Driving On The Left by Gail Olmsted

October 11, 2016

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from the author in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

Driving On The Left by Gail Olmsted was a good book. I did read the other book in this series and if you want to check out what I thought of that book you can click here to read that review. I enjoyed the characters in the book, but I knew I would because I liked them in the first book. I love when you get to check in with other characters that you meet in the prior books, and this one was like that. I also enjoyed getting to know Jackie’s daughter Becca. I also enjoyed following along with Becca as she learns about herself and the world. This was a great chic lit book, and I can’t wait to read more books from this author in the future.

About The Book

Like Mother, Like Daughter?

A summer fling changed the entire course of Jackie Sullivan’s life. Back then, she trusted her instincts and took a chance on love. Now she’s at a crossroads and has a big decision to make. How much is she willing to sacrifice for the man she loves?

Her daughter Becca’s got her own problem- a secret that could threaten her carefully planned-out future. Romance is the last thing on her mind this summer.

Jackie and Becca planned to explore the beautiful Irish countryside during a relaxing vacation, but when Becca falls for tour guide Sean, she wants to explore much more. Will Becca resist temptation or follow in her mother’s footsteps? Sean may be just too good to pass up.

This book is for anyone who believes in the power of love and its ability to make you all sorts of crazy. Written as a sequel to JEEP TOUR, it can be enjoyed as a standalone read as well.

About The Author

I am hard at work on my third novel. ‘Driving on the Left’ is a sequel to JEEP TOUR, set in Ireland and will be published by Booktrope this summer.

Like JEEP TOUR’s main character Jackie Sullivan, I am a professor of marketing. I have taught at the college level for eighteen years. I am a recipient of the Deliso Endowed Chair Award and was recently recognized by the Commonwealth of Massachusetts as one of “29 Who Shine”. A hopeless romantic, I am married to the love of my life. I am mom to two young adults and three cats and enjoy reading, music and travel.

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The Murder at Astaire Castle by Lauren Carr

October 6, 2016

FTC: I received a free copy of this audio book from iRead Book Tours in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Murders at Astaire Castle by Lauren Carr was a good audiobook. I don’t listen to many audiobooks, so this was a nice change of pace for me. I like the narrator’s voice in this book, and I felt like he really could have been the main character in the book. I did at one point have to make it go faster because at times I felt like he was just talking to slow that I got bored or distracted as I will listening to it. After I had turned up the speed of the book, I did enjoy this book even more than at the start. I am starting to love listening to audiobooks like this one while I am driving to and from work each day. I have a pretty long commute, and I find when I am listening audiobooks I don’t get as angry at other drivers. I have read one other book in this series, but with that being said you don’t have to read them in order or even read them all if some of the books don’t interest you. At times I thought this book was trying too hard to be scary and I didn’t like that about the book. All in all, it was a good book and I am sure I will be checking out other books in this series because I am a huge of Gnarly in the series. If you love mystery books than I know, you will enjoy this book as much as I did.

About The Book

Never tell Mac Faraday not to do something.

Spencer’s police chief, David O’Callaghan, learns this lesson the hard way when he orders Mac Faraday to stay away from the south end of Spencer’s mountaintop – even though he owns the property. It doesn’t take long for Mac to find out what lies on the other side of the stone wall and locked gate, on which hangs a sign warning visitors to Keep Out!

Topping the list of the 10 top haunted places in America, Astaire Castle is associated with two suicides, three mysterious disappearances, and four murders since it was built almost a century ago – and Mac Faraday owns it!

In spite of David’s warning, Mac can’t resist unlocking the gate to see the castle that supposedly hasn’t seen a living soul since his late mother had ordered it closed up after the double homicide and disappearance of Damian Wagner, a world-famous master of horror novels.

What starts out as a quick tour of a dusty old castle turns into another Mac Faraday adventure when Astaire Castle becomes the scene of even more murders. Mac is going to need to put all of his investigative talents to work to sort out this case that involves the strangest characters he has run into yet – including a wolf man. No, we’re not talking about Gnarly.

About The Author

Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries. The twelfth installment in the Mac Faraday Mystery series, Candidate for Murder will be released June 2016.

Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, son, and four dogs (including the real Gnarly) on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.

Connect with Lauren: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook

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The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter

October 5, 2016

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Pump Up Your Book in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter was a great book. I was hooked on this book right from the first page. This is the typical book that I usually love so I wasn’t shocked that I like it as much as I did. I was shocked at how fast I was able to get through this book though. It is a bigger book and I was still able to get it read in a few days which was nice. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Will during the first few chapters of the book but when I four and five chapters in I really started to like him. I really liked Sara right from the start because she seems like someone that I would get along with in the real world. There are parts of this book that were pretty graphic but that didn’t bother me at all. I know that I will be reading other books by this author because I loved this book that much. If you love mystery/thriller books than you will love this book as well and you need to pick up a copy for yourself. If you pick it up to read let me know how you like it.

About The Book

Husbands and wives. Mothers and daughters. The past and the future.

Secrets bind them. And secrets can destroy them.

The author of Pretty Girls returns with an electrifying, emotionally complex thriller that plunges its fascinating protagonist into the darkest depths of a mystery that just might destroy him.

With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.

Studying the body, Sara Linton—the GBI’s newest medical examiner and Will’s lover—realizes that the extensive blood loss didn’t belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim—a woman—who has vanished . . . and who will die soon if she isn’t found.

Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city’s most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world’s most expensive lawyers—a man who’s already gotten away with rape, despite Will’s exhaustive efforts to put him away.

But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will’s troubled past to the case . . . and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends—and even the suspects he pursues.

Relentlessly suspenseful and furiously paced, peopled with conflicted, fallible characters who leap from the page, The Kept Woman is a seamless blend of twisty police procedural and ingenious psychological thriller — a searing, unforgettable novel of love, loss, and redemption.

About The Author

Karin Slaughter is the #1 internationally bestselling author of more than a dozen novels, including the Will Trent and Grant County series and the instant New York Times bestselling standalones, Cop Town and Pretty Girls. There are more than 35 million copies of her books in print around the world.

Visit her at http://www.karinslaughter.com

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My (Underground) American Dream by Julissa Arce

October 4, 2016

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

My (Underground) American Dream by Julissa Arce was an amazing book. When I saw that this book was available for me to review I knew I had to pick it up because I have always wondered about the children that grow up like this. I really enjoyed this book because it was a true story and I love books that really happened. I found it easier for me to get into this book because it was true and I knew that everything really happened. I also loved getting a different view of what it is like to live in the United States. I had a rough childhood but I know I had it better than most people do in this country. I loved everything about this book because it was written well enough that I understood and felt like I was there with the author. If you love memoirs than I know you will love this book as much as I did.

About The Book

For an undocumented immigrant, what is the true cost of the American Dream? Julissa Arce shares her story in a riveting memoir.

When she was 11 years old, Julissa Arce left Mexico and came to the United States on a tourist visa to be reunited with her parents, who dreamed the journey would secure her a better life. When her visa expired at the age of 15, she became an undocumented immigrant. Thus began her underground existence, a decade’s long game of cat and mouse, tremendous family sacrifice, and fear of exposure. After the Texas Dream Act had made a college degree possible, Julissa’s top grades and leadership positions landed her an internship at Goldman Sachs, which led to a full-time position–one of the most coveted jobs on Wall Street. Soon she was a Vice President, a rare Hispanic woman in a sea of suits and ties, yet still guarding her “underground” secret. In telling her personal story of separation, grief, and ultimate redemption, Arce shifts the immigrant conversation and changes the perception of what it means to be an undocumented immigrant.

About The Author

Julissa Arce is the author of “My (Underground) American Dream.” She is an emerging and leading voice in the fight for immigrant rights and education equality. She is the chairman and co-founder of the Ascend Educational Fund (AEF). AEF is a college scholarship and mentorship program for immigrant students in New York City, regardless of their ethnicity, national original or immigration status. She made national and international headlines when she revealed that she had achieved the American Dream of wealth and status at Goldman Sachs while undocumented. Julissa will use her inspirational story to change the conversation around immigration in MY (UNDERGROUND) AMERICAN DREAM. The book explores the polarizing question: for an undocumented immigrant, what is the true cost of the American dream?

In the heady days of the most astronomical stock-market rise in Wall Street history, Julissa Arce climbed the corporate ladder—a rare Hispanic woman in a sea of suits and ties. In 2005, against all the odds, she landed one of the most coveted jobs as an analyst at Goldman Sachs. Over the course of the next six years, even while the financial markets crashed, she continued to climb the corporate ladder—riding a series of promotions to become a Vice President, complete with a high six-figure salary and all of the perks that come with living the Goldman Sachs life. What none of her colleagues knew was that she wasn’t just a young woman who broke through ceilings in a cutthroat male-dominated field: she was also an undocumented American from Mexico.

Arce now uses her success and platform to help shift the conversation around immigration and other social justice issues. Arce often gives talks at events such as TEDx and the Forbes Reinventing America Summit (alongside Nancy Pelosi, Jessica Alba, and Gayle King), and has appeared on CNN, MSNBC, NPR, Al Jazeera America, Telemundo, Bloomberg TV and Univision. Her writing has been published on Huffington Post, Fusion, CNN en Español, The Hill, and Univision. She serves on the board of directors of the National Immigration Law Center and CollegeSpring. She was officially sworn in as an American citizen in August of 2014 and will vote in a presidential election for the first time in 2016.

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October 2016 – Monthly Book Reviews

October 1, 2016

I can’t believe that we are already in the month of October. Where in the heck has this year gone? I can remember how stressed I was when this year started because I was starting a new job and I had no idea if they would keep me or if they would lay me off because at the time they didn’t really have anything for me to do. I am so glad that they kept me because now I am starting to be trained to do dispatch with the service techs which I am sure will be fun but right now it is just stressful. Enough about my job let’s get right into the reviews that will go live during the month of October.

October 4^th–My (Underground) American Dream by Julissa Arce

October 5^th–The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter

October 6^th–The Murder at Astaire Castle by Lauren Carr (This is an audiobook review)

October 11^th– Driving On The Left by Gail Olmsted

October 12^th– Home On The Range by Ruth Logan Herne

October 13^th– Just Fine With Caroline by Annie England Noblin

October 19^th– Save The Last Dance by Eric Johnson & Eva Ungar Grudin

October 20^th–A Sister’s Wish by Shelley Shepard Gray

October 20^th–An Amish Family Christmas by Shelley Shepard Gray

October 25^th– 23 Minutes Past 1 A.M. by Robert J. Dornan

October 26^th– Killer In The Band by Lauren Carr (this is just going to be a promotional post about her new book. The review of this book will be live on November 29th. )

October 30^th– Christian’s Hope by Ervin R. Stutzman

October 31st- A Wedding For Christmas by Lori Wilde (This is a promo post about this book. The review will be posted on December 7th.)

Those are all of the reviews and promotional posts that I have scheduled so far for October. I am going to try and get an update up about my job and everything that is going on with that.

What book would you like to see me review in the coming months?

The Things We Said Today by Lise McClendon

September 30, 2016

FTC: I received a free copy of this book from Pump Up Your Book in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.

The Things We Said Today by Lise McClendon was a great book that I loved from the first page. While I was reading this entire book I had a smile on my face because of some of the things that the characters were doing throughout the book. I also loved that this book takes place in Scotland. I have always wanted to travel there and after reading this book I know that at some point I will have to go. I loved all the crazy personalities that are in this book because you never knew what was going to happen and I loved that about this book. I am usually not a huge fan of romantic comedies but I loved this book and I know that I will be picking up the others books in this series because I loved everything about the characters and their personalities. The characters are people that I would want to hang out with in real like which means that the author did an excellent job of making the characters come to life as I was reading this book. If you love romance novels that leave you smiling after the book is over than I know this is the right book for you.

About The Book

Five sisters, all lawyers, well-trained in the art of demanding what’s necessary.It’s enough to drive a wedding planner to tears. Then add in a European venue, a Scottish hunting lodge, and a reluctant bride, and things get dicey. Can the middle sister, Merle, rally the troops, deal with the in-laws, and stop a powerful storm from ruining everything? Merle has powers of persuasion, especially when it comes to her French beau, Pascal, but in Scotland she has no clue how to corral her out-of-control sisters who are hellbent on wringing every bit of drama from a bad situation.

Annie Bennett is getting married…. At the ripe old age of 55. She’s turned down a few proposals over the years and stayed true to her motto: Stay single, stay happy. When she met handsome Scot Callum Logan she had no intentions beyond her own personal Highland fling. Then it happened: she fell in love. Annie’s doubts about marrying a much-younger man continue to plague her. Callum wants to get married in the bluebells of his native Highlands. But does Annie want to get married at all?

Join the Bennett Sisters in their third rollicking novel, after Blackbird Fly and The Girl in the Empty Dress, in another summer adventure with romance, intrigue, men in kilts, plus wine and whisky, as they navigate the treacherous waters of middle-age, self-discovery, and understanding your fears.

About The Author

Lise McClendon writes fiction in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. She has been a film reviewer, a film maker, a journalism professor, and a PR flack. Since her first novel, The Bluejay Shaman, was published in 1994, she has served on the national board of Mystery Writers of America and the International Association of Crime Writers/North America, as well as on the faculty of the Jackson Hole Writers Conference where each year she critiques, speaks, and learns from writers new and old.

Lise McClendon also writes as Rory Tate.

Her latest book is the women’s fiction, The Things We Said Today.

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