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Showing posts from November, 2016

Book Review: Caged by Onaiza Khan

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Release Date: November 15, 2016 Publisher: Createspace Format: Kindle Pages: 146 pages Genre: Fantasy Buy: Kindle | Paperback Synopsis:  "Keep your mind right, put your body in action and let your spirit guide you.” These are the words keeping her sane after her husband kidnaps her, tearing her away from her life in India and keeping her captive in Northern Canada. But after three months with only a servant, a television and the screams of another captive keeping her company, she begins to lose touch with reality - even forgetting her own name. In her struggle to escape, she discovers an inner strength and powers previously unknown realigning her past, present and future. Review: This was a really interesting read.  Noor is a newlywed and is being held hostage by her husband.  He seems to really like her and doesn't seem cruel so why he is holding her against her will is a mystery.  Like the main character I wasn't sure what was going on at first th

Book Review: Esper Files by Egan Brass

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Release Date: October 16, 2016 Publisher: Createspace Format: Kindle Pages: 224 pages Genre: Fantasy Buy: Kindle | Paperback Synopsis: They came after The Great Storm, the Espers. Feared and hunted by society, there are those who use their powers for good, and those who use them for evil. When an experiment goes wrong in Victorian London, Espers, people with supernatural abilities are created. In order to counter this new potential threat, the Institute is set up to teach Espers how to use their abilities for good and how to hunt down those who want to use their powers for evil. Gifted with a formidable but self-destructive ability, Nathan is one of the Institute’s top agents. When the evil Baron executes his plan to control the minds of London’s political leaders, peace is dependent on Nathan and his team. Will he learn to control his powers in time to save the world? Or will he succumb to their self-destructive nature? Review:  This book is like a combination

Book Review: Fall (Archer/Bennet #3) by Candice Fox

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Release Date: December 1, 2016 in Australia (no date for USA yet) Publisher: Random House Australia Format: Paperback Pages: 252 pages Genre: Thriller, crime Buy: Kindle | Paperback Synopsis: If Detective Frank Bennett tries hard enough, he can sometimes forget that Eden Archer, his partner in the Homicide Department, is also a moonlighting serial killer . . . Thankfully their latest case is proving a good distraction. Someone is angry at Sydney's beautiful people - and the results are anything but pretty. On the rain-soaked running tracks of Sydney's parks, a predator is lurking, and it's not long before night-time jogs become a race to stay alive. While Frank and Eden chase shadows, a different kind of danger grows closer to home. Frank's new girlfriend Imogen Stone is fascinated by cold cases, and her latest project – the disappearance of the two Tanner children more than twenty years ago – is leading her straight to Eden's door. And, as Frank

Book Review: Dragonfish by Vu Tran

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Release Date: August 2, 2016 Publisher: WW Norton & Co Format: Paperback Pages: 320 pages Genre: Mystery Buy: Kindle | Paperback Synopsis:  Robert, an Oakland cop, still can't let go of Suzy, the enigmatic Vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Now she's disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who's blackmailing Robert into finding her for him. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, shadowed by Sonny's sadistic son, "Junior," and assisted by unexpected and reluctant allies, Robert learns more about his ex-wife than he ever did during their marriage. He finds himself chasing the ghosts of her past, one that reaches back to a refugee camp in Malaysia after the fall of Saigon, as his investigation soon uncovers the existence of an elusive packet of her secret letters to someone she left behind long ago. Although Robert starts illuminating the dark corners of Suzy’

Book Review: The Bookshop on the Corner: A novel by Jenny Colgan

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Release Date: September 20, 2016 Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks Format: Paperback Pages: 368 pages Genre: Fiction Buy: Kindle | Paperback   Synopsis: Nina Redmond is a literary matchmaker. Pairing a reader with that perfect book is her passion… and also her job. Or at least it was. Until yesterday, she was a librarian in the hectic city. But now the job she loved is no more. Determined to make a new life for herself, Nina moves to a sleepy village many miles away. There she buys a van and transforms it into a bookmobile—a mobile bookshop that she drives from neighborhood to neighborhood, changing one life after another with the power of storytelling. From helping her grumpy landlord deliver a lamb, to sharing picnics with a charming train conductor who serenades her with poetry, Nina discovers there’s plenty of adventure, magic, and soul in a place that’s beginning to feel like home… a place where she just might be able to write her own happy ending. Review

New Reading App

On November 16, 2016 Inkitt is launching an app for ipad and iphones which looks really great.  I don't often read on my tablet because I have a kindle but my kids use their Ipads and phones and this app looks promising. Nothing like being able to access FREE books at your fingertips that were hand selected to your reading style. Download it here “As more people read digitally we want to make it easier and faster for people to access great literature wherever they are, whether on the go or relaxing at home,” says Inkitt’s Founder and CEO, Ali Albazaz. “Inkitt’s iOS app will better enable emerging authors to share their work with test readership groups and give readers globally the opportunity to turn the page on one of the world’s next best sellers.” Key features include: Access to 80,000 stories in every genre: fantasy, sci-fi, romance, thriller, horror, adventure, action and more Personalized suggestions: hand-picked novels based on reader’s preferences App cus

Book Review: The Guest Room by Chris Bohjalian

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Release Date: October 25, 2016 (reprint) Publisher: Vintage Format: Paperback Pages: 336 pages Genre: Fiction Buy: Kindle | Paperback Synopsis: When Kristin Chapman agrees to let her husband, Richard, host his brother's bachelor party, she expects a certain amount of debauchery. She takes their young daughter to Manhattan for the evening, leaving her Westchester home to the men and their hired entertainment. What she does not expect is that the entertainment—two scared young women brought there by force—will kill their captors and drive off into the night. With their house now a crime scene, Kristin's and Richard’s life spirals into nightmare. Kristin is unable to forgive her husband for his lapses in judgement, or for the moment he shared with a dark-haired girl in the guest room. But for the dark-haired girl, Alexandra, the danger is just beginning. Review:  Talk about a bachelor party gone wrong...this is The Hangover times 10.  Alternating chapters betwe

ARC Review: By the Dark of her Eyes by Cameron MacElvee

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Release Date:  November 15, 2016 Publisher:  Boldstroke Books Format:  Kindle Pages:  288 pages Genre:  LGBT, supernatural romance Buy:   Kindle  |  Paperback   Synopsis:  The evil lies dormant, waiting to be awakened. Brenna Taylor relocates to Arizona to nurse her grief and takes possession of a decrepit century-old home sitting among two hundred acres of dead citrus trees. But she unknowingly rouses an evil and stirs the darkness inside herself, a curse she’s carried since childhood. With the help of Alejandra Santana, the charismatic contractor to whom she is drawn, Brenna uncovers the violent history of the land she’s inherited. As the tormented spirits of massacred migrant workers call out for revenge, the malevolent force that imprisons their souls begins to lure Brenna into its hell. But Alex’s love may not be enough to stand between Brenna and death. Review:  Tortured by the death of her husband and child Brenna flees to land that her husband had purchased in Ar

ARC Review: Unnatural Deeds by Cyn Balog

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Release Date: November 1, 2016 Publisher: Sourcebooks Fire Format: Kindle Pages: 288 pages Genre: YA Fiction Buy: Kindle | Hardcover Synopsis:  Victoria Zell doesn't fit in, not that she cares what anyone thinks. She and her homeschooled boyfriend, Andrew, are inseparable. All they need is each other. That is, until Zachary Zimmerman joins her homeroom. Within an hour of meeting, he convinces good-girl Vic to cut class. And she can't get enough of that rush. Despite Vic's loyalty to Andrew, she finds her life slowly entwining with Z's. Soon she's lying to everyone she knows in an effort to unravel Z's secrets. Except Z's not the only one with a past. Victoria's hiding her own secrets, secrets that will come back to haunt her...and destroy everything in her path. Review: Wow what a disturbing story of obsession and mental illness. There isn't much I can say about this book without giving away parts that I don't want to give away.

ARC Review: The Amateurs (book 1) by Sara Shepard

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Release Date: Nov 1, 2016 Publisher: Disney/Hyperion/Freeform Format: Kindle Pages: 320 pages Genre: YA/mystery Buy: Kindle | Hardcover Synopsis: As soon as Seneca Frazier sees the post on the Case Not Closed website about Helena Kelly, she's hooked. Helena's high-profile disappearance five years earlier is the one that originally got Seneca addicted to true crime. It's the reason she's a member of the site in the first place. So when Maddy Wright, her best friend from the CNC site, invites Seneca to spend spring break in Connecticut looking into the cold case, she immediately packs her bag. But the moment she steps off the train in trendy, glamorous Dexby, things begin to go wrong. Maddy is nothing like she expected, and Helena's sister, Aerin Kelly, seems completely hostile and totally uninterested in helping with their murder investigation. But when Brett, another super user from the site, joins Seneca and Maddy in Dexby, Aerin starts to come around

ARC Review: Highway Thirteen to Manhattan by Kourtney Heintz

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Release Date: November 1, 2016 Publisher: Aurea Blue Publishing Format: Kindle Pages: 351 pages Genre: Romance, Mystery Buy: Kindle  Synopsis:  His secrets almost killed her. Her secrets may destroy them both. Kai is recovering from a near-death experience when she realizes something isn’t right. Her body is healing, but her mind no longer feels quite like her own. Her telepathic powers are changing, too. She can’t trust herself. The darkness growing inside of her pushes her to use her telepathy as a weapon. Oliver clings to the hope that he can save their marriage, even though he was the one who put her life in jeopardy. As his wife slips further and further away from him, he becomes increasingly obsessed with bringing the man who ruined his life to justice. Review: Kai survived her abduction and Lukas is safe but her marriage with Oliver is imploding and the Fuch family is front and center. Lukas' mom, Mickey still pines for Oliver, and Oliver is either too stu