The Book Bag

Sunday, November 8, 2020

Book Blitz~ It’s Raining Men by Rich Amooi ~ Q&A and #Giveaway! #ItsRainingMen

It's Raining Men

It’s Raining Men by Rich Amooi
Publication date: November 8th 2020
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Romance

On a dare, Faith Daniels tosses a coin into the infamous “Fountain of Love” and wishes for the perfect man, laughing it off as the dumbest thing she’s ever done. Like magic, her quiet life turns upside-down when men begin to appear out of nowhere. There’s a doctor, a lawyer, a firefighter, and a swimwear model, for starters. All of them are kind, generous, successful, and drop-dead gorgeous. All of them are interested in Faith. But who is Mr. Right?

A feel-good romance novel about love, friendship, and living life to the fullest!

Goodreads | Amazon

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Q&A

Do you have a guilty pleasure? Dark chocolate almonds. Five to six each day after lunch.

Who was your first celebrity crush? Farrah Fawcett. I had a poster of her up in my shag-carpeted fort in the rafters of the garage. I even got in a fight with my brother one day when I caught him making out with the poster. I tried to clean it with Windex and ended up erasing Farrah’s mouth.

First car? Lime green 1970 Chevy Nova with polyester seats that stuck to my legs in the summer.

Is there an idea out there that you wish you’d thought of?

Absolutely. These two lines from the movie Airplane!

“Surely, you can’t be serious.”

“I am serious—and don’t call me Shirley.”

Biggest fear? Living without my wife.

What inspires your book ideas?

This may sound crazy but some of my ideas start with just a title. The idea for my fourth novel came to me while in line at Starbucks. A woman reached over and smacked her husband on the arm and said, “Quit being so crotchety.” I smiled and thought Mr. Crotchety would make a great title for a book. Then I brainstormed the story and wrote it.

Caramel, kettle, cheese or regular popcorn? Yes, please.

What’s on your pizza? Pineapple and garlic.

Biggest pet peeve? People who drive fast through residential neighborhoods.

Nickname as a kid? Stitches. Let’s just say I was on a first name basis with the staff at the emergency department.

First author hero? Dr. Seuss

Favorite ’80s artist? Hall & Oates.

Favorite dessert? Betty Crocker super moist yellow cake with chocolate frosting.

What did you want to be when you grew up? A DJ on the radio. I ended up working at some of the top radio stations in Silicon Valley for over thirty-three years. Then my wife encouraged me to take a few creative writing classes at Stanford and here I am writing romantic comedies!

If you were a Disney princess, which one would you be? Did you really just ask me that? Can’t you see how much testosterone I have? It’s just oozing out my pores. I should be offended! I really should be! But I’m not. The answer is Cinderella.

About the author

Rich Amooi is a Taleflick Discovery Winner, Readers' Favorite Gold Medal Recipient, Holt Medallion Finalist, and the Amazon Bestselling author of 15 romantic comedies, including It's Not PMS, It's You, Dying to Meet You, There's Something About a Cowboy, and Madam Love, Actually. Over 500,000 downloads from readers around the world.

A former radio personality and wedding DJ, Rich now writes romantic comedies full-time in San Diego, California, and is happily married to a kiss monster imported from Spain. Rich believes in public displays of affection, silliness, infinite possibilities, donuts, gratitude, laughter, and happily ever after.

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Saturday, November 7, 2020

Book Spotlight #Giveaway! The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble #TheBeachAtPaintersCove

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.

I read this ARC of The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble when it came out in 2017 and loved it. You can read my thoughts here.

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Good luck and be sure to stop back next week!

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The Beach at Painter's Cove

The Beach at Painter's Cove by Shelley Noble

ARC, 432 pages

Published June 13th 2017 by William Morrow Paperbacks

From the New York Times bestselling author of Whisper Beach comes another heartwarming story of four generations of women who reunite in their crumbling family mansion by the sea for a dramatic summer filled with love, family, secrets and sisterhood.

The Whitaker family’s Connecticut mansion, Muses by the Sea, has always been a haven for artists, a hotbed of creativity, extravagances, and the occasional scandal. Art patrons for generations, the Whitakers supported strangers but drained the life out of each other. Now, after being estranged for years, four generations of Whitaker women find themselves once again at The Muses.

Leo, the Whitaker matriarch, lives in the rambling mansion crammed with artwork and junk. She plans to stay there until she joins her husband Wes on the knoll overlooking the cove and meadow where they first met. Her sister-in-law Fae, the town eccentric, is desperate to keep a secret she has been hiding for years.

Jillian, is a jet setting actress, down on her luck, and has run out of men to support her. She thinks selling The Muses will make life easier for her mother, Leo, and Fae by moving them into assisted living. The sale will also bring her the funds to get herself back on top.

Issy, Jillian’s daughter, has a successful life as a museum exhibit designer that takes her around the world. But the Muses and her grandmother are the only family she’s known and when her sister leaves her own children with Leo, Issy knows she has to step in to help.

Steph, is only twelve-years-old and desperately needs someone to fire her imagination and bring her out of her shell. What she begins to discover at the Muses could change the course of her future.

As Issy martials the family together to restore the mansion and catalogue the massive art collection, a surprising thing happens. Despite storms and moonlight dancing, diva attacks and cat fights, trips to the beach and flights of fancy, these four generations of erratic, dramatic women may just find a way to save the Muses and reunite their family.

About the author

Shelley Noble is a multi published fiction author whose books have been translated into seven languages. She writes women’s fiction as Shelley Noble and is also the author of several amateur sleuth mystery series, written as Shelley Freydont.

A former professional dancer and choreographer, she most recently worked on the films, Mona Lisa Smile and The Game Plan. She also consults on various dance and theatre projects, most recently the world premiere of a full length Tom Sawyer ballet commissioned by Kansas City Ballet.

Shelley is a member of Sisters-in-Crime, Mystery Writers of America, Romance Writers of America, and Liberty States Fiction Writers.

She lives near the New Jersey shore. In her spare time she loves to discover new beaches and indulge her passion for lighthouses and boardwalks with vintage carousels. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Shelley

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads

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Thursday, November 5, 2020

Evening in the Yellow Wood by Laura Kemp ~ My Thoughts #EveningInTheYellowWood

Evening in the Yellow Wood

Evening in the Yellow Wood by Laura Kemp

Print & ebook, 281 pages

Published December 12th 2018 by Pandamoon Publishing

Abandoned by an eccentric father on the eve of her twelfth birthday, Justine Cook has lived with her fair share of unanswered questions. Now, ten years later she leaves her life in southern Michigan and heads north to the mysterious town of Lantern Creek after seeing his picture in a local newspaper. Once there, she discovers her father had been leading a double life and meets the autistic brother she never knew—a young man who is mute but able to read her mind.

When a local girl who looks like Justine is mysteriously murdered, she joins forces with sheriff's deputy Dylan Locke to capture the killer. But the more they dig for clues to the past, the closer they come to discovering a secret someone will kill to protect. Justine begins to show signs of supernatural power and eventually must stop an immortal enemy that has hunted her family for generations.

My thoughts about Evening in the Yellow Wood ~~

(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 lines—"It was Tuesday afternoon, the sun hot on my pink shoulders as I sat dangling my feet in the shallow end of the community pool."

I didn't know much about this story going in. I originally was drawn to the cover—those yellow leaves were exactly what I was seeing this fall on my walks every day. They really made me think about this book... and then I started reading it.

I immediately fell in love with Laura's writing style. The words flowed easily off of the page into my head and I found myself becoming completely immersed in Justine's world. And then things started getting creepy and weird, but trust me, it was in a totally good way. It's just that since I really didn't know much about the story, it kind of caught me off guard. But the surprises in the story-line were great and kept me captivated.

I read this during the week of Halloween and let me tell you, that was the perfect time to read a book like this. Spooky, creepy, strange characters and happenings—yep, it had it all!

I loved this book and loved the character of Justine and the whole story surrounding her. This is Laura Kemp's debut novel and I am so excited to see what else she has in store for her readers!

I won a copy of Evening in the Yellow Wood from the author and this is my honest opinion.

And happy news!! Book two, Snow in Summer, is out on November 18th so I don't have to wait long to go back to this exciting world and see how Justine is doing!

It’s been a year since Justine Cook defeated an immortal enemy that had hunted her family for generations. Settling into a peaceful life with her boyfriend in the small town of Lantern Creek, Michigan, she hopes to escape the events of the summer before. But the past won’t let go so easily.

When a woman named Amanda Bennett survives a fall from a cliff on Mackinac Island, it triggers a series of events that reawakens the past. Soon Justine and her brother Adam are pulled into a mystery that threatens to destroy the new life they have worked so hard to create. As people begin to die- people only Amanda Bennett can see- Justine must race against time to destroy a dark power she thought she had buried the summer before. ~ Amazon

About the author

Laura is a teacher who loves to write about her home state of Michigan. She has a B.A. in Creative Writing from Western Michigan University where she studied under Stuart Dybek, and has had her short fiction and poetry published in Chicken Soup for the Soul, Word Riot, Tonopalah Review, SaLit and SLAB: Sound and Literary Art Book. “The Pursuit of Happiness,” – a short story she wrote while at WMU, was chosen as a finalist in the Trial Balloon Fiction Contest.

When not writing, Laura enjoys musical theatre, hiking, swimming, reading and performing with her Celtic band- Si Bhaeg Si Mohr. She also enjoys spending time with her husband and children as well as her dog, two hamsters, two gerbils, ten chickens, two horses and eight (and counting) cats.

Laura loves to connect with readers on her blog: laurakemp.author@blogspot.com (Sea Legs on Land), as well as on Facebook, Twitter (@LKempWrites) and Instagram. (lkempwrites)

Evening in the Yellow Wood recently received a Bronze Medal in the Readers' Favorite annual book contest, and will be featured in the 2019 Miami Book Fair. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Laura

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

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Monday, November 2, 2020

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult ~ My Thoughts #TheBookOfTwoWays

The Book of Two Ways

The Book of Two Ways by Jodi Picoult

Print & ebook, 416 pages

Published September 22nd 2020 by Ballantine

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a riveting novel about the choices that change the course of our lives.

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She's on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband, but a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, her beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, where she helps ease the transition between life and death for patients in hospice.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a job she once studied for, but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation wherever they want to go. The obvious option for Dawn is to continue down the path she is on and go home to her family. The other is to return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways--the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn's two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried beside them. Dawn must confront the questions she's never truly asked: What does a life well-lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices...or do our choices make us? And who would you be, if you hadn't turned out to be the person you are right now?

My thoughts about The Book of Two Ways ~~

(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 lines—"My calendar is full of dead people."

Picoult's books are sometimes hit-or-miss with me. I can't say I 'loved' The Book of Two Ways but I did really like the story-line. What was a miss for me was the detail that she went into about Egyptology—explaining all about the history of the dig sites, the hieroglyphics, and all those Egyptian people from the past. I understand that this is a deep interest for her, but I felt it really slowed the story down.

Aside from all that detail, I really liked the story-line and the characters and cared about the situations that they found themselves in. I found myself skipping over the history lessons to spend more time with Dawn in her world. This book would be perfect anyone who has an interest in Egyptology and loves Picoult's stories—the best of both worlds!

I received a copy of The Book of Two Ways from NetGalley and this is my honest opinion.

About the author

Jodi Picoult is the author of twenty-six novels, including the #1 New York Times bestsellers Small Great Things, A Spark of Light, Leaving Time, The Storyteller, Lone Wolf, Between the Lines, Sing You Home, House Rules, Handle with Care, Change of Heart, Nineteen Minutes, and My Sister’s Keeper. She lives in New Hampshire with her husband and three children. ~ Goodreads

Connect with Jodi

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter

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It's Monday! What Are You Reading? November 2, 2020

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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Take care. Stay safe and healthy everyone.

And remember to wash those hands!!

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

Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading