A chance encounter.
A blue-eyed Raven.
A single curse.
She’s not supposed to be mine. Not just because I’m her professor, or she’s my student, but because of what I am. A man with a mask. A shifter with a curse. But I can’t stay away. Not when I know the beauty of her heart, and not when her life is in danger. Truths are revealed, secrets unveiled, and when my wolf decides she’s ours, there’s no turning back. I’ve always protected Stone Crest, but now, I’ll spend the rest of my life protecting her.

Stone Crest: Rise of a Raven is a standalone professor/student shifter romance with no cheating and a HEA.

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Review by Twinsie Melinda

I received a copy of this book for an honest review.

I was so excited when this book hit my kindle, I even put down another book I had just started. I have been waiting on this book since SJ Chaynie said she was writing a paranormal book.  This book did not disappoint and I want to know more about the other characters too. I am hooked on these guys and need to know everything about them.

Raven is dealing with the death of her best friend and her dad sends her off to a new school, new roommate, and new surroundings. After a night out with her new roommate she finds herself kissing a stranger. The pull to this guy is strong but when she realizes the same guy is one of her professors, they both try to fight the pull. However, somethings are too strong to resist especially when they keep gravitating to each other.

Locke is Raven’s professor and a shifter with a curse there is no way he can be with Raven at least that is what he tries to tell his wolf. However, his wolf has other ideas she is theirs and they need to protect her. Even if that means stalking her and watching Raven from afar to keep her safe.

I was so drawn into this story and wanting to know the characters I did not want to put this book down. The storyline was good I wasn’t sure how I would like the student/teacher relationship but It worked for me in this case. Learning the roll of each of Locke’s friends and what they were intrigued me. In so many stories’ vampires and wolfs do not get along but here they share a house and work very well together. The secrets that came out and the plot twists were great I was blind sided on most of them. I enjoyed the chemistry between Raven and Locke. Is there something going on with Decan and Presley? I need Presley’s story we just got to see little glimpses of who she is when around Raven. I know there is a good story there I need to know it. To be honest I want to know all the guy’s stories really what brought them to were they are. What happened to them to leave their families and make their own with each other. Everyone has secrets and they need to be let out.

A few of my favorite lines:

I cross my arms. “I don’t know you.” He flips his visor up. “I just had my tongue down your throat. We’re acquainted enough…” – Locke

“Eat.” He shoves a box to me. “What? My ass not big enough for you, Sullivan? You one of those Kardashian groupies?”…“You avoided the question.” I point my fork at him then twirl it around. “You like big butts.” He Shrugs. “I cannot lie.” Did he just make a joke? A laugh bursts from my chest. “He’s got jokes.” – Raven and Locke

S.J. Chaynie is a small-town Texas girl who has found a love for writing. She enjoys writing romance, with a sprinkle of suspense, and a little humor. If she is not busy writing her newest ideas, she is spending time with her husband and two beautiful daughters. She believes a good book and a lot of laughs is the best medicine. She brings suspense, love, angst, and sometimes the occasional heartbreak to her stories. Always a HEA, but every character and story she holds close to her heart and hopes they touch yours as well.

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Review by Twinsie Tenise

I can’t stop smiling. Lance is so poetic. I love him. He’s just perfect.
He’s gentle, kind, and patient. He’s prepared to do whatever it takes to sweep Hudson off of his feet.
Hudson is anti relationships and there is nothing his teenage crush can do to change his mind. Things are perfectly fine how they are. Lance worked hard to try and earn Hudson’s trust and hopefully his heart. It was adorable.

The way A.d. creates a world where you want to know more about book after book is beyond me. I’m excited to see what happens next in this series.

Dolly Hanes has a secret no one knows but the whole town of Magnolia is about to find out. Boone West included

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Review by Twinsie Dee

i was given this book by the author for an honest review

15 years of keeping a secret Dolly thought she was in the clear with keeping the town thinking her son was the result of a one-night stand and not really her high school sweetheart’s son. Until the only man who can make her heart do summersaults walked back into her life when he walked into her store. Dolly pushed Boone away 15 years ago to go chase his rodeo dream and leave her behind, he didn’t know she was pregnant, and she didn’t want him to give up his dream and possibly one day resent her, so she let go of the future she could have and broke his heart. Now that he was back in Magnolia Grove her secret to who her son’s father actually might come out, and she’s not sure how she will be able to handle that or how her son and Boone will both handle this secret. Small town drama and secrets come out at some point in life just might be a while. omg this was so cute I couldn’t stop reading it, Boone and Dolly’s love story is timeless.

Wall Street Journal and USA Today Bestselling author Winter Travers is a devoted wife, mother, and aunt turned author who was born and raised in Wisconsin. After a brief stint in South Carolina following her heart to chase the man who is now her hubby, they retreated back up North to the changing seasons and to the place they now call home.

Winter spends her days caring for her family and her nights writing happily-ever-afters. She also has an addiction to anything MC related, her dogs and cooking/baking!

“The perfect binge listen.”—Yahoo Lifestyle

Instant #1 New York Times bestseller.

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him….

More praise for The Silent Patient:

“Absolutely brilliant… I read it in a state of intense, breathless excitement.”—Stephen Fry

“Smart, sophisticated storytelling freighted with real suspense—a very fine novel by any standard.”—Lee Child

“The Silent Patient sneaks up on you like a slash of intimidating shadow on a badly lit street. Michaelides has crafted a totally original, spellbinding psychological mystery so quirky, so unique that it should have its own genre.”—David Baldacci

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Review by Twinsie Tenise

Whoa! I will keep this short and sweet as I feel this book needs to be experienced by the reader without much information to go on. There were so many plot twists. I didn’t see them coming. I love a good mystery; one that makes you think and this one freaking delivered! I couldn’t tell you how many times I was just like what the $&%@ did that just say?! I’m still sitting here processing The Silent Patient, 8 days later. I’m sure I will eventually be able to pick up another book.

Alex Michaelides was born and raised in Cyprus. He has an M.A. in English literature from Trinity College, Cambridge University, and an M.A. in screenwriting from the American Film Institute in Los Angeles. The Silent Patient was his first novel and was the biggest-selling debut in the world in 2019. It spent more than a year on the New York Times bestseller list and sold in a record-breaking forty-nine countries. Alex lives in London.

Cash DeMarco

Five years ago, I gave my heart and soul to my professor. He made me fall for him, only to destroy me with his silence. I’ve never been the same. I finally have the chance to leave this town, start over, and try to move on with my life. But what happens when fate insists the chapter of your life that haunts you isn’t over?

Stone Philips

He was the temptation I shouldn’t have divulged in. The secret that ruined everything. He was the beginning to my end, and when I left, I left as the shell of the man I once was. Just like with the angriest of storms, when he walks back into my life, destruction and chaos are never far behind. The universe has a funny way of bringing everything full circle, opening old wounds, and forcing you to face your destiny.

*Kismet is a full-length, standalone, MM romance novel about missed opportunity, right person/wrong time, heartbreak, and second chances.

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Review by Twinsie Tenise

I’m pretty sure I just finished my favorite book of the year. This one may have even made my top 10 ever list. Every once in a while I read a book and think 5 stars just don’t do it justice. A whole lot of boxes have to be checked in order to meet those requirements.

I want to start by saying I’ve never been drawn to student/teacher romance. I’ve read a couple of good ones but they aren’t my go to. I happened upon this book when I was looking for something to read and it took like 2 days to find something.  From the beginning, this story just “felt” different. I was intrigued with the plot and the 2 men, Cash and Stone, had me slowly becoming obsessed. Speaking of slow, it took me 12 days to read this book. Some days I would only read 1 or 2 chapters. Not because I didn’t like the book, quite the opposite actually, I honestly just wanted to savor every page. Without giving too much away, let’s dig into the boxes it checked…
• I didn’t want it to end. When I feel that way the book is at least rating a high 4 for me.
• My heart freaking hurt on more than one occasion for these characters. By end end of Part 1, I was bawling!
• Nothing about this was easy or instant. There was angst and I love me some angst. The character development was superb. The raw emotion displayed by these 2 men had me invested in their relationship and hoping for a positive ending to their story.
• I laughed, I felt and I cried. But most importantly, I ugly cried. I know I’m not with the majority but if someone tells me a book made them ugly cry I’m like- tell me more. Lol

I know above I mentioned student/teacher but it was also a 2nd chance at romance and I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for them if they are well written. And I believe this one was very well written. This was my first read by Ashley but certainly not my last. I’m looking forward to exploring their backlist.

About the author

Being possessed by a vampire sucks!

Alana Jones’s world has been completely turned upside-down after being bitten by a vampire’s reflection in a cursed mirror. Now she’s forced to stay in an abandoned Victorian inn on an isolated island off the west coast of Florida, where Alana lives a double life: one as herself and one as a vicious murderer. Over the past year, she has spilt and drunk the blood of sixteen victims. The guilt of their deaths slowly eating away her sanity.

Sixteen dead . . .

However, things become even more complicated when Alana finds Cole, a surfer she felt a connection with the moment they met on the mainland, locked up in the island’s shed. Knowing his death is inevitable, she attempts to distant herself from him, continually reminding herself of the monster residing underneath her skin. Unfortunately, it’s a small island, and the more she interacts with Cole, the more her feelings grow for him.

Eventually, she has to make a decision. Either accept his fate or find a way to expel the vampire’s spirit from within herself before she murders him as well.

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Review by Brandy

I received this book for an honest review.

Kelsey Ketch is a young-adult/new-adult author, who works as a Wildlife Biologist and Data Analyst. During her free time, she can often be found working on her latest work in progress. She also enjoys history, mythology, traveling, and reading.

Hey friends! We, The Twinsie Girls (Angie, Melinda, JM, Kelly, Tenise, and Dee) talked to some of the readers attending Writers on the River to see what they had to say about the event.  As we come down from our book signing highs from July and start to prepare for 2025, YEAR 10, we wanted to see what some of the attendees are saying about Writers on the River.

Today we are chatting with the one and only Amy Schaffer.  You can find her where ever Kate Hawthorne is as Amy is The Kate Keeper.  I just made that up but we are going with it.

Well that is all for today. Check back all month long for more reader and volunteer spotlights.

SAVE THE DATE

Tickets for for the 10th annual Writers on the River go on sale November 4, 2024!

For event location, dates, times, list of 2025 attending authors, and other important information, please follow the link below to the event web page.

https://writersontheriver.com/