Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


Today it is my pleasure to kick off the Bitter Chocolate by Dawn Greenfield Ireland.

Book Description:

Publisher: Artistic Origins Inc (June, 2014)
Category: Cozy Mystery
Series: Hot Chocolate Series- Book 2
Tour Date: June, 2014
Available in: ebook, 400 Pages, With Recipes

The characters you loved in Hot Chocolate are back with more escapades of life in Houston’s wealthy River Oaks.

Lila Mae is in a tizzy over the Chocolate Ball – a huge event that she and her sisters, Dorothea and Madge, host every year. But due to unusual circumstances, Dorothea and Madge dump everything in Lila Mae’s lap. If it weren’t for Julian Gillespie of Event Is King, the Chocolate Ball would have melted.

Bernie, the Alcott sisters’ 92-year-old father, decides he wants his Bentley back. The sisters and Bambi are horrified. They hire Joseph’s cousin Chewie as Bernie’s new chauffeur.

Wolfram, Lila Mae’s new astrologer, gives clues of things to come. This leaves Lila Mae and her sidekick Amelia with brows furrowed.

On her day off, Amelia decides to bake a chocolate blueberry pie. She discovers she needs to make a grocery run. When she returns home, she discovers her kitchen door is slightly ajar. Arms loaded with groceries, she toes the door open.

Three things catch her attention: a vase of flowers on the kitchen island that was not there when she left the house, her marble rolling pin covered with blood… and a dead body on her kitchen floor.

Amelia’s eyes drift toward the dining room and beyond – is the house empty, or is there a murderer inside? She backs up, turns and hurries outside. After setting the bags on the ground, she slips back into the kitchen and snaps a picture of the dead guy. Then she calls Detective Chance Walker, Lila Mae and finally… 9-1-1.

The Hot Chocolate audio book was awarded the AudioFile Earphones Award on Valentine’s Day 2014 and was on the Amazon Bestseller List.  Bitter Chocolate is the second book in the series.

Praise for Hot Chocolate:

“This cozy mystery is a raucous romp.  A light, quick read, it is laugh-out-loud funny all the way through except maybe for the scene when the murder victim is discovered and the scene when the murderer declares themselves tho even those two scenes have elements of slapstick visuals incorporated into them.

The plot is quite masterfully constructed and kept me guessing right up to the moment the culprit was revealed and that is not easy to do as I’ve read or watched so many mystery stories I often figure it out well before the halfway point.

Where the story truly shines though is through the characters of which there are many yet each one is fully rounded and uniquely eccentric.

Food itself is nearly a character in the story and several of the recipes featured in scenes are included in full at the end of the novel.”-Joy Renee Davis, Joystory

Hot Chocolate is a captivating tale with vivid and fun characters. I could almost visualize myself socializing with them, and I definitely enjoyed their interactions with one another. They felt like real sisters, albeit high-society ones.

All the players are in place, and we think we have them figured out. So when something unexpected happens one night at the bowling alley, the Alcotts, Bambi, and countless others are caught up in a mystery that had me turning pages rapidly. Who or what could be responsible for the shocking events? What will Bambi discover when she starts searching through her husband’s dresser drawers and files? And what other surprises await the Alcotts?

Through all the excitement and intrigue, we are gifted with wonderfully descriptive moments in the lives of the characters, including the delicious food they enjoy. The dishes are presented so realistically that I could almost taste them. As a final pleasing treat, there are several wonderful recipes at the end of the book. A five star read.”-Laurel Rain Snow, Chocolate and Mimosas

“Hot Chocolate is a light-hearted Southern comedy. The Alcott sisters are the epitome of Southern culture. They are each other’s fiercest enemy and closest companion.

One of my all-time favorite shows is Designing Women. The Alcott sisters, Dorothea, Lila Mae, and Madge could be the Sugarbaker women. Picture Suzanne Sugarbaker every time you read something about Dorothea and you’ll be rolling on the floor laughing every time she hollers and faints. It doesn’t get better than this.

The plot is well written and from the very first page there is no doubt these women live chocolate as much as the company they own makes chocolate. From the cocoa colored Bentleys to the hot chocolate they start their day with, this book is full of chocolate – what could be better than that?! The characters were dazzling creatures and full of spunk making the book an enjoyable read. I found no grammatical errors and the book ended with a surprise you won’t see coming, a definite plus in book world.” – Donna McBroom-Theriot, My Life, One Story At a Time

“I never read anything by Dawn Greenfield Ireland before, but she definitely knows how to write mysteries the way I like them. The story is filled with twists, turns and eccentric characters that are essential in writing a cozy mystery. It’s fast-paced and keeps the readers on their toes. There are also some giggles and a dash of romance thrown into the mix. At the end, she includes some yummy recipes that are featured in the book. Suddenly I’m in desperate need of a hot chocolate with some marshmallow fluff.

This book is delicious!”- Yvonne, Socrates Book Review

“I love reading a good cozy mystery and when it’s paired with good old fashioned southern charm and whit well I’m sold! “Hot Chocolate” by Dawn Greenland Ireland    gave me that plus a plenty of offbeat characters,along with a fast moving plot with a murder mystery woven in,  sprinkled together with a liberal amount of humor in to make this a book that I just couldn’t read fast enough!

As I read this story I couldn’t help but think that it would make an awesome movie. Set in the south with more than a few quirky characters that had me laughing out loud on several occasions.As I read the story I found the characters getting stuck in my head and could just imagine their southern twang.

If you enjoy reading a fast paced mystery that has more twists than a winding country road, along with vivid descriptions of people, food and places that will grab your imagination and hold on tight until the final page your certainly going to enjoy “Hot Chocolate.” I loved this author’s storytelling ability and look forward to reading more of her work.”-Brenda Casto, VW Stitcher

About Dawn Greenfield Ireland:

Dawn Ireland is the CEO of Artistic Origins Inc, a 100% woman-owned publishing and technical writing service company that has been doing business since 1995. She’s an award winning independent publisher and author of The Puppy Baby Book Mastering Your Money, and Amazon Best Seller Hot Chocolate (the first in the series, and her fifth novel). The Hot Chocolate audio book was awarded theAudioFile Earphones Award on Valentine’s Day 2014.

Her family feature film screenplay A Girl and Her Dogwas awarded a Kids First! Endorsement by the Coalition for Quality Children’s Media in October 2012 and optioned by Shadow Cave Productions in February 2013.

Originally from Feeding Hills, MA, Dawn migrated to San Antonio in 1968, then when her first son was one years old, her family moved to Houston where work was more plentiful. After 40+ years of heat and humidity, she has her sights on the Pacific NW.

Dawn is the co-author of the animated screenplay Memoirs of a Dog which won the Spirit Award of the Moondance Film Festival (children’s category) September 2011. Her dark comedy Plan B was a finalist in the Table Read My Screenplay script competition in 2010 and years before that, Standing Dead won the Women in Film and Television (Houston Chapter) screenplay award.

Stay tuned for The Last Dog (futuristic/sci-fi 2015), and Spicy Chocolate (2016).

www.dawnireland-writer.com

Twitter: https://twitter.com/dawnireland
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/dawn.ireland.18/friends
Google+:  https://plus.google.com/114089201888216130985/posts

Buy Bitter Chocolate:

Amazon

This giveaway is international and is for an ebook.  It ends on July 31, 2014.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.

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Follow the Tour:

Bless Their Hearts Mom June 20 Hot Chocolate Review
So Many Precious Books
 June 30  Spotlight & Giveaway
Room With Books July 1 Review
Room With BooksJuly 2 Iinterview & Giveaway
So, I Read This Book TodayJuly 3 (w/HC) Review & Giveaway
vvb32 reads July 8 Review
vvb32 reads July 9 Guest Post & Giveaway
Back Porchervations July  10 Review
A Chick Who Reads July 14 Review
Thoughts in Progress July 15 Review & Giveaway
Books & Quilts July 16 Review & Giveaway
Inspire to Read July 17 Review
Peeking Between the Pages July 18 Review & Giveaway
Bless Their Hearts Mom July 21 BC, June 20 HC Reviews
My Devotional Thoughts July 22 Review
 I’d Rather Be At The Beach July 23 Review & Giveaway
Rebecca’s Writing Services July 23 Guest Post
Open Book Society July 24 Review & Giveaway
Mochas, Mysteries and Meows July 25 Guest Post  & Giveaway
Socrates Book Reviews July 28 Review
Two Kids & a Migraine July 29 Review
My Life. One Story at a TimeJuly 30 Review, Guest Post & Giveaway

As many of you know, NLB has been on tour for two months.  From comments around the internet, many people are finding that When Camels Fly is or would be an excellent addition to their TBR.  Well ladies and gents, it is my immense pleasure to close out this tour by inviting NLB back to Teddyrose Book Reviews.

About When Camels Fly:

Publisher: NLBHorton, via Amazon’s White Glove (May 15, 2014)
Agent:  Mary Keeley at Books & Such Literary Management
Category: Contemporary suspense, thread of Romance
Tour Date: May/June, 2014
Available in: Print & ebook, 370 Pages

A mother’s fatal shot. A daughter’s deadly choice.

In Israel, archaeologist Grace Madison shoots her daughter’s abductor. Seconds later, a handsome shepherd drops from the sky to kill a second assassin. Their world changes in two blinks of an eye.

Unbeknownst to them, a fiercely ambitious evil is destroying everything in its path—the unconventional path Grace and Maggie take. They struggle to right a wrong as old as time, and discover time is running out in the race for their lives. Family and friends are swept into their vortex, extinguishing old flames while igniting new loves.

While the scale tips dangerously toward disaster, millions of lives hang in the balance. And the mother-and-daughter team soon realizes nothing is as it seems. Even each other.

Because choosing what’s right is all that’s left.

Please give a warm welcome to NLB Horton!

Hands Clapping Applause

Inspiration for When Camels Fly

The question for the subject of this guest blog, “What was your inspiration for When Camels Fly?” made me pause. Every time I thought I had the answer, my brain pushed further back, and I ended up in my childhood—roughly fifty years ago.

I was an odd child. Although I spent my summers reading, writing, and drawing, with some swimming and summer camp thrown in for good measure, my existence covered by the umbrella of boredom. I sought something I couldn’t find, and hungrily searched for whatever it was. I read about Nancy Drew and everything by Alcott, moved through du Maurier, the Bronte sisters, and Austen.

By the time I was a teenager, I face the great abyss of life without an arsenal of books to lead the way. Where were the vigorous heroines? And where were the vigorous heroines who weren’t sidekicks of men? And where were the women out to change the world, do the right thing, and live awesome lives? And was it impossible to do all that without falling in love in the process?

My future looked grim. Pass the well-worn bodice rippers as you fast-forward a few decades.

I have a daughter—an amazing young woman working in the sciences, taking classes at the U.N., planning to become Empress of the Universe when I vacate the position. She has the problems I did in terms of finding fiction that fully engaged me. So I wrote When Camels Fly and The Brothers’ Keepers (November 7, 2014), and am working on the third in a five-book series. I write for women like me, like my daughter, like our friends.

But writing When Camels Fly entailed a leap of faith. It is set in the Middle East, and my previous life in marketing makes me study demographics. The Middle East causes some women to shudder, while others reach for the next romance. So how can I communicate the competitive point of difference in my work?

But stop and think: aren’t perceptions of the Middle East pushed through a male worldview? What so many of us know about this region is the result of war or oil or jihad. (The three go hand-in-hand-in-hand.) When Camels Fly is a window on this most fascinating place, the “cradle of civilization,” opened by educated Western females—my protagonist, archaeologist Grace Madison, and her hydrologist daughter, Maggie. My work is a fresh, although totally accurate depiction about a remarkable place, both today, and all the way back to the earliest glimmers of human history.

As a result of a late-in-life graduate degree from one of the finest seminaries in the United States, I found myself hovering over archaeological digs in Israel and Jordan, listening to heavy artillery from Syria and machine gun fire peppering something in Lebanon. I loved every minute of it, with my daughter at my side. The venture was life changing (since we survived it).

With a start, I realized that this endeavor was exactly the type of adventure I would have loved to read as a young woman, and even as an (ahem) older one. We were exploring new territory. Accumulating experiences that broadened our perspectives and worldviews. Were living vigorously and as a team. We were growing and becoming more interesting, independently. The experiences we put in our life’s basket could never be taken from us, or credited to someone else. We were living the dream.

Not everyone can live on the lunatic fringe as we sometimes do. Not everyone wants to. But everyone can travel via books, and experience the exhilaration of a woman who does the extraordinary in an adventure occurring between the covers of a paperback, or in an e-reader. And that’s precisely what women do in When Camels Fly and The Brothers Keepers, and the other books in the Parched series. Then readers can cruise through the Readers Guide to answer questions about how they would react in Grace’s position.

Is there romance in these books? Of course. Life would be colorless without romance. But it’s not predictable romance, although it ends well. And it’s not simple, because romance seldom is. And it’s not limited to young people, or married people, or unmarried people. The romance I write reflects the realities of life, although I admit a fondness for gallant men.

So why did I write When Camels Fly? For so many reasons, not the least of which is that the role models in books can propel a woman to do extraordinary things, and provide a guide about how someone else—even a fictional someone else—lives life to the fullest.

According to my precious Beta Readers, Grace is Everywoman, who finds herself in dramatic adventures. And every woman, in her own unique way, can be Grace.
About NLB Horton:

After an award-winning detour through journalism and marketing and a graduate degree from Dallas Theological Seminary, NLBHorton returned to writing fiction. She has surveyed Israeli archaeological digs accompanied by artillery rounds from Syria and machine gun fire from Lebanon. Explored Machu Picchu after training with an Incan shaman. And consumed afternoon tea across five continents. When Camels Fly is her first novel. Her second, The Brothers’ Keepers, will be available November 2014.

Website: http://www.nlbhorton.com

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/NLB-Horton/289059931145461 Twitter: https://twitter.com/NLBHorton
Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/nlbhorton/ Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/8121286.N_L_B_Horton

Heads up, today is the last day of the book giveaway.  However, you have to read this book, why not just go buy it.  You all deserve a treat!

Buy When Camels Fly:

Amazon

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Stories We Tell (1)Thanks to Caroline Ambuhl of Sullivan and Partners, LLC, I am giving away one copy of The Stories We Tell.

Book Description:

Bestselling author Patti Callahan Henry is back with a powerful novel about the stories we tell and the people we trust.

Eve and Cooper Morrison are Savannah’s power couple. They’re on every artistic board and deeply involved in the community. She owns and operates a letterpress studio specializing in the handmade; he runs a digital magazine featuring all things southern gentlemen. The perfect juxtaposition of the old and the new, Eve and Cooper are the beautiful people. The lucky ones.

And they have the wealth and name that comes from being part of an old Georgia family. But things may not be as good as they seem. Eve’s sister, Willa, is staying with the family until she gets “back on her feet.” Their daughter, Gwen, is all adolescent rebellion. And Cooper thinks Eve works too much. Still, the Morrison marriage is strong. After twenty-one years together, Eve and Cooper know each other. They count on each other. They know what to expect. But when Cooper and Willa are involved in a car accident, the questions surrounding the event bring the family close to breaking point. Sifting between the stories—what Cooper says, what Willa remembers, what the evidence indicates—Eve has to find out what really happened. And what she’s going to do about it.

A riveting story about the power of truth, The Stories we Tell will open your eyes and rearrange your heart.

About Patti Callahan Henry:Patti Callahan Henry Author Portrait

Patti Callahan Henry is a  New York Times   bestselling storyteller of eleven books, including  Between the Tides,  And Then I Found You, and  Driftwood Summer. Patti lives in Mountain Brook, Alabama with her husband and three children, where she is crafting her next story.

This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on July 9, 2014.  Please use Rafflecopter to enter.
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