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Author Profile: Shelley Stout

Author Name: Shelley Stout

Website: http://shelleystout.librifiles.com/

Bio: Originally from Annandale, Virginia, Shelley Stout resides in Charlotte, North Carolina, where she enjoys spending time with her two grown sons. She also enjoys volunteering at a local homeless shelter. Shelley has been a contributing writer for two Charlotte area magazines, and her award-winning fiction has appeared in anthologies, The Storyteller Magazine and online at WordRiot.
Titles: Radium Halos and Celebrities for Breakfast
See my review of Celebrities for Breakfast
Bio Retrieved from smahswords.com

Celebrities for Breakfast by Shelley Stout

Judith Collington needs to get out of LA. She spends her days as a personal shopper for celebrities, caving in to the demands of the rich and famous. With her seventh-grade daughter Shannon maturing by the minute, Judith makes the decision to move to Illinois. She has the opportunity to run a bed and breakfast, taking over after the elder owner steps down. But after uprooting her life and settling down in the Midwest, Judith loses the chance to purchase the B&B- and the new owner only reminds her of what she left behind in California.
Celebrities for Breakfast by Shelley Stout is a romantic comedy, and I thought it was interesting to get more than one view point from the characters. Even though the story is told through Judith’s voice, there are some of Shannon’s journal entries that prove pivotal, and even a third voice that pops up along the way. I did think the story was a bit too dull at times, and I think that’s because it was predictable. But if you like romance, I would give Celebrities for Breakfast a try and see what you think. There are some sweet moments and a lesson or two you can pull from the story.
Rating: 3

In My Mailbox: Week of December 12th

In My Mailbox: Week of December 12th

Title: Celebrities For Breakfast
Author: Shelley Stout
Received: From Shelley Stout
Synopsis: Personal shopper to the stars, Judith Collington, refuses to spend one more day in LA, answering the whiney demands of her Hollywood clientele. To escape, Judith and her seventh-grader, Shannon, give up their lucrative lifestyle to run a bed and breakfast in central Illinois. Judith prepares to purchase the property, until it changes hands in a poker game. New owner: Hollywood actor and part-time egomaniac, Ren Spencer. Judith installs Ren into the nearest guest room, where he insists on heated towels and meals on a tray. She would love to hate him, except he’s pathetic in an endearing sort of way. Oh, and did I mention he’s about to become engaged?

If you really want the latest, just read Shannon’s private computer journal. Her bedroom wall is plastered with posters of her all-time favorite star, but Shannon could care less if Ren Spencer’s a has-been at 35. He’s so hot, she can’t stop writing love stories about him. So what if Ren drinks too much and has to sober up in jail? And why can’t Shannon just have a normal mother like everybody else?

CELEBRITIES FOR BREAKFAST is a romantic comedy told through Judith’s voice, but sprinkled throughout are Shannon’s journal entries and Ren’s two cents.

Title: Blue
Author: Lou Aronica
Received: From Lou Aronica
Synopsis: Chris Astor is a man in his early forties who is going through the toughest stretch of his life. Becky is Chris’s fourteen-year-old daughter, a girl who overcame enormous challenges to become a vibrant, vital young woman – and now faces her greatest obstacle yet. Miea is the young queen of a fantasy land that Becky and Chris created when Becky was little, a fantasy land that has developed a life of its own and now finds itself in terrible, maybe fatal trouble. Together, Chris, Becky, and Miea need to uncover a secret. The secret to why their worlds have joined at this moment. The secret to their purpose. The secret to the future. It is a secret that, when discovered, will redefine imagination for all of them. Blue is a novel of trial and hope, invention and rediscovery. It might very well take you someplace you never knew existed.

Title: The Christmas Journey
Author: Donna VanLiere
Received: From Ann Staszaleck with AuthorsOntheWeb.com
Synopsis: The eighty-mile journey of a common carpenter and a simple peasant girl is one of the most powerful stories in history. As books go out of print and stories fade from memory, the journey of Joseph and Mary and her delivery inside a common barn continues to bless and inspire hope in people around the world.
Accompanied by moving and beautifully rendered original watercolor illustrations throughout, Donna’s signature voice retelling shows that the story of the Nativity is alive in our modern world.