Excerpt & Author Interview: The Good Father by Diane Chamberlain

Today I'm hosting the excerpt stop for Diane Chamberlain's The Good Father Blog Tour.  I finished this book earlier this week and I have to say it was amazing.  My review is coming later today, so now enjoy today's excerpt, and a Q&A with author Diane Chamberlain.

Excerpt:

I thought of the gold watch he wore. The red mustang he drove. "I don't care about getting rich," I'd answered. "I just want enough money to keep me and Bella fed till I get a real job."

Follow the rest of the blog tour here:  http://bit.ly/I56ozq

Q&A with Diane Chamberlain:

1.      Where do you do most of your writing?

In the mornings, I write in a coffee shop surrounded by chatter and music I barely notice. In the afternoons, I write at home where I need complete quiet except for the music of a dramatic movie soundtrack. But my favorite writing spot is at my little beach condo, where I can watch the sea and the gulls and dolphins as I’m thinking through my next sentence.

2.      What inspired you to write THE GOOD FATHER?

I write in a coffee shop each morning, and one day a young man and little girl walked in, looking very out of place there on a weekday morning. The girl was about three years old and simply precious, but my novelist’s mind went to work right away. Why were they together? Was he her father? A kidnaper? What if he asked me to watch her for a few minutes and then disappeared? The idea for The Good Father was born.

3.      Which part of THE GOOD FATHER was the most enjoyable to write?

Bella, the little four-year-old girl at the heart of the story was a joy to create and an even greater joy to research as I spent time carefully observing my granddaughter and grandson who were the same age. Maybe Bella was so much fun and so easy to write about because, unlike all the grownups in the story, she was an open book, full of pure emotions untainted by a lot of personal history that might have weighed her down.

4.      Which part was the least enjoyable?

Trying to figure out the best structure for the novel is always nerve wracking to me. It happens with every book. About two months before my deadline, I begin to doubt the way I’ve told the story. Have I paced it in a way that will keep my reader intrigued? Have I revealed twists and turns at the right moment to surprise and excite my reader? Have I opened the book with a gripping scene? In the case of The Good Father, I realized I needed to restructure the telling of the story, so I moved a key scene from the middle of the book to the first chapter. It was a bold and scary move, but judging from the reactions of my readers, it worked!

About the Book:

A beloved daughter. A devastating choice.

And now there’s no going back.

Four years ago, nineteen-year-old Travis Brown had to make a life changing decision. While his friends were out partying and meeting girls, Travis was at home raising his newborn daughter on his own – changing diapers and working to keep food on the table.  But he’s never regretted his decision. Bella is the light of his life – the reason behind every move he makes – and so far, she is fed.  Cared for.  Safe. 

But when Travis loses his construction job and his home, the security he’s worked so hard to create for Bella begins to crumble… 

Bestselling author of The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes, The Midwife’s Confession, and The Lies We Told, Diane Chamberlain, returns with her latest and most gripping novel to date, THE GOOD FATHER (Harlequin MIRA; April 24, 2012; $14.95 U.S./$17.95 CAN.), showing the great lengths a father will go to provide for his little girl.

Just when Travis is at a loss for solutions, a job in Raleigh opens up with the power to change their situation.  It has to.  But upon arriving in Raleigh, there is no job, only an offer to participate in a onetime criminal act that promises quick money and no repercussions. 

With nowhere else to turn, Travis must make another choice for his daughter’s sake.  Even if it means he might lose her. 

Book Review: A Perfect Storm by Lori Foster

A Perfect Storm by Lori Foster

Publisher: HQN

Publish Date: March 27, 2012

Mass Market Paperback, 442 pages
Fiction, Romantic Suspense
 ISBN: 978-0373776566

Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor #4

My Review: 
I know I keep saying it every time I read a romantic suspense book, but romantic suspense is one of my favorite genres.  And Lori Foster is a master at writing in this genre.  As she finishes up the Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor series with Arizona and Spencer's story, she goes out with another great story and a great way to finish up.  We get to see all of our favorites from this series and see things tied up nicely as well. 

For a romantic suspense novel, the majority of this book's action is with the characters.  Yes there are bad guys and there is a suspense plot, but the main setup is getting Arizona past her issues (which are not superficial) and Spencer past things he needs to get past as well so they can figure out that they are in love and supposed to be together.  Ms. Foster is a master of sexual tension.  I told my husband that.  I think that is my favorite part of these books.  I don't read them for the sex, but the sexual tension in them is amazing.  Knowing the two main characters are attracted to each other, but they are trying to either avoid it or work through things first makes things very interesting.  And trust me, things can get rather tense and very interesting between Spencer and Arizona.

I wasn't really sure I liked Arizona at first.  It was more I could not relate to her.  She's tough, she's been through total hell in her life as a victim of human traffickers, but she has survived and in her survival she seeks to right wrongs for others who are being taken advantage of.  That said, I admired her, but I don't know women like her, especially since she is so young.  But as the book progresses and I got to know Arizona more I began to like her more and more.  She has spunk, but she can be kind as well.  She cares for Spencer and for the other men and their wives as well and it shows.

Spencer, is an amazing specimen of a man, but he really doesn't seem to know it.  He is a widower and while he has had a fling with his neighbor he is not the typical pretty-boy womanizer and I liked that about him.  He's also noble with Arizona.  He thinks he's too old for her.  He wants to help her.  But what I love most is eventually he learns to listen to her and love her for who she is.  That is a good man.  But of course it takes him the whole book to figure that out.  It wouldn't be fun if he knew that from page one.  But their romance is not frustrating.  In fact it's very enjoyable to watch.  I almost did not like being drawn away from it for the suspense parts, even though they were integral to the romance parts and to who Arizona and Spencer were.

And then there is the suspense.  While it kind of takes a backseat in this book to the romance, it's there and like I mentioned, it's very integral to the story.  It focuses on human trafficking, and I have to say I was surprised by the outcome.  I loved that all the men were eventually involved and we got to see them and their wives/girlfriends again before the series ends.  It's also fun to see how the other men react to Spencer as pseudo big brothers to Arizona.  Yes there is humor among the seriousness of the book.

A Perfect Storm is another great installment to this series and I'm sorry to see the series end.  While I thought Spencer and Arizona's story wouldn't do as much for me as the others, I found out quickly I was very wrong and this story was extremely enjoyable.  Amazing romance, great suspense and characters that are interesting and believable.  Ms. Foster has created another winner in my book.

My Rating: 4.5/5.0

About the Book:
He never saw her coming…

Spencer Lark already knows too many secrets about Arizona Storm, including the nightmare she survived and her resulting trust issues. But in order to expose a smuggling ring—and continue avenging his own tragic past—the bounty hunter reluctantly agrees to make Arizona a decoy. Yet nothing has equipped him for her hypnotic blend of fragility and bravery, or for the protective instincts she stirs in him.

Arizona wants to reclaim her life, which means acting as bait to lure the enemy into a trap. Sure it's dangerous, especially with a partner as distractingly appealing as Spencer. But as their plan—and their chemistry—shifts into high gear, Arizona may discover there's an even greater risk in surrendering her heart to a hero…

About the Author (from her website): 
Lori Foster first published with Harlequin in January 1996. Her second book launched Temptation Blaze and her 25th book launched Temptation Heat. Since those early days, Lori has routinely had 6 to 10 releases a year. She's a Waldenbooks, USA Today, Publisher's Weekly and New York Times bestselling author with over 50 titles published through a variety of houses, including Berkley/Jove, Kensington, St. Martins, Harlequin and Silhouette.
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Buy the book by clicking on any of these links (they will take you to B&N)



Ebook                                Paperback

FTC Information: I received this book through Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for an honest review.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository, Alibris and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.

A Perfect Storm Excerpt and Shedding Light on Human Trafficking by Lori Foster

 Excerpt from A Perfect Storm by Lori Foster

She had a need to even the score with people already dead, the monsters who’d hurt her badly.

Suddenly she leaned forward. “Can you keep a secret?”

Damn, he didn’t want to play these games. “Depends.”

She scowled. “On what?”

“On whether or not keeping it is in your best interest.”

Sitting back in irritation, she demanded, “Why does that concern you?”

He countered with, “Why do you want to tell me?”

For long moments they stared at each other, and then she broke. “Fuck it. I don’t. Not anymore.” After downing the rest of her coffee, she scraped back her chair. “I’m outta here.”

Spencer caught her wrist. And of course, that got her going. 

My review of A Perfect Storm will be coming later today. 

The next stop on the Scavenger Hunt is: http://www.bookish-brunette.com/

Shedding Light on Human Trafficking by Lori Foster

 

I can’t say that any particular series has affected me in a great way. I’m a writer – I “make up stuff.” I know evil exists, but I also know love is there to help balance it. That said, obviously, after all the research, I’m more aware of human trafficking. It’s HERE, in our cities, our towns, sometimes our own neighborhoods. People you thought were safe, are not. Careers you considered mundane are intricately involved.

I have truck drivers in my family. GREAT guys. Totally trustworthy. Wouldn’t hurt a fly, and would do what they could to defend anyone abused.

Yet in my research I found that many sales of underage girls and captives happen at truck stops. Obviously, all truckers don’t take part, but enough do that it’s a key spot for surveillance when breaking down trafficking rings. I don’t know if the men are ignorant of the girl’s age and/or circumstances. Maybe they think these women are willingly taking part. Maybe they think the underage girls are older. Regardless, it’s unforgiveable.

I also learned that Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore have a *wonderful* organization. http://demiandashton.org/  “We are committed to forcing sex slavery out of the shadows and into the spotlight. Freedom is a basic human right and slavery is one of the greatest threats to that freedom. No one has the right to enslave another person. Freedom - It's in our DNA.”

These days, I stop in to get my nails done, and I notice closed doors in the back, women who look like they’ve just awakened. I pass by shabby hotels or read about issues at restaurants, and wonder if one of the rooms is used to house innocents caught up in forced labor. I see kids on the street, and pray that they’re just out and about having fun, getting into the same mischief common to many youths. But I always worry now. 

Guest Blog: Using Personal Stories in Writing: Do or Don't by Nelle Davy

Today I welcome Nelle Davy, author of The Legacy of Eden which I reviewed a couple of weeks ago.  It's an excellent family saga and today the author is sharing a very interesting topic in light of reading The Legacy of Eden.  Read this great post and make sure you check out the book as well.  

Using personal stories in writing: do or don’t? 

by Nelle Davy

Of course it is a do. One of my favourite books is Oranges are Not the Only Fruit by Jeanette Winterson which is a reworking of her own childhood within a fictional format as opposed to an outright memoir. What matters is that you are true to the kind of story you wish to tell, regardless of what is the inspiration. I would also say that no writer works in a vacuum as if their books are ‘ex nihilo.’ Whether you mean to or not, you write the kind of story you are either interested in, or have been through in some way. It is all inspired by your personal past and you rework it, sometimes even try to ignore it, but then press it down and reshape it so that it can become unrecognizable from truth but it still has seeds in it. There are some stories I love to read but would never be able to write because I would never be inspired to write them because they come from a different sort of experience to the one I have had. But novels should be about trying to tell some kind of truth – either the one you wish was real or the one that is.  And sometimes I think the novels that have impressed me the most and the ones that have really stayed with me as visceral works of honest art are the one that you discover had some grounding in the author’s past. You do look at them in a new light and they seem so much more informed. But this novel is not based on my own personal story in any other way than it is about the interrogation and destruction of the family unit.

Thanks Nelle for stopping by today.
You can check out the rest of this blog tour here:  http://booktrib.com/?page_id=152294&preview=true

  About The Legacy of Eden

For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway's dream to elevate the family name - no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways - and the once prosperous farm.

Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died - alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land, or the memories.

Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia's youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family's once-great name. Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family... and her own part in their mottled history. 

Book Review & Today's Excerpt: Lovesick by Spencer Seidel

Lovesick by Spencer Seidel

Publisher: Publishing Works, Inc.

Publish Date: ebook, currently out,
paperback, releases, June 21, 2012

Paperback, 376 pages 
Fiction, Suspense/Thriller

Excerpt for today:

Dina’s eyes again wandered over to Chad, who was looking at the ground.

Lisa smiled and said, “Sure.” She fished a business card out of her bag and handed it to Dina. Lisa said, “Email me.We’ll set up a time to talk about it. Now, Chad, is there something I can help you with? I really must get going.”

Chad unshouldered his pack again and reached inside. He pulled out a few sheets of paper and said, “I wanted to give you this. It’s that essay you said I could fix for a higher grade. I had to run back to my room after class to get it. You said you needed it by today.”

“Oh. Okay, sure,” Lisa said, taking the papers.

One side of Chad’s mouth curled into what looked to Lisa like a predatory grin. 

Tomorrow's blog:  http://kaitlyninbookland.blogspot.com/

My Review:
I liked Dead of Wynter but was not as crazy about it as some reviewers, but I was intrigued by Lovesick's blurb so I had to read it.  Oh my, I am so glad I did.  Mr. Seidel really stepped it  up to me.  This is a thriller to the max.  So much is going on that I did not even realize until I was told and that made it awesome.  I won't go into specifics in my review because I don't want to spoil things, but suffice it to say that Mr. Seidel is now on my must-read list.

Lovesick is what I consider a psychological thriller and it was right up there with some of Chelsea Cain's books if you like a comparison.  This involves three teenagers in a love triangle of sorts only one teenager ends up missing, one is murdered and it looks like the other is to blame.  Enter in Forensic Psychologist Lisa Boyers, who talks to Paul, the one who is accused of murdering Lee to get the full story.  The story is fascinating as well as the story that unfolds in Lisa's life in both the past and present.  The characters, were fascinating, they were broken and interesting and this seems to be the way Mr. Seidel likes them.  And this also seems to be best for this type of thriller.  The characters personalities add a lot to the book, and I think Mr. Seidel has done an amazing job writing them into the story so they make perfect sense in the storyline.

The plot is amazing.  Mr. Seidel weaves it and paces it perfectly.  It never grows stale or moves too fast. It goes just right, keeps your interest and keeps you turning pages to find out what will happen next.  I could not turn pages fast enough.  I was fascinated.  I was horrified.  And every time I thought I knew where it was going, Mr. Seidel switched it up on me.  That's what made it really great.

If you are looking for the next great psychological thriller, then you have found it in Lovesick.  It will keep you turning pages until the very last page and when it's done you will hope to have more books with Forensic Psychologist Lisa Boyers in it.

My Rating: 5.0/5.0

Here's the link to the blogs participating in the scavenger hunt:  http://booktrib.com/?page_id=152303&preview=true


About the Book:
A teenage boy is found on Portland Maine’s Eastern Promenade Trail holding the dead body of his best friend and the murder weapon. Forensic psychologist Lisa Boyers is called in to interview the disturbed young man, and her jailhouse interviews reveal more about her troubled, violent past than she bargained for.

About the Author (from Goodreads.com): 
Spencer Seidel lives and works in suburban New Jersey but has also called Washington, D.C., Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, and Portland, Maine home. He is an honors graduate of Fairleigh Dickinson University and attended the Berklee College of Music to study guitar, which he has been playing for over 25 years. His love of reading and books began as a child after discovering Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Later, he was drawn to darker work by authors such as Stephen King, Peter Straub, and Jack Ketchum, who continue to influence his dark novels and short stories.

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FTC Information: I received this book from Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for an honest review.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.

Guest Blog: The Terrifying World of a Writer by Spencer Seidel

The Terrifying World of a Writer
By Spencer Seidel

Ask anyone who knows me, and they'll tell you that I can be overly scheduled, neurotic, a tad
eccentric . . . Well, I won't go on. You get the picture. Let's just say that sometimes I'm not real good with going with the flow.

Show me a writer who isn't a little strange, and I'll show you a mediocre writer. Writers throughout
history have been weird. Hemingway was weird. Same goes for F. Scott Fitzgerald. Do I even have to mention Truman Capote?

I think there's a simple reason for this.

For those of you who don't write, let me describe the concept with an analogy. Suppose you woke up one day with a sense of smell as keen as a bloodhound. Can you imagine how awful that would be? You'd smell everything vividly. Every cleaning product on every surface, your own BO, or worse, everyone else's BO. And I won't even mention that cat box or God forbid, the old cat herself. And that's just the beginning. What about the garbage, the laundry hamper, or the week-old milk in the fridge? Even sex would be a challenge. You'd go mental.

But there's a flip side. Imagine how wonderful freshly baked cinnamon rolls would smell. Or bacon in the morning. No wonder dogs are always begging around for food or dying to get outside. The complex and sometimes overwhelming smells must drive them nuts.

Being a writer is a lot like that, except instead of smells, it's motivations, emotion, and possibilities. When I get into the car to drive to work every morning, it isn't hard for me to make my writer voice say things like, "His last day on earth began just like any other." Yikes! Even on that short drive to my day job, I'm always seeing possibilities. Things that could happen, little things that change lives forever, events that books are made of, like a dropped cellphone on the passenger-side floor that makes someone stray into oncoming traffic, or a blown tire. The more complex the situation, the worse this effect gets. I think this can make writers a little crazy and regimented in their ways as they seek to control their environments.

But, like with our newly found bloodhound senses, there is a flip side. Although some can be extremely introverted, writers are very good at sniffing out people's angles and motivations. I contend that this makes writers very difficult to lie to. Think your writer spouse could never find out that you're having an affair? I'll bet she already knows. Or suspects, anyway. We can be hypersensitive and detect subtle verbal clues and facial expressions people aren't even aware they're using. We do that because that's in part what makes good characterization. That's a powerful thing.

People are always telling me I would have made a great psychologist. I'll bet that's true of most writers. That's because you really need to understand people at a gut level to make believable characters.

That also gets a little hairy. You can't just think about all the good things people do, although there is
plenty of that around, despite what you hear on the news. Sometimes you have to live inside the head of a killer or rapist or worse, trying to understand how a character like that would think. It can be frightening.

I mean, what if I find out I sort of like it in there? Damn, there I go again.

About the Book:
A teenage boy is found on Portland Maine’s Eastern Promenade Trail holding the dead body of his best friend and the murder weapon. Forensic psychologist Lisa Boyers is called in to interview the disturbed young man, and her jailhouse interviews reveal more about her troubled, violent past than she bargained for.

Make sure to check out my review and the excerpt later today.

Book Review: The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

Publisher: MIRABooks

Publish Date: January 24, 2012

Paperback, 400 pages 
Fiction, Fiction, Family Saga
 ISBN: 978-0778329558

My Review:
The Legacy of Eden is a very interesting book.  Told through the generations of one family, it's the story of secrets and eventually overcoming those secrets.  It's one of those reads you can't really put down because you wonder what you will find out next.  It's like talking to the best town gossip and getting all the good details about that one family.  It's all in here laid out for the reader.  The good, the bad and the really ugly.  It's a tale of how a family can look so great on the outside yet have such secrets on the inside.

I enjoyed the book, as much as you can say you enjoy this kind of book.  You never like to say you enjoy anyone's pain, even fictional characters', but it's a book that really grabs you, reels you in and keeps you interested until the last page.  Learning about Lavinia, her marriage and her life is fascinating and then learning how her decisions affect the rest of the generations is just eye-opening.  The Legacy of Eden is told mainly through the point-of-view of Meredith who is Lavinia's granddaughter who happened to be around when Lavinia's health was failing and heard many of Lavinia's secrets straight from her.  As the story moves forward, Meredith unravels more and more of the story of the family members of Aurelia and what leads up to what the reader knows was the final breaking moment for the family.  And while the reader is never quite sure what that moment was, they do have a good idea.

Meredith is also seeking a redemption from her sisters in the book and she's looking for some kind of connection as well.  I felt sorry for her most of the book.  She's an interesting character that made some mistakes that she is paying for, but through the book I still felt for her.  I felt Ms. Davy created an interesting character in her, but Lavinia really steals the show in the novel. 

This isn't a novel you speed through, it's one you read and absorb.  It's a tale of family struggle, it's a tale of one woman who would go to almost any length to get what she wanted.  It's almost frightening.  You want to look away but you can't.  Ms. Davy manages to create a story that captivates you and won't let you go even when you finish reading the book. 

My Rating: 4.0/5.0


About the Book:
"To understand what it meant to be a Hathaway, you'd first have to see Aurelia."

For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway's dream to elevate the family name - no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways - and the once prosperous farm.

Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died - alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land, or the memories.

Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia's youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family's once-great name. Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family... and her own part in their mottled history.

"Our farm was like the world when people still thought it was flat. And when you left it, it was as if you had simply sailed too far and fallen off the surface into the void."

About the Author (from her website): 
Nelle was originally born in St George’s Grenada under the name Janelle (which she always hated and immediately shortened when she went to University). She moved to London when she was nine months old because her grandfather was English and her parents supposedly wanted a better life. She got a scholarship to Sir William Perkins School for girls where she had a wonderful English teacher Mrs. Wells who encouraged her constantly in her love for books. She went to Warwick University to study English with Creative Writing where after swearing she would never marry, she met her future husband. She did a masters in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin and then moved back to London in 2007 where she almost immediately began working in publishing. After working at Pan Macmillan she moved to work at a literary agency while also writing and pursuing a career as a novelist on the side.

She is 27 years old and The Legacy of Eden is her first novel. She has finished writing a second novel based on the civil rights movement in Louisiana in 1963. She still lives in London with her husband and still works full time in publishing.

So far, she has not had a meltdown…

Website 

FTC Information: I received this book through Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for an honest review.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.

Book Excerpt and Mini-Review: The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

The Legacy of Eden by Nelle Davy

Publisher: MIRA Books

Publish Date: January 24, 2012

Paperback, 400 pages 
Fiction, Family Saga
 ISBN: 978-0778329558

Today's Excerpt:

“I just finished a shift.”

“Are the girls around?”

“I’m alone, it’s okay.”

I closed my eyes and swallowed.

“Good, I—I need to talk to you. It’s—”

“Is this about Cal Jr.?” she asked abruptly.

My eyes flew open. I felt winded. My voice, when it came out, was harsh, animal.

“How?”

“The family lawyers called me.”

“When?”

“A few days ago.”

“Why?”

“Same reason I suppose that they contacted you.”

“They did not call me,” I said, looking down at the letter, which was crumpled in the fist of my hand. “They wrote instead.”

“I told them straight out I didn’t care. Not about him dying, not about the farm or how he had driven it so far into the ground it was halfway to hell. They talked about my ‘responsibility.’ I told them I had done above and beyond more than my duty by that place.”

I bit my lip so hard I thought I tasted blood.

“I suppose I was a bit harsh,” she said reflectively, “but I got the feeling that they would just keep calling if they thought they could get anywhere. 

Check out tomorrow's excerpt at:  http://theeclecticelement.blogspot.com/


My Partial Review:
I am in the middle of The Legacy of Eden right now and I am really enjoying.  I like that I am getting to know the Hathaway family little-by-little warts and all.  They are definitely interesting and Ms. Davy's storytelling is great.  She does a wonderful job luring you into the story and keeping you interested.  I plan on posting a final review in the next couple of days, but so far this book has been really good.  I was reading it in the middle of a busy doctor's office today and I can't usually concentrate in places like that, but I was drawn in and felt like I was at Aurelia as I read through the pages.

About the Book:
"To understand what it meant to be a Hathaway, you'd first have to see Aurelia."

For generations, Aurelia was the crowning glory of more than three thousand acres of Iowa farmland and golden cornfields. The estate was a monument to matriarch Lavinia Hathaway's dream to elevate the family name - no matter what relative or stranger she had to destroy in the process. It was a desperation that wrought the downfall of the Hathaways - and the once prosperous farm.

Now the last inhabitant of the decaying old home has died - alone. None of the surviving members of the Hathaway family want anything to do with the farm, the land, or the memories.

Especially Meredith Pincetti. Now living in New York City, for seventeen years Lavinia's youngest grandchild has tried to forget everything about her family and her past. But with the receipt of a pleading letter, Meredith is again thrust into conflict with the legacy that destroyed her family's once-great name. Back at Aurelia, Meredith must confront the rise and fall of the Hathaway family... and her own part in their mottled history.

"Our farm was like the world when people still thought it was flat. And when you left it, it was as if you had simply sailed too far and fallen off the surface into the void."

About the Author (from her website): 
Nelle was originally born in St George’s Grenada under the name Janelle (which she always hated and immediately shortened when she went to University). She moved to London when she was nine months old because her grandfather was English and her parents supposedly wanted a better life. She got a scholarship to Sir William Perkins School for girls where she had a wonderful English teacher Mrs. Wells who encouraged her constantly in her love for books. She went to Warwick University to study English with Creative Writing where after swearing she would never marry, she met her future husband. She did a masters in Creative Writing at Trinity College Dublin and then moved back to London in 2007 where she almost immediately began working in publishing. After working at Pan Macmillan she moved to work at a literary agency while also writing and pursuing a career as a novelist on the side.

She is 27 years old and The Legacy of Eden is her first novel. She has finished writing a second novel based on the civil rights movement in Louisiana in 1963. She still lives in London with her husband and still works full time in publishing.

So far, she has not had a meltdown…

Website 

FTC Information: I received this book through Meryl L. Moss Media Relations for an honest review.  I do make money from purchases made at The Book Depository and B&N.com, but all money is used to fund giveaways and shipping for giveaways from the blog.