Monday, July 31, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 31, 2017


It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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Busy, busy week for me so I feel like I haven't gotten in much reading time. We took care of two of our darling grandkiddos for 3 days last week. That's hard work! Here they are, sitting in our closet while we were under a tornado warning. Always an exciting time at Nama's house! We ended up not actually having a tornado, so all is good.

Image may contain: 2 people, eyeglasses

We are expecting company this upcoming weekend so another busy week, getting ready for that. My 86 year old mother-in-law and my sister-in-law are planning to come up for a long weekend. Cleaning, grocery shopping, and cooking are on my agenda for this week. Hopefully I can snag some reading time too.

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading/listening to

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Me & Milo the Great
by Michelle Schlicher
Love this author's stories!

34879420
A Wild Fright in Deadwood (Deadwood #7)
by Ann Charles
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

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Emerald Coast
by Anita Hughes 
My thoughts will be posted tomorrow.

What I am going to read next

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The Quiet Child
by John Burley

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Sunday, July 30, 2017

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson ~ My Thoughts

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The Almost Sisters

The Almost Sisters by Joshilyn Jackson
Print and e-book, 352 pages
Published July 11th 2017 by William Morrow

With empathy, grace, humor, and piercing insight, the author of gods in Alabama pens a powerful, emotionally resonant novel of the South that confronts the truth about privilege, family, and the distinctions between perception and reality---the stories we tell ourselves about our origins and who we really are.

Superheroes have always been Leia Birch Briggs' weakness. One tequila-soaked night at a comics convention, the usually level-headed graphic novelist is swept off her barstool by a handsome and anonymous Batman.

It turns out the caped crusader has left her with more than just a nice, fuzzy memory. She's having a baby boy--an unexpected but not unhappy development in the thirty-eight year-old's life. But before Leia can break the news of her impending single-motherhood (including the fact that her baby is biracial) to her conventional, Southern family, her step-sister Rachel's marriage implodes. Worse, she learns her beloved ninety-year-old grandmother, Birchie, is losing her mind, and she's been hiding her dementia with the help of Wattie, her best friend since girlhood.

Leia returns to Alabama to put her grandmother's affairs in order, clean out the big Victorian that has been in the Birch family for generations, and tell her family that she's pregnant. Yet just when Leia thinks she's got it all under control, she learns that illness is not the only thing Birchie's been hiding. Tucked in the attic is a dangerous secret with roots that reach all the way back to the Civil War. Its exposure threatens the family's freedom and future, and it will change everything about how Leia sees herself and her sister, her son and his missing father, and the world she thinks she knows.


My thoughts about The Almost Sisters ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"My son, Digby,began at exactly 3:02 in the morning on the first Friday in June. I don't mean his conception or his birth. I mean the moment he began for me, which happened between two larger events."

The Almost Sisters was a binge read for me. Once I started it, I didn't want to put it down—I devoured it!

One of the things that I love about this book are all the layers to the story, both from the past and the present, and how they are going to impact the future. There is also the interesting cast of characters and all the different, complicated relationships between them. And the title, The Almost Sisters, fits perfectly with these relationships, and the story.  

About a hundred pages in, I came to the part in the book that totally took my breath away. (Once you read it, you will totally know what I am talking about.) I was not expecting what happened then and this spurred me on to keep reading. I love when that happens.

I have read several other books by Joshilyn and I have loved them all. I seriously think this one is my favorite..... for now. There's always the next one, right?


I received a copy of The Almost Sisters from HarperCollins in exchange for my honest opinion.

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About the author

Joshilyn Jackson

New York Times Bestselling novelist Joshilyn Jackson is the author of seven novels and a novella: The Opposite of Everyone, Someone Else’s Love Story, gods in Alabama, Between, Georgia, The Girl Who Stopped Swimming, Backseat Saints, A Grown-Up Kind of Pretty, and the novella My Own Miraculous. Her books have been translated into a dozen languages, won SIBA’s novel of the year, three times been a #1 Book Sense Pick, twice won Georgia Author of the Year, and three times been shortlisted for the Townsend prize.

A former actor, Jackson reads the audio versions of her novels; her work in this field has been nominated for the Audie Award, was selected by AudioFile Magazine for their best of the year list, has made the 2012 Audible All-Star list for highest listener ranks/reviews, and garnered three Listen Up Awards from Publisher’s Weekly. In 2012 Jackson began reading the audio versions of books written by other novelists, beginning with Shine Shine Shine by Lydia Netzer.

She serves on the board of Reforming Arts, a nonprofit dedicated to providing theatre infused liberal arts education to women who are under carceral control in Georgia. Through their education-in-prison and reentry programs, Reforming Arts fosters the development of critical and creative thinking skills, encouraging students to build livable lives. Joshilyn volunteers inside Lee Arrendale State Prison, teaching creative writing courses and facilitating a new literary magazine/newsletter that the students are producing. You can find out how to help support this organization HERE.

Connect with Joshilyn


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Saturday, July 29, 2017

Book Spotlight Giveaway! The Last Dreamer by Barbara Solomon Josselsohn


I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures. And sometimes, I find great books on Amazon that I just love to share with you, as well.

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This week I am giving away is a book that was a book club read awhile back. I ended up with an extra copy along the way and want to share it with one of you. You can read my thoughts about The Last Dreamer HERE.

Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Last Dreamer

The Last Dreamer by Barbara Solomon Josselsohn
Paperback, 228 pages
Published December 15th 2015 by Lake Union Publishing

Iliana Passing—wife, mother, and former acclaimed journalist—gave up her career to start a family. Almost fifteen years later, despite how much she loves her husband and kids, she can’t help wondering how she ended up with a life spent carpooling and running errands.

Ready to get back into the journalism game, Iliana searches for an exciting lead. When she discovers that Jeff Downs, the heartthrob star of an old TV show and her girlhood crush, now owns a nearby textile company, she thinks she’s found her story: teen celebrity and its aftermath. But as Iliana gets to know Jeff, the two grow closer than she ever could’ve imagined. Now that her teenage dream has walked into her present-day reality, how far will she go to entertain an old fantasy?

 

About the author

Barbara Solomon Josselsohn

Barbara Solomon Josselsohn is a New York-based novelist and freelance writer. Her first novel, The Last Dreamer, from Lake Union Publishing, debuts in December, 2015. Her articles and essays appear in a range of publications, including Consumers Digest, The New York Times, Parents Magazine, American Baby, Westchester Magazine, The Journal News, and Westchester Home, as well as online at BrainChildMag.com, ConsumerSearch.com and GrownandFlown.com.

Barbara also teaches adult writing classes at the Scarsdale Library in Scarsdale, New York, and conducts a magazine writing course for children each summer at the Scarsdale-based JCC-Midwestchester. She is a frequent presenter at local writing workshops for children.

Barbara began her career as a reporter and editor with HFN, a trade magazine covering the home furnishings business. She has a B.A. in English from Binghamton University and an M.A. in English from the University of Connecticut, and has studied fiction writing at Sarah Lawrence College and Manhattanville College.

She is currently working on her second novel.

Connect with Barbara

Website | Twitter | Goodreads | Blog


a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

Release Day: The Dream Keeper's Daughter by Emily Colin and a Giveaway!

Happy Release Day!!

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 The Dream Keeper's Daughter

The Dream Keeper's Daughter by Emily Colin
Print and ebook, 480 pages
Published July 25th 2017 by Ballantine Books 

An archaeologist discovers her presumed-missing boyfriend is trapped more than a hundred years in the past—a love story that transcends time and place, from the author of the New York Times bestseller The Memory Thief.

Eight years after the unsolved disappearance of her boyfriend Max Adair, archaeologist Isabel Griffin has managed to move on and rebuild her life with her young daughter, Finn, her last tie to Max. But after a series of strange incidents, Isabel begins to wonder if Max might still be alive somewhere, trying to communicate with her. She has no idea that the where isn’t the problem—it’s the when. Max has slipped through time and place, landing on his ancestral family plantation in 1816 Barbados, on the eve of a historic slave uprising.

As Isabel searches for answers, Max must figure out not only how to survive the violence to come, but how to get back to his own century, the woman he loves, and the daughter he has only ever met in his dreams.


Purchase The Dream Keeper's Daughter

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Congrats Emily, on the release of your novel, 
The Dream Keeper's Daughter.

About the Author



Emily Colin’s debut novel, The Memory Thief, has been a New York Times bestseller and a Target Emerging Authors Pick. Her diverse life experience includes organizing a Coney Island tattoo and piercing show, hauling fish at the Dolphin Research Center in the Florida Keys, roaming New York City as an itinerant teenage violinist, helping launch two small publishing companies, and serving as the associate director of DREAMS of Wilmington, a nonprofit dedicated to immersing youth in need in the arts. Originally from Brooklyn, she lives in Wilmington, NC with her family.

Emily is excited to share that she has a second novel, The Dream Keeper’s Daughter, upcoming from Ballantine Books in July 2017. She loves chocolate, is addicted to tiramisu, and dislikes anything containing beans.

Connect with Emily

WebsiteFacebook | Twitter | Goodreads


a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Monday, July 24, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 24, 2017


It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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Well, it's Monday and it's back to work for me. Hubby and I went out to The Black Hills on Thursday and got back last night. I got a little bit of reading done but it's never as much as I hope to read. I took two print books with me and my iPad loaded with e-books. You just never know and egads, to be without a book—unthinkable!!

I am only working 2 days this week (at my job) and then I'll be working (sort of) the last 3 days taking care of our 8 year old grandson and our 7 month old granddaughter. It will be fun but I'm pretty sure I'll be more tired than if I was at my job. 😉 Luckily, I'll have the weekend to recover. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a great week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading/listening to

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Emerald Coast
by Anita Hughes 

34879420
A Wild Fright in Deadwood (Deadwood #7)
by Ann Charles
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Lisa Becker
Links 
by Lisa Becker
Loved it! My thoughts will be posted tomorrow.

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The Almost Sisters
by Joshilyn Jackson
Another wonderful story by Joshilyn. My thoughts will be posted later this week.

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The Woman in Cabin 10
by Ruth Ware

What I am going to read next

35454403
Me & Milo the Great
by Michelle Schlicher
Love this author's stories!

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Saturday, July 22, 2017

Book Spotlight Giveaway! Harvesting the Heart by Jodi Picoult


I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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Harvesting the Heart

Harvesting the Heart
by Jodi Picoult

Paperback, 453 pages
Published 1995 by Penguin Books

A young woman who was abandoned by her mother when she was 5, left her father behind in Chicago to pursue art school. She marries an ambitious doctor and soon becomes a mother herself. She cannot forget her mother's absence and the shameful memories of her past, which make her doubt herself.

Out of Paige's struggle to find wholeness, Jodi crafts an absorbing novel that explores issues and emotions we can all relate to. 

  

About the author

Jodi Picoult

Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-three novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children.




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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Tuesday, July 18, 2017

Release Day: The Breakdown by B.A. Paris ~ My Thoughts #thebreakdown #whocanyoutrust

Happy Release Day!!

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The Breakdown

The Breakdown by B.A. Paris
Print and ebook, 336 pages
Published: July 18th 2017 by St. Martin's Press

THE NEW CHILLING, PROPULSIVE NOVEL FROM THE AUTHOR OF THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES AND USA TODAY BESTSELLING BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

If you can’t trust yourself, who can you trust?

Cass is having a hard time since the night she saw the car in the woods, on the winding rural road, in the middle of a downpour, with the woman sitting inside—the woman who was killed. She’s been trying to put the crime out of her mind; what could she have done, really? It’s a dangerous road to be on in the middle of a storm. Her husband would be furious if he knew she’d broken her promise not to take that shortcut home. And she probably would only have been hurt herself if she’d stopped.

But since then, she’s been forgetting every little thing: where she left the car, if she took her pills, the alarm code, why she ordered a pram when she doesn’t have a baby.

The only thing she can’t forget is that woman, the woman she might have saved, and the terrible nagging guilt.

Or the silent calls she’s receiving, or the feeling that someone’s watching her…


My thoughts about The Breakdown ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"The thunder starts as we're saying goodbye, leaving each other for the summer holidays ahead. A loud crack! echoes off the ground, making Connie jump. John laughs, the hot air dense around us."

The storm at the very first of the book gives this story an ominous beginning. And then the suspense just builds from there. The Breakdown had me questioning everything that was happening to Cass. Could she have prevented that woman's murder? Why was she forgetting things? Who was calling her all the time, creeping her out? Who was out to get her?

The suspense and drama kept me turning pages. Things are not always what they seem and then the ending. Love those surprise endings! This story was totally riveting and I inhaled it in record time!

I received a copy of The Breakdown in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the Author

B.A. Paris

From a Franco/Irish background, B.A. Paris was brought up in England and moved to France where she spent some years working as a trader in an international bank before retraining as a teacher. She still lives in France and has five daughters.

Her first book, Behind Closed Doors, is a New York Times bestseller and has been translated into 36 languages. It has also been optioned for a film. Her second novel, The Breakdown, is available now.

Connect with B. A.

FacebookTwitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Monday, July 17, 2017

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? July 17, 2017


It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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It's been another hot week for us but we did get a little rain. The downside of the rain came with us being under a tornado warning for part of the evening. As was typical for us, I was in the house listening to the radio, ready to run for cover and hubby was outside watching to storm from the driveway. Which kind of storm person are you - seek shelter or watch? 

This is going to be a short work week for me. Three days and then we are off to spend a few days in The Black Hill. We have a friend getting married out there so we are taking a few extra days for some R&R (relaxing and reading, hopefully)

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a great week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading/listening to

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The Woman in Cabin 10
by Ruth Ware

34879420
A Wild Fright in Deadwood (Deadwood #7)
by Ann Charles
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

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Lost Lake (Lost Lake #1)
by Sarah Addison Allen
My thoughts will be posted soon.

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Waking Kate (Lost Lake 0.5)
by Sarah Addison Allen

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The Breakdown
by B.A. Paris
My thoughts will be posted tomorrow.

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Hello, Sunshine
by Laura Dave
Read my thoughts here.

What I am going to read next

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The Almost Sisters
by Joshilyn Jackson

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Sunday, July 16, 2017

Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave ~ My Thoughts

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Hello, Sunshine

Hello, Sunshine by Laura Dave
Print and ebook, 256 pages
Published July 11th 2017 by Simon Schuster

From Laura Dave—the author of the “addictive” (Us Weekly), “winning” (Publishers Weekly) and critically acclaimed bestseller Eight Hundred Grapes—comes a new novel about the secrets we keep…even from ourselves.

Sunshine Mackenzie truly is living the dream. A lifestyle guru for the modern age, Sunshine is beloved by millions of people who tune into her YouTube cooking show, and millions more scour her website for recipes, wisdom, and her enticing suggestions for how to curate a perfect life. She boasts a series of #1 New York Times bestselling cookbooks, a devoted architect husband, and a reputation for sincerity and kindness—Sunshine seems to have it all. But she’s hiding who she really is. And when her secret is revealed, her fall from grace is catastrophic. What Sunshine does in the ashes of destruction will save her in more ways than she can imagine.

In our modern world, where celebrity is a careful construct, Laura Dave’s compelling, enticing novel explores the devastating effect of the secrets we keep in public…and in private. Hello, Sunshine is a fresh, provocative look at a woman teetering between a scrupulously assembled life and the redemptive power of revealing the truth.


My thoughts about Hello, Sunshine ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first line.)

First line—"You should probably know two things up front. And the first is this: On my thirty-fifth birthday—the day I lost my career and husband and my home in one uncompromising swoop—I woke up to one of my favorite songs playing on the radio-alarm clock."

I can't imagine what it would be like to go from having it all to losing everything, in one fell swoop. Sunshine has that happen to her, but when your life is based on lies, I suppose it's bound to happen at some point. Those little lies have a way of catching up with you.

Hello, Sunshine is a wonderful read as we watch Sunshine try to figure out her life when everything she loves is gone. This is the first novel of Laura's that I have read but I will definitely be adding the rest of her books to my TBR list.

I received a copy of Hello, Sunshine in exchange for my honest opinion.

About the author

Laura Dave

Laura Dave is the author of the critically acclaimed novels The First Husband, The Divorce Party, London Is The Best City In America, and the forthcoming Eight Hundred Grapes. Dave’s fiction and essays have been published in The New York Times, ESPN, Redbook, Glamour and Ladies Home Journal.

Dubbed “a wry observer of modern love” (USA Today), Dave has appeared on CBS’s The Early Show, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends and NPR’s All Things Considered.  Cosmopolitan Magazine recently named her a “Fun and Fearless Phenom of the Year.”

Three of her novels have been optioned for the big screen with Dave adapting Eight Hundred Grapes for Fox2000.

Connect with Laura

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Saturday, July 15, 2017

Release Day: Cracked Open by Susan Kaye Quinn

Happy Release Day!

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Cracked Open

Cracked Open by Susan Kaye Quinn
Series: Mindjack Series #5
ebook, 237 pages
Published July 15, 2017 by Susan Kaye Quinn

Zeph always knew he was a weapon. He didn’t count on being a spy.

But he made a dangerous bargain with the Director of the Jacker Technologies Division of DARPA—he’d let Wright test his mutant mindjack ability if she’d release his parents. Simple. Occasionally painful. And the screams of his victims fill his nightmares. But it will be worth it as long as she can’t crack open his head and find out his sister, with her super-surge jack-ability, is still alive. And if his parents are finally set free.

Once that happens, he’s gone. Even if it means giving up everything he’s just now getting back. A home. Friends. A girl who believes in peace and love even when the world is falling apart.

But as the shock of assassinations and bombings and hate killings continue to pull at the threads that hold society together, Wright hands him a mission he can’t possibly complete. If he does, it will tear everything apart. If he doesn’t, he’ll lose everyone he loves.

Sometimes being a powerful weapon is the most dangerous thing of all.

The bestselling Mindjack Series continues, diving deep into a world of mindreaders and mindjackers where being different means staying hidden… or struggling to stay alive.

MINDJACK SERIES—Check them out here on Goodreads!
Open Minds (Book One)
Closed Hearts (Book Two)
Free Souls (Book Three)
Locked Tight (Book Four)
Cracked Open (Book Five)
Mindjack Short Story Collection (Novella Box Set)
Book 6 coming soon

 

Congrats to Susan 
on the release of book #5 in the Mindjack Series, 
Cracked Open!

I love this series and can't wait to read this one!

About the author 


Susan Kaye Quinn is a rocket scientist turned speculative fiction author who now uses her PhD to invent cool stuff in books. Her works range from young adult science fiction to adult future-noir, with side trips into steampunk and middle grade fantasy. Her bestselling novels and short stories have been optioned for Virtual Reality, translated into German, and featured in several anthologies.

She writes full-time from Chicago, inventing mind powers and dreaming of the Singularity.

Chat with her about our coming robot overlords on Facebook.

Find all of Susan's books on Amazon


Connect with Susan 

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

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