Book Spotlight Giveaway! Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde

I have sooooo many books! The Book Spotlight Giveaway feature that I post every Saturday is a way for me to clear my shelves and to share some of the many books I have. This feature is a way for my to cull my collection and to give someone else the opportunity to enjoy these treasures.

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

I read Waiting for Fitz earlier this year and loved it. You can read my thoughts here.

Waiting for Fitz

Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde
Hardcover, 256 pages
Published March 5th 2019 by Shadow Mountain

Addie loves nothing more than curling up on the couch with her dog, Duck, and watching The Great British Baking Show with her mom. It’s one of the few things that can help her relax when her OCD kicks into overdrive. She counts everything. All the time. She can’t stop. Rituals and rhythms. It’s exhausting.

When Fitz was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he named the voices in his head after famous country singers. The adolescent psychiatric ward at Seattle Regional Hospital isn’t exactly the ideal place to meet your soul mate, but when Addie meets Fitz, they immediately connect over their shared love of words, appreciate each other’s quick wit, and wish they could both make more sense of their lives.

Fitz is haunted by the voices in his head and often doesn't know what is real. But he feels if he can convince Addie to help him escape the psych ward and everything will be okay. If not, he risks falling into a downward spiral that may keep him in the hospital indefinitely.

Waiting for Fitz is a story about life and love, forgiveness and courage, and what’s necessary to let go and learning what is truly worth waiting for.

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About the author

Spencer Hyde spent three years of his high school experience visiting Johns Hopkins for severe OCD. He feels particularly suited to write Waiting for Fitz because he’s lived through his protagonists’ obsessions.

Spencer worked at a therapeutic boarding school before earning his MFA in Utah and his PhD in Texas, specializing in fiction. He wrote Waiting for Fitz while working as a Teaching Fellow in Denton, Texas. He is currently an assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University.

Stories have a way of changing lives—Spencer learned that the first time he picked up a Tom Stoppard play and realized that words can nudge the world and build bridges to hope.

Spencer and his wife, Brittany, are the parents of four children. They love to hike, read, watch movies, fly-fish, and bake.

Connect with Spencer

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Amazon

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? March 18, 2019

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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I was born an raised in Nebraska and if you've seen the news, you know they are going through some major flooding right now. Fremont, where we lived after we were married and where we still have family, is completely landlocked with no way in or out. The videos and pictures are devastating. I can't even imagine and the clean up and recovery from this is astronomical to think about. #NebraskaStrong

On a more positive note, we finally were able to have the grandkiddos this weekend for a sleepover. Their parents were sooooo appreciative and asked when we could take them again. 😍😍 

The sun is out and our massive snow piles are starting to melt. I am so ready for the weather to get nice so I can get out on my patio. That's my favorite place to read, when I can. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

Last Summer: A Novel
by Kerry Lonsdale
Pub date 7/9

I am loving this one! I can't wait for you to read it.


Some Luck
(Last Hundred Years: A Family Saga #1)
by Jane Smiley
This is our book club read this month.

The Beantown Girls

by Jane Healey

(audio-book)

What I recently finished

The Promise of Christmas : a small town story 
(Home for the Holidays #1)
by Steena Marie
A wonderful start to a new series. It's so good!

Waiting for Fitz
by Spencer Hyde

Read my thoughts here.

What I am going to read next

Only One Life: A Novel
by Ashley Farley 
I love this author!

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde ~ My Thoughts #WaitingForFitz

Waiting for Fitz

Waiting for Fitz by Spencer Hyde
Print and ebook, 256 pages
Published March 5th 2019 by Shadow Mountain

Addie loves nothing more than curling up on the couch with her dog, Duck, and watching The Great British Baking Show with her mom. It’s one of the few things that can help her relax when her OCD kicks into overdrive. She counts everything. All the time. She can’t stop. Rituals and rhythms. It’s exhausting.

When Fitz was diagnosed with schizophrenia, he named the voices in his head after famous country singers. The adolescent psychiatric ward at Seattle Regional Hospital isn’t exactly the ideal place to meet your soul mate, but when Addie meets Fitz, they immediately connect over their shared love of words, appreciate each other’s quick wit, and wish they could both make more sense of their lives.

Fitz is haunted by the voices in his head and often doesn't know what is real. But he feels if he can convince Addie to help him escape the psych ward and everything will be okay. If not, he risks falling into a downward spiral that may keep him in the hospital indefinitely.

Waiting for Fitz is a story about life and love, forgiveness and courage, and what’s necessary to let go and learning what is truly worth waiting for.

     

My thoughts about Waiting for Fitz ~~

(I love to note the first lines of the books I'm reading. First lines can really grab a reader's attention and I love seeing where the author takes the reader after their first lines.)

First line—"My life took off the comedy mask and put on the tragedy mask at the end of my seventeenth year."

First of all, I just need to say that this cover is amazing. It’s one that you just need to look at for awhile to absorb all that’s there. So beautiful!

Waiting for Fitz is a heart-breaking, realistic look at mental illness, while at the same time being a heart-warming, beautiful love story—a story of two young people accepting one another just the way they are.

Addie and Fitz have an instant connection when they first meet each other in the mental hospital. She’s there for treatment of her OCD and he for schizophrenia. They form a close friendship and a tight bond—a bond that eventually leads to an escape plan. Will leaving the hospital heal them, or make them spiral downward and out of control?

The fact that the author himself was hospitalized for his own OCD gives Waiting for Fitz an authentic feel for the ups and downs of mental illness and will open readers’ eyes to this somewhat mysterious world. It is a wonderful story that should be read by all. 

I received a copy of Waiting for Fitz from Shadow Mountain Publishing in exchange for my honest review.

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About the author

Spencer Hyde spent three years of his high school experience visiting Johns Hopkins for severe OCD. He feels particularly suited to write Waiting for Fitz because he’s lived through his protagonists’ obsessions.

Spencer worked at a therapeutic boarding school before earning his MFA in Utah and his PhD in Texas, specializing in fiction. He wrote Waiting for Fitz while working as a Teaching Fellow in Denton, Texas. He is currently an assistant professor of English at Brigham Young University.

Stories have a way of changing lives—Spencer learned that the first time he picked up a Tom Stoppard play and realized that words can nudge the world and build bridges to hope.

Spencer and his wife, Brittany, are the parents of four children. They love to hike, read, watch movies, fly-fish, and bake.

Connect with Spencer

Website | Goodreads | Twitter | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? March 11, 2019

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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Again, more snow and bad weather this past weekend. It snowed all day Saturday, with rain to start it off, so now we have ice everywhere. The good news is, it's warming up so hopefully we've seen the end of the snow. We're hoping the weather is nice enough to get a couple of the out-of-town grands for an overnight this weekend. Fingers crossed! 

Book-wise, we are getting new carpet in the living room, which means that pretty much everything has to removed before the carpet layers come. So..... I spend Sunday taking my precious books off of the bookshelves in that room. It is so sad to see them piled on the floor in the dining room. It will be nice to have the new carpet.... and to get my books back where they belong. 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

Waiting for Fitz
by Spencer Hyde
My thoughts will be posted on Friday.

The Beantown Girls
by Jane Healey
(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Night Beach
(The Seaside Saga #8)
by Joanne DeMaio 

My thoughts will be posted on Thursday. 

Family Secrets
(Whispering Pines Mystery #1)
by Shawn McGuire 

(audio-book)

The Things We Cannot Say
by Kelly Rimmer 

Pub date 3/19

What I am going to read next

Last Summer: A Novel
by Kerry Lonsdale
Pub date 7/9
I'm so excited to start this one!!

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? March 4, 2019

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? is a place to meet up and share what you have been, are and about to be reading over the week. It's an opportunity to visit other blogs and to comment on their reads. And ... you can add to that ever growing TBR pile! So welcome everyone. This meme started with J Kaye's Blog and then was taken up by Sheila from Book Journey. Sheila then passed it on to Kathryn at the Book Date. And here we are!

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I feel like a broken record—more snow, more cold. And it looks like we have another storm, with more snow, coming this weekend. I'm starting to feel really home-bound. It's good for my reading life though, so I guess I shouldn't complain but I miss seeing my family. 

Hubby is actually building an igloo for the grandkids off of the patio with the huge pile of snow we have out there. He thinks they'll have fun in it. I'm not really a cold weather, outdoorsy type so it just looks COLD to me. How about you—love or hate the cold and snow? 

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you all have a good week. Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

The Things We Cannot Say
by Kelly Rimmer 

Pub date 3/19


Family Secrets
(Whispering Pines Mystery #1)
by Shawn McGuire 

(audio-book)

What I recently finished

Emily, Gone

by Bette Lee Crosby

Pub date 4/30

Random Acts of Kindness
by Dete Meserve and Rachel Greco
Pub date 3/26
Dete posts uplifting, positive, and kind acts on her Facebook page Random Acts of Kindness Book.

Ripper

by Isabel Allende 
(audio-book)
Check out my giveaway for a chance to win this one!

The Girl on the Train
by Paula Hawkins

What I am going to read next

Waiting for Fitz
by Spencer Hyde
Pub date 3/5

I really love my reading life!

What are you reading this week?

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Be sure to check the sidebar for all of my current giveaways!