Thanks to Ashley Vanicek of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., I am giving away one copy of ‘A Floating Life by Tad Crawford.
Book Description:
In his debut novel, Tad Crawford tells of a nameless narrator who, following a harrowing job interview in a steam room, leaves his youthful dreams behind, no longer certain who or what he is. He finds himself at a party talking to a woman he doesn’t know who proves to be his unsatisfied wife. Soon separated but still living in the same apartment, he is threatened by a litigious dachshund and saddled with a stubborn case of erectile dysfunction in a world that seems held together by increasingly mercurial laws and elusive boundaries— if not by the golden bars of a sub-basement apartment offered for rent.
His relationship deepens with an elderly Dutch model maker named Pecheur whose miniature boats are erratically offered for sale in a hard-to-find shop called The Floating World. Enlivened by Pecheur’s dream to tame the destructive forces of the ocean, the narrator begins to find his bearings.
With quiet humor and wisdom, ‘A Floating Life’charts its course among images that surprise and disorient. In this urban fantasy, bears cavort in caves in New York’s Central Park, a man can enjoy the pleasures of breast-feeding his own child, and WWII isn’t completely over for some.
‘A Floating Life’is a rollicking, unforgettable, and inventive journey—and it is also a source of insight, solace, and inspiration.
About Tad Crawford:
Tad Crawford grew up in the artists’ colony of Woodstock, New York. He is the author of many nonfiction books and has appeared in venues such as Art in America, The Café Irreal, Confrontation, Communication Arts, Family Circle, Glamour, Guernica, The Nation, and Writer’s Digest. Crawford is the founder and publisher of Allworth Press, and lives in New York City.
This giveaway is open to the U.S., Canada, and the UK and ends on March 7, 2015. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.
Publisher: RidgeRoute Press (November 17, 2014) Category: International Suspense, Mystery/Thriller ISBN: 9780991401734 Tour Date: January/February, 2015 Available in: Print & ebook, 314 Pages
A friend’s deception. A family’s dilemma.
While cataloguing looted antiquities in Brussels, archaeologist Grace Madison discovers that her daughter has vanished in France, and her son’s bride has been attacked in Switzerland. After the Madisons unearth a relic whose taproot pierces the Ancient Near East, they realize that before they can save themselves, they must rescue an old friend. If he’ll let them.
They sacrifice hearts and lives in a race against eternity on a four-thousand-year-old trail crossing three continents.
Because choosing what’s right is all that’s left.
About NLB Horton:
Winner of ‘A People’s Chioce Award’ in fiction, NLB Horton returned to writing fiction after an award-winning career in journalism and marketing as well as earning her Masters of Biblical Studies degree from Dallas Theological Seminary. She has surveyed Israeli and Jordanian archaeological digs, tossed a tarantula from her skiff into the Amazon after training with an Incan shaman, driven uneventfully through Rome, and consumed gallons of afternoon tea while traveling across five continents.
Horton is a member of the venerable Explorers Club, based in New York City and founded in 1904 as an international multidisciplinary professional society of explorers and scientists. From her home in the Rocky Mountains, she writes, cross-country skis, gardens and researches ideas for her next novel. Horton’s first novel in the Parched series, When Camels Fly, was released in May 2014. The Brothers’ Keepers is the second, with the third installment available in fall 2015.
Please Welcome NLB Horton to Teddy Rose Book Reviews.
Guest Post:
I’ll Have One of Each, Please
Some bloggers have a single preference, like a nephew who only orders ice cream sundaes for dessert. They read Amish, or romance, or Amish romance, for instance. Others devour a smorgasbord of genres. Because I research each blog that presents my work, I discovered that Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus covers a bit of everything, which reminds me of my characters.
When Camels Fly and The Brothers’ Keepers, books 1 and 2 in the Parched series, are populated by young and old, male and female, good and evil. Why limit a reader to one character when I can offer a variety? Care for a ponytailed octogenarian antiques dealer wearing a vintage leather bomber jacket? Perhaps you’d like a scoop of redheaded Scot with evil intentions as she awaits the clan fortune?
To tempt you like a well-stocked dessert cart, scan my menu of characters from both books. Their dialogue and antics are invading books 3 now, and I, with my readers, can’t wait to discover what is in store for each of them.
The Good
Grace Madison, archaeologist—Grace is a cheese plate. She is a little unusual, occasionally salty, and punctuated by the sweetness of chutney on the side. (Of course, chutney contains vinegar.) Grace is classic and global, the choice of a discerning diner.
Maggie Madison, hydrologist—Maggie is an after-dinner coffee laced with Frangelico, the hazelnut liqueur. She is strong, complex, and powerful. She also keeps her mother, Grace, awake at night with worry.
Mark and Jeff Madison—The menfolk in Grace’s life are as all-American as apple pie, with a twist. Mark is a rancher by inheritance, but his covert work surprises Grace in When Camels Fly, and they are rebuilding a thirty-year marriage in as many pieces as there are apple slices in the pie. Jeff, a BBC war correspondent with a gift for weird languages, has a more cosmopolitan air, so I suggest he is the French apple pie: tarte tatin.
The Elderly Archaeologists—These robust fellows would be a pecan pie: sweet and nutty. A couple of them might veer toward the Middle-Eastern version of the dessert, baklava, since they have spent so much time digging in that region. Like a good crust, they are getting a little thin and fragile, but their age does not diminish the goodness inside. And like the many layers of pastry hidden in baklava, these gentlemen have secrets that readers discover in every manuscript.
The Bad
Al-Jafar—An antagonist from When Camels Fly, al-Jafar is Turkish Delight. He is gooey, sticky, and sickeningly sweet, and can be purchased in every market and bazaar in the Middle East. When challenged or frightened, he melts under heat and pressure. He is an acquired taste that some people never acquire.
Laura Frasier—Laura is Sticky Toffee Pudding. She is dense with intrigue and saturated with evil like the bourbon sauce absorbed by hot dessert. Too much of her will make a reader sick, and she appears to be everywhere at once. She is also rich and dark. Her character is complex and difficult to digest, much like that first mouthful in which you can’t quite discern the secret ingredient: dates.
The Handsome
Two young men vie for Maggie’s heart. One is American archaeologist Cliff Anderson, Grace’s graduate assistant now running the dig at Kinneret above the Sea of Galilee. The other is Matthew Peter, a sayan for Mossad with a tragic past.
Cliff Anderson—Cliff is homemade vanilla ice cream. Everybody loves him, he is a favorite, and he goes with everything. He is not terribly complicated, but brings a smile to a diner’s (or reader’s) face. He is yummy and timeless. What you see is what you get with Cliff.
The author sipping a cappuccino after another fig gelato in Venice.
Matthew Peter—Matthew is gelato, the Italian ice cream. He pops up everywhere, and in some of the strangest places (like the little gelato stores in alleyways all over Venice). He is addictive and hard to resist (like the fig gelato in Venice). And he has a dark streak (like the fig swirl in the fig gelato in Venice).
The Rest
An Orthodox Abba (an almond cookie), a Mossad commander (a shot of whiskey), and a Vatican priest (tiramisu) also appear in the books, and they form a selection guaranteed to appeal to almost any reader. They are organic, handcrafted, and contain no unnatural ingredients. (My work is a vampire-free zone.) And most importantly, none contain saccharine: they are authentic, realistic, and true.
So grab your napkin, take a deep breath, and plunge right in to The Brothers’ Keepers! Or better yet, start with book 1, When Camels Fly, and savor the adventure from the start.
My Thoughts:
‘The Brothers’ Keepers’ picks up a short time after the first book in ‘The Parched’ series leaves off. Grace is in Brussels when she receives news that her fairly new daughter in-law, has been attacked in Switzerland and then that her daughter Maggie disappears again, this time in France. Within 24 hours the family meets up in France to look in to Maggie’s disappearance.
They presume that she has been kidnapped again. They realize that they are all in grave danger themselves and that their great friend is in trouble as well.
Wow, the Madison family sure does get into some tough spots and it is fun seeing how they dig themselves out. Grace, the matriarch of the family, has a great, yet ironic sense of humor that lightens up the intense and intricate plot. I love the strong females characters of Grace and Maggie best, they can dish out as least as much as they get!
The cast of characters are so well written and studied and I found myself among them in their travels and battles. There are also historical places and artefacts explained but done in such a seamless way that it blends into the story. There is never a dull moment!
I have heard NLB Horton compareed to Dan Brown however, I am not a fan of his at all. Yet, I love both books in NLB Horton’s ‘The Parched’ series and can hardly wait until book 3 is available! I am told it is anticipated to be published in January, 2016.
Thanks to Judy Jacoby of Doubleday, I am giving away two print copies of ‘A Touch of Stardust’ by Kate Alcott.
Book Description:
From The New York Times bestselling author of The Dressmaker, comes a blockbuster novel that takes you behind-the-scenes of the filming of Gone with the Wind, while turning the spotlight on the passionate romance between its dashing leading man, Clark Gable, and the blithe, free-spirited actress, Carole Lombard.
When Julie Crawford leaves Fort Wayne, Indiana for Hollywood, she never imagines she’ll cross paths with Carole Lombard, the dazzling actress from Julie’s provincial Midwestern hometown. Although the young woman has dreams of becoming a screenwriter, the only job Julie’s able to find is one in the studio publicity office of the notoriously demanding producer David O. Selznick —who is busy burning through directors, writers and money as he begins filming Gone with the Wind.
Although tensions run high on the set, Julie finds she can step onto the back lot, take in the smell of smoky gunpowder and the soft rustle of hoop skirts, and feel the magical world of Gone with the Wind come to life. Julie’s access to real-life magic comes when Carole Lombard hires her as an assistant and invites her into the glamorous world Carole shares with Clark Gable—who is about to move into movie history as the dashing Rhett Butler.
Carole Lombard, happily profane and uninhibited, makes no secret of her relationship with Gable, which poses something of a problem for the studio as Gable is technically still married—and the last thing the film needs is more negative publicity. Julie is there to fend off the overly curious reporters, hoping to prevent details about the affair from slipping out. But she can barely keep up with her blonde employer, let alone control what comes out of Carole’s mouth, and–as their friendship grows – soon finds she doesn’t want to. Carole, both wise and funny, becomes Julie’s model for breaking free of the past.
In the ever-widening scope of this story, Julie is given a front-row seat to not one but two of the greatest love affairs of all time: the undeniable on-screen chemistry between Scarlett and Rhett, and off screen, the deepening love between Carole and Clark. Yet beneath the shiny façade, things in Hollywood are never quite what they seem, and Julie must learn to balance career aspirations and her own budding romance with outsized personalities and the overheated drama on set. Vivid, romantic, and filled with Old Hollywood details, A Touch of Stardust will entrance, surprise, and delight.
About Kate Alcott:
Kate Alcott, a pseudonym for author Patricia O’Brien, was a newspaper reporter in Chicago and covered politics in Washington, DC. She is a graduate of the University of Oregon, is married, and the mother of four daughters.
This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on March 3, 2015. Please use Rafflecopter to enter.
Thanks to Ashley Vanicek of Skyhorse Publishing, Inc., I am giving away one copy of ‘A Floating Life by Tad Crawford.
