Book Review ~ Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll

Luckiest Girl Alive

by Jessica Knoll

HER PERFECT LIFE
IS A PERFECT LIE.


As a teenager at the prestigious Bradley School, Ani FaNelli endured a shocking, public humiliation that left her desperate to reinvent herself. Now, with a glamorous job, expensive wardrobe, and handsome blue blood fiancé, she’s this close to living the perfect life she’s worked so hard to achieve.

But Ani has a secret.

There’s something else buried in her past that still haunts her, something private and painful that threatens to bubble to the surface and destroy everything.

With a singular voice and twists you won’t see coming, Luckiest Girl Aliveexplores the unbearable pressure that so many women feel to “have it all” and introduces a heroine whose sharp edges and cutthroat ambition have been protecting a scandalous truth, and a heart that's bigger than it first appears.

The question remains: will breaking her silence destroy all that she has worked for—or, will it at long last, set Ani free?

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Alternating between past and present events, the reader gets to intimately know the main character, Ani.  For anyone looking in, Ani appears to have it all - a glamorous job with a big-named magazine, the clothes that every women would die for and a fiancé that is not only handsome, but rich.  But beneath this perfect persona is someone with a painful past and  if disclosed, will bring down the perfect world that Ani has tried so hard to build.

Luckiest Girl Alive by Jessica Knoll is perhaps the most unique and fascinating book I have read this year.  The author has crafted  a story that deals with some tough and dark issues that will shock you, enrage you and in the end surprise you.  Ms. Knoll has a distinctive writing style that really involved me in what was going on with the characters and the plot.  My only big complaint is that I felt like I missed out on something while reading, because part of the ending just confused the heck out of me.  Otherwise, the writing is brilliant and the story engrossing - full of so many twists that you will be hanging for dear life as you try to keep up.

Would I recommend this book?  Sure. Absolutely.  It's definitely a riveting novel that will keep you engaged throughout wanting to know more.  Jessica Knoll has written an outstanding story and I look forward to future novels written by her.

A special thanks to Simon & Schuster for providing me with an Advance Reader's Edition in exchange for an honest review.

4 stars

Jessica Knoll has been a senior editor at Cosmopolitan, and the articles editor at SELF. She grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and graduated from The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, and from Hobart and William Smith Colleges in Geneva, New York. She lives in New York City with her husband. 

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Amazon * Barnes & Noble * Indiebound

iTunes * Google Play

Book Blast & Giveaway ~ Memories From A Different Future (Jump When Ready Book 2) by David Pandolfe

MEMORIES FROM A DIFFERENT FUTURE

by David Pandolfe

Publisher: Createspace

Published: 28 August 2014

Format: Paperback 270 pages

See: Full bibliographic data

Categories: Fiction General

ISBN 13: 9781500541507 ISBN 10: 1500541508

Synopsis

For Nikki, it feels like no time has passed since they rescued Henry’s sister from her abductors. After all, in the in-between realm, time is completely different than for those still “living.” Even though it’s been almost twenty years, only lately has Nikki started crossing between realms again. She’s been checking on Ian—the person they knew as Curtis before he jumped into a new life. Nikki hasn’t admitted it to the others but she’s been curious. Could Ian’s life really be as good as it seems? Can she find the courage herself to try the other realm again despite what happened last time?

When Nikki suddenly starts receiving ghostlike visits from Curtis—all these years since he returned to the physical realm—she can’t imagine how it’s possible. She also realizes it has to mean something serious. Nikki soon learns that, three days from now, an incident on Earth will end Curtis’s new life. Now, Nikki, Henry and Jamie must find a way to alter the outcome of a future event only they know will take place. They’ll also have just minutes to make that happen. Otherwise, Curtis is going to die again, taking with him any hope Nikki and her friends had for starting over. 

 Purchase LInks

AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

David Pandolfe is the author of three novels, Streetlights Like Fireworks, Jump When Ready and Memories From A Different Future (Jump When Ready #2). His short fiction has also appeared in literary reviews.

While he's still writing about himself in third-person, David should probably also mention that he lives outside Richmond, VA, with his wife, two kids and a dog who's terrified of thunder (not the best situation since it thunders from spring until fall in Richmond).

Author Links

Website * Twitter * Goodreads * Facebook

Giveaway

Giveaway is open to International.

Must be 13+ to Enter

Winner will receive a Signed print copy, of Jump When Ready,

Winner will Signed print copy Memories From A Different Future (Jump When Ready, Book 2)

Winner will receive a $15 iTunes gift card

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Book Review ~ An American Resurrection by Scott Thomas Campbell

An American Resurrection

by Scott Thomas Campbell

Synopsis

Teetering on the edge of suicide, Peter Cameron sets out on one final journey with the simplest of goals: he will plant a tree. Unfortunately, even the simplest objectives can be muddled by the unpredictable hazards of life and along the way Cameron finds himself caught up in a scandal that he alone must fix. In the end, Pete must come to terms with the beautiful insignificance of his life if he hopes to leave this world on good terms. "An American Resurrection" is a story about failure, redemption and a reminder that life is what happens while you're busy making other plans.

 My Thoughts

I’m not going to lie.  This was a difficult book to read.  It was not difficult because of poor writing – in fact, this book was extremely well written and the author is a magnificent story-teller.  The subject matter is what I found difficult - but life is difficult and doesn't always go according to plan – so I continued reading.  I am glad that I did, because a funny thing happened as I continued on the journey with Peter Cameron and his quest to plant a tree.  I became thoroughly engrossed in the story – turning each page to find out more and praying for a happy ending or at least a less tragic one.  Mr. Campbell managed to yank me out of comfort zone and place me firmly in his story and I found myself enjoying the experience. This book will make you think about life and everything in between, and after the last page is read, you might just appreciate the small things in life and realize that maybe stopping to smell the roses every once in a while might not be such a bad idea.

This book will not be for everyone, but it is one that I recommend that everyone read.  Once you start, I promise you that you will not be able to put it down.

My rating:  4 out of 5 stars

Purchase Links

Amazon * Barnes & Noble

About the Author

Writing for as long as I can remember, I have had my screenplays represented and optioned by a major Hollywood producer/manager. I have currently written seven feature-length screenplays, one of which was a finalist at the Nashville Film Festival. 

I currently have two novels completed. My first novel, "An American Resurrection," has received strong reviews and my second novel, "The Sandbox Kids," will be available by the end of September. (Both available on Amazon)

In the past, I have written advertising copy for a major advertising agency and broadcast copy for the local ABC and FOX affiliates.

I am currently teaching English at San Marcos High School. My wife, Christy, is a first grade teacher and I have two sons-Liam (5) and Blake (2).

Author Links

Goodreads * Facebook * Twitter

Virtual Book Tour - Yesterday Mourning by Renita Bryant ~ Excerpt!

Yesterday Mourning

by Renita Bryant

Fiction

Date Published: May 2013

Yvette is a forty-one year old woman struggling to cope with losing both parents during her twenties—one to terminal disease and the other to life’s complications. Over the years, she learned to repress the pain of watching her mother die and the resentment of having her father casually walk out of her life. Now as she packs her bags to return to her Georgia hometown and the house where final goodbyes were never spoken, a growing sense of uneasiness intensifies.

Vera is the kind-hearted stepsister Yvette never imagined nor wanted. She was an innocent teenager in search of answers when Yvette’s father, the Pastor, entered her life. Although broken from the loss of his beloved wife and daughters, he gave Vera the love and affection she so desperately needed. However, a childhood secret threatens to compromise everything Vera holds dear.

When the Pastor’s health takes a turn for the worse, both daughters must decide if they have the strength and courage to no longer be confined to burdens of the past. Will Yvette overcome feelings of abandonment and forgive her father before it’s too late? Does Vera’s childhood secret hold the key to mending this family’s broken relationship?

Yesterday Mourning is a heartfelt and poignant novella about two women learning invaluable lessons of forgiveness, love, loss and ultimately—peace. It is an impressive debut from an author with an authentic voice and a love for storytelling.

~Excerpt~

Understand I love my child with everything in me. I'm certain my mother loved me with everything she had. But even as my heart registered the beauty of that truth, it also knew her love for me wasn’t enough to protect me from her death. It wasn’t enough to still the tears or hush the cries. Not until I gave birth could I fully comprehend how difficult it must be to leave this world before your child, how heavy the burden must be to look her in the eyes while knowing your life is nearing its end, to grasp the reality that you won’t be able to provide any comfort because her very suffering is the effect of your causing. I couldn’t fathom how intense the internal struggle of wanting to spend your last moments with the being that you birthed and nursed and reared while also wanting to push her away because the very notion of your death is hurting her. My mother had to watch me walk in and out of her hospital room every day. She was forced to come face to face with her own feelings of failure. A parent is supposed to always be there for her children. How could she feel fulfilled in her final moments, when she knew Zoe and I were about to plan her funeral? Internally, I always struggled through this revelation. I fought back tears when considering that our presence denied her the ability to find peace in the end.

~BUY LINKS~

Amazon (eBook & Paperback) 

Barnes and Noble (eBook)

Smashwords (eBook)

Renita Bryant

Renita Bryant, a native of Fort Valley, Georgia, had visions of being a writer from an early age. "There's something magical about using words on a page to emotionally propel someone into another time and place."

Since obtaining her BS & MBA, Renita has worked for some of the world's largest companies on many of their most recognizable household brands. Although she finds the work rewarding, her passion for writing pushed her to complete and publish her first novella, Yesterday Mourning, in May 2013.

Renita currently resides in Ohio and stays actively involved in social media with her blog, Renita’s Mynd Matters,  Twitter (@Mynd_Matters), Facebook (YesterdayMourningBook), and Goodreads pages! She's currently working on multiple projects including book #2 and a collection of poetry.

Website/Blog: www.renitabryant.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/YesterdayMourningBook?ref=hl

Twitter: @Mynd_Matters

Virtual Book Tour ~ My Grandfather's Pants by Tegon Maus ~ EXCERPT!

My Grandfather's Pants

by Tegon Maus 

Contemporary Paranormal Fiction

Date Published: January 31, 2014

My grandfather, who went by Henry his entire life, was really born Francis Michael Laskin.  On occasion a few of the older relatives would call him Frank, a name he neither acknowledged nor accepted.  I had never understood it as a child but...  now in my early thirties, everything I knew about the man, his entire life, those that loved him and those that tried to control him all became clear and it all began with a pair of my grandfather's pants.

EXCERPT:

Silhouette framed by a lamp in the next room, casting a pale yellow light behind her, the dark, supple form entered.  Coming closer, she hopped a little, bending at the waist, raising her right foot, removing her shoe.  A step or two more and the sound of the left falling to the floor followed the first.  Another step, and to my astonishment, the soft, slow, sound of a zipper and her skirt slipped to the floor in a muffled heap.
My heart pounded so hard I could not swallow and feared the need to blink, certain it was a dream and she would be gone if I did so.
She stood near the foot of the bed, undoing her hair with both hands, shaking it lightly to hang loose about her face.  Closer now, her features became clearer and she smiled.
She stood in the delicate light and began to unbutton her blouse.  Slowly, one button at a time, she undid them all, allowing it to hang open, leaving her chest unencumbered.
"I have never been so afraid," she said softly as she undressed.
"Afraid?"
"Afraid, I would lose you," she eased herself onto the bed, crawling on hands and knees, to sit next to me.
"Gabriel, we can't. I can't..." I couldn't breathe, couldn't speak. I couldn't think.
"Are you not my mon coeur?  Am I not your Gabby?" she asked, placing a hand at the center of my chest,  her voice, low, husky, her accent thick with desire, pulled at the core of me.
"You know Connie and I..." I tried to push her hand away.
She held mine in return, pulling it close to press it against her cheek.
"I am beautiful for you, no?" Her voice held an edge of concern, as if I might actually say no.
"You are very beautiful.  You are one of the most beautiful women I have ever met," I answered honestly.
Her expression lightened, becoming more contented.
"It is not what you think, being beautiful.  Men ignore me, thinking I am out of reach.  Women hate me because they think I am prettier than they and that I am one of those... how do you say...?"
"Bitch," I offered.
"Yes, that one." She seemed happy that I got it right, sitting up, pointing at me and then to her nose as if we were now playing charades.
"Gabriel, we can't." 
"Do you not want me, mon coeur?  Do I not please you?"  She leaned forward, coming closer, her blouse bulging open.
"More than I can say, but Connie and I..." 
"No one will know," she whispered, placing a hand across me on the bed, lightly pressing her lips to mine.  Her mouth was soft, warm, inviting.  The feeling was electric, thrilling.  Her shirt had fallen open, exposing her exquisite skin and ample charms.  My heart fluttered with excitement, accelerated by a flush of wild desire. The smell of her need, the perfume in her hair, mixed in my nostrils and became an intoxicating cocktail, scrambling my brain.
“The stars knew we were to be together when they were young and the world had not yet come to be.  We could live in that moment...  in that passion...  in that hope the stars have waited all this time in expectation.  We could be happy, you and I.  No one but the stars themselves would know." She kissed me again, more urgently this time.
"I would know." 
Her expression shifted.  Tears began to fill her eyes.  She sat up, pulled her blouse closed with both hands, and moved away from me.
"There is no room in your heart for me?" she asked softly, half to herself, half to me.
"I'm sorry, Gabby, but I love Connie," I offered my hand in comfort. 
"You have not said these words to me before. Then she is the sun at the center of your universe and I am but a moon, hidden in the shadow of her brightness," she said sadly, getting up off the bed to find her clothes.
"Gabriel," I called, throwing off the blankets to follow her.
Without another word, the house filled with the sound of her running down the stairs, followed a moment later by the thud of the front door closing.
My heart sank and I felt like crap.


Tegon Maus

I was raised pretty much the same as everyone else... devoted mother, strict father and all the imaginary friends I could conjure. Not that I wasn't friendly, I just wasn't "people orientated". Maybe I lived in my head way more than I should have, maybe not. I liked machines more than people, at least I did until I met my wife.

         The first thing I can remember writing was for her. For the life of me I can't remember what it was about... something about dust bunnies under the bed and monsters in my closet. It must have been pretty good because she married me shortly after that. I spent a good number of years after inventing games and prototypes for a variety of ideas before I got back to writing.

         It wasn't a deliberate conscious thought, it was more of a stepping stone. My wife and I had joined a dream interpret group and we were encouraged to write down our dreams as they occurred. "Be as detailed as you can," we were told.

         I was thrilled. If there is one thing I enjoy it's making people believe me and I like to exaggerate. Not a big exaggeration or an out right lie mine you, just a little step out of sync, just enough so you couldn't be sure if it were true or not.  When I write, I always write with the effort of "it could happen" very much in mind and nothing, I guarantee you, nothing, makes me happier.

Website: http://tirgearrpublishing.com/authors/Maus_Tegon/index.htm

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tegon-Maus/150255051766767

Twitter: https://twitter.com/TegonMaus

BUY LINKS

Amazon / Barnes and Noble

Review ~ First There Wasn't, Then There Was by Troy Blackford

First There Wasn't, Then There Was 

by Troy Blackford

Synopsis:

Four young men have noticed a peculiar man wandering around the streets downtown where they work, muttering to himself with a trashbag slung over his shoulder. After one of them hatches a plan to capture the strange old man's words, the group quickly realize that the fellow has seen and done things that defy the imagination.

A metaphysical tale of action and adventure that takes you beyond the bounds of normal human experience and into a world of secret colors and hidden doorways, of uncoiling panthers and recoiling nailguns, 'First There Wasn't, Then There Was' is a novella unlike any other.

My Review:
4 out of 5 stars

The Lansburne Leaners are a group of four men who work for Lansburne-Bradley.  They got their name because every day at 7:50a.m., 10a.m. and shortly after 3p.m., they go out and have a smoke and lean against the building.  One day, they start noticing a homeless man walking each day muttering words they can’t understand.  No matter what, they never can get the man to talk to them.  Curious as to what the man is muttering, they devise a plan to record the man throughout the day.  Once they get the recording device back, they never in their wildest dreams could imagine the story that was about to be unfold. In a clear and concise voice, the homeless man re-tales a story that will change how the group looks at the old man………and at life.

First There Wasn't, Then There Was takes the reader on an incredibly imaginative journey into one man’s mind as he coped with unimaginable terror.  What started off as a story told by someone with a normal frame of mind at the beginning, quickly turned into a story told by someone who clearly had lost touch with reality in an effort to save himself from the horror that was taking place around him on that terrifying day back in 1980.  Although you really can’t believe what you are reading at times, you can’t help but feel for the old man telling the story.  The story within the story is truly amazing and really had something important to tell the four men who were engrossed by the man’s words.  In the end, the tears started falling from my eyes and I just wanted to give the old man a hug. Mr. Blackford is an amazing story teller and although this story was short, it was packed full with emotion and action that one might find in a full-blown novel.  Thank you Mr. Blackford for writing a well-written and thought-provoking story that will stay with me for quite some time.

Buy Link:

Amazon