Tuesday, January 7, 2014

Where Petals Fall - Review & Giveaway

BLURB
On the surface Junie Olson’s life looks idyllic, from her handsome husband and beautiful daughter to her successful business, the bakery she always dreamed of opening. But in the past few months her world has slowly unraveled.  Her precocious child is withdrawing, showing unexplainable signs of emotional regression, a condition that frays the bonds of Junie’s once impenetrable marriage.  When her father dies suddenly of a heart attack, Junie packs up her daughter and goes home to help her mother.  Her homecoming stirs up memories of the nightmare she thought she had put behind her, the disappearance of her childhood friend, Ellen.  Haunted by recurring memories of what happened on that fateful day, Junie must gather the courage to revisit her past and untangle the secrets surrounding her missing friend, and the trauma that has caused her little girl to climb back into herself. As the pieces come together on the event that shook her small town, and at the risk of losing everyone she loves, Junie will question everything she thought she could rely on and everyone she thought she knew.

WHERE PETALS FALL is a gripping and emotional novel with an undercurrent of suspense, featuring a determined mother whose world slowly comes apart around her.  Where Petals Fall will appeal to fans of Lisa Scottoline's Save Me or Jodi Picoult's Salem Falls, who love an emotional and gripping read. They will root for Junie as they follow her transition into an indomitable heroine who must reconcile what she discovers about her husband and family’s tragic past, and find a way to put the pieces of her family back together and carry on. 

Review by Marlene Engel

Junie, Brian, and their four year old daughter, Sarah, recently moved into a new house.  But since the move, Sarah has begun to regress … no longer talking and wetting the bed.   They have taken her to countless specialists and have yet to receive an actual diagnosis.  Stressed out over Sarah, and the fact that it’s put a wedge between her and her husband, Junie also learns of her father’s sudden passing.  Not wanting her mother to be alone Junie and Sarah make their way to Pennsylvania to be with her.

But being back in her childhood home brings back flashes of memories for Junie.  When she was seven, her best friend (and Brian’s sister), Ellen, went missing.  She was never found and there weren’t any leads to her disappearance.  So why was Junie all of a sudden seeing disturbing flashes from her past?  A past that she can’t even fully remember.  She remembers the day that Ellen went missing, but the details surrounding it and the days following it were blank. 

As Junie continues to have these flashes, she starts to question the people in her life that she has trusted the most.  She begins to ask herself if they had any involvement in Ellen’s disappearance and questions the safety of her daughter and herself.  Will the past come back to haunt everyone?  And are the people she loves really the people she thought they were?  Junie is determined to find out the answers.  Even if it threatens to tear apart her family!

Where Petals Fall is a women’s fiction, suspense novel.  I have to be honest in saying that it’s not the usual genre that I read, but I could not put this book down.  I started it in the morning and couldn’t go to bed until I finished it that night.  Yes, it was THAT good!  It had my emotions going in over drive.  From one page to the next, I had no clue what was going to happen next.  I was literally on the edge of my seat in anticipation.  The story was brilliantly written, the characters felt so real and it had more twists and turns than a theme park roller coaster!  The author, Melissa Foster, is a literary genius!  I highly recommend this book and can honestly say that it is one of the best books I’ve ever read!

About the Author:
Melissa Foster is a New York Times USA Today bestselling and award-winning author. She writes contmporary romance, new adult, contemporary women's fiction, suspense, and historical fiction with emotionally compelling characters that stay with you long after you turn the last page. Her books have been recommended by USA Today's book blog, Hagerstown MagazineThe Patriot, and several other print venues. She is the founder of the Women’s Nest, a social and support community for women, and the World Literary Café. When she's not writing, Melissa helps authors navigate the publishing industry through her author training programs on  Fostering Success. Melissa has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine. 

Melissa hosts an annual Aspiring Authors contest for children and has painted and donated several murals to The Hospital for Sick Children in Washington, DC. Melissa lives in Maryland with her family.


Visit Melissa on The Women's NestFostering Success, or World Lit Cafe. Melissa enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and welcomes an invitation to your event.
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