Review: Edge of Disaster

Edge of Disaster
By A.M Hargrove

From Goodreads:

Alexia Hammond, broken and destroyed by a tragedy she can’t seem to recover from, is on a downward spiral toward destruction. A life of partying, alcohol, drugs and men has brought her near the edge of disaster. That is until one night while at work as a waitress in an upscale restaurant, she falls under the spell of one of her customers, Pearce Middleton.

Once she gazes into his smoky gray eyes, her life takes on new meaning. But can she put her past behind her and allow herself to fall for the exciting and gorgeous Pearce, or will her lewd behavior come back to haunt her and ruin her chances of happiness forever?

Buy on Amazon: Paperback| E-book

Review: The Destiny of Shaitan

The Destiny of Shaitan
By Laxmi Hariharan

From Goodreads:
When Yudi, Tiina & Rai embark on a mission to save the universe, they come up against the ruthless Shaitan who is determined to stop them at any cost. But they soon realise they have a bigger enemy - themselves. So they must learn to trust each other and overcome their fears as they fight their way towards the ultimate showdown.

Partially set in a dystopian Bombay of the future, The Destiny of Shaitan is a coming of age story, painted against the backdrop of a post-apocalyptic world.

Yudi, Tiina and Rai are destined to come together, for they are the Chosen Ones. It falls to them to save the universe from the powerful Shaitan, who is terrifying, and utterly merciless. Driven by greed, and fear for his own survival, Shaitan bulldozes his way through the galaxy, destroying anything that gets in his path, including his lovers and his own children. The battle between the Chosen Ones and Shaitan is a classic, epic encounter. Hated and feared by all, Shaitan must win this fight to keep his power. The stakes are high, the combatants are determined, and no matter what the outcome their lives will be changed for all time.

Buy on Amazon: Paperback    |   Ebook

We're BACK!!

Yes, you read that right... finally we are back in action and ready to rumble!

SLACKER! You have my permission to call us - well me mostly - a slacker. I have been a terrible blogger, reviewer, reader and friend for the past few months... life got in the way. Ritesh and I just want to give you the run down on what has been happening with us that we've been so quiet and withdrawn.

These last few months have been a total scary and thrilling as hell roller coaster ride for me. I was retrenched in July 2012 - not cool, but I got over the emotional side of it quickly enough with the help of my family and my wonderful co-blogger Ritesh!

With the retrenchment I had a lot of pent up frustration so I decided to take up a new sport... Cage Fighting. Yup... Cage Fighting. My style is Kickboxing and it's an absolute blast!

Blog Tour: Stone of Darkness

Today we have the brilliant author Resa Nelson on the blog for her blog tour of Book 3 in the Dragonslayer series. Fantasy is something we both love, so this fits perfectly on the blog. So, without further delay, let's get the interview started!

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Describe your series? What genre would you classify it into?

I guess it’s epic fantasy, but I also blend genres.  I strive to write page turners, because I don’t want my readers to get bored.  There’s usually some type of mystery going on, and sometimes it leans toward the mystery/thriller genre.  My books can get pretty dark, so I also strive to throw in as much humor as possible to give my books some balance.

How did you come up with the idea for the series? 

Many years ago I was propositioned by a co-worker (a married man with two young children).  Like a lot of writers, I write to work through my problems.  So I wrote a short story about a female blacksmith who makes swords for dragonslayers.  When a new dragonslayer propositions her, she doesn’t know what to do because if she doesn’t keep his weapons in good working order then his inability to fight dragons can place all her friends and neighbours at risk.  When the story was published there was a huge reader response, which made me think about turning it into a novel.  It took me 8 years to figure out how to do that.  And once I started writing the novel, I realized the story and the world I had created were much bigger than I’d first imagined.  So by the time I finished writing Book 1, I pretty much had the whole series in my head.

I am a Blogger, and I am pissed #3

I've written two posts on this topic previously, and both of them have been received just as I had hoped for. I've had most authors agree, and I hope accept some of these 'mistakes' they make while interacting with bloggers. Both the previous posts resulted in a lot of comments and discussions here on the blog, as well as on a number of Facebook author groups. I was actually surprised to see how receptive these posts have been. Don't get me wrong, I did get a few reactions I had expected in the beginning. A few authors argued that I had no right to point these out, or that bloggers were worse or at least just as guilty. I had a couple of authors post counter arguments to my points in the previous two posts, and I loved that. They were gracious and did not try to bash me. Each post was extremely respectful. For all of this, I am extremely grateful.

If you'd like to take a look at the previous two posts, head over to check out post number one and post number two. And to read the author reactions to my posts, check out the replies by author Natalie Star to post one and author Tara Chevrestt to post two. With that out of the way, let's get to the third and final post in the series.

11. Twitter: There are tons of authors and bloggers on twitter. But, there is a dearth of authors (and bloggers) who treat twitter for what it is, a NETWORKING tool. Most just consider it a marketing platform. This makes them do things which get on my nerves sometimes! All I see is links, links and more links! And then there are other things. First, I will not check DMs on twitter as I mostly get spam there. And don’t even get me started on auto-DMs! If I do somehow stumble onto your DM and I see a link requesting me to check out your book on Amazon, subscribe to your blog, or ‘Like’ your author page on Facebook, I will delete it without doing any of those things. I might even unfollow you and, if you still don’t get the message, I might just go ahead and block you. Using the @mention feature is just the same, so doing that does not get you off the hook. Want me to consider your book or your links? Want me to do an interview or feature you on my blog?  Then talk to me, get to know me better, interact with me, comment on my content, if you like something RT it. And, after you do all this, go read point number one again in post number one (Read the Review Policy).

Review: Dark Awakening

Dark Awakening [Cursed in Darkness #3]
By Natalie Hancock

Cursed in Darkness Series:
Eternal Darkness #1 - See my review
Dark Shadows #2 - See my review
Dark Awakening #3

From Goodreads:

In the hundred acres of land, more security and more people are watching Layla’s back now that everyone knows who she is. Layla wants to find the person responsible for the attacks made at her, just like everyone else, but when an attack happens to someone other than her, she and Nikalye are the only ones who know the truth. They are determined to find the culprit once and for all, before someone else is seriously injured.

Layla wishes she could tell Shade everything. He knows something is not right more than he can make her gasp with pleasure by just saying her name, but she cannot tell him—she will not risk putting him in danger any more than she has. She continuously fights for survival to keep herself and those around her alive, but when more things sinister arrive in the hundred acres of land and the culprit is revealed, the situation turns from bad to deadly.

Will Layla be able to survive?

Buy on: Amazon

Oh my soul!! Dark Awakening is by far (for me personally) the best book in the series! I have no words, totally dumbstruck. Just when you think you have it all figured out, Natalie throws this major curve ball – like ‘in your face’. Brilliant writing and a brilliant story line.

I am a blogger, and I am pissed! #2

The first post in the series got a lot of comments and interactions. If you've not read the first post, you can check it out here. After going through all the reactions, as well as reading through and participating in discussions about the first post on a number of groups, I'd like to clarify something here. These posts are in no way a generalization, and I am definitely NOT saying that most authors are like this. It is a few who are doing these things, and many more who may be unaware how irksome these things are to bloggers.

My only hope here is that, authors can read these posts, and just learn something which may help in creating better relations between bloggers and authors. So, let's continue!

6. Put out a good book: I’ve read so many books with a great story that were in desperate need of an editor. Spelling mistakes, bad grammar, wrong usage of words, plot holes, missing words, bad formatting, you name it. I know good editors are costly and not every author can afford one. But, in that case get good beta readers, alpha readers or any readers to help you spot mistakes you can’t find. I really do hate giving a good book a bad rating. Another thing authors could do to make a great book would be to get a professional cover designer if they can’t do a great cover themselves. That is why I always ask for a book cover along with a review request. There have been so many books I have seen and ignored because of bad covers. I’ll never know if I missed reading a great book because of this. 

~Alexia: Ditto! I’m a cover whore! If the cover doesn’t attract my attention I usually don’t read the synopsis or for that matter the book.