"I" - A TO Z CHALLENGE

Your hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.

Welcome to my post for letter "I' in the 

A to Z Challenge!

Just to let everyone know, poor Stephen Tremp is still having trouble with Google and his blog site. He is trying to get another site up and running but will be unable to continue posting for the A-Z Challenge.

His temporary site is  http://www.stephentremp.com/

Intuition 

by J. Meyers
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble 

BLURB:
 Luke and his twin sister Sera have unusual abilities. Hers is a gift—she can heal with a touch of her hand. His is a curse—he can see the future but he can’t do anything about it.

On a hike up the mountain, Luke has a vision unlike any other—one that leaves him terrified. Knowing that it will come true—and that he must do everything in his power to stop it—leaves his own future uncertain.

MY REVIEW:

This short book is a prelude to Intangable and begins the story of Luke and his sister Sera, who both have abilities, which they try to hide from the world.  In Intuition, Luke has a vision of the future which he hopes will not occur, but unfortunately, his visions always happen.

He is left hoping to change the future and to stop this vision from playing out!
  
This short paranormal story gives an insight into Luke's uncertainty regarding his abilities and builds the background to his and his sister's relationship.

I found that I was left intrigued and wanting to read more, which of course is this books purpose. 

***** 

 
As it is also the second Wednesday of the Month, it is also time to post my Indie Life post for the Indelibles.  Amazingly this meme happens to coincide with the letter "I"!



Interest!

Creating interest in your work is one of the hardest things to do as an Indie Writer.  Once you have published your novel it needs to be "Promoted" and "Reviewed"!  It is not enough to have your published work reviewed by friends and family, you need to stimulate outside interest and unbiased reviews.

The key to stimulating reviews is to give away free copies of your work. There are many ways to do this. Have giveaways on your blog, join blog hops which are reader orientated, (use platforms such as Goodreads; which have Read for Review options available through the many reading groups active on the site).  Also, ensure you giveaway copies of your novels to your support networks, as rewards for their help in promoting your work.  By following these simple steps you circulate your novels and receive honest feedback on your writing.

When I self-published my first book, I also emailed blogging sites which promoted new authors and sites dedicated to supporting Indie authors, asking for reviews of my books.  From the few who accepted my requests, I have made firm connections, and these sites are now willing to promote any new publications I release.

Importantly, not only for Indie writers, but for any writer, is to engage the help of personal blogging networks to promote and encourage interest. By using a variety of platforms, (Twitter, Facebook, etc) writers today, have the capacity to reach the world!

Carolyn

 

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"H" - A TO Z CHALLENGE

Your hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by

http://shouldbereading.wordpress.com/

of Should Be Reading.

Anyone can play along!

Just do the following

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE ANY SPOILERS!
Make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away!

You don't want to ruin the book for others!

HERA 

BY

CHRYSTALLA THOMA

Goodreads
Amazon
Smashwords
Barnes & Noble

BLURB:

Hera, member of the Gultur race governing the Seven Islands, thought she knew right from wrong and what her future held in store. A chance meeting with a lesser mortal, though, will turn her world upside down and force her to see her race and the laws with different eyes. For Hera, knowledge means action, so she sets out to put things right and change her world.

Taking place in the World of the Seven Islands almost three years before the events in Rex Rising, this is the story of Hera’s first confrontation with the truth.

TEASER:

“Hurry up, boy,” muttered the boatman and his hand closed around Elei’s arm like a band of steel. “We can’t linger here.” He hauled him up as if he weighed nothing, the movement sending sharp claws of pain deep into Elei’s side.
Thoma, Chrystalla (2011-10-11). Hera (Elei's Chronicles) (Kindle Locations 933-935).  . Kindle Edition.

MY REVIEW:

Hera is a short novella, by Chrystalla Thoma,which devulges some of the secrets of the Gulta race, of which Hera was born and pinpoints the time and reasons why she started to question the ideals she was meant to follow.

It explains the reasons why Hera joined the resistance and became a vital ally to Elei, and compliments the other two novels, Rex Rising and Rex Cresting.

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"G" A to Z Challenge, 2013

Your hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.

Today for letter "G" in the A-Z Challenge, I have two reviews: Givin' Up The Ghost by Gwen Gardner and Green Eyed Monster by Mike Robinson.

I hope you are tempted by the reviews to add both of them to your TBR list! Enjoy!


GIVIN' UP THE GHOST
By
Gwen Gardner   

Goodreads
Amazon
Smashwords
Barnes & Noble 

BLURB:

Friend or Foe?

Murder victim Bart Bagley is not content to merely roll over in his grave. He wants his murderer caught and he wants teenage ghost whisperer, Indigo Eady, to help him.

It becomes obvious that Bart’s temper led to more than one disagreement, but is it enough to want him dead? With nothing but a cold trail and a hot list of “friendly” suspects, Indigo and her friends race to find the killer before they become the next victims.

An Indigo Eady Paranormal Mystery

Indigo Eady is not clumsy. At least, that’s what she keeps telling everyone. Can she help that the overactive spirit community of Sabrina Shores causes her psychic abilities to short-circuit? It’s unfortunate that her cute new friend Badger is often on the receiving end of her mishaps. At times, she is positively hazardous to his health. Even so, sparks start to fly in more than one direction...
  

MY REVIEW:
I was pleasantly surprised reading Givin' Up the Ghost, by Gwen Gardner, I expected a simple ghost story, but Gwen filled the story with the unexpected. 

A murder mystery, centered around a small town in England, where a teenage American girl lives with her uncle and cousin. She is not the run of the mill teenager, as she has a connection, through her family line, with the paranormal....She can see and converse with ghosts, and this makes her life anything but normal!

Indigo teams up with her cousin Simon and a few friends, which includes the children of the ghost, Bart Bagley to find and hunt down his killers.

Thrown into this mix, is a sweet romance between Indigo and the son of Bart Bagley.

An interesting young adult paranormal read, which keeps readers guessing about what will happen next.

The Green-Eyed Monster

by Mike Robinson
Goodreads
Amazon
Barnes & Noble 

BLURB:
Martin Smith and John Becker: bestselling authors with ordinary names and extraordinary minds. Rivals since childhood, they live in the same town and are famous for their uncanny similarity in physical manner and literary voice. When one of them ends up dead at the other's home, an investigation is launched into their dark past, revealing a series of troubling stories from their childhood, adolescence and careers, throughout which lurks the presence of an authorial entity with roots beyond our time or dimension – a sinister entity with far-reaching designs.

MY REVIEW: 

Although Green Eyed Monster is not the type of book I would normally read, it held my interest and I enjoyed the story.

It delves into areas of evil with a supernatural concept, involving butterflies and the dark forces, of what I presume is the devil.

The story ventures in the human psyche, exploring the reasons for the choices humans make at the different crossroads in their lives, giving an explanation as to why a certain pathway is chosen, questioning fate.

The Green Eyed Monster starts with a scene involving a murder, investigation which leads into introducing the various characters involved in the story, divulging how their lives are entwined and directed by manipulation of a dark force, which is working behind the scenes.

The  Green Eyed Monster by Mike Robinson, is well written and holds the attention of it's reader through to the end. 


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"F" - A TO Z CHALLENGE

Your hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.



FIGHTING GRAVITY
By
Cherie Reich 
Goodreads
Amazon  
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Smashwords

BLURB:
Forced into executing Aresia's people, Phoebus escapes the Aresian Guard by flying his spaceship through a wormhole.

The only single woman of marrying age, Marissa flees town instead of becoming a third wife.

When Phoebus's spacecraft crashes upon an asteroid-ravaged Earth, he is captured by a rogue Earthling youth and thrown into a cellar. Marissa stumbles upon the spacecraft, but it explodes before she can find any sign of the alien. When she awakens, she discovers the alien's whereabouts and vows to help him. But Phoebus's Aresians have landed and are searching for him. Phoebus and Marissa must battle against their despair and their peoples a quest for their freedom. And through it all, an Earthling and an Aresian will find it easier to fight gravity than their love for each other.

MY REVIEW:

Cherie Reich has put together another great sci-fi adventure in 'Fighting Gravity', the second book in her series, Gravity, with the tale of Phoebus and Marissa, as they fight for survival. First the two band together to escape the clutches of a group of vigilantly Earthlings, only to find they have to battle an Aresian battalion, sent by Phoebus's mother to extract his father's Daimon, a Symbian paired with Phoebus which also battles for control.

Marissa takes a chance to save a lone survivor of a space crash and finds the world she once knew is a turmoil of lost souls. She and Phoebus find love as they work together to survive on the surface of a ravaged Earth, fighting for their lives against many foes.

This sci-fi fantasy brings an interesting mix of love, friendship, trust and betrayal in a futuristic setting on Earth, where the two lost beings find one another and are brought together in a tale of their survival.

****

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$20 Amazon Gift Card!

Carolyn

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"E" - A TO Z CHALLENGE

Your hosts:
Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.



I have chosen a book by Kimberly Krey, 'Evie's Knight' to correspond with the Letter "C" for the A-Z Challenge.

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Evie's Knight

by Kimberly Krey 

Goodreads
Amazon

BLURB:
A steamy, yet clean Romance Novel.
When Evie falls in love with Calvin Knight, their young, virtuous romance conjures a truly wicked spell.

Evie always thought her eighteenth year would be magical, but so far it's not what she hoped for. Her best friend has gone wild, her love life is void, and she misses her mom more than ever. But life for Evie is about to change. Calvin Knight, the object of her fascination, is about to fall madly in love with her. Just one problem: Their love conjures a murderous woman from beyond the grave who wants Evie dead. The same demon who has haunted the Knight men for over four generations. Soon Calvin is forced to make a choice: Set Evie free and hope to evade the wrath of The Raven- haired Ghost, or use his newly gifted strengths to fight against her. If he chooses to fight and wins, Calvin will free the Knight men of this demonic witch. If he loses, Evie will become her next victim.

 MY REVIEW:

A girl, two brothers, and a sentinel named Fiona, from another realm, band together to take on a revengeful ghost, named Jocelyn, as they fight their family curse in Kimberly Krey's, "Evie's Knight." 

This is a paranormal love story with a twist, as Calvin learns of his powers, which have come as a gift to help him fight for Evie's life. Evie is threatened by the ghost of a woman who continues to rage revenge against the Knight family generation after generation, because her love was rejected by their great grandfather. Jocelyn endeavours to kill every woman a Knight man loves.

This story is well written and keeps it's readers intrigued as it unfolds with many different twists throughout the plot.  I found it quite an entertaining read and was swept up in the characters plight to fight off Jocelyn and break the curse.

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"D" - A TO Z CHALLENGE

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Arlee Bird at Tossing It Out, Damyanti Biswas at Amlokiblogs, Ninja Captain Alex J. Cavanaugh, Tina Downey at Life is Good, DL Hammons at Cruising Altitude 2.0, Jeremy Hawkins at Retro-Zombie, Shannon Lawrence at The Warrior Muse, Matthew MacNish at The QQQE, Konstanz Silverbow at No Thought 2 Small, Stephen Tremp at Breakthrough Blogs, Livia Peterson at Leave it to Livia, L. Diane Wolfe at Spunk on a Stick’s Tips, and Nicole at The Madlab Post.

Today, for letter "C" in the A to Z Challenge, I am featuring two books by Ali Cross. Sadly, Ali is unable to participate in this years Challenge due to personal reasons, but I am sure she will be stoked to be included in this post!

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DESOLATE (Desolation #2)
By
Ali Cross 
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Blurb: 

Where darkness lives, all becomes desolate . . .

It’s been two months since sixteen-year-old Desolation Black chose Earth over Hell and her friend Miri over her eternal love, Michael.

Desi goes through the motions of life: school, training, remaining vigilant against the forces of darkness, but her dreams are full of the choices she wishes she could change. When she’s injured by a strange demon, old temptations arise, and the lines between good and evil blur. Desi discovers those choices aren’t so final after all.

And this time, the power of love—for a friend, for a lover—may not be enough to save her from the darkness that lurks within


MY REVIEW:

'Desolate', Book Two of Desolation, by Ali Cross continues Desolation's story as she struggles with the two sides of her inner self - light and dark! A mixture of Greek mythology, angels and demons, this paranormal story brings readers into a new realm as the sides of good and evil try to persuade Desolation to 'Become.'

Trying to understand her love for Michael and her driving need to be loved by her father, Loki, the Lord of Darkness, Desolation is caught up in a personal struggle to decide whether to follow her lighter side or to delve deeper into the darkness within her.

I  have been swept into the fantasy world of this series and have found myself caught up in Desolation's struggle to follow the path before her.

Readers who like to be entranced by the fight between good and evil and enjoy stories about Angels and Demons will find this book an interesting read.


DESTINED (Desolation #3)
 By
Ali Cross 
Goodreads
Amazon
Smashwords
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BLURB:
Choosing is a bad idea, because Desi always makes the wrong one, and sometimes there are no do-overs. Certainly not this time, when all has been lost and Desi can’t even save herself, let alone her friends. For Desi, the hardest thing is letting someone help her, to accept their sacrifice on her behalf. But that’s exactly what she’ll have to do in order to save the worlds from Helena’s destruction.

The goddess of Helheimer, long imprisoned by Desi’s father, Loki, is free at last, and she’s bent on reclaiming what once was hers. The nine worlds will be drawn into war, over Hell, over Earth, with innocent humans meaningless collateral. While Michael and the Gardians of Asgard, along with the golden-armored Valkyrie lead the battle for freedom, it’s Desi who holds the destiny of all the worlds in her hands.

Can she set aside her doubts, once and for all, and claim the gifts that are hers to bear? Can she accept the sacrifice that is made for her and Become all that she was created to be?

Her final choice will define not only her future, but the fate of humankind, forever more.

 MY REVIEW:

The third book in the Desolation series, titled 'Destined' written by Ali Cross travels through Desolation's torments as she finds herself, and follows her decisions concerning what she wants to Become.

Her love for Michael is challenged as she finds herself in  situations where she needs to confront her feelings and make firm choices, which define not only her future, but also the future of the different worlds.

In 'Destined', Desolation also finds the love of her mother and discovers her heritage as she battles many foes, finding true friendship in her future.

An interesting paranormal love story where the reader connects with the characters and the storyline.



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