Where I share my love of books with reviews, features, giveaways and memes. Family and needlepoint are thrown in from time to time.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Montana Glory Blog Tour (Nov 1 - Nov 12)


Montana Glory
by R.C. Ryan
Blog Tour Nov 1 - 12


The last thing in the world Zane McCord wants is a wife. But after returning home to the family ranch in Montana to help his cousins search for the lost treasure that is their legacy, Zane can't help notice that love and marriage seem to be contagious. Both his cousins have succumbed, but he refuses. Determined to stay a bachelor till he dies, Zane wants to devote his time to filming documentaries and taking care of the ranch...and then Riley Mason walks into his life.

The last thing on Riley Mason's mind is romance. Sent to the McCord ranch to save the family's accounting problems, she only wants to impress her firm in Helena and be on her way. Life as a single mother isn't easy and she needs to impress her bosses for a raise. But when Zane McCord opens the door, her breath catches in her throat and a desire she's never experienced before takes over her. When the McCords insist that she and her daughter, Summer stay at the ranch, she's forced to give in and before long, she's pulled into their search for the long lost treasure. But she absolutely draws the line at getting involved with Zane McCord, playboy and heartbreaker extraordinaire.

But as they all get closer to finding Coot's lost treasure, a dangerous series of accidents target Riley and her daughter Summer. Can Zane keep her safe while trying to win her heart?



New York Times bestselling author R.C. Ryan has written more than ninety fiction novels, both contemporary and historical. Quite an accomplishment for someone who, after her fifth child started school, gave herself the gift of an hour a day to follow her dream to become a writer.


The Lost, an anthology of stories by J.D. Robb, Mary Blayney, Patricia Gaffney, and R.C. Ryan writing as Ruth Ryan Langan was published in Fall 2009. Ms. Ryan’s story, “The Legacy,” is an exciting tale of intrigue and other-worldly adventure.


In a career spanning more than twenty years, Ms. Ryan has given dozens of radio, television, and print interviews across the country and Canada, and has been quoted in such diverse publications as the Wall Street Journal and Cosmopolitan. She has also appeared on CNN News, as well as Good Morning America.





Blog Tour Participants

November 1
The Book Tree   Feature, Giveaway
Simply Stacie   Giveaway
Our Bookcase   Review, Giveaway, Guest Post
Fiction Vixen Book Reviews   Review, Giveaway
Book Hounds   Review, Giveaway
Savey Spender    Review, Giveaway
My Book Addiction and More. . .   Feature, Review, Giveaway, Q and A
This That and the Other Thing   Review, Giveaway
Books With a Cup of Coffee    Feature, Giveaway
Just Another New Blog   Giveaway

November 2
Rex Robot Reviews    Review, Giveaway
Book of Secrets    Feature, Giveaway

November 3
Books With a Cup of Coffee   Q and A
Cuzinlogic    Giveaway

November 4
Beck's Book Picks   Review, Giveaway
Thoughts in Progress    Giveaway, Q and A
November 5
Maria's Space    Feature, Giveaway, Guest Post
Sarah's Blog of Fun    Review, Giveaway
One Book Shy of a Full Shelf    Review, Giveaway
A Little Sanity    Review, Giveaway
The Romance Reviews    Feature, Giveaway


November 6
Book Junkie    Review, Giveaway

November 7
Broken Teepee    Review, Giveaway
Books and Needlepoint    Feature, Review, Giveaway


November 8
Ashley's Bookshelf    Review, Giveaway

November 9
Mom Blog Showcase    Feature, Review, Giveaway
Minding Spot    Review, Giveaway

November 10
Bookin' with "Bingo"   Giveaway
Reviews by Martha's Bookshelf    Feature, Review, Giveaway, Q and A
WV Stitcher    Review, Giveaway

November 11
Books Like Breathing   Review
 Paranormal and Romantic Suspense Reviews   Giveaway
Libby's Library News    Review, Giveaway

November 12
Candid, Clever and Cost Effective    Review, Giveaway
Marta's Meanderings    Review
DK's Everything Romance Books    Review, Giveaway
The Fiction Enthusiast    Review, Giveaway
Renee's Reads    Review, Giveaway


Montana Glory
Publisher/Publication Date: Forever, Oct 26, 2010
ISBN: 978-0446548649
384 pages

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? (Nov 1)






What are you reading on Mondays is hosted by Sheila at One Person's Journey - You can hook up with the Mr. Linky there with your own post - but be sure and let me know what you are reading too! 


Currently Reading:

Crescendo by Becca Fitzpatrick
Take a Chance on Me by Jill Mansell

Bathroom Book:
Surrender the Heart by M.L. Tyndall


Audio Book:
The Unnamed by Joshua Ferris

New this week:
Vixen by Jillian Larkin
The Peanuts Collection by Nat Gertler
Ansel Adams in the National Parks
Everything Christmas by David Bordon and Tom Winters
Montana Glory by R.C. Ryan

Books reviewed Last Week:
Somewhere Along the Way by Jodi Thomas
The Miracle of Mercy Land by River Jordan
My Give a Damn's Busted by Carolyn Brown

Books Waiting to Be Reviewed:
Ah-Choo!: The Uncommon Life of Your Common Cold by Jennifer Ackerman
Hush, Hush by Becca Fitzpatrick
The Big Dirt Nap by Rosemary Harris
Two Lethal Lies by Annie Solomon
Perfection by Julie Metz
Dewey's Nine Lives by Vicki Myron
When I Stop Talking, You'll Know I'm Dead by Jerry Weintraub (audio)

Books that have been languishing here so long I will probably have to re-read to review!
Meet Me in Dreamland: A Lu-Chu and Lena Book by Steven McKinney, Valerie McKinney
Masked edited by Lou Anders

Ready - Set - Read!

Mailbox Madness (Oct 25 - Oct 31)

Bison roam the Black Hills of South Dakota


In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren.  Mailbox Monday's host for November is Julie at Knitting and Sundries. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week!


FOR REVIEW:


by Caridad Pineiro

Dr. Liliana Carrera nearly lost her life to Wardwell scientists.  She won't let them harm other innocent victims, like her new patient, Jesse Bradford.  The former pro athlete had the best hands in the NFL. . . until an injury forced him to undergo Wardwell's experimental gene therapy.  Now Jesse's gorgeous body is superhuman -- but it comes at a price.

With Wardwell threatening his family, Jesse can't tell Liliana all he knows.  Yet he can't resist her compassion. . . or her healing, erotic touch.  As their passion flares, Jesse's body becomes dangerous and volatile.  For evil men are plotting to change the face of humanity -- and will destroy whoever stands in their way.





by Kristina McMorris

Chicago, 1944.  Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia.  She doesn't need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she's set to marry her childhood sweetheart.  Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain.  they share only a brief conversation -- during which she mistakenly believes he is interested in Betty -- but Liz can't forget him.  When Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.

Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war.  His letters from "Betty" are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both.  While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn't know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements.  And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.

Beautifully rendered and deeply moving, Letters from Home is a story of hope and connection, of sacrifices made in love and war -- and the chance encounters that change us forever. 


by Marie Force

Being a hero isn't all it's cracked up to be. . .
After a heroic blizzard landing makes him famous, First Officer Cole Langston thoroughly enjoys the playboy lifestyle that comes with his fame and good looks.  Until he meets the one woman he wants more than anything and finds it impossible to convince her of his love.

Especially when everything you've ever wanted is at stake. . .
Olivia is a talented artist, working at an airport kiosk to get through school.  When drop-dead gorgeous Cole rescues her from an obnoxious customer, their instant attraction turns into something much deeper. . .

With jealousy and insecurity rearing their ugly heads as Cole and Olivia fall hard for each other, they'll either figure out how to trust, or they'll both miss the connection of a lifetime. . .




by Ashlyn Chase

Petty crime never looked so good. . .
Alpha werewolf Konrad Wolfensen sees it as his duty to protect the citizens of Boston, even if it means breaking into their apartments just to prove their security systems don't work.  But when his unsolicited services land him in trouble with the law, he'll have to turn to his sexy new neighbor for help.

She should know better. . .
Attorney Roz Wells is bored.  She used to have such a knack for attracting the weird and unexpected, but ever since she took a job as a Boston public defender, the quirky quotient in her life has taken a serious hit.  Until her sexy werewolf neighbor starts coming around. . .

Roz knows she should stay away from this sexy bad boy, but she can't help it that she's putty in his hands. . .


by Melody Carlson

Sometimes the best gift is a second chance.

Christmas is approaching, and Lena Markham finds herself penniless, friendless, and nearly hopeless.  She is trying to restart her life, but job opportunities are practically nonexistent.  When a secondhand red coat unexpectedly lands her a job as Mrs. Santa at a department store, Lena finally thinks her luck is changing.  But can she keep her past a secret?

Reading Christmas at Harrington's, a story full of redemption and true holiday spirit, will be your newest Christmas tradition.




by Amy Sedaris

Hello.  Good for you, reading the flap! This suggests you are not an impulsive buyer.  You clearly are the type of person who would like more information about your prospective purchase before you throw down your hard-earned cash.  Okay, but guess what?  Do you have any clue how much time it will take to move this stack of books if every potential buyer is going to insist on being an annoyingly responsible shopper?!

More information, let's see, where to start. . . this is a serious craft book and an important one!  Please don't let the fact that further into this flap you will find instructions on how to turn this book cover into a paper hat suggest otherwise.  The point is, this book confronts the hard-hitting craft questions that other books of this genre have refused to even acknowledge: Why should every room look like an attic?  What is the quickest way to obtain feathers from a bird? What are the best crafting options for the criminally insane?  Why is there a half naked man wearing a short canary yellow robe on page 250.

But Simple Times does more than answer the tough questions, it also transports us back to a golden time when we wore handmade sweaters, carved our cooking utensils out of bark, and the best people would buy books based on a whim.



by Linda Byler

Lizzie's dream of teaching school has finally come true.  She loves the brand-new school building, the sound of the children singing, and the independence she has in the classroom.  Even the occasionally unruly boys can't ruin the excitement she feels each morning when she starts the school day.

But at home things are in turmoil again.  What do Dat's sudden health problems mean for the future of their farm?  And what about Lizzie's future?  Emma and Mandy are so certain that Joshua and John are their perfect matches, but Lizzie doesn't know what to think about Stephen and how he might fit into her life.

What will Lizzie decide?  Will she continue to teach school?  Or will she give up that dream so that her wish for marriage and a family can come true?

Stephen says he loves her, but Lizzie isn't sure he really understands her.  Can she hope to find anyone within her Amish community who loves her bright mind, her ever-active imagination, her competitive spirit and her stormy humor?



by Laura Childs

Getting ready for Halloween, the ladies at the Cackleberry Club cafe are busy carving jack-o'-lanterns, stocking up on candy, and baking pumpkin bread.  But someone's jumped the gun on the tricks.  As mayoral candidate Chuck Peebler leaves the cafe, he gets struck with a crossbow arrow and is killed instantly.  When another murder occurs on the historical society's Quilt Trail, there's no disquising it -- a murderer is running loose in the town of Kindred.  Now Suzanne's on the beat to sniff out one bad egg. . .



by Steff Deschenes

"It appeared that my ice cream experiment, at the time, paralleled my love life: I went through a lot of different flavors/boys, some that didn't get more than a fraction of my attention, some that I thought I liked but made me nauseous in the end, some that I wish I could have had more of, and some that I learned to simply appreciate.  And thus The Ice Cream Theory was born."

When Steff Deschenes was a teenager, dealing with her first heartache, her parents offered a distraction: a challenge of sorts, to try every flavor of ice cream made by a local company, with a reward of visiting the ice-cream factory afterwards.  Thirty-six flavors and ten pounds later, a love-affair with ice cream and the beginnings of a lifelong social experiment began.

Over the years, she's explored countless flavor combinations from the US to the farthest-flung corners of the world, theorizing that people are drawn to or repelled by other people much as they are ice cream flavors, craving certain personalities at different stages in life in the same way they crave different ice cream flavors.  How a person selects his or her ice cream says a lot about how he or she lives life.  Deschenes neatly brings together anecdotes from her own adventures with broader-reaching social commentary, to help others recognize the wisdom and joy inherent in a beloved dessert.  With its cheeky "self-help" slant, The Ice Cream Theory offers a charming read and a pick-me-up for soul-searchers.


SWAPPED:


by Cornelia Funke

The Adderhead--his immortality bound in a book by Meggie's father, Mo--has ordered his henchmen to plunder the villages. The peasants' only defense is a band of outlaws led by the Bluejay--Mo's fictitious double, whose identity he has reluctantly adopted. But the Book of Immortality is unraveling, and the Adderhead again fears the White Women of Death. To bring the renegade Bluejay back to repair the book, the Adderhead kidnaps all the children in the kingdom, dooming them to slavery in his silver mines unless Mo surrends. First Dustfinger, now Mo: Can anyone save this cursed story?



What books found a home with you this week?

Sunday, October 31, 2010

My Give a Damn's Busted by Carolyn Brown - Book Review

Title: My Give a Damn's Busted
Author: Carolyn Brown
Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca

About the book:  This book takes us once again to the apparently charmed Honky Tonk beer joint.  It is currently being run by Larissa Morley, the third owner in as many years.  The previous two owners, Daisy and Cathy, both met and married a cowboy and passed the Honky Tonk on to it's next owner.  Larissa isn't looking for a cowboy, having just found herself and is finally happy.

Happy, that is,  until she almost crashes her little sportscar into the back of a beat up pickup truck driven by Hank Wells.  Hank had the unfortunate timing as to be driving down the road at the same time that a deer decided to cross it.  This is what caused him to crash - causing Larissa to slide into a ditch.

Even in her anger, she didn't fail to notice that this was one hot cowboy.  Sparks flew from the very beginning, but they are each harboring secrets from the other, secrets about their past and secrets about themselves.  Will the charm of the Honky Tonk be enough to keep those secrets from blowing their romance apart?

My thoughts:  This has been a very cute series to read - three very different ladies - three very different romances - the common thread being the Honky Tonk.  I have enjoyed getting to know each new owner and hope that we might meet up with them sometime again to learn about their lives after the Honky Tonk. 

You can read my reviews of the first two books here: I Love This Bar and Hell, Yeah.

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

My Give a Damn's Busted
Publisher/Publication Date: Sourcebooks, Oct 2010
ISBN: 978-1-4022-3928-1
366 pages

Saturday, October 30, 2010

The Miracle of Mercy Land by River Jordan (Book Review)


Title: The Miracle of Mercy Land
Author: River Jordan
Publisher: Waterbrook Press

My thoughts: Mercy Land is just a girl in the 1930's when she moves from Bittersweet to Bay City.  She has followed her Aunt Ida's advice and gone to the big city - at least big compared to Bittersweet. She moves into a boarding house and eventual lands herself a job at the Banner - the local newspaper.  She becomes known as Doc's girl.

Doc is the owner and editor of the Banner and she goes from being an employee to being a friend.  She is really the assistant editor and does whatever needs to be done to get the paper out with the most current headlines.  When Doc calls her to in as soon as possible one morning, she goes wondering what the big news will be.  It turns out that a book has mysteriously arrived on Doc's desk and he has spent all night wondering what it means.

The book is unlike anything anyone has ever seen.  When you touch it, it pulls you in and takes you through other people's lives from birth on, and the lives overlap and run together.  What feels like minutes with the book turns out to be hours when you can finally pull yourself away.  They don't know what this means, or why they received this book.  They only know that it must be protected and that they have to figure out what it is to be used for.

This book poses the question of whether we would change the past if we had the choice, and in so doing, how would the ripples affect those around us.  For me, the first 100 pages or so seemed to be slow moving, and I was almost ready to put it aside when I was given enough information to start to wonder what was really going to happen to Mercy and how her past was going to affect her present.  It really made me think about some of the choices I had made in my life and how my life might be different now if any of those choices had been different.  At what point does one's life change?

About the author: River Jordan is a critically acclaimed novelist and playwright.  Her previous works include Saints in Limbo and The Messenger of Magnolia Street.  She speaks around the country on the "Power of Story" and produces and hosts the radio series Clearstory from Nashville, Tennessee where she makes her home.

~I received this book from KBK Public Relations in exchange for my review.~

Publisher/Publication Date: Waterbrook Press, Sept 2010
ISBN: 978-0-307-45705-9
341 pages

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