Look What the Publisher Sent Me!!!!! Not Quite the Classics by Colin Mochrie

I am so excited to read Not Quite the Classics!!!  It made my day when this book showed up in my mailbox.  Did I win a contest on Facebook?  I think so, I don't know for sure, but I am thrilled none the less!!  Thank you Penguin Canada Publishers!!!

In case you don't know who Colin Mochrie is, I've included a brief video.  He's such a hoot!!!!

Pocket Full of Posies by Julie Coulter Bellon

Pocket Full of Posies

Author:  Julie Coulter Bellon

Published: October 2013

Publisher:  Independant

Pages:  210

Genre:  Romantic suspense

ISBN 9781492990918

Source:  a copy was sent to me by the author in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

http://www.juliecoulterbellon.com

*all photos, book summary and author bio are courtesy of Julie Coulter Bellon's blog and/or author website, used with permission.

They say to keep your friends close and your enemies closer . . . 

Hostage Negotiation Team member Bart Gutierrez is shocked to find Lucy Aguayo, a girl he knew as a teenager, working for the deadly Castillo drug cartel. This revelation uncovers a secret in Bart's family so big it forces him to accept a dangerous offer: infiltrate the cartel to keep his family safe. Once inside the cartel’s headquarters he discovers that a large-scale attack on America is imminent and the only way to prevent it is to bring Lucy in on his plans---and hope she doesn’t betray him. 

Lucy Aguayo has become a key player in the Castillo cartel, but not for money or power---she's on a mission of vengeance for her father's murder. Just when she gets a chance to bring down the cartel leader responsible, Bart Gutierrez appears, stirring up buried feelings and disrupting all her plans. But as the enemy closes in from all sides, Lucy must choose between being free from her past or finding justice for it. Can she give up everything she’s ever worked for and reach for something more? 

My thoughts:

If you're looking for a novel that is quick to read by virtue of its compelling plot and writing, then you should check out author Julie Coulter Bellon's newest novel in her Hostage Negotiation Series, Pocket Full of Posies.

Oddly, I don't recall reading how this novel got its title.  I thought I'd find something along the lines of the children's verse:  "Ring around the rosie, pocket full of posies, hush a, hush a we all fall down."  My imagination took me on a different kind of adventure but I readily admit I like where Bellon took this plot with a drug cartel, a reunion of old friends who find they're in love, and some very dangerous secondary characters like a hezbollah leader and terrorists.  There are some tense moments when lives are in danger and you just can't put the book down, not for a minute.  This is one of those read as you stir, while you eat, in the tub kind of books that we all love!

I noticed a few editing oversights but they do not distract from the experience of reading this novel.

Available on Amazon.com

Meet the author:

Julie is married with eight children and ten published books. She loves to travel and her favorite cities are probably Athens, Paris, Ottawa, and London. She would love to visit Hawaii, Australia, Ireland, and Scotland someday. She loves to read, write, teach, watch Castle, The Blacklist, and Hawaii Five-O, and eat Canadian chocolate. Not necessarily in that order.

Honestly, when does she find the time?

First Book of the Year!! Happy New Year Everyone!

Another year has begun today and I was able to sleep in!  What a delight after a month of being up at 3:15 am to work at the hour of ridiculous (5:30 am).  You see, I work in a bookstore and supervise the team in charge of putting out product, signage for promotions, changeovers and such.  It's early but you get used to it and for a month, it's not too bad.

Raclette (courtesy of Amazon)

How was your New Year's Eve?  We spent it together, most of us, enjoying Raclette, eating chocolate and munchies and playing cards.  I, however, being a tired woos, was falling asleep playing cards so I gave up and went to bed at 10:30 and was woken just in time to bring in the new year with family.  It was a delightful evening and a few friends stopped in briefly to wish their new year greetings.  We did the countdown with a local tv station, cheered, hugged and kissed and the merriment ensued without me as I retired to bed.

Today it is cloudy, threatening more snow and the roads are slick (at least they were last evening, so I don't expect they've miraculously changed for the better.).  We have a lot of snow but it is warming at week's end to highs of -1 and -7 Celsius, Thursday and Friday respectively, with a risk of freezing rain Thursday.  We've had more freezing rain this winter than I've ever seen in the last 13 years we've resided here in the Edmonton area.  Rather treacherous for walking and driving. (I got the cleats for my boots, it's that bad!)

When Sheila at Book Journey posted a 1st Book of the Year join in, I decided now would be a perfect time to read a book I've wanted to read for two years.  It's Markus Zusak's The Book Thief.   It's the story of a young orphan, Liesel, and her love for books, a love that begins with acquiring a book left behind at her brother's graveside.  In her foster parents' home, a young Jewish man stays hidden from the Nazis during the beginning of World War II.  Oh, the possible ramifications if he were found. It is also about a love of books and words during a terribly tumultuous time in history. I invite you to watch the extended trailer below with an introduction by the actress who plays Liesel.

It is 1939.  

Nazi Germany. 

The country is holding its breath.  

Death has never been busier, 

and will become busier still.

By her brother's graveside, Liesel Meminger finds her life changed when she picks up a single object, partially hidden int he snow.  It is The Grave Digger's Handbook, left there by accident, and it is her first act of book thievery.  So begins a love affair with books and words, as Liesel, with the help of her accordion-playing foster father, learns to read.  Soon she is stealing books from Nazi book-burnings, the mayor's wife's library, wherever there are books to be found.

But these are dangerous times.  When Liesel's foster family hides a Jewish man in their basement, Liesel's world is both opened up and closed down.

In superbly crafted writing that burns with intensity, award-winning author Markus Zusak has given us one of the most enduring stories of our time.

(from the book cover)

I'm so excited to be able to fit this book into my reading schedule... finally.  The movie of The Book Thief is out in theatres now and I can't wait to see it but first I must read the book!!  Are you the same way? Must you read first before watching the movie?

What is your first book of the year?

Murder on the Orient Espresso by Sandra Balzo

Murder on the Orient Espresso
Author:  Sandra Balzo
Published:  December 2013
Publisher:  Seven House Publishers Ltd
Pages:  200
Genre:  Mystery
Edition:  ARC

Source:  A thank you to the author and her publisher for a complimentary advanced reader's copy to facilitate this review.  Receipt thereof bears no influence over my opinion nor my review.

Wisconsin coffeehouse owner Maggy Thorsen accompanies her main squeeze, Sheriff Jake Pavlik, to South Florida, where he's been asked to speak at a mystery-writers' conference.  Maggy is anticipating a romantic arrival in their hotel suite, but when the opening night event turns out to be a re-enactment of Agatha Christie’s classic, Murder on the Orient Express, the couple reluctantly sets off on a night train into the Everglades.

The idea is to solve the "crime" and return, but the troupe soon finds itself embroiled in a real-life murder mystery as creepy and baffling as any work of fiction.

My thoughts:

I just have to say I hate snakes!!!  Even more than spiders do I hate them!  So when I read Murder on the Orient Espresso I learned far more than I ever wanted to learn about pythons, their choice of foods and how the everglades have become home to some including the African rock python which can grow a horrifying 20 feet long!!  (Shudder!!!)

Alright, I digress.  Murder on the Orient Espresso takes place on a train mimicking the story of Murder on the Orient Express written by a favourite author of mine, Agatha Christie.  A group of mystery writers, both established and up and coming, a sheriff, a coffeehouse owner, and a book reviewer contribute to the small list of participants in a writing conference aboard a train re-enacting the mystery in Agatha's novel.  However, and you can see this coming, someone ends up dead and there are several people aboard who bore grudges against the deceased.  

Maggy, the coffeehouse owner, is a bit of an amateur sleuth who has accompanied Sheriff Jake Pavlik, a guest speaker for the conference.  I like Maggy and not just because she hates snakes as much as I do.  She is a very real member of this cast with desires and fears who cannot help speculating and investigating the murder.  When she is left aboard the train while her boyfriend, Jake (aka Sheriff Pavlik) leaves to go for help, Maggy is confronted with the murderer and a snake...again!  Yikes!! 

Murder on the Orient Espresso author Sandra Balzo has been compared to other illustrious mystery writers including Joan Hess and Janet Evanovich.  Murder on the Orient Espresso is a new twist on an old classic which is fun and interesting and somewhat unexpected, snakes aside. I'd like to investigate her other mysteries which include Uncommon Grounds, Running on Empty and Dead Ends to name just a few.

Meet the author:

Sandra Balzo is an award-winning author of crime fiction, including ten books in two different mystery series from Severn House--the Wisconsin-based Maggy Thorsen Mysteries and Main Street Murders, set in the High Country of North Carolina and featuring journalist AnnaLise Griggs.  Balzo's books have garnered starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist, while being recommended to readers of Janet Evanovich, Charlaine Harris, Mary Daheim, Joan Hess and Margaret Maron. A Wisconsin native, Sandy now splits her time between South Florida and North Carolina.

Not your typical Christmas song

Not your typical Christmas song

A Literary Christmas: Bookish Gingerbread Houses

A Booklicious Blog shared this wonderful post of book related gingerbread houses that I just loved so had to share with my readers as well.  Thank you to Booklicious for the inspiration and sheer enjoyment of such delicious creations!

[The Nutcracker by Cake Power and Baked Ideas]

Click the link below to see the entire post consisting of Hogwarts, Hansel and Gretel and the above to name a few.  I have new ideas for our very own cake lady for upcoming special occasions now!

A Literary Christmas: Bookish Gingerbread Houses

The First Phone Call From Heaven by Mitch Albom

The First Phone Call From Heaven
Author:  Mitch Albom
Published: November 2013
Publisher:  Harper Collins
Genre:  General Fiction
Edition: Advanced Readers' Copy
Pages:  336 (hardcover edition)
Source:  I received a complimentary copy from the publisher and TLC Book Tours to facilitate this review.  Receipt of same bears no influence over my opinion nor this review.

One autumn day, in a small town on Lake Michigan, the phones begin ringing. The people calling are all deceased. They talk about heaven. They say they are safe and happy. Each call is greeted differently—some with relief, some with love, some with religious zeal, some with fear.

On that same day, Sully Harding is released from jail for a crime he may not have committed. During his time behind bars, his wife, Giselle, passed away, leaving him a single father filled with heartbreak and regret. He returns to his hometown hoping to rebuild his life. Instead, he finds a community increasingly gripped by miracle fever. As the mysterious phone calls become more frequent, outsiders begin flocking from all over the world to be part of the blessing, changing the small town indelibly, and turning local citizens into worshipped heroes.

When his own son begins to carry a toy cell phone awaiting word from his mother, Sully has had enough. He sets out to prove that the phenomenon is a hoax. But is it? Or could this be the world’s greatest miracle? Do the calls give people hope, or do they imprison the receivers to a never-ending cycle of grief?

The story follows several residents whose lives have been irrevocably touched when they are confronted with evidence that heaven exists. This remarkable novel takes us on a journey both of individual healing and society’s response to the question of life after life.

Part mystery, part allegory, The First Phone Call from Heaven is a heart-racing page-turner and a soul-fulfilling tale of faith, hope and love.

My thoughts

What would you do if you received a phone call from a loved one who is deceased?  How would you feel and act?  Would you keep it a secret?  Would you believe it if you were told they were calling from Heaven?

A select few residents of Coldwater have received those phone calls.  Do they dare believe it to be true?  A sister calls her sister to let her know she is happy in Heaven.  A son calls his dad and then later his mother to let them know he is in Heaven and happy.  Another resident receives a call from a deceased former employee.  Hearing from a deceased person in this case is not reassuring, only stirring up the pain of the past.

A little boy carries around a toy phone hoping his mom will call him.  Strangers arrive and camp outside of town hoping to get that precious phone call, just to hear their loved one's voices one more time.  A resident is followed around town by a journalist and the news carries her story which goes viral.  

The message from the deceased is: tell everyone the good news.  Heaven exists and those who go there will find happiness.   What joy this message could bring.  What turmoil it also has the potential to bring.  One man, Sully, sets out to find the true source of the messages because he doesn't believe.  He sees the impact this announcement has made on the town but most of all on his young son who carries a toy phone, waiting for his mother to call him.  The pain of her passing becomes as fresh as it was when at first it happened and Sully cannot endure it.  He must prove the truth, one way or the other and in his efforts the reader becomes so caught up in the story that it passes too quickly.

The First Phone Call From Heaven will make you think about your own beliefs about death and heaven.  Albom doesn't preach, this is fiction after all, but he opens up the mind to possibilities. He sets the stage for conversation.  His novel makes you ask, what if?  That very question that becomes embedded in your mind keeps you turning the pages to find out what happens, what if it were true?  

The First Phone Call From Heaven is a great choice for a book club selection because it begs to be discussed and pondered.  The plot will remain in your minds long after that last page is turned.  If you open your mind and your heart to ponder, to question, to engage; then Albom has achieved a truly remarkable feat in offering a work of fiction that makes you ponder your very existence.  What if......?

"As happens with all miracles, once life goes on, those who believe

retell them with wonder.  Those who do not, do not." (Mitch Albom,

 The First Phone Call From Heaven.)

Meet the Author:

Mitch Albom is an internationally renowned and best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter, playwright, radio and television broadcaster and musician. His books have collectively sold more than 35 million copies worldwide; have been published in forty-eight territories and in forty-four languages around the world; and have been made into Emmy Award-winning and critically-acclaimed television movies.

Find out more about Mitch at his website, connect with him on Facebook, follow him on Twitter, and sign up for his newsletter.

The Color of Light by Helen Maryles Shankman

The Color of Light
Author:  Helen Maryles Shankman
Published:  October 2013
Publisher:  Stony Creek Press
Pages:  573 Advanced Readers Copy
Genre: fiction

A complimentary copy was provided by TLC book tours and the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review.

NEW YORK CITY, 1992. At the American Academy of Classical Art, popular opinion has it that the school’s handsome and mysterious founder, Raphael Sinclair, is a vampire. It is a rumor Rafe does nothing to dispel.

Scholarship student Tessa Moss has long dreamed of the chance to study at Rafe’s Academy. But she is floundering amidst the ups and downs of a relationship with egotistical art star Lucian Swain.

Then, one of Tessa’s sketches catches Rafe’s attention: a drawing of a young woman in 1930s clothing who is covering the eyes of a child. The suitcase at her feet says Wizotsky. Sofia Wizotsky, the love of Rafe’s life, was lost during the Holocaust.

Or was she? Rafe suspects Tessa may be the key to discovering what really happened.

As Rafe finds excuses to interact with Tessa, they cannot deny their growing attraction to one another. It is an attraction forbidden by the Academy Board and disapproved of by anyone familiar with Rafe’s playboy reputation and Tessa’s softhearted innocence.

But Tessa senses the truth: despite his wealth, his women, and his townhouse filled with rare and beautiful treasures, Rafe is a haunted man…for reasons that have nothing to do with the rumors they whisper about him at school.

Intensely romantic and deeply moving, The Color of Light blends fact and fantasy in an unforgettable tale of art and passion, love and war, guilt and forgiveness, spanning the New York art scene, high-fashion magazine publishing, the glittering café society of pre-World War II Paris, and the evil stalking the back roads of Nazi-occupied Europe.

My thoughts:

This isn't Twilight's vampire story.  Not at all.  This is more how I envisioned vampires. Mysterious with mesmerizing eyes, regal carriage, handsome features, and charismatic.  Rafe (Raphael Sincair) is that suave charming protagonist and, yes, he is a vampire.  At times his appetite is cruel and deadly but his appetite for young Tessa is different.  He comes off as a bit of a playboy until Tessa touches that heart that may no longer beat but is still there.

Tessa, meanwhile, is in one of those one-way relationships with Lucien.  She works for him, practically saved his life even, and yet he disregards her, overlooking her for another.  Tessa is still infatuated with Lucien despite how he treats her, only minding when he feels he might lose her.  I cringed to see her still so set upon Lucien, despite everything, but she is young and naive. I've been there, young and naive.  I can see how her eyes may be clouded to what is happening before her and so I was grateful for the interventions of Rafe.

Rafe is drawn to Tessa.  She reminds him of his former love, a love that lived before he became the undead, and he can't shake the attraction regardless of it being inappropriate as he is the headmaster of the art school wherein Tessa studies the masters of art and the techniques they practiced.  

Ms. Shankman's love for the arts, including a tantalizing tango scene near the beginning of the book, is evident.  She infuses the story with her knowledge of art and technique and creates a genuine atmosphere within the old somewhat decrepit building that houses the school.  You can feel the draft, see the architectural details, hear the creak on the stairs.  Helen does a very good job enabling the reader to envision the school as if it were a character as important to the story as the main protagonists.

The characters come alive in the pages of The Color of Light making this book hard to put down. It gets a little wordy with descriptions as the author builds a background as a foundation for the present.  But that aside, The Color of Light practically breathes, sweeping the reader back to Rafe's past to a time of war  and anguishing separation, to a time of eternal change for Rafe. It's a kaleidoscope of events, of the bleakness in black and white and then color in love.  A metaphor.  It is in turns hauntingly beautiful, sad, and joyous.  And this is her debut novel.

Meet the author:

Originally, when Helen Maryles Shankman moved to New York, she thought she wanted to be an illustrator, to tell stories with paint.  A few years later, she discovered that what she really wanted to do was paint with words.

Her stories appear in The Kenyon Review, Cream City Review, Gargoyle, Grift, Danse Macabre, and JewishFiction.net. She was a finalist in Glimmer Train’s Short Story Award for New Writers and has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

For now she lives in New Jersey, with her husband, four kids, and a blue-eyed Australian Shepherd named Sky.

Her debut novel, The Color of Light, is coming from Stony Creek Press on Halloween, 2013.

Follow Helen on Twitter @hmshankman

“Like” THE COLOR OF LIGHT on Facebook

Visit Helen’s blog at helenmarylesshankman.com.

The Reckless Engineer by Jac Wright

The Reckless Engineer

Author:  Jac Wright

Published:  November 2013

Publisher:  Soul Mate Publishing

Pages:  340

Genre: Classic mystery, legal thriller

ISBN 9781619353213

Edition: e-book (PDF format)

Source:  A copy was sent directly to me by the author to facilitate an honest and unbiased review.

Jack Connor's lives an idyllic life by the Portsmouth seaside married to Caitlin McAllen, a stunning billionaire heiress, and working at his two jobs as the Head of Radar Engineering at Marine Electronics and as the Director of Engineering of McAllen BlackGold, his powerful father-in-law Douglas McAllen's company in extreme engineering in Oil & Gas.  He loves his two sons from his first marriage and is amicably divorced from his beautiful first wife Marianne Connor.  Their idyllic lives are shattered when the sexy and alluring Michelle Williams, with whom Jack is having a secret affair and who is pregnant with his child, is found dead and Jack is arrested on suspicion for the murder.

Jeremy Stone brings in London's top defence attorney, Harry Stavers, to handle his best friend's defence.  While Jack is charged and his murder trial proceeds in the Crown Court under Harry’s expert care, Jeremy runs a race against time to find the real killer and save his friend, if he is in fact innocent, in a lurid saga of love, desire, power, and ambition.

My Thoughts:

The Reckless Engineer is a relatively short novel as an e-book at 182 pages, but it is packed with drama beginning with a phone call to Jeremy from Jack Connor.  The two men had worked together previously in an engineer firm, with whom Jack is still employed, and had become friends.  Jack had Jeremy's back during a dark time and now he was requesting a return favour. Desperately seeking help after being arrested under suspicion for the murder of his pregnant mistress, Jack turned to Jeremy who hooked him up with a top defence attorney.  It doesn't end there for Jeremy though.  His curiosity finds him sleuthing the countryside in compromising situations in his efforts to clear his friend.  It's his path to discovery that keeps you turning the pages.

Jac Wright gathers together a group of possible suspects but you will likely not guess who did the deed and framed Jac.  That twist comes at the end and you realize Wright had dropped cleverly disguised hints all along.  I love to see that ability, especially in a new to me mystery author.

Engineering is not commonly found in mysteries.  You find writers, police officers, elderly spinsters, journalists with cats, and a myriad of others but never before have I come across engineers in this genre.  Jac Wright intends to change that with this series, of which The Reckless Engineer is the first.  He brings to the series his own personal knowledge as an engineer, expounding upon situations in his realm of experience thus introducing the mystery enthusiast to an entirely new and interesting facet to the genre.  If you're a mystery lover sleuthing out something new, check out Wright's series, engineered to reaffirm your love.

WestJet Christmas Miracle: real-time giving