Wednesday 30 October 2013

ABSOLUTELY STUNNING READ!



MASTIC
by Eli Constant



Let me start by saying that Eli Constant is an amazing author. I knew it the moment I started reading her novella DRAG.N, a riveting read. I’ve so been looking forward to reading Mastic even since I found out about its release; there were lots of reasons for it: the title itself made me curious, the covers of Mastic that I saw on facebook (all of them really cool), and the blurb which sounded like I was going to enjoy this book (which I did).

I didn’t expect to be pulled in so strongly into the book from the first pages. I’m just not easy to impress. But the opening scene was really great, and I wanted more.

Eli Constant is great at details that bring her characters to life. Renee, Mark, Kat, Vicky and Sara, they are like real people to me. Their relationships are true-to-life, never contrived or far-fetched. And you get to know these characters so well that you don’t want to stop reading about them.

The paranormal element works really well together with the legend the author used for this book. I enjoyed reading about the supernatural beings I’d never heard of before [no spoilers here, it’s better to read about them in the book than in a review].

Once I started reading Mastic, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Well done to the author! Now I really look forward to reading Dead Trees. 


BOOK DESCRIPTION

When the body of supermodel Harmony Phelps turns up in Morgantown, WV, Detective Mark Faulkner and Assistant Medical Examiner Renee Forst are sent on a downward spiral of unreality.

A year before the body’s appearance, Kat Forst sees a vision of her own death. Now, the dream that haunts her with every sleep both frightens and intrigues her. Each night, she enters a bathroom; each night, three men test her resolve; each night, Kat finds herself drawn closer to the man decorated with swirling, glittering patterns of coral stone.

Drugged and abducted by the Mastichoria of Chios, controllers of a mythical spice, Kat will confront the truth of her vision- the reality of her bloody fate. And the coral man within her dreams is real- Mikolas, the seducer. She tries to fight him, but his will is stronger; his desire is stronger. To Kat, the magic within her blood is a curse. To Mikolas, her blood means salvation.

Across the daunting oceans, Mark and Renee pursue Kat. Time and destiny are against them.



ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Eli Constant lives in Virginia with her husband and two daughters. She is surrounded by battlefield country, farmland and lakes. Currently, she spends her days being a devoted mother and, of course, writing. Eli feels fortunate that her marriage is one of real love and she thinks her children are the coolest people in the world. She also feels so lucky to have an extended family that is ever present with encouragement and kind words.
Eli completed coursework at USC-L, Columbia College, TAMU-CC, and George Mason University. She enjoyed a varied course load, but finally settled on Biology and focused on a career in lab research. She spent time in Texas volunteering at Flour Bluff Shrimp Mariculture Lab [and being paid in Pink Hawaiian Shrimp- which was, in a word, delicious.] and also spent time at NIH participating in an Animal Research Program in the Infectious Disease Dept. It took two years working in Histology/Pathology in Sterling, VA for Eli to realize she wanted to be a writer. She is still very interested in the sciences and hopes to use her background knowledge effectively within her writing.
Her other interests include art with a focus on charcoal medium, walking her American Foxhound Dottie, eating egg-drop, wonton soup from the local delivery place and watching low-budget Sci-Fi movies with her awesome family.

Visit and like Eli Constant's Amazon Author page HERE!
Visit Eli Constant's official website at www.eliconstant.com


Saturday 12 October 2013

THE AUTHOR OF "LIMERENCE" RELEASES A ZOMBIE NOVEL, "ODIUM"!



ODIUM
by Claire C. Riley



I don’t normally read zombie books, but my interest in the genre was piqued by a short story “Life Ever After” by Claire C. Riley that can be found in Breakwater Harbor Books Anthology (FREE on Smashwords and Barnes&Noble).

In "Odium" Nina and other survivors live behind the walls that protect them from deaders, but life there is far from happy. She decides to leave together with Emily, a girl who’s been banished from the place. The two of them are supposed to survive in a world feasting with zombies. As it turns out, zombies are not the only thing that may put Nina and Emily in danger.
I’m really impressed with Claire C. Riley’s narrative flow. The book is easy to read, it’s enjoyable, and it’s a must-read for zombie-lovers.

BOOK DESCRIPTION

It's better to die by the gun than die by the dead.
Nina’s life was irrevocably changed when humanity’s dead began to rise.
Now, she lives behind the walls.
The barricaded cities, erected by the government to protect the remnants of civilization, have become a brutal dictatorship- causing the inhabitants within to starve, steal and claw for survival. Life behind the walls has become as terrifying as roaming the zombie-ridden landscape beyond.
Citizens trade what they can to gain food, water, and shelter. Nina has only one currency—her body and she is tired of submitting herself to the greedy hands of the self-proclaimed leaders.
An opportunity to escape presents itself in the fate of a young girl named Emily-Rose. For the price of a stale piece of bread, she is set for banishment from the city, and most likely a horrific death at the hands of the deaders. Nina tells herself that it is sympathy and not self-preservation that makes her follow the young girl out of the walled metropolis, and into the overgrown world beyond.
Unused to fighting the deaders, Nina tries to scrounge for her survival and against her better judgment, begins to care for Emily-Rose. However, when you have a bread-stealing liability providing your only back up, survival seems even tougher. Nina is forced to fight for their lives, and with every zombie slain, she becomes fiercer, faster – a grim reaper with her not-so-sharp butcher’s knife.
Along the path to a safe-haven that might not exist, Nina and Emily-Rose meet Mikey who introduces them to a new life they could not imagine, a life above the ground. However, this new world brings new dangers, and darker shadows than she knew.
Nina finds out that the deaders aren’t the only thing to fear beyond the wall.
And that fear will not be ignored, or Forgotten.

BHB ANTHOLOGY WITH “LIFE EVER AFTER” (PREQUEL TO “ODIUM”) LINKS:

YOU CAN PURCHASE A COPY OF “ODIUM” HERE:

Visit Claire’s official website here: http://www.clairecriley.com/
Follow Claire on Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClaireCRiley