#MMBBR #Feature Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It by @KarenTSafran ‏

 Parenting—Let’s Make a Game of It is an entertaining, easy-to-read book with creative parenting approaches. Through light-hearted stories, you’ll learn playful ways to stop struggling with your child and start having more fun. Each story stands alone, so you can read them sequentially or skip to a particular parenting challenge. Like many parents, the mom in this book faces everyday challenges during her children’s toddler through elementary school years. When she changes her approach and uses games, things quickly improve. Tension turns to quality time. And life becomes more playful.

Special Pricing (thru April 30th)

eBook: $2.99 (regular price is $9.99)

Paperback book: $8.99 (regular price is $11.99)

About Karen Thurm Safran
Karen Thurm Safran works as a marketing executive in K-12 education technology, making learning fun for kids. She has a BA degree in psychology from Mount Holyoke College and an MBA from Santa Clara University. Even though she works in an exciting industry, being a mom is by far her favorite job. As a parent, she gets to apply her problem-solving, organizational, and leadership skills to empower those she loves most--her two children.
When Karen's children were young, she found that parenting became more enjoyable, rewarding, and empowering when she used a positive and playful style, innovatively creating games to deal with everyday challenges. She wrote Parenting--Let's Make a Game of It in memory of her parents, and to spark playful parenting, encourage out-of-the-box thinking, and ease frustrating moments.

#MMBBR #Review #NewRelease #TrophyLife by #leageller @LUAuthors

A refreshingly honest, laugh-out-loud novel about losing the life you always wanted…and finding the life you were meant to have.

For the last ten years, Agnes Parsons’s biggest challenge has been juggling yoga classes and lunch dates. Her Santa Monica house staff takes care of everything, leaving Agnes to focus on her trophy-wife responsibilities: look perfect, adore her older husband, and wear terribly expensive (if uncomfortable) underwear.

When her husband disappears, leaving Agnes and their infant daughter with no money, no home, and no staff, she is forced to move across the country, where she lands a job teaching at an all-boys boarding school in the Bronx. So long, organic quinoa bowls and sunshine-filled California life. Hello, processed food, pest-infested house, and twelve-year-old-boy humor—all day, every day.

But it’s in this place of second chances (and giant bugs), where Agnes is unexpectedly forced to take care of herself and her daughter, where she finds out the kind of woman she can be. Ultimately, she has to decide if she prefers the woman and mother she has become…or the trophy life she left behind.

Authentic and sharply witty, Trophy Life is proof that granny panties and mom coats might not be the answer to everything; they’re simply comfortable (if slightly unattractive) reminders of what happens when one life ends…and real life begins.

Trophy Life by Lea Geller

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ When you're making your husband's green smoothie and forger to put the lid on the blender, and you're crouched on the counter staring up at the oozing ceiling when the housekeeper shows up and is standing under you, it's a good idea to be wearing underwear.

This book is a total treat! I loved it SO much. It was not only funny, but also deep and heartwarming. The story was so original and from the first line I was hooked. I adored the characters and found that they were fleshed out and developed supremely. I wanted to both buzz through this book and slowly savor it at the very same time. What is better than a relatable character that you cannot help but cheer for and want to be witness to their journey? To me, that is everything a good book is. Aggie is one I will not soon forget and hope to hear from again! A MUST read for spring!

View all my reviews

#MMBBR #Feature #FirstLine #TheEighthSister by @robertdugoni via #partner @MBeatie #newrelease

(Charles Jenkins #1)

#FirstLine ~ Charles Jenkins dropped to a knee and picked at the leaves and twigs cluttering the two graves.

A pulse-pounding thriller of espionage, spy games, and treachery by the New York Times bestselling author of the Tracy Crosswhite Series.

Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early sixties, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters.

Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital. But when he finds the mastermind agent behind the assassinations—the so-called eighth sister—she is not who or what he was led to believe. Then again, neither is anyone else in this deadly game of cat and mouse.

Pursued by a dogged Russian intelligence officer, Jenkins executes a daring escape across the Black Sea, only to find himself abandoned by the agency he serves. With his family and freedom at risk, Jenkins is in the fight of his life—against his own country.

#MMBBR #BlogTourHost #Review #FirstLine #NobodysWife by @LauraPAuthor via #partner @AgoraBooksLDN who provided a free #reviewcopy

‘Of the four of them, only three remained. And there was no going backwards from there.’

Emily and Josephine have always shared everything. They’re sisters, flatmates, and best friends. It’s the two of them against the world.

When Emily has the perfect wedding, and Josephine finds the perfect man, they know things will change forever. But nothing can prepare them for what, or who, one of them is willing to give up for love.

Four people. Three couples. Two sisters. One unforgiveable betrayal.

From the best-selling author of Missing Pieces comes a heart-wrenching story about family, loyalty, and obsession that will have you racing to the finish.

Nobody's Wife by Laura   Pearson

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ Emily woke on the morning of her wedding with a voice in her head telling her not to do it.

A story that will cause you to have emotions the Nobody's Wife was a book that made me think and feel. It was not an easy read, but I read that I won't soon forget. The characters are flawed with many complications, but you can still find things that you can relate to with each character. The story is quite original. I would like to warn that the ending will most likely leave you with some strong feelings. I thought it was a good book with some good depth.

View all my reviews

Laura Pearson has an MA in Creative Writing from the University of Chichester. She spent a decade living in London and working as a copywriter and editor for QVC, Expedia, Net a Porter, EE, and The Ministry of Justice. Now, she lives in Leicestershire, where she writes novels, blogs about her experience of breast cancer (www.breastcancerandbaby.com), runs The Motherload Book Club, and tries to work out how to raise her two children.

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #SophieLastSeen by #MarleneAdelstein via #partner @RAPublishing who provided a #free #reviewcopy

Six years ago, ten-year-old Sophie Albright disappeared from a shopping mall. Her mother, Jesse, is left in a self-destructive limbo, haunted by memories of her intense and difficult child, who was obsessed with birds. Trapped in her grief and guilt, Jesse stumbles through her workdays at a bookstore and spends her off hours poring over Sophie’s bird journals or haunting the mall to search for the face of her missing child.

When Star Silverman, Sophie’s best friend, starts working at the bookstore, Jesse is uncomfortable around the sarcastic teen, who is a constant reminder of her daughter. But Star has secrets of her own, and her childhood memories could be the key to solving Sophie’s disappearance.

With help from Star and Kentucky “Tuck” Barnes, a private detective on the trail of another missing girl, Jesse may finally get some closure, one way or the other.

Sophie Last Seen by Marlene Adelstein

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ The feel of the smooth glass stone between her index finger and thumb could always calm Jesse Albright, especially when she felt the start of a panic attack.

This book was intense, an emotional roller coaster. I was totally immersed in this story, in the characters and their struggles. It was one of those reads that made me feel something instantly. This book is based around a fear that every parent has or has had at one point in their lives, to have their child disappear. What lengths would you go through to find your child? Could you move on or would the loss consume you? This story broke me apart and eventually put me back together. It was a tearjerker and one I will not soon forget! Such a deeply moving story and a great book club choice.

View all my reviews

After twenty-three years in New York City, working as a film development executive for top Hollywood producers, Marlene Adelstein began earning her living as a freelance editor working on novels and memoirs.

When she’s not reading other people’s manuscripts or writing her own, Marlene can be found walking local trails with her dog. She is partial to chocolate labs and in particular hers, a good-natured girl named Honey, who is never more than a few feet behind her. Comfortable and energized in a big city but preferring to make her home in a small town filled with other writers and artists, Marlene lives in the beautiful Hudson Valley where she loves to listen to the noise of the birds.

Her author website is: www.marleneadelstein.com

The Amazon link is: www.amazon.com/Sophie-Last-Seen-Marlene-Adelstein-ebook/dp/B07K8T4JG3/

The Goodreads link is: www.goodreads.com/author/show/15097788.Marlene_Adelstein

#MMBBR #Feature #FirstLine #HerFathersSecret by @sarablaedel via #partner#GrandCentralPublishing who provided a #free #reviewcopy

#FirstLine ~ If she'd known what was about to happen, she probably would have just leaned back and enjoyed the show.

A woman's murder is only the beginning as a daughter races to unravel the maze of secrets her father left behind--before she becomes the next victim--in the latest emotionally gripping novel from Sara Blaedel, #1 internationally bestselling author with over 3 million copies sold worldwide.

After suddenly inheriting a funeral home from her father--who she hadn't heard from in decades--Ilka Jensen has impulsively abandoned her quiet life in Denmark to visit the small town in rural Wisconsin where her father lived. There, she's devastated to discover her father's second family: a stepmother and two half sisters she never knew existed. And who aren't the least bit welcoming, despite Ilka's efforts to reach out.

Then a local woman is killed, seemingly the unfortunate victim of a home invasion turned violent. But when Ilka learns that the woman knew her father, it becomes increasingly clear that she may not have been a completely random victim after all.

The more Ilka digs into her father's past, the more deeply entangled she becomes in a family drama that has spanned decades and claimed more than one life--and she may be the next victim...

"Sara Blaedel knows how to reel in her readers and keep them utterly transfixed." --Tess Gerritsen 

"One of the best I've come across." --Michael Connelly 

"Crime-writer superstar Sara Blaedel's great skill is in weaving a heartbreaking social history into an edge-of-your-chair thriller." --Oprah.com 

Sara Blaedel is the author of the #1 international bestselling series featuring Detective Louise Rick. Her books are published in thirty-seven countries. In 2014 Sara was voted Denmark’s most popular novelist for the fourth time. She is also a recipient of the Golden Laurel, Denmark’s most prestigious literary award. 

In 2016 she published the first book "The Undertakers Daughter" in a new trilogy set in Racine, Wisconsin: 

Already widowed by the age of forty, Ilka Nichols Jensen, a school portrait photographer, leads a modest, regimented, and uneventful life in Copenhagen. Until unexpected news rocks her quiet existence: Her father–who walked out suddenly and inexplicably on the family more than three decades ago–has died. And he’s left her something in his will: his funeral home. In Racine, Wisconsin.

#MMBBR #Review #VacationForDexter by @lindsaymward via #partner #twolions @barbfisch @blueslipperwho provided a #free #reviewcopy

VACATION FOR DEXTER!

Written and illustrated by Lindsay Ward

(April 16, 2019; Two Lions; ages 3-7; 32 pages)

Our favorite neurotic toy dinosaur is back!

Dexter can’t wait to go on vacation with his best friend, Jack. Supercool orange sunglasses? Check. Nifty travel hat? Check. Plane tickets? Uh, what? Dexter may be the toughest, coolest dinosaur around, but everyone knows T. rexes don’t fly! If anyone could do it, he could. It’s just that he’s suddenly feeling a little hot. And maybe a little nervous. But just as he starts to melt down, he notices Jack looks upset. Dexter realizes he has to be brave enough for both of them. And maybe, just maybe, he’ll start to have a bit of fun in the air.

Vacation for Dexter! by Lindsay Ward

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Dexter is the best. We brought this book on spring break with us and my nieces loved it. They loved the story, the humor, the adventure the characters and everything in between. It was a total hit! I highly recommend this readable story that both kids and adults will love!!

View all my reviews