Blog Tour - Daimones by Massimo Marino

About the book: Nothing could have prepared them for the last day. Explore the future of humanity in Massimo Marino’s sci-fi debut, Daimones, an apocalyptic tale that feels like it could happen tomorrow. You may never sleep through a windstorm again.
Death swept away the lives of billions, but spared Dan Amenta and his family, leading them to an uncertain future. When merely surviving isn’t enough and the hunt for answers begins, memories from the past and troubling encounters lead Dan to the truth about the extermination of the human race. Distressing revelations will give new meaning to their very existence.
Early humans shaped the future and seeded a plan millions of years in the making. Now survivors must choose: Endure a future with no past or fade away into a past with no future

Purchase Daimones

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- Amazon.co.uk

- Barnes & Noble

My Review
I know now that what my life has been missing (only lately) is some really imaginative science fiction. I used to love the stuff, couldn't get enough. But schi-fi tends to make for a more time consuming read than some of the lighter stuff I've been picking up lately, and in my quest to read more books I'd been avoiding it. Big mistake.  Daimones is the first science fiction book I've read in a while, and it was spectacular. Big concept, larger than life plotting, and great writing. It was everything I could have hoped for... and I've already been approved for book two on NetGalley!

Daimones is the story of the end of the world... sort of. Dan Amenta and his family are among the few survivors left on the planet, but the end of our civilization was only the beginning. I would have liked to see a bit more of the adjustment/reaction after literally billions of people die without warning, but there was a lot of other stuff going on, so I guess I can't fault anyone for not sitting around and navel gazing for too long. There's the bigger picture to worry about!

Marino writes like someone who has already published dozens of books, and will have you hooked right from the first chapter as you try to wrap your head around this incredible plot. An absolute must read for any fans of sci-fi (even the lapsed ones!).

Review: Destiny's Plan

About the book

When Raquelita Muro and Matthew Buchanan meet by chance on a Greyhound bus between Texas and Tallahassee, neither suspects Fate is about to take over.
Raquelita, a gentle girl under the heel of her abusive mother, finds this kind young man a miracle. Matthew, an idealistic young soldier, discovers this sweet-natured girl is an angel in need of a guardian. However, the next stop on Matthew’s journey is Fort Benning to report for deployment to Vietnam, while Raquelita’s destination is set at her mother’s whim. Regardless of the forces tearing them apart, they discover a way to secretly span the distance, to end up closer than ever. But Fate is rarely kind. The vagaries of war—and the unstable tempers of Raquelita’s mother—intervene, leaving both ill-fated lovers feeling there is no hope for their love.
Set in the turbulent era of the Vietnam War, Raquelita’s and Matthew’s story is one of love, loss, lost faith, shattered memoires, deferred dreams and broken promises. Will Fate tear apart these two damaged souls, leaving them desperately alone forever, or will they finally overcome Fate, their bond stronger than they ever thought possible?

Review

Can you say swoon? Because having just finished reading Destiny's Plan,  I'm definitely swooning. Much swoon. Very heart-flutter. I absolutely adored this book! Historical novels aren't usually my thing, but Raquelita (never going to be able to spell that right on one try!) and Matthew's story sucked me in right away. I was rooting for them from beginning to end, which is really the mark of a great love story.

The chemistry between these two characters is what drives the entire story, and the writing brings it to life perfectly, right from when they first meet (on a train! cute!). The odds are stacked against them, but they're drawn to each other despite everything that's going on in both of their lives.

I can't wait to see more from the wonderful author. I'm not sure what Saccenti has planned next, or if there will be more in this series, but whatever it is, I'll read it.

Blog Tour: Corporal Domination

Hey guys! I've got a tour stop today to show you guys, and I think you're going to like it! This one gets very, VERY steamy! That cover alone should give you a pretty good clue about what you're getting into!

Dominating a powerful man isn’t easy…
 Sometimes corporal punishment is needed
 Kade Thompson is sick and tired of working sixty-plus hours a week. After all, he’s only an accountant, not a surgeon. For many he’s considered powerful and a sought-after catch, yet he hasn’t obtained all he hungers for. However, earning a six-figure income has allowed him to indulge in his every desire, including toys and rather kinky bouts of sin. He also enjoys an on-again, off-again push-and-shove relationship with his boss, Trevor Willis. While the sex is passionate, he craves being dominated by the six foot six god, but Trevor doesn’t seem interested. Tired of playing games, he’s ready to break off their relationship until an invitation to meet for a drink at The Peeping Hole—a mysterious and very exclusive club—has him more than curious.
 When he finds out the club offers every aspect of kink, he’s breathless with excitement. As Kade waits for Trevor’s arrival, he’s given an offer he can’t refuse and one that might sate his every craving—if he will submit to the man behind the mask. Unfortunately what goes on behind the hallowed doors is required to stay a sensuous mystery. But can they keep up their end of the bargain and one forged in a touch of black magic? Only Alexander knows. Ssshhh… No peeping.
 I am Alexander—a teacher, a scoundrel, a voyeur and a true entrepreneur. In my world there’s little left to the imagination. That is if you dare to taste what only I can offer. Welcome to The Peeping Hole, where every fantasy you’ve ever desired will come true. Leave your inhibitions at the door and join us. But you must remember, whatever happens here stays here, and trust me, I will know…

As for my thoughts... wait a second, I need to fan myself first. While I didn't connect with the main characters as much as I was hoping for, the BDSM scenes were more than enough to make up for it! HOT AS HELL! Cassandre Dayne can write sex, guys. If you're at all into gay erotica then you need to look her up. I feel like I've been seeing her books all over the place lately, and I want to explore more!

BDSM isn't even usually my kind of thing, but I got so into this story it's not even funny. Once Trevor gets into exploring more adventurous sex with Kade, things get going pretty quickly. This book won't take oyu long to read, but you'll be so glad you did!

Purchase Links
Amazon:  http://amzn.com/B0106VPARA

B&N:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/corporal-domination-cassandre-dayne/1119637080?ean=2940151108584

iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/ca/book/corporal-domination/id1010788788?mt=11

Tour Stop - The Silent Treamtnet by Melanie Surani

Blurb: Twenty-eight year old Katrina Jaitley is rebuilding her life after escaping an abusive boyfriend. The last thing she needs is the mystery she stumbles on during a bout of retail therapy. But she can't ignore the coil of film -- a piece of movie history -- she finds hidden inside her purchase. Unfortunately, Peter, the handsome host of the estate sale, disappears before Kat has a chance to return it to him. Curious, Kat watches the strip and is shocked to witness the brutal murder of a famous 1920's silent film star by a fellow actor. When a news article cites Kat as the film's owner, her already complicated life goes from bad to worse. Someone is stalking her. Are they trying to silence her or what she has discovered?

Get the book

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An excerpt from The Silent Treatment

THE WORST PART about working the vampire shift was that apart from Bridget, Kat experienced little human interaction since moving back to Memphis. Bridget still had college buddies who she went drinking and sleeping with, two activities Kat thought better about participating in for the time being. That left Kat stuck either in front of the computer or TV, or in extreme cases, at the twenty‐four hour Walmart.

Solitude in those first two weeks after two years of limited privacy was a welcome relief in most respects. Kat left her belongings, however few, in the living room and returned to find them where she left them, not thrown in the trash. Her computer no longer had a keylogger, thanks to a few hours spent with Bridgetʹs IT savvy brother, and she was free to search whatever she wanted without fear of lecture afterward (Why were you looking at ticket prices? Are you thinking of leaving me?), Kat couldnʹt shake the feeling that someone was going to burst through the door. The baseball bat she kept under her bed wouldnʹt help if someone startled her in the living room.

After placing the Missed Connections ad online and praying Peter would respond, Kat surfed the Internet until her eyes burned. Since her mind was on the coiled piece of film sheʹd found and she desperately wanted to watch it, she focused instead on silent movies, her favorite escape subject.

Her interest began with a poor copy of Metropolis, recommended by a pen pal as being the best thing heʹd ever watched. The release date put her off since so many ʺclassicʺ movies her mom subjected her to involved fast‐talking pictures from the thirties. Three years before the decade change, the constant talkers were quiet, gestures theatrical, and Kat put her own inflection on the written dialogue.

She found a used copy of the novel on which Metropolis was based— written by the directorʹs wife—to fill in the gaps left by massive editing and plot restructuring that rendered the film nearly incomprehensible. Though historians and buffs wanted to experience what the film looked like on opening night, one‐fourth had either been lost or destroyed like so many of its silent brethren.

That was what made the news article on the computer screen stand out.

The complete three‐hour version of Metropolis was found in an unlabeled canister in the Museo del Cine, a film museum in Argentina.

Kat blinked at the screen. ʺAll that time.ʺ The butchered, washed out copy that lay buried somewhere in the box of movies sheʹd dragged to the middle of the living room wasnʹt the end of the story but the beginning. 

Promo: The Damnable Legacy

Lynn Van Swol still regrets the decision she made thirty years ago to place her daughter for adoption so she could climb the highest mountains of the world. Frankie Rizzoni is the troubled biological granddaughter Lynn has never known. And Beth Mahoney is a minister’s wife with terminal cancer and the only one who knows the relationship between the two. She designs a plan upon her deathbed to bring Lynn and Frankie together, but now, narrating from the afterlife, she must helplessly watch as her legacy threatens to unravel. The Damnable Legacy is a story about both love and survival, exploring the importance of attachment, place, and faith, and asking how far we should go to achieve our goals and at what cost.

ADD TO GOODREADS

Amazon.com - Amazon.ca - Amazon.co.uk - Barnes & Noble

 

Blog Tour: Come Sit By Me

Hi guys! We've got an exciting tour stop today, last minute, but still awesome! Today we're featuring Come Sit By Me by Thomas Hoobler! Read about the book below, and then we can check out an excerpt from the book!

The boy who shot seven people in the school library is dead. But did his secrets die with him?

Something terrible happened at Hamilton High last year, and those who survived don't want to relive the past. But Paul has just arrived, and gets the same locker that the shooter used. He wants to know what really happened...and you know what curiosity did to the cat.

Get the book

Amazon.com - Amazon.ca - Amazon.co.uk - Barnes & Noble 

We sat down on the ground. Leaves on the trees had already started to change color, and some had fallen, exposing the branches. “This is a good time to shoot birds,” North said. “They’re active, and they aren’t able to hide in the trees so easily.”
Apparently waiting was a big part of hunting. North had brought a couple of calls that were supposed to sound like turkeys. Sitting there doing nothing but blowing on one of them started to get boring. I felt like taking out my Blackberry and checking my email, but I didn’t think North would approve.
Suddenly, he squeezed my arm and then pointed toward one of the trees. Then I heard what sounded like scratching. North had noticed it before me. He raised his shotgun and aimed it in that direction. I still couldn’t see anything. Neither could he, evidently, because he didn’t fire.
Then a flash of red appeared from behind a tree. I saw it moving. North, who was aiming just over my left shoulder, fired. The noise practically deafened me, and I ducked instinctively.
“Got ‘im!” I heard him say. It sounded as if he was talking through cotton. My left ear was still ringing. North stood up and went over to the tree. The turkey was lying there. Picking it up by the neck, North brought it back to show me. It was bleeding from several wounds, but didn’t look as bad as I thought it might.
“How come it isn’t all torn up?” I asked.
“With a shotgun, the shot inside the shell gets dispersed the farther it goes,” he told me. “With a target as close as this bird, I couldn’t hardly miss. But only two or three of the shot actually hit him. Which is good, because if you want to use the meat, you have to dig out the shot. This is a tom, so it won’t be as good for eating anyway. You’ll see. Next one is yours.”
North picked up the dead turkey and put it in a cloth bag. He said that the noise we made would keep other birds in hiding for some time, so we walked farther into the woods till we found a new spot to sit. This time I paid more attention, because I was nervous. I told myself that I really didn’t give a shit if I killed a turkey or not. The damn turkeys never did anything to me. But I had this feeling gnawing away at my insides that I wanted to impress North.
Sitting there waiting, all sorts of thoughts went through my head. Was this what meditation was like? I had always heard that meditation was supposed to help empty your mind, calm you. But waiting to kill something--that was the opposite. You were focused. And actually holding a gun in my arms made me wonder just exactly what went through Cale’s mind when he killed those people.
Or was anything? Of course he had to be crazy, so what kinds of thoughts does a crazy person have? Did he just decide to do it, and it didn’t really matter who he killed as long as he killed somebody? Was he just going on auto-pilot by then? Or did he really have reasons?
What sort of reason could you have for killing seven people? I knew that Cale’s USB drive must have some kind of answer to that question, but--
North nudged me. “Down there,” he whispered, pointing.
I saw it. It was smaller and less colorful than the one North had shot. More gray than anything. Creeping along the ground about twenty yards away. I raised my shotgun, and it saw me. Looked right into my eyes. And then spread its wings and took flight. Without thinking about it, I raised the gun and fired. It had a lot harder kick than the rifle I’d used earlier. Maybe the kick made me shoot higher than where I’d originally been aiming. But the turkey’s wings stopped flapping and it fell to the ground.
“You got ‘im,” North said. “Beginner’s luck.”
I practically ran over to where it had fallen, and there it was, lying on the ground. I stooped over to get a better look. I had taken off both of its legs, and you could see its bloody insides. But the eyes were still open, shiny and black.
The next thing I knew North was slapping me on the back. “Not bad. I thought you’d flinch when you pulled the trigger,” he said.
I didn’t tell him I actually had flinched. I was looking at those black eyes. A feeling of power started to rise up in me from someplace. It surprised me.
A second ago, the turkey had been alive. Now it was dead. I did that.
I felt blood rushing through my head, behind my eyes. This was what it was like to kill. Cale had felt this way.
Only…a turkey wasn’t a person. If I had killed a real person, everything I was feeling now would be way more intense. You would feel so powerful that you would be like the king of the world. No matter how much people made fun of you.