Release Day Blitz - The Hidden Children

~ Release Day Blitz ~

The Hidden Children (The Lost Grimoire #1)

by Reshma K.Barshikar
13th November 2018

About the Book:

‘What price would you pay to be extraordinary? What would you do to speak to a butterfly? 

Shayamukthy cruises through life: shooting hoops, daydreaming and listening to her favourite books. Even moving from the US to India, to a new school, a new culture, hasn't really rattled her. But something isn't right anymore and it begins when 'New Girl' joins the school.

She pulls Shui into a world of magic and wonderment, a world she has been hidden from all her life. What starts as a quest to look for a lost book, hurtles Shui into a world where people live in trees, talk to the dead and speak to butterflies.

But like all power, magic comes at a steep price, and under all things wondrous lie demons waiting to crawl out. The more Shui learns, the more she doubts everything and everyone around her. 

Will she be able to master her powers, or will they devour her and everyone she loves?

Order Your Copy from AMAZON now!

Read an Excerpt:

I think I am ordinary. I lack purpose. Boohoo you think, typical teenager angst. But if I died tomorrow, it wouldn’t impact anyone’s life except my parents’. My friends, on the other hand, they have a life. See them there, yes there, to the right, next to the banyan tree behind the basketball court. You see a slightly pudgy boy and a beautiful girl? The boy’s name is Jai. The girl’s name is Nallini. Both have purpose. Jai wants to write comic books. He wants to be like Neil Gaiman or something, some famous comic-book guy. Nallini wants to be an actress, the next Deepika Padukone – that, and to win next year’s gold medal in Jujitsu.

She has absolutely no problems reconciling the inherent contradictions in both her desires.

I want nothing, need nothing, except something to need. I can’t see past today even to tomorrow; I have a hard enough time figuring out what I am now. I am not from a broken home, unless you count the fact that parts of the building I live in are falling apart. I am not poor, not like Anuki Chabria who got called out of her exam because her parents couldn’t pay her fees. I do not have acne bursting on my face, making me look like a human cheese grater. I am just, well, ordinary. So could you really blame me? Blame me for wanting to be special? Blame me for wanting to be fierce? To be like Storm from the X-Men, or like Beyoncé? When I look back now, at everything that has happened in the last few months, I realise I’m just as much to blame as her. The big question – well, it’s not a big question at all, really, because it’s all rubbish now, because you can’t go back. Even I can’t go back. So the absurd question everyone around me seems to asking is – would I have acted differently, would I rather NOT be the person I am now?

No.

And neither would you. What price wouldn’t you pay to be extraordinary, to ride the wind, to float with unicorns, to be the one chosen...? Because, you see, I’ve gotten into some serious trouble and want to explain myself. I didn’t mean for things to happen. I didn’t mean for someone to die. So I ask you – wouldn’t you have said yes if someone said – ‘Do you want to learn how to speak to a butterfly?’ 

About the Author:

Travel writer and novelist Reshma K Barshikar is an erstwhile Investment Banker who, as she tells it, ‘fell down a rabbit hole and discovered a world outside a fluorescent cubicle.’ As a travel and features writer, she contributes to National Geographic Traveller, Harper’s Bazaar, Grazia, The Sunday Guardian, SilverKris, The Mint Lounge and The Hindu. Fade Into Red, published by Random House India was her debut novel and featured in Amazon Top 10 Bestsellers. She also holds well renowned workshops for young adults at both BDL Museum and Kala Ghoda and is keen to build a strong Young Adult reading and writing community to fill the desperate lack of young adult fiction in the Indian Market. Her new Young Adult novel, The Hidden Children, will be launching at the Vizag Junior Literary Festival. Reshma is from the ISB Class of 2003. She calls both Mumbai and the Nilgiris home. 

Contact the Author:
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My Irish Kings - Sienna Blake

MY IRISH KINGS

A Quick and Dirty novel by USA Today bestseller Sienna Blake is LIVE

and we're celebrating with a HUGE giveaway! 

Five years I’ve been kept under the control of Ireland’s most vicious gang leader. Now that I’m eighteen, he’s forcing me to marry him. I’d rather die a thousand deaths.

I escape to the only place I can be safe -- home of my captor’s biggest rival, the Irish Kings.

There’s X, the living weapon with a haunted past. His vicious touch helps release all this anger in me.

Jace, the teddy bear with a warrior’s heart. His melodic Irish brogue is a balm to my soul.

And Magnar King, their intimidating leader. Whose eyes flare with hunger when I’m near, yet backs away like I’ve burned him when we touch. He doesn’t remember me. But I remember him.

They’re all so different. But they all make me feel safe. They awaken needs in me—strange needs.

I want all of them.

But I just might need all of them to heal.

This is a smoking hot yet emotional reverse-harem romance, a full-length, standalone novel. Three sexy Irish brothers-in-arms who aren’t afraid to share and take their special women to the ends of her pleasure.

Sienna’s Quick & Dirty series consists of standalone novels which are hotter, dirtier and quicker than her other novels.

My review

I love it when a new Sienna Blake book comes out. It does usually mean that I don't get a lot done that day, as I can't put it down, but I'm not really complaining. This latest one is from the Quick and Dirty series, which means that it's a bit quicker than some of her other books but just as hot.
I really enjoyed this read that had not just one, but three big, sexy, Irish men in it. Poor girl, having to fall for all three of them and having all three of them fall for her. There was also the added bonus of a few characters from some of Sienna's other books popping up as minor characters here. Something I always love to see.
If I had to make a complaint, it would be that I finished it far too soon. But there's not a lot I can do about that. Hopefully, Sienna will finish her next book just as soon and I don't have too long to wait!

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MEET THE AUTHOR

Sienna Blake is a dirty girl, a wordspinner of smexy love stories and an Amazon Top 20 & USA Today Bestselling Author.

She lives in Dublin, Ireland, where she enjoys reading, keeping fit and adding to her personal harem of Irish hotties

GET THE COMPLETE BOUND DUET AS A ‘THANK YOU’ GIFT FOR JOINING MY SEXY SUBSCRIBERS.
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Watch over - Amy Reece

Watch Over by Amy Reece
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Any book that starts off by getting the hero and heroine to get together by leaving notes for one another under the collar of a cat that has adopted them has got to be onto a winner. I was inclined to enjoy this book from the first few pages for that very reason. Of course, it isn't long before the pair meet and what starts out as a friendship, develops into something more serious and lasting.

I liked the characters of both Finn and Melanie. Finn was very sweet, although he'd clearly had terrible taste in women in the past. Mel's taste hadn't been much better to be honest, with a bad relationship in her youth putting her off men altogether. Once they were together, it was clear that they belonged together.

There is a bit of a thriller/mystery theme to this storyline as well. With someone out there threatening Mel and putting her in danger. I liked this element of the story and I think that it added quite a bit to the overall read.

Unlike many contemporary romance books, much of the action in the bedroom was behind closed doors and off camera. It made a bit of a change to not have to cringe at some of the cliched euphemisms that often get dragged out.

Overall, I really enjoyed this read and was quite pleased to discover that it's actually the first in a series with at least two other books ready to read. I think that I'll be dipping into them soon.

I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

View all my reviews

Apple of My Eye by Claire Allan

Apple of My Eye

Just how far is a mother willing to go?

When a mysterious note arrives for seven months pregnant nurse Eliana Hughes, she begins to doubt every aspect of her life – from her mixed feelings about motherhood to her marriage to Martin, who has become distant in recent months.

As the person behind the note escalates their campaign to out Eli’s husband as a cheat, she finds herself unable to trust even her own instincts, and as pressure builds, she makes a mistake that jeopardises her entire future.

Elsewhere, someone is watching. Someone who desperately wants a baby to call their own and will go to any lengths to become a mother – and stay a mother…

My Review

Apple of My Eye by Claire Allan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the first book I've read by Claire Allan, although I've had Her Name was Rose sitting on my kindle for a little while, I haven't had a chance to read it yet. When I saw that Apple of my eye was available on Netgalley, I jumped at the chance to read and review.
The difficulty with reviewing a thriller is that I don't really want to give anything away. I'll try to stick to what I can talk about.
There isn't a huge cast in this story, not that it really needs it. Most of the action takes place with either Eli, her husband Martin and her mother Angela. There are a couple of friends who take small roles and then some secondary characters that have very small roles in the story. There are also a number of people who don't really appear in their own right but are perhaps just as important as the other people in the book. This small cast makes for a tightly plotted book, with just about every tiny little incident being important in the whole story.
The book moved at a really good pace, I found myself sucked into the story and couldn't put it down. Like all good thrillers, I was willing everything to be ok and for things to work out while worrying for Eli and what was going to happen. I did guess what the twist was going to be, a little while before it was revealed, but it wasn't obvious right from the beginning.
If you're looking for a well written, exciting, thriller that sucks you in and makes you want to read on quickly to find out what's going to happen, then I really don't think that you can go far wrong with Apple Of My Eye. Highly recommended.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


View all my reviews

The Division Bell Mystery - Ellen Wilkinson

The Division Bell Mystery by Ellen Wilkinson
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I do enjoy a good murder mystery and when I came across the opportunity to read and review a novel from the golden age of murder mysteries. My knowledge of authors from this period is fairly limited to the well known and still popular (Christie, Marsh and Sayers mostly) and I had not heard of Ellen Wilkinson. This is possibly because, unlike the others mentioned, she only wrote the one detective novel. She was, in fact, the first female, Labour MP in Britain and a bit of a character by all accounts. I do feel that I've been a bit remiss in not knowing more about her before now, seeing as she was a trailblazer for women, a writer, a left-wing politician and just so happens to share my birthday. Still, by the happy accident of coming across this book, I do now know a little more about her.
On to the mystery itself. It focuses on the government and parliament. The division bell of the title being the bell that is rung to signal the vote in the houses of parliament and also in this book, the murder of Georges Oissel, who had been negotiating a loan to the government. Young tory MP Robert West, who is parliamentary private secretary to the Home Secretary tries to solve the murder. Particularly as the Home Secretary is implicated by way of his being the last person to see Oissel alive. As the story progresses he finds himself drawn to the attractive granddaughter of Oissel. Although it appears that she herself might be caught up in the murder somehow.
In many ways, this book is as much a book about the way parliament works, as it is a murder mystery. There was much the reminded me of the wonderful yes minister and it's clear that it's a world that Wilkinson knows well. In many ways, it's surprising how little has changed since it was written.
I enjoyed the whole book, both the parliamentary aspect and the mystery. I have to admit that I didn't solve it, but that didn't detract from my enjoyment. I particularly liked the character of Grace Richards, who I believe was based on Wilkinson herself. I would have been interested to see how the relationship between the MP's on opposite sides of the house might have developed had there been future books.
This isn't a perfect book, there are a number of things that don't really work so well. Characters that play a large role and then vanish suddenly, others who pop up unexpectedly as though they had been there from the start. I'm not entirely convinced by the method of murder either, but perhaps this is simply because I can't really picture it from the description. Still, overall this is very enjoyable and if it is taken as a 'first' book in a series, even if there aren't any further books, then it stands up quite well. I really enjoyed it and can't help but be sad that it's an only one.
I received a complimentary copy of this book through NetGalley. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.


View all my reviews

A Heritage of Death - Alexa Padgett

A Heritage of Death
Alexa Padgett
(A Reverend Cici Gurule Mystery, #2)
Publication date: October 23rd 2018
Genres: Adult, Mystery, Thriller

An unconventional pastor. A brutal murder. To solve the case, one reverend will look for help from beyond the grave…

Reverend Cecelia “Cici” Gurule dreams of a bruised and bloodied woman who looks alarmingly like Cici. She’d like to pretend the dream is a nightmare and nothing more, but there are too many coincidences in her waking life to write it off. Like the baby that turns up on her porch–a baby that disappeared weeks before.
Cici and Detective Sam Chastain race to find the woman, but the killer finds her first. As the trail grows cold, Cici’s only chance to solve the mystery before she becomes the next target may be a clue left by her ghostly twin.
A Heritage of Death is the second novel in a compelling female sleuth mystery series for fans of Ruth Ware and Gilly MacMillan. If you like convention-shattering heroines, vivid Southwest settings, and a touch of the paranormal, then you’ll love Alexa Padgett’s twisty mystery.
Buy A Heritage of Death and hold on tight for a white-knuckle thrill ride today!

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

Author Bio:
With a degree in international marketing and a varied career path that includes content management for a web firm, marketing direction for a high-profile sports agency, and a two-year stint with a renowned literary agency, award-winning author Alexa Padgett has returned to her first love: writing fiction.
Alexa spent a good part of her youth traveling. From Budapest to Belize, Calgary to Coober Pedy, she soaked in the myriad smells, sounds, and feels of these gorgeous places, wishing she could live in them all—at least for a while. And she does in her books.
She lives in New Mexico with her husband, children, and Great Pyrenees pup, Ash. When not writing, schlepping, or volunteering, she can be found in her tiny kitchen, channeling her inner Barefoot Contessa.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter

My Review

I do love a good murder mystery, as you may well know. This one had plenty going for it, with missing women, bodies galore and an investigating team of a local reverend and a policeman that she seems to have a bit of a thing for. So far so good. I liked both Cici (the Reverend) and Sam (the policeman). It's clear that there is an overarching storyline that will involve some kind of romance developing between the two of them. I'm always happy to see a bit of that. 

Cici did have an identical twin sister, who has died. She still has some sort of connection with her and as a result, has dreams that tell her things about the mystery that they are looking into. It's these dreams that get her involved in the mystery in the first place. I do like the idea that someone might have this ability to 'see' something in this way. For me though, the dreams were a little too convenient and helped a little bit too much to help solve the mystery. I like to have the chance to try and solve things myself when reading a mystery, but it wasn't really possible with this. Having said that, I did know who was behind it. 

Overall I enjoyed this book. I liked the main characters and I'd be interested to see where this book is going to go in future instalments.

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Freefall Book Blitz

About the Book:

The deep-space transport ship, the Vera Rubin, is light years from Earth when botanist Elle Silver begins to question the use of their space-travel drug, HCH.  Elle notices a growing number of her friends and  fellow colonists awaken from their 90-day sleep cycles exhibiting a variety of negative side-effects and she begins to believe the drug is the culprit.  Some of the effects are minor, dry eyes and lack of appetite. Other symptoms are a bigger concern on a tiny ship packed with colonists.  With each sleep cycle completed, more and more colonists awaken both confused and barely concealing a simmering rage - rage that could be a catastrophe on a ship as crowded as the Vera Rubin.  Elle needs proof, but she also needs a plan. If the drug that allows them to travel deep-space is at fault, what then?  Elle and her friends Ashok, Achebe and Jin-Hai are pressed to their limits to find a solution to their problem before the ship erupts into chaos... with light years left to travel.



Find FREEFALL on Amazon.Com & Amazon.In


Read an Excerpt:

PROLOGUE—PARIS 2418

Sand gently lifts off the surface of the deserted Champ de Mars at the behest of a rising wind. One faceted grain is followed by another and then another. Each tiny particle joins billions more, all having blown in across the heartland of France from Bardenas Reales in Spain. The sand drifts north along the plaza and is deposited at the base of the Eiffel Tower, already mired in a massive net- work of dunes.

Four hundred years ago, the Champ de Mars teemed with families celebrating Bastille Day with food baskets and tablecloths spread across its vast swath of green lawn and shade trees. Two hundred years ago, gravel walkways and paths replaced the withered brown lawn, and the shade trees survived only through extraordinary human persistence. In the mid-twenty-fourth century, the desert has engulfed Paris and the thought of keeping any portion of the Champ de Mars green has long been abandoned.

Four hundred years of desiccation has left the Eiffel Tower buried up to its knees and the plaza before it adrift in sand. There is no telling where the dunes will stop. The latticework supports of the Eiffel Tower have been scoured of paint and worn thin by the abrasive wind from the south. The tower has not toppled yet, but it leans dangerously after six hundred years on planet Earth.

The great deserts of the world—the Gobi, the Sahara, the Atacama, the Mohave and Bardenas Reales—have claimed the planet, smothering the once plentiful rivers. Even the elegant Seine, the heart of Paris, is no more.

The breeze on the Champ de Mars strengthens in the rising heat of the day. A sirocco surges forward and sweeps sand up, up, up, up into the air above the plaza. It hammers at the glass of a high patio door on the upper reaches of the Ecole Militaire at the other end of the plaza. Sand skitters across the portico in waves and slides, slippery and insistent, along the outside of a set of large glass doors.

Muted light from the large floor-to-ceiling window filters into a cavernous, nearly empty boardroom. The room is quiet except for the hammering of the sand, and the susurration of low voices at the far end. Near the patio doors, electric static erupts as a holographic image sputters into being in midair.

“Quiet, everyone. It’s starting,” a deep, commanding voice rumbles.

The voices fall silent. The crackling static charge blossoms into a harried-looking South Asian news anchor. His shirtsleeves are pushed up his forearms, as if he has been interrupted in some task. His voice is laden with the excitement of a breaking news story.

“The entire planet was caught off guard today when Earth-First hackers released a video feed of a secret rocket launch off Mars early this morning.”
The holographic image enlarges to include a video replay of the rocket launch behind the newsman. He continues. “Plans have been underway for quite some time to transport 150 colonists on a deep-space journey to a new planet in the Three Sisters star system.”

The rocket in the video lifts into the dark sky over Mars. The news anchor’s voice lowers dramatically. “It’s believed this video was accidentally captured by a Martian rover on a routine scientific mission on the surface of Mars.”

As the rocket disappears from sight, the newsman leans towards his audience and says in a confidential tone, “Insider sources say the launch of the colonists was ordered ahead of schedule to block an attempt by Earth-First vigilantes to hack the ship’s mainframe and hijack the rocket controls.” The anchorman pauses for effect. “There has been no comment from Mission Control or Earth-First.”

The hologram begins to fade to black, but the news- man’s voice continues for a moment longer during the fade-out.

“In other world news, Earth-First vigilantes rammed a Global Plankton Farms Mediterranean sea-farm. There are reports of massive damage to the human-grade food facility. Citizens in Athens, Rome, Madrid, and Paris have already begun hoarding food and water.”

Silence reigns in the boardroom for a moment after the holograph has disappeared. The sand battering insistently at the plate glass window is the only sound.

Again the commanding voice, laden with menace, shatters the silence.

“I want the person who released that video footage. Find him, gentlemen.”


About the Author:

Jana Williams is certain that fiction can change people’s lives - especially women and girls.  Her own life is testimony to that fact.  One of five daughters, she was raised by a single-mom who placed a high value on reading and storytelling.

The ability to read, coupled with a child’s innate curiosity about the world, and access to books to satisfy that curiosity can offer significant opportunity to a child. Like most writers Jana has bounced from job to job, absorbing stories, cultures and customs as she worked.  She has been a high-speed motion picture photographer, a VFX coordinator, worked in the film industry, and the publishing trade as a book seller - a publisher’s rep and now an author.

But her first love is reading…. and with each book of the Freefall trilogy sold Jana will donate funds to Literacy agencies around the world whose work is to bring the joy of reading to others.

Enjoy a good adventure story and help others learn to read at the same time !

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