Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Things You Won't Say by Sarah Pekkanen

Our book club pick of the month is THINGS YOU WON'T SAY by Sarah Pekkanen, one of our favorite authors, who is also published by Atria. (In fact, we're lucky to be doing a joint book event with her in Chicago on June 4th! Come and see us!) Sarah's book publishes tomorrow, May 26th, just in time to throw in your carry-on or beach bag for your summer vacay! We have one copy of THINGS YOU WON'T say for giveaway. Either comment here or on the post on our Facebook page, and you'll be entered to win. Contest closes Wednesday, May 27th at 8pm PST.

The scoop:  How far would you go to save your family?

Every morning, as her husband Mike straps on his SIG Sauer and pulls on his heavy Magnum boots, Jamie Anderson tenses up. Then comes the call she has always dreaded: There’s been a shooting at police headquarters. Mike isn’t hurt, but his long-time partner is grievously injured. As weeks pass and her husband’s insomnia and disconnectedness mount, Jamie realizes he is an invisible casualty of the attack. Then the phone rings again. Another shooting—but this time Mike has pulled the trigger.

But the shooting does more than just alter Jamie’s world. It’s about to change everything for two other women. Christie Simmons, Mike’s flamboyant ex, sees the tragedy as an opportunity for a second chance with Mike. And Jamie’s younger sister, Lou, must face her own losses to help the big sister who raised her. As the press descends and public cries of police brutality swell, Jamie tries desperately to hold together her family, no matter what it takes.

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Things You Won't Say by Sarah Pekkanen

THINGS YOU WON'T SAY is a very timely novel. Was there a newsworthy event that sparked the idea? Or what was the catalyst?

Fifteen years ago, I was a new reporter for the Baltimore Sun newspaper. One of my first assignments was to write an article about police officer Harold Carey Jr., who died in the line of duty. As I conducted interviews, the story that unfolded stunned me: Minutes before his death, Harold had been eating breakfast with a group that included Officer Lavon’De Alston, a close friend who’d encouraged him to join the force. Then a summons came in from their dispatcher: An officer was in trouble a short distance away. Few calls inspire such urgency among the brothers and sisters in blue, and the officers sprinted to their vehicles and sped, sirens blaring, to help.

At an intersection a couple of blocks away, the van being driven by Harold’s partner collided with the cruiser being driven by Lavon’De. Harold died at the scene. Lavon’De, who was badly injured in the crash, was devastated. She couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t stop thinking about Harold, the big, lovable man who’d nicknamed her “Shorty” and gobbled the rest of her pancakes when she couldn’t finish them.

Her anguish – as well as her sensitivity and strength – made a deep impression on me. It was wrenchingly unfair:  How could this happen to a police officer who was committed to helping people, to doing good, to saving lives? How could she endure the pain and guilt? Although the circumstances in my novel are different, my newspaper article “Officer Down!” was the inspiration for this book.

In it I wanted to explore what would happen to a good police officer who did the worst thing imaginable –shooting a teenager. In my novel, my police officer happened to be white, and the teenager happened to be Hispanic.

Now, my deadlines require me to turn in my manuscripts a full year before publication, so THINGS YOU WON’T SAY was already in the copy-editing stage when Michael Brown was shot to death by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri. In THINGS YOU WON’T SAY, Michael Anderson, a white police officer, shoots Jose Torres, who was a Hispanic teenager, and some of the questions that arose for characters in my book – Would Anderson have fired if Jose Torres had been white? – echoed some of the questions swirling around the Ferguson case.

You always have a lot of fun with your fans--specifically, you have involved them when you're planning your book tours.  Last year, you had a cardboard cut out of Ryan Gosling with you. Any fun ideas planned for this year?

I love book signings, and am hoping to play some games with the audience. Winners will get giveaways for things like chocolates and copies of upcoming books! And I'm really looking forward to the event in Chicago on June 4, because it'll be a joint appearance with Liz & Lisa!

You've written six novels! Which of your characters would you:

A) want to have a drink with - Savannah from THE BEST OF US, because she lacks a filter when she talks and she's hysterical

B) want to be best friends with - Jamie from THINGS YOU WON'T SAY. She's a frazzled, funny, real mom who deals with the same problems and issues I always discuss with my own girlfriends

C) want to set your girlfriend up with - Trey from THESE GIRLS (he's a total hunk, and sensitive to boot!)

You've talked about juggling motherhood and writing--even penning parts of a novel while at soccer practice. Do you have a secret to to how you'll get your writing accomplished this summer, when the kids are out of school?

No. Any suggestions???? I need help!

Your seventh will publish May 2016. Can you share any details about it?

It's the story of a group of women who live in a small, close-knit neighborhood… and each woman is holding close a secret.

Thanks, Sarah!

Picture (im) perfect: What life looks like when we pull back the filter

Let's agree on something. We are all guilty of uploading a photo to Instagram or Facebook that, with just the right angle, lighting and filter makes the image look damn near perfect.  What we don't post are the twenty pictures we took just to get the one that we then triple filtered and cropped before we uploaded it. Understandably so, we all want others to see us in the best light (pun intended) whether we're nestled up to our spouse looking hopelessly in love on our anniversary or our child is smiling angelically in her Sunday best or the rescue dog we adopted is greeting card cute as he pants for the camera. And while there's nothing wrong with wanting to put our best self out there, the photos we share typically represent the way we want our lives to appear, not the way they actually are. So in honor of our upcoming novel, THE STATUS OF ALL THINGS, about a social media obsessed woman who gets the chance to literally re-write her fate on Facebook, we decided to post the photos that we'd typically delete faster than you can say #nofilter or #blessed. This, is our #reallife.  

Oh Lily. Look at you batting your big brown eyes for the camera. I'm going to post this shot for my followers because I know they will think you're all as cute as I do.

But what you and I both know is what they're never going to see. The shoe you chewed like it was a tennis ball that had done you wrong. #damndog

It's our fifth wedding anniversary and while, yes, we are still in love, we only posted the shot of us at the restaurant (aren't we so cute?) that the twenty-year-old hostess had to take seventeen times because she was shooting up at us (and that is not a good thing when you are forty).

What we didn't post was the shot of us just thirty minutes later when, instead of going out after dinner as planned, we called the sitter and told her there was going to be a change of plans. We headed home, put on our sweat pants and binged on Netflix. #becausewearelame #andanoldmarriedcouplealready #pleasenotemydoublechins

And then there's my four-year-old. Doesn't she look sweet? Posing in her princess best? As if every time I ask her to do something, she says, yes, mommy, whatever you say. Well, this was the picture I took after. After she got her way. #sheusuallywins #makethatalways

The next picture was taken before. When she had the tantrum that would make Mike Tyson shake his head. Here's a freeze frame from the video I took and plan to use as leverage when she really is the teen she acts like now. #apicturereallyisworthathousandwords #iamnotabovebribery

Wow-Doesn't my hair look UH-amazing? And, look, I'm kind of smirking and half-smiling like I have a really fantastic secret that I only share with other really wonderful people. And it only took me seventeen shots and five filters to get this picture just right! So there!

What I didn't show you was the nasty pic, with dye smeared all over my face (and eyebrows!) and the clock showing I'd been stuck in that chair for FIVE hours. Because my hair starting growing gray when I turned thirty, of course. But don't tell anyone, okay? It will just be our little secret.

OMG, aren't they so cute! They went from being strays on the mean street to sleeping in a warm bed each night and playing tug-o-war! Aren't I the BEST person EVER, because I rescue dogs and take adorable pictures of them living their new lives?

What I didn't reveal was how one of them (And I can't figure out which one?) thinks it's hilarious to poop on the one piece of carpeting in the entire house. Yep, we have one two foot rug and that's where's they leave the stinky presents. And puke. And dead rats they find in the yard. And now I need to buy a steam cleaner.

Not only do I have amazing low maintenance red hair and well-behaved rescue animals, I'm also an fantastic cook! See this? You may thing it's greasy, unhealthy fried rice, but it's actually cauliflower DISGUISED as fried rice! Yes, I'll accept the Mother of the Year award now. Please and Thank you.

What I didn't show was what my kitchen looked like afterward. And yes, that's ketchup. Those little effers put KETCHUP on my beautiful creation and didn't rinse one of these dishes. #howdoesthatevenmakesense

Best Books of the Month: May Edition!

Is it just us, or are there so many good books out there right now? It was hard to narrow down our list this month--we wish we could include everyone! And we have one copy of each for giveaway. Just leave a comment here or over on our FB page and you'll be entered to win! Contest closes Thursday, May 21 at 5pm PST. xoxo

The Mapmaker's Children by Sarah McCoy

The scoop: When Sarah Brown, daughter of abolitionist John Brown, realizes that her artistic talents may be able to help save the lives of slaves fleeing north, she becomes one of the Underground Railroad’s leading mapmakers, taking her cues from the slave code quilts and hiding her maps within her paintings. She boldly embraces this calling after being told the shocking news that she can’t bear children, but as the country steers toward bloody civil war, Sarah faces difficult sacrifices that could put all she loves in peril. Eden, a modern woman desperate to conceive a child with her husband, moves to an old house in the suburbs and discovers a porcelain head hidden in the root cellar—the remains of an Underground Railroad doll with an extraordinary past of secret messages, danger and deliverance. Ingeniously plotted to a riveting end, Sarah and Eden’s woven lives connect the past to the present, forcing each of them to define courage, family, love, and legacy in a new way.

Our thoughts: Sarah McCoy left us with our chin on the floor. Such a talent!

Dear Carolina by Kristy Woodson Harvey

The scoop: One baby girl. Two strong Southern women. And the most difficult decision they’ll ever make. Frances “Khaki” Mason has it all: a thriving interior design career, a loving husband and son, homes in North Carolina and Manhattan—everything except the second child she has always wanted. Jodi, her husband’s nineteen-year-old cousin, is fresh out of rehab, pregnant, and alone. Although the two women couldn’t seem more different, they forge a lifelong connection as Khaki reaches out to Jodi, encouraging her to have her baby. But as Jodi struggles to be the mother she knows her daughter deserves, she will ask Khaki the ultimate favor…Written to baby Carolina, by both her birth mother and her adoptive one, this is a story that proves that life circumstances shape us but don’t define us—and that families aren’t born, they’re made…

Our thoughts: This moving debut has opened our eyes to the fabulousness that is Southern women's fiction!

Second Chance Friends by Jennifer Scott

The scoop: Karen, Melinda, and Joanna have never met until the morning they witness an accident outside a local diner—and rush to help. As a single mom whose sweet-faced boy has become a misguided young man, Karen immediately sets aside her own concerns and moves into action. Emergency first responder Melinda also calmly steps up to the plate, as she does every day; no one would ever suspect the insecurity that threatens her marriage to the man she loves. And blond, beautiful, bohemian Joanna is hiding—from her friends, her family, and, most important, herself. Yet she’s first on the scene. The accident leaves another, mother to be, Maddie, crushed by grief. But rather than retreat, Karen, Melinda, and Joanna open their arms and hearts. During the next nine months they’ll return to the diner over and over. They’ll come to find Maddie. They’ll end up finding themselves—learning what it means to be a mother, lover, wife, and friend. By reaching out and holding on, these four women will unite to show us life can be transformed at the most surprising moments.

Our thoughts: We were completely entangled in this story!

The Secret Life of Violet Grant by Beatriz Williams

The scoop: Fresh from college, irrepressible Vivian Schuyler defies her wealthy Fifth Avenue family to work at cutthroat Metropolitan magazine. But this is 1964, and the editor dismisses her…until a parcel lands on Vivian’s Greenwich Village doorstep that starts a journey into the life of an aunt she never knew, who might give her just the story she’s been waiting for. In 1912, Violet Schuyler Grant moved to Europe to study physics, and made a disastrous marriage to a philandering fellow scientist. As the continent edges closer to the brink of war, a charismatic British army captain enters her life, drawing her into an audacious gamble that could lead to happiness…or disaster. Fifty years later, Violet’s ultimate fate remains shrouded in mystery. But the more obsessively Vivian investigates her disappearing aunt, the more she realizes all they have in common—and that Violet’s secret life is about to collide with hers.

Our thoughts: Out in paperback now, if you inhale this mesmerizing novel last summer while sitting by the beach (or even if you did) do it this year, girl!

Happiness for Beginners by Katherine Center

The scoop: A year after getting divorced, Helen Carpenter, thirty-two, lets her annoying, ten years younger brother talk her into signing up for a wilderness survival course. It's supposed to be a chance for her to pull herself together again, but when she discovers that her brother's even-more-annoying best friend is also coming on the trip, she can't imagine how it will be anything other than a disaster. Thus begins the strangest adventure of Helen's well-behaved life: three weeks in the remotest wilderness of a mountain range in Wyoming where she will survive mosquito infestations, a surprise summer blizzard, and a group of sorority girls.

Yet, despite everything, the vast wilderness has a way of making Helen's own little life seem bigger, too. And, somehow the people who annoy her the most start teaching her the very things she needs to learn. Like how to stand up for herself. And how being scared can make you brave. And how sometimes you just have to get really, really lost before you can even have a hope of being found.

Our thoughts: If you loved Wild by Cheryl Strayed, you'll devour this novel. In the spirit of running from yourself to ultimately find yourself, Center draws you in with every page.

The Cake Therapist by Judith Fertig

The scoop: Claire “Neely” O’Neil is a pastry chef of extraordinary talent. Every great chef can taste shimmering, elusive flavors that most of us miss, but Neely can “taste” feelings—cinnamon makes you remember; plum is pleased with itself; orange is a wake-up call. When flavor and feeling give Neely a glimpse of someone’s inner self, she can customize her creations to help that person celebrate love, overcome fear, even mourn a devastating loss. Maybe that’s why she feels the need to go home to Millcreek Valley at a time when her life seems about to fall apart. The bakery she opens in her hometown is perfect, intimate, just what she’s always dreamed of—and yet, as she meets her new customers, Neely has a sense of secrets, some dark, some perhaps with tempting possibilities. A recurring flavor of alarming intensity signals to her perfect palate a long-ago story that must be told. Neely has always been able to help everyone else. Getting to the end of this story may be just what she needs to help herself.

Our thoughts: Such an original idea! We gobbled up this debut!

The Canterbury Sisters by Kim Wright

The scoop: Che Milan’s life is falling apart. Not only has her longtime lover abruptly dumped her, but her eccentric, demanding mother has recently died. When an urn of ashes arrives, along with a note reminding Che of a half-forgotten promise to take her mother to Canterbury, Che finds herself reluctantly undertaking a pilgrimage. Within days she joins a group of women who are walking the sixty miles from London to the shrine of Becket in Canterbury Cathedral, reputed to be the site of miracles. In the best Chaucer tradition, the women swap stories as they walk, each vying to see who can best describe true love. Che, who is a perfectionist and workaholic, loses her cell phone at the first stop and is forced to slow down and really notice the world around her, perhaps for the first time in years.Through her adventures along the trail, Che finds herself opening up to new possibilities in life and discovers that the miracles of Canterbury can take surprising forms.

Our thoughts: Kim Wright took us on an adventure we never wanted to end!

The Balance Project by Susie Orman Schnall

The scoop: The Balance Project is a story of loyalty, choices, and balance that will resonate deeply with all women who struggle with this hot-button issue. Loyal assistant Lucy Cooper works for Katherine Whitney, who seems to have it all: a high-powered job at a multibillion-dollar health and wellness lifestyle company, a successful husband, and two adorable daughters. Now, with the release of her book on work-life balance, Katherine has become a media darling and a hero to working women everywhere. In reality, though, Katherine’s life is starting to fall apart, and Lucy is the one holding it all together, causing her own life―and relationship with her boyfriend Nick―to suffer. When Katherine does something unthinkable to Lucy, Lucy must decide whether to change Katherine’s life forever or continue being her main champion. Her choice will affect the trajectory of both of their lives and lead to opportunities neither one could have imagined.

Our thoughts: A must-read for any woman who's struggled to find balance! (Um, all of us!)

The Reinvention of Mimi Finnegan by Whitney Dineen

The scoop: Move over Bridget Jones… here comes Mimi Finnegan! Thirty-four year old, Mimi Finnegan is the third of four daughters and in her eyes, by far, the most unremarkable. She has no singular accomplishment that can stand up to any of her sisters. And if that isn’t enough, she is the only single sibling in her family. Mimi’s sisters decide that it’s time she gets serious about husband hunting, so they begin a campaign to find Mr. Right for her. Considering her most recent dating encounters include a night club owner who stuffs bratwurst in his pants and a WASPy trust fund baby, living happily under his mother’s thumb, Mimi is more than ready to meet THE ONE. Enter celebrated British novelist Elliot Fielding. Sexual tension and anger heat up between the duo and it isn’t until Mimi discovers that Elliot is almost engaged to another that she realizes she is head-over-heels in love with him. The journey will make you laugh, cry and want to pull your hair out from frustration! Mimi eventually learns that she is quite remarkable in her own right and never needed to worry that she lived in her sister’s shadows. The Reinvention of Mimi Finnegan is the perfect laugh-out-loud, feel good book for any woman who has ever felt that she wasn’t good enough.

Our thoughts: Hilarious. Just the laughs we needed to kick off our summer!

If We Lived Here by Lindsey J. Palmer

The scoop: After three years of dating and trading nights at their respective New York City apartments, Emma Feit and Nick O'Hare are moving in together. Or they will be, as soon as they find the right place. For two happily-in-love professionals--Nick's a teacher, Emma tutors college-bound teens--with good credit and stellar references, how hard can it be? As it turns out, very--in ways that are completely unexpected. Suddenly Emma is filled with questions about cohabiting, about giving up her freedom--not to mention about who's going to clean the toilet. And while her best friend plans a dream wedding to her wealthy fiancé, and her older brother settles into suburban bliss, Emma must figure out what home means to her--and how on earth to get there.

Our thoughts: A witty and relatable read!

#Reallife: Why what we choose NOT to reveal online says so much more than what we do

Choices. We face them each day. What to wear? What to eat? What to post on Facebook?

I don’t know about you, but I certainly pick and choose what parts of myself I share with the world. I’ll check in at Nobu faster than you can say cucumber martini, but I’ve never publicly declared my love for Jack in the Box’s tacos. (How are they SO good?)  I’ll post the video of my son’s homerun at his baseball game, but omit his strike out and depression in the backseat on the way home. And I’ll send over the perfect selfie I captured with my girlfriends at our GNO but skip the bloated hangover pics the next morning. And it’s made me realize: what we don’t post online is almost as telling as what we do.

Recently, my father fell ill. And while I’d been quick to document my own trip to the ER the year before (I cut off part of my finger slicing cheese, long story!), it didn’t even cross my mind to share my location or state of mind as I sat with him at the hospital. The next day, I posted about a skirt that didn’t quite fit me right, and left out what was really going on in my life—that I was heading back to the hospital for another long day at my father’s bedside. And the next day, as fought back tears when I was called to fill out his DNR paperwork just in case, I bantered with my online peeps about how upset I was about the venti iced Americano I’d dropped on the sidewalk earlier that morning.

It probably isn’t surprising to anyone who knows me well that I would lament publicly about my lack of caffeination rather than the acute descent of my father’s health. But it got me thinking how our online interactions define us. How I tended not to post things that might make me appear weak. Or worse, have others pity me.

God forbid, I pull back the curtain to show you my real weaknesses (I’m horribly stubborn! Emotionally unavailable! Distracted to a fault!), not the cute, self-deprecating ones. (I’m a bad driver! I have a Starbucks addiction! I’m clumsy and cut off parts of my fingers on occasion!)

Not that there's anything wrong with doing that—but we all develop a social media persona and then go out of our way to stick within the boundaries we set to be that person. And I discovered when my father passed away where mine was. I had no problem revealing seemingly personal details as long as they never scratched further below the surface than I wanted people to see. I went on and on about the death of my iPhone on my daughter’s 4^th grade trip (dropped in the toilet while panning for gold, in case you were wondering), but declined to reveal how I was in denial of the very real death of my father just two weeks prior, and that I still couldn’t even bring myself to open the pile of sympathy cards that were sitting on my desk at home. In short, I wanted your LOLs, not your sympathy. I wanted your comments, your likes, your approval to distract me. (And it did, thank you very much!)

To celebrate the release of The Status of All Things, we’ve challenged y’all to post about your #reallife. Admittedly, for the reasons detailed above, I’ve struggled with it. Just a few days ago, I rear-ended a very annoyed man on a freeway off ramp, then stepped in dog poop while wearing my favorite pair of Uggs an hour later. I yelled at my son and made him cry, and then I cried a little bit myself after forcing myself to open one of those sympathy cards on my desk. And I didn’t post a damn thing about any of it. Until now. Because even though my #reallife isn’t always pretty, it’s still mine, and in good or bad times, I’m thankful for that.

Tell us—what does your #reallife look like? Because we all know that you can’t always look that good. (And if you can, you need to hand over your beauty secrets ASAP!)

#reallife: Unfiltered never felt better

OMG, what a gorgeous sunset. Have you seen my phone? I need to take a picture!

Honey can you pleease smile? Mommy promises this is the last one! 

Can you hold the phone higher? It makes us look better! But we’re not old, we’re just saying’…

These are just some of the recurring statements we made while on our week-long trip to Hawaii.

From Oahu to Maui, we island hopped from one movie set-like back drop to the next.

Palm trees swayed in the warm gentle breeze, pina coladas adorned with brightly colored umbrellas rested in our palms, and the most gorgeous sunsets imaginable kissed the ocean nightly.

And with such a picture-perfect locale comes the need to document. To post. To share.  (At least for us!)

In this digital age, it’s almost impossible not to look at this beauty through the screen of our iPhones first. Before we even have a chance to suck in a breath, we’ve whipped them out of our back pockets and started taking pictures of said beautiful Hawaiian thing. Already mentally composing the status we will write to go along with it.

Is our desire to not miss the moment, causing us to miss it? Should we be stopping and taking in the beauty with our eyes first?  Is our need to share with our online community causing us not to spend enough time living in the moment with the people who are right next to us? Or are we simply living in a time where it’s common to click, filter and share before we think?

We know there is a balance. And we can recognize when maybe our need to document the trip became a bit obsessive. Like when we were zip lining and had no pockets to put our phones in. So we stuck them in our bras as to not miss the opportunity to “get the shot.” This was probably a bit extreme. Especially when it started pouring down rain and we kept taking video. (But we got it!) Or when we considered chasing a tiki torch lighter in a loin cloth across the hotel grounds to get a selfie. (We didn’t!) Or perhaps when we asked our kids to take just one more photo so we could get one where they were actually smiling? (Guilty as charged.)

But if we're being completely honest, we didn't show you any of the questionable shots, the ones where someone captured us with resting bitch face. Or we looked like wet dogs after ziplining in the rain. Or our kids were scowling because we'd asked them to pose again. We showed you the "winners."

We came up with the idea of our forthcoming novel, The Status of All Things about a social media obsessed women who gets the chance to literally rewrite her fate on Facebook, because we wanted to tackle this obsession with social media that so many people have, this need to show life only through a perfectly filtered lens. We wanted to look at why we believe other peoples’ lives are more perfect than our own simply because of the blemish-free photos they post. We wanted to explore this jealousy that’s so easy to have as we watch people post incredible update after incredible update. We wanted to look at why it’s so easy to forget that everyone posts the good stuff! Even us!

So in an effort to be a little more like we hope our main character, Kate, will ultimately become, we are going to start showing you a little less "pose" and a little more "candid". We're using the hashtag #reallife and are peeling back the filtered veil to show you what our lives really look like. It actually feels surprisingly good to select “normal” before we Instagram a picture. It is quite liberating to show you the pictures we would have never posted. And we'd love for you to join us and share your #reallife as we head toward the publication of STATUS.

C'mon, we'll show you ours if you show us yours! Or at least ask you to "like" our photos so we don't feel totally lame when we post them!

xoxo

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Far End of Happy by Kathryn Craft

Our latest book club pick is the riveting THE FAR END OF HAPPY by Kathryn Craft (Out May 5th) based on a real event that happened in Kathryn's life. And we have one copy for giveaway. Just leave a comment to be entered. Contest closes Thursday, April 23rd at 8pm PST. 

The scoop: Ronnie's husband is supposed to move out today. But when Jeff pulls into the driveway drunk, with a shotgun in the front seat, she realizes nothing about the day will go as planned.

The next few hours spiral down in a flash, unlike the slow disintegration of their marriage-and whatever part of that painful unraveling is Ronnie's fault, not much else matters now but these moments. Her family's lives depend on the choices she will make-but is what's best for her best for everyone?

Our thoughts: A chilling, page-turner. One that will stay with you for a long time.

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Far End of Happy by Kathryn Craft

 THE FAR END OF HAPPY is based on a true event from your life. What prompted you to want to fictionalize your personal story?

At first I just wanted to jot down the facts pertaining to my first husband’s 1997 suicide before memory scrambled them. After writing an unrelated first novel, I drafted what I thought would be a memoir about my first marriage, its horrific end, and how my sons and I moved on. It was a healing exercise to tame the chaos of that time into manageable arcs with beginnings, middles, and ends.

While moving on to a second novel I continued to work on the memoir but no matter what chapter I was working on my thoughts kept snapping back to the day of the standoff, and how my knowledge that it was coming colored my perceptions. The best way to convey this effect, I started to think, would be to constrain the novel to its twelve hours.

To suggest my main character’s story arc and explore the standoff’s effect on others, I’d have to use more than one point of view and compress the timeline of true events so that more could happen on that one day. The challenge of doing so refreshed my interest in revisiting this difficult material.

But now that I’ve worked on framing my experience both ways, I can see that both memoir and fiction rely on the power of story to reveal universal truths. They are simply alternate routes to the same destination.

The cover for THE FAR END OF HAPPY is gorgeous. What’s the story behind it?

Isn’t it? The Sourcebooks design team is amazing. I didn’t think they could top my cover for THE ART OF FALLING—and then I found this in my in-box. It was perfectly conceived, with that lovely old farmhouse on the shore and the creepy, broken-down one reflected in the water. There is no pond or lake in the book so that was simply a stroke of cover art genius, as many things aren’t as they seem to be in the story. The Interlude Group loved it so much they used it as the basis of my trailer.

You talk a lot about the importance of authors connecting with and supporting one another and you host writing retreats for women. How has this helped enhance your own writing process?

I discovered long ago that I am a socially motivated person, and that I will often do for others what I won’t do for myself (case in point: make nutritious dinner if my husband is home, eat popcorn on the fly if it’s just me). I’ve used that self-awareness to my advantage, and have found a way to live a pretty social life, for an endeavor that must be pursued alone. For several years I’ve met every Wednesday with a group of other writing women in the café of a local grocery store to write. It’s a kind of witnessing, I guess, tapping away on our computers all morning and then solving problems and sharing tips over lunch. If it weren’t for my winter Craftwriting workshops and summer writing retreats I would never force myself to write from prompts, which stretch me to think about craft anew.

As for my many years of leadership in the writing community, that was a carry over from my dance life: without volunteers, the arts world would quit turning and we’d all fall off. It’s always been that way and will continue to be that way—each of us stands in a lineage between our own mentors and those behind us to whom we offer a hand. When you volunteer to keep a writing community going, you bring quality teachers to yourself while creating paying gigs for authors. If you support those authors and buy their books you are ensuring the health of the industry you hope will support you.

And voila! You have a network. People who know someone who knows someone who can help you one way or another. A street team invested in your success. I’m even in a marketing cooperative of women’s fiction writers, the Tall Poppy Writers. To go it alone these days is like being a guppy in an ocean of killer whales. We become more powerful when we band together. A fun exercise to do is to list how many “communities” you are a part of. The longer the list, the farther your reach.

What is something your fans might be surprised to find out about you?

Um—that this is the first time I heard I had fans? Readers may be surprised to know that I studied Russian for seven years, simply because I was fascinated to learn another alphabet. I even majored in it for a year in college, but after reading the memoir by ballet dancer Valery Panov, that detailed all the grievous mayhem the KGB imposed on him for fear that he and his wife would defect, I was too afraid to ever think of traveling to the USSR. I loved college. I would declare five more majors before getting a bachelors in biology and a masters in health and phys ed, but never ended up working in fields that required either degree.

Thanks, Kathryn!

Best Books of the Month: April Edition

April is finally here! Hallelujah! And along with it, we have LOTS of amazing books! We have one copy of each to giveaway--leave a comment to be entered. Winner chosen randomly. Contest closes on April 19th at 8am PST.

1. Sisters of Heart and Snow by Margaret Dilloway

The scoop: Rachel and Drew Snow may be sisters, but  their lives have followed completely different paths.

Married to a wonderful man and a mother to two strong-minded teens, Rachel hasn’t returned to her childhood home since being kicked out by her strict father after an act of careless teenage rebellion. Drew, her younger sister, followed her passion for music but takes side jobs to make ends meet and longs for the stability that has always eluded her. Both sisters recall how close they were, but the distance between them seems more than they can bridge. When their deferential Japanese mother, Hikari, is diagnosed with dementia and gives Rachel power of attorney, Rachel’s domineering father, Killian becomes enraged.

In a rare moment of lucidity, Hikari asks Rachel for a book in her sewing room, and Rachel enlists her sister’s help in the search. The book—which tells the tale of real-life female samurai Tomoe Gozen, an epic saga of love, loss, and conflict during twelfth-century Japan—reveals truths about Drew and Rachel’s relationship that resonate across the centuries, connecting them in ways that turn their differences into assets.

Our thoughts: Another thoughtful and engaging novel from Margaret! Pick it up! (And the giveaway copy is signed!)

2. French Coast by Anita Hughes

The scoop: Serena has the job she's always dreamed of and Chase, the man her heart never dared to. As a new editor at Vogue, she bags the biggest interview of the year with Yvette Renault, the infamous former editor of French Vogue, in The Carlton-InterContinental Hotel during the Cannes Film Festival. She eagerly jets off to France while Chase stays home, working with her father, a former senator, on his upcoming mayoral campaign.

Everything feels unbelievably perfect...until it doesn't. The hotel loses her reservation hours before her big interview. Serena fears that she'll have to go home without her story, but then she meets Zoe, a quirky young woman staying in the suite below Yvette's who invites Serena to stay with her. Serena is grateful for her mysterious roommate's generosity, but it seems that there's more to her story than meets the eye. To make matters worse, soon after arriving in Cannes, Serena learns a shocking secret about her parents' marriage, and it isn't long before she begins to question her own relationship.With her deadline looming and pressure mounting, Serena will have to use her investigative journalism skills, new friendships, and a little luck to get her life and love back on track. Fast paced and impeccably written,

French Coast will draw readers in to the intoxicating world of the Cote D'Azur. Hughes' beautiful prose and sense imagery bring the food, fashion, and feel of the ocean to life in this audacious new novel.

The scoop: Our fave so far from Anita--the perfect beach read!

3. Imaginary Things by Andrea Lochen

The Scoop: Burned-out and completely broke, twenty-two-year-old single mother Anna Jennings moves to her grandparents’ rural Wisconsin home for the summer—her four-year-old, David, in tow. Returning to Salsburg reminds Anna of simpler times—fireflies, picnics, Neapolitan ice cream—long before she met her unstable ex and everything changed. But the sudden appearance of shadowy dinosaurs awakens Anna from this small-town spell, and forces her to believe she has either lost her mind or can somehow see her son’s active imagination. Frightened, Anna struggles to learn the rules of this bizarre phenomenon, but what she uncovers along the way is completely unexpected: revelations about what her son’s imaginary friends truly represent and hidden secrets about her own childhood.

Our thoughts: Cleverly written with a perfect touch of magic, Imaginary Things will take you on a journey of the unexpected, and leave you contemplating the power of your own mind.

4. Inside The O'Briens by Lisa Genova

The scoop: Joe O’Brien is a forty-four-year-old police officer from the Irish Catholic neighborhood of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A devoted husband, proud father of four children in their twenties, and respected officer, Joe begins experiencing bouts of disorganized thinking, uncharacteristic temper outbursts, and strange, involuntary movements. He initially attributes these episodes to the stress of his job, but as these symptoms worsen, he agrees to see a neurologist and is handed a diagnosis that will change his and his family’s lives forever: Huntington’s Disease.

Huntington’s is a lethal neurodegenerative disease with no treatment and no cure. Each of Joe’s four children has a 50 percent chance of inheriting their father’s disease, and a simple blood test can reveal their genetic fate. While watching her potential future in her father’s escalating symptoms, twenty-one-year-old daughter Katie struggles with the questions this test imposes on her young adult life. Does she want to know? What if she’s gene positive? Can she live with the constant anxiety of not knowing?

As Joe’s symptoms worsen and he’s eventually stripped of his badge and more, Joe struggles to maintain hope and a sense of purpose, while Katie and her siblings must find the courage to either live a life “at risk” or learn their fate.

Our thoughts: Thought-provoking! A must read!

5. Don't Try to Find Me by Holly Brown

The scoop: When a fourteen-year-old runs away, her parents turn to social media to find her—launching a public campaign that will expose their darkest secrets and change their family forever, in this suspenseful and gripping debut for fans of Reconstructing Amelia and Gone Girl.

Don’t try to find me. Though the message on the kitchen white board is written in Marley’s hand, her mother Rachel knows there has to be some other explanation. Marley would never run away.

As the days pass and it sinks in that the impossible has occurred, Rachel and her husband Paul are informed that the police have “limited resources.” If they want their fourteen-year-old daughter back, they will have to find her themselves. Desperation becomes determination when Paul turns to Facebook and Twitter, and launches FindMarley.com.

But Marley isn’t the only one with secrets.

With public exposure comes scrutiny, and when Rachel blows a television interview, the dirty speculation begins. Now, the blogosphere is convinced Rachel is hiding something. It’s not what they think; Rachel would never hurt Marley. Not intentionally, anyway. But when it’s discovered that she’s lied, even to the police, the devoted mother becomes a suspect in Marley’s disappearance.

Is Marley out there somewhere, watching it all happen, or is the truth something far worse?

Our thoughts: We LOVED this mystery. Fans of The Good Girl will eat this up!

6. One True Heart by Jodi Thomas

The scoop: Millanie McAllen is always logical. But after returning to her childhood home, she learns that some things are beyond explanation—like her undeniable passion for Drew Cunningham…

After finding success as a singer on the road, Beau Yates returns to Harmony to make peace with his dying father—only to find the woman he’s been dreaming of for years. But the secrets they discover might be too much for him to bear…

When Johnny Wheeler is charged with his wife’s murder, he turns to the only person who believes he’s innocent. Fortune teller Kare Cunningham’s life has always danced around reality—but Johnny is able to ground her like no other…

As their paths cross in new, captivating directions, the townspeople of Harmony need to learn to love and let go in order to live together in their little slice of heaven.

Our thoughts: Relax at the pool with this intriguing novel!

7. The One That Got Away by Bethany Chase

The scoop: Sarina Mahler thinks she has her life all nailed down: a growing architecture practice in Austin, Texas, and an any-day-now proposal from her loving boyfriend, Noah. She’s well on her way to having the family she’s hoped for since her mother’s death ten years ago. But with Noah on a temporary assignment abroad and retired Olympic swimmer—and former flame—Eamon Roy back in town asking her to renovate his new fixer-upper, Sarina’s life takes an unexpected turn. Eamon proves to be Sarina’s dream client, someone who instinctively trusts every one of her choices—and Sarina is reminded of all the reasons she was first drawn to him back in the day. Suddenly her carefully planned future with Noah seems a little less than perfect. And when tragedy strikes, Sarina is left reeling. With her world completely upended, she is forced to question what she truly wants in life—and in love.

Our thoughts: In her charming debut novel, Bethany Chase reminds us about the one that got away, and makes us wonder what would have happened if he hadn’t.

8. The Beautiful Daughters by Nicole Baart

The scoop: Adrienne Vogt and Harper Penny were closer than sisters, until the day a tragedy blew their seemingly idyllic world apart. Afraid that they got away with murder and unable to accept who they had lost—and what they had done—Harper and Adri exiled themselves from small-town Blackhawk, Iowa, and from each other. Adri ran thousands of miles away to Africa while Harper ventured down a more destructive path closer to home.

Now, five years later, both are convinced that nothing could ever coax them out of the worlds in which they’ve been living. But unexpected news from home soon pulls Adri and Harper back together, and the two cannot avoid facing their memories and guilt head-on. As they are pulled back into the tangle of their fractured relationships and the mystery of Piperhall, the sprawling estate where their lives first began to unravel, secrets and lies behind the tragic accident are laid bare. The former best friends are forced to come to terms with their shared past and search for the beauty in each other while mending the brokenness in themselves.

Our thoughts: A gorgeous novel! We loved it!

9. Where They Found Her by Kimberly McCreight

The scoop: An idyllic suburban town. A devastating discovery. Shocking revelations that will change three lives forever.

At the end of a long winter in well-to-do Ridgedale, New Jersey, the body of a newborn is found in the woods fringing the campus of the town's prestigious university. No one knows the identity of the baby, what ended her very short life, or how she came to be found among the fallen leaves. But for the residents of Ridgedale, there is no shortage of opinions.

When freelance journalist and recent Ridgedale transplant Molly Sanderson is unexpectedly called upon to cover the disturbing news for the Ridgedale Reader—the town's local paper—she has good reason to hesitate. A severe depression followed the loss of her own baby, and this assignment could unearth memories she has tried hard to bury. But the disturbing history Molly uncovers is not her own. Her investigation reveals a decades-old trail of dark secrets hiding behind Ridgedale's white picket fences.

Told from the perspectives of three Ridgedale women, Kimberly McCreight's taut and profoundly moving novel unwinds the tangled truth behind the tragedy, revealing that these women have far more in common than they could ever have imagined: that the very worst crimes are committed against those we love. And that—sooner or later—the past catches up to all of us.

Our thoughts: We are SO into mysteries right now! LOVED it!

10. The Beekeeper's Daughter by Santa Montefiore

The scoop: England, 1932: Grace Hamblin is growing up on the beautiful estate of the Marquess and Marchioness of Penselwood. The beekeeper’s daughter, she knows her place and what the future holds—that is until her father dies. Her childhood friend Freddie has recently become her lover, and she is thankful when they are able to marry and take over her father’s duties. But there is another man who she just can’t shake from her thoughts…

Massachusetts, 1973: Grace’s daughter Trixie Valentine is in love with an unsuitable young man. Jasper Duncliffe is wild and romantic, and in a band that might hit it big. But when his brother dies and he is called home to England, Jasper promises to come back for Trixie one day, if only she will wait for him. Grace thinks that Trixie is surely abandoned and tries to support her daughter, but Trixie brushes off her mother’s advice and comfort. She is confident that Jasper’s love for her was real…

Our thoughts: Don't miss out on this beautiful novel!

Lisa Scottoline's Every Fifteen Minutes giveaway!

Lisa Scottoline is one of our favorite authors and we're thrilled to be part of the Every Fifteen Minutes blog tour giveaway to celebrate the release of her latest novel of the same name on April 14th! On April 14th, every fifteen minutes, a blog will be giving away an audio copy of Lisa's book as well as another exciting prize. If you leave a comment on this post by 10:15 a.m. EST on April 14th, you'll be entered to win an audio copy of Every Fifteen Minutes as well as an audio copy of Lisa's novel, Don't Go.

We'll be announcing our winner on April 14th at 11:15 a.m. EST.

The scoop: Dr. Eric Parrish is the Chief of the Psychiatric Unit at Havemeyer General Hospital outside of Philadelphia. Recently separated from his wife Alice, he is doing his best as a single Dad to his seven-year-old daughter Hannah. His work seems to be going better than his home life, however. His unit at the hospital has just been named number two in the country and Eric has a devoted staff of doctors and nurses who are as caring as Eric is. But when he takes on a new patient, Eric's entire world begins to crumble. Seventeen-year-old Max has a terminally ill grandmother and is having trouble handling it. That, plus his OCD and violent thoughts about a girl he likes makes Max a high risk patient. Max can't turn off the mental rituals he needs to perform every fifteen minutes that keep him calm. With the pressure mounting, Max just might reach the breaking point. When the girl is found murdered, Max is nowhere to be found. Worried about Max, Eric goes looking for him and puts himself in danger of being seen as a "person of interest" himself. Next, one of his own staff turns on him in a trumped up charge of sexual harassment. Is this chaos all random? Or is someone systematically trying to destroy Eric's life? New York Times best selling author Lisa Scottoline's visceral thriller, Every Fifteen Minutes,brings you into the grip of a true sociopath and shows you how, in the quest to survive such ruthlessness, every minute counts.

Our thoughts: Lisa's books just keep getting better! The audio version is awesome too. It's narrated by George Newbern, a film and television actor best known for his roles in Father of the Bride and Scandal. A prominent voice-over performer and award winning narrator, Newbern’s previous audiobook credits include several novels by Carl Hiaasen and Seabiscuit by Lauren Hildebrand, among others.

The Status of All Things book tour--Come out to see us!

We are SO excited for the book tour for The Status of All Things (out 6/2/15). We love meeting y'all and are partnering with some really fabulous authors this year! So grab a friend and join us--we can't wait to see you! And to make things more exciting, we'll be giving away a $25 gift card at each event. To enter, just RSVP on the Facebook link listed below. Winner will be selected by random drawing. You must be present at event to win!

Can't wait to see you! xoxo

Chicago & surrounding suburbs

Gurnee, IL     Wednesday, June 3rd, 2015 @ 7:00 pm

Warren-Newport Public Library

Location: Warren-Newport Public Library, 224 O'Plaine Rd Gurnee, IL 60031

847-996-6800

Deets: Talk & signing! Lake Forest Bookstore will be on hand to sell books!

Register for the event through the library

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to our Facebook event 

Lincoln Park, IL    Thursday, June 4, 2015 @ 6:00 pm

The Book Cellar

Location: 4736-38 N Lincoln Ave Chicago, IL 60625

773-293-2665

Deets: Talk & Signing with the amazing Sarah Pekkanen, whose novel, THINGS YOU WON'T SAY, is out on May 26th. Want a night out in downtown Chitown? Come see us and Sarah. We'll talk books and drink some wine (Did you know the Book Cellar sells vino?) If you ask us, there's no better combo than novels and cocktails!

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to the Facebook event 

Naperville, IL   Friday, June 5, 2015 @ 6:00 pm

Anderson's Book Shop

Location: 123 W Jefferson Ave., Naperville, IL 60540 630-355-2665

(NOTE: This location is just off-site from the book store.)

Deets: Talk & signing with Emily Liebert!  Emily's novel, THOSE SECRETS WE KEEP, is out on June 2nd as well. We feel so lucky that she's joining us!

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to this Facebook event

Downtown Chicago    Saturday, June 6th, 2015

Printers Row Lit Fest

Location: Printers Row Lit Fest is located on historic Printers Row, on and around the area of Dearborn Street, from Congress to Polk streets in Chicago. (Google map of area)

Deets: TBA--stay tuned!

More info: Great writers are the foundation of Printers Row Lit Fest, which aims to start a citywide conversation about books and ideas. Each year, Printers Row Lit Fest hosts more than 200 authors, performers and presenters in a variety of programs. More info here >>

Southern California

La Jolla, CA       Monday June 8th, 2015 @ 7:30pm

Warwick's Book Store

Location: 7812 Girard Ave., La Jolla, CA

858-454-0347

Deets: Talk & Signing. (And maybe some wine too!) More info here >> We're hitting San Diego, our hometown, and can't wait to reunite with all of our peeps!

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to our Facebook event

Huntington Beach, CA     Tuesday June 9th, 2015 @ 7:00 pm

Barnes & Noble

Location: 7881 Edinger Ave. #110, Huntington Beach, CA 92647

714-897-8781

Deets: Talk & signing. More info here >> We can't wait to head up to the OC!  Spice up your Tuesday by joining us!

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to the Facebook event

San Diego, CA      Wednesday June 10th @7:00 pm

Chocolate, Cheese and Wine Tasting Adventure!

Location: Eclipse Chocolate

2145 Fern Street, San Diego, CA

(619) 578-2984

Deets: Join us for a fabulous Chocolate, Cheese and Wine Tasting Adventure, as we discuss our new novel, The Status of All Things.

Your Adventure includes a three-flight tasting of exotic chocolate truffles, artisan cheeses, and wines with Eclipse Bar owner and chocolatier Will, book discussion, Q&A, book signing, and the opportunity to meet the authors up close and personal in an intimate and decadent setting.

Cost: $40 per person (add $15 for signed book)

Please Pre-Register here!

Let us know you're coming (and be entered to win a $25 gift card) by adding yourself to our Facebook event

Jennifer Weiner Giveaway + Exciting News!

Y'all know we love on Jennifer Weiner. One of our favorite books of 2014 was her novel, ALL FALL DOWN. And tomorrow, April 7th, it will be available in paperback--just in time for spring! Would you like to win a copy? Just leave a comment on this post and you'll be entered. Contest closes Thursday, April 9th at 10am PST.

The scoop: Allison Weiss’s husband has been sleeping in the guest bedroom. Her five-year old daughter’s meltdowns can only be stopped with promises that she can watch The Bachelor. Her father’s early Alzheimer’s has him thinking that Allison is still in college, while her once-distant mother cannot stop calling for help. Her big suburban house sits unfurnished, and the stress from her dream job is unbearable. This is Allison’s happy ending. . . .

When she happens upon a magazine quiz about addiction, she wonders if her use of prescription drugs is becoming an issue. Is it such a bad thing to pop a Percocet at the end of a hard day or a Vicodin after a brutal Jump & Pump class?

With a sparkling comedic touch and tender, true-to-life characterizations, Jennifer Weiner turns one woman’s slide into addiction and her struggle to find her way back up into an unforgettable tale of empowerment and redemption.

Our thoughts: We will definitely be rereading this book! One of our favorites.

Exciting news: #1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner to write for The New York Times Op-Ed and Sunday Review columns! On the eve of Jennifer Weiner's paperback publication of ALL FALL DOWN, we're delighted to pass along the New York Times' announcement of Weiner’s recent appointment as a Contributing Opinion Writer.

As Capital New York reports, Editorial Page editor Andrew Rosenthal and Op-ed/Sunday Review editor Trish Hall announced that the paper will be bring on "several prominent authors (Jennifer Weiner, Roxane Gay), journalists (Texas Monthly executive editor Mimi Swartz, Judith Shulevitz) and academics (Zeynep Tufekci, William Baude, Adam Grant)." As Andrew Rosenthal stated, "We were looking for a broad range of viewpoints and subjects and backgrounds and geographical locations and every kind of form of diversity that you can think of."

Weiner's recent contributions to The New York Times – “Mean Girls in the Retirement Home” and “Another Thing to Hate About Ourselves” – rose to the top of the "most emailed" lists and have been picked up by newspapers and media outlets across the world.

Jennifer Weiner's next work – a sweeping love story titled WHO DO YOU LOVE – will be published this summer on August 11, 2015.

We're thrilled for Jennifer!

Best Books of the Month: March Edition

March is here--and it's a month we're quite fond of. It's Lisa's birthday is on the 30th. It's March Madness. (Go Arizona!) And it's also one month closer to summer! Woo hoo. And to celebrate, we have a fabuloso list of books for you to start reading asap! And, of course, you can enter to win a copy of each. Just leave a comment to be entered. Contest closes Friday, March 20th at 8pm PST. Good luck, y'all!

1. The Pocket Wife by Susan Crawford

The scoop: A stylish psychological thriller with the compelling intrigue of The Silent Wife and Turn of Mind and the white-knuckle pacing of Before I Go to Sleep—in which a woman suffering from bipolar disorder cannot remember if she murdered her friend.

Dana Catrell is shocked when her neighbor Celia is brutally murdered. To Dana’s horror, she was the last person to see Celia alive. Suffering from mania, the result of her bipolar disorder, she has troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia’s death.

Her husband’s odd behavior and the probing of Detective Jack Moss create further complications as she searches for answers. The closer she comes to piecing together the shards of her broken memory, the more Dana falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside her . . . or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again?

A story of marriage, murder, and madness, The Pocket Wife explores the world through the foggy lens of a woman on the edge.

Our thoughts: A thrilling thriller!

2. The Precious One by Marisa de los Santos

The scoop: From the New York Times bestselling author of Belong to Me, Love Walked In, and Falling Togethercomes a captivating novel about friendship, family, second chances, and the redemptive power of love.

In all her life, Eustacia “Taisy” Cleary has given her heart to only three men: her first love, Ben Ransom; her twin brother, Marcus; and Wilson Cleary—professor, inventor, philanderer, self-made millionaire, brilliant man, breathtaking jerk: her father.

Seventeen years ago, Wilson ditched his first family for Caroline, a beautiful young sculptor. In all that time, Taisy’s family has seen Wilson, Caroline, and their daughter, Willow, only once.

Why then, is Wilson calling Taisy now, inviting her for an extended visit, encouraging her to meet her pretty sister—a teenager who views her with jealousy, mistrust, and grudging admiration? Why, now, does Wilson want Taisy to help him write his memoir?

Told in alternating voices—Taisy’s strong, unsparing observations and Willow’s naive, heartbreakingly earnest yearnings—The Precious One is an unforgettable novel of family secrets, lost love, and dangerous obsession, a captivating tale with the deep characterization, piercing emotional resonance, and heartfelt insight that are the hallmarks of Marisa de los Santos’s beloved works.

Our thoughts: A book we can't stop thinking about! This is her best yet!

3. The Perfect Mother by Nina Darnton

The scoop: When an American exchange student is accused of murder, her mother will stop at nothing to save her.

A midnight phone call shatters Jennifer Lewis’s carefully orchestrated life. Her daughter, Emma, who’s studying abroad in Spain, has been arrested after the brutal murder of another student. Jennifer rushes to her side, certain the arrest is a terrible mistake and determined to do whatever is necessary to bring Emma home. But as she begins to investigate the crime, she starts to wonder whether she ever really knew her daughter. The police charge Emma, and the press leaps on the story, exaggerating every sordid detail. One by one, Emma’s defense team, her father, and finally even Jennifer begin to have doubts. A novel of harrowing emotional suspense, The Perfect Mother probes the dark side of parenthood and the complicated bond between mothers and daughters.

Our thoughts: A mystery that left us guessing until the very end. Love that!

4.  Take Me Home by Sheila Blanchette

The scoop: When Josie Wolcott finds herself with an empty nest and another failed romantic relationship, she sets off in search of herself on a uniquely American adventure that takes the reader across the country. Leaving her New England home in her rearview mirror, Josie's journey of self-discovery begins in South Florida where every day feels like a vacation. While enjoying the waterfront bars with their countless happy hours, she begins to question her relationship with alcohol and what it is she truly wants out of life. Determined to find her way, she decides to take on a new challenge at a fishing lodge along the Snake River in southeastern Idaho where she meets Dr. Andrew Radcliffe, a kindred spirit navigating his own way to happiness. From the Northeast to Florida and the great American West, Josie meets a cast of characters as varied and different as the landscape she travels through. With an adventurous spirit and a willing heart, she confronts her demons and past mistakes and dares to find happiness in the most unexpected of places. Will Josie, a lifelong wanderer, find the road that finally takes her home?

Our thoughts: Loved this sweet story of (re) finding yourself one road at a time!

5. The Bookseller by Cynthia Swanson 

The scoop: A provocative and hauntingly powerful debut novel reminiscent of Sliding Doors, The Bookseller follows a woman in the 1960s who must reconcile her reality with the tantalizing alternate world of her dreams.

Nothing is as permanent as it appears . . .

Denver, 1962: Kitty Miller has come to terms with her unconventional single life. She loves the bookshop she runs with her best friend, Frieda, and enjoys complete control over her day-to-day existence. She can come and go as she pleases, answering to no one. There was a man once, a doctor named Kevin, but it didn’t quite work out the way Kitty had hoped.

Then the dreams begin.

Denver, 1963: Katharyn Andersson is married to Lars, the love of her life. They have beautiful children, an elegant home, and good friends. It’s everything Kitty Miller once believed she wanted—but it only exists when she sleeps.

Convinced that these dreams are simply due to her overactive imagination, Kitty enjoys her nighttime forays into this alternate world. But with each visit, the more irresistibly real Katharyn’s life becomes. Can she choose which life she wants? If so, what is the cost of staying Kitty, or becoming Katharyn?

As the lines between her worlds begin to blur, Kitty must figure out what is real and what is imagined. And how do we know where that boundary lies in our own lives?

Our thoughts: We were instantly sucked into this tale of two lives!

6. The Daughter by Jane Shemilt

The scoop: In the tradition of Gillian Flynn, Tana French, and Ruth Rendell, this compelling and clever psychological thriller spins the harrowing tale of a mother’s obsessive search for her missing daughter.

Jenny is a successful family doctor, the mother of three great teenagers, married to a celebrated neurosurgeon.

But when her youngest child, fifteen-year-old Naomi, doesn’t come home after her school play, Jenny’s seemingly ideal life begins to crumble. The authorities launch a nationwide search with no success. Naomi has vanished, and her family is broken.

As the months pass, the worst-case scenarios—kidnapping, murder—seem less plausible. The trail has gone cold. Yet for a desperate Jenny, the search has barely begun. More than a year after her daughter’s disappearance, she’s still digging for answers—and what she finds disturbs her. Everyone she’s trusted, everyone she thought she knew, has been keeping secrets, especially Naomi. Piecing together the traces her daughter left behind, Jenny discovers a very different Naomi from the girl she thought she’d raised.

Our thoughts: A gripping story of a mother's love put to the ultimate test!

7. Leaving Amarillo by Caisey Quinn

The scoop: Nashville meets New Adult in Neon Dreams, a dramatic, sexy series from bestselling author Caisey Quinn, about a country band’s rocky road to fame—and the ambition, dreams, and love of the people who make the music.

Dixie Lark hasn’t had it easy. She lost her parents in an accident when she was young and grew up in a ramshackle house on a dirt road in Amarillo with her ailing grandparents and overprotective older brother. Thanks to her grandfather, Dixie learned to play a mean fiddle, inspired by the sounds of the greats—Johnny and June, Waylon, and Hank. Her grandfather’s fiddle changed Dixie’s life forever, giving her an outlet for the turmoil of her broken heart and inspiring a daring dream.

Ten years later, Dixie and her brother Dallas are creating the music they love and chasing fame with their hot band, Leaving Amarillo. But Dixie isn’t enjoying the ride. All she can think about is Gavin, the band’s tattooed, tortured drummer who she’s loved since they were kids. She knows he feels the connection between them, but he refuses see her as more than his best friend’s little sister.

Convinced that one night with Gavin will get him out of her system, Dixie devises a plan. She doesn’t know that her brother has forbidden Gavin from making a move on her-a promise he swore he’d always keep . . . a promise that once broken will unexpectedly change the future for Dixie, Gavin and the band.

Our thoughts: She had us at Nashville!

8. Little Beach Street Bakery by Jenny Colgan

The scoop: In the bestselling tradition of Jojo Moyes and Jennifer Weiner, Jenny Colgan's moving, funny, and unforgettable novel tells the story of a heartbroken young woman who turns a new page in her life . . . by becoming a baker in the town of Cornwall

A quiet seaside resort. An abandoned shop. A small flat. This is what awaits Polly Waterford when she arrives at the Cornish coast, fleeing a ruined relationship.

To keep her mind off her troubles, Polly throws herself into her favorite hobby: making bread. But her relaxing weekend diversion quickly develops into a passion. As she pours her emotions into kneading and pounding the dough, each loaf becomes better than the last. Soon, Polly is working her magic with nuts and seeds, chocolate and sugar, and the local honey—courtesy of a handsome beekeeper. Packed with laughter and emotion, Little Beach Street Bakery is the story of how one woman discovered bright new life where she least expected—a heartwarming, mouthwatering modern-day Chocolat that has already become a massive international bestseller.

Includes 7 Recipes!

Our thoughts: Delicious. Sweet. Satisfying. We couldn't get enough!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue

Our latest book club pick is the cute and clever Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue. We both have soft spots for rescue dogs (although Lisa's chewed her favorite shoe as she was writing this post and she is NOT happy about it) and love the premise behind this must-read novel that's out just in time for spring break.

And we have a copy for giveaway! Lucky you! Just leave a comment to be entered to win. Contest closes March 19th at 6pm PST.

The scoop: The USA Today bestselling author of How to Eat a Cupcake and All the Summer Girls returns with an unforgettably poignant and funny tale of love and loss, confronting our fears, and moving on . . . with the help of a poodle, a mutt, and a Basset retriever named Seymour.

As a pet bereavement counselor, Maggie Brennan uses a combination of empathy, insight, and humor to help patients cope with the anguish of losing their beloved four-legged friends. Though she has a gift for guiding others through difficult situations, Maggie has major troubles of her own that threaten the success of her counseling practice and her volunteer work with a dog rescue organization.

Everything changes when a distraught woman shows up at Maggie’s office and claims that her dog has been stolen. Searching the streets of San Francisco for the missing pooch, Maggie finds herself entangled in a mystery that forces her to finally face her biggest fear-and to open her heart to new love.

Packed with deep emotion and charming surprises, Dog Crazy is a bighearted and entertaining story that skillfully captures the bonds of love, the pain of separation, and the power of our dogs to heal us.

Our thoughts: We're both huge dog lovers and Meg Donohue fans, so this was a win-win for us!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Dog Crazy by Meg Donohue

1. We love the premise of DOG CRAZY. How did you come up with the idea?

Thank you! I knew that I wanted to write about the human-canine bond. I also know from experience how difficult it is to lose a beloved dog—I lost my dog “soul mate,” a Portuguese water dog named Oe, about six years ago and I still think about him every day. So I was thinking about how to write about dogs, and how much I still miss Oe, and the idea came to me to write a story from the perspective of a pet bereavement therapist. I met with a pet bereavement therapist in San Francisco in order to pick her brain and get a glimpse of the profession; our conversation fascinated me and solidified my desire to write this story. In addition, my current dog is a rescue dog and a truly wonderful companion and family member. My husband and I often ask ourselves where he would be if not for us, and where we would be if not for him. I loved the idea of writing about that relationship between people and their rescue dogs … that whole question of “who is rescuing whom?”

2. It's obvious through your writing that you're a dog lover, tell us about yours! (Is he/she the one in your author pic?)

Yes, the dog in my author photograph is our dog, Cole, the afore-mentioned rescue. We adopted him through an organization in San Francisco that brings homeless dogs over from Taiwan. We picked up Cole at the San Francisco International Airport in the company of several other families that were picking up his littermates. It was a very sweet, very fun scene. When we first adopted Cole, my husband and I had only been married for one year and we didn’t have any children. Now we have three young girls and Cole has welcomed each in own tolerant, patient manner. He is cherished by each of us.

3. The puppies on the cover of your book are too cute. What's the story behind the cover?

My editor sent me a couple of cover images to weigh in on. They were both great, but I just couldn’t resist these puppies. Maggie, the protagonist of DOG CRAZY, believes that spotting a puppy is good luck (it’s her version of spotting a heads-up penny), so in addition to just being doggone cute (sorry), the puppies suitably reflect the story. The only thing I asked was if the designer could add in something in the background to make it clear that this is a San Francisco-set story … through cover-design magic, the Golden Gate Bridge appeared.

4. What is something your readers might be surprised to know about you?

Readers know (or at least they do now!) that I am a huge dog lover, but they might be surprised to learn that for a long stretch of my life, horses were equally important to me. I started riding at a young age and became a barn rat by high school, spending many of my non-school hours roaming a horse farm just outside of Philadelphia. I kept riding into my twenties and was the captain of my college’s equestrian team (yes, I’m still quite proud of that!). So perhaps it was only a matter of time before I began working on…

5. What are you working on next?  

… A horse novel! LOVE SONGS AFTER DARK is the story of a famous radio talk show host and her horse-obsessed teenage daughter. After a serious riding accident, the daughter undergoes a significant personality change, morphing from a shy wallflower to an outspoken risk taker. Since I can’t resist a love story or a mystery, there will be at least one of each in the story. It’s early days, but I’m enjoying getting to know these new c

Happy Pie Day + Giveaway!

Happy Pie Day, y'all! (In case you didn't know, today is 3/14 and Pi=3.14. Get it?) But don't worry, this post isn't about math! (Cuz it makes our heads hurt.) It's about a book! A really good one. Our friend, the fabulous Lauren Clark, has a novel, aptly titled, PIE GIRLS, that's now available in audio and is narrated by TV actress  Mary Hollis Inboden. And of course we're giving you a chance to win a copy. We have one audio and one paperback for giveaway.  Contest closes on Tuesday, March 17th at 6pm PST.

The scoop: Pie Girls tells the story of Southern belle Searcy Roberts, who swore on a stack of Bibles she’d never return home to Fairhope, Alabama. After marrying her high school sweetheart and moving to Atlanta, Searcy embraces big-city life—Carrie Bradshaw style.

But now, Searcy has a teeny, tiny problem. Her husband’s had a mid-life crisis. He’s quit his job, cancelled her credit cards, and left her for another lover. Searcy returns to Fairhope, ready to lick her wounds. But when her mother falls ill, she’s thrust into managing the family business—only to discover the beloved bakery is in danger of closing its doors forever.

Enlisting the help of an adorable bike store owner, an array of well-heeled customers, and her soon-to-be ex-husband, Searcy hatches the plan of the century to save Pie Girls.

Our thoughts:  We loved this sassy romantic comedy and you will too! xo

Thanks, Lauren!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Recipe For Disaster by Stacey Ballis

March is here--so why is it still snowing?! Lucky for you, we have an amazing book by one of our favorite authors to cheer you up! Stacey Ballis' Recipe For Disaster is a delicious page turner from start to finish! Oh, and we have a copy for giveaway! Leave a comment here and you'll be entered to win. Contest  closes on March 8th at 8am PST.

The Scoop: To an outside observer, Anneke Stroudt is a mess—her shirts are stained, her fingernails stubby, her language colorful. But, despite her flaws, Anneke’s life is close to perfect. She has a beautiful historic house to restore and a loving fiancé who cooks like a dream.

Until Anneke’s charmed existence falls apart when she loses both her job and her future husband in one terrible day. In need of a new start, she packs up her disgruntled schnauzer and moves into her half-finished home, where she throws her pent-up frustration—and what little savings she has—into finishing the renovation.

But at the first step into the house’s overhaul, Anneke is sidetracked when she discovers a mysterious leather-bound book, long hidden away, filled with tempting recipes and steamy secrets from Gemma Ditmore-Smythe, the cook for the house’s original owners. Slowly, with the help of some delicious food and Gemma’s life lessons, Anneke begins to realize that, just like a flawless recipe, she’s been waiting for the right ingredients to cook up a perfect life all along…

Our thoughts: Sweet and Satisfying--a must read!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: Recipe for Disaster by Stacey Ballis

1. We can't help but wonder if there's a little (maybe a lot) of you in Anneke, in terms of the home renovation and the cooking. Tell us how fact meets fiction in Recipe For Disaster. 

There were two driving forces behind Recipe for Disaster.  The first was absolutely the fact that my husband and I are a year and a half into a three year renovation project to convert our 1907 graystone three-flat into a single family home, and we are living in it while under construction, so my days are very much informed by the magic and wonder of renovating an old home.  And the second was that I had written seven books in a row where my heroines ranged from fantastically skilled home cooks to actual trained chefs and restaurateurs, so while I did want to stay in the foodie fiction arena, I thought it was time to have someone learning how to cook out of necessity, instead of already being a passionate chef type.  I felt very much that Anneke’s journey was going to be about her figuring out what she needed to do to feed herself literally and figuratively, so taking her from a takeout and microwave frozen packaged foods girl to a competent enough cook that she can get meals on the table for herself was a fun and very different way of writing for me.

2. Speaking of renovations, how did you juggle making over your home, which you affectionately refer to as "the castle" while also writing a book? Seriously. We are in awe here. 

It’s a juggle every day!  We are living on the first floor while they are working on the basement and second floor, so I am sandwiched between the construction.  The good part is that having contractors here all the time means that when I am testing recipes, there are plenty of mouths available for the results!  It is an ongoing process, we are about half-way thru, and there are days when it is too noisy to work here, so I escape to the family weekend place, or use those days for life maintenance.  Our team is great about giving us the schedule for the upcoming week the Friday before, so I have a sense of how disruptive it will be and can plan out my days accordingly.

3. Since 2010, you've been writing foodie fiction, which we love! What made you turn in this direction?

I think all of my books could easily fall into this category, even the ones without recipe sections in the back. Food and Chicago have always been the extra characters in my novels, as well as my life!  But adding the recipe sections beginning with Good Enough to Eat was simple.  That novel is the story of a woman who loses half her body weight through diet and exercise, and also loses her husband in the process.  She runs a healthy gourmet take-out café.  As a plus-sized woman who wants to be healthy, but also as a passionate home cook, I have always needed to create recipes that satisfy my foodie side while addressing my need for health.  Especially when it comes to comfort foods, which we all need access to in our lives. Being able to create the paired recipes for that book, one regular and one healthy version of each, was a great exercise for me, and I felt like my readers would want access to those recipes.  It is one thing to read that a character creates a guiltless version of mashed potatoes (that are actual potatoes and not cauliflower) that is also delicious, it is easier to believe it when you can try the actual recipe yourself!   The recipe section for that one was very well received, so now it is just a part of my process.

4. You also recently released Big Delicious Life: Stacey Ballis's Most Awesome Recipes. It begs the question: which is the most awesome?

I actually think they are all pretty awesome, and with 150 recipes, including the “lost” recipes for dishes mentioned in the novels but not published for space considerations, it has something for everyone.  But my desert island recipe is my godmother’s banana cake with chocolate frosting, which she graciously allowed me to share with the world, and while it isn’t one of my originals, it is the one thing I hope is part of my last meal on earth!

5. What's up next for you?

I am currently at work on my next novel, Wedding Girl, which will be out in May 2016, about a pastry chef who is left at the altar, and ends up losing her fine dining job in the aftermath.  She has to move in with her elderly grandmother, and takes a job in a small rundown neighborhood bakery while working off the debt she accrued for her perfect wedding-that-wasn’t.  It is my homage to the wonderful black and white romantic comedies of the 1930s and 40s, and is a spin on the movie The Shop Around the Corner, which also inspired You’ve Got Mail. I am just finishing a new cookbook with a good friend, called Cooking for You:  Wellness in the Kitchen.

Thanks, Stacey!

Q&A and giveaway with Greer Macallister and The Magician's Lie

We LOVE Greer and The Magician's Lie--have you read it yet? It's a breath of fresh air! We were lucky enough to snag Greer to answer a few hard-hitting Qs, and we have a copy to give away! Leave a comment to be entered--contest closes March 2nd at 8am PST.

The Magician's Lie by Greer Macallister

The Scoop: The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden's husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear.

But when Virgil happens upon the fleeing magician and takes her into custody, she has a very different story to tell. Even handcuffed and alone, Arden is far from powerless-and what she reveals is as unbelievable as it is spellbinding. Over the course of one eerie night, Virgil must decide whether to turn Arden in or set her free... and it will take all he has to see through the smoke and mirrors.

Our thoughts: Magic! Intrigue! What more could you ask for! We LOVED.

Q&A with Greer Macallister

1. We loved THE MAGICIAN'S LIE! And not only is it a great story, the cover is amazing! What was your inspiration for the book?

Thank you so much! Yes, the cover totally blows me away too – I just love everything going on in that image. As for the inspiration, it kind of came out of nowhere: why do you always see a male magician cutting a woman in half, and never the other way around? Why isn’t it ever a female magician cutting her male assistant in half? So I decided I wanted to write that book, about that magician. Everything flowed from there.

2. We're so excited to share an agent with you (the fantastic Elisabeth Weed!). Can you tell us a little about your querying process? Any advice for aspiring authors?

Elisabeth is magical, isn’t she? We’re so lucky! My querying process put my left brain into overdrive – I was very logical about finding agents who represented similar books, and I put together a spreadsheet, and tracked responses, and all that. And slowly I made the progression from form rejections to encouraging rejections to, at last, acceptance! I definitely think aspiring authors should do their research. A bad agent is way worse than no agent at all. So find out who represents the kind of thing you write, and find out what you can about them, and then if you’re lucky enough to have someone offer you representation, ask questions before you say yes. It’s easy to run on pure emotion because we’re creative people, but you also need to be practical and business-like if you want to make writing a career. It’s all about balance.

3. THE MAGICIAN'S LIE is getting great buzz (People Magazine LOVED it!)--how surreal is that for you? What's the most important thing you've learned about the publishing process?

So surreal! On one of my book tour stops I treated myself to a massage, and I picked up a magazine in the spa waiting room – and it was that issue of People. It’s odd and wonderful to realize the book belongs to everyone now, when it was just mine for so long. Someone just sent me a picture of the book in the airport bookstore at LaGuardia, also a dream come true. The publishing process is totally nutty and not for the faint of heart. Also not for the impatient. It seems to move incredibly slowly, but in the end, the wait is worth it.

4. What are you reading now? What was your favorite book of 2014?

Right now I’m about halfway through Erika Robuck’s FALLEN BEAUTY, which is really intriguing. It’s partly about the poet Edna St. Vincent Millay, who was a truly shocking wild woman, and partly about another young woman who makes some questionable choices for love. It’s great. My favorite book of 2014 was without question Emily St. John Mandel’s STATION ELEVEN. The less you know about it going in the better, but trust me, it’s absolutely riveting.

5. What's up next for you? (We can't wait!)

I’m deep in the research for my next book. It’s also historical, but a slightly earlier period and a different place – Chicago. Thanks for the vote of confidence! I always find the earliest pages the hardest part, but I’m pushing through, and I’m so excited about where it’s going. This one’s more closely based on a true story, and sometimes, truth really is stranger than fiction.

Thanks, Greer!

Best Books of the month: February Edition

We know that in some parts of the country, you've had plenty of reading time, thanks to the crazy weather! So we've compiled a list that will keep you entertained as you cozy up to the fire. And OF COURSE, we have a copy of each to give away! Leave a comment here to enter. Contest closes on February 22nd at 8am PST.

1. Walking on Trampolines by Frances Whiting

The Scoop: From the day Annabelle Andrews sashays into her classroom, Tallulah ‘Lulu’ de Longland is bewitched: by Annabelle, by her family, and by their sprawling, crumbling house tumbling down to the river.

Their unlikely friendship intensifies through a secret language where they share confidences about their unusual mothers, first loves, and growing up in the small coastal town of Juniper Bay. But the euphoria of youth rarely lasts, and the implosion that destroys their friendship leaves lasting scars and a legacy of self-doubt that haunts Lulu into adulthood.

Years later, Lulu is presented with a choice: remain the perpetual good girl who misses out, or finally step out from the shadows and do something extraordinary. And possibly unforgivable…

Our thoughts: Y'all know we love a good friendship novel!

2. The Secret of Midwives by Sally Hepworth

The Scoop: Neva Bradley, a third-generation midwife, is determined to keep the details surrounding her own pregnancy—including the identity of the baby’s father— hidden from her family and co-workers for as long as possible. Her mother, Grace, finds it impossible to let this secret rest. The more Grace prods, the tighter Neva holds to her story, and the more the lifelong differences between private, quiet Neva and open, gregarious Grace strain their relationship. For Floss, Neva’s grandmother and a retired midwife, Neva’s situation thrusts her back sixty years in time to a secret that eerily mirrors her granddaughter’s—one which, if revealed, will have life-changing consequences for them all. As Neva’s pregnancy progresses and speculation makes it harder and harder to conceal the truth, Floss wonders if hiding her own truth is ultimately more harmful than telling it. Will these women reveal their secrets and deal with the inevitable consequences? Or are some secrets best kept hidden?

Our thoughts: You'll love this page turner! P.S. You can also listen to the first chapter--click below!

[embed]https://soundcloud.com/macaudio-2/the-secrets-of-midwives-by-sally-hepworth-chapter-1[/embed]

3. Secrets of a Charmed Life by Susan Meissner

The scoop: Current day, Oxford, England. Young American scholar Kendra Van Zant, eager to pursue her vision of a perfect life, interviews Isabel McFarland just when the elderly woman is ready to give up secrets about the war that she has kept for decades...beginning with who she really is. What Kendra receives from Isabel is both a gift and a burden--one that will test her convictions and her heart.

1940s, England. As Hitler wages an unprecedented war against London’s civilian population, hundreds of thousands of children are evacuated to foster homes in the rural countryside. But even as fifteen-year-old Emmy Downtree and her much younger sister Julia find refuge in a charming Cotswold cottage, Emmy’s burning ambition to return to the city and apprentice with a fashion designer pits her against Julia’s profound need for her sister’s presence. Acting at cross purposes just as the Luftwaffe rains down its terrible destruction, the sisters are cruelly separated, and their lives are transformed…

Our thoughts: LOVED it!

4. Finding Jake by Bryan Reardon

The scoop: While his successful wife goes off to her law office each day, Simon Connolly takes care of their kids, Jake and Laney. Now that they are in high school, the angst-ridden father should feel more relaxed, but he doesn’t. He’s seen the statistics, read the headlines. And now, his darkest fear is coming true. There has been a shooting at school.

Simon races to the rendezvous point, where he’s forced to wait. Do they know who did it? How many victims were there? Why did this happen? One by one, parents are led out of the room to reunite with their children. Their numbers dwindle, until Simon is alone.

As his worst nightmare unfolds, and Jake is the only child missing, Simon begins to obsess over the past, searching for answers, for hope, for the memory of the boy he raised, for mistakes he must have made, for the reason everything came to this. Where is Jake? What happened in those final moments? Is it possible he doesn’t really know his son? Or he knows him better than he thought?

Brilliantly paced, Finding Jake explores these questions in a tense and emotionally wrenching narrative. Harrowing and heartbreaking, surprisingly healing and redemptive, it is a story of faith and conviction, strength, courage, and love that will leave readers questioning their own lives, and those they think they know.

Our thoughts: We love a great thriller--such a fresh change of pace!

5. Hush Hush by Laura Lippman

The Scoop: On a searing August day, Melisandre Harris Dawes committed the unthinkable: she left her two-month-old daughter locked in a car while she sat nearby on the shores of the Patapsco River. Melisandre was found not guilty by reason of criminal insanity, although there was much skepticism about her mental state. Freed, she left the country, her husband and her two surviving children, determined to start over.

But now Melisandre has returned Baltimore to meet with her estranged teenage daughters and wants to film the reunion for a documentary. The problem is, she relinquished custody and her ex, now remarried, isn’t sure he approves.

Now that’s she’s a mother herself—short on time, patience—Tess Monaghan wants nothing to do with a woman crazy enough to have killed her own child. But her mentor and close friend Tyner Gray, Melisandre’s lawyer, has asked Tess and her new partner, retired Baltimore P.D. homicide detective Sandy Sanchez, to assess Melisandre’s security needs.

As a former reporter and private investigator, Tess tries to understand why other people break the rules and the law. Yet the imperious Melisandre is something far different from anyone she’s encountered. A decade ago, a judge ruled that Melisandre was beyond rational thought. But was she? Tess tries to ignore the discomfort she feels around the confident, manipulative Melisandre. But that gets tricky after Melisandre becomes a prime suspect in a murder.

Yet as her suspicions deepen, Tess realizes that just as she’s been scrutinizing Melisandre, a judgmental stalker has been watching her every move as well. . . .

Our thoughts: Another great thriller! We love it!

6. The Last Breath by Kimberly Belle

The Scoop: Humanitarian aid worker Gia Andrews chases disasters around the globe for a living. It's the perfect lifestyle to keep her far away from her own personal ground zero. Sixteen years ago, Gia's father was imprisoned for brutally killing her stepmother. Now he's come home to die of cancer, and she's responsible for his care—and coming to terms with his guilt.

Gia reluctantly resumes the role of daughter to the town's most infamous murderer, a part complete with protesters on the lawn and death threats that are turning tragedy into front-page news. Returning to life in small-town Tennessee involves rebuilding relationships that distance and turmoil have strained, though finding an emotional anchor in the attractive hometown bartender is certainly helping Gia cope.

As the past unravels before her, Gia will find herself torn between the stories that her family, their friends and neighbors, and even her long-departed stepmother have believed to be real all these years. But in the end, the truth—and all the lies that came before—may have deadlier consequences than she could have ever anticipated….

Our thoughts: We couldn't put it down!

7. A Memory of Violets : A Novel of London's Flower Sellers by Hazel Gaynor

The Scoop: In 1912, twenty-year-old Tilly Harper leaves the peace and beauty of her native Lake District for London, to become assistant housemother at Mr. Shaw’s Home for Watercress and Flower Girls. For years, the home has cared for London’s flower girls—orphaned and crippled children living on the grimy streets and selling posies of violets and watercress to survive.

Soon after she arrives, Tilly discovers a diary written by an orphan named Florrie—a young Irish flower girl who died of a broken heart after she and her sister, Rosie, were separated. Moved by Florrie’s pain and all she endured in her brief life, Tilly sets out to discover what happened to Rosie. But the search will not be easy. Full of twists and surprises, it leads the caring and determined young woman into unexpected places, including the depths of her own heart.

Our thoughts: Another one you won't be able to put down!

8. Plus One by Christopher Noxon

The Scoop: Christopher Noxon's debut novel Plus One is a comedic take on bread-winning women and caretaking men in contemporary Los Angeles. Alex Sherman-Zicklin is a mid-level marketing executive whose wife's fourteenth attempt at a TV pilot is produced, ordered to series, and awarded an Emmy. Overnight, she's sucked into a mad show-business vortex and he's tasked with managing their new high-profile Hollywood lifestyle. He falls in with a posse of Plus Ones, men who are married to women whose success, income, and public recognition far surpasses their own. What will it take for him to regain the foreground in his own life?

Our thoughts: Hilarious!

9. Cold Cold Heart by Tami Hoag

The Scoop: Dana Nolan was a promising young TV reporter until a notorious serial killer tried to add her to his list of victims.  Nearly a year has passed since surviving her ordeal, but the physical, emotional, and psychological scars run deep.  Struggling with the torment of post-traumatic stress syndrome, plagued by flashbacks and nightmares as dark as the heart of a killer, Dana returns to her hometown in an attempt to begin to put her life back together.  But home doesn’t provide the comfort she expects.

Dana’s harrowing story and her return to small town life have rekindled police and media interest in the unsolved case of her childhood best friend, Casey Grant, who disappeared without a trace the summer after their graduation from high school.  Terrified of truths long-buried, Dana reluctantly begins to look back at her past.  Viewed through the dark filter of PTSD, old friends and loved ones become suspects and enemies.  Questioning everything she knows, refusing to be defined by the traumas of her past and struggling against excruciating odds, Dana seeks out a truth that may prove too terrible to be believed…

Our thoughts: We promise you'll love this one too!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek

Okay--how the hell is it already the end of January?  We don't know about you, but we're still writing 2014 on everything! We hope 2015 has been treating you well and we're delighted to bring you another awesome book and author--Robin Antalek and The Grown Ups! Robin's writing is fresh and fun and we have a feeling you'll heart her forever! Great news! We have a copy to give away! Leave a comment here and we'll choose a winner. Contest closes on February 1st at 8am PST.

The Scoop: The summer he’s fifteen, Sam enjoys, for a few secret months, the unexpected attention of Suzie Epstein. For reasons Sam doesn’t entirely understand, he and Suzie keep their budding relationship hidden from their close knit group of friends. But as the summer ends, Sam’s world unexpectedly shatters twice: Suzie’s parents are moving to a new city to save their marriage, and his own mother has suddenly left the house, leaving Sam’s father alone to raise two sons.

Watching as her parents’ marital troubles escalate, Suzie takes on the responsibility of raising her two younger brothers and plans an early escape to college and independence. Though she thinks of Sam, she deeply misses her closest friend Bella, but makes no attempt to reconnect, embarrassed by the destructive wake of her parents as they left the only place Suzie called home. Years later, a chance meeting with Sam’s older brother will reunite her with both Sam and Bella—and force her to confront her past and her friends.

After losing Suzie, Bella finds her first real love in Sam. But Sam’s inability to commit to her or even his own future eventually drives them apart. In contrast, Bella’s old friend Suzie—and Sam’s older brother, Michael—seem to have worked it all out, leaving Bella to wonder where she went wrong.

Spanning over a decade, told in alternating voices, The Grown Ups explores the indelible bonds between friends and family and the challenges that threaten to divide them.

Our thoughts: Y'all know we can't resist any book about friendship! Pick it up!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Grown Ups by Robin Antalek

1. We love books about friends who are really more like family. What was your inspiration for the friendships depicted in THE GROWN UPS?

As crazy as this sounds – The Grown Ups was born out of a single sentence. I had just shelved a book I had been working on for two years, and I was very definitely between projects, wondering where I was going next. I was sitting on the floor in my library’s used book store, surrounded by books I was going to buy, and eavesdropping on a conversation between two elderly volunteers when one of the women said to the other: ‘It was the summer all the children in the neighborhood caught a virus.’ Honestly, I have no idea what it was about that sentence, and I can’t even recall what their conversation was about. I heard nothing before or after. What I did do was write down that sentence inside one of the books I was going to buy. It would not leave my head. And soon, I had two brothers, one an overachiever and well, one less. A box of provocative photographs, a first kiss among friends, a very public family meltdown and a mother who quietly decides to leave her family. I thought it was going to be a short story, and then I couldn’t let them go. The funny thing is this: I visit that book shop at least once a week and I have never seen those volunteers again. To think their conversation sparked an entire novel. You just never know.

2. What are your favorite books about family and friendship?

I am a huge fan of the late Laurie Colwin, A Big Storm Knocked it Over, is one of my favorite books of all time, but her entire catalog of writing, fiction and non-fiction, she was a fantastic food writer, are just fabulous.. Also, Mary and O’Neil by Justin Cronin and just about anything written by the fabulous Ellen Gilchrist.

3. Where is your favorite place to write? Do you set a word count for yourself?

I write at an eight foot long oak library table rescued from the Vassar College Library renovation on my old white mac laptop. It’s piled with papers and books and photographs and little bowls filled with stones I’ve picked up from my travels. I live in an 1800’s Victorian with big floor to ceiling windows and I have the table shoved into the bay of three windows, despite the draft! I need the sunshine! I very definitely have a routine – I’m an early riser, make my coffee, feed the dog and then I go to my desk. I try not to check email or any other distractions and go directly to a work in progress. I might read back through progress from the day before, make a few adjustments and then get to it. I try and write until noon, take the dog for a walk or ride my bike or both, and then answer e-mail, edit, that kind of thing until my husband comes home and we have dinner. Now that my daughters are both out of the house, one in college and one graduated from college, I have a little bit more freedom in what kind of day I have. The getting to work thing in the morning comes from their school days. As soon as they left in the morning I would get to work, that way by the time afternoon pickup and activities arrived I felt as if I’d accomplished something. They don’t need me like that anymore but it’s a great habit to have retained. I try not to worry about word count. What comes out onto the page comes out – word count comes later, if ever.

4. If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring writer, what would it be?

Tell the best story you can. Period. Don’t worry about any of the other stuff. Tell the story that matters to you.

5. What are you working on now?

It’s about a woman married to a famous artist and the tough decision she must make to save herself and their daughter possibly at the expense of her marriage. I don’t know much else, but that’s the nut of the story right now.

Thanks, Robin!

Best books of the month: January edition

Can y'all believe we're already almost a month into 2015? Time is a' flyin'! And, of course, we already have a long list of fabulous books to add to your reading list this year. From sparkling debuts to authors who've been wowing us for years, we're giving you a chance to win a copy of each of these books!  Just leave a comment to be entered. The contest closes on January 26 at 8am PST.

1. The Rosie Effect by Graeme Simsion

The scoop: The highly anticipated sequel to the New York Times bestselling novel The Rosie Project, starring the same extraordinary couple now living in New York and unexpectedly expecting their first child. Get ready to fall in love all over again.

Don Tillman and Rosie Jarman are back. The Wife Project is complete, and Don and Rosie are happily married and living in New York. But they’re about to face a new challenge because— surprise!—Rosie is pregnant.

Don sets about learning the protocols of becoming a father, but his unusual research style gets him into trouble with the law. Fortunately his best friend Gene is on hand to offer advice: he’s left Claudia and moved in with Don and Rosie.

As Don tries to schedule time for pregnancy research, getting Gene and Claudia to reconcile, servicing the industrial refrigeration unit that occupies half his apartment, helping Dave the Baseball Fan save his business, and staying on the right side of Lydia the social worker, he almost misses the biggest problem of all: he might lose Rosie when she needs him the most.

Our thoughts:  The Rosie Project is one of our absolute favorite books and this sequel absolutely delivers another dose of humor and heart when a pregnancy is added into the mix!

2. Betrayed by Lisa Scottoline

The scoop: Blockbuster author Lisa Scottoline returns to the Rosato & Associates law firm with Betrayed, and maverick lawyer Judy Carrier takes the lead in a case that's more personal than ever.  Judy has always championed the underdog, so when Iris, the housekeeper and best friend of Judy's beloved Aunt Barb, is found dead of an apparent heart attack, Judy begins to suspect foul play.  The circumstances of the death leave Judy with more questions than answers, and never before has murder struck so close to home.

In the meantime, Judy's own life roils with emotional and professional upheaval.  She doesn’t play well with her boss, Bennie Rosato, which jeopardizes her making partner at the firm.  Not only that, her best friend Mary DiNunzio is planning a wedding, leaving Judy  feeling left behind, as well as newly unhappy in her relationship with her live-in boyfriend Frank.

Judy sets her own drama aside and begins an investigation of Iris’s murder, then discovers a shocking truth that confounds her expectations and leads her in a completely different direction.  She finds herself plunged into a shadowy world of people who are so desperate that they cannot go to the police, and where others are so ruthless that they prey on vulnerability.  Judy finds strength within herself to try to get justice for Iris and her aunt -- but it comes at a terrible price.

Our thoughts: Completely satisfying!

3. Lost and Found by Brooke Davis

The scoop: Millie Bird, seven years old and ever hopeful, always wears red gumboots to match her curly hair. Her struggling mother, grieving the death of Millie’s father, leaves her in the big ladies’ underwear department of a local store and never returns.

Agatha Pantha, eighty-two, has not left her house—or spoken to another human being—since she was widowed seven years ago. She fills the silence by yelling at passersby, watching loud static on TV, and maintaining a strict daily schedule.Karl the Touch Typist, eighty-seven, once used his fingers to type out love notes on his wife’s skin. Now that she’s gone, he types his words out into the air as he speaks. Karl’s been committed to a nursing home, but in a moment of clarity and joy, he escapes. Now he’s on the lam.Brought together at a fateful moment, the three embark upon a road trip across Western Australia to find Millie’s mother. Along the way, Karl wants to find out how to be a man again; Agatha just wants everything to go back to how it was.Together they will discover that old age is not the same as death, that the young can be wise, and that letting yourself feel sad once in a while just might be the key to a happy life.

Our thoughts: We gobbled up this sparkling debut!

4. Before I Go by Colleen Oakley

The scoop: A heart-wrenching debut novel in the bestselling tradition of P.S. I Love You about a young woman with breast cancer who undertakes a mission to find a new wife for her husband before she passes away.

Twenty-seven-year-old Daisy already beat breast cancer three years ago. How can this be happening to her again?

On the eve of what was supposed to be a triumphant “Cancerversary” with her husband Jack to celebrate three years of being cancer-free, Daisy suffers a devastating blow: her doctor tells her that the cancer is back, but this time it’s an aggressive stage four diagnosis. She may have as few as four months left to live. Death is a frightening prospect—but not because she’s afraid for herself. She’s terrified of what will happen to her brilliant but otherwise charmingly helpless husband when she’s no longer there to take care of him. It’s this fear that keeps her up at night, until she stumbles on the solution: she has to find him another wife.

With a singular determination, Daisy scouts local parks and coffee shops and online dating sites looking for Jack’s perfect match. But the further she gets on her quest, the more she questions the sanity of her plan. As the thought of her husband with another woman becomes all too real, Daisy’s forced to decide what’s more important in the short amount of time she has left: her husband’s happiness—or her own?

The scoop: We were hooked as soon as we read the synopsis and could not put this book down once we opened it! Loved. It.

5. House Broken by Sonja Yoerg

The scoop: In this compelling and poignant debut novel, a woman skilled at caring for animals must learn to mend the broken relationships in her family.…

For veterinarian Geneva Novak, animals can be easier to understand than people. They’re also easier to forgive. But when her mother, Helen, is injured in a vodka-fueled accident, it’s up to Geneva to give her the care she needs.

Since her teens, Geneva has kept her self-destructive mother at arm’s length. Now, with two slippery teenagers of her own at home, the last thing she wants is to add Helen to the mix. But Geneva’s husband convinces her that letting Helen live with them could be her golden chance to repair their relationship.

Geneva isn’t expecting her mother to change anytime soon, but she may finally get answers to the questions she’s been asking for so long. As the truth about her family unfolds, however, Geneva may find secrets too painful to bear and too terrible to forgive.

Our thoughts: Another debut that left us wanting more from this new author!

6. My Father's Wives by Mike Greenberg

The scoop: Jonathan Sweetwater has been blessed with money, a fulfilling career, great kids and Claire, his smart, gorgeous, sophisticated wife. But there is one thing Jonathan never had: a relationship with his father.

Percival Sweetwater III has been absent from his son’s life since Jonathan was nine years old. A five-term U.S. senator, now dead, Percy was beloved by presidents, his constituents, and women alike, especially the five women who married him after Jonathan’s mother.

Jonathan hasn’t thought about Percy or the hole he left in his life for years. Dedicated to Claire and his family, he’s nothing like his serial monogamist father. But then Jonathan discovers evidence that everything in his marriage may not be as perfect as he thought. Hurt and uncertain what to do, he knows that the only way to move forward is to go back.

On this quest for understanding—about himself, about manhood, about marriage—Jonathan decides to track down his father’s five ex-wives. His journey will take him from cosmopolitan cities to the mile-high mountains to a tropical island—and ultimately back to confront the one thing Jonathan has that his father never did: home.

Our thoughts: This is a man who definitely knows how to write books women want to read! Bravo!

7. One Step Too Far by Tina Seskis

The scoop: No one has ever guessed Emily’s secret.

Will you?

A happy marriage. A beautiful family. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman get up one morning and walk right out of her life—to start again as someone new?

Now, Emily has become Cat, working at a hip advertising agency in London and living on the edge with her inseparable new friend, Angel. Cat’s buried any trace of her old self so well, no one knows how to find her. But she can't bury the past—or her own memories.

And soon, she’ll have to face the truth of what she's done—a shocking revelation that may push her one step too far. . . .

Our thoughts: This thriller took us on one hell of a ride!

The Status Of All Things Cover Reveal + ARC giveaway!

So far, we're really digging 2015. Liz is super stoked San Diego is actually having a winter (so many boots and scarves to wear, so little time!) and Lisa is resolved to get organized and is having a serious love affair with The Container Store (you should see the storage cubes she's got goin' on)! And... we're only one chapter away from finishing the first draft of our 2016 release, The Year We Turned Forty! *cue party music* But this year, we are MOST excited about the cover for The Status Of All Things! Is it just us or is it totally RAD?  We are so thankful for the team of people at Atria who worked so hard to create it! And especially grateful to Mary Kubica, the brilliant author of The Good Girl, for her lovely blurb. We can't wait to share our novel with the world on June 2nd! To celebrate how much we heart the cover, we're giving away one signed advanced copy. Just leave a comment to be entered. The contest will close on January 18th at 8am.

Want to know more? Here's the scoop: What would you do if you could literally rewrite your fate—on Facebook? This heartwarming and hilarious new novel from the authors of Your Perfect Life follows a woman who discovers she can change her life through online status updates.

Kate is a thirty-five-year-old woman who is obsessed with social media. So when her fiancé, Max, breaks things off at their rehearsal dinner—to be with Kate’s close friend and coworker, no less—she goes straight to Facebook to share it with the world. But something’s changed. Suddenly, Kate’s real life starts to mirror whatever she writes in her Facebook status. With all the power at her fingertips, and heartbroken and confused over why Max left her, Kate goes back in time to rewrite their history.

Kate's two best friends, Jules and Liam, are the only ones who know the truth. In order to convince them she’s really time traveled, Kate offers to use her Facebook status to help improve their lives. But her attempts to help them don’t go exactly as planned, and every effort to get Max back seems to only backfire, causing Kate to wonder if it’s really possible to change her fate.

In The Status of All Things, Liz Fenton and Lisa Steinke combine the humor and heart of Sarah Pekkanen and Jennifer Weiner while exploring the pitfalls of posting your entire life on the Internet. They raise the questions: What if you could create your picture-perfect life? Would you be happy? Would you still be you? For anyone who’s ever attempted—or failed—to be their perfect self online, this is a story of wisdom and wit that will leave you with new appreciation for the true status of your life.

Sound good?  You can pre-order it here! And in case you haven't read our first novel, Your Perfect Life, you can order it here!

And to keep up to date with our latest news, be sure to sign up for our newsletter!

So we are dying to know---what do y'all think of the cover? Tell us!

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel

OMG, y'all! Kristin Harmel's latest book is soooooo good. The Life Intended is a Sliding Doors-esque (one of our all-time favorite movies!) story that makes you think about life and love and happiness. And guess what? You can win a copy of this novel that's not even out until December 30th. (You're welcome!) Just leave a message to be entered to win. Contest closes on December 27th at 10 am PST. The scoop: From the author of the international bestseller The Sweetness of Forgetting, named one of the Best Books of Summer 2012 by Marie Claire magazine, comes a captivating novel about the struggle to overcome the past when our memories refuse to be forgotten.

In this richly told story where Sliding Doors meets P.S. I Love You, Kristin Harmel weaves a heart-wrenching tale that asks: what does it take to move forward in life without forgetting the past?

After her husband’s sudden death over ten years ago, Kate Waithman never expected to be lucky enough to find another love of her life. But now she’s planning her second walk down the aisle to a perfectly nice man. So why isn’t she more excited?

At first, Kate blames her lack of sleep on stress. But when she starts seeing Patrick, her late husband, in her dreams, she begins to wonder if she’s really ready to move on. Is Patrick trying to tell her something? Attempting to navigate between dreams and reality, Kate must uncover her husband’s hidden message. Her quest leads her to a sign language class and into the New York City foster system, where she finds rewards greater than she could have imagined.

Our thoughts: The perfect book to read as we head into a new year.

Liz & Lisa's Book Club: The Life Intended by Kristin Harmel

1. THE LIFE INTENDED is such a fabulous concept. (Sliding Doors meets P.S. I Love You is one of the best descriptions we've read in a while). How did you think of the idea?

Thank you so much!      SLIDING DOORS is one of my favorite movies and P.S. I LOVE YOU is one of my favorite books and movies, so when I realized this was the description the publisher was using, I was absolutely thrilled! That said, I never set out to write a book that paralleled either of those stories! Whereas every other novel I’ve written has evolved over months – or even years – of thinking and reflecting, the genesis of THE LIFE INTENDED was a bit unusual. I actually dreamed the plot almost whole. I know that sounds kooky, especially since the novel centers partially on the dreams that the main character has of her dead husband, but it’s true. I woke up one morning a couple of years ago, and the entire book was already in my head. I jumped out of bed, rushed to the kitchen table, grabbed a stack of paper, and began scribbling as quickly as I could, to get as many elements of the plot down on paper as I possibly could. The finer details – the sign language lessons, the kids’ cochlear implants, Patrick’s and Kate’s personalities, etc. – evolved later, but the basic structure of the plot and lots of the broader details were there from day one. Weird, right? Maybe this is the book intended!

2. Tell us about the cover. It's beautiful! 

 Oh, I love the cover. I think it evokes New York, where the book takes place, but it also looks very dreamlike. And so much of this novel is about Kate, the main character, trying to figure out whether she’s dreaming – and what her dreams (if they are indeed dreams) actually mean. I like that the cover has the same sort of hazy, intangible, almost gauzy look that dreams sometimes do.

 3. You've always been so great about helping up and coming authors (years ago Liz and I took one of your writing classes in Los Angeles). What advice do you give to aspiring writers now that the publishing landscape has changed?

Oh, thanks! It was such a pleasure to have you two in my class, and I’m so glad we’re still in touch. It’s been lovely to see the success you’ve had! Congratulations! As for advice, hmmm… The thing is, I think every situation is different. For some people, the wide open world of self-publishing, or publishing with a small press, might be the best idea in the world, whereas a few years ago, many of those types of options didn’t even exist. There are so many more ways now to put your book out into the world. But at the same time, if you hope to be published traditionally by a major publisher, as I am, I believe it’s important to be thinking in terms of both the quality of your writing and the heart of your story. In other words, competition is tough. So if you’re writing a novel, make sure the writing itself is good before trying to find an agent. Just as importantly, your story has to be good, and when it comes to mainstream fiction geared toward women – the kind of novels I write – I think the feelings and emotions you put into the story really matter. Your characters should be experiencing big transformations in their lives, big moments where their worlds are changing. And from the standpoint of making your story appealing to agents and editors, you also have to be able to sum up your book in less than a paragraph in a way that would make the average reader saying, “Oh cool! I think I might want to read that!” So think in terms of that elevator pitch, that short description of your book, and if you can summarize it in a tantalizing way, then it will help you as you write and as you edit to nail down exactly what makes your book special. In my experience, I’ve also found that focusing on family dynamics is just as important as focusing on romantic dynamics between characters. Our families really make us who we are, and that’s something I love exploring in fiction. It makes books much richer, much more well-rounded and impactful, I think.

4. Because THE LIFE INTENDED is our Liz & Lisa Book Club pick of the month, what do you think are the top (non spoiler related) themes book clubs can discuss for this novel? 

 Thank you so much for picking THE LIFE INTENDED as your book of the month! How cool! Well, it just so happens that there’s a Reading Group Guide in the back of the book. (You can also find it here: http://books.simonandschuster.com/The-Life-Intended/Kristin-Harmel/9781476754154/reading_group_guide). Simon & Schuster does such a good job with these discussion guides that I’d definitely recommend starting with that. (But please don’t read the Reading Group Guide until after you’ve finished the book, because it does contain spoilers!)

If you plan to read this for your book club, I’d pull out the Readers Group Guide on the night of the meeting, once everyone has read the book. In the meantime, I think two of the themes that are worth discussion are:

• CHOOSING HAPPINESS: How has Kate failed to choose happiness over the last 12 years? Do you think she believed she didn’t have the right to a happy life? Why? How can you choose happiness in your own life? And since this book comes out just before the new year, how can you make 2015 a year of choosing happiness?
• FAMILY: What makes a family? Kate definitely has some nontraditional relationships in this book. For instance, she seems closer to Patrick’s mother than her own mother. And in a way, she’s searching to rebuild her family with Dan. In life, how do we choose our families, and how do our families choose us? How much is fate and how much is choice? And when it comes to building a future, how do the choices we make affect everything?

5. We can't believe it's already December. Do you give books as gifts? Which ones top your list?

 Eesh! Where has the year gone?? Yes, I do sometimes give books as gifts, but I don’t have any annual standbys. Instead, I tend to give people books I’ve enjoyed over the few months preceding the holidays. I look for books that are thought-provoking, and I usually write a little note in the card explaining why I thought the recipient would like the book. This year, I might give friends a novel by Lucinda Riley, a new favorite author of mine. I also love the proliferation of non-fiction, gift-oriented books around the holidays. Cookbooks are often a good gift option, as are humor books. It’s also nice to give people biographies if they are interested in a particular person or period in history.

 6. Okay, so this question has nothing to do with your book per se, but you had the most romantic proposal ever and now you are married. (Congrats!) What can you tell us about him?

Aw, thanks! Yes, I still can’t quite believe it! I’m in my mid-thirties, and before Jason and I started to date, I had just begun to have those little “What if you never meet someone?” whispers in the back of my head. I had also begun to figure out that whatever happened, I’d be okay, which I think was key to being ready for the love of my life to sweep in. It sounds silly, but I think that getting to a point in my life where I was happy alone, and where I was focused on being a better person and a better writer (as opposed to finding a guy) was really a hugely important step. I finally became me – and that’s when I finally became ready to be with the right guy. In any case, Jason is great. We’re a funny pair, because I’m five feet on the dot, and he’s six foot one, but I like to think we’re cute together! He’s a big runner – he does marathons and triathlons – and he’s also very creative. He works in advertising and PR, but he’s also very creative in his spare time. The very first gift he gave me was an original painting he’d done of the Eiffel Tower (which is actually where he proposed a year and a half later!), and there are several pieces of art around our house that are his originals! We’re buying a new house right now, and he’s been sketching some really creative, awesome plans for landscaping the back yard. He’s just really imaginative. I love it. But much more importantly, he’s good and kind and supportive, and I trust him entirely. He’s also so generous; he’s always volunteering for charitable organizations. Oh, and did I mention he’s handsome? Seriously, I couldn’t have written a better character in a book. He’s perfect for me.

 7. Are you working on another novel? If so, can you give us any details?

Yes! I’m currently in the outline stages of my next book, which may or may not work. Sometimes, it takes me an outline or two to hit on the right idea. But I think this is the one. Like THE SWEETNESS OF FORGETTING, which came out in 2012, this new idea will focus on a character in the present and a connected character in the past. The story in the past is the one that’s a little more vivid to me right now; it’s about a mystery involving a German POW who was imprisoned in the southern United States during World War II. Did you know that more than 400,000 German prisoners lived in the States during the war, in more than 700 prison camps? It’s just such a rich period in history, and I’m truly enjoying the research.

Thanks, ladies!

xo, Kristin