WWW Wednesday | Jan. 21

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It’s that time of the week again when I participate in WWW Wednesdays hosted by Should Be Reading. Feel free to leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments.

To participate in WWW Wednesday, you need to answer three questions.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

CURRENTLY READING

cover58697-mediumTitle: Throw Like A Woman

Author: Susan Petrone

Publisher: The Story Plant

Publication Date: March 24, 2015

Genre: Women’s Fiction

“Forty years old, divorced, with two sons on the verge of adolescence and an ex-husband who considers visitation to be optional, Brenda Haversham isn’t having a whole lot of fun. She’s also no longer qualified for the work she loves, so she’s toiling away in a cubicle instead, trying to make ends meet. Brenda is short on money, short on connection with her kids, and short on any kind of social life. The only thing Brenda has in abundance is her anger. And that turns out to be her greatest asset.

When she was a kid, Brenda’s father taught her how to throw a good fastball. That wasn’t of much use to a girl, but it is enough to astound onlookers at a “test your speed” pitching cage before a Cleveland Indians game. The more Brenda pictures her ex-husband’s face on the other end, the harder she throws. And when someone tapes her performance and puts it up online, Brenda becomes an Internet sensation and then more than that.

The Indians come calling and Brenda finds her life taking a turn in a new direction. Soon, she’s standing on the mound as the first woman player in Major League history and dealing with everything that comes with it. The money is great and the endorsement deals are even better. The fury of “traditionalists?” Not so much. And the conflicting emotions of her teammates are even harder to manage. Meanwhile, Brenda’s home life is evolving faster than she can keep up, redefining her role as a mother, a friend, and even a lover. As the season winds down Brenda will find out if she has what it takes to be a winner at both baseball and life.”

RECENTLY FINISHED READING

cover58172-mediumTitle: The End of Feeling

Author: Cindy C Bennett

Publisher: Skyscape

Publication Date: January 27, 2015

Genre: New Adult

“Eighteen-year-old Benjamin Nefer seems to have it all: great looks, incredible football skills, and smooth moves that have won—and broken—the hearts of countless girls at his high school. But his hellish home life has left him feeling empty inside, unable to experience real feelings. He thinks he’s fine being this way forever…until he meets a beautiful and witty seventeen-year-old girl named Charlotte “Charlie” Austin. She may be new in town, but she’s already been warned about Benjamin’s reputation, so it’s easy for her to shoot down his advances. Like him, she’s happier keeping people at a distance, especially since she, too, has secrets she’s not ready to share with anyone. But as the tentative friendship between the charismatic football captain and the new girl grows, Charlie finds herself feeling closer to Benjamin than she’s ever felt with anyone—and he wonders if he’s really capable of loving after all. Can they drop their guard, or is this so-called romance just another game?”

WHAT I MIGHT READ NEXT

cover59223-mediumTitle: Autumn Getaway, Seasons of Love Book One

Author: Jennifer Gracen

Publisher: Booktrope

Publication Date: April 1, 2014

Genre: Romance, Women’s Fiction

“Author Jennifer Gracen brings together a colorful cast of friends and family in Book One of the Seasons of Love series, Autumn Getaway. Newly divorced mom Lydia is just getting back on her feet. Her college roommate’s wedding promises a much-needed getaway weekend with old friends, at a beautiful manor in Connecticut.

When she meets Sam, a handsome friend of the groom, she’s nearly overwhelmed by a confusing mix of hope and trepidation. Their instant connection feels intensely real, to both of them, but the ink is barely dry on her divorce decree. It takes all her nerve, and more than a little prodding from her girlfriends, to convince Lydia to give her heart — and Sam — a chance. But when the magical weekend comes to a close, Sam must return to Chicago, while Lydia heads back to her complicated life and young son in New York. Can their newfound connection survive the trials of physical distance and years of emotional baggage?

Written with an appreciation for the day-to-day struggles of a newly single mom, Autumn Getaway explores the burdens and blessings of family, revels in the spirit of friendship, and celebrates the power of romance and hope as Lydia and Sam take a second chance at love.”

Teaser Tuesdays | Jan. 20

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I can’t believe we’re more than half way through January (Side Note: It’s my brother’s 21st birthday today).  As I like to do every week, I’m participating in Teaser Tuesdays.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. It’s easy to participate. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

CURRENT READ

cover58697-mediumTITLE: Throw Like a Woman

AUTHOR: Susan Petrone

PUBLISHER: The Story Plant

RELEASE DATE: March 24, 2015

GENRE: Women’s Fiction

“The fragility of her own body, the reality that so much depended on her and the well-being of her body hit her with the same shock as the glass breaking.”

WWW Wednesday | Jan. 14

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It’s that time of the week again when I participate in WWW Wednesdays hosted by Should Be Reading. Feel free to leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments.

To participate in WWW Wednesday, you need to answer three questions.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

CURRENTLY READING

cover58172-mediumTitle: The End of Feeling

Author: Cindy C Bennett

Publisher: Skyscape

Publication Date: January 27, 2015

Genre: New Adult

“Eighteen-year-old Benjamin Nefer seems to have it all: great looks, incredible football skills, and smooth moves that have won—and broken—the hearts of countless girls at his high school. But his hellish home life has left him feeling empty inside, unable to experience real feelings. He thinks he’s fine being this way forever…until he meets a beautiful and witty seventeen-year-old girl named Charlotte “Charlie” Austin. She may be new in town, but she’s already been warned about Benjamin’s reputation, so it’s easy for her to shoot down his advances. Like him, she’s happier keeping people at a distance, especially since she, too, has secrets she’s not ready to share with anyone. But as the tentative friendship between the charismatic football captain and the new girl grows, Charlie finds herself feeling closer to Benjamin than she’s ever felt with anyone—and he wonders if he’s really capable of loving after all. Can they drop their guard, or is this so-called romance just another game?”

RECENTLY FINISHED READING

23121894Title: You and Everything After (Falling #2)

Author: Ginger Scott

Publisher: Ginger Scott

Publication Date: December 5, 2014

Genre: New Adult

“I’m that teenaged girl who has MS. You haven’t met me, but you’ve seen me around. You probably know my sister. We’re twins, and she’s the pretty one. Maybe you’ve heard about my reputation, how much I like to hook up at parties—how easy it is to get me in bed, get what you want, and forget about me after.

Forget what you think you know. I’m leaving that girl behind.

College is all about new beginnings. So from now on—I’m just Cass. And the rest…it isn’t written yet. And no one else gets to write my story for me.

——–

“Tyson Preeter doesn’t do can’t.”

That’s exactly what I want people to think when they see me. I am strong, invincible, confident, intelligent—arrogant. I’m the man who always finds a way around, over and through—until there’s nothing left. Since losing my ability to walk six years ago, I’ve relearned life. I don’t need sympathy. I don’t want charity. And I don’t do love.

It’s better this way, saves my disappointments for me, and me alone, and it saves my strength for everything I want.

But Cass Owens is about to wreck everything. She’s about to steal all of my strength away from me, because she needs it more. She’s about to break all of my rules, and break down all of my walls. She’s about to own me…completely.

And I’m about to let her.”

WHAT I MIGHT READ NEXT

cover58697-mediumTitle: Throw Like A Woman

Author: Susan Petrone

Publisher: The Story Plant

Publication Date: March 24, 2015

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Forty years old, divorced, with two sons on the verge of adolescence and an ex-husband who considers visitation to be optional, Brenda Haversham isn’t having a whole lot of fun. She’s also no longer qualified for the work she loves, so she’s toiling away in a cubicle instead, trying to make ends meet. Brenda is short on money, short on connection with her kids, and short on any kind of social life. The only thing Brenda has in abundance is her anger. And that turns out to be her greatest asset.

When she was a kid, Brenda’s father taught her how to throw a good fastball. That wasn’t of much use to a girl, but it is enough to astound onlookers at a “test your speed” pitching cage before a Cleveland Indians game. The more Brenda pictures her ex-husband’s face on the other end, the harder she throws. And when someone tapes her performance and puts it up online, Brenda becomes an Internet sensation and then more than that.

The Indians come calling and Brenda finds her life taking a turn in a new direction. Soon, she’s standing on the mound as the first woman player in Major League history and dealing with everything that comes with it. The money is great and the endorsement deals are even better. The fury of “traditionalists?” Not so much. And the conflicting emotions of her teammates are even harder to manage. Meanwhile, Brenda’s home life is evolving faster than she can keep up, redefining her role as a mother, a friend, and even a lover. As the season winds down Brenda will find out if she has what it takes to be a winner at both baseball and life.”

Announcing Finding Zoe Giveaway Winner

Last week I posted a giveaway for a chance to win (1) physical copy of Finding Zoe by Brandi Rarus and Gail Harris.  You can check out my review of the book here.

Now to announce the winner…drum roll please.

The winner is April Wood from A Well Read Woman.  Thank you so much to everyone who entered and keep a look out for my upcoming giveaways.

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Friday Finds | NetGalley Auto Approved Books

Happy Friday everyone!  I hope everyone had a great week.  This week was a little tough for me since it was the first full week back to work after all the holidays.

I wanted to tell you about some exciting news.  I was Auto-Approved for a marketing agency in NetGalley called BookBuzz.net!  Yay!  What this means is that I can request any book they have added and it will be approved automatically for me.  I don’t have to wait to be approved.  It’s quite the honor in the NetGalley world.

So, for this week’s Friday Finds I wanted to share the books from this agency that Auto-Approved me. Feel free to post what you found this week in the comments.

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Title: Death of a Diva

Author: Brigitte Goldstein

Publication Date: September 30, 2014

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

“A veteran actress’s brutal murder at a Broadway theater in 1941 sets off a police investigation that reaches back to pre-WWI Vienna and 1920s Berlin in Brigitte Goldstein’s densely plotted noir mystery novel, Death of a Diva.

In 1941 New York, the murder on Broadway of Stella Berger, famed star of screen and stage of Weimar Germany and outspoken critic of the Nazi regime which had forced her into exile, sends shock waves through the American public.

The police act quickly, and the prime suspect, an emigrant street musician, is tried and put on death row. But Misia Safran, a young Jewish refugee from Germany and part-time employee at the theater who becomes inadvertently involved in the investigation, is haunted by the possibility of his innocence and a suspicion that there’s more to the case than meets the eye.

Determined to uncover the truth, Misia delves into Stella’s background. She patches together the life of the revered actress from testimony by those who had been closest to her throughout her rise to stardom. From accounts of her humble origins in a Viennese ghetto to her rise to the pinnacle in the acting world of 1920′s Berlin, to her battle with Nazi propagandist Josef Goebbels, emerges the portrait of a woman of great strength of character and resolve, albeit one that conceals a vulnerable side which ultimately may have been the cause of her undoing. As Misia cuts through a bewildering thicket of lies, hidden agendas, and deceptions, she is met with intimations of a deep secret in Stella’s past, evidence of which may be stored in the vault of a Swiss bank. If made public, this secret could provide the clue to the mystery, but could also destroy the star’s carefully guarded public persona.”

***

cover58608-mediumTitle: The Experiment of Dreams

Author: Brandon Zenner

Publication Date: January 1, 2015

Genre: Mystery & Thrillers

“A machine capable of recording our dreams has been created…

Benjamin Walker’s lifelong career of testing experimental drugs and medicines, as well as participating in fascinating sleep-related studies, has come to an end. A new and lucrative job opportunity is offered to Ben, working on a project named Lucy, a machine capable of reading and recording a person’s dreams in intimate detail. Headed by the genius Dr. Peter Wulfric and privately funded by the elusive millionaire, Mr. Timothy Kalispell (a man with a fascination of the arts that borders on the obsessive) takes Ben all over the world, from the Louvre in Paris to the Sistine Chapel in Rome.  Along his travels, Ben meets a beautiful girl named Sophia, who might just help him overcome his crushing depression over the death of his lost love, his Emily. All is finally going well for Ben . . . until strange dreams of a town named Drapery Falls begin to plague him, and memories once hidden begin to reveal themselves. The doctors and staff onboard team Lucy are not who Ben thinks they are, and Mr. Kalispell will stop at nothing to keep Ben’s emerging memories buried for good. Ben is put on a collision course that will bring him to the brink of total insanity, and perhaps even death. At the heart of it all, Ben’s worst enemy is his own mind, and he must confront his past in order to save his future.”

***

cover58606-mediumTitle: After Midnight

Author: Diane Shute

Publication Date: September 16, 2014

Genre: Women’s Ficition

“When horse breeder Alix is forced to temporarily swap places with her estranged twin sister—the wife of an English lord—her forgotten past begins to resurface. A humorous historical fiction mystery with charismatic, realistic characters, After Midnight offers the young adult and woman’s fiction market a fresh, engaging perspective.”

WWW Wednesday | Jan. 7

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It’s that time of the week again when I participate in WWW Wednesdays hosted by Should Be Reading. Feel free to leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments.

To participate in WWW Wednesday, you need to answer three questions.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

CURRENTLY READING

cover58172-mediumTitle: The End of Feeling

Author: Cindy C Bennett

Publisher: Skyscape

Publication Date: January 27, 2015

Genre: New Adult

 

 

 

 

 

 

RECENTLY FINISHED READING

23121894Title: You and Everything After (Falling #2)

Author: Ginger Scott

Publisher: Ginger Scott

Publication Date: December 5, 2014

Genre: New Adult

 

 

 

 

 

 

WHAT I MIGHT READ NEXT

cover58697-mediumTitle: Throw Like A Woman

Author: Susan Petrone

Publisher: The Story Plant

Publication Date: March 24, 2015

Genre: Women’s Fiction

Friday Finds | The End of Feeling

Happy Friday to all my wonderful followers! I hope everyone had an amazing week.  As you know, I’m a NetGalley addict.  I seriously need an intervention considering I have about 50 books on my NetGalley shelf I haven’t read yet.

For this week’s Friday Finds, I wanted to share yet another book I found on NetGalley.

cover58172-mediumTitle: The End of Feeling

Author: Cindy C Bennett

Genre: New Adult

Publication Date: January 27, 2015

“Eighteen-year-old Benjamin Nefer seems to have it all: great looks, incredible football skills, and smooth moves that have won—and broken—the hearts of countless girls at his high school. But his hellish home life has left him feeling empty inside, unable to experience real feelings. He thinks he’s fine being this way forever…until he meets a beautiful and witty seventeen-year-old girl named Charlotte “Charlie” Austin. She may be new in town, but she’s already been warned about Benjamin’s reputation, so it’s easy for her to shoot down his advances. Like him, she’s happier keeping people at a distance, especially since she, too, has secrets she’s not ready to share with anyone. But as the tentative friendship between the charismatic football captain and the new girl grows, Charlie finds herself feeling closer to Benjamin than she’s ever felt with anyone—and he wonders if he’s really capable of loving after all. Can they drop their guard, or is this so-called romance just another game?”

What did you find this week? 

Feel free to post a link to your Friday Finds in the comments.

WWW Wednesday | Dec. 31

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First, I want to wish everyone a Happy New Years Eve.  I can’t believe how fast 2014 went by.

Now, it’s that time of the week again when I participate in WWW Wednesdays hosted by Should Be Reading. Feel free to leave a link to your WWW Wednesday post in the comments.

To participate in WWW Wednesday, you need to answer three questions.

What are you currently reading?
What did you recently finish reading?
What do you think you’ll read next?

CURRENTLY READING

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RECENTLY FINISHED READING

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WHAT I MIGHT READ NEXT

the storied life

Teaser Tuesdays | Dec. 30

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It’s almost the end of the year and this will be my last Teaser Tuesday in the month of December and essentially in the year 2014.  Crazy right!

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. It’s easy to participate. Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

CURRENT READ | YOU AND EVERYTHING AFTER BY GINGER SCOTT

“I fell back asleep, but not until after watching Ty for almost an entire hour – every breath, every rise and fall of his chest, the way his arm twitched slightly from the weight of my head – I was building a mental scrapbook of all these tiny little things.”

23121894

My Adorable Nephew Reading

While I was browsing Instagram photos I came across a picture of my adorable nephew reading a book by the fire.  I thought this was so cute that I had to share it with all of you.  He’s reading a book I got him called Go Dog Go.  I’m sure some of you have heard of it.  It was one of my favorite books as a kid and it was so great seeing him reading it.

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