#BookReview: Such a Pretty Girl by T. Greenwood

Synopsis: Award-winning author T. Greenwood explores the often-flickering line between woman and girl in this vividly lyrical drama alternating between an West Village artists community in 1970s New York and present day, as a former child actress is forced to confront the darkest secrets of her youth when a controversial photo taken of her as a preteen on the night of the 1977 blackout ignites a media firestorm.

Living peacefully in Vermont, Ryan Flannigan is shocked when a text from her oldest friend alerts her to a devastating news item. A controversial photo of her as a pre-teen has been found in the possession of a wealthy investor recently revealed as a pedophile and a sex trafficker—with an inscription to him from Ryan’s mother on the back.

Memories crowd in, providing their own distinctive pictures of her mother Fiona, an aspiring actress, and their move to the West Village in 1976. Amid the city’s gritty kaleidoscope of wealth and poverty, high art, and sleazy strip clubs, Ryan is discovered and thrust into the spotlight as a promising young actress with a woman’s face and a child’s body. Suddenly, the safety and comfort Ryan longs for is replaced by auditions, paparazzi, and the hungry eyes of men of all ages.

Forced to reexamine her childhood, Ryan begins to untangle her young fears and her mother’s ambitions, and the role each played in the fraught blackout summer of 1977. Even with her movie career long behind her, Ryan and Fiona are suddenly the object of uncomfortable speculation—and Fiona demands Ryan’s support. To put the past to rest, Ryan will need to face the painful truth of their relationship, and the night when everything changed.

#BookBlitz: Baggage Claim by Juliana Smith @XpressoTours #Giveaway $20 Amazon gift card

Baggage Claim
Juliana Smith
Publication date: November 26th 2022
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Olive Moore has been avoiding her hometown for three years now. But a phone call with her mom has her agreeing to spend the holidays back home with her family, she lets it slip she will be bringing a boyfriend with her. The only problem with that is she has no boyfriend. That is until she meets a handsome—albeit annoying—stranger on the plane who makes her an offer she can’t refuse.

Finn Beckett has always had good luck, as demonstrated by the gorgeous blonde he’s seated next to on a flight to Aspen. One drink too many leads to Olive spilling her problems in his lap, and he feels compelled to help. So he makes her an offer: he’ll pretend to be her boyfriend to keep her family off her back and make this the best Christmas ever.

Olive and Finn spend the next two weeks going on spirit-filled Christmas dates with her family. Their ruse is working perfectly, but Finn can’t help but notice Olive is holding something back. Something that could ruin everything.

Their relationship may have taken off smoothly, but with all this turbulence, will they ever make it to baggage claim?

#BookBlitz: Unanimity by Alexandra Almeida @spiralworlds @XpressoTours #Giveaway $30 Amazon gift card

Unanimity
Alexandra Almeida
(Spiral Worlds, #1)
Publication date: October 18th 2022
Genres: Adult, Science Fiction

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The Series Story

Shadow is a reluctant god with a broken mind and a death wish. He used to be Thomas Astley-Byron, an affluent young screenwriter whose creativity and idealism saved a world from the brink of collapse. Together with Henry Nowak, an AI expert, Tom created heaven on earth by inventing a Jungian simulated reality that helps humans confront their dark sides. The benevolent manipulation platform turned the two unelected leaders into beloved gods, but now everything is failing. The worlds suffer as a sentimental Tom descends into his own personal hell, becoming the embodiment of everything he despises and a shadow of who he used to be.

His journey from optimistic, joyful Tom to a gloomy Shadow is paved with heartache and sinister interference from emerging technology. Humans and bots fight for his heart, but their aims differ: some want to own it, some to dissect it, and others to end its foolish beat. Estranged from the love of his life—the activist poet Nathan Storm—Tom fails to realize the biggest threat comes from within. None of the sticky stories that steer his life end well.

Now, a young goddess—Estelle Ngoie—has been appointed to replace him, and unlike Shadow, Stella takes no prisoners, and her heart bleeds for no one.

Who’s pulling on Shadow’s heartstrings? Are their intentions malign or benign? It’s all a matter of perspective, and Shadow has none left.

The Series Themes

An epic tale spanning across six days—one per book—and forty past decades of life lived across ten worlds and two universes.

Weaving hard sci-fi elements with social commentary and queer romantic suspense, Spiral Worlds explores the nature of consciousness and how it’s connected to a not-so-secret ingredient—story. As software consumes the world, intelligence is nothing but the appetizer; the human heart is the main course.

There is no black or white in this story about a contrast-making machine.

#BookReview: Thorn (Dauntless Path #1) by Intisar Khanani

Synopsis: A princess with two futures. A destiny all her own.

Between her cruel family and the contempt she faces at court, Princess Alyrra has always longed to escape the confines of her royal life. But when she’s betrothed to the powerful prince Kestrin, Alyrra embarks on a journey to his land with little hope for a better future.

When a mysterious and terrifying sorceress robs Alyrra of both her identity and her role as princess, Alyrra seizes the opportunity to start a new life for herself as a goose girl. 

But Alyrra soon finds that Kestrin is not what she expected. The more Alyrra learns of this new kingdom, the pain and suffering its people endure, as well as the danger facing Kestrin from the sorceress herself, the more she knows she can’t remain the goose girl forever.

With the fate of the kingdom at stake, Alyrra is caught between two worlds and ultimately must decide who she is, and what she stands for.

Includes The Bone Knife, a bonus short story set in the world of Thorn.

#BookReview: Shadows We Carry by @drmerylain

Synopsis: In this eagerly anticipated sequel to Meryl Ain’s award-winning post-Holocaust novel The Takeaway Men, we follow Bronka and JoJo Lubinski as they find themselves on the cusp of momentous change for women in the late 1960s. With the United States in the grip of political and social upheaval, the twins and a number of their peers, including a Catholic priest and the son of a Nazi, struggle with their family’s ancestry and how much influence it has on their lives. Meanwhile, both young women seek to define their roles as women, and as individuals.


Enlightening and evocative, Shadows We Carry explores the experience of navigating deeply held family secrets and bloodlines, confusing religious identities, and the scars of World War II in the wake of revolutionary societal changes.

This title will be released on April 25, 2023.

#BookReview: The Girl in the Castle by James Patterson, Emily Raymond

Synopsis: Beloved #1 bestselling authors James Patterson and Emily Raymond deliver a thrilling novel about a teen caught between two worlds and the truths that could set her free—or trap her forever.

My name is Hannah Dory and I need you to believe me

NOW: Hannah is brought to Belman Psych, told she is suffering from hallucinations and delusions. Hannah knows the truth: she must return to the past and save her sister. Could Jordan, the abnormal psych student who seems to truly care, be the answer she’s looking for?

1347: Hannah and her village are starving to death in a brutal winter. Hannah seeks out food and salvation in the baron’s castle. If she is caught stealing, she will surely hang. But if she and her friends succeed, she’ll save everyone she holds dear.

NOW: Jordan isn’t sure what to believe, and Hannah has even bigger problems: if she doesn’t make it back, her sister will die, but if she keeps going back, she might never escape.

#BookTour: Man Na by John J. Murray Jr. @RABTBookTours @mkwebsiteandseo

A Daily Guide to Becoming the Salt God Intended

Christian Self-Help

Date Published: October 9, 2022

Man Na is not just another devotional.

Each day, the typical devotional offers a passage, hopes it inspires, and waits for us to return for another dose of motivation. When the next day arrives, God is expected to feed us with more manna once again.

Man Na, on the other hand, has a secret ingredient that not only fills us up, but creates lasting fulfillment.What is its secret?

Salt. Man Na recognizes we are not only called to fill ourselves, but are designed to be salt for others through service, kindness, forgiveness, friendship, humility, gratitude, happiness, and love.

This devotional helps us stop focusing inward and start concentrating on others throughout the day.

By providing readers with God's bread and His desire for us to be salt for others, Man Na offers what other devotionals do not. So, grab your shaker and get ready to become what God intended.

#BookBlitz: Hunted by @VirginiaMN97 @XpressoTours #Giveaway $20 Amazon gift card + signed copy of Hunted

Hunted
V.M. Nelson
(The Dhampyr Series, #1)
Publication date: October 25th 2022
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Tasi, an eighteen-year-old, head-strong, blood-drinking, dhampyr, has been hidden away in a small town in Maine since the death of her parents. Though she had trained to fight and kill vampires, she never believed those skills would be useful in her mundane life. That’s where she’s wrong.

In one moment, her life changes forever, and her aunt’s final words ring in her head.

They want your blood.

Now orphaned and charged with protecting her sister, Emily—a sister who doesn’t know what they are or that she’s about to endure a life-threatening change—Tasi has no other choice but to follow directions left for her. She is to find an ally who lives in New York City. This is the only way Tasi will figure out why she and Emily are being hunted before they end up drained of their blood.

#BookReview: Neon Gods (Dark Olympus #1) by Katee Robert

Synopsis: He was supposed to be a myth. 
But from the moment I crossed the River Styx and fell under his dark spell... he was, quite simply, mine.

Society darling Persephone Dimitriou plans to flee the ultra-modern city of Olympus and start over far from the backstabbing politics of the Thirteen Houses. But all that’s ripped away when her mother ambushes her with an engagement to Zeus, the dangerous power behind their glittering city’s dark facade.

With no options left, Persephone flees to the forbidden undercity and makes a devil’s bargain with a man she once believed a myth... a man who awakens her to a world she never knew existed.

Hades has spent his life in the shadows, and he has no intention of stepping into the light. But when he finds that Persephone can offer a little slice of the revenge he’s spent years craving, it’s all the excuse he needs to help her—for a price. Yet every breathless night spent tangled together has given Hades a taste for Persephone, and he’ll go to war with Olympus itself to keep her close…

A modern retelling of Hades and Persephone that’s as sinful as it is sweet. 

#ReleaseBlitz: Daring Done Right by Charlie Lane @RABTBookTours @BookBuzznet

 

Historical Romance, Regency Romance, Steamy Romance

Date Published: November 24, 2022

 

In this enemies-to-lovers Regency romance by USA Today bestselling author Charlie Lane, a lady who dares too much and a brute who dares too little engage in a battle of wits.

Lady Sarah Hampton would rather sew up a wound than tend to her own heart. Or matrimonial prospects. When the small hospital she’s been volunteering at faces financial peril, she seeks to save them the best way she knows how—one dare, one wager, and one foolish rake at a time. No matter the risk to herself. If her friend’s irritatingly handsome and brutish brother doesn’t stand in her way.

Xavier Evans, Viscount Flint may be known as the Dare King to his old chums, but to Lady Sarah, he’s the King of Brutes. He’d take offense if he weren’t so busy trying to be a better man, the type who rises above insult, never gives it, and protects his family. But when his sister’s happiness hinges on her friend’s safety, he’ll have to figure out how to keep the sharp-tongued and beautiful Lady Sarah—who hates him—safe, too.

Sarah is willing to risk it all, and Xavier will do what it takes to stop her. As the game of dares draws them closer, it reveals a hidden threat, and these enemies must work together or hurt those they love… including each other.