The Book Bag

Monday, August 18, 2025

It's Monday! What Are You Reading? August 18, 2025 #IMWAYR

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

Happy reading!

What I'm currently reading

The September House

by Carissa Orlando

print from my TBR shelves

Published September 2023

Death Row

(Alibis Collection #1)

by Freida McFadden

audio-book borrowed from Amazon

Published June 2025

Finding Emma

(Finding Emma #1)

by Steena Holmes

audiobook gifted from author

Published March 2012

What I recently finished

Where Light Lingers

by Ashley Farley

eARC for review

Pub date ~ September 2

Please Don't Lie

by Christina Baker Kline & Anne Burt

e-book from my TBR shelf

Pub date ~ September 1

Hush

(The Seaside Saga #25)

by Joanne DeMaio

e-book for review

Published August 4, 2025

The Vacation

by Kathryn Croft

audiobook borrowed from Audible

Published July 2025

What I am going to read next

The Road to Yesterday: A Memoir

by Maryellen Donovan

print ARC for review

Pub date ~ September 9

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!

Wednesday, August 13, 2025

Book Blitz! Fake-Off with Fate by Whitney Dineen ! Excerpt and #Giveaway #FakeOffWithFate @XpressoTours @WhitneyDineen

Fake-Off with Fate by Whitney Dineen
(Love in Maple Falls #1)
Publication date: August 13th 2025
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance, Sports

She’s a closet designer for the rich and famous and he’s a broken-hearted captain of a pro-hockey team. Neither of them is looking for love.

Ashlyn

An unexpected trip home to Maple Falls gets even more surprising when I inadvertently become acting mayor.

Add a huge crisis and a smoking hot hockey player, and I’m in over my head before I know it.

I’m only here for a short time, so I will not fall for Mr. Tall, dark, and adorable. I don’t care how helpful and kind he is. Long-distance never works, so the answer is no.

Jamie

I’m sick of the press hounding me about my last relationship, so when the opportunity arose to captain a new hockey team in smalltown Washington, I jumped at it.

Too bad I didn’t ask more questions before moving here, like, “Are there bears, and will they be living in my backyard?”

Then there’s Ashlyn. The last thing I expected was to meet a funny, sassy, and good-hearted woman like her. I swore off love after my last heartbreak, but my heart is acting like it missed the memo.

There’s no way I’m going to pursue her. Unless of course, fate has intervened, and we were meant to be…

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Fake-Off with Fate is a slow-burn, friends to love, fake-dating small town hockey romcom in the Love in Maple Falls series. Add a town conflict, missing mayor, and bear infestation and you will be laughing and cheering your way to a happy ending!

Welcome back to Maple Falls—the small town where hockey players fall in love! This is a multi-author series of seven full-length books that could be read as standalones, but we think you’ll enjoy them best in order.

Goodreads | Amazon | Barnes & Noble

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EXCERPT

The mayor is ten minutes late for our dinner meeting. I figure I’ll give him another five and then I’ll go ahead and order my food to go.

I’m about to signal to the waitress when a very pretty woman wearing jeans and an orange sweater approaches my booth. She’s average height but not at all average looking. Her hair is a touch lighter than classic auburn but it’s not what I’d call red. “Hi there,” she says while sitting down across from me. “I’m Ashlyn.”

Well, this is awkward. I wonder if she thinks I’m her blind date or something. “Jamie Hayes,” I say, expecting her to realize her mistake.

“I know. You’re the captain of the Ice Breakers, right?”

“I’m sorry, do I know you?”

“I doubt it, because I don’t know you.” She takes a sip of the water glass the waitress left for the mayor.

“If you don’t know me, then why are you sitting with me?”

The question seems to startle her because she looks up and stares at me like a deer in the headlights of oncoming traffic. “I forgot you didn’t know that I was meeting you instead of my father.”

“You’re Mayor Thompkins’ daughter?” Holy heck, is the mayor trying to set me up with his daughter? I don’t care how pretty she is, that’s not cool.

“My dad got stuck in a meeting and he asked me to come in his place,” she explains.

“So, you’ve been tasked with trying to talk me into co-chairing Maple Fest?” If I had to guess, I’d say this was intentional manipulation on the mayor’s part. Little does he know I have no problem saying no to an attractive woman.

“I couldn’t care less if you co-chaired Maple Fest,” she says. “But if I were you, I wouldn’t do it. My dad is a lunatic about that event.”

Now I’m super confused. “So, you’re here to tell me all about Maple Falls?”

“Nope,” she says, before turning her menu over to look at it.

“Why are you here then?”

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About the author

Whitney loves to laugh, play with her kids, bake, and eat french fries -- not always in that order.

Whitney is a multi-award-winning author of romcoms, non-fiction humor, and middle reader fiction. Basically, she writes whatever the voices in her head tell her to.

She lives in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with her husband, Jimmy, where they raise children, chickens, and organic vegetables.

Gold Medal winner at the International Readers' Favorite Awards, 2017.

Silver medal winner at the International Readers' Favorite Awards, 2015, 2016.

Finalist RONE Awards, 2016.

Finalist at the IRFA 2016, 2017.

Finalist at the Book Excellence Awards, 2017

Finalist Top Shelf Indie Book Awards, 2017

Connect with Whitney

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | X | Instagram

Fake-Off with Fate Blitz Giveaway

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Tuesday, August 12, 2025

Release Day! Open Bar by Dan Schorr ~ My Thoughts #OpenBar @danschorr @GoSparkPress

Happy Release Day!

Congratulation Dan

on the release today of

Open Bar!

Open Bar by Dan Schorr

Political Fiction, Thriller & Suspense, 336 pages

Published August 12, 2025 by SparkPress

When the longtime abuse by a university’s softball coach of teenagers in its youth summer softball program—and the university’s strategic cover-up of those crimes—comes to light, a community is turned upside down in this drama-filled thriller perfect for fans of Kate Elizabeth Russell and Allison Leotta.

Campus, corporate, and local politics collide when a high-profile sexual misconduct scandal rocks a prominent university.

Serena Stanfield, Mountain Hill University’s human resources director, has just learned that the school’s softball coach has been molesting teenagers in its youth summer softball program for years, and that the university has covered it up from both her and the public. Troy Abernathy, a junior associate at an international investigations firm, is navigating a turbulent, toxic workplace as the company aims to be retained by the university to investigate these sexual assault allegations. Megan Black, a new member of the Mountain Hill City Council, is thrust into the fallout from the national scandal while she simultaneously focuses on securing a presidential commutation for her childhood friend, who is unfairly facing decades in prison after stabbing her abusive husband to death in self-defense.

As additional disturbing details of the coach’s actions are uncovered, Serena, Troy, Megan, and other prominent community figures confront competing interests and unique obstacles while they each pursue different paths toward obtaining justice for the softball program’s sexual abuse survivors—and offer conflicting understandings of what justice would even mean.

My thoughts about Open Bar ~~

(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—"Age doesn't matter. Especially with someone as mature as you."

Open Bar is a timely and compelling look at the way some of our society has evolved. A university scandal to cover up campus sexual assaults eventually separates the good guys from the bad ones, but not before a lot of people become involved, with some ultimately being threatened.

I didn't know a whole lot about this book going into it but I found it to be full of interesting characters, again some good, some not, and a relevant-to-our-time storyline. I learned a lot about the innerworkings of sexual misconduct investigations, with the author's experience in the field being very apparent in the storytelling.

Open Bar is an riveting, eye-opening story that drew me in from the start. I enjoyed it immensely, if it's possible to enjoy a story of this subject matter. Trigger warning: sexual assault. If that won't be an issue, then I recommend Open Bar. It will probably open your eyes a little bit like it did mine.

I received an ARC of Open Bar and this is my honest opinion.

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About the author

Dan Schorr is a sexual misconduct investigator at his firm, Dan Schorr, LLC, and an adjunct professor at Fordham Law School. Previously, he served as a New York sex crimes prosecutor, the Inspector General for the City of Yonkers, and an adjunct law professor with Tsinghua University in Beijing, China. He has been a television legal analyst for Good Morning America, CNN, Fox News Channel, Law & Crime network, and elsewhere.

Schorr lives in Rye Brook, New York with his wife and two children. His debut novel Final Table was the Indie Excellence Awards Winner in Literary Fiction. Open Bar is his second novel. ~ Amazon

Connect with Dan

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Amazon

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Be sure to check the sidebar for my current giveaways!

Monday, August 11, 2025

Book Blitz! Mr. Not Your Savior! by Alina Jacobs ~ Excerpt and #Giveaway #MrNotYourSavior @XpressoTours

Mr. Not Your Savior! by Alina Jacobs
(The Seattle Svenssons, #2)
Publication date: August 5th 2025
Genres: Adult, Comedy, Contemporary, Romance

When your mean boss asks you if you’re ready to admit defeat—and move out of his car…you wonder where you went wrong in life.

Two weeks ago, I was an optimistic office girl with a Pinterest vision board and a dream.

Now? I’m standing in a billionaire’s penthouse office, trying not to throw a donut at his smug, perfect face.

McCarthy Svensson is my new boss-slash-personal tormentor.

Though he thinks he’s my only protector.

He’s wrong. He’s way worse than the merry-go-round of ex fiancés who may or may not be stalking me, including ex-fiancé number one of three, who fakes his death then pops up out of a casket. Alive.

Yes, I have a messy dating life.

I like to think it makes me unique and quirky!

He doesn’t seem to think so.

When he growls, “I’m not helping you until you admit you need me,” I slam a binder against his chest and smile sweetly.

“Pick your fake girlfriend, buddy. Deadline’s midnight.”

He smirks. “As long as she’s nothing like you.”

Cool.

Now all I have to do is convince this ice-cold bastard that I’m exactly what he needs…

No not like that! I’m trying to save his reputation and my job.

And I’m not saving either if I keep letting him finger me in the back seat of his limo…gulp.

Stalkers, hot but toxic bosses, a granny with a flamethrower… This full-length, stand-alone, enemies-to-lovers romantic comedy with all of the crazy laughs and of course the perfect happily ever after!

Goodreads | Amazon

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EXCERPT

I lean over. I might not be pissing on Brock’s grave, but I am going to spit on him. Symbolically, mostly. I don’t want to go to jail for defiling a corpse. Bethany really would fire me then.

But as I lean over, there’s motion.

I’m literally losing it, I think.

His corpse hasn’t just smiled, has it?

“B-B—Brock?” I stammer, then I scream when a cold hand shoots up and grabs my neck.

“Vampire! Help! Zombie!” I slap at him.

Still screaming, I scramble back, tripping over chairs, falling and banging my knees. My dress hem rides up my stress-eating-enhanced thighs as I try to escape that unholy thing in the coffin.

It’s sitting up with cold, lifeless eyes.

“Call the police! Call the army! Help!” I look around wildly for someone with a flamethrower or a gun.

Except… I’m the only one upset. No one is freaked out that Brock has risen from the dead. No one is screaming from fear. Instead, they’re… laughing?

“Oh my god!” Brock is clutching his sides. “Oh my fucking god, your face!”

His friends from the YouTube channel are circling vultures with cameras as everyone howls at me.

“Did you get her falling?” One of the camera men motions to the other.

I grab my skirt. “What the hell? Are you kidding me? This was a prank?”

“I can’t believe you fell for it!” Brock’s laughing hysterically in the casket while I sob on the floor.

My ex leaps out of the coffin and swaggers over to me. “Surprise! I always knew you cared, baby.”

The cameras are in my face as he crouches down in front of me.

“Aww, you’re crying over me. Come here, give me a hug.”

I’m in shock; I don’t know what I’m doing as I let him wrap his arms around me.

My ex leans in to kiss me on the head.

“Hey, man, you’re ruining the shot,” one of the cameramen complains.

“I don’t give a fuck about your fucking bullshit YouTube channel.” A massive arm wraps around my waist, then I’m yanked upright and back.

I cling to McCarthy as he holds me, my legs jelly.

The room is spinning.

I’m going to puke.

I left Brock after he played one too many stupid jokes on me—and now this?

“Why would you do this?” I whimper. “Make me think you’re dead?”

“The content, man.”

“Don’t fucking talk to her.” McCarthy tucks me protectively to his side.

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About the author

I write the kind of books I love—romantic comedies featuring snarly guys with hearts of gold, kick-ass heroines, and a swoon-worthy happily ever after! Also wine. And cupcakes.

When I’m not writing I can be found drinking tea, surrounded by my massive to-be-read pile! So many books...

You can connect with me on social media or find information on my books at my website.

Connect with Alina

Website | Facebook | Goodreads

Bookbub | Instagram | Newsletter