Review: The Witch’s Daughter by Ron D. Voigts

Disclaimer:  Author Ron D. Voigts is my Dad. With that said I want to make sure that my readers understand that this doesn't reflect on my thoughts and feelings about his novel. It's only fair to be honest with each review I write and to no show favoritism with any author. 

Title: The Witch’s Daughter

Series: Cavendish Brown Mystery #1

Author: Ron D. Voigts

Genre: Paranormal Mystery

Publisher: Champagne Book Group

Number of pages: 219

Word Count: 72K

Date of Publication:  March 2, 2015

ISBN:  978-1-77155-176-2

ASIN: B00U0W28LC

Investigative reporter and recent widower, Cavendish Brown, is unemployed and floundering. Coerced into returning to his childhood home by the town's eccentric matriarch, Cavendish finds himself involved in murder, deceit, and a not-so-subtle attempt at matchmaking.

Joined by Jane, a disturbed psychic, and Alexandra, a young Goth woman with uncanny abilities, they follow leads into the hills of West Virginia to catch the killer. A sheriff who shoots first and asks questions later makes solving the case difficult for the trio. Adding further complications is an ex-girlfriend with a mob hitman on her trail who seeks Cavendish’s help.

Immersed in a never-ending spiral of clues and secrets, he must unlock the darkness that surrounds the enigmatic Jane, stay ahead of the law, and come to terms with his own grief.

Purchase at Amazon | BN | Kobo | Champagne Books

A really good mystery is sometimes hard to find especially one with that will leave you trying to solve who the killer is up to the very end.  Mysteries/thrillers are one of my favorite types of books whether in a YA or adult setting. I often find myself figuring out who the killer is midway through the book as some authors make it too easy to use the clues given to know who did what to whom. So I was pleasantly surprised when The Witches Daughter had me guessing until the very last chapter and even then I was shocked to find out the killer really was and why.

The Witch's Daughter is both mystery and paranormal. The story is set in the small town of Maiden Falls, WV legended to be named after an Indian Princess who leaped to her death from the falls. An out of work, recently widowed troubled man named Cavendish Brown is made an offer he can't refuse. Risking jail time Cavendish is offered by a wealthy old woman named Marbella who lives in his hometown to come back and work for the local paper in hopes to help restore it and of course keep him out of trouble. Reluctantly agreeing Cavendish moves back to Maiden Falls only to find the failing town paper is the least of his problems. Something not right is afoot and murder is its name. 

A young and seriously disturbed girl comes into the picture named Jane. Jane has the ability of Psychometry which means she can touch any object and see the past events of the person that last touched the item. With a turn of events, Cavendish meets Jane and discovers her unique ability. With the help of Jane and a mysterious gothic girl with abilities of her own named Alexandra, who happens to be the Marbella's daughter, they start to uncover the ill happening around town. The more of the mystery they uncover the more they find themselves fearing for their lives. Will Cavendish, Jane, and Alex be able to uncover who the killer is in time or will they be the next ones to perish? Read the book and find out!

There are so many amazing things that I loved about this book. There was never a dull moment, I was always left guessing. At some parts of the book, the author would lead me in totally different direction to try and throw me off course which I never saw coming. There was even a part in the book you will read and think nothing of it but later realize that this happens to be a "KEY" part in the story which makes sense after you finish reading. All of the characters were well written and developed as well as they all played a key part in the story to uncover the mystery. The only thing I that keep me from giving the book a solid 5 stars was a few of the chapters read slow. A few times I had a bit of trouble getting back into the storyline but other than that I absolutely love The Witch's Daughter. Author Ron D. Voigts KNOWS how to write a nail-biting, edge of your seat mystery. If you're looking for a fantastic "light on the paranormal" adult thriller then this book is perfect for you! 

 Totally Awesome! I loved it, would read again.

Release Week Blitz: Nowhere But Here by Katie McGarry + GIVEAWAY!

Hello everyone!

I am absolutely thrilled to bring you the Release Day Launch for Katie McGarry's NOWHERE BUT HERE! 

NOWHERE BUT HERE is a Young Adult Contemporary Romance and is a part of Katie McGarry’sThunder Road Series, published by Harlequin Teen. Grab your copy today!!

Amazon | Kobo | BAM | Barnes & Noble | iBooks | IndieBound

Add it to your Goodreads Now!   

An unforgettable new series from acclaimed author Katie McGarry about taking risks, opening your heart and ending up in a place you never imagined possible. 

Seventeen-year-old Emily likes her life the way it is: doting parents, good friends, good school in a safe neighborhood. Sure, she's curious about her biological father—the one who chose life in a motorcycle club, the Reign of Terror, over being a parent—but that doesn't mean she wants to be a part of his world. But when a reluctant visit turns to an extended summer vacation among relatives she never knew she had, one thing becomes clear: nothing is what it seems. Not the club, not her secret-keeping father and not Oz, a guy with suck-me-in blue eyes who can help her understand them both. 

Oz wants one thing: to join the Reign of Terror. They're the good guys. They protect people. They're…family. And while Emily—the gorgeous and sheltered daughter of the club's most respected member—is in town, he's gonna prove it to her. So when her father asks him to keep her safe from a rival club with a score to settle, Oz knows it's his shot at his dream. What he doesn't count on is that Emily just might turn that dream upside down. 

No one wants them to be together. But sometimes the right person is the one you least expect, and the road you fear the most is the one that leads you home.  

From Emily's Point of View. Set up: Emily is riding a motorcycle for the very first time and she's riding it with Oz.

THE MOTORCYCLE ACCELERATES AND THE FEW inches I had established between me and Oz: gone. My body slides forward, colliding into his, and we click together like two puzzle pieces. Heat rushes up my neck and onto my cheeks. My thighs are too close to his, too tight against his body and this is way more intimate than I have been before with a guy.

Even when the two of us kissed.

Oz veers left, away from Olivia’s, away from the main road, and the entire motorcycle pitches to the side. My heart thun­ders and my fingers clutch not only at Oz’s belt loop, but at the material of his jeans, and his hips.

Oz glances at me over his shoulder as the bike straightens out. “Lean with it, Emily.”

Right. Lean with Oz and the bike. Got it. The narrow road curves ahead and this time when Oz and the bike tilt, I move along with it. Oz releases one of the amazingly high handlebars and massages my knee before returning his hand to the grip. Whether in reassurance or to affirm I mastered the curve I don’t know, but either way, I sit higher.

The wind whips through my hair and onto my face and I shut my eyes for a brief second and pretend that I’m flying. There’s something energizing, something hypnotic, something inside me that begs to burst out of a cage in search of freedom.

The motorcycle kicks forward and our speed increases. Beams of sunlight filter through the towering trees and green foliage blurs together as we fly over the road. From head to toe, my body vibrates with the loud growling of the power­ful machine.

My knee still tingles from where Oz laid his fingers on me and I’ve never been more aware of my hands in my life. I should let go of Oz’s body, but I can’t. Belt loops weren’t enough and my fingers have somehow edged up and onto his sides. Oz is solid. Yes, definitely solid. Every inch of him that I touch is tight muscle.

Oz is a year older than me, but somehow he seems older, wiser and hotter than any other guy I’ve known. Just the way he rides his bike creates this overabundance of confidence.

Warm sensations I’ve never experienced before blossom through me. We enter another curve and I lean with him. I like how in sync I’ve become with Oz and the motorcycle. Like we’ve merged into one.

The purr of the engine deepens and Oz eases the bike to a stop. His feet hit the ground and he turns the machine off. It’s as if all sound in the world ceased, or maybe I’ve gone deaf because there’s no way anything can be this still or silent.

The wind picks up and the silence is frightened away with the roar of the trees bending. Both Oz and I shift with the flow of air and Oz doesn’t move the bike until the breeze gentles.

Oz kicks down the stand and the bike tilts, but not too much. He sets a hand over the fingers that I laced together across his stomach. Oh, hell, I’m plastic wrapped to him. I drop my head onto his shoulder and it places me closer, and closer is not what I need.

I go to unglue myself, but Oz squeezes my fingers, send­ing a jolt of electricity up my arms. “You okay?”

I have to clear my throat to speak and that just sucks. “Yes.”

Oz slides his fingers against mine and a fluttering occurs in my stomach. It’s a light fluttering. Ticklish even, and my survival instincts scream at me to get off this motorcycle.

About The Author: Katie McGarry

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Katie McGarry was a teenager during the age of grunge and boy bands and remembers those years as the best and worst of her life. She is a lover of music, happy endings, reality television, and is a secret University of Kentucky basketball fan. Katie is the author of full length YA novels, PUSHING THE LIMITS, DARE YOU TO, CRASH INTO YOU, TAKE ME ON, BREAKING THE RULES, and NOWHERE BUT HERE and the e-novellas, CROSSING THE LINE and RED AT NIGHT. Her debut YA novel, PUSHING THE LIMITS was a 2012 Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction, a RT Magazine's 2012 Reviewer's Choice Awards Nominee for Young Adult Contemporary Novel, a double Rita Finalist, and a 2013 YALSA Top Ten Teen Pick. DARE YOU TO was also a Goodreads Choice Finalist for YA Fiction and won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice Best Book Award for Young Adult Contemporary fiction in 2013.

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Book Blitz: Twisted Lies 2 by Sedona Venez + Giveaway!

Warning: content below is meant for 18+ readers!

Twisted Lies 2 by Sedona Venez 

Series: Dirty Secrets #2

Publication Date: May 19th 2015 

Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Sinthia Michaels has nearly lost everything. Unwittingly, she’s signed over the majority of her couture fashion line and lost the support of her retailers in one fell swoop. Behind it all is the one man she is undeniably attracted to.

Core McKay, a wealthy and legitimate businessman, is after one thing only—his mother’s murderer. When his intel leads him to a corrupt politician connected to Sinthia, Core will stop at nothing for his own version of justice—even if that means using Sinthia to get what he wants.

Continuing the story of twisted lies and dirty secrets, Core and Sinthia both have an end game, but their feelings for one another could be their undoing.

Purchase at Amazon

      “Damn. Shit just got real,” I muttered under my breath.  

       The throng moved again. McKay was checking me out with unveiled interest. 

       I tried to calm my beating heart, but to no avail. Biting my bottom lip, I drank him in. Jesus. He looked smoking hot. If you looked fuckable up in the dictionary, McKay’s name would be right there next to it. He sizzled in a shawl-collared tuxedo paired with a crisp tailored white shirt, black silk bow tie, black leather shoes, and a Panerai watch. Ram was looking flawless in a white tuxedo. It was masculinity at its finest. 

      McKay’s eyes flashed as he arched his eyebrow at me. I stopped and turned so I was facing Jade and my back was toward McKay.  

      Jade curiously looked at me. “What’s up?” 

      “Don’t look. That’s McKay by the bar,” I hissed. 

      Of course, Jade did the exact opposite of what I’d asked and stared boldly in his direction. 

      I wanted to choke her. “Really? What part of ‘don’t look’ was unclear?” 

      Staring over my shoulder, Jade whispered loudly, “Which one?” 

      “In the black tux with the black silk bow tie. He’s staring at me like I owe him money,” I responded. “Because I do.”

      “Damn! Look at that face.” Jade blinked and then blinked again. “He’s crazy hot.” 

“No. He’s just crazy.” I turned back around, glaring at him. Okay, he was hot, but I’d be damned if I acknowledged the way my cunt pulsed under his scrutiny. 

Sedona Venez is a romance junkie with a dirty mind. She lives in New York City with her hot ex-military hubby—hooah—and their furbaby. She loves writing sizzling, sexy complex stories about strong but broken characters who push boundaries, overcome their fears, and risk it all for love.

To learn more about Sedona Venez and her collection of contemporary and paranormal romance novels, visit her at www.sedonavenez.com

Sign up to be notified of new book releases: Newsletter
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Blitz-wide giveaway (INTL)

• $50 Amazon gift card & one signed paperback of 'Twisted Lies' and 'Twisted Lies 2

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Blog Tour: Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly | Author Interview + Giveaway!

Hello everyone! 

Welcome to the SERIOUSLY WICKED by Tina Connolly blog tour!

Today is my post day and I will be sharing with you all an author interview I've done with Tina and there is a giveaway below. Enjoy!

Title: SERIOUSLY WICKED
Author: Tina Connolly
Pub. Date: May 5, 2015
Publisher: Tor Teen
Pages: 384
Formats: Hardcover, eBook

Genre: YA - Paranormal, Fantasy

The only thing worse than being a witch is living with one.

Camellia’s adopted mother wants Cam to grow up to be just like her. Problem is, Mom’s a seriously wicked witch.

Cam’s used to stopping the witch’s crazy schemes for world domination. But when the witch summons a demon, he gets loose—and into Devon, the cute new boy at school.

Now Cam’s suddenly got bigger problems than passing Algebra. Her friends are getting zombiefied. Their dragon is tired of hiding in the RV garage. For being a shy boy-band boy, Devon is sure kissing a bunch of girls. And a phoenix hidden in the school is going to explode on the night of the Halloween Dance.

To stop the demon before he destroys Devon’s soul, Cam might have to try a spell of her own. But if she’s willing to work spells like the witch...will that mean she’s wicked too? 

Purchase @ Amazon | Barnes & Noble

1. Tell us a little about yourself?

Sure! I live with my family in Portland Oregon, but I’m originally from Lawrence, Kansas, which is a lovely little college town. I used to do a lot of theatre, and I still occasionally work as a face painter (a really fun job!) but mostly these days I focus on writing and podcasting and small children-wrangling.

2. When and how did the idea for Seriously Wicked come about?

I started this book pre-children, at a time when I had a goal to write 500 words every day. Ideally the words would be on a current project, but they could also be on some random new project. One day I sat down and this Rapunzel-ish story about a girl who lives with a *seriously wicked* witch just jumped onto the page.

3. What was your favorite part about writing the book and is there a character you had the most fun with?

I loved getting to write a book that was just flat-out fun. So my favorite parts all had to do with that. I loved thinking up the funny-horrible stories about terrible things the witch does to Cam (like turn her fingers into noodles) and I loved writing all the side characters. One of my favorite side characters is Kelvin, my sweet, clueless 4-H boy who tries to tutor Cam in math.

4. Personally I love books about teen witches, are there any you enjoyed reading and what ones are they?

I also love teen witches! One of my all-time favorite books is probably technically about pre-teen witches – Diana Wynne Jones’ Witch Week is so lovely and hilarious. Also I have to give props here to the movie Teen Witch, which my friend and I watched obsessively one summer (dancing around to all the songs.)

5. Will Seriously Wicked become a series or is it a stand-alone book? If a series, can you tell us more about it and what plans you may have for them?

It is both a stand-alone and the first in a series! I really loved these characters and wanted to tell more stories about them, so I was pretty excited when my editor felt the same way. Wicked witch Sarmine always has a new clever plan to take over the world, and my heroine Cam has to stop her. So each story is a complete stand-alone story, and so much fun to write. I’m working on the second story right now and I can’t say much about it because I’m still in the middle of it, but I will say I’m having a lot of fun writing it and cackling gleefully. Oh, and I’m working on a Seriously short story as well, about a disastrous pool party full of witches. Hopefully we’ll see that later this year. :)

6. How long did it take to write the book and tell us a little about your writing process?

This book wrote itself very quickly! I think I wrote the first few chapters in a couple weeks, and then it was summer and I had a busy face painting season that year, so the book got put down for a bit. I came back to it in fall and finished it up in a month. So the first draft was really very fast, during the times I was working on it. It was really my first full-length finished novel. But then, it went through a LOT of drafts. And in between those drafts I wrote what would be my first published novel, Ironskin, and sold that trilogy to my publisher...and then did some more drafts on this book... So the answer is both very quickly, and a very long time.

And now I have two small children, so my current writing process is: think very hard about my next scene while pushing the baby in the stroller or making dinner or whatnot...and then, as soon as the kids are asleep, write like mad.

7. Who inspires you to write? Do you have a favorite author you look up to?

Oh yeah, let me mention Diana Wynne Jones again, as she’s one of my all-time favorite authors. And for some reason, I also always want to write directly after reading her books. Perhaps it’s because she’s one of those rare writers whose books you can enjoy at any age, and I discovered her young enough that her books are somehow inextricably tied up in my conception of what a book is.

(TL;DR: Diana Wynne Jones is marvelous and everyone should read her!)

8. Describe your book in 6 words.

In 5 words, I’ll give you the title the book had during the 2nd draft: Witch Girl Hearts Demon Boy.

Thanks for being here today on Bittersweet Enchantment. Is there any final thoughts you'd like to leave my readers?

Thanks so much for having me on the blog!

About The Author: Tina Connolly

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Tina Connolly is the author of the Ironskin trilogy from Tor Books, and the Seriously Wicked series, from Tor Teen. Ironskin, her first fantasy novel, was a Nebula finalist. Her stories have appeared in Women Destroy SF, Lightspeed, Tor.com, Strange Horizons, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, and many more. Her narrations have appeared in audiobooks and podcasts including Podcastle, Beneath Ceaseless Skies, John Joseph Adams' The End is Nigh series, and more. She runs the Parsec-winning flash fiction podcast Toasted Cake.

She is originally from Lawrence, Kansas, but she now lives with her family in Portland, Oregon, where it is nice and green and wet. Photo credit Caroline M. Yoachim.

Giveaway Details:

5 winners will receive a finished copy of SERIOUSLY WICKED! US Only.

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Tour hosted by: Rockstar Book Tours

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

4/27/2015- Pandora's Books- Interview

4/28/2015- Bookfever- Review

4/29/2015- On Starships and Dragonwings- Guest Post

4/30/2015- GenGen's Book Blog - Review

5/1/2015- Bookhounds ya- Interview

Week Two:

5/4/2015- The Midnight Society- Review

5/5/2015- Alice Marvels - Guest Post

5/6/2015- Book Briefs- Review

5/7/2015- Bittersweet Enchantment- Interview

5/8/2015- Stories & Sweeties- Review