Title:Monster in My Closet Author: R.L. Naquin, Publisher: Carina Press Genre: ADULT: Fantasy I loved this. I’d just read a really bleak book, then I opened this up and breathed a sigh of relief. It was warm, funny, well written and had a fresh perspective. I stopped believing in monsters long ago. But I knew I wasn't imagining things when I found one in my kitchen baking muffins. I'd seen him before: lurking in my closet, scaring the crap out of my five-year-old self. Turns out that was a misunderstanding, and now Maurice needs a place to stay. How could I say no? After all, I've always been a magnet for the emotionally needy, and not just in my work as a wedding planner. Being able to sense the feelings of others can be a major pain. Don't get me wrong, I like helping people-and non-people. But this ability has turned me into a gourmet feast for an incubus, a demon that feeds off emotional energy. Now, brides are dropping dead all over town, and my home has become a safe house … [Read more...]
Review and giveaway of Kate Policani’s ‘Don’t Judge a Book By Is Magic’
I love the banner. I love the book too. It's a classic Kate Policani. She has such a refreshing style. My review and the giveaway (1 ebook & 1 paperback)are posted on the Awesome Indies site so follow the link and read on. Also today, posted on Kate's review blog is her review of Lethal Inheritance. I'm not saying anything. You'll just have to read it. It's great to have my first review in. Thanks Kate. http://katepolicanisreviews.wordpress.com/2012/10/27/lethal-inheritance-by-tahlia-newland/ … [Read more...]
Review: The Rise of Nine by Pittacus Lore
Title: The Rise of Nine Author: Pittacus Lore Publisher: Penguin Books Australia Genre: YA urban fantasy The Rise of Nine is a great book for teenage boys and anyone who likes non-stop action stories with endless fighting, but if you like a bit more substance in your novels, you won’t find it here. Blurb: In the beginning we were a group of nine. Nine aliens who left our home planet of Lorien when it fell under attack from the deadly Mogodorians. We scattered on earth and went into hiding. We look like ordinary teenagers. We are not. Until I met John Smith, Number Four, I'd been on the run alone, hiding and fighting to stay alive. Together we are much more powerful. But it could only last so long before we had to separate. They caught Number One in Malaysia. Number Two in England. And Number Three in Kenya. They caught me in New York - but I escaped. I am Number Six. The Mogodorians want to finish what they started. But they'll have to fight us first. This is a tight, … [Read more...]
Review: The Guardian’s Wildchild by Feather Stone
Title: The Guardian's Wildchild Author: Feather Stone Publisher: Omnific Publishing Genre: Adult, YA, Paranormal Romance (no vampires) The Guardian’s Wildchild is a paranormal romance with soul—a rare and lovely thing. The paranormal elements are based on meditative and spiritual concepts and experiences, and expanded from there into the realm of magic. There are no vampires or werewolves, this book is much more unique and interesting than that. The Guardians are a group of realised beings who live on an island off the coast of Seattle. They used to be all over the world but retreated there after persecution some time in the past and very few people know of their existence. The Guardians work for the higher good and have mind powers that create magic eg the main female character, Sidney can open locked doors, stop machines from working, communicate telepathically to other Guardians and even transmit a mental image of her body to a different place. Among other things, her brother … [Read more...]
Big news – enormous mind stretching stuff – a bunch of new releases
Okay, maybe it's not that big, but it is to me because I'm feeling really good about several things. I have a whole bunch of awesome reviews for You Can't Shatter Me (read the full bunch on its Goodreads page ) and things are moving along in the new release department. Run is out. This is the short story prequel to Lethal Inheritance and its free everywhere (except Amazon who are a bit slow getting it together.) You can get it for all devices at Smashwords and on epub at Kobo.It's a great introduction to the world of Lethal Inheritance and a wonderful reader wrote a terrific review of it here. The extended version of The Drorgon Slayer's Choice is out. I'll be talking more about it in another post, but it's now a novella instead of a short story (16,000 words instead of 6,000), and richer for it. Click on the cover for more info. I'm really proud of this one now. The second edition of A Matter of Perception is out. This includes the full novella length of The Drorgon … [Read more...]
Review: Motor City Mage by Cindy Spencer Pape
Title: Motor City Mage Author: Cindy Spencer Pape, Publisher: Carina Press Pub Date: March 12, 2012 Category: ADULT Fantasy Romance Here’s another great Cindy Spencer Pape fantasy romance from Carina Press. This urban fantasy should satisfy lovers of traditional fantasy as well because the story takes us through portals into totally different worlds populated by some delightfully bizarre creatures. Des is a mage and a cop who keeps paranormals in line. The league of Mages he works for has a history of mistrust/predjudice of the other paranormals and though Des has a family who embraces the other races more than most, he has a hard time trusting them. Even so, he has the hots the beautiful werewolf Lana, someone he’s pretty sure he can’t have – not if he wants to keep his job. She's sexy, gutsy, flamboyant and no ones pet moggie. He thinks she’s not his type but he can’t stop lusting after her. Lana admires Des, but she can't be with someone who won't take her seriously, no … [Read more...]
Review: White Witch by Trish Milburn
Title: White Witch Author: Trish Milburn Publisher: Bell Bridge Books Category: Young adult Fantasy & Magic I loved this book so much that I found myself saying “I wish I could write as well as that.” It’s got everything I like in a book, an intriguing storyline with just the right amount of action and romance, and a satisfying ending. It had me hooked from beginning to end and left me wanting more. Underlying this book is also one of my favourite themes – empowerment. Jax Pherson comes from a coven that is a kind of witchy version of the Mafia, gorged with power and bent on revenge for the witch hunts of Salem, the punishment for trying to leave the family is death. When she was a child, Jax watched her father deliver the punishment on her mother, a slow sucking away of her powers, then her life itself, so she knows what she’s up against when she runs away to avoid service to the dark coven her father controls. From the blurb All she wants is a normal life. A boyfriend. … [Read more...]
A drop from the well of creativity & a revamp
I 've revamped the blurb for A Matter of Perception, changed the order of the stories so that the one that got all the accolades is at the beginning, added the blurb for Give Me a Break at the end, and written an introductory story called A Drop From the Well of Creativity. (Do you like the serial commas?) Here's the new blurb. It's a big improvement on the old one. Take a journey into a world where the hidden becomes manifest and the lines between fantasy and reality blur. This collection of imaginative and entertaining stories about ghosts, sirens, light spectrum mages, realm hopping gods, alien monsters and ordinary people will warm your heart and make you smile, shiver, and maybe even wonder about the nature of reality itself. The theme of individual perception as a result of our assumptions, beliefs and emotional experience bind these otherwise diverse stories into a unified whole. If this inspires you to purchase the book - at $1.99, why not? - click the cover for … [Read more...]
Review: The Night Shifters by Emily Devenport
Title: THE NIGHT SHIFTERS Author: Emily Devenport Publisher: Emily Devenport Release date : November 2010 Category: Urban Fantasy The Night Shifters is a highly imaginative novel and very different to the usual fantasy offerings. If you like dreams and the loose kind of associations that drive them, you may love this book. Hazel is a Grand Champion Dreamer but one day when the alarm goes off, she opens her eyes to find that despite what her clock says, it’s still dark. The sun hasn't come up, the world outside has become a City of Night, and the dwellers there are Night Shifters. All of them have their own agendas and all of them are chasing Hazel. Devenport creates an eerie and evocative dreamscape for her characters and much of the action is reminiscent of that common in dreams eg flying, falling, running and getting no where etc. Fitting in with the dream theme, the characters operated from mysterious and sometimes incomprehensible motivations, and Hazel literally fell from … [Read more...]
Review : Tooth and Nail by Jennifer Safrey
Title: Tooth and Nail Author: Jennifer Safrey Publisher: Night Shade Books Pub Date: February 07, 2012 Category: Urban Fantasy I never thought I’d be reading a story about a tooth fairy, but in ‘Tooth and Nail’, Jennifer Safrey takes the premise that such fairies are real, gives them a credible reason for teeth stealing, and weaves it into an awesome and surprising urban fantasy. The Blurb Gemma Fae Cross, a tough-girl amateur boxer whose fiancé is running for congress, has just made a startling discovery about herself. She is half faerie - and not just any faerie, but a tooth faerie! A hybrid of fae and human, Gemma is destined to defend the Olde Way and protect the fae - who are incapable of committing violence - from threats to their peaceful and idyllic way of life, which must be maintained by distilling innocence collected from children's baby teeth. But when a threat to the fae mission emerges, Gemma is called upon to protect her heritage, and become a legendary fae … [Read more...]