Archive for October 25, 2018

Welcome to My 31 Days Of Thrills And Chills 2018! I did this last year and so excited to do it again. I’ll be sharing reviews and lots of extra spooky stuff every day leading up to Halloween. I hope you’ll join me!

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I’m sharing all kinds of books, movies, and other spooky stuff for every day in October. Gots to get those scares on for the 31st!

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Spot & Smudge

by Robert Udulutch

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Genre:  Horror / Science Fiction

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My Review

A family looking for a fresh start, a town with dark secrets, and two very special pups.

Since I’d read this quite a while ago, I figured I’d better read it again to refresh my memory before writing a review.  The first thing I remembered was that this is not a children’s book. You’re hit in the face with some strong curse words right in the beginning. Don’t let that stop you. Once you get to the meat of the story, you’ll see how this actually worked as the town has some nasty character’s.

But then, there’s Spot and Smudge. two of the most adorable puppies ever. They’ll wiggle their way into your heart. These puppies are special. They have abilities far beyond a normal dog, or a human for that matter. They’re the Dr. Dolittle of dogs.  And their human family is one you’d love to call your own.

A blend of science fiction and horror is always interesting. I knew about the sci fi part just by looking at the cover. And the horror didn’t take long to enter the picture either. Sure this is a dark story. But it’s also joyful, fills you with wonder, and makes you laugh out loud.

I should warn you though, there is some animal abuse. It’s tough to read, but it makes the story stronger. And it’s not a large part of the book.

I could go on and on. In fact, my review was way too long. I wanted to tell you about so many things. But, the spoiler thing. So I deleted almost all of it and will leave you with this shorter review and my recommendation.

Don’t miss out on a terrific story. Read Spot and Smudge if it appeals to you even a tiny bit. You’ll get way more than you bargained for.

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Synopsis

The speculative fiction thriller that masterfully kicks off the series! This darkly humorous, wonderfully twisted, ‘boy and his dogs’ tale has been bitten, kicked in the crotch, attacked by a pack of wild dogs, and genetically modified into a superbly crafted story.
The Spot and Smudge series explores the love of a unique family, the loyalty of their very special dogs, and the perils of underestimating them. These smart, imaginative stories weave together elements of horror, thriller, mystery, espionage, crime, medical drama, and genetic engineering.
Note: This series contains some colorful language and mature themes.

“Shove over brother, let me show you the proper bloody way to strangle someone.”

The Hogans weren’t looking to start a war. They just wanted to leave their troubles behind, move closer to grandma, and let their kids adopt some damn puppies.

But their quaint new town is harboring some gruesome secrets…

…and their strange new pups are not what they appear to be.

There’s a dark connection between these mysterious orphaned canines and the town’s twisted criminals…and that connection is dragging the Hogans into a ruthless fight they aren’t prepared to win.

But the grit of a devoted family, like the loyalty of a faithful pair of dogs, shouldn’t be underestimated…

…Especially when those cunning dogs are the most significant leap forward in the forty million years of canine evolution.

Amazon

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Other books in the series.

The Glasgow Gray: Spot and Smudge - Book Two by [Udulutch, Robert]  Let Slip the Pups of War: Spot and Smudge - Book Three by [Udulutch, Robert]  Of Rogues and Revenge: Spot and Smudge - Book Four by [Udulutch, Robert]

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. Product images are linked.

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 Drop Dead Ornaments
An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery
by Lois Winston

 


Drop Dead Ornaments (An Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery)
Cozy Mystery
7th in Series
Self Published
Print Length: 209 pages
ASIN: B07GMZ2H4B
Not listed on GoodReads yet.

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Synopsis

Anastasia Pollack’s son Alex is dating Sophie Lambert, the new kid in town. For their community service project, the high school seniors have chosen to raise money for the county food bank. Anastasia taps her craft industry contacts to donate materials for the students to make Christmas ornaments they’ll sell at the town’s annual Holiday Crafts Fair.

At the fair Anastasia meets Sophie’s father, Shane Lambert, who strikes her as a man with secrets. She also notices a woman eavesdropping on their conversation. Later that evening when the woman turns up dead, Sophie’s father is arrested for her murder.

Alex and Sophie beg Anastasia to find the real killer, but Anastasia has had her fill of dead bodies. She’s also not convinced of Shane’s innocence. Besides, she’s promised younger son Nick she’ll stop risking her life. But how can she say no to Alex?

About the Author

USA Today bestselling and award-winning author Lois Winston writes mystery, romance, romantic suspense, chick lit, women’s fiction, children’s chapter books, and nonfiction under her own name and her Emma Carlyle pen name. Kirkus Reviews dubbed her critically acclaimed Anastasia Pollack Crafting Mystery series, “North Jersey’s more mature answer to Stephanie Plum.” In addition, Lois is an award-winning craft and needlework designer who often draws much of her source material for both her characters and plots from her experiences in the crafts industry.

Author Links

Website / Killer Crafts & Crafty Killers Blog

Pinterest / Twitter / Goodreads / Newsletter

Purchase Links 

Amazon   B&N

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a Rafflecopter giveaway

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DROP DEAD ORNAMENTS TOUR PARTICIPANTS

October 22 – The Avid Reader – REVIEW

October 22 – Lisa Ks Book Reviews – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 22 – Babs Book Bistro – SPOTLIGHT

October 23 – Mallory Heart’s Cozies – REVIEW

October 23 – A Blue Million Books – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 23 – Christa Reads and Writes – SPOTLIGHT

October 24 – 3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too! – SPOTLIGHT

October 24 – The Ninja Librarian – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 25 – FUONLYKNEW – SPOTLIGHT

October 25 – A Chick Who Reads – REVIEW

October 26 – Laura’s Interests – REVIEW

October 26 – A Wytch’s Book Review Blog – REVIEW, CHARACTER INTERVIEW

October 27 – T’s Stuff – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 27 – Mystery Thrillers and Romantic Suspense Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

October 28 – Readeropolis – CHARACTER INTERVIEW

October 28 – Island Confidential – SPOTLIGHT

October 29 – Ruff Drafts – SPOTLIGHT

October 29 – Cozy Up With Kathy

October 30 – Jane Reads – REVIEW, GUEST POST

October 30 – Mysteries with Character – AUTHOR INTERVIEW

October 31 – StoreyBook Reviews – CRAFT POST

November 1 – Celticlady’s Reviews – SPOTLIGHT

November 1 – The Pulp and Mystery Shelf – GUEST POST

November 1 – I’m All About Books – SPOTLIGHT  

November 2 – The Montana Bookaholic – CHARACTER GUEST POST

November 2 – The Book’s the Thing – REVIEW

November 2 – Brooke Blogs – SPOTLIGHT

November 3 – My Reading Journeys – CHARACTER GUEST POST

November 3 – The Self-Rescue Princess – REVIEW

November 3 – Here’s How It Happened – REVIEW

November 4 – My Devotional Thoughts – REVIEW, AUTHOR INTERVIEW

November 4 – Melina’s Book Blog – REVIEW

November 4 – Curling Up by the Fire – REVIEW

 

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. Product images are linked.

Today Jadie Jones, The Parliament House,
and Rockstar Book Tours are revealing the cover and an exclusive content for WITHER
& WAYWARD, the prequel and book 3 of her Young Adult Time Travel Fantasy
Romance which both release in 2019! Check out the awesome covers and enter the
giveaway!
On to the reveals! 
 
 
Title: WITHER (The Hightower Trilogy 0.5)
Author: Jadie Jones
Pub. Date: 2019
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: ?
Find it: Goodreads

 

 

For nearly a thousand years, Lucas, an
immortal shapeshifter, has waited for Spera, his murdered human lover, to
reincarnate. He has no way of knowing when or where she will return, or if she
will even look the same in her new life. He must rely on his ability to
recognize the actions of her fiery soul and her knack for attracting a killer
king’s attention.
 
After his search leads him to a quiet
Norwegian harbor town, a surreal encounter with his own kind leads to devastating
consequences, causing Lucas to question his belief in himself and his quest.
With his will and options quickly fading, Lucas is offered help from an old
enemy who claims to have knowledge of Spera’s return. But it comes at a price:
the assassination of the immortal king who took Spera’s life.
 
With an army raised and a strategy in
place, Lucas is ready to attack, until the sudden appearance of a ghost from
his past appears, forcing Lucas to take an even bigger risk than attempting to
kill a malicious king…letting him live.
WITHER – Prequel to the Hightower
Trilogy
Spera’s amber eyes appear first, burning
two holes in the dark of my sleeping mind. She’s inches from my face, but she
doesn’t see me. No matter how many times this happens, the utter lack of
recognition is a knife in my chest.
 
“Spera,” I hear my voice rasp, her name
echoing in my skull as she turns away, her black hair blending into the night
that surrounds her.
 
Another dream. Always the same. Chasing
this dead woman through the dark.
 
I know how it will end: I’ll wake up
calling for her, begging her to stop, to turn around, to give me any sign she
knows I’m there. She won’t. She never does. But I have to follow her. The ache
in my chest grows deeper the farther she goes from me. So, I follow after her,
Spera navigating shadows like a ship through still water. I follow in her wake,
always trailing, always two steps behind.
She startles me by breaking into a run.
She’s never run before. Her bare foot touches the ground, and the black surface
turns white. In an instant, snow is falling, blanketing the ground at an
incredible rate and speckling her hair with tiny white dots. Another step, and
the world around us pulses as the snow gives way to the greens and browns of a
forest, trees thick as houses. Another step and the shadows return. The side of
her face appears. Her lips part and air rushes out. Her elbows pump as she
strides faster, harder.
 
“Wait!” I bolt after her. My conscious
wrestles with the dream, threatening to roust me from this place. My focus
clings to the outline of her bare shoulders, to the glint of light from sources
unknown playing off her dancing hair. I want to stay where I can see her.
 
Before my eyes, the color of her hair
shifts from black to brown, and then to red. The length shortens, and then
spills long down her back again, now changing to blonde.
 
“Spera! It’s me! It’s Lucas! What’s
happening to you? What does this mean? Let me help you!” I cry out.
 
She veers hard to the left and a ray of
light pierces the dark, illuminating her side. She runs toward it. Her image is
reduced to an outline as she eclipses the glow. I scramble to keep up. We turn
again and the light fades, revealing an inky blue backdrop. The ground turns
cool and damp on my bare feet. A roar grows overhead. The scent of salt fills
my nose. The sensations are so vivid I have to remind myself I’m asleep.
 
I force my gaze away from her for a
moment and look up at the blue walls, which quiver with instability. Water.
We’re standing between two bodies of water that stretch so high I can’t discern
where the water ends and the sky begins. A single bead of ocean water trickles
down the left side to the black sand at my feet and my heart begins to pound.
.
.
Title: WAYWARD (The Hightower Trilogy #3)
Author: Jadie Jones
Pub. Date: 2019
Publisher: The Parliament House
Formats: Paperback, eBook
Pages: ?
Find it: Goodreads
Tanzy’s journey races toward an explosive end in Wayward, the third book of the
Hightower Trilogy.
 
Tanzy Hightower has crossed the veil between the Seen and Unseen worlds. She is now
the only mortal in a land teeming with creatures who want her dead. To stay
alive long enough to stop Asher and seal the door between worlds, she is forced
to accept his marriage proposal and seek refuge inside his fortress. Tanzy is
certain she can withstand any offers he makes to tempt her into opening the
door, but he possesses a bargaining chip she could never have imagined.
 
On the Seen side of the veil, Tanzy’s allies are fragmented, lost, and leaderless. They
must learn to work together as they gather more candidates and begin training
to defend their world against unfathomable predators poised to strike should
the veil holding them at bay dissolve. While Tanzy has accepted her own
inevitable death in fulfilling her destiny, her closest friends refuse to stop
searching for the impossible: a way to save Tanzy’s life.
 
A choice will be made. The veil will change. The worlds as Tanzy knows them will never be the
same.

WAYWARD – Book 3 in the Hightower
Trilogy
 (Told from Tanzy’s point of view)
Asher’s realm stretches in front of me: a diamond tundra,
the air a series of rainbows as light is refracted from the prismatic ground
and reflected a million times over. The sight is impossible, glorious,
breathtaking…
But my mind, my focus, my every nerve ending is centered on
what—on who—is behind me; the king of this realm—Asher. His breath warms the
base of my neck, and the heat from his body is near enough to send shivers up
my spine. He baited me into a third kill by sending a phony candidate to attack
Jayce. Jayce—who fought for me, and fought like hell for the truth—always the truth. Jayce, who might be
dead, whose blood covered Reese’s shirt when she was forced through the veil
with me after I killed Genesis.
In this moment, I have two truths: One—I must kill Asher,
even though I have no idea how. Two—if I lose ground to Asher, I will not
regain it.
My body explodes into motion. My heel aims for the dip between
his thigh and his knee. Asher is faster, dropping his leg back. My momentum
carries me too far forward. I stumble sideways and brace for the blow I’ve left
myself open to receive.
It doesn’t come.
I fight the urge to back away. I can’t run from him—there’s
no point, and I swore I would never again back down in his presence. A stupid
oath, in hindsight, but it sounded good at the time, and I am roughly
ninety-five percent certain he won’t kill me here and now. I also vowed to live
long enough to seal the veil between our two worlds. In this moment, with that
five percent feeling bigger by the second, I’m not sure I can keep both
promises.
In white linen pants and a fitted t-shirt, Asher doesn’t
look dressed for a fight. He puts his hands in his pockets and saunters closer,
a smile on his white lips, sunlight gleaming in his black hair. “We both know
you can’t kill me on my side of the veil, Tanzy. And if I wanted you dead, I’d
simply leave you for the Taigo,” he says. “Any of them would be very eager to
collect the bounty their leader has placed on your head.”
“I’m an Unseen now. No one can kill me here but you,” I
retort, clenching my hands so he won’t see them tremble. I wonder if they’re
still stained with Genesis’s blood.
Asher’s brow lifts in amusement at my misinformation.
“You’re not Unseen. You are very capable of dying.”
 
About Jadie:

 

 
Young-adult author.
Equine professional. Southern gal. Pacific Northwest Transplant. Especially
fond of family, sunlight, and cookie dough.​​
I wrote my first book
in seventh grade, filling one hundred and four pages of a black and white Mead
notebook. Back then I lived for two things: horses and R.L. Stine books. Fast
forward nearly twenty years, and I still work with horses, and hoard books like
most women my age collect shoes. It’s amazing how much changes… and how much
stays the same.
​The dream of publishing a novel has hitch-hiked with me down every other path I’ve taken
(and there have been many.) Waitress, farm manager, road manager, bank teller,
speech writer, retail, and more. But that need to bring pen to paper refused to
quiet. Finally, in 2009, I sat down, pulled out a brand new notebook, and once
again let the pictures in my head become words on paper.
​As a child, my grandfather would sit me in his lap and weave tales about the Cherokee nation, and a girl who belonged with horses. His words painted a whole new world, and my mind
would take flight. My hope – my dream – is that Tanzy’s journey does the same
for you.

 

Giveaway Details:
One lucky winner will win a $10 Amazon Gift Card, International.
.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Thanks so much for visiting fuonlyknew and Good Luck!

For a list of my reviews go HERE.

For a list of free eBooks updated daily go HERE

To see all of my giveaways go HERE.

I am an Amazon Affiliate. Product images are linked.