Category: Book Brief

Book Brief: Golden Blood (Book 1 of Time Spirit Trilogy)

Golden Blood (Book 1 of Time Spirit Trilogy)
by Melissa Pearl
Genre: YA Paranormal Romance
60000 (appx) words
Gemma Hart never knows when her father is going to whisk her back in time. Her toes start tingling and she has a few minutes to find a secret haven where she can disintegrate and appear in another time and place. While “across the line,” her training and skills are put to the test as she completes a mission that will change history for the lucky few her father has selected.

Gemma’s parents are adamant that secrecy is paramount to her family’s safety. If people knew what they were capable of, they could be “used and abused”, as her mother always says. Afraid she might accidentally utter the truth and break the ancient oath of her people, Gemma spends her school days as a loner. Only one thing can throw her sheltered life askew… Harrison Granger.

Harrison never expected to talk to the strange Hart girl, but after a brief encounter he can’t stop thinking about her. He begins a campaign to chisel away her icy veneer and is met with unexpected consequences. As he slowly wins this girl over, he enters a surreal world that has him fighting to keep his newfound love and his life.

This title is available from Amazon US, Amazon UK, Smashwords and Barnes and Noble. Continue reading “Book Brief: Golden Blood (Book 1 of Time Spirit Trilogy)”

Book Brief: Live From the Road

Live from the Road

by  P.C. Zick
Genre: Contemporary Fiction
80,000 words

This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Live from the Road takes the reader on an often humorous, yet harrowing, journey as Meg Newton and Sally Sutton seek a change in the mundane routine of their lives. “Is this all there is?” Sally asks Meg after visiting a dying friend in the hospital. That’s when Meg suggests they take a journey to discover the answer. Joined by their daughters, they set off on a journey of salvation enhanced by the glories of the Mother Road. Along the way, they are joined by a Chicago bluesman, a Pakistani liquor storeowner from Illinois, a Marine from Missouri, a gun-toting momma from Oklahoma, and a motel clerk from New Mexico. Meg, mourning for her dead son, learns to share her pain with her daughter CC. When Sally’s husband of almost thirty years leaves a voice mail telling her he’s leaving, both Sally and her daughter Ramona discover some truths about love and independence.

Death, divorce and deception help to reveal the inner journey taking place under the blazing desert sun as a Route 66 motel owner reads the Bhagavad-Gita and an eagle provides the sign they’ve all been seeking. Enlightenment comes tiptoeing in at dawn in a Tucumcari laundromat, while singing karaoke at a bar in Gallup, New Mexico, and during dinner at the Roadkill Café in Seligman, Arizona. The four women’s lives will never be the same after the road leads them to their hearts – the true destination for these road warriors. Continue reading “Book Brief: Live From the Road”

Book Brief: Joe Cafe

Joe Café
by JD Mader
Genre: Psychological Crime Drama
40,000 words
The murder at Joe Café is an abomination. It stops the entire universe. For Michael, it tarnishes everything, including his badge. For Chet and his hostage, it is the beginning of a chase that will lead them through dingy motels and the darkest corridors of their minds. Dogan just wants Sara back. Jimmy the Cat wants to make up for all the time he has wasted. Frankie wants to live a ‘moral’ life, erasing everyone in his path who does not live up to his standards. Conventional notions of good and evil quickly blur as they are all forced to look into the mirrors they have avoided for so long. Chilling and horrifying, whimsical and wretched, Joe Café’s cast of broken characters try to find their way in a world they never understood to begin with…for the Chens, it is easy. They are dead.

This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK. (FREE the 8th and 9th) Continue reading “Book Brief: Joe Cafe”

Book Brief: The Sable City, by M. Edward McNally

The Sable City
by Name: M. Edward McNally
Genre: Epic Fantasy
180,000 words
The first of (presently) four volumes of the Norothian Cycle, an epic series melding classic fantasy elements with the history, politics, economics and technology of a world in which magic functions. Or to put it simply: “Muskets, Magic, and Matilda Lanai.”

This title is available from Amazon US and Amazon UK.

Ed, how did you come up with the title for your book? Does it have any special meaning?
The Sable City is the location to which Tilda Lanai and the cast of characters are drawn, all for different reasons and with conflicting goals.

Who was your favorite character and why?
Tilda is the center of the story, and it was an image of her that popped into my head that got the whole ball rolling. The image was of a young woman slowly approaching a wounded warhorse on a steppe plain with an apple in her hand. I started writing the books to find out who she was.

Does your book have any underlying theme, message, or moral?
While the stakes of the story become high (as you’d expect from epic fantasy), the personal relationships among the characters continues to be the prime mover. That’s about par for human interaction in my experience.

What would/could a reader or reviewer say about your writing that shows they “get” you as an author?
I find myself sort of speaking to two audiences with these books. First, there is hopefully enough action, humor, and the like to engage a general reader. Second, there is hopefully enough complexity and depth to interest a reader who is looking for a little more from a book than they are likely to get from a half-hour sitcom.

Give us an excerpted quote from your favorite review of this book:
“It says a lot that I am writing this review. I hardly ever do so, but enjoyed this book and so wanted to share.”

Where can people learn more about your writing?
http://sablecity.wordpress.com/