Wendy Cartmell Author of the Sgt Major Crane Novels

Prolific, best selling author, Bernadette Marie has released her new book, Lost and Found. An accomplished contemporary romance writer, she always promises 'a happy ending'!  However, that doesn't mean there aren't challenges and disappointments along the way. Lost and found is part of her ever popular 'Keller Family' series and is released Friday 9th May.

Lost and Found centres on Darcy McCary who came to Nashville with some big expectations--to find her birth parents. She had no plans of making a life in Tennessee. But when her sources lead her to Eduardo Keller, her heart took over, and plans changed.

Eduardo Keller is a man who goes after what he wants and he doesn't have time for playing games. Darcy is exactly the woman he's been looking for to assist him in business and be his partner in life. Because he loves Darcy, Ed promises to help her find the answers she seeks.

What he doesn't know is that if Darcy finds the secret to her past it might mend her curiosity; however, it might also tear apart a branch of the Keller family.  

Genre: Fiction, Romance, Contemporary

Series: The Keller Family Series

Publisher: 5 Prince Books

Formats Available In: All eBook formats

Purchase Link: http://www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

About Bernadette Marie:

Bernadette Marie has been an avid writer since the early age of 13, when she’d fill notebook after notebook with stories that she’d share with her friends. Her journey into novel writing started the summer before eighth grade when her father gave her an old typewriter. At all times of the day and night you would find her on the back porch penning her first work, which she would continue to write for the next 22 years.

In 2007 – after marriage, filling her chronic entrepreneurial needs, and having five children – Bernadette began to write seriously with the goal of being published. That year she wrote 12 books. In 2009 she was contracted for her first trilogy and the published author was born. In 2011 she (being the entrepreneur that she is) opened her own publishing house, 5 Prince Publishing, and has released contemporary titles and began the process of taking on other authors in other genres.

In 2012 Bernadette Marie found herself on the bestsellers lists of iTunes and Amazon to name a few. Her office wall is lined with colorful PostIt notes with the titles of books she will be releasing in the very near future, with hope that they too will grace the bestsellers lists.

Bernadette spends most of her free time driving her kids to their many events. She is also an accomplished martial artist who will earn her conditional second degree black belt in Tang Soo Do in October 2012. An avid reader, she enjoys most, the works of Nora Roberts, Karen White, Megan Hart, to name a few. She loves to meet readers who enjoy reading contemporary romances and she always promises Happily Ever After.

Author Contact Info:

Website: http://www.bernadettemarie.com

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/authorbernadettemarie

Blogspot: http://www.authorbernadettemarie.blogspot.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/writesromance

Excerpt from LOST AND FOUND:

Ed Keller leaned back in his chair and kicked his feet up on his desk. The view from his office would never cease to amaze him. The view from his uncle’s office was much more spectacular, but he had no reason to complain. Who would have thought, nearly twenty years ago when he’d asked for an after-school job to afford a limo ride to take a girl to prom, that he’d end up with the title Vice President on his business cards. He laughed. He couldn’t even think of the girl’s name that had squeezed at his heart. She’d been older. That he remembered. But he’d never done well with older women. Now he sat atop an empire that his uncle’s grandfather had started and his uncle’s father had carried on. But it was Zach Benson who made it what it was today. 

Benson, Benson, and Hart built big—built on time—and built under budget. Nothing had changed.

Ed didn’t have a foreman like Zach had. His other uncle, John Forrester, had been the best foreman any company could have asked for. A loyal employee until Ed’s Aunt Arianna made him retire only two years earlier. But another would come along. Right now he had to focus on a new assistant. Interviewing people for a position shouldn’t be an issue. He’d been doing it for years. But a personal assistant had to be in your business, and he didn’t like that.  He’d fought it for years. Temps were good. They came, did the work, and left. He figured it was kind of like dating the wrong girl. There weren’t any he wanted to spend his life with.

Perhaps his expectations were too high. After all, his Aunt Regan had been Zach’s assistant. They’d been married nearly twenty-five years, and she still took care of him. It wouldn’t be long before Tyler and Spencer, their sons, would be sitting in Ed’s seat. Ed dropped his feet to the floor and pushed up from his chair. When the time was right, he’d find the assistant of his dreams. He’d given up on the woman of his dreams, so an assistant would have to do.

He walked to the elevator and pressed the button to go down to the lobby. There was a Starbucks there now, and he’d grown very fond of caramel lattes, thanks to his Aunt Arianna, though he didn’t go for the skinny version. His Uncle John would say it was a bit too frilly a drink for a man in the construction business. His Uncle Zach, on the other hand, would argue that it was a good stress reliever.

Ed laughed at himself. What an eclectic bunch of people he had in his family. And even without them there with him, he still enjoyed them. The gathering of the masses in the Starbucks also entertained him, almost as much as the thoughts of his family and their differences.  Ed ordered his drink and stood at the counter waiting for it to be handed to him.

As he looked around the store, he mentally spotted and named each kind of person. There was the tourist, the executive, and the assistant. There was a couple, obviously just downtown for the day and…hmmm, one that stumped him.  She was professional, probably interviewing by the way she was dressed, but she wasn’t comfortable with the big building and the mass of people. She was using Starbucks as a common ground, something familiar, to ease her nerves.He listened as she ordered her drink—decaf and nonfat. What fun was in that, he wondered.

She tucked her change back into her purse, walked to the end of the counter, and stood behind to Ed to wait for her drink. Flowery perfume filled his nose. She had a sweet side. The lady behind the counter handed Ed his iced caramel latte. He turned to leave and, he’d say so himself, that was when things got interesting.

The woman who had been standing behind him, searching in her bag for something, looked up just as Ed turned around. She shifted to move out of his way, but instead she moved right into him. Ed’s hands slipped from the condensation on the cup, and the entire, cold drink poured down the front of the woman.

She let out a stifled scream, and her hands went into the air. “Oh-my-God!”

“I’m very sorry.”

Ed turned toward the counter and grabbed a handful of napkins. He would have helped to mop up her clothes, but he noticed that the white, silk shirt clung to her and decided it just wasn’t a good idea to try.

“Look what you did!” She ripped the napkins from his hand and began to blot away the coffee, which had already stained the shirt.

“Sorry, but I think you ran into me.”

She snapped her head up again. “Oh, men. You’re not always right, you know. Sometimes you do make mistakes.”

Not only was she not as sweet as her flowery perfume, she was jaded. Bad news.

“Again, I’m very sorry. How can I help you?” He turned and reached for more napkins, but when she pulled them from his hand, he noticed she was crying.

“I think you’ve done enough.”

“I still think I can help in some way.”

“Listen. My suit is ruined. This is the only one I have. I was searching for a job, and I can’t do that now. I can’t hand out resumes looking like this.”

Ed watched as the woman continued to wipe off her blouse, but to no avail. It was ruined, but he still wasn’t going to take the blame.

“Are you looking for a job in this building?”

She let out a grunt. “Why else would I be here?”

“I was just asking. I know most of the businesses in the building. Perhaps I can help you out.”

The woman pursed her lips. “I don’t need your charity.”

“It’s not charity. You seem to be in need of a job, and I’m sure I can help you find one.”

“What, do you own this place?” She waved her arms in the air.

“Let me see your resume.”

The woman stared at him as if he’d lost his mind. That wasn’t new. You didn’t run a multi-million dollar company in your mid-thirties without people giving you a shifty eye.

Her coffee was set on the counter. He moved in to grab it, but she moved quicker. “I’ll get this. I can’t afford to waste a sip of this. It’s my breakfast and lunch.” She picked up the coffee and moved to a table where she set down the cup and pulled a resume from her bag. She handed it to Ed. “Here it is. I hate to say it, but I’m desperate. If I don’t find a job in three days, I have to go home.”

“Why? Does that suit turn back into a pumpkin and your glass slipper breaks?”

“Have you ever been desperate for anything in your life?”

Purchase Link: http://www.5princebooks.com/buy.htm

Sister by Rosamund Lupton, is one of the most extraordinary books I have read. It chronicles the story of Beatrice as she tries to find out what is behind the death of her sister, Tess. Not once does she ever stray from this determination, despite being ignored, fobbed off and treated as though she was becoming as ‘mad’ as Tess was, when she committed suicide.

As the story unfolds, we understand more and more about the sister’s relationship, as Beatrice is forced to examine herself and how she relates to others. Rather than being told from the usual police point of view, the whole story is from Beatrice’s point of view. The telling of the story centres around a letter Beatrice writes to her dead sister and therefore changes from the present, to the past and back again. In her stark prose, Ms Lupton evokes the intense emotion felt by Beatrice, her fiancé and her mother, without resorting to platitudes or clichés, making it easy for the reader to become emotionally involved in the story.

One reviewer on the book cover describes the book as ‘where crime fiction and literature coincide’, which is a description I totally agree with. Whilst this read is not an adrenaline rush, there are still the elements of mystery and surprise that crime readers love and the ending has a twist that I confess I didn’t see coming.

A highly recommended e-thriller read.

Available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PPDBQ2/ US

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B003PPDBQ2/ UK

I particularly like finding new authors and Rebecca Forster is a new author to me, yet clearly a very successful writer, with 25 books under her belt. Hostile Witness is the first in the Witness series, featuring Josie Bates, a lawyer, volleyball player and champion of the underdog. She is suitably flawed, after having successfully defended a guilty woman, who later went on to kill her own children. As you can image there is plenty of angst about that! As a result Josie moved to a quiet backwater and gives up high profile legal cases.

Forster writes with a sure and skilful pen, weaving her murder mystery around an old friend, Linda Rayburn, who wants Josie to defend her daughter Hannah. Hannah is charged with arson and the murder of her step-grandfather, a Supreme Court Judge. She has OCD problems and her mother and step-father want her committed and effectively out of the way.

I particularly liked the way Forster successfully shows us her characters, through dialogue and personal traits. She is skilled at showing tension, anger and righteous indignation. The pace was excellent and I thoroughly enjoyed the drama and growing relationship between Josie Bates and Hannah. I look forward to reading other books in the series.

A highly recommended legal e-thriller.

Now available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z7G0QO/ US

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002Z7G0QO/ UK

Tim Vicary is fast establishing himself as a superb legal thriller writer. His series, the trials of Sarah Newby is set within the British legal system, focused on the cases of barrister Sarah Newby. She is a woman full of determination, having gained her legal degree as a mature student. She is also part of a cast of characters, all of which are flawed in some way, as Sarah herself is. Her husband, because of the strains of their marriage, becomes enamoured with someone at work. Her friend and fellow barrister is facing his own impending marriage. The policeman in her life, Terry Bateson, is a widower and single parent and secretly in love with Sarah. And so Tim Vicary waives his storytelling wand over them all and creates a strong base on which weave his plot around.

In the second book in the series, a woman is let down by the legal system, after her daughter Shelley is found dead in her boyfriend’s flat. The police initially think it is suicide but after further investigation, charge her boyfriend with murder. Sarah Newby is the barrister acting for the prosecution, trying to prove that David Kidd killed Shelley. This constitutes the first half of the book. The second half concentrates on the revenge of the family, as they seek their own justice against Shelley’s boyfriend and once again Sarah is drawn into the proceedings, but this time as barrister for the defence.

The novel follows smoothly on from the first book, as well as being a stand-alone novel, and is intriguing, interesting and emotionally draining, as you identify with the family of Shelley Walters and the struggles of Sarah Newby. An outstanding legal e-thriller.

Now available on Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B005C0YH48/ US

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B005C0YH48/ UK

The first Sgt Major Crane military mystery is reduced to 99c today via Kindle Books and Tips http://wp.me/p2b82w-4mr please 'like' and buy!

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Blood on the cards is a roller coaster ride of a thriller. Texas Ranger Jack Harden is the type of detective who will not be stopped when he is called on to investigate a series of murders. His girlfriend, Elise, by contrast is flawed in a different way, a softer foil to Jack’s determination. The dialogue moves the plot along at a pace. I also particularly enjoyed the setting. As I am from England, the book transported me to places I have never been to or seen and Huffstetler provides rich descriptions of the places Harden travels to as he investigates ‘The Brotherhood’.

So take a ride with Jack Harden if you are looking for a ‘seat of your pants’ experience. You won’t be disappointed in this short sharp read.

Today, I've reduced the price of all my Sgt Major Crane British military crime novels! That means all three e-books are now available for 99c/76p each, while I write book # 4 Cordon of Lies.

Just click on the book link below and you will be directed to the Amazon book page for your Country.

Steps to Heaven - can Crane save the children from slaugher?

http://www.ViewBook.at/B005U9T20A

40 Days 40 Nights - can Crane keep the athletes safe?

http:///www.viewBook.at/B006O5Q77A

Violation - can Crane stop the rapes and murders?

http://www.viewBook.at/148024905X

Happy Reading!

Trying to get behind the truth of her mother's death, Amy Snow unleashes the skeletons lurking in the darkness of her father's closet, and learns a terrible, twisted truth about her family tree. Meanwhile, a man named Adam is on a mission to restore Paradise to its former glory. To accomplish this, he must find "The Lost One", a girl he calls Eve, and sacrifice her to the god she betrayed the day a talking serpent slithered into the Garden of Eden. (author description)

These Unquiet Bones is a good read for fans of horror. To be honest I don’t think I’ve ever met so many psychotic characters in one book! Poor Amy is surrounded by them and is looked after by a dysfunctional father to boot who cannot come to terms with the horrors of his past. Amy is well drawn and she is the pivotal character in the book. Because of this it reads like a YA novel as most of the action is from Amy’s point of view. We follow the emotional struggles she has with her father, her friends and close friend/would be boyfriend Layne.

We only learn the details of Amy’s father’s secret about two thirds into the book, which has the effect of slowing down the pace of the novel and for a horror/thriller I would have liked it to have a faster tempo. This also means that the final third of the book seems rushed by comparison.

A good horror read and definitely not for the squeamish! 4 stars

Available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/These-Unquiet-Bones-ebook/dp/B00B6ET7AI/ UK

http://www.amazon.com/These-Unquiet-Bones-ebook/dp/B00B6ET7AI/ US

Jack Hilliard is an upstanding public prosecutor, whose life is turned upside down in several ways, triggered by his boss, Earl, resigning as District Attorney and putting Jack’s name forward as his possible successor. Jack's decision to run for office has far reaching affects that he could never imagine, both on his job and his marriage. Further confusion arises in the form of his ever growing obsession with a friend, Jenny Dodson.

This is an interesting novel. I love the legal aspects of the book and the tussle Jack has with his principals verses his ambition to become District Attorney. Ms Compton’s writing of the love scenes and Jack’s inner emotional struggles are, without doubt, skilfully and beautifully written. My only reservation is that perhaps this book doesn’t quite know what it is. A legal thriller or a love story? Whilst Ms Compton does both extremely well, I picked this book because it was a legal thriller, not because I like love stories. Legal thriller readers may find the emotional parts of the book an intrusion because that is not their genre choice. This is could be equally true of romance readers. However if you love legal thrillers and love stories then this is the book for you! 4 stars

Available from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Tell-No-Lies-ebook/dp/B00AUJO6VA/ US

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tell-No-Lies-ebook/dp/B00AUJO6VA/ UK