Teddy Rose Book Reviews Plus More


That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael MazzaThat Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza


Thanks to Wunderkind PR, I am giving away one print copy of That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza.

Description of That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza


The year is 2024. Climate change has altered the world’s wave patterns. Drones crisscross the sky, cars drive themselves, and surfing is a new Olympic sport. Mafuri Long, UCSD marine biology grad, champion surfer, and only female to dominate a record eighty-foot wave, still has something to prove. Having achieved Internet fame, along with sponsorship from Google and Nike, she’s intent on winning Olympic gold. But when her father, a clinically depressed former Navy captain and widower, learns that his beloved supercarrier, the USS Hillary Rodham Clinton, is to be sunk, he draws Mafuri into a powerful undertow.

Conflicts compound as Mafuri’s personal life comes undone via social media, and a vicious Aussie competitor levels bogus doping charges against her. Mafuri forms an unlikely friendship with an awkward teen, a Ferrari-driving professional gamer who will prove to be her support and ballast. Authentic, brutal, and at times funny, Mafuri lays it all out in a sprightly, hot-wired voice. From San Diego to Sydney, Key West, and Manila, That Crazy Perfect Someday goes beyond the sports/surf cliché to explore the depths of sorrow and hope, yearning and family bonds, and the bootstrap power of a bold young woman climbing back into the light.

Praise for That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza


“Feisty hero Mafuri’s first-person narration gives voice to the rarely glamorous and often infuriating world of being a female athlete. This is a beach-bag must-have.”—Booklist *Starred Review*

“Mazza’s debut novel rips through the near future with a story that’s part bildungsroman and part sci-fi surf lit, powered by the megawatt voice of Mafuri Long, a spritely surfer babe from Generation Z whose epic wave crests through this tale.”—Kirkus Reviews

“Mazza is one of the quickest, most creative minds I’ve ever come across. Every idea he comes up with is worth paying attention to.”—Toby Barlow, author of Sharp Teeth and Babayaga

About Michael MazzaThat Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza


Michael Mazza is a fiction writer living in the San Francisco Bay Area. His stories have appeared in Other Voices, WORDS, Blue Mesa Review, TINGE, and ZYZZYVA. He is best known as an internationally acclaimed art and creative director working in the advertising industry.

Along with being named National Creative All-Star by Adweek, his work appears in the Permanent Collection of the Library of Congress. He has lectured throughout the country and abroad, most notably at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing. He has attended the Iowa Summer Writers’ Workshop, the Stanford Creative Writing workshop, and the Wharton School Executive Education MBA program.

That Crazy Perfect Someday is his first novel. Connect with Michael at his website: http://www.mazzastory.com or on Twitter and Instagram: @mazzastory

Giveaway of That Crazy Perfect Someday by Michael Mazza


This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on July 7, 2017 midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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From Bud To Blow by Brian ConnorFrom Bud To Blow by Brian Connor


Thanks to Sophia Moriarty of Smith Publicity, I am giving away one print copy of From Bud To Blow by Brian Connor.

Description of From Bud To Blow by Brian Connor


While innocent and naïve to peer pressure, Cory Carter is more self-aware than most going off to college. That is, until pledging a fraternity at Indiana University changes his outlook on life. Hazing leads to blood. Blood leads to regret. Regret leads to a transformation, making Cory into the biggest drug dealer on campus. For the first time in his life, he loses self-control. The power of that feeling drives Cory the rest of college, as he slowly descends into a new reality. 

Instead of buying the weekly weed he smokes, he decides to sell it himself. Instead of lying to his girlfriend, he decides to break up with her. By the time sophomore year comes around, Cory is buying enough weed to supply every fraternity on campus. Friends of friends start asking for cocaine and molly, but to Cory, if the drugs were on campus anyway, why not be the one selling it? All he has to do is pick up a duffle bag on Tuesday, drop off a few baggies on Wednesday, and count the money on Thursday. He has independence, he has power, he has his control back. That is, until a student overdoses and a detective comes knocking on Cory’s door, leaving Cory scrambling for answers. 

He realizes quickly he’s not just driving around town dropping off baggies to friends, he’s the local drug gang’s #1 distributor. And they won’t let him quit. While his friends prep for their biggest party weekend of the year, Cory’s looking down the barrel of a gun with a decision to make. Does he battle the drug gang for his freedom? Or can he outsmart the police and keep dealing?

About Brian ConnorFrom Bud To Blow by Brian Connor


Brian Connor was born and raised in Chicago and graduated from Indiana University in 2013. From Bud to Blow is his first published novel.

Giveaway of From Bud To Blow by Brian Connor


This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on June 30, 2017 midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

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Mad by Chloe EspositoMad by Chloe Esposito


Thanks to Becky Odell of Dutton, I am giving away one print copy of Mad by Chloe Esposito.

Description of Mad by Chloe Esposito


In this compulsively readable debut, set between London and Sicily over one blood-drenched week in the dead of summer, an identical twin reveals the crazy lies and twists she’ll go through to not only steal her sister’s perfect life, but to keep on living it.

Alvie Knightly is a trainwreck: aimless, haphazard, and pretty much constantly drunk. Alvie’s existence is made even more futile in contrast to that of her identical and perfect twin sister, Beth. Alvie lives on social media, eats kebabs for breakfast, and gets stopped at security when the sex toy in her carry-on starts buzzing. Beth is married to a hot, rich Italian, dotes on her beautiful baby boy, and has always been their mother’s favorite. The twins’ days of having anything in common besides their looks are long gone. 

When Beth sends Alvie a first-class plane ticket to visit her in Italy, Alvie is reluctant to go. But when she gets fired from the job she hates and her flatmates kick her out on the streets, a luxury villa in glitzy Taormina suddenly sounds more appealing. Beth asks Alvie to swap places with her for just a few hours so she can go out unnoticed by her husband. Alvie jumps at the chance to take over her sister’s life–if only temporarily. But when the night ends with Beth dead at the bottom of the pool, Alvie realizes that this is her chance to change her life. 

Alvie quickly discovers that living Beth’s life is harder than she thought. What was her sister hiding from her husband? And why did Beth invite her to Italy at all? As Alvie digs deeper, she uncovers Mafia connections, secret lovers, attractive hitmen, and one extremely corrupt priest, all of whom are starting to catch on to her charade. Now Alvie has to rely on all the skills that made her unemployable–a turned-to-11 sex drive, a love of guns, lying to her mother–if she wants to keep her million-dollar prize. She is uncensored, unhinged, and unforgettable.

Praise for Mad by Chloe Esposito


“Esposito comes on the scene at breakneck speed in this debut, combining sex, drugs, and a bloodlust that is never satisfied. Alvina is a character that readers won’t soon forget—funny, fierce, and fabulous… readers will clamor for the next two books faster than you can pull the trigger on a gun.”—Booklist (starred review)

“Mad is deliciously over-the-top, with a protagonist you’ll never forget and an ending that promises more chaos to come.”—Bookpage

“Using Sicily as a backdrop with its gorgeous architecture, villas, and sexy men, Esposito pens an unforgettable summer debut headed by a no-holds-barred protagonist.”—Library Journal

About Chloe Esposito


Mad by Chloe Esposito

(c) Charlie Hopkinson, 2017

Chloé J. Esposito grew up in Cheltenham, England, and now lives in London with her husband and daughter. She has a BA and MA in English from Oxford University and has been a senior management consultant, an English teacher at some of the UK’s top private schools, and a fashion stylist at Condé Nast. A graduate of the Faber Academy, this is her first novel.

Giveaway of Mad by Chloe Esposito


This giveaway is open to the U.S. only and ends on June 30, 2017 midnight pacific time.  Entries are accepted via Rafflecopter only.

a Rafflecopter giveaway