Mel's Shelves

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Blog Tour/Review: Warrior's Moon by Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Warrior’s Moon
Medieval Historical Romance by Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Never in all the kingdom has there been a more brave and protective champion. Nor such a loyal and capable maiden.
And they loved each other desperately.

But is their love strong enough to withstand all their dark age holds—danger, feudalism, disease, and unfair oppression?

Yes, they truly loved each other desperately.

They loved their kingdom more.

Sigh! What a fantastic book! First of all, the cover is absolutely gorgeous.

Isabella Kincraig is being pursued by Lord Rosskeene but she doesn't want anything to do with him. She's happily married with a 3-year-old daughter, Chantaya, and another child on the way. She and her husband take off with their daughter during a storm in the middle of the night and there's an accident. Chantaya quickly finds her father, who doesn't respond to her, and then she goes to search for her mother.

Close by, 8-year-old Peyton Wolfgar is having trouble sleeping. Through the lightening, he sees an overturned cart in the distance and tells his father. They take off to see if there are any survivors and if they can be of help. They quickly find Chantaya and her mother, who is barely breathing. They take Isabella and Chantaya home and nurse them back to health. Isabella gave birth a couple of days later, but the baby doesn't make it.

Peyton and his younger brother, Tristan, go on with life and Chantaya starts tagging along with them. They learn that Lord Rosskeene is searching for Isabella and are able to keep him away while she's recovering and then Isabella and Chantaya are able to move to a cottage where they can be somewhat hidden from anyone else who comes looking for them.

The years pass with Peyton and Chantaya being inseparable. They meet an old man who lives in the woods one day and learn that he is Sir Mordecai, a former knight. They become friends with him and enjoy learning more about him and spending time with him.

The time comes when Chantaya realizes she needs to start thinking about marriage so she sets out one day to determine which boy she would like to become involved with. That part was funny as she describes them and realizes how protected she's been through the years. When Peyton found out what she was doing, their conversation was entertaining and revealed a lot about what he was thinking. Big changes come for each of them as they decide the direction they each need to take. Their paths are filled with challenges and no guarantee that they will ever be with each other again.

I love everything about this book! Peyton and Chantaya are great together. I love their conversations and how safe I felt when he was around. Chantaya showed a lot of faith as she was put in dangerous situations yet she always found the good in them and was determined to do the right thing. They both knew what would happen if the king was overthrown and someone evil came into power, so they showed their willingness to do whatever it took to make sure that didn't happen. There are lots of characters to love and hate in this book. I cheered for some and hoped for the demise of others. This is a book I will read again and highly recommend it to everyone!

My Rating=5 Stars

Amazon * Smashwords

Barnes & Noble

Praise for Warrior’s Moon

“This book has adventure, memorable characters, and tons of action. There is even romance! I absolutely loved it!!!” ~Laura (Goodreads)

“I loved this book! Great characters, I love a strong female lead. I really enjoy all of Jaclyn Hawkes books, but I must say this in one of my favorites!” ~ KMon (Amazon)

Author Jaclyn M. Hawkes

Jaclyn M. Hawkes grew up in Utah with 6 sisters, 4 brothers and any number of pets. (It was never boring!) She got a bachelor’s degree, had a career and traveled extensively before settling down to her life’s work of being the mother of four magnificent and sometimes challenging children. She loves shellfish, the out of doors, the youth and hearing her children laugh. She and her fine husband, their family, and their sometimes very large pets, now live in a mountain valley in northern Utah, where it smells like heaven and kids still move sprinkler pipe.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Blog Tour Giveaway

$25 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 2/23/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Blogoversary Winner!

Thanks so much to all of you who participated in my one year blogoversary giveaway! The winner of the $15 Amazon Gift Card is Sanz S.

I look forward to another great year and many more giveaways!

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Book Review: Victoria's Promise by Julie Wright

Victoria's Promise, by Julie Wright
2014, 230p, Clean Romance
My Rating=5 Stars
Source: Provided copy for an honest review

A luxurious mansion. Thirty stunning bachelorettes. One very eligible bachelor. All of the ingredients are in place for a successful reality dating show, and behind the scenes, Tori Winters is set to pull the romantic strings as assistant director of Vows. Despite her distaste for public exhibitions of love—which spelled the death of her last relationship—Tori intends to give the public exactly what they want: scintillating footage of a bevy of beauties vying for the attention of Christopher Caine. But Chris, a consummate Southern gentleman and the star of Vows, seems almost too good to be true—and soon, even Tori finds herself falling under his spell. Despite legal obligations to avoid fraternizing with the talent, it’s clear her feelings are anything but unrequited. With the support of her friends in the Newport Ladies Book Club, Tori must make a life-altering decision: is she willing to jeopardize all she’s worked for in order to embrace her own fairy-tale ending?

I've seen these Newport Ladies Book Club Novels but this is the first one I've read. My plan with this one was to read it here and there while I was reading other books I needed to review. I picked it up one day when I had a lot of free time (thank goodness) and just couldn't put it down! I kept reading one more chapter until I wound up finishing it.

At the beginning of the book, Tori has a boyfriend, Lawrence, and as she's describing him and their relationship, it's pretty obvious that they aren't soul mates. She is mortified when he proposes to her at a packed concert and she runs out on him. After their short conversation the following morning, where he blames her job and book club for her inability to commit, she throws herself into her work to help her move on with her life.

Tori works as an assistant director of a reality TV show. It's called Vows and is similar to The Bachelor. She meets the star of the show, Christopher Caine, and he is dazzling. He also is attracted to her and starts asking around about her. She's not allowed to think of him that way, yet she has to work directly with him, so there are lots of sticky situations for them both.

I loved the romance! Tori and Chris are attracted to each other and they have great chemistry but need to avoid each other, especially as their feelings start becoming obvious to others. Tori needs to decide if she's willing to risk losing all she's worked to achieve for a chance at love and comes across a major wrinkle in her plan, so she might be too late after all.

Because I haven't read any of these books, I don't know how their book club was formed and whether they knew each other beforehand or not. I enjoyed their book discussions and that is an angle that would definitely interest me in reading more of these books. I like how she chose a book that she loved and when she read it again, wondered why she had fallen in love with it the first time around. I've done that before, too, so I could relate to her feelings about that. There's a situation with one of her book club members that she's not sure if she should involve herself, but she does, and it's uncomfortable at times, but she ends up with a stronger relationship at the end of the drama.

This is a clean romance, with humor and friendships and is a lot of fun to read. There are lots of books in this series and they're written by different authors. I like that because it seems that they will all be quite different from each other with the perspective of different people writing them (I'll let you know if that's how I feel after I've read a few of these). This is a great read, especially if you like reality TV, and I highly recommend it!

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Deseret Book

About the Author

Julie Wright wrote her first book when she was fifteen. She's written fourteen novels since then and has nine traditionally published. She is represented by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger Inc. and is a Whitney Awards winner for best romance with her book Cross My Heart.

She has one husband, three kids, one dog, and a varying amount of fish, frogs, and salamanders (depending on attrition).

She loves writing, reading, hiking, playing with her kids, and watching her husband make dinner.

She hates mayonnaise.

Website

Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Blog Tour/Review: Ravenscliffe by Jane Sanderson

Ravenscliffe, by Jane Sanderson
2014, 544p, Historical Fiction
My Rating=3 Stars
Source: Received a copy from the publisher for an honest review

For fans of Downton Abbey . . . The peaceful beauty of the English countryside belies the turmoil of forbidden love and the apprehension of a changing world for the families of Netherwood.

Yorkshire, 1904. On Netherwood Common, Russian émigré Anna Rabinovich shows her dear friend Eve Williams a gracious Victorian villa—Ravenscliffe—the house Anna wants them to live in. There’s a garden and a yard and room enough for their children to play and grow.
Something about the house speaks to Anna, and you should listen to a house, she believes…Ravenscliffe holds the promise of happiness.

Across the square, Clarissa and her husband, the Earl of Netherwood, are preparing for King Edward’s visit. Clarissa is determined to have everything in top shape at Netherwood Hall—in spite of the indolent heir to the estate, Tobias, and his American bride—and much of it depends on the work going on downstairs as the loyal servants strive to preserve the noble family’s dignity and reputation.

As Anna restores Ravenscliffe to its full grandeur, she strikes up a relationship with hardworking Amos Sykes—who proposed to Eve just one year ago.

But when Eve’s long-lost brother Silas turns up in their close-knit mining community, cracks begin to appear in even the strongest friendships.

As change comes to the small town and society at large, the residents of Netherwood must find their footing or lose their place altogether.

My favorite part of this book was the relationship between Eve and Anna. Their friendship sustained each other through some rough times. I wasn't a fan of Eve's brother, Silas, but I did enjoy his role in helping Eve and Anna secure Ravenscliffe.

Eve's business is booming and she is engaged to be married, which hasn't made her relationship with her son, Seth, any easier. On his twelfth birthday, he signs up to work at the mine since he thinks that's what his father would want him to do. Eve is not happy with his decision but also realizes that he has to figure out on his own if that's really what he wants to do with his life. Her brother Silas has also returned and he is a shady businessman that clashes with her friends.

Anna is as spirited as ever and was determined that they were going to move into Ravenscliffe, a much larger home that they could all spread out in. She's smart and opinionated and I really liked her character. She grows close to Amos, who is now out of the mine and working for the miners' union.

The Hoyland's are preparing for the king's visit so Clarissa is preparing to give her entire home a makeover. That keeps everyone hopping. Henrietta is still interested in her father's business and does all she can to stay involved. Tobias is chasing after Thea, an American, much to his mother's dismay.

I was hoping to get to delve more into the personal lives of the women that worked with Eve. We do learn some of their heartaches and especially one woman's tragedy, but then their stories just fizzle out. It also would have been nice to have learned even more about the personal lives of the employees of Netherwood Hall.

I enjoyed the first part of this book and then, about two-thirds of the way in, tragedy strikes one of the families and at that point, I just skimmed through until the end. The book lost some of its charm for me after that as it became more dramatic and changed direction. It marked the end of an era and, while I enjoyed Netherwood and parts of this book were great, too, this will also be the end for me.

Content: Swearing, including three "f" words. Extramarital relationships (no details). Lesbian relationship (with some detail).

About Jane Sanderson

A former BBC radio producer, married to author and journalist Brian Viner, Jane Sanderson has used some of her own family history as background for her first novel.

Find out more about Jane at her website and follow her on Twitter.

Ravenscliffe Tour Stops

Tuesday, January 28th: No More Grumpy Bookseller
Wednesday, January 29th: BookNAround
Thursday, January 30th: Ageless Pages Reviews
Tuesday, February 4th: Mel’s Shelves
Wednesday, February 5th: Bibliophilia, Please
Friday, February 7th: Svetlana’s Reads and Views
Thursday, February 13th: Mom in Love With Fiction

Monday, February 3, 2014

Book Blast: EKHO by Marie D. Jones

EKHO by Marie D. Jones

Ten-year-old Elvis Jones is tired of being picked on, taunted, and teased by the bullies at his elementary school, so he does what any smart, technologically brilliant kid his age would do: he creates EKHO, the Evil Kid Hunting Organization, a sophisticated network of kid spies and secret agents that utilize a variety of cool gadgets to stay one step ahead of the enemy – the bullies. They hire kids, make them swear allegiance to the organization, and train them as Commandos, Privates, and Elite Spies. As kids rise through the ranks, the missions, posted on an encrypted EKHO website, require more smarts and skill, especially when the bullies form their own counterspy group called DEKE (Destroy EKHO Kids Everywhere).

It’s all in good fun, until the kids of EKHO must put their pretend skills to use for far more serious, and dangerous, missions. As field agents come across evidence of more sinister forces, they now have to deal with the strange, weird, and the unknown as they look for the truth about the bizarre and creepy threats to their school, their families, and their own lives. They experience betrayal, intrigue, infiltration and counter-espionage as well as teachers and adults who act more mysterious with each passing day, which leaves Elvis and his EKHO team wondering: who can you trust when the person standing next to you might not be entirely human?

Coming February 4, 2014

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * The Book Depository

Author Marie D. Jones

Marie D. Jones is a best-selling author with an extensive background in unknown mysteries, metaphysics, science, and the paranormal. She has been featured multiple times on the History Channel in Ancient Aliens and Nostradamus Effect. Marie also served as a special UFO/abduction consultant for the 2009 Universal Pictures movie, The Fourth Kind. She is a staff writer for FATE Magazine and Intrepid Magazine and a regular contributor to Paranoia Magazine and New Dawn Magazine. Marie has been interviewed on hundreds of radio talk shows all over the world, including Coast to Coast AM, and has been featured in dozens of newspapers, magazines, and online publications, internationally. She has lectured widely at major paranormal, new science, and self-empowerment events, and is the screenwriter and co-producer of 19 Hz, a paranormal thriller in development with Bruce Lucas Films.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

BookBlast Giveaway

$50 Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 2/28/14

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader, Not A Writer and sponsored by the author. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Saturday, February 1, 2014

Read & Rate: Solstice by Jane Redd

SOLSTICE:

Four ways to get Banished from the last surviving city on earth are: 1. Cut out your emotion tracker, 2. Join a religious cult, 3. Create a rebellion against the Legislature, 4. Fall in love.

Jezebel James does all four.

Jez is on the fast-track to becoming a brilliant scientist, with one goal—to save her city from total extinction. Her caretakers have entrusted her with a secret plan to stop the rain from flooding the rest of the earth and start civilization anew. But the more Jez learns about the price of a fresh beginning, the more she realizes that carrying out the plan will lead to few survivors, and among the dead will be those she cares about the most.

http://www.swoonreads.com/m/solstice

This is a unique opportunity. Jane Redd is a pen name for Heather Moore, who has written Finding Sheba (you can read my review here) and many, many other books. Here's the information from her blog:

"Who's Jane Redd? Me! I wrote SOLSTICE in 2011, and I've decided to dust it off and enter it into a teen romance contest. Since the book is set in the future and written for the YA market, and quite a bit different than my other books, I chose a pen name.

You can read and rate it, along with other teen romances, on the website Swoon Reads. For the next 5 months, SOLSTICE will be at the mercy of the public... kind of scary considering I've never offered up one of my unpublished manuscript to the masses in this way.

I've love for you to check it out, rate it, make comments, the whole nine yards... then tell your friends... tell your TEENAGERS :-)"

So, this is super easy and it's all free. You set up an account with Swoon Reads, click on her book and read it. I read it and loved it! I want to read more, too, so I hope you'll join me in helping her get it published.

Grand Finale: The Fantastical Tour

To post this Grand Finale and add your Social Media to the Rafflecopter, email Tressa at wishfulendings(at)outlook.com with "Fantastical Grand Finale" in the subject line!

Did you miss any of these fantastic stops on the tour?

Check them out now!

January 26 Launch

January 27 @ Mythical Books

Shadowskin

Goodreads * Amazon * Createspace * Barnes & Noble

by Bethany Cassel

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest

Weaving a Fairy Tale Tapestry

Once upon a time, there was a poison apple. This poison apple never wanted to hurt the princess with skin as white as snow, but evil dwarves made her do it.

In the very earliest stages of Shadowskin, the book was meant to be a straight retelling of the Snow White fairy tale. It was inspired by the question and subsequent answer of, “Why would the evil queen really want to kill Snow White? The poison apple is more than that . . . it’s really the queen’s daughter, cursed with a deadly touch.” This is where my main character, Pomona, originated. She was the personification of the poison apple in the story. At first, I was content to develop just this part of her identity and retell just one fairy tale, but, as things go with writing, things quickly got out of hand. I realized that Pomona was far more than just a poisoned apple, but that required some more development...