On Tour: Breaking Even by Kathleen Kole
Kathleen Kole is on tour June 13-27 with her novel Breaking Even Meet Penelope Whittaker, an accountant. A sensible, do things the right way, soon-to-be-married…
On Tour: Little Miss Teacher by Cassandra O’Sullivan Sachar
Told through the eyes of Candace Turner, a high school English teacher straight out of college, Little Miss Teacher details one woman’s struggles through the important initial stages of her career and her life as a grown-up. While teaching her students about writing and literature, Candace learns her own lessons about life. As she worries about fitting in with the faculty and conquering piles of essays to grade, Candace also pursues an old crush. Through her endless attempts to succeed in both her job and life, she has many adventures within and outside of her classroom walls. Ultimately, Candace hopes to finish the school year with a feeling of triumph at having touched the lives of her students… and having survived.
In the vein of both Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus’s The Nanny Diaries and Lauren Weisberger’s The Devil Wears Prada, Little Miss Teacher is a story about a young woman dealing with the ups and downs of work and life. In experiences that are sometimes amusing and sometimes sad, Candace endures everything from chaperoning the prom to helping a friend deal with a problem. In her earnest, self-conscious, conversational manner, Candace gives a voice and an all-access pass to the often embarrassing life of a young educator.
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.
Family Pieces by Misa Rush
Karsen Woods seems to be having a great life. Away at college, she has the perfect boyfriend, a fabulous best friend, her brother nearby, and…
Future Tour: With Just One Click by Amanda Strong
Amanda Strong is going on tour July 11-25 with her novel With Just One Click “Reluctance was matched with a pit in my stomach; once…
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
One Night Scandal by Christie Kelley
Sophie Reynard is a matchmaker born into an unfortunate set of circumstances. Her father will not claim her as his child, since she was a…
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
Bodyguards in Bed by Lucy Monroe, Jamie Denton, Elisabeth Naughton
Bodyguards in Bed is a book made up of three different novellas from three separate authors, all with the same theme: hot bodyguards doing more than just protecting their clients. The first, “Who’s Been Sleeping in My Brother’s Bed” by Lucy Monroe, covers a brilliant Ph.D. student whose home has been burglarized. Danusia hightails to her brother’s apartment, which thought would be empty, but instead finds hottie black-ops agent Maxwell Baker has set up his own temporary home there. Her eye has been on her brother’s friend Max for some time now, and being alone in an apartment proves their chemistry is hot as ever. The second novella, “Hot Mess” by Jamie Denton, follows office worker Alyssa who gets in an identity mix-up. While at LAX to pick-up whistle blower Charles Rolston, she accidently reels in FBI special agent Noah Temple. Noah skips telling her she has the wrong man, but knows he made a mistake after they end up sleeping together. And the last is “Acapulco Heat” by Elisabeth Naughton, where supermodel Lauren needs the protection of former army ranger Finn Tierney while on location. When Lauren’s co-worker turns out to be from a family of drug lords, murder ensues. It’s up to Finn to protect Lauren from getting murdered herself, but of course he finds time for some passion as well.
Bodyguards in Bed was a quick read, and I thought all three stories were interesting. Short stories and novellas aren’t my forte, but it was a fun book filled with some hot scenes. I think my favorite novella was the third, probably because I thought it was the longest and I could get more into the story and characters. I thought I was going to really like the first, but it seemed to end as soon as it began. If you like short stories and are looking for a hot summer read, I would recommend Bodyguards in Bed to you.
[Rating: 3.5]
