Betrayal: Abby’s Guilt by Sofia Velardi

One for your reading list...

Rating

Abigail & Kyle have been together for almost three years; they met at a freshman orientation session and have been inseparable ever since. 

Abby knows everything there is to know about Kyle apart from anything to do with his older sister Brianna. All she knows is that Brianna ran away from home when she was 18 and that Kyle doesn’t seem to like her very much. Abby finally gets to meet Brianna when she is in town for an audition and her life changes forever.

I really liked this story because it constantly kept me guessing. Why doesn’t Kyle seem to like his sister? Will Abby & Brianna ever meet? What will Abby find out? And more but I don’t want to say too much on that for fear of giving too much away. 

The book is very well written and the characters thoughts & feelings are portrayed very well. When Abby tries to speak to Kyle about Brianna, after the first meeting, about seeing her again, Kyle’s reaction is not pleasant. This really made me feel sorry for both Abby & Brianna, I wanted them to meet again just to spite Kyle, that and the fact I wanted to know why Kyle didn’t want him or Abby seeing her again.

The end of the book makes me want to know more and again raises more questions. Will Abby see Brianna again? Will Kyle find out? And if so what will his reaction be? I will definitely be adding the next two books in the series to my reading list & I suggest you do too.

Get your copy here: Amazon (£1)

By Amy

'Say Something' by Jade Winters

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For all those lovers who never forgot their first love. 

The deep scars of childhood angst and tribulations run deep for childhood lovers Jessie and Toni. 

When they reconnect after ten years and a gulf of tension between them, the question is can they overcome their past together, and their individual baggage to end up together?

This book explores some intense experiences of classroom bullying, emotional abuse, familial death and some of the possible consequences of these, through the developing relationship of Jessie and Toni, who are drawn together in a way neither can ignore.


Two strong female leads blend together in romance, friendship and possibly more, in this story that leads a windy, twisty path to a happy conclusion.

Available: Kindle Edition (£3.00) from Amazon

By Katie

Moon Chilled by Caitlin Ricci

Moon Chilled is a story of two werewolf mates, Shae & Maiki. Shae leaves the pack when she is 13 years old; she’s had enough of being abused by the alpha.

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They do not speak for 10-years until Maiki calls her asking her to come back: Shae feels guilty about leaving her mate behind all those years ago and so instantly sets off back to the pack, her mate & the alpha she so despises.

I had never really read any werewolf books before but I really enjoyed this one. Shae & Maiki have been separated for a decade but Shae will still do anything for her mate, even if it means facing the alpha again. 

I really liked how they story is told from the viewpoints of the two main characters, switching between them from chapter to chapter so we really get to know them well. 

This is a simple but very effective story, one that I thoroughly enjoyed and would recommend to anyone, whether you like werewolf stories or not.

Pre-order a copy now from just £2.50 (subject to exchange rates) at Less Than Three Press

By Amy

 

Three new short stories from Less Than Three Press

Safe Passage: Kate Owen

Synopsis: While doing renovation on the old New Orleans home inherited from her great aunt, Jules discovers an old safe filled with letters written in French—and code. Enlisting the aid of a local French teacher, the beautiful Gen, Jules slowly begins to learn the truth of her great grandfather's death ... 

Review: This short story is a lovely little romance set on New Orleans between two teachers. One teacher coaches the rowing team and is renovating the house she inherited from her aunt when she stumbles across some letters written in French code. She enlists the support of the French teacher at the school and they work together to solve the mystery that the letters uncover whilst getting closer. The story of full of charm and character, New Orleans makes its own impression on the reader and becomes an integral part of the story. I found myself interested by the characters and the story and wanting to find out what happened between them and between the people in the letters she uncovers. All together a delightful read.

To purchase: http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=90&products_id=558

Modern Serpents Talk Things Through: Jamie Brindle

 

Synopsis: Tina is a modern dragon, or at least she struggles to be. She's (mostly) sticking to her diet, she goes to the gym, doesn't lounge on her hoard for (too) long, and she's steadily working through some issues with her therapist. Like the humans and dwarves that recently invaded her home and shot her with an arrow. She didn't like killing them—mostly humans seemed like sad little creatures—but they did attack her and so she destroyed them. Except for the one she locked in the cupboard. That bit she's still working up to telling her therapist about... 

Review: I really enjoyed this short story. It takes a very clever medium to explore some of the challenges that women face in todays society. By having a dragon fall in love with a human creates an interesting way of looking at body size and shape and how the dragon is shunned by other dragons for falling in love with someone outside of their norm. By using this as a backdrop the author is showing us how silly and painful it is to be critical of how and who people fall in love with. Once again I enjoyed the way the writer tells the story and creates the characters and I especially enjoyed the dragon therapist! Classic storytelling…
  
Available to buy:http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=92&products_id=545


Selume Proferre: EE Ottoman


Synopsis: An-An Li-Johnson lives an easy-going, quiet life. She works part time at her friend's bookstore, is active in the local LGBTQ scene, manages to avoid the occasional crazy ex, and does temp work for the big name spell-craft firm Simon and Davidson.

Then she's hired to work with M.C. Anderson, an up and coming exorcist at Simon and Davidson. M.C. is deeply involved in the world of high stakes spell-craft, determined to carve out a place for herself among the extremely hierarchical and old fashioned world of professional exorcists. As they work together on an intense case of demonic possession, An-An finds herself more and more intrigued by her new boss. But just as the relationship looks like it might be deepening into something more, the case suddenly takes a turn for the worse.

Much, much worse. 

Review: 

This story reads like two separate stories, the first part is a fascinating account of an exorcism and how witchcraft and spells can create safety in the face of such negative energy. Not a world that I’m familiar with but I found this story gripping and would have liked more. Unfortunately, for me the story was cut short, so that the author could switch genres and write a piece of erotica. Don’t get me wrong I enjoy reading erotica when in the mood but to me it jarred and I felt it was tagged onto this story instead of being a natural part and integral to the plot. I think this is also because the author chose to write a short story, had they been braver and written a novel we could have had more about the fascinating supernatural world, whilst also having space to really explore the deepening connection between the two main characters. 

Available to buy: http://www.lessthanthreepress.com/books/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=94&products_id=526

I enjoyed all three of these stories; they were engaging, easy to follow, with plot and characters that you cared about. 


Reviewed by Claire Estelle

 

London Calling by Clare Lydon

A well crafted and juicy lesbian chick-lit that is one of the strongest to come in publication since the deluge of self-e-publishing came along.
 
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Release Date: February 28^th 2014

Available digitally: from Feb 28^th on Kindle
Print version: Coming soon 

While accessible publishing has led to a marked increase in lesbian fiction, the quality across the board is variable. That is not the case with Clare Lydon's London Calling which is as strong as any mainstream straight chick lit from a major publisher. 

It a nutshell, it's got everything you would expect from the genre, along with a heavy dose of real-world lesbian culture thrown in.

Jess Sharp is at a crossroads - back in London, living in her parents’ spare room, jobless and single. Not quite the irresistible package she was aiming for at age 32.

One night, things take an upward turn when she meets someone who could be a game-changer.  However, everything in her riotously chaotic life seems to get in the way, including her best friend’s wedding, far too much tequila and the ghosts of girlfriends past.  The course of true love has never been so injury-prone.

Will Jess eventually overcome her romantic ineptitude and find her happy ever after? Or will she continue to trip over her own feet in the race for romance?

Lydon says that the inspiration came from reading a lot of similar style novels but many tended to be set in America. "I enjoyed those greatly but wanted to read books set in the UK, books that reflected the world I live in. So I put finger to keyboard. Of course, as soon as I did that I started discovering all the other UK-based authors but thought I’d carry on anyway…"

The novel's been a long time coming, Lydon says "I’ve started and stopped writing this novel many times over the past four years, but last year I put on my serious game face and finished the first draft. Then it was a case of getting feedback and editing like a ninja. What I learned in the edit process was that I write the word ‘arse’ a lot. I’m arse-obsessed, clearly."

Find out more at: www.clarelydon.co.uk

Twitter: @clarelydon

Heart Stopper by RJ Samuel

Heart Stopper By RJ Samuel

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Available: RRP $4.99 All e formats


Heart Stopper is RJ Samuel's first novel, and allows the author the opportunity to explore and demonstrate her first hand medical knowledge.

Opening with the discovery of a dead body, Priya quickly recognises her boss has died and possibly been murdered in his own apartment, where she finds herself but can't remember how she got there.

Part medical drama, part crime thriller, part romantic drama, the story follows Priya as she tried to unravel what happened to her boss that night, her role in his death and a complicated new love interest. 

Heart Stopper is right on the money with the scientific detail - reminiscent of early Michael Crichton - and an intriguing love story between two appealing female characters, and both are stories of the heart.

A fantastic first novel that combines drama, attention to detail and a compulsive attraction. 

We caught up with author RJ Samuel about the writing process and the story behind Heart Stopper. 

Samuel explains, "Heart Stopper was my first novel so I had to do a lot of research on writing novels first. Then I focused on the pacemaker-specific research. My background is in medicine and IT. As I hadn’t been near anything academically medicine-related in over 20 years, I needed to re-learn some basic physiology, learn about the pacemaker/medical devices industry and pacemaker programming, and study electrophysiology. 

"I was very conscious that readers in the technology-based thriller genre can be very critical if the technology is not accurate or at least plausible (if invented from scratch). I did not have access to pacemaker specialists (as I was reluctant to take up anyone’s time), so I used old textbooks, websites, company brochures etc. I wanted the details to be as accurate as possible and I wanted to make the scenario as realistic as possible, so I ended up having to work out a plausible technical solution to an invented problem (I’m a little frightened that it could actually work).  

"I tried to incorporate it into the story and tried to explain much of the medical side in a non-technical way, in the way I would like to get it as a reader myself. I thought I had managed that, but I do get a few readers who would have preferred less medical detail. And I have to say, when I re-read it after a year, I couldn’t remember my research and found I had to pay close attention when I got to the medical bits. The great thing is that readers have been gripped by the story and the characters and those who don’t seek out medical nitty-gritty have said it didn’t take away from their enjoyment of the book."

As the role of  geography plays such an important part in both Heart Stopper and the Vision Painter series, Samuel talks about what Ireland means to her, "I’m only realising now that location has had more of an influence on my writing than I thought. I describe myself as an outsider looking out and my first three books are written from the point of view of characters like that. So my sense of place colours my descriptions i.e. even though I ‘ve live here for almost thirty years, the Ireland I describe might highlight little details that an Irish person living in that location all their lives might not focus on, might not even notice as special. 

"My experience of the weather in Ireland, for example, is influenced by my childhood in Nigeria and (a little bit) in India. Again my descriptions of Kerala are based on my visiting there as an outsider who has an ‘in’ i.e. I appear Indian, I have family there, but I have not got the insider’s experience of living there. Sometimes, visiting the locations also has a direct influence on the story line e.g. a character appears in Heart Stopper (and affects the story) who is based on a chance meeting when I went to research an area in Connemara. I’m finding it difficult to write protagonists who should feel like they belong in a location i.e. Irish-born, Irish-grown, Irish-stayed, so I’m having to working twice as hard to describe the locations from their point of view."

On genre, Samuel says "I found it challenging at first to write in the thriller genre. I started Heart Stopper intending it as a pure medical thriller and I tried to follow the rules of writing in that genre, but I found myself telling a story of how an ordinary character would react when facing extraordinary circumstances, circumstances that were not necessarily dramatic and obvious, but were the result of decisions made over a period. Issues came up in the story that I had not expected to write in a medical thriller, - outsider, racism, family, cultural issues. 

"As a result, readers and reviewers have expressed a difficulty in categorising Heart Stopper, but the consensus is that it is more than the sum of its individual genres."

By Katie 

Age of Aquarius - Sofia Antonia Milone

"The dawning of love"

This novella, set in 1960s New York tells the unlikely romance of two polar opposite women -  artist Charlotte and art critic Rachel.

Both women are appealing and flawed, and end up working together despite their instinctive dislike of each other.

As they get to know each other, their intense dislike turns into a different kind of intensity and lust wins out, with some passionate sex scenes to follow.

As their relationship twists and turns, an unexpected family tragedy on Charlotte's side sets the course for the two women's future together (or not!)

Accessible, saucy, passionate, this novella brings to life free love in 1960s America, the birth of social change and the routes women were able to choose for the first time.

Get your copy: 

• Download the PDF for free
• For a signed version, send the author a message

 View the trailer:
 
By Katie