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In My Mailbox: Week of June 19

In My Mailbox: Week of June 19, 2011

Title: The Dumpster
Author: Becky Due
Received: From Becky Due
Synopsis: Nicole, a cute, chubby, twenty-something woman, is looking for love in all the wrong places. Who would have guessed that a dumpster in the back alley below her bedroom window would hold the key to finding love?

Title: Hotel No Tell
Author: Daphne Uviller
Received: From Crystal @ Book Sparks PR
Synopsis: Now working as a junior detective with the New York City Special Investigations Commission, Zephyr’s gone incognito as a concierge to find out who laundered a hundred grand off the hotel books—and why. But the discovery of a prone, flush-faced guest gasping for air in room 502 only hints at the sinister goings-on inside this funky establishment. While the rapid response of the fire department leads to a sweaty date with a smooth-talking, rock-climbing rescue worker, Zephyr finds herself even more hot and bothered by an attempted murder on her watch. Could the smart-mouthed Japanese yenta across the hall know more than she’s telling? How are cryptic phone calls from a mysterious corporation linked to the victim in 502?

Under pressure and overwhelmed, Zephyr soon finds that a concierge cover is no protection in a place where crime, like the city itself, never sleeps.

Title: Stay
Author: Allie Larkin
Received: From Crystal @ Book Sparks PR
Synopsis: Savannah “Van” Leone has loved Peter since the day they met. The problem is, Peter has loved Van’s best friend, Janie, since the moment they met. And now they’re walking down the aisle, with Van standing nearby in a Halloween orange bridesmaid dress, her smile as hollow as a jack-o-lantern. After the wedding, Van drowns her sorrows in Kool Aid-vodka cocktails and reruns of Rin-Tin-Tin, and does what any woman in her situation would do: She buys a German Shepherd over the internet.
The pocket-sized puppy Van is expecting turns out to be a clumsy, hundred-pound beast that only responds to Slovakian. Van is at the end of her rope—until she realizes that this quirky giant may be the only living being who will always be loyal to her, no matter what. And thus begins a friendship that will alter Van’s life in ways she never imagined.
Joe leads Van to Dr. Alex Brandt, a rugged vet with floppy blond hair and winning smile. But just as things are starting to heat up, the newlyweds return from their honeymoon, forcing Van to decide just how much she’s willing to sacrifice in order to have everything she ever wanted. Warm and witty, poignant and funny, Stay marks the arrival of an irresistible new voice.

Title: Faking It
Author: Elisa Lorello
Received: From a friend
Synopsis: Thirty-four-year old professor Andi Cutrone has broken up with her fiancé in Massachusetts , moved back to her native New York, and wants to be a better lover. So after meeting Devin, a handsome, charming escort, she proposes an unusual arrangement: lessons about writing in exchange for lessons about sex. When Devin accepts Andi’s proposal, he draws up a contract in which the two are forbidden to see each other socially. There’s just one problem: Andi also wants Devin.
Halfway into their arrangement, Devin and Andi break the rules of their contract and begin spending time together outside their weekly tutorials of drafting essays and dancing while stripped down. As they grow closer, Andi struggles to hide her feelings from Devin and accept herself as just another client while Devin attempts to maintain a “business as usual” attitude. Enter Sam, a New England professor with whom Andi begins a long distance relationship.
As their protective layers peel away, Andi and Devin discover each other ‘faking it’ and hiding their true selves from the world. However, once fully uncovered, both must decide how (and with whom) they will honor these truths. Will she give up her New York life for Sam? Will she hold out for Devin? Is it even possible to be in love with two men?
Faking It is a witty, sometimes hilarious, sometimes heart-wrenching story about relationships, writing, and getting real.

A Boy for Natalie Portman!

It’s a boy for Natalie Portman! People.com revealed that the Oscar winning actress, 30, and her fiancé, Benjamin Millepied, welcomed a baby boy into their lives. No word on the name or any other details as of yet have been released. This is the first child for the couple, who met on the set of Black Swan.

Crystal Harris Splits from Hugh Hefner

Well who saw this one coming? Just four days before their much anticipated nuptials, the wedding between Hugh Hefner and Crystal Harris has been officially…

In My Mailbox: Week of June 12

In My Mailbox: Week of June 12, 2011

Title: Do Not Lick the Phones
Author: Britney Bronte
Received: From Britney Bronte/CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The True Confessions of a TV Psychic! A sparkling romcom based on the true life adventures of Britney Bronte, hapless wannabe celebrity psychic.

Meet Britney, a girl with a pack of cards and almost no ambition, who finds herself jetset to stardom on psychic Television. Will she find fame? Inner meaning? True love?

Crazies and conmen, angels and aliens, predictions and porn, they’re all to be found in this whistleblowing romp through the New Age. You’ll laugh, you’ll cry, you’ll howl… but whatever you do, remember please, DO NOT LICK THE PHONES!

Title: The D Word
Author: Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke
Received: From Crystal @ Book Sparks PR for blog tour
Synopsis: Jordan Daniels and Elle Ryan thought their lives would become less complicated when they walked away from their respective relationships one year ago. But instead, they find themselves vying for a relationship with the same divorced man.

As a spiritual counselor, newly single mother Jordan Daniels makes her living predicting other people’s futures. If only she could foresee her own. A year after filing for divorce from her husband, Kevin, he seems to be the one moving on effortlessly, while Jordan still can’t bring herself to fill his old underwear drawer. But it’s not until Jordan’s polar opposite, Elle steals Kevin’s heart, that Jordan becomes convinced she’ll be replaced both as a wife and a mother to her five-year-old son, Max.

When Elle met Kevin, the last thing she wanted was another relationship. Especially not with a man with baggage-she already had enough of her own. She left her fiancé, Chase right before their wedding to avoid the imminent D word, something she’s convinced runs in her family like a disease. But a year later, she’s no closer to becoming less skeptical about marriage. And despite her attachment to Kevin and his son, when Elle sees just how far Jordan’s willing to go to win Kevin back, Elle starts to question if she should have left Chase in the first place.

In THE D WORD you’ll walk in the shoes of Jordan and Elle as they discover that sometimes you’re not that different from the person who makes you feel the most insecure.

Title: Last Night at Château Marmont
Author: Lauren Weisberger
Received: From Cristina @ Simon and Schuster
Synopsis: Brooke loved reading the dishy celebrity gossip rag Last Night. That is, until her marriage became a weekly headline.Brooke was drawn to the soulful, enigmatic Julian Alter the very first time she heard him perform “Hallelujah” at a dark East Village dive bar.Now five years married, Brooke balances two jobs—as a nutritionist at NYU Hospital and as a consultant to an Upper East Side girls’ school, where privilege gone wrong and disordered eating run rampant—in order to help support her husband’s dream of making it in the music world.Things are looking up when after years of playing Manhattan clubs and toiling as an A&R intern, Julian finally gets signed by Sony. Although no one’s promising that the album will ever hit the airwaves, Julian is still dedicated to logging in long hours at the recording studio. All that changes after Julian is asked to perform on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno—and is catapulted to stardom, literally overnight. Amazing opportunities begin popping up almost daily—a new designer wardrobe, a tour with Maroon 5, even a Grammy performance.At first the newfound fame is fun—who wouldn’t want to stay at the Chateau Marmont or visit the set of one of television’s hottest shows? Yet it seems that Brooke’s sweet husband—the man who can’t handle hot showers and wears socks to bed—is increasingly absent, even on those rare nights they’re home together. When rumors about Brooke and Julian swirl in the tabloid magazines, she begins to question the truth of her marriage and is forced to finally come to terms with what she thinks she wants—and what she actually needs.

Title: Little Black Dress
Author: Susan McBride
Received: From Susan McBride
Synopsis: Can there be magic in a Little Black Dress? Susan McBride, author of The Cougar Club and the Debutante Dropout mystery series, answers with a resounding, unequivocal, “Yes!” McBride’s mesmerizing tale of two sisters whose intertwined lives are torn apart by a remarkable dress that opens up doors to an inescapable future is an ingenious work of the imagination that recalls the novels of Claire Cook and Jill Kargman. A sometimes heartwarming, sometimes heartbreaking look into two generations of women, this Little Black Dress is something every fan of quality contemporary women’s fiction will want to own.

Author Profile: Amanda Brobyn

Author Name: Amanda Brobyn

Website: http://amandabrobyn.com/
Bio: Amanda Brobyn has recently graduated from the University of Ulster, with an MA in Film and Television Production, Management and Policy. In the same year (2010) Amanda also managed to secure a triple book publishing deal with Poolbeg Press, Dublin – the same publishers who launched the careers of Marian Keyes, Sheila Flanaghan and Melissa Hill.
Titles: Crystal Balls, The Curry Club
See my review of Crystal Balls
Visit Amanda’s Blog!
Bio Retrieved from amandabrobyn.com

Author Profile: Kaira Rouda

Author Name: Kaira Rouda

Website: http://www.kairarouda.com/
Bio: Due to the career ladder of her professor father, Kaira was born in Chicago (Northwestern), moved to L.A. (USC), then to Austin (University of Texas), Boston (Harvard University) and finally Columbus (The Ohio State University) where Kaira, her mom and her siblings put their collective feet down and grew roots. Kaira spent the remainder her childhood in Columbus, and following graduation from Vanderbilt University, returned to spend another 20-plus years in Central Ohio in the marketing and publishing fields. She believes she has written just about everything: for public relations and advertising clients, including copy for electronics manuals (yawn), press releases for dog ice cream and hamburgers, carpet cleaning television and radio spots, to real estate websites and more; for business newspapers, regional and national magazines and blogs; for countless charities near and dear to her heart; a business book for women entrepreneurs; and now, finally, she is writing what she dreamed of writing since fourth grade: novels of her own. Here, Home, Hope is the first of several novels, all set in the fictional suburb of Grandville, that will be published. Kaira is ecstatic her dreams are coming true.
Kaira is a philanthropist who started Central Ohio’s first homeless shelter for families in the early 1990s, served two terms on the board of the MidOhio Food Bank, the YWCA, The Wexner Center for the Arts and numerous other charities, with a particular interest in empowering women and girls. The creator of the Real Living Real Estate brand — one of the fastest growing in the country — Kaira has earned numerous awards in business. For more on her career, please visit RealYouIncorporated.com.
Two years ago — of course not following her oldest child who had picked a college there — Kaira and her husband and four kids moved to Southern California where she is busy writing, volunteering, and growing new roots

Titles: Here, Home, Hope
See my review of Here, Home, Hope
Visit Kaira’s Blog!
Bio Retrieved from kairarouda.com

Author Name: Kaira Rouda

Website: http://www.kairarouda.com/
Bio: Due to the career ladder of her professor father, Kaira was born in Chicago (Northwestern), moved to L.A. (USC), then to Austin (University of Texas), Boston (Harvard University) and finally Columbus (The Ohio State University) where Kaira, her mom and her siblings put their collective feet down and grew roots. Kaira spent the remainder her childhood in Columbus, and following graduation from Vanderbilt University, returned to spend another 20-plus years in Central Ohio in the marketing and publishing fields. She believes she has written just about everything: for public relations and advertising clients, including copy for electronics manuals (yawn), press releases for dog ice cream and hamburgers, carpet cleaning television and radio spots, to real estate websites and more; for business newspapers, regional and national magazines and blogs; for countless charities near and dear to her heart; a business book for women entrepreneurs; and now, finally, she is writing what she dreamed of writing since fourth grade: novels of her own. Here, Home, Hope is the first of several novels, all set in the fictional suburb of Grandville, that will be published. Kaira is ecstatic her dreams are coming true.
Kaira is a philanthropist who started Central Ohio’s first homeless shelter for families in the early 1990s, served two terms on the board of the MidOhio Food Bank, the YWCA, The Wexner Center for the Arts and numerous other charities, with a particular interest in empowering women and girls. The creator of the Real Living Real Estate brand — one of the fastest growing in the country — Kaira has earned numerous awards in business. For more on her career, please visit RealYouIncorporated.com.
Two years ago — of course not following her oldest child who had picked a college there — Kaira and her husband and four kids moved to Southern California where she is busy writing, volunteering, and growing new roots

Titles: Here, Home, Hope
See my review of Here, Home, Hope
Visit Kaira’s Blog!
Bio Retrieved from kairarouda.com

In My Mailbox: Week of June 5

In My Mailbox: Week of June 5

Title: Confessions of a PTA Mafia Mom
Author: Elsie Love
Received: From Elise Love/CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Elaine Jackerson has found herself in quite a predicament. Her husband, Bob, is sleeping with his secretary, her daughter is experimenting in the backseat with random boys, and her eight year old wants nothing to do with her.

In an attempt to get herself out of her midlife rut, Elaine joins the Herschel Grammar School PTA. Little does she know, Suni Calverson, the current president has handpicked her to be the newest member of the group. As soon as the ink is dry on the signup sheet, Elaine is thrust into a world that she never knew existed. A world where the PTA gets things done with blackmail, bribes, threats and quite possibly guns.

After stumbling across her husband and his secretary humping in his office, Elaine turns to the only friends she has: Suni and her henchmen. They convince her to let them “take care” of Bob. Elaine agrees to the plan, as long as no one dies. Unfortunately for Elaine, Suni has other plans. Before Elaine can sleep off her Mojitos, her children have been kidnapped and Bob has disappeared. Afraid that Elaine will go back on her word, Suni forces her onto a plane to hide out in a posh suite in Las Vegas that belongs to the famous French landscape photographer Gerard Ilg.

Determined to get her children back and avoid jail, Elaine spends her time in Sin City vacillating between planning her escape and trying to stay out of the arms of the much younger, very hot, very Hawaiian limo driver Benjamin Oliana. Does he care for Elaine, or is she just another notch on his Billabong belt? What about her famous host who keeps encouraging her to “find her passion”? Gerard is a man of the world—a man that knows Suni. Can he be trusted? More importantly, can she sort out her feelings, take down the PTA Mafia, and go home to her children?

Title: Clothesline
Author: Kate Supino
Received: From Kate Supino
Synopsis: When Kelly, Ana and Sera decide to take charge of their financial futures and go into business for themselves, anything and everything is possible.
From door-to-door sales to bathing fancy pets, it’s a no holds barred adventure when the three best friends combine their talents and taste for success.
But when secrets are exposed and friendship is on the line, it’s time to get serious. Will Kelly commit to doing what she is truly passionate about? Will Sera push past her pride when they need help? And is Ian “the one”?

Title: Take It Like a Mom
Author: Stephanie Stiles
Received: From Stephanie Stiles
Synopsis: Annie Fingardt Forster used to be a lawyer who wore dry-clean only and shaved both legs. But things have changed. Now a stay-at-home mom, she wears cargo pants and ponytails and harbors a nearly pathological hatred towards hipster parents.

With a three-year-old and a baby on the way, Annie knows what to expect…at least, she thought she did. Faced with her husband’s job loss, pre-school politics, and a playground throwdown with her arch nemesis, Annie realizes that even with her husband and friends by her side, what she really needs is to learn to suck it up-and take it like a mom.

Title: A Life That Fits
Author: Heather Wardell
Received: From Heather Wardell
Synopsis: Twenty-eight-year-old Andrea returns home from a business trip to find Alex, her boyfriend of fourteen years, nervously waiting for her. Assuming he’s finally going to propose, Andrea’s instead horrified to learn he’s been cheating on her and is leaving to be with the other woman, who he calls Andrea’s opposite.
At first Andrea’s paralyzed by shock and sadness, but the business analyst soon forms a plan: change every last detail of her life and become her opposite so Alex will come back to her.
It’s a challenge at first, but soon Andrea’s loving the changes she’s making, the new activities she’s doing, and the new people in her life. But will she change enough to get Alex back? And if she does, will he fit into the wonderful new life she’s creating for herself?

Pink Welcomes Baby Girl

Pink is thinking pink! The singer and her husband, Corey Hart, welcomed a baby girl on Thursday in Los Angeles. Pink posted this to her Twitter account: “We are ecstatic to welcome our new beautiful healthy happy baby girl, Willow Sage Hart. She’s gorgeous, just like her daddy. #beyondblessed.” This is the first child for Pink, 31, who confirmed her pregnancy in November.

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