Sandra C. Lopez's Blog, page 286

Review: GHOSTERS 3: SECRETS OF THE BLOODY TOWER by Diana Corbitt

 Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

Theresa  looks back at her new ghost friend. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that, Stanley?” She listens, and a slow smile begins to grow. “Really? No, we weren’t planning on it.”
“What?” I pull some more tissue from the box. “What weren’t we planning?”
“A trip to England. He says we’ll be going soon.”
“We are?” Doubtful, but not one to argue with ghosts, I blow my nose and say, “That’s nice. I haven’t seen my gran for over a year.”

A few weeks later, Stanley’s words come true, and Theresa, her brother Joey, and her friend Kerry find themselves in London, England. Of course, they expect to spot one or two ghosts as they tour the Tower of London, but they don't expect to meet the ghosts of two young murdered princes with an urgent request: find their hidden five-hundred-year-old remains.

The princes want their bones to be buried at Westminster Abbey, where they belong, but something doesn’t want that to happen. The kids find a lot of spirit helpers along the way. Who knew England had so many ghosts? Can three kids and their ghostly friends solve a centuries-old unsolved crime that rocked England?



My review: Welcome to London!
Kerry and Theresa along with Theresa’s little brother are on a fun trip in the UK. Why would you stay in a hotel made of clowns? Those are scarier than the ghosts.
Kerry and Theresa are ghost hunters (Theresa can actually see and talk to ghosts.) One of their visits is to the Tower of London, where the Bloody Tower sits. Could the boy they saw be the ghost of Prince Richard, who was last seen the Bloody Tower? FIND OUR BONES.
Communicating with a ghost that has been dead for over 100 years wasn’t easy, but the kids handled it calmly and courteously. Throughout the story, the kids commune with several more ghosts that it almost deviates from the main mystery. I mean, trying to bring up a dead cat?
Can they put the old spirits to rest?
It’s a wild, ghostly adventure through London. Reading this reminding me of what I saw—Tower of London, Downtown Abbey, National Portrait Gallery, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye. And what a fun cover! It’s graphically simple with eye-catching colors. There were some lagging areas, but it was overall enjoyable. At times, the kids go off-kilter.
A fascinating and informative little mystery!
My rating: 3.5 stars 

Review: GHOSTERS 3: SECRETS OF BLOODY TOWER by Diana Corbitt

 Graphic Image designed by Sandra Lopez

Theresa  looks back at her new ghost friend. “I’m sorry, could you repeat that, Stanley?” She listens, and a slow smile begins to grow. “Really? No, we weren’t planning on it.”
“What?” I pull some more tissue from the box. “What weren’t we planning?”
“A trip to England. He says we’ll be going soon.”
“We are?” Doubtful, but not one to argue with ghosts, I blow my nose and say, “That’s nice. I haven’t seen my gran for over a year.”

A few weeks later, Stanley’s words come true, and Theresa, her brother Joey, and her friend Kerry find themselves in London, England. Of course, they expect to spot one or two ghosts as they tour the Tower of London, but they don't expect to meet the ghosts of two young murdered princes with an urgent request: find their hidden five-hundred-year-old remains.

The princes want their bones to be buried at Westminster Abbey, where they belong, but something doesn’t want that to happen. The kids find a lot of spirit helpers along the way. Who knew England had so many ghosts? Can three kids and their ghostly friends solve a centuries-old unsolved crime that rocked England?



My review: Welcome to London!
Kerry and Theresa along with Theresa’s little brother are on a fun trip in the UK. Why would you stay in a hotel made of clowns? Those are scarier than the ghosts.
Kerry and Theresa are ghost hunters (Theresa can actually see and talk to ghosts.) One of their visits is to the Tower of London, where the Bloody Tower sits. Could the boy they saw be the ghost of Prince Richard, who was last seen the Bloody Tower? FIND OUR BONES.
Communicating with a ghost that has been dead for over 100 years wasn’t easy, but the kids handled it calmly and courteously. Throughout the story, the kids commune with several more ghosts that it almost deviates from the main mystery. I mean, trying to bring up a dead cat?
Can they put the old spirits to rest?
It’s a wild, ghostly adventure through London. Reading this reminding me of what I saw—Tower of London, Downtown Abbey, National Portrait Gallery, Buckingham Palace, and the London Eye. And what a fun cover! It’s graphically simple with eye-catching colors. There were some lagging areas, but it was overall enjoyable. At times, the kids go off-kilter.
A fascinating and informative little mystery!
My rating: 3.5 stars 

Review: FIRST VISIONS by Heather Topham Wood

Kate had woken from her coma after contracting bacterial meningitis. But she didn’t come back from the dead the same. She was not gifted with the second sight, mostly seeing images of the past rather than the future (sees inside people’s heads.) What the heck was she supposed to do with this gift?


Now a part-time college student, Kate gets a visit from a police detective regarding an article about her finding the lost boy while she was in the coma. There’s been another kidnapping of an 8-year old girl. Because this is personal for the detective, he desperately wants her help. What he didn’t understand was that finding that boy was a one-time thing for Kate and it hasn’t happened again since. Sometimes her “gift” really sucked. It made her a social pariah, an outcast.


Then the vision came to her. She saw the girl. She was alive. But for how long?


On a mission to find the girl, Kate works with the handsome detective while battling her feelings toward him as well as he social awkwardness.


I liked her snarky, sarcastic wit, especially when it came to the skeptical girlfriend; however, it felt like there was more focus on her detective crush than the actual case. There weren’t hardly that many visions either. Still, this was a pretty good read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: NIGHTWALKER: CITY OF ANGELS by R. Lee Moore

Flavius was a vampire traveling to the City of Angels. Flavius, who had never been good at socializing with other vampires, despised the politics of the Great House and hoped to avoid it all.
“Still, being able to see firsthand how a hundred-fifty year old treaty with humanity had shaped vampire society in the United States was of interest to him.” (2)
“Everywhere else, in spite of whatever power they may have, supernatural beings were often exterminated on discovery. The New World was the only place where vampires, and other supernatural creatures lived openly with their human counterparts.” (2)
Writing was rich and dark, although the dialogue was a bit antiquated. To me, it just seemed like there was more dialogue than action. I was kind of waiting for something to happen. The mingling of these night creatures sounded interesting at first, but the story was just too stagnant for my liking. Perhaps I expected more battle and less debate. I mean, these are vampires, right?
This book definitely had a sophisticated palate with an air of majesty, but I have to say that this was pretty dull for me.
My rating: 2 stars

Review: PROBLEMS IN PRAGUE by Alba Arango

JJ Bennett is a Junior Spy. Mmm, I wonder how you get a job like that?
This is an international mystery adventure. Story instantly kicks off with JJ and his friend following a Russian spy to the Prague Castle. Although the two friends start off with a witty repartee between them, the story didn't settle on a plot foundation. The reader is practically thrown into a spy game already, not really knowing what it's all about or why we're even here.
So many questions came to mind as I was reading this. Why were the kids in Prague? How did they get involved in this case? What was the case? But, most importantly, how did JJ come to be a Junior Spy? For being first in the series, it was absolutely pertinent to provide at least somewhat of a background.
Story was too complex and reading through it without the proper basics just further strained the experience. I'm sure some readers would enjoy this "James Bond" style adventure, but it didn't suit me.
My rating: 2 stars

Blog Tour: The Viola Valentine Mystery Series by Cherie Claire

A Ghost of a ChanceA Viola Valentine
Mystery Book 1by Cherie ClaireGenre: Paranormal Mystery

From award-winning novelist Cherie Claire comes
a new paranormal mystery series.



They say there are blessings from Hurricane Katrina. For Viola Valentine of New
Orleans, it was losing her dead-end job and leaving behind a loveless marriage
and an overbearing family.



But the storm also blew open a psychic door. Now she sees ghosts who have died
by water.



As she enters her new career as a travel writer, solving mysteries that appear
with apparitions everywhere she goes, the one person she hopes to speak to — her
daughter who died of leukemia years before — continues to elude her.



Or does she?





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Ghost Town

A Viola Valentine
Mystery Book 2

Every day at dusk, in a small Louisiana town,
the dead emerge from Lorelei Lake. And travel writer Viola Valentine must use
her “gift” of seeing ghosts to rid this town of its apparitions. Viola
struggles not only with the task at-hand, but hopes that this evolving ability
she obtained after Hurricane Katrina will help her reach her beloved
Lillye.



Yet, the more Viola struggles to talk to her departed daughter, the more
frustrated she gets. Plus, it’s 2008, the height of the Great Recession, travel
jobs are hard to come by, and her suffocating family and ex-husband keep making
demands. She takes solace in a new love interest, one who teaches her how to
harness her anger.



In the end, Viola realizes that only love can solve her problems, from ridding
ghosts of lakeside towns to healing a broken heart.



Ghost Town, book two in the Viola Valentine Mystery Series by award-winning
author Cherie Claire.







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Trace of a Ghost

A Viola Valentine
Mystery Book 3


Award-winning novelist Cherie Claire continues
her paranormal mystery series as travel writer Viola Valentine takes a trek
down the historic Natchez Trace of Mississippi. Traveling with her is an
adventurous heiress who’s been dead since 1860 and a living fellow travel
writer who’s not what he seems. In the end, it’s a showdown between good and
evil, and a bargain made with the devil at the crossroads may be Viola’s final
undoing.



Book Three in the Viola Valentine Paranormal Mystery Series.




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Ghost Trippin'

A Viola Valentine
Mystery Book 4
John Valentine left home for a birding
conference and never returned, his family chalking it up to the divorced
father’s mid-life crisis. But when a body is found on the old family homestead,
his daughter Viola must piece together the clues her father left behind. Along
for the ride are her witchy Aunt Mimi, her uptight lawyer sister Portia and her
sometimes ex-husband Thibault Boudreaux, otherwise known as TB. What they
discover on this crazy ghost trip through Texas will be much more than they
anticipated.



Ghost Trippin’ continues the story of Viola Valentine, who changes her life
after Hurricane Katrina and follows her dream of being a travel writer. But the
storm also blew open a psychic door and now she sees ghosts who have died by
water. As she travels the South in her new career she must also solve mysteries
that appear with apparitions. But the one person she hopes to speak to — her
daughter who died of leukemia years before — continues to elude her. Or does
she?

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Give Up the Ghost

A Viola Valentine
Mystery Book 5
In 2005, Hurricane
Katrina uprooted Viola Valentine from her dead-end job and what she deemed
a loveless marriage. Four years later, she and her husband Thibault “TB”
Boudreaux are starting over on a Tennessee houseboat, she following her dream
as a travel writer and TB finishing school at Smoky Mountain University.



But the ghosts of the past continue to hound the couple, infiltrating negative
energy into their peaceful cove. With her family at stake, Vi must learn to
harness her supernatural powers, face her fears and fight the evil that
threatens to unravel them all.



Book Five in the Viola Valentine Paranormal Mystery Series.
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Cherie Claire grew up
in south Louisiana, with mud between her toes and a rabid love of Mardi Gras
parades. Born in New Orleans and now living in Cajun Country, she couldn't help
but write about her unique, colorful state. Cherie is the
award-winning author of several Cajun historical romances and The Cajun Embassy
series of contemporary romances. She's a Holt Award finalist, a Romantic Times
Reviewer's Choice Award finalist and received the Louisiana Press Women Book of
the Year. Her latest is a paranormal mystery series featuring ghost sleuth
Viola Valentine of New Orleans.
Check out her
non-fiction titles at https://www.amazon.com/author/cherecoen.

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Blog Tour: The Soul Searcher Mysteries by Caryn Larrinaga

DONN'S HILLS
The Soul Searchers Mysteries Book 1 by Caryn LarrinagaGenre: Cozy Paranormal MysteryPrint Length: 290 pagesPublication Date: April 5, 2019

Ghosts.
Psychics. Murder. Just another day in Donn's Hill. Mackenzie Clair needs a fresh start. The death of her father and a broken
relationship rendered her old life unlivable. What better place to
build a new one than Donn’s Hill, the most haunted town in America
and her favorite childhood vacation spot?But returning to Donn’s Hill awakens more than nostalgia. As memories
resurface, so does a lost psychic ability to talk to the dead... a
power the poltergeist haunting Mac’s apartment is eager to use. Aided by her new roommate—a spirited Tortoiseshell cat named Striker—and
the ghost-hunting crew of the Soul Searchers, Mac struggles to
control her newfound talents. She’d better get a handle on them
fast, because someone in town is hiding a deadly secret. If Mac can’t
divine the truth, Donn’s Hill will never be the same.First in a new series, this cozy paranormal mystery was the 2017 winner of
the League of Utah Writers Silver Quill award. "A genre-bending
gem of a book, cozy meets horror meets cat fancier in a unique town
of psychic tourism and ghostly secrets." -Johnny Worthen, award
winning author of THE FINGER TRAP, THE BRAND DEMAND and WHAT IMMORTAL
HANDLook
for all of Caryn Larrinaga's spooky mysteries featuring psychic Mac
and her spirited tortoiseshell cat, Striker!



My review: Welcome to Donn’s Hill.


A new life was to being for Mackenzie.


On the first night in a dingy motel, Mac awoke to an intruder. Or, at least, she thought it was an intruder. But there was no one there. Could the Travelers be back? Travelers?


It would seem that the Travelers were her imaginary friends. Or were they…?


The odd thing was that Mac showed up at the peak of the Afterlife Festival. Strange how that cat just kept following her around. Strange things kept happening.


Story had a good concept, but a slow pace. It got more interesting with the appearance of the Soul Searchers, a group of paranormal investigators that aired a show on Scream TV. Between the festival, the Soul Searchers, and her mother’s death, talk of ghosts and spirits abound this little tale. It takes a while for the story to settle with the investigation of a haunted house.


I was intrigued by the ghostly presence, but I felt that there were too many angles to sort through.


An okay mystery.


My rating: 3 stars

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DONN'S SHADOW 
The Soul Searchers Mysteries Book 2Print Length: 311 pagesPublication Date: October 22, 2019

Return
to the most haunted small town in America... Mackenzie Clair finally has this whole ghost-hunting psychic thing figured out.
The Soul Searchers are a hit, she’s got pet-parenting down, and she
even has a plan to banish the poltergeist running amok at a lakeside
cabin. Best of all, Donn’s Hill feels like home. But not everyone
loves the town as much as Mac.A world-famous paranormal debunker thinks the psychics in Donn’s Hill
are lying about their abilities. His determination to destroy the
Soul Searchers threatens Mac’s livelihood, and when a killer
strikes, the sheriff’s suspicions threaten her freedom.Mac needs all the help she can get to find the real murderer and clear
her name… even if that help comes from beyond the grave.

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Caryn Larrinaga is an award-winning mystery, horror, and urban fantasy
writer. Her debut novel, Donn's Hill, was awarded the League of Utah
Writers 2017 Silver Quill in the adult novel category and was a 2017
Dragon Award finalist. Watching scary movies through split fingers
terrified Caryn as a child, and those nightmares inspire her to write
now. Her 90-year-old house has a colorful history, and the creaking
walls and narrow hallways send her running (never walking) up the
stairs. Exploring her fears through writing makes Caryn feel a little
less foolish for wanting a buddy to accompany her into the tool shed.
Caryn lives near Salt Lake City, Utah, with her husband and their
clowder of cats. She is an active member of the League of Utah
Writers and the Utah Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. Visit
CarynLarrinaga.com for free short fiction and true tales of haunted places.





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Review: DEADLY VISIONS by Aubrey Harper

The same vision kept coming. A man was shot. Dead.


Callie’s roommate says that she was obviously meant to save him. But why her? It’s not like her involvement helped matters any, especially when she tried to save the last one and it didn’t work out.


But the signs everywhere kept telling her to go home—to her hometown in Ohio. Would the guy she kept seeing be there? One way to find out. She never anticipated to be sitting right next to him on the train ride over there. Too bad he was a jerk who thought she was a stalker. Did she have to save him?


Then a body turns up, but it wasn’t the guy from her vision.


Callie must sift through clues and hazy visions to keep the new guy from being killed. Of course, going home brought back old acquaintances and love interests. To be honest, these characters kind of got in the way. There were slow spots in the story. I wished it had a quicker pace. Overall, it was a decent read, even I felt that it wasn’t that focused on the case.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: WITCH WAY TO MAYHEM AND MURDER by Jane Hinchey

Don’t you just love an eccentric gran that would curse your ex’s weenie? I would! All hail to his pecker falling off! I just love witchcraft!


Harper is a young witch who has lost her fiancé, her job, and her witch’s license, thus, prompting her to return home to Gran. Harper was a lover of books and often spent her old hometown days at the bookstore, so the opportunity to buy it was just the thing she needed. Last thing she expected was to find her old nemesis dead at the stoop of her new bookstore, and Harper was the prime suspect.


With no magic, everything had to be done manually.


Harper is kind of nerdy and quirky, but it seemed that her gran was way cooler. It was a little slow on the mystery with not much magic happening, but it was an okay read.


My rating: 3 stars

Review: WITCHES OF THE WOOD by Skyler Finn

Samantha worked at a PR firm, an assistant to Coco, the tyrant and the terminator (because she felt she wasn’t human.) Was her purpose just to be a single professional?


One drunken night, she thoughts she was an image within a moving flame. Was she crazy like her mother? She had to find out.


Smart, witty, and the character is so sensible and down-to-earth. She just wanted simple answers, but working with a new client—a gothic paleo chick who was high-maintenace as they came—and traversing through a small New England, where her mother lived and worked, wouldn’t make it easy.


Sam soon learned that she was a witch and might be hunted by The Ordinary Ones. Then she sees the girl from her vision in the news. Was she supposed to rescue her?


Sometimes the story read like a journal, which slows it down somewhat. Basically, she’s learning the odds and ends of her witchy ancestry and trying to deal with it. An okay read.


My rating: 3 stars