Coming Soon+ 6 Star Review: Winter Flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles

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Winter Flower

By Charles Sheehan-Miles

Release Date: June 22, 2019

Pre Order : Amazon

Goodreads: 

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Synopsis:

From the bestselling author of Just Remember to Breathe and The Last Hour, a shocking and poignant story of a family on the brink of destruction and the transformational events that could bring them back together—or tear them apart.

Every day, Cole Roberts reminds himself that life wasn’t always this bleak. He was once passionately in love with Erin. Sam used to be an artistic and lively kid. They hadn’t always lived in a shabby two-room house in rural Alabama, where he runs a mediocre restaurant in the middle of nowhere.

That was before Brenna disappeared. It was before Cole lost his job and they lost their home.
Every day it gets worse. Erin drinks wine out of the bottle and spends her days with a tormented expression, searching the web for signs of their daughter. Sam hides in his room and rarely speaks. And Cole works himself to a stupor for a paycheck a fraction of the size of his old salary.

Until one day a phone call changes everything.

Winter Flower is at once a tragic tale of the disappearance of a child; struggling with gender identity; of the dark world of sex-trafficking and the transformation and healing of a family. Sheehan-Miles’s longest novel delves into the depths of family life—and how, sometimes, we can heal and find restoration.

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6+star

Michel’s Review

*** 6 Stars ***

*** 2019 Favorite ***



I was so excited when I saw that Charles Sheehan-Miles had a new book coming out.

Charles Sheehan-Miles is one of the best authors I have read. He has an incredible gift of creating characters who the readers immediately embrace as their own. His stories revolve around the family unit with all of the beautiful imperfections and emotional dysfunctions. He captures the reader’s attention with his astute choice of words and vivid descriptions. The reader becomes more than a mere witness to story unraveling, they become an emotional participant.

The story of the Robert’s family is more than losing a child. It’s a journey down the darkest paths while realizing the light isn’t necessarily at the end. The light comes from depending on each other and accepting the things they cannot change. The only thing that matters is their love for one another. It may not fix what’s been broken but it will soothe and strengthen their shattered souls. It will give them courage to move forward one step at a time.

Winter Flower follows each member of the family, switching from past to present. Each member of the family has a different perspective of the past and different way of coping in the present. It all began with the disappearance of their daughter, Brenna. Brenna disappeared on her sixteenth birthday. What should have been a special birthday turned into a horrific nightmare which would destroy their lives. What they didn’t realize was their lives were already on the path of destruction. Brenna’s disappearance was the final blow that tore their world apart. Two years later they are on a very different path trying to survive and rebuild their shattered lives. The only thing they are hanging onto is their tiny thread of hope.

It all begins in a small backward rural town in Alabama. Cole Roberts is working at a Waffle House. He’s struggling to pay the bills and take care of his family after the loss of his daughter. He not only lost his daughter but also his home, his career and six figure salary. His wife has moved from resentment to pure indifference to him. She has chosen the wine bottle to silence her grief. His son Sam has become withdrawn and spends too much time locked away in his room playing computer games. He has become an awkward social recluse and a target for the bullies in his new school. In a sense he has also become a missing child even though he’s physically present. Brenna has been missing for two years and the FBI has moved it to the cold case stack. The only thing they have left is their hope.

Then one day the phone rings with a new lead that finally changes their paths once again. The biggest difference this time is they are walking into the darkness with their eyes wide open. At least they are together with the knowledge they may never find the light. They just need to hang onto each other along the way.

Charles Sheehan-Miles was brutally honest and delivered the harsh realities of this story’s life situations and circumstances. He didn’t sugar coat the ugliness, he made the reader truly feel it. At the same time he instilled hope and clearly illuminated the goodness dwelling below the surface. Although this story had a horrific situation it also had a beautiful message. The resilience of the human soul with the capacity to love, accept, and forgive is what hope truly is.

Winter Flower was more than a novel to be witnessed by the reader. Winter Flower demands the reader become an emotional participant from beginning to end. Long after the last word is read and the book is closed, the reading experience will live on in the heart of the reader.

I highly recommend reading Winter Flower by Charles Sheehan-Miles.

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***ARC generously provided by Author/Publisher for an honest review.***


*** Review by Saucy Southern Readers Blog formerly Smut Book Junkie Reviews ***

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0590-LinkedIn-1Charles Miles has been a soldier, computer programmer, short-order cook and non-profit executive, and is the author of more than a dozen fiction and non-fiction books, including the indie bestsellers Just Remember to Breathe and Republic: A Novel of America’s Future. He is a member of The Authors Guild and the Association of Independent Authors.

Charles and his wife Andrea live and write together in South Hadley, Massachusetts. He can be reached by email at Charles [@] sheehanmiles.net

I write about things I’m passionate about: love, romance, war; addiction, remorse, guilt. I write about the things that terrify me and give me joy. I write about life.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram |Goodreads | Amazon

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New Release… 2019 Favorite…6+ Star Review – A Five-Minute Life by Emma Scott

 

60608844_2136184773346344_5221768290119974912_nA Five-Minute Life, an all-new standalone new adult romance by International bestselling author Emma Scott is Live!

FIVE_MINUTE_LIFE

A Five Minute Life

By Emma Scott

Buy: Amazon

***

Thea Hughes has five minutes to live.

A car accident stole her parents and left her with the second-worst documented case of amnesia in the world. She now has only minutes of experiences, of consciousness, of life…before her memory is wiped clean. The once effervescent artist with a promising future is reduced to scribbling with pens and paper, living an empty, quiet life, three hundred seconds at a time.

Jim Whelan is on autopilot.

A foster kid shuffled around the system since birth, he’s lived his entire life without knowing love…and it’s taken its toll—until he learned to fight back, carry his armor, and keep his head down.

Working as an orderly in the Blue Ridge Sanitarium, deep in Virginia countryside, Jim looked up…and found Thea.

When Thea has the chance to break free of her five-minute prison with a risky, experimental surgery, it could lead them both to an epic love they never thought possible… or one that could require the ultimate sacrifice.

A stand-alone, new adult romance.

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Download your copy today or Read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2EaBVBk

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/AFiveMinuteLife

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2DlYSRY

Michel’s Review

Emma Scott has once again blew my mind and held my heart hostage with her latest release, A Five Minute Life. I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting. Her descriptive narrative, emotional content, and pacing made this book come to life. It was like experiencing a big screen movie while reading this book. Each character came to life and jumped off the pages demanding their story be heard and validated.

Thea Hughes was a vivacious young woman experiencing everything life had to offer. She was a talented college art student who had the potential to become one of the greatest artist of her time. She poured her soul into her paintings. Everything changed when a car accident not only stole her memory but also imprisoned her soul. She was trapped inside her own mind and could not find a way out of her continuous loop. Every five minutes her mind resets. Her only way to express herself is through the words in her art. The loop of words are more than mindless rambles, they are a cry for help. Nobody is seeing her silent screams until one day a new orderly with kind eyes comes into her life. He’s there every time she resets. He sees her soul but can he help her find her way out? One thing she knows is he’s willing to follow her into the dark and that she’ll never be alone again.

Jim Whelan has never had love. He was raised in the foster system and has struggled with stuttering all his life. He knows what it’s like not to be heard or not be able to express oneself. He knows what it’s like to be trapped in a life you didn’t choose. When he meets the beautiful patient at Blue Ridge Sanitarium, he knows she’s still there but trapped inside mind. He just has to figure out how to listen to her and give her a way to express herself. He’s willing to follow her into the dark.

Their happily ever after was not easy but it was pure. It was their LIFE, their MASTERPIECE, and their SONG. Together they both learned to express their emotions and thoughts through the power of love.

Emma Scott has written a MASTERPIECE!

I highly recommend A Five Minute Life by Emma Scott!

60592185_2353003844914957_2712087563262230528_n

About Emma:

Emma Scott is a bestselling author of emotional, character-driven romances in which art and love intertwine to heal, and in which love always wins. If you enjoy emotionally-charged stories that rip your heart out and put it back together again, with diverse characters and kind-hearted heroes, you will enjoy her novels.


Connect with Emma:

Stay up to date with Emma by joining her mailing list:

http://bit.ly/2nTGLf6

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fqUULx

Author page: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaScottwri…

Reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/90674…

Release Blitz and 6+ Star Review – 2019 Favorite : A Five Minute Life by Emma Scott

60608844_2136184773346344_5221768290119974912_n

A Five-Minute Life, an all-new standalone new adult romance by International bestselling author Emma Scott is Live!

FIVE_MINUTE_LIFE

A Five Minute Life

By Emma Scott

Buy: Amazon

***

Thea Hughes has five minutes to live.

A car accident stole her parents and left her with the second-worst documented case of amnesia in the world. She now has only minutes of experiences, of consciousness, of life…before her memory is wiped clean. The once effervescent artist with a promising future is reduced to scribbling with pens and paper, living an empty, quiet life, three hundred seconds at a time.

Jim Whelan is on autopilot.

A foster kid shuffled around the system since birth, he’s lived his entire life without knowing love…and it’s taken its toll—until he learned to fight back, carry his armor, and keep his head down.

Working as an orderly in the Blue Ridge Sanitarium, deep in Virginia countryside, Jim looked up…and found Thea.

When Thea has the chance to break free of her five-minute prison with a risky, experimental surgery, it could lead them both to an epic love they never thought possible… or one that could require the ultimate sacrifice.

A stand-alone, new adult romance.

60394173_2374294049524261_342128255756664832_n

Download your copy today or Read FREE in Kindle Unlimited!

Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2EaBVBk

Amazon Worldwide: mybook.to/AFiveMinuteLife

Add to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/2DlYSRY

Michel’s Review

Emma Scott has once again blew my mind and held my heart hostage with her latest release, A Five Minute Life. I could not put this book down and read it in one sitting. Her descriptive narrative, emotional content, and pacing made this book come to life. It was like experiencing a big screen movie while reading this book. Each character came to life and jumped off the pages demanding their story be heard and validated.

Thea Hughes was a vivacious young woman experiencing everything life had to offer. She was a talented college art student who had the potential to become one of the greatest artist of her time. She poured her soul into her paintings. Everything changed when a car accident not only stole her memory but also imprisoned her soul. She was trapped inside her own mind and could not find a way out of her continuous loop. Every five minutes her mind resets. Her only way to express herself is through the words in her art. The loop of words are more than mindless rambles, they are a cry for help. Nobody is seeing her silent screams until one day a new orderly with kind eyes comes into her life. He’s there every time she resets. He sees her soul but can he help her find her way out? One thing she knows is he’s willing to follow her into the dark and that she’ll never be alone again.

Jim Whelan has never had love. He was raised in the foster system and has struggled with stuttering all his life. He knows what it’s like not to be heard or not be able to express oneself. He knows what it’s like to be trapped in a life you didn’t choose. When he meets the beautiful patient at Blue Ridge Sanitarium, he knows she’s still there but trapped inside mind. He just has to figure out how to listen to her and give her a way to express herself. He’s willing to follow her into the dark.

Their happily ever after was not easy but it was pure. It was their LIFE, their MASTERPIECE, and their SONG. Together they both learned to express their emotions and thoughts through the power of love.

Emma Scott has written a MASTERPIECE!

I highly recommend A Five Minute Life by Emma Scott!

60592185_2353003844914957_2712087563262230528_n

About Emma:

Emma Scott is a bestselling author of emotional, character-driven romances in which art and love intertwine to heal, and in which love always wins. If you enjoy emotionally-charged stories that rip your heart out and put it back together again, with diverse characters and kind-hearted heroes, you will enjoy her novels.


Connect with Emma:

Stay up to date with Emma by joining her mailing list:

http://bit.ly/2nTGLf6

Amazon: http://amzn.to/2fqUULx

Author page: https://www.facebook.com/EmmaScottwri…

Reader group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/90674…

New Release + Release Day Launch + Excerpt: The Last Letter by Rebecca Yarros

 

The right words can save your life.

For fans of Nicholas Sparks and Jodi Picoult… A soldier falls in love with his battle buddy’s sister through their letters and returns home from Afghanistan with a secret that could destroy their fragile relationship. Don’t miss THE LAST LETTER by Rebecca Yarros! Grab your copy today!

 

About THE LAST LETTER:

Beckett,

If you’re reading this, well, you know the “last-letter” drill. You made it. I didn’t. Get off the guilt train, because I know if there were any chance you could have saved me, you would have.

I need one thing from you: Get out of the army and get to Telluride.

My little sister Ella’s raising the twins alone. She’s too independent and won’t accept help easily, but she has lost our grandmother, our parents, and now me. It’s too much for anyone to endure. It’s not fair.

And here’s the kicker: there’s something else you don’t know that’s tearing her family apart. She’s going to need help.

So if I’m gone, that means I can’t be there for Ella. I can’t help them through this. But you can. So I’m begging you, as my best friend, go take care of my sister, my family.

Please don’t make her go through it alone.

Ryan

 

GRAB YOUR COPY TODAY!

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Goodreads

 

 

Excerpt:

“Ella.” It was a plea to speak, to not speak. Hell, I didn’t know anymore.

“You don’t see me like that. I totally get it.” She reached for the TV remote.

“How exactly do I see you? Please, enlighten me.” I leaned forward, stealing the remote. She’d opened this box and had better well dish it.

She huffed in annoyance. “You see me as a mom. As Colt and Maisie’s mom. And of course you do, because that’s what I am. A mom with two kids.”

“Well, yeah,” I said. Her motherhood—that selfless devotion she had to her kids—was one of her most attractive attributes.

She rolled her eyes with a little sigh, and the metaphorical light bulb went off in my head.

“You don’t think I want you.”

She shot me a look that confirmed my guess and blushed the same crimson of her couch. “You know, you’re right. It’s late.” She faked a yawn. “Suuuuuuper late.”

“I want you.” Damn, it felt so good to say the words.

“Yeah, okay.” She gave me a goofy look and a thumbs-up. “Please don’t make me feel any more idiotic than I do right now.”

Yeah, enough of this bullshit.

I pounced in one smooth motion, taking her back to the couch, sliding over her as I gathered her wrists in one hand above her head and settled between her open thighs.

Home.

“Holy shit, you move fast.” There was no fear or rejection in her eyes, just surprise.

“Not in every arena,” I promised.

Her lips parted.

“Ella. I want you.”

“Beckett…you don’t have to.”

Yeah, that soft little sigh she did was going to be my undoing.

I let go of her wrists, letting my fingers trail down her arm until I had one hand weaving my fingers into the hair at the base of her scalp and the other at the curve in her waist.

“Feel this?” Then I slid forward, letting my dick stroke along the seam in her pajama pants hard enough for her to gasp at the contact. I couldn’t remember ever wanting to shred a piece of fabric so much in my life. “I’ve never wanted a woman as much as I want you.”

I moved again, and her eyes slid shut as she let loose the sweetest moan.

My dick throbbed, knowing everything I’d fantasized about for the better part of the last eight months was one decision away.

“Beckett.” Her hands found my biceps, her nails digging in.

“Don’t ever think that I don’t want you, because if things were different, I would have already been inside you. I would know exactly how you feel, and what you sound like, look like, when you come. I’ve thought about it at least a hundred different ways, and believe me, I’ve got a great imagination.”

She rocked her hips against me, and I locked my jaw to keep from giving her exactly what her body was asking for. “Ella, you have to stop.”

“Why?” she asked, her lips dangerously close to mine. “What do you mean if things were different?” Her eyes flew wide. “Is this because I have kids?”

“What? No. Of course not. It’s because you’re Ryan’s little sister.” Before I could do any more damage, I got the hell off her and sat back on my side of the couch.

“Because…I’m Ryan’s little sister,” she repeated, scooting so she sat upright, facing me. “And you think he’d, what? Haunt you?”

Three things: The letter. The cancer. The lie.

I repeated those in my head until I was certain I could look at her and not drag her back under me.

“Beckett?”

“When I was growing up, if I wanted something, I took it. Immediately. I had sex at fourteen with a girl in my foster home of the moment. I opened Christmas presents early if I was lucky enough to get one, and it was usually from my social worker or some charity.”

“I don’t understand.” She wrapped her arms around her knees again.

“I took it immediately because I knew if I didn’t, chances were I wouldn’t get it. It was a now-or-never kind of thing—there weren’t second chances.”

“Okay.”

“I can’t touch you, can’t talk about it, because I’m afraid I’ll act on it.”

“And why does that matter if I want you to?”

“Because I won’t get a second chance. And I’m crap with people, with relationships. I’ve never had one that lasted more than a month. Never loved a woman I’ve slept with. And chances are I’d do something to screw this up, because it’s not just my dick that wants you, Ella.”

That O popped right back onto her face, and I closed my eyes to keep from lunging across the distance and kissing her. Knowing she’d let me—that she wanted it—sent my need from a bullet to a nuclear missile.

“And when I’d screw it up, because it would happen, trust me, it would hurt Colt and Maisie, too. You’d be on your own again, because there’s no chance you’d let me hang around and help you out like Ryan asked.”

“And there it is.”

“There it is. You’re Ryan’s little sister.”

“There were only five years between us. Not so little, you know.” She reached for the remote.

“I’m well aware.”

“So if Ryan were still alive…” She shot one last look at me.

I let everything slip for a millisecond, letting her see it all in my eyes, how badly I wanted her, and not just for her body. “Everything would be different.”

“Everything?”

“Everything but the way I feel about you, which he probably would have killed me for. Where does that leave us?”

“You mean besides me being a dried-up spinster and you being honor-bound to a ghost?”

“Something like that.”

She rolled her head along the back of the couch, muttering something that sounded like a curse word under her breath. Then she sat up straight and powered on the TV with a click of her thumb. “That leaves us choosing a movie on demand. Because I’m not letting you walk out that door right now.”

“You’re not?”

“Nope. You walk out now, you might get all weird about this and not come back. Honor is a fabulous thing, but sometimes pride can be a lot stronger, especially when you convince yourself it’s for the good of the other person.”

Damn, the woman knew me.

“So movie it is,” I agreed. “Just…stay on your side of the couch.”

“I wasn’t the one who crossed the center line,” she teased with a smile that got me hard all over again.

Movie chosen, we sat and watched, both of us stealing sideways glances. There was that saying…the horse out of the barn. Yeah, the horse was out of the barn, and it wasn’t going back in. Not no way. Not no how.

That horse was running amok and screwing with my carefully constructed control.

But I didn’t complain when she moved over. Or when she pressed against my side. Nope. I lifted my arm and savored the feel of her curves, her trust. Still didn’t complain when she lay down in my arms. Hell no, I held on and memorized every second.

 

 

 

About Rebecca Yarros:

Rebecca Yarros is a hopeless romantic and a lover of all things coffee, chocolate, and Paleo. She is the author of the Flight & Glory series, including Full Measures, the award-winning Eyes Turned Skyward, Beyond What is Given, and Hallowed Ground. She loves military heroes, and has been blissfully married to hers for sixteen years.

When she’s not writing, she’s tying hockey skates for her four sons, sneaking in some guitar time, or watching brat-pack movies with her two daughters. She lives in Colorado with the hottest Apache pilot ever, their rambunctious gaggle of kids, an English bulldog who is more stubborn than sweet, and a bunny named General Fluffy Pants who torments the aforementioned bulldog. Having adopted their youngest daughter from the foster system, and Rebecca is passionate about helping others do the same.

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