Mardi Gras Books

When Rodger's wife dies with their unborn child in a car accident, he blames himself and enters a life of seclusion behind the gates of his tobacco mansion. Then one day...he offers a substantial reward to the person who can prove that spirits exist...and not just any spirit...he specifically wants proof positive for the ghost of his beloved wife.

Enter a set of spiritual women who met online and now bring their own backgrounds and beliefs to the task of finding the deceased Sarah Hawthorne. What I found intriguing about the book was the way each of the ladies accepted the other with open arms and open mind. It was uplifting to see a group come together for the purpose of loving and helping, even if they were just a fictional set of BFF. What I wish was that Mardi Gras Publishing had assigned an editor to this book! I could have stayed in the story and enjoyed being lost among the characters and the ghosts and the myriad rituals that the characters were intent on teaching me if I didn't have to skip past so many mistakes in format and style. What a shame...

But, to the authors' credit, they've built an uplifting tale with likeable gals who just want to get to the bottom of a love story gone awry. I was intrigued from page 1 and found myself flipping pages quickly to devour the storyline -- hook, line and sinker!

From Sandy Lender, "Some days, I just want the dragon to win."

The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost

By: Dorothy Thompson, Heidi AW Kaminski and Pamela Lawniczak

Mardis Gras Publishing, 2006

[...]

Loneliness can drive a person to do lots of things. But it can also bring old memories to the surface. One of those you've loved, those you yearned for and those you love still...

Reclusive billionaire Roger Hawthorne is a lonely man. Since the death of his young wife, Sarah Pemberton, in 1972, he has lived alone in the Hawthorne Estates in Hickory Heights North Carolina. For thirty years, he has grieved for his lost bride and for thirty years he has refused to move on, to let himself heal.

After thirty years of grief, Roger decides to take matters into his own hands. Appearing on a television talk show, Roger makes a plea: He will offer one million dollars to the person who can give him undeniable proof that ghosts exist. What he doesn't tell the television viewers is that he is hoping that he can finally contact Sarah, finally see her face again.

Five women respond to Rogers' plea: Shiloh Swallowtail, a psychic who lost her husband and feels lost on her new spiritual path. Ezra Anne Thornberry, a clairaudient who has visitations from a helpful ghost named Henri; Ezra is in desperate need of money to support her family. Brianna Campbell, just delving into the spiritual world, who misses her dead husband Rick. Pan Ryan, a psychic who feels as if life is moving around her too quickly. Peggy Maguire, a metaphysical Sunday school teacher, who is feeling smothered by her family while recovering from surgery. And Brooke Murphy, an herbal practitioner and Wiccan, who wants to find more time to devote to her photography.

Each woman is looking for a change in her life and they're hoping that this could be it, the change they were all wishing for. They should be careful what they wish for, however, as their wish is granted and will bring more change than any of them could have thought possible.

Roger Hawthorne invites them to the Hawthorne Estates and sets a challenge: they must provide undeniable proof that ghosts exist within a week's time or they go home empty handed. What none of them know is that the veil to the spirit world is thinner than they realize. Someone, or rather, something is waiting for them in Hickory Heights and will stop at nothing to get what it wants....

I can't stress enough how incredible The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost is. At first I was a little sceptical, as different writers have different writing styles and multi-author books are usually pretty choppy. I needn't have worried. From page one, this book flows beautifully and you can't tell where one author started and another author continued. The writing is flawless and the story pulls you in until it absorbs your entire world.

I loved the idea that, essentially, it was a book about spirituality and the existence of the spirit world. Normally, messages thinly disguised as novels have little to no story and the characters are nothing but mouth pieces to preach at readers. Nothing could be farther from the truth where The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost is concerned. The story is the main focus and the authors use the story to examine the spirit world and their beliefs. A truly refreshing concept.

The story, and its incredible characters, is the focus here. Each chapter gives us a deeper glimpse into one of the characters stories but all of the chapters flow together beautifully to tell us the complete story. Roving narrative has never been used more deftly and more enjoyably.

Believe it or not, The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost is also a touching love story. It examines what one man will do to find the woman who still claims his heart. If that isn't romance, I don't know what is. The novel is also a study of human relationships and how strangers, connected by the internet, interact with each other one they come face to face.

It also helped me examine my own beliefs about the spirit world. There is too much proof in this novel for a reader not to believe, for a reader not to know that there are spirits among us. It's a rare novel that makes you think and examine your own introspective beliefs. I haven't been this taken with a spiritual novel since Paulo Coelho's The Alchemist. Thankfully The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost is a million times better.

This book has a lot on its plate: a ghost story, a love story, probing the consciousness of others, examining theories about the spirit world and the existence of ghosts, families and the ties that bond them, the strength of the human heart. But, incredibly, the authors juggle all these elements with deft hands while still delivering an incredibly satisfying, immensely readable ghostly tale.

As soon as I had finished The Search for the Million $$$ Ghost, I started it all over again. It's a fast and easy read and beautifully written. Indulge yourself and get a copy of this book. It will entertain you, it may frighten you and it will certainly change the way you look at the world around you. I can't tell you how good this book is. You'll have to read it for yourself.


Jamieson Wolf

The Wish You Were Here series features the teenage gang from Getaway Tours as they travel around the world searching for romance and adventure. In New Orleans, the gang arrives just in time for Marti Gras, with more exotic parades, parties--and dangers--than they've ever seen.

The Wish You Were here series are all great books. Luci and the rest of the Getaway tours go on great adventures in really interesting places. Robin O'Neill is a great writer and I hope she will write another book to add to the Wish You Were Here Series.

whether you are a resident of Sydney, as I am, or a visitor, or just interested in a very vibrant part of Sydney life, then this is a terrific book.

The photographs are great. It is not a complete history of the Mardi Gras (now 22 years old) - there are other volumes that cover that territory - but it is a terrific 'slice of life volume.

The MArdi Gras festival lasts for 3-4 weeks in late summer (Feb-early March) each year, and culminates in the sequins and glamour, and political statements of the parade. This book is a worthy 'souvenir' of that very sultry time.

Sydney Yearling is an earnest and dedicated young nurse, undergoing
major upheavals in her life. She's moved into her late Aunt Josephine's
reputedly haunted Virginia plantation home, and then received a
promotion to Emergency Room supervisor. Her emotions are wracked when
she begins to have dreams and waking experiences of bondage and assault
by an invisible entity. The entity haunting Sydney is not a random
incubus, but her own 17th century ancestor, Captain Yearling, a
sadistic and vicious slave trader, who can compel her into his reality
at his will. The Captain desires to possess Sydney body and soul.

Jeffrey Dillon is an enterprising reporter with a science background, a
flair for the occult, and a job writing for a small paranormal
publication. When his application for a sizeable study grant is
approved, Jeffrey quits his reporting job and heads for the country
only to meet with an unexpected accident on a night-darkened rural road
when an animal appears in front of his car and he crashes into a tree,
losing consciousness.

When Sydney first encounters Jeffrey in the ER, she is unaccountably
drawn to him and cannot understand why. Although he is physically
appealing, she knows that is insufficient to explain the pull she
experiences. She feels as if their encounter has been foreordained.
When they meet face-to-face, both recognize the fated nature of their
destiny, but struggle against accepting it.

On his second day in the hospital, after a visit from Sydney, Jeffrey
discovers unexpectedly that his accident has had interesting
repercussions. Now he is able to communicate with the dead, and is
visited by his deceased grandmother who strongly cautions him. She
tells him she cannot protect him from the spirits who are trapped
between the reality of the living and The Other Side, who will be
enraged when they realize that Jeffrey can see and hear them and has
been able to since his first night in ICU.

The premise of Ghostly Possession is quite intriguing. This type of
story, with strong paranormal emphasis, requires for most readers a
willing suspension of belief, which can be readily mastered when the
writer chooses to do so skillfully. I think that anyone interested in
either paranormal hauntings, or BDSM would enjoy this book immensely.
A minor word of warning: some scenes are rather strong and might offend
some readers' sensitivities. I personally found the scenes of the slave
auctions, which involved explicit rape and degradation, upsetting.
Perhaps I found it all too easy to identify with the victims. Other
than that, though, the book has grown more appealing each time I've
reread it [which is about 4 times now.} I recommend it, with the
caution concerning the graphic scenes.

Annie
reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

Here is a story that can be enjoyed by both men and women. It is a gripping love story, but it is also a story about special individuals who time and agin put their life at risk defending our country and out sovereignty through-out the world, and all intertwined with the new "robotics of war", "Bots, as they are called by the warriors".

Gordon Goldman, As Bill Gates says, "I am no teacher, but I am a learner".

Wow any New Orleans native will appreciate this book!!! The tourists will enjoy it too, it is so New Orleans & really captures the spirit of my hometown!

The aptly named Robert Tallant was a collaborator of Lyle Saxon, and in many ways his heir in mid 20th century New Orleans historical circles. Although Saxon is better known, Tallant was more prolific and also was a photographer of some note. His photographs may be seen at the website of the New Orleans public library, www.nutrias.org. This is one of many important Louisiana books Tallant wrote. It is a clear and unvarnished history of Carnival up to the late 1940s. Some things about Carnival have, thankfully, not changed since then, so the book is at once a scroll from the past and relevant today. This book is an essential starting point for understanding how Carnival is intertwined with New Orleans society.

The revised, updated edition of Dianne M. MacMillan's MARDI GRAS joins others in the `Best Holiday Books' series to appeal to grades 3-4. Nearly fifty pages of information on the holiday's origins and enactment include an index, glossary, and bibliography, along with historical facts and plenty of color photos.

Here's Nancy Drew again in another wonderful mystries she is good i have to give her credit.

Rondall Banks

Hannah is in the islands of Trinidad where she meets a boy named Frankie who has some problems. I won't tell you the ending, but It's a really great book! I definitely recommend it!