Waiting on Wednesday #48 - Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

This week I am waiting on Bet Your Bottom Dollar by Karin Gillespie due out October 14, 2014 from Henery Press. One of the review quotes was from the Sweet Potato Queen herself, Jill Connor Browne making it that much more interesting to me. She said, "Use your very last bottom dollar, if you have to. Just BUY THIS BOOK. You will laugh yourself sick and love every minute of it."

From the publisher: 

Welcome to the Bottom Dollar Emporium in Cayboo Creek, South Carolina, where everything from coconut mallow cookies to Clabber Girl Baking Powder costs a dollar but the coffee and gossip are free. For the Bottom Dollar gals, work time is sisterhood time.

When news gets out that a corporate dollar store is coming to town, the women are thrown into a tizzy, hoping to save their beloved store as well their friendships. Meanwhile the manager is canoodling with the town’s wealthiest bachelor and their romance unearths some startling family secrets.

The first in a series, Bet Your Bottom Dollar serves up a heaping portion of small town Southern life and introduces readers to a cast of eccentric characters. Pull up a wicker chair, set out a tall glass of Cheer Wine, and immerse yourself in the adventures of a group of women who the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls, “…the kind of steel magnolias who would make Scarlett O’Hara envious.”
The product picture comes from the publisher's website.

$15.95 (msrp) Trade Paperback — ISBN-13: 9781940976730

$2.99 (msrp) ebook — ISBN-13: 9781940976747

So, What book are you waiting on this week?

Teaser Tuesday - Elderwood Manor by Christopher Fulbright and Angeline Hawkes

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of 

Should Be Reading.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t    give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR    Lists if they like your teasers!

Bruce Davenport and his four year old son Cody are arriving at Bruce's childhood home in the Ozarks after receiving a weird sort of phone call from his mother and fresh on his wife's death and loss of his job. He's penniless, arriving there on gas fumes and hoping to find gas and food within the manor.

The teaser:

"I want to walk, Daddy." Bruce tensed when Cody spoke, as if he didn't want the place to hear his son's voice, to know that another generation of Davenport had returned.

The publisher ends the description of the book with: 

"But they soon find something else dwells in the home, in the earth, in the woods. Unseen things are out for vengeance and blood. If they can survive the night, they may just find out what truly lies within the walls of ... Elderwood Manor."

This ebook was released July 15, 2014 by DarkFuse and is part of their popular novella series. 

What's your teaser from this week? Share it or a link in the comments below.

Review: Sweet as Cane, Salty as Tears by Ken Wheaton

"I'm so glad you came," Sonny says after his crying tapers off to a manageable whimper. "Karen-Anne always said one of  'em would have to die to get you back here for something other than Christmas."

Released July 1, 2014
by Open Road Media. 

Katie-Lee Fontenot aka Katherine to her New York friends and co-workers is surfing the web and checking Facebook same as the others in a meeting while some of the managers are discussing something among themselves when the electronic discussion among her co-workers turns to a zoo worker who was trampled by a black rhino down in Louisiana. At first Katie-Lee is going along with the jokes, until she reads the name of the woman hurt, Karen-Anne Castille - her baby sister.

She has made up her mind to go see her when her older sister, Kendra-Sue, tells her to get her butt on down there because now it's a funeral. So, Katie-Lee returns to Louisiana to face her family without the aid of modern medicine (Xanax, Lexapro, etc.).

Katie-Lee is a protagonist well worth reading about. She is 50 years old and single with all that entails. The company she works for is facing lay offs/ staff reductions. She comes across as a pretty real woman dealing with some real modern day problems.

Then we are transported to her family life, which like many a family life is a little weirder than life away from home. It's touching and funny. You feel for her and her siblings. And maybe there's a time or two where you might be tempted to knock heads, but that will pass.

It's a really good story and it's very well written. I gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

If you are interested in Cajun words and phrases such as those used in the book, Ken Wheaton has written at least 2 blog posts on them. Talkin' Funny: Louisiana Style and Even More Talkin' Funny: Louisiana Style

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest opinion.

Waiting on Wednesday #47 - Solomon's Whisper by Sandra Brannan

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

This week I am waiting on Solomon's Whisper by Sandra Brannan. It's due out September 2, 2014 from the Greenleaf Book Group. Sandra Brannan writes some seriously creepy and suspenseful thrillers. This promises to be another good one. 

From the publisher:

Trying to convince Liv Bergen from resigning from the FBI to return to mining after nearly losing her nephew, Streeter Pierce asks Liv for one condition: to wait six months before making her resignation official or public.

Five months into the condition, Streeter becomes desperate to keep Liv, so he bends the rules and assigns her a seven year old cold case – Brianna Keller, a young girl taken from her bedroom during a slumber party and found dead along the road in the desert near Vegas. Streeter believes if Liv sees how she can help her family, help avenge a child’s death, she may not feel as if she’s endangering them. So what better way than to assign her Brianna’s case? After all, Brianna is Liv’s niece, her sister Barbara’s youngest child.

Below is a short video interview with Sandra Brannan about her books. What book are you waiting on this week?

Teaser Tuesday - The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Filippo

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of 

Should Be Reading.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t    give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR    Lists if they like your teasers!

The ebook version of The Steampunk Trilogy by Paul Di Filippo was published July 8, 2014 by Open Road Media. This is the version that I read. My teaser comes from 4% into the book, during the first story entitled "Victoria."

Only when they were in the shuttered landau driven by McGroaty, rattling across the nighted town, with the womanly newt Victoria seated damply between them, a veil demurely drawn across her elongated features, did Copperthwait think to tell Melbourne about the peculiar diet of his charge.

"Flies?" said the Prime Minister dubiously.

"Fresh," said Copperthwait.

So, What are you reading this week? What's your teaser?

Review: Waking the Dead by Heather Graham

Waking the Dead by Heather Graham is #2 in her Cafferty and Quinn Series. Published March 24, 2014 by MIRA books, it has an interesting, twisty plot involving a painting that somehow has the power to attack and kill people. The painting was created by an artist during the Year Without a Summer as part of the same challenge where Mary Shelley created Frankenstein. Wherever the painting goes, death seems to follow. And no two people seem to be killed the same way.

The painting pops up in New Orleans. The murders begin with the courier and his family. Every murder that has some sort of witness, the witness says a sudden fog arose. Meanwhile a gallery in town has made giclee prints of the painting and is offering them for sale.

Danni Cafferty must read in her father's book to see if there is a detail on how to stop the murders. Meanwhile, Quinn is out investigating the murders and looking for the painting. Together they band forces with among others, Hattie - rich widow and owner of the painting, Natasha - a voodoo priestess, Father Ryan - a Catholic priest, and Ron Hubert - coroner who is current owner of the castle where the painting was done oh so many years ago.

What's good about the book - the characterizations, the plot, the suspense. I thought that the idea of the painting having several causes of death rather than only one methodology was interesting. But that there was still a way for them to recognize that a death belonged to the painting as opposed to a random theft or attack was very useful. There had to be some logical way to tie the deaths together. Mark Twain said, "Fiction is obliged to stick to possibilities." Also, I think there is just the right touch of romance between Quinn and Danni. It doesn't overwhelm the plot, but rather draws the reader deeper into the story.

Is there anything not so hot about the book? It gets a little slow in parts, but overall it's well done.

I would recommend this book for fans of Heather Graham of course, but also for people who like Barbara Michaels, paranormal romance, and paranormal suspense.

I gave this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Disclaimer: I received a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review.

Waiting on Wednesday #46 - The Cure for Dreaming by Cat Winters

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

This week I am anticipating the fall release of Cat Winters book The Cure for Dreaming due out October 14, 2014 by Amulet Books. 

From Goodreads: 

Olivia Mead is a headstrong, independent girl—a suffragist—in an age that prefers its girls to be docile. It’s 1900 in Oregon, and Olivia’s father, concerned that she’s headed for trouble, convinces a stage mesmerist to try to hypnotize the rebellion out of her. But the hypnotist, an intriguing young man named Henri Reverie, gives her a terrible gift instead: she’s able to see people’s true natures, manifesting as visions of darkness and goodness, while also unable to speak her true thoughts out loud. These supernatural challenges only make Olivia more determined to speak her mind, and so she’s drawn into a dangerous relationship with the hypnotist and his mysterious motives, all while secretly fighting for the rights of women. Winters breathes new life into history once again with an atmospheric, vividly real story, including archival photos and art from the period throughout.

Why am I waiting on this book? It's an interesting time period. And it sounds a bit like a fairy tale. Father wants the rebellion taken out of her, but instead she is given these terrible gifts. I look forward to seeing how she manages to work the gifts she is given to her advantage and the problems along the way.

So, What book are you waiting on this week?

Teaser Tuesday - Sweet as Cane, Salty as Tears by Ken Wheaton

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of 

Should Be Reading.

Rules:

• Grab your current read

• Open to a random page

• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure that what you share doesn’t    give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

• Share the title and author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR    Lists if they like your teasers!

This week's teaser comes from Sweet as Cane, Salty as Tears by Ken Wheaton. The novel was released July 1, 2014 by Open Road Media. The scene it comes from, Katie-Lee aka Katherine is in a business meeting just before she finds out her sister was trampled by a rhinoceros. 

Then, from the depths of my stomach -loud enough so that the room falls silent for just a moment and eyes turn my way - whale song. WORRNHH? A short burst. A question, maybe. Then REEERNNNNNN, as if there are two of them in there, and the second answering the first. 
     "Something I ate," I say, shrugging as if it's no big deal.

So, what's your teaser this week?

Waiting on Wednesday #45 - Under the Final Moon by Hannah Jayne

"Waiting on Wednesday" is a weekly event hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlight upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. 

This week I am anticipating Under the Under the Final Moon by Hannah Jayne (book 6 in the Underworld Detection Agency Chronicles featuring Sophie Lawson). It's due to be released August 5, 2014 by Kensington Books.

From the publisher:
It's not the end of the world--until it is.

Sophie Lawson may be a mere human with no special abilities except a strong immunity to magic. But the havoc she's wreaked on the supernaturals who come up against the Underworld Detection Agency have earned her plenty of enemies. Still, a girl can't freak out every time a horribly barbecued corpse is found with her business card in its hand. Or see a sudden glut of earthquakes, wildfires and three-headed dogs as just another day in California. But Alex Grace, her favorite fallen angel, is concerned--or saying he is to see more of her. Getting Sophie to see all the signs of the Apocalypse is an interesting way to heat things up. Or maybe what's making everyone hot under the collar is the fact that all Hell is about to break loose. . .

From Hannah Jayne's website: 

It's Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Sherlock Holmes in this feisty, funny Urban Fantasy series. Meet "breather" Sophie Lawson, her vampire-fashionista roommate Nina, the brooding eternally sixteen-year old Vlad, and the two men making up Sophie's sweet and sexy love triangle - fallen angel Alex Grace and Vessel Guardian Will Sherman.​

What draws me to this book is that it's supposed to be humorous and Urban Fantasy. RT Book Reviews gave it 4 stars and said that Sophie was a strong, likable character. And that there is sharp,funny dialogue that brings levity when needed and the supporting characters add even more amusement and plot development. Looking forward to checking this series out. 

What book are you waiting on this week?