Top Ten List, Trailer, and Giveaway! HARMON GENERAL by Kimberly Fish

HARMON GENERAL

Misfits and Millionaires #2 

by

KIMBERLY FISH

Genre: Historical Fiction / WWII / Spies

Publisher: Fish Tales, LLC 
Date of Publication: June 16, 2018

Number of Pages: 330

Scroll down for giveaway!

In 1943, Lane Mercer and Emmie Tesco had nothing in common. Well, nothing stronger than a town neither of them chose and careers they couldn’t advertise as agents within the Office of Strategic Services. During the days of Longview, Texas’s Friendly Trek Homecoming Parade, Lane was gearing up for the grand opening of a bookshop that also disguised an espionage safe house, and Emmie was chasing a criminal with evil intent through the US Army’s new medical facility, Harmon General Hospital, treating diseased and amputated soldiers. Emmie ropes Lane into international threats at Harmon General, making it increasingly hard for the two spies to navigate the Junior Service League, church life, or anything else that might be considered normal for a town sizzling with oil boom wealth. A friend from Lane’s past arrives and pushes against the fiction she’s created to distance her spy history from the wedding bells ringing her future. Emmie flirts with the idea of finding a life outside of the OSS but justifies the danger as a way to make amends for those she’s betrayed. Connecting the two women, to their surprise, is a rogue agent who targets them for crimes he believes they created. For better, or worse, they have to put aside their differences to share responsibility for stopping “The Grasshopper” before he blows apart the Big Inch Pipeline project and Harmon General Hospital. The hope of malaria treatments for US soldiers depends on it, and justice of the heart demands it. 

PRAISE FOR HARMON GENERAL:

"The war that changed the world brought the world to East Texas through Harmon General, a significant US Army hospital that treated thousands of wounded soldiers in Longview.  In Harmon General, we meet again Lane Mercer, a World War II heroine, and we enjoy again how the drama of her secret service to the nation and her complicated personal relationships pull us into the vast impact of the world war." - Dale Lunsford, Ph.D., President, LeTourneau University

“Harmon General is a brilliant story for historical fiction readers! Set in World War II, the female spies, Army hospital setting, and drama amongst the Longview townsfolk kept me riveted and engaged until the very end.” - Jody T. Morse

CLICK TO PURCHASE

║ AMAZON  ║ BARNES AND NOBLE  ║

Top Ten at Ten PM

From Harmon General

Here’s a list of what your top ten characters from Harmon General (and from The Big Inch) would be doing in the evenings at ten p.m. on any one given night:

Lane Mercer:   jotting notes into her book, tracking news and gossip in town

Zeke Hayes:   practicing his putts on the carpet of his bedroom

Emmie Tesco:   washing her hosiery and leaving them to dry on the shower curtain

Theo Marks:    sending covert telegrams to his operatives on the west coast

Molly Kennedy:  snoring; she’s always in bed by 9:30 pm

Judge Wyatt:    reading reports on where the Longview PD is staked out for the night

J Lassiter:     talking on the telephone, to his best friend in South Carolina

Edith Thomas:    laying out Victor’s clothes for the next day

Victor Thomas:   sneaking a shot of hooch from his secret stash in the tool shed

Patrick Le Bleu:   shooting pool at the Cotton Club

SPECIAL PROMOTION: FREE BOOK!

For the first five days of the Lone Star Book Blog Tours promotion of Harmon General, the Kindle  e-book of The Big Inch is FREE!!  That’s right, from June 22-27, the e-book that started the whole Misfits and Millionaires adventure costs nada! Click to download your copy!

A WORD FROM THE AUTHOR:

Kimberly Fish started writing professionally with the birth of her second child and the purchase of a home computer. Having found this dubious outlet, she then entered and won The Writer’s League of Texas manuscript contest which fed her on-going fascination with story crafting. She has since published in magazines, newspapers, and online formats and in January 2017, released the first novel in the Misfits and Millionaires series set during the World War II years in Longview, Texas—The Big Inch. Her second book, Comfort Plans, was published later that same year. She lives with her family in East Texas.

WEBSITE   INSTAGRAM  FACEBOOK  TWITTER

  GOODREADS   AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE  

Visit Kimberly Fish’s YouTube channel

to see book reviews and behind the scene peeks

at places that have inspired the novels! 

From kissing couples to fabulous fedoras,

Kimberly Fish's Pinterest Board shows her

inspiration behind Harmon General!

-------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!
TWO SIGNED COPIES OF HARMON GENERAL

JUNE 22-JULY 1, 2018

(U.S. Only)

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

6/22/18	Top Ten List	That's What She's Reading
6/23/18	Review	Books in the Garden
6/23/18	Excerpt	Book Fidelity
6/24/18	Guest Post	Chapter Break Book Blog
6/25/18	Review	Syd Savvy
6/25/18	Character Interview	The Librarian Talks
6/26/18	BONUS Review	Hall Ways Blog
6/27/18	Review	The Clueless Gent
6/27/18	Top Ten List	Kelly Well Read
6/28/18	Playlist	StoreyBook Reviews
6/29/18	Review	The Love of a Bibliophile
6/29/18	Excerpt	Books and Broomsticks
6/30/18	Review	Reading by Moonlight
6/30/18	Guest Post	Dressed to Read
7/1/18	Review	Missus Gonzo

   blog tour services provided by

  

Misfits & Millionaires, Book 1

Rx for a Reading Slump!

I am very fortunate to be part of an industry where I have access to Advance Readers’ Copies of yet-to-be published books, and work with wonderful publishers, such as Macmillan and HarperCollins who generously send me bookmail - lately every week!  It’s wonderful, but also sometimes overwhelming, as I also receive boxes of books once a month from other publishers to review for possible inclusion on the Texas Library Association Lariat List - Recommended Fiction for Adults. Some days, I just cannot decide what book to read next!  When that happens, I may reach for an old favorite, just to get me motivated to read more good stories.

Last week, I happened to see a book I read years ago called Glass Houses, by Rachel Caine. It’s a YA title, but I enjoyed it just the same.  Part of the “Morganville Vampires” series, Glass Houses is the first book that introduces the main characters and the unique town of Morganville, which is set in Texas, y’all. (Ms. Caine is also a resident of the Lone Star State).

Claire Danvers, a 16 year-old freshman at Texas Prairie University, in Morganville, Texas, encounters some trouble with the queen-bees in her dorm room, and winds up rooming with some older teens in an old mansion called “Glass House.”  Initially oblivious to who really runs Morganville, Claire gradually comes to realize that there is something quite strange about her new town. People don’t go out after dark. Everyone wears some sort of bracelet with archaic symbols. One of her roommates can’t leave the house, and only appears once the sun goes down. To someone who excels in science and math, Claire has a hard time believing what she is seeing - Morganville is filled with vampires. 

I know, I know - we are embarrassed to say we read Twilight, and even won't admit to enjoying adult Urban Fantasy books. But, for a quick escape from reality, I say, “what the hell,” and read them anyway!

What started out as a fun story about a strange little town, eventually turned into a 15 book series for author Rachel Caine, who continues to write excellent YA and Adult Fantasy, and who recently moved into thrillers with Stillhouse Lake and Killman Creek.

The Morganville Vampires series isn’t for everyone (I can see you there, holding your nose), but reading the first two books in the series over the weekend got me out of my slump and back into some excellent new titles.  I’m currently working my way through Number One Chinese Restaurant by Lillian Lee, Star of the North, a thriller by D.B. John, and The Indigo Girl, an historical fiction novel about a little know figure in U.S. history named Eliza Lucas.

So, there you go: my cure for a reading slump - pick up something you enjoyed in the past…..and enjoy it again!

Happy Reading!

\

Old Buildings in North Texas ~ Jen Waldo

Waldo, Jen. 2016. Old Buildings in North Texas. London, England: Arcadia Books Ltd. ISBN 978-911350170. $15.95 USD.

"One little cocaine-induced heart attack, and it's back to my childhood to start over."

With an opening line like that, and a North Texas setting, I thought this book would be right up my alley. I was imagining a Denton/Dallas setting, but it actually takes place in far North Texas - a small town called Caprock, in the Panhandle.

Olivia is a 32 year old, highly educated journalist who had a little problem with cocaine - as in she became addicted and it caused all sorts of legal and medical problems for her, culminating in a heart attack and a required stay in rehab.  As a condition of her release from rehab, she had to have someone act as her legal custodian, and that someone turns out to be her mother, who lives the small Texas town where this book takes place.

At first I really enjoyed the story. It's well-written, with interesting characters and a certain quirkiness that I like in the best novels.  Olivia gets a job at a small jewelry store owned by a family friend and attends court-mandated therapy sessions. It seems, at first, as if she is trying to get her life back together.  Rather quickly, however, reading this novel starts to feel like watching a train wreck.

Olivia has a lot of unpaid debt, and her therapist keeps insisting she needs a hobby to distract her from her cravings for cocaine. On a whim, after reading about Urban Exploration, or Urbexing, Oliva decides to explore some old buildings in the area, when she can sneak out of her mother's house (she's being watched very carefully by her disappointed single parent). She finds things she can steal and sell online (the state owns these old buildings, you know, and has forgotten about them, so it isn't really stealing). In one of the old buildings she discovers the dead body of a missing high school boy.

From the above premise, as a reader, I'm expecting Olivia to learn some lessons and maybe solve a murder. Oh, no. What we end up with is an addict who, although no longer using her drug of choice, continues to make terrible choices that affect not only herself, but everyone around her.  She doesn't learn anything, the crime doesn't get solved, her relationships don't improve, she continues to steal, even though she does realize that it's not exactly legal.  Her main motivation in the book seems to be earning enough money to get out of the conservative, boring town she grew up in and start over somewhere. She says at the end, "My goal is to get better, not to be better...I am what I am - a self-absorbed addict with murky morals. And slipping into buildings, taking things and selling them...- these aren't things a good person does. But they're the things I do."

The publisher indicated to me that creating an amoral character with an unchanging voice was intentional on the author's part, and I do admire her craft as a writer for achieving that goal. But I cannot end this blog post and book review with "Happy Reading" this time, because after reading Old Buildings in North Texas, I am not a happy reader! 

Better luck next time!

Excerpt, Trailer, and Giveaway! The Captive Boy by Julia Robb

THE CAPTIVE BOY

by

JULIA ROBB
Genre:  Historical Fiction
Date of Publication: December 20, 2015

Number of Pages: 170

Scroll down for the giveaway!

Colonel Mac McKenna's Fourth Cavalry recaptures white captive August Shiltz from the Comanche, only to find August is determined to return to the Indians. McKenna attempts to civilize August to nineteenth century American standards and becomes the boy's foster father. But when August kills another boy in a fight, McKenna rejects him, and August escapes from Fort Richards (Texas). When war with the Comanche breaks out, McKenna discovers August is a war leader – and his greatest enemy.

PRAISE FOR THE CAPTIVE BOY:

"THE CAPTIVE BOY by Julia Robb is a story told in a unique way – through journal entries by several different characters, and a novel within the novel. Robb is masterful in her depiction of each character, bringing to life an intriguing tale of the Old West."

-- Writer's Digest competition judge

"It will capture you and keep you engaged from the beginning all the way through the end and also give you insights into the difficulties faced by those who fought on both sides of the Indian Wars in Texas after the Civil War. Buy this book. You will not be disappointed."

-- Steve Mathisen

"Ms. Robb's research is evident on every page. Without becoming bogged down in detail, she employs just enough of it to paint an accurate picture of a dangerous and unforgiving time."

-- Samuel L. Robinson

CLICK TO PURCHASE
      

Excerpt from The Captive Boy

By Julia Robb

    I was sitting by Col. Theodore (Mac) McKenna’s desk when Privates Wilson and Smith dragged the kid through the door.

    They wrestled him to a chair and held him down, trying to tie him up while he fought them, their hands slipping on his greased-up skin.

    The kid wasn’t wearing clothes to speak of, just a breechclout barely covering his privates and deerskin leggings over his tattered moccasins.

    Wood smoke, hot sweat and buffalo robe–which smells like mangy dog–radiated off the boy like heat off a campfire.

    Breathing was difficult, even with the window open. You usually smelled that particular combination of foul odors when parleying in some benighted Comanche lodge.

    Finally, Major Sam Brennan and Sergeant-Major Pruitt helped, and the four of them managed to grab the boy by the shoulders and hold him down in the chair.

    Even then, the kid thought his name was Eka Papi Tuinupu, or red-headed boy; but he was really August Shiltz, son of kraut-eating immigrants who were farming near Fredericksburg when they were murdered and their son taken.

    A neighbor (if you can call someone who lives fifteen miles away a neighbor) took some food to the family, as the Shiltz’s were hard-luck people, and found everyone except August lying in front of the smoking cabin.

    Their naked bodies were white in the sun, scalped, mutilated, the woman and girls raped–which was what the savages always did.

    I never understood how the army spotted August during the raid on the Comanche village, as it was easy to mistake him for a Quahadi (what this band of Comanches call themselves, antelope people).

    Sun had darkened his skin and his red braids were black with dirt and grease.

    Only a close look revealed the Teutonic face; his long nose and long jaws below sharp cheekbones, the thin lips and narrow, defiant blue eyes.

    Also, at sixteen, he was already taller and heavier than most fully-grown Comanche warriors.

    On horseback, the Comanches were magnificent, but standing on level ground with the rest of us they usually failed to exceed five feet six inches tall, much like jockeys one sees at Saratoga, and their bowed legs made them appear even shorter.

    I’ve been to the university at Heidelberg and seen students dueling–their facial scars are marks of honor and proof of their dubious manhood–and August looked just like them; minus the scars.

    As soon as the men dragged August into Mac’s office, I snatched my sketching pencils from my pocket and went to work.

    I still have that sketch, which came in handy a few years later when I wrote about the war: August, perching on the chair like a bound hawk, his eyes slit in rage and fear.

    Colonel McKenna watched the boy, his hands folded on his desk, light from the window shining on his blue cavalry uniform, glinting off the silver eagles sitting on his shoulders.

    Army command sent McKenna to Fort Richards eight months previously to command the Fourth Cavalry. He fought in the War of the Rebellion and was a decorated war veteran, wounded six times and brevetted seven times on the field, climbing from second lieutenant to colonel to brevet major general: Not even George Custer was promoted that rapidly.

    Mac was a handsome man. He had long, thin jaws, a full, well-curved mouth and a square chin.

    Sometimes Mac’s hands shook, like he vibrated inside, though he carried himself like an iron rod on parade. He had a pleasant tenor voice, but it was controlled, as if his feelings were in the guardhouse and he had thrown the key away.

    His men were in terror of him, and for excellent reasons.

    “Are you August Shiltz?” Mac asked.

    No reaction.

    Mac said to Ben Washington, the black Seminole scout standing by his desk, “Tell August if he stops struggling he will not be restrained.”

    You would never mistake Ben for a soldier, or for a regular Seminole, for that matter. The Black-Seminoles were descended from runaway slaves who took refuge with the Seminoles in Florida and sometimes intermarried.

    Ben was typical of that ilk. Kinky hair fell to his shoulders, but his skin was lighter than his slave ancestors. And he had slim lips and Indian cheekbones perching under his eyes like iron bars.

    Mac sat with his hands clasped on his desk, staring at the kid.

    That was another thing about Mac, he didn’t exude warmth or empathy. Cross him in any way and you would live to regret it.

    “You have been identified as August Shiltz, taken from your father’s farm when you were nine years old,” Mac said, waiting while Ben translated.

    August looked coiled to pounce.

    “The raiders killed your parents and your sisters. Do you have other family here in Texas?”

    Silence.

    “How much English do you remember?”

    Silence.

CHECK OUT THE TRAILER!

Julia grew up on the lower Great Plains of Texas, eventually became a reporter, and lived in every corner of the Lone Star State, from the Rio Grande to the East Texas swamps. She couldn’t shake images and experiences and began writing them down.

A priest once disappeared on the Mexican border and that inspired parts of Saint of the Burning Heart. She discovered a hypnotic seducer, who she turned into Ray Cortez, the bad guy in Del Norte. Reading about child Comanche captives and their fates made her want to write about a cavalry colonel who attempts to heal a rescued boy, and that turned into The Captive Boy. Finally, what happens to a man who is in love with another man, in a time and place where the only answer is death? That became Scalp Mountain.

Twitter ║ Facebook ║ Pinterest

Website ║ Goodreads

║ Amazon Author Page ║

-------------------------------------

GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!  GIVEAWAY!

Two Readers Each Win a Signed Copy

JUNE 19-28, 2018

(U.S. Only) 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

VISIT THE OTHER GREAT BLOGS ON THE TOUR:

6/19/18	Book Trailer	The Clueless Gent
6/19/18	BONUS POST	Hall Ways Blog
6/20/18	Review	Reading by Moonlight
6/21/18	Author Interview	Syd Savvy
6/22/18	Guest Post	StoreyBook Reviews
6/23/18	Review	Max Knight
6/24/18	Excerpt 1	Kelly Well Read
6/25/18	Excerpt 2	Books and Broomsticks
6/26/18	Review	That's What She's Reading
6/27/18	Top 8 List	The Love of a Bibliophile
6/28/18	Review	Forgotten Winds

   blog tour services provided by