Book Giveaway: Sweet Expectations by Mary Ellen Taylor
Daisy McCrae knows that change can be sudden—and devastating. And while it doesn’t have to be a bad thing, change has the power to turn…
CLP Blog Tours Novel Spotlight: The Hunting by Kerry Peresta
Kerry Peresta is on tour now with CLP Blog Tours and The Hunting Isabelle Lewis, top advertising salesperson at the Chatbrook Springs Sentinel newspaper, has a…
Book Review: Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner
I received a copy of Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
An unexpected love story.
Jules Strauss is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she’s ashamed to invite to Parents’ Weekend. With the income she’ll receive from donating her “pedigree” eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction.
Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband’s salary, she thinks she’s found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.
India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help make her dreams come true.
But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus’ daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems…
With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women’s lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.
Review:
Jennifer Weiner is a big favorite of mine (though that shouldn’t be a huge shock to anyone) and I always look forward to reading her books. I was especially interested in reading Then Came You, because I enjoy reading about books that deal with issues of surrogacy and parenting as of lately. This is a long book but touches on many different characters, each weaving a path that intersect with one another to create quite a compelling story. India’s character didn’t thrill me through most of the book, and I think Jules was my favorite, probably because she was the most relatable to me. This isn’t my favorite book by Weiner, but a good one that I would recommend.
4 stars
On Tour: The Hole in the Middle by Kate Hilton
Kate will be on tour January 6-27 with her novel The Hole in the Middle Sophie Whelan is the epitome of the modern superwoman. When she…
CLP Blog Tours Novel Spotlight: Driving Me To You by …
Contributor: Samantha Julie Farrell is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Driving Me To You Summary: When Sam meets her sister’s sexy mechanic,…
Blog Tour Sign Up: The Golden Apple by Faerl Marie
Poppy Parker has lost her husband and her perfect life, now she must find a way to live and love without him. Torn between three men, Poppy must find herself before she can understand what it really means to be in-love. Will Poppy be able to leave her previous marriage in the past and make room in her life for another man or will her marriage vows haunt her forever? Set in beautiful New York City, The Golden Apple is a 58,506 word chick lit novel about loss, love and moving on without betraying your self, your past or those you love.
In an effort to move on and find her new normal she leaves her beautiful home in Georgia and moves to New York City to start fresh with her best friend. As Poppy tries to leave her past behind she struggles with her feelings of fidelity towards her deceased husband and her desire to love another. If she can ever be happy again, Poppy must choose love over her loss before the one she wants gives up on her.
Marching Ink Two-Day Sale!
Marching Ink is having a quick two-day sale on all five novels! You can get Destined to Fail, Breaking the Rules, The Green Ticket, Zoey…
Author Profile: Margo Karasek
Author Name: Margo Karasek Bio: Margo Karasek decided to be a writer the instant she finished reading her first novel as a kid. She loved…
In My Mailbox: Week of December 29
Title: The Art of Letting Go
Author: Anna Bloom
Received: Anna Bloom
Synopsis: One year. One woman. One Diary. One question: Can you ever stop history from repeating itself, and if you could, what would you do to stop it?
When Lilah McCannon realises at the age of twenty-five that history is going to repeat itself and she is going to become her mother—bored, drunk and wearing a twinset—there is only one thing to do: take drastic action.
Turning her back on her old life, Lilah’s plan is to enrol at university, get a degree, and prove she is a grown-up.
As plans go, it is a good one. There are rules to follow: no alcohol, no cigarettes, no boys, and no going home. But when Lilah meets the lead singer of a local band and finds herself unexpectedly falling in love, she realises her rules are not going to be the only things hard to keep.
With the academic year slipping by too quickly, Lilah faces a barrage of new challenges: Will she ever make it up the Library stairs without having a heart attack? Can she handle a day on campus without drinking vodka?
Will she ever manage to read a history book without falling asleep? And, most importantly, can she become the grown-up that she desperately wants to be?
With her head and her heart pulling her in different directions, can Lilah learn the hardest lesson that her first year of university has to teach her: The Art of Letting Go?
Title: The Vanishing
Author: Wendy Webb
Received: Hyperion
Synopsis: When Julia Bishop is left widowed, friendless, and penniless by the suicide of her Ponzi-scheming husband, a.k.a. “the Midwestern Bernie Madoff,” she has no one to turn to. So when the mysterious Adrian Sinclair appears at her door, she takes him up on his crazy offer to employ her as a caretaker to his mother, the famous gothic author Amaris Sinclair, who the world believes to be dead. Like Amaris before her, Julia “vanishes” from her old life to Havenwood, the beautiful Scottish castle on Lake Superior that the Sinclairs call home. Her new position seems too good to be true… and Julia starts to wonder if maybe it is. Why are the doors to the library always closed? Why does Havenwood feel so familiar? And if no children live there, why does Julia keep hearing a small voice sing, “Jack and Jill went up the hill / To fetch a pail of water…”
Title: Hard Hats and Doormats
Author: Laura Chapman
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Lexi Burke has always been a stickler for following rules and procedures. As a human resources manager for a leading Gulf Coast chemical company, it’s her job to make sure everyone else falls in line, too.
But after losing out on a big promotion–-because her boss sees her as too much of a yes-woman––Lexi adopts a new policy of following her heart instead of the fine print. And her heart knows what it wants: Jason Beaumont, a workplace crush who is off limits based on her previous protocol.
While navigating a new romance and interoffice politics, Lexi must find the confidence to stand on her own or face a lifetime of following someone else’s orders.
Who says nice girls have to finish last?
Title: The Art of Falling
Author: Kathryn Craft
Received: BookSparks PR
Synopsis: Now that her dreams are in tatters, Penny must find a way to rebuild what is broken
All Penny has ever wanted to do is dance–and when that chance is taken from her, it pushes her to the brink of despair, from which she might never return. When she wakes up after a traumatic fall, bruised and battered but miraculously alive, Penny must confront the memories that have haunted her for years, using her love of movement to pick up the pieces of her shattered life.
Kathryn Craft’s lyrical debut novel is a masterful portrayal of a young woman trying to come to terms with her body and the artistic world that has repeatedly rejected her. The Art of Falling expresses the beauty of movement, the stasis of despair, and the unlimited possibilities that come with a new beginning.
