Friday 26 September 2014

Romance in September: The Scent of a Soul by Jennifer Thompson


Fleeing her recent past, Lilliah Woods finds refuge in the anonymity of the present day inner-city slums. As she settles into the seedy apartment she must now call home, she meets mysterious Marek Jamison when he materializes in her doorway demanding to know who she is. From that moment, he becomes a guardian and guide as she gradually discovers his hidden world. As their relationship develops, Lilliah learns of Marek's dark past and of a brothers' quarrel he has been embroiled in for years. The quarrel turns into a larger battle of good and evil, liberty versus tyranny, and the separation of love and lust. With Lilliah as the ultimate prize, the deadly conflict reaches out to threaten her family, and the outcome of the final battle will determine her fate. Lilliah must embark on an unexpected path that teaches her to trust in the man she has come to love, and give of herself as she never thought she could....

Excerpt
Crossing the worn, unpolished floor boards to the windows, Lilliah slid back the curtains to see empty, pale gray clouds cover the sun, adding to her depression. The tears fell, and she let them. She almost considered pushing aside her pride and calling her parents. They had pleaded with and warned her. She had not listened and now she had to face the consequences.
Startled by the sense that she was not alone, Lilliah turned towards the open door. A man stood near it, watching her. His imposing figure boldly filled the doorway, and he stared at her with such intensity that it made the hair on the nape of her neck stand up. He had hair the perfect color of brown—like dark chocolate—and a well-groomed ruggedness about him that made him seem out of place in their surroundings. He looked at her with troubled eyes. She couldn’t distinguish their color because of the shadowing of the room, but they made her feel very aware of herself, from her puffy eyes to her runny nose.
He walked towards her with careful, measured steps. There was no look of malicious intent on his face, but Lilliah wondered if she should be afraid. He looked at her like he had seen her before and was seeing her again after a long absence. He stopped so close to her that she took an unconscious step back and bumped into the lamp, causing it to tip. He reached out to steady it, and her. She quickly moved out of his reach. Some of the intensity left his eyes and was replaced with comprehension that he had frightened her. He stepped back.
They were blue. An unbelievable blue. Deep and dark like a newborn baby’s. Lilliah had never seen eyes like his before and they were the last thing she needed to add to her complicated day. They stared at each other, and Lilliah wondered again if she should be frightened. She calmed her breathing to ask, “Can I help you?”
His voice was deep as he demanded, “Who are you?”

Buy Links:            Amazon         CreateSpace         Barnes & Noble


Author Bio
Jennifer Thompson is a native Arizonan whose newfound love for writing stemmed from her great love of books. She enjoys immersing herself in an engaging story and can always be found with a good book close by. A graduate of Brigham Young University with a degree in History Teaching, Jennifer and her husband reside in southern Arizona with their five children. The Scent of a Soul is her debut novel, and with the creative flood gates now opened, she is working on bringing to life other stories waiting to be told.

Online Links:

Thursday 25 September 2014

Infographic Thursday: How to Focus

A few tips on how to deal with all those things that we have to do, want to do and simply need to manage in our daily lives.

Infographic from www.visual.ly

Wednesday 24 September 2014

Romance in September: Larkin's Letters by Jax Jillian


As Ryan Boone struggles to come to grips with not being able to keep a promise he made to his dying wife, LARKIN’S LETTERS propels readers into the mind of Ryan as he struggles with frequent visits from her ghost and a series of letters she behind.  Ryan worked hard to become one of Hollywood’s most sought-after actors, but no matter how busy or famous he became, he always remained loyal to his childhood best friend, Larkin James.  When Larkin is diagnosed with leukemia, Ryan sacrifices his career to be by her side and in turn realizes how much he had always loved her.  Throughout Larkin’s sickness, Ryan promised that he wouldn’t let her die alone.  But we learn that not all of our promises are within our control.
 
EXCERPT:
     Ryan Boone sat on top of the lightning-white sand dune underneath the darkening sky as the sun was starting to set over the New Jersey shoreline. This was the first time he came to this spot since...since...well, he still couldn’t believe what had happened. It was late March 2013, and there was a crisp, chilly breeze in the air. He should have brought a sweatshirt with him, he thought to himself. Wearing only khaki shorts, flip- flops, and a gray Harley Davidson T-shirt adorning his 6’2” muscular frame, he was still used to those warm and sunny California springs. The storm clouds were getting closer and closer. It’s going to be a big one, he thought. There were about a half-dozen shrieking seagulls circling overhead, but there was something refreshing about the sounds of their screams. It was a familiar sound, one that he had grown accustomed to over the past year living here. Ryan threw out some pieces of bread for his old friends.
     “Sorry, I haven’t been here in a while,” he said.
     He looked out into the surrounding unsettled Great Egg Harbor Bay and noticed it was empty. All the boats had docked due to the impending storm. But it was fitting. He didn’t really want anyone around right now. All he wanted was just him and these letters he held in his pocket. As he grasped the envelope and pulled it out, he felt his hands shaking. Why was it so hard? Why couldn’t he just open it? For the past year, he had been as strong of a man as any man could possibly be. But now, this envelope, this piece of paper, was breaking him down.
     He stared at the sealed envelope for a moment before placing it back in his pocket. He noticed the corners had slightly folded over and the blue ink that read “Ryan” on the front had faded a little bit. It had been two months since he got the letters, and it looked like they had been through a war, just like he had been for the past year and a half. They had been constantly in and out of his pocket every day with his every intention of opening them, but he had yet to. Every time he looked at them, he felt sick to his stomach. He began to think about how he got to this place in his life. The last two years had been the best years of his thirty- six-year-old life, but now he was in the darkest place he could ever imagine. He was in hell, he thought, and he couldn’t imagine that a heaven even existed.

Buy Links:    Publisher      Amazon        Barnes & Noble
 
AUTHOR BIO
LARKIN’S LETTERS is Jax Jillian’s debut novel which was inspired by her love for modern day love stories.  She lives in Philadelphia, PA with her husband and son and is currently writing the sequel.  A graduate of La Salle University with a degree in Communication, she also received her a degree for Physical Therapist Assistant from Central Pennsylvania College.  She currently works as a Physical Therapist Assistant outside of Philadelphia.
 



Tuesday 23 September 2014

Series Review: A Books by the Bay Mystery series by Ellery Adams

May it not be said that having money solves all your problems. Meet Olivia Limoges. Millionaire. Aspiring author. Orphan. Business owner. And amateur sleuth.
Accompanied by her canine companion Captain Haviland and her ever helpful Oyster Bay writers group, murder crosses her path more often than she would like.
Of course it helps that one of the writers and a close friend is the local police chief Rawlings.

After years of being away Olivia returns to her home town to finally settle down and get some closure to all the things haunting her - hopefully.
What she did find were new friends, maybe a boyfriend, and murder happening on her doorstep!
Not the kind of homecoming anyone would wish for herself.

Linzé's Comments: I have read several books in the series and I really hope that Ms Adams will write many more. I love the characters and the interaction in the writers' group as they struggle with their novels, their daily lives and of course, putting their collective intellects together to solve the murders plaguing their town.
As the series progresses you learn more about Olivia and her difficult childhood and while she is an intensely private person, I constantly hope that amidst all the murder and mayhem there would be someone waiting in the wings to love her. Hey, I am a sucker for romance!

There is no label on the cover to show that Ms Adams is a best-selling author, but to my mind she should be. I love the books and can highly recommend the series to any mystery lover.

The series earns 5 stars from me :)


A-to-Z blog challenge: Step Z - it's finished!

Thank you for visiting my blog on the last day of the challenge. If you are an artist interested in taking part in a competition, there is s...