Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Author Spotlight Wednesday with Lee Child

It's Author Spotlight Wednesday and it goes to Lee Child, the  New York Times Best Selling Author for his Jack Reacher Thrillers--



Lee Child is the author of eighteen New York Times bestselling Jack Reacher thrillers, with eight having reached the #1 position. All have been optioned for major motion pictures; the first of which, Jack Reacher, was based on One Shot. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in almost a hundred territories. A native of England and a former television director, Child lives in New York City.

Biography

Lee Child was born in 1954 in Coventry, England, but spent his formative years in the nearby city of Birmingham. By coincidence he won a scholarship to the same high school that JRR Tolkien had attended. He went to law school in Sheffield, England, and after part-time work in the theater he joined Granada Television in Manchester for what turned out to be an eighteen-year career as a presentation director during British TV's "golden age." During his tenure his company made Brideshead Revisited, The Jewel in the Crown, Prime Suspect, and Cracker. But he was fired in 1995 at the age of 40 as a result of corporate restructuring. Always a voracious reader, he decided to see an opportunity where others might have seen a crisis and bought six dollars' worth of paper and pencils and sat down to write a book, Killing Floor, the first in the Jack Reacher series.
Killing Floor was an immediate success and launched the series which has grown in sales and impact with every new installment.
Lee has three homes —an apartment in Manhattan, a country house in the south of France, and whatever airplane cabin he happens to be in while traveling between the two. In the US he drives a supercharged Jaguar, which was built in Jaguar's Browns Lane plant, thirty yards from the hospital in which he was born.
Lee spends his spare time reading, listening to music, and watching the Yankees, Aston Villa, or Marseilles soccer. He is married with a grown-up daughter. He is tall and slim, despite an appalling diet and a refusal to exercise.

Good To Know

Lee Child is the author of sixteen Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way, and #1 bestsellers Bad Luck and Trouble and Nothing to Lose. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights in the Jack Reacher series have sold in forty territories. All titles have been optioned for major motion pictures.


His Newest book Never Go Back is the 18th book in this riveting series!!!



Praise to Lee Child for hours of thrilling reads!!!!

Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Relative Danger by June Shaw tour



Relative Danger by June Shaw book tour has started and I am happy to be apart of it.

While I am still finishing this book up from what I read so far it is a great fun read. Cealie Gunther is not only an amatuer sleuth but she is also a grandmother with a granddaughter who is dealing with some things and may not graduate. Cealie promised Kat's mother that no matter what she would make sure Kat gets to graduate from High School. But when a murder of the schools Janitors takes place Cealie has to do what she can to find out what or who killed the Janitor.

This is such a fun read and a great start to a entertaining and enjoyable series. You will get to love grandmother Cealie and her wit and determination will keep you going!







I love getting to know the authors and that they give us hours of great reading! Thank you June for this great book!

Monday, October 28, 2013

Get Spooked with Leslie Meier


Spooktacular Monday!!!!!!
Halloween is just four days away! Can you even believe it?  My next Halloween Spooktacular Feature is Wicked Witch Murder by Leslie Meier, this book will surely stir up a fright in you...

Here is an overview of the book and see what fans are saying about it as well.

When the bewitching Diana Ravenscroft comes to quiet Tinker's Cove and opens Solstice, a quaint little shop offering everything from jewelry to psychic readings, Lucy Stone writes her off as eccentric but harmless. Even after Diana gives her a disturbingly accurate reading, Lucy can't help but befriend the newcomer. But not everyone in town is so enchanted. And when Lucy stumbles upon a dead body near her home, she can't shake the feeling that something sinister is lurking in the crisp October air...
Convinced Diana is an evil witch, prominent businessman Ike Stoughton blames her for a series of recent misfortunes, including Lucy's gruesome discovery and his own wife's death, and rallies the townsfolk against her. But after Lucy learns the murder victim was a magician and close friend of Diana's, she starts to wonder who's really stirring up a cauldron of trouble. By Halloween, her suspicions lead her to a deadly web of secrets--and a spine-chilling brush with the things that go bump in the night...

"Clever. . .a neat little cozy." --Publishers Weekly

"Keeps fans coming back for more." --RT Book Reviews

"The warm, small-town ambiance and the persevering Lucy Stone make this a winner for cozy fans." --
Library Journal

"I like Lucy Stone a lot, and so will readers." --Carolyn Hart


Lucy Stone is at it again, pick this one up today and she what she has brewing up!

Wednesday, October 23, 2013

Author Spotlight-- Nora Roberts



It's Author Spotlight Wednesday and our author today is Nora Roberts!!

Nora Roberts is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of more than 200 novels. She is also the author of the bestselling futuristic suspense series written under the pen name J. D. Robb. There are more than 400 million copies of her books in print.

Biography

Not only has Nora Roberts written more bestsellers than anyone else in the world (according to Publishers Weekly), she’s also created a hybrid genre of her own: the futuristic detective romance. And that’s on top of mastering every subgenre in the romance pie: the family saga, the historical, the suspense novel. But this most prolific and versatile of authors might never have tapped into her native talent if it hadn't been for one fateful snowstorm.
As her fans well know, in 1979 a blizzard trapped Roberts at home for a week with two bored little kids and a dwindling supply of chocolate. To maintain her sanity, Roberts started scribbling a story -- a romance novel like the Harlequin paperbacks she'd recently begun reading. The resulting manuscript was rejected by Harlequin, but that didn't matter to Roberts. She was hooked on writing. Several rejected manuscripts later, her first book was accepted for publication by Silhouette.
For several years, Roberts wrote category romances for Silhouette -- short books written to the publisher's specifications for length, subject matter and style, and marketed as part of a series of similar books. Roberts has said she never found the form restrictive. "If you write in category, you write knowing there's a framework, there are reader expectations," she explained. "If this doesn't suit you, you shouldn't write it. I don't believe for one moment you can write well what you wouldn't read for pleasure."
Roberts never violated the reader's expectations, but she did show a gift for bringing something fresh to the romance formula. Her first book, Irish Thoroughbred (1981), had as its heroine a strong-willed horse groom, in contrast to the fluttering young nurses and secretaries who populated most romances at the time. But Roberts's books didn't make significant waves until 1985, when she published Playing the Odds, which introduced the MacGregor clan. It was the first bestseller of many.
Roberts soon made a name for herself as a writer of spellbinding multigenerational sagas, creating families like the Scottish MacGregors, the Irish Donovans and the Ukrainian Stanislaskis. She also began working on romantic suspense novels, in which the love story unfolds beneath a looming threat of violence or disaster. She grew so prolific that she outstripped her publishers' ability to print and market Nora Roberts books, so she created an alter ego, J.D. Robb. Under the pseudonym, she began writing romantic detective novels set in the future. By then, millions of readers had discovered what Publishers Weekly called her "immeasurable diversity and talent."
Although the style and substance of her books has grown, Roberts remains loyal to the genre that launched her career. As she says, "The romance novel at its core celebrates that rush of emotions you have when you are falling in love, and it's a lovely thing to relive those feelings through a book."

Good To Know

Roberts still lives in the same Maryland house she occupied when she first started writing -- though her carpenter husband has built on some additions. She and her husband also own Turn the Page Bookstore Café in Boonsboro, Maryland. When Roberts isn't busy writing, she likes to drop by the store, which specializes in Civil War titles as well as autographed copies of her own books.
Roberts sued fellow writer Janet Dailey in 1997, accusing her of plagiarizing numerous passages of her work over a period of years. Dailey paid a settlement and publicly apologized, blaming stress and a psychological disorder for her misconduct.

    1. Also Known As:
      J. D. Robb; Sarah Hardesty; Jill March; Eleanor Marie Robertson (birth name)
    2. Hometown:
    3. Keedysville, Maryland
  •  
    1. Date of Birth:
      1950
    2. Place of Birth:
    3. Silver Spring, Maryland

  • Nora is the Author of:

    Matter of Choice
  • Dark Witch: Book One of The Cousins O'Dwyer Trilogy
  • Thankless in Death (In Death Series #37)
  • Tonight and Always


  • I have enjoyed many hours of great reading and look forward to many more! So thank you for that Nora!

    Tuesday, October 22, 2013

    Spooktacular Halloween featuring Krista Davis


    It's Spooktacular fun!! Halloween is just around the corner and I will be featuring a few books with Halloween themes! Today's Spooky book is...

    The Diva Haunts the House by the lovely Krista Davis!

    Sophie and the gang are all here and are ready for a witching time of fun filled scariness with a touch of murder.

    overview :

    Domestic diva Sophie Winston is getting into the Halloween spirit- her decorations for a community haunted house are so good, it's scary. Not to be outdone, rival domestic diva Natasha is throwing a spooktacular Halloween party at her house. But when Sophie arrives, she discovers one of Natasha's guests dead in a Halloween display, and a pale, fanged partygoer fleeing the scene.
    Could the killer be a real vampire-the same one rumored to have lived in Sophie's haunted house back when it was a boardinghouse? Good thing a domestic diva never runs out of garlic.

    Have you read this one! What do you think?

    Tuesday, October 15, 2013

    October Feature 5--Nevada Barr


    October Feature 5 Endangered Species by Nevada Barr

    Cumberland Island, off the coast of Georgia, is a breathtaking setting for tedious fire presuppression duty. But Anna’s boring routine is shattered when two men die in a plane crash, victims of sabotage.
    Park ranger Anna Pigeon investigates the crash of the drug-interdiction plane on an isolated Georgia island in Nevada Barr's spectacular new mystery. Was it an accident or sabotage that downed the plane, killing both the pilot and his passenger? Pressed into service, it's up to Anna and her crew to solve the mystery. 320 pp. 40,000 print.


    Thhis sounds like a great read and look how lovely the Park is. Makes me want to go and visit there too!!!




    A Shout out to Nevada Barr for such a Fantastic Series!!!!!!

    Sunday, October 13, 2013

    October Feature 4 --FireStorm

    October Feature Nevada Barr's FireStorm and the Park feature is Cumberland Island National Park in Georgia




    over of the book:

    A raging forest fire in California's Lassen Volcanic National Park traps exhausted firefighters, including Ranger Anna Pigeon, in its midst. Afterward, Anna finds two from her group have been killed. One a victim of the flames. The other, stabbed through the heart. Now, as a rampaging winter storm descends, cutting the survivors off from civilization, Anna must uncover the murderer in their midst.
    A superior mystery filled with "vibrant descriptions of the order and disorder in the natural world" (New York Times Book Review), by the author of Ill Wind. This gripping new mystery finds park ranger Anna Pigeon in the company of a killer, following a wild fire flare-up in the remote wilderness of northern California.

    Have you all read this series or visited these Parks? Let us know what you think!!

    Saturday, October 12, 2013

    Big Numbers --Jack Getze book Tour

    Austin Carr is funny and witty and on a mission to get his kids back. He will stop at nothing to do so. He is down on his luck and everything bad seems to happen to him. His marriage fell apart and he lost his money, he can't see his children and he has been evicted from his home. That is some luck.

    When he is asked to do something that could help dig himself out of this life he has now. He starts to think it is a good idea although it is a shady idea and could cost him even more than what he has lost already. But it could also be a chance for him to see his kids again.

    I love the character that is Austin Carr, through everything that has happened to him, he has held his ground and managed to make it through.







    If you want to win a copy of this book, leave your email address as well as your comment!!




    October Feature 3 Nevada Barr

    October Feature-- Nevada Barr-- Her third book in the Anna Pigeon series is called Ill Wind ..





    Overview

    Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse-and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage...


    Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado is stunningly Beautiful!! Have you been there?


    I love that she takes us to these Beautiful Parks and makes us a part of her stories!!!

    Thursday, October 10, 2013

    First in a new series-- Linda O. Johnston


    The Beagles have taken over my blog today in this barktastic first in a series! Aren't they adorable? This is such a cute series , you will love the puppies that warm their way into your heart!

    Overview

    Lauren Vancouver is the head of HotRescues, a no-kill animal shelter north of Los Angeles, but it's often human nature that puts her in the path of danger. Just like when she helps rescue four adorable beagle puppies that were dumped down a drainpipe at a nasty puppy mill. One of the mill's employees has a history of dog abuse-and a bone to pick with Lauren. And when he's found dead at HotRescues after threatening her, Lauren will have to sniff out the real killer to keep herself out of a cage...


    Have you got the chance to read this book? What did you love about it?


    Wednesday, October 9, 2013

    Author Spotlight --Jennie Bentley

    Happy Wednesday to you all!

    Jennie Bentley is my Author Spotlight for today and she has an sensational series out!



    Wall- to- Wall Dead is her newest Do it Youeself Mystery Series! Have you read this one ? Leave a comment for Jennie here.

    Meet the Author

    Jennie Bentley
    A career as a REALTOR® and professional renovator has given debut author Jennie Bentley plenty of fodder for her new series of Do-It-Yourself Home Renovation Mysteries. She has stumbled over dead bodies—those of birds, cockroaches, and the occasional rat; unearthed buried treasure—gorgeous tile floors hidden under ugly vinyl, pristine footed bathtubs covered over with drywall; and had personal experience with just how dangerous renovating a house can be—she and her husband have come close to killing each other on many occasions while renovating the eight houses the family has owned in the past eight years.

    Thank you Jennie for giving us hours of Fun Filled reading and great fix up tips!!!!!

    Tuesday, October 8, 2013

    Strangled by Silk by Barbara Jean Coast Tour

    Barbara Jean Coast's Debut novel Strangled by Silk (A Poppy Cove Mystery) is a Hit!

    This was such a great book! I loved the 50's era and the fashions that were in that time! Ladies were classy and elegant and in this case Daphne and Margot fit that perfectly. They own a Dress Shop and are all about the Fashions and keeping people in them.

    So when a murder takes place in Santa Lucia, Daphne and Margot are at the ready to solve the case and bring the murder to Justice.

    Daphne and Margot are so witty and vivid and fascintaing ladies that you will intstantly become friends with them.

    Pick up this book today for a trip back in time to the 50's! You will love it!





    Monday, October 7, 2013

    Bloody Lessons Tour


    Hi everyone , welcome to the Bloody Lessons tour--


    Bloody Lessons: A Victorian San Francisco Mystery

    This was my first book by M.Louisa Locke and I was so into this book it was as I were there right along with Annie and Laura.

    Laura has accepted the teaching Job in San Francisco and has become Annies newest boarder. When Laura is attacked outside of the boarding house, Annie becomes fearful of what has happened and wants to keep Laura safe.

    Nate who is Lauras brother gets hired as an attorney to investigate and find out who is sending these letters and who has attacked Laura. Annie steps in to help Nate.


    This is such a great book and since it takes place in the 1800's it shows how women are different from men in the roles that they has as opposed to those the men held.


    Leave a comment here for M. Louisa, She would love to hear from you!!
    I really enjoyed this book and was glad tto be part of this tour.






    Sunday, October 6, 2013

    Still Life in Brunswick Stew Tour

    Welcome Larissa Reinhart today!! She is on Tour for her Amazing fun -filled book Still Life in Brunswicks Stew.


    my review:


    Cherry Tucker and her life long friend Eloise Parker are at it again. The are at Annual Sidewinder Brunswick Stew Cook-Off  attempting to sell their art work with no such luck yet.

    Since business is slow Cherry goes to watch the show while Eloise is left to watch the booth in case they get a sale. When Eloise is dies in her friends arms from poisoning Cherry becomes mad and determined.   June Parker,Eloise's  her mother, as Cherry to find out what happen, she couldn't refuse and does what she can to solve the case.

    Luke,thinks she should stay out of it but knows she wont. Todd, her ex is gambling again and she fears that there will be trouble brewing there. But she has to focus on finding who did this to her friend.

    Cherry is one vibrant fun filled character you will instantly fall in love with!

    This is a great book, if you haven't read it, pick it up and get started!

    Cherry knows it wont be easy but is determine to find out who killed her friend and why.




    Leave a message her for Larissa , she would love to her from you!
    I am so excited to have Rosie Genova with us today. Rosie is the Author of a yummy new series called Murder and Marinara.Delicious Itailian food , great new friends and a murder, what more can you ask for. It was just released on October 1st and I do hope it is on your list to read!





    Welcome Rosie , thank you for being with us today. It is a pleasure to have you here talking about this amazing new book!

    Tell us about yourself.

    As my bio says, I’m a bookworm from way back. As a kid, I hid behind the library stacks reading all the gothic and romance novels I wasn’t allowed to take out. In the summer, while my friends were out riding bikes, I had my nose in a book. Becoming an English major in college seemed a natural step, and from there I went into the classroom, where I’ve taught literature and journalism for 23 years.

    I’m also a Jersey girl through and through, a fan of Sinatra and Springsteen, a lover of sand and sun. I’m fiercely proud of my Italian heritage, and most at home in the kitchen, where I make simple, rustic food (and eat too much of it).

    I’m the mom of three sons, and I still live in Jersey with my husband, two of my three boys, and an elderly terrier named Baci.


    How did you come up with your heroine Victoria and what is your favorite thing about her?

    In some ways, Victoria is a younger version of myself. Like me, she’s a writer who loves the Jersey shore. But she’s also inspired by many of the women I know who grew up in a close-knit families. We want to be independent and carve out our own futures, but we always feel the pull of home. In the series, Victoria is trying to balance her own work—writing—with her sense of responsibility for her family and the restaurant. What I like best about her is her loyalty to those she loves: her parents, her brother and sister-in-law, her grandmother, and the restaurant staff (including the guy who broke her heart eight years before.)


    What are you working on next for Victoria and Friends?

    In The Wedding Soup Murder, Victoria and the gang help cater a wedding at an upscale country club, presided over by a tough-as-nails club president who’s alienated any number of people at the reception. When her body is found on the beach the next day, it looks like an accident—but Vic thinks otherwise.

    If you could have a dinner date with any character from any book who will it be and why?

    Though she scares me a just a little, it would have to be Nonna. In many ways she’s based upon my own grandmothers, whom I miss terribly. Sharing a plate of gnocchi with Nonna would be like spending a little time with my own Memas.

    What or who inspired you to write? Has it always been a passion? 
     
    That’s an easy one—my mom. From the time I was very small, she read to me, but she also told me stories she made up. At bedtime, we’d have running serials about characters who had all sorts of adventures.

    As a kid, I wrote stories and poems, and worked on the literary magazine in high school and college. But for most of my life, I called myself a writer without having the dedication and discipline to really sit down and do it. In the 90s, I had an opportunity to write features for a regional parenting magazine, and that’s when I really honed my craft. After a dozen years at home raising my sons, I went back into the classroom. It was only then that I got serious about writing. I finished my first manuscript while I was teaching full time, and I’ve just completed my fourth book.  I think I finally earned the right to call myself a writer.

     over of the book:
    Hit whodunit writer Victoria Rienzi is getting back to her roots by working at her family’s Italian restaurant. But now in between plating pasta and pouring vino, she’ll have to find the secret ingredient in a murder....

    When Victoria takes a break from penning her popular mystery series and moves back to the Jersey shore, she imagines sun, sand, and scents of fresh basil and simmering marinara sauce at the family restaurant, the Casa Lido. But her nonna’s recipes aren’t the only things getting stirred up in this Italian kitchen.

    Their small town is up in arms over plans to film a new reality TV show, and when Victoria serves the show’s pushy producer his last meal, the Casa Lido staff finds itself embroiled in a murder investigation. Victoria wants to find the real killer, but there are as many suspects as tomatoes in her nonna’s garden. Now she’ll have to heat up her sleuthing skills quickly…before someone else gets a plateful of murder.

    First in a new series!
    RECIPES INCLUDED!

    Sounds like a book everyone will enjoy! Thank you for spending some time with us Rosie. it has been wonderful getting to know you and I am looking forward to your next book!

    Friday, October 4, 2013

    October Feature -- Nevada Barr book 2


    Nevada Barr's Second book is called A Superior Death and it takes place around Isle Royale National Park located in Lake Superior Michigan.

    overview:
    Park ranger Anna Pigeon returns, in a mystery that unfolds in and around Lake Superior, in whose chilling depths sunken treasure comes with a deadly price. In her latest mystery, Nevada Barr sends Ranger Pigeon to a new post amid the cold, deserted, and isolated beauty of Isle Royale National Park, a remote island off the coast of Michigan known for fantastic deep-water dives of wrecked sailing vessels. Leaving behind memories of the Texas high desert and the environmental scam she helped uncover, Anna is adjusting to the cool damp of Lake Superior and the spirits and lore of the northern Midwest. But when a routine application for a diving permit reveals a grisly underwater murder, Anna finds herself 260 feet below the forbidding surface of the lake, searching for the connection between a drowned man and an age-old cargo ship. Written with a naturalist's feel for the wilderness and a keen understanding of characters who thrive in extreme conditions, A Superior Death is a passionate, atmospheric page-turner.

    Don't know about you but I would love to visit this park! Have you been there?

    Thursday, October 3, 2013

    First in a New Series--- Janet Bolin

    It's Thursday First and this week is Dire Threads (Threadville Mystery Series) by Janet Bolin


    Overview

    Willow Vanderling's quaint new embroidery shop is not a hit with the local zoning commissioner. When he's murdered, the evidence is stacked against Willow.


    This is a fun series! Have you read it? Leave us a message and tell us what you think!!

    Wednesday, October 2, 2013

    Author Spotlight-- Ada Madison

    Happy Wednesday Everyone! Hope your day is fabulous! Today's Spotlight goes to Ada Madison. Ada is the author of the    Professor Sophie Knowles Series




    Ada Madison is the pen name of Camille Minichino. Camille is a retired physicist and math teacher and the author of eight other mysteries as well as short stories and articles. She's also Margaret Grace, the author of the Miniature Mysteries. 


    I have enjoyed this series and am looking forward to the next book coming out Nov. 5th. Thank you Ada for a wonderful read!


    Tuesday, October 1, 2013

    October Feature-- Nevada Barr

    For the first part of October I will be featuring Nevada Barr's Anna Pigeon Novels and the Parks that are for each book. My dearest friend and her husband have since moved away and are on a trip to visit a few of the parks in her books. They are big fans of Nevada Barr so as a tribute to Nevada Barr and Nora and Terry I am doing this Feature.

    Track of the Cat is her first book:

    Anna Pigeon takes a job as a park ranger looking for peace in the wilderness-but finds murder instead.

    and the Park is Gaudalupe Mountians National Park in Texas


    Isn't that a Beautiful site? I am just now reading this series and am loving it so far. Have you read it or been to the parks?

    Come Back on Friday for the Next book and Park.

    First in Series- Miss Julia Speaks her Mind by Ann B. Ross

    Happy Monday! This week's First in Series is Miss Julia Speaks her Mind by Ann B. Ross Released on August 22, 2000. Seri...