Happy Monday all! I’m pleased to be hosting a guest post from Ritter Ames, author of Counterfeit Conspiracies, today. There’s also a great Rafflecopter giveaway you can enter in honor of her new book and blog tour. Look what you could win: a signed copy of Counterfeit Conspiracies, a 7″ Kindle Fire HD, a movie DVD, a SAS SpyPen with hidden camera, and an Amazon gift card – a $150 value! 🙂
Enter the Giveaway here.
Hi everyone – please join me in welcoming Laura Smith to The Book’s the Thing. Laura is a middle-grade author and is going to share her self-publishing experience with us today. Continue reading
To Be Read Thursdays is a meme hosted by The Writer’s Inkwell. This is a way to feature the books you’ve added to your TBR list over the past week or a newly added book that you are excited about reading in the near future. Anyone is welcome to participate in this meme. Please just link back to the hosting page so she can read your posts.
What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by It’s A Reading Thing. To participate, open the book you are currently reading to page 34 (or 34% in your ebook) and answer these three questions.
The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?
2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a complete sentence. (or two!)
3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
Now for my answers this week…
1. The Library at Mount Char by Scott Hawkins
2. I’m going to deviate a little and take my quote form the beginning of the book instead of page 34. I think that after reading the first paragraph of this story, you will either be sucked in with an immediate need to know why (like I was), or you will run the other way, comfortable in the knowledge that this book is not for you. As a little taste of what I’m talking about, here is the opening line….
Carolyn, blood-drenched and barefoot, walked alone down the two-lane stretch of blacktop that the Americans called Highway 78.
3. I’m not that far in yet, which makes it hard to tell. Right now, the story is taking place in the American south, which would be ok, I guess, as long as I wasn’t actually near any of the Librarians in the story. I have a feeling by the end of the book I’ll want to change my answer to a resounding NO!
Top Ten Tuesday is hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. Every Tuesday they post a new Top Ten list prompt. This week’s prompt is… Ten Books I Enjoyed Recently (last yearish) That Weren’t My Typical Genre/Type of Book. I’ve gone back through my list of books read on Goodreads, and apparently I wasn’t very adventurous last year. Sorry for the super-short list this week, but I only see 3 books that don’t fit into one of my preferred genres, which would include any type of mystery / thriller, historical fiction, sci-fi/fantasy (including cyberpunk), horror, romantic suspense, and young adult.
Try Not to Breathe by Holly Seddon
Goodreads Description:
For fans of Lianne Moriarty, Paula Hawkins, and Tana French, an arresting debut novel of psychological suspense: a young journalist struggles to keep the demons of her alcoholism at bay as she finds her purpose again in tackling the mystery of a shocking headline-making crime, still unsolved after fifteen years.
Amy Stevenson was the biggest news story of 1995. Only fifteen years old, Amy disappeared walking home from school one day and was found in a coma three days later. Her attacker was never identified and her angelic face was plastered across every paper and nightly news segment.
Fifteen years later, Amy lies in the hospital, surrounded by 90’s Britpop posters, forgotten by the world until reporter Alex Dale stumbles across her while researching a routine story on vegetative patients.
Remembering Amy’s story like it was yesterday, she feels compelled to solve the long-cold case.
The only problem is, Alex is just as lost as Amy—her alcoholism has cost her everything including her marriage and her professional reputation.
In the hopes that finding Amy’s attacker will be her own salvation as well, Alex embarks on a dangerous investigation, suspecting someone close to Amy.
Told in the present by an increasingly fragile Alex and in dream-like flashbacks by Amy as she floats in a fog of memories, dreams, and music from 1995, Try Not to Breathe unfolds layer by layer to a breathtaking conclusion.
Genre: Mystery / Thriller
My Rating: **** (4 stars)
Death of a Nurse by M. C. Beaton
Hamish Macbeth #31
Goodreads description:
M. C. Beaton’s New York Times bestselling Hamish Macbeth series continues with a new mystery featuring Scotland’s most quick-witted but unambitious policeman.
James Harrison has recently moved to a restored hunting lodge in Sutherland with his gorgeous private nurse Gloria Dainty. When Hamish visits Mr. Harrison to welcome him to the neighborhood, the old man treats him very rudely. Gloria apologizes for her employer’s behavior, and Hamish takes the plunge and invites her out for dinner. On the appointed evening, Hamish waits for Gloria at the restaurant. And waits. Gloria never shows up. Four days later, Gloria’s body washes up on the beach near Braikie. Now without a date and without his former policeman Dick Fraser (who left the force to buy a bakery), Hamish must find out who killed the beautiful new resident of Sutherland, and why, before the murderer strikes again….
On sale 2/23/16 from Grand Central Publishing, but available for pre-order now.
Enter the Rafflecopter Giveaway (ENDED) for a chance to win a print copy! (US and Canada addresses only please)
Genre: Cozy Mystery
My Rating: ***** 5 of 5 stars)
Action-adventure books for the mystery lover. In this series, modern-day archaeologist and adventurer Matthew Connor travels the globe with his two closest friends to unearth treasure and discover legends the world has all but forgotten. Indiana Jones meets the twenty-first century.
Finding the Inca’s lost City of Gold would be the discovery of a lifetime. But failing could mean her death…
Archaeologist Matthew Connor and his friends Cal and Robyn are finally home after a dangerous retrieval expedition in India. While they succeeded in obtaining the priceless Pandu artifact they sought, it almost cost them their lives. Still, Matthew is ready for the next adventure. Yet when new intel surfaces indicating the possible location of the legendary City of Gold, Matthew is hesitant to embark on the quest.
Not only is the evidence questionable but it means looking for the lost city of Paititi far away from where other explorers have concentrated their efforts. As appealing as making the discovery would be, it’s just too risky. But when Cal’s girlfriend, Sophie, is abducted by Matthew’s old nemesis who is dead-set on acquiring the Pandu statue, Matthew may be forced into action. Saving Sophie’s life means either breaking into the Royal Ontario Museum to steal the relic or offering up something no one in his or her right mind can refuse–the City of Gold.
Now Matthew and his two closest friends have to find a city and a treasure that have been lost for centuries. And they only have seven days to do it. As they race against the clock, they quickly discover that the streets they seek aren’t actually paved with gold, but with blood.
Hardcover: 314 pages
Publisher: Hibbert & Stiles Publishing Inc (November 27, 2015)
ISBN-13: 978-1988064666
ASIN: B016LLDQIY
When Matthew’s friend Cal’s girlfriend is abducted, he, Cal, and their friend Robyn are forced to undertake a quest to find the lost city of gold to pay her ransom. Not everyone is what they seem, and there are much worse things in the jungle than the men the kidnapper has sent along to keep an eye on Matthew’s party. City of Gold is a fast-paced action adventure story that feels something like Friends-meets-Romancing the Stone. This was a quick, entertaining read – I devoured it in one sitting! Keep reading below for an excerpt.
NOTE: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.
CAROLYN ARNOLD is the international best-selling and award-winning author of the Madison Knight, Brandon Fisher, and McKinley Mystery series. She is the only author with POLICE PROCEDURALS RESPECTED BY LAW ENFORCEMENT.™
Carolyn was born in a small town, but that doesn’t keep her from dreaming big. And on par with her large dreams is her overactive imagination that conjures up killers and cases to solve. She currently lives in a city near Toronto with her husband and two beagles, Max and Chelsea. She is also a member of Crime Writers of Canada.
And don’t forget to sign up for her newsletter for up-to-date information on release and special offers at http://carolynarnold.net/newsletters.
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Prologue
REPUBLIC OF INDIA
THE SOUND OF HIS THUMPING heartbeat was only dulled by the screeching monkeys that were performing aerial acrobatics in the tree canopy overhead. Their rhythmic swinging from one vine to the next urged his steps forward but not with the same convincing nature as did the bullets whizzing by his head.
Matthew glanced behind at his friends and was nearly met with a bullet between the eyes. He crouched low, an arm instinctively shooting up as if he’d drop faster with it atop his head. The round of shots hit a nearby tree, and splintering bark rained down on him.
“Hurry!” he called out, as he peered at his companions.
“What do you think we’re—” Cal lost his footing, tripping over an extended root, his arms flailing as he tried to regain his balance.
Robyn, who was a few steps ahead of Cal, held out a hand, her pace slowing as she helped steady him.
“Pick it up, Garcia!” Matthew didn’t miss her glare before he turned back around. He hurdled through the rainforest, leaping over some branches while dipping under others, parting dangling vines as he went, as if they were beaded curtains.
His lungs burned, and his muscles were on fire. One quick glance up, and the monkeys spurred him on again. Not that he needed more than the cries of the men who were chasing him. The voices were getting louder, too—growing closer.
Robyn caught up to Matthew. “What happened to natives with poison darts?”
“The modern-day savage packs an AK-47 and body armor.”
Several reports sounded. Another burst of ammunition splayed around them.
“If we get out of this alive, you owe me a drink.” Her smile oddly contrasted their situation.
“I’ll buy you each two,” Matthew promised.
Cal ran, holding the GPS out in front of him, his arm swaying up and down, and Matthew wasn’t sure how he read it with the motion.
“Where do you expect to take us, Cal? We’re in the middle of a damn jungle,” Robyn said.
“Round here. Go right,” Cal shouted.
Another deafening shot rang out and came close to hitting Matthew.
“You don’t have to tell me twice.” Matthew ramped up his speed, self-preservation at the top of his list while the idol secured in his backpack slipped down in priority.
Most of their pursuers were yelling in Hindi, but one voice came through in English. He was clearly the one giving directions, and from his accent, Matthew guessed he was American, possibly from one of the northern states.
“I have to stop…and…breathe.” Robyn held a hand to her chest.
“We stop and we’re dead. Keep moving.” Cal reached for her arm and yanked.
Matthew slowed his pace slightly. “Robyn, you could always get on Cal’s back.”
“What?” Cal lowered the arm that was holding the GPS.
She angled her head toward Matthew. “If you think I’m going to get up there like some child, you are sorely mistaken.”
Matthew laughed but stopped abruptly, his body following suit and coming to a quick halt. He was teetering on the edge of a cliff that was several stories high, looking straight down into a violent pool of rushing water. He lifted his gaze to an upstream waterfall that fed into the basin.
Cal caught Matthew’s backpack just in time and pulled him back to solid ground.
The rush of adrenaline made Matthew dizzy. He bent over, braced his hands on his knees, and tucked his head between his legs. He’d just come way too close to never reaching his twenty-ninth birthday.
Robyn punched Cal in the shoulder. “Go right, eh? Good directions, wiseass. Maybe next time we’ll just keep going straight.”
“Sure, blame the black guy,” Cal said.
More bullets fired over the empty space of the gorge.
“What do we do now?” Cal asked.
Matthew forced himself to straighten to a stand. He hadn’t brought them all the way here to die. He’d come to retrieve a priceless artifact, and by all means, it was going to get back to Canada. He pulled off his sack, quickly assessed the condition of the zippers, and shrugged it back on. He tightened the straps, looking quickly at Cal and then at Robyn. One stood to each side of him. He had to act before he lost the courage. He put his arms out behind them.
Robyn’s eyes widened. “What are you doing, Matt? You can’t honestly be thinking of—”
Matthew wasn’t a religious man, but he was praying for them on the way down.
I’m pleased to welcome Amy Metz to the blog today. Amy is author of the well-reviewed Goosepimple Junction Cozy Mystery series, and was kind enough to take the time to answer a few questions so we can get to know her. Cozy fans – be sure to check the links at the end of the interview, and keep an eye out for a new book coming this Spring!
What Are You Reading Wednesdays is a weekly meme hosted by It’s A Reading Thing. To participate, open the book you are currently reading to page 34 (or 34% in your ebook) and answer these three questions.
The Questions are:
1. What’s the name of your current read?
2. Go to page 34 in your book or 34% in your eBook and share a complete sentence. (or two!)
3. Would you like to live in the world that exists within your book? Why or why not?
Now for my answers this week…
1. City of Gold by Carolyn Arnold
2. It wasn’t like he never visited the artifacts he’d tracked down. He just preferred not to see them on their opening nights.
3. The characters actually make their home in Canada, and I wouldn’t mind living there. However, in this story they take off for Bolivia in search of the City of Gold. I’ve lived in South America, but nowhere quite so remote as this. I don’t think I’d like it at all! I’ll stick with reading about it. 🙂
So what is everyone else reading this Wednesday?
Synopsis:
The Book's the Thing 