Monday, November 28, 2011

If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor by Barbara Ehrentreu

 
Carolyn Samuels is obsessed with the idea of being popular. She is convinced that the only thing keeping her from happiness is her too heavy for fashion body and not being a cheerleader. Hyperventilating when she gets nervous doesn’t help. When she is paired for a math project with the girl who tormented her in middle school, Jennifer Taylor, she is sure it is going to be another year of pain. With Carolyn’s crush on Jennifer’s hunky junior quarterback, Brad, her freshman year in high school looks like a rerun of middle school. When Jennifer is the only student who knows why she fell in gym class, Carolyn is blackmailed into doing her math homework in return for Jennifer’s silence. Jennifer takes on Carolyn as a pity project since she can’t be seen with someone who dresses in jeans and sweatshirts. When Jennifer invites Carolyn to spend the night to make her over and teach her to tumble, Carolyn learns Jennifer’s secret and lies to her own friends to cover it up. Will Carolyn become a cheerleader and popular? Does she continue to keep Jennifer’s secret? Or will she be a target of this mean girl again?


I was Carolyn Samuels in high school, although my grades weren’t high enough to tutor anyone or for anyone else to ask me to do their homework.  Fortunately, I grew up in Chicago and the high school I attended was large enough that the kids who bullied me in grammar school went their own way and I made new friends.  Cheerleading?  Tumbling?  My favorite sports were reading and writing fiction.  I was terrified of falling and of balls flying at me.  But I digress.  I identified with Carolyn, even forty-some-odd years later.

Whether you’re seventeen or seventy, you’ll identify with someone in this book.  It was written for young adults, but it’s a great read for everyone.  However—it is a MUST READ for teenage girls.  Jennifer’s secret is one shared by girls everywhere and Carolyn’s dilemma whether or not to keep that secret is probably shared by just as many other kids.  If you have a daughter, granddaughter, niece or any teenage girl in your life, by all means, give her a copy of “If I Could Be Like Jennifer Taylor” for Christmas.  Reading this book could save a girl’s life, or help a young girl save her friend’s life.


Price:  $5.95


Wednesday, November 23, 2011

“Remain in Light” Harkens Back to the Work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald

  
In 1968, Irène Laureux's husband was murdered during the Paris student and worker riots. Thirty years later, she is still on the hunt for the man who knows how and why Jean-Louis died – his secret lover, Frederick Dubois.

Aiding in her search is American expat Martin Paige, a writer still reeling from a love affair gone wrong with a student, David McLaren. Martin meets a young poet, Christian, and the two fall in love, but their happiness is shaken when Martin's friend, Diane Jacobs, arrives in Paris with news that David has gone missing.

Diane discovers that David's disappearance is more than just a missing person case with connections to drugs, stolen identities, long-hidden government secrets and a shocking connection to Irène's past. This literary mystery takes readers from America to London and into the dark underworld of the fabled City of Light.



Remain in Light is a complex book with very real characters. It harkens back to the work of Hemingway and Fitzgerald, leaving the Champs Elysee and prowling the back streets of Paris. It starts with Martin Paige stuck in traffic because of an accident in the Pont de l'Alma tunnel in the wee hours of August 31, 1997 and getting home late. Being stuck in traffic because of Princess Diana's accident, however, is not the point--it's his restlessness, his disenchantment since the loss of his lover, David. Diane Jacobs arrives that day, as well.

The plot is full of twists and turns, dark corners and alleyways of both Paris and the human psyche. If you're looking for a light, fluffy read, look elsewhere. If you're looking for a book you can sink your teeth into, re-read and find things you missed the first time, then I highly recommend Remain in Light.


Price:  $4.99


Sunday, November 13, 2011

Shadows Steal the Light by Christine London



Blurb:

It’s love at first sight for rock star Colin Dunlow when he runs into sultry jazz singer, Jenna Lindstrom, with a few complications. The woman of his dreams hates rockers and there’s someone who wants him dead.

Excerpt:

He heard the pop of a gun. Diving behind the mailbox bolted to the edge of the curb, heart racing in his throat, he rolled back into a crouch. The silver coupe had turned and was now coming at him along the sidewalk. He bolted across the street and ran, full tilt into a side street bordered by old twenties houses interspersed with more modern apartment complexes. Craning his neck for a brief backward glance, he spilled over the tire of a bicycle and into a row of similarly parked bikes outside the entrance to an apartment building. Tumbling onto the grass easement between sidewalk and street, he scrambled to his feet, looking for the coupe. It was turning the corner from 32nd Street parallel to the Shrine, onto his side street. Searching frantically for some way, something to slow the vehicle down, he picked up one of the bicycles, now flattened in a domino effect against the others and flung it into the street.

He looked back toward the approaching coupe: a maelstrom of jacaranda blossoms swirled in its wake as it accelerated toward him. He took off down the sidewalk again, this time not looking back. The centrifugal force behind the speed of his flight projected him out into 30th Street as he flew around the corner toward Figueroa. At an all out sprint, he dashed across the major artery, dodging the still clogged traffic exiting the Shrine toward the freeway. Running past Carl’s Junior, he headed for the overpass just the other side of Flower Street.

Shite. Who the hell? His mind raced on ahead of him as he pumped his arms in Olympic exertion. Having the green chain link mesh of the overpass fencing in clear view, he risked a glance back. The coupe was weaving around the cross traffic of Figueroa in perfunctory fashion, nearly clipping the bumper of a black SUV. Only one way out; he bolted toward the fence, leaping in upward propulsion, reaching for the top crossbar, propelling himself over with raw strength, determination and adrenaline.

His body slammed against the freeway overpass sign, dangling like the condemned from the gallows. Hands clamped tightly to the crossbar, teeth gritted, he lowered his chin to look below him. A catwalk of sorts, supporting lights for the sign, was but a few meter drop. He stole one more glance toward the street, just catching a blur of silver going north around the corner on Flower, toward downtown, the freeway flyover and against traffic. The metallic clunk and reverberation up his legs as his feet landed on the catwalk jarred him into a contracted crouch. Looking behind and down, he saw the rooftops of lethargic traffic scooting forward in preemptory battle to get ahead.

The unmistakable sound of large masses of metal being compacted came from the direction of Flower Street. An ivy cover fence screened any view of what had occurred. It wasn’t thirty seconds later, as Colin assessed the distance to the pavement, that he saw the form of a man catapulting over the ivy clad fence, leaping onto the overpass.
Head and face covered with a black ski mask, the identity of his pursuer was impossible to detect. Judging from the agility and muscularity of the man, Colin was in for some serious trouble. Damn! He timed his descent to coincide with the eighteen-wheeler passing under him. Pulling in a resolute lungful of air, he leapt.

The roof of the truck gave slightly with the impact of his weight. Its forward movement was slow enough, that it jolted him from his feet onto his knees, but did not propel him head over heels. Palms flat, he braced himself in anticipation of greater force. Shooting a glance at the receding over pass, he saw the darkly clothed athletic figure of the man in the ski mask land on a truck with a short red trailer, not two lengths behind him. Colin searched three hundred sixty degrees, twisting his crouched body to obtain the widest possible panorama of the rapidly degrading situation. His options were narrowing.

As the red truck moved forward, its driver signaled a lane change toward the left. Traffic was beginning to pick up speed as the effects of the merging onramp were diminishing. Wind now played a factor in not only his stability, but his ability to see as his long hair whipped about his cheeks and eyes. He moved along the roof toward the cab, remaining crouched to preserve what advantage a lower center of gravity might afford.
He felt, rather than saw, his assailant landing on the cold reflective grey of the truck’s roof; vibrating shockwaves caused by the weight of his body striking the rear of the trailer telegraphed through the metal like a seismic shock. Colin turned to see the man leaping across the long surface of the roof. Who is this…f***ing Spiderman? Colin’s racing thoughts jumbled in an upset of twisted incomprehension as he tried to force his mind to cooperate through the surge of adrenaline-laced resolve coursing through him.


Christine London does a fabulous job of taking us from Los Angeles to London and back, and keeping us on the edge of our seats the whole time in this wonderful page burner.  Jenna doesn’t seem like the kind of snob who would dislike a man just because he performs music in a genre that’s different from hers.  So why is she so averse to dating rockers?  Who is trying to kill Colin and why?  How is it that Jenna seems to get caught in the crossfire so much?  Or are they after her too?  If so, what did she do to anger someone that much?  She’s just starting her career.  There are plenty of red herrings along the way to keep the reader guessing until Ms. London is good and ready to answer the questions.  Speaking of careers just getting started, Christine London is an author to watch.

Price:  $5.95


My blog tour ends Monday at Long and Short Reviews.  The link is in the list at the left side of the site.  And stay tuned for the announcement of the winner of the giveaway!  Thanks for following me and for making Rock Crazy a best-seller at the MuseItUp Publishing, Inc. bookstore!

Sunday, November 6, 2011

A View to a Kilt by Chris Redding


Waking up next to a dead guy can ruin your whole day.

When a wise-cracking interior decorator wants to put her past behind her, the dead body of the mayor’s son makes it pretty clear that won’t happen too easily.

A conservative former computer geek for the FBI is holding on too tightly to his past. His wife died under suspicious circumstances and he believes the decorator has the information to solve the case. Unfortunately for him, she isn’t talking… until a series of events convinces her she needs protection especially when her biggest secret threatens to destroy both their lives.


Miriam Stokes is feisty, funny, and independent.  Okay, she’s downright stubborn and she nearly gets herself killed because of it.  Angus “Gus” Macpherson is now a PI and he’s only supposed to protect her; not fall in love with her.  But with a closet still full of his late wife’s clothing a year after her death, it’s difficult to convince Mim he’s ready to move on.  And they don’t have much time to talk while they’re dodging bullets.

There’s a dark secret in Mim’s past that overshadows everything.  She was married to a crooked cop with ties to the mafia.  Some anonymous man is paying for Gus’ services, but who is he?  What kind of connections does her family have?  Is Mim really a mafia princess?  Is that why Gus could never get near her for a statement when he was working the case that got him kicked out of the FBI? The investigation of her ex-husband?  And why did she wake up next to the Mayor’s dead son?  Was not killing her a mistake?  Those questions haunted me until the very surprising end.

It’s a great read.


Price:  $2.99



Don’t forget that my blog tour is still going on.  Leave a comment here, and then hop on over to Rochelle Weber, Author.  Meet Chris Redding and learn about her next book, Blonde Demolition, coming later this month!