Thursday, 22 September 2016

Review - I was enchanted by Unenchanted

UnEnchanted 

(An Unfortunate Fairy Tale #1)




Read: June 2014
Rating: 5*

Category I'd say: YA/Fantasy/Sweet Romance




I love these books; they're another of my guilty pleasures.

I'm by no means the teenage/YA target market, and ordinarily I'd writhe in agony at the thought of authors tackling faery stories. But Chana Hahn weaves her magic with a wonderful sense of mischief and wit.

The author writes her characters well and has a thrilling plot which kept me completely hooked.
I mean seriously late back from lunch, ignore my husband because I'm reading hooked!
When I finished the last book I exclaimed, “Oh noes! What am I supposed to do now?? It's all over! Wow, I'm going to have to start talking to my husband again!?” ;-p
I adored this series and the last book wraps it all up nicely. Every bit as full of excitement, adventure, magic and romance as I expect from this fabulous author.

I loved escaping to the fae plane with this series. I need to find a gateway!!



Review - Accidentally in Love with...a God? (think I may be!) ;-p


Accidentally in Love with...a God? (Accidentally Yours, #1)
by Mimi Jean Pamfiloff 


Read: May 2014
My classification: Romance/Gods/Snarky
Rating: 4*





I really liked this book.
There was lots of great humour and was sexy where it counts.
I did actual giggle several times. This added to the story; I really felt involved.

I went on to read the whole series. It became one of my go-to books when I needed a pick-me-up. This author manages to make me actually laugh out loud, and often giggle.

Wait til you meet Aunty Cimi; she's marvellous!!

Goodreads link to book

Saturday, 17 September 2016

Review 1 - Guardian's Grace, by Jacqueline Rhoades



Firstly, I just have to say that I love Jacqueline Rhoades' books. She's a super cool indie author.

Guardian's Grace is the first in the series of 'Guardians of the Race'.
They are Paenitentia (sort of vampires but not) who protect humans from demons. 
They are sexy, gorgeous and full of testosterone.
There's also some witches thrown into the thrilling mix of beings.

This one takes its time to set the scene, but once you get into some action the temperature soars.

I love the Twins; (Dov & Col) their silly banter does make me laugh.

This whole series is well written, and has become my guilty pleasure. And it gets better as you read more.

Whenever I see a new release by this author my heart skips a beat, and I can't wait to read it (once I'm done reading prior commtiments). It's a sort of a 'me time' book thing.

I gave this 5/5 and it earned a place in my heart forever.
Fangtastic!

Amazon Link
Goodreads Link


More Support Required - here's my plan



Hey everyone,

Long time no see!
I've had a busy ole summer. Apologies for my disappearing act.

So, I've been busy producing my first ever paperback, which I'm happy and excited to say is out now.
It's a release of True's Love, which has been out on ebook for a while.

But that's not the reason for this post.
The reason I'm writing today is to tell you I'm sometimes a little late to the party.
It's only just occurred to me (*der moment*) that for years I've been writing lovely reviews for fellow indie authors, and I publish them on Amazon and Goodreads. But I've not been sharing them. Doh!

We all know caring is sharing, so I am going to use my blog to share.
It'll only be the books I enjoy, in the hopes you may find the information useful.
Hopefully you'll enjoy some of the treasures I find.

And no, I'm not turning into a book reviewer.
I'd love to, but with a full time job and home duties and trying to write/publicise my work I have very little time, and I'm a slow reader.
(so please do not bombard me with review requests)

I do stumble across other indie authors, and I support as much as I can.

And sometimes I actually just read for the sheer pleasure of it, so I'll even put up reviews of some more widely known books.


Always in love and light,
TL

Friday, 13 May 2016

Charity


So, having raised over £50 for HAVOCA with my book launch, I signed up for my local radio station's children's charity campaign.

I have to raise £100 which will go to Cash for Kids.
They help disabled and disadvantaged children in the UK,
Their website with lots more info is here... Cash for Kids

So what can you do to help?
Buy my book Broken & Damaged Love for just 99p.
All my royalties go to this charity.
You can buy it from any Amazon site globally and I will still donate the royalties.

The great thing is you'll be helping more than Cash for Kids.
You see, my book is about child sex abuse.
*shock* *gasp* Yes, I said child sex abuse.
It's the very fact people reel in shock at those words that I have written the book.

It is a taboo subject. But closing your eyes and/or ears does not stop this awful thing from happening.
So I'm trying to open up the subject for discussion.

My book is a complete work of fiction, but it is sadly all to realistic.
So, I have written Broken & Damaged Love to help raise awareness of CSA.

With awareness hopefully comes observation. And if we have more people spotting the signs of abused children there will be more people able to report and bring a stop to it.

The charities set up to help these children are heaving with demand. They cannot cope. That's how much abuse is going on. Right now!
Please help me help them.

Broken & Damaged Love also offers hope to survivors. 
It is still a romance novel and offers a shining beacon of light; the knowledge that no matter how turbulent your past, you can still have a happy future.

So, do something amazing today.
Buy a book for just 99p and open up a whole world of hope and help to many.
Thank you.


Always with love and light,
TL

Saturday, 26 March 2016

Catchup (not ketchup)

Oops! I’m sitting here, only just realising I’ve not posted in a long time. 
Now, I did warn you at the start of the year this would happen. 
But I apologise nonetheless, as I didn’t mean to leave it quite so long.

So, what has this year brought so far?


Broken & Damaged Love was my most successful book launch yet. 
The Oct-Dec royalties mounted up to just over £50, all of which was donated to HAVOCA (who help adult survivors of child sex abuse find help). 
The day I paid the money over was a very proud day for me.

This same book is now raising funds for Wave 105's 1,000 Faces campaign.
The money will go to Cash for Kids, another very worthy charity.
The book is still (and always will be) 99p. So please go and download it from your country's Amazon site.
Amazon UK
I’ve started to write my vampire romance, which is great fun to do. I think you’ll like it. 
All I’ll say for now is they’re not your normal vampires, no they don’t sparkle in the light and no they’re not vegetarians.

Other than that, I seem to have lost myself in a swamp of day job duties and book promotion.

This weekend is mercifully a lovely long bank holiday, so I have time to recuperate and re-energise.
I promised myself to stay focussed on my goals this year, which I have. But it’s now time to switch modes, I think.

So, I’m sat here rambling away to you all, like you care about this dull minutiae of my life.

Oh, one other thing I have been doing is reading Clarissa Harlowe. Wow, that’s a long book!
I really didn’t know when I began that it’s claim to fame is that it’s the longest novel ever written in the English language! Letter after letter between friends. So much detail.
Yes, the word minutiae above made me think of it.
I’ve actually taken a break so I can get back to reading some other indie authors. But I will finish it.

I’m actually quite excited at the moment. There’s a possibility I may actually travel to India later this year. Get me! Culture vulture! ;-p

As I look out of my window I can see a cold, grey, damp typical English Easter bank holiday weekend.
But I also acknowledge that the rain is cleansing, and without it the flowers won’t grow.

This and the tragic events around the world (not just in Brussels) remind me to hold onto the light.
Yes, these things can make my heart heavy, and I even get angry about it.

But darkness cannot drive out darkness, only light can do that.
I know it’s hard, but please shine your light brighter, and hold love in your hearts.
I speak to myself as much as you when I say this. We all need reminding sometimes.

Right, that’s probably enough of a jumbled catch-up mind vomit for you all.

Have a Happy Easter/Ostara/Chocolate eating, fertility festival of your choice.
©  | Dreamstime Stock Photos
Always in love and light,
TL


Wednesday, 6 January 2016

Reflections



Hello everyone! I’m so sorry that it’s been a while since I posted on my blog. 
My apologies, but there was a family bereavement the tail end of last year and everything got a bit more manic than usual.

Looking back, 2015 was a bit a bit of a ‘year of death’.
I knew it was always going to be a ‘year of change’ but I really wasn’t prepared to say goodbye to so many loved ones. I think I went to more funerals last year than I had my entire life previously. 
But I keep reminding myself it’s all for the greater good. There’s always a reason for these things. And they’re at peace now. Om mani padme hum.

It’s the start of a brand new year now; hurrah!
So, I’ve let go of any negativity which had accumulated and am charging onwards with positivity and excitement.

In October of 2015 I launched book 5, ‘Broken & DamagedLove’. 
This is the book which covers child sex abuse, and the main character’s journey through surviving to thriving. I’m due to give a small donation to HAVOCA later this month when the book royalties come in. That feels good (although I wish I was giving more). 
And the launch itself went well. 
But most importantly, I’ve received some wonderful feedback from readers, particularly survivors. It seems this precious book is already making the positive impact I so hoped it would.

So, what’s in store this year? 
Hopefully my books will start to grow in popularity now. 
And I’m hoping to make time to start my vampire novel, which I’m very excited about.
But I may not be online so much this year. At Christmas I actually pressed the pause button for the first time in all of 2015. I hadn’t realised just quite how exhausted I was until I stopped!

I appreciate I’m not alone in this. Fellow authors reading this will relate well, I’m sure. I have a full time day job (might have mentioned that before, but one can never stress it enough). And so I fit my writing in around that. But I’m also a part time step mum, and holistic therapist. Trying to promote my existing work became all-encompassing last year. It takes a great deal of time and effort as an indie author, trying to tell lots of people of your existence as well as creating my next 'masterpiece'. I think coffee was my saviour!

I ended up going on social media every night after work (and more at weekends), trying to interact and advertise. Writing this blog itself gets included in that; my brain vomit doesn’t write itself!
Often, I’d look up just in time to notice it was time for bed, and I’d barely said hello to my long suffering, ever so supportive, loving husband. This isn’t fair on him, and I’m taking advantage of his good nature. So something has to give!
So please forgive me if you don’t see weekly blogs, or I’m not on Facebook/Twitter every day. I still love you all, but I’m only one person. And I need to prioritise what’s important. Having nearly lost him in a car accident, I know more than ever that my husband is that most important ‘thing’ in my life.

And who knows; this may only be temporary.
My ‘spidey sense’ tells me there will be a big change in my life soon and I’ll be able to chat to you more again soon. And hopefully I’ll have a lot more time to do the writing thing; that is after all what my objective is. 
In  my heart I’m an author. Authors write books! Well OK, I’m also striving to help people with my farmhouse retreat too, but you know what I mean. I’m an author and lovely person. There, is that better? I want to do both.

2016 is being declared as ‘the year of fulfilment’, so let’s all hope for good things.

Please send me good wishes (and £1millon if you have it to spare) ;-P

Love and light to you all,
TL