My 5 star psychological thriller DECEPTION: A Love of Lies will be released this year as an audiobook.
Please check out the trailer below and listen to the fantastic narration of Christopher Pizzey.
Tag: Deception
2019 and ‘DECEPTION’ is still receiving 5 star reviews!
Although I decided to self-publish DECEPTION back in 2016, I’m happy to see that even after three years my readers are still loving it!
A ‘verified purchase’ 5 star review on Amazon.co.uk
A short and sweet review from Georgie. Chuffed to see that she enjoyed the ride!
DECEPTION’s blurb:
“Through the stark and leafless trees, I see her.
I remember the first day I saw her; an instant attraction. I think she’s beautiful. She has such pensive blue eyes; they remind me of a blue sky right before the sun descends. Every time I see her I want to talk to her, I want to get to know her, and I want to be her friend.
She usually completes the lower woodland walk in six minutes and forty-two seconds; she misses the deeper woodlands and goes home, I believe.
I walk down the road at the same speed as her. She reaches the crossroads at the bottom of the road, looks both ways, and then jogs across into the garden of a house. I stop walking and concentrate on which house is hers.
I can’t stare too long but I am intrigued already, I will come back.”
A psychological thriller that will not let you look at passing dog walkers the same.
If you would like to read this novel, you can download it here from Amazon. Click the link and it will take you to the right Amazon (UK, US etc.) for you.
If you do decide to read DECEPTION then please let me know what you think!
Blog Takeover – ‘A Morning Stroll’ by Billy Allen from DECEPTION
A Morning Stroll
The skies are grey. Damp, decomposing leaves cover the ground, making my path slippery in places. The wind is cold and sharp against my face. My breath plumes before me then dissipates into the thin air as I walk through it.
I look down to Ella. Her head is down, moist nose sniffing the ground and I wonder how many different scents there must be for her to seek. Ella’s ears dangle, flopping gently against her face. She has the typical spaniel face; her straight white nose has a smattering of brown splodges which descend from between her hazel eyes.
“Heel girl, heel. Sit.”
Ella turns and sits down in front of me, eager for my next instruction. Her eyes glisten as she waits for my command.
I pull a dog treat from my pocket. “Good girl. Wait.” I kneel down and unclip the lead from her collar. “Wait. Wait. Go on then.” I fling out my arm as I give the command and Ella runs into the distance but returns like a boomerang.
I enjoy my early morning walks with Ella. I like studying our location to see what people have done in the woodland and surrounding landscape. I can identify the age and gender of a person based on a change from the day before. For example, there are areas of the leaf-strewn ground that have been disturbed to reveal the sludgy, underlying mud. This was done by children, they have been using the mud as glue to build their bases and as ink to write on trees around the woods, marking their territory. I scratch it off.
There are scuff marks on every tree in one cluster, the scuffs are from the children’s dirty shoes. As they climbed up the trees they left their mark. They would have been here during the late afternoon, after they finished school, because glimmering slug trails are visible on the trees’ bark and slugs prefer the dark, damp night time. One tree however does not have the shiny lines because they have been rubbed off. An empty beer bottle sits at the foot of the tree, covered in piss. A man came here in the early hours; depressed and lonely, he comes here most nights. He is most likely around the age of fifty and he’s local. He got pissed whilst walking to no particular destination, ended up here, laid down by this tree.
Only a few dog walkers come through here, a dozen or so, possibly a couple more. There’s always one that leaves its dog’s shit on the ground for someone to step in. On this occasion someone had it follow them home via their shoe. Most likely the drunk man who’s a size ten foot, judging by the print left in the relatively big shit on the ground.
I know these woods better than anyone. These woods are mine. There’s not a day goes by that I don’t visit.
As we walk along the higher grounds of the woodlands, I notice more details. Dry fox scat, must be a day old. I wouldn’t have missed that yesterday so it must have been excreted just after I passed. I see balls of ginger fur rolling in the breeze. It’s not from a fox it’s from a pet cat; the fur is too fluffy and light to be a wild animal’s.
I move to the edge of the higher grounds and look over the naked lower woodlands. I scan the meandering dirt paths. The leaves on a few of the paths have been disturbed by the footfall of walkers, but not all. The trees are thinner down there; some of their leaves still have life in them. The dead leaves have blown from the higher grounds but some have been carried by the children to be used in their bases.
Through the stark and leafless trees, I see her; she’s walking her Springer, ‘Bussy’. She has a slight bounce to her stride as she lets Bussy gallop around the lower woodlands.
She has that horse rider look; tight fitted riding trousers and boots, a black woollen jumper and a white shirt.
Her brown hair is woven into a plait and dangles over her right shoulder.
I see her most mornings. I remember the first day I saw her; an instant attraction. I think she’s beautiful. She has such pensive blue eyes; they remind me of a blue sky right before the sun descends. From different angles, I catch the glint from her eyes, similar to the sparkle of a star in the night. Her skin is pale but in this cold she has rosy red cheeks that match her deep red lipstick.
Every time I see her, I want to talk to her. I want to get to know her, and I want to be her friend.
As I walk along the woods watching her from the corner of my eye, I once again pass her without saying a word. I wish I could pluck up the courage to speak to her but I simply can’t. She’s the first woman that’s caught my attention since Cindy.
I will not speak to her today. I will one day, but I will do something different to engage her attention. She usually completes the lower woodland walk in six minutes and forty-two seconds; she misses the deeper woodlands and goes home, I believe. I want to find out more about her so I will bypass the lower woodland and exit from the upper woods in two minutes, where she will have to walk up the slope to enter the upper woodlands and then exit onto the road. I will be far enough up the road that she will not see me, but I will see her.
“Ella, here.” My dog bounces back to me. “You need to be on the lead for this, little girl.”
I turn and retrace the path we have just walked. I reach the middle of the upper woods and then exit onto the road. I wait a couple of seconds and then I see the woman also exit the woods. A natural smile settles itself upon my lips; she must be special to make me smile so unexpectedly.
I walk down the road at the same speed as her. I never do this. The last time I walked down this road was when I followed a girl home when I was a kid.
I had forgotten about the detached three bedroom homes on the left, opposite the woods. This road always seemed like a wall, a divider protecting me from the world full of cruel and heartless people. The woods were where I felt most comfortable as a kid and even now, their reassurance remains with me.
As she reaches the crossroads at the bottom of the road, she hesitates, looks both ways and then jogs across and into the garden of a house. I stop walking and concentrate on which house is hers. There are two detached houses. There’s a fair amount of land for the two homes. A line of bushes separates their front gardens and it’s probably the same around the back. She walks Bussy in my woodlands, so behind the houses must be private land, a farm possibly?
I can’t stare too long but I am intrigued already. I will come back.
DECEPTION: A Love of Lies – available as eBook and paperback!
‘DECEPTION: A Love of Lies’ book cover comparison
You may remember that a few months ago I announced that my 2016 novel, DECEPTION, was getting a new book cover. Although I released and revealed the change, I never actually got a copy of the new cover for myself.
Yesterday, my new DECEPTION copy arrived.
It’s interesting to see the change of the cover since its revamp too.
The original cover was artsy and although I loved it at the time, the quality of it wasn’t good enough. The coloured focus eye line effect was a nice touch (albeit slightly cheesy) around Eve and her dog Ella, but the cover overall needed to reflect the dark and mysteriousness of the story.
The crisp, cleaner cover is much darker, but then the story is quite dark, so it fits with the narrative.
The typography is neater too, especially with the inclusion of ‘A Love of Lies‘ on the front and spine.
I love the fade effect on ‘Blake‘ on the front cover. It’s a minor touch but I think it adds to the mystery of the novel.
Fancy reading my psychological thriller novel, DECEPTION?
‘DECEPTION: A Love of Lies’ is available on Amazon as both an eBook and paperback, check it out – https://www.amazon.co.uk/Deception-Love-T-J-Blake-ebook/dp/B01J0434K4
Every author wants to read an in-depth review about their book!
If you ask an author what they want to achieve in their writing career, especially a self-published author like me, they might say “to be published and have my book adapted into a TV series or movie“. I would be lying if I denied that this is my long term objective… but we also quite like the idea of entertaining readers and hopefully receive positive feedback on our work.
Weirdly, this is kind of my review of a review… Book review inception!
I’m pleased to say that my novel “DECEPTION: A Love of Lies” has received a fantastic review from a reader. It’s not just any review, it’s a thorough analysis. The reader has taken the time to delve deep into studying the plot, setting and characterisation of ‘DECEPTION‘.
It was written to be a suspenseful psychological thriller riddled with clues and dark turns. So I’m very proud to see that this was well received by this reviewer and that they enjoyed the ‘DECEPTION’ experience!
Some key points I loved from the review:
“Blake is a seed-planter all right. He knows when and how to drop clues, or hints. When to add to the uneasy feeling these create. When to allow said seeds to burst into sprouting life with the twist you’ve been expecting from the very beginning…“
“The book keeps on teasing us, building the suspense, adding in odd details until we’re crying out for the Bad Thing we know must happen, to happen. Even though we have no idea what it’s going to be.”
“If you like atmosphere, you’ll get it by the bucket load in this book. Ditto if you like a slow build, mounting tension, having questions you just have to know the answers to.”
“For writers, the book is a great lesson in economy of style, internal conflict, and how to write an unreliable first person narrator – where the story we get is different the one in the main character’s head.”
Read the full review from Damien – https://damienseaman.com/2018/10/02/who-says-you-cant-start-a-book-with-the-weather/
Thank you so much for the review Damien if you’re reading this!
Book Cover Revamp for DECEPTION: A Love of Lies
DECEPTION: A Love of Lies has a new cover!
I’m pleased to reveal to all of you the new front cover for DECEPTION.
The original cover was good, I still like it, but it became a little outdated and the quality wasn’t the best. I liked its artistic style – it was a black and white cover with an in colour eye line of Billy watching Eve from the bushes. We kept to this theme in the new cover, but modernised it.
So here we go, check out the new front cover for DECEPTION (available on Amazon & other bookstores) below!
A lot of you may be thinking, “err, it looks exactly the same.”
It isn’t, the image is crisp, the cover’s in colour, there’s still a line of sight from Billy’s perspective of Eve walking Ella, and the typography looks waaayyyy better. The slight fade of the ‘KE’ of Blake is a new feature, along with the addition of ‘A Love of Lies’, which all looks pretty awesome.
What do you all think?
Get in touch, would love to know your thoughts!
If you’re interested in finding more about the book, check it out on Amazon.
It’s available on eBook: http://getbook.at/DeceptionTJBlake (the link will take you to Amazon, promise. It’s a geo locater to take you to the right site).
Synopsis:
“Through the stark and leafless trees, I see her.
I remember the first day I saw her; an instant attraction. I think she’s beautiful. She has such pensive blue eyes; they remind me of a blue sky right before the sun descends. Every time I see her I want to talk to her, I want to get to know her, and I want to be her friend.
She usually completes the lower woodland walk in six minutes and forty-two seconds; she misses the deeper woodlands and goes home, I believe.
I walk down the road at the same speed as her. She reaches the crossroads at the bottom of the road, looks both ways, and then jogs across into the garden of a house. I stop walking and concentrate on which house is hers.
I can’t stare too long but I am intrigued already, I will come back.”
Halloween eBook Promotion on Amazon (29th Oct – 1st Nov)
Hello everyone,
With spooky times ahead, I thought it was only fitting to throw my five books into a special Halloween Book Promotion exclusive to Amazon.
The Creepy Book Promo – Free Books & Reduced Price
As part of my book promotion, four of my books will be available to download from Amazon for free! No need to spend a single penny on these books – you can download them to your Kindle for absolutely free. That also means that you don’t have to wait for pay day to read my books!
Free books
My books which are free right now on Amazon include:
The Endurance Series
Endurance – getBook.at/B00E8Q9QCU
Endurance: Apocalypse – getBook.at/B00Q57MIOI
The Author – getBook.at/B00HYN2QAI
Alive (short story) – viewBook.at/AliveTJBlake
Deception is Reduced for Halloween!
My last book in the promotion is my latest novel, Deception: A Love of Lies. This 5 star novel will be available for a heavily reduced price of just 99p/cents.
Why are you still here?! Go and download each of my books!
Once you’ve read them, leave an honest review for them on Amazon!
Enjoy!
DECEPTION is Reduced, ENDURANCE and THE AUTHOR are free on Amazon!
T. J. Blake’s thriller novels, Deception, Endurance and The Author will be available as a promotion on Amazon for eBook and Kindle format.
Apologies for my lack of activity recently here on my T. J. Blake #Author blog, but life has been really hectic!
Free eBooks on Amazon – just to say sorry!
To say sorry for my abandonment, my books ENDURANCE and THE AUTHOR will be free to download from Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com for eBook and Kindle Friday – Sunday.
DECEPTION is reduced – limited time only!
Along with my books being free, my psychological thriller, DECEPTION, will be available for 99p/99cents on both Amazon.co.uk and Amazon.com.
My New Content Writing Business in Surrey is keeping me busy
If you saw my previous blog post about my new writing business, TJ Creative, you will know that this is one of the main reasons for me being a little neglectful recently.
Along with my business, I also secured a new full time job, which is keeping me very busy!
Free and reduced books by T. J. Blake
Back to the point, please take advantage of my books being free and reduced, it's quite rare for my books to be on a promotion.
They will be free and reduced Friday to Sunday!
Head over to Amazon now and grab your e-copies of my books!
Books by T. J. Blake and what’s to come
My writing journey began with my debut release, Endurance (2013), a gory dystopian horror-thriller novel.
After my fast paced debut came my suspenseful mystery thriller, The Author (2014), which was closely followed by the second gory book of The Endurance Series, Endurance: Apocalypse (2014).
I then took a year gap whilst I finished my last year at university. But as soon as I fnished, I was back and I decided to release a tense dark fantasy short story, Alive (2016).
After Alive, I released my latest novel, Deception: A Love of Lies (2016) – this book has received wonderful reviews from readers across the globe!
I’m always working on new book ideas, my latest includes a brand new horror!
My next book to be released is the last instalment of The Endurance Series – which is currently due for release later this year.
To find out more about my books and what’s to come, take a look at Books by T. J. Blake.
Get ‘Deception: A Love of Lies’ from Waterstones or WHSmith
This may be old news to some of you because I posted this on my social media, but my latest psychological thriller, Deception: A Love of Lies, is available to purchase from Waterstones and WHSmith.
It’s a great achievement, mostly because my previous books did not make it onto WHSmith, but Deception has!
It’s currently out of stock on WHSmith, but it’s available elsewhere in paperback and eBook.
It’s great that it’s listed on WHSmith, and I am trying to speak to the distributor to see if we can get a description added into the book’s product page, as well as get it stocked in stores.
I’ll also admit, it’s quite pricey in WHSmith. However, on Waterstones, it’s available for a cool £7.50.
Deception: A Love of Lies – worth the read?
If you’re wondering whether Deception is worth reading, then you should see the incredible ratings it’s received on Goodreads from readers across the world.
I love this book – it’s easily my favourite out of my books, and it’s all because of the main character, Billy. I know I’m slightly biased, but I’m confident that if you enjoy a psychological thriller with intricate characters and detailed characterisation, then you’ll enjoy Deception!
Grab a copy of Deception today by heading over to Waterstones, Amazon or Barnes & Noble, and see what others are saying about Deception on Goodreads!
Be careful when looking at reviews, there’s potential for spoilers!
T. J. Blake #Author 