Thursday, June 13, 2013

Five Days in Skye by Carla Laureano



















About:
Hospitality consultant Andrea Sullivan has one last chance to snag a high-profile client or she'll have to kiss her dreams of promotion good-bye. When she's sent to meet Scottish celebrity chef James MacDonald on the Isle of Skye, she just wants to finish her work as efficiently as possible. Yet her client is not the opportunistic womanizer he portrays himself to be, and her attraction to him soon dredges up memories she'd rather leave buried. For James, renovating the family hotel is a fulfillment of his late father's dreams. When his hired consultant turns out to be beautiful, intelligent, and completely unimpressed by his public persona, he makes it his mission to win her over. He just never expects to fall under her spell.

Soon, both Andrea and James must face the reality that God may have a far different purpose for their lives—and that five days in Skye will forever change their outlook on life and love.


 About Carla Laureano:


Carla Laureano has held many job titles—professional marketer, small business consultant, and martial arts instructor—but writer is by far her favortie. She currently lives in Denver with her patient husband and two rambunctious sons, who know only that Mom's work involves lots of coffee and talking to imaginary people.




My Thoughts:

Andrea Sullivan is a closer. She is the best her company has, as a Hospitality Consultant. Her job is on the line. She has to close this deal and get home.
James or Jamie MacDonald is a Celebrity Chef with a cooking show, cook books, and numerous hotels in London. He has no idea that Andrea is coming and her arrival thanks to his younger brother Ian, knocks him off his feet in many ways.

In this debut novel by Carla, she has written believable characters that you fall in love with and cheer for. Five Days in Skye is a vacation to Scotland without the price of the ticket, I was breathless at the images of the Scottish highlands. The romance between James and Andrea is tender and endearing. The spiritual element is subtle but very powerful.

I stayed up very late reading this book, and I am so book drunk that picking up another book, and I have others to review, just doesn't seem possible. James and Andrea will stay with me for a long time.

If I had to choose who James and Ian looked like, I would say the Property Brothers from HGTV. Johnathon and Drew.








Carla is a new favored author and I do recommend this book! Grab a copy and take a great vacation to Skye, Scotland with Andrea.

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

“Afloat”! Win an iPad Mini from @ErinHealy!


















About Afloat:

Who will you trust when dark waters rise?


Eagle's Talon is an architectural marvel-shining residential units afloat in a protected cove of the gorgeous Rondeau River. The project is nearly complete, partially occupied, and ready to make investors rich when a sinkhole gives way. Then torrential rains and a flood leave a ragged collection of builders, investors, and residents stranded in one floating building, cut off from the rest of the world.
They're bitterly divided over what to do next.
Architect Vance Nolan insists they should sit tight and wait for rescue. Developer Tony Dean wants to strike out into the darkness. And single mom Danielle Clement, desperate to protect her young son, Simeon, struggles to hold their motley band together.
Power failure, a pall of unnatural daytime darkness, explosions in the distance, then a murder ratchet tensions to a boiling point. But Danielle's young son, Simeon, has spotted something strange underwater-beautiful, shifting lights in the dark water below.
In this watery world where everyone's secrets will eventually come to light, salvation may mean more than just getting out alive.
Another stunning exploration of the human spirit and supernatural possibilities from best-selling author Erin Healy.

Purchase a copy: http://ow.ly/liNmq

Pros:
This book had a really good idea and it started out strong. I really liked the idea of a condo built on the water.  I am a huge water person so, that just sounded like a great place to live.
When the pump truck in one of the buildings shakes the buildings, Danielle and her son jump into the water below. Simeon is certain he saw something in the water below, Danielle doesn't even want to entertain it.
Cons:
There were just too many characters, and it was hard to keep track of who was who, along with trying to follow the story. I was really bummed too, the story sounded so interesting, and started off great, but it just was too hard to follow it all.

Meet Erin:

Erin Healy is the best-selling co-author of "Burn" and "Kiss" (with Ted Dekker) and an award-winning editor for numerous best-selling authors. She has received wide acclaim for her novels "Never Let You Go", "The Baker's Wife", "House of Mercy", and "Afloat". She and her family live in Colorado. Erin can be contacted through her website ErinHealy.com or through Facebook at erinhealybooks.

Find out more about Erin at http://www.erinhealy.com



Erin Healy is celebrating the release of her latest novel Afloat (Thomas Nelson) with an iPad Mini giveaway.



Afloat-Giveaway300

One winner will receive:



  • An iPad Mini 

  • iTunes gift card

  • Afloat by Erin Healy 


  • Enter today by clicking one of the icons below. But hurry, the giveaway ends on June 15th. Winner will be announced on Erin's blog on June 17th. Save the date and click HERE to see if YOU won the iPad Mini!






    Don't miss a moment of the fun; ENTER today. Tell your friends via FACEBOOK or TWITTER and increase your chances of winning. Visit Erin's blog on the 17th!

    An Open Heart

    This week, the
    Christian Fiction Blog Alliance
    is introducing
    An Open Heart
    David C. Cook (June 1, 2013)
    by
    Harry Kraus


    ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

    A Word from Harry:

    I started writing my first novel during my last year of surgery training at UK. I was a chief resident, and started writing Stainless Steal Hearts in a call room at the Veteran's Administration Hospital in Lexington. It was a crazy time to write! I had a very demanding schedule, often spending days and nights in the hospital. I had two sons at that time, and I recognized the wisdom in my wife's urging: "Now doesn't seem the right time for this dream."

    My experience as a writer is far from typical. Having received my formal training in biology and chemistry and medicine, my only preparation for a writing career was a love for reading. The longest thing I'd written before my first novel was a term paper in undergraduate school. My first novel was accepted by Crossway Books and published in 1994, and it wasn't until after I had FOUR published novels that I even opened a book of instruction about the craft of writing fiction. This is not what I recommend to others! Yes, I was successful, but I was bending the "rules" without knowing it. I had a natural talent for plotting, but I realize my initial success may have stunted my growth as a writer. I'd have made faster progress if I'd have gone to the fiction teachers sooner.

    I have three sons: Joel, Evan, and Samuel. Look closely in all of my books and you'll see them there. My lovely wife, Kris, provides the basic composition for all those beautiful, athletic, dedicated women in my novels.

    ABOUT THE BOOK

    Their Messages—From Beyond the Grave—Might Destroy Him ...

    They hover between life and death, their hearts stopped on the surgery table. And the messages Dr. Jace Rawlings’ open-heart surgery patients bring back from beyond the grave cannot be ignored. For they predict the deaths of people around him, and point a finger of suspicion straight at him.

    It thrusts Jace into a firestorm of controversy and danger. A maeltsrom blown by the darker winds of political intrigue and spiritual warfare. And the forces working against him will do anything to stop him from uncovering a truth they will kill to hide. He’d come to Kenya to establish a heart-surgery program for the poor. But what he will find in that place where he grew up will put everything at risk–his marriage, his career . . . his life.

    If you would like to read the first chapter of An Open Heart, go HERE.

    My book just arrived, I will post a full review after I've read it.

    Tuesday, June 11, 2013

    Amity and Sorrow: A Novel



















    About :

    A mother and her daughters drive for days without sleep until they crash their car in rural Oklahoma. The mother, Amaranth, is desperate to get away from someone she's convinced will follow them wherever they go--her husband. The girls, Amity and Sorrow, can't imagine what the world holds outside their father's polygamous compound. Rescue comes in the unlikely form of Bradley, a farmer grieving the loss of his wife. At first unwelcoming to these strange, prayerful women, Bradley's abiding tolerance gets the best of him, and they become a new kind of family. An unforgettable story of belief and redemption, AMITY & SORROW is about the influence of community and learning to stand on your own.

    My Thoughts:

    NetGalley invited me to read and review this book. The cover caught my attention and the storyline intrigued me. 
    I have read a few books on the polygamist lifestyle and I have a lot of props for women who gather their kids and leave.
    In this book Amaranth is the first wife of fifty, YES of fifty. She takes her two daughters, Amity and Sorrow and leave the compound where they have been living. She drives for days, which I found interesting in itself because she most likely would not have driven any where. Which is most likely why there is an accident.

    Amity and Sorrow are bound together in the back of the car by cloth strips. These two girls are bound not only physically, they are bound emotionally, and spiritually too. 
    They can't read, know nothing of the outside world and are bound to the rules and guidelines from their father's cult.

    This is a very intense read, one that will leave you thinking long after you turn the last page.
    A great debut by Peggy Riley.
     

    The Bachelorette with Des Week 3





















    The previews of tonight’s show begin and we see Jake’s mini – me kissing Des. Mikey still doesn’t trust Ben . . no surprise there. An ambulance arrives someone gets badly injured playing
    Dodge Ball.  Then Chris Harrison enters with the OTHER WOMAN, and the guys are staring on worse than teen boys watching a cat fight!

    The show starts . . . enter Chris Harrison . . .he explains to the guys that this week there will be two group dates and 1 one on one and of course you want that one on one for obvious reasons.


    Mikey grabs the date card that Chris leaves . . I don’t know who appointed him the head cheese but he sure seems to think he’s in charge.

    The Group Date is:
    Chris
    Brian
    Drew – Jake’s mini me
    Michael
    Brooks – he is totally my favorite. Maybe it’s because he reminds me of my brother.
    He then reads off his name and says some stud named Mikey  . . . time to barf now!
    Brad
    Brandon
    Zak K.
    And their favorite person in the whole wide world Ben.

    The date card reads . . . Love Is A Battle Field.

    The guys arrive and see Des and she just cracks me up! She keeps going on about how UH-MAZING these guys are . . . really?!? Are you paying attention?
    Mikey thinks he is Mr. Studmuffin, and I’d throw him to the curb in a heartbeat just because he’s so full of himself.

    She opens a garage door and there are a group of men dressed in Dodge Ball uniforms. They are going to learn how to play Dodge Ball . . . not what we learned in Elementary School folks . . this is the real deal, and Des says she wants to see them in their element. After the guys have been pummeled by the professionals, Chris Harrison walks in and lets the guys know it’s time for them to battle each other.  Oh Boy! Here we go! & the Winner takes all! 
    Red team- Mikey, Michael, Brooks, and Brandon.  Blue team – Brad, Zak, Ben, and Drew.
    He has uniforms, and they are going to play in public. I see trouble!

    Each team has won, one game a piece and their going for the balls for the third and final game and Brooks goes down. Brooks finger got totally damaged, and he is out of the game.
    The red team looses . . . but Des takes everyone to the after party.  She’s not happy that Brooks isn’t there.

    At the after party, Des is worried about Brooks, and with good reason, while setting his finger he passed out.  Good thing he’s a guy, he’d never handle labor and delivery.
    Des pulls Brad aside to talk to him.  Oh wonder bar . . . another DAD! Brad has a 3 year old son. The guys are gonna love this one. Brad has been raising his son on his own, his mom and brother help him out.  He tells his sob story.  GEEZ! These guys are worse than girls sometimes!

    Chris takes her to the roof, she is surprised and loves it.

    Brooks returns! YAY! He and Des have such chemistry.

    Chris gets the rose.  Not excited!  He and Des head to a private concert with Kate Earl.

    The one on one date card arrives and . . .
    It’s for Kasey and it reads Love Defies Gravity.

    James is acting like a 2 year old who didn’t get a cookie  . . . seriously!


    We’re back at the ranch, and Des is journaling, going on about loving the entire group of guys, and how UH-MAZING they are, and she’s hopeful her future husband is there. And she’d be lucky to have any one of them.  HMM really?!?!

    Then Chris Harrison calls her, just checking in and tells her he has bizarre news about one of her guys. He tells her that she needs to handle this, and she heads to the house where the guys are.
    Poor Kasey! He’s got the 1 on 1 date, and she has to deal with the problem child.
    She’s not in the house very long, she tells Kasey that before they can get to their date she wants to talk to Brian.
    Didn’t see that coming at all!
    Des is quizzing the guy . . and in walks Chris with a woman . . . RUT ROH SCOOBY DOO!!!
    Brian is telling Des their just friends, not in a relationship . . . really well what does she think and why don’t you face her because guess what you lying snake she’s here!
    Gotta love cheaters . . their faces are priceless when their caught!

    Well according to Stephanie, they are a couple, according to Brian he broke it off with her before he left for the show, according to Des he’s gone!
    As he leaves through the house the guys are silent. Then they start talking.
    Des and Chris talk to the guys and she says if you have any thing to hide tell me now. No one says anything; Kasey and Des leave for their date.

    Brandon, is in the kitchen going on about how men came into his life as father figures and just left. So, knowing that Brian left a single mom at home with a child that adored him upsets him to tears. This show should be called the Crying Game . . . not the Bachelorette.

    Kasey and Des are on Sunset Blvd. just walking down the street when they see people dancing on the side of a building, called Vanda looping.
    Des tells him that that is what they are going to be doing.
    Vanda looping takes all the ab muscles you have. They get on top of the building they were just dancing on and the Santa Ana winds pick up so they jump in the pool.
    Kasey kisses her in the pool. Des is feeling horrible because the entire day has been off since Brian’s girlfriend Stephanie showed up. She gives Kasey the rose.

    Group date # 2 . . .

    A stagecoach with four horses, our naked bachelor has clothes and thinks he’s gone home to Texas.
    They get to where the date is happening . . . and someone comes up behind her and she throws him off the balcony, and they are going to put them through a Cowboy boot camp.
    They are learning how to lasso, draw their pistols and fight for justice.
    These wannabees are going to saddle up on a horse and save Des . . . 
    Cowboy boot camp is a part of the new Disney film The Lone Ranger.
    Juan Pablo was hilarious! I was glad he got the Ranger Badge and the time with Des.
    They get a private screening of The Lone Ranger; she said he was a good and a bad movie date because he was so distracting.
    Campfire back at the ranch and the guys are of course looking at the rose and hoping they get it. Brydon is the first one she pulls away, they go and sit on a tree. She says that he doesn’t not know how to make the moves, just when to make them.
    Zak is too over confident that after their one on one, he is a shoe in to get the rose.
    James and another sob story; sorry about your dad dude, go home if you can’t hack it. Because, James was so concerned about if there was a spark, a reason to keep him, she gave him the rose.

    Chris shows up and says that there will not be a rose ceremony, but a relaxing pool party. Ben grabs Des and they go for a drive. When they come back Mikey and Michael are the two that see them coming back and Mikey sees red, nothing new.
    Mikey seems to think he is the police officer of who gets to see and be with Des. I am so over him.
    Brandon tells her about his mom, and how Brian’s actions upset him, and he wants her to know that he is there for her, and would always protect her. He says he has a secret and steals a kiss.

    The roses . . .

    Brydon – rose

    Juan Pablo – rose . . she asks him in Spanish

    Zak W – rose

    Brooks – rose . . . no brainer!

    Drew, Jake’s mini-me – rose

    Zak K – rose

    Brad – rose

    Michael G – rose

    Ben’s name has not been called and he is like a long tailed cat in a room of rocking chairs! His expressions are priceless!

    Mikey – rose – barf!

    Final rose . . . Ben.

    No rose . . .

    Dan and Brandon.

    Brandon is upset, and she tells him that he is an incredible person he’s just not for her.

    Didn’t see much of Dan, so I have no take on him.

    Des and Brandon go outside to talk. Brandon doesn’t get that there is no chemistry on her side. Uh- we’ve been there ladies . . they made a movie called She’s Just Not That In To You. Brandon, I think you need to watch it!  Oh Em Gee, Brandon, no one left you dude! She is letting you go before you get in any deeper. Seriously!

    Next week they go to Atlantic City. She says she wants a love that can light the darkness.
    Again, the guys are focusing on Ben and not Des.








    Friday, June 7, 2013

    Buzz Books












    Description

    A sampler of 40 forthcoming titles to coincide with BookExpo America. Start reading exclusive pre-publication excerpts right now from 40 top fall and winter titles, including many by authors appearing at BEA. It includes hot debuts, nonfiction from bestselling authors, breakout books from seasoned novelists, and some great young adult literature. Enjoy new work from Elizabeth Gilbert, Jonathan Lethem, Amy Tan, Sue Grafton, Wally Lamb, Alan Weisman, Tamora Pierce, and more.

    At the end of most excerpts, you will find a link to the full galley on NetGalley!

    My Thoughts:

    I just read through this book and it is pretty cool. It has descriptions of top 40 books from fall and winter, that will also have authors appearing at BookExpoAmerica.
    At the end of the description you get a sample chapter from the book and if you like it there is a link where you can download the book.
    If you are a reviewer with NetGalley and want to check out some of the top books from fall/winter this is a great way to do it.

    Always the Baker, Finally the Bride

















    About:

    In "Always the Baker, Never the Bride," readers fell in love with Emma Rae and Jackson, and they've gotten more acquainted with them in the two books that followed. But now it s time for the diamond to meet the road as Jackson fields an offer to sell The Tanglewood, a move that will uproot this high-flying family act once and for all. Get reacquainted with all of the lovable and quirky characters from the first three books as your favorite diabetic baker figures out if she'll achieve her greatest goal of all: Will Emma, at last, become FINALLY the Bride?

     About Sandie Bricker:


    For more than a decade, Sandra D. Bricker lived in Los Angeles. While honing her chosen craft of screenwriting in every spare moment, she worked as a personal assistant and publicist to some of daytime television's hottest stars. When her mother became ill in Florida, she put Southern California in her rearview mirror and moved across the country to take on a new role: Caregiver.

    "I guess most people would see my career as a publicist as a sort of dream job. But giving it up turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me!" she declares. "Not only was I given the gift of getting to know my mother as an adult woman before she passed away, but I was also afforded the blessing of being able to focus completely on my dream of a writing career."


    My Thoughts:

    Ema has been the baker, who is diabetic, baking all these beautiful wedding cakes but she has never had the opportunity to be the bride.
    Jackson runs the Tanglewood Inn in GA., and their romance has been brewing for awhile now.
    In Sandie's laugh out loud style she pens a funny romance that has you laughing out loud.
    I don't want to say too much about the story itself because I don't want to reveal too much about what happens.
    Suffice it to say that planning the perfect wedding is a hoot. 

    I highly recommend this book!
                                            

    Top Ten Tuesday Featuring Books With Occupations In The Title

      Happy Tuesday, and welcome to another edition of Top Ten Tuesday sponsored by That Artsy Reader Girl . This was a really fun one to do. Ho...