Bring On Lemons

  With the holiday season around the corner, a cozy Christmas read is just what we need to get into the spirit of the season! Author Barbara Barth has just released her novella A Wingman for Christmas and it's a must-read for Christmas! A bit about her novel: The annual Sweet Water, Georgia, Christmas parade is nearing but relationships are fractured on Wild Rose Lane. Antique dealer Cheryl Calloway's holiday spirit has tanked. It's been a horrible year with her divorce, her ex marrying younger and perkier Miriam across the street, and Mama moving into Cheryl's Victorian cottage with her Amazon parrot right before Thanksgiving. A party girl in her eighties, Mama smokes up a storm, likes her nightly vodka, has a hankering for men, and now a wingman named Nigel. If that isn't enough, the Historical Society wants Cheryl to clean up all the projects on her porch waiting to go to Spivey's Antique Mall for their Christmas Open House. Her desire to work her booth is ...

  I'm excited to be here today as part of a WOW! Women on Writing book blog tour with author Linda Stewart Henley for her book Waterbury Winter.  Thank you Nicole from WOW! for the invitation to read and review this delightful novel.  A bit about the book: Barnaby Brown has had enough of freezing winters, insurmountable debt, a dead-end job, and his solitary life as a young widower with no one but his beloved parrot Popsicle. He yearns to move to California and reawaken his long-lost early life as an artist. But new troubles come in threes. His ancient car crashes into a snowbank. Popsicle escapes through a window carelessly left open.  A New York gallery owner offers to represent Barnaby’s paintings—but is he on the up-and-up? All of it serves to shock Barnaby into confronting how low he has sunk, and he vows—again and again—to change. He has a few obstacles, starting with his heavy drinking and long-term neglect of his ancestral home. As he takes steps toward a b...

The calendar says spring, but we had snow falling yet the beginning of this week...  I am hopeful spring is on it's way and I have an exciting book blog tour to keep me warm! WOW! Women on Writing is helping promote another wonderful book for an absolutely amazing and super-talented author This time it's a mystery/romance book titled: Bloody Coffee  by author Michelle Dim-St.-Pierre. This book isn't even available on Amazon yet, but early readers already giving it fabulous reviews! I have the PDF and can provide it right away if you'd like to get reading - you won't want to wait! Please contact me today to reserve your copy and participate in this tour. If you've never participated in a tour, feel free to inquire and I'll be happy to explain how it works - you don't even have to have your own blog! Send an email today to participate - email address: crystal@wow-womenonwriting.com or crystaljotto@gmail.com Be sure to include the following: * The...

Thank you WOW! Women on Writing for this opportunity to read and review The Beginner's Guide to Winning an Election - by Michael R. French. Michael R. French’s WOW! WOMEN ON WRITING TOUR OF The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election • Paperback: 272 pages • Publisher: 2018907650 (November 25, 2018) • Language: English • ISBN-10: 1732511705 • ISBN-13: 978-1732511705 Amazon Link: click here The Beginner’s Guide to Winning an Election The year is 2025. The United States is afflicted with global cyber attacks, economic crashes, foreign wars, and lots of anxiety. State budgets for public schools are hit hard . In a student body president race in a small city Indiana high school, popular, charismatic Matthew has his own consultants, bloggers, oppo researchers, and funds from an unidentified source that have helped him win every election since ninth grade. Over-achieving, introverted Britain is a novice to elections, but as a history wonk, politics fascinate her. S...

Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto Awesome storytelling can be found in the fast paced mystery Once Upon a Lie by Michael French! This book does not disappoint. I love how journaling plays such a special role in the story. I can't wait to read more books by Michael French. The story of O nce Upon a Lie is captivating from cover to cover. This is a very quick read because the characters draw you in from the very beginning. The plot is well developed and even though it is a work of fiction, there are many topics that readers can relate to (race relations, love, mother child relationships, etc...). The characters of Jaleel and Alex will stick with you long after you've finished the final pages of this thrilling novel. The unlikely friendship of the two main characters isn't short lived and it's enjoyable to watch how that friendship grows and changes over the years. This is a book that will appeal to many, because just like real life, there are so many layers to t...

Put Sweet Lake by Christine Nolfi on your wish list and you won't be disappointed! I'm super blessed to have been given an advanced reader copy - the rest of you will have to wait until February 28th to pick up your copy on Amazon.   It is however available now for pre-order, so head on over today and reserve a copy of your own! Cheers, ~Crystal Official Book Summary: Linnie Wayfair knows just how many people are counting on her. But knowing doesn’t make doing any easier. Everyone in Sweet Lake, Ohio, wants her to muster all her business sense and return the Wayfair Inn to its former glory. Her parents hope she’ll forgive her scoundrel of a brother and reconcile the family. The eccentric Sweet Lake Sirens want her to open the inn—and her heart—to new possibilities. And her hilarious lifelong friends Jada and Cat are dropping none-too-subtle hints for her to ignite a romance with Daniel Kettering, the sexy attorney who’s been pining for her for years… Now a shocki...

The Fading of Lloyd embroils the reader in family history as members struggle through historic challenges: the end of the American frontier, the dawn of railroad travel that wove Midwest communities together, World War I, and the social mores of the 1920s and 1930s. The Huttleston family, whose son, Lloyd, is mentally retarded, struggles to cope with the difficulties encountered with his care. After he is diagnosed schizophrenic and institutionalized, Lloyd dies during shock therapy. The Fading of Lloyd poses many questions by revealing a family’s journey with mental retardation and the actions of an insane asylum in early 20th century. Armed with today’s knowledge, this journey is filled with tragic realizations and even horror at what were considered “norms” at the time. Product Details File Size: 3756 KB Print Length: 129 pages Publisher: Golden Word Books (January 27, 2017) Publication Date: January 27, 2017 Sold by: Amazon Digital Services LLC Language: English A...

REVIEW of Michael French’s “ONCE UPON A Lie” by Linda Appleman Shapiro , Psychotherapist/Addictions Counselor/Mental Health Advocate/ Oral Historian/Blogger and Author of the acclaimed memoir, She’s Not Herself: A Psychotherapist’s Journey Into and Beyond Her Mother’s Mental Illness As the pages of this fictional narrative race along, the old adage “truth is stranger than fiction” appears to lose its validity. Though it is at first tempting to view Once Upon A Lie as too contrived, too unbelievable, French’s gift for imposing an immediacy and authenticity to his narrative immediately stops us from wondering whether he is simply fabricating a story so replete with coincidences and an inconceivable confluence of events. As with many of the world’s great writers – Tolstoy, Dostoevsky, Proust, Dickens, and this century’s Wally Lamb, to name but a few of my favorites – French’s Once Upon A Lie is, as he described it in a recent interview, akin to a “layered tapestry.” Through each o...

Thank you WOW! Women on Writing and the lovely Jodi Webb for inviting me to be part of this book blog tour of The Translator: A Novel by Nina Schuyler. Review by Crystal J. Casavant-Otto After having read The Translator , I feel like I have gained an entirely new perspective in regards to communication. This may have been a book about Hanne Schubert and her experiences, but in reading The Translator I feel compelled to learn more about communication and foreign culture. Nina Schuyler may be a newer author, but she does a wonderful job drawing the reader into the story. I felt an overall message of "don't be afraid to jump right in and embrace life" as Schuyler's eloquent writing style hit upon the reality of what Hanne Schubert was experiencing. Here are some things I would tell others who may be interested in reading The Translator : Great story line Moved along at a comfortable pace Well written Believable characters Excellent attention to deta...

Thank you to WOW! Women on Writing for asking us to participate in this awesome tour! REVIEW by guest blogger Linda Juul This book has scatterings of Scottish and Indian superstitions woven throughout it. Feather (who changed her name from a family name of Heather) is an old hippie. At one time she lived in a commune and named her son Weed. Now she leads a more conventional life, although she still dresses in somewhat of a hippie style. One day her mother, Bubbles, gets a letter saying that after 70 years someone has found her mothers’ ashes and they want to return them to her. So Feather and Bubbles embark on a journey from Canada to Mexico City to claim the long lost ashes of Bubbles’ mother who ran away when Bubbles was a young girl. She can’t wait to be reunited with her mother. Bubbles will be celebrating her 90th birthday, she may be 90 but she certainly doesn’t think like a 90 year old woman. She has a boyfriend at her senior living center but he’s rather boring. She’s...