Tag Archive | books

Recent Reviews for HARROWING

I was sooo excited and chuffed to see my latest thriller novel, HARROWING, featured on a couple of book review blogs!!

The first review is by the lovely Theresa Hetherington of Kindle Bargains UK Book Review Blog.

Annasuya Rose is a temp office worker, she has a son Romeo, her new boyfriend is called Calvin. Things are good, theyre happy and everything is well.

Until Annasuya takes 1 job, it’s in a office, the boss though, Bruno, is not fine! He rapes her and though she escapes, things begin to get scarier. A dark figure following her, complaints about her at work.

This isn’t necessarily an easy book to read. The rape is obviously hard to read. Written well and not dragged out. The topic is a heavy one, but tackled head on and in a way I wanted to keep going, I needed to know they were ok, what was happening next! This book put me in mind of a good old horror & the escapes, with the challenges of Annasuya, how she & others tackled and dealt with everything thrown at them.

You can read the original blog post here:

http://reviewskbuk.blogspot.com.es/2016/07/harrowing-by-se-amadis.html

The next blog review got my friend all excited, because the gorgeous Gemma of Gemma’s Book Reviews compared HARROWING to SAW (the movie)! She told me she’d be uber ecstatic if someone ever likened a book of hers to SAW!

Of course, in my humble opinion, SAW is a masterpiece whereas my book is…… well…… just another thriller. But see for yourself:

Thanks to the author for letting me review her story and TBC. I must be honest and say that at first I wasn’t enjoying it due to personal reasons, but as I continued it got better and I was hooked after the first part which I found hard to read. This is a VERY dark story something close to SAW (the film). It is easy to read and I found after the start I raced through it. The main character is a very unlucky woman and faces the worst fate I could ever imagine. Brilliantly written with a great horror plot throughout. This story will hold your attention throughout. I must also mention with the young boy involved it made the whole situation worse throughout the book, I kept thinking poor little boy but he’s a strong, determined boy. I would recommend this book to you all but with the warning it is a dark story and contains rape, which some readers may find hard to read or cannot read.

This is the ideal story for readers who enjoy a brilliant horror, suspense, thriller and mystery rolled into one spooky plot. Be thankful its not you in this story and that its fiction. Now breathe. I need a lighter read after this one. Enjoy.

Read the original blog post here:

http://gemmasbookreviews.wordpress.com/2016/07/31/harrowing-s-e-amadis-%E2%9C%B6%E2%9C%B6%E2%9C%B6%E2%9C%B6/

Anyways, I couldn’t just stop with blog reviews. I’ve been absolutely BLESSED to receive tons and tons of positive reviews on Amazon as well. Anyways, it’s not my intention to bombard you, so I won’t reproduce them all here. But I’d love to feature two of my fave reviews.

Wow! Can’t recommend this book enough, Superb!!
By Beathag on 29 July 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

Wow!!! I absolutely loved this book. The pace was breakneck speed, the characters were well rounded – some likeable, others most despicable.

I’ve been trying to grow my nails recently, well this book put a fast stop to that! They were bitten right down so I need to read something now that will give them a chance to grow again!

Just as I got to a few chapters from the end I started to feel calm and at ease – then BAM! Another toe curling, lip chewing few chapters.
I absolutely LOVED Harrowing and I cannot wait to read its sequel.

Many, many Thanks to the author Serena and Helen Boyce at THE Book Club on Facebook for gifting me a copy of this Awesome book in exchange for a fair and honest review. highly recommend this book.

This book lives up to its title!
By Laura Furuta on 18 July 2016

Format: Kindle Edition

This book is awesome. Not only is the story well written, it also keeps your interest from chapter one to the ending page. The attention to detail is amazing! I have read a lot of thrillers and the horror genre and I can honestly say that this book has them beat. The characters are another reason for reading this book. They are not just going through the motions, they portray a lot of emotions which you feel throughout the book. The characters are another reason this book is so wonderful. They are not one dimensional, just going through the motions. You feel what they go through. This book does deal with sensitive subjects so I would recommend it for anyone 18 and above. I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

As I’m sure you can imagine, this post isn’t just going to abruptly end here. Of course not. I have to include the links so you can get the book for yourself, and see what everyone is talking about. Right? So here are the links:

For Amazon.com
And Amazon.co.uk

Happy reading!

HARROWING – New Thriller Up For Sale on Amazon!

Jul14

HARROWING. For a limited time at only 99c.

A fast-paced, haunting, action-filled tale of persecution and murder… and what the love of a mother can do.

When Annasuya Rose is raped by her boss, she thinks it’s the most terrible thing that could possibly happen to her.

She has no idea that her nightmare is only just beginning.

When nobody but her boyfriend, Calvin, believes her version of events against the suave and sophisticated businessman, she turns to social media to prevent the same thing happening to somebody else.

But now someone is stalking her in the dark, menacing her with threatening messages and creepy phone calls, breaking into her house late at night. A sadistic killer who exults in killing and mutilating… or worse.

A sadistic killer who will stop at nothing to get her.

When Annasuya’s ten-year-old son disappears, she realizes she must follow the killer down a terrifying and evil path to save her beloved son. A path which leads to danger. Torture. Agony. Even death.

And the most terrible, heart-wrenching a choice a mother could face.

Now available on Amazon, at:

http://www.amazon.com/Harrowing-Fast-Paced-Edge-Psychological-Thriller-ebook/dp/B01I7IGTGU?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Harrowing-Fast-Paced-Edge-Psychological-Thriller-ebook/dp/B01I7IGTGU?ie=UTF8&ref_=asap_bc

Grab Your Freebie Today!

Jan22

Well, I don’t know how many of you are into novel-reading. But for those of you who actually read in this day and age of video consoles and computer games hehe, my first two novels are up!

And what’s more, today and tomorrow only, you can catch one of them completely FREE on Amazon.

Here’s a bit more info.

IN THE PRISON OF OUR GRIEF (FREE today and tomorrow on Amazon)

In the Prison of our Grief - S.E. Amadis

A harsh prison in England.

The grisly, tragic murder of three babies.

The murderess is on the loose… And Carrie Anne’s made friends with her.

Will she be able to find out the truth in time? Or will she become this sadistic murderess’ next victim?

Once again, Carrie Anne finds herself in the centre of another terrifying ordeal…

In this exciting sequel to Patricia, we follow seventeen-year-old Carrie Anne Houghton and her new comrades-in-arms in a whirling, dizzying, action-packed adventure that spans two continents, from the glitzy high-rises of New York City to the lonely expanses of rural Canada to the glamour and colour of Mediterranean tourist resorts.

Persecution, murder, lies and deceit. Traps, stormy Gothic settings, abandoned mansions and secret passageways. All of this comes to vivid life in the pages of In the Prison of our Grief.

An action-packed adventure thriller featuring a strong female protagonist and a quirky male counterpart. This book can be read as a stand-alone.

You can download it WITHOUT PAYING A SINGLE CENT, from:

Amazon.com
Amazon.co.uk

PATRICIA (Book One)

Patricia - S.E. Amadis

A chilling Gothic revenge thriller that takes place within the claustrophobic confines of a remote and isolated boarding school.

There’s something dangerous and menacing about Patricia. None of the schoolchildren are safe when Patricia and her gang of bullies is around. Least of all geeky, sweet and innocent Carrie Anne Houghton, whom Patricia has somehow singled out as the scapegoat for her cruelest jokes.

Only Carrie Anne knows what Patricia is really like, having once been held prisoner and tortured by Patricia, making her the only one who can stop her.

But Patricia is far more dangerous and sinister than even Carrie Anne realizes. Carrie Anne has no idea who – or what – Patricia really is… or what Patricia is truly capable of.

Now Carrie Anne’s chilling ordeal, one she had escaped from years before, will begin all over again. This time, will she make it out alive? And if she does, how will she ever be able to protect the people that she loves and save them from Patricia?

You can buy this book from Amazon too:

At Amazon.com
Or Amazon.co.uk

You will need a Kindle to be able to read these books. But if you haven’t got one, you can download a free Kindle app for your computer, Android phone or iPhone from Amazon, here.

I’m also working on getting a physical book out, for those of you old-fashioned types who delight in black words printed on white paper to read in your bed at night. But that will take me a little while.

And if you LURRVE these books (or even if you don’t), please don’t forget to LEAVE ME A REVIEW up on Amazon! I’d also feel real chuffed if you’d leave me a comment here, telling me about it.

Enjoy!

FREE Ebook This Weekend Only!

Apr11

Just a quickie to let everyone know that this weekend only, I’m GIVING AWAY my latest ebook, “I Love Him, He Loves Me Not: How I Left a Codependent Relationship” FOR FREE.

Now, it’s not really my intention to start up a new and thriving career writing ebooks, so it will probably be a looong time before I ever have another ebook up for free. (Or even put this one up for free again – which I will probably never do again!)

You can get all the details on the Amazon page by clicking here.

Well, won’t get into the sales pitch and all that or anything here. You know if this is a subject that interests you. If it doesn’t, I’d still love it if you’d continue browsing through the rest of this blog. I’ve got lots of posts in it hehe!

And if you ARE interested, well, grab the day! Take advantage of this moment and snatch up your copy of “I Love Him, He Loves Me Not: How I Left a Codependent Relationship” for free. Before this promotion ends forever!

Once again here is the link.

I’ve Written a Book!

Aug25

Oh yes it’s been a while since I’ve dropped by this blog. It’s been so long, I almost feel like it’s someone else’s blog hehe.

Most of the things I’ve been up to are things of no transcendence and that aren’t worth mentioning, like working long hours at dead-end jobs that don’t lead anywhere.

So I thought I’d write a book. Unlike a dead-end job, a book doesn’t have an end date or a best-before date.

A book is eternal, evergreen, always relevant to the human condition and to what it’s like to be human (as long as there are still human beings around, of course!).

And unlike in a dead-end job where you have to please your boss or, you know, get the sack, in a book you can be whoever and whatever you choose to be.

In a book you can be yourself. You don’t have to please anyone. You can say what you want to say. You can proclaim to the world what you really BELIEVE IN.

So without further ado, here is the book:

“The Power of Loving Yourself: 10 Simple (But Effective) Tips to Help You Raise Your Self-Esteem, Self-Confidence and Self-Worth”.

(And don’t worry, you don’t have to memorize the subtitle!)

People do ask me what this book is about and you know, it’s like, ooogghh, how do you summarize a book? How do you condense 120 pages into a single paragraph (or blog post)?

It’s about…… when you’re at peace and in love with yourself, there’s no room in your heart for hatred, rancour, vengeance……

If all people were at peace with themselves WE COULD ERADICATE WAR in the world! But it’s not easy to find ways to feel peaceful……

So I’ve put together a set of PRACTICAL exercises to help people feel more at peace with themselves and in love with themselves.

To help people learn to LOVE, and RESPECT, and to be TOLERANT, of themselves and with other people.

If we ALL LOVED, and RESPECTED OURSELVES and other people there would be NO MORE WAR on earth! We would no longer need weapons.

There would be no more bombs. No more children orphaned to bombs and guns. No more mothers crying for children killed by bombs.

But first we must LOVE OURSELVES. So in my book I teach PRACTICAL exercises to help people learn to do that.

Because, you know, people do say, “It’s all fine and well and all to say that we should all be full of peace and joy and love and all that s**t, but the last thing I feel right now is joy! Or love! The only thing I feel like doing is griping! I can’t even stand to look at myself in the mirror! So what can I DO???”

Well, you can read my book.

Of course it’s got some chatter to help you change your mindset too. I mean, after all, hating yourself, or believing you’re NO GOOD, or believing in yourself, or not, are mindsets.

But it’s also got PRACTICAL exercises too.

Because sometimes it’s not enough to just, you know, “think you’re great” or something.

Sometimes you do need to PROVE IT to yourself, first, before you can believe it.

So. Try out the exercises in my book, and soon you’ll see how you, too, will find that you just CAN’T HELP but start to feel better about yourself, and to see yourself in a NEW LIGHT.

Even if you’ve always hated yourself. Or, like me, you’ve always been shy.

Once again here is the URL for more info: The Power of Loving Yourself.

Oh and by the way, I know it’s not a subject very much related to the subject of this blog, but if you Subscribe to the newsletter on the website, you’ll get a couple of gifts from me, with no strings of any sort attached, including two excerpts from the book.

So you can check it out a bit first, you know, see if it’s something you could be interested in, before you commit yourself and actually press the “Buy Now” button.

You don’t usually get a chance to read parts of a book before you buy it.

But I’m offering you the chance to do just that! All you have to do is Subscribe to the site newsletter at www.seasofmintaka.com. There’s a Sign-Up Box in the right-hand corner of any page on the site.

Enjoy!

I’ll end this post with a link to the page where you can read all about my new book and download it immediately, if you feel like it: www.seasofmintaka.com/the-power-of-loving-yourself.html

P.S. Did you check out the really horrid video from the last blog post? I saw TWENTY-SIX enlightened and lovely souls actually sat with their gaze TRANSFIXED on the screen staring at it since we put it up! The last time I’d checked (which was in April) only 10 people had looked at it haha. So…… it’s an interesting video, isn’t it, haha? Well trying to mix up some more horrid videos so when (if) we ever get them out, you’ll all be the first to know!

P.P.S. Oops gotta add, I meant, when you subscribe to my website, www.seasofmintaka.com, I’ll give you all these oodles of wonderful gifts. Here’s the link again: www.seasofmintaka.com.

But I’m sure chuffed all the same that so many of you are subscribing to my blog too!

If you’ve recently subscribed to this blog and you’d like to get my gifts, hop on over to my website and sign up over there, and you’ll automatically get taken to the page where you can download your gifts IMMEDIATELY.

Cheers! And thanks again for your interest!

Bringing Your Dreams to Life

Jul14

Well, as a follow-up to the last post, I thought I’d go a little bit into some more practical aspects, what we can actually DO to put our dreams into action. Because, well, ah, yes, it’s all very nice and good – you might be thinking – the idea of putting our dreams into action and living them instead of dreaming them. But…… HOW??

Most of us have NO idea what to do to make our dreams a reality. So I thought I’d share some ideas here and, of course, I welcome any ideas that anyone else may have on this subject too, and I’d be happy if you’d share them with us in the comments at the end of this post.

I guess the first thing we must do, if we want to make our dreams a reality, is to KNOW WHAT THEY ARE to begin with! If we don’t know what we dream of doing, having or being, how are we going to fulfil those dreams?

I am very lucky, I have always known what I wanted all my life, and the only thing that I was always lacking was TIME to dedicate and devote to my dreams, because I had to earn a living for myself from an early age (yes life can be tough!). But even if you’ve never given it much thought, you can still discover what it is that you really want. Let’s say you won the lottery right now. What would you do?

Would you travel around the world? Give up your job? Would you buy a new home? What would you do?

Perhaps you would open a new company, go back to school or study a new career. Or maybe you’d go out and get those babies and start that family that you’ve always dreamt about having.

So, now that you know WHAT it is that you want, I imagine that you would need some sort of plan as to how to go about getting it.

If it’s a new home or a trip around the world that you’re hankering for, then perhaps you could check out the possibility of saving up for it, starting right now. Go out less for dinner or don’t order that pizza, and save up the money for your dream. Get a second job. Sell newspapers. Walk dogs.

You don’t need to buy a new dress or new shoes every season. I only have one pair of shoes for the winter and one for the summer. Well, all right, I live in a warm place anyways and if I’m really stuck I can just go out and get some dollar store flip flops. I imagine that those of you who live in England, Ireland or Alaska probably don’t enjoy that luxury, but I guess you know what I mean, right? Quite simply put, if you don’t need it, then don’t get it. Put up the money instead, use it for your trip to Jamaica. What would you rather have, anyways? A trip to Jamaica or a new pair of pumps?

If, on the other hand, your dream involves doing something, then start right now jotting down ways that you can do it. Draught up a plan, get to work brainstorming. Do you want to go back to school, but you’re missing some credits or a high school certificate? Is there any way that you can get what you are missing? Most countries offer high school classes for adults.

And right from the start, get mentalized to the idea that we have to arm ourselves with lots of patience. Most dreams take a lot of work and time. It takes time to get a high school certificate. It takes time to get into a university. Whatever it is, it takes time. But if you really want it, you can wait. If you wait a year now, perhaps in five years you will be doing what you love to do. But if you can’t wait out that year, you will probably still be working at the same boring old job five years from now.

With a good plan, belief in your dream and the desire to fulfil that dream, of course, patience and the will to not back down from your dream no matter what, you can attain it. You can achieve your dream, fulfil your lifelong wish.

I don’t very often recommend other websites, but this is one that I have always found quite helpful: http://www.learnmindpower.com.

And for those of you who read Spanish or German, I thoroughly recommend a little book called “Nothing Is Impossible” (“Todo es posible”) by Peter Kummer. It is a real little gem, I find it absolutely amazing. For a long time it wasn’t available in English, but I believe that recently it has been translated. I’m pretty sure that if you follow the advice on the above website and in this little book, it won’t be long before you, too, are fulfilling and living your dreams.

In subsequent posts (probably two years from now! but anyways, as I said before in my previous post, since I’m so busy working on fulfilling my dreams, I just don’t have time to blog!), if I’m up to it, I will put up some details about what I’m doing, so that you can see on a practical level how to put these wonderful ideas into action, by showing you what I myself am doing, and how it is working out. However, I’m not much of a person for going on about “works in progress”, so you might have to wait a while before you can read about these things……

Blog about Blogs and Blogging

Feb29

The other day I was reading a few blogs. All the bloggers put up a new post every 2 or 3 days complete with photos. I don’t know how they do it. And in addition they all have time to put up links and comments about other blogs that they have read as well. How in the world do they ever have time to write so many posts, make so many photos and read so many blogs? In addition to working and taking care of families?

I wish I were able to post every 2 or 3 days. But to do that I’d have to dedicate every free minute to blogging. I don’t know how they do it! My congrats go out to them!

Maybe I just don’t have a very exciting life to go on about. For example, this could be a post about if I go out:

Today I went shopping with a friend. I went shopping with her because I wanted to spend some time with my friend, I mean, after all we are friends and people like being with their friends, right? But she spent the whole afternoon shopping. Now that is all fine and great but I hate shopping. Where is the fun in stalking from store to store the whole day long just looking at clothes? If you HAD to stalk from one thing to another the whole day long wouldn’t you prefer to go and look at cute and furry little animals or something instead?

Something like this, for example:

Ooops, wrong pic!

End of blog post.

So you can see not a very exciting blog post. And this is when I actually DO something and actually have something to say! A typical day, when I DON’T have anything to say, would probably go something like this:

Today I had to run to catch the bus in order not to arrive late at work. But then again, EVERY DAY I have to run to catch the bus in order not to arrive late at work. I worked the shift I was supposed to do, then I went home. When I got home my always hungry son started pestering me for food as usual so I had to whip something into the oven. Then since I was so tired I went to bed.

End of blog post.

I was reading some posts by people who comment a lot on the things that they buy. Boy they sure do buy a lot of things! I thought people who bought so many things were just an urban legend.

Well here is my blog post review of our latest acquisitions in our household:

Well a few weeks ago I went to the hyper-market (something similar here in Europe to a Wal-Mart in the States) and I bought some new pillow covers and bedsheets, because the old ones were full of holes.

Now bedsheets and pillowcases are not the most essential items in the world, but I guess they’re pretty important, because who wants to sleep with holes underneath their feet when they can sleep on new sheets?

So now I will proceed to review these sheets. I got them in some pretty exciting and vibrant colours, blue and fuchsia. I must admit, I am quite crazy about my new fuchsia-tinted pillow cover. It does actually kind of make me feel rather regal to be sleeping on a neon-coloured pillow and even more so when this pillow no longer has holes in it.

I’m afraid this item can’t really compare to a face cream, an eyeshadow palette with 120 shadows in it, some hair serums or something (anything) from Shiseido or Givenchy, however. Sigh!

Well I think in future posts I may start a series reviewing music and books that I like instead.

The latest book that I bought: Dans un Gant de Fer (or In An Iron Glove, if you prefer to read a translation into English, which I think is available on Amazon) by Claire Martin.

Use an iron fist within a soft velvet glove to raise your children. Harsh and cruel life of children in rural Québec a century ago, when the driving (sorry have to interrupt this interesting item with a quick and important news flash: More than ONE HUNDRED people have read the Privacy Policy! Breaking news!)(Oh, I didn’t even know that there was a Privacy Policy. Well, basically it states that if you write to me I will NOT use your e-mail to send you spam (got better things to do, like cook dinner for always hungry kids, if you’ve got kids you will know what I mean. And now back to the main item) slogan in the hidebound, repressive Catholic environment for child-rearing was: casse-leur les membres pour sauver leurs âmes. Break their limbs and you will save their souls!

Because used to be that it was considered very good practice to beat children at school in Canada.

By the time I went to school they didn’t follow that policy anymore (at least!). But they still believed in toughening Canadian kids up, because I guess they figured, if we were going to have to live in that sub-arctic clime all our lives, they might as well get us inured to it at an early age.

So they made us stand outside all the time. I mean, here in Spain, when it gets just a little chillier than usual, or there is a tiny drizzle with 4 scattered raindrops, they usher the kids urgently into the school.

So that really contrasts with Canada where they made us stay outside all the time (when we weren’t in class, I mean) even if it was 40 below or there was a blizzard! They sent one poor teacher out, always the same one, who always stood at the door and looked like she was about to die, dressed in layers and layers of fur! And she was dying with all that fur on. So what about the kids, who don’t wear fur coats?

(Not that I believe in fur coats, of course. I am as always

and

(All right, so the effect might have been a little bit more dramatic if I had used a pic of a cute and fluffy little baby animal, I guess, but I don’t happen to have any such photos. Unless you count the photos of my babies, that is. They’re sorta cute. And when they had baby hair, I guess you could say they were fluffy too.)

However the only thing that did for me was make me flee for warmer climes, like Spain. Because the thought of spending a whole lifetime in Siberia was just too depressing!

I also got The House of the Spirits, by Isabel Allende, but I already read it before, just that I left the book in Canada. It doesn’t matter if you read it in English or Spanish, the English translation is magnificent and superb and you are not missing any of the Spanish original if you read it in English. However it’s very long so if you have already read it before (like me) you might not make it through a second read. Especially if you have a job, always hungry and always sick kids, 2 blogs and a website.

What more can I blog about? Well I don’t have an eyeshadow palette with 120 colours, but I did get the original 88-colour palette that they sell at Coastal Scents, except in the Spanish version.

So I suppose one day I might take out that 88-colour palette and make a review of it. If I ever use it.

Because after I got the palette I got the job, and at this job I don’t wear make-up. The reason is because I don’t work with real people at the job, I work with virtual people on a webcam. And webcams really make you look weird.

The day I wore make-up I looked like a porcelain mannequin on the webcam. I looked like, when I started to talk, if you were looking at me on the webcam, you probably would’ve jumped out of your skin, because you probably thought I was a store mannequin. That is how I looked on the webcam the day I wore make-up. When I don’t wear make-up I look like a person. So I don’t wear make-up.

I can’t explain it. Webcams just make you look weird. They give you strange stains on the skin that you don’t really have in real life. They make everything look black and white and grey, no colours. They make me look like I am wearing very bright lipstick and I don’t wear lipstick. I don’t know, they just change everything from the way they look in real life, the colours, the shapes and sizes.

See you soooon!!……