Rushed by Brian Harmon

Eric keeps waking up after having the same dream.  He gets dressed and heads for his car with a sense of urgency.  Then he realizes, he has no idea where he's going or why he's going there, so he heads back in to bed.  After a couple of nights, he decides maybe it's best if he just gets in the car and sees where it takes him, to finally put an end to this dream.

Where it leads him is hours away to a place he's never seen before.  As he begins his journey, parts of his dream begin to resurface in his mind.  A sense of terror overtakes him, but he knows the roads are one way and he can't turn around.  He must see this through to the end or die in the process.

When I was in elementary school, we had a storyteller come visit our classroom.  I remember sitting there, avidly listening to this tale that was being told to me.  I couldn't tell you what the story was, but I remember her voice clearly and every nuance of her motions as she held me captive for this story.  It wasn't so much about the story as the storyteller.

When I first began reading this, that's how I felt.  I was once again a small child in a classroom being held captive by a storyteller.  Harmon has a way of telling a story that makes you feel like he's in the very room with you.  While you're reading the words, you can't help but hear them in a concise and clear voice and see each motion and expression as he tells you his story.

It didn't take me long to realize that this is no children's story, however.  This is a man who is terrorized.  He knows he's slated to be a hero, but he's just a regular guy.  Why is this happening to him?  How is his journey even possible?  Most of all, why won't the people he meets along the way give him any information?

The characters are fascinating.  The storytelling kept me spellbound.  It was unpredictable and a wonderfully good fright.  This is a great horror/thriller/paranormal with a nice little twist.  Eric still has his cell phone to tie him to reality during his journey.

Right now on Amazon the Kindle version is free.  You can't beat free!  If you're like me though, you'll have to get the next two in the series as well as soon as you've finished the first.  In Rushed:  The Unseen, Eric sees a famous missing person and his normal and dull life takes him in search of all the hiding places he can come up with.  In Rushed:  Something Wicked, Eric is summoned to protect a coven of witches.  Take a few hours and get to know Eric!

May Fan Follower Giveaway

Each month I like to randomly draw a follower from both here and our Facebook page.  This person becomes our Fan Follower of the Month.  Prestigious award, eh? :)

Actually, it is sort of fun.  It's been really fun watching this progress since we started up our Facebook page a couple of months ago.  In the beginning, I was all gung ho and actually posted a picture of what the winner would receive and everything.  Since then, I've mellowed out.  Go me!

So, what does the winner get besides having us mention their name?  Aww you know mentioning your name is enough!  Right?  Right?  No!  It isn't!  At least not for me!  Instead of showing you each month what the winner will get, it's going to be a surprise!  The prize will be a minimum of $10 value and a maximum of whatever my heart desires.  It will be up to the winner to decide if they want to post what they've won or not!

I want you guys to know I appreciate you.  I couldn't spend all these long hours filled with chatting with authors and publicists and marketers and editors if it weren't for you guys.  You're important to me and you matter.

So, enough with the smooshy stuff!  We have a weekend to get on to!

The winner for the month of may is Carrie Anne Moniak!  This really surprised me, but I'm glad as well!  You see, Carrie is going to be joining us as a trial reviewer for a bit to see if it's a fit for her.  I'm excited to welcome her aboard the Literary Litter team if she chooses to join us.  However, once she's a member of the team, she won't be eligible to win anymore.  So, I think there's a little divine intervention in my rolling of her number!

Congrats, Carrie Anne!  Look for your surprise to be coming soon!!

June Giveaway!

Carrie's Strings N Things is an adorable little Etsy shop.  She specializes in all things Yorkie, but I've seen her work and she's incredibly talented.  It's my firm belief that she can crochet anything!  Plus, she's just a total sweetheart!

Carrie has agreed to do a July Fourth giveaway!  She's donating this beautiful necklace to one lucky winner!  All you have to do to enter is leave a comment below!

We'll draw the winner on June 25th.  That will leave plenty of time for your new beauty to arrive so that you can wear it while celebrating Independence Day!  Or, give it as a surprise gift!

Gingerbread Man by Maggie Shayne

Since the abduction of her sister, Ivy, Holly has been fighting to pull herself back together.  Such a severe trauma has left a mark on her.  The entire town of Dilmun is protecting her though.  Nothing bad ever happens in Dilmun so it's the perfect place for Holly and her mother to live and attempt to heal from the monstrosity that broke their family.

Detective O'Malley is on the trail of a serial killer.  This sick pervert targets young blonde girls.  Children.  After seeing a particularly gruesome crime scene, O'Malley is sent on 'vacation'.  Following the trail of an overdue library book, O'Malley ends up in Dilmun.

Somehow, this serial killer and Ivy's abduction are related.  How is that possible though when Ivy's kidnapper is already in prison?  Will Holly and O'Malley be able to pull things together long enough to stop this killer from striking again?

If you've read anything by Maggie Shayne, then you already know you're in for a compelling read.  Everything she's written that I've read has held me captivated throughout.  I think Gingerbread Man may even be my favorite.

When it comes to mysteries, my biggest pet peeve is predictability.  If I can figure out who the bad guy is right away, and then have to wait for the heroes to catch up to me, it's kind of a huge let down.  It's like watching the same movie over and over. Yes, we know what will happen and we just have to keep watching to make sure we're right.  Blah and Boring!  I'll be honest, I had this one figured out pretty close to the beginning.  However, there were so many subtle ringers tossed in that I didn't know for sure if I was right.  I questioned myself over and over.  Not only that, I had even talked myself out of my belief that a certain person was the killer.  So, when it finally was revealed, I had this wonderful feeling of elation.  I knew it!  Also, I was surprised that I knew it!  It really was Colonel Mustard in the drawing room with the ketchup bottle!  Man!  It could have so easily been Mrs. White or the butler!

The romance portion actually held my interest as well.  Though there are a few 'romantic' scenes, it isn't enough that it detracted from the story for me.  

As for the gruesomeness, it was incredibly well pulled off.  Instead of receiving gory details we're led into a dark hallway full of shadows.  We know basically what's lurking in those shadows, but instead of shining a flashlight on it and rendering it in high detail, Shayne lets our creativity get the best of us.  For me, this is great.  I'm sure that what my brain came up with was much worse than what was actually there.  I love being able to use my imagination while reading instead of having someone hold my hand and tell me exactly what to see.

Though this was released in 2001, don't overlook it.  It's definitely worth the read.  The town of Dilmun and its inhabitants grip you firmly and pull you into their seemingly bright world to help discover the darkness lurking beneath.

The Experiment of Dreams by Brandon Zenner

Ben has been doing sleep studies for as long as he can remember.    He can enter REM sleep faster than other people and he has more lucid dreams.  Now, however, his doctor is retiring.  Just as he's trying to figure out how he'll continue on without the continuity of the sleep studies, another doctor emerges, offering him the opportunity of a lifetime.  LUCY is a new computer being tested out that can record dreams.  Given Ben's track record of dreaming, they want him to test it out.  Not only that, they're willing to pay a hefty price.

This sounds all well and good until several mysteries begin to crop up.  Who is this man who's hired him and how come he never gets to meet him?  Why won't they let him watch videos of his dreams?  And most of all, Ben wonders if he's still sane.

Let me get the negative stuff out of the way first.  In some areas, there was a little too much detail for me.  Don't get me wrong, it's beautifully written and worth the read for the pictures it paints in your mind.  The detail alone is artfully done.  My problem with it is that I was so wrapped up in the story that I didn't want to take my time to sit back and enjoy the artwork.  I wanted to delve headlong into the story.  I was so wrapped up in it that I didn't want to take the patience necessary to savor all of the detail.

This is an excellent character study.  So many times I found myself lost in each character and figuring out how their mind worked.  There are a lot of curve balls thrown here and every time it caused me to sit back and re-evaluate each person.  That being said, I didn't really care about all of the characters.  Thankfully, the characters that I didn't really care about weren't deeply explored so that worked out  nicely.  I'm not sure if Brandon crafted the book this way or if it was a happy accident.  If it was on purpose, Bravo Brandon!

Any time you mess with the brain, you are going to be left with the unexpected and this is no exception.  Even when you think you can predict what's going to happen, you're way off base.  I challenge every one of you to read this book and figure out the ending when you've reached halfway.  Then test yourself to see if you were accurate.  I read.  A lot.  I found myself dropping my Kindle in shock at a few points.  Over thirty years of being an avid reader and I can still be surprised.  It's wonderful :)

If you're interested in a slightly paranormal, deep thinking, involved read, then I definitely suggest this one.  It has all of the key elements to take you away to another world and keep you there.  However, once it releases you and you return to reality, you'll find that a piece of it has wedged itself into you.  Definitely a two thumbs up read for me and I'm anxious to read Brandon's next book!

Collision The Battle for Darracia by Michael Phillip Cash

The Darracia saga continues with all the key players spread out and searching for answers throughout the solar system.  Prince V-sair struggles to hold his fractured kingdom together without help fromhis family.  He stepbrother Zayden is on a vengeful hunt for his evil uncle Staf Nuen.  Tulani navigates her two worlds trying to bring them together.  Staf Nuen, the orchestrator of the original coup, is making unholy alliances with nefarious new allies.  Like the comet zipping across the horizon, all the different factions are heading a collision course that will test both their faith and power.(taken from the back of the book)

Collision picks up right where Schism left off.  As you can read above, everyone is scattered and looking for answers to pull everything back together.  However, the first half of this book is mostly character study.  Each character is picked apart and we can see not only what they're up to, but what's going through their brain.  Cash has a knack for setting up neat little pins in the first half of the book.  The second half of the book is knocking them down swiftly and violently so that they go flying across your mind.

Though I enjoyed the first book, I think I enjoyed this one even more.  You must read Schism before picking this up or you'll be completely lost.  There are so many characters that have so many different stations.  Not only that, this is fantasy.  We have different races with different backgrounds.  In order to understand the political ramifications going on in Collision, you need to know some of the key information from the first book.

Now, the reason I enjoyed this one more, is that it seems to delve deeper into the world and its inhabitants.  We were able to see a little behind the facade of each character and race before, but now we really get to delve into them.  Not only that, our world expands even further.  Cash has done a magnificent job of creating Darracia and the universe surrounding it.  Collision really hammers home what a real place it is.  I'm thankful, however, that I don't live there!  Too much political unrest for me!

You'll find compelling and strong characters in this series.  Strangely enough, I don't like the hero but I find I've grown rather fond of the villain.

We're baaaack!

I'm sure some of you have noticed we've been pretty quiet the past few weeks.  After a few years, I decided it was time to spend a little time at my other home in North Carolina, where the internet is tenuous at best.  Not the entire state, mind you, just where I live.  Most of the state seems to have pretty decent internet, although I didn't check out every single town.  I'm just assuming it's just fine.

We had a beautiful time soaking up some sunshine and enjoying the trees. There was even a huge black snake to keep me company!  Not to fear!  I told him he couldn't come in the house, and he complied.  I'm  not sure if he did so to be polite, or because I kept the doors tightly shut after our encounter!

Anyway, I digress!  We're back!  Honestly, we're pretty far behind but I expect us to be caught up in no time.  Soon we'll be adding some reviewers to the team and that will help us to bring you even more great reviews and giveaways at a faster rate.

I missed you all!  Let's get back to work!