The Research Jackpot by Darlene Gardner

The guest blog is by Darlene Gardner, our Author in Spotlight.

The Research Jackpot by Darlene Gardner

I’m a sportswriter turned romance novelist. Pretty unusual, right? Not in my family, it isn’t. Odd jobs are the norm.

One of my sisters—who, by the way, is tall, blond and beautiful—is a professional dealer at a casino. The other¬—just as tall and just as attractive but a brunette—is a private investigator.

Of the three of us, I think I have the best gig, in part because of their occupations. It’s fantastic to have two prime research sources who are related to me. No matter how many questions I ask, or how dumb they sound, they’ll answer.

The casino dealer doesn’t know it yet, but I’m plotting a book that involves gambling. And I’ll probably use some of her stories, like the one about the compulsive gambler who was told to go home and shower after forty eight straight hours at the casino because he was getting really ripe. Or the cheater who insisted she was picking on him—until the security cameras proved otherwise.

Private eyes show up in my books with regularity. The same female P.I. appears in The Truth About Tara, my current release from Harlequin Superromance, and my December Super Wish Upon a Christmas Star. In the first book, Maria DiMarco gets her brother to check out a tip that a teacher in coastal Virginia resembles the age-progression photo of a child who was abducted thirty years ago. In the second, Maria herself travels to Key West to determine if another brother, long thought dead, might still be alive.

You can’t imagine how many questions and phone calls I made to my sisterly source during the writing of those two books. The upside is that I’m pretty confident I got things right.

Don’t be surprised if the characters in my future books start arresting criminals and taking evidence to crime labs. My nephew was just hired as a cop, and my daughter is in grad school to become a forensic scientist.

I’ve hit the research jackpot!

Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Author Spotlight

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham. 

 Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Hello all, Alicia Rasley here, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest Author to the Spotlight: Darlene Graham, the author of The Truth about Tara and is here to tell you about the book. She's a lifelong writer. She's even served time as a sports reporter!

We are excited to have Darlene spending some time with us. Please make sure to stop by the Author Spotlight page (you can find it at the top of the page, or just click Darlene's picture to the right) to find information about her and her book. In the meantime, check out the book (cover above) and leave a comment saying hi and letting us know you stopped by.

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham

Author Spotlight: Darlene Graham. 

 Darlene Graham's The Truth about Tara

Hello all, Alicia Rasley here, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest Author to the Spotlight: Darlene Graham, the author of The Truth about Tara and is here to tell you about the book. She's a lifelong writer. She's even served time as a sports reporter!

We are excited to have Darlene spending some time with us. Please make sure to stop by the Author Spotlight page (you can find it at the top of the page, or just click Darlene's picture to the right) to find information about her and her book. In the meantime, check out the book (cover above) and leave a comment saying hi and letting us know you stopped by.

Author Spotlight this week is on Sharon Ihle

Author Spotlight: Sharon Ihle. 

Sharon Ihle's The Bride Wore Spurs

Hello all, Alicia Rasley here, and I wanted to take a moment to welcome our newest Author to the Spotlight: Sharon Ihle, known for her exciting Western Historicals. ! Sharon is the author of The Bride Wore Spurs (isn't that a great title?) and is here to tell you about the book. She's a lifelong Californian relocated to North Dakota recently.

We are excited to have Sharon spending some time with us. Please make sure to stop by the Author Spotlight page (you can find it at the top of the page, or just click Sharon's picture to the right) to find information about her and her book. In the meantime, check out the book (cover above) and leave a comment saying hi and letting us know you stopped by.

'Intertwined' by Gena Showalter

Reviewed by Jesi

3 Stars

 

Most 16-year-olds have friends. Aden Stone has four human souls living inside him: One can time travel. One can raise the dead. One can tell the future. And one can possess another human.

With no other family and a life spent in and out of institutions, Aden and the souls have become friends. But now they're causing him all kinds of trouble. Like, he'll blink and suddenly he's a younger Aden, reliving the past. One wrong move, and he'll change the future. Or he'll walk past a total stranger and know how and when she's going to die.

He's so over it. All he wants is peace. And then he meets a girl who quiets the voices. Well, as long as he's near her. Why? Mary Ann Gray is his total opposite. He's a loner; she has friends. He doesn't care what anyone thinks; she tries to make everyone happy. And while he attracts the paranormal, she repels it. For her sake, he should stay away. But it's too late....

Somehow, they share an inexplicable bond of friendship. A bond about to be tested by a werewolf shape-shifter who wants Mary Ann for his own, and a vampire princess Aden can't resist. Two romances, both forbidden. Still, the four will enter a dark underworld of intrigue and danger - but not everyone will come out alive....

(Audible product description)

This book had a lot going on--time travel, romance, necromancy, body hopping, prophesy, family secrets, cheating boyfriends, ghosts, vampires, werewolves, demons, faeries, witches, zombies, Vlad the Impaler...what!?!  It’s like a giant paranormal soup, afraid to leave anything out!  But somehow, it works...mostly. 

I honestly didn’t know what to expect from Intertwined.  The reviews have been mixed.  But I like Gena Showalter’s Lords of the Underworld series, so I wanted to check out her young adult work. 

Aden has four other souls living in his mind, each with separate personalities.  He can hear them, but he must speak out loud in order to reply.  As a result, his parents abandoned him to the foster system and the state thinks he’s mentally ill.  I was afraid having five people in one body would get confusing, but it really wasn’t.  Each soul had a distinct personality.  That said, I really wish these characters had had more of a chance to develop before introducing forty other characters. 

Seriously, the sheer number of characters was insane! I’m hoping this is just because it’s the first book in a series, and it serves as the introduction to all of the players.  Maybe future books will settle down a bit and allow the characters to grow. 

Other than having way too much going on, there were things I liked about this book.  Aden was a good character, but so was Mary Ann.  My first assumption was that she would be Aden’s love interest, but that didn’t turn out to be the case.  Instead, they were really close friends.  It’s a refreshing twist in a YA book that a boy and a girl can be friends without needing to develop into a romance.  Of course they each fall for other people, meaning this book actually has two love stories.  (Why not have two?  This book has everything else in it.) 

Of the two romantic storylines, I was more drawn to Mary Ann and Riley.  Aden’s Victoria is an 80-something year old vampire princess.  He thinks she is totally hot, and she comes across as cold.  It’s a weird, somewhat shallow combination.  There is more chemistry between Mary Ann and the werewolf, Riley.  Things move slower with them, more believably. He first appears to her in his wolf form as a guardian, walking her to and from school each day.  He is able to speak into her mind, but he refuses to tell her who he is or show her his human form.  Their connection is strong before he ever reveals himself to her.  The scene where he finally does is beautifully written with all of the teenage awkwardness one might expect.  It reminded me of how it must be to meet an internet crush in person for the first time. 

So while it was a lot to take in, I have already bought the second book, Unraveled.  I’m interested enough in Aden, Mary Ann and the gang to stick with it.  I just hope the next book is more focused.

Overall, I give Intertwined...

Plot - 4 bookmarks (fast-paced)

Character development - 2 bookmarks

Love story(s) - 2 bookmarks (Aden & Victoria) and 4 bookmarks (Mary Ann & Riley)

Dream cast (otherwise known as who I pictured while reading) - Jeremy Sumpter (Aden), Shay Mitchell (Victoria), Juno Temple (Mary Ann), Steven R. McQueen (Riley)

'This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store' AK Turner

Reviewed by Lindsey
5 ++++ stars

'This Little Piggy Went to the Liquor Store chronicles what happens when a little girl who scorns the idea of marriage and children (in favor of becoming a stiletto-wearing, attache-carrying Secret Agent), majors in Russian, minors in Vodka, and then one day finds herself with child… and in-laws.' (Amazon Description)

I have openly shared my title of Worst Mom in the World. Sometimes I accept it; other times the guilt is suffocating. However, as I approach my 39th birthday, frankly, I embrace it. Somehow, I manage to have three fairly decent, non meth addicted children. We are in the dreaded teen years.  Some choose to approach this time with hope and excitement. I continue to approach with pessimism and dread. Sure, they are great now, but what will happen next year?

So I am not one for memoirs. The cover, which is great caught my eye.

When a chapter begins with, "Like all new moms, I had a baby and decided that I should smoke pot for the first time", well, how could I not love this? Pure poetry!

Throughout the book, the author is candid and hysterical. I too have attempted (and failed)  perfect Mom-dom. I joined that hideous Mom and Tots or whatever that cult was in hopes of finding the one other young mum like me. Never happened. Instead, I had my head filled by competitive mums about all my wrong doings. I found out that allowing my infant to pass out in my bed after the hundredth feeding of the evening meant I was securing her a life in insecurity, drug use and probably into the arms of an abusive partner.

I was a wreck. My husband was sick of hearing how we were either poisoning our daughter with toxic shampoos that would ensure blindness by age 4 or how that bite of ice cream would now cause her kidneys to overwork.

In most first pregnancies, parents somehow believe that their to-be child will be so superior over an out of utero nit wit, there is a level of arrogance that no Mean Girl can match.

Exhibit A: This is conversation between AK and her husband Mike regarding pets.

AK: "But what about our kids? They're going to want a pet at some point."

MIKE: "Fine, we'll give them invisible pets."

AK: "Our kids are going to be gifted, so of course they'll never buy it."

MIKE: "You're right."

I loved this book for its honesty, foul language, frustration with kids, marriage, family and liquor consumption.

This is the book you give to friends who have kids. If they are uptight, maybe this will help them relax. If they're pregnant for the first time-avoid them like the plague.

Give them five years then you can buy a copy for the failures.

Grab a bottle of wine (or two) and start reading!

Reading and Vegetables, by Bill Blais

Reading and Vegetables
Guest Post: Written by Author Bill Blais

I hated spinach growing up. God, I hated it. It was always flaccid, slimy, flavorless and covered my teeth in that unmistakable film that always took several mouthfuls of potatoes or chicken or whatever else was on my plate to get rid of. This was back before grocery stores carried fresh baby-leaf spinach -- it was either the massive, thick leaves in the produce section or the solid blocks of chopped bits from the freezer aisle -- and let's just say that cooking vegetables well was not a highly developed art form in the kitchens of my youth.

Not that I'm complaining, mind you -- I still have a soft spot for canned peas (no pun intended) -- but my point is this: Reading, for me, is like my relationship with eating vegetables. I wasn't all that adventurous with food as a kid (I would eat plain pasta and butter until I exploded if my parents let me), but being forced to try things I didn't think I liked actually set a precedent that has since exposed me to some fabulous culinary adventures.

Pride and Prejudice -- the one without the zombies -- is one of my top 5 books of all time, but I would have completely missed it if not for my wife (who also re-introduced me to spinach, thankfully!).

Yes, I had to read it in school, along with a number of other 'classics', but if there was one proven method for ensuring I didn't enjoy a book, it was to force me to read it. Further complicating matters was the fact that I was simply too young to truly appreciate many of these pieces (and as a pudgy teenage boy trying his very hardest to fit in, reading a 'girl-book' like P&P was just not going to work). 

What I preferred to read, and what I devoured with a near-pasta-level hunger, was fantasy and science fiction (okay, this didn't win me any friends in the cool crowd, either, but I found enough like minds to make it palatable). The seeds of those other books had been planted, though, albeit in stubborn ground, and I could not shake the thought that I might have missed something in them. Eventually, I picked some of them up in later years to see if they were as bad as I remembered.

To my genuine surprise, I discovered things like laugh-out-loud humor side by side with heroic tragedy in A Tale of Two Cities, or a love story in Pride & Prejudice that transformed my (previously stereotypical) perception of romantic fiction. While fantasy and science fiction remain my first literary passions, these other experiences opened my mind to more genres and styles outside my comfort zone, including some fabulous non-fiction, like Maya Angelou's heartbreaking I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Simon Winchester's The Professor and the Madman, about the origins of the Oxford English Dictionary, or Stephen B. Carroll's fascinating text on evolutionary development, Endless Forms, Most Beautiful.

If I only ate what I knew I liked, I would never have touched a kebab or a black pudding or tasted Chicken Tikka Masala (and I would certainly never have known the simple delight of a fresh spinach salad!), and I probably would have died years ago from pasta over-consumption. 

Okay, I'm aware this isn't a perfect analogy, but you get the point: If I only read what I knew I would like, I would never have picked up Patrick O'Brian's fantastic Aubrey & Maturin series, and while I certainly appreciate the security and comfort of reading what is familiar (see: Aubrey & Maturin series), the real point is that the wider I read, the more I gain from all that I read.

You can find out more about Bill Blais's new release, No Good Deed, by clicking the link below.

Bill Blais: No Good Deed