Author: Erika K

Dead Money Run Book Blitz and Excerpt

~ Erika K ~ Leave a comment

Dead Money Run by J. Frank James
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Today I’m helping promote Dead Money Run – a Lou Malloy Crime story. It’s already got some great reviews on Goodreads. There’s a free preview at the bottom – check it out to see if Dead Money Run sounds like a book you’d enjoy!

Synopsis:
Dead Money Run (Lou Malloy Crime, #1)Lou Malloy learns of his sister’s death right before he is released from prison, having served 15 years for the theft of $15 million from an Indian casino. He wants two things: to keep the $15 million, which no one has been able to find, and to track down and punish whoever killed his sister.   

Lou Malloy teams up with Hilary Kelly, a private investigator. In no time, Lou has found the hidden $15 million, recovered guns and ammunition hidden with the money, and murdered two low-level mobsters and fed them to the crocodiles.

As the body count rises, the story grows more complex and his sister’s death becomes more mysterious.  

About the Author:
J. Frank JamesFrank James has a passion for writing, and he certainly has the knowledge and experience to write realistic crime thrillers, thanks to his extensive background in law. Jim attended law school, where he was a member of the law review. He even went on to pass the state bar and started his own law practice that specialized in complex litigation. Jim’s experience in law helps lend credibility to his crime fiction books. He has also traveled extensively and gains inspiration for his crime thrillers from his travels. From observing other cultures and gaining new experiences, Jim is able to infuse new life into his books and develop believable characters that readers can identify with.

Frank James writes crime thriller novels that are gripping and suspenseful. In 2013, he began publishing The Lou Malloy Crime Series, which is expected to span 20 books. The series follows Lou Malloy, a hardened criminal who did 15 years in prison for the theft of $15 million, and his partner Hilary Kelly, a private investigator. The titles include The Run Begins, Dead Money Run, Only Two Cats, Blue Cat in Paradise, Rainbow Games, Two Birds To Kill, Last Flamingo, and Finders, Keepers. J. Frank James creates all of his own book covers. To learn more, go to http://www.jfrankjamesbooks.com/

Connect with J. Frank James on Twitter, Goodreads, and Facebook.
Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/J.-Frank-James/e/B00EJLQRI0

Continue reading →

It’s Star Wars Reads Day!

~ Erika K ~ 2 Comments

Star Wars Reads Day logo with BB-8
Today is the fourth annual Star Wars Reads Day! Libraries, bookstores, and other retailers around the globe will be hosting signings, parties, and other events. To see what events are going on in your area, you can check your local library’s website, or the official site on the web or on Facebook.

You can also check Barnes & Noble to see if they have an event planned near you:
Star War Reads Day

Have a great weekend, everyone! Happy reading, and may the Force be with you!

Book Review – The Mine by John A. Heldt

~ Erika K ~ 1 Comment

The Mine by John A. Heldt

The Mine (Northwest Passage #1)Description from Goodreads:

In May 2000, Joel Smith is a cocky, adventurous young man who sees the world as his playground. But when the college senior, days from graduation, enters an abandoned Montana mine, he discovers the price of reckless curiosity. He emerges in May 1941 with a cell phone he can’t use, money he can’t spend, and little but his wits to guide his way. Stuck in the age of swing dancing and a peacetime draft, Joel begins a new life as the nation drifts toward war. With the help of his 21-year-old trailblazing grandmother and her friends, he finds his place in a world he knew only from movies and books. But when an opportunity comes to return to the present, Joel must decide whether to leave his new love in the past or choose a course that will alter their lives forever. THE MINE follows a humbled man through a critical time in history as he adjusts to new surroundings and wrestles with the knowledge of things to come.

Northwest Passage #1

Genre: Fantasy / Time Travel / Historical Fiction
Rating: *** (3 of 5 stars)

The Mine is a story about a young man’s accidental journey from the year 2000 into the past, just prior to WW2. Joel Smith and his friend Alan take a detour during a road trip, and discover an abandoned mine. A determined Joel decides to investigate, leaving his friend, and his timeline, behind him. Arriving in 1941, he eventually befriends a young man named Tom, and joins Tom’s circle of friends and family.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about Joel near the beginning of the book, when he first arrived in the past. He seemed to take almost everything in stride, with no strong emotion struggle, and no real refusal to believe what was happening. I had a hard time accepting that, but it could be because I don’t think that it is how I would have reacted in his situation! 🙂

The author did a great job of making you feel that you were there in pre-war 1941, however. As I was introduced to Tom and his friends, I became more and more invested in Joel’s situation, and in his developing romance. I felt that he did mature somewhat as the story went on, and he realized what harm his advanced knowledge of the war and of Tom’s future could wreak. As close as he had grown to his new comrades, he really struggled with the decision to stay or go once the opportunity to return to his own time finally arose.

All in all, I enjoyed this story. While it may have been a little slow to start, it developed into a sweet story of friendship and true love. Fans of time-travel romance should like this one, and the next 4 books in this series!

**Disclaimer – I received a free copy of the book from the author in exchange for an honest review**

About the Author:
John A. HeldtJohn A. Heldt is the author of the critically acclaimed Northwest Passage and American Journey series. The former reference librarian and award-winning sportswriter has loved getting subjects and verbs to agree since writing book reports on baseball heroes in grade school. A graduate of the University of Oregon and the University of Iowa, Heldt is an avid fisherman, sports fan, home brewer, and reader of thrillers and historical fiction. When not sending contemporary characters to the not-so-distant past, he weighs in on literature and life at johnheldt.blogspot.com.

Connect with John online:
Blog: http://johnheldt.blogspot.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/johnaheldt
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/John-A.-Heldt/e/B007A23EQS
Indie View: http://www.theindieview.com/indie-authors/john-a-heldt/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5754231.John_A_Heldt
Shelfari: http://www.shelfari.com/authors/a1002681160/John-A-Heldt/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/johnheldt

What are you reading Wednesday – 10/7/15

~ Erika K ~ 13 Comments

What are you reading Wednesday – 10/7/15

whatareyoureadingwed

Well, it looks like I completely missed Tuesday this week. I got distracted and never wrote my Top Ten list, and now it is Wednesday already. I’ll see if I can get back on track! 🙂 Before I get too far though, I want to stop and thank Sarah from Sarah’s Bookshelf – I won her book giveaway and received these in the mail yesterday!

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Now back to WAYRW…..

What Are You Reading Wednesday 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. Still reading my same books, but I have started a new audiobook – The Hidden Child by Camilla Läckberg.
The Hidden Child (Patrik Hedström, #5)

2. Since it is an audiobook, I can’t give you a quote from page #34, but I can give you a quote from the book  – “And it is always the victors who write the historical narrative.”. This is an opinion held by “Sweden’s Friends”, a Neo-Nazi group who believe that historians have painted a negative and unrealistic picture of the Nazi’s and the Holocaust, and that Sweden needs to make major policy changes.

3.  This story shifts back and forth between present day Sweden, and WW2 era Sweden and Norway. I would not mind visiting or even spending time living in Sweden or Norway now, but if I had to travel into the past when there were Nazi’s about, then I would NOT want to live there!

So how about you? Leave a link to your own post or let me know what you are reading this week in the comments. (and if you’ve read any of the books in this series, I’d love to know what you thought of them!)

Instagram Fall Book Challenge Day 5

~ Erika K ~ 6 Comments

Hi everyone – I have been meaning to share my Fall Book Challenge Instagram pics as I post them, but I haven’t done it yet. I have at least managed to post on Instagram every day, though, and here are my favorites so far. If you are participating too, leave me a link to your Instagram feed in the comments. (feel free to leave a link to your feed even if you aren’t participating in the challenge! 🙂 )I’d love to see what you’ve been posting!

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper by J.L. Bryan – Book Blast and GIVEAWAY (Ended)

~ Erika K ~ 5 Comments

Ellie Jordan Book Blast Banner

Hi all! What better time of the year than October to read a good paranormal mystery? The first book in J.L. Bryan’s Ellie Jordan series, Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper, is currently free for most platforms (still $ .99 at B&N), or you can enter to win a signed copy – keep reading for details!

Ellie Jordan
Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper (Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #1) by J.L Bryan
Publication Date: August 27th, 2014
Genre: Adult Paranormal Mystery

Summary from Goodreads
Ellie Jordan’s job is to catch and remove unwanted ghosts. Part detective, part paranormal exterminator, Ellie operates out of Savannah, Georgia, one of the oldest and most haunted cities in North America.

When a family contacts her to deal with a disturbing presence in the old mansion they’ve recently purchased, Ellie first believes it to be a typical, by-the-book specter, a residual haunting by a restless spirit. Instead, she finds herself confronting an evil older and more powerful than she’d ever expected, rooted in the house’s long and sordid history of luxury, sin, and murder. The dangerous entity seems particularly interested in her clients’ ten-year-old daughter.

Soon her own life is in danger, and Ellie must find a way to exorcise the darkness of the house before it can kill her, her clients, or their frightened young child.

Ellie Jordan free

Purchase (for FREE except B&N) links
Amazon / Barnes / Kobo / iBooks / Smashwords

Giveaway 
Enter the Rafflecopter giveaway for a chance to win a signed copy of Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper! Giveaway ends October 12th.

About The Author
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J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.

He is the author of The Paranormals series of horror novels (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, and Alexander Death) the Songs of Magic series for younger readers (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, and Fairystruck…so far) and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, their son, and some dogs and cats.

Connect with J.L. Bryan : Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

Book Blast hosted by
5host

Fall Book Challenge on Instagram

~ Erika K ~ 8 Comments

Anyone else on Instagram? I keep seeing Fall and October book challenges all over, and they look like fun. I’ve decided to do this one since some Facebook friends (Author Tracy Krimmer and Candace’s Book Blog) are joining. It’s the Fall Book Challenge hosted by @bookloversnest and @catebutler – if you’re on Instagram, why not join in? It’s only day one! You can find me by clicking the image below, then re-post it and start uploading your beautiful book photos! 🙂

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Audiobook Review – By Book or by Crook by Eva Gates

~ Erika K ~ 6 Comments

By Book or by Crook – Eva Gates
Read by Elise Arsenault
By Book or By Crook (Lighthouse Library Mystery #1)
Lighthouse Library #1

Genre: Cozy Mystery
Rating: **** (4 of 5 stars)

I was lucky enough to get an advanced copy of book #2 in this series (Booked for Trouble) to review a while ago. I enjoyed the book, so I decided to go back to the beginning while the series is still young!

In By Book or By Crook, we meet Lucy Richardson, a librarian who has moved from Boston to the Outer Banks area to escape both her mother and a relationship that she doesn’t see a future in. She has family, an aunt, uncle, and cousins, in the area, and her aunt introduces her to the head librarian at the Bodie Island public library. Soon Lucy has a new job and a new home – an apartment on the top floor of the lighthouse in which the library resides.

At a reception to celebrate the arrival of a collection of first edition Jane Austen novels for display at the library, a member of the board is found dead in the rare books room. Soon afterwards, the first editions begin disappearing one-by-one from their display case. With Bertie, the head librarian, suspected of the crimes, Lucy and the rest of the library staff do some investigating on their own to clear Bertie’s name and protect the remainder of the Jane Austen novels.

I enjoyed this book, but I had to keep reminding myself that this story took place before Booked for Trouble. There is a bit of a love triangle (one of my least favorite tropes, but not too bad yet) going on in book number two that is just developing in this first book. It was fun to go back and see how Lucy met all of the recurring characters from the second story, and to see that her sense of justice has been there right from the beginning. I will definitely be reading Lucy’s future adventures.

While the narrator does a good job with her not-too-Southern accent throughout, I wasn’t thrilled with her pacing while reading. If you’re thinking of giving this series a try, print would be the way to go.

What Are You Reading Wednesday – 10/7/15

~ Erika K ~ 13 Comments

What are you reading Wednesday – 10/7/15

whatareyoureadingwed

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 same as it has been for the past couple of weeks! This is what happens when I read too many books at once – I don’t finish any of them. 🙂 Here are links to past WAYRW posts for all of the books I’m still reading, if you’re interested in reading more about any of them.

happy-homicides Prisoner's Base (Nero Wolfe, #21) Siege and Storm (The Grisha, #2) The Mine (Northwest Passage #1)

The only thing I have finished recently is a cozy mystery audiobook I was listening to during my commute back and forth to work – hopefully I will have a review for that this week.

I’d still love to hear what you are reading this week – leave me a link to your post or a comment to tell me.