Blog Tour: HALF BAKED WOMEN: THE REHEAT by Bobbie Candas

HALF BAKED WOMEN: THE REHEAT

by Bobbie Candas

 

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GENRE: Women’s Fiction

 

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BLURB:

 

That first year of college, they thought they’d done it all

Twenty years later, they’re not done learning.

 

 

In 1971, they were just four girls starting their journey at the University of Texas in Austin. Twenty years later, they reunite in San Antonio along the Riverwalk, seemingly successful and happy. But beneath the surface, cracks from their past still linger.

 

That first wild and frivolous freshman year, Carney, Breeze, Margo, and Nicki navigate together through romances, jealousy, and risky habits, trying to find themselves while stumbling into adulthood. But years later, as they come together for a three-day reunion, they are reminded that maybe they still have something to learn from each other. Reckless events unfold, forcing them to confront the mistakes and secrets they thought they left behind.

 

Half Baked Women: The Reheat takes us back to a time of carefree abandon and easy friendships, where the journey of self-discovery was filled with adventure, road trips, chance encounters, laughter, and tears. If that sounds intriguing, jump in and enjoy the ride.

 

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Excerpt Three:

 

It was still dark at six a.m. on a Tuesday morning. Carney had promised herself that she’d get up early, hit the library as it opened, and study for two hours before an important Italian exam. She stumbled around their dark room, not wanting to wake Breeze, pulling on yesterday’s jeans and T-shirt. Carney grabbed her books and shoes at the foot of the floor mattress and stepped out of the room.

 

She immediately heard a loud groan and felt the smoosh of a body part under her bare feet, as she tripped and fell on top of someone. This was followed by the pained utterance of, “What the fuck!” below her.

 

“Shish,” she hissed and whispered back, “Sorry, so sorry,” as Carney climbed off the body and stood up. The profanity came from a long lump wrapped in a blanket, laying in the hallway. She switched on the overhead hall light and apologized again. “I’m so sorry. Did I break anything?”

 

A guy looked up at her squinting into the light, then pulled a pair of glasses from his T-shirt pocket, put them on, and pushed himself up to a sitting position. He quickly patted down his ribs and legs. “No, it appears we’re in luck. No broken bones. Sure glad you weren't wearing heels; could have lost a lung.”

 

“So, who are you?”

 

“Randal Lee Hooker. Uh, guitar player extraordinaire.” He wiped his glass lenses on the faded black concert T-shirt, and put them on again. “You’re looking mighty fine this morning.”

 

Carney looked down and examined this strange man sleeping outside her door. “Whose friend are you?”

 

“Richard, from next door. There’s three of us who needed a place to stay last night. They ran out of space and they suggested I ask one of your roommates if I could sleep on your floor.”

 

Carney nodded, and approved of his dark, longish shag haircut, stache, and rugged rock-n-roll look. “Randal Lee, do you happen to speak Italian?”

 

“Si, amore mio, but that’s pretty much all I got.”

 

She sighed deeply, disappointed to have to cut this short. “Unfortunately then, I have no use for you right now. Go back to sleep Mr. Hooker. Perhaps I’ll step on you another time?”

 

He shrugged. “Probably not. Headed to Louisiana, but who knows?”

 

“One can dream.” Carney smiled and waved. “Arrivederci.” A guitar player extraordinaire sleeping at her door. Now that would never have happened at Kinsolving! Apartment living had a few perks after all.

 

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 Review: Four friends that hadn’t seen each other in 20 years were gathering for a reunion. Carney goes through men like tissue paper—use them once and then throw them away. Breeze just ended marriage #4. Margo was an aging model now tied to a husband and kid. Nicki was a fiercely independent mom. These characters right away intrigue the reader. See how the friends met in college in 1970’s Texas.

The read was generally pretty good, but the narrative can be lengthy and slow. Story constantly shifts between the present and the past as it depicts the history and nuances of each of the girls. At times, the details can be somewhat daunting. I wish this would’ve been a quicker and shorter read so that it would’ve made it easier to connect with the characters. Story mostly relays the history and growth of these characters. Even at 40, they’re still learning. Aren’t we all? A fairly nice read.

Rating: 3 stars

AUTHOR Bio and Links:

I'm a Texas girl: Grew up in San Antonio, went to school at UT in Austin, and graduated with a degree in Journalism. I eventually settled in Dallas, where I raised a husband, a few cats, and two kids.  My husband, the children, and the cats will probably disagree on who raised whom, but I'm always a sucker for a robust discussion. For years, I was involved in retail management, but I have untangled myself from the world of clothing and shoes and immersed myself in my true passion — writing fiction and delving deep into the lives of my characters.

 

I do come up for air occasionally, and I've been known to imbibe in a few glasses of wine and have been occasionally spotted forking into decadent desserts while gathering with friends and family. Put me on a shady deck or an umbrella-covered patio, with a table full of opinionated know-it-alls, a spicy margarita, and I'm in my happy place. I also enjoy trips to distant places, and most recently have been enjoying summers along the Aegean coast of Turkey. 

 

But I'll always make time for writing and reading, with a stack of novels ready and waiting on my nightstand, and a few always sleeping patiently on my Kindle. I bounce around genres, and I'm usually up for a good recommendation. So, let me know what you've enjoyed reading lately. I can be reached on Instagram, at my FB author page--Bobbie Candas, or on my Amazon Author Central page.

 

Half Baked Women: The Reheat is my sixth novel. All available in E-book, paperback, or KDP

 

I look forward to hearing from you!

 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bobbiecandas

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bobbie.candas

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Bobbie-Candas/author/B00MNS6KV0

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8292457.Bobbie_Candas

 

Buy Link: https://books2read.com/u/4AZ5Xp  

 

 

 

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GIVEAWAY 

Bobbie Candas will be awarding a $25 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner.

Blog Tour: THE GOLDEN SWORD by Janet Morris

 

Estri battles to regain her identity after being denied her memories by her captor.

Will love find a way?

The Golden Sword

The Silistra Quartet Book 2

by Janet Morris

Genre: Dystopian Epic SciFi Fantasy Romance

Dystopia. Biology shapes reality. The further adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in the galaxies of tomorrow.

She had the power to create planets. The sixty carved bones of the Yris-tera foretold her ancient fate. Her heritage of power took her beyond time and space and stole from her the one man she loved.

Enslaved on the planet Silistra tomorrow's most beautiful courtesan unleashes the powers of the gods.

 

What readers are saying:

 

“Pure excellence…. A heroic quest of the highest calibre.” - Goodreads

 

“This is a book which makes one’s blood sing and one’s mind ponder. I loved the first in the series and enjoyed this as much, perhaps more. The ending leaves the reader desperate to know what happens to Estri next – courtesan, slave, warrior, lover, rebel. What is next for our heroine?” – Goodreads

 

“Call it what you like: science fiction, space opera, sword and planet or erotic fantasy . . . The Golden Sword is all these things, and so much more. A highly intelligent and sensual novel filled with ideas and revelations, this is a gripping story that explores human sexuality and the role it plays in politics. Although the memorable characters are bisexual, toss away all your preconceived notions, for there is a humanity, a strength of will and determination, a realism and depth of emotion to these characters that will have you thinking twice about all you know and all you think you know. This is a book for mature and discerning readers who like some meat on the bones of the books they read. Janet Morris led the way for all the science fiction authors, both male and female, who came after. “ – Joe Bonadonna, Goodreads

 

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I wondered what it meant, to be a “ten,” as the crellkeep chose a spot apparently like any other upon one chain and fastened me to it by means of heavy metal anklets that were spaced along its length.

“I put you next to Aje. You will sleep through the nights,” he informed me, as if I should be grateful for some thoughtful service. Seeing me safely bound, the two jiasks turned and left the chamber.

“What is your name?” the crellkeep asked.

I almost told him, but caught myself. It took me a moment to remember the crell name Chayin had given me.

“Miheja,” I said finally.

“Meh-he-ya,” the crellkeep corrected me gently. “The Eastmost Star’s Daughter. Suits you. So you have the dharener entranced, do you? A ten, indeed. Crell life is no burden to one so highly numbered.” He stood up, rubbing his back, “I go to get Aje. You will like him. They all do,” he said and patted my naked shoulder. Moments later I was alone in the deserted ever-dusk of the crellpits. A single torch burned at the chamber’s entry, throwing life into the feature- less rock walls.

I crawled the length of my tether, and by lying stretched out could just get my fingers upon the central ring. I tested its strength, as had countless crells before me. There was no weakness in it. I had expected none. I then examined each link of my chains with my fingers, to see if perhaps somewhere there was one unsoldered among them. There was no error among the 387 links that bound me firmly to the central ring. Its twin was sunk where the cold stone floor met the wall behind me. Perhaps there was a weakness in that area, but I had not enough tether to explore it. I lay down upon my left side and curled my knees against my chest. I could not think. I merely lay there.

High Couch of Silistra

The Silistra Quartet Book 1

Biology shapes reality...

One woman's mythic search for self-realization in a distant tomorrow...

Her sensuality was at the core of her world, her quest beyond the civilized stars.

Aristocrat. Outcast. Picara. Slave. Ruler.

"Engrossing characters in a marvelous adventure." - Charles N. Brown, Locus Magazine

"The amazing and erotic adventures of the most beautiful courtesan in tomorrow's universe" - Frederik Pohl

"The best single example of prostitution used in fantasy is Janet Morris' Silistra series... Estri's character is most like that of Ishtar who describes herself as "'a prostitute compassionate am I'" because she "symbolizes the creative submission to the demands of instinct, to the chaos of nature ...the free woman, as opposed to the domesticated woman". Linking Estri with these lunar and water symbols is not difficult because of the moon's eternal virginity (the strength of integrity) links with her changeability (the prostitute's switching of lovers). [...]

Morris strengthens the moon imagery by having Estri as a well-keepress because wells, fountains, and the moon as the orb which controls water have long been associated with fertility, [...] In a sense, she is like the moon because she is apparently eternal, never waxing or waning except in her pursuit of the quest; she is the prototypical wanderer like the moon and Ishtar. She is the eternal night symbol of the moon in opposition to the Day-Keepers [...]

 At her majority (her three hundredth birthday), she is given a silver-cubed hologram letter from her mother, containing a videotape of her conception by the savage bronzed barbarian god from another world. [...] If Estri's mother then acts as a bawd, willing her lineage as Well-Keepress to her daughter, then Estri's great-grandmother Astria as foundress of the Well becomes a further mother-bawd figure when she offers her prophetic advice in her letter: "Guard Astria for you may lose it, and more. Beware of one who is not as he seems. Stray not in the port city of Baniev ...look well about you, for your father's daughter's brother seeks you". Having no brother that she knows of does not stay Estri from undertaking the heroic quest of finding her father."

 - Anne K. Kaler, The Picara: From Hera to Fantasy Heroine

 

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I am Estri Hadrath diet Estrazi, former Well-Keepress of Astria on the planet Silistra. I have begun three times to tell this story, and three times I have been interrupted. This, then, the fourth attempt, will surely prove successful.

Perhaps you have heard of Silistra, the planet that was catalyst to the sexual revolution in the year twenty-two thousand, seven hundred and four Bipedal Federate Standard Time, or of the Silistran serums that lengthen life and restore vitality in virtually any bipedal life form, or perhaps you have at some time contracted the services of a Silistran telepath, or a precognitive, or a deep reader. It is possible that you have in your own home the scintillating, indestructible web-cloth woven by our domestic arachnids, or have seen holograms of our golachits, those intelligent builder-beetles who exude from their mouths a translucent, superhard substance called gol and create from this gol, under the guidance of the chit-guards, the formidable and resplendent structures in which we live and work.

And perhaps you have seen no web-cloth, no gol, never been ill, and are not interested in sex. If so, you may never have heard of Silistra.

I carry Silistra in my mind’s eye, here under this alien sun. In my mind alone can I look out the east window of my beloved exercise hall in Well Astria and see the sun’s rising burst upon the jewel-like towers and keeps of the Inner Well and a thousand rainbows arc and dance in the greening sky.

Best selling author Janet Morris began writing in 1976 and published more than 30 novels, many co-authored with her husband Chris Morris or others. She contributed short fiction to the shared universe fantasy series Thieves World, in which she created the Sacred Band of Stepsons, a mythical unit of ancient fighters modeled on the Sacred Band of Thebes. She created, orchestrated, and edited the Bangsian fantasy series Heroes in Hell, writing stories for the series as well as co-writing the related novel, The Little Helliad, with Chris Morris. She wrote the bestselling Silistra Quartet in the 1970s, including High Couch of Silistra, The Golden Sword, Wind from the Abyss, and The Carnelian Throne. This quartet had more than four million copies in Bantam print alone, and was translated into German, French, Italian, Russian and other languages. In the 1980s, Baen Books released a second edition of this landmark series. The third edition is the Author's Cut edition, newly revised by the author for Perseid Press. Most of her fiction work has been in the fantasy and science fiction genres, although she has also written historical and other novels. Morris has written, contributed to, or edited several book-length works of non-fiction, as well as papers and articles on nonlethal weapons, developmental military technology and other defense and national security topics.

Janet said: 'People often ask what book to read first. I recommend "I, the Sun" if you like ancient history; "The Sacred Band," a novel, if you like heroic fantasy; "Lawyers in Hell" if you like historical fantasy set in hell; "Outpassage" if you like hard science fiction; "High Couch of Silistra" if you like far-future dystopian or philosophical novels. I am most enthusiastic about the definitive Perseid Press Author's Cut editions, which I revised and expanded.'

  

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Book Blast: BY CHANCE by D. Taylor

This post is part of a virtual book tour organized by Goddess Fish Promotions. D. Taylor will be awarding a $10 Amazon/BN gift card to a randomly drawn winner. Click on the tour banner to see the other stops on the tour.

Charlotte Douglas has spent far too long trying to stitch her life back together after a single betrayal shattered her place in the community that once adored her. With every polite nod and measured smile, she shoulders the same whispered story: she is not the young lady she ought to be — and certainly not the kind any respectable man would escort into a ballroom.

Then a flat tire on a warm afternoon brings Elias Navarro to her gate.

A hardworking mechanic with steady hands and a restless heart, Elias has lived safely, sensibly, and without surprise. Until Charlotte. With her quiet fire, careful poise, and eyes that dare him to look closer, she becomes the first woman in years to make him want more than the life he knows.

What begins as a returned plate and a shared cup of coffee becomes something neither expected: late-afternoon walks, borrowed laughter, the charge of almost-kisses, and the slow, undeniable pull toward something tender.

But Charlotte’s past is a room full of watching eyes—and the Winter Soirée is coming.

When Charlotte hesitates to invite Elias, terrified he will judge the truth she’s never said aloud, he mistakes her quiet fear for rejection. And when cruel words at the ball turn her reputation into spectacle, Elias steps into the fray without hesitation—proving himself steady, fierce, and nothing like the man who once broke her heart.

What follows is a reckoning of truths:
her fear of being unworthy,
his fear of not belonging in her world,
and the choice they must face—
whether love found by chance can become love fought for on purpose.

Read an Excerpt

Charlotte shouldn’t have taken the car—not with the sun already dipping low behind the rooftops, not with rush hour thickening, and certainly not in that dress.

By morning, the dread had rotted into something uglier. Louder. She couldn’t sit with it anymore.

So she took her father’s automobile keys and drove—south past the quiet boulevards and polished shopfronts her mother preferred, into a stretch of narrow blocks where everyone knew your name and no one asked questions. An hour later, she left with her long curls on the floor and tight ringlets pinned close to her scalp, neck bare, shame and freedom crawling the same path down her spine. The gold flapper dress shimmered when she moved—too beaded, too clingy, and entirely deliberate.

If they were going to whisper, let them whisper for something new.

The light shifted—amber, then rose-gold. She should have turned back.

She didn’t.

A delivery truck pulled too wide at the corner. She swerved—too fast, too sharp—and the front tire struck something jagged. The pop split the air, sharp and final. The car shuddered, then sagged, boneless as a broken doll.

Charlotte’s hands clung to the wheel. Her chest cinched. Heat pressed behind her eyes.

“Oh, isn’t this the bee’s knees,” she said thinly. “Just grand.”

She stumbled out, skirt snagging, heel catching, dignity unraveling by degrees. One look at the tire and the world tipped.

Then a voice—low, steady.

“You alright, miss?”

She startled, spine lifting as if she could will herself composed. A man stood nearby—tall, broad-shouldered, sleeves rolled, eyes warm and unguarded. He looked at her like the street had gone quiet.

And she didn’t look away.

About the Author:

D. Taylor is a passionate storyteller with a love for multicultural romance, adventure, and historical fiction. She independently wrote and toured with her novel Allied Hearts, a compelling romance that explores love, identity, and the strength of human connection.

Beyond writing, D. Taylor is a devoted wife of 18 years and a loving mother who cherishes time with her children. She finds joy in cooking, creating delicious meals that bring her family together. When she’s not writing or in the kitchen, she enjoys researching history, discovering new cultures, and embracing the ever-changing world of storytelling.

D. Taylor believes that every story has the power to transport, transform, and inspire. Her work celebrates strong heroines, captivating heroes, and the resilience of love in all its forms.

Find out more and get bonus book material or join her mailing list.

Website: https://dtaylorwrites.com
Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/D.-Taylor/author/B0DXDLMHJJ
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PerfectFairytales/

By Chance: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0GHY48M3T
Reckless: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FGY69THC
Allied Hearts: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DWQTVJD6
Rescued: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B008NOY9UC

Review: CLASH by Kayla Miller

 

Olive is having trouble getting along with the new girl at school. For some reason, the girl just doesn’t like Olive and has become her new annoyance…and she’s making it known to everyone. What can you do when you clash with someone?

 

This girl, Olive, has a wild imagination. This book was probably the best one in the series. A cool graphic novel with nice illustrations!

 

Rating: 4 stars

Review: ACT by Kayla Miller

 

Not every kid can afford the fee for a field trip and Olive thinks that something needs to be done. A protest. See what happens when kids ACT. Field trips should be free for students. I may not really agree with that, but I admired the kids’ gusto and enthusiasm. A fairly nice read with nice illustrations.

 

Rating: 3 stars