Review Day: Beatrice Munson

It's Review Day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Title: Beatrice Munson
Author: Lorena Bathey
Rating: 5 stars

**Warning: M.A. content!  Not suitable for anyone under the age of 18!**

Summary from Amazon:

In Vista Heights, the women of the neighborhood have started to look like their homes, varying shades of beige. Lost in this world of suburbia, Marissa Lyons learns her high school nemesis has bought the house right across the street from her. Afraid that her arch enemy, Beatrice Munson, will arrive with Marissa's high school crush as her husband and cause Marissa to relieve the insecurity of high school in her her forties, she decides to face the music and head to Beatrice's house with warm cupcakes. But what Marissa finds is something she never expected. How will Marissa and the rest of the women of San Martino deal with someone like Beatrice Munson, whose defining moment in her life was to get a boob job or go on a trip to Egypt. This story is about friendship, love, learning to look at things differently, and great parties. Step into the world of Vista Heights where you might not only recognize the women, you might be one of them. (end)

My Review:

Beatrice Munson is an aboslutely hysterical novel.  I laughed so many times!  It's not very often that a novel actually makes me laugh-out-loud, but this one did.  I also felt a whole range of other emotions - happy, excited, anxious, giddy, sad, sympathetic, concerned... I could keep going.  Lorena draws you in with a witty character, but keeps you around with a whole crew of female characters who we all know and can relate to.

I read this novel in less than four hours, keep in mind it has about 126 pages!  I was hooked from the first paragraph.  Marrissa, Beatrice, Andrea, Lily, Grayson, the rest of the women, the children and so many more characters, were absolutely amazing.  I instantly knew who they were after just meeting them.  I loved each character, even the ones I disliked, and know they are the most realistic characters I have ever read before.  They jumped off the pages like few characters do!

This is another must read novel for adults (especially women, you will love it)!  And... because I loved it so much, Lorena and I have decided to have a giveaway!!  The giveaway has ended!

a Rafflecopter giveaway
 

Share the giveaway and good luck!  Beatrice Munson can be purchased on Amazon here.  Happy Review Day!

ANSA #34

Welcome everyone to the thirty-fourth Authors Not-So-Anonymous weekly meeting!! This weekly series is about authors from Twitter and Facebook!  This week, I would like to introduce Lorena Bathey into Authors Not-So-Anonymous!

Lorena Bathey is the mother of four, has three grandchildren, photographer, and a women's fiction self-published author.  "I can barely keep up typing as fast as the story wants to come out.  I believe that's what happens when you follow your passion and do what you really love. It's a risky business and it's a lot of hard work to not only write the stories but get them out where people can see them. But I know that I am doing exactly what I love to do.  The beauty of that is my creative kids see that it's important.  They now feel free to be creative now and to aspire to be avant guard and creative in the paths they are starting for their own lives.  It makes me happy to see that."

She began writing in 2004 with a memoir.  "I wrote my memoir, Happy Beginnings: How I Became My Own Fairy Godmother. It was what I call the 'real' woman's Eat, Pray, Love because I did go to Italy, but only for 10 days.  That book really began my writing career because I wrote for women who had found themselves lost in their roles and wanted to find out WHO they were."  In 2010, Lorena began writing Beatrice Munson - a novel about women who are stuck in their mundane routines change when they meet a ray of sunshine who lives a life full of wonder.

Lorena gets her writing inspiration from her characters and the sheer happiness of writing.  "Usually I get a character in my head and they kinda live there until I start writing about them.  But I write because I love it.  It is when I am happy."  Her favorite authors and books include - A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Katherine, To Kill a Mockingbird, Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, and Stephen King.

Lorena's newest novel, House on Plunkett Street, came out in April, 2012.

 

Summary:

Phoebe Bertram is boring, bland, and unexciting. She works a job that is inadequate of her abilities. She has a boyfriend that is a dud. She is on the treadmill of her life and doesn’t know how to get off.  

With changes in her job and her apartment going condo, she must find a new place to live. Her friend Meghan brings her to the perfect apartment and the moment Phoebe steps in the door she knows there is something atypical about this perspective residence.

What she never expects are the three ghosts that arrive on her couch to teach her how life is really meant to be lived. (end)

She is currently finishing up her next novel that will be out within the next few weeks titled The X, that is a thriller.

Summary:

Clarissa Hadonfield had it all. She lived in a lovely home surrounded by affluent intellectuals, had a successful husband, and two phenomenal teenage boys.

With the ring of a doorbell she finds her life substituted by one where she has to fight for her children with an evil she never knew existed and had been sleeping next to for the last twenty years.

When Clarissa's X shows his true colors, she finds she must become a strong woman who cannot only grow prize-winning flowers but can place a devastating roundhouse kick. Teaming up with Bryce Brightman, an ex-FBI agent, she uncovers a woman whose only goal is to save her children.

This story is about what a woman can do when she put her brains, her brawn, and her boots into changing the course of her life and protecting the ones she loves. (end)

Connect with Lorena on Twitter or her website.  Have an author to nominate?  Send me a message via Twitter (#ANSA), Facebook, or leave a comment with the author(s) name and contact information.  I'd love to add new members!  Happy Reading!

eReader How To: Organize Your eBooks!

I was recently contacted by Guest Post U, a company that creates guest posts for blogs.  They asked to write a sample post for my blog to help promote their site and their incredible free services.  I agreed to let them write up something ebook related for you guys... so here it is!  Robyn and Josh from GPU are here to talk about sorting ebooks on your eReader.  They have several very good ideas and tips about organizing and making your ebook collection much more efficient.  Let me know in the comments what you think of the post.

Four Different Ways of Organizing E-Reader eBooks

Photo from The Ebook eReader

E-readers are becoming quite popular nowadays.  Some people use them because they feel that e-readers are more friendly toward the environment than are traditional books. Some simply use them for ease and convenience, while others do not have enough storage space in their home for hundreds of hardcovers.  These e-readers generally allow people to organize their ebooks into categories.  What are some ideas for doing so?

1. Genre

One of the most popular ways to organize ebooks is by genre.  You can have separate lists for science fiction, romance, comedy and so forth.  If you're going to use this method, it's important to remember under which genre your favorite ebooks fall, so you can easily find them when you want to.  Sometimes, ebooks can be a blend of a couple of genres.  For this purpose, you many want to consider creating an "other" category. 

2. Author
When you read a lot of ebooks by the same author, you can categorize them into groups based upon who wrote them.  No matter where you are, you can pull up an excellent read by your favorite writer in the literary field.  However, if you don't really stick to certain authors, you may want to avoid this idea. Imagine that you read ebooks by 200 different authors and try to categorize them all.  You would wind up with an overwhelming amount of groups!   If you do decide to follow this option, be sure to create an "other" category for works that are written by two or more authors.

3. Person
Let's say that you share an e-reader with a spouse, sibling, parent or other person in your life. You're each always complaining that the other individual downloads way too many ebooks, and you are never able to find yours. Create separate categories for the two of you.  You could even break down them more.  For example, your categories might be along the lines of "John's Favorites," "John-Science Fiction," "Jane's Favorites by Mark Twain" and "Jane's Books of Poetry."  Do you have ebooks that you both love to read? Well then, start a collection called "Books We Both Love."

4. Stars
Perhaps after you read a book, you like to assign it a number of stars based on how good you thought it was and how much you enjoyed it.  Why not organize the ebooks by the number of stars then?  You'll be able to easily access your favorites at any time, and you will also be reminded of the ebooks that you did not enjoy so much.  In some ways, this process is much like ranking the ebooks.  However, you do not need to drive yourself mad ranking every book from one into infinity.

Making collections and categories on your e-reader is a fairly simple process. (Click here for help! HilyBee has a tutorial for the Kindle.)  Once it's done, it allows you to have a clean library of novels instead of a confusing mess of ebooks.  Choose a method with which you are most comfortable.  Remember, it is always important to have that "Other" category for ebooks that do not quite fit into any of your other headings.

Robyn Gandolfini likes to write about technology, read & compare insurance.  (This is not a spam link, I promise!)  Thank you so much Robyn and GPU for the tips!  Happy Sorting!!

The Angels are back!!

I have the special privilege of revealing the cover of The Angel Chronicles: Gilded Wings (Book 2) today! (yay!!!!) Without further delay... Here is the cover, description and release date!


Gilded Wings: The Angel Chronicles, Book 2 - The Beloved Angel/Warrior Team from Until Next Time Returns!

When Matt and Emily are sent on their second mission they have no idea how truly dark human nature can become…

Emily never wanted to face humans again. With the heartache that went on down below, she’s still trying to figure out how to save souls that don’t deserve saving. The only one she wants to see again is Jason - the young man she fell in love with who became the soulmate she simply can’t forget…

Matt was trained to protect and defend the souls down below. Longing to feel the heartfelt emotions that come from being human, Matt wants nothing more than to have just one life - one chance - to live and love the girl of his dreams…

The powerful team find themselves in a brand new century, living in the Gilded Age of New York City. Emily takes over the body of Anya, a young Russian girl who arrives on Ellis Island after a hideous tragedy. There she meets up with a strangely familiar young man by the name of Drew Parrish, who helps Anya survive in an unknown world of luxury, snobbery and…obsession.

What Anya’s inner angel doesn’t know is that the soul she loves is also back. This time around Jason goes by the name of Max Carrow. Once a quiet and kind boy, he’s now part of the ‘Four Hundred Club,’ and wants nothing more than to be among the most admired as he climbs the shaky ladder of society’s elite.

As two worlds merge, Emily and Matt struggle under the weight of their “Gilded Wings.” Not only will they have to figure out who they should fight to save, but they must also face a romantic choice that could destroy them both. (end)

(all together now) YAY!!!!!!!!!!!  *squeeeeee*  I'm so excited for book two!!  Mark your calendars for November 1, 2012!  Haven't read book one yet?  Click here to read my review!  Keep up with Amy Lignor and the Angels on The Angel Chronicles website.  Happy Cover Reveal Day!