Dog Crazy - Excerpt & Giveaway

Dog Crazy
A Novel of Love Lost and Found

By: Meg Donohue

Releasing March 10^th, 2015

William Morrow

Blurb

The USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls returns with an unforgettably poignant and funny tale of love and loss, confronting our fears, and moving on . . . with the help of a poodle, a mutt, and a Basset retriever named Seymour

As a pet bereavement counselor, Maggie Brennan uses a combination of empathy, insight, and humor to help patients cope with the anguish of losing their beloved four-legged friends. Though she has a gift for guiding others through difficult situations, Maggie has major troubles of her own that threaten the success of her counseling practice and her volunteer work with a dog rescue organization.

Everything changes when a distraught woman shows up at Maggie’s office and claims that her dog has been stolen. Searching the streets of San Francisco for the missing pooch, Maggie finds herself entangled in a mystery that forces her to finally face her biggest fear-and to open her heart to new love.

Packed with deep emotion and charming surprises, Dog Crazy is a bighearted and entertaining story that skillfully captures the bonds of love, the pain of separation, and the power of our dogs to heal us.

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Excerpt:

Pet bereavement counselors hear a lot of happy stories. This always seems to surprise people,   who assume sessions are soggy, heart-wrenching undertakings. Sure, there are tears, but there are also the stories of the dogs that  made people feel less alone, the dogs that taught them about love, that made their hearts feel bigger and stronger. And dog people—the majority of my patients are dog people—have wonderful senses of humor.Some of the funniest, most uplifting stories I’ve  ever heard have come from my patients. They’re an eclectic bunch, but the stories they tell have  the same simple truth at their core: dogs make us better.

A lot of the counseling I do is as straightforward as honoring these stories—the happy ones and the sad ones. The stories com- memorate the life.We laugh; we  cry; we get it all out there. Often we discover that there are issues at play beyond the  loss of a pet.

 Emotions can be sly. Years can go by before you discover the pain that lives inside of   you, a spiky old barnacle clinging to your heart.

At the close of our session, I’m determined to walk Leanne all the way up the path  that leads from my apartment door to the gate at the sidewalk, but with each step a now-familiar sense of dread builds within me. My heart pounds. I hide the tremble in my   hands by pressing them into the pockets of my blazer.

In my chest, panic is a small dark bird threatening to spread her wings.

When I open the gate, Leanne walks through it and turns to wrap me in a hug.  She’s on the sidewalk and I’m on the last stepping-stone of the path, so our hug starts out kind of loose and awkward, but then she shuffles toward me and   closes the gap between us.

“Thank you for everything, Maggie,” she says near my ear. “Truly, thank you.”

I’m afraid she can feel how fast my heart is beating. I try to focus on the palm tree across the street, but suddenly the wind picks up and the tree groans, its dark,  misshapen shadows morphing into wounded animals that thrash against the pavement. I close my eyes and suppress an involuntary shudder. Or maybe I don’t, because when I open my   eyes I see that Leanne is pulling away, a crease denting her brow.

“Are you okay?” she asks, her hands on my shoulders.

          "Of course!” My voice comes out breathless. It seems to me that the sky is  darkening and I’m not sure how much longer I can stand there at the gate. I take her  hands in mine and squeeze them, feeling her newly manicured fingernails press into my palms, and wish her well.

Author Info

Meg Donohue is the USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls. She has an MFA in creative writing from Columbia University and a BA in comparative literature from Dartmouth College. Born and raised in Philadelphia, she now lives in San Francisco with her husband, three young daughters, and dog.

Author Links:  Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads 

Print Book Bundle of Meg's Releases including:

ALL THE SUMMER GIRLS, HOW TO EAT A CUPCAKE & DOG CRAZY

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First Frost - Review & Giveaway

Review by Deb Czajkowski

The Waverly women are each born with a special gift; one might say they’re magical gifts. The Waverly magic is more than personal, it’s also environmental.  Their property is home to many edible flowers and plants that are not only tasty and pretty but also purposeful.  And then there’s the apple tree that has a mind of its own, frequently throwing its apples at people or to people, depending on each person’s motives.  Myth or magic?

Clare Waverly is a caterer turned candy maker.  Using her bountiful flora, Clare uses roses in her candy to recall lost love, lavender to promote happiness, and lemon verbena to soothe throats and minds.  Now incredibly successful, Clare struggles with how the cost of her success affects her life personally; she struggles with how to find joy in her life again.  She also wonders about her special Waverly gift:  Does she really have one?  Or is she just selling a myth?

Sydney Waverly is Clare’s younger sister.  Sydney is now happily married to Henry, who has adopted her daughter, Bay, and loves her as his own.   Still, Sydney feels insecure, wondering why her husband loves her (a Waverly), wondering if he will stay with her, even if she can’t give him a son.  Sydney has always struggled with being a Waverly and if, or how, that defines her, especially as she sees Clare as pure Waverly.  Can Sydney make peace with herself and her heritage?

Bay Waverly is Sydney’s daughter, born during Sydney’s rebellious “I am not a Waverly!” years.  Bay’s Waverly gift is to discern where everything fits; she knows this instinctively, whether it’s where the silverware goes in a friend’s kitchen or that a person somehow belongs in her life.  The “somehow” can sometimes be the tricky part for Bay.  First she questions how her evil and violent natural father fits into her life, any life, really.  Then there’s Josh, a boy she knows belongs with her, but, given their different economic worlds (never mind that she is part of the Waverly mystique!), Bay wonders if her gift has made a mistake.

Evanelle Waverly is a cousin to the Waverly sisters’ deceased grandmother Mary.  Evanelle’s Waverly gift is that an item is randomly dropped into her consciousness and also the person to whom that item must be given.  It might be a spatula or a bed sheets and pop tarts, a starry night night-light or two quarters.  She cannot rest until the item has been given to the specified person.  She cannot tell you why an item is given, only that she knows they will need it sometime in the future.  Evanelle has never been one to question her Waverly gift or the fact that it has labeled her as “strange.”  Evanelle has never been one to question at all.  She simply accepts.

And so I question you:  What’s your gift?  Everyone has gifts, or at least one! Perhaps your gift is cooking or baking and taking a sampling to a friend or shut-in.   Perhaps you have a listening ear that makes people feel heard.  Perhaps it’s your smile, given freely to everyone who crosses your path.  Perhaps you give up your seat, so someone else can ride more comfortably.  Every one of us has something that makes us unique, special.  It’s not always obvious or seemingly remarkable to us.  But just ask the person who has been on the receiving end of your gift.  To them it’s magical!

 

Whether or not you believe in magic, whether you’ve been told of your distinctive gift or you are still searching, read Sarah Addison Allen’s First Frost.  The author does a wonderful job of illustrating this in the lives of the Waverly women.  Even they struggle to identify the gifts that shape their individuality. Whether or not you find the Waverly heritage to be myth or magic, I predict you will enjoy the Waverly women’s stories.

Purchase the book at:

Amazon * Barnes&Noble

About the Author: 

New York Times Bestselling novelist Sarah Addison Allen brings the full flavor of her southern upbringing to bear on her fiction -- a captivating blend of magical realism, heartwarming romance, and small-town sensibility. Born and raised in Asheville, North Carolina, in the heart of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Sarah grew up with a love of books and an appreciation of good food (she credits her journalist father for the former and her mother, a fabulous cook, for the latter). In college, she majored in literature - because, as she puts it, "I thought it was amazing that I could get a diploma just for reading fiction. It was like being able to major in eating chocolate."

After graduation, her big break occurred in 2007 with the publication of her first mainstream novel, Garden Spells, a modern-day fairy tale about an enchanted apple tree and the family of North Carolina women who tend it. Booklist called Sarah's accomplished debut "spellbindingly charming." The novel became a Barnes & Noble Recommends selection, and aNew York Times Bestseller.

After publishing four bestselling books in five years, Sarah took a hiatus when she was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer at age 39. She returned to writing with her 2014 bestselling Lost Lake. She is now in remission. In 2015, she revisited the popular setting of her first book. First Frost continues the story of the Waverely Sisters from Garden Spells.

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Website * Facebook * Twitter

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A Print copy of

First Frost by Sarah Addison Allen

Open Internationally

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The Marrying Type - 12 Things About Laura

Always the wedding planner, never a bride, Elliot Lynch is famous for orchestrating the splashiest weddings in Charleston, South Carolina. When her father’s sloppy management practices leave them on the brink of bankruptcy, Elliot will do whatever it takes to save the family business. When asked to appear on “The Marrying Type,” a reality TV show about the people behind the scenes as couples exchange I dos, she says yes to the invasion of privacy (and the hefty paycheck that comes with it).

With a camera crew capturing every detail of her life, Elliot faces her most challenging contract yet: planning a wedding where her ex is involved in every part of the process. Add in a lazy assistant, liquor-loving bridesmaid, and rival planner encroaching on her turf, and Elliot’s wedding season goes from high-end to high-stress.

Forced to confront her past, Elliot must live out her troubled present on national TV if she has any hope of saving her future.

Purchase the book at:

Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Kobo * Marching Ink

“12 Things About Laura”

1. My first favorite books growing up were the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm pretty sure I was drawn to them, because they were written by a woman named Laura about a girl named Laura. Can we say vanity?

2. Unless you went to high school with me, you probably don't know (but might have guessed) that I was a total band geek. I played oboe, English horn, alto saxophone (badly), and percussion. Every fall, I still get an urge to play a marimba on a football field during the halftime show. (Though I never would have called it that during high school.)

3. My first true love was Prince Eric, but after I realized it was a long-shot for us to make it (he is a cartoon) my 3-year-old self broadened her horizons. That's how I simultaneously ended up "dating" Leo from church daycare and Brandon from down the street. (Don’t worry, they both knew about each other, and they were totally fine with it.) I was the only girl invited to each of their McDonald's Playland birthday parties, and I didn't let my pouffy dress interfere with having just as much fun as the boys. I also successfully won over both of their mothers during private iced teas and chats. Little Laura had game.

4. Football brings out a sappy side of me. I cry during movies like "Remember the Titans" and "Jerry Maguire" and after tough losses. What can I say? I'm a devoted Huskers and Packers fan.

5. I'm currently no longer speaking to my former imaginary future husbands Benedict Cumberbatch, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Ryan Gosling, and Aaron Rodgers, who all wronged me with other women (quite publically, I'll add) in 2014. At least I still have Fassy and Clay Matthews, or I'd be despondent. I’m currently accepting applications for imaginary future husbands, so let me know if you’re intriguing and interested.

6. I'm torn between wanting to live on a Colorado Mountain, a Washington State shore, or in a London flat. I suppose I'll stay put in Nebraska until I can decide.

7. I met my high school fangirl crush J.C. Chasez backstage at a cable TV awards show in 2008. Despite my best efforts to seem adorable and available, our meeting only resulted in a nice conversation and not running away together.

8. I prefer Colonel Brandon to Misters Ferras or Willoughby in Jane Austen's Sense and Sensibility. This is heavily influenced by the 1995 movie starring Emma Thompson and Kate Winslet. Sure Hugh Grant and Greg Wise are dishy, but Alan Rickman is so cool.

9. One of my greatest wishes is to visit all 50 states during my lifetime. I've made it to 29, but need to get a move on the other 21. Incidentally, if you live in one of these yet-to-be visited places and want to help a girl out, let me know.

10. My cats are named Jane and Bingley after the characters in Pride and Prejudice. My sister and I were actually searching for an Elizabeth and Darcy. The kitten goddesses knew better and we happily found ourselves settled with the most beautiful cat in the county and a most agreeable orange tabby, who is worth more than 5,000 pounds per annum.

11. In college I was briefly addicted to the show "Whose Wedding is it Anyways?" In addition to freaking out my then-boyfriend, this is probably what led me to write The Marrying Type.

12. While compiling this list in a laundromat (that's how I roll) I spent 20 minutes inadvertently eavesdropping on the woman next to me, who happened to be planning a wedding. During our time together, I learned that she doesn't want an updo or big rose bouquets, her bridesmaids will be in all black (or maybe not, she can't decide), the men won't wear ties, her mother is driving her crazy, and she doesn't care who is paying for it, this is HER wedding so everyone, including her mom, can just deal.

About the Author

Laura Chapman is the author of The Marrying Type, Hard Hats and Doormats, and the Autumn and Tuck series, which appear in Merry & Bright and A Kind of Mad Courage. A native Nebraskan, she loves football, Netflix marathons, and her cats, Jane and Bingley. Until she fulfills her dream of landing a British husband or becoming a Disney princess, you can find her in a bar penning her next novel.

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