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Showing posts from October, 2016

ARC Review: Bluewater Walkabout - Into Africa, Finding Healing Through Travel by Tina Dreffin

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Release Date: September 10, 2016 Publisher: Tina Carlson Dreffin Format: Kindle Pages:  266 pages Genre: Memoir Buy: Paperback | Kindle Synopsis: Bluewater Walkabout: Into Africa is a memoir about a much-anticipated sailing adventure that the author, Tina, and her family embark upon. But when her sons bring along two friends who upset the family balance, rogue waves and large sharks threaten the family’s safety, and Tina begins to deal with mysterious and health problems, the perils of life at sea become very real. The book begins with an adventurous safari through Africa, during which Tina reflects on the challenges that a life lived differently can bring. Half running from an early adulthood fraught with sexual trauma, and half running towards a dream, Tina met her husband and the two of them decided to live a life at sea. This story is candid, moving, heartfelt and beautifully written. What sets it aside from other sailing memoirs is that it is about so much more than th

ARC Review: IQ by Joe Ide

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Release Date: October 18, 2016 Publisher: Mulholland Books Format: Kindle Pages: 336 pages Genre: crime fiction Buy: kindle | hardcover Synopsis: East Long Beach. The LAPD is barely keeping up with the neighborhood's high crime rate. Murders go unsolved, lost children unrecovered. But someone from the neighborhood has taken it upon himself to help solve the cases the police can't or won't touch. They call him IQ. He's a loner and a high school dropout, his unassuming nature disguising a relentless determination and a fierce intelligence. He charges his clients whatever they can afford, which might be a set of tires or a homemade casserole. To get by, he's forced to take on clients that can pay. This time, it's a rap mogul whose life is in danger. As Isaiah investigates, he encounters a vengeful ex-wife, a crew of notorious cutthroats, a monstrous attack dog, and a hit man who even other hit men say is a lunatic. The deeper Isaiah digs, the

Book Review: Her Winged Viking (Elemental Viking Book 3) by AJ Tipton

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Release Date: October 26, 2014 Publisher: Create Space Format: Kindle Pages: 136 pages Genre: Paranormal Romance Buy: Kindle Synopsis: An outcast hiding from the world. A leprechaun ashamed of being different. When outside forces threaten what they most cherish, will their magic be enough to save the day?  Over a thousand years ago, Erik and his Viking brothers were cursed. With useless, immense wings sprouting from his back, Erik is forced to flee from town to town from angry mobs. Tired of running, Eric hides out at a theme park where he can stay close to the one person in the world he cares about: his best friend, Siobhan. Sarcastic, efficient, and beautiful, Siobhan is an immortal leprechaun who works as the Chief Financial Officer of a small theme park, the Winter Wondernasium. She would do anything for her oldest friend, Erik, including hiding her feelings to protect him from the forces who hunt her. When an illicit scandal at the park threatens Erik and Siobhan’

ARC Review: And Then She Was Gone (A Detective Jack Stratton Novel) by Christopher Greyson

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Release Date: October 1, 2016 Publisher: Greyson Media Associates Format: Kindle Pages: 260 pages Genre: Mystery, Thriller Buy: Paperback | Kindle Synopsis: What's done in the dark will be brought to the light... The silhouette stood at the edge of the woods like a spider watching a fly enter its carefully crafted web. Only a few more steps and she'd be within its grasp. Stacy Shaw has her whole life ahead of her. New job, new house and now a baby on the way—everything she's ever hoped for is finally coming true. But on a warm summer night on the way home from work, she vanishes. The police race to find her, but the clues don't add up. Conflicting facts emerge as her story twists and turns, sending the trail spiraling in all directions. A hometown hero with a heart of gold, Jack Stratton was raised in a whorehouse by his prostitute mother. Jack seemed destined to become another statistic, but now his life has taken a turn for the better. Determined to

Book Review: Indecent Proposal by Jodie Manhattan

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Release Date: September 23, 2016 Publisher: Createspace Format: Kindle Pages: 216 pages Genre: Romance Buy: Paperback Synopsis: Evelyn thought that the smaller jobs were always just enough to fill her pockets, but with each robbery successfully ticked off, she had created quite a long list of pleased clients - and these things didn't go unnoticed by some. A growing list of clientele lead to extra responsibilities, and extra responsibilities meant that there is no backing down when being presented with the chance of becoming a millionaire. In Jodie Manhattans irresistible debut contemporary romance novel, Indecent Proposal, Evelyn runs headlong into the night on a true make-it or break-it mission to retrieve the Dragon's Heart from notorious billionaire Armand Bronson's chateau in The Drives. However after falling into an ambivalent bond with Armand, in which she cannot understand how she landed, someone from his past arrives. Review: Evelyn

ARC Review: Small Great Things by Jodi Picoult

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Release Date: October 11, 2016 Publisher: Ballantine Books Format: Kindle Pages: 480 pages Genre: Fiction Buy: Kindle | Hardcover  Synopsis:  Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years’ experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she’s been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don’t want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene? Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy’s counsel, Ruth tries to kee

ARC Review: No Place To Pray by James Carpenter

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Release Date: September 1, 2016 Publisher: Twisted Road Publications Format: Kindle Pages: 336 pages Genre: Fiction Buy: Kindle | Paperback  Synopsis:  Two young men, one bi-racial and the other white, meet in an overnight lockup and begin their shared twenty-year downward spiral into alcoholism and homelessness. LeRoy and Harmon work together, drink together, brawl together, and as Harmon suffers from his final illness, they both bed Edna, a wealthy widow who, out of pity, curiosity, and loneliness, takes them into her vacation home by the river. Through episodes rendered from shifting, multiple points of view, a series of flashbacks, and LeRoy's adventure stories this very smart but uneducated man's attempts at fantasy writing we learn of the people and tragedies that shaped their lives and those whose lives unravel along with theirs at the seams of race, class, and religion, and where no one ever quite tells the truth. Review: In my opinion this was more ab