THE TEACHING – A Thriller Based on the Author’s True Life Experience of Living In A Cult by T.O. PAINE is Coming Soon

Title: THE TEACHING

Author: T.O. PAINE

Genre: FICTION, MYSTERIES AND THRILLERS, BASED ON THE AUTHOR’S EXPERIENCE OF LIVING IN A CULT

Length: 381 PAGES

Publisher: DARK SWALLOW BOOKS

Received From: NETGALLEY

Release Date: MARCH 3rd, 2022

ISBN: 978-0-9992183-2-7 (PAPERBACK)
ISBN: 978-0-9992183-3-4 (HARDCOVER)
ISBN: 978-0-9992183-4-1 (EBOOK)

Rating: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

DESCRIPTION:

Based on the author’s true-life experience living in a cult . . .

Raine Harkins believes everything the Teaching tells her—forgiveness is freedom, there are no dead, and there is no dying. She has lived her entire life in the Haven, a small religious community buried in the hills of northern Nevada, and it’s been a good life.

But when she discovers a frightened teenage girl hiding in the forest, everything changes. Raine offers to help the girl, but gunshots ring out, and the girl runs away, never to be seen again. A week later, Raine finds a letter pinned to her cabin door—God doesn’t want you here. Leave the Haven now, before he runs you down.

Raine can’t bear the thought of leaving the only life she’s ever known, but the threatening letters keep coming, and her search for the missing girl leads her down a twisted path, unraveling the truth behind the Teaching. It’s not a good life—there are dead, and people do die.

MY REVIEW:

Debut author T.O. Paine did exactly what authors are supposed to do: he wrote about what he knows. Since he has lived in a cult, he was able to create a community that is believable and is populated by inhabitants that are so realistic that I had to wonder if they were based on people he had known in his past.

If readers are approaching this story hoping to discover that all the people in Haven are evil, they will be disappointed. However, this is exactly what makes this book all the more believable; it’s acknowledgement that not everything in life is easily classified into simple categories.

The mystery that is the main plot will keep readers guessing and has multiple twists and turns. There are also several other sub-plots that the author seamlessly weaves together which will intrigue readers just as much as the main plot does.

There are five novels planned, of which THE TEACHING is only the first. I have added myself to the Author’s mailing list and I am looking forward to reading the rest of the series.

I rate THE TEACHING as 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

This book can be pre-ordered now and the official release date is set for March 3rd of 2022.

*** Thank you to NetGalley for providing me with a free copy of this book. ***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

T.O. Paine is a suspense novelist whose authentic characters triumph over extreme situations in challenging, true-to-life settings. He enjoys delving into the emotional consequences of his character’s choices and taking his readers along for the ride. Though his novels are contemporary, things always get out of control. Cults are real, anger is a disorder, and everyone loses when a friendly competition becomes an obsession.

His first of five novels, THE TEACHING, is set for publication Spring of 2022.

T.O. holds a master’s degree in information systems, and when he is not writing, you can find him running or cycling through the mountains of Colorado, USA. He has run over thirty marathons, ridden over twenty 100-mile cycling events, and completed an IRONMAN.

T.O. resides with his wife, two children, and a Boston terrier who stares at himself in the mirror, questioning his existence.

To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

GOODREADS

FACEBOOK   

TWITTER

AMAZON

APPLE BOOKS

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BURN by Helen Hyland – Book One in a New Post-apocalyptic Trilogy is COMING SOON – Romance and Non-Stop Action Make This A Great Read

Title: BURN
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Series: EARTH 6.0 TRILOGY : BOOK ONE
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Author: HELEN HYLAND
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Genre: FICTION, SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY, APOCALYPTIC FICTION, SCI-FI ROMANCE

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Length: 226 PAGES

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Publisher: BLACK ROSE WRITING
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Received From: THE AUTHOR

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Release Date: MAY 2, 2019

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ISBN: 978-1-68433-257-1 (Paperback)

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Price: $18.95 (Paperback)

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Rating: 4 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐

DESCRIPTION:

5 EXTINCTION LEVEL EVENTS HAVE ALREADY HAPPENED. CAN HUMANITY SURVIVE A 6TH?

In two weeks life on Earth would end. Victoria Phillips was one of the fortunate ones, she’d won a spot in Earth’s underground sanctuary. Unfortunately, it came with Phoenix Tanner. He’d been sent to escort her to safety, but the man drove her nuts with his arrogant, annoying, sexist attitude. She was torn between kicking his shins and running her nails down his back, tracing that delicious tattoo.

She was relieved when they picked up more winners, and his attention shifted away from her. But the more time the group spent together; the more she got to know Nix… she began to suspect that the lottery wasn’t all that random after all.

MY REVIEW:

Want a dash of romance with your ‘End of The World’ tale? If so, BURN is perfect for you.

If you like stories where the female lead character has a backbone and is ‘off-the-charts’ intelligent? Again, BURN is the book for you.

I have a soft-spot for post-apocalyptic fiction. There is just something about reading about regular people who find themselves in extraordinary circumstances that intrigues me.

I enjoyed reading BURN and I love the characters author HELEN HYLAND has populated the story with. Each one has his or her own distinct personalities and they all seem so real that I found it impossible not to care about them.

Victoria Phillips is the main character and she is someone that, if she were real, I would definitely hang out with. Her backstory is similar enough to my own that I understood the motivations behind many of her thoughts and actions. I don’t want to give too much of the plot away, so I won’t say anything more about her. Suffice it to say that I really enjoyed reading BURN and I recommend it to readers who are fascinated by the many scenarios that could potentially bring an end to most of the life on our planet.

I read BURN in a single sitting (much to the chagrin of my hungry family who were waiting for me to finish the book and to cook dinner.) At only 226 pages, this book can easily be read over a single weekend, or a single day if you binge read like I do.

I rate BURN by HELEN HYLAND as 4 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Mark your calendars for May 2nd to get this book on Release Day. Or, better yet, just go to any of the links at the end of my post to preorder a copy to be sent to you the second it is released.

***Thank you to Helen Hyland for providing me with a free copy of this book***

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Helen lives in a suburb of Philadelphia. Philly girl through and through. She bleeds green. She knows the meaning of “Wit or Witout”, that the best cheesesteaks are from the local place and skips Pat’s and Geno’s.

She has always been an avid reader and writer. Her mother would often find her in the middle of the night with a flashlight and either a book she couldn’t put down or scratching the stories that were in her head on loose leaf paper.

To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE
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GOODREADS
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FACEBOOK
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TWITTER
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AMAZON
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PUBLISHER’S WEBSITE

BURN by Helen Hyland is my Letter “B” Entry for this terrific challenge

Check out this awesome BLOG TOUR, VIDEO, and REVIEW of the One of a Kind Memoir TILTING by Nicole Harkin” It is a 5 Star Read. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Title: TILTING: A MEMOIR

Author: NICOLE HARKIN

Genre: NON-FICTION, BIOGRAPHIES AND MEMOIRS

Length: 200 PAGES

Publisher: BLACK ROSE PUBLISHING

Received From: BLOG TOUR HOSTED BY: RACHEL’S RANDOM RESOURCES

ISBN: 9781612968926

Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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DESCRIPTION:

We only learned about our father’s girlfriend after he became deathly ill and lay in a coma 120 miles from our home.

Overhearing the nurse tell Linda–since I was nine I had called my mom by her first name–about the girlfriend who came in almost every day to visit him when we weren’t there confirmed that the last moment of normal had passed us by without our realizing it. Up to then our family had unhappily coexisted with Dad flying jumbo jets to Asia while we lived in Montana. We finally came together to see Dad through his illness, but he was once again absent from a major family event–unable to join us from his comatose state. This is the moment when our normal existence tilted.
Dad recovered, but the marriage ailed, as did Linda, with cancer. Our family began to move down an entirely different path with silver linings we wouldn’t see for many years.

In this candid and compassionate memoir which recently won a Gold Award in The Wishing Shelf Book Award, Nicole Harkin describes with an Impressionist’s fine eye the evolution of a family that is quirky, independent, uniquely supportive, peculiarly loving and, most of all, marvelously human.

Purchase Links:

AMAZON

BARNES AND NOBLE

View the Book Trailer – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZO1niSUWsuA

MY REVIEW:

This candidly written memoir will draw you in and have you feeling like you grew up alongside the author. It will alternately tug at your heartstrings and make you so angry you could just explode.

Author Nicole Harkin has a knack for uncovering and relating her family’s life and history in a humorous way, yet, even through the humor you can sense the deep hurt she felt both as a child and as a young adult. Quotes, such as the one below demonstrate a frank openness that is startling in its honesty.

“I didn’t feel like I was part of my family. We were a group of individuals who lived together under one roof.”

With the shocking revelations she uncovers and the benefit of hindsight, author Nicole Harkin invites readers to examine alongside her every aspect of her life.

Readers would easily forgive her for condemning both of her parents for the way in which Nicole and her siblings were raised, and would especially forgive her for any ill will toward her philander father. Yet Nicole Harkin rises above and tells her story in such a way that those people she could have easily portrayed as villainous, seem less hateful and more just as hopelessly flawed human beings.

I applaud the fact that the author waited until both her parents passed away before releasing this memoir. It shows that no matter how screwed up her family was, she still somehow learned empathy, compassion and integrity.

This is a terrific read which just might make you reexamine your own family’s dysfunctions and begin to see them in a more positive light. This exceptional memoir also reminds readers that no individual, and indeed, no family unit is perfect – no matter how it appears from the outside.

I rate TILTING as 5 out of 5 Stars ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ and will be adding This book to my list of recommended reads.

*** Thank you to RACHEL’S RANDOM RESOURCES for providing me with a free softcover copy of this book.***

EXCERPT:

One of the most telling parts of the book is the following excerpt:

“We sat around and retold funny family stories, like the time years earlier when Dad had forgotten Montana [the author’s youngest sibling] at the store.

Don’t all parents forget their children in stores sometimes?

No.

Oh. Interesting.

That day, Jenny [a friend] and I had just gotten out of the hot tub in the old house. Linda [the author’s Mother] kept yelling for Montana to come and get lunch. We sat down to a sandwich in our swimming suits. Uncle Frankie, Dad’s brother, was there too.

‘Frankie, have you seen Montana?’ Linda asked.

‘No.’

‘Jack, have you seen Montana?’ she asked.

Just then the look of recognition ran across Dad’s face. A millisecond later he was headed towards the front door yelling,’ Call the hardware store’.

Unfortunately, even in our small town, there was more than one hardware store.

Dad found Montana crying hysterically. Dad told Montana he could get any toy he wanted. ”

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QUOTES

“My family operated like six little planets occasionally intersecting and interacting with one another.” (Page 93)

“This crisis stripped everything to its absolute essence. We were a family trying to survive a crisis of physical, financial, and emotional proportions.” (Page 94)

“I’ve read that women either pick ‘dicks’ or ‘dads’. The dicks are the fun guys who aren’t ready to settle down and parent. The dads are men who are natural caregivers and helpers, who are ready to be parents. The women in my family are drawn to the dicks, but the dicks – even when they become dads – cause the most trouble.” (Page 106)

“We sat around and retold funny family stories, like the time years earlier when Dad had forgotten Montana [the author’s youngest sibling] at the store.
Don’t all parents forget their children in stores sometimes?
No.
Oh. Interesting. ”

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nicole Harkin currently resides in Washington, DC with her husband and two small children. She works as a writer and family photographer.

As a Fulbright Scholar during law school, Nicole lived in Berlin, Germany where she studied German environmentalism.

Her work can be found in
She works as a writer and family photographer.

As a Fulbright Scholar during law school, Nicole lived in Berlin, Germany where she studied German environmentalism.

Her work can be found in Thought Collection and you are here: The Journal of Creative Geography.

She is currently working on mystery set in Berlin.

Her photography can be seen on her website. To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

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THE GRAVEYARD GIRL and the BONEYARD BOY is a YA Enthralling Page Turner Everyone Will LOVE!!!

Title: THE GRAVEYARD GIRL AND THE BONEYARD BOY

Author: MARTIN MATTHEWS

Genre: YOUNG ADULT FICTION, CONTEMPORARY FICTION

Length: 366 PAGES

Publisher: BLACK ROSE WRITING

Received From: NETGALLEY

Release Date: DECEMBER 7, 2017

ISBN: 9781612969749

Price: $6.99 (EBOOK)

Rating: 5 OUT OF 5 STARS ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

DESCRIPTION:

16-year-old albino Drake Stevenson lives a life alone in his world of video games and comic books, dreaming of one day saving a real princess. But fantasy becomes reality when his lawyer father suffers a heart attack, and the Stevensons are forced to move to flyover country in order to take up the family business: Stewardship of the oldest and largest cemetery in the state.

There, among the weeping angels and willows of Centralia Cemetery, Drake meets Scarlet, an unusual girl who needs his help to find her killer.

Complicated by his albinism, a mentally unstable sister bent on high school domination at any cost, and a jock with a deadly secret, Drake sets out to find the shattering truth about a murder no one will speak of, to help a girl no one can see.

MY REVIEW:

What drew me to this book initially was the intriguing title: THE GRAVEYARD GIRL AND THE BONEYARD BOY. Then I read the first paragraph and I was captivated. The book begins like this:

“The first time my sister Brie tried to kill me, I’d been six-years-old. A budding sociopath, Brie’s murder attempt had been to lock me outside of the house at noon during a summer heatwave. She had been eight. Now a senior in highschool, Brie’s still two years older than me, and she’s since graduated to full psychotic, cum laudé.”

Hmmm. How would locking someone out of the house be a murder attempt? My interest was definitely piqued.

The story is about a teenage boy who has Oculocutaneous Albinism, which means Drake Stevenson is an albino. He also has a condition that often goes hand in hand with albinism which is: hyper-photophobia. This means that light of any kind, but especially sunlight, burns his eyes. Too much light exposure could lead to permanent blindness. This condition forces Drake to have to wear wrap-around sunglasses. His skin is very pale and he describes his appearance like this:

“And my hair isn’t blonde, it’s the color of freshly fallen snow in the Alps on a cloudless, moonlit night. And no, my eyes are not that pink color…They are, however, a rather striking shade of blue-collar.”

I LOVE THIS BOOK. It is a impressive novel by Indie Author Martin Matthews. It is the first time I have read anything of his and I know now that I will be seeking out more of his work.

When Drake’s lawyer father has a heart-attack, the family moves away from the city and back to the small town of Centralia where his father has agreed to take over the family business. Just what is that business? Well, they are the caretakers/owners of the largest and oldest cemetery in the entire state.

Shortly after arriving at their new home Drake meets a beautiful girl the same age as he is. Usually he has a hard time talking to girls, but for some reason this girl is different. At first he does not realize why she seems so different, but eventually realizes she is a ghost and she needs his help bringing her murderer to justice.

With so many fantastic twists and turns this book is an enthralling page turner and is populated with marvelously realistic characters. This book surpasses the typical Young Adult novel and rises above – WAY ABOVE.

I rate this book as highly as is possible which is 5 out of 5 Stars. ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ If I could rate it higher I would. I am willing to put my reputation as a reviewer on the line to say that this is a MUST READ novel. In fact, I am hoping that the author continues on with these characters and turns this book into a series. If he does, I will be first in line to buy my copy.

**Thank you to NETGALLEY for providing me with a free copy this book**

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Martin Matthews is an expat from England, Great Britain. After living in California for many years, he now lives in Central Illinois with his beautiful wife, amazing son, and a grumpy, old cat named Winston.

Martin began his writing career as a child, storyboarding Sonic the Hedgehog comic books for his family. Later, he progressed to writing Star Trek fan-fiction before attempting his first novel Merlania at 16 — a 200,000 word science-fiction epic. He’s been writing novels and short stories ever since.

Martin holds degrees in Art and Design, Graphic Design, and Computer Information Science. When he’s not writing, he can be found producing music, art, and fried rice.

To learn more about this author, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

GOODREADS

FACEBOOK

AMAZON

WATTPAD

BARNES & NOBLE

iTUNES

PUBLISHER’S WEBSITE

ABOUT THE PUBLISHER:

Black Rose Writing is an independent publishing house that strongly believes in developing a personal relationship with their authors. The Texas-based publishing company doesn’t see authors as clients or just another number on a page, but rather as individual people… people who deserve an honest review of their material and to be paid traditional royalties without ever paying any fees to be published.

To learn more about this Publisher, visit the following links:

OFFICIAL WEBSITE

FACEBOOK

INSTAGRAM

TWITTER

PINTEREST

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Graveyard Pictures Obtained From www.ghoststoriesandpictures.com

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#TheGraveyardGirlAndTheBoneyardBoy #NetGalley