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This weeks question: What books are you looking forward to reading in 2014?
There are two that I cannot wait for. Seriously, it feels like I’m eight years old and it’s Christmas and I just want to scream with excitement! haha. Here they are:
Image from Goodreads
Image from Goodreads
I hope you all have a great weekend!
~Pam
Image from Goodreads
Title: A Sinister Obsession
Author: S.B. Redstone
Published: 2013 by Black Opal Books
Genre: Mystery Thriller
Purchase A Sinister Obsession from Amazon
George and Ann Marr have never been able to get back their happiness after their son was found murdered over 10 years ago. Little do they know that they are about to be killed themselves. Their murder sets off a series of crimes that has Detective Aubrey McKenzie trying to scramble to find the killer. Detective Aubrey is considered a ‘witch’ by her comrades; they can’t figure out how she always seems to know certain details involved in crimes she is solving. Aubrey is also a stubborn woman, and she plans to find who this killer is no matter what.
The point of view shifts a bit in this book but it didn’t really bother me, except in the beginning when it was shifting between paragraphs a few times. The author got it in control soon after though. And once we are introduced to Detective Aubrey, the point of view is mostly hers; well, hers and the killers.
Something that bothered me was when a detective at one of the crime scenes says, “looks like a burglary to me.” (location 1388 of 7919 on Kindle). When there are dead bodies around it’s a robbery. A burglary happens without harming anyone. A robbery uses physical force and threats. A detective should know the difference! He does say robbery on the next page though, so maybe it just was an editing error? But it’s still something that caught my eye.
Let’s talk about the main character, Aubrey. What a rich snob she is! When someone she is interviewing is drinking a glass of wine this is what runs through Aubrey’s head,
“Chilling a red wine? And one so inferior I wouldn’t even use it to cook with.” (location 1450 of 7919 on Kindle)
Yikes, I’m glad she’s not my friend! But it does make the book more interesting to read, because if you think about it, it’s always the men who are rich, not the ladies. And she definitely has a cold personality at first, (there turns out to be a reason why) but romance is found in the story and she warms up a bit.
When Aubrey meets another detective named Josh, you get to see her in a more flattering light. She’s still cold at first, but she warms up and the reader will warm up to her at that point too. Although still incredibly rich of course, she starts to act like a normal human being, with feelings.
Another thing that bothered me was when a couple who had a child and gave her up for adoption kept saying things like we could have had an abortion, we did the right thing. And not only them, but others said the same thing. (Trying to be vague here for those who will read the book.) It was just too much, and didn’t add to the story. It just aggravated me actually. Obviously abortion is a touchy subject, but I just had enough with everyone saying that. It made the conversation not feel real as well.
Okay, one last thing. Aubrey has a paranormal ability to read people’s minds. No one knows she has this ability, but they do wonder how she solves cases so fast and efficiently sometimes. They actually call her a witch. No one calls people witches these days. Change the word ‘witch’ with ‘psychic’ and problem solved.
Despite my complaints, it was a good book. It kept me interested throughout the whole thing. And although some might get grossed out by the murders, it really wasn’t too bad. (And I’m a fainter at the sight and thought of blood type of person.) You also aren’t in the dark on who the killer is the whole time either. The detective figures it out and then you can see through the killers eyes as well.
So if you’re into mystery and psychological thrillers, give A Sinister Obsession a try.
My Rating: 3 1/2 out of 5 stars
~Pam
*****I received this book free from the author, in exchange for an honest review.*****
I have heard other authors say that they ‘hear voices in their head’ and that is how they write their books: the characters are telling their stories. Not being a writer myself, that concept has always intrigued me.
When some people hear voices, we get them medical attention, others end up becoming writers. Does this happen to you? How do you come up with your stories?
I started writing in an attempt to gain control over some part of my life, because most of it was wrapped up in red tape from the building department at City Hall. You can’t tell building permit issuers what to do, they won’t listen. I needed my characters so that I could tell someone exactly what to do, and they’d do it. While I pretended at control in a delusional act of self-preservation, my characters ended up telling me exactly what they were going to do and I’d better not try to stop them.
I’ve heard other writers describe this, but I was still completely astonished when my fingers seemed to be typing of their own volition. My daughter heard me gasp as I stared at something I’d just written and wanted to know what was wrong. “You won’t believe what Charlie just did!” was my answer. True story. I found that dialogue became easier as I went along, because what came out was them “talking in my head.” Not as if they were beaming in from outer space and I needed to wear a tin foil helmet to stop the mind control, that would be crazy. I would imagine the character, as though I was in conversation with them, and watch their face and body language. And then they would speak and I would write down what they said. That’s not mind control, not at all.
Thanks for inviting me to your blog.
About the Author:
Deborah Rix’s favorite position for reading a book is head almost hanging off the couch and feet up in the air with legs against the back of the couch. She’s been reading too much from Scientific American for research and ideas and needs to get back to some fiction. She has a long standing love of science fiction, some of her favorite authors include William Gibson, Philip K Dick, Kurt Vonnegut Jr, Douglas Adams, Iain M Banks. A bit old school.
Deborah enjoyed a successful career in entertainment publicity, live music promotion and event management. Which means she slogged through muddy fields for music festivals, was crammed into concert halls with too many sweaty teenage boys and got to go to Tuktoyaktuk (that’s in the Arctic Circle) for a Metallica concert. She lives with her family in Toronto, Canada, where she is the proprietor of The Lucky Penny, a neighborhood joint in Trinity-Bellwoods.
External Forces is her first novel.
Visit her website at www.DeborahRix.com.
Connect & Socialize with Deborah!
TWITTER | FACEBOOK | GOODREADS| YOUTUBE
About the Book:
Treason, betrayal, and heartbreak.
A lot can happen to a girl between her first kiss and her first kill.
It’s 100 years since the Genetic Integrity Act was passed and America closed its borders to prevent genetic contamination. Now only the enemy, dysgenic Deviants, remain beyond the heavily guarded border. The Department of Evolution carefully guides the creation of each generation and deviations from the divine plan are not permitted.
When 16-year-old Jess begins to show signs of deviance she enlists in the Special Forces, with her best friend Jay, in a desperate bid to evade detection by the Devotees. Jess is good with data, not so good with a knife. So when the handsome and secretive Sergeant Matt Anderson selects her for his Black Ops squad, Jess is determined to figure out why.
As her deviance continues to change her, Jess is forced to decide who to trust with her deadly secret. Jess needs to know what’s really out there, in the Deviant wasteland over the border, if she has any hope of making it to her 17th birthday. Because if the enemy doesn’t kill her first, the Department of Evolution probably will.
Purchase External Forces from Amazon
GIVEAWAY
GRAND PRIZE: Winner will have a minor character named after them in Acceleration, the second book in The Laws of Motion Trilogy by Deborah Rix. PLUS: 1 (One) WakaWaka Power – a solar powered charger and light, 1 (one) Limited Edition EXTERNAL FORCES Black Ops Beanie, and 1 (one) signed copy of External Forces.
The fine print: Grand Prize winner will have a minor character named after them in the forthcoming book, Acceleration. The winner can choose a name other their own as long as it is mutually agreeable with the Author, Deborah Rix. That means nothing obscene, stupid or ridiculous, as decided at the sole discretion of the author. Winner agrees that the gender, race, physical description, sexual orientation or any other characteristics of the character are at the sole discretion of the author. Winner agrees that the character may suffer some sort of gruesome downfall or may be a heroic figure in the story, it is at the sole discretion of the author what the role of the character will be and to what extent the character will be part of the story. The author assures the winner that it will be a real character in the story and part of a sub-plot or major plot.
Terms & Conditions:
Good luck everyone!
****All images and text were provided by Pump Up Your Book****
THE QUEEN OF SWORDS tells the story of a white witch who returns every hundred years to reunite with her soul mate, who’s been earthbound by a dark wizard’s curse. Will she find a way for them to be together this time around?
Excerpt
“Just so ye know, vampires don’t kill—except by accident, of course, or to commit deliberate murder.”
The sound of his deep, musical burr quickened Cat’s pulse. It could only be the good-looking Scot who’d been checking her out from the stacks for the past twenty minutes.
“Excuse me?” She raised her eyes from Anne Rice’s Interview with the Vampire, but did not turn around. There was no need. She’d already memorized every detail of his appearance while he skirted her gaze. Each time she looked his way, hoping to catch his eye, he was conveniently reading the book in his hand. Each time she returned to her work, the prickling hairs on the back of her neck gave away his game.
He seemed uncannily familiar too, though she couldn’t place him. The proud stance, powerful build, and thick copper hair all struck a chord—a sweet arpeggio that resonated somewhere deep inside.
“The average adult has five liters of blood,” he began to explain, “and the average stomach can hold fewer than two.” He paused to shift gears. “She’s also wrong about the coffins. And the impotence—though the book remains one of my favorites of the genre.”
“Mine too.” She set the gold-clad novel on the table beside her laptop. “Do you go here? You seem familiar.”
“Nay. I went to Saint Andrew’s ages ago.”
She still didn’t turn. “Oh? Then what brings you here?”
“I just moved to the village,” he said, “and heard the university had an impressive collection of vampire literature. So, I thought I’d see for myself—to kill a wee bit of time. But it seems ye’ve beaten me to it.”
“For my dissertation,” she offered quickly, pinging with guilt. She did not add that renewal of her faculty contract hinged on her finishing her Ph.D. before the term ended in three more weeks. Or that she was hopelessly behind. If she told him how under-the-gun she felt, he might leave. And she wanted to keep talking to him.
He was undeniably handsome. Bodice-ripper, book-cover handsome. Straight nose with a slight flare at the end; strong jaw and jutting chin; prominent brow and cheekbones; intense, deep-set eyes that turned down at the corners ever so slightly; and a sweet, kissable mouth whose tucked lower lip made it both boyish and sensual.
Apart from the biker jacket and boots, he might have stepped out of one of the Highlander romances she read every chance she got—a longstanding guilty pleasure. For some inexplicable reason, she’d been attracted to all things Scottish for as long as she could remember.
He reached past her, selected Dracula off her stack of reference material, and began looking through it. She could hear the pages turning behind her, but couldn’t bring herself to turn round. If she met his eyes, she would melt like butter.
“He was lucky to have no reflection to f*** with his head.”
His voice brought her back, but only partly. “Who?”
“Count Dracula.”
“Oh.” Embarrassment scorched her cheeks. “It was meant to symbolize that he had no soul.”
“I ken that. But is it true, do ye think?”
Cat knew from her Highlander romances the word “ken” meant “know” in Scots, but was otherwise confused by his question. Why did she find his closeness so discomposing? Men, even good-looking ones, rarely had this effect on her.
“Is what true?”
“That vampires have no souls,” he clarified. “That they’re eternally damned.”
“I don’t believe in—”
When she didn’t go on, he prodded. “Ye don’t believe in what?”
She was going to say “eternal damnation,” but remembered it was never a good idea to discuss religion—especially her religion—with any but like-minded practitioners of the craft. And even then, it could lead to heated disagreement.
Turning at last, she met his eyes, an astonishing shade of gold—like topazes or whisky backlit by the sun. They also were so gnawingly familiar she wanted to scream.
She tried to speak, to wrench her eyes away, but couldn’t seem to. Images of heather and bracken, of misty hills and crystal lochs, washed over her like a dream. What in the name of the goddess was happening to her?
Unable to bear his riveting gaze any longer, she turned back to the table, winded and shaken. She took a couple of breaths to slow her pulse and regain control. As he reached past her to return Dracula to its place, her eyes followed his hand—a sculptural marvel with long fingers tapering from furrowed knuckles to lustrous nails. She shivered as she imagined those fingers traveling over her flesh. He smelled good, too. Natural and earthy. Like a walk in the woods on a crisp autumn morning.
“How do I know you?” She had to force the words through her throat. “Have we met before?”
“Oh, aye.” His breath brushed her ear. “A couple of times.”
About the Author
Nina Mason is a hopeless romantic with strong affinities for history, mythology, and the metaphysical. She strives to write the same kind of books she loves to read: those that entertain, edify, educate, and enlighten. Three of her books will be published in 2014: The Queen of Swords, a paranormal romance/urban fantasy from Vamptasy Publishing; The Knight of Wands, book one in the Knights of Avalon Series from Soul Mate Publishing; and The Tin Man, a thriller from Crushing Hearts and Black Butterfly Publishing. When not writing, Nina works as a communications consultant, doll maker, and home stager. Born and raised in Southern California, Nina now lives in Woodstock, Georgia, with her husband, teenage daughter, two rescue cats, and a Westie who’s frightened of the dryer.
Connect with Nina
This is a blog hop, a way to find and follow new blogs,
hosted by Parajunkee and Alison Can Read.
You can follow me by using any one of the options over on the left sidebar.
This weeks question: Who is your blogger BFF? Tell us a little bit about him or her? If not tell us why you need or don’t need a blogger BFF.
I don’t really have one. But I have been feeling the love from Charlotte from Thoughts and Pens lately. 🙂 She always stops by and comments on my blog. Hi Charlotte! Check out her blog here:
And I hope everyone has a great weekend!
~Pam
