Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Bookstory Blog Calls Thriller "Unputdownable"

HALLWAYS IN THE NIGHT

Athor: R.C. O'Leary

Author's Web site: Www.rcoleary.com

Genre: Legal Thriller

ISBN: 978-0985838287

Amazon buying link

Reviewed by Bookstory Blogspot

"A Totally Unputdownable Book. Looking forward to the Sequel."

Sometimes you stumble across a good book or a new author in the most unexpected way. I met Andaleeb Wajid through a Twitter conversation about kichda. R C O’Leary somehow got to this blog and he was kind enough to send me his novel as a Kindle gift. And so I spent the weekend in a courtroom with Remo Centrella and Dave Mackno and I must say, it was a weekend well spent.

An arrogant, steroid pushing baseball player gets killed by a cop. Self defense, he says. But when there’s 45 million dollars involved, a clean self defense claim doesn’t fully cut it. So what we have is an edge of the seat legal battle that makes you keep turning the pages till the very end. I love American legal dramas, be it reruns of The Practice or John Grisham novels. I don’t know if I am being fair to the author by saying that this was like a Grisham, but it was. And some more. The characters were well formed and I actually didn’t take sides till the end. I wavered back and forth throughout the trial. Did Dave Mackno overreact? Was he driven by his own ghosts from the past? At one point you want him to win, and a few pages later, you wonder if he should.

There are little backstories for all the characters, one of which becomes a vital twist towards the end. The book touches on some relevant and sensitive topics like the identity crisis that the African American lawyer goes through, how the internet broke a family and of course, the usage of steroids in sports ( Made me wonder why we never ever hear of steroid use in cricket. Could Slapgate have been ‘roid rage?) And then there was even a dumb witness who actually named his kid after Hulk Hogan!

A totally unputdownable book. Looking forward to the sequel.

RC O'Leary

Author of Hallways in the Night

Legal Thriller, Available in print at Amazon

E-book at Amazon, iBooks, Kobo and Nook

Print Book available at Amazon and Inkwood Books

When a veteran cop tries to arrest baseball's home run king, one of them ends up on trial and the other ends up dead.

Free Sample Chapters at RCOLeary.com

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Novel Gets Raves from Amazon Reviewer

Title of Book: Miracle Man
Author: William R. Leibowitz

Publisher: Manifesto Media Group
Publication Date: January 16, 2014
Genre: Thriller
ISBN-13-978-0-9898662-1-7
Editions: Paperback and E-book
Number of Pages: 385 in E-book;   428 in paperback
AMAZON: 5 Stars

Reviewed by Mark Mavrantonis originally for Amazon

One Word: AWESOME

I read this book in one sitting, and I have to say it’s one of the better books I’ve read in a very long time. I generally read between four and six works of fiction every week, and for me to say this is one of my favorites is really saying a lot.

The story begins with an abandoned baby—found in a dumpster –being taken in by very kind foster parents. As the infant grows, it becomes very clear that he’s a bit “different.” The parents take him to a doctor when he’s four, and from there, it becomes obvious that the boy’s IQ is off the charts, about three hundred points off the charts when compared to some of the smartest people in history.

The parents are reluctantly convinced to allow Bobby to be taken in to a special program to develop his incredible intelligence. From here, it gets really good –the kid has a great personality, somewhat sarcastic, but very kind overall. There’s an obvious different about him, and he tends to be alone most of the time, ever studying, or in one of his “trances,” where he just stares off into the distance for long periods of time, working things out in his head. The company funding the program, has an ulterior motive to focus Bobby on math and science, in particular to solve problems for military programs.

After several tragedies occur in Bobby’s life, before he’s even twenty years old, he decides to devote all of his focus to the medical field, to cure diseases and to help mankind doing medical research. Needless to say, this isn’t ideal for the group who is running the program and they’re not thrilled with Bobby’s decision.

I’m not going to give away any more, but all I can say is that you need to read the book. The author seems to have done some excellent research, and everything seems very plausible given the unusual circumstances.

The “flow” of the timeline was seamless as well – a week or two here and there, sometimes it would skip a course of several years, but it was all tied together perfectly.

At the end of the book, it seemed to me that there could quite possibly be a very exciting sequel, maybe even the possibility of a series. I hope there is at least one more in the works –I’ll read it nonstop when it comes out.

Buy this book –you will definitely not be disappointed.

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Dr. Bob Rich Inspires Reviewer with "Ascending Spiral"

TITLE: Ascending Spiral: Humanity's last chance

AUTHOR: Bob Rich http://bobswriting.com/ascending.html
ISBN 978-1-61599-186-0
PUBLISHER: Marvelous Sprits Press http://www.marvelousspirit.com
GENRE: Fiction: Insprational, Historical, SF.
BUY LINKS are at http://bobswriting.com/ascending.html

Reviewed by Max Overton originally for Bobbing Around newsletter

Ascending Spiral is a wonderfully curious book and one that defies instant categorisation. At first, I thought it a series of historical stories -- expertly crafted and meticulously researched -- that put you right into the times so you can actually feel what the characters are experiencing. You live as Padraig, his short life terminated by a Viking raider; as Irishman Dermot fighting against British tyranny; as Amelia, the wife of a brutal landowner in Outback Australia; and as Pip Lipkin, a young man in 20^th century Australia, fighting prejudice and his own failings. But it was so much more than just historical stories. The central character in each account turns out to be the same soul, experiencing different lives, learning some lessons, failing others, falling and rising, though the overall journey is one of ascent -- one soul’s journey on an ascending spiral.

This, in itself, would be a fascinating tale of men and women buffeted by circumstance, but the story is twelve thousand years in the making. Furthermore, it encompasses the lives of aliens as well as humans, told in a way that seems both realistic and meaningful. A Space Flower and a Walking Plant add their lives to the mix, and if it seems odd that these beings should be included in a story of an ascending soul, think again. Every action leaves its mark, both on ourselves and those around us, and if we do harm, we must atone for our actions before we can move forward. With every death comes an accounting and a chance for the soul to pick a future life that will help it right the wrongs of a previous existence, help it on its spiral of ascent.

If all that wasn’t enough, one is left with a strong feeling that the latter part of the book is at least partly autobiographical, as the character Pip Lipkin finally realises his long history and what it all means. He has learned lessons from his past lives and can now put them into practice. This would be enough for most books, but Bob Rich goes further, pointing out the future of the planet and the fate of every species on it unless we too learn the lessons that Pip has learned over twelve thousand years of existence.

Ascending Spiral is a book that held me fascinated while I was reading it, and made me sit and think when I finished it. I know I’ll be reading it again, especially the latter part where the future of the planet -- my future, your future -- is laid out, and how we can yet save it from destruction. Thank you, Bob, for this wonderful and thought-provoking experience.

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More about the author:

Dr Bob Rich, http://bobswriting.com
Editor of Bobbing Around http://wp.me/P3Xihq-1http://bobswriting.com/ascending.html
"Commit random acts of kindness

Live simply so you may simply live"

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Vine Voice Reviewer Gives Five Stars to Historical Fiction

Title: Olivia, Mourning

Book 1 of the Olivia series)
Author: Yael Politis
Author's website: http://yaelpolitis.wordpress.com
Genre: Historical Fiction (USA, 1840s)
ISBN: 1493652451
ASIN: B00H0GYRT2

Purchase Link

Reviewed by Carol Kean, an Amazon Vine Voice Reviewer

Originally published in: Amazon.com

Great characters, well-researched historical 5 stars

What a beautifully written but heart-breaking story! From page one, I was hooked. A boy named Mourning, orphaned as an infant, is adopted by a small-town white family. He grows up to be a sterling character, capable, hard working, and reliable. What would the town do without him? A girl named Olivia grows up in the same town, escaping the racist mindset that plagues everyone else except a lawyer who actually has Mourning's best interests at heart, and a woman whose reputation is questionable, but whose character and integrity far surpass that of the self-righteous townfolk. When Olivia wants to stake her claim to a piece of land her uncle left behind, she proposes something like a marriage of convenience between her and Mourning. She's white, he's black, so marriage is out of the question, and their arrangement is strictly platonic, until Olivia finally acknowledges her attraction to a man society will never allow her to marry. At times she must pretend to boss him around like a servant because the alternative is persecution of a worse sort. The novel takes a dark turn, which can hardly be summarized with plot spoilers. The ending is a cliff hanger, sure to send readers racing for Book Two.

The prose is gorgeous, the historical setting is vividly reproduced with painstaking detail, and the characters are so real, it's hard to believe they really are fictional. The fate of Olivia and Mourning, however, fulfills the double meaning of the title. Emotionally, it's a brutal read. However, it's all just the way the world is. And so the sequel (which I've read) is also aptly titled. I strongly recommend these novels for their social and historical value, but also for the sheer beauty of the story. Just be prepared to feel angry, horrified and heartbroken.

Friday, February 7, 2014

Magic and Mayhem Blogger Gives New Novel Top Rating

Book title: Division

Author: Karen A. Wyle
Author web site: http://www.KarenAWyle.net
Genre: near-future science fiction (though the book is also intended for general audiences)
ISBN: The paperback, due out on March 20, 2014, will have the ISBN 978-1493775989.
ASIN: For the e-book, B00G82BBQQ.

Reviewer by Samantha Saboviec, originall for her blog Magic and Mayhem

Rating: 4.5 of 5 stars.
Note: The reviewer received a free copy of Division in exchange for an honest review.

Division is one of the best books I read in 2013, a year in which I read Parasite and We Need to Talk About Kevin. (And the Divergent trilogy, but I didn’t actually like those books, so no competition there.) I liked it so much that I asked author Karen A. Wyle to write a guest post for the blog, which she did last Friday.

I read books to escape and be entertained, like everyone else. But more, I read books to be challenged intellectually, and Division does just that.

This is a story about a pair of conjoined twins. One twin wants to undergo an operation to separate them into two bodies, while the other wants to stay joined. This is set in the near future, where the twins must present their arguments in court because the procedure requires the use of clones and cloning is restricted. The book follows a variety of characters as they cope with the emotional atmosphere up to and after the decision

I get swept away by books like these that explore what it’s like living in the skin of an unusual, unexpected person. Division puts us into the experiences of a twin who want to be free, showing us what life is like chained to another person. It shows us the struggle the other twin undergoes when he’s–in his mind–rejected by someone closer than a lover could ever be. It even examines how their struggle affects their mother, who’s loved them unconditionally from birth and must watch their relationship fall apart. It follows a girlfriend who believed she would, someday soon, marry two people in one body.

A variety of moral questions are opened without direct treatment, which was skillful and impressive. Should the twins be allowed to leave their body for clones? Should a court have the responsibility to decide the future of their lives? Can there ever be a “right” answer when both of them want something mutually exclusive? Yet the morality was never heavy-handed, but was instead a backdrop for the interesting and subtle character interactions.

This book is one of the beautiful pieces of self-published literature that inspires me. The author, Karen A. Wyle, has published several other books that I’m eager to check out. Not to get on my soapbox again, but meticulous attention to detail–plot, character, premise, grammar–is what makes people want to read books. You don’t have to be traditionally published, though you may have to work your bum off twice as hard to get noticed. I heartily recommend this book.

Purchase links:

Amazon for Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Division-Karen-Wyle-ebook/dp/B00G82BBQQ -- or the multi-country link, http://smarturl.it/Division

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/362640

Nook Store: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/division-karen-a-wyle/1117027466?ean=2940045297813

iBookstore: http://www.ibookstore.com/products.php?i=B00G82BBQQ

Kobobooks: http://store.kobobooks.com/en-US/ebook/division-1

Sony: https://ebookstore.sony.com/ebook/karen-a-wyle/division/_/R-400000000000001158857

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

Wednesday, February 5, 2014

Jason Teteak's Book Tour Offers FREE Gifts

Rule the RoomSubtitle:A Unique, Practical and Comprehensive Guide to Making a Successful Presentation

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Tuesday, February 4, 2014

Leadership Is a Marathon on Book Tour Online

Title – Leadership: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint

Author – Gordon Tredgold

Author's website link - http://www.leadership-principles.com/en/

Genre or category – Business – Leadership

ISBN-10: 190962327X

ISBN-13: 978-1909623279

Many people aim to be an inspiring leader, but lack the valuable skills needed to be one. Gordon Tredgold is on hand, with over two decades of experience and his new book to try and show us how to use leadership to achieve sustainable long-term success.

Gordon’s new book “Leadership: It’s a Marathon, Not a Sprint”, explains success that is quickly achieved is easily lost and through the pages of his book, he reveals and explains the steps to achieve success.

“I truly believe that Simplicity, Transparency and Focus are the keys to success, we often overlook the simple approach, are focused on the wrong, or are not transparent enough about why we do things. In this book I show examples where I have used these approaches to turn around failing projects, under-performing departments, and how at 52, fat, and unfit I got myself to run my first marathon.” Gordon adds.

About Gordon Tredgold

Gordon has worked in IT for over 20 years and is a specialist in Transformational Leadership, Operational Performance Improvement, Organisational Development, Creating Business Value via IT, and Program and Change Management.

Gordon has an excellent Global and International experience having lived and worked in UK, Belgium, Holland, Czech Republic, USA and Germany. He also has multi sector knowledge including FMCG, Logistics, Utilities, Telecoms, Aviation, Banking and Finance.

About – Leadership: It’s a Marathon Not a Sprint

Leadership: It’s a Marathon not Sprint, is a pragmatic Leadership guide, explaining leadership principles in an easy to use, easy to understand and more importantly easy implement style.

The book is split into 26 chapters, one for each mile of the marathon. In each chapter i explain a leadership principle in detail, provide examples of that principle being used in a business context, then each chapter concludes with how that principle was applied to my running goal of running my first Marathon at the age of 52.

This book will be of interest to existing leaders and people looking to move into leadership.

Clear, straightforward advice bases on the principles of Simplicity, Transparency and Focus.

Gordon says, “My reasoning for writing the book, and I think a good hook into the book is that I wanted to raise money for charity, so decided to run a marathon. As well as writing the book I managed to complete it in 6 months with no prior training or experience, even more I got 5 others to do the same (we ran a second marathon in Cologne in October). I will continue to run and one of the plans is to run in Athens next year over the original course from Marathon to Athens.”

Gordon will be donating 30% of profits to cancer charity, one that one of his fellow runners has set up for Ovarian Cancer.

Submitted by
Nikki Leigh of Book Promotion Services
http://www.bookpromotionservices.com
http://www.nikkileighauthor.com

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The New Book Review is blogged by Carolyn Howard-Johnson, author of the multi award-winning HowToDoItFrugally series of books for writers. It is a free service offered to those who want to encourage the reading of books they love. That includes authors who want to share their favorite reviews, reviewers who'd like to see their reviews get more exposure, and readers who want to shout out praise of books they've read. Please see submission guidelines on the left of this page. Reviews and essays are indexed by genre, reviewer names, and review sites. Writers will find the search engine handy for gleaning the names of small publishers. Find other writer-related blogs at Sharing with Writers and The Frugal, Smart and Tuned-In Editor.

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