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Review: The Life O’Reilly by Brian Cohen

[ 1 ] September 6, 2010

Reviewed by Denise G.

As The Life O’Reilly begins, we meet Nicholas O’Reilly, a young and very capable attorney. Nicholas is on the fast track at a New York law firm which specializes in corporate law. As such, he has all the perks: six figure salary, lavish corner office, access to all the movers and shakers in the city. The one thing he doesn’t have is a life, as he spends all his waking hours working.

The firm, looking for good PR, decides to offer some Pro Bono work, and Nick is chosen for the project. Enter Dawn Nelson and her young son, Jordan. Dawn needs help getting out of an abusive relationship with a guy who has connections everywhere and deep pockets to fight the divorce. Nicholas is deeply affected by the experience and begins to question his life choices up to that point. The author takes us through a series of unexpected twists and turns that keep us riveted to the action in the story and wondering what will come next for Nicholas. Haunting and emotional, the book will also make you think long and hard about the choices you make everyday.

With a series of short chapters a la James Patterson, Brian Cohen’s writing style can better be compared to Nicholas Sparks, though it is much more matter of fact. The book compares favorably to many similar works that I’ve read, and the author’s writing is engaging and keeps you wanting more.

Overall, this is a great first effort. A page-turner that leaves you wanting more – I cannot wait for Brian Cohen’s next book!

With a diverse but unsatisfying career background, Denise made the decision to pursue what she loves: writing! Her first novel, of course, is in the works. More info about her is available at her blog http://makemoney-writingonline.blogspot.com.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Brian Cohen. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received

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Review: Bulletproof Mascara by Bethany Maines

[ 4 ] September 4, 2010

Reviewed by Jennifer J.

After embarrassingly bombing an interview, down-on-her-luck Nikki Lanier spontaneously agrees to pose as a handsome stranger’s wife in her Canadian hotel’s lobby. Nikki isn’t quite ready to face her mother after her recent humiliation, so she turns what was supposed to be a short introduction into a lunch date with her pretend husband “Jim” and his prospective business partner, Jirair Sarkassian.

Selling cosmetics for the Carrie Mae Foundation isn’t exactly the brilliant career move that Nikki had in mind, but she’s desperate for some income and all too eager to please her overbearing mother. Her first attempt to sell the Carrie Mae products ends in disaster, leaving Nikki in need of a lawyer. Mrs. Merrivel, the founder of the Carrie Mae Foundation, bails Nikki out of the slammer and reveals to her that Carrie Mae is about more than just makeup: it’s really a top secret spy organization designed to fight and preserve the rights of all womankind. When a mission to find a do-gooder’s kidnapped daughter brings her to Thailand, Nikki unexpectedly runs into “Jim” (whose real name is Z’el) and Sarkassian. Thinking their presence in Thailand is more than just a coincidence, Nikki begins to suspect that Z’el is not the lawyer that he pretends to be, and that both of these men are somehow connected to the missing girl.

Bulletproof Mascara by Bethany Maines is a mix of James Bond, Charlie’s Angels, and a lot of girl power. This fluffy chick-lit spy novel is the perfect companion for the beach or on an airplane. Maines has come up with an adorable idea for a series, but I found the main character to be just a little too ditzy for my tastes. Though she is constantly mucking up her career ambitions and her romantic life, she somehow makes for a brilliant top secret agent. In future books in this series, I hope that Maines will do a little more research into spies, their technology, training, and even their income; an offer of $75,000 a year for Nikki’s position seemed to be too little compensation for the tasks her job would entail.

Though her writing style is easy to read, the chapter structure of the novel is hard to follow and a bit sloppy. The chapters are not chronological, and might cause some readers to pause and backtrack to find out where they are at in the story. Each chapter is labeled with the city or country where the action is currently taking place, but sometimes even that was unhelpful. In some chapters, flashbacks were revealed in past tense, further adding to my confusion and frustration. This wasn’t my typical preferred read, but with minor gripes aside, it’s a promising first in series.

Jennifer graduated from the University of Utah with a BA in English. She occasionally dabbles with her own fiction writing, particularly with the Young Adult and Paranormal genres. She currently resides in Utah with her husband and daughter.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Atria. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Interview & Giveaway: Elizabeth Chadwick, author of For the King’s Favor

[ 159 ] September 2, 2010

Please welcome Elizabeth Chadwick, author of For the King’s Favor!

Interview

Probably the most obvious question to ask (given your research in into William Marshal, the early Plantagenets, and subsequently Roger Bigod) is why you do not touch upon the growing Robin Hood tales that arise from this time period? Do you feel that the Robin Hood of legend is based upon Marshal or Bigod or not based upon anyone in particular?

Elizabeth: I actually do touch upon the possibility of the Robin Hood legend in my novel Lords of the White Castle, which is about the Shropshire outlaw Fulke FitzWarin. Fulke is thought by many historians to be one of the originators of the Robin Hood legends that were later brought together from various sources. Robin Hood is very ephemeral in the late 12th century and there is no mention of him by name and deed in any primary source research material pertaining to the period covered by William Marshal and Roger Bigod – nor would I expect there to be. The Fulke FitzWarin story was actually written after William and Roger’s death, so is not of their period, which is why he isn’t in my books. If their timelines had worked out better, perhaps things would have been different!

You talk about the belief that “each person leaves behind an indelible record of themselves impressed upon sub-atomic material and that this record can be accessed if one has the ability to tune in at that particular vibrational level.” Do you have the ability to tune in or do you use solely the services of the Akashic consultant Alison King?

Elizabeth: I wish I did have the ability, but I don’t. Alison’s talent with energy work is a very precious and special one. I have no such ability. I am not gullible, but I do have an open mind and I am interested to see that quantum physics is gradually getting to grips with the science of what she does.

What is Akasha? Is this method used by many historical fiction writers? How did you come across this method?

Elizabeth: Unfortunately, I’m not an expert in Akasha; it’s something I turn to Alison (mentioned above) for. Alison does have other historical novelists who are clients, and I know several historians and archaeologists who use similar methods of their own accord. She also utilizes her skill for people interested in genealogy and learning about their ancestors. Readers can obtain a fuller explanation on my website: http://www.elizabethchadwick.com/akashic.html

Nonetheless, I have known Alison for almost 25 years and have always been aware that she is sensitive to energies. While working with clients in the field of NLP (Neuro Linguistic Programming), she discovered that she could tune in and go back to things that had happened in their past that were still affecting them now. She realized that if she could go back 20 years, then why not 200, or 800. We were having an ordinary chat one day and she asked how my novel was coming along. I said fine, but I was having a problem finding out about a particular person because the records were scanty. She asked if I wanted her to tune in and find her. I said okay, and what came through was so astonishing, that I knew I had to investigate further. That was about 6 years ago now, and I have been using Alison’s extraordinary ability to help out with my research ever since. I get the details checked out by someone I know with qualifications in medieval history; I don’t take the details in blind faith. I also use them judiciously with other more conventional forms of research to weave the story.

Are you still actively involved in Regia Anglorum? Does this organization have any affiliation with the Society for Creative Anachronism (very popular in the US and Canada)?

Elizabeth: Yes, I am still involved in Regia Anglorum. This is an early medieval living history society with a brief to recreate life as it was in the 10th, 11th and 12th centuries. The emphasis is on being as accurate as possible. There is an American wing of Regia – RANA (Regia Anglorum North America). Some of the members are SCA members, but there is no affiliation as such

What attracted you to researching this era of history?

Elizabeth: My interest stemmed from when I first began researching historical fiction— the late Anglo Saxon, Norman and Angevin period. Henry II, Richard I and John are known as the Angevin kings, and before them it was the house of Normandy. I had fallen for a handsome knight in a TV programme who happened to live in the mid twelfth century. I began writing a sort of fan fiction about him and because I wanted it to feel as real as possible, I went to the library and began researching the period. The more I researched the more interested I became and the more I wanted to write about that time in history. But the original catalyst was a tall, dark, handsome guy in flowing robes with a sword in his hand!

What are your three favorite books of all time?

Elizabeth: This is a tough one! I don’t think anyone can choose their three favorite books. How do you narrow it down? Plus tastes change over time. I have books on my keeper shelves that are there because I loved them when I was 15, but not all of them have stood the test of time. I can tell you three books that are favorites though, among many favorites.

1. Hanta Yo by Ruth Beebee Hill

2. Here Be Dragons by Sharon Kay Penman

3. Alinor by Roberta Gellis

What are you working on next?

Elizabeth: A novel titled Lady of the English. It’s about two linked but very different women in English history; one an empress and one a queen. Matilda is the daughter of King Henry I and an empress by marriage to her German royal husband. When her husband dies, she returns to England, is forced into marriage with a 14 year old boy, and then has to fight for her right to inherit the crown. Adeliza is queen of England and Matilda’s stepmother, although she is in fact younger than her. When King Henry I dies, Adeliza remarries a baron on the opposing side to Matilda in the conflict for the English throne. She loves her husband and she loves Matilda and wants to be loyal to both. But how can she be? That is her dilemma. It’s about women striving to make their voices heard in a world ruled by men.

For more information, please visit Elizabeth Chadwick’s website.

Giveaway

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This giveaway is open to U.S. and Canada residents only. Deadline to enter is midnight on September 20th.

Giveaway copies were provided free of any obligation by Sourcebooks Landmark. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Swimming Pool by Holy LeCraw

[ 6 ] September 1, 2010

Reviewed by Amelie L.

If you’re in the mood for a long, deep dive into water, The Swimming Pool will take you and wrap you in its spell. An unsolved murder lurks at its heart and laps at its edges, surrounded by years and layers of secrets, love and betrayal.

The writing is gorgeous, as rich and redolent as a Cape Cod summer. Deftly, Ms. LeCraw draws complicated, tangled relationships; between siblings, parents and children, memory and longing. The story is set in motion by a bathing suit; evocative, beautiful, it stirs the waters of a young man’s recollections and draws him forward. His quest is full of nuance and elegance, pain and an intoxicating, contagious desire. Often it is as much what the writer doesn’t say as what she does that moves the story along. Brother and sister, father and son, husband and wife, all breathe and speak the pulse of real life in its most tender, untouched territory.

There is a mesmerizing sensuality to this book; I wanted the mystery solved, the prime suspect vindicated and the lovers resolved with a happy ending but I also didn’t. The mystery, as full of shadows and light as water, were part of the intoxication of reading.

Illicit love can be impossible to write without creating villains but The Swimming Pool manages to take us into the heat of forbidden desire willingly.

“It was easy, at the beginning, not to think. He swam, constantly, in desire. One weekend he left her house to go for a run, and as he ran, on the sand-edged roads near the beach, he felt he was more fully aware of his own body than he had ever been before. He could feel every strand of muscle flexing, every drop of blood rushing through his heart. This was what desire was like. He had had girlfriends before but never someone he had craved, like a drug.”

So it is for the reader, pulled into surrender into the passions of a beautiful book.

Amelie lives and works on a pond in Cape Cod. She shares her home with her husband and two sons and both reads and writes whenever possible. Her ‘day job’ is in social services.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Doubleday. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Kill Dress by John Young

[ 11 ] September 1, 2010

Reviewed by Denise G.

The short novel Kill Dress by John Young is his first, and is about a dress that has mystical powers over men. The story opens by introducing us to five young women who work, rest, and play together in New York City. One of them has recently had her heart broken, precipitating a trip to Louisiana for some relaxation. While there, Kim (the wronged girl) meets an elderly lady who makes her the perfect dress to attract men with. The only problem is that the dress seems to stir some dark emotions in people.

Whenever I read someone’s first published book, I want really badly to like it. This book had a good plot, though it could have been more fully developed and expanded upon. I’m not sure why he decided to put so many characters (roommates) in the story, when fewer would have sufficed. The characters were not developed enough so that I felt any relationship or empathy for them, and they quite easily could have been. Also, there a couple of distracting things about the author’s writing style: the same things kept repeating (as in, they got up and went to work, etc…) and everybody called everybody else “girl”all the time! People just don’t talk that way in real life. A good editor could have (should have?) whipped this book into what it was meant to be.

Overall, even with the minuses mentioned above, Kill Dress is still a suspenseful story that is worth a quick read. Pack it in your beach tote during the few remaining summer days and you can read it in the sun in just a few hours. Hopefully, John Young’s next book will be a little longer, a little better developed and edited soundly.

Visit John Young’s website for more information.

With a diverse but unsatisfying career background, Denise made the decision to pursue what she loves: writing! Her first novel, of course, is in the works. More info about her is available at her blog http://makemoney-writingonline.blogspot.com.

This book was provided free of any obligation by John Young. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: Good to a Fault by Marina Endicott

[ 7 ] August 31, 2010

Reviewed by Poppy J.

Good To a Fault by Marina Endicott is about coming to terms with yourself and understanding what you want out of life. Clara Purdy has a car accident that takes her into an elevated state of realizing who she is. She finally comes to the realization that she can have everything she wants, and it doesn’t have to be at the expense of anyone else, not even herself.

Clara feels sorry for the Gages, a family also involved in the car accident. She makes the decision to take the family in, and soon finds out that it is amistake of the highest order. Throughout the story, the reader expects that the family unit will evolve, but what happens is that it is mostly Clara who does the evolving and develops into a different, if not better, person. She might have originally wanted the family she took in to become a real family to her, but in the end, she becomes a real person to them.

What seems interesting in the story is that Clara feels obligated to visit Lorraine, the matriarch of the family she takes in. Lorraine is in the hospital with a terminal illness, and her husband leaves as soon as he can get out of the picture. Clara dutifully visits Lorraine, even when her own family is unable to do so. Many people acknowledge the benefits of lending a hand to those less fortunate. For Clara, she makes the decision to see the fruits of her efforts at home, rather than with strangers at the Anglican World Relief Fund that she donates her money to on a regular basis.

Good To a Fault explores the idea of taking that next step to help someone in desperate need. It may be written for someone like me who wonders what else I could have done after giving a five dollar bill to someone holding a sign requesting money. Would I take this person in? Should I even consider it? There are limits and everyone knows them. Clara offers us all a look into what would happen if we ignored these limits and went to the extreme to help others in need.

After a decade of working in several NYC law departments and teaching, Poppy decided she enjoyed writing full-time. She currently works as a freelance writing consultant, and lives with her husband and sons on the East Coast.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Harper. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Review: The Hand That First Held Mine by Maggie O’Farrell

[ 5 ] August 27, 2010

Reviewed by Rachel M.

When I came across Maggie O’Farrell’s first novel, After You’d Gone, last year, I was blown away. I thought it was one of the best novels I’d read in a long time and instantly recommended it to several friends. So, as an immediate O’Farrell fan, I was very excited to read her newest book, The Hand That First Held Mine, and was pleased to discover it didn’t disappoint. The Hand That First Held Mine doesn’t have the raw qualities and shock that made me appreciate After You’d Gone so much, but it has the same lyrical prose, graceful composition, and hidden twists that seem characteristic of O’Farrell’s writing style. You can bet that after reading two such works, I’m going to check out everything else O’Farrell’s written too.

The Hand That First Held Mine moves between two parallel trajectories: the story of Lexie, an ambitious, unformed woman in the 1950s; and that of Elina and Ted, new, uncertain parents in the present. Lexie’s presence feels real to her, but the narrator frequently reminds us that it’s temporary, and already past. Meanwhile, as Elina’s temporary amnesia after the difficult birth of her and Ted’s child fades away, Ted discovers gaping holes in his own memory. Along the way, subtle patterns, parallels, and comparisons between the characters’ lives emerge, tying the two stories together in unique and fateful ways.

Part of the pleasure in reading this book is coming across these twists and turns for yourself–discovering connections and disappointments along with the characters–and I don’t want to give them away. Instead, I want to reiterate the pleasure that comes from reading such an accomplished piece of fiction.

Verdict: this is an exquisite read, both in terms of the way O’Farrell manipulates language and sets up the novel’s structure, and it has plenty of heartbreaking moments you don’t see coming. While you’re at it, check out After You’d Gone, too–it’s superb.

Rachel, who has a Ph.D. in English, is a freelance writer/editor and a voracious reader. You can talk to her about books at twitter.com/writehandmann.

This book was provided free of any obligation by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. No monetary or any other form of compensation was received.

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Blog Tour & Kindle Giveaway: Licensed for Trouble by Susan May Warren

[ 2 ] August 26, 2010

Welcome to the blog tour for the third book in Susan May Warren’s PJ Sugar series, Licensed for Trouble!

Visit Susan at her website or at www.MyBookTherapy.com, a service she founded to help authors discover their voice. A complete blog tour schedule can be found here.

Reviewed by Vera (Luxury Reading)

Fresh from getting kicked out of her sister’s house in Double Trouble, PJ Sugar is living on her boss Jeremy Kane’s, couch and wondering whether he’ll ever mention their kiss, or kiss her again for that matter. Jeremy will not give her serious cases without a PI license (or so he says), so PJ is stuck chasing bail breakers and winding up in all sorts of embarassing photos in the local newspaper.

As PJ begins to reconsider her living situation, she receives the surprising news that she has inherited the Kellogg mansion. PJ has never had any connection to the wealthy Kelloggs – besides gawking at their house as a child – and is unsure why the late Agatha Kellogg made her the sole benefactor of the fortune. As PJ moves in, she finds the mansion in an utter state of disrepair and cloaked in the unsolved murder mystery of Agatha’s daughter. Adding to the unknowns, Max Smith, a man suffering from amnesia, shows up at her doorstep offering handyman services in exchange for PJ’s assistance in uncovering his true identity.

Licensed for Trouble is a worthy sequel to Double Trouble and Susan May Warren once again did a great job at combining a somewhat dark mystery with humor, making this book very fun and lighthearted. Licensed for Trouble is technically Christian literature, but the references to religion are so few and far in between that they do not take over the story line. At times, I felt that there were too many loose strings and that there was no way Warren could bring them together in a satisfactory way. However, she did just that and somehow everything tied together and made perfect sense in the end. Three books into the series, PJ Sugar is still a delightful character and I look forward to future installments.

Check out our review of Double Trouble!

Enter PJ Sugar’s “Sweet” Giveaway

Enter PJ Sugar's

Licensed for Trouble, Susan’s brand new PJ Sugar novel, is in stores now! To celebrate the release, we’re giving away a Kindle!! You can enter using Twitter, Facebook, or e-mail using the icons below.

One Grand Prize winner will receive a A SWEET Kindle prize package that includes:

A brand new Kindle (Free 3G, 6”, Latest Generation)

The entire PJ Sugar series by Susan May Warren

To enter, simply click on the icons below to fill out the entry form, then tell 5 or more friends about the contest.

Oh, and enter soon! Winner will be announced on September 2nd.