Saturday, May 21, 2011

Book Review: Declaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel




Declaring SpinsterhoodDeclaring Spinsterhood by Jamie Lynn Braziel
Publisher: AmazonEncore
Publish Date: May 3, 2011
Paperback, 284 pages 
Fiction
 ISBN: 978-1935597544



My Review:
Why I read this:


My thoughts:  

My Rating: 4.5/5.0


About the Book:


Emma Bailey is thirty years old and single. No problem for her, but a point of round-the-clock contention for her mother, her family, and too many of her friends. In Jamie Lynn Braziel's Declaring Spinsterhood, the terminal illness known as "old maid" is explored from every angle, and the result is a compassionate, compelling, and wickedly funny novel. Emma may stand up before all and declare her intention to never marry, but what about that little place in her heart reserved for Brian Davis? Sure, Brian's seeing someone, and Emma is not a vixen who breaks up relationships, but would it be so terrible if Brian returned the interest? Rather than bide her time, Emma dates…and dates. Some of the men are charming, others less so. With her vow of spinsterhood more a noose than a friend, Emma musters her courage and moves on. That is, until the unforeseen throws up the biggest obstacle of her life: love.

About the Author: 

Born in Fort Worth, Texas, Jamie Lynn Braziel attended Southeastern Oklahoma State University, where she majored in English and minored in French. A financial analyst, the author is working towards a master's degree in accounting.

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FTC Information: I received this book from through the Amazon Vine Program for an honest review.  I have Amazon links on my review pages but I do not make any money from these because of NC laws.  I put them solely for people to check out the books on a retail site.







Guest Blog: Graham Parke (No Hope For Gomez) + Link to great summer giveaway

Is It Like Listening To You Talk? 
by Graham Parke

As you probably know, to become an internationally best-selling author, you need to sell three books. This is not an easy task, but once you’ve managed to rack up these three sales, the rest is more or less a done deal.

Now, these sales themselves will not put you on the best-seller lists. They won’t even put you within a million spots of the bottom of the lists, but what they will do, and what they do every time, is spark a slowly growing buying frenzy that will get you there.

These three people will love your book, they will tell another five people, who in turn tell another seven. Within roughly four-and-a-half weeks, you finally make your first million. That’s how it happens. Every single time.

But, how does an author tackle this monumental task? Where does he find these three readers?

I myself was quite lucky. When my novel appeared on Amazon I already knew over five people! What’s more, some of these people even liked me... somewhat. So I set out to become an internationally best-selling author by convincing at least three of these five people to buy my novel.

I started with my mother. Of all the five people I knew, I probably knew her the longest. I showed her my Amazon page and she nodded approvingly. She did not, however, make any attempts to buy a copy. So I logged on for her, navigated back to my novel’s page, and left the mouse pointer conveniently positioned over the BUY button.

She read the novel description again, searched-inside-this-book, and nodded some more. When I asked her if she’d like to buy a copy, she scrunched up her nose and said; ‘But what if I don’t like it?’

I told her not to worry. ‘It’s a really good book,’ I said. ‘I should know. I’ve re-written it like 50 times. It’s really funny and interesting.’

My mother wasn’t convinced. ‘I’m not really into comedy writing, though,’ she said.

‘It’s not just a comedy,’ I pointed out. ‘It has a real story; it’s a mystery. And it has twists and turns and believable characters.’

My mother hesitated. ‘Maybe I should just play it safe and buy another Stephen King novel…’

I ended up having to offer a personal money-back guarantee, and purchase a copy using my own credit card for the time being, but she finally cracked. I’d made my first sale!

Next, I prodded my wife. Although she did like words in general, she wasn’t sure she was up for reading and entire book full of them.

‘Is this like your usual stuff?’ she wanted to know.
‘What usual stuff?’
She shrugged. ‘I don’t know. Is it like listening to you talk?’
‘What’s wrong with they way I talk?’
‘Nothing. It’s just, well, sometimes you talk a lot of nonsense.’
I waved it away. ‘Don’t worry,’ I said. ‘I am much more interesting and ‘telligible’ on paper.’

Long story short; my second sale is almost in the bag. Now I just need to find one more person to buy my novel, and I’ll be set for life!  

Check out the Summer of Gomez!

Get free books and win a Kindle or iPod. As reviewers have been calling “No Hope for Gomez!” the perfect summer read - light, fast, fun - I decided to give this summer's Gomez readers some exclusive content and the chance to win prizes.