Fae Book Tours presents: THE HAUNTING SEASON by Michelle Muto - review, excerpt, & giveaway!

Be careful what you let in…
Siler House has stood silent beneath Savannah’s moss-draped oaks for decades. Notoriously haunted, it has remained empty until college-bound Jess Perry and three of her peers gather to take part in a month-long study on the paranormal. Jess, who talks to ghosts, quickly bonds with her fellow test subjects. One is a girl possessed. Another just wants to forget. The third is a guy who really knows how to turn up the August heat, not to mention Jess’s heart rate…when he’s not resurrecting the dead. The study soon turns into something far more sinister when they discover that Siler House and the dark forces within are determined to keep them forever. In order to escape, Jess and the others will have to open themselves up to the true horror of Siler House and channel the very evil that has welcomed them all.

Amazon US Kindle: http://amzn.to/17GZtd1

Amazon UK Kindle: http://amzn.to/1ctUVn1

Amazon US Paperback: http://amzn.to/12qa33l

Amazon UK Paperback: http://amzn.to/128a6gV

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/268309

 Inside the Sorrel-Weed house, the inspiration for THE HAUNTING SEASON

A_TiffyFit's Review:
Horrifying. Scary. Gave me heart palpitations. Exciting. Mystifying. And a lot more! One of the best scary books I've read in a long time and what a way to return to the genre! Just gotta read it to understand. In the midst of all this fright is a bit of romance, too, that was just enough to make this book even more tantalizing. A multitude of heightened emotions is definitely the secret recipe for this excellent, frightful novel. Fantastic and amazing, it is hard to put down once you start. And when you do in the middle of the night, sneaking your way in the dark to the bathroom, you suddenly have this urge to turn on every single light in your house as if that will make you feel safer. LOL I recommend this highly and give it five shining stars! I know I'm not talking about the plot at all, but I am fearful that if I say ONE WORD, it will give it away. I will definitely be on the look out for more books from Michelle Muto. If they are anything like THE HAUNTING SEASON, I can't wait to get a hold of them! 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR 

Michelle has always loved storytelling. When she was a child, her favorite stories were of monsters and things that lurked in the dark. Telling stories often frightened her classmates and got her into a lot of trouble with her teachers. They had no sense of humor.

As an adult, Michelle traded her love of writing for the corporate life where she was an IT professional. Today, she's doing what she loves best - writing and storytelling.

Michelle grew up in Chicago, but currently lives in NE Georgia with her husband and their two dogs. She loves scary books, funny movies, sports cars, chocolate, dogs, and changes of season.

Links:

Blog

Twitter

Facebook

Mailing list

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

iTunes

Smashwords

Michelle's Playlist for The Haunting Season

EXCERPT

Something stirred under the bed again and she took a few safe steps away from the bedskirt. 
“Jess!” a child’s voice whispered. Her heart in her throat, Jess bent down and carefully lifted the bedskirt, nearly tumbling backward at the sight. Gracie looked out from under the bed, then slid the Ouija board forward. 
She wasn’t afraid of the girls, but that didn’t make her any less nervous. Jess still rationalized that good ghosts could be trapped in the same location as evil ones. If Grams appeared inside Siler House right now, Jess would still be jumpy. No, what scared her was that the girls had shown up under the bed.
“Geez, Gracie! You scared the crap out of me!”
Gracie’s bottom lip took on a pout. “We didn’t mean to scare you. But she scares us. We’re sorry Allison won’t help you. She doesn’t want to help us, either.”
Jess took in a steadying breath. “It’s okay. I’m fine now. Hey, we were just talking—”
“We said we’d help,” Gracie interrupted, still staring unblinkingly at Jess. She pushed the board forward another inch. “Don’t be mad we took it.”
Jess’s hands shook slightly as she took the Ouija board and planchette Gracie offered her. She’d explain about taking the board to Dr. Brandt later. Maybe he wouldn’t notice if it was gone for a few hours. “Thanks,” Jess managed to say.

Gracie smiled, then scooted backward, disappearing behind the bedskirt. From underneath the mattress came the sound of Gracie and Emma’s echoing laughter.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


Besides the tour-wide giveaway above, I can giveaway one ecopy of THE HAUNTING SEASON! Leave a comment below telling me any ghostly experience you've had, and I'll use random.org to pick a winner on August 1st!



For more chances to win, see the other stops on the tour!

JULY 2013

1st - Fae Books www.FaeBooks.co.uk
2nd - Black Words-White Pages http://blackwords-whitepages1977.blogspot.com/
2nd - Stop #2 - Buried Under Books http://buriedunderbooks1.blogspot.com
3rd - Cu's Ebook Giveaways http://cusauthorspotlights.blogspot.com/
4th - Marcy Rachel Designs http://www.mhttp://www.marcyracheldesigns.com/blog-2
5th - Wicca Witch 4 Book Blog http://wiccawitch4.blogspot.ca/
6th - Indy Book Fairy http://paranormalbookfairy.blogspot.com/ 
7th - Reader's Candy http://readerscandyy.blogspot.com
8th - Love, Literature, Art, and Reason http://meganm922.blogspot.com
9th - From the Writer's Nest http://throughthegateway.blogspot.co.uk/
10th - Gliterary Girl http://gliterarygirl.com
11th - Drunken Space Penguin http://www.drunkenspacepenguin.blogspot.com
12th - Little Read Riding Hood http://littlereadridinghood.com
13th - Jodie Pierce's Ink Slingers Blog http://www.jodiepierceauthor.blogspot.com
13th - Into the Land of Books http://etherealistic-reader.blogspot.com
14th - A_TiffyFit's Reading Corner http://tiffyfit.blogspot.com
15th - Liz Long, Indie Author http://lizclong.com
16th - Tanya's Book Book http://tanyasbooknook.blogspot.com
17th - Authors to Watch http://www.authorstowatch.com
18th - Kelly P's Blog http://kellyatx.blogspot.co.uk/
19th - Fundinmental http://www.fundinmental.com
20th - Inside the Pages of a Book www.insidethepagesofabook.blogspot.com
21st - Cyrstals Many Reviews http://www.crystalsmanyreviews.blogspot.com/
22nd - Ravenz Reviews http://www.ravenzreviews.blogspot.com
23rd - Jein's Journey http://jeinsjourney.blogspot.com
24th - The Bearded Scribe http://thebeardedscribe.blogspot.com
25th - Stanbrookshire www.stanbrookshire.com
26th - Cover Bound http://coverboundbookie.blogspot.com/
27th - Chaotic Reader http://chaoticreader.blogspot.com/
28th - We All Make Mistakes In Books http://weallmakemistakesinbooks.blogspot.com
29th - Room With Books http://www.roomwithbooks.com
30th - 4covert2overt A Day in the Spotlight http://4covert2overt.blogspot.com/
30th - Stop #2 - The (Mis)Adventures of a Twenty-Something...http://themisadventuresofatwentysomething.blogspot.com/
31st - Bianca2b http://bianca2b.wordpress.com

Review: The Wishing Well Curse by Lynn Donovan

The Wishing Well Curse
by Lynn Donovan
Alt Wit Press
May 1, 2013
Length: 363 pages

~ A Gothic - Paranormal Christian Ghost Story ~

Zeke Clay is down on his luck. He’s lost everything—an apartment, an education, a girlfriend, his job…

When a mysterious letter comes from a law firm in Colorado, he decides things just might be looking up. Now he stands to inherit a fortune, but it comes with a price. He must break a family curse and restore true love. What does he know about breaking a curse? And who is this Great Uncle Luther Clayton, who claims Zeke is the one? Can he piece together the clues left by his dearly departed?

Who can he trust? The Apache Indian attorney? Her great nephew? The leather-clad, Harley riding Pastor? Least of all, himself?
What about the Ghosts?

…And why does his three-year-old tattoo bleed every time he gets near the wishing well?



Zeke Clay's adventure starts with crazy events: his girlfriend cheats on him, although there wasn't anything wrong in the relationship or signals to indicate so in his mind. He gets fired/laid off from his job. And...as they say bad things happens in threes: he witnesses an auto accident and the guy he ends up rescuing from drowning in the crash is none other than the guy his girlfriend just cheated with.

Yeah, crappy day to the say the least.

When everything seems like it's falling on Zeke, along comes a mysterious envelope that leads Zeke to the state of Colorado. There, his life takes many exciting turns, which Zeke takes in stride. Zeke is a very easy-going young man, and can be attributed to his mom's influence and his dad's, although Zeke doesn't think much of the man at the time. Of course, later in this story, Zeke comes to appreciate what his dad did for him and with him. In Colorado, at the "family" estate, Zeke learns a lot about his family genealogy, which he had zero knowledge of beforehand. He takes on the challenges on the road to accepting his inheritance that was bestowed upon him by an uncle he never knew he had. Already much more mature than others his age thanks to his parents, Zeke grows into the man he will become.

Not only does Zeke learn about the family's curse that has lasted for over a hundred years, but he learns that he is now responsible for breaking it as a condition of his inheritance.  Sure, he gets help from the people who knew his uncle well, but also from a few he had not counted on. Although as a reader you know all is going to end well, the "how will it end" is still a mystery! And the enjoy-ability (I'm making up a new word, I know :P) of how the tale is laid out to you is what makes a book a good read. Lynn Donovan  masterfully weaves the tale, revealing bit by bit, making the reader (ME! and hopefully you!) eager to read to the end and find out.

This is a fascinating folk-ish tale with its mystery and such, but it's also informative. We learn what the white settlers had done to the native people, the injustices and atrocities forced upon the original people of this land. I like the way that Lynn Donovan informs without preaching, about the wrongs done upon the natives as well as about her beliefs of Christianity. If she had overdone either of these two, it would have been a major turn off to the reader, or at least to this reader as I really do not like proselytizing in my reading. Instead, Donovan artfully weaves it in as part of the story, the morals, so as to appeal to believers and non-believers alike.

Overall, I enjoyed this tale and walked away from it feeling content and happy. I would definitely recommend for those who enjoy YA fiction.

Book Review: Immortal Eclipse by Sherry Soule

Title: Immortal Eclipse
Author: Sherry Soule
Publisher: Disenchanted Publishing
Publishing Date: April 2013
Genre: young adult / new adult, horror, paranormal, romance, chick lit
Editions: ebook (kindle, nook), print
Length: 356 pages

Mystery, Murder, and Manolo Blahnik....A devoted fashionata and practical New Yorker, Skylar Blackwell doesn't believe in the supernatural--until she inherits Summerwind Mansion. . . . When her uncle is brutally murdered, and the cops seem uninterested in following up the case, Skylar journeys to California to seek answers. Her search for clues is soon overshadowed by haunting nightmares of a young woman also murdered in the house. Now the inhabitants of Summerwind are mysteriously dying, leaving no evidence as to how or why, and Skylar finds herself in a deadly race against time to expose the killer--before they strike again. The problem is . . . whoever it is may not be human. Armed with only wit and Pradas, Skylar begins questioning the servants, but the growing list of suspects includes the sexy and brooding caretaker, Dorian, a man desperately trying to forget his tragic past. And a major distraction for Skylar. Determined to play detective--instead of the fashion police--and unravel the dark history of the mansion, Skylar is plunged into an otherworldly mystery that not even she can explain away. As the boundaries between reality and dreams blur, Skylar's greatest challenge is to stay alive long enough to learn the truth.

  

A_TIFFYFIT'S REVIEW First, I should mention that I was gifted an electronic copy by the author in exchange for my honest review.

From the cover and title, I thought that this was going to be another vampire romance: immortal, eclipse (thought of a solar one at first). Then I thought, well maybe it's a werewolf story (immortal, eclipse this time lunar). But NO TO BOTH.

This is a haunted mansion story with ghosts and mystery and romance and violent deaths galore! Skylar is a feisty, fashion-obsessed NYC high-fashion photographer. Her uncle, her last living blood relative, has died and left her a few hundred thousand dollars and a mansion in Carmel, CA. After being fired from her job and realizing she really has nothing in NYC to hold her down, she decides settling her uncle's estate is exactly the change she needs. She packs up her suitcases, gets ready to sublet her apartment, and hops on a plane west. Upon arriving, she crashes her deceased uncle's BMW but escapes with minor injuries. Making her way the last mile to the mansion, she's greeted by hostile staff and a hunky caretaker, Delorian Delacroix, whose family used to own Summerwind, the estate she just inherited.

Creeptacular ghosties and hauntings, cryptic comments, and flashbacks to the past all frustrate Skylar as she lives at Summerwind, deterimined to discover why her uncle died. She knows it sure as hell was not a suicide as Detective Chen believes, especially not as the body count starts to pile up upon her arrival.

Plagued by these memory-like dreams, Skylar starts to doubt her skepticism about the paranormal and the occult and becomes even more determined to solve the mystery of these deaths and get closer to the caretaker, Delorian, all while looking uber-cute in her high fashion clothes.

I liked Skylar from the beginning. She is snarky and just the right level of sarcastic. She's giddy about her namebrand clothing and super cute heels. She's just the right mix of everything: cheery, ditzy at times, fashion-obsessed, determined, loyal, and sweet. I liked the thorough descriptions of her outfits and the joy she has dressing. I suppose some would see her as shallow because of this, but my grandmother and mother always stressed that "clothes are your wings." Come on, ladies, tell the truth: you feel sexy in your "period" underwear or your kickass lingerie? Exactly. And that self-empowerment travels outwards. She isn't wearing anything outlandish or dumb (okay, maybe traversing the woods in heels IS dumb, but they looked cute with those jeans!), she wears practical, comfy, yet stylish clothes. They help her face the day and I loved that about Skylar. Sounds like she's gonna need that inheritance check ASAP to help with her credit card bills now that she's unemployed!

There are some really great moments of creepiness - the description of how the being moves, the moths that haunt Skylar, the things that go bump in the night.

This was such an enjoyable, read-it-all-at-once read. Once I started, I didn't put it down and didn't want to put it down. I wanted to be left alone to find out the secret, find out the mystery, and exclaim to myself phrases like: "Oh, I knew it!" "Ugh, creepy s.o.b." "JUST KISS HER ALREADY, DAMMIT"