Carries Book Reviews

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Slightly Delayed and Somewhat Haphazard
Amber Laura
Publication date: November 16th 2023
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Miranda Monroe’s world just imploded. Not only did she just get dumped by her long-time boyfriend, but she got dumped in the most humiliatingly painful way imaginable. Very suddenly single, homeless, and heartbroken, she runs to the only person she knows will always be there for her.

Sam Church. Her best friend (and the man she’d once secretly been madly in love with).

Which is how she finds herself, emotionally spent and financially crippled, somehow agreeing to his outrageous offer: that she move into his guest bedroom. Temporarily, of course. Just until she gets back on her feet.

There’s only one problem. In the midst of mending her shattered heart, in the process of trying to find herself again (just who is Miranda Monroe?), her thoughts keep getting distracted, wandering in the most confusing and forbidden of ways…just down the hall from her.

Which is ludicrous. The most commitment-phobic person she’s ever met, Sam is off-limits to Miranda for all kinds of reasons. But mostly, because he’s her best friend—and she loves him too much to lose him. So why, suddenly, can’t she seem to stop fantasizing about him? Why can’t she stop hoping for something more?

Slightly Delayed and Somewhat Haphazard is a best-friends-to-lovers romantic comedy underscored with notes of healing fiction and the echoing sentiments of an adult coming-of-age novel.

Goodreads / Amazon

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EXCERPT:

The story was outlandish.

At turns, both unbelievable and absurdly awful.

All the same, the story was true.

Leaning forward in her chair, her body braced as if for impact, Miranda Monroe watched as her words sank in. She canvassed the face before her. The high cheekbones tautening, those green eyes narrowing, clouding with confusion, with disbelief as they stared so questioningly back at her.

Waiting, Miranda carefully studied the face of Sam Church.

Her best friend and emotional benefactor. Her anchor.

He looked… gobsmacked, she decided. That was only to be expected. She turned her attention to the cocktail glass in front of her next; it was bleeding with condensation. Absently, Miranda stirred the quickly melting ice—but it was a lost cause. Especially since she had no intention of actually drinking her drink.

Probably should have been an odd choice, then, for her to end up at The Oasis Bar and Grill.

“That doesn’t—what are you talking about?”

Miranda smirked fatalistically as she peeked back up at Sam. “You know, I think those may have been my first words as well.”

“Noel got married.” His voice was incredulous.

“Mm. Yes. To Kourtney.”

“In New Hampshire?” He repeated.

“While on a business trip,” Miranda reminded him through numbed lips. All the same, the ache in her stomach intensified, restricted her breathing as she forced herself to relive the horror of those words again.

“Apparently,” she added, for good measure, “it seems that for the first time in his life, Noel decided to make an exceptionally grand gesture.”

Marry one woman while still dating (while still living with) another woman.

“Are you—are you okay?” A stupid question, to be sure, but Miranda couldn’t blame Sam for asking it. It was a hard situation for knowing what to say.

….

It was supposed to be her.

Miranda was supposed to be the one marrying Noel. (Granted, he hadn’t technically asked but it had been an unspoken though long-expected part of their future.) Four years; that’s how long they’d been together. Pictures of them dotted the walls and shelves of their apartment—a perfectly happy couple smiling back at the camera. Furniture they’d agonized over and purchased together filled every nook and cranny of the place—marking it theirs and theirs alone.

And then, in one instant, an instant in which she’d had no say, they simply, they simply weren’t dating anymore. She was left alone. He was left with someone else’s ring on his finger.

Tears misted Miranda’s eyes. A few slipped past her lids, inking down her face. She brushed them away impatiently, sniffed the rest back in place.

He’d never let on. Never let on that he’d fallen in love with his co-worker. Miranda’s teeth ground together as a picture of Kourtney floated before her eyes. Long, willowy frame; stylishly arranged dark hair always draped just so over her shoulder; large oval eyes with an open, honest face. The snake.

Miranda had liked Kourtney. She’d welcomed her into their home. Into their social circle. Stupid fool that she was, she’d thought nothing of her and Noel’s inside jokes or shared smiles. She’d chalked it up to professional camaraderie. Frankly, she’d enjoyed not having to listen to his lengthy stories about this client or that one—she’d enjoyed the reprieve from acronyms and talk of policies and procedures she knew nothing about. She’d been happy to let them carry on without her.

She just hadn’t realized then what that meant.

(This excerpt is an abridged version of what appears in the book.)

 

Author Bio:

7 Fun Facts about Amber Laura:

1.If there’s creamer, I’m drinking coffee. And when I edit, there’s always creamer.

2.I do my best daydreaming on long car rides.

3.Some of my favorite stories came as follow-up answers to the question: “What if…?”

4.I’m the mother of a darling (if slightly overweight), 16-year-old cat. She’s kind of my mascot.

5.One of my favorite parts of writing is inventing new places—or traveling to spaces where I’ve not actually been. It’s magical and never disappointing.

6.Writing may be a solitary process, but then the characters always keep me company.

7.I’ve never quite figured out if I like to write by plot or the seat of my pants.

8.(Because I write, I don’t math.) When a scene isn’t coming together on a piece of writing, or a string of dialogue is falling flat, I like to close my eyes and picture the whole thing as though it were being acted out on a movie screen—and forty minutes later, I usually wake up!

Website / Goodreads / Facebook / Instagram

 

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**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

This week I still have a short post with only three new books to share. Of course I was a little worried this would be the week my restraint would go missing but so far so good. I keep imagining folks taking bets in Vegas but so far I’m hanging onto the wagon!

As always clicking the covers will take you to the book on Amazon!**

New additions from Netgalley Jan 14th  – Jan 21st

In a web of lies, one mother fights for the truth…

For popular true crime author Margo Box, the past six months have been a waking nightmare. Ever since her five-year-old daughter, Poppy, vanished—abducted by her own father—Margo has tortured herself the way only a mother could: with unrelenting blame.

How could she have let this happen?

Had she been working too hard to see the signs?

Despite the guilt and unanswered questions, Margo holds on to the hope that Poppy is somehow still alive. Yet after years of solving other people’s cold cases, her own case proves impenetrable.

That is, until she finds a cryptic letter hidden in a secondhand book in her neighborhood library box. In this letter are clues that someone in the community knows something about the disappearance of Margo’s school friend Sarah nearly two decades ago—the disappearance that drove Margo into true crime and haunts her still. To distract from the pain in her life, Margo throws herself into Sarah’s case, desperate for closure of some kind. But as she digs deeper into her friend’s history, she unearths a disturbing connection to her daughter she never expected to find…

Six summers to fall in love. One summer to change everything.

Liv and Finn meet six summers ago working in a bar on the rugged Cornish coastline, their futures full of promise. When a night of passion ends in devastating tragedy they are bound together inextricably. But Finn’s life is in LA with his band, and Liv’s is in Cornwall with her family – so they make a promise. Finn will return every year, and if they are single they will spend the summer together.

This summerLiv crosses paths with Tom – a mysterious new arrival in her hometown. As the wildflowers and heather come into bloom, they find themselves falling for one another. For the first time Liv can imagine a world where her heart isn’t broken every autumn. Now Liv must make an impossible choice. And when she discovers the shocking reason that Tom has left home, she’ll need to trust her heart even more . . .

Hi. My name is Julia. I’m a Synth. And I’m here to find love…

Synthetic woman Julia Walden was designed for one reason: to compete on The Proposal and claim the heart of bachelor Josh LaSala. Her casting is controversial, but Julia seems to get her fairy-tale ending when Josh gets down on one knee.

Fast forward fifteen months, and Julia and Josh are married and raising their baby in small-town Indiana. But with haters around every corner, Julia’s life is a far cry from the domestic bliss she imagined. Then her splintering world shatters: Josh goes missing, and she becomes the prime suspect in his murder.

With no one left she can trust, Julia takes the investigation into her own hands. But the explosive truths she uncovers will drive her to her breaking point—and isn’t that where a person’s true nature is revealed? That is…if Julia truly is a person.

Told via dual timelines, Jenna Satterthwaite’s twist-filled debut deftly explores the exhilarating point where artificial intelligence, reality TV and bone-chilling murder mystery meet.

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: Death by Intermission

Author: Alexis Morgan

Publisher: Kensington Cozies

Publication Date: January 26, 2021

Page Count:  336

My rating: 5 stars

About the book:

Abby McCree spends a summer showing family films under the stars—only to end the season with an unexpected slasher flick . . .

Ushered once again onto another committee by the mayor of Snowberry Creek, Washington, Abby is tasked with keeping the box office receipts of the town’s Movies in the Park nights. Cut to the director’s chair from where she’s suddenly organizing the summer’s last feature. From the opening scene through the final credits, Abby feels she’s earned nominations for best volunteer, best movie date with her tenant Tripp Blackston—and best daughter for ignoring her mother Phoebe’s own movie date with Owen Quinn.

Unfortunately, Abby and the others are treated to a post-credits scene: the body of local insurance agent Mitchell Anders. This discovery is followed by a plot twist revealing that the murder weapon comes from Owen’s food truck. With her mother’s boyfriend suspected of murder, Abby starts her own investigation determined to shine a spotlight on the real killer . . .

Death by Intermission by Alexis Morgan is the fourth book in the cozy Abby McCree Mystery series. As with most cozy series each book in the Abby McCree Mystery series has it’s own mystery that is solved within the book so each can be read in any order or as a standalone if choosing to do so. However, those that follow along from the beginning of the series will have some character development that carries over from book to book.

This series introduces readers to Abby McCree who had just gotten divorced and had to sell her half of the business she shared with her husband over to him when she found out what her Aunt Sybil left her in her will. Needing a fresh start Abby decided to move into her Aunts former home and make it her own in small town Snowberry Creek, Washington. After arriving in the small town Abby found herself surrounded by her aunt’s old friends who are turning to her to fill the hole that her aunt had also left in their lives and trying to get Abby to volunteer for project after project.

Now Abby has yet again been asked to join yet another committee with this time being asked by the mayor. Abby’s task has been to keep up with the box office receipts at the town’s movies in the park event but now she finds herself organizing the last movie but just as Abby thinks the night is a total success she ends up with yet another dead body on her hands. This time Abby really can’t sit back and wait for the murderer to be caught with the suspect being none other than her own mother’s date for the evening.

I have been following the Abby McCree Mystery series from the very beginning and I think Death by Intermission has been my favorite so far of the series. This is a series that has all of the elements of cozy mysteries that I enjoy with the small town setting, wonderful side characters, a bit of romance and an engaging mystery to be solved with each new book. Definitely a series I will continue to return to in the future!

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

USA Today Best-selling Author Alexis Morgan has always loved reading and now spends her days creating stories of her own filled with strong heroes and gutsy heroines. She is the author of over fifty short stories, novellas, and novels that span a variety of genres: historical romances, paranormal romances, contemporary romances, and cozy mysteries. Her current projects include her Abby McCree Mysteries from Kensington Publishing, and she has new sweet romances coming out in 2023 from Harlequin.

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

Title: The Night of the Storm

Author: Nishita Parekh

Publisher: Dutton

Publication Date: January 16, 2024

Page Count:  333

My rating: 3 stars

About the book:

From debut author Nishita Parekh, a fresh take on the classic locked-room thriller, about a multigenerational Indian American family marooned in a house with a murderer during Hurricane Harvey

Hurricane Harvey is about to hit Houston. Meanwhile, single mom Jia Shah is already having a rough week: her twelve-year-old son, Ishaan, has just been suspended from school for getting in a fight. Still reeling from the fallout of her divorce—their move to Houston, her family’s disapproval, the struggle to make ends meet on her own—now Jia is worried about Ishaan’s future, too. Will her solo parenting be enough? Doesn’t a boy need a father?

And now their apartment complex is under a mandatory evacuation order. Jia’s sister, Seema, has invited them to hunker down in her fancy house in Sugar Land, and despite Jia’s misgivings—Seema’s husband, Vipul, has been just a little too friendly with her lately—Jia concedes it’s probably the best place to keep Ishaan safe during the hurricane. With Jia’s philandering ex scrutinizing her every move, all too eager to snatch back custody of Ishaan, she can’t afford to make a mistake.

When Vipul’s brother and his wife show up on Seema’s doorstep, too, it’s a recipe for disaster. Grandma, the family matriarch, has never been shy about playing favorites among her sons and their wives. As the storm escalates, tensions rise quickly, and soon someone’s dead. Was it a horrible accident or is there a murderer in their midst?

With no help available until the floodwaters recede in the morning, Jia must protect her son and identify the culprit before she goes down for a crime she didn’t commit—or becomes the next victim. . . .

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh is a thriller novel filled with some suspense and a lot of family drama. The story in The Night of the Storm is a stormy take on a classic locked room mystery featuring a multigenerational Indian American family.

Jia Shah’s life has been uprooted quite a bit lately after going through a divorce and becoming a single parent. Now just as Jia is having problem’s with connecting with her son they both must pack up and evacuate from the incoming hurricane.

The last place Jia wants to be heading is to her sister Seema’s massive house in Sugar Land but the hurricane is giving her no choice if she wants to keep herself and her son safe. Jia is worried that Seema’s husband has been a little to forward lately and with enough on her plate with her ex the close quarters with the entire family may be a bit too much to take.

The Night of the Storm by Nishita Parekh is one that certainly started off pulling me right into the setting and story and I wish that I could say I kept up that excitement all the way through. I think this one was just layered with a little too much of the drama and not enough of the thrill for me. It almost felt as if it was all just a little too too much if that makes sense at all without me going into details. By the end I just felt this was an ok novel but not one that totally wowed me.

I received an advance copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Find this book online:

Goodreads  /  Amazon

About the author:

Nishita Parekh immigrated to the U.S. from Mumbai in her teens and now resides in Texas with her family. She is a software programmer by day but a writer at heart. She is an active member of Crime Writers of Color, Sisters of Crime, a #RevPit contest winner, and loves writing about her experiences as a woman and immigrant. The Night of the Storm is her first novel.

A free excerpt for the novel was featured in Buzz Books 2023 and can be downloaded here: https://publun.ch/BuzzBook23

**This post contains Amazon affiliate links which will allow me as an associate to earn a small commission on any purchase made through the link of the products I share. This commission in no way changes the pricing of any items for the buyer.**

The Vampire
Jack Townson
Publication date: January 23rd 2024
Genres: Adult, Paranormal, Thriller

Trade your entire life for fame, fortune, and eternal beauty. The only thing have to lose is your soul… Magic is real. And real damn scary.

A man down on his luck trips and stumbles into a world of bloodthirsty monsters hidden among the precipices of New York City. A chance encounter with illustrious vampire Alexander LaMont ensnares the clumsy yet hopeful James Donovan in shadow and treachery, thrusting James into his new identity, The Vampire Jack Townson. Will Jack survive the vampiric politics of Manhattan, or will final death come to claim him at the next sunrise?

Welcome to New York. We bite.

Jack Townson’s contemporary fantasy series, The Vampire Jack Townson, is a perilous tale about the dangers of love, deception, and vampiric grit where the action of Jay Kristoff meets the decadence of Anne Rice.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iBooks / Kobo

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EXCERPT:

Onto the landing we danced, Alexander’s blonde hair bouncing as he brought me closer to the railing, edging dangerously near a fatal fall. All it would take was a wrong step or playful push to seal our fates.

“Jack. I have to tell you something,” he began softly. “I have not been entirely truthful, you see. There is something more I need to show you.” His voice was barely a whisper, his eyes falling to the stone beneath us.

I couldn’t imagine what he was about to divulge. My thoughts wheeled over possibilities like the mafia, or perhaps he was something of a Russian spy. My pulse thumped violently in my chest, the anticipation making my sternum ache.

“Alexander?” I matched his thoughtful tone, placing my hand over his on the railing. “Whatever it is… I’m here. I’m not leaving. You’ve shown me so much magic in a single night. How much more unbelievable could this possibly get?”

He smirked darkly, as if some great secret lived there beyond his violet stare. “Don’t be afraid. Close your eyes.” He instructed and so I did.

I heard the slight shuffle of heeled shoes and the metallic tapping that followed. The railing vibrated under my hands and fear was the very thing that forced my eyes open.

“Alexander!”

There he stood upon the metal bar, the wind whipping about his ethereal hair and the dark mesh of his shirt.

I reached for him in my panic. “Are you insane? Get down from there!”

My stomach lurched, my fingertips splayed as I tried to grasp the hem of his pants and then… I failed.

My gut shot up to the roof of my mouth as I watched Alexander La Mont spiral off of the edge and down… down… down. His screaming voice vanished as so, too, did his body.

“Holy shit!” I shrieked. “He killed himself. He fucking killed himself! What the fuck!”

But before I could spiral any further and get sick all over the balcony floor, the most peculiar thing happened. A voice. A tiny whisper of a thing beckoned to me.

“Jack. Jack, look down.”

His voice called to me from the side of the building. It was impossible. He was surely dead. This had to have been some sort of trick. Was I losing my mind from the trauma of watching this man splatter on the pavement far below? Wait. Did I actually see him hit the pavement? I leaned over the railing, my raven curls interrupting my view of the streets below as wind swirled them about my face.

There he was.

Standing on the wall, staring up at me, feet pressed against the brick and completely disregarding gravity, was my mentor. He stood there as effortlessly as some arachnid-themed superhero, the lights of the city shining behind his head creating an almost angelic halo about his blond curls.

The world spun rapidly as I white-knuckled the banister. What was happening? Perhaps it was still the absinthe playing tricks on me. Yes. Perhaps all of my drinks had been spiked that evening. There was no other way to explain it. This had to be the product of some intense hallucinogenic.

“No. You weren’t drugged,” he stated simply. “What you are seeing is very real, and I imagine very confusing. I had to show you. I needed you to believe me. There was no other way.”

“Alexander!” I screamed, my eyes welling up with tears, watching them rain down over where he stood. “Please, please come back up! This is unnatural!”

He shook his head in protest. “No, no. How about you come down here.” He laughed, twirling in his spot with his arms outstretched to demonstrate he was truly not affected by the earth’s gravitational pull.

I hugged the railing, my hand gripping the metal bar tightly as fear turned my blood to ice. “N-no! I can’t!”

He cried up at me, “You’ve been telling yourself ‘no’ for so long! You’ve restricted yourself to a mediocre life, when so much more awaits you! Stop living in fear! Release yourself! Be free! Come to me! Now!” His hand outstretched towards me. Lightning cracked overhead.

I exhaled sharply, my fingers twitching in fear as I brought one leg over the ledge. I squeezed my eyes shut, focused on remembering how to breathe. Then came the other leg until I stood on the dangerous side of the railing, gripping to the metal and what might have been the last moments of my life.

“Jump, dear Jack,” he laughed.

“I can’t! I’ll fall!”

Terror gripped me to my core and reduced me to a little boy again. My heart lodged itself in my throat. The world beneath me spun in vicious circles as all the lights started to blur like watercolor. If I didn’t step down, I would surely fall forward with the vertigo. Few options were left now.

“I will catch you! I will keep you safe, if you only trust me!” Alexander promised over the rush of the wind, his smile flashing across his beautiful face.

His velvet words coaxed me enough at last, and down the lip I went. For a moment, time froze, the city fixed in place as my life flashed before my eyes. My mother, Bradley, Dad, Chloe—all happy and awash in sunlight. What if this was all truly a hallucination? What if I just hurled myself into my doom? Time resumed as I tumbled, arms flailing, the world about me smeared in violent color. Everything I had ever known was both literally and figuratively flipped upside down.

At last, arms wrapped about my body, holding me in place. Alexander hardly moved as he caught me against his chest with inhuman strength, his tight body acting like a bed for mine. He grinned up at me, our forms finally closing the distance that had plagued me all evening. I could feel my heartbeat slamming against him, yet his didn’t respond. There was nothing there.

“What… are you?”

He grinned, his lavender eyes sparkling as they beamed through the darkness into mine. “I am what rules the night. A master of the starlight, a fiend of flesh, both angel and demon as one. I am walking history—legend and myth, and you’ve known it in your heart all along.”

 

Author Bio:

A 2023 Witchy Award nominee, Jack Townson, a multi-talented artist, is the heart and soul of the thriving FangFam community across various social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, and Twitch. With an ever-expanding following that now exceeds four hundred thousand devoted fans, he’s left an indelible mark on the digital landscape, garnering an impressive 4.2 million likes under the #Fangfam hashtag.

Beyond his online presence, Jack is a versatile artist, encompassing the roles of actor, singer, and writer. His most celebrated work to date is “The Vampire Jack Townson,” an original story that first captivated audiences on TikTok and has been endorsed by New York Times bestselling author and 5-time Bram Stoker Award winner, Jonathan Maberry. This immersive narrative plunges into the hidden world of a supernatural being and the profound journey towards rediscovering one’s humanity.

Jack extends an invitation to his followers, beckoning them to peer into the psyche of an undead bohemian—an artist and a creature of the night, eternally ensnared in a world of nightmares. It’s a life devoid of sunlight’s warmth and the enduring embrace of true love, offering a unique glimpse into the enigmatic existence he portrays through his creative endeavors.

Website / TikTok / Twitter / Instagram

 

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