross, and she’s anything but little. All Aria the mermaid princess wants is to stuff her face full of food, but what happens when her dad, the king, tries to stop her? The answer: laughs beyond belief! Watch as Aria deals with her mean dad, a chubby-chasing prince, a harpoon wielding sea captain, and, in a grand final battle, the monstrous water witch herself.
Aria will bite, belch, and fart her way into your heart in this second installment of the Funny Stories for Kids series, brought to you by the famed Dweezel and Pallie.
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EXCERPT
Look at my stash, see all the treats?
See all the cupcakes and pickled pigs feet?
You can see I’m a mermaid
who wants to eat… everything!
I eat every second I’m waking
I’m so fat that I’m breaking the floor
Double chins?
I got twenty!
But so what?
I don’t care!
I want more!
I need to eat what the humans eat
I’d like to eat when the food is still dry
I want to eat some fresh…
Uggh… beef!
Down in the brine the food tastes so bad,
when all you’re allowed is some seaweed to live by,
None of that stuff that’s so salty and…
mmm mmm mmm… Sweet!
What do I care
if all the laws
say we have to stay hidden?
And what do I care
if eating of meat
is strictly forbidden?
I’m addicted to food
but it tastes so good
so I don’t give a single crum about rules;
want more yummies, dipped in honey,
no one to intrude.
Off by the ships
I get just get what drips
off of the sides, or they throw in barrels.
No primo stuff like
fresh dip and…
uggh… chips!
I want to munch,
I want to brunch,
I want to eat the thing they call lunch!
Sweets and the meats…
I need to eat
all of that food.
ABOUT DR DWEEZEL AND PROFESSOR PALLIE
Dr. Dweezel and Professor Pallie have become famed in their respective fields for outstanding contributions. For nearly a decade they have collaborated on the recording of lost ancient texts and tales.
I am a Dobie lover, so just seeing the cover for Running Free by K Webster made this a must read for me. I am so very glad she is the Dobie shifter. I love the supernatural and paranormal world, so let’s see what’s happening in Woodland Creek, Indiana.
Frankie is a 12 year old foster kid, a coming of age young girl who is driven to Run Free.
It’s ten years later and the only person she cares about is an owl shifter named Otis. At least that is what she tells herself. OtisHe is the dad she never had. She wears a collar with a “bitch” tag. Love it! It’s special touches like the tag that takes a novel to an extra level for me. Frankie has the power of intimidation and a very protective nature towards the “people” that matter to her.
Detective Gunnar Mason has come to investigate Acey’s disappearance. He is one of the “rescued” that Frankie was looking out for. She is a badass, but kids are her weakness. She goes out of her way to help them. She finds them in animal shelters, where she had spent some time herself. I couldn’t help but smile and chuckle about that. I wonder…if her and Gunnar were to get together, what would they have? Humans or puppies? LOL
There is so much about Running Free that I loved and would like to share, but I am afraid of giving too much away.
I love that Frankie thinks of her new “family” as the Brainless Horny Idiot Pace. I love the witty and snarky dialogue that creates a tension felt through the written word. I love all the different types of shifters – we have owls, dogs, wolves, bears, tigers, swans, even a mouse. There is imprinting. Can you imprint on a mouse? I would love to tell you more about a couple of the shifters, but it is well worth your time to find out about them yourself.
I finished reading the book through teary eyes for the tragic/heartwarming end. A fabulous fantasy of shifters, love, sacrifice and a misplaced sense of revenge. The writing evoked a gamut of emotions, from anger and rage to sorrow and heartbreak to fun and laughter. And I LOVED every minute of it. LOL
My only complaint is…I WANT MORE and I want it now!
I received a copy of Running Free by K Webster in return for an honest review.
5 Stars
SYNOPSIS
Frankie Aleen, a Doberman-shifter, has lived her life in and out of both foster homes and animal shelters. Without a mentor to guide her through the trials of shapeshifting, she was left to struggle to find balance between that of human and dog. Five years ago, though, she ran away from Chicago and ended up in the quaint town of Woodland Creek, Indiana, at the age of seventeen and finally found a safe harbor. An owl-shifter, Otis Brock, took her in and has been a father figure to her ever since.
Even though Frankie, now a bartender, has a wild, rebellious streak, she feels obligated to seek out other abandoned shifters to provide mentorship of her own. Frankie’s safe haven is threatened, however, when teen shifters start turning up dead around Woodland Pond, and she makes it her mission to find the perpetrator and seek justice.
But when one of Woodland Creek PD’s finest, Detective Gunnar Mason, starts sniffing around, he begins to notice that each of the deceased teens are somehow linked to that of the sexy, mysterious bartender with a sharp tongue. He doesn’t want her out of his sight until he’s sure she’s not responsible for the deaths that are stacking up. Things aren’t what they seem in Woodland Creek and he’s sure that Frankie is harboring a dark secret—a secret that may be the key to solving the entire case.
Will Frankie become distracted from her quest for justice by the handsome detective that seems immune to her powers of intimidation? What will happen when Gunnar discovers secrets that weren’t ever meant to be uncovered by humans?
ABOUT K WEBSTER
K Webster is the author of dozens of romance books in many different genres including contemporary romance, historical romance, paranormal romance, and erotic romance. When not spending time with her husband of twelve years and two adorable children, she’s active on social media connecting with her readers.
Her other passions besides writing include reading and graphic design. K can always be found in front of her computer chasing her next idea and taking action. She looks forward to the day when she will see one of her titles on the big screen.
Add me to Goodreads now.
5 Stars
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The Friday 56 is hosted by 
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.
NR Bates was born in London, grew up in Wales, and lived in Canada and Bermuda. He shares his life with his wife and his house with seven cats, one dog and the subtropical wildlife of lizards, wolf spiders and ant colonies that seek out a better life indoors.
Add me to Goodreads
