Sisters in Bloom - Review

Review by Marlene Engel

Kaylie Snow is pregnant and unused to her body’s physical and emotional changes.  She has always been the type of girl to catch the attention of every guy in the room.  Now that her belly is bulging and her hormones are in overdrive, she doesn’t even recognize the person she has become.  Not to mention, her once promising singing career has hit a snag.  Places that have booked her in the past are currently turning her down.  Meanwhile, her sister, Danica, who has always been the proper and professional one has been taking risks with her career and her love life.  And their mother, who Kaylie has had limited communication with since finding out that  she stayed with their father after discovering about his affair, has had a drastic makeover and is in the dating scene again.  Kaylie is used to being the center of attention and is now feeling like the ugly duckling.  And when did her sister and mom’s lives get more exciting than hers?

At least Kaylie has Chaz, her hunky fiancé and father to her unborn baby.  He is not only easy on the eyes, he’s a successful business man and also happens to be madly in love with Kaylie.  However, a secret from his past has resurfaced and is threatening to potentially destroy everything he’s worked so hard at achieving in life and love.  Will Chaz be able to come clean to Kaylie and reveal his secret?  And how will she react when he does? 

Sisters In Bloom is the second book in the Snow Sisters, Love In Bloom Series.   I fell in love with the characters in the first book and was really excited to hear that it was part of a nine book series.  There’s just something about finishing a good book and knowing that the story doesn’t end when you read the last page.  I love knowing that there is another book to look forward to and that I can continue to get to know the characters.  Sisters In Bloom is full of love, emotions and over-coming struggles.  It’s the perfect book to curl up on the couch (on a cool Fall day) and read cover to cover in one sitting.  High praise for this amazing book.  I would definitely recommend it to others and think that it would be a great book club choice (and would promote lots of discussion)!

Melissa Foster is the award-winning author of four International bestselling novels. 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, 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, FosteringSuccess, or World Lit Cafe.

Authors Links:  Website * Twitter * Facebook * Pinterest * Goodreads

 

Purchase Sisters in Love (Snow Sisters Book One) 

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(Snow Sisters Book Two)

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The Last Camellia - Review & Giveaway

Review by K.T Sullivan

Right before the start of World War II, Flora Lewis, an amateur botanist, leaves America and embarks on a trip to England. She has been hired by a flower thief to steal a Middlebury Pink camellia. She poses as a nanny to four children to gain access to the estate. Their mother was a collector of camellias and left a journal. The last standing tree has been spotted on the Livingston property. Flora’s late night searches point to love, adultery, and murder. She disappears after an ill-fated encounter with the killer.

In 2000, Addison Sinclair, a garden designer, gets a call from her hidden past. Afraid, she decides she and her husband should head to England. His parents bought a piece of property. Addison explores the landscape’s camellia orchards. She comes across notes about the plants and the stories of the household. Curiosity gets the better of her and she looks up the Livingston descendants. She decides to hunt for the flower. Her secrets catch up to her in the English countryside and another woman crosses paths with a killer.  

The interweaving of the two women’s stories is effortlessly done. Both are told from their unique perspectives. The interest in flowers and the history of the estate intertwine their experiences. The author does an excellent job of building suspense and adding layers of mystery while writing two separate love stories. Both characters are sympathetic and likable. Both on a quest for the truth and happiness. An enjoyable read.    

Sarah Jio is the New York Times bestselling author of THE VIOLETS OF MARCH (a Library Journal Best Book of 2011 and a USA Today bestseller), THE BUNGALOW, BLACKBERRY WINTER (an instant New York Times and USA Today bestseller) and THE LAST CAMELLIA (to be published on 5/28/13), and MORNING GLORY (to be published on November 26, 2013)—all from Penguin (Plume). To date, Sarah’s novels are published in 20 countries, including Italy, France, Brazil, Turkey, Slovenia, Russia, China, Norway, Germany, Poland, Spain, and many others.

A magazine writer and the former founding health and fitness blogger for Glamour magazine, Sarah has written thousands of articles and blog posts for national magazines including Redbook, O, The Oprah Magazine, Cooking Light,Glamour, SELF, Real Simple, Fitness, Marie Claire, Hallmark magazine,Seventeen, The Nest, Health, Bon Appetit, Gourmet, The Seattle Times,Parents, Woman’s Day, American Baby, Parenting, and many others. She has also appeared as a commentator on NPR’s Morning Edition.

Sarah recently finished her sixth novel and is at work on her seventh.

Sarah lives in Seattle with her husband, Jason, and their three young sons.

Connect with Sarah at:

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Giveaway for two print copies of

The Last Camellia

(U.S Residents Only Please)

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Rodeo Sweethearts by Lilian Darcy - GET IT FREE!

Melinda and Rob MacCreadie have been married for nearly thirty years, but she is the worst wife for a hard-working Montana rancher and she knows it.

With their five children grown and finding love, Melinda is daunted by the idea of accepting newcomers into the family. She and Rob still hold a secret that dates from before the birth of their triplets all those years ago.

Rob is such a fine man, strong and good-looking and endlessly patient. He’s wise, too, but is he right to insist that it’s time to tell people what happened? Does he really understand how she feels?

Lilian Darcy was born on Valentine’s Day. This auspicious date, as well as a love of reading, set her destiny as a writer of romance and women’s fiction from an early age. She has also written extensively for Australian theatre and television, under another name. Her plays have been professionally performed by some of Australia’s most prestigious theatre companies, and have received two award nominations for Best Play from the Australian Writers Guild, while in 1990 she was the co-recipient of an Australian Film Institute award for best TV mini-series. She has now written over eighty romances for Harlequin, as well as several mainstream novels, including Cafe du Jour, originally published by Mira Books Australia.

Get Rodeo Sweethearts by Lilian Darcy for free HERE!

Connect with Lilian Darcy at:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Pinterest

Learn more about Montana Born at:

Website * Facebook * Twitter * Goodreads

Desperate Acts - 7 Bestselling Authors, 7 Full-Length Novels ... All For .99 Cents!

7--Yes! SEVEN BESTSELLING AUTHORS illuminate the dark, dangerous choices people make when everything that matters is on the line… 

7 Bestselling full-length novels all for $.99--Yes! NINETY-NINE CENTS!

 

SEVEN FULL-LENGTH NOVELS in one collection, DESPERATE ACTS:

                                             

CJ Lyons, MJ Rose, Melissa Foster, Russell Blake, Kathleen Shoop, Jenna Bennett, and Katia Lief give you thrilling tales, erotic confessions, spine-tingling twists, smothering fog, family secrets, and unexpected loss all lead to DESPERATE ACTS. 

BUY NOW AT THESE RETAILERS:

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Love and Lists - Blog Tour, Excerpt & Giveaway

Book Blurb:

Love and Lists is the first book in the Chocolate Lovers spinoff Chocoholics:

The foulmouthed offspring tell their stories.

Twenty five year old Gavin Ellis has always had the love and support of his family ever since he was a little boy and couldn't stop talking about his penis. He's also always had their unsolicited advice and uncanny knack of embarrassing him at all costs. Now that he's an adult and trying to convince the love of his life to love him back, things haven't changed very much from when he was younger.

When Gavin's best friend Tyler suggests he make a todo list of items that will ensure he wins the girl, Gavin is one hundred percent on board: after a few six packs.

After puking in the shrubs, a bad experience with Viagra, a Sex Ed course gone wrong, and a slew of other mishaps courtesy of his family and friends, Gavin is pretty sure this list will be the death of him.

Sometimes, trying to make someone love you with a list isn't always the best idea. Especially when "Show her your penis" is the first "todo" item...

Excerpt:

My grandfather George is pretty bad-ass.  For the first few years of my life we lived with him, and I have some of the best memories ever from that time.  He always let me watch whatever I wanted on TV, and I could swear as long as I never told my mom.  My grandfather is the king of stringing together long, completely inappropriate words that hardly ever make sense but sound good coming out of his mouth when he’s pissed off.  He used to let me practice my run-on sentence curses until one day I said “Shit-poop-hell-freak-monkey” and I was banned from cursing.  He shook his head at me sadly and told me he was disappointed in my lack of effort.

 “It’s about time you got here.  There’s too much estrogen in this house,” Pops complains as he lowers the volume on the TV.

“Where is everyone?” I ask.

“Sue’s in the kitchen with your mother and Sophie.”

“Dad’s here, isn’t he?”

“Like I said, too much estrogen,” Pops deadpans.

Flopping down on the couch next to him, I let out a great big sigh.

When Pops doesn’t say anything, I sigh again, hoping he’ll get the hint.

“Just spit it out, kid.  You know I don’t do the whole touchy-feely thing, so don’t expect me to ask you what’s wrong.”

I should be used to his crass bedside manner by now, but I’m not.  Being subtle isn’t one of his strong suits.

“So, there’s this girl I’m in love with—”

“Yeah, Charlotte, I heard,” he interrupts.  “She’s not out of your league, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

Well thanks a lot.  I wasn’t thinking that at all until now.

“She doesn’t know that I’m in love with her.  We’ve known each other since birth, and it’s a little hard to just come right out and tell her at this point,” I explain.

“Stop being a pussy and just tell her,” Pops replies.

“But what if she doesn’t love me back?”

Pops shrugs and turns back to the TV.  “Then grow a pair and get over it.  Jesus mother of fuck Christ in a piss shithole, dick for brains, the answer is bathtub.”

Tara Sivec is a wife, mom, chauffeur, cheerleading coach, soccer coach, babysitter, shortorder cook, genius and albino squirrel hunter. She lives in Ohio with her husband and two kids. In her spare time she likes read, write and cover things in chocolate. Most of her material comes from real life experiences with family and friends. Lucky for them, the names have been changed to protect the innocent (aka, drunk).

Tara also writes under the pen name T.E. Sivec where she can be serious, suspenseful and not at all funny.

Connect with Tara at:

Goodreads * Facebook * Twitter * Website

Purchase the book at:

Amazon * Barnes& Noble * Kobo * iBooks

Click HERE for the full tour schedule.

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Conditional Love - Blurb and Q&A

Conditional Love by Cathy Bramley

All her life she has dreamed of her own grand design, so what’s holding her back?

Meet Sophie Stone, a thirty-something, serial-procrastinator. Tesco knickers, Take That, and tea with two sugars is about as exciting as it gets. But when her boyfriend dumps her on Valentine’s Day and a mysterious benefactor leaves her an inheritance, even Sophie has to accept that change is afoot.

There is a catch - a condition in the will that threatens the very foundations of Sophie’s world. What did the old lady want her to discover? Was there more to her parents’ break up than she was led to believe?

With a boss from hell, bickering flat mates, manipulative mother and sexy ex-boyfriend, Sophie has plenty to contend with without the brooding architect who puts his foot in it every time he opens his mouth. Sophie will have to face the past and learn some shocking home truths before she can finally get her own happy-ever-after.

Conditional Love is Cathy Bramley’s debut novel. A coming of age story with a healthy sprinkling of romance, it is a contemporary tale of friendship, family feuds and infatuation, in which our girl-next-door heroine embarks on a journey of self- discovery in order to build a future on her own terms.

Q&A With The Author:

When did you know you wanted to become an author?

I wish I could say that as I child I was fantastic at writing stories, but sadly that would be a lie, although I was pretty good at making up stuff: I once told my mom that my eyebrows had been burned off by the oven, when really I’d shaved them off with her lady shaver! But seriously, I read a book last year by Jenny Colgan called Meet me at the Cupcake Café and I was mesmerized by the characters and the story. I loved it so much that I read it twice, straight through. And then I knew: I wanted to write something that had that same effect on people so Cathy Bramley the author was born!

Would you classify your books as chick lit?  And is this your favorite genre to read?

I double checked the definition of Chick lit before I answered this question! Yes I am proud to say that Conditional Love is a chick lit novel. It has a quirky female lead character, whose relationships with her friends and family as important to her in this story as her romantic liaisons! I adore chick lit as well as less light-hearted women’s fiction. I also love thrillers, romance, family sagas, crime… my name is Cathy Bramley and I’m addicted to reading!

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

As well as a book addict, I’m a property addict. If there’s a property show on TV, I watch it. I’m a massive fan of Extreme Makeover – Home Edition and can regularly be found, Kleenex in hand, bawling my eyes out and crying, ‘That woman is a saint, she deserves a fabulous house!’ at the TV screen to the embarrassment of the rest of my family. Hence the property theme for Conditional Love. But it’s about more than that. It’s about love in all its many guises and how some loves can be better for you than others.

Describe your book in three words.

Jolly good fun

What can your readers expect next from you?

Hopefully more jolly good fun! I’m working on a new book (working title Holding Back) about three women who meet under embarrassing circumstances at a funeral and vow to help each other change their lives for the better. Unfortunately they all lie to each other and it all goes hideously wrong until they stop telling porkies and own up to the truth about themselves. Out next spring I hope.

Thank you so much, Cathy, for stopping by Book Mama Blog!  I can't wait to get my hands on this book.  It sounds like so much fun!

After growing up in Birmingham, Cathy went to Nottingham Trent University at the ripe old age of eighteen and five days to study European Business. Upon graduating she spent the next few years in the corporate world of marketing working on high-powered projects such as testing the firing range of Super Soaker water guns, adding hair extensions to Girls’ World styling heads and perfecting the weeing action of Tiny Tears. After making it onto Timmy Mallet’s Christmas card list, she realized it was time to move on and so in 1995 set up her own agency, Apples & Pears Marketing.

Avid fans of the TV series, Cathy and her husband realized their Grand Designs’ dream of building their own house in 2011. They now live in rural Nottinghamshire with their two daughters and a bouncy dog called Pearl.

This project provided the inspiration for Cathy’s debut novel Conditional Love which will be launched on 4^th October 2013. However, it is by no means autobiographical apart from one unfortunate incident in the boardroom! She shares her time between her marketing agency, writing and taxiing the girls endlessly from one activity to the next.

Cathy is a fan of Masterchef, strong coffee, chocolate brazils and Marian Keyes books. She is addicted to her Kindle and has an irrational fear of bananas.

Connect with Cathy at:

Twitter * Blog * Facebook * Goodreads * Amazon * Amazon UK

Purchase at:

Amazon * Amazon UK

SISTERS IN LOVE - REVIEW, Q&A and GIVEAWAY

Sisters In Love

The Snow Sisters Series - Book One

By: Melissa Foster

Blurb

Danica Snow has always been the smart, practical, and appropriate sister.   As a therapist, she prides herself on making reasonable, conservative choices, even if a bit boring, and as part of the Big Sister Program, she has little time for anything more in her life.

Blake Carter is a player. He never gets bored of conquering women, and with his sexy good looks and successful lifestyle, he has no trouble finding willing participants. When his friend and business partner dies in a tragic accident, he suddenly, desperately, wants to change his ways. The problem is, he doesn’t know how to stop doing what he does best.

When Blake walks into Danica’s office, the attraction between them is white hot, but Danica isn't the type to give into the heat and risk her career. Danica’s desire sets her on a path of self-discovery, where she begins to question every decision she’s ever made. Just this once, Danica wants to indulge in the pleasures of life she’s been so willingly ignoring, but with her Little Sister in turmoil and her biological sister’s promiscuousness weighing heavily on her heart, she isn’t sure it’s the right time to set her desires free.

SISTERS IN LOVE is a light, uplifting work of women's fiction and will resonate with readers who enjoy emotional journeys of the heart with strong heroines and sexy, lovable heroes. Readers of books by Jane Porter and Beth Kendrick will enjoy Danica and Blake's story. 

Review By Marlene Engel

Blake Carter never had a problem getting women’s attention, but how he got Danica Snow’s was not in a typical way.  They were both in line at the café and waiting for what felt like forever.  When all of a sudden, Blake turned to look out the door and his elbow hit Danica in the face.  As she’s holding her bloody nose, she spies Blake checking out a blonde woman in the café.  ARE YOU SERIOUS?  I’m bleeding over here and he’s looking another woman up and down?  At least she’ll never have to see him again … or so she thought.

Danica is twenty nine years old and a successful therapist.  Most of her time is spent in professional clothing that one would not describe as sexy, but she enjoys her job and knows that she’s making a difference in the lives of others.  Her sister, Kaylie, is the complete opposite.  She’s two years younger, lives a carefree lifestyle and doesn’t feel the need to settle down with one guy.  When you’re young and pretty, you can afford to keep your options open.  Kaylie’s determined to get her sister to loosen up a bit and enjoy life.  But can Danica leave her work behind once she steps out of the office?  Or will her work continue to consume her and keep her from having any type of a social life?

Meanwhile, Blake’s world gets turned upside down when his best friend (and business partner), Dave, dies in a skiing accident.  He starts reevaluating his life and questioning some choices he’s made in the past.  He also finds out that he didn’t know Dave as well as he thought he did.  When secrets come out, he starts to wonder if he was really as good a friend to Dave as Dave was to him.  

I fell in love with this book.  The characters felt so real and the story brought you through so many emotions.  One moment was steamy and the next had me close to tears.  The twists and turns had me on the edge of my seat wanting to know what was going to happen next.  The author does a great job captivating your attention from the first page and holding it tight throughout the book.  Overall, I really enjoyed reading Sisters in Love.  I’m excited that it’s the first book in a 9 book series and that I get to follow the Snow Sisters more in the books to come. 

Q&A:

I'm honored to be featured today. Thank you, Marlene.

Where did you come up with the premise for Sisters in Love?

Most of my novels are are stories revolving around serious, gut-wrenching, heart-twisting dramas or tragedies. One of my friends in Cape Cod made a joke about writing something light and I took it to heart. Danica and Kaylie came to me while I was thinking about what direction I could go that would be a lighter, more fun read. While Sisters in Love is much lighter--and sexier--fare than my earlier work, it deals with serious life issues and has a substantial storyline, so I don't feel as though it's so far from my earlier work in the sense that the characters tackle important issues in their lives and they develop meaningful relationships. It's sort of like "Melissa Foster Lite...and Sexy"

Are any of your characters based on real people?

I think most writers will tell you that they pull attributes of many people into their "character pot" and then swirl it around a bit and come out with a whole new person. That's sort of how I work, and while the characters are not based on any one person, I can sometimes find a celebrity who looks just like what I envision my characters to look like. For example, I see our hero, Blake Carter, as a mix of Hugh Jackman and Patrick Dempsey with the romantic elements of Gerard Butler from P.S. I Love You. Need I say more?

Describe your book in three words.

Light, sexy, meaningful

What’s your go to snack when you’re writing?

>sigh< If you would have asked me a few weeks ago I'd have answered, chocolate, but I am eating healthier these days, so I'd have to say blueberries. I actually prefer not to eat while I write. It makes my fingers sticky and I'd rather write than eat...or sleep...or almost anything else...almost...

What can your readers expect next from you? 

Sisters in Love is part of a bigger series called Love in Bloom, and Love in Bloom has two families within the series--the Snow Sisters and the Bradens. There are currently three Snow Sisters books and six Bradens books. In book two of the Snow Sisters (Sisters in Bloom) you will begin to meet the Bradens, six wealthy, incredibly sexy siblings who are looking for their forever loves. These are not kids' books. These books are about true, grown-up love, with heroes ranging in age from upper twenties to mid thirties. This series will keep me busy for a while. I expect to have all nine books published by May of 2014, with one book being released every 30 days. However, I'm a bit ahead of schedule, so watch for them. Sisters in Bloom has already been released.

On my more serious, suspenseful fiction side, I have another book being published this year, Where Petals Fall. Here's a little introduction to Where Petals Fall:

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. 

Excerpt: http://www.melissafoster.com/content/sisters-love-excerpt

Link to Follow Tour: http://tastybooktours.blogspot.com/2013/08/now-booking-tasty-reveiw-tour-for.html

To purchase book:

Amazon * Barnes&Noble

Melissa Foster is an award-winning, International bestselling author. 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, 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 is also a community builder for the Alliance for Independent Authors. She has been published in Calgary’s Child Magazine, the Huffington Post, and Women Business Owners magazine.

Learn more about Melissa or connect with her at:

Website

Facebook

Twitter

Melissa's Social Network For Women

World Literary Cafe

Fostering Success

Goodreads

Melissa has generously offered to give 3 digital copies of
Sisters in Love to 3 lucky winners!
Open internationally!

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