Julia Madeleine's THE TRUTH ABOUT SCARLET ROSE

Just a couple days ago, the amazing Julia Madeleine released her new book THE TRUTH ABOUT SCARLET ROSE. I had the pleasure of reading it shortly before it came out and can tell you straight up you need to read this. It's Julia's strongest, most mature work to date.

Also, as an added bonus, the prequel-- a short story called SCARLET SINS-- is also available. If you like THE TRUTH ABOUT SCARLET ROSE, you'll find a very cool and different perspective on the novel with the story.

Accident People, Delusional Heroes, Bad-Ass Chevys & the Devil's Daughter

FUN & GAMES, Duane Swierczynski
Another high-octane actioner from the guy who brought us The Wheelman, Severance Package and The Blonde, among others. This one finds former cop “consultant” and high-end house sitter Charlie Hardie in a fight for his life against The Accident People—a shady crew with unlimited resources who set up tragic deaths. Along with a washed-up young actress, Charlie struggles to stay one step ahead of the bad guys. Basically, FUN & GAMES is one amazingly suspenseful set piece after another. The thrills just keep coming and the fights, escapes, and close calls are relentless. It’s the literary equivalent a big-budget action movie.

GRAVEN IMAGE
A brutal but funny MF of a novella from Charlie Williams, GRAVEN IMAGE seems designed to keep the reader always a little off-kilter. The protagonist, Leon, tears across the pages in a mad search for his daughter, and he won’t allow anything to stand in his way. The real strength of this story is the slowly creeping realization that there is something… wrong… with Leon and his perception of events. About three-fourths of the way through, you start to get some ideas about what’s really happening, but that doesn’t lessen the horrible blow that comes when Leon finally realizes it himself. A different tone from Charlie’s Mangel novels, but equally compelling.

RAISE A HOLLER, Jason Stuart
This mad-cap romp through the backwoods of Colleden County is an amazingly fun page-turner. Redneck teens Hank and Billy, on a half-ass quest to find a cache of hidden bootleg booze, wind up on a—really, there’s no other way to put it—journey of self-discovery, encountering a family of vile females looking for a baby-daddy, a gaggle of drugged-out hippies, an escape by hot-air balloon, corrupt law, an insane swamp man, a bad-ass Chevy and a pampered tiger among other things. It’s a nicely episodic novel, one that makes it impossible to guess what madness the boys will stumble into next.

The Devil’s Music: When You’re a Stranger, Julia Madeleine
Julia Madeleine’s latest story of Sadie, the Devil’s daughter, claims another rock icon into the 27 Club. It’s Paris, 1971, and Sadie has come to claim her mad poet Jim this time. But WHEN YOU’RE A STRANGER is not just a simple appreciation of Jim Morrison, because that would be too easy. It’s a heartfelt meditation on the nature of love, beauty and loss that somehow still manages to avoid being maudlin or sentimental.

Kindle-fied Review 6: RAISED IN HELL(THE DEVIL'S MUSIC), by Julia Madeleine

I was so impressed with Julia Madeleine’s Roman Dalton story FEAR THE NIGHT, that I immediately bought RAISED IN HELL, the first in a series of demonically-influenced peeks at the dark, secret history of rock’n’roll. And I was very, very glad I did.
First of all, it’s very clear that Madeleine knows her roots music. I know a thing or two about the subject myself, and can spot a fake ten miles away—Julia Madeleine is the real deal.
And the story? Sweet. It’s Depression-era America—Memphis, to be exact—and Sadie, the Devil’s very own daughter, is in town to collect a very particular soul. The soul is question belongs to a legendary bluesman (come on, you know the one—sold his soul at the crossroads?) but it seems he’s not quite ready to part with it yet.
Sadie is surprisingly likeable… okay, I know she’s the Devil’s daughter, but I still like her. Madeleine doesn’t go the easy predictable route by making Sadie dangerously seductive and evil--I mean, she IS dangerously seductive and sexy and all that… but she’s MORE than that, too. She’s sympathetic. She LOVES music. And she LOVES the souls she takes. Her motivation isn’t exactly evil.
To say any more about RAISED IN HELL would spoil it for you. Just take my word for it and read this one. Can’t wait to see where Madeleine takes Sadie next.

Kindle-fied Review 4: FEAR THE NIGHT, by Julia Madeleine/THE DARK AFFAIR, by Allan Leverone

Picking up where Paul Brazill left off, two more exceptional writers continue the strange adventures of Roman Dalton, werewolf P.I.
In FEAR THE NIGHT, the amazingly talented Julia Madeleine takes Roman away from his usual stomping grounds in The City and to Quebec, where the search for a missing girl leads him into a direct confrontation with gruesome zombies. The climactic scene is one of the best choreographed I’ve read in a while, and beautifully gory. Great fun.

Allan Leverone picks up Roman’s story with style and flair in THE DARKE AFFAIR, which finds our hero back in The City and once again facing the undead hordes of an old enemy. But to complicate matters, a federal agent with shady motives appears—and disappears—forcing Roman on a rescue mission to save a man who may wind up being his own doom. Great, high-octane stuff.