Guest Blog & Giveaway: Tortured Souls by Kimber Leigh Wheaton

Kacie Ramsey’s Bookshelves
 
Hi! My name is Kacie Ramsey, and I’m the star of the novel Tortured Souls. After my mom walked out on us, I turned to reading as a way to escape reality. It worked better than movies or TV since I could completely immerse myself into the story. Because of my abilities, I’m both drawn to and repulsed by the paranormal. Sometimes that’s all I want to read about. It’s not like I had anyone to relate to in real life before the Orion Circle. I also read a lot of non-fiction ghost stories. Of course most people I know would probably call them fiction. I have two bookshelves in my room. One is completely full, the other only half-full.

Non-Fiction Picks:
 
Time-Life put out a series of books about the supernatural, and I have the entire set. The series is called Mysteries of the Unknown, and my favorite books are Hauntings & Phantom Encounters. Would you believe there are 33 books in this series? My brother bought the set for me several years ago. He got it on ebay. Best birthday gift ever!

Another non-fiction book I really enjoyed was The Haunting of America: From the Salem Witch Trials to Harry Houdini. This book explores how the paranormal has affected events in American History.

Fiction Picks:
 
Yes, you’ll find Twilight on my bookshelf, but I didn’t like it all that much. In some ways I felt it just candy-coated real life supernatural. I mean, glittering vampires? Just not my thing.

Paranormalcy by Kiersten White is one of my favorite books. In fact, I love all three books in that series.

Angelfall by Susan Ee is another favorite. I haven’t read the second book yet—been too busy.

Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll sits in a place of honor on my top shelf. As far as classics go, this is one wild story.

The Complete Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson: Complete Fairy Tales also sit on the top shelf. I have a soft spot for fairy tales.

Bunnicula by Deborah & James Howe is one from my younger days. It reminds me of happier times when my mom was still in the picture. What could be better than a vampire rabbit??

The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins was a great book. Unfortunately I didn’t like books 2 & 3 as much. They were too sad.

Well, that’s just a small sampling of my books. I’ve learned that I need my books to have happy endings. I don’t mind if a book makes me cry, but I’d better be smiling at the end. Life is full of strife (mine anyway), I don’t need that in the books I read to escape. I remember reading the Dragon Prince series by Melanie Rawn—one of the books was so sad that I felt like tearing it into little shreds. I could never destroy a book like that, so I hid it in my brother’s disaster of a room. That was two years ago. He still hasn’t found it…

So, what are some of your favorite books? Books you think are overrated?

 Tortured Souls
The Orion Circle #1

Kimber Leigh Wheaton

YA Paranormal Romance
June 29. 2014
Sea Dragon Press

Amazon * Goodreads

Sometimes Rest in Peace isn't an option.

Kacie Ramsey sees ghosts—and it's ruining her life. Her mother left, her father blames her, and no matter how hard she tries, she can't keep the ghosts away. Now a new power has emerged. Nightly visions of grisly murders and a relentless predator draw her to the brink of insanity.

When the phantom appears at a party, Kacie's longtime crush, Logan, saves her. He invites her to join the Orion Circle, a group of supernatural hunters with chapters in schools all over the country. Through the Circle, Kacie learns to embrace her spiritual powers, and for the first time in her life she feels in control rather than a victim.

But the Foxblood Demon will not give up so easily. A demented serial killer in life who trapped the souls of the thirteen children he murdered, imprisoning them within the walls of his mansion. Now in death, he plots his return while drawing power from the pure souls of the children. He recognizes something in Kacie he's never seen before—a medium powerful enough to provide a vessel for his tainted soul.

Kacie can't ignore the tortured souls of the children crying out to her every night. With Logan at her side, she will fight the Foxblood Demon. But can they banish this powerful phantom, or will Kacie lose not only her body, but her eternal soul to the monster.

About the Author

Kimber Leigh Wheaton is a bestselling YA/NA author with a soft spot for sweet romance. She is married to her soul mate, has a teenage son, and shares her home with three dogs, four cats, and lots of dragons. No, she doesn’t live on a farm, she just loves animals. Kimber Leigh is addicted to romance, videogames, superheroes, villains, and chocolate—not necessarily in that order. (If she has to choose, she’ll take a chocolate covered superhero!) She currently lives in San Antonio, TX but has been somewhat a rolling stone in life, having resided in several different cities and states.

Website * Twitter * Goodreads Author Page
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Review: Cursed Moon by Jaye Wells

Cursed Moon

Author: Jaye Wells

Release Date: August 12, 2014

Publisher: Orbit

The Prospero's War Book #2

ISBN:  031622846X

ISBN13: 9780316228466

Genre: Urban Fantasy

Review Copy Source: Publisher via NetGalley

When a rare Blue Moon upsets the magical balance in the city, Detective Kate Prospero and her Magical Enforcement colleagues pitch in to help Babylon PD keep the peace. Between potions going haywire and everyone's emotions running high, every cop in the city is on edge. But the moon's impact is especially strong for Kate who's wrestling with guilt over falling off the magic wagon.

After a rogue wizard steals dangerous potions from the local covens, Kate worries their suspect is building a dirty magic bomb. Her team must find the anarchist rogue before the covens catch him, and make sure they defuse the bomb before the Blue Moon deadline. Failure is never an option, but success will require Kate to come clean about her secrets.

With a ton of action, plenty angst, lots of drama and a little romantic tension, CURSED MOON was a great continuation of The Prospero's War series.

Kate is dealing with quite a bit in CURSED MOON. She performed dirty magic to save Danny in book 1 and no one knows. She has a lot of guilt over it and seems to be looking over her shoulder at every turn afraid of who will find out. She also doesn't like lying to her friends who already think she is changing too much with her new job. On top of that Danny thinks that John Volos saved him so he is doubly obsessed with him and is sneaking around talking to him behind her back while being a teenage pain in the butt to Kate thinking she didn't care enough about him to save him herself. He causes a lot of hurt feelings and I just wanted to give him a time out in just about every chapter.

We get to witness Kate come face to face with her Uncle. I think she handled it really well and their last meeting together in CURSED MOON really showed how much Kate has grown since she was under his control. He seems to have his hands in a lot of pockets so I'm positive we will be seeing him again soon.

I very much enjoyed the progress of Kate and her partners *fingers crossed* relationship. I like them together and by the end it looks like there might actually be some romance in the next book. John is fine and all but he causes so much trouble for Kate and I don't know why she would ever contemplate a relationship with him again.

As soon as CURSED MOON was over I went in search of when book 3 would be out. DEADLY SPELLS is set to release in March 2015 and is already on my wishlist.

I gave it 4/5 stars

* This book was provided free of charge from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.