Review of Skin Deep by Michelle Hanson with Giveaway

Welcome to the book blast for Skin Deep by Michelle Hanson. This is a gripping, serial killer novel that will keep you on the edge of your seat. Enjoy an excerpt and then read my review before you purchase your own copy. Be sure to leave Michelle questions and comments as you follow the tour. There's also a great giveaway at the end!

Please note that affiliate links are present within this post. Should you make a purchase through one, I may earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. I also received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Skin Deep

Detective Sergeant Lena Evans gets recognized on the streets of her hometown of West Joseph, Ohio. She’s a reluctant local celebrity, having defeated serial killer Lathan Collins.

Now, as the one-year anniversary of the Collins case nears, four more women have been brutally murdered—and the killer is sending video footage of their deaths directly to Lena’s inbox.

The investigation brings Lena face-to-face with her past: the Collins case, her celebrity status, her lingering PTSD—and the first woman she ever loved, Special Agent Cait Porter, who’s just been assigned to the case.

The killer gives Lena five days to figure out who he is. But the closer she gets to finding him, the more likely it is that she’ll become his fifth victim.

Read an excerpt:

THREE CEMENT WALLS covered in soot appeared on the large projection screen at the front of the room. Two archways on the back wall had been sealed off with maroon-colored bricks. A thin shadow cast along the top of the archway. Drops of water rhythmically splashed into a shallow puddle that could be heard off screen. Each drop echoed in the room, sending a chill up my spine. The hairs on the back of my neck rose as my shoulders quickly shuddered. Along the top of the back wall, between the two sealed archways, a burst of sunlight shot through a narrow glass-block window.

The rays of sun shone upon a petite female barely twenty years old. Her long blond hair was just as voluptuous as her breasts as it fell seductively over her shoulders. It sparkled each time she shifted in the aluminum chair that sat in the center of the dimly lit room. Behind the woman, camouflaged within the dull gray walls, a sharp hook hung loosely from a thick rope. It was barely noticeable at first but stuck out like pizza sauce on a white shirt once seen.

The young woman tentatively riffled through a small stack of papers she had rested on her lap. The pages crinkled around the edges, as if she had rolled and twisted them in her hands before taking a seat in front of the camera. She looked directly into the lens, her blue eyes filled with both uncertainty and ambition, then darted her eyes to the side.

“You may begin whenever you’re ready,” said an off-camera voice, deep and distorted, as if it had been electronically altered.

The young woman smiled, revealing her bold, white teeth, and looked down at the stack of papers on her lap. She cleared her throat and began.

Buy links

Amazon / Kindle / Barnes and Noble

**My thoughts**

I love a good serial killer novel, especially one that keeps me up past my bedtime. We start out with Lena's escape from Latham Collins and then dive into the events that pop up about a year later, around the anniversary of his death. New murders are popping up, and they are even creepier than the originals. These involve having a film of the actual murder being sent directly to the police station, at Lena's attention.

Lena is a good detective, which helped her to solve the case a year ago. But it has left her with a hefty case of PTSD, which is totally unsurprising. It's made her current work difficult to get through. It is costing her her relationship of two years with Abi. And the parallels between the new murders and the old ones just bring it all back up again. Not helping is the return of her ex-girlfriend Cait, serving as a special agent assigned to assist with the case. The two work well together, and it's clear that not all of the embers of their fire from 20 years ago have completely died out.

The details of the murders are quite gruesome, especially the trophies that Latham kept. If you couldn't handle watching Dexter, don't even bother with this. And I also don't recommend reading it while you're trying to eat dinner, as I often do, unless you have a strong stomach and don't mind. I managed to munch my way right through my Chicken French as the pages flipped past on my Kindle, though, because I didn't want to stop reading. I was completely engrossed with every page turn, every plot twist, every revelation of details and clues. Some pieces I was able to figure out on my own, and others escaped me until their revelation. It felt like a well-crafted, well-researched novel that is begging to be brought to life on the screen. It's also begging for the return of Lena Evans, because now I am dying to know what's next for her in life and love. 

About Michelle Hanson

MICHELLE HANSON is a writer, director, producer, and photographer. She writes detective novels so her degree in Criminology can be put to good use. Michelle is an avid fan of the horror genre, and spends most of her free time volunteering at a local theatre. Her photography has been published in newspapers and online magazines/blogs.

Michelle is the creator, director and writer of the supernatural lesbian web series, Red Rue. She also wrote and directed Gül Girl, and the upcoming psychological thriller, Veho (Fearopoly Films).

Michelle is married, and has two dogs and three cats. She hopes to see her novels turn into a movie or television show one day (Netflix, are you listening?).

Follow Michelle on:
Instagram: MLRED219

Follow her projects on:
Twitter: Fearopoly
Instagram: Fearopoly

Michelle Hanson will be awarding a $20 Amazon or B/N GC to a randomly drawn winner via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Review of The Last Prejudice by Bill Blodgett with Giveaway

Welcome to the review tour for The Last Prejudice by Bill Blodgett. I previously featured an excerpt over on another blog at Books to Light Your Fire. Today, I am sharing with you my review of this book about family, love, loss, and understanding. First I am sharing an excerpt with you. Then I invite you to grab a box of tissues and download your own copy after you read my review. I think anyone who has gone through family drama of any kind can relate to this story. It's well worth reading. There's also a giveaway at the end for you to enter. More chances to win are available as you follow the tour. Please also leave a comment or a question for the author. Thank you for taking the time to stop by today. 

Please note that affiliate links are present in this post. Should you make a purchase through one of these, I may earn a small commission to help me support my websites at no additional cost to you. Also, I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Neither of these factors played any role in my thoughts and opinions.

The Last Prejudice

When Ed Connor slips into a coma his wife, children and their families arrive at the hospital to await his recovery. They gather around his bedside and begin reminiscing about the good old days but as the hours pass stress begins to take its toll causing long held family secrets and unresolved issues to surface. A disagreement over a DNR order put Ed’s sons, Steve and Peter, at odds and the family speculates that their anger is really about an event that led to their falling out when they were teens. While in his coma, Ed exists somewhere between life and death and wonders what he could have done differently when Steve tried to tell him that he was gay. The family is drawn into the bitter battle between Peter and Steve, and they fear things will never be right between them again. It’s now up to the family to devise an intervention as a last ditch effort to bring these two battling brothers back into the family.

Read an excerpt:

The coffee cup shattered when it hit the white porcelain kitchen sink. She had just poured it and added a splash of half and half before she looked out the kitchen window to check on him. Oh well, if it makes him happy. Some things I just can’t change, she thought. Then he slumped over the steering wheel of the lawn mower. Fortunately the mower’s safety mechanism shut the mower down when he fell to the side and onto the newly mowed lawn.

The shattering of the cup had barely quieted before she was through the screen door and at his side. She pulled him the rest of the way off the mower and felt for a pulse. She found it. Thank God.

“Ed! Ed, can you hear me? Don’t do this to me, you stubborn old fart. I told you not to be mowing this damn lawn.”

His eyes opened when she cradled his head in her lap, and he mumbled something. She leaned closer. “… broken…” was all she heard.

“Broken? Ed, what’s broken?”

When he didn’t respond, she pulled back to look at him. His eyes went vacant and then slowly rolled back and closed.

“Help me, please… Anyone, please help me!”

She shrieked until someone heard her. Within minutes Beth, her neighbor, was at her side. “Jan, my God, what’s happened?”

“Call 911.”

Read another excerpt here. 

Buy links

Amazon / Kindle / Barnes and Noble / Nook 

**My thoughts**

As I am reading this book, I am in the middle of the anniversary of my own father being in a coma. While my father had a brain bleed and not a stroke, a lot of those medical moments are extremely familiar to me. My father also had a DNR. The other differences are my mother has Alzehimer's and was unaware of what was happening with my father, and I only have one sister with whom I get along. But all of that emotion with making DNR decisions and still going through family history and drama is quite familiar. I found myself tearing up and crying throughout reading this book. I think even if you haven't been through this kind of a family situation, you may still need a tissue to read this book.

I think all families experience some form of dysfunction, but it varies from family to family. In this case, Ed, the father, didn't necessarily handle his son Steve coming out to him in the best way. Steve's brother Pete has been unable to handle him being gay, for quite selfish reasons, only he has never explained this to anyone else. It's sad that in this day and age this kind of battle has to continue, but it does. You really get to witness the pain on both sides of the issue.

And then there is that pain of trying to figure out what to do when a loved one has a DNR, when you feel like family business is unfinished, when you're trying to let go. It's not easy. What I liked in this book was how you got a sense of this pain from two different sides. You witness how the family members are dealing with Ed's situation. But you also get Ed's perspective from the other side. We often hear that people encounter loved ones on the other side, whether they are coming back to earth or moving on to heaven. Ed spends time with his first wife, who had been taken from him by cancer, and with his own father, as he reflects back on his own life.

I think this book is one of those that is going to make you think about your own life and family, even if you aren't dealing with exactly the same situations. What has divided you from someone in your family? How can you make it right before it's too late? 

About Bill Blodgett

Bill still lives in the community where he met and married his lovely wife, Janice. Actually, she lived around the corner from him and they both ignored each other until their teen years when the hormone thing kicked in and they suddenly realized that the cute little girl skipping rope and that goofy boy riding a bike had both grown up.

They are the proud parents of April and Lindsay; both of whom are now married. April married Darren and they have two beautiful boys, Brian and Owen. Lindsay married Tim and they have a beautiful little girl, Kailyn.

Bill enjoys hiking, kayaking, camping with his family, golfing, making candles, and restoring his antique European sports car, a 1972 MGB.

They say to write from what you know, so he does. He writes of love, life and relationships.

Find him online:
www.billblodgett.com

https://www.facebook.com/authorbillblodgett

Bill will be awarding an digital copy of Unrequited to 5 randomly drawn winners via rafflecopter during the tour.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I Promised Not to Tell: Raising a Transgender Child by Cheryl B. Evans

I Promised Not to Tell

I Promised Not to Tell: Raising a transgender child is a true and honest parenting memoir about one family’s journey to discovering the son they never knew they had. 

Cheryl and her husband Jim had two daughters born four years apart. Their eldest, Mariah was a girly girl who loved pink, Barbie dolls and playing dress up. Her younger sister Jordan loved blue, toy trucks and army men. It was presumed that Jordan was a typical tomboy, and these parents were totally okay with that. Both girls were happy and, while they had different interests, they got along very well right from the start. 

When their youngest daughter was only a few years of age, she began to put forth a very strong male gender expression and this continued up until the time she reached puberty. Jordan decided to drop the tomboy phase in an effort to embrace the biological girl she was. However, instead of embracing the changes, Jordan experienced a drastic change in behaviour sending a once happy child into a tail spin of depression. After a failed suicide attempt, Cheryl and her husband stepped up to the plate to get their child the help she needed. They eventually learned that Jordan suffers from gender dysphoria and that all the sadness plaguing their youngest daughter was the result of this deeply seated gender struggle. 

The family began a journey of learning that developed into one of self discovery for each member of the family. These parents stood together as their family faced a religious statement that this child is ‘not of God’. Mariah and Jordan grow apart and a home often filled with laughter became void of it. It was a trying time. Determination aided this family as they pushed forward in an effort to not just make the road ahead easier for Jordan but, with consideration for all those transgender children that will follow. 

The book is a deeply personal account of the steps this family took to keep their family together, to push forward and help Jordan become the healthy and happy young man he is today. Each step of Jordan’s transition from female to male is documented in the hopes it will help others who may have found themselves on a similar path. The underlying thread of this story is love; the consistent and unwavering love these parents have for their children and the steps they took to protect their family. 

I Promised Not to Tell is an inspirational book about survival and love that transitions beautifully between the family’s own story and some of the larger issues that face the transgender community today.

Buy links

Amazon / Barnes & Noble / iTunes 

About Cheryl B. Evans

Cheryl B. Evans was born and raised in Canada, Today she is a wife, mother, friend and best selling author. She writes about things that move her, and things she hopes will resonate deep within your soul. Cheryl's vision is that her writing inspires you, uplifts you and encourages you to dream.

Cheryl is a transgender advocate and believes strongly in protecting the human rights of transgender persons and educating others. Along with her husband Jim, they have raised two wonderful children, one of whom is transgender. Cheryl has written about their very personal journey in her book I Promised Not to Tell, Raising a Transgender Child. In it she shares every step in their son's transition from female to male, the family's struggles and triumphs. This deeply personal and detailed account of their lives is shared in an effort to help support, encourage and educate others on the topic of transgenderism. It is the author's sincere hope that by sharing their family's true story it will help others gain a better understanding of what it is truly like to be a transgender person.

A message from Cheryl: 

I dedicate my stories to you, my readers, and wish you nothing but peace, love and an abundance of happiness.

​

Sincerely, Cheryl B. Evans

Find Cheryl online:

Website: http://www.writtenbymom.ca/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Writtenbymom/

Twitter:  http://www.twitter.com/writtenbymom

Pinterest:  http://www.pinterest.com/writtenbymom