Sunday, October 30, 2011

The Halloween Dino Trip by Lea Hovris Shizas



10-31-11  The Halloween Dino Trip by Lea Hovris Shizas



Jillian is planning her first big Halloween party and hopes the weather holds out
Well, the weather does...but after Jillian, in her witch's outfit playfully chants the following from a prop witch's spell book:
“Changes are due…
Not many but a few
To meet your history
And see it’s not misery
Ghosts will abound
Trekking all around
For you will now travel
In a land full of marvel”
Everyone is in for the surprise of their life. Her backyard is gone. In its place greenery filled with tall trees, a variety of bushes, and...DINOSAURS?

 

Jillian’s birthday party takes quite a turn in the land of the Dinosaurs in this delightful middle-grade story.  I ordered this book for my granddaughter when she was visiting, but she did not get all the way through it.  She did enjoy what she read of it, stopping to say, “Grandma, guess what’s happening!”  Ms. Shizas did a wonderful job of re-creating the classroom at the beginning.  My granddaughter said the teacher reminded her of one of her teachers.  I picked up the Kindle when the kids left and read the story myself and found it charmingly scary.  I didn’t figure whether the kids would get home until the very end, either!  The book was very informative, as well—but don’t tell your children that.  If you have middle grade children or grandchildren, they will definitely enjoy The Halloween Dino Trip.


Price:  $2.50



Don’t forget that my blog tour is still going on.  Leave a comment here, and then hop on over to Rochelle Weber, Author.  I’ve won a Bloggy Love Award!

Here’s the link.  http://rochelleweber.blogspot.com

Sunday, October 23, 2011

Missing, Assumed Dead by Marva Dasef


When Kameron McBride receives notice she’s the last living relative of a missing man she’s never even heard of, the last thing she wants to do is head to some half-baked Oregon town to settle his affairs. But since she’s the only one available, she grudgingly agrees.

En route, she and her rental car run afoul of a couple of hillbillies and their pickup in an accident that doesn’t seem…accidental. Especially when they keep showing up wherever she goes. Lucky for her, gorgeous Deputy Mitch Caldwell lends her a hand, among other things. Her suspicions increase when she meets the probate judge, and he tries just a little too hard to buy the dead man’s worthless property.

Kam probes deeper into the town’s secrets and finds almost no one she can trust. With Mitch’s help, she peels away the layers of prejudice, suicide, murder, and insanity. Kam must find out what really happened to her dead relative before someone in this backward little town sends her to join him.

And she thought Oregon was going to be boring.


Ms. Dasef gives us a wonderful feeling for the side of Oregon we rarely see—the high desert East of the Cascades—while keeping us on our seats trying to guess what happened to Kam’s distant relative.  It becomes clear that his death was not an accident.  I wondered what made his property so special that someone would kill for it.  My mind wandered all over that desert trying to figure it out, but Ms. Dasef never gave it away, and I pride myself on being able to figure out the endings of books half-way through.  Not this one.  I had to read the whole thing!  I was about to type I had no clue but that’s not true.  I had plenty of clues, but no conclusions.  The supposedly empty high desert of Eastern Oregon was anything but.

Missing Assumed Dead is as compelling as its cover suggests. It edged out my own Rock Bound cover in the Ya Gotta Read July 2011 cover contest.  In fact, it caught my eye and made me read the book, and that’s what covers are for, isn’t it?

Price:  $5.50


Don’t forget that my blog tour is still going on.  Leave a comment here, and then hop on over to Rochelle Weber, Author and meet Killarney Sheffield, author of Guilty Kisses and Stand and Deliver Your Heart.

Here’s the link.  http://rochelleweber.blogspot.com

My next blog stop is tomorrow, Monday October 24, 2011 at Killarney Sheffield’s blog.  http://killarneysheffield.blogspot.com

Sunday, October 16, 2011

May I Have This Dance by Roseanne Dowell


 
Returning to a summer resort in 1997, Elizabeth Ashley sits in the gazebo watching her granddaughter and a young man who reminds her so much of her first love. She fell in love with a boy her stern father didn’t approve of. One who didn’t come from the “right stock” as he put it. Her memory takes her back to 1955. Back to a time when life was fun and she was full of life.




I know I sound like a broken record, but I absolutely love the fact that e-books have brought back the world of short fiction.  I’m incapable of writing it.  I’m incapable of even telling a short story.  When I start to say something my kids usually interrupt and say, “To make a short story long, Mom…”  See?  I’m doing it now.  Not so Roseanne Dowell.  She is another of MuseItUp Publishing’s master short storytellers.  May I Have this Dance is a forty-two page reminiscence of sweet young love. It begins innocent and whimsical, and then turns heartbreaking when the young man abruptly writes a her a “Dear Elizabeth” letter.  Now forty years later after a loveless marriage, several years of acceptance and solitude in her divorce, she’s back watching her granddaughter cavort on the beach where she met the one who got away; the one she never got over.  But then, hadn’t he refused to elope when she begged him?  She supposed she’d be sitting here divorced and alone even if he had agreed.  Ah, youth… If we could go back—knowing what we know now, would it change anything?  I guess you’ll have to read this wonderful tale to find out.  It’s definitely worth it.


Price:  $2.50



My book, Rock Crazy just came out and I’m going on a blog tour.  My author blog this week is the first official stop, but Rochelle’s Reviews is also on the tour.  Follow me through the tour and you could win a prize.  One lucky commenter can choose a signed copy of Rock Bound, or a Rock Crazy tee shirt or mug.  The full schedule is on the left-hand column and the next links are at the bottom of this post.

So, be sure to leave a comment here, and then go over to Rochelle Weber, Author and meet Katie McGowan of Rock Crazy.  Leave a comment there and I’ll see you on Thursday, October 20, 2011 over at Decadent Decisions, Lynn Chantale’s blog.

I’ll draw a name from among those who comment on all of the stops between now and The Long & the Short of It Reviews on November 14, 2011 and I’ll announce it here on November 15 2011.

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Unalive by Cyrus Keith



In the second installment of The NADIA Project, the potential stakes are raised even higher. The lab where Nadia was built is no more. But when The Pinnacle strikes back at the government agencies trying to crack its secrets, a horrible truth emerges: The evil cabal of kingmakers is still building living weapons of mass destruction somewhere on the globe.

Jon Daniels and Nadia Velasquez must find the lab and stop it before a new wave of terror erupts across the world. In order to succeed, though, they must get through The Pinnacle's most deadly weapon: Jenna Paine.

All who stand between evil and the innocent are two ancient warriors, a misfit genius, a rogue FBI agent, and a living antimatter bomb named NADIA.

 
I’m a member of Mensa, so I’m used to hanging out with geniuses.  My favorite authors are people like Robert A. Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, and Tom Clancy when he was still writing his own books.  I am truly honored to call Cyrus Keith a colleague.  His writing is as gripping, as complex, and reads as true as the masters of science fiction and Clancy’s early work.

Unalive is Book Two in the NADIA Project trilogy.  I loved Becoming NADIA and waited anxiously for Unalive and was not disappointed.  Nadia Velasquez is an artificial person with the memories and feelings of an FBI agent who died in a car accident. More than that—she’s an anti-matter bomb.

Unalive starts with the Secretary of State returning from a trip overseas during which she came down with the flu and was treated in a local hospital.  Still feeling a bit funky, she stops at the West Wing of the White House to give the Vice President her reports, and explodes.  The Pinnacle is back. 

Jon heads to Europe with an Air Force officer who has been investigating the NADIA project, knowing that antimatter is involved, but not realizing she has met “the device.”  Their small, rogue group feels that Nadia is too precious to risk on this mission.  After all, if she dies, she’ll explode and kill millions.  But Nadia disguises herself and goes anyway.  And what they find there left me anxious for Book Three!  C’mon Cyrus!  Write faster!

Mr. Keith’s characters are so well-drawn and complex, by the end of the book, I began to have sympathy for Nadia’s arch-rival, Jenna Paine.  He said in an interview recently that Jenna is a “damaged” person, and indeed she is.  It takes a master to write a sympathetic villain.

If you haven’t read Becoming NADIA, buy it now, along with Unalive.  If you have read it, then I probably don’t have to prompt you to buy Unalive, other than to tell you that it’s just as good!  Oh, Unalive can stand on its own, but why miss out on Becoming NADIA?  I gave that one five stars, too.

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:

Sunday, October 2, 2011

Hurricane Warning by Ginger Simpson


A hurricane!  Just what Linda Morrison needs to welcome her to her new home in Florida.  Fearing her recent purchase may end up a bundle of sticks, she’s relieved when a hero swoops in wearing a yellow slicker and offering help.   Carlos Mejia is eye candy for sure, but she needs those muscles to help board up the window.  Together they ride out the storm raging outside, but inside there’s more than a little electricity in the air.

Excerpt:

A face materialized from beneath the slicker. Masculine eyes, as dark as onyx peered at her. “I was wondering the same.”

He swept back his hood, allowing his ebony hair to dance in the blustery current. His square jaw and tanned face softened with a smile. “I’m your neighbor from down the street. I thought perhaps you might need some assistance. My sister, Marcie, tells me you live alone. If this storm notches itself up a bit, we’re in for a turbulent night.”

Against warning bells about strangers, she sought escape from the elements. She knew his sister…maybe, the name rang vaguely familiar. “Please, come in.” Linda gestured, but kept a tight grip on the door to keep it from slamming into the wall. Her heart thudded. Would her murder top the evening news? She could just see the headline now, “Stupid woman opens door to stranger during storm.”


Just sixteen little pages to keep you company and warm your heart during your lunch break, or by candle light during a storm of your own if you aren’t lucky enough to have a neighbor like Carlos.  I highly recommend this cute little short-short.

Price:  $0.99