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Heather Cranmer (2721 KP) created a post

Jun 10, 2021  
Today's special guest on my blog is James Wade, Writer sharing his top 5 novels set in East Texas. There's also a spotlight on his new crime fiction novel RIVER, SING OUT. Check it out, and enter the giveaway to win an autographed first-edition hardcover the book plus an autographed paperback of his multiple award-winning coming of age novel All Things Left Wild - two winners!

https://alltheupsandowns.blogspot.com/2021/06/book-blog-tour-and-giveaway-river-sing.html

**BOOK SYNOPSIS**
“And through these ages untold, the river did act as the lifeblood of all those things alongside it.”

Jonah Hargrove is celebrating his thirteenth birthday by avoiding his abusive father, when a girl named River stumbles into his yard, injured and alone. The teenager has stolen thousands of dollars’ worth of meth from her murderous, drug-dealing boyfriend, but lost it somewhere in the Neches River bottoms during her escape. Jonah agrees to help her find and sell the drugs so she can flee East Texas.

Chasing after them is John Curtis, a local drug kingpin and dog fighter, as well as River’s boyfriend, the dangerous Dakota Cade.

Each person is keeping secrets from the others—deadly secrets that will be exposed in violent fashion as all are forced to come to terms with their choices, their circumstances, and their own definition of God.

With a colorful cast of supporting characters and an unflinching violence juxtaposed against lyrical prose, River, Sing Out dives deep into the sinister world of the East Texas river bottoms, where oppressive poverty is pitted against the need to believe in something greater than the self.
     
Into the Deep
Into the Deep
Aspen Winters | 2021 | Science Fiction/Fantasy
7
7.0 (1 Ratings)
Book Rating
106 of 250
Kindle
Into the Deep
By Aspen Winters

Once read a review will be written via Smashbomb and link posted in comments

The Ocean hides many secrets, and my family has uncovered one of them.

My name is Coralee Eldimire and I was dragged into the secrets my family has been keeping from me. The Eldimire Aquarium and Animal Sanctuary, was more than that. It was a testing site.

A testing site for shifters. The place I thought was made by hard work and passion was actually made by torture and the deaths of creatures I never knew existed.

I found this out the hard way that these shifters are more than they seem. They aren’t mindless or monsters...they were something more. The shark shifters that I had gotten to know only want one thing: freedom and I was their way out. Though it seemed they wanted me for more than an escape route.

These shifters wanted to keep me, and I was starting to have a hard time saying no. With my family trying to keep the shifters or kill them, I have my work cut out for me...and I may learn to be a stronger person on the way.

Ok shark shifters? Thank god finally for shifter fans this is a bonus to have one of the animals species finally covered! I really enjoyed the book and really hoping we get more as I can find much info on her coming books! Fingers crossed she will write more following this lead! I’d be quite disappointed if she didn’t!
  
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Circus of Wonders
Circus of Wonders
Elizabeth Macneal | 2021 | Fiction & Poetry, History & Politics, Romance
10
7.0 (2 Ratings)
Book Rating
After reading The Doll Factory, I was on the look out for Elizabeth Macneal’s next book. Circus of Wonders has NOT disappointed me.

Elizabeth Macneal has described what it is like to be on the margins of society - an outcast because you don’t look the same as everyone else. Nell lives in a time where you are shunned for having birthmarks such as hers. She is considered to be bad luck, a curse. Not helped by the fact that her mother had died in childbirth. Her father constantly reinforces this, and won’t even touch her. Nell’s beloved brother is her sole comfort. He cares for her, and promises to take her with him when he marries.

But Nell’s father sells her to Jasper Jupiters Circus of Wonders. Jasper is a man who is hellbent on being a success, and thinks nothing of using Nell and others like her, to achieve greatness. Jasper and his brother Toby, are both survivors of the Crimean war, and clearly carry many secrets.

Themes such as exploitation, ownership, differences, power, sibling love, secrets, love and loss are central to this book.

Nell is a constant surprise. She goes from being a scared, vulnerable girl, to becoming the centre of attention, in control of all those who come to watch her. This is the other side to the P. T. Barnum story. We’ve probably all heard of ‘The Greatest Showman’, but there’s the other exploitative side that seems to have been brushed under the carpet. This book shows that side.

I loved this book, and I wouldn’t hesitate to tell you all to go out and buy it!