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Showing posts with label Nike Chillemi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nike Chillemi. Show all posts

Tuesday, November 28, 2017

That Special One - New Release From Nike Chillemi, Amazon 5-Star Review and Excerpt

Amazon 5-Star Review

Nike Chillemi’s departure into New Adult Contemporary Christian Romantic Suspense with THAT SPECIAL ONE rings emotionally true on two levels. 

First, it is a satisfying page-turner for any new adult looking for a well-written romantic suspense. Ivy Chalmer’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior are authentic and reflect what most college-age NA's relate to and believe important in today’s society. Chillemi has nailed the angst and hopelessness many feel. 

My heart sank at Ivy’s trauma, and I grieved along with her when life delivered the opposite of what she expected. I rooted for Corey, despite knowing that nice guys always finish last, especially when a cool upperclassman is in the mix.


The plot and pacing are spot-on, as are the fully-realized secondary characters. It was nice to see some familiar faces in town from Chillemi’s other detective series.

THAT SPECIAL ONE is also an all-too-accurate trip down memory lane for those who left new adulthood behind long ago. The author sends us back to when we were figuring out our personal identity, making unwise choices and agonizing with cringing self-doubt, all the while navigating an unfamiliar world. There are several effective plot twists that I didn’t see coming.
I enjoyed the faith elements - and questions - Ivy
and others struggled with. 


Engrossing, clean Suspense = ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I eagerly await the next NA romantic suspense from this author.

*~*~*~*

THAT SPECIAL ONE, a Christian New Adult Romantic Suspense
By Nike N. Chillemi
From Chapter Three

As the chancellor talked on with exceedingly precise speech, my gaze wandered around the gym seeking students from my culinary classes. I spotted a short Chinese girl whose interest and course concentration was, not surprisingly, Asian Fusion cuisine. She made a mean sushi roll.
Then I noticed Corey Jones standing against a side wall, a beverage in his hand.
Pointing toward him as unobtrusively as I could, I said. "That guy Amy knows is over there, but I don't see her anywhere."
Giana glanced over at Corey and frowned. "She said they weren't an item. He's probably here alone."
There seemed to be a shift in the atmosphere as the three Lone Star coeds Giana had dubbed 'popular girls' swept into the gym. The platinum blond modeled an incredibly short mini-skirt with a clingy silvery top. The long-haired honey blond was also decked out in a mini-skirt and a flouncy soft, yellow blouse. True to her tribe, the one with shoulder-length flaxen hair wore a mini skirt but paired it with a metallic plaid top.
As a squad of Mouncey male students gravitated toward the trio, Giana's steely gaze became riveted to the entire group.
I cleared my throat. "Why don't we use our tickets and get something to drink?"
Giana tore her eyes away from the glam-girls and their entourage. "Sure. Let's go."
At the other end of the gym, a local garage band cranked out one of their own original tunes. We walked across the polished wooden floor to the refreshment table where it was two-students deep to get a beverage.
The guy in front of Giana turned around. He lifted the cup in his hand above her head, as if he might spill its contents and grinned. "Whoa, don't want to douse you with soda."
She feigned ducking and laughed. "You better not."
Another guy turned around with his drink. "Charlie, stop assaulting young ladies."
"Definitely, Charlie. You shouldn't do that." Giana giggled.
I stepped forward, holding my ticket stub. "Perhaps we should get our drinks."
Charlie's friend pushed a shock of blond hair off his forehead, grinned, and moved aside. "Right this way." Something about him made me think of a college-age 'Dennis the Menace.'
I edged next to the table, handed over my ticket, and picked up a plastic cup filled with Coke. Giana did the same, only hers was diet.
Charlie's friend lifted his cup toward the musicians at the back of the gym. "Pretty amazing sound for a local band, don't you think?"
I nodded. "Yeah, they're real good. What's their name?"
"Subculture Quarantine." He maneuvered closer to me.
I stepped back and scrutinized him. "Nice name. What's yours?"
He pushed the blond lock off his forehead again. "Ryan Briggs. Your turn now."
"Ivy Chalmers."
Giana said something cutesy to Charlie and they both laughed. He slid his arm around her shoulders and gave her a sideways hug. They laughed again, and I wondered if I'd be ditched at the end of the mixer.
"Earth to Ivy," Ryan teased.
"Oh, I just got lost for a moment…checking out the band."
Ryan leaned toward me. "Since you're into the music, I've got to tell you about this one time when I helped Charlie haul his band's equipment. The gig was at a biker dive bar, and when they lit into their usual set of alternative rock, the bikers started throwing empty beer cans at us."
"Did you get out of there without injury?"
He laughed. "It was dicey, but yeah we all got out in one piece."
I peered intently at him. "It's hard to visualize you and Charlie in a biker bar."
Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Giana and Charlie gyrating to the band's frantic pounding beat.
"So, you think we're too shallow frat boys?" Ryan brought my attention back to him.
The band launched into another pounding tune. Giana and Charlie continued dancing.
I made a face and raised my voice over the din. "I wasn't thinking shallow."
"I'm the frat boy. Charlie's the lead guitarist." He grinned at me.
"Oh, and here I thought you were the roadie." I gave him a dramatic wink to let him know I was kidding.
"I do that to help out Charlie now and then. Would you be interested in hearing his band play? He's got a gig next Friday night."
I took a breath, stalling while running through all the reasons that wouldn't be desirable. The main one being I had no intentions of hooking up with some random guy. "Yes, sounds like fun."
Was that my voice answering him?
He pulled out his cell phone. "You'd better give me your number."
"325-210-5555." My voice again.
Giana and Charlie had become a fixture on the dance floor showing off their moves through several more disquieting tunes. At that point, I was pretty sure she'd forgotten all about me.
One of Mouncey's chaperoning professors walked onto the dance floor. He clapped his hands twice. "The band will now play its last song. And then we'll call it a night. I hope everyone had a good time."
Giana and Charlie came off the dance floor. She grabbed my hand and tugged. "Let's get out of here before the crush. Then we won't get stuck in a parking lot traffic jam."
"Okay. Sounds like a plan." I turned toward Ryan and shrugged. "She's my ride."
Giana dropped my hand, pranced over to Charlie, and kissed his cheek. "I'll be seeing you, just not tonight."
She grabbed my hand again and pulled me through the crowd.
When we reached the lobby, I said, "You were having such a great time with Charlie, I began to think you'd ditch me."
She shook her head. "No way. I told you we'd leave together. Besides, it's always good for the guy to wonder if he made any headway."
"Strategy?"
She gave me a wide smile. "Exactly. Now you're catching on."



*~*~*~*

Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chair, a Reader's Choice Awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014, and 2016 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series (out of print), set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. The first novel in the Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels/Dawson Hughes series HARMRUL INTENT won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller/Historical Suspense category. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network.  http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/

Friday, November 6, 2015

Nike Chillemi's Deadly Designs


About the Book:
Private investigator Veronica "Ronnie" Ingels teams up with Deputy Dawson Hughes to find a geeky radio broadcaster's missing wife and young daughter. They fear the woman and child were taken by Islamic terrorists as revenge against the husband's pro-Israel, conspiracy theory broadcasts. The investigation takes Ronnie and Hughes from a manicured Connecticut estate, to interviews with an elitist A-List society crowd, and run-ins with cranky local police detectives. Then they plunge deep into the seamy, drug-riddled underbelly of the fashion world, with the specter of international terrorism hovering.

Hughes has recently been promoted to lieutenant in the Taylor County, Texas Sheriff's Department. He's on leave on a special assignment with Authorized Operations (AO), a clandestine, quasi-government agency operating out of a sea-side mansion in Hither Hills, NY. The only thing is, many powerful politicians, and government big-wigs claim Authorized Operations doesn't exist.

Ronnie is furious at both Hughes and the broadcaster for waiting thirty-six hours to start the search. She knows the longer it takes, the less chance there is of finding the child alive. The problem is, radio talk-show host Ed Harper has been hoping-against-hope that his pot-smoking, model wife is on one of her 'esoteric experiences' and has simply taken the child while she romps for a few days. He doesn't want to seriously consider the other, more hazardous possibility… that his radio broadcasts have angered some very dangerous people.

About the Author:
Like so many writers, Nike Chillemi started writing at a very young age. She still has the Crayola, fully illustrated book she penned (colored might be more accurate) as a little girl about her then off-the-chart love of horses. Today, you might call her a crime fictionista. Her passion is crime fiction. She likes her bad guys really bad and her good guys smarter and better.

Nike is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and is its Chair, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She has been a judge in the 2011, 2012, 2013, and 2014 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories; and an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category. Her four novel Sanctuary Point series, set in the mid-1940s has finaled, won an award, and garnered critical acclaim. HARMFUL INTENT released under the auspices of her own publishing company, Crime Fictionista Press, won in the Grace Awards 2014 Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense/Historic Suspense category. Her new release is DEADLY DESIGNS. She has written book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and John 3:16 Marketing Network.



Friday, November 9, 2012

Meet Nike Chilemi!


Nike Chillemi ~ Crime Fictionista http://nikechillemi.wordpress.com/



Perilous Shadows (Desert Breeze) ~ college coed murdered in radio station, set 1947

Goodbye Noel (Desert Breeze) ~ mother of an infant murdered, set winter 1946/47

---Won 2011 Grace Awards in Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller Category

Burning Hearts (Desert Breeze) ~ arson, murder, and romance, set 1946
---Finaled in 2011 Grace Awards Romance/Historical Romance Category


Nike Chillemi has been called a crime fictionista due to her passion for crime fiction. She was an Inspy Awards 2010 judge in the Suspense/Thriller/Mystery category and a judge in the 2011 and 2012 Carol Awards in the suspense, mystery, and romantic suspense categories. She is the founding board member of the Grace Awards and its Chairman, a reader's choice awards for excellence in Christian fiction. She writes book reviews for The Christian Pulse online magazine. BURNING HEARTS is the first book in the crime wave that is sweeping the south shore of Long Island in The Sanctuary Point series, published by Desert Breeze. GOODBYE NOEL, the second book in the series released in December, 2011 won the Grace Award 2011 in the Mystery/Romantic Suspense/Thriller category. PERILOUS SHADOWS, the third in the series released in July, 2012. She is a member of American Christian Fiction Writers (ACFW) and the Edgy Christian Fiction Lovers (Ning).

 


 

Perilous Shadows Blurb: ASIN: B008JLF1Q0  (Historical Romantic Thriller, late-1940s --- Sweet romance, warm intimacy, sophisticated themes presented tastefully)

Pioneer newspaperwoman Kiera Devane is on a mission to prove a woman can do a man's job, as she hunts a young coed's killer? Ace radio broadcaster Argus Nye lost one love to a murderous fiend and his pulse races as he tries to protect Kiera from herself as much as from this killer.

Kiera was doted upon by loving parent, but they were killed when she was a girl and she was shipped off to live with a socialite aunt who had little time for her. In her aunt's house, she learned life could be cold and cruel. As a result, she grew up to be an independent and demanding professional woman.

Argus Nye, still bereft from the loss of his first love, can't understand why this female reporter is mesmerizing him. As she takes chances with her life trying to catch a killer, he's determined to protect her.


Barnes and Noble. http://is.gd/RJF2zy
 

GOODBYE NOEL Blurb: ASIN: B006LTHI1I (Historical Romantic Thriller, mid-1940s --- Sweet romance, warm intimacy, sophisticated themes presented tastefully --- Won the 2011 Grace Awards Mystery/Thriller/Romantic Suspense category)

The first body is found under a trimmed Christmas tree, the second as they ring in the New Year (1947), the third goes head long out a window. Will a young pediatric nurse determined to make it on her own be able to care for an infant whose mother was murdered and escape the killer who has struck again? Can she trust the stalwart village detective with her life and her heart as he works to catch this killer before somebody else dies?

Pediatric nurse, Katrina Lenart, grew up strong willed and independent minded, while sharing her mother's flair for high fashion. When the police chief gives her an orphaned baby to care for, her maternal instincts take over and she's willing to fight anyone who might not have the infant's best interests at heart, even the man she's growing to love. After an attempt is made to kidnap the baby, she and the resolute village detective team up and do some sleuthing, undercover at a cult as well as at a fancy ball.

Detective Ian Daltry is a widower with a child and is not interested in a new love. Hunting a killer who stops at nothing has placed him in the position where he must protect a beautiful young woman he's drawn to. Is there's something he's overlooked in analyzing the case? Will he find out what that is before this ruthless murderer kills someone he loves?


Barnes and Nobel. http://is.gd/lrsTbU

BURNING HEARTS Blurb: ASIN: B0050PJSTY  (Historical Romance Thriller, mid-1940s --- Sweet romance, sophisticated themes presented tastefully --- Finaled in 2011 Grace Awards Romance/Historical Romance category

Can a sheltered young seamstress, disillusioned by the horrors of WWII, escape an arsonist/murderer who has killed her employer and mentor, while trying to decide if she can trust the dashing war hero who’s ridden into town on his Harley—who some say is the murderer?

Erica Brogna’s parents doted on her and taught her to think for herself. Many boys she grew up with had fallen in the WWII, shaking her childhood faith. In rides a handsome stranger, at the hour of her most desperate need. A woman who is her close friend and mentor is trapped in a burning house. After making an unsuccessful rescue attempt, Erica stands by as this man rushes into the inferno and carries her friend’s lifeless body out.

Lorne Kincade can’t out run his past on his Harley Davidson WLA, the civilian model of the motorcycle he rode in the war. He’s tried. He’s been a vagabond biker in the year since the war ended. His Uncle Ivar bequeathed him a ramshackle cottage in Sanctuary Point, on the Great South Bay of Long Island, NY and now he’d like to hope for a future again, repair the miniscule place, and settle down. The only problem is, a young woman with hair the color of mink is starting to get under his skin and that’s the last thing he needs.


Barnes and Noble. http://is.gd/fvEQfH

My unique talent: I have the ability to write authentic dialog that's snappy and sounds right to the 1940s era in my historical. I also describe the atmosphere of the decade so that readers feel as if they are there.

Share something not many people know about you. I graduated from the Fashion Institute of Technology and worked in marketing in the bridal industry.

Answering to our fun little survey, Nike says -

Are you a “pet person” or prefer no pets?  Pets, pets, pets. Was was a pet rescuer and as a result have a house full of pets.

Would you rather travel or stay at home?  Travel to any warm climate with a beach.

Do you read more or write more?  I used to read more, but now the balance has changed. I write more.

Prefer cake or pie? Neither.  Not a big dessert person. Unless it's authentic key lime pie.

Would, or do, ride a motorcycle or prefer to ride/drive a car?  Drive a car. My fav is a Jeep.

How about taking the bus or walking?  Yuk. I do walk, but only with my dog. I'm an avid dog walker.

Are you part of a big church congregation or a small church?  Tiny urban church, laid back, Scripturally on target.

Would you describe yourself as happy or joyful?  Joyful as a lifestyle, but happy when the situation calls for it. Enjoy both.

Do you like to telephone people or prefer to use e-mail?  Email. Don't have time for the phone. Hate the phone.

Do you eat at home or eat out?  Home. I like to cook and like to eat healthy meals. However, I also enjoy going out as a family once a week, or on a "date night" with my husband.

Listen to music or prefer quiet?  Quiet: I'm not that musical. Can't carry a tune, sing off key. I'm a joy during worship in church, not.

Prefer sunrises or sunsets:  Both, as long as it's on the beach. I like sitting in a lounge chair with a cool drink watching either. Or a slow walk on the beach with my husband or my dog at sunrise or sunset…probably sunset.