Sunday, March 6, 2011
March Madness Book Hop!
Posted by Minding Spot Team at 10:27 PM 77 comments Links to this post
Labels: giveaways
Sink or Swim by Stacy Juba
My Thoughts
I don't watch alot of reality television, just some sporadic shows. However, I realize how they work and sometimes question what all the contestants have to go through to win. I cannot imagine how it would feel to go through all that they require to up the ratings, and then lose. Cassidy went into the contest hoping to win so she could realize her dream of owning fitness centers. She loses by five points... five measly points. Ouch! But with head held high, she walks the plank.
Cassidy is a character you like almost immediately. She's friendly, nice, intelligent and she has a backbone, you won't walk right over her. I found myself rooting for Cassidy right from the beginning. When she arrives back home, it was pleasing to see her still get some celebrity endorsements and newspaper time. But someone is her biggest fan, and they aren't happy Cassidy lost. They begin to stalk her - but who is it? Is it the photographer taking pictures of her? Is it another contest from the show she had a thing with? Or is it Reggie, the egotistical and obnoxious winner of the show? Cassidy will have to figure it out quick or she may be sinking until of swimming next time.
Stacy Juba pens an entertaining tale with just the right mix of suspense. The pages flew by quickly as I found myself immersed in Cassidy's story. The characters are vibrant and well developed set against a realistic reality show. The stalker isn't easy to pinpoint either! Ms. Juba navigates us through twists and turns and surprises that will leave you with a highly satisfied conclusion. A very gratifying read!
http://stacyjuba.com/blog/
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Labels: review
Saturday, March 5, 2011
The Liberation of Alice Love by Abby McDonald
Mousy London lawyer Alice Love gets her identity stolen and finds her true self in this rocky tale of trust, personality makeovers, and a lying globe-trotting thief. "She didn't leave me any worse off, in the end," Alice says of Ella, a work pal who makes off with Alice's credit card info to set up a new life in Hollywood. But before the ruse is over, Alice retaliates by morphing into a compulsive stalker, taking on Ella's identity, and discovering that a lot of little lies add up to a whole lot of fun. The transformation nearly costs her the love of a good man, but Alice comes (nearly) to her senses by the time she corners her arch-frenemy.
The beginning of the book started out really slow and Alice was a good character, just kind of boring. But when she decides to find out who took her identity, the book really takes off!! Alice is almost a different person, doing things she never really did before. Her little white lies slide by but compile until they blow up in her face. What would you do if someone stole your identity? I'm not sure I would go to the lengths Alice does, but I wouldn't just do nothing either. Fraud Investigator Nathan is a nice compliment to Alice's character, to say nothing about how attractive he is.
Alice's character blossoms through out the book, as well as the relationship she has with a step-sister. Will she go back to her humdrum life in the lawyer's office, or will she pick up the extravagant life style her thief is leading with her name?
Abby McDonald spins an entertaining chic-lit novel. Carefully crafted, the pages just fly by, which I have found most British chic-lit's do. The writing is smooth and attention grabbing, as well as complex and characters you want to believe in and hope they succeed. If your looking for a great beach read this summer, or want to while away some hours on a lazy evening, pick up The Liberation of Alice Love!! Laugh out funny and a relevent story for today's society!!
Posted by Minding Spot Team at 7:49 PM 2 comments Links to this post
Labels: review
Ma Mi Skin Care Review and Giveaway
I received a wonderful sample pack which included, Revitalize (Cleanser), Radiant (Exfoliator), Nightshift (Eye Serum), and Satiated (Moisturizer). All of the products smelled fantastic and made me feel fresh. Smell is an important factor in my book - who wants to put anything on their body or in it for that matter if the smell isn't attractive?
Revitalizer is a gentle foaming cleanser that even removes make-up and impurities. It's enriched with seeweed, rosehip seed, olive oil and essential oils. Completely natural!
Radiant is a soothing exfoliater - very gentle on the skin. It quickly removes dead and damaged skin, revealing healthy and glowing sin. Made with purified water and glycolic acid. That's it -really!
Nightshift is my favorite by far! You use it at morning and before you go to bed and it reduces puffy eyes and dark circles. It also helps prevent UV damage and firms up the skin and smooths out coloration under your eyes. It's made with seeweed, water, rice bran and a few other items I can't pronounce but I really loved this product!!
Satiated is the moisturizer and it smells heavenly! It's made with apricot oil, jojoba oil that smell wonderful. It's not oily though and it just sinks into your sin leaving it smooth and silky.
So if your going green, or your a new mom or know a new mom, try Ma Mi Skin Care Products. The gift pack would be amazing for Mother's Day!! Or you could try and win one here!!
One lucky winner will win the same gift pack I received!!
Sponsored by Tomoson.com
Posted by Minding Spot Team at 7:03 PM 72 comments Links to this post
Friday, March 4, 2011
Winners: Taste Me
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Thursday, March 3, 2011
Julius Katz Mysteries by Dave Zeltserman
Julius Katz is probably one of the laziest investigators I've ever seen, but also shrewd, cunning, and intelligent. Not alot gets by Julius, it's almost like his mind is a computer. But Julius likes to live the high life, but he doesn't like to work for it. He spends his days wooing women, drinking wine, and gambling. When his bank account is low, he takes on a case.
"Archie", as that is what he is called, is a two inch piece of technology, twenty years into the future. Archie is much like a computer, always analyzing, compiling data, doing the leg work for Julius's cases. He's also the secretary, setting up appointments, making calls, and lending his own spin on the investigation. Archie envisions himself about five feet (as that is how high he is resting on Julius's tie as a tie tac), chubby and with thinning hair. He talks too, and lately has picked up quite a few human traits like sarcasm.
There are two suspenseful reads in Julius Katz Mysteries, and even though Julius and Archie may be working the same case, they come at it from different perspectives. Archie may have a revelation, and so may Julius, but Julius is constantly surprising Archie - whose probability is almost never wrong. A dynamic duo that I would love to read more adventures of. The characters are so multi-dimensional, you can envision them in your mind, with quirks and antics that give them a life of their own. Mr. Zeltserman pens a superb mystery; I couldn't figure out who the culprit was until Julius and Archie led me to them. Absolutely fantastic! I highly recommend this series to any mystery suspense reader. Julius and Archie remind me a bit of all of the great sleuths, but uniquely their own.
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Winner: Stikins
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Interview with Tamara Hogan and Giveaway of Taste Me - today only!
TH: I don’t know that it was a conscious choice. I simply created the world I needed to exist in order to tell the stories I wanted to tell throughout this series. This book draws from many corners of the mythological world, from pop culture, from the romantic suspense tradition, and from modern media, suggesting alternate interpretations for history we think we know, and gives it all a sci-fi twist. I hope every reader finds an aspect of the Underbelly world that sticks with them, that they can connect with.
TH: I don’t know that I’ve ever envisioned actors who could play Lukas and Scarlett on TV or in the movies—and gee, wouldn’t that be a fabulous problem to have!—because my physical templates for the characters come out of other slices of life entirely. My mental inspiration for Lukas (his hair, his size, and definitely his jawline) is football player-turned-Army Ranger Pat Tillman, who unfortunately died in Afghanistan. In my imagination, Scarlett looks quite a bit like former Hole bassist Melissa Auf der Maur. Any suggestions on this, readers?
TH: I usually have three or four books going simultaneously, a mix of fiction, non-fiction and research. Mt. TBR is hundreds of books high, so there are so many great books that I’m so late to the party on! For fiction, right now I’m bouncing back and forth between Deirdre Knight’s BUTTERFLY TATTOO—what an extraordinary book; onto the keeper shelf it goes—and I’m re-reading Marion Zimmer Bradley’s “The Mists of Avalon” because several people at the Ruby Slippered Sisterhood blog were talking about it recently. Non-fiction-wise, I’m reading Jaron Lanier’s “You Are Not a Gadget,” a treatise about the influence of gadgets and technology in our culture, and in our everyday lives. For research, I’m dug deep into the hacker and cracker subculture. The heroine of my third book is a reformed computer hacker whose former colleagues try to entice her back into the life—with some devastating consequences.
TH: I just typed THE END on the second book of the Underbelly Chronicles series, CHASE ME, which teams up Valkyrie archaeologist Lorin Schlessinger with by-the-book werewolf geologist Gabe Lupinsky as they excavate the site where Lorin suspects their ancestors’ spaceship crashed. CHASE ME is scheduled for a March 2012 release. As I mentioned above, I’m starting to do some research and character development work for TEMPT ME, the third book in the series.
TH: Yes, of course — but I can’t say much because Lukas and Scarlett are continuing characters in the series! Lukas, in particular, plays a key role in future books because of his roles running Sebastiani Security, and being the risk assessor and Security/Technology Chair for the Underworld Council.
Posted by Minding Spot Team at 8:00 AM 26 comments Links to this post
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson
I grew up watching The Partidge Family and alot of my friends were gaga over David Cassidy. I wasn't, but my sister was. So opens up I Think I Love You by Allison Pearson. Petra is your average thirteen year old girl with a crush on star David Cassidy. Her mom, a cold woman, doesn't understand, but Petra's friends do. They find him groovy too.
Bill is a college grad who gets the unlikely job of ghost-writing responses of David's fan letters. They get published in the magazine, The Essential David Cassidy Magazine. Petra falls in love with David after reading the magazine. There's a contest where the winner gets to meet David, and Petra and her friend immediately enter, hoping beyond hope that they win.
Enter the second half of the book, where Petra is an adult woman still trying to find her path in life. Her husband has left her for a younger woman, and her own daughter has her own celebrity crush. But when she is looking for her mom's things, she finds letter - a letter that her mom had hidden of Petra winning that David Cassidy contest. Obviously, the contest is years over, but makes a phone call anyway. This begins the journey of her meeting Bill. Bill, who answered the fan letters with his own ideas instead of facts, may be a huge disappointment to Petra,who thought herself in love with David. Did she fall in love with the idea of David or did she fall in love with Bill? Petra will do her own soul-searching and self-discovery before she can move forward into her future.
I Think I Love You is a coming of age novel and a mid-life crisis novel all in one. The characters are very believable, warm, humorous and complex. Pearson has well-researched her novel, and the interview with David Cassidy at the back of the novel pays tribute to that. You're in for a delectable treat ith I Think I Love You! A very satisfying read.
Posted by Minding Spot Team at 2:49 AM 2 comments Links to this post
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