Tag: Urban Fantasy

Book Review ~ A Voice in The Silence @dlfinnauthor

Published on by Joan Hall50 Comments

Happy last Tuesday of June! Last week, I had the pleasure of hosting author D L Finn talking about her newest release A Voice in The Silence. Today, I share my review.

Blurb

Drea Burr has experienced more than her share of loss when a stray dog, cat, and rat enter her life. Although the animals start to mend her broken heart, there is something very unusual about them. During a snowstorm, Drea discovers a chilling set of footprints leading to her front window. Both the police and a ghostly messenger warn her about a killer stalking widows. Help comes from her late husband’s best friend, Adam Hale. As the two try to discover answers, more questions arise— about a killer, ghosts, and animals experimented on in a lab.

Can Drea and Adam survive the threats coming from so many directions and save themselves and the animals they’ve grown to love? Or will more tragedy destroy her second chance at happiness? Find out in this thrilling, cozy paranormal adventure.

My Review

Rating: 5 out of 5.

Isolated during a snowstorm with a serial killer on the loose? Sounds like the making of a compelling thriller. A Voice in The Silence is that and more.

After her husband’s death, Drea Burr grieves for him. Not only that, she lost her beloved canine shortly afterward, and her relationship with her son has become strained. When three animals, a dog, a cat, and a rat, show up at her house, she takes them in. It’s not long before she discovers the animals are “unique.”

When Drea becomes the target of a serial killer, she not only gets help from the animals, but also from her deceased husband’s best friend, Adam.

This book is a blend of genres—paranormal, romance, thriller, ghost fiction—and Finn does a wonderful job at blending the genres into a compelling and satisfying story. And just when you think Drea believes her problems are behind her, something else happens that keeps readers turning the pages.

A Voice in The Silence is perfect for lovers of sci-fi, paranormal, romance, and of course, animals. Suspend your disbelief and go along for the ride. You won’t be disappointed.

April Book Reviews Part One

Published on by Joan Hall42 Comments

Wow! We’ve almost reached the month of May. I read several books during the month of April, so like last month, I’m splitting my reviews into two posts. Here’s part one.

Mercy Falls

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Many of you know I’ve gotten hooked on the Cork O’Connor series. I actually finished reading Mercy Falls in March, but I had a reason for withholding my review until now.

I won’t say I’m totally disappointed in this book, but the ending left me frustrated.

Mercy Falls is the fifth book in the Cork O’Connor series. The story takes place several months after book four leaves off.

Cork O’Connor has been reinstated as sheriff of Tamarack County. He’s lured to the nearby Ojibwe Reservation to investigate a domestic disturbance. Upon arriving at the residence, a sniper fires at Cork and Deputy Marcia Dross.

Not long afterward, Cork is called to the scene where a mutilated body is found near the waters of Mercy Falls. The victim is Eddie Jacoby, a Chicago businessman who is trying to negotiate a contract with his employer to manage the Iron Lake Casino.

Eddie’s wealthy father hires a private investigator to assist with the case. Cork also learns his wife Jo once had a relationship with Eddie’s brother.

Is the sniper’s attempt to kill Cork related to the murder? Can Cork trust the private investigator? Who is out to get him and why?

Like most of Krueger’s books, this one kept me turning the pages. I honestly didn’t know who to trust. Although Eddie Jacoby gave plenty of people a reason to kill him, I wasn’t sure about the killer’s identity until the latter part of the book. So far, so good.

Then came the end.

I like series fiction, but I’m not a fan of serial fiction. Mercy Falls leaves readers with a cliffhanger ending. Hopefully, everything will be resolved in book six, Copper River. It’s a good thing I bought both books as part of a collection, otherwise, I might be tempted to skip the next one.

Amazon Link

Unforgiven

Rating: 4 out of 5.

After reading Rebecca Zanetti’s You Can Run late last year, I knew she was an author I wanted to read again. The book releases on June 7 and is available for pre-order.

Unforgiven is the fifth book of Zanetti’s Deep Ops series. Although I’ve yet to read the first four books, this one easily read as a stand-alone novel.

Gemma Falls is on the run from her abusive former fiancé, Monty. She’ll do anything to keep her daughter safe. So far, she’s managed to protect Trudy, but when she takes a job at a Washington, DC university, things begin happening to make her believe Monty has finally caught up with her.

Jethro Hansen is a former MI6 agent who is working as a philosophy professor. Troubles arise when his psychotic brother Fletcher, a hired killer, escapes from prison. And Fletcher is out for revenge.

Sparks fly in more ways than one when Gemma and Jethro meet. And both of them are in danger. Jethro takes Gemma to a safe house where members of the Deep Ops team become involved in trying to track down a killer while protecting Gemma and her daughter.

The book is well-paced with plenty of action and a touch of romance. It’s a page-turner, and I found the ending satisfying. It goes without saying I’ll be catching up with all the books of the Deep Ops series.

Amazon Pre-order link

Good Liniment

Rating: 4 out of 5.

Next on the list is another in C. S. Boyack’s highly entertaining Hat series.

Good Liniment is the latest entry in The Hat series. Author C. S. Boyack brought back characters from other books including the stuttering vampire Kevin, Detective Joe Yoder, and Patty Hall from Will O’ The Wisp. New characters come on board as well that add to the story.

Lizzie and the Hat are on the search for a killer who is targeting a coven of witches. This time the killer is human, a bit of a twist from the villains in the other hat books.

The banter between Lizzie and The Hat is always entertaining, and the Hat is his usual snarky self. (Would we love him any other way?)

I’m always impressed by the author’s vivid imagination. If you’re looking for a quick and fun read, this is it.

Amazon Link

Copper River

Rating: 3.5 out of 5.

After Mercy Falls ended on a cliffhanger, I was curious to see if the mystery would be solved in Copper River.

Book Six of the series picks up immediately where Mercy Falls leaves off. Sheriff Cork O’Connor is on the run after Lou Jacoby placed a half-million-dollar bounty on his life. Jacoby believes Cork is responsible for the death of both his sons.

Cork narrowly escapes death and takes refuge with his cousin Jewell DuBois in a small town on Michigan’s upper peninsula. Jewell is a widowed single mother, raising her teenage son.

Instead of lying low, Cork gets involved in helping Jewell’s son Ren and his friend Charlie (Charlene). Charlie’s father was murdered and she’s on the run. One of their friends was seriously injured by a hit and run driver after word got out the three of them may have seen a body floating in Copper River. Then, the body of a teenage girl washes up that has connections with Charlie.

Cork has his own problems, and former FBI agent, Dina Willner, shows up to help. Like the other books in the O’Connor series, there was plenty of action in this one. I missed some of the familiar characters from the other books, particularly Henry Melloux and Cork’s family. At the same time, it was nice to see new characters introduced. I wouldn’t mind seeing some of them make appearances in later books.

While I didn’t enjoy this one as much as some of the other books in the series, it was still a good read. The focus was on the current crime in Michigan, but there was a satisfactory conclusion to the cliffhanger Krueger left us with at the end of Mercy Falls. However, I hope there aren’t any more cliffhangers in the rest of the series.

3.5 stars rounded up to four for review purposes.

Amazon Link

I’ll post the second part of my April reviews next Tuesday.

The Emissary 3: Love Hurts ~ New Release by @MarciaMeara

Published on by Joan Hall60 Comments

Hey, everyone! This has been an exciting month in that several of my author friends have new releases. Today, I’d like to welcome Marcia Meara to my blog. I believe this is her first time here, so please welcome her.

Now, without further ado, here’s Marcia to talk about her novella, Emissary 3, Love Hurts.

Thanks so much for having me here today, Joan. It’s great to be sharing the news of my latest release with you and your followers.

Like many writers, my readers often ask me who my favorite characters are. I’ve gotten that question quite a bit about this little series of novellas too, and thought it might be fun to talk about it today. Most of the time, my answers are pretty easy. There’s usually one character in each book that stands out to me more than the rest, even as I’m writing. But with the Emissary tales, there are only three characters who’ve been present in each book, and it’s a much more difficult choice.

First, we have Jake Daughtry, a widower who gave his life rescuing a woman who was drowning in an icy river. Jake was the first soul Azrael pulled from the line in front of the Pearly Gates to become an emissary to the overworked angels. He started out a bit on the stubborn, opinionated, and snarky side, but has grown into his job. He’s a good man, through and through, and hard not to like.

Then along came Dodger, a street-smart junkie in Atlanta, running drugs for a gang, but desperately wanting to get out of that situation. At Azrael’s instructions, Jake rescues the dying boy from a deserted alley, and eventually takes him under his wing. Dodger looks up to Jake as the father he never had, and takes to being an emissary from the start. As it turns out, his powers are far stronger than the ones bestowed upon Jake, and growing more so every day.

And then there’s that ginormous archangel, Azrael. He of the snowy-white wings and the stern countenance and even sterner proclamations. He starts by ruling the emissaries with an iron-fist, but while he’s never going to be a pushover, he has learned to care deeply about his first two emissaries, even as he added more and more to the team around the world.

When push comes to shove, while I love Jake and Dodger immensely, nothing has been more fun than writing Azrael, even if he still doesn’t know how to use contractions. So I guess that answers the question.

The archangel Azrael is my favorite Emissary character, but I hope those of you who decide to check out the tales will enjoy each one of them on his own merits.

Blurb

The archangel Azrael created his emissaries to help mortals avoid choices that would doom them for eternity. He hadn’t planned on the youngest member of the team falling in love with one. In Marcia Meara’s final installment of her Emissary Trilogy, a Riverbend spinoff series of novellas, we find our three heroes facing a new problem, and it’s all because Dodger died before having a chance to know what love was all about. His request that Azrael help him correct that situation causes a multitude of problems no one could have foreseen. Except the angel.

Azrael’s emissarial program was growing daily, but it still met with stubborn opposition from many on the Council of Angels. Dodger’s request to be allowed to experience what falling in love was all about didn’t help matters, but Azrael thought the boy was onto something. He agreed emissaries who’d shared a loving relationship during their mortal lives would have a deeper understanding of human emotions and motivations, thus enhancing the skills they needed to do their jobs.

With that in mind, Azrael gave Dodger one chance to search for true love. He then laid down a daunting set of stringent rules and guidelines that could not be broken under any circumstances lest dire happenings occur. But while the angel sincerely hoped Dodger would find a way to make this endeavor work, he feared an avalanche of unintended consequences could be in store for his youngest emissary.

Sometimes even angels hate to be right.

Will Azrael ever tire of popping up behind Jake just to see his first emissary fall out of his chair in shock? Will sharp-eyed motel owners ever notice a big red and white semi mysteriously appearing and/or disappearing from their parking lots overnight? And will Dodger be able to track down the mystery girl who caught his eye two weeks earlier to see if she’s really The One?

To find the answers to these and other angelic or emissarial questions, come along on one last adventure with Jake, Dodger, and that ginormous, glowy-eyed archangel, Azrael. They’re waiting for you!

Buy The Emissary 3: Love Hurts HERE.

Bio

Marcia Meara lives in central Florida, just north of Orlando, with her husband of over thirty years and four big, spoiled cats.

When not writing or blogging, she spends her time gardening, and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard. She enjoys nature. Really, really enjoys it. All of it! Well, almost all of it, anyway. From birds, to furry critters, to her very favorites, snakes. The exception would be spiders, which she truly loathes, convinced that anything with eight hairy legs is surely up to no good. She does not, however, kill spiders anymore, since she knows they have their place in the world. Besides, her husband now handles her Arachnid Catch and Release Program, and she’s good with that.

Spiders aside, the one thing Marcia would like to tell each of her readers is that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. If, at the age of 69, she could write and publish her first book (and thus fulfill 64 years of longing to do that very thing), you can make your own dreams a reality, too. Go for it! What have you got to lose?

Contact & Buy Links

Contact Marcia Here:

marciameara16@gmail.com

The Write Stuff

Pinterest

Twitter: @marciameara

Find Marcia’s Books Here:

MARCIA’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE

The Light ~ New Release from @MarciaMeara #TuesdayBookShare

Published on by Joan Hall73 Comments

Hey everyone! I’m over the moon excited to welcome Marcia Meara as my guest today. She recently released The Light, the fourth in her Wake Robin Ridge Series. Marcia is a very talented author, and if you haven’t read any of her books, I highly recommend you doing so.

Today she’s going to talk about her new book and a mysterious phenomenon called the Brown Mountain Lights. You may recall some time ago I wrote about the Marfa Lights which are found in far west Texas, so I’m very intrigued.

Take it away, Marcia!

Thank you so much for having me here today, Joan! I’m pretty excited to be sharing the release of my latest book, The Light: Wake-Robin Ridge Book 4, with your readers, and I hope they’ll enjoy checking it out, along with the first three books in the series:

Wake-Robin Ridge

A Boy Named Rabbit

Harbinger

Happy New Year to All!

I can’t remember when I first heard about the infamous Brown Mountain Lights, but the writer in me instantly fell in love with the very idea of such an unexplained phenomenon in this day and age. A Blue Ridge Mountain ridge with mysterious lights that hover above it on random nights, then disappear with no explanation? Oh, the endless possibilities for use in a shivery story—especially one already set in those mountains, involving a little boy with a special gift and all sorts of Appalachian legends and ghosts!  All I could think was, “Let the research begin!”

And so, it did.

Days later I finally reached a definite conclusion about the Brown Mountain Lights. Nobody knows for sure what they are. Period.

Theories have run amok for a very, very long time, ranging from swamp gas to ball lightning to alien life forms, and most have been easily shot down. But over the decades, not one person has proved conclusively what causes these strange lights or why they only appear on random, seemingly unrelated occasions.

A few serious studies were carried out, but the results are less than satisfying. Recent ones suggest the lights are the result of distant trains and automobiles. Really? That would surely surprise the Cherokee people since—long before trains or automobiles existed in this country—they’ve believed them to be the spirits of warriors lost in battle.

As for myself, I have no idea what causes these strange, entrancing lights, but oddly enough, Rabbit’s thoughts on the matter echo mine. 😊 I believe we’ll solve the mystery someday, and it will likely turn out to be a natural occurrence of one sort or another. After all, we are learning new things about nature every day, so that wouldn’t surprise me a bit.

In the meantime, I thought it would be fun to have Rabbit ask to see the lights for himself, so I sent the Cole family off on a Halloween night expedition. Suffice it to say, Rabbit got more than he bargained for, and the experience was the beginning of a brand-new mystery I hope you’ll find intriguing.

Blurb:

The Magic is Back!

For Robert MacKenzie Cole—or Rabbit, as he’s known to all—the chance to accompany his family to see North Carolina’s infamous Brown Mountain Lights has him nearly dizzy with excitement. And what better night to watch this unexplained phenomenon unfold than Halloween?

But when the entrancing, unpredictable lights show up, Rabbit gets far more than he bargained for. He’s gifted with what folks in the Appalachians call “the Sight,” and it’s this extrasensory perception that enables him to spot the one light different from all the rest.

In his biggest challenge to date, Rabbit—aided by his daddy and his newest friend, Austin Dupree— begins a quest to learn more about the mysterious light. Their investigation unveils a web of cons and corruption none of them expected and exposes a brutal murder along the way.

Throughout all, Rabbit is unfaltering in his commitment to do whatever it takes to understand the truth behind the glowing orb and to determine how he can help it. After all, it followed him home.

Bio:

Marcia Meara lives in central Florida, just north of Orlando, with her husband of over thirty years, four big cats, and one small dachshund.

When not writing or blogging, she spends her time gardening and enjoying the surprising amount of wildlife that manages to make a home in her suburban yard. She enjoys nature. Really, really enjoys it. All of it! Well, almost all of it, anyway. From birds to furry critters, to her very favorites, snakes. The exception would be spiders, which she truly loathes, convinced that anything with eight hairy legs is surely up to no good. She does not, however, kill spiders anymore, since she knows they have their place in the world. Besides, her husband now handles her Arachnid Catch and Release Program, and she’s good with that.

Spiders aside, the one thing Marcia would like to tell each of her readers is that it’s never too late to make your dreams come true. If, at the age of 69, she could write and publish a book (and thus fulfill 64 years of longing to do that very thing), you can make your own dreams a reality, too. Go for it! What have you got to lose?

Marcia has published seven novels, two novellas, and one book of poetry to date, all of which are available on Amazon:

Marcia’s Amazon Author Page

You can reach Marcia via email at marciameara16@gmail.com or on the following social media sites:

The Write Stuff

Facebook

Pinterest

Twitter: @marciameara

 

Viral Blues #SomethingWickedTour @StoryEmpire

Published on by Joan Hall33 Comments

Hey, everyone! Wow. Day four of Story Empire’s Something Wicked Tour. For today’s schedule, click here.

You’re in for a special treat for today’s stop of Story Empire’s Something Wicked Tour. I’m welcoming back a special guest – Lisa Burton, the Robot Girl. She’s here to talk about C. S. Boyack’s new release, Viral Blues. Lisa, take it away!

Thanks for inviting me over, Joan. Hi, everyone. I’m here as part of the Something Wicked tour from Story Empire. As Craig’s spokesmodel, sometimes I get to make these appearances. While I’m here, you can find Joan over at Harmony Kent’s place, so make sure to visit her.

I see a lot of playlists and videos on this site, so I decided to try using that to appeal to your readers.

Craig is also heavily inspired by music, and one of his characters, well two actually, front a band called Lizzie and the Pythons. She sings, and he plays the upright bass, but has to use her fingers to do it. Oh, I should mention that he’s a hat. Not just any old hat, he’s actually a creature from another dimension.

We all wound up going to a fancy country club to gather information about these paranormal crimes. The only way we could do it was to steal the musical gig from another band and gain access that way.

Girl talk happened, and we agreed that Lizzie’s saxophone player is hot. He’s just so stoic and wooden that we decided to tease him a bit during the show.

Turn your speakers up, hit the video, and enjoy:

 

Lizzie leaned the bass back. “We’re Lizzie and The Pythons, and we’re joined by a special guest tonight, Miss Lisa Burton. She’s asked to sing one for everybody. This is an old Joe Cocker song.”

Fat Larry and Shade started them off with some rhythmic piano chords and low saxophone support. Lisa turned her back to the crowd and started gyrating, making circles with her hips. She pulled her left hand through her hair, while her right arm extended toward Shade. Long elegant fingers grasped air in his direction as she sang the first verse.

She swiveled across the stage to Shade’s side, grabbed a handful of his shirt sleeve, then pulled him tight into her breasts. She made a quivering intake of breath, then sang directly into his ear, “You Can Leave Your Hat On.”

Shade’s jaw dropped open, and he missed the next two measures. Tanith tried not to crack up but kept the beat, and her backup vocals, in check.

Shade is still kind of wooden, and kind of hot, but it was a nice breather in the middle of the action.

Viral Blues involves several of Craig’s previous characters in a paranormal romp just in time for Halloween. Don’t panic if you haven’t read one of his stories before, there is no prerequisite reading. You can pick up Viral Blues and enjoy the heck out of it all by itself.

Thanks for inviting me over, Joan, and I really like the new look of the place.

Lisa, it was a pleasure to have you visit today. And now, here’s more info about Viral Blues.

Blurb:

Someone knows about the hat. The creature from another dimension that helps Lizzie fight against the creatures of darkness.

They are summoned to a cryptic meeting with a secret society, where they meet other people with enhanced skills. It turns out someone, or something, has been tampering with the world’s vaccine supply. The goal doesn’t appear to be political or financial, but biblical pestilence.

Can this group of loners come together in time to make a difference when even the proper authorities are obstacles?

Check out Viral Blues, for your dose of paranormal adventure, with a strong sample of dark humor. And in recent superhero style, don’t miss the secret last chapter after the back material.

Connect with Craig: