Blog Tour For One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging by Beth M. Caruso From November 1, 2016 to November 30, 2016 - Come Join Us!

Hello Everyone! I am extremely happy to announce that Beth M. Caruso will be touring the blogosphere to promote her historical novel One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging. This virtual book tour is being hosted by Pump up Your Book and will last from November 1, to November 30, 2016!

Ms. Caruso is also doing an awesome giveaway - she is giving away a Free Kindle copy of One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging to one lucky winner at the end of her Blog Tour. Be sure to fill out the Rafflecopter form below, and I wish you all the very best of good luck in taking part!

One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging Blog Tour Information:

Meet Beth M. Caruso 

Beth M. Caruso grew up in Cincinnati, Ohio and spent her childhood writing puppet shows and witches’ cookbooks. She became interested in French Literature and Hispanic Studies, receiving a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Cincinnati. She later obtained Masters degrees in Nursing and Public Health.

Working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Thailand, she helped to improve the public health of local Karen hill tribes. She also had the privilege to care for hundreds of babies and their mothers as a labor and delivery nurse. Largely influenced by an apprenticeship with herbalist and wildcrafter, Will Endres, in North Carolina, she surrounds herself with plants through gardening and native species conservation.

Her latest passion is to discover and convey important stories of women in American history. One of Windsor is her debut novel. She lives in New England with her awesome husband, amazing children, loyal puppy, and cuddly cats.

Connect and Socialize with Beth!

Website * Facebook

About One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging:

Alice, a young woman prone to intuitive insights and loyalty to the only family she has ever known, leaves England for the rigid colony of the Massachusetts Bay in 1635 in hopes of reuniting with them again. Finally settling in Windsor, Connecticut, she encounters the rich American wilderness and its inhabitants, her own healing abilities, and the blinding fears of Puritan leaders which collide and set the stage for America’s first witch hanging, her own, on May 26, 1647.

This event and Alice’s ties to her beloved family are catalysts that influence Connecticut’s Governor John Winthrop Jr. to halt witchcraft hangings in much later years. Paradoxically, these same ties and the memory of the incidents that led to her accusation become a secret and destructive force behind Cotton Mather’s written commentary on the Salem witch trials of 1692, provoking further witchcraft hysteria in Massachusetts forty-five years after her death.

The author uses extensive historical research combined with literary inventions, to bring forth a shocking and passionate narrative theory explaining this tragic and important episode in American history.

Purchase your copy from Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

Pump up Your Book and Beth M. Caruso are giving away a free Kindle copy of One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging!

Terms and Conditions:

• By entering the giveaway, you are confirming you are at least 18 years old.

• One winner will be chosen via Rafflecopter to receive both books

• This giveaway ends midnight November 30.

• Winner will be contacted via email on December 1.

• Winner has 48 hours to reply.

Good luck everyone!

ENTER TO WIN!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

One of Windsor: The Untold Story of America's First Witch Hanging Book Publicity Tour Schedule:

Tuesday, November 1 - Book Feature and Tour Kickoff at The Writer’s Life

Wednesday, November 2 - Character Interview at Pimp That Character!

Thursday, November 3 - Interview at The Dark Phantom Reviews

Monday, November 7 - Book Featured at Bound 2 Escape

Tuesday, November 8 - Book Review at Books, Reviews, ETC.

Wednesday, November 9 - Book Review at 100 Pages A Day

Tuesday, November 15 - Book Featured at Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews

Wednesday, November 16 - Interview at My Bookish Pleasures

Monday, November 21 - Guest Blogging at The Story Behind the Book

Wednesday, November 23 - Book Review at Emeraldfire’s Bookmark

Monday, November 28 - Book Review at fuonlyknew

Wednesday, November 30 - Book Review at A Holland Reads

Wednesday, November 30 - Book Review at Confessions of the Perfect Mom

May you read well and often

Reading Wrap-up For September at Emeraldfire's Bookmark

Hello everyone out there and I hope that you all had a terrific reading month for yourselves. I am known as Emeraldfire around the Internet and this is my new personal reading blog.

Anyway, I started out September with about two hundred unread books lying around the house and ended the month with...umm...uncountable amounts of books unread. All of the books that I acquired this month came from authors, Apple I-Books, Paperback Swap and Amazon.

Let me try to break down the influx for you:

Changes to the TBR pile

Read from my TBR pile (Yes! I am a reading machine :))
- Across the Long Sea by Sarah Remy
- The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow

Added to my TBR pile (oh well, you win some and you lose some! :))
- The Gladiator's Girl by Amy Hearst
- The Gladiator's Goddess by Amy Hearst
- The Sevenfold Spell by Tia Nevitt
- The Magic Mirror and the Seventh Dwarf by Tia Nevitt
- The Battle For Darracia: The Complete Saga by Michael Phillip Cash
- Ghost Hampton: A Novel by Ken McGorry
- Time and Again by Jack Finney

Taken off my TBR pile and sent to a new home (Yay! Happy Dance! :))

- Witches Protection Program by Michael Phillip Cash
- Across the Long Sea by Sarah Remy
- The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow

Well, there it is...the breakdown! All in all, a very good reading month for me, considering. Here's a further breakdown:

Books Read: 2
Pages Read: 597
Grade Range: A+! to A!

So, there you go! The reading month that was September. I hope that you all had an equally good reading month; if not a little better. :) See you all next month! :)

May you read well and often

Introducing Welcome to the Apocalypse by D. L. Richardson!

I'm delighted to announce that the science fiction novel, Welcome to the Apocalypse by D. L. Richardson recently been nominated by Amazon's Kindle Scout Program for possible publication. Starting on September 28th and lasting until October 28th, Welcome to the Apocalypse by D. L. Richardson will be part of its own campaign for publication. Yes, from September 28th to October 28th, Welcome to the Apocalypse by D. L. Richardson will be subject to the voting process. Your vote counts, so be sure to vote today!

Meet D. L. Richardson

Debbie Richardson is a writer of speculative fiction. Her favorite authors influence her to write: Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice. She wanted to be a musician first but decided writing had better hours. She wants to be as prolific as her favorite authors and she loves meeting readers and sharing her writing tips with other authors. When she's not writing she's reading, killing weeds in the garden, walking the dog, or apologizing to her piano and guitar for neglecting them.You can read about her other books on her website www.dlrichardson.com.

Connect and Socialize with D. L.!

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Blog

Welcome to the Apocalypse by D. L. Richardson (2016)
Length: 310 pages

Cast your vote for this book through Amazon Kindle Scout!

Welcome to the Apocalypse Blurb:

Kill or be killed just got real in this game.

It's launch day of a game that'll entertain cosplayers and doomsday preppers. Kelly, Jack, and Reis enter simulation pods to survive a virtual apocalypse, yet instead of "game over" they enter a new game. Then another. Each new day brings a new battle. Surviving the games is easy, it's "kill or be killed". But fatigue and cyber sickness are setting in and the pods are designed for three days. With no communication to or from the operators, they can only hope they're rescued before it's too late.

VOTE NOW AND WIN CASH!

• You must have an Amazon account to vote.
• Excerpt available to read on the Kindle Scout page. https://kindlescout.amazon.com/p/2IU3N48DQL1QJ

Campaign starts September 28th and ends October 28th!

Readers can win cash simply by voting. Bonus points for sharing your nomination.

​a Rafflecopter giveaway

May you read well and often

Michelle Madow - The Prophecy of Shadows

16. The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow (2016)

The Elementals Series Book 1

Length: 309 pages 

Genre: Fantasy

Started: 4 September 2016

Finished: 23 September 2016

Where did it come from? Many thanks to Michelle Madow for sending me a copy of this book to read.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 24 June 2016
Why do I have it? I like fantasy and Michelle Madow is a new author for me.

When Nicole Cassidy and her family first moved to the small town of Kinsley, Massachusetts from sunny Georgia, she initially thought that the most unusual thing that she would have to deal with would probably be the sudden change in the weather. Well that, and the close proximity of Kinsley to the town of Salem. Of course, all that superstitious nonsense about witches and witchcraft just isn't real - no matter what the townspeople may believe. However, right from the first day at her new school, Nicole is in for a terrible shock - and is soon swept up into a secret world that she never knew existed.

Nicole believes that she is nothing more than a typical teenager. She has absolutely no special powers whatsoever - she's just an ordinary, average girl who has recently moved to Kinsley with her mom, dad and younger sister, Becca. However, according to her new teacher - who insists that she call him Darius - Kinsley is a town of many secrets...full of magic and extremely dangerous mythical monsters. As a matter of fact, Darius' own home room is a clever cover for a secret coven of witches.

Apparently, in the town of Kinsley, witches are absolutely real. They are actually superior beings who use their powers to shield themselves from ordinary humans and to protect humanity from danger. What Nicole doesn't realize about herself is that she actually does have some pretty extraordinary powers - powers given to her directly from the Greek gods themselves. Although she is doing her best to adjust to her newfound heritage, Nicole has no idea of how much that heritage will soon be tested.

During an evening magical practice session - cunningly disguised as a teacher-guided astronomy study session at Darius' house - the Olympian Comet shoots across the night sky. Darius' students are the only witnesses to a cosmic event that has been foretold through the words of an ancient prophecy. While the majority of the students under Darius' tutelage don't necessarily experience anything out of the ordinary, for Nicole and four other students: Chris, Kate, Blake and Danielle - their powers become subtly enhanced to include mastery over the five elements - Air, Earth, Fire, Water, and Aether.

While the five new friends struggle to control their newly-awakened powers, they can't even begin to realize that the words of the prophecy are being fulfilled in other ways as well. With the arrival of the comet, the walls of a multitude of different dimensions have been stretched to their very limits. In fact, the portal to a dimension that has kept the mythological creatures known as the Titans imprisoned for centuries, has been severely weakened. After an ancient monster escapes and attacks Nicole and Blake; it falls to them and the others within their circle to decipher the ancient prophecy and to follow the cryptic clues that are revealed in order to save their town...and possibly the entire world.

I must say that I have always enjoyed reading stories based on Greek mythology. Actually, The Prophecy of Shadows by Michelle Madow was just the sort of story that I frequently enjoy reading. I found that this story was intriguing, exciting and well-developed. It captured my attention right away, and I avidly wanted to know what would happen next to the characters. I look forward to reading more in this series in the very near future, and I would certainly give this book a definite A+!

A+! - (96-100%)

May you read well and often

Sarah Remy - Across the Long Sea

15. Across the Long Sea by Sarah Remy (2015)
The Bone Magic Series Book 2
Length: 288 pages
Genre: Historical Fantasy
Started: 5 September 2016
Finished: 21 September 2016
Where did it come from? Many thanks to Dorothy at Pump up Your Book for sending me a copy of this book to read. I also acquired a second copy through Apple I-Books.
How long has it been on my TBR pile? Since 22 June 2016 from Dorothy; Since 12 September 2016 from Apple I-Books.
Why do I have it? I like historical fantasy and have read and enjoyed Stonehill Downs: A Novel by the same author in the past.

Malachi Doyle is the King's Lord Vocent - a man of many talents and very few fears. His responsibilities to king and kingdom are many: as protector, royal investigator and assassin, the trusted right hand of King Renault, himself. Indeed as the most valued asset in Wilhaiim, Malachi has become much beloved by the king, and truly indispensable. And until he met Avani of the cursed village of Stonehill Downs, Mal had always believed himself to be the last of his kind - a magus with the extraordinary ability to communicate with the dead.

When Mal receives an urgent summons to return home to his native province of Selkirk, he reluctantly sets out to make the journey. However, the kingdom of Wilhaiim is left vulnerable when the magus and his young page, Liam, are ambushed and seized from the bustling seaport of Selkirk. As the two hostages battle for their lives on board a ship bound for the fractured kingdom of Roue - a warring kingdom across the Long Sea - Malachi soon learns that Roue is a kingdom in need of its own magus; willing to resort to such desperate measures to acquire one.

To make matters worse, a springtime plague is spreading rapidly through Wilhaiim and decimating the population. While it is believed that the sickness is being caused by some natural contagion - and nothing more mysterious than that - the situation is no less dangerous in the realm of the fair folk. Beneath the earth the sidhe have been preparing for war; but otherwise have kept to themselves for the past year.

A year ago, a majority of the residents living in the village formerly known as Stonehill Downs were murdered, and the entire village razed to ground by dark magic. While many others believe the land is now cursed, Avani - one of the very few survivors - nevertheless has been working diligently with certain members of the sidhe to rebuild her home. However after she receives devastating news of Mal's abduction from his own home province, Avani reluctantly steps into his position as Wilhaiim's magus.

Her allies are few and treachery may surround her - but despite hearing a myriad of conflicting reports to the contrary - she is beyond certain that Mal is still alive. Avani's own innate talents tell her that much. However, while her powers as a magus may be wholly unreliable and completely untested, will she ultimately be able to use them appropriately - to keep Wilhaiim, as well as herself - safe?

I must say that I thoroughly enjoyed this sequel to Stonehill Downs: A Novel by Sarah Remy. While I was only slightly disappointed that the two main characters spent the majority of the story apart, I soon came to understand that this distance actually enhanced their separate storylines. In my opinion, this was definitely a dramatic sequel - one which moved the story along at a surprising pace. I was intrigued by this story and appreciated the further development of the characters. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future and would certainly give Across the Long Sea an A!

A! - (90-95%)

May you read well and often

Blog Tour For Ghost Hampton: A Novel by Ken McGorry From October 3, 2016 to November 30, 2016 - Come Join Us!

Hello Everyone! I am extremely happy to announce that Ken McGorry will be touring the blogosphere to promote his paranormal mystery novel Ghost Hampton: A Novel. This virtual book tour is being hosted by Pump up Your Book and will last from October 3, to November 30, 2016!

Ghost Hampton: A Novel Blog Tour Information:

Meet Ken McGorry

Ken McGorry has been writing since third grade. (He learned in first grade, but waited two years.) He started a school newspaper with friends in seventh grade, but he’s better known for his 23 years as an editor of Post Magazine, a monthly covering television and film production. This century, he took up novel-writing and Ghost Hampton and Smashed are examples. More are in the works, like the promised Ghost Hampton sequel, but he’s kinda slow.

Ken lives on Long Island with his wife and they have two strapping sons. There are dogs. Ken is also a chef (grilled cheese, and only for his sons) and he enjoys boating (if it’s someone else’s boat). He has a band, The Achievements, that plays his songs (try https://soundcloud.com/ken-mcgorry). Back at Manhattan College (English major!), he was a founding member of the venerable Meade Bros. Band. Ken really was an employee of Dan’s Papers in the Hamptons one college summer, and really did mow Dan’s lawn.

Connect and Socialize with Ken!

Website * Twitter * Facebook * Goodreads

About Ghost Hampton: A Novel:

Lyle Hall is a new man since his car accident and spinal injury. The notoriously insensitive Bridgehampton lawyer is now afflicted with an odd sensitivity to other people’s pain. Especially that of a mysterious young girl he encounters outside a long-abandoned Victorian house late one October night.

“Jewel” looks about 12. But Lyle knows she’s been dead a hundred years. Jewel wants his help, but it’s unclear how.

As if in return, she shows him an appalling vision - his own daughter’s tombstone. If it’s to be believed, Georgie’s last day is four days away. Despite Lyle’s strained relations with his police detective daughter, he’s shocked out of complacent convalescence and back into action in the real world.

But the world now seems surreal to the formerly Scrooge-like real estate lawyer. Lyle’s motion in court enjoining the Town of Southampton from demolishing the old house goes viral because he leaked that it might be haunted. This unleashes a horde of ghost-loving demonstrators and triggers a national media frenzy. Through it all strides Lyle’s new nemesis in high heels: a beautiful, scheming TV reporter known as Silk.

Georgie Hall’s own troubles mount as a campaign of stationhouse pranks takes a disturbing sexual turn. Her very first case is underway and her main suspect is a wannabe drug lord. Meanwhile, Lyle must choose: Repair his relationship with Georgie or succumb to the devious Silk and her exclusive media contract.

He tells himself seeing Georgie’s epitaph was just a hallucination. But a few miles away the would-be drug lord is loading his assault rifle. Berto needs to prove himself

Purchase your copy from Amazon and Barnes and Noble!

Ghost Hampton: A Novel Book Publicity Tour Schedule:

Monday, October 3 - First Chapter Reveal and Tour Kick Off at Pump up Your Book

Tuesday, October 4 - Book Featured at Books, Dreams, Life

Wednesday, October 5 - Character Interview at Pimp That Character!

Thursday, October 6 - Guest Blogging at What Is That Book About?

Monday, October 10 - Book Featured at The Bookworm Lodge

Tuesday, October 11 - Guest Blogging at The Story Behind the Book

Wednesday, October 12 - Book Featured at The Writer’s Life

Thursday, October 13 - Interview at I’m Shelf-ish

Monday, October 17 - Book Review at Books, Reviews, ETC.

Tuesday, October 18 - First Chapter Reveal at Read My First Chapter

Wednesday, October 19 - Interview at Literarily Speaking

Thursday, October 20 - Book Featured at As the Page Turns

Tuesday, October 25 - Book Review and Guest Blogging at From the TBR Pile

Wednesday, October 26 - Book Featured at A Title Wave

Thursday, October 27 - First Chapter Reveal at Beyond the Books

Friday, October 28 - Book Review at Emeraldfire’s Bookmark

Tuesday, November 1 - Interview at The Writer’s Life

Wednesday, November 2 - Guest Blogging at Write and Take Flight

Thursday, November 3 - Book Featured at CBY Book Club

Friday, November 4 - Guest Blogging at The Book Connection

Monday, November 7 - First Chapter Reveal at The Review From Here

Tuesday, November 8 - Book Featured at Bound 2 Escape

Wednesday, November 9 - Guest Blogging at Literary Exposure

Wednesday, November 9 - First Chapter Review at Books Can Be Deadly

Monday, November 14 - Interview at The Literary Nook

Tuesday, November 15 - Book Review at Deal Sharing Aunt

Wednesday, November 16 - Book Featured at Just Us Book Blog

Thursday, November 17 - Book Featured at Hooked From Page One

Friday, November 18 - Interview at PUYB Virtual Book Club

Monday, November 21 - Interview at A Blue Million Books

Tuesday, November 22 - Book Featured at Confessions of an Eccentric Bookaholic

Wednesday, November 23 - Book Review at fuonlyknew

Monday, November 28 - Guest Blogging at As the Pages Turn

Tuesday, November 29 - Interview at My Bookish Pleasures

Wednesday, November 30 - Book Review at CelticLady’s Reviews

May you read well and often

Introducing the Lei Crime Series by Toby Neal!

Hello Everyone! I hope that you're all having a wonderful day today. Since I have already done several book release posts for the novellas of the Kindle Worlds Lei Crime Series, I thought that I would also begin to highlight the novels of The Lei Crime Series written by popular mystery author Toby Neal. I would advise you to grab your own copies of these novels as soon as possible!

Hawaii is palm trees, black sand and blue water - but for policewoman Lei Texeira, there’s a dark side to paradise. Lei has overcome a scarred past to make a life for herself as a cop, but often the cases she works activate wounds and complications from her tangled family history. Lei is affected deeply by her cases even as she solves them with persistence, obsession, and intuition. She falls in love with Michael Stevens, the charismatic detective she works with, and they make a life solving crime in contemporary Hawaii with all its beauty and deadliness.

 Meet Toby Neal

Toby Neal was raised on Kauai in Hawaii. She wrote and illustrated her first story at age five. After initially majoring in journalism, she eventually settled on mental health as a career and loves her work, saying, “I’m endlessly fascinated with people’s stories.”

She lives in Hawaii with her family and dogs and enjoys many outdoor sports including bodyboarding, beach walking, gardening, hiking, wondering about human nature and coming up with original plots.

Toby credits her counseling background in adding depth to her characters - from the villains to Lei Texeira, the courageous and vulnerable heroine in the Lei Crime Series.

Bone Hook by Toby Neal (2015)

Length: 276 pages

Purchase your copy from Amazon!

Bone Hook Blurb:

***FINALIST: Best Multicultural Novel, International Book Awards 2016***

Maui’s ocean is beautiful, wild…and deadly.

It’s been five years since the events of Rip Tides, and Sergeant Lei Texeira gets into hot water much deeper than she’s used to at a crime scene ninety feet down off of the tiny atoll of Molokini, where the death of beautiful marine biologist Danielle “Lani” Phillips is anything but an accident. More suspects than a school of sharks circle a case that takes Lei into territory that hits dangerously close to home, even as husband Michael Stevens heads into his own uncharted depths.

“Toby Neal has delivered another preeminent novel in the irresistible and popular Lei Crime Series. In this tenth addition, Neal is better than ever, not waiting a moment to dive into a scintillating murder mystery set on Maui among that island’s resplendent coastline treasures. Don’t miss the very best of Toby Neal and the hottest Lei Crime addition yet. Bone Hook is a masterful, gripping story, destined to become a favorite journey into the darkness of selfishly deceitful human machinations set in the paradise of one of Hawaii’s most heavenly domains.” R.S. Guthrie, a Shelf Unbound Magazine 2014 Notable Indie and author of Wise Bear Digital Gold Medal-winning, Blood Land, first in the James Pruett Mystery series

Red Rain by Toby Neal (2015)

Length: 276 pages

Purchase your copy from Amazon!

Red Rain Blurb:

"Persistently riveting...Neal's writing is tenacious, highlighted by masterly crosscutting of two exhilarating storylines." Kirkus Reviews

In Hawaii, a red rain means the death, change, or birth of a chief.

The last thing detective Lei Texeira wants to do while her husband is overseas is deal with a child homicide cold case - but she gets one anyway, and it takes her beyond her personal limits. Meanwhile, Lieutenant Michael Stevens finds himself in a world filled with every kind of threat from crocodiles to kidnappers, and just getting home alive would be a miracle. 

“Toby Neal is known for well-crafted and emotionally charged mysteries, and Red Rain may be her best yet. Neal gives us two suspenseful and unpredictable storylines, equally taut with intrigue and masterfully told, woven together in an intricately carved puzzle filled with the kind of inner character exploration we expect from a Lei Crime story. Neal pulls out all the stops on this one!” M. L. Doyle, author of the Master Sergeant Harper Mysteries

Bitter Feast by Toby Neal (2016)

Length: 256 pages 

Purchase your copy from Amazon!

Bitter Feast Blurb:

The farm-to-table food movement in Hawaii can be luscious, exotic...murder.

Lieutenant Michael Stevens investigates a murder in a fine dining restaurant on Maui that’s a Feast of possible motives, with jealousy, passion and revenge topping the menu. A host of familiar characters, from Jared Stevens to Dr. Wilson, chime in from their perspectives, each contributing essential information to one of the most complex cases Stevens has ever encountered - but that’s nothing compared to imminent parenthood with his wife Lei, who’d rather be packing a gun than a diaper bag.

"Neal's writing is persistently riveting...Masterly." Kirkus Reviews

May you read well and often