Jencey's Writer's Corner

Thank you to Parker Row Books for a copy of Every Last Lie .   I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review. Mary Kubica is known for getting inside her characters and creating the right amount of tension to make the story flow.   In Every Last Lie she explores what happens when a family loses a loved one and how that impacts those around them.     So what journey will she take her readers on in this novel? Synopsis: Clara last sees her Nick husband as he offers to pick up their daughter from ballet and get dinner.   Later that same day Clara is still waiting for dinner to arrive for her and the infant son, but receives the police instead.   They direct her to the hospital where she finds out that her husband is dead but their daughter Maisie has survived the crash.   Once home from the hospital Maisie starts having night terrors which are so bad she locks herself in the bathroom.   Clara wants to ignore the bills and the w...

Ecco, most of the reviews of The Italian Party have overlooked your role in the book. Please describe what you do in the story, and tell us how you feel about being overlooked.  I’d like to bite someone right in the leg. First of all, I’m the true star of the book! I’m a fox terrier, so I’m incredibly feisty and adorable and always present in the story—even when Scottie is zooming around the Tuscan countryside on a scooter, I’m right there, ears flapping in the wind. My name means “Here he is.” I play a crucial role in the book. I don’t want to spoil anything, but the scene in which I first enter Scottie and Michael’s life is very important—they discover how rural Italians live, and how people of that era (1950s) are being forced to leave the country and move to the cities to find work. Michael’s job as a tractor salesman is part of the postwar Italian “economic miracle” that mechanized agriculture, which was good for profits but meant a lot of farmworkers lost their jobs. Tha...

Photo by Chris Arlen Tessa Arlen is  visiting Writer's Corner for her new book in the Lady Montfort Mysteries series Death of  an Unsung Hero.   I have one copy up for grabs.  Giveaway will be open to US only.  Please follow the link to rafflecopter.  What inspired you to begin writing mysteries? Was the Lady Montfort Mysteries a series you always wanted to write? Ever since I read Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes when I was fourteen I wanted to write mysteries. I particularly enjoyed the Golden Age mystery writers: Dorothy L. Sayers Agatha Christie, Josephine Tey, Ngaio Marsh and Margery Allingham often referred to as the Queens of Crime who wrote detective fiction between the wars. And it wasn’t until I started to write mystery that I discovered that they considered their whodunits as a game for both author and reader: the elements of the mystery must be clearly presented but in such a way as to arouse curiosity, to entice the reader to try and...

Thank you to Harper Collins for sending me a copy of The Lost Castle by Kristy Cambron.   I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review. Cue the music for Once Upon a time theme to start playing on the screen.   The scene will open to a castle with a mysterious princess inside. This tale will not lead to Emma and her family, but to Ellie, her grandmother Lady Viola (Lady Vi), and her distant relative Aveline.   Are you ready for the story to begin? Synopsis:   Aveline is preparing for her wedding to the Duke of Vivay.   Her wedding has been arranged by her father.   It will take place in the summer of 1789.   The night of the engagement party, peasants attack the castle owned by the Vivays. Then everything changes when Aveline becomes separated from her mother and the rest of their family. Peasants are looking for her and searching for the sleeping princess.   What does her future hold?   What happened to the princess ...

Wait for Morning is the first book in the Forever Faithful series by Karen Kingsbury.   I would classify Karen’s writing as being the Christian version of Jodi Picoult.   She can convey through her writing stories ripped from the headlines well.   This book tackles the topic of drunk driving and how it impacts those around us.   Synopsis: Hannah is waiting for her husband Tom to come back from camping trip with their two daughters Jenny and Alicia. As their arrival becomes, later and later she begins to wonder if something has happened.   On the other side of town Brian has just lost his job although he has been sober, and trying to recover from Alcoholism.   He can’t fight the craving to stop at a bar for a few drinks to drown his sorrows.   He promised his family he would not drink anymore.   Brian leaves the bar and gets behind the wheel his life and three others change forever when he crashes into a family vehicle.   Once Hanna...

Please welcome Laura Heffernan to Writer’s Corner!   Today she is sharing with us  her next novel Reality Wedding .   The third novel in the Reality Star series .   How  many of you have watched the Bachelor, Bachelorette, or Survivor? Do you  remember the memorable couples that became reality television stars?   If so then  Reality Wedding will be the next novel on your list! Synopsis: When Jen Reid escaped a reality TV cruise with her relationship intact-if not  her hair-she swore she was done with the cameras for good. Sure, she and Justin met, had their first kiss, and got engaged with tape rolling, but  manufactured drama and ruthless producers have shaken them up more  times than she can count. With Jen's reality-themed bakery just getting  started and her brand-new lawyer fiancé in a pile of debt, they're a long way  from glitz and glamour, and that's fine by Jen. Until the Network calls and tells ...

Thank you to St. Martin’s Press for giving me a copy of the Lost Season of Love and Snow by Jennifer Laam.   I was given this copy in exchange for an honest review. How many of you have read Jennifer Laam before or are familiar with Russian history?   This is my first time reading one of Jennifer’s books.   I found Russian history fascinating.   When one can take a look back and understand what the Russian society was like back in the early nineteenth century.   She tells the story of Lady Pushkina the great wife of the famous Poet Alexander Pushkin.    What is her story? Synopsis:   Natalya is the youngest sister of Ekatrinia and Azya, and they attend a ball in Moscow.   At this ball, Natalya attracts the attention of Sir Alexander Pushkin the Poet Laureate of Russia.     She is equally attracted to Alexander, and hopes that her mother will say yes to the union.   Natalya’s mother was concerned by the financial a...