Category: giveaway

Book Blitz: Dawn Girl by Leslie Wolfe

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Today I’m excited to be taking part in the book blitz for Dawn Girl by Leslie Wolfe, a gripping thriller about the hunt for a serial killer.  You can view the book trailer here.

Below you can find out all about Dawn Girl in a fantastic Q&A with Leslie Wolfe.

WinAnd don’t miss out on the chance to win one of 3 Gift Card Combos: Coffee & a Book (Amazon & Starbucks) courtesy of the author. Enter the giveaway (INTL) by clicking here.

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DawnGirlAbout the Book

Her blue eyes wide open, glossed over. A few specks of sand clung to her long, dark lashes. Her beautiful face, immobile, covered in sparkling flecks of sand. Her lips slightly parted as if to let a last breath escape. Who is the beautiful girl found at dawn, on a deserted stretch of golden sand beach? What is her secret?

FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett searches for answers relentlessly. With each step, each new finding, she uncovers unsettling facts leading to a single possible conclusion: Dawn Girl is not the only victim. Her killer has killed before. Hiding a terrible secret of her own, Special Agent Tess Winnett faces her inmost fears, in a heart-stopping race to catch a killer who’s getting ready to end yet another life. Will she find the killer in time? Will she be able to stop him? At what cost? The rules of the game have changed. So has the textbook definition of a serial killer.

Special Agent Tess Winnett is the bold, direct, and short-fused heroine of Dawn Girl. Putting her life on the line, she doesn’t pull any punches, searching only for the truth, and for the man who takes lives on her watch. Intelligent, resourceful, and uncompromising, Tess will take readers on a memorable, white-knuckled journey in this suspenseful, gripping serial killer thriller.

Book Facts

  • Format: Paperback
  • Publisher: Italics Publishing
  • No. of pages: 224,
  • Publication date: 30th August 2016
  • Genre: Thriller

To purchase Dawn Girl from Amazon.com, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find Dawn Girl on Goodreads  

DawnGirlGraphic

Interview: Leslie Wolfe, author of Dawn Girl

Without giving too much away, can you tell us a little about Dawn Girl?

A terrific team of investigators solving crimes. FBI Special Agent Tess Winnett is a powerhouse woman, relentless and smart as a whip, but damaged, wounded, and doing a poor job at hiding it. Yet nothing stops her from chasing the perpetrator, at times not even procedure. She teams up with a duo of Palm Beach County detectives, and, while the three of them are not a match made in heaven, they somehow manage to work together well.

What will readers remember after they finish reading the book?

A bit of avant-garde forensic science, some cutting edge investigative procedures and methodologies, an interesting dive into the psychology of a serial killer, and all that sprinkled with the latest technology in the field.

Your writing style is fast, filled with dialogue, almost at the expense of descriptive and narrative. Why is that?

This is how human beings interact, especially when under pressure or stress. We stop paying attention to our surroundings and focus on the task at hand. People interact with one another, talk to one another, and have feelings for one another and for everything we do. That’s what I’m focused on, rather than specifying each article of clothing someone wears or the colour of the flower vase in an office somewhere. This technique isn’t necessarily good or bad; just somewhat different from mainstream.

What’s the biggest compliment you’ve received from a fan?

It’s when readers tell me they stay up all night to finish the book, because they couldn’t put it down. That’s music to my ears. Like any other artist and entertainer, I thrive knowing that I deliver that escape into the fictional world in a grasping, gritty and memorable way.

You mentioned science, technology, psychology. How do you keep it real?

I do extensive amounts of research for my work and I’m fascinated by what I have the opportunity to learn. Additionally, sections of my books go through a process of validation at the hands of several fantastic partners who are law enforcement officers, scientists, doctors in medicine. In Dawn Girl, for example, there are sections that speak about using certain plant extracts and animal venoms to achieve certain goals. Despite the extensive research, my hands were shaking a little as I wrote them, metaphorically speaking, and I was relieved when my research “passed scientific review.”

Do you do book signings, interviews, speaking or personal appearances? If so, when and where is the next place your readers can see you? Where can they keep up with you online?

Apart from social media and email interactions, I’m a veritable recluse. Email is the best and quickest way to reach me, and I was fortunate to build true friendships with readers over email. The majority of my readers ask me when’s the next book coming out, not when I’m getting out of the house, so I get the hint and I keep on writing.

Is Dawn Girl going to be continued?

Yes, Tess Winnett, the leading lady of Dawn Girl, has been very well received by readers and my fans have been adamant: they want more. Therefore, yes, there’s more, and there will be even more, coming soon. It all starts with Dawn Girl.

LeslieWolfeAbout the Author

Bestselling author Leslie Wolfe is passionate about writing fiction, despite spending a significant number of years climbing the corporate ladder. Leaving the coveted world of boardrooms for the blissful peace of the Florida-based “Wolves’ den,” Leslie answers one true calling: writing. Leslie’s novels break the mould of traditional thrillers. Fascinated by technology and psychology, Leslie brings extensive background and research in these fields that empower and add texture to a signature, multi-dimensional, engaging writing style. Leslie’s first novel, Executive, was published in October 2011. It was very well received, including inquiries from Hollywood. Since then, Leslie has published numerous novels and enjoyed growing success and recognition in the marketplace. Among Leslie’s most notable works, The Watson Girl (2017) was recognized for offering a unique insight into the mind of a serial killer and a rarely seen first person account of his actions, in a dramatic and intense procedural thriller. Leslie enjoys engaging with readers every day and would love to hear from you.

Connect with Leslie

Website
Twitter
Email: LW@WolfeNovels.com
Facebook  
Goodreads

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Blog Tour & Giveaway: Crimson & Bone by Marina Fiorato

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Crimson&BoneCoverI’m thrilled to be today’s host on the blog tour for Marina Fiorato’s latest book, Crimson & Bone, a gripping story of love and obsession set in 19th century London, Florence and Venice.

WinPlus, I’m delighted to give one of you the opportunity to win a copy of Crimson & Bone (UK & Republic of Ireland only).  To enter, click the link below. The giveaway closes on 26th May 2017.  

Enter the giveaway

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About the Book

London, 1853. Annie Stride has nothing left to live for – she is a penniless prostitute, newly evicted from her home and pregnant. On the night she plans to cast herself from Waterloo Bridge into the icy waters of the Thames, her life is saved by Francis Maybrick Gill, a talented pre-Raphaelite painter – and her world is changed forever. Francis takes Annie as his artist’s muse, elevating her from fallen woman to society’s darling. With her otherworldly beauty now the toast of London, her dark past is left far behind.  But Annie’s lavish new life is not all is seems – and there are some who won’t let her forget where she came from…

Book Facts

  • Format: Hardback
  • Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton
  • No. of pages: 320
  • Publication date: 18th May 2017
  • Genre: Historical Fiction, Historical Romance

To purchase Crimson & Bone from Amazon.co.uk, click here (link provided for convenience, not as part of any affiliate programme)

Find Crimson & Bone on Goodreads

My Review

I have really enjoyed all the previous books by Marina Fiorato that I’ve read so I came to this one with high expectations and I wasn’t disappointed.

For the first part of the book, the author moves away from her usual Italian setting and we find ourselves in London of 1853.   Alongside Annie’s story, the reader is given tantalising glimpses of the story of her friend, Mary Anne, and how the two girls first met. In their names and occupation, there are echoes of actual historical events in the East End of London of that era.  Only towards the end of the book does the reader learn how their two stories converge.

As well as being his muse and model, Annie quickly learns that Francis expects her to be grateful for his rescue of her and to express that gratitude both verbally and by going along with his plans for her. For him, ingratitude is the most heinous of sins. Annie learns how to please him – by altering her dress, deportment and speech according to his instruction – similar to the way she learned to meet the sexual needs of her clients, suppressing her own nature in the process. As part of this transformation of her, Francis introduces Annie to works of art, literature and music – but always those of his own choosing.

Francis seems to want to ‘remake’ her in the image of some idealised woman for a reason as yet unknown. Here the reader may observe intertextual links with Pygmalion, both the Greek myth of the sculptor who falls in love with his statue of the sea-nymph, Galatea, which eventually comes to life, and the George Bernard Shaw play in which a ‘flower girl’ (possibly a euphemism for prostitute) is transformed into a society lady. Other links include the fact that Edward Burne-Jones, a leading Pre-Raphaelite (the school of art with which the fictional Francis Maybrick Gill associates) painted a series entitled ‘Pygmalion and Galatea’.

There are explicit references as well: to Dante, the death of whose great love, Beatrice, inspired his greatest work, The Divine Comedy; to Alexandre Dumas’ La Dame aux Camelias, based on the author’s love affair with a courtesan; and to La Traviata, Verdi’s opera based on Dumas’ novel. The flower, the camellia, will come to play a significant role in Annie’s story. Themes of control, death and obsessive love are a constant undertone to the emerging narrative.

The novel is full of beautiful descriptive writing about art and, as the title suggests, it is suffused with colour, both actual and metaphorical.   At one point, Annie likens the way she is being ‘remade’ by Francis to a transformation from black and white pen and ink sketch to ‘fully coloured’.   She feels Francis has approached her like one of his paintings, starting with the background, then adding broad strokes, then blocking in the colour and finally adding the detail in finer strokes.  Later, Annie’s introduction to the colours of the rainbow will mark an awakening of other feelings and herald new possibilities.

In the last two sections, the story moves to Florence and Venice, where the sense of gothic melodrama increases as dark and disturbing secrets are brought to light.   In the end, as a mystery tour, it’s not too difficult to guess the destination but this by no means spoils the journey which is lavishly depicted, dark and compelling.   After just a few pages, I found myself completely immersed in the story and enthralled by the gorgeous, lush writing. I think this is my favourite of all the author’s novels to date.

Thank you to Jenni Leech at publishers, Hodder & Stoughton, for my proof copy in return for an honest review.

In three words: Intense, dark, compelling

Try something similar…Fingersmith by Sarah Waters

MarinaFioratoAbout the Author

Marina Fiorato is half-Venetian. She was born in Manchester and raised in the Yorkshire Dales. She is a history graduate of Oxford University and the University of Venice, where she read for a master’s degree in Shakespeare. After university she studied art and worked in the film and music industries, creating visuals for U2, The Rolling Stones and the Queen musical, We Will Rock You. Her novels Daughter of Siena and Beatrice & Benedick were shortlisted for the Romantic Novelists’ Association Historical Fiction Award. Marina was married on the Grand Canal in period costume and lives in north London with her husband, son and daughter.

Connect with Marina

Website http://www.marinafiorato.com/
Twitter https://twitter.com/marinafiorato
Goodreads https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/772663.Marina_Fiorato