Friday, March 29, 2019

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Garden Lady

About The Garden Lady


THE GARDEN LADY by Susan Dworkin is a novel about  unexpected love, the silence that becomes complicity, and the magic of redemption.  Urgent and compelling, the story resonates with today’s headlines as it poses the ethical question: How do we live with what we know but choose not to think about or act upon?

Maxie Dash, the heroine of THE GARDEN LADY, is a famous beauty, a fashion icon, the face of many national TV ads. Her first husband, a world-class photographer, took nude pictures of her, which are so beautiful that they now hang in museums.

On the cusp of her 50s, Maxie decides to make one more marriage, something permanent and restful, to a rich man who will guarantee her an affluent life and future security. Amazingly she finds the perfect man. Even more amazingly, she grows to love him. Albert shares Maxie's passion for the opera and willingly supports her favorite charities. He indulges her delight in public gardens and allows her to endow the community with their beauty. All he asks in return is that she give him her love and her unswerving loyalty and agree to know nothing -- absolutely nothing -- about his business.

Maxie is sustained by her best friend, the designer Ceecee Rodriguez, whom she treasures as a sister. But she is shaken by the persistent enmity of Sam Euphemia, a fierce young business executive, who suspects Albert of terrible crimes.

Add Maxie Dash to the list of great heroines of contemporary fiction. Smart, funny, enjoying every moment of her hard-won success,  she ultimately faces the truth about her life, moves past denial and realizes that "her loyalty was a side effect of her greed and her greed was a crime against nature and her silence, her willful, terror-stricken silence, the true disaster."  Her attempt to turn Garbage Mountain, a New Jersey landfill, into a beautiful park is key to her redemption.

THE GARDEN LADY reads like a thriller or a binge-worthy Netflix series. Entertaining and provocative, it is packed with ethical questions, dark humor and insight and offers us a female protagonist you will never forget.



Purchase Links


Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Review:  I breezed through this book in one afternoon. Its only about 200 ish pages and those pages really pull you in!

Maxie is a fashion icon ready to settle down. I try to picture her as a Cindy Crawford/Christy Brinkley type trying to have a comfortable life. The book focuses on Maxie and her friends but also on her husband Albert who may or may not be more than she thinks he is. Actually, he's a lot more than she thinks he is.

This book is one part thriller/suspense and one part family saga in a short form. Maxie's life is a struggle. She loses her parents early in life and its her and CeeCee trying to make it in the world. Maxie has worked hard for what she's got and she wants a comfortable retirement, so to speak. What she gets with Albert isn't quite that.

At the beginning of the book we learn Albert has been murdered and a little bit before that his son Marcus. That's when things start unraveling for Maxie. There are things she may or may not know about her husband, things he may or may not have done.

It gives the book a nice sense of tension, as we see her trying to rebuild her life.

The ending really packed a wallop too. It was not at all what I was expecting.

This book was entertaining and fast paced and really worth the time.

Rating: 4 flowers




About Susan Dworkin


SUSAN DWORKIN wrote the New York Times bestseller The Nazi Officer's Wife, a tale of love and terror in the Third Reich, with the woman who lived the story, the late Edith Hahn Beer Other books include Making Tootsie, the inside story of the great film comedy with Dustin Hoffman and Sydney Pollack; The Viking in the Wheat Field about the eminent seed banker, Dr. Bent Skovmand; Miss America, 1945, Bess Myerson's story; Stolen Goods, a novel of love and larceny in the 80s; and The Commons, about an agrarian revolt led by a pop star and set in the not-so-distant future. Susan was a long-time contributing editor to Ms. Magazine. Her plays are often performed in regional theatres. She lives in Massachusetts.

Find out more about Susan at her website.

Thursday, March 28, 2019

Book Review: Beautiful Disaster

Author: Jamie McGuire
Title: Beautiful Disaster
Publisher: Atria Books
Publish Date: May 26, 2011
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: The new Abby Abernathy is a good girl. She doesn’t drink or swear, and she has the appropriate number of cardigans in her wardrobe. Abby believes she has enough distance from the darkness of her past, but when she arrives at college with her best friend, her path to a new beginning is quickly challenged by Eastern University's Walking One-Night Stand.

Travis Maddox, lean, cut, and covered in tattoos, is exactly what Abby needs—and wants—to avoid. He spends his nights winning money in a floating fight ring, and his days as the ultimate college campus charmer. Intrigued by Abby’s resistance to his appeal, Travis tricks her into his daily life with a simple bet. If he loses, he must remain abstinent for a month. If Abby loses, she must live in Travis’s apartment for the same amount of time. Either way, Travis has no idea that he has met his match.





Review: I think the title of this book sums up exactly how I felt about it. It was a Beautiful Disaster. I had such issues with the characters and their behavior and yet I had to finish it. This is a book about a wannabe good girl and a bad boy and how dysfunctional love conquers all.

I now can say, I find Travis Maddox totally creepy...like creepier than I found Edward Cullen. In fact, Travis was the poster child for a dude that needed medicated. He needed therapy...and anger management and a whole lot of other stuff. At first, you feel a bit drawn to him, because well, he's so messed up. But as the story goes on, he's not right...nothing about him is right. He's controlling, in a way that maybe some misguided souls think is sexy?

Abby isn't much better. She wants to be a good little girl to escape her past but then she starts playing Travis and Parker off of each other. Uh...erm..no! The only thing I can say for Abby and Travis is they are so screwed up that yeah, they belonged together. Two products of unhealthy relationships having an unhealthy relationship.

And don't get me started on the friendships...America? Oye! and her boyfriend Shelpley (sounds like dog food to me)

Most of the time I spent reading this book I was in disbelief that any girl with any self respect would want a guy like Travis. There are bad boys, and yeah, they are sexy, but Travis wasn't really a bad boy...he was screwed up and had so many issues. I can't even begin to number them, but when a guy starts pulling ever guy off the dance floor that danced with you...well he might have a mental issue or two or ten. So yeah, for me Travis was disturbing.

The writing was good enough that I finished it, and the ending was way out there with drama, but I have to say, this isn't my type of book at all.

Rating: 3 flowers


Tuesday, March 26, 2019

TLC Book Tours Book Review: California Girls

About California Girls

  • Hardcover: 432 pages
  • Publisher: MIRA; Original edition (February 26, 2019)
The California sunshine’s not quite so bright for three sisters who get dumped in the same week…
Finola, a popular LA morning show host, is famously upbeat until she’s blindsided on live TV by news that her husband is sleeping with a young pop sensation who has set their affair to music. While avoiding the tabloids and pretending she’s just fine, she’s crumbling inside, desperate for him to come to his senses and for life to go back to normal.
Zennie’s breakup is no big loss. Although the world insists she pair up, she’d rather be surfing. So agreeing to be the surrogate for her best friend is a no-brainer—after all, she has an available womb and no other attachments to worry about. Except…when everyone else, including her big sister, thinks she’s making a huge mistake, being pregnant is a lot lonelier—and more complicated—than she imagined.
Never the tallest, thinnest or prettiest sister, Ali is used to being overlooked, but when her fiancé sends his disapproving brother to call off the wedding, it’s a new low. And yet Daniel continues to turn up “for support,” making Ali wonder if maybe—for once—someone sees her in a way no one ever has.
But side by side by side, these sisters will start over and rebuild their lives with all the affection, charm and laugh-out-loud humor that is classic Susan Mallery.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

Review: I love Susan Mallery's books. They are light fluffy reads that make me feel good. I wish this one was as good as some of the others I've read. That's not to say that I didn't enjoy it, because I absolutely love books about sisters. However there were two characters I just couldn't like, Finola and the mother. OMG, these two women needed slapped upside their heads. Finola was so self absorbed and the mother, all she cared about was getting grandchildren. She didn't seem to really care about any of her daughter's happiness or unhappiness.  I think because my mother was such a wonderful, caring woman, I can't deal with mother figures like this. She absolutely brings out the feminist in me.


All three women are very different and dealing with issues in their life, most of them being the end of a relationship. That's where this book kind of lost me, because I couldn't wrap my head around a whole family of women having their relationships go south at the same time. (Well except for Zennie, her breakup wasn't really an earth shattering one). That said, I loved Zennie and her selflessness, even when having the baby for her friend was becoming burdensome. I wouldn't mind revisiting her life to see how Bernie handles still being friends with her, as their baby grows up. That could be a very interesting story indeed.

I can't pick which sister I most identified with, but I loved Ali, because her breakup just sucked. Plus..well...Daniel was so lovely. I think of all the characters Ali grew more as a person as the story went on. Finola, became more accepting of her responsibility in the breakup of her marriage, but other than that, she wasn't much different. I wanted to hate Nigel for being an ass, in the way he dealt with things, but in some ways, I wanted to see if these two people could make a go of their relationship after a betrayal, though I did appreciate that Finola didn't quite get the romance novel happily ever after.

This was an enjoyable read...definitely one for the beach.

Rating: 4 flowers



About Susan Mallery

#1 NYT bestselling author Susan Mallery writes heartwarming, humorous novels about the relationships that define our lives-family, friendship, romance. She’s known for putting nuanced characters in emotional situations that surprise readers to laughter. Beloved by millions, her books have been translated into 28 languages.Susan lives in Washington with her husband, two cats, and a small poodle with delusions of grandeur. Visit her at SusanMallery.com.

Connect with Susan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Release Day Blitz: Steadfast


Last Fews Days to get it for 99¢:
Or one Universal Link: https://daniellenorman.com/steadfast

BLURB:
Holland Kelly wasn’t a people person. Okay, that’s not true, she wasn’t one particular man person. That man? Her next-door neighbor Dick Brooks. Fine, his real name was Reid, but Dick sounded better.
Life would have been perfect if she never had to interact with him again.
Unfortunately, life wasn't perfect.
Now she is stuck spending hours with the neighbor she has always hated while they work to save their homes.
Have his eyes always been that shade?
Has he always been so good looking?
And those lips..

EXCERPT 1:
Just after three, Holland still hadn’t showed, so I decided that I’d get dinner going just in case I convinced her to stay. What was I thinking? The woman was so insufferable she would probably show up tomorrow morning just to leave me hanging. Still, I found myself in the kitchen and started chopping vegetables.
“I thought that I told you I wouldn’t be here tonight for dinner,” my sister said as she came into the kitchen and examined the two New York strips that I had set out to defrost. Ellie had moved in with me a little over a year ago after her divorce, and probably wasn’t leaving anytime soon.
“Yep, you told me.” I reached into the refrigerator and grabbed the stuff to make a salad.
“Then why two steaks? Are you on some protein kick that I don’t know about?”
“Holland is coming over.”
Ellie started pounding her chest and coughing. “Uh-uh, Holland? As in our next door neighbor Holland Kelly, the one that would rather run you over than look at you? The Holland who I have yet to hear call you by anything other than Dick Brooks, that Holland?”
“Yep.”
“And you think serving food that require knives to cut is a good idea?”
I stopped pulling apart the lettuce. “Maybe I didn’t think this one out totally.”
“You think?” Ellie picked up her purse. “Well, if there’s blood everywhere when I get home, at least you can’t say that I didn’t warn you.


About Danielle
Before becoming a romance writer, Danielle was a body double for Heidi Klum and a backup singer for Adele. Now, she spends her days trying to play keep away from Theo James, who won't stop calling her or asking her out.
And all of this happens before she wakes up and faces reality where in fact she is a 50-something mom with grown kids. She's been married longer than Theo's been alive, and she now gets her kicks riding a Harley.
As far as her body, she can thank Ben & Jerry's for that, as well as gravity and vodka. But she says that she could never be Adele's backup since she never stops saying the F-word long enough to actually sing.
Danielle writes about kickass women with even better shoes and the men that try to tame them (silly, silly men).
Stalk Danielle

Monday, March 25, 2019

Cover Reveal: Tombstones

Cover Reveal for TOMBSTONES by KC Enders
Brought to you by Forever Write PR




We are excited to share the extremely sexy cover for KC Enders final Beekman Hills novel, Tombstones. Scroll down for the cover and don’t forget to add Tombstones to your Goodreads TBR shelf!



About Tombstones


Title: Tombstones
Author: KC Enders
Release:  April 15, 2019
Publisher: Self-published
Series: Beekman Hills #3
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Word Count: 62,000
Cover Designer: Alora Kate, Cover Kraze


Synopsis:
No strings. No mess. No complications.
It was supposed to be just a month of fun.
But two blue lines have them both considering a future that neither of them knew they wanted.


KATE BEARD
Kindergarten teacher.
Tequila connoisseur.
Expert in finding Mr. WRONG.
Ever since Kate discovered the man she thought she’d marry macking on his boyfriend, she has had nothing but bad luck in love.
What she needs is a fresh start.
When MURPHY and his damn LAW drop the perfect man right in front of her, it’s just her luck that he’s only there temporarily.

WYATT JACKSON
Captain, Special Forces.
Confirmed bachelor.
In the running for uncle of the year.
One month stateside to enjoy top-shelf tequila, lose himself in a gorgeous woman, an to try and forget the desert.


What he needed was a reset. What he got, was a sassy southern woman hellbent on bringing him to his knees.  


Neither thought they’d find forever between tragedy and tombstones.


Add to Goodreads here!


Goodreads http://bit.ly/2C7MX9s


Pre-Order Now: Amazon | B&N | iTunes | Kobo | EdenBooks

Author KC Enders:



Karin is a New York Girl living in a Midwest world. A connoisseur of great words, fine bourbon, and strong coffee, she’s married to the love of her life who is also her best friend. The mother of two grown men, she is proud to say that they can cook and clean up after themselves, and always open doors for the ladies (you’re welcome, world). Even though her boys no longer live at home, the big dogs she’s rescued have taken up their empty space.

Follow Author: Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Newsletter | BookBub | Amazon | Instagram | Pinterest


Goodreads → http://bit.ly/2FnL4sj

This sales blitz is brought to you by Forever Write PR. For more information, visit our Facebook page! https://www.facebook.com/ForeverWritePR/

Friday, March 22, 2019

TLC Book Tours Book Review: What She Gave Away

About What She Gave Away


• Paperback: 348 pages
• Publisher: Thomas & Mercer (September 4, 2018)

Revenge is anything but sweet in this twisty thriller about two women with very different lives locked in the same deadly game.

Imagining the best way to destroy a person’s happiness is Crystal Love’s favorite game. Devious and unpolished, the plus-sized loan analyst couldn’t be more out of place in her new town of Santa Barbara, where the beautifully manicured women never age and the ocean views stretch farther than the million-dollar lawns. And yet her eye for the power dynamics at play in this tony community is dead accurate.

Kathi Wright, on the other hand, has made it her life’s work to fit in with the plastic people who surround her. But when her husband—a wealthy bank president—dies suddenly, she’s left with nothing. Then the FBI shows up, asking questions she can’t answer and freezing assets she once took for granted.

While Kathi struggles to outrun the mess caused by her husband’s mysterious death, Crystal seems focused on her game. But why? And who are her targets?

Spanning two years and told in Crystal’s and Kathi’s alternating voices, this tautly plotted novel reveals the power of choice and the price of revenge.

Social Media

Please use the hashtag #whatshegaveaway and tag @tlcbooktours and @catharineriggs.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound

Review:  As far as Thrillers go, this one didn't feel quite as menacing as some, but there was something about the two detestable female lead characters that really pulled me in and made the pages keep turning.

I don't think I've ever read a book where I hated both main characters so much, and that's including Gone Girl. Crystal and Kathi are both just awful. Crystal for all of her revenge motives and Kathi for being a wishy washy poor excuse for a human. She is the wimpiest worst excuse for a female ever! As you learn more about her marriage through her chapters and even through Crystal's mechanization, you almost feel sorry for her, but then again there's that nagging part of you that wonders how someone that was obviously educated (uh she was offered a job with a publishing house) could toss her life away for a jerk like Rich.

Where Kathi is gullible, Crystal is manipulative and scheming. She had a bad childhood, but that doesn't excuse her actions. She's a sociopath. She ends up with 2 strange friends, a fellow loan analyst and a homeless woman that's quasi-stalking her.

How everything wraps up is a bit too perfect and nice and almost HEA for a thriller. It left me shaking my head a bit, but I still have to say, I enjoyed this book and truthfully it was probably one of the best books I've read this year so far.

Rating: 4 flowers


About Catharine Riggs


Catharine Riggs lives and writes on California’s central coast. Before turning to writing fiction, Riggs worked as a business banker, an adjunct college instructor, and a nonprofit executive. What She Never Said is the second novel in her Santa Barbara Suspense series. The first, What She Gave Away, was published by Thomas & Mercer in September of 2018. Riggs is a member of the International Thriller Writers, The Authors Guild, Sisters in Crime and Mystery Writers of America.

Find out more about Catharine at her website, and connect with her on Twitter and Instagram.

Cover Reveal: Guarded Dreams



♬ ♬  GUARDED DREAMS ♬ ♬
By 𝙇𝙅 𝙀𝙫𝙖𝙣𝙨

 COVER REVEAL  GIVEAWAY 
• 𝘚𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘭𝘰𝘯𝘦
• 𝘊𝘰𝘢𝘴𝘵 𝘎𝘶𝘢𝘳𝘥
• 𝘊𝘰𝘶𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘺 𝘚𝘪𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳
• 𝘉𝘳𝘰𝘬𝘦𝘯 𝘋𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴
• 𝘚𝘶𝘮𝘮𝘦𝘳 𝘉𝘦𝘢𝘤𝘩 𝘙𝘦𝘢𝘥

♬ BOOK DESCRIPTION 
“𝘕𝘰 𝘰𝘯𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘵𝘢𝘬𝘦 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘺 𝘢 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘪𝘴 𝘺𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘴.”
Once upon a summer, a boy unexpectedly meets a girl at the beach. Their bodies and souls know what their brains do not. They are meant to be one. But…
𝓔𝐋𝐈 dreams about being a US Coast Guard.
𝓐𝐕𝓪 dreams about being a country music star.
Those dreams send them careening in different directions, and their summer love story is left as a wish that never came true.
Four years later, Eli's Coast Guard career is threatened, and Ava's dreams are shadowed by her past, just as fate brings them together once more in New York City. 
As their lives start to crumble, they find the possibility of a second chance in each other. If they’ll only listen to what their souls are whispering and realize that, sometimes, the best dream to come true is simply to have loved.
𝘐𝘯𝘴𝘱𝘪𝘳𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘓𝘶𝘬𝘦 𝘉𝘳𝘺𝘢𝘯’𝘴 “𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘦, 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘣𝘶𝘳𝘯, 𝘚𝘶𝘯𝘴𝘦𝘵” 𝘤𝘰𝘮𝘦𝘴 𝘢 𝘯𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭 𝘧𝘳𝘰𝘮 𝘢𝘸𝘢𝘳𝘥-𝘸𝘪𝘯𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳, 𝘓𝘑 𝘌𝘷𝘢𝘯𝘴, 𝘢𝘣𝘰𝘶𝘵 𝘢𝘭𝘭 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘢𝘺𝘴 𝘥𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘮𝘴 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘣𝘦 𝘭𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘰𝘳 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘥, 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘩𝘰𝘸 𝘭𝘰𝘷𝘦 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘨𝘶𝘪𝘥𝘦 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩.
A standalone, inspirational story for fans of Reneé Carlino, Amy Harmon, and Robyn Carr with a happily ever after.
"𝒲𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓂𝓊𝓈𝒾𝒸 & 𝓇𝑜𝓂𝒶𝓃𝒸𝑒 𝒸𝑜𝓁𝓁𝒾𝒹𝑒."

♬ GIVEAWAY 
Enter for a chance to win a signed paperback copy + $50 gift card o̲r̲ an ebook + $10 gift card. See giveaway link for all rules & restrictions.

♬ GOODREADS 

Cover Design: Designed With Grace
Photo: © iStock – travnikovstudio

 
Blog Design by Use Your Imagination Designs using images from the Tea Time kit and the Saturday Night kit by MK-Designs