Blog Tour Promo - Brette: Intentions Gone Astray by Collette Cameron

Brette: Intentions Gone Astray
Author: Collette Cameron
Release Date: January 9, 2017
Publisher: Windtree Press
Genre: Historical Romance

Book Description:

He thought his adventures were over…

A rogue reluctantly turned rector, Alexander Hawksworth, prefers soirées to sermons and parties to prayers. Though impoverished, he seizes every opportunity to escape parish duties, preferring to hob nob with London’s finest–especially after the precocious and petite Brette Culpepper arrives in Town. Alex secretly fantasizing about claiming the breathtaking beauty as his very own, and when he unexpectedly inherits an earldom, he’s determined to make her his countess… Until he’s accused of murdering the previous earl.

Then she burst headlong into his life…

New to Society, Brette adores the whirlwind social scene, the stream of invitations… the slightly-sensual verbal sparring with the devilishly attractive, much too witty, and oh so unsuitable Mr. Hawksworth. But her fairytale existence crashes to a halt when rumors circulate she’s a peer’s illegitimate granddaughter. Even though he’s left her a tidy inheritance, formerly hospitable doors slam in her face as a newly appointed guardian emerges, intent on stealing her wealth and forcing her to wed an elderly despot.

Time is against them as Alex struggles to clear his name and deliver the woman he loves from an unthinkable fate.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ B&N ¦ Kobo ¦ iBooks

Indiesphere Feature - NASHVILLE: Music & Murder by Tom Carter

NASHVILLE: Music & Murder

Author: Tom Carter

Genre: Mystery

Publication Date: February 7th, 2017

Book Description:

 As a teenager, Maci Willis fled the poverty and sexual abuse of her Louisiana childhood with the hope of finding a new life as a Nashville recording star or greasy spoon waitress. Despite the odds, the former fate unfolded, and Maci recorded hit songs for two decades while indulging a pampered lifestyle void of risks and regrets.

But all of that changed during one fateful performance.

While Maci sang a fourth encore to a crowd of 18,000, the music was shattered by a gunshot fired by an obsessed fan. She emerged triumphant from the attempt on her life--only to face another attempt shortly afterwards. Was it a coincidence? Or was something more sinister at work?

Nashville: Music & Murder follows Maci's frantic flight from danger--and toward redemption. Along the way, it exposes the glamour of stardom, the loneliness of fame and the seedier side of the Nashville music scene.

Antagonized by the mass media, victimized by her record label executives, stalked by deranged fans and hunted by local and federal authorities, Maci leads readers through a fast-paced descent into hysteria, chaos and murder.

In an attempt to get away from it all, Maci finds herself returning to the childhood she fled. In the end, the woman who faced life on her terms alone soon finds out that loneliness is a walking prison from which she'll never walk away.

Pre-Order Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

Bookvie: Hidden Figures - out February 17, 2017 (UK)

Who's in it:
Taraji P. Henson, Octavia Spencer, Janelle Monáe

Blog Tour Excerpt & Giveaway - Seasons Within by Lele Iturrioz

Seasons Within
(Acorn Publishing)
Author: Lele Iturrioz
Publication Date: December 15th, 2016
Genres: Fantasy, Young Adult 

Book Description:

Most teenage girls know their name, where they came from, who they are. Not G, a beautiful redhead with unusual markings on her wrist. She gets her name from a silver locket she keeps around her neck, unaware the engraved letter “G” on its front holds the secret to her past. 

G’s life before the age of six has been a mystery to her. Each night for the last twelve years she’s been haunted by the same nightmare—a war. Horrendous beasts, warriors able to wield the four elements, and a boy who saves her by means of blue fire taunt her memory. But on her eighteenth birthday, G’s life begins to unravel. When she meets her new Chemistry professor, a man with an uncanny resemblance to the boy who saves her, she knows there must be more to her dreams.

It’s dangerous not knowing who you are, what you’re capable of, and what future awaits you. Especially when the darkness that slaughtered your entire world, just found you.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

Promo Blitz - The Twilight Tsunami by Shelby Londyn-Heath

The Twilight Tsunami
Author: Shelby Londyn-Heath
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Date Published: October 28, 2016
Publisher: Harvard Square Editions
   
Book Description:
Grey and his co-workers find themselves in dangerous situations every day at work. Their social services jobs require them to confront irate parents who are on drugs or who are mentally unbalanced. Grey is a long-time social worker, one who is not afraid to snatch newborn babies from glazed-eyed mothers or grab abused children out of classrooms, to place them in foster care. But something happens to Grey, something he cannot put into words as he struggles to cope.

When a new co-worker enters the department, she secretly strategizes ways to force Grey out of his job. He senses her ploy and his stress intensifies. He grows increasingly head-strong and defiant, but he fails to stop her from delivering the final crush in an unexpected, malevolent manner

To challenge his co-worker, Grey must find his inner truth and his co-worker’s "Achilles Heel" in order to rise up to conquer her.   One of them must be transformed or destroyed.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

Blog Tour Promo & Giveaway - Jadeite's Journey by Lucinda Stein

Jadeite's Journey
Author: Lucinda Stein
Genre: YA Scifi
Release Date: January 2017
Inkspell Publishing

Book Description:
When romance turns deadly…

Jadeite’s perfect world comes crashing down on her. In the futuristic world of United Society, her only problem has been how to act around the cute boy on the air shuttle. But Jadeite’s world changes when she comes across a man who looks alarmingly like her father. Clones were declared illegal years ago. When she sees her father, a robotic engineer, headed to the Dark Edge of United Society, she follows him and uncovers her father’s secret life.

Jadeite shadows her father past the boundary of United Society and into a primitive world of canyons and high deserts. She learns her father is a Ridge Runner passing between the two worlds. Even more alarming, she discovers her younger brother, Malachite, is sick and requires medicine only available from over the Ridge. After her father is arrested, Jadeite takes his place in order to save her brother’s life.

But her world turns even more precarious after she breaks up with her obsessive boyfriend, Mattie. Jadeite soon learns his threats are more than words, and she finds her life is in jeopardy.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

Blog Tour Promo - Heartstone by Elle Katharine White

Heartstone
Author: Elle Katharine White
Release Date: January 17, 2017
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Genre: Historical Fantasy

Book Description:
A debut historical fantasy that recasts Jane Austen’s beloved Pride & Prejudice in an imaginative world of wyverns, dragons, and the warriors who fight alongside them against the monsters that threaten the kingdom: gryphons, direwolves, lamias, banshees, and lindworms.

They say a Rider in possession of a good blade must be in want of a monster to slay—and Merybourne Manor has plenty of monsters.

Passionate, headstrong Aliza Bentaine knows this all too well; she’s already lost one sister to the invading gryphons. So when Lord Merybourne hires a band of Riders to hunt down the horde, Aliza is relieved her home will soon be safe again.

Her relief is short-lived. With the arrival of the haughty and handsome dragonrider, Alastair Daired, Aliza expects a battle; what she doesn’t expect is a romantic clash of wills, pitting words and wit against the pride of an ancient house. Nor does she anticipate the mystery that follows them from Merybourne Manor, its roots running deep as the foundations of the kingdom itself, where something old and dreadful slumbers . . . something far more sinister than gryphons.

It’s a war Aliza is ill-prepared to wage, on a battlefield she’s never known before: one spanning kingdoms, class lines, and the curious nature of her own heart.

Elle Katharine White infuses elements of Austen’s beloved novel with her own brand of magic, crafting a modern epic fantasy that conjures a familiar yet wondrously unique new world.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ B&N ¦ Kobo

Blog Tour Spotlight - Double Take by Abby Bardi

Double Take
Author: Abby Bardi
Publisher: Harper Collins Impulse
Pages: 186
Genre: Mystery/Women’s Fiction

Book Description:

Set in Chicago, 1975, Double Take is the story of artsy Rachel Cochrane, who returns from college with no job and confronts the recent death of Bando, one of her best friends. When she runs into Joey, a mutual friend, their conversations take them back into their shared past and to the revelation that Bando may have been murdered. To find out who murdered him, Rachel is forced to revisit her stormy 1960s adolescence, a journey that brings her into contact with her old friends, her old self, and danger.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ B&N

Cover Reveal & Giveaway - Harmful Rush by Debra Doxer

 

Harmful Rush

(Remedy #3)

Author: Debra Doxer

Publication Date: April 2017

Genres: Paranormal, Romance, Young Adult

Blog Tour Spotlight - Bare Bones by Liah Penn

Bare Bones
Author: Liah Penn

Book Description:

Love and Suspense – Southern Style

When a skull is found buried in the courtyard of the Art House during renovations, executive director Meredith O’Neill is forced to halt the over-budget and oft-delayed project. Working with architect Kieran Ford has been a nightmare, despite his icy good-looks and brilliant design. Now that the Art House is declared a crime scene, the entire project is threatened. Forced to work together in close proximity, Meredith and Kieran soon find the tensions between them changing into something else entirely. Still, she can’t help but wonder how long the heat between them will last, especially when Kieran was once so cold.

Kieran is donating his time and talents to the Art House renovation, but working with Meredith is driving him crazy, and his pro bono project is quickly going south. When the skull of a child is discovered, Kieran must confront his own loss as well as keep the project, and Meredith, on task.  Keeping his emotions in check proves to be impossible, and Kieran soon realizes that he is falling for Meredith. When he is framed for a crime, Kieran must learn to trust again. He and Meredith form an uneasy alliance as they seek answers to the mystery at the Art House. But someone is intent on destroying the historic building . . . and won’t hesitate to harm anyone who gets in the way.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ Kobo

Book Blast & Giveaway - The Tigress and the Yogi by Shelley Schanfield

The Tigress and the Yogi
Author: Shelley Schanfield
Publisher: Lake House Books
Pages: 382
Genre: Historical Fantasy

Book Description:
A talking tigress.
A wandering yogi.
A young woman's harrowing journey through an ancient land where chaos threatens gods and mortals alike.

A tigress speaks to the outcaste girl Mala, and as she flees in terror, she encounters an old yogi. She offers him hospitality. As an untouchable, her very shadow may sully the holy man, but he accepts, repaying her kindness with stories that awaken her hunger for forbidden spiritual knowledge. Soon after he leaves, she is orphaned and enslaved, but the warrior goddess Durga appears in a vision and offers her hope.

Thus begins her quest for liberation, on which she meets gods and goddesses, high-born Brahmins and lowly keepers of the cremation grounds, outlaws and kings, and young Prince Siddhartha Gautama, who is prophesied to become the Buddha. She finds happiness for a brief time, but when she loses everything, her quest goes terribly wrong. She becomes an outlaw warrior, worshipping the dark goddess, Kali. She masters occult powers but descends into madness, misusing the supernatural gifts the goddess bestows, and when she again encounters the old yogi, she must decide whether to continue on the path of bloody vengeance or seek transcendence through the power of yoga.

The Tigress and the Yogi is an historical fantasy that brings to life the vivid mythical world of ancient India and transports the reader to the Buddha's time in a story filled with love and fear, anger and desire. This visionary novel creates a memorable portrait of a powerful woman, her extraordinary daughter, and the men they challenge and inspire. It examines the yearning for spiritual transformation and inner peace, and the ways in which the pursuit of wisdom and compassion can go terribly wrong.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ B&N

BOOK REVIEW: Billy and Ant Fall Out by James Minter

Billy and Ant Fall Out

Series: Billy Growing Up, Book 2

Author: James Minter
Genre: Childrens Fiction / Middle-Grade

Book Description:

Arrogant pride makes a child feel so important that they would rather do something wrong than admit they have made a mistake. Could pride be playing a part in your child’s negative behaviour?

Billy Field says something nasty to his best friend Ant Turner, and they row. Ant goes off and makes a new friend, leaving Billy feeling angry and abandoned. Billy’s pride will not let him apologise to Ant until things get out of hand.
Is Billy the sort of person to have as a friend? Will it be possible for Billy and Ant to be mates again? Can they overcome their differences?

Billy And Ant Fall Out is the second title in the Billy Books series. Each book addresses a unique topic—bullying, arrogant pride, jealousy, lying, stealing, lack of self-belief, understanding money, and secrets. Written to help parents, guardians and teachers deal with the issues that challenge pre-teen children; each topic is presented in a gentle way through storytelling. Setting the issues in a meaningful context helps children to understand the challenges, and to see things from a different perspective. The books act as icebreakers allowing for discussions of difficult subjects. Additionally, each title is supported by a free activity book to reinforce the learning, while having fun.

Buying this book today will support your child in dealing with arrogant pride—a negative and unhelpful emotion.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

New Feature Announcement - Indiesphere

Calling All Indie Authors

As of 2017, I have changed my review policy to make life a little easier and to keep my TBR pile organised and only featuring books I am highly likely to read. I receive many requests from indie authors and I've noticed that many of the books are not edited to a professional standard, and it becomes hard to get through the books, and because of this, I'm forced to be a little more selective in my choices, thus, I have coined Indiesphere, a free promotional service for indie authors/publishers to have their books promoted on CBY.

What the feature includes:

• Book Details (cover, blurb, buy links etc)
• Author Details (bio, photo, social media links etc)
• Promo Details (excerpt, teaser, interview etc)
• Giveaway Details (if available)

Please note that not all book submissions are selected for a feature. There is a screening process, which includes me reading a sample chapter of your work. Once your work has been approved, you will recieve an email within a week of submission to confirm your feature date and to request any further info I may need.

Please note that I no longer accept requests for indie titles unless they have been promoted in the Indiesphere Feature. I hope to feature a book every Friday. Indiesphere welcomes all genres with a PG-13 or lower rating.

Submit Your Book!

BOOK REVIEW: Billy Has a Birthday by James Minter

Billy Has a Birthday

Series: Billy Growing Up, Book 1

Author: James Minter

Genre: Children's Fiction / Middle-Grade

Book Description:

Bullying is an issue in many children’s lives. This book will help to make your child bully-proof.

Billy Field celebrates his tenth birthday with his school friends, but Eddy Jost is upset at not being invited to the party. When Billy receives a special present from his granddad Eddy finds out, and wants it for himself. Using bullying tactics Eddy takes the present, leaving Billy devastated. And worse, Billy feels he has to keep his loss a secret from his parents and granddad.

Max Turner, Billy’s best friend's sister, wants to help Billy, and she tells Billy's granddad. Max and Granddad hatch a plan to recover the present.

What is Max’s plan? Does the bully get what's coming to him? Will Billy get his present back?

Billy Has A Birthday is the first title in the Billy Books series. Each book addresses a unique topic—bullying, arrogant pride, jealousy, lying, stealing, lack of self-belief, understanding money, and secrets. Written to help parents, guardians and teachers deal with the issues that challenge pre-teen children, each topic is presented in a gentle way through storytelling. Setting the issues in a meaningful context helps children to understand the challenges, and to see things from a different perspective. The books act as icebreakers allowing for discussions on difficult subjects. Additionally, each title is supported by a free activity book to reinforce the learning, while having fun.

Buying this book today will support your child in the battle against bullying; a destructive and unpleasant behaviour.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK

CBY'S Saturday Current Reads - The Empty Room by Sarah J. Clemens

 MY SATURDAY CURRENT READS IS:

Genre: Mystery / Romance
Date Published: July 23, 2016

Book Description: 
Rain soaked and dreary, it was a 1901 abandoned Victorian that Dean and Elizabeth hoped would fulfill their dreams, even if the town of Eastbrook, Maine was trapped under a blanket of fog. The first neighbor they meet in town dashes those dreams when he raises a bizarre question: what happened to the last person who lived in their house? Under mounting pressure from the residents of Eastbrook to stop questioning the past, Dean and Elizabeth are driven deeper into the history of the house, and the town. When they discover what happened in Eastbrook, keeping the secret could save their lives, but uncovering the truth might be worth the risk.

A gripping psychological mystery, The Empty Room takes readers on a cat-and-mouse game where some secrets are better off hidden.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK ¦ Website

Blog Tour Spotlight - Never Go Alone by Denison Hatch

Never Go Alone
Author: Denison Hatch
Publisher: Lookout Press
Pages: 300
Genre: Thriller/Mystery/Police Procedural

Book Description:

A rash of elaborate cat burglaries of luxury buildings in Manhattan has the police and mayor panicked. When a group of social media obsessed millennials—a loosely organized crew that call themselves “urban explorers”—are suspected in the heists, NYPD detective Jake Rivett is assigned the case.

Already undercover with one foot on each side of the blue line, Rivett is ordered to infiltrate the group and discern responsibility. Battling against both his own personal demons and misgivings regarding his superiors, Rivett dives deep into the urban exploration scene in pursuit of the truth. But what, and who, he finds—deep in the sewers, up in the cranes above under-construction skyscrapers, and everywhere else in New York—will change not only Jake, but the city itself.

Buy Links:

Amazon US ¦ UK