Blog Tour (Spotlight): Doll Parts by Azzurra Nox @YABoundToursPR @diva_zura

Title: Doll Parts: Tales of Twisted Love
Author: Azzurra Nox
Publisher: Twisted Wing Productions
Blog Tour Organizer: YA Bound Book Tours
Release Date: December 8, 2015
A haunting trio of short stories about love, obsession, and secrets. Each short story is titled after a song, The National's Apartment Story, Placebo's Scared of Girls, and Skunk Anansie's Post Orgasmic Chill.

Apartment Story
A lonely married woman nostalgically rekindles a friendship with a former lover and the apartment they shared. Dark secrets and mysteries surround the apartment building and its new tenants that delve deep into the woman's psyche and prove to be fatal.

Scared of Girls
A glamorous go-go dancer and a failing university student are bound by a dark secret that may change their fates forever.

Post Orgasmic Chill
The destinies of a cynical rock star, a groupie, an arrogant DJ, and naïve university student intertwine in a rainy London that serves as the backdrop to their tormented lives. Secrets and lies coincide in this dark tale of love gone wrong.

Hauntingly spare, beautiful, and twisted, Doll Parts is a disquieting and at times darkly morbid collection of short stories about normal people who suddenly discover their own dark possibilities.

Buy your copy on Amazon!


About Azzurra Nox

Blog Tour (Review): Dark Screams Volume Four by Clive Barker, Ed Gorman, and Heather Graham #TLCBookTours

Title: Dark Screams: Volume Four
Authors: Clive Barker, Ed Gorman, and Heather Graham
Publisher: Hydra (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: August 4, 2015
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Clive Barker, Heather Graham, Lisa Morton, Ray Garton, and Ed Gorman lead readers down a twisted labyrinth of terror, horror, and suspense in Dark Screams: Volume Four, from Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar of the revered Cemetery Dance Publications.

THE DEPARTED by Clive Barker
On All Hallows’ Eve, a dead and disembodied mother yearns to touch her young son one last time. But will making contact destroy them both?

CREATURE FEATURE by Heather Graham
What could be better publicity for a horror convention than an honest-to-goodness curse? It’s only after lights out that the hype—and the Jack the Ripper mannequin—starts to feel a little too real.

THE NEW WAR by Lisa Morton
Mike Carson is a war hero and a decorated vet. He doesn’t deserve to be trapped in a hospital with some black thing sitting on his chest as patients die all around him. His only hope is to take out the nurse—before it’s his turn.

SAMMY COMES HOME by Ray Garton
It’s what every family prays for: a lost pet returning home. But when Sammy, the Hale family sheepdog, appears on their doorstep, he brings back something no parent would ever wish upon his or her child.

THE BRASHER GIRL by Ed Gorman
Cindy Marie Brasher is the prettiest girl in the Valley, and Spence just has to have her. Unfortunately, Cindy has a “friend” . . . a friend who tells her to do things . . . bad things.

Praise for Dark Screams: Volume Four

“Collectively, Volume Four constitutes the most cohesive, narratively enriching and entertaining Dark Screams entry to date. Be it the presence of genre icons Barker and Morton, stories from the lesser-known but equally talented Garton and Gorman, or the pure fun of Graham’s tale, fans of horror of every variety will find something to love in these pages.” — LitReactor

“The best of the bunch so far.” — Examiner.com

“Stacks up well with any of the other three books so far [with] a fairly good variety in the kinds of horror stories too . . . If you’re new to the series, this is a good jumping-on point.” — Wagging the Fox

“Dark Screams is one of the best values on the horror market. . . . Do yourself a favor, and pick it up.” — Adventures Fantastic

My Review

I'll break down my review of Dark Screams Volume Four by short story to make things simple.

The Departed by Clive Barker

This story was not at all what I had expected from Clive Barker. I've read some of this other work, which was mostly horror-laced fantasy, but The Departed was about a single mother who is coping wtih her new status as a ghost. It affected me emotionally, as I also spent several years as a single mother myself. That emotional reaction to this story was the most unexpected thing of all, and this was my favorite story in the collection.

Blog Tour (Review & #Giveaway): Dark Screams Volume Two edited by Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar

Title: Dark Screams: Volume Two
Editors: Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar
Publisher: Hydra (Penguin Random House)
Release Date: March 3, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Robert McCammon, Norman Prentiss, Shawntelle Madison, Graham Masterton, and Richard Christian Matheson scale new heights of horror, suspense, and grimmest fantasy in Dark Screams: Volume Two, from Brian James Freeman and Richard Chizmar of the renowned Cemetery Dance Publications.

THE DEEP END by Robert McCammon
Everyone thinks the drowning death of Neil Calder in the local swimming pool was a tragic accident. Only his father knows better. Now, on the last night of summer, Neil returns in search of revenge.

INTERVAL by Norman Prentiss
Flight 1137 from St. Louis by way of Nashville has gone missing. As anxious friends and family gather around the gate, a ticket clerk finds herself eyewitness to a moment of inhuman evil.

IF THESE WALLS COULD TALK by Shawntelle Madison
Eleanor has come from New York City to prep an old Victorian house in Maine for America’s Mysterious Hotspots. Although she’s always thrown herself into her work, this job will take her places she’s never dreamed of going.

THE NIGHT HIDER by Graham Masterton
C. S. Lewis wrote about a portal that led to a world of magic and enchantment. But the wardrobe in Dawn’s room holds only death—until she solves its grisly mystery.

WHATEVER by Richard Christian Matheson
A 1970s rock ’n’ roll band that never was—in a world that is clearly our own...but perhaps isn’t, not anymore...or, at least, not yet—takes one hell of a trip.

Praise for Dark Screams: Volume Two

“Dark Screams: Volume Two [is] a worthwhile read and a great entry to this series. If this upward trend in quality continues, we are sure to see amazing things in the volumes to come.” — LitReactor

“[Brian James Freeman] and Richard Chizmar set themselves a high standard with the first volume, and it’s good to see that they have maintained that level of excellence. . . . If you like good, solid horror, check it out. I’ve found some new authors to read.” — Adventures Fantastic

“Five fun-to-read stories by top-notch horror scribes. How can you lose? The answer: you can’t.” — Atomic Fangirl

“Once I started this book, I didn’t want to read anything else.” — Carole’s Random Life

My Review

I don't read that much horror now, as a blogger, but I still enjoy the genre. When I was offered Dark Screams Volume Two, I had to take it because it's been quite a while since I've read anything creepy or scary.

The Deep End
Robert R. McCammon

Sometimes there is little I love more than an unreliable narrator. (Just because something is horror does not mean that I will believe that a character believes to be true.) The protagonist, Glenn, just lost his son two weeks before in a swimming accident at the public pool. He's convinced that there is a monster lurking in the deep end and that it's his job to kill it. Being as this is a horror anthology, maybe Glenn hasn't gone "off the deep end" himself, and there's a monster after all.

Interval
Norman Prentiss

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): The Thing About Great White Sharks by Rebecca Adams Wright

Title: The Thing About Great White Sharks
Author: Rebecca Adams Wright
Publisher: Little A (Amazon Publishing)
Release Date: February 10, 2015
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
In this collection’s richly imagined title story, our brutal and resourceful protagonist is determined to protect her family from a murderous, shark-ridden world—at any cost. Elsewhere, an old woman uncovers a sinister plot while looking after a friend’s plants (“Orchids”), and a girl in the war-torn countryside befriends an unlikely creature (“Keeper of the Glass”). In “Barnstormers,” a futuristic flying circus tries to forestall bankruptcy with one last memorable show. At the heart of “Sheila” is the terrible choice a retired judge must make when faced with the destruction of his beloved robotic dog, and “Yuri, in a Blue Dress” follows one of the last survivors of an alien invasion as she seeks help.

Extending from World War II to the far future, these fifteen stories offer a gorgeously observed perspective on our desire for connection and what it means to have compassion—for ourselves, for one another, for our past…and for whatever lies beyond.

My Review

I really enjoy short story anthologies, but I had no idea what a fucking treat The Thing About Great White Sharks would be. (I'm using coarse language to convey feeling, not my trashiness, by the way.) This is literary fiction just the way I like it - with a little bit of magical realism, a touch of sci-fi, and a mix of something else. It's shocking, horrible, and wonderful, all rolled into one.

Review: The Ghosts of Heaven by Marcus Sedgwick

Title: The Ghosts of Heaven
Author: Marcus Sedgwick
Publisher: Roaring Brook Press (Macmillian)
Release Date: January 6, 2015
Acquired Via: Publisher
Timeless, beautiful, and haunting, spirals connect the four episodes of The Ghosts of Heaven, the mesmerizing new novel from Printz Award winner Marcus Sedgwick. They are there in prehistory, when a girl picks up a charred stick and makes the first written signs; there tens of centuries later, hiding in the treacherous waters of Golden Beck that take Anna, who people call a witch; there in the halls of a Long Island hospital at the beginning of the 20th century, where a mad poet watches the oceans and knows the horrors it hides; and there in the far future, as an astronaut faces his destiny on the first spaceship sent from earth to colonize another world. Each of the characters in these mysterious linked stories embarks on a journey of discovery and survival; carried forward through the spiral of time, none will return to the same place.

My Review

The Ghosts of Heaven... This is not an easy one to gather my thoughts about. I think it may be easiest to break it down by quarter (there are four shortish stories that make up the novel).

Quarter One: Whispers in the Dark

This story reminded me a lot of Hunting the Ghost Dancer by A.A. Attanasio, which is funny because I haven't read that book in nearly twenty years and can't recall the last time that I even thought about the book. *thinks about it* Okay, all they really have in common is that they're both set in prehistoric times. But still! I thought about that other book a lot.

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): A Day of Fire - A Novel of Pompeii

Title: A Day of Fire
Author: Various
Publisher: Self
Release Date: October 21, 2014
Acquired Via: Historical Fiction Blog Tours
Pompeii was a lively resort flourishing in the shadow of Mount Vesuvius at the height of the Roman Empire. When Vesuvius erupted in an explosion of flame and ash, the entire town would be destroyed. Some of its citizens died in the chaos, some escaped the mountain’s wrath . . . and these are their stories:

A boy loses his innocence in Pompeii’s flourishing streets.
An heiress dreads her wedding day, not knowing it will be swallowed by fire.
An ex-legionary stakes his entire future on a gladiator bout destined never to be finished.
A crippled senator welcomes death, until a tomboy on horseback comes to his rescue.
A young mother faces an impossible choice for her unborn child as the ash falls.
A priestess and a whore seek resurrection and redemption as the town is buried.

Six authors bring to life overlapping stories of patricians and slaves, warriors and politicians, villains and heroes who cross each others’ path during Pompeii’s fiery end. But who will escape, and who will be buried for eternity?

My Review

Usually when reviewing a short story collection, I try to review each of the stories individually. However, with A Day of Fire, I don't really feel that it's necessary. Each of the stories are of the same quality, and I feel like the theme running between them was also the same. This is by no means a YA collection (though older teens may enjoy it), but each of the characters faced coming of age and learning who they were and what they were about, even the older characters. The most important thing that I saw the characters learning was honor in the face of the terrifying event that the anthology is based around.

Review: Beyond the Pale by Henry Herz

Title: Beyond the Pale
Author: Henry Herz (editor)
Publisher: Birch Tree Publishing
Acquired Via: Editor
Release Date: July 7, 2014
Beyond the Pale contains eleven dark fantasy, urban fantasy and paranormal short stories by award-winning and New York Times bestselling authors:

• "Hooves and the Hovel of Abdel Jameela" by Saladin Ahmed (author of Throne of the Crescent Moon)
• "The Children of the Shark God" by Peter S. Beagle (author of The Last Unicorn)
• "Misery" & "Shadow Children" by Heather Brewer (author of The Chronicles of Vladimir Tod)
• "Even Hand" by Jim Butcher (author of The Dresden Files)
• "Red Run" by Kami Garcia (author of Beautiful Creatures)
• "Pale Rider" & "The Adventures of Lightning Merriemouse-Jones" by Nancy Holder (author of Wicked)
• "Frost Child" and "South" by Gillian Philip (author of Rebel Angels)
• "A Knot of Toads" by Jane Yolen (author of Owl Moon)

The noun “pale” refers to a stake (as in impaling vampires) or pointed piece of wood (as in a paling fence). “Pale” came to refer to an area enclosed by a paling fence. Later, it acquired the figurative meaning of an enclosed and therefore safe domain. Conversely, "beyond the pale" means foreign, strange, or threatening. You are about to go Beyond the Pale.

My Review

I love love love to read short stories (the literary ones from college are my favorites!), but I don't think that I've ever reviewed an anthology. Since I was so intrigued by the authors and the premise of Beyond the Pale, I figured that I would give it a shot.

I have to be honest and say that I skipped some of the stories for various reasons. I know that Jim Butcher is everyone else's favorite here at Bibliophilia, Please, but I am yet to read The Dresden Files. (Before you string me, I bought them on Kindle and Audible, so Storm Front will be happening soon.) I also skipped Frost Child by Gillian Philip because I wasn't in the mood for fairies at the time. Jan Yolen's A Knot of Toads and Nancy & Belle Holder's The Adventures of Lightning Merriemouse-Jones were both passed over, as I could get into them. That being said, these stories will not factor into my overall rating of the book.

Armchair BEA 2014: Novellas/Short Stories

Design by Amber of Shelf Notes

To learn more about Armchair BEA, visit HERE.
You guys, I think this may be my favorite topic of the week. I LOVE novellas, novelettes, and short stories. When they were required reading in school, I was a happy, happy girl. Even if I didn't like them, I loved them. (Don't ask how that works.) There's just something about reading something short and sweet, with so much squeezed into one little morsel. Oh, and you know how some of them have open endings? I love those, too. That's a lot of love, huh? We should hug it out.

When I'm looking to read short stories when I'm just farting around on the computer, I go to Tor.com's story section. I have found many quality stories (and fabulous artwork for them!) on the site, and I usually end up buying them for my Kindle, too, so I can read them wherever. The very best one that I've ever come across is Burning Girls by Veronica Schanoes. My review from Goodreads is as follows:

I'm typing sentences, deleting them, and attempting to write more. I don't know what to really say except that Burning Girls left me speechless. I started reading the story without reading any reviews or the words italicized at the start. It was on Tor.Com - what else did I need to know?

What I found in Burning Girls was a striking mixture of witchcraft, Judaic mythology, fairy tale, history, and feminism. The more I read, the more I was sucked in by the writing of Veronica Schanoes. She weaved the above-mentioned elements into her world flawlessly and held me helplessly ensnared in it. By the time I reached the end, my skin crawled and was covered with chill bumps.

Veronica Schanoes' Burning Girls is a story you should put aside an hour for, and she is definitely a writer whose future works I will be impatiently waiting to read.

Trust me when I say it's good stuff.

What is your favorite short story?

Blog Tour (Review & Giveaway): Oddities & Entities by Roland Allnach

Title: Oddities and Entities
Author: Roland Allnach
Publisher: All Things That Matter Press
Release Date: March 2012
Acquired Via: TLC Book Tours
Oddities & Entities is a surreal, provocative anthology of six tales within the supernatural/paranormal/horror genres, exploring a definition of life beyond the fragile vessel of the human body. The stories are: ‘Boneview’, in which a young woman struggles to balance her ability to see through people with the presence of a supernatural creature in her life; ‘Shift/Change’, in which a hospital worker struggles to regain his memory as he is confronted by a series of desperate people; ‘My Other Me’, in which a lonely college student finds himself displaced from his body by his alter ego; ‘Gray’, in which a frustrated man is stunned to discover a little creature has been living in his head; ‘Elmer Phelps’, in which a brother and sister find themselves linked in a strange reality by a bat bite in their youth; and lastly, ‘Appendage’, in which a cynical mercenary is hired by his son to protect a research lab on the verge of a stunning discovery.

My Review

Though I don't review it on the blog very often, I'm a huge fan of the horror genre. Well, in novels because horror movies give me major nightmares. One of the books that made me love reading and realize books were sometimes more than just pretty stories was Watchers by Dean Kootz. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I was very excited about having the opportunity to review an adult horror novel. I also love short stories, so this made Oddities & Entities twice as exciting for me.

Blog Tour (Guest Post): Oddities & Entities by Roland Allnach

Tour Schedule
Oddities & Entities is a surreal, provocative anthology of six tales within the supernatural/paranormal/horror genres, exploring a definition of life beyond the fragile vessel of the human body. The stories are: Boneview, in which a young woman struggles to balance her ability to see through people with the presence of a supernatural creature in her life; Shift/Change, in which a hospital worker struggles to regain his memory as he is confronted by a series of desperate people; My Other Me, in which a lonely college student finds himself displaced from his body by his alter ego; Gray, in which a frustrated man is stunned to discover a little creature has been living in his head; Elmer Phelps, in which a brother and sister find themselves linked in a strange reality by a bat bite in their youth; and lastly, Appendage, in which a cynical mercenary is hired by his son to protect a research lab on the verge of a stunning discovery.


E-readers vs. the Printed Book
by Roland Allnach
A few years ago Amazon introduced an interesting idea: the Kindle, a small device on which to read electronic copies of books. Since then, a growing field of e-readers has contributed to the reshaping of the publication world and the way readers interact with their books.

YA Paranormal Giveaway Hop (INT)

Welcome to my stop on the YA Paranormal Giveaway Hop, which is being hosted by Kathy at I Am A Reader, Not A Writer (love her!) and Sophia at [YA] Between the Lines (who I just found and followed!).

What You Can Win

I was at a bit of a loss as to what I should offer you guys as a prize, but then it hit me! I ordered the book from Amazon, and it came to me as a paperback. (I try to avoid those on my over-packed shelves, and I really wanted the hardcover of this.) Anywho, my loss may just be your gain! If I have an winner outside of the US or Canada, I'll send you a copy from Fishpond or Book Depository, granted that they ship to you for free.

Shards & Ashes edited by Melissa Marr & Kelley Armstrong

Gripping original stories of dystopian worlds from nine New York Times bestselling authors, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong.

The world is gone, destroyed by human, ecological, or supernatural causes. Survivors dodge chemical warfare and cruel gods; they travel the reaches of space and inhabit underground caverns. Their enemies are disease, corrupt corporations, and one another; their resources are few, and their courage is tested.

Powerful original dystopian tales from nine bestselling authors offer bleak insight, prophetic visions, and precious glimmers of light among the shards and ashes of a ruined world.

Author Interview: Rolando Garcia

Today on the blog, we have author Rolando Garcia promoting his new short story collection, The Sun Zebra. Dr. Garcia was nice enough to answer some questions that I had for him regarding the collection, writing, and books.

This book is best described as a children's book for grownups. Its aim is to encourage us to discover (or rediscover) the amazing things that children and their magical carefree world can teach us, even as we try to teach them about the harsh realities of our own. The book is a collection of five stories that follow the "adventures in living" of an unusual little girl called Nell, her mother Rhonda, and Nell's father who is the narrator of the stories.



Please tell us, in your own words, a little about The Sun Zebra.

It is what I call a “children’s book for adults.” It is a series of short stories that chronicle the adventures in living of an unusual little girl named Nell, her mother Rhonda, and Nell’s father who is the narrator of the stories. The stories deal with how the world of adults and its hard realities intersects with the magical carefree world of children. Its aim is to help us discover (or rediscover) what it is to see the world through the eyes of a child.

What inspired you to write the story collection?

L is for Literature

Literature. Isn't that a scary word? For me it is. If you label something as "literature", I run screaming in the opposite direction. I have never understood why, though. I have always enjoyed assigned reading in school, except for As I Lay Dying and Oliver Twist. (I faked reading those sooooo well, but that's another story.) Other than those two books, I have found so many wonderful written works from elementary school to college.

I think I have such a fear of literature because I consider myself to be a lazy reader. I tell myself that I enjoy fluff stories that hand the plot to me and allow me to have everything served to me on a silver platter. However, if I read more than one or two of those in a row, I find myself picking them apart. And that is my favorite part about reading actual literature - there is meat to pick apart. Literature scares me, but once I pick it up, I love trying to figure out themes, symbolism, and all of that fun stuff. I even find myself pulling literature out of the recesses of my brain and comparing it to other things I'm reading, quite involuntarily. (I think my English professor buddy and I became friends over my being possessed by Mary Hood's "How Far She Went" while reading "A White Herron" by Sarah Orne Jewett.)

There are more authors and books that I could ever possibly list that I have enjoyed. Despite my disdain for As I Lay Dying and Oliver Twist, I have enjoyed other works by William Faulkner ("A Rose for Emily") and Charles Dickens ("The Signal-Man"). This is why I continually force myself to look for classics to experience or new bits of literature to taste. I picked up The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for no other reason than it won the Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, and it became one of my all-time favorite novels. I know I'm due for more literature soon, but for now I'm sticking with my light reads. That is, until Tricked by Kevin Hearne comes out - that's totally literature!

My A to Z Master List