Monday, March 18, 2013

Blog Tour and Book Review: Silent Echoes by Aimee Laine




Title: Silent Echoes
Author: Aimee Laine
Series: Book Two in the Game of Zeus Series
Published: March 11, 2013
Genre: Fantasy








About the Author:

Aimee is a romantic at heart and a southern transplant with a bit of the accent (but not a whole bunch). She's married to her high school sweetheart, and with him, she's produced three native North Carolinians, two of whom share the same DNA.

With an MBA and a degree in Applied Mathematics, there's absolutely no reason she should be writing romance novels. Then again, she shouldn't need a calculator to add two numbers, either ... but she does.





Guest Post:

Silent Echoes is a "Games of Zeus" novel but it's not a traditional mythological conundrum. No, as the author, I’ve taken quite the liberties in creating a situation Zeus could have use to mess with we puny humans. 

So, to have a little fun as Silent Echoes releases this month, my host here at My Guilty Obsession has challenged me to create a Game of Zeus out of Clue!

How could Zues use Clue upon two unsuspecting humans? How could he manipulate a seemingly inocuous game into a maniacal, devious relationship conflict? Oh, let me count the ways ... or rather, let me show you.

Clue
According to WikiHow (http://www.wikihow.com/Play-Cluedo/Clue
Clue is a popular board game originally produced by Parker Brothers. The object of the game is to solve a murder. Who did it? With what weapon? In which room?

There are specific weapons, including the dagger, lead piping, revolver, rope, candlestick and spanner and specific places, including the ballroom, conservatory, study, lounge, dining room and kitchen. Guessing the ‘whodunnit’ is the key to the win. You guess wrong and you’re out. Guess right and you win!

Before we get to the ultimate Clue Romance ... let me tell you a little about Silent Echoes.


Book Description:
For years, Ian Sands has enjoyed his life as a bachelor, taking advantage of singlehood and exploring his own definition of passion�whoever she may be. Blonde. Brunette. Tall. Short. Hot. Not. Five months ago, all that changed.

Ian�s been celibate, frustrated and desperately seeking answers to why one woman, who doesn�t play by girls� rules, haunts his every waking moment.

As a renovations specialist, Taylor Marsh lives, works and breathes construction�a profession her southern belle of a mother would rather Taylor not touch. The same goes for Ian; Mama Marsh would never approve of him.

Like Ian, though, each time he and Taylor draw near, something compels her to get closer.

Something else tells her to run away.

Fast.

As much as their histories suggest they shouldn�t be together, neither Taylor nor Ian can deny the pull, and the two succumb, indulging in a relationship that brings pleasure to body, mind and soul.

Doing so, though, also ushers in a series of events both should have foreseen as well as one final outcome neither expected.




And now ... 
Clue
Yes, I know we�ve already done clue on another blog, but that�s okay, because just like a game, it�s probably never played twice the same way and Zeus wouldn�t use a game more than once if he didn�t have another way of manipulating the pawns.

So, before, we experimented with Clue as the murderer being the other party, but this time, how about the murdered is the other party. 

Now the first thing you�d say is ... doesn�t that kind of ruin the romance of it all? If of the two players in the romance, one is dead, doesn�t that kind of kill the mood? Negate the point of the book? End the story?

Of course it would if everyone inside the book is a human. Zeus though, he�d thought of everything and the paranormal, supernatural types aren�t excluded from the options.

Let�s say, then that the players in this game are a human, a witch, a vampire and a werewolf - you know, all the conventional supes. Well ... right away, we know that while dead, a vampire is very much alive. And who is the best option for a vampire to team up with? The human of course.

So now we have our pairing and in playing the game, our human will find out he (or she) was the catalyst for the death of the vampire, whether that is ages ago and the human has been reincarnated or some other method. 

Crisis of the heart ensues and while our friendly vamp there might be willing to pay back his killer, I�m sure the human isn�t going to be interested in being feasted upon. Thereinlies the next conflict. How do we get killer and the dead together? And have a happily ever after? 

That�s what you�d have to read the book for!

And there you have it. What do you think? Is Clue a possible Game of Zeus?


MGO: Thank you so much Aimee for creating this wonderful guest post for us today!!


My Thoughts and Review:


I started this without having read the first book in the series and while I don't think I really needed to read the first one, I probably should of just to get the background info on Tripp and Lexi and exactly was Zeus' Game was, but again, I don't think it was necessary. I never felt lost or confused as a lot of the info was stated again throughout the story.

I love stories about reincarnation and love that transcends time. It might be the hopeless romantic in me or maybe it just appeals to me because the stories are always so great, either way, I jumped at the chance to join in the blog tour for this one. Who doesn't love a good love story, mixed up with a centuries old mystery and the gods and goddesses of Greek time?

This was a fun story that kept me entertained and had just enough romance, paranormal and mystery to balance it all out. I never felt like one element overpowered the other.

I did guess early on who the culprit was in the story but that never detered me from enjoying it either and even though I was pretty sure I knew who it was, there were a few times that something would happen and then I had to question my choice.

I think the author did a great job with this, the characters were endearing and the plot entertaining. I would definitely pick up the next in the series.  

I give this one 3.5 Stars!



11 comments:

  1. Great game of clue and I enjoyed your review Ali, i am glad you were able to read this without having read the first book and enjoy mythology and romance that transends time. This sounds interesting!

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  2. What fun guest post. It's good to know you can read the second book without having to read the first and still get what is going on. It sounds good. Great review.

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  3. If you're a hopeless romantic then so am I because I love the idea of love being reborn over and over again. The mythology here sounds grear, and while it's true that I've never noticed it before, I'm off to invesigate further on GoodReads.
    Thanks for the very fun post.

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  4. Ha ha love the Clue references we used to play and play that game. Did you ever see the movie? I liked how the author did the whole Clue thing very clever. THis does sound interesting and I am glad you were able to pick it up and not be confused.

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  5. I didn't Heidi. I had no idea they made a movie! Clue was always my favorite game to play when I was younger and I do have to say, I was pretty good at it. :P

    I need to check the movie out now just for old times sake!

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  6. Thank you so much for participating in the blog tour!

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  7. I also love stories about reincarnation and eternal romance. I'm an unapologetic romantic! :-)

    This was such a fun guest post, and your review really makes me want to read this. Thanks for sharing!

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  8. I love the images in the windows of the cover. At least, I hope there are images. If not, I'm more tired than I thought. Great guest post and review. I'd so have to read the 1st book, though.

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  9. What a fun post! I remember as a kid reading a chapter book that had to do with Clue and while I can picture the cover I can't remember the title or anything.
    Anyway, this sounds like a good series. I like that you can jump into a later book without having had read the first and not be confused.

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  10. I love that it involves the Greek gods, sounds interesting since they were always my favorite. Last year I only read one book with Greek gods as teenagers on earth, so it's always cool to find others similar.

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