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In My Mailbox: Week of December 30

In Samantha’s Mailbox:

savannah pageTitle: When Girlfriends Step Up

Author: Savannah Page

Received: Via CLP Blog Tours

Synopsis: A novel about love and support, and learning that with enduring friendships, no woman is ever alone.

Robin Sinclair is young, determined, and has a promising career at a small publishing house in Seattle. Even though she considers herself unlucky in love, Robin still dreams of eventually meeting Mr. Right and having a happily-ever-after kind of life. And at twenty-five, the world of opportunity is wide. But it’s been a difficult year filled with trials…and it’s only just begun.

While long-time friendships are finally on the mend, and things are starting to look up again, Robin is faced with her biggest challenge yet. She’s single and pregnant.

Uncertain now of her future and scared of being alone, Robin must re-examine her life and choices, and summon the courage to step up.

With the love and support of her best girlfriends from college, especially her best friend and roommate, Lara, Robin will learn that when the going gets tough, the best of friends become family. And, perhaps, with their encouragement, Robin can mature and gain the confidence needed to become a single mother. And, who knows about being unlucky in love. Things are suddenly getting interesting with Robin’s attractive co-worker, Bobby.

This is an endearing story about maturity and perseverance. It’s a story about friends coming together as family, about finding the strength within and around, and about writing your own happily-ever-after. About what happens when girlfriends step up.

Alberta ClipperTitle: Alberta Clipper

Author: Sheena Lambert

Received: From Sheena Lambert

Synopsis: Christine Grogan is a beautiful 28-year-old meteorologist with a loving family, great friends and an exciting career working for an international investment bank. So why does she spend every January 20th crying like her heart might break? As everyone around her appears to be moving on with their lives, Christine wears her past like a pair of concrete shoes. Can nothing, or nobody help her shake them?

Mark Harrington thought he had all he ever wanted. Head of the bank’s Irish operations, he has the career, the house and the relationship any 39-year-old would wish for. But when his seemingly perfectly-planned life suddenly strays totally off course, Mark is confronted with the fact that he isn’t actually in control at all…
…and that he is crazy in love with Christine.

Insider trading, rambunctious Christmas parties, overnight conferences, the modern office environment has it all. But it can also be the stage for a simple, modern love story.

ALBERTA CLIPPER is that story.

It is a story of guilt and forgiveness, trust and betrayal.
And absolute, unconditional love.

The story of two people, each floundering in their own lives, who might just be able to save one another.

Love or MoneyTitle: Love or Money?

Author: Carrie Stone

Received: From Carrie Stone

Synopsis: How does a successful, money-driven woman act when her world is turned upside down and her values are brought into question? Felicity Harroway is about to go on a journey. A long distance one.

Housewife and best friend Zara is also about to undertake new changes with a baby on the way. Just not quite in the way she’s expecting. For husband Steve isn’t as honest as he appears…

Can Felicity’s anxious and downtrodden mother Glenda guide both women in the right direction? Will fellow friend Sylvia lead by example and find happiness with her celebrity boyfriend?

Join the four women as they battle with the trials of work and relationships, and begin to question the all important dilemma… Love or Money? Or can you have both?

Title: Caramel Magnolias

Author: Tess Hardwick

Received: From Booktrope

Synopsis: Ten years ago, Cleo Tanner lost her first and only true love in a fateful motorcycle accident and now leads a quiet, isolated life in Seattle. Sylvia, her best friend from college, is trapped in a loveless marriage, blinded by her desire to have a child.

Both women are living passively on the sidelines of life, longing for that which they cannot have..until Cleo has an unexpected encounter with an adoption agency owner just as Sylvia suffers from another failed in-vitro procedure. Not long after, Cleo is approached by a detective because her phone number found at the same location a missing teenage girl was last seen. As the investigation unfolds, both women find their hearts – and lives – at risk.

A toast to friendship, mended hearts, and new beginnings, Caramel Magnolias reminds us it’s never too late to reawaken the heart.

Calling Me HomeTitle: Calling Me Home

Author: Julie Kibler

Received: SheKnows

Synopsis: Calling Me Home by Julie Kibler is a soaring debut interweaving the story of a heartbreaking, forbidden love in 1930s Kentucky with an unlikely modern-day friendship.

Eighty-nine-year-old Isabelle McAllister has a favor to ask her hairdresser Dorrie Curtis. It’s a big one. Isabelle wants Dorrie, a black single mom in her thirties, to drop everything to drive her from her home in Arlington, Texas, to a funeral in Cincinnati. With no clear explanation why. Tomorrow.

Dorrie, fleeing problems of her own and curious whether she can unlock the secrets of Isabelle’s guarded past, scarcely hesitates before agreeing, not knowing it will be a journey that changes both their lives.

Over the years, Dorrie and Isabelle have developed more than just a business relationship. They are friends. But Dorrie, fretting over the new man in her life and her teenage son’s irresponsible choices, still wonders why Isabelle chose her.

Isabelle confesses that, as a willful teen in 1930s Kentucky, she fell deeply in love with Robert Prewitt, a would-be doctor and the black son of her family’s housekeeper–in a town where blacks weren’t allowed after dark. The tale of their forbidden relationship and its tragic consequences makes it clear Dorrie and Isabelle are headed for a gathering of the utmost importance and that the history of Isabelle’s first and greatest love just might help Dorrie find her own way.

When Girlfriends Step Up by Savannah Page

I received a copy of When Girlfriends Step Up by Savannah Page in exchange for an honest review.

When Girlfriends Step Up follows the tale of Robin Sinclair, a determined young lady embarking on a small publishing house in Seattle. Unlucky in love in the past, she is optimistic about her luck in the future and hopes to one day meet Mr. Right. But, so far he hasn’t turned up and her year only seems to be getting worse when she finds out that she is pregnant. Uncertain of what will happen, she turns to her girlfriends and they really step up when things start to get tough for Robin. She slowly finds her footing in the realm of single motherhood and that is when she stumbles into an attractive co-worker named Bobby and sparks fly. Will she finally meet the one? And will things ever turn around for Robin?

I really enjoyed this book. Early on it seems as though Robin has all the odds stacked against her, but I absolutely loved watching her mature and grow into a strong, confident woman. This book shows real courage and strength from Robin and I loved her relationships with her closest gal pals. I think this book definitely touched on a lot of important topics and many which I have seen some of my own girlfriends struggle with. Overall, this book conveys a good message and I appreciated it because I don’t see that happen often much these days. There were a few hiccups here and there but I would still give this book a high rating.

[Rating: 4.5/5]