BOOK REVIEW – Voodoo Child by Janice Horton

halloween

BOOK REVIEW!

voodoo child coverIn Voodoo Child, ex-celebrity UK fashion model Nola and her handsome Haitian husband Louis are expecting their first baby. But as one precious life begins another is about to end.

Louis’s beloved old Uncle Sid is dying and has declared his last wish is to see Louis and Nola’s new baby baptised on St John’s Eve – the most important event in the voodoo calendar. The voodoo isn’t over yet for Nola or for Louis!

My review:

Voodoo-licious!

In this the final instalment of Janice Horton’s Voodoo trilogy, we meet up with Nola, her Haitian husband Louis, “baby” and the rest of Louis’s voodoo practising family. With the impending death of Louis’s Uncle Sid, Nola, Lewis and their baby leave Scotland bound for New Orleans to fulfil the old man’s dying wish that the infant be baptised on St John’s Eve.

After reading the first two books in the trilogy (How Do You Voodoo? and Voodoo Wedding), I know that nothing is ever straight forward with this family unit and be prepared to expect the unexpected.

This final installment (actually the entire series) is a great Halloween read filled with voodoo spells, mayhem and mystery all skilfully interwoven into the plot that keeps you turning the ‘virtual’ pages.

☆☆☆☆☆ for Voodoo Child!

You can buy Voodoo Child at:

Amazon.com  and Amazon UK

voodoo doll

halloween

Celebrating the upcoming launch of Voodoo Child by Janice Horton

Thank you Melanie for inviting me across the pond to share my exciting news!

The third book in my series of voodoo romance novellas ‘Voodoo Child’ is out this week.

It’s available exclusively from Amazon for Kindle.

voodoo child coverStory synopsis: In ‘Voodoo Child’, ex-celebrity UK fashion model Nola and her handsome Haitian husband Louis are expecting their first baby. But as one precious life begins another is about to end. Louis’s beloved old Uncle Sid is dying and has declared his last wish is to see Louis and Nola’s new baby baptised on St John’s Eve – the most important event in the voodoo calendar. The voodoo isn’t over yet for Nola or for Louis!

 Amazon.com  and Amazon UK

But  what if you haven’t yet read the first novella How Do You Voodoo?

Or second book in this series Voodoo Wedding?

Well for the next five days (27th – 31st October)
I’m offering the first book in this series absolutely FREE

how do you voodoo coverThese are the free download links:

Amazon UK
Amazon.com

Other Amazon sites worldwide are included

Feel free to share, tweet, and tell all your friends!

 Did you know that How Do You Voodoo? is an Amazon Kindle bestseller and it has 25 Amazon UK reviews with an average reader score of 4.6 stars!
Love Reading Love Books said How Do You Voodoo? was ‘A Five Star Read of 2012’

Voodoo Wedding – Book Two – is also available from Amazon for Kindle alongside Voodoo Child at the fabulous price of just $1.52 or £0.99p so why not treat yourself to a little voodoo romance this Fall?

Have a great Fall everyone and don’t forget
that I love to chat on Facebook and Twitter!

janice horton bannerJanice Horton – Contemporary fiction with humour and heart

My Author Blog
Follow me on Twitter: @JaniceHorton
Friend me on Facebook Page
Link to my Amazon Author Page
Check out my page on Goodreads
My LLm Bookshelf
Associate Editor at: Loveahappyending Lifestyle Mag

The Wedgewood Author Series

The Wedgewood Author Series

Yup, they’re having me back. Go figure, eh? This time, I’m there launching the print version of my short story anthology – The Consequences Collection.

consequences coverIsn’t this a fantastic cover? I have to thank Madliz Coles for allowing me to use her photograph for my anthology. I don’t think I could have found a more perfect image.

Blurb: 

The Consequences Collection is an eclectic compilation of twelve stories ranging from non-fiction through creative non-fiction to pure fiction, in prose and poetry.

The story of a Scottish Home Child is based on fact and told from the child’s point of view; The Mystery Woman of Kinettles is a non-fiction article on the appearance and subsequent disappearance of a woman’s body near the Wellington County House of Industry (Poor House) in 1879 Southwestern Ontario.

Sound intriguing? Well, come out to the Wedgewood Retirement Resort (that is if you live ‘local’ to Brockville), 15 Market Street East, at 2:00 p.m. today. I’ll be talking about the story behind the anthology and the stories contained within the covers as well as reading from one. Afterwards, you’ll have the opportunity to purchase a signed copy.


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I hope to see you there!

And remember… “If you could see the consequences – would you?”

 

Moria’s Time by Dayna Leigh Cheser

Moria’s Time

MT Cover 286Moria’s Time, Book 2 of the TIME Series, by Dayna Leigh Cheser

Janelle Grayson is distraught over a troubling vision. Old Agnes MacKendall has seen her infant daughter, Moria, as a young woman, years in the future, traveling afar to a perilous place, fraught with danger.
Janelle and her husband, Richard, are both concerned about the vision. They decide to do all they can to prepare their precious little girl for what likely lies ahead for her. It’s a future charged with risk the likes of which, for the unprepared and ordinary person, could spell certain doom.

So begins Moria’s Time—Book 2 of the TIME Series.

At six-years old, Moria starts to learn about her heritage. Like her mother, Moria is a MacKendall. The women of this Scots clan have unusual powers including, among many other skills, natural medicine—which Janelle soon discovers is Moria’s special and strongest gift. Richard agrees with Janelle that she should train Moria, focusing on, and nurturing, her rare strengths in preparing for her future. By the time she’s a teen, Moria is a talented natural healer.

At fourteen, Moria meets Elizabeth Blackwell who befriends and mentors Moria, guiding her through the long and arduous journey to her goal of becoming a doctor.

Later, while visiting family in England, Moria meets Florence Nightingale—who will figure significantly in her life in the future. The family also meets Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

Later, Miss Nightingale summons Moria to London, where she works at a charity hospital and meets Dr. Simon Hensley.

Moria becomes one of the first 38 nurses bound for Scutari, Turkey with Miss Nightingale. Dr. Hensley, in love with Moria, follows her, much to her chagrin, but she’s skittish—about men, relationships, anything and anyone that might distract her from the challenge of being a woman daring to want a career in the male-dominated field of medicine—and, so … she rebuffs him.

At home for a visit, Moria is overjoyed to reconnect with her twin sister, Adelle, and meets her beau, Walter. He and Adelle convince Moria that Dr. Hensley isn’t the enemy. He may well be the one to protect her from the men she fears. Back in Turkey, Moria and Dr. Hensley work things out.

Simon and Moria return to London after the war. At Devonwood, the Grayson family estate, Moria’s Grandmother convinces Moria can marry Simon and not endanger her future. Simon proposes; Moria accepts. The twins plan a double wedding.

After the wedding, Simon and Moria visit medical schools for interviews. Moria is turned away from school after school, simply because she’s woman. Finally, a school in Pennsylvania accepts Moria who graduates at the top of her class.

Does Moria have the right to impose what her needs on Simon? How long will Simon put his life on hold while she pursues hers? Do they really want to open a practice? As doctors, is a practice all that’s available to them? There are so many questions, and too few answers.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

About the Author

J head bMy mother, a non-fiction author, two brothers—one as a newspaper editor, the other, a copywriter—and a sister, a church newsletter editor, prove that clearly, writing ‘runs in my family’. Much of what I’ve written over the years was never published – much of it never shared with anyone.

My father, a school teacher/reading specialist, started teaching me to read after story-time one night when I was four years old. I’d stopped him mid-story to ask how he was able to say the same thing every time he read that story to me. My lessons started that night, beginning a life-long love affair with books—and for that, I am grateful.

The short stories I wrote in junior high school entertained my peers – and the occasional teacher who intercepted them in their travels. At the high school level, one English class assignment was to write an autobiography. In the teacher-specified chapter entitled ‘Future Plans’, being a published writer topped the list. I can’t remember not wanting to write.

After a college professor told me I ‘couldn’t write my way out of a paper bag,’ I stopped writing for years. It was not until the late 1970s, when I wrote an article for the now-defunct World Radio News (San Diego, CA), that my writing gene was reactivated. The article was about our amateur radio club providing communications for a March of Dimes Walk-a-thon. Seven of the twenty pictures my husband submitted with my article were used.

In early 2002, between jobs and wanting to write seriously, I obtained a third-shift position as a gated-community security officer and used the ‘free time’ to write what became Janelle’s Time. When the draft was complete, it went on the shelf. At that time, the industry was shifting from the Post Office to the internet – a very confusing time! In 2009, when I started my Twitter page, @Writers_Cafe, the WIP came off the shelf. What I’ve learned from my (now) 19,000 followers is prodigious – I feel like I’ve earned a degree! By August 2011, it was ready—at last—for submission.

@RileyCarney, a Colorado teen, and prolific YA fantasy author, who heads her own non-profit literacy project moved me to write an article about her. Never officially published, countless people have seen the article, thanks to Twitter retweets and some carefully chosen email inboxes.

On New Year’s Day, 2010, my shiny new blog, A Place for Writers, went ‘live.’ It evolved into a combination chronicle of my writing journey and helpful posts on publishing industry topics.

In the fall of 2011, I added ‘DIY Interviews’ to my blog (see the ‘DIY Interviews’ tab of my website for details on doing an interview). Not a primary task in the overall scheme of things, over fifty authors have submitted interviews to date.

Janelle’s Time is book one of my ‘TIME Series’ and was published in July of 2012. Book two, Moria’s Time, was my winning NaNoWriMo project for 2011. It’s now complete and will be released in mid-August of 2013. There are three more books in the series: Adelle’s Time (my winning 2012 NaNo project), Logan’s Time, and Clarissa’s Time (my 2013 NaNo project for 2013).

In September of 2012, I switched from my blog A Place for Writers, and went to a full website: www.DaynaLCheser.com. With thirty pages, my new blog, ‘Posts by Dayna,’ is there now, along with ‘DIY Interviews,’ and extensive information about the ‘TIME Series.’

My husband, Pete, and I have been married for forty-five years—no children—and have lived in Southwest Florida for over twenty years, originally hailing from New England.

You can find/follow Julie at these links…

Website: Dayna L Cheser
Blog: Posts by Dayna
Twitter: @DaynaLCheser and at @Writers_Cafe
and her Amazon author page Dayna L Cheser

 

COVER REVEAL – The Star Catcher by Stephanie Keyes

The Star Catcher (The Star Child #3)
By Stephanie Keyes
Release Date: Fall 2013
Publisher: Inkspell Publishing
Cover Designed by: Najla Qamber Designs

TheStarCatcher.v4-Final

Book Summary:
Magick and destiny intertwine as he fights to save his kingdom and the goddess he loves.

Her kiss…the feel of her skin…the beat of her heart…For seventeen-year-old Kellen St. James, each memory is marred by a single sentence on a lone strip of paper.
Cali has been taken…

Armed with an amulet that channels the ultimate power of Faerie, Kellen searches for his love. However, control of the amulet’s energy comes with a price, and Kellen soon learns that Cali’s captor has plans for the stone. With the threat of the Star Catcher’s evil looming above Kellen and his kingdom, he’ll have to free the Heart of Faerie and break the curse the binds the Children of Danu to the darkness. But before that, he has to find his real father, the king. No pressure, right?

Kellen and Cali will battle bewitched armies and unknown foes as they fight to stay together. Will Kellen embrace his immortal destiny? Or will his world, and the man he is fated to become, be destroyed by The Star Catcher?

Pre-Order HERE!

About the Author

steph12bwStephanie Keyes has been addicted to Fantasy since she discovered T.H. White as a child and started drumming up incredible journeys in her head. Today, she’s still doing the same thing, except now she gets to share those ideas with readers!

When she’s not writing, Stephanie is also a graphic designer, international speaker, teacher, musician, avid reader, and Mom to two little boys who constantly keep her on her toes. In addition, she’s best friend to her incredible husband of eleven years.

Mrs. Keyes holds an undergraduate degree in Business and Management Information Systems from Robert Morris University and a M.Ed. from Duquesne University. She is a member of the Society For Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), as well as a featured author in the global group of writers, Love a Happy Ending.com.

Keyes is the author of the YA Fantasy series, The Star Child, which currently includes The Star Child, After Faerie, The Fallen Stars, and the soon to-be-released finale, The Star Catcher (November 2013), all from by Inkspell Publishing. Mrs. Keyes is hard at work on a new YA Paranormal Romance.

***Author Links***

http://www.stephaniekeyes.com/
http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/5360651.Stephanie_Keyes
https://twitter.com/StephanieKeyes

GIVEAWAY:

P12433441

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Cover Reveal Organized by:

YA Bound Book Tours

ya bound tours button new

It was twenty years ago today…

And no it’s nothing to do with Sgt Pepper teaching the band to play.

It was twenty years ago today (on this date is more accurate), I first set foot on Scottish soil. I had wanted to do this for quite some time but it never seemed to be even the remotest possibility. But, this year I had an extra year’s holiday leave from my job so it was “I’m doing it.”

We weren’t in a position for the entire family to go on this adventure so my hubby stayed home with our two young children and off I went.

There were a lot of firsts on this trip.

  • First time flying. Yup, my first time and I’m going on my own and crossing the ocean. I’ve never done anything by halves before, so why start at that point in my life?
  • First time in Scotland.
  • First time meeting family that I knew of but had only written to (and not email) and exchanged Christmas cards with.
  • First trip to the orphanage where my father and four of his siblings were raised.
  • First time seeing where he was born and staying at Earlsfield Farm.
  • Maybe most importantly of all, first time driving on the wrong side of the road on the wrong side of the car and shifting gears with the wrong hand.

See what I mean about a lot of firsts?

Cottage 1 Quarriers Village - Broadfield Home
My father and his brothers, George and Andy, stayed here in Broadfield Home (Cottage 1).
Cottage 13 - Quarriers Village
My father’s sisters, Barbara and Christina, stayed here in Cottage 13

When I first drove by the signpost for Weets on my way to Earlsfield Farm just outside Kennethmont, I got all weepy. Weets was where my father was born.

Image2
The road to Weets
Image21
Scenery near Kennethmont

From the first time I clapped eyes on this spooky old hulk, I fell in love with it. I bet those old stone walls are filled with stories and maybe even a ghost or two. What do you think?

Image6
The ruins of Wardhouse mansion.

So that’s my twenty years ago adventure. Being on my own, I spent all my time behind the camera, and to this day I’m still more comfortable on that side.

What were some of your “huge” firsts? I’d love to hear about them.

 

And the winner is!

Congratulations to the winner of my

2014 A Shadow in the Past wall calendar!

a shadow in the past 2014 calendarIsn’t it beautiful? Every month has a different full colour photograph (taken by moi) of something “A Shadow in the Past“.

How well do you think you did at guessing the various locations where Sarah Shand turned up each day?

Day 1

Seeking Sarah Shand
At The Caledonian Hotel
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at High Cliff

Day 2

Seeking Sarah Shand
On the Jacobite train at the Glenfinnan Station
Seeking Sarah Shand
On the platform in Mallaig
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Myrtle Bank

Day 3

Seeking Sarah Shand
At Balvenie Castle
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Fernbank House

Day 4

Seeking Sarah Shand
At Dunnideer
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Earlsfield Farm

Day 5

Seeking Sarah Shand
Waiting at the Insch train station

Day 6

Seeking Sarah Shand
At the entrance to the Old Kirkyard in Kennethmont
Seeking Sarah Shand
With the Pictish stones at the Rhynie cemetery
Seeking Sarah Shand
At the stone circle at Earlsfield Farm

Day 8 (we didn’t play on Day 7 as it was my launch at the Rannes Hall in Kennethmont)

Seeking Sarah Shand
At The Empress of India Restaurant in Kelso
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Duncan House

Day 9

Seeking Sarah Shand
At the Cross Butts Stable Restaurant
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Beechwood Guesthouse

Day 10

Seeking Sarah Shand
At The Bell
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at The Old Forge

Day 11

Seeking Sarah Shand
At The Bell Hotel in Tewkesbury

I thought having the map beside the book was a dead giveaway in this one but apparently that wasn’t always the case.

Seeking Sarah Shand
At Wetherspoons in Harrogate
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Fountains Guest House

Day 12

Seeking Sarah Shand
At Bolton Abbey
Seeking Sarah Shand
At Smiths Hotel in Gretna Green
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Barrasgate House

Day 13

Seeking Sarah Shand
At Caerlaverock Castle
Seeking Sarah Shand
At Sweetheart Abbey
Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at Tigh-An-Struan Guest House in Largs

Day 14

Seeking Sarah Shand
In our room at the Holiday Inn at Glasgow Airport

So how did you do? Get all of them right? Some of them right? None of them right?

It’s been a close race – neck and neck right down to the wire between two participants. It was really difficult to say who would finish with the most correct answers. But in the end, one emerged victorious.

And now for the moment you’ve all been waiting for… the winner is… Grace!

Congratulations Grace. Please contact me via email at melanie@melanierobertson-king.com to arrange having your prize delivered.