Book Blog Walkers: Weekly Check-in Nov 14 2014 and Top Secret twenty-one

This challenge is organized by Felicia over at the Geeky Blogger's Book Blog

Saturday 10 km bike

Sunday 1 hour walk

Monday 10 km bike and 45 min zumba toning

Tuesday 5 km bike, 30 min walk and 1 hour yoga

Wednesday 5 km bike and 1 hour walk

Thursday 10 km bike and 1 hour zumba

Friday 6 km bike and 30 min walk

-----------------

Catch a professional assassin: top priority. Find a failure-to-appear and collect big bucks: top score. How she’ll pull it all off: top secret.

Trenton, New Jersey’s favorite used-car dealer, Jimmy Poletti, was caught selling a lot more than used cars out of his dealerships. Now he’s out on bail and has missed his date in court, and bounty hunter Stephanie Plum is looking to bring him in. Leads are quickly turning into dead ends, and all too frequently into dead bodies. Even Joe Morelli, the city’s hottest cop, is struggling to find a clue to the suspected killer’s whereabouts. These are desperate times, and they call for desperate measures. So Stephanie is going to have to do something she really doesn’t want to do: protect former hospital security guard and general pain in her behind Randy Briggs. Briggs was picking up quick cash as Poletti’s bookkeeper and knows all his boss’s dirty secrets. Now Briggs is next on Poletti’s list of people to put six feet under.

To top things off, Ranger—resident security expert and Stephanie’s greatest temptation—has been the target of an assassination plot. He’s dodged the bullet this time, but if Ranger wants to survive the next attempt on his life, he’ll have to enlist Stephanie’s help and reveal a bit more of his mysterious past.

Death threats, highly trained assassins, highly untrained assassins, and Stark Street being overrun by a pack of feral Chihuahuas are all in a day’s work for Stephanie Plum. The real challenge is dealing with her Grandma Mazur’s wild bucket list. A boob job and getting revenge on Joe Morelli’s Grandma Bella can barely hold a candle to what’s number one on the list—but that’s top secret. 

Hardcover, 305 pages
Published June 17th 2014 by Bantam (first published January 1st 2014)
Stephanie Plum #21
Mystery chic-lit

 library

GODS I hate these long blurbs.

You know what, I will say it with Gifs.

 

Author Interview and Giveaway: Lillian Marek

Today's interview is with Lilian Marek. And there is a giveaway too :)

Welcome!

1. Tell me about yourself?

Oh dear. Not my favorite subject, and not terribly exciting. I write books, and when I’m not writing, I think about writing. There is usually music playing in the background, and I like practically all music—except for rock. Even when I was a teenager I didn’t like rock music. Although I like lots of different things, what I am listening to depends on what I am doing. While I’m writing, I can’t listen to anything with words. They interfere. And I prefer something calm, so it’s likely to be something from the Baroque or Classical period. I play a lot of Haydn and Bach. On the other hand, when I’m cooking or doing housework, I want something upbeat. I often clean house to Theodore Bickel singing Russian gypsy songs. Or country music. I love George Strait.

2. What is your new book,  Lady Elinor's Wicked Adventure, about?

Love and adventure. But I expect you’d like a somewhat more detailed answer. Well, in 1856 the Marquess  and Marchioness of Penworth travel to Italy to study Etruscan ruins. With them are their two older children, Elinor and Pip, and Pip’s old schoolfriend, Harry. Harry is in love with Elinor, but he thinks his disreputable family makes him unworthy of her. She eventually prods him into the realization that his family doesn’t matter, at least not to her. Along the way, they explore Etruscan ruins, defeat some antiquities thieves, and smuggle a Garibaldi supporter out of Rome to help Pip’s romance along.

3. Who would play Elinor and Harry in a movie?

Hmm. That requires a bit of thought. I’m an old movie buff, and I especially like the screwball comedies, so I think I’ll pick Joel McCrae and Claudette Colbert. He’s very good at projecting comically solemn determination to do the right thing, even if it hurts, and she has the kind of impish self-confidence Elinor has. If you ever watch them in Palm Beach Story, you’ll see what I mean.

4. What made you set your book in Italy?

I’ve been to Italy a few times and just love it, so I figured my characters would like it too. Besides, during the 19th century, Italy was full of visiting Englishmen who were there for their health or to study or just because they liked it. The same excuses people use today. *Grin*

5. And last what are you working on right now?

The second book in the Victorian Adventure series takes place in Assyria. In this one, Lady Emily—Lady Elinor’s sister—gets to visit the ruins of ancient Nineveh and meets a French adventurer who isn’t all that he seems! Writing these books is such fun that it doesn’t seem right to say I’m ”working” on them.

Thanks!

And thank you for the invitation. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Harry de Vaux, Viscount Tunbury, has loved Lady Elinor Tremaine for as long as he can remember—but is convinced that his past makes him unworthy of her. He agrees to accompany the Tremaine family to Italy to explore Etruscan ruins, even if it chips away at his resolve to stay away from the delightful woman he loves.

The intrepid Lady Elinor is caught up in the Victorian fervor for exploring distant lands. But during her travels she is thrown back into the company of an old friend, Harry de Vaux. Amid the sightseeing and treasure hunting, Elinor comes to realize that she wants far more from Harry than friendship. But when a dangerous discovery leaves them fighting for their lives, it might just be too late...

About the author:

Lillian Marek was born and raised in New York City (the center of the universe). At one time or another she has had most of the interesting but underpaid jobs available to English majors. After a few too many years in journalism, she decided she prefers fiction, where the good guys win and the bad guys get what they deserve.

Available Now:

Amazon: http://amzn.to/1rNzW7e

Apple: http://bit.ly/1t9yhv6

BAM: http://bit.ly/1n1LS2d

B&N: http://bit.ly/1oJDF8n

Chapters: http://bit.ly/1p6aEmz

Indiebound: http://bit.ly/1yRbaWv

Kobo: http://bit.ly/1tOj1ar

Author Interview and Giveaway: Victoria Vane

Today I have an interview with Victoria Vane, and a rafflecopter giveaway :)

Welcome!

1. Tell me about yourself?

I consider myself a southern fried Yankee as I was born in Maine but have lived all of my adult life in the south (Florida, Georgia, Texas and South Carolina). We currrently call South Carolina home. I have been a horse lover all of my life. I have owned thirteen of then and trained and shown them. I currently own one beautiful Arabian geldign named Princeton. I am also happily married for thirty-one years and have two grown sons.

2. What is your new book, SLOW HAND about?

SLOW HAND is a contemporary Western romance set primarily in Montana. My heroine is a damsel in distress who loses her ID on her way to bury her dead father, and my hero is a total prince charming in a cowboy hat and a pick up truck. He’s also a workaholic laywer who has an ongoing battle with his older brother over the family ranch. The story is sexy and flirty and scorching hot. Link to book trailer: 

3. What is it with cowboys? Why do we like them so much?

I think the appeal is very much centered in their old fashioned manners. Cowboys are extremely tough and stoic but they also usually have big hearts and gentlemanly ways. They know how to treat a lady like a lady. My hero Wade is very much this kind of cowboy.

4. Three important things to know about Wade?

He’s charming witty and has an incredible chin dimple!

5.  Three important things about Nicole?

Nikki is a little bit lost in many ways. She desperately needs an anchor, someone she can count on like Wade. She’s fiercely independent because she’s had to be, and she’d been burned several times by cowboys.

6. And last what are you working on right now?

I have totally taken the plunge into contemporary romance with seven hot contemporary cowboy romances. Over the next eighteen months I have 4 novels coming from Sourcebooks (Slow Hand, Rough Rider, Straight Shooter and Silver Tongue) and 3 novellas from Kensington in a hot Las Vegas set series called Hotel Rodeo. Both publishers have left the option open to add more to these series if they do well. 

Thanks!

Slow Hand

By Victoria Vane

Sourcebooks Casablanca

ISBN: 9781492601128

$7.99/£5.99 Mass-Market Paperback

Summary

In rural Montana…

Wade Knowlton is a hardworking lawyer who’s torn between his small-town Montana law practice and a struggling family ranch. He’s on the brink of exhaustion from trying to save everybody and everything, when gorgeous Nicole Powell walks into his office. She’s a damsel in distress and the breath of fresh air he needs.

Even the lawyers wear boots…

Nicole Powell is a sassy Southern girl who has officially sworn off cowboys after a spate of bad seeds—until her father’s death sends her to Montana and into the arms of a man who seems too good to be true. Her instincts tell her to high tail it out of Montana, but she can't resist a cowboy with a slow hand…

Author Bio

Victoria Vane is a multiple award-winning romance novelist and history junkie whose collective works of fiction range from wildly comedic romps to emotionally compelling erotic romance. Her books have received more than twenty reviewer awards and nominations including the 2014 RONE Award for Treacherous Temptations and Library Journal Best E-Book romance of 2012 for The Devil DeVere series. Victoria also writes historical fiction as Emery Lee and is the founder of Goodreads Romantic Historical Fiction Lovers and the Romantic Historical Lovers book review blog.

Social Media

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Goodreads | Pinterest | Email | YouTube

Buy Links

Amazon | Apple | B&N | BAM | !ndigo | IndieBound

 a Rafflecopter giveaway Direct link: http://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/07c2363f48

Together for Christmas - Carol Rivers

August 1914, London. 

Britain has just declared war on Germany, and the whole country seems to be in uproar. Flora, Hilda and Will, who grew up together in St Boniface orphanage sit in the sunshine in Hyde Park on a rare day off, discussing the impending war and the changes it will bring to their lives. Will means to go off to fight, Hilda hopes to better her current lot in life as a maid at the charitable institute, Hailing House, but Flora is content with her job as assistant to the Isle of Dogs' kindly Doctor Tapper. Taking a vow, they pledge to always be there for each other, come what may. 

It soon becomes clear that the war will not be over by Christmas, as so many thought, and the first zeppelin raids bring casualties flooding into the surgery where Flora works.

Hilda has taken herself away from London to work as a maid at the sumptuous house of Adelphi. But it is not long before she finds herself out of her depth. And the consequences of her choices will lead to a shocking discovery that will change the course of the three orphans lives forever. 

My thoughts:

I finished this one really quickly, it was sweet and even tad suspenseful at the end. Just a tiny bit ;) I just wanted to know what would happen to them all, if they would be ok.

Hilda, Flora and Will are best friends as they grew up at the same orphanage. Flora is the responsible one (I liked her), and she works as a nurse, without the degree. Will wants to join the army as this is 1914. And Flora wants a new position, she wants to become something more than a lowly maid. Will we do not see much of as he is at war and sends letters. Flora is the main character and I wanted the best for her. While Flora, oh she was a silly girl, you know she is gonna get into trouble somehow. We get to follow her road too.

The book takes place during the war, years go by, they grow up, get intro trouble, fall in love and there is happiness at the end. I liked that. Even if I also knew that their children, if they have any, will end up fighting in a war too.

Like I said, the last 200 pages just flew by cos I could not put it down. I needed to know that everyone would ...well survive the war of course! And that someone would at least find some sort of happiness.

Conclusion:

Sweet, without any silly drama. A tale of friendship in the shadow of war.

Paperback, 448 pages
Published October 23rd 2014 by Simon & Schuster Ltd
Historical Fiction
For review