Book Spotlight ~ Detox Your Soul By Tamar House

Detox Your Soul

By Tamar House

Genre: Christian based self-help

Freeing your soul from all the negative stuff in your life is an exhilarating experience. It’s amazing what a positive mindset can do! God has forgiven us for our sins, and now it’s time that you start forgiving yourself. It’s time to change your thought process and learn how to enjoy the destiny God has created for you. In your life journey, challenges and mistakes are going to happen, but you need to realize how these issues are simply the stepping stones to the “good life”. This book will not only teach you how to overcome obstacles, but to renovate your soul. When you are finished, you will have the tools to give your mind, body, and spirit a complete overhaul. It’s time to make better choices. It’s time to live that wonderful life you dream of. It’s time you focus on the YOU that God intended you to be. It’s time to DETOX YOUR SOUL!!!

Author Biography

Tamar House grew up on the other side of the tracks.  She was born in Lancaster, California and spent her early life in the slumlords. Straight from the school of hard knocks, she has been through it all.  Abandoned by her biological father, lived in a drug-infested neighborhood, molested as a child, raped as an adolescent, ran with the gangs as a teenager, and divorced in her early twenties, she felt that God was out to punish her.  She was broken and abused and she struggled as a single mom. She met her current husband, Ryan, in 2010 and he brought her back to the Christian church.  She accepted the Lord back into her life weeks after they met and she began focusing on all of the wonderful blessings she has in her life.  She decided to rid her soul of all the negativity that encompassed every ounce of her being, and started on her journey to true happiness.  She began encouraging her friends and co-workers to live life focused on being caring and loving, instead of anger and resentment.  People started to notice this change in Tamar, and saw that by changing your attitude, it could change your life.  She has created a following on social media and now her friends all look up to the motivational posts she has to offer.  She wants everyone to have the wonderful life God intended for us all.  She is now happily married with four beautiful children, is a successful Realtor, owns a property management company, sells body alkalizing and balancing products, and spent two years writing this book “Detox Your Soul”.  She hopes you enjoy it as much as she did writing it.  This book will renovate your mind, body and spirit.   

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/detoxyoursoul

Twitter: https://twitter.com/Detox_your_soul

Website:  www.DetoxYourSoul.net

App for iTunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/soul-detox/id733097087?mt=8

App for Google Play:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.app_souldetox.layout&hl=en

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1FyP3HR

Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1QckphX

Book Review: Riding By Cassia Cassitas

Riding

By Cassia Cassitas

Genre: Fiction/Parenting and relationship/Special needs

Book Description

Amidst real events and landscapes, men and women like us wander the cities we inhabit, rehearsing happier lives in the pages of this motivational narrative. From each one, destiny took a part to make them perfect.

When he is born, André propels his mother’s life in a new direction, shifting her focus away from her professional aspirations. His father, an executive who organizes Olympic competitions around the world and doesn’t know when to come back home, strives to make him a worldly citizen. Cycling, his life acquires purpose: becoming an Olympic para-athlete.

Together with his friends, he experiences disappointments and new beginnings. A doctor that builds robots, the daughter of a lonely teenager, and a retired athlete teach André how to overcome his limits and live his dream.

Set in Curitiba with breaks in Los Angeles, Seoul, Johannesburg and Soweto, Barcelona, ​​Atlanta, Sydney, Athens, Beijing and London, the narrative ends in 2012, in Rio de Janeiro.

As a tribute to all those who choose to sign the next episodes of their lives, this book is about overcoming one’s self amid achievements, obstacles, love and heroism, written behind the scenes of life.

My Review

This author has a unique writing style. Riding is not your usual fiction piece. The characters' perspectives feel more detached, as if they are telling you about the experience at another time opposed to the reader being a part of the unfolding events. 

In Riding, we have a couple who are active within the Olympics community. The father spends a lot of time traveling while the mother has slowed her pace to raise their special needs son. Readers follow the son as he grows and becomes a para-athlete.

Cassitas's descriptions are very well-written. I enjoyed how many different cultures were covered in the story. It felt educational, while being based around a fiction story.

Author Bio:

Cassia Cassitas made her career in technology. She has remained in academics both as a teacher and a student, working on innovative projects including those that involve prospects.

She specialized in philosophy and existence,information engineering, and college didactics. Currently she studies French, due to her husband's influence, and English to enlarge her world.

Mother to two adolescents who devour books, Cassia published her first work, Sunday, The Game, in 2010, a digital best seller in Brazil. And then Saga of Wealth in 2013. Cassia Cassitas lives with her family in Curitiba, where her dreams prosper under the eyes of her readers.

Follow Cassia

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cassiacassitas

Twitter: @cassiacassitas

Website: http://cassiacassitas.com.br

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1L7c5vk

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/7205105.Cassia_Cassitas

Book Review: Making It By Amanda Gibbs (#giveaway)

Making It

By Amanda Gibbs

Genre: Contemporary Romance, New Adult Romance, Poetry

Brief Description: 

Making It, Amanda Gibbs' debut short story, invites readers into the most intimate and personal moments of a couple's life spanning throughout decades. The story is told through prose, poetry, dialogue, lists, and focused vignettes, all with Amanda's signature concrete voice.  Each entry of Making It represents a day in a year of the couple's relationship, spanning from first meeting to 30th anniversary.

My Review

I've never read anything quite like Making It. The book is compiled of prose, poetry, and dialogue between a man and woman. Making It spans their 30 year relationship in just 63 pages and the author made it work! Readers ride the wave of their initial meeting, sleeping together for the first time, saying "I love you," questioning things, getting pregnant, marriage proposal, and the comfort of silence.

It's a quick, but fulfilling read. You'll laugh and you'll swoon. This is 5 stars. 

Author Bio: 

Amanda Gibbs is an eighteen-year-old student, photographer and actress from Toronto, Canada.  Writing since preschool with Crayola crayons, Amanda’s passion is writing stories that make the mundane beautiful, and the little moments in life profound.  Inspired by writers like Michael Faudet, Jamie McGuire, and Walt Whitman, Amanda loves experimenting with form, dialogue, and combining poetry and prose.  In her spare time, Amanda trains in mixed martial arts and takes care of her six dogs, as well as procrastinating schoolwork to write her next book.

Author website:  www.amandagibbs.com

Author Facebook: www.facebook.com/authoramandagibbs

Author Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/13798681.Amanda_Gibbs

Author Twitter: https://twitter.com/mandaellengibbs

Author Amazon: http://amzn.to/1BpHth6

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Book Review: The Fire Inside By Michelle Bellon (#giveaway)

The Fire Inside

By Michelle Bellon

Genre: Literary Fiction

Book description:

Aiden had the perfect life. A job he loved, a beautiful son and loving wife. In an instant everything is taken from him and Aiden assumes his life is over. Falling into a deep depression Aiden has all but given up on his job, his friends and himself. But when a mysterious force gives him the power to heal those around him, Aiden is forced to pull himself out of his depression in favor of the greater good. When he meets Ryan, a young woman living on the streets, and Norma, a woman whose marriage is crumbling around her, Aiden acknowledges that maybe his life still has a purpose and his ability to heal maybe more powerful then he may ever imagined.

My Review

Author Michelle Bellon has taken three completely different characters and interwoven them together in a moving plot. This book starts off fierce with the death of Aiden's wife and son in a car accident. We watch his character experience a downward spiral and pretty much give up on life. In the meantime, readers meet abandoned teen girl, Ryan, and frazzled Norma who is desperate to get pregnant.

I absolutely love how Aiden's trauma and depression led him to tap into healing energies which allowed him to transform the lives of sick and dying people. This is where the story brings the characters together. It's a story about forgiveness, rebuilding, and trusting even when your past experiences say otherwise.

Author Bio:

Michelle Bellon lives in the Pacific Northwest with her four children and boyfriend, Seth. She loves coffee and has an addiction to chapstick. She works at a surgery center as a registered nurse and in her spare time writes novels. She writes in the genres of romance suspense, young adult, women’s fiction, and literary fiction. She has won three literary awards.

Social links:

http://www.michellebellon.com/

https://www.facebook.com/michelle.authorpage

https://twitter.com/MichelleBellon

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Book Review: Pennies for the Damned By Edward Lorn

Pennies for the Damned

By Edward Lorn

Genre: Thriller, Suspense

Book Description

Ex-hitman Larry Laughlin got out of Mexico alive, but now he’s a haunted man. The final step to laying his ghosts to rest requires killing his newly paroled father. Before he can take action, though, a trio of killers break into Larry’s house, and he overhears their plan to murder his brother, Jaime, too. Old habits kick in, and Larry emerges the sole survivor. But while he’s gathering hidden funds to finance his plans, he’s ambushed by an unlikely traveling companion: a young abused teen named Brooklyn, who refuses to be left behind.

Larry and Brooklyn set out to save his brother and complete his patricidal task, but one wrong misstep drops yet another aching tragedy on Larry’s burdened shoulders. Nearly mad with his hunger for vengeance, Larry seeks his final nemesis in the heart of New York City. But what he finds will threaten more than just his life: Larry Laughlin damned himself long ago.

My Review

It's been awhile since I found myself wrapped up in a book that I not only read it in one sitting, but I was sad to finish up the story. I need more Larry Laughlin!

Edward Lorn knows how to rock the written word. While this is a follow-up book to Hope for the Wicked, it is a great stand alone. Now that I have gotten to know Larry's character through this novel, I will for sure be reading the first book.

Larry and Mo are a couple who kill for a living, but only really awful people. So, that is acceptable, right? Lorn gives us gruesome death scenes, humor, and adventure at the same time. I enjoy his writing style and can easily call myself a new fan.

If you need thrills and kills while reading, then Pennies for the Damned is for you. It's a lot of action, but there is a solid plot that has you feeling all the feels and the characters are well-developed. Impatiently waiting for the next one ...

Author Bio

Edward Lorn is an American horror author presently residing in the southeast United States. He enjoys storytelling, reading, and writing biographies in the third person.

Once upon a time, during a session of show and tell, a seven-year-old Edward Lorn shared with his class that his baby brother had died over the weekend. His classmates, the teacher included, wept while he recanted the painful tragedy of having lost a sibling. Edward went home that day and found an irate mother waiting for him. Edward's teacher had called to express her condolences. This was unfortunate, as Edward had never had a baby brother.

With advice given to her by a frustrated teacher, Edward's mother made him start writing all of his lies down. The rest, as they say, is history.

Edward Lorn and his wife are raising two children, along with a handful of outside cats and a beagle named Dot. He remains a liar to this day. The only difference is, now he's a useful one.

In January of 2012, Edward Lorn self-published his debut novel, Bay's End. Later that year, he contracted with Red Adept Publishing to bring his sophomore effort, Dastardly Bastard, to the world. For the Halloween season, Edward published a collection of short stories entitled What the Dark Brings. His novella, Hope for the Wicked, was picked up by Red Adept Publishing and is coming soon.

Find Edward online:

Facebook Author Page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Edward-Lorn-Author/237418413004623

Twitter: @EdwardLorn

Goodreads Pennies of the Damned: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/23556502-pennies-for-the-damned

Purchase Links:

RAP Pennies of the Damned: http://redadeptpublishing.com/#!/Pennies-for-the-Damned-by-Edward-Lorn/p/46536388/category=12029350

RAP Hope for the Wicked: http://redadeptpublishing.com/#!/Hope-for-the-Wicked-by-Edward-Lorn/p/46536367/category=12029090

Book Blitz: Sandcastle and Other Stories: The Complete Edition

Sandcastle and Other Stories: The Complete Edition

By Justin Bog

Genre: Short Fiction/Psychological Literary Suspense

Publication Date & Publisher: May 29th, 2015, Booktrope

The Complete Edition of Justin Bog's First Collection of Dark Psychological Suspense Tales.

An award-winning collection, Sandcastle and Other Stories reveals twisted secrets that are mined like plutonium. These twelve literary tales are nothing short of an adventure through a roiling sea of emotion. With authenticity and eloquence, author Justin Bog holds a provocative and compelling mirror on the human condition.

"The stories are those of everyday people who might live next door or in the walk-up across the street . . . A man with a personal crisis takes a singles cruise – a woman leaves her toddler girl at the beach while having a romantic tryst – a B-list actor’s character is killed off – a girl is sucked below the sand into an underwater chamber . . . an old gardener who has dark secrets interacts with the bosses daughter in a most unforeseen way. The only commonality in these tight, little stories is they are unexpected. Having this book is like having a string of black pearls – each one slightly different, but each a perfect, dark, little gem . . . Bog paints pictures with words as Titian did with oil paints – startlingly detailed with deep perspective and rich complexity."

--Rosi Hollenbeck, San Francisco Book Review

Author Bio

Justin Bog lives in the Pacific Northwest on Fidalgo Island. Justin Bog was Pop Culture Correspondent and Editor for In Classic Style. He enjoys cooking, lawn mowing not so much, and spends time walking and handing out treats to two long coat German shepherds, Zippy and Kipling, and two barn cats, Ajax The Gray and Eartha Kitt’n.

Sandcastle and Other Stories: The Complete Edition  on Amazon: http://amzn.to/1T2gnHX

www.justinbog.com

My creative writing blog is here.

Follow me on Twitter @JustinBog

On Goodreads: http://bit.ly/1FCBVk3

Book Review & Giveaway: Smut By Matt Micheli

Smut

By Matt Micheli

Genre: Psychological (Transgressive with strong sexual encounters and hints of horror)

On the outside, Sam has it all: money, good-looks, youth. His life is fueled by an endless supply of drugs, alcohol, sex–anything and everything to keep his mind off of what he struggles to keep hidden away: a troubled past as well as recurring disturbing psychotic visions. Strange things begin to happen to Sam causing his diagnosed anxiety to grow into paranoia. To make things worse, brutally mutilated bodies are being discovered around the city and no one seems to care. Experiencing what it is to come full-fledge into adulthood–love, lust, loss, rejection, denial–Sam realizes money and good looks aren’t everything and sometimes what you’re running from is closer than you think.

My Review

Sam is a total sex machine and he loves to indulge himself with cocaine. He also loves girls. Most of the time characters like Sam annoy me. They are self-absorbed and come off as the world's greatest gift to women, when they are clearly just shallow dudes, but Micheli has worked some kind of magic over me because not only could I tolerate Sam, but I was sincerely interested in him. I wanted to know what made him tick. 

This story is well-written and intriguing. I enjoyed the author's writing style and I absolutely hate spoilers, so I won't give anything away, but readers are in for a mind bender. I recommend just letting yourself get lost in the insanity.

Author Bio:

Matt Micheli is a writer out of Austin, TX, Wild Card Winner of the 2012 Halloween Book Festival. He has several fiction and non-fiction pieces featured in various literary magazines and is a multi-contributor to ManArchy Magazine, Revolt Daily, and Paragraph Line. He is a loving husband and father by night and takes on one of many corporate-America faces by day. You will find him either behind his computer writing words or at the nearest bar, either way with a stiff cocktail close by..

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mattmicheliworld?fref=nf

Twitter: https://twitter.com/micheliworld

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004GN70IC

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/4112558.Matt_Micheli

Website: www.mattmicheli.com

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