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CHRISTINE RAINS
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Review of Nine Goblins
Blurb: No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure. But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind ene
christinerainswrit
3 days ago2 min read


Review of The Vampire Knitting Club
Blurb: At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do. Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leav
christinerainswrit
Mar 162 min read


Review of Spread Me
Blurb: Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world. When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it's inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any lo
christinerainswrit
Mar 92 min read


Review of Ruthless Kingdom
Blurb: Born under a scarlet moon, Avianna Morningstar should have been revered and feared, as the prophecy proclaimed. But Avia is taken to a remote realm where she would be safe from the anarchy festering in the Kingdoms, meanwhile her potential as a sorceress is all but extinguished. A sinfully attractive tracker is tasked with bringing Avia back to a homeland she has never known in hopes of awakening the power that has lain dormant within her. The Kingdoms of Verdae and I
christinerainswrit
Mar 22 min read


Review of Life Hacks for Healing & Harmony
Blurb: It’s not too late to tap into self-compassion and leave your troubles behind. Imagine a life where you don't dwell on problems, conflict, and hardship. Can you reimagine a new reality of self-compassion, replacing your harsh inner critic? The result? Inner calm becomes your default state. What if the secret to joy and contentment isn't hidden at all but waiting to be unlocked through a simple, transformative framework? The Three-Elements-of-Ease will show you how to C
christinerainswrit
Jan 264 min read


Review of Space Worms
Blurb: The galaxy just got ridiculous. Space Squad 51 is on the job. Nikili Echols works the docks, living a quiet, predictable life until the freighter Red Dorry is late. When the ship opens, the crew is gone. Orbital Rescue Services Squad 51 arrives, assuring Nikili everything will be all right. But when they go in, screams and roars erupt from inside, and a smear of blood is left at the hatch. Nikili knows the team and crew need help before more ORS teams can arrive. Ste
christinerainswrit
Jan 192 min read


Review of Something in the Walls
Blurb: Newly minted child psychologist Mina has little experience. In a field where the first people called are experts, she’s been unable to get her feet wet. Instead she aimlessly spends her days stuck in the stifling heat wave sweeping across Britain and anxiously contemplates her upcoming marriage to careful, precise researcher Oscar. The only reprieve from her small, close world is attending the local bereavement group to mourn her brother’s death from years ago. Then s
christinerainswrit
Jan 123 min read


Review of Hagitude
Blurb: What is Hagitude? It means being at ease with the unique power women embody in the second half of their life. It means having a strong sense of who we are and what we have to offer the world. And a firm belief in our place in the ever-shifting web of life. For the woman who wishes to flourish without chasing eternal youth comes Hagitude. International bestselling author Sharon Blackie ( If Women Rose Rooted ) interweaves myth, psychology, landscape and ecofeminism, re
christinerainswrit
Jan 62 min read


Review of Christmas at Rainbow Falls
Blurb: When a disastrous mistake at work puts her career in jeopardy, Natalie Dunbar retreats to the small Vermont town of Rainbow Falls to settle the estate of an aunt she hardly knew. As the sole heir of half a building on Main Street, complete with an independent bookstore and second-floor apartment, Natalie hunkers down to figure out how to save her future. The problem? Her new neighbor, who owns the other half of the building, hates her at first sight. Celeste Wagner ha
christinerainswrit
Dec 15, 20252 min read


Review of The Haunting of Ashburn House
Blurb: Everyone knows about Ashburn House. They whisper its old owner went mad, and restless ghosts still walk the halls. They say it's the dwelling place of something cruel and sinister. But when Adrienne―desperate and in need of a place to stay―inherits the crumbling old mansion, she only sees it as a lifeline... until darkness falls. Strange messages are etched into the walls. Furniture moves when she leaves the room. There's something here―something powerful, angry, and
christinerainswrit
Nov 17, 20252 min read


Review of The Final Girl Support Group
Blurb: Lynnette Tarkington is a real-life final girl who survived a massacre. For more than a decade, she’s been meeting with five other final girls and their therapist in a support group for those who survived the unthinkable, working to put their lives back together. Then one woman misses a meeting, and their worst fears are realized—someone knows about the group and is determined to rip their lives apart again, piece by piece. But the thing about final girls is that no ma
christinerainswrit
Nov 10, 20252 min read


Review of All Hallows
Blurb: It’s Halloween night, 1984, in Coventry, Massachusetts, and two families are unraveling. Up and down the street, horrifying secrets are being revealed, and all the while, mixed in with the trick-or-treaters of all ages, four children who do not belong are walking door to door, merging with the kids of Parmenter Road. Children in vintage costumes with faded, eerie makeup. They seem terrified, and beg the neighborhood kids to hide them away, to keep them safe from The C
christinerainswrit
Oct 20, 20252 min read


Review of The Bewitching
Blurb: “Back then, when I was a young woman, there were still witches”: That was how Nana Alba always began the stories she told her...
christinerainswrit
Oct 6, 20252 min read


Review of Shades of Shame
Blurb: One night changed everything. What began as a carefree evening with friends ended in an act of sexual assault that shattered...
christinerainswrit
Sep 22, 20253 min read


Review of The Library at Hellebore
Blurb: The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the...
christinerainswrit
Sep 15, 20252 min read


Review of The Ghosts of Marshley Park
Blurb: Jade Roberts is a modern girl with an anger management problem, and nothing makes her more mad than turning up dead. Julian...
christinerainswrit
Nov 22, 20212 min read


Review of Nine Goblins
Blurb: No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude, and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all this, and might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy” too for good measure. But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind ene
christinerainswrit
3 days ago2 min read


Sisters of the Pale Claw is Now in Paperback
Too bad we don't have any snow to take a picture in! Three sisters. Seven totems. One chance to save the world. It's taken a lot of work, but SISTERS OF THE PALE CLAW is finally available in paperback. I got my author's proof the other day, and I was so excited. It's a thick tome at 717 pages. Not one I could hold up with one hand and read. It's a two-hand job! It includes all nine novellas of the Totem series and bonus author's notes at the end of each novella. This is the
christinerainswrit
Mar 232 min read


Lucky Day! Free books!
Photo credit: Alexas_Fotos from Pixabay It's second winter here and time to snuggle under a blanket with a good book. I've been good and keeping up with my reading challenge so far this year. Cozy stories have become my favorite way to escape. What have you been reading? I have a few more books to add to your e-reader! May luck and good books forever be in your life. When offered a choice between tedious research or fighting a dragon, the players always choose the dragon. Eve
christinerainswrit
Mar 171 min read


Review of The Vampire Knitting Club
Blurb: At a crossroads between a cringe-worthy past (Todd the Toad) and an uncertain future (she's not exactly homeless, but it's close), Lucy Swift travels to Oxford to visit her grandmother. With Gran's undying love to count on and Cardinal Woolsey's, Gran's knitting shop, to keep her busy, Lucy can catch her breath and figure out what she's going to do. Except it turns out that Gran is the undying. Or at least, the undead. But there's a death certificate. And a will, leav
christinerainswrit
Mar 162 min read


Review of Spread Me
Blurb: Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the solitude, and the way the desert keeps her far away from the temptations teeming out in the civilian world. When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it into the hab. But the longer it's inside, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any lo
christinerainswrit
Mar 92 min read


Cover Reveal for Tea Leaves, Pages, & Starlight
Blurb: Bethany Hawthorne has never felt like she truly belongs anywhere. So when a regular café customer recognizes what she is—a witch—and tells her there’s a place where she won’t have to hide her magic, Bethany does something she’s never done before. She leaves. Briardell is everything she hoped for: a secluded village filled with warmth, magic, and people who understand what it means to be different. There’s just one small problem. No one has a spare room to rent. No one,
christinerainswrit
Mar 41 min read


Review of Ruthless Kingdom
Blurb: Born under a scarlet moon, Avianna Morningstar should have been revered and feared, as the prophecy proclaimed. But Avia is taken to a remote realm where she would be safe from the anarchy festering in the Kingdoms, meanwhile her potential as a sorceress is all but extinguished. A sinfully attractive tracker is tasked with bringing Avia back to a homeland she has never known in hopes of awakening the power that has lain dormant within her. The Kingdoms of Verdae and I
christinerainswrit
Mar 22 min read


Celebrating the Characters in TOTEM
While the setting, the myths, and the plot are vital to a good story, it's the characters that are most important to me. If there isn't good characterization, then the tale will hang limply even on other stronger elements. Well-written, relatable characters help draw the reader into the story and create emotional bonds. The point of view (POV) characters must fully engage the reader or they won't fully lose themselves the world you've created. The TOTEM series features the Do
christinerainswrit
Feb 233 min read


Celebrating the Settings in TOTEM
Image Credit: Alina Matveycheva on Pexels.com One of my favorite thing about writing and reading is going to places I've never been. TOTEM takes place all across Alaska. It's a gigantic state and most of it is wilderness. It has the highest number of missing persons, but most aren't investigated due to the extreme environment and lack of resources. (California has the highest number of open missing persons cases.) There's a lot of mystery about the US's last wild frontier. An
christinerainswrit
Feb 162 min read


Release Day for Sisters of the Pale Claw
Three sisters. Seven totems. One chance to save the world. Saskia, Kinley, and Ametta Dorn are polar bear shifters descended from an ancient bloodline where spirits, humans, and gods once shared the same breath. Together, the sisters run a home renovation business which specializes in the unique needs of supernatural folks. Their work keeps their community safe, hidden, and rooted in a land that remembers them. When Ametta becomes the target for a ruthless shifter hunter, h
christinerainswrit
Feb 132 min read
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