Friday, December 23, 2016

Book Blitz "Home" by Aubrey Kendall




Book Info-
Title- Home
Genre- Military Contemporary Romance
By- Aubrey Kendall
Expected Publication Date- January 5th

Blurb-
Moving into a new town as a child, Rowan befriended two boys named Greg and Mac, eventually earning the kids a nickname of the Three Musketeers. Even as they grew into adulthood, the three would continue their everlasting friendship.

Now, as adults, Greg and Rowan are married, and he has joined the military. Unexpected twists and turns take the two on a dramatic rollercoaster as Mac is on the outside looking in.

With Mac’s hands tied behind his back, all he can do is watch and be there for his friends. As the tribulations unfold, Mac is drawn in closer and needs to find a way around his own emotions.

Will their lives be the same? Will Rowan make it through the trials of heartache and pain her new life has taken?




Thursday, December 22, 2016

Ronaldo: The Reindeer Flying Academy (REVIEW)

 

Ronaldo: The Reindeer Flying Academy

 

Author: Maxine Sylvester
Category: Children's Chapter Book, Christmas Stories, Flying Reindeer
Suitable for: All ages ideal for children 5 - 10
My Rating: 5 Stars
Format Read for Review: Kindle
Pages: 77

Description: Ronaldo is a young flying reindeer cadet who someday dreams of becoming one of Santa's reindeer, just like his hero, Vixen. With the love and support of his friends and family and the great advice of his grandpa he can face his greatest challenge yet, the Endurance Challenge. Ronaldo doesn't have a "traditional" reindeer name (like Dasher) so he faces some bullying from his peers. In the end this little underdog gets to be a big time hero. And despite all his slap-stick humor style clumsiness he gets to enjoy his success with pride. 

In Short: I think this book would make a perfect holiday tradition for every family with children. I look forward to reading this book to my kids every year at Christmas. The story is incredibly entertaining and laugh out loud funny, even for parents!

Pros: My favorite part of this book is the amazing and exciting story. It is highly entertaining and full of positive characters and messages. I found the tale to be a wild ride and it had a wonderful, satisfying conclusion. There is even a great deal of comedy in it! This book is well written and there are occasional images that help the reader feel immersed in the scenes. Some of the images are of the funniest scenes which will really make you laugh!

Cons: Some very minor editing issues.


There is also a book 2!



I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.






Tuesday, December 20, 2016

Where Do They Go? (REVIEW)

 

Where Do They Go?

Part 1

 

Author: B.D Donaldson
Category: Illustrated Children's Book
Suitable for: All ages ideal for ages 3 to 8
My Rating: 3.5 Stars
Format Read for Review: Paperback from the author
Pages: 29

Description: This is a children's picture book about a brother and sister who are in big trouble with their mom because their socks keep going missing. To avoid angering her any further they desperately try to solve the mystery of where their socks are going. This book features large colorful pictures with a few sentences per page.  

In Short: It's very hard for me to review this book by itself. On one hand the art is amazing and the story is intriguing but on the other hand it isn't the full story yet. It ends with To Be Continued and to see what happens you will need to read the rest of the series. I think the story will continue to be fun and exciting so this is a series to keep an eye out for. Alone it could be a teaser for your kids.  

Pros: The art is really top notch, alone I give the art 5 stars. The story is well written with no noticeable errors. The text and images compliment each other well and add detail to the story. The book is colorful and many of the pages feature full page art. It's a cute tale that is very modern and interesting. The smart, creative kids in the story put a camera on their dog to investigate the disappearing socks. I think this series will be very fun for children and spark their imaginations. This series could work well as a bed time story and is a good book for young readers to read on their own. I look forward to seeing how this story develops in the sequel and would definitely read more by this author.

Cons: This book alone does not have a conclusion or lesson which I think is very important even for series books. I think this is especially important for small children who do not always understand that they have to wait for the sequel to be written. It is only Act 1 and your child will need (and demand) the entire series so that they can see what happens. At the time of this review books 2 and 3 are not yet available. Alone I give this book 3.5 stars, but perhaps books 2 and 3 completing the story will make it a 5 star series. It most definitely has that potential.

I received a free copy of this book in return for my honest review. This post contains affiliate links to Amazon.com.







Sunday, December 18, 2016

Free Book Dec 18 to Dec 23

Snag this #Christfic for FREE 
from today, Dec. 18 to Dec. 23rd

Click the images to find buying options on Amazon.

Pacific Cove: Testament of Faith
by J.E. Grace


A series of devastating events will test Jason and Naomi's strength, faith, and their hope for the future. Can they endure the hardships?

Through their own personal loss and that of their friends, they learn to lean on one another when all hope seems lost. Out of sorrow will come healing and out of healing great joy.

This is a story of struggle, grief, and loss, but also one of victory.

You can also get the first book in the series here:






Is Naomi being tormented by her own inner demons or some new type of ghostly visions that haunt the Pacific Cove Ranch? Can she survive or will they drive her mad?

Can she convince her family that she isn’t just grieving for her sister, but that these ghosts are trying to tell her about a secret she is supposed to discover? Will she figure it out and prove to her family she isn’t imagining things?



Sunday, December 11, 2016

Interview with author Andrew Joyce


Hello everyone! I recently had the honor of interviewing Andrew Joyce about his novel "Yellow Hair." A historical fiction based on historical facts!




Please tell me about your novel, "Yellow Hair"?

Through no fault of his own, a young man is thrust into a new culture just at the time that culture is undergoing massive changes. It is losing its identity, its lands, and its dignity. He not only adapts, he perseveres and, over time, becomes a leader—and on occasion, the hand of vengeance against those who would destroy his adopted people.

Yellow Hair speaks to the injustices done to the Sioux Nation from their first treaty with the United States in 1805 through Wounded Knee in 1890. Every death, murder, battle, and outrage written about actually took place. The historical figures that play a role in this fact-based tale of fiction were real people and I use their real names. Yellow Hair is an epic tale of adventure, family, love, and hate that spans most of the 19th century.


What would you most like the reader to take away from this book?

That it was an enjoyable read and perhaps a little informative.


What inspired you to write "Yellow Hair"?

The inspiration for the book came to me when I was reading a short article and it made reference to the Great Sioux Uprising of 1862. It also mentioned that the outcome involved the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. That piqued my interest.

When I started my research into the incident, one thing led to another and before I knew it, I was documenting the entire history of the Sioux, who are also known as the Dakota, vis-à-vis the relationship between them and the United States.


How did you go about researching for it?

I want to say that I learned the hard way how important proper research is. But it wasn’t really that hard of a lesson. In my first book, which takes place in the last half of the 19th century, I made two mistakes. I had the date of an event off by one year and I had my hero loading the wrong caliber cartridge into his Winchester rifle. I would have gone blissfully throughout life not knowing how I had erred if not for my astute fans. Both mistakes were quickly pointed out to me in reviews of the book. One guy said he would have given me five stars if not for the wrong caliber bullet mistake. I had to settle for only four stars. Lesson learned!

Before I get into telling you about the year-long research I did for Yellow Hair, I’d like to tell you how I researched my second and third books and describe what that research entailed.
My second book was a western and the protagonist was a woman. The research took about three months. I had to know everything from women’s undergarments of the late 19th century to prison conditions for women in those days. (I sent my heroine to jail.) That kind of research was easy. Thank God for the internet. But then I had to do some real research. Molly (my protagonist) built up her cattle ranch to one of the largest in Montana, but she and her neighbors had nowhere to sell their beef. So Molly decided to drive her and her neighbors’ cattle to Abilene where she could get a good price. She put together the second largest herd on record (12,000 head) and took off for Abilene.

That’s when I had to really go to work. I wanted my readers to taste the dust on the trail. I wanted them to feel the cold water at river crossing. I wanted them to know about the dangers of the trail, from rustlers to Indians to cattle stampedes.

This is how I learned about all those things and more. First of all, I found old movies that were authentic in nature. I watched them to get a feel for the trail. Then I read books by great authors who had written about cattle drives to soak up even more of the atmosphere of a cattle drive. That was all well and good, but it still did not put me in the long days of breathing dust and being always fearful of a stampede.

That’s when I went looking for diaries written by real cowboys while they were on the trail. After that, I found obscure self-published books written by those cowboys. Then it was onto newspaper articles written at the time about large cattle drives. That’s how I had Molly herd the second largest cattle drive. I discovered that the largest was 15,000 head, driven from Texas to California in 1882.

My next book took place in the Yukon during the Klondike Gold Rush of 1897. Here new elements were added such as wolves and the extreme weather as adversaries. Dogsledding was also involved. I have seen snow only three times in my life and I have never dogsledded. I knew even less about wolves. I had to learn about those things. I had no idea what it was like to travel across a wilderness on a dogsled at seventy degrees below zero. I also had to acquire knowledge about the dogs themselves, especially the lead dog. I learned about all that by doing the same things I did for my second book. The old diaries were the most helpful. As to the gold rush, there was plenty of material in the form of self-published books by some of the participants. Some were never even published, but I found copies of them in the archives of universities and historical societies. Again, newspaper stories printed at the time were very useful. Concerning wolves . . . I read everything I could get my hands on about wolves—their habits, the pack hierarchy, the alpha male, and the different jobs or tasks the males and females have while hunting.

Now we come to Yellow Hair. As I mentioned above, the book is about the Sioux Nation from 1805 to 1890. I had to know both points of view, the white man’s and the Sioux’s. Getting to know the whites’ take on things was easy. There are many, many books (non-fiction) that were written at the time. I even found a book written by Custer detailing his strategy for wiping out the Sioux entirely. That was hard reading. And, again, there were universities and historical societies whose archives were a great help.

As to the Sioux’s point of view, there are a few books that were dictated to newspapermen years later by the Indians that took part in the various battles that I weave into my story. I found a lot of material from Native American participants of the Little Big Horn, written twenty to thirty years after the fact.

But I wanted to immerse myself in the Sioux culture and I wanted to give them dignity by using their language wherever possible. I also wanted to introduce them by their Sioux names. So, I had to learn the Lakota language. And that wasn’t easy. There is a consortium that will teach you, but they wanted only serious students. You have to know a smattering of the language before they will even deign to let you in. I had to take a test to prove that I knew some Lakota. I failed the first time and had to go back to my Lakota dictionary and do some more studying. I got in on my second try.


Wow, that is amazing, and what dedication! 
What has been the best experience for you in your time as a writer?

When I get a review stating that my humble offering was enjoyed by the reader.


What was your biggest challenge while writing "Yellow Hair"?

The research.


What advice would you give to someone who wants to write a novel like this one?

My advice to anyone who wants to get into writing a novel, not just historical fiction, but any genre, is to read, read . . . and then read some more. Read everything you can get your hands on! Reading to a writer is as medical school is to a doctor, as physical training is to an athlete, as breathing is to life. When one reads stuff like the passage below, one cannot help but become a better writer.
"The afternoon came down as imperceptibly as age comes to a happy man. A little gold entered into the sunlight. The bay became bluer and dimpled with shore-wind ripples. Those lonely fishermen who believe that the fish bite at high tide left their rocks and their places were taken by others, who were convinced that the fish bite at low tide.”—John Steinbeck, Tortilla Flat
AND: Never, ever, ever, ever respond to a negative review!!!


Great advice! Thank you so much for chatting with me and sharing such helpful details about your research! 

I hope everyone enjoys this post and will check out the amazing novels by Andrew Joyce! Find handy links below. 




About the Author:

Andrew Joyce left high school at seventeen to hitchhike throughout the US, Canada, and Mexico. He wouldn’t return from his journey until decades later when he decided to become a writer. Joyce has written five books, including a two-volume collection of one hundred and fifty short stories comprised of his hitching adventures called BEDTIME STORIES FOR GROWN-UPS (as yet unpublished), and his latest novel, YELLOW HAIR. He now lives aboard a boat in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, with his dog, Danny, where he is busy working on his next book, tentatively entitled, MICK REILLY.

Andrew Joyce is the recipient of the 2013 Editor’s Choice Award for Best Western for his novel, Redemption: The Further Adventures of Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer.


Author Links:


Links to find the novel, Yellow Hair:

Amazon
Smashwords
iTunes
Kobo
Barnes & Noble


Love Westerns? Check out more books by Andrew Joyce: 



This post contains affiliate links to Amazon. Clicking on the images of book covers will direct you to Amazon to check their current price and format options!


Sunday, December 4, 2016

Released Today - Blood Moon

New Release today, Dec. 4th, 2016:

Blood Moon

by John David Bethel

355 page Thriller
(Adult themes: violence, torture, kidnapping, murder)


Description:

On a hot, steamy afternoon in Miami, Cuban-American businessman Recidio Suarez is brutally beaten and abducted. Handcuffed, shackled and blindfolded, he has no idea why he has been targeted. What he discovers is heart-stopping. What he endures during almost a month of captivity compares only to the most horrendous stories of prisoners of war. He is tortured, and under the threat of death, and worse – the rape of his wife and torture of his children – Suarez is forced to hand over his multi-million dollar holdings to his captors.


Suarez survives and then spends the next few months staying one step ahead of the murderous pack. During this time, he and his lawyer, Nolan Stevens – a former Special Agent in Charge of the Miami Office of the FBI – are having difficulties convincing the Miami-Dade Police Department that a crime has been committed. Their efforts are complicated by Steven’s difficult history with the head of the MDPD Special Investigations Division, who is not interested in pursuing the case.


Inspired by a true story, this book features a Foreword by the only survivor of the crime and an Afterword by the Private Investigator who was instrumental in solving the case. 

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Freebies!


December Freebies!

Click on the images to find them on Amazon and check their current price.
They are all free as of 12/3/16, grab them quickly while they are still free!


Also, don't forget to enter our GIVEAWAY CONTEST to get signed books, e-books and more!


Amazon links to free books: