Sunday, May 26, 2013

He's Gone Blog Tour




Goodreads Blurb

“What do you think happened to your husband, Mrs. Keller?”

The Sunday morning starts like any other, aside from the slight hangover. Dani Keller wakes up on her Seattle houseboat, a headache building behind her eyes from the wine she drank at a party the night before. But on this particular Sunday morning, she’s surprised to see that her husband, Ian, is not home. As the hours pass, Dani fills her day with small things. But still, Ian does not return. Irritation shifts to worry, worry slides almost imperceptibly into panic. And then, like a relentless blackness, the terrible realization hits Dani: He’s gone.
As the police work methodically through all the logical explanations—he’s hurt, he’s run off, he’s been killed—Dani searches frantically for a clue as to whether Ian is in fact dead or alive. And, slowly, she unpacks their relationship, holding each moment up to the light: from its intense, adulterous beginning, to the grandeur of their new love, to the difficulties of forever. She examines all the sins she can—and cannot—remember. As the days pass, Dani will plumb the depths of her conscience, turning over and revealing the darkest of her secrets in order to discover the hard truth—about herself, her husband, and their lives together.


My Review

First I want to thank Deb and Jean for providing me with an arc and a spot on the blog tour. This was a very interesting read. It's my first Deb Caeltti book, however, I have Stay on my shelf and I hope to read that book soon. I've been wanting to read it for ages. 
Wow, I can't really decipher my emotions. I was taken into Dani's life during the disappearance of her husband. I felt all of her emotions, experiencing her devastation, fear, confusion and worry as she tries to figure out what happened to Ian. She thinks the worst and begins to panic. It's scary to think about that happening in real life. It's possible to really get drunk enough and not remember what happened the night before. But it's terrifying when it involves your loved one and you can't figure out what happened or what events led to that point. I was shocked and yet I couldn't stop reading, needing to find out what happened to Ian. My heart broke for Dani. I can only imagine the emotions she was going through, though I was going through them with her. I won't go into too much detail. But I will say the ending left me gaping, open-mouthed, whether I expected it or not. 
This was a great first book to read. But I really want to read Stay now. I look forward to reading more from this author in the future. Her stories are very real and the characters are well developed. I give this book 4 out of 5 stars.

Meet the Author


Deb Caletti

Deb Caletti is an award-winning author and a National Book Award finalist whose books are published and translated worldwide. Her first novel was The Queen of Everything (Simon & Schuster, 2002),of which a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly proclaimed: “This marks Caletti as a writer to watch.” Although written for adults, its coming-of-age themes gained it acclaim as a Y/A book. It made the cover of the esteemed review journal The Bulletin for the Center of Children’s Books (the first trade book to do so in the journal’s history), and then was chosen for PSLA’s Top Forty of 2003 and the International Reading Association’s Young Adult Choices for 2004. It is currently in its thirteenth printing.

Deb’s second book, Honey, Baby, Sweetheart, was a finalist for the National Book Award. Kirkus called it, “tender and poetic,” and the book earned other distinguished recognition, including the PNBA Best Book Award, the Washington State Book Award, and School Library Journal’s Best Book award. It was a finalist for the California Young Reader Medal and the PEN USA Literary Award, and was also a 2005 IRA Notable Book, an SSLI Book Awards Honor Book, and made the New York Public Library’s Best Books for the Teen Age, Chicago Library’s Best Books of 2004, and the Texas TAYSHA’s list. Her third book, Wild Roses, won acclaim with starred reviews in Publisher’s Weekly, which deemed it, “rich,” and School Library Journal, which said the book was “multifaceted and emotionally devastating,” with “profound observations and vivid language.” It was a finalist for the Washington State Book Award and was chosen as a New York Public Library Book for the Teen Age and a RT Book Club Magazine’s finalist for Best Y/A Book of 2005. The Nature of Jade was a summer 2007 Booksense pick, a Books A Million Book Club selection, and was a finalist for RT Magazine’s Best Y/A Book of the Year.

Her fifth book, The Fortunes of Indigo Skye, was released April 2008, followed by The Secret Life of Prince Charming in 2009, The Six Rules of Maybe in 2010, Stay in 2011, and The Story of Us in 2012. In addition, several anthologies include work by Deb, including “First Kiss, Then Tell,” a Bloomsbury anthology benefiting NPR Youth Radio, and two collections of non-fiction critical essays developed by Borders Books: “The World of the Golden Compass” and “Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia.” In 2013, Deb’s first book for adults, He’s Gone, will be released from Random House.

Deb grew up in the San Francisco Bay area and earned her journalism degree from the University of Washington in Seattle. When Deb is not writing books or reading them, she is a painter and a lyricist, and speaks widely to audiences on writing and life as an author. Deb lives with her family in Seattle.


Watch the book trailer here....



    


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Monday, May 6, 2013

BLOG TOUR: Back Before Dark by Tim Shoemaker



ABOUT THE BOOK

Praise for Code of Silence:'Deliberate, plausible, and gritty whodunit.' --Booklist Starred Review
Taken!


A detour through the park leads Cooper, Gordy, Hiro, and Lunk straight into a trap, and Gordy is abducted! For the kidnapper, it's all a game, a way to settle an old score, with no one getting hurt. But evil has away of escalating, and once his identity is discovered, the rules change.Despite the best of police efforts, the hours tick by without a clue or a ransom call, leaving everyone to their own fears. Gordy is gone. Cooper descends deeper into a living nightmare, imagining the worst for his best friend and cousin. Hours stretch into days, and talks of a memorial service begin to surface. But Cooper still feels his cousin is alive and develops a reckless plan, changing all the rules. Now the one who set out to rescue his friend needs to be rescued himself. Sometimes rescuing a friend from darkness means going in after them. 



EXCERPT



Chapter 15, pages 80-81

They rounded another level, coasting down the ramp. No silver minivan. No clues to lead them to Gordy. “God,” Lunk whispered. “If you’re really out there, and you really care—which I’m not so sure you do, how could you let this happen?” His throat burned.
Lunk was going through the motions searching for Gordy. Looking for a van that didn’t exist. Not in Rolling Meadows, anyway. If the van was sitting in a parking lot someplace, it was more likely in Wisconsin or Indiana, depending on which way the kidnapper headed. If the van was in town, it would have been found by now. By the cops, or Gordy’s dad.
Yeah, Lunk was definitely involved in the search effort. But it wasn’t because he felt there was any real hope of finding Gordy. It was more about being a friend to Coop. Until Coop came to grips with reality. Until he accepted what Lunk already knew. Gordy was gone, and he was never coming back.
Coop had the lead, and he pedaled down to the next level in the concrete parking garage. “We still have three or four more levels,” he said over his shoulder.
Did he really believe it would make a difference? There could be twenty more levels and they weren’t going to find that minivan. Lunk hung back a bike length or two. He wasn’t looking at the parked cars so much. He kept his eyes on Cooper.
Cooper swiped at his cheeks. Knocking back tears, no doubt. Was he beginning to accept the truth? You wouldn’t know it by watching him. Coop stayed on high alert, looking from one side to the other as if he might see the silver minivan at any moment. Desperately searching for a trail leading somehow to Gordy. Like so many were doing. Coop’s dad. Gordy’s dad. Their entire families. The police. Hiro. Kids at school. All of them on a useless, hopeless quest.
Now Lunk felt his eyes burning. If God was real, then he certainly didn’t care about anyone. God was no better than his own dad—hurting decent people. Cruel. Letting some sick-o take Gordy. “Why didn’t you take me, God?” He felt tears pooling. “You should have taken me. Less people would have cried.”





ABOUT THE AUTHOR



Happily married for more than thirty years to Cheryl, the love of my life.Dad to three grown sons and two daughter-in-lawsElder Chairman in my church and high school small group leaderFull time speaker and author since 2004Living in the greater Chicago areaGrateful for God’s incredible grace and mercy to me in countless ways.





    

Saturday, May 4, 2013

ENTANGLED: TEASER


Yay!!!!!! I am so excited about this book and I can't wait for you all to read it and meet Noah and Maddy. They're very special. I just love these characters! Their story has touched me and broken my heart. But it's been the best journey yet!! So here's a nice teaser. Enjoy!


He closes the gap between us. "Now, enough about our pasts. I want to kiss you." He stands between my legs and grabs my hips, scooting me closer to the edge. His tongue darts out of his mouth and grazes my bottom lip. "Mmm, chocolate."
I wrap my arms around his neck and pull him closer to me. Our lips meet lightly, at first. He cups the back of my neck with one hand, while the other explores elsewhere. Just his touch sends me into a frenzy. Our mouths move more urgent, as our tongues tangle together. I wrap my legs around him. Needing him closer.
"You're naughty, Noah." I breathe into his mouth.
He pulls back and grins. "I could be nice, if you'd prefer."
I smile. "Just shut up and kiss me." He obeys, and traces kisses from my jaw, down to my collarbone. I lean my head back, completely aroused at this point.
"Maddy." I meet his gaze, unable to speak. "What you do to me...I want it. I need it."
I don't reply. I don't have to because I want the same thing. His demanding kisses slow down to sensual caresses. My hands run through his hair, stopping at the back of his neck and then back again.
He pulls back, I glance at the clock. Shit, five minutes. Either he's going to finish what he's started, or I'm going to have to stop this now. 
He takes the bowl, and while keeping his eyes locked on mine, he brushes a hand over the edge of the inside, taking a lot of my chocolate goodness. I want to protest, but don't. And then looking down as if inspecting it, he licks his lips. What the fuck? Just when I think he's going to lick the chocolate off, teasing me, he smears it over my chest. All over. I gasp at the contact. At first, it's from shock, not expecting it and then it turns to disbelief.
"You're...you're wasting the chocolate. What the hell?"
He grins, devilishly, my face reddens. I wanted to eat that shit.
"Oh, I'm not wasting it." My head tilts to the side in confusion. He drops his head down and licks the chocolate right off of me.
Holy. Shit.
"Mmm. Very sweet." His tongue rubs over my skin and the sensation causes me to cry out in pleasure. Just as the oven timer goes off.
I'll never be able to look at brownie mix the same again, that's for sure.


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