BEA'S BOOK NOOK "I can't imagine a man really enjoying a book and reading it only once." C. S. Lewis “If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.” ― Oscar Wilde

Showing posts with label steampunk. Show all posts
Showing posts with label steampunk. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 3, 2021

Not of This World, or Why Author Cathy Pegau Writes Speculative Fiction



Please welcome Cathy Pegau back to the blog in celebration of her new release, The Demon Equilibrium. It's a steampunk adventure romance, and it's available now. Be sure to come back on Monday for my review. Spoiler - I liked it! 

Not sure about buying the book? If you are in the USA and have access to Hoopla, it's available there! CLICK TO READ.

Thursday, December 31, 2020

Bea Reviews The Dark Archive by Genevieve Cogman


Series:
The Invisible Library #7
Read As A Stand Alone: Possible, but not recommended
Publisher: Ace
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: December 29th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Apple Books* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google Books | Kobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

A professional spy for a mysterious Library which harvests fiction from different realities, Irene faces a series of assassination attempts that threaten to destroy her and everything she has worked for.

Irene is teaching her new assistant the fundamentals of a Librarian's job, and finding that training a young Fae is more difficult than she expected. But when they both narrowly avoid getting killed in an assassination attempt, she decides that learning by doing is the only option they have left - especially when the assassins keep coming for them, and for Irene's other friends as well...

In order to protect themselves, Irene and her friends must do what they do best: search for information to defeat the overwhelming threat they face and identify their unseen enemy. To do that, Irene will have to delve deeper into her own history than she ever has before, face an ancient foe, and uncover secrets that will change her life and the course of the Library forever.

Wednesday, January 8, 2020

Bea Reviews The Secret Chapter by Genevieve Cogman

Series: The Invisible Library #6
Read As A Stand Alone: Yes
Publisher: Ace Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest and unbiased review
Release Date: January 7th, 2020
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository*  | GoogleKobo |
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Time-travelling, dimension-jumping, Librarian-spy Irene and dragon-prince Kai will have to team up with an unlikely band of misfits to pull off an amazing art heist--or risk the wrath of a dangerous villain with a secret island lair.

A Librarian's work is never done, and Irene is summoned to the Library. The world where she grew up is in danger of veering deep into chaos, and she needs to obtain a particular book to stop this from happening. Her only choice is to contact a mysterious Fae information-broker and trader of rare objects: Mr. Nemo.

Irene and Kai make their way to Mr. Nemo's remote Caribbean island and are invited to dinner, which includes unlikely company. Mr. Nemo has an offer for everyone there: he wants them to steal a specific painting from a specific world. But to get their reward, they will have to form a team, including a dragon techie, a Fae thief, a gambler, a driver, and the muscle. Their goal? The Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, in an early twenty-first-century world, where their toughest challenge might be each other.

Wednesday, September 4, 2019

Review, Excerpt & Giveaways: Sword and Pen by Rachel Caine



Series: The Great Library #5
Read As a Stand Alone: No
Publisher: Berkley Books
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 3rd, 2019
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository  | Google BooksiBooks* | Kobo | * affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

With the future of the Great Library in doubt, the unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone must decide if it's worth saving in this thrilling adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.

The corrupt leadership of the Great Library has fallen. But with the Archivist plotting his return to power, and the Library under siege from outside empires and kingdoms, its future is uncertain. Jess Brightwell and his friends must come together as never before, to forge a new future for the Great Library . . . or see everything it stood for crumble.

Tuesday, July 3, 2018

Bea Reviews Ash and Quill & Smoke and Iron, Books 3 & 4 in The Great Library series, by Rachel Caine


Publisher: Berkley Books
Series: The Great Library #3
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: Trade paperback, June 12th, 2018
Buying Links: Amazon* | Barnes & Noble | Book Depository | Google PlayiBooks* | Kobo
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

The unforgettable characters from Ink and Bone and Paper and Fire unite to save the Great Library of Alexandria from itself in this electrifying adventure in the New York Times bestselling series.

Hoarding all the knowledge of the world, the Great Library jealously guards its secrets. But now a group of rebels poses a dangerous threat to its tyranny....

Jess Brightwell and his band of exiles have fled London, only to find themselves imprisoned in Philadelphia, a city led by those who would rather burn books than submit. But Jess and his friends have a bargaining chip: the knowledge to build a machine that will break the Library's rule.

Their time is running out. To survive, they'll have to choose to live or die as one, to take the fight to their enemies--and to save the very soul of the Great Library....


Tuesday, January 9, 2018

Bea Reviews The Lost Plot by Genevieve Cogman

Bea's Book Nook, Review, The Lost Plot, Genevieve Cogman
Series: The Invisible Library #4
Publisher: Ace Books
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 9th, 2018 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iBooks* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

After being commissioned to find a rare book, Librarian Irene and her assistant, Kai, head to Prohibition-era New York and are thrust into the middle of a political fight with dragons, mobsters, and Fae.

In a 1920s-esque New York, Prohibition is in force; fedoras, flapper dresses, and tommy guns are in fashion: and intrigue is afoot. Intrepid Librarians Irene and Kai find themselves caught in the middle of a dragon political contest. It seems a young Librarian has become tangled in this conflict, and if they can't extricate him, there could be serious repercussions for the mysterious Library. And, as the balance of power across mighty factions hangs in the balance, this could even trigger war.

Irene and Kai are locked in a race against time (and dragons) to procure a rare book. They'll face gangsters, blackmail, and the Library's own Internal Affairs department. And if it doesn't end well, it could have dire consequences on Irene's job. And, incidentally, on her life.

Monday, January 16, 2017

Bea Reviews The Burning Page by Genevieve Cogman

Bea's Book Nook, Review, The Burning Page, Genevieve Cogman
Series: The Invisible Library #3 
Publisher: ROC
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: January 10th, 2017
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Librarian spy Irene and her apprentice Kai return for another “tremendously fun, rip-roaring adventure,” (A Fantastical Librarian) third in the bibliophilic fantasy series from the author of The Masked City.
 
Never judge a book by its cover...
 
Due to her involvement in an unfortunate set of mishaps between the dragons and the Fae, Librarian spy Irene is stuck on probation, doing what should be simple fetch-and-retrieve projects for the mysterious Library. But trouble has a tendency of finding both Irene and her apprentice, Kai—a dragon prince—and, before they know it, they are entangled in more danger than they can handle...

Irene’s longtime nemesis, Alberich, has once again been making waves across multiple worlds, and, this time, his goals are much larger than obtaining a single book or wreaking vengeance upon a single Librarian. He aims to destroy the entire Library—and make sure Irene goes down with it.

With so much at stake, Irene will need every tool at her disposal to stay alive. But even as she draws her allies close around her, the greatest danger might be lurking from somewhere close—someone she never expected to betray her.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

Bea Reviews The Masked CIty by Genevieve Cogman

Bea's Book Nook, Review, The Masked CIty, Genevieve Cogman
Series: Invisible Library #2
Publisher: Roc
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 6th, 2016
Challenges: Finishing the Series Reading Challenge
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Librarian-spy Irene and her apprentice Kai are back in the second in this “dazzling”* book-filled fantasy series from the author of The Invisible Library.
 
The written word is mightier than the sword—most of the time...
 
Working in an alternate version of Victorian London, Librarian-spy Irene has settled into a routine, collecting important fiction for the mysterious Library and blending in nicely with the local culture. But when her apprentice, Kai—a dragon of royal descent—is kidnapped by the Fae, her carefully crafted undercover operation begins to crumble.

Kai’s abduction could incite a conflict between the forces of chaos and order that would devastate all worlds and all dimensions. To keep humanity from getting caught in the crossfire, Irene will have to team up with a local Fae leader to travel deep into a version of Venice filled with dark magic, strange coincidences, and a perpetual celebration of Carnival—and save her friend before he becomes the first casualty of a catastrophic war.

But navigating the tumultuous landscape of Fae politics will take more than Irene’s book-smarts and fast-talking—to ward off Armageddon, she might have to sacrifice everything she holds dear....

Wednesday, July 13, 2016

Mini Reviews: The Invisible Library by Genevieve Cogman & From A High Tower by Mercedes Lackey

Series: The Invisible Library #1
Publisher: Roc
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: June 14, 2016
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | OmniLit*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Collecting books can be a dangerous prospect in this fun, time-traveling, fantasy adventure from a spectacular debut author.
 
One thing any Librarian will tell you: the truth is much stranger than fiction...

Irene is a professional spy for the mysterious Library, a shadowy organization that collects important works of fiction from all of the different realities. Most recently, she and her enigmatic assistant Kai have been sent to an alternative London. Their mission: Retrieve a particularly dangerous book. The problem: By the time they arrive, it's already been stolen.

London's underground factions are prepared to fight to the death to find the tome before Irene and Kai do, a problem compounded by the fact that this world is chaos-infested—the laws of nature bent to allow supernatural creatures and unpredictable magic to run rampant. To make matters worse, Kai is hiding something—secrets that could be just as volatile as the chaos-filled world itself.

Now Irene is caught in a puzzling web of deadly danger, conflicting clues, and sinister secret societies. And failure is not an option—because it isn’t just Irene’s reputation at stake, it’s the nature of reality itself...

FEATURING BONUS MATERIAL: including an interview with the author, a legend from the Library, and more!

Saturday, January 9, 2016

Short & Sweet: Bea Reviews Maddie Hatter by Jayne Barnard


Publisher: Tyche Books, Inc.
Source: the publisher in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: September 20, 2015 
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | Smashwords*  | iTunes* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Miss Maddie Hatter, renegade daughter of a powerful Steamlord, is scraping a precarious living as a fashion reporter when the story of a lifetime falls into her lace-gloved hands.

Baron Bodmin, an adventurer with more failed quests than fingernails, has vanished in circumstances that are odd even for him.

While he is supposedly hunting the fabled Eye of Africa diamond in the Nubian desert, his expeditionary airship is found adrift off the coast of England. Maddie was the last reporter to see the potty peer alive. If she can locate the baron or the Eye of Africa, her career will be made.

Outraged investors and false friends complicate her quest, and a fiendish figure lurks in the shadows, ready to snatch the prize . . . at any price.

Friday, August 1, 2014

Bea Reviews Memento Mori by Katy O'Dowd

Publisher: Untold Press
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: the author in exchange for an honest review
Release Date: April 15, 2014
Buying Links: Amazon* | Book Depository* | ARe*/OmniLit | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords*
* affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission from purchases made through these links.

Blurb from goodreads:

Take tea with the Victorian Mafia – organized crime has never been so civilized

Revenge is a dish best served cold. At the Lamb residence, it is also served on fine bone china.
The untimely demise of Thaddeus Lamb leaves his son Riley in charge of the vast Lamb empire, which imports tea, picks pockets, extorts, and keeps men warm on cold winter's nights. And so the Lambs grieve for their father in the best way they know how… Retribution.
Hired by the new head of the Fox Family, a position recently vacated by another untimely demise, the assassin O'Murtagh is tasked with the utter destruction of all the Lamb Family's business associates. They learn the hard way that there is no better hit man than a beautiful woman with tricks and weapons up her finely coiffed sleeves.
Treachery and deceit abound in the streets of London, and no one is safe. Honestly, it's enough to make anyone drink. Would you care for one lump or two?

Saturday, March 22, 2014

Jax Reviews Mark of the Dragonfly by Jaleigh Johnson


Publisher: Random House Children's Books
Release date: March 25, 2014
Format: ebook
Source: From publisher in exchange for an honest review
Buying links: Amazon*  Barnes & Noble The Book Depository*
*affiliate links; the blog receives a small commission for purchases made through the links.


Blurb from goodreads:
 
Fans of The City of Ember will love The Mark of the Dragonfly, an adventure story set in a magical world that is both exciting and dangerous.
   Piper has never seen the Mark of the Dragonfly until she finds the girl amid the wreckage of a caravan in the Meteor Fields.
   The girl doesn't remember a thing about her life, but the intricate tattoo on her arm is proof that she's from the Dragonfly Territories and that she's protected by the king. Which means a reward for Piper if she can get the girl home.
   The one sure way to the Territories is the 401, a great old beauty of a train. But a ticket costs more coin than Piper could make in a year. And stowing away is a difficult prospect--everyone knows that getting past the peculiar green-eyed boy who stands guard is nearly impossible.
   Life for Piper just turned dangerous. A little bit magical. And very exciting, if she can manage to survive the journey.

Monday, November 25, 2013

Quote-Tastic #26 Unimpressive, a dangly sausage...with hair


Join us every Monday and share a favorite quote that's grabbed you for one reason or another. Everyone's welcome to join in. 

Authors, bloggers, readers. The more the merrier! 
Just grab the button and put up your post :) 
Don't have a blog? No worries, just leave your favorites in the comment section.  
Today's quote is from "Curtsies & Conspiracies" by Gail Carriger, part of her Finishing School series which is a spin-off of her Parasol Protectorate series. Snark, etiquette, espionage, and supernatural creatures - lots of good fun.


"We are training to handle such things for the rest of our lives. You are training to be evil geniuses. Table settings and the likeare regarded, I am sure, as beneath you."

"You are disposed to see this as careless?" wondered Pillover.

"Some things are more important than they seem. Note, for example, that by having larger flowers in taller vases, you can prevent people from conversing across the table, thus confining them to their dinner partners. Wider arrangements with cascading ferns, and you might even pass notes or objects to a dining companion without anyone the wiser."

***************************************************

The girls, all forty-five of them, trooped down to a lower deck. They had their weekly lesson with Captain Niall. There was a palpable waft of excitement, not to mention perfume, as the werewolf was most every young lady's favorite teacher. He was also, by far, the handsomest.

Sophronia liked him, too, even though she knew the floppy, easygoing military man was a sham. In his werewolf guise, he'd tried to kill her and savaged her best horsehair petticoat instead. He'd been moon-mad at the time, but she'd never quite forgiven the lapse, nor the loss of the petticoat. Like a proper gentleman, the good captain never made mention of the undergarment murder.

***************************************************
Sidheag was going to make Agatha say it out loud. The red-head whispered, "No, what's a man like down there?"
"Oh." Sidheag wrinkled her nose. "Unimpressive. They have"--she gestured toward her own nether regions with one hand--a sort of dangly sausage-lacks tailoring."

Sophronia blinked in surprise. That sounded worse than Sidheag's description of a werewolf shift. She hadn't seen any of the sooties that close up. "Really?"

"Yes, like it wasn't fitted into it's casing properly. And hairy. "Sidheag was enjoying shocking them.


Enhanced by Zemanta


Sunday, June 23, 2013

Review of Different Dragons, edited by Dana Bell

Publisher: Wolfsinger Pubs
Format Read: Kindle book
Source: Purchased with a coupon provided by one of the authors, J.A. Campbell, in exchange for an honest review.
Release Date: April 23, 2013
Buying Links: Smashwords | Amazon* | Barnes & Noble
* affiliate link; clicking & purchasing results in a small commission for the blog.


Blurb from Smashwords:
 Ancient reptiles escaped the great flood via a portal and now wish to return.

In the desert a dragon lures children, animals and adults to its lair, and only a brave dog can rescue them.


A dragon arises in China and seeks to keep its hoard, while two con men try to steal it. 


Searching for his father, a young man solves an ancient riddle and discovers an awful dragon truth.


Nanites, demons, and other mythical creatures join or battle the dracos, as do the humans who encounter them. 


These and other tales await within these pages, because here - be Different Dragons 

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

GC Giveaway & An Excerpt from A Matter of Circumstance and Celludrones by Claire Robyns



I have another excerpt for you, this one from a Victorian Steampunk Paranormal. The author, Claire Robyns, lives in Berkshire, England, with her husband and twin boys. For so long as she has memories, she was either reading, dreaming about reading, or planning what she'd be reading next. Then one day she started dreaming about writing and that was the beginning of an amazing journey.



When Claire isn't thigh-deep in laundry, shopping, cooking and general crowd control, you'll find her head-and-heart-deep in the tangled lives of her characters.



Find Claire online:

website
twitter
facebook 


*************************************************************

EXCERPT


Evelyn was even more intrigued when she entered the drawing room. Not only was Lily’s mysterious gentleman the scrumptious Lord Adair from the previous night, but the two of them looked as if they’d been caught in flagrante. Lord Adair’s neck cloth looked as if it had been tied in unseemly haste—by a blind man. Lily’s skirts were scuffed and wrinkled and her bodice wasn’t sitting quite straight.

Lily left his side to meet Evelyn halfway across the room.

“If I’d known you were being ravished by Lord Dashing down here,” Evelyn declared in a whisper, “I would have stayed up there—” she raised her eyes to the ceiling “—another twenty minutes.”

“Don’t be absurd.” Lily’s hands flew to her hair.

“It’s your skirts that need patting down.” She linked her arm in Lily’s and strolled in the direction of Lord Adair, keeping her voice low. “What did he do? Drag you into the woods and toss you over a log?”

Lily went white in the face.

“By God.” Evelyn surged forward. “I’ll deal with the bloody Scotsman.”

“Evie, no, wait.” Lily dug her heels in. “Nothing happened. Must you always latch onto the most preposterous conclusions?”

Evelyn’s brows drew tight. Something felt wrong, but her friend made a valid point. She was rash and brash, a fact she’d never denied. She kept her sharp tongue on a leash and turned a smile on the man instead as they drew close. “How charming, Lord Adair, I was hoping we’d see more of you.”

“Lady Harchings.” He inclined his head in greeting.

Clearly not trusting her to keep the peace, Lily inserted breathlessly, “I was just telling Lady Harchings that we were riding in the park—”

“And your horses tossed both of you?” Evelyn couldn’t resist.

Lily rewarded her with a glare. “We were in Lord Adair’s carriage, but, um, yes, a rabbit or fox must have run across the path because one of the horses took fright—”

“You really should train them better,” Evelyn told him.

“The rabbits or the horses?” Lord Adair riposted dryly, his eyes never leaving Lily and a grin tugging at his mouth.

*************************************************************


A Matter Of Circumstance and Celludrones by Claire Robyns
Publisher: Claire Robyns
Series: Dark Matters #1
Genre: Steampunk, romance
Formats: ebook, paperback
Length: 563 KB, 208 pages
Release Date: September 24, 2012
Buying Links: Barnes & Noble | Amazon


Claire will be awarding a $50 Amazon gift card to two randomly drawn commenters during the tour.  If you follow the tour and comment; the more you comment, the better your chances of winning. The tour dates can be found here:

 

Saturday, March 23, 2013

Review of Etiquette and Espionage by Gail Carriger

Publisher: Little, Brown and Company
Series: Finishing School #1
Format Read: Hardcover
Release Date: February 5, 2013
Buying Links:  Amazon  Barnes & Noble  The Book Depository

Book Blurb from goodreads:
It's one thing to learn to curtsy properly. It's quite another to learn to curtsy and throw a knife at the same time. Welcome to Finishing School.
Fourteen-year-old Sophronia is a great trial to her poor mother. Sophronia is more interested in dismantling clocks and climbing trees than proper manners—and the family can only hope that company never sees her atrocious curtsy. Mrs. Temminick is desperate for her daughter to become a proper lady. So she enrolls Sophronia in Mademoiselle Geraldine's Finishing Academy for Young Ladies of Quality.
 
But Sophronia soon realizes the school is not quite what her mother might have hoped. At Mademoiselle Geraldine's, young ladies learn to finish...everything. Certainly, they learn the fine arts of dance, dress, and etiquette, but they also learn to deal out death, diversion, and espionage—in the politest possible ways, of course. Sophronia and her friends are in for a rousing first year's education.

Set in the same world as the Parasol Protectorate, this YA series debut is filled with all the saucy adventure and droll humor Gail Carriger's legions of fans have come to adore.


Bea's Thoughts:

I very much enjoyed Carriger's Parasol and Protectorate series. I'm not a big YA reader so I wasn't sure if I'd read this series but the book trailer, the cover and the blurb sold me. I knew I had to give it a shot.

While I enjoyed this book, I didn't love it. It had moments of humor in the same vein as the Parasol Protectorate but it was missing something. The world building was adequate, I enjoyed seeing the younger Sidheag and Genevieve, but there were unlikely coincidences and a few too many predictable events. The resolution of the mystery was rushed, humorous, and a little too neat.

I did like the details Carriger used; if you haven't read the Parasol Protectorate series, you're not at a loss. Carriger fills in the details and fleshes out the world nicely. There are even more Steampunk elements (though the scene in the school's records room was over the top and unnecessary. A more typical filing system would have made more sense.) There's a definite British feel to the story and Carriger still has the knack for sending up customs and mores.

I enjoyed the character of Sophronia and seeing the changes in her though her type is nothing new - tomboy, free-spirited girl is thrust into social situation, ie finishing school, that she's not prepared for, makes enemy of popular girl, befriends the underdogs and people in low paces, etc. Still, she's interesting and enjoyable and so is the cast of characters. I liked that Carriger does us show more of what life is like for both the lower upper-class and the actual lower-class which we didn't really get in the Parasol Protectorate except for occasional glimpses of Ivy's life. I was also happy to see the inclusion of a person of color. Right now Soap (it's a nickname) is mostly cardboard but I have hopes he'll develop as the series goes on. I enjoyed this book enough that I'll definitely pick up the next book.

Some fun quotes:
"Mummy and Daddy want him to be an evil genius, but he has his heart set on Latin verse."..."Face it, Pill, you're disappointingly good." "Oh, I like that! And you're so evil? Why, you want to get married and be a lady." (Later we get references to levels of evil geniuses such as discourteous genius and spiteful genius.)
"We had lessons in knife-fighting from a werewolf." "Werewolf? Bully! We don't have any supernaturals here. It's quite a dearth in the deanship if you ask me. Any reputable school ought to have at least one vampire professor. Eton has three. You lot are only girls, you've a vampire and a werewolf. Jolly unfair, that's what I call it." 
"Algebra was far more interesting when it was a matter of proportioning out mutton chops so as to poison only half of one's dinner guests and then determining the relative value of purchasing a more expensive, yet more effective, antidote over a home remedy."

I borrowed this from my local library.

Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Excerpt & Giveaway: Revenge of the Mad Scientist by Lara Nance


Revenge of the Mad Scientist by Lara Nance ~
 When Lady Arabella Trunkett’s father, the High Lord Minister of Urbannia is kidnapped, all clues point to the mysterious country of Gandiss and the world is thrown into political upheaval.

Arabella is convinced the more sinister nation of Carabarras is to blame, urged on by a mad scientist seeking revenge. So, she sets out on a perilous airship journey across a variety of exotic locales to save him, and halt the potential world war.

But airship pirates, secret assassins and slave traders aren’t her only trials. The fickle hand of fate has made the captain of the only airship available for charter, the man who left her at the altar. For eight years she's wished him dead. Now he's her only hope.
Genre: Steampunk, Romance, Mystery
Format: ebook, paperback
Length: 545 KB, 268 pages
Release Date: August 13, 2012
Buy Links:  Amazon  Barnes & Noble

************************************************************************
 About the author: 


Lara Nance grew up and lived in many cites throughout the South. She loves to write in a variety of genres, but the basis of all of her stories is a great tale that will take you on an adventure of imagination.

If you want to escape and lose yourself in a novel, you've come to the right place. Choose your genre and settle in to be entertained. From thrilling mysteries and steampunk tales, to paranormal romance and adventure, she's willing to explore a variety of compelling stories full of danger and suspense, along with a touch of romance.

Having been on the fencing team in college and now living on a sailboat convinces her that she was a pirate in another life, or possibly kin to Errol Flynn… However, due to the unfortunate demise of the romantic pirates of the past, she lives out her fantasies, thrills and adventures in her stories. Lara loves to weave interesting true historical tidbits into her fiction which invite the reader to explore further after the novel is finished.

Currently docked in Norfolk, Virginia (until the wind changes) Lara enjoys living on her sailboat and spends time reading, of course writing, indulging a variety of artistic endeavors, cooking and sailing with her husband, Joe and their Yorkie, Rio.






************************************************************************

 Excerpt

Another scream sounded and then another. A group of people blocked her view and she didn’t hesitate in pushing them aside. She gasped when she reached a body sprawled on the floor and noted a trail of red blood tracking from a side room. She recognized the injured man as Conrad Bellows, her father’s assistant. Horrified, her champagne glass slipped from her fingers and shattered on the marble.

She pushed another man out of her way. What the hell was wrong with everyone standing around like statues while a man needed help? She knelt at Conrad's side. A knife protruded from his back but when she put her fingers on his neck she found him still alive, thank God. He struggled to his side and blinked as he looked up at her.

“Gone,” he whispered. “So…sorry, My Lady…gone.”

“Who is gone, Conrad?” She put a hand on his shoulder as panic shot through her.

“You’re, fa, fa, father…they took him.”

“What? Who took him?”
 

“Ahh, all in black, don’t know…” He closed his eyes and then slumped on the floor, unconscious.

Belle sucked in a sharp breath. She jumped to her feet and spun around. “Someone call for a doctor and help Mr. Bellows. Where’s my father?”


************************************************************************

Lara will be awarding an autographed original map of Arabella's steampunk world to a randomly drawn commenter at each tour stop, and a $50 Amazon gift card and an original steampunk necklace to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour.

Grand Prize Necklace

If people sign up for her newsletter on her website from Jan 29 - Feb 3, they will be entered for an autographed copy of her book as well as an original steampunk necklace.

Newsletter Sign Up Prize

Follow the tour - http://goddessfishpromotions.blogspot.com/2012/12/virtual-super-book-blast-revenge-of-mad.html