Book Review: The Bridesmaid’s Best Man by Susanna Carr
Reviewer: Samantha I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Working undercover as a stripper at a hen party…
In My Mailbox: Week of September 22
Title: Christmas Carol
Author: Michele Gorman
Received: Michele Gorman
Synopsis: One winter wedding, two happy couples, three ex-boyfriends… And a very uncomfortable weekend.
Carol hates Christmas. Being recently dumped, she’s not crazy about weddings either. So her sister Marley’s nuptials, over the Christmas weekend, are making her positively Scrooge-like. When she arrives for the weekend at the stately home in rural Scotland to find her three ex-boyfriends in attendance, Carol has no choice but to face her ghosts to discover what really happened in those relationships, learning a lot about herself in the process. As the snow falls outside and the fire crackles in the hearth, might one of the wedding guests become the harbinger of Christmases to come?
Title: Spirits of Christmas
Author: Nicky Wells
Received: Nicky Wells
Synopsis: At one time, up-and-coming rock singer Jude had it all: a great band, a platinum record, a loving girlfriend. This Christmas, however, he is well down the road towards spontaneous self-destruction.
Unwitting at first, Jude has progressively alienated his band and driven away the love of his life. Tonight, the night before Christmas Eve, he has broken the final taboo during a disastrous gig. Yet Jude doesn’t see how badly his life has derailed, not until a ghostly procession of legends passes through his bedroom with a series of vivid and powerful wake-up calls.
Will the Spirits help Jude put the friendship, love, and rock music back into his Christmas?
Spirits of Christmas is a modern-day rock’n’roll adaption of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol. This novella will enchant romance readers, rock lovers, fans of ghost stories, and everybody who adores the festive season.
Title: Someone Else’s Love Story
Author: Joshilyn Jackson
Received: SheReads
Synopsis: Someone Else’s Love Story is beloved and highly acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Joshilyn Jackson’s funny, charming, and poignant novel about science and miracles, secrets and truths, faith and forgiveness; about falling in love, and learning that things aren’t always what they seem—or what we hope they will be.
Shandi Pierce is juggling finishing college, raising her delightful three-year-old genius son Nathan, aka Natty Bumppo, and keeping the peace between her eternally warring, long-divorced parents. She’s got enough complications without getting caught in the middle of a stick-up and falling in love with William Ashe, who willingly steps between the robber and her son.
Shandi doesn’t know that her blond god Thor has his own complications. When he looked down the barrel of that gun he believed it was destiny: It’s been one year to the day since a tragic act of physics shattered his world. But William doesn’t define destiny the way others do. A brilliant geneticist who believes in facts and numbers, destiny to him is about choice. Now, he and Shandi are about to meet their so-called destinies head on, making choices that will reveal unexpected truths about love, life, and the world they think they know.
Title: The Youth Corridor
Author: Gerald Imber, MD
Received: FSB Associates
Synopsis: Dr. Gerald Imber shows women and men how to keep the signs of aging at bay with a prescriptive, common sense plan of skin care, exercise, vitamins & diet, stalling & often eliminating the need for surgery. By following the earliest & most basic treatment for skin care & maintenance, you can maintain a youthful appearance for a lifetime. You can return your skin to the exuberance of the youth corridor — the years between 30 & 55 during which the most drastic physical changes occur. Imber’s easy-to-follow regimes & helpful illustrations make timeless beauty a reality. This book also catalogs beauty products that give women the best results & describes successful procedures in plastic surgery.
Title: The Bump List
Author: Amber Best & Miriam Brady
Received: Amber Best & Miriam Brady
Synopsis: Murder of Crows, greatest band of all time, are used to living in the limelight. They know what comes with the territory, however, their families have always been off-limits, until now. Super-stardom has come at a high price. Madison Hunt is finding her past exposed for all the world to see. Her best friend and sister-in-law, Kinley is being dragged through the mud as well. Things they thought were secret are now on display, thanks to a tell-all reporter and her show- Celebrity Dirt. Their private joke- the back-up list- has now been made public, while Cal and Rory’s names have been ‘bumped’ from the list. Madison and Kinley appear to be gold diggers who schemed to marry rock star brothers, and don’t mind disposing of them if someone better comes along; at least that is becoming the popular point of view. Will their marriages survive the mistrust, and can their friendships survive the media firestorm from hell?
Title: The Debt and the Doormat
Author: Laura Barnard
Received: Laura Barnard
Synopsis: Poppy and Jazz have been best friends from the first week of uni. Whenever these two get together trouble isn’t far away and things haven’t changed much. When Jazz gets herself into financial trouble Poppy, being a good friend, offers to help. She instead ends up being talked into swapping lives, with Jazz insisting it will be good and help her get over her broken heart.
Poppy is thrown into a new life, full of crazy housemates; there’s fitness freak Izzy, horrendously beautiful bitch Grace and the slightly gorgeous, if not incredibly grumpy Ryan. Quickly, with the help of Jazz, her life is thrown upside down. Madness ensues and her need to please everyone gets her in more trouble than she could ever imagine.
Before she knows it she’s got a fake boyfriend and is hiding so many secrets she’s scared they’ll spill out any minute. With a bullying boss, a sex crazed colleague, a mental mother and three brothers each with their own dramas, life has gotten pretty difficult for Poppy. And all of this would be much easier, if she could just stop falling over.
Will she get her life back to normal before her brother’s upcoming wedding? And will she want to?
Future Tour: Blogger Girl by Meredith Schorr
Meredith will be on tour November 4-25 with her chick lit novel Blogger Girl What happens when your high school nemesis becomes the shining star in…
Book Review: The Partner Track by Helen Wan
Ingrid Yung is an Asian American woman who’s living her immigrant parents’ American dream. She graduated top of her class from Yale, and then followed up with a law degree from Columbia. Right after graduation she’s hired by the world renowned law firm, Parsons Valentine. For the last eight years she’s literally slaved away in her quest for partnership. In addition to her credentials and dedication, Ingrid is also a “twofer.” With Ingrid on staff, the firm can check two boxes in the diversity column because she’s Asian American and a woman – the only woman left from her freshman class of colleagues. Ingrid has mixed feelings about this. Several of her coworkers think this makes her a shoe-in for partner, because she’d be the first woman or minority whom the firm has ever made partner. Times are changing and the firm may need those bragging rights. Understandably, Ingrid wants to get there based on merit and hard work.
The old ways don’t necessarily die off, just because a man of color has made it to the White House. After an incident at Parson Valentine’s annual summer outing casts an ugly light on the firm’s practices and attitudes about diversity, Ingrid finds herself caught in the crossfire. The firm wants to take advantage of her “twofer” status to save its reputation, but Ingrid doesn’t care to be marched around as their diversity show dog. All this is happening while she’s working to close an incredibly high-profile deal that should secure her partnership. Complicating matters further are incidents of professional sabotage and a clandestine office romance. Can she remain unscathed while reaching for the partnership pie in the sky?
This book was fun and fast paced and all about girl power! I loved the inside scoop of life in a big city law firm. The author, a lawyer and an Asian American woman, insists that the story isn’t autobiographical. I believe her, because I imagine there would be a case for slander here, with all the juicy tidbits throughout the book. Having once worked at a nationally, well known corporation and faced the boys’ club myself, I was intrigued by the story. The writing is excellent, although there is considerable legal jargon and discussion of industry practices, which I fear might lose some readers. Hang in there, because the plot keeps you guessing and the ending is reminiscent of the movie Working Girl. I was so excited reading the climax scenes that I was pumping my fist in the air, chanting “You Go Girl!”
5 Stars
Blog Tour Sign Up: Bitter Pill by Stacey Kade
The truth is a bitter pill…
Rennie Harlow is having a bad year. She had a handsome husband, a good job, and a renovated condo in Chicago. Now, thanks to one “exotically beautiful” paralegal, she’s divorced, faking her way through a writing career, and living above her hypochondriac mother’s garage back in Morrisville, the small town she couldn’t leave fast enough at eighteen. On top of all of that, she just found Doc Hallacy, the local pharmacist, dead behind his counter. And the worst part is, he’s the third body she’s stumbled across this year.
Jake Bristol has lived in Morrisville his whole life. A former bad boy turned sheriff, he doesn’t believe it’s just Rennie’s luck or timing that’s the problem. He thinks she’s too nosy for her own good. The last thing he needs is her messing around with his murder investigation so that she can freelance for the Morrisville Gazette. But as they both delve deeper into Doc’s death, they find that things don’t add up. This isn’t a robbery gone wrong or the work of a desperate junkie. Someone has a secret they’re killing to keep. The only question is—who’s next?
Book Review: The Carolyne Letters by Abigail B. Calkin
Reviewer: Allie I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. This story is presented in the form of a personal…
Book Review: Double Mayhem by Sam Berretti
LOVED this book! I am a total sucker for a good mystery and add the slight paranormal twist to it and you have me hooked!
This book was definitely a character builder! At the beginning of the story, Doris is this boring woman whose life seems to be the same thing day to day…not really living, merely just functioning. And then it all changes with a quick moment of choice on a blind date. Who Doris is by the end of the book is far more fascinating than what I ever expected when starting this book! She turns out to be quick the bad ass!
It was a unique read-I almost felt like I was reading two stories as there were two different plots going on for most of the book (hence the double part of the title)…yet it wasn’t confusing to read, more exciting and it kept me wondering how it would all tie together in the end.
I loved the Della character and her sassy relationship with Doris…although I pictured her as a full figured black woman and not the petite one described in the book. On the other side of the story, I was also drawn to the quick love that you could feel between Doris and Linda, the sweet little girl quickly found someone to attach too during her troubled time and it was an instant connection.
The story was a good read, adding the intelligent engineering side to it all, helped to see who Doris really was and how her brain worked, which for her was often a life saver.
If you enjoy a good mystery/romance/paranormal this is a must read!
On Tour: Shake Down the Stars by Renee Swindle
Renee will be on tour September 23-October 14 with her novel Shake Down the Stars When you’re in trouble and sinking fast, whom do you call?…
Book Review: You Knew Me When by Emily Liebert
Reviewer: Kate I received a copy of You Knew Me When by Emily Liebert in exchange for an honest review. Synopsis: Katherine Hill left her…
