Spotlight! Pretty Wicked - Kelly Charron

Pretty Wicked
Kelly Charron
Publication date: September 30th 2016
Genres: Thriller, Young Adult

The daughter of a local police detective, fifteen-year-old Ryann has spent most of her life studying how to pull off the most gruesome murders her small Colorado town has ever seen.
But killing is only part of it. Ryann enjoys being the reason the cops are frenzied. The one who makes the neighbors lock their doors and windows on a hot summer’s day. The one everyone fears but no one suspects.
Carving out her own murderous legacy proves harder than she predicted. Mistakes start adding up. And with the police getting closer, and her own father becoming suspicious, Ryann has to prove once and for all that she’s smarter than anyone else—or she’ll pay the ultimate price.
Written in a mature YA voice. Some graphic content.

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Kelly Charron is the author of YA and adult horror, psychological thrillers and urban fantasy novels. All with gritty, murderous inclinations and some moderate amounts of humor. She spends far too much time consuming true crime television (and chocolate) while trying to decide if yes, it was the husband, with the wrench, in the library. She lives with her husband and cat, Moo Moo, in Vancouver, British Columbia.

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Spotlight! LOST STARS - Lisa Selin Davis

LOST STARS
Lisa Selin Davis
HMH Books for Young Readers

Before her older sister, Ginny, died, Carrie was a science nerd, obsessively tracking her beloved Vira comet. But now that Ginny is gone, sixteen-year-old Carrie finds herself within the orbit of Ginny’s friends, a close-knit group of seniors who skip school, obsess over bands (not science), and party hard.

Fed up with Carrie’s behavior, her father enrolls her in a summer work camp at a local state park. Carrie actually likes the days spent in nature. And when she meets Dean, a guy who likes the real Carrie—astrophysics obsessions and all—she starts to get to the heart of who she is and who she wants to be.

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I'm super crazy excited to have my first YA novel, Lost Stars, come out in October 2016. I also have a novel for grownups called Belly, published by Little, Brown a few years ago. For the last 12 years or so, I've paid my rent by writing articles for The New York Times, Time, The Wall Street Journal and a zillion other publications. Before that I worked in film and TV, doing props and other art department jobs, including a four-year stint making props for Nickelodeon's Blue's Clues. I live in Brooklyn (but, hey, I moved here before it was cool) with my hubby, two kiddos and our kitty.

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Spotlight! THE WOMEN IN THE WALLS - Amy Lukavics

THE WOMEN IN THE WALLS
Amy Lukavics
Harlequin Teen

Lucy Acosta's mother died when she was three. Growing up in a Victorian mansion in the middle of the woods with her cold, distant father, she explored the dark hallways of the estate with her cousin, Margaret. They're inseparable—a family.

When her aunt Penelope, the only mother she's ever known, tragically disappears while walking in the woods surrounding their estate, Lucy finds herself devastated and alone. Margaret has been spending a lot of time in the attic. She claims she can hear her dead mother's voice whispering from the walls. Emotionally shut out by her father, Lucy watches helplessly as her cousin's sanity slowly unravels. But when she begins hearing voices herself, Lucy finds herself confronting an ancient and deadly legacy that has marked the women in her family for generations.

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Ever since she was little, Amy was especially intrigued by horror books and movies. Raised in a small mountain town in Arizona, she sustained herself on a steady diet of Goosebumps, Fear Street, and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books before discovering Stephen King in her mother's bookshelf.

Amy lives with her husband, their two precious squidlings, and an old gentleman cat by the name of Frodo. When she isn't writing, she enjoys cooking, crafting, and playing games across many platforms.

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Spotlight! The Secret Lives of Rockstars - Suzanne Lazear!

The Secret Lives of Rockstars
 Suzanne Lazear
Genre: NA Urban Fantasy/Elfpunk
Release Date: September 26th 2016
Leap Books: Shine

Saving the world, one tour stop at a time.

Eighteen-year-old Bitsy Butler has never quite fit in, not with the dragons who raised her, the druid who took her in, or even with the non-human members of the cirque noir punk band she thinks of as family. Her chance to prove she can make it on her own comes with her band's first big solo tour. It’s all going according to plan when an angel walks into a bar and demands help with his demon problem. 

If she doesn't step up, a magical war will break out, threatening Arizona and all those who call it home. With the help of a human, a sexy dragon, and the members of her band, Bitsy must stop an angry mob of chaos demons before the band leaves for their next tour stop.

It’s nice to be needed, but Bitsy has no idea how to defeat the demons and she just might get herself killed trying. But then, at least one problem would be solved...

Fitting in doesn’t matter if you’re dead.

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Suzanne Lazear spins tales of the fantastic. She’s the author of the New Adult Elfpunk The Secret Lives of Rockstars (Leap Books) and the YA dark fairytale steampunk series The Aether Chronicles (Flux). Suzanne lives in Southern California with her daughter and husband where she’s trying to make tiny dragons out of wool. One day she’ll actually create a working cupcake cannon.

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Spotlight! Lost Wolf - Stacy Claflin

Lost Wolf
Stacy Claflin
(Curse of the Moon, #1)
Publication date: July 17th 2016
Genres: Paranormal Romance, Young Adult

She’s hiding a dark secret. It already killed her once.
Victoria can’t wait to start college, but there’s a hitch—she can’t remember anything before arriving on campus. Her memories spark when she sees her ruggedly handsome math professor, but she senses something horrific. The shock on his face affirms her fears.
Toby is an alpha wolf who never thought he’d see his true love again—not after she died in his arms. Nothing could have prepared him for her walking into his class. But to his dismay, not only has she forgotten what happened, she doesn’t even know who she is.
He’s determined to do whatever it takes to restore what they’ve lost. Can Toby help Victoria recover her memories, or will he lose her forever?

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Stacy Claflin is a USA Today bestselling author who writes about complex women overcoming incredible odds. Whether it's her Gone saga of psychological thrillers, her various paranormal romance tales, or her sweet romance series, Stacy's three-dimensional characters shine through.

Decades after she wrote her first stories on construction paper and years after typing on an inherited green screen computer that weighed half a ton, Stacy realized her dream of becoming a full-time bestselling author.
When she's not busy writing or educating her kids from home, Stacy enjoys watching TV shows like Supernatural, Pretty Little Liars, and Once Upon a Time.
Join Stacy's newsletter to get three free novels. Register here to get your books right away: http://stacyclaflin.com/newsletter/

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Spotlight! Whatever You Call Me - Leigh Fleming

Whatever You Call Me
Leigh Fleming
Publication date: September 20th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Annie Cooper is fed up with Washington. More importantly, she’s done with being Senator George Cooper’s daughter and all the expectations that come with it. She changes her name and tries to start fresh after quitting her job, but the only position she can find is in the political world she despises.
Kip Porter is a two-term congressman from a blue collar district along the shores of the Chesapeake Bay whose ambition leads him astray from the core values he—and his constituents—hold dear. He needs Senator Cooper’s backing to get his bill through the Senate and plans to use Annie to do it.
What starts out as a simple game of hidden identity soon becomes complicated. Annie wants to prove her worth on her own terms, but the closer she grows to Kip, the more she needs to come clean. With unexpected romance blossoming between them, will Kip keep his own secrets, or reveal the truth in the name of love?
(This is a stand alone romance – you do not need to read Best Friends Book 1 to enjoy this title).

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After several years of saying she would write a book someday, Leigh Fleming finally fulfilled her ultimate bucket list item by writing and self-publishing a novel. In 2013, she completed her first work, Precious Words, a romance suspense story set in the glittering world of men’s professional tennis, taking the reader on a whirlwind trip full of love and danger.

Leigh continues to hone her craft and learn what it takes to create a page-turning novel. She has completed Whatever You Call Me, set to release in fall, 2016, and Whatever You Say, to be released spring, 2017.
Leigh lives with her husband, Patrick, in Martinsburg, West Virginia, and is mom to adult children, Tom and Liza, and her two dogs, Lula Belle and Napoleon.

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The Orphan Keeper - Camron Wright

The Orphan Keeper

Camron Wright

Seven-year-old Chellamuthu’s life is forever changed when he is kidnapped from his village in India, sold to a Christian orphanage, and then adopted by an unsuspecting couple in the United States. It takes months before the boy can speak enough English to tell his parents that he already has a family back in India. Horrified, they try their best to track down his Indian family, but all avenues lead to dead ends.

Meanwhile, they simply love him, change his name to Taj, enroll him in school, make him part of their family—and his story might have ended there had it not been for the pestering questions in his head: Who am I? Why was I taken? How do I get home?

More than a decade later, Taj meets Priya, a girl from southern India with surprising ties to his past. Is she the key to unveil the secrets of his childhood or is it too late? And if he does make it back to India, how will he find his family with so few clues? 

From the best-selling author of The Rent Collector, this is a deeply moving and gripping journey of discovering one’s self and the unbreakable family bonds that connect us forever.

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Please Pass The Books Review

The Orphan Keeper is a wonderful story about a young boy who is sold as an orphan, and then adopted into a well meaning and devoted family. The plot thickens quickly, as little Chellamuthu/Taj isn't actually an orphan, and has a biological family that he's torn away from. Camron Wright has written, really, two books here—the first half about Taj as a child, the second as an adult, in search of his "real" family. It's the latter half of The Orphan Keeper that was the most engaging, as the voice becomes stronger and the storyline gains momentum.  I think the construction could have been organized a bit better, but  overall, this is a tightly written, heartwarming (and breaking!) book that I had a great deal of pleasure reading.

FOUR STARS

I'd like to thank Net Galley and the publisher, Shadow Mountain, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion, which this certainly is.

Camron Wright was born and raised in Salt Lake City, Utah. He received a B.S. in Business from Brigham Young University and a master’s degree in Writing & Public Relations from Westminster College.

Camron’s first book, Letters for Emily, was a Readers Choice award winner, as well as a selection of the Doubleday Book Club and the Literary Guild. In addition to North America, Letters for Emily was published in Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Germany, Korea, the Netherlands, and China.

His book, The Rent Collector, won Book of the Year, Fiction, from ForeWord Reviews; Best Novel of the Year from the Whitney Awards; and is a nominee for the prestigious 2014 International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award.

His latest novel, The Orphan Keeper, will be released September 6th, 2016.

Camron currently lives with his wife, Alicyn, in Alpine, Utah. He is the proud father of four children (all girls but three).

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Spotlight! I'm Not Afraid of Wolves - Erin Hayes

I’m Not Afraid of Wolves
Erin Hayes
(The Cotton Candy Quintet #4)
Publication date: September 22nd 2016
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Christine would do anything to get away from it all.
After escaping an abusive marriage and heading up a group of brand new performers, she’s tired and in need of a vacation. So when her sister Sara wants her to go camping out in the mountains of Georgia with the girls, she packs her bags for some rest and relaxation. Not even meeting a gorgeous park ranger like Colton Donnelly is going to distract her.
Except Sara didn’t tell her the real reason for the trip: she’s running away from a terrible secret. One that puts all of their lives in danger.
Now the vacation that Christine so desperately needed is ruined, but that’s the least of her worries. She has to use her wits and skills to save them all. Because she soon finds out that werewolves are very real. And they’ll stop at nothing to get their claws into her sister.

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Sci-fi junkie, video game nerd, and wannabe manga artist Erin Hayes writes a lot of things. Sometimes she writes books.

She works as an advertising copywriter by day, and she's a New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Author by night. She has lived in New Zealand, Hawaii, Texas, Alabama, and now San Francisco with her husband, cat, and a growing collection of geek paraphernalia.
You can reach her at erinhayesbooks@gmail.com and she’ll be happy to chat. Especially if you want to debate Star Wars.

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Spotlight! Anything You Ask Of Me - Heather Curley

Anything You Ask Of Me
Heather Curley

Although her home state of Maryland hasn’t sworn allegiance to either Union or Confederacy, twenty-two-year-old Elizabeth Archer’s life is shattered. Her father has fled North, abandoning the household. The man she loved—and who married her sister instead— is killed in battle. Elizabeth’s life of parties and societal obligations dwindles down to isolation and too many empty hours; hours to mourn the man who gave her up to chase an inheritance. 

She meets Confederate general Jeb Stuart by chance and, in an instant, she’s the center of his attention. 

As commander of the Army of Northern Virginia’s cavalry division, General Stuart doesn’t ask, he orders. The attraction seems mutual and, flattered by his affection, Elizabeth agrees to spy for the Confederacy. She’s Stuart’s La Belle Rebelle, the Beautiful Rebel; the siren of the south. She’s notorious in the Union and lauded in the Confederacy. And she’s falling in love with him. 

Notoriety, however, is a spy’s worst enemy. Now pursued by a Federal officer tasked to stop her at any cost, Elizabeth faces the sentence of hanging if she’s convicted of treason against the Union. Devoted to a cause she doesn’t believe in and with Federal blood on her hands, Elizabeth must save herself—or die a traitor. 

Time is running out. And no one, not even La Belle Rebelle, can outrun the war.

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Heather Hambel Curley was born in West Virginia and raised in Western Pennsylvania. She graduated magna cum laude from Robert Morris University with a degree in Communications in 2004. Heather has been involved with Civil War reenacting since 2001. In 2004, she volunteered at Harpers Ferry National Historical Park with the living history and archeology departments. Currently, she is a corseted living historian with the Baltimore Light Artillery, a group of historians who provide artillery demonstrations in parks such as Harpers Ferry, Gettysburg National Military Park, and Antietam National Battlefield. Heather resides in Western Pennsylvania with her husband and two children. She is a member of Pennwriters and the Historical Novel Society.

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Spotlight! The Surrendered - Case Maynard

The Surrendered
Case Maynard
Published by: Blaze Publishing
Publication date: September 20th 2016
Genres: Dystopian, Young Adult

After a financial collapse devastates the United States, the new government imposes a tax on the nation’s most valuable resource—the children.
Surrendered at age ten—after her parents could no longer afford her exorbitant fees—Vee Delancourt has spent six hard years at the Mills, alongside her twin, Oliver. With just a year to freedom, they do what they can to stay off the Master’s radar. But when Vee discovers unspeakable things happening to the younger girls in service, she has no choice but to take a stand—a decision that lands her on the run and outside the fence for the first time since the System robbed her of her liberty.
Vee knows the Master will stop at nothing to prove he holds ultimate authority over the Surrendered. But when he makes a threat that goes beyond what even she considers possible, she accepts the aid of an unlikely group of allies. Problem is, with opposing factions gunning for the one thing that might save them all, Vee must find a way to turn oppression and desperation into hope and determination—or risk failing all the children and the brother she left behind.

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With over 20 years’ experience in the legal and medical fields, Case Maynard decided to trade in her briefs and reports to write the stories that have been floating around in her head since childhood. She lives with her two teenagers and husband in South Georgia, while maintaining a long-distance liaison with her oldest daughter and partner in crime in Alaska. When not writing, she enjoys reading as often as possible, binge watching anything good on Netflix, and all things NCAA football (Go Noles!). You can learn more about Case and her stories on her website.

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The Trap - Francis Mont

The Trap
Francis Mont

A brilliant but young and immature software designer plans his revenge against his manager, but his plans go awry, threatening innocent bystanders.

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Please Pass the Books Review:

Jeff Grey is fed up with his manager, Barry Winter. So much so, that when Jeff is certain he can force a confession regarding a security scandal out of Barry, he implements the perfect software program to make it happen.

Well, not really so perfect. Enter: Susan Blair; a smart, attractive, and (as it turns out) ethically-impaired intern. It's Susan, not Barry who ends up caught in the hot seat—and that's when the real fun begins.

Francis Mont has written a gem of a short story, stuffed with all the right machinations to keep a reader hooked. Delivering a fun narrative from three POV's , I found that I actually liked Jeff, Barry, and Susan equally; all are deliciously diabolical in their own ways.

I highly recommend The Trap to anyone looking for a well crafted story and a brief period of escapism. It's intelligent fiction at its most compact.

FIVE STARS

Francis Mont has been living in Canada for the past 44 years, after he emigrated from his native Hungary where he studied science and received a degree in Theoretical Physics. Over the years he did research, application and teaching in Mathematics, Physics and Computer Science. He is interested in profound questions, both in science and in social philosophy. He is a 'big picture' person, focusing on fundamental principles and the defining essence of the topic at hand. He also pursues independence and self-reliance to the best of his abilities, as his solar power system and year-around greenhouse demonstrate. He writes poetry, plays classical violin, dabbles at wood carving and has not yet stopped building the house where he and his wife and three and a half cats (3 resident, 1 vagrant) live.

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Spotlight! THE ORACLE - D.J NIKO

THE ORACLE (THE SARAH WESTON CHRONICLES, BOOK THREE)
BY D.J NIKO

Publication Date: November 10, 2015
Medallion Press

In Delphi, the mountain city deemed by the Greek gods to be the center of the Earth, a cult of neo-pagans re-create with painstaking authenticity ancient rituals to glorify the god Apollo and deliver oracles to seekers from around the world.

When antiquities are stolen from a museum in nearby Thebes, British archaeologist Sarah Weston and her American partner, Daniel Madigan, are drawn into a plot that goes beyond harmless role-playing: someone’s using the Delphian oracle as a smoke screen for an information exchange, with devastating consequences for the Western world.

Pitted against each other by the cult’s mastermind, Sarah and Daniel race against time and their own personal demons to uncover clues left behind by the ancients. Their mission: to find the original navel stone marked with a lost Pythagorean formula detailing the natural events that led to the collapse of the Minoan Empire.

But will they find it in time to stop the ultimate terrorist act?

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY | INDIE BOUND

Daphne Nikolopoulos in an award-winning journalist, author, editor, and lecturer. Under the pen name D.J. Niko, she has written two novels in an archaeological thriller series titled The Sarah Weston Chronicles. Her debut novel, The Tenth Saint (Medallion Press, 2012), won the Gold Medal (popular fiction) in the prestigious, juried Florida Book Awards. Her follow-up release, The Riddle of Solomon, continues the story of British archaeologist Sarah Weston as she seeks the relics—and mystical secrets—left behind by the biblical King Solomon in remote Israel.

Daphne is currently at work on The Oracle, book 3 in The Sarah Weston Chronicles, which releases in 2015. Also slated for publication in 2015 is her first historical novel, The Judgment, which is set in Israel and Egypt in the tenth century BCE.

In addition to writing fiction, Daphne is editor in chief of Palm Beach Illustrated magazine and editorial director of Palm Beach Media Group. Prior to that, she was a travel journalist who logged hundreds of thousands of miles traveling across the globe, with emphasis on little-known and off-the-beaten-path locales—many of which have inspired her novels.

Daphne frequently lectures about her research on the ancient world. She is an instructor at Florida Atlantic University’s Lifelong Learning Society, teaching on the subject of archaeology. She has also spoken to audiences at the Jewish Community Center of the Palm Beaches’ Academy for Continuous Education, and several libraries and private groups throughout Florida.

Born and raised in Athens, Greece, Daphne now resides in West Palm Beach with her husband and twin son and daughter. You can find her on the Web at djnikobooks.com and connect with her on Facebook (AuthorDJNiko) and on Twitter: @djnikobooks.

Spotlight! DEATH AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION - FRANCES MCNAMARA

DEATH AT THE PARIS EXPOSITION
BY FRANCES MCNAMARA

Publication Date: September 1, 2016
Allium Press
Paperback; 276 Pages
Series: Emily Cabot Mysteries #6
Genre: Historical Mystery

Amateur sleuth Emily Cabot’s journey once again takes her to a world’s fair–the Paris Exposition of 1900. Chicago socialite Bertha Palmer is named the only female U. S. commissioner to the Exposition and enlists Emily’s services as her secretary. Their visit to the House of Worth for the fitting of a couture gown is interrupted by the theft of Mrs. Palmer’s famous pearl necklace. Before that crime can be solved, several young women meet untimely deaths and a member of the Palmer’s inner circle is accused of the crimes. As Emily races to clear the family name she encounters jealous society ladies, American heiresses seeking titled European husbands, and more luscious gowns and priceless jewels. Along the way, she takes refuge from the tumult at the country estate of Impressionist painter Mary Cassatt. In between her work and sleuthing, she is able to share the Art Nouveau delights of the Exposition, and the enduring pleasures of the City of Light with her family.

Frances McNamara grew up in Boston, where her father served as Police Commissioner for ten years. She has degrees from Mount Holyoke and Simmons Colleges, and formerly worked as a librarian at the University of Chicago. When not working or writing she can be found sailing on the Charles River in Boston or beaching on Cape Cod.

For more information please visit Frances McNamara’s website. You can also find her on Facebook and Goodreads.

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Nicotine - Nell Zink

Nicotine
Nell Zink

The author of Mislaid returns with a fierce and audaciously funny novel of families—both the ones we’re born into and the ones we create—a story of obsession, idealism, and ownership, centered around a young woman who inherits her bohemian late father's childhood home

Recent business school graduate Penny Baker has rebelled against her family her whole life—by being the conventional one. Her mother, Amalia, was a member of a South American tribe called the Kogi; her much older father, Norm, long ago attained cult-like deity status among a certain cohort of aging hippies while operating a psychedelic “healing center.” And she’s never felt particularly close to her much older half-brothers from Norm’s previous marriage—one wickedly charming and obscenely rich (but mostly just wicked), one a photographer on a distant tropical island.

But all that changes when her father dies, and Penny inherits his childhood home in New Jersey. She goes to investigate the property and finds it not overgrown and abandoned, but rather occupied by a group of friendly anarchist squatters whom she finds unexpectedly charming, and who have renamed the property Nicotine. The Nicotine residents (united in defense of smokers’ rights) possess the type of passion and fervor Penny feels she’s desperately lacking, and the other squatter houses in the neighborhood provide a sense of community she has never felt before. She soon moves into a nearby residence, becoming enmeshed in the political fervor and commitment of her fellow squatters.

As the Baker family’s lives begin to converge around the fate of the house now called Nicotine, Penny grows ever bolder and more desperate to protect it—and its residents—until a fateful night when a reckless confrontation between her old family and her new one changes everything.

Nell Zink exquisitely captures the clash between Baby-Boomer idealism and Millennial pragmatism, between the have-nots and want-mores, in a riotous yet tender novel that brilliantly encapsulates our time.

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Please Pass The Books Review:

Nell Zink doesn't tell stories that everyone is going to love (who does?), but her unique, no BS approach to subjects that are uncommon, brazen, and really effin' weird is -seriously- on point. Nicotine is the story of Penny, the "normal" one in her bohemian family. When her father dies, he leaves her his childhood home. Overrun by a mishmash medley of squatters, the house has been renamed Nicotine, and Penny is soon caught up in life amongst the group of settlers.

In typical Zink style, there are some bizarre, some very uncomfortable, and some downright crude moments woven through Nicotine. If you can handle it, you'll find thoroughly developed characters (even if you don't like them) and intensely layered storytelling by a master of the craft. This is one of those novels that you're either going to love or hate, and I happen to fall within the former.

FIVE STARS

I'd like to thank Goodreads Giveaways and the publisher, Fourth Estate, for providing an advance review copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion, which this certainly is.

Born in California in 1964, Nell Zink was raised in rural Virginia, a setting she draws on in her

second novel, Mislaid. She attended Stuart Hall School and the College of William and Mary. In 1993, while living in West Philadelphia, Zink founded a zine called Animal Review, which ran until 1997.

Zink has worked as a secretary at Colgate-Palmolive and as a technical writer in Tel Aviv. She moved to Germany in May 2000, completing a PhD in Media Studies from the University of Tübingen. Zink has been married twice, to US citizen Benjamin Alexander Burck and to Israeli composer and poet Zohar Eitan.

After 15 years writing fiction exclusively for a single pen pal, the Israeli postmodernist Avner Shats, Zink caught the attention of Jonathan Franzen. The two writers began a correspondence.

In early 2012, Zink sent Franzen her collected manuscripts. Franzen tried unsuccessfully to interest publishers in her 1998 novel. It was Franzen’s agent who ultimately negotiated a six-figure publishing deal for Zink’s Mislaid, a novel she has described as “agent bait”.

The Wallcreeper was published independently in the US in 2014 and named one of 100 Notable Books of 2014 by The New York Times. Zink lives in Bad Belzig, Germany.

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Spotlight! Dragonfly Nightmare - Erin Richards

Dragonfly Nightmare
Erin Richards
(Once Upon A Secret, #1)
Publication date: September 12th 2016
Genres: Contemporary, Suspense, Young Adult

To be a normal teenage girl.
To forget about the past.
To fall in love for the first time.
Is that too much to ask? 

Sixteen-year-old Allie Bailey just wants a break—a break from her overly-protected life. And Dragonfly Meadows summer camp is the answer. A summer away from her parents in the California Sierras with her best friend is exactly what she needs. 

But once at camp, Allie notices that things are a little off. Paid excursions are cancelled and staff is replaced with shady new people. When the camp’s founder goes “missing,” Allie starts to worry. Unable to let it rest due to her past, she starts to investigate, enlisting the help of Logan Montgomery, her best friend’s older and adorably geeky brother. 

When hauntingly familiar flowers appear in Allie’s cabin, she’s not sure what to think—has her past caught up to her? Yet, after Allie stumbles across a murder conspiracy and chases down the truth, she becomes a target. Pushing through her paranoia and fear to find strength, it’s up to Allie to save herself and the campers from a deranged killer before it’s too late.

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Erin Richards lives in sunny Northern California. She writes young adult fiction and adult romance, where you’ll typically find her characters in peril, whether based in reality or a contemporary fantasy setting. Magic, murder and mayhem are all in a days’ work! In her spare time, she enjoys reading, photography, and re-landscaping her backyard, even though she hates digging holes…unless she’s burying fictional bodies! Erin also confesses to a fascination with American muscle cars…and reality TV shows. Keep up with Erin’s latest news, exclusive content, and giveaways and subscribe to her Newsletter.

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Spotlight! Avenging Fate - Jennifer Derrick

Avenging Fate
Jennifer Derrick
(Threads of the Moirae #2)
Published by: Clean Teen Publishing
Publication date: September 12th 2016
Genres: Mythology, Romance, Young Adult

Still reeling after killing the man she loved, Atropos turns her attention to the twin tasks of avenging his death and freeing humanity from the deadly grip of the Keres. When she sets out on a murderous mission to retrieve her shears, her only aide is her temperamental ex-boyfriend, Ares. He is fickle at best, traitorous at worst, and assistance from him may be worse than none at all.

Along the way, she allies with a group of powerful supernaturals and learns that the crimes of the gods are more twisted and far-reaching than she realized. What begins as a quest for vengeance becomes a journey through betrayal, loss, love, and hope. It ignites a war that will pit Atropos against the gods in a battle for the freedom of humanity.

Avenging Fate is the second book in The Threads of Moirae Series by Jennifer Derrick.

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Grab book 1 – Broken Fate – for FREE!

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Jennifer is a freelance writer and novelist. As a freelancer, she writes everything from technical manuals to articles on personal finance and European-style board games. Her interest in storytelling began when she was six and her parents gave her a typewriter for Christmas and agreed to pay her $.01 per page for any stories she churned out. Such a loose payment system naturally led to a lot of story padding. Broken Fate, her first novel, earned her $2.80 from her parents.

Jennifer lives in North Carolina and, when not writing, can often be found reading, trawling the shelves at the library, playing board games, watching sports, camping, running marathons, and playing with her dog. You can visit her at her official website:www.JenniferDerrick.com.

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Union Street Boarding House: An Edwardian Mystery - Jamie Michele

Union Street Boarding House: An Edwardian Mystery
Jamie Michele 

Once a fine debutant, Mrs. Peterson capsized her own life with an unsanctioned marriage, tossing her adrift from the vaulted ceilings and expansive drawing rooms of her youth. When widowhood brings her back to Pittsburgh, she stays afloat with the running of a respectable Union Street boarding house.

Deep in water, mire, and a mystery.

A famous boarder has gone missing during the flood of 1907, and all clues point to murder. A half heard conversation, a broken knife, cut rope, a missing Onyx clock, and blood that can’t be explained. Mrs. Peterson fears the truth, yet as the waters rise, they dredge up her past, challenge her present, and force her to consider a new future.

An unlikely pair.

Mr. Graham rows in at precisely the right moment; an older, dabbling detective with a pragmatic approach to everything he does. The two join forces and, despite a string of hilarious mishaps, commit themselves to a common goal: To solve the mystery of Anna Baker.


Set during the Pittsburgh flood of 1907, Union Street Boarding House: An Edwardian Mystery is a reworking of the 1913 novel The Case of Jennie Brice by Mary Roberts Rinehart.

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Please Pass The Books Review:

This was a really wonderful, lighthearted, and entertaining read for me on my first two mornings of post-summer solitude (thank you, back to school!). Mrs. Peterson is a supremely lovable and hilarious character. She's an upstanding member of her community, having plummeted to the lower-middle class rungs of Edwardian Pittsburgh society after a marriage that her first-tier family didn't approve of.

The mystery itself involves Anna Baker/Mrs. Lawrence and her husband, and Mrs. Peterson is partnered by the much older Mr. Graham to find out what happened to her boarder. There are clues throughout, and plenty of twists, turns, and laughs to keep the story engaging and fun. The ending is fair and perfectly executed, with no annoying loose ends—and a surprise, to boot.

Cozy mysteries are what I turn to when I don't want to work too hard but still want to be pulled in. Union Street Boarding House ticked all the boxes for me, bringing to life a time and a setting in US history that I knew very little about. The writing is clean, tight, and engrossing, and the characters are layered and well developed.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I have a hankerin' to buy a rowboat.

I'd like to thank the publisher, Vintage Volumes, for providing a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion, which this certainly is.

FIVE STARS

Jamie Michele is a San Francisco born author who fell in love with a Londoner and promptly moved to England. When not writing, she can usually be found on a picnic blanket in Bath, reading on the lawn out front of the Royal Crescent.

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