Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 145

Ride for Rights: Lillian Heath

My YA historical, Ride for Rights is due out in just a month, Feb 10th, 2012 from MuseItUp Publishing to be exact. If you haven't already marked your calendar, perhaps the cover will convince you... :)
Meanwhile, while you contemplate whether or not you want to read it, I want to talk about Lillian Heath, another real life woman I feature in the book as a fictional character. 
Excerpt:The women tentatively followed Lewis up the front stairs, staying a few feet back and gripping the wrought iron railing. It was not until the man had opened the front door, taken off his hat, and hollered to someone within the house, that Angeline allowed her tense shoulders to relax a bit. "Lillian!" Lewis's voice boomed. "There are some ladies who need your assistance." He held the door open for the sisters.             "Be right there!" A woman's voice and the sound of rapidly approaching boot heels on the hardwood floor answered Lewis. "Well, what have we here?" The woman came within view and peered over her spectacles at the two relieved women before her.             Angeline was surprised at the woman's appearance. She was wearing trousers as well! The similarities ended there, however. The woman appeared to be fiftyish and somewhat matronly. She was wearing trousers and a white dress shirt, but her graying brown hair was long and pulled back demurely, and laugh lines crinkled on either side of her eyes. 


Who she was: The first woman doctor in the state of Wyoming and the first woman doctor west of the Mississippi. She had a man's skull which she used a door stop and a pen jar. This skull and the story behind it is mentioned in the novel. Though she retired from the medical profession in 1909, she was still residing in her family home, and I have no doubt she would have opened her door to the real life Van Buren sisters had they shown up at her step injured. 

Fear of Landing: You Fly Like A Woman by Sylvia Spruck Wrigley

I was excited about this book, another read to add to my growing list of "women in aviation" books. It was good though not quite what was I expecting. 

It's a memoir so it's a lot of telling rather than showing. "Showing" a memoir is hard, I know. And for some reason, I thought it was chronicling many episodes of flying, but it just tells about this woman learning to fly in Spain. What starts out as a whim and a way to keep the month long flight school cheaper for everyone in involved becomes a serious accomplishment even if it takes her two weeks longer than the rest of the class. Also, it's not as humorous as I was expecting. The cover had me thinking I would laugh a lot...it's a cute cover though.


Like I said, lots of telling, little showing, and it got a bit technical at times, but if you're looking for a short, contemporary read about a woman learning to fly, it's free on kindle today. (I bought mine when it was 99 cents.)


My favorite scene was the dog and the little girl running across the runway. My heartbeat picked up as I read that bit. Scary! 

Sophie and the Rising Sun by Augusta Trobaugh

I am really torn about this book. One one hand, I see a beautiful love story... Oto loves Sophie right away, and his is a beautiful love. There nothing even remotely ugly about Oto. His love isn't one of those, "Oh my manhood stirred at the sight of her and I imagined myself.." kind of loves. His love is pure, his character innocent and naive. Sophie, too, has a clean love for Otto. 

On the other hand, where the heck is this love coming from? Oto sees her and from then on, it's all about this weird crane sighting... How do you love someone so passionately that you have only seen from afar or sat there quietly with?


What I did love about this book, however, is the narrator's voice. It's narrated by an older woman who hired Mr. Oto to be her gardener and then sheltered him from all the evil, prejudice town folk after Pearl Harbor. Through her, we get a lesson in not judging others, that we are Americans first and foremost, and along with that, we get a dose of humor and a handful of chuckles. Delightful.


The ending...it does leave you hanging. I thought it was a bit week. I am not going to say anything more about that because I don't wish to ruin it, but really, WTH?


Three stars and I got this from netgalley.

Afterburn has a cover

My sexy side came out again a few months ago and penned a military romance. This will be out March 23rd from Breathless Press. I will post a blurb below, but please keep in mind, that it is subject to be changed/tweaked by my editor.


What's really cool...See that F-16 up there blowing that hot afterburn? That's from a pic my wonderful husband took. How neat is that?

Now, the blurb so you all know what this one is about:

Their love burns hot, but will it stay fueled? 


Crystal is an enlisted mechanic with a tragic past. Grant is an officer and a pilot with a damaged heart. In a male dominated field, facing sexual harassment on a daily basis, Crystal has a chance to trust and to love again. The rest of the world doesn't agree with her, however, and seems determined to keep them apart. 


When faced with a difficult choice, will Crystal choose wisely or lose the best thing that ever happened to her? Is Grant setting up his own heart to be broken again? With him in the cockpit and her doing the maintenance, it should be smooth flying…or will it? 


Enter a world in which the smell of jet fuel arouses the senses and love burns as hot as afterburn.

Interview with Chastity Bush, author of Tumbleweeds

If you believe in love at first sight and you feel that true love conquers all and like some sexy sheriffs with that, you may want to read Tumbleweeds by Chastity Bush. 

Upon "meeting" this fellow Oklahoman author, I couldn't resist finding out more about her and her work.


One of her books is called Tumbleweeds. It's a western about a girl who works in a whore house AS A BARTENDER. Get your minds out of the gutters. It's inevitable that some fellows will get the wrong idea though, and when some men try to get her to add to her job duties, a sexy sheriff steps in, and they both catch each others' eyes.


Berry doesn't have a high opinion of men...and it's no wonder as the man you could call her fiance visits the whorehouse himself 6 times a week and it's not to see Berry... Tavis, however, the new sheriff, aims to marry her. But someone from his past comes riding into town and just may throw his plans haywire.


A very enjoyable read. I confess I've friended the author on facebook, and I saw her sense of humor that I have come to know online, show up between the pages. The book also has a strong moral about not judging others based on their friends, occupations, so on. 


Now, back to Chastity. She's agreed to come on here and answer Ten Questions from Tara.

[image error]
Tara: Tumbleweeds takes place in the old days of the West when women were either married homemakers, whores, saloon madams, or bartenders. Which would you have been and why?
Chastity: My hubby and I both agree on this one. I'd probably have been a madam. Looks like a lot of excitement without all the skirt lifting. That, and the fact that I love all the frills, hot dresses, big beds, etc. That sounds right up my alley. :)
Tara: Mr. Clemmons is good looking, but can't find his way home without a map. Berry calls him an imbecile. (That's a funny moment by the way.) Do you know or have you known many men like this? Got a funny story you can share about one of them?
Chastity: I've met several people like this. You think their so handsome/beautiful then blam! They open their mouths and you can't help but wonder how these people are even capable of dressing themselves in the morning.
Tara: If you were to choose an actress to play Lily Bell, whom do you visualize?
Chastity: Oh, wow. I haven't thought about this at all. I really have no idea. She would have to be beautiful, sassy, spunky, and able to stand her ground, not just in the movie, but in real life as well.
Tara: You live in Whitefield, Oklahoma. Were you visualizing your town long ago when you wrote this?
Chastity: Yes. Where I live in Oklahoma you can't help but to think about those days. There's plenty of pastures, cattle, barns, and farmers.
Tara: I've never heard a whorehouse patron/client called a tumbleweed before. How did you dig this up or come up with this? 
Chastity: This is something I've always heard the client of a whorehouse called. I'm not sure where it originated, but I love the term and had to use it.  
Tara: The heroine's name is Strawberry Meadows. That sounds like a really good wine. What's the story/reason behind this?
Chastity: I knew right off the bat I wanted Berry to have deep, dark, red hair and I wanted it to be incorporated into her name, something that made her unique. I needed something original to compare her hair to. Of course, a strawberry popped into my mind, and it all came together.
Tara: Berry has a really low opinion of men until she meets Tavis. Does this parallel anything in your own life?
Chastity: No. I will admit that I'm a little mistrustful, but that isn't just with men, that's with everyone. I'm always a little leery of people until I get to know them. It's just who I am.
Tara: Berry and Tavis feel instant attraction to each other. Was it like that for you and your husband?
Chastity: Yes. I swear, the moment I laid eyes on my husband I knew he was the one. It was just a feeling that filled me. It was so crazy, but here we are still married fourteen years later.
Tara: Berry hesitates over marriage. Were you also hard to convince?
Chastity: Nope. I wanted to be married. Perhaps that lack of apprehension was because of the wonderful man I was marrying. I've never had a bad opinion of marriage, even after watching my mothers' divorces. I think they actually helped me see what I needed to do and not do to make a marriage work. Of course we have our ups and downs, we all do, but I love being married.
Tara: I'm a dog mom so this is always my last and final question. Do you have pets? If so, please tell me about them and provide a photo.
Chastity: We don't have any pets anymore. We had a cat for a long time, but he lives with my dad in Texas now, and our big, hairy, weird but awesome guinea pig passed away a couple years ago. Since then, we've been a pet free house. We do like animals; just don't really have time to care for them as they need. 


Thank you, Chastity! For those of you interested in Tumbleweeds, you can buy it here:


Tumbleweeds Paperback
Tumbleweeds Kindle

Graveminder by Melissa Marr

Imagine being a den mother to the dead. Your job is to make sure the dead stay dead. The only way to do that is be sure that every single person born in the town is buried there in town. If they don't die in the town, you got to go find them and bring their dead bodies back. If you don't, if they find their own way back, they'll eat people along the way, so you'll have lots of naughty dead children. 

The official name for day care provider for the dead: graveminder.


The job is inherited, and Rebekkah has just found out the task is hers. She joins forces with the Undertaker, a man she loves, but doesn't want to love in a town where the sheriff looks the other way rather than get a migraine with a dead zombie is on the lose eating people.. or is it more than one? I mentioned she and the undertaker, Byron, have a love/hate thing going on...well, they got to get it together cause they are the only two people who can deliver the zombies back to the underworld.


The underworld is the coolest thing about this book. Visualize a town of buildings from all centuries with people dressed from all eras walking around it. Too cool!!!! I loved these scenes and morbid as it sounds, wanted to visit the place... This was a real good, spine tingling read. It was a bit confusing at first, but it was well done as the secrets kept piling up and the suspense about killed me.


[image error] The only thing I didn't like was the love/hate, pull him to me/push him away thing going on with Rebekkah and Byron. She began to irritate me. The love/romance was a bit lacking. Can't say I felt it that strongly.


All in all, genius idea! The town of dead, the deal made with the Grim Reaper, basically, and the town founders.... I'm hoping that there is a sequel as well as I was really super intrigued by a character named Alicia. I'm thinking a prequel type thing is in order about her, her life, and why she's chosen to live in Death Town. I found myself picturing Sharon Stone in The Quick and the Dead. 


Great read, four stars, and I received it from the publisher. Thank you, William Morrow. Really. This was a terrific change from my normal reading material. 

Ride for Rights Has A Cover!

I'm thrilled to announce that the cover is done!!!! What do you all think???? 




For those new to my blog, Ride for Rights is my YA historical coming out from  MuseItUp Publishing Feb. 10th of this year. 


Blurb: In the summer of 1916 women do not have the right to vote, let alone be motorcycle dispatch riders. Two sisters, Angeline and Adelaide Hanson are determined to prove to the world that not only are women capable of riding motorbikes, but they can ride motorbikes across the United States. Alone. 


From a dance hall in Chicago to a jail cell in Dodge City, love and trouble both follow Angeline and Adelaide on the dirt roads across the United States. The sisters shout their triumph from Pike's Peak only to end up lost in the Salt Lake desert. 


Will they make it to their goal of Los Angeles or will too many mishaps prevent them from reaching their destination and thus, hinder their desire to prove that women can do it? 


Laugh, cry, and smile with Angeline and Adelaide as they take their ride full of adventures, their ride for rights.

The Dog Who Danced by Susan Wilson

They say some people handle grief in bad ways...I think this couple does. First, let me say this is a good story, not so much about a dog, but about handling grief and loss and a how a dog can help people heal.

Justine's dog is dog napped, basically and then abandoned. While she struggles with bitter feelings with her step family and her father dying AND searches for her dog, an older couple picks her dog up and replaces their lost daughter with the dog. The dog brings them together again. No longer are they sitting apart, but together in order to pet the dog who lies on both of their laps. No longer are they spending days trying to avoid each other, but bonding as they walk the dog, take the dog for rides..and so on.


My problem with this book was solely: I can't stand any of the characters. I thought the heroine, Justine, was irresponsible. I have three adorable dogs and I would never EVER leave them in the cab of some truck driver's truck, especially not a man I barely knew or knew from a bar. She also packed up her little boy and left her husband. Not a smart move. Wasn't like he beat her.. and she could barely provide for the kid.


The couple: The whole, "Let's not find his owner/let's place an ad but be half-witted about it/No, of course he doesn't have a chip.." stuff didn't fly with me. I get they loved the dog and I personally felt the dog was better off with them than Justine, but they struck me as so corrupt, I had a difficult time stomaching the whole situation.


Good book and well written, but I don't think it will agree with everyone.


Favorite quote from the dog: "Humans have this nee to express themselves through their mouths, and he supposes that this is because they are so poor with their noses." LOL


Three stars.


This was an ARC from Amazon Vine so the quote may not be exact.

La Desperada by Patricia Burroughs

This is another old romance that got a makeover to keep up with the kindle age. Take a good look at that cover and title. Of course I had to read it. Thoughts of woman bandits ran through my head....

She's not a bandit though, not really. Yes, Elizabeth is running from the Law, but she's being falsely accused of murdering her own husband and her brother in law is the accuser AND the town sheriff, so really, what choice does she have but to let the famous outlaw, Boone Coulter out of jail and coerce him into helping her escape?


What follows is days trail riding, trying to stay under the radar, avoid trouble, and going hungry to boot. Elizabeth also realizes there's more to Boone than meets the eye. Is he really the cruel outlaw everyone says he is? Or did he take this path for a deeper reason..a reason of revenge?


It's revenge all right and it involves her dead husband, her evil brother in law, and things of the past. But while she is trying to avoid the BIL, Boone has a bone to pick with him. 


Enter a strange Spanish man with a drug problem, a mysterious and very dead deformed woman, a whore who aims to get to NY, a nosy reporter, and a young and naive deputy, and you have a cast of characters that tie in to an action packed, keep you guessing story and a surprise ending. I especially enjoyed a scene in which Elizabeth steals the mail to score some necessary money, but as she goes through the envelopes, realizes she can't do it.. she can't take the money sent from mother to her son begging her son to buy a horse and come home... Thus, Elizabeth doesn't have a bandit's heart. At all.


I really enjoyed it, but some parts seemed a bit drawn out unnecessarily, such as the drug user and his weird fantasies. LOL I give it a four and I recommend it to all fans of historical romance. 


Favorite passages: 


"A lady endures, whether it be poverty or a pitiful, drunken husband, or even simple loneliness...and a lady...through he very act of her weakness, is stronger than anyone can ever imagine a lady would ever have to be."


"If you can see the wrong and point it out then that makes you feel like you're right. It seems that there's so much wickedness in their world, that people have to point their fingers and call names at your to convince themselves that they're keeping things under control."


I was provided an ebook of this from the author, no strings attached.

Happy New Year from Lit Asylum's inmates...

[image error] The January edition has just gone live.. a few hours early to bring in the new year. Come check it out!! Lots of good stuff this month. First, I want to bring to your attention, my review of Fillies and Females by Bev Pettersen. Great book. I can't recommend it enough for romance and horse lovers. Carol Jean has started a Kindle Freebie Slut column on which she reviews kindle freebies. I confess I had a lot of fun, too much fun, really reviewing miscellaneous Titanic books. Do they sink or float? Find out here... I did the Indie of the Month again too. This month is Leslie Dubois, La Cienega Just Smiled.

And how many of you ladies like to escape in romance? Come see if you have some similar reading tastes to India Penwick: Guilty Pleasure