Addicted to Writing Presents: The Gift by Christine Young

The Gift

Christine Young

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 1

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon:  

REVIEW:

This story is straight from the heart. Told in a passive voice and as a first person account through Elice and Micha's eyes. Their thoughts tug your heartstings. Their memory of their past life, the war and of course the present. They never fell out of love but exhuming those feelings hurt. They also had to face the consequences of their actions when an unexpected visitor arrived in their plantation home. Elice and Micha found out that in war, there is something worst than death and it is cowardice.

BLURB:

A man and a woman on opposite sides of the Civil War get a second chance at love after one final battle returns soldiers to their war-torn homes to rebuild their lives.

EXCERPT:

"Get in the house, now!"

"Mama?"

Elice Weld shielded her eyes and watched the ground fog rising in the distance. She didn't know what was coming her way, but she could guess. The rumors that a Union cavalry unit was in the vicinity had spread like a wildfire on a Kansas prairie.

Rain had fallen all morning. Now the clouds had separated, and the sun heated the earth, causing the evaporation of the water-soaked ground. The cavalry rode through the mist like dark, avenging wraiths bent on the destruction of all mankind. She could see seven men silhouetted on the horizon.

"Izzy, go." Elice didn't want to frighten her daughter but the urgency of the moment could not be denied.

"But mama?"

"Go to the cellar. Now."

"It's dark."

Izzy's voice echoed in Elice's head, filling her with a wild panic she didn't know how to stop. Every time soldiers approached she was terrified. The last four years had been the longest years of her life. "Do as I say, quickly." Elice hugged her daughter, turning her at the same moment and with a gentle shove sent her through the open door of her house.

"Izzy."

Elice knew the panic in her voice would mobilize her young daughter. She despised the fear and the terror. She loathed the war. She looked up. The fog was dissipating, and she could see the dark blue of the Union coats. She didn't have anything left for the soldiers to take. Good God, they'd taken everything already--everything save her daughter and her hope for the future.

She inhaled a quick breath then stood on the steps, hands folded together in front of her, watching the dark wraiths inch closer. She knew from experience she couldn't fight these men. She would do as they said and when they left, she would put the pieces of her life back together.

Until the next time…

"Mama," Elice jumped when her daughter tugged on her skirt before looking at her with sorrow-filled eyes. "Are the soldiers going to take my doll?"

"No," Elice ruffled her little girl's hair. "Go back inside. Go to the cellar and don't come out until I tell you it's safe."

"What about you?"

"I'll be fine." But Elice knew she might be lying to her child. She wasn't always fine when the soldiers invaded their home. "Now go and don't make me say it again. Stay there until I come for you."

Izzy nodded before she turned and walked through the parlor to the stairs leading to the cellar.

Addicted to Writing Presents ~ Sweet Sexy Sadie by Christine Young

10% of all profits from sales will go to the World Wildlife Federation

Title: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Author: Christine Young

Email: achristay@aol.com

Genre: Erotic Romance

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 5

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon

Buy at Barnes & Noble  

REVIEW:

Carin for My Reading Obsession

Sweet Sexy Sadie is a quick read with a fun plot line, Sadie is researching the migration of butterflies for her thesis she meets Brody when her car overheats in the desert pretty soon the car isn't the only thing overheating. Sadie also has a stalker of a paranormal variety.

The action happens quick and without a lot of back story to have this come out novella length. I enjoyed the chemistry that is immediate between Brody and Sadie. I liked the paranormal element to her stalker and the bond that Sadie and Brody share to overcome the trials in their path to happiness.

This time of year with the kids in school you have lots of chances to sit and wait this is the perfect length book for those times and you can get in a fun love story while you are at it.

BLURB:

From the first time Sadie’s eyes met those of Brody McKenna in the hot Sierra Madre Mountains, theirs was a potent attraction—not gentle, slow, and easy, but hot, hard, and all-consuming. The daughter of a dysfunctional family, Sadie had dreams no man could wrench from her with hot sex and an all-consuming passion. She’d challenge this alpha male with all the strength she possessed. But her red hair, fiery temperament, and indomitable spirit obsessed Brody...and he knew he had to find a way to show her he was more than he appeared and convince her to make a life with him.

EXCERPT

Sadie didn't know what to make of Brody. Exceptionally handsome and charismatic, he'd made her smile the first time she saw him sauntering down the road toward her. Good lord, but he looked as if he owned the world. Tall, tanned from the sun, amber-green eyes that sparkled as if he saw some light humor in everything. He was wiry and sleek; a quickness about him surprised her. His blue-black hair was tied back with a leather thong, his chin angular.

Perhaps he did own this part of the Sierra Madres. His family seemed to own most of this town.

Her research had brought her to this place, Cactus Junction. Now the prospect of getting to know an interesting man would be an added perk. In the bathroom she slipped out of her clothes and into a tepid shower. A few minutes later she emerged squeaky clean and ready for the next part of her adventure.

Unpacking her clothes and taking out her laptop, she opened it. What do explosive experts do?  Hmmm....

Why, they blow up things. What would he blow up around here?

Lord but that sounded crazy to her. Before typing in the necessary info to pull something up on Google, she leaned back, relaxing into her chair. The wallpaper was outdated, and the old fan complimented the air conditioning. She realized she liked the atmosphere.

Enough musing. Mining in the Sierra Madres. Let's see, it says here they mined silver as early as 1521.

Sadie scrolled down the paper. Ok… Montezuma, in 1492, was already drinking hot chocolate from goblets made of gold. Maybe she should be studying this instead of her research thesis. The migration of butterflies. Once she'd thought the topic was romantic. Chasing after butterflies…

So what are they doing now? Junior drilling companies… She wondered if that was what the McKenna Clan was, a junior company. How soon was too soon to ask? Probably not on their first dinner together. Knowledge brought power and she firmly believed everything happened for a reason. Then her chance encounter in this place was not a coincidence.

This says the companies are drilling to find the ore. So… Do they still need explosives? If not, he didn't do much for his day job. Perhaps the family had millions stashed away. At first glance this hotel was theirs and Brody had told her the land this town sat on belonged to them. But millions in the Caymans? Probably not.

She closed her laptop. Then leaning back, she shut her eyes and tried to cleanse her mind of all thought. A little catnap might be in order, but her heartbeat so fast she didn't think sleeping was a plausible scenario. Eager to meet the McKenna Clan and begin her research, her body was wound tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

The bag of chips in her purse seemed to call to her just after her stomach growled its discontent. Trying to ignore the excessive calories and her empty belly, she rose and wandered to the window. Dinner would be that much better if she waited. Outside, the sun still beat down and one could see heat waves decorate the street.

The air conditioner chose that moment to blow out cold air. Sadie wrapped her arms around herself then turned the monitor down a notch.

Back at the window she looked at the street below. A man walked down the sidewalk, and as he grew closer, he stopped and shielded his eyes then gazed up to her room. Sadie's breath caught in the back of her throat and another chill swept through her. This time it wasn't caused by the air conditioner. The sight of the man sent an eerie feeling to the pit of her stomach. She stepped back in an attempt to remove herself from his line of sight.

The knock startled her away from the window. She jumped, afraid it might be the man she'd just seen but knowing it wasn't.

"Sadie? Sadie, you in there?" Brody called from outside the door. Damn, but she'd recognize his voice anywhere. A smile crossed her face. She meant to forget the stranger.

"Come in." Sadie looked back to the street below. No one was there. Once again she rubbed her arms. She felt as if a ghost had just swept through her, leaving her cold from her core outward.

"You okay?" Brody stepped inside, looking concerned.

"No, I don't think so. I…" Pausing, she hesitated to tell him what had just happened. What she'd felt. He'd think she was crazy.

Addicted to Writing Presents Tell Tale Tuesday: Wrong Number by K. J. Dahlen

Wrong Number

K. J. Dahlen

kjdahlen1@yahoo.com

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 1

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Wrong-Number-K-J-Dahlen-ebook/dp/B005NIO1YK/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386278685&sr=1-1&keywords=Wrong+Number+by+K.J.+Dahlen

Buy at Barnes & Noble:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/wrong-number-k-j-dahlen/1105680136?ean=2940013379190

While reporter Lacey Hancock is tracking a serial killer, she gets a phone call in the middle of the night meant for someone else. The caller tells her he received the money and within the next twenty-four hours two people will be dead. When she goes to the police, she runs into an old friend, FBI agent Sam Reed. When they connect the separate cases they are working on, they find the serial killer is after them. Can they find him before he finds them?

EXCERPT

The ringing phone woke Lacey Hancock from a sound sleep. On the third ring she picked up the receiver and whispered a sleepy, "Hello."

"I have received the payment you promised."  She heard someone say. "By this time tomorrow your judicial troubles will be over. The only witness will be dead and you'll be in the clear."

Lacey frowned and slowly sat up in bed. She brushed her long dark hair away from her face and rubbed her eyes. She had been so tired lately she wasn't sure she was hearing the conversation correctly. "Excuse me?" She took a deep breath. "Who is this?" When she heard no reply she asked, "Is this some kind of joke or something? Because if it is, this isn't very funny."

She heard a sharp intake of breath and a muffled swear word then heard a resounding click as the phone call ended. She frowned and reached over to snap on the bed side lamp. Hanging up the phone, she glanced at the alarm clock sitting on the bedside the table and saw it was just after one a.m.

She hated phone calls in the middle of the night. They never brought good news, only bad news, and this one sounded like a prank call. Yet there was something she heard in the caller's voice that made her stop and think.

It could have been a prank call or something a little more sinister. As a reporter, her inner alarms were going haywire. She knew this sort of thing happened all the time and yet she had been shocked by the phone call. This sort of crime, a murder for hire, was more a big city occurrence, it didn't happen so much around here. The caller had sounded very sincere about what he was planning to do. In the small amount of conversation she had with the caller she could sense his intent. If she believed him, someone was going to die in the next day,

Lacey shivered. She had just spent the last three days trying to track down a serial killer. She had seen too much death since she began this quest. She received a call four days ago from an attorney for a man on death row. The attorney told her his client's name was Mickey Dallas and he was dying of cancer. Mickey knew he wouldn't live long enough to get the needle and he was okay with that. The attorney told her Mickey had a story to tell, and he wanted her to tell it. He told her she had every right to refuse, that it was okay if she wanted to turn around and walk away, He would understand, but he hoped she would at least listen to his story.

Lacey had been just curious enough to stay. Mickey wanted to tell her about someone he met fifteen years ago in Detroit. He'd recently read a story she wrote about child abuse and he told her he liked the way she brought the victims to life. He told her she made him feel the child's pain and when she was finished, he felt that justice had been done by the courts. He felt the judge who sentenced the couple to prison had stopped them from hurting any other child. He wanted the world to know his story and why he had done the things he had done. He wasn't looking for forgiveness; but he did want people to know what he felt during the time he was committing his crimes. He told her that while he'd done a number of bad things in his life, he needed to tell the world about a man that scared even the hardest of criminals. As a reporter she knew this man had a story to tell and she told him if she could verify what he was telling her, she would write his story. What she found out scared the hell out of her, but she had been able to verify his tale in New York, Chicago, Seattle and St. Louis and many little towns along the way.

She had returned from her journey only three hours ago. Her suitcase was still sitting just inside the bedroom door. All she wanted to do when she got home was sleep.

Lacey grabbed a pen and a notepad she kept close to her and wrote down the message she had been given. She knew she should call the police and if she did and it turned out to be a crank call, the police wouldn't give her the respect she demanded for her profession. The caller had said that the hit would happen within twenty four hours. The question was who was going to die and why? The reporter in her wanted to know the five W's; who, what, when, where and why. So far she knew the when but she didn't know the rest. She tried to think of upcoming interesting cases, but she couldn't think of one that would warrant this kind of solution.

Her adrenalin was pumping and she knew from the butterflies in the pit of her stomach she had stumbled on to a story that she was never supposed to know about. What she would do next might save someone's life or cost her own.

"Way cool of a book! If you are a fan of murder mysteries, run don’t walk and get your copy today. Twists and turns start from the first sentence. Wrong Number has great characters with depth, and a truly psychopathic killer on the loose. What is not to love."

Matilda
Reviewer for Coffee Time Romance & More

Addicted to Writing ~ Mystery Monday ~ Sweet Sexy Sadie by Christine Young

10% of profits will go to the World Wildlife Federation

Title: Sweet Sexy Sadie

Author: Christine Young

Email: achristay@aol.com

Genre: Erotic Romance

Excerpt Heat Level: 1

Book Heat Level: 5

Buy at: www.roguephoenixpress.com

Buy at Amazon

Buy at Barnes & Noble  

REVIEW:

Carin for My Reading Obsession

Sweet Sexy Sadie is a quick read with a fun plot line, Sadie is researching the migration of butterflies for her thesis she meets Brody when her car overheats in the desert pretty soon the car isn't the only thing overheating. Sadie also has a stalker of a paranormal variety.

The action happens quick and without a lot of back story to have this come out novella length. I enjoyed the chemistry that is immediate between Brody and Sadie. I liked the paranormal element to her stalker and the bond that Sadie and Brody share to overcome the trials in their path to happiness.

This time of year with the kids in school you have lots of chances to sit and wait this is the perfect length book for those times and you can get in a fun love story while you are at it.

BLURB:

From the first time Sadie’s eyes met those of Brody McKenna in the hot Sierra Madre Mountains, theirs was a potent attraction—not gentle, slow, and easy, but hot, hard, and all-consuming. The daughter of a dysfunctional family, Sadie had dreams no man could wrench from her with hot sex and an all-consuming passion. She’d challenge this alpha male with all the strength she possessed. But her red hair, fiery temperament, and indomitable spirit obsessed Brody...and he knew he had to find a way to show her he was more than he appeared and convince her to make a life with him.

EXCERPT

Sadie didn't know what to make of Brody. Exceptionally handsome and charismatic, he'd made her smile the first time she saw him sauntering down the road toward her. Good lord, but he looked as if he owned the world. Tall, tanned from the sun, amber-green eyes that sparkled as if he saw some light humor in everything. He was wiry and sleek; a quickness about him surprised her. His blue-black hair was tied back with a leather thong, his chin angular.

Perhaps he did own this part of the Sierra Madres. His family seemed to own most of this town.

Her research had brought her to this place, Cactus Junction. Now the prospect of getting to know an interesting man would be an added perk. In the bathroom she slipped out of her clothes and into a tepid shower. A few minutes later she emerged squeaky clean and ready for the next part of her adventure.

Unpacking her clothes and taking out her laptop, she opened it. What do explosive experts do?  Hmmm....

Why, they blow up things. What would he blow up around here?

Lord but that sounded crazy to her. Before typing in the necessary info to pull something up on Google, she leaned back, relaxing into her chair. The wallpaper was outdated, and the old fan complimented the air conditioning. She realized she liked the atmosphere.

Enough musing. Mining in the Sierra Madres. Let's see, it says here they mined silver as early as 1521.

Sadie scrolled down the paper. Ok… Montezuma, in 1492, was already drinking hot chocolate from goblets made of gold. Maybe she should be studying this instead of her research thesis. The migration of butterflies. Once she'd thought the topic was romantic. Chasing after butterflies…

So what are they doing now? Junior drilling companies… She wondered if that was what the McKenna Clan was, a junior company. How soon was too soon to ask? Probably not on their first dinner together. Knowledge brought power and she firmly believed everything happened for a reason. Then her chance encounter in this place was not a coincidence.

This says the companies are drilling to find the ore. So… Do they still need explosives? If not, he didn't do much for his day job. Perhaps the family had millions stashed away. At first glance this hotel was theirs and Brody had told her the land this town sat on belonged to them. But millions in the Caymans? Probably not.

She closed her laptop. Then leaning back, she shut her eyes and tried to cleanse her mind of all thought. A little catnap might be in order, but her heartbeat so fast she didn't think sleeping was a plausible scenario. Eager to meet the McKenna Clan and begin her research, her body was wound tight as a rubber band ready to snap.

The bag of chips in her purse seemed to call to her just after her stomach growled its discontent. Trying to ignore the excessive calories and her empty belly, she rose and wandered to the window. Dinner would be that much better if she waited. Outside, the sun still beat down and one could see heat waves decorate the street.

The air conditioner chose that moment to blow out cold air. Sadie wrapped her arms around herself then turned the monitor down a notch.

Back at the window she looked at the street below. A man walked down the sidewalk, and as he grew closer, he stopped and shielded his eyes then gazed up to her room. Sadie's breath caught in the back of her throat and another chill swept through her. This time it wasn't caused by the air conditioner. The sight of the man sent an eerie feeling to the pit of her stomach. She stepped back in an attempt to remove herself from his line of sight.

The knock startled her away from the window. She jumped, afraid it might be the man she'd just seen but knowing it wasn't.

"Sadie? Sadie, you in there?" Brody called from outside the door. Damn, but she'd recognize his voice anywhere. A smile crossed her face. She meant to forget the stranger.

"Come in." Sadie looked back to the street below. No one was there. Once again she rubbed her arms. She felt as if a ghost had just swept through her, leaving her cold from her core outward.

"You okay?" Brody stepped inside, looking concerned.

"No, I don't think so. I…" Pausing, she hesitated to tell him what had just happened. What she'd felt. He'd think she was crazy.