"Like hot sauce it is!" - Joy - Releases Tomorrow @authorgilbert

Chapter 4

Handle It

The afternoon hours flew by as Joy helped Dr. Miles handle one patient after another in rapid succession. She was her usual cheerful, competent self. As closing time came around, she noticed Dr. Miles becoming quiet and peevish.

“Are you feeling all right, Dr. Miles?” Joy inquired. “Can I get you something? A cold water perhaps?” Without waiting for him to answer, she rushed to the tiny break room and fetched a bottle of water from the common supply.

When she came back, Dr. Miles abruptly stopped filling out Dasher’s file. A dozen emotions flitted across his face, but finally, he settled on anger and sorrow. “You’re fired,” he said, turning back to the file.

The comment blindsided Joy. She stood in the doorway repeating the words in her mind.

You’re fired. You’re fired. You’re fired.

“What?” Joy asked, certain she had heard something wrong. “You can’t do that, sir.”

Dr. Miles ignored her but had the grace to blush.

Both of them knew she had a point.

“What did I do? Don’t I get two weeks notice? What happened? Why?” This last question contained absolute bewilderment. Tears burned Joy’s eyes, but she held them in check by focusing on her anger. Knowing she had to go on the offensive or fall to emotional pieces, Joy cleared her throat. Despite her best efforts, her voice still

shook. “You owe me an explanation, Dr. Miles.”

“You’re fired. That’s everything you need to know!”

Anger was etched on every line of his face, but somehow Joy knew the anger wasn’t directed at her. This left her even more confused and hurt.

“Like hot sauce it is!”

“I need a dog … or a man” - Joy - 2 Days @authorgilbert

Chapter 2
Dangerous Secrets

The memory of the crisis that had forced her to tuck her phone in an examining room drawer made her smile. Mrs. Blair’s miniature poodle, Dennis, had clearly taken exception to getting a shot. Mrs. Blair, who had been holding Dennis, started when he howled in her ear. Suddenly free, Dennis tried to escape. Joy had tossed her phone in the drawer for safe keeping and expertly caught Dennis as he leapt for the sink. In the excitement, she had forgotten her phone. Since her budget precluded having a house phone and a cell phone, Joy needed to turn around.

Returning to the clinic, Joy parked her car and silently cheered the presence of Dr. Miles’s car in its customary spot. That meant the doors would still be unlocked.

I thought he was right behind me.

Joy wasted no time getting to the side entrance. She hesitated, noting the quiet.

What'd you expect to find after hours?

Nevertheless, her heart beat faster.

I’ll just get in and get out.

Joy tip-toed through the clinic’s blank corridors, found the right room, located her phone, and turned to leave. As she reached the side entrance, the sound of Dr. Miles’ angry voice stopped her.

“I told you I’d take care of it!”

Joy froze mid-stride. Hearing his voice raised like that scared

her. Mentally berating herself for eavesdropping, Joy strained to hear more.

“She merely looked at the files! It means nothing. I’m only telling you because you so nicely requested I tell you every time my employees dare to breathe!” His sarcasm accentuated his anger. “No! Everything’s under control. I mean it. Look, this is getting us nowhere. Keep out of it!” Dr. Miles hissed.

Joy took that as a cue to leave. Her heart did double time the whole way to her car and didn’t slow down until she was halfway home. Luckily, the remaining trip to her new apartment passed peacefully. Joy knew she should puzzle through the strange conversation, but she didn’t want to deal with anything work related. Instead, she began preparations for a lonely dinner.

How did Ann stand living alone for so many years?

Joy thought of her sister’s beautiful Golden Retriever.

Of course, she had Danny.

“I need a dog … or a man.” Noting the order, Joy chuckled. 

Check it out in 3 Days - The Davidson Case @AuthorGilbert

Chapter 1
Day Off 

Precisely on time, Ethan Vincher entered the bank looking surprisingly like his picture. His plain face resembled half a dozen men Ann knew, including her husband and Agent Dodger. Vincher wore his dark hair in a crew cut and had narrow, alert, dark eyes.

Ann watched him surreptitiously. As per the plan, the teller handed Ann an envelope and bid her good day. Ann thanked the woman, tucked the envelope into her purse, and turned to confront her quarry. Their eyes locked and things went wrong.

Glaring, the man reached into his jacket and pulled out a tiny, plastic pistol.

The teller screamed and ducked, and every agent gasped. Ann reacted instantly. Stepping forward, she caught the man’s hand. A brief struggle ensued, but Ann won because five other agents expertly tackled both her and the target. Her breath left in a hurry.

Guns drawn and ties askew, Baker and Dodger charged out of the manager’s office. It took half a minute to sort through the mess of arms and legs. In the end, the criminal was cuffed, and Ann had her choice of a dozen hands ready to help her to her feet.

“I’m sorry!” Agent Baker blurted before Ann had even caught her breath. “I—I didn’t know. I wouldn’t have asked if—”

“Calm yourself, Baker,” Ann ordered. She grinned, having long since learned how to smile seconds after having a gun pulled on her. “It’s not your fault, but your assessments of Mr. Vincher’s behavior patterns need some reworking.”

Baker nodded vigorously. “I’ll get my team on it right away. Really, I’m sorry—”

“I’m sorry too,” Agent Dodger added. “This is mostly my fault with the stupid bet and all.”

“Really, guys, I’m fine. God hasn’t decided He wants me home yet. Besides, it’s not the first time I’ve been tackled on the job,” Ann said, shrugging. “Listen, you can make it up to me by getting me a full report ASAP, okay?”

Both men nodded like agreeable boys.

Cover Reveal | Shattering The Damned by Princess Racena McConnell @PrmTjm1981

 Title: Shattering The Damned

Series: Secrets of the Mystic: Book 2

Author: Princess Racena McConell

Genre:  Paranormal Romance

Expected Released:  Mid Summer

Presented by: As You Wish Tours

 BLURB

With their lives forever changed, where will Rachel and Derek go from here? After uncovering many of the secrets from their pasts and learning about the lineage that linked them together long ago, the mystical lovers will face unimaginable challenges.

An ancient evil—driven to destroy the miracle their love has created—will use everything and anyone it deems viable to help carry out the task. Shortly after their honeymoon, the two lovers set out to find others of their kind who are appointed to help them further discover exactly who—and what—they are, and to uncover the powers that lie within. Will the two have no choice but to leave their old lives behind in order to protect what they hold dear, or will all that they love be sacrificed in the battle between what once was and what will come to be?

AUTHOR BIO
Princess Racena McConnell (who has never and will never go by her first name) was born in Kings Mountain NC and now resides in the busy little town of Summerville SC with her husband of 32 years. She is the mother of 3 and grandmother to 4 with a 5th one on the way! "Promises In The Dark"; her debut novel—is part 1 of a story that has been in her mind for many years, and finally had to be told! She enjoys spending time with her family, and is so thankful they all live within 20 minutes! She also enjoys reading, writing and anything horror related. Her dream is to someday see her books splashed across silver screen!

Author Links

Promises In The Dark 

Secrets of the Mystic: Book 1

Book Links

Presented by

Review | The Woman Who Can't Forget by Jill Price

Title: The Woman Who Can't Forget
Author: Jill Price

Length: 263 Pages

Released: May 2008

Buy on Amazon
Add on Goodreads

Blurb

Jill Price has the first diagnosed case of a memory condition called "hyperthymestic syndrome" -- the continuous, automatic, autobiographical recall of every day of her life since she was fourteen. Give her any date from that year on, and she can almost instantly tell you what day of the week it was, what she did on that day, and any major world event or cultural happening that took place, as long as she heard about it that day. Her memories are like scenes from home movies, constantly playing in her head, backward and forward, through the years; not only does she make no effort to call her memories to mind, she cannot stop them.

The Woman Who Can't Forget is the beautifully written and moving story of Jill's quest to come to terms with her extraordinary memory, living with a condition that no one understood, including her, until the scientific team who studied her finally charted the extraordinary terrain of her abilities. Her fascinating journey speaks volumes about the delicate dance of remembering and forgetting in all of our lives and the many mysteries about how our memories shape us.

As we learn of Jill's struggles first to realize how unusual her memory is and then to contend, as she grows up, with the unique challenges of not being able to forget -- remembering both the good times and the bad, the joyous and the devastating, in such vivid and insistent detail -- the way her memory works is contrasted to a wealth of discoveries about the workings of normal human memory and normal human forgetting. Intriguing light is shed on the vital role of what's called "motivated forgetting"; as well as theories about childhood amnesia, the loss of memory for the first two to three years of our lives; the emotional content of memories; and the way in which autobiographical memories are normally crafted into an ever-evolving and empowering life story.

Would we want to remember so much more of our lives if we could? Which memories do our minds privilege over others? Do we truly relive the times we remember most vividly, feeling the emotions that coursed through us then? Why do we forget so much, and in what ways do the workings of memory tailor the reality of what's actually happened to us in our lives?

In The Woman Who Can't Forget, Jill Price welcomes us into her remarkable life and takes us on a mind-opening voyage into what life would be like if we didn't forget -- a voyage after which no reader will think of the magical role of memory in our lives in the same way again.

All in all, this book makes me grateful that I've got a normal memory. I can recall most things decently, but I can also emotionally detach myself from painful memories, not so with poor Jill Price. In this memoir, she lets us take a look into her life and the story behind her fascinating mind. I can't tell you how the book is b/c I didn't actually read it, but I can tell you that the audio CD is wonderful. I'm not a big fan of non-fiction, but it was nice to listen to her story being read to me.

Jill doesn't remember everything, rather she explains that she has an amazingly accurate autobiographical memory. So, give her a date from the past (during her lifetime from about 1980-ish to the present) she can tell you what day of the week it was, what she was doing, and sometimes what she was wearing. Now, we can't go back and check all her facts, but we've got no reason to doubt her. The world events she remembers and the tests run by the scientists who wrote a paper on her case are proof enough for me though.

Near the end she answers the question, if you could go back and choose to have a different sort of memory would you... she answers quite honestly that she would not, despite the incredible amounts of emotion pain her memory can cause. The vast majority of people can recall key events in their life, but not in such detail and usually devoid of the intensity of the pain or joy of that moment.

Review | Spectre (Zoe Martinique, Book 2) by Phaedra Weldon @PhaedraWeldon

Title: Spectre
(Zoe Martinique, Book 2)
Author: Phaedra Weldon

Length: 372 Pages

Released: June 2008

Buy on Amazon
Add on Goodreads

Blurb

Zoë Martinique has the extraordinary ability to travel outside her body at will. When she is drawn into an investigation of a series of bizarre murders, in which the victims are missing body parts, Zoë hopes to help her boyfriend, Atlanta homicide detective Daniel Frasier, stop the killer? one she?s sure is from the darkest levels of the astral plane?without letting him find out about her special abilities.

Then danger strikes close to home when Zoë?s mother disappears, and Zoë must use all the powers at her command to save her?even though Zoë knows that, in doing so, she may make herself into something no longer entirely human.

Although this is not the best book I've ever read, it was a solid 4.4. I'd say 4.5, but then I'd have to round up and it wasn't that good. I personally enjoyed Zoe's inner dialog, it made her more real to me, but I can also see how some people could find that highly annoying.

I've never read the first book, though I probably will some day. This book is obviously the second of what the author intends to be a longer series. (best guess would be 4 or 5, whatever the market will bear I guess.) In this book, Zoe's still getting used to her newfound powers as a Wraith and discovering new aspects to that power.

The plot was rather basic, by that I mean I felt like I'd heard it all before, and the other characters were just so-so. Still, Zoe's inner voice was just plain funny. For those of us sensitive to profanity, um there is a lot of it in here. Granted, some of it is very well placed and very funny. For some reason, I couldn't tune my reading ear to hear a Southern accent throughout most of the book, which I found strange given the setting.

One thing that bothered me was the lack of a feeling of closure at the end of the book. Saying much more than that would give away some pretty big plot twists, but it's like the feeling at the end of the Empire Strikes Back. Yeah, maybe things are ok for now, but there's so much left undone. I really dislike those blatant sort of buy-the-next-book ploys. Oh and another thing, it's not really an "investigation" I mean the woman does more work just trying to figure herself out than murder mystery type thing. Things just seem to fall into place around her.

Lovely book overall, looking forward to more, sort of wish it were for a younger crowd though, so I could recommend it to kids. I think it's one of the best examples of voice I've seen in a long time.

Review | Judge (The Wess'har Wars) by Karen Traviss @karentraviss

Title: Judge
(The Wess'har Wars)
Author: Karen Traviss

Length: 404 Pages

Released: March 2009

Buy on Amazon

Blurb

The Eqbas have come, bringing justice, change, hope to some . . . and death to many.

Seeking to punish the human gethes who caused the near destruction of an ocean-dwelling race in the distant Cavanagh’s Star system, the Eqbas have finally landed on Earth. But another, equally important obligation has drawn them across the galaxy: the salvation of this environmentally ravaged world, a mission that could entail the annihilation of billions of humans.

Former police officer Shan Frankland has come as well—along with her two lifemates, one alien and one human—carrying in her blood the parasite that makes her virtually immortal. Though she once vowed never to let the powerful contagion reach the homeworld she left nearly a century ago, she feels compelled to play an active role in the unfolding drama—and to follow the catastrophic events that have devastated civilizations and defined her life to their shocking, inevitable end.

The book's probably more about internal conflicts than anything else. It's definitely one big, long conclusion. I can't remember much about Ally, but I view that as the climax and this the wrap-up for the whole thing.

SPOILER ALERT:
Shap succeeds in removing the parasite, so Shan, Aras, and Ade all have a moral choice to make: To be mortal, or not to be mortal.

Not everyone on the brink of death gets the choice to join or not join the semi-immortal, but Eddie does.

Meanwhile, Earth's getting an ecological makeover. If you haven't followed the series so far, I don't think this book will have much meaning for you.

Karen Traviss has created a believable universe in all it's broken, dirty glory. The book would make an excellent read for a philosophy class, if you're into that sort of thing.

Promotional Event | **FREE** Stepping Off A Cliff by Doug Dillon @Doug__Dillon

Title:  Stepping Off A Cliff

Author:  Doug Dillon
The St. Augustine Trilogy: Book II

Length:  321 Pages
Genre: YA Paranormal

Released:  Nov. 29, 2013

Amazon | Goodreads

EXCERPT

“Mr. Lobo, sir.” Carla interrupted him, with just a hint of sarcasm. “Could you please cut the meteorology report and one of you two tell me about your little walk?” She fired a quick glance at me and went back to eyeballing Lobo.

I loved it how she emphasized the word Mr., just the way Lobo had addressed me when I first met him—Mr. Golden.

His eyes glittering, Lobo crammed half a pizza slice into his mouth instead of responding immediately. Chewing slowly, just to teach her a lesson, I was sure, his gaze never wavered even when he grabbed his bottle of beer and washed down that last bit of food.

Arms crossed in front of her, Carla stared back at him with arched eyebrows, waiting for her answer.

“Patience, young lady, patience,” Lobo growled as he wiped his lips with a napkin. At the words, “young lady,” Carla’s jaw muscles tightened and she fixed him with a smoldering stare of her own. She hates it when adults call her that.

“I’ll tell you,” I said, also getting tired of Lobo’s delaying, lesson-teaching tactics. So for the next fifteen or twenty minutes as we continued to eat, and with Lobo eventually helping, I told her about the walk he and I had taken. So between the two of us, she got it all—Lobo’s statement about Mom’s visit as a warning, his sense of a coming and possibly dangerous event, the visit to my old house, the dragonflies up on San Marco and lastly, my experience with Frozen Time.

As we finished, she looked at me in disbelief, her eyes wide. “Frozen Time? It was you who did that? On the battlefield back in December?” Her expression seemed to say, “My, my, look at you.”

“Jeff’s ability to freeze time and your ability to manipulate matter and energy,” Lobo told Carla, “might well be needed if indeed this warning by Jeff’s mother proves valid.”

“Lobo,” Carla said. “You keep talking about this warning from Jeff’s mom combined with your own perceptions about an event that could occur, but you won’t tell us what you know. Come on! The more we understand, the better prepared we’ll be.”

You go, girl! She was so on target.

About the Author

A former award-winning educator, Doug writes about things paranormal and historical. His interest in the paranormal comes from personal experiences as detailed in the nonfiction adult book he and wife wrote titled, AN EXPLOSION OF BEING: AN AMERICAN FAMILY'S JOURNEY INTO THE PSYCHIC. Out of those events and extensive historical research, he created SLIDING BENEATH THE SURFACE for young adults, Book I of the St. Augustine Trilogy. Doug set his trilogy in the oldest and most haunted city in the United States, St. Augustine, Florida not only for those reasons, but also because it's his favorite place to visit. Books II and III of the trilogy are on the way.

Facebook | Street Team | Goodreads | Amazon | Twitter | Website

Book Trailer by Book Dragon Designs

Review | Grave Secrets by Kathy Reichs @KathyReichs

Title: Grave Secrets
Author: Kathy Reichs

Length: 400 Pages

Released: July 2002

Add on Goodreads

Buy on Amazon

Blurb

It was a summer morning in 1982 when soldiers ravaged the village of Chupan Ya, raping and killing women and children. Twenty-three victims are said to lie in the well where, twenty years later, Dr. Temperance Brennan and a team from the Guatemalan Forensic Anthropology Foundation now dig. No records were kept. To their families, the dead are "the disappeared."

Forensic anthropologist for the medical examiners in North Carolina and Montreal, Tempe is in Guatemala for a month's service to help some families identify and bury their dead. She digs in a cold, damp pit where she finds a hair clip, a fragment of cloth, a tiny sneaker. Her trowel touches something hard: the hip of a child no more than two years old.

It's heartbreaking work. Something savage happened here twenty years ago. The violence continues today. The team is packing up for the day when an urgent satellite call comes in. Two colleagues are under attack. Shots ring out, and Tempe listens in horror to a woman's screams. Then there is silence. Dead silence.
With this new violence, everything changes, both for the team and for Tempe, who's asked by the Guatemalan police for her expertise on another case. Four privileged young women have vanished from Guatemala City in recent months. One is the Canadian ambassador's daughter. Some remains have turned up in a septic tank, and Tempe unfortunately knows septic tanks.

Teaming with Special Crimes Investigator Bartolomé Galiano, and with Montreal detective Andrew Ryan, who may have more than just professional reasons to join her on the case, Tempe soon finds herself in a dangerous web that stretches far beyond Guatemala's borders. The stakes are huge. As power, money, greed, and science converge, Tempe must make life-altering choices.

From cutting-edge science in the lab, where Tempe studies fetal bones and cat hair DNA, to a chilling en-counter in a lonely morgue, Grave Secrets is powerful, page-turning entertainment from a crime fiction superstar who combines riveting authenticity with witty, elegant prose.

As mentioned by others, this book is very driven by its dialogue. I happen to like the style... not all the time, but a nice break from science fiction and fantasy. The book's several years old and a lot of the references are going to be obscure very soon.

There's a sense of realism in the conclusion. Things aren't always as they seem, some people are scumbags of the plain and simple variety, rather than those extra special, proverbial ax wielders.

I can see why some people wouldn't like the scientific explanations. She was trying to make the concepts simple, but it would help if you understood the concept to begin with. Being a bit of a science junky, I didn't mind, but the explanations did kind of seem forced into the conversations. The wrap up also seemed a contrived thing, but these are minor complaints.

I'm actually a bigger fan of the Hollywood version of Tempe Brennan, (I know, blasphemy) but this version is more realistic. It is very cool to read about forensic scientists in all their inglorious glory.... definitely a career to drink in from afar and not close up to those knee-deep in septic tank goo.

Cover Reveal | The Davidson Case: Book 3 by Julie C. Gilbert @AuthorGilbert

The Davidson Case

Heartfelt Cases: Book 3
Author: Julie C. Gilbert

Genre: Christian Mystery

Release Date: May 2014
Presented by: As You Wish Tours

BLURB

Somebody wants her sister dead …

FBI Special Agent Ann Duncan knows how to face down danger, but once again, she’s not the target. Her baby sister, Joy Davidson, has stumbled upon a conspiracy and made some powerful enemies.

Luck and God’s grace help Ann save her sister the first time, but she knows the bad guys will try again. With Patrick on a university tour and perhaps the most important case of her career weighing upon her mind, Ann must find the strength, wisdom, and heart to find out who wants her sister dead, what Joy discovered, and how to stop the conspirators. Ann instinctively knows that if she fails the Davidson case will only be the first of many tragedies.

About the Author
Julie mainly confines her writing to three genres: Christian inspirational, YA real-world science fiction, and normal science fiction. 

She likes teaching, writing, reading, sleeping, doing puzzles, and hanging out with friends. (Not necessarily in that order)

Writing has made her super picky about the things she reads but normally, her reading list includes something that fits under the thriller, mystery, science fiction, or fantasy.

Occasionally, she attempts short poetry. The poems turn into songs, which she sings with abandon when nobody's looking.

Enter the Giveaway!

Three (3) Winners will receive an eBook

The Kiverson Case (Heartfelt Cases: Book 2)

a Rafflecopter giveaway