![Feral Moon: Book 2 of The Dark Woods series by [Wingler, Sherri A.]](https://images-eu.ssl-images-amazon.com/images/I/41JzSawAhEL.jpg)
I was given an ARC of this book in return for an honest review.
Honestly, this series is mind-blowing. This author never ceases to amaze me with her skillful storytelling.
This is book two in The Dark Woods Series and it leads seamlessly from book one.
Greyson Wolf is drowning his sorrows, he can’t face life without Harlow (Red), she’s his mate, his and the Wolfs. The wolf doesn’t stay quiet though, he wants her back, and now.
When Harlow’s mum comes to beg Grey to rescue her daughter from her ruthless father, he can’t resist the pull but when he finds Red, her memory has been wiped…she can’t remember him or the wolf.
Any more than this I can’t say without giving away what is an exceptional plot with the usual skilled storytelling that has made this author one of my favourites.
The characters are so well-developed that you find yourself caring about what happens to them.
Twists, turns, perfect pacing, seeing the author get inside the head of the evil one….hmmm why wouldn’t you read it?
I can’t wait for the next book in this series and wonder where Ms. Wingler will take the story and characters next.
I will be buying a print copy of each of the books in this series and I only do that for my favourite books nowadays.
Tag: books
Round-up of the week 10 March 2019
World:
An Ethiopian Airlines jet with 149 passengers and eight crew members onboard a flight from the Ethiopian capital and bound fro Nairobi in Kenya, has crashed shortly after take-off from Addis Ababa, killing all on board.
It is reported that 32 Kenyans, 18 Canadians, eight Americans and seven Brits were among the passengers. The crash happened six minutes after the Boeing 737 Max-8 took off.
An eyewitness at the scene reported an intense fire as the aircraft hit the ground. “The blast and the fire were so strong that we couldn’t get near it,” he said. “Everything is burnt down.”
The cause of the crash is not yet clear, however, the pilot had advised of difficulties and requested a return.
My thoughts:
What a terrible tragedy, my thoughts and prayers go out to the victims and their families.
We never know when our time is up and should make the most of what we have in the here and now.
London:
A woman jailed for four-and-a-half years for fraud after posing as a Grenfell Tower fire survivor lost a challenge against her conviction.
The 48 year old watched via a video link from prison as three Court of Appeal judges in London threw her case out.
The woman claimed to have escaped from the horrific fire in west London in 2017, where her husband and sister-in-law had died. But she was in fact, single and living miles away in Sutton, south London.
Msokeri claimed about £19,000 in cash donations, goods and hotel costs.
My thoughts:
I still remember the cold that seeped into my body as I watched the horror of Grenfell Tower unfold, the horrendous loss of life, a community scarred for life and to think that an unscrupulous individual would try to take advantage of this tragedy for personal gains is beyond comprehension. Personally, I think her sentence was too light. If she can be so heartless as to wish to benefit from the loss of others what else is she capable of?
My World:
I can’t believe that I’ve now been in my new job for a month, each day is different, interesting and with scope for many challenges. I’m loving it!
This weekend has been another one where I’ve had quality family time, a meal at the local Nepalese restaurant with my sister, nineteen-year-old niece and long-term friend on Saturday night.
Sunday we took Mum and Dad out for a meal to celebrate their 54th wedding anniversary.
My Writing:
This weekend I’ve seriously hit the writing as I’ve realised that I have so much to write and so little time as it’s booked in with the editor for April 15th and I’m still on the first draft. The plot thickens as the story takes another twist that I hadn’t expected. I’m really loving getting into the head of this narcissistic character.
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My review of Sugar & Spice by R E Hargrave
*****Five Stars*****
Lacey is a single mum who makes a success of her life running a small bakery business and is the hub of the small town she lives in. She has a teenage daughter, Candy, and the mother/daughter bond is strong. She has a busy and fulfilling life but there’s something missing, or that is until Trent comes into her life. This is a lovely story with great characterisation. The author guides you through the book making you want to turn the next page. It has the feel-good factor which warms the heart and curls the toes.
This isn’t the first book I’ve read by R E Hargrave and it won’t be the last.
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Round-up of the week 24/2/2019
Round up of the week
World
A forty-seven-year-old woman who was told her tissue was too similar to her husband’s had to be made allergic to his sperm in order to have a successful pregnancy.
Kathryn, a laboratory manager from Derbyshire who’d had four miscarriages turned to the help of her colleagues when normal channels came up blank. The couple was found to be tissue type matched which meant her body wasn’t seeing the sperm part of the embryo as foreign so as a result the pregnancies weren’t being nurtured.
After injecting her with her partner’s white
blood cells, her body was able to recognise it as a foreign body. The couple
now have a beautiful baby girl
My thoughts: After looking at many depressing news stories this week, I found this and thought I would spread this beautiful story of hope.
London
There was chaos on the streets of Hounslow on Thursday 21 February after a what is described as a severe accident closed off the A4 westbound road from Sutton Lane to Vicarage farm road.
My thoughts: I was told about this by a friend who’d sat in this traffic and said that everyone was executing crazy and dangerous manoeuvres in an attempt to access other routes. This kind of thing can be very frustrating for us having to deal with in our daily lives but I tried to consider how much worse it could be, there but for the grace of God and all that.
Me
Week 2 successfully completed in my new job and still really enjoying it. To complement the fantastic training I went to the office I’ll be mainly based at and was able to start helping my new manager. The team is so supportive and I feel like—fingers crossed, touch wood and all that—I have found the place I want to be.
I woke up Saturday morning with a stinking cold/sinus infection like I didn’t have enough of those last year to last a lifetime!!!!
Every year my friend Jules and I make each other Christmas presents which could be something simple which hasn’t taken long or a long and complicated craft project—this year I’ve plumped for the complicated one and this is going to take me a long time. The supplies I needed arrived this week so I will be starting today. Unfortunately, I can’t say anything about it as she might read this blog!
I got up early (ish) Sunday morning so that I could take my slot in the online book event “Our books are not free” which is the second of its kind. It’s a great event aimed at promoting the value of paying for books which as an author is something I am very passionate about. Check it out. A whole bunch of awesome authors who are not giving away the products that they’ve laboured hard on and paid much for.
https://www.facebook.com/events/565616523906689/
Writing
I have to admit I haven’t reached my writing targets this week. Need to crack on my April deadline is fast approaching to get this book to the editor.
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New Release – Girls and Boys by M B Feeney
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It’s LIVE!!!
Girls and Boys, the 90s based coming of age New Adult novel by M. B. Feeney is now live on Amazon and in KU.
Grab your copy now!
Jack Robinson and Andy Stone are best friends, navigating their way through life in 90s London with a soundtrack of Britpop. Jack’s in his final year at university and still has no idea about what he wants to do with his life, while Andy’s a mechanic by day, a bit of a man-whore the rest of the time.
Adapting to a new place to live in a big city isn’t easy, especially when girls, alcohol, and hard work get in the way, but having your best friend with you every step of the way makes it that much easier… well, when you’re not ignoring each other.
Filled with laughter and heartache, Jack and Andy’s story is for everyone. A hint of romance, a solid friendship, and plenty of stupid mistakes. But, will they learn from them?
Check out the Britpop playlist on Spotify
Facebook Post:
Girls and Boys, the 90s based coming of age New Adult novel by M. B. Feeney is now live on Amazon and in KU.
Only Available on Amazon and KU: http://mybook.to/GirlsandBoys
The Blurb:
Jack Robinson and Andy Stone are best friends, navigating their way through life in 90s London with a soundtrack of Britpop. Jack’s in his final year at university and still has no idea about what he wants to do with his life, while Andy’s a mechanic by day, a bit of a man-whore the rest of the time.
Adapting to a new place to live in a big city isn’t easy, especially when girls, alcohol, and hard work get in the way, but having your best friend with you every step of the way makes it that much easier… well, when you’re not ignoring each other.
Filled with laughter and heartache, Jack and Andy’s story is for everyone. A hint of romance, a solid friendship, and plenty of stupid mistakes. But, will they learn from them?
Check out the Britpop playlist on Spotify: http://spoti.fi/2symLhU
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Gentle-spirited People
This month’s blog is going to take a quick look at those people who have an inner beauty or gentleness of spirit. It is a rare quality and when you find someone with this trait they should be appreciated and cherished.
Other people will often view these folk as weak and are quick to take advantage of their good nature but the opposite is often the case. They have an underlying inner strength which they are either unaware of or choose not to shout out to the world. They are not boastful and in their gentle, consistent manner they go about their business. Yet when they need to they display strength and courage that should be appreciated and respected, when the chips are down and you need support it is these people who are often the first to offer it. Perceptive people will recognise their qualities but others will try to bulldoze them. I chose this subject today because I have such a character in my book “A Boy from the Streets.”
Christina is a loving Wife and Mother who allows her dominant husband to have his own way mainly because it is easier to do so, not because she is in fear of him because despite his disposition his bark is worse than his bite. She does it to please the man she loves. The one biggest regret she has is that she didn’t assert herself when her husband makes her choose between twin babies despite her protestations that she can look after both. She has lived with this regret her whole life and when the time comes to make amends twelves years later she shows her assertive side and her strength shines forth. Over the years she makes many more decisions in a more self-assured way which doesn’t deter from her beautiful spirit.
If you want to learn more about Christina you can do so here:
Amazon Link: myBook.to/BoyfromStreets
Remember everyone is different and your perception of them is often based on your life experiences which colours your view. As always be nice you don’t know their journey in life.
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Each week I will be doing a round up of the week which will be a piece of global news, London news, my own week and what I have been up to as an author. It may be news/information you already know or it may be something you haven’t heard – either way I hope you like these little posts. I look forward to hearing your thoughts and any news you would like to share in return.
World: Online retail giant Amazon is buying Whole Foods in a £10.7bn deal ($13.7bn). Whole Foods has more than 460 stores in the US, Canada and the UK employing 87,000 people.
It would seem that Amazon are taking over the retail industry in the way that supermarkets took over from the local shop.
London: This week has seen the tragic events unfold at the Grenfell Tower in West London. This twenty-four storey tower block burnt down leaving an empty shell, the latest numbers suggest 58 people dead or missing, leaving a community homeless and devastated.
Londoners and people from surroundings communities have come together in an amazing show of unity to provide practical supplies, giving of their time and money. People from across the globe have started raising funds to help those affected. People from all walks of life have come together in support to show what a great community we have when we work together. My heart goes out to everyone affected.
My World: A fairly normal week for me, work, writing and visits to the gym to try to shift the excess weight that has crept up on me and is clinging like an octopus and refusing to leave. Friday night I combined a social visit with my friend Shirley, we’ve been friends since about the age of ten years old, with a visit to her gym, a swim and jacuzzi. Felt very pampered and chilled afterwards, the perfect way to start the weekend. A relaxing day of sunbathing on Saturday combined with some writing, oh and I was also able to pick the first batch of my homegrown spinach. Today, Sunday, is Father’s Day and very shortly I will be meeting my parents and my sister at a local restaurant. So a nice family day to round off my week.
My Word: I haven’t written very much this week as I’ve been focusing my attention on editing. The first novel I wrote is finally approaching the stage where it will be given to my editor.
I started writing it approximately fifteen years ago and it has gone through numerous edits and lost about 80,000 words in an attempt to make it a tighter, readable book. I put it aside for a number of years as I worked on other books, including the three novelettes and one novel that I’ve published already. I also have a backlog of forty something WIPs (Work in Progresses) in various stages of completion. But I digress, and now you can see why I had to purge 80,000 odd words, LOL.
Anyway I have about 2700 more that I need to remove to get it to 80,000 words and then I will hand it over with trepidation to a new editor and hold my breath (not literally of course) until I receive the red-marked pages back.
I have also taken the plunge and set up an email sign up on my website so that I can email out a monthly newsletter. If you would like to hear from me occasionally then please add your details to the pop up and then check your junk mail as they often get sent there.
What can you expect from me by signing up?
I’ll keep you informed of any new releases from me, some you might like/love and others you won’t as I can’t stick to writing in one genre, I write anything that is in my head and needs to be released. A sometimes scary prospect. 🙂
Giveaway: Once a month I am planning on doing an author slot from the Indie authors I love which will include one free kindle copy of one of their books going to one of my readers who will be picked at random. More details to follow.
Little snippets of information that I think you might find interesting – forgive me if I get that wrong sometimes – please let me know what you like and what you don’t like and what you’d like to see more of.
As this is new to me it will grow organically and hopefully you will look forward to finding my newsletters once a month in your inbox.
Maria x
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Jealousy & Envy
I had decided on this blog thinking I was writing about jealousy only with envy being a synonym but after doing some research I discovered something I hadn’t known which is that jealousy and envy are considered to be different.
Dictionary definitions:
Jealousy: feeling or showing an envious resentment of someone or their achievements, possessions, or perceived advantages.
Envy: a feeling of discontented or resentful longing aroused by someone else’s possessions, qualities, or luck.
The dictionary would suggest that both these emotions are the same but some psychologists differentiate between the two emotions:
Jealousy is relationship based and involves a third person. It’s an emotion that makes a person fear for their relationship with another – partner, parent, friend etc… The person sees a threat to their relationship which could be real or perceived.
Example: Your husband has a female friend and you see that friendship in a different light. It could be a simply platonic relationship but it could also be an affair which threatens the fabric of your marriage. Jealously has its roots firmly in both the logical and illogical camps.
Jealousy can be healthy, in that it produces that fear which makes you work at protecting your relationship but equally it can be a destructive force eating away at you from the inside and ruining your relationship.
Finding the right balance is the key.
Envy however is an emotion that is caused between two people only.
Example: You are envious of what your friend has, possessions or life.
Again this emotion can be put to good or bad use. If you use this to better yourself and achieve the goals you have then this has been for the force of good, however if you allow this envy to fester you can become dissatisfied with your lot in life and your friendship will suffer as you become resentful.
Finding the right balance is again key.
I try to avoid the extremes of both of these emotions as they can be so destructive, you should allow them to drive you not to overwhelm you.
I chose this as a subject matter as some of the characters in my books show these emotions which makes for great reading. I have three examples from two of my books – please read on:
A Lifetime or a Season
Amazon link: http://mybook.to/A-lifetime
Diana
Diana is envious of her young daughter Athena, who is pretty and has her whole life ahead of her. Diana is a beautiful, superficial, selfish woman who has men flocking around her and has no shortage of admirers but she knows that the passage of time is upon her so she callously puts down and undermines her daughter so that Athena sees herself as plain. Diana tries to stamp out Athena’s spark of independence wanting her daughter to fawn over her rather than live her own life.
Check out Athena’s short story to see whether Diana was successful or not.
A Boy from the Streets has two examples of jealousy.
Amazon Link: myBook.to/BoyfromStreets
Teo
Teo is a lovely, loyal man who is eaten up with jealousy. He is devoted to his friend Leandro but Leandro has a closer bond with Daniel. Even years of separation doesn’t dim this friendship but as the year go by Teo’s jealousy develops to the point where he places himself and others in danger. Will his jealousy lead him to commit the ultimate betrayal?
Pedro
Pedro is a young boy who is abandoned to the streets of Brasil at the age of one year. His life is harrowing and filled with the horrors that life on the streets brings including being used by the corrupt police force who should be there to protect him.
At the age of twelve he discovers that he has a twin, Jose was adopted into a life of luxury.
Pedro experiences both jealousy and envy during the coming months but despite his life and the trials and tribulations he stays grounded. His own caring nature allows him to rise above these emotions – but when he is pushed to the ultimate level will he be able to keep his head or will it overwhelm him?
If you want to discover how any of my characters cope with these emotions and what the future holds for them you can find out by clicking the links and reading their stories.
I look forward to hearing back from you.
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My review of: Crimson Moon: Book One of The Dark Woods by Sherri A Wingler
OMG! OMG! OMG! I am speechless and for anyone who knows me that is a rarity. This book sucked me from the first lines and held me all the way through. The pacing is perfect all the way through the book, it is steady and builds the relationship between reader and the main characters. The last 20% of the book picks up the pace while your heart pounds inside your chest and you are unable to put the book down until the conclusion. And wow what an ending. There were twists and turns which I didn’t anticipate, just as I thought I was getting where it was going it swung a loop and blew my mind away.
Ok so maybe I’m not so speechless after all. This book deserves all the accolades that can be thrown at it.
The characters are strong and believable (in an unworldly way), they’re consistent and likeable. I love the dialogue between them and more than that I can’t say without giving anything away.
This author is now one of my favourite authors. Everything I read by her is of this quality and getting stronger.
Can I respectfully ask that the author gives up her social life in order to get the next two books out quickly. I need to read them. Finishing this book has left a gaping hole.
If I could give this more than 5 stars I would.
If you have any sense whatsoever you will pick this book up and devour it.
Oh and last but not least – wow on the cover.
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My Review of: The Curse of Arundel Hall: A Yellow Cottage Mystery by J. New
This is the second book I have read by J. New and I thoroughly enjoyed it. The first book held no surprises but this one did. I felt myself tense up and hold my breath as I waited for the outcome of the mystery. Yes it is slightly cliched in places but charmingly so. This vintage murder mystery is well written with good pacing and characters. The main character Ella stayed consistent throughout both books and I look forward to seeing where her adventures take her next time.
Mia's Novel Creations 