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 Magazine, The 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 Nest, Fostering Success, or World Lit Cafe. Melissa enjoys discussing her books with book clubs and reader groups, and welcomes an invitation to your event.

Author Links

Website * Facebook * Twitter * My social network for women * World Literary Café * Fostering Success * Facebook (Fanpage) * Goodreads 

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The Hole in the Middle - Excerpt & Interview & Giveaway

Excerpt

I show up at Sara’s house around eight, and book club is in full swing. I’ve come straight from the office, and my prescription is still in my purse. I’d say that I haven’t had time to fill it, but even I know that for once, lack of time isn’t the issue.

I ring the bell. Zoe answers and steps out onto the porch with me for a moment. “I was hoping it was you,” she says. “I’m not ready to tell anyone else about what’s going on with Richard, OK?” She gestures toward the house, where the rest of the book club is waiting.

“Of course,” I say. And in any event, I feel a little fuzzy on the details of Zoe’s marital crisis. Lunch feels as though it happened a week and not six hours ago.

 “How are you feeling?” I ask.

She shrugs. “It helped to see you at lunch,” she says. “But I think this is one of those situations where it’s going to keep feeling worse until something big changes. I’m just not ready to think about what the something big is.” I give her a hug, and we go in. “Look everyone,” she calls. “It’s a special guest appearance by Sophie!” She drags me into the living room, where the rest of the book club bursts into enthusiastic applause.

“I haven’t read the book,” I say.

“Don’t be silly,” says Laura. “No one ever reads the book.”

“I do,” says Sara pointedly. “And it would be great if we could make a tiny effort to talk about it once in a while, even for five minutes. Hi, Soph.” She pauses. “What did you do to your arm?”

“I sprained my wrist,” I say. “It’s nothing.”

“What was the book again?” asks Laura.

Sara raises an eyebrow. “Are you really interested, or are you just trying to humor me?”

Laura laughs. “Was it good?”

“Not especially,” says Sara. “We can stop talking about it now. What’s Megan going on about?”

Like Sara, Megan is one of my old friends from the student newspaper, and I’ve caught her in mid-rant. Nora is leaning back slightly to avoid Megan’s violent gesticulations, which are, as usual, aimed at hapless, absent Bob: “And then he looks into the stroller and says, ‘I’m starting to get to the point where I remember that he’s around. Do you know what I mean?’ And I think, ‘What kind of fucking question is that? It’s kind of hard for me to forget that our baby is around when he’s hanging off my tit 24/7, but I guess you don’t have that problem, do you Bob?’ Honestly! I just looked at him and said ‘I have absolutely no idea what you are talking about.’”

Megan takes a breath, looks around, and realizes that she is the main attraction. “Hi, Sophie,” she says. “Good to see you.”

I wave. “Still married?”

Megan snorts. “Barely,” she says, but she smiles a little before turning back to Nora to continue itemizing Bob’s shortcomings as a husband and father.

“What can I get you to drink?” asks Zoe. “Prosecco?” I nod, and she disappears into the kitchen. I sit down next to Sara.

“How have you been?” she asks.

“Bad day to ask,” I say. “I’d say I’ve been stressed to the point of hysteria, while at the same time struggling to find enough meaning in my work to justify my level of anxiety. I mean, shouldn’t you have to care about a job to get this worked up about it?”

 “Of course not!” Zoe reappears with my glass and plops down on the sofa with us. “Do you remember the I Love Lucy episode where Lucy and Ethel are working on an assembly line at a chocolate factory? No? You know the scene in Pretty Woman where Richard Gere takes Julia Roberts up to the penthouse for the first time, and they have a fight, and then they make up, and then they stay up late watching TV?”

“Oh, yeah,” says Sara. “Right before she gives him the blow job.”

“Exactly. That moment where you think, am I really supposed to be rooting for these two to get together in the end?”

“Totally.” Megan and Nora have finished with Bob and rejoin the group. “But they aren’t watching the chocolate factory episode,” Megan says. “They’re watching the wine-making one, where Lucy runs around in a giant barrel and throws grapes at everyone.”

Zoe rolls her eyes. “The point I’m making,” she says, with the deliberate enunciation of a woman who has had too much Prosecco, “is that the chocolate factory is a perfect example of a job that is both stressful and meaningless. The chocolate starts coming faster and faster and they can’t wrap it quickly enough, and by the end they are stuffing the chocolates down their shirts and in their mouths and looking completely panic-stricken, but to no real end.”

“And this relates to Sophie’s job how?” asks Laura.

Zoe waves her hand vaguely. “Email, voicemail, staff meetings – the whole tedious routine is a modern-day, white-collar version of the conveyor belt.”

“Well, that’s a pretty bleak assessment,” I say.

“Only if you plan to be stuck beside the conveyor belt for the rest of your life,” says Zoe. “But since you don’t actually work in a chocolate factory, you have a few options. And if you would admit that you are having a midlife crisis, you could start looking at ways to change it up.”

“I’m not having a midlife crisis,” I say.

Laura laughs. “Everyone’s having a midlife crisis, Sophie,” she says. “You might as well join the club.”

Interview with the Author:

When did you know you wanted to become an author?

I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember, but I didn’t have a story that I needed to tell and life filled up with other pursuits and priorities.  Then, just before my 38^th birthday, a character (Lil Parker) started to take shape.  I couldn’t get her and her fox stole out of my head, and the story evolved from there.

Where did you come up with the premise for this book? 

I wanted to try to write a book for working moms in their 40s.  I loved I Don’t Know How She Does It, but I wanted to find a book that spoke to women in my own generation (Generation X) who were juggling the demands of work and family.  I couldn’t find that book, so I decided to write it.

Describe your book in three words.

Smart, funny, real.

What can your readers expect next from you?

I’d love to know the answer to that question!  I’m just starting to think about my next book project.  In the meantime, readers might enjoy smaller doses of my writing on Twitter (@katemhilton) and on my blog (www.katehilton.com).

Author Bio:

Kate Hilton has worked in law, higher education, public relations, fundraising and publishing.  She has an English degree from McGill University and a law degree from the University of Toronto.  She holds down a day job, volunteers for community organizations, raises two boys, cooks, collects art, reads voraciously and likes her husband.  In her free time, she writes. On good days, she thinks she might have it all.  On bad days, she wants a nap.

The Hole in the Middle is Kate’s first book.  Kate is represented by Beverley Slopen of the Beverley Slopen Literary Agency in Toronto.

Connect with Kate!

Website * Blog * Facebook page * Goodreads * Twitter

*Anyone who leaves a comment on the tour page will be entered to win a $20 Amazon gift card! Anyone who purchases their copy of The Hole in the Middle before  January 27 and sends their receipt to Samantha (at) ChickLitPlus (dot) com will get 5 bonus entries!*

Take A Look At Me Now - Review

Review by K.T Sullivan

Nell Sullivan loses her job and her boyfriend on the same day. Determined to change her life, she takes her severance check and leaves London. She’ll stay with her cousin, Lizzie, in San Francisco and plot out a new life direction. The sights and sounds are so different and enticing to Nell. She joins Lizzie, as a volunteer, teaching children how to bake. This sparks her love of cooking and plants an idea of opening an American style diner in London. She interns at a legendary diner and learns so much. And meets Max who makes her forget the bad memories from home. When it’s time to return to London, Nell is torn between her new life and love and her true roots. On the day she’s scheduled to leave, Max’s secret life is revealed and her ex offers an olive branch. Nell hurries back to reignite her London life, but old wounds never heal. Who is her true love and will her dream restaurant rise from the ashes?

                       

Nell is a fun character on the brink of change, but faced with a few handsome and one delicious fork in the road. Dickinson weaves her through many choices, making a solid decision hard without consequences. This is a believable set of circumstances for the reader. The secondary players are memorable and add much to the book. The author uses San Francisco as a beautiful background in the story. It’s easy to see why Nell is so charmed with the city. A recommended read.

Miranda is a Sunday Times Bestselling author of four books, has been shortlisted twice for RNA awards (for Novel of the Year in 2010 with Fairytale of New York and again in 2012 for Contemporary Novel of the Year for It Started With a Kiss), has been published in seven languages and been a bestseller in four countries, and has sold over half a million books.

Connect with Miranda at:

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Entangled Moments - Book Blast & Giveaway

Entangled Moments

Moments in Time Book One

By: Dori Lavelle

Blurb

A deadly accident can take a life in more than one way.

Four years ago, Carlene Adams made a deadly mistake. A tragic accident derailed the future she'd hoped for, taking the life of the man she'd planned to spend forever with.

As a self-imposed penance for her solitary sin, Carlene has given up on every dream she ever had. She has committed to spend every remaining moment trying to make up for that one instance when everything changed.  

Then she gets a second chance.

When Carlene meets Nick, the single kiss they share awakens the desires she shoved aside for so long. Suddenly she wants more than what she believe she deserves. Will she ever see him again? And if she does, what will that mean for her?

A thing of fate.

Leaving the life she built on regret, Carlene waits for fate to intervene. But just as she begins to believe in a fresh start, she's forced to realize a horrible truth—one with the power to send her second chance crashing before it even takes off.

Nick isn't who she thought he was. She isn't the girl he believed her to be, either. Their lives were intertwined even before they met, and if Carlene tells him the truth, she’ll risk tearing them apart—for good.

** Due to sexual content, this book is not intended for readers under the age of 18. **

Buy Link:

Amazon

Author Info

Dori Lavelle, is a mother, wife, and lover of happy endings and mint chocolate. She thinks love and chocolate make such a perfect pair. Give her a great romance novel with a hint of suspense and a mug of hot chocolate and she'd be one happy woman.

Growing up, Dori read a lot, and when she wasn't happy with a particular ending, she wrote a different one, just for herself. Before long, she was writing stories when she should have been doing homework. The time has come for her to share the stories she cooks up in her head.

Author Links

Website * Newsletter * FacebookPage * GoodreadsAuthor Page * Blog * Twitter

Email: Dori_lavelle@yahoo.com

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Younger, Thinner, Blonder - Review & Giveaway

Review by K.T. Sullivan

Tanya Travis lives a dream life with her budding rock star boyfriend, successful television show, and foul mouthed maid. Then, she’s fired, dumped, and evicted. When she hits bottom, the only way back to the top is a humiliating reality show set in Nepal. Celebrity Spa Trek is her redemption ticket. Her fellow contestants are on the comeback trail as well. Tanya quickly realizes she’s in over her head when presented with a disgusting challenge. She refuses and is banished. She finds herself as a helper in a local orphanage. The children spark her to recalculate her net worth. The handsome local guide, Ardash, grew up there and is never far from Tanya’s thoughts. To add to the tension of the show, Tanya’s former fiancé, Nathan, becomes a contestant as well. At first, she hopes for reconciliation, but after time, realizes she’s been saved from a disastrous marriage. Tanya grows as a human being and falls in love, but will she be named Queen of the Mountains?

                            

The author incorporates the glittering celebrity culture into the story. Tanya must live without her killer wardrobe and designer hair products. She brings her back to the basics to prove life has to have meaning beyond stuff accumulation. My favorite character is Astrid, Tanya’s Swedish maid. Her command of the English language revolves around swearing. She proves to be an invaluable friend and comic relief. It is easy to relate to Tanya holding on to her horrible past against the frightening future. Fun read.

Sue Watson was a TV Producer with the BBC who combined motherhood and family life with a busy career. However, one day it dawned on Sue that Cosmo magazine may have been telling porkies about 'having it all,' and she realised her life had become a slightly crazed juggling act. So after much comfort eating,soul searching and reality TV watching, she sold her car, cancelled the holiday, bought a flamingo pink laptop and took the plunge as a writer.

The result was Sue's first novel, 'Fat Girls and Fairy Cakes,' a story about Stella Weston, whose life is a constant struggle with the weighing scales and being a working mum, wife and daughter.

The author researched intensely, baking and tasting and baking and ... tasting and... created the fabulous recipe collection of easy but impressive cakes at the back of the book. Sue also gained an equally impressive extra ten pounds on her hips, which to this day she carries with her.

Sue's second book, 'Younger, Thinner, Blonder' is released in October (2013).

Originally from Manchester, Sue now lives with her husband and teenage daughter in Worcestershire where she is currently writing her third book. When she's not toiling over her latest novel, Sue can be found enjoying large bags of chicken crisps, large tubs of Caramel Chew Chew ice cream and 'The Biggest Loser USA' on series link.

Connect with the author at:

Website * Facebook * Twitter

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The Trouble with Love - Review & Giveaway

Review by Darcey Pickett

Something’s are always worth the fight!

As book number two of the trilogy picks up, we are back in the quaint little town of Sugar Creek, Vermont, where we meet Rocky Monroe as she is running her bed & breakfast and her Cupcake Lovers Club. 

Rocky has to travel to NYC to work out the details of a cook book for the Cupcake Lovers Club, and her bad luck has followed her.  She is in a strange town and has to reach out to the one person she has been trying to avoid, Jayce Bello.  Jayce and Rocky have history together and the passion that sparked between them all those years ago is still ever present.  Rocky was deeply hurt by Jayce and has done her best to put him out of her mind.  But with one crack in her foundation, she finds herself in his company and all those feelings come flooding back.

Jayce Bello, a family friend, had an intimate moment with his best friends little sister.  Faced with the demons of his own family drama and the fact he doesn’t want any more, he up and leaves Sugar Creek for NYC to become a police officer.  Having Rocky need him is the sign he was looking for and he is bound and determine to explain himself after 13 years and with the hopes of proving his love for her.

The romance between Rocky and Jayce was fun, it wasn’t sugary sweet and this novel offered a bit of mystery as well.  I found this book to be a fun read, and even though it is part of a trilogy I did not feel like I needed to have read the first book to understand and develop a relationship with the characters of this book.  But I can tell you that it had me wanting to go back to read book one and looking forward to seeing what happens in book three!  I recommend this fun read and encourage you to read the entire trilogy!

Storytelling comes naturally to award-winning author Beth Ciotta. Dubbed "fun and sexy" by Publisher's Weekly, Beth specializes in writing Romantic Comedy with a Twist of Suspense and is published in contemporary, historical, steampunk, and paranormal romantic fiction. "I can't think of anything more fulfilling than writing stories where everyone (except the villain, of course) gets a happy ending!"

Beth lives in NJ with her husband, two zany dogs, and a crazy cat. A retired professional performer, Beth now pours her artistic passion into her writing. 

To learn more about her colorful life, visit her at:

Website * Blog * Facebook * Twitter

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Chocolate For Breakfast & Chocolate Fondue - Review

Reviewed by Darcie Czajkowski

Young, naïve, and inexperienced, Bernadette “Bernie” Maguire has a mission when she and her best friend Lisa travel to Fribourg, Switzerland for their junior year of college.  Bernie’s goal of losing her virginity proves easy, too easy in fact, when she sets her sights on Karl Berset, an attractive Swiss banker.  She willingly becomes intimate with him, but after a single passionate weekend together, he disappears from her life and from Fribourg entirely. 

Almost immediately, Bernie knows she is pregnant.  She quietly keeps her secret, initially sharing only with Lisa and Lisa’s landlady, Erika Stangl.  She goes about her normal life, attending classes, spending time with Lisa, and even drinking the occasional beer with her classmates at Café des Espouses in town.

But events start to spiral further out of control when Bernie becomes intimate with a classmate who is unaware of her pregnancy, experiences the loss of someone close to her, and stumbles upon the shocking reason why Karl vanished from her life, as if she had imagined their affair altogether. 

Twenty-three years later, Bernie is still dealing with the consequences of those transient moments with Karl.  Her life is an emotional mess and, after her mother’s passing, she decides that she no longer wants to live her life in a self-destructive way.  With her aunt in tow, Bernie returns to Fribourg and, upon arriving at Hotel de la Rose, she finds her past literally staring back at her. 

Will Bernie have the courage to face the decisions she made all those years ago?  Will she be able to reconcile the girl who first landed in Switzerland with the woman she is now, someone who has made many mistakes but wants to change her life for the better?

Chocolate for Breakfast starts as a simple adventure abroad and unfurls into a dramatic, heartwarming story which continues in the sequel, Chocolate Fondue.  These books must be read together in order to experience and appreciate Bernie’s drastic character development.  Chocolate for Breakfast is the place to start to fully understand how the choices Bernie made in Fribourg sent her spiraling down the wrong path, but Chocolate Fondue is where the complexity and depth of Bernie’s character truly come alive and the full breadth of Martha Reynolds’ skill as a writer is on display.  In the sequel, Martha does a remarkable job of weaving together two storylines and making the reader want to keep reading to find out how the stories will be resolved.  A captivating story has a twist around every corner and keeps the reader wondering what will happen next, both of which Martha accomplishes with aplomb.  I was hooked from beginning until the end and, who wouldn’t be, when chocolate is involved.

Martha Reynolds is the author of three novels: the award-winning CHOCOLATE FOR BREAKFAST; its sequel, CHOCOLATE FONDUE; and the newly-published BITS OF BROKEN GLASS. All books are available through Amazon in digital and print versions.

Coming soon: the third and final book in the 'chocolate' series, BITTERSWEET CHOCOLATE.

She and her husband live in Rhode Island, never far from the ocean.

Read and follow the writings of Martha at

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