Goodreads Book Giveaway
Competing with the Starby Krysten Lindsay HagerGiveaway ends July 01, 2017. See the giveaway details at Goodreads.
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 I Am A Reader is hosting a $50 Amazon gift card giveaway for Dating the It Guy. To enter just head over to her blog here: www.iamareader.com/2017/06/50-giveaway-dating-the-it-guy-by-krysten-lindsay-hager.html The book is on sale for 99 cents this week on Amazon (and all the Amazon international pages) and on Barnes & Noble. So go check out I Am A Reader's post and enter to win! Good luck!  Motherhood Martyrdom & Costco Runs by Whitney DineenMy rating: 5 of 5 stars Funny, moving, honest, and hard to put down. Dineen will have you laughing and nodding as she shares her tales about motherhood and changing from a fast paced lifestyle to life in the Costco lane. Although the book will have you cracking up, she also shares the very real side of postpartum depression and dealing with family illness. This is a very funny and realistic book on parenthood. Would be great for book clubs! View all my reviews  In honor of Father's Day I wanted to share this post that I wrote after my Dad's funeral. Father's Day is so hard without him and I've been feeling it, so I thought about the best way to honor him and decided to share some of the things he taught us over the years. There are so many things I learned from my father over the years. My friends always said Dad gave them the best advice (especially when it came to relationships, career, and raising kids) and after his passing we heard from numerous students of his who shared his impact on their lives as well. In fact, we heard so many great stories about how Dad made a difference in the lives of students who had gotten a “troublemaker” label about how he showed he cared and made them see they had a lot more to offer. Hearing how he impacted several people to turn their lives around was so inspiring. As many of you know, Dad was the inspiration for my teen character, Landry’s, father, Mr. Albright. Landry always turns to her dad for advice when she doesn’t know what to do because that's what I always did. I’ve had a lot of readers and book reviewers comment on the “wise advice” and “wisdom” in Best Friends…Forever? and Landry in Like on how to deal with frenemies and friend issues, stress, school and that’s all due to the great insight Dad shared over the years. Since I share so much of his wisdom in the series about dealing with friends and other people (the man really knew his stuff on relationships and friendships!), I thought I’d pick just a few other things to share with you about Dad. Dad Lessons *Follow your passion, not a paycheck. Too many people go for the paycheck, but at the end of the day you have to ask yourself—is that enough? Is what you're doing going to help people? Dad often wondered if he should have stayed in counseling because he wanted to help young people find their way in the world and guide them, but we now see how he had a bigger impact helping the kids who needed guidance the most in his school system due to the messages we have received from students who said, "he took the time to really listen to me and not just punish me like everyone before him had," "He cared. No one else had, but he did and I turned my life around." *Always keep your word. Your reputation is so important. Keep your commitments and your word. After he passed, the last thing I wanted to do was admin work and keep up with interviews and commitments I had made prior to his hospitalization. No, I wanted to hide out on my couch with a big bowl of chocolate coconut ice cream and cry. But I knew that wasn't honoring what he taught me, so each day I have gotten up and handled the admin side of my career because you always keep your commitments. *How to unclog a toilet. To show you how impressive he was as a toilet “un-clogger,” he taught me how to do this over the phone. *Always say a prayer. However, he told me this might not be enough to unclog a toilet and that I may indeed need to use a plunger. *Listen to people. They tell you everything you need to know about them if you just take the time to really hear them. And sometimes people just need to be heard. *Always wear a scarf in the winter. Some of this was for protection from the cold, but let it not go unnoticed that the man knew how to accessorize. That gleaming white scarf and black fedora were always on when he went for a walk around the block. *Let people make their own mistakes. If you offer unwanted advice then they become defensive. When I confided in him about a friend who was engaged to someone who wasn’t right for her, he told me to just nod and let her do all the talking and not bad mouth the guy. He said she’d eventually come around to realize that it wasn’t a good situation. It was hard to hold my tongue, but he was right. *Take time to appreciate art. Mom and Dad went to art museums a lot when they were dating and he and I had a great time at the Detroit Institute of Art a few years ago. He loved museums and learning about history and different cultures. He also jumped at the chance to see any plays or shows I got free tickets to as a journalist. *Buy quality clothing. My dad was my favorite shopping buddy. He knew all the best places to buy designer stuff and get great discounts. We never saw him in jeans. The most dressed down we ever saw him was when he wore a sweatsuit on days he was taking a sick day from work. And even then it was a Christian Dior sweatsuit—no joke. He even mowed the lawn in nice pants and a golf shirt. Even now I find I can't giveaway any of the clothes we bought together. There are memories there. *How to make…wait for it…goulash. He taught Mom how to make this and later, me. He could also make a mean cup of hot chocolate. *Education, learning, and books are always good investments. Dad was always buying us extra books to help us write papers and essays for school. There were several history classes I took in college and grad school where he read all the books I was assigned and even the ones I bought extra as research for my papers. He kept stacks on the tables in his “man room” of all the books from my classes and also the ones I got for review for the newspaper that interested him. He often read the books for my classes before I did and then he’d suggest topics for my papers. Some of his favorite books were on WWII history, books on Mary Queen of Scots, Bloody Mary, and Queen Elizabeth the 1st, several of the Popes (especially Pope Pius XII and John Paul II), and baseball biographies on Ted Williams, Ty Cobb, and Sandy Koufax. *Stay current on events. I got my love of the news from Dad. Growing up we had at least two new daily newspapers coming in a day and he’d watch all the news shows (as well as the boring stock shows. I can hum the Wall St. Week theme song). He also read all the news magazines at the library. When 9/11 happened, Dad was now working in real estate with my mom and he was on a house tour. He was in a separate car from my mom and she told me that everyone in his group came back to the office saying, “Who is Bin Laden? Bruce says he thinks Bin Laden is behind this attack—who is he talking about?” I knew who that was because I, a news junkie like my dad, had been reading up on the U.S.S. Cole attack because he had been discussing it with me. *Show up looking professional. Naturally he wore a suit and tie when he worked as an assistant principal, but later in real estate he would do open houses and he always wore a jacket and tie. The other guys mostly wore golf shirts, but Dad wouldn’t hear of it. And he always wore a jacket and tie on appointments or even going to the office for paperwork. *Treat everyone the same. Exactly the same. After Dad passed, my cousin Ben commented that Dad’s lessons and words live on through the impact he made on his students and how his advice lives on in the Landry’s True Colors Series. I never thought about that when writing--I just thought, Dad would know how to handle this situation and now it makes me smile knowing another generation with be impacted by his advice. He always wanted to help young people find their way in the world and now he still will. ♥♥♥   My publisher, Clean Reads, is doing a special summer sale! Different books will be on sale throughout the summer and Dating the It Guy is on sale for the first part of June. The book is on sale for 99 cents on all the Amazon sites and Barnes and Noble's site. You can find it here:
Amazon: www.amazon.com/dp/B06XBFRX47 Amazon UK: amzn.to/2swSVKX Barnes and Noble: bit.ly/2m5y9OC Amazon Canada: amzn.to/2sattNO Amazon IN: amzn.to/2rXLy1V Amazon Germany: amzn.to/2rEBmZ9 Amazon Italy: amzn.to/2ruhPMM Amazon Australia: amzn.to/2qZgb1Y  ~~ More Beginnings ~~ by Iris Blobel
AMAZON US: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071F7FPQ9/
AMAZON UK: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B071F7FPQ9/ AMAZON AU: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B071F7FPQ9/
♥♦♥ BLURB ♥♦♥
 Zach Taylor, an escort in Sydney, living in Hobart, enlists the help of Natasha Peterson when his teenage friend, Mia, runs away. He soon finds out that the ‘dragon’ is really more of a kitten. And although Natasha, Mia’s teacher, is attracted to him as well, she has her own problems to deal with, not to mention her initial reaction to Zach’s occupation.Will Zach’s job keep him from a chance to be with Natasha? Life is good for teenager Mia Levesque. But when Darren Schuster shows up in Hobart, she knows something is up once Sophie and Mark cut their weekend away short and rush home in the middle of the night. When Sophie won’t answer Mia’s questions, emotions run high, and Zach confirms Darren’s identity to Mia. Disappointed, angry, and feeling alone, Mia runs away. Will life settle back into a routine for Mia once she finds out about the stranger in her life? New Beginnings have given the Levesque girls a new start in life, will More Beginnings be another chance for them?
♥♦♥ EXCERPT ♥♦♥
Zach Taylor’s young neighbour, Mia, let out a long sigh as she joined him on his front porch and sat next to him on the swing. Enjoying a cool lemonade, he invited her to grab a soft drink from the fridge as well. It was a warm summer day, and the air showed no sign of cooling down. A lot of people in Hobart were weary of the unusual hot spell for the very southern Australian city.
With another hefty sigh, Mia raked through her long, blond hair and stared into the distance. “Honestly, Zach, she’s a dragon. I’m sure she does it on purpose. She doesn’t like me. She thinks I’m spoilt.â€
The dragon in question was Miss Peterson, Mia’s high school English teacher. There was no doubt that Mia liked school, and she enjoyed her classes. And even though English wasn’t her worst subject, it certainly was the toughest one, with Miss Peterson piling on homework one after the other.
Zach took a sip of his drink before he replied, “Hey, pumpkin, settle down. What’s that supposed to mean you’re ‘spoilt’?â€
She lifted her shoulder in a slight shrug. “You know!â€
Raising his brows, he replied, “Actually I don’t know! Isn’t she Sophie’s good friend?â€
Another shrug. “Kind of, I suppose. They used to do the boxing stuff together, and since Soph’s carrying a baby, they go and enjoy coffee and cake instead every once in a while.â€
Ignoring his chuckle, she went inside and helped herself to cold lemonade. She opened the can with a simple click as she returned outside and took a long sip.
♥♦♥ MEET THE AUTHOR ♥♦♥ IRIS BLOBEL Iris Blobel was born and raised in Germany and only immigrated to Australia in the late 1990s. Having had the travel bug most of her life, Iris spent quite some time living in Scotland, London as well as Canada where she met her husband. Her love for putting her stories onto paper has only emerged recently, but now her laptop is a constant companion. Iris resides west of Melbourne with her husband and her two beautiful daughters. Next to her job at a private school, she also presents a German Program at the local Community Radio. Social Media Links: Click here to subscribe to Iris’ Newsletter Facebook ♠Twitter ♠Goodreads ♠Bookbub ♠Instagram ♠Bookbub ♠|
AuthorAuthor of the Landry's True Colors Series, the Cecily Taylor Series, the Star Series, and Dating the It Guy. Archives
April 2023
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