Archive for May 8, 2015

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This is the 10th year writing Peggy Lee so the authors would like to do a big anniversary prize with a book and a goody basket of seeds, gardening supplies, gloves, etc. for the gardeners out there who love Peggy Lee. Also a $20 Amazon gift card. You can enter the rafflecopter at the bottom of the post!

But first, please enjoy my review.

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Killing Weeds
by Joyce and Jim Lavene

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Killing Weeds (A Peggy Lee Garden Mystery Book 8)
File Size: 348 KB
Print Length: 235 pages
Publisher: J. Lavene (May 5, 2015)
ASIN: B00UG9SBBK

 My Review

This is the 8th book in this series and I can tell you right now, you don’t have to have read the previous books to enjoy this one, but you’ll sure want to.

The first thing I liked about the characters was Peggy Lee is close to my age. She’s a grandmother with a husband several years younger than her, but she doesn’t dye her hair, over exercise to stay firm, or hide her wrinkles. She earned them and wears them with pride.

And something that makes me have to go back to the beginning, besides loving these characters, is Shakespeare, Peggy’s Great Dane. I didn’t get to know him much in this book, but I have a feeling he played bigger roles in some of the other books in the series. I’m huge on animals as key characters in stories and I bet that big, lovable cuss had some major parts in some of these mysteries.

There’s more than one type of killing weed in this mystery. You have your flora and your fauna.

That’s something else I really enjoyed. The local police hire Peggy when they need a forensic botanist. This felt a bit like CSI, especially as Peggy’s son, Paul is married to Mia, a forensic chemist. This probably isn’t the first time these two gals teamed up to solve a riddle.

A strange coincidence or just bad luck. This book is about a killing weed, Hogweed, highly toxic and used in a murder. I was out clearing a flower bed and removed a nasty thorned vine. Forgetting to wash my hands, I rubbed my eyes and was in agony for over 2 hours. Couldn’t open my eyes, couldn’t shut them for the fiery pain. They finally cleared up after two days. Shows how deadly plants can be.

This has the usual recipe for a cozy mystery. Fun, colorful characters, a furry friend, and, or course, a murder. One that wasn’t easy to solve. I had an idea, then I didn’t, then I did.

Great fun, which I’ve come to expect from these authors. I’ve read books from a few of their other series’ and enjoyed them too.

4 Stars

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Synopsis:

It’s spring in Charlotte, North Carolina, home of forensic botanist and garden shop owner, Peggy Lee. This spring has been beautiful, as always, with flowering trees and blue skies.

But a killer is on the loose, and seems determined to destroy everyone and everything she cares about.

When her garden shop, the Potting Shed, is brutally vandalized, Peggy doesn’t realize that it is only the beginning. Her son, Paul, who has been moonlighting as a private detective to investigate the death of his father, John Lee, is suspected of murder when a mink coat lined with poison kills the woman who is wearing it.

Peggy identifies the particularly virile blend of botanical poisons in the coat. Unfortunately, her work as a specialist with plant poisons makes Paul even more interesting to the police. When attacks against her and her family continue, Peggy must go back through her years of sleuthing to finger the person responsible . . . before it’s too late.

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About Authors Joyce and Jim Lavene

joycejim

Joyce and Jim Lavene write award-winning, bestselling mystery fiction as themselves, J.J. Cook, and Ellie Grant. They have written and published more than 70 novels for Harlequin, Berkley, Amazon, and Gallery Books along with hundreds of non-fiction articles for national and regional publications. They live in rural North Carolina with their family.

Author Links

Joyce and Jim Lavene ~ Peggy Lee Mysteries

Facebook ~ Amazon ~ Twitter

Purchase Link
Amazon

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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KILLING WEEDS  SMALL BANNER

Tour Participants

May 5 – Shelley’s Book Case – Review, Guest Post

May 6 – I Wish I Lived in a Library – Review

May 7 – MysteriesEtc – Review

May 8 – fuonlyknew – Review

May 9 – A Chick Who Reads – Review

May 10 – Laura’s Interests – Review

May 11 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too! – Guest Post

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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Book Reviewers Yellow Pages

 

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages: A Book Marketing Guide for Authors and Publishers Christine Pinheiro

Book blogging today has grown into a serious business. It is a necessary marketing tool to promote books and the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages—now in its sixth edition—is the definitive guide to this informal network of book reviewers. -Author David Wogahn, President of Sellbox.com

This book is designed to make book marketing easier. The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages is a popular book promotion reference guide for authors and publishers. Use this guide to learn about book tours, author etiquette, and how to write a good pitch to grab the interest of a book reviewer.

Updated every year, this reference lists hundreds of book reviewers, their contact information, submission guidelines, and genre preferences.

 

Grab Your Copy Now!

Amazon Kindle
* PDF * Print

 

Book Reviewer Yellow Pages

Foreword by David Wogahn

I wrote my first eBook in 1991. In those days, like today, it wasn’t hard to do if you had something to say and a computer to produce it. But what was hard, was marketing those early eBooks. Even if you advertised the book on a service like CompuServe, Prodigy or AOL, how would you ever find people willing to tell other people about your book?

I “discovered” the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages more than five years ago; April 29, 2011 to be exact (then called The Indie Book Review Yellow Pages). Newspapers and magazines were still employing book reviewers and “book bloggers” were considered an anomaly, given the same respect that big publishers were giving the new-fangled eBook formats like Kindle.

Fast forward to today and those same reviewers—if they are still writing reviews—most likely have started a blog (and in fact might even be in this book). An indie author trying to get reviewed by a traditional media outlet is an exercise in futility. It’s also fair to say that eBooks have made the big publishers huge profits and now form a permanent part of their publishing operations.

Book blogging today has grown into a serious business. It is a necessary marketing tool to promote books and Christy Pinheiro-Silva’s Book Reviewer Yellow Pages—now in its sixth edition—is the definitive guide to this informal network of book reviewers.

Collectively they rival the promotional power of the large circulation newspapers and magazines. Individually they can help niche books break-out to a wider audience. And that’s what book marketing is all about: helping thousands of small products in scores of categories seek and find their own passionate audience.

How I met Christy is a testament to modern book marketing, itself a lesson for new publishers. As a long-time reader of the pioneering eBook news website Teleread.com, I came across an article saying that her second edition was available for free. Free is still a popular way to connect with readers but in 2011 it was the fastest, sure-fire way to get your name and book noticed. Everyone had Kindles to fill-up and as a book marketer and author, who couldn’t use a free directory?

By the time the fourth edition was published in 2013 it had grown to a 778 page tome. Seeing an opportunity for constructive feedback, I took to Amazon reviews to voice my ideas about what makes this guide book so important for my clients, and where I thought it could be improved. I’m happy to say that Christy read that review, contacted me, and took many of those suggestions to heart.

Here are the two things you should know about the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages:

  1. It defines a standard of etiquette. Christy’s 10 rules for author etiquette should be required reading for every author, regardless of whether or not book bloggers are part of your marketing mix. I confess it is so solid that I based a section of my own book, Successful eBook Publishing (Sellbox, 2012) on her advice. The blogosphere would be a better place if every author took her admonitions to heart in all their book promotion interactions.
  2. It codifies the essential facts about a book blogger, so you don’t have to. Shouldn’t we be able to just “Google” book bloggers and fire off emails to reviewers? Nope. In reality it isn’t that easy. Trying to find the pertinent information so you can approach the reviewer who is right for your book (see point 1) is going to take you hours! There are no standard website designs for review websites, and you will need to visit each one (again, see point 1). Here is where the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages shines. Your small investment will pay big dividends in saving time in finding the relevant reviewers, and their contact information.

But one thing still remains the same, as it did for me in 1991. You simply must get people talking about your book if you are ever going to be a successful author. A book no one talks about is even worse than a book that doesn’t make money.

And that’s where this wonderful community of book bloggers comes into play. Let the Book Reviewer Yellow Pages be your Michelin Guide to the Wild West World of book review bloggers.

David Wogahn

President, Sellbox.com

Publisher, PartnerPress.org

Author, Successful eBook Publishing

 

For more information visit:
The Book Reviewer Yellow Pages
Website * Facebook

 

50_Amazon_Paypal

 

$50 Blast Giveaway

Enter to win an Amazon Gift Card or Paypal Cash

Ends 6/1/15

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by readinglight.com. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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M9B-Friday-Reveal

Welcome to this week’s M9B Friday Reveal!

This week, we are featuring

Lisa T. Cresswell, author of Vessel

presented by Month9Books!

Be sure to enter the giveaway found at the end of the post!

Lisa T. Cresswell

Meet Lisa T. Cresswell!

Lightening Round Questions

 

Twitter or Facebook? Twitter by far!

Favorite Superhero? Hulk

Favorite TV show? Um, I don’t watch tv anymore.

Sweet or Salty? Sweet

Coke or Pepsi? Pepsi before I gave it up; now its coffee 🙂

Any Phobias? Heights/fear of falling

Song you can’t get enough of right now? They play it way too much, but
I still like Uptown Funk.

Who is your ultimate Book Boyfriend? That’s tough. I’m sure Peta’s up
there. I’ll get back to you on that one 😉

What are you reading right now or what’s on your TBR? I want to read
the latest Neil Gaiman book. Always!

Fall Movie you’re most looking forward to? It’s really next winter,
but it’s STAR WARS!!

Lisa, like most writers, began scribbling silly notes, stories, and poems at a very young age. Born in North Carolina, the South proved fertile ground to her imagination with its beautiful white sand beaches and red earth. In fifth grade, she wrote, directed and starred in a play “The Queen of the Nile” at school, despite the fact that she is decidedly un-Egyptian looking. Perhaps that’s why she went on to become a real life archaeologist?

Unexpectedly transplanted to Idaho as a teenager, Lisa learned to love the desert and the wide open skies out West. This is where her interest in cultures, both ancient and living, really took root, and she became a Great Basin archaeologist. However, the itch to write never did leave for long. Her first books became the middle grade fantasy trilogy, The Storyteller Series. Her first traditionally published work, Hush Puppy, is now available from Featherweight Press.

Lisa still lives in Idaho with her family and a menagerie of furry critters that includes way too many llamas!

Connect with the Author: Website | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

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LCresswell_Vessel_M9B_eCover_1800x2700

The sun exploded on On April 18, 2112 in a Class X solar storm the likes of which humankind had never seen.

They had exactly nineteen minutes to decide what to do next.

They had nineteen minutes until a geomagnetic wave washed over the Earth, frying every electrical device created by humans, blacking out entire continents, and every satellite in their sky.

Nineteen minutes to say goodbye to the world they knew, forever, and to prepare for a new Earth, a new Sun.

Generations after solar storms destroyed nearly all human technology on Earth, humans reverted to a middle ages-like existence, books are burned as heresy, and all knowledge of the remaining technology is kept hidden by a privileged few called the Reticents.

Alana, a disfigured slave girl, and Recks, a traveling minstrel and sometimes-thief, join forces to bring knowledge and books back to the human race. But when Alana is chosen against her will to be the Vessel, the living repository for all human knowledge, she must find the strength to be what the world needs even if it’s the last thing she wants.

add to goodreadsTitle: Vessel
Publication date: May 2015
Publisher: Month9Books, LLC.
Author: Lisa T. Cresswell

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Giveaway

Complete the Rafflecopter below for a chance to win!

The book will be sent upon the titles release.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

To see all of my giveaways click on the lucky horseshoe below!

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