Book Blitz: Everything Bundt the Truth by Karen C. Whalen, an Excerpt, and a Giveaway!

Everything Bundt the Truth

Everything Bundt the Truth by Karen C. Whalen
Publication date: November 2nd 2016
Genres: Adult, Mystery

Recent widow, Jane Marsh, is determined to recapture a rich, full life. She strives for youthful fun by riding a bicycle downtown on her lunch hour in a suit and heels, smoking cigars, eating at hipster restaurants, and re-entering the dating scene, even if her dates prove to be peculiar.

Her most fervent desire, though, is to join an exclusive dinner club. She auditions, but is barred when her housekeeper is found murdered, and she and her guest list become the suspect list. Her, a killer? So what if her two late husbands died under suspicious circumstances. It doesn’t make her a killer.

Having passed off a store bought Bundt cake as her own creation, she may have committed a culinary crime, but never murder!

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Wild Rose Press

Sneak Peek

She grumbled during the drive home from the bakery. What kind of a housekeeper would show up late on the first day on the job? What if Monica was still there when the guests arrived? She had Cheryl’s vote of approval, but the other club members may not accept Jane if the dinner did not go smoothly. Well, a delicious Bundt cake would help—or was that cheating? Would the group reject her if they found out she hadn’t made the entire dinner from scratch? Once home, she threw open the door and walked inside. “Monica? You here?” Where was she?

Excerpt

“Do you want to tell us how your husbands died?”

Jane narrowed her eyes at the detective as her heart thudded in her chest. So, the police were going to dredge that up. Again.

“Didn’t one of your husbands fall overboard from a cruise ship? And husband number two also fell to his death while you were out of the country? He drowned, too? Quite a coincidence.”

“We were in Ireland. The winds are strong on the Cliffs of Moher.” Jane twisted her ring around and around on her finger. Hugh was taking a selfie picture when the wind swept him away. She tried to hang on to him but was left holding only the cell phone. Hugh always did take the best pictures of her; however, she didn’t intend for the photo to go viral on Facebook.

“I’m afraid the police suspect one of the gourmet dinner club members. I’m trying to get accepted into the club, but I’ve got to solve the case first.” She didn’t mention she was the most likely suspect and had trouble meeting his gaze.

“It sounds like you’ve narrowed it down to the ex-husbands. But Jane, you should look closer at your guests. Everyone always suspects the husband.”

About the author

Karen C. Whalen is the author of a culinary cozy series, the dinner club murder mysteries, the first of which is Everything Bundt the Truth. She works as a paralegal at a law firm in Denver, Colorado and has been a columnist and regular contributor to The National Paralegal Reporter magazine. She has hosted dinner club events for a number of years.

Connect with Karen

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Release Day: The Murder Game by Julie Apple

Happy Release Day!

The Murder Game

The Murder Game by Julie Apple
Print and e-book, 340 pages
Published: November 1st 2016

For fans of The Secret History and How to Get Away With Murder comes an exciting new voice in suspense fiction.

Ten years working as a prosecutor have left Meredith Delay jaded and unsure of what she wants out of life. She’s good at her job, but it haunts her. Her boyfriend wants her to commit, but she keeps him at arm’s length. Then Meredith is assigned to a high-profile prosecution involving the violent murder of a fallen hockey star. At first, it appears to be just another case to work. But when her old friend Julian is accused of the murder, it takes on a whole new dimension.

Meredith, Julian, Jonathan, and Lily were a tight-knit group in law school. But now, Jonathan’s defending Julian, and Lily’s loyalties aren’t clear. And when Julian invokes a rare—and risky—defense, Meredith is forced to confront their past.

Has something they played at as students finally been brought to death?

   

I am reading The Murder Game right now and I am loving it! And I love how it connects to Catherine's story Fractured. My complete review will be posted later this week. 

Purchase The Murder Game

Amazon US | Amazon CA

Amazon UK | Amazon Australia

About the Author

Julie Apple is both the pen name of Catherine McKenzie and the protagonist of her new novel, Fractured.

How did that happen?

A long time ago in a galaxy far far away (okay it was Canada, Montreal specifically) (also, 2007), Catherine decided to write a novel she’d been thinking about since she attended McGill Law School in the 1990s. Sitting in her Criminal Law class, she wondered if a lawyer would have an advantage in planning a perfect murder. Could she use her knowledge of the law to do it? What if a group of friends tried it out, just for fun? A game.

But then, years later, what if that murder actually happened?

Catherine wrote that book. Though she was happy with it, she put it in a drawer because her writing career took a different turn.

Fast-forward to 2015. Catherine gets the idea for Fractured and its protagonist, Julie Apple (hey, that’s me!). She’s an author who’s written a book that’s drawn all kinds of unwanted attention to her and her past. Catherine decided to base Julie’s book on the book she had in a drawer. When Fractured was finished, Catherine thought it might be fun to take that book of the drawer and let it out in the world.

And that’s how I, and The Murder Game, was born.

Want to know more about me? Read Fractured—some crazy things happened to me ten years after the events that took place in The Murder Game. Not that The Murder Game is based on real events, or anything. Of course not.

And then maybe you’ll know the answer.

Were we guilty?

Were we innocent?

You tell me… 

Connect with Julie

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Release Day: The Christmas Surprise by Samantha March, an Excerpt, and a Giveaway!

Happy Release Day!

The Christmas Surprise

The Christmas Surprise by Samantha March
A Holiday Novella, 77 pages
Published: November 1st 2016 by Marching Ink LLC

Juliette Mabry is a happily married stay-at-home wife and mother...until there appears to be trouble brewing in her nearly ten-year marriage. Juliette takes it upon herself to find out if her husband is up to no good, but does she want to know the truth? Everything is revealed on Christmas, and Juliette is in for her biggest Christmas surprise.

   

Excerpt

Chapter One

“Isn’t twerking just having sex?”

“Who told you that?”

“No, that’s not it at all!”

“I could have sworn I heard the TV say twerking was just sex. What the hell is it then?”

“It’s a dance . . . style. Thing. It’s like . . . it’s like this.”

“What? You look like you’re having a seizure.”

“Hey, I thought it was pretty good!”

“Oh, if the rest of the PTO moms could see us now!”

I laughed to myself in the stall, doing a final check of my social media accounts on my cell phone. What? I’m a mom to a toddler. Having alone time in a bathroom stall is the highlight of my day. I was getting ready to exit and join the great twerking debate, when I overheard the next part of the conversation.

“Anyway, back to the original subject. Do you think it could be true?”

“I don’t think so. They seem happily married.”

“Are you sure? She’s never really seemed. . . right for him. To click with him. You know?”

I wrinkled my brow as well as my Botox injections could let me. Was someone having an affair? I wondered who it could possibly be! My mind started to race with all the candidates before I told myself to calm down. Having an affair was no laughing matter. I knew that matter than most.

“I just hate seeing families split up. And he’s so adorable.”

Okay, someone who was definitely married, and had a son. I doubt she was calling the husband adorable.

“But after what Carolyn did, are you really that surprised?”

Wait a minute. Were they talking about Carolyn, my best friend? So what, she had an affair. Okay, it was a bad deal. Her husband was the town sheriff, and she got caught sleeping with her gardener. It was so Desperate Housewives of her! Not in a good way, of course. But that was last year, and the tension was somewhat resolved. Carolyn and John even played nice at their daughter Claudia’s wedding a few months back.

“You have to admit, she is pretty fake. I know every time she’s nice to me to my face, I know she is just waiting to catch me slipup and say something she can twist around and report back to others. He probably is fed up with her. I wouldn’t be shocked.”

I heard the sound of paper towels being pulled out of the dispensers, and the women’s voices fade as they left the community bathroom at the pre-school, leaving me standing in my stall in shock.

Someone was having an affair. It was affecting a married family. I was married. I had been married to my husband Christopher ten years this January. They had a son, an adorable son. Call me biased, but I thought my son Colin was pretty freaking adorable. He skipped my red hair gene, thank the good Lord, and instead was a spitting image of Christopher – dark floppy hair (already it did the flop!) shiny brown eyes and one fierce dimple in his left cheek. He was in pre-school, was four years old, and was the true light of my life.

The people involved were also somehow connected to Carolyn, my best friend. And apparently people thought “she” whoever she was, was a fake. And maybe liked to spread rumors.

Now, I don’t think badly about myself. I’m a good person. I’m a good wife, and I’m a damn good mother. I’m a good friend to those who are actually my friend. But yes, I liked to. . . be in the know. I took it upon myself to be the eyes and ears of our small little town of Delany, Maine. Especially after the tragedy that rocked us two years ago, there needed to be a lookout. And I designated myself that person right after Portland’s death. But I scaled back a lot on poking myself into business I didn’t belong to in the past couple of months. And I never meant to spread rumors, and I wouldn’t even think about telling lies. But was I fake? I didn’t think so. Sure my boobs were. And my nose. But that was my outside persona. Inside I was a good and real person.

They weren’t talking about me . . . were they?

With a start, I realized I was still standing in the stall, cell phone in hand opened to Facebook. I felt a little ill, but knew I had to get out of the bathroom and start my day. It was silly to worry. They weren’t talking about me. The similarities were a coincidence. But I would make it my mission to find out who they were talking about.

About the Author

Samantha March is an author, editor, publisher, blogger, and all around book lover. She runs the popular book/women’s lifestyle blog ChickLitPlus, which keeps her bookshelf stocked with the latest reads and up to date on all things beauty, fashion and fitness.

In 2011 she launched her independent publishing company Marching Ink and has four published novels – Destined to Fail, The Green Ticket, A Questionable Friendship and Up To I Do. You can also find her on Youtube sharing beauty reviews and creating makeup tutorials.

When she isn’t reading, writing, or vlogging, you can find her cheering for the Green Bay Packers and Chicago Cubs. Samantha lives in Iowa with her husband and Vizsla puppy.

Connect with Samantha

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Snapchat: Samantha.March

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Book Spotlight: Perfect Prey by Laura Salters

Perfect Prey 

Perfect Prey by Laura Salters
Published October 18th 2016 by Witness Impulse
Kindle Edition, 226 pages

"Laura Salters is a vibrant new voice." --C L Taylor, Internationally bestselling author of The Lie

When best friends Carina Corbett and Erin Baxter are assigned to cover a Serbian music festival for their magazine, it seems like the opportunity of a lifetime. And it is, until Erin vanishes into thin air on their last night in the country. Terrified, Carina launches a desperate search, discovering that the details of her friend’s disappearance are eerily similar to another tragic incident ten years before. Could history be repeating itself?

Frantic to find Erin, Carina takes off on a journey deep into the Serbian criminal underbelly, and uncovers a world more sinister than she ever dreamed . . .

A twisting, edge-of-your-seat suspense perfect for fans of Jamie McGuire.

About the author

Laura Steven is an author, journalist and screenwriter from the northernmost town in England. Her first novel, Run Away, was published by HarperCollins in 2015, and Perfect Prey is due out in summer 2016 – both under the pseudonym Laura Salters.

While juggling various freelance gigs and an MA in Creative Writing, you're most likely to find Laura at Mslexia HQ (where she works in advertising), on stage performing, eating donuts, or penning TV pilots, radio dramas and feature screenplays – sometimes all at once.

As a features writer with very little sense of self-preservation, there isn't much Laura won't do in the name of a good piece – past assignments have included skydiving from 15,000 ft, learning professional blackjack, walking across the roof of a football stadium, and travelling to a Serbian fortress to cover a music festival. She also once paraglided off a mountain, but that was entirely accidental.

Connect with Laura

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Release Day! The Vows We Make by Sonya Loveday and an Excerpt

Happy Release Day!!

Now available on Amazon.
Click here to purchase
Or read for free on Kindle Unlimited.

The Vows We Make
Book 4 of The Six Series
Mark and Paige's story.

Some vows can be deadly.....

Mark and Paige are living in sin—that's what any man of the cloth would say. All they want is to get married, but they refuse to exchange vows without their best friends—the Six. As they wait to hear back from them, Mark and Paige can't help but feel they've been put off… forgotten.

When the threat of an enemy stalking them is brought to light, the call is made to bring them into the secretive world of Cole Enterprise.

Slotted for recruitment by the very agency that stole their chance at a normal life, Mark and Paige have to adjust to their new path as secret agents in a war they didn’t even know existed.
What neither fully understands is that nothing will ever be the same… and some vows are deadlier than others.

CHANGE WAS ALL AROUND ME. Everything was different. My life. My dreams. All of it.

Maybe some of it was for the best. Maybe it would push Mark and me to make more of ourselves than we would have on our own.

Crossing my arms tightly, I stepped out onto the dock and made my way to where Mark stood looking out over the water.

Coming back to the cabin and being around our friends after such a long absence from both had enveloped us in something like a constrictive hug. Both needing it, while desperately trying to come to terms with it.

“Hey,” I said, stepping up beside him and sighing when he pulled me into his arms.

I leaned back, turning my head slightly to fit into the crook of his neck. His cheek brushed against my hair and he asked, “Can you believe this place?”

I snorted. “No. But then again, we are talking about Jared’s parents, so…”

“True. It still feels the same here though,” he answered, watching the water ripple along the surface with the wind.

Arriving at the cabin, or what used to be the cabin, had sort of floored us all. No one knew what to say when we’d got our first glimpse of the new and improved place.

What used to be one story with a kitchen, living room, and six bedrooms with bathrooms was gone. Its replacement was two stories, ten bedrooms with full bathrooms, a massive open-floor kitchen/living room, a movie theater room, and a game room. Grant and Nadia had gone all out to make the cabin a place where all of us could live together, for an unforeseeable amount of time.

“It’s like they just knew…” I said, leaving the rest of what I was thinking unsaid. It wouldn’t do any good to dwell on the things none of us could change.

“How are you holding up with all of this?” Mark asked.

I sighed deeply and closed my eyes. “Honestly? I don’t know how to feel right now. It’s like this huge war being waged right here,” I said, poking my finger against my chest. “I’m happy to see everyone. We’re here together—just like we wanted—but for all the wrong reasons. I’m missing classes and work. I don’t know what to do with myself. My life is literally on hold at this point.”

He hugged me tighter. “Tell me what you want me to do and I’ll do it. If you want to leave, we’ll go. They can’t hold us here.”

I snorted. “Can you imagine the look on all of their faces if we just walked out with our suitcases behind us? No. I love you for that though. It’s nice to hear you’d do that to make me happy.”

He kissed the top of my head. “I’d do anything to make you happy, Paige.”

The Vows We Make is Amazon Exclusive!
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Purchase now on Amazon—only 99¢ 

On November 1st the price goes to $2.99

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Sonya Loveday, first and foremost is a reader, an avid one. It is of that love that brought her to purchasing her first laptop in 2009, and then publishing her first novel, Casted, in 2013. Not long after the completion to the Casted Series, Sonya tried her hand at Contemporary Romance. Thusly, the Six were born with The Summer I Fell.

In 2015 Sonya joined forces with best friend and fellow author Candace Knoebel. Together the duo created the Game of Hearts Novels. The series has two published titles: Love Always and Runaway Heart. Knoebel and Loveday will be releasing the third book in the series in 2017.

For more information about releases and appearances, 

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