April Fears!! – Fools Gold Rush Blog Tour

April 1st, 2011

Good Morning Lovlies!!!

Today I have a special treat for you. The wonderfully talented, mildly psychotic,  Scott Nicholson is hosting a contest and has chosen KO as one of his golden children to front it.  Yay! *happy dance* So… what is he giving exactly? Well… let’s find out.

**Cue drum roll**

Scott has graciously decided to give away 1 $10 gift certificate! How do you win this little ditty? Well, you can get 1 point for tweeting this post, 1 point for Facebooking, and 1 point for commenting below. Scott will then draw a winner on April 8. Now.. of course that is not all, that’s not exactly how Scott rolls, so…if Liquid Fear (available for 99 cents at Amazon, BN.com, and Smashwords) hits the Top 100, a $100 winner will also be selected from participating blogs. To up your chances, because lets face it, $10 dollars can buy you something snazzy at the Kindle Store, and $100 dollars might actually make you faint… Hop all the blogs and increase your odds!

Ok, now onto the good stuff.. BOOK REVIEW!

Today I’m going to do things a little differently simply because I’m at a total loss. Yes, I did read “Liquid Fear” and yes… I thought it was brilliant, but there is no way in hell I’m going to be able to write a synopsis for this book and have it make any sense, so instead…I’m going to take the easy route, post Scott’s little rant about it, and then add my two cents.

What’s Your Liquid Fear? (Martin Kleingarten)

By Scott Nicholson

A man ought to be able to control his monkeys.

Martin Kleingarten accepts that as a core moral principle. But Martin is a man whose principles can be bought and sold. As a hired goon, he’s only too happy to help Dr. Sebastian Briggs and his mysterious backers carry out their research, even if it means a few corpses here and there.

But Martin also sees an opportunity to further his own career. A former security guard turned small-time thug, he has a chance for a final payoff and retirement if he can play his cards right. And as Martin sees the drug’s effect on the research subjects, he’s entertained but also appalled.

When fear becomes a weapon, then force is useless, and bullets carry no power. In the remote research facility, with crazed test subjects running wild, Kleingarten must decide which side he’s on.

It’s a decision made even tougher when all sides are wrong.

Liquid Fear. Just a drop will do.

**

It is no secret that I have concerns for the mental stability of Mr. Nicholson, but today… my fears have taken a drastically different turn. While under normal circumstances I would be concerned by the number of bodies found in barns, or cult leaders that make David Koresh look like a saint, today I find myself more concerned that Scott may actually be plotting world domination from his hideout in the mountains. I was NOT expecting what I got with “Liquid Fear.” I can usually distance myself from books like these because the chances of something like it  happening in “real life” are few and far between, but with this little piece of literary mastery, the BEAUTY and FEAR come from the fact that it actually COULD happen.

I do have 1 very important suggestion when reading “Liquid Fear” (which I usually wouldn’t give, but the nature in which I read the novel forces me to point it out.) Take your time.  I read this book in 2 days… a full out sprint (if you will) in order to have my opinions ready for y’all today.  Do Not Do That!  The story line in this novel is a complicated one AND is jamb packed with characters.  If you want to keep it all straight (and not have to keep flipping back and forth like I did) then take your time and properly soak it in one page at a time.

Overall, (with the exception of the occasional WTH!?) I found “Liquid Fear” packs a punch that leaves a mark.  As a matter of fact, this may just be my favorite Nicholson novel to date (and that is saying a lot considering I never thought I’d get past “The Red Church.“)  If you love a good psychological thriller, don’t delay in picking this one up.  I promise you, you will not be disappointed.

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Everyone has bad days, it’s just that most don’t include dead hookers in motel bathrooms.

Click image for complete details.

(5/5)

Scott Nicholson is author of 20 books, including Disintegration, The Skull Ring, Speed Dating with the Dead, and The Red Church. He’s also written the children’s books If I Were Your Monster and Duncan the Punkin. Visit him at Haunted Computer.

 

 

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Ashes To Ashes

February 19th, 2010

Everyone loves a good Insane Asylum agreed? Take the criminally insane, add a dash of conspiracy and you are bound to have a fantastic time.

I absolutely, without fail, LOVED this book.  I loved it so much that I can’t even talk about it the way I should because if I do I will spoil it for you.

“Shutter Island” was one of the most masterfully plotted books I have read in years… I was astounded by the depth and creativity that “Dennis Lehane” was able to shove into a little over 330 pages, and even more… I was flipping pages faster than my eyes could keep up, only to have to turn back because I realized I had skipped a few words at the bottom of a page.

Teddy is a US Federal Marshal sent to Shutter Island to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Rachel Solando.  While Teddy and his partner Chuck are baffled as to the disappearance of this woman, who can  somehow magically evaporate through walls, they stumble upon a more intriguing case.  Is this hospital really what they say it is? Why does everyone answer questions with the exact same phrasing…and why in the world is a sewage treatment plant surrounded by an electric fence?  While Teddy and Chuck race for answers they find themselves in the deepest water imaginable…are they crazy too or is it just in their heads?

I wish that my bumbling words could express to you how much you should read this book.  I wish that I could give away the plot twist that had me picking up the phone to call my husband and say “No Freaking Way!!! Are you F’ing Kidding Me????” But again… that would just be cruel.

There were uncomfortable moments in the water with creepy crawlers, piles of strategically placed rocks, battered patients whispering sweet nothings, a sad mommy, black shoe polish, water guns, and 1 number solving shrink that has all the answers.

Pick this book up, find a quiet place, and start reading… I assure you that even if you think the first couple of chapters are slow you will be thanking me by chapter 5.

Happy Reading my fellow Kindle-ites and remember: Don’t take pills from strangers!

For a Complete Book Description Click Image

(5/5)

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Close Your Eyes & Count to 10

February 10th, 2010

The Skull Ring - Scott NicholsonEvery once and a while my “little” obsession with the written word has perks. While devouring mythical tales or getting into the mind of the mentally disturbed is more often than not a joy of its own…there are still those bright shining moments in time when I get to do the reading before everyone else, or even better…I get to do it for free.

“Scott Nicholson” emailed me last week and asked me if I would like to check out his upcoming novel “The Skull Ring” and I’m not going to lie…while I was excited to have the opportunity read it, my hopes for the novel were…how would you say it… drastically less pronounced?

I had never; in the hundreds of books I’ve read, or the hours I’ve spent staring at shelves, heard of this author, so when I sat down this weekend…Kindle in hand and an Olympic pool sized cup of coffee perched on the table in front of me, I smiled; when I realized that NOT knowing this author was a mistake.

“The Skull Ring” was a novel about acceptance…accepting that you can’t control everything…accepting that yes maybe you’re crazy…and accepting that sometimes the people you trust to “fix” you are more cracked up than you are.

Julia Stone is a basket case…literally…she spends every waking moment trying not to be pulled into the throws of a full out panic attack, and annoys local police on a daily basis with calls about monsters under her bed and mysteriously unlocked doors. After years of therapy and a not so gentle push from the man that claims to love her; Julia packs her stuff and moves to the mountains. All is well with fresh mountain air right? Wrong. Just when Julia thinks she’s starting to heal from her newly acquired personality disorder her world is upturned into a shambled mess of disappearing pets and itty bitty baby bones. Is Julia really crazy or is she stuck in the real life version of Deliverance?

“Nicholson’s” writing was complex, weaving several plot lines into 1 major story and… pulling it off (which I have to admit…some authors just lack the ability to do) His knack for writing “crazy” was so detailed it had me wondering if he himself had schizophrenic tendencies, and the cliffhanger scenes, that we all dwell on in a novel of this genre, were carefully and masterfully crafted leaving the reader guessing and on edge.

There were creepy crawl spaces, batty old neighbors who define the word nosey, self matriculating wooden blocks, a clock with a mind of its own, a sketchy handyman, and 1 spectacular chase through the woods.

My final say?

Spend so time with the creeps….get it, live it, love it…pass it on.

Happy reading my fellow Crazies and remember: Check the boots…it’s always about the boots!

For A Complete Book Description Click Image

(This Novel is slated to be released March 1, 2010)

(4/5)

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If At 1st You Dont Succeed

February 3rd, 2010

For those of you who have been keeping track, you know its been a while since I’ve read a novel like this, (The last being a Temperance Brennan Novel) after reading the genre for 4 straight months, book after book, my mind/sanity thought it was necessary to take a break from serial killers and their maniacal crime scenes, so I did… , and in turn wrapped myself in the more mellow reads of the paranormal. (Ok…not all of them were tame…but trust me when I say they are a damn site less descriptive)

It’s hard to pinpoint, in my cynical mind, exactly what I expected to find when first deciding to read “The 7th Victim”, an ok novel with an interesting plot maybe? or maybe a decent copy cat of the greats I have already read? Who knows…but what I didn’t expect to find actually shocked me more than I could have anticipated.

#1 I didn’t expect to find a fantastic new author.
#2 I didn’t expect to find that I missed the chase so much.

Now, while most of y’all are cringing at the fact that I just confessed to missing the company of fictional serial killers, let me assure you that it’s nothing more than my love for the game of “Clue”

I love a good mystery, the who-did-it-where-did-it-happen-who’s-going-to-be-next kind, and while most books will have snippets of the unknown, psychological thrillers ARE the unknown.

“Karen Vail” works for the FBI. As a profiler she surrounds herself with the seedy underground of ax murders and psychopaths on a daily basis.

After months of seemingly dormant action her world suddenly turns into a whirlpool of chaos, when a previously un-captured crazy known to the media as “Dead Eyes” returns to the scene with several more grizzly murders.

While trying in vain to capture a killer who decides to personally taunt her through break-ins and creepy self-destructive emails, Vail’s personal life takes a hit as well. Her ex…an abusive waste of space… throws her under the bus and charges her with assault.

Struggling to keep herself, her son, and her career alive she spends every waking minute building her own walls of protection while trying to break down everyone else’s.

“Alan Jacobson’s” writing was masterful, artfully inserting twists and turns that not even and avid thriller reader, like myself, could see coming. The plot flowed freely and his attention to detail was undeniable, and he is now, without question, a new found force to be reckoned with in my world of “who did it?”

There were fake badges, egotistical has-been agents, missing limbs, peep holes, moments of self realization, and several OMG! moments ending in one hell of an underground chase.

If you are like me, don’t mind gruesome descriptives in your quest to peg the killer, this one is worth every cent, but if you like the softer side of things and prefer a safer less bloody world, steer clear cause this one is covered in it.

Happy reading my fellow Agents, and remember: Even the biggest of us still need barf bags sometimes.

(4/5)

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