Tuesday, May 31, 2022

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #TheLatecomer by @jeanhanffkoreli via @netgalley and @CeladonBooks

The LatecomerThe Latecomer by Jean Hanff Korelitz
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ Mom had a way of of obfuscating when anyone asked how she and our father first met.

Beautiful and thoughtful this book was one I will not soon forget. It was complicated and messy and brilliant. It was one of those books that slowly seeps in and then you realized you have been changed by it without knowing it. It was deep and special. It was so good, that it is hard to really put it into words. It was unlike many other books and that is why I loved it!

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#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #MeantToBe by @emilygiffin via @randomhouse @BallantineBooks @Netgalley

Meant to BeMeant to Be by Emily Giffin
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ I don't remember my father.

I loved this book. It was sweet and captivating. I thought it was such a wonderful love story mixed with a deep and thoughtful characters. I was drawn in immediately. I felt a deep connection to this story because it was an imperfect story with flawed characters and missteps. A perfect book for book clubs.

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Monday, May 30, 2022

#MMBBR #Showcase Asian Pacific American Heritage Month #apahm #ChildrensBooks @HolidayHouseBks @PeachtreePub

 



Holiday House and Peachtree have an excellent selection of new and upcoming books for children and teens that are sure to educate, engage, enlighten, and—most importantly—help readers feel seen.

Chinese Kite Festival by Rich Lo (Holiday House, for ages 4–8, available now)

Animal names and their significance in Chinese culture is beautifully explored for young readers in this stunning book. Simple bilingual text helps teach children animal names in both English and Chinese. Paired with Rich Lo's colorful digital watercolors, this simple and practical introduction to Chinese animal names and symbolism is irresistible. For more from Rich, check out Chinese New Year Colors.

 

Boy Who Met a Whale by Nizrana Farook (Peachtree, for ages 8–12, available now)

A fisherboy is swept up in a thrilling seafaring adventure, complete with a kidnapping, missing treasure, and a huge blue whale! Author Nizrana Farook has crafted a briskly paced, action-packed quest that swells with empathetic heroes, missing treasure, and a great beast lurking beneath. Set against a vibrant, authentic landscape inspired by Sri Lanka, this delightful caper will thrill tweens. Fans of Nizrana’s first book, The Girl Who Stole an Elephant, will rejoice in another adventure!


Lali’s Feather by Farhana Zia, Illustrated by Stephanie Fizer Coleman (Peachtree, for ages 4–8, available now)

A vivacious and endearing story of identification, values, and the rewards in looking closely and thinking imaginatively. Farhana Zia offers a charming tale with an inventive circular structure that reveals the importance of looking beyond first impressions. Illustrator Stephanie Fizer Coleman brings this delightful story of imagination and inspiration to life.

 

All You Need by Howard Schwartz, illustrated by Jasu Hu (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, for ages 4–8, available now)

Follow a Chinese girl from her first steps, all the way to the moment she realizes a lifelong dream in an exciting new land. Ultimately, she creates a very special gift for her parents far away—this very book. Poet Howard Schwartz’s graceful text is made all the more potent by the illustrations of debut illustrator Jasu Hu, who used her talents to create a powerful narrative inspired by her own journey, creative and otherwise, from a childhood in China to her arrival to study art in New York.

 

Let's Go to Taekwondo!: A Story About Persistence, Bravery, and Breaking Boards by Aram Kim (Holiday House, for ages 3–7, paperback available now)

Yoomi and her friends are ready to take on the test for their yellow belts in taekwondo. But Yoomi is afraid to break a board. Meanwhile, Grandma is struggling to learn something new, too. But Yoomi and Grandma encourage and inspire each other. Yoomi discovers how, with persistence, focus, deep breathing, and above all, a loving Grandma, even the toughest challenges can be overcome. For more adventures with Yoomi, readers can check out No Kimchi for Me! and Sunday Funday in Koreatown.

 

My Dadima Wears a Sari and Sona and the Wedding Game by Kashmira Sheth, illustrated by Yoshiko Jaeggi (Peachtree, for ages 4–8, available now)

New in paperback are two picture books ripe with themes of family, ritual, and tradition. In My Dadima Wears a Sari, an Indian grandmother and her American granddaughter explore culture, imagination, and individuality through a sari. Experience the magic of an Indian wedding in Sona and the Wedding Game, a story of a girl playing a fun, traditional game on her sister’s big day. Kashmira Sheth is also the author of the Nina Soni chapter book series, which stars an Indian American fourth grader.

 

Luli and the Language of Tea by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Hyewon Yum (Neal Porter Books/Holiday House, for ages 4–8, available now)

All around the ESL classroom, children played alone. Luli couldn’t speak English. Neither could the others. But this time Luli had a plan. She pulled out a fat-bellied teapot and matching cups and called “Chá!” in her native Chinese. And suddenly all the children piped up, recognizing not just the word, but the shared pastime of tea. Newbery Honoree Andrea Wang—whose 2021 picture book Watercress received an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature—tells a touching story about children from many countries finding a common bond. The book is richly enhanced by Hyewon Yum’s perfectly pitched drawings.  

 

My Mechanical Romance by Alexene Farol Follmuth (Holiday House, for ages 14 and up, available 5/31/22)

Opposites attract in this battle-robot-building YA romance from the NYT best-selling author (under the penname Olivie Blake) of The Atlas Six. In her YA debut, Alexene Farol Follmuth explores both the challenges girls of color face in STEM and the vulnerability of first love with unfailing wit and honesty. With an adorable, opposites-attract romance at its center and lines that beg to be read aloud, My Mechanical Romance is swoonworthy perfection.

 

And if you’re looking further into the summer, we have. . .

 

Boys I Know by Anna Gracia (Peachtree Teen/Peachtree, for ages 14 and up, available 7/5/22

June Zhu, a Tawainese-American high school senior in Iowa, balances her academic expectations with her fraught love life and discovering what she wants for herself, outside of the expectations of her family and society. Readers of Becky Albertalli and Jenny Han’s novel's will be glued to the page as June navigates messy boys and messier relationships in this bitingly funny and much-needed look into the overlap of Asian American identity and teen sexuality.

 

Thursday, May 26, 2022

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #NeverComingHome by @HannahMMcKinnon via @netgalley

Never Coming HomeNever Coming Home by Hannah Mary McKinnon
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ The steady noise from the antique French carriage clock on the mantlepiece had somehow amplified itself, a rhythmic tick-tick, tick-tick, which usually went unnoticed.

Wow, this book was amazing. I was not sure what was going to happen or how it would end. It was intense and so well paced. What a rollercoaster. I will not soon forget this book. It would make an amazing book club pick!

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#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #TheVanishingTriangle by @inkstainsclaire via @netgalley and #LittleA

The Vanishing TriangleThe Vanishing Triangle by Claire McGowan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ Prologue - Imagine this.

This book was heavy., but such a dynamic true crime story. It was written in truth and honor to the missing. It was well researched and shined a light on a system that failed in more ways than one. It is a story I did not know about and I am now glad that I now do. This book will stay with you long after you finish it.

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#MMBBR #Review #Interview #Lost&Found by @kathrynschulz via @johannarb and @randomhouse



NATIONAL BESTSELLER • NEW YORK TIMES EDITORS’ CHOICE • An enduring account of joy and sorrow from one of the great writers of our time,The New Yorker’s Kathryn Schulz, winner of the Pulitzer Prize

“I will stake my reputation on you being blown away by Lost & Found. It is brilliant and profound and charming, all at once.”—Anne Lamott, author of Dusk, Night, Dawn and Bird by Bird

Eighteen months before Kathryn Schulz’s beloved father died, she met the woman she would marry. In 
Lost & Found, she weaves the stories of those relationships into a brilliant exploration of how all our lives are shaped by loss and discovery—from the maddening disappearance of everyday objects to the sweeping devastations of war, pandemic, and natural disaster; from finding new planets to falling in love.

Three very different American families form the heart of 
Lost & Found: the one that made Schulz’s father, a charming, brilliant, absentminded Jewish refugee; the one that made her partner, an equally brilliant farmer’s daughter and devout Christian; and the one she herself makes through marriage. But Schulz is also attentive to other, more universal kinds of conjunction: how private happiness can coexist with global catastrophe, how we get irritated with those we adore, how love and loss are themselves unavoidably inseparable. The resulting book is part memoir, part guidebook to living in a world that is simultaneously full of wonder and joy and wretchedness and suffering—a world that always demands both our gratitude and our grief.

A staff writer at 
The New Yorker and winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Kathryn Schulz writes with curiosity, tenderness, erudition, and wit about our finite yet infinitely complicated lives. Crafted with the emotional clarity of C. S. Lewis and the intellectual force of Susan Sontag, Lost & Found is an uncommon book about common experiences.


This book is quite unforgettable. It was raw, honest and dynamic. This is one of those stories that will resonate with the reader because we can all relate to losing something and/or discovering something about ourselves or the world around us.




Kathryn Schulz is a staff writer at The New Yorker and the author of Lost & Found, forthcoming from Random House on January 11, 2022. She won a Pulitzer Prize and a National Magazine Award in 2015 for “The Really Big One,” an article about seismic risk in the Pacific Northwest. Lost & Found grew out of “Losing Streak,” which was originally published in The New Yorker and later anthologized in The Best American Essays. Her other essays and reporting have appeared in The Best American Science and Nature Writing, The Best American Travel Writing, and The Best American Food Writing. Her previous book is Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error. A native of Ohio, she lives with her family on the Eastern Shore of Maryland.



Q.  What inspires your writing?

 

A. In general I’m inspired by all kinds of things—admiration for the natural world, an avid interest in history, an enduring amazement at the sheer fact of being alive—but in the case of my new book, Lost & Found, I was mostly inspired by the two people who form the heart of it: my astonishing father, a Jewish refugee who emerged from a childhood full of poverty and violence to become a wonderfully curious, compassionate, brilliant, joyful adult, and my equally astonishing partner, who has dazzled me from the day we met, and who gave me the great gift of inspiring me to write a love story.

 

 

Q.  What is your favorite thing about being a writer?

 

A. The permission to keep learning. In the course of just the last few years, my work has given me an excuse to study the geology of earthquakes, the biology of stinkbugs, the history of the Muslim community in Wyoming, the mystery of how animals navigate around the planet, and countless more subjects, all of which I’ve found fascinating. I feel incredibly fortunate to have a job that allows me to constantly educate myself about something new.

 

 

Q.  What is the toughest part of being a writer?

 

A. Until I met my partner, I would have said that it was the loneliness. Even if you have wonderful friends and colleagues and a writing community, the work itself mostly happens inside your own head, often in long, silent stretches, and it can be difficult to spend so much time alone with your own thoughts and problems and worries and doubts. I’m delighted to say that marrying a very happy writer who is also a very gifted editor resolved that issue for me. Now the only tough part of writing is convincing myself to stop procrastinating and sit down and do it.

 

Q.  If you could not be a writer, what would you do/be?

 

A. That’s a tricky one, since I’ve wanted to write for so long—and by now have been writing for so long—that it’s hard for me to imagine myself doing anything else. But I suppose if I could pick an alternate life, I’d be some a botanist or ecologist or wildlife biologist—someone whose job involved spending a lot of time outdoors playing close attention to the natural world.  

 

Q.  What would the story of your life be entitled?

 

A. Since I just wrote the story of my life, I guess it would be called Lost & Found!

 

Q.  What is your favorite book of all time?

 

A. An impossible question for a book-lover! But here are some books that have a special place in my private canon: George Eliot’s Middlemarch, Henry James’s The Portrait of a Lady, James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room, Virginia Woolf’s The Waves, Marilynne Robinson’s Gilead novels, and many, many volumes of poetry, from good old reliable Robert Frost to the contemporary oddball genius Anne Carson.  

 

Q.  Which character from ANY book are you most like?

 

A. I don’t know, but I can tell you that as a kid I identified strongly with Jo March, of Little Women.

 

Q.  What character from one/all of your book(s) are you most like?

 

A. Writing a memoir makes this one easy to answer: I’m most like myself!

 

Q.  Which book would you love to take a weekend vacation inside of?

 

A. T.H. White’s The Once and Future King, but only if I can choose to be in the comedic first part or the romantic second part, not the tragic final part.

 

Q.  What is your favorite season?

 

A. Spring, when everything is coming into bloom, which is also when my partner and I met. (Though our daughter was born in August, so now it’s a toss-up.)

 

Q.  What inspired your book cover(s)?  Or what is your favorite book cover and why?

 

A. I won’t spoil it, but there’s a crucial (and true-to-life) cameo by a falling star in Lost & Found, so I was thrilled when the designers put one on the cover. 

 

Q.  Are you working on something new?

 

A. Always! But those are shorter articles for my magazine job; I’m very happy to have Lost & Found out in the world and I’m not in a hurry just yet to write another book.

 

Q.  Anything you want to say to followers of this blog or those that are just stopping by?

 

A.  Just that I’m grateful to you for being interested in books, and I hope you’ll check out Lost & Found. If you’re worried about picking up a grief memoir right now, you should know that although I do write about my sadness over losing my incredible dad, the book is mostly about all the astonishing things we find in life—above all, if we’re lucky, happiness and love.

Monday, May 23, 2022

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #StrangersWeKnow by @ellemarr_ via #ThomasMercer

Strangers We KnowStrangers We Know by Elle Marr
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine - Blood doesn’t lie, or so the saying goes.

Wow, this book. Creepy, thrilling and unnerving all mixed together. Sheer delight and entertaining as can be! I could see this book being made into a Netflix series because it has all the makings of great book to screen adaptation. It was so well paced. I was engaged from cover to cover!! Be warned, you will want to talk about this book as you are reading it! So this book would make a perfect buddy read!

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#MMBBR #Showcase #FirstLine #Sleepwalk by @Danchaon via @HenryHolt

SleepwalkSleepwalk by Dan Chaon
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine - The first time it happened it’s October, and I’m driving through Utah with this young Filipino guy named Liandro.

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Sunday, May 22, 2022

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #NotesOnYourSuddenDisappearance by @AlisonEspach via @HenryHolt

Notes on Your Sudden DisappearanceNotes on Your Sudden Disappearance by Alison Espach
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine - You disappeared on a school night.

From that first line forward you will be entranced by this beautifully woven story about what it truly means to love, lose, grieve and try to make it through life when nothing is easy because you feel so broken. How can you put the pieces back together when some of those pieces are missing, seemingly impossible to find? You will be pulled into this story, into the characters lives…finding it hard to let them go even after you close the book! A must read!!!

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#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #OurLittleWorld by @kbookwriter via @DuttonBooks

Our Little WorldOur Little World by Karen Winn
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine - Prologue -I see my whispers of my dead sister.

Wow, I still cannot find the worlds to share how I felt about this book. What I can say is that, I felt this book in my bones. I am a sister…so on that level this story really spoke to me. The setting and the moment in time captured was also so perfectly plotted. A brilliant story that will remain with all readers on some level after they finish because it becomes part of the reader. The reader will be able to relate in some way, so the reader will become truly invested. This is a true sign of a beautifully told story! Wonderful!! A must read!

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#MMBBR #Showcase #FirstLine #Q&A #MudLillies by @IndyRamayan #IndraRamayan via @cormorantbooks


#FirstLine ~ Before my first rape, I thought I was pretty.


 MUD LILIES 
By Indra Ramayan
 
Indra Ramayan ran away from home at sixteen and worked to support herself as a taxi driver and then as an exotic dancer across Alberta and British Columbia. While her current career in finance has, as she says, “forced her to tuck away the wild child within,” the experiences of her youth, including the time she spent living with a violent man, have helped form the basis for her powerful debut novel, MUD LILIES (Cormorant Books; May 17, 2022; ISBN: 9781770866409), which tells the story of the unforgettable, unsinkable Chanie Nyrider.
Like her creator, Chanie (pronounced Shaw-nee) runs away from home at fourteen years old. She is fleeing an abusive home but is picked up from a truck stop at 4 am by a woman named Brenda, a dangerous predator masquerading as a friend. Brenda quickly gives her a street makeover and a new name, Jade. It isn’t long before Chanie finds herself in an even more dangerous situation, working as a high-value prostitute and navigating Edmonton’s seedy underbelly. As she describes it, “Every john in the city smelled my youth, my desperation, and my self-destruction. I guess there’s nothing more tempting than reckless fourteen-year-old sex for sale on the streets. I don’t even know how much money I made. All I know is that my mouth hurt, and my insides burned like fire. I also know that I cried a lot, and then one day, I just stopped crying.”

Chanie manages to survive until her eighteenth birthday, but after being beaten and raped by a customer, she is arrested for trashing a motel room. The police know she is a working girl, and they don’t believe she could be the victim. Faced with the prospect of jail time, she reluctantly enters a high school program for troubled youth. Though she knows she is too cynical for the program to work, anything is better than going to jail. And being in the program will allow her to continue drinking and getting closer to Blue, the enigmatic man she is quickly falling for, someone, who, for the first time in her life, has promised to keep her safe.

But the program turns out to be so much more than she imagined, and Chanie, who has spent her whole life desperate to belong, finds herself making actual friends, people her own age who share similar experiences, people who don’t judge her for her past, and see a potential in her she didn’t know she had. As Chanie begins to blossom in the program, the vestiges of her old life linger on the sidelines, most notably in the form of Blue, who begins to seem less charming and lovable and more unstable and deceitful. When he inevitably becomes violent, it is up to a newly empowered Chanie to find the strength to break the bonds of her old life and embrace a more hopeful future, one she spent years thinking was impossible but now knows she desperately wants.

Inspired by her wild past and writers such as Heather O’Neill and Angie Abdou, Indra Ramayan wrote MUD LILIES while studying creative writing at Athabasca University. She is a graduate of the Humber School for Writers and lives in Edmonton, Alberta.
MUD LILIES is the story about a young woman finding hope and heroes in the darkest of places and defiantly choosing to pursue them. This novel marks the debut of an exciting new writer to watch. 



A Conversation with Indra Ramayan, author of Mud Lilies

Why did you write Mud Lilies?
Mud Lilies is a tribute to the heroes and mentors who helped shape my life. The people who showed me who I am and what I’m capable of. Those who believed in me when I didn’t believe in myself. They were friends, teachers, agents, and other influences. They held onto me when I couldn’t hold onto myself. They spoke words of faith, hope, and potential. They were patient with my fears, anxieties, and distorted beliefs. And they celebrated my growth and transformation. This book is for the invisible heroes who change the world every single day.

Most novels are somewhat biographical. What percentage of your book is based on incidents in your life or inspired by events in your life?
I’d say a large percentage. While I never lived or worked on the streets, I did run away from home when I was sixteen and lived with a violent man. I escaped that situation and went on to drive taxi at nineteen for a couple of years where I met a lot of working girls. They loved having a female driver, so I spent a lot of time with them and got to know them well. And because they felt safe with me, they opened up and shared details of their lives. Many of them had suffered childhood trauma and had been assaulted by friends or family members in their own homes. And they carried shame, though they were the victims. I saw so much beauty in their vulnerability, and I cherished how much they trusted me. I laughed with them, and I cried with them too. There are some very tragic stories, and some very wounded women. There were a lot of young women who, sadly, never got a chance to make the changes they’d wished for because their lives were cut short by violence and/or addictions.

Your novel has a deep, penetrating sense of being based on lived experience. Are you comfortable talking about this?
I’m comfortable talking about anything that will help others experience their own lives with a greater sense of compassion and empathy, whether for themselves or others. I can personally speak to the toxicity of shame and how it makes you want to hide and makes you feel hopeless. I left the cab industry at twenty-one to work as an exotic dancer. The stripping industry was highly regulated, and our agents ran a professional business. But the stereotypes of bad girls and drugs tainted each and every one of us. Worst of all, my own mother chose to run wild with a dark narrative and labelled me an addicted prostitute. My voice didn’t matter, and neither did the reality of my very clean life. She decided I was bad, and my tarnished image and reputation completely annihilated my relationship with my family, friends, and myself. I hung my head low for many years. I carried shame that didn’t belong to me, like all those young women I’d known. And it was crippling.
I decided, after an eight-year absence, to go back into the stripping industry for one year. I embraced the experience fully, without shame, without apology. I loved that year. It was a year of reclamation. I recovered my self-worth and finally stopped apologizing for something I never should have apologized for in the first place. I’ve walked with my head held high ever since.

Unable to rely on her own dysfunctional family, Chanie’s friends eventually become her family, something many people with similar backgrounds can relate to. Why was it important for you to highlight Chanie’s need for family in the absence of her biological one?
Mud Lilies definitely highlights the human need to belong in a family unit. Chanie is a fragmented teenager when she runs away from a violent home, and we see the high cost of her broken youth in the way that she attaches to the first person who reaches out to her. She had never had a proper life model to shape her self-worth and judgment, so she tries to build her own misguided model with unstable people and a brutalized self-image. She is willing to sell her soul to stay close to her pack, no matter how manipulative and deceitful they are. She is economically, emotionally, and spiritually desperate. She has suffered abuse, trauma, and grief without any support. Even a wild animal, despite its instincts, will take food from the hand of a predator if they are hungry and desperate enough. Fortunately, Chanie is able to rebuild a better model by overcoming shame and trauma through her school friends, teachers, and mentors.

Stop apologizing for your perceived failures. A perfect life is a boring life. We are here to teach and learn from ourselves and others. No matter who or what you are, all sentient beings share core values and needs. We want the same things, we feel the same fears, and we need each other. There are no traumas so big that they are entitled to dominate your entire life. There is no shame that you can’t shake from your shoulders. It is your right to change course, your right to redefine yourself. You can heal, you can thrive, and you can be whole. There is magic to be found in the fires of life, but we can’t see it when we are fighting the flames. But we have to stay in the fight and put the fire out, so we can see past the smoke, flames, and destruction. So we can see the reclamation of our own personal forest.

What is your writing process?
My process is very scattered, but has three key things: my Boston Terrier, music, and movement. I find that my writing takes on a whole new energy if I combine the process with music, and sometimes, I’ll dance. There was a particular freedom and energy that I felt on stage that made me feel like I could fly. It awakened every sight, sound, and feeling. After a high energy show, I could feel every goosebump on my skin and loved the rush of my pounding heart. I felt fully alive. And I often feel that energy when I’m writing.  
My dog is also a huge part of the process. He keeps me real and balanced. He often comes to my desk with his ball and wants to play. He loves to go for walks in nature, and I find that walking with him often clears my head and gets me past writing and creative blocks.

Who are your favorite writers?
Heather O’Neill is amazing! Her metaphors and characters are pure magic, and her writing is vibrant and alive. I picked up Lullabies for Little Criminals years ago and fell deeply in love with the characters, language, and energy of the prose.  
My other love is Victor Hugo. He has a much different writing style than Heather O’Neill, but his work moves me in a deeply spiritual way. His words are exquisite, and his characters touch the very core of me.
I also love Persian mystic poets like Rumi and Hafiz. Their writing is wildly romantic and reminds me that great love is the essence of life.
 

Saturday, May 21, 2022

#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #MyWifeIsMissing by @djpalmerauthor via @goodreads and @StMartinsPress

My Wife is MissingMy Wife is Missing by D.J. Palmer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ As Michael Hart rounded the corner to his hotel room, he saw a small, lifeless shape lying on the floor of the hallway.

This book met all my expectations and beyond. I had heard so much hype on this book, so I was nervous to read it, afraid I would be disappointed. I was not disappointed, I was blown away! It was so good. It had so many twist and turns. It was so well written and perfectly paced. I was engaged and I had a hard time putting it down. If you love thrillers, this may become a new favorite! A MUST READ!!!

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#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #WhenWeLetGo by @rochwein via @netgalley

When We Let GoWhen We Let Go by Rochelle B. Weinstein
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ Deep down I already know the truth.

Wow, this book has all the feels. I felt like the characters were connected to me and I wanted things to work out for them. This story was full of truth. The story was a heartwarming and honest look at the humility of people. An moving and memorable tale that is perfect for book clubs!!!

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#MMBBR #Review #FirstLine #DarkCircles by #CaiteDolanLeachvia #BallantineBooks and @goodreads

Dark CirclesDark Circles by Caite Dolan-Leach
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ Hello listeners!

What a read. I though the premise was clever and the story engaging. I blew through this book and loved the twists and turns! It was not a story that you can easily figure out. It a bit of thriller, a bit a creepy and lots of fun! A must read!

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#MMBBR #Review #SomethingWilder by @ChristinaLauren via @goodreads and @GalleryBooks

Something WilderSomething Wilder by Christina Lauren
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

What a delight this book was. I loved that it was not the run of the mill romance. It had grit and adventure and a story that was a bit sexy. I loved that there was more to this story than met the eye. A super fun book any reader will wish they could hop right into and experience it for themselves!

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#MMBBR #FirstLine #FamilyOfLiars by @elockhart via @netgalley and @DelacortePress

Family of LiarsFamily of Liars by E. Lockhart
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

#FirstLine ~ My son Johnny is dead.

I was obsessed with We Were Liars. It was such a great book. One that I have yet to forget about and I read it when it came out. When I saw that there was a prequel coming out I was pumped!!!! I loved this book as much as We Were Liars. It was everything I hoped it would be and more. It had such a compelling story, interesting characters and spectacular setting. I read it super fast and was sad when it ended. A must read and a book I HIGHLY recommend!

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Tuesday, May 3, 2022

#MMBBR #NewRelease #FirstLine #Showcase #BookTour #TheHomewreckers by @mkayandrews via @StMartinsPress #MaryKayAndrews #StMartinsPress


I cannot wait to dive into this new release. I love EVERYTHING MKA writes, so this will be devoured this weekend I am fairly certain!!! Review coming soon!!! 



#FirstLine ~ Prologue: A Dark and Stormy Night
The wind howled and shrieked and the waves slapped angrily against the seawall, huge, looming masses of clouds al but blotting out the pale yellow crescent moon.

Summer begins with Mary Kay Andrews, in this delightful summer listen about flipping houses, and finding true love.

Hattie Kavanaugh went to work helping clean up restored homes for Kavanaugh & Son Restorations at 18; married the boss’s son at 20; and was only 25 when her husband, Hank, was killed in a motorcycle accident.

Broken hearted, but determined to continue the business of their dreams, she takes the life insurance money, buys a small house in a gentrifying neighborhood, flips it, then puts the money into her next project. But that house is a disaster and a money-loser, which rocks her confidence for years to come. Then, Hattie gets a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: star in a beach house renovation reality show called The Homewreckers, cast against a male lead who may be a love interest, or may be the ultimate antagonist. It's a question of who will flip, and who will flop, and will Hattie ever get her happily-ever-after.

Filled with Mary Kay Andrews's trademark wit, warmth, junking trips, and house porn, The Homewreckers is a summer beach delight.


Mary Kay Andrews

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MARY KAY ANDREWS is the New York Times bestselling author of 30 novels (including The Homewreckers, The Santa Suit, The Newcomer; Hello, Summer; Sunset Beach; The High Tide Club; The Weekenders; Beach Town; Save the Date; Ladies’ Night; Christmas Bliss; Spring Fever; Summer Rental; The Fixer Upper; Deep Dish; Blue Christmas; Savannah Breeze; Hissy Fit; Little Bitty Lies; and Savannah Blues), and one cookbook, The Beach House Cookbook.

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, she earned a B.A. in journalism from The University of Georgia. After a 14-year career working as a reporter at newspapers including The Savannah Morning News, The Marietta Journal, and The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, where she spent the final ten years of her career, she left journalism in 1991 to write fiction.

Her first novel, Every Crooked Nanny, was published in 1992 by HarperCollins. She went on to write ten critically acclaimed mysteries under her real name, Kathy Hogan Trocheck. In 2002, she assumed the pen name Mary Kay Andrews with the publication of Savannah Blues. In 2006, Hissy Fit became her first New York Times bestseller, followed by twelve more New York Times, USA Today and Publisher’s Weekly bestsellers. To date, her novels have been published in German, Italian, Polish, Slovenian, Hungarian, Dutch, Czech and Japanese.

She and her family divide their time between Atlanta and Tybee Island, GA, where they cook up new recipes in two restored beach homes, The Breeze Inn and Ebbtide—both named after fictional places in Mary Kay’s novels, and both available to rent through Tybee Vacation Rentals. In between cooking, spoiling her grandkids, and plotting her next novel, Mary Kay is an intrepid treasure hunter whose favorite pastime is junking and fixing up old houses.
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THE HOMEWRECKERS BOOK TOUR

4/30—Atlanta Launch Party: https://bit.ly/HW_ATL 
5/1—Buena Vista, GA [SOLD OUT!]: https://bit.ly/HW_BuenaVista 
5/2—St. Simon’s Island: https://bit.ly/HW_StSimons 
5/3—Bluffton, SC: https://bit.ly/HW_Bluffton 
5/3—Savannah Launch Party: https://bit.ly/HW_Savannah 
5/4—Cleveland Friends & Fiction Live: https://bit.ly/FFLive_CLE 
5/5—Charleston, SC: https://bit.ly/HW_Charleston 
5/6—Pawley’s Island, SC: https://bit.ly/HW_Pawleys 
5/6—Ocean Isle, NC: https://bit.ly/HW_OceanIsle 
5/7—Southern Pines, NC: https://bit.ly/HW_SPines 
5/7—Raleigh, NC: https://bit.ly/HW_Raleigh 
5/8—Winston, NC Mothers Day lunch: https://bit.ly/HW_Winston 
5/9—Greenville, SC [SOLD OUT!]: https://bit.ly/HW_GvilleAM 
5/9—Greenville, SC: https://bit.ly/HW_GvillePM 
5/10—St. Pete, FL: https://bit.ly/HW_StPete 
5/11—Punta Gorda, FL: https://bit.ly/HW_PuntaGorda 
5/11—Tampa, FL: https://bit.ly/HW_Tampa 
5/12—Fairhope, AL: https://bit.ly/HW_Fairhope 
5/13—Seaside, FL: https://bit.ly/HW_Sundog 
5/14—Wetumpka, AL: https://bit.ly/HW_Wetumpka 
5/14—Birmingham, AL: https://bit.ly/HW_Bham 
5/20—Jersey Shore Friends & Fiction Live: https://bit.ly/FFLive_NJ 
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