Alycat and the Friendship Friday will be on sale for $1.99 today Saturday, Oct 27 only and the e-book free for Kindle Unlimited subscribers!
Book Description:
It’s finally Friday, and Alycat is excited to go on a field trip with her friends. But when she doesn’t have anyone to sit with on the bus, Alycat feels left out. Can she use her creativity and imagination to help everyone feel included?
Alycat and the Friendship Friday will teach readers that making new friends isn’t as scary as you might think.
Christmas at the Chalet is a delicious love story about a bridal designer showing her new collection in the Alps during the magical week of Christmas where hijinx of the heart ensue.
About Christmas at the Chalet
It’s the day after Christmas, and Felicity Grant is at a gorgeous ski chalet in St. Moritz for the biggest fashion show of her career. Felicity is a rising star on the bridal design scene, and this is her best collection yet. But when her boyfriend gives her a spa day instead of a diamond ring for Christmas, she has to face the possibility that she may never walk down the aisle in one of her own stunning designs.
And then there’s Nell, the top model headlining Felicity’s show. Nell is planning her dream wedding to her wonderful fiance with one catch: her divorced parents can’t stand each other and threaten to no-show if the other is there.
Add to that Felicity’s race against the clock to create a special gown for a prestigious bridal salon, and what both girls need is a Christmas miracle. What better place to find one than in the Swiss Alps with its dark forests and sparkling vistas?
But for Felicity it’s hard to recognize a miracle even when it’s right in front of her, and for Nell one miracle might not be enough to fix the past. Can dreams really come true or is that the stuff of Swiss fairy tales?
My Thoughts
Take a trip to the stunning St. Mortiz for a fashion show of a lifetime with some incredible characters that will make you laugh and hope that they can push past the stress of the perfect day.
Felicity is a kind, loving woman who has grown her wedding gown business literally from scratch. She gives her heart and soul to her work, she wants nothing more than to create a beautiful dress that suits a bride. She has also been in a relationship with her boyfriend for several years and she is extremely disappointed when Christmas is around the corner and he fails to propose again. She questions whether he truly loves her or is just comfortable with her and if he puts his career before her, her feelings and their future together. All of this occurs just before she heads off to St. Mortiz for her huge fashion show and you have to give her a lot of credit for being able to push through the hurt and disappointment in order to not let down her friends and business partners.
One of her models, Nell, is another star in this novel. She is engaged and ready to start her life with the man she loves. The only problem? Her bitter, divorced parents who can’t seem to get over their own selfish needs to put their daughter first. They refuse to attend the wedding together, they constantly say inappropriate comments about the other parent to Nell thus placing her in a very awkward position. As the novel progresses, we are witness to her parent’s past to get a glimpse of how they could have grown so far apart and so full of hate.
I really enjoyed this sweet novel. It was full of hope and humour – you keep rooting that our characters can make it through and find the love they deserve.
ANITA HUGHES is also the author of Christmas in London, Christmas in Paris, Emerald Coast, White Sand, Blue Sea, Santorini Sunsets, Island in the Sea, Rome in Love, French Coast, Lake Como, Market Street, and Monarch Beach. She attended UC Berkeley’s Masters in Creative Writing Program, and lives in Dana Point, California, where she is at work on her next novel.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
In The Christmas Star, Donna VanLiere delivers yet another sweet, joyous story that is sure to capture readers’ hearts.
About The Christmas Star
Thirty-two-year-old Amy Denison volunteers at Glory’s Place, an after school program where she meets seven-year-old Maddie, a precocious young girl who has spent her childhood in foster care. Unbeknownst to Amy, Maddie is a mini-matchmaker, with her eye on just the right man for Amy at Grandon Elementary School, where she is a student. Amy is hesitant – she’s been hurt before, and isn’t sure she’s ready to lose her heart again – but an unexpected surprise makes her reconsider her lonely lifestyle.
As Christmas nears and the town is blanketed in snow and beautiful decorations, Maddie and the charming staff at Glory’s Place help Amy to see that romance can be more than heartache and broken promises.
My Thoughts
The Christmas Star is a special holiday story of forgiveness, second changes and finding your forever home.
Maddie is the most adorable young child that you will ever meet. She is kind, full of joy and love. She is also quite clever and mischievous! She has big plans for the two important people in her life, that she feels are lonely and need love – Amy and Mr. G. Maddie becomes the star of the story as she brings together two individuals and creates her own future.
Maddie, with childhood innocence, could never have known the history behind Amy and Mr. G – and neither of them could have ever imagined meeting again. While awkward and painful at times, Maddie in her own way, begins to help heal the hearts of these two adults. Allowing them to forgive, to heal and to move forward. With several turns, you are never quite sure where the story will end but you keep hoping that the two can make it together.
The Christmas Star was a sweet story of second chances, forgiveness and hope. While Maddie does tend to steal the show, we have two very important characters in Amy and Mr. G, whom we are rooting for throughout the story. We also have several characters who will crack you up with some excellent comic relief.
Donna VanLiere is a New York Times and USA Today best-selling author and gifted conference speaker. She has published ten titles including The Christmas Shoes and The Christmas Blessing, both of which were adapted into movies (starring Rob Lowe, Kimberly Williams-Perry and Neil Patrick Harris) and garnered big ratings for CBS television. LifetimeTelevision adapted The Christmas Hope (starring Madeline Stowe) and premiered it December 2009 to stellar ratings as well. Donna’s non-seasonal novel, The Angels of Morgan Hill, has captured the same warmth as her Christmas books and continues to please loyal and new fans alike.
Donna is the recipient of a Retailer’s Choice Award for Fiction, a Dove Award, a Silver Angel Award, an Audie Award for best inspirational fiction, a nominee for a Gold Medallion Book of the Year and was recently inducted into the Ohio Foundation of Independent Colleges Hall of Excellence joining such luminaries as Coretta Scott King, Hugh Downs, Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and Senator John Glenn. Donna is an in-demand conference speaker having appeared at countless women’s and family events, including select Women of Faith and Extraordinary Women conferences.
Donna lives in Franklin, Tennessee, with her husband, Troy, and their children, Grace, Kate and David.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
Dear Santa is a heartwarming Christmas story about finding your passion for life and love.
About Dear Santa: A Novel
Angela Carson wants nothing more than to be the third-generation to run her family’s holiday store, Heart of Christmas, successfully. They’ve weathered over sixty tourist seasons, major hurricanes, and urban sprawl, in their old decommissioned lighthouse. But the national chain that set up shop in their small North Carolina town of Pleasant Sands may be more than Heart of Christmas can survive.
Encouraged by her niece to ask Santa for help through the Dear Santa app, Angela gives in and lets the words fly in a way that, if Santa were real, would no doubt land her on the naughty list. What’s the harm when it’s just a computer-generated response?
Geoff Paisley has been at his mother’s side running the mega-chain Christmas Galore for the last ten years. When his mother falls ill, Geoff promises to answer the Dear Santa letters in her stead. Soon he realizes the woman he’s been corresponding with on Dear Santa is Angela. How could the woman that grates his every last nerve in person have intrigued him so deeply through those letters?
My Thoughts
Dear Santa is a heart warming, holiday romance that will make you laugh, smile and tear up. Angela has inherited the family business, Heart of Christmas, which sells unique, high quality, handmade Christmas decorations, ornaments and more. It is more than just a business, it is her life – it is full of memories, dreams and where her heart lies. But in this modern age, where cheap can be king – how can it survive? Especially when the chain store, Christmas Galore, moves in.
Angela is forced to face reality as sales that were already down, plummet. She just can not compete with the cheap, mass-produced products of the chain store. She faces anger, resentment and even hatred towards the store and the owner, Geoff Paisley – who before she realizes is the owner, she feels a great deal of attraction to!
She bores her heart out into the sweetest app, Dear Santa (which you get to read several of the letters to Santa which will make your heart melt!) not realizing the creators of the app are Christmas Galore!
Angela and Geoff face off with each other in a background of family emergencies, changing market landscapes and are forced to look deeply in order to reinvent themselves in order to survive. It was a beautiful story that made me laugh and served as a reminder that change, while at first is scary, can actually be great and lead to even better things.
USA Today bestselling author NANCY NAIGLE whips up small-town love stories with a dash of suspense and a whole lot of heart. Now happily retired, she devotes her time to writing, antiquing, and the occasional spa day with friends. Her books include Christmas Joy, Dear Santa, and Hope at Christmas. A native of Virginia Beach, she currently calls North Carolina home.
Disclosure: I received a digital copy of this book in order to facilitate this review. All opinions expressed are my own.
In Murder by Perfection, perfection can be a fatal endeavor.
About Murder by Perfection
Frustrated with their busy schedules, Murphy Thornton and Jessica Faraday attempt to find togetherness by scheduling a weekly date night. The last thing Jessica Faraday expected for her date night was to take a couple’s gourmet cooking course at the Stepford Kitchen Studio, owned by Chef Natalie Stepford―the model of perfection in looks, home, and business.
When Natalie ends up dead and Murphy goes missing, the Thorny Rose detectives must peel back the layers of Natalie Stepford’s life to discover that the pursuit of perfection can be deadly.
My Thoughts
Lauren is an extremely talented writer, who has the ability to draw you into a story, invest in the characters and never want to put the book down. I have loved all of her work but this story is by far one of her best.
This was a very intense, suspenseful novel with a plot line that I could never have dreamed of. There were multiple layers to the original murder and I never saw each turn coming. What starts off with a murder leads them to on the outside a perfect woman – Natalie. She has been molded into the “Barbie” image of a woman by at first glance her own choice but throughout the novel you begin to wonder when you learn more about her secret life, her seemingly perfect husband and job. She turns out to be one of the keys to this intense plot! Then you tie in a family that also looks perfect on the outside with drugs, mental health and marital problems and voila – an ending you could not have dreamed of happening.
This was a well written, though out novel. The characters have grown and developed so much throughout the series but the best part is you could read this novel on its own without struggling to follow along. This is a definite must read novel for all fans of her writing and those who love a good murder mystery with some humour.
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns!
Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night.
Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor.
Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV.
