Chick Lit Plus by Samantha March

Chick Lit Plus

Celebrity gossip, articles on fashion, health, fitness, and beauty.

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In My Mailbox: Week of October 14
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In My Mailbox: Week of October 14

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Sparkle

Author: Cara Leyba

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: As women, we have become professional self-critics. We’ve become so convinced by society that we need to attain a level of perfection that just isn’t real. Whether it’s trying to get skinnier, look younger, get that promotion, please our parents, get fuller lips or rid ourselves of cellulite — we’re on a never-ending mission to change and it always winds up making us feel like crap. Instead, why not focus on all the fabulous qualities we already possess? There is so much to celebrate when we look at all our accomplishments. In this straight-up girlfriend’s guide, lifestylist and wellness coach Cara Alwill Leyba encourages women to discover what makes them sparkle so that they can design the lives they desire and deserve. So raise your glass and toast yourself. You’re about to start shimmering, shining and dazzling every day! Because isn’t everything better when it sparkles?

Title: Sad Desk Salad

Author: Jessica Grose

Received: From HarperCollins

Synopsis: As a writer for Chick Habit, an increasingly popular women’s website, Alex Lyons gets paid to be a bitch. She’s churning out several posts a day, and she saves her juiciest ones for blog prime time, when working women eat their sad desk salads in their offices. Alex tells herself she’s fulfilling her dream of being a professional writer; so what if it means being glued to her couch and her laptop from six a.m. to six p.m., scouring the web in search of the next big celebrity scandal? Since Chick Habit’s parent company keeps close tabs on page views, Alex knows her job is always at risk.

So when an anonymous tipster sends her the year’s most salacious story—a politico’s squeaky-clean Ivy League daughter caught in a very R-rated activity—it’s a no-brainer. But is Alex really willing to ruin the girl’s life by igniting the next Internet feeding frenzy? And what she doesn’t yet realize is how this big scoop is about to send her own life spiraling out of control.

Title: A Very Accidental Love Story

Author: Claudia Carroll

Received: From Avon Books, Unsolicited

Synopsis: Eloise Elliot is one of the youngest newspaper editors in the country. Respected and revered by her peers, she’s at the top of her game.

But, on the eve of her thirtieth birthday, finding herself surrounded by some pathetic looking balloons and mangy sandwiches in The Daily Post’s conference room, Eloise is hit but a long sharp pang of loneliness.

Suddenly, and with dazzling clarity, she realises what she wants to make her life more complete. A baby.

One successful trip to the sperm bank and almost three years later and she is the adoring mother of a gorgeous little girl, Lily. Juggling a high-powered job with motherhood is not easy and when she finds herself without childcare she sends an SOS to her sister Helen. Yet it’s when Lily starts asking about her ‘daddy’ that Eloise really starts to panic. What will she tell her?

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: The Girl, the Gold Tooth and Everything

Author: Francine LaSala

Received: Francine LaSala

Synopsis: Mina Clark is losing her mind—or maybe it’s already gone. She isn’t quite sure. Feeling displaced in her over-priced McMansion-dotted suburban world, she is grappling not only with deep debt, a mostly absent husband, and her playground-terrorizer 3-year old Emma, but also with a significant amnesia she can’t shake—a “temporary” condition now going on several years, brought on by a traumatic event she cannot remember, and which everyone around her feels is best forgotten. A routine trip to the dentist changes everything for Mina, and suddenly she’s not sure if what’s happening is real, of if she’s just now fully losing her mind… especially when she realizes the only person she thought she could trust is the one she fears the most.

This latest novel by Francine LaSala (Rita Hayworth’s Shoes) is a fast-paced, richly layered, and darkly humorous satire filled with quirky characters and unforgettable moments of humanity.

October 14, 2012
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Foodie Review: Special K Cracker Chips
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Foodie Review: Special K Cracker Chips

I love chips. Doritos in particular. And of course, once you eat one, you eat….like forty-seven. I started the search for a different chip to satisfy my craving, and landed on the Special K Cracker Chips. I grabbed the Sour Cream and Onion, and I am happy to report that these are a new staple in the house! I was worried they would taste too…healthy…but I honestly didn’t taste much of a difference between these and regular chips. I compared calories between the two, and Doritos (Nacho Cheese, which I prefer) came in at 150 calories per 11 chips. Special K is 110 calories per 27 chips. It’s clear you get more chip for less calories with Special K, and you aren’t losing a tasty snack. Even my fiancé has approved the chips, and often takes a small bag with him to work to munch on when he gets hungry. If you are looking for a better for you snack, I would give the Special K Cracker Chips a shot!

October 13, 2012
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My First 5K: Complete!
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My First 5K: Complete!

I did! My first 5K is complete 🙂 The Color Run was such a fun experience. There were 27,000 people registered in Des Moines, and the atmosphere just screamed party. It was a great way to ease into the running world! I ran with my girlfriend Holly, and we tried our best to look pretty ridiculous – as you can see from our picture! At the end, we were a mess! We ran through four color stations along the run, where people were having a great time throwing the paint on us, and then at the end once we finished we participated in a color throw. The paint wasn’t like what you paint a room with it, it was a more dust-like paint. Everyone who registered got a packet of the paint, and once you finished, you got to throw it in the air and have the colors rain down. Combined with thousands of people doing it at the same time – bananas. I literally lost my vision during the color throw, it was CRAZY!! But overall, a great experience, and I am definitely hooked. Holly and I are running another 5K in November (BRRRR!) and our award at the end – chocolate! The run is sponsored by a chocolate store in Des Moines, and proceeds go to the John Stoddard Cancer Center – a win/win there. I’ve had a lot of fun blogging about my first 5K experience, and I hope to share some more with you after my second race!

October 8, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of October 7
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In My Mailbox: Week of October 7

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Enchanted by Starlight
Author: Tina L. Hook
Received: From BookSparks PR
Synopsis: Be careful what you wish for…Grace, Skylar and Alina are connected by destiny when an enchanted comet crosses the night sky. As their most secret ambitions ignite, their ordinary lives take a magical detour down a powerful but dangerous path.

Grace, emerging from her dejected childhood, develops the power to make men fall in love with her. Skylar leaves her impoverished past behind and pursues the social status she has always longed for. Without dreams of her own, Alina covets the power to unravel other lives and seeks revenge. As they crash into and slip away from each other in a cycle of envy, deception and love lost, these three women are forced to look deeper into their own hearts for the true meaning of enchantment.

Title: From Notting Hill With Love…Actually
Author: Ali McNamara
Received: From Sourcebooks
Synopsis: She was just a girl, standing in front of a boy …wishing he looked more like Hugh Grant. Scarlett loves the movies. But does she love sensible fiance David just as much? With a big white wedding on the horizon, Scarlett really should have decided by now …When she has the chance to house-sit in Notting Hill – the setting of one of her favourite movies – Scarlett jumps at the chance. But living life like a movie is trickier than it seems, especially when her new neighbour Sean is so irritating. And so irritatingly handsome, too. Scarlett soon finds herself starring in a romantic comedy of her very own: but who will end up as the leading man?

Title: Meant To Be
Author : Karen Stivali
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Sometimes you’re already committed to the wrong person when fate finally brings you the right one.
When NYU professor Daniel Gardner’s career-obsessed wife convinces him to move to the suburbs, he hopes it’s a first step toward starting the family he longs to have. Instead of domestic bliss he finds his neighbor, Marienne Valeti. She loves her freelance design job, but must contend with a growing sense of isolation created by her husband’s indifference. A penchant for good books, bad movies, and Marienne’s to-die-for brownies sparks a powerful bond between them. Passion simmers, but they resist its lure, surrendering only in the seclusion of their minds. Their friendship helps them weather every hardship, from divorce to widowhood, leaving them both secretly wondering if it can survive a first kiss.
Author’s Note: Meant To Be is listed as Women’s Fiction with Strong Romantic Elements. It strongly crosses genres with contemporary romance and will appeal to many fans of romance novel—it is an atypical friends to lovers story with a strong romantic arc and a happily ever after ending. This book deals with adult issues and contains graphic/mature language and explicit sex scenes. If it were a movie, it would be rated R. Although I am also a published erotic romance writer, this book does not contain erotic content.
Title: Happily Ever Before
Authors: Aimee Pitta & Melissa Peterman
Received: From Aimee Pitta & Melissa Peterman
Synopsis: Two sisters, one drunken pact and a choice that changes their lives forever.

HAPPILY EVER BEFORE is best described as the comedic literary love child of the hit film’s Bridesmaids and Baby Mama. It is the story of two sisters, who while watching a Lifetime movie marathon (of course!) make a drunken pact that has more unconventional consequences than anything Lifetime could program.

HAPPILY EVER BEFORE, a fractured fairytale, tells the story of Grace, the free spirit older sister, who promises Clair, her wound-too-tight younger sister, that she’d have her baby, should the need ever arise. But she certainly never thought she’d have to “deliver”.

Now everyone, from Clair’s WASP-y in-laws to Diane, Grace and Clair’s mom, who has put her own life on hold, to Clair’s husband, Henry, who has a compulsive need to give Grace bizarre and overly personal pregnancy gifts, to George, Grace’s best friend who now needs to find a new drinking buddy, are dealing with situations they never dreamed of.

As the sisters are faced with hormonal surges, new romances, and a calcium enriched diet, they are forced to navigate this new family dynamic and test their sisterly love in ways that keep the reader laughing out loud.

October 7, 2012
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My First 5K: One Week To Go!
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My First 5K: One Week To Go!

One more week! I am currently on vacation as I type this; sitting at my sister’s house watching her Labordoodle run around looking for food scraps and my youngest nephew trying to wake up my fiancé so they can play together. I completed my workout schedule before we hopped on the plan on Friday, though I still have one more thirty minute run that I will get in today. My sister, brother-in-law, niece and oldest nephew are out at baseball tournaments, so the house is quiet and calm enough for me to get a run in today. We got our pre-race documents emailed to us last night, and Saturday will here before we know it! My next post will be my last on my 5K, and I’m sure I’ll have some pictures as well to share. Very excited to get this first one under my belt, and hopefully there will be more to come!
Below is my workout schedule for the week. Bold is my regular schedule, non-bold is my 5K training.
Monday: Run 10 minutes, walk 10 minutes, 20 minute treadmill walk/run
Tuesday: Walk 15 minutes, 60 minute elliptical, 15 minute Pilates DVD- abs
Wednesday: Run 15 minutes, walk 15 minutes, 20 minute treadmill walk/run
Thursday: Walk 15 minutes, 60 minute treadmill walk on incline, 40 minute Yoga DVD
Friday: Day Off
Saturday: Day Off
Sunday: Run 30 minutes

September 30, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of September 30
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In My Mailbox: Week of September 30

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Pass the Hot Stuff

Author: Dana Page

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: The safe guy or the sexy guy? The answer is always…Pass the Hot Stuff Blythe Townsend is a belle who is in desperate need of having her chimes rung. But the man she is dating would have to get his head out of his briefs – his legal briefs – long enough to notice. She is a frustrated romantic obsessed with Turner Classic Movies. She lives in the French Quarter with her dog, Lady Marmalade, and is determined not to go sour on love even though she has dated every nutcase along the Mississippi Delta. Now, she is trying her best to make it work with her deadly dull boyfriend. Blythe accepts him – boring business dinners and all. There’s always steak, but never any sizzle. There’s only so much a libido can take; and when she repeatedly spots a man around town she christens Tall, Dark and Eye Candy, she starts to feel what she’s been missing. So, what’s stopping her from tasting something a little… sweeter? She refuses to be hurt again, and this sexy New Orleans guy has all of the trappings to do just that. Blythe will have to find her inner big-shouldered broad to deal with the craziness in her life; and she has a group of hilarious, mouthy women helping her sort through the crazy. Their story is a sultry dance to Delta blues and soulful jazz that drifts the reader into the romance of New Orleans. So, sit down at the kitchen table and pour yourself a drink – we’re gonna pass the hot stuff.

Title: Bouquet Toss

Author: Melissa Brown

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: Ever since Daphne Harper graduated from college, all of her friends have fallen in love, become engaged and walked down the aisle. Be it a blessing or a curse, Daphne (a hopeless romantic and perpetual single girl) catches the bouquet at every single wedding she attends. Daphne’s love life is a mess. Her first love haunts her heart and keeps her from pursuing happiness with any man who comes along. As she struggles to move on from the one who got away, Daphne wonders if she will ever break her curse and find her happily ever after.

Title: Eat, Drink, and Be Married

Author: Rebecca Bloom

Received: From Rebecca Bloom

Synopsis: When college friends Kate, Nina and Zoë take holiday from their busy schedules on opposite coasts to join their former roommate, Hannah, for her wedding in Lake Tahoe, they not only bring suitcases packed with what-not-to-wear bridesmaid dresses, but baggage of a more emotional kind. Supported by a variety of eclectic characters determined to wreck havoc on their carefully organized lives, each woman is forced to come to terms with her past before she walks down the aisle. Zoë must learn how to reveal a vulnerability beneath her bravado before she can finally open her heart. Kate needs to reclaim her identity before she can regain her strut. Nina must heal her own inner child so she can provide for another. Hannah needs to release a ghost in order to recover her spirit. A bottle of booze, a host of laughs, a hankie or two worth of tears, and seventy-two hours among those who know and love them the most is the perfect recipe for four women to Eat, Drink, and Be Married.

Title: The Paternity Test

Author: Michael Lowenthal

Received: From BookSparks PR

Synopsis: Having a baby to save a marriage—it’s the oldest of clichés. But what if the marriage at risk is a gay one, and having a baby involves a surrogate mother? Pat Faunce is a faltering romantic, a former poetry major who now writes textbooks. A decade into his relationship with Stu, an airline pilot from a fraught Jewish family, he fears he’s losing Stu to other men—and losing himself in their “no rules” arrangement. Yearning for a baby and a deeper commitment, he pressures Stu to move from Manhattan to Cape Cod, to the cottage where Pat spent boyhood summers.

As they struggle to adjust to their new life, they enlist a surrogate: Debora, a charismatic Brazilian immigrant, married to Danny, an American home rebuilder. Gradually, Pat and Debora bond, drawn together by the logistics of getting pregnant and away from their spouses. Pat gets caught between loyalties—to Stu and his family, to Debora, to his own potent desires—and wonders: is he fit to be a father?

In one of the first novels to explore the experience of gay men seeking a child through surrogacy, Michael Lowenthal writes passionately about marriages and mistakes, loyalty and betrayal, and about how our drive to create families can complicate the ones we already have. The Paternity Test is a provocative look at the new “family values.”
In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: The Art of My Life

Author: Ann Lee Miller

Received: Ann Lee Miller

Synopsis: Cal walked out of jail and into a second chance at winning Aly with his grandma’s beater sailboat and a reclaimed dream of sailing charters.

Aly has the business smarts, strings to a startup loan, and heart he never should have broken. He’s got squat. Unless you count enough original art to stock a monster rummage sale and an affection for weed.

But he’d only ever loved Aly. That had to count for something. Aly needed a guy who owned yard tools, tires worth rotating, and a voter’s registration card. He’d be that guy or die trying.

For anyone who’s ever struggled to measure up. And failed.

September 30, 2012
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Baby Talk: Life at 4 Months
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Baby Talk: Life at 4 Months

Goodness. To say that time has flown by would be an understatement. Ethan officially turned 4 months old on Wednesday the 26th and for once, I actually believe it. This month has been huge as far as development goes. Ethan is full of energy and curiosity and treats everyday like a brand new day. As a new parent, you hear often that the first three months are kind bland. Yes, you are on complete survival mode, trying to make it from one minute to the next, but the baby just doesn’t do as much as you once thought he would. But boy, that all changes once you hit the 3-4 month mode. Ethan has now officially found his voice (squealing and yelling for fun), his feet (which are his new best friends), his hands (which immediately shove everything right into his mouth), and he is now mobile! Yep, that’s right, the little guy is really going places these days.

In addition to all of these new developments, he just looks like a completely different kiddo. He doesn’t look brand new anymore and is slowly developing into an actual boy, not just a baby. Although I am sad to see his newborn stage slowly drift behind us, this new stage has been so much fun! He is so excited to interact with us and has quickly become the cool kid at daycare (watch out little girls, I have also told him that y’all have cooties!). Slowly but surely we are developing a routine and the nights have gotten easier (knock on wood as I type this). He usually sleeps from 7pm to 6am with one feeding around 2am. I’m definitely hoping that we are past the sleep regression we saw for most of the last month because boy, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it much longer. LOL! But, life with a baby has been amazing. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings … or the many, many days after that.

Food: Still nursing but slowly toying with the idea of introducing a few solids. We were supposed to start cereal but with the new arsenic scare, I think I am going to skip it all together.

Favorite Toys: Exersaucer (or anything that allows him to stand and play), his play mat, his monkey rattles, and his big brother’s floppy ears

Things we’ve left behind: He is completely over his bouncer, boppy and definitely starting to resist the swing.

Teeth: Still none but I think we have one in the works.

Favorite activities: Playing, eating, story time, walks and ANYTHING outdoors.

Height/Weight: Nothing official yet but we’re thinking 26 inches and around 17 lbs. Will update next week at his appointment.

September 29, 2012
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Reese Witherspoon Welcomes Son
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Reese Witherspoon Welcomes Son

It’s a boy! One of my favorite actresses, Reese Witherspoon, welcomed son Tennessee James Toth on Thursday. People.com shared this statement from her rep: “Reese Witherspoon and husband Jim Toth welcomed Tennessee James into their family today. Both mom and baby are healthy and the entire family is thrilled.” This is Reese’s third child, but the first with new husband Jim Toth. The couple married in March 2011. I have to ask – what do you think of the name?

September 27, 2012
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Lasik Surgery: My Final Thoughts
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Lasik Surgery: My Final Thoughts

Over the past few weeks, I’ve chronicled my Lasik surgery that I had done in January. From making the decision, the weeks before surgery, the eye drops, etc – I’ve now come to my last post: my final thoughts on Lasik. Immediately after surgery, I had dry eye in both eyes. The multitude of eye drops helped, and eventually my left eye was deemed 20/20 and had no issues. My right eye was a different story. It took two months for the dry eye to clear up and for the doctor to announce is was finally at 20/20. I’ll admit – I was pretty scared for a while. I was getting tired of constantly having to put drops in my right eye, and wondered if the dry eye would never go away – which can happen. I was extremely relieved when I started noticing a difference, and when I was told that both eyes were at 20/20. I can’t remember the last time I used an eye drop, but I do have a bottle handy in my purse just in case.
Lasik surgery was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It’s pretty incredible not to deal not only with glasses and contacts and the hassle they bring, but also the money I save by not having to buy contacts every few months and cases and solution, etc. I love being able to wake up in the morning and not fumble for my glasses, or take a nap in the middle of the day without having to take my contacts out. Lasik surgery worked for me, and I am one happy customer.

September 27, 2012
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