Tag Archives: Jo Michaels

#NewRelease – The House by Jo Michaels

Title: The House
Author: Jo Michaels
Genre: Psychological Thriller
Editor: Tia Silverthorne Bach with INDIE Books Gone Wild
Publication Date: June 4th, 2018
This house is cursed, and everyone who lives there is in grave danger.
Ever wonder what stories you’d hear if walls could talk?
What if those walls witnessed unimaginable horrors?
Inside these pages is the story of one such house. What it sees, the people it meets, and what happens when a terrified spirit is invited to stay.
Story 1 – The Butcher
Story 2 – Marna, Fred, and Kimberly McDade
Story 3 – Lacy Mae Ritter
Story 4 – Mark and Olivia Cullpepper
Story 5 – The Writer
The House is a collection of short stories that ties in with the Pen Pals and Serial Killers series by Jo Michaels. You’ll find a couple of those characters named, and discover how one grew the teeth he used on the women he captured later.
Spoiler alert! You need to read Intensification (Pen Pals and Serial Killers, #3) before you read The House.
Jo Michaels is…
Hi, I’m Jo. Let’s forget all the “Jo Michaels is blah, blah, blah” stuff and just go with it. I’m a voracious reader (often reading more than one book at a time), a writer, a book reviewer, a mom, a wife, and one of the EICs at INDIE Books Gone Wild. I have an almost photographic memory and tend to make people cringe at the number of details I can recall about them and/or their book(s). My imagination follows me around like a conjoined twin and causes me to space out pretty often or laugh out loud randomly in completely inappropriate situations.
I have a degree in graphic design, and my journey to the end was one few students who begin that program ever complete. However, this was one case where my memory and OCD tendencies helped me. Graduation was one of the most amazing days of my life. But, my most amazing day was when my now husband proposed. Every little girl dreams of being Cinderella someday, and he pulled off the proposal of fantasies.
At the risk of sounding cliché, I’m going to let it out there and say how much I absolutely adore the man I’m married to. Along with my children, he’s my whole world.
I’ve lived in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, but I’ve had my feet in almost every state. Traveling is something I adore, and have plans to someday see the Mongolia I’ve written about in Yassa.
One of my favorite things is hearing from fans! You can find me on social media most any day of the week. Connect! I’d love to hear from you.
Intensification: https://amzn.to/2HTpMk4
Story 1 – The Butcher
My yellow paint; pretty, white shutters; and pristine porch were sullied by the first man who dwelt here. I call him The Butcher, but his name was Butch Campion, and he was thirty-seven. His face is one I’ll never forget, and the atrocities he committed are things I still shudder to think about. We met one month after I was born. He walked in, so proud and full of himself, his feet sending vibrations through my floorboards as he tromped through, checking every room like he was planning to bring a whole family in and bring them up. I thought we’d get along famously and was looking forward to warming the feet of small children as they played.
Once the papers were signed, and I was his property, things went well for a month or so. He’d go to work, come home, sit on the threadbare couch, and drink beer. To my chagrin, he didn’t seem to have a wife or children, so there was nothing for me to do during the day except sit here.
It was after that first month that I started to figure he might not be my ideal owner after all. My lawn was never cared for, and the ivy growing nearby was allowed to spring up, threatening to take over the cute porch the builders thought to add. Butch would go out and bring home booze of some kind, cigarettes, and fast food. He never cooked, and he left wrappers and empty boxes all over the place, making me smell like a trash can. Roaches scuttled in, intent on a good meal, and he’d squish the ones he saw, leaving their carcasses to decompose where they met their gruesome end.
 

#Review – Faye Magic (The Othala Witch Collection) by Jo Michaels

Faye Magic (The Othala Witch Collection)

 

**This is a standalone novel written in the world of Othala and may be read independently of the other books in the collection.***

Welcome to Sector Sixteen of Othala.

Prepare yourself. It’s a competition like no other.

Think: The Hunger Games meets The Selection.

The last one standing wins the man.

Meet Morgan LeFaye Woodenson. She has her life planned out. She’ll marry Sawyer, the love of her life, and they’ll run into the sunset to be nomads, surviving off the land, not reporting to anyone, free to live their lives as they see fit.

At least, that was the plan until the imprisonment.

When reagent Orinthal’s wife dies suddenly, Faye is forced from her home and thrown into an arena to compete with every other nineteen-year-old girl in Sector Sixteen for the highly coveted place at his side. If she doesn’t win, she dies; if she does win, she loses everything she loves.

Deception and ruthlessness fill her, and she’s determined to find a way to hold on to her dreams—even if that means becoming someone she never thought she’d have to.

Want More from the Othala Witch Collection?

Visit www.fallensorcery.com

 

Goodreads

 

What a great read! Just like the synopsis says this is sort of like a cross between Hunger Games and the Selection but full of magic and shifters. What more could you really want? Well I’ll tell you…tragedy, love, hate, and a great villain! Faye, along with all other 19 year olds are brought to an arena and are expected to fight to the death and the winner gets to marry the ruler, Orinthal. He takes a new bride every ten years but his current wife died. These girls have no say in being part of this or not, no choice. Faye has an incredibly hard time with this as she had a plan for her life. She makes friends with some of the other girls and has no idea how she will be able to kill them. But she plans to win so that she can take out Orinthal as well. The bonds that she makes with some of the characters before the arena become incredibly strong. Including a certain guard named Grant. They have no idea why but they have a magic pull to each other but can’t express this or they could be killed. Once in the arena Faye meets some beings that she thinks are monsters. But what she really needs to figure out is who the real monsters are and exactly who she can trust. She is constantly running in multiple directions trying to figure out what to do. Crazy twists and turns pop up and her long lost mother shows up with some crazy truths. I can’t give you much more as I do not want to spoil the story. It was nothing like I expected it to be. The world that has been built will pull you in and as the characters come to life you will not want to put this down. It’s action packed both magically, emotionally, and physically *wags eyebrows*. It’s a great spin and a must read!

 

 

 

Jo Michaels

Jo Michaels is…

Hi, I’m Jo. Let’s forget all the “Jo Michaels is blah, blah, blah” stuff and just go with it. I’m a voracious reader (often reading more than one book at a time), a writer, a book reviewer, a mom, a wife, and one of the EICs at INDIE Books Gone Wild. I have an almost photographic memory and tend to make people cringe at the number of details I can recall about them and/or their book(s). My imagination follows me around like a conjoined twin and causes me to space out pretty often or laugh out loud randomly in completely inappropriate situations.

I have a degree in graphic design, and my journey to the end was one few students who begin that program ever complete. However, this was one case where my memory and OCD tendencies helped me. Graduation was one of the most amazing days of my life. But, my most amazing day was when my now husband proposed. Every little girl dreams of being Cinderella someday, and he pulled off the proposal of fantasies.

At the risk of sounding cliche, I’m going to let it out there and say how much I absolutely adore the man I’m married to. Along with my children, he’s my whole world.

I’ve lived in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, but I’ve had my feet in almost every state. Traveling is something I adore, and have plans to someday see the Mongolia I’ve written about in Yassa.

One of my favorite things is hearing from fans! You can find me on social media most any day of the week. Connect! I’d love to hear from you.21

Twinsie Kelly’s Top 11 Reads of 2018

Oh holy hell! 2017 has had many ups and downs. I have read some really amazing books and I tried my hardest to make this a top 10 but you are gonna get 11 because I just can’t do it, LOL!

I hope to introduce you to some new authors, books, and genres. Look out below as some of these authors will be attending WOTR in 2018! Sit back and relax and check these out!

 

**listed in alphabetical order by author last name**

**some of these are part of a series but I read them in 2017**

 

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Paper Tigers (Fear University, #4)

Fear University has created a new monster …

The infamous fear switch research started with me, Patient Zero. But I am a failure. My mind adapted and now I move through the shadows like the creatures I was created to hunt. I spent my entire life in a cage with scalpels in my brain, but I am finally free—thanks to the Commander.

I am Zero, and I will make the bad men at Fear University pay.

I, Ollie Volkova, have returned to Fear University to rebuild and restore the school to its former standard of protecting the world against monsters, both human and aswang. But something new is killing Original families all over Kodiak Island and nearly assassinated the president of my university. The hunters call it a ghost, but I know she’s something more. Something worse than monsters and men. Something like me.

Fear University is my home, and I will kill to protect it.

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Love and the Corps (The Heart Nebula Series #2)

Bound by duty, two soldiers yield to their hearts’ command.

Captain Jo Behsue has never questioned her career with Central Command’s leading military force—until now. Recent mission failures and the constant battle for acceptance from her fellow Corpsmen kindle her frustration, while the attention of a golden-eyed Klorakian mercenary ignites her body. Wrapped in his arms, she discovers even a scarred, hollow shell of a captain can love.

An officer in the Klorakian militia, Lux fights to return the rightful monarch to their homeworld’s throne—a planet which scorns his genetic shortcomings. He is loyal to his cause and king, but faces a bleak future once their mission is complete. His seduction of the combative yet beautiful Captain Behsue provides a glimpse of hope, and he fights for a life with Jo, who finds only beauty in his defects.

This book is intended for a mature audience. It contains graphic language, vivid relations, and the word “moist.”

Bound by duty, two soldiers yield to their hearts’ command.

Captain Jo Behsue has never questioned her career with Central Command’s leading military force—until now. Recent mission failures and the constant battle for acceptance from her fellow Corpsmen kindle her frustration, while the attention of a golden-eyed Klorakian mercenary ignites her body. Wrapped in his arms, she discovers even a scarred, hollow shell of a captain can love.

An officer in the Klorakian militia, Lux fights to return the rightful monarch to their homeworld’s throne—a planet which scorns his genetic shortcomings. He is loyal to his cause and king, but faces a bleak future once their mission is complete. His seduction of the combative yet beautiful Captain Behsue provides a glimpse of hope, and he fights for a life with Jo, who finds only beauty in his defects.

This book is intended for a mature audience. It contains graphic language, vivid relations, and the word “moist.”

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Possessed by a Vampire (Immortal Hearts of San Francisco #4)

They possess the power to make their dreams come true—but it won’t be easy.

Preston Knight—Elvis to his friends—loves being a vampire. The night he was turned was the first step to him becoming the kind of man he always hoped to be. Now, he’s a rock star. What could be better? But the one thing that would make his world complete is just out of reach. The woman he yearns for has some serious secrets, and despite him knowing that she wants him just as much as he wants her, she won’t let him in.

Lily Grey never asked to be a vampire. The choice was taken from her eons ago, and things never improved. Now, she finds herself peddling drugs on the streets of San Francisco and playing the part of doting wife to a possessive and sadistic vampire with delusions of grandeur. But family means everything to Lily, and she’s willing to sacrifice everything for it…even her one chance at happiness with the sexy-as-sin vampire who sets her heart ablaze.

When one night of passion opens the door for a century of secrets to be revealed, Lily and Preston must fight for not only what they believe in but also what they love.

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Rook (Black Mountain Pack Book 2)

Rook heads to South America and finds his hands full with bringing the Pride out of the dark ages that Tomas had kept it in for years under his malicious ruling. He reunites with a few old friends and discovers a dark and twisted world he never knew existed behind the closed doors of the Alpha’s house. With the help of old military buddy Jonah he guides the Pride onto the path of a happy and fruitful living.
Fate has other plans when Rook is blindsided with the fact that his true mate had been kept in the clutches of the former Alpha. Locked behind doors and used as an object to be shared rather than respected and revered as all female shifters should be.
Will he be able to cull the evil from the Pride and make it safe enough for Casey to lead without fear? Will he be able to help his mate heal from the hell she has been put through and coax her cat to come out and play?

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Children Shouldn't Play with Dead Things (Dead Things, #1)

17 year old Ember Denning has made an art of isolating herself. She prefers the dead. She spends her days skipping school in old cemeteries and her nights hiding from her alcoholic father at the funeral home where she works. When her own father dies, Ember learns her whole life is a lie. Standing in the cemetery that’s been her sanctuary, she’s threatened by the most beautiful boy she’s ever seen and rescued by two people who claim to be her family. They say she’s special, that she has a supernatural gift like them…they just don’t know exactly what it is.

They take her to a small Florida town, where Ember’s life takes a turn for the weird. She’s living with her reaper cousins, an orphaned werewolf pack, a faery and a human genius. Ember’s powers are growing stronger, morphing into something bigger than anything anybody anticipated. Ember has questions but nobody has answers. Nobody knows what she is. They only know her mysterious magical gift is trying to kill them and that beautiful dangerous boy from the cemetery may be the only thing standing between her and death.

As Ember’s talents are revealed so are the secrets her father hid and those in power who would seek to destroy her. What’s worse, saving Ember has put her cousins in danger and turned her friend’s lives upside down. Ember must learn to embrace her magic or risk losing the family she’s pieced together.

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Emancipation (Pen Pals and Serial Killers #1)

Tobias Butler has been sitting on death row since being sentenced for a gruesome murder in 2007. Bored out of his mind, he decided to apply to the online penpal program in 2012. It’s a pleasant distraction—nothing more, nothing less—for three years, until he’s contacted by a beautiful, smart young lawyer named Jess. She’s convinced he’s innocent and wants to see him freed. As they organize their attack on the judicial system, he wonders how she plans to get his conviction overturned—because he’s guilty, and he knows it. Jess is desperate to release him—and he’s desperate to feel his hands squeeze the life out of her once she does.

**Bonus read: “Dark Bishop Part One – Pawn” courtesy of Casey L. Bond and Rachael Brownell
Plus, an exciting preview of Incarcerated by Inger Iversen

Click here for Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Ren: The Monster's Death (Ren Series #4)

Ren Lewis is the most powerful man in the world and he’s about to prove it. God, Ren believes, has battled him his entire life, trying to use him as a pawn or punish him for his wrong doings. This man, with powers most can’t fathom, has been content to use his skills to help humanity. However, when God makes a move that will carve out Ren’s heart for the rest of his life, he makes the decision to finally outmaneuver the Almighty Creator. Using technology, philosophy, quantum physics, psychology and spirituality, Ren attempts to do something that millions of people throughout history have only dreamed of. Because he’s a strategic man, Ren plans to break God’s laws and be the first human to ever do the unspeakable.
This last installment in the Ren series is the final evolution in a man’s life who thought he never should have been born. Ren’s journey teaches him that not only does he have a heart, but that as powerful as he is, he is nothing without the love in his life. Ren Lewis will gain the power to hack the system to beat God at his own game, but will he be successful or banished to solitude?

Click here to see Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Call of the Raven (The Union Series #1)

Love is something everyone longs for at the deepest level—but for some, love is a curse. This is most certainly true for Asher Lake, the Keeper of an unknown group of people called ani-shifts. Ani-shifts, those with the ability to shift into animal forms, compose a secretive body of individuals known simply as the Union.
A wolf in shifter form, Asher lives with a curse placed upon him and his predecessors by the elusive Raven—a dark entity whose identity remains a mystery. According to the ancient archives, the Raven’s curse is conditional and set in motion by one fatal decision: if a Keeper ever allows himself to fall in love he will die.
Choosing to live in isolation within the walls of Lake Manor, a private estate concealed by the dense woods of Brokenridge, Asher has vowed never to love or to fall in love with anyone believing it to be the only way to survive. However, after ten years of neglecting his people and the protégés left in his care, along with the impending threats of an uprising, Asher learns the only way to break the Raven’s curse on future Keepers, thereby preventing them from suffering the same fate, is to accept his.
This becomes his strongest challenge of all when he encounters Elle Ison, the woman of his dreams. Does Elle hold the key? Can she help him change his fate?

Click here to see Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Bold Strokes (Deadly Dreams Book 5)

The final chapter in Shay Baynes’ Story.

Shay has come a long way from the wishy washy girl she used to be. She’s coming into her power as a woman and supernatural being.

In the final installment of this wild urban fantasy, Shay has to figure out how to kill the Specter without killing herself.

Will she succeed in stopping the murders?

Enjoy the end of a wild urban fantasy with murder, horror, magic, demons and more!

**This book contains adult language and situations**

The Deadly Dreams Series – in the suggested reading order
​Sketches (Deadly Dreams Book 0)
Fine Lines (Deadly Dreams Book 1)
Vanishing Point (Deadly Dreams Book 2)
Abstraction (Deadly Dreams Book 3)
Darken (Deadly Dreams Book 4)
Bold Strokes (Deadly Dreams Book 5)

Click here to see Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Dysphoria and Grace (Urban Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)(The Night Blind Saga #1)

UPDATE ON THIS SERIES:

The fully remastered, less explicit version of books 1-3 of The Night Blind Saga will be re-releasing soon as one book, titled Willows in the End, under the new series name, The End Saga. This book will be available soon, and the new book two, Lies in the End, should be available by summer 2018. Please sign up for The Rozelle Army mailing list to be notified of these, and other future new releases: https://www.subscribepage.com/Rozelle…

For more information~
Website: http://christinalrozelle.com/
Facebook: Rozelle’s YA Reader Fan Group: http://bit.ly/2C9NOJ4
C.L. Zelle’s Reader Lounge: http://bit.ly/2CapHKp

Click here to see Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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Rude (King's Harlots #4)

“An unexpected evil brings both the MC and Military world together in this brand new series by J.M. Walker”

His past haunts him.
Broken and destroyed, keep him silent and withdrawn.
Vice-One is the family he had always needed but it isn’t enough. Shadows of a nightmare threaten to take back the control he craves until Brogan Tapp unknowingly puts him in his rightful place.

She pretends to be happy.
Smile. Laugh. Repeat.
Going through the emotions of everyday life when really, she’s a scared little girl on the inside.
She tries hard to be what society considers as normal when Coby Porter helps her embrace the darkness within. He shows her it’s okay to be different.

Their souls collide, giving them the comfort they need when an unknown source takes pleasure in trying to rip them apart.

Click here to see Twinsie Kelly’s Review

 

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#Review – Emancipation (Pen Pals and Serial Killers #1) by Jo Michaels

Emancipation (Pen Pals and Serial Killers #1)

 

Tobias Butler has been sitting on death row since being sentenced for a gruesome murder in 2007. Bored out of his mind, he decided to apply to the online penpal program in 2012. It’s a pleasant distraction—nothing more, nothing less—for three years, until he’s contacted by a beautiful, smart young lawyer named Jess. She’s convinced he’s innocent and wants to see him freed. As they organize their attack on the judicial system, he wonders how she plans to get his conviction overturned—because he’s guilty, and he knows it. Jess is desperate to release him—and he’s desperate to feel his hands squeeze the life out of her once she does.

**Bonus read: “Dark Bishop Part One – Pawn” courtesy of Casey L. Bond and Rachael Brownell
Plus, an exciting preview of Incarcerated by Inger Iversen

 

Goodreads

 

Oh holy hell! What a mindf**k! This is one dark and twisted read. I was on the edge of my seat the entire time trying to figure out what the angle is. I just couldn’t get it figured out. Then when it seems like I’ve got it figured out…BAM! PLOT TWIST! This is definitely a psychological suspenseful thriller. This is told from Tobias’s point of view. He is a vile human who is a serial killer. He is guilty as sin! He is currently on death row and just going through the motions of prison life. To pass the time he became part of the prison pen pal program. He is contacted by all types of crazy organizations and people. But one day he gets a letter from Jess. She is a gorgeous young lawyer and she thinks she can get all of his charges dropped. He then becomes very curious and works to reel her in. Charming and good looking with a smooth tongue….and he has her hooked. The whole time I found myself yelling at Jess like WTF are you doing?!?! Run away! Why are you still entertaining him? OMG!  This is very graphic as this is being told from a serial killer’s point of view. Like, make my skin crawl graphic. It was a rush reading this. My heart didn’t stop pounding. Absolutely effing intense! There are no warm and fuzzies in this story. And the end….well, the end is flipping mind blowing. I was absolutely blown away. And when it was over I had to just sit and figure out what it is I just finished reading. If you need something out of your normal comfort zone, this is it. A definite must read!

 

 

 

 

Jo Michaels

 

Jo Michaels is…

Hi, I’m Jo. Let’s forget all the “Jo Michaels is blah, blah, blah” stuff and just go with it. I’m a voracious reader (often reading more than one book at a time), a writer, a book reviewer, a mom, a wife, and one of the EICs at INDIE Books Gone Wild. I have an almost photographic memory and tend to make people cringe at the number of details I can recall about them and/or their book(s). My imagination follows me around like a conjoined twin and causes me to space out pretty often or laugh out loud randomly in completely inappropriate situations.

I have a degree in graphic design, and my journey to the end was one few students who begin that program ever complete. However, this was one case where my memory and OCD tendencies helped me. Graduation was one of the most amazing days of my life. But, my most amazing day was when my now husband proposed. Every little girl dreams of being Cinderella someday, and he pulled off the proposal of fantasies.

At the risk of sounding cliche, I’m going to let it out there and say how much I absolutely adore the man I’m married to. Along with my children, he’s my whole world.

I’ve lived in Louisiana, Tennessee, and Georgia, but I’ve had my feet in almost every state. Traveling is something I adore, and have plans to someday see the Mongolia I’ve written about in Yassa.

One of my favorite things is hearing from fans! You can find me on social media most any day of the week. Connect! I’d love to hear from you.