Blog Tour: Lucky Bastard by Deborah Coonts (Review and Giveaway!)

Genre:
Mystery

Publisher:
Forge Books

Format:
E-Book from NetGalley (available as hardcover and ebook)

Release Date:
May 2013







Synopsis from JKS Communications:


Lucky O’Toole may have been promoted to Vice President of Customer Relations for the Babylon, Las Vegas’ primo Strip property, but nothing has changed. When Paxton Dane, a former member of the Babylon’s Security detail turned Private Investigator, discovers a young woman dead, sprawled across the hood of a new, bright red Ferrari California in the Babylon’s dealership, a Jimmy Choo stiletto stuck in her carotid, he calls Lucky to handle the problem.

Lucky’s life is already in precarious balance. Her mother, Mona, is pregnant, hormonal, bored, and looking for ways to fill her days. Teddie, Lucky’s former lover, has hit the road on his quest to find international stardom. But, realizing he’s made a mistake, he writes a song for Lucky, then hits the talk shows, pleading his case. Lucky is less than amused with the national spotlight on her personal life. She’s having enough trouble as it is fending off the amorous attentions of Chef Jean-Charles Bouclet, the Babylon’s tasty new dish. Lucky feels mixing business and pleasure with the chef is a sure-fire recipe for disaster.

And the timing could not be worse. The Smack-Down Poker tournament with all the media attention the second-largest poker tournament in the world attracts is holding it’s final table at the Babylon. Hookers, thieves, players, cheaters, media, and hangers-on all descend looking to win or to score.

When one of the major players turns up dead, Lucky starts putting the pieces together with the help of Cole Weston, a hearing-impaired professional poker player. They chase clues and suspects through Vegas to the
storm drains underneath the city—where the runoff from a summer monsoonal shower turns deadly.

After a revelation by someone close to her sends her world reeling even further, Lucky struggles to keep her life in balance, and a murderer from killing again as bodies pile up.

Then, just when she’s losing control… life deals another major complication to her personal life….and it’s not going to be pretty.


My Review…

I adore Lucky O’Toole. She’s a great character who somehow manages to deal with an extremely stressful job, one crisis after another, and a love life that is far from perfect. This book made me laugh, as well as try to figure out the mystery.

This is the fourth book in the Lucky O’Toole mystery series and a wonderful addition to the series. It’s funny, clever and has snappy dialogue. Lucky reminded me very much of Stephanie Plum from Janet Evanovich’s series. It helps that it’s set in Las Vegas – I love Vegas. A great way to spend an afternoon.

FTC Disclosure: JKS Communications and NetGalley provided me with a copy of this book to review for this blog tour. This did not influence my thoughts and opinions in any way. All opinions expressed are my own.

For reading challenges:
2013 ARC Reading Challenge
2013 E-Book Reading Challenge

BOOK GIVEAWAY!!!!

How would you like to win a set of three e-book novellas by Deborah Coonts, Lucky in Love, Lucky Bang, Lucky Now and Then? Thanks to Samantha at JKS Communications, I can offer a set of these three e-book novellas to one lucky winner.


Just a few simple rules...

1) You must fill out the form below (including a valid email address).

2) For an extra entry: Follow this blog

3) For an extra entry: Follow me on Twitter

4) For an extra entry: Follow me on Goodreads

5) For an extra 2 entries: Post this giveaway on your blog.

6) For an extra 2 entries: Tweet about this giveaway.

The giveaway begins on May 21st (midnight est) and ends on May 28th (midnight est).

The winner will be notified by email and has 48 hours to respond, otherwise a new winner will be chosen.

Good luck!







a Rafflecopter giveaway

Book Blitz: The Boy Next Door by Annabelle Costa

About the Book

Through middle school, high school, bad dates, and an ill-advised punk phase, Tasha has always been able to count on Jason. Since the day he moved in next door, he’s gone from the weird kid in a wheelchair to Tasha’s most trusted friend. But lives change and the friends are going in different directions. When Jason and Tasha rekindle their friendship, sparks fly. After years of being a wild soul, now the ex-lead of a band turned music teacher is just looking for a relationship to last.

When none other than Jason introduces her to a man who can give her what she wants, Tasha is on the verge of throwing passion and love away just so she can forget her troubled past and settle down. But Jason isn’t ready to give her up just yet.

Excerpt

I wasn’t too happy when my parents told me that I had to try to make friends with the crippled kid who just moved in next door.

I was eight years old. For my entire life thus far, living in a suburb of Pittsburgh, our next-door neighbor was an ornery old woman named Agnes. Why are all old people named Agnes, for some reason? Not that I’m prejudiced against old people or anything. My grandmother, Nana, lived with us and was never an ornery old woman, and probably still the best cook I’ve ever known. Anyway, Agnes failed to wake up one morning, and the house got sold off to a young family with two kids.

I was initially really psyched to find out that the family had two kids, one of whom was allegedly my age. I pictured a girl with blond pigtails who would be my best friend, and we’d make each other friendship bracelets, have sleepovers, and all that fun stuff.

But then my fantasy was crushed when I found out that my new eight-year-old neighbor was a boy. And not just a boy. A boy in a wheelchair.

His name was Jason and I saw him a few times from afar. He went to a different school than I did, and there was a special school bus that picked him up. I saw him waiting with his parents at the curb for the special bus, which was about half the length of the bus that picked me up. My parents told me it was a bus for disabled kids. When it arrived, a ramp would be lowered mechanically and Jason would wheel into it, and the driver would help him get arranged in the bus. My mother yelled at me not to stare, but how could I not stare?

When the Foxes had been living next door for a few weeks, we came over for a visit and to bring them a welcome basket.

My little sister Lydia and I were dressed up in uncomfortable pink clothes, and I was firmly instructed to play with Jason. Lydia, who was only four, was totally off the hook since the older Fox child was a 13-year-old boy.

“I don’t want to play with Jason,” I whined, as my mother did up the buttons on my dress. “He’s weird.”

“Oh, stop it,” my mother said. “He’s not weird.”

“He’s in a wheelchair,” I pointed out.

“Don’t you dare mention that,” my mother snapped.

“Why not?” spoke up my Nana, who was listening in. “I’m sure the boy knows he’s in a wheelchair. It’s not a secret, is it?”

Despite everything, I giggled. I wished my mother would let Nana come along, but they were too worried about her making a comment like that. Apparently, she lost her self-censor somewhat as she got older, although Daddy said she’d always kind of been like that.

Fifteen minutes later, my mother was shoving Lydia and me in the direction of the house next door. We rang the bell and Mrs. Fox answered, greeting us warmly. “Jill!” she cried. “I’m so glad you could make it.”

“This is for you,” my mother said, handing over the basket of fruit and muffins. “You met my husband, Gerald. And these are my daughters, Lydia and Tasha.”

“Nice to meet you, girls,” Mrs. Fox said. “My older son Randy isn’t here now, but Jason is very excited to meet you.”

My eyes met those of the boy sitting in a small, simple wheelchair several yards behind his mother. I could tell by his khaki slacks and lame sweater-vest that he too had been forced to dress up for the occasion. He looked just as miserable as I did.

“He’s eight, isn’t he?” Mom asked. “Tasha is eight as well.”

“Yes, that’s wonderful,” Mrs. Fox said. “They could play together.” She lowered her voice to a stage whisper that people a mile away could hear loud and clear: “Jason hasn’t been having an easy time making new friends.”

Yeah. What a shock.

With that sentiment, Jason and I were herded off in the direction of his bedroom, presumably for me to be his new best friend. We both went, sort of like lambs being led to the slaughter.

Once we were alone in Jason’s room, we both just sat there awkwardly, not saying anything to each other. We were too young to even know how to make polite conversation.

I tried not to stare at Jason, but it was hard not to. I mean, really hard. Why did he need a wheelchair anyway? Maybe he had some awful disease where he was dying. Maybe it was contagious! Maybe he had some contagious fatal disease and my mother had locked me alone in a room with him. She’d be so sorry when I died.

Although to be honest, Jason didn’t really look like he was dying. He looked pretty much like a normal kid, but he was sitting in a wheelchair. He had short brown hair that it looked like his mother had attempted to comb, yet he’d managed to get it messy again before our arrival. He had green eyes that were bright, even in spite of how clearly miserable he was at the moment. And then there were the freckles that were sprinkled down either side of his nose, although those disappeared years later.

I was perched gingerly on Jason’s bed. He had Star Wars blankets. Actually, I had to admit, he had some pretty cool toys.

My mother always bought me dolls, but the thing is, dolls didn’t do much. Maybe these days, dolls cry and piss their diapers or whatever, but back then, in the eighties, dolls were much less interesting. But Jason had toys that did cool stuff. He had toy cars and trucks, he had a rocket, and a huge box of Legos. But what really piqued my interest was that he had what looked like a huge box of TRANSFORMERS.

Confession time: I loved Transformers. I watched the TV show religiously every Saturday, rooting for the Autobots to defeat the evil Decepticons. But nobody would buy me any Transformers because I was a girl and obviously it’s not an appropriate toy for girls. So I had about half a dozen My Little Ponies and at least a dozen Barbie dolls, but no cars that turned into robots. It was a source of frustration for me. Every time I asked my mother, she’d say, “What do you want one of those awful toys for? You’re a girl!”

But Jason, he owned the mother lode.

“Um,” I said, working up my nerve. “Are those, um, Transformers?”

Jason brightened. “Yeah. You like Transformers?”

I nodded shyly.

To my delight, Jason grabbed the whole big box and dumped them out on his bed. He seriously had every Transformer in existence. He had Optimus Prime, of course, most of the Autobots, Megatron, the Decepticons including the cassette spies, plus a bunch of the newer ones like the Dinobots, the Insecticons, and even Devastator. I was majorly impressed. If I were a little older, I would have creamed myself or something.

“Oh my God,” I breathed. “You’re the luckiest person alive.”

Book and Author Links

• Annabelle's Website | Blog | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads 
• The Boy Next Door on Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

About the Author

 
Annabelle Costa is a teacher, who writes in her free time. She enjoys the wounded hero genre, involving male love interests with physical disabilities, who don’t follow the typical Hollywood perception of sexy.

Visit the Other Blogs On Tour

Every Free Chance Book Reviews
Evolvedworld.com
FLY HIGH!
Sparkles and Lightning
Deal Sharing Aunt
Talk Supe
Christine's Words
Coffee & A Book Anytime
Melissa Keir- Romance Author- Sexy Between the Covers
[Insert Clever Quip Here]
Socrates' Book Review Blog
Mom With A Kindle
Laurie's Thoughts and Reviews
Deco My Heart
3 Partners in Shopping, Nana, Mommy, & Sissy, Too!
My Devotional Thoughts
Just One More Chapter
Brooke Blogs
Melissa MacKinnon
Romance Me

 

Musing Mondays - May 20th

If you'd like to play along on Musing Mondays, just click the button above to join in.



Musing Mondays asks you to muse about one of the following each week…

• Describe one of your reading habits.
• Tell us what book(s) you recently bought for yourself or someone else, and why you chose that/those book(s).
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Tell us what you’re reading right now — what you think of it, so far; why you chose it; what you are (or, aren’t) enjoying it.
• Do you have a bookish rant? Something about books or reading (or the industry) that gets your ire up? Share it with us!
• Instead of the above questions, maybe you just want to ramble on about something else pertaining to books -- let's hear it, then! :D

My Musing...

I'm going to do a bit of rambling...I love books that are part of  a series.  That's why I decided to host the "Finishing the Series" reading challenge.  I love all kinds of series from the different cozy mystery series to Debbie Macomber's Cedar Cove to James Patterson's Women's Murder Club to Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series.

I so love re-visiting books - especially ones set in small towns - and catching up with characters who have become friends, not just characters in a book.  Watching characters develop from book to book is just so much fun for me.

That's why I was so happy to find the website "FictFact".  They have almost every series, the order they should be read and gives you a chance to keep track of all your favorites.  They will tell you which is the next book that you need to read, what new releases are coming out, etc.  It's great for someone like me who prefers to read books in the order they are released.  It doesn't always happen that way for me if I get a review request along the way, but that's my preference by far.  There have been many times I've gone to this website to see what order books should be read.  More often than not, I find it difficult to find the order of some series.  It's not always in the book and it's not always on the author's website either (which I find odd). 

Anyway, I love series books and I love this website.  What a great idea.  Do any of you belong to it?  The website is FictFact.  If you check it out, look me up and friend me!  My user name over there is Yvonne473.

 

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?

This meme is hosted by Sheila at Book Journey.

It’s Monday! What Are You Reading is where we share what we read this past week, what we hope to read this week…. and anything in between! This is a great way to plan out your reading week and see what others are currently reading as well… you never know where that next “must read” book will come from!

Why do the weekends go so fast?  I love my weekends and wish they'd last longer, but wouldn't most of us?

So, here's my week in a nutshell.

I finished reading...

I'm currently reading...

and still listening to...

Next up...

What was your week like? What are you reading this week?

Sunday Salon/The Sunday Post - May 19th

If you'd like to participate with The Sunday Salon, just click the button above.

The Sunday Post is a weekly meme hosted by Kimba the Caffeinated Book Reviewer ~ It's a chance to share news~ A post to recap the past week on your blog, showcase books and things we have received and share news about what is coming up on our blog for the week ahead.


This week I decided to combine Sunday Salon and Sunday Post.  I haven't posted in the Sunday Salon in awhile. 

We're having weird weather - one day it's in the 70's and sunny, the next day it's raining and in the 50's.  I'm a bit behind on my reading again.  This time it's because it's TV's season finale time and I've been watching all my shows.  So many great shows - Survivor, Revenge, Elementary, The Office, Touch... I loved all the episodes. 

Now, I'm hoping to get more reading time in but I still have some summer shows.  One of my favorites coming back - True Blood.  I always love the Sookie Stackhouse books (I have to get the audio of the newest and last release from the library).  The show and the books aren't really the same but I love them both.

I'm hoping that the second half of the year will be more reading for my own enjoyment and not so many blog tours and reviews.  I will still be doing many of them but I want to fit in some reading for myself.  I didn't do that at all during the first half of the year.


I hope everyone has a great reading week...here's what's been happening on my blog this week and what's coming up...

Blog Tours/Spotlights/Reviews/Giveaways 
I Hosted 

Monday:           Blog Tour: Time Management for Stress by Darlene Josaphe (Review)
Wednesday:      Blog Tour: Magic's Daughter and Dancing in the Flame by Ann Gimpel (Spotlight)
Friday:              Cover Reveal: After the Kiss by Lauren Layne
Saturday:          Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich (Review)

Posts This Week

It's Monday! What Are You Reading?
Teaser Tuesdays
Cat Thursday
Follow Friday Four Fill In Fun Blog Hop

Blog Tours/Hops Coming Up Next Week

Monday:  Book Blitz - The Boy Next Door by Annabelle Costa
Tuesday:  Blog Tour - Lucky Bastard by Deborah Coonts (Review and Giveaway)


What was your week like?

Review: Explosive Eighteen by Janet Evanovich

Genre:
Mystery

Format:
Audio

Publisher:
Random House Publishing

Release Date:
November 2011







Synopsis from Goodreads:

Bounty hunter Stephanie Plum’s life is set to blow sky high when international murder hits dangerously close to home, in this dynamite novel by Janet Evanovich.

Before Stephanie can even step foot off Flight 127 Hawaii to Newark, she’s knee deep in trouble. Her dream vacation turned into a nightmare, and she’s flying back to New Jersey solo. Worse still, her seatmate never returned to the plane after the L.A. layover. Now he’s dead, in a garbage can, waiting for curbside pickup. His killer could be anyone. And a ragtag collection of thugs and psychos, not to mention the FBI, are all looking for a photograph the dead man was supposed to be carrying.

Only one other person has seen the missing photo—Stephanie Plum. Now she’s the target, and she doesn’t intend to end up in a garbage can. With the help of an FBI sketch artist Stephanie re-creates the person in the photo. Unfortunately the first sketch turns out to look like Tom Cruise, and the second sketch like Ashton Kutcher. Until Stephanie can improve her descriptive skills, she’ll need to watch her back.

Over at the bail bonds agency things are going from bad to worse. The bonds bus serving as Vinnie’s temporary HQ goes up in smoke. Stephanie’s wheelman, Lula, falls in love with their largest skip yet. Lifetime arch nemesis Joyce Barnhardt moves into Stephanie’s apartment. And everyone wants to know what happened in Hawaii?

Morelli, Trenton’s hottest cop, isn’t talking about Hawaii. Ranger, the man of mystery, isn’t talking about Hawaii. And all Stephanie is willing to say about her Hawaiian vacation is . . . It’s complicated.


My thoughts...

Like I said last week after I listened to Smokin' Seventeen, I'm finding myself getting hooked on the series again. Kind of silly since I'm listening to #19 now #20 won't be released until November. I'll have to wait for the library to get in the audio of that one.

I really thought I'd stop reading this series, but I kept at it and feel like I'm listening to an episode of a TV show each time.

There's not much of a review to write as - even though I'm enjoying it - the plots pretty much remain the same - cars blow up, people go missing, Stephanie's life is always in danger and she can't choose a man. I'm still loving the things Lula and Grandma Mazur say. They are fun characters. I admit I'm still annoyed that Stephanie can't choose either Morelli or Ranger. I guess the part that makes me nuts is that she seems to be in love with Morelli but doesn't have a problem sleeping with both of them. Somehow that just isn't a quality for a heroine to have in my eyes.

Have any of you seen the movie One for the Money with Katherine Heigl?  I haven't seen it yet, but I can't see Heigl as Stephanie.  Eventually I'll get around to watching it but I'm not all that anxious.  I always thought of Sandra Bullock in the role. 




For reading challenges:
2013 Finishing the Series Reading Challenge
2013 Library Books Reading Challenge
2013 A to Z Reading Challenge


Disclosure: I took the audio book out of the library to listen to for my own enjoyment. All opinions are my own.

Cover Reveal: After the Kiss by Lauren Layne

After the Kiss: The Stiletto Series

Lauren Layne

Loveswept  |  August 26, 2013

In the first book of a delightful new series from Lauren Layne, the star columnist of Stiletto magazine will do anything for a story. Anything . . . except fall in love.
 
Julie Greene loves flings. Loves steamy first dates, sizzling first kisses, and every now and then, that first sexy romp between the sheets. Comfy pants, sleepy Sundays, movie nights on the couch? Shudder. But when Julie gets assigned the hardest story of her career—a first-person account of that magical shift between dating and “I do”—she’ll need a man brave enough to give a total commitment-phobe a chance at more.
 
Normally, Mitchell Forbes would be exactly that man. A devastatingly hot workaholic who tends to stay in relationships for far too long, he should be the perfect subject for Julie’s “research.” But what Julie doesn’t know is that Mitchell is looking to cut loose for once in his life. And the leggy journalist notorious for avoiding love is exactly the type of no-strings fling he’s looking for. In other words, Mitchell is the polar opposite of what Julie needs right now. And, at the same time, he’s exactly what she wants.

Connect with Loveswept and Lauren:

ReadLoveswept.com  |  Lauren's Website  |  Lauren on Twitter

Pre-order After the Kiss:

Amazon  |  B&N  |  iBookstore  |  Random House and other retailers