Blog Tour Sign Up: Untimed by Andy Gavin
Andy will be on tour in June/July with the YA/time travel romance novel Untimed. I am looking for book bloggers to post reviews, guest posts,…
On Tour: Flirting with Magick by Leigh Bennett
Leigh will be on tour April 22-May 13 with her novel Flirting with Magick When a new-age remedy fixes Abby Williams’ career rut, the twenty-five…
On Tour: Swan Story by Priya Narendran
Priya will be on tour April 22-29 with her novel Swan Story Soon to be married Daniel Macgregor meets mysterious beauty Sarah Mitchell on the…
Book Review: Always On My Mind by Bella Andre
I received a copy of Always On My Mind by Bella Andre in exchange for an honest review.
Always On My Mind begins after a tragic loss that takes place three years prior. Grayson Tyler left his life in New York City behind afterward and started over in the rolling hills of the California coast. He’s convinced himself that all he’ll ever need again is the blue sky, a thousand acres of pasture, and the crashing waves of the ocean. Until one day, the beautiful and mysterious, Lori Sullivan (also appropriately nicknamed “Naughty”) barges into his life and promptly blows his emotionless and solitary world to shreds. But will Lori be able to convince him that it’s safe to love her…and that forever isn’t actually out of reach?
I have been a big fan of Bella Andre for quite some time and Always On My Mind does not disappoint. As always, I thought that Bella did a fantastic job at creating such real emotions for her characters and my heart ached for Grayson after his loss but I absolutely loved the way that he and Lori met … and I must admit that I loved the way that she really shook up his world. That’s what they say about real love right? That it comes in and crashes down hard? Well, this is no exception and as skillful as ever, Bella Andre does an amazing job at crafting such chemistry and love between these two main characters. This one is definitely a must read.
Rating: 5 stars
Future 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,…
Future Tour: Crime and Passion by Chantel Rhondeau
A decorated police officer, more intent on justice than following the letter of the law, lands in trouble when a schoolteacher finds a dead body on the beach.
Officer Donovan Andrews knows how to have a good time—ask any woman in town. But when it comes to men abusing their wives or children, Donovan takes it upon himself to make them regret it.
Madeline Scott is unlucky in love. All she wants is a quiet place to heal, away from cheating, womanizing men. However, her life is far from peaceful once she stumbles across the body and witnesses someone fleeing the scene.
Terror spreads in Pleasant View when the small community hears a killer is on the loose. All evidence points to Donovan, and he realizes someone is trying to frame him. When troubling suspicions from his past surface, even fellow officers believe he’s guilty. Madeline might be the only person who can clear his name, but first he has to win her trust.
The body count rises and no one is safe. The murderer makes it clear Madeline is next. Soon, Donovan’s whole world is focused on protecting her and keeping himself out of prison. The more time he spends with her, the harder it is to fight his growing attraction. Since she’s been burned by love, convincing Madeline he’s interested in something more than hot sex may prove harder than keeping her alive.
Blog Tour Sign Up: When Girlfriends Chase Dreams by Savannah …
A novel about chasing dreams, for better or worse, and living your love story.
Claire Linley is finally a bride! After nearly ten years with her college freshman sweetheart, Claire is going to become Mrs. Conner Whitley. She’s got her bridal magazines, is the biggest Martha Stewart fan, and subscribes to all the major wedding blogs. She’s been dreaming of this moment for years! How could planning her dream wedding be anything but perfect?
The easy-going and bubbly type, Claire will obviously have a blast planning, and with her fantastic group of girlfriends-made-bridesmaids she just can’t go wrong. Whether it’s wedding gown shopping, makeup trials, or cake-tasting, Claire’s friends are there in a pinch.
But how big does the pinch get? All Claire wants to do is get married, but at every turn something seems to go awry and she’s starting to lose it. How is a girl supposed to remain cool and collected when the pricy dream wedding planner isn’t turning out to be so dreamy? When DIY projects and the perfect venue are going up in smoke? How is Claire supposed to marry Conner when the special day that’s supposed to join them together, forever, is slowly tearing them apart?
This is the charming story about how sometimes the biggest events in life are defined by the smallest acts of kindness and love. It’s a love story about dreaming large, loving deeply, and, in the end, truly having the happiest day of your life, no matter what happens (or doesn’t). About what happens when girlfriends chase dreams.
CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Transplanting Holly Oakwood by Di …
Di Jones is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Transplanting Holly Oakwood. When Holly finds her boyfriend in bed with her best friend, her world comes crashing down. Not sure where to turn or who to trust, she flees from London to Los Angeles to work for a great job – a Consulate – and tries to forget the betrayal. But life in LA proves no easier than what she left behind. Her boss Brittany is a snob, her body type is nowhere near the norm, and she struggles with homesickness as loneliness envelopes her. The only thing that seems to get her by is her new friendships – and a possible love interest. But can Holly really move on from her life in London and find happiness in LA?
Transplanting Holly Oakwood is a true chick lit book, and so much fun to read. Poor Holly can’t seem to cut a break wherever she is – London, LA, doesn’t matter! I could really feel for her and how she seemed not to fit in. And her boss Brittany – what a B word! It was fun that we were able to get POV’s from other characters, including the famed Brittany, and I thought that really added a lot to the story. I loved the romance because I didn’t know which man was going to win in the end – and Holly had three possible suitors along the way, if you count her douche-canoe of an ex. Holly got into so many comical – and frustrating – situations, but I was happy with her ending and I highly enjoyed this novel. One for chick lit readers!
4 stars
In My Mailbox: Week of April 14
Title: The Week Before the Wedding
Author: Beth Kendrick
Received: Penguin
Synopsis:
After enduring a chaotic childhood, Emily McKellips yearns for a drama-free life, complete with a white picket fence. Her dreams are about to come true: She has a stellar career, a gorgeous house, and a fiancé any woman would die for. But as friends and family arrive in picturesque Valentine, Vermont, for her wedding, an uninvited guest shows up.
Ryan is Emily’s first husband from a disastrous starter marriage. They wed on a whim, only to discover that combustible chemistry couldn’t ensure a happily ever after. But Ryan is no longer the headstrong boy she left behind. He’s now a successful film producer who just happens to be scouting a resort in Valentine with his adorable retriever in tow.
As the bridesmaids revolt and the mothers of the bride and groom do battle, Emily is surprised to discover new sides of both her ex and her fiancé. She thought she had life and love all figured out, but the next seven days might change her mind—and her heart.
Title: The Way Back to Happiness
Author: Elizabeth Bass
Received: Kensington
Synopsis: No one could blame Bev Putterman for becoming estranged from her sister. No one but Bev, anyway. Growing up, Diana was difficult and selfish yet always their mother’s favorite. And then came the betrayal that took away the future Bev dreamed of.
Yet if Diana caused problems while alive, her death leaves Bev in a maelstrom of remorse. She longs to provide a stable home for Diana’s fourteen-year-old daughter, Alabama. But between her commitment-phobic boyfriend and her precarious teaching position, Bev’s life is already in upheaval without an unruly teenager around.
All Alabama knows about Aunt Bev is what her mother told her–and none of it was good. They clash about money, clothes, boys, and especially about Diana. In desperation, Alabama sets out to find her late father’s family. Instead she learns of the complicated history between her mother and aunt, how guilt can shut down a life–and most important, how love and forgiveness can open a door and make us whole again. . .
Title: Wedding Night
Author: Sophie Kinsella
Received: TransWorld Books
Synopsis: Lottie is tired of long-term boyfriends who don’t want to commit to marriage. When her old boyfriend Ben reappears and reminds her of their pact to get married if they were both still single at thirty, she jumps at the chance…
Title: Family Pictures
Author: Jane Green
Received: St. Martins Press
Synopsis: From the author of Another Piece of My Heart comes Family Pictures, the gripping story of two women who live on opposite coasts but whose lives are connected in ways they never could have imagined. Both women are wives and mothers to children who are about to leave the nest for school. They’re both in their forties and have husbands who travel more than either of them would like. They are both feeling an emptiness neither had expected. But when a shocking secret is exposed, their lives are blown apart. As dark truths from the past reveal themselves, will these two women be able to learn to forgive, for the sake of their children, if not for themselves?
Title: The Apple Orchard
Received: Susan Wiggs
Received: Etch Communications
Synopsis: Tess Delaney makes a living restoring stolen treasures to their rightful owners. People like Annelise Winther, who refuses to sell her long-gone mother’s beloved necklace—despite Tess’s advice. To Annelise, the jewel’s value is in its memories.
But Tess’s own history is filled with gaps: a father she never met, a mother who spent more time traveling than with her daughter. So Tess is shocked when she discovers the grandfather she never knew is in a coma. And that she has been named in his will to inherit half of Bella Vista, a hundred-acre apple orchard in the magical Sonoma town called Archangel.
The rest is willed to Isabel Johansen. A half sister she’s never heard of.
Against the rich landscape of Bella Vista, Tess begins to discover a world filled with the simple pleasures of food and family, of the warm earth beneath her bare feet. A world where family comes first and the roots of history run deep. A place where falling in love is not only possible, but inevitable.
And in a season filled with new experiences, Tess begins to see the truth in something Annelise once told her: if you don’t believe memories are worth more than money, then perhaps you’ve not made the right kind of memories.
Title: Love Me Anyway
Author: Tiffany Hawk
Received: St. Martins Press
Synopsis: When twenty-three-year-old Emily Cavenaugh’s marriage to her abusive high school sweetheart ends, she trades in her dull smalltown life for an all-access pass to see the world as a flight attendant. Hoping for a new start, she moves to San Francisco to bunk with six other new flight attendants. Among them is KC Valentine, a free spirit who encourages Emily to shed her mousy ways and start collecting experiences as exciting as her passport stamps. Emily soon follows KC’s advice a little too well, falling in love with an older, married co-worker named Tien, a father to two young girls. But as Emily and Tien become more deeply entangled, KC grows distraught. Neither her friends nor co-workers know the real reason she became a flight attendant: to find her father who abandoned her as a child. As Emily and KC fly from Vegas to Boston, San Francisco to London, Chicago to Delhi, each searching for love and acceptance, they’re torn between passion and moral conviction, freedom and belonging.
An assured debut from a former flight attendant, Love Me Anyway deftly captures the complexities of love, friendship, and family, the excitement and loneliness that come from living everywhere and nowhere, and the surprising detours life can take when you set out to discover the world.
