Future Tour: Torn Together by Emlyn Chand
Emlyn will be on tour February 25- March 15 with her literary women’s fiction novel Torn Together From her cheating boyfriend to her dead father…
Future Tour: When I See You by Katherine Owen
Katherine will be on tour February 18- March 11 with her contemporary women’s fiction novel When I See You She believes that love can never…
CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Sparkle by Cara Alwill Leyba
Cara Alwill Leyba is on tour now with CLP Blog Tours and Sparkle: The Girl’s Guide to Living a Deliciously Dazzling, Wildly Effervescent, Kick-Ass Life. The cover attracted me at first glance, a cute pink planner/diary that I knew would be filled with great tips and tricks on improving myself and having more confidence. After I finished, I felt that Cara and I were best friends. I have been lucky to get to know her better through her blog tour, and after reading the book she is someone I definitely look up to. Women spend so much time not only down on themselves for one thing or another – but they are often quick to look down on other women. I can’t even tell you how many girls can still make me feel inadequate, so reading something that is all about female empowerment was just wonderful. I love the stories that are shared, the chapter break-downs, and the feel-good feeling I was left with after I finished. As we head into 2013, I think this is a book every women should give a chance. When a new year comes resolutions are made and goals are thought of, and I think this book really gave me a lot of new ideas to incorporate into my life. I definitely thought of Cara and Sparkle on New Years Eve as I did a champagne toast with my girlfriends!
[Rating: 4]
Future Tour: Bring Me Back by Karen Booth
Karen will be on tour February 11-18 with her women’s fiction novel Bring Me Back Music critic Claire Abby is a single mom dreading her…
On Tour: Death Turns a Trick by Julie Smith
Julie will be on tour January 7-21 with her novel Death Turns a Trick Rebecca Schwartz, nice Jewish lawyer with a few too many fantasies,…
Blog Tour Sign Up: Elly in Bloom by Colleen Oakes
Surrounded by lush flowers and neurotic brides, chubby 32-year old Elly Jordan has carved out a sweet little life for herself as the owner of Posies, a boutique wedding florist in St. Louis. It’s not bad for a woman who drove away from her entire life just two years ago when she found her husband entwined with a red-headed artist.
Sure, Elly has an embarrassingly beautiful best friend, a terribly behaved sheepdog and a sarcastic assistant who she simply calls “Snarky Teenager”, but overall her days are pleasantly uneventful. As a bonus, her new next door neighbor just happens to be an unnervingly handsome musician who has an eye for curvy Elly. Just when she feels that she is finally moving on from her past, she discovers that an extravagant wedding contract, one that could change her financial future, is more than she bargained for.
With the help of her friends, staff and the occasional well-made sandwich, Elly bravely agrees to take on the event that threatens to merge her painful history with her bright new life, and finds herself blooming in a direction she never imagined.
Elly’s voice, both charming and hilarious, will appeal to those readers who have been looking for a new voice in chick-lit, and will give women of all sizes the realistic heroine they’ve been waiting for.
Quote about the book: “Colleen Oakes is a crisp, intelligent new voice in chick-lit fiction, adept at handling both a character’s inner and outer world. Her dialogue is brisk and clever and her plotting is a smooth invitation to keep turning pages…” – Andrea (Ande) Waggener, Author of Alternate Beauty
Author Profile: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Author Name: Catherine Ryan Hyde
Website: http://www.catherineryanhyde.com/
Bio: Catherine Ryan Hyde is the author of 18 published and forthcoming books.
Her newest releases are When You Were Older, Don’t Let Me Go, Jumpstart the World , When I Found You and Second Hand Heart. Forthcoming is Walk Me Home (Transworld UK, Spring 2012).
Other newer novels are Becoming Chloe, Love in the Present Tense, The Year of My Miraculous Reappearance, Chasing Windmills The Day I Killed James, and Diary of a Witness.
Both Becoming Chloe and Jumpstart the World were included on the ALA’s Rainbow List. Jumpstart the World was chosen as a finalist for two Lambda Literary Awards, received a third place Rainbow Award for Young Adult/Coming of Age Fiction and a tie for first place in Bisexual/Transgender Fiction. Love in the Present Tense enjoyed bestseller status in the UK, where it broke the top ten, spent five weeks on the national bestseller list, was reviewed on a major TV book club, and shortlisted for a Best Read of the Year Award at the British Book Awards.
Older works include the story collection Earthquake Weather, and the novels Funerals for Horses, Pay it Forward, Electric God, and Walter’s Purple Heart.
Pay It Forward was adapted into a major motion picture starring Kevin Spacey and Helen Hunt, chosen by the American Library Association for its Best Books for Young Adults list, and translated into more than 23 languages for distribution in over 30 countries. The mass market paperback was released in October 2000 by Pocket Books and quickly became a national bestseller. It is still in print, and was rereleased in a trade paperback edition in April of 2010.
More than 50 of her short stories have been published in The Antioch Review, Michigan Quarterly Review, The Virginia Quarterly Review, Ploughshares, Glimmer Train, The Sun and many other journals, and in the anthologies Santa Barbara Stories and California Shorts and the bestselling anthology Dog is my Co-Pilot. Her stories have been honored in the Raymond Carver Short Story Contest and the Tobias Wolff Award and nominated for Best American Short Stories, the O’Henry Award, and the Pushcart Prize. Three have been cited in Best American Short Stories.
She is founder and former president (2000-2009) of the Pay It Forward Foundation. As a professional public speaker she has addressed the National Conference on Education, twice spoken at Cornell University, met with Americorps members at the White House and shared a dais with Bill Clinton.
See my 5 star review for Don’t Let Me Go!
Visit Catherine’s tour page!
Connect with Catherine!
My website: http://www.catherineryanhyde.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/cryanhyde
Facebook profile: https://www.facebook.com/crhyde
Facebook author page: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Catherine-Ryan-Hyde/55974126195
Google+: https://plus.google.com/104995498482118293003/posts
Tumblr blog: http://www.tumblr.com/blog/catherineryanhyde
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/cryanhyde/
Future Tour: White Diamonds by Shirley Hailstock
Shirley will be on tour February 25 – March 18 with her novel, White Diamonds.
Sandra Rutledge has been in front of cameras most of her life. She longs for the quiet existence of a university professor. A PhD candidate in mathematics, she’s at the family cabin in the Pocono Mountains when she finds Wyatt Randolph, the missing junior senator from Pennsylvania, bleeding to death on the road. Saving his life puts hers in danger. Attracted to the senator, she’s appalled when he accuses her father of treason. Together they set out to find the truth.
Wyatt Randolph’s best friend was killed for a cache of diamonds. His death set off a chain of events that go all the way to the White House. It’s up to Wyatt to discover what the stones entrusted to him do and why people are willing to kill for them. With the reluctant help of Sandra Rutledge, the daughter of the man Wyatt believes holds the key to the entire project, the two of them fight to find the truth and stay alive in the process.
Please visit CLP Blog Tours for the full tour schedule!
CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Mad World: Epidemic by Samaire …
I am excited to kick off Samaire Provost’s tour with CLP Blog Tours for Mad World: Epidemic, because I loved this book! You know you’re in for a treat when literally the first paragraph in the book has you hooked, and that is exactly what happened to me! I didn’t actually realize when I started that the book would be basically about zombies. I haven’t bought into the zombie craze yet – unlike my fiancé – but I never once got worried because I enjoyed the opening so much.
Scientist’s at Stanford University in California have begun examining samples of bone marrow from plague-infected corpses unearthed in Europe – victims from the Black Plague. Somehow the infection gets out and people start getting infected, which leads to an epidemic. Families are evacuated, riots are occurring, and the state of California is in complete panic mode. The main character is seventeen year old Alyssa, who is returning to California from a school trip when they run into the epidemic. After their teacher is infected, the students are left to fend for themselves in a harrowing adventure to try to find their families – and a safe place.
This was a quick read for me even over the busy holidays. I was drawn into the fascinating plot and didn’t want to put the book down. I have the second in the series, Mad World: Sanctuary on my Kindle and am eager to read it and jump back into the story. There are gory parts in the story since it does revolve around zombies, but I didn’t think there was too much or that there were any unnecessary parts. I enjoyed that this was a very high-paced book, always with action going on and never a dull moment. I recommend this and look forward to more!
[Rating: 5]
