The Key to Tartarus by Nancy Richardson Fischer

Genre: Young Adult, Fantasy

Source:  I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my own.

From Goodreads:

When Evangeline's best friend and "almost" boyfriend Raphe is kidnapped by a sinister, supernatural being, she must use her magical powers and wits to try to save him. Her journey takes her into a mythical underworld where she battles furious spirits, her own self-doubts, and ancient, cruel Gods, as she struggles to find Raphe. In the end she will be forced to make an unbearable choice. Either save Raphe, or condemn him, and others she cares about, to be tortured for eternity...

My Review:

How far would you be willing to go to save a friend. Would you go to Tartarus, the pit below hell? Evangeline, the latest descendant from Pandora does just that.  She has already lost so much. She lost her best friend who belonged to a secret sect that exists to protect her and all descendant of Pandora.  When people stopped believing in the Gods they began to wither away. Zeus has never forgiven Pandora for trapping annihilation in the box. He will do anything to make that happen. If he can just kill the one who holds Pandora’s key, then someone else will be able to take the key and open the box.

Zeus earns Evangeline’s trust. As an old man receiving chemo, he has convinced her to read to him. She is a volunteer at the hospital where her current guardian, a doctor works. This is the same doctor who is helping to keep her mother alive as Evangeline tries to find a way to break  the curse Zeus placed on her and her ancestors.  When he convinces Evangeline to bring her best friend Raphe to the hospital things are set in motion. A gate to the underworld appears in his room. He grabs Raphe and goes through the gate.  Even though it may cost her the life everyone is trying to save, she goes anyway.  The only other way to enter the underworld is to die. Many will be willing to sacrifice their lives so that she can live. Zeus is sure to change the rules if Evangeline is to survive.

This is the second book in the trilogy. The third book “Fate’s Key” will be out this spring. This series is a definite must read.  The first book sucks you in, the second book thrusts you forward into her life and adventures, making you want her to succeed for all of mankind.  What will the third book hold? I guess that in some ways we are all like Pandora, curious.  It is this curiosity that will drive you to read this series.

The Seascape Trilogy by Vicki Hinze

Genre: Adult, Paranormal, Romance
Source: I received a copy to facilitate my review. The opinions expressed here are my ow.

Beyond the Misty Shore
Welcome to Seascape Inn. Here you will meet the inn keeper Hattie, T.J. MacGregor and Maggie Wright. I would say these three are thrown together, but that wouldn't be true. T.J. MacGregor is a recognized artist. Seascape is very familiar to him. He finds himself drawn back there after his the death of his fiancee, Carolyn. He needs the time and this place to heal. There is a problem though, every time he tries to leave he can't. He struggles against something until he passes out. He has been stuck there for nine months.

Maggie has been looking for T.J. for quite some time. She blames him for the death of her cousin Carolyn. When she sees a painting T.J. did, that was supposedly in the car with Carolyn when she died, Maggie is sure he is guilty. After all that could be the only reason the painting is there. Since she can't find him, and the painting seems to  be calling her she drives to Seascape Inn.  There she finds T.J. She has witnessed first hand T.J.'s inability to leave. She knows how uncomfortable her being there makes him and she does everything possible to make him more miserable. That is until she finds that she is not only becoming friends with him, but developing true feelings for him.

The inn itself is one of the characters. Hattie seems to know what is going on but chooses to let things unfold they way they need to for the good of all. Vicki has done a wonderful job of connection all things in a manner that leaves you wanting to read the rest in this series. I love the way the book is written, If you've read any of my other posts you know I am a fan of romance only if there is mystery or something else tied to it. I've never gone in for the mushy romance stories. Maybe that is why I find Vicki's books so intriguing. There is something here for everyone, so come and join us at Seascape Inn.

Upon a Mystic Tide
This is the second book in the trilogy. In this book we meet psychologist Bess and her investigator husband John. The biggest problem here is one that is so ironic. Bess and John are in the process of a divorce. You would think that Bess, as an on air radio psychologist, who gives out advice daily, wold be able to find a way to straighten out her own marriage. You would think that John who has been over zealous in trying to solve a case would have gotten the clues that his marriage was in trouble. But, neither of them did this. For many this may be a sticking point. For me I see it as a way of setting this wonderful story up. I chalk it up to the fact that they were working so hard to keep other people from knowing the truth about them that they were blinded to solutions. John still loves Bess and both of them end up at Seascape Inn. Bess end up there after seeing the painting in a gallery and John follows her to square some things away. Hattie and the townspeople we met in the very first book are there to add the local color and flavor to the book. Of course a lot of this would not have happened if it hadn't been for John, the resident ghost helping things along. After all he is the one who made things known on air during one of Bess's shows about her divorce, something she'd kept secret not only from her listeners but also from her boss.

Like the first book, it is packed with emotions and the hope that things will work out for our two main characters. But, as you read you see Bess kicking the whole journey. Will their relationship be healed? This is a book you must read to find the answer to the question, because I won't give it away.

Beside a Dreamswept Sea
This book is so different from the first two, even though it maintains several similarities. In this story we find Bryce, a widower visiting the inn with his three children. Bryce is emotionally broken. You know how much he loves his children because he sleeps in the hallway just in case his daughter has a nightmare, he can be there for her. There is almost a bitterness left from his relationship to his deceased wife. The second character is Callie, a recently divorced woman who fought hard to get her ex-husband to pay her alimony. She ends up at the inn determined to never marry again. After all, who would put themselves through that kind of anguish again?

This book is the one I related to the most. My husband and I both went through divorces vowing to never marry again. We had both been raked over the coals with our first marriages. The funny thing is we knew each other while we were married to our former spouses. When my husband moved back to town and went to work for my father we just kind of clicked. For me this was terrifying. There was no way I was ever going to marry again, yet I did.  I know that is how both of these characters felt.

All of the charm from the first two books is found in this one. For me with my personal experiences it resonated with me. However, I have absolutely no problem recommending all three books in this trilogy to readers. It is a series you will want to read over and over again.

Guest Post by Vicki Hinze

INSPIRATION AND LEMONADE:

The story behind Beyond the Misty Shore

By

Vicki Hinze

Into every life, lemon juice does pour.  If you’re lucky, you learn to love lemonade. I’m lucky. And it’s a good thing because…

I was having a pitcher-full and a truth about life and lemonade settled in:  Loving lemonade is a choice.  I mean, we can’t avoid lemon juice any more than we can avoid challenges. We can fight it, but we are going to lose. Lemon juice will be poured; it’s inevitable. But that doesn’t mean it has to be bitter. We can make a different choice. Sprinkle in a little sugar or Splenda, so to speak, a little water, and we’ve got lemonade, which tastes quite good and, on a hot day, it’s amazingly refreshing.

So I got juiced. I was at this crossroad in my life, debating which way to go, and this lemonade truth kept stealing my attention. I refilled my glass with half-a-pitcher to go, and another thought came to mind.  We have a choice. When life throws us lemons, we can choose to make lemonade, or not. Another thought chased that one:

What if we couldn’t?

What if we didn’t have a choice. Or the choice wasn’t ours to make. We’d be stuck. Literally swimming in lemon juice without lemonade or a solution or resolution in sight!

I didn’t care for the feeling, and it shot holes in my theory that I had at least a little control in my life. Don’t you hate it when that happens?  When your illusions are shattered and as leaky as a sieve?

I more than didn’t like it, I hated it…but I was intrigued. So I thought about it.  Okay, so you have not a pitcher full of lemon juice but a barrel full. You’re already banged up.  (Can anyone get to adulthood in life without getting banged up?  Unlikely.  Rare, even.) So you’re chugging lemon juice from the barrel, eager to drain it and get the nastiness behind you.  You’ve deciphered your problems and have progressed to looking for solutions, and you’re feeling good about that because, while the bad stuff isn’t behind you yet, you’ve made progress.  You’re on your way to getting rid of it.

Only you’re not. You’ve wracked your brain and there just are no solutions. Not even one. Worse, not only have you been robbed of a solution, your choice in what to do has been stolen, too.  Now what?  What do you do?

That was the situation I found myself in that led me to write the Seascape novels, and Beyond the Misty Shore specifically.

Being stuck doesn’t exactly inspire you to be in the most receptive frame of mind. Sunshine is arrogant when you’re grieving, right? But isn’t it true that the worst possible time is always when important things happen? When life-changing things happen?

That’s been true in my life, and so I made it true in TJ MacGregor’s life, too.  He is the hero stuck at Seascape Inn in Beyond the Misty Shore.  Add more lemon juice in the form of Maggie Wright, a woman who loves to hate him, and Miss Hattie, the wise Seascape innkeeper (who seems to know everything about everything but won’t just tell anyone anything because “some things are best learned firsthand”), a colorful cast of local characters, Maine cliffs, and a little otherworldly intervention, and, well, T.J. has his work cut out for him, doesn’t he?

He did, and so did I. But don’t feel too bad for him.  We’ve all tasted the tart of the juice and, you know, sometimes when we’re broken, we have to really hurt to ever get beyond the pain. We have to figure out that we can heal before we do heal.

Eventually, we get it. And when we do, magic happens. We no longer just survive. We truly live.

Like you and me, he’ll figure it out… eventually. So will Maggie.  And what fun to watch without personally sucking lemons!

I’m getting a little misty here. I think I’ll pack a bag and go visit Seascape Inn again . . . just as soon as I finish this glass of lemonade.  Care to join me?

Vicki Hinze’s Seascape Trilogy is on sale through March 1^st! Pick up these paranormal romances today!

Beyond the Misty Shore – Free!

Whimsy. Serenity. And a Touch of Magic. The Seascape Inn.

Marketing executive Maggie Wright and artist T.J. MacGregor are linked by a mysterious car accident that killed Maggie’s cousin, Carolyn, T.J.’s fiancée. When Maggie arrives on the Maine coast determined to get answers from T.J., she discovers a tortured man who is bound to the Seascape Inn by supernatural forces.

Despite the tragedy that stands between them, Maggie and T.J. begin to fall in love, seeking answers and a healing spirit they may never achieve.

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Upon a Mystic Tide – Only $1.99!

With their painful divorce looming on the horizon, radio psychologist Bess Cameron and her soon-to-be-ex-husband, John Mystic, meet at Maine’s Seascape Inn to finalize the terms of a property settlement. Bess believes John is in love with someone else, and she’s determined to move on without him. Their marriage appears doomed until the Inn’s matchmaking ghost, Tony, and its irrepressible owner, Miss Hattie, take matters in hand.

 Sometimes you have to leap upon a mystic tide and have faith the sand will shift and an island will appear . . . The second book of bestselling author Vicki Hinze’s Seascape Trilogy brings readers back to the gentle magic of a place where love is always stronger than the fragile boundaries of life.

                

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Beside a Dreamswept Sea – Just $5.99!

Welcome to the third book of The Seascape Trilogy, three mystical romance-mystery novels by bestselling author Vicki Hinze.

New love isn’t on the agenda for widower Bryce Richards, who comes to the peaceful Seascape Inn with his three children, hoping the ethereal setting will help them recover from the death of their mother. Likewise, fellow inn guest Callie isn’t looking for romance either; she’s recovering from an emotionally abusive marriage.

It will take all the matchmaking skills of innkeeper Hattie Stillman and her ghostly assistant to bring Bryce and Cally together.

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Check out my post tomorrow where I review all three books in the trilogy.

About the Author

Raised in New Orleans, Vicki Hinze began writing before Kindergarten but her journey to writing books included a lot of corporate pitstops. Eventually, she settled in and her first novel landed an array of awards and on the bestseller list. With nearly 40 books published, she's been back many times with awards in multiple genres and appearances on multiple bestseller lists, including USA TODAY. Vicki is recognized by Who's Who in the World as an author and an educator and is best known for chilling suspense, trailblazing, and creating series that genre-blend. Her works include suspense, mystery and romance. Since 1994, this former VP of International Thriller Writers has written heavily about military and military families and in nearly all genres except horror. Hinze is a Floridian married to a former Hurricane Hunter/Special Operations Officer. She constantly pushes the boundaries on existing genres, opening the door for new novel blends.