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Book Mail: When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel by Chris Pine

Goodreads Blurb

From blockbuster movie-star actor Chris Pine comes his very first children’s book about a delightful duo destined to become a classic.Digz the Dog is certain that he is the king of Ms. Pincher’s garden. There’s just one problem . . . Zurl the Squirrel is positive that she is the queen of Ms. Pincher’s Garden. As a dog and a squirrel, the two are natural enemies.But there’s more to Digz and Zurl than meets the eye. Digz was once a lonely dog left at the pound. And Zurl has her fair share of insecurities too. When the two come face-to-face in a showdown, they realize. . . they might not be so different.Beloved actor Chris Pine has penned a beautiful picture book about love and accepting one another despite our differences. With gorgeous and timeless illustrations from Chuck Groenink, When Digz the Dog Met Zurl the Squirrel is sure to become a classic read for years to come.

Author Biography

Christopher Whitelaw Pine is an American actor. He is best known for his roles as James T. Kirk in the Star Trek reboot film series (2009–2016) and Steve Trevor in the DC Extended Universe films Wonder Woman (2017) and Wonder Woman 1984.
Pine first rose to prominence for his roles in the romantic comedies The Princess Diaries 2 (2004) and Just My Luck (2006). His roles also include Bo Barrett in Bottle Shock (2008) Cinderella’s Prince in Into the Woods (2014); Jack Ryan in Jack Ryan: Shadow Recruit (2014); Bernie Webber in The Finest Hours (2016); and Robert the Bruce in Outlaw King (2018). He has also starred in Unstoppable (2010), Rise of the Guardians (2012), Hell or High Water (2016), Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023), and Wish (2023). Pine made his directorial debut with Poolman (2023).

Review coming soon.

Book Mail: Dinner For Vampires: Life on a Cult TV Show by Bethany Joy Lenz

Goodreads Blurb

In the early 2000s, after years of hard work and determination to breakthrough as an actor, Bethany Joy Lenz was finally cast as one of the leads on the hit drama One Tree Hill. Her career was about to take off, but her personal life was slowly beginning to unravel. What none of the show’s millions of fans knew, hidden even from her costars, was her secret double life in a cult.

An only child who often had to fend for herself and always wanted a place to belong, Lenz found the safe haven she’d been searching for in a Bible study group with other Hollywood creatives. However, the group soon morphed into something more sinister—a slowly woven web of manipulation, abuse, and fear under the guise of a church covenant called The Big House Family. Piece by piece, Lenz began to give away her autonomy, ultimately relocating to the Family’s Pacific Northwest compound, overseen by a domineering minister who would convince Lenz to marry one of his sons and steadily drained millions of her TV income without her knowledge. Family “minders” assigned to her on set, “Maoist struggle session”–inspired meetings in the basement of a filthy house, and regular counseling with “Leadership” were just part of the tactics used to keep her loyal.

Only when she became a mother did Lenz find the courage to leave and spare her child from a similar fate. After nearly a decade (and with the unlikely help of a One Tree Hill superfan), she finally managed to escape the family’s grip and begin to heal from the deep trauma that forever altered her relationship with God and her understanding of faith. Written with powerful honesty and dark humor, Dinner for Vampires is an inspiring story about the importance of identity and understanding what you believe.

Upcoming Book Event With Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb

I’m so excited about this novel. It’s based on Queen Elizabeth II, which I admired. I love a royal Christmas story

Goodreads Blurb

’Tis the season! The Crown meets When Harry Met Sally and Bridget Jones’s Diary, in the latest heartwarming historical novel from Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb, bestselling authors of Meet Me in Monaco and Three Words for Goodbye.

December 1952. While the young Queen Elizabeth II finds her feet as the new monarch, she must also find the right words to continue in the tradition of her late father and grandfather’s beloved Christmas Day radio broadcast. But even traditions must move with the times, and the Queen faces a postwar Britain hungry for change.

As preparations begin for the royal Christmas at Sandringham House in Norfolk, two old friends—Jack Devereux and Olive Carter—find themselves reunited for the festivities. A single mother, typist at the BBC, and aspiring reporter, Olive leaps at the opportunity to cover the holiday celebration, despite self-doubts. When a chance encounter with the Queen presents an exciting opportunity, Olive begins to believe her luck might change.

Jack, a grief-stricken widowed chef originally from New Orleans, accepts a last-minute chance to cook in the royal kitchens at Sandringham. When he bumps into a long-lost friend, an old spark is reignited.

Despite personal and professional heartache, Jack and Olive’s paths continue to cross over the following five Christmas seasons and they find themselves growing ever closer. Yet Olive carries the burden of a heavy secret.

Christmas Day, December 1957. As the nation eagerly awaits the Queen’s first televised Christmas speech, Olive decides to reveal the shocking truth of her secret, which threatens to tear her and Jack apart forever. Unless Christmas has one last gift to deliver…

Author Biography

Hazel Gaynor is an award-winning New York Times, USA Today, Globe and Mail and Irish Times bestselling author known for her deeply moving historical novels which explore the defining events of the 20th century.

Her Titanic inspired debut, The Girl Who Came Home, won the 2015 RNA Historical Novel award, and her work has since been shortlisted for the 2019 HWA Gold Crown and for the Irish Book Awards in 2017, 2020 and 2023.

Her latest novel, The Last Lifeboat, was included as a Times of London historical novel of the month pick in June 2023, was shortlisted for the 2023 Irish Book Awards, and received the 2024 Audie Award for Best Fiction Narrator.

Hazel’s co-written historical novels with Heather Webb have all been published to critical acclaim, winning or being shortlisted for several international awards. Their latest collaboration, Christmas With the Queen, will be published in November 2024.

Hazel’s work is translated into twenty languages and is published in twenty-seven territories to date. She lives in Ireland with her family.

For more information, visit http://www.hazelgaynor.com
where you can also sign up for her newsletter.

Review: The Doctor, His Wife and the Clock by Anna Katharine Green

Goodreads Blurb

There is a murder; a blind physician confesses himself the murderer, and to prove that he could shoot a man through the heart offers to hit a small clock placed at a suitable distance, guided only by the sound it makes in striking. The ending is horrible enough to suit even the boy in German folklore who complained that he could not shudder.

My Review: Rated 4 out 5 stars

A mystery filled with guilt, love, and anger that led to a death. I loved that the story was told by the detective who went to the murder scene at the beginning and solved the mystery. True love can lead to horrible tragedies. I was happy to read this book as a first edition novel.

Author Biography

Anna Katharine Green (1846-1935) was an American poet and novelist. She was one of the first writers of detective fiction in America and distinguished herself by writing well plotted, legally accurate stories. Born in Brooklyn, New York, her early ambition was to write romantic verse, and she corresponded with Ralph Waldo Emerson. When her poetry failed to gain recognition, she produced her first and best known novel, The Leavenworth Case (1878). She became a bestselling author, eventually publishing about 40 books. She was in some ways a progressive woman for her time-succeeding in a genre dominated by male writers-but she did not approve of many of her feminist contemporaries, and she was opposed to women’s suffrage. Her other works include A Strange Disappearance (1880), The Affair Next Door (1897), The Circular Study (1902), The Filigree Ball (1903), The Millionaire Baby (1905), The House in the Mist (1905), The Woman in the Alcove (1906), The House of the Whispering Pines (1910), Initials Only (1912), and The Mystery of the Hasty Arrow (1917).

Cover Reveal: A Prayer Before Killing by CC Gilmartin

A Prayer Before Killing by CC Gilmartin (The Colin Buxton series; Book 3) 

Cover Reveal: 17th October

Genre: Crime/ Mystery

Blurb 

An exclusive Catholic boys’ school…the death of a young nun…a potential cover-up

When Colin Buxton arrives in Glasgow to care for his gravely ill mother, he’s drawn into a perplexing mystery: how a bangle that once belonged to a murdered nun has inexplicably appeared on the wrist of a statue of the Virgin Mary. With a priest having been convicted of the crime, could someone be trying to signal that justice wasn’t served?

As Colin delves deeper, he uncovers a group of teenage boys whose unsettling connection to the young nun raises troubling questions about the original investigation. And then there’s the school itself, whose dubious past may be concealing the truth. What secrets is the Catholic church hiding, and how far will they go to protect their own?

In A Prayer Before Killing, the third gripping novel in CC Gilmartin’s Colin Buxton Series, dark truths emerge as Colin navigates a web of deception and betrayal, challenging everything he thought he knew about faith, loyalty, and justice.

Perfect for fans of JM Dalgliesh, LJ Ross, Simon McCleave and Rachel McLean.

Author bio 

We’re Chris Deans and Colin Thomas Begg, the bestselling writing duo behind the pen name CC Gilmartin.

Scots born, we’ve lived in London, Sydney, Berlin, and Barcelona, but now call Glasgow home. With diverse backgrounds, we’ve come together to share our passion for crime fiction and suspense. The stories we create have dark secrets at their heart. Love, denial and betrayal drive, and sometimes destroy, our characters. We’re also inspired by the Scottish landscape and the great cities we’ve been lucky enough to live in.

Want to know more about our books? Join the CC Gilmartin Readers Club at https://www.ccgilmartin.com/book-club and receive a FREE Colin Buxton story, plus regular updates on our writing and travels.

Pre-order Links

Cover Reveal & Giveaway: Grieving Graves by M.H.B

BOOK DETAILS:

Grieving Graves
by M.H.B.
Publication date: October 17, 2024
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Synopsis:

One grave.
Two futures.
Almost three years of grief.
Four beating hearts healing from pain.
Five lives forever tied.

I never thought this would be my life.

And falling for my boss, Damon Dreygon, was never part of the plan.

I was meant to seek from him what my boyfriend, Harvey Stark, refused to give me—someone to kiss me, someone to touch me and maybe even someone to heal my wounds.

Instead in Damon, I found a mentor. I found an enigmatic dark prince. Most importantly, I found my voice coupled with my own strength.

This was never supposed to hurt Harvey.
Damon and I were never meant to be together.

With each choice, an entirely different future greets me, yet a few things remain the same: we’ve all known pain, we’re all in need of healing and we’ve all hurt each other in different ways.

All I wanted was for this melancholy to disappear so that I could find peace.

But peace is hard to reach when you’re too busy chasing secrets.

Secrets I wish would’ve stayed buried.
Secrets that meddle with my dreams.
Secrets I’ll be taking to the grave . . .

Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/218346080-grieving-graves

Purchase: https://amzn.to/3Yqb8uG

AUTHOR BIO:

M . H . B . graduated law from a Canadian University. She loves spending time with her partner and her dog. She has a passion for animals and loves the simple things in life: chocolate, music, books, sunny days, and overall wellness. When she is not writing, her mind is in another world with a book in hand. 

Author links:

https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/18387897.M_H_B_

https://mhbmhb.wixsite.com/books

https://www.instagram.com/mhb.author/

https://www.facebook.com/authormhb

Giveaway: https://www.rafflecopter.com/rafl/display/d04251235842/

Book Mail: Trick or Treat on Scary Street by Lance Bass

Goodreads Blurb

Come one.

Come all.

Come follow thirteen trick-or-treaters down Scary Street. Dare to stop at the vampire’s lair? Tempted to take a bite of the witch’s delight? How about a peek inside a ghostly haunt? Who will make it to the end. . . and what last trick (or treat) awaits?

Celebrate the thrills and chills of the season with this unforgettable trip down Scary Street!

Author Biography

James Lance Bass, best known as Lance Bass, is an American pop singer, actor, film and television producer, and author. He grew up in Mississippi and rose to fame as the bass singer for the American pop boy band ‘N Sync. ‘N Sync’s success led Bass to work in film and television. He starred in the 2001 film On the Line, which his company, Bacon & Eggs, also produced. Bass later formed a second production company, Lance Bass Productions, as well as a now-defunct music management company, Free Lance Entertainment, a joint venture with Mercury Records.

After completion of ‘N Sync’s Pop Odyssey Tour, Bass moved to Star City, Russia in much publicized pursuit of a seat on a Soyuz space capsule. Bass was certified by both NASA and the Russian Space Program after several months of cosmonaut training, and planned to join the TMA-1 mission to the International Space Station. However, after his financial sponsors backed out, Bass was denied a seat on the mission.

In July 2006, Bass revealed that he is gay in a cover story for People magazine. He was awarded the Human Rights Campaign Visibility Award in October 2006, and released an autobiography, Out of Sync, in October 2007, which debuted on the New York Times Best Seller list.

Bass was a contestant on Season 7 of Dancing with the Stars, and was paired with swing dance champ Lacey Schwimmer. He ended up with the third position in the show, following first runner-up Warren Sapp and winner Brooke Burke.

Review: Juno Valentine and the  Magical Shoes by Eva Chen

Goodreads Blurb

Juno Valentine’s favorite shoes don’t light up. They don’t have wheels. They are, to be perfectly honest, the tiniest bit boring. But they’re still her favorite muddy-puddle-jumping, everyday-is-an-adventure shoes. One day, when they go missing, Juno discovers something amazing: a magical room filled with every kind of shoe she could possibly imagine!

Juno embarks on an epic journey through time and space, stepping into the shoes of female icons from Frida Kahlo and Cleopatra to Lady Gaga and Serena Williams. Each pair of shoes Juno tries brings a brand new adventure–and a step towards understanding that her very own shoes might be the best shoes of all.

Parents and children alike will adore Instagram superstar Eva Chen’s precocious debut picture book–a story that’s equal parts fashion fairy-tale and guide to girl power–and fall in love with the brilliantly spirited Juno Valentine.

My Review: Rated 4 out of 5 stars

Another fabulous adventure in the magical close. This time, Juno is looking for her favorite shoes. They were plain and not exaggerated like her friends. She ended up in a closet full of shoes, I wish that happened to me. I’m such a shoe lover for life. As she went through her adventure, she was able to try on fabulous shoes from iconic women in history. Juno had fun playing dress up. After her adventure she found her shoes and saw that they were a little boring. She used a little splash of all the shoes she tried on and made her shoes sparkly. I loved the illustrations and the guide to groundbreaking women shoes. It describes who each woman was that Juno resembled when trying on the shoes. Fun book for all those fashion lovers.