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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

Novel Spotlight: Merry Chick Lit Celebrate the Season with Six …

BOOK BLURB: Merry Chick Lit Celebrate the Season with Six Sassy Shorts   In the spirit of giving, six chick-lit authors “present” a charming collection…

In My Mailbox: Week of November 24

Title: Buried Leads
Author: LynDee Walker
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: When an Armani-clad corpse turns up in the woods, crime reporter Nichelle Clarke smells a scoop. A little digging, and Nichelle uncovers a web of corruption that stretches all the way to Washington, D.C. Politics. Murder. And a dead lobbyist. It’s everything Nichelle’s ever dreamed of.
The cops are playing it close, the feds even closer, and Nichelle’s afraid her boss will assign the story to the political desk any day. Richmond’s new ATF SuperCop makes an arrest before she can say “Louboutin,” but Nichelle’s gut says he’s got the wrong guy.
Her sexy Mafia boss friend warns her off the case, her TV rival is hot on her designer heels, an ambitious copy editor wants her beat, and victims are piling up faster than she can track them down. As Nichelle zeroes in on the truth, it’ll take some fancy footwork to nab this headline before the killer nabs her.
Title: Mounting the Whale
Author: Colleen McCarty
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: The self-made and affluent Pierce family is hurled into a seamy kidnapping plot when they receive a text message from Janine–the most troubled of all the Pierce children.

“Cartel got me, tell mom”

The siblings, drowning in their own problems, are forced to focus on the task at hand: a half-cocked rescue mission that involves a borrowed yacht, a favor from a notorious drug kingpin, and a shocking reunion none of them expected.

When the family decides to sneak into Mexico, mother Cybil is forced to deal with a rival CEO whom she’s developed feelings for in secret. Her only son, Tom, is willing to risk bodily harm to save Janine while his other sisters, Carlyle and Valerie, suspect that the kidnapping is less than legitimate.

The long sea voyage tests the limits of the family’s already frail bonds. Dark secrets of infertility, drugs, gambling and extreme taxidermy begin to float to the surface. But nothing compares to what they begin to learn about their missing sister.

If they’re going to make it out alive, they have to recognize they’re fighting the same battles and facing life’s greatest challenges: love, loneliness, and the struggle to find a place in the world.

Amidst all the chaos, the Pierce family is brought face-to-face with the ugliness of Janine’s addictions, the truth about their mother’s fortune and the most terrifying question of all: Can you really save someone who doesn’t want to be saved?

Title: New Beginnings
Author: Mary Metcalfe
Received: CLP Blog Tours
Synopsis: Workaholic real estate agent Carol Brock can’t seem to find a good man. Her first husband cheated with a law clerk less than half his age. Then she found herself in a string of bad relationships with unscrupulous men, including a con man and art thief, who shredded her professional reputation and strained her relationship with her college-age children. Carol has sworn off men and is determined to reclaim her life and career on her terms. But, when Boston’s most eligible bachelor, restoration specialist Devin Elliott, puts in an offer on a charming Victorian, Carol admits she’s attracted. Devin’s offer unwittingly unleashes a psychopathic rage in an ex-girlfriend that spills into Carol’s life. As she and Devin try to stay one step ahead of violence, Carol must decide whether she’s ready to risk her heart again.

Title: The City Center
Author: Simone Pond
Received: Simone Pond
Synopsis: During the man-made apocalypse in the 21st century, a group of elites killed off a majority of the population. Only two groups of survivors remained––those selected to reside inside the Los Angeles City Center and the rebels, relegated to live on the Outside.

Centuries later, Ava Rhodes is one of five potential successors competing to become the next Queen of the City Center. A week prior to the final competitions she encounters Joseph, a rebel from the Outside, and discovers her utopian home is actually a prison and breeding facility aimed at designing the perfect human. She escapes with Joseph to the Outside world, sending the City Center’s leader, Chief Morray, into an obsessive pursuit for his property.

Along the journey, Ava falls in love with Joseph and discovers an even darker secret about the fate of her people. She must decide whether to stay with Joseph, or save her people from destruction.

Title: The Echoes of Love
Author: Hannah Fielding
Received: Midas PR
Synopsis: Venetia Aston-Montague has escaped to Italy’s most captivating city to work in her godmother’s architect firm, putting a lost love behind her. For the past ten years she has built a fortress around her heart, only to find the walls tumbling down one night of the carnival when she is rescued from masked assailants by an enigmatic stranger, Paolo Barone.

Drawn to the powerfully seductive Paolo, and despite warnings of his Don Juan reputation and rumours that he keeps a mistress, Venetia can’t help being caught up in the smouldering passion that ignites between them.

When she finds herself assigned to a project at his magnificent home deep in the Tuscan countryside, Venetia not only faces a beautiful young rival but also a sinister count and dark forces in the shadows, determined to come between them.

Can Venetia trust that love will triumph, even over her own demons? Or will Paolo’s carefully guarded, devastating secret tear them apart for ever?

Title: Melting Ms Frost
Author : Kat Black
Received: LightBrigrade PR
Synopsis: When Aidan Flynn walks into Cluny’s Restaurant, he can’t take his eyes off his new flame haired boss, Annabel Frost. With his heart set on seducing her, Aidan can think of nothing but getting beneath her cold exterior.

Known as one of the toughest women in the business, Annabel is impervious to Aidan’s many charms, and his sultry-eyed looks and lilting Irish accent do anything but captivate her.

But Aidan knows there’s more to Annabel than meets the eye. And he’s not going to stop until she reveals all…

Guest Blog: Danielle-Claude Ngontang Mba

Dear Future NY Times Best Sellers, I’ve been where you are. You want to give up before you’ve even started. Writing a whole book seems…

CLP Blog Tours Book Review: Blogger Girl by Meredith Schorr

Meredith Schorr is now on tour with CLP Blog Tours and Blogger Girl
Summary:
What happens when your high school nemesis becomes the shining star in a universe you pretty much saved? Book blogger Kimberly Long is about to find out. A chick lit enthusiast since the first time she read “Bridget Jones’s Diary,” Kim, with her blog, “Pastel is the New Black,” has worked tirelessly by night to keep the genre alive, and help squash the claim that “chick lit is dead” once and for all. Not bad for a woman who by day ekes out a meager living as a pretty, and pretty-much-nameless, legal secretary in a Manhattan law firm. While Kim’s day job holds no passion for her, the handsome (and shaving challenged) associate down the hall is another story. Yet another story is that Hannah Marshak, one of her most hated high school classmates, has now popped onto the chick lit scene with a hot new book that’s turning heads—and pages—a cross the land. It’s also popped into Kim’s inbox—for review. With their ten-year high school reunion drawing near, Kim’s coming close to combustion over the hype about Hannah’s book. And as everyone around her seems to be moving on and up, she begins to question whether being a “blogger girl” makes the grade in her off-line life.
Review:
Even if Meredith Schorr wasn’t one of my favorite authors – who I got to meet in person this month – I knew I had to read this book from the moment I read about it. A book about a chick lit book blogger – um, yes please! I highly recommend every book blogger to read this, because it will be so relatable to you. I can’t even count how many times I thought, “Is this book about me? I do that too! Okay, seriously, how did Meredith jump in my head?” while reading. I loved it! It was awesome to meet her at BookBuzz Toronto so I could tell her in person how much I enjoy not only all of her books, but Blogger Girl especially. I could turn that experience into a whole separate post (which I will do, sometime!) but I’ll try to stay focused on the book. Solid writing, great editing, a fast-paced book that made me laugh, made me mad, made me hold my breath, and 5 star worthy! Now go get it!
5 stars

Merry & Bright Blog Tour

Four authors from Christmas anthology Merry & Bright share their favorite childhood holiday memories.   Lauren Clark: My favorite childhood Christmas memory would have to…

Guest Post: Jami Deise

Writing the Second Draft New writers are often encouraged not to worry about editing themselves when they first sit down to put words on paper…

Blog Tour Sign Up: Limoncello Yellow by Traci Andrighetti

From debut author, Traci Andrighetti, comes a tale of murder, mayhem, and meddling Sicilian grandmas…

Francesca “Franki” Amato is a tough-talking rookie cop in Austin, Texas—until an unfortunate 911 call involving her boyfriend, Vince, and a German female wrestler convinces her once and for all that she just isn’t cut out for a life on the police force. So Franki makes the snap decision to move to New Orleans to work at her friend Veronica’s detective agency, Private Chicks, Inc. But Franki’s hopes for a more stable life are soon dashed when Private Chicks is hired by the prime suspect in a murder case to find out what really happened to a beautiful young boutique manager who was found strangled to death with a cheap yellow scarf. When she’s not investigating, Franki is hoping to seduce handsome bank executive Bradley Hartmann, but most of her time is spent dodging date offers from a string of “good Italian boys”—make that not-so-good aging Italian men—that her meddlesome Sicilian grandma has recruited as marriage candidates. As Mardi Gras approaches and the mystery of the murdered shop girl gets more complicated, Franki must decipher the odd ramblings of a Voodoo priestess to solve both the murder and the mystery of her own love life.

On Tour: Casey’s Quest by Tamara Lee Dorris

Tamara will be on tour November 25-December 16 with her novel Casey’s Quest At her father’s death, Casey Anderson discovers she was adopted at age four.…