Book Review: Spell Disaster (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery #2)

Book Title: Spell Disaster (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery #2) spell-disaster

Book Author: Leighann Dobbs

Source: Downloaded from Amazon Kindle Unlimited.

Rating: 5 Dragon Paws 5 paws

Oh my stars! I mentioned last time that I added Leighann Dobbs to my favorite author list. She still is. My review for book 1 can be found here: Book Review: A Spell Of Trouble (Silver Hollow Paranormal Cozy Mystery #1)

In book two of the series, Izzy with her family are back, with full readhead witch powers. Along with them, we see back the local police, FBPI, and learn that Izzy and her family are Northies AND there is A Southies. Witch coven enemies- makes things all the more fun!

So, someone gets killed and Izzy is again on the case. It doesn’t help that Dex comes back into the picture, though I do wonder of what will happen in the books to come between them… especially since now they have a special bond. 😉

I can honestly say that I was shocked at the culprit, mainly because Izzy was focusing on the wrong suspects though I would have thought them to be suspects, too. All of the familiars are back and I still love them. They are coming along nicely with their powers.

The writing is fun and good for 16 years of age and older. Hardly any cursing, a feel of adventure, mixed with a cozy mystery. I highly recommend. Can’t wait for third book!

Blogger Recognition Award

blogger-recognition-award

A Thank You to Cassiopeia’s Moon for nominating me! Go check her blog out and read all of her awesome blog entries!

Rules:

  1. Write a post to show your award
  2. Give a brief story of how your blog started
  3. Give two pieces of advice for new bloggers
  4. thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog
  5. Select 15 other blogs you want to give the award to. (I’ll do the same as Moon. Whoever likes this post, gets nominated ^_^)

The Brief Story of How My Blog Started

I believe I answered this before and this is testing my consistency. 😉

I’ve actually started a blog on my author website, however, my website is hosted by webs and therefore is not linked to a blogging community. After a while, I researched a site that would be the best for blogging and started this blog that provides updates on my writing, shows my book reviews, provides writing tips, and more.

2 Pieces of Advice

Write from your heart. You don’t have to post everyday or force yourself to. You also don’t need to read everyday because let’s face it, life gets in the way so write from your heart. Read when you feel like it and write when you feel like it. Don’t push the muses because they will go somewhere else.

It’s not about the amount of followers.  Some people forget about that. They get so deep into their posts and wait for their blog to take flight. They imagine that a lot of new followers will suddenly show up. Be realistic. It’s not about numbers, but the followers themselves. You may have 5 followers and all of them comment on your work. Isn’t that nice? That should be enough. Don’t stress out that you have 5 or 50 and one of your followers has 600. All in due time. ^_^

Nominees

Will update this entry after each like. ^_^

Book Review: Envious

Book Title: Envious envious_cover_for_kindle

Book Author: Katie Keller-Nieman

Source: I was given a free electronic copy of this book by the author, in accordance with the terms of For Love of a Book’s Advance Reader Opportunity Program.

Rating: 3 Dragon Paws paw

This is a novel about a young girl in college who at first thought that she was crazy. I mean what type of a teen girl wouldn’t, after having day dreams and dreams or visions of what seems to be past lives? As the story goes deeper into Cassandra’s psyche and she comes close to real bad encounters, we realize that no, she’s not crazy, but in fact she did live all those lives. The ending which is a cliffhanger proved it.

The story is well written and I find that Katie chose a perfect name for her character- Cassandra. When Cassandra finally tells someone about her visions, she’s not believed, just like Cassandra of Troy. People did not believe her prophesies and I’m thinking that maybe, just maybe, Cassandra of Troy was an inspiration for the author when it came it came to her own Cassandra. If, not, well now she can say that she was the inspiration. 😉

It takes a while to get into the story and it helps that it’s well written. It took a while to realize that she didn’t start showing from their first life but from the life before the present. I still don’t know Aurora’s motivation for the reason behind what she did. It couldn’t be just jealousy and if it was just jealousy… having them be reborn again and again to only be made her ‘dogs’ were not really in her favor unless she really did love him. However, she didn’t know that Cassandra would be in the mix… so that’s confusing. Book 2 should reveal the motivations behind Aurora. Also, it was funny how Aurora was the evil girl. Usually, Aurora (name) is good for characters so it was a nice little twist.

This book is recommended for readers who like soulmates, challenges, past lives, magic, and romance. Also, readers should be okay with reading about alcohol and drug consumption, violence, and sex.

 

Book Review: Haunted Essence

Book Title: Haunted Essence haunted

Book Authors: L. A. Brown

Source: Was gifted by the author for an honest review

Rating: 4.5 Dragon Paws 5 paws

This is a beautifully written fantasy novel brought to you by L.A. Brown.

It’s about Aurora Night, a girl who is suddenly dropped into a magical world, along with sexy William, bossy Garnet, playful Vee, and Willow’s unlikable character by the name of Kan. Only in the last pages, you learn about Kan’s identity, Aurora’s feelings for a certain dangerous one, and learn about Garnet’s willingness to finally move on from his past.

The novel’s pace is a little slow, but it does move the story along. Warning: It ends on a somewhat cliffhanger so there should be a book 2 coming out in the future. Also, if events concerning Willow went another way than I would not want to read book 2, but all good.

It was nice to see such a great character development. All characters, except for Kan, went through a transformation. I didn’t like Aurora at the beginning and frankly she’s still not my favorite character, Garnet is.She did start to grow on me as she learned more and more about herself. L.A. Brown did a terrific job showing that the girl within Aurora and didn’t push her to grow up too fast, though Aurora did enter a dangerous lifestyle.

It was nice to see a new spin on the Shadow Walkers. We saw story’s events from multiple point of views and experienced a different side to William who is a hybrid mystical creature. The demon within was perfect and made things much more interesting. He balanced out the whimsy side of William and it was a laugh.

I would love to see other cover ideas. Would be nice to see Garnet and William on the cover or maybe the evil queen. Oh, and I want to know what happens to Harsha in book 2. She’s really asking for it. Also, would be nice for Sam to be just gone already. He did enough to scar Aurora and enough killing.

I recommend this novel to fantasy lovers. ^_^

 

 

The Entertainer Blogger Award

Today (well yesterday), I got nominated for The Entertainer Blogger Award!!

Thank you so much ladies, Akaluv and Cassiopeia’s Moon, for nominating me. You ladies make our community shine.

Please go and check out their blogs. Both of them have awesome stories, tips, and other stuff. ^_^

The Rules

  1. Thank the person who nominated you and link to their blog.
  2. Add these rules to your post.
  3. Answer all the questions below.
  4. Display the award picture in your post.
  5. Nominate 12 other bloggers who are funny, inspiring, and most important of all, Entertaining!

Since I got nominated by 2 awesome bloggers, there are 2 sets of questions. Choose the ones that you want to answer. ^_^

Akaluv’s Questions:

What do you hope to gain from blogging?

Meeting other bloggers, authors, writers, story tellers, artists, song writers, poets… you name it. I would also would like to gain their friendships and share my experiences as an author while once in a while promoting my own work. 😉

What genre of film entertains you the most?

At the moment, holiday movies. Not sure if that’s a genre but it falls under Family/ Feel Good/ Comedy genres. I just love the ‘sparkly’ feel that they leave behind and they make things lighter.

Do you consider yourself a writer, and what inspires you to write?

Yes, I do.

My muses are my inspiration. They meet me head on when a new character is born and let me know what exciting events await her or him. They make me want to add little things into my writing – drawings, secret messages, memories, poems, songs, and guides. They allow me to travel to other worlds without actually leaving my desk, bed, any place really.

Why did you choose your particular WordPress username?

 

Ever since I’ve been a little girl, I’ve been in love with mystical creatures and wolves. My mother always found it funny how I wanted the wolf eat the pigs in the story 3 Little Pigs. She said that I would say  “Don’t the pigs know that he’s hungry and they’re food?”

As I grew up and learned about mystical creatures, the creatures who became close to my heart were dragons. I think of them as friends for I believe them to live on an astral plane and have a couple familiars. I believe the perfect world would be Where Dragons Reside because it would be one fun and intelligent world.

What is your favorite book, and why does it speak to you?

There’s too many out there though I do like this series: lost

What is your favorite song, and why does it speak to you?

At the moment it’s from a Russian Play of a remake of Aladdin. I just find it so much fun. Please check it out here at this link: Оскар Кучера.Мальчик хочет в Багдад

What is your favorite photograph, and why does it speak to you?

My husband proposed to me in a photo booth and I still keep that string of photos. A perfect way to remember a very happy day. ^_^

Cassiopeia’s Moon Questions:

Why did you start a blog in the first place?

The media’s fault. All forms of media say that authors need to have blogs…. and facebook… and twitter and stars know what else! 😉

What is your favourite book?

Akaluv had a similar question but here’s the cover for book 2 in the series:desired

What do you dislike the most?

Liars. Need I say more?

What is your favourite food item from the mall?

Recently they added a nice chicken stand. You can get chicken with two sides- I usually add macaroni and cheese & potatoes. Nicely cooked.

What is your favourite past time?

Reading, drawing, cooking, and spending time with my family.

I Nominate:

 

 

You

I know that there are 12 spots and I would like to choose everyone because everyone are awesome and entertaining! So choose your questions and answer ^_^

 

2016 Goodreads Best Choice Awards

Seven Hours: Challenge Accepted is Eligible for voting!

SevenHours_Black

  • Date Published:  July 31, 2016
  • English
  • Fiction
  • Rating: 4.43

Will be nice to be just in the running ^_^

 

 

 

 

How to vote:

  • Goodreads Homepage
  • Click on Choice Awards of 2016
  • Click on Category Fiction
  • Find this Box:
    • write-in
    • Type in: Seven Hours: Challenge Accepted
    • You’ll see below:
      • write-in-2
      • And Press Vote!
  • You can do a search for any of your favorite books and vote!

 

Let the fun begin!

 

 

Book Review: Reborn in Shadow (Shadow Walkers #3)

Book Title: Reborn in Shadow (Shadow Walkers #3) reborn

Book Authors: Cynthia Luhrs

Source: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 5 Dragon Paws 5 paws

It’s all about kilts, pirates, women, dogs, dragons, and more misfits happening in March. The story actually starts on my birthday, too bad that it wasn’t a happy beginning.

Now that I’ve read three books and a novella, I can honestly say that men are nothing without women by their side. 😉

Things got darker in this story though some light was shed on Hamish (which I was thankful for). I no longer hated him after reading about what really happened to his and Colin’s parents.

The gods are still up to no good. There’s a threat at the end of the book which gives us an idea of what happens in the next book. Some are reunited and some are lost. Oh and I want to try that wine opening trick!

I would recommend this to eighteen and over. Prepare to shed some tears.

Pitching tip for self-published authors Part 2

I wasn’t going to do a follow up post to Pitching tip for self-published authors but a recent email changed my mind.

This morning I have received an email titled “Book Review Exchange Request” and decided to check it out. I’m part of a Goodreads group where we exchange books for reviews and it’s really a fun time so I’m never surprised to receive such emails.

However, when I started reading the email, I realized that this author, let’s call him Bob, already made the request on August 21. I denied doing the exchange due to the genre of the book, to which I did not get a response to.

I don’t mind receive a request twice. It happens. Self-published authors spend hours looking for bloggers to read their book and email hundreds to which only a few respond. Though here’s a tip: Check your email for the email or person that you’re emailing if you’re not keeping track of whom you have contacted so you won’t email that blogger twice. The best case scenario is that you will be ignored. The worst case scenario is when the blogger would respond to you and you don’t want a mad blogger emailing you.  

So here’s the kick of today’s email.

  1. He didn’t check his sent box in his email
  2. He made a mistake of naming my book
  3. He apologized without naming my book
  4. It took him an hour to realize his mistake
  5. He didn’t address me directly

email

I darkened out some parts so you guys won’t be able to find Bob.

Tip: Learn from this email and try not to do what Bob did.

I am still thinking if I should reply with “Please do not contact me again.” or I should just ignore it.

If you guys think that I should reply, please help with the appropriate phrasing. I do have a feeling that this was not the last time that I heard from Bob. 

 

Book Review: Iced in Shadow (Shadow Walkers #2.5)

Book Title:   Iced in Shadow iced

Book Authors: Cynthia Luhrs

Source: Kindle Unlimited

Rating: 5 Dragon Paws 5 paws

 

It’s all about kilts, pirates, women, dogs, dragons, and more during Christmas time.

It’s a good story for parents because they can think about how they treat their kids. It’s hard having an older sibling and harder when parents talk about favorites.

It’s a good story of hope because one can start being thankful for who they have in their lives. Even the god was happy to be invited to a celebration. It’s about family.

Since there are some sexual scenes, I would recommend this to eighteen and over.