Chosen By Desire

Author: Kate Perry
Mass Market Paperback: 368 pages
Publisher: Forever (September 29, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 044654101X


Book Description:
It's down to the wire and Carrie Woods is leaving China without the proof she needs for her thesis: Wei Lin's journal. While on a final tour of the monastery, Carrie finally locates the scrolls and attempts to photograph the documents. Caught in a sticky situation, Carrie takes the scrolls, only to notice a mysterious monk watching her--the same monk that she's seen each time she's taken a tour. Unable to return the scrolls, she travels back to California and isn't too thrilled when she notices the monk at the airport.

Maximillian Prescott first came to the monastery as an orphaned teenager when he inherited the Book of Metal from a distant uncle he hardly knew. After spotting a woman stealing from the monastery, he follows her to get back the documents he knows she's stolen. Max is further intrigued when he finds out that the chatty woman is friends with his archrival, Rhys Llewellyn, and he will stop at nothing to get back everything he's lost.

My Review:

Carrie Woods, a scholar of Chinese history, has a burning ambition to teach at Cal, but first she needs something really special for her thesis--something that will get the attention of the board-something groundbreaking. To gain the information she needs, Carrie travels to a Chinese monastery, and there she steals (she calls it borrowing) precious ancient scrolls and documents.

The mysterious, Maximilian Prescott, a monk, who is living at the monastery is immediately captivated by her, but knows he must find a way to recover the manuscripts, while at the same time is sexually fantasizing about her.

Will Carrie fall in love with Max? Will he find out her secret? Will she risk her career goals to be with him? Can trust between them be restored?

This is a romantic paranormal mystery that is so erotic, so sizzling, the reader is in danger of being consumed by its heat. The book is filled with passion and danger. A very good read.

(Thank you for Hachette Book Group for my review copy.)

Diamond Rio (The Story of Diamond Rio)

Author: Diamond Rio with Tom Roland
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Thomas Nelson (September 15, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1595552685

My Review:

For over two decades, the formidable Diamond Rio has thrilled music fans by turning out hit after hit singles, like Meet Me In The Middle; Norma Jean Riley; Love a Little Stronger; Walkin’ Away; That’s What I Get For Loving You; Imagine That; Unbelievable; One More Day; and Beautiful Mess. I’ve been a fan from the beginning and was happy to see this book in print. So when Beautiful Mess (The Story of Diamond Rio) was released, I jumped at the chance to read it.

The book begins with their 2005 disastrous performance at River Front Park in Nashville, Tennessee and goes on to take fans and readers through the ups and downs of the bands career. Chapters include: Edge of Disaster; Tennessee River Boys; Marty Roe; Dan Truman; Jimmy Olander; Brian Prout; Gene Johnson; Dana Williams; Wild Ride; Team Rio; Nowhere Bound; Revived; and also includes a list of Diamond Rio’s Top 20 Country Hits, and their major awards and nominations. It is filled with photos of the band and their families.

The book did not disappoint me. In fact, I walked away with even more respect for the band members and their music. I highly recommend it to Diamond Rio fans.

(Thanks to Thomas Nelson Publishing for my review copy.)

The First Thirty Seconds

Author: Stephen M. Armstrong
Paperback: 238 pages
Publisher: BookSurge Publishing (July 1, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1439245894

Book Description:

The First Thirty Seconds offers suggestive prompts for improving the management of one's behavior, thoughts, emotions, and relationships. It is presented in a unique format juxtaposing a relevant concept with a suggestion for further reflection. The result is a book that is effective as a personal growth resource and a library of thoughtful guidance.


My Review:

I am completely delighted with this book of inspiration. Each page provides the reader with an insightful and life changing thought, with a reflection after each. It's an easy to read book which doesn't take a lot of time out of busy lives. I read one or two pages every day and try to apply what I've read to my life. Chapters include: Thoughts; Feelings; Relationships; Power; Living Ideas; Character; Spirit; and much more. It is the perfect book for anyone who is looking for the motivation to improve their life.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

THE WINNER IS.....

The winner of Dreamer is DebbieF. Congratulations! Please email your address to me, so I can send you book.

Thanks to everyone who entered.

DREAMER Giveaway

Author: Phillip Davidson

Paperback: 416 pages
Publisher: iUniverse (June 29, 2009)
ISBN-10: 1440149267

Book Description:

There are some things too terrible to forget. Even if you
manage to escape a memory, it will often return at night to haunt your dreams. Such is the case
for Major David Elliot in Dreamer by Phillip Davidson.

The images from a rainy Vietnam night have followed David to 1982 and still trouble his sleep.
On that night, he was ordered to execute a member of his Special Forces unit, Jude, who had
betrayed the team. But just as he was about to kill Jude, David's hand was knocked away by an
unseen force, allowing Jude to escape into the jungle.

What happens next affects the lives of each man in David's unit and follows them for many
years to come. When a crisis with David's wife, Sunny, brings the men begrudgingly back
together again, they come face to face with more powerful forces than they realize.
Dreamer offers an interesting perspective on the choices people make in life and the not-so-
subtle ways in which those choices are affected by higher powers. Davidson uses God and the
devil as characters who take the human form and are very much a part of the decisions people
make. The result is a compelling story that weaves elements of both fact and faith into one
cohesive narrative.

My Review:

I'm not going to do a long review, because there is enough said in the Book Description above, so I will just say this: Book lovers will know they have found a new favorite author when they read Dreamer. Powerful and thought provoking! (Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

I am giving away 1 copy Dreamer on September 18th.

Rules are:

*Leave a comment with your email address for 1 entry.

*Become a follower for 2 entries (let me know if you already follow)

*Open to US and Canada residents only

*No PO boxes, please.

Good luck and happy reading!

Looking For Dad

Author: Frank Gorin
Paperback: 268 pages
Publisher: Open Path Books (June 25, 2009)
ISBN-10: 0615216536


Product Description:


“Looking For Dad” is the quixotic, sometimes melancholy but more often funny confession of a youth searching for personal identity. It’s a search for a father figure (his own father died when he was two years old). What begins as a quest for God (“Father”) and a hunger to be a priest (“Father”) leads eventually to an emotional breakdown and abandonment of the dream. In middle age comes an awakening via Zen Buddhism and then, with reluctance, a renewal of his old journey, with a surprising, if unorthodox, finish. “You needn’t be unbalanced to make a complete fool of yourself in religion,” writes the author, “but it helps." The main events of “Looking For Dad” are a kind of time-piece, transpiring in the late 1950s and early 1960s, just before the Second Vatican Council changed the facade – some say the foundation – of Roman Catholicism. And so a good part of the story moves inside that musty, mysterious environment of authority, archaic symbols and Latin speech. The “oriental” aspect, covering experiences in Zen and Theravada Buddhism, will appeal to the growing number of readers interested in Asian spirituality topics, including fresh literary approaches to the Dharma.

My Review:
This is well-written... an interesting, thought-provoking book.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)

On The Bluffs

Author: Steven Schindler

Paperback: 300 pages
Publisher: The Elevated Press; 1st edition (August 1, 2009)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0966240812

Book Description:

SOMETIMES THE BIGGEST LIES ARE THE ONES WE LIVE. While Brian DeLouise was working the graveyard shift at a conspiracy theory-crazed radio station his wife was alley-catting around Washington, DC. But a cheating wife and a dead-end job no longer made him angry or depressed. He was just numb. It took a daring brush with death to awaken his senses and a few clicks on Google to begin a journey to recapture a love he believed was gone forever. Brian finds his lost lover in a rundown mansion on the windswept bluffs of Cape Cod, where he must confront a fast approaching evil while he risks losing everything he now cherishes.

About the Author:

Born and raised in the Bronx, Steven Schindler's first two novels, Sewer Balls and From the Block, are artfully gritty portrayals of the neighborhood characters who hung out on the stoops, playgrounds, rooftops and barstools during the crazy days of the Bronx in the sixties and seventies. Both books offer a heavy dose of mad, inner-city youthful adventures laced with awkward teenage sex, rock and roll, and the search for the perfect egg cream, i.e. the essence of life itself. His third novel, From Here to Reality (Simon & Schuster/Pocket Books), is a hilarious send-up of a transplanted New Yorker's foray into the early days of reality television in Hollywood, and received praise from Jay Leno and Roger L. Simon (The Big Fix) Schindler's soon-to-be released novel, On the Bluffs, is a thrilling love story wrapped in a dysfunctional family mystery that begins on the trendy streets of Washington D.C. and winds up in a rundown mansion on the bluffs of Cape Cod.

My Review:

This book's author is new to me, so I didn't know what I would find or how I would like his writing. But to my surprise, I found a gifted writer. His story of Brian DeLouise is one filled with romance, mystery, suspense, and danger, with a little humor thrown in. The lead character gets a second chance at love, but also confronts evil.

This is a book that is superbly written, exciting, and unforgettable. It is one that I will read again.

(Thank you to the author for my review copy.)