Carries Book Reviews

Deadspeak by Ruth Bainbridge
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Griff Lindon is one of those teenagers that while she’s only thirteen she thinks she’s going on thirty and refuses to listen to her parents. After attending a party at a friend’s house Griff takes off on her own into the woods to meet up with a friend before going home. This however will be the biggest mistake of Griff’s short life when someone attacks and murders her in the woods.

Kimberly Trent became a police detective after having tragedy strike her family at a young age when her thirteen year old sister was murdered. Getting the call when Griff’s body is found Kim is determined to catch the killer that so brutally murdered young Griff. But as Kim is investigating the case with her partner she begins to hear a voice that no one else seems to notice. Can the ghost of Griff actually be communicating with the detective?

Deadspeak is the first book of the Deadspeak Mysteries series by Ruth Bainbridge. While the story is a thriller read with the detectives investigating the murder of a young girl it’s also mixed with the supernatural aspect of having a ghost help with the case of her own murder.

I actually really enjoyed this story and thought Griff made an excellent addition to the story. She’s determined to help solve her case and can often verify when suspects are lying to the police. The story actually became full of twists that I wasn’t quite expecting while reading and really held my attention all throughout. Would definitely be interested in seeing where the author would take the story next after solving this case.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.

Caloric
Tricia Barr
(The Bound Ones #1)
Publication date: October 1st 2015
Genres: Paranormal, Young Adult

Phoenyx Blake has a secret. When she wakes in a dungeon with three strangers, she is forced to face it, which isn’t easy seeing as her cellmate, Sebastian, has starred in her dreams. As days pass, they learn they are each one of the four elements bound in human form and they have been abducted by an ancient society that plans to kill them and steal their powers. If they hope to escape, they must master their powers, and Phoenyx must learn to let go of fear and let love in, before it’s too late.

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EXCERPT:

The door clanked unlocked and then swung open. This time when the large bald man stepped inside, he paused, did a double take of the room and dropped the large paper bags at his feet. His face went sallow and he looked clearly distraught.

“Shit,” he muttered. Then he approached the cell to take a closer look and assess his next move.

As soon as he came close enough, Phoenyx grabbed his arm. He jumped in shock and confusion, but then quickly relaxed, soothed by her touch.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said in a sultry voice. “You want to help us. All you have to do is unlock these cells and let us out.”

“I would but I don’t have the key,” he said, his eyes locked on hers, looking like a love-sick puppy.

There was a collective sigh of disappointment behind her.

“Who does?” she asked.

“Dexter has it,” he confessed eagerly.

“Is there any way that you can get the key for us?”

“Uhhh, I don’t know,” he said. “He keeps it hidden in his office and no one is allowed in there. I will gladly try.”

She frowned. Why did we just assume this automaton would have the key? This really put a damper on their plans.

“Ask him what we’re doing in here,” Sebastian whispered.

“Right, why are we locked up in here?” she asked the oaf.

“Because, you four are the Bound Ones, from the legend,” he said as if it was simple and obvious.

“The Bound Ones?” she asked, feeling like she just stepped into The Twilight Zone. “What legend?”

“Yes, the legend we learn when we join the brotherhood. The legend of the Bound Ones says that, thousands of years ago, man was a slave to the elements. Man could not master crops because Earth was fickle. Volcanic eruptions would swallow whole villages and earthquakes would topple any and all of man’s accomplishments. Man could not master the sea because Water was too proud to be tamed. Air constantly tore apart cities with tornados and hurricanes, and Fire ravaged everything in its path. So our forefathers, the wisest of the Celtic sorcerers, forged a powerful spell binding each of the four elements to a volunteer from the rite, so that man would have control over the elements, rather than be controlled by them.”

“So…you’re saying that the four of us each have one of the four elements inside of us?” she asked, unable to keep the tone of doubt from spewing out.

“Yes, you are Earth, Air, Fire, and Water in bound human form,” he said, as if none of this sounded ridiculous.

Phoenyx turned around and looked at the others. Their faces were a mixture of skepticism and pensiveness.

“If this is true, what makes you think we are these Bound Ones? Wouldn’t they be long dead seeing as this legend happened so long ago?” Skylar asked.

“According to the legend,” the bald man began, “the spell was made to keep the elements bound in human form through reincarnation. The elements are eternal and cannot be destroyed, so if the bound human died, the element would once again be free. The spell was made to assure that once the human died, the element would be immediately reborn into another human vessel. Unfortunately for our forefathers, they didn’t take into account how that would make it impossible to keep track of them. After the first volunteers died, we lost hold of them permanently.”

“That still doesn’t explain why you think these Bound Ones are us particular four people,” Skylar argued.

“There was another partition in the spell,” the man continued. “When one of the Bound Ones dies, all die, and when one is born, all are born.”

That struck a chord in all of them.

“That’s why we all have the same birthday,” Lily said.

“That’s why they want to keep us alive,” Sebastian said. “They think if one of us dies, we’ll all die.”

“Yes,” the man said.

“That doesn’t prove anything,” Sebastian said. “So we were all born on the same day. Big deal. There must be thousands of other people all over the world born that same day.”

“You were all born, not just on the same day, but at the exact same time,” the man said. “Your births coincided with the deaths of four people who showed signs of being the previous Bound Ones.”

“We were all born at the same time?” Lily thought out loud. “That would definitely bring the odds down quite a bit. Approximately two-hundred and fifty people are born every minute—at least, that’s what I remember from my nursery rotation.”

This was ridiculous. It had to be. These people clearly had some screws loose…then again, the four of them did have powers. That couldn’t just be coincidence. That same nagging, writhing feeling reared its ugly head once more. She ignored it and went on with the interrogation.

“Okay, so let’s say we are the ‘Bound Ones’,” Phoenyx said, air-quoting with her free hand. “What do you want with us?”

“The Celtic sorcerers who bound the original humans founded a brotherhood to keep an eye on the elements, to keep everything in balance, and called it the Four Corners.” He moved the fingers of his free hand over the pin on his shirt. “Dexter Mauldive, our Grand Master, convinced the High Council that it was time to put the elements back under our control, and that it would be best to put all four elements into only one vessel, making it easier to relocate them after each rebirth. He has volunteered to be the first.”

“Just how do you plan to do this?” Skylar asked.

“We have realized that we can’t just kill you, because then the elements would immediately be reborn somewhere else and we would lose them once more. Our best researchers have said that the elements must be in a sort of limbo state in order to be manipulated and placed inside a new host.”

Phoenyx swallowed hard. “Limbo state? How will you accomplish that?”

“There is currently a massive solar storm happening. In three days a very rare, very large solar flare is forecasted to explode. Our researchers say the radiation and electro-magnetism this will release will both heighten the powers of all four elements and weaken their hold to your bodies. On that day, the four of you will undergo a series of electrocution which will further weaken that hold enough for the spell to work. In order to break down your bodies even more in preparation for the ritual, we were going to starve you. This is the last time you will be fed.”

Phoenyx’s heart pounded wildly and the hand she grasped him with was trembling and dripping cold sweat. Holy shit, this was so much worse than anything she could have imagined in her head. The prospect of being killed was already bad enough but to find out that they were going to be starved an electrocuted? This was a goddamn nightmare!

She sensed Lily was crying. Like hell she was going to let this happen to them!

“What’s your name?” she asked, her steady voice disguising the panic and anger she felt.

“Lucas,” he answered. She noted to herself how creepy it was that, even as he told them about all the horrible things that his cult planned for them, he still gawked at her like a horny gorilla.

“Lucas, you have to bring us that key and get us out of here,” she commanded, pushing her will into him with everything she had. “At all costs but be discreet about it. Do you understand?”

“Yes,” he said, almost like a moan of pleasure.

She released his arm. “Now go, and hurry!”

He nodded eagerly, moved the last brown paper bags closer to the cells, and left the room.

Now that he was gone, the room was dead silent, except for the loud banging of Phoenyx’s heart. No one spoke for a very long moment. Finally a sniffle escaped from Lily. Phoenyx instinctively turned and put her arms around Lily, inviting Lily to stop holding it in and her tears soaked into Phoenyx’s already quite dirty shirt. Phoenyx had no words to comfort her with this time. If Lucas didn’t come back to free them, they would die.

Author Bio:

Tricia Barr is a Professional Engineer and award-winning author. Her novel WYNDE earned a Gold Medal in the 2014 Independent Publisher Awards for Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy, Horror e-Book. She co-authored DK Publishing’s ULTIMATE STAR WARS (2015), which compiled all canon material moving forward prior to the release of “The Force Awakens.,” followed by the new STAR WARS: THE VISUAL ENCYCLOPEDIA (2017), which includes content from “Rogue One.” An expert on storytelling, Barr pens a regular series on the Hero’s Journey for the print publication Star Wars Insider magazine. She founded the respected website FANgirl Blog, and her writing can be found on a variety of websites, including Lucasfilm’s StarWars.com, and PopSugar, and Random House’s SUVUDU. She provided editorial services on Del Rey’s STAR WARS: THE ESSENTIAL READER’S COMPANION (2012).

Tricia Barr is an accomplished podcaster, co-hosting the popular Star Wars podcasts Fangirls Going Rogue and Hyperspace Theories. In her spare time, she competes as an amateur equestrian, earning top ten spots three times in national finals.

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Carry Me Home
Jessica Therrien
Published by: Acorn Publishing
Publication date: September 26th 2017
Genres: Contemporary, Thriller, Young Adult

“A riveting page-turner… Jessica Therrien broke my heart into a million pieces — and then put it back together again. This book will haunt and uplift readers long after they turn the last page.”

-KAT ROSS, best-selling author of The Midnight Sea

CARRY ME HOME is a fictional novel inspired by the true story of a teenage girl’s involvement in several Mexican gangs in San Jose and Los Angeles. The members of her crew call her, Guera, Spanish for “white girl” and it doesn’t take long for her to get lost in their world of guns and drugs.

* * *

Lucy and Ruth are country girls from a broken home. When they move to the city with their mother, leaving behind their family ranch and dead-beat father, Lucy unravels.

They run to their grandparents’ place, a trailer park mobile home in the barrio of San Jose. Lucy’s barrio friends have changed since her last visit. They’ve joined a gang called VC. They teach her to fight, to shank, to beat a person unconscious and play with guns. When things get too heavy, and lives are at stake, the three girls head for LA seeking a better life.

But trouble always follows Lucy. She befriends the wrong people, members of another gang, and every bad choice she makes drags the family into her dangerous world.

Told from three points of view, the story follows Lucy down the rabbit hole, along with her mother and sister as they sacrifice dreams and happiness, friendships and futures. Love is waiting for all of them in LA, but pursuing a life without Lucy could mean losing her forever.

Ultimately it’s their bond with each other that holds them together, in a true test of love, loss and survival.

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Author Bio:

Jessica Therrien is the author of the young adult paranormal fiction series Children of the Gods. Book one in the series, Oppression, became a Barnes & Noble best-seller shortly after its release.

Aside from her Children of the Gods series, Jessica’s work can also be found in a published collection of flash fiction stories called Campaigner Challenges 2011. Out of over 350 submissions her story, The Soulless, won first place for people’s choice and fourth place in the judging round of Rachael Harrie’s Writing Campaign Challenge. Her story, Saved, is also available as part of the anthology.

Jessica spent most of her life in the small town of Chilcoot, California, high up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. In this town of nearly 100 residents, with no street lights or grocery stores, there was little to do but find ways to be creative. Her mother, the local English teacher, inspired her to do all things artistic, and ultimately instilled in her a love for language.

In 2003, Jessica attended California State University Long Beach where her passion for language found her studying Chinese, and in 2005 she moved to Taiwan to study abroad. From 2005 to 2006 Jessica was fully immersed in the Chinese language as she attended National Taiwan University, and in 2008 she graduated from San Diego State University magna cum laude.

Jessica currently lives in Irvine with her husband and two sons. She is working on an adult novel and a children’s picture book.

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The Amethyst Bride
Kelsey McKnight
Published by: Limitless Publishing
Publication date: June 20th 2017
Genres: Adult, Historical

British heiress Penelope Elmsly always thought she’d marry young and settle down to a life of domestic bliss. But her perfect plan may come unraveled, along with her corset strings, when two men vie for her hand.

One is a wealthy businessman who offers her the financial stability and social standing she always held dear. The other is a rugged Scottish highlander who gives her passion she never knew she desired.

With two amethyst rings upon her finger, Penelope has a choice to make, and she can’t afford to choose wrong, especially when more than just her livelihood is at stake.

Will she walk down the aisle into a life of luxury, leaving her heart in Scotland? Or will she choose to save her fortune, and her reputation?

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Book trailer:

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Author Bio:

Kelsey McKnight is a university-educated historian from southern New Jersey. She has married her great loves of romance, history, and literature to create her newly finished works. Her first books, “The Scottish Stone Series”, are coming in April of 2017 by Limitless Publishing. Book one is titled “Queen of Emeralds”, and is available now. “The Scottish Stone Series” take readers on a journey through the bustling streets of Victorian London and into the lush hills of the Scottish Highlands. Her second book, a contemporary romance titled “The Non-Disclosure Agreement”, will also be available in May of 2017 and feature a bad boy politician and the small town girl that could change his ways. When she’s not writing, Kelsey can be found reading, drinking too much coffee, spending time with her family, and working on two nonprofits.

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Falling for her Brother’s Best Friend by Noelle Adams
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Emma announces to her friends that she is going to go on a man-fast, no men, no dating. Nothing for at least six months since she can’t seem to help falling for the jerks that end up breaking her heart. Emma decided she will focus on herself, her career, helping her friends open their new business and stay away from the heartache.

That is until Emma finds out that Noah is returning to town. Noah was always Emma’s crush growing up although he barely new she existed being the little sister of one of Noah’s friends. Now however Emma is all grown up and no longer the chubby little sister that Noah remembers so much so that as soon as he arrives he makes a pass at Emma not recognizing her.

Falling for Her Brother’s Best Friend is the first book in a new romance series, Tea for Two, by Noelle Adams. The main characters in the series were all brothers/sisters that had grown up together and become best friends but now the older brothers are finding there are more to their friends annoying younger sisters than they ever noticed in the past.

For the most part I enjoyed this lovely little romance read focused on a second chance at love. There were a few little details here and there I probably would have done a little differently myself by overall it was a feel good story and fun read. Noah was a bit swoon worthy with his love for his Nan and little sister in the story so that is always a plus having a family orientated lead. I’d definitely be interested in seeing the story continue with the other couples.

I received a copy from the publisher via NetGalley.