Chick Lit Plus by Samantha March

Chick Lit Plus

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

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Charming Tuesday: A Beauty Favorite & Giveaway
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Charming Tuesday: A Beauty Favorite & Giveaway

I started using Maybelline mascara when I first started college. It’s been my go-to mascara since. I love to try out other products, always searching for that gem, but a particular Maybelline mascara will always be in my bag. I love the ones that feature a double brush, one side being the microfiber base coat, and the other side the mascara. The one that I am currently addicted to is the Maybelline XXL Curlpower. It makes my lashes longer and really lasts throughout the night, coming off only once I use my makeup remover. I haven’t found a mascara yet to top this one!

A good runner up that I’ve found is from Too Faced. I’m a big fan of the Too Faced brand, and own many of their products. The mascara that I really love is the Too Faced Lash Injection. It has a 3-D formula that builds tubes around the lashes, making them look longer and fuller. And it’s the truth! When I take off this mascara at night, the little tubes come off. It’s pretty neat to see something really working. I also always have this mascara in my makeup bag!

Sara’s Must-Have:

I am without-a-doubt a beauty product connoisseur; I read reviews online, engulf myself in “the best-of-the-best” lists in magazines, and spend too much time browsing the beauty aisles when I am out and about. The reason why is because I am always searching … searching for the next “must-have” in my beauty arsenal. I have found a few new additions over the years, but none of them have ever been Mascara. I have used Maybelline Great Lash in Blackest Black since I started really wearing makeup when I was fourteen. I have deviated some here and there, lured by advertising for a new product that promises a “thicker, fuller lash”, but nothing has ever come close. By far, Maybelline Great Lash is hands down my absolute favorite and an absolute beauty must-have of mine.

April 3, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of April 1
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In My Mailbox: Week of April 1

In My Mailbox: Week of April 1
In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Misfortune Cookie
Author: Michele Gorman
Received: From Michele Gorman
Synopsis: “Following your heart will pay off in the near future”

The fortune cookie had spoken, affirming Hannah’s decision to move to Hong Kong to be with her boyfriend. She’s no stranger to rash decisions – after all she moved from the US to London on a dare, and that worked out, didn’t it? Ever the optimist, she’s determined to make a success of her move, no matter what anybody says.

Unfortunately, anybody seems to be everybody and her life isn’t going exactly to plan.

Sure, she’s found a career in fashion that she loves, her best friend Stacy moved to be with her, and they’re exploring the weird and wonderful in Hong Kong. It’s her love life that’s not quite living up to expectations. It isn’t easy having a relationship with a boyfriend who’s been posted to a job in another country. Particularly one who seems a bit too cosy with his new boss.

When things also start going wrong at work, Hannah begins to think her friends and family were right. Has she made the worst mistake of her life?

Title: The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit
Author: Amanda Egan
Received: From Amanda Egan
Synopsis: THE SEQUEL TO ‘DIARY OF A MUMMY MISFIT’

Think you knew Mummy Misfit?

Well, you might be in for a surprise.

After a year of struggling with school fees, trying to become pregnant and feeling like she didn’t belong amongst the prep-school ‘Meemies’, Libby is back.

Only this time, she’s got it all.

But how long can it last and will she ever be truly happy?

Join Libby on her hilarious, yet sensitive journey as loyalty, friendships and values are tested in ‘The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit’.

Title: True Love Way
Author: Nancy Scrofano
Received: From Lucie @ Simon and Fig
Synopsis: Marlo Spencer relishes all things retro. Old TV shows, classic movies, and even the collectible lunch boxes to go with them. In fact, she’s quite cozy in her Malibu apartment, surrounded by her treasured knick-knacks and vintage memorabilia. It’s her best friend, Nik, who doesn’t get her fascination with all that “old junk,” as he calls it. He especially doesn’t understand why she’s so keen to get back to their hometown of Napa when her high school sweetheart, Josh, suddenly returns after twelve years in Paris and nary a single phone call, eager to reunite with her. So, when Marlo heads up north to wine country to rekindle her relationship with Josh, Nik tags along, claiming he was already planning to visit his sister, Savannah, Marlo’s gal pal. Once they reach Napa, however, dreams of a blissful reunion are shattered as old secrets and past betrayals are revealed, leaving an unsuspecting Marlo to pick up the pieces. Can she forgive and forget, or will true love find a different path to her heart?

Title: Willow Pond
Author: Carol Tibaldi
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The Roaring Twenties crumble into the Great Depression. Bootlegging is flourishing. Virginia Kingsley, New York’s most successful speakeasy owner, is queen of that castle. Rudy Strauss wants to help with her business. Virginia, wisely suspicious, refuses. He shifts his trademark toothpicks to the other side of his mouth and asks about her niece, Laura, and Laura’s nineteen-month-old son, Todd. Virginia warns him off, but Rudy is intrigued. Laura is movie star beautiful but it is her ex-husband, Phillip, who is an actor. Laura, a writer, is devastated when Todd’s nanny calls, hysterical, saying Laura’s son has been kidnapped.

Title: Escape
Author: Barbara Delinsky
Received: From Laura @ Laura Sherlock PR
Synopsis: Publication Date: July 5, 2011
In her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage—and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best.

Emily Aulenbach is thirty, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with vic¬tims of tainted bottled water—and she is on the bottler’s side.

And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things—her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: When You Were Older
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis:
I was doing my best to get out the door. And then the phone rang. I almost let it go.

New York, September 11th 2001
Russell Ammiano is rushing to work when he gets a phone call that saves his life. As the city he loves is hit by unimaginable tragedy, Russell must turn his back and hurry home to Kansas.

Kansas, September 14th 2001
Ben Ammiano is mentally disabled, and a creature of habit. Any change to his routine sends him into a spin. But now his estranged brother has reappeared, and Ben’s simple, ordered world has turned upside down.

In a story as heartbreaking as it is uplifting, two brothers must bury their pasts and learn from each other, if they are to survive.

April 1, 2012
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What’s in My Mailbox: Week of March 25
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What’s in My Mailbox: Week of March 25

Title: The Song Remains the Same
Author: Allison Winn Scotch
Received: Lisa @ SparkPoint Studio
Synopsis: One of only two survivors of a plane crash, Nell Slattery wakes in the hospital with no memory of the horrific experience-or who she is, or was. Now she must piece together both body and mind, with the help of family and friends, who have their own agendas. She filters through photos, art, music, and stories, hoping something will jog her memory, and soon, in tiny bits and pieces, Nell starts remembering. . . .
It isn’t long before she learns to question the stories presented by her mother, her sister and business partner, and her husband. In the end, she will discover that forgiving betrayals small and large will be the only true path to healing herself-and to finding happiness.

Title: Save Me
Author: Lisa Scottoline
Received: Via SheKnows Book Lounge
Synopsis: From the New York Times bestselling author of Think Twice and Look Again comes an emotionally powerful novel about a split-second choice, agonizing consequences, and the need for justice
Rose McKenna volunteers as a lunch mom in her daughter Melly’s school in order to keep an eye on Amanda, a mean girl who’s been bullying her daughter. Her fears come true when the bullying begins, sending Melly to the bathroom in tears. Just as Rose is about to follow after her daughter, a massive explosion goes off in the kitchen, sending the room into chaos. Rose finds herself faced with the horrifying decision of whether or not to run to the bathroom to rescue her daughter or usher Amanda to safety. She believes she has accomplished both, only to discover that Amanda, for an unknown reason, ran back into the school once out of Rose’s sight. In an instance, Rose goes from hero to villain as the small community blames Amanda’s injuries on her. In the days that follow, Rose’s life starts to fall to pieces, Amanda’s mother decides to sue, her marriage is put to the test, and worse, when her daughter returns to school, the bullying only intensifies. Rose must take matters into her own hands and get down to the truth of what really happened that fateful day in order to save herself, her marriage and her family.
In the way that Look Again had readers questioning everything they thought they knew about family, Save Me will have readers wondering just how far they would go to save the ones they love. Lisa Scottoline is writing about real issues that resonate with real women, and the results are emotional, heartbreaking and honest.

Title: How to Eat a Cupcake
Author: Meg Donohue
Received: From Meg Donohue
Synopsis: Free-spirited Annie Quintana and sophisticated Julia St. Clair come from two different worlds. Yet, as the daughter of the St. Clairs’ housekeeper, Annie grew up in Julia’s San Francisco mansion and they forged a bond that only two little girls oblivious to class differences could—until a life-altering betrayal destroyed their friendship.
A decade later, Annie bakes to fill the void left in her heart by her mother’s death, and a painful secret jeopardizes Julia’s engagement to the man she loves. A chance reunion prompts the unlikely duo to open a cupcakery, but when a mysterious saboteur opens up old wounds, they must finally face the truth about their past or risk losing everything.

Title: Gossip
Author: Beth Gutcheon
Received: From Leyane @ FSB Associates
Synopsis: “Did you know that the origin of the word gossip in English is ‘god-sibling’? It’s the talk between people who are godparents to the same child, people who have a legitimate loving interest in the person they talk about. It’s talk that weaves a net of support and connection beneath the people you want to protect.”
Loviah “Lovie” French owns a small, high-end dress shop on Manhattan’s Upper East Side. Renowned for her taste and discretion, Lovie is the one to whom certain women turn when they need “just the thing” for major life events—baptisms and balls, weddings and funerals—or when they just want to dish in the dressing room. Among the people who depend on Lovie’s confidence are her two best friends since boarding school: Dinah Wainwright and Avis Metcalf.
Outspoken and brimming with confidence, Dinah made a name for herself as a columnist covering the doings of New York’s wealthiest and most fabulous. Shy, proper Avis, in many ways Dinah’s opposite, rose to prominence in the art world with her quiet manners, hard work, and precise judgment. Despite the deep affection they both feel for Lovie, they have been more or less allergic to each other since a minor incident decades earlier that has been remembered and resented with what will prove to be unimaginable consequences.
These uneasy acquaintances become unwillingly bound to each other when Dinah’s favorite son and Avis’s only daughter fall in love and marry. On the surface, Nick and Grace are the perfect match—a playful, romantic, buoyant, and beautiful pair. But their commitment will be strained by time and change: career setbacks, reckless choices, the birth of a child, jealousies, and rumor. At the center of their orbit is Lovie, who knows everyone’s secrets and manages them as wisely as she can. Which is not wisely enough, as things turn out—a fact that will have a shattering effect on all their lives.
An astute chronicler of everything that makes us human, Beth Gutcheon delivers her most powerful and emotionally devastating novel to date. Gossip is a tale of intimacy and betrayal, trust and fidelity, friendship, competition, and motherhood that explores the myriad ways we use and abuse “information” about others—be it true, false, or imagined—to sustain, and occasionally destroy, one another.

In Sara’s Mailbox:
Title: Stiletto Safari
Author: Kate Metz
Received by: Kate Metz
Synopsis: Zara Hamilton has it all – a glamorous New York lifestyle, a gorgeous (and seriously rich) boyfriend and a job as a lawyer in a prestigious city law firm. But when Zara’s boyfriend is accused of insider trading her perfect world implodes. Thrown out of work by security and stalked by the press, Zara’s life can’t get any worse. Or can it? A snap decision (and a few wines too many) sees Zara fleeing to Africa to work as a temporary wildlife volunteer. But just when things start to cool down at home Zara realises her troubles have only just begun. Will Zara’s designer wardrobe survive? Will a supermodel ruin her only chance at happiness? Can a Birkin bag really solve her problems? And will Zara want her old life back at the end of it all….

Title: Falling Uphill
Author: Wendy Tokunaga
Received by: Wendy Tokunaga
Synopsis: Ruth Fenton is dead, but what does that have to do with me?” That’s what Candace Grey, 29, wants to know after receiving a puzzling phone message from San Francisco. A bright, but slightly absent-minded anthropology teacher at a small Michigan college, Candace is all set to leave for Los Angeles to conduct research on 1960s TV star Pamela Parrish—America’s Sitcom Sweetheart—for her Master’s thesis on television and female gender roles. But after discovering that Ruth Fenton is a long lost relative, she’s first off to San Francisco for her memorial service where she meets a crazy(?) old lady who claims Pamela Parrish didn’t commit suicide like everybody says—she was murdered. Now Candace has to get to the bottom of it, all while fighting the nagging feeling that her long-time professor boyfriend back home is getting a little too close to one of his students, and at the same time wondering if new-found friend Brandon, a newspaper reporter and budding painter who lives on a hidden stairway street in the hills of San Francisco, is really the guy for her. It’s a funny, but moving, uphill climb for Candace who finds that things are rarely what they seem in the ups and downs of love or in discovering a surprising secret about her not-so-perfect mother, or unearthing the truth behind the death of America’s Sitcom Sweetheart.

Title: Offbeat Love Stories & More
Author: Jennifer Lafferty
Received by: Jennifer Lafferty
Synopsis: A collection of humorous and unique short stories by noted fiction and nonfiction author Jennifer K. Lafferty. The majority of the stories center on love and romance. The pieces are an eclectic mix, ranging from historic farce, such as “Make Believe”, to contemporary comedy/dramas like “A New Verse”, and “It Happened at the Mall”. Other genres are represented by such stories as the suspense filled “A Familiar Place”, and the lighthearted coming of age tale “The Prom Date”. The characters are colorful, witty and multi-dimensional. The writing style is original and imaginative. Selections include: A New Verse, Periwinkle 26, Choices, Make Believe, It Happened at the Mall, A Familiar Place, Eye on the Prize, Overseas Adoption, Chance Meeting, Riddles and Jingles, The Surprise, The Prom Date, The Anniversary Gift, Unlikely Friends.

March 25, 2012
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Hilary Duff Welcomes Baby Boy
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Hilary Duff Welcomes Baby Boy

It’s a boy for Hilary Duff! The actress, 24, gave birth to son Luca Cruz on Tuesday, March 20. Duff wrote on her Twitter: “Welcome to the World Luca Cruz Comrie! Tuesday evening, we became proud parents of a healthy 7 pound 6 ounce beautiful boy. We are overjoyed and feel like the luckiest parents in the world. He is surrounded by so much love!! Mom and baby are both doing extremely well.” This is the first child for Duff and husband Mike Comrie. The couple married in August of 2010.

March 23, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 18
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 18

In My Mailbox: Week of March 18

Title: Interview with a Jewish Vampire
Author: Erica Manfred
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The last thing zaftig middle-aged journalist, Rhoda Ginsburg, expected when she signed up for JDate was to fall in love with a vampire. But when she meets drop-dead gorgeous Sheldon, a Hasidic vampire, she falls hard. She rationalizes that he may not be alive, but at least he’s Jewish.

She learns that back in the nineteenth century Sheldon was a rabbi who was turned into a vampire by Count Dracula, an anti-Semite who got his kicks from turning Orthodox Jews into vampires because then they’d have to drink blood, which isn’t kosher.

Soon after she meets Sheldon, she discovers her beloved mother, Fanny, is terminally ill, so she comes up with the crackpot idea of getting Sheldon to turn Fanny and her friends, known as “the goils,” into vampires. Once she becomes a vampire, Fanny tires of her boring life in Century Village, Florida, and, seeking thrills, she goes clubbing and disappears into the nightlife of South Beach in Miami. When Fanny and her goil posse “go rogue” and start preying on the young, Rhoda and Sheldon must track them down to keep them from killing again.

Interview with a Jewish Vampire turns vampire lore on its head, proving that not all vampires are young and beautiful and it IS possible to be undead and kosher.

Title: Kiss Me, Dancer
Author: Alicia & Roy Street
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: A roller coaster of a romance between a divorced dad and a dance teacher.

Ballet instructor Casey Richardson takes an immediate dislike to the brash, arrogant Drew Byrne when he pulls his nine-year-old son out of her “silly” dance class. Still, she cannot help noticing his smoking hot body and bedroom eyes.

A working class girl raised in the small fishing and farming community on Long Island’s rural North Fork, Casey knows all too well how easily a girl can get hurt by the notorious womanizing hunks that flourish on the South Fork in the Hamptons. Men like Drew Byrne.

The last thing she needs is for him to be the only one who can save her from losing her dance academy, the dream she has worked so hard to turn into a reality.

Remarrying is definitely off Drew’s list of things to do. As head of his Fortune 500 trucking company, he enjoys his wealth and has no problem keeping it a game with some of the world’s most beautiful women. So why should his son’s challenging, straight talking dance teacher get under his skin in a way no other female has?

Sure, Casey Richardson has luminous brown eyes and a lean, taut body that drives him nuts, but he’s seen plenty in his day with the supermodels he is used to dating. He tells himself it is because Casey is the only one who was able to bring his shy, uncommunicative son out of his shell. But even that isn’t it.

Bewildered, Drew decides he just might make use of those ridiculous psychic readings he won at North Cove’s Annual Fourth Of July Bazaar raffle. Little does he know the local psychic who donated the readings has taken off last minute for some trekking in Tibet —and Casey was swayed into substituting for her with phone readings to the anonymous winner.

Add in a stint on a hit TV dance-off series, a cozy local coffee shop, a narcissistic rock star and a protective big brother to make KISS ME, DANCER a sexy, heartfelt and fun read.

Title: Skin Rules
Author: Debra Jaliman, M.D
Received: From Leyane @ FSB Associates
Synopsis: Skin Rules is a concise and practical instruction manual from a renowned Fifth Avenue dermatologist on how to attain beautiful skin, a taut and sculpted body, and a much younger appearance. Actors, models, and newscasters go to Dr. Jaliman for her cutting-edge technology and the latest in skin care, as well as for her reputation for being the “last stop” doctor, the one who fixes what others can’t.

Skin Rules has something for everyone, no matter where they live or how much money they have to spend. This small, invaluable guide supplies the same advice Dr. Jaliman gives to her celebrity patients, from lasers to remove sun damage and turn back the clock to suggestions for simple products and habits anyone can adopt for a small outlay of time and money.

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: Prince Charming, Inc
Author: Jamie Brazil
Received by: Jamie Brazil
Synopsis: From long haul drivers to plumbers, matchmaker Elyse Tobin refurbishes and retrains men then sells them off as husbands to wealthy San Francisco socialites.

Womanizing lothario Nick Salvatore is a millionaire restaurateur with looks, charm and wit. He’s the man Elyse models all her fixer-uppers after…the man who seduced her three years ago…and the one man in San Francisco she wants nothing to do with, despite his ongoing efforts to woo her.

But when Elyse’s latest groom goes south, the IRS audits her, and her home is about to be foreclosed, she discovers the one man she can count on is the one she’s spent years avoiding.

Title: Letters from a Stranger
Author: Barbara Taylor Bradford
Received by: Ann-Marie Nieves @ Get Red PR
Synopsis: Justine Nolan is a documentary film maker who lost her beloved grandmother a decade ago—the person who was the only source of love and comfort in her life. Her own mother Deborah had always been distant and uninvolved, following her own agenda in pursuit of her career as an interior designer. But when Justine inadvertently opens a letter addressed to her mother, she discovers that not only is her grandmother Gabri alive, but that Deborah has deliberately estranged the family from her for all these years. Justine’s search for her grandmother takes her to Istanbul where she begins to uncover the family’s secrets that stretch all the way back to World War II. As the layers of deception peel away, Justine begins to understand a woman she never really knew…and she begins to ask questions about the true desires of her own heart.

Title: Words Get In The Way
Author: Nan Parson Rossiter
Received by: Unsolicited
Synopsis: The modest ranch house where Callie Wyeth grew up looks just as she remembers it – right down to the well-worn sheets in the linen closet. But in the years since Callie lived here, almost everything else has changed. Her father, once indomitable, is in poor health. And Callie is a single mother with a beautiful little boy, Henry, who has just been diagnosed with autism. Returning to this quiet New Hampshire community seems the best thing to do, for both her father and her son’s sake. Even if it means facing Linden Finch, the one she loved and left for reasons she’s sure he’ll never forgive. Linden is stunned that Callie is back – and that she has a son. Yet in the warm, funny relationship that develops between Henry and Linden’s menagerie of rescued farm animals, Callie begins to find hope. Not just that her son might break through the wall of silence separating him from the world, but that she too can make a new start amid the places and people that have never left her heart…

Title: The Boy Who Fell To Earth
Author: Kathy Lette
Received by: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Meet Merlin. He’s Lucy’s bright, beautiful son – who just happens to be autistic. Since Merlin’s father left them in the lurch shortly after his diagnosis, Lucy has made Merlin the centre of her world. Struggling with the joys and tribulations of raising her eccentrically adorable yet challenging child, (if only Merlin came with operating instructions) Lucy doesn’t have room for any other man in her life. By the time Merlin turns ten, Lucy is seriously worried that the Pope might start ringing her up for tips on celibacy, so resolves to dip a poorly pedicured toe back into the world of dating. Thanks to Merlin’s candour and quirkiness, things don’t go quite to plan…Then, just when Lucy’s resigned to a life of singledom once more, Archie – the most imperfectly perfect man for her and her son – lands on her doorstep. But then, so does Merlin’s father, begging for forgiveness and a second chance. Does Lucy need a real father for Merlin – or a real partner for herself?

Title: The Cinderella Blues
Author: Obren Bokich
Received by: Austine Martin @ Black Bear Media
Synopsis: The Cinderella Blues (Thuh Sin’dur-rel’uh Bluze)
The phenomena whereby otherwise intelligent, capable, successful professional women are convinced they need rescuing by a prince.
A smart character-driven romantic comedy about a young professional woman with a hyperactive fantasy life, “Romancing The Stone” meets “The Office.”

March 18, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 11
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 11

In My Mailbox: Week of March 11

Title: Finding Felicity
Author: Monica Marlowe
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: When Madeline O’Connor learns that her estranged sister is gravely ill, she leaves behind her life in Manhattan to be at her sister’s side in Italy. There, she discovers an ancient Benedictine monastery that accommodates travelers, and she decides to stay there, among the monks. Everything in her life turns upside down when she falls for Brother Anthony Lamberti, a soft-spoken Italian completely different from the men she knows in New York. Together Madeline and Anthony find love for the first time, and learn that life and love always find a way. When her sister dies, a new life for Madeline begins. A new life that she would never have imagined and yet is perfect for her in every way.

Title: Designer Dirty Laundry
Author: Diane Vallere
Received: From Diane Vallere
Synopsis: Samantha Kidd, ex-buyer turned Trend Specialist, designed her future with couture precision, but finding the Fashion Director’s corpse on day one leaves her hanging by a thread. When the killer fabricates evidence that puts the cops on her hemline, she trades high fashion for dirty laundry and reveals a cast of characters out for blood. Now this flatfoot in heels must keep pace with a diabolical designer before she gets marked down for murder.

Title: The Wedding Beat
Author: Devan Sipher
Received: From Erin @ The Penguin Group
Synopsis: Sometimes the best man isn’t even in the wedding party…

Gavin Greene is a hopeless romantic. He’s also a professional one: He writes the wedding column for a Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper, covering spectacular parties from coast to coast. But there’s a thin line between being a hotshot reporter on assignment…and being a single guy alone on a Saturday night at someone else’s wedding.

Everything changes on New Year’s when Gavin meets Melinda, a travel writer with an adventurous spirit. A moonlit stroll across a Manhattan rooftop seems to seal the deal. But then she slips away.

Gavin crisscrosses New York City to find her again, navigating stressed-out brides, gossip blogs, a budget-cutting boss and his daft but well-meaning parents. Along the way, he learns that there’s something worse than losing the woman of his dreams — having to write an article about her wedding.

March 11, 2012
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February Birchbox Review
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February Birchbox Review

February’s Birchbox was my favorite so far! I had three favorite products this month, and my March box has just been shipped so I can’t wait to get that. Read my reviews and sign up to receive your own Birchbox each month!

“Birchbox delivers the best products and the best insider secrets, without any fuss. Every month Birchbox members will receive a curated box of luxe beauty samples. Each box will span beauty categories and deliver exciting products that fit into both your day-to-day routine, and into those days when you want to turn up the drama a notch.”

1. BENTA Berry G-1 Moisturizing Face Cream – Loved this product! It was a thick cream that smells like berries and left my face feeling soft. I read in the information that this is actually a uni-sex product, but I have to say I thought it was much more feminine due to the scent. I also read in the information that the product just became available statewide, which is pretty interesting. I would definitely purchase more of this!
2. Jouer Luminizing Moisture Tint – Another favorite for February! Jouer has been featured in all my previous boxes, and this brand is quickly becoming a fave of mine. I wear moisturizer every day, and always with a SPF – even in the winter. This product has SPF 20 included, and makes my skin look dewy and smooth. It gives just the right amount of tint to my look so I can skip any bronzer that I would normally put on, and I would recommend this product!
3. Violent Lips Lip Tattoo – this is one that I wasn’t so sure about. To be honest, I never tried this product because I really have no interest in it. The tattoo’s are basically like a lipstick, but they stick on to your lips and our pretty over the top. Mine came as silver with sparkles in them – not something I think would fly in Iowa. These were a little too out there for my taste.
4. Dermalogica Daily Microfoliant – My third favorite in the box! I thought this one was pretty unique, it’s actually a powder that you put on your hands and then add water to it and apply to the face. The product is made to smooth skin, clear dead cells, and remove any buildup and debris on the face. It smells kind of like oranges too, and I really enjoy using this!
5. Supersmile Powdered Mouth Rinse – I wasn’t a real big fan of this product. I’m big on whitening my teeth, and I thought the powder mixture combined with the whiten teeth and get fresh breath all in one would end up being a favorite, but that wasn’t the case. Actually using it wasn’t so bad, but it made my teeth feel really grimy afterwards. I would actually brush my teeth to try to get rid of the feeling after I was done using it, because I couldn’t stand what my teeth felt like. Not one I would recommend.

March 6, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 4
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In My Mailbox: Week of March 4

In My Mailbox: Week of March 4

Title: Taking Shots
Author: Toni Aleo
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Elli Fisher has never thought she was good enough. Let it be her job, her weight, her love life; nothing. She has walked through life for the past six years in a daze, never thinking that life could be good again after the abuse she endured from her ex-boyfriend. She is lonely, sad, and depressed, that is until she meets Shea Adler. After doing a promotional shoot for the NHL team, the Nashville Assassins, she meets the hunky hockey player who shoots a puck, shattering her world.

Shea Adler is tired of the life he was living outside of the rink. The girls, the money blowing, the drinking, everything had to stop and it all did when he met Eleanor Fisher. He had never met anyone like her. She is feisty, witty, shy, and simply gorgeous. When he laid eyes on her, it was as if he was taking the hardest hit of his life into the boards, and he had to have her. Elli is a little skeptical of Shea, but he knows that they are meant to be together, and he needs her in his life.

But Elli just doesn’t understand what Shea could see in her. She is overweight, loud, and not even that pretty, so why would someone so gorgeous and so amazing want to be with her? It seems that no matter how hard she tries to shake Shea off, he isn’t going anywhere, and for the first time, Elli doesn’t feel alone.
But can Elli throw her insecurities out the window and love Shea with everything inside of her? Or will she let a past relationship, and her family ruin any chance of her being happy?

Would Elli miss her shot at love?

Title: A Contented Mind
Author: Samantha Hoffman
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Bestselling novelist Meg Scott thought she was content traveling no further than the places she created within her mind. But when a troubled fan breaks into her home she reacts less like herself and more like a character from one of her novels. Packing up her Irish setter and violin, she leaves her secluded home behind. Soon she discovers, what’s waiting for her on the West Coast, is more than just a change of scenery.
Standing on the balcony of her new beach-front home with her violin, Meg hopes to set free forty years of sadness, but in the process creates a melody her new neighbor can’t ignore. With gentle hands on the piano he works to match her note for note.
But when her best friend Devon Hathaway uses his connections in the music industry to arrange a once in a lifetime audition for a rock band in need of a violinist for their new acoustic album, Meg jumps at the chance, and lands the gig. Shaking hands with the band’s drummer, Jadon Hastings, she finds more than just inspiration for her latest novel.
Swept away with the whirlwind of a European tour, Meg plants her feet on what feels like solid ground. Standing in the place where she can finally grasp everything she’s ever wanted it’s snatched away with one strategic move by Devon, who isn’t ready to give up hope that one day she’ll be his.
Finding her inner strength, and the courage to use it, Meg rips apart the lies that were carefully used to reshape her world, just to discover – those you trust – can’t always be trusted.

Title: Horse Play
Author: Jo Carnegie
Received: Transworld Publishers, Unsolicited
Synopsis: Churchminster village – picturesque, quaint, sleepy – OR NOT… A place where women know exactly what they want, and it’s not cream tea with the vicar. A place where anything can happen . . . so be careful what you wish for. And a place where the men had better behave . . . because the girls won’t take it lying down (well, not unless they want to!)

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: Cappuccino is the Answer for Job Dissatisfaction
Author: Hillary E. Peak
Received: From Hillary E. Peak
Synopsis: Jessica planned to change the world. She’s stunned to realize that job after crazy job presents strange characters and no real means to achieve her goal. Her solace from the daily insanity is found in a re-invigorating cappuccino. Moving from job to job and cappuccino to cappuccino, Jessica is certain success is just around the corner. She plots the next step to reach her goals and ultimate job satisfaction, but how to get there? Perhaps if she grabs another cappuccino, the answer will come to her . . .

Title: The Stork Reality Secrets from the Underbelly
Author: Malena Lott
Received: Cyndy Hoenig of PURE PR
Synopsis: Taylor Montgomery never intended to get pregnant—she’s got too much invested as a creative director at a top Dallas advertising company. Her husband, equally ambitious Jake, is a lawyer who shares Taylor’s priorities: “[w]ork, sex, travel,” is their happy routine. After those fateful pink lines appear on a test strip, it threatens everything: prenatal pressure drives Jake away, threatens Taylor’s job and leaves her an emotional wreck. The next several months follow the couple rediscovering their value to each other, developing more intimacy and honesty, and embracing their new lives. Unfortunately, the story does only what you expect it to, conflicts are easily smoothed over and supporting characters are strictly of the heart-of-gold variety—even the ultracompetitive lawyers at Jake’s firm and the vain womanizer Taylor works with. Lott’s attempt to engage the ambivalent “reality” of impending parenthood is too pat to carry any weight—the novel proves so sweet, you’ll end up craving a pickle whether you’re pregnant or not, just to add a little edge.

Title: Taking Charge
Author: Mandy Baggot
Received: From Mandy Baggot
Synopsis: Is going back Robyn’s only way forward?
American-born Robyn Matthers is going home. With her dad in hospital, his roadhouse in ruins and the ice hockey team slipping down the league, she needs to take charge. But does she have the strength to do it?
Cole Ryan is a hockey player on a personal mission. He’s tall, dark, hot and Robyn’s noticed! But can she trust her feelings – or his? And what will Cole do when he finds out the truth about her?
With an ill father, a trailer trash step-mom and ex-boyfriend Brad desperate for another chance, does Robyn have time to contemplate a relationship? Can she start again? Does she really want to? And can two people really fall in love in three days?

Title: The Break-Up Test
Author: Rose McClelland
Received: Laurence of Crooked Cat Publishing
Synopsis: Meet Amy, Beth and Sarah. All intelligent women with one thing in common – a bad taste in men!
Amy receives seductive texts from Gav and promptly skips round to his house for a mid-afternoon romp. She never planned it that way. Maybe one day he’ll actually fall in love with her?
Beth sits at her desk, her mobile phone propped up in front of her keyboard. Anytime soon it’ll light up like the Blackpool Illuminations, and Karl will finally get in touch about that drink. It’s been five days…
Sarah is seeing Stephen, trying to believe his claim that although he shares a bed with his ex, Kat, they aren’t sleeping together. She can’t believe it’s turned into one of THOSE stories you read about in women’s weeklies.
Then Jamie comes along with his Break-Up Test and turns their lives upside down.
Will Gav, Karl and Stephen suddenly sniff the competition and clean up their acts?
And what exactly is in it for Jamie?

Title: The Book Lover
Author: Maryann McFadden
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: Ruth Hardaway has had one passion all her life: books. For thirty years she’s devoted her life to her book store, trying to bury her painful past. But now the store is in jeopardy, and the past is catching up with her. Lucinda Barrett lost everything in a life-shattering betrayal. Desperate, she goes after one last dream – to be an author. Alone and broke, she embarks on a journey, eventually landing on Ruth’s doorstep. Ruth takes Lucy under her wing, championing her book and even offering her refuge at a nearby lake cabin. In return, she wants Lucy to keep an eye on her son, Colin, who’s recovering from a war injury. As the two women grow closer and begin to face the past, neither has any idea that their toughest decisions lie ahead – or that their friendship is about to fall apart because of a little white lie.

Title: Love & Marriage
Author: Patricia Scanlan
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis: When love flies out the window married life can be hell. With an unplanned baby on the way, a newly-wed daughter whose marriage is already in trouble, a teenager who won’t eat and doesn’t think there’s anything wrong with her, and, hiding secrets from each other, Barry and Aimee are on a rocky road. When love flies in the window ex-wives can cause a lot of trouble. And Marianna is going to cause as much trouble as she possibly can to make sure that her former husband is not going to waltz down the aisle with his new love. Families in crisis, passion, tragedy, and the healing powers of love – Patricia Scanlan’s brilliant and heartwarming new novel re-introduces us to the characters in “Forgive and Forget” and “Happy Ever After”, and brings their story to a triumphant conclusion.

March 4, 2012
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In My Mailbox: Week of February 26
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of February 26

In My Mailbox: Week of February 26

Title: Home Front
Author: Kristin Hannah
Received: For the SheKnows Book Club
Synopsis: In her bestselling novels Kristin Hannah has plumbed the depths of friendship, the loyalty of sisters, and the secrets mothers keep. Now, in her most emotionally powerful story yet, she explores the intimate landscape of a troubled marriage with this provocative and timely portrait of a husband and wife, in love and at war.
All marriages have a breaking point. All families have wounds. All wars have a cost. . . .
Like many couples, Michael and Jolene Zarkades have to face the pressures of everyday life—children, careers, bills, chores—even as their twelve-year marriage is falling apart. Then an unexpected deployment sends Jolene deep into harm’s way and leaves defense attorney Michael at home, unaccustomed to being a single parent to their two girls. As a mother, it agonizes Jolene to leave her family, but as a solider she has always understood the true meaning of duty. In her letters home, she paints a rose-colored version of her life on the front lines, shielding her family from the truth. But war will change Jolene in ways that none of them could have foreseen. When tragedy strikes, Michael must face his darkest fear and fight a battle of his own—for everything that matters to his family.
At once a profoundly honest look at modern marriage and a dramatic exploration of the toll war takes on an ordinary American family, Home Front is a story of love, loss, heroism, honor, and ultimately, hope.

Title: Vivid
Author: Andrea Murray
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: When Vivian Cartwright was five years old, she witnessed her mother’s death.

Now, sixteen-year-old Vivian only wants a normal life—hard to accomplish when you possess the power to control energy. Her entire life she has feared her power and its connection to her mother’s murder. She has kept her ability a secret from everyone except her guardian, Charlotte, who has hidden Vivian from the man responsible for her mother’s murder.

Her secret is safe until Vivian subconsciously defends herself at school using her power. After this first use of her gift in many years, Vivian’s power seems to take on a mind of its own, increasing in strength and demanding to be used. This increase in power also brings dreams of her mother’s death and the mysterious man connected with it. When she is assigned to tutor the would-be boyfriend of Trista Parmer (a.k.a. the biggest diva in school), Vivian cannot deny the electrifying connection that she feels for the boy, Easton Garrett. In her desire to get Easton away from Vivian, Trista doubles her efforts to humiliate Vivian, forcing Vivian to use her supernatural gift over and over. With each use, Vivian fears she is losing control and discovers her powers are growing—maybe too much—bringing her unknowingly closer to the man who murdered her mother.

Title: Run Rabbit Run
Author: Kate Johnson
Received: From Choc Lit
Synopsis: Sophie’s in trouble. Must be Tuesday.

Sophie Green’s an ex-spy, or trying to be. You wouldn’t believe the trouble she’s in. An MI5 officer has been shot with her gun, her fingerprints all over his office. And no, she didn’t kill him.

But she has gone on the run.

Now Sophie’s desperately seeking whoever’s trying to frame and kill her. She’s being forced to work with the least trustworthy man in Europe, MI5 is following her every move, and she’s had to leave the tall, blond, god of a man she loves behind.

Luke Sharpe works for MI6. Or did, until his girlfriend became a murder suspect.

Doing nothing wasn’t an option, so he started investigating. Who cares if it is means jeopardising his career? Sophie’s everything he used to say he never wanted. Young, irresponsible, bright and mad. Now she’s just everything – and she has to live.

She will live, won’t she?

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: Miracle’s Pain
Author: JT Keitt
Received: From Lauren @ AuthorRight
Synopsis: From the beginning, Patricia Ann Hall knew she had a secret. Within a darkness of shouting voices that only she could hear, inside a world only her eyes could see, she grasped onto a deadly Miracle that although cruel and deceptive, offered her the only escape. Sex was the weapon. Money was the bait. Sanity was the vehicle. And someone had to suffer. Patricia s daughter Symphony finds that even she can t erase the melody of the madness as her past catches up to her, and everything she thought was real reveals its true identity. But is it too late? Miracle s Pain is part two of Secrets of my Soul, the novel that began this twisted tale of mystery; a trilogy that leads to A Promise Fulfilled.

Title: The Book of Lost Fragrances
Author: MJ Rose
Received: Lindsay @ Media Muscle
Synopsis: A Secret Worth Dying For …
Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by visions of the past, her earliest memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up with as the heir to a storied French perfume company. These worsened after her mother’s suicide until she finally found a doctor who helped her, teaching her to explore the mythological symbolism in her visions and thus lessen their painful impact. This ability led Jac to a wildly successful career as a mythologist, television personality and author.
When her brother, Robbie—who’s taken over the House of L’Etoile from their father—contacts Jac about a remarkable discovery in the family archives, she’s skeptical. But when Robbie goes missing before he can share the secret—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.
Traveling back to Paris to investigate Robbie’s disappearance, Jac discovers that the secret is a mysterious scent developed in Cleopatra’s time. Could the rumors swirling be true? Can this ancient perfume hold the power to unlock the ability to remember past lives and conclusively prove reincarnation? If this possession has the power to change the world, then it’s not only worth living for . . . it’s worth killing for, too.
The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion and suspense in an intoxicating web that moves from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. This marvelous, spellbinding novel mixes the sensory allure of Perfume with the heartbreaking beauty of The Time Traveler’s Wife, coming to life as richly as our most wildly imagined dreams.

February 26, 2012
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