Monday, August 17, 2020

Book Blast/Giveaway - Dark Matter by Alyssa Huckleberry

 

 

 

Dark Matter by Alyssa Huckleberry

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GENRE: Dystopian Sci-fi 

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BLURB: “Survival is light years away.” Earth is dying. The only salvation for humanity is colonizing space, yet so far that has failed. The last hope for survival exists on a planet light years away…and the mission is fraught with danger. Teenager Selina Alois leads a group of six high achievers who pass the exam of a lifetime to earn a position on the precarious expedition. As the mission launch approaches, dark secrets are exposed about the planet. Further digging reveals a sinister plot that not only risks humanity’s fate but also puts Selina and her team to the ultimate test. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 Excerpt : I always knew it would be me. Don’t ask me to explain how I knew—I won’t be able to. As far back as I can remember, there was talk of colonizing outer space. I didn’t grow up freaked out by the idea. Maybe I should have—my parents were. The year I was born, the United States celebrated its one hundredth anniversary of the successful establishment of a colony on the moon. Venturing into outer space was never foreign to me; it never carried fear the way it did for the adults around me. I learned about the solar system in school like every kid through the generations…but I also facetimed with the scientists stationed at headquarters and had a third-grade pen pal who lived on the moon. But that was when Earth was only thought to be dying…before scientists put an expiration date on Earth’s existence. That news changed everything: disbelief melted into panic, which boiled to cold-blooded terror when the drafts were instated. But maybe I’m getting ahead of myself. I forget that not everyone is fluent in space-talk; that my everyday reality is startling to some. My mom in particular reminds me of this all the time. She accuses me of being intentionally abrupt just so I can elicit shocked reactions from people around me. It isn’t true. I just don’t see the point in sugarcoating situations.

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AUTHOR Bio and Links: Alyssa Huckleberry grew up in San Diego as the oldest of four children. After earning a business degree from Cal Poly San Luis Obispo, Alyssa spent a short time working in finance before transitioning to work in education. Today Alyssa works as a fifth grade teacher and she LOVES her job! When she isn't teaching or writing, you can find Alyssa running, reading, practicing yoga, traveling the world, or spending time with those dearest to her. She loves spending time outdoors, growing in her faith, and learning new things (hence, the great amount of time spent reading, traveling, and going on adventures!). A true lover of whimsy, she also believes everything is better with a latte in hand. Alyssa's first novel, Rescuing Racei, was published in 2004 (while Alyssa was still a high school student) and later won the San Diego Book Award for Best Young Adult Novel. Since then, Alyssa published three other books to complete the series: Stealing Splendiferous, Magicus, and The Maleku Map. The Struggle is Real was an inspired piece written for an adult audience as a stand-alone work. Her latest novel, Dark Matter, is written for a young adult audience. It is the first book in what will be a science-fiction series imagining a future of space exploration! 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alyssa.huckleberry/ 

Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3162224.Alyssa_Huckleberry

  https://www.amazon.com/Alyssa-Huckleberry/e/B00J8X3RSM/ref=dp_byline_cont_pop_book_1 

Dark Matter purchase links: 

Paperback: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Alyssa-Huckleberry/dp/1734419865/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=dark+matter+alyssa&qid=1595351979&sr=8-2 

Kindle: https://www.amazon.com/Dark-Matter-Dystopian-Science-Fiction-ebook/dp/B08CS2HPDN/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

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GIVEAWAY INFORMATION and RAFFLECOPTER CODE Alyssa Huckleberry will be awarding a $10 Amazon GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour. Please use this rafflecopter code on your post: a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Tour/Giveaway - All Done With It by Maggie Toussaint

All Done With It (A Dreamwalker Mystery) by Maggie Toussaint

About All Done With It

 

 All Done With It (A Dreamwalker Mystery) Paranormal Cozy Mystery 7th in Series Publisher: Camel Press (August 11, 2020) Number of Pages 211 pages 

 

A Jane Doe jogger homicide near the swamp mystifies Dreamwalker Baxley Powell. The petite woman carried no ID, and no one recognizes her. Worse, a shadow passes from the body to a deputy, rendering him unconscious. The deputy and the corpse are dispatched to the hospital and morgue, respectively.

  With summer heat and pending childbirth on her mind, Baxley’s dreamwalks into the spirit world fail to yield leads, frustrating Baxley and her deputy husband, Native American Sam Mayes. Days later, Jane Doe’s description matches a missing Mississippi woman. Turns out, her new husband is missing too. Jane’s sketchy brother-in-law and her aunt arrive, full of secrets. At Jane’s campsite, the team encounters a terrifying anomaly, nullifying Baxley’s senses. With such danger present, they must protect their unborn child. No more dreamwalks will occur until Baxley gives birth.   When her friend Bubba Paxton vanishes, Baxley sights him in a mirror, trapped between worlds with other souls.   Meanwhile, the shadow invades other hosts, demanding to see Baxley. Mayes and Baxley ignore the shadow as they rescue Bubba, untangle the Jane Doe case, and handle missing persons reports. To free the trapped people, Baxley must outwit a powerful foe. Can she stop this super villain before he steals her soul?   In this 7th Dreamwalker Mystery, female sleuth and psychic crime consultant Baxley Powell works a homicide case that leads straight to an evil force in the spirit world. The stakes? Her soul, her unborn child, and humanity’s freedom.  

 

About Maggie Toussaint 

Southern author Maggie Toussaint writes cozy and paranormal mysteries, romantic suspense, and dystopian fiction, with twenty-plus fiction novels published. A three-time finalist for Georgia Author of the Year, she’s won three Silver Falchions, the Readers’ Choice, and the EPIC Awards. She’s past president of Mystery Writers of America-Southeast chapter and an officer of LowCountry Sisters In Crime. She lives in coastal Georgia, where secrets, heritage, and ancient oaks cast long shadows. 

Author Links  

Website - https://maggietoussaint.com/   

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/MaggieToussaintAuthor 

 Twitter - https://www.twitter.com/MaggieToussaint  

GoodReads - https://www.goodreads.com/MaggieToussaint  

BookBub - https://www.bookbub.com/authors/maggie-toussaint  

 

Purchase Links - Barnes and Noble - Kobo   a Rafflecopter giveaway 

 

TOUR PARTICIPANTS  

August 12 – Christy's Cozy Corners - REVIEW, GUEST POST  

August 12 – Christa Reads and Writes – REVIEW  

August 13 – I'm All About Books – SPOTLIGHT  

August 13 – Cozy Up With Kathy – CHARACTER GUEST POST  

August 14 – Baroness' Book Trove – REVIEW  

August 14 – Books to the Ceiling – CHARACTER GUEST POST  

August 15 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT  

August 15 – Readeropolis – SPOTLIGHT  

August 16 – Jane Reads – CHARACTER GUEST POST  

August 17 – Gimme The Scoop Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  

August 17 – Literary Gold – SPOTLIGHT  

August 18 – RUFF DRAFTS – SPOTLIGHT  

August 18 – Reading Authors Network – SPOTLIGHT  

August 19 – Hearts & Scribbles – SPOTLIGHT  

August 20 – Elizabeth McKenna - Author – SPOTLIGHT  

August 20 – Mysteries with Character – GUEST POST  

August 21 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT  

August 21 – StoreyBook Reviews – GUEST POST  

August 21 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT 

 

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Saturday, August 15, 2020

Book Review - The Apocalypse Strain by Jason Parent

The Apocalypse Strain

The Apocalypse Strain by Jason Parent
My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Synopsis:  A multi-national research team, led by a medical genomics expert suffering from MS, study an ancient pandoravirus at a remote Siberian research facility. Called "Molli" by the research team, the organic substance reveals some unique but troublesome characteristics, qualities that, in the wrong hands, could lead to human extinction. The researchers soon learn that even in the right hands, Molli is a force too dangerous to escape their compound. But the virus has a mind of its own, and it wants out.

 

My Thoughts: With the way the world is today I was a bit hesitant to read this. I already feel as though I am living a nightmare from one of the books I have read but still I proceeded and got just as much enjoyment out of it as I usually do with stories like this which are one of my all time faves! I think this was a tiny bit of every horror book or movie I have ever watched and geniously sewn together into one entity.

It's a story of madness and science and how folks cope with it. Dr. Clara St. Pierre who suffers from MS is invited to work with "Molli" the name given to the virus and she hopes it will somehow cure her but Molli actually has a mind of its own and has an agenda for itself.

While it didn't really have me sitting on the edge of my seat it was still a thrilling read and I enjoyed it!

Was given a copy in exchange for an honest review.

View all my reviews

Friday, August 14, 2020

Book Tour/Giveaway - Death at High Tide by Hannah Dennison

Death at High Tide: An Island Sisters Mystery by Hannah Dennison

About Death at High Tide

 

Death at High Tide: An Island Sisters Mystery Cozy Mystery 1st in Series Publisher: Minotaur Books (August 18, 2020) Hardcover: 304 pages ISBN-10: 1250194482 ISBN-13: 978-1250194480 Digital ASIN: B0818PVX81

 

Death at High Tide is the delightful first installment in the Island Sisters series by Hannah Dennison, featuring two sisters who inherit an old hotel in the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and find it full of intrigue, danger, and romance.

 

When Evie Mead’s husband, Robert, suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, a mysterious note is found among his possessions. It indicates that Evie may own the rights to an old hotel on Tregarrick Rock, one of the Isles of Scilly.

 

Still grieving, Evie is inclined to leave the matter to the accountant to sort out. Her sister Margot, however, flown in from her glamorous career in LA, has other plans. Envisioning a luxurious weekend getaway, she goes right ahead and buys two tickets—one way—to Tregarrick.

 

Once at the hotel—used in its heyday to house detective novelists, and more fixer-upper than spa resort, after all—Evie and Margot attempt to get to the bottom of things. But the foul-tempered hotel owner claims he's never met the late Robert, even after Evie finds framed photos of them—alongside Robert's first wife—in his office. The rest of the island inhabitants, ranging from an ex-con receptionist to a vicar who communicates with cats, aren't any easier to read.

 

But when a murder occurs at the hotel, and then another soon follows, frustration turns to desperation. There’s no getting off the island at high tide. And Evie and Margot, the only current visitors to Tregarrick, are suspects one and two. It falls to them to unravel secrets spanning generations—and several of their own—if they want to make it back alive.

 

About Hannah Dennison

 

Hannah Dennison was born and raised in Hampshire but spent more than two decades living in California. She has been an obituary reporter, antique dealer, private jet flight attendant and Hollywood story analyst. For many years Hannah taught mystery writing workshops at the UCLA Extension Writers’ Program in Los Angeles, California.

Hannah writes the Honeychurch Hall Mysteries and the Vicky Hill Mysteries both set in the wilds of the Devonshire countryside where she now lives with her two high-spirited Hungarian Vizslas.

Author Links - Webpage Facebook Twitter Goodreads Instagram  

Purchase Links - Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound Books A Million a Rafflecopter giveaway  

TOUR PARTICIPANTS  

August 10 – Cozy Up With Kathy – REVIEW  

August 10 – Baroness' Book Trove – REVIEW  

August 10 – Socrates Book Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  

August 10 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT  

August 11 – Diane Reviews Books – REVIEW  

August 11 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW  

August 11 – Angel's Guilty Pleasures – SPOTLIGHT 

 August 11 – Christy's Cozy Corners – REVIEW 

 August 12 – Books a Plenty Book Reviews – REVIEW 

 August 12 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT  

August 12 – I'm All About Books – SPOTLIGHT 

 August 12 – Literary Gold – CHARACTER GUEST POST 

 August 13 – Ascroft, eh? – AUTHOR INTERVIEW  

August 13 – Celticlady's Reviews – SPOTLLIGHT  

August 13 – Reading, Writing & Stitch-Metic – SPOTLIGHT 

 August 13 – Jane Reads – GUEST POST 

 August 14 – eBook addicts – REVIEW  

August 14 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW  

August 14 – Hearts & Scribbles - SPOTLIGHT  

August 14 – Gimme The Scoop Reviews – GUEST POST  

August 15 – Devilishly Delicious Book Reviews – REVIEW 

 August 15 – Reading Is My SuperPower – REVIEW  

August 15 – MJB Reviewers – SPOTLIGHT  

August 15 – Sneaky the Library Cat's Blog – CHARACTER INTERVIEW  

August 16 – Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT 

August 16 – Brooke Blogs - CHARACTER GUEST POST  

August 16 – StoreyBook Reviews – SPOTLIGHT  

August 16 – The Bookwyrm's Hoard – REVIEW  

 

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  Click Here Find Details and Sign Up Today!

    

 

Sisters

 

Eighteen months ago my domestic situation changed in a way that I could never have anticipated.  So, after twenty-five years living in the USA, I moved back to England. My daughter picked me up at Heathrow airport and my sister Lesley was waiting at the beautiful little rental cottage that she had found for my two Hungarian Vizslas and me, along with a bottle of celebratory champagne.

 

Although my sister and I had been super close growing up, we’d drifted apart as the years passed especially with my move overseas. As the oldest, I used to be the bossy one but now it’s Lesley who rules the roost. She was Brown Owl at the local Brownie pack, a Weightwatcher lecturer for two decades and now she works as an estate manager. She is a single mother with three wonderful grown-up sons and two adorable grandchildren. She is absolutely my heroine.  

 

A relationship with a sibling is like no other and can be challenging at times. Shared histories can be a mixed blessing. Our reality is colored by our own experiences so a memory of mine is seen through her filter and over these past few months when we’ve been going through old photo albums and boxes, we’d often share looks of astonishment and say, “Of course it wasn’t like that!”

 

In fact, it was Lesley who insisted that I’d always wanted to be a writer, something I hotly denied. I thought I’d just fallen into it. But no, she was right! She’d discovered a handwritten story of mine in a battered notebook about … fanfare of trumpets … “two sisters, one scatter-brained, the other practical,” who solves the mystery of a murdered gamekeeper in the woods. I would have been about fourteen when I wrote that.

 

Memory plays funny tricks sometimes. But who else can belt out songs from Queen and David Bowie and communicate in secret sister language that still drives our ninety-year old mother crazy!

 

There is a saying, “Sisters by blood, best friends by choice,” and to that I shout Amen!

 

Comment: Post a comment about a sibling or cousin (it doesn’t have to be a sister) for a chance to win a copy of Death at High Tide, the first in the Island Sisters Mysteries.

 

Book Review - Chiquis Keto by Chiquis Rivera

Chiquis Keto: The 21-Day Starter Kit for Taco, Tortilla, and Tequila Lovers

Chiquis Keto: The 21-Day Starter Kit for Taco, Tortilla, and Tequila Lovers by Chiquis Rivera
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Synopsis: Chiquis Keto is a 21-day kick start to weight loss featuring more than sixty recipes for breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, and even some alcoholic keto cocktails. From huevos rancheros to lettuce-wrapped chicken tacos to Mexican hot chocolate pudding, you will have fresh and flavorful recipes for every day. Plus, as a bonus, Sarah will share her week-by-week fitness routine to help you tighten your curves! Kick off on your weight loss journey with this mouthwatering and colorful cookbook and workout routine and enjoy the incredible results and increased mental, physical, and energy levels.
 

My Thoughts: I started Keto a few months back and was enjoying it but I needed more help to boost my mind and flavors and along came this book that combines Keto and Mexican flair and it seems like just what I was needing! Now I'm not on strict keto, I'll be honest, but Chiquis Keto is such a fun read and has your Meal Plans, Shopping Lists, and even Workout Playlists provided for you for an easy kickstart so there's no excuse not to dive in and at least try this fun filled book and Starter Kit out!

I was provided a copy for an honest review.

#NetGalley

View all my reviews