Weekly Preview & Giveaway (7)

Welcome to week seven of my feature where I preview what I will be reviewing this week and also where you get a chance to enter to win one of the books I am reading this week plus two books from my giveaway page.  All you have to do to enter is leave your name and email in the Rafflecopter below.  All other entries are optional.  Open to US/Canada only, ends 11/26.  NOTE: Paper Angels is the only book up for review that is not an ebook this week, so you can have your choice of winning it or a third choice from my giveaway page.

First up last week's winner is: 

Orchid

Monday:

 Waves of Deceit by Marlene Sanchez (Sizzling PR tour)

The Pascual crime family is getting bigger and stronger and taking over more and more of Miami every day. The FBI has been trying to take them down for years, but they can’t seem to make anything stick. Enter former Marine sniper, Agent Michael Walker.

Until age 17 Michael was best friends with Manny Pascual, the heir and current head of the Pascual family. Now the FBI wants him to infiltrate the family he was once a part of in order to collect enough evidence to bring them down for good.

Although it has been more than ten years since Michael has been back to Miami, Manny is more than happy to have his best friend back where he belongs. Not everyone is as happy to see Michael, but one person is secretly thrilled to see him. Bianca Martinez, the family lawyer, can’t keep him out of her head
The FBI is closing in, but Michael is becoming more conflicted between his job, his friendship with Manny and the life he missed in Miami. The hot relationship sparking with Bianca complicates things further when he learns Manny wants to claim her as his own.

Will the years of friendship between these three endure as they find themselves between the tightening vice of rivaling families and the hard fist of the law? Or will they all drown in their Waves of Deceit? 

Tuesday:

The Man Who Couldn't Eat by Jon Reiner Interview

Jon Reiner was middle-aged, happily married with two children, living on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and acclimating to his role as primary parent-caregiver when he suffered a near-fatal collapse due to complications from his chronic battle with Crohn’s disease. From that point, he was forbidden from eating food, fed intravenously, and denied the pleasures of taste, which, as an award-winning food writer, had been a central part of his life. In The Man Who Couldn't Eat, Reiner reinvents the foodoir, recounting what happens when a man obsessed with food cannot eat, and what happened to his family as a result. Coping with illness, unemployment, and financial ruin spun him into a deep depression, straining his relationship with his wife and children. It was this deprivation, ironically, that forced Jon to recognize what he’d been taking for granted.
Eloquent and powerful, this is one man’s journey from deprivation and despair to ultimately acceptance and appreciation of what is truly important.


Wednesday: 

 Bonjour 40 by Karen A. Chase book review and special giveaway tour stop

If Karen A. Chase absolutely had to turn forty, she decided she could do it gracefully in Paris… for nearly forty days. What began as a blog to communicate with friends and family, became a travel journal filled with over a months’ worth of humorous and insightful glimpses into her Paris adventures, each of which could be read in about forty seconds. Journal entries are interspersed with Chase's own inspiring photography. Additional, longer stories richly fill in details allowing readers to reflect upon her experiences with food, travel, photography, Parisians, writing, and love in the City of Lights. Through her Parisian- and self-exploration, comes a book that brings to life the richness of Paris as seen through the eyes of a romantic travel junkie. Chase shows readers the joys of turning 40, and with her magical view of Paris, they'll be ready to board a plane before they've turned the last page

Thursday:

 Paper Angels by Jimmy Wayne and Travis Thrasher

Kevin Morrell is a forty-three year old husband and father who runs a successful design and marketing firm. Attempting to navigate the busyness of the mall at Christmas, Kevin is humbled when he stumbles across the Salvation Army's Angel Tree Project. He picks up a paper ornament and is both moved and intrigued by the list. Why would a fourteen-year-old boy want shoes a size bigger than his foot? And why specifically a Banana Republic card? Why of all the stores would a fourteen year old pick that store?


Thomas Reed is the fourteen-year-old boy on the card. He is still reeling from the implosion of his family—from years of verbal abuse from an alcoholic father to a mother who finally left him behind, only to find herself and Thomas penniless and struggling. The only thing has allowed Sandra to survive is her faith. Thomas shares that faith, but he also wonders why God has seemingly abandoned them.

This is the story about a man and a boy one December. A man whose life is changed by a simple expression of kindness the day after Thanksgiving. And a boy who takes that expression of kindness and shows the true meaning of Christmas.


Friday:

 Marian's Christmas Wish by Carla Kelly

Miss Marian Wynswich is a rather unconventional young lady. She plays chess, reads Greek, and is as educated as any young man. And she s certain falling in love is a ridiculous endeavor and vows never to do such a thing. But everything changes when she receives a Christmas visit from someone unexpected--- a young and handsome English lord.