Category: Book Reviews

#Spotlight Unfinished Business (David Trilogy #2) by S.C. Cunningham @sccunningham8 @rararesources

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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He loved being him… he got away with murder.

She loved being her… until she met him.

The steamy roller coaster ride of psychotic David’s obsession with his childhood sweetheart, a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humor and pulsating sex scenes.

With the help of her gutsy friends, fun-loving city girl Tara Warr is the only victim to survive David Howard’s death list. Whilst lounging in prison the hypnotic sexual tour de force enlists an eager recruit, seduces a prison warden and relocates to the sunnier climes of Mexico, a freedom short-lived when his charred remains are found in the fire of a plastic surgeon’s clinic. The police cease their search, finally, Tara and her friends can relax, David is dead. Continue reading “#Spotlight Unfinished Business (David Trilogy #2) by S.C. Cunningham @sccunningham8 @rararesources” →

#BookReview: Dating a Cougar (Never Too Late, #1) by Donna McDonald #romance #humor

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

Do you think fifty is old, Sydney?” Alexa Ranger watched her thirty-five-year-old assistant and good friend take a giant bite of his club sandwich and swing his gaze to hers in shock at the same time. Then she watched him pound his chest to keep from choking as he attempted to swallow the bite around a coughing fit.  “When it comes to age, it’s all about the quality of the preservation,” Sydney said at last, joking to give himself time to think.

Alexa Ranger, 50-year-old retired model and successful lingerie entrepreneur, is having a mid-life crisis and needs a change in her life.  The days of partying and socializing are no fun anymore, but she promised her daughter she would stop by the party to meet her fiance’s cousin, Casey.  Little did she know that her first encounter with 38-year-old, widower and wounded veteran, Casey Carter, would leave a lasting impression that would change her life forever. Continue reading “#BookReview: Dating a Cougar (Never Too Late, #1) by Donna McDonald #romance #humor” →

#BlogTour #BlogReview: Cuttin’ Heads by D.A. Watson @davewatsonbooks @rararesources #giveaway

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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Aldo Evans is a desperate man. Fired from his job and deeply in debt, he struggles to balance a broken family life with his passion for music.

Luce Figura is a troubled woman. A rhythmic perfectionist, she is haunted by childhood trauma and scorned by her religiously devout mother.

Ross McArthur is a wiseass. Orphaned as an infant and raised by the state, his interests include game shows, home-grown weed, occasional violence and the bass guitar.

They are Public Alibi. A rock n’ roll band going nowhere fast.

When the sharp-suited, smooth talking producer Gappa Bale offers them a once in a lifetime chance to make their dreams come true, they are caught up in a maelstrom of fame, obsession, music and murder.

Soon, Aldo, Luce and Ross must ask themselves: is it really better to burn out than to fade away? Continue reading “#BlogTour #BlogReview: Cuttin’ Heads by D.A. Watson @davewatsonbooks @rararesources #giveaway” →

#BookReview: Restless Coffins (Detective J.T. Ellington #3) by M.P. Wright @EllingtonWright @bwpublishing

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

A HAUNTED MAN.

A BURIED PAST.

A JOURNEY INTO DARKNESS.

The title of Wright’s third book in the Detective J.T. Ellington series, caught my eye as I was browsing NetGalley one day, so after debating if I should read the third book in a series I had never read, I downloaded it and the rest is history.

Set in the tumultuous 1960s among the Vietnam War, ghetto rioting, and the rise of a militant antiwar movement, Joseph Ellington is swept from Bristol to Harlem, to New Orleans, and finally to Barbados inside of just a few days.  The telegram he receives from his cousin Vic (a man with questionable business practices) is short and to the point “Joseph Stop I sincerely regret to inform you of the death of your sister Bernice May Ellington Stop Request you make arrangements to return to Barbados to settle affairs Stop.”  Joseph’s journey to Barbados is laden with violence, death and family secrets that will change his life forever. Continue reading “#BookReview: Restless Coffins (Detective J.T. Ellington #3) by M.P. Wright @EllingtonWright @bwpublishing” →

#BlogTour #BookReview: Abel’s Revenge by Ross Greenwood @greenwoodross @CarolineBookBit

~ Sharon Clayton ~ 1 Comment

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This is a story about a city. As with all others, it’s a place of violence. There are murderers, and they live among us.

This is also a tale about a couple — sometimes friends, occasionally lovers, but always partners. Dan and Olivia are fighting modern battles; the ones parents have over a lack of money, time or peace.

Continue reading “#BlogTour #BookReview: Abel’s Revenge by Ross Greenwood @greenwoodross @CarolineBookBit” →

#BookReview: Saving Me by Sadie Allen @writersadie #SavingMe #YA

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

Most of us are imprisoned by something. We’re living in darkness until something flips on the switch.   -Wynonna Judd

SYNOPSIS

On the outside, I look like the All-American teenage dream. I’m pretty, popular, and athletic. I have the right family, the right boyfriend, the right kind of friends. If you only knew…

Every day I die a little on the inside. I’m drowning in everyone’s expectations and opinions. I can never be myself. I’m never free. I feel the weight of it all pulling me under.

If I can’t find freedom in life…

I guess I’ll find it in death.

MY REVIEW

Ally is tired.  “Tired of life.  Tired of being used and abused”.  When she thought she had the solution, Sterling saved her.  Her life starts turning around.  Her controlling, narcissistic father is gone, she breaks up with her “douchebag” boyfriend, her so-called girlfriends are gone, she no longer has to watch her weight and live and breath track anymore, and who knew she would love theatre and become the lead in the school musical.  But most of all, she has a purpose in her life, she is loved, she matters, and “she is reason enough to stay”. Continue reading “#BookReview: Saving Me by Sadie Allen @writersadie #SavingMe #YA” →

#BookReview: The Gift of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness after Hate by Arno Michaelis, Pardeep Kaleka @mylifeafterhate @PardeepKaleka @serve2unite ‏ @NetGalley ‏#TheGiftOfOurWounds

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

What does hate look like?  Hate looks like the bullet hole in the door frame leading into the prayer room at the Sikh Temple of Wisconsin—a vestige of the carnage that took place there on August 5, 2012, when a troubled man with a distorted view of what America should look like executed peaceful people inside.

Wow!  This book filled me with so many emotions.  I felt horror, anger, grief, disbelief, enlightenment, and hope all at the same time.  The story is not just about the horrible incident that happened on August 5, 2012, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, but about two unlikely men who came together to find answers, to find forgiveness, and to find ways to prevent this from happening again.

Pardeep Singh Kaleka’s father was one of the 6 victims who died at the Sikh Temple that day.  As a former policeman and as a teacher of at-risk kids he thought he had seen it all, but he was struggling to understand why someone would want to walk into a temple and gun down innocent men, women, and children.  So, to find some answers,  Pardeep met with Arno Michaelis, a former white supremacist who was one of the “founders of the same group that Pardeep’s father’s killer belonged to”. Continue reading “#BookReview: The Gift of Our Wounds: A Sikh and a Former White Supremacist Find Forgiveness after Hate by Arno Michaelis, Pardeep Kaleka @mylifeafterhate @PardeepKaleka @serve2unite ‏ @NetGalley ‏#TheGiftOfOurWounds” →

#BookReview: A Knight in Cowboy Boots (McKnight, #1) by Suzie Quint #SuzieQwriter

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

Maddie had no idea how many laws she’d broken in the last week. They all paled next to kidnapping. Since she’d been advised not to leave the state, she was pretty sure having temporary custody wouldn’t get her anywhere in court. Not that it mattered. She’d never get to court. She’d die before she gave Jesse up.

Maddie and her baby nephew, Jesse, are on the run from his father and the man who murdered her sister and her boyfriend. She heads to her boyfriend’s home in Galveston only to run into a charming cowboy named Zach who she shoots over a misunderstanding. To Maddie’s joy and distress, the attraction is instant and the passion is hot and heavy, but the murderer could find her any time and, unfortunately, she has to leave Zach and this town soon.

People were killed every day because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Zach has fallen head over heels for Maddie and her nephew, but is she “one of the damaged strays” that his sister says he likes to rescue? He can protect her from the dangers that she fears, but how can he get her to stay with him?

Continue reading “#BookReview: A Knight in Cowboy Boots (McKnight, #1) by Suzie Quint #SuzieQwriter” →

Book Review: Sindy in Real Life: Intimate Confessions of a No-win No-fee Paralegal who became a No-fee No-me Escort by Sindy #BookReview

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

Today I am reviewing an unusual biography of a woman who would do anything to provide for her family even as far as becoming an escort.

At twelve, I had about as much control over my limbs as a new-born giraffe. I had no friends. It’s difficult to form close bonds with tight-knit groups when they’re whispering together under the height of your armpits.

Sindy’s publisher explains that this book is “the true story of the first five decades of Sindy’s life in her own swear words.”  The author (who remains anonymous to protect her children) takes the reader on an incredibly candid and raw journey of her life starting as an awkward child with no self-esteem and no friends to her struggles with sex, alcohol, money, a job that paid well, but she no longer respected, and three children to provide for.  When her job as a legal executive could no longer cover all of her expenses for her family, she becomes an escort in her 40s.

I realized I was going to have to open my thighs to weirdos to prevent my finances from crash landing and leaving me as a homeless mother of three kids in care.

Her experience led her to this book and her campaign for respect towards women as human beings, respect towards women in the workforce, and respect in practices between escorts and clients. Continue reading “Book Review: Sindy in Real Life: Intimate Confessions of a No-win No-fee Paralegal who became a No-fee No-me Escort by Sindy #BookReview” →

#BookReview: How I Broke the Sky (Great Year Cycle Book 1) by E.W. Park

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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Nikos was having a bad day. Not an ordinary bad day, but a ‘your-wife-burned-alive-in-a-spaceship’ kind of bad day. Space travel is murder. Every time a ship goes up, the cosmonaut inside it dies. Why? No one knows, but that’s the way it has always been on New Amith. Nevermind that people from the sister planet of Shan can zip through outer space with no problem. Getting answers to all of this means that Nikos has to dig deeper. It means following lunatic prophecies into catacombs of grief, insomnia, and, yes, some madness. It means uncovering a plot to end the world. And if the world does happen to end, it also means looking past the mushroom clouds to keep going. Because there is a purpose to all of this, there must be. There’s a reason a woman locked in a cell wrote on her wall: We Should Be Called Rome. Continue reading “#BookReview: How I Broke the Sky (Great Year Cycle Book 1) by E.W. Park” →

#BookTour #BookReview: The Penance List (The David Trilogy Book 1) by Siobhan C. Cunningham @SCCunningham8 @rararesources

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

The Penance List

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This one comes with a warning – a steamy suspense-ridden psychological thriller – think Silence of the Lambs meets 50 Shades and hold on tight! S C Cunningham writes with a skilled mix of fuelled tension, dark humour and pulsating sex scenes. Grab a glass of wine, close the bedroom door and read alone!

What happens when opposites attract – when a scorned childhood sweetheart grows into a gorgeous sexual tour de force – when a fun-loving career girl, her racy girlfriends and insatiable lovers get caught in his revenge – when sex becomes a weapon, hearts become bait and straight tastes gay – when hi-flying careers, clandestine affairs, and wannabe starlets are hunted by celebrity-hungry press? Obsession, kidnap, murder… and he’s just getting started! Continue reading “#BookTour #BookReview: The Penance List (The David Trilogy Book 1) by Siobhan C. Cunningham @SCCunningham8 @rararesources” →

#PromotionalBlogTour: Ford by P.J. Fiala @pjfiala @BuoniAmiciPress

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Title: Ford
Author: PJ Fiala
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: April 16, 2018
Cover Designer: Buoni Amici Press
Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

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Sometimes the flames of desire run hotter than a mere fire.

Ford Montgomery is working the case of his life. Trailing the arsonist who killed his parents, the former bounty hunter will soon make this guy pay for his crimes. After that, Ford plans to reclaim his house from his ex-wife and retire to his home in the mountains.

Megan Marshall finally ditched her no-good ex-husband, only to find the worst of him lingering. He stole drugs from a man nobody steals from, and the cartel is after Megan to get them back. If she knew where her ex hid out, she’d tell. Trouble is, she doesn’t.

When Ford rescues Megan from a burning building, their paths abruptly align. However, Ford keeps secrets from her, and she’s had enough of men and their secrets. Can they work together to accomplish their goals? Or will they get scorched by the blazing passion sparking between them? Continue reading “#PromotionalBlogTour: Ford by P.J. Fiala @pjfiala @BuoniAmiciPress” →

#BookTour #BookReview: Visions (Same Face Different Place Book 2) by Helen Christmas @SFDPBeginnings @rararesources

~ Sharon Clayton ~ 2 Comments

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Visions is a psychological thriller set in rural England. The year is 1985. It’s been 12 years since Eleanor escaped London, discarding the fragments of her tragic past to discover a new life. She is hiding in a remote country village, a place where she truly believes she is safe.

Her neighbour, James Barton-Wells is desperate to save his historic country house from ruin but this has attracted the attention of a wealthy property developer from London whose seemingly altruistic offer to ‘bankroll the restoration’ masks a sinister game plan. Suspicious of his motives, Eleanor consults her friend, Charles Bailey. But Charlie has his own story, fearful that Perry Hampton is the man who undoubtedly destroyed his own life.

The characters are drawn together in a battle to save Westbourne House, oblivious to the menace that surrounds them. Threats, stalking and deception lie at the root of the Hamptons evil. Yet it is not until Eleanor comes face to face with them, she recognises a deadly enemy from the past.

Can Eleanor unravel the clues that conceal an evil crime committed in the 70s? This book will draw you into a world of suspense with shocking psychological twists you will never see coming… Continue reading “#BookTour #BookReview: Visions (Same Face Different Place Book 2) by Helen Christmas @SFDPBeginnings @rararesources” →

#BookTour #BookReview: 88° North (Nadia Laksheva Thriller Series #3) by J.F. Kirwan @kirwanjf @rararesources

~ Sharon Clayton ~ 2 Comments

88 North

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The deadliest kind of assassin is one who is already dying…

As the radiation poisoning that Nadia Laksheva was exposed to in Chernobyl takes hold of her body, she knows she has mere weeks to live. But Salamander, the terrorist who murdered her father and sister has a deadly new plan to ‘make the sky bleed’. Nadia is determined to stop him again, even if it is the last thing she ever does.

The only clue she has are the coordinates 88˚ North, a ridge in the Arctic right above one of the largest oil fields in the world, three thousand metres below the ice. If Salamander takes hold of the oil field, he could change the climate of the whole planet for generations to come…

But can Nadia stop him before her own time runs out? Continue reading “#BookTour #BookReview: 88° North (Nadia Laksheva Thriller Series #3) by J.F. Kirwan @kirwanjf @rararesources” →

#BlogTour #BookReview Cock Blocked by Sabrina Monet @iamsabrinamonet @BuoniAmiciPress

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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Title: Cock Blocked
Author: Sabrina Monet
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: March 25, 2018
Cover Designer: Comar Covers
Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC.

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An uninvited ex-girlfriend; an overly flirtatious competitor; a completely untenable work situation…How many obstacles can one man put in his own way in the pursuit of the disinterested woman he can’t seem to get out of his head?

Camden Atwood is devastatingly gorgeous, cocky as sin and as Hollywood’s reigning “it” guy, not used to hearing the word “no” when he sets his sites on a woman. When Camden meets Kate Prescott, the ambitious, smart-mouthed new junior publicist assigned to handle him on an international press tour for his latest movie, he’s hooked from the minute his private jet is wheels up. Continue reading “#BlogTour #BookReview Cock Blocked by Sabrina Monet @iamsabrinamonet @BuoniAmiciPress” →

#BookReview: The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury @JameyBradbury @weiss_squad @harpercollins

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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A natural-born trapper and hunter raised in the Alaskan wilderness, Tracy Petrikoff spends her days tracking animals and running with her dogs in the remote forests surrounding her family’s home. Though she feels safe in this untamed land, Tracy still follows her late mother’s rules: Never Lose Sight of the House. Never Come Home with Dirty Hands. And, above all else, Never Make a Person Bleed.

But these precautions aren’t enough to protect Tracy when a stranger attacks her in the woods and knocks her unconscious. The next day, she glimpses an eerily familiar man emerge from the tree line, gravely injured from a vicious knife wound—a wound from a hunting knife similar to the one she carries in her pocket. Was this the man who attacked her and did she almost kill him? With her memories of the events jumbled, Tracy can’t be sure. Continue reading “#BookReview: The Wild Inside by Jamey Bradbury @JameyBradbury @weiss_squad @harpercollins” →

#BookReview: Right Handed Lefty by Ryan Coughlin @RyanWCoughlin #CHBBPublishing

Book cover of Right Handed Lefty
~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

As long as Ellis Sayre could remember, he wanted to know his real parents. He was Native American and had the brown skin to prove it. Which exact tribe was a mystery; he didn’t have the luxury of that information. It was hard for him to gauge why he was the way he was. Awkward. Difficult. Disinterested.

Ellis was lacking in self-confidence, had sensitive nerves, would have anxiety attacks, and could not play badminton if his life depended on it. Considering that Ellis was the “most unwanted child under one year old” at the orphanage, was returned to the orphanage by his first adoptive parents, and felt like an outsider with his new adoptive parents, it was no wonder he considered himself different and unwanted. However, his friends George, defender of the less fortunate, and Mason, the wisecracking ninja warrior, accepted him as the honest, quirky, “Native Warrior” that he was. Continue reading “#BookReview: Right Handed Lefty by Ryan Coughlin @RyanWCoughlin #CHBBPublishing” →

#BlogTour #BookReview: The Sandman (Joona Linna, #4) by Lars Kepler @AAKnopf

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

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Late one night, outside Stockholm, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, now serving a life sentence in a maximum security psychiatric hospital. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman.

Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek’s capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael’s sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a twenty-seven-year-old prodigy. She will have to go under deep cover in the psychiatric ward where Jurek is imprisoned, and she will have to find a way to get to the psychopath before it’s too late–and before he gets inside her head. Continue reading “#BlogTour #BookReview: The Sandman (Joona Linna, #4) by Lars Kepler @AAKnopf” →

#BlogTour #BookReview 37 Hours (Nadia Laksheva Thriller Series #2) by J.F. Kirwan @kirwanjf @rararesources

~ Sharon Clayton ~ 2 Comments

37 Hours

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The only way to hunt down a killer is to become one…

After two long years spent in a secret British prison, Nadia Laksheva is suddenly granted her freedom. Yet there is a dangerous price to pay for her release: she must retrieve the Russian nuclear warhead stolen by her deadliest enemy, a powerful and ruthless terrorist known only as The Client.

But her mysterious nemesis is always one step ahead and the clock is ticking. In 37 hours, the warhead will explode, reducing the city of London to a pile of ash. Only this time, Nadia is prepared to pull the trigger at any cost… Continue reading “#BlogTour #BookReview 37 Hours (Nadia Laksheva Thriller Series #2) by J.F. Kirwan @kirwanjf @rararesources” →

#BookReview: A Dangerous Woman – The Life of Florence Gould by Susan Ronald @susanron @StMartinsPress

~ Sharon Clayton ~ Leave a comment

Florence understood instinctively that beauty, as well as money, was power; and she had both in abundance.

Florence Gould was an intelligent, conniving, self-centered, savvy business woman, but most of all she was a survivor.  She survived the San Francisco earthquake and fire as a child, a major flood in France, World War I and World War II.  Her survival skills came into play again with her questionable connections with top officials of The Third Reich which was a contention with FBI Director, J. Edgar Hoover, after the war.  Hoover tried everything to get her convicted for aiding and abetting the enemy to no avail.  She was definitely a force to be reckoned with.

Her open marriage to a very wealthy and shrewd American multimillionaire, Frank Gould, gave her the opportunities she needed to become an independent wealthy woman in her own right by investing in real estate and art, though obtained under dubious conditions.  It’s known that many of her art purchases were bought from collections taken by the Nazis from French Jews.  Though rumors said she was an anti-Semite, Ronald supposes that Florence didn’t care one way or another.  She preferred to have fun rather than worry about “political rumblings”, and being the self-serving woman she was, she chose to help both sides when it suited her. Continue reading “#BookReview: A Dangerous Woman – The Life of Florence Gould by Susan Ronald @susanron @StMartinsPress” →