Special Feature: HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE IMMORTAL DESCENDANTS SERIES by April White

We are celebrating the 3 year publication anniversary of MARKING TIME with a brand new look for the whole series! The big over reveal is coming on 11/1 so be watching for a post on Sunday! But if you simply can’t wait until then….here is a little preview!

These newly-redesigned ebooks and paperbacks are now available to order at Amazon, and I am giving away a signed set, plus a $50 Amazon gift card and signed copies of Truth or Beard, by Penny Reid, and The Scribe, by Elizabeth Hunter (see giveaway below).

Marking Time is currently FREE for all e-readers!

→ Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1LS9PFD

→ Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1Mf7dkv

→ B&N: http://bit.ly/1P1gnpL

→ Kobo: http://bit.ly/1Mn3UxZ

→ iTunes: http://apple.co/1LSb2gh

 

Tempting Fate and Changing Nature are currently FREE to Kindle Unlimited subscribers!

→ Amazon US: http://amzn.to/1LSbj2F

→ Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/1H4Vaok

The paperback versions of all three books are available here: http://amzn.to/1kIpBfs

GIVEAWAY

Enter the rafflecopter below to win a three-book signed paperback set of The Immortal Descendants series with new covers, plus a $50 Amazon gift card, and signed copies of Truth or Beard, by Penny Reid, and The Scribe, by Elizabeth Hunter
→ http://bit.ly/1k7jmkJ

 

Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween

Halloween is just around the corner and this week on The Lit Bitch we are talking about the books that make you want to curl up and hide under the covers of your bed. You know those books that scare you so bad that every little noise in your house makes you jump and wonder….is there a monster under my bed???

The folks at Casper Mattresses have a great blog called Pillow Talk and they are doing a super fun ‘haunted’ feature on their blog for Halloween where they talk about spooky hotels (including the Heathman Hotel in Portland, a personal fav of mine being from Oregon and all). Casper is a great company full of fellow bibliophiles like myself and they asked me to share what books I have read that have kept me up at night to celebrate Halloween!

I haven’t read a lot of ‘horror stories’ but I have read a few classic novels that certainly belong in the ‘spine tingling’ literary canon and I also added a few other books that were so suspenseful that I found myself jumping at any little noise. I am sure there are a lot of other creepy-tastic books out there that I am forgetting…..Stephen King comes to mind and I’ll be honest….I want to read Stephen King but I’m a little too scared! If you have a favorite scary book that makes you want to hide under your covers please share it in the comments below!

Continue reading “Special Feature: The Spine Tingling Literary Canon List for Halloween”

Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz

Shortly after Sherlock Holmes and his adversary, James Moriarty, go over Reichenbach Falls a body is pulled from the water. American detective, Frederick Chase, rushed to Switzerland where he hopes to identify the body as Moriarty’s and ultimately recover a letter sent from notorious American criminal, Clarence Devereux.

Devereux and Moriarty had planned to form a partnership that would make them the most formidable crime syndicate in Britain and America. But with Moriarty dead, that leaves Devereux holding the reigns.

Chase plans to stop Devereux by any means necessary. When he arrives are Reichenbach falls he meets British detective Athelney Jones who has learned many of Sherlock Holmes’s methods of deduction. The soon for a team and start investigating the links between Devereux and other criminals in Britain but at every turn they meet a dead end…..literally.

The body count is piling up and the pressure is on for Chase and Jones to stop the criminal gang before it’s too late. Chase has spent a good deal of time studying Devereux and though no one has seen his face, he suffers from a rare condition known as agoraphobia. Chase and Jones hope to identify Devereux by exploiting his phobia.

The two detectives encounter many unspeakable crimes and twisted plots as they track the gang through London. Together Chase and Jones make a great team….they almost mirror Holmes and Watson.

Continue reading “Review: Moriarty (Sherlock Holmes by Anthony Horowitz #2) by Anthony Horowitz”

Review: Wilkie Collins: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd

Biographies and non fiction are always such an interesting genre for me. It must be such a challenge trying to research a person or subject so famous or well known and still be able to bring something ‘new’ to the table. Not to mention write a book that doesn’t read like a boring history timeline with a bunch of dates and milestones in a person’s life.

So I am always intrigued when non fiction and/or biographies come across my nightstand for review, if the person or subject interests me I usually give it a go. Wilkie Collins has been a very interesting literary figure for me since I read Drood by Dan Simmons a few years ago. While I didn’t really like the book itself that well…..the character Wilkie Collins appealed to me so much that I read his novel The Woman in White a short time later.

I have yet to read his magnum opus, The Moonstone, but I have it and am waiting for the perfect stormy fall night to start it. Something about Collins says ‘dark and stormy night’ to me. I don’t know much about Collins’s life or literary career besides these two popular books…..Collins often get’s obscured by Charles Dickens as they are both writers of the same period. So when this biography came across my nightstand for review, I did not hesitate to agree….the English Literature major in me was crying out to learn more about this often skipped over author!

Continue reading “Review: Wilkie Collins: A Brief Life by Peter Ackroyd”

Spotlight Feature: MARGARET KERR MYSTERY SERIES

Please join Margaret Kerr as she tours the blogosphere for her Margaret Kerr Mystery Series, from October 12-23, with HF Virtual Book Tours, and enter to win one of three (3) Sets of A TRUST BETRAYED and THE FIRE IN THE FLINT in eBook!

A Trust Betrayed (Book One)

03_A Trust Betrayed
“Thirteenth-century Edinburgh comes off the page cold and convincing, from the smoke and noise of the tavern kitchen to Holyrood Abbey under a treacherous abbot. Most enjoyable.” —THE LIST

In the spring of 1297 the English army controls lowland Scotland and Margaret Kerr’s husband Roger Sinclair is missing. He’d headed to Dundee in autumn, writing to Margaret with a promise to be home for Christmas, but it’s past Easter. Is he caught up in the swelling rebellion against the English? Is he even alive? When his cousin, Jack, is murdered on the streets of Edinburgh, Roger’s last known location, Margaret coerces her brother Andrew, a priest, to escort her to the city.

She finds Edinburgh scarred by war—houses burnt, walls stained with blood, shops shuttered—and the townsfolk simmering with resentment, harboring secrets. Even her uncle, innkeeper Murdoch Kerr, meets her questions with silence. Are his secrets the keys to Roger’s disappearance? What terrible sin torments her brother? Is it her husband she glimpses in the rain, scarred, haunted? Desperate, Margaret makes alliances that risk both her own life and that of her brother in her search for answers. She learns that war twists love and loyalties, and that, until tested, we cannot know our own hearts, much less those of our loved ones.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

 

The Fire in the Flint (Book Two)

04_The Fire in the Flint“Intrigue abounds…. Robb’s captivating blend of history and mystery vividly evokes medieval Scotland.” —BOOKLIST

Scots are gathering in Murdoch Kerr’s Edinburgh tavern, plotting to drive out the English forces. Margaret takes her place there as innkeeper, collecting information to pass on to William Wallace—until murder gives the English an excuse to shutter the tavern. The dead man was a witness to the intruders who raided chests belonging to Margaret’s husband and her father, the latest in a string of violent raids on Margaret’s family, but no one knows the identity of the raiders or what they’re searching for.

Margaret’s uncle urges her to escape Edinburgh, but as she flees north with her husband Roger, Margaret grows suspicious about his sudden wish to speak with her mother, Christiana, who is a soothsayer. Margaret once innocently shared with Roger one of Christiana’s visions, of “the true king of Scotland” riding into Edinburgh. Now she begins to wonder if their trip is part of a mission engineered by the English crown…

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

 

A Cruel Courtship (Book Three)

05_A Cruel Courtship“This is history as it should be told!” —GOOD BOOK GUIDE

In late summer 1297, Margaret Kerr heads to the town of Stirling at the request of William Wallace’s man James Comyn. Her mission is to discover the fate of a young spy who had infiltrated the English garrison at Stirling Castle, but on the journey Margaret is haunted by dreams—or are they visions?—of danger.

He who holds Stirling Castle holds Scotland—and a bloody battle for the castle is imminent. But as the Scots prepare to cast off the English yoke, Margaret’s flashes of the future allow her to glimpse what is to come—and show her that she can trust no one, not even her closest friends.

A CRUEL COURTSHIP is a harrowing account of the days before the bloody battle of Stirling Bridge, and the story of a young woman’s awakening.

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOOGLE PLAY | ITUNES | KOBO

Continue reading “Spotlight Feature: MARGARET KERR MYSTERY SERIES”