Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Feast of Sorrow, by Crystal King {ends 10/10}

Guest review by: Karen Doerr

“You are wondering why I’m chopping vegetables with you.” It wasn’t a question.

“The thought had crossed my mind, Dominus.”

He pushed the chopped carrot to the side and took up the parsnips. “When I am in the kitchen, making food, it is as though the gods are with me.”

“What do you mean, Dominus?” I was not accustomed to asking my master questions, but Apicius seemed to be inviting conversation.

“I feel a sense of calmness, of true competence, infusing me. The same energy fills me when I am chopping and stirring, or when I discover a new wine vintage. Such culinary experiences bring me great pleasure.”

As a foodie and history buff, I was excited to start Feast of Sorrow by Crystal King. I thought that it would combine my two greatest loves into a story of political ambition with a hint of tragedy. What I got instead was an overly long, complicated and quite frankly, dull story. Such a shame for a concept that had amazing potential!

Official synopsis:

Set amongst the scandal, wealth, and upstairs-downstairs politics of a Roman family, Crystal King’s seminal debut features the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook and the ambition that led to his destruction.

On a blistering day in the twenty-sixth year of Augustus Caesar’s reign, a young chef, Thrasius, is acquired for the exorbitant price of twenty thousand denarii. His purchaser is the infamous gourmet Marcus Gavius Apicius, wealthy beyond measure, obsessed with a taste for fine meals from exotic places, and a singular ambition: to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar, an honor that will cement his legacy as Rome's leading epicure.

Apicius rightfully believes that Thrasius is the key to his culinary success, and with Thrasius’s help he soon becomes known for his lavish parties and fantastic meals. Thrasius finds a family in Apicius’s household, his daughter Apicata, his wife Aelia, and her handmaiden, Passia, with whom Thrasius quickly falls in love. But as Apicius draws closer to his ultimate goal, his reckless disregard for any who might get in his way takes a dangerous turn that threatens his young family and places his entire household at the mercy of the most powerful forces in Rome.

As strange as it sounds, I’ve had a keen interest in the dietary habits of Ancient Rome for quite a while. I have to believe that when your god of wine doubles as the god of ritual madness, you know how to have a good time. I admired Lucilius’ mentality and have occasionally referred to solitary meals as dining with myself. It saddens me that Rome has turned away from dormice and garum, as much as I do love modern Italian cuisine. I was hoping that this novel would expound on my knowledge. While the author had clearly done her research on the topic, I think her factoids would be better appreciated by someone with a little less background on the topic.

We discover at the end of the story that one of the main characters was a true historical figure. I think it would have been better to present this at the beginning to give some perspective. It at least would have explained the title. The over-arching story depends on the reader becoming emotionally invested in the main characters. This took much longer to build than I would have thought as so many characters are initially presented. It doesn’t help that the naming traditions leave many key figures with similar sounding names. One also needs to keep in mind that one character may be called many different things depending on who is speaking. It took me a while to sort it all out. It would have been helpful to have a character guide of some sort.

My biggest complaint about the book was how quickly conflict seemed to be resolved. The author would present something that left me wondering how it would be handled, only to have it wrapped up in a neat package two paragraphs later. I doubt that I would have finished the book if I had just picked it up from the library.

2 stars out of 5.
{Click here to purchase}


Karen K. Doerr is a self-proclaimed glutton with a habit of watching food documentaries while eating take out. She can usually be heard complaining that her jeans shrunk in the wash. 

GIVEAWAY:

Enter via the widget below to win a hardcover copy of Feast of Sorrow.

Giveaway will end on Tuesday, October 10th, 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!

Feast of Sorrow hardcover book

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Book Review and SIGNED copy giveaway: Class Mom, by Laurie Gelman {2 winners, ends 10/4}

Subject: Getting to know me - your new class mom

Hello, parents of Miss Ward's kindergarten class!

My name is Jennifer Dixon and I have "volunteered" to be your class mom for this coming year. Since this is a thankless job, don't expect warm fuzzy emails like you probably got in preschool. Wake up! You're in kindergarten on the mean streets of William H. Taft Elementary School, and it's time to face a few facts. The main one is that I'm in charge and I have some strong suggestions to make this an easy year for all of us, especially me.

First and foremost, read the school's @#$%& weekly email! It may seem boring, but it actually gives good information and keeps me from having to answer questions like "When is curriculum night?" (See below, by the way, for the answer to that one)

This is Laurie Gelman's first novel, and I found myself laughing out loud while reading it. If you enjoy books written with a hilarious first-person POV, you will enjoy this one.

Official synopsis:

Laurie Gelman's clever debut novel about a year in the life of a kindergarten class mom - a brilliant send-up of the petty and surprisingly cutthroat terrain of parent politics.

Jen Dixon is not your typical Kansas City kindergarten class mom—or mom in general. Jen already has two college-age daughters by two different (probably) musicians, and it's her second time around the class mom block with five-year-old Max—this time with a husband and father by her side. Though her best friend and PTA President sees her as the-wisest-candidate for the job (or oldest), not all of the other parents agree.

From recording parents' response times to her emails about helping in the classroom, to requesting contributions of-special-brownies for curriculum night, not all of Jen's methods win approval from the other moms. Throw in an old flame from Jen's past, a hyper-sensitive -allergy mom,-a surprisingly sexy kindergarten teacher, and an impossible-to-please Real Housewife-wannabe, causing problems at every turn, and the job really becomes much more than she signed up for.

Relatable, irreverent, and hilarious in the spirit of Maria Semple this is a fresh, welcome voice in fiction--the kind of novel that real moms clamor for, and a vicarious thrill-read for all mothers, who will be laughing as they are liberated by Gelman's acerbic truths.

I love books that include emails, and this one included all of the emails from Jen, as class mom, to the kindergarten class. The emails were hysterical, too, and some of the parents didn't know what to make of them, although they were meant to be light-hearted and sarcastic.

Jen is in her mid-40s, so she's one of the older moms in the class; her son, Max, is her third child, and her two daughters are in their 20s and in college. This isn't her first rodeo, but parents these days are definitely more demanding than 15-20 years ago, and as class mom, she has to make sure everyone is accommodated, or at least their children are.

Jen was definitely a funny character, and because the book is written in first-person POV (point of view), we get to see inside her head a bit too. One of her friends asked her to sign up for class mom (a job she would probably not normally sign up for), and Class Mom follows her throughout Max's kindergarten year, and all of the trials and tribulations that pop up along the way.

The supporting characters here were well-written, too: from her husband, Ron, to her friends and trainer, who actually ends up dating one of her friends.

Although I'm fairly certain that this is a standalone book, I wouldn't mind seeing a sequel, as we get a peek of the future (Max's 1st grade year) at the end of the novel, too.

Fun fact, too: if you are a fan of Regis & Kelly (aka Live with Kelly & Ryan in its current incarnation), you might have heard of the producer, Michael Gelman - Laurie Gelman is his wife. I didn't figure this out until I read her bio (she lives in NYC) and remembered Regis yelling "Gelman!" all of the time, ha ... and then when I Googled it, I then put the pieces together.

4 stars out of 5.

{Click here to purchase}

GIVEAWAY:

Enter via the widget below. Two of my lucky readers will each win a signed copy of Class Mom!

Giveaway will end on Wednesday, October 4th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be contacted 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!

Class Mom - 2 autographed copies

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GIVEAWAY: The Welcome Home Diner, by Peggy Lampman {3 winners! Ends 9/20}

The Welcome Home Diner will hit stores on October 10th, but three of my lucky readers have the chance to win a copy beforehand!

It takes place in Detroit, too, which is awesome! (I live in the metro Detroit area)

About the book:

Betting on the city of Detroit’s eventual comeback, cousins Addie and Samantha decide to risk it all on an affordable new house and a culinary career that starts with renovating a vintage diner in a depressed area of town. There’s just one little snag in their vision.

Angus, a weary, beloved local, is strongly opposed to his neighborhood’s gentrification—and his concerns reflect the suspicion of the community. Shocked by their reception, Addie and Samantha begin to have second thoughts.

As the long hours, problematic love interests, and underhanded pressures mount, the two women find themselves increasingly at odds, and soon their problems threaten everything they’ve worked for. If they are going to realize their dreams, Addie and Samantha must focus on rebuilding their relationship. But will the neighborhood open their hearts to welcome them home?

GIVEAWAY:

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Wednesday, September 20th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified via email the next day, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner(s) will be chosen.

U.S. and Canadian residents only, please. Prize will be shipped from the author.

Good luck!

The Welcome Home Diner book - 3 winners

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: All Things New, by Lauren Miller {2 autographed copies! ends 9/14}

"You coming, Jessa?" I hear Hannah say.

I yank the puppet strings, head up, smile, nod, and follow her down the hall.

"Meet you on G at lunch?" she asks when we get to my English class. So casually, like it's not even a question. Like we're already friends. Immediately I have the thought, if only it were that easy. And then I have the thought, maybe it is.

This is the second book I've read by Lauren Miller—the first one, Free to Fall, was more of a dystopian novel, and All Things New takes place in present-day. However, both novels were very good, and I recommend reading both.

Official synopsis:

Jessa has always felt broken inside, but she’s gotten very good at hiding it. No one at school knows about the panic attacks, the therapy that didn't help, the meds that haven’t worked. But when a severe accident leaves her with a brain injury and visible scars, Jessa’s efforts to convince the world that she’s okay finally crumble—now she looks as shattered as she feels.

Fleeing from her old life in Los Angeles, Jessa moves to Colorado to live with her dad, where she meets Marshall, a boy whose kindness and generous heart slowly draw Jessa out of her walled-off shell and into the broken, beautiful, real world—a place where souls get hurt just as badly as bodies, and we all need each other to heal.

ALL THINGS NEW is a love story about perception and truth, physical and emotional pain, and the messy, complicated people we are behind the masks we put on for the world, perfect for fans of ALL THE BRIGHT PLACES and THE FAULT IN OUR STARS.

This book was a little different than your typical YA book—the protagonist, Jessa, ends up in a bad car accident (through no fault of her own, as someone was texting and driving and hit her) and lands in the hospital. That same night, she had found out that her boyfriend of two years was cheating on her, too. Her dad, who lives in Colorado, extends her an offer to finish up high school there and live with him, and she takes it.

Jessa also has anxiety and panic attacks, which makes her a not-so-typical YA heroine. When she moves to Denver to live with her dad, she meets Marshall and his twin sister, Hannah; Hannah is a perfectionist and a student pianist who is obsessed with getting into Interlochen (Michigan shoutout!) and Marshall has had a small hole in his heart ever since he was born.

I enjoyed this book, though I'll admit I liked Free to Fall, the author's other novel, a bit better (though really, they can't be compared, as the subject matter and time frames are completely different). Jessa is a strong heroine although it takes her a while to realize how strong she is—when her strength is needed, however, she steps up to the plate. All of the supporting characters worked well together, too, and Jessa eventually figures out that even though her parents are divorced, her dad has never stopped caring about her.

I could see this being a good movie, as well—I'd have to think about who I'd cast, but I was thinking Logan Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower) as Marshall and Zoey Deutch (Before I Fall) as Jessa.

3.5 stars out of 5.
{Click here to purchase}

GIVEAWAY:

Enter via the widget below. Two of my lucky readers will win an autographed copy of All Things New!

Giveaway will end on Thursday, September 14th, 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!

2 autographed copies of All Things New

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GIVEAWAY: The Crows of Beara, by Julie Christine Johnson {ends 9/11}

The Crows of Beara was released yesterday, and one of my lucky readers has a chance to win a copy! Your choice of print copy OR Kindle (e-book).

About the book:

Along the windswept coast of Ireland, a woman discovers the landscape of her own heart.

When Annie Crowe travels from Seattle to a small Irish village to promote a new copper mine, her public relations career is hanging in the balance. Struggling to overcome her troubled past and a failing marriage, Annie is eager for a chance to rebuild her life.

Yet when she arrives on the remote Beara Peninsula, Annie learns that the mine would encroach on the nesting ground of an endangered bird, the Red-billed Chough, and many in the community are fiercely protective of this wild place. Among them is Daniel Savage, a local artist battling demons of his own, who has been recruited to help block the mine.

Despite their differences, Annie and Daniel find themselves drawn toward each other, and, inexplicably, they begin to hear the same voice—a strange, distant whisper of Gaelic, like sorrow blowing in the wind.

Guided by ancient mythology and challenged by modern problems, Annie must confront the half-truths she has been sent to spread and the lies she has been telling herself. Most of all, she must open her heart to the healing power of this rugged land and its people.

Beautifully crafted with environmental themes, a lyrical Irish setting, and a touch of magical realism, The Crows of Beara is a breathtaking novel of how the nature of place encompasses everything that we are.

GIVEAWAY:

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

U.S. only if you choose the print copy, but open to international if you choose the Kindle copy.

Good luck!

The Crows of Beara book

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: Autoboyography, by Christina Lauren {ends 9/1}

Light bursts behind my closed eyes, so intensely I nearly hear the popping sound. It's my brain melting, or my world ending, or maybe we've just been hit by a meteor and this is the rapture and I'm given one last perfect moment before I'm sent to purgatory and he's sent somewhere much, much better.

It isn't his first kiss—I know that—but it's his first real one.

When I heard that Christina Lauren (one of my favorite author duo pairs) was writing a book about a same sex couple, I was intrigued—all of their other books focus on heterosexual couples. As with all of their novels, this one ended up being a great read, and readers will definitely root for Tanner and Sebastian, the couple in the story.

Official synopsis:

Fangirl meets Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in this funny and poignant coming-of-age novel from New York Times bestselling author Christina Lauren about two boys who fall in love in a writing class—one from a progressive family and the other from a conservative religious community.

Three years ago, Tanner Scott’s family relocated from California to Utah, a move that nudged the bisexual teen temporarily back into the closet. Now, with one semester of high school to go, and no obstacles between him and out-of-state college freedom, Tanner plans to coast through his remaining classes and clear out of Utah.

But when his best friend Autumn dares him to take Provo High’s prestigious Seminar—where honor roll students diligently toil to draft a book in a semester—Tanner can’t resist going against his better judgment and having a go, if only to prove to Autumn how silly the whole thing is. Writing a book in four months sounds simple. Four months is an eternity.

It turns out, Tanner is only partly right: four months is a long time. After all, it takes only one second for him to notice Sebastian Brother, the Mormon prodigy who sold his own Seminar novel the year before and who now mentors the class. And it takes less than a month for Tanner to fall completely in love with him.

I didn't know much about Utah and the Mormon community before reading this book, and now I'm curious to know more. I did know that Mormons don't drink, and apparently that extends to any caffeinated beverages, too, not just alcohol; and that a large portion of Mormons live in Utah near the Salt Lake City area. But Autoboyography delves completely into the world of the Mormon church and what their beliefs usually entail, as Sebastian's family is LDS (Latter Day Saints) and he is expected to follow their "rules."

What makes the other main character (Tanner) here even more interesting is that his family isn't unfamiliar with LDS and the Church: his mother grew up LDS, and then when her parents ex-communicated her gay sister, she left, and hasn't talked to them since. I actually would have been interested in hearing more about this storyline, too, though we only get bits and pieces of it.

Both Tanner and Sebastian are intriguing characters, as is Autumn, Tanner's best friend. Tanner is actually bisexual, and Sebastian is gay, but in the Church, being gay is definitely frowned upon—the rules are pretty interesting, as "being" gay is allowed but "acting" upon homosexual "urges" is not. There's a scene in the book when Sebastian's parents are discussing an LDS kid who married his boyfriend, and they say something like "his poor parents"—which Sebastian and Tanner then overhear.

This book is a teen love story but not your typical one, and although (semi-spoiler?) the characters do get a HEA, it takes a while for them to get there.

Autoboyography will be in stores and online on September 12th. 4 stars out of 5.
{Click here to pre-order}

GIVEAWAY:

One of my lucky readers will win a copy of Autoboyography!

Enter via the widget below. Giveaway will end on Friday, September 1st, at 11:59pm EST, and winner will be chosen the next day and notified via email, and have 24 hours to respond, or an alternate winner will be chosen.

U.S. residents only, please.

Good luck!

Autoboyography, by Christina Lauren

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Book Review and GIVEAWAY: The Good Widow, by Liz Fenton & Lisa Steinke {ends 8/28}

But in moments like these, this man's love, or lust, or even his affection—she was never quite sure what to call it—buoyed her. When he looked at her just like that, she knew she'd do anything he asked. She might have even jumped off that bridge with him, as long as he'd held her hand on the way down. She questioned him almost as much as she revered him. But right then, in the Jeep hugging the side of this mountain, the unpaved road so riddled with potholes that she was getting carsick, she felt like they could overcome anything together. That the world could be theirs.

That's probably why she took off her seat belt. And decided to lean in close and breathe her secret into his ear. She could have simply called out her confession over the wind, but she needed to deliver the news gently. The rest of their lives together depended on it.

I had been wanting to read The Good Widow (and it has been sitting in my TBR pile for a while, too) because I am a big fan of Fenton and Steinke's other books - I really enjoyed The Status of All Things, which I read two years ago, as well as Your Perfect Life. Although I didn't like The Good Widow as much as Status, it's still an interesting read.

Official synopsis:

Elementary school teacher Jacqueline “Jacks” Morales’s marriage was far from perfect, but even in its ups and downs it was predictable, familiar. Or at least she thought it was…until two police officers showed up at her door with devastating news. Her husband of eight years, the one who should have been on a business trip to Kansas, had suffered a fatal car accident in Hawaii. And he wasn’t alone.

For Jacks, laying her husband to rest was hard. But it was even harder to think that his final moments belonged to another woman—one who had left behind her own grieving and bewildered fiancé. Nick, just as blindsided by the affair, wants answers. So he suggests that he and Jacks search for the truth together, retracing the doomed lovers’ last days in paradise.

Now, following the twisting path of that fateful road, Jacks is learning that nothing is ever as it seems. Not her marriage. Not her husband. And most certainly not his death…

The book is told from a few different characters' perspectives, both past and present, which is what keeps it intriguing. We open with Jacqueline ("Jacks," to her friends) finding out that her husband has passed away in a car accident—and, oh yeah, it was in Hawaii, and he was supposedly in Kansas, on a business trip. She quickly finds out that he was having an affair, with a younger woman named Dylan, and soon Dylan's fiancee, Nick, shows up at her doorstep.

He proposes that they go to Maui together and try to retrace James and Dylan's last steps, in order to attempt to find out more about the affair and how they ended up careening off a steep cliff into the water below.

Kind of crazy, right? Jacks needs answers, though, so she agrees to go with him.

There's a twist at the end of this novel that I sort-of saw coming, but the way the authors laid it out was pretty good. It was interesting to see Jacks' chapters from before the accident, too, as well as when she first met James—we hear from both her and Dylan, and we see how Dylan ended up meeting James and how their affair started.

I did feel like this novel wrapped up a little too neatly at the end, but I can see how it would logically end that way, as well.

3.5 stars out of 5

{Click here to purchase - free for Kindle Unlimited users!}

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

GIVEAWAY:

Two of my lucky readers will win a copy of The Good Widow - enter in the widget below.

Giveaway will end on Monday, August 28th, at 11:59pm EST, and winners will be notified 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!

2 paperback copies of The Good Widow

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