Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.
Showing posts with label Marie Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Marie Force. Show all posts

Monday, February 28, 2011

Everyone Loves a Hero by Marie Force (Book Review)


Title: Everyone Loves a Hero
Author: Marie Force
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca


About the book:  Cole and Olivia meet by accident when he stops to buy some Mentos at an airport kiosk.  Olivia was working the register and the guy she was waiting on was being rude.  Cole stepped up to ask him to be a little nicer and received a punch in the face for his efforts.  When he opens his eyes he finds Olivia hovering over him trying to find out if he is okay. 

They don't find out much about each other that day, all they know is that they each received a jolt (unbeknownst to each other) when she touched his face.  He is a pilot, so she sends a note to the airline to find out how he is.  Meanwhile, he stops back by the kiosk to try to see her - only she was just filling in there for the day, it was her normal stand.  But, as Fate would see fit, he does end up finding her and he asks her out on a date.  They hit it off really well, but there are a few things standing in their way. 

He is a pilot based out of Chicago.  He shot to fame a year earlier when his copilot had a hard attack and he landed a plane in a blizzard and then gave the guy CPR until paramedics arrived. Since then  he has been on the cover of many magazines and has women throwing themselves at him. She is a 27 year old business student, still living at home and trying to work her way through school - in a major that she hates. She is really an artist at heart but doesn't have the self-confidence to pursue it.  She also has an agoraphobic mother who shops excessively online and TV.

They begin this relationship and both admit fairly quickly that it is different from anything that either has experienced before.  Olivia has a lot of doubts about Cole's feelings though, especially the way they seem to run into old girlfriends where ever they go. Cole, sensing that Olivia is a little skittish, isn't entirely truthful with her about all the women in his life and so doesn't tell her about an old girlfriend that he calls "Nutty" Natasha. Well, good intentions puts a definite crick in this relationship.

I did enjoy this book and really wish that I had a pilot with me when I flew to let me know what all the noises and bumps were about!  Olivia had never flown before, so when Cole took her on a trip he told her everything that was going on.  (I don't care for flying - so this would be great!)  Cole and Olivia were fun to get to know and I liked the way that Cole encouraged Olivia to follow her dreams and to give her the space and time to do just that. Warning - book does contain a lot of sex scenes.

~I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for my review from Sourcebooks.~


You can find more about this author at http://www.mariesullivanforce.com/, on her blog Marie Force, on Facebook and on Twitter.


Everyone Loves a Hero: ...and that's the problem
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Casablanca, Feb 1, 2011
ISBN: 978-1-4022-4574-9
416 pages

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Congratulations Winners!

I have more winners to announce!

For Marie Force's books the winners are:

Line of Scrimmage goes to: kh (kimehak)Webfetti.com



Love at First Flight goes to: donnasWebfetti.com




And the winners of Soul Survivor are:
  1. MJ
  2. gahome2mom
  3. Debbie
  4. Chadwick
  5. catss99
Webfetti.com

All winners have been emailed and have a couple of days to get back to me or new winners will be drawn.

Thanks for entering! I should have 3 new contests up this week so please watch for them! In the meantime, please enjoy some of the book features and reviews and let me know you are out there!



All graphics courtesy of webfetti.com

Friday, July 10, 2009

Interview with Marie Force - and Giveaway!

Hi Marie and welcome to Books and Needlepoint! Thank you for answering these interview questions for me and my readers - I was reading through your bio and we have some similarities - I graduated hs in 1984 - married a Navy man (but we were stationed on the west coast - and we are divorced now) I lost a parent to cancer and I have a son named Jake! Of course, that leaves a ton of stuff that differs! I just thought that was interesting!




Marie: Wow, Kristi, we do have a lot in common! That’s crazy! Sons named Jake are the best, aren’t they? I’m quite partial to that boy and my daughter, Emily, too! It’s nice to be here with you today. Thanks for having me!

It's a pleasure. I had a lot of fun with these questions! So, let's get started.
I know that you like to go boating and spend time on the beach - do you have a favorite beach that you go to and what do you have to take to make it a great day?




Marie: My favorite beaches are right here in Rhode Island. When I’m home, I love Second Beach in Middletown, which has the best waves for body surfing. My favorite times there are when all my cousins are in town with their kids and we take over a big section of the beach for the day. We stay until the sun sets and then go for pizza. Those are the best days! In late August every year, we go with our best friends to Block Island (12 miles off the southern coast of Rhode Island, but it may as well be another universe). There we while away endless hours on a small section of the town beach. It’s our idea of heaven, and we look forward to it all year. Last summer, my husband came nose-to-nose with a sand shark right off that beach, so now he’s a little less enamored!


Wow - that would have been scary! I have only been to west coast beaches myself (well - ok, one down in Florida, but it was too long ago to count!)I read that you have one must-see TV show for every night of the week - would you share what some of those favorite shows are? Do any of them ever give you ideas for books?



Marie: Okay, here we go:

Sunday: Brothers and Sisters
Monday: The Bachelor/Bachelorette when it’s on as well as Two and a Half Men
Tuesday: American Idol
Wednesday: American Idol
Thursday: Grey’s Anatomy, Private Practice, and back when it was on, every episode ever aired of ER.
Friday: Friday Night Lights (the single best show on TV, hands down—if you’re not watching it, you’re missing out! Don’t be fooled—it’s not just about football. It’s sooooo much more than that. Rent the first three seasons and get caught up!)

In the summer, it’s all Red Sox all the time around here! I haven’t gotten any ideas for books by watching TV, but I do like to study the characterization and story arcs. FNL is particularly good with both of these things, and the writing is just dazzling.

We love Two and a Half Men and watch a lot of the reruns that are on here after the news! I like the medical shows too - actually just watched the very last ER - it had been on my DVR forever. I think I was afraid to watch it cuz I didn't want it to be over! I would watch Friday Night Lights for Kyle Chandler alone - I loved Early Edition!
You would think living near Chicago we would have a favorite baseball team - but we are more of a football family! (Go Bears!)


We both graduated high school in 1984 - how have you found that the technology advances (or any other changes) affect the way you raise your kids versus how we were raised?

Marie:
Oh wow, this is a tough question and something I grapple with a lot, especially with my soon-to-be fourteen-year-old daughter. She is more techno savvy than I’ll ever be (I say this despite the fact that my day job has me on a computer all day, using about 30 different programs, so I’m no nitwit in this regard...) I have recently taken her off instant messenger, for one thing, because I worry about her being sucked into something that parents on the other end are watching. I tell her, “Don’t leave a paper trail. It can come back to haunt you.” We’ve had to have conversations about “sexting” and all kinds of things I wish I didn’t have to talk to her about. So while technology is so empowering, it’s just another danger where our kids are concerned. On the plus side, I can’t imagine writing a book on a typewriter, and I love having Google handy whenever I’m stumped by something as I write. I appreciate the advancements, but still, a lot of it scares me in regard to my kids.

Ouch "sexting" - ok, now you have me worried (I have soon-to-be 15-year-old and 17-year-old daughters!) I
haven't even thought about this with them - and they text ALOT. I can't imagine what it would have been like when I was their age to be able to take a phone where ever I went!

How much time do you spend doing background research for a book - and what has been your favorite "find" while doing this research?

Marie: Here’s a true confession... I actually don’t love doing research. Because of the full-time job and the kids, I don’t have a lot of time purely devoted to writing, so when I do have time, I want to get in there and write. While I know the research is necessary and critical, it’s just another obstacle to doing what I love to do. One of my favorite “finds” has to have been discovering a latent love of football once I dug into the sport while researching Line of Scrimmage. I’d always been a baseball girl and didn’t give football the time of day. In fact, I’d been kind of disdainful toward football (shameful, I know!) Once my muse delivered Ryan and he demanded that I make him into a football star, I had no choice but to get very familiar with football. And in the process, I became a fan! Go Patriots! (And Tom Brady, of course!) I also enjoyed doing a ride-along with a cop friend of mine when I was researching a romantic suspense. That was truly enlightening!
I was just able to get Line of Scrimmage from the library and can't wait to get started!
Do you have a favorite book(s)? What makes it/them your favorite?

Marie:
I love anything by Nora Roberts, and my new favorite author is Lisa Kleypas. Even though I mostly read contemporaries, I recently read Lisa’s Wallflower series and loved it. And her contemporaries are among the best I’ve ever read. I adore them! She does it all—deep emotion, sizzling love scenes, heroes to die for, and underneath it all, a great story that has you turning the pages for more.
I love Nora Roberts also - I find her books good to take on vacation! I haven't read anything by Lisa Kleypas but will have to check her out!
From your own books - do you have a favorite scene or quote?

Marie:
Let’s see, from Line of Scrimmage I love the scene where Ryan and Susannah are fighting (I love writing fights—what does that say about me?) and she tells him he can have any woman he wants, go get another one. Hurt by this, he says, the only one I want is the one right in front of me. To which she replies, well, you can’t have me. What part of that don’t you understand? In typical Ryan fashion, he says, um, the can’t part? Insert frustrated shriek from Susannah here! That scene cracks me up every time I read it. I loved writing Ryan as intentionally obtuse. My favorite scene in Love at First Flight is the “big black moment” between Michael and Juliana, which I can’t say too much about because it includes plot spoilers. Suffice to say you’ll know it when you read it!
I think a lot of men are intentionally obtuse! I can't wait to meet Ryan and Susannah as I read Line of Scrimmage. I have not read First Flight but am trying to win me a copy! I want to know what that "big black moment" is!

Where do you like to write and is there anything specific you need - like a favorite pen or a favorite snack?

Marie: Since I work in my home office all day for the job, I don’t like to be there when I’m writing. So picture this: sofa, footstool, laptop, kids running all around, Red Sox on the TV, Diet Coke in the glass... I seem to do my best work in the midst of chaos. I travel quite a bit for my day job and always think I’m going to get so much writing done in the hotel rooms, but that never seems to happen. I’ve decided I need the chaos to produce. Weird, right?

No, sometimes I think I get more done when there is more energy (translate: chaos) around me!

While on this blog tour - has there been any comments or questions that have taken you by surprise?

Marie:
One thing that happened last week really threw me. I had a reviewer say that the scenario with my characters Juliana and her longtime boyfriend Jeremy really rocked her on a personal level. At the opening of Love at First Flight, Juliana and Jeremy have been together ten years, but she’s sensing some discontent on his part. She later finds out that he’s been having thoughts about other women and worries that he’s missing out by being with the same woman his entire adult life. Needless to say this really rocks Juliana’s world. It also rocked this reviewer’s world since she’s been married to her high school sweetheart for more than twenty years. For a week after she finished Love at First Flight she couldn’t stop wondering if her husband ever feels the way Jeremy did. Wow, I sure didn’t see that coming!

Isn't it amazing how writing can touch everyone differently?!
Is there anything else you would like your readers to know?

Marie:
I just want to say thank you to everyone who has shown up to support my blog tour and for all the wonderful reviews. It’s been a really exciting couple of weeks. A few announcements for your readers:

I’ll give one copy of Line of Scrimmage and Love at First Flight to two different people, so leave a comment for a chance to win! Already read Line of Scrimmage? Just let me know.

(wondering...can I enter a contest on my own blog? hmmmm)

If you wish to discuss all the rules I broke in Love at First Flight, join me Monday, July 20, at 7 p.m. EDT on my blog (http://mariesullivanforce.blogspot.com) for a Book Club discussion. Warning, there will be spoilers, so make sure you read the book before the party! I’ll be giving away some great prizes to participants.

Once you’ve read the book, come by my website at www.mariesullivanforce.com to find out how to enter the contest for the Love at First Flight Grand Prize gift basket. I’ll accept answers to daily questions about the book through July 15. The winner will be announced during the July 20 Book Club Meeting.

What is coming up next for you when this tour is over?

Marie: I'm polishing up a sexy romantic comedy about a small conservative town fighting the newest business—a naughty lingerie and sex toy shop owned by my fearless heroine—and working on book one in a series about four brothers who are summoned home to the island where they grew up to save the family business. Their mother also has matchmaking on her mind, but her idea of the perfect mates for her sons differs vastly with their own ideas. It’s been really fun so far, and I’m looking forward to getting back to it!

How fun! I look forward to hearing more about these! Thank you Marie and best of luck on these new ventures!

Marie: Thanks again for having me!

To enter the giveaway for one of Marie's books - Line of Scrimmage or Love at First Flight (please specifiy which book you would like - you can enter the drawings for both, but can only win one!) just leave a comment below WITH YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS. This giveaway will end on July 20th. (US or Canada only)


Love at First Flight
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Casablanca, July 2009
ISBN: 9781402220067
398 pages

Barnes & Noble
Amazon


L@FF Blog Tour: Come By, Comment, and Win!

July 1: Marie’s Blog Launch Party







Tuesday, June 30, 2009

Blog Tour for Love at First Flight - Takes Off!

Love at First Flight by Marie Force
(touring June 29-July 14)

Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

About the book:

One flight will change their lives…

Marie Force’s New Contemporary Romance shows you should pay attention to who you sit next to!

Juliana is a talented hair stylist, on her way to Jacksonville, Florida, to see her long-distance—and longtime—boyfriend. While waiting for her delayed flight, she meets Michael, a prosecutor about to begin the biggest murder trial of his career, on his way to attend his engagement party in Jacksonville. Both relationships are beginning to crack under the strain of the distance, and when Michael and Juliana realize they’re booked on the same flight home on Sunday night, they agree to meet up again to compare notes.

During a disastrous weekend with her boyfriend, Jeremy, Juliana wonders if the reason he hasn’t popped “the question” during their ten years together is because he’s interested in other women. . .

Michael’s high-maintenance fiancée has always wanted the dream wedding: the big dress, the big cake, the even bigger guest list—none of the things he envisioned for himself. In the midst of their engagement party, Michael realizes his marriage to Paige is doomed before it has even begun. . .

Both of them suddenly single, Michael and Juliana commiserate on the flight home to Baltimore. In the midst of heartache, they strike up a sweet friendship that leads to passionate love. (from e-mail from Sourcebooks)


About the author: Marie Force has been a professional writer and editor for more than twenty years. She resides in Rhode Island with her husband, two children, and a dog named Consuela. She is also the author of Line of Scrimmage.

Love at First Flight
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks Casablanca, July 2009
ISBN: 9781402220067
398 pages

Barnes & Noble
Amazon


L@FF Blog Tour: Come By, Comment, and Win!

July 1: Marie’s Blog Launch Party

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