Review: No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe

No Place Like Holmes by Jason Lethcoe!


Amazon Product Description:

The new resident in 221A Baker Street is about to give Sherlock Holmes a run for his magnifying glass!

When Griffin is sent to stay with his detective uncle at 221A Baker Street for the summer, he is certain that his uncle must be the great Sherlock Holmes! But Griffin is disappointed to discover that Holmes lives at 221B Baker Street and his uncle lives unit 221A. His uncle is a detective, just not a very good one. But when Griffin meets a woman with a case that Holmes has turned away for being too ridiculous, he and his uncle team up to help her. Along the way, Griffin shows his uncle just what it means to have true faith in God, even when the case challenges that.  The woman claims that her husband was eaten by the Loch Ness Monster, but monsters aren't real-or are they?

My Thoughts:
This is a great mystery for YA readers!  This is a wonderful story for the "new to mystery" readers to 'cut their teeth' on.  It is well written, planned out from beginning to end, entertaining, and much more emotional than I had expected.  
The characters are fantastic!  I fell in love with Griffin - what a sweet, sad little boy.  I found myself close to tears many times.  I was thrilled to see that his demeanor influences that of his Uncle Snodgrass in a positive way.  
The villains are sooooo evil, Nigel - - - what a HORRID man - a larger version of the contemptible young man he had been as a child. 
All the characters stand out in some way.
The plot is not so complicated that the adult reader doesn't see the next move coming, but all the while it is complex enough to keep you turning the pages and wondering about the end.
I have to admit that I wasn't ready for the end!
I love that there is an element of steampunk thrown in!  The inventions are wonderful.  I would love to have read this aloud to middle schoolers, just so I could have seen their faces when Griffin gets to use Snodgrass's information finding machine.  Watts is amazing!


Overall a very worthwhile read!  Intriguing and entertaining from start to finish.  
I plan to impatiently await the next book in the series!

Hedgeland Blog Tour ~ Author interview and Giveaway!

Welcome to The Wormhole and my stop on the Hedgeland Blog Tour!  

Hedgeland Blurb.

Hedgeland, an urban fantasy of time travel. Dr April Neuland, a Professor of Ancient Languages turned non-fiction writer, has been plagued by dreams all her life, dreams of her past life in the Otherworld. Meanwhile, in a parallel dimension of April's past and Caridwen's future, Worthing, a Future History Professor, has allied with the Military to access Future Internet communications and use new technology to influence April to write an ebook novel revealing where she, in her past life as Caridwen, hid the Kiste, a device to travel through time and space. Hedgeland weaves all three time/space frames: Caridwen, Worthing, and April. Hedgeland is the first in the Hedgecraft Sequence, but is a fully self contained novel with no cliff hangers.

Author Dr Ann Nyland was on Faculty at the University of New England, Australia. She is a grammar pedant, ancient languages translator, and best selling non-fiction author of such books as The Complete Books of Enoch; Angels, Archangels and Angel Categories: What the Ancients Said; The Book of Jubilees; A Devil of a Job to Find Satan in the Bible, among others.


Today we are hosting an interview with the author A. Nyland!  Thanks Ann for taking time to answer questions for us!!!

* When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

I can't remember how old I was, but I was quite young. I wanted to be an artist and a writer. My parents insisted I needed a back-up plan in case I failed at art and writing. They were very practical. When I was five years old I saw a play at school and told my parents I wanted to be an actor. They were quite upset and spent literally an hour or so explaining to me that acting was not a solid career choice. I had to overcome a lot of head stuff to become a writer!

*How many jobs did you have before you became a writer?

I had a few odd jobs but spent much of my life at university, first as a student, then again as postgrad student, and then on Faculty.

*How long does it take you to write a book?

This varies quite widely. My New Testament translation took six years, but that was due to the fact I had to do a lot of research into ancient Greek word meaning from first century Palestine. Otherwise it would have been quite fast. The translations of ancient texts always take an awfully long time. I did the first draft of Hedgeland in NaNoWriMo last November, but have had the idea for many years.

*What would you say is your most interesting writing quirk?

Hmm, I don't know if I have one. When I go into "writing frenzy" I neglect everything else (except the horses of course) and write like a maniac. I write until the early hours of the morning, get up early, have two coffees, and then write. I also eat a horrible amount of food when in writing frenzy.

*Do you have a routine that you use to get into the right frame of mind to write?

I don't have a routine as such but the house has to be spotless, and I like lavender oil in the oil burner and to have frankincense incense burning.

*Where do you get your ideas or inspiration for your characters?

Hedgeland weaves three realms, past, present and future. The future is between the present and past - it makes sense when you read the book! The "Past" realm has an accurate background of Irish and Welsh mythology. Most of the characters in the "Present" realm are actual characters, and in fact I base the "Present" on my own reality. I base the character "April Neuland" on myself. I have based the "Past" realm on actual dreams I have had since I was a young child. It's quite uncanny how this ties in with Welsh and Irish mythology.

Worthing from the "Future" realm is a favorite character of mine. I based him loosely on a former colleague.

*How do you decide what you want to write about?

I don't actually decide - it just comes to me. This is why Hedgeland is cross genre - had I decided and been logical, I would have made it just one genre!

*What books have most influenced your life?

The ancient Hittite Kikkuli text, which I spent over a year translating. It was a seven month training regime to get war horses very fit, and surprisingly as it was written around 1345 BCE, it was Interval Training which supposedly was only "invented" a few decades ago. After I translated the text, I put ten Arabian horses through the seven month regime. I have also been influenced by the Greek playwrights - Euripides, Sophocles, Aeschylus, and the comedian Aristophanes. These guys were absolutely brilliant, and their ideas are just astounding.

*What do you like to do when you are not writing?

I spend most of the day writing - and at this time of the year in the part of Australia in which I live, chopping firewood, sad to say. When I have a break from writing, I read or do stuff with my horses.

*What is your favorite comfort food?

Ice cream, although I am dairy intolerant. It's a serious addiction. I like butterscotch ice cream, or ice cream full of little chocolate bits.

*What do you think makes a good story?

Just in my personal opinion - a variation of tone; showing not telling - such as describing the play of sunlight on a surface rather than a bald statement that the sun was shining; non-appallingly written dialogue - to that I would add a lack of adverbs; consistency of characterization; and being able to sum up the book in two to three short sentences.

*Who would you consider your favorite author and why?

Homer. I'll say "Homer" although we are fairly sure several people contributed to the Odyssey and the Iliad. The Odyssey is a work of sheer genius. These are works of oral epic poetry, and were recited to people, so people listened to them being recited, rather than read them. They are incredibly long, and the person reciting was able to remember the whole work which I find incredible. However, there is a static structure, an architectural structure, to these horribly long epic works, which provided tricks to help the memory. It's all so clever.

*What book, if any, do you read over and over again?

Homer's Odyssey, partly for the reasons I've just mentioned, and also because I love the language. I also love the epithets - "rosy-fingered Dawn," "flashing-eyed Athena."

Fun random questions: 

·                    dogs or cats? Dogs

·                    Coffee or tea? Coffee

·                    Dark or milk chocolate?  Dark

·                    Rocks or flowers? I love rocks, but I prefer flowers.

·                    Night or day? Night

·                    Favorite color? Blue

·                    Crayons or markers? Markers

·                    Pens or pencils? Pens

Thanks for stopping by The Wormhole! 

The next stop is:

May 18th - The Bookish Snob - http://thebookishsnob.blogspot.com


You can buy your own copy at Amazon or at Smashwords!

******to win your own copy of this book - please leave a comment including your email address.  You must be a follower and over 13 years of age.  This is international! The contest ends on 5/20/11.

The Demon Kiss Blog Tour

Welcome to The Wormhole and my day on The Demon Kiss Blog Tour!

Click HERE to see the whole tour schedule.

I LOVE this series!!! Check out my review of Demon Kiss HERE!

Book Blurb:

Can someone else's past come back to bite you?

After being drained of nearly all the blood in her body, novice witch, Portia Mullins, wakes up to find that her warlock boyfriend, Vance Mangum, has fled in search of his demon father. Determined to keep him from facing the evil alone Portia follows after him, unknowingly setting herself on the path of a new adventure that will take her, Vance, and their coven over international borders, into a foreign place where they will discover that the black magic which awaits them is far worse than they ever imagined. Portia finds herself tangled up in a web of lies and deceit in another's quest for demonic power in the excitingly romantic second paranormal novel in the Of Witches and Warlocks Series, The Demon Kiss.

Today we have a guest post from author Lacey Weatherford ~ Thank you Lacey for stopping by The Wormhole!!!

When Love Comes Early

I occasionally run across reviews of this story that question the age of Portia and whether or not parents would actually let a teenage girl be as romantically involved as her parents allow her to be in this tale.  I thought it might be fun to address my reasons as an author that I chose to go in this direction.

My family is BIG on love and in my life a lot of us have married very young.  I married my husband when I was eighteen, my daughter fell in love with her future husband when they were sixteen and seventeen respectively, engaged a year later.  My sister-in-law was happily married at seventeen, and the story was the same for my parents-in-law and many, many others.  We’ve all been blessed to be married by choice to the loves of our lives, and we’re all still swooning over our spouses with every breath we take! 

The young love in this story was very natural to me because it mirrors my own life.  This is the story of two great people who are fortunate enough to find the real thing early on.  Portia’s parents trust her, (maybe a tad too much for my personal taste, I would’ve shot any boy spending the night in my daughter’s room!) but they’ve also made allowances for magical circumstances which make things a little more involved.  Her parents may not always agree with her choices, but instead of forcing her in one direction they try to work with her and guide her through the steps of her life.  This helps them maintain a wonderful closeness with their daughter, and while it’s not perfect, it’s filled with mutual respect and admiration.

Because of the fast growing relationship between Vance and Portia I knew they were also quickly approaching a line in their relationship that would eventually need to be crossed.    So, for me as an author, the choice was either to promote premarital teenaged sex, or to encourage a marriage between the two.  Because of Portia’s age factor, marriage is not the ideal situation perhaps, but we already know she has bound herself with Vance, thus magically reinforcing their commitment to marry one another.  He wants this physical relationship with Portia a lot and it consumes him to the point of constant temptation.  He’s really struggled to not cross this line with her because he felt abstaining showed his love and respect even more, and kept him from giving into his darker urges.  It was so important to me for Vance to have things the way he wanted.  He’s been through so many terrible things in his life that I wanted him to successfully complete one thing he’d strived so hard for.  I felt this was the direction most appropriate for these characters, because they needed to be able to finally come together with no holds barred and have it be truly magical for them as they moved into a relationship of complete commitment.

I had a lot of fun writing the chemistry between these two, and believe me, it was difficult to keep things reined in.  Vance and Portia tend to be like dynamite when they’re together; all sizzle and sparks with building sexual tension just waiting to explode.  I hope you will enjoy the story and I hope my explanations help to enlighten my reasoning behind the wonderful romance of this couple!

We walked hand in hand, barefoot next to the water’s edge, letting the cool waves rush over our feet.

The light reflected beautifully over the water as the sun dipped low on the horizon.

“It’s really nice here,” I said, enjoying sharing this moment with him.

“It is.” He gazed out into the distance over the water.

“Too bad it just can’t be a vacation.”

“I agree. Maybe someday we can come back here, just the two of us,” he said.

“You think my mom and dad will let us come back here alone, together?” I said laughing.

“They would if it was for our honeymoon,” he said softly.

I stopped and faced him.

“You want to come here for our honeymoon?” My heart beat a little harder at the unexpected change of subject.

“Maybe,” he replied, his eyes moving slowly over my face as if gauging my reaction.

“That could be a long time from now,” I said.

“Actually, I’ve been pondering on that,” he replied, searching my eyes closely. “If it’s okay with you, I was thinking perhaps I could talk to your parents and see if they’d let us get married before you turn eighteen.”

I was stunned. I knew we had planned to married eventually, but I had no idea he wanted to do it so soon.

“I’m only a junior in high school,” I replied, realizing that I was feeling a little bit blindsided. “I still need to finish my senior year.”

“I know,” he said nodding his head. “I thought after I graduate this year, I’d look for a good job in Flagstaff. I could go to NAU there. We could get a little place to live in together, and you’d still be close enough to finish your year at Sedona High School.”

He had really put a lot of thought into this, and while I was feeling a little nervous about what he was saying, it made my heart sing that he wanted to be with me.

Book Purchase Links

The Of Witches and Warlocks series can be ordered in ebook or paperback anywhere books are sold, including 

Amazon and Smashwords

Along with this great guest post we are also lucky enough to be hosting a giveaway!!!
So.... the rules are simple:
1. Be a follower of The Wormhole
2. Fill out the form completely.
3. Be at least 13 years old.
Good luck! (comments are not required, but the author would enjoy the feedback!)

There is also a Grand Prize Giveaway - The Demon Kiss Tour Grand Prize:

The Grand Prize winner will receive swag, signed copies of books 1, 2, 3, & 4, AND will be written into an interactive scene with VANCE in book four too!

Want extra entries? You can get 1 more entry for every time you comment on the tour, and 5 more entries for every time you send a Tweet or Facebook the link to that day’s blog post. Make sure you keep track of those as you will be asked to submit verification links when you enter the giveaway. 

Good Luck!  May the “Vance” be with YOU!

Author Bio:

Lacey Weatherford has always had a love of books.  She wanted to become a writer after reading her first Nancy Drew novel at the age of eight.

When she is not reading, writing, blogging, or doing book tours for her current series, she can often be found out at sporting/musical events which her kids are in or texting like crazy with her best friend.

Lacey resides in the White Mountains of Arizona, where she lives with her husband, six children, one son-in-law, and the family dog Sophie.

Review: Hedgeland by A. Nyland

Hedgeland by A. Nyland

198 pages - - I received this book (digital format) free of charge in exchange for an honest review and participation in the blog tour.

Amazon Product Description:
Hedgeland, an urban fantasy of time travel. Dr April Neuland, a Professor of Ancient Languages turned non-fiction writer, has been plagued by dreams all her life, dreams of her past life in the Celtic Otherworld. Meanwhile, in a parallel dimension of April's past and Caridwen's future, Worthing, a Future History Professor, has allied with the Military to access Future Internet communications and use new technology to influence April to write an ebook novel revealing where she, in her past life as Caridwen, hid the Kiste, a device to travel through time and space. Hedgeland weaves all three time/space frames: Caridwen, Worthing and April. Hedgeland is the first in the Hedgecraft Sequence, but is a fully self contained novel with no cliff hangers.


My thoughts:
This is unlike anything I have read lately.  I was drawn into Caridwen's life rather quickly, but I had a hard time always making the transition between the others lives and hers.  It took me a bit to get into, but once I got the hang of the interchanges I enjoyed it.  I was shocked by the complexity of the story, it was unexpected.  I enjoyed the characters.  I can't wait for the next book!

Blogger was down - yes it was sad, but really!

I just wanted to take a quick moment out of my day to comment about the time when blogger was down.  WOW - sooooooooo many people who are using a FREE service to interface with hundreds of people, most of which are ALSO using a FREE service, are complaining about a lag time of - according to a number of others, 20.5 hours.  REALLY - you clocked the time the service was down?????? 

A service that we enjoy at absolutely NO COST.

I have to admit that I was sad that blogger was down, because wanted to work on my blog -and because, well I personally have no real life - apparently I am not the only one - but I used the time to catch up on my google reader - READ some books, and actually enjoy some GUILT FREE time away from my book blog.

So....what I am trying to say is THANK YOU BLOGGER for providing a place for people like me to spend loads of time!

I LOVE my blog - I love that I get to talk to other readers and authors about reading and books.  I love that I get to hear about books; new, old, and in between that have made an impact in some way on someones life.  I am so excited that I have be fortunate enough to meet some crazy and amazing people in the blog world.  I am thrilled to have a stack of books that I have won or gotten for review - directly from blogs and bloggers.

Waiting on Wednesday!

What am I waiting on this Wednesday?  Well, I would love to be waiting for more time to arrive, but as that can't possibly happen and as I have so many books 'waiting' to be read this Wednesday I am actually waiting on a book signing.  Richelle Mead will be in Minneapolis, MN next weekend (5/22/11)!

Over the winter, she had planned a stop here, but we got a blizzard - shocking! In Minnesota? Say it isn't so.

The previously planned signing was to take place the same weekend that the Metrodome collapsed from the weight of the snow on the dome.   Flights were cancelled and Richelle got stranded - not in MN - so....

Now she's coming back and I am SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited!

My friend Kathy (Inside of a Dog) and I will be attending this long awaited book signing.  It should be fun.

Anyone who lives here in MN and plans to attend - please comment, we can chat in the signing line!