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CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Tales From the Laundry Pile …

Kathleen Kole is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Tales From the Laundry Pile
Summary:
Claire Jamieson has moved back home to Boxwood Hills… And, she’s not alone. Trailing behind her overworked laundry basket is her husband and their energetic twin boys.

Claire had always thought that once she’d left the nest, she’d never return. Now that she has, she’s wondering what type of bird that makes her… Cuckoo?

When she has a moment to pause and catch her breath, she’ll let you know.

Tales from the Laundry Pile, an engaging, thoughtful story of motherhood, family tangles, new friendships and self-discovery.

The Boxwood Hills novels take place in the same picturesque mountain town, they have been written to stand alone; each story one in a set of many. That being said, don’t be surprised to see characters you recognize from other books within each other’s tale. They love to make cameos. Welcome to Boxwood Hills!
Review:
Kathleen Kole has been one of my favorite authors – and people! – since I first started reading her books. She does a terrific job at creating fun and cute stories that sucks me in no matter how different I might be from the main character, something I think speaks volumes for an author. With her latest novel we meet Claire, a bit of a neurotic mother to twin boys who has just moved to Boxwood Hills. She always feels overwhelmed by all of her duties and trying to keep her sons out of trouble, to stop them from getting scraped knees and bothering the neighbors. But when she starts making new friends and getting back to her old self – who she was before motherhood came along – Claire finally begins to loosen up and find happiness again. While I might not be a mother yet I thought this book provided good future lessons. It was easy to see how Claire let becoming a mother take over her own self-happiness, and it was great to journey along with her and see how she able to start making steps towards improvement. I also enjoyed that this wasn’t too serious of a book even though the topics could be serious at times – Kole writes with a light-heartedness and humor that makes her books a breeze to read! My only issue with the book – I wished it were longer!
4.5 stars
**Everyone who leaves a comment on Kathleen’s tour page will be entered to win a four print books from Kathleen! Titles are: Breaking Even, Dollars to Donuts, Favorable Conditions and Tales From the Laundry Pile. One bonus winner will win a $20 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of Tales From the Laundry Pile before July 29 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com, will get five bonus entries.**
Connect with Kathleen!
www.kathleenkole.com

Buy the Book!

http://kathleenkole.com/kathleensbooks/tales-from-the-laundry-pile

On Tour: Tales From the Laundry Pile by Kathleen Kole

Kathleen will be on tour July 8-29 with her novel Tales From the Laundry Pile Claire Jamieson has moved back home to Boxwood Hills… And,…

Future Tour: Tales From the Laundry Pile by Kathleen Kole

Kathleen will be on tour July 8-29 with her women’s fiction novel Tales From the Laundry Pile Claire Jamieson has moved back home to Boxwood…

Blog Tour Sign Up: Tales From the Laundry Pile by …

Claire Jamieson has moved back home to Boxwood Hills… And, she’s not alone. Trailing behind her overworked laundry basket is her husband and their energetic twin boys.

Claire had always thought that once she’d left the nest, she’d never return. Now that she has, she’s wondering what type of bird that makes her… Cuckoo?

When she has a moment to pause and catch her breath, she’ll let you know.

Favorable Conditions by Kathleen Kole

I was thrilled to host Kathleen Kole’s third blog tour via CLP Blog Tours, this time with her latest novel Favorable Conditions. Her books have been fun reads – short, sweet, direct and always with some great characters. This story follows Pat Keegan, who is forty-five and suddenly finds herself very alone in a big house. After dedicating years of her life to being a good wife and mother, her two children are now both moved out, and her husband has left her. Pat knows she needs a new direction for her life, but can she achieve her goals of rediscovering herself – and her happiness?
Age-wise, Pat and I are not close. But that factor really never even came up for me while I was reading. I was invested in her story and how she would pick up those crumbling pieces and make something better for herself. I loved that she decided to open a business for herself, and how self-sufficient she became. I’m all about girl power and making opportunities for yourself, so I really felt connected with Pat throughout the story. The supporting cast is just as good – from BFF Melanie, Pat’s daughter who gets engaged, and of course, the love interest Ian. I thought the relationship with Pat and Ian added a great element to the overall story. Another book from Kathleen Kole to get on your to-read list!
[Rating: 4]

On Tour: Favorable Conditions by Kathleen Kole

Kathleen will be on tour March 5-26 with her novel Favorable Conditions Can you imagine being forty-five, your last child has moved on to college…

GIVEAWAY: Favorable Conditions by Kathleen Kole

Pat Keegan thought, once her child rearing years were done, she would be throwing her arms around her husband and together they would be making…

Future Tour: Favorable Conditions by Kathleen Kole

Kathleen will be on tour March 5-26 with her novel Favorable Conditions Can you imagine being forty-five, your last child has moved on to college…

In My Mailbox: Week of January 8

In My Mailbox: Week of January 8

Title: Chasing Rainbows
Author: Kathleen Long
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Bernadette Murphy likes her life. Really, she does. What’s wrong with carrying around an extra ten pounds from fertility treatments? Or having your dog kicked out of obedience school? Again? What’s that saying about the devil you know? For Bernie, it’s the devil she never expected that changes everything.

Her father’s sudden death leaves a gaping void in her life and is one in a series of events that rock her world. Her husband leaves for another woman, and her best friend announces an unplanned pregnancy at the age of forty-one. Bernie’s behavior goes from acting out to out-of-hand, and she finds herself in trouble at home, out of work and banned from the mall after a confrontation at the cosmetic counter.

When her mother discovers her father’s book of cryptograms, Bernie realizes his encoded lessons in living might be exactly what she needs to survive. From dealing with her family’s grief and bonding with her best friend’s thirteen-year-old daughter, to dieting, dating and mindless almost-sex with the landscaper, Bernie discovers what her father always knew.

In life, you either choose to sing a rainbow, or you don’t.

For Bernie, the singing is about to begin.

Title: Forged in Fire
Author: Trish McCallan
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Beth Brown doesn’t believe in premonitions until she dreams a sexy stranger is gunned down during the brutal hijacking of a commercial airliner. When events in her dream start coming true, she heads to the flight’s departure gate. To her shock, she recognizes the man she’d watched die the night before.

Lieutenant Commander Zane Winters comes from a bloodline of elite warriors with psychic abilities. When Zane and two of his platoon buddies arrive at Sea-Tac Airport, he has a vision of his teammates’ corpses. Then she arrives—a leggy blonde who sets off a different kind of alarm.

As Beth teams up with Zane, they discover the hijacking is the first step in a secret cartel’s deadly global agenda and that key personnel within the FBI are compromised. To survive the forces mobilizing against them, Beth will need to open herself to a psychic connection with the sexy SEAL who claims to be her soul mate.

Title: Favorable Conditions
Author: Kathleen Kole
Received: Via CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Can you imagine being forty-five, your last child has moved on to college and the time is ripe for you to blaze a new trail into your future? Pat Keegan can. Well, except for the tiny detail that all her preconceived notions about how that future was going to shape up are completely out the window. Pat was under the impression that once her child rearing years were complete she and her husband would walk hand in hand toward a rose colored future. Fat chance. Before their daughter had even been accepted by a College, he was blathering about needing space to rediscover himself and made quick strides to the nearest exit. Suddenly, Pat is divorced, rattling around her large house and asking the empty rooms, “What now?” She knows she has to carve out new dreams – after all, forty-five is a far cry from the end of the line – But how? Join Pat as she jumps feet first back into the world outside her door, takes on a new business venture, is pursued by a much younger man and has to muddle her way through more emotions that she knew she had – all to finally attain her goal of rediscovering who she is and what she wants from the next phase of her life.

Title: Idol Hands
Author: Cynthia Hill
Received: From Cynthia Hill
Synopsis: Tara can pinpoint the moment when everything in her life changed: it was when she fell in love with Aidan Forrest – who just happened to be a part of the biggest boy band in the world, Idol Hands. She spent two years as his “secret girlfriend,” hiding from the media to protect his career, until he broke up with her, breaking her heart, and leaving behind a secret that Tara has never shared. Fourteen years after their breakup, she’s in a bad marriage, and a dead-end job. When she sees a television documentary in which Aidan confesses that he still loves her, she makes a life-changing decision: she leaves her husband to go and find Aidan. With no real plan of attack it’s not going to be easy, but Tara knows that she can’t give up.