Once-in-a-lifetime sweepstakes for aspiring writers

Do I have a special sweepstakes to tell you about today or what?

New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner is offering a once-in-a-lifetime sweepstakes for aspiring writers. She is offering a one-hour writer’s phone consultation to one lucky winner who signs up for her newsletter.

Whether you just started thinking about writing your first novel, are jumping in head first with National Novel Writing Month in November, or are a seasoned author, you can always gain invaluable insight from speaking to a peer, especially one as respected as Lisa Gardner.

Bestselling author of RIGHT BEHIND YOU, FIND HER, and more, Lisa Gardner offers her thoughts and advice in this one-hour phone consultation*. For more details and to enter the sweepstakes, click HERE.

Author Lisa Gardner,

© PHILBRICK PHOTOGRAPHY

Lisa Gardner is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of eighteen previous novels, including her most recent, Find Her. Her Detective D. D. Warren novels include Find Her, Fear Nothing, Catch Me, Love You More, and The Neighbor, which won the International Thriller of the Year Award. Her FBI Profiler Novels include Gone, The Next Accident, and The Third Victim. 

She lives with her family in New England.

*Timing of phone call to be determined based on the availability of winner and Lisa Gardner. Consultation may be awarded anytime between the end of the sweepstakes and January 31, 2017.

*Call details to be provided at time of scheduling.

Thanks for stopping by. Hope you’ll check out the sweepstakes and if you’re the lucky winner be sure to let us know all about it. What would be one thing you’d ask about during the consultation, if you won?

P.S. I hope everyone remembered to turn their clocks back last night!

Find Her by Lisa Gardner

If you’re looking for an intense thriller that keeps you in knots until the end, FIND HER by Lisa Gardner will fit that bill.

Narrator Kristen Potter does an excellent job bringing the characters to life. She captures the emotional turmoil of the various characters and makes the listener feel the effects. Her interruption of the characters enhances this thriller.

Carefree college student Flora Dane was kidnapped seven years ago. She survived her ordeal for 472 days before being rescued. For the past five years she’s worked hard at surviving and learning how to handle herself. She has a bedroom wall covered with information on other girls who haven’t made it home.

Boston Detective D.D. Warren thinks there’s more to Flora when she’s discovered bounded and naked, standing over a dead man. It seems Flora has been connected to three similar suspects since her return home. Is she on a mission or just very unlucky at meeting guys?

Flora and D.D. find themselves both involved in searching for another missing college student. The more D.D. investigates, the more questions she has. The closer Flora gets to the kidnapper, the more her memories with her own kidnapper return.

The author keeps readers/listeners on their toes with the twists and turns of this case. The question of Flora’s recovery is front and center.

FIND HER is filled with suspense and mystery as the tense mounts. The story flows quickly and is laced with adrenaline-fueled moments.

The characters are complex and well-developed. The author also explores the pressures of police work on family life.

This is a riveting thriller that will have you second guessing what you know, while wondering could it be.

Find Her by Lisa Gardner, Detective D.D. Warren series, Narrated by Kristen Potter, Brilliance Audio, @2016, ISBN: 978-1480598645, Unabridged, MP3 CD, Run Time: 12 Hours and 16 Minutes 

FTC Full Disclosure – A copy of this audio book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review. The thoughts are completely my own and given honestly and freely.

Thanks for stopping by today. I hope I’ve enticed you to check out this fascinating tale. It’s available in eBook, hardcover, paperback and audio. Do you enjoy intense thrillers were you wonder if the victim is really a victim or the criminal?

BTW: Happy April Fool’s Day! Have you been playing jokes or have you had jokes played on you?

CATCH ME by Lisa Gardner

Solving murders and catching bad guys is what Boston’s top detective D.D. Warren does. But how do you solve a murder that hasn’t been committed yet and catch a killer that may not exit?

Author Lisa Gardner has created an intriguing plot in her latest release, CATCH ME. The victim, Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant, knows she will be murdered in 4 days and she wants Warren to work the crime scene and find her killer.

Grant explains that her 2 best friends from a small town in New Hampshire have been murdered. They were both killed at 8 p.m. on Jan. 21st a year apart. It will be Grant’s turn in 4 days.

Not knowing if Grant is the next victim or the real killer, Warren begins checking into the unsolved prior deaths. Meanwhile, she’s also trying to track down a vigilante gunman who is targeting pedophiles.

Kirsten Potter does a fantastic job narrating this tale of murder and mayhem. She provides great emotions to the characters at the appropriate time to pull listeners in deeper to the story. She gives each character their own unique voice making it seem more than one person is narrating. Her cadence is smooth and calming when Warren talks to Jack and menacing when the killer speaks.

The action is fast-pace, the suspense is high, and the storyline is captivating. Tension builds as the Jan. 21st deadline approaches. Twists and turns along the way will keep you guessing until the surprise ending.

Gardner weaves a tale of intrigue and murder, while showing a gentler side of her characters. Charlene Rosalind Carter Grant is a character as complex as her name is long. 

This is the 6th book in the Detective D.D. Warren series, but is a stand alone read. There is also a eNovella in the series. CATCH ME is a thrill a minute causing readers to want to know more about D.D Warren and those surrounding her.

Author Lisa Gardner’s website is www.lisagardner.com

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner, A D.D. Warren Novel, Performed by Kirsten Potter, Brilliance Audio, @2012, ISBN: 978-1455847150, Unabridged, 11 Discs, Listening Time 13 Hours, 15 Minutes 

FTC Full Disclosure - This audio book was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

 

Have you listened to any audio books lately? I really appreciate you stopping by. Hope everyone has a great Saturday.

Love You More, A Novel by Lisa Gardner

Have you ever ridden the Scrambler at the fair?

The Scrambler is that crazy ride where up to 3 people are buckled into a seat, you’re slammed one way and then another all at a fast speed that has you gasping for breath.

That’s how I felt reading LOVE YOU MORE. This was the most exhausting book I’ve ever read….and I LOVED every minute of it. Talk about a whirlwind ride - WOW! From the first page until the last, you are constantly on the edge of your seat wondering what could possible happen next.

Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren is called in to work a homicide with her former lover, Massachusetts State Police Detective Bobby Dodge. The victim, Brian Darby, is a Merchant Marine and the killer is his wife, Tessa Leoni, a Massachusetts State Trooper. Brian has been shot 3 times in the chest with Trooper Leoni’s service weapon. It appears Tessa has been beaten so this would be a spousal abuse case ending in a death due to self-defense. Normally an open and shut case for the detectives, except Tessa’s six-year-old daughter is missing.

As D.D. and Bobby dig deeper into the case, they soon fear Tessa has also killed her daughter and disposed of her body. In addition, it seems Internal Affairs is investigating missing money from the troopers’ retirement fund and Tessa is a possible suspect. As the officers scramble to find the 6-year-old, they find more skeletons in the trooper’s past.

Meanwhile, D.D. is also having to deal with personal issues that could change the course of her life.

Author Lisa Gardner tells the story from both D.D.’s point of view, as well as Tessa’s. The chapters interchange from one woman’s thoughts and actions to the other. It gives the reader insight into both women’s feelings, as well as the circumstances surrounding each.

Without giving anything away, I will stress everything is not what it seems. This is the fifth book featuring Det. Warren, but it is a stand along book. The characters are riveting. I’d like to see Trooper Leoni return in another Det. Warren story, but under the circumstances not sure that could happen - or could it?

Be prepared to lose track of time once you pick up LOVE YOU MORE. You’ll be so engrossed in finding out who Trooper Leoni ‘loves more,’ you’ll have a hard time putting the book down until the very end.

Author Lisa Gardner’s website is www.lisagardner.com

Love You More, A Novel by Lisa Gardner, Bantam, @2011, ISBN: 9780553807257, Hardcover, 368 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - I requested this book as part of the author’s virtual blog tour and it was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.

 

Cutting Corners Today

Do you ever cut corners and cheat just a bit on anything?

Well, I'm cheating today. I don't have a post to share with you so I'm offering the puzzle below for your entertainment. 

With winter still holding part of the country in its grip I thought a touch of spring would be a welcome sight. Enjoy and check back tomorrow, I'll have my review of LOVE YOU MORE by Lisa Gardner to share.


Do you take time to relax a few minutes during the day, give your mind a chance to regroup?

Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner

LIVE TO TELL by Lisa Gardner is not a cozy murder mystery, but a mystery filled with suspense, drama, nail-biting intrigue and bits of humor scattered about.

The story involves Sergeant Detective D.D. Warren of the Boston Police Department’s Homicide Unit and two women that on the surface have little or no connection.

The madness appears to being when D.D. is called away from a date to a gruesome murder scene. It’s an apparent murder/suicide where a father has killed his entire family before shooting himself. However, he’s still alive and is rushed to the hospital. D.D. waits to question him to find out if he’s a suspect or a victim.

Meanwhile, nurse Danielle Burton is battling demons of her own as she attempts to help her patients in a locked-down pediatric psych ward. Danielle can relate to the mentally and emotionally disturbed children. She carries the nightmare that claimed her family 25 years earlier.

At the same time Victoria Oliver only wants what is best for her eight-year-old son, Evan. She has devoted her life to him, she cares for him by herself, and she fears he will one day kill her.

A second family is slaughtered. Again it appears to be murder/suicide with the father killing his family before shooting himself. However, D.D. and her team quickly learn the father was already dead before he ‘shot himself.’

Is there a serial killer lose in Boston murdering entire families or are the two families connected some how. It’s up to D.D. and her unit to find the killer before another family dies.

Bit by bit, author Lisa Gardner brings these three women together. As their paths begin to intersect, the tension mounts leading the reader to guess at who the real killer is and why they are killing.

This is not a book for the fair of heart. The author takes the reader into the disturbing world of psychotic children. She explores some of the emotional problems these youngsters face and the ways in which they deal with those emotions.

From the prologue giving a glimpse of a tragedy years before until the killer is revealed in the closing chapter, you will be mesmerized by the characters and caught up in the suspense of the murders. It’s hard to put the book down until you know who will LIVE TO TELL.   

Author Lisa Gardner’s website is www.lisagardner.com

Live To Tell by Lisa Gardner, Bantam Books, @2010, ISBN: 978-0-553-80724-0, Hardcover, 388 pages

FTC Full Disclosure - I requested this book as part of the author’s blog tour and it was sent to me by the publisher in hopes I would review it. However, receiving the complimentary copy did not influence my review.