Book Review: A Life Less Ordinary by Victoria Bernadine

This post is part of a Virtual Book Tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Victoria will be awarding a $25 (grand prize) gift card to either Amazon or Smashwords (winner's choice), as well as two runners-up prizes of $15 Amazon or Smashwords gift cards each to randomly drawn commenters. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour--remember, the more you comment, the better your chances!

For the last fifteen years, Rose “Manny” Mankowski has been a very good girl. Now, at the age of 45, she’s questioning her choices and feeling more and more disconnected from her own life. When she’s passed over for promotion and her much younger new boss implies Manny’s life will never change, something snaps. In the blink of an eye, she’s quit her job, sold her house, cashed in her pension, and she’s leaving town on a six month road trip.

After placing an ad for a travelling companion, she’s joined in her mid-life crisis by Zeke Powell, the cynical, satirical, most read – and most controversial – blogger for the e-zine, What Women Want. Zeke’s true goal is to expose Manny’s journey as a pitiful and desperate attempt to reclaim her lost youth – and increase his readership at the same time.

Now, armed with a bagful of destinations, a fistful of maps, and an out-spoken imaginary friend named Harvey, Manny’s on a quest to rediscover herself – and taking Zeke along for the ride.

This was certainly quite a ride! Manny, or Auntie Em as Zeke first thinks of her, is ready for a change--and change she does! From her MisFit Toys to winning at "Last Dancer Standing", Manny is finally finding herself. And, she's not the only one.

This book is more than just the story of one woman and her mid-life crisis... it's the story of family and friends as well as learning, loving, and living.

I enjoyed this book more than I have any book in recent history--there's not a single character I didn't like! I felt like I had gotten to know them and they became friends. I want to find out what happens to them now.

Kudos to Ms. Bernadine for a job well done!

About the Author:Victoria Bernadine (a pseudonym) is, as the saying goes, a “woman of a certain age”. After twenty-something years of writer’s block, she began writing again in 2008. She began with fanfiction about a (now-cancelled) TV show called Jericho and particularly about the characters of Heather Lisinski and Edward Beck. From there, she expanded into writing original fic and she hasn’t stopped since.

Victoria enjoys reading all genres and particularly loves writing romantic comedy and post-apocalyptic science fiction. What those two have in common is anybody’s guess.

She lives in Edmonton with her two cats (The Grunt and The Runt). A Life Less Ordinary is the first novel she felt was good enough to be released into the wild.

Victoria can be contacted through Love of Words Publishing Inc. (loveofwords@shaw.ca) or through her brand new blog at http://victoriabernadine.wordpress.com/.

A Life Less Ordinary is available for sale on Amazon in both Kindle and hard copy formats at http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00AMJBOSQ.

SBB LUCID by Natalie Roers

This stop is part of a Virtual Book Tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Natalie will award a $10 Amazon or BN.com gift card to one randomly drawn commenter. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Being hailed by critics as an intelligent new voice in young adult fiction, Roers' debut novel tells the anything but ordinary, coming of age story of a small town, teen aged, misfit named Travis Hunter. Disfigured at birth and ostracized at school, Travis dreams of acceptance and secretly yearns for the affection of a beautiful young woman named Corrine. When a mysterious doctor promises to help Travis through something called lucid dreaming, Travis suddenly finds himself ushered into a secret society called "The Lucid", a collection of social outcasts like himself, who have created their own world inside of dreams. When Travis discovers he is able to bring Corrine into these dreams, he gets more than he ever bargained for and soon finds himself learning the secrets of love and life in a fantastic unconscious world. An instant classic, Lucid is a timeless story of self-acceptance with a fresh paranormal twist.

EXCERPT

 I gave her a funny look and loosened the drawstrings. A dark green stone fell out into my hand. It had little red splotches on it and was hung with three small chains from a silver crescent that looked like the moon. The metal of the crescent looked very old, as if it had been pounded by hand.

 “You made me zink of it when you mentioned your dreams earlier.” Kelly said. “I zought you might appreciate it.”

 “What is it?”

 “It’s a talisman. According to legend, it was originally used by da Lucid as a gateway to da dream world.”

 “That’s really cool,” I said, “What’s it got to do with me?”

 “Talismans are very magical. Dey have da power to make extraordinary transformations. Why don’t you keep it for a while? See how it works?”

 “Oh, come on,” I disagreed. “You don’t really believe that, do you?”

 Doctor Kelly smiled. “I believe very much in powerful transformations.”

  About the Author: Natalie Roers is a veteran writer, voice artist, and on-air personality. A journalist by trade, Lucid is her first work of fiction. She is busy at work on her second novel and hopes to raise money and social awareness for worthy causes with each book she writes. Natalie plans to donate a portion of every sale of this book to her favorite anti-bullying organizations. She lives with her husband Cory, and son Austin, in Columbia, South Carolina.    
Websites
jointhelucid.com
http://natasha-r.com/writer/

 FB https://www.facebook.com/natalie.roers?fref=ts
https://www.facebook.com/jointhelucid?fref=ts
 Blog http://jointhelucid.com/blog/
  Goodreads http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16214486-lucid

DRACULA UNLEASHED by Linda Mercury

This post is part of a Virtual Book Tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. Linda will be awarding a dragon necklace (since Dracula means Dragon) (USA ONLY) to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

After centuries as the Dracula of Legend, disguised as a male, Valerie Tate's current incarnation is the last thing she expected: mother of a precocious half-angel, half-vampire, and wife to two men. But Valerie is more familiar with battlefields than domesticity. . .

Some overwhelmed mothers relax with a glass of wine. Valerie soothes her immortal soul with a refreshing blood and coke. How else can she deal with her toddler Minerva's psychic powers--not to mention her determination to throw knives. Thank goodness for Valerie's two loves, John Jante, guide to Fallen Angels, and Lance Soleil, Angel of the Lost. Without them, the trauma of her dark past and her primal, Dracul urge for violence and power would overtake her. Yet in a world where humans and paranormals uncomfortably co-exist, Valerie's peace will be short-lived.

Tensions have erupted with bombings and the emergence of creatures heralding the apocalypse itself. And Valerie's vampire brother and nemesis, Radu, is at the center of the conflict. Now Valerie finds herself at the forefront of an epic battle between good and evil--and facing a choice no woman in any realm should have to make.

Excerpt:

At three o’clock in the morning, the doorways of the Old Town neighborhood of Portland, Oregon, were as dark as an open mouth. The buildings with their Old West–style false fronts loomed over the narrow street, an urban mountain pass with sheer cliff walls that hid a myriad of hiding places. Every corner held the promise of violence.

Chad Trask, former leader of the area’s largest gang of idle rich kids, stiffened as a trickle of icy sensation moved along his hairline.

The ten young did not walk unobserved. Hungry creatures hid in those shadows.

The blood in his veins pumped hot and fast. His breath sped up. The tiny prickle grew into the unshakeable knowledge that they were being tracked. After the events of last Halloween, he knew more than the average human about being hunted.

His friends were walking into a trap. Just as the smooth sides of the pitcher plant enticed flies into the digestive soup at the bottom, the silence and seeming quietness lured them into deadly carelessness.

About the Author: Linda Mercury left behind her varied careers as a librarian, art model, and professional clown to pursue writing. She’s interested in writing, romance, the Middle East, reading, organizing, cooking, hand-made silk Turkish rugs, and the Nike of Samothrace.

Website and blog
Twitter: LindaMercury1
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