Miramont's Ghost by Elizabeth Hall + a Giveaway

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Elizabeth Hall's Miramont's Castle, a gothic tale that draws inspiration from a real place here in my neck of the woods!

Like her grandmother before her, Adrienne has always had the gift of sight. But this gift is no gift at all. Instead, it's more like a curse. 

After the death of her beloved grand-pére, the Compte de Challemelles, Adrienne struggles to keep her visions to herself. But her efforts are in vain. Her aunt Marie, a woman who has always worried about the village gossip especially as it pertains to Adrienne's odd behavior, arranges to take the teen to America. There the two women will take up residence at Marie's son's newly completed castle in Manitou Springs, Colorado. But as soon as Adrienne arrives, she realizes she is to be a prisoner rather than a guest. As she searches for a way to escape, her days at Miramont Castle become more and more bleak. 

Soooo, yes. Miramont Castle exists. You can tour it, you can book it for a wedding, you can even enjoy lunch or high tea in the Queen's Parlor Tea Room. And though I've worked with authors who have written about Miramont before, the rumored sordid past was new to me. Hall very kindly includes afterword outlining some of the parallels between the real Miramont history and her tale (of course pointing out that the book is fiction).

And oh, poor Adrienne! Readers, this is a bleak story indeed. I supposed I should have known that - or at least had my suspicions about that - but I went into the book a little blind. I knew it was a gothic tale and I knew it was set at Miramont Castle and that was it. The rest was a surprise. Perhaps most surprising, though, was the fact that Adrienne doesn't arrive at Miramont Castle until halfway through the book. Instead, the first half is set in France and is set up for both her visions and her family situation.

I did love the historical setting! I'd thought that maybe Hall had set the story at Miramont simply for the sake of setting it at a castle. Not so, fellow readers! In addition to the above mentioned parallels between the real Miramont/Fr. Francolon history and the fictional Miramont/Fr. Julien, Hall also spends a little time setting the scene with other interesting tidbits including the Denver & Rio Grande Railway, cameos by General William Jackson Palmer, and bits about historic Manitou Springs and Colorado Springs.

So although the tale is admittedly pretty bleak, I have to say that I rather liked it. In the way that you can like a story steeped in dread and foreboding.

Rating: 4/5

Thanks to the publisher I'm able to offer up a copy of Miramont's Castle to one of you lucky readers. (Open US/Canada only.) To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, February 23.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

Love By the Book by Melissa Pimentel

Lauren Cunningham has a great job but her love life is lacking. Though she isn't looking for anything serious, she would like someone she can spend time with. When her latest relationship takes a nosedive thanks to a spontaneous breakfast (she cooked him eggs!) she decides to take a more scientific approach to dating. She'll choose one dating book each month, follow it to the letter, and chronicle the results. But will her experiment bring her love?

The concept behind Melissa Pimentel's debut is charming and quite funny. Of course the possible outcome of Lauren's little experiment leave lots of room for drama! Given that she starts with The Rules, which involves no eye contact and basically no personality on her part, it's easy to imagine from the start that at least one of her subjects would consider the fact that she's somewhat unstable and bordering on insane.

Each new book makes for new potential awkwardness (Rules of the Game from a girl's perspective...) and hilarity. And while they are all ostensibly for the purpose of allowing Lauren to meet and date men, they do give her a chance to gain some keen insight into herself as well.

Pimentel says in her author's note that the book is about how much fun dating can be. Honestly, I never found dating fun. I found it weird and off putting, spending much of my time wondering if I was lusting after a potential serial killer and/or freaking out about all the weird games guys play. But I have to admit that experiencing it through Lauren's eyes was quite amusing. I'm still glad to be out of the dating world altogether, though.

Rating: 3/5

Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran by Marion Grace Woolley + a Giveaway

Hello, readers! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Marion Grace Woolley's Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran. Thanks to the publisher I'm able to offer up a giveaway copy of this one, and it's open internationally! Be sure to fill out the Rafflecopter below to enter to win.

As the eldest daughter of the Shah, Asfar enjoys a life of privilege and luxury. But Asfar longs for more. On her twelfth birthday, her father presents her with a circus. One of its members, a masked man whose magical feats are both breathtaking and baffling, becomes Asfar's closest friend. Together they find pleasure in cruelty and torture, but their friendship will be their undoing.

There are some books that in spite of reading synopses and promotional materials seem to defy all expectation. Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is one of those books. I honestly had no idea, even after reading up on the book, what to expect out of this one. I was intrigued, though, by the premise and the more I read about it further convinced me that I needed to see for myself what it was all about. (In finishing the book, I find I am having a bit of trouble summing it up myself, so I want to share a couple of those links with you. This first one is a piece by Salomé Jones on marketing Rosy Hours, and this second link is a Q&A with the author herself.)

Inspired by The Phantom of the Opera, the tale imagines Erik Vachon's life in Persia in the years before Leroux's tale takes place. Amazingly, though Vachon is a mean spirited man who makes a living as an assassin for the Shah, young Asfar is a much more cruel character in my opinion. One could argue that Vachon's appearance is the cause of his disposition and proclivities; Asfar has no such excuse. Even when she becomes a pawn and a plaything in the hands of her grandmother and her father's favorite wife, her vengeful nature is, for the most part, drawn simply from a desire to kill rather than a need for retribution.

Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is a dark and brutal book and there really are no redeeming qualities in its heroine. Nothing that makes you sympathize with her or like her in the least bit anyway. But there's something undeniably engaging about the story and the author's talent in putting to page her own prequel of a sorts to such a well-known story is quite admirable.

Those Rosy Hours at Mazandaran is officially out February 14 from Ghostwoods Books.

Rating: 4.5/5

And now for the giveaway! As mentioned above,  To enter simply fill out the Rafflecopter below before Monday, February 16. And again, this one is open internationally!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here. For more on Marion Grace Woolley and her work you can follow her on Twitter.

Girl Before a Mirror by Liza Palmer

Hi, everyone! As promised, today I'm part of the TLC tour for Liza Palmer's latest, Girl Before a Mirror. If you missed last week's excerpt post, you can check that out here, I'll wait :)

On Anna Wyatt's fortieth birthday she gets the go ahead to pursue a pitch she thinks could make her career. And she's right. Landing the Lumineux account would be a guaranteed stepping stone to the much larger and much more important Quincy Pharmaceuticals account. Lumineux was one of the company's very first products, one that hasn't been rebranded for decades, and Anna has an idea that would not only bring it back into the limelight but make it a must have product for women everywhere. 

Anna's pitch sends her to the annual RomanceCon writers' conference where she and her colleague will guest judge the Mr. RomanceCon pageant. If Quincy approves, the winner of the pageant will be featured in the new Lumineux ad campaign. Unfortunately for Anna, the closer she gets to approval the more her boss wants to take the credit. It doesn't help that Anna's facing a number of new distractions along the way as well, namely her brother's personal issues and a fling with a hot Brit. 

Girl Before a Mirror seemed a little lighter than previous books I've read by Palmer. There are still some heavy issues, but much of the focus here is on finding and being true to oneself. Honestly, I sympathized with Anna throughout the entire book and that's something I've really loved about all of Palmer's works: the fact that the characters are the kinds of girls I could and would (and may actually be) friends with. Anna faces workplace issues, family issues, love life issues... the same things we all face in our own day to day lives. But through her we can laugh and cry and maybe even learn a little ourselves.

Rating: 4/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to head over to the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Liza Palmer and her work, you can visit her website here. You can also like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter.

Top Ten Tuesday: Horror Novels I Can't Believe I Haven't Read

I've decided to jump on board with Top Ten Tuesday, hosted by The Broke and the Bookish. This week the topic is: top ten books I can't believe I haven't read from x genre. Surprise, surprise I chose horror. And my list is super embarrassing!

Ryder: American Treasure by Nick Pengelley + a giveaway

Good morning, everyone! Today I'm a stop on the TLC book tour for Nick Pengelley's second Ayesha  Ryder adventure, Ryder: American Treasure. Do note there is a tour wide giveaway on this one so be sure to read through to the bottom for the Rafflecopter entry.

Ayesha Ryder has fully recovered from the injuries she sustained at the Tower and it's at the awards ceremony where she's being honored that she finds her next job. Unfortunately, it does mean putting her own search for the Ark on hold, but this new treasure hunt is too tantalizing to resist. 

In 1814, when the British burned the White House, it was rumored that the soldiers absconded with treasures belonging to America. If it was true, the treasure was thought to have been lost long ago in the sinking of the ship that carried it away. But a recent discover seems to indicate otherwise. And this discovery, and its connection to Field Marshal Horatio Herbert Kitchener, are what draws Ayesha in. But she's not the only one in search of the Washington Treasure. 

I really enjoyed the first Ryder tale. I honestly wasn't at all sure what to expect when I started, but by the end I found that I'd not only really liked it but that I was very much looking forward to more books in the series (always a good thing). So it was a given that I was going to take part in this second tour, after all it's not everyday that you get to read an espionage action/adventure thriller that also includes alluring bits of history as part of the plot (think Steve Berry's Cotton Malone series).

Ryder: American Treasure proves that Pengelley's first outing wasn't a fluke! Much of the plot does continue veins begun in the first Ryder book (so I do recommend staring there). The Shamir are still after Ayesha and she's still battling memories of her own actions as a member of the Palestinian fedayeen, not to mention the politics surrounding the new Holy Land. But there's politics and scheming beyond even that to face now as well, and it all seems to hinge on this lost treasure.

What's really cool is that much of the main plot points are based in fact! There is a rumored missing treasure said to have sunk in the aftermath of the burning in 1814. There were even reports that a sunken ship discovered near Novia Scotia might have been carrying some of the booty. It's details like these and others that make Ayesha's stories so compelling - in much the same way Indiana Jones or the aforementioned Steve Berry books are. Fans of those series and types of stories will surely find something to love in Pengelley's series.

And there's more to come! Ayesha's third adventure, Ryder: Bird of Prey, is due out in May and this time she's on the hunt for the Maltese Falcon.

Rating: 4/5

To see more stops on the tour be sure to check out the official TLC tour page here.

For more on Nick Pengelley and his work, you can visit his website here. You can also like him on Facebook and follow him on Twitter.

And now for the giveaway, and remember this is a tour wide one.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

New Releases 2/3/15

Some of the new titles set to hit shelves this week are:

The Beige Man by Helene Tursten

City of Savages by Lee Kelly

The Forgotten Girls by Sara Blaedel

Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

A Memory of Violets by Hazel Gaynor

The King Worth Killing by Peter Swanson

Love By the Book by Melissa Pimentel

Palm Beach Nasty by Tom Turner

Prudence by David Treuer

Crash & Burn by Lisa Gardner

Girl Runner by Carrie Snyder

The Missing One by Lucy Atkins

The Chessmen by Peter May

The Price of Blood by Patricia Bracewell

Walking on Trampolines by Frances Whiting

Funny Girl by Nick Hornby

We Are Pirates by Daniel Handler

The Evening Chorus by Helen Humphreys

The Marauders by Tom Cooper

The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

Dark Intelligence by Neal Asher

Long Way Down by Michael Sears

Death of a Liar by M. C. Beaton

Single, Carefree, Mellow: Stories by Kathering Heiny

Love in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Judd Trichter

Shutter by Courtney Alameda

Bet Your Life by Jane Casey

I'll Meet You There by Heather Demetrios

Soulprint by Megan Miranda

New on DVD:
John Wick
Dracula Untold
Ouija

New reviews at Bookbitch.com:
Bird Box by Josh Malerman
Veronica Mars: The Thousand Dollar Tan Line by Rob Thomas & Jennifer Graham
The Martian by Andy Weir