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Review – Cowboys and Chaos by Elizabeth Pantley #newrelease #cozy #MysteryMonday

Posted in 5 paws, Book Release, Cozy, Magic, Monday, mystery, paranormal, Review on November 21, 2022

Synopsis

This is no ordinary book club! When the group chooses a book, they are whisked away from reality to find themselves totally immersed in the story. The characters, the setting, and the murder all come to life. In order to exit the book, they’ll need to solve the mystery and reach The End.

This time, the club chooses a mystery that takes place in a quaint western town – in the old Wild West. That sounds like great fun, until they arrive in the dusty old town in the Arizona desert, among cowboys and saloons. They discover that the outhouse isn’t the worse thing about this trip.

The good news is that Paige, Glo, Zell, Frank, and the other members of the club discover plenty of surprises here, and they have a great time visiting a piece of history. They’ll get to live through many exciting moments as they unravel this cozy mystery story.

Amazon

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Review

This is such a fun series, and I think everyone needs to rush out and read it and soon!

Paige and Glo inherited an inn from their great-grandmother, and in the basement is a magical library. It takes them and six others in their book club into the book to solve the mystery before they are returned home. In this installment, there is a special guest but no spoilers from me!

The book club is thrown into the Wild West, the late 1800s, and many of the amenities they are used to do not exist. They must adapt to not having a phone or even a camera at their fingertips. Luckily, the inn travels with them, and they can still have some creature comforts from home. I think I’d rather use indoor plumbing than an outhouse!

Turns out that there are a couple of mysteries to solve that are intertwined, but they don’t know this until much later. But the gang does well at finding clues and solving the mystery in the end.

I am always drawn into this series because it is so unique, or at least it is to me. I enjoy the banter between the characters, especially the mother/son duo. Forrest is more worldly than his mother would want to admit, but she still tries to shelter him whenever possible. Frank, the talking cat, can be a bit over the top, but he adds flair to the story. Because they end up in paranormal cozies, no one is surprised when he speaks.

I don’t think I figured out the mystery ahead of time. But I enjoyed sorting through the clues with the characters and wondering where the truth would land.

Definitely a series I will continue to read! We give it 5 paws up.

About the Author

Elizabeth Pantley says that writing the Destiny Falls Mystery and Magic book series is the most fun she’s ever had at work. Fans of the series say her joy is evident through the stories she tells. Elizabeth is also the internationally bestselling author of The No-Cry Sleep Solution and twelve other books for parents. Her books have been published in over twenty languages. She lives in the Pacific Northwest, the beautiful inspiration for the enchanted Destiny Falls world.

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Guest Review & #Giveaway – Stealing the Selkie’s Heart by Ella Rose #guestpost #romance

Posted in Giveaway, Guest Post, paranormal, Review, romance on November 20, 2022

Synopsis

A cursed town, a kidnapped selkie…what will happen when love is on the line?

Powerful selkie warrior Ronan must negotiate with a group of local sirens before war breaks out. The last thing he needs is a desperate human who steals his sealskin, intent on forcing him to help her. He decides to seduce her, get his skin back, and fulfill his mission. But finding out she’s his True Mate changes everything…

Widow Una MacCallan is determined to save her small Scottish fishing town from the curse that fell over it twenty-four years ago, even if it means blackmailing the fierce selkie. Though she knows he is the key to breaking the spell, she doesn’t anticipate the attraction between them. She can’t afford the distraction, and she doesn’t trust that his interest is anything more than a manipulation, a bid for freedom. But she keeps finding herself tempted…

Together, they must race against time to break the curse. But as the two get closer, they find themselves asking: can they give up love to save those around them? What is the price for their newfound passion?

Stealing the Selkie’s Heart is an exciting enemies-to-lovers paranormal romance and the first book in The Selkie Seas series by Ella Rose. Let it steal your heart today!

Amazon * Barnes&Noble * Indiebound * BookShop.org

Praise Stealing the Selkie’s Heart by Ella Rose

“A fun novel with a great HEA. I am looking forward to finishing the prequel. More fun awaits!”– John P., Amazon

“Stealing the Selkie’s Heart is a cute love story between a fisherman’s widow and a selkie warrior. One of the funniest utilizations of romance novel “logic” we’ve read in a while. It’s also fun to read along with the “whodunnit” portion of the book. If you like your PNR on the short, cute, & sweet side, this is a fun one to read.”– Meg Richmond, Reedsy Discovery

Praise Losing the Selkie’s Skin (Prequel)

“This was a really neat story about Selkies and the twists and turns they have to go through to help the Selkie Prince with his skin. I enjoyed reading it and am looking forward to reading more of the Author Ella Rose’s books.”– Jacquetta Harvey, Goodreads

“ Mythology and folklore tales are highly intriguing on their own. These stories are filled with mystique, adventure, and a sense of intrigue and fantasy that is unique to the genre. But take mythology and folklore and intertwine that with paranormal romance and you’ve got yourself a book that is difficult to put down.
This book is wonderfully written and from the start, the reader will be drawn into the story, wanting and needing more. The author writes in a way that makes you feel for the characters, yearning for them to just finally get together. The reader cannot help but fall for the main characters as they journey through the book.
Losing the Selkie’s Skin is a wonderful start to a thrilling series, in so many ways. I highly recommend this book for lovers of paranormal romance, mythology and folklore stories.”– Kristin, Goodreads

Guest Post

Thank you for graciously hosting me today. As you know, my latest paranormal romance novel, Stealing the Selkie’s Heart (The Selkie Seas, Book 1), revolves around selkies and other water creatures. But the number one question that’s on most people’s minds is: “What is a selkie?” And if that was your question, too, don’t worry—nobody has to know.

Based on Scottish folklore, selkies are seal shapeshifters who shrug out of their sealskin when changing to their human form—to remove the sealskin, they must unfasten tiny hooks that run the length of the stomach. To change into their sealform from human, they drape the sealskin around their shoulders, refasten the hooks, and curl into the change at will.

My selkies exist as their own race and keep well away from humans when possible. For, all mythological accounts can agree, once a human gains possession of the sealskin, the selkie is bound to that human until (s)he regains ownership of the skin.

But selkies aren’t the only creatures that exist in the Selkie Seas world: there are mermaids, sirens, and humans to contend with.

Humans are the closest to selkies, genetically, since selkies can change into human form and pass, for the most, as anybody else. They can intermingle and breed like any human, though the offspring are born with a question mark: if the parents are in selkie form when they conceive, the offspring will be selkie as well. But if the parents conceive in human form, the offspring will appear as human until their 22^nd birthday, when they may try on a sealskin and attempt to change. Not all such offspring are lucky enough to access their sealform.

But mermaids and sirens are merely humanoid. In Stealing the Selkie’s Heart, my male MC, Ronan, points out that mermaids are vile creatures: “Like lampreys in the vague shape of human women. We kill them when we can.”

And sirens are dark scaled creatures, with noseless faces and talons, who move awkwardly out of water. Unlike mermaids, who lack the vocal cords to make speech possible, sirens can and do speak the same language as the selkies and humans. In Stealing the Selkie’s Heart, there is reference to a war that has been going on behind the scenes, and it’s not until reading the Selkie Seas prequel novella, Losing the Selkie’s Skin, that you learn more about the reason for the selkie-siren war.

Regarding social structure, in my Selkie Seas world, selkies and sirens live in migratory clans, though they spend much of their time on the Isle of Selbane, a fictional island in the Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland. Both groups are governed by a king and queen, but only selkies are protected by Anchors, selkie warriors pledged to the safety of the clan.

Among the selkies, there is the myth of the True Mate, a metaphysical bond that ties them to their fated mate, whoever that may be. They get some sense of the bond during intercourse, but it’s only through simultaneous climax that the bond cements itself in place. Once bonded, the mates can experience mood shifts and emotions through the bond, though they cannot read minds.

As you can see, a lot went into the selkie mythology, and I tried to stay as respectful of the origins as I could, while still making my mark on the lore. As always, if you have selkie questions or curiosities about The Selkie Seas world, email me! You can always catch me at email.

Best,

Ella Rose

Guest Review by Nora

“Una froze in amazement. She knew the lore, probably better than most of the island having learned it all from her father, but to see a selkie in real life…It was incredible.”

I wish my errands could end this well! In ‘Stealing the Selkie’s Heart,’ the main heroine, Una, accidentally sees a selkie change into its human form and makes a decision that will alter not only her life but the life of her entire island forever.

The selkie is Ronan, a warrior in his clan who has come to shore only to meet with a siren emissary about the war that has been going on between their clans. When he realizes that his selkie skin has been stolen, Ronan is understandably angered.

Una intends to hold the skin hostage until Ronan helps her understand and stop the curse that has been put on her island, but Ronan insists that just because he is a magical being doesn’t mean he knows anything about curses. Still, he agrees to help her, assuming that he will be able to seduce her and retrieve his seal skin faster than she wants to let it go.

However, both of their plans are thrown into turmoil when they begin to fall for each other, and Ronan realizes that this woman—this infuriating, human woman—is actually his true mate.

Ella Rose is not an author that I have read before, but I will definitely be adding her to my list to keep an eye out for new releases. This was a dazzling novel that had everything I look for in a paranormal romance and more! Even the setting of the Hebrides Islands in Scotland created a scintillating atmosphere that pulled me in and wrapped me up in the story.

About the Author

Ella Rose is a paranormal romance author who loves kink, ink, and cake, and hopes you do too. She is a bi-sexual author writing through a Bi-Polar Disorder lens and thinks representation and mental health matter. She is the author of The Selkie Seas series, which includes Losing the Selkie’s Skin and Stealing the Selkie’s Heart.

Her latest selkie short stories will appear in Dark Rose Press’s Worlds Apart and Dragon Soul Press’s Beyond Atlantis anthologies. She is a member of Romance Writers of America and the Paranormal Romance Guild.

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Giveaway

This giveaway is for 2 print or ebook copies.

Print is open to Canada and the U.S. only, and the ebook is open worldwide.

This giveaway ends on November 24, 2022 midnight, pacific time.

Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

Excerpt – The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven by Jennifer Ivy Walker @bohemienneivy #romance #historical #fantasy

Posted in excerpt, Fantasy, Historical, paranormal, romance on October 26, 2022

Synopsis

In this dark fairy tale adaptation of a medieval French legend, Issylte must flee the wicked queen, finding shelter with a fairy witch who teaches her the verdant magic of the forest. Fate leads her to the otherworldly realm of the Lady of the Lake and the Elves of Avalon, where she must choose between her life as a healer or fight to save her ravaged kingdom.

Tristan of Lyonesse is a Knight of the Round Table who must overcome the horrors of his past and defend his king or lose everything. When he becomes a warrior of the Tribe of Dana, a gift of Druidic magic might hold the key he seeks.

Haunted and hunted. Entwined by fate. Can their passion and power prevail?

Amazon * B&N

Excerpt

“Every tree, plant, flower and herb has an essence. A spirit. A life force.” She gestured to the verdant forest all around.

Issylte raised her eyes to the lush canopy of trees overhead, the blue sky peeking through the fluffy clouds. She inhaled deeply, the green notes of pine mingling with the rich scent of earth and the tangy fragrance of blossoms in the early summer breeze.

“The essence of the forest can be beneficial. Benevolent. Essential for healing.” She picked up a sprig of red clover and handed it to Issylte with a knowing smile. “Yet others are harmful and deadly.” Maiwenn gestured to the alluring deep purple flowers before them.

Issylte’s breath caught in wonder. She sensed an aura. A tingle in her veins.

Maiwenn’s chestnut eyes bore deeply into hers. “Have you ever felt the thrum of the forest in your veins?”

Issylte nodded, her eyes wide with discovery and delight. She held Maiwenn’s gaze, nearly breathless with anticipation.

“That, Églantine, is power.” Maiwenn’s eyes were deep brown, like the nourishing earth of the Hazelwood Forest.

“You, my dear princess, are a forest fairy. Like me.”

With a quick intake of breath, Issylte placed her hands over her mouth in wonder.

“The Goddess has blessed us both with a divine gift. The ability to sense the essence of a plant. To wield its power. The warm, soothing aura of a beneficial herb. The icy sting of a poison.”

About the Author

Enthralled with legends of medieval knights and ladies, dark fairy tales and fantasies about Druids, wizards and magic, Jennifer Ivy Walker always dreamed of becoming a writer. She fell in love with French in junior high school, continuing her study of the language throughout college, eventually becoming a high school teacher and college professor of French.

As a high school teacher, she took her students every year to the annual French competition, where they performed a play she had written, “Yseult la Belle et Tristan la Bête”–an imaginative blend of the medieval French legend of “Tristan et Yseult” and the fairy tale “Beauty and the Beast”, enhanced with fantasy elements of a Celtic fairy and a wicked witch.

Her debut novel, “The Wild Rose and the Sea Raven”–the first of a trilogy– is a blend of her love for medieval legends, the romantic French language, and paranormal fantasy. It is a retelling of the medieval French romance of “Tristan et Yseult”, interwoven with Arthurian myth, dark fairy tales from the enchanted Forest of Brocéliande, and otherworldly elements such as Avalonian Elves, Druids, forest fairies and magic.

Explore her realm of Medieval French Fantasy. She hopes her novels will enchant you.

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#Paranormal Spotlight – The Book of Demons by Kevin Moore #excerpt #comingsoon #YA

Posted in excerpt, Horror, paranormal, Spotlight, Young Adult on October 6, 2022

Synopsis

The Book of Demons, the much-anticipated sequel to The Book of Souls, finds Jack Kelly in the fight of his life. This time, he’s not battling ghosts. His nemesis is the shapeshifting necromancer, Mr. Philips, who inhabits both the world of the living and the world of the dead.

When Mr. Philips discovers a powerful, cursed painting whose magic he can use for personal gain, he will stop at nothing to acquire it…including murder.

Before he can get his hands on it, the painting goes missing and its artist is found dead. Enraged, Mr. Philips vows to hunt it down. But someone else finds it first: Jack, a teenage mystic who understands the painting’s tremendous power and would do anything to keep Mr. Philips from harnessing it.

Along with two unexpected allies—a non-verbal autistic child and the spirit of a dead nun—Jack battles to keep the painting away from Mr. Philips. But as the stakes rise along with the body count, their epic battle for possession of the painting may cost Jack everything and everyone he loves.

Amazon – This book releases on 10/11. Preorder it today!

Excerpt

The Duality exhibit of a little-known artist by the name of Kasper Greenstreet was not on Seymore Hunter’s radar, alias P. Philips, when a rich female patron of the arts invited him to a showing at the Guggenheim. Philips stood behind a long line of people enamored by the two paintings of the actress Desiree Diamond, who had died earlier that day. Philips could smell the blood; he knew the artist was using it in his work. Many of the paintings had a mystical look but did any hold real power? Real magic?

That’s when his body began to pulsate. In an area with fewer people, Philips beheld the most amazing painting he had ever seen: the self-portrait of the artist as a child surrounded by three shadows. He moved everyone out of his way and moved close enough to smell it, taste it. Philips felt the energy coming from the painting and knew he had to possess it at any cost. He wanted to be legitimate so he offered every dime he had accumulated or robbed in the bidding process, only to be told he had been outbid. The painting had been sold to some countess.

He knew other ways of getting the painting. Viler, more sinister ways. Before he had a chance, the countess naively returned it to Kasper Greenstreet, overwhelmed by the mystical, dark side of the art without an ability to control its hidden wickedness. Then Philips began following Kasper Greenstreet. He needed to taste his blood, maybe eat his heart. Kasper slipped through his hands due to an interruption by a couple of drug addicts whose bodies were found weeks later. Accidental overdose. The taste of Kasper’s blood would always keep him on Philips’ radar.

Then Kasper Greenstreet did the unimaginable. He committed suicide. He left the painting and all its power in the hands of some teenage kid and a psychologically damaged adult. None of it mattered now. The painting was close to being his. He could feel it. Young Jack Kelly had powers, but in the end, his power would be no match for Seymore Hunter, aka Philip Philips.

About the Author

Kevin Moore is the author of The Book of Souls, a mystical ghost story, it is his first novel and the first book in the series featuring Jack Kelly and his paranormal abilities. The Book of Demons (think Harry Potter meets the Exorcist) is the sequel to The Book Of Souls. Moore also wrote Christmas Stories 7 Original Short Stories which is available everywhere. His play Conversations From The Sports Arena was performed at the HBO Theater in Hollywood. He also had his first children’s picture book Me and My Shadow released in 2021. Moore hopes to continue the Jack Kelly paranormal saga in a third book which he is currently working on. Moore practices Lucid Dreaming which has helped him with his writing. He is a Yogi and an Advanced Reiki Practitioner—most importantly he is Matthew and Madison’s father.

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Review – Vampires and Villains by Elizabeth Pantley #cozy #mystery #paranormal #magic

Posted in 5 paws, Cozy, Magic, mystery, paranormal, Review on September 20, 2022

Synopsis

Paige and her joyful Aunt Glo have learned that the home they inherited comes with a magical library. They put together a book club group of loveable kooks to explore the magic. They’ve recovered from their first book journey, and they all agree on their next book which takes place on a cruise ship bound for Hawaii. Problem is, they were so excited about the cruising idea that they didn’t read the entire blurb on the back of the book. (“It was entirely too long,” explains Zell.) Once on the ship, they meet a charming and likeable man who blends seamlessly into their motley group. Too bad they don’t know why he’s so scarce during the day but shows up to join them every evening for dinner, drinks, and a show. When a dead body shows up on board, their new friend is labeled a suspect. Can they help him out by finding the real murderer? Or is he the real murderer? The book club will need to solve the case to get off the ship, out of the book, and back to their home.

Amazon

Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

Review

This is a light, whimsical cozy that has such an intriguing premise – the characters are transported into a book to solve a murder. The book is written while they are figuring out the details, so there is no wrong or right way to investigate.

While it isn’t necessary to read the books in order, I think you will gain a lot more insight into the characters and watch them grow. Ok, so this is only book two, but I imagine there will be a lot more growth between now and future books, so start with the first book now!

Paige, Glo, and the gang have a new member in their book club, Million. He was ordered to join by a judge, and this isn’t the first time that has happened with one of the book club members. He is a cranky 82-year-old but has a lot to offer, especially once they arrive aboard the cruise ship to solve the mystery. I love that they can pick whatever book and setting and be transported there. In this case, their inn becomes the 20th floor of the cruise ship. That is a magical paranormal book for you; all rules are set aside.

I love the interactions between the book club members and the book’s characters. In this case, there are vampires on the cruise ship. This causes a stir when someone turns up dead, and it looks like he was killed by a vampire draining his blood. As you cipher through the book and the clues, when all is revealed, you might find yourself as surprised as I would by who the killer was and their motivation. Definitely not someone I suspected in the least.

I have loved everything that this author has written so far, and I would have been the first to tell you that paranormal-type books weren’t my preference. I have been converted!

I am looking forward to the next book in this series to see where they end up and since a book club member stayed in the book, who will be the new addition to the club?

We give this book 5 paws up.

About the Author

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Instagram | Website | Amazon

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Book Blast & #Giveaway – The Meld: Magic, Please by Kelley Kay Bowles @kelkay1202 #ya #paranormal

Posted in Book Blast, Giveaway, paranormal, Young Adult on September 12, 2022

The Meld: Magic, Please
Young Adult Paranormal
1st in Series
Setting – The fictional Mountain West town of Pinewood, Colorado
All Things That Matter Press (July 3, 2022)
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 143 pages

Synopsis

The Meld, an otherworldly group of six, has gathered in the past millennium to bestow gifts on the most interesting of all populations: adolescents. The Meld members comprise a yin/yang of deadly behaviors which qualified their membership: half took lives for noble reasons, half for selfish ones. They completed their circle with Delilah Mackley in 1962 and have since been operating at full strength to give a supernatural gift to their chosen charges. This time, they choose Colorado sophomore Millie Mahoney.

The murder of Millie’s mother and the resultant self-destruction of her father have rendered her life chaotic, which Millie fights by immersing herself in her great passion: words and their power. The Meld gives her the ability for her words to become real:
Everything she writes comes true.

While she’s too smart to bring her mother back to life, Millie does look for a way to heal her family … and maybe catch the loving attention of Derek Samson while she’s at it.

Amazon

Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

About the Author

Kelley (Kelley Kaye, Kelley Kay Bowles, Kelley Gusich) taught High School English and Drama for twenty years in Colorado and California, but her love for storytelling dates back to creating captions for her high school yearbook. Maybe back to the tales she created around her Barbie and Ken. A 1994 MS diagnosis and many years of fertility struggles have (circuitously) brought Kelley, finally, to the life of writer and mother, both of which she adores. Death by Diploma, released by Red Adept Publishing in February 2016 and #1 for cozy mystery on Amazon in August that same year, is her debut cozy mystery, first in the Chalkboard Outlines® series. Book 2, Poison by Punctuation, was released on April 24, 2018, and the latest, Strangled by Simile, was released in March 2022. Her debut Young Adult Paranormal, Down in the Belly of the Whale, received the 2017 Indie Book of the Year from Aionios Books, which published the book on May 5, 2018. The first of The Meld YA Paranormal series: Magic, Please, was released July 3, 2022.

She’s also working with her husband to raise two active and busy teenage sons.

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Review & #Giveaway – Shifting and Shenanigans by Elizabeth Pantley #cozy #mystery #paranormal #magic #newseries

Posted in 5 paws, Cozy, Giveaway, mystery, paranormal, Review on August 15, 2022

Shifting and Shenanigans: The Magical Mystery Book Club
Paranormal Cozy Mystery
1st in Series
Setting – A magical off-shoot of Colorado
Independently Published (July 15, 2022)

Synopsis

Paige and her adventurous Aunt Glo inherit a country inn from eccentric GeeGee. They pack up and hit the road, arriving at the charming place they both loved since childhood. Finally! They can get into the secret room in the basement that GeeGee kept locked! They discover it’s a wonderful library filled to the brim with mystery books. But more than the room was a secret – it’s a magical place that houses enchanted books. Paige and Glo find themselves smack-dab in the middle of a murder mystery, along with a motley group of book club friends. The club will need to work together to solve the case in order to get out of the book and back to their home.

Amazon

Read for Free via Kindle Unlimited

Review

I LOVED this book! The concept was new and refreshing, at least to me. The characters find themselves smack dab in the middle of a mystery book and have to solve the murder before they can return home. Can you imagine being whisked away into the middle of the book you are reading? Some of us would call that heaven.

Paige and her Aunt Glo inherit a house from Paige’s grandmother GeeGee, but there are conditions – they have to move there and live in the house, run the B&B, and host a book club. Well, Paige and Glo don’t really have anything else better going on in their lives, so they decide to take the plunge and move to this tiny town in Colorado. What follows is a twisty magical tale where you suspend belief and just go with the flow.

The characters are quite intriguing, and a motley crew at that. Zelda (Zell) was GeeGee’s closest friend and, in a way, is their guide through this new chapter and the book club since it isn’t your ordinary book club. The members of the book club choose a book, but since they are new to this, they don’t realize that they are about to be swept away into the book to solve the crime. They discover this quite by accident when they are trying to decide on a book, and Paige reads the first page. Apparently, you don’t do this unless you are ready to solve that crime. However, neither Zell nor Frank share that little detail until it is too late. Oh sure, they try, but not very hard. Frank is a hoot. He is a magical cat and can speak to them, but he also seems to know when to dramatize events to get his point across.

I enjoyed trying to solve the mystery alongside Paige, Glo, and the gang. They do seem to work well together and discover clues that lead them to the killer. But this town is magical, and the same rules don’t always apply there as they would in our world. I won’t say too much, but it was an interesting way to justify the crime. Justify may be a strong word, but if you read the book, you will understand. There is also an interesting twist at the end, which explains even more about GeeGee’s passing.

I can’t wait to read the second book in this series and discover new adventures with Paige, Glo, and the rest of the gang. I think this will be a fantastic new series.

We give the book 5 paws up.

About the Author

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Instagram | Website | Amazon

Giveaway

#NewRelease – The Dead Romantics by Ashley Poston @ashposton #paranormal #womensfiction

Posted in Book Release, paranormal, women on July 2, 2022

Synopsis

A disillusioned millennial ghostwriter who, quite literally, has some ghosts of her own, has to find her way back home in this sparkling adult debut from national bestselling author Ashley Poston.

Florence Day is the ghostwriter for one of the most prolific romance authors in the industry, and she has a problem—after a terrible breakup, she no longer believes in love. It’s as good as dead.

When her new editor, a too-handsome mountain of a man, won’t give her an extension on her book deadline, Florence prepares to kiss her career goodbye. But then she gets a phone call she never wanted to receive, and she must return home for the first time in a decade to help her family bury her beloved father.

For ten years, she’s run from the town that never understood her, and even though she misses the sound of a warm Southern night and her eccentric, loving family and their funeral parlor, she can’t bring herself to stay. Even with her father gone, it feels like nothing in this town has changed. And she hates it.

Until she finds a ghost standing at the funeral parlor’s front door, just as broad and infuriatingly handsome as ever, and he’s just as confused about why he’s there as she is.

Romance is most certainly dead . . . but so is her new editor, and his unfinished business will have her second-guessing everything she’s ever known about love stories.

Amazon * B&N * Kobo * Bookshop

Apple * Google * Indiebound

Praise

“Poston makes her adult debut with a refreshing rom-com about love, loss, and hope…The sparkling dialogue makes the characters come alive—even the dead ones. Readers won’t be able to put this down.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)

“The beauty and charm of Poston’s storytelling continues to make miraculous happy endings out of the messes in which ordinary people often find themselves entangled…A refreshingly fun, energetic novel.”—Shelf Awareness

“A sweet and sparkling adult debut.”—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Ashley Poston writes stories about love and friendship and ever afters. A native of South Carolina, she now lives in a small grey house with her sassy cat and too many books. You can find her on the internet, somewhere, watching cat videos and reading fan-fiction.

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Guest Review & #Giveaway – The World of Love and Strife by Shawn Mackey @mackeywriting #excerpt #horror #urbanfantasy #paranormal

Posted in excerpt, Fantasy, Horror, paranormal, Review, Urban, vampire on June 23, 2022

Synopsis

It is the duty of the Vanguard to protect the world from unseen demonic forces.

But what if the organization falls to corruption? Their reformation is up to Cato, a disgraced former member who discovers many of the elite using their powerful positions and martial skills for ill-gotten gains rather than fulfilling their true purpose: aiding mankind in a secret war against their eternal foe.

Aldous is a Vanguard who fell from grace after being stricken with vampirism by a mysterious figure known as the White Lady. His increasingly vile appetites are tolerated because his knowledge as an alchemist is vital in the Vanguard’s battle against the demons. When those desires lead to the abduction of the woman Cato loves, Cato wages a one-man war against Aldous and his werewolf henchman.

Amazon * Barnes&Noble * IndieBound

Praise

“While This World of Love and Strife will reach horror audiences, it also should be included in fantasy and thriller library collections as a strong example of the strengths that can emerge from a story that embraces different genres with powerful characters and scenarios that are unpredictable and engrossing.- D. Donovan, Midwest Book Review

“The thrills build and build and never let up. The characters feel like real people. Even the vampires and werewolf! Best of all was the protagonist. He starts as kind of an eccentric and a bit of a jerk, but by the end I couldn’t get enough of him. I highly recommend this book for people who don’t mind horror with a heaping dose of action.”- John Martin, Amazon

Guest Review by Nora

This book really intrigued me and kept me guessing! ‘This World of Love and Strife,’ by Shawn Mackey is a one-of-a-kind novel that takes all of the best elements of horror and combines them with a thriller.

The fictional world of Lumina City is such a powerful and vivid atmosphere that, as I was reading, I kept forgetting that it wasn’t a real place—despite the fact that it’s full of demons, vampires and werewolves, of course.

What a world that Mackey has created, and what an interesting plot to set these characters into! The story centers around Cato, a former member of an organization responsible for expelling demons. The organization is called the Vangaurd, and they have members in high political positions all over the world. The Vangaurd’s job is to stop demons from getting into people’s head and controlling their thoughts.

Cato left the organization after a civil war split them apart, and went into hiding, but he still has a bounty on his head from the Vangaurd. Which makes things difficult, because Cato has just received a vision from a disembodied voice that convinced him that humanity is in grave danger.

Further complicating things is the fact that the woman that Cato loves has recently been captured by a vampire. The vampire is another former Vanguard member named Aldous whom Cato has a personal vendetta against.

This book is a wild ride and one that has to be read to be believed. Mackey’s writing is superb and his grasp of plotting is everything a reader could want in a horror novel.

The different character perspectives kept the story fresh and provided a lot of insight into the story that might have otherwise been lost with something so ambitious. This is an incredible five star book in what might seem like an unassuming package. Don’t miss this one!

Excerpt

Maggie went inside, suppressing the urge to run up the stairs, her limbs jittering in anxiety. She stopped at the top floor, bracing for something terrible. Nancy was dead, and if her intuition proved true, Cato wouldn’t survive the night. She continued down the hall, dreading each step. At Cato’s door, she was about to knock, then reached for the knob instead. It was locked.

“Cato,” she said quietly, rapping her knuckles against the door. “It’s me, Maggie. Can you open up?”

After waiting a few minutes, she called his cell phone to see if he was actually home. From the other side of the door, she heard it vibrate against the hardwood floor.

“Hello?” he answered, so low she could only hear him over the phone.

“Open the door, Cato. I’m outside.”

Within a minute, he unlocked the door. Maggie waited for him to open up. A few seconds later, she heard a loud thump, prompting her to barrel inside the room. Cato lay in a heap, pale and trembling. She closed the door, locking it behind her, and then ran to his side.

“What happened?” she asked, feeling his forehead. It was cold.

“I saw it,” he mumbled. She grabbed him by the face and got in close.

“Open your eyes. Look at me!”

“Maggie?” he said, blinking heavily. He shot upward with a gag. She helped him to the toilet, where he continued to wretch, but didn’t vomit.

“Tell me what happened. What did you see? Was it Nancy?”

“Everyone,” he said. When he didn’t elaborate, she shook him.

“Come on, damn it!”

“You have no idea how dire things are. We’re all fucked.”

“Cato,” she screamed, shaking him harder. She slapped him lightly across the cheek. “Snap out of it.”

“How can I begin to explain it to you? You wouldn’t even believe me.”

“Say it in your own words. I’ll figure the rest out.”

“You were a nurse, right?” he asked with a grunt, leaning against the bathroom wall. She noticed a gash on his forehead.

“Almost. A nurse’s aide,” she said, looking through his medicine cabinet. It was filled with empty bottles of unlabeled pills. She tossed them one by one into the garbage, searching for disinfectant.

“You understand how prevalent bacteria are.”

“You certainly don’t. I found bandages. Got rubbing alcohol?”

“Not anymore.”

“Then this will have to do,” she said, sticking a bandage on his wounded head after a light wash with soap and water. It wasn’t very deep. “What about bacteria?”

“Evil seeps into this world as pervasively as bacteria. Like diseases, it takes on forms—”

“What are you babbling about?”

“I thought you wanted to listen?” he snapped. She lapsed into silence, and he continued: “As nurse, you’ve got plenty of protocols to adhere in order to prevent bacterial infections. The same goes for evil, only the procedures are much more difficult. It takes more than surgical gloves and disinfectant to stop Nergal. Plentiful food won’t save you from Pazuzu and frugality isn’t enough to fend off Mammon. These demons, billions of them, maybe trillions, are more pervasive than bacteria. Their influence can’t be understated. They squash human will to such a degree, I doubt we’re any more than golems for these creatures. I can’t even trust my own thoughts.”

“These creatures,” Maggie said, feigning calm. She was aghast by the nonsense he spewed, but the concern for him trumped it enough to humor him. “You call them creatures. Can you see them?”

“They manifest all over the world. I’ve killed some before. So has Reggie, unless he lied.”

“Reggie never told me about this.”

“He hasn’t seen what I’ve seen.”

“Explain.”

“I saw Hell,” he said, then after a long pause: “Human souls cling to the bottom like dead insects, and the ones with the courage to escape are battered down by a legion of demons. It’s going on right now and will continue for all eternity. I’ll never know a moment of peace ever again.”

“It sounds horrible. Do you remember what happened before this?”

“No.”

“I saw an ambulance and police cars at Nancy’s apartment. Do you know anything about it?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“The only thing I’m sure of is what I saw, and what I’m going to do from here on. There’s a spiritual sickness that needs curing. I won’t let my soul stay bound. I’m going to destroy Hell.”

“That’s a—” she started, but didn’t know how to finish. Cato closed his eyes and rested his head against the wall. “Cato, are you okay?”

“No.”

“What can I do for you?”

“Save yourself. Don’t trust me to do it for you.”

“How?”

“To start, stop viewing things through the eyes of the world. Someone told me that a long time ago, and I didn’t listen. I’ll never do that again.”

“Who?” she asked. He covered his face with his hands and let out a groan. There was a sad tinge to it. Maggie considered probing further, but it was best not to agitate him. Nothing good ever came from questioning Cato’s past. She crawled forward and caressed his head. “Let’s go to sleep.”

“That’s a good idea,” Cato said, standing. He nearly stumbled into Maggie. She helped support him to his bed, tucking the blanket in and pulling it over him, then laying by his side.

“Will you tell me about Nancy in the morning?” she asked. He nestled his head on her shoulder and muttered something incoherent. Rather than ask him to clarify, Maggie closed her eyes. She was exhausted, and rather than linger in this maddening night, closed her eyes and quickly fell asleep.

About the Author

Living in New Jersey for all his life, Shawn Mackey has been writing since childhood. Though his favorite genre is horror, he has a deep appreciation for fantasy influenced by mythology and science fiction that questions the modern world and its future.

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