Chasing Harry Winston by Jennifer Weiner

The bestselling author of The Devil Wears Prada and Everyone Worth Knowing returns with the story of three best friends who vow to change their entire lives...and change them fast.
Emmy is newly single, and not by choice. She was this close to the ring and the baby she's wanted her whole life when her boyfriend left her for his twenty-three-year-old personal trainer -- whose fees are paid by Emmy. With her plans for the perfect white wedding in the trash, Emmy is now ordering takeout for one. Her friends insist an around-the-world sex-fueled adventure will solve all her problems -- could they be right?
Leigh, a young star in the publishing business, is within striking distance of landing her dream job as senior editor and marrying her dream guy. And to top it all off, she has just purchased her dream apartment. Only when Leigh begins to edit the enfant terrible of the literary world, the brilliant and brooding Jesse Chapman, does she start to notice some cracks in her perfect life...
Adriana is the drop-dead-gorgeous daughter of a famous supermodel. She possesses the kind of feminine wiles made only in Brazil, and she never hesitates to use them. But she's about to turn thirty and -- as her mother keeps reminding her -- she won't have her pick of the men forever. Everyone knows beauty is ephemeral and there's always someone younger and prettier right around the corner. Suddenly she's wondering...does Mother know best?
These three very different girls have been best friends for a decade in the greatest city on earth. As they near thirty, they're looking toward their future...but despite all they've earned -- first-class travel, career promotions, invites to all the right parties, and luxuries small and large -- they're not quite sure they like what they see...
One Saturday night at the Waverly Inn, Adriana and Emmy make a pact: within a single year, each will drastically change her life. Leigh watches from the sidelines, not making any promises, but she'll soon discover she has the most to lose. Their friendship is forever, but everything else is on the table. Three best friends. Two resolutions. One year to pull it off.

my thoughts:

This book was good. It wasn't great, fantastic or "OMG! I'm so glad I read it". It was good. I liked Emmy, Adriana & Leigh, but what I disliked most was the way the story would be flowing along...and then switch to a completely different storyline! I caught myself, several times, muttering "no, no! go back! I want to hear what (blank) did (or said) etc. The book kept my attention, it was (thankfully) a quick read and parts of it were oh so funny. Will I read this again? Probably not. But, hey, that just me!

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

And the winners for "The Imposter's Daughter" are:

ChristyJan

Carlene

Darcy

Budletsmom

Amanda

Check your email! I need your home address within 48 hours!

Congratulations!

Best Friends Forever by Jennifer Weiner

Some bonds can never be broken...
Addie Downs and Valerie Adler will be best friends forever. That's what Addie believes after Valerie moves across the street when they're both nine years old. But in the wake of betrayal during their teenage years, Val is swept into the popular crowd, while mousy, sullen Addie becomes her school's scapegoat.Flash-forward fifteen years. Valerie Adler has found a measure of fame and fortune working as the weathergirl at the local TV station. Addie Downs lives alone in her parents' house in their small hometown of Pleasant Ridge, Illinois, caring for a troubled brother and trying to meet Prince Charming on the Internet. She's just returned from Bad Date #6 when she opens her door to find her long-gone best friend standing there, a terrified look on her face and blood on the sleeve of her coat. "Something horrible has happened," Val tells Addie, "and you're the only one who can help."Best Friends Forever is a grand, hilarious, edge-of-your-seat adventure; a story about betrayal and loyalty, family history and small-town secrets. It's about living through tragedy, finding love where you least expect it, and the ties that keep best friends together.

my thoughts:
This was a great book about friendships that are just "meant" to be. Addie & Val had been friends since they were 9 and Val moved accross the street from Addie. Then something happens in high school (doesn't it always!) that breaks that friendship and Addie is once again left alone, hated by her classmates. 15 years later Val shows up at Addie's door, needing help and like a true friend, Addie was there for her.

I liked this book. It was a quick, easy read that I found to be heart warming. It was funny & authentic, I thought. It's alot like a true friendship. Addie & Val are sisters of the heart and you want everything to work out in the end.

Because I enjoyed this book so much, I'm going to give it to one lucky person! Leave me a comment telling me how long you and your best friend have been friends! The winner will still be chosen by random.org, but to be included, I need names & length of time!

Me & my best friend? Well Terese & I have been best friends since we were in the 3rd grade (and we're 40 now). We've had our ups & downs, just like any relationship would that's lasted about 30 years!

Please be aware: Whoever opened the box the book was originally in, cut it with a box knife. It's not bad, it is definately readable! But the cover is sliced and it goes through to part of the hard cover.

About the Contest:

Open to US & Canadian addresses.

No PO Boxes please.One winner will be chosen
Deadline is: midnight August 10
To win:

Leave a comment with your name & your best friends name

and how long you've been friends!

I will notify the winners by email & on my blog on

Please respond within 48 hours with your mailing information!

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

And the winners for "My Name Is Will" are:

{Pam -

NO EMAIL WAS LEFT you have 48 hours to email me your address}

Budletsmom

lovemycoffee

{Marjorie-

NO EMAIL WAS LEFT you have 48 hours to email me your address}

Searcher

The other winners: Check your email!

Congratulations!

Fairest of Them All by Jan Blazanin

If life were a fairy tale, Oribella Bettencourt would have a "happily ever after" kind of future ahead of her. A Hollywood producer has come to Des Moines in search of a perfectly modern Princess Rapunzel, and Ori -- a model, dancer, and star of the beauty pageant circuit -- lands the part. And why shouldn't she? With her hardworking, self-sacrifi cing mother guiding her career, Ori is stunning, dedicated, poised...and then there's her hair. Breathtakingly lustrous blond hair that sets her apart from all the other girls at school. So what if she doesn't have any friends her age, or anyone to talk to other than her mother? She's on the verge of having everything she's ever dreamed of.
But in this fairy tale, the beautiful princess wakes up to her worst nightmare -- when almost overnight, Ori begins to lose her hair....

my thoughts:

What do you do when your 15, you’ve just won the “Miss Crowning Glory” pageant, have multiple photo shoots scheduled and you get the part in your first movie and your hair starts to fall out? These things (and so much more) begin happening to Oribella in “Fairest Of Them All”. It turns out Oribella has Alopecia Areata and she (and her mother) must learn to cope with the results.

I really enjoyed “Fairest Of Them All”. It was a completely different book than any that I’ve read in a long while. I can not imagine the emotional struggle that a teenage girl (or guy) would go through at a time when everyone around you is so focused on looks. This book does an excellent job going through all of the emotions that you feel as you watch your hair come out a strand or two (sometimes a handful) at a time.

I think Oribella would be a great “fictional” role model for teenage girls just learning to live with alopecia.

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

And the winners for "Off Season" by Ann Rivers Siddons are:

commchick

Emma

Christy Jan

scottsgal

Belinda M

You should have an email waiting!

Thanks & congratulations!

100 Posts = Giveaway!

In honor of my 100th post, I am going to giveaway a few of my most favorite books that I've read & reviewed here on my blog.

Hollywood Is Like High School With Money by Zoey Dean

How Perfect Is That by Sarah Bird

Made In The U.S.A by Billie Letts

About the Contest:
Open to US & Canadian addresses. No PO Boxes please.
One winner will be chosen on August 13th.

Please see my new giveaway policy post HERE

Giveaway~ Dark Hunger by Rita Herron

Reporter Annabelle Armstrong will go to any lengths to deliver a story, even track down Quinton Valtrez, a man she believes is a coldhearted assassin. Yet the truth about the darkly sensual Quinton is even more shocking...and the overwhelming desire he ignites is one she vows to resist.Quinton has fought his demonic powers since he was a child. Now using his gifts for the good of national security, he can't let himself be distracted by the beautiful, determined Annabelle. But his need for her is sudden, fierce--and could soon cost Annabelle her life. For a wicked enemy is out for vengeance, a demon who wants to draw Quinton into a life of pure evil and is willing to use Annabelle as bait. To save her, Quinton must achieve the near impossible: tame the sinister force that is both his inheritance and his curse before it claims him forever.

About the Contest:
Open to US & Canadian addresses. No PO Boxes please.
Five winners will be chosen

Deadline is: midnight August 12th

Winners will also receive a bookmark from Hachette Book Group!

To win:
Leave a comment with your name & email address
For an added chance, be a follower!
I will notify the winners by leaving a comment here on August 13th
Please respond within 48 hours with your mailing information!

Julie & Julia by Julie Powell

Julie & Julia, the bestselling memoir that's "irresistible....A kind of Bridget Jones meets The French Chef" (Philadelphia Inquirer), is now a major motion picture. Julie Powell, nearing thirty and trapped in a dead-end secretarial job, resolves to reclaim her life by cooking in the span of a single year, every one of the 524 recipes in Julia Child's legendary Mastering the Art of French Cooking. Her unexpected reward: not just a newfound respect for calves' livers and aspic, but a new life-lived with gusto. The film version is written and directed by Nora Ephron and stars Amy Adams as Julie and Meryl Streep as Julia.

my thoughts:

I wish Julie Powell was my friend! She is incredibly funny and neurotic (enough so that she can make me look "normal")! As everyone pretty much knows by now, this book (soon to be a movie!) started as a blog, where Julie "steals" her moms "Mastering the Art of French Cooking" by Julia Child and decides she will make all the recipes (there's like 562?) in 1 year. The blog is her husbands idea (computer geek that he is)and as her following starts to grow, Julie feels more & more pressure to cook & post. One of the funniest parts was when she got to the section where she had to kill the lobster. I was ROTFLMAO! There is alot of cussing in this book, so if you are offended by curse words, this might not be the best choice for you. Does she quit cooking? Or does she succeed in making every recipes? Read it and find out!

Want to read this book?

Here's your chance!

I have a giveaway going on

until 07/29/09.

AND THE WINNERS ARE...

And the winners for the audiobook of "Swimsuit" by James Patterson & Maxine are:

etirv

Ginny

dag888888

I will be emailing you today, please respond back with

your mailing address within 48 hours!

Thanks!

My Guilty Pleasures Giveaway Rules...

I'm posting about my giveaway policy. I hope this makes it easier for you & me!

1. Beginning August 1, 2009. I will no longer be notifing the winners by email. I will close the comments and the last comment will include the name/names of the winners.
2. You must email me within 48 hours with your address. If you miss the deadline, I will have to draw another name.
3. All giveaways will end at midnight of the date listed.
4. Your first comment should be your name & email address (1 entry)
5. Your second comment should be that you are a follower (but only if you are!) (1 entry)
6. Your third comment, should you choose to do so, should be a link where you have posted about the giveaway (this will count for 2 entries)
7. Every giveaway will be for US & Canada only and can NOT be P.O. Boxes. Unless it states otherwise in that post.
8. I will only use random.org to pick the winners, unless I state otherwise.

Review & Giveaway for "I Can See You" by Karen Rose

Evie Wilson was the victim of the villain in DON'T TELL, an assault which resulted in paralysis on one side of her face. After her injury, Evie retreated into the virtual realm, seeking refuge from the public eye by interacting with online friends. Now, with the help of a surgeon, Evie's face is restored and she is ready to return to the real world. However, she remains connected to the Internet for her graduate thesis on using the virtual world as therapy to improve self-esteem. She has become an online shopkeeper who sells faces and bodies to users interested in building a new avatar on a website called "Shadowland." In her new role, Evie maintains "surveillance" over her test subjects to ensure they don't become too caught up in the intoxicating virtual realm.Meanwhile, homicide detective Noah Webster has been investigating a string of suspicious suicides that he believes are connected murders. Noah's investigation leads him to Evie when one of her online test subjects is found dead of apparent suicide, but Evie believes otherwise. Evie is shocked to find herself drawn to someone for the first time in many years and she's reluctant to trust Noah. However, he's the only one who believes her story about the suspicious death of her test subject, and he soon discovers that many of the apparent suicides in his case had avatars in "Shadowland." As murder victims connected to the website begin to appear more frequently, Noah asks Evie to be his virtual guide in the investigation. However, they don't realize that the killer is closer than they think--and that he holds a special grudge against Evie.

Visit Karens website: http://www.karenrosebooks.com/index.htm

my thoughts:

All though Eve was a victim in "Don't Tell", she is taking her life back. She's moved from Chicago, she's working on her thesis, she's working at Sal's bar (a cop hang out), she has friends. She's slowly taking her life back.

Noah is a cop with baggage of his own. Years ago, his wife & young son were killed in an auto accident while he was driving. After the accident, he sank to the bottom of the bottle and he's been fighting his way out.

I really enjoyed Eve & Noah. You know early on they both have enough baggage to make anyone take 10 steps back away from life, but slowly they are reclaiming their lives back. Neither one wants to drag the other into their trouble. You cheer them on, all the while whispering to yourself, be careful, be careful, be careful because you know the killer's going to get them. At first, I was wondering about fantasy games, like "Shadowland". By the time I finished the book, I thought "there is no way!". This was a good thriller, with just the right romantic touch!

Now for the good stuff!!

Thanks to Miriam at Hachette Book Group I have 5 copies of "I Can See You Now" to give away!

About the Contest:
Open to US & Canadian addresses. No PO Boxes please.
Deadline is: midnight, August 5th

To win:
Leave a comment with your name & email address
For an added chance, be a follower (please leave a separate comment)!
I will notify the winners by leaving a comment on this posting
Please respond within 48 hours with your mailing information!