Martha's Bookshelf***Friday Pick Giveaway April 29, 2016

Happy Friday!
This week moved along well. I didn't have as much travel so I got some good office work done. I get to travel Friday morning so I will be listening to one of my books.
We have had some rain but sun too.
I am still mindful and concerned for those who are suffering from bad weather.

I got the books listed and linked but still have to get a picture.

TO ENTER FRIDAY PICK

US Entrants: Leave a comment and tell me WHICH BOOK you would like to get from the Friday Pick lists.
INTERNATIONAL: Leave a comment indicating "Gift Card" (see further comments near the end of the post.)

CUT OFF TIME IS THURSDAY NIGHTS AT 9:00 PM CENTRAL so I do not have to stay up too late to do the winner post! I will randomly pick two winners to announce Friday mornings with the next Pick post.

Thank you to all who entered the April 22 Pick. There was one automatic win this week. Automatic wins are those who requested the book four times without other people asking for that book during those weeks. There was one blocked titles which was won.
Sue F gets A Little Bit Wild

CONGRATULATIONS
to Random.org picked Winners from April 22 Pick:
CarolNW gets Beat the Reaper (thru a block)

St gets a GC

All winners please fill in the Winner's Acceptance Form or email me to confirm your win, send your snail mail address information and let me know if you would like bookmarks - sensual, sexy or sweet bookmarks. {The form is new because Google changed their forms and the old one wasn't letting me print out the responses.}

I'm glad to be a book nerd. How about you?

Image found at it's raining books.

New Book Group #65 April, 2016
PAIRS:
Jayne Ann Krentz: Gift of Gold and Man with a Past
Linda Howard: Cover of Night and Strangers Night
SINGLES:
A Dangerous Fancy by Tracy Cozzens
The Bodyguard and the Snitch by Christy Tillery French
When Dashing Met Danger by Shana Galen
The Champion by Heather Grothaus
Never Marry a Cowboy by Lorraine Heath
Just The Way You Are by Donna Jordan
The Second Chair by John Lescroart (hardcover)
What a Rogue Desires by Caroline Linden
Violets are Blue by James Patterson
The Bequest by Candice Proctor
A Perilous Attraction by Patricia Francis Rowell
So Wild A Kiss by Nancy Richards-Akers


New Book Group #64 March 4, 2016

PAIRS:
Elizabeth Boyle: His Mistress by Morning and This Rake of Mine (The Bachelor Chronicles Book 2)
Kay Hooper: If There Be Dragons and The Matchmaker
Lisa Jackson: Left to Die and Twice Kissed
SINGLES:
The Theft by Andra Kane
Bed of Roses by Katherine Stone
Hope by Len Deighton (1995 paperback)
Short Straw (Ed Eagle Novel) by Stuart Woods Hardcover
First Things First by Stephen R. Covey- Audio Cassette
N is for noose by Sue Grafton -Cassettes
The Fallen by Thomas Sniegoski
Beat the Reaper by Josh Bazell
Regretsy: Where DIY Meets WTF by April Winchell


New Book Group #63 January 22, 2016

SINGLES:
Lead Me On by Victoria Dahl
Wayward Winds by Michael Phillips - Audio Tapes
Forgotten Promises by Denise Skelton

New Book Group #62 November 6, 2015
All Gone

New Book Group #61 October 30, 2015
After I noticed the trend I went on a hunt for “bride” titles. I even pulled a couple from some of my long time collections(*). (But they are not getting read on my shelves.)

SINGLES:
Bride of Lochbarr by Margaret Moore (*)
The Ideal Bride by Stephanie Laurens (*)
A Necessary Bride by Debra Mullins
Border Bride by Deborah Hale

New Book Group #60 September 18, 2015
A set of "haunting" tales and a few mysteries for October!

Shannon Drake –  Realm of Shadows (Alliance Vampires#4) 
SINGLES:
The Shadowing by Joan Overfield
The Renegade Hunter by Lynsay Sands
Trilogy Of Mysteries Audio Book Shadow Prey, There Was A Little Girl, Smokescreen Audio Cassettes (NOT CDs)


New Book Group #59 July 31, 2015
A few more summer titles, historicals and mysteries!

SINGLES:
Cruise to a Wedding by Betty Neels

New Book Group #58 June 26, 2015
-- A few summer titles, a few mysteries, a few historicals...

SINGLES:
Servant, The Awakening by L.L. Foster

New Book Group #57 May 1, 2015

SINGLES:
A Little Bit Wild by Victoria Dahl
The Ruthless Greek's Virgin Princess by Trish Morey

New Book Group #56 March 20, 2015
(I'll try to get the rest linked another day.)

SINGLES:
The Sweetheart Dance by Patti Ann Colt
Raintree Haunted by Linda Winstead Jones (spine creases)

New Book Group #55 February 5, 2015 -- All Gone

New Book Group #54 December 26, 2014

SINGLES:
Ender’s Shadow by Orson Scott Card - Tape Cassettes


BOX 4 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 47-53)

The Hidden Truth of Cytech's Randall Forty byVickie Kennedy
First to Fight Anthology
Jezebel by Katherine Sutcliff
The Commander by Kate Bridges
A Garden of Friends by Penny Pierce Rose

Undateable by Ellen Rakieten & Anne Coyle



BOX 3 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 39- 47)

Shetland Summer by Janet Lynnford
Breakfast in Bed by Sandra Brown - Audio Cassette Tapes (link is for mass media version)
A Lady of Consequence by Mary Nichols
Sweet Talking Man by Betina Krain


BOX 2 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 24- 38)

Thinner by Stephen King
Foundation (Foundation Novels) by Isaac Asimov
Magic: The Gathering Distant Planes, An Anthology
The Willful Widow by Valerie King (spine wear)

An Honorable Man by Rosemary Rogers (spine creases)
A Courtesans Guide to Getting Your Man by Susan Donovan and Celeste Bradley -- NOTE This book has dog bite damage; it is missing half back cover and the edges of pages in the back third of the book... it does not effect the text but I will understand if no one wants this one
Tara Taylor Quinn: Father: Unknown and McGillus v.Wright
The Trailsman: Texas Lead Slingers by Jon Sharpe
Anthology: Something Borrowed, Something Blue - this book has spine creases and minor water damage...I thought I had read it and liked it but now I realize it was another anthology I read with Elaine Barbier.


BOX #1 2015 (reboxed from Boxes 1- 23)

Circle of Stars by Anna Lee Waldo
Alien Chronicles - The Crimson Claw by Deborah Chester
Ghost Writer (Shivers #3) by M.D. Spenser


If you saw the pictures posted of my bookshelves and boxes you know I do have lots of books! And that doesn't include the other eight or so boxes at my office!! And more books as I find deals too good to pass up! I am sharing my book bounty by these Friday Pick Giveaways.

I started Friday Pick on November 27, 2009 and in almost six years I have posted 62 groups of 16 (992) books to find new homes! (as of November 6, 2015).

I am happy to say that so far about 955+ books have found new homes! YAY. I have to update my print out to check the exact number sent out - a few were never claimed. I periodically update the lists - deleting those won. You can still go to the Friday Pick list link to see older posts and the older lists book pictures if you want!

Note rules here regarding international entries.

Because postage to overseas can be prohibitive I am willing to give a $5.00 book certificate to international winners - Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Borders, ARe, TWRP, ClassAct Books, eTreasures, Desert Breeze, etc....you tell me where and I'll set it up. So for my overseas visitors your comment may indicate a smaller book and I'll check postage or note your choice of gift card.

I learned that The Book Depository does not ship to everywhere. The postage for some of the books to far away places runs between $7.00 and $10.00 and up. Since I would award $5.00 for The Book Depository to an international winner, as an alternative you may choose a smaller book and we will hope the postage will not exceed $6.00. If the postage is more, or if you want to pick a larger book and you are willing to pay any extra postage beyond the $6.00 I will work with you on that. This may not make a difference to many but if it helps one or two of you to give one of my books a home that will make me happy too. :o)

Repeating this helpful blog tip: You can right click on a link and you will be given the choice to open the link in a new window or tab so you do not navigate away from the screen you are on!! I use this all the time!

Audio Book Review: Bad Deeds by Robert Bidinotto

This is a great thriller with a “To Thine Own Self be True” dilemma.
Bad Deeds
Written by: Robert Bidinotto
Narrated by: Conor Hall

Length: 14 hrs and 50 mins
Series: Dylan Hunter, Book 2
Unabridged Audiobook
Release Date:03-29-16
Publisher: Audible Studios
Genre: Thriller, Espionage
My Rating: 4.5 of 5.0

Publisher's Summary
The hero of Hunter - number-one Kindle thriller best seller - is back in action!
He sought peace in the tranquility of nature. But can he tame the violence in his own nature?
At a cabin in the Allegheny National Forest, Dylan Hunter and Annie Woods seek to heal the wounds from their ordeal at the hands of a twisted psychopath. And to build a life together, Dylan promises Annie that he'll abandon his violent ways.
But ideological zealots and Washington's political elites have conspired to terrorize and plunder the hardworking locals. These victims have no protector against the bad deeds of the powerful and privileged.
Except for one man.
A man as ruthless and violent as they.
A man committed to absolute justice.
Because Dylan Hunter cannot walk away - not even if it costs him the woman he loves.
©2014 Robert Bidinotto (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Review:
Dylan Hunter is a man who finds it hard to turn away from injustice. He is not beyond taking matters into his own hands. After all, he has the training and the funds to take action. He is currently holed up, incognito, in a cabin in the Allegheny Forest in Pennsylvania, with Annie Woods, the woman he loves. She is trying to recover from the trauma of watching Dylan coated in blood from a battle with a prior enemy.

Dylan and Annie are visiting a café when three workers from a local fracking company run in being chased by environmental activists. Dylan soon learns that there seems to be a connection between the activists known as Wild Justice, a “green energy” investment company, CarboNot, and the EPA. These entities are raising opposition to the local fracking efforts, even using false testings to create a moratorium. Dylan decides to protect the workers when he sees the gang that swarms the café with hand weapons.

Although Dylan helped in the initial confrontation, he hadn’t planned to become embroiled in the dispute. But the leader of the Wild Justice group attacks Dylan and Annie. The man had no idea who he was messing with! Dylan, a journalist, will report the issues seeking exposure for the injustice. But exposure isn’t enough. Who else can help protect the local workers and businesses from the power of the government agencies and the elitist investors backing them? This is what Dylan does, but Annie objects to more violence and danger in Dylan’s life. He has to make a tough decision... stay safe to keep the woman he has come to love or be true to who he is.

I enjoyed learning of Dylan’s strong father and the lessons and examples that shaped Dylan into the man he is. I also appreciated the insights that Dylan’s former CIA boss, Grant Garrett, gives to Annie and Dylan. These psychological tidbits, and the loving romance, were neatly woven into the action that develops as Dylan investigates the corruption and how far it spreads. The discussion of the process of fracking and the underhanded schemes of the environmental groups is interesting. Dylan’s tactics and tricks at spying and imposing retribution are even more fascinating. Dylan is not quite as impulsive as before, especially now that he has Annie to think of.

The story moves along at a quick pace with a fine combination of emotion, romance, conspiracy and action. This could be read as a stand-alone but I highly recommend reading book one, Hunter, to learn more about the complex protagonist and to appreciate his character growth in this book. This book has a natural conclusion but leaves a very scary opening for another confrontation for Dylan.

Audio Notes: Conor Hall does an excellent narration of the various character voices and the emotions. I was able to always tell who was speaking and the intensity and pacing were spot on.

I was glad to receive this second book in the series from the author for an honest review. This qualifies for my Audio Challenge.

Happy Mother's Day Kindle Fire Giveaway

What do you think? Would your mother like to receive a Kindle Fire and GC for ebooks for Mother's Day? Or maybe she has one and you know someone else who could use that gift or $250.00 in PayPal cash. Sounds like a lovely gift to me. :-)

Mother's Day Kindle Fire Giveaway

An awesome group of bloggers and authors have joined with me to bring you one fabulous prize!

One lucky winner will receive...

A Kindle Fire + Amazon Gift Code to fill it will ebooks ($250 Value)

Alternately the winner can choose $250 in Paypal Cash

Thanks for this fabulous group of authors & bloggers who have sponsored this giveaway!

Sponsor List
I Am A Reader
Simple Wyrdings
Kimber Leigh Wheaton
Cynthia Luhrs Author
Laurie Here - Cont Fiction and More
Heather Boyd, Historical Romance Author
Krysten Lindsay Hager author
Diana's Book Reviews
Every Free Chance Books
FLYLēF Book Reviews
Tamara Gill
Love. Without You
The Page Unbound
Glistering Bs Blog
Joshua David Bellin
A Leisure Moment
Toi Thomas
Helen Smith
Megan Tayte (romance author)
My Crazy Bookish Life
The Serious Reader
Cool Cat Mysteries
Barefoot by the Sea
inspiredbooksguide
Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf
Author Mary Ting
Lori's Reading Corner
Beth M. Honeycutt
Jennifer Bardsley
Heather Gray
The Candid Cover
Author Dorothy Dreyer

Giveaway Details

Kindle Fire + Amazon Gift Code ($250 value) or $250 in Paypal Cash
Ends 5/7/16

Open only to those who can legally enter, receive and use money sent via Paypal. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent enter for you. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. Giveaway was organized by Kathy from I Am A Reader and sponsored by the authors, bloggers and publishers on the sponsor list. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Review: The Rage by Matthew Babaoye

Sorry - the language pretty much ruined the rest of the story for me.
The Rage
by Matthew Babaoye

File Size: 2510 KB
Print Length: 296 pages
Publication Date: February 10, 2016
ASIN: B01BM99YFO
Genre: Horror, Occult
My Rating: 3.5 of 5.0

"The Rage was transformative. Few appreciated the emotion like he did. Most feared it. But not him, not anymore. He fed it lesser emotions like sadness and fear, to grow it...
His psychiatrist would never understand."
Damon's life sucks. His parents ditched early, his few friends are thoughtless meatheads only concerned with partying and bullshit, his job is a sales nightmare, and his home is a s***hole apartment in the gutter district. Although: he at least has a loving, gorgeous girlfriend... whose mother hates him, and whose abusive ex won't let go.
So how does Damon deal with all of it? The rage. Using the emotion as fuel to power him through his days, a constant source of energy for the rough road of his life. Always there to keep him warm in the cold, dependable in its intensity...
Until the rage begins to act of its own will, and changes him in ways that neither he, nor anyone else, could have ever imagined.

Review:
Damon is an unhappy, angry young man. He lives in a tiny apartment in a ‘gutter’ neighborhood and rides a bus to work. At work Damon is the top appointment setter who is annoyed by his co-workers and annoyed that all he gets for his efforts is a pat on the back and greater expectation from his boss. Damon is dissatisfied with his life but only half-heartedly willing to try to change it.

The only bright thing is his beautiful girlfriend, Monica. But even that has problems in the form of an overly eager little sister and a mother who really dislikes Damon and wants Monica to return to her ex-boyfriend. Plus Monica insists that Damon keep his weekly visit with the psychiatrist.

Damon has always had a lot of anger but lately his inner rage seems to be growing beyond his ability to maintain control in social settings. Damon is initially distressed by this. Then he and his basketball playing friends realize that Damon’s body is changing. He is getting leaner and stronger; they can barely recognize him. The hotter his rage grows the more his body changes until Damon, as he knows himself, is consumed.

My initial comment on this book is that it should come with a warning for extreme bad language with the "F" word filling up a good portion of the book. Had I looked at the sample before accepting the story for review I may well have said ‘no thank you’. At 25% I was ready to stop but then decided to push along to see where the rage was taking Damon. I was sort of thinking this was a story like the Hulk, but no.

About a third in, although still put off by the language, I enjoyed the basketball action and thought, okay… now we are getting somewhere. I really wanted to know where the story was going when finally, beyond three quarters in, an interesting transformation occurs. The language stops and a different type of action picks up. This leads to a full out chase and escalating confrontation. The ending brings along a twist which was hinted at and had great potential. Unfortunately for me the ending left me disappointed and wondering what the purpose was.

Sorry – but this really didn’t work for me. Half of the book was bad language that could have been removed and left some interesting character building. I had hopes for the hinted-at conspiracy but the ending left me with no satisfactory feelings. The more I think about the story I do think the writing and the idea were good - without the excessive and repeated "F" word. The writing moved along well, except for the excessive bad language and some typos that may be fixed in the published version. Readers who like horror and aren't bothered by bad language might find this an interesting character study.

I received this from the author for an honest review.

Guest Post and Offer Coutersy of Next Century Publishing and iRead Book Tours: Literary Must-Haves for Book Lovers

[This is part of an article provided by iRead Book Tours and Next Century Publishing because iRead LOVES supporting literacy programs. I liked the items but the full article was a very long and wouldn't copy and paste well so I have only set up a part of it. Sorry.
*** Note the *** Offer framed in purple.]

Literary Must-Haves for Book Lovers

Do you read past your bed time?

Find yourself begging, “Just one more chapter!”?

Have an emotional break down when your favorite character dies?

Then say it loud and say it proud: I LIKE BIG BOOKS AND I CANNOT LIE!
Here is a list of must-have pieces for every literature lover.
1. Harry Potter

Represent your Potter pride with this tank.

Cozy up with your favorite Quidditch player. Pillows here.

Just in case Hogwarts starts delivering their acceptance letters via text. Here.

***Attention Harry Potter Lovers: In honor of J.K. Rowling being named the Top Followed Author on Reader’s Legacy in 2015 we’re holding a 1 week sale on ALL of her books. From April 25th-30th, 2016 any Rowling book is 20% off AND double the LitCoins will be loaded into your account just for purchasing. Click the link to check out this limited time offer! ReadersLegacy.com/JKRowling***

2. The Hunger Games

If you get a set of these bracelets you’ll know it’s real. See what I did there? Click here.

Let’s be honest, Seneca Crane’s beard is the real winner of the Hunger Games. Mug here.

But what do we do about the tracker jackers? Tank here.

3. Lord of the Rings

The one fire pit to rule them all here.

4. Alice in Wonderland

Now you can go to Wonderland every night. Bedspread here.

“I’m not crazy. My reality is just different from yours.” -Cheshire Cat Here.


5. To Kill a Mockingbird

…and stick it in my awesome tote, thanks.