Friday, July 28, 2017

TLC Book Tours Book Review The Writing Desk

About The Writing Desk

  • Hardcover: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Zondervan (July 11, 2017)
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Wedding Dress comes a new captivating novel of secrets, romance, and two women bound together across time by a shared dream.
Tenley Roth’s first book was a runaway bestseller. Now that her second book is due, she’s locked in fear. Can she repeat her earlier success or is she a fraud who has run out of inspiration?
With pressure mounting from her publisher, Tenley is weighted with writer’s block. But when her estranged mother calls asking Tenley to help her through chemotherapy, she packs up for Florida where she meets handsome furniture designer Jonas Sullivan and discovers the story her heart’s been missing.
A century earlier, another woman wrote at the same desk with hopes and fears of her own. Born during the Gilded Age, Birdie Shehorn is the daughter of the old money Knickerbockers. Under the strict control of her mother, her every move is decided ahead of time, even whom she’ll marry. But Birdie has dreams she doesn’t know how to realize. She wants to tell stories, write novels, make an impact on the world. When she discovers her mother has taken extreme measures to manipulate her future, she must choose between submission and security or forging a brand new way all on her own.
Tenley and Birdie are from two very different worlds, but fate has bound them together in a way time cannot erase.
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Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

About Rachel Hauck

Rachel Hauck is the New York TimesWall Street Journal, and USA TODAY bestselling author of The Wedding Dress, which was also named Inspirational Novel of the Year by Romantic Times and was a RITA finalist. Rachel lives in central Florida with her husband and two pets and writes from her ivory tower.

Connect with Rachel

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Review: I read Rachel Hauck's The Wedding Dress ....geeze....back in 2012. I'm not sure how I missed out on all her other novels since then, but I'm glad I foud The Writing Desk.

Its a story told from multiple points of view; Tenley and Birdie, the two heroines from the present and from 1903 respectively and then Jonas and Elijiah are the men in their lives.

Ten and Birdie are linked through an old desk that they find themselves using for writing. Ten has already had a bestseller while Birdie wants desperately to get published.  That's where the similarities between the two women stops.

Ten is quirky and self conscious. I couldn't understand her attachment to Holt, from the very beginning this guy didn't seem right for her, and it made no sense why she didn't turn him down when he proposed.

Then there's Birdie, who doesn't want to marry the man her family has chosen for her. She has another in mind, but when they meet again he is about to propose to another.

This is a faith based romance, but its not done in a preachy fashion. In fact, for the most part, I wouldn't think of it as such, more so as a clean romance, that is absolutely beautifully written.

The story moved easily between the time periods and the characters. It is one of the few books I've had a hard time putting down this year. I loved both heroines that I had to find out if they had their happily ever afters. (Truth be told, I liked Birdie best, because she had spunk for the time period that she lived in)

Birdie's story is really the heart of the story, her love for Elijah and how they finally came to be a married couple. Its also the story of Birdie and her writing, which is really amazing. They had a hard time getting to where they were.

Through most of the book, I found myself wondering how Birdie's story tied in with Tenley's. That reveal didn't happen until the book was quite nearly finished.

I wasn't totally thrilled with the outcome of Tenley's story. She had her happily ever after, but I wanted a little more for her

I highly recommend this book to anyone that loves good clean romances with historical elements.

Rating: 5 flowers



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Wednesday, July 26, 2017

TLC Book Tours Book Review: A Name Unknown

About A Name Unknown

Series: Shadows Over England (Book 1)
Paperback: 432 pages
Publisher: Bethany House Publishers (July 4, 2017)
Edwardian Romance and History Gains a Twist of Suspense
Rosemary Gresham has no family beyond the band of former urchins that helped her survive as a girl in the mean streets of London. Grown now, they concentrate on stealing high-value items and have learned how to blend into upper-class society. But when Rosemary must determine whether a certain wealthy gentleman is loyal to Britain or to Germany, she is in for the challenge of a lifetime. How does one steal a family’s history, their very name?
Peter Holstein, given his family’s German blood, writes his popular series of adventure novels under a pen name. With European politics boiling and his own neighbors suspicious of him, Peter debates whether it might be best to change his name for good. When Rosemary shows up at his door pretending to be a historian and offering to help him trace his family history, his question might be answered.
But as the two work together and Rosemary sees his gracious reaction to his neighbors’ scornful attacks, she wonders if her assignment is going down the wrong path. Is it too late to help him prove that he’s more than his name?
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Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble


Review: A Name Unknown is set in one of my favorite time periods. (Anywhere around the time of The Great War) Its also the first book in a new series. (One I think I'll want to continue on with)

Rosemary is an orphan who grew up as a pickpocket. She's one of the oldest in the "family" and she has received a new job, trying to find information on an author who has the ear of the king and has ties to Germany.

Peter was all I could want in a hero.

This is an absolutely stunning story

Rating: 5 flowers


Tasty Book Tours Excerpt Reveal: 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.



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Damn. Charlie hadn’t been lying about the hot blonde.
The woman walking straight toward him was all tight jeans, high heels, and confi-dence. And hot. Very, very hot.
Charlie muttered something admiring under his breath, and Luke’s gaze flicked to the man beside the woman. Tried to place him. Couldn’t.
Not too many guys around here who wore light-purple shirts and white pants with the same easy comfort that Lucky Hollow residents wore jeans and flannel.
No doubt about it—neither was from around here. Not by a long shot.
The man was a half step behind the woman, and Luke assessed that the woman was calling the shots.
His eyes narrowed as he realized that she hadn’t once wavered in her approach.
She knew what she was after:
Him.
She got closer and Luke saw that the face matched the body. Wide blue eyes, full lips, sassy shoulder-length blond hair that was just tousled enough to make a man wonder how it had gotten that way—to want to be the one to muss it.
Her gaze flicked over him, and Charlie whistled and muttered under his breath. “She just checked you out, man.”
She had indeed, but Luke was far from flattered. It hadn’t been the assessment of a woman checking out a man so much as a predator evaluating its prey.
As though she was evaluating him for . . . something.
Blondie stopped in front of him, and the second her blue eyes locked on his, Luke felt a little jolt of awareness and was irrationally annoyed. It had been a long time since he’d been quite so aware of a woman.
Once, he’d enjoyed the feeling—sexual chemistry was almost the perfect combination of pain and pleasure. A subtle punch in the gut that you wanted to experience again and again.
These days, though, he was having a hard time getting past the pain part. The shitty parts had outweighed the good parts just one time too many. Now he mostly settled for casual hookups with a divorcée a few towns over who was even less interested in com-mitment than Luke was.
He had zero use for attraction to a pretty, bold woman in high heels.
Luke noticed that for a sheer moment she had a slightly off-balance look, as though she too had felt the annoying zip of arousal when their eyes met, but she recovered quick-ly.
Pasting a sunny, generic smile on her face, she stuck out her right hand. “Luke Elliott. I’m Jordan Carpenter. This is my colleague, Simon Nash.”
Good manners had him setting down his equipment and extending his own right hand toward hers even as his brain caught on her name. Familiar, and . . .
Shit. Shit!
He managed to stop from jerking his hand back, but just barely. Instead, he gritted his teeth, gave her hand a perfunctory shake, and then fixed her with a glare. “You’re wasting your time, Ms. Carpenter. And mine.”
Blue eyes narrowed. “Aha. So you did get my emails.”
Those. The voicemails. The letters.
“Sure,” he said with a nod, shoving his hands in his pockets. “Just like I suspect you got the message that I didn’t want to be a part of your show.”
Charlie looked from the woman to Luke and back again. “Show?”
Ryan ambled over, his shit-eating grin telling Luke that this damn woman had already spilled the beans on why she was here. “Luke’s gonna be a national heartthrob.”
“International,” said the blond guy in the purple shirt.
Jordan Carpenter didn’t look at her companion, but all three firefighters did.
The other man gave the sort of easy smile that probably had him making friends easily. Luke didn’t want a new friend.
Especially not one who wanted to use his shitty romantic past for the sake of TV ratings.



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 TODAYNew York Times, iBooks, and Amazon bestseller lists.




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Tuesday, July 25, 2017

TLC Book Tours Book Review: The Cafe by the Sea

About The Café by the Sea


• Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks (June 27, 2017)

The beloved author of The Bookshop on the Corner returns with a sparkling, sunny, soulful new novel perfect for fans of Elin Hilderbrand.

Years ago, Flora fled the quiet Scottish island where she grew up -- and she hasn't looked back. What would she have done on Mure? It's a place where everyone has known her all her life, where no one will let her forget the past. In bright, bustling London, she can be anonymous, ambitious... and hopelessly in love with her boss.

But when fate brings Flora back to the island, she's suddenly swept once more into life with her brothers -- all strapping, loud, and seemingly incapable of basic housework -- and her father. Yet even amid the chaos of their reunion, Flora discovers a passion for cooking -- and find herself restoring dusty little pink-fronted shop on the harbour: a café by the sea.

But with the seasons changing, Flora must come to terms with past mistakes -- and work out exactly where her future lies...

Funny and heartfelt, The Café by the Sea is a delightful summertime novel that puts a modern twist on the classic Seven Brides for Seven Brothers story.


Purchase Links


HarperCollins | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Review:  Jenny Colgan is one of my favorite authors from the UK.  A few years back she wrote a Doctor Who novel, and well she won my heart then.

I adore the Little Beach Street Bakery series too, perhaps a little more than this book.

This book, like her others falls into the chicklit category, but the characters feel real. You like them and you can relate to them. Flora feels like she could be your bff, the kind of bff that you occasionally want to smack for the way she thinks, but still she could be your bff.

You always get quirky characters and some family drama. Heck it's Flora's family that really brings this story to life.

Its a light read, but I wouldn't go as far as saying it is fluff.  I truly enjoyed this book

Rating: 4 flowers

About Jenny Colgan


Jenny Colgan is the New York Times-bestselling author of numerous novels, including The Bookshop on the Corner, Little Beach Street Bakery, and Summer at Little Beach Street Bakery, all international bestsellers. Jenny is married with three children and lives in London and Scotland.

Find out more about Jenny at her website, and connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Tasty Book Tours Release Blast: Can't Stop Lovin' You


Brawley must find a way to convince Maggie 
that their one true home is with each other.


CAN'T STOP LOVIN' YOU
Maverick Junction #3
Lynnette Austin
Forever


THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME

Maggie Sullivan can't wait to get out of Texas. Luckily, she just got the break she needed to make her big-city dreams a reality. But then Brawley Odell swaggers back into Maverick Junction, looking hotter than ever in his dusty cowboy boots and well-worn jeans. He's the guy she still dreams of at night. The guy who broke her heart when he left her behind.

Fed up with city life, Brawley jumps at the chance to return home and take over the local vet's practice—and get back to the smart, sassy woman he's never been able forget. He couldn't be prouder of Maggie's new wedding-dress business . . . until he realizes it may mean losing her all over again. Determined to win her back, Brawley must find a way to convince Maggie that their one true home is with each other.


NOW AVAILABLE IN PRINT!!





Lynnette Austin, a recovering middle school teacher, loves long rides with the top down and the music cranked up, the Gulf of Mexico when a storm is brewing, chocolate frozen custard, anything by Blake Shelton, Chris Young, and Thomas Rhett, and sitting in her local coffee shop reading and enjoying an iced coffee. She and her husband divide their time between Southwest Florida's beaches and Georgia's Blue Ridge Mountains. Having grown up in a small town, that's where her heart takes her—to those quirky small towns where everybody knows everybody...and all their business, for better or worse. Writing for Grand Central and Sourcebooks, she’s published twelve novels and is at work on a new series.





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Monday, July 24, 2017

Tasty Book Tours Release Blast: Monster Among The Roses


Will you dare to gaze upon the monster among the roses?


MONSTER AMONG THE ROSES
Fairy Tale Quartet #1
Linda Kage
Releasing July 24, 2017


“Do you know how to get to the rose garden?”
“No, you can’t go there. A monster lives there.”

Shaw Hollander is desperate.

Broke, unemployed, and determined to help his ailing mother, he falls on the good graces of a wealthy benefactor who is willing to give Shaw a job at his mansion in order to pay off his mother’s debts. Suddenly finding himself surrounded by lavish riches, he has no idea what his duties truly entail until he’s sent to the rose garden and meets the tragically mutilated Isobel.

This Beauty and the Beast story holds true to the core of the fable while shaking off the element of fantasy and dragging it into present day reality. Shaw and Isobel are ready to let you climb into their four-wheel-drive pickup and take a ride with them into their version of happily ever after, but only if you first dare to gaze upon the monster among the roses.





I grew up on a dairy farm in the Midwest as the youngest of eight children. Now I live in Kansas with my husband, two daughters, nine cuckoo clocks, and a cat named Holly. My life's been blessed with lots of people to learn from and love. Writing's always been a major part my world, and I'm so happy to finally share some of my stories with other romance lovers.

I'm a member of Romance Writers of America, and I've been through a writing correspondence class in children's literature from The Institute of Children's Literarture, and then I continued my writing lessons by majoring in English with an emphasis in creative fiction writing from Pittsburg State University. 




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