Chick Lit Plus by Samantha March

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In My Mailbox: Week of September 30
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of September 30

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Pass the Hot Stuff

Author: Dana Page

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: The safe guy or the sexy guy? The answer is always…Pass the Hot Stuff Blythe Townsend is a belle who is in desperate need of having her chimes rung. But the man she is dating would have to get his head out of his briefs – his legal briefs – long enough to notice. She is a frustrated romantic obsessed with Turner Classic Movies. She lives in the French Quarter with her dog, Lady Marmalade, and is determined not to go sour on love even though she has dated every nutcase along the Mississippi Delta. Now, she is trying her best to make it work with her deadly dull boyfriend. Blythe accepts him – boring business dinners and all. There’s always steak, but never any sizzle. There’s only so much a libido can take; and when she repeatedly spots a man around town she christens Tall, Dark and Eye Candy, she starts to feel what she’s been missing. So, what’s stopping her from tasting something a little… sweeter? She refuses to be hurt again, and this sexy New Orleans guy has all of the trappings to do just that. Blythe will have to find her inner big-shouldered broad to deal with the craziness in her life; and she has a group of hilarious, mouthy women helping her sort through the crazy. Their story is a sultry dance to Delta blues and soulful jazz that drifts the reader into the romance of New Orleans. So, sit down at the kitchen table and pour yourself a drink – we’re gonna pass the hot stuff.

Title: Bouquet Toss

Author: Melissa Brown

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: Ever since Daphne Harper graduated from college, all of her friends have fallen in love, become engaged and walked down the aisle. Be it a blessing or a curse, Daphne (a hopeless romantic and perpetual single girl) catches the bouquet at every single wedding she attends. Daphne’s love life is a mess. Her first love haunts her heart and keeps her from pursuing happiness with any man who comes along. As she struggles to move on from the one who got away, Daphne wonders if she will ever break her curse and find her happily ever after.

Title: Eat, Drink, and Be Married

Author: Rebecca Bloom

Received: From Rebecca Bloom

Synopsis: When college friends Kate, Nina and Zoë take holiday from their busy schedules on opposite coasts to join their former roommate, Hannah, for her wedding in Lake Tahoe, they not only bring suitcases packed with what-not-to-wear bridesmaid dresses, but baggage of a more emotional kind. Supported by a variety of eclectic characters determined to wreck havoc on their carefully organized lives, each woman is forced to come to terms with her past before she walks down the aisle. Zoë must learn how to reveal a vulnerability beneath her bravado before she can finally open her heart. Kate needs to reclaim her identity before she can regain her strut. Nina must heal her own inner child so she can provide for another. Hannah needs to release a ghost in order to recover her spirit. A bottle of booze, a host of laughs, a hankie or two worth of tears, and seventy-two hours among those who know and love them the most is the perfect recipe for four women to Eat, Drink, and Be Married.

Title: The Paternity Test

Author: Michael Lowenthal

Received: From BookSparks PR

Synopsis: Having a baby to save a marriage—it’s the oldest of clichés. But what if the marriage at risk is a gay one, and having a baby involves a surrogate mother? Pat Faunce is a faltering romantic, a former poetry major who now writes textbooks. A decade into his relationship with Stu, an airline pilot from a fraught Jewish family, he fears he’s losing Stu to other men—and losing himself in their “no rules” arrangement. Yearning for a baby and a deeper commitment, he pressures Stu to move from Manhattan to Cape Cod, to the cottage where Pat spent boyhood summers.

As they struggle to adjust to their new life, they enlist a surrogate: Debora, a charismatic Brazilian immigrant, married to Danny, an American home rebuilder. Gradually, Pat and Debora bond, drawn together by the logistics of getting pregnant and away from their spouses. Pat gets caught between loyalties—to Stu and his family, to Debora, to his own potent desires—and wonders: is he fit to be a father?

In one of the first novels to explore the experience of gay men seeking a child through surrogacy, Michael Lowenthal writes passionately about marriages and mistakes, loyalty and betrayal, and about how our drive to create families can complicate the ones we already have. The Paternity Test is a provocative look at the new “family values.”
In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: The Art of My Life

Author: Ann Lee Miller

Received: Ann Lee Miller

Synopsis: Cal walked out of jail and into a second chance at winning Aly with his grandma’s beater sailboat and a reclaimed dream of sailing charters.

Aly has the business smarts, strings to a startup loan, and heart he never should have broken. He’s got squat. Unless you count enough original art to stock a monster rummage sale and an affection for weed.

But he’d only ever loved Aly. That had to count for something. Aly needed a guy who owned yard tools, tires worth rotating, and a voter’s registration card. He’d be that guy or die trying.

For anyone who’s ever struggled to measure up. And failed.

September 30, 2012
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Novel Spotlight: Memories by Deanna Sletten
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Novel Spotlight: Memories by Deanna Sletten

Deanna Sletten is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Memories Summary: Michael DeCara came home from the Vietnam War a wounded man, both…

September 30, 2012
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Baby Talk: Life at 4 Months
Chick Lit Plus

Baby Talk: Life at 4 Months

Goodness. To say that time has flown by would be an understatement. Ethan officially turned 4 months old on Wednesday the 26th and for once, I actually believe it. This month has been huge as far as development goes. Ethan is full of energy and curiosity and treats everyday like a brand new day. As a new parent, you hear often that the first three months are kind bland. Yes, you are on complete survival mode, trying to make it from one minute to the next, but the baby just doesn’t do as much as you once thought he would. But boy, that all changes once you hit the 3-4 month mode. Ethan has now officially found his voice (squealing and yelling for fun), his feet (which are his new best friends), his hands (which immediately shove everything right into his mouth), and he is now mobile! Yep, that’s right, the little guy is really going places these days.

In addition to all of these new developments, he just looks like a completely different kiddo. He doesn’t look brand new anymore and is slowly developing into an actual boy, not just a baby. Although I am sad to see his newborn stage slowly drift behind us, this new stage has been so much fun! He is so excited to interact with us and has quickly become the cool kid at daycare (watch out little girls, I have also told him that y’all have cooties!). Slowly but surely we are developing a routine and the nights have gotten easier (knock on wood as I type this). He usually sleeps from 7pm to 6am with one feeding around 2am. I’m definitely hoping that we are past the sleep regression we saw for most of the last month because boy, I wasn’t sure I was going to make it much longer. LOL! But, life with a baby has been amazing. I can’t wait to see what tomorrow brings … or the many, many days after that.

Food: Still nursing but slowly toying with the idea of introducing a few solids. We were supposed to start cereal but with the new arsenic scare, I think I am going to skip it all together.

Favorite Toys: Exersaucer (or anything that allows him to stand and play), his play mat, his monkey rattles, and his big brother’s floppy ears

Things we’ve left behind: He is completely over his bouncer, boppy and definitely starting to resist the swing.

Teeth: Still none but I think we have one in the works.

Favorite activities: Playing, eating, story time, walks and ANYTHING outdoors.

Height/Weight: Nothing official yet but we’re thinking 26 inches and around 17 lbs. Will update next week at his appointment.

September 29, 2012
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Good-Bye To All That by Margo Candela
Chick Lit Review

Good-Bye To All That by Margo Candela

I received a copy of Good-Bye To All That in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
When her Hollywood career goes haywire, a young woman must say good-bye to all that . . . or must she?
Raquel Azorian has worked her way from temp to executive assistant and is this close to a promotion to junior marketing exec at Belmore Corporation, the media behemoth she’s devoted herself to. She’s learned to play the Hollywood game—navigate office politics, schmooze the right people, avoid the wrong ones, and maintain a sense of decorum even in the craziest of times. All she needs is for her boss to sign her promotion memo. Instead of putting pen to paper, he suffers a very public meltdown that puts not only his professional future but also Raquel’s on the line.
Getting to the next rung on the Belmore ladder will require every ounce of focus, but that’s not going to be easy. Raquel’s mom has decided to leave her husband and move into Raquel’s apartment, and her older brother seems to be sinking deeper and deeper into depression. Raquel has to keep her job, stop her parents from divorcing, and save her brother. In the chaos of juggling so much, she finally reaches a breaking point: there’s just not enough time for everything or for everyone. She’s going to have to choose—success at work or happiness at home. But then a chance encounter at a bookstore café leads Raquel to start planning her own Hollywood ending . . . on her own terms.
My Review:
I highly enjoy books that are set in LA, and Good-Bye To All That is a fun read filled with cute and quirky characters. Raquel is a smart and determined heroine, who has learned how to play the Hollywood game to get her deserved promotion. She was almost overshadowed by her mother Marlene, who moves in with her while threatening to divorce Raquel’s father, and her sister-in-law Cricket (seriously!) and her barrage of issues. Those characters and a few others bring the funny, but Candela’s writing also shows how a strong female can take control of her life. I recommend!
[Rating: 4]

September 28, 2012
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All At Sea by Heather Wardell
Chick Lit Review

All At Sea by Heather Wardell

I received a copy of All At Sea in exchange for an honest review. This is Heather Wardell’s tenth novel – what a feat! And I’ve read all ten – what a …feat? 🙂 But she is an author whose books I have highly enjoyed, and I hope she keeps them coming. All At Sea is part of the Toronto series, but these books can be read on their own, they just bring back past characters that you might get a kick out of revisiting if you’ve read the previous novels. The story focuses on Melissa and Owen, who met New Years Eve and were engaged by Valentine’s Day. The month is now March, and they are preparing to get married on a cruise ship. Melissa has her mom with her along with her best friend Wendy and Wendy’s boyfriend Mark. Not the big wedding party she once imagined, but she is fine with it. She also didn’t picture getting married in the chapel of a cruise ship, but she’s fine with it. A big thing she is not fine with – having dated both of Owen’s brothers. Melissa gets a shock when she meets Nicholas and Austin and realizes that she had a fling with Austin and something more serious with Nicolas – and then broke his heart. Owen doesn’t seem to have a problem with the awkwardness, as he’s too busy spending every waking hour in the casino. Melissa wasn’t aware of his love for gambling either, but she’s fine with it. As the cruise ship chugs along, Melissa realizes that she might be making a mistake – and that being “fine” in a marriage just might not be enough.
What a fun and unique read! Finding out you’ve dated both of your fiancé’s brothers – what a hoot! This is a book where I really liked the supporting cast- from the brothers to Wendy and Mark to Nicholas’s girlfriend and even some randoms Melissa met on the ship. The details were very spot-on throughout, and I was invested the whole way through. I have been known to be shocked at some of Wardell’s past endings, and that made me unsure what choice Melissa was going to make at the end, which I enjoyed. The suspense was killing me! All At Sea is a very cute read that also dives deep into relationships and what is takes to make a marriage work, and I highly recommend this book and more from Heather Wardell!
[Rating: 4.5]

September 28, 2012
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Blog Tour Sign Up: The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall
CLP Blog Tours

Blog Tour Sign Up: The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall

Emma will be on tour in December/January with her commercial women’s fiction novel The Darling Girls. I am looking for bloggers to post reviews, guest…

September 27, 2012
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Reese Witherspoon Welcomes Son
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Reese Witherspoon Welcomes Son

It’s a boy! One of my favorite actresses, Reese Witherspoon, welcomed son Tennessee James Toth on Thursday. People.com shared this statement from her rep: “Reese Witherspoon and husband Jim Toth welcomed Tennessee James into their family today. Both mom and baby are healthy and the entire family is thrilled.” This is Reese’s third child, but the first with new husband Jim Toth. The couple married in March 2011. I have to ask – what do you think of the name?

September 27, 2012
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Lasik Surgery: My Final Thoughts
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Lasik Surgery: My Final Thoughts

Over the past few weeks, I’ve chronicled my Lasik surgery that I had done in January. From making the decision, the weeks before surgery, the eye drops, etc – I’ve now come to my last post: my final thoughts on Lasik. Immediately after surgery, I had dry eye in both eyes. The multitude of eye drops helped, and eventually my left eye was deemed 20/20 and had no issues. My right eye was a different story. It took two months for the dry eye to clear up and for the doctor to announce is was finally at 20/20. I’ll admit – I was pretty scared for a while. I was getting tired of constantly having to put drops in my right eye, and wondered if the dry eye would never go away – which can happen. I was extremely relieved when I started noticing a difference, and when I was told that both eyes were at 20/20. I can’t remember the last time I used an eye drop, but I do have a bottle handy in my purse just in case.
Lasik surgery was one of the best decisions I’ve made. It’s pretty incredible not to deal not only with glasses and contacts and the hassle they bring, but also the money I save by not having to buy contacts every few months and cases and solution, etc. I love being able to wake up in the morning and not fumble for my glasses, or take a nap in the middle of the day without having to take my contacts out. Lasik surgery worked for me, and I am one happy customer.

September 27, 2012
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The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall
Chick Lit Review

The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall

The Darling Girls by Emma Burstall begins as Leo, a world famous conductor, dies and his three lovers meet for the first time at his funeral. The three women realize that they have an abdundant amount of unanswered questions and wonder about the man who was capable of juggling his brilliant career and three women all at the same time, whilst none of them ever had a clue.

Victoria, his partner of twenty years and mother of two of his children, relishes the fact that she thinks she knew Leo best, but when secrets start to come forward, she begins to question whether or not she knew him in the first place. Maddy, mother of Phoebe, is a typical career woman who creates trouble of her own when she becomes involved with someone off limits. And then there is Cat, the youngest of the trio. She is dealing with some emotional and family issues and seems to be the most wounded of the three. All three of the “Darling Girls” couldn’t be more different … but you soon realize that they couldn’t be more similar as well.

The Darling Girls is a heartbreaking story that touches on loss, heartache, love and friendship and I absolutely adored every second of it. Emma magically orchestrates the tale of the three women in a way that makes them like puppets in the grand scheme of things in Leo’s world, and you wonder if he will forever control their worlds. Luckily for us, and for the trio, everything works out for the best, but we see how connected everything in the story truly is. I found myself putting pieces of the puzzle together until the very end. Beautifully written, heartbreaking and honest – a truly magical tale.

[Review: 5/5]

September 27, 2012
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