Wednesday, February 24, 2016

Review of WILD IRISH HEART: Tricia O'Malley



Oh, What a Wonderful Book!

If you’re a romance lover, have I got a book for you! WILD IRISH HEART by Tricia O’Malley is wonderful … just wonderful! I loved every second of it—even the em dashes and commas. And why shouldn’t I? Ms. O’Malley had the good grace to cram it chockful of things that are guaranteed to whisk you into a world of enchantment, folklore, and magic! 

The setting of Ireland is the backdrop for this charming story. A mysterious book full of potions and spells arrives in Boston and is delivered to a beautiful, young girl named Keelin O’Brien. Keelin’s always yearned to learn more about her roots and about the dormant healing powers that she possesses, and the book her grandmother sent seems to hold the key to unlocking all the secrets. It’s not long before she makes the decision to leave her graduate studies in Boston and spend the summer in Ireland. But there’s more in store for her than proving whether old myths are true. Visions of a man with wild dark hair and blue, blue eyes keep cropping up and putting lascivious thoughts into her “scientific” mind. But little does she know that the man of her dreams is having the same sort of fantasies about her!

The premise is ooey-gooey with opportunities for suspense and thrills, and Ms. O’Malley’s writing lives up to that promise. The words she uses capture all the drama, sensuality, and mysticism of what takes place in the small coastal village that houses Grace’s Cove. Oh, that cove! It came alive on the pages and I wanted to visit so badly, but then the author has done this numerous times. It’s because she’s tapped into our imaginations and pulled out settings, images, and characters that are so evocative. Take Grace O’Malley for example. She’s the Pirate Queen, whose ashes are buried in a chalice hidden deep beneath the waters of the enchanted cove. I mean, can you beat having a Pirate Queen whose heart beat only for love? Then there’s Keelin’s grandmother Fiona. Wise and knowing, she teaches Keelin the art of healing using herbs and intuitive psychic powers. She also does her best to push the slightly daft Keelin towards Flynn! FLYNN! OMG, FLYNN! There were so many times when characters in the book would ask Keelin if she'd slept with him yet. When Keelin answered, “No,” they’d ask, “Why not?” I gotta say that I was asking the same question because if she wasn’t interested, I was! In fact, I was foaming at the mouth! Flynn was crafted so beautifully, that I’m sure every woman that reads the book will be swept off her feet! And isn’t that why we read romance novels? It’s not to say, “Oh, he’s sorta, kinda cute.” No! It’s to be wrapped in big strong arms and carried away by some dreamy hunkapoo that makes us drool all over our kindle and pray that Keelin succumbs to his charms so we can live vicariously! And thank you to Ms. O’Malley for finally getting them together, but it took long enough!

I can’t say enough good things about this altogether winning combination of elements. Think of the best chocolate you’ve ever tasted. WILD IRISH HEART will match that lush feeling of sensual goodness of when you take your first bite . Fantastic read, Ms. O’Malley! Thank you for thoroughly entertaining me. P.S. Send FLYNN! Now!!! Five stars for this one!!!




Thursday, February 11, 2016

THIRST: R P Channing -- Excerpt



Genres:
Young Adult Romance
Paranormal Romance
High School
Vampires, Demons, Witches
Dark Fantasy
Horror
Date Published: November 26, 2015
240+ Pages
WITH BEAUTIFUL PHOTOGRAPHS
~ Kira Sutherland ~
After a near fatal accident (and getting cheated on by her 'boyfriend'), and beating up the lead cheerleader (with whom the boyfriend cheated...), and being labeled as having 'issues' in her school because she, uhm, sees ghosts, Kira is left with two choices:
1. Continue her 'therapy' (where she's told the ghost is a hallucination and also gets her legs ogled too often...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, a boarding school for "Crazies and Convicts" (as the social media sites call them.)
She chooses the latter...
~ Cory Rand ~
Cory Rand has not had an easy life. His mother died in a car accident when he was twelve, and so did his mother's best friend...sort of. You see, Janice made a promise to take care of Cory just before she died, and so she lingers. Undead. A ghost that watches out for him.
Brought up in an abusive home, Cory quickly falls into a life of disreputable behavior. After his third offense (which was prompted by a girl, as usual - he has a weakness) he's left with two choices:
1. Be tried as an adult and share a cell with a guy named Bubba (he thinks...)
Or
2. Go to Starkfield Academy, which Cory is pretty sure is run by vampires. But, hey, at least he'll get an education.
He chooses the latter...
It's at Starkfield that Kira meets Cory Rand, a boy with an insatiable Rage who sees ghosts, too. As well as other things, other things from his past, things that confuse him, things like fire and witches and demons.
Things he's always ignored.
Until now.
~\/~
EXCERPT


PROLOGUE

-1-
The Puppy Eyes

My life was perfect.
I had the perfect shoes and the perfect friends and I lived in the perfect house. My nails were perfect and my hair was perfect (except on Sundays, it was always windy on Sundays) and I had the perfect clothes. My lips were a perfect red and my hair perfectly straight. My eyeshadow was perfect, my hips were...okay, and my waist...well...also okay. Nothing was wrong in my life.
But then there was Jack.
Jack was a problem.
He needed to go. I mean, when you’re dead, you’re dead! I had told him this endlessly. Somehow, Jack didn’t get it. I mean, I felt sorry for the guy. Sure. Being stuck between this life and the next. But just because I found him, does that mean I needed to keep him?
I think not!
Sadly, when Jack got that look in his eyes, that weary, almost teary (if his tear-ducts worked) look, I melted. I just couldn’t send him away. Not even Jack knew where he would go after he died.
Would he, like, die? As in — dead, nada, kaput, finito, gone, no more? Bye bye, sayonara, ciao, hasta la vista baby and all that?
I couldn’t have that on my conscience. No way.
I lay on my bed, wondering what to do about him. “Jaaaaaaack,” I hollered.
“Jaaaaaaack!”
Still no answer.
“Jack!”
Jack...materialized.
His eyes rolled down to the ground. He was making those puppy eyes again. “Jack, I told you not to do that. I told you not to play on my sympathies.”
His puppy eyes became worse.
His skin was gray and, well, dead.
“Oh, brother,” I said. “I have to do something about you. If mom finds out I have another ‘imaginary friend’ — at my age — well, I’d die of embarrassment. But, like, really die. Not like you.” I wondered about this. Would I die? Was Jack a freak accident, or did all people live on like him? Think of the cemeteries...
The idea excited me somewhat.
What would you have me do, Miss Kira?
“Knock off the Miss Kira crap. I told you it’s just Kira.”
Yes, Miss Kira.
The dead. There’s just no reasoning.
“Fine, Miss Kira it is then.” Rover barked like a lunatic in the garden. No one else might be able to see Jack, but I was sure my dog could.
“I have to do something about this,” I mumbled.

-2-
The Rat

Mike knocked on the door before I had time to leave the house. Mike was the guy I thought (at the time) was perfect.
“Who is it?”
“It’s me, baby.”
Baby, urgh — I wasn’t his baby. I dated Mike because he was the quarterback, because girls are supposed to like the quarterback, because it’s just so darn perfect to be seen with the quarterback, like we’re brainwashed into thinking these things from the first romantic doll set mom buys us.
This was my previous life.
“Mike.”
“Uh-huh. Gonna let me in?”
So you can try rub me up and then complain when I don’t let you? This, dear reader, was the big problem with Mike. The second we first kissed, his hand went way too far south for me to be comfortable — and I pulled back.
Mike suddenly wasn’t so perfect.
“Uhm, I was just on my way out,” I said.
“Kira? C’mon, open the door.” He sounded upset. “Is there someone in there with you?”
Boys. As if.
I didn’t know much about love (nothing, actually) but I knew this wasn’t it.
“Uhm, now’s not the time, Mike.”
“C’mon, Kira, what’s going on?” He banged harder.
When in doubt...lie. I opened the door a crack. “There’s a dead rat in the house, Mike. Been here for days. I gotta go get some detergent and stuff to handle the stench.”
Mike stepped back. He peered through the crack of the door.
“It’s really bad,” I said.
“I’ll drive you.”
“I’m afraid the smell” — I stuck my armpit to my nose — “has found its way all over me. I’ll drive myself.”
“O — okay. Fine.” And then he grinned like he wanted something. “Later? My place?”
Urgh. “Uhm, sure...er...later. Not sure when though.”
“Six.”
I fought the urge to roll my eyes. According to girls at school, he was apparently so damn good looking — theoretically. But for me personally, he did nothing. Moved nothing. Twisted nothing. “Look, I gotta go, Mike. I gotta — ”
“Kira.” His eyes grew stern. “You’ve been avoiding me...”
Bingo! Well done contestant number one! And what have you won? A brain!
I tilted my head. “Mike, look, this...rat — I need to deal with it. We’ll talk later, okay? Bye.” I closed the door, not waiting for an answer, and peered out the peep hole. Mike hung around for a second, shoulders wide and eyes glaring straight at me through the door. Could he see me? Did he know I was looking at him?
He kicked something off the ground, and I had the distinct impression he mouthed the word Bitch before leaving. But I wasn’t sure...

-3-
The Mack

“Roll down the window, Jack.” Jack was recently dead, so he still had a smell about him. (Which only I could smell...)
I had purposely skipped breakfast. Maybe Jack would help me lose weight. I was (still am) a little wide, although it had never stopped guys flirting with me. I know how to dress.
But I could be skinnier.
Lucy Rogers was skinny. All bones and no boobs.
Charlene Carverton was a babe. Cheerleader. Big chest (which she pushed out generously with a push-up — if only guys knew). Toned thighs. Charlene only dated college boys (back then), which I still think is pretty gross for a girl her age.
“He’s not for you,” Jack said out the blue.
“Hmm?”
“This...Mike — he’s wrong for you, Miss Kira.” For all Jack’s faults (mainly, being dead), he has a good heart. Factually, probably it’s why I kept him around at first.
“You think I don’t know that?”
“Then why don’t you dump him?”
I braked at a stop sign. Looked left and right. “Because I’d look like an idiot. I flirted with him and showed interest, and one kiss later I can’t stand the sight of him.”
“So dump him.”
“It’s not that simple. Kids at school — they can be vicious. I have to let it fade slowly. If I drop the bomb on him, I’ll never hear the end of it through senior year.”
“And you care?”
Yes, I did. Forget Guantanamo, schools are rough. “You don’t understand, Jack. Maybe school was different in your day. But in mine, well, we walk through metal detectors.”
“Schools weren’t too different in my day.” I noted the sadness in his voice.
“You okay?”
“I’m dead.”
Right. “You miss...your life?”
Jack shrugged. “I like being with you, Miss Kira. And I don’t remember much of my life. I think I’m in limbo.”
“Limbo?”
“Yes, like I have some unfinished business. If only I could remember...what...it is...” He scratched his head.
“Any ideas?”
“Well, it can’t be love. If it were love, I’d be a vampire. That’s who teenage girls fall in love with these days.”
“A vampire? That’s just what I need — two undead beings stalking me.”
“I feel I have something to do around you, Miss Kira. I don’t know what, but something. Something important.”
I looked over at him. “Me?”
I was still looking at him when I missed the stop sign.
The Mack truck drove straight into us.
~\/~
AUTHOR BIO
R P Channing is the author of over a million words of fiction. None of it published.

Until now.

Website: blog.rpchanning.com
Buy Links
Amazon US
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Amazon UK
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B018M5GTLI
Kindle Unlimited

$20 Amazon Gift Voucher Giveaway
At the back of the book there is a giveaway link. Once the book hits fifty reviews on Amazon, one of those reviewers will win a $20 (US Dollars) Amazon Gift Voucher!

Author Bio
R P Channing started writing three years ago, but never published anything even after churning out over a million words of fiction. Thirst: Blood of my Blood is the first book he dared to publish. When asked why, he said, “Because it’s the first thing I wrote that my wife actually enjoyed reading.” When not hammering away (most literally) at his keyboard, he can be found buried in a book, reading anything from romance to horror to young adult to non-fiction to comedy.
Author Links
Website
http://blog.rpchanning.com
Twitter
https://twitter.com/RPChanning
Amazon
http://amazon.com/author/rpchanning