Future Tour: Unexpecting by Lori Verni Fogarsi
Lori will be on tour April 29-May 13 with her novel Unexpecting Shelley and David are a couple of almost-empty-nesters preparing to embark on the…
CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Elly in Bloom by Colleen …
Colleen Oakes is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Elly in Bloom. Elly Jordan makes a new life for herself after catching her husband in bed with another woman. She flees from Georgia and ends up in St. Louis, where she finally stops running and decides to stay. Along with the help of new friend Kim she opens her own flower shop, as flowers and creating masterpieces from them has always been her passion. Two years later Elly and her shop Poises is thriving, and she thinks she might be finally moving on from her past. But when she takes on a wedding that would not only allow her to pay off her apartment but boost her business exponentially, Elly comes face-to-face with the people she was trying so hard to forget.
I really enjoyed Elly in Bloom, and just loved the writing and the crisp descriptions that made me feel like I was a part of Elly’s world. Elly is a pretty comical character, who has a knack for being klutzy and talking too much. But she is very loveable, someone whose past clearly left a huge mark on her, and I commend her for uprooting herself like she did and trying to start over and stand on her own two feet. I imagine that could not be easy! There is a romance in the story between Elly and Isaac that left me in stitches from time to time. Their whole relationship was just awkward, but it made it that more funny to read about. Snarky Teenager was actually one of my favorite characters because of her spunk, and Kim was such a good friend to Elly that is was impossible not to love her. A very cute read with such an adorable cover, and I recommend!
4 stars
Book Review: Cut and Run by Traci Hohenstein
I received a copy of Cut and Run by Traci Hohenstein in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
When Matt O’Malley turns up at a truck stop with a nasty concussion and no recollection of what happened to him or his family, investigator Rachel Scott knows she and the Florida Omni Search team have to act fast. Whoever attacked him still has his wife and children, and a gruesome piece of evidence points to deadly possibilities.
While Matt sweats under the scrutiny of the FBI, his shattered memory slowly pieces together disturbing details. Afraid to trust even his brother with this new information, he turns to Rachel, who scours southern Louisiana for clues. Along with retired police detective Red Cooper, Rachel searches everywhere from a voodoo parlor to an eerie Houma swamp, unearthing troubling secrets about the O’Malleys…and a shocking truth behind the disappearance of Rachel’s own daughter.
Traci Hohenstein picks up her suspenseful Rachel Scott series with its third entry, Cut and Run—a gripping thriller that captures the haunting spirit and intoxicating mystery of New Orleans.
Review:
This is the third installment in the Rachel Scott adventure series and although I haven’t read the first two books in the series, I feel confident in saying that you can pick up this book solo and enjoy it without the other two. You find out pretty early on that the underlying subject of the novels is the search for Rachel’s daughter, Mallory, who has been missing for over five years. Ironically, her life revolves around searching for missing people – and when she isn’t occupied in the pursuit of a stranger, she spends every moment looking for her daughter. I really admired her go-get-them attitude and thought that Rachel was fairly determined in her pursuit. I often times put myself in her shoes as a mother and thought about what I would do if I were in the same situation. I thought she handled the situation well and to be honest, I was really rooting for her to find Mallory. This book is filled with tons of secrets and hidden clues and that made me enjoy the story even more. Cut and Run was really well written and I thoroughly enjoyed it. I would highly recommend this book to anyone looking for a suspenseful read.
Rating: 4.5 stars
Blog Tour Sign Up: The Blasphemy Box by Mandy Behbehani
“You know that nightmare you’ve always had? The one where you wake up one day to find yourself fat, frumpy, fifty and alone? I’m living it.”
Maddy Nelson has an idyllic existence: a handsome husband, great kids, a comfortable, affluent lifestyle. One morning soon after she turns fifty, however, she wakes up in her San Francisco home to find her husband Steven announcing that he’s leaving her for a woman half her age. And a third of her size.
Ouch!
Feeling totally unmoored and grieving for her married life and husband, Maddy finds herself thrust into an unfamiliar and uncomfortable world of middle-aged singledom. There, she must come to terms with her situation and embark on her new life: divorce proceedings, single parenting, internet dating, and trying to earn a living. It’s enough to drive her over the brink. To help her cope, she shares her struggles in a smart, wry blog named The Blasphemy Box, after her ex-husband’s obnoxious habit of having her drop a quarter into a wooden box every time she said something off color. Her madcap middle-aged adventures find her devoted readers who identify with her challenges.
In time, Maddy recreates herself and finds happiness in the arms of a good man, and a fulfilling new career as a novelist.
In My Mailbox: Week of March 31
Title: Eleusis
Author: Genevieve Fairbrother
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Macy needs a break. Her parents are dead and now a moody trespasser has set up camp on the property she has inherited. When the stranger confesses himself to be an ageless sea-god and tells Macy she has been guarding a secret she never knew existed, her once simple life takes a drastic turn. Just when she thinks it can’t get any stranger, a back door to the Underworld opens up and it’s time to run like hell.
Mythology and contemporary life collide as this fast-paced novel explodes and dark forces tracking Macy surface to capture her. In the transatlantic chase that follows, she learns of her forgotten past and a centuries-old connection to the sea-god who helps her escape. A tragic miscalculation derails Macy and in a moment of self-sacrifice she ends up where it all began, trapped in the Underworld.
Has she learned enough about her past to forge a meaningful future? Utterly alone, she realizes that to gain real freedom, she must reject her assigned place in history and in doing so risk everything.
Events challenge her whilst she comes to grips with her legacy and decides what she wants in life. Family betrayal, sinister plot twists, and unlikely friends fill this exhilarating story of one woman’s journey to shape her future as she learns her true identity and strives to become a force in her own right.
Eleusis by Genevieve Fairbrother is one-of-a-kind contemporary paranormal adventure novel that narrates a unique perspective on women and relationships using the life of one immortal woman moving through time.
Orphan Train by Christina Baker KlineTitle: Orphan Train
Author: Christina Baker Kline
Received: SheReads
Synopsis: Orphan Train is a gripping story of friendship and second chances from Christina Baker Kline, author of Bird in Hand and The Way Life Should Be.
Penobscot Indian Molly Ayer is close to “aging out” out of the foster care system. A community-service position helping an elderly woman clean out her home is the only thing keeping Molly out of juvie and worse….
As she helps Vivian sort through her possessions and memories, Molly learns that she and Vivian aren’t as different as they seem to be. A young Irish immigrant orphaned in New York City, Vivian was put on a train to the Midwest with hundreds of other children whose destinies would be determined by luck and chance. Molly discovers that she has the power to help Vivian find answers to mysteries that have haunted her for her entire life – answers that will ultimately free them both.
Rich in detail and epic in scope, Orphan Train is a powerful novel of upheaval and resilience, of unexpected friendship, and of the secrets we carry that keep us from finding out who we are.
Shake Down the Stars by Renee SwindleTitle: Shake Down the Stars
Author: Renee Swindle
Received: Penguin
Synopsis: Piper Nelson is stuck. She can’t quite stay away from the husband she divorced. She isn’t always attentive to the high school students she teaches. And even she admits that she’s been drinking too much and seeking out unsuitable men. Piper’s mother, married to a celebrity evangelist, and her sister, immersed in plans to wed a professional football player and star in a reality TV show, are both too self-absorbed to sympathize with Piper’s angst. They tell her to get a grip. But how can Piper ever really recover from the blow she suffered five years ago, when a car accident took the life of her young daughter?
When Piper’s ex-husband announces his new girlfriend is pregnant, Piper is forced to take stock. Realizing that it’s time for a change is one step, but actually making it happen is quite another. And despite what she thinks, Piper can’t do it alone Lucky for her, a couple of crazy, funny new friends are ready to step in when she needs them most…and show her how to live and laugh again.
Double Click by Lisa BeckerTitle: Double Click
Author: Lisa Becker
Received: Lisa Becker
Synopsis: Fans of the romantic hit Click: An Online Love Story will enjoy another voyeuristic dive into the lives of Renee, Shelley, Ashley, Mark and Ethan, as Double Click picks up with their lives six months later. Are Renee and Ethan soul mates? Does Mark ever go on a date? Has Shelley run out of sexual conquests in Los Angeles? Will Ashley’s judgmental nature sabotage her budding relationship? Through a marriage proposal, wedding, new baby and unexpected love twist, Double Click answers these questions and more. Readers will continue to cheer, laugh, cry and cringe following the email exploits of Renee and friends.
Marriage Matters by Cynthia EllingsenTitle: Marriage Matters
Author: Cynthia Ellingsen
Received: Penguin
Synopsis: She barely has time to attend a wedding, let alone plan one, but Chloe has just caught the bouquet. So has her married mother… and her widowed grandmother. With three generations set to walk down the aisle, each “I do” sounds more improbable than the last.
On top of grad school, clinical hours, and part-time work, Chloe is surprised to find a ring on her finger. Sharing the news about the engagement is easy, except with her best friend. Their relationship has always been platonic…so why is Chloe so afraid he is going to object?
Kristine is successful at running her travel bookstore, but her twenty-five year marriage is on the rocks. When her husband suggests a vow renewal ceremony, she agrees to say I Do…until a tempting employee makes her wonder whether or not she wants to be married at all.
June knows what’s best for her and everyone around her. Given a second chance at love, she’s delighted to plan the family wedding of her dreams. But when June gets a little carried away in her enthusiasm, she risks losing more than the love of her life… she risks losing her family.
In Cynthia Ellingsen’s heartwarming and hilarious novel of first loves, second chances, and unexpected twists, three generations of brides-to-be discover that love is always better as a family affair.
Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch HummerTitle: Girl Unmoored
Author: Jennifer Gooch Hummer
Received: SheKnows
Synopsis: Apron Bramhall has come unmoored. Fortunately, she’s about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ Superstar. Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike, who’s suddenly everywhere, until she’s stuck in church with him one day. Then something happens—Apron’s broken teenage heart blinks on for the first time since she’s been adrift.Mike and his boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store, and Apron’s world seems to calm. But when she uncovers Chad’s secret, stormy seas return. Apron starts to see things the adults around her fail to—like what love really means, and who is paying too much for it.Apron has come unmoored, but now she’ll need to take the helm if she’s to get herself and those she loves to safe harbor.
Losing It by Cora CarmackTitle: Losing It
Author: Cora Carmack
Received: eBury Publishing
Synopsis: Virginity.
Bliss Edwards is about to graduate from college and still has hers. Sick of being the only virgin among her friends, she decides the best way to deal with the problem is to lose it as quickly and simply as possible—a one-night stand. But her plan turns out to be anything but simple when she freaks out and leaves a gorgeous guy alone and naked in her bed with an excuse that no one with half a brain would ever believe.
And as if that weren’t embarrassing enough, when she arrives for her first class of her last college semester, she recognizes her new theater professor.
She’d left him naked in her bed about eight hours earlier. . . .
In Sara’s Mailbox:
By Design by Jayne DenkerTitle: By Design
Author: Jayne Denker
Received: Jayne Denker
Synopsis: She’s got loads of talent, a massive crush–and no confidence. Now she just needs a plan…
Interior designer Emmie Brewster is having one of those…decades. Her overbearing boss believes she’s only qualified to make coffee. Her boyfriend treats her like a booty call. And her widowed father is dating again–more successfully than she is. Then Emmie lands a client who happens to be the hottest man she’s ever encountered. Too bad Graham Cooper is already involved with the kind of woman Emmie longs to be. If only she had the courage…
Emmie’s always been content to dream–about having her own business, her own Mr. Right–but something about Graham makes her want to take action. Maybe it’s time she used her talent for creating beauty and order on herself. She has Graham’s admiration–does she dare go for more? With a little encouragement from her friends, and a lot of newfound motivation, Emmie’s ready to try…
I’ll Take What She Has by Samantha WildeTitle: I’ll Take What She Has
Author: Samantha Wilde
Received: Felicia @ Random House
Synopsis: Samantha Wilde’s heartfelt second novel that dissects the age old question: is the grass always greener on the other side? The novel follows Nora Harriet Helpsom Fulch Galusha as she is in the midst of a serious case of baby fever. Nora’s insecurities are brought to the forefront when the glamorous new history teacher Cynthia Cypress arrives on campus married to Nora’s ex boyfriend and with a baby on the way. I’LL TAKE WHAT SHE HAS is a touching story of female friendship, family, and wanting what you don’t have.
Future Tour: Where’s the Groom? by Sophie Meyer
Sophie will be on tour May 27-June 17 with her romantic comedy novel Where’s the Groom? Ashley, just turning thirty, is stuck with a string…
On Tour: When Girlfriends Make Choices by Savannah Page
Savannah will be on tour April 1-22 with her novel When Girlfriends Make Choices A novel about forbidden love, the choices you make, and discovering…
Future Tour: Breathe by Kate Bishop
Kate will be on tour May 20-June 10 with her chick lit/romantic comedy novel Breathe Alex thought she had married the man of her dreams:…
Blog Tour Sign Up: Tainted Love by Erin Cawood
For anyone in a relationship, the words ‘we need to talk’ can only mean one thing. In the last twenty-two years, the McKenzies have been through it, survived it, learned by it, and grown stronger from it, because life didn’t stop for breath when they needed it. Amongst the tears and the tragedies, the hopes and happiness, they’ve built something amazing: a happy family, a luxury lifestyle and a booming empire. Don’t they deserve to have it all?
But for the perfect wife, those four sinister words mean something entirely different. They’re a summons into a private world where what happens behind closed doors stays behind closed doors.
Faith has no doubt in Calvin’s undying love for her. It’s what kept her sane in the darkest hours. If only she could figure out what it is she does wrong… because it’s rapidly becoming apparent their tainted love is running out of time.
