The Face Transplant by A. Arundel

Blurb:

An epic journey of suspense, murder, and sacrifice.

Dr. Matthew MacAulay is a facial transplant surgeon at a prestigious New York hospital. When his friend and mentor, Tom Grabowski, dies under mysterious circumstances, Matthew uncovers his friend’s secret: a new technique that allows perfect facial transplants. No incisions, no scars. Tom was able to accomplish this monumental feat with the help of Alice, a supercomputer robot with almost human abilities. While trying to find the people responsible for murdering Tom, Matthew realizes he is the prime suspect. He must flee for his life with the help of Dr. Sarah Larsson, a colleague and reluctant helper, who has a secret of her own, and Alice, who helps them make sense of a baffling series of seemingly unrelated events. The clues carry Matthew and Sarah around the world. They stumble onto a sinister plot of monumental proportions that leads Matthew all the way to the White House.

The Face Transplant is a powerful medical suspense thriller of the first order. The novel was written by a surgeon who weaves politics, medicine, and espionage into a tightly paced, intelligent thriller.

About the Author:

The Face Transplant is a novel written by R. Arundel a surgeon. The novel has an authenticity only a surgeon can bring to the story. It is set in the near future. A medical thriller, the story weaves politics, medicine and human drama into a tightly woven plot. The book crescendos page-by-page to a totally unexpected conclusion.

Review by Rochelle:

The Face Transplant is a gripping thriller with compelling characters. That said I had difficulty with the premise, even though it was written by a surgeon. I don’t see how transplanting the skin of one person onto the bone structure of another is going to create a double of the donor. Too much depends on bone structure. For instance, I have a round face, short nose, and rose-bud lips. If you transplanted Cher’s face onto mine it wouldn’t give me her cheekbones or her long nose. I never saw the movie Face Off, but I probably would have had the same problem unless I was convinced the machine sculpted the contours of the person’s face as well as exchanging skin.

Then there were head-hops. This is a new edition that has been “re-edited.” Unfortunately, the new editor must not have been familiar with the standard of staying with one point of view in each scene. The POV hops from one person to another in the same paragraph, which makes me dizzy and gives me headaches.

I really wanted to give The Face Transplant a better rating, but I’m afraid the best I can do is three roses. If you can suspend disbelief and buy the premise that planting one person’s skin onto another person’s face will make him/her look like the donor, and you don’t care how often the POV shifts, you’ll enjoy it.

Author Website:

http://www.thefacetransplant.com/about.html

Amazon Author Page:  http://www.amazon.com/R-Arundel/e/B00EBCQVEC/ref=ntt_dp_epwbk_0

Heat Rating:  PG-13 (V, L)

Length:  379 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $13.45

Digital:  $2.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Face-Transplant-R-Arundel-ebook/dp/B00E6XU322/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1447098840&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Face+Transplant+%2B+A+Arundel

Thanks for visiting. Donna, Julie, & Rochelle

Second to Nun by Alice Loweecey

Blurb:

The Other Side has hired Driscoll Investigations. The owner of Stone’s Throw Lighthouse Bed and Breakfast insists that a Tarot reading told her to hire Giulia to evict the family ghost. Since the ghost is cutting gas lines and flooding cellars, Giulia and her husband Frank head to the B&B to discover the real perpetrator.

The client also has a family legend: A highwayman who stole a pile of gold. Giulia has a pile of suspects, including a psychic the client hired to conduct weekly séances. So much for romance with Frank at this getaway.

Instead, Giulia’s juggling arson, creepy clown dolls, and the psychic going all Exorcist on her. Then the ghost tries to push the client off the lighthouse and throw Giulia down three flights of stairs. It should’ve known better than to mess with an ex-nun. Giulia has connections and she’s about to use them.

About The Author:

Baker of brownies and tormenter of characters, Alice Loweecey recently celebrated her thirtieth year outside the convent. She grew up watching Hammer horror films and Scooby-Doo mysteries, which explains a whole lot. When she’s not creating trouble for Giulia Driscoll, she can be found growing her own vegetables (in summer) and cooking with them (the rest of the year).

Review by Rochelle Weber:

Giulia Driscoll is a delight. I was the only Protestant on my block growing up, so I vicariously went to parochial school. While I didn’t actually have nuns wrapping my knuckles with rulers, the boys on my block sometimes did. Somehow I have difficulty picturing Giulia doing that to her students. I have a feeling she’d be a kinder nun who would keep order with compassion and humor, and whose weekly confession would include her ongoing coffee habit. (Yeah, I hear ya groaning.)

At any rate, Second to Nun was a real page burner, and Ms. Loweecey did something not too many mystery writers manage to do. She kept me guessing whodunit to the very end of the book. I kind of had part of it right, but not all of it. I love it when an author manages to surprise me. Woo Hoo! Thanks, Ms. Loweecey! I plan to go back and read the beginning of this series when I have time (hollow laugh), and I look forward to snagging more of your books when they hit Net Galley (I hope). By all means, grab Second to Nun. You’ll definitely enjoy it.

Length:  270 Pages

Heat Rating:  PG

Prices:

Hardcover:  $31.95

Paperback:  $15.95

Digital:  $2.99

Buy Link:  http://henerypress.com/second-to-nun/

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors usually receive 40-50% of the net proceeds from the publisher. Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left. So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40-$2.99. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $1.70-$2.10.

Download the file from the publisher onto your computer as you would any other file. I’ve created a folder for books on my computer, with subfolders by source (Marketing for Romance Writers, Net Galley, Authors who find me on Kindle lists, etc.). That way, if there’s a glitch with your Kindle, the books are on your computer. Some publishers send books in all digital formats. If my Kindle breaks and my kids buy me a Nook, I won’t have to replace all of my books. If you have a Kindle and your hubby has a Nook, you won’t have to buy separate copies, so buying directly from the publisher can save you money.

Moving the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive. Plug the larger USB end of your e-reader charging chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from the folder into which you’ve downloaded the book to Documents/Books directory on your e-reader. Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. Donna, Julie, & Rochelle

King of the World by Randall Coleman

Blurb:

The year is 2022, and time is running out.

The Earth is heating up at an alarming rate. Governments are corrupt and terrorism abounds. More nations are on the brink of war than at any other time in history, and fear riddles the planet. The Group of Five is fed up, and they’re doing something about it. In their quest to usher in a new way, the Group of Five is seeking to elect a true king, one who can restore balance to the world. Will they find a suitable king in time, or will political corruption and the Earth’s imminent destruction win out?

Review by Rochelle:

The Group of Five plans to field a panel of five candidates for King of the World—until they meet Emmett Comanche Constitution Madison Taylor. He, of all the dozens of candidates they vet for the job, gets it. Not only does he understand what needs to be done, he sees the job as temporary. Once the local national governments are cleaned up, a King will no longer be needed and he can retire.

Taylor sees most of the problems of the world being based on unfairness. His plan for peace in Palestine is to allow the Palestinians and Israelis to vote whether to annihilate each other with nukes, or to live in peace with governments voted for by each other—the Palestinians voting for the Israeli government and vice-versa. He would demilitarize the world and use the money from each country’s war chest for things like national health care. The word “terrorist” would be banned and all terrorists would be labeled “cowardly murderers.” There would be one world currency and national governments would be expected to balance their budgets within a certain period of time. Income tax would be replaced by sales tax of ten percent with a one percent global relief tax. National governments would be elected by anonymous resumés, with the jobs truly going to the best people for them, not the people with the largest campaign funds or the best media personas.

How could they possibly accomplish this? The Group of Five has already established a shielded community in the Mongolian desert as well as a base on the Moon that is stocked with nuclear weapons to enforce their policies globally. They have a crack army and security team to protect Emmett and themselves, and they plan to hold the election over the internet.

Great ideas if they can pull them off. The problem with The King of the World—it needed an editor. By about the third time Emmett gave pretty much the same speech to the same adulation, I felt my blood glucose rising. The dialog was stilted, and despite the assassination attempts, it was slow going. Twice, I put the book down and read other books, pushing it farther back in my review schedule. A good editor would have tightened it up and made it the page-burner it truly should have been.

Am I such a cynic that by the end I was actually hoping Emmett would turn on the Group of Five and take over as the worst dictator of all time, or was I just tired of the saccharine nature of the book? He kept promising “happiness.” A politician can’t give people happiness. Abraham Lincoln once said, “Most folks are as happy as they allow themselves to be.” I know people who have a lot of material wealth, and they’re miserable. I live pretty much on a frayed shoestring and I’m usually pretty happy, and I know other people like me. I wouldn’t mind living in the Group of Five’s utopia. I just don’t want to slog through another 450 pages of redundant molasses again. My blood glucose couldn’t stand it.  I'm sorry, Mr. Coleman. I can't recommend The King of the World.

Length:  548 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $18.95

Digital:  $8.99

Buy Link:  https://www.overdrive.com/media/2140500/king-of-the-world

You’ll notice we always include the publisher’s buy link. That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher. Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%. When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their royalties from what is left. So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-BookPublisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40. If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your e-reader is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive. You can download your books onto your computer using “Save As” to a “Books” folder you create and sort them into sub-folders by genre, author, or however you wish before transferring them to your e-reader. That way, if there’s a glitch with your e-reader, the books are on your computer. Once you’ve saved the book to your computer plug the larger USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from the folder you created to your E-Reader/Documents/Books directory. Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. Julie, Donna, & Rochelle

Imposters of Patriotism by Ted Richardson

Blurb:

Savannah, Georgia antiques store owner Matt Hawkins discovers a two-hundred-year-old journal containing a stunning accusation. The journal claims that America’s most revered hero, George Washington, wrote a secret surrender letter to the British during the Revolutionary War—a seditious act that would have ended America’s fight for independence.

Meanwhile, the present-day race for president of the United States is a dead heat. The Republican nominee, a direct descendant of Washington’s family, has shamelessly exploited his ties to the Founding Father—a strategy that has worked brilliantly to eliminate a once-wide gap in the polls. As the past collides with the present, Hawkins and lovely historian Sarah Gordon are determined to unearth the truth about the journal’s remarkable claim. But they must avoid a shadowy adversary who has a billion dollars riding on the election’s outcome—and who will stop at nothing to ensure that Washington’s surrender letter remains a secret.

Review by Rochelle Weber:

Imposters of Patriotism had a good plot and well-drawn characters. It was engaging and kept me turning the pages, but I had issues with the editing. The book came with the caveat that it was an Advanced Reading Copy and had not gone through the final galley edits, but the issues I found were things that should be addressed in the content editing rounds. I noticed it was self-published when I went to the book’s Amazon page to get the buy-link, so maybe Mr. Richardson is not familiar with content edits.

When a book is released through a publisher, it goes through three types of editing—content editing, line or copy editing, and galley edits. In content editing, we address issues such as info drops (show; don’t tell); head-hopping (changing point-of-view in the middle of a scene); use of passive verbs instead of active (had been done instead of doing); general wordiness; overuse of dialog tags and certain words and phrases such as “that,” “began to,” etc. The second type of editing, line or copy editing, is straight spelling and grammar. By the time a book gets to galley edits, it should be pristine and all that should be left is the occasional typo.

Imposters of Patriotism was rife with head-hops, it was wordy, and had some superfluous dialog tags as well as uses of the word “that.” It could have been tightened by a good content editor. Still, it was a good, entertaining read. I definitely recommend it.

Length:  349 Pages

Prices:

Print:  $11.19

Digital:  $4.99

Buy Link:  http://www.amazon.com/Imposters-Patriotism-Ted-Richardson-ebook/dp/B00L5MHEUQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1429993536&sr=1-1&keywords=Imposters+of+Patriotism+%2B+Ted+Richardson

Thanks for visiting. Julie, Donna, & Rochelle