Blog Tour: Love Potions and Other Calamities by Charlie Laidlaw @CLaidlawAuthor @headlinepg @RRBookTours1 #BlogTour #Books #Comedy #RRBookTours

December 9, 2019Reads & Reels 1 Comment

Welcome to the long awaited blog tour for Love Potions and Other Calamities by Charlie Laidlaw! Follow along for tour details, exclusive content, and a chance to win a signed copy of the book!

Love Potions and Other Calamities

Expected Publication Date: November 7th, 2019

Genre: Comedy/ Mystery

Publisher: Headline

Welcome to the strange world of Rosie McLeod, an amateur detective with a big difference. Her deductive powers are based solely on the careful preparation and use of plants and herbs.

Love Potions and Other Calamities is pure comedy, with a bit of drama thrown in, as Rosie sets out to discover whether her husband is having an affair and, as the story unfolds, to solve a murder – before she becomes the next victim.

Rosie McLeod, pub proprietor and a gifted herbalist of some renown, is thirty-nine and holding, but only just. The talons of her fortieth birthday are in her back and her bloody, bloody husband hasn’t laid a lustful hand on her for months.

She has the fortune, or misfortune, to live in one of Scotland’s most famous places – the East Lothian village of Holy Cross, which takes its name from the legendary Glastonbury Cross that was spirited away – and subsequently lost – when Henry VIII purged the English monasteries. The cross of pale Welsh gold, reputedly buried within the village, had at its centre a fragment of emerald from the Holy Grail. The story is, of course, complete baloney.

But the association with the Holy Grail and the later witch persecutions of James VI mean that the village is as well known around the world as Edinburgh Castle, haggis or Loch Ness. It has been described as “the heartbeat of Scotland” and is a major tourist destination – many of whom visit the village with metal detectors, hoping to discover the elusive cross.

However, a sighting of a large, black cat by the local Church of Scotland minister sets off a chain of events that lead back twenty years and, although the villagers are blissfully unaware of it, to a woman’s murder. The black cat had last been sighted near the village some two decades before, and the minister’s predecessor was sure that it had triggered something evil. The villagers, of course, think otherwise.

Nothing ever happens in Holy Cross.

For fans of Mel Brooks and Monty Python!

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Excerpt

Coincidentally, Rosie had once owned a black cat, although it was very small, and was eaten by an eagle on the Christmas morning she was given it. That was also the Christmas she stopped believing in Santa Claus. One minute, the kitten was on a scrubby patch of grass in their Sussex back garden, a round ball of black fluff, peering fretfully at her new world; the next, she wasn’t anywhere to be seen until, looking up, Rosie saw large and predatory wings disappear over the farmhouse roof.

She was at an age when she knew that bad things happened, but still believed that Christmas Day was somehow exempt: guns fell silent, everyone had enough to eat, and pestilence was postponed until Boxing Day. Her parents tried to console her by saying that eagles weren’t native to Sussex, searching fruitlessly in flowerbeds and, then, in the surrounding fields. In a way, that day had become a metaphor for her life: that in unexpected ways good things can be randomly snatched away. It felt like that now: sagging boobs, carpet slippers, a dreaded birthday – and the revelation of a precise delusion.

Available on Amazon UK and Amazon!

About the Author

I was born in Paisley, central Scotland, which wasn’t my fault. That week, Eddie Calvert with Norrie Paramor and his Orchestra were Top of the Pops, with Oh, Mein Papa, as sung by a young German woman remembering her once-famous clown father. That gives a clue to my age, not my musical taste.

I was brought up in the west of Scotland and graduated from the University of Edinburgh. I still have the scroll, but it’s in Latin, so it could say anything.

I then worked briefly as a street actor, baby photographer, puppeteer and restaurant dogsbody before becoming a journalist. I started in Glasgow and ended up in London, covering news, features and politics. I interviewed motorbike ace Barry Sheene, Noel Edmonds threatened me with legal action and, because of a bureaucratic muddle, I was ordered out of Greece.

I then took a year to travel round the world, visiting 19 countries. Highlights included being threatened by a man with a gun in Dubai, being given an armed bodyguard by the PLO in Beirut (not the same person with a gun), and visiting Robert Louis Stevenson’s grave in Samoa. What I did for the rest of the year I can’t quite remember

Surprisingly, I was approached by a government agency to work in intelligence, which just shows how shoddy government recruitment was back then. However, it turned out to be very boring and I don’t like vodka martini.

Craving excitement and adventure, I ended up as a PR consultant, which is the fate of all journalists who haven’t won a Pulitzer Prize, and I’ve still to listen to Oh, Mein Papa.

I am married with two grown-up children and live in central Scotland. And that’s about it.

Charlie Laidlaw | Facebook | Twitter

For your chance to win a signed copy of Love Potions and Other Calamities, click the link below!

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Blog Tour Schedule

December 9^th

Gwendalyn’s Books (Spotlight) https://gwendalynbooks.blog/

Quirky Cats Fat Stacks (Review) https://quirkycatsfatstacks.com/

Rambling Mads (Review) http://ramblingmads.com

December 10^th

Viviana MacKade (Guest Post) https://viviana-mackade.blog/

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

December 11^th

Crossroad Reviews (Spotlight) http://www.crossroadreviews.com

Dash Fan Book Reviews (Review) https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/

December 12^th

B is for Book Review (Guest Post) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com

I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

December 13^th

Life’s a Novelty (Review) https://lifesanovelty.blogspot.com/

Reads & Reels (Review) http://readsandreels.com

December 14^th

Didi Oviatt (Spotlight) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

Lunarian Press (Review) https://www.lunarianpress.com/

December 15^th

The Invisible Moth (Review) https://daleydowning.wordpress.com

December 16^th

Nesie’s Place (Spotlight) https://nesiesplace.wordpress.com

LoopyLouLaura (Review) https://www.loopyloulaura.com/

December 17^th

I’m into Books (Spotlight) https://imintobooks.com

Turning the Pages (Spotlight) https://turningthepagesonline.wordpress.com

Cup of Toast (Review) https://cupoftoast.co.uk

December 18^th

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Review) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

December 19^th

This is My Truth Now (Spotlight) https://thisismytruthnow.com/

It’s All About the Books (Review) https://itsallaboutthebooksblog.wordpress.com/

The Bookworm Drinketh (Review) http://thebookwormdrinketh.wordpress.com/

December 20^th

Entertainingly Nerdy (Spotlight) https://www.entertaininglynerdy.com

Banshee Irish Horror Blog (Review) www.bansheeirishhorrorblog.com

Book Dragons Not Worms (Review) https://bookdragonsnotworms.blogspot.com/?m=1

J Bronder Book Reviews (Review) https://jbronderbookreviews.com/

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

Blog Tour: Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow by Kevin A. Khun @Big_Kuhna @RRBookTours1 #Scifi #SpecFiction #Anthology

December 9, 2019Reads & Reels 1 Comment

Welcome to the blog tour for Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow by Kevin A. Kuhn! Read on for more details, and a chance to win a paperback copy of the book plus a $15 Amazon Gift Card!

Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow

Expected Publication Date: October 25, 2019

Genre: Speculative Fiction/ Sci-Fi

Ten speculative fiction stories inspired by the original Twilight Zone series, including cautionary tales, horror, science fiction, and more.

In the spirit of that iconic, timeless show, these mysterious and gripping narratives explore parallel worlds, faraway planets, dystopian societies, and unsettling reality.

• A toddler shifts through parallel worlds, changing into different versions of herself. What would a mother do for her daughter?
• A chef finds an alternate food source on a remote world. When the new chef arrives, will he be forced to reveal a horrific secret?
• A twelve-year-old Earth girl is randomly chosen to rule the galaxy. Why are galactic administrators so desperate to stop her?
• Humanity is on trial, annihilation at stake. Can an underdog alien lawyer save us?
• Time seems to stand still as a young boy bikes with his troubled friend. Is the friend causing this phenomenon—and what if he doesn’t stop it?

Explore space and time—and confront humanity’s deepest fears—with Ten Tales of a Dark Tomorrow.

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Excerpt

She says nothing, content to burrow into my chest. I look at the top of her head: thick blond hair, a line of pink scalp at her part. She’s wicked smart for her age, and I’m still trying to get used to that. The doctors have used words like gifted, genius, and prodigy. She plays piano pieces that most couldn’t master at any age. She can multiply three-digit numbers in her head instantly. She reads voraciously and beat me in chess the first time we played. People say she is a gift. I smile, but only I know what she is. She’s my child, but she isn’t—she’s a version, a duplicate.

Available Now

Amazon | Audible| Kobo | Nook

About the Author

Kevin A. Kuhn is a proud member of Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America. His first novel, Do You Realize?, won five independent literary awards and spent time as a number one Amazon best seller in four countries. He is also a retired technology executive who currently teaches at a major business school. Kevin lives in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, with his wife, Melinda, and their five kids—three human children and two schnoodles.

Kevin A. Kuhn | Twitter | Facebook

Giveaway Time:

Win a print copy of the book AND a $15 Amazon Gift Card! Click the link below to enter!

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Blog Tour Schedule

December 9^th

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://rrbooktours.com

Crossroad Reviews (Spotlight) http://www.crossroadreviews.com

Scarlett Readz & Runz (Review) https://scarlettreadzandrunz.com/

Breakeven Books (Spotlight) https://breakevenbooks.com

I’m into Books (Spotlight) https://imintobooks.com

December 10^th

Horror Tree (Guest Post) https://www.horrortree.com

Splashes into Books (Spotlight) http://splashesintobooks.wordpress.com

A Garden of Books (Review) http://agardenofbooks.com

December 11^th

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Guest Post) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

Misty’s Book Space (Spotlight) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

Didi Oviatt (Spotlight) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com

December 12^th

Life’s a Novelty (Review) https://lifesanovelty.blogspot.com/

The Bookworm Drinketh (Review) http://thebookwormdrinketh.wordpress.com/

December 13^th

Turning the Pages (Review) https://turningthepagesonline.wordpress.com

Port Jerricho (Review) http://www.aislynndmerricksson.com

Entertainingly Nerdy (Spotlight) https://www.entertaininglynerdy.com

I’m into Books (Spotlight) https://imintobooks.com

Rambling Mads (Spotlight) http://ramblingmads.com

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

Blog Tour: Blood and Blade by Lauren Dane @laurendane @CarinaPress @RRBookTours1 #RRBookTours #ParanormalRomance #UrbanFantasy #Vampires

December 9, 2019Reads & Reels 1 Comment

Steamy romance, a bad-ass female protagonist, and vampires! What more can you ask for? Fans of the Goddess with a Blade series, wait no more! Blood and Blade is almost here, and if you’re getting really antsy, you can get a sneak peek right here!

There’s also a chance to win a print copy below!

Blood and Blade (Goddess with a Blade #6)

Expected Publication Date: December 30, 2019

Genre: Paranormal Romance/ Urban Fantasy/ Vampires

Publisher: Carina Press

Rowan Summerwaite is ready to finish what she started in Blood and Blade , the next installment in the Goddess with a Blade series by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Dane.

It’s been only days since Rowan and her friends eliminated the immediate threat to magic users and Vampires, but they’re already back on the hunt. Rowan’s out for vengeance, and she’s never been more driven—or angry. But she’s up against a being stronger than any she’s ever fought. To bring it down she’ll need more than the powers the goddess Brigid gave her…

This time she’ll need her friends, too.

She knows her husband will always have her back. As an ancient Vampire and Scion of North America, Clive has more clout and dominance than almost anyone. Rowan’s small but trusted inner circle insist they’ll join her in the thick of the battle, even as she argues it’s too dangerous for them. She’s also got a new dog. Familiar. Whatever. Star is a magical being put in Rowan’s path to help and protect her.

The hunt for ancient evil takes Rowan and her team to London and back to Las Vegas, bringing with them an unexpected alliance. Fortified by their rage, grief and determination, Rowan and her friends will stop at nothing when they track their enemy to the high desert in a final, deadly showdown.

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Excerpt

Carl was quiet long enough that Rowan knew he wanted her to fill him in on what was happening.

“So we were just in Los Angeles. We killed a big bad. Magic-using Vamp named Lyr. Blood Front is back again. Or never left. Like cockroaches. Ugh. Anyway. We aren’t done. There’s more. Someone or something more powerful. Or… I don’t know. A different power making all this upset and murder type business between paranormal groups so it can be free to do whatever its own goal is and soak up all that discord in the offing.”

“Bill Shakespeare said something about there being more here on earth than we could have dreamed of. Or something like that,” Carl told her.

Which was his way of agreeing with her.

“Your man has bad magic on him,” he said after being silent for a long while.

Ice washed over Rowan’s skin. “What? How?”

“You know what. How isn’t important and I can’t tell you anyway. The priestess witch needs to intervene.”

Damn it. Rowan had been trying to talk Clive into letting Genevieve give him the magical once-over but he’d insisted he didn’t need any help. He’d used his gifts to jump into Lyr’s brain to take his memories.

But unlike his usual instant to a few hours before all the memories from the other person came to him, this time a week had passed and Clive was still having problems accessing memories and impressions.

It had turned him into a cranky, sulky dude and it was wearing on her.

“Because you love him. You don’t like it when he’s upset and you can’t fix it.”

She growled at his comments and the way he’d yet again plucked things from her head. And because he was right and she’d turned into a sap for love. Gross.

“I don’t mind poking at him to get him agitated. He’s way too uptight. He needs that. But I certainly don’t like it when something is hurting him. But I can’t kill it until I know just what it is.”

“Very true. Pull into that parking lot over there.” He pointed.

Rowan realized they’d only gone about five miles. Being with Carl often meant she lost track of time. Or he bent it. Or took them outside it. Or something.

When she did and parked in the spot he’d indicated, Carl removed his seat belt and turned to face her.

“Seriously. You can’t give me a dog. That’s not a present.”

Carl cackled and gave Star a scratch behind her ears that made her groan. She tipped her head to look at Rowan carefully before snorting and giving her shoulder a headbutt.

“Course not. She’s not a present. Star gave herself to you. I only introduced you.”

“Are you some sort of magic dog?” Rowan asked Star. Intelligent and curious amber eyes blinked back at her. She had a black coat with golden markings on her face and chest. Including the star shaped one that’d most likely given her the name.

“A cat would have been a very bad choice for you. And a lot of them were wary about you. Star here, well she knows her mind.”

“Is that so? I do like a lady who knows her own mind. It’s sort of my jam.”

Star licked her nose and it wasn’t disgusting.

“I’ll be seeing you soon enough. This one is going to take some work,” Carl said before he got out of the car.

“Where are you going?” Rowan called out after him.

“I’ll find my way. You do the same and let the dog and your little supernatural friends watch your back.”

He did a little jig and like a heat shimmer, faded from sight.

“That’s a really cool trick.”

Clive wasn’t going to go easily into the box marked dog owner. She bet in the old days he had those English wolfhounds other people took care of.

Star jumped into the front seat and made herself at home.

“Okay then, magic dog. Let’s go home. I’m going to have to do really dirty things with your new daddy to ease your transition into the family,” Rowan muttered as she pulled back out to the road.

Amazon | B & N | iBooks | Kobo | Google Play

About the Author

The story goes like this: While on pregnancy bed rest, Lauren Dane had plenty of down time so her husband took her comments about “giving that writing thing a serious go” to heart and brought home a secondhand laptop. She wrote her first book on it before it gave up the ghost. Even better, she sold that book and never looked back.

Today Lauren is a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of over sixty novels and novellas across several genres.

Win a copy of Blood and Blade, the latest novel in the Goddess with a Blade series!

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Goddess with a Blade Series

Blog Tour Schedule

December 9^th

I Love Books & Stuff (Spotlight) https://ilovebooksandstuffblog.wordpress.com

I Smell Sheep (Review) http://www.ismellsheep.com/

Viviana McKade (Spotlight) https://viviana-mackade.blog/

Cats Luv Coffee (Spotlight) https://catsluvcoffeez.blogspot.com/

December 10^th

Reads & Reels (Spotlight) http://rrbooktours.com

Dash Fan Book Reviews (Spotlight) https://dashfan81.blogspot.com/

December 11^th

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Spotlight) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

It’s All About the Books (Spotlight) https://itsallaboutthebooksblog.wordpress.com/

December 12^th

Daily Waffle (Spotlight) http://www.dailywaffle.co.uk/

December 13^th

Shalini’s Books & Reviews (Spotlight) https://bookreviewsbyshalini.com/

Crossroad Reviews (Spotlight) http://www.crossroadreviews.com

***No Weekends***

December 16^th

Didi Oviatt (Spotlight) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com

Turning the Pages (Spotlight) https://turningthepagesonline.wordpress.com/

December 17^th

Jessica Belmont (Review) https://jessicabelmont.wordpress.com/

December 18^th

Reading Nook (Spotlight) http://readingnook84.wordpress.com

I’m into Books (Spotlight) https://imintobooks.com

December 19^th

Entertainingly Nerdy (Spotlight) https://www.entertaininglynerdy.com

December 20^th

Sophril Reads (Spotlight) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com

Port Jerricho (Spotlight) http://www.aislynndmerricksson.com

Blog Tour Organized By:

R&R Book Tours

Blog Tour: Mink Eyes by Dan Flanigan @_DanFlanigan @RRBookTours1 @KeriBarnum #MinkEyes #RRBookTours #BlogTour #CrimeFiction #Thriller

December 9, 2019Reads & Reels 1 Comment

Welcome to the blog tour for noir thriller, Mink Eyes by Dan Flanigan! Read on for a sneak peek and an amazing giveaway — A print copy of the book PLUS a $25 Amazon gift card (U.S. Only), or a $25 Amazon gift card for international entries!

Mink Eyes

Genre: Thriller/ Noir/ Crime Fiction

Publication Date: March 10, 2019

The year is 1986–the tarnished heart of the decade of greed.

Private detective Peter O’Keefe, a physically scarred and emotionally battered Vietnam vet, is hired by childhood friend and attorney Mike Harrigan to investigate what appears to be a petty mink farm Ponzi scheme in the Ozarks. Quickly O’Keefe finds himself snared in a vicious web of money laundering, cocaine smuggling, and murder–all at the behest of a mysterious mobster only referred to as Mr. Canada. Also caught up in Mr. Canada’s illicit network is the exquisite Tag Parker, who seems to dance between roles as the woman of O’Keefe’s dreams–and his nightmares.

From start to finish Mink Eyes delivers classic noir crime fiction at its finest. In a category filled with formulaic and predictable characters and plot lines, reviewers are calling Mink Eyes absolutely “unique and unexpected.”

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Excerpt

Chapter 1

As he always did when he wasn’t hung over, O’Keefe forced himself into his gym shorts, tee-shirt, socks, and tennis shoes. He moved through the dark apartment toward his exercise room, believing that this was yet another decision, however small and seemingly insignificant, in favor of life and against death, like the times in Vietnam when he had fought off sleep on guard duty. The little men in the black pajamas, the little men who never slept, were just waiting for you to doze off so they could creep into your hole and quietly, and ever so gently, cut your throat.
The apartment occupied the entire bottom floor of an old Victorian house in a re-gentrifying neighborhood in Kansas City. He could sense, though he could not see, Kelly sleeping on the fold-out couch in the living room. She was spending the weekend with him—she under his care, he under hers. The child will save you, he thought.

The digital dial of the clock sitting on the fireplace mantel read 5:12 a.m., 10-4-86. He passed through the living room and into the spare bedroom that he had converted into an exercise room and small home office, flipped on the light, and turned on the TV. The all-news channel headlined a statement from President Reagan concerning the shooting down of a plane over Nicaragua, loaded with supplies for the rebel Contras. The Nicaraguan government claimed that the CIA had sponsored the plane. The U.S. ambassador and CIA denied the charge. In Palm Springs, Florida, the FBI had accomplished the largest drug bust in U.S. history, seizing 4,620 pounds of cocaine, worth$41 million.
. . .
He thought of all the changes he had lived through in the twenty years since 1965 when he had met Kelly’s mother. Big changes, small changes. In ’65, he and his friends would not even say “damn” in front of a girl. By ’69, they would say “fuck” without thinking, and so would most of the girls. In ’65, girls wore brassieres and tried to protect their virginity. By ’69,you could see their bare breasts through their tank tops all up and down the block, and people were fucking in the streets. In ’65, he believed in God and all the other teachings of the Catholic Church. By ’69, he believed in nothing. In ’65, twelve thousand dollars a year put you in the upper middle class. By ’69, it put you in the lower middle class. By now, in 1986, it put you near the poverty line. Everything had exploded in the ’60s, most of all the money supply, and in the ’70s everybody had started chasing all that money. You could buy goods and services in 1975 that you would never have dreamed of being able to buy in 1965, and you were not yet even thirty years old. All you had to do was play the game, help keep the chain letter going. You paid more than you could afford to and sold your life for the income to pay the debt.”

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kindle

About the Author

Dan Flanigan is a novelist, poet, and playwright, as well as a practicing lawyer. His novel, Mink Eyes, is set in 1986 and explores the “greed is good” dynamic and the cultural tensions and gender complexities of that era. It is a modern hero’s quest in mystery-detective form. In addition to developing a screenplay version of Mink Eyes, he has published a book of verse and prose poetry, Tenebrae: A Memoir Of Love And Death, and Dewdrops, a collection of his shorter fiction. He has also written the full-length plays–Secrets (based on the life of Eleanor Marx) and Moondog’s Progress (based on the life of Alan Freed). He can be found online at DanFlaniganBooks.com.

Dan Flanigan Books

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