Blog Tour and Giveaway: Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for the YA mystery thriller novel Deadfall by Stephen Wallenfels. This blog tour was organized by Rockstar Book Tours. On my stop, I have an excerpt for you. There's also a tour wide giveaway at the bottom of this post. Be sure to check out the other blogs on the tour here for more excerpts, interviews, and reviews. Enjoy!

Title: DEADFALL

Author: Stephen Wallenfels

Publication Date: December 11, 2018

Publisher: Disney-Hyperion

Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Pages: 384

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Twin brothers Ty and Cory Bic are on the run. When they encounter a dying deer in the middle of a remote mountain road with fresh tire tracks swerving down into a ravine, they know they have to help. But when they reach the wrecked car the vehicle appears empty, with signs that the driver escaped.

Until they hear a sound coming from the trunk.

Ty and Cory are escaping demons of their own. But what they discover in the trunk puts them in the crosshairs of something darker and more sinister than their wildest nightmares.

Told through a gripping, lightning-fast narrative that alternates between present and past, this unputdownable survival thriller unravels the tangled circumstances that led Ty and Cory to the deer in the road and set them on a perilous course through the wilderness of the Pacific Northwest.

Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Book Depository

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Excerpt:

I may be wrong here, but my guess is it’s not that she wants my company specifically—she just doesn’t want to be alone. I listen to her breaths, watch the small puffs of vapor rise and fade. She settles into a wheezy but regular rhythm. I lean in for a quick look. Her skin has a pinkish color, which I hope is a good sign. That means she’s warming up. After a few minutes, I’m pretty confident that she’s asleep. With her situation stable I’m tempted to get water now. It’s really what I should do. She would never know that I was gone—other than the fact that we would magically have more water. I shake that thought away. She asked me to stay and that’s what I will do. Besides, I need to sleep. That need is like a heavy hand on my spirit pushing me down.

Before I collapse I look out both porthole windows—still gray and raining softly. Our tracks are pretty much gone. I make sure the ceiling vent is open and blow out all but one candle, slip the headlamp over my head in case the candle goes out; then I slide my sleeping bag off hers, zip myself inside, and hope that sleep comes fast and easy.

But sleep does not come fast or easy. I was afraid it would be the terror of the driver’s flashlight coming down the slope, or Ty leaving, or even the gut-emptying sight of blood-tipped bone through skin, that would haunt me in the almost dark. It’s none of those visions.

As I listen to the sound of her breathing and feel the steady rhythm pull me closer to my own personal oblivion, all I see are those bruises. I hope that whatever violences she endured are behind her and that this hole in the ground is what I promised it would be: a refuge and not a grave.

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About the Author:

Stephen Wallenfels lives in Washington state with his wife. He wrote freelance for the Health and Fitness industry for fifteen years before turning writing novels. His passions are family, hiking, cooking, reading, movies, climate change, and especially writing.

Website * Facebook * Goodreads * Twitter

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Giveaway:

3 winners will receive finished copies of DEADFALL, US only.

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Book Tour and Giveaway: Whispers Series by Nance Newman

You're Not Alone

Whispers Series Book 1

by
Nance Newman

Genre:
Paranormal Mystery

When you’re dead, you’re dead. That’s it. Nothing more. At least that’s what Quinn O’Reilly thinks until she starts hearing whispers after losing the love of her life to cancer. Quinn either has to start believing in an afterlife or admit that her own sanity is in jeopardy. As a battle begins for her beloved’s estate, threatening her with financial ruin, the voices intensify.

To make them stop, Quinn and her best friend Chaz follow an unlikely mix of characters into the world of spirits, ghosts and specters. What they must do to unravel the mystery of the whispers tests Quinn’s belief system in every way. Can the dead really reach out from the other side? Can Quinn open her mind enough to help her and her dead lover? Is it okay to commit a crime for a greater purpose? And what is appropriate attire for a séance or digging up a grave?

Goodreads * Amazon

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Bad Man, Bad Ghost

Whispers Series Book 2

Finding clues in the shoes of a dead man in a coffin wasn’t what Quinn thought she would do when she became a mortician. She also didn’t expect the bodies that entered her funeral home to have lived their lives as bad men or to whisper their requests to her—not only demands that she has to fulfill to get them to stop, but ones that might lead her to commit acts on the wrong side of the law.

The spirit of a mob boss has entered Quinn O’Reilly’s funeral parlor and his whispers drag her into a world of criminals, secrets and lies. Once again, she enlists the help of her friends—Andjela, a communicator with the dead, Mr. Princeton, a professor of Egyptian studies at the local university, Chester, the owner of the town cemetery and Chaz, her best friend and assistant—to find the clues that will lead her to what the dead man wants. She realizes that she can’t answer the whispers alone which force her to put her friends in danger.

Soon she finds it’s not only the dead Mafia boss that wants something from her, but so does his wife, his mistress and strange, dark men in dark suits.

To make matters worse, Quin is realizing that the whispers of spirits aren’t going to go away. Neither is the specter that still haunts her apartment.

Goodreads * Amazon

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Dirty Wrong

Whispers Series Book 3

Eleanor’s spirit is doing a lot of griping in Quinn’s funeral home. She was the wife of a member of the Mafia who was murdered several years prior and now she wants something from Quinn. Her best friend nicknamed her “Mafia magnet” since this is the second spirit to contact her who is connected to the mob. She knows she is destined to a life of answering their ghostly requests but she wonders if all the spirits that contact her will always be on the wrong side of the law.

Once again, Quinn must put her friends in danger to help her decipher the clues Eleanor’s spirit has communicated to them. It leads them to the now defunct, dark, and foreboding subway tunnels beneath the city where they discover they’re not the only one’s searching for whatever Eleanor has hidden. There’s a war going on in the tunnels and they can’t tell who’s winning—the ghosts or the Mafia. What will happen if the war in the tunnel keeps them from finding the answers to Eleanor’s clues? Will the price they have to pay for being in the middle of it be too much for Quinn to handle?

Goodreads * Amazon

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Sound Travels

Whispers Series Book 4

Once again, Quinn hears the whispers of the dead, but when it follows her on a trip to New York City with Andjela and Chaz to help her parents find a missing girl, Quin realizes the whisper is that of the missing girl, Sofia.

The niece of Eleanor, the last spirit to elicit Quinn’s help, Sofia had somehow gotten mixed up in her family’s Mafia mess. Now she is dead.

Quinn summons Mr. Princeton and Chester to New York City to help them communicate with Sofia. Together, they must follow the clues to find Sofia’s body and the cause of her death.

Who is really responsible for the murder of a young girl? What was Sofia hiding that got her killed? Will Quinn and her friends find her and what it was she was hiding?

And why are there two different black SUV’s that show up where ever they are?

Follow Quinn, Andjela, Mr. Princeton, Chester and Chaz into two very menacing worlds-that of the Mafia and of the dead, and discover the newest hiding spot—a very large hole in Brooklyn.

Goodreads * Amazon

I live in upstate New York with my two dogs; a 17 year old Min Pin (Zeus) and a female dog I recently rescued from the Puerto Rico hurricanes (I have been learning Spanish and she is learning English!). Her name is Ela and she is a joy.

I have been writing in some form or other since high school when I bought my first guitar (a 12 string for $50 from one of those magazines my mother used to receive in the mail) and began writing songs. In college, I started my first novel that I hope to go back to and finish someday.

I currently work for a school district in transportation as a router and dispatcher where I use software to solve the puzzle of getting 5600 students to many different schools, but my goal is to become a full time writer of novels and music. I try to fit writing in with my full time job and hobbies that include biking, gardening, hiking, kayaking and watching movies (lots of them and all kinds).

I continue to write songs and perform with Dooley (my music partner) We have a CD of original songs and it is available for your enjoyment. Visit me at nancenewman.com to check it out.

I am really excited to share my work with you, and some days you might see me driving a big yellow school bus.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Google+ * Amazon * Goodreads

Facts Mixed with Fantasy in Heartwood and the Whispers Series

Ideas, Ideas, Ideas

I have been writing since high school. The first thing I wrote, other than a journal, was a song. I bought my first guitar from a magazine and have been playing and singing ever since. I wrote my first novel while I was in college, but never finished it. Throughout my life, I have written many songs and with my singing partner, we put out a CD of some of our originals a few years ago. One of the songs we are most proud of was one she wrote during chemo and radiation for Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. She started to lose her hair and rather than be depressed about it, she wrote a great, fun poem that we put to music. We performed it several years after that at the Cancer’s Survivor Celebration at the hospital where she had treatment.

About seven years ago, I took a creative writing course from a friend of mine who is an established lesbian romance author. It was then I began to write my stories. Ideas for my books come from everywhere—experiences, movies, visiting places, dreams, and sometimes just my imagination.

I started with You’re Not Alone. The idea came to me from something my mother went through. Turning the series into a mystery with the ghosts being part of the Mafia came to me after meeting a man who managed a fast food restaurant. I’m not a fast food junkie, but I went every week with my family and mostly to hear the stories of this man who befriended my mother. Heartwood came from my love of camping and the Adirondack Mountains.

I start with my ideas and start to research the Internet for things that might connect to my idea. Often, it takes a lot of googling before I find what I’m looking for. For example, for my book Heartwood, I began to google everything about trees-the kind of trees in the Adirondacks, things associated with trees, diseases, why we need trees, etc. All of this added genuine value to the story from the names of the characters to information on Forest Dieback and the value of trees.

The actual premise for the Whisper series was communicating with the afterlife. I had a lot of fun googling for this from Tarot cards, to séances to Egyptian Studies. I found the Spells of the Book of the Dead and introduced a character who is a professor of Egyptian Studies and was adept at re writing these spells to work during sciences. With the fourth book in the Whispers series, I was researching places in New York City and Brooklyn where the Mafia lurked. I found a tour you can take in Brooklyn just for this purpose and one of the stops was The Hole—a place where it is said they buried some bodies.

I think my favorite thing about writing is taking my ideas and stretching them and molding them into the stories they become, and I know I’ll be doing this for a very long time!

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

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Book Review: Hello Again by Stan Schatt

Title: Hello Again

Author: Stan Schatt

Publication Date: November 13th 2018

Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Psychological Thriller

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When Ben Eisner meets the girl of his dreams, he never imagines she could turn into his worst nightmare. After all, he lives in a twenty-first century technological world and not in some nineteenth century village where the natives fear ghosts and demons. When he begins to receive texts from his dead girlfriend, he assumes they are part of an elaborate prank, but the texts become more and more threatening and reveal information only his girlfriend knew. Texts from the dead are better left unread. 

Hello Again is a psychological thriller, a paranormal spine-tingling adventure that will keep readers guessing until the last page.

Goodreads * Amazon Kindle * Amazon Paperback * Barnes & Noble * IndieBound

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My Review:

I love the premise of Hello Again by Stan Schatt. I'm very much into ghosts, so I knew I had to read this book. When it came up for review, I knew I had to read it. Unfortunately, this book was just okay, nothing special.

The plot for Hello Again sounded interesting enough. I loved the idea of a guy getting texts from his dead girlfriend. However, there just wasn't enough of the paranormal aspect for me which was disappointing. Personally, I wouldn't really label Hello Again as a paranormal read at all. It was fun to read about though. I kept trying to figure out who was sending the texts from Amber's phone after she died especially since they were coming from her apartment. I also found it interesting to read about Bill's cafe and how he was struggling to get the money to renew the lease. Anyway, the story did take awhile to get going before he meets his girlfriend, Amber Love, at a speed dating event. Amber is very mysterious and doesn't reveal too much of herself to Ben. I found their relationship to be a bit forced and stagnant myself. They hadn't even been on very many dates before she is blown up by a car bomb. What I found weird was that Ben never even googled Amber's name when he found out she had given him a false last name. If it were me, this day in age, I would have been googling her as soon as I had free time. I also felt like we need more information about how Ben found out about Amber's funeral. I will say that by the time this book ended, all of my questions were answered. There are no cliff hangers, and I felt like what was supposed to be the plot twist was too predictable.

I never really connected to any of the characters in Hello Again, and as much as I tried, I never really found myself caring for any of them. I would have liked a bit more backstory into Ben and Amber. I would have liked it if Ben and Amber's relationship had a chance to flourish instead of them just going on about 3 or 4 dates. I would have even liked more backstory for Josh, the psychic. It was hard to connect to these characters when I didn't know much about them. Oh, one of the characters is described as looking like a terrorist and of Middle Eastern descent. I found this to be stereotypical and thought that some readers may find this offensive.

The pacing for Hello Again starts out slow. About halfway through, the pacing does pick up, but I feel it does go too fast in many places which left scratching my head wondering what had happened. Sometimes, I had to go back to see if I missed anything which I didn't. The pacing just didn't flow very well in the second half. However, this book did hold my attention until the very end though, but I wasn't in a rush to finish it. Luckily, it's a short read.

Trigger warnings for Hello Again include some profanity, a couple of sex scenes although they aren't graphic, violence, murder, and alcoholic drinking.

All in all, Hello Again was an okay albeit disappointing read for me. I had been expecting more of a paranormal read which this really wasn't. I could never connect to the characters which left me feeling empty. However, I did find that this book held my attention on the plus side. Because it held my attention and was a short read, I would recommend Hello Again by Stan Schatt for those aged 18+ who are looking for a short read.

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(A special thank you to Xpresso Book Tours for providing me with an eBook of Hello Again in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.)

Book Tour and Giveaway: Heartwood by Nance Newman

Heartwood

by
Nance Newman

Genre:
Fantasy, Magical Realism

In the Adirondack Mountains the forests are dying by the hand of a demon whose only purpose is the destruction of the natural world.

Within the high peaks of the Adirondacks a magical edifice, Heartwood, appears yet remains hidden from the world. Inhabited by the descendants of an ancient race who have been protecting the natural world since the beginning of their existence, they will wait for the next true Xylem who is the only one powerful enough to fight the demon.

The battle will soon begin.

Heartwood weaves legend into reality as the world’s ecosystem is threatened by supernatural demons. Elathea is a typical teenager whose parents can no longer keep the family secret from her—that she is a descendant of an ancient race of women whose legend says only one progeny every hundred years or more will have the powers needed to face nature’s magical enemies. As her powers begin to emerge, they can no longer deny her destiny. They send her to Heartwood to learn about who she is and what she must do. Only Ela doesn’t want the job.

Sometimes, you don’t have a choice.

Goodreads * Amazon

I live in upstate New York with my two dogs; a 17 year old Min Pin (Zeus) and a female dog I recently rescued from the Puerto Rico hurricanes (I have been learning Spanish and she is learning English!). Her name is Ela and she is a joy.

I have been writing in some form or other since high school when I bought my first guitar (a 12 string for $50 from one of those magazines my mother used to receive in the mail) and began writing songs. In college, I started my first novel that I hope to go back to and finish someday.

I currently work for a school district in transportation as a router and dispatcher where I use software to solve the puzzle of getting 5600 students to many different schools, but my goal is to become a full time writer of novels and music. I try to fit writing in with my full time job and hobbies that include biking, gardening, hiking, kayaking and watching movies (lots of them and all kinds).

I continue to write songs and perform with Dooley (my music partner) We have a CD of original songs and it is available for your enjoyment. Visit me at nancenewman.com to check it out.

I am really excited to share my work with you, and some days you might see me driving a big yellow school bus.

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Google+ * Amazon * Goodreads

Facts Mixed with Fantasy in Heartwood

Location, Location, Location

I’m an avid camper, outdoors person. I love to hike, bike, canoe, kayak, ski, snow shoe—just about anything you can do outdoors, I love to do. So, one day while I was camping with my best friends and talking about my books, they suggested I write a book about camping.

Heartwood was born that day.

It started out in a campground setting but moved to the Adirondack Mountains because I had many wonderful backpacking memories in those mountains. They may be small, but their beauty is unique.

I love to do research and tie my fantasy ideas to the real world-thus, this novel is in the genre magical realism. I think it’s exciting to be able to look up the places, people or things and see they really do exist, but there’s been a magical spin put on them. This was true with the ghost town Tahawas that is the setting for where the magical edifice Heartwood exists. Remnants of the town are still there and my friends and I took an impromptu research trip one week-end in October to see it. The bonus was the Adirondack Mountains were at peak fall color! I can’t tell you how excited I was to see it in person in order to make the realism part of the novel more real.

I have found this is my favorite genre to write in, so look for more novels that take real live places and real facts and weave them in and out of my magical and fantasy ideas!

Follow the tour HERE for exclusive excerpts, guest posts and a giveaway!

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Book Blitz and Giveaway: For the Blood (For the Blood #1) by Debbie Cassidy

Title: For the Blood (For the Blood, #1)
Author: Debbie Cassidy
Publication Date: December 27th 2018
Genres: Adult, Post-Apocalyptic, Romance, Urban Fantasy

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Stay alive at all costs. No attachments, no looking back, no emotion.

The last thing my father gave me was a key. No explanation, no details, just a key. The last thing he asked of me was to take the key to a set of co-ordinates. But survival in a fallen world filled with Feral isn’t easy. The Fangs and the Claws, once upstanding members of society are now slave to the virus, hunting indiscriminately under a perpetually full moon.

There is no hope. There is no haven. Not alone. Not until them.

They are a new breed of monster—beasts of both fang and fur. Unaffected by the sickness, they crave only one thing, and it runs through my veins. Survive, my father said. Look out for no one except yourself. But sometimes the only way to survive is to make attachments. Sometimes the only way to live is to accept a dance with death. And right now, for me, the path to survival is in the blood.

Here’s to hoping it doesn’t kill me.

The Vampire Diaries meets The Walking Dead in this Post-Apocalyptic Urban Fantasy with a slow burn Why Choose romance

Goodreads / Amazon

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Excerpt:

A crack, sharp as a gunshot, ripped through the air, reverberating around us, making it impossible to tell which direction it had come from.

I froze.

The others froze.

Not a sound but our erratic breath, but the hunter was out there, and there was no way I’d be its prey.

It was time to fire some instructions. “Derek, make sure that thing is ready to fire. Everyone else get ready to run. We head east. If we get split up, keep moving east.”

We had no weapons. We couldn’t fight. One gun between the four of us. Pah. But a few shots may slow it down and give us a chance to make a run for it. The sound of the gun being cocked was way too loud, setting my teeth on edge. Let’s hope we hadn’t just given away our location – nah, who was I kidding, the Feral had exceptional senses.

Another sharp crack – from our left this time. I gestured for the others to get back, to get behind me. My protective instinct, the one that warred constantly with the voice that said sod them and look out for number one, had taken the wheel.

Emily moved closer to me, her eyes as wide as dinner plates. I didn’t need to look at Tobias to know his eyes would be narrowed, his jaw clenched as he prepared to jet. We were fast on our feet. Tobias and I could outrun this threat if we left the others as cannon fodder. It’s what Dad would have told us to do. It’s what my survival instinct was screaming at me to do now.

My gut twisted. God, sometimes having a conscience sucked.

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About the Author:

Debbie Cassidy lives in England, Bedfordshire, with her three kids and very supportive husband. Coffee and chocolate biscuits are her writing fuels of choice, and she is still working on getting that perfect tower of solitude built in her back garden. Obsessed with building new worlds and reading about them, she spends her spare time daydreaming and conversing with the characters in her head - in a totally non psychotic way of course. She writes Urban Fantasy, Fantasy and Reverse Harem Fantasy. All her books contain plenty of action, romance and twisty plots.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

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Giveaway:
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Blog Tour and Giveaway: My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn

Welcome to my stop on the blog tour for the YA contemporary romance novel My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life by Rachel Cohn. This blog tour was organized by Rockstar Book Tours. On my stop, I have an excerpt for you. There's also a tour wide giveaway at the end of this post. Be sure to follow the rest of the tour here for other excerpts and reviews. Enjoy!

Title: MY ALMOST FLAWLESS TOKYO DREAM LIFE
Author: Rachel Cohn
Publication Date: December 18, 2018
Publisher: Disney-Hyperion
Formats: Hardcover, eBook
Pages: 384
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"I'm here to take you to live with your father. In Tokyo, Japan! Happy birthday!"

In the Land of the Rising Sun, where high culture meets high kitsch, and fashion and technology are at the forefront of the First World's future, the foreign-born teen elite attend ICS-the International Collegiate School of Tokyo. Their accents are fluid. Their homes are ridiculously posh. Their sports games often involve a (private) plane trip to another country. They miss school because of jet lag and visa issues. When they get in trouble, they seek diplomatic immunity.

Enter foster-kid-out-of-water Elle Zoellner, who, on her sixteenth birthday discovers that her long-lost father, Kenji Takahari, is actually a Japanese hotel mogul and wants her to come live with him. Um, yes, please! Elle jets off first class from Washington D.C. to Tokyo, which seems like a dream come true. Until she meets her enigmatic father, her way-too-fab aunt, and her hyper-critical grandmother, who seems to wish Elle didn't exist. In an effort to please her new family, Elle falls in with the Ex-Brats, a troupe of uber-cool international kids who spend money like it's air. But when she starts to crush on a boy named Ryuu, who's frozen out by the Brats and despised by her new family, her already tenuous living situation just might implode.

My Almost Flawless Tokyo Dream Life is about learning what it is to be a family, and finding the inner strength to be yourself, even in the most extreme circumstances.

Goodreads * Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Book Depository * iBooks

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Excerpt:

“Your father would be honored for you to come stay with him in Tokyo,” said Uncle Masa, sounding very formal, like he was the butler for this “father” of mine.

“You’ve got to be kidding me. I haven’t seen you since I was in middle school—and by the way, my life went to hell in that time—and now you’re here with an invitation for me to live with my father, when you never even told me you knew my father? No way. Just, no. And . . . and . . .” I was starting to sputter. There was too much to say, to ask, to know already. “And why is he suddenly ready to be in my life . . . but can’t even be bothered to show up in person?”

Reggie’s dad was a military hero killed in an ambush in the Middle East when Reggie was only five. Reggie had his dad’s photos, his medals, his letters. Reggie’s dad was real. He existed. He loved his son, even though he left Reggie way too early. But Reggie had all the proof— and the memories. All I’d ever gotten was evasive answers about “Mr. Tokyo” from my mother, who shut down each conversation by saying the subject hurt her too much to talk about. I’d never thought of myself as a person who had a father. Girls on TV had them, not people like me. Dads: just some fantasy created by Hollywood.

Mabel caught up to us. She said, “My understanding is your father wasn’t able to be part of your life in the past. Now he is.”

“What’s his name?” I asked.

Mabel rifled through some papers in the notebook she always carried. “Kenji Takahara.” After all these years of wondering who my real father was, I couldn’t believe I was finding out from a social worker of all people. There was an actual name attached to this fantasy.

“Why should I believe this Kenji Takahara guy is my father?” I asked. “I mean, come on. Absent biological fathers don’t just drop out of the sky.”

Uncle Masa looked up to the sky. I forgot how he took statements literally. His English was excellent, but it was not his native language and he often didn’t get turns of phrase. “Come with me,” said Uncle Masa. “I’ll show you.”

I let him lead me back toward the fancy car. He opened the back door, retrieved some documents from his briefcase, and handed one to me. “Here is your birth certificate. Your father’s name is right there. Kenji Takahara.”

There it was, a birth certificate issued by the State of Maryland, with my name and date of birth on it. Mother: Brandy Zoellner. Father: Kenji Takahara.

Uncle Masa held up more documents for me to inspect. “You see? This is your mother’s signed consent form authorizing you to go live with him. This is your plane ticket.”

“Wait. What? You saw my mom? When?”

Uncle Masa said, “I haven’t seen her. I’ve been in touch with her through a lawyer.” He bowed to Mabel. “She saw your mother to get the form signed.”

Even I hadn’t seen my mom since she’d gone to Jessup Correctional Institute three months ago. Every week Mabel gave me the option of going. Every week I declined. Not ready. Too mad. I was grateful Mom was alive, of course—but her addiction had ruined both our lives. I knew prison was difficult—how could it not be? But to see her face-to-face would require too painful an acknowledgment of how difficult my own life in foster care, without her, had also become. All Mom’s fault.

I looked accusingly at Mabel. “Why didn’t you tell me any of this before?”

Mabel said, “I was instructed not to, in case it didn’t work out. We didn’t want to give you false hope.”

“I don’t believe you.” I wasn’t sure if I was addressing Mabel, or Uncle Masa, or the whole rotten universe.

“Then you can verify it with your mother yourself,” said Mabel, looking at her watch. “She’s expecting you, and I assured her I would deliver you to her this time. Visiting hours today end at four p.m. If we leave right now, we’ll get to Jessup in enough time.”

“What if I say no?” I asked Mabel.

Mabel looked toward #3’s house. The blinds closed suddenly.

The chauffeur held open the passenger door for us to get in.

Mabel confidently stepped into the car. Go directly to Jail, do not pass Go.

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About the Author:

Rachel Cohn is the bestselling, award-winning author of many books. She lives in Los Angeles with two very cool cats named McNulty and Bunk.

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads * Instagram

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Giveaway:

3 winners will receive finished copies of MY ALMOST FLAWLESS TOKYO DREAM LIFE, US only.

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Book Blitz and Giveaway: The Dating Alternative by Jennifer Woodhull

Title: The Dating Alternative
Author: Jennifer Woodhull
Publication Date: December 26th 2018
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

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She’s so over dating. He wants to be her alternative.

Max has crushed on Brie for as long as he’s known her but the timing was never right. When he finds out they’re finally single at the same time, he’s poised to move from friend zone to serious dating… until he finds out she’s only looking for something physical. He offers his services in hopes she’ll come around.

Just when things are starting to go his way, a shocking turn of events snatches her from his grasp. Now he has to resurrect the life he thought he’d left behind to help the woman he’s falling in love with before it’s too late.

**Only $2.99 for a limited time**

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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Excerpt:

SABRINA

“Sabrina!” Jacqueline’s voice bellows from her doorway. “Come to my office this instant!”

Awesome. My fave.

I breathe out a sigh and head toward the door in the corner. “Hi, Jacqueline. You wanted to see me.”

“I do indeed,” she says, her formality deliberate and intense. “Please have a seat.”

She closes the door, types out something on her keyboard, then takes off her glasses and glares at me as she leans across her desk. She is tall and slim with hair that falls in long, loose, perfect blonde waves, an incongruity against her severe features. Her face is thin, her chin pointed, and her nose looks like it has been broken a number of times. I can see why. I’ve wanted to punch her in her stupid face myself. Her whole appearance is menacing, except for those weirdly soft, bouncing blonde curls.

“Look, I’ll cut to the chase here,” she says.

“O-kay,” I reply, gripping the metal arms of the black leather chair across from her desk in which I’m seated.

“I’ve never much cared for you, Sabrina.” Really? Because here I thought we were besties and you might’ve asked me in to invite me to a girlfriends’ getaway – maybe a wine-tasting tour.

“You flit around the office and act like, just because you’re pretty, the world owes you something.” Where the f**k is this coming from? “You don’t take your job seriously, and honestly, I always assumed I’d end up having to fire you for incompetence.”

My eyes grow wide. She’s always been pretty direct, and clearly not a fan, but this is next-level, even for her.

“I’ve been over the audit reports with Adhira and Philip. I know about the anomaly in the accounts.” She sits upright and crosses her arms. Her lips draw into a narrow line, the edges turned slightly up, and her brows knit together. “Correction, your accounts.” She rolls her eyes, shakes her head, and makes a tsk-tsk sound between her teeth. “I never thought it would come to this.”

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About the Author:

Jennifer Woodhull is based in the Southern United States, spending time in her second home of England, and traveling as often as she can. Her love of travel permeates her work, and her characters often find themselves exploring new and foreign surroundings.

A keen observer of human behavior, Jennifer often draws inspiration from something as simple as a fleeting connection, or the glimpse of a unique trait or characteristic. Her favorite place to write is on airplanes.

"The drone of the engine, the scores of people, all traveling to something or from something, and being disconnected from digital distractions are a combination that provide the perfect place to write," she says. "If you see a woman in seat 9F who is balancing her Macbook on her lap because it's time to close your tray table, please have patience. I'm just trying to finish one more sentence."

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram

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Giveaway:
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Book Tour and Giveaway: Murder, Curlers Series by Arlene McFarlane

Murder, Curlers and Cream

Murder, Curlers Series Book 1

by
Arlene McFarlane

Genre:
Cozy Mystery 

“Smart, entertaining, and laugh-out-loud funny!”—Liliana Hart, New York Times Bestselling Author

Valentine Beaumont is a beautician with a problem. Not only has she got a meddling mother, a wacky staff, and a dying business, but now she’s got a dead client who was strangled while awaiting her facial.

With business the way it is, combing through this mystery may be the only way to save her salon. Until a second murder, an explosion, a kidnapping, death threats, and the hard-nosed Detective Romero complicate things. But Valentine will do anything to untangle the crime. That’s if she can keep her tools of the trade in her bag, keep herself alive, and avoid falling for the tough detective.

In the end, how hard can that be?

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“You wound a perm rod around a man’s what?” Detective Romero stood in the middle of my Mediterranean-styled salon, hand on his gun hip, legs spread wide. His deep voice was laced with cynicism, and his blue eyes pierced me with a look that said now he’d heard everything.

I know it sounded outrageous, but good lord. It’d been several years since “Local Beautician Valentine Beaumont Uses Perm Rod to Curl Murderer’s Gonads” made front page headlines in the Rueland News. Was I ever going to live that down? It was an awful picture of me they’d run too, considering I was soaked in mud and covered in cuts and bruises.

Besides, there was another crisis at hand. I mean, a dead body had just been removed from the facial bed in Ti Amo—one of my treatment rooms, not thirty feet down the hall. Didn’t this detective, in his faded jeans and brown plaid shirt, think that was a little more important?

I pulled at my tight-knit top, trying not to let him get under my skin. “For the record, that perm rod saved me from being knifed to death. Anyway, it sounds worse than it was.”

“Worse than it was! Lady, that’s about as worse as it can get for a man.” He blew out a sigh. “I’d love to hear the full story on that one day.”

I smiled sweetly. “If you’re nice to me, maybe one day I’ll tell it.”

He glared at me, probably not certain if I was being sarcastic or sincere. Frankly, I wasn’t sure about that myself.

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Murder, Curlers and Canes

Murder, Curlers Series Book 2

Valentine Beaumont is back in her second hair-raising mystery, this time, trying to find out who had it in for an elderly nun. Only trouble is there are others standing in her way: hot but tough Detective Romero, sexy new stylist Jock de Marco, and some zany locals who all have a theory on the nun’s death.

Making things worse: the dead nun’s secret that haunts Valentine, another murder, car chases, death threats, mysterious clues, an interfering mother, and a crazy staff.

Between brushing off Jock’s advances and splitting hairs with handsome Detective Romero, Valentine struggles to comb through the crime, utilizing her tools of the trade in some outrageous situations. Question is, will she succeed?

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Murder, Curlers and Cruises

Murder, Curlers Series Book 3

“Sharp, sexy, and side-splitting. Everything I love in a good mystery!” – Darynda Jones, New York Times/USA Today Bestselling Author of the Charley Davidson Series

“A fun-filled ride. A zany cast of characters. And a quest to find a killer. Another great book in a wonderful series!” – Wendy Byrne, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Izzy Lewis Mysteries

In her third fast-paced mystery, beautician Valentine Beaumont and her madcap crew sail the high seas on a Caribbean “Beauty Cruise.” When a bizarre murder takes place onboard, Valentine finds herself swept into the middle of the investigation.

If things aren’t bad enough, her mother is playing matchmaker, a loved one is kidnapped, drug smuggling is afoot, a hair contest proves disastrous, and a strange alliance between tough Detective Romero and sexy stylist Jock de Marco rubs Valentine the wrong way.

Will this impulsive beauty sleuth comb through the catastrophes and untangle the mystery, or will this voyage turn into another fatal Titanic? With Jock and Romero onboard, it’s destined to be a hot cruise!

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Arlene McFarlane is the author of the Murder, Curlers series. Previously an aesthetician, hairstylist, and owner of a full-service salon, Arlene now writes full time. When she’s not making up stories, or being a wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend, cat-mom, or makeover artist, you’ll find her making music on the piano.

Arlene is a member of Romance Writers of America, Sisters in Crime, Toronto Romance Writers, SOWG, and the Golden Network. She’s won and placed in over 30 contests, including twice in the Golden Heart and twice in the Daphne du Maurier.

Arlene lives with her family in Canada.

Website * Facebook * Facebook Group * Twitter * Pinterest * Amazon * Goodreads

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