Wordless Wednesday: Hearts of Ogunquit Beach

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Review & Giveaway: Lost and Fondue by Avery Aames

Paperback, 320 pages

Published May 3rd 2011 by Berkley (first published April 12th 2011)

ISBN 0425241580 (ISBN13: 9780425241585)

When Charlette Bessette, owner of Providence, Ohio's fancy cheese shop, Fromagerie Bessette, is asked by her friend Meredith to cater a fund raiser at the old abandoned Ziegler winerey, it is with some trepidation. For years rumors have abounded of buried treasures and possibly a few buried bodies at the winery. The fundraiser is to purchase the winery and turn  it into a local college.

Meredith's  niece, Quinn, and her artistic friends are all excited as they want to search for the treasure; they put no stock in the buried bodies legend. Someone uses the occasion and subsequent scavenger hunt to murder one of the party. Unfortunately, Quinn becomes the prime suspect. Since the police chief Umberto Urso went to school with Charlotte and had a small crush on her, he gives her some leeway in interfering with the crime investigation. Charlotte is determined to find the guilty party and free Meredith's niece Quinn but with a lot of suspects and different motives, that might prove very difficult indeed.

Avery Aames does a terrific job of creating an atmosphere and setting the scene of the crime. I never knew there were so many different cheeses! Along with the cheese shop plot line and Charlott'es new love interest, there are several other plot lines going on that added to the realism of the characters. However, I did have a quibble with the mystery part. Some of the clues were symbolic and had me somewhat sceptical at their plausibility but as with a lot of cozies, a little suspension of disbelief is necessary. Lost and Fondue is still an enjoyable read for cozy fans. 3.5***

Avery Aames is also the author of The Long Quiche Goodbye, the first book in the cheese shop series. Lost and Fondue is the sequel. Recipes are included in the book using some of the cheeses mentioned.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Berkley in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of Lost and Fondue, Berkley is allowing me to giveaway 1 copy of the book. Open to US only. Deadline to enter is June 5th at 5 PM (est). Bonus entries available:

+2 for being a follower (old or new) just remind me how you follow and under what name
+3 for posting about (sidebar is fine)or tweeting. Be sure to leave me a link. Be sure to leave an e mail contact in your comment.

   Good luck!

Review and Giveaway: Blood Trust by Eric Van Lustbader

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published May 10th 2011 by Forge Books

ISBN 0765329743 (ISBN13: 9780765329745)

 Blood Trust is the third geo-political thriller featuring Jack McClure and Alli Carson. In this story, Alli is now a recruit at Fearington in training to be an FBI agent while being mentored by Jack McClure, National Security Advisor. When Alli is accused of murder all hell breaks loose. She and many others feel she is being framed. Although her powerful billionarire uncle, Henry Holt Carson, insists he is looking out for her interests, his actions speak otherwise.

Dennis Paull, Jack's boss, gives him the assignment of eliminating a powerful kingpin of the Albanian mafia, Arian Xhafa. He's thought to be behind an international slave trade operation whose  greedy tentacles reach around the globe and have definitely infiltrated the powerful people back in Washington, D.C.

Jack's ability to see the "big picture" is an enormous help to him in putting together pieces of any puzzle. He will need all his skills in this assignment as nothing is what it seems and almost no one is who or what they purport to be. Alli escapes her uncle's protective custody and accompanies Jack on his high speed chase around the globe leaving a trail of dead bodies in their wake both in Macedonia and back in the USA. Many risky encounters have Alli and Jack defending themselves over and over and their actions heighten the race to eliminate Arian before he eliminates them.

I read and reviewed  Last Snow last year and truly enjoyed the book; so much in fact that I went on to read the previous book, First Daughter. Blood Trust has a lot of familiar characters in it but it is not really necessary to have read the former book as this one can stand alone. In Blood Trust, while I did enjoy the complicated twists and turns of the plot, it seemed to me there was a lot more gratuitous violence and offensive language than the previous book. After a while it became almost monotonous; "less is more" is an adage that can be applied in this case.

 As for characters, I do like Jack McClure and find him to be a lot more believeable than Alli. She is given almost super hero capabilitites that did not ring true for me throughout the book. If you can suspend a little disbelief in her case and ignore the plethora of *F* bombs, then you will enjoy this thriller. 3.5***

Disclosure: A review copy of Blood Trust was provided by Tor/Forge Books in exchange for my honest opinion of the book.

To read more about the author, Eric Van Lustbader, you can visit his website or find him on twitter.

Through the generosity of Tor/ Forge Books two paperback copies of recently released, Last Snow and one hardcover copy of Blood Trust are up for grabs. Be sure to leave an e mail address in your comment. As always, bonus entries can be earned by:

+2 for being a follower,old or new. Just remind me how you follow and under what name.

+3 for posting to sidebar with link or tweeting. Just leave me a link to post or tweet, please.

 Deadline to enter is June 3rd at 5 P.M. (est). Good luck!

 

Review and Giveaway: Almost Home by Mariah Stewart

Mass Market Paperback: 400 pages

Publisher: Ballantine Books (March 22, 2011)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0345520378
ISBN-13: 978-0345520371

Steffie Wyler, owner of the very popular ice cream parlor, One Scoop or Two, is living her dream - well, almost. Since she was little she had three goals in life: make ice cream every day, marry the coolest guy in town and live happily ever after. It's the "marry the coolest guy in town" that has eluded her but now that her high school crush, Wade McGregor is back in town maybe, just maybe that goal is reachable.

 In town for a wedding, Wade renews his acquaintance with Steffie getting her all starry eyed with her hopes up but once again he hightails it back to Texas where he has been living and working since college. Try as she might, Steffie tries to be complacent about it.

"She tried to keep a smile on her face and a positive attitude as they said good-bye, even until the door closed behind him and she turned the lock.

Then, from somewhere deep inside, a little voice whispered that some things never change. Wade would leave and get on with his life, and she'd still be here,  in St. Dennis, until next time."

Things in Wade's life, both personal and business wise have gone sour and now he is back. Again! But this time with some surprising new complications to consider. Will Wade finally see what is right in front of him? Will this be the time for Steffie and Wade to make a go of it once and for all?

What I like about this series is the recurring characters that feels like visiting with old friends and family. I like Stewart's emphasis on love, friendships and the complexities of family dynamics.There's something so engaging about all the interwoven family stories in the little town of St Dennis on the Chesapeake. Even though as a reader, you pretty much know all will work out in the end, it's a delightful journey getting there with the characters as they go through all of life's surprises, joys and heartaches.

Almost Home is the third book in the Chesapeake Diaries series by Mariah Stewart. Any of these stories can be read as a stand-alone but I would recommend you start with the first one just to get a feel for the little town and all the characters. I'm so invested in these characters now, I can't wait for the next one; Home Town Girl, the fourth in the series, will be released in July.

Last year I read and reviewed Coming Home the first book in the series, and Home Again, the second book. If you visit Mariah's web site and click on books, you can read excerpts from the first two. There are also links to contests. Happy browsing!

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Ballantine Books & TLC tours in exchange for my honest opinion.

The publisher is allowing me to give away one (1) copy of the book. US & Canada. Deadline for giveaway is May 27th at 5 PM (est). Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. As always bonus entries are available by :

+2 for being a follower- just remind me how and under what name
+3 for tweeting or putting on sidebar - leave me a link, please.
Good luck!

Giveaway: The Beach Trees by Karen White

From the publisher: Karen White’s moving new novel, THE BEACH TREES (NAL; May 2011; Trade Paperback Original; $15; ISBN: 978-0-451-23307-3) is just in time for summer reading! In it, White (the national bestselling author of On Folly Beach and the award-winning author of thirteen previous books) weaves together themes of Southern culture, the powerful bond of family, and the courage to rebuild in the face of destruction in order to create an incredibly moving story her fans are sure to love.

In the aftermath of tragedy, life goes on—painful and forever altered, but ripe with new beginnings. For Julie Holt, travelling to the beautiful but ravaged coast of Biloxi , Mississippi , is a journey into a secret past and a life she never expected. Julie first knew loss at the age of twelve when her sister disappeared. As her once close-knit family grew apart, Julie’s mother obsessively searched for the girl and when her mother died, Julie took up the search, never letting go of the hope.

Then at an art exhibition in New York she meets Monica—a struggling artist and single mother who reminds Julie so much of her sister that she can’t help feeling drawn to her. Monica paints a vivid picture of her family, but never says why or how she lost contact with them. But Monica has another secret: a heart condition that will soon take her life. When Monica dies, Julie inherits from her an antique portrait as well as custody of her young son, Beau. Taking him back to Biloxi and New Orleans to see the family he has never met, Julie discovers a connection of her own. The portrait, of an old relative, was done by her great-grandfather—and unlocks a family history she never knew.

   Sounds exciting, doesn't it? To celebrate this month's release of The Beach Trees by Karen White, Penguin is generously allowing me to hold a giveaway for two (2) copies of the book. US & Canada only. Deadline to enter is May 26th at 5 PM (est).

 To enter: tell me why this books sounds appealing to you. Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. 

As always bonus entries can be earned by:

+2 for being a follower

+3 for posting in sidebar with link or tweeting ( leave link, please)

Good Luck!

Review and Giveaway: Pumped for Murder by Elaine Viets

Hardcover, 272 pages

Expected publication: May 3rd 2011 by NAL Hardcover 

ISBN 0451233204 (ISBN13: 9780451233202)

Starting a new detective agency is not an easy task, as Phil and Helen Hawthorne, newleyweds, are finding out. Fortunately, their landlady at the Coronado apartments in Miami is more than willing to help out. She manages to get them their first two clients; Gus, whose brother committed suicide more than 20 years ago, wants them to prove it was homicide instead and Shelby wants them to prove her husband, Bryan, is cheating on her.

One way for the duo to work on the suspicious husband case is for Helen to get a job at the gymn where Bryan spends most of his time. This way she can see if he is having an affair with another gym rat. While trying to find out more about Bryan, Helen is on the premises when a corpse of Debbie, a local bodybuilder, is found.  Another gymn member, Evie, is arrested but Helen is convinced she is innocent and that solving this particular case would bring the new agency a lot of publicity. How to prove it? That takes some doing!

Phil has his hands busy with the other case and it leads him in some mighty interesting directions.

What I liked about this mystery  is the use of a married couple as main characters. They work well together as each has different strengths. The flavor of Miami  was well portrayed throughout the story.

 Pumped for Murder is the 10th in the series with this being a new-to-me author, I know I will be going back and starting the series from the beginning just to see how their relationship started out.

Disclosure: A Review copy of the book was provided by Berkley Prime Crime in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of Pumped for Murder, Penguin Group is allowing me to host a giveaway for one copy of the book. US only. Deadline to enter is May 20th at 5 PM. Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. Good luck!

As always bonus entries are available by:

+2 for being a follower (new or old) just remind me how you follow and under what name
+3 for tweeting or posting about contest and leave me a link

Guest post & giveaway: The Dressmaker of Khair Khana by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Happy Mother's Day all! Today, it is my privilege to introduce Gayle Tzemach Lemmon, author of The Dressmaker of Khair Khana, to Pudgy Penguin Perusals. Let's see what Gayle had to say about her book:

Stories of war inevitably focus on the men who go off and fight.  Almost never do they talk about the heroines who stay behind and make sure there’s a home to come back to once the fighting is over.

I wanted to change that. And that is why I went to Afghanistan for the first time in December 2005 in search of a story.

As a girl raised by a single mom who worked two jobs to support me, I had grown up around tough women who took hits and got back up because people were counting on them.  And I had seen how hard it was for them to make ends meet and how rarely anyone ever stopped to thank them for their work.  By the time I left ABC News for MBA study at Harvard, I felt determined it was my turn to pay them back.

So I took off from Boston and headed to Kabul with no idea what I had gotten myself into but with every intention of telling a story that mattered so much, though it was so often ignored. The story of women entrepreneurs in war zones.  Because in tough times women who live through war do the same thing that women in the US do every day – they find a way to support their families because they have to – because those they love count on them to provide. 

  

The Dressmaker of Khair Khana is the product of this five-year quest to share untold stories about the power of women to change their world.  The book tells the true story of a teenager who, armed with only a needle and thread, started a dressmaking business under the Taliban that created jobs and hope for women all around her neighborhood. It’s a  war story that talks about family, faith, and the power of inspiring entrepreneurs.  And it is a celebration of unsung heroines -- women who rarely receive thanks for the hard work they do every day to make sure their children have a shot at something better.

I hope this Mother’s Day you join me in celebrating these women who make a difference, and I hope you will enjoy The Dressmaker of Khair Khana

Gayle Tzemach Lemmon

Harper Collins is being extremely generous in allowing me to hold a giveaway for up to 5 copies of the book. Let's make it interesting and start with two (2) copies up for grabs if 15 separate people enter. I'll add another copy for every ten people after that up to the 5 copies. Tell your friends to come visit with Gayle and learn about her book. Open to US only and the deadline to enter is May 18th at 5 PM (est). As always, bonus entries available:

+2 for being a new or old follower. Just remind me how you follow and under what name.
+3 for tweeting or posting about contest (sidebar is preferred)

Be sure to include an e mail address. Good luck!

Review and giveaway: The Wedding Shawl by Sally Goldenbaum

Hardcover, 320 pages

Expected publication: May 3rd 2011 by NAL Hardcover

ISBN 0451233190 (ISBN13: 9780451233196)

Residing in Sea Harbor, MA, the four friends Cass, Birdie, Izzie and her Aunt Nell are preparing for Izzie's upcoming wedding. They meet regularly at Izzie's yarn shop to work on her wedding shawl and just enjoy each other's company. One night they meet at the book store to hear a local author talk about plot development. He tells them he gets a lot of ideas for mysteries from cold cases like the one that happened in town fifteen years ago. A young high school senior was found dead in the quarry and it was never proved what happened but suspicions still linger to the present time.

When Tiffany, a young woman from the salon who is helping the friends with wedding plans, is found murdered in her office, the town gossips can't help but compare it to the cold case. It's eerily coincidental that the two women were best friends in high school and both had a friendship with  the same young man then and now. It feels like the past is starting to repeat itself and suspicion about Tiffany's murder turns to a friend of the group.

The four knitters know they must find out what really happened, prove their friend's innocence and get this all behind them before the wedding. When two members of the group receive veiled threats, they know they are getting too close to the murderer but it does not deter them; it just make them more determined than ever to find out the truth not just of Tiffany's murder but for some closure on the fifteen year old mystery.

The Seaside knitting friends help solve the mystery using intelligent, well thought out deduction; no crazy- off -the-wall heroics in this series. These friends are very down to earth and believable characters. Along with the small town atmosphere and seaside location, I think this is why I like this series so much. All the characters are fully fleshed out and feel like old friends at this point.  Goldenbaum builds her case logically with enough clues and red herrings to keep any mystery fan intrigued. 4****

The Wedding Shawl is the 5th book in the Seaside Knitting series, set in New England. I've read 3 of them now and to my mind they just keep getting better and better. Recipes and a knitting pattern are included at the end of the book.  Sally Goldenbaum is also the author of the Queen Bee Quilting series set in Kansas.

Disclosure: A review copy of the book was provided by Penguin Group (USA)  in exchange for my honest opinion.

To celebrate the release of The Wedding Shawl, Penguin Group is allowing me to host a giveaway for one copy of the book. US only. Deadline to enter is May 14th at 5 PM. Be sure to include an e mail address in your comment. Good luck!

As always bonus entries are available by:

+2 for being a follower (new or old) just remind me how you follow and under what name
+3 for tweeting or posting about contest and leave me a link