Superb I think is the word to describe High Tide. Set in a Cornwall coastal town, we follow Kate and Vanessa as they deal with life after bereavement, while simultaneously learning more about the other town residents. Kate is a high flying party planner who returns home from New York after her mother dies. While Vanessa, being the ‘rich girl’ of the community buries her husband Spencer. Throughout we get to watch as they come to terms with their new life, with more than a handful of surprises along the way.

All the characters are extremely well-developed and easy to relate too. Although Kate and Vanessa are the two main characters, I have to say I loved Mary Mac the best. Not only is she well written, she is someone I can really relate too. Mary is Vanessa’s housekeeper, and sole breadwinner. She lives with her unemployed husband and his mother Ruth. Ruth is self-centred and very inconsiderate. Much of what happens in Mary’s story mirrors my own!

The story itself is well paced, giving plenty of time to picture the scenery as well as getting to know the different people, as if they are your own neighbours. Veronica’s descriptive skills are picture perfect making visualizing extremely easy, in the first few pages she describes the church as:

“It’s steeple poking out over the top of the higgledy-piggledy slate roofs like an eager pupil with his arm up.”

As well as this, Veronica’s ability to make me laugh even when the topic is serious is second to none! This showed itself during Kate’s mums wake when Kate had hidden in the kitchen for a good cry, her friend Debbie finds her, and once Kate’s sobbing eases, they talk about some of the good times:-

“I remember when I threw up all over your parents couch after your party,” she said. (Debbie) “We’d been drinking that punch all night and it was lethal. Your mum make me clear it up. But then she put me to bed and she was really kind.

“Yeah – put you into my bed,” remembered Kate. “I had to sleep on the floor!”

Sadly, however, I didn’t find everything to be so good. In particular the head hopping between the characters different stories. I found myself rereading pages, thinking I might have missed something! I soon got the idea and found this easier to deal with as the book progressed.

Overall, I have to say Veronica is now on my favourite authors list. She kind of reminds me of Maeve Binchy, who I love because of her ability to draw you in. Veronica is exactly the same, except High Tide is in Cornwall not in Ireland. If you’re a Maeve Binchy fan then I can promise you will LOVE High Tide. Even if you’re not, this is definitely a book for the must read list. Enjoy.

NB I Reveived this book free for an honest review

Rising Tide: Dark Innocence the first book in the The Maura DeLuca Trilogy  by Claudette Melanson has a FANTASTIC NEW cover. Before I reveal the beautiful new cover I will give you some info on the book and where you can find it :) 

There is also a great giveaway for 2 E-Copies of the book :) 

Make sure to check everything out and enter the giveaways :) 

About the Book

Rising Tide will sink its fangs into you, keeping you awake into the wee hours of the night

Could Maura's life get any worse? ...turns out it most certainly can.

Isolated and sheltered by her lonely mother, Maura's never been able to make friends. She seems to drive her classmates away—except for the odd times they pay enough attention to torture her—but she doesn’t understand why. Maura considers herself to be a freak of nature, with her unusually pale skin and an aversion to the sun that renders her violently nauseous. Her belief is only worsened by the fact that almost everyone around her keeps their distance.

Even her own father deserted her before she was born, leaving Maura alone with her emotionally distant mother, Caelyn. Even though Maura is desperate for answers about her unknown parent, Caelyn remains heartbroken and her daughter can’t bring herself to reopen her mother’s wounds. Or is there a more sinister reason Caelyn refuses to utter a word about her long-lost love? When a cruel prank nearly claims Maura’s life, one of her classmates, Ron, rushes to her rescue. Darkly handsome & mysteriously accepting, Ron doesn’t seem to want to stay away, but Maura is reluctant to get too close, since her mother has announced she’s moving the two of them to Vancouver…nearly 3,000 miles away from their hometown of Indiana, Pennsylvania.

If life wasn’t already challenging enough, Maura begins to experience bizarre, physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, compelling Maura to fear for her own life. Vicious nightmares, blood cravings, failing health and the heart-shattering loss of Ron—as well as the discovery of a tangled web of her own mother's lies—become obstacles in Maura's desperate quest for the unfathomable truth she was never prepared to uncover.

Sure to become of the Books to Read of the year, Rising Tide: Dark Innocence isn’t the usual tale of vampire erotica. This novel is a YA Vampire Romance that is certain to become one of the classic books of its time. Maura doesn’t live in Castle Dracula in Transylvania, but she must still discover the bloodlines constructing the creature she is destined to become.

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And now the cover 

Rising Tide is also a finalist in the 2015 RONE Awards 

Check out her other titles 

About the Author

Claudette Melanson lives in Guelph, Ontario, with her husband Ron and four bun babies: Tegan, Pepper, Butters & Beckett. She graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English and an MA in Literature. Vampires have been a passion since age five. She hopes to one day work full time as an author, since there are many, many books living inside her head.

You can find her here: 

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She has a monthly Giveaway for a $100 Amazon Card that you can enter 

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Book Description....

"A meeting of criminal minds with a shared hatred of America. But can the love of God and a woman prevent Armageddon?

Anastasiya Goldberg came to America to start a new life. She was a wife, a faithful church member and a target. When a 911 call reports a murder at the church, Atlanta Homicide Sergeant Malcolm Hobbs and his Detectives nicknamed, ‘The X-Men’, want to know who the shooter was, where is the witness who made the call…and just who is the victim?

Then a series of grisly murders with similar M.O. blanket the city. The consensus by the Atlanta Police Department is the city has a serial killer on the loose. As the case progresses, Malcolm and The X-Men, discover a Russian link to the victims and the perpetrators. If the connection is correct, they can finally close the case. However, a key component to their investigation is missing.

Hobbs and The X-Men investigate Anastasiya Goldberg’s background and discover her coming to America was crucial to a number of people in Atlanta and Russia …from her closest Russian emigrant friends to a consortium of international entrepreneurs with the mutual goal to evade detection by the Atlanta Police led by the elite X-Men Homicide Unit.

But for Hobbs, a man who slowly pieces his shattered life and walk of faith in God back together again, it’s a labyrinth of danger with a countdown certain to confront him and The X-Men with the ultimate nightmare."

Title: Kremlin Tide
Author: Cortez Law III
Publisher: Metro Black & Blue Books
Reviewed By: Arlena Dean
Rating: 5
Review:

"Kremlin Tide" by Cortez Law III

What I liked from this novel.....

This author really knows how the 'criminal mind' works having read this story that will show all of that in this captivating read but also in this story there will be some forgiveness too. I will say when I first read 'Kremlin Tide' was about I wondered would I really like this type of read which was a deep mystery however, after getting into the read it was not bad at all. I liked how this author helped the reader flow into each chapter presenting at the beginning of a new chapter he let us know just where we were in the read because this novel moves, moves and moves a lot in the read bringing so many twist and turns that you will have to keep up with it that is going on. From the start of the read... from the "911 call murder reports a murder at the church...till the end the reader will be found turning the pages till the end.

For this Sergeant Malcolm Hobbs and his Detectives, the X-Men Homicide Unit really had their hands full in this read. This story will keep your interest as you reads about a Russian Mafia group of bad people who were serial killers on the loose there in Atlanta, Georgia. Will Sergeant Hobbs and his team be able to bring down this terrorism down and then afterwards what then? What had happened and was going on with these Russian immigrates that they felt the need of doing what that did? Now, this is where I say you will have to pick up "Kremlin Tide" and read it for yourself to see how this author gives the reader this well written story. It was quite interesting how these good people: Malcolm, Pepper, Svetlana, Shepherd, Orlando, Selena, Hobbs, Allen, Agents Pratt, Thompkin and I am sure I have left out a few who were able to get this bad element of people down...finally getting their hands on ....... I will say that all of these characters were simply off the chart good, well developed, defined, characterized, real and oh so believable. I found it quite interesting at the end of the read what happened to those two criminals. It really makes one wonder is this what happens to some of the crooks that are put away in our prisons? The christian references that were brought into this read was really special in how this author was able to put this into this story and it being done so well. As you read you can get the feel of what had happened to each one who had this experience with God especially for Malcolm and Pepper.

What I especially liked about this novel...

At the end of this novel when Malcolm Hobbs was able to ask for forgiveness, rededicating his life and be welcome back into the church was truly a wonderfully written part that I truly enjoyed from this novel. Now, once again to understand this and so much more you will have to pick up this read and see for yourself. For me that really made the ending wonderful and to understanding a little more of what all had gone one in Malcolm's life. With saying that would I recommend 'Kremlin Tide?' YES!

Today's tour stop features Rising Tide by Claudette Melanson with a great excerpt! 

Thank you for stopping and happy reading :) 

About Rising Tide

Maura’s life just can’t get any worse… or can it?

 Isolated and sheltered by her lonely mother, Maura’s never been the best at making friends. Unusually pale with a disease-like aversion to the sun, she seems to drive her classmates away, but why?

 Even her own father deserted her, and her mother, before Maura was born. Bizarre physical changes her mother seems hell bent on ignoring, drive Maura to fear for her own life. And her luck just seems to get worse.

 Life is about to become even more bewildering when her mother’s abrupt,… and unexplained… decision to move a country away sets off a chain of events that will change Maura forever. A Cruel prank turned deadly, the discover of love and friendship… and it’s loss, as well as a web of her own mother’s lies, become obstacles in Maura’s desperate search for a truth she was never prepared to uncover.

You can buy it here:

Excerpt:

Caelyn was in the kitchen, pouring coffee into a travel mug to take to the office.  Her eyes popped wide when she saw me bound around the corner.  “Maura? Your hair is up?” 

                I rolled my eyes, but to be honest, her surprise was justified.  This really was a first.  I tried to smile nonchalantly, and shrugged.  “I wanted to try it out.”

                 “Weird…but ok…”  She shrugged as well and turned back to the counter.  I was on my way to the cabinet to dig out my favorite honey-flavored cereal, when my mom’s arm came across my path to block me.  In her hand was a plateful of scrambled eggs.

                “Here, Maura, why don’t you eat this?” my look of disappointment caused her to use an infallible tactic—guilt.  “I got up early to make them for you.”

                “And…what’s wrong with cereal?”  I took the plate obligingly. 

                She tried to sound indifferent, but I noticed the nervous tremble, underlying, in her voice.  “It’s time you put more protein into your diet.”

                “Mom, I’m almost seventeen, and you pick now to become more concerned with my diet.”

                “You’re right, I should have done that a long time ago.”  She patted my head affectionately, and of course with that, the battle was over for me.  I was now resigned to the eggs, my sugary, morning fix lost to me.

                I took a whiff.  A cook Caelyn was not…that was another reason I took on kitchen duty, but they smelled mouthwatering.  “Mmmmm,” I surprised myself by scooping a wad of them up with my fingers, not bothering to grab a fork.  I wolfed half the plateful down in this manner before I noticed my mother staring at me open-mouthed. 

                I laughed nervously, blushing profusely.  “Hey!  You’re right, protein is good.”  I didn’t want to, but forced myself to take the time to fetch silverware and went to sit at the dining room table.

My Review Rising Tide

I won a copy of this book a while back and had it sitting on my desk for a while, waiting to be read. Yesterday, I picked it up just to get a closer look at it and see what it is about and read the first chapter while I was waiting for someone. Next thing I know I was a 1/3 through the book. I had no idea I read that much already. That doesn’t happen often and if it does they are usually pretty awesome books. This was one of them. It just had a way to sucks you into the story. I really enjoyed it and had a hard time putting the book down. While it was pretty obvious to me what was happening to Maura it was still great to read about her and to see what will happen next to her and how she deal with it then. Though I had a few times when I thought “How can she not get it?” But that was kind of the fun of it. Her Mom kind of annoyed me in a way of “How can you not tell her? “ But not too much. Ron, I really enjoyed him and the way he cared for Maura, but I can’t help the feeling that there is more to him. What I also enjoyed is how the relationship slowly grew and unlike in some books where everything is so rushed. The end was sort of a cliffhanger and I can NOT wait to read the 2nd book and see how Maura’s journey will continue now that everything has changed for her.

Overall I think I rate this book at a 4 ½ ★

About the Author:

Claudette Melanson lives in Guelph, Ontario, with her husband Ron and four bun babies: Tegan, Pepper, Butters & Beckett. She was born in Bristol, Tennessee and graduated from Indiana University of Pennsylvania with a BA in English and an MA in Literature. Vampires have been a passion since age five. She hopes to one day work full time as an author, since there are many, many books living inside her head.In her spare time she enjoys watching Japanese Anime and reading vampire stories....along with other great fiction. She is also very interested in good health and is an advocate of Ketogenic eating, using whole and natural foods. Future dreams include writing many more books, spending more time with her son, Jacob and sister, Susie. She hopes to take them and her nieces Maggie, Sadie and Sophie to Disneyworld with the proceeds from the first novel. A Rabbit Rescue fanatic, she also hopes to help rescues all over the world save many innocent lives.

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