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2013 November
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Archives for November 2013


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Knight of Wands by SM Blooding #review


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by SM Blooding

Book 2 of the
Devices of War Trilogy

Genre: New Adult Fantasy Steampunk Adventure

Publisher: Blooding Books

Book Description: (Can be read as stand-alone)

Return to a world of mind blowing visuals, heart stopping action, and ships that sail the skies.

Nix, Queen of Wands, has exactly what she wants—Synn El’Asim, the greatest Mark the world has ever seen. Even though she bound his soul to hers, he is not easily controlled. If she wants him, she must do the one thing that pains her most. Let him go, and give him what he desires. Peace.

Armed with a treaty bearing Nix’s seal, Synn sets off to bridge the gap between the world’s two reigning tyrants—the Hands of Tarot and the Great Families. He struggles to trust Nix as he fights for control of his soul. He’s going to need every ounce of restraint when dealing with his mother, leader of the Great Families. She will not give up her power without a fight. Nix will honor her treaty only if Synn agrees to become her knight. His mother refuses to sign the peace agreement if he falls into the queen’s control.

Frustrated, Synn does the one thing neither woman saw coming. He invites all the tribes, currently voiceless in the war between these two ruling tyrants, to partake in the treaty negotiations. All they have to do is prove their worth in his Peace Games. As Synn’s influence and subsequent power grows, a new fight begins.

Who will control Synn’s League of Cities? Can he protect more people as a leader of the Great Families, or as the Knight of Wands?

Find on Goodreads Purchase for only $2.99 or Read for FREE with Prime!

Review:

I had never read a steampunk fantasy novel before I read Fall of Sky City.  I didn’t even know what it was.  But I forged ahead and read it and was completely amazed.  The author created such a fantastical world with unforgettable characters and I couldn’t wait to read this second installment.

The characters are growing and developing.  Synn is trying to figure out his role in the world.  And with some powerful and strong-minded women in the mix, he is in for a bit of a time of it.

He wants to do the right thing but as almost every turn, he is faced with those who want only what is best for them.  And one is his own mother.

And the villain. She is seriously evil and crazy. We find out a bit more about Nix in this one. We see a snippet of her past and it makes me think we will be learning even more about what made her into the deranged lunatic she is.  Talk about manipulative, I think if you look up that word in the dictionary, you’d see a picture of Nix. That woman seriously scares the crap of me.  And she is even scarier in this one, if that is possible.

There is also plenty of action of this one; I loved the games they created and seeing them figure out how to complete them. This would make such an awesome movie!

Read Fall of Sky City first; it’s incredible and will introduce you to this mind-blowing world and these characters. And you will be lucky since Knight of Wands is already out and you won’t have to wait for it. But then you’ll be with me, stalking the author until the next is released.

 

 

Fall of Sky CityFall of Sky City Book 1 :
Amazon – Kindle| Amazon – Paperback| Goodreads

Praise for Fall of Sky City

Wow! What did I just read?? The story was deliciously complex, full of fear, wonder, magic, gadgets, gizmos, one heck of a psycho Queen and wonderful friends. Every character brought something to the story, each with a unique personality that came to life through the book, each with their own fears to overcome. Victoria Limbert

I love the world Blooding has created. She managed to create it in a way that it combines specs of all my favorite movies, books, etc. It’s a mixture of young adult fantasy, steam punk, dystopia, sci-fi, paranormal and even some tiny bit of romance. Fall of Sky City is a diverse book that is intense, a little bit violent, and a whole lot of awesome! I look forward to reading the next book of the series! Unputdownable Books

SM Blooding is a new author to me, but this is definitely not the last book I’ll read by her. Synn El’Asim is a powerful character–the reader sees him grow from a young man who has not yet come into his power to a strong man who is courageous enough to fight for what he believes in–his family and his people. The world building Ms. Blooding does is nothing short of remarkable. A world composed of flying ships, ice worlds, danger, and intrigue. My World of Dreams

This book is action-packed and intense. You feel like you’re part of the drama. This story is intense. The action is perfectly paced. I had trouble putting the book down. I really felt for Synn from the very beginning. He goes through so much. As soon as he gets his mark, he is plunged into one situation after another. Queen Nix, who is horrifying by the way, pushes Synn to new levels, in more and more diabolical ways. With the help of friends and family, Synn becomes a strong leader. Waiting on Sunday to Drown

I’m amazed of the world Blooding has created and built. It has Sky, Land, and Water Cities. These cities each has its own technologies, language, and a whole different way of life. These worlds remind me a lot of Avatar the Last Airbender and Star Wars, which I both loved wholeheartedly. Bahrain Newspaper Article Review!

Meet the Author:

SM “Frankie” Blooding lives in Colorado with her pet rock, Rockie, and Jack the Bird. Jack has refused to let her to take up the piano again, but is warming to the guitar. It might help that Frankie has learned more than two strings. She’s added a few more Arabic words to her vocabulary, but don’t invite her into conversation yet—unless, of course, you’re willing to have a very . . . slow . . . conversation.

She’s dated vampires, werewolves, sorcerers, weapons smugglers and US Government assassins. Yes. She has stories.

She’s also an investigator with a local paranormal investigation group, Colorado Paranormal Rescue!

Find out more about her at:

Facebook /Twitter /Website

Follow the Book Tour



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The Shadow of the Revenaunt : Book 1, Rhidauna by Paul E. Horsman #Review


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by Paul E. Horseman

The night before his Coming-of-Age, Ghyll and his two friends escaped their castle on a clandestine hunt that would forever change their lives. They returned just in time to see their island castle destroyed by strange warriors from a dragonboat and flocks of burning birds.

Ghyll’s birthday turned into a nightmare as they fled into the night. This begins an epic journey to find out who is trying to kill them… and most importantly, why? Fortunately, they can count on colorful new friends to assist, including a sometimes overly enthusiastic fire mage, an inexperienced paladin and a female beastmaster who is a ferocious mountain lion. In a world filled with jealous priests, corrupt magistrates, bored aristocrats and power-hungry magicians, they try to survive dark wizards, murderous golems, and fire bird attacks. It soon becomes apparent that not one but several assassins are after them. Who are these members of an obscure, long-forgotten organization?
And whose cold hand reaches across the boundaries of space and time to threaten weakened Rhidauna?

While the time is running the friends undertake a quest that takes them to a large part of Rhidauna. Following them, the reader is carried along on an exciting journey through a colorful world, whose people, culture and atmosphere are described with great attention to detail without the story losing momentum.

Experience the quest! Grab your best travel clothes, strongest backpack and sharpest sword … or failing that, take an easy chair, a drink and this exciting book.

Buy on Amazon | Smashwords | B&N | Kobo

My review:

 

The Shadow of the Revenaunt starts off with three boys sneaking out to hunt wild boar. Their town is reduced to ashes while they are away and the action never stops. The author brings us along on their quest to find answers and it’s a ride you don’t want to miss!

Along the way we meet fantastic characters, experience new magical powers, and watch as they narrowly escape with their lives as they as pursued.

I loved the pace of the book; there weren’t any of those dull parts you have to muddle through to get to the good stuff. The author brings you there and explains everything through the action and dialogue. He paints a vibrant description of the surroundings; I almost felt like I was there with his use of smell, sounds, and visuals.

The main character is just what a main character should be….he is brave and tries to be just.  But he is also vulnerable and second-guesses himself and even makes mistakes.  That makes him real to me and someone I would want to meet.  The other characters make up a great supporting cast, with their own powers and strengths to add to the mix.

I had read Shardfall by the author and really enjoyed it so I knew I was in for a treat and I was not disappointed. I think I even liked this one more!  You do find out the answer to the quest but there still more to come and I can’t wait!

 

 

About the Author:

Paul E (Erik) Horsman (1952)

Lives in Roosendaal, The Netherlands.

I was born in the year 1952, in the Dutch town of Bussum, a sleepy, well-to-do place that was home to many artists, musicians, writers and publishers. As my family were neither artists nor well-to-do, we moved when I was nine.

When I was seventeen, I started my career as paperclip counter with a worldwide Dutch producer of baby food. After some months, I was finished counting, and I looked around for something more interesting.

A love of books drove me to work in a small bookstore in Rotterdam. An ancient establishment, since 1837, in an old building just too far away from the city’s modern shopping center. It was a nice job, but there wasn’t any future in it. Still, I left it a licensed bookseller.

In 1972 I had to do my stitch for Queen and Country, and as a bad back tied me to a desk job, I applied for a posting overseas. For the Army, that meant Surinam, then still a member of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, and one of the most beautiful. Once you’ve seen the jungle, you will never forget it.

To keep it short, I stayed in business, slowly climbing the ladder, until in 1995 I changed direction. That year I joined a large educational institution, at a school specialized in Dutch language and integration courses for foreigners. That meant immigrants, refugees and international businessmen, an interesting mix. It was great work, on the one side teaching crash courses Dutch to high-powered people (we got a lot of very well-educated refugees) and on the other teaching reading and writing to people who had never ever held a pen before, let alone a computer. To see them growing was a reward in itself.

Unhappily, due to changed legislation the language school closed in mid-2012.

In the meantime, I had started my first book (Rhidauna) in 2009 and it got published by Zilverspoor Publishers just before I got laid off. As my age, five years from retirement, made it nigh on impossible to find something else, I started building a career as an independent author.

SF and Fantasy have fascinated me since my high school days, but apart from some juvenile trash, I never seriously tried to write anything. But after several false starts and associated discouraged intervals, a spark began to grow and mid-2010, the first two parts of Shadow of the Revenaunt were more or less written.

My style is probably a bit old-fashioned, Fantasy as a heroic tale with sympathetic heroes/heroines and black villains, in which good always triumphs in the end.

I don’t use my characters as cannon fodder; they get hurt, but their dying is rare.

One of the other elements in my writing I think important is, that both male and female characters have their own lives and goals. Most of them exist primarily for themselves, not as a prop or a love interest for other MC’s. The only character who did die, was actually a prop and I had him killed just to take that away from my lead MC.

 

Follow Paul: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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Fighting to Forgive by JB Salsbury #Excerpt


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Fighting to Forgive

by JB Salsbury

What do you do when everything you avoid, turns out to be exactly what you need?

Easy and predictable, just the way he likes it, Blake Daniels flies through life the way he burns through women: on his terms, no regrets.

With his fighting career in full swing, he’s on the threshold of title contention. But when his training is compromised by injury, the stakes grow impossibly higher. The rage that fuels his punches also chips away at his focus, and he risks losing everything he cares about.

He won’t let that happen. Not again.

Layla’s through with men. After a marriage that never should’ve happened, she hopes to reclaim the pieces of the woman she lost years ago.

Emotional abuse has left her insecure and terrified. A master at faking what she’s not feeling, she masks her self-doubt in false confidence.

She’ll never let another man hurt her. Not again.

Chased by shadows of the past, Blake and Layla know what they don’t want, but their hearts have a different plan. As a web of lies and betrayal threatens to destroy them, they’re forced to make a choice.

Is love enough to heal even the deepest wounds?

 

Excerpt:

I turn and head to my car before she closes the door. If I stand there for another second, I’m not going to be responsible for what kind of naked happens next.
She’s got an ugly past, a teenage kid who’s working through some crap, and a serious case of the emotional yo-yos. The whole situation screams trouble. Annoyance. Waste of time.
But all I hear is, Don’t let her go.

 

Purchase:

Fighting For Flight (Book 1) on Amazon

Fighting to Forgive on Amazon 


Author Bio:

Bestselling author JB Salsbury lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and two kids. She spends the majority of her day as a domestic engineer. But while she works through her daily chores, a world of battling alphas, budding romance, and impossible obstacles claws away at her subconscious, begging to be released to the page.

Her love of good storytelling led her to earn a degree in Media Communications. With her journalistic background, writing has always been at the forefront, and her love of romance prompted her to sink her free time into novel writing.

Fighting for Flight is her first novel in the MMA romance series.

For more information on the series or just to say hello, visit JB on her Website, Facebook, Twitter, Goodreads.

Follow the Book Tour!




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Love by Deception: Book 2, Age of Innocence by Debra Elizabeth


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Love by Deception

Book 2, Age of Innocence
Blurb:

Content with her life as a lady’s maid, Isabel Knott learns the father she never knew has left her a fortune. The news comes with one restriction–she can never reveal his name. Isabel falls in love with Colby Tisbury, but with her nonexistent pedigree his father, Lord Tisbury, will never accept her as his daughter-in-law.

Colby Tisbury must marry, and soon. If he doesn’t find a bride before the end of the Season, his father will supply one. Then Colby meets sassy Isabel Knott, and everything changes–but can he go against his father’s wishes and marry a girl utterly lacking in family and connections? Isabel is forced to make an impossible choice – reveal her secret identity and bring shame to her true father or lose Colby forever.

Amazon /BN

Debra L Martin

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Sweet Magic Song by Olivia Hardin #Review #BookBlast


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pbt blast banner

Sweet Magic Song - Large

Belle Bittner was sold to the highest bidder when she was just a child, sought for the magic lying dormant in her blood. She grew up as the adopted daughter of a wealthy vampire couple, and serving the child-trafficking Org seemed her only option in life. But Belle has other plans, and she won’t let anyone get in the way of her escape, even if it means betraying those who try to help her.

Desperate to stay free of an evil vampire who means to possess her no matter what, Belle decides she can use the protection of the flirtatious faery named Roon. The two of them flee to the faery realm where Rooney believes he can better protect her. What he doesn’t know is that taking the bea

utiful siren through the golden door will set off a cataclysm of events that will threaten the fabric of both the human and the faery worlds.

Separating myth from fact to decipher the truth about her powers could mean the destruction of the new life Belle’s trying so hard to build.

 

My Review:

When I read the Bend-Bite-Shift series, I fell in love. There were plenty of characters to fall for but I fell for a very flirtatious faery named Rooney. He was a minor character but I loved his spunky personality. He was so much fun. So when I found out there was going to be a book with him as the main character, I couldn’t wait to get my hands on it!

So, Roon (as I call him) is front and center. He decides to follow a beautiful witch and 3 children in her charge to see what she is up to and ends up helping them. And of course a little romance is in order. Roon being his adorable sexy self, who could resist? Not me, that’s for sure.

This book has it all…paranormal characters, danger, action, passion…sigh. Did I mention Roon is sexy as hell? I love the pace of it as we move from our realm to the faery realm. I seriously would love to go there. The way the author describes it, I can picture it in my head and it is gorgeous.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot but they must work together to save her and the children. And Roon is in full hot knight-in-shining mode. Belle, the witch, is no slouch either. This woman has guts. Strong woman are great to read. I am more than willing to share my Roon with her. I guess.

I am so glad the author decided to give Roon his own book. He is so much fun to read with his mischievous ways. So go get a copy and check out my Roon…I will share him with you for a bit. But only a bit.

 

Amazon

Barnes & Noble

Smashwords

iTunes and Kobo coming soon.

azaleapicAbout the Olivia:

When Olivia Hardin began having movie-like dreams in her teens, she had no choice but to begin putting them to paper. Before long, the writing bug had her and she knew she wanted to be a published author. Several rejections plus a little bit of life later, and she was temporarily “cured” of the urge to write. That is until she met a group of talented and fabulous writers who gave her the direction and encouragement she needed to get lost in the words again.

Olivia’s attended three different universities over the years and toyed with majors in Computer Technology, English, History and Geology. Then one day she heard the term road scholar and she knew that was what she wanted to be. Now she “studies” anything and everything just for the joy of learning. She’s also an insatiable crafter who only completes about 1 out of 5 projects, a jogger who hates to run, and she’s sometimes accused of being artistic.

A native Texas girl, Olivia lives in the beautiful Lone Star state with her husband, Danny and their puppy, Bonnie.

Connect with Olivia and Get information about
releases, contests, news and more here:

Website

Blog

Newsletter

Twitter

Facebook Fan Page


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