Elle Hill

My thanks to Golda Poretsky for this awesome sign. You should totally visit her rockin' site . I don’t usually traffic with that “diet” thingy. Weight loss dieting has a 95% failure rate ( Chastain , 2011), often results in a net weight gain ( HuffPo , 2013), and valorizes self-imposed starvation, a disgusting concept that couldn’t exist anywhere but an industrialized nation. However, for the past decade or more, I’ve put myself on a pretty strict media diet. My recipe? No TV aside from the occasional series I snag via Netflix, maybe one movie per year, no non-political magazines, and aggressive ad blocking on the Internet. That said, I’m an Internet fiend, and I listen every day to NPR in part because it has no commercials but also because, you know, listening to the news while driving kinda rocks. I say “diet” because it’s a concept with which we’re all-too-familiar in the U.S. However, my diet isn’t about deprivation but release. Honestly, you have no idea how relieved ...

The Freedman and the Pharaoh’s Staff by Lane Heymont A KKK Grand Dragon, a pit bull, and Hitler walk into a bar… Sounds like the beginning of the world’s most bizarre joke, right? Yet you may be surprised and fascinated to know this book contains all those elements and more. Well, minus the bar. The plot: It’s 1871, six years after the end of the American Civil War and five or so years before Jim Crow Laws spread like rot throughout the U.S. Freedman Jeb breaks out of jail his brother-in-law, Crispus, who has stolen a map to a buried Egyptian treasure that will give its possessor the power to unite or annihilate the masses. The breakout ignites the KKK’s anger, and they destroy Jeb and Crispus’ small Louisiana hometown in retaliation. Jeb and Crispus, who are soon joined by a Jewish defector from the local KKK mob, seek assistance from voodoo priests, the sheriff, and others as they flee for their lives and eventually seize the Pharaoh’s Staff. The rabid, local KKK den, le...

I'm thrilled to feature One Bite by Jennifer Blackstream. Traditional fairy tale meets paranormal romance? Sign me up! Please show Jennifer Blackstream some love, all. Not only does her work sound incredible, but you can benefit from your perusal and comments. Jennifer will be awarding one eCopy of Before  Midnight  (book one in the series) to a randomly drawn commenter at each stop and a grand prize of a $25 Amazon or Barnes & Noble GC to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. And hey, the more you follow her and comment, the better your chances of scoring loot. Woot! For more info on the tour, visit here . For info on Ms. Blackstream's website and her wares, see the end of this post. Good luck!  -----<-----<-------<----<@  One Bite by Jennifer Blackstream ~~~~~~~~~~~~~ BLURB: Seven dwarves. A poison apple. A glass coffin. It's a strange and terrifying world when events can take a turn for better or for wors...

Unconquerable Callie by DeAnn Smallwood Genre : Historical Romance Heat Level : Sweet  Blurb : Callie Collins, a proud woman in the late 1800’s, is a liar and a darned good one, a master of the dubious art. She is also a dreamer. Her greatest hope is to reach a new life in South Pass City Wyoming, where she can open a bakery and live an independent life. To be successful, she will need her greatest gifts of deception to date. As a woman alone, she has to prove to Seth McCalister, the wagon master, that she has the wherewithal (a wagon and a set of oxen), the stamina to survive months of drought, dust, hardships and even risk of death, and a mythical fiancé who waits at the end of the line. McCallister is uneasy, but also mystified by the audacity and determination of the young woman. He allows her to join the train west. What he doesn’t realize is there is no fiancé. To make matters worse, Callie is in love with Seth McCallister, too. For the first time, the lies tha...

The Viscount’s Vow by Collette Cameron Genre : Historical Romance/Regency Heat Level : Sensual Amidst murder and betrayal, destiny and hearts collide when scandal forces a viscount and a gypsy noblewoman to marry in this Regency romance sprinkled with suspense and humor.  Part Romani, part English noblewoman, Evangeline Caruthers is the last woman in England Ian Hamilton, the Viscount Warrick, could ever love—an immoral wanton responsible for his brother’s and father’s deaths. She thinks he’s a foul-tempered blackguard, who after setting out to cause her downfall, finds himself forced to marry her—snared in the trap of his own making. When Vangie learns the marriage ceremony itself may have been a ruse, she flees to her gypsy relatives, declaring herself divorced from Ian under Romani law. He pursues her to the gypsy encampment, and when the handsome gypsy king offers to take Ian’s place in Vangie’s bed, jealousy stirs hot and dangerous.  At last, under a ...

I’m going to say something very, very odd. Okay, here it goes: I liked  Echo Prophecy . (This is not the bizarre part). I thought it was an interesting and creative blend of the  Kane Chronicles , The Matrix , and the  Twilight  series. (Yeah,  that’s  the weirdness.) First things first: I love Egyptian mythology. Heck, I have a black cat named Bast and several pieces of (totally cheap and awesomely fake) Egyptian art. I’m also a huge, unrepentant, nerdy fan of  The Matrix . When the first  Matrix  movie occupied the theaters, so did I. Twelve times. I even, although don’t tell anyone I said so, kinda liked the  Twilight  series, especially the last two. Oddly enough, all of these loves collide in this book, in which the main character, Alexandra Larson, archaeologist and Egyptologist, stumbles across a race of beings on whom the ancient Egyptian divine mythologies were based. More, Lex learns she is not only one of them, but...

The holidays are upon us. Luckily for you, so is Soul Mate’s holiday anthology. You like sci-fi? High fantasy? Inspirational? Contemporary? Paranormal? Girl, boy, and everyone in-between, we got your back. Soul Mate just published a holiday anthology, appropriately titled All I Want for Christmas is a Soul Mate . Cute and catchy, right? The anthology features twenty short stories, all clocking in around 4000 words. It’s like a fun-sized chocolate bar. Times twenty.   To address the elephant in my head (I doubt few but me really care), the title does include the word “Christmas,” and the anthology includes some Christian themes and stories; however, I think many of us used it as a time of year rather than a nod to the ostensibly Christian holiday. The anthology is inclusive of many religious identities. I happen to know of one story, for random example, that features a sexy, biracial, Agnostic protagonist and her Jewish love interest. Ahem. Totally coincidentally, here'...