Winner of the Wednesday's Review Party and Blog Spotlight

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Knitting and Sundries!



Be sure to check out Knitting & Sundries and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

Author Spotlight: Suzan Battah and 5 ebook GIVEAWAY!

Julia Mendoza is driven by the success of her business. Since her husband Carlos passed away at such a young age, her business By Design is her number one priority. In her late twenties she works too hard and doesn’t take time out for fun. Annoyance with a pesky ex-friend has her begging one of the local surfer’s with a cheeky smile in the grocery store to pretend he’s her boyfriend. Suddenly, life takes a sudden detour from her business plan; much to the delight of her boisterous Latin American family.

Christophe Augustine is groomed to take over his father’s successful chain of luxurious hotels. With a wealthy French-American background, Chris has been given privileges that not many have. He works hard, plays harder but seeks approval and recognition above all else. Family is a top priority for him as he fights for custody of his young brother. His parent’s divorce has not diminished his faith in romance. When a gorgeous Latino woman changes one boring morning into an interesting game of role play, though reluctant to help at first, he soon realises she’s not like the string of other women he’s known. A romantic first date ending dramatically doesn’t stop Chris from wanting to know Julia more. And for Julia, she’s all for a bit of fun but when things get too serious she’s running the other way. Too alike, in some ways and complete opposites, in other ways, Julia and Chris fumble through fun moments, annoying confrontations, passionate times and heartbreaking revelations.

 Love has no boundaries when soul-mates meet but when one is ready to love and the other one isn’t...

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Suzan Battah is a proud Australian born author who has loved to write since her teenage years. In 2011 she published her first novel a contemporary multicultural romance - Mad About the Boy. In her spare time she weaves magical tales to entertain. Suzan writes YA Fiction - Urban Fantasy/Paranormal Romance, Regency Romance and Contemporary Romance. Other fun things you can find her doing is training at the gym and Latin/Ballroom dancing. Suzan is afraid of heights, loves most things that are sweet, has no clue about fashion and one day hopes to speak Spanish fluently.


http://www.amazon.com/Mad-About-Boy-Suzan-Battah/dp/1466314990 
www.suzanbattah.com 
www.facebook.com/suzan.battah
www.goodreads.com/suzanbattah

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

GIVEAWAY TIME!

5 randomly selected comments will receive a Mad About The Boy ebook. Just be sure to leave me an email address so I contact you when you win ;)

Thank you Suzan for being this week's spotlight (& for the giveaway!)

-CYM

Book Review Wednesdays - LIVE!

I apologize but my third party PAID widget is experience technical difficulties. I will keep the party going until Thursday @Midnight CST.

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list.

-CYM

Nothing Daunted by Dorothy Wickenden *Book Review*

Nothing Daunted
 by Dorothy Wickenden
 Scribner 2011

 Have you heard your mother or grandmother describe their trips abroad when they were young and just getting going in life, before they met their husband and commenced the serious business of life?

 Or have you had occasion to read the journals or letters of people who set out on glorious journeys and undertook to describe their adventures for the folks back home?

 Nothing Daunted describes the trek of two friends from upstate New York just before World War I who were privileged enough to take the grand tour of Europe, come home, and then respond to an advertisement for teachers in the then open territory of Colorado. The story is constructed from letters and interviews with surviving descendants of the strong young women.

When they arrived in the small town, they found a school house that was the nicest building in a town focused on educating its young people. Of course there were hazards and hassles. They persevered, each meeting fine young men whom they married. One of the bridegrooms was behind the advertising seeking eligible young women. He succeeded.

The story is told in a style that is imminently readable and enjoyable. Like a fine movie, the reader feels a part of the story as it evolves.

As I read, I kept wondering if Dorothy Wickenden would express her own questions about what was left out of the letters and stories passed down to family and friends. After all, the story is told through the lens of letters sent home by young women off on an adventure in the evolving (not wild) West. Surely, they had all manner of adventures that they would not write home to their parents about. Did you write home about everything that you did as a young person away from at college, in the military, or wherever? Of course not.

I also kept looking for the author’s questions or observations about what she learned in her reading and interviewing.

In any event, Nothing Daunted was read by our Philosophers’ Club (a group of 13 men ages about 55-70). It produced a thoroughly enjoyable and interesting discussion, which ended up being about these two subjects that I hoped to find in the story. We had a fine time reliving our own youth.

I am sure you will have the same experience, and, as with all excellent stories, ask your own range of questions as you close the cover after a fine read.

 Warms, Cym

AMAZON

Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list.

-CYM

More Than Words Can Say by Robert Barclay *Book Review*

More Than Words Can Say
by Robert Barclay
Wm Morrow 2012

Do you have a beloved grandparent? Who you have loved and honored throughout her or his life?

Have you ever had a suspicion that there are some oddly unexplained elements in their lives?

Would you wonder about a post-death gift from your precious grandmother of a cottage on a remote lake that you had never visited, and where she had never returned from the time she was a young woman? What if she also left a letter explaining that you should open a box hidden beneath the floorboards in the cottage?

Would you be curious and do as she asked? Or, dismiss the gift and words, list the property for sale, and move on with your life?

In More Than Words Can Say, Chelsea confronts just this situation. She is in her early thirties focused on career and her dog. With a love life of periodic relationships, she is touched by the gift and mystery bequeathed by her grandmother.

Robert Barclay tells a touching warm story, which would make an excellent movie with a cast of about the composition of Fried Green Tomatoes. Chelsea encounters life events of her grandmother and herself. She is transported from big city life to a much simpler rural existence. The mysteries of both lives evolve in a touching dance of parallelism.

I felt that Chelsea learns much about herself as she learns of the real life of her grandmother. I believe that we would all like to experience words from beloved, departed relatives that help us understand our own lives through the prism of their own. When such words involve confession of deeply-felt, self-defined sin, the empathy and affection of the grandchild is magnified. In this lovely story, the experience also provides healing for Chelsea, as she embarks on her own new life.

Barclay has a fine ability to craft a touching, memorable story. I especially enjoy well-written narratives that dissect emotions of characters and readers alike.

Having gotten to know Chelsea so well, I wonder what happened in the remainder of her life with the joyful new love that she found in the same place as did her grandmother. Will Chelsea turn the torment of her grandmother into her own happiness?

Warms, Cym

AMAZON

Author Spotlight: Helene Pilibosian

MY LITERARY PROFILE, A MEMOIR
by Helene Pilibosian
ISBN 9781929966080
Ohan Press

Living with parents who were survivors of the Armenian Genocide, author Helene Pilibosian graduates from Watertown High School and Harvard University Extension School. She describes her life as well as the study of literature with Howard Mumford Jones and Paul Engle with scenes of Cambridge in the 1950s. Achieving a degree in humanities, she gets married and travels to Europe and the Middle East.
Health problems intrude, and Dwight E. Harken, M.D., an outstanding thoracic surgeon, saves her life with the best medical skill available in 1963. Theories of C.G. Jung lead her to a mystical experience, which fires her literary inspiration. She establishes Ohan Press and publishes a number of books, including her own, and in doing so makes peace with her past.

Grady Harp, reviewer for amazon.com, states "Helene Pilibosian is a true American Armenian: she wears the riches and the bruises of both descriptors well - and we are the better for her gifts. Recommendation: first read her poetry, then welcome her into your space as the person who rose to the height to write such poetry. She is an amazing artist."

also available at amazon.com and bn.com.

You can find Helene on Facebook

Thank you Helene for bing this weeks Author Spotlight!

-CYM

Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list.

-CYM

How to Write a Damn Good Novel by James N. Frey *Review*

How to Write a Damn Good Novel
by James N. Frey
St. Martin’s Press 1987

Do you dream of being a novelist? I do.

Do you have the skill, capacity, and determination to begin? To persevere? To complete the process? I have written stories for a long time. I make a nice living writing international taxation treatises. I may be a writer, but I am not yet a novelist. I am persistent and hope to succeed in due course.

I love to think up plots, write stories, edit them, trying to improve my skills.

I self-published one book, Riddle of Berlin, in 2008. In the interim, I have written two additional manuscripts. I have selected one to make it the best I can. I took an on-line course from a wonderfully skilled, prominent author, with plenty of personal comment. She suggested a skilled editor, who was willing to work with me. Last year, at ThrillerFest in New York, I pitched it at AgentFest. Several agents asked for some or all of the story. I was not yet satisfied with the manuscript, so I worked with the editor, who sent be back to the drawing board.

She suggested that I read several novels, which I have done, digested, and reviewed, seeking for my own purposes to find the elements of successful craft.

Finally, she suggested that I read How to Write a Damn Good Novel. The book has obviously been around for awhile. My editor’s suggestion has been a thorough education for me. Gleaning my own take-aways from successful thrillers, then comparing what James N. Frey has to say in this elucidating tutorial has been very interesting for me. Frey’s explanation of the writing process is eye-opening, thoughtful, and helpful to me.

I am now ready to submit the manuscript again to the editor and prepare for ThrillerFest and AgentFest again.

If you want to be a novelist, you might want to consider such a path of self-education.

Warms, Cym

AMAZON

Winner of the Wednesday Blog Book Review Party and Blog Spotlight!

*all winners are selected by Random Number Generator *

And the winner of the Amazon Gift Card ($15 value) from Wednesday's Review Party is...

(**Drums Rolling in the Background**)

Congratulations to Colloquium!



Be sure to check out Colloquium and leave a comment!


Send me your email address for the Amazon eGC.

Warms-
CYM

Author Spotlight: Deno Sandz

Sandz Announces Release of New Novel, Blood Plantation.

“It’s the sins of slavery” “A real horror of the middle passage”
“Southern reality and history never forgotten” “Supernatural fiction at its best”

Chicago, Illinois –- Rising fiction author, Deno Sandz has announced the release of his new book, “Blood Plantation” at Amazon.com now. His latest novel takes readers back into the history of slavery with a supernatural/thriller story that’s well written, shocking, heart wrenching, plot driven, spellbinding, and frightening.

The Novel, “Blood Plantation” is a historical fiction set at a Bed and Breakfast owned by the great, great, great, granddaughter of Captain Rollins the 3rd once known as the big house on a plantation in Virginian. The antagonist, the SOTO (The Soul of the Ocean) is a captured slave from the southern tip of Africa, thrown overboard near the shores of Shonwaay, Virginian where the Shonwaayians now call, “The Shores of the Evil Soul” in 1810 after a mutiny he spearheaded leading to the murder of crew members, slaves, and his wife by the evil hands of Captain Rollins the 3rd who owned the plantation. It’s now 2010 and another fifty years has dawned and the SOTO has awakened again to seek his vengeance against the last of Rollins’ blood line for the death of his wife.

Sandz explores some of the most important connections with slavery such as pain, suffering, and reality in “Blood Plantation,”- the love a husband for a wife, an evil that can never be forgiven, and a spirit that never dies. The novel will inflict remembrance and have readers examine the reality of history with a fictional supernatural eye.

About Deno Sandz
Deon C. Sanders (Pen name: Deno Sandz) was born in the south, raised and resides in Chicago, is a father of six working in the educational field and has been a Multi-Genre author for the last ten years. He has published horror fiction novels such as: “Miss Mary Weather: A Southern Nightmare” (2000), “Pen of Iniquity” (2008), “I,AM” (2010), and has numerous unpublished works. He is a motivational speaker, writes phenomenal articles on every aspect of society, short stories that transcends the heart, soul, and mind of the reader, poetry that convokes emotions, lyrics that embraces the genre of the music industry, and movie screenplays. He is also the owner/creator of Deno Sandz Productions/Six Shortyes Films. Fans can follow Sandz on facebook, twitter, and linked in.

Blood Plantation at Amazon
Sandz at Createspace
Sandz Online

For more information about Blood Plantation, please contact author at dsanders4119@yahoo.com.

Thank you Deno Sandz for being this week's Author Spotlight!

-CYM

Book Review Party Wednesday - LIVE!

<a href="http://cymlowell.blogspot.com/" target="_blank"><img alt="CymLowell" src="http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2442/3960797566_f11cfb2f41_o.jpg" /></a>

Welcome to Book Review Party Wednesday.

It is real simple. Link up any (old or new, any genre) book review that you have
written to the below MckLinky.

A couple of things to remember while you're linking.

1. Add a permalink to your specific post, not the main page of your blog (only one review per blog).
2. Add my Book Review Wednesday Badge or a link-back to the party at the end of your review post.
3. List the name of your blog, Title of Book or Genre. Be sure to use spaces and limit characters to 50. For example: The Lost Symbol, thriller

4. Become a follower of my blog, pretty please (not mandatory).
5. Visit the other linked up reviews and leave comments....it's a party, have fun!
6. I will announce the winner in a weekend post. The winner is chosen from the linked up reviewers using Random Number Generator. All included.

I am so excited to be reading all the reviews! This is always so much fun and gives me the opportunity to add new books to my list.

-CYM

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes by Marcus Sakey *Book Review*

The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes
by Marcus Stakey
Dutton 2011

Imagine that you awoke, naked in the cold surf of Maine with no memory. Could you reconstruct your life? What would you use to do so?

This is how we are introduced to Daniel Hayes, a television scriptwriter. We come to find out that Daniel had lived the life of dreams, married to the beautiful star of a television series that he created, Laney Thayer. They lived in a beautiful Malibu home.

When we meet Daniel, he remembers nothing. Fortunately, he finds a car and some clues, leading him to believe that he must have jumped into the sea in an effort to end his life. “Why would I have done that?” he wonders. In his dreams, Daniel sees an actress and dark images of a cement canyon. He drives across the country subsisting as he goes. In his mind is an image of a beautiful woman.

Back in Los Angeles, the police suspect that Daniel murdered his wife. Her car is found floating at the bottom of a cliff. She must have been thrown through the windshield to be consumed by the sea and its voracious creatures. There are additional murders and crimes that point to Daniel. No one knows where he is.

The strands of memory and mystery lurk in Daniel’s head as he goes from one death to another.

Marcus Stakey is a clever story teller. The plot of The Two Deaths of Daniel Hayes is intriguing. It grabs you from the first moment. There are a few leaps of faith in terms of convenience of getting from one point in the process to another, which is not unusual in thrillers. The antagonist is evil. You want to kill him at every turn. Mysteries abound. Who is Daniel? What happened to his wife? Who are some of the characters that appear without explanation as they come on stage? How will Daniel die twice (after all, that is the title of the book)? The central mysteries are who is a murderer, who has been murdered, who is actually dead, and who is lying?

You’ll enjoy this read.

Warms, Cym

AMAZON
Marcus Stakey