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New Releases: October 2013

Contributor: Allie October is my favorite month.  The back-to-school routine has worked itself out and the holiday madness still seems like it’s months away.  Don’t…

Lauren Conrad Engaged!

Congratulations are in order for Lauren Conrad! The former reality star got engaged to law student William Tell over the weekend. Conrad, 27, shared the news on her blog today. “I am very excited to share with you guys that William and I got engaged over the weekend. I am beyond thrilled!” She also posted a picture of her new bling, and it’s gorgeous! I was always Team Conrad during the Laguna Beach days, and it’s been fun to watch her move away from reality TV and into more fashion and design work, and I’ll definitely be interested in seeing what she chooses for her wedding dress!

In My Mailbox: Week of October 13

Title: Casey’s Quest
Author: Tamara Lee Dorris
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: At her father’s death, Casey Anderson discovers she was adopted at age four. Not able to remember anything, she sets out on a quest to discover why her birth mother gave her up and, and why her adopted parent kept it such a secret. She embarks on a dangerous and spiritually enlightening journey that proves to her, nothing is what it seems.

Title: A Medical Affair
Author: Anne McCarthy Strauss
Received: Booktrope Publishing
Synopsis: While under the care of her pulmonologist after a life-threatening asthma attack, Heather Morrison enters into an affair with her doctor. This affair violates the state’s code of conduct and his medical treatment violates the Hippocratic oath. Heather’s life is shattered as a result. After the doctor terminates the relationship, Heather begins research for her own healing, and armed with this information, she initiates a civil lawsuit. Although it is a work of fiction, A Medical Affair was extensively researched. A Medical Affair is a critical book for women who want to make educated decisions regarding their relationships with their doctors.
Title: Obitchuary
Author: Stephanie Hayes
Received: Stephanie Hayes
Synopsis: Penny Perkins, journalist, upstanding citizen, dutiful bridesmaid, just killed her date. Smashed him on the head with a bottle of Misty Mangoberry Merlot.

She is tipsy and panicked. She is wearing a heinous pink bridesmaid dress that makes her irrational. Penny knows she should call the cops and explain her date’s grabby hands, his crazy eyes. She should cry self-defense. She should do a lot of things she doesn’t do.

Things are about to get real complicated for Penny, as her dead date’s life unravels into a mystery the deeper she investigates. Death just happens to be her job.

She’s the newspaper’s obituary writer.
Title: Coming Home For Christmas
Author: Jenny Hale
Received: Bookouture
Synopsis: Coming Home for Christmas is a beautifully observed story about the importance of family, themagic of Christmas, and falling in love one snowflake at a time.
Fans of Trisha Ashley, Susan Wiggs, Carole Matthews and Susan Mallery – and anyone who loves the sound of carols and the twinkling of lights on the Christmas tree – will adore Jenny Hale’s feel-good debut.
Christmas is a time for family… isn’t it?
Allie Richfield loves Christmas, so when she lands a job as House Manager for the amazing Ashford Estate—which includes organizing the Marley family festivities—she is in her element. With a budget bigger than her life savings and a team of staff, how hard can it be?
As one-by-one she meets the Marleys, she’s about to find out…
Allie’s new boss, Robert, might be gorgeous, but he’s also colder than the snow outside and refuses to come home for Christmas. Robert’s playboy brother, Kip, flirts with her relentlessly; and his sister, Sloane, arrives home with baggage—both the divorce-kind and the Louis Vuitton kind. Their ninety-two year old grandmother, Pippa, spends her day grumbling at them all from her mobility scooter.
With Robert intending to sell Ashford, it’s the Marley’s last chance to create some happy memories in their family home—and Allie is determined to make it happen… even if it takes a little Christmas magic! With the festive spirit in full swing, she might even discover a little happiness of her own…
Title: Hunting With Lawn Darts
Author: Geoffrey McKeel
Received: Geoffrey McKeel
Synopsis: Chad Jordan is a nice guy. Just one day removed from a split with his longtime girlfriend, Stephanie, he now must venture back into the obscenely unforgiving world of modern dating. Having spent the last four years sequestered from the single life and with an outlook on courtship that expired about half a century ago, Chad soon finds out that being such a gentle soul, with a preternatural connection to his emotional side, does not necessarily supply him an advantage in finding compatibility. Only the most unlikely of refuges may be guiding his monumental struggle to find that special someone…
Title: The Drake Equation
Author: Heather Walsh
Received: Heather Walsh
Synopsis: She’s a Democrat, he’s a Republican. She spends her days fighting global warming at an environmental non-profit, he makes his living doing PR for Bell Motors and their fleet of SUVs. But as soon as they meet, Emily Crossley and Robert Drake realize they have encountered their intellectual match. You’re never challenged, he tells her.
You’ve surrounded yourself in a cocoon of people who think exactly the same way you do. She hurls the same accusation back at him, and the fiery debates begin.

Despite both of their attempts to derail it, there is no denying that they are falling in love. But their relationship is threatened by political differences, Robert’s excessive work hours, and Emily’s fear of losing her identity as she falls deeper in love.

Can their love survive? The Drake Equation is a tale of modern love and all its complexities.

Pre-Order Zoey & the Moment of Zen by Cat Lavoie

You can now pre-order your copy of Zoey & the Moment of Zen by Cat Lavoie! The Marching Ink title (and Cat’s second) will be on sale…

Guest Post: Author Hannah Fielding

Thank you to Burning Embers author Hannah Fielding for guest blogging today! Confidence for Writers: Believing in Your Book Idea I’ve wanted to be a writer since…

Author Profile: Sheena Lambert

Author Name: Sheena Lambert
Website: http://sheenalambertauthor.com/
Bio: It took ten years working as an engineer on a landfill site, five years running a fashion boutique and one year lecturing in waste management and recycling before 39 year old Sheena Lambert from Dublin, Ireland, realised she was supposed to have been a writer all along.
She self-published her first novel, ALBERTA CLIPPER, in November 2012. The paperback was selected for distribution by Easons. Her short stories have been shortlisted in a number of prestigious competitions in Ireland.
Now, in addition to raising two boys and making the dinner every day, she writes feature articles for a living, and has just completed her second novel.
Sheena lives in Dublin, Ireland for the moment, but if she wins the lottery, you will find her in a little village somewhere in the south of France, making red wine.
Title: Alberta Clipper
Bio retrieved from sheenalambertauthor.com

CLP Blog Tours Excerpt: Won’t Last Long by Heidi …

Find Heidi here:

· Website: heidijoytretheway.com
· Facebook.com/author.heidi
· Amazon.com/author/heidi
· Goodreads.com/heidi.tretheway

· Twitter.com/heiditretheway

Book Giveaway: Hush Little Baby by Suzanne Redfearn

If I stay, he will kill me. If I leave, he’ll destroy Addie and Drew.

Jillian Kane appears to have it all – a successful career, a gorgeous home, a loving husband, and two wonderful children. The reality behind closed doors is something else entirely. For nine years, she has hid the bruises and the truth of her abusive marriage in order to protect Addie and Drew, knowing, if she left, Gordon would destroy her-destroy them.

When, in an act of desperation, she flees, her worst nightmare is realized, and she finds herself on the run with her two young children, no money, and no plan. With Gordon in hot pursuit, there is only one inescapable certainty: No matter where she goes, he will find her. Kill her. And take her children.

A riveting page-turner, HUSH LITTLE BABY exposes the shame and terror of domestic violence as well as the disturbing role manipulation and sabotage can play in the high-stakes game of child custody. Suspenseful and unforgettably moving, it’s a novel about the unbreakable bonds of family and the astounding, terrifying devotion of a mother’s love.

CLP Blog Tours Excerpt: Shake Down the Stars by Renee …

Thank you to Renee Swindle for letting CLP share this excerpt from Shake Down the Stars. Please visit her tour page at CLP Blog Tours for more…