Book Giveaway - Simply From Scratch by Alicia Bessette

Simply from Scratch
Author:  Alicia Bessette
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date:  August 5, 2010

A luminous, tender-hearted debut novel about a young widow, a nine-year-old girl, and a baking contest that will change both their lives.
Rose-Ellen “Zell” Carmichael Roy wears her late husband Nick’s camouflage apron even when she’s not in the kitchen. She can’t remember the last time she wore a bra, and she speaks to her dog in the voice of a pirate. That’s her widow style.

It’s been over a year since Nick died tragically during a post-Katrina relief mission in New Orleans. Long enough, according to the grief pamphlets, to have begun moving on with her life. But Zell is still unable to enter her attic, which is full of Nick memories. She hasn’t even turned on her oven because cooking was Nick’s chore. That is, until she decides to enter celebrity chef Polly Pinch’s first annual Desserts that Warm the Soul baking contest, hoping to win the $20,000 grand prize to donate to Katrina survivors in Nick’s honor.

Meanwhile, in the adjacent apartment of Zell’s two-family house, nine-year-old Ingrid Knox is learning to cope with the loneliness of growing up without a mother. With an imagination as big as her heart, Ingrid treasures her doting father but begins to plot how she will meet her mother, whom she fiercely believes is Polly Pinch.

When an embarrassing baking mishap brings Zell and Ingrid together, they form an unlikely friendship that will alter both of their lives forever. Together, and with the help of a lively and loveable cast of friends and family, they embark on winning the Desserts that Warm the Soul contest – and learn that through the many sorrows and joys of life, with a little bit of flour and a pinch of love, anything is possible.

Giveaway: 

Thanks to Penguin, I have one (1) copy of this book to give away!

Want to double your chances of winning?  Head on over to Jen's blog at Crazy-For-Books and enter her giveaway!  She is also giving away 1 copy of this book! 

ATTENTION BOOK BLOGGERS!  Do you want to make sure you get to read this book?  Head on over to Crazy Book Tour and join the book tour!  

Rules for entering:

1. You MUST be follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect, E-Mail Subscription, or RSS Feed.

2. This contest is open to residents of USA only!

3. You MUST complete the form below - do not leave information in the comments - it will not count!

4. The contest will end on August 4, 2010 at 11:59PM EST; 1 winner will be selected and contacted thereafter.

5. Once the winners are contacted, they will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail or another winner will be selected.  Make sure you check your spam filters!

6. NO P.O. Box Addresses!

7. Book will be shipped directly from me (Lori). 

Uprinting ~ 250 Stickers/Labels Giveaway - WINNER

Congratulations

Nancye

I've passed her information on to Uprinting and they will contact her to claim her prize.

Guest Post ~ Christine Lemmon

My Husband as My Publisher

Ready or not, morning comes and I move through my messy house spinning like a top reacting to the demands of three children while at the same time scribbling in crayon on coloring books bursts of inspiration for the novel I have been staying up late to write. In the midst of morning chaos my husband tells me he needs me to autograph—to sign my name in one case of Sanibel Scribbles, two cases of Portion of the Sea and four cases of Sand in My Eyes before he leaves for work, oh, and a case of Whisper from the Ocean as well.

I hurry in my pajamas down the steps of our house on stilts on Sanibel Island—a barrier island off Florida’s Gulf Coast—and unlock the shed where we keep the inventory for the four books we have independently published. How hard will it be to sign my name 240 times this morning? My toddler appears with a black magic marker wanting to help and I try telling her for the millionth time only mommy is allowed to write in these books.

“Don’t forget the Indie Excellence stickers,” my husband calls down. My boys hear and come running to help put the stickers on the books. Being a 2010 National Finalist in the Fiction Category of the National Indie Excellence Award was our most recent achievement in this passionate and arduous journey of self-publishing and the stickers let readers know that my third book Sand in My Eyes meets the highest standard of independent publishing.

Expressing our creative freedom and producing books every bit the quality of major publishers has been our goal in self-publishing but we have had to make difficult decisions in the name of excellence. We paid an artist for his time in creating a cover for our gift book, Whisper from the Ocean. He gave us five choices but we didn’t care for any. We had to pay more money for more choices and still didn’t like them. Adhering to a deadline, we settled on one, but when the book jackets arrived by truck, we felt sick to our stomachs for having settled. The seashells on the cover looked more like alien eggs and our book like science fiction. We had the jackets destroyed, the printed books coverless and held up at a warehouse and we spent the next few months working with another artist to find a suitable cover. We ended up spending more money than we wanted on cover art and also missed Florida’s busiest tourism season. In the end, however, we had a cover we were proud of!

Books signed and stickers on, I meet my husband with a cup of coffee on the front porch where we sit every morning to discuss publishing. It’s just me, him, the three kids parading past, the osprey screeching from its nest outside our door, and the pileated woodpecker drumming on our roof. From our little home that looks more like a birdhouse than what a family of five calls ‘home,’ we have independently produced four books that have sold tens of thousands of copies and have gone into multiple print-runs and as a result, were picked up by a national distributor and will be re-releasing nationally summer 2010.

My husband reminds me my 14-blog tour is starting and I need to get writing my blogs. I complain a little, telling him I’d prefer to focus on the writing of my new book. But I know better. A writer, especially one who self-publishes, must also take time to promote. It is then my husband tells me he has a surprise, that when I was down signing books he got a phone call and a major newspaper will be reviewing Sand in My Eyes and that they might also be doing a story on self-publishing and they might want to interview me. “You mean us,” I say right away. “They’d have to talk to us.”

My husband leaves for work and I head to the beach with the kids. I sit in the sand thinking about ‘us’ and the three children and four books we have brought into this world. We have come a long ways from our dating days when I would write of him in my journal and dangle it unlocked in his face, reading out loud certain parts while substituting ‘blankety blank’ for other parts. Never did I imagine that the nineteen year-old boy I was teasing with my flirtatious literary prowess would one day become both my husband and publisher!

When we were newlyweds living in Atlanta with no furniture, not a dollar to our names, I begged him to buy me a computer on credit card sensing then I had something I wanted to write. We set the computer up and the first night I feared maybe we should have bought kitchen chairs instead. The second night I read the entire Windows Manual, and the third night said a prayer that I might write something significant with the computer so my husband doesn’t hate me. That night I started writing what became my first novel, Sanibel Scribbles.

A couple of years later and living in northern California, the writing of my novel became a passionate morning hobby of mine, waking before my husband and writing two hours before work. At night I would lay in bed giving him back massages while rambling on about the plot, themes and characters I was creating. At this point, he was simply my ‘listener’ who would passively comment, “Sounds exciting, wow—nice structure.”

A few years later my husband took a business opportunity that had us relocating to Nashville, TN. I had quit my job to be a stay-at-home mother and his business opportunity that had us relocating fell apart while we were en route so we arrived to Nashville both of us stay-at-home parents without income. That’s when my husband asked to read my manuscript for the very first time. He disappeared with it and when he returned, announced that he wanted to publish it. But first, he told me my guy parts sounded ‘dorky’ and that guys don’t talk that way. He went line by line with me through all the male parts and we rewrote them the way a guy really talks.

I never questioned my husband as a publisher. I was as ecstatic that day as I would have been had I signed a six-figure advance with a major publisher like Bantam Double Day Dell! As much as my husband believed in my writing, I, too, believed in his work ethic and his ability to get things done, for I had seen these traits in him first hand.

Within days, the two of us, along with our crying baby, were spending hours in the self-publishing aisle of the bookstore reading, mastering everything there was to know about starting a publishing house from A to Z. Hey, if Virginia Woolf and her husband could found their own printing press to put forth her books, then so could we! Within weeks we had an artist creating a cover and a line editor catching typos and a printer giving us estimates. Still unemployed and months later—our trunk loaded with copies of Sanibel Scribbles—we were on our way to Sanibel Island, the setting of our story and the place in which I had vacationed since I was two years old. It was also the place where John and I held our wedding reception but we hadn’t enough money to spend the night there.

Never did I imagine I’d be sitting out nursing my baby in the car, watching my husband walk in and out of every gift shop on Sanibel, doing his sales thing, asking whether the stores might like to carry his wife’s book. And each time he returned to the car, I’d let out a yelp of pure shock and joy that the stores were all saying, “Yes, we’ll take a few copies on consignment and if they sell, we’ll take more.”

Self-publishing is not easy. It is not for someone who just wants to see their books in print. Rather, it is for someone who has a good idea and a desire to create something excellent out of nothing, who can enjoy the process and is willing to learn all there is to know about an industry and make one small decision after the next until one day all those decisions turn into a finished product, but even then their work is not finished because they have to find a home for it and promote it and pay for it, too.

“Mom,” my son calls out to me on the beach, “that lady is reading your book!” Do I go up to the woman and introduce myself? Feeling the vulnerability of ‘what if she doesn’t like it’, no, I don’t. I call my husband on my cell phone instead. “There’s a lady sitting next to us on the beach and she’s reading our book.”

“Go up to her and thank her for reading it,” he urges me. I do and am glad I did. She loves the book and had stayed up most of the night reading it!

 About the author ~ 

Christine Lemmon is the author of three novels - Sanibel Scribbles, Portion of the Sea, and Sand in My Eyes, and the gift book, Whisper from the Ocean. She has lived all over the country writing for radio, newspaper, television and magazine.

She currently lives with her husband and three children on Sanibel Island, a subtropical island off Florida's Gulf Coast, which is the setting for her novels. She gets most of her inspiration while biking, kayaking or walking around the island, and watching sunsets with her family, but then she must hold her ideas until night, when her children are sleeping and she can write.

Christine is a frequent speaker at luncheons, book clubs and women's groups where she discusses writing and creativity. She is writing her next novel. Her website blogs appear as columns in the ISLAND SUN.

  

Sand in My Eyes 

FINALIST in the Fiction Category of the 2010 National Indie Excellence Awards

Twenty years ago, Anna Hott thought she could control everything-her crumbling marriage, her demanding children, her hectic life-by quitting her high-paced job in New York City and moving her family to tranquil Sanibel Island, Florida. But she brought her untamed emotions, her rage toward her cheating husband, and her yearning to write a novel with her. When her husband and children left the house for a week, Anna thought at last she would get her household, her novel, and her mind in order. Instead, her elderly neighbor Fedelina Aurelio knocked on her door bearing flowers and homespun wisdom, and when Fedelina's recently divorced son arrived, Anna had a test of passion and a test of truth. Now, at 56 with an empty nest, Anna Hott pulls out the incomplete manuscript she started that memorable week and-to find closure for her life and a conclusion for her novel-travels to Indiana to visit Fedelina who lives in a nursing home.

A novel framed within a novel, Sand in My Eyes is both a story about the tension between motherhood and personal dreams as well as a story about women across generations inspiring one another to let beauty persist despite ugly circumstances.

Other books by Christine

For more on Christine Lemmon and her books, visit her site, her blog  or find her on Facebook and Twitter.

Three Delays - WINNERS

Congratulations

George F
Susan S
Kisha
Patricia B
Allison

I've sent an email requesting their address. If I don't hear back in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

 Didn't win, but still want to read the book? Head over to Crazy Book Tours and sign up for the tour. You can buy the book at Amazon ~  Three Delays: A Novel

Giveaway - The Breaking of Eggs by Jim Powell

The Breaking of Eggs: A Novel
Author:  Jim Powell
Publisher: Penguin
Publication Date:  July 27, 2010



A debut novel unwinds the tangle of 20th-century history with wit, humor, and humanity.

Sixty-one-year-old Feliks is a naturalized Frenchman, a displaced Pole and former Communist --- and a curmudgeon --- who has made his living writing a yearly travel guide to the countries behind the Iron Curtain. In 1991, with the Curtain now fallen, Feliks finds his beliefs beginning to crumble around him. When a rapacious American publisher offers to buy out his life's work, Feliks must travel to the country he has long despised, and so begins the wry and moving tale of a man who awakens from self-imposed isolation into a changed world he must get to know all over again. So unfolds a story of family, war, politics, a second chance at love, and one man's quest for himself.

Giveaway: 

Thanks to the publisher, Penguin I have two (2) copies of this book to give away!

Want to double your chances of winning?  Head on over to Jen's blog at Crazy-For-Books and enter her giveaway!  She is also giving away 2 copies of this book! 

ATTENTION BOOK BLOGGERS!  Do you want to make sure you get to read this book?  Head on over to Crazy Book Tours and join the book tour!  

Rules for entering:

1. You MUST be follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect, E-Mail Subscription, or RSS Feed.

2. This contest is open to residents of USA & Canada only!

3. You MUST complete the form below - do not leave information in the comments - it will not count!

4. The contest will end on August 2, 2010 at 11:59PM EST; 2 winners will be selected and contacted thereafter.

5. Once the winners are contacted, they will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail or another winner will be selected.  Make sure you check your spam filters!

6. NO P.O. Box Addresses!

7. Book will be shipped directly from the publisher.  

Giveaway ~ Silent Scream by Lynda La Plante

Silent Scream: An Anna Travis Mystery
Author:  Lynda La Plante
Publlisher:  Simon & Schuster


Hot young British film star Amanda Delany had the world at her feet. Never one for the quiet life, she'd had a string of affairs with famous actors, making perfect fodder for the tabloids...Then came a commission to write a tell-all memoir. When Amanda is found brutally murdered, the suspects are lining up - from jealous ex-flatmates to famous lovers to a corrupt agent. As DCI James Langton leads his team in an extensive enquiry, they discover the sad truth behind Amanda's successful facade. An autopsy reveals that she was addicted to drugs and starvation diets. Amanda's parents are a cold, unemotional couple who hushed up the fact that their daughter once almost died from a botched abortion. And it is revealed that her massive earnings were being swallowed up in a City fraud. Meanwhile, DI Anna Travis is up for promotion, but her boss DCI James Langton is blocking her, with an accusation of professional misconduct. This latest case, her toughest challenge so far, could make or break Anna's career.

Giveaway: 

Thanks to the publisher, I have two (2) copies of this book to give away!

Want to double your chances of winning?  Head on over to Jen's blog at Crazy-For-Books and enter her giveaway!  She is also giving away 2 copies of this book! 

ATTENTION BOOK BLOGGERS!  Do you want to make sure you get to read this book?  Head on over to Crazy Book Tours and join the book tour!  

Rules for entering:

1. You MUST be follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect, E-Mail Subscription, or RSS Feed.

2. This contest is open to residents of USA only!

3. You MUST complete the form below - do not leave information in the comments - it will not count!

4. The contest will end on August 1, 2010 at 11:59PM EST; 2 winners will be selected and contacted thereafter.

5. Once the winners are contacted, they will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail or another winner will be selected.  Make sure you check your spam filters!

6. NO P.O. Box Addresses!

7. Book will be shipped directly from the author. 

Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker - WINNERS

Congratulations

Darcy O
Carole S
Amy C

I've sent an email requesting their address. If I don't hear back in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

 Didn't win, but still want to read the book? Sign up to be part of the book toor at Crazy Book Tour. You can buy the book at Amazon ~ Diary of a Beverly Hills Matchmaker

Love, Sex & Deception - WINNERS

 

Congratulations

Jordan
Benita

I've sent an email requesting their address. If I don't hear back in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

 Didn't win, but still want to read the book? You can buy the book at Amazon ~  Love, Sex & Deception: The Chronicles of Online Dating

 

Uprinting Stickers/Label Giveaway - WINNER

 

Congratulations

Nancye

I've sent an email requesting their address. If I don't hear back in 48 hrs, I'll choose another winner. Thank you to those that have entered :)

Guest Post ~ Catherine Hall

Where does it all begin?

I’m often asked where the inspiration for my writing comes from – and it’s a question I find very difficult to answer. I’m never quite sure what I’ve stored in my unconscious to come out, sometimes decades later. But what I do know is that it always starts with a character.

My novel DAYS OF GRACE began with Nora, an elderly woman living on her own in north London, lonely, sick, and plagued with guilty memories. On the face of it, that might have seemed an odd choice for a writer in her early thirties. What could I possibly know about old age and terminal illness?

But I was at a particularly difficult time in my life. I’d just come to the end of a five year relationship, I had nowhere to live, and was stuck in a job that I hated. I was feeling very sorry for myself. It was a public holiday at the end of August and I was staying with friends who’d gone away for the weekend, like most Londoners do on these occasions. I sat in the garden trying to write, but felt completely lacking in inspiration. Instead I started to think about my future, indulging in melodramatic little fantasies about the old woman that I might one day become, living alone, slightly difficult, and avoided by others.

I began to write about the strange emptiness of long urban weekends and put my old woman into that setting. That was the impetus I needed to begin. Looking back, it made sense. Over the years I’ve met a lot of old women and I find their stories fascinating. I’m angry about how, in our youth-obsessed culture, the elderly have become almost invisible or seen as a burden. I became fascinated by the idea that an old woman, ignored by those who pass her on the street, might have had a history – one that is not at all what one might expect.

Again, there was a personal element to this. I feel very lucky that I’ve never had to hide my sexuality, but I know that things were very different in the past. Many of the older women I’ve spoken to still find it very difficult to talk about experiences that they had with other women. Some ended up marrying men to keep up the pretence of heterosexuality, others felt very bitter at opportunities never taken because of fear and shame. I wanted to write about the corrosive nature of that shame, how it limits people, stops them from doing what could make them happy and prevents them from reaching their true potential. That’s why I begin the book with a quote from William Blake:
‘He who desires but acts not, breeds pestilence.’

I really do believe that if you push things under the carpet, and force people to hide their true selves, bad things inevitably happen.

And so, with Nora, my job was to trace back what those bad things were – what happened to make her so alone and so damaged. It took me another four years to do it…

Days of Grace: A Novel 

At the beginning of World War II, twelve-year-old Nora Lynch is one of thousands of London children sent away to the safety of the English countryside. Her surrogate family, Reverend and Mrs. Rivers and their daughter Grace, are like no-one she has ever met, offering shelter, affection, and the sister she never had. But Nora is too young and too naïve to understand the cracks beneath the surface of her idyllic new life at the rectory, or the disappointments of the Riverses' marriage. And as her friendship with Grace grows more intense, she aches to become even closer. What happens next is a secret that she keeps for more than fifty years, a secret that she can begin to reveal only when, elderly and alone, Nora knows that she is close to the end.

A beautiful meditation on love, friendship, and family, Days of Grace is a stunning debut that brings a tumultuous era to life. Nora tells her story in alternating chapters from the past and present, projecting her childhood nostalgia with a cinematic glow.  

Giveaway - Days of Grace by Catherine Hall

Days of Grace: A Novel
Author:  Catherine Hall
Publisher: Viking
Publication Date:  May 27, 2010


At the beginning of World War II, twelve-year-old Nora Lynch is one of thousands of London children sent away to the safety of the English countryside. Her surrogate family, Reverend and Mrs. Rivers and their daughter Grace, are like no-one she has ever met, offering shelter, affection, and the sister she never had. But Nora is too young and too naïve to understand the cracks beneath the surface of her idyllic new life at the rectory, or the disappointments of the Riverses' marriage. And as her friendship with Grace grows more intense, she aches to become even closer. What happens next is a secret that she keeps for more than fifty years, a secret that she can begin to reveal only when, elderly and alone, Nora knows that she is close to the end.

A beautiful meditation on love, friendship, and family, Days of Grace is a stunning debut that brings a tumultuous era to life. Nora tells her story in alternating chapters from the past and present, projecting her childhood nostalgia with a cinematic glow.

Giveaway: 

Thanks to the publisher, I have one (1) copy of this book to give away!

Want to double your chances of winning?  Head on over to Jen's blog at Crazy-For-Books and enter her giveaway!  She is also giving away 1 copy of this book! 

Rules for entering:

1. You MUST be follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect, E-Mail Subscription, or RSS Feed.

2. This contest is open to residents of USA only!

3. You MUST complete the form below - do not leave information in the comments - it will not count!

4. The contest will end on July 31, 2010 at 11:59PM EST; 1 winners will be selected and contacted thereafter.

5. Once the winners are contacted, they will have 48 hours to respond to my e-mail or another winner will be selected.  Make sure you check your spam filters!

6. NO P.O. Box Addresses!

7. Book will be shipped directly from the publisher.  

Deeply Desperately by Heather Webber

Deeply, Desperately: A Lucy Valentine Novel
Author:  Heather Webber
Publisher:  St. Martin's
Publication Date:  August 3, 2010

The irrepressible star of Truly, Madly, is back in business. This time, Lucy Valentine will go to the ends of the earth to find true love for her clients…and maybe even herself.

Lucy wants to breathe new life into her family’s Boston-based matchmaking company. But how? Even though she comes from a long line of ancestors blessed by Cupid with psychic abilities, a freak accident left Lucy with only one special skill: finding things. Car keys, socks in the dryer, needles in haystacks...and now, in a stroke of professional genius, lost loves!

It’s not long before Lucy’s on a winning streak, helping old flames reunite and create new sparks. Business is booming. But when Lucy finds herself involved in a possible case of murder, she realizes she’s in too deep. Enter Sean Donahue. Lucy’s handsome fire-fighter turned private-eye neighbor, Sean is just the man she needs to help her on the job. Could he also be the man she’s been looking for all along? When it comes to Valentine, Inc., falling in love is always serious business…

My thoughts ~

When I found out that Heather Webber was not continuing the Nina Quinn series I wanted to cry. It was one of the first cozy books I had read, and I loved the entire series. I was sad to see it end. BUT, luckily for me, and the rest of her fans, she has since brought us Lucy Valentine. And boy, do I love Lucy!

While Lucy does not possess the same talents as her father in being able to read people’s auras and know who they will best match with romantically, she does have her own special gift. She is able to find lost things, simply by holding the hand of the person that has lost them. She has turned her gift of finding lost items into finding Lost Loves, a new department for the family’s matchmaking business Valentine, Inc. Will Lucy be able to find the lost loves of her first two clients? Clients who could not be more different. First is Faye the distraught mother, brought to her via the police, who is looking for her daughter that went missing two years ago, presumed dead at the hands of her cop husband. Then there is the ever so adorable elderly gentleman Leo, who is looking for the love of his life, the woman he lost so many years ago. As if these two cases aren’t enough to keep Lucy busy, she’s also dealing with a father who has started acting very peculiarly, harassing/threatening letters she has begun to receive in the mail, a mother and grandmother who have exposed more than they should, a budding (gasp) friendship with reporter Preston Bailey, and Marisol’s quest to turn them into PI’s to prove that Em’s fiancé is no good for her. Then there is her new escalating  relationship with Sean. A relationship, that while she wants to take it to the next level, is afraid to because she fears it will fall prey to Cupid’s Curse (well that and they can't seem to "get together.")

One of the things I love best about this book is that fact that it’s set in Boston, and that I can picture myself in each and every setting. For me, it helps me feel even more a part of the book, as if I’m taking each step with the characters. However, even if this book had not been set in Boston, I would still have found myself deeply entrenched in it. While this is the second book in the series, see Truly, Madly: A Novel, it can be read as a stand alone (but you really shouldn't miss the first one).  There is never a dull moment in Deeply, Desperately, nor is everything what it appears to be. Just when you think you’ve got something figured out, you should think again. This book has everything a great book should have ~ fun, romance, psychic ability, mystery, humor and a quirky cast of characters that you’ll fall in love with immediately. The only problem I have with this book is that it ended and that I’m going to have to wait until February to find out what the Lovable Lucy gets herself into next in Absolutely, Positively: A Lucy Valentine Novel.

FCC Full Disclosure ~ I received this book from Romance Book Tours

Beachcombers by Nancy Thayer (ARC)

Beachcombers: A Novel
Author:  Nancy Thayer
Publication Date:  June 22, 2010
Publisher:  Ballantine


Beautifully written, powerfully felt, full of both abundant joy and heart-wrenching sorrow, Beachcombers is an extraordinary novel that centers on the bittersweet reunion of three captivating, very different sisters on Nantucket over one gorgeous, exhilarating summer.

Abbie Fox hasn't seen her father or two younger sisters in almost two years, during which she's jetted around the world and experienced life, if not love. But now Lily, the baby of the family, is sending Abbie urgent emails begging her to return home to Nantucket. Their middle sister, Emma, has taken to her bed, emotionally devastated after the loss of her high-powered stockbroker's job and a shockingly unexpected break-up with her fiancé. Also, Lily is deeply worried that Marina, the beautiful, enigmatic woman renting their guesthouse, has set her sights on the sisters' widowed father, Jim. The Fox girls closed ranks years ago after the haunting, untimely death of their mother, but seeing their dad move on with his life forces each of them to take stock.

Over the course of the summer, the sisters' lives grow as turbulent as the unpredictable currents encircling Nantucket. When Abbie encounters an incredibly appealing married man, she breaks her own rules in the name of love, fearing all the while that she'll regret it. Meanwhile, type-A Emma learns a new definition of success, and strong-minded Lily must reconcile her dreams with reality. Even Marina, who has come to Nantucket to forget heartbreak and betrayal, faces an astonishing turn of events that will find her torn between fate and freedom. At summer's end, these unforgettable women will face profound choices - and undergo personal transformations that will surprise even themselves.

Check back soon for my review

FTC Full Disclosure ~ I received this book from Pump Up Your Books Tour Promotion in hopes of my reviewing it. 

Book Blogger Hop ~ July 16th - 19th

In the spirit of the Friday Follow, the Book Blogger Hop is a place just for book bloggers and readers to connect and find new blogs that we may be missing out on!  This weekly BOOK PARTY is an awesome opportunity for book bloggers to connect with other book lovers, make new friends, support each other, and generally just share our love of books!  It will also give blog readers a chance to find other book blogs that they may not know existed!  So, grab the logo, post about the Hop on your blog, and start HOPPING through the list of blogs that are posted in the Linky at Crazy-For-Books!!

The Hop lasts Friday-Monday every week, so if you don't have time to Hop today, come back later and join the fun!  This is a weekly event!

Your blog should have content related to books, including, but not limited to book reviews.

Make sure you hop on over to Crazy-For-Books so that you can find some great blogs like I have done!  You won't be disappointed.

RIGHT THIS INSTANT, WHAT BOOK ARE YOU DYING TO GET YOUR HANDS ON (PAST, PRESENT, OR FUTURE)?

How do I pick just one???  I can't...so my top 10 are

The Immortals (Taylor Jackson) by J.T. Ellison (Oct 1st)
Bone House by Brian Freeman (US Release ???? UK Sept 2nd)

Black Beans & Vice (The Supper Club Mysteries) by J.B. Stanley (Nov 1st)

Hangman: A Decker/Lazarus Novel (Decker and Lazarus) by Faye Kellerman (Aug 1st)

 Mister X by John Lutz (Oct 1st)

Afraid of the Dark by James Grippando (April 1st)

Worth Dying For by Lee Child (Oct 19th)

Sing You Home: A Novel by Jodi Picoult (March 1st)

Tick Tock by James Patterson & Michael Ledwidge (Jan 24th)

Third Degree (A Murder 101 Mystery) by Maggie Barbieri (Nov 23rd)

So, have fun HOPPING and enjoy your BOOK PARTY weekend!!!

Relatively Famous by Jessica Park - Grand Giveaway

Relatively Famous
Author:  Jessica Park



Meet Dani McKinley: A typical teen whose world is rocked when she finds out that her father is a famous Hollywood Action star. Now meet Mark Ocean: A self-serving actor with a floundering career who sees that a daughter is just what he needs to reinvent himself as a family man and get back on track. When the two decide to spend the summer together, they must not only wrangle their own love lives, but try to figure out who they really are to themselves and to each other.

Now armed with credit cards, club memberships, and a new wardrobe, Dani learns that what Mark has in wealth, he sorely lacks in parenting skills. Trying to show Mark that parenting is about more than loading her up with Prada bags and taking her to movie premieres is challenging enough, but she's also got her hands full with her new friends. Oh, and the boys... Dani meets Jason, a gorgeous young personal trainer who is easy on the eyes and wildly flirtatious. But is this smug hottie the one for her? Or will she ignore her friends eye-rolling and go for the goofy but sweet surfer?

While juggling her own complicated love life, Dani tries to set her father up with someone less likely to appear on a VH1 reality show, and someone more... well, normal. And age-appropriate. And dressed in anything but a thong bikini. But whether Mark is able to heal old wounds and move forward with anything more than a meaningless fling remains to be seen.

Can Dani fit in with this new, fast-moving California crowd without losing herself? With the world at her fingertips and hot boys now after her, staying grounded gets tough. And can Mark drop his egocentric approach to life and learn to appreciate how truly wonderful his daughter is? As driven as he is to get that A-list acting role, he's willing to do whatever it takes to get there, even if it means using his daughter. Or is he...? Mark and Dani's relationship hits a few highs, but the question becomes whether the lows are too much.

Click  HERE to read my review.

In order to help celebrate the upcoming release of Jessica's new book Relatively Famous, I'm hosting this grand giveaway for her!  Make sure to spread the word!

 

GRAND PRIZE ~ $65 value (1 winner)

        * Movie Lovers Gift Basket       

*Relatively Famous

FIRST PLACE PRIZE ~ $40 value (1 winner)

* 2 month gift subscription to Netflix

*Relatively Famous

Second Place Prize ~ $22 value (1 winner)

* $10 Amazon Gift Card    

*Relatively Famous

Runners Up ~  (5 winners)

*Relatively Famous

Rules for entering:

1. You MUST be follower of this blog through Google Friend Connect, E-Mail Subscription, or RSS Feed.

2. This contest is open to residents of USA only!

3. You MUST complete the form below - do not leave information in the comments - it will not count!

4. The contest will end on August 7, 2010 at 11:59PM EST; the winners will be selected and contacted thereafter.

5. NO P.O. Box Addresses!

6. Book will be shipped directly  from the vendors.