Book Review: Divorced Girl Smiling by Jackie Pilossoph
Reviewer: Rhonda I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Smile! It’s not just the end of your marriage,…
Reviewer: Rhonda I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Smile! It’s not just the end of your marriage,…
Reviewer: Samantha Stacey Kade is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Bitter Pill Summary: Rennie Harlow is having a bad year. She had…
Title: Something Yellow
Author: Laura Templeton
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: It has been thirteen years since Holly’s nine-year-old sister, Rachel, disappeared without a trace.
It has been thirteen years since Holly left her hometown.
It has been thirteen years since Holly’s first love and high school boyfriend, Houston, was the only suspect.
Now another nine-year-old girl has disappeared.
Holly is back, and so is Houston—never charged and still proclaiming his innocence.
Can she trust him . . . should she trust him?
Title: Sex in the Title
Author: Zack Love
Received: Zack Love
Synopsis: New York City, May 2000. The Internet bubble has burst, and Evan’s boss fires him with an email. The next day, his girlfriend dumps him, also via email. Afraid to check any more emails, Evan desperately seeks a rebound romance but the catastrophes that ensue go from bad to hilariously worse. Fortunately, Evan meets someone whose legendary disasters with females eclipse even his own.
To reverse their fortunes, they recruit their friends into a group of five guys who take on Manhattan in pursuit of dates, sex, and adventure. With musings about life, relationships, and human psychology, this quintessential New York story about the search for happiness follows five men on their comical paths to trouble, self-discovery, and love.
Title: How to Survive Your Sisters
Author: Ellie Campbell
Received: Ellie Campbell
Synopsis: A wonderfully warm and witty debut novel about family secrets and
sibling rivalry.
The four MacLeod sisters are no strangers to sisterly rivalry and with one of
them about to be married, there are bound to be fireworks. Perfectionist
Natalie wants the ‘wedding of the year’. Harassed mother, Milly, just wishes
her bridesmaid’s dress wasn’t the size of a tent. Career-obsessed Avril
secretly moons over a married man and world traveler, Hazel, the youngest,
yearns to be taken seriously. Forced together for the first time in years, and
with an unexpected guest stirring up old resentments, squabbles are inevitable.
But when tragedy strikes things really fly apart – as some shocking skeletons
emerge rattling from the crowded MacLeod closet…
Title: Sugar Spun Sister
Author: Anna Garner
Received: Anna Garner
Synopsis: Life isn’t exactly sweet for Cricket Whittier. Her boss hates her, her work is soul-destroying, and the sexy guy she’s hooking up with doesn’t want to date her. But this girl is far from hopeless. When Cricket’s in the kitchen with her ice cream maker and a few choice ingredients, her troubles slip away as she becomes a delectable dessert-designing powerhouse. She loves it so much, she dreams of opening her own ice cream shop one day.
As it turns out, “one day” just might be closer than she thinks. Propelled by the help and encouragement of her best friends, Lindsay and Nora, Cricket starts making plans to set up shop. Which is easier said than done what with the internal squabbling, the sky-high costs, her parents forecasting failure and her increasingly complicated love life. Despite all these hurdles, will Cricket be able to make her sweet dreams come true?
Can Humor and Writing “Cure” Infertility?
By Julie Weinberg
My debut novel, I WISH THERE WERE BABY FACTORIES, humorously (and tearfully) chronicles my roller coaster adventure toward becoming a mom. Unexplained infertility was one of the many obstacles I faced along the way. While not generally a humorous topic, I’ve learned that approaching most any situation with your funny bone exposed really does make coping a little easier. For me, getting it down on paper also proved cathartic and, one might argue, helped lead to success.
I was 25 when my husband and I started trying to have a family. At such a young age, our difficulties should have been minimal. Yet, after a year and a half of trying with no success, we began our long trek to finding a “cure” for our infertility.
My book details the many doctors I saw. The first told us to stop having sex wherever, whenever and only have it every other day during my ten peak ovulation days. Well, he lasted about a week before I kicked him to the curb. Then there was the female doctor whose idea of a gentle exam left me gasping for breath and running for the door. Luckily, there was also the totally hot specialist who I didn’t mind seeing regularly in the slightest.
When one of the tests revealed borderline irregular ovulation, we rejoiced at having found “the” problem. Turns out the drug I had to take to correct for it made me an emotional basket case. I cried inconsolably at soppy commercials, a losing lottery ticket and even an empty cookie box. After months of taking this pill without success and pushing my husband to the brink of locking me in a mental ward, we agreed to drop the drug and explore other possible causes.
When further exhaustive tests revealed no other problems for me, my husband succumbed to getting his sperm checked. I actually had to make the appointment for him and force him to go. On the morning of the appointment he acted like he was headed for a funeral. I promised him the nurses would be dressed in French maid outfits and his would be a painless experience. And of course, when he got home he proclaimed he now had a standing appointment for every Monday morning with Nurse Fifi.
Through all of this trauma and uncertainty, I took pen to paper and started writing it down. Because I knew we were never going to give up on having a family, I wanted our son- or daughter-to-be to know exactly what we went through and how much he/she was wanted. Finding the humor in every situation and recording it for posterity helped ease the stress of the situation and kept me focused.
I didn’t realize at the time I had the beginnings of a book that eventually I would publish, nor can I can say positively that I ended up getting pregnant because I wrote it down, but relieving the stress through humor and writing certainly didn’t hurt. And now as the mom of two healthy teenagers, it’s one “cure” other sufferers of unexplained infertility might consider.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Julie left behind the calm of her childhood upbringing in Overland Park, Kansas when she followed her dream to live, work and breathe politics by attending American University in Washington, DC.
Never looking back, she worked as a lobbyist on Capitol Hill before jumping ship to state politics with the Maryland General Assembly. Her K-12 education policy expertise helped her in the political arena and eventually as a mom, too. Her book, I Wish There Were Baby Factories, chronicles a five-year quest though infertility through a fun and often times heartbreaking Chic-Lit read.
An avid Baltimore Ravens fan and now a dedicated soccer mom, Julie and her family live in beautiful Potomac, MD.
For more information about Julie Weinberg please visit:
http://julieweinbergbooks.com
Like Her on Facebook at
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Julie-Weinberg
Follow her on Twitter @JulieWeinberg1
I received a copy of White Lies by Emily Harper in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Imagine standing in line at Harvey Nichols waiting to buy the most gorgeous silk Gucci dress. The only minor problem? You can’t afford it, it’s a size smaller than you are, and you have absolutely no place to wear it.
Meet Natalie Flemming: a twenty-something woman working in London for a fabulous shoe-designing firm, but the only thing they let her touch is the company’s tax forms. She has decided to give fate a vacation and takes the task of finding the man of her dreams (or Johnny Depp if he would just return her calls…) into her own hands.
She craves adventure, spontaneity, passion- or will just settle for a decent date.
Review:
I found White Lies to be a very fun and cute chick lit read. Natalie is a bit all over the place, intelligent yet a bit flaky, but that’s what made her endearing to read about. Her search for Mr. Right was a quite hilarious and I loved the little diary notes between each chapter. Sometimes I wished she didn’t lie quite as much because I just kept wanting to smack myself with each white lie, but if she didn’t, the concept of the book wouldn’t really be there, right? All in all, I thought this was a charming little read that kept me interested throughout. I also absolutely adore the cover! I recommend!
4 stars
Website: www.susanwiggs.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/susanwiggs Publisher: Harlequin MIRA Publication date: October 29, 2013 Page Count: 336 ISBN: 9780778314745 (hardcover) Purchase links: http://www.amazon.com/Candlelight-Christmas-The-Lakeshore-Chronicles/dp/077831474X/ http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/candlelight-christmas-susan-wiggs/1115072822?ean=9780778314745&itm=1&usri=candlelight+christmas http://www.indiebound.org/book/9780778314745 http://www.booksamillion.com/p/Candlelight-Christmas/Susan-Wiggs/9780778314745?id=5805558843293 http://www.walmart.com/ip/24179975…
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