October Weeks's Blog, page 30

A Big Thank You

I want to send out a big THANK YOU to all of those who are helping me promote A Taste So Bittersweet. I am forever grateful to the bloggers and fellow authors who take the time out of their own day to get the word out. I am incredibly fortunate to know all of you and I will do my best to return the favor[image error]❤

Monday Madness

Not much to report today in terms of writing except…I wrote just shy of 3k on a new story! Am very pleased about the first chapter of this book[image error] As soon as I get more into the meat of the story I’ll post more about the characters and such.

This week I hope to get some more written on the secret book, and possible get another book started. I’m also hoping to get words down on the fantasy novel and the slayer world book.

Series Saturday: Downside Series

Hello[image error] On this week’s Series Saturday I’m talking about Stacia Kane’s fantastic Downside series. This is the blurb for the first book, to give you an idea of what this world is made up of:

THE DEPARTED HAVE ARRIVED.

 

The world is not the way it was. The dead have risen, and the living are under attack. The powerful Church of Real Truth, in charge since the government fell, has sworn to reimburse citizens being harassed by the deceased. Enter Chess Putnam, a fully tattooed witch and freewheeling ghost hunter. She’s got a real talent for banishing the wicked dead. But Chess is keeping a dark secret: She owes a lot of money to a murderous drug lord named Bump, who wants immediate payback in the form of a dangerous job that involves black magic, human sacrifice, a nefarious demonic creature, and enough wicked energy to wipe out a city of souls. Toss in lust for a rival gang leader and a dangerous attraction to Bump’s ruthless enforcer, and Chess begins to wonder if the rush is really worth it. Hell, yeah.

___________________________

click on the covers to go to Amazon

The first book, Unholy Ghosts, is a wonderful introduction to Chess Putnam and her world. I will say that at times I struggled to like Chess because of her addiction, but the world in which she lives is dark, and the addiction is part of her struggle as a character and the world around her. This is not light series, it’s dark. The Downside is gritty and raw. By the end of the book I was in love with the writing and the characters jumped off the page.

Book two, Unholy Magic, was a great follow-up (and also my favorite cover of the series! I so have cover envy![image error] ). In this book, someone is killing the hookers of Downside in a gruesome way, and the rumor Chess hears is that a ghost is doing the killing, which she finds highly doubtful. Proving that, however, means she has to place herself in the path of the killer. This is happening at the same time she’s right between the two men in her life just as they, along with their employers, are moving closer to a showdown (and yes, I am a Terrible fan!). In other words, in both work and her personal life, Chess is directly in the crosshairs.

In City of Ghosts, Chess is dealing with a growing pile of mangled corpses and is forced to team up with the Black Squad agency to solve the murders. She’s put under a binding spell, which means she can’t speak of the investigation outside of the team. If she does, she’ll die. The only person who seems to know anything refuses to talk. Chess is not having a great time in this book. Not only is she dealing with the case, but she also has to contend with her dealer, events that cause the one man she can trust to want her out of his life, and killer wraiths.

Book four, Sacrificial Magic,  Chess’s drug dealer (an infamous crime boss) wants her to investigate a death. At the same time she’s investigating a haunting at a Downside school for her job as a churchwitch. As if that were not enough, Terrible no longer trusts her (the events in City of Ghosts between him and Chess made my heart break), and Lex (the son of another crime boss, rival to her dealer) wants to ignite some passion with Chess. This is one of the darker books in the series, in my opinion. The fallout from City of Ghosts really shows in this book, and what Chess is up against kept my chest tight with worry for her the entire book.

In Chasing Magic, book five, someone has tampered with the drugs of Downside. The spell from the drugs causes the person to kill innocents in very horrible ways. She also finds herself in the middle of the war between the two men in her life, Lex and Terrible. The only way for her to stop the killings and the war is to put her drug addiction to use alongside her magic and follow the path back to the creator of the magic-laced speed…which could kill her.

There are also three novellas in this series: Home, Finding Magic, and Wrong Ways Down (the last is told in Terrible’s POV!).

 

There is a sixth book on the way- from what I see on Goodreads it’s called Unholy Luck. I can’t wait to read it! If you like your urban fantasy gritty, raw, rough, and dark, I highly suggest giving this series a try.

Fantasy Friday: Kristen Britain

Welcome to another Fantasy Friday! This week I’ll be talking about one of my favorite fantasy series- the Green Rider series by Kristen Britain.

I found this series about a month before the second book released and quickly fell in love with it. Much time had been spent searching for a new series/new author in the genre that I could lose myself in. I hadn’t really found an epic fantasy book I felt that way about in five or six years, and when I asked my Borders (oh, I miss you, my favorite bookstore!) they recommended Green Rider. I’m so happy they did❤

click on the covers to go to Amazon

Green Rider is the first book in the series. I loved the introduction of Karigan G’ladheon. We meet her as she’s running away from her school, determined her father hear her side of the story about the fight she’d gotten into. But along they way she meets a dying man with two black arrows in his body. This fated meeting with one of the King’s Green Riders sets Karigan on a course of adventure, danger, and the first blush of love.

First Rider’s Call sees Karigan finally excepting the fact that she cannot run or hide from the call of the riders…rather comically, of course :)  But the call brings more danger. Having defeated the Eletian who cracked the D’yer Wall, she was expecting some rest, but that is not what she gets. Rider magic is becoming unreliable, and Karigan begins to have visions of the first Rider, Lil Ambriodhe. We get deeper into the plot of Mornhaven in this book, and with the Eletians, as they try to figure out how Mornhaven’s monsters are escaping.

The High King’s Tomb finds Karigan as a seasoned Rider. We also get more in depth about Blackveil Forest and Mornhaven. This is also the book we get more into the love triangle (done well and right!) between Karigan, King Zachary, and Zachary’s bride to be, Lady Estora. I’ll get more into that at the end of the post[image error]

Blackveil really digs into Mornhaven story as Karigan goes back into the Blackveil Forest, though this time friends go with her as well as Eletians. You really get the sense of danger and time running out for Sacoridia. This book broke my heart in so many different ways.

Mirror Sight. Oh, what to say about Mirror Sight… I loved this book, though many fans did not. Karigan wakes in the ground, in a grave, and when she gets out and is taken in she finds out that she’s been transported almost two hundred years into the future (after she breaks the mirror mask). And she soon finds out she isn’t alone- someone else was transported as well. In my opinion, this was a great way to show a “this is what could be should we fail” scenario, and watching Karigan struggle with how women are treated and the almost complete lack of magic was both heartbreaking as well as amazing. Karigan grows incredibly as a character in this book, and she loses and gains so much. A new love, Cade, comes into the story as well. I loved Cade and thought he was a great match for Karigan. The romance did NOT overwhelm the story, it was just a tiny piece of the plot.

About that love triangle: I was rooting for Karigan and Zachary up until he told her that he would keep her as a mistress (they have not had sex in the books) after he marries Estora. I lost a great deal of respect for him at that moment because Kargian deserves much better than that, and it showed me that he really didn’t love Karigan. In my opinion, he wants what he cannot have- Karigan, a Green Rider. While I think he’s a good king, he is not a good match for her. Estora, who actually becomes a good friend to Karigan, is a far better match for him. And I don’t hold her fully to blame for the events in Blackveil, though many readers do. In Mirror Sight, he and Estora are married and she is pregnant, but he still longs to be with Karigan and I just…don’t like that match. I really don’t think Zachary loves her.

Meeting Cade showed Karigan that she was capable of loving a man that wasn’t Zachary, and that she could have the happiness she longs for and knows her parents had (her mother passed away when Karigan was very young).

The next book in the series, Firebrand, is due out March 2017. I can’t wait to see what happens with Karigan and what new dangers come from the Blackveil Forest. There are many threads weaving together and through the story, and I hope Firebrand has us seeing some of those threads get resolution and move the plot of Mornhaven forward. If you haven’t check out this series yet, I highly suggest you do. It really gets its feet in book two[image error]

Cover Reveal: Over the River

Here it is~ the cover of Over the River! I’m in love with it LOL❤

This is coming May 20th from Vamptasy Publishing.

 

Blurb:

Down a snowy dirt road, in a farmhouse filled with death and fear, there is a woman…

The Weatherby Mills history books paint Joslyn Faust as a kind and generous woman who was willing to help any of her neighbors in need. Weatherby Mills lore, however, holds her ghost responsible for the deaths of four men.

Delilah Isles knows all the legends of the tri-towns from the friendliest and nastiest of ghosts, to the dangerous and terrifying beasts and beings of the Dark and Glory. So when the case of the Faust Homestead lands on her desk, she is both intrigued and skeptical.

Working for the New England Spirit Society, she and her partner, Milly West, have seen spirits and non-human entities commit many brutal attacks. After all, the New England Spirit Society investigates the most violent and disturbing cases. However, even with the four assaults contributed to Joslyn Faust, Delilah isn’t certain the case is truly N.E.S.S. material. That all changes the first time she and Milly set foot on the Faust property and witness firsthand just how vicious the celebrated townswoman’s spirit could be.

Monday Madness

I hope everyone who has read/reading A Taste So Bittersweet is enjoying it!

I didn’t get much writing in this weekend, as I had edits to complete and some friends visiting. This week I hope to get started on a new book, the first of new series, and to make some progress on the fantasy book as well as the slayer world book (new characters!).

So, not much to report on this Monday Madness. Hopefully next Monday will be different and I’ll have lots to list![image error]

Release Day: A Taste So Bittersweet

It’s here! A Taste So Bittersweet has been released out into the world[image error] Here are the buy links~ I’ll update as the book goes live:

EVERNIGHT PUBLISHING

AMAZON

 

Monday Madness

Welcome to another Monday Madness[image error] This is what I’m up to in my writing:

~Gearing up for the release of A Taste So Bittersweet this Wednesday, May 4th! Can’t wait to share Fiona’s story with you all[image error] And it is quite bittersweet❤

~Fantasy novel: wrote a little over 2k on it this weekend. I’m not completely focused on it, as I’m on deadline for three other books, but I try to write on it when the words are in my mind because otherwise I’ll lose it/it will slow the writing down even more if I don’t.

~Over the River, Isles and West #1, will be releasing May 20th! So I’m gearing up for that release as well[image error] This version has about 20k more words than the original, that was pubbed with Musa Publishing a couple of years ago. I think those extra words really help the story- can’t wait for you all to read it. The cover will be coming soon!

And that’s all for writing news from the weekend[image error] I plan on writing a bit more on the fantasy novel this week as well as working on a brand new series.

Hope you all had a great weekend!

Early Preview of A Taste So Bittersweet

Hi everyone! Today I’m featured over at the ARe Café, with the cover, blurb, and an advanced excerpt of A Taste So Bittersweet!

click on cover to go to ARe

Tuesday Tidbits

A Taste So Bittersweet is releasing May 4th!

In other writing news, I’ve been working on my fantasy novel again. Wrote another 4k on it since Sunday, which brings the word count up to just shy of 20k. This is immense progress for this book! I’ve been trying to write it for about six or seven years now (I’ve lost track, honestly). I’m hoping that I can have a rough draft by the end of this year but I’m not holding my breath, as I’ve thought that before and the book stalled on me *sigh*