Shobhan Bantwal, Author of The Reluctant Matchmaker: On Tour

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Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp, June 26, 2012
Category: Women’s Fiction/ Romance
Tour Dates:  August, 2012
Available in print and eBook, 352 pages

It starts with a bizarre accident. When young and petite Meena literally collides with her strikingly tall boss, Prajay, she takes a nasty fall, but doesn’t count on falling in love with him. So imagine her dismay when he makes an astonishing request. He wants her to craft a personal ad that will help him find a suitable wife, a statuesque, sophisticated Indian-American woman who will complement his remarkable height. Despite Meena’s attraction to Prajay and the complications of balancing work and her “marriage consultant” role, she can’t refuse his assignment. And yet, she comes to some surprising realizations about love, tradition, and the sacrifices she will—and won’t—make to win over her giant.

Advance Praise for The Reluctant Matchmaker:

“One of the best [novels] I’ve read this year. I couldn’t put it down…this book is a gem!” –Mary Monroe, New York Times bestselling author on The Unexpected Son

“Compelling and memorable.” —Mary Jo Putney, New York Times bestselling author on The Forbidden Daughter

“Vivid, rich…expertly portrays a young woman caught between love and duty, hope and despair.” —Anjali Banerjee on The Dowry Bride

“Dazzles you with a taste of Desi culture in America.” —Caridad Piñeiro

Praise for Shobhan Bantwal’s The Full Moon Bride:

“I enjoyed The Full Moon Bride - it had all the heart and wisdom I’ve come to expect from Shobhan Bantwal’s books, as well as the discussion of contemporary issues facing Indians today. I thought Soorya was an excellent character, I so enjoyed watching her grow and learn so much about herself and the world around her. This was a light, quick novel that fans of multicultural and women’s fiction definitely should pick up.“- S. Krishna’s Books

“I very highly recommend this book. The story is beautifully written with characters that seem so real and are very easy to relate to. I loved Soorya from the very start and I was rooting for her the whole way through. I was totally pulled into her story right from the beginning and could not put it down. No matter what nationality, religion or culture you are from, I think you’ll care about these characters and relate to them in some way. It is a lovely story about family, different cultures, relationships, love and romance. I really enjoyed Ms Bantwal’s writing and would definitely look for more of her work in the future!”-Life In Review, Michelle Vasquez

“Ms. Bantwal has formulated a treasure of words for an engaging read remaining long after the final scene has been deliciously absorbed. Frankly I cannot tell if I am more enamored by Soorya or the author herself. The author has obviously internalized the emotions of her character leaving the impression that the line between writer and actor is an invisible one. I thoroughly enjoyed The Full Moon Bride for the emotion, education, and entertainment. What I appreciate most is the total lack of manipulation I felt while being led through Soorya’s awakening of herself and the man she loves. In summary The Full Moon Bride is sophisticated, eloquent, and difficult to put down and cements a lasting impression.- Suspektme, Coffee Time Romance

“I couldn’t stop reading The Full Moon Bride. Even though I had a pretty good guess about which man Soorya would end up with, there were plenty of plot twists to keep me reading. I loved Soorya’s spunkiness, and her struggle to reconcile the modern, professional side of her personality with the traditional, good-girl side.  I highly recommend The Full Moon Bride.”- Susan Meim

About Shobhan Bantwal:

Shobhan Bantwal is an award-winning Indian-American author of five multicultural women’s fiction books with romantic elements, branded as “Bollywood in a Book.” Her articles and short stories have appeared in The Writer magazine, Romantic Times, India Abroad, India Currents, and New Woman. The Reluctant Matchmaker is her sixth book, scheduled for release on July 1, 2012. Visit her online at www.shobhanbantwal.com to learn about her books, trailers, contests, photos, recipes, and more. Visit her on Facebook at www.facebook.com/ShobhanBantwal.author.

Tour Stops:

To Be Determined

Connie Corcoran Wilson, Author of The Color of Evil: On Tour

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Publisher: Quad City Press
Category: Thriller/Suspense/Horror/YA
Date: March 9, 2012
Available in Print, Kindle, and Nook: 252 pages

Winner of E-Lit award in the Horror category and the Silver Feather award from IWPA

Tad McGreevy has a power that he has never revealed, not even to his life-long best friend, Stevie Scranton. When Tad looks at others, he sees colors. These auras tell Tad whether a person is good or evil. At night, Tad dreams about the evil-doers, reliving their crimes in horrifyingly vivid detail.

But Tad doesn’t know if the evil acts he witnesses in his nightmares are happening now, are already over, or are going to occur in the future. He has no control over the horrifying visions. He has been told (by his parents) never to speak of his power. All Tad knows is that he wants to protect those he loves. And he wants the bad dreams to stop.

At Tad’s eighth birthday party (April 1, 1995) in Cedar Falls, Iowa, the clown his parents hire to entertain Tad’s third-grade classmates is one of the bad people. Pogo, the Killer Clown (aka Michael Clay) is a serial killer. So begins 53 nights of terror as Tad relives Pogo’s crime, awakens screaming, and recites the terrifying details to his disbelieving family. The situation becomes so dire that Tad is hospitalized in a private institution under the care of a psychiatrist–who also does not believe the small boy’s stories.

And then the police arrest Pogo, the Killer Clown.

Flash forward to the beginning of Tad’s junior year in high school, 8 years later. Tad is 16 and recovered from the spring of his third-grade year. When Michael Clay was caught and imprisoned, the crime spree ended and so did Tad’s bad dreams.

Until now, in the year of our Lord 2003, when evil once again stalks the land.

This is a terrifying, intense story of the dark people and places that lurk just beneath the surface of seemingly normal small-town America. As one reviewer says, “Wilson nails the darkness beneath the surface of small-town Midwestern life with an intense story based on fact.”

Tad must wage a silent war against those who would harm the ones he loves. A battle to the death.

Reviews:

“The Color of Evil is old-school psychological horror, artfully blended with new-school shocks and twists. Not only won’t you see this coming, you won’t believe your eyes when it does. Bravo!”- Jonathan Maberry, New York Times Best-selling author of Dust & Decay and Dead of Night and mutiple Bram Stoker Award Winner

“Connie Corcoran Wilson is a born storyteller! Her new novel The Color of Evil is a real page-turner, and a very good one, indeed! Wilson, in this, her second novel (and the first in a trilogy), takes time with each character and handles them quite well…The reader is kept informed and fascinated. It all works. It moves the story forward, scene-by-scene, in a controlled way. The Color of Evil is total entertainment. Wilson’s got a winner here!”- William F. Nolan, Logan’s Run and Nightworlds, Living Legend in Dark Fantasy

“The Color of Evil is the kind of read that grabs you by the lapels and doesn’t let go until much mayhem has ensued and the tightly-coiled plot has unwound. Wilson keeps the reader engaged and on edge as this story of a ‘a small-town gone wild’ plays out in horrific detail. Make sure you lock the doors and windows before starting, because you won’t want to get up and check until you have finished this one!”- Donnie Light, Dark Justice and Ripper’s Row

“Connie Corcoran Wilson’s ‘The Color of Evil’ is a scary, entertaining novel. Dealing with a young person’s supernatural powers, bringing Stephen King’s ‘Carrie’ and John Farris’ ‘The Fury’ to mind, Wilson introduces us to Tad McGreevy, a young man who can see people’s auras. A haunting childhood experience has already taught him the color of evil. This territory has not been mined in a while, and Wilson’s take is fresh. With first-rate writing, a strong story, and believable characters, THE COLOR OF EVIL is a winner. Highly recommended!” -Pete Giglio, “Anon,” “A Spark in the Darkness”

“The Color of Evil by Connie Corcoran Wilson is an engrossing page-turner! Although I am not a regular reader of horror stories, I was “hooked” within the first few pages and involved with the characters who seemed both familiar and believable. I think we all know a Tad or a Jenny or a Charlie Chandler and care very much about what happens to them. Also, the author’s use of the “aura” device is fascinating and effective. Wouldn’t we all love to see what “aura” surrounds some of our acquaintances!
Now I can’t wait for the next one in the trilogy and hope that Stevie will be O.K. while I wonder what will ultimately become of the evil Michael Clay. I imagine Wilson will deal with that very creatively.”- Jdnord, Amazon Reviewer

“Connie Corcoran Wilson’s The Color of Evil about a Midwest teen’s power to sense the unimaginable was a page turner for me. The characters were well developed and the setting was familiar. Events were frightening yet not so horrific as to scare me away (I’m not a horror story fan). A good read made even better by this talented writer.- Ibmamski, Amazon Reviewer

About Connie Corcoran Wilson:

Connie (Corcoran) Wilson (MS + 30) graduated from the University of Iowa and Western Illinois University, with additional study at Northern Illinois, the University of California at Berkeley and the University of Chicago. She taught writing at six Iowa/Illinois colleges and has written for five newspapers and seven blogs, including Associated Content (now owned by Yahoo) which named her its 2008 Content Producer of the Year . She is an active, voting member of HWA (Horror Writers Association).

Her stories and interviews with writers like David Morrell, Joe Hill, Kurt Vonnegut, Frederik Pohl and Anne Perry have appeared online and in numerous journals. Her work has won prizes from “Whim’s Place Flash Fiction,” “Writer’s Digest” (Screenplay) and she will have 12 books out by the end of the year. Connie reviewed film and books for the Quad City Times (Davenport, Iowa) for 12 years and wrote humor columns and conducted interviews for the (Moline, Illinois) Daily Dispatch and now blogs for 7 blogs, including television reviews and political reporting for Yahoo.

Connie lives in East Moline, Illinois with husband Craig and cat Lucy, and in Chicago, Illinois, where her son, Scott and daughter-in-law Jessica and their two-year-old twins Elise and Ava reside. Her daughter, Stacey, recently graduated from Belmont University in Nashville, Tennessee, as a Music Business graduate.

Connie’s Website

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Lloyd Lofthouse, Author of The Concubine Saga- On Tour

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Publisher: Three Clover Press
Category: Historical Fiction
Tour Dates: June, 2012
Available in Print and Kindle, 621 Pages

No Westerner has ever achieved Robert Hart’s status and level of power in China. Driven by a passion for his adopted country, Hart became the “godfather of China’s modernism”, inspector general of China’s Customs Service, and the builder of China’s railroads, postal and telegraph systems and schools.

However, his first real love is Ayaou, a young concubine. Sterling Seagrave, in Dragon Lady, calls her Hart’s sleep-in dictionary and says she was wise beyond her years.

Soon after arriving in China in 1854, Hart falls in love with Ayaou, but his feelings for her sister go against the teachings of his Christian upbringing and almost break him emotionally. To survive he must learn how to live and think like the Chinese. He also finds himself thrust into the Opium Wars and the Taiping Rebellion, the bloodiest rebellion in human history, where he makes enemies of men such as the American soldier of fortune known as the Devil Soldier.

During his early years in China, Robert experiences a range of emotion from bliss to despair. Like Damascus steel, he learns to be both hard and flexible, which forges his character into the great man he becomes.

In time, an ancient empire will rely on him to survive, and he will become the only foreigner the Emperor of China trusts.

Full of humanity, passion, and moral honesty, The Concubine Saga is the deeply intimate story of Hart’s loyalty and love for his adopted land and the woman who captured his heart.

“My Splendid Concubine” was the love story Sir Robert Hart did not want the world to discover.

In the sequel, “Our Hart, Elegy for a Concubine”, he was the only foreigner the Emperor of China trusted.

Both novels have come together as one in “The Concubine Saga”.

Praise for My Splendid Concubine and Our Heart:

“Lofthouse believes Hart was motivated to destroy his papers not out of shame but out of privacy: ‘What he had with Ayaou was something special he wanted to keep to himself. I don’t think he would approve of My Splendid Concubine … but we live in a different age than Victorian England. I feel that this love story deserves to be told.’ ”- Anneli Rufus , East Bay Express

“My Splendid Concubine is packed cover to cover with intriguing characters and plot, a must read for historical fiction fans and a fine addition to any collection on the genre.” Midwest Book Review

” For me, really, My Splendid Concubine  is a love story that is rich with Chinese culture. I found the novel fascinating.  It is beautifully written and so rich in details of the Chinese culture.   Before this novel I did not know who Robert Hart was. I must thank Lloyd Lofthouse for this novel as now I feel I’ve been acquainted with a great man from history. One who respected and loved women and fought to make things better. I’ve also been introduced to many aspects of the Chinese culture that I didn’t know and I really enjoyed that. This was a really good novel for me and I was sorry to see it end.”- Darlene, Peeking Between the Pages

“Our Hart hits the ground running and only reprises that earlier novel in quick asides…. fine and tightly controlled novel.”- Steve Donoghu, Historical Novel Society

“As Historical Fiction books go, this is without doubt one of the best I have read in 2009, and my guess is that it is going to surpass the success that the author had with My Splendid Concubine.”- Simon Barrett, Blogger News Network

“Our Hart is…a historical novel in the finest tradition, where one cannot be sure what is real and what is fiction…a most unconventional, and poignant, love story.” -John H. Manhold, FascinatingAuthors.com

“Historical fiction potboiler, yes. But where the `Concubine’ saga truly shines is its thought-provoking passages on relationships, attitudes and cultural differences.”-Tom Carter, author of China: Portrait of a People

About Lloyd Lofthouse:

Lloyd Lofthouse is the author of My Splendid Concubine and Our Hart [combined in this single volume], which earned honorable mentions in general fiction at the 2008 London Book Festival, 2009 San Francisco Book Festival, 2009 Hollywood Book Festival, 2009 Los Angeles Book Festival, 2009 Nashville Book Festival and was a finalist in historical fiction for the National Best Books 2010 Awards. Lloyd Lofthouse grew up in Southern California, served in the Vietnam War as a U.S. Marine and lives near San Francisco with his wife and family with a second home in Shanghai, China.

Tour Stops:

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Ben Kane, Author of Spartacus: The Gladiator- On Tour

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Spartacus the Gladiator by Ben Kane, Book Tour, Author TourPublisher: St. Martin’s Press
Category: Historical Fiction
Tour Dates: June 2012
Available in Print and eBook, 480 pages

Long the stuff of legends, Spartacus is known to most modern readers through the classic Kubrick film version of Howard Fast’s novel. Now bestselling historical novelist Ben Kane returns to the source material and presents a lively and compelling new vision of the man who was Spartacus—Roman army auxiliary, slave, gladiator and ultimately the leader of an army of slaves who nearly brought Rome to its knees.

 Ben Kane’s brilliant novel begins in the Thracian village to which Spartacus has returned after escaping from life as an auxiliary in the Roman army. Jealous of his attachment to Ariadne, a Dionysian priestess, the Thracian king betrays Spartacus to the Romans who take him, along with Ariadne, into captivity and to the school of gladiators at Capua.

Against the background of the unbelievable brutality of gladiatorial life, Spartacus and Crixus the Gaul plan the audacious overthrow of their Roman masters. They escape and flee to Vesuvius, where they recruit and train an army of escaped slaves that will have to face the conquerors of the known world, the most successful deadly army in all of history in a battle that will set in motion the legend that is Spartacus.

Praise for Startacus:

“Gritty, passionate and violent, this thrilling book is a real page-turner and a damn good read. It brings Spartacus—and ancient Rome—to vivid, colorful life.” — Steven Pressfield, author of Gates of Fire

“The story of Spartacus, and the slave uprising against the Romans in 73 BC is well known to many readers and cinemagoers.  Yet Ben Kane manages to bring a freshness to the saga.  Told with Kane’s usual panache and historical knowledge, this book is highly recommended.”- Kathy Stevenson, UK Daily Mail

“Not so mysterious as Warbeck, nor so canny as Catherine, Spartacus did one thing really well, and that was fight, and he does a lot of it in Ben Kane’s tremendously direct frill- (not thrill) free novel, which describes how Spartacus is betrayed and sold to be a gladiator in the arena. Eyes are merciless, blows are wicked and screams are piercing, but this is, vividly recounted in muscular prose.”- Toby Clement, UK Sunday Telegraph

“Ben Kane fills in the plentiful gaps in the historical record with some lively imaginings.  There is much to enjoy in this saga of the downtrodden triumphing temporarily over the oppressors, and the portrait of Spartacus as charismatic leader is a vivid one.” -Nick Rennison, Sunday Times UK

“I have read all of Ben Kane’s books and have thoroughly enjoyed them all but, I have to admit that this novel would have to be his best. Therefore I am delighted that there will be a sequel out later this year.  Ben Kane does a brilliant job in bringing to life the character of Spartacus. He has inserted a considerable amount of historical information into the storyline and has tempered it with a fine balance of fictional input to produce a very enjoyable and believable novel.  The novel is full of action, conflict, romance, enmity and much more . Reading it has been most rewarding.”- Aristotle Spencer, Amazon.com Reviewer

About Ben Kane:Ben Kane, Virtual Author Tours

Ben Kane was born in Kenya and raised there and in Ireland. He qualified as a veterinary surgeon from University College Dublin, and worked in Ireland and the UK for several years. After that he travelled the world extensively, indulging his passion for seeing the world and learning more about ancient history. He drove around the USA in a camper van, trekked the Inca trail and took a ship to Antarctica. Seven continents and more than 65 countries later, he decided to settle down, for a while at least.

While working in Northumberland in 2001/2, his love of ancient history was fuelled by visits to Hadrian’s Wall. He naïvely decided to write bestselling Roman novels, a plan which came to fruition after several years of working full time at two jobs – being a vet and writing. Retrospectively, this was an unsurprising development, because since his childhood, Ben has been fascinated by Rome, and particularly, its armies. He now lives in North Somerset with his wife and family, where he has sensibly given up veterinary medicine to write full time.

To find out more about Ben and his books visit: www.benkane.net 
You can also find him on Twitter: @benkaneauthor and Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/#!/benkanebooks

Tour Stops:

To Be Determined