Confessions Tour with J. B. Lynn

Join us for the next 9 days as J. B. Lynn and the characters of her hilarious Confessions series visit various blogs. There are 2 LIVE events for YOU to chat with J. B. And, of course, an opportunity to win a signed set of this must read series. Keep reading to learn more...

About the Books:

Maggie Lee is not your average hitwoman. For one thing, she's never killed anyone. For another, after hitting her head in the car accident that killed her sister, her new best friend is a talking lizard—a picky eater, obsessed with Wheel of Fortune, that only Maggie can hear.

Maggie, who can barely take care of herself, is desperate to help her injured and orphaned niece get the best medical care possible, so she reluctantly accepts a mobster's lucrative job offer: major cash to kill his monstrous son-in-law.

Paired with Patrick Mulligan, a charming murder mentor (who happens to moonlight as a police detective), Maggie stumbles down her new career path, contending with self-doubt, three meddling aunts, a semi-psychic friend predicting her doom, and a day job she hates. Oh, and let's not forget about Paul Kowalski, the sexy beat cop who could throw her ass in jail if he finds out what she's up to.

Training has never been so complicated! And, this time, Maggie has to get the job done. Because if she doesn't . . . she's the mob's next target.

Take three wacky aunts,
two talking animals,
one nervous bride,
and an upcoming hit, got the follow-up
 to JB Lynn's wickedly funny
 Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman.

Knocking off a drug kingpin was the last thing on Maggie Lee's to-do list, but when a tragic accident leaves her beloved niece orphaned and in the hospital, Maggie will go to desperate lengths to land the money needed for her care.

But the drug kingpin is the least of her worries. Maggie's aunts are driving her crazy, her best friend's turned into a bridezilla…and a knock on the head has given Maggie Dr. Dolittle abilities—she can talk to animals. Unfortunately, they talk back.

It's just another day in the life of this neurotic hitwoman…

Tour Schedule:

Jan. 7 Hear from Patrick at Modokker Book Picks (Review of book 2)
Jan. 8 Let's Talk Family at Alchemy of Scrawl
Jan. 9 J. B. discusses Creative Obsession at Bunny's Reviews
Jan. 10 An Interview at Jess Resides Here
Jan. 11 Advice from a Lizard at SM Johnson Writes
Jan. 12 Learn how characters are like OLD FRIENDS at Living, Learning, and Loving Life
Jan. 13 Maggie shares her resolutions with Mom with a Kindle
Jan. 14 Meet Maggie's friends at Alli's World
Jan. 15 Is Maggie nuts? Find out at Keeping Up with the Rheinlander's

Live Events:

Monday, January 7 at Ali Talks Live (8 pm EST): Listen to the archive
Thursday, January 10 at Goodreads for a LIVE author chat. Post your questions now!

About the Author:

Besides being a writer, JB Lynn is a compulsive reader, a runner (of sorts), an enthusiastic cook (who doesn't get the appeal of the Food Network), and someone who has an irresistible urge to eavesdrop at all times.

JB has a great love of her husband, dogs, coffee, purple ink, spiral notebooks, running gear, hot showers, and '80s music. Given enough time, all of these things will eventually show up in her books.

Links:

Website: www.jblynn.com

Publisher: http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/38895/JB_Lynn/index.aspx

Twitter: https://twitter.com/jb_lynn_author

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jb.lynn.14

KILLER CHICKS (blog): http://www.killerchicks.org/

Buy the Books:

Book 1: Amazon, IndieBound, B&N
Book 2: Amazon, IndieBound, B&N

Giveaway:


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. A paid publicity package was purchased by the author from GWR Publicity.

Related articles

• Confessions Book Tour with JB Lynn (alchemyscrawl.com)
• Ali Talks Live with JB Lynn (alisbookshelfreviews.blogspot.com)
• Confessions of a Slightly Neurotic Hitwoman book tour and giveaway (frellathon.com)

A Fluffy Read: Phone Kitten by Marika Christian

Phone Kitten by Marika Christian
ebook, $2.99
Published: September 2010 by BooksBNimble
ISBN13: 9780982999769
Source: Author
Read: December 2012 
Goodreads

Every year as the Christmas holidays approach I get this overwhelming desire to read chick lit. I guess it is the romance around the holiday - all the jewelry commercials and winter weddings. (Oddly, around Valentine's Day I seem to be repulsed by the thought of reading romance novels). On the first day of my break from the day job I scanned my list of books and alighted on Phone Kitten by Marika Christian. A fellow blogger had favorably reviewed it recently so it was an easy choice to make.

Emily is a nobody, and worse, she is invisible. She has decided that she no longer wants to be invisible and attempts to fulfill her dream of being a journalist at the St. Petersburg Times. However, like many insecure people, she hasn't chosen her confidant wisely. The day ends in disaster, yet it puts Emily on a whole new path to self-discovery.

I think many people will relate to Emily. Even if you were never a member of the "chub club", most of us have felt unpopular, unnoticed, unliked, etc. at one point or another. With it being a new year, a time when many are implementing (attempting to at least) change, Emily's journey to "make something" of herself will resonate well with the reader.

I found Phone Kitten to be amusing and looked forward to getting back to the story each day. Like any good chick lit it was a quick read and perfect for the start of my holiday break.

It reminded me a bit of J. B. Lynn's Confession series, but not as funny and a bit heavier on the romance. Marika Christian found her own perfect combination of humor and romance, though. And while the story is focused on Emily, the secondary characters are fully developed. Plus the story isn't predictable as chick lit sometimes tends to be. I was undecided until the very end about whether the Latino hottie from history class was the real deal or setting her up.

Phone Kitten was a fun read and if you are looking for something light but still with some meat to it, then this is a book you should pick up. I will definitely be looking for future books from Marika Christian.

Buy the book at Amazon

Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. A free book was received from the stated source in exchange for an honest review, no compensation was received.

Related articles

• Phone Kitten by Marika Christian (abshepherdsreinventedreader.blogspot.com)
• Holiday Romance: Dating Mr. December (girl-who-reads.com)

D. Kai Wilson-Viola: Revolution - not resolution (guest post)

I've been making resolutions for as long as I can remember, but I've never quite managed to stick to them. Come close - people that know me are always using sentences like 'I don't know how you do it' when referring to my work, but I'm about to let you in on a secret.

I am a perfectionist. I push myself far too hard and for the last three years, I've been punishing myself. For what, I'm not sure, but I always set up goals that are too difficult for a normal. Perhaps it's because I don't like being bored. Perhaps it's because I spent the last four years (to 2011) in a degree, which meant every minute was filled and then I had a crazy amount of time that I had to find slots for. All I know is that this year, I had to change. I don't want to spend another day hurrying up and waiting - putting myself through a wringer and basically making it difficult to get on with my work. So I decided…

Revolution.

In everything I do. Absolutely everything.

I'm not going to promise to read more. I'm not going to promise to review more - I can't fit that in right now - what I need to do first is overhaul everything else first.

Revolution in exercise - I'm going to stop signing up for a gym and I'm going to use the kit we have here - that is, a Kinect and some games. It's a start, until I get back to being fit enough to road run, which I love.

Revolution in writing - no more sitting on my work. It's as easy as that.

Revolution in blogging - more, more, more.

Revolution in marketing - oh, this one is going to be fun - and this one is the huge surprise. It involves two books, and a whole new perspective on something that I consider my speciality though.

Revolution in my home - I work FROM home, but the house looks like no one cares. With two teens and two adults, I'm not entirely surprised, so part of the exercise revolution is cleaning the house. I mean *really* cleaning.

Revolution in my perspective - I'm not very open about the struggles we've dealt with this year. Multiple miscarriages, my youngest going to a specialist school, bills, and problems with the house like you wouldn't believe, hospital stays….the works. And Last year, I dwelled. I was always behind. I was *always* making excuses. My books got bumped to not only 'back burner' but back yard, next door. My stuff came last because I wanted to make sure I was serving everyone I worked with, but a heck of a lot of that was volunteering. And I love helping out, but it's just not practical to do full time. Not without my own books, and my own writing and reading coming first. It's selfish, but that's the biggest revolution. Being nice doesn't mean being everywhere and doing everything.

You might wonder, 'what's a writer doing talking in such vague terms? Why's she talking about intensely personal stuff?'

You might wonder what exercise and my house being a bit dusty and the washing pile coming up over my ears is important to anyone other than me. But the thing is, writers are dancing around trying to balance everything. And for those of us with families and houses will know exactly what I'm talking about. Revolution is a bit difficult though when you're 34, trying for a baby (and failing - I blog about that, when I'm not bawling my eyes out). But I need to do this, because I'm going to destroy myself otherwise.

The irony of this? I don't have a book out under my own name. I do lots of work for other writers, but I've not even added 'promoting my debut novel' into the mix. Revolution - that happens this year too, and I bet my life will change.

And then I thought - why isn't everyone else doing revolutions rather than resolutions? Causing an uprising in their world, big or small? Because there's really nothing stopping you.

About the Author:

Kai really is 34 (though she often feels 15), trying for a baby, and hoping this year will be an improvement on 2012. When not pressing the big detonation button on everything in her life, she can be found blogging at http://authorinterrupted.com, and starting two new blogs at http://babymakes.me (where she talks infertility and knitting baby stuff) and http://forensiclinguistics.com, where I go all geeky about language.

Her first book will be out soon, and is called Glass Block. That's a whole other (54 book) story in itself.

The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, beliefs, or opinions of Girl Who Reads.

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Tips on Thursday: Resolutions

Last week I talked about reflecting on what had done well on your blog and what didn't work. I hope you took sometime to look over your blog. This week I want to encourage you to write down some resolutions for your blog.

Those who have been blogging for a while know one of the biggest challenges is getting comments. We have all heard the tips to encourage discussion; I even wrote a tips post about commenting. But a thought occurred to me while reading My Blog Traffic Sucks (affiliate link) Monday. Who is reading your blog? I know most of my readers are bloggers, which led me to think about my own commenting habits. My resolution is to comment more this year.  To make it easier to stick with it I'm setting my goal at 5 comments a week. Will you also set this goal? (Click to tweet if you will commit to 5 comments a week) I believe if we each are proactive in commenting on each others blogs we will change the commenting climate in the blogosphere.

Another area I'm going to work on is my reviews. I hope by limiting myself to one review a week I can work on making it the best review possible. I think sometimes I'm rushed to get a review posted that I don't take the time to really think about what I am saying and it isn't always as good as it could be.

I also want to get more active on social media. The last few months I've really slacked off on interacting. There are so many sites now, but since I've reflected on what works for me I know which sites to concentrate on. If you are struggling with social media, here is how I rank the importance of each:

1. Twitter - this is a must have for bloggers. it is quick to broadcast new posts and mini-reviews. Also it's a great place to connect with experts so you can get the latest and greatest on blogging tools, authors, new books, and we vents.

2. Facebook - interact with your fans more with a fan page. I'm going to focus on having discussions there that might not relate to what I am posting on the blog. It is also a great place to find groups, like my GWR Publicity group.

3. Google+ - mostly use it to increase my post's ranking in search. I recently joined a PR group there but haven't done anything with it.

4. Pinterest - low priority as far as using it for my blog. If you are a graphic heavy blog it might work for you. I use it for blog tours I organize.

5. LinkedIn - low priority as well, except for my tips series and GWR Publicity networking.

I probably will do little with Pinterest and LinkedIn this year, instead I will use that time to focus a bit more on social bookmarking sites, such as StumbleUpon and Reddit.

What changes are you hoping to implement on your blog this year? I would love to hear your goals. Let me know if you will join me for the commenting challenge.


Happy new year!

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Ally Malinenko: What Got Left Behind (guest post)

Revising is not easy work. It’s long and arduous and necessary and also my least favorite part of writing. I like the burst of inspiration part, the oh-my-god-i-just-had-the-best-idea-this-is-going-to-be-so-much-fun part. The giddy with excitement creative part. You know - the childish part.

Revising is the grown up part of writing. It’s the eat-your-vegetables-brush-you-teeth-and-go-to-bed part. It’s the part where we have to cut out some of our favorite parts or favorite lines or favorite moments. But it’s necessary because the fun part is messy and no one wants to read a messy book. They want a fun exciting book yes, but clean and neat and tight. Not messy.

So we have to clean up. When I first started writing Lizzy Speare it was a much different book. And I’m here today, dear reader, to share with you what got left behind. Now, bear in mind this isn’t easy to do. Things were cut for a reason. So no laughing!

1. Lizzy’s name was Hamlet. I’m not kidding. I named a 12 year old girl Hamlet Shakes.

Oh wait…

2. Lizzy wasn’t 12. She was 8. I named an 8 year old girl Hamlet Shakes. How cruel.

3. Hamlet had a very mean mother who hated her and Rupert worked a very boring job in a paper factory and he did not make giant birthday cakes in the middle of the night. I think he was a touched depressed.

4. Jonathan has always been Lizzy’s muse but at one point in time he was a walking talking skeleton. I guess for a while there I thought that Shakespeare’s muse would be very connected to Yorick’s skull so I made him a skeleton. Either that or I thought Shakespeare’s muse would then move on to inspire Stephen King.  I’m not really sure what I was thinking. Picture Jack Skellington from Nightmare Before Christmas and you get the idea.

5. Jonathan as a skeleton would wear his skin like clothing and it would be all bumpy and ill-fitting and that would be funny. Though thinking about it now it seems more terrifying than anything else. Definitely more Stephen King than Shakespeare.

6. Cleo would never leave the Muse Bar. In the final edition of Lizzy Cleo is a big character, Jonathan’s best friend and loyal satyr. But the first time around when Lizzy was Hamlet and Jonathan was a giant skeleton, Cleo was only in that one scene in the beginning. He was just a momentary thing. Like the Symphonias. The reason that it was Cleo out of all the other characters there that I pulled into a bigger role is because satyrs get a bad rap. They are tricksters and playful and they don’t take anything serious or believe in anything outside of when they’re going to get their next bottle of wine. I wanted Cleo to be more than that.

7. There was no Dexter, no Gossamer Willowfly and no Charities.

8. There was no such thing as Bending Time, which if you’ve read the book, means you never met one of the biggest characters in the whole thing. Spoilers!

9. I can’t go into too much detail here (more spoilers!) but let’s just say for a while Rupert’s ending was much different….much darker….much more nasty. *Shiver*

10. And finally, the biggest change, there was no Sammy. Lizzy was all alone in this world. Now I can’t imagine not having Sammy in there. Who would she talk to? Who would she trust? Who would she fight for? To me, Sammy and Lizzy are peanut butter and jelly. They work okay alone but they’re so much better together.

So there you go. All my nasty little locked in the attic secrets of what this book was before it was Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb. And hey, what did I say about no laughing?

About the Author:

Ally Malinenko, a self-proclaimed Bardolator, took her first pilgrimage to Stratford-Upon-Avon in 2009 and hasn’t been the same since. Lizzy Speare and the Cursed Tomb is her first children's book. Her poetry book, The Wanting Bone, was published by Six Gallery Press. She blogs at allymalinenko.com. Ally lives in Brooklyn with her husband.

Connect with the Author:

website: http://allymalinenko.com/

goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/16006898-lizzy-speare-and-the-cursed-tomb

twitter: https://twitter.com/AllyMalinenko

facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LizzySpeareandtheCursedTomb

Buy the Book at Amazon!

Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. The views, beliefs, and opinions expressed by guest post authors are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views, beliefs, or opinions of Girl Who Reads.

Featured Book: Only a Glow by Nichelle Rae

What if the world was ending? What if only you had the power to save it? And what if your power wasn’t in your control? Welcome to Azrel’s dilemma.

Only A Glow is the first book in an epic new fantasy series, The White Warrior. Join Azrel, her brother Rabryn, and her best friend Ortheldo as they journey across their land to try to save the world from another age of the Shadow Gods rule.

Along the way they try to find out what’s wrong with Azrel’s magic, because her magic is the only power that will cause the Shadow Gods to stumble and fail.

ebook
ISBN13: 9780988336001
Published: October 2012


Praise for Only a Glow:

This book was awesome! As an avid fantasy reader, a book really has to suck me in within the first few chapters and this book hooked me within a few paragraphs. The main character Azrel is relatable, believable and likeable. My only complaint is that it ended!! I can't wait for the next book in the series! ~ Talisha G. (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)

Ok. I've read alot of famous series like Harry Potter; Fablehaven; The Inheritance Cycle;and The Heir Series plus many more. All great reads. But Only a Glow has to be the best novel I've ever read. I could picture the characters in my mind easily and couldn't put the book down. I can't wait for book #2 of this series dubbed The White Warrior. If you have not done so already, I suggest clearing a whole weekend and start reading first thing in the morning, I did not and went on a 2 day bender just to finish. ~John B. (Waverly, New York)

About the Author:

Nichelle Rae, fantasy’s newest author, was born and raised in Massachusetts. Her love for writing began when she was 14 years old and she wrote short stories about meeting her favorite music group Hanson. She received so much praise and complements on her writing ability that it quickly became a passion of hers.
Throughout the years she has gotten much praise from peers, professors, and professional author’s she’s had a chance to work with about her writing and ability to put emotions into text.

The White Warrior Series is her debut fantasy series she’s publishing as an independent author which will consist of seven books total. Nichelle already has begun three more fantasy series that she hopes to publish in the future after The White Warrior Series.

Website, Interview, Goodreads, Trailer

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Girl Who Reads is an advertising affiliate with Amazon and IndieBound; a small fee is earned when purchases are made using the above links. Featured Books is a free announcement feature and all information is provided by the author unless otherwise noted.