Tasty Book Tours Pre Release Blitz: Ready to Run

A reality TV producer falling for her would-be star: 
a Montana heartthrob who wants nothing to do with the show.

READY TO RUN

I Do, I Don't #1

Lauren Layne

Releasing Aug 22, 2017

Loveswept

The Bachelor meets The Runaway Bride in this addictive romance novel about a reality TV producer falling for her would-be star: a Montana heartthrob who wants nothing to do with the show.

Jordan Carpenter thinks she’s finally found the perfect candidate for Jilted, a new dating show about runaway grooms: Luke Elliott, a playboy firefighter who’s left not one but three brides at the altar. The only problem? Luke refuses to answer Jordan’s emails or return her calls. Which is how she ends up on a flight to Montana to recruit him in person. It’s not Manhattan but at least the locals in Lucky Hollow seem friendly . . . except for Luke, who’s more intense—and way hotter—than the slick womanizer Jordan expected.

Eager to put the past behind him, Luke has zero intention of following this gorgeous, fast-talking city girl back to New York. But before he can send her packing, Jordan’s everywhere: at his favorite bar, the county fair, even his exes’ book club. Annoyingly, everyone in Lucky Hollow seems to like her—and deep down, she’s starting to grow on him too. But the more he fights her constant pestering, the more Luke finds himself wishing that Jordan would kick off her high heels and make herself comfortable in his arms.

PRE-ORDER TODAY!

Lauren Layne is the New York Times bestselling author of romantic comedies. She lives in New York City with her husband.

A former e-commerce and web marketing manager from Seattle, Lauren relocated to New York City in 2011 to pursue a full-time writing career. She signed with her agent in 2012, and her first book was published in summer of 2013. Since then, she's written over two dozen books, hitting the USA TODAY, New York Times, iBooks, and Amazon bestseller lists.

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Tasty Book Tour Release Blast: Conditioned

A man with nothing to left to lose. A woman hiding behind her past. 

CONDITIONED

The Brewing Passion Series #3

Liz Crowe

Releasing July 11, 2017

Totally Bound

Trent Hettinger’s turbulent formative years transformed him into a cynic—and into a man who realized he required something outside himself to control his temper. Something he finds as a Dom—at least for a while. But he allowed himself to trust a woman once and was slapped back into reality with a vengeance and now devotes all his energy into building his real estate empire, raising his teenaged daughter…and avoiding anything resembling authentic attachments.

Melody Rodriguez kept her head down for years—working hard, making her own money, trying to get ahead with every deck stacked against her.  She’s determined to move beyond the ugliness that haunts her without anyone’s help. When a mutual friend sets her up with Trent, she’s determined to have some fun with him and move on.

A man with nothing to left to lose. A woman hiding behind her past. When two lives spent in emotional denial collide, it’s a perfect match—at least on the surface. But neither Trent nor Melody are prepared for the full force of their true feelings, once fate intervenes and blows a cold breeze into their white-hot relationship.

Now Available for Pre-Order

ADJUNCT LOVERS

Brewing Passions Novella

Amazon best-selling author, mom of three, Realtor, beer blogger, brewery marketing expert, and soccer fan, Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville currently living in Ann Arbor. She has decades of experience in sales and fund raising, plus an eight-year stint as a three-continent, ex-pat trailing spouse.

Her early forays into the publishing world led to a groundbreaking fiction subgenre, “Romance: Worth the Risk,” which has gained thousands of fans and followers interested less in the “HEA” and more in the “WHA” (“What Happens After?”).

With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, in successful real estate offices and at times in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are unique and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, frustrate and linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

Don’t ever ask her for anything “like a Budweiser” or risk bodily injury.

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TLC Book Tours Book Review: Monticello

About Monticello

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (June 27, 2017)

From the critically acclaimed author of The Widow's War comes a captivating work of literary historical fiction that explores the tenuous relationship between a brilliant and complex father and his devoted daughter—Thomas Jefferson and Martha Jefferson Randolph.

After the death of her beloved mother, Martha Jefferson spent five years abroad with her father, Thomas Jefferson, on his first diplomatic mission to France. Now, at seventeen, Jefferson’s bright, handsome eldest daughter is returning to the lush hills of the family’s beloved Virginia plantation, Monticello. While the large, beautiful estate is the same as she remembers, Martha has changed. The young girl that sailed to Europe is now a woman with a heart made heavy by a first love gone wrong.

The world around her has also become far more complicated than it once seemed. The doting father she idolized since childhood has begun to pull away. Moving back into political life, he has become distracted by the tumultuous fight for power and troubling new attachments. The home she adores depends on slavery, a practice Martha abhors. But Monticello is burdened by debt, and it cannot survive without the labor of her family’s slaves. The exotic distant cousin she is drawn to has a taste for dangerous passions, dark desires that will eventually compromise her own.

As her life becomes constrained by the demands of marriage, motherhood, politics, scandal, and her family’s increasing impoverishment, Martha yearns to find her way back to the gentle beauty and quiet happiness of the world she once knew at the top of her father’s “little mountain.”

Purchase Links

HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Review: Monticello is a wonderful story that focuses on the life of Martha Jefferson, the daughter of Thomas Jefferson.

I read America's First Daughter last year and I found myself drawing a lot of comparison's between the two novels as they were so closely related. I wish I could say that I liked them equally.

Besides the subject matter, Monticello shares the same well researched writing that I found with America's first daughter, which makes it a rather difficult read. I don't mean that in a bad way. Its difficult in the way that you have to really give care to every word or you might miss something.

Martha was surrounded by difficult men. Her father, of course, but also her husband. Tom Randolph is just not a man that you can like. I think I liked him even less in this book.

This is a great read for anyone that loves American history and historical fiction.

Rating: 4 flowers

About Sally Cabot Gunning

A lifelong resident of New England, Sally Cabot Gunning has immersed herself in its history from a young age. She is the author of the critically acclaimed Satucket Novels—The Widow’s War, Bound, and The Rebellion of Jane Clarke—and, writing as Sally Cabot, the equally acclaimed Benjamin Franklin’s Bastard. She lives in Brewster, Massachusetts, with her husband, Tom.

Find out more about Sally at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Instagram, and Pinterest.

Tasty Book Tours Release Blast: Digital Velocity

The deadliest weapons are the ones we never see.

DIGITAL VELOCITY

McAllister Justice #1

Reily Garrett

Releasing July 10, 2017

The deadliest weapons are the ones we never see.

Keyboard prodigy, Lexi Donovan has risen from teenage orphan of the streets to complete independence with little help along the way. When a pervert threatens her friend, she sends an anonymous message to police, leading to a firefight that leaves a cop wounded.

Detective Ethan McAllister’s well-ordered life turned upside down the day an obscure text message led to a sexual predator’s identity and arrest. Since then, Callouston PD’s finest can’t trace the elusive hacker. The latest tip leads him to a brutal mutilation and a riddle  indicating the identity of the next murder victim.

The dark net houses a playground for the morally depleted and criminally insane. When Lexi discovers the killer’s digital betting arena, she finds herself centered in a cyber stalker’s crosshairs, a psychopath bearing equal talent.

Street life strengthened Lexi while toughening her protective shell, but nothing could shield her from the shrewd detective forging a path to her heart.

“Digital Velocity is a fast-paced romantic suspense thriller that sophisticatedly weaves drama, excitement, grit, raw emotions and mystery. Garrett takes her readers on a journey where suspense and romance are taken up several notches as she unfolds and reveals the identity of a murderer that is on the loose. With her vivid prose, Garrett entices readers to see the bond that is brewing between Detective Ethan McAllister and his unlikely informant.” - RT Book Reviews

Reily is a West Coast girl transplanted to the opposite shore. When she’s not working with her dogs, you can find her curled up with a book or writing her next story. Past employment as an ICU nurse, private investigator, and work in the military police has given her countless experiences in a host of different environments to add a real world feel to her fiction.

Over time, and several careers, many incidents have flavored the plots of her stories. Man’s cruelty and ingenuity for torment and torture is boundless, not contained by an infinite imagination. Witnessing the after-effects of a teenager mugged at knifepoint for a pair of tennis shoes, or an elderly woman stabbed repeatedly with a screwdriver for no apparent reason, left an indelible impression that will forever haunt her subconscious. In counterpoint, she has observed a woman stop her vehicle in severe, snowy weather to offer her own winter coat to a stranger, a teenager wearing a threadbare hoodie. Life’s diversities are endless.

Though her kids are her life, writing is Reily’s life after. The one enjoyed after the kids are in bed or after they’re in school and the house is quiet. This is the time she kicks back with laptop and lapdog to give her imagination free rein.

In reading, take pleasure in a mental pause as you root for your favorite hero/heroine and bask in their accomplishments, then share your opinions of them over a coffee with your best friend (even if he’s four-legged). Life is short. Cherish your time.

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Book Review: The Girl That Knew Too Much

Author: Amanda Quick
Title: The Girl Who Knew Too Much
Publisher: Berkley Books
Publish Date: May 9, 2017
Buy: Amazon
Book Blurb: When Hollywood moguls and stars want privacy, they head to an idyllic small town on the coast, where the exclusive Burning Cove Hotel caters to their every need. It’s where reporter Irene Glasson finds herself staring down at a beautiful actress at the bottom of a pool…

The dead woman had a red-hot secret about up-and-coming leading man Nick Tremayne, a scoop that Irene couldn’t resist—especially since she’s just a rookie at a third-rate gossip rag. But now Irene’s investigation into the drowning threatens to tear down the wall of illusion that is so deftly built around the famous actor, and there are powerful men willing to do anything to protect their investment.

Seeking the truth, Irene finds herself drawn to a master of deception. Oliver Ward was once a world-famous magician—until he was mysteriously injured during his last performance. Now the owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, he can’t let scandal threaten his livelihood, even if it means trusting Irene, a woman who seems to have appeared in Los Angeles out of nowhere four months ago…

With Oliver’s help, Irene soon learns that the glamorous paradise of Burning Cove hides dark and dangerous secrets. And that the past—always just out of sight—could drag them both under…

Review: I was so excited to read this book. I have always loved Amanda Quick's Regency and Victorian period novels. (She's Jayne Ann Krentz for those that don't know) I don't wan to get excited about books anymore, because lately the ones I get really excited for disappoint me. This book has a lot of issues. First lets start with the cover. The picture is of a flapper. The book is set in the 1930s. That in itself makes for some problems with the story for me. Throughout most of the book I struggled to figure out exactly when things were taking place. The actor that Irene is trying to get the scoop on is often described as the next Cary Grant, but he didn't really achieve stardom until 1937. (Its little things like this that bug me) The subplot of the romance also reminded me a lot of a book I had read recently, The Illusionists Apprentice. The owner of the Burning Cove Hotel, Oliver Ward was a magician that gave up his career after a near fatal performance. It isn't identical to that book, but it definitely made me thing of it while reading. So there are two mysteries going on. 1. Irene's boss who she finds murdered at the beginning of the book that causes the whole string of events to follow.

2. Who is killing the women that seem to know something about Nick Tremayne.

Like all good mysteries, it is never who you expect. The only part of the story that lost its intrigue was the original murder, because it really got cast aside until well past the halfway point of the novel.

The focus is on Nick and the reporters and women that keep turning up dead as well as the attempts to silence Irene.

Then there's Irene and Oliver. So there's romance too, which added another layer to the story. Oliver was probably my favorite character and definitely a complex one. The romance though...just didn't cut it for me either.

This book needed more research and more oomph. I almost gave up on it several times, and only finished it because I had requested it from another library and hated to have it out of circulation there and for nothing.

I did like the main characters in this book, but the secondary characters seemed to suffer. Nick, in particular was pretty flat. Also with Hollywood types being part of the book, why were there no names other than Cary Grant mentioned?

The last quarter of the novel did pick up... and the ending was definitely a "WOW!" because of the whodunit and the reason why.

The first mystery got resolved in a strange, haphazard way that made me think that the author was looking for an easy way to tie up loose ends.

I hope the next book under the Amanda Quick name for Jayne goes back to a time period she's more comfortable with, or that she researches the period a bit more.

This book definitely left me disappointed especially from an author that usually delivers great stories.

Rating: 3 flowers

Historical Fiction Virtual Book Tours Book Review: Marion Hatley

Marion Hatley by Beth Castrodale

Publication Date: April 20, 2017

Garland Press

eBook & Paperback; 277 Pages

Genre: Fiction/Historical

To escape a big-city scandal, a Depression-era lingerie seamstress flees to the countryside, where she hopes to live and work in peace. Instead, she finds herself unraveling uncomfortable secrets about herself and those closest to her.

In February of 1931, Marion Hatley steps off a train and into the small town of Cooper’s Ford, hoping she’s left her big-city problems behind. She plans to trade the bustling hubbub of a Pittsburgh lingerie shop for the orderly life of a village schoolteacher. More significantly, she believes she’ll be trading her reputation-tainting affair with a married man for the dutiful quiet of tending to her sick aunt. Underpinning her hopes for Cooper’s Ford is Marion’s dream of bringing the daily, private trials of all corset-wearing women—especially working women—to an end, and a beautiful one at that.

Instead, she confronts new challenges: a mysteriously troubled student; frustrations in attempts to create a truly comfortable corset; and, most daunting, her ailing aunt. Once a virtual stranger to Marion, her aunt holds the key to old secrets whose revelation could change the way Marion sees her family and herself.

As her problems from Pittsburgh threaten to resurface in Cooper’s Ford, Marion finds herself racing against time to learn the truth behind these secrets and to get to the bottom of her student’s troubles. Meanwhile, Marion forms a bond with a local war veteran. But her past, and his, may be too much to sustain a second chance at happiness.

"Like Marion Hatley’s own creations, Beth Castrodale’s début novel is sewn, sentence by elegant sentence, with exquisite care and beauty.” — David Rowell, author of The Train of Small Mercies

"A reflective, compassionate, and gracefully written tale.” - Kirkus

"A beautiful story, beautifully told.” - Lee Jacobus, author of Hawaiian Tales, Crown Island, and The Romantic Soul of Emma Now

Garland Press | Amazon | Audible | Barnes & Noble

Review: I always give books that involve Pittsburgh in some roundabout way a try, considering its my area. (And not too many books are set in the city)

I was really amazed by this book. Scandal sends her to rural PA. Going from a seamstress to a school teacher is quite a change for Marion. I found it fascinating that her original job had her making corsets. Heck, I didn't know that women still wore them in the 30s. After looking at these things, I have to wonder how women survived all those years with them.

This was a really well researched book and well worth the read

I really enjoyed this book.

Rating: 4 flowers

About the Author

Beth Castrodale started out as a newspaper reporter and editor, then transitioned to book publishing, serving for many years as an editor for an academic press. She has completed three novels: Marion Hatley, a finalist for a 2014 Nilsen Prize for a First Novel from Southeast Missouri State University Press (to be published in April 2017 by Garland Press); Gold River; and In This Ground, an excerpt of which was a shortlist finalist for a 2014 William Faulkner – William Wisdom Creative Writing Award. Beth recommends literary fiction on her website SmallPressPicks.com, and she has published stories in Printer’s Devil Review, The Writing Disorder, Marathon Literary Review, and Mulberry Fork Review. She lives in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts.

For more information please visit Beth Castrodale's website. You can also connect with Beth on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Blog Tour Schedule
Thursday, June 22
Spotlight at The Book Junkie Reads

Sunday, June 25
Review at Carole's Ramblings

Tuesday, June 27
Spotlight at A Holland Reads

Thursday, June 29
Review at Svetlana's Reads and Views

Friday, June 30
Review at Pursuing Stacie

Monday, July 3
Review at A Chick Who Reads

Wednesday, July 5
Spotlight at A Literary Vacation

Friday, July 7
Guest Post at Susan Heim on Writing

Wednesday, July 12
Interview at Dianne Ascroft's Blog
Spotlight at CelticLady's Reviews

Friday, July 14
Review at Jorie Loves a Story
Spotlight at The Never-Ending Book

Wednesday, July 19
Spotlight at Passages to the Past

Giveaway
During the Blog Tour we will be giving away TWO $25 Barnes and Noble Gift Card! To enter, please enter via the Gleam form below.

Giveaway Rules

– Giveaway ends at 11:59pm EST on July 19th. You must be 18 or older to enter.
– Giveaway is open to residents in the US only.
– Only one entry per household.
– All giveaway entrants agree to be honest and not cheat the systems; any suspect of fraud is decided upon by blog/site owner and the sponsor, and entrants may be disqualified at our discretion.
– Winner has 48 hours to claim prize or new winner is chosen.

Marion Hatley