About Me

My photo
Hello, my name is Valorie. I have a Master's Degree in History and a license to teach-- I have been both university professor and public school teacher. Currently, I am a middle school social studies teacher. I love horror movies and spooky things. Every day is Halloween. I am also a passionate book blogger.

Featured Post

Book Review: 23:27 by H.L. Roberts

Showing posts with label giveaway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label giveaway. Show all posts

Saturday, August 19, 2017

Week Blitz & Giveaway: Entombed by Ruth Parker


Romantic Suspense
Date Published: 8/17/17

 photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

It’s hard being the daughter of a serial killer. Especially when your father has a lot of sick, twisted fans…

Camille West is the daughter of the infamous Body in the Barrel Killer, the maniac who entombed his victims in large steel barrels after days of torture. When she reluctantly returns to her hometown to take care of her ailing mother, there is a surprise waiting in her new house.

A barrel. A body. And a promise.

Camille has worked hard to forget her small hometown and the stain of her father’s crimes. But someone out there never forgot her…

If that wasn’t enough, her old flame Jake Musgrove is still in town, now working as a private investigator. His smirk and arrogance are a big part of why she fled her small town ten years ago.

Jake has screwed up pretty much everything in his life, but his biggest regret is how he let Camille walk away. Now that she’s back, he refuses to lose her again. He’s got to put it all on the line to protect her, but the killer is getting closer and he’s got to figure out who it is before Camille is entombed…

This romantic suspense novel is a page-turning standalone with an HEA and no cliffhangers.


About the Author




RUTH PARKER lives in Los Angeles, in a house covered in toddler handprints and cat hair. She has a crippling addiction to diagramless crossword puzzles, Forensic Files and John D. MacDonald novels. Send help. And pencils.







Contact Links


Buy Link

Reading Addiction Blog Tours



Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Book Blitz & Giveaway: Peculiar Country by Stuart R. West




Peculiar County


Genre: YA Paranormal/Ghost Mystery

Release Date: July 30th 2017

Books We Love



Summary:




Growing up in Peculiar County, Kansas, is a mighty...well, peculiar experience. In 1965, things get even stranger for Dibby Caldwell, the mortician's fifteen year old daughter. A young boy's ghost haunts Dibby into unearthing the circumstances of his death. 




Nobody—living or dead—wants her to succeed. James, the new mop-topped, bad boy at school doesn’t help. Dibby can’t get him out of her head, even though she doesn’t trust him. No, sir, there's nothing much more peculiar than life in Peculiar County…except maybe death in Peculiar County.



Buy Links: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo



EXCERPT:

I pushed through the doors. They swat at my backside, squeaking with mischief. Eee-hee, eee-hee
Down in the workshop, the cold really packed a wallop. I rubbed my arms, stamped my feet. I rode my hand along the wall, searching for the light switch.
Tik…tek…tik
Fluorescent ceiling lamps sprung to life, duller, deader than usual. Instead of providing warm luminescence, they cast everything in an odd light, everything touched in artificial tints.
Immediately, the strong, familiar odor of ammonia enveloped me. But I couldn’t place the other smell, couldn’t describe it. If pressed, I suppose I’d catalog it somewhere between sweet and metallic. Sorta the way blood tastes when you prick your finger and suck on it. I’d never smelled anything like it before, not in Dad’s workshop or elsewhere.
An overriding smell rode in like fog. A strong, wrong odor that brought to mind mold and rot. A primal scent from a different time or place.
Ching! Ding! Ting-a-ling!
Impatient as a hungry baby, the bell-ringer called.
Click.
The walk-in refrigerator door handle swung up.
Chumpf!
The door released its seal and opened, just a few inches. A pale blue—hardly blue, more like moon-white—cone of light fell across the floor. A swirl of frost slivered out, twirled in the bare luminescence.
Ding! Ding! Ching! Ting-a-ling-aling
Cut off in mid-ring, the bell silenced. Everything hushed. No sound, not a peep, a tick, a drop. Just the silent shroud of death.
Slowly, I crept toward the refrigerator. Which didn’t make a lick of sense as I knew Hettie waited for me. There didn’t seem to be any real sense in maintaining silence either. But any noise—even my own—made me want to scream.
Above me, the light flickered off, on, then sizzled like bacon before settling on dark.
My hand gripped the handle. Arctic cold, I wrenched my hand back. I flagged it ‘till the stabbing needles of cold left. With my shoulder, I nudged the door. It pushed open half-way, then stopped. I followed with a mighty mule kick.
The door opened about as far as its hinges would allow.
I took a deep breath, held it. When I exhaled, I spouted out a frozen, visible vapor.
“Hettie?” I whispered.
I entered. To the left, the metal shelves on the wall were unoccupied. On the opposite side, all but one sat empty. A rumpled plastic cloth lay across the bottom shelf.
The eerie blue light had no visible source, but it provided ample light to see by. Maybe too much, considering.
“Hettie?” I repeated a little louder.
In the back of the unit, where Dad housed his supplies, a hanging shower curtain billowed out. Plastic crinkled. Something moved, fluid behind the curtain’s rippling waves. Not exactly flesh-colored, not much of anything.
Tinggg!
My heart urged me to turn back. Traitorous feet wouldn’t comply.
White snails of fingers crawled around the plastic and gripped it. Slowly, the curtain pulled back. Rusty rings on a rustier rod squealed screeeeeee.
Hettie stood exposed, naked. Except for the black “X” stitching up her innards. Varicose veins twined her legs. Toes exploded into corns the size of thumbs. Her scrubbing pad of hair stood up on end, a static raised brush of black and white.
Clouds had moved into her eyes, milkier than when I’d found her, yet intently focused on me. She showed that awful cavernous smile again. Barnacle-like teeth jabbed out of her gums.
Her lower jaw wobbled, then dropped ajar. Not an involuntary movement caused by gas either, the way sometimes happened to corpses. She gasped, a hissing radiator.
She took a doddering step toward me.
Ding!
The bell tied to her toe tolled.
Ding-a-ling!
Each step forward took great effort. A kind of ghostly arthritis hampered her dead limbs, encased them in cement. When she moved, wood cracked. More wood splintered, her body falling apart. She raised an arm. Dark veins spiraled around it, swimming upstream with determination. They rode toward her sagging bosom, traveled north up her neck, snaked beneath her chin, and set up house on her face.

And still she kept coming.

About the Author
Stuart R. West is a lifelong resident of Kansas, which he considers both a curse and a blessing. It's a curse because...well, it's Kansas. But it's great because…well, it’s Kansas. Lots of cool, strange and creepy things happen in the Midwest, and Stuart takes advantage of them in his workCall it “Kansas Noir.” Stuart writes thrillers and mysteries usually tinged with humor, both for adult and young adult audiences.
Stuart spent 25 years in the corporate sector and now writes full time. He’s married to a professor of pharmacy (who greatly appreciates the fact he cooks dinner for her every night) and has a 25 year old daughter who’s dabbling in the nefarious world of banking.


Author Links:

    



GIVEAWAY:

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Pre-Order Blitz & Giveaway: Rose De Muerte by Natalie Bennett


Title: Rose De Muerte
Author: Natalie Bennett
Genre: Dark Erotic Romance
Release Date: October 16, 2017
Covers by: Covers by Combs




NOTE: ROSE DE MUERTE WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ON BARNES & NOBLE, KOBO, OR ITUNES AFTER RELEASE




Roselynn ‘Rose' Morgue is in love. 

That sounds good on the surface, but nothing about Rose’s life is ever simple. 

The object of her affection is not only her stalker, he’s also supposed to be dead, and that little fact throws a wrench in her plan to reinvent herself. 

You see, Rose is far more twisted than anyone would ever believe, and will do whatever it takes to ensure no one ever finds out the truth about her past. But when a series of murders begin, Rose’s secrets rise to the surface, and one extremely pissed off secret can’t wait for her to get what she deserves. 

*Trigger Warning* 
Bad Sh*t happens. 
This book will not entice warm fuzzy feelings. 
(This book is a standalone prequel that sets the stage for Pernicious Red)



a Rafflecopter giveaway






Natalie Bennett is the creator of erotic stories that always come with a warning label. She writes about depraved alpha a**holes and women that love to hate them. Her books don't follow any specific tropes, have no set word counts, and tend to deviate from traditional HEA's.


When she isn't in front of her computer she's spending time with her husband and their three little boys.

Natalie is an avid fan of caramel frappes, horror movies, Shameless, and of course, reading.

You can find Natalie on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.



HOSTED BY:




Sunday, August 13, 2017

Blog Tour, Book Review & Giveaway: Infinity (The Infinity Division, #1) by Jus Accardo





Infinity (The Infinity Division, #1) by Jus Accardo
Published by Entangled Teen
Published on November 1st, 2016
Genre: YA Science Fiction

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/28220742-infinity?ac=1&from_search=true
Entangled: http://entangledpublishing.com/infinity/
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Infinity-Jus-Accardo-ebook/dp/B01E3PS7OS?tag=entangpublis-20
B&N: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/infinity-jus-accardo/1123132853
Itunes: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/infinity/id1105088032?mt=11&ign-mpt=uo%3D4
Kobo: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/infinity-38

Jump dimensions. Find the bad guy. Don’t fall in love.

Nobody said being the daughter of an army general was easy. But when her dad sends a teenage subordinate to babysit her while he’s away? That’s taking it a step too far.

Cade, as beautiful as he is deadly, watches Kori with more than just interest. He looks at her like he knows her very soul. And when he saves her from a seemingly random attack, well, that’s when things get weird.

Turns out, Kori’s dad isn’t just an army general—he’s the head of a secret government project that has invented a way to travel between parallel dimensions. Dimensions where there are infinite Koris, infinite Cades…and apparently, on every other Earth, they’re madly in love.

Falling for a soldier is the last thing on Kori’s mind. Especially when she finds herself in a deadly crossfire, and someone from another Earth is hell-bent on revenge…



Omega (The Infinity Division, #2) by Jus Accardo
Published by Entangled Teen
To be released on August 1st, 2017

One mistake can change everything. Ashlyn Calvert finds that out the hard way when a bad decision leads to the death of her best friend, Noah Anderson.

Only Noah isn’t really gone. Thanks to his parents’ company, the Infinity Division, there is a version of him skipping from one dimension to another, set on revenge for the death of his sister, Kori. When a chance encounter brings him face-to-face with Ash, he’s determined to resist the magnetic pull he’s felt for her time and time again. Because falling for Ash puts his mission—and their lives—in danger.

But there’s more going on in Ash’s alternate universe than either of them knows: a mysterious project called Omega. A conspiracy spanning multiple Earths and revolving around none other than Ash. Its creators would do anything to keep Omega secret…

Anything.



Review of Infinity
There is a theory that suggests the truth behind a phenomenon known as the multiverse.  The theory presumes that there are infinite realities, or universes, which are variations of the world that we know.  Since each universe progresses on its own, influenced by unique factors, they present different features.  For example, each universe would be at different stages of development, technology, landscapes, even cultural norms.  Yet, fundamentally, there are similarities.  Some even say there are multiple versions of us that exist across the various universes.  Of course, these theories lack any real scientific basis, and it is doubtful we will ever know for sure if there is indeed a multiverse.

This is the basic foundational premise behind Infinity.  Kori Anderson is an average girl who causes a bit too much trouble but otherwise is a normal high school student.  Her father is somewhat strict given that he is a military man, but she lives a safe and secure life.  Yet, what is a normal life ends up in chaos when she winds up the target of a murderer, Dylan, who is, in fact, a visitor from another earth.  Dylan wants to kill Kori to pay for the crimes of another universe—to punish the people who loved the Kori on the other earth, his earth, which a version of her existed, and to find her earth’s version of the woman he loved, Ava.  Dylan is followed by two men, Cade and Noah, who are determined to stop Dylan before he can kill anyone else on Kori’s world or another.  But Dylan is clever and puts Kori into a perilous situation: find the woman he loves or be shuttled through the multiverse and probably not survive.  The only light at the end of the tunnel is her burgeoning romance with Cade.

I love a book with a sound scientific basis, or rather one that is believable even if the science in a real sense doesn’t exist.  The author, Jus Accardo, gives a solid explanation of the technology used to send people from one earth to another but doesn’t convolute it. I really enjoyed Dylan’s rage.  A good book is always full of emotion, and characters that conflict with good reason and force.  It was also cute how Cade and Kori slowly developed feelings for one another, even if I was kind of troubled by the fact that Kori is a 17-year-old high school student.  The best parts of the book were the twists to the plot.  Just when there seemed to be a resolution in place, Accardo pitched the storyline on its head.  I really liked what happened when the group sought out Ava.  It was gasp inducing and made you fear that Kori wouldn’t be saved.

This book is good for young adult readers and beyond.  Infinity is an exciting sci-fi journey, using our familiar earth as the backdrop.  I look forward to pursuing the second book in the series since Infinity left us on a cliffhanger.  To know if Kori survives, you have to read the next novel, which I will certainly do.

About the Author

JUS ACCARDO spent her childhood reading and learning to cook. Determined to follow in her grandfather’s footsteps as a chef, she applied and was accepted to the Culinary Institute of America. But at the last minute, she realized her true path lay with fiction, not food. Jus is the bestselling author of the popular Denazen series from Entangled publishing, as well as the Darker Agency series, and the New Adult series, The Eternal Balance. A native New Yorker, she lives in the middle of nowhere with her husband, three dogs, and sometimes guard bear, Oswald.

Read below for an excerpt from the book:

“Maybe you used to be better at it?” I prodded. “I mean, you probably don’t get a lot of time to date while skipping all over creation, right? Maybe you’re just out of practice?”

“I’m not out of practice.” He seethed.

“It’s okay! It’s nothing to be ashamed of—”

For the second time since we’d met, he assaulted me. One second I was having the time of my life pushing his buttons—ridiculously easy to do—the next I was against the wall, Noah’s body covering mine. His lips moved furiously, scorchingly hot and with a level of passion I’d never felt before. His tongue slipped between my lips and despite having told other guys that I hated that, I melted, reveling in the millions of electrical tingles the action sent shooting through my body.

His hands gripped my head on either side. No roaming, no exploration. Somehow it made the whole thing hotter. Like he couldn’t bear to release me in fear that I’d move. That I’d get away and he’d have to stop.

And stop? No. That was a dirty word. A softly whispered sin in the darkest corners of the earth. Stopping this would be a crime of the highest caliber.

Except he did. Stop, that was.

He pulled away just far enough to look me in the eye, not yet letting go of my head. With an extremely satisfied tilt of his lip, he said, “Decent my ass.”


The Giveaway

metal infinity charm bookmark



Wednesday, August 9, 2017

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: My Dear Hamilton by Stephanie Dray & Laura Kamoie







From the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy. Haunting, moving, and beautifully written, Dray and Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza’s story as it’s never been told before—not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal—but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.

We’re celebrating Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s Birthday today and you get the gift! Don’t miss the beautiful cover below and a special giveaway, and don’t forget to pre-order your copy today!


About My Dear Hamilton: A Novel of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton (Coming 4.3.2018):

Wife, Widow, and Warrior in Alexander Hamilton’s Quest to Form a More Perfect Union

From the New York Times bestselling authors of America’s First Daughter comes the epic story of Eliza Schuyler Hamilton—a revolutionary woman who, like her new nation, struggled to define herself in the wake of war, betrayal, and tragedy. Haunting, moving, and beautifully written, Dray and Kamoie used thousands of letters and original sources to tell Eliza’s story as it’s never been told before—not just as the wronged wife at the center of a political sex scandal—but also as a founding mother who shaped an American legacy in her own right.

A general’s daughter…

Coming of age on the perilous frontier of revolutionary New York, Elizabeth Schuyler champions the fight for independence. And when she meets Alexander Hamilton, Washington’s penniless but passionate aide-de-camp, she’s captivated by the young officer’s charisma and brilliance. They fall in love, despite Hamilton’s bastard birth and the uncertainties of war.

A founding father’s wife...

But the union they create—in their marriage and the new nation—is far from perfect. From glittering inaugural balls to bloody street riots, the Hamiltons are at the center of it all—including the political treachery of America’s first sex scandal, which forces Eliza to struggle through heartbreak and betrayal to find forgiveness.

The last surviving light of the Revolution…

When a duel destroys Eliza’s hard-won peace, the grieving widow fights her husband’s enemies to preserve Alexander’s legacy. But long-buried secrets threaten everything Eliza believes about her marriage and her own legacy. Questioning her tireless devotion to the man and country that have broken her heart, she’s left with one last battle—to understand the flawed man she married and imperfect union he could never have created without her…




Pre-Order on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | GooglePlay | iBooks | Kobo


To celebrate Eliza Schuyler Hamilton’s Birthday today, we have a surprise for you! Share the cover of MY DEAR HAMILTON and fill out the Rafflecopter below to receive an Exclusive Excerpt!







New York Times bestselling author, Stephanie Dray is an award-winning, bestselling and two-time RITA award nominated author of historical women’s fiction. Her critically acclaimed series about Cleopatra’s daughter has been translated into eight different languages and won NJRW's Golden Leaf. As Stephanie Draven, she is a national bestselling author of genre fiction and American-set historical women's fiction. She is a frequent panelist and presenter at national writing conventions and lives near the nation's capital. Before she became a novelist, she was a lawyer, a game designer, and a teacher. Now she uses the stories of women in history to inspire the young women of today.





New York Times bestselling author, Laura Kamoie has always been fascinated by the people, stories, and physical presence of the past, which led her to a lifetime of historical and archaeological study and training. She holds a doctoral degree in early American history from The College of William and Mary, published two non-fiction books on early America, and most recently held the position of Associate Professor of History at the U.S. Naval Academy before transitioning to a full-time career writing genre fiction as the New York Times bestselling author, Laura Kaye. Her New York Times bestselling debut historical novel, America's First Daughter, co-authored with Stephanie Dray, allowed her the exciting opportunity to combine her love of history with her passion for storytelling. Laura lives among the colonial charm of Annapolis, Maryland with her husband and two daughters.