The Book Cove

                        Book Blogger Hop Prompt: 18th - 24th - Is there anything that drives you bonkers when you're reading a book and makes you want tell the author a thing or two? (submitted by C. Lee @ cleemckenziebooks ) One thing that really annoys me is when there is a little bit too much "fake it until you make it" AKA inadequate research on a topic. If an author really wants to write in detail about a topic (sports moves/fiction retelling of a historical event/medical terminology/forensics in a crime book), then they really  need to understand the topic first. Or just leave it at the basics and move on with the story. I've read one too many intricate game plays that don't make any sense or medical events described that aren't a thing. These errors lose a lot of readers when the mistakes stack up to a cringe-worthy amount. The unfortunate part is that these errors usually have little to do with the ov...

                        Book Blogger Hop Prompt: What is your first book of the year? My first book of the year is The Last Move  by Mary Burton. This is a crime/thriller that has had me hooked since the first page. "In this gripping stand-alone from bestselling author Mary Burton, an FBI agent must catch a copycat killer. The only difference this time: she’s the final victim." This has been my nightly go-to-sleep read which has left me with some interesting dreams!

In 1868, Jack Renton, a teenage Scots sailor, was shanghaied in San Francisco. In 1876, he was rescued from captivity on the Pacific island of Malaita, home to a fearsome tribe of headhunters. After the rescue, in a sensational best-selling memoir, Renton recounted his eight-year adventure: how he jumped ship and drifted two thousand miles in an open whaleboat to the Solomon Islands, came ashore at Malaita, was stripped of his clothes, possessions and his very identity, but lived to serve the island’s tribal chief Kabou eventually as his most trusted adviser. For all the authenticity and riveting detail, however, it turns out that Renton’s chronicle glossed over key events that made him the man that Kabou said he loved, "as my first-born son." Mining the oral history passed down in detail from generations of Malaitans, documentary filmmaker Nigel Randell has pieced together a more complete and grislier account of Renton’s experience—as a man forced to assimilate in order to...

                        Book Blogger Hop Prompt: Did you get any books for Christmas/Holidays? This year I did not. I have many books that I need to get through and not a lot of room to keep storing them. One of this year's goals is to cut down on the TBR pile. I did not read as many books this year as I normally do. Being "too busy" isn't really my excuse...it was more so not being able to focus enough to read. A goal of mine that goes along with making my way through the TBR is to review 1 book per month. Now to pick one to start... 

We are accepting all submissions for 2019. This includes book reviews, tour requests, and book promotions. There are submission pages for each of these that allow for efficient processing of the many requests. The base materials required for these are similar; name, synopsis, cover picture, and author biography. The more extras submitted to make the book stand out, the better the post. We always support any extras that authors would like to include such as guest posts, excerpts, or interviews. Most January dates are filled. Promotion submissions can be made here , and book review submissions can be made here . Questions and follow-ups can be directed to bookcovereviews@gmail.com

Sometimes we just need a dark page-turner. The Leper Messiah is that book. This grand adventure follows one of the greatest heroes of the western world, David, and draws the reader deeply into the ancient world. The David Code: Unlock the ancient secrets of Egyptian mysticism and the Hebrew desert world. For the Ark of the Covenant, the powerful voice of the Rose, and King David's adventures as a young boy.....are all cloaked in the robes of the Leper Messiah. A  Haunting Journey to Destiny A Fictional Look at the Early Life of King David Toronto, Canada  – One of the most prominent names in the Bible is that of King David, who is a significant spiritual figure in the traditions of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The story of “David and Goliath” has become one of the most recognizable tropes in our culture. The Leper Messiah , by Robert M. Levinson, takes a dark, often mystical walk through the life of this iconic figure. Levinson’s book explores the forces, ...

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?  Asking me where I am from has always been a tough question for me to answer. Does the person asking mean where was I born, or where did I grow up, or where do I currently live? All vastly different answers. My father was in the military so we bounced around quite a bit. Two foreign countries and five US states to be exact. Right now I live in Portland, Oregon, but will be moving soon. Even as an adult I am a nomad! I have enjoyed writing ever since I was a kid and always did well on creative writing assignments in school. It wasn't until about ten years ago that I started giving serious thought to writing for a living. Coming up with ideas for stories has never been a problem for me, I have notebooks full of maps, histories, religions, character descriptions and so forth. My problem was sitting down and actually writing chapter one. Finally about four years ago I finally buckled down and began writing in earnest, every ...

When Cathy Broomfield’s youngest daughter Kirsty disappeared, Cathy hoped she had gone to stay with friends, to escape her brutal and bullying husband. But as the days passed with no word from Kirsty, a loving daughter who spoke to her mum every day, Cathy became increasingly anxious, until the day the police arrived at her door to tell her they had found a body, when she knew her worst fears had been realised... Through a Mother’s Tears is the poignant and heartbreaking story of how Cathy lost not only Kirsty, her youngest daughter, but Kirsty’s big sister Hayley, who died of heartbreak when the agony of her baby sister’s loss became too much to bear. Purchase on Amazon About the Author Cathy Broomfield is a wife, mother and grandmother. She has lived in South Wales with her husband Dave for the past 20 years. This is her first book.

Are you interested in reviewing books? We are taking names for book reviewers to help us review our many requests! There are plenty of genres available with something for everyone. If you'd like to help us review, visit the following link and provide some information (kinds of books your interested in and where to send them). Sign up to be a reviewer, here. If you have any questions you can email  bookcovereviews@gmail.com

Three cheers for the ingenious, inventive, United States of America! From the kitchen to the office to outer space, America has been at the forefront of the advances of the human race for the last two centuries. It's given birth to more new products, devices, medicines, leisure pursuits, sports, musical genres, and vehicles than any other country or people ancient or modern. More Nobel prize winners come from these shores than the next five countries combined. Atom Bomb to Santa Claus celebrates the country's pioneering drive by describing some of its greatest innovations and some of its greatest – and most surprising – inventors. It challenges the imagination to know that the same country that gave the world the artificial heart and e-mail, also originated sliced bread and Chinese fortune cookies. Guaranteed to entertain and enlighten, Atom Bomb to Santa Claus is an amazing chronicle of some of America's most important and imaginative creations. Purchase on Amazon ...

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?  Where am I from? I’ve often wondered that myself. The bare biographical details are that I spent my childhood in Hertfordshire and my teenage years in Norfolk, but I’ve never felt I was from either place. I hot-footed it to London immediately after university and I have never left. I love London and couldn’t imagine living anywhere else. It’s my spiritual home. Lots of people hate London (and are happy to tell Londoners so) but for those of us who have chosen to live here long term, it inspires a passion that you don’t often find elsewhere. London also features heavily in my writing, it’s almost another character in fact. As for my writing, I write novels about clever, resourceful, funny women who solve their own problems. I have a very distinctive voice as an author, but there’s nothing manufactured about it, it’s simply the only way I can write. My friends tell me that reading my books is like hearing me talk (something I ...

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?  I was raised on a chicken farm in a remote Pennsylvania village. After abandoning the chickens, I worked as a professional student, oceanographer, bum, woodworker, research chemist, chemistry teacher, and science writer in that order. I have also written for national magazines, including backpacking and woodworking magazines. I've written some fiction, but I didn't like the results. I occasionally write poetry of Valentine's Day. How long have you been writing?  I've always liked to write. I started writing more when I started backpacking. Campfires attract muses.  What was the inspiration for your most recent book? When I realized that science concepts were discovered in almost the same sequence they are taught. What was the hardest part about writing this book? Writing it was easy and fun. The hard part came when discovered that promoting it is hard and frustrating. Do you often develop characters fr...

Work/Life/Cycle Staying friends should be easy. But then, so should growing up, and George, Harry and Ian have never really got the hang of that either. They spent their twenties in a state of permanent childish abandon. Now, adulthood is catching up with them and the icy blast of work, commitments and relationships is beginning to take its toll. In one last ditch attempt to keep responsibility from eroding their friendship entirely, the trio decide to take a cycling holiday across the breadth of the country. Which would be fine if they’d ever cycled before. Or if George’s idea of modern cycling wear wasn’t tweed, long socks and cycling clips. Purchase on Amazon About the Author Richard Mapes is an author of comedy novels, who has variously been a scientist, a musician, a film director and a rock star, and is getting tired of being asked what he wants to be when he grows up. Currently, he works for Facebook, making creative tools for advertisers, but he has previously wor...

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from?  I grew up in Fishkill, NY, which is a world away from Austin, TX where I live now, but I love both. This is my first novel, and I went at it with more vigor than any other short story I've ever written, but I'm getting back to that and writing screenplays. in college I used to write for a TV show whenever they'd let me and I wanted to write a novel with the mindset that everything I write might some day make the big screen. The first job I really loved was working at movie theater back in the day when film projectors were still the primary means of showcasing movies. I loved threading up the projector, cleaning it, putting the film together, and I said to myself someday I'll see my own work turned into something like this. Although whether that'll be in film or digital doesn't really concern me as long as I can chomp away on some movie theater food and watch it on the big screen in some cheap second run...

At 12.16am on Wednesday, June 5, 1968, Senator Robert F. Kennedy was shot and mortally wounded in the kitchen service pantry of the Ambassador Hotel, Los Angeles. He had just won the California Primary, an important victory in his quest for nomination as the Democratic Party’s candidate in the US Presidential election late that year. A little over 24 hours later, he was pronounced dead.  A 24-year-old Palestinian immigrant, Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, was captured in the pantry with a smoking gun in his hand. Eyewitnesses had seen him step out in front of Kennedy and begin shooting with a small calibre revolver. He fired all eight bullets in its chamber. In April 1969, Sirhan was convicted of Robert Kennedy’s murder and the wounding of five others. He was sentenced to death, later commuted to life imprisonment. He has been in prison – often in solitary confinement – ever since. Fifteen applications for parole have been rejected.  That is the official history of the murder of Robe...

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Where are you from? I live in a fabulous town in Somerset, England with my husband, our children and our fantastic ginger cat. Primarily I write contemporary adult fiction but I also like to dabble in children's fiction and short stories, the odd poem may fall out of my pen too! How long have you been writing?  I've been writing since around 2003 but that was all fairly primitive. I was really writing with intent from around 2010. I did an MA in Creative writing in 2013/14 which helped to hone my skills and take my work to the next level. What was the inspiration for your most recent book? Redferne Lane all started with the school run. I was lucky to have an idyllic walk along a pedestrian only path next to a meadow when I took my children to school. I imagined a set of houses at one end and a big old house at the other end of this path and that became Redferne Lane . Grace was a character that has been in my head for quite a w...

In this perceptive biography of Donald Maclean, Robert Cecil draws on his close acquaintance with the man, first at Cambridge and then as his colleague in the Diplomatic Service, to give an insider’s view of Maclean and his circle of ideological spies: Burgess, Philby and Blunt. He details Maclean’s recruitment as an agent by the Comintern in 1934, his early years in Paris, marriage, breakdown in Cairo and ultimate flight, with Burgess, to the Soviet Union.  The heart of the book is Maclean’s years in Washington from 1944-48, a time when crucial decisions about the post-war world were being made. Maclean was assigned top secret work connected with the development of the atomic bomb – the ‘Manhattan Project’. He was undoubtedly Stalin’s best source in Washington, and Russian knowledge of US nuclear capabilities fuelled the atomic-weaponry race. His treachery did immense damage to Anglo-American relations. The other casualty, which Cecil is well-placed to describe, was to the gentl...

Are you interested in reviewing books? We are taking names for book reviewers to help us review our many requests! There are plenty of genres available with something for everyone. If you'd like to help us review, visit the following link and provide some information (kinds of books your interested in and where to send them). Sign up to be a reviewer, here. If you have any questions you can email  bookcovereviews@gmail.com

A SINGLE MOTHER, A SECRET LIFE… After her divorce, Monique decides to inject some fun into the drudgery of life as a single mother, by dating a wealthy older gentleman, which is known as ‘sugar daddy’ dating. It all starts quite innocently, but when Monique finds a thousand pounds in her wallet after one night of hot, steamy sex, she realises that sugar dating could be her way to survive as a single mother. Soon life is a whirlwind of wealthy men, luxury hotels and glamorous experiences. She goes skydiving in Dubai and flies to Paris, Barcelona, Vienna, Milan, Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong. Thanks to her sugar daddies Monique can take care of her children, she gets a new sense of independence, discovers her sexual drive, and experiments with a whole new range of sexual fantasies. But when she loses her job and her ex-husband stops paying alimony, she is prepared to do anything to safeguard her children and keep a roof over their heads. Money becomes her main focus and she starts livin...