Sunday, May 27, 2012

The Witch by Gail Roughton



Ariel Anson thinks she has her life in order.  She's young, smart, and beautiful, even if she doesn't believe the beautiful part. She's a paralegal with a great career and a fiancé who's a CPA. You just can't get any steadier than that. Then she meets private investigator, bounty hunter, process server Chad Garrett. What does War-N-Wit, Inc. stand for anyway?  Warlock and Witch? For real? Oh, yes! For real. Her life as she knows it is over!


I confess; I’m a TV addict.  My work schedule these days consists of writing, working on a clerical project for Chicon 7 (the World Sci-Fi Convention where they give out the Hugo Awards), checking e-mail, and reading for an hour or so.  I do promo on weekends.  I usually put down the book and turn on the tube around seven or so.  Not so with this book.  I worked until five, got my afternoon snack, settled into my recliner with food and Kindle, turned on my reading lamp and started reading the book.  Eventually, I needed to get up and go down the hall for something.  To my amazement, I was halfway through the book and it was dark outside.  I was starving and when I looked at the time it was going on nine p.m.  Ariel and Chad so engaged me with the suspense and antics of their on-line romance and growing connection, I had read right through the evening.  I’m a food addict and I missed supper!

If you’re looking for a book you truly can’t put down, this is it.  If you’re looking for suspense, wit, humor, fun, and more suspense, this is it.  I can’t wait for book two in the War N Wit saga!


Price:  $2.99

Sunday, May 20, 2012

A Trace of Love / A Trace of Passion by Danielle Ravencraft




A Trace of Love

Ophelia Martinez has a chance encounter with internationally famous rock-star, Trace Curtis. To Ophelia, Trace will always be the charming boy she met in high school. They share one night together in which Trace falls in love with Ophelia. But Ophelia knows she can’t continue to live in the past, at least not with the secret that haunts her present.

A Trace of Passion

Ophelia’s in for a birthday surprise that turns out to be a birthday nightmare as she’s reunited with hunky rock star, Trace Curtis. The pain of her defiance runs deep and he won’t leave Ophelia alone without an explanation. The more time they spend together, the more their passion grows. Ophelia knows in her heart she should tell Trace the truth, but will her secret drive him away?


 I’m reviewing these books together, because they’re a pair of short stories that are part of a trilogy.  Ophelia does everything she can to keep Trace from remembering her from high school, and to keep him from pursuing her after their one night together.  She tries to put it behind her and doesn’t even tell her best friend about it, thus ending up at a Molten Silk concert on her birthday.  She tries to hide from Trace at the concert, but Chicago’s House of Blues is an intimate venue and he spots her anyway.  Again, erotica is not normally my cup of tea, but I have to admit, I greatly admire Ms. Ravencraft’s ability to stretch out a love scene for several pages without making it boring or silly.  Believe me, it takes talent to keep my attention during long love scenes.  The only reason I took half a rose from these books is that I have to wait for the final book, A Trace of Hope.  Hurry up, Ms. Ravencraft!


Prices: A Trace of Love $1.99
A Trace of Passion $2.50

Buy Links: 

A Trace of Love

A Trace of Passion


You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Sunday, May 13, 2012

Triptych by M. S. Spencer


 Both Miranda Cabot and her sister Honor prefer their solitude to romance, Miranda having watched her husband die in flames on the Potomac River rocks called the Three Sisters. Not so the youngest, Sybil, who invites a mysterious Frenchman calling himself the Chevalier du bon Arnaque to stay with them in their mansion overlooking the Sisters.
Misgivings about the stranger’s intentions lead Miranda and Honor to ask their neighbors Dieter Heiliger and his grandson Corey to chaperone. Three beautiful, strong-willed women living in a house with three handsome, virile men results inevitably in an intricate web of jealousy, sex, and intrigue. Add in long-lost master artworks, stolen prototypes and a resident genius and you have a recipe for romance. Who will end up with whom, and will the Three Sisters take another life as the legend calls for?


 I simply have to say that M. S. Spencer is brilliant.  I don’t think I could write a book with so much intrigue and suspense, which is probably why I’m stuck on my third WIP, unable to come up with any decent conflict.  I love this stuff and if I could write it, I’d probably have amassed a better backlist.  Again, this book is listed as erotica, but the sex isn’t overwhelming, and it’s tastefully written.  Somewhat graphic but not offensively so.  Yes, I’m a prude.  Other reviewers might want it to be more graphic.  I feel young at heart, but I’m a granny when it comes to sex in the media.  However, I would fight to preserve a person’s right to write it their way.  Back to the book—don’t miss it.  It’s a keeper!

Length:  212 Pages

Price:  $4.99


You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if this book costs $4.99 at Secret Cravings and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.00.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about sixty cents.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Domingo’s Angel by Jenny Twist


When Angela turns up in a remote Spanish mountain village, she is so tall and so thin and so pale that everyone thinks she is a ghost or a fairy or the dreadful mantequero that comes in the night and sucks the fat from your bones.

But Domingo knows better. "Soy Angela," she said to him when they met—"I am an angel." Only later did he realize that she was telling him her name and by then it was too late and everyone knew her as Domingo's Angel.

This is the story of their love affair. But it is also the story of the people of the tiny mountain village—the indomitable Rosalba—shopkeeper, doctor, midwife and wise woman, who makes it her business to know everything that goes on in the village; Guillermo, the mayor, whose delusions of grandeur are rooted in his impoverished childhood; and Salva the Baker, who risked his life and liberty to give bread to the starving children.

The events in this story are based on the real experiences of the people of the White Villages in Southern Spain and their struggle to keep their communities alive through the years of war and the oppression of Franco's rule.


This book was engaging and entertaining as well as informative, but I kept forgetting the time period. No one in the town had indoor plumbing or cars.  When Guillermo the mayor turned up with a car, I pictured something from the early twentieth century; not post World War II.  I guess I was pretty spoiled growing up in Chicago in a house with electricity, a television, and two cars.  I didn’t realize the kind of poverty other people endured, even though I had relatives in the country who still had outhouses.

At any rate, the characters in Domingo’s Angel hooked me, especially the irrepressible Rosalba, through whom we learn most of the history of the town as Generalissimo Franco takes over and kills or conscripts an entire generation of men, plundering, raping, and plunging the town into poverty and starvation “for the good of the people.”  Yet, when Angela arrives she finds the people celebrating their festivals and life going on as though it had never been disturbed.  She finds warmth and humor and happiness and she shares it with us.  Domingo’s Angel is has its dark side, but in the end, it’s a feel-good read.

Length:  175 Pages

Price:  $5.99


You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if this book costs $4.99 at MuseItUp or Secret Cravings and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.00.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about sixty cents.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and “books to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when s/he sees his/her royalty statement.