Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.
Showing posts with label Spencer Seidel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Spencer Seidel. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 1, 2012

Scavenger Hunt Blog Tour: Lovesick by Spencer Seidel

Title: Lovesick
Author: Spencer Seidel
Publisher: Publishing Works, Inc.


About the book:  “‘He’s got a knife!’ Jimmy said after seeing the glint of a blade in the kid’s hand. Jimmy brought his gun up and squared it at the kid.”

A murder rocks Portland, Maine after police discover an incoherent teen sitting in a pool of blood late one night. Paul Ducharme is found with a murder weapon in one hand, the dead body of his best friend in the other, and no clue how he got to the Eastern Promenade Trail.

A teenage love triangle gone wrong brings Spencer Seidel back with a vengeance in LOVESICK (PublishingWorks; $14.95; June 2012), the follow up to his breakout novel Dead of Wynter. Seidel deftly illustrates the trying relationship amid a friend and love interest – each with their own desires, issues and shocking agendas.

Wendy, the girl of Paul’s dreams, has been missing for weeks. Her boyfriend Lee has been murdered–apparently by Paul. It’s an open and shut case–or so most of Portland thinks.

When forensic psychologist Dr. Lisa Boyers is asked to interview Paul, who claims to forget the events leading up to the murder, she reluctantly agrees. In her jailhouse interviews, Lisa helps Paul to recover his memories, but the murder’s circumstances force her to recall her own troubled past.

Media attention mounts. Reporters stream into Portland. All eyes turn to Lisa. She seems intent on exonerating the “brutal teen killer” but quickly finds herself the focus of an over-zealous reporter with a knack for digging up dirty secrets. But the killer who has Lisa in the crosshairs already knows them all.


My thoughts:  I read this book in one sitting!  I had to know who had done it!  The story is told by Paul and he is relating his history with Wendy and Lee to Dr. Lisa Boyers.  She has been hired by an attorney to help evaluate Paul and see if she can get him to remember the events leading up to the night he is found with Lee's body.  Because he is the one telling the story, it is told in chunks as they only have a couple of hours a day to meet.

There is plenty going on in between those times though!  Lisa's past, which she has never effectively dealt with on a personal level, begins to rear it's head.  Between the media hype that this case has created and reconnecting with Rudy Swaner, the attorney who hired her, she was bound to have to deal with some of the events from her past.  She didn't realize when she took the case though, how much she had in common with Wendy.

This was a fast-paced book that at times was predictable, still had a twist at the end that I didn't see coming.  I very much enjoyed Dead of Wynter last year, and really enjoyed this one as well.  Spencer Seidel is definitely going to be an author I keep my eye out for.

Scavenger Hunt!  I didn't realize I was the start of the Scavenger Hunt!   You can read the excerpt below and find the next blog listed at the end - or to get the full list all at once - check out this link.



Here is an excerpt from Lovesick:

Patrolman Jimmy Preece would tell the story for the rest of his life. On his first night out as a rookie cop on the streets of Portland, Maine, he and his partner, a ten-year veteran of Portland PD, discovered a grisly killing on the Eastern Promenade, next to the 295 overpass.

It was a murder that would make headlines throughout the Northeast, especially after what happened to that shrink in the weeks afterward. Murder in Portland is not unheard of, but it is unusual.

At the Maine Criminal Justice Academy in Vassalboro, Jimmy had learned that Cumberland County has only one or two murders a year.

That stat offers little comfort to the families of the victims, something the cadets don’t always learn at the academy. Murder isn’t a statistic. In real life, it’s a dead family member. It’s a tragedy. http://beasbooknook.blogspot.com/


Q&A

1. When and why did you begin writing?

 In some sense, I feel like I’ve always been a writer. The compulsion began when I was about six or so, after reading books like The Phantom Tollbooth by Norton Juster and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. But it wasn’t until years later, after I’d more-or-less given up on a career as a musician, that I began to write fiction seriously. That was in my mid-twenties. I’m not so sure as to the why of it. It’s just something I feel like I need to do.

2. Do you have a specific writing style?

A couple of reviews called my writing “lyrical” and/or “flowing,” which is hugely flattering. Having a nearly 25-year background in music, I’m conscious of cadences in writing, particularly in dialogue. I think that could be considered a style, but I’m always working to get better, to evolve.

3. How did you come up with the title?

Ugh. Titles. I hate coming up with titles. Lovesick began as “The Streets of Portland,” which I knew was terrible. When I was about a quarter of the way through my first draft, I was brainstorming on titles using the word “love.” It then just popped into my head. Lovesick is a kind of twisted love story, so it seemed like a perfect fit to me.

4. Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

No. Or perhaps I should say that none was intended. I don’t write with an agenda, so anything that pops up will likely be because of some psychological quirk of mine. And there are, ahem, many of those.

5. If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Sol Stein, although I suppose he’s more well known as an editor. He wrote a wonderful book on the craft of writing called “Stein On Writing.” I keep some typed-up notes from that book handy to read every now and again. He’s a mentor I’ve never met.


Lovesick
Publisher/Publication Date: Publishing Works, June 2012
ISBN: 978-1-935557-51-7
378 pages


Challenges:
Where Are You Reading
A to Z Reading Challenge
Mystery and Suspense Reading Challenge
ARC Reading Challenge (2)
Free Reads Challenge
Reading Romances Challenge (3)
Romantic Suspense Reading Challenge

Monday, May 16, 2011

Dead of Wynter by Spencer Seidel (Book Review and Giveaway!)

Title: Dead of Wynter
Author: Spencer Seidel
Publisher: Publishing Works

"Dolly, it's your mother."

Dolly.  Jackie Ruth Wynter had called Alice that for years.  Alice hated it.  Almost as much as she hated her old life as Alice Wynter when she lived with her torn up family in the small town of Redding, Maine.  Her twin brother Chris had been fading fast, transforming into a mirror image of their drunken, violent father.  Now Jackie Ruth was telling her that Papa was dead and Chris was missing.

Alice resigns herself to return, helping her mother and the local police with the mystery surrounding the crime.  But there are some family secrets her mother would sooner take to the grave than reveal.  As the authorities come closer to solving the mystery of the men in her family, she begins to realize her past life as Alice Wynter is the missing part of the puzzle.  But who is searching out the former Alice?

Wynter family secrets run deep, and they all have something to hide in the bone-chilling cold of Maine lake country. The mystery of her father's murder and brother's disappearance will capture your attention well past when the fire has gone out.

My thoughts: I loved this book.  I read it quicker than I have read any book in quite awhile.  I literally did not want to put it down.  The story jumps back and forth between the present time, when Alice goes back to Redding to be with her family and 1984, which is where the circumstances that drive the present day events started.  You get just little bits of the story at a time, some I was able to guess, some not so much.  Just when you thought you were going to get some juicy morsel the author would turn the story to make you wait a little longer.

The present day story wraps up in just a couple of days, but lots of family secrets are unearthed.  Alice thinks she is the only one with anything to hide, but learns that everyone in her family had a secret - some old, some new. She reconnects with an old boyfriend from highschool while she is back in town and is able to eventually heal some wounds that had happened with him. 

I liked the way the author used the Maine weather to play a role in the story.  As the weather intensified, so did the story.  The more the snow fell and covered the landscape, the more secrets were unburied.  I felt satisfied by the ending and felt like all the loose ends had been wrapped up.  Highly recommend this book for anyone who loves mysteries, thrillers, and are fans of good fiction!

About the author: Spencer Seidel lives and works in suburban New Jersey.  This is his first book.  Follow his musings of music, books and other things at http://www.spencerseidel.com/ or on Twitter @SpencerSeidel.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange from my review from Media Muscle.~


Giveaway! 
 Thanks goes out to Erin from Media Muscle in providing a giveaway for one of my readers!

To enter:  Just leave a comment below with your email address.  This contest will end on June 6th and is open to residents of the U.S. and Canada.

 
For additional entries:  Follow my blog - just tell me how you do it (up to two ways, good for two entries)
Twitter - leave me the link
Blog post - leave me the link

A total of five entries are available - please leave each one in a separate comment.  You only need to leave your email address once.

Winners of all giveaways on Books and Needlepoint are chosen using random.org.


Publisher/Publication Date: Publishing Works, May 24, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-935557-69-2
281 pages

Tuesday, May 10, 2011

Teaser Tuesday (May 10, 2011)

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:
  • 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!
  • Then visit MizB and add your link!


Something wasn't right.  Ray was too serious, too dark.  The vibe in the car was poison, and the air felt hot and foul like something bad was oozing out of Ray's skin. (p 74, Dead of Wynter by Spencer Seidel)

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...