I’m so excited that my girls book, Victorious Girls is available! You can find this cute book on Amazon, Barnes and Noble and where ever books are sold.

The book is a story about the Victorious Girls, then flip it over and its a workbook. You can also buy it as an ebook but I think a hard copy is so much better since the child reading it will want to fill in the workbook part.

And here’s a short trailer of our book!

Looking for a good book for your kindle, nook or ipad? Here’s the link to my adult novel, Here if You Need Me!  Perfect beach read for the summer…

As always, happy reading!

I believe the book is loosely based on Bethenny’s own journey from a stuggling natural foods chef to a reality TV star. I found the book to be really fun, a quick read, humorous and the perfect novel to escape into. In fact, the ideal scene plays out like this: you slather your Skinnygirl moisturizer on while applying the Skinnygirl lipgloss, you drink your Skinnygirl Cosmo while paging through Skinnydipping, then later watch Bethenny on tv. She’s taking over the world!!

Here’s a quick synopsis of Skinnydipping:

“Faith Brightstone is an aspiring actress just out of college, who moves to LA determined to have it all—a job on the most popular TV show, a beach house in Malibu, and a gorgeous producer boyfriend. But when reality hits, she finds herself with a gig as a glorified servant, a role that has more to do with T&A than acting, and a dead-end relationship. Finally, Faith decides she’s had enough of La La Land and moves back to New York with just a suitcase and her dog Muffin.

Five years later, Faith has finally found her groove as an entrepreneur and manages to land a spot on a new reality TV show hosted by her idol —the legendary businesswoman and domestic goddess Sybil Hunter. Diving into the bizarre world of reality TV, Faith’s loud mouth and tell-it-like-it-is style immediately get her in trouble with her fellow contestants— the delusional socialite; the boozy lifestyle coach; the moody headband designer; and her closest friend, the ambitious housewife who eventually betrays her. Even Sybil is not what she appears.

As the show comes to a dramatic close, Faith discovers that the man of her dreams may have just walked in to her life. Will she choose fame or love? Or can she have it all?”

The novel took me about two days to read and when I finished, I wanted more! I want to know all about the behind the scenes of filming the Real Housewives and Bethenny’s own television shows. I can’t help but wonder if that will be the plot for book number two? I am looking forward to it!

For more on Bethenny, please go here!

There probably isn’t a mother around who hasn’t at one time or another, picked up the book What To Expect When You’re Expecting! I owned the book and read it every week, if not every day when I was pregnant with my kids so long ago. When I heard there was going to be a movie based on the book, I wondered how the screenwriters would successfully incorporate nine months into two hours. I’m still wondering. The movie looks pretty funny. Will you be heading to the theater to watch this Friday?

Official synopsis:

Over the moon about starting a family, TV fitness guru Jules (Cameron Diaz) and dance show star Evan (Matthew Morrison) find that their high-octane celebrity lives don’t stand a chance against the surprise demands of pregnancy. Baby-crazy author and advocate Wendy (Elizabeth Banks) gets a taste of her own militant mommy advice when pregnancy hormones ravage her body; while Wendy’s husband, Gary (Ben Falcone), struggles not to be outdone by his competitive alpha-Dad (Dennis Quaid), who’s expecting twins with his much younger trophy wife, Skyler (Brooklyn Decker). 

Photographer Holly (Jennifer Lopez) is prepared to travel the globe to adopt a child, but her husband Alex (Rodrigo Santoro) isn’t so sure, and tries to quiet his panic by joining a “dudes” support group, where new fathers get to tell it like it really is.  And rival food truck chefs Rosie (Anna Kendrick) and Marco’s (Chace Crawford) surprise hook-up results in an unexpected quandary: what to do when your first child comes before your first date?

Click below for the trailer! 

http://www.fandango.com/fplayer/player.aspx?mid=120322&mpsguid=2175857682&dm=3&genre=Comedy,&rt=pg13&title=What_To_Expect_When_Youre_Expecting&w=620&h=349&emb=user

I was given Fifty Shades of Grey by E.L. James to read recently. I had heard all the buzz about this novel so I was definitely curious! Have you read it yet? I read something online that its being made into a movie and I kept picturing Ryan Gosling as the debanoir, suave, handsome millionaire, Christian Grey and someone young and beautiful like Amanda Seyfried as the innocent Anastasia Steele.

The premise is pretty simple: Christian meets Ana and they are immediately drawn to each other. The only problem is that Christian is a “dominant” and wants Ana to be his “submissive” so he proposes a three month contract in which she will do everything he wants. He has everything firmly outlined and is at first seeking this sexual relationship, but complications ensue when he begins to fall for her.

It was a pretty quick read despite being over four hundred pages. At first I was stunned by the erotic scenes, not my usual reading genre! As the book went on, I went from “WOW!” to “Eh”. I am curious though, what happens  between the characters in the other two novels in this trilogy. And why is he always wearing soft, worn out jeans when they “do it” ?

If you are in the mood for a steamy read that doesn’t require much brain power, here you go! I liked it enough, didn’t LOVE it and the author certainly doesn’t need my endorsement for it.

If you want a really good novel to sink your teeth into, try one of these:

Angela’s Ashes

The House of Sand and Fog

The Glass Castle

The Secret Life of Bees

In Her Shoes

anything by Caroline Leavitt

anything by Gayle Brandeis

The Kite Runner

WildFlower Hill

Water for Elephants

I’ve long been a fan of Sophia Kinsella, ever since her Shopaholic books came out. When you sit down with her books, you know you are going to have a fun, enjoytable time losing yourself in a cute story.

Her latest novel, I’ve Got Your Number is about a woman named Poppy whose cell phone is stolen. She finds a random phone in a garbage can and this kicks off her adventure. Poppy is soon to be married to Magnus but she begins to develop feelings to someone else thanks to the new phone and more importantly, the person on the other end.

Here’s the Amazon synopsis:

Poppy Wyatt has never felt luckier. She is about to marry her ideal man, Magnus Tavish, but in one afternoon her “happily ever after” begins to fall apart. Not only has she lost her engagement ring in a hotel fire drill but in the panic that follows, her phone is stolen. As she paces shakily around the lobby, she spots an abandoned phone in a trash can. Finders keepers! Now she can leave a number for the hotel to contact her when they find her ring. Perfect!
 
Well, perfect except that the phone’s owner, businessman Sam Roxton, doesn’t agree. He wants his phone back and doesn’t appreciate Poppy reading his messages and wading into his personal life.
 
What ensues is a hilarious and unpredictable turn of events as Poppy and Sam increasingly upend each other’s lives through emails and text messages. As Poppy juggles wedding preparations, mysterious phone calls, and hiding her left hand from Magnus and his parents . . . she soon realizes that she is in for the biggest surprise of her life.

And if you are in the mood for a more serious novel, Im going to recommend Ellis Island by Kate Kerrigan which I loved, and WildFlower Hill by Kimberley Freeman which I have loaned out to countless people and everyone loves it!

I enjoy a good biography now and then and what better book for a beauty lover like myself than this one about Max Factor?  Author Fred E. Basten did an incredible job of detailing the life of Max Factor and I enjoyed every single page.

From humble beginnings in Poland, Max Factor created an amazing beauty empire. I wonder what innovations he’d come up with if he were still alive today? He began his incredible career as a wigmaker, hairdresser and doing makeup for the Romanov family in Russia. He ran a small store where he made his own cosmetics. He eventually moved to the United States and presented, with great success, his makeup and wigs at the World’s Fair in St. Louis.

From there he moved his family to Los Angeles where he set up shop in the theater district. Here he catered to stage actors, making cosmetics and wigs for them. It was a natural progression to begin to work on actors and actresses for film. Max Factor created wigs, hair pieces, cosmetics and more for black and white films. Film stars were clamoring to have their makeup done by Mr. Factor. He ended up working with nearly every famous face of the era.   As film changed from black and white to color, Max changed his formulas to keep up with the  needs of film and later television.

Its a truly amazing career Max Factor had and he did so many things for film and tv. He invented false eyelashes, foundation, rouge, eye brow pencil, concealer and the list goes on and on.

If you love a good biography, I encourage you to pick up a copy of Max Factor: The Man Who Changed the Faces of the World.

I was very lucky- and grateful- to receive an Advanced Reader Copy of this novel several months ago. I liked Allison Winn Scotch’s other novels (I love her book titles!) so I was excited to see what The Song Remains the Same was about.

Here’s the synopsis from Amazon:

One of only two survivors of a plane crash, Nell Slattery wakes in the hospital with no memory of the horrific experience-or who she is, or was. Now she must piece together both body and mind, with the help of family and friends, who have their own agendas. She filters through photos, art, music, and stories, hoping something will jog her memory, and soon, in tiny bits and pieces, Nell starts remembering. . . .

It isn’t long before she learns to question the stories presented by her mother, her sister and business partner, and her husband. In the end, she will discover that forgiving betrayals small and large will be the only true path to healing herself-and to finding happiness.

Besides enjoying Allison’s easy writing style, I was pulled into the book because of the interesting plot- I’m intrigued with the idea you could lose your memory and have to depend on others to fill in the blanks. Not that the book is a mystery but the reader really wants to know the truth about Nell’s life. This is a great book that is quick read. Highly recommended!

I wasn’t sure if I’d like this book, Bond Girl by Erin Duffy. I didn’t  know much about it and didn’t bother reading any reviews before cracking it open. I knew the author had spent time working on Wall Street and the book was recommended in a magazine a few months ago. It ended up being a great weekend read! 

I liked the details about what happens on the trading floor and behind the scenes of a world that I know I will never experience. The story flowed well and I turned the pages quickly. Try this one if you like books such as The Nanny Diaries, The Devil Wears Prada, Bergdorf Blondes. etc.

Synopsis from Amazon :When other little girls were dreaming about becoming doctors or lawyers, Alex Garrett set her sights on conquering the high-powered world of Wall Street. And though she’s prepared to fight her way into an elitist boys’ club, or duck the occasional errant football, she quickly realizes she’s in over her head when she’s relegated to a kiddie-size folding chair with her new moniker—Girlie—inscribed in Wite-Out across the back.

No matter. She’s determined to make it in bond sales at Cromwell Pierce, one of the Street’s most esteemed brokerage firms. Keeping her eyes on the prize, the low Girlie on the totem pole will endure whatever comes her way—whether trekking to the Bronx for a $1,000 wheel of Parmesan cheese; discovering a secretary’s secret Friday night slumber/dance party in the conference room; fielding a constant barrage of “friendly” practical jokes; learning the ropes from Chick, her unpredictable, slightly scary, loyalty-demanding boss; babysitting a colleague while he consumes the contents of a vending machine on a $28,000 bet; or eluding the advances of a corporate stalker who’s also one of the firm’s biggest clients.

Ignoring her friends’ pleas to quit, Alex excels (while learning how to roll with the punches and laugh at herself) and soon advances from lowly analyst to slightly-less-lowly associate. Suddenly, she’s addressed by her real name, and the impenetrable boys’ club has transformed into forty older brothers and one possible boyfriend. Then the apocalypse hits, and Alex is forced to choose between sticking with Cromwell Pierce as it teeters on the brink of disaster or kicking off her Jimmy Choos and running for higher ground.

The book I finally settled on reading last night is a Young Adult novel, not particularly my genre of choice but I found myself liking the story and the authors writing.

Here is a synopsis of the book:

Despite the tumor-shrinking medical miracle that has bought her a few years, Hazel has never been anything but terminal, her final chapter inscribed upon diagnosis. But when a gorgeous plot twist named Augustus Waters suddenly appears at Cancer Kid Support Group, Hazel’s story is about to be completely rewritten.

I’m only about halfway thru but will probably finish it very soon. Here’s a good book that I was reading when my avalanche of library books came in:

Girl Unmoored by Jennifer Gooch Hummer. This book has a promising beginning and I’m anxious to dive back into it.  I loved the author’s writing style and with glowing reviews from Gayle Brandeis and Caroline Leavitt, how can I not enjoy it?

Synopsis:

Apron Bramhall has come unmoored. Fortunately, she’s about to be saved by Jesus. Not that Jesus—the actor who plays him in Jesus Christ Superstar. Apron is desperate to avoid the look-alike Mike, who’s suddenly everywhere, until she’s stuck in church with him one day. Then something happens—Apron’s broken teenage heart blinks on for the first time since she’s been adrift.

Mike and his boyfriend, Chad, offer her a summer job in their flower store, and Apron’s world seems to calm. But when she uncovers Chad’s secret, stormy seas return. Apron starts to see things the adults around her fail to—like what love really means, and who is paying too much for it.  Apron has come unmoored, but now she’ll need to take the helm if she’s to get herself and those she loves to safe harbor.

Are you missing Downton Abbey and looking for a way to pass the time? Let me recommend this compelling novel by Natasha Solomons, The House at Tyneford.

Set in England at the start of World War II, this is the story  of Elisa, a young Jewish woman in Austria. She is sent away to England to work as a housemaid for Mr. Christopher Rivers at the Tyneford estate. Her parents tell her they are headed to America and Elisa must stay in England while they secure visas then they will send for her. Elisa is devestated, she doesn’t want to be in England and she certainly does not want to be a maid, especially when her family employed help back in Vienna, this is not how Elisa wants to live.

Her attitude changes when Mr. Rivers son Kit comes home to Tyneford. He and Elisa strike up a friendship which carries them through the next few turbulent years as war begins to break out.

I enjoyed this book and read it quickly as I do with all books I get hooked on! I could just imagine the grand Tyneford house, the servants and young Elisa, polishing the silver and dusting. This book was inspired by real life women who gave up their privileged lives to escape Nazi Europe and gain employment as maids in England. I highly recommend The House at Tyneford.