Book Review and GIVEAWAY: All This I Will Give to You, by Dolores Redondo {ends 8/27}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

“Look, Manuel – may I call you Manuel? I always advise my clients to be candid and aboveboard, especially with their spouses. After all, their spouses share their lives, and spouses are those most affected by bereavement. Àlvaro’s case was no exception. I’m not the person to judge the reasons or guess the motivations that drove him to act as he did. I’m simply the messenger, and I accept the fact that what I’m going to say isn’t going to win me any points with you. But this is my duty. I made a promise to Àlvaro, and I will carry it out in every detail.” After a dramatic pause he continues. “Àlvaro Muñiz de Dàvila had been the Marquis of Santo Tomè for the past three years, since the death of his father, the previous marquis. This title is one of the oldest in Galicia. His family’s estate is only a few miles from the site of the accident, and although I wasn’t aware he was here, I can vouch to you that he visited regularly and was conscientious in attending to his obligations.”

Manuel found each successive statement in this account more absurd than the last. He failed to suppress a sneer. “You’re putting me on!”

“I assure you every word I’ve said is true, and I stand ready to provide proof and documentation to corroborate any part of it.”

Manuel looked back and forth between Griñan and the security guard down the hall. He felt extremely jittery. “So you’re telling me my husband was an aristocrat – what was it you said, a marquis? With an estate and land holdings, and a family I’ve never heard of?” His tone became brutally sarcastic. “All that’s left now is for you to say he had a wife and children.”

The first thing I thought when I saw All This I Will Give to You by Dolores Redondo was, “WHOA – that’s a big book!” Haha ... but then I read a bit about the author and was quickly intrigued. She also wrote The Baztàn Trilogy, a successful crime series set in the Basque Pyrenees, which has sold more than 1.5 million copies in Spanish, and has been translated into more than thirty-five languages. All This I Will Give to You is a stand-alone thriller that has been optioned for feature film (I do love a book and movie tie-in!) and television development.

Official synopsis:

When novelist Manuel Ortigosa learns that his husband, Álvaro, has been killed in a car crash, it comes as a devastating shock. It won’t be the last. He’s now arrived in Galicia. It’s where Álvaro died. It’s where the case has already been quickly closed as a tragic accident. It’s also where Álvaro hid his secrets.

The man to whom Manuel was married for fifteen years was not the unassuming man he knew.

Álvaro’s trail leads Manuel deep into one of Spain’s most powerful and guarded families. Behind the walls of their forbidding estate, Manuel is nothing but an unwelcome and dangerous intruder. Then he finds two allies: a stubbornly suspicious police lieutenant and Álvaro’s old friend—and private confessor—from seminary school. Together they’re collecting the pieces of Álvaro’s past, his double life, and his mysterious death.

But in the shadows of nobility and privilege, Manuel is about to unravel a web of corruption and deception that could be as fatal a trap for him as it was for the man he loved.

While I’ve read other books with hidden lives and identities, none has been accomplished, justified, and explained as well as All This I Will Give to You.

After being married for fifteen years, Manuel receives an unfortunate police visit during which he is informed that his husband has died in a traffic accident. As if that isn’t shocking enough, the accident has occurred far from where he thought his husband was traveling to for a business trip. This is just the beginning of the surprises for Manuel. Without knowing who to trust, he’s left questioning the most important part of his life, while learning about Àlvaro’s life before they met. Àlvaro’s family, who he told Manuel he had nothing to do with, is the key to finding out what happened to Àlvaro and why.

A big book is a big commitment, and as I read, I considered whether this could have been a shorter book, or even broken into several books. For me, I decided it’s perfect as is. The author explains each step of the mystery and Àlvaro’s life perfectly. Less detail would have felt less sincere, and there are no good breaking points as the story moves toward its conclusion. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars, and may check out the author’s other translated books when I have some free time.

All This I Will Give to You will be in stores and online on September 1, 2018 - click here to pre-order.

Becki Bayley knows the difference between its and it’s, here and hear, and you’re, your, and yore. Usually. She’s been blogging at SweetlyBSquared.com for more than 15 years.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a hardcover copy of All That I Will Give to You!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, August 27th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified the next day via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

All This I Will Give To You, by Delores Redondo

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BOOK GIVEAWAY: The Tell, by Linda I. Meyers {ends 8/22}

Linda I. Meyers' debut book, The Tell, was released on June 5th. One of my lucky readers now has the chance to win a copy!

About the book:

Linda I. Meyers was twenty-eight and the mother of three little boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, killed herself. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Linda believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother’s death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the seventies, she left her marriage, went to college, started a successful family acting business, and established a fulfilling career.

Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, The Tell is one woman’s inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose.

About the author:

Linda I. Meyers was 28 and the mother of three young boys when her mother, after a lifetime of threats, took her own life. Staggered by conflicting feelings of relief and remorse, Meyers believed that the best way to give meaning to her mother’s death was to make changes to her own life. Bolstered by the women’s movement of the ‘70s, she left her marriage, went to college and received her Psy.D., raised a family, and established a fulfilling career.

Written with irony and humor and sprinkled with Yiddish, “The Tell” is one woman’s inspirational story of before and after, and ultimately of emancipation and purpose. With stories ranging from witty to heartbreaking, “The Tell” showcases Meyers’ talent as a gifted storyteller. She chronicles her experience coming of age in a dysfunctional Jewish family during the ‘40s and ‘50s, her summer romance with a boy who grew up to be fashion designer Ralph Lauren, the rise of feminism, and running a family acting business that led to her son landing a memorable role as young Alvy Singer in Woody Allen’s Academy Award-winning movie “Annie Hall.”

Linda I. Meyers

“Women of any age,” Meyers says, “who’ve struggled to overcome the restrictions of their generation, or the disappointments of their upbringing will find The Tell to be a funny, touching and hopefully inspiring read.”

Linda I. Meyers is a psychologist and psychoanalyst in New York City and Princeton, N.J., who has been published in professional and academic journals. Two chapters from her debut memoir were published in 2016 — “The Flowers,” a top-five finalist in Alligator Juniper’s annual contest in creative nonfiction, and “The Spring Line” in Post Road.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my readers will win a copy of The Tell - enter below to win.

Giveaway will end on Wednesday, August 22nd, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Tell, by Linda I. Meyers

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Simple Wild, by K.A Tucker {ends 8/13}

November 15, 1993
Anchorage, Alaska

He settles those sharp gray eyes on me, the ones that ensnared me four years ago. If I'd had any idea how much heartache the ruggedly handsome man who sat down next to me at a bar and ordered a bottle of Budweiser would cause ... "So, I guess I'll see you when you're ready to come home." There's a rare touch of hoarseness to his voice, and it nearly breaks my resolve.

But I hang onto that one word to give me strength: "home."

That's just it: Alaska will never feel like my home. Either he truly doesn't see that or he simply doesn't want to.

I swallow against the painful ball in my throat. "Calla, say goodbye to your daddy."

"Bye-bye, Da-da." She scrunches her mitten-clad hand and gives him a toothy grin.

Obliviously happy as her mother's heart breaks.

I'm a huge K.A. Tucker fan, so I had a feeling I would like this book too. To be honest, I had completely forgotten that I signed up for this book tour for it ... so I started reading the book last Monday, and I finished it Tuesday night—which for me, nowadays, is a super quick turnaround, and shows how much I enjoyed this novel.

Official synopsis:

Calla Fletcher wasn't even two when her mother took her and fled the Alaskan wild, unable to handle the isolation of the extreme, rural lifestyle, leaving behind Calla’s father, Wren Fletcher, in the process. Calla never looked back, and at twenty-six, a busy life in Toronto is all she knows. But when Calla learns that Wren’s days may be numbered, she knows that it’s time to make the long trip back to the remote frontier town where she was born.

She braves the roaming wildlife, the odd daylight hours, the exorbitant prices, and even the occasional—dear God—outhouse, all for the chance to connect with her father: a man who, despite his many faults, she can’t help but care for. While she struggles to adjust to this rugged environment, Jonah—the unkempt, obnoxious, and proud Alaskan pilot who helps keep her father’s charter plane company operational—can’t imagine calling anywhere else home. And he’s clearly waiting with one hand on the throttle to fly this city girl back to where she belongs, convinced that she’s too pampered to handle the wild.

Jonah is probably right, but Calla is determined to prove him wrong. Soon, she finds herself forming an unexpected bond with the burly pilot. As his undercurrent of disapproval dwindles, it’s replaced by friendship—or perhaps something deeper? But Calla is not in Alaska to stay and Jonah will never leave. It would be foolish of her to kindle a romance, to take the same path her parents tried—and failed at—years ago. It’s a simple truth that turns out to be not so simple after all.

I've never been to Alaska, and now I want to visit, although maybe somewhere like Anchorage versus a more rural town like Bangor (which isn't a real town, but the author has said it's based on Barrow, Alaska).

Calla goes to Alaska to visit her father, whom she hasn't seen since she was about two years old, and whom she hasn't talked to on the phone since she was 12. Her father is dying of cancer and this might be her last time to see him. Calla, her mother, and her stepfather currently live in Toronto, where Calla enjoys all of the perks of city life - weekly manicures and hair blowouts, going out to the clubs with her friends, etc. So Bangor, Alaska is quite an eye-opener for her.

She soon meets Jonah, whom she dubs the "angry yeti," and later (unsurprisingly) falls for him, thus starting a narrative close to the one her mother had with her father—Canadian city girl falls for an Alaskan "sky cowboy" (pilot).

I really liked the chemistry between Jonah and Calla here—their back-and-forth banter was fun to read. Obviously Calla is in town for a not-so-happy purpose (her father is dying of lung cancer), but Jonah proves to be an interesting distraction ... and later a sad one, when she realizes she won't be staying in Alaska forever.

I'd recommend this book to fans of K.A. Tucker's other works, and/or for people who like a good YA (or New Adult, really) love story, with a dash of "real life" thrown in, too.

The Simple Wild will be in stores and online tomorrow, August 7, 2018.
4.5 stars out of 5.

{click here to purchase}

*Disclosure: I received an e-copy of this book for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Simple Wild!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Monday, August 13th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

The Simple Wild, by K.A. Tucker

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Quick Pick book review: Leah on the Offbeat, by Becky Albertalli

• Opening lines: I don't mean to be dramatic, but God save me from Morgan picking our set list. That girl is a suburban dad's midlife crisis in a high school senior's body.
• Reason I picked up the book: This is technically the sequel, or companion novel, to Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, which I really enjoyed (both the book and movie adaptation, called Love, Simon). 
• And what's this book about?
In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda—now a major motion picture, Love, Simon—we follow Simon’s BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst.

When it comes to drumming, Leah Burke is usually on beat—but real life isn’t always so rhythmic.

She’s an anomaly in her friend group: the only child of a young, single mom, and her life is decidedly less privileged. She loves to draw but is too self-conscious to show it. And even though her mom knows she’s bisexual, she hasn’t mustered the courage to tell her friends—not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

So Leah really doesn’t know what to do when her rock-solid friend group starts to fracture in unexpected ways. With prom and college on the horizon, tensions are running high.

It’s hard for Leah to strike the right note while the people she loves are fighting—especially when she realizes she might love one of them more than she ever intended.
• Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys books about teens, growing up, or coming to terms with your own identity.
• Favorite paragraph: "You know what I want for you?" Mom says finally. She smiles, almost wistfully. "I want you to let things be imperfect."
  
  "Okay." I frown. "But I do."
  
  "No you don't. You know? You have a sucky time dress shopping, and you're ready to call off prom. You wouldn't try out for the play because you're not the best actress in the universe."
  
  "I'm the worst actress in the universe."
  
  Mom laughs. "But you're not! Not at all. You just want to be the best. And you have to let that go. Embrace the suck. Let your guts hang out a little."
  
  Yeah, that's a fucking joke. Let your guts hang out. I don't even get that. Why would anyone want to live like that? Like it isn't bad enough that I'm always one breath away from falling apart. I'm supposed to fall apart under a spotlight?
  
  It's too much. And I don't want to embrace the suck. I want things to not suck. And I don't think that's too much to ask. 
• Something to know: You don't necessarily need to have read Simon before you read this one, but it might be helpful to give you some context about Leah (his BFF) and their relationship before this book.
• What I would have changed: Nothing.
• Overall rating: 4 stars out of 5.
• Where can I find this book? Click here to purchase on Amazon.

*Disclosure: I received a copy of this book for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Punishment, by Scott J. Holliday {ends 7/19}

Guest review by: Becki Bayley

Barnes felt more at ease as Andrea Wilson than as her husband. The pickax’s physical damage had broken Dale’s memories and made them hard for Barnes’s mind to accept, like pouring unmixed gas into a two-cycle engine. Andrea’s damage had been equally as severe but inflicted upon less vital sites. Her engine was humming, her gas mixture spot-on. She was dreaming of a garden, was down in the thick of it, in the mud, on her hands and knees. Barnes smelled flowers, soil, cut grass. He felt the wet earth squelching between her fingers. She dug a trowel into the dirt and popped a weed from its stronghold, smiled at the satisfaction of plucking the roots out. She tossed the weed into a wicker basket with a twisted wooden handle arching over the top. Beyond the basket was the gingham blanket Andrea had laid out; beside it, a small cooler. Lemonade in there. Tito’s Handmade Vodka, too. Barnes savored the taste of her future drink, a reward for a job well done.

Andrea looked at her house. In her dream it was a mansion on the estate she owned. She had let the staff off for the day, declaring that she would do today’s gardening herself. Her benevolence gave her a sense of superiority, and with it came calmness. Here striving for something better was over. Their lives were now full.

Punishment: A Thriller by Scott Holliday presents a possible future of police work, and in this book, it’s based in Detroit. Growing up just an hour or so from Detroit, I always love to find a good "local" book. This was a perfect combination of sci-fi, with a mystery/crime to solve.

Official synopsis: 

Do you want to know what it’s like to die, to kill, to really fear for your life? Then get hooked…

Detroit-based homicide detective John Barnes has seen it all—literally. Thanks to a technologically advanced machine, detectives have access to the memories of the living, the dying, and the recently dead. But extracting victims’ experiences firsthand and personally reliving everything up to the final, brutal moments of their lives—the sights, the sounds, the scents, the pain—is also the punishment reserved for the criminals themselves.

Barnes has had enough. Enough of the memories that aren’t his. Enough of the horror. Enough of the voices inside his head that were never meant to take root…until a masked serial killer known as Calavera strikes a little too close to home.

Now, with Calavera on the loose, Barnes is ready to reconnect, risking his life—and his sanity. Because in the mind of this serial killer, there is one secret even Barnes has yet to see…

I found this book to be a little confusing at the beginning, but just because I didn’t "get" the technology they’d brought up for the story. Essentially, they have a machine that can take memories and transfer them from a person to the machine, where other people can access them repeatedly. People are using the machine to live experiences they would like to try from celebrities or others, or in the case of this story, for law enforcement to access murder victim’s memories of the crime and seeing their attacker.

Punishment is the first novel in the Detective Barnes series about John Barnes, a detective with the Detroit Police Department. He’s brought in to replace the first detective on a serial-killer case – because the first detective lost his mind from the machine. Now Barnes is reviewing the memories of the previous victims and having the first look at the memories of the most recent victims. The victims seem random, but that would make the killer impossible to determine. How long before the killer strikes again? Will the victims in Barnes’ head always interrupt his own thoughts?

I’d give this book 3.5 out of 5 stars. I enjoyed the main crime storyline, and the way the clues were presented to solve it. The end of the book and actual solution to the crime was completely unexpected but felt a little forced. The romance was predictable, but I liked the female character.

{click here to purchase}

Becki Bayley is a busy mom who loves having her kids home for the summer. She also has been blogging at SweetlyBSquared.com for more than 15 years about their adventures.

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a copy of Punishment!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Thursday, July 19th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be contacted via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Punishment, by Scott J. Holliday

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Quick Pick book review and GIVEAWAY: Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win, by Jo Piazza

• Opening lines:Tell people one true thing before you tell them a lie. Then it will be easier for them to believe the lie.
  
  It wasn't the best advice Marty Walsh ever gave to his daughter Charlotte, but it had stuck with her for almost forty years.
• Reason I picked up the book: It sounded like the type of book I typically enjoy.
• And what's this book about?
From Jo Piazza, the bestselling author of The Knock Off, How to Be Married, and Fitness Junkie, comes an exciting, insightful novel about what happens when a woman wants it all—political power, a happy marriage, and happiness—but isn’t sure just how much she’s willing to sacrifice to get it. Charlotte Walsh is running for Senate in the most important race in the country during a midterm election that will decide the balance of power in Congress. Still reeling from a presidential election that shocked and divided the country and inspired by the chance to make a difference, she’s left behind her high-powered job in Silicon Valley and returned, with her husband Max and their three young daughters, to her downtrodden Pennsylvania hometown to run in the Rust Belt state. Once the campaign gets underway, Charlotte is blindsided by just how dirty her opponent is willing to fight, how harshly she is judged by the press and her peers, and how exhausting it becomes to navigate a marriage with an increasingly ambivalent and often resentful husband. When the opposition uncovers a secret that could threaten not just her campaign but everything Charlotte holds dear, she has to decide just how badly she wants to win and at what cost. A searing, suspenseful story of political ambition, marriage, class, sexual politics, and infidelity, Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win is an insightful portrait of what it takes for a woman to run for national office in America today. In a dramatic political moment like no other with more women running for office than ever before, Jo Piazza’s novel is timely, engrossing, and perfect for readers on both sides of the aisle.
• Recommended for: Anyone who enjoys books about politics, women, or both.
• Favorite paragraph: Meeting someone in real life after they've been your nemesis for more than a year was like meeting a character from a book that you didn't particularly like.
• Something to know: I'd love this to be a movie some day! My ideal casting would be James Marsden as Max and Jennifer Garner as Charlotte.
• What I would have changed: The ending ... it's more vague than I wanted it to be.
• Overall rating: 4.5 stars out of 5.
• Where can I find this book? Click here to pre-order on Amazon - the book will be released on July 24.

*Disclosure: I received an e-galley of this book from NetGalley, for reviewing purposes. The opinions expressed here, however, are my own.

GIVEAWAY:

*Three* of my lucky readers will win a copy of Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 18th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be contacted via email the next day and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Charlotte Walsh Likes to Win book

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: A Tangled Mercy, by Joy Jordan-Lake

Guest review by: Erin Krajenke

Gripping her coffee and feeling her way through the mist that clung to the water and to the mansions beside it, Kate climbed the steps of the seawall. A thousand miles of asphalt had made her stiff and bleary-eyed, but this view, her first of Charleston Harbor since she'd left as a child, was nothing like she remembered. 

'Left', Kate thought. Or been dragged away - that was more like it.

Where she'd recalled sunshine that was searing and gold and houses in a paint box of pastels and roses that spilled in reds and yellows so bright they hurt the eyes, here was a haunted gray silence. Spanish moss swayed from long-armed live oaks that seemed to be reaching and reaching for something they could not quite touch. Brick crafted by slaves walled off the gardens, broken only by wrought iron gates and low-growing palmettos spiked upward like swords.

Kate looked out over the water, as dark here before dawn as her coffee. Beneath her, low waves hissed over a strip of pebbles and sand. And for the first time since she'd walked out so bravely on her life in New England - how stupid she'd been to think she was brave, how incredibly, terribly stupid - nausea and doubt rose together. A thousand miles south she'd driven, all afternoon and all night, thinking that finally, after so many years, she was on a journey to answers."

“The quarter hour of warning drums would be stopping soon, even here in the Neck, the norther part of the peninsula that housed scores of free blacks and slaves hired out for their skills by their owners. He'd been given permission two years ago to move from the quarters behind the Russell home and into a room in the Neck shared by four other artisan slaves. They were still watched and patrolled and told when to be in for the night and how many could congregate where. But it had been a small taste of freedom, a taste he knew better than to risk by ignoring curfew.

But he's just signed on for a rebellion that, if it went according to plan and fanned the spirit of liberty and hope, could sweep the Low Country - could free slaves across the South.

And if it failed...then being hauled into the workhouse for breaking curfew would be the least of his worries.

Tom lifted a hammer and brought it down in a shattering blow.

I always enjoy books that take place during this era in United States history. I find them informative and very moving, so I was excited to read another novel in this timeframe.

Official synopsis:

Told in alternating tales at once haunting and redemptive, A Tangled Mercy is a quintessentially American epic rooted in heartbreaking true events examining the harrowing depths of human brutality and betrayal, and our enduring hope for freedom and forgiveness.

After the sudden death of her troubled mother, struggling Harvard grad student Kate Drayton walks out on her lecture - and her entire New England life. Haunted by unanswered questions and her own uncertain future, she flees to Charleston, South Carolina, the place where her parents met, convinced it holds the key to understanding her fractured family and saving her career in academia. Kate is determined to unearth groundbreaking information on a failed 1822 slave revolt - the subject of her mother's own research.

Nearly two centuries earlier, Tom Russell, a gifted blacksmith and a slave, grappled with a terrible choice: arm the uprising spearheaded by members of the fiercely independent African Methodist Episcopal Church or keep his own neck out of the nooses and protect the woman he loves.

Kate attempts to discover what drove her mother's dangerous obsession with Charleston's tumultuous history are derailed by a horrific massacre in the very same landmark church. In the unimaginable aftermath, Kate discovers a family she never knew existed as the city unites with a powerful message of hope and forgiveness for the world. 

Unfortunately for me, this book fell short. While I enjoyed all of the characters, the setting, and the story itself, something about it didn’t hold my interest and it took me a long time to finish reading it… it was almost as if reading it was a chore. I think it had to do with the overly descriptive writing style. I felt like it was trying to be more poetic than actually telling a story. I think the book has a pacing issue because the ‘meat’ of the story could have been faster and more concise.

Also, I feel that the suspense the book was trying to build was not the surprise it made it out to be and every new discovery was pretty obvious. I have read other books in this era/genre and with some of the same individuals (as this story includes real people and events) that were more interesting and that I felt had more heart.

Star rating: 3 stars out of 5.

{click here to purchase}

Erin Krajenke is a chatty Virgo who has never passed a crack she didn’t trip over.

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of A Tangled Mercy!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, July 18th, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be notified via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

A Tangled Mercy book

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