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In My Mailbox: Week of December 1

Title: The Chick Lit Cookbook
Author: Alicia de los Reyes
Received: Alicia de los Reyes
Synopsis: You’ve said it a dozen times before: If only you had the chance, you would write a chick lit novel. But between job, boyfriend, kids, school — life — you just can’t find the time.
The Chick Lit Cookbook: A Guide to Writing Your Novel in 30 Minutes a Day is the solution. This fun, cupcake-themed guide will take you from start to finish of your first draft. In 13 chapters, each with a short exercise that will get you writing now, you will learn how to create the perfect main character, her ideal love interest, a world for her to live in and an adventure that will draw in readers. You will outline your entire first draft — and then you will write it.
The Chick Lit Cookbook is a beginner’s guide to writing funny, snappy, sucks-you-into-the-story prose about modern women, life and love. It is full of tips and techniques, prompts and pep talks that will spark your imagination and inspire you to put pen to paper. The exercises can be done while sitting on the bus, waiting at the doctor’s office, or talking on the phone with your mother-in-law. This book will show you that you can and will write a chick lit novel.
Whether you’ve been wishing for years that you could write chick lit or are a brand-new fan of Bridget Jones and Becky Bloomwood, you owe it to yourself to pick up this guide. The Chick Lit Cookbook will prove to you that writing a novel can be fun and easy — it’s just like baking cupcakes!

Title: A Delicate Bond
Author: JoAnn Hornak
Received: JoAnn Hornak
Synopsis: Natalie is just seventeen days away from getting married when Lisa, her maid of honor and best friend of ten years, sends her a cold
e-mail announcing that she will not be able to come to the wedding. When Natalie discovers the reason behind Lisa’s sudden baffling behavior, their friendship quickly unravels. Natalie cannot believe how selfish Lisa is being, while Lisa thinks Natalie’s standards for friendship are too high. Natalie and Lisa are soon faced with major upheavals in their lives. In the process of working through their problems without the support of one another, Natalie and Lisa are forced to face their deepest fears and failings. Each woman sets off on a journey of self-discovery as they examine what went wrong in their friendship and whether it is possible to be “too honest” with a good friend.

Title: Synchronized Breathing
Author: Tara Ellison
Received: Tara Ellison
Synopsis: Nothing announces the failure of one’s life quite as loudly as having to move back in with your mother at the ripe old age of thirty-five. Unfortunately for Scarlett Spencer, her marriage has recently imploded and she’s headed to Beverly Hills—toddler in tow—to move in with her oversexed mother, CeCe. But maneuvering life back at home isn’t the only challenge . . .

After being a stay-at-home mom, Scarlett wades back into the Hollywood employment pool with hilarious results. Even more terrifying is the prospect of reentering the dating world. She soon learns that balancing motherhood with the unique demands of Hollywood men creates a new twist on the dating dilemma. Tired of dating jerk after jerk, Scarlett goes on a self-imposed “man-diet,” which isn’t easy when her mother is perpetually on a manhunt. But in the quiet of this new man-free existence, Scarlett discovers what is really important in her life.

Synchronized Breathing is a cheeky, light-hearted story about moving on and realizing that mother doesn’t always know best.

Title: Love on a Budget
Author: Norma L Jarrett
Received: Norma L Jarrett
Synopsis: Jake Jiles was always handy with tools. Despite his love for all things do-it-yourself, he went to college and majored in business to fulfill his parents’ dream. He finally got the courage to leave his corporate job and start his “Honey-Do-4-Hire” business. Less than a year in, he’s already exhausted his savings and still living at home with his mother, but he’s determined to birth his franchise. Consumed with his business and fresh off a breakup, he wasn’t in the market for Mrs. Right. But after completing a job on Valentine’s Day, his potential dream girl, Sky showed up. After a brief chat over her car dilemma, he ignored the chemistry and left without her number. But cupid and God had other plans. After a divine connection, the only thing that stood between Jake and Sky, were funds. Will Jake pursue “Love on a Budget” or miss out because the price is too high?

On Tour: Mad World: Desperation by Samaire Provost

Samaire will be on tour December 2-16 with her novel Mad World: Desperation  Forget what you thought you knew about this story, because everything is about…

Future Tour: Buried Leads by LynDee Walker

LynDee will be on tour January 6-13 with her mystery novel Buried Leads When an Armani-clad corpse turns up in the woods, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke…

Blog Tour Sign Up: Storm in a B Cup by …

Sophie Molloy has Breast Cancer. She didn’t think it was cancer to begin with, she thought it was another cyst. She also didn’t think it would be the catalyst for a series of life changing events, none of which involved chemotherapy.
Within months of her diagnosis, Sophie loses not only her right breast but her boyfriend of three years, her house and her so-called best friend. Her life goes from great to bad, then ugly, and nothing can make it better, not even the crazy care packages her mother keeps sending from Melbourne.
To make matters worse, Sophie fears she’s developing a crush on the plastic surgeon that will be reconstructing her breast. Dr. Hanson has the bedside manner of an angel and the looks to match. He’s so caring and compassionate, Sophie begins to believe he cares about her in a most non-doctor-patient kind of way. But he doesn’t, of course. He’s merely her doctor. Or does he?

On Tour: The Bitches of Brooklyn by Rosemary Harris

Rosemary will be on tour December 2-23 with her novel The Bitches of Brooklyn From the author of the Anthony and Agatha-nominated Pushing Up Daisies and…

Blog Tour Sign Up: Something Yellow by Laura Templeton

Thirteen years ago, Holly’s nine-year-old sister, Rachel, disappeared without a trace. Thirteen years ago, Holly left her hometown. Thirteen years ago, Holly’s first love and high school boyfriend, Houston, was the only suspect. Now, another 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?
When out-of-work banking executive Holly McCann moves to the rural mountain town of White Cove, Virginia to care for her dying mother, the past collides with the present. A violent crime against her nine-year-old neighbor evokes memories of the eerily similar disappearance of her sister thirteen years earlier. Holly is thrilled by the arrival of her estranged brother, Oliver, but concerned by his mysterious behavior. She is befriended by the new minister, Jonah, an outsider haunted by his own painful past, but it is Houston Phelps, the only person arrested for the disappearance of her sister, who forces Holly to confront the past and start living in the present.

Book Review: Obitchuary by Stephanie Hayes

Reviewer: Samantha I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Summary: Penny Perkins, journalist, upstanding citizen, dutiful bridesmaid, just killed…

Future Tour: Life in Plan B by Jennifer Vessells

Jennifer will be on tour January 20-31 with her chick lit/women’s fiction novel Life in Plan B When twenty-eight year old Haley Simpson, a sales associate…

Book Review: A Slight Change of Plan by Dee Ernst

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Summary:
Kate Everett is about to begin her “second act.” She’s been a widow for eight years and thinks it might be time to start looking for someone to share her life with again. She quits her high-pressure job for something that will allow her more leisure time. She gets rid of the huge family home and moves into a fabulous condo that’s smaller and easier to manage. She’s pretty much got the rest of her life figured out. All she has to do is sit back, relax, and let the pieces fall into place.
But her real life never gets the memo. First, her son moves back in with her—along with his girlfriend. Her dream job falls through, leaving her unemployed. Her mother, whom she hadn’t spoken to in years, can no longer live alone and has to move into her basement. And her only daughter is planning the smallest and simplest wedding in the history of all weddings, much to Kate’s dismay.
Kate thinks that she and Jake, her former college love who has reemerged on an online dating site, of all places, can build something real, and that maybe her happy ending is in front of her at last. But the arrival of Edward, her daughter’s future father-in-law, presents Kate with an unexpected choice.
It looks like real happiness may require a slight change of plan.
Review:
I know people say that if you don’t think you can relate to a main character, you might want to a pass on a book. This I don’t agree with. Some of my favorite books have featured mothers and women either much older or younger than me, and I’ve had a fine time reading their stories. A Slight Change of Plan falls into that category. Kate is fifty-five and a widow, with three grown children. I’m twenty-six, recently married, zero kids (unless you count my new puppy). But her story captivated me from the beginning and I eagerly read this book quite quickly. There are plenty of interesting sub-plots – from Kate dealing with her mother, her daughter getting married, her son having a baby – that each chapter felt action-packed, even when the main storyline wasn’t being discussed. A very well-written story, and I would recommend!
4.5 stars