Thursday, December 18, 2025

Blurb Blitz - A Murder on Call by Jes Bogg

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Jes Bogg will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



He only wanted to help. Now he's being hunted.

When community carer, Baz Bexon, discovers a murder victim at a new client's home, his life unravels. With unrestricted access to the property, he and his colleagues fall under suspicion.

Determined to clear his name, and wishing to safeguard the disabled occupant he’s employed to assist, Baz turns amateur sleuth on the seedier backstreets of Hull.

But his questioning arouses the interest of a killer. One fixated on revenge…

A Murder On Call is the gripping first novel in the Baz Bexon series. If you enjoy unlikely heroes, break-neck action, and gritty blends of mystery and thriller, dive into Jes Bogg’s debut.


Read an Excerpt

The house remained silent, apart from the background buzz of the central heating.

“I reckon she’s still in bed,” Baz said.

“Yup. Let’s go.” Shell took the lead. When she glanced through the open doorway beside the kitchen, she halted, staring into the darkened room.

“Hey, warn me when you’re gonna do that, would you?” Baz chided, stepping aside so as not to plough into her.

“Oh, crap!” Shell motioned through the door.

Baz followed her gaze. Someone lay on the threshold between the dining room and lounge.

“She’s fallen.” He swallowed.

They hastened to put on their disposable gloves, Shell pausing to turn on the dining room light.

A woman wearing a pink fluffy nightgown and matching slippers was curled on her side, her auburn hair pulled back in a tight bun and a pair of round-lensed spectacles askew on her large, aquiline nose.

Baz crouched beside her and took her hand with care. It chilled his palm.

“Jasmine, can you hear me?” His voice sounded foreign to his ears.

No response.

Pressing his fingertips into the woman’s neck, he felt for a pulse. Nothing.

He held his wrist to her mouth, hoping to feel the faintest tickle of a breath.

Again, nothing.

Pulling aside her robe, he checked for chest movements and froze.

A large kitchen knife protruded from her stomach, sticky blood coating the inside of her gown. He snatched his hand away and leaned back. “She’s dead.”

About the Author:



Jes was born, raised and continues to reside in England’s northern city, Kingston Upon Hull. She lives with her mother, eight-year-old daughter and their Abyssinian cat, Petrie.

Growing up, she was inspired by Point Horror stories, Sweet Valley High and anything by K A Applegate, and as an adult she was gripped by the writers Agatha Christie, Elizabeth Peters, Douglas Preston, Lincoln Child, Lee Child and Scott Mariani.

As an advocate of breastfeeding, Jes volunteers for a local trust, assisting mothers to feed their children, in addition to promoting the benefits of human milk to their relatives. She has also taken on a new role at a nearby gymnastics club, a sport she loves to watch if unable to participate in.

A fair warning—don’t get her talking about ancient Egypt or cats, you’ll never get away.

Throughout her adult life, Jes has always been the one persuaded to produce thank you cards, letters of complaint, résumés, advertisements, and much more for family and friends. The constant excuse being, “You know how to write.”

And so, A Murder on Call was born.

Substack: https://substack.com/@jesbogg
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61559894321509
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/author_jes_bogg/

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Murder-Call-Baz-Bexon-Book-ebook/dp/B0FX5ZV2RT/ref=sr_1_1
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Murder-Call-Baz-Bexon/dp/1919314113/ref=sr_1_2
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/a-murder-on-call
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/a-murder-on-call-jes-bogg/1148566957?ean=9781919314105
Apple Books: https://books.apple.com/us/book/a-murder-on-call/id6754258225

Wednesday, December 17, 2025

Book Blast - Winter's Embrace collection

 

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. A print copy of 'Winter's Embrace,' autographed by author Jennifer Patricia O'Keeffe. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



Embrace the joy of Christmas and some yuletide cheer in this collection of five sweet holiday romances from four of today’s most entertaining authors! Featuring brand new stories from Pamela Ackerson, Jennifer Patricia O’Keeffe, Cindy Lewis Smith, and Jae El Foster, this anthology will help you hold the spirit of Christmas and the magic of true love in your heart the whole year round. Meant to Be by Pamela Ackerson: Single and starting over in tiny Lorman, Mississippi, teacher Faith Anjos dives into home renovations with tools in hand and a boat from her late dad's fishing Sundays. Realtor Gabriel White becomes her unexpected ally, sharing lunches, family barbecues, and stolen kisses under patriotic park lights. But when a sassy ex-roommate stirs trouble and life's curveballs hit hard, Faith learns that true love thrives not just in perfect houses, but in the messy magic of Christmas cheer and forever promises. Window Shopping by Jennifer Patricia O’Keeffe: Single and sentimental, Whitney dives into downtown's dazzling displays—animatronic toys, frosted windows, violin carols—chasing Christmas cheer alone after helping coworker Chad remotely. Fate intervenes with a literal bump into charming Chad, leading to diner laughs, Santa's lap shenanigans, and hand-holding revelations. As they embrace kid-at-heart traditions amid bustling streets and Santa's sly matchmaking, a parade invite blossoms into dinner-and-movie dreams. Proving the season's sparkle uncovers love when least expected. Mr. Hollister’s Christmas by Cindy Lewis Smith: Thirty-three and resigned to spinsterhood in Goldfield, Josie channels her Georgia Christmas memories into a perfect Eve nuptial for Rose and Hank, footed by taciturn rancher Clint Hollister. Their prickly partnership blooms amid pine boughs, fiddle waltzes, and whispered regrets from a saloon-fueled mail-order mishap. When a wheel-wrecked ride home unveils Clint's hidden role in her arrival—and his lingering loneliness—snowy revelations ignite a romance as timeless as the stars above the Llano River. What the Snow Blew In by Jae El Foster: Snowbound in Deerborne, Connecticut, during a record-breaking blizzard, editor Carina Whitaker hunkers down with wine, her cat Tom Boy, and cherished Christmas ornaments—until a shivering mailman named Jerry delivers a package and seeks refuge from the storm. As power flickers out and drifts bury her home, candlelit evenings spark unlikely conversations, shared meals, and cozy traditions that warm more than the gas fireplace. Amid reading aloud by firelight and piano carols, holiday magic proves that what the snow blows in might just be the love she's been waiting for. The Magic of Mistletoe by Jennifer Patricia O’Keeffe: Sarah's winter break turns into survival mode: dodging doll-throwing dollops, sweeping glass shards, and sacrificing her office sanctuary for peace between battling children. Amid cold coffee confessions and contract close-calls with hubby Thomas, festive fumbles—from runaway pillows to reluctant photos—test their bond. Yet as grilled cheeses soothe tears and starry-eyed surprises arrive post-midnight, mistletoe weaves its spell, transforming holiday havoc into heartfelt harmony and impossible dreams come true.


Read an Excerpt from Meant to Be by Pamela Ackerson

Faith Anjos pulled into the driveway of the house she recently purchased. She groaned when the tires hit a deep hole. Her truck responded in kind, letting her know it objected to the rut she’d drove it through. The boat she was pulling didn’t exactly like the driveway either. She white knuckled the steering wheel as the hole rocked both vehicles.

Faith gritted her teeth. Just what she needed. Give the new neighbors a show of incompetence as her boat tipped over.

Bloop. Bye, bye boat.

Nope, not going to happen today.

Pulling back out, she turned the vehicle around and backed the boat onto the grass on the side of the house.

She stood on the walkway, leading to the front door staring at the wood-framed structure. Her dark hair pulled in a ponytail, swayed in the welcoming wind.

This was hers.

Website: http://www.thedarkcastlelords.net
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/DarkCastleLords
Instagram: http://www.instagram.com/dclpublications
Twitter: http://www.x.com/DCLPublications

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0G5LVHXK2
Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1919104
Barnes and Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/winters-embrace-pamela-ackerson/1148900744
Apple: http://www.books.apple.com/us/book/winters-embrace/id6756240259

Tuesday, December 16, 2025

Blurb Blitz - Resort, Two Murder by Joanna Campbell Slan

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Joanna Campbell Slan will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.


Kiki Lowenstein heads to Florida for sand, sunshine, and family time—until a shocking death pulls her into a mystery simmering beneath the resort’s perfect surface. With craftiness and heart, she dives into a dangerous tangle of lies that only she can unravel.


Read an Excerpt

The scream ripped through the dawn and straight into my spine. I didn’t breathe until I reached the balcony.

Seven floors below, a housekeeper stood frozen at the pool’s edge, hands over her mouth. The turquoise water rippled around hair the color of fire.

Copper hair.

Floating.

Still.

My blood turned to ice.

“Mom?” Sixteen-year-old Anya whispered behind me. Pale. Too pale. “What happened?”

“I don’t know yet. Stay back. Keep your brothers inside.” My voice didn’t tremble, but everything inside me did.

I yanked the curtains closed, but not before my mind captured every detail: the purple satin gown billowing under the water, the bare feet, the drifting red hair like a drowning sunrise.

Then Brawny — my fierce, loyal Scot nanny — sprinted into the courtyard and dove in, shoes and all. She flipped the girl over, started mouth-to-mouth, refusing to accept what the water already knew.

Could this be real?

Sirens wailed in the distance. And I stood frozen on the balcony, one hand pressed to my heart, silently begging for a miracle.

It didn’t come.

The red-haired model from last night’s fashion show was gone.

About the Author:

Joanna Campbell Slan is a New York Times, USA Today, and Amazon bestselling author known for her engaging women's fiction and mystery novels. With nearly 80 books to her credit, including contributions to the original Chicken Soup for the Soul series, Joanna specializes in stories featuring strong female protagonists and the power of women's friendships. Her tagline, "Creating a better world one story at a time” perfectly captures the spirit of her work, as she has a keen interest in presenting all sides of social issues. Joanna is best known for her Kiki Lowenstein Mystery Series, which spans 19 books and 42 short works, chronicling the growth of a widowed mother who finds new purpose through crafting and sleuthing.

Living on a nearly deserted island off the coast of Florida, Joanna draws inspiration from her surroundings and her love for various crafts, including Zentangle®, crochet, and upcycling. Her accomplishments include winning the Daphne du Maurier Award for Literary Excellence for her continuation of Charlotte Brontë's Jane Eyre. Contact her at JCSlan@JoannaSlan.com

Newsletter sign up: https://joannacampbellslan.substack.com/publish/home
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Amazon Author Page: "https://www.amazon.com/Joanna-Campbell-Slan/e/B001IR3DK8
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/JCSlan/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/joannacampbellslan
Bookbub: https://www.bookbub.com/profile/joanna-campbell-slan
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/JoannaSlan
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/joannaslan/

Tuesday, November 18, 2025

Book Blast - Seal Watch by Petie McCarty

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Petie McCarty will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



Someone is watching Cory.
She can feel it in her bones . . . but why?

Navy SEAL Sean MacKay's teammate is murdered after stealing a deadly nerve gas formula from Syrian terrorists. Naval Intelligence believes MacKay's teammate was a traitor and shipped the stolen formula to his sister in the States for safekeeping. MacKay is ordered to find the sister before the terrorists do and to recover the stolen formula at all costs.

Foreclosure looms for Cory Rigatero as she struggles to keep her rustic resort near Mt. St. Helens afloat after her brother abandoned her to join the SEAL Teams. Cory's whole world plummets into a tailspin when Sean MacKay shows up at her resort with news of her brother's death and the shocking suspicion that her brother sent her traitorous classified documents.
r> No way will Cory ever trust MacKay—the man who once seduced her and then vanished into the night without a trace.


Read an Excerpt

Cory stopped in the kitchen on her way outside. “I thought I’d go out front and see if Vern needed any help.”

“He’s all done,” Cookie told her and handed Garth a dog biscuit from the jar on the counter. “He had a boy out front helping him when I peeked out the window a bit ago.”

“A boy? You mean Jasper?”

“No, I’ve never seen this one around here before.” Cookie went back to stirring her pot. “Handsome, though,” she added. “They headed for the barn.”

“I'd better go see who it is,” Cory said, already striding for the back door.

She called out as soon as she reached the open barn doors, and Vern hollered from the small office that doubled as his shop. Cory threaded her way through all the equipment in the back half of the barn. Cookie’s stranger stood up when she appeared in the doorway, and Cory froze.

This was no boy. This was a man. All man. And he literally stole Cory’s breath away. She had read that in novels before. Never believed it to be possible.

Until now.

Shaggy hair and dark brown curls, perfectly teamed with a matching beard, were her first thought. Her second thought was broad—really broad—shoulders beneath his black flannel shirt, and hips so narrow that his black jeans sagged a smidge on his tall, muscular frame. His sleeves were rolled up, and those forearms and biceps belonged to a working man.

Good grief! Stop staring, Cory!

She caught herself before she licked her lips and jerked her gaze back to his face. Blue eyes that snared her gaze like a predator traps unsuspecting prey. Those blue eyes sparkled with just enough mischief to send a wicked flutter through her belly. Blue eyes that looked startlingly familiar.

. Maybe she just wanted them to look familiar, so she could already know this handsome man.

“Mac here is our new help.”

About the Author



Petie spent a majority of her career at Walt Disney World—"The Most Magical Place on Earth"—where she loved working in the land of fairy tales by day and crafting her own romantic fairy tales by night, including her series, The Cinderella Romances. She eventually said goodbye to her "day" job to focus on her stories full-time.

These days, Petie spends her time writing new tales for her Cinderella series, her new paranormal-romantic-suspense series, The Watchers, sequels to her Regency time-travel series, Lords in Time, and more standalones like Any Fin For Love and Ambush in the Everglades.

Petie shares her home on the Cumberland Plateau in Tennessee with her horticulturist husband and an opinionated Nanday conure named Sassy, who makes a cameo appearance in Christmas Watch, Book 2 of The Watchers series.

Visit Petie at her website, http://www.petiemccarty.com, or her Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/petie.mccarty, to get to know her, learn about her current projects, and discover her other published works.

http://www.petiemccarty.com
https://www.facebook.com/petie.mccarty
https://x.com/authorpetie
https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6094579.Petie_McCarty
https://www.bookbub.com/authors/petie-mccarty
http://www.amazon.com/author/petiemccarty

https://www.amazon.com/SEAL-Watch-Watchers-Book-3-ebook/dp/B0FW5QPSB5/ref=sr_1_1

Tuesday, November 11, 2025

Book Blast - Hippie Mermaid by Joanne Guidoccio

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Joanne Guidoccio will be awarding a $10 Amazon gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



From sea to shore, betrayal follows her wherever she goes.

On Christmas Eve, psychic Kendra Adams reveals the secret she’s hidden for decades—she was once Rosina, a mermaid torn between sea and shore. Betrayed in her ocean kingdom and desperate to escape banishment, she persuades a politician to smuggle her into the human world. But freedom on land comes at a cost, as she soon finds herself ensnared in another web, this one spun by the politician’s power-hungry sister.


Read an Excerpt

The human laughter startled me. It sounded so foreign, unlike anything I had ever heard before. I followed the sounds and turned my gaze toward four large humans approaching us. Up close, they were frightening, almost menacing, in their dark garments. I took note of their varying appearances. Two had light brown hair and blue eyes, while the other pair sported dark hair and dark eyes. Intent on observing the darker pair, I didn’t notice the other two men eyeing me.

“Hippie mermaid!” yelled one of the men with light-colored features.

All the men glanced in my direction. I felt myself reddening as I met their liquid eyes and wide smiles. There was interest there, and some other emotion or feeling I had never seen before. For a split second, I was flattered by their attention. And then I recalled what Mama had said. I must let Annabella choose first.

Annabella did not give me a chance to react. She beckoned to the man who had spoken, and he reluctantly turned away from me. Rosetta claimed the other light-haired man, and Lisetta chose one of the dark-haired men. I watched as they moved to separate rocks along the shore.

The remaining man approached. As his features came into closer focus, I realized he was older than the others. Not by much, but there were white hairs sprinkled in the darkness, and his face crinkled as he smiled. “I guess I won this mermaid lottery.”

My eyes widened in surprise.

He laughed and shook his head. “You could have had any of us. You didn’t have to end up with me.”

“But I’m not a Bella or an Etta. I’m an Ina.” There was no point in hiding my rank. I had never been embarrassed by it, and after hearing about Aunt Lina’s punishment, I knew my place.

“Honey, I don’t know what you’re talking about. You’re the prettiest of the group. You just don’t know it yet.”

About the Author:



Joanne Guidoccio enjoyed a rewarding career teaching mathematics, business, and co-operative education courses before retiring to pursue writing. A member of Crime Writers of Canada, Sisters in Crime, and the Women’s Fiction Writers Association, she writes paranormal romances, cozy mysteries, and inspirational stories from her home base of Guelph, Ontario.

Website: https://joanneguidoccio.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/joanneguidoccio
Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/joanneguidoccio.bsky.social
Pinterest: https://www.pinterest. jca/guidoccio
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/authorjoanneguidoccio
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7277706.Joanne_Guidoccio
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joanneguidoccio
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Joanne-Guidoccio/e/B00FAWJGCG

Amazon US: https://www.amazon.com/Hippie-Mermaid-Joanne-Guidoccio-ebook/dp/B0FVHQ2T3N
Amazon CA: https://www.amazon.ca/Hippie-Mermaid-Joanne-Guidoccio-ebook/dp/B0FVHQ2T3N
Amazon UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0FVHQ2T3N
Amazon AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0FVHQ2T3N

Friday, November 7, 2025

VBT - EXTRATERRESTRIAL NOIR by Rich Leder


It's time for a virtual tour and this week it's Extra Terrestrial Noir. Come check it out. You'll want to keep reading. Why? This book looks interesting and there are prizes to be won. Such as? One randomly chosen winner via rafflecopter will win a $25 Amazon/BN.com gift card. How cool is that? Want more chances to win? Then follow the tour. You can do that here: https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2025/10/fs-vbt-extraterrestrial-noir-by-rich.html


EXTRATERRESTRIAL NOIR by Rich Leder



A PSYCHO-CRIMINAL EXTRATERRESTRIAL ON A SUBURBAN CUL-DE-SAC

A FAMILY ON THE BRINK OF ALL-ENCOMPASSING INSOLVENCY

A TWELVE-YEAR-OLD UBER-GENIUS DAUGHTER IN THE LINE OF FIRE

CAN SHE SAVE THE FAMILY, NOT TO MENTION THE PLANET?

An extraterrestrial crashes into a suburban cul-de-sac Colonial, absorbs every binary bit of information ever chronicled in all of human history, rearranges its molecules and presents itself as a couple of late and legendary film noir superstars, then immediately displays an appetite for debauchery, depravity, decadence, and destruction, seducing the family into its psychopathic criminal orbit with irresistible Hollywood panache, alluring sexual charisma, and inconceivable intergalactic powers.…all in the name of saving the family from their emotional, marital, and financial ruin.

But uber-genius-daughter Mike Devine figures out fast that the extraterrestrial’s principal plan is to employ its unfathomable interplanetary muscle and implode the planet. Which leaves the fate of her family, not to mention the world, in her twelve-year-old hands.

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


Now for An Excerpt:

“That’s almost six trillion miles per year—a single light-year,” Mike said.

“So, if they travel at light speed, they should be here pretty soon,” Maggie said.

“Better make extra pancakes,” Connie said.

“That’s lame, Dad,” Danny said.

“It’s witty, son,” Connie said. “You’ll understand when you get older.”

“I hope not,” Danny said.

“Not too soon,” Mike said. “The distance from Earth to the edge of the universe in any direction takes forty-six point five gigalight-years.”

“How many light years in a gigalight-year?” Connie said.

“A billion,” Mike said.

“What does that mean in Earth years?” Maggie said.

“Voyager 1, our most distant space probe, traveled fourteen light-hours, not even one light-day, and that took thirty Earth years. So, it would take about twenty-two thousand Earth years to travel the same distance light travels in one light-year. About one quadrillion and one hundred two trillion Earth years to reach the edge of the universe.”

If that’s a question on the genius test, I wonder which part of the light-speed equation Mike will only get ninety-two percent right, Maggie thought.

“What if they were coming from the closest galaxy?” Maggie said.

“Andromeda,” Mike said. “Twenty-five hundred Earth years.”

“Long time,” Maggie said, and she turned off her flashlight.

“The meteors should have been here by now,” Connie said.

“I saw something up there,” Maggie said.

But something up there had seen her and made a sharp turn toward Earth.

* * * * * * *


About the Author:



Rich Leder has been a working writer for more than three decades. His credits include eight novels for Laugh Riot Press and 19 produced movies—television films for CBS, Lifetime, and Hallmark and feature films for Lionsgate, Paramount Pictures, Tri-Star Pictures, Longridge Productions, and Left Bank Films.

He’s been the lead singer in a Detroit rock band, a restaurateur, a Little League coach, an indie film director, a literacy tutor, a magazine editor, a screenwriting coach, a wedding consultant (it’s true), a PTA board member, a HOA president, a commercial real estate agent, and a visiting artist for the UNCW Film Studies Department, all of which, it turns out, was grist for the mill.


WEBSITE: https://www.richleder.com

BUY LINKS

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FBLKSK2W

https://bookshop.org/p/books/extraterrestrial-noir-rich-leder/22774708


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


Enter to win a $25 Amazon/BN gift card.

Wednesday, November 5, 2025

Blurb Blitz - Look Over Your Shoulder by Sharon Overend

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Sharon Overend will be awarding a $20 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



A haunting, lyrical exploration of family, silence and the secrets we inherit.

Years of avoidance and blame have left the McLaughlin clan fractured and ill-equipped to face the critical illness of one of their own. When long buried memories of a neighborhood child’s death while in their care resurface the family truly begin to unravel.

Told in alternating voices, Look Over Your Shoulder, reveals how secrets ripple through generations, and how healing begins when someone finally dares to speak the truth.

Read an Excerpt

ANNE

I slipped away. In slow motion, I raised one foot after the other, one step at a time, upstairs. My limbs now disconnected from my body, my head bobbing in a black fog, I drifted across the hall and toward my bedroom. I lay on top of the covers but dragged a throw over my hip.

The buzz of distant conversations crawled into the room, and my window shook each time the front door opened or closed. Knuckles rapped, an empty hanger slapped against the door panel, the buzz amplified, feet shuffled forward, a presence lingered, a hand touched my arm, a voice whispered.

“Mom.”

I said nothing until her feet shuffled back toward the door.

“I’m sorry,” I sighed into the pillow seconds before the hanger again rattled, and the hum of voices roared back into the room. I wasn’t sure whether I’d wanted her to hear me or not.

“For what?” She had heard.

“For resenting you.”

The weighty creak of floorboards, a car engine idling, a woman’s laughter, a child’s shriek, a toilet flush.

“You’re tired,” Marilyn said, now close enough to touch me. “Sleep.”

“You scare me,” I said, still telling the pillow, not her. “Your strength and your capacity for forgiveness are things I’ve never experienced before. But I have to know. Have you ever forgotten?” Shame had stalked me my whole life, a shadow dancing across my peripheral vision, now fully in view.

“We’ll talk in the morning.” She lifted the fringed edge of the blanket, pulled it over my shoulder, and tucked it beneath my chin. A blue spark of static electricity sprang between her fingers and my face.

About the Author:


SHARON OVEREND, is an award-winning author whose fiction, creative non-fiction and poetry has appeared in the Canadian, American and British literary journals and anthologies including Antigonish Review, Avalon, Descant, Grain, Matter of Time, Spirit of the Hills, Surfacing, Wild Words, Word Weaver, UK’s Dream Catcher, CafeLit, The Best of CafeLit and A Coup of Owls.

Sharon and her husband live on a 156- rural acre property in Ontario, Canada where she has found inspiration for many of her projects.

Website: http://www.sharonoverend.blog
Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/sharonoverend
Instagram: http://www.Instagram.com/sharonoverend3971
Bluesky: http://www.Sharonoverend77.bsky.social

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/LOOK-OVER-SHOULDER-Sharon-Overend-ebook/dp/B0FR2P6SWY/ref=sr_1_1

Sunday, November 2, 2025

Book Blast - The Tomato Jam Murder by Meg Benjamin

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Meg Benjamin will be awarding a $15 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



Roxy’s spending her summer with burros and jam, but there’s a murderer in the mountains.

It’s burro racing season in the Rockies, and Roxy Constantine is all for it. Now if she can come up with a good recipe for tomato jam, her summer will be complete. But when Roxy finds a body on the burro race course, she’s suddenly plunged into a murder investigation. And when her innocent friend is accused of killing her ex, Roxy must challenge a corrupt police chief who wants to shut her up. Now she needs to find the real killer and save a neighboring town from a plot to ruin its mountain magic.


Read an Excerpt

Kennedy leaned close, eyes bright with malice. It’s hard to loom over someone as tall as me, but he was giving it his best shot. “You don’t get it, do you? This is none of your business. You don’t even live here. And you sure as hell don’t have any right to be sticking your nose into a police investigation. If I find out you’re stirring things up around here, I’ll throw you in a cell so fast your head will be spinning when you hit the floor.”

I was pretty sure he couldn’t do that legally. On the other hand, if he threw me into one of his cells, it might take me quite a while to get out of it. Logic argued for caution. Still, I hate being pushed around by guys who don’t have any right to push me around.

“All I’ve done is pass along information I’ve heard to people who might be interested. So far as I know, that doesn’t break any laws.”

“You. Don’t. Live. Here.” Kennedy snarled. “Like I said, this is none of your business. Keep out of it and keep your mouth shut.”

I gritted my teeth as I stared at him, trying to think of something to say that wouldn’t get me into deeper trouble.

Kennedy straightened, his gaze still burning, then swept one arm across the surface of the counter, sending jars of jam flying in all directions. I glared at him, furious and horrified.

The corners of his mouth edged up ever so slightly. “Oops.”

About the Author



Meg Benjamin is an award-winning author of romance and cozy mysteries. Meg’s cozy mystery series, Luscious Delights from Wild Rose Press, concerns a jam-making sleuth based in the mythical small town of Shavano, Colorado. Her Konigsburg series is set in the Texas Hill Country and her Salt Box and Brewing Love trilogies are set in the Colorado Rockies (all are available from Entangled Publishing and from Meg’s indie line). Along with romance and cozies, Meg is also the author of the paranormal Ramos Family trilogy from Berkley InterMix and the Folk trilogy from Meg’s indie line. Meg’s books have won numerous awards, including an EPIC Award, a Romantic Times Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion from Virginia Romance Writers, the Beanpot Award from the New England Romance Writers, the Carly Crown Jewel of Books from the Mid-America Romance Authors, and the Award of Excellence from Colorado Romance Writers.

Personal Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meg.benjamin1
Author Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063609878239
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Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Meg-Benjamin/author/B0030F12FY
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@megbenjamin1396
Website: http://www.MegBenjamin.com/

Amazon buy link: https://amzn.to/4oj93e5

Enter to win a $15 Amazon/BN gift card

Monday, October 27, 2025

Book Blast - Toil and Trouble!

 



This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. The authors will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.



The brew is hot and bubbling over with romance and terror in this twistedly beautiful anthology that welcomes the darkness of horror and the temptation of love's veiled promises. Six remarkable tales from six incredible authors fill this book of dark shadows and ancient whispers.

Fire Burn and Cauldron Bubble - by Jennifer Patricia O'Keeffe: Enchanted pastries and spell-brewed coffee make Esmerelda's sugar-dusted counter the city's most coveted haunt—until a dangerously charming newcomer slips into her shop, immune to her magic and unraveling her carefully guarded world. As his witch-hunter heritage threatens to burn her legacy to ash, Esmerelda finds herself torn between the threat of revenge from the witch hunter's ancestors and the intoxicating truth of the connection that they share.

Silverwood - by Lynn Hubbard: A lonely rancher's daughter finds her isolated Wyoming homestead upended when an amber-eyed stranger ignites a mud-splattered passion that defies reason—until his supernatural secret and the vengeful ranch hands hunting her force her to choose between the man who saves her and the monster who might destroy her. Torn between fierce protectors and forbidden desire, she must trust the very darkness that could shatter her world to survive the wild frontier's deadliest threats.

Ivy, Lichens and Wallflowers - by James Ryan: Marketing executive Hilda finds solace from her stifling corporate life and overbearing past in the quiet companionship of Miriam, a mysterious 19th-century marble statue in a city micro-park, only to discover their connection transcends stone when Miriam begins answering her handwritten notes through cryptic poetry left in return. As their forbidden connection deepens into an intoxicating dream-bound romance, Hilda uncovers Miriam's supernatural secret: she's a cursed thaumaturge sustained by stolen life force, forcing Hilda to confront whether love can survive the devastating cost of keeping her alive.

A Mirror to Die For - by Cindy Lewis Smith: A desperate woman finds solace in an antique mirror that whisks her nightly to 1880s Arizona, where a charming outlaw named Johnny Ringo fulfills every fantasy—until her jealous fiancé shatters the glass and vanishes, leaving her trapped in an asylum screaming that he is the real monster, a man who shouldn't exist: Dr. John Henry Holliday, the gambler who killed Ringo a century ago. Now, with "MPR" carved into her cell walls and time itself unraveling, she'll stop at nothing to prove her sanity by proving time travel is real—even if it means unleashing the very darkness that destroyed her.

Flight 1031: Cosmic Turbulence - by Julian Christian: Diplomatic courier Sarah Martinez boards Flight 1031 expecting routine turbulence, not a Halloween dimensional rift that strands her at Germania International Airport—where the Greater German Reich has ruled since 1943 and perfected technology to harvest souls from parallel realities through consciousness-scanning machinery that pulses with seventeen-beat rhythms. Now trapped in a terminal that breathes like a living organism, Sarah must navigate a world where every passenger hides a secret and her resistance could either save her timeline or doom infinite versions of humanity to eternal enslavement in a Reich that spans all dimensions.

Dream a Little Dream - by Jae El Foster: After a near-death car crash rewires her brain, Sarah's nightmares bleed into reality: sugar on the counter forms glyphs, bats appear out of nowhere in broad daylight, and her own hands betray her—while the velvet-eyed stranger from her dreams appears in her waking hours, his urgency growing as Halloween's veil thins. Now, with her reality twisting into something surreal and an ancient language hijacking her voice, she must confront a dark truth: her soul isn't hers to keep, and the man who saved her in death is the very entity hunting her in life.


Read an Excerpt From ‘Flight 1031: Cosmic Turbulence’ by Julian Christian

“Mommy, I can hear them singing,” he whispers, and his voice carries an accent that sounds distinctly Germanic. “They’re singing in the clouds.”

Sarah presses her face to the window and feels her diplomatic clearance for Project Looking Glass become a curse. The clouds outside aren’t moving with the wind—they’re arranging themselves into patterns that she recognizes from the most classified files in her briefcase. Thule Society symbols. Vril energy matrices. Geometric formations that the SS spent millions researching during the war, convinced they could reshape reality itself.

The turbulence hits at 11:47 PM like the fist of something vast and patient and hungry.

But this isn’t turbulence—this is reality hiccupping.

The Boeing 777 doesn’t drop; it phases, existing in multiple positions simultaneously before snapping back into a single dimensional coordinate with a sound like reality tearing. Sarah’s coffee doesn’t spill—it levitates in perfect amber spheres that hang in the air for seventeen seconds (she counts), forming runic patterns that burn afterimages into her retinas before gravity remembers its job and sends them crashing in spirals that spell out words in languages that predate Christianity.

Her phone’s digital clock pulses 11:47 PM, but the numbers flicker between scripts—English, German, something that might be ancient Norse written in characters that hurt to look at directly. The time begins counting backward, then forward again, then sideways in dimensions that shouldn’t exist.

The cabin lights don’t just dim—they begin pulsing in perfect synchronization with something outside, something that breathes in frequencies just below human hearing. Emergency lighting casts everything in blood-red shadows that writhe independently of their sources, reaching toward the windows like fingers testing the strength of glass that separates this reality from whatever lies beyond.

Outside, lightning doesn’t flash—it breeds.

Tendrils of electric purple and bile-green twist through clouds that contract and expand like living tissue, like something’s breathing apparatus spread across miles of sky. The storm didn’t develop—it materialized, swallowing their aircraft in a wall of impossibility that presses against the fuselage with curious intelligence.

Sarah watches the lightning form perfect zigzags that burn for exactly thirteen seconds before transforming into other symbols—Vril runes, Thule sigils, mathematical equations for reshaping the fundamental constants of physics. Each formation pulses with light that doesn’t just illuminate the clouds but seems to rewrite them, transforming water vapor into something that follows different laws.

“Ladies and gentlemen,” Captain Morrison’s voice cracks through the intercom, and Sarah can hear him weeping between words, can hear something else in the background—his instruments singing in harmonies that shouldn’t be possible from electronic equipment. “We’re experiencing unprecedented atmospheric phenomena. Our navigation systems are showing locations that don’t appear on any charts. Please remain seated with your seatbelts secured.”

The captain doesn’t mention that their GPS is showing coordinates for a city called “New Germania” or that their radio is picking up transmissions in languages that died out in 1945—except they’re being broadcast with technology that won’t exist for another fifty years.

Buy the Book

Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FS7DXSXX
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/1849875
Barnes and Noble: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/toil-and-trouble-jae-el-foster/1148244179
Apple:https://books.apple.com/us/book/x/id6752260026
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/toil-and-trouble-17

Sunday, October 12, 2025

Book Blast - Playing Rough by Beth Pellino-Dudzic

It's a book Blast and this book looks interesting! You should check out the series, especially Playing Rough. There are also prizes to be won. Like? Beth Pellino-Dudzic will be awarding one set of the three books in the series - Playing Hard, Playing High and Playing Rough (international giveaway). How cool is that? Want more chances to win? Then follow the tour. You can do that here: https://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2025/09/book-blast-playing-rough-by-beth.html


PLAYING ROUGH

by Beth Pellino-Dudzic



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


Love. Lies. And the Road to Redemption.


After five months in rehab, Trevor McNaughton is finally sober—and ready to rebuild his life with Gina, the woman who never stopped believing in him. A road trip is meant to be their fresh start, but their plans are quickly derailed when their former publicist, Paul Ryan, emerges with explosive claims: an affair with Gina, dark secrets about their band Perfection, and vicious speculation about their marriage.


As the couple races to contain the fallout, the pressure mounts. Trevor must protect his fragile sobriety while defending the truth. Gina, fierce and unshakable, refuses to let their love be hijacked by lies. All the while, Gina’s cousin and bandmate Rio begs them to return home and help shape the next album—while wannabe rock star Brian Mayfield looms as another potential threat to the narrow threshold they already straddle.


With careers and reputations on the line, Trevor and Gina must confront the ghosts of their past and the chaos of their present. Can love outlast betrayal, and can anything silence a man set on destruction?


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



Now for an Excerpt: 


They pulled away from their Montecito home when Gina had a realization. “Trev, we know nothing about camping. The closest I can relate is the time my family had to stay at the Hyatt because the Ritz was full. We should stop at one of those huge camping and hunting stores and buy whatever we need.” Trevor agreed. They did some research and then drove to the nearest outdoor supply store.

A salesperson named Jonas recognized them. “What can I assist you with, McNaughtons?”

Gina stared at Jonas, then threw her hands up. “Everything ... We have no idea what is needed for an RV trip.” The knowledgeable employee gave them a checklist of necessities and camping equipment. Trevor and Gina trusted him to compile what was needed.

Jonas asked, “How long of a trip are you planning on taking?”

Trevor simply said, “Probably a month, maybe longer.” Jonas also asked if they had an itinerary and RV locations picked out and reserved. The two rockers looked at each other— who knew they  needed to reserve a spot? He told them there was a book on RV parks  that should help design their plan.

Trevor didn’t vocalize what the exact plan was.

So, Gina suggested hers. “Trevor, I would enjoy driving up the coast California, Oregon, Washington. We can take in beautiful sights on the way and continue to Vancouver. We can explore a bit of British
Columbia and visit your father … and I would like to drive to Boise.”


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


About the Author:

Beth Pellino-Dudzic was born in the Bronx and grew up in Westchester County, New York.
She earned a BA in Business Administration and worked at IBM. She has three adult daughters
and a new Granddaughter. She currently lives in Alabama with her husband and their miniature
dachshund, Truffle. Although The Perfection Saga is fictional, many of the stories hark back to
Beth’s time in the Rock ‘n’ Roll world. Beth’s favorite pastime is football, everything football.
She also is an excellent cook and baker.

Links:

Website: https://perfectionsaga.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61558439816678

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bpellinodudzic/

TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@bethandperfection1




Buy Link:



Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0FP9H6LQQ