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Editorial content for Driftwood Summer

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Terry Miller Shannon

Driftwood Cottage Bookstore, like so many independent bookstores these days, is in dire straits. Riley Sheffield and her mother, Kitsy, run the business together. In a last-ditch hope-filled attempt to save their beloved shop, they plan a week-long extravaganza of events such as a cooking demonstration by the cookbook club, a local author night, and a poetry night. The week will be capped off by "the biggest party Palmetto Beach has seen in two centuries." Read More

Teaser

Three sisters --- responsible Riley, vivacious Maisy, and fun-loving Adalee --- reunite to save the family’s beach-community bookstore. But summer also marks the return of Mack Logan, whose choice of Maisy over Riley years ago destroyed the special closeness between the sisters…

About the Book

An engaging novel of sisters, from the acclaimed author who “writes movingly about love and family and the voyage we all take to discover what we really value.” (The Island Packet)

Three sisters --- responsible Riley, vivacious Maisy, and fun-loving Adalee --- reunite to save the family’s beach-community bookstore. But summer also marks the return of Mack Logan, whose choice of Maisy over Riley years ago destroyed the special closeness between the sisters…

Now Riley, a single mom, is hiding a shattering secret about their mother. Maisy, a California designer, still blames Riley for ruining her one true love. And Adalee resents the family’s intrusion into her summer plans. All three will be forced to confront the conflicts that tore them apart and the bounds of love and loyalty that still draw them together…

Editorial content for The Compass

Teaser

THE COMPASS is a life transformation novel that will guide you on a journey of self-discovery. At the core of THE COMPASS are specific lessons about belief systems and understanding who you really are in order to live out your destiny. Jonathan, the main character, escapes his suburban life after a tragedy that alters his plans for the future.

About the Book

What Will Move Your Compass?

THE COMPASS is a life transformation novel that will guide you on a journey of self-discovery. At the core of THE COMPASS are specific lessons about belief systems and understanding who you really are in order to live out your destiny. Jonathan, the main character, escapes his suburban life after a tragedy that alters his plans for the future.

Paralyzed by grief, he decides to journey across the globe in an effort to realign his inner compass. He sets off with a backpack leaving behind his career, friends, family, and home. His travels begin in the dry desert of Nevada, and continue on to the pristine mountains of the Adirondacks, and then to a medieval village in Romania. In each destination Jonathan encounters one pivotal person who offers a major life lesson, and he begins to realize that each individual was placed there for a reason.

THE COMPASS is a metaphor for the journey of our lives.

In the tradition of THE ALCHEMIST, THE COMPASS provides you with specific life lessons about authenticity, self-empowerment, and believing in your dreams. As humans we are all connected—by love, pain, and sometimes even by tragedies or events we cannot control. Each one of us travels a unique path, yet we are linked by experiences and emotions. In this connectedness, there is life.

Editorial content for Domestic Affairs

Reviewer (text)

Colleen Quinn

“We’ve always considered Rosalie and Abigail to be family,” said Gwen Merriweather of her housekeeper and her daughter. How kind those words sounded and how cruel they turned out to be when Gwen, sensing she has lost control of her husband and family, falsely accuses Rosalie of stealing and fires her. Young Abigail loses not just the only home she has ever had, but also her best friends, the twins Lila and Vaughn. She never forgives Lila for standing by and not protesting the charges she knows to be false.
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Teaser

From the New York Times bestselling author of WOMAN IN RED comes an intimate story of friendship lost and regained, old loves rekindled, and a baptism by fire that ultimately leads to the redemption of three very special women.

About the Book

From the New York Times bestselling author of WOMAN IN RED comes an intimate story of friendship lost and regained, old loves rekindled, and a baptism by fire that ultimately leads to the redemption of three very special women.

It begins with a betrayal that tears apart childhood friends, Abigail and Lila, when Abigail’s mother, the housekeeper for Lila’s wealthy family, is summarily banished, casting Abigail from the only home she has ever known. Now, twenty-five years later, Abigail is a self-made successful cookbook author and TV personality. When Lila, who married well and for decades lived the glittering life of a Park Avenue socialite, suffers a tragic reversal of fortune, she seeks out the help of her childhood friend. Penniless and all but unemployable, Lila approaches Abigail about a job, and Abigail gives her one: as her housekeeper.

But revenge is not as sweet as Abigail had imagined. Lila’s reentry into Abigail’s life brings along some unexpected complications and questions: will Abigail be reunited with her girlhood love, Lila’s twin brother, Vaughn? Will Concepcio´n, the grief-stricken mother whose daughter perished in the fire that consumed Abigail’s factory, succeed in crossing the border to track Abigail down and confront her about her daughter’s death? Will Lila ever find love in the wake of her husband’s suicide?

In this sweeping emotional tale, Abigail, Lila, and Concepcio´n are thrown together and forced to unite in order to save one another … and themselves. Along the way they discover that the forces that have torn their lives apart have also shaped them in ways they never could have imagined...

Editorial content for Loose Girl

Book

Teaser

LOOSE GIRL is Kerry Cohen’s captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction --- not just to sex, but to male attention --- LOOSE GIRL is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.

About the Book

Kerry Cohen’s journey from that hopeless place to her current confident and fulfilled existence is both a cautionary tale and a revelation.

LOOSE GIRL is Kerry Cohen’s captivating memoir about her descent into promiscuity and how she gradually found her way toward real intimacy. The story of addiction --- not just to sex, but to male attention --- LOOSE GIRL is also the story of a young girl who came to believe that boys and men could give her life meaning.

Never less than riveting, LOOSE GIRL re-creates what it feels like to be in that desperate moment when a girl tries to control a boy by handing over her body, when the touch of that boy seems to offer proof of something but ultimately delivers little more than emptiness.

The unforgettable story of one young woman who desperately wanted to matter, LOOSE GIRL will speak to countless others with its compassion, understanding, and love.

Interview: Tina Wells, author of Mackenzie Blue

Jun 2, 2009

In this interview with Kidsreads.com's Sarah Rachel Egelman, Tina Wells compares herself to Zee, the 12-year-old main character of her new novel MACKENZIE BLUE, and explains why she chose to write this story for middle-grade readers. She also mentions some of her favorite books from childhood, stresses the importance of writing as a form of self-expression, and shares what we can look forward to in future installments of the series.

June 2, 2009

Top Shelf 2.0 Turns 1

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Congratulations to Top Shelf for the one-year anniversary of its webcomic anthology Top Shelf 2.0!  The site is posting a new comic every day from Monday through Friday, a huge endeavour considering it's got some of the most eclectic and interesting material, ranging from kids' stuff to adult fare. Go there and be sure to check out Kagan McLeod's Infinite Kung Fu series, a fun ride with gorgeous art to boot.

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrún by J. R. R. Tolkien

June 2009

J. R. R. Tolkien once commented that the northern lands of Sigurd and the Völsungs were "pre-eminently desirable" for his escapist fantasies as a youth. In time he wrote his own variation, after careful study, but it was lost to time. Now, his son Christopher has unearthed and dusted off those long-forgotten epic poems and given them their proper place in the pantheon of the Tolkien legendarium

Crazy for the Storm: A Memoir Of Survival by Norman Ollestad

June 2009

February 1979: 11 year-old Norman Ollestad is the lone survivor of a harrowing plane crash that kills his magnetic, adrenaline-addicted father, a man who stopped at nothing to mold his son into a fearless surfer and ski champion. Set amid the uninhibited beach culture of Malibu and Mexico, this story of an extraordinary father-son bond has also been hailed by Susan Cheever as “a heart-stopping adventure” that asks “what it means to lead a life without limits.” 

June 2009

This is one of those months where so many great things are going on that I am not quite sure what to share first. And there is lots to hear...literally.

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In the past six months, have you been browsing in bookstores as much as you had in the past?

June 1, 2009, 344 voters