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.

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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