Love was never meant to bloom in blood-soaked waters.
Treson Harbor is a place plagued by terrifyingly beautiful monsters from the deep and they’re hungry.
When no man is safe on the water, pirates and fishermen alike, people look to hunters.
Vidar “Bone Heart” Woelfson is the Captain of the Burning Rose, a ship known for its blood red sails and the ruthless nature of its crew. He has hunted more sirens than any other ship on the sea and unlike most, Vidar hardly does it for the money. He is haunted by events from his childhood and lives to see every daughter of the sea slaughtered.
Dahlia knows the ship with red sails well, but she knows its captain even better. The man who took everything from her as a child still hunts her waters and she will end him if it’s the last thing she does.
Scarred and vengeful, Vidar and Dahlia will soon cross paths again after eighteen years and things certainly will not be peaceful. But even greater horrors might force the two together in an unwilling partnership.
Their rivalry runs deep… their love will run deeper… but not without bloodshed.
***This book contains violence, graphic sex, and language. Please see inside or on my website for a more detailed list of triggers***
I purchased a digital copy of WickedTides, by Courtney Leigh in a KindofBook deal. I’m offering an honest review. All opinions stated here are my own.
Wicked Tides is described as a dark fantasy romance, which intrigued me. Following the enemies/lovers romance trope, which I’ve found difficult to buy into in the past. But Miss Leigh does a nice job of making me believe that a Siren and a man who lives to hunt her kind could develop an affection for one another through their hate. Nicely done.
The secret is to not let the hero or the heroine realize themselves their changing feelings, and make them deny them once they do. By giving them a common cause, they find the opportunity to learn their previous assumptions about one another may not be completely true.
Captain Vido Weolfson, known also as Bone Heart, due to his hard-hearted cruelty, makes his living hunting Sirens – vile and evil creatures who lure men to their deaths and eat their flesh, often while they still live. But, hunting is more than just a job to Vido. It was a quest for revenge on the creatures who captured and murdered his father and his crew when he was just a boy. Only Vido and an old hunter named Gus came away alive, but not before he had made the sirens pay for what they’d done.
Dahlia is the lone survivor of that massacre, and the young siren who took pity on the young Vido and helped him to escape, thinking he would flee. Instead, she was left alone, cast out by her kind as being responsible for the death of her clan. She’s always known she’d see the boy who destroyed her life, but when their paths cross once more, they make a temporary alliance for a common cause. Although neither will admit it, they each discover that their enemy is more than just a cold-blooded killer
Finding romance amidst danger and suspense. I give Wicked Tides five quills.
About Kaye Lynne Booth
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is a passion. Kaye Lynne is an author with published short fiction and poetry, both online and in print, including her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction; and her paranormal mystery novella, Hidden Secrets; Books 1 & 2 of her Women in the West adventure series, Delilah and Sarah, and Book 1 in her Time-Travel Adventure series, The Rock Star & The Outlaw, as well as her poetry collection, Small Wonders.
Kaye holds a dual M.F.A. degree in Creative Writing with emphasis in genre fiction and screenwriting, and an M.A. in publishing. Kaye Lynne is the founder of WordCrafter Quality Writing & Author Services and WordCrafter Press, where she edits and publishes two short fiction anthologies and one poetry anthology every year amidst her many writing projects. She also maintains an authors’ blog and website, Writing to be Read, where she publishes content of interest in the literary world.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARC digital copies, (she also accepts print copies). Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review on the Book Review tab above.
Prepare to be captivated by “Terror in the Shadows,” a gripping paranormal, mystery, suspense novel that plunges into a world of hidden secrets and uncertain destinies. Kelsey, a tenacious young reporter known for chasing stories, suddenly vanishes, paralleling the puzzling disappearance of her mother three months ago. As time ticks away, the race to find Kelsey becomes a desperate pursuit for Detective Silverton.
Haunted by the mysterious photo of Kelsey, Lucy, a mysterious man with an intriguing connection to the supernatural, feels an unwavering urge to aid in the search. With his enigmatic powers, he reveals the missing pieces as they rush into the shadows to unearth long-hidden truths.
In a realm where secrets and lies intertwine, ancient powers stir from their slumber, ready to shape the fate of all involved. Within this realm, where the boundaries between light and dark blur, Kelsey’s fate hangs in the balance.
As Detective Silverton uncovers the truth behind Kelsey and her mother’s disappearance, he walks a treacherous tightrope between saving the young woman and losing everyone he loves. The stakes have never been higher as the clock relentlessly counts down.
With each page turned, “Terror in the Shadows” will immerse you in a world where gripping suspense and unexpected twists reign supreme. As the story unfolds, you’ll be held enthralled from the very first page to the heart-stopping climax. Will the truth set Kelsey free, or will she become another headline shadowed by darkness?
Prepare yourself for an exhilarating journey that will keep you on the edge of your seat, yearning for answers until the last word. “Terror in the Shadows” will leave you craving more, long after you’ve turned the last page.”
My Review
I requested a copy of this book from the author, Jupiter Rose, in exchange for an honest review, because the cover caught my eye. (Yes, I often consciously choose books by their covers.) The flaming pentagram with the figure of a man in it intrigued me and the title, Terror in the Shadows, promised a tale of dark fiction or horror to keep one awake at night. While this story has a lot of potential to be an excellent dark fantasy thriller, it failed to deliver on its promise.
It has an excellent premise, with witches and witch hunters, and even an appearance from the Dark Lord, himself, going by the name of Lucy. The mysterious disappearance of Kelsey’s mother starts things off, but we only get to learn about it through Kelsey’s thoughts before Kelsey herself disappears and it’s up to her two best friends Frank and Jennifer to find her before it’s too late. There are mysterious men stalking her, and a mysterious man who appears out of nowhere to help find her who has more information than he should, all building up to a climatic confrontation between the hunters and the hunted. I loved the tale enough to finish the book despite the problems that I found with it which included:
Massive head hopping. This story changes P.O.V. so often it’s difficult to know whose head your in – sometimes as often as every other paragraph.
Numerous typos, sometimes changing gender identifiers within a single sentence.
The characters were likeable enough, but they lacked depth, which could have easily been remedied by staying in P.O.V. so we could get more of their inner feelings and resonate with the reasons for their actions. There are too many extraordinary events that are reacted to by the characters as if they were every day occurrences, and no understanding as to why that would be.
Needed to be more realistic, and plot holes that need patched. The character of Frank, in particular, was hard to figure out. He is portrayed as a policeman, but his behavior is very un-cop-like. They all have massive time off of work to delve into mysteries, and after her abduction, they bring Kelsey home and report nothing to the police or the media, after her photo has been plastered all over to the public. Then her boss calls to demand her to come back to work before he has any way to know she’s no longer missing. These moments make the reader pause from the story to say, “What? When did that happen?” And there a many of them.
Too much telling and not enough showing. Told in past tense, it was too easy to fill us in later and just tell us something happened while we were out.
I never like to give less than positive reviews, but since I requested the book, I felt obligated to give an honest review as promised. The storyline was good enough to keep me reading despite the problems with craft and grammar. What makes it sad is that all of them could have been corrected by running it by a decent editor and giving it a good proofread. While I am a D.I.Y. author and publisher, I believe in putting out the best book possible, and I know how important it is to have a second, or even a third set of eyes go over the books that I publish. A book like this one just drives that message home.
A good storyline and characters, but hard to get through due to typos and problems with craft. I give Terror in the Shadows three quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw Kickstarter campaign ending soon
There are just a few days left for you to join in on our campaign! The more we raise, the more rewards we can offer. With the campaign ending soon, it’s almost the last chance to show support for author and project. The deadline is 8/31/23, so don’t miss out on the opportunity to get an early digital copy of the book, a signed print copy, an interview with the author, posters and so much more, available exclusively through the campaign.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw won’t release through distributors until September 18, so it is only available through my Kickstarter at this time. So click on the Kickstarter to learn more about this rocking time-travel adventure.
The Rock Star and The Outlaw is a story from my heart, inspired by the music of The Pretty Reckless, which is my favorite band. It’s a time-travel adventure. Amaryllis Sanchez is a rock Star in 2025. LeRoy McAllister is an outlaw from 1887. They’re both running from the law and other outlaws in their respective times and when they meet, it’s a non-stop adventure through time.
Check out the book trailer video on the Kickstarter page to learn more.
The Rock Star & The Outlaw Book Trailer
More About the Book
A time-traveler oversteps his boundaries in 1887. Things get out of hand quickly, and he is hanged, setting in motion a series of events from which there’s no turning back.
LeRoy McAllister is a reluctant outlaw running from a posse with nowhere to go except to the future.
In 2025, Amaryllis Sanchez is a thrill-seeking rock star on the fast track, who killed her dealing boyfriend to save herself. Now, she’s running from the law and his drug stealing flunkies, and nowhere is safe.
LeRoy falls hard for the rock star, thinking he can save her by taking her back with him. But when they arrive in 1887, things turn crazy fast, and soon they’re running from both the outlaws and the posse, in peril once more.
They can’t go back to the future, so it looks like they’re stuck in the past. But either when, they must face forces that would either lock them up or see them dead.
About the Author
For Kaye Lynne Booth, writing is her passion. It is a very strange time indeed when Kaye Lynne does not have at least three WIPs, in addition to her other writings, teaching and other life activities. Kaye Lynne lives, works and plays in the beautiful mountains of Colorado.
Visit her author’s blog and website, “Writing to be Read” to learn more about Kaye Lynne Booth and her writing. https://kayelynnebooth.wordpress.com/
Release through distributors & book blog tour
If you miss the Kickstarter, The Rock Star & The Outlaw will release through distributors on September 19, 2023, and to celebrate, well be running a WordCrafter Book Blog Tour September 18-22.
Coming Soon: Midnight Roost
The 2023 WordCrafter Anthology, Midnight Roost will be scheduled for release October 17, 2023. This anthology of weird and creepy stories features works by talented authors including Zack Ellafy, Chris Barili, Joseph Carrabis, DL Mullan, Christa Planko, Paul Kane, Sonia Pipkin, C.R. Johansson, Roberta Eaton Cheadle, Patty Fletcher, Keith J. Hoskins, Denise Aparo, Julie Jones, Rebecca M. Senese, Mario Acevedo, Kaye Lynne Booth, Michaele Jordan, Robert Kostaczuk. Midnight Roost also features the winning story from the 2023 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest, “Red Door House”, by Isabel Grey. More to come in next month’s “WordCrafter News”.
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Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
Zeus rewrote her laws. Now, Themis, Goddess of Justice will extract her revenge.
She is Themis goddess of Justice, only she can write the rules that govern men. Zeus, king of the gods, has other ideas. Not only did he cheat on her, but he changed her laws. Horrified that Zeus has doomed an innocent man to be fed to a Titan god, Themis must descend into the depths of hades to save the damned soul- without Zeus’s knowledge.
But an omnipotent being guards the prison of Typhoeus. One with blood pulsing through his veins. He’s neither god nor demon and he refuses her entry into Tartarus. With no way around him, she must go through him- and step directly into his arms.
In a race against time, Zeus and the Titan god’s hunger, Themis is willing to sacrifice everything to save an innocent soul. But is she willing to destroy her own soul by opening her heart again?
Themis may not be one of the goddesses you remember from mythology in school, but she won’t be forgotten once you read Themis’s Revenge: Book 4 of the Queens of the Underworld series, by RA Winter. As the frosty, but fiesty Goddess of Justice, Themis rebels against the all-controlling powers of Zues and his pig-headed male ego, and finds herself heating up in the underworld with boiling rage and fiery sexual energy, as she first realizes that she doesn’t have a clue when it comes to Zues’ activities or intentions, and things get even hotter, as she begins to figure it out and learns that there is no one she can trust.
Her path in the underworld leads her to the one whose name must not be spoken, and in trying to unravel the mystery of who he is, Themis finds that even unspoken prophecies are no less true, as she becomes a part of a prophecy uttered from her own lips. Zues is not one to tolerate disobedience, but the tell-tale runes she acquires are a dead giveaway, pun intended, that she has visit the forbidden realm and lived to tell about it, and he’ll be even less forgiving if he learns that the prophecy of his destruction now rests on Themis’s hands.
Themis’s Revenge brings mythology to life, or death, as the case may be. A well-crafted and skillfully told story. I give it five quills.
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Kaye Lynne Booth does honest book reviews on Writing to be Read in exchange for ARCs. Have a book you’d like reviewed? You can request a review here.
Today is the last day that you can show your support for Delilah and the Women in the West adventure series. Tomorrow is the last day of the campaign, and it doesn’t look as if it will reach my $500 funding goal. The project is currently only (63%) funded, but there’s still time for you to show your support and get some of the cool rewards and add-ons offered. With your support, we could still fund the project. So please, back my Kickstarter for Delilah, if you will.
When the campaign ends, you will still be able to pre-order the book, for a higher price, and get it on its March 21st release date, but if you support the Kickstarter campaign, you can get an early digital copy, a signed print copy, and even a chance to name a character in Sarah: Book 2. There’s also short stories, audio stories and an interview with Delilah available as add-ons. So click on the link below and drop in to see what you can get, and support me and Delilah.
Thanks to those who are already backing the campaign. Thanks to all of you who maybe couldn’t back the campaign, but still shared the link around on social media in an effort to help. All support is greatly appreciated.
If you miss the Kickstarter, you can still pre-order the book from your favorite book distributor here: https://books2read.com/DelilahWIW
Open submissions call
2023 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest is open to submissions with an April 30 deadline. The theme is scary stuff in paranormal, dark fantasy or horror, and the winning story will have a guaranteed spot in this year’s anthology, alongside all the stories by invitation. You can find the full submission guidelines here.
Poetry Treasures 3 in 2023
The edition of Poetry Treasures 3 is currently in the works. We will be aiming for an April release date. It will feature the author/post guests from the 2022 Treasuring Poetry blog series and it will be compiled and edited by Robbie Cheadle and myself. The 2023 theme will be Passions, and I think it will turn out to be an impressive volume.
Want exclusive content? Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. She won’t flood your inbox, she NEVER will sells her list, and you might get a freebie occasionally. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, just for joining.
I want your scariest paranormal, dark fiction and horror stories for the 2023 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest. Make my skin crawl, my spine tingle, and my heart race. Keep me up at night. Make me leave the light on, just in case. Show mw your deepest, darkest fears. See submissions guidelines below.
Submission Entry Fee
Please submit entry fee here for your 2023 WordCrafter Short Fiction Contest submission here.
$5.00
Submission Guidelines
Genres: Paranormal, Dark Fantasy, Horror or any combination there of.
Length: up to 5000 words
Submission Deadline: April 30, 2023
Pay: Royalty share
Rights: First Anthology Rights and audio rights as part of the anthology; rights revert to author one month after publication; publisher retains non-exclusive right to include in the anthology as a whole.
Open to submissions from January 1 through April 30, 2023.
Submit: A Microsoft Word or RTF file in standard manuscript format to KLBWordCrafter@gmail.com.
Join Kaye Lynne Booth & WordCrafter Press Readers’ Group for WordCrafter Press book & event news, including the awesome releases of author Kaye Lynne Booth. Get a free digital copy of her short story collection, Last Call and Other Short Fiction, as a sampling of her works just for joining
The cover for The Necromancer’s Daughter, by D. Wallace Peach is what first caught my eye. It promised an intriguing world, perhaps a winter wonderland, and at least one interesting character and of course, I just had to read the book. And I was glad that I did. This story is a skillfully chrafter hero’s journey, the protagonist thrown into an unfamiliar role which she hadn’t asked for with an objective that seems impossible to achieve.
Denied a living heir, the widowed king spies from a distance. But he heeds the claims of the fiery Vicar of the Red Order—in the eyes of the Blessed One, Aster is an abomination, and to embrace the evil of resurrection will doom his rule.
As the king’s life nears its end, he defies the vicar’s warning and summons the necromancer’s daughter. For his boldness, he falls to an assassin’s blade. Armed with righteousness and iron-clad conviction, the Order’s brothers ride into the leas to cleanse the land of evil.
To save her father’s life, Aster leads them beyond Verdane’s wall into the Forest of Silvern Cats, a wilderness of dragons and barbarian tribes. Unprepared for a world rife with danger and unchecked power, a world divided by those who practice magic and those who hunt them, she must choose whether to trust the one man offering her aid, the one man most likely to betray her—her enemy’s son.
The Necromancer’s Daughter, by D. Wallace Peach, is an exceptionally well crafted dark fantasy story, with well developed characters and a wonderfully crafted world of haves and have nots, with most fearing what they don’t understand. Peach has constructed a segregated world, where those of like kind are seperated and sadly, misunderstood. Into this world, she injects Aster, a reborn princess, raised as the necromancer’s daughter, since those who have been healed of death are not widely accepted in the mountains of Blackrock.
But when the King Aldring is murdered, leaving no other heir, the Vicar of the Red Order will do anything he can to prevent Aster from claiming the throne, including blaming the necromancer for the King’s murder, and sending she and her father into hiding. Her father is all she has in the world, and she flees to her mother’s people in the neighboring kingdom, in order to save him. In the strange land of Catticut’s forrest, with foes on all sides, Aster makes new friends in unlikely places, as she makes her way to her uncle, the King of Blackrock to make her plea, and hopes beyoond hope that he will aide her in rescuing her father.
I was totally engaged with Peach’s characters and completely emmersed in her world. I give The Necromancer’s Daughter five quills.
Thanks to contributing author Joseph Carrabis giving us a taste of the stories in the new Visions anthology from WordCrafter Press. Follow the link to learn more.
Today is the release! And Day 2 of the WordCrafter Visions Book Blog Tour finds us over at Patty’s World, with a guest post by contributing author Michaele Jordan about the inspiration for her story, “Farewell, My Miko” and a review of her story by Patty Fletcher. Won’t you join us? And don’t forget to leave a comment so I know you were there and get a chance to win a copy of this totally awesome anthology!
