Tag Archives: M.J. Rose

New Release + Blog Tour + 4.5-Star Review: The Museum of Mysteries by Steve Berry and M.J. Rose

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Cassiopeia Vitt takes center stage in this exciting novella from New York Times bestsellers M.J. Rose and Steve Berry. THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES is now available! Check out the tour below, and pick up your copy of THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES today!

 

THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES Synopsis:

In the French mountain village of Eze, Cassiopeia visits an old friend who owns and operates the fabled Museum of Mysteries, a secretive place of the odd and arcane. When a robbery occurs at the museum, Cassiopeia gives chase to the thief and is plunged into a firestorm.

Through a mix of modern day intrigue and ancient alchemy, Cassiopeia is propelled back and forth through time, the inexplicable journeys leading her into a hotly contested French presidential election. Both candidates harbor secrets they would prefer to keep quiet, but an ancient potion could make that impossible. With intrigue that begins in southern France and ends in a chase across the streets of Paris, this magical, fast-paced, hold-your-breath thriller is all you’ve come to expect from M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.

 

Grab your copy of THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES here!

Amazon | iBooks | B&N | Google Play | Kobo

 

 

EXCERPT:

I closed the drawer. “This is extraordinary.”

“It is. But don’t uncork any of the bottles. Oddly, the scents are still potent. Five years ago we were doing research on them when the box disappeared. Then, as we now know, it found its way into the auction.” He pointed to one. “I can attest to the fact that this bottle contains fumes with some kind of hallucinogenic properties. I experienced a wild vision when I made the mistake of taking a sniff.”

Something about the box, the stones on top, the thick glass bottles, the iron corners, even the drawer, gave me pause. As if it were familiar, yet not. The feeling had started back in the shop, before the theft, while it had sat on the counter. There’d been no time to explore those feelings before all the excitement intervened.

But now—

A thought raced through my brain.

Somehow I knew that there should be vellum labels affixed to the bottom of each bottle. How? Why? I had no idea. Only that it was true. I gently touched one of them, then stopped and looked at Antoine. “May I take it out, if I don’t open it?”

He nodded.

I had to see if I was right.

I lifted out the bottle. Underneath was a label. Discolored and deteriorated with age. A word, written in a sepia script, had faded but could still be read.

Belladonna.

I replaced the bottle and reached for another.

Even before I lifted it out I knew that under it would be Diospyros.

And I was right.

I removed a third, but before I could peek beneath it I heard the grating sound of stones being ground beneath the soles of shoes and turned to see a man leaping toward me. Antoine shoved the newcomer away, then shouted for me to grab the box and run. Before I could move, a booted foot made contact with my arm. Somehow, I kept hold of the bottle in my grasp, but I was driven down to the wet ground. I tried to recoil and go on the offensive but another blow found my brow.

Red hot pain exploded across my skull.

Then, nothing.

 

 

4.5 Star

Tracey’s Review

THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES came up on my reading list at just the right time. Romantic suspense is one of my favorite sub-genres, and when you throw in the elements of time travel and magic, well, I am all in. Authors Steve Berry and M.J. Rose have teamed up to write a novella that blends characters from their respective book series and given readers a delicious and mysterious story.

Casseopeia Vitt is the kind of heroine that I can get behind. She’s smart, savvy, and completely unafraid to take risks to find the answers that she wants. I have not read any of author M.J. Rose’s books, but I can’t wait to get into them, because she really knows how to write my kind of lead female character. And, although we don’t get nearly enough time with Steve Berry’s Cotton Malone, I’d like to see more of him, and look forward to reading more of Mr. Berry’s work.

My only complaint here? THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES, an easy 4.5 stars for me, is too short! I could happily have read more about these characters and their experiences with the artifacts from the museum, and would love to see them all again. Lovers of all things mysterious and slightly to the left of explainable will enjoy this book very much, and I highly recommend it.

Add it to your Goodreads Now!

 

 

 

Steve Berry & MJ Rose’s THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES – Review & Excerpt Tour Schedule:

July 18th

Book Junkie Reviews – Excerpt

Literature Goals – Review & Excerpt

July 19th

Clarissa Reads It All – Review & Excerpt

Read-Love-Blog – Excerpt

July 20th

Devilishly Delicious Book Reviews – Review & Excerpt

Smut Book Junkie Book Reviews – Review & Excerpt

July 21st

Ginreads – Review & Excerpt

Simply Crystal – Review & Excerpt

July 22nd

Cinta Garcia de la Rosa – Excerpt

Wild and Wonderful Reads – Review & Excerpt

July 23rd

Puja Mohan – Review

We do what we want Book reviews and more – Review & Excerpt

July 24th

A Book Nerd, a Bookseller and a Bibliophile – Review & Excerpt

Rachel Loren’s Love of Reading – Review & Excerpt

July 25th

Book Lovers Hangout – Review & Excerpt

CJR the Brit – Review

KDRBCK – Review & Excerpt

July 26th

Forward Writes – Review

What Is That Book About – Excerpt

July 27th

Jax’s Book Magic – Excerpt

Shelf_Life – Review

 

 

About Steve Berry:

STEVE BERRY is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of fourteen Cotton Malone novels and four stand-alones. He has 23 million books in print, translated into 40 languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, which is dedicated to historical preservation. He serves on the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.

 

Website | Facebook

 

About M. J. Rose

New York Times bestseller, M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park and reading her mother’s favorite books before she was allowed. She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy to notice… books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it and remind us to look for it and revel in it.

Please visit her blog, Museum of Mysteries at http://www.mjrose.com/blog/

Rose’s work has appeared in many magazines including Oprah magazine and she has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com

Rose lives in Connecticut with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield.

Website | Facebook

New Release + Release Blitz + Excerpt: The Museum of Mysteries by M.J. Rose and Steve Berry

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Cassiopeia Vitt takes center stage in this exciting novella from New York Times bestsellers M.J. Rose and Steve Berry. THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES is now available! Check out the excerpt below, and pick up your copy of THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES today!

 

THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES Synopsis:

In the French mountain village of Eze, Cassiopeia visits an old friend who owns and operates the fabled Museum of Mysteries, a secretive place of the odd and arcane. When a robbery occurs at the museum, Cassiopeia gives chase to the thief and is plunged into a firestorm.

Through a mix of modern day intrigue and ancient alchemy, Cassiopeia is propelled back and forth through time, the inexplicable journeys leading her into a hotly contested French presidential election. Both candidates harbor secrets they would prefer to keep quiet, but an ancient potion could make that impossible. With intrigue that begins in southern France and ends in a chase across the streets of Paris, this magical, fast-paced, hold-your-breath thriller is all you’ve come to expect from M.J. Rose and Steve Berry.

 

Grab your copy of THE MUSEUM OF MYSTERIES here!

Amazon | iBooks | B&N | GooglePlay | Kobo

 

 

 

EXCERPT:

The L’Etoile family traced its roots back to the 13th century. The name carried a popular familiarity thanks to a branch of the family that came to fame in the early 18th century as perfumers to royalty. L’Etoile fragrances became known worldwide and their shop on the Left Bank in Paris remained one of the most famous perfume destinations in the world.

And one of my personal favorites.

Fifty years after the French Revolution one member of the family, Sebastian L’Etoile, settled in Eze, opening a shop to sell his brother’s fragrances. Eventually, he branched out and founded the Museum of Mysteries, mainly as a place to store artifacts brought back from expeditions to Egypt. Sebastian rediscovered a tunnel that extended from the back of the shop into the mountain, closed off long ago by an avalanche, perfect as a repository. So an entrance was created from the shop. A door, with no knob, no knocker, no lock. Just oak panels bound by iron. Which only the curator could open through a complicated puzzle that predated Sebastian L’Etoile’s rediscovery.

Curiosity had gotten the better of me, and so some research had revealed that, in the 5th century, some of the women of Eze, after being branded witches, had used the tunnel as an escape route down to the sea. Their stories were told through carvings in the walls, which Nicodème had allowed me to see. Goodbye messages. Parting advice. Recipes for spells and potions. Final messages to those they were leaving behind. Seeing them at once both moving and hopeful. Now the old tunnel contained over three hundred rare objects.

One of them apparently gone.

Being carted away, through a rainstorm, across the streets of Eze by a thief.

Hildick-Smith hung a left at a fork in the street, which gave me hope. I knew Eze, every warren of turns and alleyways, every dead end. Clearly my quarry wasn’t as well versed since he’d just chosen one of the inescapable routes, this one ending at a viewing platform where tourists could gaze at the valley below, the towns in the distance, and the endless sea and sky.

I took the same left and saw Hildick-Smith ahead.

He stopped running, then casually joined a small grop of visitors with umbrellas enjoying the scenic vista. I slowed, caught my breath, and approached. To gain control of the wooden box, Hildick-Smith had drawn a pistol in the shop and held both me and Nicodème at bay. If threatened, he might use his weapon. My instincts told me to shout for the people to clear out so I could deal with the problem. But approaching I suddenly realized something.

He was gone.

 

Add it to your Goodreads Now!

 

 

 

About Steve Berry:

STEVE BERRY is the New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author of fourteen Cotton Malone novels and four stand-alones. He has 23 million books in print, translated into 40 languages. With his wife, Elizabeth, he is the founder of History Matters, which is dedicated to historical preservation. He serves on the Smithsonian Libraries Advisory Board and was a founding member of International Thriller Writers, formerly serving as its co-president.

 

Website | Facebook

About M. J. Rose

New York Times bestseller, M.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park and reading her mother’s favorite books before she was allowed. She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy to notice… books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it and remind us to look for it and revel in it.

Please visit her blog, Museum of Mysteries at http://www.mjrose.com/blog/

Rose’s work has appeared in many magazines including Oprah magazine and she has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in New York City and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com

Rose lives in Connecticut with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield.

Website | Facebook

Review: The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M. J. Rose

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The Witch of Painted Sorrows

Historical Romance

By M.J. Rose

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Synopsis

Possession. Power. Passion. New York Times bestselling novelist M. J. Rose creates her most provocative and magical spellbinder yet in this gothic novel set against the lavish spectacle of 1890s Belle Époque Paris.

Sandrine Salome flees New York for her grandmother’s Paris mansion to escape her dangerous husband, but what she finds there is even more menacing. The house, famous for its lavish art collection and elegant salons, is mysteriously closed up. Although her grandmother insists it’s dangerous for Sandrine to visit, she defies her and meets Julien Duplessi, a mesmerizing young architect. Together they explore the hidden night world of Paris, the forbidden occult underground and Sandrine’s deepest desires.

Among the bohemians and the demi-monde, Sandrine discovers her erotic nature as a lover and painter. Then darker influences threaten—her cold and cruel husband is tracking her down and something sinister is taking hold, changing Sandrine, altering her. She’s become possessed by La Lune: A witch, a legend, and a sixteenth-century courtesan, who opens up her life to a darkness that may become a gift or a curse.

This is Sandrine’s “wild night of the soul,” her odyssey in the magnificent city of Paris, of art, love, and witchery.

Buy: Amazon / B & N / ITunes

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Robin’s Review

I would like to express my appreciation to NetGalley and Atria Books for the opportunity to read and review The Witch of Painted Sorrows.

It’s not often I venture down the path of reading historical fiction, but I can genuinely admit my all-time favorite novel falls in this genre. Choosing my next read usually involves a recommendation from a person whose opinion I trust, or I’ll choose a novel written by an author I am familiar with. I decided to read The Witch of Painted Sorrows by M. J. Rose because I was intrigued by the synopsis, and I liked the idea of the supernatural mixed in with historical fiction. I also thought the cover of this novel was beautiful. Really beautiful.

The setting for The Witch of Painted Sorrows is 1890s Belle Époque Paris. Sandrine Salome fears her husband. She runs away from her home in New York to seek sanctuary at the home of her grandmother in Paris, France. We learn Sandrine is descended from a long line of courtesans, the most famous being a sixteenth century painter and witch known as La Lune. When Sandrine arrives at Maison de la Lune, she learns her grandmother has closed up the opulent mansion for renovations.

Sandrine meets the architect her grandmother has hired to renovate the mansion. She sneaks away every day to visit Julien Duplessi at Maison de la Lune. She repeatedly ignores warnings from her grandmother that she is in danger. She pursues painting, explores her sensuality and falls in love with Julien. She dabbles in the occult. Sandrine is in the midst of self-discovery and is undergoing change – she’s becoming something new. But at what cost?

I have nothing but praise for the world-building in this novel. It is very apparent M. J. Rose did an extraordinary amount of research about Belle Époque Paris. The occult movement was very popular in Paris during this era, so mention of mysticism and witchcraft and alchemy was historically accurate. Paris landmarks. Names of streets. Businesses. The École des Beaux-Arts – one of the finest art schools in France – is still in operation today. Moreau and Matisse are names of actual painters who lived in Paris during the late 1890’s. Even the frequent use of French names and the French language lent to the authentic feel of this historical novel.

I would love to share with readers how much I enjoyed reading The Witch of Painted Sorrows, but unfortunately, I just didn’t enjoy it. There were scenes in this story that I feel did not advance the plot. I never felt an emotional connection to Sandrine, who is the main character of this novel, or either of the secondary characters. The ending of this novel is very abrupt, which left me with plenty of questions when I was finished reading. There doesn’t appear to be a sequel. I struggled to maintain interest, and to be quite honest, it was very hard for me to finish reading The Witch of Painted Sorrows. I am certain individuals who love historical fiction will love Rose’s attention to detail, but I can only give The Witch of Painted Sorrows a 2-star rating.

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MJ RoseM.J. Rose grew up in New York City mostly in the labyrinthine galleries of the Metropolitan Museum, the dark tunnels and lush gardens of Central Park and reading her mother’s favorite books before she was allowed. She believes mystery and magic are all around us but we are too often too busy to notice… books that exaggerate mystery and magic draw attention to it and remind us to look for it and revel in it.

Please visit her blog, Museum of Mysteries at http://www.mjrose.com/blog/

Her photo was taken by Judith Pushett utilizing an old relic: a turn-of-the-century 11 x 14 inch wood camera.

Rose lives in CT with her husband the musician and composer, Doug Scofield, and their very spoiled and often photographed dog, Winka.

Her most recent novel THE COLLECTOR OF DYING BREATHS (Atria/S&S) was chosen as an Indie Next Pick and her next novel, THE WITCH OF PAINTED SORROWS will be released March 2015.

Rose is a New York Times and USAToday bestseller whose work has appeared in many magazines including Oprah Magazine and she has been featured in the New York Times, Newsweek, WSJ, Time, USA Today and on the Today Show, and NPR radio. Rose graduated from Syracuse University, spent the ’80s in advertising, has a commercial in the Museum of Modern Art in NYC and since 2005 has run the first marketing company for authors – Authorbuzz.com

The television series PAST LIFE, was based on Rose’s novels in the Reincarnationist series. She is one of the founding board members of International Thriller Writers and currently serves, with Lee Child, as the organization’s co-president.

Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~ Goodreads

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