Tag Archives: Books

Blog Tour: Breaking the Devil’s Heart

Welcome to my stop on the Breaking the Devil’s Heart Blog Tour! I will be reviewing this book later on the tour, but for now, check out this sneak preview and the awesome cover art!

Breaking the Devil’s Heart: A Logic of Demon Series Novel

Author: H.A. Goodman

Synopsis: When Stewart and Layla recruit a demon to spy on the Devil, their decision takes them on whirlwind ride through the afterlife. Journey alongside this young couple in H. A. Goodman’s new novel, Breaking the Devil’s Heart, and join forces with a teenage Angel outcast to bankrupt Satan’s underground Company and save Heaven from civil war. H. A. Goodman’s Breaking the Devil’s Heart is a rollercoaster afterlife experience that tests a young couple’s love, their grasp on reality, and the essence of human nature. What happens when Stewart and Layla tour Hell’s Marketing Department and Stock Exchange? What happens when their relationship is tested by Satan? This book is unlike anything you’ve ever read, or ever thought the afterlife might be like. Breaking the Devil’s Heart is an enlightening look into an alternate world, a new afterlife, and a profound journey inside the human conscience.

 Add to Your ‘To-Read’ Shelf!

Purchase on Amazon and Barnes and Noble.

 

Sneak Peek

Franklin, I’m an Observer. Essentially, I’m a naughty Angel—a naughty angel with ties to Heaven. I managed to convince some of my contacts upstairs to allow a demon entry, with the condition that the knowledge he provides ends up saving human lives.”

He stared at me with those bloodshot eyes for several seconds without blinking. “Very well, let’s talk. I have information on the next major war on Earth. I can give you the details as soon as I get some type of assurance that you’re serious about getting me into Heaven.”

“Don’t insult me, Franklin.”

“What?”

“You think that a demon like you, a being who has tormented humanity for centuries, would be given access to Heaven with information on a war? I can tell you about four or five possible future conflicts just with the knowledge I gained from working at the CIA. And let’s not get into the countless number of people I’m sure you killed when you were alive. No, I need more from you.”

“How much more?”

“I’m sure you’ve had enough of this miserable existence, forever locked inside a dreadful office?” He’d contacted us because he wanted a way out of the never-ending torture and now was my time to milk him for as much information as possible. “I want to know more about what’s in that Formula you sell. I want to witness your sales trips firsthand.”

He let out a bellow of laughter. “You’re out of your mind, Observer. You’ve gone completely bonkers. Never.”

I got up from my chair and prepared to teleport out of his office. “Your loss. Thank you for your time, Franklin.”

“Wait!”

“Yes?”

The frustrated demon took in a long, deep breath, almost popping the bright red buttons of his dress shirt. “How many sales trips would you like to observe?”

My plan was working. Being stuck in an office until the end of time is enough to turn anyone into a traitor. I couldn’t envision an afterlife wasting away in stuffy rooms full of backstabbing coworkers, breathing the stale air of copy machines, and watching other people get the promotions I deserved. And if that wasn’t enough, Franklin also faced the monotonous work, soulless bureaucratic protocols, unrealistic sales goals, egotistical superiors, tasteless coffee, deadlines, stress, aniexty and everything else associated with gloomy office life.

“As many as it takes me to find out what’s in The Formula. You have nothing to lose Franklin, and everything to gain. You contacted us, so I know you want out of your current existence. I’m offering you unimaginable happiness: freedom from your miserable corporate job. Or, you can just keep meeting deadline after deadline, watching other people take credit for your work, and suffering through pointless small talk with coworkers, always and forever.” I smiled, enjoying my little diatribe and how each word made the demon wince.

“I’m sending a salesman to an Arab village called Shafa’Amr. A father and son are in need of my services. You may observe the interaction.”

Bingo. I had him.

“Great. I’m glad we could make a deal,” I said.

“Before you leave, remember one thing, Stewart. If you don’t hold up your end of the bargain, I’ll ensure that you’re trapped in this office with me—always and forever.” He emphasized the last portion of his sentence with a maniacal grin.

I did my best to pretend his words hadn’t affected me. “Don’t worry about that. Like I said, I wouldn’t risk being here and working with you if I wasn’t serious about making a deal. I’ll get you into Heaven. You just provide me with the information I want.”

 

About the Author: H.A.Goodman is a former financial advisor for Morgan Stanley and Charles Schwab as well as a former LAUSD history teacher. He has a degree in International Relations from the University of Southern California and has also worked at the U.S. Department of State’s Foreign Service Institute. His debut novel, Logic of Demons: Search for Nadine’s Soul, has received rave reviewers from over 35 books blogs and review sites. In 2012, H.A. Goodman combined his love for fantasy and philosophy to create a whirlwind ride through the afterlife in Breaking the Devil’s Heart, the second installment (which is a stand-alone novel) to his Logic of Demons Series. H.A. Goodman lives in L.A. with his lovely wife, Linda.

Where to Find the Author

Website

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FMB Blog Tour: Antithesis

Welcome to my stop on the FMB Blog Tour for Antithesis! I have a great guest post on how the world for this book was developed, plus an excerpt for you. And a giveaway! Enjoy!

Title: The Antithesis

Series: The Antithesis, #1

Author: Terra Whiteman

Genre: Dark, Fantasy, Dystopian, Philosophical, Science Fiction, Speculative

Publisher: 1889 Labs

Ebook/Paperback

Pages: 450

Purchase:

Amazon (Kindle) | Smashwords |

PRINT (ISBN: 978-1926959085)

Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Indigo | Powells | Whsmith |

Book Description:

Justice Alezair Czynri is the newest recruit of the Jury, a group of powerful beings who reside in Purgatory and enforce the Code between Heaven and Hell. However, Justice Czynri could not have come at a worse time. A storm lays just over the horizon…

One that brings with it a war.

SERIES BLURB:

This is a story about God and the Devil, but not how you were taught to believe.

This is also a story about love and hate, and the suffering both can bring.

This is about rights and wrongs, and all of the spaces in between.

This is about revenge, courage, death, passion; with no villains, no heroes… only those left scorned.

This is a story about Heaven, Hell, and the Jury that holds them together.

This is The Antithesis. Continue reading FMB Blog Tour: Antithesis

Free Days: The Toadhouse Trilogy

Celebrate the first days of autumn with a free download of Jess Lourey’s latest book, the first in a young adult trilogy that Paul Goat Allen of The Chicago Tribune calls “a must read” that “truly does have the potential to become a young adult classic.” The free download is available only on September 21 and 22 through Amazon. Link is here: http://www.amazon.com/The-Toadhouse-Trilogy-Book-ebook/dp/B008ML9ONS/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1348074508&sr=8-2&keywords=the+toadhouse+trilogy.

THE TOADHOUSE TRILOGY: BOOK ONE, released August 2012:
“Lourey’s wonderful way with words will whisk readers away to an amazing new world!” –Anthony and Agatha Award winning author Chris Grabenstein

DECEMBER DREAD, released October 2012:
“Lourey, who keeps her secrets well, delivers a breathtaking finale.”  –Publishers Weekly

FMB Blog Tour: Duty and Desire

Welcome to the Duty and Desire Blog Tour stop! Check out the excerpt below and a guest post from author Anju Gattani about researching your novel. She has some good info and tips in her post so check it out!

Title: Duty and Desire

Series: Winds of Fire #1

Author: Anju Gattani

Genre: Family Saga

Publisher: Greenbrier Book Co.

Ebook/Paperback

Pages: 304

Purchase: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo | Books A Million |

Book Description:

How Can Happiness Survive When Duty Clashes With Desire?

Sheetal Prasad has it all: youth, beauty, wealth and education. But when this modern Indian woman surrenders love for honor and marries into India’s most glamorous ‘royal family’, these very advantages turn against her and she is stripped of her freedom.

Meet the Dhanrajs — a powerful family bound together by a web of lies where infidelity, greed, secrets and hidden identities lurk beneath the lush tapestry. The Dhanrajs have plenty to hide and will do what it takes to mask the truth from the world.

As Sheetal peels back the layers of deceit, she confronts a haunting reality and is threatened by the blazes of passion she ignites. Continue reading FMB Blog Tour: Duty and Desire

Free Days: Night of the Purple Moon

Night of the Purple Moon by Scott Cramer will be available for free download on September 10th and 11th. Check out this thriller, I know I will!

Blurb:

Space germs wipe out virtually everyone who has passed through puberty.

Abby Leigh is looking forward to watching the moon turn purple. For months, astronomers have been predicting that Earth will pass through the tail of a comet. They say that people will see colorful sunsets and, best of all, a purple moon.

But nobody has predicted the lightning-fast epidemic that sweeps across the planet on the night of the purple moon. The comet brings space dust with it that contains germs that attack human hormones. Older teens and adults die within hours of exposure.

On a small island off the coast of Maine, Abby must help her brother and baby sister survive in this new world, but all the while she has a ticking time bomb inside of her — adolescence.

Links:

US url: http://www.amazon.com/Night-Purple-Moon-ebook/dp/B007OVUPXU/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1333803865&sr=1-1

UK url: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Night-Purple-Moon-ebook/dp/B007OVUPXU/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1334839537&sr=8-1

FMB Blog Tour: Milk Carton People

Welcome to my stop on the FMB Milk Carton People: The Journey. I have for your viewing pleasure an excerpt and a guest post from the author! Enjoy!

Title: Milk Carton People: The Journey

Author: Sally Franklin Christie

Genre: Suspense, Thriller

Publisher: Eternal Press

Paperback/Ebook

Pages: 132

Purchase:

Eternal Press | Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback | ARe | 1 Place for Romance | GoHastings | BooksOnBoard | Coffee Time Romance | Barnes and Noble Paperback | Barnes and Noble Nook | iTunes/iBook | OmniLit | Fiction Wise |

Book Description:

Milk Carton People is a paranormal thriller about people who suddenly find themselves invisible, able to observe things but unable to participate.  Do they go mad?  Maybe they find others.  It is quite possible that there is no point in being invisible.

This is a book that plays on the very thin line of sanity and pure despair.  The characters act and react to the new challenges and the reader gets to go along for the ride.

Excerpt

I’m going to wake up, now, and go about my day with my cup of coffee. By the time I get to work, the whole thing will disappear like all dreams. I won’t even remember it.

She turned away from the little tree and took a few steps down the sidewalk. She intended to turn back toward the book store again, to somehow retake control of her destiny. As if turning back would give everyone one more chance to tell her it was all in fun and she was such a good sport.

Just then, a woman in an electric blue colored coat, walked right into her.

“Excuse, me,” Ruth began and stopped speechless. For one long, drawn out, slow motion, nightmare second, her vision was obscured by a brownish red filter which blurred everything before her. She felt hot, sticky, and confined. A cloying odor of spoiled hamburger made her gasp for clean air. She tasted copper pennies in her mouth. At the same time Ruth heard a gurgling noise and a squeak and as the whole event suddenly ended she heard a plop like pudding falling from a spoon back into the bowl.

A sudden cold sweat competed with stomach acid lurching into her throat. Ruth swallowed it back and turned to watch as the woman in electric blue continued walking down the sidewalk without breaking stride. Ruth watched the woman in the electric blue coat disappear around the corner.

“No,” Ruth said aloud with authority. “No,” she repeated louder, hoping make it all go away. “This did not happen.”

She walked to the nearest building and stood close to the cold bricks in the shadows.

I have to go home.

Guest Post:

Milk Carton People is told through the eyes and mind of Ruth.

The seed for Ruth was planted as I observed a waitress with Ruth on her nametag.  She was very nondescript, average in every sort of way.

I took Ruth home and imagined a back story for her and gave her a disability.

I gave her a back story.  As a person with a disability she lived her social life in some isolation.  Children can be very mean or busy and she was often left behind.

This isolation is probably what kept her sane as the story began to form.

I began by plopping Ruth on a park bench before work.  She nods off and when she awakens life as she knew it was forever changed.

She had become invisible and unable to interact with the physical world around her.  People walked right through her and she began to adjust.

Why was she invisible?  Was she dead?  Where was her body?  She muddled for a long time before she found others that were like her.

She left her isolation and became part of a small group of equally confused people and began to cope with the new world.

Ruth never had an easy time but she gained some strength and understanding of other people and their coping skills.

Ruth remains nondescript but she does evolve and adapt.  If she comes back in another book she will no doubt have made herself into a very memorable, capable and confident leader.

About the Author:

Eternal Press Staff Member

Biography

Marketing Manager

Sally Franklin Christie has spent her life achieving incredibly average goals. Her challenges and choices have led to into the world of organizing for social change, civil rights and helping people navigate in a world filled with physical barriers and discrimination. She photographs and paints landscapes, when she isn’t at the computer researching, networking and writing. Special interests include Missing Children and Adults, Astronomy, Character Traits and Criminal Thinking.

A home schooling mother of children born eleven years apart has added to her liberal arts education. She’s had plenty of time to practice and refine the art and craft of writing coupled with opportunities to learn the marketing aspects of writing. She interned for a spell at WOW-Womenonwriting.com and currently has a position as a moderator at The Writers Chatroom. Various published articles appear in places like Pangia Magazine, Creations Magazine and other almost forgotton places. She writes one novel a year as a NaNoWriMo Participant and keeps a more serious project simmering year round.

Links to the Author:

Website | E-mail Address: sally@sallyfranklinchristie.com | Twitter: SallyChristie | Facebook

Book Trailer link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pYn2xcZKkFc

This tour was put together by FMB Blog Tours

FMB Blog Tour: Bone Wires

Welc0me to my stop on the FMB Bone Wires Blog Tour! I have a guest post from author Michael Shean below, keep reading!

Title: Bone Wires

Author: Michael Shean

Genre: Dark, Mystery, Science Fiction,

Publisher: Curiosity Quills/Whampa, LLC

Paperback/Ebook

Pages: 380 (paperback)

Purchase: Amazon (Kindle) | Amazon (Print) | B&N (Nook & Print) | Books-A-Million |

Book Description:

In the wasteland of commercial culture that is future America, police are operated not by government but by private companies.

In Seattle, that role is filled by Civil Protection, and Daniel Gray is a detective in Homicide Solutions. What used to be considered an important – even glamorous – department for public police is very different for the corporate species, and Gray finds himself stuck in a dead end job. That is, until the Spine Thief arrives.

When a serial killer begins harvesting the spinal tissue of corporate employees all over the city, Detective Gray finds himself plunged into the first truly major case of his career. Caught in a dangerous mix of murder, betrayal and conflicting corporate interest, Gray will find himself not only matching wits with a diabolical murderer but grapple with his growing doubt toward his employers in the dawning months of the American tricentennial.

A thrilling mystery set in the same world as the Wonderland Cycle, Bone Wires is a grim trip into the streets of the empty future. Continue reading FMB Blog Tour: Bone Wires

Cover Reveal: Tirade

For all those of you waiting for the next book in the Heven and Hell series (I know I am!), here’s the brand new cover! On the cover of Tirade is Riley – a new character in the book… I think of him as the resident bad boy. What do you think?
Title: Tirade (Heven and Hell #3)
Genre: YA paranormal
Publisher: Cambria Hebert
Release date: November 30, 2012
Format: Ebook and Paperback

Blurb:

Betrayal burns. Death hurts and the clock ticks…

Minutes and hours stretch into days. How long can Sam survive  being confined in Hell? I have a plan… a plan with a lot of holes. I need someone who can make up for my weaknesses, someone who possesses the power that I lack. Riley is supposed to be off limits. He’s dangerous, he’s mean and he’s not to be trusted. But I do.

Beelzebub is on a tirade, bent on revenge. I took what he wants and sent him into the flames. I will wear the scars of his punishments forever. But scars don’t scare me anymore.

On my way to free Sam I find my true path, a secret place and new allies. But in Hell nothing is easy… and everything is cruel. The only thing left to do is survive.

Trailer:

Review: Xor: The Shape of Darkness

Xor: The Shape of Darkness
Xor: The Shape of Darkness by Moshe Sipper
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

I’m a boy named Lewis Nash and today is my twelfth birthday.

Upon waking up on his twelfth birthday, Lewis discovers that he can Shape. Before he can really figure out what to do with this new ability, he is whisked away to Xor with a very important mission – saving the planet from the Realm Pirates. With the help of a few new friends, Lewis sets out to do just that.

The reader is thrown into Lewis’s world, abruptly leaving his “home” to a new planet more advanced than Earth, with Artificial Persons, interactive computers, holographs, werewolves, and magic. It seems like a conglomeration of everything tossed into one book, and since Xor isn’t very well-developed, it is hard to see how these all fit together.

The pacing is varied, with some fast sections at the beginning but most of the book being too slow. Lewis asks a lot of questions – which I would assume of a young person – but the questions he asks are either not necessary, not relevant, or not answered. The plot also gets sidetracked at several points, going of on tangents of minimal importance.

The writing itself is simple – perhaps too much so, though it could be good for a younger reader. While Lewis is twelve and should act appropriately, some of the ideas he struggles with seems to imply he is much younger. The repetitive narrative can wear on the reader, causing a lack of interest in what could be a very interesting story.

Hidden within Xor is a growing up story about a young boy forced to face fantastical things and to overcome the sadness inside of himself.

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Review: Tales From The Dew Drop Inne

Tales From The Dew Drop Inne
Tales From The Dew Drop Inne by Kenneth Weene
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

“I guess you could say I’m from The Dew Drop Inne. There’s one in every town.”

Set in a local bar and narrated by Calvin, this collection of stories depicts the lives of those who hang on to the bottom rung of life’s social ladder. From strippers to musicians to veterans, the desperate often-drunk people that inhabit the bar and call it “home” are clinging to what little family they have – all the regulars at the bar.

Within these pages are colorful tales of people that could be anywhere. The life they lead is illuminated, showing companionship, competitiveness, and compassion mixed in with the drunken mishaps. Through the collection, the reader watches the characters take shape, though sometimes can still not relate to said characters due to their lot in life.

Tales From The Dew Drop Inne takes a bunch of characters that everyone knows (but doesn’t) and portrays them in a setting many are familiar with to some extent. The slice-of-life collection deals with characters and issues that are considered “beneath” many but shows the goodness that is still present in these run-down people.

View all my reviews