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In My Mailbox: Week of April 1
Chick Lit Plus

In My Mailbox: Week of April 1

In My Mailbox: Week of April 1
In Samantha’s Mailbox:

Title: Misfortune Cookie
Author: Michele Gorman
Received: From Michele Gorman
Synopsis: “Following your heart will pay off in the near future”

The fortune cookie had spoken, affirming Hannah’s decision to move to Hong Kong to be with her boyfriend. She’s no stranger to rash decisions – after all she moved from the US to London on a dare, and that worked out, didn’t it? Ever the optimist, she’s determined to make a success of her move, no matter what anybody says.

Unfortunately, anybody seems to be everybody and her life isn’t going exactly to plan.

Sure, she’s found a career in fashion that she loves, her best friend Stacy moved to be with her, and they’re exploring the weird and wonderful in Hong Kong. It’s her love life that’s not quite living up to expectations. It isn’t easy having a relationship with a boyfriend who’s been posted to a job in another country. Particularly one who seems a bit too cosy with his new boss.

When things also start going wrong at work, Hannah begins to think her friends and family were right. Has she made the worst mistake of her life?

Title: The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit
Author: Amanda Egan
Received: From Amanda Egan
Synopsis: THE SEQUEL TO ‘DIARY OF A MUMMY MISFIT’

Think you knew Mummy Misfit?

Well, you might be in for a surprise.

After a year of struggling with school fees, trying to become pregnant and feeling like she didn’t belong amongst the prep-school ‘Meemies’, Libby is back.

Only this time, she’s got it all.

But how long can it last and will she ever be truly happy?

Join Libby on her hilarious, yet sensitive journey as loyalty, friendships and values are tested in ‘The Darker Side of Mummy Misfit’.

Title: True Love Way
Author: Nancy Scrofano
Received: From Lucie @ Simon and Fig
Synopsis: Marlo Spencer relishes all things retro. Old TV shows, classic movies, and even the collectible lunch boxes to go with them. In fact, she’s quite cozy in her Malibu apartment, surrounded by her treasured knick-knacks and vintage memorabilia. It’s her best friend, Nik, who doesn’t get her fascination with all that “old junk,” as he calls it. He especially doesn’t understand why she’s so keen to get back to their hometown of Napa when her high school sweetheart, Josh, suddenly returns after twelve years in Paris and nary a single phone call, eager to reunite with her. So, when Marlo heads up north to wine country to rekindle her relationship with Josh, Nik tags along, claiming he was already planning to visit his sister, Savannah, Marlo’s gal pal. Once they reach Napa, however, dreams of a blissful reunion are shattered as old secrets and past betrayals are revealed, leaving an unsuspecting Marlo to pick up the pieces. Can she forgive and forget, or will true love find a different path to her heart?

Title: Willow Pond
Author: Carol Tibaldi
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The Roaring Twenties crumble into the Great Depression. Bootlegging is flourishing. Virginia Kingsley, New York’s most successful speakeasy owner, is queen of that castle. Rudy Strauss wants to help with her business. Virginia, wisely suspicious, refuses. He shifts his trademark toothpicks to the other side of his mouth and asks about her niece, Laura, and Laura’s nineteen-month-old son, Todd. Virginia warns him off, but Rudy is intrigued. Laura is movie star beautiful but it is her ex-husband, Phillip, who is an actor. Laura, a writer, is devastated when Todd’s nanny calls, hysterical, saying Laura’s son has been kidnapped.

Title: Escape
Author: Barbara Delinsky
Received: From Laura @ Laura Sherlock PR
Synopsis: Publication Date: July 5, 2011
In her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage—and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best.

Emily Aulenbach is thirty, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with vic¬tims of tainted bottled water—and she is on the bottler’s side.

And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things—her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

In Sara’s Mailbox:

Title: When You Were Older
Author: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Received: Unsolicited
Synopsis:
I was doing my best to get out the door. And then the phone rang. I almost let it go.

New York, September 11th 2001
Russell Ammiano is rushing to work when he gets a phone call that saves his life. As the city he loves is hit by unimaginable tragedy, Russell must turn his back and hurry home to Kansas.

Kansas, September 14th 2001
Ben Ammiano is mentally disabled, and a creature of habit. Any change to his routine sends him into a spin. But now his estranged brother has reappeared, and Ben’s simple, ordered world has turned upside down.

In a story as heartbreaking as it is uplifting, two brothers must bury their pasts and learn from each other, if they are to survive.

April 1, 2012
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The Bungalow by Sarah Jio
Chick Lit Review

The Bungalow by Sarah Jio

The Bungalow by Sarah Jio is a unique and fantastical piece of historical chick-lit that is truly one-of-a-kind. With the world in chaos around her and the country at war, twenty-one year old, Anne Calloway, questions her future as the bride-to-be of a man that she has known her whole life and wonders if this is all life has in store for her. Having always taken the safe, logical route, Anne makes the decision of a lifetime and joins her best friend and enlists as a nurse, heading to Bora-Bora and embarking on a journey that will change her in more ways than one.

Shortly after arriving, Anne meets a fellow service man named Westry. Together, they work to repair an abandoned bungalow on the beach, and in doing so, their friendship blossoms into a romance. Then one night, they witness a shocking event that changes everything. With the crime lingering overhead, the timing couldn’t be worse as Anne’s tour is wrapping up and Westry is being redeployed. What will become of their love? Will Westry be able to find her once the war is over? Will the world ever go back to the way that Anne remembers? Only time will tell but I for one, loved being a part of the journey.

I absolutely adored The Bungalow. When I first picked up the book to read, I was quickly reminded of Sarah’s debut novel and how similar the two are, yet so very different. Sarah does a fantastic job at weaving together a historical backdrop, an enduring romance and a taste of mystery. I loved the progression from friendship to something more between Anne and Westry and I found myself leafing through the pages quickly to find out what would become of them. I was swept away by the visuals and descriptions that Sarah painted and found myself reading in fluid color as if I were there, right along with Anne on her journey. Overall, this book is an absolute GEM. I couldn’t put it down and read it in one sitting. This book is one of my new recommendations for an enchanting, enthralling summer-read. Kudos to you Sarah, you’ve done it again and have created yourself another winner!

[Rating 5/5]

March 29, 2012
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GIVEAWAY: The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose
Updates

GIVEAWAY: The Book of Lost Fragrances by M.J. Rose

A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra–and lost for 2,000 years.

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances–and of her mother’s suicide–she moved to America. Now, fourteen years later she and her brother have inherited the company along with it’s financial problems. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing–leaving a dead body in his wake–Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind.

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac becomes haunted by the legend the House of L’Etoile has been espousing since 1799. Is there a scent that can unlock the mystery of reincarnation – or is it just another dream infused perfume?

The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.
In celebration of publication, chicklitplus.com is offering one sample of perfume, Ames Soeurs, available as a tie in with the book. Please leave a comment below if interested. and we will draw a winner at random. Contests ends at 9:00PM (central time) March 28th.

March 26, 2012
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