GoodReads Giveaway - Win a copy of Stormling

Goodreads Book Giveaway

Stormling

by John Hennessy

Giveaway ends August 29, 2014.

See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

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Book Review #22: TRUST Pandora's Box (TRUST, #3) by Cristiane Serruya

"How can I defeat a nightmare?"

How indeed. Cristiane Serruya's TRUST story is one of the best trilogies I have had the pleasure of reading. A hot romance downplays what this really is: An edge of the seat thriller that leaves you gasping, and I do mean literally.

From 'A New Beginning', through 'Betrayed', to finally reach and open 'Pandora's Box', it has been an interesting, intriguing, thrilling, and always enthralling ride.

If Book One showed us a rather uncertain, but still very strong Sophia, Book Three reveals Sophia to be in even more charge of what she wants. She is an appealing heroine that you will root for. Why? When she is beautiful, rich, and has men seemingly fall at her feet, you wonder why?

Because the story, although it features heavily on Sophia, it is not all about her, and through the other characters - Ethan, Alistair, Tavish...so many in fact that it is a supporting cast that you enjoy, along with Sophia's story.

This is good characterisation. When Sophia is not in the story, you think it might lag. It does not, and it's all the more enjoyable when she returns.

The descriptive tone of this book, just like the other two in the series, is wonderful. I especially enjoyed the references to Scotland, because although I have been all over the world, and indeed, over the border as far as Glasgow, that was for business....I've never truly visited the country. Cristiane makes you feel like you are there.

The date and time stamps reinforce the urgency of the story. These books are long, complex, multi-layered. It will take several re-reads to grasp the quality of this work.

So when I have done that, I will come back and edit this review.

You can see in every line that the author has put her all into giving us an enthralling conclusion to the TRUST tale. She delivers. And because she does, any reference to it would be a major spoiler.

So buy the books, and enjoy them. TRUST me when I say that Pandora's Box is wonderful!

TRUST Trilogy on Amazon

How This Successful Author Just Keeps on Writing - A Profile of Barbara Taylor Bradford

Barbara Taylor Bradford has sold 85 million books worldwide and is the best selling author of A Woman of Substance.

Her story is rather interesting because she doesn't allow allow anyone - not her husband, not her editor, no-one in fact, to read her manuscript until it is completed.

In my dealings with GoodReads, I find it interesting that giving out advanced copies is almost becomig the norm. I expect Miss Bradford would recoil in horror at giving her books out ahead of publication.

Still, her process in writing is interesting.

She gets up at 5am on most mornings. Mine is close to 6:30. If she has a chapter of a new book to read, she will read it whilst making tea. I do that too. I don't grab my iPod first...it's always a book.

Miss Bradford and her husband have just celebrated their 50th anniversary, and for the last 18 years they have lived in New York on 52nd Street. She has a housekeeper who cleans every day, because she finds it impossible to write novels and scrub the floors.

If only I could do that. Of course, I could say that my writing is too important to start cleaning...so what I will do is keep the house as clean and clutter-free as I can. I hate an untidy home. But I have no cleaner or housekeeper, so when I am asked how I find time to write a novel, I simply say 'because I must find that time, no matter what.'

This author writes by hand. She will then type it up, edit where needed, fax to a typist, who puts it on a disc, sends the edit back, so that BTB can type it up again.

On starting a new novel, she says, " I already have the story in my head, including the ending, so I begin with an outline, and write consecutively - page one is always page one."

I totally agree with this. Even if you know the ending, don't rush to write it. Ease it out, and it will come. When you're finished, you will know it. I don't think that is something they teach in creative writing class.

I hasten to add that I haven't read any of the author's books. But I was interested in her writing process. I think the main point I wish to convey is to say that authors simply have to write. If it is not happening for you, take a break, go for a walk, whatever it is. The ideas will come.

If you are an author, I wish you luck in your writing and happy reading to the rest of you!

Book Review #21: The Winter Bride by Anne Gracie

The Winter Bride is the second book in the Chance Sisters romance series. This is a very funny, well constructed historical romance that works on practically all levels. Damaris is a young lady of mixed heritage, Chinese and English. This aspect was of particular interest to me and I wish it had been expanded on a bit more.

Other than this very tiny gripe, the book is virtually perfect. It has an engaging storyline, funny hero / heroine, and very strong characters that could even be the main ones (yes, Aunt, I'm talking about you).

This book came to me via a friend's recommendation, so I can't rate this book highly enough or the value of referrals!

The 'hero' in question, Freddy Monkton-Coombes (otherwise known as Hyphen-Hyphen) is not really interested in marriage. Why would he be, when he has got all he wants...money, freedom and so on.

A meeting with Damaris, the Winter Bride of the title, changes all that. There's no instant love between the two, and that actually means the book is far more entertaining than it has a right to be.

I will definitely read the other book in the series, The Autumn Bride, and hope there will be more to come from this author.

Book Review #20: Mr Mercedes by Stephen King

Like all of Mr King's stories, this starts off very strong. Sometimes he tails off before the end, but given how good his writing is, I don't mind so much. This is my first hardback of his since (gasp) Insomnia. But so far, so good. I love a well crafted thriller, and this is shaping up to be very good indeed. Trying not to finish it too fast. Even if this is part of an unnamed trilogy, I want to savour it.

Many people have talked about the book already so I won't rehash all that here, except to say that it is a departure from Mr King's usual trade of horror.

I just got a good feeling about Mr Mercedes. I felt it was going to be a good book, and even though non-horror, there are still plenty of scares to be had.

There were even parts that could be safely described as 'icky', but King is able to balance this well so that it is not drawn out and we are dragged along with it.

The story is quite simple. A retired ex-cop, Bill Hodges, is brought back into the fray when the Mercedes Killer, or <b>merckill</> as he refers to himself online, ploughs a car of the same name into a crowd of people who were just waiting to see if they could get a job via the dole office.

This is one of the books I received for my birthday a month ago, and I've savoured it over the entire month.

Having said that, I raced through the last hundred pages or so, and so does King - the pace is quite something and it builds to a very nice conclusion. This is the first book of an unnamed trilogy so there is more to come, and this is where I hit the first road bump.

The book is great, satisfying and enjoyable. I think the story is much more stronger than King's characters. This is a concern because he is so great at characterisation, so although you know bad things happen to people in the story, I wanted to feel more connected.

Perhaps this is what we will see over books two and three, and because of that, I am prepared to wait and see what happens.

Mr Mercedes is a solid thriller, a genre I enjoy and would like to read more of. I have seen some comments that it is no better than other thrillers out there. Fair enough. That's okay for me.

The writing, as ever, is superb, and there are some genuine laugh out loud moments.

You do care about the ending. Will Hodges catch the computer savvy but seriously deranged Brady Hartsfield, the Mr of the title?

I know Stephen King polarises people but he does have an army of fans too. So I will summarise by saying that he probably could have done even better with this story, but as it is not his strongest genre, I think he's done amazingly well.

Four solid stars. When the trilogy is complete, maybe we can round it up by another one.

Cover Reveal Day! Dark Winter: Crescent Moon

Cover reveal time!

Well everyone, here it is. The second story in the Dark Winter trilogy is subtitled 'Crescent Moon' and you'll notice that significant things happen throughout the story, but especially when a crescent moon turns up. You need to remember these points as they link to the final part of the story (due 2015)

For those of you who haven't read Book One: The Wicca Circle...get stuck in - I think it's on silly-O-price on Amazon at the moment.

Kindle version

Paperback

If you like witches, demons, ghosts, serial killers, straight-up horror shocks as well as psychological horror, this is the book you simply have to get. I'm not going to say it's scary, I will let readers be the judge of that. If it scares you in the day as well as the night, I consider my job done! Funnybones are easy to find, but what about your scarebone? It's there in your body...I promise you that!

Continuation, not sequel

The book follows the events of Book One very closely, though the time period of the majority of the book is eighteen months after The Wicca Circle ended. If your favourite character or characters survived Book One, what do you expect from Book Two? Anyway, I hope you'll like it and give an indie your support :)

Please add to your GoodReads pile. I know, I know. You have so many to-read already. But I wouldn't ask unless I thought this was worth your time!

Recommended for...

YA, but don't expect it to be too light. Don't let the pretty girl on the cover fool you. It's paranormal, but not overdone on the romance. There's a story to tell, we need to advance the tale, not hold it back. It's quite adult in parts too. So if one website rates The Wicca Circle as 15 rated, this is certainly 15 and up. Might be even an 18 in some parts. I think it's for everyone except the very youngest of readers.

Giveways

Final edits for the proof are in the mix now, so expect an announcement for a giveaway soon.

Happy reading!!

Book Review #19: Christmas at Rakehell Manor by Elizabeth Hanbury

You know that wonderful surprise you get when a book comes out early? This was a great surprise to me, because having read the majority of Elizabeth Hanbury's works, I felt confident I would enjoy this tale every bit as much as the others.

The story centres around Prue (Prudence Eylesbarrow) and Hugo - the Lord of Warwick, and also the notorious 'Rake of Rakehell Manor'. It's actually Raikhall, but such is the low regard many in the area have for this man, the irony of the nickname of the residence is not wasted on him.

Prue is a decent young woman of 27 years of age, so as she says so accurately 'we're not in the first flush of youth", but she has an uneasy attraction to Hugo. Why? Well, haven't we all fallen for that someone who is say a bit 'bad', and been very attracted to it? 

Having said, that, I'd like to think I err on the side of caution and ultimately pick the good girl over the bad one. Prue is good, we learn that early on. But from the reader's point of view I was wondering if I should want Prue to end up with Hugo.

The story twists and turns beautifully, and the thread that is strongest throughout the book - why Hugo is so dark and broody (not an untypical trait of us males) all the time but especially at Christmas is so well done, that when the reveal happens, it's so good that I simply cannot tell you what it is!

There's also some scenes in the book that really surprised me. Let's just say that if you have read one of Miss Hanbury's books, that does not mean you've read them all. Christmas at Rakehell Manor is a wonderfully crafted romance that has her trademark witty humour running throughout the entire book.

Some of the lines I loved (truncated):

Miss Smee-Bevel: "You, sir, are a scoundrel! Who are you? What is your name? I'm sending Parsloe to fetch the footman!"

Hugo: "The Marquess of Warwick, and pray, fetch the footman, he may be needed to restrain your hysterics!"

--

"Christmas comes once a year but the right person comes once in a lifetime."

--

"She...wished that they could have kept talking forever without bitter reality intruding."

--

Other characters, like Miss Bean, give the story an interesting perspective as she seems the one most harshest on Hugo.

Hugo is a multi-layered character whose demons are played out with great subtlety. Prue is an engaging heroine, and not so dainty and delicate as some heroines are portrayed in these kind of stories.

Like most of my reviews, I like to give readers a taste of what to expect rather than giving away full blown spoilers. Let me summarise by saying that Christmas at Rakehell Manor is a superlative work from Miss Hanbury. My only thought is just how she follows this up!

Do not wait for Christmas - buy this wonderful tale so that you can enjoy it now :)

Buy on Amazon

Author Website