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Pieces of Happily Ever After

March 5th, 2010

Our Book in Bloom feature a spunky little girl, her broken-hearted mama and a husband-stealing starlet. (So *that’s* why her husband turned in his six-pack for six-pack abs!)

The funny, well-written Hollywood tale is a great one for anyone who enjoys Jennifer Weiner and Beth Harbison.

40047184.JPGPIECES OF HAPPILY EVER AFTER by Irene Zutell

From the publisher:
What happens after “happily ever after”? Alice Hirsh is about to find out…

Alice, a former New Yorker who thought she’d never feel at home in the bizarre world of the San Fernando Valley, was adapting, raising her 5-year-old daughter while trying to keep her job and make her new house a home. When her attorney husband lands a trophy client – box-office queen Rose Maris – things begin to look up. Then Alex starts working late – a lot. He crunches his paunch into a six-pack and trades his Gap ensembles for Armani everything.

Soon, Rose and Alex’s affair blazes in the tabloids and Alice is plunged into trash-gossip hell. Her life crumbles around her as she navigates her newly single self through suburban LA –a place rife with porn stars, psycho soccer moms and nutty neighbors.

Is there a chance to wrest Alex from the Sexiest Woman Alive? And if so… would Alice want him back? And what about George–her college sweatheart? Or Johnny, a walking charm-bomb paparazzo? As Alice inventories the rubble of her life, she desperately searches for her bearings and is forced to ask herself what she really wants from life, love and herself.

About the Author
Irene Zutell began her career as a journalist. She has written for People, Us Weekly, The New York Times, the NY Daily News, Newsday, USA Today and others. She lives in Los Angeles with her husband and two children. You can visit her at www.irenezutell.com.

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Posted in Books in Bloom, Mainstream, Women's Fiction

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Girlfriend Megan Crane

February 25th, 2010

Megan Crane Author PhotoWelcome, Girlfriend Megan!

If Oprah invited you on her show to talk about your book, what would the theme of that show be?
The unrealistic expectations women place upon themselves because they think others will only love them if they are the perfect friend, wife, mother, daughter.

What was the most fun scene in your book to write? The most difficult?
The most fun scene was definitely the alley scene. I will say no more! The most difficult was probably the hard-won conversation between Meredith and her former best-friend toward the end of the book, when all the truths have been aired. That was a tough one.

Do you have a muse, good luck charm, writing vice?
I am pretty sure my extremely fat and ill-behaved cats feel that they are both muses and charms; they are not. I don’t really have either, I don’t think. Though I have written every single one of my books on this very same desk, and I’m kind of attached to it, if that counts.

What do you write on (type of computer, or notebook, etc.) and where do you write?
I write on my desktop computer with the giant screen that I can’t do without, sitting at my desk in my office, which is finally a separate room in my house–a huge step up from when it was shoved in the corner of the kitchen.

Have you had a “rock star” moment regarding your writing career? If so, what was it?
I’m not sure what a “rock star” moment means, but it was pretty cool to hit the USA Today Bestseller list. That still feels great!

What do you do to celebrate your writing successes?
I try to enjoy them. I say “try” because I am really, really bad about living in the moment. But I’m working on it!

Describe your personality with five adjectives that would make your 5th grade English teacher proud.
I asked my husband and he said: precocious, empathic, challenging, inquisitive, enthusiastic. So there you go!

Thanks, Megan. It was fun getting to know you better. Now we’re ready to read your book! Babes, see below…

Everyone Else’s Girl is the critically-acclaimed second novel by author Megan Crane, out now in the UK.

About the book:

Everyone Else's Girl UK CoverMeredith does things for other people. She irons clothes for her boyfriend, she attends her ex-best friend’s horrendous hen party for her brother (who’s about to marry the girl) and she moves back to her parents’ house to look after her dad when his leg is broken. She’s a good girl and that matters. But when she gets back home, all is not as Meredith remembered. Especially Scott, that geeky teenager from her old class at school. He’s definitely different now. And so, it seems, is she. One by one, her family and old friends start to tell her some home truths and Meredith begins to realise she’s not so perfect after all. Maybe it is time she stopped being everyone else’s girl and started living for herself…

Praise for Everyone Else’s Girl:
“Megan Crane rules! Cancel your evening plans: You won’t want to stop reading until you’ve devoured every delicious word.”
—Meg Cabot
“Amusing, heartfelt and emotionally sophisticated chick-lit.” —Kirkus
“Crane prevails with refreshingly real human emotions and reactions. In this book, actions have consequences, and no one gets off easy, despite appearances.” —RT BookClub
“I suspect a lot of readers were like me – desperately seeking fiction with a romantic edge, realistic stories, and smart writing (oh, for more smart writing).
I suspect a lot of readers were like me and dropped out of chicklit game because finding the good was damn hard work. I dedicate this review to those readers. There is hope…Everyone Else’s Girl is a good book.” —Kassia Krozser at paperbackreader.com

About Megan Crane:

USA Today bestselling author Megan Crane has written five women’s fiction novels, many work-for-hire young adult novels, and five category romances (under the name Caitlin Crews) since publishing her first book in 2004. Her novel, Frenemies, was a BookSense Notable in July 2007.　She teaches various creative writing classes both online at mediabistro.com and offline at UCLA Extension’s prestigious Writers’ Program, where she finally utilizes her MA and PhD in English Literature. Megan lives in　Los Angeles with her comic book artist/animator husband and too many pets. For more info visit her at　www.megancrane.com or www.caitlincrews.com.

You can find Megan on Twitter: http://twitter.com/megancrane

At her journal: http://megancrane.livejournal.com/

On Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/megan.crane
An excerpt from Everyone Else’s Girl is here: http://www.megancrane.com/eeg.html

You can buy the book here.

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Posted in Mainstream, girlfriends cyber circuit

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Wine + Book Pairing: A Top 10 for under 20

February 24th, 2010

To tie along with our Happiness Project, BE Babes thought it would be fun to show some adventure in our wine selection. We decided to feature wines UNDER $20 from the Wine Spectator Top 100 list of 2009 and pair them with a new book! Very cool. To kick things off, we’re starting with the wine that made #10 on the list: Brancaia Toscana Tre 2007, from Tuscany, Italy.

TOP-10-09_10-braTre, the label’s third wine, is a blend of Sangiovese, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon from all three Brancaia vineyards. Retails for $20.

We think a blend like this would pair very well with a familial suspense/thriller like:

42434257.JPGTHE THINGS THAT KEEP US HERE by Carla Buckley

Product Description
How far would you go to protect your family?

Ann Brooks never thought she’d have to answer that question. Then she found her limits tested by a crisis no one could prevent. Now, as her neighborhood descends into panic, she must make tough choices to protect everyone she loves from a threat she cannot even see. In this chillingly urgent novel, Carla Buckley confronts us with the terrifying decisions we are forced to make when ordinary life changes overnight.

A year ago, Ann and Peter Brooks were just another unhappily married couple trying–and failing–to keep their relationship together while they raised two young daughters. Now the world around them is about to be shaken as Peter, a university researcher, comes to a startling realization: A virulent pandemic has made the terrible leap across the ocean to America’s heartland.

And it is killing fifty out of every hundred people it touches.

As their town goes into lockdown, Peter is forced to return home–with his beautiful graduate assistant. But the Brookses’ safe suburban world is no longer the refuge it once was. Food grows scarce, and neighbor turns against neighbor in grocery stores and at gas pumps. And then a winter storm strikes, and the community is left huddling in the dark.

Trapped inside the house she once called home, Ann Brooks must make life-or-death decisions in an environment where opening a door to a neighbor could threaten all the things she holds dear.

Carla Buckley’s poignant debut raises important questions to which there are no easy answers, in an emotionally riveting tale of one family facing unimaginable stress.

About the Author
Carla Buckley was born in Washington, D.C. She has worked in a variety of jobs, including a stint as an assistant press secretary for a U.S. senator, an analyst with the Smithsonian Institution, and a technical writer for a defense contractor. She currently lives in Ohio with her husband and children. The Things That Keep Us Here is her first novel. Bantam Dell will publish Buckley’s next novel in 2011.

Get THINGS here and read an excerpt.

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Posted in Books in Bloom, Mainstream, Wine Wednesdays

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Secrets of Eden

February 8th, 2010

I have never been disappointed by a single Shaye Areheart Book I’ve read. I know a lot of readers don’t pay attention to who publishes what, but when you read as much as I do, you find certain lines and certain publishers just seem to be your cup of tea. With SA, you know you are in for great writing and a good solid story well worth your time. This is my first read by Chris Bohjalian and I can’t wait! Happy to make it this week’s Book in Bloom.

51456980.JPGSECRETS OF EDEN by Chris Bohjalian (Hardback)

Product Description
From the bestselling author of The Double Bind, Midwives, and Skeletons at the Feast comes a novel of shattered faith, intimate secrets, and the delicate nature of sacrifice.

“There,” says Alice Hayward to Reverend Stephen Drew, just after her baptism, and just before going home to the husband who will kill her that evening and then shoot himself. Drew, tortured by the cryptic finality of that short utterance, feels his faith in God slipping away and is saved from despair only by a meeting with Heather Laurent, the author of wildly successful, inspirational books about . . . angels.

Heather survived a childhood that culminated in her own parents’ murder-suicide, so she identifies deeply with Alice’s daughter, Katie, offering herself as a mentor to the girl and a shoulder for Stephen – who flees the pulpit to be with Heather and see if there is anything to be salvaged from the spiritual wreckage around him.
But then the State’s Attorney begins to suspect that Alice’s husband may not have killed himself. . .and finds out that Alice had secrets only her minister knew.

Secrets of Eden is both a haunting literary thriller and a deeply evocative testament to the inner complexities that mark all of our lives. Once again Chris Bohjalian has given us a riveting page-turner in which nothing is precisely what it seems. As one character remarks, “Believe no one. Trust no one. Assume all of our stories are suspect.”

About the Author
CHRIS BOHJALIAN is the critically acclaimed author of twelve novels, including the New York Times bestsellers Skeletons at the Feast, The Double Bind, and Midwives. His novel, Midwives, was a number one New York Times bestseller and a selection of Oprah’s Book Club. His work has been translated into more than 25 languages and twice became movies (Midwives and Past the Bleachers). He lives in Vermont with his wife and daughter.

Visit him at www.ChrisBohjalian.com or on Facebook.

You can also read an excerpt of the first chapter, see a video with the author and buy the book with this link.

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The Murderer’s Daughter Release Day

January 19th, 2010

This week’s Book in Bloom features a novel compared to the likes of White Oleander and The Deep End of the Ocean. If you’re looking for am emotionally gripping tale, consider THE MURDERER’S DAUGHTERS by Randy Susan Meyer.

41gjyBJkUdL._SL500_AA240_ From the publisher:
A beautifully written, compulsively readable debut that deals with the aftermath of a shocking act of violence that leaves two young sisters with nothing but each other—in the tradition of White Oleander, this haunting novel is a testament to the power of family and the ties that bind us together, even as they threaten to tear us apart.

Mama was “no macaroni-necklace-wearing kind of mother.” She was a lipstick and perfume-wearing mother, a flirt whose estranged husband still hungered for her. After Mama threw him out, she warned the girls to never let Daddy in the house, an admonition that tears at ten-year-old Lulu whenever she thinks about the day she opened the door for her drunken father, and watched as he killed her mother, stabbed her five-year-old sister Merry and tried to take his own life.

Effectively orphaned by their mother’s death and father’s imprisonment, Lulu and Merry, unwanted by family members and abandoned to a terrifying group home, spend their young lives carrying more than just the visible scars from the tragedy. Even as their plan to be taken in by a well-to-do foster family succeeds, they come to learn they’ll never really belong anywhere or to anyone—that all they have to hold onto is each other.

As they grow into women, Lulu holds fast to her anger, denies her father’s existence and forces Merry into a web of lies about his death that eventually ensnares her own husband and daughters. Merry, certain their safety rests on placating her needy father, dutifully visits him, seeking his approval and love at the expense of her own relationships. As they strive to carve lives of their own, the specter of their father, unrepentant and manipulative even from behind bars, haunts them. And when they learn he’s about to be paroled, the house of cards they’ve built their lives on teeters on the brink of collapse.

Buy the book here.

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His Other Lover, Forever Waiting

December 31st, 2009

Time is running out on the year, but lucky for us we can still read ‘09 releases in 2010! Here are a couple we think deserve some attention, so without further ado, our new Books in Bloom…

40466577.JPGHIS OTHER LOVER by Lucy Dawson

From the publisher:
To Mia, the devastating proof is right there on her boyfriend’s cell phone. In the dead of night she discovers Pete—her lover, her soul mate, her future—is having an affair. Instead of waking him with accusations, Mia begins to look for answers. What woman wouldn’t want to know everything, after all? But her desperate search only begins a frightening series of lies and deceptions.

Everything important to Mia may be on the line, but she’s also about to cross it. Desperation, obsession, and heartache can only lead to catastrophe, and if the cold, hard truth is not what Mia imagines, pursuing it could be the worst mistake she has ever made.

Just how far is too far?
Get LOVER now.

47447967.JPGFOREVER WAITING by DeVa Gantt

From the publisher:
The gripping saga of the Duvoisins—an extraordinary American family both blessed and cursed—reaches a stunning conclusion. . .

In the wake of heartbreaking tragedy and volatile revelations, the once-great Duvoisin family of Virginia teeters on the brink of disintegration. And trusted governess, Charmaine Ryan, suffers with them.

Their world has exploded—and aging patriarch, Frederic Duvoisin, desperately tries to salvage what remains of his shattered family. His mercurial son John has left, vowing never to return, taking a piece of Charmaine’s heart with him. Paul, the roguish, illegitimate son and aspiring heir to the Duvoisin shipping empire, offers love to the vulnerable Charmaine. And Agatha, Frederic’s shrewish wife, plots to destroy anyone who stands in her way. Haunted by the past, John returns, inadvertently unearthing the most devastating scheme of all.

Buy FOREVER here.

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Posted in Books in Bloom, Historical Fiction, Mainstream

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The Little Stranger

December 29th, 2009

by Malena Lott

35837811The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters

Stephen King recommended The Little Stranger in his best of 2009 list for Entertainment Weekly. The next day I read a tweet by thriller author MJ Rose who was reading it and loving it. (See how powerful frequency and word-of-mouth is?) Within thirty seconds I had purchased the hardback in Kindle format for my iPhone, only the second purchase I’ve made on my iPhone. I figured a ghost story might be just the thing I needed for holiday distraction. I was right.

What Waters has pulled off is a ghost story that may or may not be a ghost story – depending on whether or not you believe in ghosts. I happen to, full disclosure, so everything that happens in Hundreds Hall, the mansion which is the main character in the novel, feels haunted to me from the get go. That being said, the “ghost” part of the story is very minor, and the major aspects of the story are the history and functioning (and falling apart) of the house itself and the Ayres family who reside there. Mrs. Ayres and her two living children, a “hearty spinster” Caroline, her younger brother Roderick, who suffered burns and has a bum leg from the war.

The story is really about a man, our protagonist Dr. Faraday, a forty-ish bachelor whose parents gave up everything to see that he could become a doctor, and his relationship with the Ayres and Hundreds Hall. One quickly believes he loves the mansion, even in its tired state, more than he loves Caroline. His visits to the mansion begin as doctor-patient only and grow into a friendship. Throughout the story, the various members of the family confide in Dr. Faraday to determine what exactly is happening in Hundreds Hall – the burn marks on the walls and the bruises and marks appearing on the family members and later a bigger fire and suicide. As a medical doctor, Faraday explains it all away – clumsiness, candles too close to walls, and ultimately mental illness.

Does isolation and losing one’s standing in society – having to sell off parcel after parcel of your land, make you go crazy? In that way, can a house turn against you? Ruin your life? Or it something more – one’s own energy and anxiety causing things to physically happen within the house? Or could it be the ghost of little Susan, the first child of Mrs. Ayres, who the mother admits she was completely in love with and loved more deeply than her other two? Does the child miss her mother, want her on the other side?

Even if you don’t believe in ghosts, but acknowledge that places have chi – energy – then it’s easy to see how locking away whole sections of a mansion and letting it get to a dilapidated state because you can’t afford the upkeep or repairs, could change the home’s positive energy negative and stagnant.

Waters is a gifted writer for sure – and just scanning the acknowledgments in the back of the book on all the research she did to get the setting, time period, medicine and architecture right truly is astounding. While I would’ve preferred more haunted and less house, it’s an impressive book and certainly stands out as a literary exploration of the psyche and the supernatural.

Get LITTLE here.

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Posted in Historical Fiction, Mainstream, Uncategorized

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Soulless: The Parasol Protectorate

December 28th, 2009

by Malena Lott

41098430Soulless by Gail Carriger

Soulless came into my life like many great books do: by referral. It was a Book End Babes HoLITday gift guide recommendation by one of our book club queenBs, and I knew from the cover it would be a quirky fun read (kudos to the art director for that spot-on design).

Carriger say she knew she wanted to write urban fantasy (supernatural/werewolf/vampires) and noticed that a lot of the genre is contemporary. But she figured these creatures had to have been around for a long time, right? So she set her story in the Victorian times in England and gifts us with a wonderful protagonist, Alexia, who is a preternatural, meaning she has no soul. This doesn’t make her mean, but it does mean she can’t be harmed by vampires, and in fact, kills a vampire at the beginning of the book (self-defense, of course.)

The book has mystery (what’s happening to the vampires?), politics (BUR, where all vampires and werewolves must be registered), and romance (Alexia falls for the area Alpha, Lord Maccon, a handsome werewolf). I loved SOULLESS not just for the adventure, but because Alexia is so easy to love – she’s tough, no-nonsense and must work harder for her position because she is a spinster (and a homely one, at that) and she’s a preternatural, which she must hide from her family, as well as society.

Carriger knows how to world-build and suck us in to this delightful story of a co-mingling proper society where things like the full moon and daylight matter, but only as much as serving delicious tarts at your party. If you haven’t tried urban fantasy, but enjoy historical romance, this would be an easy add. If you like urban fantasy, but are looking for something different, give SOULLESS a try. While the spinsterhood, romance, Victorian angle seems ripe for women’s readership, I think men who enjoy historicals and urban fantasy would get a kick out of it, too.

Buy it at Amazon.

I’m looking forward to CHANGELESS, Carriger’s second book in the series, due in 2010.

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Posted in Historical Fiction, Mainstream, Romance, Uncategorized

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A Touch of Dead — Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Short Stories

December 22nd, 2009

by Rod Lott

51oZEXgdr7L._SL500_AA240_A Touch of Dead — Sookie Stackhouse: The Complete Short Stories by Charlaine Harris

As someone who’s very much in tune with HBO’s TRUE BLOOD, I’m one of tens of thousands of people currently curious enough to give Charlaine Harris’ novels — which serve as the series’ source material — a try. Most will go for the first book, 2001’s DEAD UNTIL DARK, but don’t overlook A TOUCH OF DEAD — SOOKIE STACKHOUSE: THE COMPLETE STORIES.

The new collection boasts all five of Harris’ previously published short stories from her established universe, which now numbers nine novels strong. As long as you’ve seen the show, TOUCH will make a fine starting point; but if you haven’t, don’t, because it does require some familiarity with the characters, as they’re not readily reintroduced.

Sookie is a Southern waitress with mind-reading powers, and she lives in Louisana at a time when vampires have chosen to live among humans. Other supernatural happenings occur about town. In “Fairy Dust,” Sookie’s called upon to solve the disappearance of one-third of a set of triplets from a strip club; too-alike names (Claude, Claudette, Claudine) muddle an otherwise simple, straightforward read, if a minor mystery.

A vampire-only club prepares for the arrival of Prince Dracula — hopefully — for an exclusive party in “Dracula Night.” Sookie teams with a witch to determine who rifled through a real estate agent’s files in “Lucky.” Sookie (God, how I hate that name) gets news of her vampire cousin’s demise in “One Word Answer,” and helps nurse a wounded werewolf back to health — including sexually — in the Christmas Eve-set “Gift Wrap.”

Harris’ strong suit is punchy dialogue, seasoned with inoffensive good humor. Depth in plotting is not, at least judging from this quintet of tales. All in all, they’re okay, but seem to suffer from being created specifically to fit a theme, rather than being stories the author just had to tell. Even though the characters don’t always act as they do on TV (vampire Eric, primarily), it’s easy to picture them in these offshoots, which aren’t likely to be adapted for the screen. My curiosity is now sated, and while I won’t continue with Harris’ fiction, I liked it well enough not to be disappointed.

Speaking of, many of A TOUCH OF DEAD’s negative reviews online stem from consumers being pissed that this is an anthology, rather than a full novel. Don’t blame Harris for that; blame it on your own failure to read what the cover quite clearly states. —Rod Lott

Buy it at Amazon.

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Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single

October 22nd, 2009

We’re re-posting our May review of the title since JJ is an October Top Pick. Looking for funny? Jenny, at the hands of Heather McElhatton, will show you the way.

Jennifer Johnson is Sick of Being Single by Heather Mcelhatton

First line: “This is a mistake. I’m not really here.”

I don’t care what you call it: the American version of Bridget Jones’ Diary, funniest damn book of the year, prescription for what ails America, JJiSoBS is one helluva great read. When is the last time you chuckled on nearly every page of a full-length novel? Yeah. I did. And I read it over a week’s time period, too, so it wasn’t a one-sit phenomenon where I just happened to be in a ticklish mood. 

Jennifer Johnson is the quintessential smart, size 12 girl who works as a copywriter in the marketing department of Keller’s Department store. Yes, she has the gay best friend and the not-so-cute but great guy friend and the mean sis who is getting married and the bitchy boss Ashley, BUT… and this is a big but, author Heather Mcelhatton gives us such great characterization and punchy dialogue that we don’t care that the set-up is familiar territory for us. Nothing is really weighty in the novel, but we don’t mind. We don’t need a friend with cancer or existential pondering to make JJ sing. We like that she is kitchy and flawed and eats hot dogs on her first date with handsome Brad Keller, the hero. We wince right alongside her as she falls for the handsome son of the president of the company. 

No, not everything is entirely plausible, especially in the last third of the novel, but we’re having such a hoot we don’t care about that, either. She does a nice job of tying the loose ends at the end and leave us wanting to jump forward six months to see what Miss Jen is up to now. I will never look at a Cinnabon, or, ick, a used tampon, the same way again. 

Do yourself a favor and buy this book. If you’re single, fine, but I’ve been married 15 years and I still loved it. 

For: Laughing your hiney off. - Malena Lott

Get it at Amazon.

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