Let’s Review- Homicide in Hardcover
by on August 3rd, 2010
filed under Book Review
If you’re reading this post then you must love books. So what’s better than a book about books?
I have to admit, I always thought old books smelled funny. And they’re not very easy to throw in your purse to read at the beach. But last Christmas I asked for a fancy copy of the Count of Monte Cristo, my favorite book of all time. My mother gave me a set of old volumes as it seems the Count originally came in two parts. These old books have worn leather covers that are cracked and faded. Their pages are delicate and gilt edged. And they smell musty and well, old. But I love them. I can’t wait to find the time to sit down with them and read them at an old desk in a paneled library with a cup of tea at my elbow.
Now I know how the heroine of Kate Carlisle’s Homicide in Hardcover feels.
Brooklyn Wainwright is a skilled surgeon. Sure, her patients might smell like mold and have spines made of leather, but no ailing book is going to die on her watch. The same can’t be said of Abraham Karastovsky, Brooklyn’s friend and former employer.
On the eve of a celebration for his latest book restoration, Brooklyn finds her mentor lying in a pool of his own blood. With his final breath Abraham leaves Brooklyn with a cryptic message, “Remember the Devil,” and gives her a priceless—and supposedly cursed—copy of Goethe’s Faust for safe-keeping.
Brooklyn suddenly finds herself accused of murder and theft, thanks to Derek Stone, the humorless—and annoyingly attractive—British security agent who found her kneeling over the body. Now she has to read the clues left behind by her mentor if she is going to restore justice and save her own life…
This is a fast-paced, light hearted mystery with quirky, funny characters and snappy dialog. Kate cleverly weaves in tidbits about book restoration, making it both interesting and educational. Homicide in Hardcover is the first in Kate’s Bibliophile Mystery series. I loved this book so much I started reading the second book If Books Could Kill as soon as I finished the first one. Unfortunately the third book in the series The Lies That Bind won’t be out until November! Write faster Kate!!!
I give Kate Carlisle’s Homicide in Hardcover a full leather binding, a foredge painting, a pot of 23 karat gold and two bent over librarians.
Pop on over to my friend Barrie Summy’s blog to check out more wonderful book reviews.
Let’s Review- Two Weeks with a Stranger
by on May 5th, 2010
filed under Book Review
You’ve gotta love a book that starts with the line- ‘The marriage had been well and truly consummated.’
But Debra Mullins’ book Two Weeks with a Stranger is more than a face-fanner, it’s a bit of a mystery with a twist as well.
Wedded and bedded, Lucy is devastated when she’s abandoned by her new husband the very next day. Though it was a marriage of convenience, their heated wedding night gave her hope that it would turn into something more. But she refuses to be the demure bride left behind on a country estate while the stranger she married goes gallivanting about London—even if she has to create a scandal of her own.
Simon, the Earl of Devingham, would prefer his exquisite young bride remain at home where he left her. Instead, she follows him to London . . . seducing him with her fiery kisses, enchanting him with her scorching touches, and awakening in him an insatiable hunger. His duty to the Crown demands that he remain in town, but Lucy has entered a most perilous game—and she will not forfeit without Simon’s total surrender.
Surrender is right, but like I said this story is about more than sweating up the sheets and educating a virgin. I really love the banter between Simon and Lucy and between Lucy and her American friend Gin. I also like Lucy’s spunk even in the face of infidelity rumors and her husband’s duty to crown and country. But the whodunit is a cleverly crafted surprise that I never saw coming. I give Debra Mullins’ Two Weeks with a Stranger two French spies, an Earl, a Countess and a tumble in a darkened carriage.
Pop on over to my friend Barrie Summy’s blog to check out more wonderful book reviews.
Disclosure (because the government’s only problems are whether or not I’ve been bribed to give good book reviews)- Debra Mullins is a good friend of mine and I received her book free from her publisher at the 2009 Romance Writers of America’s annual conference, BUT… I reviewed it because she’s a damn fine writer and this is a damn fine book. Period. The End.
Let’s Review- Too Much Temptation
by on April 6th, 2010
filed under Book Review
Too much is right.
I’ve read Lori Foster’s Too Much Temptation twice and while I was waiting for my computer to boot up so I could write this review I started reading it again!
If you’re looking for a steamy, where’s-my-husband-cause-I’m-in-THE-mood romance pulsing with sweaty, sheet twisting sex scenes then this is the book for you.
Grace Jenkins has had little experience with men—feeling too awkward and insecure to free the passionate woman inside her. But that hasn’t stopped her from dreaming about Noah Harper. Gorgeous, strong and darkly sexy, his rough edge beneath the polish promises no mercy in the bedroom. When Grace learns Noah’s engagement has ended in scandal, she shyly offers him her support and her friendship. But Noah’s looking for something extra…
Noah wants Grace—badly. He wants to possess those curves that go on forever, to savor her sweet innocence, to take her to the limits of white-hot desire…again and again. What he doesn’t want is anything more complicated than that, and he knows Grace is a woman who deserves better. Grace, however, knows exactly what she wants—the kind of ecstasy only Noah can give her. Brazenly, she accepts, and Noah promises to make all her secret fantasies come true…
And let me tell you, Noah not only promises, he delivers. <<fans face vigorously>> Wowza!
This is by far my favorite Lori Foster book. The sexual tension between these two ignites in chapter one and blazes like a California wild fire through to the aw-it’s-over-already-end. Keep your husbands or battery operated devices on stand-by for this one, ladies, cause let me tell you, this little romance novel is better than (puts hand over mouth and whispers) porn. And it’s not even erotica.
I give Lori Foster’s Too Much Temptation multiple O’s and a very smug looking husband.
Pop on over to my friend Barrie Summy’s blog to check out more wonderful book reviews.
I Will Follow
by on April 1st, 2010
filed under On Writing
Social networking sites can be a major time suck (or in my case writer avoidance) but they can also be a way to get to know someone before you actually meet them. You know, in person. Face to face. Like back in the olden days before we all got LinkedIn, followed and friended.
I friend/follow people I actually know, people I find interesting or funny and people who are knowledgeable about subjects I’m interested in.
I unfollow/unfriend people who think they’re funny but are actually rude, people who are vulger or just plain ignorant, people who pimp themselves or their product to the point of annoyance, people who think the minutia of their life is interesting or people who post their status… every… other… minute.
For my own part I try to post comments that will provoke conversation. Sometimes it’s what’s happening in my life or my family’s, something interesting I’ve read or seen, I’ll ask for opinions on a particular subject, or I’ll post something that’s too hilarious not to share.
After a year or so on these sites some funny things have begun to happen. One is that I’ve been recongnized in person by my ’friends’ and ‘followers’. I’ve had people say to me- “I know you. We’re Facebook friends.” or “You look familiar, are you on Twitter?” And poor MrY. One of my friends in real life and on Facebook who’d never met him, recognized MrY at a local donut shop from his picture on my profile. She walked right up to him and asked- “Are you Beth’s husband?” I think it freaked him out a little.
Say what you want about these sites, but they are keeping us connected in surprising ways. I’d love it if you shared your experience with social networking sites good, bad or indifferent.
Here’s a brief update on my adventures in Query Land.
Agent queries sent-61
Requests for a partial-3
Requests for a full-1
No’s-35
Unanswered queries-26
Editors considering my full manuscript-2
I’m on HER Team
by on March 25th, 2010
filed under To make you laugh... I hope
Oh yes.
They did.
And they’re flying off the shelves.
I think I know why.
Women can be catty, petty creatures and we will surely call out a sister for wearing a micro mini & CFM heels to a PTA meeting, chosing your bro over your ho on Girl’s Night Out, passing off the cheap knock off handbag you got at the swap-meet as a designer original, having more than the rest of us and flaunting it, getting boobs bigger than your own head, and having kids who are smarter/better at sports/cuter/more popular than our kids.
Buuuuttttttt…..
If your husband cheats on you? We will line up behind you like bargain shoppers on Black Friday.
It’s an us-against-them.
Them being the lying, cheating, no-good, rotten, scum sucking, ho-boinking, bastard husbands. And us being the long-suffering, keep the kids quiet so they can sleep in, super bowl party planning, gave up bikinis to birth their children, in-law corralling, vomit & poop cleaning, dinner making, under-appreciated, good wives.
So don’t be surprised if you see a lot of women wearing these t-shirts. After all, if it could happen to her it could happen to us. And if it does, we’ll need our sisters to help us burn his things.
Social Not-working Sites
by on March 5th, 2010
filed under Well that's what I think any way...
Just about everyone I know is on some kind of social networking site including both my parents & my mother-in-law. They’re a great way to find long lost friends, reconnect with former coworkers, look up classmates and meet new people.
You can have whole conversations with people you’ve never met (and likely won’t), network, get the latest news or celebrity gossip, and even play DJ blipping your favorite songs. (http://blip.fm)
But as one family discovered the immediacy of these sites can be way too immediate.
Twins Angela & Maryanne woke up on their 20th birthday and signed onto theirFacebook profiles anxious to see who remembered their birthdays. Instead they were greeted with messages of “RIP Bobby” (their brother) and “RIP Chris” (a friend of their brother’s) all over their newsfeeds.
As you can imagine the girls were shocked and confused. Right away they called their brother but he didn’t answer his phone.
Then they called their mother who hadn’t received any notice from the police but she did confirm that Bobby had been with his friend Chris the night before. When their mother phoned the police, she was informed that her son, Bobby, had died in a car accident which also took the life of his friend, Chris and a third teenage passenger.
You can read more about this tragedy here- http://mashable.com/2010/02/08/facebook-brother-death/
I’ve had similar experiences although not to such a tragic degree and it makes me wonder, have these sites changed the way we communicate with each other? Instead of a personal phone call or formal invitation people are delivering their news in 140-character tweets, changing their Facebook status, sending e-vites and answering the innocent question ‘What’s on your mind?’ with bombshell announcements.
Have these sites helped or hindered social communication? And does everybody who friends you really need to know what you had for breakfast? What do you think?
My condolences to the families on the loss of their loved ones. No one should have to hear news like this in such a graphically public way.
Let’s Review-The Brightest Star in the Sky
by on March 3rd, 2010
filed under Book Review
Have you ever read a book that left you with the overwhelming urge to hug it?
Yeah, me neither.
Until I read Marian Keyes’ The Brightest Star in the Sky.
I sat there, totally alone, late at night, as I closed the book for the last time.
I looked around.
No one was there. Everyone was asleep. But still!!! Hugging a book? Nah, not me. I wasn’t going to do it.
After much scoffing & mental teasing of lame people who hug books… I mean it’s a book for jeepers sake!…I hugged it. <hangs head>
I hugged this book.
Marian Keyes’ writing is really something that defies common story telling. It bends and twists ordinary story telling bounds. It leaves you craving more while simultaneously gifting you with a deep sense of gratitude and completion.
Ms. Keyes has the rare ability to make you think about a book for days… nay, weeks as I did with her book Is Anybody Out There. Her stories have layers. And those layers have layers that are so deeply layered… Cripes, but I’m gushing like a prepubescent Twilight fan!
Welcome to 66 Star Street…
In the top floor flat lives music exec Katie. She spends her days fighting off has-been rock stars and wondering how much cheesecake you’d need to eat yourself to death.
Below her, a pair of muscular Poles share with a streetwise cabbie named Lydia who has a sharp tongue, an even sharper brain but some unexpected soft spots.
On the first floor is Fionn – the gardener who prefers the company of parsnips to people. But he looks like a fairy-tale prince and when he’s offered his own television show, he’s suddenly thrust into the limelight.
And at the bottom of the house live Matt and Maeve, who are Very Much In Love and who stave off despair by doing random acts of kindness.
But a mysterious visitor has just landed at 66 Star Street and big changes are on the way. Old secrets are working their way to the surface, bringing love, tragedy and an unexpected optimism. And life will be different for everyone…
I searched the almighty web for the best possible description for this story or really collection of stories. I found the best one (above) on Marian’s website. Ms. Keyes tells this tale in 3rd person, which is unusual yet the only way to tell it. If you’re a fan, you’ll love this book. If you’ve never read Marian Keyes… where the hell have you been?… I mean, it might take a couple of pages to get into it but trust me, it’s worth the effort. I easily made the metaphysical jump, but then I was raised by two failed Buddhists. For those of you who were not so fortunate, Marian tells this tale so skillfully, so wonderfully comically, you’ll easily make the leap too.
I give Marian Keyes’ The Brightest Star in the Sky two pints of Guinness, a Blarney Stone and two Irish eyes a smilin’. That’s ar fheabhas (‘excellent’ in Gaelic).
Pop on over to my friend Barrie Summy’s blog to check out more wonderful book reviews.
I Got Google Babe
by on February 26th, 2010
filed under On Writing
Adventures in Query Land continue…
It’s a numbers game.
Writers hear that all the time when it comes to querying. Yet I’ve read agent’s blogs and interviews where they talk about being offended when a writer pulls their name off a list & blindly queries them.
I can see their point.
Everyone wants to feel special like they’ve been chosen. I get that. But the fact is, I have met in person only a handful of agents (and even less editors-ya’ll are slippery eels), so if I can’t query you based on a happenstance meeting, how else am I to query you?
I’ll tell you how.
The list of acquiring agents my writer’s group lists (in my case Romance Writers of America). Absolute Write’s Water Cooler. Predators & Editors. AgentQuery.com. I could go on & on….
But. My most important tool in vetting out an agent is Google. Crimenelli but you can find out anything about anyone on Google! There’s no hiding from Google. So let me tell you my wonderful, intelligent, chosen, potential agent… I Googled you (oh yes it’s a verb now!) and I’ve read every blog you’ve guest blogged on, every interview you sat through, every mention of your name, agency name & client names, I follow you on Twitter, Facebook & Myspace. I know what you had for lunch, what your favorite ice cream flavor is (or if you’re lactose intolerant), I even know what color underwear you put on this morning (okay, maybe not that).
In other words, I spent a good deal of time choosing you to query. So when you get my letter or email know that I chose you. I chose you because I thought we would work well together, you would appreciate my work and you could be the one to guide my career to soaring heights of Best Seller-dome.
Feel special.
Stay tuned for more adventures in Query Land.
Queries sent-60
Requests for a partial-2
Requests for a full-1
No’s-19
I’m Hunting Wabbits… I Mean Agents
by on February 22nd, 2010
filed under On Writing
Well I’m in the thick woods of Query Land again, on the hunt for that ever elusive prey- an agent.
This is my second go around. The first time ended with me learning a lot-about postage, what a Tyvek envelope is, the tenuousness of submission guidelines and how to take the word NO without crawling in a hole to die a broken, washed up author who never was.
This time its not so bad. The no’s I mean. Now the waiting… that’s something I’ve never been very good at. God bless the agents who are caught up on their queries, you’ve put me swiftly out of my misery or allowed me take the next step in sending you more of my work.
In my research, I found a few agents who don’t respond to queries, a general no news is bad news tactic. I’m sorry but I find that incredibly frustrating as an author. I took the time to send you my query, bound, polished, packaged & produced exactly the way you wanted it & you can’t offer me the basic courtesy of a form rejection letter? <<scratches head>> Why not?
Some authors don’t like form letter rejections. Not me. I got a really lovely one just today sent via the agent’s assistant-
Dear Ms. Yarnall-
Thank you for querying (The Agency). Ms. (Agent) has reviewed your query and asked me to pass along her response. Please find it below.
I wish you the best.
Sincerely,
The Assistant to The Agent
**Message from The Agent**
Dear Ms. Yarnall,
Thank you so much for giving (The Agency) a chance to consider your work. While I found your query intriguing I’m afraid I wasn’t sufficiently enthusiastic to ask for more at this time.
As I’m sure you know, publishing is a subjective business and I’m sure there’s another agent out there better suited to your work.
I wish you the best of luck and the greatest success.
Sincerely,
The Agent
Wasn’t that nice? What a terrific letter. And The Assistant… so sweet. Really, how could I be mad or sad with lovely letters like these? I was impressed by the time and care taken by The Agent and her Assistant to this nobody-on-her-way-to-becoming-somebody-author. If I’m ever in a place where I can pick and choose my agent, this agent will be at the top of the list.
Stay tuned for more adventures in Query Land.
Queries sent-60
Requests for a partial-2
Requests for a full-1
No’s-16
Let’s Review-Deeper Than the Dead
by on February 3rd, 2010
filed under Book Review
In 1985 Michael Jackson bought The Beatles song catalog, New Coke bombed, the first cell phone call was made , a gallon of gas was $1.09 and a movie ticket was $2.75. 1985 is also the setting for Tami Hoag’s first novel after a two year hiatus.
Can you smell the Bartles & James wine coolers? Are your eyes stinging from the perm solution & Aqua-net? Are your shoulders properly padded? 
Then you’re ready for this review.
California, 1985. Three children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre, shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn’t yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer’s escalating activity.
Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He’s using a new technique-profiling-to develop a theory of the case, a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own.
As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves-or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath.
Tami Hoag juggles the multiple points of view deftly with short chapters which also keeps the action moving. Working in the children’s point of views gives the reader interesting insight. Children often feel and notice things adults don’t, including who the good guys are and who are not. And in this book the bad guy is really bad. Today we take DNA evidence and criminal profiling for granted but in 1985 these were new, untested tools for law enforcement. Police work has come a long way in the last 25 years. It must have been a challenge to not sneak in one single text message, email or cell phone call (remember rotary phones?) while writing this book.
I’m glad you’re back Tami. Please don’t make us wait another two years for your next book. I give Tami Hoag’s Deeper Than the Dead a Yuppie, a Preppie, 2 Coreys (Feldman & Haim) and a silver DeLorean.
Pop on over to my friend Barrie Summy’s blog to check out more wonderful book reviews.
Disclosure- Barrie received this book from the publisher. She put the call out for a volunteer to read & possibly review it. My review policy is that I only review books I like, books I can recommend to other readers. Being a huge fan of Tami Hoag’s I would have bought and read this book anyway. I posted this review only because I liked the book and not because it was given to me.
