Our next featured author is Pauline Baird Jones. She has donated both her current SFR, Core Punch, and the brand new sequel, Sucker Punch, which will be released next week to our raffle, so be sure to enter!
About the Book…
Spinning off The Big Uneasy Series and with a guest appearance from Project Enterprise…
Welcome to…An Uneasy Future 1.0:
Core Punch
A Baker & Ban!drn Adventure
A kiss may be all they have life expectancy for.
When an intergalactic cop exchange program serves up an alien partner for NONPD Detective Violet Baker, she can’t help wishing the handsome alien would be a little less Joe Friday about keeping the pleasure out of their business. Yeah, he’s kind of purple and she can’t pronounce his name to save her life, but he’s almost the only guy in the New Orleans New police department that she’s not related to.
Dzholh “Joe” Ban!drn has come a long way hunting the evil that has infiltrated Vi’s floating city. When he meets his charming partner, he discovers another reason to stamp out evil. If only he wasn’t keeping so many secrets from her…
When an epic hurricane heads their way, they are sent dirt side to New Orleans Old (NOO) on a rescue mission. But murder and sabotage strands them in the heart of the raging storm.
As they fight for their lives, Joe realizes that the evil he’s hunting is actually hunting them….
Get it at: Amazon | Kobo | Google Play | Apple | Nook
About Pauline
Pauline Baird Jones had a tough time with reality from the get-go. After “schooling” from four, yes FOUR brothers, she knew that some people needed love and others needed shooting (fictionally of course). Romantic suspense was the logical starting point, but there were more worlds to explore, more rules to break and minds to bend. She grabbed her pocket watch and time travel device and dove through the wormhole into the world of science fiction and even some Steampunk.
Now she wanders among the genres, trying a little of this and a lot of that, rampaging through her characters’ lives like Godzilla because she does love her peril (when it’s not happening to her). Never fear, she gives her characters happy endings. Well, the good characters. The bad ones get justice.
Find her here: Website | Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | LinkedIn | Goodreads | Pinterest
Mini-Interview
Q. When did you realize SFR was a genre?
A. When someone told me I wrote one. I thought I’d written an action adventure romance (which it totally is, but….)
Q. What SFR book had the most impact on your reading and/or writing?
A. A reviewer did one of those “if you like XX, then you’ll like this book” for The Key when it released. The XX was Linnea Sinclair. I went, wait a minute. I have at least one of her ebooks in my library (before NY found her), but I went online and bought the Accidental Goddess and loved it, so I glommed, er, got all her books and loved them. Her books hit the heart of what I love in a book: a fun romance, lots of action and adventure and a sense of humor.
As an author, I’m always pushing myself to hit that mark.
Q. Do your books lean more SF or Romance?
A. Well, my books are “soft” and occasionally “squishy” science. I pretty much make it all up, which hard SF readers probably wouldn’t like. And my romance is, well, romantic, rather than explicit. In fact, my characters are lucky when they get to kiss each other. LOL So not sure what that makes my books?
Pauline’s question for you:
What makes you love a book so much you put it on your keeper shelf?
Answer for an entry in our drawing!
Smart Girls love SciFi 
With e-books almost everything is a keeper but when I have a hard copy some stuff (or most in the case of a move) has to go. I have two re-read styles. Stuff I want to read again but won’t for a few years is stuff I really liked What turns it into frequent re-read is witty dialogue and heroines with an inner voice, whether it is snarky, funny or just informative. I also like some of the Beatrice-Benedict dynamic.
I know what you mean. I have keepers that are in the amazing book category, but the ones I re-read the most are the ones that put me in a good mood.
My keepers are my comfort reads, so I’m with Charlee and you. They make me smile and give me a book “hug.”
The feels!! When a book makes me feel the emotion – good, bad, happy, sad – of the characters to the point where I feel I am living their life, that is a ‘keeper’ for me. The characters in those books tend to live on long after the last page is turned and last word read.
AMEN. I still remember the character names of the first book that had that impact on me. Funny that I am terrible at remembering names in the real world but those characters are still right there.
“What makes you love a book so much you put it on your keeper shelf?” With the advent of the e-reader that fits in my purse and holds an entire library, a good price. I love those e-readers. Greatest invention for the bibliophile with limited space. Now if you are talking about a hard copy and real self . . . It has to grab me and hold me hostage. That usually involves characters that pull me into the story with them as well as an amazing world that I want to get lost in. Something I will read again and again.
Very cool. I am the same way. Shelf space is premium real estate in my house these days. 🙂
Generally, I need a book to elicit several emotions, both good and bad, for me to put it on my Eternal shelf. I need awe and indignation, love and fury, etc. The more intricate the mix, the more I will enjoy it.
Now that is interesting. Thank you for sharing!
A keeper makes me care about the characters and punches me in the gut at least once. My favorite characters are complicated people with agency and motivation.
Since the advent of ebooks, I consider a keeper anything I never remove from the device. Just in case the internet goes out or there is none.
Ah, that’s really nice. 🙂 I’m like you, I hoard digital from fear the books will be lost somehow.
My keepers are the books whose characters become treasured friends that I need to revisit at least once a year.
I have some books I revisit often, usually when Life makes me stand down. I used to do it yearly, but the pile got a little too big. lol
a keeper books for me is one that engages all of me. It can make me mad, sad, cry, or especially laugh out loud. it can do one or all of them and the best are ones that does make me feel most of these. There a few books/series I reread many times. Some of them are old friends that I first read as a young girl or teen and some of them are one’s I’ve read in the last few years.
I have old book friends and new ones, too. I love it when a book makes it on my keeper because yeah, it has touched my reading heart in a special way.
Great character, adventure, exciting plot, and romance. Space Opera is my favorite so add that to the mix and it goes on my keeper shelf.
Good choices! Love space opera, too!
A book makes my keeper shelf if it the complete package. A story that grabs hold of me & characters I love, or love to loathe.
I feel the same, but find the complete package is so hard to define. lol
Congratulations on the upcoming new release Pauline!
Keepers, or those that end up on my favorites shelf are those that cause book hangover. You’ve finished reading an awesome story. You’ve got a little time so you decide to start a new book but you can’t. That last book is still on your mind. No book can possibility be as good as that last wonderful book. This can go on for days. If you think about it, it is a horrifying thought. By not starting another book, you could be missing out on your next great read! Usually, it take several hours of DVRd TV shows to purge the effects of the hangover. Hair-of-the dog therapy does not work for my book hangovers.
Oh, the book hangover! I’ve had them, too! I love books that give them to me, but yeah….
keeper shelf- a unique voice. A style that no other writer has; a dialogue that pops and punches me in the gut and makes me want to re-read it; or just a character written so well I can’t get them out of my head.
Can’t get them out of my head describes it perfectly. They feel SO real.
Great characters and world building are what puts a book on my keeper shelf. It doesn’t have to be both. But the book has to make me feel something. I loved The Key!