Month: June 2019

Book Tours

Book Blast and Giveaway

Gwendalyn’s Books

Welcome to

A Murder On Jane Street

http://www.jeanbooknerd.com/2019/05/nerd-blast-murder-on-jane-street-by.html

Print Length: 410 pages
Publisher: The Wild Harp & Company, Inc. (July 16, 2019)
Publication Date: July 16, 2019
Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC
Language: English
ASIN: B07QSC84TF

Praise for CATHY CASH SPELLMAN


“…Almost impossible to put down. The Author has the ability to produce one powerful scene after another and the action draws you helplessly on…” ―Publisher’s Weekly on So Many Partings

“…A cross between The Thorn Birds and Ragtime…” ―ALA Booklist on So Many Partings

“Flows along with an inexorable narrative current that propels the readers from one involving episode to the next.” ―Booklist on So Many Partings

“An energetic plot that never takes a breather.” ―Kirkus Reviews on Paint the Wind

“A western extravaganza.. a plot teeming with outsize characters.” ―Publishers Weekly on Paint the Wind

“I have never read a book or connected with an author who has touched me so deeply – as a mother, a grandmother, and another psychic kindred soul!” ―Elizabeth Taylor on Bless the Child

“This book has really touched my heartstrings as both a mother and grandmother. And Cathy Cash Spellman is one hell of a writer!” ―Maureen Stapleton on Bless the Child

“With a seductive, at times spellbinding style, author Spellman (An Excess of Love) incorporates ancient myths into an entrancing romantic thriller.. Spellman succeeds in capturing the reader’s close attention as an unrelenting sense of foreboding drives the narrative forward with power.” ―Publisher’s Weekly on Bless the Child

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6AdZ0ljS1Ag

A brutal murder.
A heinous secret
A deadly conspiracy.

The brutal murder of the little old lady next door puts FitzHugh Donovan on the case. A retired New York City Police Chief, he knows a cover-up when he sees one and his Irish Cop conscience can’t let that happen.

Now, Fitz, his family and his quirky band of Bleecker Street Irregulars are ensnared in the bizarre secret the woman died to protect.


 


Is this a 75-year-old cold case turned hot again, or an unspeakable crime-in-progress that could alter the course of the world?

Fitz doesn’t yet know how high the stakes are, that failure isn’t an option, and that the little old lady was so much more than she appeared. But he’s trying to keep everyone alive long enough to find out.

Characters you’ll care about, dark shocking secrets, and disturbing similarities to today’s political scene, will keep you turning pages to an ending you won’t see coming.

You can purchase A Murder on Jane Street at the following Retailers:

 

Photo Credit: Dakota Cash

Multiple New York Times and International Bestsellers, a Paramount Movie, book sales in 22 countries, Cathy Cash Spellman writes stories about love, friendship, adventure, and history. Known for her big sprawling sagas and memorable characters, Cathy writes the kind of stories women like to lose themselves in, and then remember long after the book is done.

Her books range through several genres: contemporary, historical, mystery, mystic and romance. Several take place in two time-frames, both current and historical.

Bless the Child was a Paramount movie in 2000, starring Kim Basinger and Jimmy Smits, and Paint The Wind has been optioned for film and TV.

Cathy is an Astrologer, Martial Artist (Black Belt Goju Ryu Karate) and has expertise in Chinese Medicine, several alternative healing modalities and many metaphysical disciplines.

She has written for Self, Harper’s Bazaar, Town & Country, Mademoiselle, Cosmo, Penthouse, Mode, Kung Fu and many other magazines about women, health, empowerment, sexuality, spiritual philosophy and Astrology. She blogs for The Huffington Post and The New York Times.

*JBN is not responsible for Lost or Damaged Books in your Nerdy Mail Box*

Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

1 Winner will receive a $25.00 Amazon Gift Card.

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Welcome To Collateral Damage Take over Tour

Gwendalyn’s Books

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Click on the Banner To listen ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Purchase by clicking on the Amazon button

#taylorsimonds #collateraldammage #superheroes #fantasyreads #yareads #theparliamenthousepress #TPHTours

Debuting at a 1# Spot Is No Small Feet

@taylor_on_tour @theparliamentpress

•Publisher: The Parliament House

•Author: Taylor Simonds

•Book Title: Collateral Damage

Power. Courage. Invincibility. The marks of a true hero.

Meg Sawyer has none of these things.

Meg has never stopped a moving bus with her bare hands, been bitten by a radioactive
insect, or done anything moderately resembling saving the world. She doesn’t have to. She’s a background citizen, a nobody, one of the swarms of faceless civilians of Lunar City–where genetically enhanced superhumans straight out of the comics have thwarted
evil for years.

For as long as the Supers have existed, Meg has had one goal: to not become a
casualty in their near-daily battles for justice. And for the last seventeen years, she’s managed to do just that. Sure, her minimum-wage job at the local coffee shop isn’t great, she can’t even leave her apartment without loading herself up with protective
gear, and her car was just hijacked to throw at a supervillain (again), but she’s not dead yet.

But when Meg accidentally finds one of the city’s perfect, invincible protectors
murdered under extremely suspicious circumstances, her whole “innocent bystander” strategy falls apart. After being coerced by his determined girlfriend into a mission to help prevent the deaths of the remaining Supers, Meg finds herself forced into the foreground
of a story she never wanted to be part of—one that challenges everything she thought she knew about both her city and herself.

Collateral Damage Chapter 1

Arnold is dead.

It’s not my fault. Let’s get that clear. These kinds of things usually aren’t, but that doesn’t change the unavoidable fact that he’s super, super dead.

I wish I could say Arnold’s dead-ness is unexpected, but the truth is, I’m impressed he even survived this long.

My last car only made it six months.

To be fair, he’s not technically dead yet, but he’s definitely going to be in a few minutes. Maybe it’s fatalistic to write this off as an inevitability, but I’ve lived in Lunar City long enough to know when it’s someone’s—or something’s, in this case—final day.

In this case, it’s the police scanner duct-taped to my dashboard that sets off the feeling of impending doom—but even before it starts blaring, I can already tell something’s wrong. The desperate hope that maybe the hordes of people running hysterically down the street toward my car are participating in some kind of 5K only lasts a few moments before, with a pavement-rattling eruption, the tidal wave of dark smoke starts rolling in behind them. This, as you’d imagine, shuts my original theory down pretty quickly.

As if the stampeding herd isn’t enough of an indicator, the police scanner suddenly lets out a static-laced crackle that quickly gives way to a garbled, warped version of the authoritative shouting I’ve come to expect from it. I prod the finicky device until the muffled noise turns into something that sounds like “two casualties,” “East Seventh Avenue,” and “SuperVariants have engaged,” and that’s enough for me.

“Absolutely not,” I mutter, yanking the steering wheel to the left and dodging across the traffic down a side road. “Not today.”

This turns out to be one of my worse ideas, because the side road is already occupied by one of the Supers.

SuperVariant Three, if we’re being specific.

I would accuse the Lunar City Police Department of misinformation (East Seventh, right? Did the scanner not just say he was on East Seventh?), but I’m not really supposed to have a scanner, so there’s no one to complain to.

My tires screech as I hit the brakes, just feet away from the standstill traffic blocking the road, the owners having abandoned their cars in favor of running. And there, about six cars ahead of me, boots firmly planted on the hood like it’s some kind of pedestal, is SuperVariant Three. The morning sun glistens off the gray leather supersuit he’s wearing like it’s a second skin, his famously perfect blue-black hair positioned in its trademark coil over his forehead.

“Everybody out of the streets!” he’s ordering, a gloved hand cupped around his chiseled jaw. “Get to someplace safe! You need to—”

A piercing scream grabs both of our attention. It’s impossible to tell who it came from, but it’s clearly someone out of the cluster on the sidewalk—one of the dozen or so heads gaping upward in terror at a massive billboard groaning on its hinges, a light breeze away from crashing down to the street below.

“Oh, no,” I whisper, and then Three and I both move at the same time.

I’m not worried about the people underneath the billboard. I’m worried about me. Because I’ve seen Three in action before, and I know his MO.

In the few seconds that it takes me to lunge for my backpack—an unwieldy black monstrosity jangling with a color-coded assortment of safety gear all firmly labeled please return to Meg Sawyer—and smash a thumb into the release on my seatbelt, the billboard has wrenched free with a fantastic howl. I can see Three flying toward it in a gray blur.

Get out of the way, get out of the way, get out of the way—

I tumble out of the car and lunge for the sidewalk just as Three reaches the falling metal. There’s a weird moment of optimism where I wonder if maybe today, he’ll be different; maybe today, he’ll just catch it and gently put it down on the ground like a normal, rational human. No show of power, no flashy stunts.

But then he raises his fist and decks the absolute hell out of it.

I have just enough time to snatch the closest thing I can grab off my backpack—which turns out to be a safety helmet, thank god, and not something completely useless for the situation, like a Band-Aid or hand sanitizer—and jam it on my head before the billboard’s trajectory is walloped away from the paralyzed citizens and toward the small army of abandoned cars lining the road.

I’ll give Three this: the guy’s got a future career in bowling if he ever wants it.

There’s something weirdly satisfying about watching the ripple of cars get smashed to pieces. It’s like when you line up a chain of dominos and push one over. The not-satisfying thing is the knowledge that the billboard on its own would never have been able to cause this much damage, but I guess you can turn anything into a missile if you super-punch it hard enough.

The rippling of the first few cars is the only thing I see, however, because that’s when I dive behind the closest tree, cover my organs with my backpack, and clamp my eyes and mouth shut against the impending cloud of dust and debris. The last thing I need today is to get impaled by flying shrapnel.

The next few moments are underscored by a soundtrack I know very well—the sound of metal screeching as it wrenches apart, glass shattering, steel pounding into the sidewalk. When the noise gets replaced by silence, followed by the clamor of breathless, relieved sobs of gratitude that can only mean the people on the other side of the street have suddenly realized they’re not dead, I know it’s safe enough to open my eyes and peer around the corner.

As expected, SuperVariant Three is not looking in horror at the destruction he’s just caused to eight different vehicles (including my poor, useless Arnold, which is now a blackened, charred mess with a sliced-off roof and an eruption of smoke pouring out of the engine). No, he’s floating above the awestruck crowd, beaming down at them. I can’t make out any of what they’re all saying to him—probably something along the lines of “I love you” or “sign my face” or “let me name my children after you”—but his proud, confident voice carries.

“Not a problem,” he’s saying. “Just doing my duty.”

My mouth falls open. Not a problem? I have a problem. I have several problems. I’m about to step off the sidewalk to march over and tell him so, but then there’s a near-intangible blur of orange light accompanied by a gust of wind that rips past me so quickly, my helmet clatters to the ground and my choppy red hair blows over my eyes. “Watch it!” I yell, shaking my bangs back into place.

“Hey, Three!” The blur zig-zags through the maze of destroyed cars and slams to a stop near Three and his fawning fans, coming into focus as a tall figure with a sleek wave of black hair, coated in a dull orange neoprene bodysuit. SuperVariant Four. Take a guess what his thing is.

“Quit flirting; One needs backup.” Four stands still long enough to get the words out before he readjusts his opaque goggles and runs up the side of a building, disappearing in another orange flash over the top.

“I do not!” an unseen voice screams in outrage, and then, oh, what a surprise, another Super. A deep purple blotch in the distance that I recognize immediately as SuperVariant One, asymmetrical cape trailing behind her, rockets out from over the building Four has just disappeared behind. I vaguely wonder where SuperVariant Two is in all this. If I had invisibility powers, I probably wouldn’t show up to these shenanigans at all. No one would even know

SuperVariant One executes a sharp swivel in midair that makes her thick, dark braid snap like a whip, and yells, “I can handle this!” She makes a claw shape with her hands, reaches toward the ground, and scoops upward. In response, a car parked at the end of the street rises languidly into the air. She uncurls her right hand into a flat palm and presses it forward, sending the car catapulting over her head and toward some unseen enemy

“Oh, no,” I moan, and instinctively try to shield Arnold behind my body, even though he’s pretty much a lost cause as a vehicle at this point. “It never works!” I yell up at her. “Throw something else!”

She doesn’t even look my way. Before I can say anything else, her left hand is thrown out in that claw shape again, and Arnold is hurtling through the air to join the other car. The thing that’s been antagonizing the Supers has come into view from behind the building, and I can see the polished gleam of an eight-story-tall robot, with some human operating it from inside its transparent head. A robot. Not for the first time, I feel myself filled with irritation rather than terror at the threat of the day. I mean, come on, guys. How did someone build a giant robot in this city without anyone noticing? If someone’s getting eight hundred tons of metal delivered to their house, that needs to be a red flag.

The robot doesn’t even turn its head as its right arm swings up and blocks my car with the earsplitting clang of metal on metal, sending it careening back toward the pavement in a shower of sparks.

I shield my head with my arm as my car crashes and rolls, coming to a smoking stop a few yards away from me, then look back up dejectedly. The Supers are already gone, leading the robot farther down the street.

“You’re fine, right Arnold?” I yell at my car.

It erupts into flames.

Okay. I’ll just walk to work.

I reach around for the metal rod clipped magnetically to the side of my backpack and press a button. It instantly lengthens and expands into a titanium umbrella, riddled with minor dents and scratches. A bowling ball-size crater dips into the left side, giving the whole umbrella an uneven, sagging look. A burn mark from who knows what (I want to say maybe lasers) is just below that. It’s been through a lot, but it still works, I think. I mean, I’m not dead yet.

I raise it above my head and start walking.

•Tour wide giveaway On Instagram •

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Prize:

  • US ONLY: Paperback copy of Collateral Damage

  • INTERNATIONAL: Collateral Damage E-Book!

    To enter:
    – Must be following

  • @theparliamentpress

  • @taylor_on_tour

  • And Me @gwendalyn_Book_

    – Go to @theparliamentpress and click on the link in their bio to enter.

    For 1 extra entry share the giveaway image (swipe to see giveaway image) in your IG story and
    tag author and publisher.

    Rules:
    -No giveaway accounts
    -Must be 18 + or have parents consent

-Must be able to provide an email for the E-Book
-This giveaway is in no way affiliated with Instagram or any other company.

1. Q: Tell us about your writing process and the way you brainstorm story ideas.

A: I don’t know if two books is enough to supply a scientifically justifiable pattern, but pretending it is, here’s the process:

    1) A book premise and ending drop themselves into my head fully formed. I know who my characters are and where they’re going and I have no idea how they’re going to get there.

    2) I pants. I write without an outline. It is bad. “The first draft is telling the story to yourself!” I scream at myself as I write many, many bad words that I know I will delete later.

    3) Somewhere around the 40,000-word mark, I realize that I have made a crucial error in developing one of my lead characters. That personality isn’t right at all. I have to fix it. Wait, I need to change the opening scene to match the characterization I actually want them to have. Wait, none of these characters are right. This worldbuilding is so half-baked. This would make a much better inciting incident. What am I doing?

    4) I move all 40,000 words to a file labeled “WIP Dumping Grounds” and start over from scratch.

    5) I do this three more times until I have 40,000 words I don’t hate and then I finish the book, still screaming

2. Q: When you develop characters do you already know who they are before you begin writing or do you let them develop as you go?

A: I have to know who my characters are before I start writing, or the story will never get written—I’m the world’s worst pantser, so all I ever know going into a book is who my book is about and where they’re trying to get to. For COLLATERAL DAMAGE I had a set of references for each character to use as a template for if I got stuck (Meg was Mia Thermopolis x Veronica Sawyer x Darcy Lewis x Haruhi Fujioka, for example, mixed with a few friends I know in real life). I feel like if I can understand my characters on as many levels as possible—what they want, what they fear, what they’re trying to accomplish, who or what raised them, how they connect to others, how they talk and move—they’ll become as familiar to me as real people. And if I let them act like real people, they’ll naturally make choices that create the plot

3. Q: Where is your favorite place to write?

A: DISNEY WORLD RESORTS. I’m so lucky that I live so close to them. I work from home as an editor most of the time and if I had to stay in my bedroom all day I’d go crazy, so my favorite thing to do is go work at one of the themed hotels. It makes me feel like I’m on vacation, and it’s so easy to be inspired when every aspect of the Disney brand relies so heavily on thematic storytelling. My top three spots are Beach Club, which makes me feel like I’m on a cruise ship, Wilderness Lodge, which makes me feel like I’m on a writing retreat in the woods, and the Grand Floridian, which is just fancy.

4. Q: Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find

A: Yes! COLLATERAL DAMAGE is a play on the superhero genre, which I’m a huge fan of, so there are Easter eggs and references all over the place. No real names or exact details are used, of course, but they’re clear enough for a potential fellow nerd to be like “Wait, this feels like Spider-Man. That’s a Flash joke. That thing covered in gemstones they just walked past in the vault is totally the Infinity Gauntlet.” Stuff like that.

5. Q: Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?

A: I prefer each book to stand on its own! One of my favorite concepts is “leave the reader wanting more, not needing more.” I’m an advocate for letting books work on their own as a self-contained unit; I don’t like it when a story ends with all of its ends still loose. I shouldn’t have to buy another book to know how the first book’s conflict wraps up! I think of it as a TV series—you know how each season typically has a central theme, antagonist, character arc, collection of new characters, etc.? By the end of the season, almost everything that has been presented should have reached a conclusion—but then the last episode will hit you with a tease that there’s more to come, like the camera shift to the looming Upside-Down after the school dance scene at the end of Stranger Things. I prefer books in a series to work in the same way—when a reader picks up a book, they’re being invited on a journey, and it’s unfair to the reader to cut that journey short. Without giving anything away from the end of COLLATERAL DAMAGE, there is definitely room for a sequel eventually because it’s superheroes, but I don’t think anyone would feel confused or infuriated if this was the only book in this world that ever got written. I like to put bows on things!

#taylorsimonds #collateraldammage #superheroes #fantasyreads #yareads #theparliamenthousepress #TPHTours

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Blog Tour Giveaway RiVen

Gwendalyn’s Books

Welcome to the RiVen Blog Tour and Giveaway

#Riven #bookblog

TOUR SCHEDULE:
http://www.jeanbooknerd.com/2019/06/trailer-reveal-riven-by-jane-alvey.html

Series: My Myth Trilogy (Book 1)
Publisher: CreateSpace (March 5, 2017)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1544054173
ISBN-13: 978-1544054179

Winner: 2016 Publishers Weekly’s BookLife Prize in Fiction, Young Adult

Winner: 2016 Moonbeam Gold Medal, Young Adult Fiction
Winner: 2017 Royal Dragonfly First Place, Young Adult Fiction
Winner: 2017 Reader Views Reviewers Choice Award
Nominated for the 2018 Indie Next List
Which reality would you choose? Seventeen year-old Emily’s dad is in prison for securities fraud and her mom’s strung-out on pain meds, leaving Emily to parent herself and her younger brothers and sister. She’s got things mostly under control until a couple weeks before Dad’s release, when voices start whispering in her head, and Gabe, the hot lifeguard at the pool, notices the strange brands engraved on her arm…the ones she’s trying desperately to hide. Emily doesn’t know how the symbols got there or what they mean. They appeared overnight and now they’re infected and bleeding. She’s pretty sure she’s losing her mind. Stress, insomnia, and her wounded egos drive Emily to self-medicate, which has to be why the nightmares from her childhood have resurfaced, why they’re commandeering her conscious even when she’s awake. It has to be why the fairytale creatures she created as a little girl insist they need her help. 




Triggered by the return of her childhood abuser and unable to cope with reality, Emily slips completely inside her elaborate fantasy world. She’s powerful in the First Realm, maybe even more powerful than her attacker. It would be so easy to stay there, to lose herself in enchantment…to lose herself in love. But something sinister lurks in the forest shadows. Emily soon discovers her demons have followed her inside her fairytale. They’re hunting her. With the help of the Fae, she frantically searches for the weapons she needs to defeat her greatest fears and escape back to reality before the man who tortured her can prey on her younger brothers and sister, too. Time is running out…*Non-explicit Trigger Warning: This book deals with issues of child molestation and abuse.


Behind-the-scenes picture from the making of the trailer for Secret Keeper (sequel to Riven).

Photo Content from Film 14.

Behind-the-scenes picture from the making of the trailer for Secret Keeper (sequel to Riven).
Photo Content from Film 14.
ABOUT SECRET KEEPER
Secret Keeper is the second part of the My Myth trilogy, and this astonishingly insightful and moving YA fantasy novel takes us even deeper into the painful reality of Emily’s existence. If you thought that the first novel in this young adult trilogy was moving, fascinating, unique and powerful… just wait and see what lies between the pages of this remarkable sequel to the first psychological thriller.

You can purchase Riven (My Myth Trilogy #1) at the following Retailers: Film 14 is an LA-based film studio.They produce cinematic book trailers, author’s videos, short films, and more.
Cinematic Book Trailers leave that lasting impression on the viewer, and remain with the book for as long as it’s in print. They’re stand-alone works of art, and at the same time they compliment the book perfectly. We create these cinematic trailers to give a poignant vignette of the book, which leaves the viewer curious. The tone, the pacing, the details, all generate tangible interest in the book and its author.FACEBOOK | INSTAGRAM | TWITTER | WEBSITE | YOUTUBEPhoto Content from Jane Alvey Harris

Jane Alvey Harris has a Humanities degree from Brigham Young University with emphases in Art History, Italian Language, and Studio Art. She’s CRAZY about the visual and performing arts! Jane enjoys playing classical piano, painting & sketching, singing & acting, and especially writing poetry & prose.But her real passion is PEOPLE. She loves to watch and study what makes us tick as human beings. Jane is definitely a dreamer. Her favorite thing to do is weave together sublime settings and stories for characters to live and learn in…herself included.She currently lives in an enchanted fairy-princess castle in Dallas, Texas, with her three often-adorable children and their three seldom-adorable cats.        
Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

– 2 Winners will receive a Signed Copy of RIVEN by Jane Alvey Harris.

– 1 Winner will receive an Exclusive Basic Book Teaser from Film 14 (Valued at $500.00)

*JBN is not responsible for Lost or Damaged Books in your Nerdy Mail Box*

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Blog Tour and Review ⚜️ Eternally Artemisia

Gwendalyn’s Books

⚜️Author: Melissa Muldoon

⚜️Publisher: MATTA Press

⚜️⚜️⚜️Author: Melissa Muldoon⚜️⚜️Publisher: MATTA Press⚜️⚜️⚜️

Book Details:

  • Book Title: Eternally Artemisia : Some loves, like some women, are timeless by Melissa Muldoon
  • Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 312 pages
  • Genre: Fiction General, Fiction Women
  • Publisher: Matta Press
  • Release date: March 2019
  • Tour dates: June 3 to 28, 2019
  • Content Rating: PG-13 + M (The themes of the book deal with rape and overcoming sexual abuse. It is a book about female empowerment and how with the right tools, and support women may rise above past tragedies to build a better future for themselves.)

They say some loves travel through time and are fated to meet over and over again. For Maddie, an art therapist, who wrestles with the “peculiar feeling” she has lived previous lives and is being called to Italy by voices that have left imprints on her soul, this idea is intriguing. Despite her best efforts, however, proof of this has always eluded her. That is, until one illuminating summer in Italy when Maddie’s previous existences start to bleed through into her current reality. When she is introduced to the Crociani family—a noble clan with ties to the seventeenth-century Medici court that boasts of ancestors with colorful pasts—she finally meets the loves of her life. One is a romantic love, and another is a special kind of passion that only women share, strong amongst those who have suffered greatly yet have triumphed despite it.

As Maddie’s relationship develops with Artemisia Gentileschi—an artist who in a time when it was unheard of to denounce a man for the crime of rape, did just that—Maddie discovers a kindred spirit and a role model, and just what women are capable of when united together.

In a journey that arcs back to biblical days and moves forward in time, Maddie encounters artists, dukes, designers, and movie stars as well as baser and ignoble men. With Artemisia never far from her side, she proves that when we dare to take control of our lives and find the “thing” we are most passionate about, we are limitless and can touch the stars.

Praise for Eternally Artemisia:

“A true Renaissance woman, Melissa Muldoon weaves her passions for art and Italy into a stirring saga that sweeps across centuries. As her time-traveling heroine Maddie reconnects with kindred souls, we meet Artemisia Gentileschi, the 17th-century artist who overcame rape and ignominy to gain respect and acclaim. Historic figures such as Galileo and Mussolini also come to life in this intricately plotted novel, but the women who defy all constraints to take control of their destinies are the ones who prove to be eternally fascinating.” — Dianne Hales

What a lovely story! Melissa weaves the lives of 4 women across time, all with some connection to Artemisia Gentileschi, a 16th century Italy painter. They represent the feminine strength that arises from life challenges, each with their unique intelligence. Underlying their stories is the idea that love transcends all, even time, love is timeless. As with her other books, Melissa fills the story out with interesting facts and references to the Italian life, culture and it’s history, her attention to detail is immaculate . I loved all of the many connections in this story that tied it all together, very cleverly done. Wonderful read, I would highly recommend it. – Lize, Amazon Reviewer

Melissa Muldoon does a phenomenal job blending fiction, romance, art history, and the Italian language into this gem. For fans of historical fiction, romance, and time travel, I strongly recommend this novel. –Exemplary Editing, Amazon Review

To read reviews, please visit Melissa Muldoon’s page on Italy Book Tours

In the pages of this book, you will learn the story of Artemisia Gentileschi, one of the first famous female artists to paint in the tradition of Caravaggio. I’ve always been fascinated and inspired by Artemisia and have wanted to tell her story. But Artemisia is just a part of the equation—the novel takes readers back to biblical days and forward in time again exploring the idea that some lives are intertwined and are destined to meet over and over again.

You can purchase this book and all of her books

Prizes:
1st Prize: Win a 3-book set (Dreaming Sophia,
Waking Isabella, and Eternally Artemisia) by Melissa Muldoon; 2nd and 3rd prizes: Win a paperback copy of Eternally Artemisia (open to USA & Canada / 3 winners total)

Ends July 5, 2019

Thank you to iRead Book Tours and Melissa Muldoon for providing me a free personalized and autographed copy of Eternally Artemisia in exchange for my completely honest and unbiased review.

Eternally Artemisia is Melissa Muldoon third book.

In the beginning we see through the narrative eyes of the painter, Atremesia.Right from the start the author grabs your interest with imagination details of trials the pious young widow from a Jewish city beheads the general of an Assyrian army sent to destroy the city.

It then moves forward to present day, with Maddie a 40 year old art therapist who has decided to live her dream of relocating from New York City to Italy. Melissa Muldoon, weaves multiple layered time lines to create an engaging historical rich book. The authors ability to weave her descriptive voice and historical magical realism to create an intriguing novel. Wonderful character development engaging narrative and dialogue.

Ms Muldoon, captures the strength struggles of women in multiple eras, to create a passionate and beautiful written novel. The book was a nonstop read for me and what I really enjoyed was the female bonds the author creates through extraordinary folding parallel timeframes.

Four courageous women across multiple times controlling their own destinies.

 

Melissa Muldoon is the author of three novels set in Italy: “Dreaming Sophia,” “Waking Isabella,” and “Eternally Artemisia.” All three books tell the stories of American women and their journeys of self-discovery to find love, uncover hidden truths, and follow their destinies to shape a better future in Italy.

Melissa is also the author of the Studentessa Matta website, where she promotes the study of Italian language and culture through her dual-language blog written in Italian and English (studentessamatta.com). Studentessa Matta means the “crazy linguist” and has grown to include a podcast, Tutti Matti per l’Italiano and the Studentessa Matta YouTube channel, Facebook page and Instagram feed. Melissa also created Matta Italian Language Immersion Programs, which she co-leads with Italian schools in Italy to learn Italian in Italy. Through her website, she also offers the opportunities to live and study in Italy through Homestay programs. Melissa has a B.A. in fine arts, art history and European history from Knox College, a liberal arts college in Galesburg, Illinois, as well as a master’s degree in art history from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana.

She has also studied painting and art history in Florence. She is an artist, designer, and illustrated the cover art for all three of her books. Melissa is also the managing director of Matta Press. As a student, Melissa lived in Florence with an Italian family. She studied art history and painting and took beginner Italian classes. When she returned home, she threw away her Italian dictionary, assuming she’d never need it again, but after launching a successful design career and starting a family, she realized something was missing in her life. That “thing” was the connection she had made with Italy and the friends who live there. Living in Florence was indeed a life-changing event. Wanting to reconnect with Italy, she decided to start learning the language again from scratch. As if indeed possessed by an Italian muse, she bought a new Italian dictionary and began her journey to fluency—a path that has led her back to Italy many times and enriched her life in countless ways. Now, many dictionaries and grammar books later, she dedicates her time to promoting Italian language studies, further travels in Italy, and sharing her stories and insights about Italy with others. Melissa designed and illustrated the cover art for Eternally Artemisia, Waking Isabella, and Dreaming Sophia.

She also curates the Dreaming Sophia Art History blog site and Pinterest site: The Art of Loving Italy, where you will find companion pictures for all three books. Visit MelissaMuldoon.com for more information about immersion trips to learn the language with Melissa in Italy, as well as the Studentessa Matta blog for practice and tips to learn the Italian language.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram

#beautifulbookcovers, #bookstagram #bookish #bookworm #booknerd #read #reading #alwaysreading #coverlove #tbr, Authors, Blog, Bloggers, Book, Book Giveaway, Bookish, Bookish Giveaway, Booknerd, Books, Bookworm, Fantasy, Fantasy Books, Fantasy Reads, Fiction, Giveaway, Magic, New Book Release, New Books, New Release, Ne, Blogging, Book Blogging, Book love, Book Tours, Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult, Romance, http://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.com/

Book Tour★Something Like Gravity

Gwendalyn’s Books

Today I Partnered With FFBC

To Bring You

Something Like Gravity

By Amber Smith

@mtmctours

@Amber Smith

Publisher: Margaret K. McElderry Books

Release Date: June 18th 2019

Genre: Contemporary, LGBT, Young Adult, Romance

https://open.spotify.com/track/0Y8uABAzh2Kh8LhmAqsnfs?si=QzYcOFAVRvOmmn_23MESRA

⭐️Don’t forget to click on the above picture to enjoy this song picked by the Author

Synopsis

For fans of Love, Simon and Eleanor and Park, a romantic and sweet novel

about a transgender boy who falls in love for the first time—and how first love

changes us all—from New York Times bestselling author Amber Smith.

Chris and Maia aren’t off to a great start.

A near-fatal car accident first brings them together, and their next encounters don’t

fare much better. Chris’s good intentions backfire. Maia’s temper gets the best of

her.

But they’re neighbors, at least for the summer, and despite their best efforts, they

just can’t seem to stay away from each other.

The path forward isn’t easy. Chris has come out as transgender, but he’s still

processing a frightening assault he survived the year before. Maia is grieving the

loss of her older sister and trying to find her place in the world without her. Falling

in love was the last thing on either of their minds.

But would it be so bad if it happened anyway?

BOOK LINKS

Goodreads:

Amber Smith is the New York Times bestselling author of the young adult novels

The Way I Used to Be, The Last to Let Go, and Something Like Gravity. An

advocate for increased awareness of gendered violence, as well as LGBTQ

equality, she writes in the hope that her books can help to foster change and spark

dialogue surrounding these issues. She grew up in Buffalo, New York, and now

lives in Charlotte, North Carolina with her partner and their ever-growing family

of rescued dogs and cats. You can find her online at AmberSmithAuthor.com.

Website:http://ambersmithauthor.com/

Goodreads:https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/9857002.Amber_Smith

Twitter:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ambersmithauthor/

Facebook:https://www.facebook.com/AmberSmithAuthor

Blogging, Book Blogging, Book Review, Book Tours, New Release, writers life, writting

Book Tour and Review The Severed Knot

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hello Bookish Friends,

Today I have teamed up the author, Cryssa Bazos And Historical Fiction Book Tours, to bring you

Severed Knot
@CryssaBazos

#TraitorsKnot @HFVBT

Severed Knot
By Cryssa Bazos
Publisher: W. M. Jackson Publishing
Publication Date: June 16, 2019

Barbados 1652. In the aftermath of the English Civil War, the vanquished are uprooted and scattered to the ends of the earth.

Barbados 1652. In the aftermath of the English Civil War, the vanquished are uprooted and scattered to the ends of the earth.
When marauding English soldiers descend on Mairead O’Coneill’s family farm, she is sold into slavery. After surviving a harrowing voyage, the young Irish woman is auctioned off to a Barbados sugar plantation where she is thrust into a hostile world of depravation and heartbreak. Though stripped of her freedom, Mairead refuses to surrender her dignity.
Scottish prisoner of war Iain Johnstone has descended into hell. Under a blazing sun thousands of miles from home, he endures forced indentured labour in the unforgiving cane fields. As Iain plots his escape to save his men, his loyalties are tested by his yearning for Mairead and his desire to protect her.
With their future stolen, Mairead and Iain discover passion and freedom in each other’s arms. Until one fateful night, a dramatic chain of events turns them into fugitives.
Together they fight to survive; together they are determined to escape.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ #5Star

Severed Knot is Cryssa Bazos follow up to her award winning debut novel, In this emotional charged book set in 1652. We meet the two main protagonist, Iain and Mairean. Iain is a Scottish soldier captured while fighting for the Royalist cause in the Battle of Worcesterin 1651. As a consequence to his royalist loyalty he ends up being shipped out with his band of soldiers as indentured servant to the island of Barbados.

Mairean is a young woman who is kidnapped by marauding English soldiers who descend on Mairead O’Coneill’s family farm. She finds herself on board a slavers ship bound for Barbados, there she meets Iain. They are eventually sold at auction to the same sugarcane plantation.

I was fully immersed in this character driven drama, with well developed characters, who came to life right off the page.The Author sets this historical romance to the backdrop of the lush and hostile Barbados. In Ms Brazo’s tragic historical fiction, Mairead and Iain romance interweaves between survival and the dark cruelty of servitude within plantation life. The strength of the novel lies in the authors ability capture the human heart and soul. With both futures stolen, Iain and Mairean, find passion and freedom in each other’s arms. Both have vowed to gain there freedom and return to there homeland at all costs.

The Authors realistic storyline catapults you into a world authentic details about sugar manufacture. Her portrayal and descriptive content draws you into the harsh reality of the horrors and violent struggles of plantation life.

Severed Knot, is a stunning achievement of heartache, survival and death.

Cryssa Bazos’s sets the bar in realistic historical fiction. Her ability to precisely set the character conflict with romance, for a powerful and unforgettable, riveting novel.

The novels premise and the writing definitely intrigued me and kept me entertained. The pace was brisk and the dialogue is fluid and engaging. Her true to life candid theme of enforced labor is gut wrenching and gruesome at times.

I thoroughly enjoyed the tension of this storyline and it had me hooked right from the very first chapter. Ms Bazos’s meticulous research pulled me in from page one and kept me fully captivated and intrigued until the very end. Knowing the caliber of her writing, I knew I would be in for an intense and gripping read, which is exactly what this was. The authors execution is impeccable and each scene is richly atmospheric.

Severed Knot, is a stunning achievement of heartache, survival and death.

Once again the author delivers a captivating and nonstop historical fiction, with intriguing plot twist with believable characters that keeps you vested all the way through until a satisfying end.

I am definitely looking forward to reading more books by this author!

Thanks to the author and to the publisher for sending me this early Arc,

in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Click the icons to add to your Goodreads and you can purchase on Amazon

Sunlight sparkled on the water. A slight breeze rippled the otherwise still water. Another splash. At first, Mairead didn’t see anything, then someone surfaced. A man, skimming across the pond, arms and legs slicing through the water. Even before he turned, she knew who it was. Johnstone.

Mairead knew she should back away and leave before he caught her watching—he’d be insufferable otherwise. That, or bark her head off as any self-respecting ogre. And yet something pinned her to the spot.

He dove into the water, his body curving with a flash of his naked buttocks.

Mairead’s eyes widened, and she edged closer. When he split the surface of the lake, he caused a spray of water drops to splatter. He stood facing her direction, eyes closed. Raising his hands to his head, he slicked back his dark blond hair.

Mairead didn’t dare move. She watched how the muscles in his arms flexed. Her eyes travelled across his broad chest with its light mat of hair. A trail of darkish hair ran down from chest to stomach until it disappeared below the pond’s surface. Mairead craned her head to peer into the pond, but the water was murky and brownish-green.

Johnstone dove under again. Mairead sat back on her heels and nibbled her fingertip, considering her options. She really should leave. A smile played at the corner of her mouth as she made herself more comfortable.

Johnstone surfaced and began to paddle lazily in the water. His head was tipped backwards, his face presented to the sun. His skin had become tanned and gleamed against the lapping water.

Mairead watched, captivated. He seemed at one with the water. She didn’t know too many who could swim, and none so well. Her own brothers had enjoyed a quick barrelling leap into the river back home, splashing like mad puppies and thrashing in the water. They had taught her to float, but swimming across the water as this Scotsman was now doing, with strong, purposeful strokes, was an art, and one she admired greatly. So she told herself.

After a few moments, prudence whispered that she had stayed long enough. Mairead rose from her crouch, careful not to rustle a leaf, but just as she moved Johnstone finished his swim and headed back to the bank. Mairead dropped to the ground again so he wouldn’t notice her.

Johnstone slowly waded out of the water, all glorious and dripping. Mairead’s breath locked in her throat. She took in that expanse of chest, the tapered waist then . . . Blessed Mother of Jesus.

She made a slight choking sound, and Johnstone stopped to look around.

“Who’s there?” he called out in her direction.

Mairead’s face flooded. He would never let her live this down. She had to get away from here without him seeing her.

No time for discretion.

Mairead darted for the trail. She risked a glance over her shoulder to catch a glimpse of Johnstone yanking on his breeches. And that was her downfall. Literally. A root hooked her foot, and she crashed to the ground with a cry. Then she heard him thrashing through the brush behind her. Mairead scrambled to her feet and managed to take a few more strides before he caught up with her, grabbing a fistful of her petticoat in his hand.

Mairead twisted around and found herself face-to-face with Iain Locharbaidh Johnstone. It was one thing to gawk at the man from a distance but to be this close to his still-wet chest squeezed the breath from her lungs. She averted her eyes, not sure where she could safely look, and her gaze landed on his unlaced breeches. More wet skin. Heat flooded her cheeks.

“Oh!”

Johnstone released her and swore under his breath while he laced up his breeches. “What were you doing, woman?”

“Nothing! I . . . I came down for a wash.”

“Do you always hide in the shrubs when taking a wash?” His eyes narrowed, causing her to squirm. “Here’s a tip, lass, the water works far better. Not sure what they do in Ireland, but that’s how it’s done in Scotland.”

“I was not hiding in the shrubs.” Mairead hid her crossed fingers in the folds of her petticoat and searched lamely for an adequate rebuttal. “I had only reached the shrubs when you starting crashing around like a mad man. And don’t you dare disparage my homeland with your poor attempt of humour.”

“How long were you watching me?”

Mairead felt her face blaze. “I was not watching you, to be sure. Have you not heard a thing I’ve said?”

He folded his arms across his chest and quirked his brow. “Building a nest in the shrubs, then, like a wee mouse?”

“Stop calling me a mouse,” Mairead said, now with true outrage. Small and insignificant—was she always to be thought this way? No one ever compared Ciara to a mouse. Not even Bronagh—a shrew, perhaps, but never a mouse.

The corners of his mouth lifted slightly. “Aye, you were watching.”

She knew it—she knew he’d be insufferable! “I didn’t know who was in the pond and the moment . . . the moment I discovered who it was . . . For certain, it could have been anyone . . . even . . . even Masterton the Younger.”

Johnstone quirked a brow, amusement playing across his features. Mairead’s gaze latched on to his deepening smile, and she only now noticed the firmness of his jaw and how the droplets of water clung to his blond whiskers.

Mairead tore her eyes away and forced herself to meet his eyes. “What? What do you find so amusing?”

“Not sure where to start.” Was that laughter in his voice?

Mairead’s inner voice sat her down and delivered a stern lecture. Concede the field, Mairead. Retreat now. No shame in admitting defeat. And yet she dashed the voice of reason and found herself saying, “Make an effort. Explain it to me.”

“You thought you were ogling Masterton?”

Mairead’s jaw dropped. “I never said—”

Johnstone’s teeth flashed in a smile. “He’ll be flattered, lass, but

I’d steer clear of his wife, were I you. She’ll not think twice to chase you off the croft with a broom.”

“I never said I was ogling him!”

“Oh aye? But you were ogling someone?”

Mairead sucked in her breath. “You. Are. An. Impossible. Man!”

She finally did what her good sense had urged her to do earlier. She whirled around and fled the field.

Connect with Cryssa through her Website (cryssabazos.com), Facebook, Twitter (@CryssaBazos) and Instagram

Cryssa Bazos is an award-winning historical fiction author and 17th-century enthusiast with a particular interest in the English Civil War. Her debut novel, Traitor’s Knot, is the Medallist winner of the 2017 New Apple Award (historical fiction), a finalist for the 2018 EPIC eBook Awards (historical romance) and the RNA Joan Hessayon Award. Her second novel, Severed Knot, was longlisted for the Historical Novel Society 2018 New Novel Award.

@iReadBookTours @sejal_badani #TheStorytellersSecret, Blog, Bloggers, Book, Book Giveaway, Bookish, Bookish Giveaway, Booknerd, Books, Bookworm, Fantasy, Fantasy Books, Fantasy Reads, Fiction, Giveaway, Magic, New Book Release, New Books, New Release, Ne, Blogging, Book Blogging, book giveaway, Book love, Book Review, writers life, writting

Book Tour and Review ~The Storytellers Secret~

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hello Bookish Friends,

Today is my stop on, The Storyteller‘s Book Tour

I want thank you, iRead Book Tours and Sejal Badani for gifting me a free copy of this book, 

Make sure you Enter the Giveaway at the end of this post!

 @iReadBookTours @sejal_badani
 #TheStorytellersSecret

Book Details:

Book Title: The Storyteller’s Secret by Sejal Badani
Category: Adult Fiction, 399 pages
Genre: Literary
Publisher: Lake Union
Release date: September 2018
Tour dates: June 3 to July 12, 2019
Content Rating: PG-13 (There are some non-explicit sex scenes)

Book Description:

An Amazon Charts, USA Today, and Washington Post bestseller!

From the bestselling author of Trail of Broken Wings comes an epic story of the unrelenting force of love, the power of healing, and the invincible desire to dream.

Nothing prepares Jaya, a New York journalist, for the heartbreak of her third miscarriage and the slow unraveling of her marriage in its wake. Desperate to assuage her deep anguish, she decides to go to India to uncover answers to her family’s past. Intoxicated by the sights, smells, and sounds she experiences, Jaya becomes an eager student of the culture. But it is Ravi—her grandmother’s former servant and trusted confidant—who reveals the resilience, struggles, secret love, and tragic fall of Jaya’s pioneering grandmother during the British occupation.

Through her courageous grandmother’s arrestingly romantic and heart-wrenching story, Jaya discovers the legacy bequeathed to her and a strength that, until now, she never knew was possible.

To read reviews, please visit Sejal Badani’s page on iRead Book Tours.

The Storyteller’s Secret

Author: Sejal Badani

Publisher: Lake Union

Pages: 390

“home is not a place or a lifestyle, but the state of your heart and all the people who take their place in it.

In the present time of 2000, Jaya a heartbroken and devastated New York journalist, must come to terms of the collapse of her marriage. Still dealing with a third miscarriage and the information that unlikely possibility that she may never be able to carry child.

Sejal Badani, delivers a well-paced and beautifully written story here with interesting, compelling, and believable characters that I found quite compassionate to read about. The story was told in alternating perspectives. In the story we really got a different understanding and look into the of the social injustice to women in India’s culture and the injustice towards the people of India during the British occupation.

A multi layered historical fiction story, that covers several generations of an Indian family, starting with a young woman tracing her heritage back to her family’s homeland. This captures and draws you in. The author has created a riveting real life to fiction novel.

I especially enjoyed how the story unfolds and the emotions explored in the book, such as grief and love. The multilayered storyline weaves together perfectly. The Authors achievement in bringing India’s culture to life was beautiful written.

I was fully immersed in this character driven drama. I devoured this one as fast as I could and was completely drawn into the lives of these characters.  I turned those pages as fast as I could and then slowly took in all the depth and layers to the characters.

This book was received from Author and the Publisher, in exchange for an honest review. Opinions and thoughts expressed in this review are completely my own.




A former attorney, Sejal Badani left the law to pursue writing full time.

She is a USA Today, Washington Post & Amazon Charts bestselling author, Goodreads Fiction Award Finalist and ABC/DISNEY Writing Fellowship Finalist.

Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Pinterest ~ Instagram

Prizes:
Win 1 of 3 paperback copies of The Storyteller’s
Secret, another winner will receive a $25 Amazon gift card (4 winners / open internationally)

Ends July 20, 2019

a Rafflecopter giveaway

#beautifulbookcovers, Book Blogging, Book Tours, Me, Rom Com, writers life, writting, ya contemporary romance

Blog Tour The Moment We Fell

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hello Bookish Friends Today I have Have joined the author, Kelli Warner to bring you

The Moment We Fell , Book Tour  @kelliwarner

https://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.com/2019/05/blog-tour-sign-up-moment-we-fell-by.html

The Moment We Fell

By Kelli Warner

Genre: YA Contemporary Romance

Release Date: June 25th 2019

Wave Runner Publishing

To Purchase This Book Click on the Amazon Icon

Giveaway prize package includes:

·   $50 Amazon gift card

·   Wooden sign that reads: Coffee: because adulting is hard

·   Coffee mug

·   Decorative candle

https://www.kelliwarner.com/giveaway/

**************Nothing good happens when people keep secrets.***************

Paige Bryant’s dreams of becoming a professional ballet dancer died along with her mother.

Drowning in grief and plagued by guilt, Paige is blindsided by a provision in her mother’s will

that sends her to live with the father she never knew. Forced to start over in a new town and at

a new school where she’s now the principal’s daughter, Paige is convinced that her life can’t

possibly get more complicated—until fate throws her into the path of the only boy her guardian

tells her is off-limits.

Despite two years on the straight and narrow, Cade Matthews can’t escape his time as a

juvenile delinquent. With his dad behind bars, Cade’s feelings of anger and betrayal are as

relentless as the rumors he’s trying to outrun. The only person not listening to the gossip is the

new girl with her own set of troubles, including a father who will never give Cade a fair shake.

As Paige tries to adjust to her new life and an uncertain future, a set of unopened journals

reveals a dark family secret. When tensions rise to a boiling point, can Paige and Cade make

peace with the past before it destroys them?

Cade slides off the rock and moves to stand in front of me. The rain has stopped. “Tell me about your mom.” Everything in my body threatens to shut down, as if he just pulled the fire alarm on my soul. “What was she like?” Unable to look him in the eyes or grasp a cohesive sentence that consists of more than three words, I stare at the dirt and mumble, “She was amazing.” Cade’s tenor is soft when he asks, “What made her amazing?” “How much time do you have?” Leaning in, he whispers, “As much time as it takes.”

“Dude, you’ve got total stalker eyes,” Jared says after the song comes to an end. “Shut up,” I growl. “I get it,” he says. “But unless you’re willing to go over there and talk to her, you need to holster the daggers you’re throwing at that guy.”

What I want is to know more about this girl. This mix of hurricane and humility that I’ve never experienced before. She’s sassy and self-reliant, tenacious and timid, and beneath her moments of boldness, deep down where she thinks no one can see, this girl is wounded.

“What does your tattoo say?” Without a word, Cade draws back his sleeve to reveal three words: Live Every Day.

Paige tilts her face to the ceiling. Tears leak from the corners of her eyes and I swipe gently at the wetness with my thumbs. “Why are you crying?” “I’ve been so lost since my mom died,” she whispers. My heart aches at her pain, and I want to make things better for her. But sometimes things just hurt and there’s nothing you can do about it.

Mom wasn’t a perfect human being—none of us are—but in my eyes, she came pretty close. She was selfless, always trying to do the best she could for me, even when I didn’t appreciate it or even notice. She impacted my life in a million little ways by merely being a part of it. When I think of it like that—I finally get it. I finally understand the one thing I didn’t before. I thought my grief was a punishment for all I had done wrong, for not being able to save Mom. But the truth is—my grief is proof that I loved her, and that she loved me in return. And that, by any measure, isn’t a punishment. It’s a gift.

I glide across the floor, my powerful legs propelling me effortlessly into the air as I leap, my arms brushing the air gracefully in a grand jeté before I land once more. For a moment, I close my eyes, losing myself in the rhythm, dissolving into the joy exuding from every limb. I whip my leg powerfully in a double fouetté en tournant followed by three more as pure bliss pulses through me. As I move, I envision all I’ve endured—the pain, the emptiness and the longing for a world I’d lost without warning—and I imagine it dissolving into the floor beneath me. In its place springs hope and love and endless possibilities. There’s room now for all that. There’s room for the happy, confident girl who’d been exiled the day her world crumbled beyond her control.

Paige’s Top Ten Tips about Moving to a Small Town

1. Find the coffee shop. There’s always one in a small town and identifying where you can get your daily caffeine fix is essential.

2. Be open to making new friends. No one wants to sit alone in the school cafeteria.

3. Prepare to stand out. Being the new girl in school comes with a lot of unwanted attention, especially when you are the principal’s daughter.

4. Join the dance team or be prepared to say no—repeatedly. 

5. Stop trying to figure out why your mom sent you here. It’s your home now, don’t fight it.

6. Every small town has its annual traditions. Embrace them and take your little sister to visit Santa.

7. Get used to talking about your feelings. Everyone is going to want you to do that.

8. Rumors and gossip travel fast in a small town. Watch what you say and don’t believe everything you hear.

9. Be open to possibilities. Maybe things didn’t turn out the way you expected, but change can bring new beginnings.

10. Don’t write off the bad boy in town. There’s likely more to him than meets the eye. (wink)

Website: https://www.kelliwarner.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KelliWarnerAuthor

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kelliwarner_author/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/KelliWarner_

Kelli Warner writes humorous and relatable young adult and contemporary romance novels, the kind of

stories that get your insides so wound up in an ooey gooey mess that you forget about the un-fun stuff in

life. She’s passionate for a good cup of coffee (even a bad one on a desperate day), enjoying time with

friends and family, and spending lazy Saturday mornings watching the Food Network. Kelli and her

husband live in Oregon with their two teenaged children and an outstanding border collie named Lucy

http://yaboundbooktours.blogspot.com/

Book Tours, Lacewood Blitz HTML.docx Lacewood Twitt ... gram Post.docx #whattoread #bookstagram #igreads #booksofig #bookwormsfeature #becauseofreading #welovebooks #rabtbooktours #newrelease #romance #womensfict

Book Tour 🍃 Release Blitz

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hi Bookish Friends, And Welcome to The Release Blitz and Giveaway Of Lacewood By Jessica James

#whattoread #bookstagram #igreads #booksofig #bookwormsfeature #becauseofreading #welovebooks #rabtbooktours #newrelease #romance #womensfiction @RABTBookTours @authorjessicajames

photo Lacewood eBook Cover Large - Copy_zpsh91k88i1.jpg

Women’s
Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Date
Published: 6/18/2019

photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/40826401941/

Sometimes
love is just too powerful for one lifetime…
MOVING
TO A SMALL TOWN in Virginia is a big change for New York socialite Katie
McCain. But when she stumbles across an abandoned 200-year-old mansion, she’s
enthralled by the enduring beauty of the neglected estate—and captivated by the
haunting portrait of a woman in mourning.
Purchasing
the property on a whim, Katie attempts to fit in with the colorful characters
in the town of New Hope, while trying to unravel the mystery of the “widow of
Lacewood.” As she pieces together the previous owner’s heartrending story,
Katie uncovers secrets the house has held for centuries, and discovers the key
to coming to terms with her own sense of loss.
The
past and present converge when hometown hero Will Durham returns and begins his
own healing process by helping the “city girl” restore the place that holds so
many memories. As the mystic web of destiny is woven, a love story that might
have been lost forever is exposed, and a destiny that has been waiting in the
shadows for centuries is fulfilled.
Part
love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless novel about trusting in
fate, letting go of the past, and believing in things that can’t be seen.
A
powerful and poignant tale that vividly conveys the heartache of war, the
tragedy of loss, and the fulfillment of destiny…even when souls are separated
by centuries. Lacewood takes readers on a journey that connects the past with
the present—and the present with eternity.

Turning
in a circle, Katie studied the room again. Faded wallpaper curled and peeled
above the dusty wainscoting, but the walls themselves appeared sturdy. On the
far side of the entryway, and dominating the wall, stood a mammoth fireplace
with an ornately carved hearth. And above the mantle hung a captivating
painting of a woman in nineteenth-century dress.
“Who
is she?”
The
sheriff turned to the dusty, sun-bleached portrait in the heavy carved guilt
frame. “One of the previous owners, they say.” He shrugged. “The family history
kind of got lost with the house. Everyone around here calls her the Widow of
Lacewood.”
Katie
stood spellbound. The woman was dressed completely in black, but the
magnificence of the gown gave the impression of sophistication and class. Her
chin was slightly elevated as if to project strength, yet there was more than a
hint of sorrow and pain in her eyes.
“She
looks so sad.” Katie spoke without removing her gaze. “And so young. How could
she be a widow?”
The
sheriff had already started to walk away, but he turned back and glanced at the
painting. “Not sure, but they say she never remarried. She’s the one out in the
cemetery, too, I reckon.”
Katie’s
heart suddenly struggled to beat. The anguish in the woman’s eyes kept her
riveted. She could see the pain. Feel a heart ripped apart. Something was
missing that could never be replaced. Katie had felt such loss before. In a
way, that’s why she was here.
“You
coming?”
Katie
heard the sheriff calling from the next room, and turned to follow. With one
quick glance back, she noticed particles of dust now swirled and danced in a
shaft of light, almost like a living thing. Her breath caught in her throat as
the dust seemed to materialize into the form of a woman, her eyes dull with the
same tortured despair and disbelief as the one in the portrait.
Katie
jerked her head around for a closer look and blinked. The woman was gone.

photo James Jessica Headshot_zpsbibvuqbu.jpg

Jessica
James believes in honor, duty, and true love—and that’s what she writes about
in her award-winning novels that span the ages from the Revolutionary War to
modern day.
She
is a three-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and
has won more than a dozen other literary awards, including a Readers’ Favorite
International Book Award and a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of
America. Her novels have been used in schools and are available in hundreds of
libraries including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Contact
Links
Purchase
Links

Amazon  
RABT Book Tours & PR
#bookstagram #bookish #bookworm #booknerd #read #reading #alwaysreading #coverlove #tbr, Apocalypse, Blogging, Book Blogging, Book Review, Book Tours, fantasy, Gwendalyn_Books_, writers life

Book Review The Thirteenth Gaurdian

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hi book-lovers! And welcome to my stop on the blog tour for.

The Thirteenth Gauradain, hosted by Ya Bond Book Tours

K. M. Lewis

Author: K. M. Lewis

Publication Date: June 7, 2019

Publisher: self publish

Page Count: 295

Format: eARC

Genre: Science Fiction, Apocalyptic

Synopsis

Da Vinci’s secret pales. Michelangelo concealed an explosive truth in his famous Creation of Man fresco in the Sistine Chapel at the Vatican. Everything we have been taught about Eve is wrong—she didn’t cause the fall of man. Instead, Eve carried a far more devastating secret for millennia; one that will change the world forever.

As the modern-day world suffers the cataclysmic effects of the “Plagues of Egypt”, Avery Fitzgerald, a statuesque Astrophysics major at Stanford, discovers that she is mysteriously bound to five strangers by an extremely rare condition that foremost medical experts cannot explain. Thrust into extraordinary circumstances, they race against time to stay alive as they are pursued by an age-old adversary and the world around them collapses into annihilation.

Under sacred oath, The Guardians—a far more archaic and enigmatic secret society than the Freemasons, Templars, and the Priory—protect Avery as she embarks on a daring quest that only legends of old have been on before. Avery must come to terms with the shocking realization that the blood of an ancient queen flows through her veins and that the fate of the world now rests on her shoulders.

This book is currently on sale for only $0.99 through July!

**********Click the Amazon Icon to Purchase***********

The Thirteenth Guardian is an apocalyptic action-packed roller coaster ride from start to finish! The author delivers a creative Ya Mystical Realism novel.

Imaginative background information with astonishing theories proposing new presentation of cultural art and artifacts. This book explores Themes of conspiracy theories, ancient civilization, mythology and religion, along with secret societies.

The storyline follows a cast of six character with a genetic code, all the way through disastrous event happing to the world aground them The author delivers the book using multiple POV’s to keep the reader satisfied up until to the very end. Appealing atmospheric world building makes this an entertaining read.

Imaginative Ya science fiction, apocalyptic, mystical realism novel

Giveaway link:

http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/9e540ef9539/

K.M. Lewis has lived in multiple countries around the world and speaks several languages. Lewis holds a graduate degree from one of the Ivy League Universities featured in his book. When he is not writing, Lewis doubles as a management consultant, with clients in just about every continent. He does much of his writing while on long flights and at far-flung airports around the globe. He currently resides on the East Coast of the U.S with his family.

Social media: twitter.com/kmlewisbooks and instagram.com/kmlewisbooks


Book Tours, GiGi’s Bookish Toughts 📖📚

GiGi’s Bookish Thoughts book 📖 📚

Gwendalyn’s Books

Happy Saturday Booked Friends

I seriously cannot believe it’s The Weekend …

But I am I definitely Glad It is

——✨

QUOTD:: What Book Have You Read That Seriously Did Not Live Up To The Hype??

_____✨

I think I am more Judgmental on books that have actually won awards or have been on the Top ten list. Also. If it’s a well known author.

_____✨

I am more Lenient toward YA Authors. I am thinking it’s because of the the audience the are directly too.

Ya, ya I know it shouldn’t mater, and I have know right to judge .

✨

I only have really 3 books that I have actually wanted to throw across the room.

✨

I am only going to talk about one in this post .. It’s an older book, a 2005 pub date

_____✨The Historian

The Historian has been described as a combination of genres, including Gothic novel, adventure novel, detective fiction, travelogue, postmodern historical novel, epistolary epic, and historical thriller. Kostova was intent on writing a serious work of literature and saw herself as an inheritor of the Victorian style. Although based in part on Bram Stoker‘s Dracula, The Historian is not a horror novel, but rather an eerie tale…That goes ….Nowhere,

You keep reading and reading and it’s Print Length: 704 pages!! It has a slow build that keeps you reading and reading and reading until

Nothing!

I never have in my life ever DNF a book. So I made my self finish it. Then I wanted to throw it!

Have a Wonderful Day

Book Tours

Blog Tour and Giveaway

Gwendalyn’s Books

The Birth of Gemini

Welcome to the tour for graphic novel, The Birth of Gemini by C.S Johnson! Make sure to enter for a chance to win a copy of the book!

The Birth of Gemini (The Signs of the Stars #1)

Publication Date: July 2018

Genre: Manga/ Graphic Novel

Length: 42 Pages

Years and light-years away, one father must find the courage to do whatever it takes to protect his children …

As a surgeon for the Mercy Interplanetary Alliance, Micheel Reshi is no stranger to difficult choices. But when his wife, Nabelle, gives brith to their twins, Micheel is horrified to find Callox and Pasher bare the Sign of Gemini on their arms. The bright constellation marks them as carriers of the hidden code Earth’s last generation had engineered into human DNA—and marks them as targets by the Collectors, a group of people determined to wipe out all memory of Old Earth and its existence.

When Count Lux, Nabelle’s cousin and a member of the Collectors, arrives on their starship, Micheel knows he must do something to save his family—even if it means breaking them apart.

THIS IS THE SHORT STORY GRAPHIC NOVEL VERSION OF THE PREQUEL TO “THE SIGNS OF THE STARS”, A SPACE OPERA ADVENTURE SERIES FROM C. S. JOHNSON.

Add to Goodreads

TBOG Sample Page

Available on Amazon

About the Author

Author Pic

C. S. Johnson is the award-winning, genre-hopping author of several novels, including young adult sci-fi and fantasy adventures such as the Starlight Chronicles, the Once Upon a Princess saga, and the Divine Space Pirates trilogy. With a gift for sarcasm and an apologetic heart, she currently lives in Atlanta with her family. Find out more at http://www.csjohnson.me

CS Johnson | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Pinterest

Blog Tour Schedule

June 10th

Reads & Reels (Excerpt) http://readsandreels.com

The Cozy Pages (Excerpt) http://thecozypages.wordpress.com/

Where Dragons Reside (Review) https://kernerangelina.live/

The Magic of Wor(l)ds (Review) http://themagicofworlds.wordpress.com

The Faerie Review (Review) http://www.thefaeriereview.com

June 11th

Triquetra Reviews (Excerpt) http://www.triquetrareviews.blogspot.com

Breakeven Books (Excerpt) https://breakevenbooks.com

Didi Oviatt (Excerpt) https://didioviatt.wordpress.com

Misty’s Book Space (Excerpt) http://mistysbookspace.wordpress.com

June 12th

Touch My Spine Book Reviews (Excerpt) https://touchmyspinebookreviews.com

Gwendalyn’s Books (Excerpt) https://gwendalynbooks.wordpress.com

The Hufflepuff Nerdette (Review) https://thehufflepuffnerdette.wordpress.com

The Reading Chemist (Excerpt) https://thereadingchemist.com/

June 13th

I’m Into Books (Excerpt) https://imintobooks.com

Reviews and Promos by Nyx (Excerpt) https://nyxblogs.wordpress.com/

My Comic Relief (Review) https://mycomicrelief.wordpress.com/

Tsarina Press (Review) https://www.tsarinapress.com

On the Shelf Reviews (Excerpt) https://ontheshelfreviews.wordpress.com

June 14th

B is for Book Review (Interview) https://bforbookreview.wordpress.com

J Bronder Book Reviews (Review) https://jbronderbookreviews.com/

Jessica Belmont (Review) jessicabelmont.wordpress.com

Sophril Reads (Review) http://sophrilreads.wordpress.com

Sawdust and Spoons (Excerpt) http://sawdustandspoons.com/

 

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Blog Tour Organized By:

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Book Review, Book Tours, Gwendalyn_Books_, Young Adult Family, #Young Adult LGBT, #Young Adult Action & Adventure, #Young Adult Fantasy #TheExalted #NetGalley @verykaitlynsage @HarlequinTEEN

Book Review ~The Exalted

Gwendalyn’s Books

The Exalted

Author: Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Title: The Exalted

Author: Kaitlyn Sage Patterson

Publisher: Inkyard Press

Publication Date: May 21, 2019

Page Count: 496

My rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

Genre: #Young Adult Family, #Young Adult LGBT, #Young Adult Action & Adventure, #Young Adult Fantasy #TheExalted #NetGalley @verykaitlynsage @HarlequinTEEN

Thank you to NetGalley and Inkyard Press for sending me this early Arc, in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Since the founding of the Empire, Alskad has been ruled by the singleborn…but the new heir to the throne carries a secret that will change everything

When an assassin’s bullet takes the life of Queen Runa and allows an impostor to steal the throne, Bo Trousillion is forced to flee the empire that is his birthright. With few choices left and burdened with a secret that could disinherit him, Bo pursues an alliance with Noriava, the Queen of Denor, but the devious royal ensnares him in a trap and demands a huge price for her aid.

To the south, Vi Abernathy—Bo’s secret twin—joins a ragtag army of resistance fighters, determined to free Alskad and the colony of Ilor from the control of the corrupt temple and its leaders. But as Vi discovers a strength she never knew she had and prepares to rejoin her brother in Alskad, news of the coup and Bo’s narrow escape arrive in Ilor.

Determined to rescue Bo, Vi sails to Denor with the rebels at her side and a plan to outwit Queen Noriava, knowing there’s only one way she and Bo will be able to save the Alskad Empire—together.

Through sudden twists and surprising revelations, Patterson takes both Vi and Bo on painful journeys of self-discovery and growth. But there is strength in numbers, and this “diminished” girl and “singleborn” boy are no longer alone in the world — they have each other. With Bo’s help, Vi is determined to channel her anger and pain to “make myself into the spark that would set the world aflame.” 

The Exalted, Is the last installment to Kaitlyn Sage Patterson,

Alskad Empire Chronicles, Patterson’s latest book takes off exactly where

The Diminished left off. Even though Vi and Bo were reunited at the end of Patterson’s debut, the sequel sees these long-lost twins separated again on different missions to save the Alskad Empire.

In Patterson’s conclusion Vi and Bo were united at the end of The Diminished, In this sequel we see the twins once again separated and on faced paced adventures. Once again the author the has executed a well developed storyline.

Great character development with both Vi,and Bo’s POV’s, and sub-characters.

The Author masterly creates a memorable fantasy world building. The books pace was brisk and vividly rendered, which enabled this follow up to live up to its anticipated hype. Engaging political intrigue and a war kept me fully invested.

What really stood out for me in both books was the diversity and the representation of caste structure system within the Alskad Empire.

One aspect of the book that I especially loved was the way the authors depicts the twin relationship allowing for both male and female leads to be equally strong, regardless of their upbringings or their desires to rule the empire.

Patterson’s unique premise, and non stop action engages the reader all the way up to an emotional end.

You will definitely will want to add this to your reading list for this year.

I definitely will be looking forward to more work from this creative new voice in Ya Fiction.

Young Adult Family, Young Adult LGBT, Young Adult Action & Adventure, Young Adult Fantasy

Kaitlyn Sage Patterson grew up with her nose in a book outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. After completing her M.F.A., she moved to South Korea, where she taught English and started writing her debut novel. THE DIMINISHED was published by HarlequinTEEN on April 10, 2018. Its sequel, THE EXALTED, will follow in 2019. 

When she’s not staring off into space and trying to untangle some particularly troublesome plot point, she can be found in her kitchen, perfecting the art of the macaron; or at the barn, where she rides and trains dressage horses; or with her husband, spoiling their sweet rescue dogs.

Book Tours
Gwendalyn’s Books

 @ RomanticHistoricalFiction @RABTBookTours

Special Pre-Order Price of $3.99

photo Lacewood eBook Cover Large - Copy_zpsh91k88i1.jpg

Women’s
Fiction/Contemporary Romance
Date
Published: 6/18/2019
photo add-to-goodreads-button_zpsc7b3c634.png
Sometimes love is just too powerful for one lifetime…

MOVING TO A SMALL TOWN in Virginia is a big change for New York socialite Katie McCain. But when she stumbles across an abandoned 200-year-old mansion, she’s
enthralled by the enduring beauty of the neglected estate—and captivated by the
haunting portrait of a woman in mourning.
Purchasing the property on a whim, Katie attempts to fit in with the colorful characters
in the town of New Hope, while trying to unravel the mystery of the “widow of
Lacewood.” As she pieces together the previous owner’s heartrending story,
Katie uncovers secrets the house has held for centuries, and discovers the key
to coming to terms with her own sense of loss.
The past and present converge when hometown hero Will Durham returns and begins his
own healing process by helping the “city girl” restore the place that holds so
many memories. As the mystic web of destiny is woven, a love story that might
have been lost forever is exposed, and a destiny that has been waiting in the
shadows for centuries is fulfilled.
Part love story, part ghost story, Lacewood is a timeless novel about trusting in
fate, letting go of the past, and believing in things that can’t be seen.
A powerful and poignant tale that vividly conveys the heartache of war, the
tragedy of loss, and the fulfillment of destiny…even when souls are separated
by centuries. Lacewood takes readers on a journey that connects the past with
the present—and the present with eternity.
[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pHEHQjD5Vac&w=320&h=266
Turning
in a circle, Katie studied the room again. Faded wallpaper curled and peeled
above the dusty wainscoting, but the walls themselves appeared sturdy. On the
far side of the entryway, and dominating the wall, stood a mammoth fireplace
with an ornately carved hearth. And above the mantle hung a captivating
painting of a woman in nineteenth-century dress.

“Who is she?”

The sheriff turned to the dusty, sun-bleached portrait in the heavy carved guilt
frame. “One of the previous owners, they say.” He shrugged. “The family history
kind of got lost with the house. Everyone around here calls her the Widow of
Lacewood.”
Katie stood spellbound. The woman was dressed completely in black, but the
magnificence of the gown gave the impression of sophistication and class. Her
chin was slightly elevated as if to project strength, yet there was more than a
hint of sorrow and pain in her eyes.
“She looks so sad.” Katie spoke without removing her gaze. “And so young. How could
she be a widow?”
The sheriff had already started to walk away, but he turned back and glanced at the
painting. “Not sure, but they say she never remarried. She’s the one out in the
cemetery, too, I reckon.”
Katie’s heart suddenly struggled to beat. The anguish in the woman’s eyes kept her
riveted. She could see the pain. Feel a heart ripped apart. Something was
missing that could never be replaced. Katie had felt such loss before. In a
way, that’s why she was here.
“You coming?”

Kati heard the sheriff calling from the next room, and turned to follow. With one
quick glance back, she noticed particles of dust now swirled and danced in a
shaft of light, almost like a living thing. Her breath caught in her throat as
the dust seemed to materialize into the form of a woman, her eyes dull with the
same tortured despair and disbelief as the one in the portrait.
Katie jerked her head around for a closer look and blinked. The woman was gone

Copy of Award-Winning Romantic Suspense Novel Mean to Be

eBook or Audio Download *winners choice*

https://sites.google.com/a/myaddictionisreading.com/20/jessica-james

photo James Jessica Headshot_zpsbibvuqbu.jpg

Jessica James believes in honor, duty, and true love—and that’s what she writes about
in her award-winning novels that span the ages from the Revolutionary War to
modern day.
She is a three-time winner of the John Esten Cooke Award for Southern Fiction, and
has won more than a dozen other literary awards, including a Readers’ Favorite
International Book Award and a Gold Medal from the Military Writers Society of
America. Her novels have been used in schools and are available in hundreds of
libraries including Harvard and the U.S. Naval Academy.
Contact Links

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Adult Fiction, Authors, Blog, Bloggers, Book, Book Giveaway, Bookish, Bookish Giveaway, Booknerd, Books, Bookworm, Fantasy, Fantasy Books, Fantasy Reads, Fiction, Giveaway, Magic, New Book Release, New Books, New Release, Ne, Blogging, Book Blogging, book giveaway, Book love, Book Review, Book Tours, Contemporary Fiction, Gwendalyn_Books_, New Release, Rom Com

Blog Tour For ~ What We Do For Love ❤️

Gwendalyn’s Books

Hello there Bookish People and Welcome,

to the What We Do For Love Blast Tour

I am happy to be hosting a stop on the blog tour for WHAT WE DO FOR LOVE by Anne Pfeffer! I have an excerpt with you today check it out and enter to win the giveaway below

What We Do For Love
Anne Pfeffer
Publication date: May 21st 2019
Genres: Adult, Contemporary

Goodreads

Amazon

Don’t forget to enter the Giveaway

  • $20 Amazon gift card
  • Tour-wide giveaway (INTL)
  • ends June 20th:

Giveaway link:

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“If Lorelai Gilmore of Gilmore Girls was dropped into a thriller, it might resemble this appealing novel.” –Kirkus Reviews

What We Do For Love won the Chick Lit category and made finalist for Best Cover Design/Fiction in the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards!

Thirty-eight year old Nicole Adams has given up on finding love. Instead, the single mother focuses on the things she cherishes most—her sixteen-year old son Justin, her friends, and her art.

When she convinces a prominent Los Angeles museum to feature a piece of her work, a large-scale installation, she thinks her life has finally turned a corner.

Then Justin brings a girl, Daniela, home to live with them. Daniela’s angry parents have thrown her out of the house, because she’s pregnant with Justin’s child. Shattered, Nicole takes Daniela in and, in so doing, is drawn into the inner circle of Daniela’s family—a frightening world of deceit and violence.

Nicole struggles to keep life going as normal. Forced to deal with people she doesn’t trust or like, fearful for the future of both her son and the grandchild they’re expecting, Nicole wonders if she can do what she tells Justin to do: always have faith in yourself and do the right thing.

—

What We Do for Love won the Chick Lit category of the 2019 Next Generation Indie Book Awards, and finalist for Best Cover Design/Fiction!

Funny how one’s life can make a U-turn.

My life made two. In a single day.

I started that day as a mere potter—yes, a person who hand-makes vases and dinner plates for a living—wearing borrowed clothes and driving to the most important interview of my life. A few hours later came U-turn number one: the board of directors of CCMLA, the Contemporary Crafts Museum of Los Angeles, offered me a place in their upcoming show!

In an instant, I had become an artist. I pondered this fact wonderingly as I drove home that afternoon. I was to provide them with a brand-new, never-before-seen mural in ceramics, an installation piece. My wall would be located at the entrance to the exhibit, the first thing you saw as you walked in. This was my chance, an incredible opportunity.

I was an artist!

It didn’t bother me that desperation clearly underlay the board’s decision. All the better when I saved the day with a great contribution to their show!

I hoped.

Flushed with success, I revved my ancient Toyota, Bernice, up to twenty-two miles per hour. We practically skipped over the potholes as we barreled our way up the Trail of Terror. This was the name my son Justin had given the rutted, one-lane road that wound its way up the side of Laurel Canyon to our house.

Of course, I was a fill-in, hired at the last minute. I’d gotten this job when Miriam Fletcher, a customer of mine who happened to be on the museum board, moaned to me that an artist had dropped out of a show scheduled to open in six weeks. “We’re in such a pickle! We don’t know what to do!” Though her crepey neck revealed a senior citizen, Miriam otherwise projected youth, running long acrylic nails through her cropped, bleached and spiked hair, her copper earrings swinging.

My cue to pipe up. “I’m sure I could help you!”

Miriam trained her eyes upon me. She had recently ordered customized hand-made pieces from me to give to her granddaughters—a miniature tea set for the youngest and a statuette of a mermaid for her older sister.

“You do such beautiful ceramics work, Nicole!”

“What you’ve seen is my commercial work, which I do through my business Clayworks. I create as an artist under my own name.” That is, I hoped to create as an artist under my own name, if I could ever get the proper start.

And now I had. I could hardly wait to tell my son the news. After sixteen years of single motherhood and hard work, struggling to support myself and Justin, I couldn’t blow this chance. And yet, I’d never done anything like this before.

A twelve-by-nine foot mural. In just six weeks.

You can do this, I told myself. I had to. Letting the museum—and myself—down was unthinkable.

I could practically hear the snap-crackle-pop of my nerves.

I pulled into what we called the car park, an open space situated beside the house at the top of the Trail of Terror, big enough to park a half dozen cars. Justin’s Ford Focus wasn’t there.

When he got home from school, which should be any minute, we would raise a toast, our champagne glasses filled with sparkling apple cider.

The day was unseasonably hot, and I was boiling in Bernice, her air conditioner long dead. Thank heavens my hair had stayed up all day in the deliberately loose knot that I’d coaxed it into this morning, with pretty little bits of hair hanging down around my face. A chignon, according to the YouTube tutorial. One more degree of humidity and my whole head would have coiled itself into a giant Brillo pad right there before the entire board of directors.

And thank goodness I’d been able to borrow my sister’s striking red-and-orange color-blocked linen dress, which had given me just the boost of artist/business woman confidence that I’d needed. Now though, its linen skirt was hopelessly creased and hiking up around my hips. I bounded out of the car and proceeded along the circuitous route that we all used to enter the house, going through the rickety side gate, and past what was technically our front door, which no one ever opened. Instead, I followed the path that ran along the side of the house toward the yard and pool, giving a glance to my irises and roses, which grew under our bedroom windows.

The white, yellow, and purple irises stood tall and elegant, but it was the roses I really loved—the fluttery, home-grown variety that came in every color of the sunrise. I would have to harvest some for tonight’s dinner table.

As I reached the yard, I stepped from the cool shade of the side path into direct, hot sunshine. The sliver of Los Angeles ahead of me that appeared on clear days like this one, the perfume of herbs and blooming plants, the swimming pool that shimmered invitingly—except for my college years, this had been home all my life. Along with my sister Caroline, I’d inherited the small, dilapidated house on its magnificent parcel of land in the Hollywood Hills. At today’s prices, neither of us could have ever afforded to buy it.

Entering the house as always through the French doors off the living room, I waltzed into my bedroom. It was the beginning of a new era. Soon there would be no more making pottery on consignment! No more sets of dinnerware for twelve!

I shouldn’t get ahead of myself. Of course, I would continue to operate Clayworks. Those dinner sets paid the bills after all. Still though, there was now a chance I could taper off the business over time, if I could sell some of my more creative pieces. Imagine me, finally, at age thirty-eight, beginning to show in museums and galleries!

I changed into my regular daywear—a sleeveless cotton blouse, long flowy skirt in the coolest feather-light cotton, and Teva sandals.

My old friend Mike Sawyer would be over to eat with me and Justin, as he did most weeks, once or twice. Maybe I’d give them both my wonderful news at the same time.

No, I couldn’t wait that long to spill the news. I knew I would tell Justin the minute he walked in.

Hearing the muffled noise of a door opening, I sprinted to the kitchen, where my son, home at last, would for sure want to hear all about it.

I stopped short when I saw that Justin was not alone.

Author Bio:

Hi! I grew up in the desert around Phoenix, Arizona, where I had a bay quarter horse named Dolly. If I wasn’t riding, I was holed up somewhere reading Laura Ingalls Wilder or the Oz books or, later on, Jane Eyre and The Grapes of Wrath. Horses eventually faded as an interest, but I ended up with a lifelong love of books and reading.

After college and eight years of living in cold places like Chicago and New York, I escaped back to the land of sunshine. I now live in California, one mile from the Pacific Ocean, with my dachshund Taco. I have worked in banking and as a pro bono attorney, doing adoptions and guardianships for abandoned children.

As a writer, I’d always been interested in children’s books, since they had meant so much to me as a kid. I’ve found I especially like writing books about teens and twenty-somethings, an age where you make so many decisions about who you are and how you want to spend your life.

I love hearing from readers, so please write to me any time at my website http://www.annepfeffer.com.

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