Hi guys!
I know, I know...it's not Tuesday, but that's why this is a special edition! I was just reading through my copy of THE PEN PIEYU ADVENTURES: SIR PRINCESS PETRA'S TALENT by Diane Mae Robinson and stumbled upon a passage spoken by the Princess Knight herself, most eloquently.
Had to share. Just check out the picture, you'll see what I mean.
Happy Friday to all....warm weekend wishes...and of course, happy reading!
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Okay guys so with yesterday's post featuring SUSAN MALLERY'S FOOL'S GOLD COOKBOOK, I had the urge, the need, the desire...to try one of the recipes! Thought I might share the before and after with you.
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This is my version of the Cheesy Blossom Bread. The basic ingredients/instructions are as follows:
Take a nice loaf of hearty bread - I used a bakery loaf of 5 grain Italian.
Cut it lengthwise and side wise ALMOST all the way through - I cut it a few more times for ease of serving.
Drizzle with melted butter.
Stuff the crevices with dip of your choice - I used french onion.
Stuff/Sprinkle with shredded cheddar.
Sprinkle with chives.
Wrap, bake and...TADA!
Taste test...pretty darn good!
Next time, I'll probably try another dip flavor and a wee lighter on the butter but overall, YUM!
So you see, yesterday's read/share was not only a good read but also a good feed!
Until next time...happy eating...I mean reading!
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Today's teaser from pg 58 of my current read-in-progress. ..
SUSAN MALLERY'S FOOL'S GOLD COOKBOOK
...by Susan Mallery, of course!
The cool part about this one is that...well, okay. You'll have to stop back tomorrow to find out but let's just say it satisfies the senses.
So, what are you reading today?
Give us a little tease...please?
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Two of a KindTen years after losing her husband, Christina Connelly has worked through the pain, focusing on raising her teenage daughter and managing her small decorating business. But her romantic life has never recovered. Still, it’s irksome to be set up with arrogant, if handsome, OB/GYN Andy Stern at her friend’s wedding. If he wasn’t also a potential client, needing his Upper East Side apartment redesigned, she would write him off.
This is never going to work, Andy thinks. Still grieving his wife and struggling with a troubled son, he’s not looking for a woman, and certainly not someone as frosty and reserved as Christina. Their relationship will be strictly business. Yet to everyone’s surprise–including their own–these two find themselves falling in love.
But if reconciling with their pasts is difficult, blending their lives and children to create a new family is nearly impossible. They’ve been given a second chance…but can they overcome all the obstacles in the way of happily ever after?
Some back-story is in order: for some time, I had been toying with the idea of writing a novel that took place in a single day. I liked the formal challenge this presented, a kind of literary puzzle. And when I got the notion to make the single day a wedding day, I knew I had found the armature on which to hang a story. Weddings are inherently dramatic because a wedding represents a radical shift in the family dynamic: everyone must readjust to this new unit, and incorporate a new person into the existing structure. And since marriage is often the gateway to children--who further reorder the existing family unit--a wedding contains in it the possibility of new generations, and a whole new family order. Even though all this is good stuff, happy stuff, it requires a willingness to accept change--and change, even good change is scary. Which is why weddings, and all their trappings, can easily become crucibles for every latent family resentment, jealousy, and anxiety. Those screaming matches over the seating arrangements or choice of location? The tears shed over the dress/shoes/flowers? All evidence and proof of how weddings shake us up, and rattle our bones. We focus on the small stuff, and blow it out of proportion, because it's easier to deal with than the larger stuff it conceals.
I knew I could use all this roiling emotion in service of my novel, which centers on the Great Neck wedding of Angelica Silverstein, the youngest and most accomplished daughter of the Silverstein clan. I decided to tell it from several different points of view, because I thought that would allow me the opportunity to get inside the emotions of several main characters and create drama on a number of different fronts. I chose the bride's older sister, Gretchen, a slow-starter who has long resented her perfect sibling, her mother and father--now divorced--her grandmother and her fifteen year old niece who is determined to throw a monkey wrench into the day and ruin the wedding entirely. Everyone has an agenda here, his or her own story to advance. The one point of view that I deliberately chose to avoid was that of the bride herself. Angelica is the object of everyone's attention but she is not the subject. I thought this would be an interesting twist on the more expected bride-centric treatment that such a theme usually gets. 
Something's fishy . . . Leo can’t wait to go to summer camp with his best friend, Chad. It's his best chance to finally solve a decades-old zombie mystery. But things start to get weird as the boys help clean up slimy Lake Moan. The Zombie Zappers are in for a skin-crawling surprise. And Leo's half-zombie friend might be the only one who knows what's really going on.
In conclusion, a fabulously fun time to be had between the covers with the promise of more still to come. Whether zombie fan or not, kid in age or simply at heart, I can't imagine anyone that embarks on this adventure NOT enjoying themselves in some way. ARC for review courtesy of Linda at Speeding Star, an imprint of Enslow Publishers, Inc. (THANKS!) For more information on this title as well as their full catalog, be sure to visit them online, follow along on Twitter, or like them on Facebook. This title was released the beginning of this month with a few others coming soon, so be on the lookout for it on a bookstore shelf near you.
A chance encounter . . .
Grace Warren’s life is safe and predictable—exactly the way she likes it. But when she gets roped into going to an auction to help out a friend, everything changes. She meets Seth Tuttle—a guy who unexpectedly kisses her then disappears, leaving her flustered and upset. If she never sees him again, it will be too soon.
A chance for love . . .
Weeks later, when Seth limps into Grace’s rehab clinic post surgery, she immediately recognizes him. Unfortunately, he’s every bit as frustrating and annoying as she remembered. Yet there’s something about him that makes her second-guess her carefully placed boundaries even though he’s everything she’s sure she doesn’t want in a man. But maybe Seth is exactly what Grace has needed all along—assuming she’s willing to risk safe and predictable for a chance at love.
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| Author Rachael Anderson |
Who are they? Oh, no one of significance...and yet everyone all at once. They are the stealers of souls. They are the boogie men of the night that don't need shadows to hide behind....they are the shadows themselves. They are the faceless, nameless people you meet and yet can't quite remember. They are the answer to the question "where did the time go" and yet the riddle of it all at once. They are the gray men...and they mean business. A scarier lot you'll probably not meet, that is if you can remember them...
ARC and finished copy courtesy of McSweeney's McMullens. (THANKS!) For more information on this title as well as their growing catalog, visit the store over at the publisher's site, like them on Facebook or follow along on Twitter. This title was released earlier this year and should be available now on a bookstore shelf near you. Recommended for young adult readers and beyond.
Memories are the ultimate contradiction. They can warm us on our coldest days – or they can freeze a loved one out of our lives forever. The McCarthy family has a trove of warm memories. Of innocent first kisses. Of sumptuous family meals. Of wondrous lessons learned at the foot of a rocking chair. But they also have had their share of icy ones. Of words that can never be unsaid. Of choices that can never be unmade. Of actions that can never be undone.
Following the death of his beloved wife, John McCarthy – Grandpa John – calls his family back home. It is time for them to face the memories they have made, both warm and cold. Only then can they move beyond them and into the future.
John is a wonderful and caring narrator. Through him we learn to love with all our hearts, trust with our full beings, and share a smile, a kind word even, with each person we meet, because we never really know when our last days will come. Do you want to spend your "ever after" lost in regret, what ifs and shoulda wouldas? Or would you rather be able to say...I LIVED. After all, life may not always be perfect but it's those imperfections that make it a path worth following. Share it with the ones you love....as it should be. Recommended read for teens and beyond; this is definitely one to spread around to all your reading friends. |
| THE PRIZE! |
Today's teaser comes from mt current read in progress...
MOMO
by
Michael Ende
..check it out before the gray men find you! (^-^)
Tibby and his dog Starber-a longhaired shepherd who is brave,smart,and talented-live in a rural
Midwestern town, and along with their friends, they can always find fun and adventure. But
things get very strange when Tibby meets Coley and Darnell, a sister and brother who’ve moved
into the creepy mansion down the road, and it isn’t long before Tibby and his friends discover an
amazing secret...
Inspired by the author’s first love—Big Red, a stray Irish setter he disentangled from a cornfield
fence and subsequently adopted—Tibby and His Friends'Big Secret is an exciting tale for boys
and girls and animal lovers everywhere.
In conclusion, a great addition to author Julia Dweck's catalog of ebook wonders and one I most certainly recommend for readers for all ages. This title is set to be released September 5th, 2013 via Xist Publishing...but can be pre ordered now! Special thanks to author Julia Dweck for the ebook copy for review. (THANKS!) For more information on this title as well as her full body of works, stop by her site, like her Facebook or follow along on Twitter. To discover more about the illustrator, friend him on Facebook.
WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE'S STAR WARS by
Author Emma Right
Emma Right is a happy wife and homeschool mother of five living in the Pacific West Coast of the USA. Besides running a busy home, and looking after their five pets, which includes two cats, two bunnies and a Long-haired dachshund, she also writes stories for her children. She loves the Lord and His Word deeply, and when she doesn't have her nose in a book, she is telling her kids to get theirs in one.
Right worked as a copywriter for two major advertising agencies and won several awards, including the prestigious Clio Award for her ads, before she settled down to have children.
How much is worth risking?
Gabe Sullivan risks his life every day as a firefighter in San Francisco, but he knows better than to risk giving his heart again. Especially not to the woman he saved from a deadly apartment fire…and can't stop thinking about.
Megan Harris owes everything to the heroic firefighter who saved her and her daughter. Everything except her heart. Because after losing her pilot husband, she has vowed to never suffer through loving—and losing—a man with a dangerous job again.
But when Gabe and Megan meet again, how can he possibly ignore her courage, determination and beauty? And how can she deny not only his strong bond with her daughter…but also his sweetly sensual kisses, challenging her to risk everything she's been guarding for so long?
1. Story line...this author totally knows how to garner interest from her readers. This time around, she sets a realistic story line, probably the most thus far, that people can relate more easily to. The danger of a house fire, the incredible loss that could have been so much worse, the inevitable hero, the sparks that were never intended to be and the journey it took them to get from point A to point B...all intricate parts of the overall puzzle that creates a read you'll be invested in. 
Final thoughts...a GREAT READ recommended for ADULTS ONLY. Yes, I said it...a great read. It starts with a potential tragedy, takes a turn for a new tomorrow with all the experience of yesterday weighing it down, and leads readers to an ending they won't soon forget. I really enjoyed this one and the containment of the wink-wink scenes to a few pages here and there as opposed to chapter after chapter, made this one my most favorite yet of The Sullivans series. I really enjoyed getting to know yet another member of their fabulously handsome, caring, and giving clan...even if their family time was kept to a minimum. (Aww, I miss the rest of the family!) If you like your reads with heart, romance, and a fairly volatile dose of heat, this one is definitely for you. Or perhaps you're like me and you don't need the intensely close situations to make your story, there's still enough of a story to keep you both entertained and committed to the page. Brava to the author indeed!