Review on: Emily Dahill CID Part I

Emily Dahill CID - Part I

By Lindsay Downs

Final Mission-After being seriously wounded in a copter crash in Iraq Sgt. Emily Dahill meets her new partner as she embarks on her new Army career as a CID agent. Who could this new partner be?

A Body in the Snow- Emily and her partner, Dakota, cross bullets with their most determined foe. Who will survive?

Right Place, Wrong Day-On leave to hang with friends Emily gets the surprise of her life.

Dog on Fishing-When it comes to knowing how to fish, and catch the big ones, never underestimate your partner. He might surprise you.

Lindsay Downs has been a frequent visitor here at the Garden. If you'd like to learn more about Lindsay, check here! 

I just finished reading Emily Dahill CID this is a novella and I'm having trouble finding the words without giving the story away. Above is a great blurb so I'm going to leave it like that. I recommend you pick up this entertaining read. And then you'll want to read more. 

I give this 4.5 Dahlia's! Great read.

I'll even make it easy:

BUY

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Review on: Anasazi Runner by Jeff Posey

I met Jeff Posey at the DFW Conference in 2011. We've kept in touch off and on over the year. I interviewed him in the Garden April 2011 Anyway, he approached me before Christmas and asked me if I'd read Anasazi Runner and give him an honest review on Amazon. I told him I was very busy, but I would read it after the first of the year. Which I did on vacation--I'll explain the rest in my review, but first:

Blurb:

It’s a quirky romance. An athletic fantasy. A mystery of identity over the ages. A spine-tingling race to the finish.

Anasazi Runner: a novel of identity and speed is told from the perspective of Coach Jesse, a retired history teacher and reluctant running coach.

Buy
Amazon 
Coming soon to Nook (March 2012)

I'm going to be honest with you. As most of you know I went to Key West in January on Vacation. I had my iPad Nook and Kindle Apps filled with all my favorite authors. Along with this book, not the type I usually read. My plan was to read the first chapter and the last chapter. You know just enough to have the gist of the story and give a good review for a friend. Then move on to the books I really wanted to read while lazing around the pool on vacation.


I know my bad.

BUTTTTTT, I couldn't stop reading it. I enjoyed the training, since it was very similar to when I was training for my marathons. I enjoyed the characters. I am even trying to get my husband to read it. I really didn't think I could read a book on running. I was afraid it would remind me of some of the non-fiction running books I've tried to read in my life. So I was pleasantly surprised. And I enjoyed lazing around and reading Jeff's book. I suggest you all pick your copy ASAP you won't be disappointed.

I give this fun book 4.5 Dahlia's

L.L. Muir is in the Garden!

Thanks so much, Mary, for inviting me to dance in your garden! And it is a dance-worthy day for me. It's the debut of my new young adult romance that will appeal to adult and teen readers alike. It's called Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow--Book One of The Angels of Somerled Series.

Here's a little scene you won't read anywhere else:

She’d imagined all kinds of cravings, for all kinds of flavors during her short existence, but never for the taste of someone.

He was looking at her lips so intently she didn’t dare move them. His lashes were incredibly long--a golden brown. His nostrils flared suddenly and the entire world tilted with his face as he moved forward. His mouth met hers as smoothly as...breathing.

She focused all conscious thought to the rise and fall of his chest, to his nearness, and she could have wept for her lack of taste in her mouth or sensation in her lips. For the first time, she mourned for the depth of experience lost to her. This wasn’t the smell or feel of peaches, or the taste of corn coming apart in her mouth. This was mortality beneath her hands, against her fingers...and completely out of her reach.

If you'd like to read more about Freaking, visit my website at www.llmuir.weebly.com You'll find other types of romances there, including my Highlander time travel and my Regency novella. You'll love those covers too!
People often ask me how I come up with the titles for my stories.

In my time travel, GOING BACK FOR ROMEO, there is a Scottish version of Romeo and Juliet whom the heroine believes she can rescue from tragedy once she finds herself back in their century. So she’s gone back for both Romeo and Juliet, but it turns out there’s another Romeo that gets left behind—the perfect Romeo for the heroine. The title, Going Back for Romeo, just fell out of my brain. (Mary's review)

In the case of my young adult romance, I had a half-dozen titles that were the dramatic single, or two word titles. None of them really made an impact, so my agent asked me to brainstorm and send her a list. I was so frustrated with the list I conjured, I ended the email with “Call it Somewhere Over the Freaking Rainbow if you want. I’m beyond caring.” She wrote back and said she loved it.

So basically, great titles just seem to fall out of my brain when I’m not looking. I should wear a net around my shoulders all the time, just in case.

And sometimes the title comes before the book. That happen to any of you?

Canyonland Press

Today I start a new crazy venture! Myself and a few other authors are starting up a FREE eMagazine for readers. No articles about writing, etc. It's all toward the reader.

We're going to have the library involved, with book recommendations. We are going to encourage ALL our readers to check out the books and read them. In August the first 6 recommended books will be up for the Canyonland Press Readers Choice Awards. And our readers will be the ones to pick who wins.

We're still finding our footing, so any and ALL suggestions for topics are welcome, as long as they appeal to the reader.

Please drop buy and check us out! Our 1st issue is today! In honor of our grand opening we're having a Kindle Giveaway, find out how you can win!

www.canyonlandpress.com

Review on: Going Back for Romeo by L. L. Muir

I have a new author to introduce. Do you like Time Travel? Do you like Scottish Lads? Do you love wily old witches? You'll love L. L. Muir's Going Back for Romeo.

I'll start you off with a blurb, then give you the review, don't worry I do not like to give away anything from the book.

Blurb:
Imagine...
Alone, with a Highlander, in his castle, on a cold dark night...

(Okay, so it wasn’t that cold.)

Jillian MacKay is being conned by a pair of eighty-year-old witches. They’re convinced she’s the perfect sucker to test a prophecy and they’re willing to bury her alive to prove it. Once she escapes and finds herself in 15th Century Scotland, she believes her return home depends on a heroic deed—she must rescue a plaid-clad Romeo and Juliet before tragedy can strike.  The monster standing in her way, however, is a handsome Highlander who might just be her own Romeo...a Romeo she must leave behind.

Rather than surrender his secrets, Montgomery Ross would prefer to go down in history as the heartless creature who betrayed one sister and buried the other alive.  When he falls in love with the prophesied faery who has come to expose him, he'll have to learn a wee lesson from the star-crossed lovers or suffer the fate to which he once condemned them.
Buy
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Smashwords

I never really liked to read time-travel. Loved to watch movies of time travel but not read them. Then along came Melissa Mayhue, and I thought okay, I'll make an exception for one... NOW L. L. Muir comes along, yup you got it another exception. I think I am truly a time-travel convert. This was so much fun, I loved the characters, they jumped off the page and walked around the room to tell the story to me. Great fun. I recommend this book to everyone. I don't care if you DON'T read time-travel or romance, you'll love this.

I give this fun book a 5 Dahlia Rating

Interview with Terri J. Lynn

Did everyone have a good winter holiday? It’s been fairly calm in the Salt Lake Valley, only a little dusting of snow here and there. But still the cold goes through to you bones if you’re not dress warm. So grab some of the lap quilts I have stacked on the table next to the refreshments. Make yourself a plate while you’re at it. Today we have Terri J. Lynn with us. She one of my URWA fellow chapter members. I know you’ll enjoy getting to know her.

Mary: Welcome, Terri I am glad you decided to join us. So tell us a bit about you, your background. I particularly would love to hear about the descendant that can be traced back to the Mayflower.

Terri:  I've lived in several different states including Washington, Montana, Arizona and Utah.  I think, if there’s any gypsy blood in my family, it’s all concentrated in me.   I have always loved to travel and particularly enjoy the desert southwest and the Caribbean.

The ancestor referred to in my bio is Stephen Hopkins, my great (I don’t know many times great) grandfather on my father’s maternal side.  He was a tanner and merchant who is found on the passenger list of the Mayflower in 1620.  He settled in Plymouth Colony.   He was recruited to help with the colony's ventures, as well as help with the governing of the colony.  He was not part of the Pilgrims’ religious congregation but was an assistant to the governor of the colony through 1636.  My sister, Margaret, has made a second career of genealogy, and she has found and verified all of the above information about him.

Mary:  How interesting, and fun to be able to trace your ancestor back that far. 1620-WOW. Have you always wanted to write? Even when you were pursuing your business career?

Terri:  I’ve loved to write since my early teens.  However, once I married, had children and started a business career, I could no longer devote the time necessary.  Since I left the business world, it’s been a true joy to develop the characters that were lurking inside my head all these years.

Mary: What part of Washington State are you from? I have relatives in Kent and Yakima. And friends in Tacoma, who used to live in Gig Harbor. Personally I wouldn’t have moved. I love Gig Harbor. I have a funny story about one summer visiting my cousins in Kent. But this is your interview. Have any funny stories about growing up in Washington? Did you dig for Guey Ducks (I found it spelled Geoduck too—along with a you tube video. LOL)  For those who do not know this is a LARGE clam, and they’re good.

Terri:  Boy, it’s a small world, isn’t it?  I was born in Yakima.  My family moved to Seattle when I was about three years old, and I still have many relatives in the Seattle, Tacoma, Spanaway and Yelm areas.  My sister and brother-in-law still live in Seattle, as well as both my nephews.

Oh, yes, I remember clam digging.  They were great times. We’d find out when the lowest tide was going to be since it’s easier to dig for guey ducks (or goeducks) then.  We’d get together with some of our cousins, drive to Camano Island and go clam digging, have a picnic and, all in all, have a great day.
It was really wonderful growing up in Seattle, but the smaller towns like Gig Harbor have a unique beauty all their own.

Okay, funny stories, let’s see.  Well, there are a couple that l remember.  When I was a child, my sister and I were both upstairs (behaving for once), when my mother yelled at us to quit jumping on the beds.  Then she turned around and realized all her cups hanging on little cup hangers were swinging in unison.  She yelled for us to get out of the house – it was an earthquake.

My sister, Margaret, was one of those people who did everything by the book (or so everybody thought).  One year (when my sister was in college and I was in high school) we decided to surprise mom and give her a special birthday party.  To get everything ready, we had to start early, so I had to get out of going to high school that day.  Margaret wrote a note that I was to be excused and signed mom’s name (perfectly I might add).  Until now, no one but the two of us knew she was an accomplished forger.

Mary: That last question went on like the EverReady bunny, so everyone stand up and stretch. Replenish your plates and fill your cups.

Mary: Everyone ready? Okay so Terri, tell us a bit about your latest release. Share a blurb, buy links whatever you think we’d find interesting.

Terri:  My latest release is Out of the Past.  It is published by Siren-Bookstrand.  I’ve placed the links to it below the blurb.  It can also be found on Amazon and at Barnes&Noble in both eBook and paperback.  Below is a short blurb.

Blurb:  Amateur genealogist, Melissa Wendell, inadvertently uncovers a secret from the past, putting her in the cross-hairs of an assassin’s rifle.

Detective Mike Rawlins is assigned to the case and hunts the assassin while trying to uncover secrets long buried in her family past.  Her sister seems to sense the evil that lies ahead, and Melissa believes in her sister’s psychic ability, but Mike Rawlins is skeptical of any such claim.

After a second attempt on her life, Melissa leaves Seattle for Boston where she discovers that her grandmother is reaching out from the grave.  An unknown assailant follows her there, and soon, she is once again fighting for her life.

For her survival and the love they’ve found together, can Mike and Melissa unravel her long-buried family secrets before a killer finds her again?

Links:
BookStrand
Barnes&Noble
Amazon      

My next book will come out as an eBook in April, published by Siren-Bookstrand.  It’s titled Shadow of Time.

Mary: That sounds awesome. Thanks for sharing. So what do you have new coming up? In other words what are you working on?

Terri:  I am working on a contemporary romance titled The Mirror, which is the story of Chelsea, a 25 year old artist, who accidentally falls through the time continuum.  She wakes up on the floor of a saloon, unaware that she is in 1891.  A tall, handsome, no nonsense cowboy comes to her rescue even though he thinks she’s  probably crazy.

Mary: Time travel, one of my favorites! When you’re not writing or hanging with your family—I include your pets too? When it’s rainy outside and you want to curl up with a good book, what would it be?

Terri:  I love to read romance novels.  In fact, I have read your book, Meet Me in Fantasyland, and am planning on reading Classic Murder Mr. Romance. I like different genres, such as romantic suspense, western historical, and contemporary.  Just give me a good book, and I’m set for hours.  I also am very interested in psychic ability, time travel and true ghost stories. There is just so much we don’t really know about our world, and it fascinates me.  One (and sometimes all) of these will be found in most of my books.

Mary: Thank you! I'm glad you liked Meet Me In Fantasyland. Let me know how you like Adam and Katie (Mr. Romance) If one of your new fans would like to find you, can you share your web site, blog, social media, one or all of the above?

I’d loved to have all of you stop by.  The door is always open. . .well, you know what I mean.  See who’s going to be guest authors on my blog for the months of January and February.

Terri:  Web site: http://www.terrijlynn.com
Blog:  http://terrijlynn.blogspot.com
Facebook: Terri J. Lynn

Thank you, Terri, so much for your time today. I know I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it.

Thank you, Mary.  I’ve had a great time!

Waiting By Doree L. Anderson - Launch Party

Everyone please welcome, Doree Anderson back to the garden. You may remember her from the roundtable discussion at Mysteries and Margaritas  on Firefly Part I and Part II. I loved that discussion. Anyway the weather here at the garden can’t decide what it wants to do, rain, snow or shine, so bundle up, find a heater to sit under and let’s begin.

Mary, it is such a delight to be again. Thank you. As a huge fan of your novels, this is an honor for me. And on Firefly, I'm still going through withdrawals. Thank goodness for the November 26th marathon. Starting on January 3, the cable station Ovation will air a week-long prime-time marathon of Joss Whedon's sci-fi/western series including Firefly.

Mary: Tell us a bit about Doree, the person.

Doree:  I'm from the mid-west and even though I've been in Utah for decades, I will always be a mid-west girl. I married young and 35 years later, still hanging with the same guy. When I opted to give up my 'career' in nursing and 12 hour shifts on my feet, I decided to put my first love into action. Writing is my release for all the characters and stories ricocheting in my mind. I love it more than reading and I love to read! I do a mean cross-stitch and dabble in sewing, but once the grandbabies are home, I'm behind the computer.

Mary: I know you’re a member of RWA (Romance Writers of America) so why aren’t you writing mushy Romance? Why did you decide to do Middle Grade? Can you explain the ages this would attract?

Doree: Yes, I am a member of RWA but I'm also with SCBWI (Society of Childrens Books Writers and Illustration) for Middle Grade. Mushy is fun, no doubt about it and my usual area of writing.  This book started out as a simple romantic Young Adult, but after going through an agent who told me to make it paranormal, I changed a lot of it and noticed that the fifteen- year- old isn't into mushy yet. The 'change' also took it away from being a romance as well as the age criteria for a Young Adult. I believe "Waiting" is geared more for Eight to 16-year-olds.

Mary: Oh, I've never heard of SCBWI, as I'm working on a middle grade with the boys, I guess I better check it out. LOL. How do you come up with your characters? Do you have a process? Are they patterned after people you know?

Doree:  Mary, I have been blessed with four grandchildren. These special people are daily influences.  I've learned that if you chuckle at their words...write them down. Seriously!  My characters are a modge podge of the people I've met through out a life of moving. During my childhood, I lived in 6 different states and more than one house in each. When I moved to Utah, I lived in seven different houses my junior year and attended three different high schools.

Mary: There’s something going on all over the net, it’s called ‘Book Bomb’. What the heck is that?

Doree:  Thank you for asking. I'm relatively new to this term but I'm going to give it a try. Prior to the day your book comes out, you announce that you will be having a book bomb on as many networking sights as you can, giving the exact day and time your book is coming out. Then on the day of your release, you announce it again. This gets out information to those interested in purchasing the book, where and for what. My humble teachings on this is that it boosts up your ratings with the e-publishing companies and can place you on the best selling lists which gives the book more national recognition.

Mary: Sounds very interesting, I'll have to try that out myself. I have posted a blurb for your Waiting. It’s release date is today, January 23, 2012, correct? Can you add the Amazon buy link and the times for your ‘Book Bomb’ if any?

Blurb:
No teenage girl likes to share, especially her closet space with a WWI ghost.

With her braces off, summer vacation a week away, and a member of the sophomore cheerleading squad, only life altering uprising could destroy Dani McCarty's happiness. So when her mother declares, "We're moving". Dani's calm life is destroyed and she feels like she's tumbling down the proverbial drain.

 Her hard landing is a haunted, dilapidated, abandoned, military hospital that her family is turning into a bed and breakfast. Add a pro bono nanny job, a bad boy boyfriend with a drug problem, and a ghost in her closet, and you have one grouchy teen. When WWI ghost Lieutenant William Raleigh announces that she's his salvation and his only chance to leave his state of limbo, she realizes that her fifteen year-old life is taking on some major changes.

Doree: The 'bomb' for Waiting is at 12:00 noon. Amazon has an extensive list of books titled 'Waiting' so for easy access, put in Waiting, doree.
Amazon Link

Mary: Okay everyone, this is a great book, so today at 12:00 noon, let's all support Doree over at Amazon. Do you have any other pertinent information you have for us? Web site, blog, Facebook, Twitter or anything else?

Doree: Yes, I do. My website: www.doreeanderson.com,
Facebook, Twitter  and blog

Thank you, Doree, for joining us again at the garden. Good luck with Waiting!

Mary, it was wonderful being with you today. Also, I'd like to mention that I am looking forward to March when your "The Beckett Series" comes out.