Sneak Peeks from Highland Fairlings Book One: Ina

one 2

This is a peek from Chapter one of Highland Fairlings Book One:Ina

The Book can be purchsed here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ina-Highland-Fairlings-Book-One-ebook/dp/B00M77WI4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406714074&sr=8-1&keywords=emma+ruthven-stevenson

Alternatively, if you go to this page you’ll find the links for purchase from

Amazon.co.uk
Kobo
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble

https://eruthvenstevenson.com/2014/07/18/ina-highland-fairlings-book-one-availability/

Sneak Peeks from Highland Fairlings Book One: Ina

Sneak Peeks from Highland Fairlings Book One: Ina

one 1

This is a peek from chapter one of Highland Fairlings Book One:Ina

The Book can be purchsed here

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Ina-Highland-Fairlings-Book-One-ebook/dp/B00M77WI4K/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406714074&sr=8-1&keywords=emma+ruthven-stevenson

Alternatively, if you go to this page you’ll find the links for purchase from

Amazon.co.uk
Kobo
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble

https://eruthvenstevenson.com/2014/07/18/ina-highland-fairlings-book-one-availability/

Sneak Peeks from Highland Fairlings Book One: Ina

Sneak Peeks from Highland Fairlings Book One: Ina

Prologue 1

This is a peek from the prologue of Highland Fairlings Book One:Ina

The Book can be purchsed here

Alternatively, if you go to this page you’ll find the links for purchase from

Amazon.co.uk
Kobo
Amazon.com
Barnes and Noble

Ina- Highland Fairlings – Book one – Availability

Review – Falling for a Bentley – Adriana Law

17976279

Review - Falling for a Bentley - Adriana Law
 
"The basement is where I make my birds."
 
Victoria was a completely normal, overlooked teenage girl until she begun to date Colton Bentley, the most popular boy in school. 
Apart from her accident.
 
"A scar, a limp,  a bad hand, inept social skills, the list goes on.."
 
 
Whilst he seems happy, she seems more interested in keeping her demanding mother happy. Colton seems to want different things than she does, and he wants her to be something she isn't. 
 
"Every little detail has to be right."
 
Just as she makes the decision to put an end to their charade of a relationship, Colton's parents die. How can she break up with him just when he needs her most?
 
Encouraged by her mum to stay at his and help in any way she can, Victoria soon discovers her Bentley isn't everything she'd hoped. Nor is his uncle or cousins.
 
Sometimes she just wants to be herself, not to have to hide behind the carefully cultivated facade she has erected.
 
"I'm okay.
 I lied."
 
Everything was moving sedatley along until the death of Colton's family shows up. An uncle who clearly disapproves of her, one cousin who is a friendly, flirty type of character and the other cousin...
 
Sterling Bentley is everything mother's warn their good girls away from, so why cant she turn away? Sexual tension radiates within every encounter between them.
 
"I might combust in my seat if he doesn't stop staring as if he can see through to my soul."
 
Running away to his LA apartment with him she takes on the role of friend. Surprised by the ever increasing depravity of Sterling's life she is desperate to help him. Not just because she's falling for the brief glimpses of the real Sterling she occasionally sees, but because she really does want to be his friend. She really does care.
 
"And even though I know I shouldn't, I do. I do want him."
 
We flick between Sterling and Victoria's viewpoint. Sterling calls Victoria, Phoenix.
 
"But Phoenix isn't just any other girl."
 
 
We also meet Starr, who could have been something important to Sterling romantically if they hadn't both been drug addicts. Starr is now clean and getting on with her life. Victoria and Starr become friends as they hunt out Sterling who has been missing for four days. 
 
Then we get to go through home rehab with him. And experience everything from his and Victoria's viewpoint.
 
"Never in life have I seen someone's body drive them to intentionally destroy it."
Just when it seems the worst is over, just when Victoria and Sterling's relationship moves onto the next level, it all becomes too much.
 
"'Tu es mon feu' I whispered.
You are my fire."
 
Victoria's world crashes.
When you can't save the guy you love from himself, how long do you fight the facts? Then she suffers a family bereavement.
 
"I'm on autopilot with only one thought, and that is to get home."
 
Back at home, with her mother's support, Victoria makes the decision that any relationship between her and Sterling is over. Finished.
 
"He walks away thinking time will change things.
He's wrong."
 
Life moves on. About a year or so later Victoria has her own woodcarving store.
Volunteering at a meeting for recovering addicts she is surprised by the reappearance of Sawyer, then Starr. And who is in the parking lot?
 
"I take off running, throwing myself into his arms."
 
Sterling Bentley has come to share his story with other recovering addicts.
 
"Addiction doesn't discriminate."

Review – Glynnis Campbell – The Shipwreck

a454b94dd486e4f82ef99dac7033fd27

 

 

Review – Glynnis Campbell – The Shipwreck

Outcast by her brothers and stripped of her home and lands for birthing her  “‘bastard viking spawn'”, Avril lives on the coast with her four year old daughter, Kimbery. They live on what they can scavenge from the sea. Theirs is a hard, lonely existence but Avril is coping well and is proud of providing a life for her beloved daughter.
The morning after a violent storm the pair comb the shoreline. Avril hopes to discover part of a broken boat, or useful kelp. Kimbery on the other hand is certain she’ll find mermaids treasure.
Neither expected their find..

“Mama! It’s my da!”

The half dead, wealthy looking, blonde man was undeniable in his viking origins. He was not Kimbery’s father but that mattered not to Avril. All viking men were cut from the same cloth. They all raped and pillaged and invaded.
All she could think of was protecting her daughter from this man and any shipmates who came searching for him.

That’s how Brandr came to return to consciousness tied up in the small home on the shore.

This tale shows that you can’t always judge one man by his countrymen. How Viking and Pict can come together. How they can discover love in the most unlikely of places and put past hurts behind them to create s stronger future.

“As improbable as it seemed, the two of them – captive and captor, mortal enemies – had somehow done much more than find common ground and an uneasy peace. They’d fallen in love.”

Review – Where’s the zombie.

61gLCeG2PLL__BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX324_SY324_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA346_SH20_OU02_

 

 

Review – Where’s the zombie.
Illustrated by Paul Moran
Written by Jen Wainwright
Designed by Angie Alisson and Zoe Bradley

February 11th – Worry for Dr Peters who has been quarantined.  February 20th – Fear the Dr, his parents, his wife, his four children, a cat and dog.
So we’re hunting the pages for the ten zombie members of the family and told there are medical kits to help cure.
Looks like a bit of a laugh and the illustrations are fun so I’ll give it a shot!

Picture search one – March 3rd and were at the quarantine centre.  The details are great. In amongst Dr’s, nurses and people in biohazard suits you have blood splatters, infected falling from ceiling, a man throwing up on the floor…. A lot of work obviously went into making the scene full and believable.
So we hunt for the family… I found granny, grandpa, dad (the Dr) and one of his twin daughters quickly. I also found 4 medi packs.  I found two more medi packs but no more family members. I hunted for ages and found many other zombies but not the ones I was looking for. I did have to go back to the family pictures to remember why they all looked like.

Picture two – ah ha! I seen why I’ve done. It’s the other half of picture one!!!!

So more picture  one – there’s a man who appears to be getting his bum looked at by a Dr and a bunch of people in the back stood in their underwear. There is also a flimsy looking pen full of zombies. These people have obviously not watched as many zombie films as me, I’d be running the opposite direction!
I found six medi packs but was distracted from looking for the family by the couple in wheelchairs. He’s ok, she not! Zombie gram (not from the family we’re looking for, we already found her) appears to be chasing her husband!
I found mum and dad, it must not have been him I found in the first one. I found the second twin and the older sister.
Looking back over the entire two pages off the picture I found the dog but the boy and the cat continued to remain hidden.
I gave up. I went to the next picture.

The real picture two – March 8 and were at an event in the park. Crazy town thinks to do this after last week’s hospital fiasco? Dad, son, granma, older girl, one twin, grandpa and dog were found easily enough along with 7 medi packs. I got distracted by all the little details happening in the pictures. There’s a mugging and a woman teaching her kid to walk amongst the chaos. I found the second girl but the cat…. He’s good, I still can’t find him!

Picture 3 – March 17 and these crazy people still aren’t hiding but are instead heading to the shopping mall! There’s some brilliant little scenes, a woman knocking a zombies head off with nothing but her handbag, a zombie in a mascot suit. It took a little longer and there were more infected to hunt through but I found the family and I found the cat!

Picture 4 -March 22 – high school. Picture 5 – March 30th and we’re finally in an improvised bunker at the underground train station. Picture 5 – March 31st – looters in main street. Picture 6 – April 4th – farm.  Picture 7 April 10 th – white house! Picture 8 – April 16th – supermarket. Picture 9 – April 22 – motorway. Picture 10- April 28 th – plane crash in the Sahara.

Each picture is getting harder and taking more time. And as you look carefully through the images there are so many fun little scenes.

April 30 – street front, May 2 – rooftops, May 5 – sewers, May 6 – laboratory, May 9 – zombie nest/hideout, May 12 – mountain stronghold, May 15 and the zombies have won!

The next few pages show the answers and give you extra things to look for.

I had a lot of fun with this where’s the zombie book! It’s addictive though so only start if you’re planning on going through the whole thing!

Review – Stranded with a Scotsman – Serenity Woods – A short story

510twTvH05L__BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX324_SY324_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA346_SH20_OU02_

 

 

Review – Stranded with a Scotsman – Serenity Woods – A short story
Cori and Ewan have a past that neither of them managed to really put behind them. Whilst Cori is visiting her friend Izzy, who just happens to be Ewan’s sister, she is shocked when it isn’t her friend who picks her up but was in fact her brother that she still has feelings for. They went to some causeway and got stranded by the tide leaving them stuck til it went back out. (I do think this was intentional on Ewan’s (behalf)
It’s sweet and caring and at times you want to bang their heads together till they realise they’re just waiting for one another.
The characters are portrayed well but a little wishy washy for me. But then I’m the sort of person who’d have stood up to her dad and would just tell the guy I liked him! That’s me though and I do like Cori’s naivety. She’d never of followed him and got stranded without that innocence.
Halfway through the book they finally kiss and admit they missed one another during  game of truth or dare.
The truth game continues and we learn about the high class type of lifestyle Cori comes from and how it feels stifling to her. And she admits the man she is expected to marry in a few months doesn’t hold her love.
He convinces her not to marry the fiance (Henry I think, at least something like that) and you get the expected moment when they confess their feelings for one another.
I don’t really know exactly how o feel about this. O knew it would be short, it’s a short story so it would be. However I was still strangely disappointed. I just want a bit.. more.

Review – The noodle kitten art series – Ryoko San.

(Using the title pages copied from Amazon.)

41K9rIBd8-L__BO2,204,203,200_PIsitb-sticker-v3-big,TopRight,0,-55_SX324_SY324_PIkin4,BottomRight,1,22_AA346_SH20_OU02_

 

Review – The noodle kitten art series – Ryoko San.
This is an easy book to review. Inside is Ryoko’s version of famous paintings starring cats as the main focus. On the second page of each drawing he gives artist name and painting title of which he was inspired along with a little info on that painting.
Cute, colourful and a little informative.

C is for…..

Blue-Argyle-Wall-Letter-C

C is for Ceci!!

Ceci Giltenan

 

I actually found this book whilst searching for a factual book concerning the clan Ruthven. I bought it on a whim thinking it would pass an evening at some point.
I owned it for rather a while before attempting to read it.
But after a few pages I was hooked and couldn’t put it down, I have since re-read it about three more times, loving it and the depth of characters that Ceci Giltenan has created more and more each time.
You will be drawn into Katherine and Niall’s love story but you’ll also love the other characters you meet along the way. Little Tomas is very sweet, but I also desperately wanted to know more of Fingall, Tadhg, Turcuil and Father Colm. Maybe one day these characters may feature in more stories? You never know!
A big thank you must be said for Ceci Giltenan for her wonderful, heartfelt story that encompasses love, betrayals, action, adventure and suspense in the highlands of Scotland.