Speculative Fiction: Southeast #SFSE2015 @sfse2015

Toting an impressive celebrity roster, Dirty Little Bookers credits ‘Indie love’ as their backdrop for the SF:SE inspiration board. Originally an Indie fiction review site, Dirty Little Bookers folded to community request and birthed the idea for the coolest Speculative Fiction party around, a celebrity-centric event focused on the exploration of publishing and networking, and the celebration of entrepreneurial passion.

SF:SE—Speculative Fiction: Southeast—is an event for all lovers and artists of Speculative Fiction, a term encompassing Horror, SciFi, Fantasy, Paranormal and Weird.

#Review of Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts: A Novel by Janet Delee

Dreams aren’t just for the young, and Ginny Lawther is happy to prove that even at the age of fifty-eight she can still brave a leap of faith…she just needs a little prodding from like-minded individuals. Step one: place an ad in the local newspaper inviting other dreamers to form an Ideal Life Club. Step two: see if anyone shows up.
When Ginny meets four hopeful strangers at the first club meeting, she thinks they’re off to a great start.

Now it's only a matter of time before the sixty-something widow Hilda turns her crafting into a full-time career; the twenty-something Jerry becomes a professional musician; and the thirty-something housewife Lydia publishes her cookbook. That is, until the rugged divorcé, Lee, sets a goal to solve his ghost problem—and upends all their lives!

Suddenly the support group isn’t just trying to navigate the ups and downs of pursuing their dreams; they’re also wrestling with a strange cast of spirits who keep interrupting their endeavors. What do these apparitions want? And why have they latched on to the Ideal Lifers?

Haunting, humorous, and hopeful, Taking Leaps and Finding Ghosts sparks the imagination and breathes unexpected life into everyday reality.

#Review of Rules for Riders by @NatalieScottAuthor

After a near fatal riding accident, Bebe Barkley is banned from riding and sent off to boarding school. Finn Foxley, her roommate and partner in crime, devise a plan to get themselves kicked out of school, in order to return to the world they love.  Once back on the Equestrian circuit, best friends will become deadly rivals! Enter Billy O'Reilly, Bebe's handsome trainer, who will enforce 7 Rules that will turn Bebe's world up upside down forever.

#Review of The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine by @ballparkfood1

Baseball is a game that is identified with food. We even sing about it at every ballpark during the seventh inning stretch: "….buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack..." The famous song was written by Jack Norworth in 1908. From the early part of the twentieth century until the 1980s, classic baseball fare consisted mostly of hot dogs, ice cream, peanuts, and Cracker Jack. Then ballparks slowly began to sell new items. A proliferation of new food offerings during the 1990s was fueled by the opening of twelve new major league ballparks. Now, teams around the country sell a variety of exotic food as well as wide variety of hot dogs. The Joy of Ballpark Food: From Hot Dogs to Haute Cuisine begins with the history of the first hot dog at a ball game and concludes with a culinary tour of all 30 major league ballparks. 100% of royalties from the sales of this book are donated directly to the Second Harvest Food Bank of Santa Clara and San Mateo Counties of California.

#Review #Giveaway of A Girl Called Fearless (A Girl Called Fearless #1) by @cblinka

Avie Reveare has the normal life of a privileged teen growing up in L.A., at least as normal as any girl's life is these days. After a synthetic hormone in beef killed fifty million American women ten years ago, only young girls, old women, men, and boys are left to pick up the pieces. The death threat is past, but fathers still fear for their daughters' safety, and the Paternalist Movement, begun to "protect" young women, is taking over the choices they make. Like all her friends, Avie still mourns the loss of her mother, but she's also dreaming about college and love and what she'll make of her life. When her dad "contracts" her to marry a rich, older man to raise money to save his struggling company, her life suddenly narrows to two choices: Be trapped in a marriage with a controlling politician, or run. Her lifelong friend, student revolutionary Yates, urges her to run to freedom across the border to Canada. As their friendship turns to passion, the decision to leave becomes harder and harder. Running away is incredibly dangerous, and it's possible Avie will never see Yates again. But staying could mean death.
From Catherine Linka comes this romantic, thought-provoking, and frighteningly real story, A Girl Called Fearless, about fighting for the most important things in life--freedom and love.

#Review of Duchess Decadence (Furies #3) by Wendy LaCapra

London, 1784
Thea Worthington, Duchess of Wynchester divides her time between social engagements and playing her luck against fickle fortune. Yet every gamble is only a bluff—a means to hide from the pain deep within her, and the loss of a babe she never held in her arms. Now Thea's luck is about to run out. Her estranged husband has returned and seeks a reunion...

Plagued with guilt over what happened to his wife three years ago, the Duke of Wynchester has kept his distance. The duke is resolved to piece his family back together, especially now that he's discovered his beloved brother—long thought dead—still lives. But Thea's lovely, porcelain facade is on the verge of cracking...spurred on by the duke's brother's secretive, malevolent animosity.

With everything riding on her future, Thea plays a daring game of chance for love and her marriage...and this time, the dice are most certainly rigged.

5 Star #Review #Giveaway of The Shattered Court (A Novel of the Four Arts #1) by @melscott

First in a new fantasy series from the author of the Novels of the Half-Light City.
Entangled in a court ruled by tradition and intrigue, a young witch must come to terms with newfound power and desire—and a choice between loyalty and survival.…

The royal witches of Anglion have bowed to tradition for centuries. If a woman of royal blood manifests powers, she is immediately bound by rites of marriage. She will serve her lord by practicing the tamer magics of the earth—ensuring good harvests and predicting the weather. Any magic more dangerous is forbidden.

Lady Sophia Kendall, thirty-second in line to the throne, is only days away from finding out if she will be blessed—or perhaps cursed—with magic. When a vicious attack by Anglion’s ancient enemies leaves the kingdom in chaos, Sophia is forced to flee the court. Her protector by happenstance is Lieutenant Cameron Mackenzie, a member of the royal guard, raised all his life to be fiercely loyal to the Crown.

Then Sophia’s powers manifest stronger than she ever imagined they would, and Cameron and she are inextricably linked in the process. As a witch unbound by marriage rites, Sophia is not only a threat to the established order of her country, but is also a weapon for those who seek to destroy it. Faced with old secrets and new truths, she must decide if she will fight for her country or succumb to the delicious temptation of power.…