Socially Previewed by Matthew Newell - REVIEW

Once upon a time, I reviewed a book. Imagine that, right? 😏 But seriously, this was a Children's Fiction/Fantasy story by a new-to-me author that I really enjoyed a few years back. Flash forward to 2023, and same said author has a new release out, this time in the adult Fiction genre with a Fantasy type twist as well...and I was lucky enough to be tapped to check it out. Shall we?

Socially Previewed

by

Matthew Newell

9798363229121

Amazon Publishing

About the book...

For some, gossip is an incurable itch. But what if you could access social media from the future? Tweets, TikToks and Instagram pictures about drama yet to even occur? Things yet to be posted?

Lewis mysteriously can do just that - a sudden phenomenon on his phone that he cannot grasp. Before long, the revelations are concerning. Can he ignore someone’s future suicide post? Or his closest friend’s hidden domestic abuse?

This is a story of a reluctant hero, trying to buy back his conscious that he feels he lost. For a man that detests social media, it soon becomes the most important thing in his life.

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I admit, this was different than my usual fare, and the situation considered, out of the box as well.  Imagine seeing the future, but only on social media, in random posts, about things in your immediate area, and sometimes pertaining to you.  It'd be an odd phenomenon, right?  Well, that's the socially charged waters that Lewis is treading and things get rather interesting REALLY fast.  He goes from setting a few things right in his own life interactions to a non-violent Daredevil-esque do-gooder type, who at least half the time, gets it very wrong.  Oh, he means well...he's trying to stop bad things from happening, because his conscience, his moral compass says that if he knows about it and does nothing, he's part of the problem...but factor in the fact that Lewis doesn't even like social media thanks to crazy circumstances some time ago, and the gradual use (and misuse!) is bound to lead to a situation akin to a pot left to boil with the lid tightly on.  Yeah...things build alright, and the crescendo has everyone running for cover, but not quite everyone actually makes it... 😯

Like I said, definitely outside my box reading, but not without its enjoyment.  I can't say I liked Lewis, but I liked that he tried to the best of his abilities.  I can't say I believed it a possible scenario, but the author definitely makes you believe in the world he's created.  I definitely can't condone some of the events that transpire, but Lewis was trying to help...even if instead of preventing things, sometimes he simply changed it up a bit and ended up part of the story.  I was opposed greatly to what happened to Lewis, but it does show the power of social media, the hive mind as it were, to affect people, spread fact AND fiction as fact, and cause joy, but also harm.

So, in the end, to me, this was not simply a story, but a cautionary tale of what can happen when we let the anonymous nature of the internet take control, when we believe everything we see/read online without actual sources or confirmation of fact, when we forget that there are other PEOPLE reading what we say, experiencing what we share, and those can pack a powerful punch.  Online time is fine, heck...you're spending some with me right now, but just remember to balance it with REAL life, time away from the screen, and take things with a grain of salt...even my review.  This is MY experience through the pages...yours might be even better, or perhaps not...but my role in your exposure to it is to present my truth.  Your role...to decide what's next.

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About the author...

Matthew Newell is an author. Born in N. Ireland in 1986 he lived in several countries around the world, before settling in Scotland.

Matthew published his first novel in 2020, the Young Adult fantasy ‘Immies, Glummies & Beenies; A Tale Of Baradoohn.’ The first in a series with the second on it’s way.

He is a self confessed movie geek, and when he’s not writing, he still works full time for the Emergency Services!

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Special thanks to author Matthew Newell for the ebook for review. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, and his future works, seek him out online at your favorite retailers. This title is available now, so grab your copy at your favorite online bookseller.

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!

TLC Book Tours presents... AN INVINCIBLE SUMMER by Mariah Stewart - REVIEW!

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're teaming up with TLC Book Tours and Montlake for a bit of BOOK BUZZ featuring an upcoming release from author Mariah Stewart!  Slated to hit bookstore and virtual shelves this May, it's a perfect way to wile away a summer's day, or a great follow up to a sunny afternoon spent in the great outdoors...in other words, a perfect fit for the reading season.  As for me, I read a good portion of this one outside, while enjoying the unseasonably cool weather...but when combined with the gorgeous sunshine, it was too good to miss.  So, find your favorite reading spot, and prepare to indulge as we take a look between the pages of today's blog tour guest and book of choice...

An Invincible Summer

by

Mariah Stewart

9781542025362

Montlake

About the book...

It was a lifetime ago that recently widowed Maggie Flynn was in Wyndham Beach. Now, on the occasion of her fortieth high school reunion, she returns to her hometown on the Massachusetts coast, picking up right where she left off with dear friends Lydia and Emma. But seeing Brett Crawford again stirs other emotions. Once, they were the town’s golden couple destined for one another. He shared Maggie’s dreams—and eventually, a shattering secret that drove them apart.

Buying her old family home and resettling in Wyndham Beach means a chance to start over for Maggie and her two daughters, but it also means facing her rekindled feelings for her first love and finally confronting—and embracing—the past in ways she never thought possible. Maggie won’t be alone. With her family and friends around her, she can weather this stormy turning point in her life and open her heart to the future. As for that dream shared and lost years ago? If Maggie can forgive herself, it still might come true.

 

Amazon | Books-A-Million | Barnes & Noble

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OH my.  

This book was simply GORGEOUS!  It took its time and meandered through a lifetime of memories and choices, circling back to the things that are truly important...like family.  It didn't have a driving plot that demanded to be chased, but I was MORE than happy to let things unfold naturally.  Each of the character's we're introduced to leave a mark on your heart.  The love that was both lost and found is enough to turn the biggest skeptic on to the idea of everything happening for a reason, and in its own time.

Maggie, Emma, and Lindy have been friends since their teen years, and now as they fully embody their late fifties, they are closer than ever.  Time is a dance we all must entertain, but how we accept it, kicking and screaming all the way or with grace, understanding, and an open heart, is entirely up to us.  I do believe these ladies did a little of both in their day, but they are so much stronger than any of them imagine.  How could they be anything but with everything they've faced?  Maggie's secret from yesteryear, her husband's passing, and her daughter's lives uprooted in various ways.  I gotta say I LOVED her character, but I adored how she handled Grace's public situation.  It was simply perfect, right down to the tiny white lie she freely stated.  Emma lost her husband, and her son, though neither in the same way, and some with more permanence.  She still managed to pull her friends up when they were down, and help Liddy find the grace of the circumstances with Jessica.  Also, she raised a rather fine son (in several ways!), who is most definitely a product of her motherly tutelage.  Liddy lost a daughter, a husband, and a bit of her self...but with her true friends by her side she was never truly alone.  I was so happy to see her heart breaking loose of some of the sadness, and I truly believe her new business project is going to make a big difference in keeping her from falling back on despair.

All in all, it was a wonderful cast of characters with varied lives that are intriguing, heartbreaking, and uplifting in equal parts.  It just goes to show that whether we find, make, or are born into "our tribe", those connections we forge, those bonds we make can follow us throughout our days, if only we let them...if only we believe in those waves of the same sea.

🌞   🏄   🌞   🧨   🌞   🧨   🌞   🏄   🌞

About the author...

Mariah Stewart is the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author of several series, including The Chesapeake Diaries and The Hudson Sisters, as well as stand-alone novels, novellas, and short stories. A native of Hightstown, New Jersey, she lives with her husband and two rambunctious rescue dogs amid the rolling hills of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she savors country life, tends her gardens, and works on her next novel. She’s the proud mama of two fabulous daughters who—along with her equally fabulous sons-in-law—have gifted her with six adorable (and yes, fabulous) granddarlings.

 

Website | Facebook | Instagram

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Special thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours for the chance to bring this tour to you and to the Montlake team for the ARC for review. (THANKS!) For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, this tour, or those on the horizon, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title celebrates its BOOK BIRTHDAY May 1, 2021 via Montlake, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, so mark your calendar or click on over to your favorite online retailer to preorder your copy today! Be sure to CHECK OUT THE REST OF THE TOUR making its way through the blogosphere for more bookish fun!

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!

PRE BOOK BIRTHDAY BUZZ: An Invincible Summer by Mariah Stewart - SPOTLIGHT!

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're spreading some PRE BOOK BIRTHDAY BUZZ about a NEW Women's Fiction title set to release May 1st, 2021 via Montlake. It's the first book in author Mariah Stewart's new Wyndham Beach series, and from the sound of things, will be a MUST READ for fans of second chance love, and new beginnings.  Ladies and gents, get your wish list ready because here comes today's title in the spotlight...

An Invincible Summer

Wyndham Beach, Book 1

by

Mariah Stewart

Montlake

About the book...

An endearing novel of friendship, forgiveness, and second chances by New York Times bestselling author Mariah Stewart.

It was a lifetime ago that recently widowed Maggie Flynn was in Wyndham Beach. Now, on the occasion of her fortieth high school reunion, she returns to her hometown on the Massachusetts coast, picking up right where she left off with dear friends Lydia and Emma. But seeing Brett Crawford again stirs other emotions. Once, they were the town’s golden couple destined for one another. He shared Maggie’s dreams―and eventually, a shattering secret that drove them apart.

Buying her old family home and resettling in Wyndham Beach means a chance to start over for Maggie and her two daughters, but it also means facing her rekindled feelings for her first love and finally confronting―and embracing―the past in ways she never thought possible. Maggie won’t be alone. With her family and friends around her, she can weather this stormy turning point in her life and open her heart to the future. As for that dream shared and lost years ago? If Maggie can forgive herself, it still might come true.

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About the author...

Mariah Stewart is the New York Times, Publishers Weekly, and USA Today bestselling author of several series, including The Chesapeake Diaries and The Hudson Sisters, as well as stand-alone novels, novellas, and short stories. A native of Hightstown, New Jersey, she lives with her husband and two rambunctious rescue dogs amid the rolling hills of Chester County, Pennsylvania, where she savors country life, tends her gardens, and works on her next novel. She’s the proud mama of two fabulous daughters who―along with her equally fabulous sons-in-law―have gifted her with six adorable (and yes, fabulous) granddarlings. For more information visit www.mariahstewart.com.

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Special thanks to Ashley at Amazon Publishing for the chance to bring this spotlight to you.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, or the publisher, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title is set to release THIS MAY via Montlake, so mark your calendar, or pre order your copy today!  Stay tuned for more as the release date approaches...

Until next time, remember...if it looks good, READ IT!

Truth is Stranger than Fiction: Penny for Your Thoughts by P.M. Singer

Hi there!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're exploring a novella that recently came my way that puts a lighter spin on a serious topic...SUICIDE.  I know, it's not a laughing matter, and I'm not saying it is...those that feel this is their only way out of whatever troubles they are currently facing need support, and a helping hand to turn things around...but I'm telling you, FACT can be much stranger than FICTION as we're about to find out in spades, in a fictional way.  Ready or not, here comes today's novella of choice...

Penny for Your Thoughts

by

P.M. Singer

Amazon

Within these 100 or so epages, author P.M. Singer will not only leave you entertained but informed.  We're catching a glimpse of this tragedy from the other side...that of the "voice of reason" on a suicide hotline.  That's right.  Those helpful souls that assist people in their darkest hours are just like you and me with obviously a bit more training, but life experience goes a long way as Penny is about to find out, as opposed to her precious Bachelor's Degree.  Some things, only the WORLD can train you for and this I'm afraid is one of them.  Book knowledge in her head and a desire to help others in her soul (as well as the ability to pay her rent while working something other than retail), Penny sets out to bring a little sunshine, a little hope to those reaching out at their lowest moments.  What she gets is the opportunity to do just that...and a lot of other things you'd never expect.

Okay, so MAYBE you would expect some of what she encounters, it depends on how cynical you are I suppose, but as for me, I was definitely taken by surprise...and I work retail, so it's pretty hard to surprise me!  Some of the callers honestly needed help with their crisis of the moment, the magnitude of which differed from person to person but so does the importance of the issue being handled (we're humans, not robots), while others needed to call OTHER numbers if you catch my drift.  Yeah, think 900 not 800... *-* ...and still others needed 411, or simply a network of friends to converse with.  The first were laughable, the second excusable, but the third...I felt saddest for.  They were the ones that I wanted to reach out and lift up because they could easily turn into the ones that REALLY needed the hotline.  

By book's end, I felt I had only just begun.  Penny's story was unique, her voice clear, even if her path was uncertain.  She was human in a job that required her to be just that and yet so much more.  Despite office politics, coworker conflicts, and a personal life that was so personal it was hard to find, Penny makes quite an impression on those she interacts with as well as those of us spying into her world.  With usable statistics and website references to guide those seeking more information on the services out there, it manages to walk the line of fact and fiction with the skill of an aerial performer.  Recommended read for adult readers, due to themes versus content.

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Special thanks to author P.M. Singer for the ebook for review.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, or those works forthcoming, feel free to click through the links provided above.  This title is available now, so seek thee out a copy wherever ebooks are sold.

Until next time...happy reading!

BLOG TOUR: We're All Damaged by Matthew Norman

Hi guys!

Welcome back to Satisfaction for Insatiable Readers.

Today, we're playing host to a TLC Book Tour starring an unusual work of Fiction whose title delivers a truth that's meant well, but hard hitting like a punch to the gut...or face. *ahem*  Curious?  I thought you might be, and that is also what my initial reaction to the book was at both the start AND finish.  Without further ado, I give you today's book of choice...

We're All Damaged

by

Matthew Norman

9781503933378

Little A

About the book...

Andy Carter was happy. He had a solid job. He ran 5Ks for charity. He was living a nice, safe Midwestern existence. And then his wife left him for a handsome paramedic down the street.

We’re All Damaged begins after Andy has lost his job, ruined his best friend’s wedding, and moved to New York City, where he lives in a tiny apartment with an angry cat named Jeter that isn’t technically his. But before long he needs to go back to Omaha to say good-bye to his dying grandfather.

Back home, Andy is confronted with his past, which includes his ex, his ex’s new boyfriend, his right-wing talk-radio-host mother, his parents’ crumbling marriage, and his still-angry best friend.

As if these old problems weren’t enough, Andy encounters an entirely new complication: Daisy. She has fifteen tattoos, no job, and her own difficult past. But she claims she is the only person who can help Andy be happy again, if only she weren’t hiding a huge secret that will mess things up even more. Andy Carter needs a second chance at life, and Daisy—and the person Daisy pushes Andy to become—may be his last chance to set things right.

Purchase Links

Amazon | Books-A-Million

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Unusual. Unique. Unsettling.

A lot of "U" words there, but all terms that I rattled from my brain while reading and upon finishing this title.

Andy is a man that's hit rock bottom, or rather had it hit HIM...right in the face....twice.  The "love of his life" (a phrase in quotes because honestly, I don't think they were perfectly matched) having ditched him for the LITERAL guy next door decides to end it all over Sizzling Chili Lime Chicken at Applebee's with the uber upbeat 'Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go' playing in the background.  Talk about a scene set, well played, and certainly memorable.  I gotta agree with Andy though, future generations that uncover that song will indeed wonder what we were on at the time...ha!  Anywho, needless to say "the ex" (aka Karen, aka she-who-should-not-be-named) didn't win any points for her let down of our lead man, but then again...he doesn't really win too many points himself at first...until there was Daisy.

I'm sorry, I know Andy is our lead and his coming home for his dying grandfather (so sad), dealing with the new family order, and attempting to evade the Glitter Mafia (it's a thing apparently...curious) are what this book was truly about, but Daisy played a huge part in it all and really stole the show.  Her quirkiness, her individuality, her honesty and straightforward nature (well, sorta), were so off when considering the other characters here, but worked so perfectly well together.  How she brought Andy out of his shell while still remaining partially in her own.  How she managed to hold up several charades at once without batting an eye, and once they all fell down, she was no worse for wear.  She was a girl of many colors with literary tattoos to boot (loved that detail!), and a heart broken by love the same as anyone else.  The times she and Andy shared weren't romantically charged per se, and yet their hearts were definitely on their sleeves...cotton or ink wise.

In conclusion, to say it's not a cheery book is an understatement...it certainly floats right above death's door and hanging in there, but it's as real as fiction can be with the bruises to prove it.  I don't know many that wouldn't have enjoyed putting "Don Johnson" in his place (not the actor...in case you were wondering) even if it did mean waking up to the face of someone you'd rather not existed (nope, not spoiling that one).  I also can't imagine there'd be a huge line up for having your life image made over in a 90's movie sorta way with some added humiliation, and yet here, it works.  The characters are three dimensional, the feelings feel-able, and the struggles real...as well as the realization that we ARE all in fact damaged, but it's what we do with the remains that really counts.

Recommended read for adult readers due to language, and some limited content.

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About the author...

Matthew Norman lives in Baltimore with his wife and their two daughters. His writing has appeared on Salon, the Good Men Project, and the Weeklings. His first novel, Domestic Violets, was nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award in Best Humor.

Blog | Twitter

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Special thanks to Lisa at TLC Book Tours for the chance to bring this promotion to you as well as the ARC for review.  (THANKS!)  For more information on this title, the author, the publisher, or those tours forthcoming, feel free to click through the links provided above. This title just celebrated its BOOK BIRTHDAY the beginning of this month via Little A, an imprint of Amazon Publishing, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf or virtual retailer of your choosing.

Until next time....happy reading!