My Review of A Scrying Shame by Donna White Glaser

This was a fun read! I really enjoyed this book!
Arie (whose real name we never learn because she actually goes by her initials R.E.--hence the "Arie") is our main character, and she was recently murdered. But don't worry! When we meet her, she has recently been resuscitated. No, she's not a ghost or anything like that. She's just one of those people who saw a light at the end of the tunnel and then got shoved right back down here into reality.
The problem is, she really liked being dead. But now that she's alive again, she can't stop thinking about how much she liked the other side. She's majorly depressed. She's lost her job, about to lose her home, and possibly her sanity. To her, death doesn't sound like a bad idea at all.

A bloody good read!

To try and make ends meet, Arie takes a job with a crew that cleans up crime scenes.  She moves in with her "Grumpa" (who is a riot) and tries to get her life back together. However, pretty quickly into the job, she discovers she has a skill she didn't have before she died--she can scry.
Now, I wasn't particularly familiar with that term, even though I know a lot about mediums and psychics, etc. Scrying is being able to see visions in someone else's blood. When Arie comes into contact with the blood of a famous author who is murdered in her condo, she starts to have visions that lead her to the killer. Even though it doesn't seem like a good idea to become involved, Arie becomes more and more entangled until she finds herself in a very dangerous position.
Along the way, we meet her hilarious best friend and a handsome police detective whom I couldn't get enough of. Arie is funny and quirky, which made her instantly likable. I love the way Glaser tells a story. Despite what could have been a heavy subject, this was actually a fun read, and I'm looking forward to reading the sequel.
If you like stories with a little bit of everything--some supernatural, some mystery, some romance, some fun gal pal interactions--then you should check this one out. You can find it here and the price is currently $1.99 which is a great price for a good book with lots of five star reviews. Check it out and then let me know what you think in the comments!
Phew! I'm all caught up on my posts now! I actually have about 25 books in my TBR pile now (not to mention the 4000 other books on my Kindle that are TBRWIGAC (to be read when I get a chance). I hope to have another post by the end of next week!
Any recommendations for what I should read next?

My Review of Raven's Peak by Lincoln Cole

I highly recommend you read Raven's Peak (World's on Fire Book 1) by Lincoln Cole, but I wouldn't recommend you do what I did--read it late at night and then try to go to sleep. It's no wonder I've been so tired this week....
The story opens with the Reverend (a.k.a. Arthur) being released from prison to try and find his adopted daughter who is believed to be dead. Cole quickly draws us into his world, and we find out that Arthur is actually a demon hunter, as is his daughter. The prologue ends with Arthur finding his daughter and trading his soul to a demon so that she can be released.

Raven's Peak--don't read it at night!

Fast forward a few weeks and we are introduced to our actual main characters--Haatim, a young man who is trying to balance his religious believes with the loss of his sister, and Abigail, who happens to be Arthur's daughter, the one he traded his soul for. And she is also a demon hunter.
Fate brings these two together, and they end up in the small town of Raven's Peak, Colorado, where a demon has come to play. Abigail and Haatim have to act fast if they are to save the innocent citizens of Raven's Peak from the demon. They will risk their lives and their souls for people they don't know to try to stop total destruction from either the demon or the Council, the organization Abigail works for who are insistent that the demon not escape, no matter the cost.
I really liked this book a lot. While I'm usually more of a vampire hunter kinda girl (paranormal romance is my jam, or whatever the kids are saying these days) I do like a good action scene. Abigail is ferocious and courageous. Haatim is like just about every mere mortal I know--terrified and ready to run away. I can identify with Abigail because I'd like to be her. I can identify with Haatim because I'm probably more like him. In the end, his actions would make any mother proud.
This is a well-told story that will keep you turning pages late into the night (which is a problem if you want to sleep after you put it down!) and Cole finely crafts the plot to keep it moving and interesting. The main story arch is resolved, but we are led into the next book in the series, so keep that in mind if you don't like cliff-hangers at all. I don't mind a new story to keep me hooked so long as the main story has a resolution.
This book was published by Kindle Press, so I was a little surprised that there were some editing mistakes. It was nothing major, but I know they provide editing so I'm surprised they missed more than one or two things. It didn't take me out of the story though.
If you like paranormal, horror, demonology, or anything scary, check out Raven's Peak here.  Also, Lincoln Cole does a lot of giveaways on his website. You can check out his freebies here.  (And no I don't know him and he didn't pay me to write this or add that in--I just happened to find some really great books on Instafreebie on his freebie site by other authors.)
I am currently reading my first shifter book since Twilight, and I am about equally impressed--you can take that however you'd like! I hope to have my review of Something Shifter This Way Comes by Josie Walker soon. One more review and I'll be all caught up!

My Review of Dead Close to Reality by Jennifer Bull

My reading is getting ahead of my blogging these days! That is kind of a good thing for me--but not so much for people who read this blog to look for recommendations. I will try to get caught up as quickly as possible because I've read some great books recently, and I want to share them with you.
A few weeks ago, I finished Dead Close to Reality by Jennifer Bull. This is another book I found through the Kindle Scout program. If you haven't checked it out yet, I suggest you do. If the books you nominate are selected for publication, you get them for free, but a lot of the authors will offer their books for free or at 99 cents as a thank you for nominating them, so I've gotten a lot of great reading material from checking out this program. And here's the thing about these particular indie authors: they're good writers! I mean, if you're going to go through all of the trouble to put your book in Kindle Scout and promote it, etc., you'd better have a pretty good piece of writing. I have not been disappointed in any of the books I've found through Kindle Scout despite the fact that most of them were not selected for publication through Kindle Press. Dead Close to Reality is another book I highly recommend. You can check out the Kindle Scout program here.
Cora is a student at the secretive Sandman Academy, and she has a lucrative internship beta playing a virtual reality game. However, when her classmates start turning up dead, Cora quickly realizes the deaths are linked to the company she works for.  Unable to trust anyone, including her uncle who happens to be a detective in the police department, she does her best to secure evidence showing the company is behind the deaths, until she finds the game is no longer her virtual reality--it's her actual reality. She must find a way to escape the clutches of the company--and the game--before she dies for real. (Then it's really GAME OVER!--Sorry, couldn't resist!)

Reality gaming just got real!

First of all, I thought this book was extremely creative. I am not a gamer, but I do own a VR headset. The way that Bull describes the game makes me want to jump right in and play alongside Cora.  I really hope this is our future because it would be awesome (minus the real death part!)
There were a lot of surprises in this story--one extremely happy one I won't give away. There were plot twists I didn't really see coming. I could tell a huge amount of planning went into crafting a story that would be entertaining and keep the pages turning.
The only thing that was a bit off-putting was that Cora ended up getting herself into a lot more trouble than she should have all because she refused to listen to anyone else. There were several times she could have been safe at home if she just would have listened to her friends and colleagues. While this was a little annoying, she's a college student, and it's understandable that she may have felt invincible as a lot of teens do.
This isn't my usual genre, but I still really enjoyed it. If you like gaming, mysteries, romance, or really anything creative and unusual, then you should check this one out.  I snagged it at a deal price of 99 cents and you can, too, if you hurry! Find it here. Let me know what you think!

My Review of Impulse Spy by Carrie Ann Knox

Something I love about the Kindle Scout program is that I am introduced to a lot of books in genres I wouldn't typically read. This is one of them. I don't usually read mysteries, but when I saw the cover, I was intrigued. I read the excerpt and really liked the first part of the story so much so that when I saw Impulse Spy by Carrie Ann Knox released at an intro price of only 99 cents, I had to pick it up to finish the story.
Quinn is a young woman who reads a lot of spy books in her spare time. Though she is very busy as a fourth year student working an internship, she spends a lot of her free time reading in coffee shops. That's when she stumbles into Sloan. At first, she thinks Sloan may be a Russian spy, but as she follows her, she realizes the truth is even more compelling.

Love this cover! 

Sloan is a private investigator, and before she knows it, Quinn is working right alongside her, trying to unravel the secrets of a big businessman with a gambling problem. When someone ends up dead, Quinn becomes even more entangled. You'll keep reading not only to find out whodunnnit but also to discover if Quinn decides to join Sloan's PI firm full-time.
I thought this book was very cleverly written. There were a lot of plot twists I didn't see coming. I also really appreciated the fact that Quinn is able to use her "disability" of a hearing impairment to make herself an even better spy. So frequently, we think of people's differences as weaknesses, but here Knox uses Quinn's differences as an asset, which is awesome.
This was a weekend read for me, so not a lot of time invested, but the story keeps you reading, and I stayed up late one night to finish the final chapters because I needed to know what happened. Again, I'm not a big mystery reader so I don't have a lot to compare it to, but I found the characters so likable, I would've wanted to read their stories regardless of what they were doing.
Whether you're new to mysteries and want to give the genre a shot or you've read lots of books about murder, espionage, or embezzlement, I think this is a great story you're sure to enjoy.  You  can check it out for yourself here. The current price is $2.99.