google.com, pub-4807045201008872, DIRECT, f08c47fec0942fa0

Wednesday, October 23, 2024

Book Blitz of Bowling Bodies at Spare Lane Alley by Laura Hern (#contests- Win a Ecopy of the Book)

Bowling Bodies at Spare Lanes Alley
Laura Hern
(The Lainey Maynard Mystery Series, #5)
Publication date: August 20th 2023
Genres: Adult, Cozy Mystery

What a fun and exciting read! Humor and suspense kept me engaged, and it was hard to put down! Looking forward to the next book in this series!!” Bobbi

When planning a murder, practice makes perfect…or does it?

Super sleuth Lainey Maynard and the Whoopee group are preparing for the bowling tournament fundraiser to save Spare Lanes Bowling Alley. Until an envelope arrived during their practice game that caused more excitement than a scored card filled with strikes. Why hadn’t Gerry Hayward been more concerned?

Spare Lanes Alley had been the hot spot where local celebrity bowlers and newbies gathered. Even framed and signed photos of professional bowlers lined the trophy wall. Now, threats of foreclosure loomed over Gerald and Phoebe Hayward, the owners, and the entire bowling community. More than bowling balls are crossing the foul line.

Gerald and Phoebe Hayward purchased the alley to start fresh after the Professional Bowling Association banned him. Past suspicions of murder, accusations of impending revenge, and enormous gambling debts don’t exactly stop the gossip mongers ’embarrassing rumors.

Lainey and the Whoopee Pin-Slayers will need more than gutter bumpers, shoe covers, and shammy rags to solve the unfolding mysteries.

A fun and intriguing cozy mystery that will keep you guessing until the end. You’ll love the delightful characters, and the twists will keep you turning the pages!

Goodreads / Amazon

EXCERPT:

“What crazy weather! I’ve been running all over town in this icy rain!” Della shivered as she hurried through the door of Babe’s House of Caffeine and toward the Whoopee’s regular table.

“Mother Nature must think it’s March, not October.” Francy grinned and pulled out the chair between her and Lainey. “Sit down and dry out. Mom’s running a bit late, too.”

“Are you still trying to figure out a costume for the bowling fundraiser?” Lainey asked. “I think I’ve decided on mine!”

“Didn’t Francy tell you? We’re going as the Blues Brothers!” I’m Jake and she’s Elwood.” She leaned closer to Lainey and, looking at Francy, pretended to whisper. “She’s jealous of my dancing abilities!”

“Absolutely not!” Francy smirked. “I have dance moves that make Elwood look like a beginner!” She stood up, pushed her chair from the table, and began stomping her feet, shaking, and wiggling her body, waving her hands in the air while shouting ‘Hallelujah’!

Everyone in the cafe laughed. Some clapped and chanted, “Go Francy. Go Francy. Go Francy.” “Okay, okay! You can dance, but I’m still the lead singer,” Della chuckled.

Francy stopped, turned to the cafe patrons, and took a bow while they applauded. She pretended to blow kisses to thank them, then turned to sit down at the table again.

“Whew! That’s hard work. I should have done more of Mom’s ‘Sweating to the Oldies ’workout videos!” she said breathlessly. “I’m going to need a large Caramel Macchiato.”

Author Bio:

Laura Hern is an author who writes Cozy Mysteries and Romance novels.

She loves cats, charred brussel sprouts with bacon, and romantic murder mysteries!

Laura grew up in Texas and lives in Minnesota. She loves to ride motorcycles, and is an avid domino and card player. Music and traveling are her passions.

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Twitter / Instagram


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Blog Tour of the Nephilim's Fate by Eliza Hampstead(Excerpt-#contests- Win an Amazon Gift Card)

 

 

I want to welcome Eliza Hampstead to Books R Us. She is touring the blogosphere with her fantasy, romance novel The Nephilim's Fate. The author has provided me with an excerpt for your reading pleasure. Enter below to win an Amazon gift card. Thanks for stopping by

 

The Nephilim’s Fate
Eliza Hampstead
(War of the Nephilim Series, #1)
Publication date: August 16th 2022
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Romance

She will find a way, even if it leads to a war between Heaven and Hell.

In the heart of London, Alissia’s ordinary life takes a thrilling turn when she is attacked by bloodthirsty vampires. When Nate, the man she dreamed about for years, swoops in to save her, her reality shatters as she discovers a shocking truth: she’s a witch, and he’s a Nephilim. But their love is cursed, forbidden by ancient laws that threaten to tear their world apart.

As old rivalries resurface and dark secrets come to light, Alissia and Nate must confront their deepest fears and fight for their love, even if it means igniting a war between Heaven and Hell.

With unforgettable characters, steamy romance, and gripping plot twists, this captivating new fantasy series by award-winning author Eliza Hampstead delves into a world of angels and demons, forbidden love, and the inexorable power of fate.

If you crave the intensity of Shadowhunters with an added dose of spice, don’t miss out on this spellbinding series!

*Warning: strong language, steamy scenes, and graphic violence inside. Mention/Description of abduction, blood, death, rape, and torture.*

Goodreads / Amazon

 

Excerpt: 

Nate Meets His Father

“Marmaroth, your son is here. He wishes to speak with you.”

The other angel—my father—stood and walked towards us. He had dark, golden skin, black hair, and brown eyes. His features were like mine. It was like looking into a mirror. The only difference was that he had no beard and a white halo surrounded him. Although he was eternal, he seemed to be in his late twenties. Marmaroth looked me up and down. Then his gaze moved to Alissia, to her belly.

“I see. What is your name, son?”

I was twenty-eight years old, and the man who sired me didn’t even know my name. He knew nothing about me! Rage boiled in my veins, overwhelmed with hatred for the man who had given me life. He didn’t care about the children he thoughtlessly left behind on Earth. The women he had once professed to love were broken beyond repair due to his selfishness. How often had I cried out into the night sky, wishing for a father? Someone to counsel me and guide me through life? But this man, this angel, was an emotionless being whose only commitment was to himself.

“I’m not your son,” I hissed between my teeth. My fists were clenched. I wanted to hurt him badly but withheld myself.

“You clearly are. I have given you my features, so you were after my likeness.”

“You son of a bitch…” I took a step forward to hit him.

Alissia’s hand was on my arm. “Nate…” When I looked at her instead of that bastard, I saw the plea written on her face.

“Nathaniel. Gift of God. A good name. It suits you. What do you desire?”

This arrogant bloke needed a good beating. Although I knew it wouldn’t help our case, I couldn’t ignore all the suffering this being caused many humans and Nephilim.

“What do I desire? That you give a shit!” I yelled at him. “About your children that you left on Earth. Doomed to grow up without a father! Without a mother, because the women you left behind were suffering wrecks. How can one be so selfish?” I growled through my teeth.

“You came all the way to tell me this?” He raised an eyebrow, a move I did very often myself. This added to my rage. I inhaled to give this idiot a much-needed lecture when I sensed Alissia moving next to me.

 

Author Bio:

Award winning author Eliza Hampstead, a scientist by training, lives with her family in the UK. When she’s not writing, she spends her time as a geek. Playing all sorts of games (board games, video games, RPGs) and being a big fan of medieval history are only a few of the many hobbies she has. Passionate about fantasy, she’s always planning her next adventure.

Sign up for Eliza’s newsletter to get exclusive updates on new releases, behind-the-scenes author news, and exciting extras like character interviews, maps, playlists, and bonus chapters that bring the books even more to life!

https://subscribepage.io/Jsj7Dt

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / Bookbub / Newsletter


GIVEAWAY!
a Rafflecopter giveaway


Monday, October 21, 2024

Spotlight of The Novel The Arizona Triangle by Sydney Graves. On Sale 10/22/24 (#mystery)

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE

 By

Sydney Graves

 

In the vein of bestselling novels by Sue Grafton, comes a debut detective novel about loyalty, love, and the legacy of trauma, featuring a young, queer, hard-boiled private eye whose latest case takes her deep into her own complicated past.

A book cover of a person in a desert

Description automatically generated

.

 

This is award-winning writer Kate Christensen’s highly anticipated noir read published under the pen name Sydney Graves

 

Acclaimed, award-winning writer Kate Christensen (Welcome Home, Stranger, The Great Man, and others) has always wanted to write a mystery. With the publication of her first detective novel THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE. The first book in a brand new series written under the pen name Sydney Graves, she joins the ranks of writers such as Sue Grafton, Sara Gran, Tana French, Ann Cleeves, and Janet Evanovich, whose books feature beloved, tough-talking female protagonists.

On the cusp of forty, Justine Bailen, better known as Jo, works for an all-female detective agency based in Tucson, Arizona. While staking out a cheating spouse, she learns that her long-estranged best friend from childhood, Rose, is missing, and that Rose’s mother wants to hire Jo to find her. This case is all kinds of wrong for Jo, but she has no choice but to head back to her hometown, an hour north and a world away from Tucson.

Back in Delphi, Jo learns that her high school boyfriend, Tyler—who is probably part of the reason her friendship with Rose went south—is the cop assigned to the case. It doesn’t take long for Jo to realize that he’s all mixed up in it, too. To have any hope of learning the truth about Rose’s disappearance, Jo must finally face the demons she thought she’d escaped.

Readers of THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE will be immersed in Jo Bailen’s life, the cases she is working, and the atmospheric world that the extremely talented Sydney Graves has created.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

A person sitting on steps

Description automatically generatedSydney Graves is a pseudonym for Kate Christensen, an Arizona native and the author of eight novels, most recently Welcome Home, Stranger. Her fourth novel, The Great Man, won the 2008 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction. She has also published two food-centric memoirs, Blue Plate Special and How to Cook a Moose, which won the 2016 Maine Literary Award for Memoir. Her essays, reviews, and short pieces have appeared in a wide variety of publications and anthologies. She lives with her husband and their two dogs in Taos, New Mexico. For more, visit: https://katechristensen.net/

 

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE

By Sydney Graves

Harper Paperbacks/ HarperCollins Publishers

ISBN: 9780063379992

$18.99/$23.99 Can.; Trade Paperback Original; 304 pages

 

Pre-order the Book on Amazon

 

 

THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE – BEHIND THE BOOK

By Sydney Graves (Kate Christensen)

 

I wrote my new novel THE ARIZONA TRIANGLE between drafts of my last novel Welcome Home, Stranger for pure fun, to distract and entertain myself during the COVID lock down. I also wrote it to fulfill a decades-old yearning to write detective fiction. The first draft came out extremely fast, and then after two more drafts to fine-tune and polish it, I sent it to my editor in hopes that she would like it enough to acquire it.

The name Sydney Graves is an intentional literary alter-ego. I’ve been an avid reader of detective fiction since I was a teenager, and I love the cloak-and-dagger aspect of writing under an assumed name. It seems fitting for the genre. 

Before I knew what this book was about, I knew where it would be set. I grew up in Arizona and have a lot of history there. It is a very particular place; one I know well and deeply love. Hiking in the foothills of Mt. Lemmon north of Tucson a number of years ago, near the town of Oracle, I was struck by what an ideal setting this would be for a murder mystery. And so the book began to take shape in my head, born out of a sense of place rooted in my home state. My private-eye protagonist Jo Bailen emerged more gradually. Unlike Jo, I am not half-Mexican, but many of my friends growing up had Mexican heritage, and I have spent a lot of time in Mexico. And I'm intrigued by the idea of a woman who is both mixed-race and bisexual, both at home and an outsider in many worlds—the ideal identity for a private eye.

In the course of solving the mystery, I wanted Jo to grapple with her heritage, her estrangement from her white mother in the wake of her beloved Mexican father’s death, and her attraction to both men and women. As I wrote, I felt her own identity and the case she’s investigating dovetailing like interlocking pieces of a puzzle. 

I’m not finished with Jo by a long shot. In fact, I’m about to start writing her next mystery, Saguaro City, and I hope her ongoing intertwined professional and personal lives will become a series. In writing these books, I’m paying homage to all the great detective-series writers whose work has delighted and thrilled and inspired me for decades; the likes of Sue Grafton, Tony Hillerman, Raymond Chandler, Dick Francis, Dorothy L. Sayers, Janet Evanovich, Sara Paretsky, Robert B. Parker, Sara Gran, and of course, the grande dame of them all, Agatha Christie. 

 

  Thanks for Stopping By