Book Beginnings and Friday 56 - Love and Sleepless Nights

                              

Today I'm featuring LOVE AND SLEEPLESS NIGHTS for my Book Beginnings on Fridays and Friday 56 post.

Author: Nick Spalding
Genre: Women's Fiction / Humor / Romance
Number of Pages: 170
Amazon Link and Synopsis: Love and Sleepless Nights

                                        

BOOK BEGINNING:
Laura's Diary - Monday, April 1st
Dear Mum,
     Well, it's finally happened. I've achieved my lifelong ambition. 
     It's been many years in the making, but I can now honestly say that I, Laura Newman, have successfully thrown my guts up in front of a group of men at an important job interview.

Book Beginnings on Friday is hosted by Rose City Reader. To play, share the first sentence (or so) of the book you are reading, along with your initial thoughts about the sentence, impressions of the book, or anything else the opener inspires and then add your name to the Linky list HERE.
                                                   
THE FRIDAY 56 (Laura is holding her newborn daughter):
      A sudden up-swell of tears rises from the depths of my being and now I start to cry with a combination of relief, awe - and not a little pride, if I'm being honest.
      I take the very small package into my arms, feeling the undeniable weight of new existence through every fibre of my being.

To participate in The Friday 56, hosted by Freda's Voice, post a few sentences from Page 56 of your current book (or from 56% on your eReader) and then add your name to the Linky list HERE.

MY THOUGHTS: Anyone who has ever had a baby (especially first-time parents) will relate to the emotions, experiences, doubts, and joys portrayed in this book. Presented as a series of diary entries (Laura's) and blog posts (her husband Jamie's), I enjoyed every single word.

Teaser Tuesday: Confessions of a Predatory Lender

 

Today's Teaser Tuesday sentences come from CONFESSIONS OF A PREDATORY LENDER, a novel by Irma Fritz, author of IRRETREVIABLY BROKEN and an indie author like me. I like to read indie books, as well as books by well-known authors, and I especially like to learn a little something while I'm enjoying a story's plot. That's definitely the case with this book. I'm about halfway through and engrossed in this enjoyable story, while learning a little about the home mortgage crisis.

Here are two sentences from 17% on my Kindle.

TEASER:
Megan has one hand in her hair, returning her painstakingly gelled and coiffed hairdo to its naturally messy state. "Um, it's my impression that we won't be verifying ... you know, the customer's ability to repay the loan?"


Author: Irma Fritz
Genre: Fiction
Number of Pages: 420
Amazon Link: Confessions of a Predatory Lender

Goodreads Synopsis:
       The year is 2006 and everyone knows you can make a killing in mortgage lending. Christy and Megan, two small-town girls from the Palouse region of Eastern Washington, arrive in Seattle with newly minted finance degrees and dollar signs in their eyes. Both are eager to grab their chance at becoming mortgage loan officers. If only they can pass the training class!
       "Good girl" Christy is our guide through the maze of predatory lending with BFF Megan her ever-present and irreverent sidekick. Together they’re an irresistible combination as they love, shop, and lend their way through this hilarious novel toward an ending we’re all too familiar with.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by Miz B of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers.
• Be sure to add a comment to Miz B's Teaser Tuesday post, leaving a link to the post on your blog.

Book Beginnings and Friday 56: Perigee Moon

PERIGEE MOON is my featured book for today's Book Beginnings on Friday and The Friday 56 post.

BOOK BEGINNINGS:
When the kids on Henley Street were seven and eight and nine, there was no one to blow the whistle. There wasn't a leader among them, not one to make a decision. During the summer there could be as many as eight boys who milled around and collected together on the sidewalks. They wanted to do something interesting and fun but waited for someone else to take charge. 

(NOTE: Of course, that changes when Kate Willoughby's family moves into the neighborhood!)

FRIDAY 56:
Once the fraternity pin was in place, Kate decided it was time to take the relationship to a new level. She wanted an engagement ring and she wanted it in time for Christmas, during their junior year of college. It was time.

(NOTE: This is at 16% on my Kindle -- my estimate of where Page 56 would probably be.)

MY IMPRESSIONS:
I read this book a while back and loved it! The author took me back to a simpler time and carried me through Kate and Luke's lives - from the 1950s all the way to the present. Filled with humor and true-to-life situations that reflect the times in which the characters lived, I found myself nodding in agreement more than once! The characters and story created by Lynn Schneider will stay with me for a long time.
(By the way, Kate Willoughby is a "Fatal Attraction" type of character that you'll love to hate.)

Author: Lynn Schneider
Genre: Women's Fiction
Number of Pages: 342
Amazon link.
Link to my review on Goodreads.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Anyone can participate in Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts 
(sponsored by Rose City Reader.)

Find other Friday 56 bloggers here (sponsored by Freda's Voice). 

                

Five-Stars for I.O.U. SEX

Many thanks to Laurel-Rain Snow of "Rainy Days and Mondays" for her 5-Star Review of I.O.U. SEX. She writes, in part:

I thoroughly related to the characters as they shared their thoughts and feelings. The dialogue was fun, humorous, and took me right into the hearts and minds of each of them. 

What clicked for me most was the friendship that had sustained the passage of time. Kudos to the authors, who earned 5 stars for this one. 

Read her complete review here: Laurel-Rain Snow's Review

Teaser Tuesday - The Storyteller

My two-sentence Teaser Tuesday post is taken from the opening paragraph of Chapter 1 - "Journey of a Soul" from THE STORYTELLER. I'm about halfway through this book, and it just gets better and better. Be sure to allow plenty of time to stop and think while reading this story. The author presents many interesting ideas.

TEASER:
In case you haven't guessed, I am a soul. Oh yes, and perhaps I should mention that I am presently a soul living here on this planet in a rather dense human body/mind.


AUTHOR: Sharon Tillotson
GENRE: Literary Fiction
NO. OF PAGES: Approx 400
AMAZON LINK: The Storyteller

AMAZON SYNOPSIS: 
An ordinary human being finding her life purpose... With a little help from her soul...


Sarah is a Soul who is trying to guide Suzy along her path of rediscovering herself... Or is it redefining? Reinventing? Sarah thinks it might be better defined as remembering, but it's only Suzy who is concerned about the semantics. Sarah just wishes Suz would get on with it. A rather spirited Spirit, Sarah often finds herself rolling her eyes at Suzy's antics and the walls she has built up following the death of her husband. Sarah knows the body/mind/spirit energy who is currently housed in the human called Suzy has faced far more difficult challenges than the one she chose for this reincarnation. 

Storyteller is the most common role this body/mind/spirit has chosen for its human lives and Sarah chooses to tell the story of Suzy's spiritual awakening as it unfolds, interweaving compelling stories of past lives and how these individual energies accomplished their shifts in awareness. There are three such interwoven stories beginning in 10,000 BC in Eastern Europe where a young apprentice storyteller named Luza is thrust into her awakening by the death of her mentor/shaman and a natural catastrophe. The next story Sarah reveals takes us to 5000 BC and the American Southwest, into the life of Chu-Tze, a healer who milks snakes to aid in her treatment of children. Chu-Tze must overcome the unbearable loss of her husband and children and find a way to the ultimate forgiveness. Sarah then tells the tale of Zhumbee, a prince in East Africa at the time of Jesus. Zhumbee's grandmother takes the prince on a journey to meet this mysterious prophet whose words he holds in his heart as he leads his city-state to its glory.
 
Suzy's journey takes the reader from the lush shores of Seattle to the deepest heart of Africa where humanity is said to have made its first appearance.

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn't give too much away -- you don't want to ruin the book for others)
• Share the title and author too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers

Book Beginnings and Friday 56 - Goodnight Nobody

BOOK BEGINNINGS

      "Hello?" I tapped on Kitty Cavanaugh's red front door, then lifted the brass knocker and gave it a few thumps for good measure. "Hello?"
      "Mommy, can I ring the doorbell?" Sophie asked. She stood on her tiptoes and waved her fist in the air.

FRIDAY 56

      "I ... uh ..." I fumbled through the slurry of broken crayons and juice-stiffened napkins at the bottom of my WGBH totebag and pulled out a notebook with a pink, glittery cover featuring Hello Kitty. It was Sophie's--the only thing I'd been able to find on short notice.

AUTHOR: Jennifer Weiner
NUMBER OF PAGES: 400
Written in 2005

AMAZON SYNOPSIS

      New York Times bestselling author Jennifer Weiner's newest novel tells the story of a young mother's move to a postcard-perfect Connecticut town and the secrets she uncovers there.

      For Kate Klein, a semi-accidental mother of three, suburbia's been full of unpleasant surprises. Her once-loving husband is hardly ever home. The supermommies on the playground routinely snub her. Her days are spent carpooling and enduring endless games of Candy Land, and at night, most of her orgasms are of the do-it-yourself variety.

      When a fellow mother is murdered, Kate finds that the unsolved mystery is one of the most interesting things to happen in Upchurch since her neighbors broke ground for a guesthouse and cracked their septic tank. Even though Kate's husband and the police chief warn her that crime-fighting's a job best left to professionals, she can't let it go.

      So Kate launches an unofficial investigation -- from 8:45 to 11:30 on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, when her kids are in nursery school -- with the help of her hilarious best friend, carpet heiress Janie Segal, and Evan McKenna, a former flame she thought she'd left behind in New York City.

      As the search for the killer progresses, Kate is drawn deeper into the murdered woman's double life. She discovers the secrets and lies behind Upchurch's placid picket-fence facade -- and the choices and compromises all modern women make as they navigate between independence and obligation, small towns and big cities, being a mother and having a life of one's own.

      Engrossing, suspenseful, and laugh-out-loud funny, Goodnight Nobody is another unputdownable, timely tale; an insightful mystery with a great heart and a narrator you'll never forget.

MY THOUGHTS
I've enjoyed other books by this author (IN HER SHOES, GOOD IN BED, etc.) but this one was not my favorite. However, there was lots of humor and anyone living in suburbia with young children would find plenty to relate to.  

Anyone can participate in 

Book Beginnings and Friday 56. 

Click here to connect to other Book Beginnings posts (hosted by Rose City Reader.)

Find other Friday 56 bloggers here (hosted by Freda's Voice).