Readers' Favorite

July 22, 2017

A Lovely Book: Luellen & Lucy by Dee DeTarsio

Review by Susan Roberts


The Civil War has just ended and after all the hardships that they suffered during the war best friends Luellen and Lucy are living together in a run-down house with their possessions that survived the war. They have been best friends for their entire lives and almost seem to be able to read each other's thoughts.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

Luellen & Lucy
November 2016; 978-1537079080
ebook, print (280 pages); historical romance
Luellen lost her husband and children to sickness during the war and craves the attention of a man so when a doctor (with three small children who need a mother) asks her to marry him, she jumps at the chance. Lucy is very opposed to the idea but finally goes along with it and agrees to move to Ohio with the family to start a new life. Something happens on the train trip to Ohio that changes everyone's plans for the future. Can Lucy and Luellen remain friends despite all the changes?

This is a lovely book about friendship and second chances. I enjoyed the two characters and a look at the hardships that people had to go through after the Civil War.

Buy Luellen & Lucy at Amazon

About the book:

The Civil War may be over, but for thirty-year-old Luellen, the battle has just begun. After burying her husband and children, Luellen and her lifelong friend, Lucy, pack up their secrets and their few possessions and set about rebuilding their lives up north. But as Luellen finally finds the love and security she never thought she deserved, Lucy disapproves of the match and threatens to ruin Luellen’s chance at happiness.

Closer than sisters, neither can bear to part from the other until a train robbery changes everything. Lucy slips into Luellen’s life, while Luellen is embroiled in her kidnapper’s quest.

From bidding adieu to southern traditions to embracing love, compassion combats betrayal as Luellen and Lucy bravely face the future.

Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends.  She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction, and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook.


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July 21, 2017

Get Paid for Your Influence

by Donna Huber



You have worked hard to grow a following on social media. You take the time it needs to nurture a fan base that interacts with your content. Don't you deserve to be compensated for that time and effort?

I know you have seen the ads for workshops and classes on how to make a six figure full-time income blogging. If you are book blogging, it is unlikely that you will reach that goal. In the publishing industry, few are willing to pay for the social influence. Whether it is because they don't recognize the power of social or that enough people are willing to do it for free that they don't have to pay for it.

However, you can make a few dollars on the side by broadening your scope a bit beyond books.

Influencer marketing is a growing, effective segment of the marketing industry. Food, retail, entertainment, fashion, and fitness are among the top industries investing marketing dollars in influencer marketing.

If you are a parent or lifestyle blogger and have a significant following (typically defined as having more than 2,000 followers on a social media network, though one company required you to have at least 5,000 followers on at least one network) you are golden. I'm neither of the first two, but I have a significant following and companies have engaged me to promote their products.

I have worked with Audible, Grammarly, Sony, and CoffeeMate.

How does influencer marketing work?

Brands engage influencers with a proposal that details the deliverables of the campaign. Depending on who you work with, you will either bid on the job or the brand states the rate they will pay. Most campaigns pay between $10 and $50, but you can garner more money by having a greater sphere of influence (more followers!). Also the more involved the campaign is the higher the pay usually.

The deliverables in a campaign are usually a combination of social shares, blog posts, and/or video. The proposal will be detailed as to exactly what you need to do. Usually, graphics are provided, sample language, as well tracking urls, and how the brand wants to be tagged on social media. For blog posts and videos they will usually provide details on word count and main points to mention.

The campaigns I have done with Sony and CoffeeMate have involved 2 social shares. The Audible campaign required a blog post. I'm a little more open to the companies I work with when it comes to social shares. Outside of the Facebook page for Girl Who Reads, all my other social media channels (Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest, G+) are a mix of personal and Girl Who Reads postings. When it comes to blog posts though I want to be able to at least tie it into something bookish (like CoffeeMate could have been tied to enjoying a cup of coffee with a good book).

How do I find brands to work with?

While sometimes brands will come knocking, many works with influencer management companies to discover and vet influencers. There are a number of companies that connect brands with influencers. They provide campaign management and handle paying the influencers.

For influencers, these companies are usually free to sign up with (I haven't ran across any that charge the influencer since that is the service they are providing to brands who do pay).

I have signed up with a few and they all work little differently and I tend to work with one or two more than the others. You will just need to look try a few out to see what ones offer you the best choices.

Here are 3 I'm signed up with:

  • Activate (a partner of Bloglovin') - If you want to promote fashion, food, and family activities then you will find a lot of campaigns to bid on. A weekly email is sent out with open. campaigns. I have also noticed that their campaigns usually require you purchase the product being promoted. They also send out articles that will help you be a better influencer.
  • TapInfluence - Helpful client service. They send out a monthly survey to connect influencers to brands. They have provided training on FTC compliance guidelines
  • Find Your Influence - I really like this company. They are easy to work with and their reporting system is easy to use. I've done 3 campaigns with them.
You might also want to scroll through this article on 150+ INFLUENCER MARKETING AGENCIES, PLATFORMS, TOOLS, COMPANIES from The Influence Marketer. While it is geared towards the brand side of influence marketing, the agencies and companies listed are probably looking to add influencers to their rolls.

The takeaway message

You don't have to give up your passion in order to earn some cash from the all the time and hard work you have put into it. I love book blogging and while I do wish authors and publishers recognized the efforts and influence bloggers have I recognize it is an industry that changes slowly. In the meantime, I will enjoy the free books and look to other industries for revenue.

If you too want to get paid for your influence, then work on creating an engaged following and sign up with a few companies.

Donna Huber is an avid reader and natural encourager. She is the founder of Girl Who Reads and the author of how-to marketing book Secrets to a Successful Blog Tour.


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July 20, 2017

#BookReivew: Oola for Women by Dave Braun and Troy Amdahl

Review by MK French


I will admit right off the bat that I'm not usually the kind of person that will go for self-help books because my free time is so limited that I'd rather read something fun. When the request for this book came through, it happened to come at a time when work had gotten markedly more stressful with a change of computer system along with less ancillary staff, my youngest deciding that tantrums were fun, and my older two children deciding that yelling was much better than screaming. Feeling a little frazzled, I figured that I could give this book a try. The world is certainly unbalanced, and I'd never heard of the Oola system before. Why not?

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

Oola for Women
May 2017; HCI; 978-0757319846
ebook, audio, print (264 pages); self-help
The authors describe Oola as a state of balance, and created the term from "Ooh la la." The balance is between fitness, finances, family, field (as in career), faith, friends, and fun. Interspersed between stories women had written and contributed to the authors are their definitions of these seven areas and what it should look like in balance.

At first, that sounds simple, in the sense that you sit there and think "But I knew that!" I found myself breaking out the post it tags to mark up pages so I can go back and read them again, and took out a notebook to tally up where my life is at in those seven fields. The tally is rather subjective, but I think that's the point of it all: YOU decide what's lacking in these areas of your life, not someone you've never met writing a self-help book. Once you have that in place, then you can decide what your overall goal should be, and what your next step is going to be.

There's no quick fix, and the authors don't ever imply that there is one. The point of this book is that yes, the world is nuts and there is too much to do in so little time. If you sit down and map out the areas of your life that make it worthwhile, you can start to put problems into perspective and figure out ways to solve them.

It's very straightforward and easy to grasp the point, and the third section is all step by step advice on how to break down the larger problems into something smaller and more achievable. For most people, that's probably the hardest part to figure out, and this book gives great guidance for that.

Buy Oola for Women at Amazon

Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and golden retriever.


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July 19, 2017

The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things by Courtney Elizabeth Mauk

Review by Susan Roberts


Set against a layered Manhattan landscape, The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things explores a fractured family through the alternating perspectives of the mother, father, and brother of a young woman during the aftermath of her disappearance. A year of silent but collective anguish culminates in the fateful thirty hours after a body with a striking resemblance to hers is found, and we see her buttoned-up Upper West Side family spiral in different, dangerous directions: Her mother, Carol, nearly comatose by day, comes alive at night in a vigilante-like attempt to track down her daughter’s killer. Her brother, Ben, once the “good kid,” adopts her bad habits along with her former friends who may have been complicit in her death. And after failing to keep his family from splitting apart, her seemingly stoic father, Drew, finally allows himself to crack.

Amazon affiliate links are used on this site. A free book was provided for an honest review.

The Special Power of Restorying Lost Things
October 2016; Little A; 978-1503937055
ebook, audio, print (225 pages); thriller
This is a novel about a mother, father, and brother of a missing girl who is attempting to cope with her disappearance a year after she went missing. As the story begins, the police have just called and have found a body that they think may be the daughter. After a year of barely living, this news causes the family to implode.

Carol, her mother, dresses up in her daughter’s clothes and frequents the clubs that her daughter went to in hopes of finding her killer. Drew, her father struggles with his inadequacies as a parent to both of his children, and Ben, her brother, spends time with his sister's old friends to try to recover from the loss of his sister. The family each goes their own way to try to deal with the loss and there is little or no connection or shared grief. To me, that was one of the saddest parts of the book.

This is a difficult book to read and it just keeps getting more desolate as it continues. I didn't like Carol at all and wasn't too happy with Drew until the end. Make sure that you have a happy book to read when you finish this one - you are going to need the change of pace.

Buy The Special Power of Restoring Lost Things at Amazon


Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling. She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends. She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with her on Facebook.


Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today! Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.

July 18, 2017

July Surprise Pack #Giveaway



It's time again for another surprise pack giveaway. I hope you are enjoying these giveaways as much as I am. It's fun to find something other than bills in the mailbox. If you are in the U.S. you will win a surprise pack that contains at least one book and other bookish stuff. If you are outside the U.S., then I will select a book from the Book Depository to ship to you.



a Rafflecopter giveaway



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July 17, 2017

#BookReview: Library of Light and Shadow by M.J. Rose #MondayBlogs

by MK French


Delphine Duplessi has a talent for drawing "shadow portraits," pictures drawn while she is blindfolded that reveals the secrets that the subject wants to hide. Most are rather innocuous, which allows her to use it as a party trick in 1925 New York City. But some secrets are not so petty, and the book opens with a party that ends in tragedy. Delphine retreats into depression, and her twin brother brings her back to France for a change of scenery. A tragedy had sent her away from France, however, and it haunts her as much as the doomed romance she had run away from. But her brother is working with an opera singer obsessed with finding the works of Nicholas Flamel, and Delphine will try to find the alchemist's book if it saves her brother's life.

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. A free book was provided for an honest review.

July 2017; Atria Books; 978-1476778129
ebook, audio, print (368 pages); gothic romance
Library of Light and Shadow is amazingly well done. The characters are solid and real, even in their worst moments, and Delphine's past is deftly interwoven with her present.

She was driven from France to New York by fear, and she has to find her way back from that darkness. The shadow portraits are a kind of magic, which her family is known for, and trying to keep from using her gift isn't any better than trying to control her emotions or keep them locked away. They're very tied together, which is often a theme for books about creative people.

Emotions and talents are intertwined, and unlocking talents usually involves coming to grips with emotions and not being afraid of them.

The subplots all come together neatly at the end, and the lush scenery is so deftly described you almost feel like you're there. This is the first book by M. J. Rose that I've read, and I doubt that it's going to be my last.



Born and raised in New York City, M.K. French started writing stories when very young, dreaming of different worlds and places to visit. She always had an interest in folklore, fairy tales, and the macabre, which has definitely influenced her work. She currently lives in the Midwest with her husband, three young children, and golden retriever.



Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today!. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.

July 16, 2017

#BookReview: The Act by Nicole Waggoner

by Susan Roberts

The first two books in The Circus of Women Trilogy by a wonderful new author have been released and I am anxiously waiting for book 3 in early 2018.  Book 1, Center Ring, was released in 2016 (read my review) and book 2, The Act, was released in May 2017.

Amazon affiliate links are used in this post. A free book was provided for an honest review.

The Act
May 2017; 978-1544867458
ebook, print (306 pages); women's fiction
I really couldn't wait any longer to get back into the lives of these five friends that we first met in Center Ring last year. Nicole Waggoner left us with a life or death cliff hanger and it's been a long wait to find out what happened.

The Act is a fantastic continuation of the series. (Warning: this is a trilogy that needs to be read in order. I re-read book 1 last week so that I could remember all the intricacies of the characters lives when I started book 2.)

This series is about 5 best friends. They all have problems in their lives - work, husbands, families, boyfriends... but they know that they can always depend on each other to help them overcome their obstacles and to love them no matter what they are going through.

It's difficult to write a book from five points of view, but Waggoner does a fantastic job of creating five characters who feel like people that we know in our own lives.

As with book 1, The Act ends with a cliff hanger so we'll have to wait another long year to find out what happens with our five new friends.

Buy The Act at Amazon


Susan Roberts lives in North Carolina when she isn't traveling.  She and her husband enjoy traveling, gardening and spending time with their family and friends.  She reads almost anything (and the piles of books in her house prove that) but her favorite genres are Southern fiction, women's fiction and thrillers. Susan is a top 1% Goodreads Reviewer. You can connect with  her on Facebook.


Get even more book news in your inbox, sign up today!. Girl Who Reads is an Amazon advertising affiliate; a small commission is earned when purchases are made at Amazon using any Amazon links on this site. Thank you for supporting Girl Who Reads.

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