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In My Mailbox: Week of June 23

Title: Secrets of a Spiritual Guru

Author: Tamara Lee Dorris

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: Meet Melissa Murphy: wine-drinking real estate agent who finds herself “accidentally” assuming the role of a spiritual blogger when her boyfriend leaves her for his yoga teacher. Can she keep her role secret while trying to win her man back? If the lying doesn’t kill her, the poses might!

“…Achingly funny and impossibly wise…” Jenna McCarthy, author of, If It Was Easy They’d Call the Whole Damn Thing a Honeymoon; Living with and Loving the TV-Addicted, Sex-Obsessed, Not-so-handy Man You Married

If you’re looking for a hilarious look at yoga, real estate and personal development, you’ll love this book

Profound insight on human nature delivered in what seems like a yoga book (it’s not), a real estate book (no way), but instead is a woman’s fiction, humor tale that will keep readers smiling and longing for more.

This is the first book of the Guru Series

Title: Exchange in Eichstatt

Author: Melanie Surani

Received: From Melanie Surani

Synopsis: When Kat Shergill travels to a small town in Germany for a college course, she has no idea she’ll run into Peter, an ex-boyfriend. Almost as soon as they realize they still have feelings for each other, Peter is kidnapped.

Though Kat does everything she can to understand the clues and ensure her friend’s safe return, she angers the kidnapper, whose taunting text messages and calls suddenly stop. Radio silence means no more information and possibly an abrupt end to the game.

Title: All My Restless Life to Live

Author: Dee DeTarsio

Received: From Dee DeTarsio

Synopsis: All My Restless Life to Live Life is a soap opera, especially for Elle Miller, who writes for one. (Ellen dropped the “n” in her name in hopes of finding a better ending for herself.) When her laptop crashes, she borrows her recently deceased dad’s computer and gets way more than she bargained for.

Elle unravels mysterious communications from his computer, while her mom decides to give Internet dating a try. As Elle tries to save her career at I’d Rather Be Loved with a storyline featuring a trip through Atlantis, she takes a trip to the Emmys, and finds herself in the middle of a romance between a real doctor and a hunk who just plays one on TV. Friends, family, and clues from “the other side” all help Elle figure out the difference between living the good life and living a good life.

Fans of Marian Keyes and Jennifer Weiner will delight in Dee DeTarsio’s sparkling prose and lively dialogue as she takes readers into the heart of women’s lives. Filled with friendship, love, loss, betrayal, and challenges that force her characters to find their place in the universe, Dee’s novels give us that hopefully-ever-after we’re searching for.

Title: The Candidate

Author: Josie Brown

Received: From Josie Brown

Synopsis: Democratic political campaign consultant Ben Brinker can’t remember the last time he was excited by a candidate’s vision. He feels he’s lost his way, both emotionally and professionally. Worst yet, his show-me-the-money policy seems to have finally caught up with him. Two of his recent clients have been disgraced in one way or another: a senator is caught in lurid sex scandal, and a congressman is indicted in a kickback scandal. In no time at all the political pundits are calling Ben a “candidate cooler.” Now Ben is desperate for any campaign gig he can get.

As luck would have it, Andrew Harris Mansfield, the charismatic junior senator from North Carolina and former Marine pilot, asks Ben if he wants to run his soon-to-be-announced campaign for president.

Little does Ben know what’s in store for Andrew, or their country–

Nor does he realize that the key to saving both have been placed in his hands.

Title: The Back Up List

Author: Amber Best & Miriam Brady

Received: From Amber Best & Miriam Brady

Synopsis: The Back-Up List has only ever been a joke- that’s it. Madison Grey has a celebrity crush list of possible replacement husbands ready with the off-chance her husband might inexplicably vanish. Clearly, Madison was not prepared for- A. her husband’s untimely death and B. Calvin Hunt, rock god and top man on her Back-Up List to begin crushing on her. Talk about your cruel cosmic ironies. It has only been six months since her entire family was killed in a tragic accident and he’s looking to her for a hook-up! Really?

Calvin Hunt, rock icon, is living the dream of any womanizing man-whore- that is until he spots the first unavailable woman he’s ever met. What the hell? Is she gay? He’s busily seducing her with concert tickets and exotic getaways, all while he’s touring. There are plenty of obstacles he’ll have to overcome to be with her and he’ll need all the help he can get from his stoic bodyguard, his nosy Oprah-channeling brother and even Madison’s bizarrely quirky friends who are all fighting to cross his name off of Madison’s Back-Up List.

On Tour: Meltdown by Tara Thompson

Tara will be on tour June 24-July 15 with her novel Meltdown NYSSA, internationally renown supermodel, is accustomed to turning heads. As a young girl,…

Book Review: Laws of Migration by Suzanne Frank

I received a copy of Laws of Migration by Suzanne Frank in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Birds, especially the ibis, have always fascinated…

Book Review: Let It Go by Brooklyn James

I received a copy of Let It Go by Brooklyn James in exchange for an honest review.

Summary:

Savannah Bondurant, a marriage and relationship columnist for the Savannah Sun Times, just signed her divorce papers. Brody McAlister, the elusive and smoking hot gym boy, has finally recovered from his divorce three years ago. Be it spurred by loneliness or sheer attraction, the two slip into the sheets for a memorable one-night stand. Savannah’s pesky ex-husband continues to try and worm his way back into her life, insisting they remain friends, even though he is living with his jealous new girlfriend. An up-and-coming woodworker artist, Brody has every socialite cougar in town promising him success and riches, for a price, of course. With two advice-giving older sisters, one fiercely single and one seemingly happily married, Savannah learns her parents’ long and successful relationship does not come without its own secrets. Why should she believe in happily ever after? Her constant overanalyzing and skepticism bodes well in her profession as a journalist, but proves counterproductive in her personal life. Divorce, guilt, suspicion, holding on to the past—can Savannah trust in Brody to help her Let It Go…

My Thoughts:

I was eager when Brooklyn contacted me to review her latest book, Let It Go, seeing as how I adored her debut novel. And let me tell you, she does not disappoint. This book is refreshing real and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Not only are the characters realistic, you can feel their genuine emotion and feelings jump off the page. Now-a-days, everyone has either been through a divorce or been close enough to one to know that they are quite tricky to navigate, and Brooklyn does this with ease. Overall, this story flows with ease and is a quick read and very entertaining. I highly recommend it.
Rating: 4 stars

Blog Tour Sign Up: Lowcountry Bombshell by Susan M. Boyer

Private Investigator Liz Talbot thinks she’s seen another ghost when she meets Calista McQueen. She’s the spitting image of Marilyn Monroe. Born precisely fifty years after the ill-fated star, Calista’s life has eerily mirrored the late starlet’s—and she fears the looming anniversary of Marilyn’s death will also be hers.

Before Liz can open a case file, Calista’s life coach is executed. Suspicious characters swarm around Calista like mosquitoes on a sultry lowcountry evening: her certifiable mother, a fake aunt, her control-freak psychoanalyst, a private yoga instructor, her peculiar housekeeper, and an obsessed ex-husband. Liz digs in to find a motive for murder, but she’s besieged with distractions. Her ex has marriage and babies on his mind. Her too-sexy partner engages in a campaign of repeat seduction. Mamma needs help with Daddy’s devotion to bad habits. And a gang of wild hogs is running loose on Stella Maris.

With the heat index approaching triple digits, Liz races to uncover a diabolical murder plot in time to save not only Calista’s life, but also her own.

On Tour: Getting Skinny Monique Domovitch

Monique will be on tour June 24-July 15 with her novel Getting Skinny Owning a restaurant is as crazy for Nicky Landry as an alcoholic…

Future Tour: Between Friends by Amanda Cowen

Amanda will be on tour July 29-August 19 with her contemporary romance novel Between Friends The only way to have a friend is to be…

Blog Tour Sign Up: The Unraveling of Bebe Jones by …

Roje will be on tour in September with her fiction novel The Unraveling of Bebe Jones. I am looking for book bloggers to post reviews,…

CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Aggravated Circumstances by Michele Shriver

Michele Shriver is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Aggravated Circumstances
Summary:
A family can be torn apart in an instant. Putting it back together is a harder task.

A relapsed addict opens the door to find a cop with a search warrant, setting off a chain of events that will cause four lives to intersect.

Devin Lenox has already lost one child to the system and this time she vows it will be different. If she’s going to make it, though, she’ll need something she’s never had before- someone on her side.

Her battle with depression behind her, Elisa Cahill looks forward to resuming her legal career. Devin’s case seems like the perfect opportunity to do that, and bury her own past demons in the process, at least if old grudges don’t prove to be her undoing.

Child protection worker Taylor Ross struggles to balance a social life with her demanding job and has little sympathy for people like Devin, at least at first. When Taylor starts to see Devin in a new light, she finds herself at odds with her superiors. Will she be willing to go to bat for Devin, and what price will she pay if she does?

Sarah Canfield is a compassionate judge who is not afraid to make difficult decisions, but will her past link to Devin undermine her objectivity and cause her to put her own family at risk?

A look inside the child welfare system, the people who work in it and the lives it impacts, Aggravated Circumstances is a story of despair, hope and recovery.

Review:
This book was fascinating, and quite hard to put down. An emotional and deep story, I found myself talking to my friends and family about the situation of the women involved, about the system, and about the processes that come along with a parent who struggles with addiction. I loved getting a POV from all involved, and think it worked really well to have Devin’s POV in first person. She would definitely be the hardest to relate to and not the easiest character to stand behind, so I think that format worked out really well. This is a novel that will make readers become emotionally invested in the story, and I highly recommend.
4.5 stars