Latest Youtube Videos

Growing Up Beautiful by Lori Jones

Summary:

In the summer of 1986, three young American women are chosen to join a modeling agency in Europe’s fashion capitol of Milan.

United as roommates by chance, Star, Joanne and Casey soon find their dreamed-of careers as models taking paths as different as their personalities.

Star, who leaves behind her waitress job along with a handful of crumpled up dollar tips, sees her beauty as a way move to the top of Milan’s social strata.

Joanne, raised in a privileged lifestyle, is expected to continue an Ivy League education, which doesn’t interest her as much as a young photographer she meets on a casting.

Casey is a naïve seventeen year old who is ready for adventure, even the dangerous kind.

Together, these three learn the funny, unexpected and sometimes ugly truths about growing up beautiful.

My Review:

As someone who thought for sure she was destined for the runway as a little girl, I still love all things modeling, even though my height screeched to a halt at a mere 5’5. That didn’t stop me from entering pageants, modeling competitions, going on casting calls, and even though I’m sure my fantasy days about being a model are well over, I still enjoy shows such as America’s Next Top Model and learning about the industry. I was really excited to pick up Growing up Beautiful and get an idea of what life was like in the ‘80’s for fashion models. A great behind the scenes peek, and the pages are filled with insight, drama, betrayal and unlikely friendships, and I had such a fun time with this book. I think anyone with an interest for modeling will highly enjoy this book, and it’s an overall fun women’s read as well.

[Rating: 4]

In My Mailbox: Week of October 30

In My Mailbox: Week of October 30

Title: Hot Water
Author: Erin Brockovich with CJ CLyons
Received: From Leyane @ FSB Media
Synopsis: No stranger to balancing an intensely demanding work schedule with the stresses of keeping her family together, AJ Palladino now faces another challenge: she is leaving her young son home with her ailing parents so that she can travel to the site of a new case involving a nuclear power plant in peril. And it will take all her skills to keep her cool while the action and tension build to a fever pitch.
Colleton River, a new, one-of-a-kind nuclear facility designed to create medical isotopes with the potential to save millions of lives, has recently been plagued by a series of unexplained mishaps. The accidents have caused the locals to protest the plant, drawing the attention of an anti-nuclear protest group as well as several home-grown terrorists who sense an opportunity to sow fear and chaos. The plant’s owner, Owen Grandel, has traveled from South Carolina to West Virginia to personally ask AJ for help. AJ knows she’s going to have her hands full investigating the accidents and calming the situation at the plant. What she doesn’t foresee is her simple business trip turning into disaster, with her family coming apart at the seams in her absence—and her young son disappearing. While AJ tries to find her missing child, she also discovers what caused the “accidents.” Soon the plant begins hurtling towards nuclear catastrophe, with AJ stranded at ground zero. But can she save her son, herself, and the community—and prevent a nuclear meltdown before it’s too late?

Title: Too Much Trouble in Paradise
Author: Michelle Betham
Received: From Michelle Bethan
Synopsis: Molly Parker is a DWAG – a darts wife and girlfriend. Or rather, she’s an ex-DWAG after divorcing Paul “Bad Lad” Parker, a professional darts player and the self-pronounced Geordie pantomime villain of the sport, after catching him aiming more than his arrows in the direction of more than a few very willing glamour models.
So, leaving her life – and her ex-husband – behind in their native North East of England, she moves to the Canarian island of Tenerife with her best friend Fran, putting the past behind her, determined to start a whole new life abroad.
Within months of arriving on the island she finds herself engaged to her Spanish boyfriend Antonio – a handsome Canarian bar owner – and with their whirlwind wedding just weeks away she’s the happiest she’s been in a long time with a great job at a Timeshare complex, fantastic friends, and a lovely little home in a country she’s fallen completely in love with.
But what Molly didn’t bank on was her ex-husband turning up out of the blue declaring his undying love for her and begging her to come back to him – and not just because his darts were suffering! His unannounced arrival turns Molly’s new and seemingly perfect life upside down as she suddenly has to face up to feelings she’d thought were long gone, and make decisions she never thought she’d have to make as her whole world is thrown into total confusion. Does she stay in Tenerife and marry her wonderful, romantic, drop-dead-gorgeous Spanish fiancé? Or does she give the man she’d once loved but who’d treated her so badly another chance? Days in the sun or darts – it’s the choice she has to make. Throw in a Bolton-born lounge singer and a Take That tribute act, a famous TV actor with a reputation as a shameless flirt, and a major darts tournament that throws up more than it’s fair share of surprises, and all of a sudden Molly Parker’s life really is ‘Too Much Trouble in Paradise’ – a story of new beginnings, second chances, sun, sea – and darts!

Title: Growing Up Beautiful
Author: Lori Jones
Received: From Lori Jones
Synopsis: In the summer of 1986, three young American models are chosen to join a modeling agency in Europe’s fashion capital of Milan. United as roommates by chance, Star, Joanne and Casey soon find their dreamed-of careers as models taking paths as different as their personalities.
Star, who leaves behind a waitress job along with a handful of crumpled up dollar tips, sees her beauty as a way to move to the top of Milan’s social strata.
Joanne, raised in a privileged lifestyle, is expected to continue an Ivy League education, which doesn’t interest her as much as a young photographer she meets on a casting.
Casey is a naive seventeen year old who is ready for adventure, even the dangerous kind.
Together, these three learn the funny, unexpected and sometimes ugly truth about growing up beautiful.