Sweet Melissa by Cynthia Harrison

Sweet Melissa by Cynthia Harrison

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I read Sweet Melissa straight after Gypsy, the first book in this Traveling Girls series. I really enjoyed the first book and was equally thrilled with the second, reading it all in just one night.

Melissa is aged 16 years old, she lives in West Port, Washington. Her best friend Popcorn persuades her to take off on a reckless adventure. Melissa agrees hoping her wildness will attract Popcorn’s older brother David, lead guitar player in an up and coming band.

The two girls hitch to Colorado Springs lurching between danger and safety with the rides they accept. When they finally arrive a Jeff’s place it’s not the homely welcome Melissa had hoped for.

In West Port, Natalia’s Romany gifts take her to Paradise Fields. It’s a place across the veil where she is contacted by her Spirit Guides. It has fields, oceans and mountains where the spirits dwell. Aunt Fadelty has died and contacts Natalia asking her to find the person who murdered her. A dark entity known as The Dark Initiate. He tried to hitch a ride to Paradise Fields with Fadelty’s spirit when she died. He’s dangerous and he’ll try again.

When Melissa and Popcorn are reported missing, Natalia’s Dad, Detective Haywood is given the case. He’s a Rom cop who prefers traditional police methods to crack a case, but does allow his own Romany gifts to help when necessary. When Natalia becomes Melissa’s guide to keep her safe Natalia’s Dad’s not happy. When the runaways split, disaster happens. The need to track down a murderer brings Natalia and her Dad together, but Natalia’s parents must work together and be the ones to finally stop the evil force.

This book was just as good as the first, there are lots of twists and turns which had me pointing my finger at several suspects then changing my mind. I love the role of the spirit guides and the whole idea of Paradise fields. A really great series.

Find a copy here from Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

View all my reviews on Goodreads.

Romancing September Author Cynthia Harrison (Day 30)

I can’t believe we have reached the last day of our Romancing September Across the World. It’s day 30 and we have interviewed and discussed romance writing with 30 authors on both sides of the Atlantic. Today our final author is Cynthia Harrison and she has a little good news for you at the end of our interview. Don’t forget to go over and visit Stephanie later for the final update on writing romance in today’s society.

Let’s find out more about Cynthia;

1) Where is your home town?

I live in small town north of Detroit: Washington, Michigan.

2) How long have you been writing?

I was a star reporter at my junior high school newspaper. So 12-13 years old.

3) Have you always written romance?

No. I wrote two “literary” novels, then a mystery, then a Regency, which is a kind of romance. I indie pubbed a contemporary novel, and only understood how to write full-on romance with my editor’s help.

4) Your book title is “Blue Heaven” with Blue Lake in brackets, what is the connection between the two?

 Blue Heaven is the first title in my Blue Lake series.

5) Where is your book set?

In a tourist town on the Great Lakes in Michigan.

6) Eva takes on an enormous project with a tight time scale can you tell the readers a little about this?

 Eva had a great job in advertising until Detroit plunged into massive unemployment. She looked for more advertising work, but the game had changed and nobody was hiring. She came up with a last-ditch desperate plan to turn “Blue Heaven” (her family’s beat up old vacation cottages on Lake Huron) from the 1920s into a shabby chic vacation resort.

7) What is it that Daniel Bryman thinks Eva will destroy?

 Eva has big plans. She especially wants to recapture that big family feeling without opening up her private space to paying customers, so she plans to put a second story party room on the main bungalow. Daniel is all about integrity of design, and since his ancestor built the bungalow, he did not want to see the original structure tampered with.

8) Will there be time for some romance in Eva’s busy schedule?

 Daniel is so keen to make sure all goes right that he is at Eva’s every minute of every day. He makes her an offer she can’t refuse. Free labour!

9) How do you add the romance; a slow burner or fast and furious like a hit and run?

 For these two, the attraction is immediate, but other things get in the way of them being together, so they do a painful slow burn for each other.

10) Do you like your writing to have a “Happy Ever After” ending or do you leave unanswered questions?

I love happy endings.

11) This book has recently been published, I believe you have some information which might please our readers?

Yes! “Blue Heaven” is going to be free for five days (Oct.1-5) on Kindle.

Here are the links to Amazon.co.uk or Amazon.com

Thank you Cynthia for being our guest today, Good Luck with the book promotion. Now please step over to Stephanie’s side of the tour http://Stephanie-hurt.com/

Guest author Melissa LeGette

Please welcome Melissa to the blog today and join me in showing your appreciation by reading her replies to my guest author questions.

Hi Rosie! This is a brilliant idea.
Here are my answers.

1) Tell me your name

M.L. LeGette, but feel free to call me Melissa.

2) Where do you live?

Washington, GA, USA. It’s a little town.

3)When did you start writing?

I can’t say for sure what my exact age was, but I’m pretty sure I was 6-9 when I started writing for fun.

4)What type of books do you like writing the most?

Fantasy. Fantasy is my comfort zone. Fantasy has always been my favourite to read. I love creating kingdoms and countries with old-world England vibe. I write what I love to read, which would generally fit under the children to YA categories.

5)Pass on 3 tips about writing or publishing.

• Revise. Multiple times. Rewriting your work is the best way to improve. It’s hard and at times super annoying, but spending time revising helps you and your story tremendously. Think of it as rehearsal for the concert. If you don’t practice for the big opening night, do you expect to do well? Of course not! So why not treat your book with the same respect.

• Though it is tempting, I don’t recommend choosing to write a topic only because it is the hip genre and getting lots of buzz. Most likely you will always be behind and on the downward slope of the craze. Instead, write the story that is in your brain and in your heart, even if it’s off-key with mainstream fiction. And if that story happens to be dystopian (for example) then you get an added bonus!

• It’s important to listen to what critiques and readers say about your work — it’s another way to improve. Sometimes you won’t like what you hear, but try to listen. However, ‘listen’ does not mean ‘do’. Writers always have the final say. We rule the universe we’ve created. Follow your gut feeling and your voice, but keep your ears open to reactions and thoughts. You’ll find some of them to be glistening lumps of gold.

6)What was the last book that you read? How would you rate it?

Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke. It’s a brilliantly fun book. Without a doubt 5 stars.

7)Now choose just one of your books and add a link to it.

The Unicorn Girl. http://www.amazon.com/The-Unicorn-Girl-ebook/dp/B001FSJ48U/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1363879221&sr=8-2&keywords=unicorn+girl

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Unicorn-Girl-M-L-LeGette/dp/1419686968/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1368871495&sr=1-1&keywords=The+unicorn+girl

Thank you so much for making this feature available! It was great fun!

Melissa

Unicorn Girl will be available as a FREE kindle download Saturday 25th May – 27th May.