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My Book and My Coffee

Monday LOVE! 

I'm so happy to be back with everything - reading, reviewing, posting spotlights, and of course, them giveaways! Enter this giveaway for a chance to win a Kindle or paperback copy - (US Only) - of The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck.


The Commons: Book 1: The Journeyman by Michael Alan Peck
Kindle | Paperback


“Paul Reid died in the snow at seventeen. The day of his death, he told a lie—and for the rest of his life, he wondered if that was what killed him.”

And so begins the battle for the afterlife, known as The Commons. It’s been taken over by a corporate raider who uses the energy of its souls to maintain his brutal control. The result is an imaginary landscape of a broken America—stuck in time and overrun by the heroes, monsters, dreams, and nightmares of the imprisoned dead.

Three people board a bus to nowhere: a New York street kid, an Iraq War veteran, and her five-year-old special-needs son. After a horrific accident, they are the last, best hope for The Commons to free itself. Along for the ride are a shotgun-toting goth girl, a six-foot-six mummy, a mute Shaolin monk with anger-management issues, and the only guide left to lead them.

Three Journeys: separate but joined. One mission: to save forever.

But first they have to save themselves.


About the Author:


Michael Alan Peck tells tales big and small. Life's magical, but it isn't always enough for a good story. So he makes up the rest.

He’s made his living writing about TV, its celebrities, and its past. He’s also put food on the table reviewing restaurants and writing about travel.

He has a godawful memory, so he focuses on the written word. He likes to think that over time, he’s gotten better at it—the writing, not the remembering. He forgets important dates. He’s pretty good with movie lines. But after several years, he tends to tweak them. He prefers his versions over the real ones.
Funny goes a long way with him. Probably further than it should.

He grew up outside Philadelphia and has lived in New York, L.A., and San Francisco. His current home base is Chicago.

Connect with Michael: Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

... Enter the Giveaway here:


1 lucky winner
Kindle or Paperback
U.S. only
Ends on October 22, 2015, 11:59 pm EST
Winner will be chosen on October 23, 2015


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Love that cover! So stoked to be a part of the Black Apocalypse Book Tour. Check it out >> 

Black Apocalypse by Sasha Hibbs - Book Tour


Black Apocalypse by Sasha Hibbs - Blog Tour

Black Apocalypse by Sasha Hibbs
Amazon Kindle | Paperback

Resurrected from the dead, Michael Blackwell is enraged and heartbroken to find Ally—the girl he loved—in the arms of the very man that killed him as a human. In Michael’s eyes, Ally’s betrayal is absolute. But there is more than meets the eye when it comes to the man who killed Michael, and even more with the girl he thought he knew. Black Apocalypse is a journey full of heartache and redemption where the past weaves an uncertain future. Can Michael forgive Ally for her betrayal? Can Ally finally embrace who she is destined to become to save them both? Who is the elusive Seraph, Laurel? Who was the Devourer before his colossal fall from grace? What decisions did they make together that altered the course of history? Shocking revelations, prophecies fulfilled, a war where not everyone will make it out alive...the final installment in the Vulcan Legacies will leave you breathless.

About the Author:

By age 5, Sasha Hibbs’ favorite movie was Gone With the Wind. By age 12, she completed her 7th grade book report on the sequel, Scarlett. By 18, she met and married her very own Mr. Rhett Butler and as it turns out, she never had to worry about going back to Tara to win the love of her life back. Fortunately, he stuck with her.  

With a love of all things paranormal, the ambiance of the South with its gigantic antebellum mansions and canopies of Spanish moss, and a love for her husband’s rich storytelling of blacksmiths and the mythology surrounding their origins, it wasn’t long until the world of her debut novel, Black Amaranth, was born.

When not working her day job as a nurse, you can find Sasha dreaming of her next beach trip, reading the latest YA novel, and drinking more white chocolate mocha than she should.  

Sasha lives in mountainous West Virginia with her husband, Tim, and their two daughters, Aeliza and Ava. She is currently hard at work on her next novel.

Connect with Sasha: Blog | Website | Twitter | Facebook
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Really excited to be a part of this tour. Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens are on tour to support their cozy mystery novel, Mystic Mayhem. If you know me at all as a blogger, I love love love cozy mysteries so I'm more than happy to be a part of this. :) I was going to post it this morning but I was really not feeling well. Better late than never. :D Check out their novel and the giveaway below >>


Mystic Mayhem Tour

Mystic Mayhem by Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens
Amazon Kindle | Paperback

Melanie Hamilton is not your average artist. She brings home the bacon by inking tattoos at New Orleans's Mansion at Mystic Isle, a resort in the middle of the bayou that caters to fans of the peculiar and paranormal, but her true passion comes alive when she volunteers restoring Katrina-ravaged landmarks. Between her day job, her restoration work, and selling her paintings in Jackson Square, Mel's life is more hectic than Bourbon Street on Fat Tuesday. But when a guest of the resort, a millionaire's widow, is poisoned, and Melanie's close friend is arrested for the murder, things go from hectic to downright dangerous.  

Mel joins forces with the resort's delish manager, Jack Stockton, to prove her friend's innocence. Soon they find themselves dealing with séances, secret passages, the ghost of the millionaire himself, gators, swamp rats, and a sinister killer who proves that not everything is what it seems in the Louisiana bayou. 

Come on along, and get your creep on. 

About the Author: 


Sally J. Smith and Jean Steffens, are partners in crime—crime writing, that is. They live in the Valley of the Sun in Arizona, awesome for eight months out of the year, an inferno the other four. They write bloody murder, flirty romance, and wicked humor all in one package. 

Connect with Sally and Jean: Website | Facebook | Twitter

The authors are giving away a $25 Amazon Gift Card. Enter now! 

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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Lovely Thursday to all of you! Today, David Rawding (author of Taking on Water) is here @ My Book and My Coffee blog to talk about "Similes". Pretty exciting stuff! He is currently on tour to support his mystery/thriller novel, Taking on Water, and I'm very happy to be a part of it. Read on.

*****

I’ve been reading Raymond Chandler lately. He has a pulpy style with a noir edge that I absolutely relish. The next time you’re in a reading slump I suggest picking up a novel from Raymond Chandler. I believe he is the master of the simile. Similes, in case the high school English lessons wore off, are basically when a writer writes something and then compares it to something else. Similes can usually be spotted after “like” or “as” and they are literary tools to describe something with rich detail.

Here’s a Chandler simile that fills a canvas. “A few locks of dry white hair clung to his scalp, like wildflowers fighting for life on a bare rock.” (Chandler, Raymond, The Big Sleep. Vintage Crime/Black Lizard. Print.) I mean, I don’t know about you, but when I read a simile like that I instantly smile and say to myself, “Oh, you clever dog, Chandler. Bravo.” And that’s just on page 8! Keep reading and you’ll see his liberal use of the simile throughout The Big Sleep. I usually have to read his similes several times over to get full appreciation.

Similes certainly take some thought and I don’t even think a master like Chandler got them 100% right on his first attempt, but that’s where the Creative part of Creative Writing comes into play. That’s the fun part. Or, if you can’t get your simile to ever liftoff, then I suppose that is the most agonizing part. It would depend on the writer and the day.

It’s a good thing when a writer can get a reader to smile. It’s an amazing thing when a writer can get a reader to feel anything, really. That’s the goal. Our job is to get the reader to feel something; to grip that e-reader or book cover so hard that they leave sweat behind. Think about how powerful that is. A writer’s medium is words. Words mean nothing until they are read. Once read, some writers manage to cause an emotional response in their reader. And that’s what we’re selling. Writers sell words that we pray you’ll read. Not only just read, we go further and aspire to hope you’ll read our words in a way where we can cause your brain to feel. Writing is no small feat, but interesting to say the least.

*****

Know more about his novel, Taking on Water:

taking on water by David Rawding - guest post

Taking on Water by David Rawding
Release Date: July 2015
Publisher: Red Adept Publishing
Amazon Kindle | Amazon Paperback

When James Morrow, a social worker, first meets Kevin Flynn, he suspects the teen is being abused. To learn more about Kevin’s home life, he gets to know the boy’s father, Tucker, who’s a lobsterman. James is able to put his suspicions to rest, and the two families begin to form a friendship.  

When a kid at the local recreation center dies of an overdose, Detective Maya Morrow adds the case to the long list related to the drug problem plaguing the small New Hampshire coastal town of Newborough. But her investigation gets her much too close to the dangerous players. 

Both the Morrows and the Flynns are holding dark secrets, and when their lives collide, tragedy is inevitable.  


About the Author:


David Rawding has a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire and an MFA in fiction from Southern New Hampshire University. He has been nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and his short stories have been published in numerous literary journals and magazines.  

David spent three years as a fly-fishing guide in Alaska, worked several years at a non-profit for at-risk youth, was an online adjunct professor, and has a litany of other jobs in his wake. When he’s not writing, he enjoys traveling the world with a backpack and a fly rod.

Connect with David: Website | Facebook | Goodreads
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So... I decided to read Book Two of the Selection Novel - The Elite. 


The Elite by Kiera Cass


In America Singer’s world, a bride is chosen for the prince through an elaborate, televised competition. In The Elite, America is one of only six girls left in the running. But is it Prince Maxon—and life as the queen—that she wants? Or is it Aspen, her first love?

The Elite delivers the adventure, glamour, political intrigue, and romance that readers of The Selection expect, and continues the love triangle that captivated them.


I have high hopes for this one. How about you? What book are you reading right now? :) 
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Title: Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues
Author: Trisha Ashley
Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit
Form: Paperback

Book Description: Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues


Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues Book Review

Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues by Trisha Ashley


When Tansy Poole inherits a run-down shoe shop tucked away in the village of Sticklepond, ‘Cinderella’s Slippers’ is born – providing the footwear to make any fairytale wedding come true…

Carrying everything a bride would want to walk down the aisle in, Tansy’s shop soon expands to carry shoe-themed wedding favours, bridesmaid gifts and even delicious chocolate shoes. It’s the dream destination for any shoe-lover!

If only everything in her personal life could be as heavenly – but with a fiancé trying to make her fit into a size 8 wedding dress, not to mention the recent discovery of disturbing family revelations, Tansy takes refuge in the shop’s success.

But one man isn’t thrilled by the stream of customers hot-footing it to Cinderella’s Slippers… Actor Ivo Hawksley, resident of the cottage next to the shop, is troubled by a dark secret in his past and has come to Sticklepond to nurse his own broken heart.

However, Ivo realises that he and Tansy have a link in their past and soon, they both find out how secrets shared can make a very strong bond indeed…

Chocolate Shoes and Wedding Blues ~ Book Review


Entertaining. Lovely. Heart-warming, indeed. – Ara of My Book and My Coffee

This book talks about Tansy Poole, a thirty-something children’s books author living with her fiancé (for almost 6 years). She lives in London but her heart is really in Sticklepond, a village in West Lancashire. When she inherited an old shoe shop owned by her Aunt Nancy in Sticklepond, everything seemed to have fallen in the right place – give or take a step. :D

I loved reading this book. It has a lot of details but I appreciated every single thing. It may seem slow because of all those details but I love it anyway. I love the humor, romance, mystery and many more. Also the food. OMG. I feel like I gained a few pounds just by reading this novel. :D :D :D I also appreciate the exclusive recipes at the end of the book. 

I like Tansy – she has a good heart and the Cinderella tale plot (yes, two wicked stepsisters) was definitely something you’ll need to read about. Especially Rae, one of the stepsisters. She’s one nasty character. Actually, Marcia, the other stepsister, is no better. Justin, Tansy’s fiancé, is one of those characters that you won’t really care about. It’s like “You did that and you expect this?” LOL. Maybe the character was written this way but I can already tell (because of the very long engagement) that he is not the one for Tansy. That someone out there will be better. When and who are two important questions. Ivo Hawksley, the actor and owner of the cottage next to the shoe shop, is something you’ll have to get to know more though. Coz I bet you’ll like him once you get to know this character. 

Overall, I love it. If you love chick lit and contemporary romance novels then I definitely recommend reading this book. It’s one world you’d want to be a part of. You know how it is for us readers. :)

4.5 stars

Thank you for reading!

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Hello! Hallo! Aloha!

Welcome to My Book and My Coffee blog. I'm ARA, the owner of this blog.
I'm a book blogger and reviewer.

Learn more here: About Ara

I am NOT accepting review requests at the moment. I still have too many books in my queue. Sorry. ~ Check out my Review Policy here.

For advertising inquiries, please email me at ara@mybookandmycoffee.com.

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