Summer Reading, had me a blast… Pink Ladies (and readers) of the world unite, as I introduce you to Jackie Gold!

July 27, 2021July 27, 2021 momlovesreading01Leave a comment

🎶Summer reading, had me a blast! Summer reading, is going by too fast!🎶

🤩Pink Ladies (and readers) of the world unite, as I introduce you to ‘The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold‘ by Dinah Manoff, who played Pink Lady, Marty Maraschino (“Like the cherry”😉), in the classic movie ‘Grease’!

⭐️Yes, Ms. Manoff also starred in ‘Empty Nest’ & was in ‘Child’s Play’ & numerous other films & TV shows, & won a Tony award for her performance in Neil Simon’s ‘I Ought To be in Pictures’, but she’ll forever be my tween idol Marty, the plucky, sexy yet sweet, (& my favorite) Pink Lady! I LOVED ‘Grease’ (still do!) & I most certainly DID own a Pink Ladies jacket when I was a kid (pink is still, & always will be my fave color!). For the last several yrs, my twin sons (who are autistic) have been completely obsessed w/ the movie as well (& yep, they have T-Bird jackets, know the movie by heart like I do!)

🤩So, imagine my excitement when I was contacted & asked if I would like to receive an early copy of Dinah Manoff’s 7/20/21 release ‘The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold’… Heck yeah, I would! And you guys…It is SO great!🙌🏻

📖Following her Oscar nomination, tabloid cover girl Jackie Gold has been offered the role of a lifetime. At the height of her career, her equally famous boyfriend and current People’s “Sexiest Man of the Year” has a proposal of his own. It’s enough to make a pack of bloodthirsty paparazzi push her over the edge.

📖The year is 1999 and Jackie fights for her life while the press and public speculate on everything from whether “JACKIE’S JUMP!” was a suicide attempt to whether or not her breasts are real. Visitors circle her hospital bed, sharing regrets and spilling secrets when they think she can’t hear from her comatose state.

📖While drama unfolds at her bedside confessional, Jackie’s life replays like a movie in her mind. In a narrative both hilarious and heartbreaking, she recounts her improbable Malibu upbringing, her California coming-of-age, and the fat-free, drug-fueled, “glamourous” Hollywood career that led to her notorious jump.

📖Award-winning actor and director Dinah Manoff offers an honest, fictional glimpse behind the red carpet in her new novel about a Hollywood star, the remarkable journey that got her there, and her walk-in closet full of tabloid-worthy secrets. Best known for her roles in Grease and Empty Nest, Dinah Manoff has used her own experiences to craft an engrossing page-turner both exciting and wise, posing the ultimate starry-eyed question: Does fame really matter in the end?

⭐️Jackie’s journey is a coming-of-age in Hollywood, both treacherous & hilarious, in this utterly captivating & satisfyingly addictive read, where secrets are revealed & relationships are shattered & mended. It’s a truly unique, deliciously delightful read, weaving even more ‘Hollywood-esque’ style into the pages by starting & ending each chapter in script/screenplay style. I’d love to read more from Dinah Manoff & more about Jackie Gold in the future!

🌟Thank you @kelleyandhall for my gift copy of the book, which is available now, so get it because summer & reading goes together like rama lama lama ka dinga da dinga dong!😎

Click HERE to add ‘The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold’ to your Goodreads lists.
Click HERE to see this post (& Follow Me!) on Instagram at @mom_loves_reading
Click HERE to visit Dinah Manoff on Instagram.

🌟Dinah Manoff is an award-winning actor & director. She has written for both stage & television & had several short stories presented at the prestigious writer’s forum Spoken Interludes & recorded for KCRW.
She has had numerous roles on stage & in film, among them, Grease, Ordinary People, & Child’s Play. Dinah has starred in the television series Soap, Empty Nest, & State of Grace.
She received a Tony award for her role in Neil Simon’s play, I Ought to Be in Pictures, & won the prestigious L.A. Theater award for her stage adaptation & direction of her father’s novel, A Telegram for Heaven.
Dinah is the daughter of actress/director Lee Grant & the late writer Arnold Manoff; she resides with her husband & sons in the Seattle area. The Real True Hollywood Story of Jackie Gold is her first novel.

BeachReads · Book Reviews · Chick Lit · Fiction · WomensFiction

‘I Thought You Said This Would Work’ by Ann Garvin is today’s book feature and recommended reading!

July 17, 2021 momlovesreading01Leave a comment

🎉Happy World Emoji Day! Comment your 5 favorite or most often used emojis in the comments & let’s see who else has the same ones! The ones I use most often are: 😘📖📚💕😂

🌺As a Tall Poppy Blogger I was super excited to read Ann Garvin’s latest release, ‘I Thought You Said This Would Work‘, which was published in May. Ann is the founder of Tall Poppy Writers & Bloggers & also the author of another book I enjoyed a couple yrs ago, ‘I Like You Fine When You’re Not Around‘. (PS, my conveniently & coincidentally poppy colored nail polish is called My Chihuahua Bites by OPI)

📖’I Thought You Said This Would Work‘ is one of the most enjoyable, heartwarming, engaging, atmospherically adventurous books I’ve read in a long time. As someone who doesn’t get to do Girl’s Trips or Night’s Out pretty much next to never, I love books that are about the importance of female friendships, forgiveness, & the people in your life who aren’t related to you, but are still family. I definitely recommend both books.

🚎A road trip can drive anyone over the edge—especially two former bff’s—in bestselling author Ann Garvin’s funny & poignant novel about broken bonds, messy histories, & the power of forgiveness.

🚎Widowed Samantha Arias hasn’t spoken to Holly Dunfee in forever. It’s for the best. Samantha prefers to avoid conflict. The blisteringly honest Holly craves it. What they still have in common puts them both back on speed dial: a mutual love for Katie, their best friend of 25 yrs, now hospitalized w/ cancer & needing one little errand from her old college roomies.

🚎It’s simple: travel cross-country together, steal her loathsome ex-husband’s VW camper, find Katie’s diabetic Great Pyrenees at a Utah rescue, & drive him back home to Wisconsin. If it’ll make Katie happy, no favor is too big (100 pounds), too daunting (2000 miles), or too illegal (ish), even when a boho D-list celebrity hitches a ride & drives the road trip in fresh directions.

🚎Samantha & Holly are following every new turn—toward second chances, unexpected romance, & self-discovery—& finally blowing the dust off the secret that broke their friendship. On the open road, they’ll try to put it back together—for themselves, & especially for the love of Katie.

📖Click HERE to add ‘I Thought You Said This Would Work’ to your Goodreads lists.
📖Click HERE to add ‘I Like You Fine When You’re Not Around’ to your Goodreads.
📖Click HERE to visit Mom_Loves_Reading on Instagram & give my post some LIKE love! (There’s also a giveaway in progress for another book a couple posts back. Click HERE for that.)

🌺Ann Garvin Ph.D. is a nurse, a professor, and USA Today Bestselling Author. She thinks everything is funny and a little bit sad.
Ann Writes stories about women with a good sense of humor who do too much in a world that asks too much from them. She thought writing a book would get her a beach house. The beach house hasn’t happened yet, but she’s bought sunglasses, so she’s ready. She created the Tall Poppies because she loves writers, readers, and helping women get their voices heard. Ann is the author of I THOUGHT YOU SAID THIS WOULD WORK, I LIKE YOU JUST FINE WHEN YOU’RE NOT AROUND, THE DOG YEAR AND ON MAGGIE’S WATCH.

BeachReads · Blog Tour · Book Reviews · Fiction · Giveaway · Romance · RomCom · WomensFiction

‘The Magic of Found Objects’ Book Tour, Giveaway (…and unfortunately, no sugar cookies!)

July 9, 2021July 9, 2021 momlovesreading011 Comment

🎉GIVEAWAY & new book alert!🎉
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I don’t have any sugar cookies to celebrate National Sugar Cookie Day today (which, btw, is my FAVE cookie), but I DO have another kind of SWEET, fun treat for you that releases 8/1 & (1) copy to give away! Thank you @tlcbooktours & @amazonpublishing for my gift copy of ‘The Magic of Found Objects‘ by Maddie Dawson!

From the bestselling author of ‘Matchmaking for Beginners’ comes a feel-good story about becoming who you were meant to be all along…
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Phronsie Linnelle was conceived at Woodstock in a serendipitous liaison between a free-spirited hippie & a farmer’s son & was born w/ magical wonder flickering in her DNA & rationality knit into her bones. All her life she’s been torn between the two. But now that she’s been betrayed by both love & the mother she once idolized, her rational side is winning.
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So when her best friend from childhood proposes that they give up on romance & marry each other, Phronsie agrees. Who better to spend your life w/ than your best friend? Maybe the connection they already have is love. Maybe there’s no falling to be done. But immediately after they announce their engagement, she encounters someone who makes a very charming & compelling argument for revisiting romance.
While her even-keeled stepmother argues for the safety that comes w/ her new engagement & her mother relays messages from the universe to hold out for true love, Phronsie must look to her own heart to find the answers that have been there all along.

I adored this uniquely original, super cute, captivating, & wholly entertaining adult coming of age novel! Maddie Dawson is such a great writer & creator of charming characters! ‘The Magic of Found Objects‘ releases 8/1 & I have 1 copy up for grabs now. (US/CAN res only)

To enter: Click HERE to go to the Instagram giveaway. The following info is for the giveaway there. You can comment HERE on this blog post for a BONUS entry though.
*LIKE this post
*Must be following @mom_loves_reading
*Comment w/ your current read & tag a couple book buds. (Unlimited, 2 tags per com)

Giveaway is 7/9-7/12/21 & isn’t affiliated w/ Instagram. Please don’t enter if you plan to UNfollow after, it’s totes rude & I keep a naughty list like Santa.

@mom_loves_reading Instagram giveaway

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Connect with Maddie

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Instagram

Maddie Dawson grew up in the South, born into a family of outrageous storytellers. Her various careers as a substitute English teacher, department-store clerk, medical-records typist, waitress, cat sitter, wedding-invitation-company receptionist, nanny, day care worker, electrocardiogram technician, and Taco Bell taco maker were made bearable by thinking up stories as she worked. Today Maddie lives in Guilford, Connecticut, with her husband.
She’s the bestselling author of seven previous novels: A Happy Catastrophe, Matchmaking for Beginners, The Survivor’s Guide to Family Happiness, The Opposite of Maybe, The Stuff That Never Happened, Kissing Games of the World, and A Piece of Normal. For more information visit http://www.maddiedawson.com.

BeachReads · Blog Tour · Book Reviews · Fiction · WomensFiction

Book Tour post for ‘The Seven Day Switch’ by Kelly Harms and a 7-7-7 GIVEAWAY!

July 7, 2021July 7, 2021 momlovesreading011 Comment

🎉GIVEAWAY time & I’m calling this one the ‘7-7-7’ giveaway featuring ‘The Seven Day Switch‘ by Kelly Harms! (pub 7/1/21)

❓Q: If you could switch places w/ your neighbor for 7 days by having a glass of magic sangria, would you?
My answer is NO. I’ve never had sangria before [sounds too sugary for me], but I do find a glass of cabernet or chardonnay to be quite “magical” at erasing my stress some evenings.😉🍷

📖Today is 7-7 & I’m holding the giveaway for 7 days! And a big Thank you to @tlcbooktours @amazonpublishing for my gift copy of ‘The Seven Day Switch‘ & for sponsoring this giveaway! (partner) After you’re done reading this blog post, be sure to check out my Instagram post as well & show the author (& me!) your support by giving it a LIKE & maybe even a SHARE. (Please & Thank you!)

What a difference a week makes in this heartfelt, laugh-out-loud novel about two moms as opposite as a Happy Meal & a quinoa bowl, from the Washington Post bestselling author of ‘The Overdue Life of Amy Byler’.

Celeste Mason is the Pinterest stay-at-home supermom of other mothers’ nightmares. Despite her all-organic, SunButter-loving, free-range kids, her immaculate home, & her volunteering awards, she still has time to relax w/ a nice glass of pinot at the end of the day. The only thing that ruins it all is her workaholic, career-obsessed neighbor, who makes no secret of what she thinks of Celeste’s life choices every chance she gets.

Wendy Charles is a celebrated productivity consultant, columnist, & speaker. On a minute-by-minute schedule, she makes the working-mom hustle look easy. She even spends at least one waking hour a day w/ her kids. She’s not apologizing for a thing. Especially to Celeste, who plays her superior parenting against Wendy whenever she can.

Who do Celeste & Wendy think they are? They’re about to find out thanks to one freaky week. After a neighborhood potluck & too much sangria, they wake up—um, what?—in each other’s bodies. Everything Celeste & Wendy thought they knew about the “other kind of mom” is flipped upside down—along w/ their messy, complicated, maybe not so different lives.

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👭I loved this super fun, relatable, utterly delightful, ‘Freaky Friday’ for Mom’s story & hope to see it on the big (or small) screen someday! I can see a bit of both Celeste & Wendy in my own personality, too. This is one of those books that you just don’t want to end since you become so invested in the lives of both women. It’s heartwarming, spellbinding, thought-provoking, & a bit emotional at times, & I loved every second of the book!

📖It’s available for purchase now & there are links below for your convenience & I also have (2) copies up for grabs via the giveaway on my Instagram account. And, as an added bonus, I’m allowing entries here on my blog, too! Just make sure you are subscribed to momlovesreading.com & LIKE & comment on this post to enter. You can enter on Instagram for extra entries as well. Click HERE to go to the giveaway post.

(Giveaway is 7/7-7/13/21, US 50 states/CAN residents only, is not affiliated w/ Instagram. Please don’t UNfollow after or you’ll miss out on & be excluded from all future MLR giveaways & there are lots!)

Purchase Links

Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Connect with Kelly

Website | Facebook | Instagram

USA Today, Amazon Charts, & Washington Post bestselling author KELLY HARMS is the author of five novels including The Overdue Life of Amy Byler, one of GoodReads’ top ten fiction books of the year & a WFWA Star Award finalist. Her works have been translated into a dozen languages throughout the world.
Before becoming a writer herself, she was a New York editor & literary agent & worked w/ a wide array of bestselling & award-winning authors. She now lives in Madison, Wisconsin w/ her clever son Griffin, charming Irishman Chris, & Scout, the best dog in dogtown.
Kelly loves meeting her readers virtually & in real life, & can be found at http://www.kellyharms.com for the former.

BeachReads · Book Reviews · Family Drama · Fiction · Giveaway · LiteraryFiction · WomensFiction

Time for a Fiction Friday GIVEAWAY and a book everyone will be BUZZING about this summer!

June 4, 2021June 4, 2021 momlovesreading01Leave a comment

🎉Time for a Fiction Friday GIVEAWAY!

🐝If you are looking for an intriguing, moving & deeply felt story for yourself or your book club to discuss this summer, (not to mention that it’s cover is stunning!) look no further. ‘The Hive‘ will have everyone buzzing once it’s released this Tues, 6/8. ‘The Hive‘ is a coming of age/family fiction novel about class in a politically divided country, the love & burden of family businesses, bees, & apocalyptic prepping.

📖A story of survival, sisters, and secrets…

📖The Fehler sisters wanted to be more than bug girls but growing up in a fourth- generation family pest control business in rural Missouri, their path was fixed. The family talked about Fehler Family Exterminating at every meal, even when their mom said to separate the business from the family, an impossible task. They tried to escape work with trips to their trailer camp on the Mississippi River, but the sisters did more fighting than fishing. If only there was a son to lead rural Missouri insect control and guide the way through a crumbling patriarchy.

📖After Robbie Fehler’s sudden death, the surprising details of succession in his will are revealed. He’s left the company to a distant cousin, assuming the women of the family aren’t capable. As the mother’s long-term affair surfaces and her apocalypse prepper training intensifies, she wants to trade responsibility for romance.

📖Facing an economic recession amidst the backdrop of growing Midwestern fear and resentment, the Fehler sisters unite in their struggle to save the company’s finances and the family’s future. To survive, they must overcome a political chasm that threatens a new civil war as the values that once united them now divide the very foundation they’ve built. Through alternating point-of-views, grief and regret gracefully give way to the enduring strength of the hive.

🐝’The Hive‘ is such a rich, complex & deeply felt novel that deals w/ family dynamics, feminism, grief, regrets, secrets, & coming to terms w/ an ever changing & fast moving world that waits for no one. With well-written, flawed & relatable characters (& there’s even one main character w/ my name as well!), ‘The Hive‘ draws you in right from the get go & immerses you into the atmospheric, amazing & eccentric world of the Fehler sister’s.

🦋Thank you @melissascholesyoung for my gift copies of the book (🐝which arrived in a super cute bee-themed bubble wrapper!) & for sponsoring this giveaway! I have one copy to give away to one lucky reader. (**Please note, this giveaway is on Instagram & the following information is for info-sakes only. You can enter the giveaway by clicking HERE. Be sure you are following me on Instagram as well in order to be eligible.)

🐝To enter:
1- LIKE this post.(on Instagram)
2- Must be following @mom_loves_reading & @melissascholesyoung
3- Tag a couple bookish pals (Unlimited entries, 2 tags per comment)
**Bonus 5 entries each:
4- Comment what book you are currently reading & any thoughts you have on it.
5- SHARE to your stories & tag me (can do daily).

🦋Click HERE to enter the giveaway on Instagram. You can also click HERE to visit/follow Mom Loves Reading on Instagram.

🐝Click HERE to add ‘The Hive‘ to your Goodreads lists.

🦋Click HERE to visit Melissa Scholes Young’s website.

🐝Click HERE to pre-order or find ‘The Hive‘ at an Independent Book Store near you or online.

Melissa Scholes Young is the author of the novels The Hive & Flood, & editor of Grace in Darkness & Furious Gravity, two anthologies by women writers. She is a contributing editor at Fiction Writers Review, & her work has appeared in the Atlantic, Ms., Washington Post, Poets & Writers, Ploughshares, Literary Hub & elsewhere. She has been the recipient of the Bread Loaf Bakeless Camargo Foundation Residency Fellowship & the Center for Mark Twain Studies’ Quarry Farm Fellowship. Born & raised in Hannibal, Missouri, she is now an associate professor in Literature at American University.
Follow her on Twitter: @mscholesyoung Instagram: @melissascholesyoung
Facebook: facebook.com/melissascholesyoung/
Website: melissascholesyoung.com, thehivenovel.com