Friday 31 October 2014

Barbara Hinske - Coming To Rosemont - PROMO Blitz, Excerpts and Giveaway



Women's Fiction / Contemporary

Date Published: February 18, 2013

Maggie travels to Westbury for the stated purpose of listing Rosemont for immediate sale, but what she really seeks are answers to her all-consuming questions about her sham of a marriage; her sham of a life. She never anticipated the seductive charm of Rosemont. Throwing her trademark caution to the wind, and over the objections of her opinionated grown children, she pulls up stakes and moves halfway across the country, determined to make a fresh start in Westbury. Behind closed doors, however, lurks a cadre of evildoers, playing with multiple wild cards of fraud, embezzlement and arson.
With a quiet, orderly -- and distinctively solitary -- life in mind, Maggie is instead thrown headlong into a crusade against political corruption, where defeat and retreat are not an option. Still bearing the scars of betrayal, will she find joy, romance and possibility in Westbury?

This fast-paced, smart novel has enough twists and turns to make the reader want to buckle in!



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EXCERPT

From chapter 9

Maggie dropped to her knees and threw her arms around the squirming dog.  “You don’t know how much I appreciate being able to have Eve with me tonight,” she beamed up at John.  “My flight was delayed and I had a Chatty-Cathy car rental agent.  I drove like a maniac to get here. I’m really very grateful you waited.  The lot was empty and I thought that I was too late.”
“It was no trouble.  I was catching up on paperwork,” John assured her.  “I live on the other side of the Square and walk to work, weather permitting.  I usually stop at one of the restaurants on the way home for dinner.”
“Are you done?  Would you like a lift home?” 
John knew an opportunity when he saw one.  “I just need to lock up,” he said.  “Are you hungry?  Or are you full of delicious airline food,” he mocked.  When she shook her head and indicated that she was, indeed, starved, he proposed that the three of them walk over to Pete’s for dinner. They could leave her car at the Hospital and she could drop him off at his house after dinner.


Excerpt 2
From chapter 7
“What do you mean, mom?  Fresh start?  I don’t get it,” Susan finally replied.


“You know how awkward things have been for me with the College crowd.  The new President and his wife are headed in a different direction and don’t want me hanging around.  I don’t feel like I fit anywhere anymore.  Helen is the only friend that I continue to see,” she
said.  Maggie raised her hand to hush their objections.  “You both have your own lives.  I need to have mine.  I can run my business from anywhere with a phone and a computer.”
“So you’re thinking of moving there?” Susan choked.
“That’s exactly what I’ve decided to do,” Maggie replied with her best attempt at a firm, confident voice.
“But you don’t know anyone there,” Susan protested. 
“Won’t you rattle around in that huge house all alone?  Won’t that make you feel more alone?” Mike interjected for the first time.
“You know, that’s the part I’m most sure of.  That I won’t be lonely in that house.  When the front door closed behind me that first night, I knew I was home.  I never told you, but I checked out of the hotel and moved into Rosemont the night I arrived,” Maggie said.  Mike and Susan exchanged a skeptical glance.  “And you know, the most extraordinary thing happened the next morning.  I adopted a lost dog.  Or more accurately, she adopted me,” Maggie said, and told them about Eve.  “So you see, I won’t be alone there,” Maggie finished.
Both children remained silent.  Astonished, Maggie thought with a measure of satisfaction.

Excerpt 3
From chapter 4
“Now,” Tonya said, “As you know, I have been calling for an independent audit of Westbury’s books.  At first, I simply thought this was a good practice.  I never dreamed that something could be wrong.  But the more I requested and pushed for one, the more the Mayor and the other Council Members balked and stalled and misdirected the conversation.” 
“I grew up the oldest child in a large family,” she continued.  “I’ve heard plenty of wild excuses and tall tales in my time.  My mother always knew when one of us was lying, and I guess I’ve inherited her nose for nonsense.”  At this, a chuckle rippled through the crowd.  “I felt like I was back in my mother’s kitchen with my brothers when these guys were making excuses to avoid an audit,” she said.  “So I got my back up and decided that I was going to find out about the town’s finances one way or the other.  And at last week’s Town Council meeting I finally got my chance.  Mayor Wheeler left the bank statement out on the Council table in plain sight when we went to recess.”  Tonya paused for dramatic effect.  “So I spent my recess pouring through it.  Long story short, the general account is about half of what was reported in the treasurer’s report and the pension fund was short by almost forty percent,” she announced, as a gasp escaped from the crowd. 
Side conversations started up all over the room.  Tonya raised her hands and gestured for quiet.  “At this point, I don’t have a good picture of where the money has gone.  I confronted the Mayor and Council when we resumed after recess.  They scolded me for looking at ‘confidential Town information’, as they called it, telling me that I didn’t understand what I was looking at.  ‘Well, enlighten me,’ I said.  Instead, they quickly adjourned the meeting.  I’ve been calling the Mayor and each of my fellow Council Members ever since and no one has been available to take my call.  And they’re not coming to their offices, either.”
“They’ve all gone to ground,” she continued.  “And you hunters in the crowd know what that means.  We have to drive them out of their hidey-holes.  And this is where I desperately need your help.  Each and every one of you.”

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Contact the Author

Newsletter: http://bit.ly/1BIS8F2


BUY LINKS



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To be in with a chance of winning a $15 Amazon Gift Card enter via Rafflecopter below


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Tuesday 28 October 2014

Giveaway of 10 pretty Christmas Cards (Bauble)


I am giving away 10 high quality Christmas Cards with envelopes
The design is entitled Bauble and, as the picture above shows, it shows a Christmas Tree Bauble
Very pretty
The Christmas Cards measure 6" x 6"



If you would like a chance to win them all you need to do is enter by Rafflecopter below

Open to UK only

The lucky winner will be selected randomly by Rafflecopter.com and be notified by email

The winner will need to respond within 48 hours of being contacted, failure to do this may result in another winner being selected

The Cards will be posted as soon as I receive address details, in plenty of time for Christmas!



If you're not lucky enough to win this time I will be running more Christmas Card Giveaways every week in the run up to Christmas

Check out my shop on eBay for all my other festive designs here

If you want to see the listing on eBay for these popular Bauble  Cards please click here




Monday 27 October 2014

Book Review & Giveaway: MAGIC OF THE GARGOYLES BY REBECCA CHASTAIN



My thoughts on this fantasy adventure novella ........

MAGIC OF THE GARGOYLES
BY
REBECCA CHASTAIN


Publisher:  Mind Your Muse Books
Pub Date:  20 October 2014
Pages:  approx 79 (ebook)



Someone has kidnapped a nest of helpless baby gargoyles and is using them as pentagram focuses, devouring their magic—and their lives—for a horrific, illegal power boost. Swept into the dangerous underworld of black magic, earth elemental Mika Stillwater must cobble together her limited resources and skills to have a chance at being the hero the baby gargoyles desperately need. If she fails, the city will be at the mercy of the gargoyles’ murderers and their overwhelming destructive magic. But pitting herself against powerful black-magic villains is proving just as deadly for Mika as for the gargoyles.



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Mika, a mid-level earth elemental, wants to be her own boss and her dream is to own a Pinnacle Pentagon Showroom but first she needs to finish making 12 of her one-of-a-kind quartz masterpieces, if she manages to sell them all she can then afford a down payment.

With one last twist of a filament of earth magic, I fused together the delicate seams of the quartz tube. Slumping forward, I braced my elbows on the table and rested my cheekbones on my palms, cupping my weary eyes in darkness.  Six down, six finicky tubes to go.  The specifications of this project taxed my substantial skills with quartz magic....this project would launch my business.

All is going well until a hatchling gargoyle literally lands in her apartment and desperately pleads for her help in rescuing her kidnapped siblings.

Together with her friend Kylie they try to think of a plan to rescue them before they are sold to people who want them for their own selfish dark magic reasons. 

But to do so would cost Mika all her life savings and her dream, maybe even her life!  She would be up against stronger forces than her magic, can she defeat them or will she be defeated.

I really enjoyed reading this fantasy adventure novella, I liked the magical parts and the fact that magic dominates lives, (though some of the descriptions of the magic sounded complicated and were hard to picture), the story held my interest throughout, I wanted to know what would happen, there were illusion spells, air spells, magic traps, spell lights, good versus evil, it had all you could want in a fantasy adventure.

Even though this was a very good stand alone novella, I do hope that the author can develop this magical world into a series as there seems a lot of potential for further adventures for Mika.  

I would certainly recommend this to any fantasy fans - it is available as an ebook from Amazon UK and AmazonUS

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About the Author


REBECCA CHASTAIN has found seven four-leaf clovers to date, won a pure bred Arabian horse in a drawing, and once tamed a blackbird for a day. She has been employed as a VHS sales clerk, bookshelf straightener, government pseudo-employee, professional finder of lost sporting goods, and strategy guide wrangler in the video game industry. Dreaming up the absurd and writing stories designed to amuse and entertain has been her passion since she was eleven years old, and she’s incapable of stopping. She lives in northern California with her wonderful husband and two bossy cats. To find out about new releases, sales, and freebies, sign up for Rebecca's newsletter: http://www.rebeccachastain.com/newsletter/.

Find her on Goodreads  and Facebook


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Rebecca Chastain is giving you the chance to win an ecopy of Magic of the Gargoyles.  All you have to do is enter via Rafflecopter below, you can tweet about the giveaway, leave a blog post comment and/or add the book to Goodreads




a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com - See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/ecopy-magic-gargoyles-rebecca-chastain-fantasy-novella#sthash.xR5nmkXC.dpuf

Saturday 25 October 2014

Promo Tour and Giveaway: FALLING: ANGELS AMONG US: THE COMPLETE SERIES BY LINN B. HALTON



Ceri  thinks  she  sees  angels ...  everywhere.  She  struggles  to  keep  separate  what  feels  like  two very different sides to her life. As a manager in an advertising company she’s been working with the gorgeous Alex for two years. They have a friendship based upon the image she portrays whilst she’s at work and it helps to keep her sane. One mad, crazy night spent sharing their secrets and a lot of wine result in them ending up in bed together and their relationship changes. When Alex explains that the reason he doesn’t date is because someone broke his heart, how can Ceri admit that she feels a deep connection to him?

Ceri knows she’s different. What she doesn’t fully appreciate, is that her task in life is to correct a series of  incidents  that  affect  some  of  the  people’s  lives  with  whom  she  comes  into  contact. She’s simply putting  right  little  errors  that  could  ripple  outwards  and  change  the  course  of their  destiny. When she finds  herself  getting  pulled  into things that  happen  around  her,  how  can she  prove that  she  really  has made a difference? Is it all in her head?


She’s  alone for  a  reason;  she’s  not meant to fall  in  love  in  her  earthly  life. Alex  is  supposed to  cross paths with her and help Ceri during a phase where she begins to question the signs she’s being given. It’s meant to be a turning point for them both—but in opposite directions. They are destined to travel very different paths ... but Ceri doesn’t know that and neither does Alex ...



BUY LINKS






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About Linn B Halton


Linn B Halton lives in the small village of Lydbrook, Gloucestershire in the UK, but was born in Bristol. She resides there with her husband and cat with 'catitude'- Mr Tiggs.

Linn began writing in March 2009 and her debut novel was published in February 2011. In a recent interview Linn was asked about genres:

"From a very young age I knew romantic fiction was always going to be my genre. I am, and will always be, madly in love with love! Whether that's love of life, a partner, or the things I'm passionate about. My stories are about love, life and real relationships - but romance is always the one thing that holds each story together. Often there's a light, psychic touch and I never dreamed I would write drawing upon my personal psychic experiences. But as my interest and understanding has grown in the subject, it is now such a part of my life it finds its way into my fictional tales. However, what is heartening is that most of my experiences have been uplifting and it's wonderful to know loved ones are around me always. I hope it will make readers stop and wonder 'What if?'

The result is that I get a lot of mail from readers who have had similar experiences and some are sharing theirs for the first time with me. I always feel that's something rather special and for which I'm very grateful."

Love, life and beyond... but it's ALWAYS about the romance!

Linn is published by HarperImpulse and Sapphire Star Publishing.
Linn is the editor of Loveahappyending Lifestyle emagazine.

Website:  (linnbhalton.co.uk)
Facebook: Author Linn B Halton
Bookshelf: http://viewauthor.at/LinnBHalton
Twitter: @LinnBHalton


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Rafflecopter Giveaway

1st prize - a copy of The Restaurant @ The Mill and ecopies of Falling: Angels Among Us The Complete Series and Touched by The Light. 

2nd Prize - 3 winners can choose which book they want from any of Linn’s ebooks.


display/4be0301720/" rel="nofollow">a Rafflecopter giveaway



This Tour is brought to you by Brook Cottage Books








Tuesday 21 October 2014

Book Review, Tour and Giveaway: MURDER IN REAL TIME BY JULIE ANNE LINDSEY



My Thoughts on this enjoyable cozy mystery ........


MURDER IN REAL TIME
BY
JULIE ANNE LINDSEY


Publisher:  Carina Press
Pub Date:  29 September 2014





Book three of The Patience Price Mysteries
With the chaos of summer tourists and fall birders out of town, counselor Patience Price is looking forward to the quiet life she remembers. She longs for some peace. And an apple fritter. But the calm is cut short when a reality show sets up camp to film a special about ghosts on her little island. Now fans, reporters and crew have flocked to sleepy Chincoteague. Who knew ghost hunters had an entourage?
When two cast members are killed in a room at the local B&B—a room usually occupied by Patience’s FBI agent boyfriend, Sebastian—she finds herself on the case. Sebastian doesn’t want Patience ruffling any feathers but, as always, she can’t help herself.
Patience promises to let Sebastian handle the investigation—he is FBI, after all—but after a drive-by shooting, her wicked curiosity gets the best of her. And with the TV show forging ahead with filming, the list of suspects (and the line of food trucks) only grows. But has the shooter already flown the coop? And how do you find a killer when you don’t know who the target is?
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The small town of Chincoteague, Virginia sounds like the epitome of small town living, peaceful and beautiful with just 1200 islanders living there.  

But when two bodies are found shot dead in a B&B the island is no longer peaceful, it's chaotic with food trucks lining the streets, cars bumper to bumper, horns blaring, not to mention the ghost hunters!

All Patience wants is for her life to get back to normal, but, of course, when there's a murder mystery to solve her life is anything but normal.  This is the third in the series and several mentions were made of the events in the other books without much in the way of explanation, which I found odd.

However, this was a pretty enjoyable mystery, I liked the way Patience talked to people and got information out of them, you can tell she's a counsellor, she has a way with her of getting people to open up.  The mystery was well plotted and intriguing, there's a nice romantic touch, lovely descriptions of the island, and with plenty of suspects that kept me guessing till the end, 
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About This Author
Julie Anne Lindsey is a multi-genre author who writes the stories that keep her up at night. She’s a self-proclaimed nerd with a penchant for words and proclivity for fun. Julie lives in rural Ohio with her husband and three small children. Today, she hopes to make someone smile. One day she plans to change the world.
Author Links
Purchase Links
Amazon B&N Kobo

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Book Tour brought to you by Great Escapes Virtual Book Tours

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Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway for a chance to win One Ebook Set of Patience Price Mysteries
Just Click on the Link below
http://www.escapewithdollycas.com/great-escapes-virtual-book-tours/books-currently-on-tour/murder-real-time-julie-ann-lindsey/



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Giveaway of 10 cute Christmas Cards (Penguin)


I am giving away 10 high quality Christmas Cards with envelopes
The design is entitled Penguin and, as the picture above shows, it features an adorable Penguin with some Presents!
Very cute
The Christmas Cards measure 4" x 4"



The words inside read

" Season's Greetings
"


If you would like a chance to win them all you need to do is enter by Rafflecopter below

Open to UK only

The lucky winner will be selected randomly by Rafflecopter.com and be notified by email

The winner will need to respond within 48 hours of being contacted, failure to do this may result in another winner being selected

The Cards will be posted as soon as I receive address details, in plenty of time for Christmas!




If you're not lucky enough to win this time I will be running more Christmas Card Giveaways every week in the run up to Christmas

Check out my shop on eBay for all my other festive designs here

If you want to see the listing on eBay for these popular Penguin  Cards please click here



Good Luck!  

Enter every day for more chances to win


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com - See more at: http://www.theprizefinder.com/content/10-christmas-cards-envelopes-penguin#sthash.WKLfIpS5.dpuf

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