Books and Kats

Monday 4 December 2023

Blog Tour: The Melody of Three by S.D. Reeves

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the THE MELODY OF THREE by S.D. Reeves Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: THE MELODY OF THREE (Evercharm Book 2)

Author: S.D. Reeves

Pub. Date: November 30, 2019

Publisher: Riversong Books

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 333

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/THE-MELODY-OF-THREE

Sorcerer Christaan De Rein's return to Liverpool does not go well, starting with the fact that his trusted apprentice, Higgins, dies on the way. Then again, Higgins dies a lot. Of course, Rein doesn't expect to be welcomed with open arms after being banished for nine years, but a cryptic summons from The Musician herself cannot go unanswered.

But when Rein arrives all is in chaos. People with fairy blood are turning up dead. The Forum Magicae is undone and the Curators sieged.

And in another world altogether, where Earth is just a legend, a girl named Niena and a cursed lyre hold the key to saving both realms. Or destroying them.

Reviews:

★★★★ "Reeves writes with both the mechanical acuity of Shakespeare and the warm, wry wit of Terry Pratchett...This is an exquisitely written start to a new fantasy series that demonstrates the dangers of an irresistible distraction."- Red City Review

★★★★"A cleverly plotted fantasy adventure, thoughtfully written.' The Wishing Shelf Book Awards"- The Wishing Shelf

★★★ 1/2"...vivid and immersive, directly drawing the reader into the world and lettingus feel the danger of a ship in stormy waters or the difficulty offinding a path through the chaos of a London crowd.”- IndieReader

Grab all 3 books now!

Excerpt:

“Rein,” Higgins yells in that last second before the plunge.

Dutchman!

A shock of cold smacks his body, then the river rushes over him. Touches of white and gray whirl

with peeks of a near shore, and in those few moments the stars show, he gulps air, only to spit it

back out again when striking rocks, logs, and or the river bottom. Higgins’s teeth chatter,

threatening his tongue.

Lord-

A chance at snatching at some weeds nearest the shores disappears as his head is bounced on a

sunken stump, and the breath explodes from his lungs. Broken sticks and muck seem to find their

way into every opening in his trousers.

Under.

Save me!

The water deepens as he is taken further away from the shore. He flails randomly, the motion

popping his head out of the water long enough for only a quick breath.

Under.

A shadow rushes overhead as Higgins’s back smacks against a large rock, knocking the last air out

of him with an explosion of bubbles. A log. Seeing the opportunity, he kicks hard several times against

the silt. His fingers glance off the slimy bark the first time, but a lucky spin sends the bushy end of

a branch his way.

Under.

Pine needles slip from his grasp, the log hits something in the river, and snaps the other way.

Higgins hangs on by the thin end of a dead limb.

This is it.

The log jerks sideways and then, together, both snap up. Log and Artisan collide with each other

under the surface. He reaches out. The river throws a cloud between him and the fallen tree, but

on the second attempt Higgins manages to wrap his thick arms around, both tumbling over, and

over in and out of the water.

By God’s blood, I am going to be shitting through my teeth. Which he then tries to say this out loud,

but it comes out more as; “mmmmph.”

About S.D. Reeves:

Stephen Reeves was born in 1980 in Huntsville, Alabama. He currently resides in Switzerland with an undetermined number of cats greater than zero, and a propensity for nonsense. On those cold nights where the wind steams off snowbanks, he is known to write award-winning fantasy novels. And curse his wife's cold feet.

Subscribe to S.D.’s newsletter!

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will win a $25 Amazon Gift Card, International.

Ends December 26^th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/27/2023	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post
11/28/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post/IG Post
11/29/2023	A Backwards Story	Excerpt
11/30/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Blog Spotlight/IG Post
12/1/2023	Rockstar Book Tours	Excerpt

Week Two:

12/4/2023	Books and Kats	Excerpt
12/5/2023	@anitralovesbooksanddogs	IG Review
12/6/2023	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
12/7/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Post
12/8/2023	mythicmelancholy	IG Review

Week Three:

12/11/2023	Ramblings of a Coffee Addicted Writer	Review/IG Post
12/12/2023	Confessions of the Perfect Mom	Review/IG Post
12/13/2023	the original B00K nerd	FB Review/IG Post
12/14/2023	Locks, Hooks and Books	Review
12/15/2023	The Momma Spot	Review

Week Four:

12/18/2023	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review
12/19/2023	Callisto’s calling	IG Review
12/20/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
12/21/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
12/22/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post

Friday 1 December 2023

Blog Tour: War of the Animals by Jonathon Decoteau

I am thrilled to be hosting a spot on the WAR OF THE ANIMALS by Jonathan Decoteau Blog Tour hosted by Rockstar Book Tours. Check out my post and make sure to enter the giveaway!

About The Book:

Title: WAR OF THE ANIMALS (Book 1): The Shut Face Of Thunder

Author: Jonathan Decoteau

Pub. Date: June 26, 2023

Publisher: Animus Nor Books

Formats: Paperback, eBook

Pages: 266

Find it: Goodreads, https://books2read.com/WAR-OF-THE-ANIMALS

The eBook is FREE on ALL retailer sites!

War breaks out. This time, nature fights back...

A failed effort to weaponize animals awakens their intellects. The military responds by creating death camps to exterminate infected animals. Moon Shadow, an Arctic white wolf, unites with White Claw, a polar bear king, to form Animus Nor, the first animal republic, to negotiate peace. The uneasy peace is broken with the rise of Azaz, lord of the grizzly bears. Azaz attacks human settlements, considering humans an invasive species that wreaks havoc on bears and the environment. A world war breaks out as animals face humans and each other to see who will become the true apex species.

Will humanity win, or will nature triumph in the end?

Grab all 3 books in the series now!

Book Trailer:

Excerpt

The War of The Animals series asks: What if animals rose up against humanity’s pollution of the environment and destruction of their habitats? What if it was a fair fight? This excerpt is from the first chapter and introduces Moon Shadow, queen of the wolves, the protagonist of the early books.

Photo courtesy of Midjourney

Moon Shadow shook the harshest of the white winds off with an afflicted whimper. Her paws—icicles lined with nails—winced in their impending numbness. Still, Moon Shadow ran forward. In the distant echo of dreams, she remembered what it was like to live in the world before the end of worlds. An illegally smuggled white Arctic wolf, Moon Shadow knew the love of her former masters before the new age. The tiniest of the humans reminded her of her own pups, tiny balls of white fur that she hoped to coddle until it was their time to hunt. Yet, the same masters took her pups from her, putting them up for the highest bidder to steal. Even after seeing more of the great North American continent than she had ever dreamed of in her life of relative leisure, Moon Shadow had seen no sign of her pups. She wondered if they were now grown with pups of their own. In her heart, she knew it was unlikely that they survived The Rapsys, or Opening of Eyes, as the street dogs of her former town rather poetically referred to this massive change that shook the very marrow of their bones.

While Moon Shadow considered herself a peaceful wolf by nature, a woowen-ken, or one who walks with nature, she had killed. Before her blue eyes locked on their prey, a rather pushy raccoon that threatened her masters with snarls and claws had its neck torn asunder in her mighty jaws. The occasional wild cat that crossed her path had fared no better. But when Moon Shadow killed, it was never in fear. It was always with purpose. The Harkening, or Great Slaughter, had come upon her with more robustness than the pups that ever so briefly sought her milk before they disappeared. Trusted masters everywhere turned their pets into authorities, and from even the most distant howls, whinnies, neighs, and hisses, Moon Shadow knew what the rulku, or killers, were capable of. Her eyes met her master’s and even as their little ones cried, Moon Shadow knew. Her fur stood on end, and in a brief moment, she saw the eyes of the rulku in her masters. She snarled, biting hands that no longer fed her. One of her former masters, the mother, no less—the one who, unlike her, had not lost her pups—screamed at the authorities. They turned their sights on her. Moon Shadow ran through the killing fields, making eye contact with the vacuous eyes of a falling prize filly as it crashed to the earth. She saw the ravens and vultures circling before flying off. And she heard the thunder of the crackling sticks the rulku held before she felt one of her legs give out in wordless pain beneath her. Had the filly not fallen when it did, had the whimpering, betrayed house dogs not collapsed behind her, the rulku would have killed Moon Shadow then and there.

But even the least awakened of the street dogs knew of the term Ozu, the great binding spirit that held all of Nature at balance, deciding which dog lived and which dog died. Ozu was with Moon Shadow that coldest of nights, and so she ran, gaining what food and wisdom she could from the edge of old towns that were death to any dog that dared enter unawares. The street dogs spoke, in vibrant, guttural growls, of an army forming in The Great White North. They spoke of how The Rapsys came with the winds of the tundra, of how the wolves, deer, eagles, and hawks, were gathering, along with the sea creatures, the otters and whales, of how all the animals were gathering, in a secret meeting with a strange creature, Nurvlyn, a rulku with eyes like theirs and the wisdom of the flowers. Moon Shadow did not know if this was but legend, but she was the only street dog with enough youth and stamina for such a quest, the only one who was not starving, taking what meat from the rulku bones she could feast on. Her barks had a rhythm to them, the other street dogs said, that showed wisdom born of pain and experience. And so, Moon Shadow kept running, the first American dog to reach the wilds of the great northern tundra, asking always, how much farther to Nurvlyn, how much farther must she go in the Arctic snow.

About Jonathan Decoteau:

I am a nature lover who lives and teaches in beautiful, pastoral New England.

The War of the Animals books were inspired by the 2020 pandemic lockdown. I remember driving by animals that freely roamed the streets after we were in lockdown (I was getting groceries—not ignoring state mandates—I promise!). I felt for the first time how much the animals were in lockdown whenever we weren’t. That inspired the idea of a variety of animals having voices and speaking up for the earth. I started writing the books shortly thereafter.

I write because I love doing so. I’ve been published by a small press and a few literary journals. Before self-publishing the War of the Animals books, I wrote The Naked Earth, named 2008 Fiction Book of the Year by The Online Journal of News and Current Affairs. I also received a Writer’s Notes Magazine general fiction book award for my stories in Sing of the High Country.

Contact Info: waroftheanimals@gmail.com

Photo Caption: Cavendish Cliffs, Prince Edward Island, Canada

Website | Goodreads | Amazon

Giveaway Details:

1 winner will receive a finished copy of WAR OF THE ANIMALS, US Only.

1 winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card, international!

Ends December 26th, midnight EST.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Tour Schedule:

Week One:

11/27/2023	Jazzy Book Reviews	Guest Post/IG Post
11/28/2023	Two Chicks on Books	Guest Post/IG Post
11/29/2023	#BRVL Book Review Virginia Lee Blog	Blog Spotlight/IG Post
11/30/2023	Writer of Wrongs	Guest Post
12/1/2023	Books and Kats	Excerpt

Week Two:

12/4/2023	Lifestyle of Me	Review
12/5/2023	Locks, Hooks and Books	Review
12/6/2023	Rajiv's Reviews	Review/IG Post
12/7/2023	@allyluvsbooksalatte	IG Review
12/8/2023	GryffindorBookishNerd	IG Review

Week Three:

12/11/2023	Callisto’s calling	IG Review
12/12/2023	A Blue Box Full of Books	IG Review/LFL Drop Pic/TikTok Post
12/13/2023	Country Mamas With Kids	Review/IG Post
12/14/2023	the original B00K nerd	FB Review/IG Post
12/15/2023	jlreadstoperpetuity	IG Review/TikTok Post

Week Four:

12/18/2023	Kim's Book Reviews and Writing Aha's	Review/IG Post
12/19/2023	Confessions of the Perfect Mom	Review/IG Post
12/20/2023	@froggyreadteach	IG Review
12/21/2023	FUONLYKNEW	Review
12/22/2023	The Momma Spot	Review