Tara Chevrestt's Blog, page 75

My Reading Radar (My Ever-Growing TBR Pile) 11/16/2013

Let's see what came across my reading radar this week and hit the wishlist... Lots of these feature what appears to be strong heroines.

Somewhere in France by Jennifer Robson. Lady Elizabeth Neville-Ashford wants to travel the world, pursue a career, and marry for love. But in 1914, the stifling restrictions of aristocratic British society and her mother’s rigid expectations forbid Lily from following her heart. When war breaks out, the spirited young woman seizes her chance for independence. Defying her parents, she moves to London and eventually becomes an ambulance driver in the newly formed Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps—an exciting and treacherous job that takes her close to the Western Front.
Assigned to a field hospital in France, Lily is reunited with Robert Fraser, her dear brother Edward’s best friend. The handsome Scottish surgeon has always encouraged Lily’s dreams. She doesn’t care that Robbie grew up in poverty—she yearns for their friendly affection to become something more. Lily is the most beautiful—and forbidden—woman Robbie has ever known. Fearful for her life, he’s determined to keep her safe, even if it means breaking her heart.

In a world divided by class, filled with uncertainty and death, can their hope for love survive. . . or will it become another casualty of this tragic war?
***
The Secret of Raven Point by Jennifer Vanderbes. A vivid and powerful novel from an award-winning writer about a young American woman who enlists as an army nurse during World War II and is deployed to Italy, where she tries to find her missing brother.

Juliet Dufresne is a hard-working and smart high-school girl who aspires to make a groundbreaking scientific discovery like her hero Marie Curie. Life in South Carolina with her father, stepmother, and her brother Tuck is safe and happy. But when war breaks out in Europe, Tuck volunteers and serves in Italy—until he goes missing. Juliet, already enrolled in nursing school, is overwhelmed by the loss of her brother, so she lies about her age and enlists to serve as a nurse in the army, hoping she might find him.

Shipped off to Italy at the age of seventeen and thrust into the bloody chaos of a field hospital, Juliet doles out medicine, assists in operations, and is absorbed into the whirlwind of warlife. Slowly she befriends her fellow nurses, her patients, the soldiers, and the doctor who is treating the little-understood condition of battle fatigue. Always seeking news of her brother, her journey is ultimately one of self-discovery.
***
Love in Touch by Lucy May Lennox. *I'm stoked to discover this publisher exists. They publish stories featuring heroes or heroines with physical limitations. The following title has a deaf/blind hero. I need to see what I can do to get put on their review list, eh? LOL* 
Kassie has felt adrift ever since her dad died when she was in college. Now 24 and living in Seattle, she gets interested in learning sign language through her roommate, a sign language interpreter. One day at a Deaf community event, she sees a young man sitting off by himself. Kassie feels compelled to try signing to him–the fact that he’s strikingly handsome doesn’t hurt.
Jake has been deaf and blind since birth. His disability has cut him off from the world *I understand this so well!*, but beneath his isolated exterior, is a smart, sweet guy with a dry sense of humor. Despite the odds, he’s highly educated, but at 26, he’s gotten stuck in a rut, with few friends and no clear career plans. Until a sweet-smelling girl introduces herself to him unexpectedly, and opens up a whole new world to him.

Jake is more intelligent, more genuine than anyone she has met before, and for the first time Kassie starts to feel like her life has some direction. But as their friendship deepens into something more, the difficulty in communicating with each other only grows, and it seems like everyone they know thinks their relationship won’t work. How can they come to a deeper understanding of each other, and find a future together?


***
Spotted on Unusual Historicals and def on my wishlist. Just read this blurb! God's Daughter by Heather Day Gilbert. One Viking woman. One God. One legendary journey to the New World.

In the tenth century, when pagan holy women rule the Viking lands, Gudrid turns her back on her training as a seeress to embrace Christianity. Clinging to her faith, she joins her husband, Finn, on a voyage to North America.

But even as Gudrid faces down murderous crewmen, raging sickness, and hostile natives, she realizes her greatest enemy is herself--and the secrets she hides might just tear her marriage apart.

Almost five centuries before Columbus, Viking women sailed to North America with their husbands. God's Daughter, Book One in the Vikings of the New World Saga, offers an expansive yet intimate look into the world of Gudrid Thorbjarnardottir--daughter-in-law of Eirik the Red, and the first documented European woman to have a child in North America.***

The Boleyn Deceit (The Boleyn Trilogy #2) by Laura Andersen

It's very rare that a sequel is better than or even equal to its predecessor. While I enjoyed book one, the Boleyn King, I loved this one. Ms. Anderson has the perfect balance to everything. It's a "what if" story, so it cannot be based on facts. This entire series is "What if Anne Boleyn had a son and he lived and she didn't get her chopped off and there were not all those wives after her...what then?"

However, the author puts REAL people in this and it feels like we're reading history, though we're not. I recognized so many of its characters from other, historically accurate, stories: George Boleyn, the earls, Elizabeth, the little French princess. Great balance.

Also perfect blend of drama to seriousness, of description--she doesn't natter on and on about the drapes or something we may not care for. We're told what we need to know to set the scene in our minds.

The story itself kept me on my toes. There are battles, court intrigue, and at the heart of it all, Minuette and the love triangle and the mystery of who killed her friend...and I think that's still ongoing. I honestly had no clue who was going to do what next and how everyone else would react. I love that the story wasn't too predictable. And again, though she's a secondary character, I love what was done with Elizabeth. She's not the shrewd, wicked witch she's normally portrayed as in books. She's strong, cunning, and will protect her brother at all costs, and takes care of those she loves, but do not cross her!

I was able to completely immerse myself in this tale, to the point that when I set it down, I'd look around and me and wrinkle my nose. "What happened to the castle?" I'd declare.

A brief summary: King William wants Minuette, but she wants Dominic. They've been friends since childhood so not only must they be careful not to crush his trust in them, but seriously, who says no to a king? Boundaries are tested and in the background, Elizabeth is battling her feelings for Robert Dudley, who may or may not be involved in a sinister plot to throw the throne. And...there's still that unsolved murder as well as blood on Minuette's hands. And we all know that in the Royal Court, everything can be held over one's head...

Strong is Sexy Heroine of the Week: Skylar Roth

Book: Karaoke Queen
Author: Erik Schubach
Heroine: Skylar Roth

Most of my books feature strong women. It just takes them a while to realize just how strong they truly are and to see it in themselves. This is especially true in Karaoke Queen, where Skylar Roth finally steps out of the shadows. She lost a foot and suffered burns on half her body as the result of a violent attack when she was a teenager. She hid herself away after that and entertained constant thoughts of suicide and suffered from night terrors. She meets someone who shows her how beautiful she really is, inside and out. She was able to turn away from the darkness she hid in and proudly show herself to the world. I am always of the opinion that someone's perceived weakness is usually their greatest strength... they just need to see it.

She is strong in so very many ways, from supporting her daughter and mother and putting them before herself, to defending others even though she is terrified to do so. Then finally in realizing that she doesn't need to hide and walking out in the world, proud of who she is.

She is sexy in the way she views the world and her attitudes toward the people around her. Her music and the way she pours every drop of emotion into it is sexy too.

Blurb:
Skylar was horribly scarred by a fire in a violent crime, thoughts of suicide plagued her until she found music. It was her savior. She came forward from the shadows to express her pain through song. Karaoke bars were her salvation. Now in an international competition, she finds herself continually vexed by her rival, Kim, who never shows her any quarter. A strange relationship of respect grows between them, but could it be something more? Something beautiful? This is the fourth book in the "Music of the Soul" series, all books are stand alone novels.

Excerpt:
I walked to the center of the stage and stood up tall. My eyes were locked on Kim up in our seats, channeling her strength. “Ummm... hi everybody.” This got cheers for some reason and caused my anxiety to peak. “Most of you don't know who I am, and these past few years, that's how I liked it. I felt like a freak, an outcast. I hid in the shadows.”

I paused as the crowd settled a bit, I pointed at the object of my affection.“But Kimi Solomon, the woman I love, showed me what true strength and beauty is.” This got off the charts cheering as I continued, “She saw something in me that I couldn't... until now. She's my hero in every sense of the word and my heart goes out to her.”

I paused and took a deep breath then said loudly, “I'm sick of hiding. I'm not hiding anymore!” I pulled my hair back and pulled the band I had on my wrist over it to fasten it into a loose ponytail and dropped my overcoat then took a step forward with my right side forward.

I was wearing a tight white mini dress with an open right side that was held together by white satin straps laced along it. I proudly displayed the henna tattoos Kim had drawn, tracing the full length of my burns. From the butterflies on my cheek blending into the flowers going down my neck which in turn blended into the feathers down my arm and the leaves down my side, ending with the flowering vines around my leg. She had even covered the receiving socket on my prosthetic foot, which itself proudly displayed the angel wings Tim had made.

I took one more step forward and yelled into the mic, “Hello, everyone. I'm SKYLAR ROTH and it's bloody fine to meet you!” I was almost deafened at the roar of the crowd as I saw myself on every screen surrounding the stage. I was seeing myself through Kim's eyes on them... I felt... sexy.


Are you an author with a strong heroine in your book? Want to see her featured? Find out how here.

Photographer Tells Girls They Can Be More Than Princesses

I first saw this on a blog I follow. I love what this photographer does and I tell ya, I don't care if it's aimed at girls, I'd pose for her in a heartbeat if she was located near me. Let me tell you about a new pioneer in photography, a woman who is inspiring young girls through her pictures and how...

From her site:"The NOT Just A Girl Series started in May 2013 with my daughter, Emma's, 5th Birthday Portraits. From my blog, "I had been searching everywhere for new-creative inspiration for her 5yr pictures. I noticed quite a pattern of so many young girls dressing up as beautiful Disney Princesses; no matter where I looked, 95% of the “ideas” were the “How to’s” of dressing your little girl like a Disney Princess. Now don’t get me wrong, I LOVE Disney Princesses, from their beautiful dresses, perfect hair, gorgeous voices and most with ideal love stories in the mix, you can’t help but become entranced with the characters. But it got me thinking, they’re just characters, a writer's tale of a princess...…an unrealistic fantasy for most girls".

Honoring Susan B. Anthony
I was looking to make a change, do something different that we (Emma and I) could both enjoy. "It started me thinking about all the REAL women for my daughter to know about and look up too, REAL women who without ever meeting Emma have changed her life for the better. My daughter wasn’t born into royalty, but she was born into a country where she can now vote, become a doctor, a pilot, an astronaut, or even President if she wants and that’s what REALLY matters. I wanted her to know the value of these amazing women who had gone against everything so she can now have everything".

This shoot was not just a birthday photo session but also a learning experience with the added fun of dress up keeping Emma engaged and excited to know more about these incredible women she was portraying. "We chose 5 women (five amazing and strong women), as it was her 5th birthday but there are thousands of unbelievable women (and girls) who have beat the odds and fought (and still fight) for their equal rights all over the world……..so let’s set aside the Barbie Dolls and the Disney Princesses for just a moment, and let’s show our girls the REAL women they can be."

Honoring Amelia Earhart
Photographer Jaime C. Moore first shared the Not Just A Girl Series of her daughter, Emma, portraying iconic women of history in May of 2013 since sharing the series they have received hundreds of letters, calls, emails and messages from inspired women and men all over the world. Now they are working hard to expand the Series, with the intent to photograph dozens of girls while reaching out to any and all ethnicity, culture and women of inspiration. To accomplish this, we need your help. Please follow this link for more information before the deadline. 
All photos can be found here.

Help spread the word by sharing this link with your friends and family! Please help us continue the project of NOT Just A Girl. Every share, dime & dollar make a difference. Also, you can go like her on Facebook and follow the project in your feed. 

Book Spotlight - For the Love of the Gods Anthology

For the Love of the Gods Romance Anthology from Ishtar Press 
The Love of a God is Divine 
Throughout the centuries, we have explained the intricate workings of our world with tales of immortal beings known as gods. They were the bringers of lightning and rain. Some kept the seasons in balance and made sacrifices for the harvest. Others caused strife and death through wars and chaos. 
Even the Gods Need Love 
Get tangled in the sheets with these paranormal and historical adult romances. Gods and goddesses from myth and fiction attempt to fill the voids in their hearts with everlasting love. 
From Dusk ‘Til Dawn by Elizabeth Schechter follows the story of Delan, a male servant in a female-dominated world, as he falls in love with the cloistered son of a High Priestess. Their mm romance sizzles until Delan is forced to make a choice between love and saving the world. 
Danielle Villano’s Stealing Polina brings a contemporary romance spin to the ancient Greek myth of Hades and Persephone. Find out how far H is willing to go to capture the attention of the new company intern and claim her as his own.
In the paranormal fantasy romance Heart of the Storm by Andrew P. Weston, marine biologist James Foster is being harassed for whistle-blowing on unsafe working conditions by his former employer. With his reputation is shambles, he draws the attention of a mysterious woman with a connection to the Norse gods. 
When called by the Celtic goddess Brighid, Terrwyn leaves her home and travels to the Emerald Isle of Eire in the ff historical romance short story Fire Driven by Tracy Palmer. She will face discrimination, condemnation, and violence to prove her loyalty to her goddess. 
Dorothy L. Abrams’s medieval historical romance Cawing Crows & Baying Hounds introduces Elspet and Callum, who were thrown together by the politics of family. A passionate night of their lovemaking transcends all possibilities when they are joined by Chu Chulain and the Morrigan in a night no one will forget. 
Call Me Havoc by Tinnekke Bebout follows the story of the child of two free spirits who falls for Eris, the Greek goddess of discord. 
Finally, Laura DeLuca’s Thunderstruck follows the contemporary short story of Tara, a deaf woman struggling in the hearing world. Can she let her defenses down to let a handsome mute win her heart? And will she still love him when she learns that he is Taranis, the Celtic god of Thunder?

Mixing Fact With Fiction. A Guest Post from JB Salsbury

Yes, my dad is a pimp.
Image courtesy of Tao55/ FreeDigitalPhotos.net
I often get asked if the stories I’ve written have any personal tie-ins to my real life.

The quick answer is yes.

Although my husband isn’t a famous mixed martial arts fighter, and I don’t have an affinity for fixing up old cars, there are a lot of character traits and personal struggles that I infuse into my writing.

What you ask?

Every hero I’ve written so far has similar traits to my husband. I gave Jonah my husband’s tattoos as well as his lethally protective nature when it comes to his woman and his kids. Blake has a few lines in his book that came directly from my husbands mouth, one in particular that Layla responded to the exact same way I did when she said, “That’s the most romantic thing anyone has ever said to me”. Blake’s *secret* also belongs to the man I married.

And although the plots and twists are fictional there’s a bit of my life in every book I write. Raven’s anxiety, Layla’s outward strength that she uses to mask her insecurity, and even her hair twirling…all me.

There’s a scene at the end of Fighting to Forgive that takes place at The Blackout between Layla and Eve. I’m positive that interaction actually occurred between me and one of my best friends several times. The details are fuzzy.

Yes, I have a best friend that cannot say a curse word to save her life. When she does, it’s the most hilarious thing I’ve ever heard.

My teenage goddaughter is the Queen of the eye-roll “Whatever” that Elle showcases more than once in Fighting to Forgive.

And of course, the question you’re probably asking, is my dad really a pimp?

Yes. He’s the best book pimp I’ve ever had. Pushing my books on anyone who’ll stop long enough to listen.

As far as the people in my life who inspire the book’s villains? I’ll never tell.

Blurb:
What do you do when everything you avoid, turns out to be exactly what you need?

Easy and predictable, just the way he likes it, Blake Daniels flies through life the way he burns through women: on his terms, no regrets.

With his fighting career in full swing, he's on the threshold of title contention. But when his training is compromised by injury, the stakes grow impossibly higher. The rage that fuels his punches also chips away at his focus, and he risks losing everything he cares about.

He won’t let that happen. Not again.

Layla’s through with men. After a marriage that never should’ve happened, she hopes to reclaim the pieces of the woman she lost years ago.

Emotional abuse has left her insecure and terrified. A master at faking what she’s not feeling, she masks her self-doubt in false confidence.

She’ll never let another man hurt her. Not again.

Chased by shadows of the past, Blake and Layla know what they don’t want, but their hearts have a different plan. As a web of lies and betrayal threatens to destroy them, they’re forced to make a choice.

Is love enough to heal even the deepest wounds?

Or will they be left Fighting to Forgive?

About the Author:
JB Salsbury lives in Phoenix, Arizona with her husband and two kids. She spends the majority of her day as a domestic engineer. But while she works through her daily chores, a world of battling alphas, budding romance, and impossible obstacles claws away at her subconscious, begging to be released to the page.

Her love of good storytelling led her to earn a degree in Media Communications. With her journalistic background, writing has always been at the forefront, and her love of romance prompted her to sink her free time into novel writing.

Fighting for Flight is her first novel in the MMA romance series.

For more information on the series or just to say hello, visit JB on facebook or goodreads.

http://www.facebook.com/JbSalsburybooks

http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/...



Follow the tour here.

Feel the Love with Sue Moorcroft

Please welcome Choc Lit author Sue Moorcroft as she shares with us the secondary character of her new release, Is This Love?

It's interesting how a secondary character in a book can be pivotal. That's the situation in Is This Love?
Lyddie, the sister of the heroine, Tamara, is one of those. She's open and guileless, loving and funny. She throws her arms around those she loves and presses smacking kisses on their cheeks. She adores animals and the cast of Lord of the Rings. Lyddie needs more care than most adults after a hit-and-run accident when she was a teen.
Lyddie began from my thinking about someone from my own teen years who suffered an accident and wondering where and how he is. We, his friends, got jobs, got married, went to university, moved away. He, Peter Pan-like, didn't get the future that had once been expected.
I began to think about such a scenario from the point of view of the family and their relationships. People don't go into deep freeze when things happen to those they love. They adapt. But their decisions are affected and they often have to compromise.
I gave my heroine, Tamara, a series of decisions. What would she do if her boyfriend Max wanted her to move away from Middledip village, and Lyddie? How would she feel if somebody turned up to tell her who was driving the car that hit Lyddie? How would she and her parents check out another adult who wanted to befriend Lyddie? I realised that even if a sizzling love affair came Tamara's way, she wouldn't do anything to hurt her beloved sister. Of course, the right man wouldn't try and separate Tamara from Lyddie, anyway. He'd know that there are many types and qualities of love. Loving someone means not hurting them and Tamara needs to be near Lyddie to be happy.
So I had to write a special kind of man for Tamara. He's unusual and unreadable and his past is already linked with the sisters - he's Jed Cassius, Lyddie's boyfriend back in their teens. The adult Jed obviously feels compassion for the Lyddie of today.
But he feels all kinds of other things for Tamara ...
Sue Moorcroft writes romantic novels of dauntless heroines and irresistible heroes. Love & Freedom won the Best Romantic Read Award 2011 at the Festival of Romance and Dream a Little Dream was nominated for a RoNA in 2013. She received three nominations at the Festival of Romance 2012, and is a Katie Fforde Bursary Award winner. She’s vice chair of the RNA and editor of its two anthologies, published by Harlequin.
Sue also writes short stories, serials, articles, writing ‘how to’ and is a competition judge and creative writing tutor.
Website www.suemoorcroft.com. Blog http://suemoorcroft.wordpress.com/ Facebook sue.moorcroft.3
Twitter @suemoorcroft

Pictures From My Recent Trip, If You're Interested.

I'm not sure if ya'll are that interested in me, so this may be a waste of my time...but what the heck. It'll be here for me to see, at least. :D
So, I took a trip with the husband in October. We did a cruise with Holland America. I gotta be honest; I don't see myself using them again. While Carnival is WAY too laid back with their hairy chest contests and drunk people passing out, Holland is way too stick-up-the-ass. We paid a lot of money to go on this thing, right? I mean, like, our entire tax return just about. LOL. But despite that, they refused to let us eat in the dining room because OMG we were wearing shorts! (It was 95 degrees and so damn humid I had to flat iron my hair three times a day! Of course we're going to wear shorts, and they weren't holey shorts.) Frankly, I thought them BS and my husband called the ship a floating retirement home and we aren't planning to do this again, at least not with them, but we did have some good moments. Here they are.
In Ft. Lauderdale, there were like four ships docked. Ours is on the right. I'm not impressed with Ft. Lauderdale. I mean, seriously, you want a tip for THROWING my luggage around??? Get outta town.

My mother made this shirt. :D
Purse in ship library made from computer keys.
Just a cool "sofa" outside the ship elevators.



The ship had an awesome chandelier. If you look close, you'll see the top of it is the New York City skyline. It changed colors as it rotated.
In ship's showroom. They had a show every night. They weren't deaf friendly though. I didn't understand what was going on, except when people were dancing.
 


Grand Turk was interesting. We did a tour, saw the lighthouse and where a ship full of illegal slaves landed. It's said that most of the island's residents today are descended from those slaves.
 


They had donkeys wandering all over, just like we have deer.  
El Morro, Puerto Rico. Not many of you know this, but my grandmother, an amazing Puerto Rican woman, passed away last year. I was thankfully able to take her ashes back to her native land and place her at the base of El Morro where she will now have a lovely view of the ocean.
Had a pina colada. :D The first mayor of PR was a woman!


El Viejo San Juan


I'm actually editing here, seriously.
 

We went to a beach called Half Moon Cay, saw pretty flowers, had some drinks, and look, there were roosters and chickens walking around us. LOL


My favorite picture. Isn't it romantic? It's our feet, the beach, and our ship in the background.

My Ever-Growing TBR Pile

First of all, terribly sorry I missed last week's "Random Reading". I was traveling that week. Took a trip to Grand Turk, Puerto Rico, St. Thomas, and a lovely beach. I just may share some photos tomorrow.

It had its good moments and its bad. Doesn't every trip? Regardless, I seem to have some catching up to here!

Books that hit my wishlist this week:

(Spotted on a blog I follow.) The Last Duchess by Jenny Barden. An epic Elizabethan adventure with a thriller pace and a high tension love story that moves from the palaces of England to the savage wilderness of the New World.

Emme Fifield has fallen about as far as a gentlewoman can.

Once a lady-in-waiting to Queen Elizabeth, her only hope of surviving the scandal that threatens to engulf her is to escape England for a fresh start in the new America where nobody has ever heard of the Duchess of Somerset.

Emme joins Kit Doonan's rag-tag band of idealists, desperados and misfits bound for Virginia. But such a voyage will be far from easy and Emme finds her attraction to the mysterious Doonan inconvenient to say the least.

As for Kit, the handsome mariner has spent years imprisoned by the Spanish, and living as an outlaw with a band of escaped slaves; he has his own inner demons to confront, and his own dark secrets to keep...

Ever since Sir Walter Raleigh's settlement in Virginia was abandoned in 1587 its fate has remained a mystery; 'The Lost Duchess' explores what might have happened to the ill-starred 'Lost Colony' of Roanoke.

***
Spotted on Edelweiss. I have actually read and liked this author before. She also penned The Lantern, which earned four bikes from me. So I'm eager to get my hands on The Sea Garden by Deborah Lawrenson.
Romance, suspense, and World War II mystery are woven together in three artfully linked novellas-rich in drama and steeped in atmosphere-from the critically acclaimed author of The Lantern

THE SEA GARDEN
On the lush Mediterranean island of Porquerolles off the French coast, Ellie Brooke, an award-winning British landscape designer, has been hired to restore a memorial garden. Unsettled by its haunted air and the bitterness of the garden's owner, an elderly woman who seems intent on undermining her, Ellie finds that her only ally on the island is an elusive war historian …

THE LAVENDER FIELD
Near the end of World War II, Marthe Lincel, a young blind woman newly apprenticed at a perfume factory in Nazi-occupied Provence, finds herself at the center of a Resistance cell. When tragedy strikes, she faces the most difficult choice of her life . . . and discovers a breathtaking courage she never expected.

A SHADOW LIFE
Iris Nightingale, a junior British intelligence officer in wartime London, falls for a French agent. But after a secret landing in Provence results in terrible Nazi reprisals, he vanishes. When France is liberated, Iris is determined to uncover the truth. Was he the man he claimed to be?

Ingeniously interconnected, this spellbinding triptych weaves three parallel narratives into one unique tale of love, mystery, and murder. The Sea Garden is a vivid and absorbing chronicle of love and loss in the fog of war-and a penetrating and perceptive examination of the impulses and circumstances that shape our lives.
***
Spotted on Edelweiss. There's no cover for it yet, but I'm intrigued. I love flappers! The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine.
From award-winning author Genevieve Valentine, a stunning reimagining of the fairytale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses as flappers during the Roaring Twenties in Manhattan.
Jo, the first born, “The General” to her eleven sisters, is the closest thing the Hamilton girls have to a mother. She is the one who taught them how to dance, the one who gives the signal each night, as they slip out of the confines of their father’s townhouse to await the cabs that will take them to the speakeasy. Together they elude their distant and controlling father, until the day he decides to marry them all off.

The girls, meanwhile, continue to dance, from Salon Renaud to the Swan to the Funeral Parlor Supper Club and, finally, the Kingfisher, the club they come to call home. They dance until one night when they are caught in a raid, separated, and Jo is thrust face-to-face with someone from her past: a bootlegger named Tom whom she hasn’t seen in almost ten years. Suddenly Jo must weigh in the balance not only the demands of her father and eleven sisters, but those of her own heart.

With The Girls at the Kingfisher Club, award-winning writer Genevieve Valentine takes her superb storytelling gifts to new heights, penning a dazzling tale about sisterhood, freedom, and love in Jazz Age Manhattan.

***
Spotted on  LibraryThing. The Secret of Magic by Deborah Johnson. In 1946, a young female attorney from New York City attempts the impossible: attaining justice for a black man in the Deep South.
Regina Robichard works for Thurgood Marshall, who receives an unusual letter asking the NAACP to investigate the murder of a returning black war hero. It is signed by M. P. Calhoun, the most reclusive author in the country.
As a child, Regina was captivated by Calhoun’s The Secret of Magic, a novel in which white and black children played together in a magical forest.

Once down in Mississippi, Regina finds that nothing in the South is as it seems. She must navigate the muddy waters of racism, relationships, and her own tragic past. The Secret of Magic brilliantly explores the power of stories and those who tell them.

***
And because I'm just a die-hard fan now, Sarah Jio's Goodnight June made it too. I found out about from her Facebook page.
The New York Times bestselling author of Blackberry Winter imagines the inspiration for Goodnight Moon

Goodnight Moon is an adored childhood classic, but its real origins are lost to history. In Goodnight June, Sarah Jio offers a suspenseful and heartfelt take on how the �great green room” might have come to be.

June Andersen is professionally successful, but her personal life is marred by unhappiness. Unexpectedly, she is called to settle her great-aunt Ruby’s estate and determine the fate of Bluebird Books, the children’s bookstore Ruby founded in the 1940s. Amidst the store’s papers, June stumbles upon letters between her great-aunt and the late Margaret Wise Brown—and steps into the pages of American literature.

***

Because I'm a huge fan of Call the Midwife, this caught my eye and hit my wishlist: The Nightingale Girls by Donna Douglas. 



Three very different girls sign up as student nurses in January 1936, while England is still mourning the death of George V. Dora is a tough East Ender, driven by ambition, but also desperate to escape her squalid, overcrowded home and her abusive stepfather. Helen is the quiet one, a mystery to her fellow nurses, avoiding fun, gossip and the limelight. In fact she is in the formidable shadow of her overbearing mother, who dominates every aspect of her life. Can a nursing career free Helen at last? The third of our heroines is naughty, rebellious Millie -- aka Lady Camilla -- an aristocrat on the run from her conventional upper class life. She is doomed to clash over and over again with terrifying Sister Hyde and to get into scrape after scrape especially where men are concerned. This utterly delightful novel brings a London pre-war hospital vividly to life.

Stop Calling Me a Quitter.

I am so tired of answering this question, of saying the same thing over and over again, so I'm going to blog about it. I'm hoping enough people read this that no one asks me ever again, "Why aren't you writing anymore?" *insert shocked gasp and perhaps a hand on the bosom*

Sometimes I try the timeless technique of answering with a question of my own and I say, "Would you give a speech to an empty room?"

Would you?

Picture this. There's an entire auditorium in front of you filled wall-to-wall with chairs--they can be wooden, velvet covered, whatever--and all of them are EMPTY.

You've been writing this fabulous speech for months, dedicating hours everyday to it, fact-checking things, having friends read it, dreaming about it when you aren't typing away, and talking about it over dinner to anyone who will listen. You've rehearsed in front of mirrors, thought of everything, and you cannot wait to share it with the world.

And then that big day comes and you show up in your best suit, a smile on your face, ready to blow everyone away...and nobody shows up.

Nobody gives a rat's ass about your speech.

Do you stand there like a nimrod and give it anyway?

Why not just save your breath and also, your wrists from carpel tunnel, and invest your time in doing other things, things that may be better appreciated, and don't write the damn thing at all?

Take a walk, play with your dogs, go to dinner with your family, watch a movie that makes you laugh.

Anyway, I've found much better things to do than write books only three to ten people a year buy. Seriously.

And you may say, "Write because you love it!"

And I say, "But I don't love it!" Once that book is penned, there are publishers who will print it but make me pay full price for my own copies; there are 100 blogs I will have to email and plead for reviews from, 15 may say YES, 5 will actually read it; there's endless twitter and Facebooking and all that crap. No, I def don't love it. 'Cause sadly, writing doesn't stop with just writing. (And has anyone else noticed how FLOODED the market is??? Everyone and their eight-year-old is a writer now. I'm no longer proud to say, "I'm an author", not when Mookie Dookie, his daughter, and his dog are all authors too.

And then you say, "Just write for yourself."

And my answer is, "That's why I have a blog!" And do keep coming back here. The blog shall continue, if only to maintain my sanity. Plus I love writing book and movie reviews.

And you say, "You're a quitter!"

And I reply, "It's not quitting to walk away from something that makes you miserable. If you take a bite of a dish and it tastes like shit, do you keep eating it?"

And you say, "But you have to give it time."

To which I reply, "I penned my first book in 2010, was published in 2011, paid countless amounts of dollars on blog tours and ads and did not make my money back. At one point, I had 25 writings available to the public. Heck, out of 1,500 FB likers, 7 of them may buy a book. How much more time and dedication do you want?

I've blogged everyday. I've tweeted, fb'd, helped countless others. I'm tired. Leave me alone. I just want to read. And I am happier now."

However, this was not intended to be a sad post. On the contrary, I'm the happiest I've been in a while. I am starting a new job next week. I will once again be working on aircraft. The next time you look up and see an A350 in the sky, smile and think of me.
No, I will not be working for Swiss Airlines. This was
merely the best shot of this particular aircraft on Wiki Commons.
And that ends my speech.

P.S. You may notice many of my books have been taken off the market. Truth is, I'd rather have nothing available at all than see a big fat zero by each title month after month. I also got tired of your returns, darling piraters. As most of you were not willing to buy anything anyway, the books I took down are now available as free pdfs on my author website. Just have at it. Enjoy!

P.P.S. Do not leave me comments declaring I'm a great writer and shouldn't give up my dreams. A great writer would NOT have this problem, so just hush. We all know you're only telling me what you think I want to hear. A great writer...the writing would speak for itself. I wouldn't have to sit here all day long and FB, twitter, or make the book free to get people to read it. My last book release, released under another pen name, didn't even break Amazon rank, so thank you, but no thank you. I'd say readers have spoken. To those of you who did purchase my books, leave reviews, show support, thanks very much. I know who you are.