Archive for April 12, 2013

Keep a box of Kleenex handy.

This one will tug at your heart-strings.

Spare Change

goodreads-badge-add-plus

Literary Awards
 

My Review

In the early 1920’s Olivia Ann Westerly rebels against her father and moves out on her own, despite his threats to disown her. She never looks back. Working at the telephone company for many years, she sees her friends get married, and become mothers shortly after.  When she questions them about it, they say, sure, that’s what’s expected:

1) Get married

2) Get pregnant

3) Have a baby

4) Have more babies…

The thought terrifies her.

But she does fall for Herbert and excepts his proposal. But then she gets to thinking about what her friends told her, and breaks off the engagement.

“I told people the thought of being tied down to a man who expected a clean shirt and dinner on the table at the dot of six was something I simply couldn’t face; but the real truth of the matter is that I’ve grown petrified of babies. They look all cute and cuddly in their little pink and blue buntings, but I’ve seen what they do to women.”

So, that’s how it went, year after year, relationship after relationship. Until 1956.

That’s when Charlie Doyle steps into her life. His son, Benjamin,  is grown and married with a boy of his own, so children aren’t in the picture. So Olivia, at 58 years old, lets herself fall in love and get married.

What should have been the beginning of the rest of her life, ends abruptly when Charlie dies suddenly during their honeymoon. A massive heart attack takes him from her arms and her future.

She returns to Virginia and quickly realizes she can’t go home again, so she settles into Charlies apartment in Wyattsville and begins to make friends, until something happens that changes everything she ever believed.

Ethan’s mother, Susanna, never grew up. She was what you called a free spirit, fun to be around.

His father, Benjamin Doyle, was the opposite. He dished out tough love, sometimes violently.

His best friend is Dog, his loyal canine companion.

A violent argument turns deadly and Benjamin hits Susanna so hard, she never wakes up.  Ethan has been hiding in the woods, afraid to come home when he sees a man pull up to the house, Shortly after, the man comes out, attacks his father, and beats him to death before tearing off in his car.

When Ethan ends up placed in the murderers home, he steals off in the night with nothing but his dog. He comes upon a tired looking gas station and a kindly man who gets him a ride right to his grandfathers apartment building. Charlie Doyle’s apartment building.

That’s where Olivia finds Ethan and Dog, fast asleep at her doorstep.

This is where it gets fun. There are no pets or children allowed in the apartment complex and Olivia is scared of being kicked out. Also, she has no clue what to do with this stubborn, taciturn boy and his raggedy dog.

Soon enough, some friends learn she’s hiding them in her apartment, and before you know it, everyone is clambering to help her keep her secret.

One detective back home suspects Ethan knows what happened to his parents and keeps searching for him. The killer is looking for Ethan to silence him for good.

There’s no avoiding it. They will all meet again.

There is a lot I didn’t tell you about Spare Change. About Olivia’s trip home from her honeymoon and the mysterious and kindly woman who gives her advice or about her eccentric and mixed bag of neighbors. I can’t tell you everything or I’d spoil it.

I wanted to gather Ethan Allen up in my arms and take him home with me. He may be double tough but he’s just a boy. A scared little boy who’s just witnessed the horrifying deaths of both parents. He shows a taciturn front, but inside he’s scared.

Olivia. She deserves a hug and a big pat on the back. Here she is confronted with her worst fear, and she handles it so sensitively and wisely. I bet she didn’t know she had it in herself.

I was swept away by Bette’s writing. The South oozes from the pages. I swear she writes with a southern drawl.

Bette’s characters are so real, so genuine. They have the same fears and insecurities as you or I. They all have their flaws. They are so real you might think you recognize one as someone you know.

The ending. You are going to love the ending! It left me smiling as tears ran down my face. It is one of the best endings of any book I’ve read and filled me with happiness and hope.

a boy and a dog photo: dog and boy DOG-BOY.jpg

Five Hugs for Spare Change.

.

[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKcJGgu4lig]

.

Giveaway

I have one paperback copy to giveaway.

*****Us/Canada Only. Sorry to my International friends.*****

Good news!

I also have one e-book to giveaway.

***Anyone can enter for the e-book!***

To enter, please leave your email address, specify if entering as for the paperback or e-book,  and answer this question,

“Has a book ever made you cry?”

Giveaway ends April 19th.

Thanks so much for visiting fuonly and Good Luck!

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Bette Lee CrosbyBette Lee Crosby’s work was first recognized in 2006, when she won the National League of American Pen Women Award for unpublished fiction with What Matters Most. Her novel, Cracks in the Sidewalk, received the 2009 Royal Palm Literary Award and then went on to win the 2011 FPA President’s Book Award Gold Medal. In 2011 Spare Change received the Reviewer’s Choice Awards and it garnered a second Royal Palm Literary Award. Her books have earned numerous five-star ratings with readers acclaiming them as heartwarming and captivating.

Most recently, Bette completed a memoir written for Lani Deauville, a woman the Guinness Book of Records lists as The World’s Longest Living Quadriplegic.

Website

Goodreads

Twitter

Spare Change  The Twelfth Child  Cupid's Christmas  Cracks in the Sidewalk  What Matters Most  Life in the Land of IS...the amazing story of Lani Deauville, the world's longest living quadriplegic

Freakin Fridays!

Freakin Fridays is my own little meme. I’ll be posting about books, movies, and all things scary.

Feel free to join in and do your own Freakin Fridays posts!

Tune in every Friday. Get your scare on!

Let’s have some fun!

This book should come with a warning on it.

“Read at your own risk!”

It’s truly not for the faint of heart.

The Clearing of Travis Coble

goodreads-badge-add-plus

Description

Travis Coble didn’t kill and eat his family. At least that’s what a jury decided twenty years ago. But like Lizzie Borden, Travis Coble was branded guilty by an angry public and consigned to a life of suspicious whispers and sidelong stares. Now, Professor Dick Myers wants to clear Travis’s name once and for all. An interview with the reclusive mountain man would not only bring Myers fame—it could save his job.

But Myers will find more than a good story in Coble’s isolated shack in the Smoky Mountains. He will find the truth about what happened twenty years ago…and the true meaning of horror.

My Review

I love character driven stories and there are some doozies in this one.

The author wrote each character so distinctly, their voices were so individual, I could pick them out without reading which was which, just like hearing their conversations.

Travis Coble is the stereotypical red-neck. He lives in the mountains in a ramshackle house. The yard is filled with rusted out junk and broken toys, and the weeds have taken over.

Professor Myers has his doubts about Coble’s guilt. He’s thinking how great it would be if he could prove the man’s innocence. What a big splash it would make.

The professor has an air of superiority about him, which doesn’t sit well with Travis, and he needs this story so he brings it down a notch. He’s researched Travis and his murder trial and knows the man is crafty, has an evil intelligence. He needs to keep his wits about him.

As the interview progresses, so does Travis’s belligerence.  Professor Myers is no match for him.

The suspense is subtle at first. It creeps up on you slowly and you become aware of something nasty coming soon. I swear I would have screamed if someone had spoken while I was reading the ending.

I was so wrapped up in the final scenes. While I was grossed out by what was happening and what I visualized was coming next, it was more suggestion than graphic description. That’s what made it so horrifying.

I swear I heard the whisper of dueling Banjo’s while reading this. If you’ve seen the movie Deliverance, you’ll know what I mean.

5 Stars for making my skin crawl!

Thanks to Brendan at untreed reads for providing me with this book.

And thank you, Jonathan, for making me afraid to go to sleep! That’s what a horror book should do.

About the author

Jonathan Janz

Jonathan Janz grew up between a dark forest and a graveyard, and in a way, that explains everything. Brian Keene named his debut novel The Sorrows “the best horror novel of 2012”. The Library Journal deemed his follow-up, House of Skin, “reminiscent of Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House and Peter Straub’s Ghost Story.”

Samhain Horror will also publish his third novel, The Darkest Lullaby, in April. Look for his fourth novel, an action-packed survival horror thriller called Savage Species, this summer. He has also written three novellas (The Clearing of Travis Coble, Old Order, and Witching Hour Theatre) and several short stories.

His primary interests are his wonderful wife and his three amazing children, and though he realizes that every author’s wife and children are wonderful and amazing, in this case the cliché happens to be true. You can learn more about Jonathan at www.jonathanjanz.com. You can also find him on Facebook, via @jonathanjanz on Twitter, or on his Goodreads and Amazon author pages.

Goodreads

Website

Twitter

New Blood

Book One in the Vampire in the City Series is free right now on Amazon.

Not sure how long it lasts so get yours now.

US / UK / Canada

New Blood (Vampire in the City, #1)

goodreads-badge-add-plus

Description

Emma Hammond is a normal young woman living in New York City whose life changes forever when one misstep brings her very close to death. Luckily, Alex Thompson, a handsome stranger (who also happens to be a vampire), jumps in to save her, turning Emma into a vampire. She quickly discovers the numerous advantages (no more allergies, glasses, or acne) and slight drawbacks (wanting to eat her boyfriend) of joining the ranks of the creatures of the night. But Emma soon finds out her new undead life isn’t all it’s cracked up to be when she gets pulled in to an age-old dispute between two feuding vampire clans.

I’ve read the first three books in this series and the fourth will be releasing soon. Can’t wait!

Vamps, weres, and witches. What more could you ask for!