Review for American Princess: A Novel of First Daughter Alice Roosevelt by Stephanie Marie Thornton

Paperback, 448 pages

Published March 12th 2019 by Berkley Books

A sweeping novel from renowned author Stephanie Marie Thornton...

Alice may be the president's daughter, but she's nobody's darling. As bold as her signature color Alice Blue, the gum-chewing, cigarette-smoking, poker-playing First Daughter discovers that the only way for a woman to stand out in Washington is to make waves--oceans of them. With the canny sophistication of the savviest politician on the Hill, Alice uses her celebrity to her advantage, testing the limits of her power and the seductive thrill of political entanglements.

But Washington, DC is rife with heartaches and betrayals, and when Alice falls hard for a smooth-talking congressman it will take everything this rebel has to emerge triumphant and claim her place as an American icon. As Alice soldiers through the devastation of two world wars and brazens out a cutting feud with her famous Roosevelt cousins, it's no wonder everyone in the capital refers to her as the Other Washington Monument--and Alice intends to outlast them all.

My Thoughts…

With each historical fiction I read I find myself looking for more.   Stephanie Thornton has pulled me deeper into the historical world and I am loving all that I am learning about our history.     Alice Roosevelt is someone who I knew very little about but I now find myself looking her up online and learning more about her. 

 I love how even though the world frowned on Alice’s way of life.   She lived life to the fullest and didn’t really worry about what the rest of the world would think.    She used her knowledge of politics to further her causes and to make political pushes for a better world.    Her determination and ability to hold her own in almost any situation made her a force to be reckoned with both personally and politically.    

American Princess tells the story of Alice but it also gives us a glimpse into life during the Roosevelt presidency and the world during that time.    I liked that it wasn’t just set in the United States but also throughout the rest of the world bringing to the book a broader storyline.     I learned so much about the world, the United States, and the presidency.

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Cover Reveal & Giveaway for Sour by Jennifer Woodhull

Today we have the cover reveal of SOUR by Jennifer Woodhull! Check it out and grab your copy now!

Title: SOUR

Author: Jennifer Woodhull

Genre: Romantic Comedy

Release Date: June 4^th

About SOUR:

Tall, handsome, and eternally optimistic Noah has dated a string of gorgeous women. His best friend Elle has outlasted them all. Of course, he has no idea she's been in love with him for years. Why would he? It's not like she's going to tell him. After all, she's short and awkward, and as he's fond of reminding her, has a sour disposition.   When Elle takes off on her annual ten-day vacation with her family, Noah comes to a startling realization. She's the woman who is by his side day in and day out, whose office is across the hall, and whose house is around the corner. She has called him on his shit when he gets too cocky, and he has held her in her arms when her heart was broken. Absence must make the heart grow fonder because while she's in Germany with her parents, he realizes that everything he has ever wanted was right there all along. Now he's on a mission to make her realize that romance won't ruin their friendship, but platonic friendship is ruining their relationship.

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Exclusive Excerpt:

I walk down the hall, and turn the corner into my room to find, to my shock and dismay, a wall of dripping wet muscle standing at the foot of my bed, toweling himself off. I gasp, clutching my palm to the bare spot on my chest between the cups of my bra—thankfully, a t-shirt model that offers at least a little coverage. Hearing me, he turns, holding the towel just so that the most critical information is unavailable. “Hey, you’re home!” Noah takes three long strides toward me and leans forward to hug me. I put my palm out and it lands firmly in the middle of his perfect, muscular chest. “You’re naked! You can’t hug me naked! It’s weird!” I exclaim. “You’re naked too!” He argues, wrapping the towel around his waist and folding it into a not-very-secure-looking knot at the side. I silently will the knot to fail and expose the only bit of Noah Adler that I’ve never seen, but sadly I still have not developed telekinetic powers, so nothing happens. “There, better?” He asks, palms up. He doesn’t give me a chance to answer and instead wraps thick, muscular forearms and defined biceps around me as he pulls me into his sculpted torso. “I missed you!” He says, laying his cheek against the top of my head. I wrap my arms around his midsection and look up as I give him a squeeze, carefully jutting my ass out so my belly doesn’t make contact with what I imagine is a sizable and delicious member beneath the towel he’s barely wearing. “I missed you too. You should’ve come with us,” I say, closing my eyes as I do a happy dance on the inside because he came to see me after all. “I’m not a Bailey. No Bailey family adventures for me,” he laughs. “But I am going to need you to tell me every detail, Ariel.” I squirm away from him. “Well, that didn’t take long. I’m over missing you now.”  

About the Author:

 We all need moments of escape. With all the demands on us day in and day out, we each need something just for ourselves. Perhaps nothing provides a private moment - a brief respite from every day - like escaping into a great story. When you pick up one of my books I hope you find that place that you can escape to. Explore the streets of Paris with new heroines or fly around the world to reclaim your lost love with a favorite hero. Whether it's the romance that takes your breath away or those climactic encounters that make your pulse race, I hope you find that solitary moment of enjoyment while lost in one of my stories.

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Release Blitz & Giveaway for PAIN AND REDEMPTION by Kat Kenyon

Title: Pain & Redemption (Blood & Iron Warriors: Book 2) 

Author: Kat Kenyon 

Genre: College Sports Romance 

Release Date: April 25, 2019 

Cover Designer: Shanoff Designs 

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC. 

How do you fix something that's broken? In the moment she walked away, Tyler understood what he should have done. He's desperate and willing to do anything for her, even let her go. Rayne loves him, but knows it takes more than sorry to heal, and she's dealing with a far darker threat than a broken heart. Not everyone deserves a second chance, but some loves do. Notice: Pain and Redemption is for readers over the age of 18. Be aware that this book is the second in a series about the same couple. The story includes sexually explicit scenes, adult language, and issues related to abuse, violence, and sexual assault. Please keep this in mind as you purchase for yourself or others.

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Kat graduated from Cleveland-Marshall and Oregon State, go Beavers! After first attended University of Oregon. Go Ducks! As a political science major. Lord help us.

As a child, she constantly had her face buried in a book, and loved mythology, religion, politics, and a plethora of other areas depending on her mood. Not much has changed.

Everything is interesting and everything informs her writing. When not fighting to get her arm back from her cat Akasha, or trying to figure out what her talented hubby is up to now, she lives in Starbucks, depending on her rewards card.

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Review for THE GREAT PRETENDERS by Laura Kalpakian

Outraged by her grandfather's illicit affair with Empire Pictures’ latest femme fatale, Roxanne Granville forsakes her position as Hollywood royalty and rejects the man who raised her, determined to strike out on her own. Backed by little more than the stubborn grit she inherited from her beloved grandmother, Roxanne sets up shop as a low-budget film agent for budding screenwriters.

When an old friend, exiled from Hollywood and Empire Pictures by her grandfather for being a Communist sympathizer, begs for her help, Roxanne decides to right the wrongs committed by her family by selling his script under someone else’s name. After all, it’s what her grandmother would have wanted.

Soon Roxanne finds herself at the helm of a lucrative business, having landed her secret clients a handful of major studio deals through willing front men. Her newfound freedom leads her to a passionate relationship with Terrence Dexter, an African American journalist and jazz aficionado. But Hollywood is ruthless when it senses a scandal. How long will it take before all of Roxanne's success comes crumbling down?

My Thoughts…

Picture a time when Reds (communists) are being blackballed, colored and whites are not allowed to date, and television is just starting to come into its own.   That is the timing of The Great Pretenders.    Roxanne is the granddaughter of the head of a movie studio, the daughter of a big-time actor and has lived a privileged life without much thought to how she got there.   

I love, love, love how strong Roxanne is.    She stands up to her grandfather, she starts making waves in the movie world with her scripts and then has a relationship that will never be accepted in California.   As she stands up for those that Hollywood has pushed aside, she proves that she has a strength that will get her where she wants to go and that she has the connections to make things happen.     She knows that she has to trust people to help her along, keep her secrets, and make things happen but mostly it is all on her own strength and will power.    

The names mentioned throughout this book, the movies mentioned, the television shows named are all iconic names.   They bring to life the timing of the book, the way life was at the time, and how the world worked in a time that maybe isn’t quite so different from the time we live in now.   While it was decades ago, there are plenty of similarities that I saw while reading this book and it opened my eyes to some of the world we live in.  

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About the author

Laura Kalpakian has won a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship, a Pushcart Prize, the Pacific Northwest Booksellers’ Award (twice), the Anahid Award for an American writer of Armenian descent, the PEN West Award, and the Stand International Short Fiction Competition. She has had residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, the Montalvo Center for the Arts, and Hawthornden Castle in Scotland. She is the author of multiple novels and over a hundred stories published in collections, anthologies, literary journals and magazines in the U.S. and the U.K. A native of California, Laura lives in the Pacific Northwest.

Review for The Missing Years by Lexie Elliott

Expected publication: April 23rd 2019 by Berkley

An eerie, old Scottish manor in the middle of nowhere that’s now hers.

Ailsa Calder has inherited half of a house. The other half belongs to a man who disappeared without a trace twenty-seven years ago—her father.

Leaving London behind to settle the inheritance from her mother’s estate, Ailsa returns to her childhood home, nestled amongst the craggy peaks of the Scottish Highlands, joined by the half-sister who’s almost a stranger to her.

Ailsa can’t escape the claustrophobic feeling that the house itself is watching her—as if her past hungers to consume her. She also can’t ignore how the neighbourhood animals refuse to set one foot within the gates of the garden.

When the first nighttime intruder shows up, Ailsa fears that the manor’s careless rugged beauty could cost her everything.

My Thoughts…

Ailsa Calder has invited her sister to live with her.   I loved that she opened her heart and her home to a sister that she hasn’t had a good relationship with for quite some time.   Things start happening when they move into the house that is in the middle of nowhere.     These things only seem to happen to Ailsa and she isn’t sure if she is going crazy or if she someone is trying to chase her away from the house she just inherited.    I wondered if something was haunting the house, was someone setting it up to scare Ailsa away, what was going on.   

The writing was good, it was not a quick read.   I found it easy to put the book down and walk away but I was always pulled back to picking it up.    The characters were not easy to connect with, I think there was too much history that wasn’t told between them to be able to connect with them.   Both sisters seemed to keep their guard up and keep their hearts protected. 

I was excited to see how it would all come together.   The ending surprised me, yet looking back I can see how it ended as it did.    Overall, I enjoyed the story.    I liked the setting, and the characters kept it all interesting. 

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Release Blitz & Giveaway for ONLY ONE LIFE by Ashley Farley

Title: Only One Life 

Author: Ashley Farley 

Genre: Womens Fiction 

Release Date:  April 23, 2019 

Cover Designer: Lake Union 

Hosted by: Buoni Amici Press, LLC. 

A reunion between an estranged mother and daughter opens a world of secrets in a poignant novel by the bestselling author of Magnolia Nights.

Julia Martin grew up wealthy, but it wasn’t until she met her husband, Jack, that she knew true happiness. He made her feel worthy and loved. Their marriage was also an escape from her sister’s bullying, her father’s scrutiny, and her chilly and enigmatic mother. But when tragedy strikes on the night she gives birth, Julia’s happiness is shattered. She has no choice but to return home to her family’s South Carolina mansion, where the grief and guilt buried in her mother’s past await her.

As a young woman trapped in a bitter marriage, Julia’s mother, Iris, once needed her own means of escape. In Lily, she found a best friend. In the flower shop they opened, she discovered independence. Then came a transgression—unforgivable, unforgettable, and unresolved—that changed Iris’s life forever.

Now, in Iris’s most desperate hour, her only hope is to regain the trust of the daughter she loves—and to share the secrets of the heart that could rebuild a family’s broken bonds.

Ashley Farley is a writeaholic, exercise junkie, photography enthusiast. The author of the bestselling Sweeney Sisters Series, Ashley writes books about women for women. Her characters are mothers, daughters, sisters, and wives facing real-life issues. Her goal is to keep you turning the pages until the wee hours of the morning. If her story stays with you long after you've read the last word, then she's done her job.

After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote SAVING BEN in honor of Neal, the boy she worshipped, the man she could not save.

Ashley is a wife and mother of two young adult children. While she’s lived in Richmond, Virginia for the past 21 years, a piece of her heart remains in the salty marshes of the South Carolina Lowcountry where she grew up. Through the eyes of her characters, she’s able to experience the moss-draped trees, delectable cuisine, and kind-hearted folks with lazy drawls that make the area so unique.

Ashley loves to hear from her readers.

Feel free to visit her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/ashleywfarley or twitter.com/ashleywfarley.

Visit her website at http://www.ashleyfarley.net

#AshleyFarleyBooks #AshleyFarley #SweenySistersSeries

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