This Week's Featured Books!

Thanks to everyone for being part of Making Connections! Here are the featured books for this week. Follow the link to get a copy of the book to review.
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  1. I WAS IN LOVE WITH A SHORT MAN ONCE: And Other Tales from a Crazy Southern Irish Gal by Kimberly J Dalferes, Humor

Have you ever wondered if the life of the woman standing next to you in the check-out line is as weird as yours? Could it be possible that you are trapped in a bizarre reality show, where the object of the game is to get the crazy lady to flip-out; just one more time? If so, then this book confirms that you are in good company. I Was In Love With a Short Man Once is a story collection written from the perspective of a crazy, southern, Irish, gal.

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2. TESLA by Mark Lingane, Steampunk

Set a millennia in the future, nuclear war has wiped out much of civilization in the northern hemisphere. The planet has slowly been getting hotter and water is becoming a rare resource. Out of the ruins of a civilization that has collapsed in on itself, have arisen a new breed of people - those with the power to control magnetism.


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3. ADAPTATION by G. C. Huxley, Fiction

The battle to live in sync with the environment may not be with the planet… A tale of love and other human achievements. Set in an imminently possible future, cultures collide when two teenagers of a Rural Tribe are forced to deal with the arrival of Kali, a City Raider. Can she help their home avoid inevitable disaster, or is she bringing it upon them all? Any apocalypse is irrelevant when compared to those that you love, and adaptation is eternal.

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4. THRILL by Wendy Potocki, Horror

SOME RIDES SHOULD NEVER BE TAKEN ... Kyle Evans is a teenager who wants to be somebody. To achieve his goal, he joins a gang called Hell's Bells. While he thinks he's arrived, he only finds danger. The club is obsessed with finding thrills and taking chances, but Kyle’s unaware that there’s a price to pay. Up for a dare, he accepts a challenge that lands him on the wrong side of the supernatural.

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Happy Reading!!

All of the books we feature are available free for review in the Making Connections group. If you're interested in adding your book for review in our group, here's a link with more info:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/107159?group_id=60696



Make connections in our other groups!
Making Connections YA Group
Making Connections NA Edition

This Week's Featured Books - YA Edition!

Thanks to everyone for being part of Making Connections YA Edition! Here are the featured books for this week. Follow the link to get a copy of the book to review.
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1. FLUTE OF THE WIND QUEEN (Outlander Leander #1) by Eisah, Science Fiction

Leander is an energetic young man who wants to become a treasure hunter. When his dad is deployed he sees it as an opportunity to go on his first adventure; which unfortunately leads him straight into enemy territory. All ambition and no skill or experience, he stumbles his way around enemy camps to find the famous relic the Wind Queen left behind.

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2. ANDY VENTURE AND THE BIG BLOB OF SLIME by Collin Berry, Children's Fiction

When one of Andy Venture's lab experiments goes horribly wrong, a giant slime creature is created that threatens the entire city...and its citizens. Andy must use his brilliant mind and incredible inventions to stop his own creation before it's too late. Can this fourth grader figure out a way to save the people of his city from certain destruction? Or will the big blob of slime take over?

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3. WATER (Elements of Power #2) by Heather James, Fantasy  
Water pooled around my feet, rising at an alarming rate. I stared - panicked - at the palms of my hands, willing the water gushing out of them to stop as miraculously as it had begun. I only sneezed! Jasmine is struggling to control her new powers, causing floods and fires with an accidental flick of her wrist. In a desperate attempt to master at least one aspect of them, she travels to the Brizan Realm, where she comes closer to discovering the truth about her parents than ever before. But not everyone wants their secrets revealed.

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4. WHITE HEART (Merrydian's Gate #1) by A.E. Wright, Fantasy

When Violet Knight finished her ordinary day’s work, she could never have imagined the strange island she found herself on that very same night. Falinn Galdur is an island where magic, mystical creatures and supernatural beings exist, hidden from the world Violet knows. It is an island only accessible through a mystic portal no ordinary person could have opened but Violet is no ordinary person.

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Happy Reading!!

All of the books we feature are available free for review in the Making Connections - YA Edition! group. If you're interested in adding your book for review in our group, here's a link with more info:
http://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/123116?group_id=69681



Make connections in our other groups!
Making Connections Group
Making Connections NA Edition

Sour by Uzuri M. Wilkerson

Sour (Bitten #2)
by Uzuri M. Wilkerson

Sharing blood with a vampire can be exhilarating. You experience a high like no other. You feel invincible. The encounter changes your world.

It can also be deadly.

After a traumatic incident with the rogue vampire Milo, Celia agrees to let Victor taste her. They enter into a bond like no other. When their connection allows her to witness things that she wouldn’t normally see, Celia begins to doubt her decision to share his blood. Victor has never seen Celia’s uncanny gift in another human, prompting him to search for a way to harness her abilities. In the meantime, Celia finds herself watching her back for dangerous vampires hungry for her scent; her cousin’s arrival in town begs many questions; a badly-injured newborn vampire and a pushy new coworker cause her to question her relationship with Victor.

All of your favorite characters return in this racy and thrilling second volume of Uzuri M. Wilkerson’s Bitten series. Sweet introduced you to Celia’s complicated relationship; Sour reveals the consequences.

Kindle Edition, 293 pages
Published November 17th 2013 by Aziza Publishing

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                                                    Q & A with Uzuri M. Wilkerson

Q:  Tell us a little bit about your main characters.
A:  Celia is a young bartender at a fictional bar in downtown Boston. She is in a relationship with Victor, a 100-year-old vampire. She really enjoys being with Victor. Their passion is evident, as well as the fact that they care about each other very much. However, their relationship has had its ups and downs (whose doesn't, really?) caused by dangerous vampires and one extremely dogmatic hunter named Jay. In Sour, more obstacles present themselves in the forms of an injured newborn vampire who has her eyes on Victor, a deadly group of hunters targeting the undead, and Celia's unexpected reactions to sharing blood with Victor after a traumatic encounter. There's something different about Celia that sets her a part from other humans. Together with Victor, she sets out to find out what exactly it is that's causing her own mysterious supernatural abilities.

Q:  What was your favorite scene to write?

A:  There's a scene where Celia is upset and speaking with Jay. His advice does not go over so well with her, to put it mildly. Jay has strong opinions about vampires and doesn't like that Celia is associating with one, let alone dating one. He's not very good at hiding his disdain and it comes out when he's trying to comfort her in this scene. I like that he challenges Celia about her actions when she wants to stay in denial.

Q:  What do you see as influences on your writing style?
A:  Well, I love to watch movies and television. I also did some video and TV production in the past. Those are very visual mediums. I love when books are visual and I think being able to see your story and characters through a mental "lens" helps to add more depth for the readers.

Q:  What do you see as the biggest challenge for new authors and what have you been doing to overcome that?
A:  Publicity is the toughest. There is a lot of networking. I send a lot of emails and I go to different places to set up connections and hopefully sell my book. I'm also going to restart my search for an agent. I would love to have someone else worrying about publicity and marketing so that I can focus on writing.

Q:  If you could have any superpower, what would you choose and why?

A:  I think teleportation, like Victor. What a great way to travel! And cheap!
 

Q:  What do you do to unwind and relax?

A:  I catch up on my TV shows or go to the movies. Or I go to the mall when I get stir crazy. I'm also teaching myself to knit.

Q:  Hard/paperbacks or eBooks?

A:  Actual books, all the way. I've started doing some eBooks lately, mostly new authors because that's the format they offer but I will always prefer real books.

Q:  What book are you reading now?
A:  "Thinner" by Stephen King.

 

Uzuri Wilkerson was born in Atlanta, Georgia. Her family moved to Boston when she was nine years old. She is the second oldest of five. She has always had a love of storytelling. When she was younger, one could always find her with a notebook filled with poems and short stories. She enjoys reading a variety of fictional genres, including chick lit, paranormal, and thrillers. She’s also an avid television junkie.

Uzuri studied screenwriting at Wellesley College, where she learned to craft short scripts and videos. After graduating, she eventually moved back to fiction. She completed Sweet in 2009—the first volume of the “Bitten” series about a turf war in Boston between vampires and hunters. She signed on with Aziza Publishing during the summer of 2011.

Even today, one could find her with a notebook filled with story ideas.

uzzielove@gmail.com

www.uzurimwilkerson.com

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This Week's Featured Books!

Thanks to everyone for being part of Making Connections! Here are the featured books for this week. Follow the link to get a copy of the book to review.
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1. SACRED LIGHT SPIRIT EAGLE: My Visionary Life and Near Death Experience by Cristael Ann Bengtson

At the age of seventeen, after enduring a series of complex legal and personal battles that threatened to destroy her family, Cristael Ann Bengtson had a brilliant vision of the great Eye of God. This was the beginning of a lifetime of visionary experiences that supported and strengthened Cristael on a life journey that ranged from a challenging career as an elementary classroom teacher, to becoming a trained lyric coloratura soprano, to working as an extra on Hollywood movie and television sets. That great intelligent Eye of Light brought Cristael serenity and guidance as she went through a divorce, raised two sons as a single mom, and took care of her own mother during her final illness. Then, in December of 1998, Cristael had a glorious and ineffable near death experience, which brought her healing and a long-term renewal of body, mind, and spirit. Ranging from the solitude of the mountains of New Mexico to the glamorous sets of Hollywood, brimming with love, sorrow, loss, and laughter, Sacred Light Spirit Eagle paints a vivid portrait of two worlds, the finite and the infinite, as seen through the eyes of a visionary. This warm and wise memoir shares a rich understanding of the true nature of death from the point of view of a near-death experiencer.

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2. 21 HOURS by Dustin Stevens

Felix "O" O'Connor is an ex-con from central Ohio that has spent the seven years since being released from prison working on a ranch in the Big Horn Mountains of Wyoming. Rarely does he venture out into the world and never does it come looking for him. Both of those things change when his twin sister Alexa "Lex" Borden calls from Columbus, Ohio to ask for his help.

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3. FALLEN EMBERS by C.S. Marks

Who could have foreseen he would ever encounter the one who would change his life forever?  But He Does.  How much of a man's world, how much of his life will he risk to possess everything he has ever wanted?  From the creator of the beloved World of Alterra comes a tale of passion and determination, of sacrifice and courage.  Rain has found a foe he cannot overcome with sword or strategy.  Now he must battle an enemy none can defeat.  Now he will battle Fate itself.

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4. DREAM by Robbi Sommers Bryant

Veronica Armatti, a hairdresser and infatuation addict, has managed to strike the perfect balance between her daily existence and her overpowering desires. Veronica's husband, Joe, tolerates her addiction as long as he doesn't know the details. Veronica decides to get her latest fix with Andrew, an artist she meets at a grocery store. Andrew inducts Veronica into a mysterious and hypnotic dream world, where the powerful Devan entices her into his tribe of shape shifters, and where dreams and reality mingle in a deadly, intricate dance of survival.

Find out more and sign up to review here
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Happy Reading!!

All of the books we feature are available free for review in the Making Connections group. If you're interested in adding your book for review in our group, here's a link with more info:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group_folder/107159?group_id=60696



Make connections in our other groups!
Making Connections YA GroupMaking Connections NA Edition