Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 255

Review: SWANS OF ATLANTIS by C.L. Mannarino

14-year old Katrina had a crush on 18-year old Matt, her friend. She wanted Matt to be her swan, to twine her neck with his in an eternal embrace. Problem was that he was engaged to a girl named Sarah. Hurt slashes through Kat as she observes these tiny gestures between Matt and Sarah. But Kat can see through Matt and knows that he was inflicting pain on himself (cutting and drinking.) She reminds him that she won't hurt him—if only he could see that. 
Words are poetic and pensive. Story is sensitive and sentimental with a slow pace. It's mostly told in Kat's POV. As she goes through school, she tries to save face with measured words as her friends deal with their own problems. The whole thing eventually settles on middling patterns of academics and social gatherings. Sometimes it was hard to make sense of statements such as, “true blues and greens, car honks.” This book was definitely aiming for a literary sense and it had a lot of flowery and sensory details to invoke the reader, but the narrative wasn't as strong as it should've been.
My rating: 3 stars

Blog Tour: CHASING WILD HORSES by Mila Nicks

Chasing Wild Horses Wild Horse Ranch Book 1 by Mila Nicks Genre: Contemporary Romance 

A slow-burn romance between two outsiders from opposite worlds:
He’s the biggest outcast in town…
Chase Collins has never met a horse he didn’t like. Too bad he can’t say the same for people. In his hometown Lutton, his poor reputation follows him like a dark shadow. It’s best for everyone if he sticks to where he belongs. At least on Wild Horse Ranch, he’s safe from judgment. Then one day a familiar face from 10 years ago shows up out of the blue.
She’s a wanderer who comes and goes…
Samara Grant is a nomad at heart. She doesn’t like staying put for too long. But when her Grandma Bunny passes away, she has to put her carefree lifestyle on hold to handle her affairs. She might have spent childhood summers in Lutton, Texas, but it’s no place to live. She wants to get in and out as fast as possible. Little does she know life has other plans.
Together, they form an unbreakable bond…
After a series of near-death experiences, Samara decides to take back control of her life. She asks Chase to teach her how to ride. Neither expect to find common ground—and a fiery attraction—when Chase agrees. But their blossoming relationship isn’t celebrated by everyone. The closer Chase and Samara get, the more an unforseen enemy seeks to tear them apart... 
Goodreads * Amazon



Excerpt 1The kiss kept him up at night. For hours he lay in his bed and stared up at the dark ceiling. He couldn’t close his eyes. The second he did the image of them flashed behind his lids. It replayed for him like a movie on a projector screen. Only that it felt too real; it hadbeen real.The sensations enveloped him. The earthy musk of rain hung in the air. The wet soil squelched under their boots, clumps of dirt now muddied. Raindrops clung to their skin and dampened their clothes until the soaked fabric weighed them down. His usually wooden exterior washed away as if an act by the rain itself. He wiped his face and blinked against the falling droplets, and there she was. Right in front of him with breathless curiosity. He still couldn’t say what it was that came over him. His critical mind pressed pause. His heart thwacked against his rib cage at full speed. His eyes were wide and open for what felt like the first time. Hers were on his face, pools of deep brown that he got lost in. Before he knew what he was doing, he reached for her. His fingers clamped around her arm and they orbited each other. The pull was inevitable. Those full, dusky pink lips of hers begging to be kissed…

Mila Nicks is an emerging romance author on a mission to pen heartfelt love stories featuring women of color.  
From the time she was a small girl with crayons and an overactive imagination, she’s had a passion for storytelling. In addition to receiving her Bachelor’s degree in Journalism, she is presently pursuing her MFA in Creative Writing. She has also served her country in the United States Air Force. 
When she isn’t penning uplifting love stories, you can find this imaginative writer traveling across the globe, sampling new cuisines, or spending quality time with her spunky pet Chihuahua, Zayden. 
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$25 Amazon giftcard and free copy of an ebook 
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Blog Tour: THE MAN FROM MILWAUKEE by Rick R. Reed

The Man From Milwaukee by Rick R. Reed Genre: Horror, LGBTQ 

It’s the summer of 1991 and serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer has been arrested. His monstrous crimes inspire dread around the globe. But not so much for Emory Hughes, a closeted young man in Chicago, who sees in the cannibal killer a kindred spirit, someone who fights against the dark side of his own nature, as Emory does. He reaches out to Dahmer in prison via letters. 
The letters become an escape—from Emory’s mother, dying from AIDS, from his uncaring sister, from his dead-end job in downtown Chicago, but most of all, from his own self-hatred. 
Dahmer isn’t Emory’s only lifeline as he begins a tentative relationship with Tyler Kay. He falls for him, and just like Dahmer, wonders how he can get Tyler to stay. Emory’s desire for love leads him to confront his own grip on reality. For Tyler, the threat of the mild-mannered Emory seems inconsequential, but not taking the threat seriously is at his own peril. 
Can Emory discover the roots of his own madness before it’s too late and he finds himself following in the footsteps of the man from Milwaukee? 
**Get the book for 40% off when you buy from the publisher !!** 
Add to GoodreadsAmazon * B&N * Nine Star Press


Book Trailer 1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrSs73qY7rc


Book Trailer 2 https://youtu.be/-BnXZOnG3bc






Real Men. True Love. 
Rick R. Reed is an award-winning and bestselling author of more than fifty works of published fiction. He is a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Entertainment Weekly has described his work as “heartrending and sensitive.” Lambda Literary has called him: “A writer that doesn’t disappoint…” Find him at www.rickrreedreality.blogspot.com. Rick lives in Palm Springs, CA, with his husband, Bruce, and their fierce Chihuahua/Shiba Inu mix, Kodi. 
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$20 Amazon, Ebook copy of my horror novel, THIRD EYE (1 winner each) 
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Blog Tour: SAILING ON THE TIDES OF BURNING SAND by Michael Darling

Sailing on the Tides of Burning Sand and Other Stories by Michael Darling Genre: Science Fiction, Fantasy, Horror, Short Stories 

Ghosts. Monsters. Harry Houdini Meets Charles Dickens in Outer Space. 
These amazing stories and more await between the covers of Michael Darling’s first short story collection, featuring all the stories from his bestselling Tales from the Behindbeyond series, including an exclusive new story "The Morrigan's Sister," only available in this volume. From humorous to frightening to thought-provoking, these twelve brilliant stories are an enchanting gift from one of fiction’s most inventive new voices. 
“A unique, often creepy delight.” - Michaelbrent Collings Bram Stoker Award Finalist and Bestseller 
"Michael Darling is a talent, a master of perspective and playful storytelling.” - Johnny Worthen Award-Winning Author of What Immortal Hand 
Contents: 
"Sailing on the Tides of Burning Sand" - Science Fiction 
A man and woman, apparent strangers, sail over a surreal desert landscape on their way to a dangerous and uncertain destiny. 
"Temp" - Science Fiction 
A young woman, working beneath a futuristic city, learns that some risks are worth taking. 
"Two Mock, A Killingbird" - Science Fiction 
A defense attorney knows her client hid his girlfriend's body for weeks in a freezer, but his motive is even more bizarre than the crime. 
"Spera Angelorum" - Science Fiction 
Harry Houdini and Charles Dickens meet in outer space to entertain a planet of angels, until a demon appears and there is no escape. 
"Grandmother Who Breaks the Sky" - Fantasy/Horror 
Ray Bradbury meets H.P. Lovecraft as a little boy defies the curse of a mummified Indian princess, prepared to halt the emergence of an ancient god, even if it costs the lives of everyone close to him. 
"The Hollow" - Horror 
A 19th-century scientist proves his theory that he can scare his wife to death, but when he succeeds, the real nightmare begins. 
"Meredith in St. Louis" - Horror 
An NSA agent wants to get close to the cute guy on the train until a viral outbreak brings her closer than she could ever want. 
"Blank Check" - Horror/Comedy 
Hunting demons can be hell, especially when a vengeful ex delivers two demons for the price of one. 
"The Mark" - Fantasy 
A Behindbeyond Tale. The Irish mob finds out that they've not only summoned a Fae from a magical realm to help them with a robbery, they've also summoned a more dangerous criminal. Winner of the United Authors Association Grand Prize. 
"Lucky Day" - Fantasy 
A Behindbeyond Tale. Recounts the adventures of a young Fae halfling as he attempts to fulfill his mother's destiny. A story that parallels events from the bestselling novel Got Luck by Michael Darling. 
"The Morrigan's Sister" - Fantasy 
A Behindbeyond Tale. Erin works for the Miami-Dade medical examiner's office and gets way more than she bargained for as she uses her magical powers to solve the mystery of the Popsicle Killer. Available only in this short story collection. 
"Feasty-Feast" - Horror/Comedy 
Tiny predators who live in the wall and feed on memories prove without a doubt that you are what you read. Winner of the Silver Quill award. 
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Book Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfCe1nuLnxw


Q&A
What should readers know about Sailing on the Tides of Burning Sand?This book is a compilation of short stories from the past five years of work. Almost all of them have been published previously, and it was time to collect the best ones and put them all together in one place. There’s a mix of fantasy, science-fiction, and horror stories, so, something for everyone! Some stories are award winners as well and several are written in the same universe as my Behindbeyond urban fantasy series.
Sounds interesting! What more can you tell us about the stories?The fantasy stories are also the most humorous. Something about magic is entertaining and somehow loosens up my funny bone. I don’t write to a specific genre, usually, but I try to tell each story in the most interesting way and each one finds its own genre. Some stories are a mix of genres, really, like “Grandmother Who Breaks the Sky” which one reviewer said was Ray Bradbury meets H.P. Lovecraft. I thought that was a nice compliment!The title story, “Sailing on the Tides of Burning Sand” is fully sci-fi. It relates the story of a couple trapped on a boat as it moves across a nameless desert. There’s a lot about love and marriage and forgiveness to it. I spent ten years as a professional magician, and I wondered what would happen if technology or evolution gave everyone special abilities. How would pretend magic have value to people who could actually do magical things? That’s how Harry Houdini and Charles Dickens meet on a distant planet in “Spera Angelorum.” Readers who like that one might also like my novel Hollowfall.The scary ones are more primal. “The Hollow” is about a scientist finding out it’s possible to scare someone to death—and what happens next. The shortest story, less than 1,000 words, is “Feasty-Feast” about brain-eating parasites with a surprisingly sweet story to tell. Really! There will be an animated film for this story in the next few months. Meanwhile, I’m including it for your readers to enjoy for free!
Awesome! You mentioned several stories set in the Behindbeyond universe?Yes. There are three stories that are connected to my book series. You don’t need to know anything from the novels to enjoy them, although fans of the novels will read them from a different perspective. “The Mark” is a backstory for the villains of the series. It’s always fun to write anti-heroes. “Lucky Day” coincides with the setting and events from chapter one of Got Luck and adds a whole lot of depth along with a separate adventure for that story’s main character. The man character of the series also falls in love with another character, named Erin. They accidentally get married in book one, which was fun to write, but that’s not the beginning of their relationship. “The Morrigan’s Sister” starts with how these fan-favorite characters meet but the story is all hers. This story has never been published and will remain exclusive to this collection. Each of these stories, however, provide a solid introduction to the series and, hopefully, readers will enjoy them and crave something more lengthy and involving. I’ve included an excerpt from the latest book, Got Lost, for your readers to try. 
What’s life like for you at home?Our family has resided in the same house since before my wife and I had our first anniversary. The house has been the victim of my efforts to add and improve on it. It's also experienced the swelling required to accommodate a growing family as we have added kids, pets, another kid, another pet, as happens in life. Our children are starting to venture out on their own now, and it’s amazing to see how accomplished and interesting they are. To keep us company, we have a big St. Bernese dog. He looks like a St. Bernard but he’s half Bernese mountain dog. While we didn’t intend to do so, the Darlings do have a "Nana" dog, which makes for a lot of jokes.Before the pandemic, we liked to travel, and hope to resume at some point. A lot of settings for my stories come from our trips to Europe, South America, and various favorite spots around the United States. Being stuck at home, however, isn’t too bad. We like to cook and most of us take turns putting together meals that an uninformed stranger might mistake for “gourmet.”
What are you working on next?That’s a situation that seems to change almost every day. I made a conscious marketing decision to spread my work across multiple genres and now I’m working on going deeper. I’m working on a young adult sci-fi novel next. It’s titled Earthplum and it’s about a teenage girl with synesthesia on the run from the FBI and aliens. It’s a high-concept plot that might redefine sci-fi to a degree and it would make a great movie. After that, I have a middle-grade epic fantasy series that I’ve been working on for a while. Then it will be time for another novel from the Behindbeyond. I hope to get at least two of these projects finished for next year.
How can readers find you?I have all the usual social media. Find me at the links below! At the moment, readers can get a copy of “Grandmother Who Breaks the Sky” for free by visiting my website.
Website: https://www.michaelcdarling.comFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/behindbeyond/Twitter: https://twitter.com/michaelcdarlingInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/michaeldarlingwritesBookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/michael-darlingAmazon: https://www.amazon.com/Michael-Darling/e/B00SKNC6ZGGoodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14808166.Michael_Darling

Thanks so much for hosting me today!
 
#1 Amazon bestseller Michael Darling has worked as a butcher, a librarian, and a magician. Not all at the same time. He nests in the exquisitely beautiful Rocky Mountains with his equally breathtaking wife, their normal-if-you-don't-look-too-close children and a very large St. Bernese dog named Appa. Yes, the Darlings have a "Nana" dog. Michael's award-winning short fiction is frequently featured in anthologies. Got Luck, his first novel, was published in March 2016 and the sequel, Got Hope, in 2017. Book three in the series, Got Lost, premieres in September. He continues to work on this series as well as other projects.
Michael graduated from Weber State University with a degree in English Literature and loves to blend the classic with the contemporary in his writing. His early work included several plays that were professionally produced along with a number of radio programs that aired in 80 markets around the world. Besides writing, Michael also loves to travel, dabble in languages, and cook elaborate meals.
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1st Prize - $15 Amazon Gift Card + Any ONE of my previously published novels 2nd Prize - $15 Amazon Gift Card 3rd Prize - $10 Amazon Gift Card 
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Blog Tour: THE HORRORS HIDING IN PLAIN SIGHT by Rebecca Rowland

The Horrors Hiding in Plain Sight by Rebecca Rowland Genre: Psychological Horror, Transgressive Dark Fiction, Short Stories 

Three adolescent bullies discover that the vicious crime for which they were never charged will haunt them in unimaginably horrific ways; a dominatrix and a bondage fetishist befriend one another as one’s preoccupation grows to consume his life. A man persuades his wife to start a family, but her reluctant pregnancy comes with a dreadful side effect. A substitute teacher’s curiosity about a veteran teacher’s methodology provides her with a lesson she won’t soon forget. An affluent, xenophobic lawyer callously kills two immigrants with her car with seeming impunity; a childless couple plays a sadistic game with a neglected juvenile each Halloween. An abusive father, a dating site predator, a neglected concierge, and an obsessed co-worker: they are all among the residents of Rebecca Rowland’s universe, and they dwell in the everyday realm of crime and punishment tempered with fixation and madness. There are no vampires, zombies, or magical beings here; no, what lurk in this world are even more terrifying. Once you meet them, you will think twice before turning your back on that seemingly innocuous neighbor or coming to the aid of the helpless damsel in the dark parking lot. These monsters don’t lurk under your bed or in the shadows: they are the people you see every day at work, in the supermarket, and in broad daylight. They are the horrors that hide in plain sight, and they will unsettle you more than any supernatural being ever could. 
Trigger Warning: Contains graphic violence (though not continually) including accidental death, murder, and suicide; sexual content, and occasional graphic language. Sexual assault is implied but not described in a graphic nature. No animals are harmed. 
Goodreads * Amazon

Excerpt:


Excerpt from “Bent” (second story, The Horrors Hiding in Plain Sight, Rebecca Rowland)


I. Jesse      Confucius said, “if you choose a career that you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.” I didn’t become a nurse because I like to help people. I didn’t become a nurse because I have an affinity for keeping cool in hectic situations or because I have a preference for soft-soled shoes with solid instep support. I became a nurse because it seemed like the most obvious transition after practically consuming anatomy books throughout my adolescence. To say that I was fixated would be an understatement. There were times when I wanted to peel the images from the glossy pages, drape them over my forearms like perfectly formed crepes, and carry them daintily to the solace of my bedroom where I could consume them still warm from the pan.       No, I didn’t enjoy anatomy book drawings like every other adolescent boy “enjoys” them—as if that isn’t the euphemism of the year—I mean, their ultimate purpose was by-proxy masturbation material of course, but not in the way you think. You see, I didn’t use the illustrations to view naked bodies. I used them to investigate. To formulate. To plan.        Sure, maybe it all stems from that somewhat traumatic incident when I was about eight and the babysitter was curled up on the couch, watching The Exorcist on HBO. I needed to pee, so I crawled out of my bed and crept down the hall in my Ninja Turtle footie pajamas and did my business. For whatever reason, I chose not to return straight to bed; instead, I padded further down the hall and tip-toed into the shag-rugged living room, pitch dark save for the strobing alien glow of the television. It was just my good fortune that the scene that was playing on the screen was the one where Ellen Burstyn is trapped in her daughter’s bedroom, furniture sliding along the floors and blocking the exits, while Linda Blair hacks away at her hoo-ha with the business end of a crucifix. I froze, completely transfixed by what was going on. And then Linda’s head turned in a way I had never seen a head turn. It was as if all of the joints and cartilage and muscle and bone in her body had melted. In that moment, I realized: there was nothing keeping a human body from becoming a life-sized Stretch Armstrong.      The funny thing is, the creepy back-bending spider walk scene wasn’t reintroduced by William Friedkin until the movie was rereleased in 2000. I can’t fathom what kind of effect that scene would’ve had on my sexual identity.      After that night, I became obsessed. I needed to know every detail of the human skeletal and muscular system. I dumped all of my GI Joes into a big pile on my bedroom floor and spent hours trying to bend them into yoga poses even the Kama Sutra would frown upon. Zarana and Zanzibar were my favorites, and looking back now, I can see why: unlike most of the hero Joes, those villains were half-naked, clothed in what I, a now rational and somewhat worldly adult, can only describe as “daddy bondage wear.” Zanzibar, with his swarthy eye patch, midlife crisis ponytail, and brown and silver codpiece, sported a ripped orange t-shirt like a bizarre fetish club stripper. Zarana, the decidedly more butch of the two, wore ripped jeans, a pink halter, and elbow-length leather gloves. The red knee pads draped over the tops of her boots are a detail crystalized in my memory, one that immediately came to mind when Samantha, my rich, blonde, dumb-as-rocks girlfriend in high school, decided to deliver a special present for my sixteenth birthday but insisted on kneeling on the throw pillows from her parents’ Sunpan Modern Bugatti grain leather sofa while doing it.       I spent hours, more likely months, of my tween years trying to bend Zanzibar and Zarana and their merry band of Tom Savini Sex-Machine-costume inspired action figures into human pretzels. After my father took me kite flying on Wells Beach one summer, I swiped the spool of string and repurposed it as fixing rope, manipulating tiny Joe bodies into contortionist tableaus. After weeks of careful, systematic stretching, I managed to turn Zanzibar’s head completely around until he was a fortune teller in Dante’s Inferno, forever doomed to look only behind himself and tickle his silver skull pendant with the tip of his hair. Unfortunately for Zarana, though, I became too impatient, and frustrated after weeks of trying to make her elbows entwine behind her back, she broke in two, her torso spilling a dried-out black rubber band and her splayed legs held together only by a tiny metal hook.       Twenty-five years later, I still have her legs. Sometimes I think about attaching an ornament hook to them and hanging them somewhere out of sight on the town’s Christmas tree, but that might give the police a clue to my identity, and it’s best not to be reckless after what I’ve done lately.
II. Rebekah      My name means “tied up” in Hebrew. I shit you not. When I was a kid, a bunch of us looked up our names in my mom’s old baby book shoved way in the back of the old, musty bookcase. Apparently, it had been a real party game in the late 1970s, deciding what to name your little bundle of post-Roe v. Wade joy. When we cracked open the spine, a few dog-eared pages pulled us right to our brood’s namesakes. My older brother, Matthew? His name means “Gift of God.” My sister Abigail? “Gives joy.” And my cousin Adam, his name translates into “Son of the red earth,” whatever the fuck that means. Rebekah? “Bound.” Restrained. Confined.       The irony kills me.      I didn’t set out to become a dominatrix. I mean, I know everyone in the sex trade says that, unless they’re lying and/or coked up so high they’d say just about anything to keep the camera rolling. When you’re sitting at that worn wooden desk in third grade, tracing the scratches and graffiti with your finger, all the while cursing the son of a bitch whose etchings cause your pencil to make holes in your papers because the surface below isn’t perfectly flat anymore, you don’t daydream about one day, maybe someday, wearing a latex cat suit and cracking a whip against some thirty-something-year-old district attorney whose suit jacket shoulder smells a little like sour milk and Fruity Pebbles. You don’t go shoe shopping with Mom the summer before you begin junior high and imagine the sales clerk licking the toe of your brown Candies t-strap loafer. You don’t fantasize about hog-tying your senior prom date and stuffing him in the trunk of his dad’s Dodge Aries while you stab your undercooked chicken cordon blue and listen to your best friend whine about her stiletto heels totally killing her feet.       I mean, maybe you do think about all of those things. But you don’t make it a career choice. When Mrs. Zahn, my high school guidance counselor, called me into her office in October of my senior year to have “the talk”—you know, since I hadn’t expressed any interest in applying to college, entering the military, or even pursuing a dead-end career as a Citgo convenience store attendant or IHOP waitress—I had nothing to offer her, not even a half-assed line of bullshit about wanting to become a kindergarten teacher or a famous fashion designer. I simply stared at her and waited out the five minutes of silence that hung between us until the bell rang for next period.       I loafed around community college for a few years, even honed a trade working for an engraver part-time to pay my rent. The place was called “Stanislau’s Personalized Gifts,” and Stan, the mild-mannered owner with the heavy Polish accent, was patient and taught me first how to engrave metal plates using a machine. After a few months, I was using the hand stencils and detailing calligraphy like an ancient stenographer on papyrus.  I even tried my hand at stone etching a few times and seriously considered going into the tombstone design business. I still might. It’s an art, transcribing someone’s last identity onto a marble slab. I dabbled in wood carving a bit, too, and was even hired to create a set of “special edition” paddles for Pi Beta Phi’s Rush Week; the sorority liked my work so much that they let me keep one of them afterwards. I still personalize paddles for wedding shower gifts every now and then. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.



Rebecca Rowland is the transgressive dark fiction author of the short story collection The Horrors Hiding in Plain Sight, co-author of the novel Pieces, and curator of the horror anthologies Ghosts, Goblins, Murder, and Madness; Shadowy Natures, and the upcoming The Half That You See and Unburied. Her writing has appeared in venues such as Coffin Bell, Waxing & Waning, and the 
WiHM online collections The Ones You Don’t Bring Home to Mama and Final Girls with 20/20 Vision and has been anthologized in collections by Red Room Press, Transmundane Press, Forty-Two Books, Emerald Bay Books, Twisted Wing Productions, Thurston Howl Publications, J. Ellington Ashton Press, and Dark Ink. To surreptitiously stalk her, visit RowlandBooks.com. 
Website * Instagram * Amazon * Goodreads




$50 Amazon gift card 
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Review: MISSING HER by J.L. Willow

Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

Vanessa Stockton and her best friend Eliza are inseparable. They’re living the best years of their lives, enjoying high school, boyfriends and planning for their futures. All that changes, though, when Eliza goes out to a party and never makes it home. Months pass without a break in the case, until one day Vanessa wakes up . . . in Eliza’s mind. Even more disturbing, she discovers she’s woken up two days before Eliza goes missing. Vanessa has no choice but to relive her best friend’s memories leading up to the disappearance and discover the truth about what happened before time runs out. But is the past set in stone? Or can Vanessa save her friend from an unspeakable fate?




My review: Eliza Barrows: Missing
Inseparable since the 2nd grade, Vanessa was now forced to live without her best friend for the last 5 months. No one has seen or heard from Eliza since she vanished without a trace at a party, and Vanessa hasn’t stopped trying to find her. With everyone telling her to move on, Vanessa makes one desperate plea to find out what happened to her friend. The next morning, Vanessa wakes up in Eliza’s room AS ELIZA. She finds that she’s reliving the day as Eliza and she was invited to the party—the last place she was seen. Could she stop her from going to the party? Could she actually change her fate? Or was this all just a dream? It would seem that Vanessa actually has a real shot at saving her friend until she realizes that she couldn’t control everything Eliza did. Interesting!
In part 2, Vanessa becomes Tony, a college man. What? What happened here?
The main character seems to body-hop a little too much. First, it was Eliza, then Tony, then Jackie. Why? Evidently, these were all kids that have been abducted. Once you get more into, things clear up more. The day-to-day stuff can lag a bit. The only thing that kept me reading was to find out how this would all end. Would Eliza, Tony, and Jackie be saved? The ending was a remarkable revelation.
A pretty good read!
My rating: 4 stars

Review: THE BOX IN THE CUTS by Debra Castaneda

Two 17-year old girls burned to a crisp with no evidence or witnesses.


Samantha Reyes, a high school student and co-editor of the newspaper, finds it hard to believe and can’t seem to shake it. Another girl burned to death on campus brings panic to the community.


If it’s not a serial killer with gasoline or a flame torch, then what could it be? Was it spontaneous combustion?


I thought this sounded interesting, but the story was slow and mediocre. What was with the journal entries from the 1800’s? An angry spirit perhaps?


Meanwhile, in the present, Sam tries to work on several stories for the paper while confusion of the girls’ deaths hang in the air. The whole thing started with research and ends in a ghost hunt. It was intriguing, but not as gripping as I thought it be.


My rating: 3 stars

Blog Tour: THE AFTERMATH OF DRIFTING AWAY by Audrey Beaudoin

The Aftermath of Drifting Away Fate Book 1 by Audrey Beaudoin Genre: New Adult Contemporary Romance 

We survived the plane crash. 
We survived days on a raft in the middle of the ocean. Right when all hope to get rescued crumbled, we shared a kiss that left me heartbroken―my first and last kiss. 
Or so I thought. Because we didn’t die. 
My plan is to never see Chris Ross again. To keep hanging out with his sister without crossing his path. Getting my life back together and working on my goals are the only things that matter. I have plans, and they don’t include love. 
But then he shows up at my workplace, asking for my friendship. When I learn something that changes everything, I’m determined to stay away and not let myself fall for him. 
Too bad he’s persistent. Too bad I can’t stop thinking about the damn kiss. Too bad it’s nice having him around and being his friend. 
If things were to change, they could get really complicated… 
The Aftermath of Drifting Away is a sweet contemporary forbidden romance. It is the first book in the Fate series that can be read as a stand-alone. 
Goodreads * Amazon




Audrey Beaudoin is a YA and NA contemporary romance author from Canada. Being a French native speaker didn’t stop her from writing her first English story in 2017. She writes sweet romance novels, sometimes with a bit of action and suspense. 
Website * Facebook * Twitter * Instagram * Bookbub * Goodreads



$15 Amazon giftcard, e-ARC of The Aftermath of Drifting Away – 1 winner each 
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Review: THE DEAD GIRL UNDER THE BLEACHERS by Donna M. Zadunajsky

Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

Three girls…
Three dead bodies…
The quiet town of Craven Falls is depleting in population. One by one…
Scarlet Fitzgerald thought it would be fun to play a game on Laura Stevenson, a nobody at Craven Falls High. But what happens when the game unleashes buried secrets Scarlet doesn’t want anyone to know? Secrets that could get someone killed, including herself.
Three can play a game, but one of them ends up dead…

Available on Amazon








My review: Laura is a high school senior outcast. No one knew the trouble she had at home.
Rachel was once friends with Laura but was taken by the popular girl. She knows something is up with Laura and wants to help.
Scarlet is the mean, popular girl that just wants to get Laura. She won’t stand for any betrayal.
Scarlet becomes too obsessed over Rachel’s friendship with Laura and being dumped by her only infuriates her. In the interest in revenge, she keeps her friends close and her enemies closer. At a party, Laura gets drunk and raped. She recognizes the boy but can’t say a word. Secrets are soon revealed, but there was only one that could destroy someone forever.
Story is in different POV’s that repeat the same info sometimes, which slows things down. But, of course, you fill any missing gaps when a different girl relays the same scene in her own terms, which often reveals her thoughts and feelings. Suspicion, jealousy, and vengeance boil to the surface and these girls will stop at nothing. Someone was holding secrets and would kill to keep them hidden.
At the end of all this, who will be the dead girl under the bleachers?
A good, little mystery!
My rating: 4 stars

Review: THE STIFF IN THE STUDY by Shea MacLeod (Book 2)

Viola Roberts had a bad case of writer's block and a deadline for her newest book. Not even hanging at her favorite winery did it for her. Maybe she should lay off historical romances and write mysteries instead, especially since she always found herself in the middle of one. And looks like she found herself in another one. Her friend's boss (nicknamed The Louse) was found dead in the study. The man was arrogant, chauvinistic, and handsy—a real menace to society he was. Nothing the Queen of Shenanigans wouldn't get into. And guess who the police suspect? Her friend, who was harassed by The Louse. That and she was seen having a violent argument with the man the night he was killed. Oh no!
The writer's block was something that I, as a writer, could relate to. “You weren't sure which way to move or what should happen next. How to connect point D to point J. It always happened. Every time. Every book.” (66) So true! The best way to shake it was to do something else. In Viola's case, that was to solve a murder.
There were some typos that needed to be fixed, but, overall, this was a good mystery.
My rating: 4 stars