Thursday, June 11, 2015

review + interview || THE FINE ART OF DECEPTION: UNDOING TIME { blog tour }










The Fine Art of Deception: Undoing Time by Alyssa Richards

Publisher: Self-Published (1/18/2015)
Series: Book 1
Genre: Paranormal, Mystery Romance
Source: Barclay Publicity
Purchase links || amazon || add to goodreads

Rating: ★★


Art appraiser Addison Montgomery just wants a normal life. One where she can ignore the vicious ghosts who follow her. One where she’s free from her “gift” of touching an object and seeing the owner’s deepest secrets. And one where she can fall in love without having all of the above get in the way. attraction. There’s something between them that’s older than time, and if she can learn to give him her trust, it may just save her life.

But when tall, dark, and dangerous gallery owner Blake Greenwood enters her life, normal is the last thing she’s feeling. The man has more secrets than the priceless art he sells, giving Addison’s quest for normal no chance. That, and he may just hold the key to uncovering the truth behind her father’s unexplained disappearance.

Despite her paranormal gifts warning her to stay away, she feels an inexplicable, captivating fascination for him, something that goes deeper than attraction. There’s something between them that’s older than time, and if she can learn to give him her trust, it may just save her life.


about Alyssa || Alyssa Richards is new to the fiction genre and has just finished her first provocative fiction novel. She's passionate about reading, writing, meditating, magnolias, and nurturing her herb and rose garden. She loves to travel, whenever she gets the rare and precious opportunity. She also loves animals and holds the world record for taking two adorable pups from homeless to pampered. She lives in the South with her husband, two great kids and the three very spoiled, rescue dogs who run the house.

{ in alyssa's words } .

Typical Writing Day
Usually I get up around 4 or 5 a.m. and write while my house is quiet. Morning is my most creative time and I love that space where the distractions are few and the creativity is loud and strong.

I have two young and very active boys, so my writing world is built into the margins of their life. My laptop goes with me everywhere and I write wherever I happen to be at the moment — soccer practices, baseball practices, summer sports clinics. My car is my writing den.

I’ll also write in the evenings, and to the endless frustration of my husband and boys, while we’re supposed to be watching a movie or a baseball game together!

Writing Tips
Most useful writing tip I’ve ever received is that you can’t write and edit at the same time. It’s sort of like putting one foot on the gas and one on the brake - hard to make progress that way!

Good books are typically written in layers, so you have to give yourself permission to write first, then rewrite later, it really opens up your creativity!

{ character interview } .

What is your biggest desire in life?

Addie: I’ve always dreamed of a blissfully normal life. One where I can enjoy the simple joys that others seem to. One where ghosts aren’t a haunting part of my day and night, where I can be in the presence of someone else and not be privy to the secrets they think they’ve buried safely away. As I’ve learned the hard way, people don’t like it when you see their secrets.

Though there is also Jack...

This amazing perfection of a man who drops in on my dreams from some other life we’ve shared together. Yes, he was real to me at one time. Now he was only real to me in my dreams.

Maybe one day we could meet. Past life reconnections happen all the time. I find the idea of meeting him in this life rather terrifying. And potentially exciting!


What is the other's greatest attribute?

Addie: Blake has a way of seeing the real me, which I find both frightening and hopeful. Most people I meet aren’t too keen on my showing up in their lives with such uninvited intimacy. It will be interesting to see how Blake feels about it…

If you could do your relationship over again, what would you change?

Blake: Life works out the way it does for a reason, it’s often hard to determine why at the time. But hindsight being 20/20, there does seem to be a reason for everything. That said, I’d always take the opportunity to meet Addie sooner.

{ review } .
I have to be honest... Sometimes when I start books that aren't in a series I'm already invested in, I forget what that particular book is about. When I was organizing my books for June 11th reviews, I saw that the cover of this one stated "Paranormal Romance" so I filed it away in my head as well... A paranormal romance.

I suppose psychics and ghosts and past lives, oh my, can and should be classified as paranormal but the thing is... I've had too many psychic readings that were scarily accurate; I believe in auras; I believe in ghosts and haunted things; I believe in past lives...

So therefore it wasn't truly paranormal in my sense of the genre. And that is truly my only negative takeaway from this book.

Our players here are Addie and Blake. Addie is psychic and sees ghosts. All she wants is a normal life where she doesn't bump into a person and get a front row seat to their thinking, or touch a person's wallet and find out his secrets.  What she wants is a job at the prestigious art museum where she can surround herself with paintings and stories of the past.

Addie has lived her entire life knowing she had a great, once in a lifetime love in a past life. She feels it and knows it in her soul. When she stumbles across a sapphire ring at an antique shop and sees the inscription, she knows without a doubt that it was hers once upon a time, and now she wears it as a reminder that love does exist -- because quite frankly, she doesn't believe in it anymore.

Then we have Blake. Blake is working for a man named Otto, who wants to take Addie on in his quest to find the missing Gardner pieces because of her talents. Blake is drawn to Addie and while he agrees to Otto's plan, it turns quickly into him wanting to protect her.

I enjoyed this story -- some parts were a little drawn out for my liking, but I enjoyed the relationship and the mystery, as well as the suspenseful aspects. I loved that while their relationship was formed on a note of deception, it quickly became something else... besides, you can't easily lie to a psychic.

There is plenty more to be told in Addie and Blake's story. This one does end nicely, there's not a huge cliff that you're hanging off of, but you will be left with plenty of questions that need answers still.

{ giveaway } .
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