Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 142

Dog Tails, Twitter

Dog Tails: Three Humorous Short Stories for Dog Lovers is available again on Amazon Kindle. Buy here. I am mighty proud of myself. I did the formatting all on my own. I've learned a lot since last year when I first attempted the world of self-pubbing. So...if you've missed out on the little doggies, it's now only 99 cents.



And I'm finally tweeting. I'm @TaraChevrestt. I've provided a little blue bird hook up at the bottom side of the blog. :) 

Short Story on Kindle

A writer's group I participate in on Facebook...we did a prompt one day to see what different stories we came up with from the same basic idea. New Year's Eve Part, two people, they may know each other, they may not... What happens when the clock strikes midnight? And I came up with a short story that a lot of people said I should share.

So I pubbed it on Amazon.  I hope you all enjoy it. It will be free for the next 5 days and then it will be 99 cents. Meanwhile, here's the cover and the link and the blurb:

Blurb:
At a New Year's Eve party, a military wife gets a surprise visitor. Will her visitor convince her to make the most of the new year? When We Meet Again is a short story of love, loss, hope, and healing.

Long Way Home by Lisa J. Yarde

I don't rate or review books I've helped to edit. However, I do tell others about them. I have no doubt this one will appeal to many of my contemporary romance reader/blog followers.

Long Way Home is about two Japanese Americans, Taka Chang and Kevin. In each other's arms, they find solace from the everyday stress of their lives. Taka just wants to live her life her way. Her wealthy and very bitter father had made things difficult for her. Though she loves Kevin, at times, she feels controlled and smothered by him.


Does love conquer all? Or do we sometimes make decisions that we regret later? I'm not going to divulge too much plot here, but I will say that from a car fender bender to an airplane scene, Long Way Home is a never ending roller coast of intense emotions: longing, love, confusion, anger, regret. And it will make you think long and hard about your own life choices and how you choose to spend your time, bitter and angry or enjoying love while you can?


Available on Amazon

Dog Tails, Cover Art Contest, Twitter

Lots of news today.. First of all, Dog Tails: Three Humorous Short Stories for Dog Lovers is available again on Amazon Kindle. Buy here. I am mighty proud of myself. I did the formatting all on my own. I've learned a lot since last year when I first attempted the world of self-pubbing. So...if you've missed out on the little doggies, it's now only 99 cents.

Second, Sinful Urges is in a cover art contest. You've got a few days to go vote for it if you feel it's worthy. Vote Here.


Third, I'm finally tweeting. I'm @TaraChevrestt. I've provided a little blue bird hook up at the bottom side of the blog. :) 

Bond Girl by Erin Duffy

There are two types of women that work in the "man's world." One, the woman who because a bitter and cruel man hater (and really, with what she has to put up with all day, it's no wonder), and two, the woman who gets fake tits and wears tiny tops and lets her thong hang out and knows absolutely nothing about the job. The former is Cruella. The latter is Baby Gap. And in between, you have Alex. 

Alex entered the world of Wall Street believing she'd get fair treatment, that her sex wouldn't be an issue. NOPE. 


This is book is hilarious. From an elevator scene of "mine is bigger than yours" to a scene in which a newbie shouts out loud about Cox... it's priceless. The giant 1000 dollar wheel of cheese... The auction in which women can't bid. (This is the most sexist place I've ever read about)..


"First up, we have a helmet signed by the Forty-Niners. The whole team!"
"Giants!" some yelled, offended that a football helmet from San Francisco was for sale.
"I know, I know. This hurts me, too. But some of you must be closet Forty-Niners fans. For this one day only, it's allowed."


Aw, New Yorkers. :)


In between the hilarity, however, are bits that will piss women off. There's no end to the sexual abuse Alex goes through. Even worse, a top client has his eye on her. She has a choice: sleep with the man and become rich or not sleep with the man and lose the account and her job and...omg.


Really, once you read the book, you'll understand the meaning between a rock and a hard place.


I loved this book. Having worked in a "man's world" myself, I "got it." Been there, done that, though is by far, worse. I also learned a LOT about the stock market and how they work on Wall Street.


What I didn't like, the only thing I didn't like is that the heroine is TSTL regarding this guy, Will. I mean, I saw it coming a mile away. I was yelling at her throughout the novel.. "NO, NO...don't you see???" I mean come on, he's always busy on weekends...he never answers his phone... Duh. And went she got all upset over what to me, was so obvious, I was rolling my eyes.


Four stars. I received this from the publisher. Highly recommended.

Six Sentence Saturday

I've heard of Six Sentence Sunday, but I also hear there are a ton of rules for posting about it (and I don't know what half of them are, nor do I like rules for my own blog posts). So I'm doing my own thing. On Saturday. Six sentences from one of my books. 


Today, I'm posting from A Facebook Affair, my contemporary romance released December 9th from Breathless Press. ***It's steamy, but not x-rated.***



"So," Kelly stepped forward, moving at a seductive pace until she stopped before him. She shot him her sexiest smile as she straddled his legs. "Let's play ball." With those words, she threw him a wrapped piece of foil she had grabbed from the nightstand. "Put on your glove, baby." Brandon needed no further encouragement and expertly caught it in his catcher's hand, grinning at her sense of humor.

Siren's Song: A Bandit Creek Time Travel by D.L. Snow

Kindle freebies can go either way. Sometimes, they stink from the get-go, full of typos and awkward phrasing, and I just stop reading. Life's too short. This was a terrific surprise.

Just downloaded onto my kindle this week, I was in the mood for something short and picked it up. It's a novella, approximately 2 or 2 and a half hours of reading. And very well done.


Joss is former singer turned school teacher. She hasn't sang since her mother died. (Interesting story there. Not telling.) She moves back to Bandit Creek, Montana where she struggles with who and what she wants to be and where she wants to do it. She's confused. She gets even more confused when a hand comes out and pulls her into Lost Lake, and into Bandit Creek 100 years ago.


There's a saloon madame who wants to sell Joss's services, a seedy man wanting to buy them, an Indian with answers he doesn't want to divulge, and of course, a handsome man that Joss starts to fall for.. but he thinks she's crazy-always talking about the future and tell him he's from it.. cause he looks exactly like a boy that disappeared from Bandit Creek ten years before (in modern Bandit Creek.)


I loved how this unfolded. I was left guessing as to its ending. The characters all had interesting stories. The love story was done at a good pace and believable. I think it could have used more details. I mean, the chick did time travel. Imagine using a nasty ole outhouse, bathing back then, getting adjusted to a life without  modern appliances.


All in all, a terrific read. Five stars.

My Best Valentine's Day Ever

I wrote this for Romance Junkies, a giveaway that was done in a chat room. As I couldn't direct my family and friends to the chat group, I decided to also post it on my blog. Cause this is one of the best things I've ever wrote. 


My Best Valentine's Day Ever Was:



NOT romantic for starters. I was only eight years old, maybe nine, and my hero was my DAD. I was in the second grade, and my dad worked a ways away. I only saw him in the evenings, and he was often tired (he worked hard!) or planning a sermon. He was a minister too at the time. 
Like Kelly, the heroine in A Facebook Affair, I battled school bullying everyday due to my hearing impairment. 
Well, my mother always came to pick me up at school, but that VD, I walked out of my classroom, and who was waiting for me?? My dad!!! Right there in my school hallway! He had gotten off of work early, and he was picking me up. You know the term "grinning from ear to ear?" That was me. I was grinning ear to ear. 
Not only did my dad get off work early and take me home, but he handed me a little plastic heart full of those conversation hearts right there in front of my classmates! They were jealous! LOL It felt good to make the mean girls jealous. Their dads didn't come pick them up with a heart full of candies! 
I ate them slowly, and I saved the container. 
That was my best VD ever. :)
What was yours? Did it involve a hunk? A high school sweetheart? Or was your hero your dad? 
My daddy and I. I was three.

Accomplished In Murder by Dara England

I thought this was a thoroughly enjoyable little mystery. My only quibble is at times, except for the arranged marriages and transportation, it didn't feel historical, but that's me being nit picky.

Drucilla's bff has a quickie wedding and then send Drucilla a letter implying that she's scared of something. So Drucilla head off to her friend's to find out what troubles her only to discover her friend is dead.


With snooping, uncomfortable questions, and a tour of the house, she manages to figure out whodunit, but almost too late. Just when it seemed she has the entire thing solved, it turns out to be only half solved and she's at the killer's grasp. 


I liked it. I also thought it a perfect length, but then I'm not one of those people who wants a 600 page novel full of lengthy, pompous descriptions. It worked for me.


Four stars and I got this on Amazon Kindle as a freebie.

Under Her Brass Corset by Brenda Williamson

This is a romance/steam punk/fantasy novel. Confession: Steam punk isn't one of my strong genres. I keep trying it because the characters/blurbs appeal to me, but except for Dark Vow (sorta steam punk, but not heavy on it), I find myself confused more often than not as I try to visualize everything.


Thankfully, the steam punk stuff in here wasn't too ridiculous. A ship that flies. Cool. Showers. (common now, but weren't then.)

The fantasy stuff was a bit weird, however. Enter a strange octopus. That had my eye brows reaching up.

The romance was more lust at first. Realistic. None of that love at first sight, more lust and it grows into love.

The plot was intriguing, involving a map, a snow globe, the fountain of youth, immortality, a rogue cousin/pirate.... but I felt it got over shadowed at times by the sex/gadgets.

It doesn't lack suspense as I kept wondering how the characters would end up, what with him being immortal and her not...

Not bad. Not a favorite of mine, but it wasn't horrible. I think those more into the steam  punk will love it more. As I confessed above, I keep trying the genre and keep struggling with it. Not the author's fault.