Okay, so that is a little bit dramatic. But, this has been the very first time I could access my blog without being slinged into a foreign ugly link. I’m just grateful I can access it now and I can catch up and update on my reviews and giveaway.

Yes I have winners picked up, but I was too depressed to do anything because I can’t even click on my link without being brought into somewhere else. I would name it, but I’d rather not. Let’s just say that my blog and an airplane taken by terrorist have something in common.

I hope this is my birthday present. That my blog would work and that it’s mine again.

From the author’s website.
THE FOURTH CHIEF INSPECTOR MARIO SILVA INVESTIGATION.

It was Norma Palhares who first steered her new husband
toward the offshore oil platforms. At the time, it seemed
like a judicious course to follow. In the end, it set their marital
ship on the rocks.
Jonas would spend only two days a week at home; but the
money was good, and he’d only do it for a year or so, just until
they had enough saved up to buy a bigger house. But the kids
they’d planned on never came, so they’d never needed that
bigger house. And, in the meantime, their expenses just kept
going up and up. New cars every year, flat-screen televisions
all over the house, imported wines, designer clothing, the
most expensive restaurants, the finest club in the city, the
best hairdressers. Jonas kept bringing the money in, and
Norma kept shoveling it out. A year became two, then three.
And by the time the divorce became final, they’d been
together for more than seven.
Jonas moved in with a colleague and began to do what he’d
wanted to do for quite some time—embrace the good life.
The colleague was another petroleum engineer who had
taken a small flat on a busy shopping street in the Leme neighborhood,
six blocks from the beach. He, too, had recently separated
from his wife and, burdened by child support, would have
been happy to have Jonas stay on and help with the rent. But
Jonas, who’d managed to conceal a bundle of money from
Norma and her lawyer, had no kids and no financial problems.
He wanted a place of his own.
He settled first in Santa Teresa, taking a small house with
a high wall and a big garden. The house, situated in the
highest part of Rio’s highest neighborhood, was conveniently
located, less than fifty meters from the nearest streetcar stop.
The single-story structure was of just the right size: big
enough for Jonas’s needs, but small enough to be maintained
without a full-time maid. A cleaning lady, who came in three
times a week, kept it tidy.
From his backyard, Jonas could look down on the mouth
of the bay. The headlands, seven hundred meters below, were
so close to one another that a Portuguese navigator had
once, on a long-ago January day, mistaken them for the
entrance to a river. It was he who’d given the place a name
it would bear forever after: Rio de Janeiro, River of January.
The spectacular view was further enhanced by the Christ
Statue up on the Corcovado. The monument, almost forty
meters in height, was actually four kilometers away, at almost
the same altitude as the house. To Jonas’s visitors, it looked
like a copy in miniature set into the recesses of his garden
among the banana trees.
It was all very lovely, but the neighborhood’s newest resident
soon came to a rude awakening: the charm of Santa
Teresa was offset by a lack of security. It had become a dangerous
place to visit, and an even more dangerous place to live.
After being held up at the point of a gun three times in
nine months, Jonas, frightened and fed up, paid the penalty
for canceling his lease and took an apartment in Ipanema.
There, smack-dab in the middle of Avenida Vieira Souto,
his terrace faced the brilliant yellow sand of the beach. The
South Atlantic was only a hundred meters from his front
door. Beyond the curling waves, islands floated on a sea of
blue. Farther out, the superstructures of ships dotted the
horizon. And on weekends, Jonas was treated to the sight of
tiny forms, climbers, scaling the gray walls of the Sugarloaf.

Excerpt ends.

Contest open in the USA. Leave a comment winners will be chosen January 14.
One winner for hardcover copy of this book.
One winner for an ebook copy of Blood of the Wicked.

Email me your mailing address (no PO box, please). Make sure to mention the book title and the deadline for the contest.

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It’s been a crazy year.

I have these fantastic books whose reviews need to be up, and I’ll get to work on that shortly.

Yes, there’s still going to be free books, but it’s going to be a little different since I’m a part-time student, full-time Mom, and part time working (well, it’s 30 hours a week). I lost track of the number of books I’ve read last year.

I did finish a whole psychology book for my psych class. It’s almost fun, but let’s face it, it’s not very imaginative. I’ve yawned my way through it, and got my A. I’m quite proud of that.

I’ve also read half of my Anatomy and Physiology book. It was very interesting. At first, I thought of finishing my nursing studies, or take MCAT, or GRE for physician’s assistant…you get the idea. I am not sure what to do for career. At least, the previous semester reminded me that studying pays.

Stay tune for a brand new TBFF and free stuff coming up.

“Instead of heading for the big mental breakdown,
I decided to have a little one every Tuesday evening.”
— Gomez Porter

You are cordially invited to Gomez’ online after party. It starts right now and runs till December 10th. You’ll receive:

- ‘Activated Carbon’ exclusive short story collection
- Making of Gomez: behind the scenes eBook

A kindle will be raffled off. Extra prizes for those who bring friends.

Simply purchase your copy of “No Hope for Gomez!” from Amazon and forward your receipt to [email protected]. Find out the details HERE

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Backstage Pass: The Sinners on Tour
by Olivia Cunning
ISBN-10: 1402244428

This is an erotic romance book. Before I started reading these genre or is it sub-genre, I thought it’s a book full of sex, sex, sex. I was pleasantly surprised when I read one and found out that, yes, it contained many sex scenes. However, that is not all of it. There is a wonderful story of a relationship that’s forming, and growing. It’s still essentially a story about two people connecting. Only they are much more sexually adventurous and the author is not shy about writing the scenes out.

Backstage Pass by Olivia Cunning is a scorching book. It’s also a good love story between Brian Sinclair, an awesome songwriter and guitarist, and Myrna Evans, a college professor with a secret. I think this book would have sent my childhood preacher into cardiac arrest. Not because he doesn’t know anything about sex, but because of how explicit it is.

I enjoyed reading this book. I think my husband enjoyed that I read this book, too. I highly recommend it even if you erotic romance is not your genre. This is one of a kind.

Thanks to Danielle of Sourcebooks for my review copy.

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