Holiday Song & Book Want 1

Instead of an advent calendar, for the holiday season I will share some holiday music and books on my want list for the days before Christmas.

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All I Want for Christmas is You
sung by Fifth Harmony
lyrics by Mariah Carey

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree

I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you, yeah.

I don't want a lot for Christmas
There is just one thing I need
And I don't care about the presents
Underneath the Christmas tree

I don't need to hang my stocking
There upon the fireplace
Santa Claus won't make me happy
With a toy on Christmas Day

I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
All I want for Christmas is you
You, baby

Oh, I won't ask for much this Christmas
I won't even wish for snow
And I'm just gonna keep on waiting
Underneath the mistletoe

I won't make a list and send it
To the North Pole for Saint Nick
I won't even stay awake to
Hear those magic reindeer click

'Cause I just want you here tonight
Holding on to me so tight
What more can I do?
Baby, all I want for Christmas is you
You, baby

Oh, all the lights are shining
So brightly everywhere
And the sound of children's
Laughter fills the air

And everyone is singing
I hear those sleigh bells ringing
Santa, won't you bring me the one I really need?
Won't you please bring my baby to me?

Oh, I don't want a lot for Christmas
This is all I'm asking for
I just want to see my baby
Standing right outside my door

Oh, I just want you for my own
More than you could ever know
Make my wish come true
Baby, all I want for Christmas is you
You, baby

All I want for Christmas is you, baby
All I want for Christmas is you, baby
All I want for Christmas is you, baby
All I want for Christmas is you, baby

~*~
This would be a treat to see under the xmas tree...

You
by Caroline Kepnes
Amazon | Goodreads
From debut author Caroline Kepnes comes You, one of Suspense Magazine’s Best Books of 2014, and a brilliant and terrifying novel for the social media age.

When a beautiful, aspiring writer strides into the East Village bookstore where Joe Goldberg works, he does what anyone would do: he Googles the name on her credit card.

There is only one Guinevere Beck in New York City. She has a public Facebook account and Tweets incessantly, telling Joe everything he needs to know: she is simply Beck to her friends, she went to Brown University, she lives on Bank Street, and she’ll be at a bar in Brooklyn tonight—the perfect place for a “chance” meeting.

As Joe invisibly and obsessively takes control of Beck’s life, he orchestrates a series of events to ensure Beck finds herself in his waiting arms. Moving from stalker to boyfriend, Joe transforms himself into Beck’s perfect man, all while quietly removing the obstacles that stand in their way—even if it means murder.

A terrifying exploration of how vulnerable we all are to stalking and manipulation, debut author Caroline Kepnes delivers a razor-sharp novel for our hyper-connected digital age. You is a compulsively readable page-turner that’s being compared to Gone Girl, American Psycho, and Stephen King’s Misery.

-----> Books on the Nightstand says the audio version is OMG! It is narrated by Santino Fontana (fyi: voice of Hans from Frozen)

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* image source: 1920s xmas card

Giveaway: Who R U Really? by Margo Kelly

Who R U Really?
by Margo Kelly
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Kobo
The Book Depository | Merit Press | Goodreads
Thea’s overprotective parents are driving her insane. They invade her privacy, ask too many questions, and restrict her online time so severely that Thea feels she has no life at all. When she discovers a new role-playing game online, Thea breaks the rules by staying up late to play. She’s living a double life: on one hand, the obedient daughter; on the other, a girl slipping deeper into darkness. In the world of the game, Thea falls under the spell of Kit, an older boy whose smarts and savvy can’t defeat his loneliness and near-suicidal despair. As Kit draws soft-hearted Thea into his drama, she creates a full plate of cover stories for her parents and then even her friends.

Soon, Thea is all alone in the dark world with Kit, who worries her more and more, but also seems to be the only person who really “gets” her. Is he frightening, the way he seems sometimes, or only terribly sad? Should Thea fear Kit, or pity him? And now, Kit wants to come out of the screen and bring Thea into his real-life world. As much as she suspects that this is wrong, Thea is powerless to resist Kit’s allure, and hurtles toward the same dark fate her parents feared most. Ripped from a true-life story of Internet stalking, Who R U Really? will excite you and scare you, as Thea’s life spins out of control.

Excerpt:

When Tim’s eyes, bluer than an Idaho sky, met mine, my mind turned to mush. He towered above everyone else at the bus stop, and on this cold January morning he looked cuter than ever with his bomber hat and rosy cheeks. He shoved his sidekick, Josh, jokingly, and a cloud of white air escaped Tim’s mouth.

My best friend, Janie, whacked me on the hip. “Omigosh, Thea. Here they come. Smile.”

Her words bounced in rhythm with her black ringlets. She adjusted her new fluffy snow white parka, and even though it had a hood, she would never smash her perfect curls simply to stay warm. The crisp air made the tip of her nose red, but the rest of her face remained alabaster white. We’d been best friends for years, and at fourteen, having a friend made the ninth grade bearable.

Janie hoped Josh and Tim would ask us to the Winter Solstice dance, but I just hoped to speak to Tim without sounding like a complete idiot. Tim walked in our direction with Josh right on his heels. They stopped in front of us, and everyone else hovered to watch the show.

“Thea,” Tim said. I wanted to reply, but no words came.

Josh approached Janie, and I fidgeted with my favorite fuzzy pink scarf.

“Jan-eee,” Josh said, dragging out the last syllable of her name. He eyed her up and down. “You look like a giant fat marshmallow.”

Praise for the book:

"Kelly's first novel is a suspenseful page-turner with multiple suspects, a little bit of romance, and a strong but not overbearing message." --Kirkus Reviews

"Suspenseful novel that's guaranteed to give readers goosebumps--particularly as events heat up toward the end. A good choice for families to read together." --School Library Journal

"Who R U Really? is a fantastically creepy book that is surprisingly realistic and totally engrossing.... Once I opened it, I couldn't close it. Who R U Really is a satisfyingly unique YA thriller that left me guessing up until almost the very last page.... This book is very realistic and I really enjoyed the writing style." --Tempest Books

"Based on actual events, the story should be required reading for all teens." --VOYA Magazine

About the author:

Margo Kelly is a native of the Northwest and currently resides in Idaho.

A veteran public speaker, she is now actively pursuing her love of writing. Who R U Really? is her first novel.

Margo welcomes the opportunities to speak to youth groups, library groups, and book clubs.

Website * Facebook * Twitter

Blog Tour Giveaway
1 print copy of Who R U Really?

Open to US only

Ends 1/12/15

a Rafflecopter giveaway


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* excerpt and giveaway courtesy of Who R U Really? blog tour sponsored by I Am A Reader 

Winners for December pt1

Here are the winners for giveaways that
ended November 30, 2014
during the Pemberley Ball event

Thanks to all contestants!
~*~

Darcy Surprise Prize Pack
This was included in prize pack:
Longbourn by Jo Baker

Winner: Miss Avis Dunbar (Lori from Psychotic State Book Reviews)

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The Road to Pemberley: An Anthology of New Pride and Prejudice Stories by Marsha Altman
Winner: Lady Freda Fluffinstuff (aka Freda from Freda's Voice)

Finding Mr. Darcy: Jane Austen's Guide to Dating for the Modern Girl by Amanda Hooton
Winner: Lady Genoviece Greenly (aka Taswmom)

Finding Mr. Darcy: High School Edition by Erin Butler
Winner: - ebook & necklace Princess Lúthien (aka Lúthien of My Love for Jane Austen)
Winner: ebook only - Honorable Miss Sophia Maitland (aka Sophia from Delighted Reader)
Winner: ebook only - Agnes Wilby (aka Mary Preston)

Young Mr. Darcy in Love by Marsha Altman
Winner: Lady Bianca Hyde (aka Midnight Cowgirl from Happy.Pretty.Sweet)

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* to see the original giveaway offer, click on the signup link

* I will email winners for mailing addresses within two weeks.
Winners, feel free to contact me with your info if you don't get my email
or if you are just too darn excited and want to let me know -- like NOW ;-D

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Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith

Amazon Burning
by Victoria Griffith

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Goodreads
Website

Just released: November 7, 2014
Publisher: Astor + Blue Editions
Genre: Mystery, New Adult, Thriller
Paperback: 220 pages
Rating: 4.5

When 22-year-old aspiring journalist Emma Cohen is forced to flee the comforts of her NYU student life, she maneuvers an internship from her father at his newspaper in Rio de Janeiro. There, Emma is immediately swept into a major news story—and a life-threatening situation—when a famous jungle environmentalist, Milton Silva, is mysteriously murdered.

Emma must now enter the Amazon rainforest with her father to investigate, where she is both awed by the enormity and beauty of the Amazon and appalled by its reckless destruction. Not only will Emma have to brave the primal world of the Amazon, she must fight to survive the kidnappers, villains, corrupt activists, and indigenous tribes that lay in wait along the ever-twisting trail of the murder case. Stretched to the brink, it’s up to Emma, her father, and the dreamy news photographer, Jimmy, to unravel the mystery and live to tell the tale.

Amazon Burning by Victoria Griffith is a spectacular debut Young Adult novel. Griffith's powerful rendering of the Amazon rainforest forms the perfect, wildly exotic backdrop for this extraordinary tale of a young urban woman coming of age in the midst of intense conflict.

My two-bits:

Got introduced to the Amazon with this mystery thriller.

From the city locals to the indigenous people of the Amazon described, you can get a sense of the culture and lifestyle. Although, this story leans towards the darker and sad side of things.

The main character, Emma, starts out as a strong and spunky character and continues to grow into a stronger and mature young woman due to life threatening experiences and exposure to the ugly side of life in this story.

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* review copy courtesy of publisher

* feel free to let me know if this is a book you would be interested in reading

The Beautiful American by Jeanne Mackin

The Beautiful American
by Jeanne Mackin

Find out more about this book and author:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
Books a Million
Google Play
iBookstore
Indiebound
Powells
Goodreads
BookExcerpt
Website
Facebook
Twitter @jeannemackin1

Published: June 2014
Publisher: New American Library/Penguin
Genre: France, Historical, 1920s, WWII
Paperback: 352 pages
Rating: 5

From Paris in the 1920s to London after the Blitz, two women find that a secret from their past reverberates through years of joy and sorrow....

As recovery from World War II begins, expat American Nora Tours travels from her home in southern France to London in search of her missing sixteen-year-old daughter. There, she unexpectedly meets up with an old acquaintance, famous model-turned-photographer Lee Miller. Neither has emerged from the war unscathed. Nora is racked with the fear that her efforts to survive under the Vichy regime may have cost her daughter’s life. Lee suffers from what she witnessed as a war correspondent photographing the liberation of the Nazi concentration camps.

Nora and Lee knew each other in the heady days of late 1920s Paris, when Nora was giddy with love for her childhood sweetheart, Lee became the celebrated mistress of the artist Man Ray, and Lee’s magnetic beauty drew them all into the glamorous lives of famous artists and their wealthy patrons. But Lee fails to realize that her friendship with Nora is even older, that it goes back to their days as children in Poughkeepsie, New York, when a devastating trauma marked Lee forever. Will Nora’s reunion with Lee give them a chance to forgive past betrayals…and break years of silence to forge a meaningful connection as women who have shared the best and the worst that life can offer?

A novel of freedom and frailty, desire and daring, The Beautiful American portrays the extraordinary relationship between two passionate, unconventional women.

My two-bits:

Loved how this story weaves the life of the model/photographer, Lee Miller, with historical events all told from the perspective of the fictional character, Nora. Reading about Lee's background and of the events that shaped her left me in awe of this amazing woman.

I am now compelled to check out the works by Lee Miller, Man Ray and Pablo Picasso to seek out the artwork references made and to see more.

The side story of Nora, was also just as compelling to read. She turns out to be a strong and independent woman in her own right during that time period.

After moving to France, Nora's description of living in the hip and happening Paris and then the quiet suburb Grasse gave wonderful snapshots of the two cities.

Nora's connection with the world of perfume and being a kind of "nose" in that business provided an interesting exposure to that world and how it fared through the time period presented.

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Author guest post:
a bit about the main character, Lee, in the story...

I first ‘met’ Lee Miller when I was looking at some of the surrealist photography of Man Ray, who lived in Paris in the 20’s and 30’s, and again after World War II. She was such a stunningly beautiful woman with this magical, mysterious and also somehow tragic face. I wanted to get to know much more about her, and that fascination was the beginning of my novel about Lee, The Beautiful American (New American Library 2014).

Turns out, she was an upstate girl, born in Poughkeepsie! How she became a Vogue model, with her face and figure setting the standards for flapper beauty in the 20’s, and then a glamorous expat living in Paris and meeting Picasso and other celebrities, was the heart of the story, and a really great place for a writer to ‘live in’ for the length of time it took me to write the book.

What made Lee a truly unforgettable, writable person, though, was the fact that during and after the war, she was so brave, so determined, to record what was going on in Europe. She had already become a photographer herself, taking portraits and doing marketplace shoots. But this beautiful, talented woman who could have gone back home and stayed safe not only stayed on in England and Europe photographing the blitz and the battles, she photographed the liberation of the concentration camps.

The initial tragedy in her beautiful face stemmed from a violence done to her in childhood; the later tragedy reflects those haunting photos of war.

That was Lee Miller, to me: a gorgeous yet haunted woman who lived through some of the best and worst moments of the twentieth century.

About the author:

Jeanne Mackin is the author of several historical novels set in France, and has earned awards for her journalism as well as a creative writing fellowship from the American Antiquarian Society.

She lives in upstate New York with her husband, cats and herd of deer, and is still trying to master the French subjunctive.

--~ Blog Tour Giveaway ~--
WIN a print copy of this book!

For 5 winners.

US/Canada residents only

Entry-Form

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* review copy and giveaway courtesy of book tour - check out the other stops here for more details on this book and goodies sponsored by France Book Tours.