LET'S GET COZY: THE AZALEA ASSAULT: A PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

GIVEAWAY ENDED
THE AZALEA ASSAULT

A Garden Society Mystery

BY ALYSE CARLSON

ABOUT THE BOOK: 

Roanoke, Virginia, is home to some of the country’s most exquisite gardens, and it’s Camellia Harris’ job to promote them. But when an out of towner turns up dead, she discovers there’s no good way to spin murder…

Camellia Harris has achieved a coup in the PR world. The premier national magazine for garden lovers has agreed to feature one of Roanoke’s most spectacular gardens in its pages—and world-famous photographer Jean-Jacques Georges is going to shoot the spread. But at the welcoming party, Jean-Jacques insults several guests, complains that flowers are boring, and gooses almost every woman in the room. When a body is found the next morning, sprawled across the azaleas, it’s almost no surprise that the victim is Jean-Jacques.

With Cam’s brother-in-law blamed for the crime—and her reporter boyfriend, Rob, wanting the scoop—Cam decides to use her skills to solve the murder. Luckily a PR pro like Cam knows how to be nosy…

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

"This (Alyse Carlson) is my pen name for my Cozy Mystery contract with Berkley Prime Crime.  The series has a gardening theme and takes place in Roanoke, Virginia, starring 30-something public relations guru Cam Harris, her crazy friends and family, and her eccentric colleagues at the Roanoke Garden Society.  The first one comes out June 5, 2012, the second is with my primary editor, and the third is in the editing process (due in June).  (Alyse thanks the 3-Es for all their help:  Elizabeth, Ellen and Emily)"--Hart Johnson.

Hart Johnson:  aspiring author of main stream suspense, some adult some YA... "This is my dark face, seeking to do really rotten things to my characters for your reading pleasure (using the fictional drama to keep me from stirring up the real kind).  I've written seven suspense novels and two mysteries under this dark cloud and it is still my hope these will be published and make me rich enough to at least quit my day job."

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND FRIENDS AT

BERKLEY PRIME CRIME AND PENGUIN BOOKS,

I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS NEW

MYSTERY BOOK, THE AZALEAS ASSAULT,

TO GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY READER

 
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO 
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT WHAT YOU READ ABOVE ABOUT THE AZALEA ASSAULT THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING AT ALYSE CARLSON'S BLOG HERE 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, JUNE 15

   GOOD LUCK!

********************************** 

NOTICE!

 JUNE ON BOOKIN' WITH BINGO IS
GOING TO CONCENTRATE MOSTLY ON
AUDIO BOOKS AND COZY MYSTERIES!
WITH SOME GREAT BUNDLE GIVEAWAYS!
KEEP WATCHING!

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WEDNESDAY IS FOR WINNERS!...BUT NOT JUST WEDNESDAYS!

WELCOME TO BOOKIN' WITH BINGO'S
WINNERS' ANNOUNCEMENT!
ON THURSDAY!

  THE WINNERS HAVE BEEN NOTIFIED  

BY EMAIL AND HAVE UNTIL NOON,
JUNE 2, TO REPLY WITH THEIR
INFORMATION OR A NEW WINNER
WILL HAVE TO BE CHOSEN!

**************************************

WHAT IT WAS 

AN AUDIO BOOK

BY GEORGE PELECANOS

THANKS TO MITCH AND THE FINE FOLKS AT

HACHETTE BOOK GROUP, I HAVE TWO COPIES

OF THIS EXCITING AUDIO BOOK TO

 GIVE AWAY TO TWO LUCKY WINNERS!

THE WINNERS ARE:

#42 Darlene

#7 Steve Capell

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BENEATH THE SILVER LINING TRILOGY:

SECRETS OF THE BLACK BOX

BY AMANDA WOLFE

I HAVE TWO COPIES OF THIS

FASCINATING BOOK BY AMANDA WOLFE

TO GIVE AWAY TO 2 FOLLOWERS

THE WINNERS ARE:

#35 lag123

#19 petite

************************************************

 
LETTER FROM A STRANGER

BY BARBARA TAYLOR BRADFORD

THANKS TO ESTHER AND THE SUPER

PEOPLE AT MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS,

I AM DELIGHTED TO HAVE ONE COPY

OF THIS INTRIGUING AUDIO BOOK

TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE FOLLOWER

THE WINNER IS:

#105 mamabunny13

********************************************

MORE LIKE HER

BY LIZA PALMER

THANKS TO MARY AND EVERYONE AT

WILLIAM MORROW PAPERBACKS
 WITH HARPER COLLINS, I HAVE

ONE COPY OF MORE LIKE HER TO

GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY WINNER

THE WINNER IS:

#90 Tiffany Drew

***************************************************

NEW YORK TO DALLAS

An In Death Novel

BY J. D. ROBB

THANKS TO ALL THE GOOD PEOPLE

AT PENGUIN BOOKS,I HAVE ONE 
COPY OF THIS THRILLER BY
 J. D. ROBB TO GIVE AWAY

THE WINNER IS:

#61 Carol N Wong

**********************************************

A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME

BY WILEY CASH

THANKS TO THE GOOD FOLKS AT HARPER
COLLINS BOOKS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF  
THIS DEBUT NOVEL BY WILEY CASH TO
GIVE AWAY TO ONE LUCKY FOLLOWER

THE WINNER IS:

#159 lauren guilbeau

***************************************************

 A DEADLY GRIND

A Vintage Kitchen Mystery

BY VICTORIA HAMILTON

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND MY PALS

AT BERKLEY PRIME CRIME AND PENGUIN

PUBLISHING, I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS

NEW BOOK BY VICTORIA HAMILTON

THE WINNER IS:

#193 Karen B

**************************************

BRING UP THE BODIES

BY HILARY MANTEL

READ BY SIMON VANCE 

THANKS TO ESTHER AND THE GOOD

FOLKS AT MACMILLAN AUDIO BOOKS,

I AM EXCITED TO HAVE ONE COPY

OF THIS AMAZING AUDIO BOOK

TO GIVE AWAY TO ONE FOLLOWER

THE WINNER IS:

#51 misskallie2000

*****************************************

THE BIG KITTY

A Sunny and Shadow Mystery

BY CLAIRE DONALLY

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND THE GOOD FOLKS

AT BERKLEY PRIME CRIME AND PENGUIN

BOOKS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS

NEW MYSTERY SERIES FIRST BOOK,

THE BIG KITTY, TO GIVE AWAY

THE WINNER IS:

#163 Bethie

**************************************

TASTE OF HOME

COOKING SCHOOL COOKBOOK

BY CATHERINE CASSIDY 

AND TASTE OF HOME

THANKS TO LEYANE AND FSB ASSOCIATES,

I HAVE ONE WONDERFUL BRAND NEW

COPY OF THIS AMAZING COOKBOOK

TO GIVE TO ONE LUCKY READER!

THE WINNER IS:

#4 debbie

***************************************** 

BROWNIES & BROOMSTICKS

A Magical Bakery Mystery

BY BAILEY CATES 

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND FRIENDS

AT OBSIDIAN AND PENGUIN BOOKS,

I HAVE ONE COPY OF THIS FUN

MYSTERY BOOK, BROWNIES &

BROOMSTICKS, TO GIVE AWAY

THE WINNER IS:

#97 holdenj

************************************************ 

 

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LET'S GET COZY: A KILLER READ - A PREVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

  GIVEAWAY ENDED 
A KILLER READ

  An Ashton Corners Book Club Mystery

    BY ERIKA CHASE

ABOUT THE BOOK:

It's the first meeting of the Ashton Corners Mystery Readers and Cheese Straws Society and an intruder is later found dead in his car. When the owner of the mansion which is home to the book club meetings, Molly Mathews, becomes the prime suspect, Lizzie Turner, a reading specialist with the Ashton Corners, AL school board, and fellow book club members turn their talents to sleuthing.

Who knew the new police chief would be non other than Lizzie's old unrequited high school flame, Mark Dreyfus? Why is she finding chapters from an anonymous manuscript in her mailbox? And will cheese straws have to be served at every meeting from now on?

Lizzie is unrelenting in tracking down the killer, even to the point of putting herself in danger -- from the murderer and the oh-so-alluring police chief.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Erika writes the Ashton Corners Book Club mysteries for Penguin/Berkley Prime Crime.  In a parallel life Erika Chase is also known as Linda Wiken. A former mystery bookstore owner (Prime Crime Books in Ottawa, ON, Canada), Linda is also a short story writer. She is a member of those dangerous dames, The Ladies' Killing Circle.

Her short stories have appeared in the seven Ladies’ Killing Circle anthologies (three of which she co-edited), and in the magazines Mysterious Intent and Over My Dead Body. She has been short-listed for an Arthur Ellis Award, Best Short Story, from Crime Writers of Canada.

Before life in the world of mystery, she worked as an advertising copywriter, radio producer, journalist and community education worker.  Besides writing and reading mysteries, her other passion is choral singing and she is a member of two choirs.

Okay, maybe one more passion -- chocolate!

She shares her house with Keesha and Mojo, her two Siamese cats. Actually, they allow her to live there.

AN EXCERPT FROM A KILLER READ:

  “I’ve got an idea, Lizzie … why don’t you just do, like, brain surgery or something on me. Slice me open, pull out my brain, squish all this Shakespeare stuff into it, put it back and sew me up like new. Maybe that way I’ll finally get it!” Andrea Mason punctuated her proclamation with a long groan.

     Lizzie Turner internalized her own groan. She knew that Andie felt like she was being tortured, but Lizzie felt little remorse about the pain she’d inflicted. It was for her student’s own good.

     “Okay, Andie. I guess that’s enough for today. I’ll see you next Thursday, same time, same place, same English lit.”

     Andie groaned again, stroking her silver nose ring. She shifted from her terminal slouch to a more upright position and stuffed her book, notepad and pen into her black skull-and-crossbones backpack. “This sucks. It’s so not what I want to be doing, Lizzie. Couldn’t you just tell my folks I know it? Or I’m illiterate. Or something?”

To finish reading this excerpt from A KILLER READ, visit Erika Chase's website HERE.

         

GIVEAWAY 

THANKS TO KAYLEIGH AND THE GOOD FOLKS

AT BERKLEY PRIME CRIME AND PENGUIN

BOOKS, I HAVE ONE COPY OF A

KILLER READ, TO GIVE AWAY

 
--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES
---INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS
IN CASE YOU WIN!
--ALL COMMENTS MUST BE SEPARATE TO 
COUNT AS MORE THAN ONE!

HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON WHAT YOU THOUGHT ABOUT A KILLER READ THAT MADE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK, AND DON'T FORGET YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG AND/OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND COME BACK HERE AND LEAVE ME YOUR LINK 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FIND INTERESTING ON ERIKA CHASE'S WEBSITE BY GOING HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON A CURRENT GIVEAWAY THAT YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU MAY COMMENT SEPARATELY FOR EACH TO RECEIVE MORE ENTRIES

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, JUNE 10

 GOOD LUCK!

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THE RED BOOK: A REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY

 GIVEAWAY ENDED

THE RED BOOK

 BY DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN

ABOUT THE BOOK:

The Big Chill meets The Group in Deborah Copaken Kogan’s wry, lively, and irresistible new novel about a once-close circle of friends at their twentieth college reunion.

Clover, Addison, Mia, and Jane were roommates at Harvard until their graduation in 1989. Clover, homeschooled on a commune by mixed-race parents, felt woefully out of place. Addison yearned to shed the burden of her Mayflower heritage. Mia mined the depths of her suburban ennui to enact brilliant performances on the Harvard stage. Jane, an adopted Vietnamese war orphan, made sense of her fractured world through words.

Twenty years later, their lives are in free fall.  Clover, once a securities broker with Lehman, is out of a job and struggling to reproduce before her fertility window slams shut. Addison’s marriage to a writer’s-blocked novelist is as stale as her so-called career as a painter. Hollywood shut its gold-plated gates to Mia, who now stays home with her four children, renovating and acquiring faster than her director husband can pay the bills. Jane, the Paris bureau chief for a newspaper whose foreign bureaus are now shuttered, is caught in a vortex of loss.

Like all Harvard grads, they’ve kept abreast of one another via the red book, a class report published every five years, containing brief autobiographical essays by fellow alumni. But there’s the story we tell the world, and then there’s the real story, as these former classmates will learn during their twentieth reunion weekend, when they arrive with their families, their histories, their dashed dreams, and their secret yearnings to a relationship-changing, score-settling, unforgettable weekend.

PRAISE FOR THE RED BOOK:

"The Big Chill for the Facebook generation.”
—Adam Gopnik, author of Paris to the Moon

“Striking, funny, sad, and true-to-life, The Red Book sweeps us into the intersecting lives of characters who all started their adult lives in the same place, but upon whom time works both its magic and its entropy. Deborah Copaken Kogan is a deeply feeling writer, and this novel is a joy to read.”—Dani Shapiro, author of Devotion

“I gobbled up The Red Book in two days, ignoring my work, my family, my life, so immersed was I in the lives of the people Deborah Copaken Kogan has so masterfully brought to life. Kogan’s eye is at once wry and empathetic, and the book is a delight.”—Ayelet Waldman, author of Red Hook Road

“The Red Book, which is filled with Deborah Copaken Kogan’s smart take on everything from friendship to sex to child raising to getting over the past—or not—makes for old-school compulsive reading.”—Meg Wolitzer, author of The Uncoupling

“A smart, funny, engrossing, and action-packed meditation on women’s lives, growing up, having and not having it all, class and the expectations that come with having gone to Harvard, love lost and found, infidelity and sexuality, and finally, loss and lying, especially to yourself.”
—Publishers Weekly, starred review 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Deborah Copaken Kogan is the author of Between Here and April, a novel, and Shutterbabe, her bestselling memoir about her years as a war photographer. Her photographs have been published in Time, Newsweek, The New York Times, L’Express, Libération, and GEO. She has written for The New Yorker, The New York Times, Elle, O: The Oprah Magazine, More, Slate, and Paris Match, among others. She lives in Harlem, New York, with her husband and three children.

To read more about Deborah Copaken Kogan, visit her website "Bio" HERE.

MY THOUGHTS/REVIEW: 

In THE RED BOOK, Deborah Copaken Kogan tells her story in a different way than perhaps readers are recently used to. Rather than having the story told from alternating characters, diary entries, outside observers, or other recently seen imaginative ways, Kogan presents her narrative using Red Book entries. The Red Book is a report published for Harvard graduates in which their short biographies supposedly keep the alums up to date on what their classmates are doing every five years. Some of the biographies included are humorous while others feel much like candid confessions. With four main characters, Kogan is able to introduce them through these entries. When the 20th reunion of the class of 1989 comes around, reality sets in for these former roommates

As they come together after twenty years, Addison, Mia, Clover, and Jane, come to realize what has really happened to each other.  Mia, who wanted to be in the theater, is married to a Hollywood director and she is quite a successful mother, but not an actress. Clover, who is biracial and had been raised by hippie-type parents, goes in a completely opposite direction as we find she had become a director at Lehman Brothers. Unfortunately, Clover lost her job when the financial world took a nosedive in 2008 and now her major concern focuses on becoming a mother before it is too late.

In Addison, one finds a dejected woman, who is not happy in her marriage and probably for good reason in that she is a lesbian who has not come out of the closet. She seems to be unable to do anything right in her mind. Lastly Jane is a photojournalist and currently lives in Paris. Jane was adopted by an army doctor and brought from her home country of Vietnam finally winding up at Harvard among the other characters. The supporting characters also play an important part as THE RED BOOK gives readers not only an introduction, but a complete update throughout the book.

As Kogan’s characters all seem to agonize over their lives and choices, they make it quite clear that being in that Red Book, as an alum from Harvard, doesn’t necessarily equate to fulfillment and happiness. With ironic humor in her writing, Kogan can make you laugh one minute and then turn around and have you near tears as she describes real life situations. She masterfully begins the novel by introducing the four women through their Red Book entries and brings it full circle as she ends with their last entries five years later. I liked the overall theme of the book and Kogan’s style of writing. I did have to read carefully as there were so many characters to keep track of but I think pretty much all of them were relevant to the story. If you like stories like this, which reminded me of “The Big Chill”, then you should enjoy THE RED BOOK by Deborah Copaken Kogan. 

GIVEAWAY

THANKS TO THE GOOD FOLKS 

AT HYPERION VOICE, I HAVE ONE

COPY OF THIS FABULOUS BOOK TO

GIVE AWAY TO A LUCKY WINNER 

 

--U.S. RESIDENTS ONLY
--NO P. O. BOXES, PLEASE
--INCLUDE EMAIL ADDRESS IN COMMENT
--ALL ENTRIES/COMMENTS MUST BE  

SEPARATE IN ORDER TO COUNT
AS MORE THAN ONE ENTRY

 
HOW TO ENTER:

+1 ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING ABOUT THE RED BOOK THAT WOULD MAKE YOU WANT TO WIN THIS BOOK

+1 MORE ENTRY: BLOG OR TWEET ABOUT THIS GIVEAWAY AND LEAVE A LINK I CAN FOLLOW IN THE ENTRY

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON SOMETHING YOU FOUND INTERESTING WHEN VISITING DEBORAH COPAKEN KOGAN'S WEBSITE HERE

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE OTHER CURRENT GIVEAWAY YOU HAVE ENTERED ON MY BLOG. IF YOU ENTERED MORE THAN ONE, YOU CAN COMMENT ON EACH ON SEPARATELY AND GAIN MORE ENTRIES THAT WAY 

+1 MORE ENTRY: COMMENT ON ONE WAY YOU FOLLOW MY BLOG. IF YOU FOLLOW MORE THAN ONE WAY, YOU CAN COMMENT SEPARATELY AND EACH WILL COUNT AS AN ENTRY

 

GIVEAWAY ENDS AT

6 PM, EST, JUNE 10

GOOD LUCK!

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