Six Things That Make Us Happy

Generally, we don't post memes, but its been a while since we've done an "About Us" post, so we thought we'd particpate just this once:

Six Things That Make Us Happy:

1. Reading!!!


2. Good TV (don't knock it, that's how the three of us met!)


3. Strong Female Characters
   
4. Jenn: cooking for family and friends


5. Julie: family


6. Lisa: sleep or wine - they're the same thing really

Footnote:

The Rules are a follows:

Link to the person who has tagged you (Serena). Write down six things that make you happy. Post the rules then tag six others (the ladies at Trashionista, Stephanie's Written Word, Tiny Little Reading Room, Online Publicist, Book Talk with J & J, & Errant Dreams) and let them know you did it. When your entry is complete, tell the person who tagged you.

And the Winner Is.......

Congratulations to Judyv12306 & Bookoholic13 for each winning a copy of Michelle Moran's The Heretic Queen.

Congratulations to Pagius1 for winning a copy of Michelle Moran's Nefertiti.

Want to know how I did it? I listed each commentor sequentially; then I visited the handy dandy Random.org and it produced the numbers "9,2,1".

Thank you all for participating in our giveaway! Surely there'll be more books to giveaway, so please keep your eyes peeled to this blog.

Pagius1, Bookoholic13 & Judyv12306, just send us an email and we'll forward your information on to Michelle Moran for mailing.

Jenn's Review: Hard Stop

Summary: Sam Acquillo is getting to be a lot more sociable. People are constantly dropping by, including guys in black outfits with .45 automatics breaking into his cottage in the middle of the night.

Though on doctor's orders to stay clear of violence and mayhem, Sam does what's needed to encourage a candid conversation with the home invader, with surprising results. Suddenly Sam's past reaches out to pull him back into the world of big money and even bigger egos, where the term "corporate intrigue" is redundant and ambition the only virtue. It seems a person important to the private life of a very important person has gone missing in the Hamptons. And it looks like the best way to get her back is to extort Sam's cooperation.

After finally achieving some measure of peace and contentment on the tip of Oak Point, overlooking the Little Peconic Bay, Sam is yet again an accidental player in other people's dramas. It takes him into the world of private security goons, predatory financiers and lifestyles of young hedonists, some brave, some beautiful, all a bit lost. But this time there's some added incentive. An opportunity Sam thought he'd never see again. The chance to get a bit of his old life back. The only piece he might actually want.

With lawyer Jackie Swaitkowski and cop friend Joe Sullivan reluctantly in tow, and the beautiful Amanda Anselma, fisherman Paul Hodges and mutt Eddie Van Halen eager to lend a hand, Sam is back on the quest.

This time with a few ambitions of his own, which lead him into something all his battles in the ring and corporate boardroom could never have prepared him for. ~amazon.com

Review: I requested this book from LibraryThing's Early Reviewer's (due out in May), because it came off as witty in the blurb. When I received this book from Library Thing, I was a little dismayed to discover this book was mid-series. I hate starting in the middle of a series. The publisher, however, was nice enough to include a brief overview of the previous books in the series so I didn't feel too lost. So for the most part, I'm reviewing this as a stand alone novel, because that's my frame of reference.

The plot was solid and the reader is kept in the dark until the very end. This helped me press on because there are a lot of characters in his book, and while I'm sure may of them were introduced in previous novels, it was difficult for someone new to his work to keep track of them all. I had to keep going back and looking up the names of the people he was investigating, and those were new characters, for the most part.

I had a hard time engaging with any of the characters. We briefly meet Sam's daughter a few times. Sam's girlfriend, Amanda, swoops in and out. She's supportive yet eerily blasé, flitting in and out with cocktails and hors d'oeuvres oftentimes serving the intruders! There are lawyers who work for free, which I can understand if they're friends, but the legwork Jackie does for Sam makes her seem more like his personal shrive (part administrative assistant, part gumshoe). There are cops that share way too much information and bend way too many rules (yes they're friends, but really!!!). There are ambivalent henchmen and quirky assassins.

I also felt that Knopf's denouement was a little rapid. The case was solved but not fully resolved, and the wrap up is left a little open ended. It sort of felt like a crash landing.

All in all, this should have made for an entertaining read, but by the end, I was underwhelmed. Maybe I went in with the wong expectations, perhaps it's just because it's the middle of the series, but from what I can surmise, Chris Knopf is not as witty as his blurb writer.

Final Take 3.8/5

Julie's Review: The Agency

Summary: Meet Tess Drake. She’s earned everything she has. Now it’s time to get what she deserves…Sexy super-agent Tess Drake has worked hard to make a name for herself in the glamorous yet cut-throat entertainment industry. Tess works at an international agency, where she skillfully manages some of the world's biggest egos—her company, Bardwell International operates in the thrilling, fast-paced worlds of Rights, wrongs and revenge. Tess has been an agent there for longer than she cares to remember and now she's in trouble. Real trouble. After the mysterious death of the agency's senior partner, Lowell Bardwright, Tess's sworn enemy, Cosima Tate, has taken over and would do anything to send Tess's career down in flames. And Cosima is only one of the rogue’s gallery of agents in London and New York who want Tess to take a fall. Tess has another little complication, too. She’s sleeping with men on both sides of the Atlantic who are in bed with the women who are trying to sink her.

Can Tess jump ship without losing her clients and breaking her heart? Or will she lose everything before finding out if she really has what it takes to do what she’s always wanted? There’s risk and reward in this wickedly funny novel that turns the world of agenting inside out and lays bare all the ambition, sex, adrenaline, bad luck, and good luck at the center of one young woman’s success. ~StMartinspress.com

Review: The Agency is a fun, witty, quick read. I received this book through LibraryThing's Early Reviewers and am so I glad I requested it. I love anything about the Entertainment industry and this book was about the little written about world of Publishing Agents. What a world it is. I know that most lines of business are cut throat but this business takes the cake, in my opinion.

You can't help but like Tess even if she's brash and has a "no holds barred" attitude, but she's honest and knows her flaws; one of them is thinking with the nether regions of her body. That gets her into trouble all the time.

Tess is at the point in her life and career where she's ready to break out on her own and start her own agency. The problem is that her boss just died and there's a new boss in town and she's not exactly a big fan of Tess. We meet Dorothy, Tess' biggest and most successful client and she's up for a new contract. Tess wants to keep her without a deal until she can break out on her own. This is where the fun starts.

The cast of characters is fun from her assistant Emma, her married lover "Darcy", her dear friend Sally, her other client Oliver and a few more. Time is over the essence when you are going out on your own and the book doesn't cover more than a couple weeks in time. This lends itself to a very quick pace and it keeps you on your toes.

I can't say a whole lot because it'll give the novel away. I can see that there is a pretty big twist that I did not see a mile away but there is something else that occurs that I figured out towards the middle of the book. I didn't mind because it was Tess' realization of everything going on around her that makes the book savvy and entertaining. I think one part of the ending is a bit unrealistic but not so much that I think it's not possible. After all the book is about the entertainment industry.

I'd like to see Tess come back in another novel; following her into the next phase of her life. Seeing how things are turning out for her. I highly recommend picking up The Agency for a good read. It would be a perfect beach/vacation book. I devoured it fairly quick.

Final Take: 4/5

Giveaway: Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen

We are so excited to have the opportunity to be giving away Michelle Moran's books: Nefertiti and The Heretic Queen. Ms. Moran has offered us the ability to giveaway 2 autographed copies of The Heretic Queen and 1 autographed copy of Nefertiti .

Please leave a comment here by February 5th Midnight EST to be automatically entered. The winners will be announced on Friday, February 6th.

If you'd like to find out more about Michelle Moran, please check out her website Michelle Moran.

Lisa's Review: The Other Queen

Summary:

This dazzling novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Philippa Gregory presents a new and unique view of one of history's most intriguing, romantic, and maddening heroines. Biographers often neglect the captive years of Mary, Queen of Scots, who trusted Queen Elizabeth's promise of sanctuary when she fled from rebels in Scotland and then found herself imprisoned as the "guest" of George Talbot, Earl of Shrewsbury, and his indomitable wife, Bess of Hardwick.

The newly married couple welcome the doomed queen into their home, certain that serving as her hosts and jailers will bring them an advantage in the cutthroat world of the Elizabethan court. To their horror, they find that the task will bankrupt them, and as their home becomes the epicenter of intrigue and rebellion against Elizabeth, their loyalty to each other and to their sovereign comes into question. If Mary succeeds in seducing the earl into her own web of treachery and treason, or if the great spymaster William Cecil links them to the growing conspiracy to free Mary from her illegal imprisonment, they will all face the headsman.

Philippa Gregory uses new research and her passion for historical accuracy to place a well-known heroine in a completely new tale full of suspense, passion, and political intrigue. For years, readers have clamored for Gregory to tell Mary's story, and The Other Queen is the result of her determination to present a novel worthy of this extraordinary heroine.

Review:

Other than my review of The Other Boleyn Girl movie and Julie's Review of the book, this is my first experience with Philippa Gregory. The Other Queen focuses on the first three years of Mary Stuart's captivity in England and it was definitely interesting. The research seemed to be well done and the little digging I did on my own, seemed to match up. Frankly, if anything there wasn't true, I wouldn't be able to poke any holes, so I have to trust her research.

The novel is well written. It is told from the point of view of the three main characters, George, his wife Bess, and Queen Mary. George is an earl given what he believes to be the honorable task of hosting the Queen until she is restored to her throne in Scotland. He is soon mistaken as he becomes infatuated with the beautiful young queen . Bess, is a shrewd "business woman" or, you know, golddigger, who sees the keeping of the queen as an opportunity to advance her fortunes as well as those of her children. She is soon mistaken because Mary is a queen and expects to be treated as such. Mary is portrayed as an arrogant beauty, who believes that her claims to the thrones of France, Scotland, and England makes her untouchable.

I believe Ms. Gregory made a mistake choosing to write about this point in Mary's story. A lot of backstory has to get filled in with excessive exposition. The first three years of Mary's captivity are filled with plots to free her, one of which came close to succeeding, however, characters are hardly, if ever a part of the action and the story certainly suffers for it. With fifteen years of captivity left when the book ends, the story is wrapped up all to neatly and Mary's march to execution was relayed in dream sequence. Seriously? Hmm, definitely not what I was expecting.

All in all, I didn't hate this book, mostly I wasn't sure what to expect, so my reaction is mostly ambivalent.

Final Take: 3/5

Related: Other works by Philippa Gregory