Book Review: Not Quite Dead by Lyla Payne

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• File Size: 562 KB
• Print Length: 371 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 1497319935
• Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
• Language: English
• ASIN: B00JASQGFQ

A broken engagement sends Graciela Harper crawling back to Heron Creek with her tail between her legs, but finds the sleepy little town too changed to set her life right. Not even her budding drinking problem can obscure her Gramps’s failing health, or erase the mental picture of her first love happily married to her childhood best friend. To top it all off, she’s having a heck of time convincing the town’s dashing young mayor of her unfit-for-dating status.

When the ghost of 18th century lady pirate Anne Bonny starts insisting on a near daily audience, Graciela has to confront something else she never expected—being certifiably nuts at twenty-five years old.

Her brand new "I don't give a crap" attitude makes it easy to dismiss the mysterious threats that seem to be tied to her search for more information on the long dead pirate, but when her family becomes a target, Gracie knows she needs to find out why the ghost insists on being a constant, reeking companion.

If Graciela can put aside her prejudice against people without a pulse, she may discover that Anne Bonny’s problems are intricately linked with her own. The past harbors answers could help the cantankerous spirit find closure, but she is, after all, already dead. If Graciela doesn’t move fast, she might find herself doing the haunting, instead of the other way around.

My review: I found this book awesome! I thoroughly enjoyed the interactions and reactions.  Plot twists aplenty and love story intertwined this book kept me intrigued well into the night in order to discover the truth.  I would give it 4 out of 5.

About the Author:

Lyla Payne has been publishing New Adult romance novels for a little over a year, starting with Broken at Love and continuing with the rest of the Whitman University series. She loves telling stories, discovering the little reasons people fall in love, and uncovering hidden truths in the world around us - past and present. In her spare time she cuddles her two dogs, pretends to enjoy exercising so that she can eat as much Chipotle as she wants, and harbors a deep and abiding hope that Zac Efron likes older women. She loves reading, of course, along with movies, traveling, and Irish whiskey. Lyla's hard at work, ALWAYS, and hopes to bring you more Whitman University antics and at least one more Lowcountry ghost tale before the end of the year.

Lyla Payne is represented by Kathleen Rushall at Marsal Lyon Literary Agency.

If you want to know more, please visit her at http://lylapayne.com

If you're a fan of Young Adult fiction--science fiction or otherwise--please check out her work that's published under the name Trisha Leigh. http://trishaleigh.com

Views expressed are those of Two Children and a Migraine and have not been influenced in anyway.  A book had been supplied for review purposes.  No compensation has been received for this post.

10 Historical Figures to Learn From by Author Lyla Payne

Good morning!!

Since I’m doing the rounds to promote my newest adult book, Not Quite Dead, and it involves a healthy dose of history (along with mystery, ghosts, romance, family issues, personal issues, and the deep south), I thought I’d run down a list of my favorite historical figures.

Side note: I realize I’m probably a total nerd, even HAVING favorite historical figures, but we are who we are, right?!

10. Rosa Parks: I love when she said “I didn’t mean to start anything. I was just tired of walking to the back of the bus.” Movements can start with a whisper. Fires begin with a spark. The challenge is not always knowing how to set something off, but being ready to dip your torch in and start marching when the time comes.

9. Martin Luther King, Jr: If you believe in something, never, ever stop talking about it. Never give up, never let people scare you into keeping your mouth shut. Some things are worth even the biggest sacrifice.

8. Anne Frank: Not because of what happened to her and her family, but for how she handled it. And because she’s someone who reminds us that we never know when or how or if our dreams will come true – or if we’ll be around to see them realized – but that’s no excuse for not chasing them.

7. Mary Magdalane: At a time where the men surrounding Jesus didn’t get it, Mary got it. The root of what the prophet was trying to say, the enormity of what was about to happen, and the inherent, important, message of love. Amazing woman who didn’t deserve the smear campaign against her that has left her branded as a simple prostitute.

6. Jimmy Stewart: Favorite actor, favorite person – someone who never let Hollywood and fame go to his head. He served in the war when his country needed him, he loved one woman the whole of his life, and in charmed a nation without meaning to. Talk about dreamy.

5. Cleopatra: Talk about a strong woman! Her contemporaries in Rome wanted to lay the whole blame of the demise of the Roman Republic at her feet, but obviously everyone is responsible for their own actions and Caesar and Marc Antony can take their fair share. She was a woman leading an empire in a world where men ruled everything, and I sometimes wonder whether she ever loved either of them as much as she loved her people.

4. Marie Antoinette: I don’t know why I love her, or why I feel so much empathy for her and her family, but it’s there, nonetheless. I think it’s because it’s sad how history judges them so harshly (and they paid such a steep price) for simply being who they were born to be – royalty. They were simply victims of being born in the wrong time, but she wasn’t a bad person, no matter what the history books want to tell us.

3. Andrew Jackson: There are a million and one stories about maybe the only certifiably insane president the United States, and if half of them are true he wasn’t someone you’d ever want to tangle with. My favorite is the letter in which he threatens to shoot a man a second time WITH THE SAME BULLET if he doesn’t stop trying to sue him.

2. Jean Lafitte: The “gentleman pirate of New Orleans,” Lafitte was a sometimes privateer, sometimes pirate, full time charmer that couldn’t quite understand why it was the Americans didn’t love him like he loved them.

1. Titus and Berenice: He was a general in the Roman army (later to become Emperor), she was the Queen of Judea. He led the attack on Jerusalem that resulted in the destruction of the Temple, she tried to save her people, and somewhere in the middle of it all, they fell in love. A real life tragic love story that’s better than anything anyone could dream up. Sigh.

There you go! I encourage you to at least Wikipedia the ones you’re not familiar with – I promise you excellent stories that will melt the hearts of even the most staunch “history haters” in the bunch. J

What about you? Anyone have a favorite historical figure or story or time period? I’d love to hear all about it, along with what made you fall in love!

Learn more about the author and her work!

Check Out the Latest Book by Author Lyla Payne

Check out the latest book that Two Children and a Migraine will be reviewing today!  If your looking for a new book to read then look no future!  Check out an excerpt below.  If you want to know more, please visit  http://lylapayne.com

No one notices me leave the sidewalk and traipse around to the rear of my place of employment. It’s darker back here, away from any street lamps and lit signs. The unlocked window slides up under the pressure of my palm with no resistance and, most importantly, no noise. I have to jump a few times before my hands hook the sill, and it’s clear that I need to do more than walk to work if I’m going to get back into shape.

My grunts don’t carry far, and after a few more minutes of trial and error, I manage to hoist my hips over the painted wooden lip. It digs in, scraping hard enough that it’ll leave a bruise, but there’s no time to worry about that while my body is dangling half in, half out. The chance that anyone will wander back here seems slim, but there’s no excuse in the world that will work if I get caught like this.

I kick my feet and use my forearms to tug my body forward, which doesn’t work, until it does. I fly through the rest of the way, toppling face-first into the edge of the toilet.

"Holy shitballs, that’s gonna leave a mark." Quoting Tommy Boy, even to myself, is usually good for a chuckle, but at the moment my face feels as though it’s made of broken glass and pulsing pain.

My nose throbs, my vision blurs, and it takes more than five minutes of sitting still with my head between my knees before the dizziness subsides enough to allow me to stagger to my feet. The mirror reveals a weeping red line across the bridge of my nose, which promises to turn into at least one black eye. So much for Gramps not noticing I went out.

Oh, well. Onward and upward.

There’s no alarm system in the library, and no one else is in the building. Neither fact makes me slow down or feel less watched, and my steps move quickly toward the front desk. Mrs. LaBadie keeps her key in the locked top drawer, but she doesn’t know about my long and storied career picking locks with nothing but unbent hairpins. Another Nancy Drew–inspired talent. The multiple Carolyn Keenes had no idea what kind of delinquents she would spawn with those books.