As everyone who reads my blog already knows, I've been a little nitpicky about my reads this year, especially when it comes to new authors. I get many emails about upcoming book blog tours but I've been ignoring most requests because of my "no spotlights" policy that I started last year. However, I have nothing wrong with reviewing a title during one of these tours, which explains why I'm participating in "The Maine Nemesis" tour.

In the case with this title (and many other books), the art cover caught my attention right away. Now I didn't sign up to review the book based on the cover alone. I did read the blurb!

What's the book about?

Set in Wabanaki, Maine, the novel centers around best friends Skyler Moore and Brenda Braxton. While their love lives isn't exactly perfect, they are both very accomplished women with Brenda being a famous chef and owner of several restaurants and Skyler is a public relations hotshot.

The duo has to put their skills to the test when the deputy's wife is found dead inside one of the local restaurants. Murder is something that never happens in this small town so the community is shell shocked. Skyler takes charge to help the restaurant's owners by dealing with all the PR nightmare following the murder. Then she quickly turns into an amateur sleuth. Along with Brenda and a few friends, she's determined to solve the murder (and a kidnapping).


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Final Thoughts

AMAZON

There's probably many great books I've come across at one time or another in stores but I never picked them up based on their titles or covers. I recall seeing Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty at several Walmart stores when it was first published in 2014. However, the cover didn't appeal to me, so I never gave the title another thought. It wasn't until after I'd watched the HBO limited-series adaptation that I became interested in reading the novel.

Big Little Lies begins with a murder that occurred at the Pirriwee Public School's trivia night. Then the story quickly flashes back six months before the event. The plot mostly focuses on three different women - Madeline, Celeste, and Jane.

Madeline is a mother of three, with the oldest being from her first marriage. Chloe is the youngest who's about to start Kindergarten. Most mothers would be excited (and a bit scared) about their child starting school, but Madeline is more worried about having to deal with her ex-husband and his young wife, Bonnie, as their daughter, Skye, is about also going to be attending Kindergarten with Chole.

Celeste is an at-home mother of twin boys, Max and Josh, who will also be attending Kindergarten at Pirriwee. From everyone else's viewpoint, Celeste has the prefect life with the perfect husband, Perry, and their wonderful sons. However, what's unknown to the world is Perry is an abusive control freak who takes his anger out on Celeste.

Jane is the youngest of the three main characters. She's a single mother of one son, Ziggy, who wanted to start a new life by moving near the beach. Ziggy is also attending Kindergarten at Pirriwee. Jane has been keeping a dark secret about her son - Ziggy is a product of rape!

On the morning of the Kindergarten orientation, Jane befriends Madeline and Celeste, which is a good thing as she needs all the friends she can get after what happens next - Ziggy is accused of bulling another student, Amabella, who happens to the daughter of Renata Klein, a rich socialite who overreacts to just about everything.

The orientation incident begins a domino effect for these three women which comes to a collusion course during trivia night!

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

It's been quite a long time since I've reread a book! And I'm not referring to a "need-to-review" book because I have had to reread quite a few of those; mostly due to the fact that it took me so long to write my reviews, so rereading was a way to refresh my mind. Instead, I'm referring to my favorite reads that I've always wanted to reread but have never had the time to do so.

A few weeks ago, the remake of 1989's Pet Sematary arrived in theatres. I haven't seen the movie yet, as I'll probably just wait until it's released on DVD or Blu-ray. The movie's release got me in the mood to reread the original 1983 novel by Stephen King; which in my opinion is the author's scariest work.

The novel centers on Louis Creed, his wife Rachel, their five-year-old (or is it six?) daughter Ellie, and their two-year-old son Gage moving from Chicago to Ludlow, Maine. Louis has a taken a director position at the small University of Maine's campus medical center. They'd purchased an older house a little bit outside of town, and their only closest neighbor is an elderly couple, Jud Crandall and his ailing wife, Norma.

Upon arriving, Jud warns Louis that his children should stay clear of the highway, which is located right in front of their house, as many animals (and pets) have died trying to walk across it. Many of the animals are buried behind the Creed's home in what has been dubbed the Pet Sematary, a place where devastated children have buried their deceased pets.

Sadly, Ellie's cat, Church, meets his doom on the highway. This is when Jud tells Louis there's a way to bring Church back from the dead. The old man takes Louis beyond the Pet Sematary to an ancient Miꞌkmaq Tribe burial ground, where anything buried there will be brought back to life. Louis buries Church and the very next day the cat returns to life. While the cat might have a bad odor and acts a little odd, Church is still Church!

The family was just starting to adjust to their new home then the unthinkable occurs  - Gage is killed by a speeding truck!!!

After the funeral, Louis sends Rachel and Ellie to stay with his in-laws in Chicago. He tells them he will join them once the campus gets a replacement for him at the medical center. However, Louis has another agenda - he's going to bury Gage's corpse in the burial ground!!!

This is a Stephen King story, so you can probably guess the story gets really scary and bloody!!!

Final Thoughts

AMAZON

While I have read a few dozen Harlequin romance titles over the years, I don't believe I have ever read any of their "Love Inspired" books, which is the Harlequin line of Christian romances. Well, until I had received several of thesed titles in the late spring. Originally, I signed up to review the books through the Litfuse Publicity Group, but the PR company shockingly closed down. Another PR firm took over and sent the books to all the reviewers. Unfortunately, my reading schedule was booked up by then, so I decided to the keep the books back for this year's Holiday Gift Guide.

One those titles happens to be The Wedding Quilt Bride by Marta Perry. The book centers on Rebecca Mast, a widow who returns to her Amish community in Lost Creek with her son, Elijah, to start a new life and open a quilt shop in the downstairs area of their new home. She hires a childhood friend, Daniel King, to make repairs to the house and to help build the quilt shop. 

Rebecca was a little hesitant at first to hire Daniel as a carpenter because she has a dark secret that she doesn't want him to know about. However, he's the best carpenter in the community to help realize her dream of owning a quilting shop, so lets him in her home; where he builds a friendship with her and Elijah.

Final Thoughts

312 pages; $14.99; Amazon

I've only read a handful of science fiction novels during my lifetime. While I don't mind watching a good science fiction movie, I'm just not really into the reading books set in the genre, except for the occasional anthology, like the recently released 18 Wheels of Science Fiction.

Published by Big Time Books and edited by Eric Miller, 18 Wheels of Science Fiction features 18 short stories about futuristic truck driving.

Here's the official blurb from the back cover:

An alien fuel additive shows just how fast a big rig can go... A disembodied driver wages war on self-driving trucks... A haul through time takes an unexpected turn... Reality shatters for a trucker using an experimental delivery device... Stargazing gives an overweight driver a new lease on life... A young girl risks her life to hitch a ride out of an apocalyptic wasteland...

Take a trip through the imaginations of 18 visionary writers as they explore the future of trucking in these speculative tales. The highways of the universe will never be the same.

The short stories are:

The Wreckers 

by John DeChancie

Speed Trap 

by Jeff Seeman

Thin Ice

by Bond Elam

Q-Bits

by Lucio Rodriguez

I, Truck

by Gary Phillips

Over Flat Mountain

by Terry Bisson

Wheels Of Wrath

by Janet Joyce Holden

Shotgun Seat

by Paul Carlson

Job No. 34264

by Lisa Morton

Essential Oils

by Michael Bailey

Big Rig, Big Rip

by Alvaro Zinos-Armaro

A Flicker of Bright Light

by Del Howison

Hit/Run

by Edward M. Erdelac

Everything Looks So Small

by Carla Robinson

Silent Passenger

by Kate Jonez

Indica Asterion & The Wizard Of Ozymandias

by Sean Patrick Traver

Human, Trafficking

by Michael Paul Gonzalez

Drive

by Eric Miller

Final Thoughts

Avon Inspire; 288 pages; Amazon

I have been receiving several unrequested books this year, including Her Fear by Shelley Shepard Gray. I'm a fan of the author's writings, so I was thrilled to receive the book. However, since I didn't request to review the book, I put the title on the backburner for a few months, until I had time to read it.

Scholastic; 154 pages; $6.99; Amazon

For the last "Back to School Reads" post this year, I'm featuring Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween - Movie Novel, which was recently released by Scholastic. It's the novelization of the upcoming movie Goosebumps 2: Haunted Halloween, which will be released to theaters on October 12th. The movie is a sequel to 2015 horror-comedy Goosebumps, which was inspired by a series of books of the same name by bestselling author R.L. Stine. I'm not for sure who wrote the sequel novelization, but it's based on the screenplay by Rob Lieber. R.L. Stine edited the book and wrote the introduction.

Set in Wardenclyffe, New York, Goosebumps: Haunted Halloween centers around two seventh-graders, Sonny Quinn and Sam Carter, who are starting their own business called Junk Bros. After being hired to clean out an old abandoned house, they stumble upon an old locked book and the key to go with it. The kids unlock the book, which unleashes the ventriloquist dummy, Slappy.

That was their first mistake. The second mistake was reciting the words "Karru Marri Odonna Loma Molonu Karrano" that were written on a scrap of paper that was poked in the dummy's mouth. What they don't know is the words are magical and they just brought Slappy to life!

The only person who can help them is Sonny's older sister, Sarah. On Halloween Night, Slappy uses his magical words to bring to life all the Halloween decorations in town, which includes zombies, jack-o-lanterns, gnomes, witches, and the Headless Horseman. Sarah, Sonny, and Sam must work together (along with a little help from R.L. Stine himself) to find a way to stop Slappy from taking over the entire town.

Ripley Publishing; 40 pages; $16.99; Amazon

Available now from Ripley Publishing are two cute picture books, titled Sharkee and the Teddy Bear & Breamner and the Party which are written by Carrie Bolin and Jessica Firpi and illustrated by John Graziano. The books are based on everyone's favorite Ripley’s Aquarium mascots - Sharkee the sand tiger shark and Bremner the pufferfish.

In Sharkee and the Teddy Bear, a teddy bear falls into the ocean and Sharkee wants it. However, there is one little problem - Sharkee doesn't know where the teddy bear went?

Along with his sidekick fish, Sharkee goes on an mission to retrieve the missing teddy bear!

Ripley Publishing; 40 pages; $16.99; Amazon

In Breamner and the Party, Breamner the pufferfish is excited about an upcoming party, but he is also worried at the same time. He's nervous that he will puff up at the party and all the other fishes will laugh at him!

Breamner gets enough courage to attend the party, but his worst fear comes true, resulting in a hilarious ending!

Jimmy Patterson; 280 pages; $13.99

Published earlier this year by Jimmy Patterson (a division of Little, Brown and Company) was Middle School: From Hero To Zero by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts, which I believe is the 10th entry in the series. I read the book earlier this year, but I never got around to writing the review for it; so I reread the book a few days ago and thought I would feature it as a "Back to School Reads."

The book centers on Rafe Khatchadorian, a not so-popular middle grader who's only real pal is Leo, an imaginary friend who represents Leonardo, his twin died of meningitis when they were toddlers. This time around he's headed to London with his classmates for a school trip. Well, actually it's a contest where schools from around the country will write a "Living-Learning Report." The school with the best report will win the Grand Prize of ten thousand dollars worth of books and supplies. One student on the winning team will win a thousand dollar cash prize.

What should have been a fun experience, quickly turns into a disaster when Rafe learns that his bully Miller (AKA Miller the Killer) is also coming on the trip. To make matters even worse, Rafe has to share a room with Miller, who makes him sleep in the bathroom! Then their teacher assigns Rafe as the main editor of the "Living-Learning Report." Most students would be happy about the opportunity, but Rafe isn't, as he's afraid he will mess everything up. Plus, his fellow classmates don't exactly see him as leader. They see him more as a world-class loser.

Avon Inspire; 288 pages; $12.99; Blog Tour; Buy Link

April 1st will mark my 9th year of blogging. During those 9 years I've been part of many book blogging programs. Sadly both, Blogging For Books and LitFuse Publicity Group announced this month that they will be closing. This does sadden me, as I have reviewed many great books from them.

Anyway, today marks my final book review that I received from Litfuse. It's titled, "His Risk" by Shelley Shepard Gray, which is book four in The Amish Of Hart County series.

If you follow my blog, then you would know that I'm a big of fan of Shelley Shepeard Gray's writings, so, naturally, I signed up to review her newest book from Avon Inspire.

The novel centers around Calvin Fisher, a young man who had left the Amish community when he was a teenager, but now as an adult, he's returns home to Hart County because his brother is ill.  To make a long story short, he befriends an Amish woman named Alice and sparks fly between the two.

Is there a happily ever after ending for the two?

Well, you need to read the novel for yourself to find out, but I will say that Calvin is hiding a little bitty secret. Cough ... he's a DEA agent. And his appearance in Hart County brings some criminal activity to the community that puts Alice in harms way.

I'm not a vegan my any means and I have no plans on to become one. However, I've put myself on a diet, where I'm trying to stay stay away from sugars as much as I can.

The week I've been reading the two Vegan Dessert Recipes eBooks. The cookbooks are titled: Chocolate Vegan Recipes and Ice Cream Vegan Recipes; both written by Sam Kuma. The cookbooks are available to download in a box set (2 Books in 1 with Free Gift; 150+ Recipes Included) on Amazon for $4.99.

Come on! Who doesn't like ice cream? I love it, but I don't like to eat it very often because all the sugar that's in it. I've tried the sugar-free ones, but they always make me sick after eating it. 

There's many different kinds of ice creams, sundae sauces, and slushes in the Ice Cream Vegan Recipes. I only had time to test out one recipe and it's called "Soy Pumpkin Ice Cream." There's a little bit of creamer and brown sugar in it! So there goes my sugar-free diet! But it tastes wonderful. It does contain 2 cups of pumpkin puree! Which I do love!

The Chocolate Vegan Recipes cookbook has about every chocolate dessert recipe imaginable, but with a vegan twist. I have had time to try out several of these, including the rich flavored Chocolate Chia Smoothie Pudding, Chocolate Hazelnuts Spread (no added sugar, besides from maple syrup), and Pumpkin Chocolate Loaf (It has a little bit of coffee in it!). 

Evergreen Farm; 514 pages; Buy Link; Blog Tour

There's a long list of classic novels that I've always wanted to read (I even own a few of these titles.), but for some reason or another, I've never gotten around to actually reading them. One of these titles is Christy by Catherine Marshall. I recall watching a few episodes for the short-lived television series based on the book during the mid-'1990s, and I've always wanted to read the book. I finally got the opportunity to read the novel when I signed up to review the new hardcover edition from Evergreen Farm (an imprint of Gilead Publication).

The novel centers on an nineteen-year-old Christy Huddleston, who leaves her home in Asheville, North Carolina and travels to the Smoky Mountain community of Cutter Gap in the eastern Tennessee to teach children as part of the Appalachian mission program.

Upon arriving, she quickly realizes that the way of life there is completely different than from back home in North Carolina. She befriends a Quaker named Alice Henderson, David Grantland, a minister who's also trying to teach the Cutter Gap children, and a widowed physician Neill MacNeill, who was married to Alice's late daughter.

While working with the children of Cutter Gap, Christy's faith is put the ultimate test!

Bethany House; 336 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Bethany House; 352 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Now available from Bethany House, a division of Baker Publishing Group, is the Amish-fiction drama A Plain Leaving, book one in The Sister's of Lancaster County series, by Leslie Gould.

The novel centers on Jessica Bachmann, an Amish woman who had left her family and Amish community after clashing with her brother, Arden, and the bishop over the future of their family's farm. Three years later, she returns to Lancaster County after learning of her father's death.

They say that you can never go home again, and well, that's exactly what Jessica is thinking, as she returns home. While she grieves her father's passing, she must deal with the past, which includes her brother's decision to allow fracking on the family's land.

With all the emotional trauma, Jessica has to deal with, she must always come face to face with Silas Kemp, a man she once thought she had a future with.

Bethany House; 336 pages; $15.99; Amazon

Now available from Bethany House (a division of Baker Publishing Group) is the Amish fiction drama The Ebb Tide by New York Times bestselling author Beverly Lewis.

The novel enters on a young Amish woman named Sallie Reihl, who plans on joining the church, but before she does that, she wants to accomplish her dream of traveling around the world. When an unexpected opportunity for a summer nanny job in Cape May crosses her path, she takes it. The only problem is that she has to delay her baptism for an entire year.

Sallie does accepts the job and travels to Cape May for the summer. Out of the blue, she meets Kevin, a young Mennonite man who's interested in marine biology, and she quickly begins a friendship with him, which eventually turns to romance.

Revell; 367 pages; $14.99; Amazon

Yeah, my plans of posting all my needs-to-be-reviewed books by November 1st changed, as here I a writing another Review Catch Up Marathon! post on November 8th! Why the delay? Well, all my Halloween-themed posts last month was the main reason why I delayed writing the reviews.

Anyhow, today I'm reviewing Where She Belongs by Johnnie Alexander, and if I recall correctly, the book was released in January 2016. Sadly, this showcases how backed up I am with needs-to-be-reviewed books.

Where She Belongs centers on a widowed mother named Shelby Kincaid, who plans on moving forward with her life (and her daughters' lives) by buying her family's old homestead, which is called Misty Willow. Her plan is to remodel the abandoned house, so she can raise daughters there. However, there's one small problem - a man named AJ Sullivan owns the property.

AJ Sullivan is stuck owning Misty Willow due to the little fact that it was his late grandfather's dying wish for him to live there. Since his grandfather's death, he has let the property fall into ruin. He's more than glad to hand over the reigns to Misty Willow to Shelby, but she sort of hates the Sullivan family. Years ago, the Sullivans stole Misty Willow from the Kincaids, causing problems between the two families.

Of course this is a romance story, so you can imagine that the impossible happens and sparks fly between AJ and Shelby.

Jimmy Patterson; 310 pages; Buy Link: Amazon

Since this is November, I'm 100% positive that all kids are back in school by now. I had originally planned on posting one more Back to School Read several weeks ago, but due to all the Halloween posts/articles that were scheduled, I had to delay my review for Laugh Out Loud until today!

Anyhow,  now available from JIMMY Patterson (an imprint of Little, Brown, and Company) is the "laugh out loud" middle grade book Laugh Out Loud by bestselling author James Patterson and Chris Grabenstein.

Pocket Books; 422 pages; $7.99; Amazon

Now available from Pocket Books is Shattered Memories, the final installment of The Mirror Sisters Series, by V.C. Andrews.

Well, technically, the real author is Andrew Neiderman , aka the ghost writer who started writing under the name V.C. Andrews after the real V.C. Andrews died in 1986. Mr Neiderman finished writing "Garden of Shadows" and "Fallen Hearts." The rest of the V.C. Andrews novels after "Fallen Hearts" were either inspired or attributed to V.C. Andrews.

The Mirror Sisters Series are by-the-book (no pun intended) young adult stories. Book One, The Mirror Sisters, centered on identical twins Haylee and Kaylee Fitzergald, who both struggled to have an actual life due to their control freak mother. The novel ended with Haylee planning on meeting an older man she had chatted with online. After she gets sick, she convinces Kaylee to take her place, which results in Kaylee being kidnapped. Book Two, Broken Glass, picks up the storyline exactly where it left off with a twist towards the ending (Spoiler Alert!) - Haylee set her sister up, so Kaylee would be kidnapped, because she wanted to be an only child!

The third and final entry (well, I think it's the final the book), centers on Kaylee being sent to a private high school after her mother had a nervous breakdown. Where's Haylee? Well, she's locked away, well, sort of, as she does return in the latter half to once again try to ruin her sister's life.

Now available on Amazon, Pronoun, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, iBooks, and Google Play is the young adult supernatural novel Flesh by Laura Bickle.

There's no better way to get yourself in the mood for Halloween than reading a spooky novel; which is exactly what I did early this morning when I read the eBook Flesh.

Since I'm short of time today (and the rest of the week), I'm going to copy & paste the official blurb of the novel instead of writing my own synopsis.

Charlie Sulliven thinks she knows all the secrets of the dead. Raised in a funeral home, she’s the reluctant “Ghoul Girl,” her reputation tied to a disastrous Halloween party. But navigating her life as a high school sophomore is an anxiety-inducing puzzle to her. She haunts the funeral home with her parents, emo older brother, Garth, their pistol-packing Gramma, and the glass-eyeball-devouring dachshund, Lothar.

Chewed human bodies are appearing in her parents’ morgue…and disappearing in the middle of the night. The bodies seem tied to a local legend, Catfish Bob, who has resurfaced in the muddy Milburn river near Charlie’s small town. When one of Charlie’s classmates, Amanda, awakens in the cooler as a flesh-eating ghoul, Charlie must protect her newfound friend and step up to unravel the mystery…and try to avoid becoming lunch meat for the dead.

Pre-Order: Amazon

Being released from Belle Consulting on October 31st (aka Halloween) is the paranormal romance, Witch's Eternal by Bri Clark.

It's been awhile since I've read anything paranormal related, and since Halloween is only a week away, I thought I would read the Witch's Eternal. Originally, I had planned on having this book read and reviewed weeks ahead of schedule, but a few things came up. So I had to read the book early this morning, which explains why my review is being posted late in the day.

Instead of writing up my own version of the book's synopsis, I'm just going to share the official blurb below:

Aisleen is the last of a rare race of witches. Her essence hangs in the balance as the magical and temporal poisoning of the Blue Death ravages her body.

Lucien Lemoine, the feared and revered leader of the eternals, searches for a cure. Something primal and instinctive drives him to save the little witch even when his people’s future hangs is threatened.

But when the Goddess finally breaks her decades long silence Lucien learns Aisleen is more than the one who will fulfill the prophesy of his fate and heal his heart. She can save them all.

But after his tragic betrayal, will she?