Pranksgiving by Elle Druskin

Blurb:

Kidnapped! Or is that birdnapped? Someone in Liberty Heights snatched Jerome, star of the Ledbetter Turkey commercials. Who? Why? Holding Jerome for ransom? Cutting Thanksgiving dinner costs? Join the hunt for Jerome and celebrate Thanksgiving—Liberty Heights style!

Review:

Since Pranksgiving is a short-story, Ms. Druskin did not bring any new residents to Liberty Heights, unless you count Jerome, the celebrity turkey.  And he lives about twenty miles out of town, so I’m not sure he counts, even though his owner, Elmer Ledbetter is a client of Haley Marx’s public relations firm. And who kidnapped him isn’t exactly a mystery, either, since we’re treated to a hysterical account of the crime.  The fun is in chasing down the bird when he escapes from his captors.  Half the town is after him for various reasons.

Haley wants to catch Jerome to appease her client, so she goes in one direction while Jake, her husband, goes in another, and she enlists their best friends, Dana and voice-over genius Hank Axelrod as well.  The birdnappers want him back for the same reason they stole him in the first place:  Mr. Ledbetter announced Jerome was doing his last commercial for the turkey farm, and they feared Jerome would be the Ledbetter’s Thanksgiving entrée this year.  Not only are they trying to retrieve him, but they post news of his imminent demise and a grass-roots “Save Jerome” organization shows up to protest.  Ledbetter posts a reward, and other people start hunting Jerome in hopes of earning the money.  Thanksgiving is nigh and Liberty Heights is in chaos, as usual.  Could romance be in the air as well?  Maybe.  All things are possible in Liberty Heights.

I’m running out of good things to say about this series.  These people, while slightly screwy and wacky have become good friends.  Actually, they’re pretty normal compared to most of my real-life friends.  And they live in a town that’s almost as magical as Hogwarts considering the fact that when you enter the town limits, something warm and wonderful happens to you and you suddenly find it normal to have a huge deaf dog hanging around the Chinese restaurant, or a French-speaking parrot quoting Victor Hugo, the local doctor riding around town in full cowboy togs, or the candle-shop owner consulting with her psychic beagle, or a group of ladies taking over the local fire house for pole-dance classes.  I always feel a little sad when I finish a book or short story in the Liberty Heights series.  The vacation is over and I have to go home.  Back to the real world where not all of the books I review and edit are as funny and warm or well-written.  Oh, did I forget to say it?  Even though Thanksgiving is over, buy Pranksgiving.  You can always use a good laugh session!

Length:  95 Pages

Price:  $2.00

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/romance/pranksgiving-a-liberty-heights-thanksgiving-short-story-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting. RIW

Rodeo Daze by Elle Druskin

Blurb:

It’s the Liberty Heights Stampede! B-grade actress Paulette Stone finally lands a great movie role. The catch? Equestrian skills required. Clueless Paulette turns to Jim Kildare for help but Paulette is hopeless. The solution? Import former rodeo champion Grandma Dixie Sue Kildare so Jim can concentrate on trying to romance Renee Landis, winner of the world’s worst first date contests.

While Renee does her best to ignore her feelings for Jim, Dixie Sue runs riot in Liberty Heights with her riding school, backyard sales and matchmaking. Then there’s the ghost haunting LouAnn Freedbush’s house complicated by sister BettyAnn’s failure at witch college and root beer addiction. What does psychic Wayne predict? Who is the ghost haunting LouAnn’s basement? Can Jim lasso Renee and win her heart?

Review:

Look out Grandma Baumgart, Dixie Sue Kildare’s in town and The Kildare Gang’s ridin’, ropin’ and shootin’ up Liberty Heights!  Grandma Baumgart’s not the only one who knows how to pick a girl for her grandson.  Dr. James Kildare (yup, just like the TV show and that was thanks to Dixie Sue, too) has his heart set on Renee Landis.  Fortunately, Grandma Dixie Sue approves of his choice and sets out to help him catch her.  Poor Renee doesn’t stand a chance.  Good thing she feels the same way, despite her track record of horrible first dates and never any seconds.  But this is Liberty Heights, New Jersey where normal doesn’t exist, but hilarious does.

Why do Liberty Heights books go so fast?  Why can’t they take longer to read so I can stay there awhile longer?  Oh, I’m not asking Ms. Druskin to pad her books.  The story is what it is and padding doesn’t improve a book at all.  I just love Liberty Heights and its crazy denizens old and new, human and animal.  I loved watching Lou Ann Freedbush trying to help her sister, Betty Ann dry out from her root beer addiction, while coping with the ghost in the haunted house she bought.  I love Wayne the psychic beagle, Dizzy the practically comatose horse and even Phantom, the “killer” horse.  Oh, yeah—and there’s Betty Ann’s search for a familiar.  That’s one of the reasons she flunked out of witch school.  She couldn’t find a familiar, and that failure sapped her courage when finals time came.  She knew the material; she just couldn’t get it out of her head and onto the page, knowing that without a familiar she still wouldn’t be able to get her license and join RWA—Registered Witches of America even if she aced her final.

If you follow this blog and you haven’t fallen in love with Liberty Heights yet, you may want to start at the beginning with Animal Crackers.  If you’re a fan like me, maybe you’ve been waiting for Book Five.  You will laugh just as hard as you have been.  I promise.

Length:  215 Pages

Price:  $5.95

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/museitup/romance/contemporary-romance/rodeo-daze-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Adams and Eve by Elle Druskin

Blurb:

Halloween is murder.

Everyone in Liberty Heights is invited to LouAnn’s party. Dress as an Adams. Nobody can figure out why LouAnn chose such a peculiar theme, and the town’s residents wrack their brains for costumes representing famous characters named Adams. That doesn’t include the gate crashers; sister BettyAnn, now a bonafide member of Registered Witches of America, and her new boyfriend who’s practicing to be a vampire. Then there’s the uninvited costumed guest who plans to use the party to murder LouAnn, but this is Liberty Heights, where the unexpected usually happens.

Who’s trying to kill LouAnn? Why? How do the folks in Liberty Heights prevent a murder? Celebrate Halloween—Liberty Heights style.

Review:

WARNINGS:

1. Choking Hazard: Do not eat or drink anything while reading Adams and Eve.
2. Laughing Hazard: Do not read Adams and Eve in public unless you want to explain while you’re rolling around on the floor laughing your derriere off.

I read Adams and Eve at the VA while I was there to do my volunteer work.  It was a slow day.  I sit at a desk in a large waiting room with very little to absorb sound, so my peals of laughter echoed down the waiting room and through the hall.  And there were a lot of peals of laughter.  Of course, this was my sixth trip to Liberty Heights, New Jersey and I love its denizens, both human and animal, so I laugh at inside jokes as well as the obvious ones—like Wayne’s ESP.  Wayne is a beagle.  Or LouAnn Friedbush’s spelling.  She means, “Come as an Addams.”  She dresses as Morticia, her boyfriend Howie Fleischowitz is Gomez, and Wayne is Cousin Itt for a few minutes at least.  He isn’t fond of his costume.

BettyAnn and her boyfriend show up unannounced without costumes, but they’re weird enough not to need them.  Simon P. Stein, the wanna-be vampire, more closely resembles Herman Munster—and doesn’t like the sight of blood.

So, LouAnn’s expecting a Pugsley and a Wednesday or two, maybe an attempt at a Lurch, a few Uncle Festers and possibly another Morticia.  What she gets are John and Abigail Adams, Don Adams as Maxwell Smart with his faithful Agent 99, and a plethora of rather obscure Adamses plus a gorilla who Wayne clearly doesn’t like.

Yuppers!  Halloween Liberty Heights style is both hilarious and memorable.  But you’ll have to buy the book to find out who the gorilla is.  I highly recommend it.  Just re-read the warnings at the top of my review.

Length:  97 Pages

Price:  $2.50

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/coming-soon/adams-and-eve-a-liberty-heights-halloween-short-story-detail

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Light My Fire by Elle Druskin

Blurb: 

Widowed single mother Kara Wilson has a lot more in common with Liberty Heights mayor and fire chief Woodrow Wilson than either realize. Both are secretly in love with the other, not daring to hope their dreams can come true. With the help of the “Miracle Dress” and Wayne’s psychic predictions, Kara and Woody just might have a chance for a happily ever after, Liberty Heights style. 

Review: 

Aw me-ann, I read Light My Fire too fast!  Once I picked it up, I couldn’t put it down.  As usual, Liberty Heights acquired one or two new residents and one or two people came home who had been living out of town, but the main romance focused on Kara Wilson, whose husband, Brian was killed in Afghanistan and Brian’s cousin and best friend, Woodrow Wilson who is Liberty Heights' mayor along with being a paramedic and fire-fighter.  Woody was in Afghanistan with Brian, holding him when he died.  Woody promised to take care of Kara and her daughter, Phoebe—not too difficult a promise to make.  If Woody had been just a smidge faster to ask Kara to the prom, she might have been his.  If he really got honest with himself, he’d cared for her since grammar school.  But Brian asked Kara first, so Woody took ditzy Lou Ann Freedbush who didn’t have a date and probably wouldn’t get one.  Woody is a genuinely nice guy.

Kara has feelings for Woody as well, and he’s always there for her, but she’s sure it’s because he promised Brian.  Will he ever see her as Kara, the woman?  It’s been over five years.  She’s stopped grieving.  She’s ready to date again, and she wants to date Woody.  She was happy with Brian, of course.  But if she’s really honest with herself, she’s had a crush on Woody her whole life.  She wished he’d asked her to prom, but Brian asked first.  Then Woody took that ditzy Lou Anne Freedbush.  That was such a nice thing to do.  She was sure no one else would have thought to ask Lou Ann out.  Should she try the Miracle Dress?  Would it make Woody notice her as a woman and not just Brian’s widow?

Liberty Heights is chock full of quirky people, and equally quirky animals.  Who doesn’t love a deaf dog who hangs out at the Chinese restaurant hoping for scraps because he loves Chinese cuisine, or a parrot who speaks French (not necessarily the French one uses in polite conversation)?  How about a chimpanzee who plays on the local Little League team, at least when they’re practicing?  Darned League won’t allow her to play in actual games and she’s a really good pitcher.  Or an ant-eater who prefers shoes?  Actually, now that Liberty Heights has a new French teacher, Antoine the parrot is spouting Victor Hugo and Balzac.  Wait!  Did George Washington sleep in Liberty Heights and was a battle fought there during the Revolution?  “Aux le barricades!”  Sorry, Antoine, wrong revolution.

This is Book Four in the Liberty Heights series.  Each book stands quite well on its own and will keep you laughing whether you’ve gotten to know the denizens of Liberty Heights and their history or not.  But they’re all funny and charming and wonderful to read.  If you want to feel good, pick up a book and take a trip to Liberty Heights, New Jersey.  You’ll almost wish you could move there, too.

Length:  205 Pages 
Price:  $5.50 
Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=736&category_id=58&manufacturer_id=138&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement. 

Thanks for visiting.  RIW

Hanky Panky (A Liberty Heights Novel) by Elle Druskin

Kaboom! A gas leak destroys Dana Fremder’s apartment and business in Brooklyn. With nowhere to go, Dana runs straight to best friend Hayley in Liberty Heights where a gunman is running loose. Or so Dana thinks. Voice over actor Hank Axelrod is loaded with sound effects that pop, whine, and screech, irritating Dana’s overstretched nerves. Too bad for Hank and Dana, that Hank’s Grandma Baumgart takes a joyride on a skateboard. Grandma has a concussion and an unshakable conviction that Hank and Dana are married. Nobody wants to upset Grandma. What can Hank and Dana do?

If you follow this blog and have taken my suggestion and read the first two Liberty Heights novels, you’re probably already in love with this crazy town and you’ll gobble up Hanky Panky hooting at the antics of the denizens of Liberty Heights, New Jersey the way I did.  You’ll hold your breath while the men of the town search through a blizzard for the most reluctant groom ever; laugh at the Sadie Hawkins Day steeple chase (so the single ladies can catch husbands, of course); and shed a tear for Phoebe Wilson.  She's turning five, and she lost her daddy in Iraq.  And only Liberty Heights would hold a Groundhog Day celebration using a meerkat to predict six more weeks of winter.  Of course, there’s Grandma Baumgart and her insistence that Dana and Hank are married.  Aside from that and a persistent headache that doesn’t seem to stop her from doing anything else, she seems to have recovered quite nicely from her concussion.  She even wants to ride on the scooter Phoebe Wilson got for her birthday, not that Hank or Dana want to let her—goodness only knows what delusion she’d come up with if she bumped her head again.

It’s Christmas Day as I write this and I told myself I wasn’t going to work today.  But I’m still chuckling as I write review and I had to get it down.  Ms. Druskin has pulled off something few writers can manage.  As this series goes on, it gets funnier.  I wish it was a television series so I could spend every week in Liberty Heights.  It’s such a great place to get away to.  Much as I love Chicago, it almost makes me wish I was a Jersey Girl.  And I’ve never heard of anything good coming out of Jersey before.  Ms. Druskin, you’ve rescued the reputation of a whole state.

Length:  193 Pages

Price:  $5.50

Buy Link:  https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore2/index.php?page=shop.product_details&flypage=flypage.tpl&product_id=626&category_id=8&manufacturer_id=138&option=com_virtuemart&Itemid=1

You’ll notice I always include the publisher’s buy link.  That’s because authors usually receive 40% of the book price from the publisher.  Editors and cover artists usually receive about 5%.  When you buy a book from Amazon, Barnes & Noble or another third-party vendor, they take a hefty cut and the author, editors and cover artists receive their cuts from what is left.  So, if a book costs $5.99 at E-Book Publisher.com and you buy from there, the author will receive about $2.40.  If you buy the book at Amazon, the author will receive about $0.83.

Downloading the file from your computer to your Kindle is as easy as transferring any file from your computer to a USB flash drive.  Plug the USB end of your chord into a USB port on your computer and simply move the file from your “Downloads” box to your Kindle/Documents/Books directory.  I actually download my books using “Save As” to a “Books” file I created on my computer that’s sorted by my publisher, friends, and books “to review,” and then transfer them to my Kindle from there.  That way, if there’s a glitch with my Kindle, the books are on my computer.  Your author will be happy you did when he/she sees his/her royalty statement.

Thanks for visiting.  RIW