July 2013 ~ Author in the Spotlight

Sunday, 28 July 2013

Cover Reveal - Stained by Elizabeth Marx

Posted on 22:22 by Unknown

Brook Cottage Books is very pleased to be part of the Stained cover reveal for Elizabeth Marx. Instead of a lot of build-up in a huge post, Elizabeth's publicist thought that it would be best to let the front and back covers do the talking for themselves.

Back Cover:

Front Cover:

All together now!

Stained is due out on August 20th. It tells the beautiful, yet heart-wrenching story of a young woman whose only defense is to run when the going gets tough; and the man who will do anything to help her face her demons, including letting her go so she can find herself. Add Stained to your GOODREADS want to read list!

About the Author: Windy City writer, Elizabeth Marx, brings cosmopolitan life alive in her fiction—a blend of romance, fast-paced Chicago living, and a sprinkle of magical realism. Elizabeth resides with her husband, girls, and two cats who’ve spelled everyone into believing they’re really dogs. She grew up in the city, has traveled extensively, and still says there’s no town like Chi-Town.

WEBSITE | FACEBOOK | TWITTER

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Friday, 26 July 2013

Cover Reveal!!! Aqua Blue by Marian L Thomas

Posted on 01:21 by Unknown

Brook Cottage Books is thrilled to be part of the Aqua Blue Step Into Summer blog tour. I think you will agree that this cover is stunning. You'll also find a rafflecopter link for a great giveaway!

Blurb

Jackson County, Tennessee, is the home of dirt roads, overalls, sweet water and best friends, Aqua Blue & Haley.

Aqua Blue has lived a life of non-existence, for 18 years. Raising herself in a home where everyone had their own bedroom, including her parents. However, that's not the only thing that separates her household. Her father’s eyes boast a beautiful green and her mother was born with hazel.

Yet, Aqua Blue was brought into the world with neither.

Haley wishes her parents would forget her. Her mother wants to control her, her father constantly beats on her and Haley, however, just wants to dance on Broadway. Will her dreams cost her more than she ever expected.

Jonathan Jacob Benjamin is running from a memory of a mother he loved. His journey will thrust him into a world filled with secrets so shocking, he will have to determine if he will forgive or walk away.

As they each step foot into the intoxicating city of New York, their dreams are standing before them with open arms. Yet, in order to embrace the possibilities, they must first learn to live, love and breathe.

EXCERPT - First Chapter

“You told me that a real man should cherish a woman, so why, Mama? Why do you keep letting him hit you like this?”

Loretta May lay on her 20 year-old son’s lap, trembling like someone done come and ripped her soul away from her. Her skin hurt and her pride done washed down the river. The pain in her heart was even greater. The mourning that beat down in her gut was darn near unbearable. But, she had to answer him. He deserved an answer. She wished to God, she could find one. There ain’t no excuse. No excuse whatsoever, but still she tried.

“It’s complicated, baby,” were the only words that ached from her lips.

“No, Mama. It ain’t complicated. Put that low-down, no-good fool out. You listening to me, Mama? You hear what I’m saying? Cause I swear Mama, I swear on this day, this here moment, that if you don’t— I’m gonna’ hurt him, Mama. I’m gonna’ hurt him real bad,” he replied, as he pulled her reddish hair back and off the side of her face.

The bruises on her cheek sent rivets of hatred down his spine.

“Your father used to say that I had pretty hair. He would say that there wasn’t another woman who had hair prettier than mine.”

“It’s still pretty, Mama.”

“No, it ain’t pretty no more. It done turned ugly.” “Don’t say that, Mama. You’re still pretty.”

“I miss him, baby. I miss him something painful.” The tears streamed down her face as she reached up to wipe the ones that fell from her boy. Her little man. He had grown up to be something fine. Someone smart. She was so proud. So proud. Nothing, not even that sorry piece of a man she married two years ago could rip that simple fact from her mind. It was buried down in her core. She was gonna’ take it with her, before he tried to beat it out of her.

“Loretta May!” They both jumped.

“You tell that boy to get his butt out there and clean up the yard. You hear me?!”

Jonathan tried to ease his mother aside, but she clung to him. He looked intently into her eyes and could see them staring back with sadness. They were pleading with him— begging him not to move. He could see it on her face. He felt it in her body as she began to tremble even more.

He gave in. For the moment.

Jimmy James Clockman came storming into the living room where they both sat. He stood over six feet tall, and boasted broad shoulders, curly hair. and pale skin because the sun had no love for him. He had once been the most handsome thing Loretta May had ever laid eyes on, since Jonathan’s father passed away ten years ago. Now she strained through the bruises to see him.

The handsomeness that once adorned him had begun to fade, and was replaced with cold-hearted bitterness, just six months after Loretta stood in front of the only county judge and said her I do’s.

Jimmy had done lost his job twice since then.

“Boy, you get your butt out there and clean up the yard. I told you to do it yesterday!”

They say anger has a way of rushing through your veins and busting out through your fingers. They say that when it happens, your mind snaps and you see yourself in a fog doing things that should never be spoken of. Jonathan could feel the anger. He could feel the rage as Jimmy came toward him. His mother tightened her grip.

She could feel it too, as it ran from the heels of her son’s feet to the tips of his fingers. Dear God, she thought. Save my boy. She pulled away from him and used every ounce of strength she could find to sit herself up.

“It’s my fault, Jimmy. I had him cleaning up the kitchen. He’ll get right to it. I promise.”

The two men glared at each other. Jimmy could see Jonathan’s hands curled up in fists.

“What you gonna’ do, boy?” Jonathan stood up.

Motion is something that happens in seconds. It’s like a blur that one struggles at times to see clearly. Loretta May struggled; then, she saw everything clearly. She moved with a quickness that only a mother could understand.

She grabbed her boy by the hand, feeling the ball of his fist. “Jonathan, baby, please go outside and do what I asks of you. You do it now, okay? Right now.”

Jonathan didn’t move.

Jimmy stood towering over them both with a smile on his face. He had known this day was coming and he was ready.

Loretta May raised her voice as she moved her aching body in front of her son and reached out toward Jimmy. “He going, Jimmy. He going.” She turned back toward Jonathan. “Go on now. Go outside. Please Jonathan. Do it for me.”

Jonathan couldn’t resist his mother’s pleas. She watched his hands release as he moved around them both and headed toward the door.

Jimmy started to laugh just as Jonathan stepped out onto the porch.

“Go on, baby. Do what I asks of you,” Loretta May whispered.

“You had better listen to your mother boy.”

It took all he had. Every single drop of love for his mother to close that front door.

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About the Author

Author Marian L. Thomas, is no stranger to the world of fiction. With three dramatic and engaging books to her credit: Color Me Jazzmyne; My Father's Colors and Strings of Color, this award-winning author continues to weave colorful stories of emotion and realism, that crosses all boundaries and finds a home in the heart of today's female reader. This has become her trademark.

Author's Website: www.marianlthomas.com

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Thursday, 25 July 2013

Just Add Spice by Carol E Wyer

Posted on 02:14 by Unknown

Dawn Ellis is bored out of her tiny mind. She's come to the conclusion that husband Jim is a boring old fart and more so since his retirement. Dawn feels like she needs to inject a little bit of excitement into their marriage and their sex life. Jim has forgotten the essential ingredients to keeping a woman happy – passion and desire and overall a bit more oomph!

Dawn finds escape from the mundane life she leads through joining a writing group starting to write a book. The heroine in the book is Cinnamon Knight. Cinnamon is the polar opposite of Dawn. She is super sexy, confident and not afraid to kick ass if needed. After getting her heart broken, Cinnamon has turned herself into ‘an avenging angel’, righting the wrongs done to women by men! Cinnamon is everything Dawn is not and Dawn lives her life through Cinnamon. However, soon Cinnamon is not content with being merely the character in Dawn’s book. She becomes Dawns confidant and her advisor. Throughout Dawn’s daily life and her attempts to spice up her love life with Jim, Cinnamon is there trying to steer Dawn in the right direction. However, it doesn’t always work out and soon the lines between fiction and reality become blurred.

Just Add Spice is the type of book that I think everyone will relate to. It’s a book about wanting and actually needing change. It examines how a person’s needs within a marriage can differ somewhat from what their partner thinks they want. I adored the story within a story. This book is very cleverly written and some of the great one-liners and scenes within the book had me laughing out loud. Put it like this, you’ll never look at a lolly the same way again! I was very drawn to both characters and if I'm honest, I loved Cinnamon because I've been known to exact a bit of revenge myself...........but that's a whole other story!

Just Add Spice explores the journey that a lot of people find themselves on – that of making some major life changes and deciding that the comfortable life that is oh so easy to fall into, isn’t necessarily the one that satisfies us the most. Whilst Cinnamon is the ‘heroine’ of Dawn’s story, little does Dawn realise that she is actually the heroine of her own story and thus the heroine of the reader. However, change does come at a price as Dawn soon discovers. I think if we were all totally honest with ourselves we’d admit to all wanting to be a bit more like Cinnamon Knight, or Dawn, or Cinnamon or……………………..

Just Add Spice is a very enjoyable read that gets across a serious message about love, loss and desire in a humorous and imaginative way. And yes, it’s just a little bit spicy in places and I adored it! Well done to Carol E Wyer whose wonderful writing kept me up late into the night desperate to follow Dawn and Cinnamon’s exploits. A highly recommended read!

As part of the Just Add Spice tour there are lots of fab prizes to be won. Click on the rafflecopter link to enter. You can also join in the fun at the Launch Party HERE

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/ee01942/

Extract

Cinnamon Knight ground the stub of her Benson and Hedges’ cigarette into the pavement with the heel of her Prada leather motorcycle boot, where it now joined a small pile of tab ends. Strategically placed in a shop doorway, she watched the top left window of a block of flats opposite. She had been there almost two hours. Rain beat steadily on the pavement, drumming against the gutter with constant thuds, but this did not deter her. Her patience was rewarded as the light blazing from the window was finally extinguished. She sauntered across the road to the BMW parked in front of the block of flats along the kerbside, sandwiched between a Peugeot 205 and a C Class Mercedes.

Dressed completely in black, face partially obscured by her North Face hooded jacket; she was almost invisible next to the dark car. It took only a minute to fiddle with the lock, open the door, and slide into the car. She lowered herself down in the driver’s seat, casting a cursory glance out of the window. The streets were empty. The weather was on her side and no one was braving the downpour, not even the old man at the end of the road who rarely missed taking his dog out for an evening stroll.

She leant forward and pulled off the cover below the steering wheel with one deft movement. Extracting the screwdriver from a neat case, she stabbed it into the ignition lock. A quick fiddle, one sharp twist, and the car burst into life; the persistent thudding of the rain against the pavement hid the initial coughing of the engine. She pulled away from the kerb swiftly and headed up the road at speed.

Pushing the hood away from her head, she checked her face in the rear-view mirror. That'll teach him to mess about with women, she thought. No one, but no one, messes about with Cinnamon - the rat!