Cold Killing by: Luke Delaney

Title: Cold Killing
Author: Luke Delaney
Publisher: William Morrow
Pages: 437
Series: D.I Sean Corrigan #1
Format: Arc Paperback
Source: Partners In Crime Book Tour
Purchase: Amazon | Barnes and Noble

Description:

Terrifyingly authentic, London-set debut crime novel with a psychological edge, by an ex-Met detective. Perfect for fans of Mark Billingham, Peter James and Stuart MacBride.

DI Sean Corrigan is not like other detectives. The terrible abuse he suffered in childhood hasn’t stopped him enjoying family life with his wife and two daughters, or pursuing an impressive career with South London’s Murder Investigation Unit. But it has left him with an uncanny ability to identify the darkness in others – a darkness he recognizes still exists deep within his own psyche and battles to keep buried there. Now Sean’s on the trail of the most dangerous killer he’s ever encountered. The perpetrator has no recognizable MO, leaves no forensic evidence and his victims have nothing in common. But Sean knows they were all murdered by the same man. Now all he has to do is find the evidence, convince his bosses and stop the killing …before his adversary gets too close to home…

My Thoughts:

Early in this book we walk through the crime with the murderer as he kills a young man named Daniel Graydon who was a gay man who charged his clients for sexual services.  Next we get meet D. I Sean Corrigan who has this ability to know what the killer thinks and how he killed his victim.  All clues lead to one killer, but Corrigan is positive that their suspect has committed crimes before.  Even though his record appears squeaky clean Corrigan’s gut says there is more to this than meets the eye.

This book takes place in South London, which has different lingo but still a great story with fabulous characters and makes you wonder to what extent will Corrigan and his team go to get their bad guy.  This book was full of action and a big case of cat and mouse chase.  This book would be great for anyone who loves James Patterson’s Private series or British based crime books.  Definitely a great read and really entertaining.  I loved it.

The Bronze and The Brimstone by: Lory S. Kaufman Tour

Title: The Bronze and The Brimstone
Author: Lory S. Kaufman
Publisher: Fiction Studio Books
Pages: 334
Format: Paperback
Source: Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Description:

What could go wrong in the 14th-century
for three time-traveling teens?
How about – EVERYTHING!

Hansum, Shamira and Lincoln, three teens from the 24th-century, are trapped in 14th-century Verona, Italy. They’ve survived many deadly experiences by keeping their wits about them and by introducing futuristic technology into the past. Principal among these inventions is the telescope, which brought them to the attention to the rich and powerful.

But standing out can get you into unexpected and dangerous situations. The nobles of Verona now believe Hansum is a savant, a genius inventor, especially after he brings them plans for advanced cannons and black powder. Being the center of attention is great, but the potential for trouble is now exponentially greater because people are watching Hansum’s every move.

Meanwhile, artistic genius Shamira has fallen for a Florentine artist with bloody and disasterous consequences. Lincoln, considered an incompetent back home in the 24th-century, has blossomed – at least until he’s shot in the head with an arrow. And Hansum, after secretly marrying his new master’s beautiful daughter, Guilietta, is offered the hand in marriage of lady Beatrice, daughter of the ruler of Verona. To refuse could mean calamity for all the teens.

Amazingly, none of this is their biggest challenge. Because a rash illness is spreading across Verona – and it is threatening to consume everyone.

Do they have a future in this past?

My Thoughts:

This book was provided to me via Pump Up Your Book Promotions for a honest and fair review, these thoughts are mine and mine alone.  With that being said this book was incredible.  Our three young friends pick up where they left off with Romero and Guilietta married in a secret ceremony which creates all sorts of problems when the master won’t approve of their marriage without the blessing of the Podesta who has plans for Romero which include marrying him to his daughter.

Shamira starts to fall for a guy who has his own secret agenda including obtaining a looker for his boss, who has promised him all sorts of things to get him to cooperate.  When Lincoln, Guilietta and the master figure out what is going on they rush to the aid of Shamira.  And then there is Romero who has been moved to where the Podesta resides to make gun powder for cannons.

How long til their secrets really mess up this century.  This book was full of so much going on.  From a hidden romance to keeping Pan a secret which Romero is listening to less and less.  I would definitely put this up there with so many dystopians out there right now.  A book well worth buying!

Goodnight, Brian by: Steven Manchester

Title: Goodnight, Brian
Author: Steven Manchester
Publisher: The Story Plant
Pages: 307
Format: Paperback
Source: Providence Book Promotions

Description:
Fate was working against little Brian Mauretti. The food that was meant to nourish him was poisoning him instead, and the doctors said the damage was devastating and absolute. Fate had written off Brian. But fate didn’t count on a woman as determined as Brian’s grandmother, Angela DiMartino – who everyone knew as Mama. Loving her grandson with everything she had, Mama endeavored to battle fate. Fate had no idea what it was in for.

An emotional tale about the strength of family bonds, unconditional love, and the perseverance to do our best with the challenging gifts we receive, GOODNIGHT, BRIAN is an uplifting tribute to what happens when giving up is not an option.

My Thoughts:

What a great book when little Brian Mauretti is born his grandmother known as Mama picks up the slack and bargains deals with God to help her grandson.  Through the book we learn of faith with various family members.  Brian’s cousin’s show all sorts of love and acceptance as does Brian’s younger sister.  Brian’s older brother Russ protects and cares for his brother is amazing.  He defends Brian against bullies and people that don’t understand him, while learning that you can’t always fight your brothers battles.

We also learn what caused his disabilities a bad formula, which in this book helped pass a bill to protect other babies.  The up and downs the families endure is so emotional it will make anyone cry.  This book reminds me of ones written by Lisa Genova and Melissa Foster.  The impact of this story was just so powerful!  We could all learn from Mama in this book!

Book Spotlight: The Killer Poet’s Guide to Immortality

ABOUT AB BARD:

Reclusive Seattle author AB Bard’s poetry has twice been nominated for the Pushcart. He is the author under a pseudonym of two other hysterical novels, or perhaps historical novels, neither of which is funny. Mr. Bard is not now, nor has he ever been, a member of the Republican Party. Mr. Bard does not Tweet. He was awarded a sheepskin (BAaa) from Reed College Sleeper Cell. His one super power is the ability to repel all conventional measures of literary success. Mr. Bard is lap to a cat, pal to a girl, God to a dog, & dog to the Man.

To find out more, please visit him at http://www.abbard.com
Description: The Killer Poet’s

ABOUT THE KILLER POET’S GUIDE TO IMMORTALITY:

The Killer Poet’s Guide to Immortality is the riveting tale of a frustrated poet who decides that the best way to get his work read is by pinning it to corpses with a dagger. Alternately profound and hilarious, this novel chronicles in rapid-fire succession AB Bard’s obsessive murder spree, rise to media notoriety, capture, trial, and execution by lethal injection.

Then it presses further, into the future . . .

Phoebe Pope and the Year of Four by: Nya Jade

Title: Phoebe Pope and The Year of Four
Author: Nya Jade
Publisher: Dreamwell Publishing
Pages: 335
Source: Pump Up Your Book Promotions
Format: Paperback

Description:
The students of Green Lane Academy roam their halls unaware that below their manicured campus exists a prestigious school of an entirely different kind . . .

Sixteen-year-old Phoebe Pope has enrolled at the Campus Below: a spy academy for shape-shifters hidden deep beneath the grounds of a boarding school whose humans unknowingly protect it. There, thanks to a carefully planned schedule, she leads a double life: spy trainee Below and normal teenager Above.

As if two course loads, concealing a secret power she alone wields, and coping with her father’s recent death weren’t enough, Phoebe finds herself developing major feelings for actor and teen heartthrob Colten Chase, who attends the Campus Above and appears to be majoring in winning Phoebe’s heart. But when officials learn that Phoebe may be at the center of a startling prophecy, she becomes the target of shape-shifting assassins who will stop at nothing to suppress the truth.

Now Phoebe’s lessons about Shaper’s enemies and spycraft take on great importance as a menace stalks the campus, with Phoebe as its target. Meanwhile, what began as an unlikely relationship with Colten, quickly morphs into heartache when she suspects that something sinister lurks beneath this movie star’s glitter and fame. Suddenly, Phoebe’s caught in a mesh of lies, betrayals, and danger where she doesn’t know who to trust, and needs to rely on herself—and her secret power—to get to the truth and to stay alive.

My Thoughts:

Phoebe Pope is starting school at the Campus Below where up until recently her application hadn’t been sent in.  With the death of her father she and her grandfather get her enrolled in school so she can do what her father did.  There she meets the Hollywood Actor Colten Chase who seems to be more than he appears and he has eyes for Phoebe.  There are four Hypa’s who are in danger from the Vigo, Phoebe is one of them.

While I was reading this parts of it felt like reading Harry Potter but so much better. Phoebe seems to have so much going on especially with the hottie Colten.  He is mysterious and sends her hearts fluttering.  We also meet her friends Hayley, her roommate Cyn.  Who both know all things about Colten atleast according to the tabloids.  When Phoebe learns about Colten and what he is she keeps his secret.

I enjoyed reading this book it was great on so many levels, with the mystery of certain characters, adventure, romance, and a whole different world existing in our normal world.  Definitely a great up and coming author!

The Disappearance by: Susan Berliner

Title: The Disappearance
Author: Susan Berliner
Pages: 240
Publisher: SRB Books
Format: Paperback
Source: Pump Up Your Book Promotions

Description:

When Jillian Keating is arrested for the murder of her missing boyfriend, Ryan Cornell, she has two immediate questions: Why did he frame her—and where is he hiding?

Using her own ingenuity, plus the help of a resourceful lady lawyer and a dashing young private investigator, Jillian discovers the surprising—and disturbing—answers. Her boyfriend is not what he appears to be. The real Ryan, consumed with hate, has devised an ingenious scheme to destroy her while he escapes into the past via a hidden time travel portal. But even knowing all this, Jillian is left with a more difficult question: How can she capture Ryan and bring him back?

Filled with memorable characters, bizarre twists, and riveting suspense, The Disappearance culminates with an elaborate sting operation as Jillian and her friends travel through time to lure Ryan into their clever trap. If they succeed, she will go free. But if they fail, Jillian will surely face murder charges for the death of Ryan Cornell.

My Thoughts:

Unlike most time travel books this one picks up quickly. First with a heated discussion/fight between Jillian and Ryan, then a totally different Ryan decides to go for a walk after incriminating the heck out of his girlfriend and leaving her on the hook for his murder.

Jillian dumbfounded by all this learns an awful lot about her “boyfriend” about how he wasn’t the right guy for her or even close to being in love with her blaming her for a long ago car accident that affected them both.

This book had lots of twists and turns I really enjoyed how they tricked Ryan to catch him and how Jillian moved on with her life.

Michael Baron Guest Post Author of Leaves

Guest Post by: Michael Baron

I’m not a person who has trouble distinguishing work time from family time. I work very, very hard, but when I’m with my loved ones, I try as much as I can to give them all of me. This does not mean, though, that I don’t occasionally allow myself to think, that could work in a story when I’m with them. This happened to the extreme during an overnight at a bed and breakfast with my wife.

On the recommendation of my publisher, we’d gone to the Deacon Timothy Pratt Inn in Old Saybrook, CT. We love Connecticut in the early fall because of how gorgeous the changing leaves are. We’re hardly alone in this; when we arrived at the inn, we shared coffee with a couple who’d arrived from London the night before for the express purpose of “leaf-peeping.” As we settled into our room, I looked out the window on a beautiful New England street. Suddenly, the idea of writing a novel set in a small New England town about a family that owns an inn leapt into my head.

As my wife and I strolled the street that day, passing Colonial-era houses bearing placards with the names of the original seventeenth-century owners, the notion of creating a novel in this setting insinuated itself further. My extended family was going through some big changes at that point, and it dawned on me that close relationships can often be like the leaves in fall – they’re the most beautiful just before they die. That was it for me. At that moment, the entire basic story of my novel Leaves was in my mind. I would invent a small Connecticut town something like Old Saybrook. I find this area especially fascinating because it’s an unusual combination of small-town America and the urban sensibility that comes from proximity to both New York and Boston. I would then put a large family in that town, exploring their individual stories. And at the center of it, I would tell about a moment of transition in the life cycle of this family, symbolized by the changing and the falling of the leaves.

While I hate to let my wife know that my mind sometimes drifts to work when I’m alone with her, I had to tell her about this. She knew how unusual it was for an entire story to engage me at once. Fortunately, she forgave me. And she liked the idea for the novel as well, which was a relief.

The Adventure of Tilda Pinkerton by: Angela Shelton

Title: The Adventure of Tilda Pinkerton
Author: Angela Shelton
Publisher: Quiet Owl Books
Pages: 247
Series: Book 1: Crash-Landing on Ooleeoo
Format: Paperback
Source: Premiere Virtual Book Tours

Description:

A modern Mary Poppins in space.

In the middle of cosmic danger, the electrifying secret that Tilda Pinkerton, the magical hat maker, hides from the children she teaches – becomes her most miraculous gift, securing the safety of the planet she crashes on.

Somewhere out in the Sombrero Galaxy, Tilda Pinkerton–mystical maker of mysterious, magnificent, magical hats–is being hunted by the Keeper of Darkness.

Yet Tilda simply does not recall, at all, after taking a tremendous fall.

No one on Ooleeoo, where Tilda crash-landed, knows she is from another planet. Only Star Jumper Randy can tell her—but he’s light years away, frantically searching for his missing love, desperate that without her, the entire galaxy soon may be lost.

Even in the middle of cosmic danger, Tilda loves to create hats, for which she has a rare and uncanny knack. All who receive them sparkle, in fact—and spark their innermost talent. With a Tilda hat, people can suddenly do whatever they dream of, causing brilliant ideas to grow madly.

With Gladys the toad, who thinks she’s a cat, and Frank the fish, who lives in her hat, Tilda must discover who she is and what her enemy wants from her so badly.

But the Mayor of Moodle has other plans, including a ban on all wearing of hats, everywhere on Ooleeoo. His dark and forbidding actions seem to coincide with something unworldly, threatening all with a nameless dread and slowly blacking out the sky. With Ooleeoo itself turning upside down, how can anyone survive?

In this first in a series of Tilda Pinkerton adventures, Tilda must fight the battle of her life and risk all—even the galaxy and stars—by revealing her most electrifying secret.

My Thoughts:

This book was sent to me for a honest and fair review.  The cover picture is beautiful to say the least.  I love the vibrant colors that are in it.

The story begins with Tilda Pinkerton crash landing onto Ooleeoo where she resides for three years stranded.  Tilda creates hats for people and teaches the children at school.  The Mayor of Moodle is against everything to do with Tilda.  He bans school and the hats. Because he thinks the people are acting too foolishly about them.  He recruits those who are angry at residents who’ve gotten hats because they haven’t gotten any yet.  Little do they know little bugs in their ears are advising them badly.

Star Jumper Randy is trying to find a way to get in contact with Tilda to tell her what is happening.  But with her antenna bent from the crash to Ooleeoo she isn’t getting messages.  Randy finally gets an assignment to track strange black bugs and capture them and report back.  Finding out what is controlling them he proceeds against his boss to track down Tilda and find her.  He is surprised to find her alive and well even with a bent antenna.  Randy helps Tilda find her purpose and help the residents of Ooleeoo.

In this story I enjoyed the characters which there are many.  They all seem to have strong opinions to different degrees.  There is lots of adventure of creativity in this story, I loved how the author was able to weave the story together.  This book went very quickly and I didn’t find any slow areas. Can’t wait to see what happens in the next book and where Tilda is?  Definitely a book that can be read in a day!!

One Moment in Time by: Glenn Snyder

Title: One Moment In Time
Author: Glenn Snyder
Publisher: Bear Moose Press
Pages: 270
Format: ebook
Source: Premiere Virtual Author Book Tours

Description:

On a stormy November evening, Jack Barrett had plans to treat his best friend Travis to a night of fine dining and jazz. As they neared their destination, a truck ran a red light, plowing through Jack’s car, and changing his life forever. Jack found a new outlook on life, and took on adventures that made him one of the world’s most admired people. With each step, Jack grew as a person and a leader; piecing together a family from different corners of the world, while risking himself and his family to save others. Jack’s impact on the world was like no other, but in the end, when the lights and the cameras were gone, Jack was about to die, or was he? Prepare yourself for a surprising ending that questions the very nature between life and death, reality and dream.

My Thoughts:

Jack Barrett has a car accident and manages to overcome it and lead an exciting life.  First he travels to Milan Italy, and meets Maggy who becomes his wife then he meets Ana a girl living in Mexico who escaped the Mafia.  All this is being told as an interviewer is conducting an interview with a older Jack Barrett.  Jack decides to live his life to the fullest and get the most out of people he meets and helps.  Which leads him from Governor of California all the way up to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House.  The details that get him there were beautiful told.  From a train crash in San Francisco to helping Teachers and State Education Board and Students to get what they need out of the Education kids are granted.  Jack seems almost too good to be true when the spotlight ends the story is finished and so is Jack.

We find out Jack is back to that fateful night in November and the car accident, did everything he talk about happen or was it a dream?  Definitely an edge of your seat adventure.  I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Jack Barrett and what he went through and over came.

Death In The Memorial Garden by: Kathie Deviny

Title: Death in the Memorial Garden
Author: Kathie Deviny
Publisher: Camel Press
Publication Date: October 15,2012
Pages: 141

Description:

Just as the sexton is about to inter the ashes of one of Grace Church’s last wealthy patronesses in the Memorial Garden, he unearths a wine crate containing the ashes of an unknown. Next to the ashes is a distinctive pair of shoes. Not only are the woman’s relatives furious at the interruption, but they soon have grounds for a lawsuit: yet another piece of the church’s tower comes crashing to the ground.
With their congregation dwindling and their world literally falling in around them, Father Robert Vickers and his colorful staff members and volunteers put their heads together to solve the mystery of the anonymous ashes and find the means to save Grace Church from the developers … all in time for the Bishop’s visit.

My Thoughts:

This was a great cozy that takes place in Grace’s Church where the church is having some issues.  First the Church is falling apart and the pastor is feeling depressed, secondly while burying the ashes of a church member the congregation finds a pair of patent leather shoes and a box of ashes.  It is up to the members to find out what is going on.  Meanwhile someone also used this to murder another church member who spent time with birds.

This book was typical cozy mystery with a big mystery to solve and colorful characters to meet I look forward to reading her next book!