Love at First Sight

Love at First Sight
Author: Lori Wilde
Publisher: Avon
Publication Date: May 28, 2013

Book Description:
From the author of the Twilight, Texas books comes the first in a dazzling new Cupid, Texas series. Lori Wilde welcomes us to Cupid, where every wish for love comes true...

Natalie McCleary couldn't believe her eyes-a lean-muscled, darkly tanned, nearly-naked man stood in her path…and then it hit her: love. Everyone always told her it'd hit like a thunderbolt, and she never believed them. But now she knew: practical, sensible Natalie was head over heels in love-with a stranger.

But ex-Navy SEAL Dade Vega wasn't about to be a stranger for long. He'd ridden into Cupid on his motorcycle, vowing to keep a promise he'd made to a military buddy. But a single glimpse at Natalie-soaking wet and unexpectedly tempting-changed his life forever.

But how can he offer her is love, when he can't even promise to stay in one place for longer than a week.

Idgie Says:
This is maybe the 1,000th Lori Wilde romance novel I've reviewed (seriously, the woman must write even when she's in the shower!)  and it's consistent with her others.  Her characters are always likable, attractive but not over the top stunning -  and she always throws in enough witty, SMART, banter to keep you smiling throughout. Of course, the fact that they tend to be in Cowboy Country doesn't hurt.

As a romance writer, Lori continues to be a winner. 

All Out of Love

All Out of Love
Author: Lori Wilde
Publisher: Avon (Harper Collins)
Publication Date: June 25, 2013

Book Description:
Cupid Texas Series, Book 2
The newest Cupid, TX romance, from the author of The First Love Cookie Club and the Jubilee, TX novels…

Football star Pierce Hollister has fame, fortune, and beautiful women who’ll do anything for him…whether he asks them to or not. But when it all comes crashing down, Pierce finds himself back home, running the ranch in Cupid, Texas, wondering how it all went wrong.

But one thing is right: Lace Bettingfield. The former plain-Jane has turned into luscious knock-out—trouble is, she won’t even give him the time of day no matter how many passes he makes.

Being in love with your older brother’s best friend is awkward enough, and Pierce was the cause of Lace’s most embarrassing high school moment ever when her secret letter to him declaring her love landed right on the front page of the school newspaper! Pierce is still as stubborn, sexy, and arrogant as ever…but Lace is about to see that things aren’t always as they seem…especially when it comes to love.

Idgie Says:
First, everyone sing along to Air Supply with me.... sorry, the title gave me a flashback.  :)

Second, I have the idea that Lori is turning into Barbara Cartland.  I receive so many new titles from her that she must not sleep, eat or have any life that doesn't involve a Word program. (This is my 7th book to review since Nov. 2010 and I'm not sure I have received all of her titles during that time.)

Saying that though, I admire her skills.  Her books never read like they are simply churned out for profit.   There's a lot of character, spit, fire and compassion in these love stories.  Definitely a large amount of thought and preparation go into them and the characters are always likable.  

Having cowboys in many of them doesn't hurt either!  :)

Going pool or beach-side................this book deserves a toss into the pool bag. 

Read an excerpt HERE.

Anything But Sweet

Idgie Says:
I put a shout out up a week or so ago as I had not received the book, but it came in the mail just as I was heading to the beach - so of course I grabbed it!  

What a perfect beach read!  (never mind that this book, and myself received a wave right in the face while immersed in the book and not paying attention - the beauty of paper vs. electronic books.)

The characters are likable and hot - always important.  :) 

They have storylines that could turn maudlin and draining with negativity, but they're kept fairly matter of fact in the "hey, that's how life works" style of writing. 

It's a nice romance that keeps you interested in the storyline without too much angst and sappiness that might turn a person off.  It's fairly realistic and does a nice job of incorporating the Reality TV frenzy that's going on in the US right now.

__________________________________ 


Anything But Sweet   
by Candis Terry

Avon

384 Pages  
On Sale Date: June 25, 2013 

ISBN: 9780062237224 

Paperback / softback / Mass market (rack) paperback

A man who doesn’t like change . . . The Wilder family is something of a Sweet, TX institution: between their yearly BBQ blow-outs and their Hardware and Feed store, they’re an institution—an institution that ex-marine Reno Wilder has tried to preserve, in honor of his lost loved ones. But it seems like he’s the only one who’s got any respect left for traditions when a new TV makeover show rolls in to renovate Sweet to bring in more tourists. Everyone is pleased except Reno—and this cowboy is determined to keep everything just the way he likes it.

A woman who wants to change everything . . . Inquisitive. Stubborn. Smart. Drop dead gorgeous. That would be makeover show host and designer, Charlotte Brooks—the woman Reno has declared war against. And yet, he can’t seem to keep away from her, or to get her off his mind. Charlotte isn’t afraid to back down from a challenge—of any kind—and she’s promised to prove to Reno that change can be sexy, hot, and very, very sweet, if Reno and Charli learn to let go of their pasts and grab hold of a future full of promise.

The Last Camellia

The Last Camellia
Author: Sarah Jio
Publication Date: May 28, 2013
Publisher: Plume (Penguin)

Idgie Says:
I'm putting my review before the book description for a simple reason.  When the book showed up on my doorstep and I read the back cover, I rolled my eyes and groaned.  I had not an ounce of interest in reading about dastardly international flower thieves.  If the publisher had approached me about it before sending I would have said "No Thank You".  Luckily they didn't!

The prologue didn't entice much either, what with the Queen's men scouring the countryside looking for a flowering bush for her garden, complete with Royal Proclamations.

Therefore I was pleasantly surprised that by the end of Chapter One I was enticed into settling into my chair and visiting with the book for a while.  This novel turned out to have a nice little story line - two actually - where the characters were lively enough to keep you quite interested in what was going on with them.  One group of characters set in the 1940s and the second in present day.  The Camellia, luckily, became a background affair.  

Both Flora, in the 1940's, and Addison, in the present, have lives with history and secrets and desires that come out in the novel that have nothing to do with the flower.  On their own they are interesting enough to keep you engaged.  Flora is hiding a secret that will help her family if she follows through and Addison is hiding a past that terrifies her.

A good fast read, great for summer enjoyment.  Look past the back cover.


Book Description:
On the eve of the Second World War, the last surviving specimen of a camellia plant known as the Middlebury Pink lies secreted away on an English country estate. Flora, an amateur American botanist, is contracted by an international ring of flower thieves to infiltrate the household and acquire the coveted bloom. Her search is at once brightened by new love and threatened by her discovery of a series of ghastly crimes.

More than half a century later, garden designer Addison takes up residence at the manor, now owned by the family of her husband, Rex. The couple’s shared passion for mysteries is fueled by the enchanting camellia orchard and an old gardener’s notebook. Yet its pages hint at dark acts ingeniously concealed. If the danger that Flora once faced remains very much alive, will Addison share her fate?

The Hypnotist's Love Story

The Hypnotist's Love Story
Author: Liane Moriarty
Original Hardback Publication - June 2012
Paperback - June 4, 2013
Publisher:  Berkeley

Book Description:
Ellen O’Farrell is a professional hypnotherapist who works out of the eccentric beachfront home she inherited from her grandparents. It’s a nice life, except for her tumultuous relationship history. She’s stoic about it, but at this point, Ellen wouldn’t mind a lasting one. When she meets Patrick, she’s optimistic. He’s attractive, single, employed, and best of all, he seems to like her back. Then comes that dreaded moment: He thinks they should have a talk.

Braced for the worst, Ellen is pleasantly surprised. It turns out that Patrick’s ex-girlfriend is stalking him. Ellen thinks, Actually, that’s kind of interesting. She’s dating someone worth stalking. She’s intrigued by the woman’s motives. In fact, she’d even love to meet her.

Ellen doesn’t know it, but she already has.

Idgie Says:
Oprah - the woman who creates gold with her words - gave this book a big thumbs up and I can see why.  The first chapter just jumps out and bites you with descriptive overload.  I was so immersed in the descriptions that I was ready to be hypnotized by this woman if only to have the opportunity to sit in her room and look out the window at the beautiful Australian beach.

Ellen is looking for love and thinks she might have found it, but the man currently taking up room in her heart has a rather large cement block shackled to his ankle.  The novel's main question is will the love overcome the cement block.....or will the cement block decide to take things to an ugly level?  

Again, even if the story itself doesn't grab and grip you - which it easily can do - the actual wordplay and in your face mental visuals will.

Barnes and Noble was kind enough to put an excerpt up on their online site: go HERE to read it.

Decatur Book Festival - 2013!

Congressman John Lewis Announced as Keynote Speaker for 2013 AJC Decatur Book Festival Presented by DeKalb Medical

Hundreds of Authors, New and Improved Tracks, Art Initiatives, and Activities for All Ages and Interests at the Eighth Annual Event

June 18, 2013

Famed American politician, iconic civil rights leader, freedom rider, activist, United States congressman, and Atlanta resident John Lewis will deliver the keynote address at the 2013 AJC Decatur Book Festival (AJC DBF).

Lewis will kick off the eighth annual event Friday, Aug. 30 at 8 p.m. at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts at Emory University. Lewis will discuss his recently released graphic novel, March: Book One, the first in a trilogy that aims to engage the next generation of readers to keep the lessons of the civil rights movement alive. The timing is perfect, as the AJC DBF begins just two days after the 50th anniversary celebration of the historic 1963 March on Washington.
March is a vivid first hand account of Lewis’ lifelong struggle for civil and human rights. Lewis discusses the roles he played as an integral leader during the March on Washington, as well as the 1965 Selma-Montgomery March. Additionally, March reflects on the distance traveled since the time of Jim Crow laws, segregation, and a divided nation.

In conjunction with Lewis and co-author Andrew Aydin, acclaimed graphic novelist Nate Powell collaborated on March to produce an intimate graphic depiction of one of our nation’s most historic moments. Together, the three explore the past, present, and future of racial relations in the United States of America.
AJC DBF Executive Director Daren Wang said he is honored to have Congressman Lewis as the keynote speaker for this year’s event.

“John Lewis is an iconic American figure of equality and freedom, a hero. Additionally, he is a phenomenal author who writes stories of significant events of our nation’s history – events that he directly participated in. Add to that the fact that Congressman Lewis lives in Atlanta, and he’s a perfect fit for the keynote speaker this year. We are very excited to kick off the festival with his powerful presence,” said Wang.

Following the keynote at Emory on Friday, the AJC DBF will kick off Saturday, Aug. 31 with a children’s parade on the Decatur Square. Events and author presentations will continue in downtown Decatur throughout the day Saturday. A second children’s parade will start Sunday’s festivities, followed by another full day of author talks and events suited for all ages and interests.
AJC DBF Program Director Philip Rafshoon exclaimed there really is something for everyone and that he’s extremely proud of the diverse, eclectic lineup at this year’s festival.

“The authors and activities we have planned this year are nothing short of amazing with a record number of authors launching their new books at this year’s festival,” said Rafshoon. “Our mission is to encourage a love of reading and writing for people from all walks of life, and this year’s lineup exemplifies our commitment to that mission.”

AJC DBF will feature lectures and signings from hundreds of international, national, and local authors, including award-winners and bestsellers across a wide spectrum of subjects, topics, and genres.
A few of the internationally recognized authors to be featured include Richard Blanco, Naomi Wolfe, Marcia Clark, Robert Morgan, Dr. Richard Besser, Lily Koppel, and Lev and Austin Grossman.
 
The speaker for the AJC DBF’s second kidnote address will be veteran picture book creator Tomie DePaola, whose Strega Nona picture books have engaged young readers for more than 35 years. He will be presenting his newest book—Strega Nona Does It Again—which features his long-beloved classic heroine.

Writers Conference
DBF’s Friday afternoon Writers Conference at Agnes Scott College features a keynote address by Clyde Edgerton. He is the author of ten novels, a book of advice, a memoir, and numerous short stories and essays. Edgerton has been a Guggenheim Fellow, and five of his novels have been New York Times Notable Books.

The AJC DBF continues to grow, flourish, and devise new and diverse programming every year. This year is no exception. Highlights include:

DBF Adds Three New Stages
The beautifully restored Decatur Recreation Center, originally built in 1958, will be open for festival events. Festival venues at the Center include the 200-seat studio and the 750-seat Bill Floyd Gymnasium. Also, after a year away, the AJC DBF is back in the 500-seat Decatur High School auditorium, adding a total of three new stages and almost 1,500 new seats. This means that the AJC Decatur Book Festival will host a total of 18 stages featuring even more world-class authors, panels, readings, and performances.

art | DBF
This year, the AJC DBF has invited a diverse group of arts organizations to engage our imaginations with stories, ideas, performances, installations, films, music, artwork, and photographs in order to connect our citizens more broadly with the arts and cultural opportunities in their local community. Participants will include Atlanta Celebrates Photography, Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Art Papers, Burnaway, Dashboard Co-op, FilmLove, Flux Projects, gloATL, High Museum of Art, The Lucky Penny, Museum of Design Atlanta, MOCA GA, Serenbe Playhouse, Soul Food Cypher, Straw Hat Press, Staib Dance, Theatrical Outfit, and WonderRoot, among many others.

Additionally, art | DBF will house the Atlanta PlanIt Pavilion—a space where local arts and cultural organizations can build audience support and promote upcoming events—and an Exhibition Emporium where arts organizations and artists can be found doing what they do best—activating space in new and exciting ways and bringing fresh art experiences to new audiences.

Civil & Human Rights Track
The eighth annual AJC Decatur Book Festival begins two days after the 50th anniversary celebration of the March on Washington. In addition to Lewis’ keynote address, this year’s festival includes many readings and talks focused on civil and human rights. Events include a panel featuring Susan Crandall’s new novel, Whistling Past The Graveyard; Mac Griswold’s history of a slave plantation on New York’s Long Island, The Manor; Supreme Court lawyer and political pundit Linda Hirshman’s stunning history of the successful struggle for LGBT rights, Victory; and a panel on the changes in sports and civil rights.

Humanities Track Sponsored by the Georgia Humanities Council
The Humanities track will include books and discussions on music and food, as well as William Ferris’ new work, The Storied South, whichfeatures the voices of 26 of the most luminous artists and thinkers in the American cultural firmament, such as Eudora Welty, Pete Seeger, and Alice Walker.

FULL DETAILS CAN BE FOUND HERE:

Sweet Salt Air

Sweet Salt Air
Author: Barbara Delinksy
Hardcover: 416 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (June 18, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1250007038
ISBN-13: 978-1250007032

Book Description:
Charlotte and Nicole were once the best of friends, spending summers together in Nicole's coastal island house off of Maine. But many years, and many secrets, have kept the women apart. A successful travel writer, single Charlotte lives on the road, while Nicole, a food blogger, keeps house in Philadelphia with her surgeon-husband, Julian.

When Nicole is commissioned to write a book about island food, she invites her old friend Charlotte back to Quinnipeague, for a final summer, to help. Outgoing and passionate, Charlotte has a gift for talking to people and making friends, and Nicole could use her expertise for interviews with locals. Missing a genuine connection, Charlotte agrees.

Read excerpt HERE.  

Idgie Says:
This a nice hearty book on growing internally and finding yourself and discovering what you want truly want out of life.

Charlotte lacks warmth in life by the way of human connection - while she does happen to have a kick-ass job, traveling the world, seeing new sites and photographing for the likes of National Geographic, she's  a World Traveler, but lonely.

Nicole is a food blogger with a beautiful home, beautiful husband, and longings she's not understanding. She wants more.  She also wants to find a way to get her best friend back into her life.

Second chances come for both when Nicole invites Charlotte to an island of their youth to help write a cookbook.  An opportunity to find themselves and their friendship again.

It's a nice book on human feelings and love.   Definitely a woman relationship novel.

Free eBook Alert!  Barbara's short story, The Right Wrong Number was released as a free eBook on April 2nd.  Go grab a copy!

Call Me Zelda

Call Me Zelda
Author: Erika Robuck
Paperback: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Trade (May 7, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 045123992X
ISBN-13: 978-0451239921

Book Description:
Everything in the ward seemed different now, and I no longer felt its calming presence. The Fitzgeralds stirred something in me that had been dormant for a long time, and I was not prepared to face it....

From New York to Paris, Scott and Zelda Fitzgerald reigned as king and queen of the Jazz Age, seeming to float on champagne bubbles above the mundane cares of the world. But to those who truly knew them, the endless parties were only a distraction from their inner turmoil, and from a love that united them with a scorching intensity.

When Zelda is committed to a Baltimore psychiatric clinic in 1932, vacillating between lucidity and madness in her struggle to forge an identity separate from her husband, the famous writer, she finds a sympathetic friend in her nurse, Anna Howard. Held captive by her own tragic past, Anna is increasingly drawn into the Fitzgeralds’ tumultuous relationship. As she becomes privy to Zelda’s most intimate confessions, written in a secret memoir meant only for her, Anna begins to wonder which Fitzgerald is the true genius. But in taking ever greater emotional risks to save Zelda, Anna may end up paying a far higher price than she intended....

Short Excerpt HERE.

Idgie Says:
I have never been a big fan of the Fitzgeralds, and in fact don't know that much about them, so I wasn't sure how interested I would be in a fictional novel about Zelda's stay in a psychiatric hospital - discussing her life and making friends with her nurse. 

I have to say I was very pleasantly surprised! The nurse, Anna, is a fully fleshed out character with an extremely engaging presence.  I liked her personality.  I liked her brother.  I liked her friend Will.  I could easily visit, have dinner with and just "be" with these people.

At the same time, Zelda, while obviously emotionally fragile, also grabs your attention with her character and additionally makes a claim about her husband that immediately made me perk up and pay attention.  Plagiarism and/or stealing of a story line is not to be taken lightly in the book world.

I found myself rooting both for Zelda, her possible success and her sanity, and also for Anna to find peace and happiness in her life. 

A novel that grabs.  Definitely worthy of your time and attention.

Missing in Machu Picchu

Missing in Machu Picchu
Author: Cecilia Velastegui
Hardcover: 344 pages
Publisher: Libros Publishing, LLC (June 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0985176946
ISBN-13: 978-0985176945

Book Description:
Machu Picchu shrouds many secrets, visible only to those who enter with a pure heart. Only then can one ask the ancient oracles: Will hearts crushed by deception ever heal? And can a heinous sacrifice be stopped in time?

From internationally acclaimed Cecilia Velástegui, author of Traces of Bliss and Gathering the Indigo Maidens, now comes a riveting cautionary tale in which the ancient and the contemporary collide. High in the Andes Mountains on the legendary Inca Trail, four women wishing for an adventure to soothe their broken hearts find themselves victim to a predator’s ruse—and soon in a fight for their very lives.

Hilary, Mercy, Tiffany, and Gabby, all thirty-something professional women who’ve been burned by men they’ve met through online dating, gather on an Ivy League alum hike of the Inca Trail, intent on leaving romance behind. But their mountain adventure turns menacing when the flooding and mudslides of January 29, 2010 destroy parts of the trail and cut off communication with the outside world. They have no choice but to place their lives in the hands of Rodrigo, their handsome and uncannily magnetic hike leader. As Rodrigo leads them ever higher toward the ancient citadel of Machu Picchu, the women begin to fall for his charms, and friend is pitted against friend as each woman brazenly vies for Rodrigo’s attentions.

Rodrigo manipulates the women into participating in a heinous ancient sacrifice that will guarantee the success of his megalomaniac dreams. But unbeknownst to the hikers, they have been under the vigilant watch of Taki and Koyam, two elderly indigenous women who understand the danger the women are facing. By following the wisdom of their mummified Andean ancestor, Taki and Koyam attempt to save the women, and act with spine-tingling resolve against the sinister forces of Rodrigo and his minions.

With intelligence and keen insight into the dark side of cyber dating and the foreigners who have treated Machu Picchu’s rich past with disrespect, Velástegui delivers a fiercely original, deeply imagined, and beautifully rendered novel in which timeless struggles of love and hate, life and death, and treachery and loyalty play out within the mystical ambience of one of the Seven Wonders of the World.

Idgie Says:
I'm a little torn on this book.  The story line is certainly interesting - with the battle between the new modern cyber world and ancient curses and ways - but I found it hard to care about the characters and what might or does happen to them.  The women were all pretty much out for themselves and less than interested in helping each other.  I didn't care much for them.   I did like the two elder ladies who hoped to help them, whether they felt they deserved it or not.   Some rather hardcore sex talk occurs in the story also, but not in a romantic sense. 

This is an interesting book to learn more about the area and land of Machu Picchu, and of course learning about ancient ways of controlling life - good or bad - are always interesting to read about, but I could take or leave the people involved.

Again though, as I always say, I'm not touting this as a bad novel, I'm saying I personally couldn't connect with the characters - that doesn't mean you won't enjoy it.


Q & A with the author HERE.

The Receptionist - Now in paperback

Paperback Release - June 11, 2013

_______________________________________

The Receptionist
Author: Janet Groth
Publisher: Alongquin
Publication Date: June 26, 2012
ISBN: 978-1611747812


Book Description:
Thanks to a successful interview with the painfully shy E.B. White, a beautiful, 19-year-old, blue-eyed blonde from the cornfields of Iowa lands a job as a receptionist at The New Yorker magazine. There she stays two decades, becoming general all-around factotum—watching and registering the comings and goings, marriages and divorces, scandalous affairs, failures, triumphs, and tragedies of the eccentric inhabitants of the 18th floor. Though she dreamed of becoming a writer, she never advanced at the magazine.

This memoir of a particular time and place is as much about why that was so as it is about Groth’s fascinating relationships with John Berryman, Joseph Mitchell, Muriel Spark, as well as E.J. Kahn, Calvin Trillin, Renata Adler, Peter DeVries, Charles Addams, and many other New Yorker contributors and bohemian denizens of Greenwich Village in its heyday. Eventually, Groth would have to leave The New Yorker in order to find herself.

Idgie Says:
From 1957 to 1978 Janet was the receptionist on the 18th floor of The New Yorker building.  This was the writers and artists floor.  Filled with intelligence, wit and words - this was the floor for an aspiring writer to start out on and slowly branch into the world of writing and publishing.  Yet Janet never does.  She stays the Receptionist.  While she speaks of the constraints of women working at that time, she does admit that she was also stagnant in her career path partially of her own volition.   Time and again she saw others rise through the ranks and move on to other careers.

She does give the inside scoop on many of the well known author's personalities and quirks, but throughout it all she speaks with respect in regards to them.  There is no slandering going on here.  You walk away from this book with the feeling that you now know some of these public figures just a little better. 

Janet's goal was to become a writer and publish a book.  In the end she achieved her goal, but perhaps not in the way originally planned.

Read an Excerpt Here:

Bobcat and Other Stories

Bobcat and Other Stories
Author: Rebecca Lee
Paperback: 256 pages
Publisher: Algonquin Books (June 11, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1616201738
ISBN-13: 978-1616201739
Book Description:
At turns witty, heartbreaking, and fiercely intelligent, Bobcat and Other Stories establishes Rebecca Lee as one of our most gifted and original short story writers. Using a range of landscapes and countries, Lee creates full worlds, so that each story reads like a short novel. A student plagiarizes a paper and holds fast to her alibi, finding herself complicit in the resurrection of one professor’s shadowy past. A dinner party becomes the occasion for the dissolution of more than one marriage. A woman is hired to find a marriage match for the one true soulmate she’s ever found. In all, Rebecca Lee traverses the terrain of infidelity, obligation, sacrifice, jealousy, and finally, optimism. She creates characters so wonderfully flawed, so driven by their desire, so compelled the make sense of their human condition, that it’s impossible not to feel for them when their fragile beliefs of romantic love, domestic bliss, or academic seclusion fail to provide them wit the sort of force field they’d hoped for.

Idgie Says:
This is an interesting and different book.  The stories were all over the place and I liked it.  

The first short story involves a dinner party involving various people with various issues - mainly marriage issues - and interestingly enough a woman who claims to have lost an arm to a Bobcat.  

Another story I enjoyed was an American woman going to Hong Kong for the summer with her best friend and being talked into finding him a wife by his father.  

Different short stories, none related to the other, all interesting.  A perfect book for those times when you need a "story hit" but don't quite have the time for a novel.    

Ladies' Night

Ladies' Night
Author: Mary Kay Andrews
Hardcover: 464 pages
Publisher: St. Martin's Press (June 4, 2013)
ISBN-13: 978-1250019677

Book Description:
Rising media star and lifestyle blogger Grace Stanton’s own life gets torpedoed after she drives her cheating husband’s pricey sports car straight into the family swimming pool in a fit of anger.

Soon she’s locked out of her own palatial home, checking account, and blog, forced to move in with her widowed mother who lives above, and owns, The Sandbar, a rundown beach bar. Attending court-mandated weekly “divorce recovery” therapy sessions with a group of three other women—marital misfits whose only common denominator is betrayal—Grace and the women soon ditch their therapist and move their Wednesday “Ladies’ Night” sessions to The Sandbar.

They begin to help each other, walking a fine line between revenge and justice, as each one finds closure in ways previously unimagined. Can Grace figure out a new way home and how strong she needs to be to get there?

 Idgie Says:
This is a fun summer read that revolves around surviving "The Break-up". Not only surviving, but growing and thriving after the fact.

 Grace is the main character, a woman with an incredibly successful blog that makes enough money to be her only source of income. (Yes, that did give me pause.....) Sadly she co-runs it with her husband - and when she drives his car into a pool after finding him and her assistant, sans pants, rolling around in the formerly dry car - she quickly finds her blog hijacked by him, herself locked out of her house and sentenced to therapy for her aggressive behavior.

So begins the rise of the phoenix. She moves in with her mother above the family bar, starts completely over growing and nurtering a new blog and it's supporters - and along the way - makes new friends from her therapy group. These friends also have backstories that are brought forth.

A nice hearty read that will leave you feeling good at the end and remind you that the end of a relationship need not be "the end".

_____________________________

 Excerpt can be read HERE!

_____________________________

Book Blogger Q&A with Mary Kay Andrews

1.      Q: Give us the elevator pitch for LADIES’ NIGHT.

A: Fourth floor, better sportswear, please. Ladies’ Night is the story of lifestyle blogger Grace Stanton who, after catching her husband cheating, drives his convertible into the family swimming pool. Once her glamorous lifestyle goes up in flames, Grace, penniless and homeless, is forced to reinvent her life—while attending court-mandated divorce recovery therapy with a group of oddballs with whom she has nothing in common—except betrayal and revenge.

2.      Q: You seem to write about divorce a lot and revenge a lot—any skeletons in your closet that you’d like to share?

A:  It does seem to be a recurring theme in my work, doesn’t it? After my most recent book, Spring Fever was published last summer, my agent notified me that Amazon had ranked me Number 1 in divorce fiction. Which is interesting, because I’m still married to my starter husband of nearly 37 years. After all these years of researching and writing about divorce and revenge, I think we’ve both concluded it’s easier just to work things out and get along. Plus he knows how to fix things. And he’s a great cook.

3.      Q: Why a lifestyle blogger for a protagonist?

A:  As a lifelong junker, house restorer and decorator in denial, I read a lot of lifestyle and decorating blogs. I’m fascinated with the reach and range of these every-day people, who write about and document their own passions for these topics. Although my protagonist, Grace, is actually an interior designer, many lifestyle bloggers don’t have any formal training in these fields, or in writing or photography, which actually makes their blogs less intimidating and more approachable to the average gal who just wants to know how to chalk-paint an old dresser or make a farmhouse table out of discarded wooden pallets. Some of these bloggers  have millions of followers and have gone on to have book deals and even their own product lines, like Miss Mustard Seed, who has her own line of milk paint, or the couple behind Young House Love, who recently introduced their own line of lighting fixtures.

I thought it would make for great drama, and conflict, for Grace to start out having this seemingly very glamorous, Martha Stewart life, in a fabulous house—and then to have it all snatched away when her marriage fails. One minute she’s shooting a tabletop story with an imported Belgian linen runner, the next, she’s mopping floors at her mother’s run-down beach bar on the Florida gulf coast.

4.      Q: Tell me about Wyatt, the sole male member of the divorce recovery group in Ladies’ Night. He certainly doesn’t seem to be the typical alpha male you see in a lot of commercial fiction.

A:  I loved writing about a vulnerable, damaged, insecure guy like Wyatt. Because he seemed so real to me. Not every injured party in every divorce is the wife, and in Wyatt’s marriage, his wife  was actually the cheater. Now Wyatt is faced with a divorce he didn’t seek, and having to fight for custody of his six-year-old son Bo. He’s conflicted—admitting he’s drawn to Grace, but wondering if he doesn’t owe it to Bo to save his marriage. He’s the polar opposite of Grace’s ex, Ben, who really is the alpha type. Plus I made Wyatt bald—not really bald, but he shaves his head because he works outside, so he’s tanned and bald and buff, which I think makes him incredibly H-O-T. Grace thinks so too.

5.      Q:  The setting for this book is Anna Maria Island, off the coast of Sarasota, a new locale for you. You’ve set other novels in Georgia, where you live, and in North Carolina, where you formerly lived. Why Florida?

A:  I grew up in St. Petersburg, which is just across the Sunshine Skyway from Anna Maria. I like Anna Maria because it reminds me of the beaches of my youth; not too developed, sort of low-key. And I gave Wyatt a failing throw-back family-owned tourist attraction, which I called Jungle Jerry’s, because I grew up going to places like Silver Springs, Cypress Gardens and Weeki-Wachee. I was looking the nostalgia factor, and for a lost cause. Also? I wanted to go to Florida and write in January when it’s cold and miserable in Atlanta. So I rented a tiny cottage on Anna Maria and strolled the beach and ate seafood. Nice work if you can get it.

6.      Q: What do you read when you’re working on a book? Or do you?

A: When I’m starting a book and want a great hook, I’ll read one of my favorite Elmore Leonard novels, like Gold Coast or Get Shorty to inspire me to leave out the stuff readers skip over. Nobody puts you in the world of a book faster than Leonard. If I’m writing a sexy love scene, I’ll turn to Susan Elizabeth Phillips (What I Did For Love)or Jennifer Crusie, (Crazy for You) who manage to do funny and sexy at the same time.  To make myself crazy with envy because she writes books with such heart and warmth, I love Elinor Lipman. I read her novel, The Family Man, when I was writing Summer Rental, and had to write her a gushy fan-girl note to tell her she’d written the perfect book.

7.      Q: What’s next?

A:  I’m finishing up the fourth installment in my Savannah series about Weezie and BeBe. Look for Christmas Bliss in mid-October. And in June, look for me and Ladies’ Night in bookstores all over the place.

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence

Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence
Author: David Samuel Levinson
Publisher: Algonquin
Publication Date: June 4, 2013

Book Description:
One writer’s mysterious death, another’s relentless quest for fame, and a bitter literary critic’s passion for manipulation drive the story of this haunting novel set in a small upstate New York college town in the 1990s.

Catherine Strayed is living a quiet, un-
remarkable life in a secluded college town following the mysterious death of her husband, a promising writer whose death may have been an accident, a suicide, or perhaps even a murder. When her former mentor (and onetime lover)—a powerful critic who singlehandedly destroyed her late husband’s chance for success—takes a teaching job at the college, Catherine’s world threatens to collapse. For with him has come his latest protégé, an exotic young woman named Antonia Lively. Antonia’s debut  novel has become a literary sensation—but it is, in fact, an almost factual retelling of 
a terrible crime that she relates without 
any concern for the impact its publication will have on the lives of those involved.

 As Antonia insinuates herself into Catherine’s life, mysterious and frightening things start to happen, because unbeknownst to Catherine, the younger woman intends to plunder her own dark, regrettable past—and the unsolved death of her husband—for her next literary triumph.

Provocative and cunning, Antonia Lively Breaks the Silence asserts that fiction is never truly fictional and asks, What does stealing another’s life do to your soul? Levinson spins a tale of surprises, peeling back one revelation only to find another in this tightly wrought, wickedly cynical look at the worlds of academia, publishing, and celebrity.

Idgie Says:
Do you believe that an author would ever use someone else's unfortunate life history to create a winning novel? Do you believe they would creep into your life to wait for things to happen so that they can have that New York Times list book?  Nooo.. writers don't do that - wink wink.  (None of the author's I know would do that!)

This story has so many twists and turns and secrets, and if they all come out, someone is guaranteed to have that highly sought after winning novel - if they're willing to run over everyone in their path, regardless of how bad the hurt may be, to tell the tale.

A deliciously detailed book about the good.. and the bad.. in the publishing industry. Chuck Adams, Executive Editor of Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, states that this book will enrage some readers with it's literary dirty secrets, shock others with it's frankness of the behind the scenes events in the literary giants' worlds and entertain everyone with it's twists and turns.  I have to agree and say that I couldn't put it any better.  If you have an actual interest in the literary world itself, it's a great look into the magic ball.

The Time Between

The Time Between
Author: Karen White
Hardcover: 352 pages
Publisher: NAL Hardcover (June 4, 2013)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0451239865
ISBN-13: 978-0451239860

Book Description:
Eleanor Murray will always remember her childhood on Edisto Island, where her late father, a local shrimper, shared her passion for music. Now her memories of him are all that tempers the guilt she feels over the accident that put her sister in a wheelchair—and the feelings she harbors for her sister’s husband.

To help support her sister, Eleanor works at a Charleston investment firm during the day, but she escapes into her music, playing piano at a neighborhood bar. Until the night her enigmatic boss walks in and offers her a part-time job caring for his elderly aunt, Helena, back on Edisto. For Eleanor, it’s a chance to revisit the place where she was her happiest—and to share her love of music with grieving Helena, whose sister recently died under mysterious circumstances.

An island lush with sweetgrass and salt marshes, Edisto has been a peaceful refuge for Helena, who escaped with her sister from war-torn Hungary in 1944. The sisters were well-known on the island, where they volunteered in their church and community. But now Eleanor will finally learn the truth about their past: secrets that will help heal her relationship with her own sister—and set Eleanor free....

Idgie Says:
I will say it now - this is my favorite Karen White book so far!  I have reviewed at least 9 or 10 of her books over the years and adore quite a few of them (Tradd Street Series a strong fave) but this one struck hard and stuck.

When a guilt weighs on you so hard that it has ruined your life, a guilt that isn't yours to have, but that while others realize it's not your fault they still use your guilt to their advantage - you find yourself emotionally disabled. 

Eleanor has led a life of tragedy.  She feels a strong lack of love in her own family, with a strong sense of responsibility at the same time.  She is a robot working through her life, doing what she feels she's supposed to do.  Her entire family takes advantage of her, turning her pretty much into a slave.

She does have a job, and a nice handsome boss who keeps it very professional at all times.  But then one day he needs a favor and he picks her.  Suddenly Eleanor has her one chance to break free of her self-imposed bonds and discover what it's truly like to live.

Meanwhile a deep mystery unfolds intertwined with a horrific historical event - Hungarian women with deep secrets that cause great pain.  I was on the edge of my seat as secrets were being revealed.  

The one thing slightly askew in the story, to my mind, is that Eleanor's family seems to change their spots a little too quickly and easily once Eleanor begins to grow emotionally.  Their cold, selfish ways turn on a dime to warm and loving.  Hidden loving emotions suddenly surface where there was absolutely no sign of them in the beginning of the story.  But that one anomaly to an absolutely gripping novel is not enough to dissuade me from highly recommending it.

Second Hand Rose - Part of the Smoky Mountain Series

The Smokey Novel Series by Lin Stepp
Canterbury House Publishing
Newest Story - Second Hand Rose
Published April 1, 2013
ISBN: 978-0-9829054-7-0

I have received the 5th book in the series and thought it would be nice to give you an overview of the entire series. These are "wholesome contemporary romances". Rather like a Hallmark movie in book form. These are nice books that can be read for that romance hit without getting into racy or overly angsty scenes. You also get the visualization of the Smoky Mountains. The only negative I will give this series is that the cover design and printing style make the books look self-published and amateurish. Unfortunately this could make a reader turn away from the books without giving them a real chance.

I have previously reviewed the third book in the series and that review can be found HERE. 

The Smoky Mountain Series is a linked series of upbeat, sentimental contemporary romance novels. Each novel is set in a different area of the Smoky Mountains so that the reader gets to experience a visit to a new area of the Smokies along with the rich pleasure of a good Southern story about memorable characters. Familiar characters and places tie the stories together in an enjoyable way for readers who like a series they can settle into. The Foster Girls is the first of twelve novels in the series. The second book, Tell Me About Orchard Hollow, came out in the Spring of 2010. For Six Good Reaons, the third book in the series, was released early in 2011. The fourth book, Delia's Place, was published in 2012, and the latest novel Second Hand Rose, set in Wear's Valley, will be available in April 2013.
All titles are available in Print and Ebook formats.

The Foster Girls - Book One

The deep secrets – that restrict us and limit our lives – are at the heart of this first, engaging novel in the new Smoky Mountain series.
Vivian Delaney – in The Foster Girls – arrives in the quiet Wear’s Valley, on the backside of the Smoky Mountains, carrying a heavy load of hidden problems – and eager to find a quiet place to escape the recent troubles of her past. However, secrets are hard to keep, and right away Vivian encounters unexpected challenges with her landlord, Scott Jamison. From Vivian’s first meeting with Scott – at the end of a rifle barrel – Scott seems purposed to push past all Vivian’s defenses and to find a way into her heart.
Just as Vivian begins to trust Scott – and is able to share her secrets with him and new friends in the valley – love for a little foster girl, Sarah Taylor, challenges Vivian and Scott’s new relationship. When Sarah is lost in the mountains, the suspense and conflict build – with the lives of several characters caught tantalizingly in the balance.
Readers will quickly become wrapped up in the magic of this heartwarming story set against the backdrop of the beautiful Smoky Mountains National Park. They will heartily enjoy the likable cast of main and secondary characters along with the sprinkling of Appalachian flavor that generously enhances this inspirational regional story.

Tell Me About Orchard Hollow - Book Two

It is difficult to recover when hurt by those we love and trust - but in this second novel in the beloved Smoky Mountain Series, a young woman finds healing and new confidence while staying in a mountain cabin on the quiet side of the mountains.
New Yorker Jenna Howell has spent many pleasant hours listening to her older neighbor, Sam Oliver, spin stories about his beloved home place on Orchard Hollow Road in the foothills of the Smoky Mountains. This rural world is far removed from Jenna's life in downtown Manhattan, but when several shocking events and marital betrayal come her way, Jenna - a previously sheltered girl - decides to take Sam up on his offer to visit his cabin in the mountains.
At Sam's place in Townsend, Jenna meets many new friends, including her good-looking neighbor, artist Boyce Hart. A quick attraction sparks between Jenna and Boyce, proving to be both exciting and confusing at this time in Jenna's life. It is not the right time for a new relationship for either Jenna or Boyce. However, as spring blooms in the Smokies, Jenna blooms. She gains a new appreciation for unselfish love and simple pleasures, develops confidence in herself and her talents, and begins to find new understandings about faith. Just as she is finding happiness and beginning to heal, an unexpected tragedy forces her to return to New York City. Here she has to test out her new-found strengths, resolve the problems in her life, and decide on the direction for her future. Choosing the right course proves to be more difficult than expected - as two very different lives vie with opposite allures for Jenna's heart.

For Six Good Reasons - Book Three

A young woman with six foster children, under twelve, hopes for patience, peace, and a bigger
house – but love? Not hardly. However — sometimes fate deals an unexpected hand.
When Alice Graham came back to look at the sale property at the base of the Smoky Mountains in Greenbrier, it was absolutely not because of that recurring dream of the cowboy. She’d seen him high on the ridge top in the winter and felt a peculiar drawing and attraction flash between them – but she never expected to see him again.
When she did, a month after buying the rural property, that odd attraction still sizzled in the air. However, it seemed unlikely that anything romantic would develop, because Alice had bought the property and its house as a home for herself and the six Stuart siblings she’d agreed to foster. Six kids were enough to scare any man off – especially a confirmed bachelor like Harrison Ramsey with unsolved mysteries and unpleasant rumors floating around in his past.

Delia's Place - Book Four

Just when Delia Walker’s life reads like a fairy tale come true, the bottom falls out of everything, leaving her desperate, devastated, and directionless—worrying through a rush of anxious fears and tears whether life can ever turn right again.
Delia Eleanor Walker’s life is perfectly planned—the wedding date set, the invitations mailed, and her family gathered at the North Carolina beach house ready to celebrate—when Delia receives Prentice’s unexpected fed-ex announcing he’s married someone else! What on earth will she do? She’s centered every aspect of her future around her upcoming marriage and Delia knows her family will somehow blame the break-up on her. They always do. They’ll call it one more immature botch-up by the baby of the family.
In her lap, among the mail just received, Delia seizes on an answer—an invitation from Maureen Cross for a last visit to her Aunt Dee’s old cottage behind Gatlinburg. It’s cowardly to run, but Delia does, hoping to find in the mountains time to heal and space to chart a new direction for her life.
Instead of peace and quiet, Delia finds a troubled cousin she’s never met hiding out in her aunt’s house and an old childhood playmate and heartthrob, Tanner Cross, back in town, reminding her of yet another time she made a fool of herself romantically. To top it off, a criminal is soon on the loose, along with an increasingly complicated array of new problems that Delia never, in a million years, expected to encounter.
Come see how Delia finds her way… and follow her through surprising twists of sorrow, suspense, and sweetness—amid the beauty of the Great Smoky Mountains and the charm of Gatlinburg—in this warm, contemporary romance.

Second Hand Rose - Book Five

Surely a girl can be forgiven a moment of fantasy dancing with a tall dark stranger? And surely nothing can come of it? Wrong. Life’s chance, indulgent moments always find a way of coming back to complicate everything.
Life is sometimes hard as a widowed, single mother with three young children, a business to run, bills to meet, and debts to pay. Despite it all, Rosalyn McCreary tries to count her blessings. She cherishes her shop, Second Hand Rose, her family and friends. A practical woman by necessity, she seldom indulges in impulse and fancy—except for that crazy spring day she danced with a total stranger she’d never met. Whatever was she thinking? And to learn later that her mystery stranger, Kendrick Lanier, planned to move to Wear’s Valley. Great. Just one more problem she doesn’t need. Kendrick soon pursues her, despite Rosalyn’s efforts to crowd him out, finding ways into her life, and into the lives of her children, and creating complications Rosalyn simply doesn’t want to deal with. Especially since the more she learns of the man’s life and secrets, the more she realizes how ill-suited they are. With Rosalyn and Kendrick’s troubled pasts, and Rosalyn’s temper, you’ll find it a toss-up to decide if these two stubborn, determined individuals should, or shouldn’t, ever get together.