Pink Lock Picks & Sequined Witch Hats by Carla Rehse
Give a warm welcome to Carla Rehse, author of Pink Lock Picks & Sequined Witch Hats ! With a title like that I simple had to read it.
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, or Pink Lemonade in the crystal pitcher on the counter. It’s next to the plate of Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookies, and let’s find out a little about Carla Rehse and Pink Lock Picks & Sequined Witch Hats. I love that title!
My take on Pink Lock Picks & Sequined Witch Hats.
A magical tale with loveable characters.
Seventeen-year-old Gracie Mason has everything going for her, homecoming queen, co-captain of the cheerleading squad, and a member of the student council. Due to family problems and an unrequited crush she turns to burglary as a way to win Ben’s affections.
Her first attempted break-in goes badly. She steps into a male witch’s “circle of power” and finds herself in quite a mess. On top of that she’s bonded to him for life unless she can break the bond. Gracie quickly learns that dissolving the bond with Asher, admittedly a hunk, is more complicated than she imagined. Right when it seems things can’t get any worse, witches start turning up dead. Her quest to sever the bond magically turns into a murder investigation.
This was a fun read, filled with magic, adventure, with a bit of humor mixed in. Pink Lock Picks and Sequined Witch Hats is an urban fantasy set in central Texas. Author Carla Rehse’s characters are entertaining in a magical world where the unexpected takes place.
If you like YA and urban fantasy, you’ll enjoy Pink Lock Picks and Sequined Witch Hats. Four stars in my book.
You can find Pink Lock Pick and Sequined Witch Hats at Amazon
Daddy told me years ago that to succeed in life I need a strong plan, the right tools, and the gumption to follow through. His words of wisdom helped me get elected homecoming queen, become co-captain of the cheerleading squad, and voted on the student council. Now I plan to use them to help me pull off my first burglary.
My plan is solid. I’ve also never backed down from a challenge, not even last year when Brittany Thomas became overly friendly with the entire football team in a sad attempt to deprive me of my crown. People say I started the rumor about the rash of STD cases spreading through the boys’ locker room faster than a brush fire. I didn’t, of course. Why start gossip when the squad of doctors from the local Health Department did it for me?
I take a deep breath as I enter the Trinity Building. At almost four o’clock on a Friday before a three-day weekend, the place is deader than a PTA meeting. It helps that today is the hottest July first on record for Central Texas and the air conditioning in this building is dismally subpar. The Trinity Corporation may claim to have the most upscale rental space in town, but one look at the gold leopard granite floor paired with peach-painted walls shows that’s a downright fib.
The only guard on duty leans back in his chair and sucks down a Sonic Route 44 Coke like his life depends on it. I wave as I pass the security desk, wearing a megawatt smile and fully confident in the strength of my lavender-scented Lavanila deodorant—vegan, of course. Deputy Dawg gives me his usual perv stare before returning to the comic book balanced on his knee.
Centex Therapy, LPC occupies most of the first floor office space. A small bell tinkles when I open the frosted glass door. What decorum the overall building lacks, the waiting room has in spades. Brown leather chairs sit on a bamboo rug and pastel paintings from local artists brighten the walls. A tall grandfather clock in the corner softly chimes four times. This late on a Friday means the room is empty of other patients. Perfect.
Jane, the receptionist, fans herself with a copy of Country Living. “Cutting it awfully close, Gracie. Go on in.”
Dr. McDozzle gives me a pained smile as I enter the room.
“Good afternoon, Miss Mason. Have a seat.” For a head shrinker, he’s incredibly formal. And a non-Texan, who hates football and sweet tea. I haven’t learned much more about him in the last month, but that’s enough to get him tarred and feathered if word got out.
The leather recliner squeaks when I sit down. “Thanks for seeing me on a Friday, Doc.” I twirl a strand of newly highlighted platinum hair around my finger. It goes wonderful with my bubblegum pink manicure. “Mr. Anderson, Daddy’s new lawyer, is now insisting I have two sessions a month with you. Of course, Mama’s lawyer says once a month is just fine, seeing how I’m such a well-adjusted high school senior and all. Almost a senior, I guess, since school’s not started.”
Dr. McDozzle straightens his glasses. “Yes, well, your parents do seem to have quite the barrage of attorneys involved in their divorce. Have you worked on the homework I gave you during our last session?”
This is such a waste of time. My parents have spent the last five years embroiled in a divorce dirtier than a greased pig-wrestling contest. Both sides of the family have more money than sense, much to the delight of every lawyer in the tri-county area. Not that I want my parents to get back together. Anytime they’re within spitting distance of each other, the tension between them gives me a migraine. Besides, if they hadn’t split up, I never would’ve met Ben.
Ben’s the son of Daddy’s ex-girlfriend. Until four months ago, they all lived together in Daddy’s condo. Ben is a sophomore at the local college and is truly hot, in a geeky, stud muffin, save-the-world, kinda way. Crushing on my almost stepbrother might seem a bit sketchy, but it’s legal—I Googled it twice.
Which means it’s time to start step one in my Get Ben Plan.
I toss my hair over my shoulder before pulling out a pink glitter notebook from my Eiffel Tower-shaped mini-purse.
“You wanted me to write down my feelings about my parents’ shared custody thing. Honestly, I don’t understand why the lawyers are so panty-twisted about me spending a week with Mama and the next with Daddy. It means I get double the wardrobe. Hello? What girl would say no to that? It’s way better than Heather’s situation. I told you about her last time, I think. The girl with the hideous frizzed-out curls but drives a cute BMW Z4 roadster? Anyway, her parents are insane.” I continue a steady stream of babble until Dr. McDozzle’s eyes glaze over.
There’s no clocks in the room, but Dr. McDozzle keeps checking his watch. I’m sure the poor man created a nice therapy plan for me, but I’ve completely derailed it. Mama always says a girl has many tools to choose from in her arsenal—perfectly curled hair, well-placed boobs, and endless chatter are my faves. Besides, Daddy’s been paying therapists a fortune for years to show the divorce court how concerned he is about me. Dr. McDozzle’s earning his car payment today.
Goodreads Book Giveaway
Pink Lock Picks and Sequined Witch Hats
by Carla Rehse
Giveaway ends August 16, 2017.
See the giveaway details
at Goodreads.
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Pink Lock Picks and Sequined Witch Hats!
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Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog, Book Reviews and tagged Carla Rehse, dead bodies, fantasy, fashion, magic, Murder, Murder Mystery, Paranormal, Pink Lock Picks and Sequined Witch Hats, Romance, YA Urban Fantasy by Tena Stetler with 3 comments.
Karen C. Whalen Author of Not According to Flan
Give a warm welcome to fellow Wild Rose Author Karen C. Whalen with her new release Not According to Flan! 
Pull up a chair, grab a drink of your choice from the cooler, a Chocolate Chip or Peanut Butter cookie from the plate, and let’s find out a little about Karen and latest release Not According to Flan.
Happy Release day Karen and thanks for being here! Let’s get right to it.
What defines you as an author? As a person? Are they one in the same?
I’m an inward thinking person, observing what is going on around me, from the weather to the scenery to the conversations of strangers, to inner thoughts and feelings. I often write down snippets of what I see, hear, and feel. I thought everyone had this inner life, this awareness, but I’ve come to learn that mostly authors share this experience. I can’t separate me as an author from me as a person.
What do you want your readers to take away from your books?
I want my readers to take away what I take away from the books I love. My best-loved books contain characters who become like my friends. I know I can open a favorite book and visit a character I know well, who inspires me and gives me an example to follow (confident when disaster strikes, brave in times of struggle, happy even when sad events take place). My protagonist, Jane Marsh, is twice-widowed, middle aged, and a little bit zany. She enjoys life in spite of being lonely, and she’s not afraid to put herself in danger when investigating murders. I would like my readers to feel as if Jane is their friend and someone they would like to spend time with.
Where do your story ideas come from? If they come to you in the middle of the night, do you get up and write them all down?
My ideas often come from my job as a paralegal. They also come from personal experience. As a paralegal, I have investigated many lawsuits with bizarre sets of facts, from robberies, suicides, wrongful deaths, and all manner of accidents. Truth can be stranger than fiction and certainly provides me with unlimited story ideas. Also, many of the events in Jane’s life, such as preparing gourmet club dinners, riding her bicycle in downtown traffic while wearing a suit and heels, and smoking cigars, are things I have done myself. And, yes, ideas come in the middle of the night. Sometimes I’ll intentionally concentrate on a difficult scene I’m working on as I fall asleep, knowing that my subconscious mind will work it out. I’ve often awakened with the solution.
Gee it sounds like we have a lot in common, I spent 17 years as a paralegal in a criminal law firms, yep the stories I could tell. Truth can definitely be stranger than fiction. So tell us a little about Not According to Flan.
Jane Marsh wants to shake off the empty nest syndrome, plus the notoriety of the death of her first and second husbands, by starting over in a new place. She sells her family home to move to a far northern suburb of Denver. At the same time, Jane’s dinner club is undergoing a transformation, and a new man—a gourmet chef—enters her life.
But, things turn sour when, on the day Jane moves into her new home, she discovers a dead body. She cannot feel at home in this town where she’s surrounded by cowboys, horse pastures, and suspects. Not to mention where a murder was committed practically on her doorstep. How can she focus on romance and dinner clubs when one of her new friends—or maybe even her old ones—might be a murderer?
How about a peek between the pages of your new release?
She slipped outside into the warmth of the early September, blue-sky, Colorado day to check on her puppies sniffing around their new territory in the backyard. Leaning over the deck railing facing the lot to the east, she gazed into the bottom of an open excavation where a basement was being poured. Someone had parked a tractor down in the dirt, and near it a white cowboy hat lay on the ground. A man’s hand stretched toward the hat’s brim. Had someone fallen into the pit?
Jane bounded down the deck stairs and out the wooden gate, only stopping for a moment to secure the latch. She rounded the corner of her new house and rushed to the adjoining lot, pausing near the edge of the concrete that formed the basement’s foundation.
A man was shoved against the corner of the foundation wall. His torso and legs were partly covered with dirt. The cowboy hat concealed the top of his head. His left hand almost touched the brim, as if he were about to take off his hat and say, “Howdy do.” A large manila envelope lay a foot or so away from his other outstretched hand.
On the envelope tall, block letters spelled out: “Jane Marsh—welcome to your new home.”
Wow, I love murder mysteries, putting NOt According to Flan on my to read list! Where can we find Not According to Flan?
Book two, Not According to Flan – The WIld Rose Press, and Amazon
https://catalog.thewildrosepress.com/paperback-books/5110-not-according-to-flan-paperback.html
And the first book in your series, Everything Bundt the Truth. Amazon, The Wild Rose, Barnes and Noble
Karen C. Whalen is the author of the Dinner Club Murder Mystery series. She worked for many years as a paralegal at a law firm in Denver, Colorado. Karen has been a columnist and regular contributor to The National Paralegal Reporter magazine. She is a member of Sisters in Crime and participates in a local writing group, the Louisville Writers Workshop. Find out more about Karen at:
FB: https://www.facebook.com/whalenkarenc
Website: http://www.karencwhalen.com/
It was wonderful having you with us today. Please feel free to stop by anytime. Good Luck with Not According to Flan and your Dinner Club Murder Mystery Series!
Views: 476
Posted in Authors' Secrets Blog and tagged Colorado, Denver, Everything BUndt the Truth, Karen C. Whalen, Murder Mystery, Not According to Flan by Tena Stetler with 15 comments.
