ARC Arrival: Adam (Book 1 The Eden Chronicles) by Brian H. Winchester

Adam, the Eden Chronicles, Book One

by Brian H. Winchester

TM Publishing

He was named after the moist red earth from which he was formed.  His muscular body was just past the threshold of full manhood.  By current earthly standards he would have looked to be in his late teens.  His intellect was agile, sharp, and endowed with a deep understanding of the world he had just entered -- the kind of understanding that today would take a lifetime to develop.  What he couldn't learn by logical analysis he quickly grasped through a keen intuition that was emotional and spiritual at the same time.

Adam would need all these capabilities to fulfill the charge God had given him -- to cultivate the rich land of Eden in which he had been placed, and to protect and guard it.

But guard it from what?

Adam was about to find out.  Everything about life as he knew it hung in the balance of how well he accomplished that charge.  If he did well, he would protect not only his own life, but preserve the soul of every man and woman to follow.  If he failed, the consequences would be beyond even his ability to understand.

The was in Heaven was over.  The battle for Earth was about to begin.

About the author:  Brian Winchester, founder and president of Winchester Environmental Associates, Inc., is a professional environmental scientist.  He specializes in the evaluation of natural ecological systems and the effect of man upon them, and provides technical analysis and expert testimony.  Winchester has lived, worked and studied in over 30 countries, with a geographic focus in the southeastern United States and Caribbean.  His current areas of interest include the evolution/intelligent design debate, wilderness areas not yet visited, and Genesis and the Garden of Eden.  His writings include professional and non-fiction works, but Adam is his first novel.  He and his wife Deb reside in Tampa, Florida.

~I received a complimentary copy from Creative Resources.  Watch for my review by January 15.~

Adam: A Novel (The Eden Chronicles)

Publisher/Publication Date: TM Publishing, Oct 2010

ISBN: 978-0-9826665-9-3

240 pages



ARC Arrival: Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

Thirsty by Tracey Bateman

Publisher: Waterbrook Press

About the book: "Hello, I'm Nina Parker. . . and I'm an alcoholic."

For Nina, it's not the weighty admission but the first steps toward recovery that prove most difficult. She must face her ex-husband, Hunt, with little hope of making amends, and try to rebuild a relationship with her angry teenage daughter, Meagan. Hardest of all, she is forced to return to Abbey Hills, Missouri, the hometown she abruptly abandoned nearly two decades earlier - and her unexpected arrival in the sleepy Ozark town catches the attention of someone - or something - igniting a two-hundred-fifty-year-old desire that rages like a wildfire.

Unaware of the darkness stalking her, Nina is confronted with a series of events that threaten to unhinge her sobriety. Her daughter wants to spend time with the parents Nina left behind. A terrifying even that has haunted Nina for almost twenty years begins to surface. And an alluring neighbor initiates and unusual friendship with Nina, but is Markus truly a kindred spirit or a man guarding dangerous secrets?

As everything she loves hangs in the balance, will Nina's feeble grasp on her demons be broken, leaving her powerless against the thirst? The battle between redemption and obsession unfolds to its startling, unforgettable end. (back cover)

About the author: With close to one million books in print, Tracey Bateman is the award-winning author of more than thirty titles. Fan favorites include the popular Kansas Home historical series: Color of the Soul, a tale of race and prejudice; and her many intriguing Heartsong Presents romantic novels. Tracey resides in Missouri with her husband and four children. (back cover)

Thirsty
Publisher/Publication Date: Waterbrook Press, Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-0-307-45715-8
384 pages

ARC Arrival: Touched by a Vampire by Beth Felker Jones

Touched by a Vampire:
Discovering the Hidden Messages in the Twilight Saga
by Beth Felker Jones

Publisher: Multnomah Books

About the book: People around the world are enraptured with Edward and Bella's forbidden romance in the Twilight Saga, a four-book serial phenomenon written by Stephenie Meyer. The bestsellers tell the story of a regular girl's relationship with a vampire who has chosen to follow his "good" side. But the Saga isn't just another fantasy - it's teaching girls about love, sex, and purpose. With 48 million copies in print and a succession of upcoming blockbuster films, now is the time to ask the important question: Can vampires teach us about God's plan for love?

Touched by a Vampire investigates the themes of the Twilight Saga from a Biblical perspective. Some Christian readers have praised moral principles illustrated in the story, such as premarital sexual abstinence, which align with Meyer's Mormon beliefs. But ultimately, Beth Felker Jones examines whether the story's redemptive qualities outshine its darkness.

Cautionary, thoughtful, and challenging, Touched by a Vampire is written for Twilight fans, parents, teachers, and youth workers. It includes an overview of the series for those unfamiliar with the storyline and a discussion guide for small groups. (back cover)

About the author: Beth Felker Jones is assistant professor of theology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. She is the author of the Marks of His Wounds: Gender Politics and Bodily Resurrection, as well as numerous articles and reviews. Beth is a mother and a pastor's wife. (back cover)

Touched by a Vampire
Publisher/Publication Date: Multnomah Books, Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-1-60142-278-1
192 pages

ARC Arrival: Family Plots by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh

Family Plots: Love, Death & Tax Evasion
by Mary Patrick Kavanaugh

Publisher: IUniverse

About the book: Family Plots is a fresh and funny autobiographical novel about a young mother trying against all odds to create a normal family life with her new husband, a criminal attorney, who - it turns out - is committing a few crimes of his own.

Kavanaugh gives us a wry, unsentimental account of a marriage barreling toward calamity. In an attempt to find romance, family, and financial stability, Mary stumbles into a world of pseudonyms, fake weddings, and hidden bank accounts. Events that land many of the players into the family cemetery plot reveal unexpected secrets and stashes that manage, in small ways, to transform a tale of seeming tragedy into one of surprising healing and redemption. (back cover)

Family Plots
Publisher/Publication Date: IUniverse, Oct 2008
ISBN: 978-1-4401-0466-4
300 pages

ARC Arrival: Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

Spellbinder by Helen Stringer

Publisher: Feiwel & Friends

About the book: Belladonna Johnson can see ghosts. It's a trait she's inherited from her mother's side of the family, like blue eyes or straight hair. And it's a trait she could do without, because what twelve-year-old wants to be caught talking to someone invisible?

It is convenient, though, after Belladonna's parents are killed in a car accident. They can live with her the same as always, watching the same old TV shows in their same old house. Nothing has changed. . .until everything changes.

One night, with no warning, they vanish into thin air - along with every other ghost in the world. It's what some people think ghosts are supposed to do, but Belladonna knows it's all wrong. They may not be living, but they're not supposed to be gone.

With the help of her classmate, Steve, a master of sneaking and spying, Belladonna is left to uncover what's become of the spirits and to navigate a whole world her parents have kept well-hidden. If she can't find her way, she'll lose them again - this time, for good.

In her sparkling debut novel, Helen Stringer spins a ghost story that's spine-tingling, sensitive, and dead funny. (back cover)

About the author: Helen Stringer grew up in Liverpool, England, and currently lives in Los Angeles. Here in the U.S., she studied film, winning several student film awards, and was a Directing Fellow at the American Film Institute Center for Advanced Film and Television Studies. This is her first novel. (back cover)

Spellbinder
Publisher/Publication Date: Feiwel & Friends, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-38763-1
384 pages
Reading Level: 9-12 years

Tome Traveler: However Tall the Mountain by Awista Ayub

However Tall the Mountain by Awista Ayub

Publisher: Hyperion

I received this book from Marcia at Printed Page as part of her Read It Forward program. Thank you so much Marcia!

About the book: In 1979, when Awista Ayub was only two years old, her family fled Afghanistan for the United States, where Awista flourished, thanks to organized athletics - and where she vowed to make a difference in her home country some day. Soon after the fall of the Taliban, Awista saw her chance: She founded the Afghan Youth Sports Exchange, an organization dedicated to nurturing Afghan girls through soccer. What began with eight young women has exploded into something of a phenomenon. Fifteen teams now compete in the Afghanistan Football Federation, with hundreds of girls participating.

By bringing soccer to young Afghan women, Awista reintroduced the very traits the decades of war had cruelly stripped away from them - confidence and self-worth. In However Tall the Mountain, she tells her story and the stories of the eight original girls. Timely, heartfelt, and moving, it shows how women can find strength in each other, in teamwork, and in themselves - risking their lives to obtain the freedom that we take for granted. (back cover)

However Tall the Mountain
Publisher/Publication Date: Hyperion, Aug 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4013-2249-6
256 pages

ARC Arrival: Fallen by Lauren Kate

Fallen by Lauren Kate

Publisher: Delacorte Book for Young Readers

About the book: Daniel's gaze caught hers, and her breath caught in her throat. She recognized him from somewhere. But she would have remembered meeting someone like him. She would have remembered feeling as absolutely shaken up as she did right now.

They were still locking eyes when Daniel flashed her a smile. A jet of warmth shot through her. . .but then he raised his hand in the air. And flipped her off, Luce gasped and dropped her eyes. Her momentary delirium vanished. What was that guy's problem?

Just before she ducked into her first class, she dared to glance back. His face was blank, but there was no mistaking it - he was watching her go. (back cover)

Fallen
Publisher/Publication Date: Delacorte Book for Young Readers, Dec 2009
ISBN: 78-0-385-73893-4
464 pages
Reading Level: Young Adult

ARC Arrival: Through the Triangle by C.P. Stewart

Through the Triangle by C.P. Stewart

Publisher: Outskirts Press

About the book: Jake Myers and his semi-estranged son Nathan were supposed to be on a healing jaunt: a Florida vacation spent deep-sea fishing and them park hopping. But they and the tree other passengers aboard Oblique View happened to be in the wrong place at the right time - in a storm within the Devil's Triangle. On a deserted shore, they discover they are in the right place at the wrong time - the Florida coast nearly three-hundred years in the future. Then there's the metropolis nearby that appears to be deserted. . .appears, that is. . .

Now, this group is about to confront a dangerous species - part animal/part human. . . that can see in the dark. Together with a loose association of other humans, fellow travelers cast off in this strange land and strange time, they'll have to rely on instinct and cunning to survive. But something as deadly as the Devil's Triangle they just passed through might be one of their own. . .

What follows is a journey of enlightenment as Jake discovers the shocking historical events leading to this new reality and the love lurking right under his nose. It all combines for a savvy time-travel thriller that will keep you guessing right up until the shocking finale. (back cover)

About the author: C.P. Stewart made a career of teaching high school and, when requested, university physics. A lifelong resident of western Pennsylvania, he is married with two adult children and one grandchild. (back cover)

Through the Triangle
Publisher/Publication Date: Outskirts Press, Aug 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4327-4036-8
390 pages

ARC Arrival: Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

Bewitching Season by Marissa Doyle

Publisher: Square Fish

About the book: Twins Persephone and Penelope Leleand are anticipating their first London season with mixed feelings. Pen can't wait to flirt with handsome young men at parties, but Persy would far rather stay home and continue her magic studies. When the twins discover that their governess has been kidnapped as part of a dastardly plot to enchant the soon-to-be queen, they're determined to find and save them both. Along the way, Persy learns that a good lady's maid is hard to find, that one should never cast a love spell on anyone after drinking too much brandy punch at a party, that pesky little brothers can sometimes come in handy, and that husband-hunting isn't such an odious task after all, if you can find the right quarry. (back cover)

Bewitching Season
Publisher/Publication Date: Square Fish (Reprint) Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-312-59695-8
368 pages
YA

ARC Arrival: Elynia by David Michael Belczyk

Elynia by David Michael Belczyk

About the book: Elynia is about humility. It examines four generations of characters diverse in time and place whose varied struggles distill a unified expression of human need. The characters are interconnected in unusual but intimate ways, for example: the immigrant shoe-man works his life away in a dying town to see his son wrongly arrested by a man whose shoes he shines; as a student, the son watched his friend betray the memory of a departed mother by stealing her makeup for a drunken gag; the friend marries a waitress who secretly loves a man atoning for his past by refurbishing a house; a man whose paintings were rejected by his love, the granddaughter of the woman who boards the shoe-man after a fire. Elynia is the only named character in the manuscript but appears only in reference by others. The other characters occupy iconic roles, each representing a stage or state in life. The reader's second-hand knowledge of Elynia mirrors the search for identity that haunts the unnamed, tactile characters and blurs their distinctions. (back cover)

About the author: Elynia is David's first inventive and rawly expressive recreation of the traditional novel. He wrote Elynia on the golden plains of the northern midwest, sailing on the great lakes, in Chicago, D.C., London, and on the canals of France. These diverse places and the struggles of their people give Elynia its compassionate pulse and proud and stately sense of decay. David, an engineer and lawyer, is also the author of two forthcoming poetry collections. He currently writes in his hometown of Pittsburgh, where he is producing his next work of fiction. (back cover)

ARC Arrival: Cherries in Winter by Suzan Colon

Cherries in Winter:
My Families Recipe for Hope in Hard Times
by Suzan Colon

Publisher: Doubleday

About the book: When Suzan Colon was laid off during the economic downturn of 2008, luxuries she'd taken for granted, like shopping at gourmet markets and even owning a car, were suddenly outside her budget. She decided to save money by cooking, and her mother suggested, "Why don't you look in Nana's recipe folder?" In the basement, Suzan found the tattered treasure, full of handwritten and meticulously typed recipes, peppered with her grandmother Matilda's commentary in the margins. Reading it, Suzan realized she had found something more than a collection of recipes - she had found the key to her family's survival through hard times.

Suzan began re-creating Matilda's "sturdy food" recipes for baked pork chops and beef stew, and she began uncovering the stories of her resilient family's past. Taking inspiration from Matilda, who was the sole support of her family as a teenager during the Great Depression (and who always answered "How are you?" with "Fabulous, never better!"), Suzan starts to approach her own crisis with a sense of wonder and gratitude. It turns out that the gift to survive and thrive through hard times had been bred in her bones all along.

Cherries in Winter makes you want to cook, it makes you want to know your own family's stories, and, above all, it makes you feel rich even when you're feeling poor. (back cover)

Cherries in Winter
Publisher/Publication Date: Doubleday, Nov 2009
ISBN: 978-0-385-53252-5
224 pages

Another ARC Arrival and Giveaway: The Heretic's Daughter

The Heretic's Daughter by Kathleen Kent

Publisher: Hachette Book Group

In 1752, Sarah Carrier Chapman, weak with infirmity, writes a letter to her granddaughter, revealing the secret she has closely guarded for six decades. . .

Her story begins more than a year before the Salem witch trials, when nine-year-old Sarah and her family arrive in a New England community already gripped by superstition and fear. As they witness neighbor pitted against neighbor, friend against friend, hysteria escalates--until more than two hundred men, women, and children have been swept into prison. Among them is Sarah's mother, Martha Carrier.

In an attempt to protect her children, Martha asks Sarah to commit an act of heresy -- a lie that will most surely condemn Martha even as it will save her daughter. (Back Cover)


I have 5 copies of The Heretic's Daughter to give away courtesy of Hachette Books!

This would be a great book club read - grab the Reading Group Guide!

Rules for entries are changing - future giveaways will continue to be revised until I find something I am happy with again.

1. U.S./Canada only - No PO Boxes
2. Giveaway ends Nov 6, 2009, 11:59PM CST.
3. All entries can currently be left in same comment.
   
4. For first entry - Leave comment with email address.
5. +2 Current Followers
6. +1 New Followers
7. +2 Follow me on twitter (kherbrand) and tweet - can use retweet button at bottom.
8. +2 For a blog post - leave me the link please.
9. +1 If you tell me how you heard about this giveaway.

Good luck!

ARC Arrival and a Giveaway! - Life After Genius

Life After Genius by M. Ann Jacoby

Publisher: Hachette Book Group

Theodore "Mead" Fegley has always been the smartest person he knows. By age twelve, he was in high school, and by fifteen he was attending a top-ranked university. Now, at age eighteen, he's on the verge of proving the Reimann Hypothesis, an equation that has mystified mathematicians for years. But only days before graduation, Mead suddenly flees home to rural Illinois. What has caused him to run remains a mystery to all but Mead and a classmate whose quest for success has turned into a dangerous obsession.

As Mead embarks on a new life's journey--learning the family business of selling furniture and embalming the dead--he'll discover a surprising truth: that the heart may know what the head has yet to learn. (Back cover)

I have 5 copies of this book to give away courtesy of Hachette Books!

Read an excerpt of Life After Genius.

Rules for entries are changing - future giveaways will continue to be revised until I find something I am happy with again.

1. U.S./Canada only - No PO Boxes
2. Giveaway ends Nov 6, 2009, 11:59PM CST.
3. All entries can currently be left in same comment.
   
4. For first entry - Leave comment with email address.
5. +2 Current Followers
6. +1 New Followers
7. +2 Follow me on twitter (kherbrand) and tweet - can use retweet button at bottom.
8. +2 For a blog post - leave me the link please.
9. +1 If you tell me how you heard about this giveaway.

Good luck!

ARC Arrival: Jesse's Girl by Gary Morgenstein

Jesse's Girl by Gary Morgenstein

Publisher: CreateSpace

I received this book for review from Pump Up Your Book Tours.

About this book: The story opens as a jarring phone wakes lifelong Brooklynite and widowed father Teddy Mentor well after midnight. It's the Montana wilderness program saying that his 16-year-old adopted son has run away - and they haven't a clue where he's gone. Only two weeks ago, Jesse had been taken to the program by escorts to deal with substance abuse problems.

Jeopardizing his flagging PR job in New York, Mentor rushes across the country to find Jesse, who is off on his own quest: to find Theresa, the sister he's never known. When Teddy finally discovers Jesse at a bus stop in Illinois, he is torn between sending him back or joining his son on a journey to find this girl in Kentucky. But he decides to go and they become embroiled in a grisly crime when Theresa's abusive husband Beau attacks her - Jesse stabs the big beast of a man, leaving him for dead.

Given Jesse's record, Teddy can't go to the authorities without risking his son's arrest. However, Beau is not dead, merely wounded, and he hunts them down, thirsty for revenge. Teddy, Jesse and Theresa flee across the state with Beau in hot pursuit. Seeking safety but finding trouble, thier story leads them to an ultimate shattering question: is Theresa really Jesse's sister or has he been scammed?

Anchored around a floundering father-son relationship, Jesse's Girl tackles questions like finding roots and re-uniting vanished bonds. This novel is timely given the heightened media attention in stories of addiction, among celebrities and the general public alike. Jesse's Girl stands out because it is written from a father's perspective and delves into challenges of adoption and identity as well. (back cover)

Jesse's Girl
Publisher/Publication Date: CreateSpace, March 2009
ISBN: 978-1441492241
340 pages

ARC Arrival: Century #1: Ring of Fire by P.D. Baccalario

Century #1: Ring of Fire by P.D. Baccalario

Publisher: Random House Books for Young Readers

I received this book for review from Random House.

About the book: Every hundred years, four kids from four cities must save the world.

Rome, December 29.

A mix-up with their reservations forces Harvey from New York, Mistral from Paris, and Sheng from Shanghai to share a room with the hotel owner’s daughter, Elettra. The four kids discover an amazing coincidence—they all have birthdays on February 29, Leap Day. That night, a strange man gives them a briefcase and asks them to take care of it until he returns. Soon afterward, the man is murdered.

The kids open the briefcase. In it they find a series of clues that take them all over Rome, through dusty libraries and dark catacombs, in search of the elusive Ring of Fire, an ancient object so powerful that legend says even a Roman emperor couldn’t control it.

In the first book of the Century quartet, Italian author P. D. Baccalario begins a mystery that will take four cities and four extraordinary kids to solve. (Amazon)

ARC Arrival: Don't Look Down by David Laing Dawson

Don't Look Down by David Laing Dawson

Publisher: Bridgeross Communications

I received this book for review from Bostick Communications.

About the book: Four men, age 18 to 81, have murdered, and now share a room in the secure forensic psychiatry ward. Who better to get inside their heads, and find both the tragedy and comedy of their lives than psychiatrist and novelist David Laing Dawson.

Frank has just completed a ten year sentence in a Federal Prison for manslaughter. He is remanded for an assessment in the Forensic Ward of a Psychiatric Hospital. On this ward Frank shares a four bed room with Joseph, a man suffering from severe depression and delusions of jealousy, David, a young schizophrenic man, and Henry Thornton, 81 years of age, sometimes confused, and possibly guilty of the mercy killing of his companion and lover.

Dawson explores the comedy as well as the tragedy of these four lives as they intersect in a dramatic way in a place none of them wishes to be.

This story has the ring of truth and insight only an insider can provide. And though the characters and events are tragic, the author finds many moments of shared humanity, warmth and good humor. (publicity material sent with the book)

Don't Look Down
Publisher/Publication Date: Bridgeross Communications, August 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9810037-5-7
194 pages

ARC Arrival: A Hope and a Future by Don Wilton

A Hope and a Future: Overcoming Discouragement
by Don Wilton

Publisher: B&H Books

I received this book for review from Pure Publicity.

About the book: Pastor Don Wilton, who is also known as Billy Graham's pastor, recognizes that many people are discouraged as they struggle with uncertainty concerning their finances, health issues, a tough economy, broken family relations and other issues in the world. Wilton believes that discouragement is prevalent today and can have a negative impact on a person's family, work, ministry and relationships, and may also lead to health ailments and depression.

To encourage those who are feeling overwhelmed and uncertain about their future, Wilton has released A Hope and a Future to help people break the day-to-day discouragement cycle. "I want to proved principles and illustrations from God's Word for people to live beyond their circumstances, and despite their situation, God can bring them through it," Wilton says.

Using personal illustrations in his book, Wilton shares his personal journey through loneliness and discouragement in A Hope and a Future. born in South Africa, Wilton recalls a time in a Zululand boarding school when, as a young boy, he experienced significant feelings of rejection and loneliness. After graduation, Wilton was drafted in the military, and served as a tank commander in the Southwest African desert. After his military discharge, Wilton felt God calling him into ministry to share God's Word around the world.

In A Hope and a Future, Pastor Wilton parallels the lives of biblical figures Nehemiah, Samuel and Moses, men who overcame discouragement by making a choice to take action. He also stresses the importance of understanding spiritual gifts, sharing your faith, giving to others and knowing the spiritual enemy. A Hope and a Future will help readers in the following areas:

• Identify and overcome spiritual emptiness and spiritual burnout
• Recognize the relationship between health and fulfilling their spiritual calling
• Understand why God allows spiritual attacks on Christians
• Combat spiritual attacks with armor of God
• Ten Tactics Satan uses to discourage and seven defensive actions

Through his extensive travels, Pastor Wilton has spoken to thousands of people who have faced the same feelings of pain, anger, and loneliness that he once had. Wilton believes many of these feelings come from a person's longing to be loved. It wasn't until he turned his life over to Christ that Wilton's loneliness disappeared. "God's love finds its root in His very existence. His love is who He is by nature. His essence and character is love," says Wilton.

A Hope and a Future provides biblical applications and real-life examples for overcoming discouragement; reminding readers that God has a spiritual purpose for their future. "Sometimes the Lord allows us to go through circumstances to get our attention and allow us to place our full faith and trust in Him," says Wilton. "We need to remember that God has a plan for our lives that is greater than our circumstances." (publicity info from Pure Publicity)

A Hope and a Future
Publisher/Publication Date: B&H Books, Oct 2009
ISBN: 978-0-8054-4555-8
256 pages

ARC Arrival: Ginger High by Melissa Burmester

Ginger High by Melissa Burmester

Publisher: Infinity Publishing

I received this book for review from Pump Up Your Book Tours.

About the book: Ginger High is no ordinary school. It is a school for students with special powers. Many years ago people came to Earth from the Kingdom of Animist, a parallel universe. Two long time friends, Matthias and Amanta, attended the school and then returned home to Animist.

The school has had many unexplained deaths. Daisy Fisher attends the school after her old school burns down. Matthias and Amanta are called back to the school to help solve the mysteries. What are powers? And what is with this crazy school? Welcome to Ginger High. (back cover)

About the author: Melissa Burmester is presently living in East Moriches, NY with her twin brother George, her parents and their cat Cosmo. Melissa has been writing about vampires and the supernatural since the age of twelve. She has written a few short stories, but Ginger High is her first novel. She is presently attending Westhampton Beach High School, and is planning a career as a writer and a teacher. (back cover)

Ginger High
Publisher/Publication Date: Infinity Publishing, May 2009
ISBN: 978-0-7414-5363-0
229 pages

ARC Arrival: The Peruke Maker by Ruby Dominguez

The Peruke Maker: The Salem Witch Hunt Curse
by Ruby Dominguez

Publisher: Outskirts Press

I received this book for review from Pump Up Your Book Tours.

About the book: The Peruke Maker - The Salem Witch Hunt Curse is a compelling and suspenseful story that focuses on the infamous Salem Witch Hunt Curse, an ancient and evil practice which is unearthed from necromancy and violates the course of natural events in a modern day world.

Inspired by true events, The Peruke Maker is a well researched screenplay about the spiritual and emotional journeys of Bridget Cane, a stunning 17th century red haired beauty, and Sarah, a thoroughly 21st century woman. Their paths become inextricably bound across time and space as Thomas Cane's vengeful curse continues to threaten the virtuous during this relentless quest for an avenger of innocent blood.

Like the book's 21st century time traveler, Sarah, the author's readers are introduced to this earlier, frightening world by the startling image of Bridget Cane, scantily clad, frozen in fear, her own imminent death portended by the Banshee's bloodcurdling cries, set against the background of a witch hunt that has reached a feverish pitch in a society where the fear of sorcery and the devil is as real as God.

The story builds with heightened tension and conflict and fittingly ends in present day New York City when Sarah's journey ultimately comes full circle as Michael's love for her triumphs over the evil she must face in 17th century Salem. The suspense leading to her final redemption climaxes in a dramatic and magical act of rebirth which transcends the grave at the exact stroke of midnight on the Autumnal Equinox.

This is a beautiful illustration which captures the very essence of what this story is all about: love and forgiveness. (Outskirts Press Sales Sheet)

The Peruke Maker
Publisher/Publication Date: Outskirts Press, March 2009
ISBN: 978-1-4327-1782-7
124 pages

ARC Arrival: Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby

Secrets of a Christmas Box by Steven Hornby

Publisher: Ecky Thump Books

I received this book for review from Ecky Thump Books.

From the start of December,
to Christmas Eve night,
one chapter an evening,
wrapped up with delight.

Enter the magical festive world of the Christmas 'Tree-Dwellers', as Larry, a Christmas snowman, wakes up after the long sleep in the Christmas box, to find his brother missing.

Desperate to find him before Christmas, Larry, along with his girlfriend Debbie, a newcomer Splint, and Larry's companion Tinsel, break the laws of the 'Tree-Elders' and escape down the tree and away into the house, to look for clues.

Away from the safety of the tree and in an unfamiliar world, the Dwellers stumble upon a dark and sinister secret that threatens their entire world. Can Larry and the group make it back to the tree in time to warn the others, and finally uncover the truth behind the 'Secrets of a Christmas Box'? (book jacket)

Steven Hornby grew up near Preston in the north of England, and has been storytelling for over 15 years in visual effects and animated movies.

He initially planned 'Secrets of a Christmas Box' as a screenplay, after spending several years having the idea running around in his head, but instead turned it into his first novel.

He wanted to capture the magical time of Christmas and by sharing the story, hopes it will bring back those special feelings for others too, that they may have long since forgotten. (book jacket)

Secrets of a Christmas Box
Publisher/Publication Date: Ecky Thump Books, Sept 2009
ISBN: 978-0-9815883-0-8
248 pages