Rachelle Ayala's Blog, page 58

Vera Custodio Cooks: Pancit Bihon

My latest character, Vera Custodio, loves to cook. Here's a simple and delicious dish to whip up when you're short of time.


½ lb large shrimp, shelled and cleaned1 lb thin sliced steak, cut into thin strips, dusted with cornstarch3 scallions, chopped6 cloves garlic, minced3 slices ginger, mincedShredded romaine lettuce, 2 cupsAssorted vegetables (Chinese snow peas, straw mushrooms, chopped orange bell pepper, chopped summer squash, whatever you have handy)8 oz package Pancit Bihon (thin dried...

#BookReview WORTH THE WEIGHT by Mara Jacobs #romance

Worth The Weight by Mara Jacobs
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

An enjoyable read. This is another one of those homecoming stories where the heroine has left a small town, made a success out of herself and meets up again with the hometown boy who broke her heart. Only this one has a twist. The heroine, Lizzie, planned the entire meetup for the sole purpose of using her former boyfriend to bolster her self-image and sex life as practice for the big city slicker she set her heart on.

If you can buy this p...

Researching Hidden Under Her Heart - A Day At the Beach

I spent Election Day, 2012 away from TV, social media and the Internet. It was a beautiful, sunny day in Northern California, and I decided to fill in more research on the setting of my latest novel, Hidden Under Her Heart. Besides, my sister was visiting from the East Coast, so it was a perfect excuse to get away from my computer and go on an outing.
 
 Hidden Under Her Heartis a poignant love story between a young nurse, Maryanne Torres, and a professional triathlete, Lucas Knight....

Cover Reveal: White Swans: The New Girl in Town by Annamaria Bazzi #YA #fantasy

Read all about it! The Unveiling of book cover II[image error]Book cover unveiling of  White Swans: The New Girl in TownAuthor : annamaria bazzi
Genre : YA Fantasy
Release Date : April 12, 2013
Cover Designer : Jennifer Donohoe
Blurb:
All it takes is a wish upon a star, and Jillian finds herself in a Regency world she only read about in romance novels. She wakes in an exciting world of adventure and challenges but didn’t expect the new life she received. A maid? OMG!
An ambitious girl, sh...<![endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]>

Coming Soon! FLY AWAY by Jennifer Donohoe #YA #Fantasy

Description:Robin Sullivan is given a magical book where she can experience a better life in a new world called Tearmann. She can finally escape the terrible reality of life with an abusive, alcoholic father, hermother's schizophrenia, and her best friend's Leukemia. Robin must choose between deserting her real life or living in a world promising a better one. Events come into play forcing Robin to make a decision.
Will she be able to save those she loves and still save herself?
Excerpt:“What g...

#BookReview One Tiny Miracle by Carol Marinelli #baby #romance

One Tiny Miracle by Carol Marinelli
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This was a cute story set in Melbourne Australia. I didn't really get the local color of the place, so other than the place names, it could have been anywhere. There was a lot of head-hopping and telling which distracted me. I had to go back and figure out whose head we were in every few paragraphs. But I liked the theme about letting love grow rather than forcing it.

The setting is an emergency room where the hero is a doctor and the h...

#BookReview HAVE NO SHAME by Melissa Foster #civil #rights #historicalfiction

Have No Shame by Melissa Foster
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Stunning! Melissa Foster's best work yet. You wouldn't think a story about a small town daddy's girl would be so riveting. On the surface, Alison (Pixie) is a mouse. She's scared to make waves and she's taught to know her place. She's marrying her high school sweetheart and doing everything everyone expects her to.

That is, until she finds the body of a black man in the river. Suddenly her eyes are opened to the injustice in her town, where...

#BookChat Make That Deux by Julia McDermott #romance #travel

MAKE THAT DEUX is the story of Jenny Miles, who spends her junior year of college studying in the south of France in the late 1970s. Jenny leaves behind her boyfriend Phil in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, where the two met and became a couple almost a year before the novel’s opening. Jenny has studied French for years and is ecstatic to be able to realize her dream of participating in UNC’s new year-abroad program, and to see Europe. But she’s anxious and uneasy about being separated from the...

#AuthorInterview Moragh Carter, Writer & Poet

Rachelle Ayala:Hello Moragh and welcome to my blog. Before we start talking about your book, please tell me a little about yourself; like where you were born, a bit about your family, etc.
Moragh Carter:Thank you for your welcome, Rachelle. May I begin by telling you about my name. It's Gaelic and is pronounced Mora. (Thank you, mother, for giving me a name that is regularly either pronounced wrong or spelt wrong !) ... but now that's out of the way, let me answer your questions.
I was born in...

#NewRelease AGGRAVATED CIRCUMSTANCES by Michele Shriver #womensfiction

Announcing the release of Aggravated Circumstances, a new women’s fiction/legal saga by author Michele Shriver.


A family can be torn apart in an instant. Putting it back together is a harder task.
A relapsed addict opens the door to find a cop with a search warrant, setting off a chain of events that will cause four lives to intersect.
Devin Lenox has already lost one child to the system and this time she vows it will be different. If she’s going to make it, though, she’ll need...<![endif]--><!--[if gte vml 1]></o>