Cover Reveal: Moments Like This by Kristoffer Polaha and Anna Gomez

BOOK DETAILS:
Moments Like This (From Kona With Love)
by Anna Gomez & Kristoffer Polaha
Published by: Rosewind Books
Publication date: March 9th 2021
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

After Andrea “Andie” Matthews chooses her career over a marriage proposal and then loses a promotion she worked so hard for, she jumps at the chance to take a break and help run a friend’s coffee shop.

Alone in Hawaii, Andie befriends the staff and quickly grows to care for them, making her determined to revive the company.

As luck would have it, she meets the mysterious Warren Yates on Christmas Eve. They share a cup of coffee, some conversation, and even a moment, which leads to many more in the coming weeks.

But when Andie learns who Warren really is—and what he actually wants—she is torn between her feelings and his deception.

Will Warren be able to win her heart back?

http://fromkonawithlove.com/

Goodreadshttps://www.goodreads.com/book/show/53872701-moments-like-this
Pre-order:Amazon: https://amzn.to/3iMqenI

B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/moments-like-this-anna-gomez/1137810281?ean=9781645480457

Author Biography

Kristoffer Polaha is best-known for his long starring role in the critically acclaimed series Life Unexpected (The CW). Other TV series credits include Get Shorty with Ray Romano and Chris O’Dowd, the limited series Condor opposite William Hurt and Max Irons, The CW’s Ringer (Sarah Michelle Gellar) and Valentine, as well as North Shore (FOX).

In addition to co-starring with Rainn Wilson in Backstrom (FOX), he had a multi-season role on the acclaimed series Mad Men (AMC) and Castle (ABC). Polaha is also well-known for starring in Hallmark Channel movies such as Dater’s Handbook with Meghan Markle, and the Mystery 101 franchise on Hallmark Movies & Mysteries.

Polaha first received attention for his portrayal of John F. Kennedy, Jr. in the TV movie, America’s Prince: The John F. Kennedy Jr. Story, opposite Portia de Rossi. He has appeared in numerous independent features, including Where Hope Grows, Devil’s Knot (Colin Firth, Reese Witherspoon), and the Tim Tebow film, Run the Race.

Polaha has a featured role opposite Gal Gadot in Wonder Woman 1984 and in Jurassic World: Dominion.

In addition to his work as an actor, producer, and director, Polaha is branching into the book world by co-authoring a new series. He is also involved with several charitable organizations, including being an ambassador for World Vision, a board member for HerArtsInAction, and The Polaha Family Circus Foundation.

Polaha was born in Reno, Nevada, and he is married to actress Julianne Morris. They have three sons.

Anna Gomez was born in the city of Makati, Philippines and educated abroad. She met and married her best friend who whisked her away to Chicago over twenty years ago. She is Chief Financial Officer for Leo Burnett Worldwide, a global advertising company founded in 1935. In her capacity, Anna serves on the board of several not-for-profit organizations, namely the Hugh O’Brien Leadership Organization and Girl Scouts of America. She is also the executive sponsor for a number of employee resource groups focused on Diversity and Inclusion.

Under the pen name Christine Brae, Anna has published six novels, has an established fan base, and a dedicated following. Her titles rank in the Top 100 months following their release. Her last three novels, In This Life, Eight Goodbyes, and The Year I Left, have won literary awards and were immediate bestsellers on Amazon, ranking #1 across multiple categories.

Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5B0jyqCAwI&feature=youtu.be. Credit to Becca Manuel from Bibliophile Productions for the trailer.

Cover Reveal: Her Perfect Life by Hank Phillippi Ryan

SURPRISE BOOK REVEAL — just look at that cover!!
HER PERFECT LIFE by @hankpryan hits shelves Sept. 14 and I cannot wait — her twisty, page-turning thrillers are amazing.
Here’s the scoop:Everyone knows Lily Atwood—and that may be her biggest problem. The beloved television reporter has it all — fame, fortune, Emmy awards, an adorable seven-year-old daughter, and the hashtag her loving fans created: #PerfectLily. To keep it — all she has to do is protect one life-changing secret.
Her own.
Lily has an anonymous source who feeds her story tips about others—but suddenly, the source begins telling Lily inside information about her own life! How does he—or she—know so much?  Lily understands that no one reveals a secret unless they have a reason. Now she’s terrified someone is determined to destroy her world—and with it, everyone and everything she holds dear.
 How much must she risk to keep her perfect life?
 Ah! It’s got me guessing already! How about you? Ready to read? It’s available for pre-order right now. Follow @hankpryan  & go to her bio for the link.
@forgereads #herperfectlife  #catandmouse #authorsofinstagram #bookstagram #readersofinstagram #thriller #suspense #mysteryreader #psychologicalsuspense #hankphillippiryan #newbook #revealparty #coverreveal #tbr #goodreads #mustread

Cover Reveal: Wallflower by Cookie O’Gorman

BOOK DETAILS:
Wallflower
by Cookie O’Gorman
Publication date: March 25th 2021
Genres: Romance, Young Adult

Synopsis:

Wallflower (wohl-flou-erh): Identifier for someone who is shy and/or awkward. For reference, see Viola Kent.

Seventeen-year-old Viola Kent likes being invisible. Well, not literally, but she’s content being a loner, reading her books, and hanging out with the animals at the shelter. She just wants to keep her head down and get through her senior year at Durham High.

Driving Dare Frost to school every day wasn’t part of the plan.

And when Viola finds out her dad recruited Dare, his number one player, to be her friend?

Her inner Slytherin demands revenge.

The solution: Get Dare to be her fake boyfriend.

Convincing the star athlete to pretend is easier than she’d thought it would be. The hard part is protecting her heart. With every word, touch, and kiss, Viola’s feelings become more real.

The problem: Viola knows she’s falling for Dare—but he doesn’t believe in love.

This book features two sets of soulmates, one happy pooch named Hermione, so many sizzling kisses and answers the question:

Can a dork and a jock fake their way to true love?

Author Biography

Cookie O’Gorman writes YA & NA romance to give readers a taste of happily-ever-after. Small towns, quirky characters, and the awkward yet beautiful moments in life make up her books. Cookie also has a soft spot for nerds and ninjas. Her novels ADORKABLE, NINJA GIRL, The Unbelievable, Inconceivable, Unforeseeable Truth About Ethan Wilder, and The Good Girl’s Guide to Being Bad are out now!  She is also the author of NA sports romance, The Best Mistake.

Author Links

http://cookieogorman.com/

https://twitter.com/CookieOwrites

https://www.facebook.com/cookieogorman

https://www.bookbub.com/profile/cookie-o-gorman

https://www.instagram.com/cookieogorman/

https://mailchi.mp/bdb1d9c56ae7/the-cookie-jar

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/14924267.Cookie_O_Gorman

Book Mail: Master of the Revels (D.O.D.O #2) by Nicole Galland

In this brilliant sequel to The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O.—an enthralling, history-bending adventure traversing time and space, fact and fiction, magic and science co-written with #1 New York Times bestselling author Neal Stephenson—a daring young time traveler must return to Jacobean England to save the modern world.

This fast-paced sequel to the New York Times bestselling near-future adventure The Rise and Fall of D.O.D.O. picks up where the original left off, as Tristan Lyons, Mel Stokes, and their fellow outcasts from the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) fight to stop the powerful Irish witch Gráinne from using time travel to reverse the evolution of all modern technology. 

Chief amongst Gráinne’s plots: to encrypt cataclysmic spells into Shakespeare’s “cursed” play, Macbeth. When her fellow rogue agents fall victim to Gráinne’s schemes, Melisande Stokes is forced to send Tristan’s untested, wayward sister Robin back in time to 1606 London, where Edmund Tilney, the king’s Master of Revels, controls all staged performances in London.

And now Gráinne controls Tilney. 

While Robin poses as an apprentice in Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre, Mel travels to the ancient Roman Empire and, with the help of double-agent Chira in Renaissance Florence, untangles the knotted threads of history while the diabolical Gráinne jumps from timeline to timeline, always staying frustratingly one stop ahead—or is it behind?

Historical objects disappear, cities literally rise and fall, and nothing less than the fate of humanity is at stake. As Gráinne sows chaos across time and space, the ragtag team of ex-D.O.D.O. agents must fix the past—in order to save the future.

Critically acclaimed author Nicole Galland brings her deep knowledge of history and signature wit to this gripping romantic adventure.

Virtual Event: Gina Apostol (The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata) with Elaine Castillo

Event is being hosted by Liberati Bookstore.

The first-ever US publication of Gina Apostol’s Philippine National Book Award–winning novel.

Raymundo Mata is a nightblind bookworm and a revolutionary in the Philippine war against Spain in 1896. Told in the form of a memoir, the novel traces Mata’s childhood, his education in Manila, his love affairs, and his discovery of the books of the man who becomes the nation’s great hero José Rizal (Rizal, in real life, is executed by the Spaniards for writing two great novels that spark revolution—the Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo. At the time Rizal died, he was working on a third novel, Makamisa).

Raymundo Mata’s autobiography, however, is de-centered by another story: that of the development of the book. In the foreword(s), afterword(s), and footnotes, we see the translator Mimi C. Magsalin (a pseudonym), the rabid nationalist editor Estrella Espejo, and the neo-Freudian psychoanalyst critic Dr. Diwata Drake make multiple readings of the Mata manuscript. Inevitably, clashes between these readings occur throughout the novel, and in the end the reader is on a wild chase to answer enduring questions: Does the manuscript contain Makamisa or is it Makamisa? Are the journals an elaborate hoax? And who is the perpetrator of the textual crime?

In this story about the love of books, the story of a nation emerges. But what is a nation? What The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata imagines is that through acts of reading, a nation is born.

Gina Apostol’s third book, Gun Dealers’ Daughter, won the 2013 PEN/Open Book Award and was shortlisted for the William Saroyan International Prize. Her first two novels, Bibliolepsy and The Revolution According to Raymundo Mata, both won the Juan Laya Prize for the Novel (Philippine National Book Award). She was writer-in-residence at Phillips Exeter Academy and a fellow at Civitella Ranieri in Umbria, Italy, among other fellowships. Her essays and stories have appeared in The New York TimesLos Angeles Review of BooksForeign PolicyGettysburg ReviewMassachusetts Review, and others. She lives in New York City and western Massachusetts and grew up in Tacloban, Philippines. She teaches at the Fieldston School in New York City.Elaine Castillo was born in the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a graduate of the University of California, Berkeley. America Is Not the Heart is her first novel.

Event date: Friday, January 29, 2021 – 7:00pm

Link to Event: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87977440729?pwd=S2VobHhGd1k1VmkwQmZUR29CRUVVZz09#success

Kwei Quartey in Conversation with Michael Connelly, January 25th

Kwei Quartey. Sleep Well My Lady (Soho Press, $27.95 Signed). In the follow-up to the acclaimed series debut The Missing American, PI Emma Djan investigates the death of a Ghanaian fashion icon and social media celebrity, Lady Araba.

Hard-hitting talk show host Augustus Seeza has become a household name in Ghana, though notorious for his lavish overspending, alcoholism, and womanizing. He’s dating the imposing, beautiful Lady Araba, who leads a selfmade fashion empire. Fearing Augustus is only after her money, Araba’s religious family intervenes to break them up. A few days later, just before a major runway show, Araba is found murdered in her bed. Her driver is arrested after a hasty investigation, but Araba’s favorite aunt, Dele, suspects Augustus Seeza was the real killer.

Almost a year later, Dele approaches Emma Djan, who has finally started to settle in as the only female PI at her agency. To solve Lady Araba’s murder, Emma must not only go on an undercover mission that dredges up trauma from her past, but navigate a long list of suspects with strong motives. Emma quickly discovers that they are all willing to lie for each other—and that one may still be willing to kill.

Based in Pasadena, California, Kwei Jones Quartey, M.D. is a writer of African crime fiction. He practiced medicine for more than 20 years while simultaneously working as a writer, balancing the two careers by writing early mornings before clinic. However, in 2018, he made the decision to retire from medicine to write full time.

The son of a Black American mother and Ghanaian father, Dr. Quartey is a Ghanaian-American writer who grew up in both Ghana and the United States. His passion is to promote African American writers, African literature, African bestseller fiction, and African mystery writers.

Dr. Quartey feels that African mysteries (sometimes called “Sunshine Noir”) deserve a seat at the table of international thrillers and mysteries. His novels are the only contemporary West African mystery series issued by major international publishers such as Penguin-Random House and Soho Press in the United States, and Allison & Busby in the United Kingdom.

Michael Connelly was born in Philadelphia, PA on July 21, 1956. He moved to Florida with his family when he was 12 years old. Michael decided to become a writer after discovering the books of Raymond Chandler while attending the University of Florida. Once he decided on this direction he chose a major in journalism and a minor in creative writing — a curriculum in which one of his teachers was novelist Harry Crews.

After graduating in 1980, Connelly worked at newspapers in Daytona Beach and Fort Lauderdale, Florida, primarily specializing in the crime beat.  In Fort Lauderdale he wrote about police and crime during the height of the murder and violence wave that rolled over South Florida during the so-called cocaine wars. In 1986, he and two other reporters spent several months interviewing survivors of a major airline crash. They wrote a magazine story on the crash and the survivors which was later short-listed for the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. The magazine story also moved Connelly into the upper levels of journalism, landing him a job as a crime reporter for the Los Angeles Times, one of the largest papers in the country, and bringing him to the city of which his literary hero, Chandler, had written.

Michael is the bestselling author of thirty-five novels and one work of non-fiction. With over eighty million copies of his books sold worldwide and translated into forty foreign languages, he is one of the most successful writers working today. His very first novel, The Black Echo, won the prestigious Mystery Writers of America Edgar Award for Best First Novel in 1992. In 2002, Clint Eastwood directed and starred in the movie adaptation of Connelly’s 1998 novel, Blood Work. In March 2011, the movie adaptation of his #1 bestselling novel, The Lincoln Lawyer, hit theaters worldwide starring Matthew McConaughey as Mickey Haller. His most recent #1 New York Times bestsellers include Dark Sacred Night, Two Kinds Of TruthThe Late Show, The Wrong Side Of GoodbyeThe CrossingThe Burning RoomThe Gods of Guilt, and The Black Box. Michael’s crime fiction career was honored with the Diamond Dagger from the CWA in 2018.

Michael is the executive producer of Bosch, an Amazon Studios original drama series based on his bestselling character Harry Bosch, starring Titus Welliver. Bosch streams on Amazon Prime Video. He is the creator and host of the podcast Murder Book. He is also the executive producer of the documentary films, Sound Of Redemption: The Frank Morgan Story and Tales of the AmericanHe spends his time in California and Florida.

Event Details:

January 25, 2021

7:00pm-8:00pm

FB Live https://www.facebook.com/thepoisonedpenbookstore/live

Review: The Turtle of Oman by Naomi Shihab Nye

Goodreads Blurb

Aref Al-Amri does not want to leave Oman. He does not want to leave his elementary school, his friends, or his beloved grandfather, Siddi. He does not want to live in Ann Arbor, Michigan, where his parents will go to graduate school. His mother is desperate for him to pack his suitcase—but he refuses. Finally, she calls Siddi for help. But rather than pack, Aref and Siddi go on a series of adventures. They visit the camp of a thousand stars deep in the desert, they sleep on Siddi’s roof, they fish in the Gulf of Oman and dream about going to India, they travel to the nature reserve to watch the sea turtles. At each stop, Siddi finds a small stone that he later slips into Aref’s suitcase—mementos of home.

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

I loved the plot and that the story kept unraveling. Hoping that there will be another book that will show me some amazing adventures in Michigan. I really enjoy Aref’s adventure with his grandfather. I don’t think that I would have volunteered to camp out at a desert. I would freak out. The thought of getting lost and just seeing sand everywhere is very scary. It’s hard to move to another state or country not knowing what awaits you. It’s even harder traveling to another country and being foreign to the language. My parents came from Puerto Rico not knowing any English and it was very difficult for them. I loved the adventures with the Turtles, looking forward to seeing more of them. Aref is a smart boy who wishes that he didn’t have to go to America but instead wished to go to India. Home is where ever your family is. Overall it was hard to put the book down because I wanted to unravel the next adventure.

Author Biography

Naomi Shihab Nye was born to a Palestinian father and an American mother. During her high school years, she lived in Ramallah in Jordan, the Old City in Jerusalem, and San Antonio, Texas, where she later received her B.A. in English and world religions from Trinity University. She is a novelist, poet and songwriter.

She currently lives in San Antonio, Texas. She was elected a Chancellor of the Academy of American Poets in 2010.

Author Alex Michaelides: Has a New Book Coming Soon

Thank you so much #celadonreads @celadonbooks
I love the thrillers you publish. If you haven’t read The Silent Patient, then you are missing out. It was my favorite book in 2019 and I recommend it all the time. I can’t wait to read the Maidens. I am sure it will be amazing. @alex.michaelides #thesilentpatient #themaidens #alexmichaelides

I received this post card inviting me to join The Maidens. I am so excited for this book.

So excited to be a Celadon Reader.

Review: Trick or Trap by R.L. Stine

Scott Harmon would be the kid who is most afraid of everything at his school. That is, if it wasn’t for his best friend, Amanda Gold, who is just as easily terrified. They really don’t have it easy. Scott’s younger sister spends all of her time trying to frighten them. She’ll do whatever it takes to get them to scream.

Scott and Amanda are also tormented by some neighborhood kids. But this Halloween, Scott and Amanda are determined to get over their fears, even if that means spending time in the creepy old house that everyone else says is haunted. And if Scott and Amanda can stop being so afraid, maybe they can even finally get some revenge…

My Review: Rated 5 out of 5 stars

Wow, I was frightened with this story. I’m an adult reading this book and I will surely have nightmares tonight. R.L. Stine really knows how to spook his readers. The ending was unexpected. I was glad that the bullies got the scare of their life. Makes me want to read more of the goosebumps series. I have to remember no creepy cemeteries or spooky houses, especially at night.

Author Biography

Robert Lawrence Stine known as R. L. Stine and Jovial Bob Stine, is an American novelist and writer, well known for targeting younger audiences. Stine, who is often called the Stephen King of children’s literature, is the author of dozens of popular horror fiction novellas, including the books in the Goosebumps, Rotten School, Mostly Ghostly, The Nightmare Room and Fear Street series.

R. L. Stine began his writing career when he was nine years old, and today he has achieved the position of the bestselling children’s author in history. In the early 1990s, Stine was catapulted to fame when he wrote the unprecedented, bestselling Goosebumps® series, which sold more than 250 million copies and became a worldwide multimedia phenomenon. His other major series, Fear Street, has over 80 million copies sold.

Stine has received numerous awards of recognition, including several Nickelodeon Kids’ Choice Awards and Disney Adventures Kids’ Choice Awards, and he has been selected by kids as one of their favorite authors in the NEA’s Read Across America program. He lives in New York, NY.