May I Introduce: Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra "The Book of Hours" @MariaElenaWrite #BookofHours #TheCoin

 

The Book of Hours

by Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra

 

 

Book Blurb

For artist Gabriela Martinez, psychopaths do strike twice. In The Coin, two star-crossed lovers were cruelly used by fate—and now, in The Book of Hours, destiny isn’t done.

Back then, Gabriela almost lost her life to a psychopath hoping to claim her artwork, her career, her body, and her love. If not for Richard, the operative sent to protect her, she would have fallen victim to his twisted vision.  The dramatic showdown pushed Gabriela and Richard together, even in the face of countless obstacles.

With someone new threatening Gabriela's life, Richard will risk everything to protect the woman he loves.  But with a new villain on the horizon, bent on possessing Gabriela's latest work no matter what it takes, she is forced to fall back on old friends, including the man who changed her life not so many years ago.

With an even more dramatic threat looming, and far more to lose, if they don't stay one step ahead of the danger, their lives, their love, and their future may very well go up in flames.

 

Author Bio

Maria Elena Alonso-Sierra is a full-time novelist based in North Carolina. With Cuban roots, she has lived in many countries, including France, the setting for her first novel, The Coin. She speaks English, Spanish, French, Italian, and German, and reads Latin, Middle English, and old French. She holds a Masters in English literature, specializing in medieval romances, and is currently an active member of the Carolina Romance Writers. She loves to hear from her readers, and always hopes to open a dialogue with her fans.

 

Buy Links

·         Smashwords (after Feb. 12): https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/501819
·         CreateSpace: https://www.createspace.com/5122396
·         Direct from Author: http://www.MariaElenaWrites.com

 

Review Sites

·         The Book of Hours on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23925272-the-book-of-hours

 

Social Media 

·         Website: www.MariaElenaWrites.com
·         Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MariaElenaAlonsoSierraWrites
·         Twitter: https://twitter.com/mariaelenawrite
·         Blog: http://www.mariaelenawrites.blogspot.com/
·         Amazon Author Central: http://www.amazon.com/Maria-Alonso-Sierra/e/B00IPEXYLK
·         Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7093896.Maria_Elena_Alonso_Sierra
·         Authorgraph: https://www.authorgraph.com/authors/MariaElenaWrite
·         Tsu: http://www.tsu.co/MariaElenaWrites


Excerpt

Gabriela’s body stilled at the soft sound of her name. For a moment, she stood listening, then shook her head like a wet dog shaking off water. You are such a fool, her mind supplied. Disgusted, she stabbed at the cerulean blue on her palette. Her mind had deceived her yet again. She slobbered the paint on the canvas, realized what she had done, and hissed. Since agreeing with Jean-Louis to call Maurice later that evening, she’d been a nervous wreck. Throughout the noon hour, her brain had staged all sorts of encounters with one infuriating, unforgettable man. Like a dutiful stage manager, her mind had supervised every possible scene, every possible emotion under its tutelage. She’d jumped from rage, to indifference, to haughtiness, but longing had finally won, hands down. No matter how hard she tried to avoid it, she could never escape the terrible need she felt for him, a need that went deeper than the instinct to breathe.

The lyrics from the song she’d impulsively put on swirled around her, teased her. The singer, in his soulful tenor voice, sang about the moment of encounter with his beloved, anticipation heating his blood, nerves tingling in expectation of the seduction. His words mimicked her own guilty longings, her desires. Oh, God. How would she ever get through this day? How would she find the courage to do what must be done?

 “Gabriela.”

This time the voice penetrated, took form. It called out to her, familiar and unmistakably real, a living entity that caressed her skin and raised goose bumps on her warm flesh. This was no figment of her imagination, no mistake. She felt him, her nerve endings suddenly electrified, awareness shaking her. Panic sent her heart scurrying. Hope and love made her turn around slowly, ever so slowly.

She blinked, thinking her eyes were deceiving her, but Richard’s tall frame stood static before her, his chestnut hair combed by the soft breeze, his eyes intense, pinning her and caressing her all at once. The embers of irrational hope fanned to life like a conflagration. For an unguarded moment, her eyes reflected her hope, her joy, but especially her hopeless love for him.

Richard watched those powerful emotions play across her face and relief slammed him.  Gotcha.  She’d always had such an expressive, beautiful face.  Now, no matter what she did, but especially said, he would know the truth.  The love was there, and it flared like a beacon.

 

May I introduce: Heather Gray "Queen"

 

"Queen"

by Heather Gray

I've got Heather Gray as my guest today. Heather is not only a fellow Astraea Press, but has also become a good friend. She writes beautiful stories and as no surprise has established herself as a bestseller within only a short period of time.

1. What draws you to historical romance?

Okay, to be completely honest, I started in historical because I hoped it wouldn't be as obvious if I made mistakes. Was I ever wrong! Fans of historical fiction know their details. I ended up staying in historical, though, because I loved the era and the characters I'd gotten to know. You know how it is when you write a novel. Somewhere in those pages you meet a character that takes you by surprise and that you simply have to know more about...and so they get their own book. That's sort of what's kept me in historical fiction. I keep meeting characters that I don't want to let go of just yet. There's a lot to be said for the era, too. People treated each other with a special sort of gallantry that doesn't easily fit in a contemporary novel.

2. How much research is involved for your historical romances?

Gah!!! So much! I love history - enough that I minored in it in college. The constant research that goes into writing historical fiction, though, is intense. I don't just need to have a solid understanding of the facts, traditions, and clothing of the era. I also need to understand the language. I easily research 300+ words in each historical novel. Was that word in use during that time? Did it mean the same thing then that it means now? I had a sentence in one novel. "Square one welcomed her back to its familiar embrace." I loved that sentence, but in revisions I looked up the phrase "square one" and realized it didn't come into use until 15 years after my novel took place. I still miss that sentence. I'm going to find a way to use it again someday...in a contemporary novel. ;)

3. Tell us a little about your current project.

I am currently working on a new series that I hope to launch in 2015. Despite my love of historicals, this series is contemporary and takes place in Northern Virginia. Each of the heroines (and a hero in book 3) work at a hospital in the area. I've got the first three books planned and am currently working on revisions for book 1. It'll be contemporary romance with a touch of humor and a smidgen of suspense. The working title for the series is "Love It!" ... we'll see how long I keep it.

Blurb:

You can't hide from the past.

Queen's world was shattered, and she was banished to a foreign land. Years pass before she dares to return, but what she finds is of little comfort. Greed and dishonesty have festered and grown in her absence. Embittered and cynical, Queen trusts few people.

Owen pursues a clandestine investigation and finds himself working side-by-side with a veritable ghost, an agent few have seen, a master of disguise known simply as Queen.  He craves her trust…but then uncovers a secret from his family's past that could destroy her.

Queen once sought refuge in America and now seeks it in disguise. Owen has always found his refuge in God, but will his faith be strong enough for the challenges ahead? Can he convince her to stop hiding, or is he doomed to become her most hated enemy?

 

Author:

Heather Gray authors the Ladies of Larkspur inspirational western romance series, including Mail Order Man, Just Dessert, and Redemption.  She also writes the Regency Refuge series: His Saving Grace, Jackal, and Queen - plus contemporary titles Ten Million Reasons and Nowhere for Christmas.  Aside from a long-standing love affair with coffee, Heather’s greatest joys are her relationships with her Savior and family.  She also enjoys laughter.  This theme is prevalent in Heather's writing where, through the highs and lows, her characters find a way to love God, embrace each day, and laugh out loud right along with her.

You can find Heather online at http://www.facebook.com/heathergraywriting, http://www.twitter.com/laughdreamwrite, and http://www.heathergraywriting.com.  She can also be found most days at The Inspired Inkpot, a street team, prayer group, and all around awesome place to hang out - http://www.facebook.com/groups/theinspiredinkpot.

 

 

Now available on
ღ Amazon ღ Barnes& Noble ღ

 

Excerpt:

Prologue

Christmas Eve 1817

Owen crouched low and looked around him. At least four hale and strong men had given chase. He was nursing a bullet wound to his side and a knee expressing reluctance to cooperate.

The alley's darkness provided the illusion of safety. He might yet get out of this alive, if the clouds cooperated and kept the moon concealed.

Leather scraped on cobblestones to his right, and he pivoted, knife at the ready. An old man stumbled down the alley. His stringy grey hair was greasy and his coarse woven clothes tattered. He reeked of liquor, vomit, and… Owen wrinkled his nose as he fought the urge to gag.

The ruffians who'd been chasing him must have heard the old man, too. Or, worse, they'd heard Owen. They stopped their pursuit down the street and began backtracking to the mouth of the alley.

Drat. Owen slipped back behind some crates. He wanted to call a warning to the old beggar but couldn't risk giving away his position. Instead, he tucked his body as tightly together as his wounds would allow while he prayed.

"Did you hear that?"

"Someone's down there."

"Who's there?"

The old man shuffled his way, with a dragging hitch to his step, toward the street.

Come on, old man. Get out of the way. They're not looking for you!

"Never mind. It's a drunkard. Let's keep searching."

From his vantage point, Owen watched as one of the thugs shoved the beggar down onto the ground and then kicked him full in the ribs. He winced in sympathetic pain but dared not leave his hiding place yet. To reveal himself at this juncture would ensure a far worse outcome for both him and the old man.

The echo of footsteps faded and silence once again fell over the alley, broken only by the yowling of a tom cat. A few minutes ticked by with no indication the group would return. Owen eased himself out from his position, relieved to no longer be wedged between a slimy moss-covered wall and the dilapidated, rotting crates. Pain radiated up and down his side from where he'd been shot, and his knee burned with each step.

The old man hadn't moved since landing on the cobblestones. Stooping, Owen glanced at the man's hair-covered face. Age was kinder to some than to others. Between the faded moonlight and the excessive facial hair, Owen couldn't distinguish any features beyond the large bulbous nose. The poor gent could have used a little more kindness.

A slight movement of the chest caught Owen's eye, and he sighed with relief. Now to figure out how to move him…

The old man was bulky, and Owen was wounded. Could he rouse him? Would he be able to walk? Owen shook the man by the shoulders. His efforts elicited nothing but a high-pitched groan. Seeing no hope for it, he pulled the man over his shoulder and stood, keeping most of his weight on his uninjured knee.

No longer radiating, the pain in his side now pulsed with each beat of his heart, its intensity growing with his exertion. Getting the old man settled across his shoulder as best he could, Owen took a step toward the street. Dizziness swept through him, and he knew his knee was in worse shape than he wanted to admit. Three blocks would still be manageable. Wouldn't it? A back room in the apothecary's shop housed a clandestine meeting place for agents.

The apothecary was barely three blocks away…

Blast it, what had he been thinking?

Review: Lee Child "Nothing to Lose" (Jack Reacher #12)

Publisher: Bantam Press

ISBN: 9780593057032

My rating: 4/5 

Two lonely towns in Colorado: Hope and Despair. Between them, twelve miles of empty road. Jack Reacher never turns back. It's not in his nature. All he wants is a cup of coffee. What he gets is big trouble. So in Lee Child’s electrifying new novel, Reacher—a man with no fear, no illusions, and nothing to lose—goes to war against a town that not only wants him gone, it wants him dead.

It wasn’t the welcome Reacher expected. He was just passing through, minding his own business. But within minutes of his arrival a deputy is in the hospital and Reacher is back in Hope, setting up a base of operations against Despair, where a huge, seething walled-off industrial site does something nobody is supposed to see . . . where a small plane takes off every night and returns seven hours later . . . where a garrison of well-trained and well-armed military cops—the kind of soldiers Reacher once commanded—waits and watches . . . where above all two young men have disappeared and two frightened young women wait and hope for their return.

Joining forces with a beautiful cop who runs Hope with a cool hand, Reacher goes up against Despair—against the deputies who try to break him and the rich man who tries to scare him—and starts to crack open the secrets, starts to expose the terrifying connection to a distant war that’s killing Americans by the thousand.

Now, between a town and the man who owns it, between Reacher and his conscience, something has to give. And Reacher never gives an inch. (leechild.com)


My thoughts

Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary defines "page turner" as a book so exciting or gripping that one is compelled to read it very rapidly.

And I did!

I have to admit, though, I didn't quite get the whole story, but I got the gist of it.

The part I liked was that IMHO the raw emotions displayed by Reacher. Although I'm not a big fan of authors bringing in their personal opinion into their stories, Lee Child did really well creating a thought-provoking balance of displaying the cost of war. Reacher seems to have "matured" and although still stubborn in many ways, I like this new development.

Bottom line - it was a page turner!
 

 

Tara Moss - Fetish

Publisher: Harper Collins Publishers (Australia) Pty Ltd

ISBN: 978-0843956337

My rating:  2/5

Tall, blonde and beautiful – It’s no surprise that Canadian Makedde Vanderwall is a model. What is surprising is her street-smart ways and her own recognition that modeling is only a stopgap career, a lucrative means to fund her tuition for a degree in forensic psychology.
But more surprising – and disturbing – is that while on assignment in Sydney, Australia, Makedde finds herself in the middle of a grisly, sensational hunt for the “Stiletto Murderer” – a serial killer who brutally murdered Makedde’s best friend – and may see Makedde as his next fashion victim. Who is this murderous monster with the penchant for sexy shoes?
The world of fashion takes on sinister tones – a photographer who get off on snapping photos of dead bodies; beautiful women with rich but mysterious sugar daddies; and bottom feeders who cruise the murky ocean of high fashion and low morals. And now, seemingly deserted by the one cop who can save her, Makedde is a girl on the edge of unimaginable terror, in a place where perfect beauty is transformed into darkest death… (TaraMoss.com)


My thoughts

Okay - first mistake was listening to the audio version, which is narrated by Tara Moss. Without wanting to be over-criticising, it was irritating to listen to. Everyone sounded the same, which was confusing, there was hardly any difference in the accents either.

Second clue - my friend, who likes these kind of books, couldn't really remember the story. Bad sign.

Makedde Vanderwall (love the name!) is a psychology student who works as a model to pay for her tuition. Soon after she arrives in Sydney, she finds her very good friend Catherine dead at the beach. Murdered by the so-called "Stiletto Killer".

Bottom line, it was an okay story. The plot was interesting, but the story had more downs than ups. Too much information about the modeling scene, too many condescending remarks. The relationship between her and the lead investigator Andy Flynn was iffy and somewhat confusing how they went from not liking each other to being in bed together. Lastly, I couldn't really figure out, how the killer's interest had moved onto Makedde.

Not my kinda read - sorry!

Lee Child - Die Trying (Reacher #2)

Publisher: Bantam

ISBN  9780515142242

My rating: 3/5


A Chicago street in bright sunshine. Jack Reacher, strolling nowhere, meets an attractive young woman, limping, struggling with her crutches, alone. Naturally he stops to offer her a steadying arm and then they turn together—to face twin handguns held level and motionless and aimed straight at their stomachs.

Chained to the woman, locked in a dark, stifling van racing 2,000 miles across America, Reacher needs to know who he's dealing with. The kidnappers are saying nothing and his companion claims to be Holly Johnson, FBI agent. She's fierce enough and tough enough, but he knows there must be more to her than that. And at their remote, hostile destination, they will need to act as a team and trust each other, pitting raw courage and cunning against insane violence and seemingly hopeless odds, with their own lives and hundreds more at stake. (leechild.com)


My rating

Eerie comes to mind! Yet not as good as the first one. Unfortunately not.

So, there's Jack Reacher, he's at the wrong place, wrong time - kidnapped with the handicapped woman (Holly) he helped carrying dry cleaned clothes. By some militia group as it turns out and they take them to some remote spot in the Montana forests. And then ... it gets complicated and weird and Child lost me.

Still interesting, but I had to put the book aside waaay to often, because it was too detailed ? boring ? complicated ? I don't know. It just didn't grip me like the first book.

The story in itself would have been much better if it had been edited down to a few pages less. Reacher still a kick-ass hero you'd like to have at your side when in trouble or not. (PS - I did like the scene when we find out about his weakness - nice touch indeed!) Holly's character a bit "underdeveloped". I would have liked to have more of her. The whole bunch of FBI agents and other agents way to confusing. The leak / mole obvious half way through the book.

Worth a read - betcha it is. It's a Lee Child book. Haven't read any of his yet? Don't start with this one!

Now, let me go and find Reacher #3 :-)

Lee Child - Killing Floor (Reacher #1)

Publisher: Bantam Books

ISBN: 9780553505405

My rating: 5/5

Welcome to Margrave, Georgia—but don't get too attached to the townsfolk, who are either in on a giant conspiracy, or hurtling toward violent deaths, or both.

There's not much of a welcome for Jack Reacher, a casualty of the Army's peace dividend who's drifted into town idly looking for traces of a long dead black jazzman. Not only do the local cops arrest him for murder, but the chief of police turns eyewitness to place him on the scene, even though Reacher was getting on a bus in Tampa at the time. Two surprises follow: The murdered man wasn't the only victim, and he was Reacher's brother whom he hadn't seen in seven years. So Reacher, who so far hasn't had anything personal against the crooks who set him up for a weekend in the state pen at Warburton, clicks into overdrive.

Banking on the help of the only two people in Margrave he can trust—a Harvard-educated chief of detectives who hasn't been on the job long enough to be on the take, and a smart, scrappy officer who's taken him to her bed— he sets out methodically in his brother's footsteps, trying to figure out why his cellmate in Warburton, a panicky banker whose cell-phone number turned up in Joe's shoe, confessed to a murder he obviously didn't commit; trying to figure out why all the out-of-towners on Joe's list of recent contacts were as dead as he was; and trying to stop the local carnage or at least direct it in more positive ways. Though the testosterone flows as freely as printer's ink, Reacher is an unobtrusively sharp detective in his quieter moments—not that there are many of them to judge by.

Despite the crude, tough-naïf narration, debut novelist Child serves up a big, rangy plot, menace as palpable as a ticking bomb, and enough battered corpses to make an undertaker grin. (leechild.com)

 My thoughts

An "OMG" wouldn't even be near how I like to express what I think of this book. A page turner? Definitely! Gripping? You bet! A must read? OH YES!

So I accidentally stumbled over this book. The cover was .... nahhhh .... the blurb was ..... nahhhh, but I wanted to read something different than the usual romance, a little break so to speak! And boy oh boy did I get a break.

So there's this guy Reacher who one day ends up in this little town called Margrave in Georgia. Out of the blue, really, because his older brother once mentioned that a famous guitarist, Blind Blake, died at that place. But there's a lot more he finds out and gets himself into in quite some trouble.

I honestly loved it. I found myself sneaking into a corner of the house at any given moment just to read another two or even five pages. The characters are interesting and well developed. The story was different to what I had read before (which doesn't mean too much due to my love for romance), but well explained and believable. Jack's great and in his own way very likable from page one onwards.

Verdict: hooked to the Reacher series and want more.

PS - Nice touch with the old lady at the end!

.

James Patterson - Kiss the Girls (Alex Cross #2)

Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

ISBN: 978-0446601245

My rating: 4/5


First came the stunning number-one bestseller Along Came a Spider. Now comes the scariest, most unforgettable novel in several years. In Los Angeles, a reporter investigating a series of murders is killed. In Chapel Hill, North Carolina, a beautiful medical intern suddenly disappears. Washington D.C.'s Alex Cross is back to solve the most baffling and terrifying murder case ever. Two clever pattern killers are collaborating, cooperating, competing—and they are working coast to coast. (www.jamespatterson.com)


My thoughts

Woohoo, what a page turner. Okay, it did take me a few pages to get into the story, but once I was hooked, I was really reading non-stop. I liked this one much better than "Swimsuit", which I had read recently.

It's a story about two serial killers: Casanova and The Gentleman Caller, both terrorising both US coasts at the same time. When Alex Cross' niece is taken as well, he travels south to North Carolina and investigates as well.

IMHO, this was truly well written; the characters well developed, the setting of the scene brilliantly described, though gruesome at times and explicit in details, Patterson has a skill to keep the reader  on the edge of their seat.

And the ending was a nice surprise as well!

Great Read!!