For Writers: Marketing Your First Novel by Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Please welcome Jennifer Gilby Roberts to the blog as she celebrates her first novel The Dr. Pepper Prophecies turning one! Marketing Your First Novel: What I Would…
Book Review: After Wimbledon by Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Reviewer: Terry I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: After 12 years on the pro. tennis tour and four years…
The Great Chick Lit eBook Giveaway!
I’m excited to share about the Great Chick Lit eBook Giveaway today! Five winners will be getting a bundle of all the books listed below…
In My Mailbox: Week of March 3
Title: We’ll Always Have Paris
Author: Jennifer Coburn
Received: Jennifer Coburn
Synopsis: How her daughter and her passport taught Jennifer Coburn to forget about dying and truly live
Jennifer Coburn has always been terrified of dying young. It’s the reason she drops everything during the summers on a quest to travel through Europe with her daughter, Katie, before it’s too late. Even though her husband can’t join them, even though she’s nervous about the journey, and even though she’s perfectly healthy, she spends three to four weeks per trip jamming Katie’s mental photo album with memories. In this heartwarming generational love story, Jennifer reveals how their adventures helped relinquish her fear of dying…for the sake of living.
Title: Giving Myself Away
Author: Grete DeAngelo
Received: Grete DeAngelo
Synopsis: In Giving Myself Away, divorced mother Adrienne Manning is devastated to find out she’s pregnant after messing around with a guy who’s clearly not boyfriend material.
He’s a lonely mortician with a spiteful daughter, and things just happened late one night after a funeral. When Adrienne meets George Freihoffer in a coffee shop to tell him the news, he asks her to get married and promises to take care of her.
Adrienne hasn’t been single long and she doesn’t trust men so easily after Drew, her high school sweetheart turned husband, left her for a perky soccer mom.
Adrienne and Drew’s two sons don’t like spending weekends with their dad and his new wife, who has three wild boys of her own. They are confused about why Adrienne plans to give up the new baby and they worry she’ll get rid of them too.
Adrienne gives George an ultimatum: agree to the adoption or she won’t talk to him anymore. He accepts, but in the meantime, drifts into a relationship with Carolyn, a woman Adrienne initially set him up with to get him off her back. Adrienne realizes when he’s gone that although she might not have been madly in love with him, George was a good friend and she misses having him around. Being alone causes Adrienne to second-guess her decision about the baby.
Giving Myself Away grabs readers by the heart and guides them through a realistic journey fraught with tough decisions.
Title: After Wimbledon
Author: Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Received: Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Synopsis: After 12 years on the pro. tennis tour and four years with her sort-of boyfriend, Lucy Bennett has had enough. She wants real life… and real love.
Her life, her decision. Right? Well, no one else seems to think so. With opinions on all sides, Lucy’s head is spinning. And she’s stumbling right into the arms of long-term crush and fellow player Sam. Shame her boyfriend – his arch-rival – would sooner smash a racquet over their heads than agree to a simple change of partners.
As the Wimbledon Championships play out, Lucy fights for her life on and off the courts. The question is: what will she be left with after Wimbledon?
Book Review: The Dr. Pepper Prophecies by Jennifer Gilby Roberts
I was given this book in exchange for an honest review. 4 stars
This book is a fun read! If you are looking for a light, funny read this is the one! From the very start you can just tell that Mel is going to keep you laughing til the end! Poor Mel seems to find trouble where ever she goes! But then she also seems to create a lot of her misery as well. From dating worthless guys, to trying to fix up everyone she meets or even just sternly steer her friends in the direction that she feels they should be. She means well, but often times each of these “fixes” end in total disaster. Especially so the ad dates she sets her roommate up with!
Poor Mel seems to be doomed to be stuck in a bad job dealing with her ex that seems to have it out for her in a bad way. She has a rocky sad relationship with her family, and to boot her best friend is dating a woman that hates her. She really does have it pretty bad!
This was seriously one of the funniest books I have read in a long time. I giggled through the whole thing and I really did not think she would ever turn anything around. I too am a chocolate lover so I loved that Mel used chocolate as a way to deal with her problems, albeit she was a little excessive with her chocolate, but hey who doesn’t overdo it sometimes?
In My Mailbox: Week of January 12
Title: Bloodgifted
Author: Tima Maria Lacoba
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: How does a young woman live a normal life when she carries a rare genetic mutation?
Descended from a cursed Roman soldier, Laura Dantonville has inherited the ability to delay ageing, but much of her past is unknown to her. That includes knowledge of her true parentage and the fact her unique blood is coveted by the secret society of vampires who reside in the eastern suburbs of Sydney.
She later learns it’s her blood alone that provides these creatures with the ability to tolerate daylight. As such, she is the epicentre of a power struggle between two rival vampire groups who want to claim her.
The oldest and most powerful of these factions is led by Alec Munro, whose position as leader, or Princeps, gives him sole claim to Laura.
Has she any other choice but to accept her destiny?
Title: The Brim Reaper
Author: Diane Vallere
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: When an over-the-top collection of vintage Hollywood costumes comes to Samantha Kidd’s hometown, it brings a hat box full of hype. Close friend Eddie is in charge of the exhibit but when hype turns to homicide, he turns to Samantha for help. Brimming with good intentions, she loops in the cops, but after one too many cloche calls, she’s soon in over her head. If she can tear the lid off the investigation, it might mean a feather in her fedora. And if she can’t? She might get capped.
Title: Limoncello Yellow
Author: Traci Andrighetti
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: From debut author, Traci Andrighetti, comes a tale of murder, mayhem, and meddling Sicilian grandmas…
Francesca “Franki” Amato is a tough-talking rookie cop in Austin, Texas—until an unfortunate 911 call involving her boyfriend, Vince, and a German female wrestler convinces her once and for all that she just isn’t cut out for a life on the police force. So Franki makes the snap decision to move to New Orleans to work at her friend Veronica’s detective agency, Private Chicks, Inc. But Franki’s hopes for a more stable life are soon dashed when Private Chicks is hired by the prime suspect in a murder case to find out what really happened to a beautiful young boutique manager who was found strangled to death with a cheap yellow scarf. When she’s not investigating, Franki is hoping to seduce handsome bank executive Bradley Hartmann, but most of her time is spent dodging date offers from a string of “good Italian boys”—make that not-so-good aging Italian men—that her meddlesome Sicilian grandma has recruited as marriage candidates. As Mardi Gras approaches and the mystery of the murdered shop girl gets more complicated, Franki must decipher the odd ramblings of a Voodoo priestess to solve both the murder and the mystery of her own love life.
Title: The Dr. Pepper Prophecies
Author: Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Received: Jennifer Gilby Roberts
Synopsis: 25-year-old Mel Parker has a few tiny problems:
* Her job is terrible
* She’s been dumped yet again
* Her ex is now her boss
* Her parents think she’s a loser compared to her perfect younger sister
* All her efforts to improve her life seem doomed to failure
* There just isn’t enough chocolate in the world to make up for the above.
The one good thing in her life has always been her best friend Will, who has seen her through every crisis from lost toys to pregnancy scares. But his girlfriend (who’s prettier, better-dressed, more successful and secretly evil) is determined to replace Mel as the woman in his life and how is Mel supposed to compete?
So what do you do when you’ve pretty much given up on your own life? Help others, of course!
After all, what’s the worst that can happen?
Title: Souls Adrift in the Windy City
Author: JoAnn Hornak
Received: JoAnn Hornak
Synopsis: Soul mates, Zeke Nomad and Inez Paris, meet on a magical summer night at Grant Park in Chicago. They dance, share their hopes and dreams for the future, and just as Zeke is about to kiss Inez, a torrential thunderstorm breaks out. They go their separate ways, but are destined to meet again, a few years later, fall in love, and marry. But that never happens because Zeke and Inez ignore what their hearts are urging them to do. They each make choices for their lives that lead them on different paths than the ones they were meant to follow.
It is now thirteen years later, and there are just six earth days left for wise, old soul, Herodius, a matchmaker in many past lives, and young soul, Serena, a famous romance writer in her most recent life, to guide Zeke and Inez to a second meeting. The matchmakers certainly have their work cut out for them. On Saturday, Inez is set to marry her faithful fiancé, Howard, when the unexpected arrival of two people from Inez’s past, throws her life into chaos and threatens to derail her wedding plans. Zeke is focused on whether his eight years of dedicated service, at his Chicago Loop, silk-stocking law firm, will be rewarded with the brass ring of partnership—a decision to be made on Friday. But, complications arise in Zeke’s life that not only put his career in jeopardy, but also his family, his love life, and his future. Meanwhile, Serena and Herodius are doing everything they can to bring Zeke and Inez together, but these two strong-willed individuals thwart their efforts, at every turn.
Will Zeke and Inez come together, once again, before it is too late for this lifetime?
Title: Love on the Back Burner
Author: Barbara Oliverio
Received: Barbara Oliverio
Synopsis: Readers’ Favorite Award™-Winning Love on the Back Burner spins the story of sassy Alexandria D’Agostino. She is youngest in a tight-knit Italian-American family with a successful marketing career and a passion for cooking, yet her romantic life is less than 4-star. For years, she has tried cooking her way into men’s hearts by flaunting her old world culinary skills, but now, she’s changing the menu. She dishes up childhood favorites to a succession of first dates (recipes included). The book features an engaging cast of characters including a rock-star-turned- priest brother, a no-nonsense Italian immigrant grandmother, and a crew of friends who are always up for a good meal. With a dollop of persistence and a dash of laughter, will Alexandria discover the recipe for happiness — and perhaps love?
