Sugar and Spice and All Those Lies by Evy Journey

Evy Journey, writer, wannabe artist, and flâneuse (feminine of flâneur), wishes she lives in Paris where people have perfected the art of aimless roaming. Armed with a Ph.D., she used to research and help develop mental health programs.

She's a writer because beautiful prose seduces her and existential angst continues to plague her despite such preoccupations having gone out of fashion. She takes occasional refuge by invoking the spirit of Jane Austen to spin tales of love, loss, and finding one’s way—stories into which she weaves mystery or intrigue.

Connect with the Author here: 

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Gina’s grandfather was a French chef whose life was cut short by a robber’s bullet. The only lasting legacy he could leave his family was his passion and talent for cooking.

Growing up poor but with a mother who is a gifted cook. Gina learns cooking a great meal is an act of love. An art that sustains and enhances life.

A world of new challenges, new friends, and new loves opens up for her when she’s chosen to cook for a Michelin-starred restaurant.

But danger lurks where one never expects it.

Can her passion for cooking help Gina survive and thrive in this world of privilege, pleasure and menace?

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Snippet:

Prologue:

I’m alive. I’m dead. I’m in-between. In that limbo where my vital signs hover just above death. I rise above my body and look down on it, lying on a gurney. Hospital staff are rushing me along the brightly-lit hallway to the operating room. One of them holds an oxygen mask on my face. Another, a bag of intravenous fluid connected to my veins by a tube.

I’m not ready to die yet. These good people anxious to rescue me don’t know that my resolve is the only thing that is keeping me alive. No, I’m not ready to die—I’ve only just begun to live. I have yet to prove to myself, to the world, that I have what it takes to prevail.

My family—now on their way to the hospital—doesn’t know yet exactly what happened to me. And except for one detective, neither do the police. I see him now by the foot of the gurney, keeping pace with the nurses. He’s scowling, his lips pressed into a grim line.

A tall, taut, and solitary man, he has deep-set gray eyes clouded by too many images of violent death and a lower lip that hangs perpetually open in disgust or despair. So much darkness he has already seen in his thirty odd years in this world. He needs to piece together the facts that constitute the attempt on my life, events that may have led to it, and various fragments of my past to understand what brought me to this point.

The first time I met him, I fell in love with him. There was something primal about him, some paternal, animalistic instinct to save hurt or fallen victims. Like me, maybe. It gave him power and it made him irresistible to me.

But fate is fickle. It teases. It entices. One day, something quite ordinary happens to you. Yet, you sense that that ordinary something can change your life. Not necessarily for something better, but for something new. Fate is dangling before you the promise of a world that, before then, was totally out of your reach. How can you not seize it?

Now, of course, I see the end of that promise. And it’s not where I want to be.

It’s tragic, don’t you think, that the end of that promise should be right here on a gurney, with me fighting for my life? It certainly is not what I hoped for.

How could it end this way? I embraced life, took chances, but half-dead on this gurney, I wonder: Am I paying with my life? But, like I said. I’m not ready to die yet

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Upheld by The Grace Lane Authors

Five women have joined together under the pen name, Grace Lane, to write about their personal experiences in hopes to inspire and uplift others.  The following character sketches will give you a little insight about each author.

Rebekah: 

Writing about motherhood and her husband’s health struggles, Rebekah lives true to the meaning of her name—to bind. Life’s experiences have shaped her into a wise, steadfast daughter of God who has the beautiful ability to make others laugh through her clever wit.

Jeni: 

Jeni’s stories revolve around the loving care of her son with special needs. Knowing that he will not live out his childhood, she’s armed with strength and determination to give him the best life possible. The bright hope Jeni finds through the Savior will encourage the lowest of hearts.

Elizabeth:

Elizabeth is passionate about sharing the Light of Christ. You’ll feel this in reading about the challenges she faces with her spouse’s addiction and divorce. Through sophistication, uplifting words, and a touch of spunk, she’s a modern-day disciple “gathering in the fold” and feeding His sheep.

Faith:

A woman of intuition, Faith has a distinctive gift for understanding people. Her personal goal in life is to help women recognize their potential in whatever role they fill. She writes about her battle in overcoming abuse as a child and her fight with low self-esteem.

Dawn:

A single mom for ten years, Dawn not only believes the motto “Light trumps darkness”, but she lives it every day. Her short stories are about finding God after a heart-crushing divorce. Dawn touches many lives through her unwavering testimony and simple ways.

Connect with the Authors here: 

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~ Pinterest ~ Book Page ~

Upheld: Ordinary women discovering an Extraordinary God

Life happens. Ordinary and extraordinary events fill the days and nights, but regardless of the circumstance, God is there. We’re five friends who, over the course of a decade, learned to recognize the heavenly touches in our lives. We share our stories in a series of short vignettes, as glimpses of the profound and practical ways God lifts us.

First as a newlywed and then as a young mother, Rebekah awakens to the daily light that comes from realizing how often and simply the Lord touches her life. Jeni nurtures a child with special needs and learns that strength and support are only a prayer away. Elizabeth forges a new path towards renewal and regeneration after she exits the roller coaster ride of her spouse’s addiction. Faith discovers the beauty of reminders from a loving Heavenly Father that she has worth and the precious gift of agency. Dawn opens her mind to the understanding that no matter what happens peace can abound and everything will work out.

In Upheld: Ordinary women discovering an Extraordinary God we invite you to walk with us, explore the nooks and crannies of life, and have joy in the knowledge that you are not forgotten. As you read, we hope you will also discover God upholding you in your own life.

And now for the Cover

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Isn't it lovely!!!

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The Shift by Genevieve Scholl

Nothing about me is normal… 
…but what exactly is ‘normal’? Just because I have two dads and no mom, my name is Elliot Marcus Smith even though I’m a girl, and I was born from a test tube… 
Does that mean I’m ‘abnormal’? 
I say no. 
But the sudden abilities that have been appearing since I turned eighteen sure do. Wounds are healing quickly, my vision has changed, as has my strength, and my sensitivities to other people’s emotions have become severely heightened. Add all that to the fact that I have been forgetting moments of my day as if they never happened, and it’s obvious that something strange is happening to me. 
But what? What am I becoming? 

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Also available on iBooks, Baker & Taylor, Scribd, and more!

I'm just a small town girl with a heart for the country life. I'm very shy and pretty much a loner, but my writing helps me be more outgoing and talk to various people that I would otherwise have a hard time approaching. I don't write for the money or the fame, but rather to tell a story that needs to be told; whether that is my story or a character's story. As a lot of people know, from my various interviews, I started writing to express my anger and hurt over the bullying that I experienced in High School, but eventually I just realized that I loved to tell stories. I was born in Texas, grew up and still live in Upstate New York, and want to retire in Ireland.

Photo Credit: Jill Cadena David 

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Student Bodies by Susan Israel

Student Bodies

by Susan Israel

on Tour June 1-30, 2016

Synopsis:

Delilah Price is still dealing with the consequences of her recent abduction, but she needs to keep her life on track. In order to survive as an artist in New York City, she has started working as a substitute teacher, which leaves her navigating between two worlds that are foreign to her – students and educators.
Detective Patrick Quick has taken up a big place in Delilah's life. That is, when he isn't consumed by a case. And right now the case that is taking Quick away from Delilah involves a serial rapist and is striking very close to home.
On her way to her first day of work, Delilah witnesses a young girl falling in front of a subway train – or was she pushed? The victim turns out to have been a student at the middle school where Delilah has been assigned to teach and the teacher she is subbing for is a missing person herself. As Delilah gets to know her students and befriends a teacher on staff, she realizes that many have been hiding dark secrets that suggest abuse and worse. And when yet another girl who has hinted strongly that she was abused is a no show to class, Delilah stops counting on police help and follows leads on her own. Putting a dangerous predator on her trail.
The dramatic follow-up to Susan Israel's debut suspense novel, Over My Live Body, Student Bodies is a novel rippling with tension and twists.

Read an excerpt:

There never seems to be a train lighting up the tunnel when you need one in a hurry, but today one is there and the doors close just as the red message at the turnstile commands me to swipe my MetroCard through again. And again. Damn! I drop my MetroCard and get shoved by someone behind me. I turn around to give whoever it is a dirty look and see a dark-haired young girl wearing a pleated white dress. Late for her confirmation or something like that, I’m thinking. How long is that dress going to stay pristine down here? She looks dazed. I pick up my MetroCard and get through the turnstile on the next swipe, then step out of her way. She swipes hers, too, her hand shaking.
I head for the public phone to my right to call the school I’m supposed to be at to say I’m running a little late. Nobody answers. I’ll apologize profusely when I get there. When I turn back toward the platform, the girl is on her knees, her head bowed. She must really be late if it’s come to this. I’ve never seen anyone kneeling on a subway platform before. She closes her eyes. Commuters make a part around her. A street person starts singing “The Greatest Love Of All” in front of the newsstand, palm extended, asking for handouts. Commuters make a part around him too. They’re just obstacles, like the red, white and blue poles along the length of the platform. I turn back to look at the girl. Behind me I get a whiff of cheap cologne. The same cologne I smelled in Sachi’s bedroom. I whirl around. Anyone here could be wearing that cologne. And a lot of it too. I’m at a disadvantage. I don’t know who I’m looking for. Who here would be Sachi’s type? Do I know Sachi’s type?
I go over to the newsstand to get a bag of M & Ms, sniffling so much from the cologne that the news-vendor gestures to a pile of pocket tissues. “You got a cold? You want these too, miss?” I shake my head. My feet sense the vibration of the approaching train first and I start dropping change in my hurry to pay the vendor before I miss this train too. A scream punctuates the approach of the train. Trains don’t make noise like this. I whirl around and see a man with his hands extended in front of him. I can’t tell if he’s been grabbing at something or pushing something. The girl in the white dress literally flies in front of the train as it hisses to a stop. I cover my eyes for a split second and then force myself to look around me. A crowd forms around where the girl was kneeling just moments ago. More people scream. A couple of people lean over the platform and gag. I turn away again. I don’t want to believe what I think just happened actually happened.
“She jumped.”
“She was trying to get away from that person who grabbed her elbow.”
“It looked to me like he was trying to keep her from jumping.”
“It looked to me like he pushed her toward it.”
“Well, she’s gone anyway.”
“Call nine-one-one, someone, hurry!”
All of these accounts turn out to be soliloquies because nobody’s here to question these people, not yet. I take several deep breaths. I’ve lost the urge to sneeze. Whoever was wearing that cologne is gone. I take a good look at the faces on the platform. Quite a few of them have a distinct greenish tinge, blending well with the mosaics of beavers on the subway wall. I imagine mine must look that way too. I hear the squawk of police radios on the stairway. Suddenly blue uniforms swarm the platform and start buzzing orders. “Okay, everybody, stay back, give the EMS guys a chance to get through.”
“She’s beyond EMS,” one onlooker says.
“You a doctor, sir?”
“Uh, no…”
“Well then, stand back with everyone else and let someone qualified make that determination.”
A few people back up toward the turnstiles. Another officer stops them. “No one’s going nowhere just yet. We got a report this girl was pushed.”
“She wasn’t pushed. Looked to me like she was trying to get away from somebody and lost her footing.”
“That ain’t all she lost.”
“People, I’m going to have to ask you to stay over there by the newsstand out of our way till somebody asks you some questions about what happened here.”
A man standing next to me clears his throat. “I didn’t see anything, can I go?”
“No one’s going nowhere,” the officer snaps.
“Candy, gum, magazines,” the newsstand vendor chants in a heavily accented voice. “Get something to pass the time.”
“We want to talk to you too,” the officer says to the vendor.
I can’t see beyond the wall of blue lined up along the platform. I realize I still have the bag of M & Ms clutched in my hand. I’ve lost my craving for them and it’s so hot on the platform that I’m sure they’ll have melted before I leave. I look around for a trash can to throw them in and see more scuffed shoes descending the stairs. Then I see someone that makes my hand squish the life out of that bag of M & Ms altogether.
“Delilah,” Quick says as he starts toward me. “Did you see anything?” I have a distinct feeling just from the tone of his voice that he would rather I didn’t see anything.
It may be more a question of what I smelled. I shake my head. “I’m not sure. I don’t know if what I noticed would be very helpful.”
“Try me,” he says. Under other circumstances there is nothing I’d rather do. “Wait here. I’ll want to talk to you at the station.”
“I have to wait here?”
He nods. “Afraid so.” He mumbles a few asides to a uniformed cop to his right and then turns back to me. “I can’t say how long we’ll be. We’ve got to talk to a lot of witnesses.” He looks around. “As you can see. We want to talk to anyone who’s handicapped and elderly first, so they can go. We don’t want anyone having heat stroke down here.”
Another detective saunters up to him. “Girl did an Anna Karenina, from what I understand.”
Where did he come up with that? I wonder if an all points bulletin is going to be posted for someone named Vronsky. The uniforms start beckoning potential witnesses away from the platform, toward the benches against the wall and through the turnstiles. A detective sidles up to the newsstand behind me. A baby begins to wail loudly. “I got to nurse,” his mother protests, pulling at one of the policeman’s sleeve with her free hand.
He whirls around. “Hey, don’t do that.”
“I got to nurse. My baby hungry.”
“Sit over there,” he points to the row of benches behind me, next to the newsstand.
I look over at the pay phone, thinking I better call the school to say I’m not going to be able to make it, period, that they’re going to need a substitute for this substitute, and probably call Heidi Obermeyer, too, to tell her to get another model, but the line is longer than the line to cash checks in banks the first of the month. I hate doing a no-show but expect everybody will understand. At least I hope they will. The girl on the tracks is never going to show up for anything again. I’m beginning to smell vomit. I don’t know how long it takes for a dead body to start to smell and I don’t want to find out. I look over at Quick who’s deep in conversation with yet another witness. How can he stand this, dealing with death all the time? I start to walk farther down the platform, as far away from the mayhem as I can, until I can’t go any further.
“Miss, where you going?” someone calls out. I ignore him.
Then, “Delilah!”
I reel around. Quick waves me back and points to the congregation of witnesses clustered around the newsstand. “I need air,” I whisper to him, clutching my stomach. “I feel like I’m going to be sick.”
“Okay, hold on, I’ll get someone to escort you.” I wish I could hold on to him, witnesses be damned. “I want to talk to you at the house, not here. I’ll be there as soon as I’m finished up here.” He keeps watch on me as he takes a uniformed officer aside and then says something to him I can’t hear and gestures for me to go with him. I’d gladly follow someone into a cell as long as it meant getting away from this. But I’d rather it be Quick.

Author Bio:

Susan Israel lives in Connecticut with her beloved dog, but New York City lives in her heart and mind. Her first novel, OVER MY LIVE BODY, was published by The Story Plant in 2014. A graduate of Yale College, her fiction has been published in Other Voices, Hawaii Review and Vignette, and she has written for magazines, websites and newspapers, including Glamour, Girls Life, Ladies Home Journal and The Washington Post. She’s currently at work on the third book in the Delilah Price series.

Catch Up:

 

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Tour Participants:

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This is a rafflecopter giveaway hosted by Partners In Crime Virtual Book Tours for Susan Israel and The Story Plant. There will be 3 US winners. There will be THREE (3) winners for this tour. Each winner will receive one copy of Student Bodies by Susan Israel. US Residents may have their choice of eBook or Physical and worldwide winners will receive an eBook copy. The giveaway begins on June 1st and runs through June 30th, 2016.

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A Storm Within

A STORM WITHIN (An Eternal Bonds Series Novel #1)

There's something dark lurking in the dreams of the students at Calvary High. AUBRIE MARSHALL thought his last year of High School would be filled with memories to last him a lifetime.

Instead, he’s learning his friends are his only salvation, the decisions he has to make could destroy

everything he’s ever known, and the only solution lies within him. MAKAYLA QUINN just wanted to get through her senior year without ‘guy drama’ and to mend things with Aubrie, her best friend.

Believing he was her soul mate she’s now put to the test by another love interest fighting for her attention.

With the two boys confusing her every step of the way… Can she figure things out or will she lose them both? Will they be able to weather the storms or will they lose the battle

with the darkness lurking from within?

Top Customer Reviews

***** By Summer Girl on May 29, 2016

For her debut novel, C. Tuttle gave us an interesting take on the typical teenage angst, and I found it QUITE enjoyable! Aubrie, Paige, and Makayla have been friends since kindergarten, and now, on the cusp of graduating high school, find themselves faced with not only the uncertainty of the future, the ever changing emotional upheavals of their relationships with one another, but also with the unpredictable forces of Nature.Part coming of age story, part supernatural story, part new adult, A Storm Within is a fun and unique read and I can't wait to read the next one!

***** By Rebecca Moree on June 3, 2016

When I first heard about A Storm Within I was pretty well hooked. The premise for this book is so unique and fun! I'm not normally big on teen books, not sure why...I guess it's just not my thing. However, I knew I was going to be reading this one! While the characters constantly switching attitudes and repeated cheating drove me mad...it was accurate. It was the life of a teen. It was real.

These characters are developed so beautifully that after only a few chapters I felt like I knew them. I may not exactly like them...I mean come on who really likes a cheater? but I knew who they were, I knew what they wanted, I even knew what their fears were. Put simply: they are good characters. I ADORE a book that can drag me in so deep that I have such strong feelings and reactions to the characters! Trust me when I say that C. Tuttle pulled that off and more. I spent the majority of this book screaming at my kindle trying to figure out what in the world these characters were thinking! The relationship between Brie and Kayla is breath-taking....and annoying as crap! If you two love each other so much...well stop being douches to one another dang it!! It's not that hard I promise! (See what I mean about getting emotional over the characters! I felt like I was back in high school standing between two of my friends that were constantly making bad choices when it came to their relationship.) Okay..moving on from my love-hate relationship with the characters. All you need to know is that they are extremely well developed, have wonderfully individual voices that let you know who each one is and what their personalities are...basically these characters are REAL! They come across as someone you may have gone to school with and just didn't know.

About the Author:

C. Tuttle is a resident of Upstate NY where she enjoys the beautiful scenery and the wonderful people.

Moving here almost ten years ago, she has explored many of what NYS has to offer, from the amazing mountain views of the Adirondacks to the breathtaking skyline views of the city.

She draws inspiration from her surroundings and all the people she meets in transit. She works for an ambulance agency that covers portions of Central New York and beyond.

She’s been an EMT for close to ten years and enjoys the everyday grind of helping people and knowing she can help make a difference in people’s lives.

Links to Social Media:

Facebook : www.facebook.com/ctuttleauthor  Twitter : @ctuttleauthor  Instagram : ctut_author  Goodreads : http://bit.ly/1Q2aLrY C.  Tutle's Page on The Owl Branch Book Promotions: http://www.theowlbranch2015.net/#!blank-8/xwrec

Favorite Color & Hobby: 

My favorite color is Royal Blue. I have many hobbies! I love to hike, be out in nature, read books (a given), photography (I have my own company – MinionImages), color in adult coloring books…. And of course writing! Bringing characters alive, whether its in a short story or a book, I love to get to know the characters that come to me and learn their story. I love comics (Batman is my favorite) and usually Netflix – NCIS, Arrow, Gotham, and Law & Order: SVU – on rainy days.

The Owl Branch Proudly Represents Author C. Tuttle

Please come come take a look at her page and other authors at

www.theowlbranch2015.net or email us at theowlbranch2015@gmail.com

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All of Me by Jonali Karmakar

ALL OF ME - Book Blurb:

All of Me is a collection of thirteen little stories that have been gleaned from real life as well as imagination. Exploring a range of genres, these throb with everything primal to human nature: fear, angst, joy, love, and longing. Some stories are designed to elicit smiles, chuckles, and maybe even a belly laugh or two whereas some are meant as a reality check. Universal in nature, each story provides a glimpse of what women empowerment or a lack thereof can mean in a person’s life.
From a small hamlet in India to the roads of Australia; from a mother’s betrayal to a daughter’s confession; from an extra marital affair to a same sex relationship learn for yourself the what, how and whys.

Originally written for anthologies and ezines, these stories have been revisited and updated for this new collection.  

About the Author:

Jonali Karmakar is a fiction writer with a Masters in English. Writing is not just her passion but her way of dealing with life. She loves being able to escape into the worlds she creates. Everything that she writes becomes a part of her and she wants her readers to know the woman behind those words. In addition to being an educator, she works as a content editor for a local news portal. She has been providing editing, proofreading and translation services for the past few years. 

Jonali’s work has been published in several journals, anthologies and poetry collections both national and international. An avid reader, she loves flipping pages of anything and everything on the table and reviewing the same on her blog Eclectic Moods. She feels that reading and writing are the flip sides of the same coin. Writing is her way of communicating with the world. When she’s not writing or teaching she loves to experiment with her paintings.

She has quite a few accolades to her name.

Contact the Author:

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5.0 out of 5 starsGripping and Riveting Small Stories.

By Crystal Miles Gauthier on May 31, 2016

This book was fabulous. Full of small stories that were sometimes sad, surprising, happy and explored the human condition. These were imaginative and gripping to read. At first I did not think I would like it because I am not partial to multiple stories in one book. But I have to say this book really threw me for a loop in how much it effected my heart, mind and soul. I appreciate this author's work immensely. The characters were written so well as to be true people and true situations. A must read.

The Owl Branch Book Promotions Proudly Represents 

Author Migraine Central Blog and it's affiliates. 

www.theowlbranch2015.net - theowlbranch2015@gmail.com