CURRENT GIVEAWAYS


My interview over at The Art and Craft of Writing Creatively is HERE

Purchase my book Images of America: Detroit Lakes HERE

Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Audio Book Review: The White Princess by @PhilippaGBooks



Series: The Cousin's War, #5


Publication Date:July 23, 2013
Format: Audio CD
Source: Publisher

The War of the Roses is finally over (or as Gregory calls it, the Cousin’s War) and Henry VII has been crowned and he has taken Elizabeth of York as his wife. As Gregory splendidly shows, his reign is anything but stable. He is not loved by the people and he does not have the charm to win them over.

Elizabeth of York is the focus of The White Princess. She was the eldest daughter of King Edward IV and Elizabeth Woodville. Her brothers were the missing Princes in the Tower. Elizabeth now has to learn to love Henry VII even though her heart still belongs to the deceased Richard III, her uncle. She never truly measures up in her husband’s eyes even though she does show him sympathy and tries to be a dutiful wife. But since she was constantly left out of the plans that her husband and his mother schemed together, she never had a chance.

Normally Gregory portrays her main characters as strong-willed and able to manipulate their future. Elizabeth is not this type of character. She was weak and I personally found her none too smart. She allowed herself to be manipulated instead of taking control of her own destiny. You would think with a husband that was obviously a mama’s boy and paranoid that she could have had a chance of becoming more. She was definitely overshadowed by her mother-in-law, Lady Margaret Beaufort.

Philippa Gregory of course takes her own liberties with history which provides for an entertaining historical fiction read. There were times that the book seemed drag on without getting to the point but all in all it ended up being a typical Gregory novel. You don’t have to read this entire series in order but it does help to keep the timeline straight.

I listened to the audio version narrated by Bianca Amato who did an exceptional job. Her tone of voice captured the characters well and I would listen to another audio narrated by her.


PURCHASE THE WHITE PRINCESS

DISCLOSURE: I received this audio CD from the publisher at no charge and in no way did it influence my review.

BOOKS IN ORDER


Tuesday, October 29, 2013

Teaser Tuesday: The Savage Dead by @JoeMcKinney

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!



This time the man did manage a laugh. A laugh that made him sound like one of the damned.
 ~pg. 136

Monday, October 28, 2013

Stacking the Shelves (October 28, 2014)

What is Stacking The Shelves all about?

We are all book lovers and the need to share our enthusiasm is sometimes overwhelming. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

If you’re anything like me, you are probably hoarding books and even though you are excited about your latest book arrival, it might be a while before you get to review it and Stacking The Shelves is a good way to express your undying enthusiasm for those titles!

How to participate? Just head on over to Tynga's Reviews and sign up!

FOR REVIEW


Red Hill by Jamie McGuire


 The Spider by Jennifer Estep

THANK YOU!

Tuesday, October 22, 2013

Teaser Tuesday: Twist by @johnlutzbooks

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!


Teaser #1
Mustn't forget Quinn and his minions.
 
Teaser #2
Fiona's bulging eyes seemed to follow him.

~pg 298 Twist by John Lutz

Sunday, October 20, 2013

Audio Book Review: Joyland by Stephen King




Publication Date:June 4, 2013
Format: Audio CD
Source: publisher

From the pulp crime novel cover to the creepy tagline, one can tell you are about to step into the mind of Stephen King. King’s narrator is Devin Jones and he takes the reader back in time to when he worked at the amusement park, Joyland. Devin meets a great group of friends that help him past his break up (because in your twenties any break up seems like it is the end of the world). He also discovers the secret of the Horror House ride…it’s haunted.

The story goes that Linda Gray came to the fair with her boyfriend. The boyfriend takes her on the Horror House ride and halfway through, slits her throat and tosses her out. All he leaves behind is a bloodied shirt and a pair of gloves. Now it is believed that Linda Gray haunts the ride waiting for her killer to be found.

This story intrigues Devin and he decides to dig deeper to see if he can discover the identity of the killer. This fascination leads Devin on an interesting adventure that ends up putting him and his new found friends in danger.

King has a way of making two complete different story lines come together flawlessly in the end. At times while you are reading you start to wonder what the importance of a scene is, but as long as you put your trust in King, he won’t let you down. This is definitely not a hard core horror novel as most are used to from King but it isn’t intended to be. This is just a story of love, loss, death and a bit of supernatural. I consider it a nice light mystery to read on a cold rainy day and hopefully will resonate with the younger readers and introduce them to the mastery of Stephen King.

The audio version featured a great narrator, Michael Kelly. His youthful sounding voice was fitting for the age that Devin was.

PURCHASE JOYLAND

DISCLOSURE: I received this audio CD from the publisher at no charge and in no way influenced my review.


Friday, October 18, 2013

Book Beginnings + Friday 56: Twist by @johnlutzbooks


Book Beginning hosted by Rose City Reader is where I share the first sentence (or so) of the book I am currently reading, along with my initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires.

Abbey Taylor trusted to God and Ford to get her into Medford so she could buy some groceries.

~pg. 1 Twist by John Lutz
 
MY THOUGHTS
 You already know that she is going to be in trouble...just sayin'.


The Friday 56 hosted by Freda's Voice. The only rules are to grab a book (any book), turn to page 56 or 56% in your eReader and find any sentence, or a few (no spoilers) that grabs you and post it.

And there was something else, way in the back of the drawer - a computer mouse with a wire and USB plug.

~pg. 56 Twist by John Lutz


Kill. . .Or Be Killed
Frank Quinn is a decorated ex-cop. A former homicide detective specializing in tracking serial killers. Now his niece, Carlie Hobbs, needs help. Someone is stalking her, and the NYPD can't stop him. A blonde, blue-eyed beauty, Carlie fits the victim type of the killer who's been terrorizing women--leaving them bound, gagged, and tortured with surgical precision. To win against the most personal adversary of his career, Quinn will have to set the perfect trap. All he needs is the perfect bait. . .

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
John Lutz published his first short story in 1966 in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine and has been publishing regularly ever since. His work includes political suspense, private eye novels, urban suspense, humor, occult, crime caper, police procedural, espionage, historical, futuristic, amateur detective--virtually every mystery sub-genre. He is the author of more than thirty-five novels and 250 short stories and articles. His novels and short fiction have been translated into virtually every language and adapted for almost every medium. He is a past president of both Mystery Writers of America and Private Eye Writers of America. Among his awards are the MWA Edgar, the PWA Shamus, The Trophee 813 Award for best mystery short story collection translated into the French language, the PWA Life Achievement Award, and the Short Mystery Fiction Society's Golden Derringer Lifetime Achievement Award. He is the author of two private eye series, the Nudger series, set in his home town of St. Louis, and the Carver series, set in Florida, as well as many non-series suspense novels. His SWF SEEKS SAME was made into the hit movie SINGLE WHITE FEMALE, starring Bridget Fonda and Jennifer Jason Leigh, and his novel THE EX was made into the HBO original movie of the same title, for which he co-authored the screenplay.

When Lutz isn't writing, he's reading, following baseball, dining out with friends, or going to movies. He's a serious movie buff and is on the Mystery Writers of America committee this year for the Edgar Award for best mystery movie.

Lutz and his wife, Barbara, split their time between St. Louis and Sarasota, Florida.

Thursday, October 17, 2013

Stacking the Shelves (October 17, 2013)

What is Stacking The Shelves all about?

We are all book lovers and the need to share our enthusiasm is sometimes overwhelming. Stacking The Shelves is all about sharing the books you are adding to your shelves, may it be physical or virtual. This means you can include books you buy in physical store or online, books you borrow from friends or the library, review books, gifts and of course ebooks!

If you’re anything like me, you are probably hoarding books and even though you are excited about your latest book arrival, it might be a while before you get to review it and Stacking The Shelves is a good way to express your undying enthusiasm for those titles!

How to participate? Just head on over to Tynga's Reviews and sign up!

FOR REVIEW
Blood Curse by Sharon Page
Twist by John Lutz

 
Doctor Sleep by Stephen King
Si-cology 1 by Si Robertson

from author Lauren Carr

PURCHASED
 Strange Brew by P.N. Elrod

I was lucky to meet the authors of the next two books at ParaCon 2013 at the Shooting Star Casino in Mahnomen, Minnesota. They were there promoting their SyFy shows. Looking forward to reading their books..:D


WON
 Deviation by Christine Manzari
Thank you Marcie @ 2 Read or Not 2 Read


BLOG CREATED JUNE 20, 2010