Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper Book Blitz {Guest Post & Giveaway}

I'm so thrilled to be participating in the Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper Book Blitz to celebrate J.L. Bryan's new, adult horror/paranormal book! Below you can learn all about this new book, read a fun guest post, and enter to win an ebook copy...

Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper #1

 by J.L. Bryan 

September 19th 2014

Genres: Adult, Horror, Paranormal

Ellie Jordan’s job is to catch and remove unwanted ghosts. Part detective, part paranormal exterminator, Ellie operates out of Savannah, Georgia, one of the oldest and most haunted cities in North America.

When a family contacts her to deal with a disturbance presence in the old mansion they’ve recently purchased, Ellie first believes it to be a typical, by-the-book specter, a residual haunting by a restless spirit. Instead, she finds herself confronted an evil older and more powerful than she’d ever expected, rooted in the house’s long and sordid history of luxury, sin, and murder. The dangerous entity seems particularly interested in her clients’ ten-year-old daughter.

Soon her own life is in danger, and Ellie must find a way to exorcise the darkness of the house before it can kill her, her clients, or their frightened young child.

Goodreads / Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Five Signs Your House May Be Haunted

by J.L. Bryan

Things go bump in the night.  You feel like someone is always watching you.  You think you have a ghost, but maybe it’s a just a creepy squirrel scrambling around your attic at night and staring at you through the windows.  How can you tell for sure?

The editors of Ladies’ Haunted Home Journal are back with an easy guide to determining whether a paranormal presence infests your house!  Before calling the ghost trappers, consider whether you have any of the following signs:

Cold Spots: One or more areas in your house might seem much colder the space around it.  This may be a corner, closet, or other out-of-the-way spot.  You may be excited to learn that when you feel the cold spot, you’re not just in the presence of a restless dead spirit, you’re also touching it!  You’re almost inside the ghost, and it’s kind of inside you.  Pretty neat.  Important note: A cold spot inside your refrigerator or freezer may be caused by the appliance itself.

Strange Sounds: You may hear moaning, groaning, thumping or crashing late at night.  Make sure it isn’t an elderly neighbor or relative bumbling around your house.  If you hear voices threatening you with death or dismemberment, you might consider the benefits of spending the night at a Motel 6.

Mysterious Motion: Plates slide off the counter.  Doors open or close by themselves.  The chandelier leaped down from the ceiling, flew across the room, and tried to kill you last week.  You’re beginning to think something may be amiss.  First, make sure there aren’t any logical causes for these problems, such as keeping your counter too greasy, or a broken hinge in the door, or that idiot who installed your chandelier.  If you can’t find an explanation, odds are you’ve got a ghost (or a poltergeist, but let’s not split hairs).

Absurd Disappearances: Your keys disappear from your end table, only to be found in the fish tank.  Your good silver vanishes, piece by piece, and you discover all of down in a mysterious back corner of the basement.  It’s either a family member with bizarre hoarding tendencies or a mischievous ghost.  Either way, you’ve got an annoying problem on your hands.

Full Apparitions: If you have seen a ghost appear and disappear, you probably have a ghost.  We don’t really have an alternate explanation for this one.  Call your local paranormal exterminator today!

We hope these tips will help you sort out whether your house is haunted or your family is just weird!  If you have further questions, please read our pamphlet: My House is Haunted – What Now?  Good luck with that ghost!

From someone who has lived with ghosts for years, I think these are all really good signs of a haunting to look for...for reals ;)

 

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Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper is the first book in a new series by J. L. Bryan, the author of the Jenny Pox series and other novels.  He lives in the very hot state of Georgia with his family and no ghosts, as far as he knows.

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Ellie Jordan, Ghost Trapper!

J.L. Bryan has generously offered one e-copy of his new book for one of you cupcakes.

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Review: Inferno Park by J.L. Bryan

Inferno Park

by J.L. Bryan

August 15, 2014

Carter was only twelve when he witnessed the disaster that killed more than a hundred people at Starland Amusement Park. Five years later, Carter’s hometown is no longer a busy Florida panhandle resort, but a slowly dying town full of empty motels and attractions rusting behind chains and padlocks.

Now something evil stirs in the ruins of the old amusement park...something with an alluring siren song drawing visitors into the dark mysteries of the forbidden world behind the gate. Something with an appetite for restless, yearning souls. 

Carter reluctantly returns to the old park in the company of a new girl in town, who is obsessed with urban decay and pop-culture ruins, and discovers the evil at work. To stop it, and protect the children of the town, Carter will have to face his oldest and deepest fears.

Goodreads / Amazon Kindle / Amazon Paperback

J.L. Bryan can write the hell out of a book and, with Inferno Park, he has once again created a highly entertaining, smartly crafted, utterly addicting read! My first thought when finishing this book: “That was some awesome fucked up shit!”

The Starland Amusement Park, in the panhandle of Florida, was home to a horrific catastrophe. Hundreds of people, many of them children, were tragically killed and twelve year old Carter witnessed it all. Five years later, the small seaside town has not recovered. What was once a bustling tourist destination, full of Mom & Pop businesses, is now a fastly dying town. Seventeen year old Carter just wants to finish high school and get the hell out of there...but something sinister in the ruins of the park has other plans for Carter and the teens in this dwindling town. Something evil lurks in the park and it’s up to Carter and new girl Victoria to save the day...if they can stay alive long enough, that is!

What a spooktastic, fun, twisty read! Bryan holds nothing back in Inferno Park; it is filled to the brim with chills, thrills, and bloody good times! And the book starts with a wicked bang right in the first chapter. Seriously, this first chapter has one of the highest body counts, like, EVER! My face reading this chapter was pretty much all this:

And the shocks and twists never stop coming! I was all “There’s no way he’s gonna do that...eeep, he totally just did!” and by the time I’d think there’s no way Bryan would “go there”, we’d be driving past “there”, manically waving goodbye.

Genuinely creepy and eerie, with real frights, Bryan creates a captivating and spine-tingly atmosphere. Inferno Park is quite the cinematic reading experience, and is reminiscent of fun, watch-through-your-fingers horror movies. The quickly dying seaside town makes for an effective, isolated setting, while the haunting ruins of Starland Park, aka Inferno Park, is deliciously scary. Bryan has intricately built this amusement park of horrors, adding so much awesome detail; from the various rides to the game booths and food stands, Bryan fully immerses his readers in this world.

Carter and Victoria are both likable, realistic teenage characters that Bryan puts through absolute, compete hell! Carter, Victoria, and a myriad of other characters are victims of a truly evil baddie. This startling and unexpected antagonist hacks, stabs, chops, burns, decapitates, and every other crazy painful word you can think of, through his victims in a gorefest of awesomeness!

Twisted and twisty, Inferno Park throws some wicked curve balls and shocking revelations your way...so be prepared for anything and everything!

My Final Thoughts: Inferno Park is a thrilling read full of fun scares, excellent world-building, engaging characters, and one helluva baddie! Fans of horror movies aimed at teens and over-the-top slasher flicks will enjoy this book immensely. Oh, and I may NEVER go on an amusement park ride EVER again 0_0

MY RATING

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J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on English Renaissance and Romantic literature. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He lives in the metro Atlanta sprawl with his wife Christina, where he spends most of his day serving the toddler and animal community inside his house. He is the author of the Paranormals series and the Songs of Magic series.

Review and Giveaway: Fairy Luck (Songs of Magic #6) by J.L. Bryan

Check out my reviews of book one, two, three, four, and five in this series and enter below to win books 1 through 4...

Fairy Luck

(Songs of Magic #6)

by J.L. Bryan

July 25, 2014

While the Zebras reel from the loss of Erin, Erin herself makes some troubling discovering while connecting with her ancestors.

In Faerie, Aoide and her troupe seem to finally be enjoying their big break...but danger is on the way, and nothing is ever what it seems when you're dealing with leprechauns and the treacherous Queen Mab.

Goodreads / Amazon/Kindle / B&N/Nook

**********

I’ve said it before in earlier reviews of books in this series, but I’m gonna say it again: whenever I open a new Songs of Magic book it’s like reuniting with a group of my besties for a new wild adventure! J.L. Bryan NEVER disappoints me, he always delivers the awesome, and Fairy Luck, book six in this series, is no exception!

In Fairy Luck, we visit both man-world and Faerie as the remaining members of the Zebras try to deal with the loss of Erin, while Erin adapts to her new home in Faerie. We also get to follow Aoide and her group of musicians as they go on their own Faerie-wide tour...but evil Queen Mab is buzzing around making more trouble for all our favorite characters.

If I had to describe the Songs of Magic series simply, I’d say it is PURE FUN! Everything about these books is just so entertaining, captivating, and fun fun fun. Even after six books, the dazzling magic of this series hasn't dimmed a bit!

I’ve come to expect several things from J.L. Bryan and this series-- superb world-building, humor filled storytelling, amusing plots, and engaging characters-- and Fairy Luck is filled to the brim with all of these things. Both the fantastical world of Faerie and Bryan’s snarktastic take on fame, pop culture, and show biz continue to be laid out and explored awesomely in Fairy Luck. From horrible big budget blockbusters to “experimental” music, greedy entertainment empires, obsessed fans, and eccentric aging rockstars, the three remaining Zebras find themselves in some crazy places post-Zebra fame. And from balloon farms to giant house-cats, even giant-er puppies, man-eating plants, and all things whimsical, the world of Faerie just keeps getting cooler and cooler. Faerie is such an enthralling mix of fantasy, myth, and sparkling imagination. Both of these vastly different worlds are just so cleverly created.

All our favorite characters are back and we meet some new ones as well. The teenage Zebras and their various friends, family, work associates, etc, continue to make for an eclectic cast of fun characters. I really loved getting to know Aoide and the other faerie folk better in Fairy Luck.

Fairy Luck takes us to some wild places and, while answering many questions surrounding the magic of Faerie, it also leaves readers and its characters with plenty to look forward to in the seventh and final book.

My Final Thoughts: Like books one through five in the Songs of Magic Series, Fairy Luck is a spectacular fun and fantasy filled story that will easily delight and amuse young and old readers alike (these books are totally appropriate for middle-grade readers). I’m super excited to read the final book, but will be so sad to see the series end!

MY RATING

website * goodreads * twitter * facebook

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories. He is the author of The Paranormals series of horror novels (Jenny Pox, Tommy Nightmare, and Alexander Death) the Songs of Magic series for younger readers (Fairy Metal Thunder, Fairy Blues, and Fairystruck...so far) and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, their son, and some dogs and cats. Win ebook copies of books 1-4 in the Songs of Magic Series! J.L. Bryan has offered one ebook collection of books one through four in his series, available for Kindle or Nook, for one winner. DETAILS -open to anyone who can read ebooks -ends 8/1 -must be 13+ to enter -winner will be emailed and must claim prize within 48 hours Fill out the Rafflecopter form:

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Review: The Unseen by J.L. Bryan

Be sure to stop by my The Unseen Blitz post to enter to win an ebook copy or awesome prize pack!

The Unseen

by J.L. Bryan

10/31/13

Format: eARC

Source: author

Cassidy is a young tattoo artist living in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s always suffered terrible nightmares, and sometimes the hideous creatures seem to follow her out of her dreams and into her waking life, though she’s the only one who can see them. Drugs and alcohol can blot them out, but never entirely chase them away.
When a demonic cult begins to take control of the people in her life, including her younger brother, Cassidy discovers that the unseen world of monsters is very real. She can no longer avoid it. To protect those she loves, she must accept her own hidden supernatural talents and face the forces of evil before the sinister cult achieves its twisted goals and casts the world into darkness.

                          Find the book: Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / Author's Site

Today is the last day you can get the ebook for 99 cents!

I received an eARC of this title in exchange for my honest review

J.L. Bryan does creepy and dark well…really well! The Unseen is a creeptastically dark, gritty read full of the macabre and the unexpected. The Unseen’s heroine, Cassidy, is a young tattoo artist, drug enthusiast, and, as she discovers, surrounded by the supernatural. Cassidy finds herself and her loved ones caught up in the deadly doings of a demonic cult and its dangerous disciples. Cassidy must learn to trust and tap into her own supernatural powers to save the people she loves.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, J.L. Bryan is an enthralling and talented storyteller, and in The Unseen he weaves a scary awesome story! At times it seems like everything supernatural has been done, but Bryan has infused his world of demons, angels, and paranormal elements with invigorating originality and thrilling twists. As usual, Bryan’s world-building skills are excellent and he creates an atmosphere that is alluring, addicting, and creepy in the best way possible. The unseen world Cassidy finds herself unwillingly immersed in is full of both the familiar (demonic possession, astral projection, witches) and the sometimes startlingly and imaginatively new (spirit sucking hellbugs, tattoos that come to life). I love how smartly crafted the history and layers of this demonic and supernatural world is; this is a richly developed and complex world that feels very real.

The Unseen starts off a bit slow, with some superfluous character description, but quickly finds its flow, and once the action and real story-building begin, they don’t slow down for a second! Another thing I’ve come to expect from J.L. Bryan is relatable and well-developed characters, and he didn’t disappoint in The Unseen. I love how un-heroine like Cassidy is! She’s incredibly flawed- she drinks too much, does too many drugs, and can be quite selfish and thoughtless- and is perfectly content with ignoring the supernatural world around her and her place in…but this is what makes her feel so real and relatable. I like her rough, jagged edges and how she’s an unconventional heroine. There’s an eclectic cast of supporting characters, all of whom are well-developed, but I think my favorite is Ibis. Sweet, funny, dorkily charming Ibis *swoon*. And Bryan really brings the awesomeness with his nasty, nefarious demonic characters, which made me delightfully shiver!

MY FINAL THOUGHTS: The Unseen, with its originality, great characters, and captivatingly creepy, dark atmosphere, is the perfect Halloween read and it thoroughly entertained me! 

MY RATING

J.L. Bryan

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The Unseen Blitz {Giveaway, Excerpt, Guest Post}

I'm thrilled to be participating in The Unseen Book Blitz! I adore J.L. Bryan's writing (and he's a pretty awesome dude as well!) and am so excited that he's written another spooky, spine-tingling read. Below you can find out more about this book, read an informative and entertaining guest post, check out an excerpt from The Unseen, and win some wicked prizes...

The Unseen

by J.L. Bryan

10/26/13

Find the book: Goodreads / Amazon / B&N / Author's Site

Cassidy is a young tattoo artist living in the Little Five Points neighborhood of Atlanta. She’s always suffered terrible nightmares, and sometimes the hideous creatures seem to follow her out of her dreams and into her waking life, though she’s the only one who can see them. Drugs and alcohol can blot them out, but never entirely chase them away.

When a demonic cult begins to take control of the people in her life, including her younger brother, Cassidy discovers that the unseen world of monsters is very real. She can no longer avoid it. To protect those she loves, she must accept her own hidden supernatural talents and face the forces of evil before the sinister cult achieves its twisted goals and casts the world into darkness.

The Unseen will have a special release price of 99 cents through Halloween!

Demon-Summoning Do’s and Don’ts

So you’ve cast a circle and you’re ready to bring an infernal spirit into your home for a visit.  Or are you?  Summoning demons takes care and consideration—it’s nothing to jam in between doing the dishes and catching the new episode of Walking Dead.

These simple tips will help you put together an exciting evocation, without all the messy embarrassment of getting your soul ripped from your flesh and devoured.

DO offer a blood sacrifice.  Your guest has traveled across endless darkness from the lower pits of Hell and will be expecting a snack.  Chicken or lizard blood will do nicely for a lesser spirit.  For an archdemon, you’ll want to sacrifice a human being instead—anything less is considered rude.  Virgins are still preferred, but no longer expected by more modern demons.  Finally, an activity you can do with that annoying neighbor you’ve always wanted to eliminate from the earth!

DON’T call up the wrong kind of demon.  Incubi and succubi will arrive with certain expectations, because these unholy hornballs only have one thing on their evil minds at all times.  If you’re not ready for a swingers’ sabbat, avoid them.  If you do summon them, you’re going to need a little more protection that the typical enchanted circle provides—the beasties get around.  Also avoid gluttony demons, because these corpulent creatures not only look like disgusting mountains of flab with enormous mouths, they’ll also destroy your snack bar and leave an unpleasant flatulent odor that takes weeks to remove from your carpet.

DO be polite.  Powerful demons resent being summoned by mere mortals, but minding your manners can go a long way towards creating a more pleasant evening.  When you say, “I bind thee and summon thee, foul Mephistopheles!” and the enraged horned demon appears in a flash of fire and brimstone, don’t forget to add, “Thank you!”

DON’T expect them to bring wine or a hot dish.  Again, they’ve come a long way and can’t be expected to carry host gifts up from the abyss.  Also, demon food tends to be rotten and vermin-infested, so how badly did you really want that casserole, anyway?

DO remember to take pictures!  Remember, the only reason to do anything extraordinary in life is so you can brag to your friends on Facebook.  A picture of you and Beelzebub with his host of flesh-eating flies will totally shut up that one friend who’s always bragging about the time she met Colin Farrell on an airplane.

DON’T forget to banish!  If you don’t send that demon right back to Hell when you’re done, it may move onto your couch and stay there for months.  Demons don’t pay rent, they don’t do chores, and they never, ever give up control of the remote.  They will, however, watch home shopping channels twenty-four hours a day and max out your credit card to ordering useless knickknacks.  They won’t take subtle hints to go home, either, no matter how many you drop—you have to order them out.  Exercise your right to excorsize!

Following this list is sure to make your demonic encounter a more successful one!  When you summon horrific spirits from the fiery underworld into your living room, you don’t want it to ruin the rest of your weekend.

3 excerpts from Chapter 1 of The Unseen

from the beginning of chapter one...

Years later, Cassidy would remember the night of the party as her first encounter with the unseen world.  It began with broken glass, blood, and a homemade Ouija board.

The day after Cassidy’s seventeenth birthday, her mother was away at work for the night, inadvertently giving Cassidy the best possible present: a Saturday night alone at the apartment.  Her younger brother Kieran was staying at a friend’s house for the weekend.  Cassidy’s mother had forbidden her to have any guests except for her best friend, Barb.  Boys, as always, were doubly forbidden while Cassidy’s mother was working the night shift at the hotel.  Her mother called her on the land line to make sure she was home—never Cassidy’s cell, always the land line.

The night started out calmly, with no sign of the horror to come.

from the middle of chapter one...

“Sh!  It’s moving,” Cassidy told them.

The wine glass shuddered again, and this time it began to slide over the poster board, the lip scraping and smearing a few of the still-wet letters, gathering glowing paint around its rim.

The glass moved across the alphabet to the word YES in the upper left corner of the poster, scraping up glue and glitter from a sparkly red pentagram along the way.  

“Who’s doing that?  Are you doing that?” Reese asked Tamila, who shook her head, her wide eyes fixed on the board.

“Hello?  Are you a spirit?” Barb asked.

The glass slid half an inch, then right back into place.  YES again.

“Who are you?” Barb asked. “I mean, to whom do we have the pleasure of speaking?”

The wineglass lay still for a moment, then vibrated and hummed as if someone had plinked it with a fingernail.  The glass slid over the alphabet.

Cassidy felt her heart racing.  She hadn’t expected it to work at all, and it was starting to freak her out.  She wished they hadn’t turned off the lights.

from the end of chapter one...

The glass flew back to the top row of letters.

D...I...E...

It moved faster, back and forth, never leaving the top row.

DIE

DIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIEDIE

Cassidy watched in horror, spellbound as the glass raced back and forth, smearing the top row of letters into an illegible green streak, but still sliding back and forth, back and forth, touching the spots where the three letters D, I, and E had been.

She wanted to let go and pull away, but her fingertips felt glued to the wine glass.  The glass became icy, burning cold under her fingertips, a crust of smoking frost forming inside the bowl and along the stem.

J.L. Bryan studied English literature at the University of Georgia and at Oxford, with a focus on the English Renaissance and the Romantic period. He also studied screenwriting at UCLA. He enjoys remixing elements of paranormal, supernatural, fantasy, horror and science fiction into new kinds of stories.He is the author of The Paranormals series (starting with Jenny Pox), The Songs of Magic series, Nomad, and other books. He lives in Atlanta with his wife Christina, his son John, and some dogs and cats.
Website: www.jlbryanbooks.com
Twitter: @jlbryanbooks

There are two ways to win some awesome prizes during this blitz:

GIVEAWAY ONE- open INT

Win an ebook copy of The Unseen!

To enter, just leave a comment on this post letting me know you want to win an ebook copy and leave your name and a way to contact you (email address or Twitter handle). Giveaway ends on Nov. 3 at 12:00 pm EST

GIVEAWAY ONE NOW CLOSED

GIVEAWAY TWO- open US/CAN

This is a tour wide giveaway for a signed copy of The Unseen and the following-

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