Blog Tour Sign Up: Adventure to Love by Bethany Ramos
Bethany will be on tour in July/August with her chick lit novel Adventure to Love. I am looking for book bloggers to post reviews, guest…
On Tour: Appetites by Karen Frankola
When Sarah suddenly hears from Harry, the Brit she almost married twenty years ago, she decides now is the time to change her life. Sarah has a great job in Manhattan, but she considers herself too fat to have a boyfriend. Harry is visiting New York in four months and she wants to turn back into the girl he fell in love with. Since she can never stick to a diet, she comes up with a drastic solution.
Sarah asks her sister Max to lock her up in her basement and feed her nothing but healthy meals. Max, a struggling waitress, agrees begrudgingly. She’s skinny, but has her own set of appetites—for drink, drugs, and great-looking losers.
Sarah thinks a summer in Max’s basement will give her a new body, a chance to reconnect with Harry, and the friendship she’s long craved from her sister. But things quickly go wrong. Max’s drinking leads her to neglect Sarah, who figures out how to get out of the basement. Sarah develops an obsession with Max’s boyfriend and manages to fulfill a sexual fantasy by pretending to be something she’s not.
Can Sarah turn back time with Harry or will she and Max kill each other first? Can either sister ever learn to say no?
Book Review: I Should Be So Lucky by Judy Astley
At the age of 39- poor Viola has already had her fair share of bad turns with life. From two wrong marriages, to now having to have her and her daughter, Rachel, live with her mum, Viola feels like her life is stuck in a pit. After a party with friends and an unwanted meeting with her siblings, Viola realizes it’s time to take charge of her own life. Time for her and Rachel to move out on their own, and even better, for a new man to step in. Cue up Greg Fabian… a stranger she meets in the night, who’s carrying shovels in the middle of nowhere. With a little unexpected help from her outgoing mum, to her gay ex-husband and his sister, begins the journey of finding the life she was always supposed to live.
This is my first time reading a book by Judy Astley… someone I am definitely going to check out more of. (Having almost 20 more books, I think I have some good reading ahead of me.) I was timid at first about this book, as it was a little slow to start. But after only a few chapters, I found myself caught up in not only a wonderful love story, but mini-adventures with some of the minor characters. I especially loved Rachel and her trials of just trying to grow up. Some may say that parts of the story are a little predictable, but to me, that’s what made it so comfortable. It was fun and real at the same time. Sometimes knowing the outcome makes life a little easier to go through.
Book Review: When Girlfriends Make Choices by Savannah Page
I received a copy of WHEN GIRLFRIENDS MAKE CHOICES by Savannah Page in exchange for an honest review.
Having also read When Girlfriends Step Up by the same author, I was so excited to get back into the series with these wonderful characters and hopefully get to know Lara a little better. Lara is a successful ad executive and works long hours and although she is really into her work, it appears that she is also into something else a little more – a co-worker. Turns out that she has been having an affair with a male co-worker for quite some time and it turns out that he is married and has two kids. Now, in her defense, she didn’t know all of this going into the relationship but now that she is already in it, it is hard to step away. In a way she becomes obsessed with Paul even though she knows that it is wrong and her girlfriends don’t waste anytime letting her know that she is in the wrong. Will she finally come to her senses? Or at what cost is she willing to go to finally get her happy ever after?
Like I said, I am already a fan of Savannah Page and although I really enjoyed the writing, I felt conflicted reading about an affair that involves a man with a wife and two kids. As a new mom myself, it definitely hurt my heart but I had to tell myself to not take the book seriously. Once I did that, I was ok with everything and actually really found the writing really interesting. All too often we are told stories of affairs and infidelity from the victims perspective, but not here. She had the wool pulled over her eyes early on and once she finally found out the truth, she was already in too deep. So, I definitely felt for her in that aspect because it was really unfair. Once again, I loved all of the girlfriends and their relationship and all of their input. Overall, this book is really honest and is a good read.
Rating: 4 stars
Future Tour: Cocktail Hour by Tara McTiernan
Tara will be on tour July 1-22 with her women’s fiction/chick lit novel Cocktail Hour What if your friend – someone admired, envied, and fervently…
CLP Blog Tours Novel Spotlight: Swan Story by Priya Narendran
Priya Narendran is on tour now with CLP Blog Tours and Swan Story Soon to be married Daniel Macgregor meets mysterious beauty Sarah Mitchell on…
CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Reckless Abandon by Jenn Flynn-Shon
Jenn Flynn-Shon is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Reckless Abandon. While I’m not normally a huge fan on novellas, I have to…
Future Tour: The Blasphemy Box by Mandy Behbehani
Mandy will be on tour June 10-July 1 with her women’s fiction novel The Blasphemy Box “You know that nightmare you’ve always had? The one…
In My Mailbox: Week of April 28
In My Mailbox: Week of April 28
Title: Cocktail Hour
Author: Tara McTiernan
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: What if your friend – someone admired, envied, and fervently sought after by everyone who knew her – was really a dangerous sociopath?
In her latest novel, Cocktail Hour, mainstream fiction author Tara McTiernan answers that question as she takes you on a wild roller coaster ride of thrilling highs and terrifying lows in this gripping novel about friendship gone horribly wrong.
Spring in glamorous uber-rich Fairfield County, Connecticut is a time of beginnings: a new diet for the approaching summer spent out on the yacht, fresh-faced interns being offered up at the office as the seasonal sacrifice to the gods of money, and corporate takeovers galore. Five women in their thirties have a brand-new friendship, too, one that fed and watered regularly at local hotspots over cocktails. With all of their personal struggles – Lucie’s new catering business is foundering due to vicious gossip, Kate’s marriage is troubled due to an inability to conceive, Chelsea’s series of misses in the romance department have led to frantic desperation, and Sharon’s career problems are spinning out of control – the women look forward to a break and a drink and a chance to let their guards down with their friends. And letting their guards down is the last thing they should do in the kind of company they unknowingly keep with the fifth member of their cocktail-clique: Bianca Rossi, a woman who will stop at nothing to have it all.
As each woman’s life is affected by this she-wolf in sheep’s clothing, the truth starts to come out, but will they see it before it’s too late? Or will their doubts about their own perceptions and gut feelings stop them from protecting themselves in time? Exciting, chilling, and emotionally charged, Tara McTiernan delivers a delicious page-turner that will change your view of everyone you think you know.
Title: Looming Murder
Author: Carol Ann Martin
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: LOOM WITH A VIEW
Della Wright has come to peaceful and picturesque Briar Hollow, at the foot of the Blue Ridge Mountains, to realize her lifelong dream of owning a weaving studio. To promote her new business, Dream Weavers, Della is offering weaving workshops for all levels of ability. In her first class, she meets half a dozen of the town’s colorful characters, who seem as eager to gossip as to learn how to work a loom.
But when a shady local businessman is found murdered, Briar Hollow suddenly appears a lot less idyllic. And when one of her weaving students is suspected of the crime, Della can’t help getting entangled in the investigation—with some help from her criminologist friend, Matthew. But can she weave together clues as well as she weaves together yarn—and stop a killer from striking again?
Title: Domestic Affairs
Author: Bridget Siegel
Received: FSB Associates
Synopsis: When twenty-something political fundraiser Olivia Greenley is recruited by her close friend Jacob Harriston to join the Presidential campaign of Georgia Governor Landon Taylor, she is intoxicated by optimism and opportunity. Taylor’s commitment to social equality and economic responsibility in the post-housing-bubble era is palpable. Sacrificing her sleep, comfort and income are certain to help make the world a better place. Right?
Domestic Affairs: A Campaign Novel vividly captures the fervor and idealism of campaign life—as well as the disillusionment staffers feel when told to make the inevitable compromises. Leaving a meeting with foreclosure victims to hop onto a private jet is one thing, but how to justify dining at a $2,000-a-plate dinner knowing how many lunches the money could buy for at-risk kids? How far does one go when the ends appear to justify the means? And what’s a girl to do when the most charming, erudite, capable and ostensibly honorable man in the free world wants to take her to bed (but he’s married and her boss)? How does it feel to keep the biggest secret of her life from her best friend and coworker, even as the three of them spend every waking hour together? The tension between characters, right and wrong, and between success and implosion are taut.
Title: The Love Wars
Author: L. Alison Heller
Received: Penguin Group
Synopsis: Breaking up is hard to do. At least the first few times.
Even though Molly Grant has only a handful of relationships behind her, she’s already been through more divorces than she can count.
At the premier Manhattan law firm where she’s a matrimonial attorney, the hours are long, the bosses tyrannical, and the bonuses stratospheric. Her clients are rich, famous, and used to getting their way. Molly’s job—and primary concern in life—is to work as hard as possible to make sure they do. Until she meets the client who changes everything….
Fern Walker is the desperate former wife of a ruthless media mogul. Her powerful ex is slowly pushing her out of her young children’s lives, and she fears losing them forever. Molly—haunted by an incident from her own past—finds herself unable to walk away from Fern and sets out to help her. She just needs to do it without her bosses finding out.
Now, as complications both professional and personal stack up, Molly can only hope that her own wits, heart, and instincts are enough—both in and out of court.
Title: A Certain Summer
Author: Patricia Beard
Received: Kristin @ Simon & Schuster
Synopsis: It is 1948 at Wauregan, an idyllic island summer community. Helen Wadsworth, whose husband has been declared mysteriously missing on an OSS operation in France, is seeking the truth about his disappearance. But while she waits and hopes, two other men fall in love with her, creating a complicated romantic triangle. In the background of this world of privilege are Helen’s fourteen-year-old son, Jack; Kathleen, the Irish housekeeper who has worked for the Wadsworths for two generations; and a heroic German Shepherd that served in the Pacific theater. The mystique—and the myth—at Wauregan is that “nothing ever changes here,” but that is mined with the traumas of husbands returned from the war, and wives who cannot imagine the horrors they experienced in combat. Scarred by battle, these men longed for their families and their island refuge, only to find themselves emotionally distant, and struggling to reenter society. Part mystery, part love story, and part insider’s view of a rarified, private world, A Certain Summer will resonate with every reader who has ever dreamt of a special summer place.
