BOOK JUNKIEZ

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | June 2, 2025 · 5:00 am

Risky Pursuit Blitz

YA Mystery, YA Suspense

Date Published: April 15, 2025

High school senior Decker Savage, burdened by his baby brother’s
death and dreading his parents’ impending divorce, sees his mother
with a scruffy stranger and follows him to a dark house. He hears shouts
upstairs, a man hits the floor, and the culprit escapes. Decker follows the
victim’s ambulance. Through their mutual love of baseball, they become
friends; but the elderly man can’t remember who attacked him, and
Decker fears the assailant will return. His grades crater, his relationships
go south, his baseball skills are erratic, and by entering the man’s
house, he broke the law.

He suffers anonymous attacks and receives threatening notes: if he
doesn’t forget the man and the house, he, his family, and his friend
will be the next victims. Will Decker be able to uncover the culprit’s
identity, solve the mystery, and stop the attacks?

About the Author

Nancy G. West was a University of Texas business major who switched to
English literature in grad school and discovered that writing fiction was a
lot more fun than accounting. Her April 2025 novel, RISKY PURSUIT, with its
young, resourceful protagonist, multiple adult POVs, and themes of family,
loss, risk, grief, secrets, danger, and courage, should appeal to readers
ages 14 and up.

She’s also the author of the Lefty-Award-nominated Aggie Mundeen
rom/com mysteries, and the psychological suspense novel, Nine Days to
Evil.

Her mystery/suspense novella, THE PLUNGE, was a June 2019 selection for
ALA’s book club.

Nancy West lives in Texas with her family.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | May 31, 2025 · 5:00 am

Deviously Delicious Blitz

Jills of All Trades, Book One

Mystery, Contemporary Fantasy

Date Published: May 31, 2025

On the Northern California coast, beyond the mists of the ancient redwoods,
there’s a quiet town like any other. Sueños del Mar has
bakeries, repair shops, and friendly neighbors looking out for one
another.

Or so it would seem.

This is a deviously delicious lie.

Every resident of Sueños del Mar has a skeleton in the closet. Even
polar opposite best friends, roommates, and business partners Allison and
Dorseigh.

Dorseigh McHale is a simple girl next door, seeking to earn a living wage
and let go of her need to please everyone.

Allison Liddle seeks to leave her past behind and travel the world in
style.

Their simple plans are thwarted when an unconscious boy ends up in their
driveway.

The key to unlocking the secrets of the people and the town itself surfaces
once kids start to go missing. Accused of the kidnapping, The Jills of all
Trades, Allison and Dorseigh must add another skill to their resume: Amateur
detectives.

With the help of friends, and some red herrings along the way, the Jills
discover the missing children aren’t the only thing wrong with the
town of Sueños del Mar.

About T.J. Descahmps

T.J. Deschamps is a multi-genre author who lives in the Pacific Northwest
with her three kids, three cats, and one unbothered tortoise. In her spare
time, she can be found either curled up with a book and cats by a fire or
out in the forests and lakes hiking or kayaking.

Author Contact Links

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TikTok

About Beth Whiteman

Beth Whiteman is a multi-genre author who lives in the Midwest with her
husband, three children, dog, and cats. In her spare time, she is a champion
kid chauffeur, crocheter, crafter, and jewelry designer.

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Tagged as Beth Whiteman, Contemporary Fantasy, Deviously Delicious, mystery, T.J. Deschamps

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | May 30, 2025 · 5:00 am

Luna Court Virtual Book Tour

Nonfiction/Memoir, Adventure, Coming of Age, Drama

Date Published: March 24, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

“Life on the road was a dream. Destinations were shaping up to be
cold, hard, complicated realities.”

The call of the open road, the music that fuels them, and the night that
changed everything… In the early 1990s, amidst the gritty allure of
Southern California’s burgeoning music scene, 18-year-old Denver finds
herself at a crossroads. Her father has been missing for over a year,
leaving behind a void that haunts her every moment. After high school
graduation, Denver and her best friend hit the road for a transformative
journey across the country.

EXCERPT

Prologue

AUGUST 1979

HE BURIED HIS ring.

My mother had died two years earlier, when I was just a toddler, and her ring went with her—into the casket, into the ground. My dad had kept his ring on, worn it through those aching, unsteady months of early grief. But now he was getting married again. And we were at my mother’s gravesite. And he was burying his ring.

He slid it from his knuckle up to his fingertip and used it as a tool to dig a small hole in the ground before dropping the ring near my mother’s headstone in the rolling hills of the San Fernando Valley. Then he covered the ring with soil, patting the mound tenderly. I remember thinking that I should probably miss my mom more than I did, but I was only two when she died, so how could I? And I loved my dad with such intensity—and felt just as intensely loved back—that there wasn’t much room for sadness in my heart that day.

There was a softness to my mom that I’ll never forget. A tall, quiet, weepy gentleness. If I closed my eyes tight, I could conjure a rippling image of a swimming pool, her arms around me as we floated. Tighter, and I saw a small kitchen. Broken dishes and blood everywhere.

I remember much less about my mother than I do about the diner we went to after my dad buried his ring. It was here, over a plate of pancakes and bacon, that I first heard the numbers 6-6-6.

“Something’s gonna happen,” my dad said, “but I hope not in your lifetime.”

He set his cup of coffee on the Formica tabletop and held my gaze. I knew he had something important to tell me. He said something about revelations, something I didn’t really understand, and that our mom had known the world was ending. Now he knew it, too. Computers, microchipping, salvation.

“People are going to be buying and selling things with computers, but only if they have the mark of the beast. And I will not ever take the mark of the beast. If I have to live on the side of the road, I will. And I won’t let it happen to you.”

I was only four. A beast, to me, was something under the bed. Something inside the closet. Something dangerous and snarling that could take my father away from me. Something terrible that might have taken my mother.

That night, I started praying fervently. And I never stopped.

Don’t let my daddy die. Don’t let the world end.

Please don’t let him take my daddy too.

About the Author

You might say Dandy’s lifelong pursuit of healing began in many
places: with parents who both abandoned her in different ways; with the
incredible cross-country road trip she embarked on as a teenager; or with a
transcendent night in Washington D.C.

The truth is, healing is not about beginnings or about endings. It’s
an invitation that beckons to every one of us.

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Tagged as Adventure, Coming of Age, Dandy Noel, drama, Luna Court, Nonfiction / Memoir

by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | · 5:00 am

Improbable and Extraordinary Blitz

Memoir

Date Published: April 21, 2025

Publisher: MindStir Media

Winner of the 2025 Literary-Titan Book Award (Memoir)!

Winner of the 2025 Firebird book award (Addiction and Recovery)!

Winner of the 2025 Firebird book award (Mental Health)!

Finalist, 2024 Literary Global Book Awards and American Writing Book
Awards!

I believe Improbable and Extraordinary will be an extremely influential
book – it’s rare to see such a personal and raw account of mental illness,
and then the continuous (and in this case, unique) process of overcoming it.
Overall, an outstanding and moving manuscript…The flow is excellent and
engaging and the voice is very strong. A true accomplishment!

Megan Patiry, author of The Alice Effect.

Escaping the torment of depression, anxiety, mania and addiction:
Saúl’s memoir is a powerful testament to the strength of the human
spirit, showing how even when it seems unattainable, transformation is
possible. Once tormented by the crushing grip of bipolar disorder,
depression, severe anxiety, anger, and addiction, Saúl shares the
raw, unflinching truth of his battle with mental illness and trauma.

Through a profound exploration of love, not as a romantic ideal but as a
fundamental force, and by adopting practical, yet challenging principles,
the author discovers a path to inner peace and freedom. Saúl’s candid
reflections on overcoming a deep, persistent darkness reveal the possibility
of peace, freedom, and personal growth.

This memoir doesn’t just chronicle survival; it celebrates the power of
transformation. Saúl’s path through addiction and mental illness
reveals that true peace and freedom are within reach, even for those who
have lost everything.

By sharing his experience, Saúl aims to inspire understanding and
hope, and communicate that healing is not just possible but transformative.
This book is a beacon of hope for anyone wanting to find hope for themselves
or someone they love.

From co-author, Dr. Erika Horwitz, Licensed Psychologist:

As Saul’s sister, I witnessed his torments and struggles and his amazing
transformation! As a psychologist, I understood the enormity of what he
achieved-moving from a place of deep mental illness to stability, inner
peace and wisdom. His story is inspiring and a testament to the amazing
ability of human beings to transform. It’s a story that offers hope to
anyone facing mental health challenges and their loved ones. I knew it was
essential for Saul to share his story, and I believe it will resonate with
anyone who believes in the power of transformation.”

About the Authors

Saúl Horwitz

Saúl Horwitz is an addictions expert and counsellor for people in
rehabilitation and recovery. From an early age he had to struggle with his
personality due to suffering from bipolar disorder. Suicide attempts,
suicidal crises, depression, euphoria, and other drastic changes in his
personality prevented him from leading a normal life like that of others.
After receiving help from a non-traditional AA group, El Despertar, not only
did he transform many of these symptoms, but he also became a skilled
counsellor to those afflicted by addiction and mental illness.

Erika Horwitz, Ph.D.

Erika is a Licenced Psychologist working in private practice in Vancouver,
British Columbia Canada. In addition, she is an author, public
speaker, university lecturer, and certified Mindfulness Teacher. She
was the former Director of Counselling Services at Simon Fraser
University. She is currently the President of the Board of Directors
at the British Columbia Psychological Association, the Vice-Chair at the
Council of Professional Associations of Psychology and a council member at
the American Psychological Association. She wrote Through the Maze of
Motherhood: Empowered Mothers Speak. In her leisure time she loves
meditation, reading, movies, working out, and spending time with her amazing
husband, her family, and friends.

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by Jennifer Reed/ bookjunkiez | May 29, 2025 · 5:00 am

Dangerous Times Blitz

Fiction

Date Published: May 1, 2025

Publisher: Manhattan Book Group

This book’s background is the prophetic but overlooked decade of American
history, 1846 to 1856, from the Mexican War to the presidential election of
James Buchanan. The decade was a foreshadowing of our national cataclysm.
Underlying every social aspect was the nation’s fatal flaw, slavery, that
perverted the Constitution on which the Enlightenment ideals of a
“United States” were based. And on every day, similarities to the
distortions of the present decade are obvious.

I chose a Southern ethos, finding an unexpected woman to suffer and survive
the decade; and three brothers, each of whom carves a unique path through
it, one as a fugitive unjustly accused of murder and slave-stealing, one as
an enigmatic operative across the jagged spectrum of antebellum party
politics, and the eldest who inherits his family’s storied tobacco
plantation as its lands burn out.

The story is told chronologically, the fiction adhering to the history.
Should a question arise as to which is which, any event of historical
significance – no matter how bizarre or implausible — did indeed
happen.

The novel echoes ethnic truths as they were at the time. I write of
intimacies as well as horrors found in historical records. Both public and
private relations were often infused with their own destruction — as were
the expanding “United States” in that decade, and I fear in this
one.

About the Author

After a questionable academic career at Stanford (I mean, how practical is
a double major in Drama and Far Eastern Theology?), Kinsolving fled to the
Oregon Shakespeare Festival to play Richard II. He then attended The London
Academy of Music and Dramatic Art for polish. Returning to New York, he
appeared as an actor under-, off- and on Broadway, as well as a saloon
singer in foul Greenwich Village nightclubs. For creative diversion during
these years, he acted and/or directed back in Oregon, at the Stratford (CT)
Shakespeare Theater, Harvard, Dartmouth, Café La Mama, then went out
and won the Best Actor of the Year award from the San Francisco Chronicle
for performing at the Berkeley Rep.

Ineluctably transitioning to a second career, Kinsolving wrote a play with
84 speaking roles, was awarded a Ford Foundation Playwriting Grant, and had
the play produced by the Stratford Ontario Shakespeare Festival. This led to
the first of some 54 films on which he worked for every major studio (and
several distinctly minor ones) in Los Angeles, London and Rome (ask him
about Zeffirelli sometime) as screenwriter and script doctor. Suspecting
that such a life was leading to the utter corruption of his soul (not to
dare mention his body), he retreated to Carmel to write the first of five
novels (a NY Times best-seller, a couple of Literary Guild Main Selections,
he adds humbly, but only if asked).

While serving on the Board of Trustees of the California Institute of the
Arts, he regressed happily to nightclub and fundraising performances,
accompanied by the likes of Peter Duchin and Emmanuel Ax, singing at the
Algonquin Hotel’s late lamented Oak Room and for one of the late
Brooke Astor’s better birthday parties among many other less
name-dropping venues.

Last year, he directed a musical for which he wrote the book and lyrics in
the nave of San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral about Johann Sebastian
Bach and his family. Bach provided all the music, and proved to be very easy
to work with. THAT WEEK WITH THE BACHS had the best voices in the Bay Area,
including the ineffable Frederica von Stade.

He began work on the historical novel DANGEROUS TIMES between the
diversions above. He knew the history, but even so, was startled by how
constant the similarities are in that destructive time to what’s going
on in this one.

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