Taking over the world, one book at a time
8.12.13
Cover Reveal of Laura Kaye’s “Hard As You Can”
Cover Reveal of Stacey Kennedy’s “Bet on Ecstasy”
8.13.13
Spotlight feature, excerpt & tour wide giveaway of First Surrender by Katie Reus
8.14.13
Twilight Hunter Review & Giveaway
8.15.13
8.16.13
Interview & giveaway with Grace Burrows
Interview & tour wide giveaway with Lilliana Anderson
8.17.13
SINsational Saturday Series
Today Nyrae Dawn and Entangled Teen are revealing the cover for SEARCHING FOR BEAUTIFUL, which releases on March 4, 2014.
Before, Brynn had a group of best friends, a loving boyfriend, a growing talent for pottery. She had a life. And after…she had none.
When Brynn lost the boyfriend who never loved her, the friends who feel she betrayed their trust, and the new life just beginning to grow inside her, she believes her future is as empty as her body. But then Christian, the boy next door, starts coming around. Playing his guitar and pushing her to create art once more. She meets some new friends at the local community center, plus even gets her dad to look her in the eye again…sort of.
But can Brynn open up her heart to truly find her life’s own beauty, when living for the after means letting go of the before?
Goodreads/Amazon/Barnes & Noble
**Excerpt**
Christian looks at me. I wait for a smart-aleck reply or a smile but get neither. Just his blue eyes sucking me in like a whirlpool. “That’s what I thought you would say. So you just have to keep fighting for it. Keep fighting to get it back.”
My eyes won’t leave his and his won’t leave mine. And he’s cute. God, he’s so cute, I just want to focus on his cuteness. I want that to be all that matters. When his hand comes up and cups my cheek, I gasp. He brushes his thumb under my eye and licks his lips and I’m frozen and on fire and close to having a heart attack and anxious all at the same time.
Slowly, he leans forward and I know he’s giving me time. And my heart is leaping and I want to feel his lips. This is Christian. The boy who asked me to dance. The boy I ran to my mom about and told her that I loved. And now he’s my friend. The first person who has made me feel normal since everything happened.
But I’m so scared. Scared of messing it up. Scared he’ll decide he doesn’t want me. Scared of losing him. Of getting hurt.
He gets closer and I smell his sweet, sugary scent. See his mouth and wet lips and that hair I want to touch.
See the one person besides Emery who I have. The one person I can’t lose. “Wait,” I say and Christian stops moving. He’s still close. So very, very close that his lips are only an inch away from mine. “I’m scared,” I admit.
“I won’t hurt you.”
And I swear a part of me believes him. Maybe all of me. But how do I know if that’s the right decision or not?
He runs his hand down my face and touches my hair. Love that he’s not nervous to do it the way I am with him and I watch his fingers, brown against my red hair.
“Go out with me, Bryntastic. Let’s go do something this weekend. Don’t keep running. I won’t even try to kiss you again unless you tell me to. Or I’ll wait for you to do it. Just let go. Live.”
His words are what I want. I want them so badly and they sound so perfect that it’s hard not to just scream, “Yes!” right now. “Why?” I ask him. “Why are you so nice to me?”
I love his strength. Love that he doesn’t even hesitates before saying, “Because you were my first crush. Because I used to watch you conqueror anything and used to listen to you laugh with your friends. You were happy and I loved your smile. Because I had to work up the courage to ask you to dance and I did, and then I left and the one thing I missed was that smile. I watched my sister lose hers and watched my family fall apart and when I came back here? I wanted to see your smile again. Because you’re beautiful when you smile and you’ve lost it now. I want you to conquer this because what the hell is the purpose in it all if the first girl I ever danced with loses her smile?”
I don’t realize I’m crying until Christian wipes my tears. “You think I’m beautiful?”
About the Author:
Writing has always been Nyrae Dawn’s passion. There have been times in her life where she wasn’t able to chase that dream the way she desired, but she always found her way back to telling stories. One of her loves has always been writing about teens. There’s something so fresh and fun about the age that she loves exploring. Her husband says it’s because she doesn’t want to grow up. She doesn’t think that’s such a bad thing and luckily for her, he doesn’t either. Nyrae gravitates toward character-driven stories. She loves going on emotional journeys with characters whether it be reading or writing. And yes, she’s a total romantic at heart and proud.
Nyrae resides in sunny Southern California with her husband (who still makes her swoon) and her two awesome kids. When she’s not with her family, you can be pretty sure you’ll find her with a book in her hand or her laptop and an open document in front of her.
She writes for Entangled Publishing, Grand Central Publishing and is self-published. Nyrae is represented by Jane Dystel of Dystel and Goderich Literary Management.
Website/Twitter/Facebook/Goodreads
Also enter below for a paperback of the book or an eBook!
I’m happy to be hosting Erika Chase today to review her new book in the Ashton Corners Book Club series, Read and Buried. Her first book, A Killer Read, was nominated for an Agatha Award for Best First Novel last year.
A Killer Read, is the first in the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries from Berkley Prime Crime.
Reading specialist and mystery book lover Lizzie Turner was excited for the first meeting of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society hosted in Molly Mathew’s old Southern mansion. But she didn’t expect the gathering to become the scene of an actual murder. A stranger has been shot–and nobody knows who the victim is, or how Molly’s antique gun came to be used as the murder weapon.
As the plot becomes all too real, the police chief–Lizzie’s former high school crush–steps in to investigate. Then Lizzie begins finding mysterious manuscript chapters in her mailbox, and Molly surfaces as the next name on the killer’s list.
About the Author:
Erika writes the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries for Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime. In a parallel life Erika Chase is also known as Linda Wiken. A former mystery bookstore owner (Prime Crime Books in Ottawa, ON, Canada), Linda is also a short story writer. She is a member of those dangerous dames, The Ladies’ Killing Circle.
Her short stories have appeared in the seven Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies (three of which she co-edited), and in the magazines Mysterious Intent and Over My Dead Body. She has been short-listed for an Arthur Ellis Award, Best Short Story, from Crime Writers of Canada.
Before life in the world of mystery, she worked as an advertising copywriter, radio producer, journalist and community education worker. Besides writing and reading mysteries, her other passion is choral singing and she is a member of two choirs.
She shares her house with Keesha and Mojo, her two Siamese cats. Actually, they allow her to live there.
Connect with Erika Chase: Website | Facebook | Twitter
Jennifer’s Review of Read and Buried
TITLE: Read and Buried
SERIES #: Ashton Corners Book Club #2
CHARACTERS: Lizzie Turner, Molly Mathews
AUTHOR: Erika Chase
PUBLICATION DATE: 12/4/12
BOOK SYNOPSIS: Hosting an award-winning novelist is quite a Christmas coup for the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society. But when he’s murdered in Lizzie Turner’s house, she’s got a holiday homicide on her hands.
For their very first guest author event, most of the book club members can’t wait to pull out all the stops in Southern hospitality. But for Lizzie, Derek Alton is nothing but trouble–from his massive ego to his smarmy moves. When he’s found murdered in her living room, it seems someone decided that this womanizing writer would be better off dead than read.
After suspicion falls on Lizzie’s friend, she and her fellow book club members discover that Derek wasn’t who he pretended to be. Cracking this case means going up against Lizzie’s boyfriend, police chief Mark Dreyfus, and unearthing a novel’s worth of nasty secrets. And as they get closer to uncovering Derek’s scandalous final manuscript, someone hiding in plain sight is out to write finis to Lizzie’s sleuthing for good….
REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Jennifer NUMBER OF STARS: Four Stars
REVIEW: I was very impressed with Erika’s first book, A Killer Read, and I’m glad to say that her new novel is more entertaining than her first. The book starts out with Lizzie going to the local bookstore and meeting author, Derek Alton, whom she invites to speak at the next book club meeting. Derek is a very charming guy at first but that quickly changes as he becomes an egotistical jerk who makes one too many romantic passes at Lizzie. The next day, he turns up at Lizzie’s house unannounced and ends up being shot in the middle of her living room. Lizzie and the other members of her book club start investigating Derek’s death and find that things aren’t what they seem while there is a killer still out on the loose, looking to stop anyone from finding out the truth about Derek Alton.
One of the things that I love about this book is the characters, especially Lizzie Turner. She is a very sweet character with a good heart and a love of mystery books. I felt that I really connected with her in this book and I loved how she was always helping others as a reading specialist. The mystery was well-written and I had trouble figuring out the killer until the very end. There is also a list of mystery books that each character recommends at the end of the book that has me wanting to make a run to my local bookstore. Read and Buried is a charming mystery that will keep you entertained and wanting to read more from this fabulous author.
I am happy for Books-n-Kisses to host Victoria Hamilton as part of the Cozy Mystery Book Tour for her new novel Bowled Over. This is the second novel in A Vintage Kitchen Mystery and I am delighted to have Victoria Hamilton here with us today.
Interview with Victoria Hamilton
1 – Tell us about your new release.
Bowled Over is Book 2 in my Vintage Kitchen Mystery series. Jaymie Leighton, the main character, tries to solve a decades old feud between her and her best friend from high school. Things don’t quite turn out how she hoped, and something of hers turns out to be the weapon in another murder in Queensville, Michigan.
2. Where did you come up with the idea for the Vintage Kitchen Mysteries?
You could say it was right in front of me the whole time! I was casting about for a hook for a cozy series, something to tie it all up together, and one thing I love is collecting vintage kitchen utensils and bowls, etc. It suddenly occurred to me, what is more cozy than the kitchen? And so Jaymie Leighton, vintage kitchenware and old cookbook collector, was born.
3. Is there one character in your series that has a similar personality to you or that you can relate to the most? Or are there characters that remind you of people in your real life?
Hmm… you know, I’ve heard it said that every character you create has a piece of you inside them. I think that’s true to some extent. Jaymie certainly is as compulsive about buying vintage as I am. But her sister, Becca, is kind of a know-it-all, and I have to severely curtail that characteristic in me! LOL. Her best friend Valetta is based on someone I knew a long time ago: kindly, spinsterish and fond of odd sweaters and clothes.
4. What are you working on next?
I’ve got a million things on the go! Book 3 of Vintage Kitchen Mysteries, entitled Freezer I’ll Shoot, comes out in November 5th, 2013, but before then I’m really excited for the first book of another cozy series, the Merry Muffin Mysteries. Book One is Bran New Death, out September 3rd 2013. Merry Wynter inherits a castle in Upstate New York and so begins her journey among the quirky residents of Autumn Vale, New York, as she tries to figure out why someone is digging deep holes all over her property… until she finds a body at the bottom of one of them!
I’m also excited about the book I’ve just finished, the first book in another new cozy series, The Teapot Collector Mysteries. Tempest in a Teapot will be out in 2014.
5. What advice would you give aspiring writers?
Believe in yourself and keep trying. I didn’t get the first book I wrote published. Nor the second. Nor the third. If you really want to get published, study the market and write for it. And no, I don’t mean become a hack; I mean find a way to inject your own unique style and personality into something that the market will find sellable. Also, perfect your writing. Good spelling, grammar and punctuation usage will make you appear more the professional, and agents and editors will take you more seriously.
6. Is there any kind of food/drink that you absolutely have to have while writing?
Oh, tea… definitely tea! I drink coffee in the morning, but there usually comes a time about mid-afternoon when I absolutely need… wait, I have to go turn the Keurig on. Okay, I’m back. I need a cup of tea. Sometimes a cookie with the tea will not go amiss!
7. I always like to do a fun question with authors so what is your favorite kind of pizza?
Oh sure, now you get to the really tough question! Kind of deluxe, I guess… I like pepperoni and ham and Italian sausage, but I like mushrooms, onions, green peppers and olives, too!
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule to be here with us today.
Thank you so much for having me at Books ‘n Kisses! I’ve enjoyed it so much.
Meet the author:
Victoria Hamilton is the pseudonym for author Donna Lea Simpson. As Victoria she writes the bestselling Vintage Kitchen Mystery series (Book 2 – Bowled Over – March 2013) and the upcoming Merry Muffin Mysteries, also from Berkley (Book 1 – Bran New Murder – September 3rd, 2013) Victoria loves cooking and collecting vintage kitchen utensils, as well as reading and writing mysteries.
Check out her webpage for all the latest: http://www.victoriahamiltonmysteries.com and find her on Facebook at: http://www.facebook.com/AuthorVictoriaHamilton
Jennifer’s review of Bowled Over
SERIES #: A Vintage Kitchen Mystery #2
CHARACTERS: Jaymie Leighton, Valetta Nibley
AUTHOR: Victoria Hamilton
PUBLICATION DATE: 03/5/13
BOOK SYNOPSIS: Stirring up trouble…Vintage kitchenware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton has been estranged from her high school best friend Kathy Cooper since they were teenagers, but she never knew what turned Kathy against her. After fireworks at a Fourth of July picnic, Jaymie discovers the body of her former friend in the park. On the ground nearby is Jaymie’s own Depression-era glass bowl, broken in two.
With her fingerprints all over the bowl and a troubled history with the victim, Jaymie suddenly finds herself at the top of the list of suspects. Did the killer intend to frame her for the murder? If so, she is ready to mix it up, because solving crimes is vintage Jaymie Leighton…
REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Jennifer NUMBER OF STARS: Four Stars
REVIEW: I really enjoyed Victoria Hamilton’s first novel, A Deadly Grind, and was very excited to read her new book. Jaymie Leighton has finally settled back into her life after helping to solve a murder involving one of her precious antiques and is taking things slow with her new beau, Daniel Collins. When a recent trip to the Queensville Emporium puts Jaymie face to face with her ex-best friend Kathy Cooper, tempers fly, leaving Jaymie wondering what happened to destroy their once strong childhood friendship. On the Fourth of July, Jaymie makes the decision to confront her former friend and mend their relationship but before she can do this, she discovers Kathy’s body in the park. To make matters worse, Jaymie also finds her glass bowl broken by the dead body. I felt so bad for Jaymie when this happens because she wanted so badly to make amends and find out why her old friend hated her so much. She had no clue what happened and now she would never have that opportunity to patch things up.
I loved this book so much more than Victoria’s first one because I got to learn more about Jaymie and her character is really starting to grow on me. I love small town mysteries, especially ones that deal with cooking and antique collectibles so this was a very enjoyable book for me. The secondary characters were delightful and definitely brought this book to life for me. The mystery was well written and had me guessing until the very end. I can’t wait to read more from Victoria Hamilton and her charming Vintage Kitchen Mysteries because this is a series that can’t be missed.
Thanks to our wonderful site sponsors and our Amazon Affiliate, we are offering some super fantastic prizes for our FANTASTIC FOUR AUTHORS that are on tour with us this week: Lucy Burdette (author of Topped Chef), Victoria Hamilton (author of Bowled Over), Billie Thomas (author of Murder on the First Day of Christmas) & Marie Moore (author of Game Drive).
There will be four prize packages:
Prize 1 (US/Canada only)
* a Kindle Touch
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 2 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Topped Chef and Bowled Over
* a $15 Book Depository giftcard
Prize 3 (International)
* a Kindle copy of Murder on the First Day of Christmas & Game Drive
* a $15 Amazon.com giftcard
Prize 4 (US/Canada)
* your choice of a cozy mystery paperbacks (up to $25 in value)
To enter:
1. Fill in the form here.
2. There is no requirement to follow any of the blogs participating, but we hope you will support these amazing blogs by following them. They do a great job, many of whom host for us every month.
3. Giveaway ends on May 15, 2013 at midnight and the winners will be contacted via email.
Hi Kelly! Thanks for having me as a guest on Books-n- Kisses today. I have exciting news to share. Tease is a fantastic new line at Decadent Publishing. Today is our big Cover Reveal Day. We’ve been keeping them a secret until now. I’m so happy to introduce the cover for my paranormal novella, Sun, Sand, and Séances
I was thrilled one of the senior editors contacted me to join the line. I couldn’t wait to get started on my story. Since I love the beach, and the beautiful historic town of Cape May,New Jersey, I used it for the setting of my story. I couldn’t think of a more romantic place to have my heroine Savannah, spend a magical weekend.
BLURB
Bobbi Collins, a caring and devoted kindergarten teacher, lost her fiancé five years ago, suddenly after a silly argument. Her work fills up her week, but her weekends are boring and filled with longing.
When she stumbles across a newspaper ad for a psychic fair in Cape May,NJ, it seems like the answer and besides, she realizes it is time to try something different to help her revive her once vibrant spirit.
Kevin Carlton a successful realtor is tired of the dating game. He doesn’t remember buying a raffle ticket, but when his co-worker announces he holds the winning number, he decides to take a chance and attend the all expense paid weekend in Cape May, NJ, at the Lady of the Sea’s, Psychic Fair. Since he was a lazy and unfocused teen, with no direction, his goal is to find a spiritualist who has the ability to contact his father, in hopes of gaining his approval.
Bobbi is shocked when she runs into Kevin, at the hotel in Cape May. The sparks fly when strange occurrences bring Bobbi into her ex-boyfriends arms. She never dreamed of having a weekend of magic, memories, and a chance to rekindle the flame with her lost love.
Will two people who once shared something wonderful, be able to reconnect after dealing with the sudden tragedies in their lives or will it be too late? Does someone or something want to keep them apart?
Can the historic town of Cape Maycast a spell on their hearts, and allow them to find what they both desire? How will passion survive amongst the backdrop of a town where spirits never sleep?
Which Tease do you prefer, Allure, Entice, or Captivate? Visit the website here. href=”http://decadenttease.com/”>http://decadenttease.com/
Comment for a chance to win a ten-dollar Amazon gift card. Swag included.
You can find me here. I’d love to meet you.
http://kathleensplacetoreflect.blogspot.com/?zx=e33c25154ce308d9
http://www.kathleenanngallagher.net/
https://twitter.com/Kathleenwrites
https://www.facebook.com/kathleen.a.gallagher?ref=tn_tnmn
Thanks for stopping by! My tentative release date is June 19, 2013. I hope to see you at the release day party.
Stop by the Tease website to sneak a peek at all of the covers. Giveaways galore!
http://decadenttease.blogspot.com/ | http://decadenttease.com/
I’m so excited for Books-n-Kisses to be a part of this fabulous blog tour for the wonderful Kimberly Derting. Thank you so much Candace at CBB Productions for hosting this great tour. The Body Finder series is a great YA series filled with mystery, suspense and a dash of romance. If you haven’t read this series, I suggest that you try the first book, The Body Finder, but don’t blame me if you leave all the lights on. 🙂
Author Bio:
Kimberly Derting is the author of the BODY FINDER series (HarperCollins) and THE PLEDGE trilogy (Simon & Schuster). She lives in the Seattle area, with her husband and three children, who often find the outrageous things they say either in the pages of her books or posted on Twitter or Facebook for the entire world to see.
You can visit her website at www.kimberlyderting.com.
Jennifer’s Review of Dead Silence
SERIES #: Body Finder #4
CHARACTERS: Violet Ambrose
AUTHOR: Kimberly Derting
PUBLICATION DATE: 04/16/13
BOOK SYNOPSIS: Violet thought she’d made peace with her unique ability to sense the echoes of the dead and the imprints that cling to their killers…that is, until she acquired an imprint of her own. Now she’s more determined than ever to lead a normal life. However, the people who run the special investigative team Violet works for have no intention of letting her go.
When someone close to her becomes a suspect in a horrific murder, Violet finds herself pulled into a hunt for a vicious madman with an army of devoted followers–and quickly discovers that protecting those closest to her is far more difficult than protecting herself.
REVIEW PROVIDED BY: Jennifer NUMBER OF STARS: Four Stars
REVIEW: Kimberly Derting has written a pulse-pounding story full of suspense with Dead Silence and the stakes are much higher for Violet and her special investigative team. In this installment, Violet is dealing with the recent events that have left her with an imprint of her own. I just want to say that Violet has come so far in her journey from the first novel in the series and finally seems to be coming to terms with her unusual gift. She seems stronger, more grown-up and I was impressed by how well she was handling everything in her life. She is still in limbo in regards to her feelings toward Rafe while having a romantic relationship with her longtime boyfriend, Jay. All this changes when she accidentally finds the bodies of a family and is thrown into a murder investigation where someone she knows becomes the prime suspect.
I really enjoyed this story and I liked how Violet was able to understand more about her gift by finding journals that belonged to her grandmother, who also had Violet’s ability. It helped to provide some answers that she had always wondered about, yet provided more questions as to what her future holds with her fellow team members of the special investigative unit. I was also impressed by her boyfriend, Jay, because all through this series, he has been a great guy that has stood beside her and would do anything to protect her. He doesn’t particularly care for Rafe and knows that Rafe has feelings for Violet but is able to put those emotions aside because they ultimately have to work together. I felt sorry for Rafe throughout this book because of his unrequited romantic feelings toward Violet but I was also glad to see there could possibly be a new love entering his life soon.
The killer in this book was absolutely creepy and I had a hard time with some of the scenes just because of the gore content. Makes you want to double check your locks and get home before it gets dark after reading this.
Kimberly Derting is such a talented writer and I have enjoyed every one of her books in the Body Finder series. I have loved Violet’s transition from being just this young girl with a bizarre talent to a young woman who now wants to help people with her “gift.” I’m hoping that there will be more books in this series because Kimberly has done a wonderful job creating these characters and I can’t wait to see what is next for Violet and her friends.
Did I miss your favorite?
