Book Spotlight - The Sun Casts No Shadow by Mark Richardson + Giveaway

About the Book:

Title: THE SUN CASTS NO SHADOW

Author: Mark Richardson

Pub. Date: February 9, 2020

Publisher: Whiz Bang

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 178

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N, Kobo

Wellington Thorneycroft is content picking pockets, taking Ambrosia, screwing prostitutes, and simply surviving in the hellish, walled City. But everything changes when he spots a spectral woman who wordlessly conveys the message: We’ll escape together. Suddenly, Thorneycroft’s life is turned upside down as he’s pulled along a circuitous path to an unknowable freedom: a path marked by violence, sex, and metaphysical dread.

Reviews:

"The Sun Casts No Shadow by Mark Richardson is a dark and twisted tale of a city's underbelly...A fascinating yarn that will captivate readers, The Sun Casts No Shadow easily earns five stars. Richardson has produced an exceptional work that readers will relish and avidly share for years to come."―Portland Book Review

"A lowly man searches for a way out of a seemingly inescapable City in the dystopian noir...Richardson coats his short, engaging novel in a gleefully dense atmosphere...A dark, stylish tale that revels in its ambiguity."―Kirkus Reviews

 

About Mark Richardson:

Mark Richardson is the author of the novels The Sun Casts No Shadow, and Hunt for the Troll.

 His short stories have appeared in numerous crime and literary publications, including Hobart, Fugue, Segue, Crime Factory, Switchback, and Nth Position.

Born in the Chicago area, he graduated from the University of Iowa, and promptly escaped the midwestern winters for sunny California, first living in Los Angeles and then San Francisco. He spent thirty years working as a writer and marketer for tech companies in Silicon Valley.

Mark now lives in the East Bay with his wife, two children, and the world’s cutest dog. He spends his time writing fiction, obsessing about the Chicago Cubs, attending his daughter’s softball games, and reading stacks of books. He loves genre-bending fiction, especially speculative writing with a noir flavor. In 2019, he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease, and supports the Michael J. Fox Foundation.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will win a $10 Amazon GC courtesy of Rockstar Book Tours, International.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/31/2022	Rockstar Book Tours	Kickoff Post
1/31/2022	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt
2/1/2022	YABooksCentral	Guest Post
2/1/2022	Mythical Books	Excerpt/IG Post
2/2/2022	BookHounds	Guest Post
2/2/2022	@jaimerockstarbooktours	IG Post
2/3/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
2/3/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Review
2/4/2022	Jazzy Book Reviews	Review
2/4/2022	Sadie's Spotlight	Excerpt/IG Post

Week Two:

2/7/2022	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt
2/7/2022	Jaime's Book World	Excerpt
2/8/2022	The Girl Who Reads	Review/IG Post
2/8/2022	Prison Wife Reviews	Review/IG Post
2/9/2022	Wottaread	Excerpt
2/9/2022	Coffee and Wander Book Reviews	Review/IG Post
2/10/2022	@jypsylynn	Review/IG Post
2/10/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
2/11/2022	The Momma Spot	Review
2/11/2022	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post

Book Spotlight - Black Panther The Young Prince: Spellbound by Ronald L. Smith

 

About The Book:

Title: BLACK PANTHER THE YOUNG PRINCE: SPELLBOUND

Author: Ronald L. Smith

Pub. Date: September 28, 2021

Publisher: Marvel Press

Formats: Hardcover, eBook, Audiobook

Pages: 272

Find it:  Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD, Bookshop.org

The second book in the hit Young Prince series from Ronald L. Smith, recipient of the 2016 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award.

In the sequel to the hit middle grade novel, The Young Prince, T'Challa is heading back to America to visit his friends Sheila and Zeke, who are staying with Sheila's grandma in Alabama over their summer break. T'Challa is excited to see his friends, but his fun summer vacation quickly turns into a nightmare. The small town has fallen under the sway of a charismatic politician named Achebe who is there to retrieve a spell book full of dark magic. When strange events start to take place, T'Challa begins to think that it's no coincidence that Achebe arrived in Beaumont at the same time he did.

Will T'Challa figure out his role in Achebe's sinister plot and break the spell he has over the town?

Review:

Wakandan prince T’Challa, with the help of his friends, uncovers mysteries and faces new foes. T’Challa, the 13-year-old prince of Wakanda, continues his adventures in America in this second entry in the Young Prince series. This time he is visiting Alabama with his Chicago friends, Sheila and Zeke. Staying with Sheila’s grandmother Miss Rose, the three are excited about all the fun activities they will partake in over the summer. But their revelry quickly gets interrupted thanks to a strange figure T’Challa encounters on multiple occasions, an acrobat called the Amazing Bob. Immediately, T’Challa gets a strange feeling about Bob, sensing that things are not what they seem with him. It turns out that the prince’s instincts are correct, as Bob is really Achebe, a politician with seemingly irresistible charm who has been wielding his power to influence the townspeople. Achebe has devious plans that require T’Challa’s unwitting participation and a spell book called the Book of Sins. It’s up to the young Wakandan and his friends to figure out and foil his plot before it’s too late and an irreversible price is paid. Smith delivers an action-filled story of friendship, youthful curiosity, and exploration that centers Black kids and is layered with anecdotes and storylines that highlight themes of social justice and power. Superhero fans will be satisfied by this latest installment. (Fantasy. 8-13)――Kirkus Reviews

Grab Book 1,  Black Panther The Young Prince now!

About Ronald L. Smith:

Ronald L. Smith is an award-winning writer of children's literature including the middle grade novels Black Panther: The Young Prince, The Mesmerist, The Owls Have Come To Take Us Away, and Gloomstown, a Junior Library Guild Selection. His first novel, Hoodoo, earned him the 2016 Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe New Talent Author Award and the ILA Award for Intermediate Fiction from The International Literacy Association. Before he became a full-time writer, he worked in advertising and wrote TV commercials for big corporations. He is much happier writing books for young people.

Website |Twitter | Instagram | Tumblr | Goodreads 

 

Giveaway Details:

3 winners will win a finished copy of BLACK PANTHER THE YOUNG PRINCE: SPELLBOUND, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/31/2022	YA Books Central	Excerpt
1/31/2022	Kait Plus Books	Excerpt
2/1/2022	BookHounds YA	Excerpt
2/1/2022	Books and Ladders	Excerpt
2/3/2022	karendeeandabc	Spotlight
2/3/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Review
2/3/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
2/3/2022	More Books Please blog	Review
2/4/2022	Review Thick & Thin	Review
2/4/2022	Locks, Hooks and Books	Review

Week Two:

2/7/2022	Nay's Pink Bookshelf	Review
2/7/2022	booksaremagictoo	Review
2/8/2022	The Momma Spot	Review
2/8/2022	Lifestyle of Me	Review
2/9/2022	Cocoa With Books	Review
2/9/2022	Midnightbooklover	Review
2/10/2022	@fictitious.fox	Review
2/10/2022	Sometimes Leelynn Reads	Review
2/11/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
2/11/2022	laura's bookish corner	Review

Book Spotlight - Justice At Sea by Christian Klaver + Spotlight

About The Book:

Title: JUSTICE AT SEA (The Empire of the House of Thorns)

Author: Christian Klaver

Pub. Date: December 7, 2021

Publisher: CamCat Books

Formats: Hardcover, paperback, eBook, audiobook

Pages: 320

Find it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle,  Audible, B&N, iBooks, Kobo, TBD

The tides of the Faerie War are turning, but at how high a cost for the Kasric family?

Justice Kasric, her siblings, and her parents are locked in combat on both sides of the Human-Faerie War. At fifteen, Justice may be the youngest ever Admiral to command her own ship and lead a resistance, but she has the magic and the will to do it. If only nearly every other member of her family weren't either in immediate danger of dying-or attempting to kill her!

Forced to make dangerous pacts with more than one unpredictable ally, only Justice can decide how far she'll go to save London. Is it worth sacrificing even a member of her own family?

Praise for Shadows Over London

"Klaver dazzles with an adventure rooted in complex feelings about family loyalties, and magically full to the brim with faerie mystery." -Tobias S. Buckell, World Fantasy Award Winner and New York Times Bestselling Author

"An enchanting and enthralling series opener." -Kirkus Reviews

"Fantasy at its most fantastic. Monsters, mystery, and magic in a beautiful and frightening world all their own. Justice Kasric and her strange family are a delight from first to last." -Steven Harper, author of The Books of Blood and Iron series

"This first title in a new series slowly builds into a magical adventure in a world that is dark and unique . . . the plot and world building are sure to enthrall readers." -School Library Journal

"Klaver's rich, lyrical descriptions augment the fantastical source material in this engaging series starter." -Publishers Weekly

About Christian Klaver:

CHRISTIAN KLAVER has been writing for over twenty years, with a number of magazine publications, including Escape Pod, Dark Wisdom Anthology, and Anti- Matter. He’s the author of The Supernatural Case Files of Sherlock Holmes, the Empire of the House of Thorns series, and the Nightwalker series, but has written over a dozen novels in both fantasy and sci-fi, often with a Noir bent. He worked as a bookseller, bartender and a martial-arts instructor before settling into a career in internet security. He lives just outside the sprawling decay of Detroit, Michigan, with his wife Kimberly, his daughter Kathryn, and a group of animals he refers to as The Menagerie.

Website | Twitter | Instagram | Goodreads | Amazon | BookBub

 

Giveaway Details:

2 winners will receive a finished copy of JUSTICE AT SEA, US Only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

1/10/2022	Rockstar Book Tours	Kickoff Post
1/11/2022	Mythical Books	Excerpt or Guest Post
1/12/2022	YABooksCentral	Excerpt or Guest Post
1/13/2022	Writer of Wrongs	Excerpt or Guest Post
1/14/2022	Two Chicks on Books	Excerpt

Week Two:

1/17/2022	Rajiv's Reviews	Review
1/18/2022	Jaime's Book World	Excerpt
1/19/2022	The Girl Who Reads	Review
1/20/2022	GivernyReads	Review
1/21/2022	Sadie's Spotlight	Excerpt or Guest Post

Week Three:

1/24/2022	The Phantom Paragrapher	Review/IG Post
1/25/2022	Karen Dee's Book Reviews	Review
1/26/2022	@sunnydeelights	Review
1/27/2022	Fire and Ice	Review
1/28/2022	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Excerpt or Guest Post

Week Four:

1/31/2022	OneMoreExclamation	Review/IG Post
2/1/2022	Pick A Good Book	Excerpt or Guest Post
2/2/2022	The Momma Spot	Review
2/3/2022	More Books Please blog	Review
2/4/2022	Coffee and Wander Book Reviews	Review

Week Five:

2/7/2022	@lexijava	Review
2/8/2022	@jaimerockstarbooktours	IG Post
2/9/2022	BookHounds YA	Review
2/10/2022	Two Points of Interest	Review
2/11/2022	@jypsylynn	Review

Week Six:

2/14/2022

Books a Plenty Book Reviews

Review

Book Review - The Mary Shelley Club by Goldy Moldavsky

 

The rules are simple when it comes to horror movies. You should avoid abandoned areas at all times, never split up, and if there is a murderer on the loose, be careful of who you hang out with. However, if only real life was this easy.

After a tragic experience, new girl Rachel Chavez likes to watch horror movies for comfort. She prefers watching movies than dealing with the rich kids of Manhattan Prep and  her past trauma.

Rachel comes across a club called the Mary Shelley Club, which is a secret society of students who love watching horror movies. The club hosts Fear Tests that are elaborate pranks that are inspired by movie and urban legend tropes.  At first, Rachel loves the idea and the power that comes with pranking other students. However, as the Fear Tests progress, the competition becomes deadlier and Rachel realizes this is one game she can't afford to lose.

I thought the book was a unique and entertaining read. I can't say that I liked any of the characters or liked how Rachel reacted towards the end. However, I was interested in how things will play out.  I didn't care for the romance portion of the book as it was mostly Rachel following any guy who showed her affection. I also didn't like that she kept trying to be a part of something when other people made it obvious they didn't want her there. I did wish that horror portion of the book took place a bit earlier. I felt like during the middle of the book, it was a quiet lull without much going on. The story was an entertaining read and I look forward to reading more books by the author.