Review: True Connections by Clarissa Yip

Format read: ebook
Genre: Contemporary Romance
Release Date: February 14, 2012
Number of pages: 123 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Author’s Website, Amazon

Book Blurb:

Lia McEvil is back in town, and Max is in trouble.

Max Sheraton and Lia McEvers have been rivals since childhood. Not even the kiss that chased Lia away could make them stop fighting. Now, five years later, Lia’s back in her hometown of Grant to open a new branch of her matchmaking business, True Connections–and Max finds himself in the line of fire when their families conspire for Max to make a connection of his own. Under pressure from both their grandmothers, Lia and Max embark on a scheme to find Max a suitable match, but it doesn’t take a compatibility profile to tell the real connection is between Max and Lia. Between sizzlingly hot kisses that turn into tempestuous fights, their attraction turns explosive enough to break down …

Explore This!: Staten Island, New York

Today we’re heading off mainland America, to the destination of Staten Island, thanks in part to Clarissa Yip’s True Connections. I’ve heard the name before but don’t really know much beyond the need to travel by ferry to get there. Funny, when I was looking for images, more often that not, it was the ferry that was highlighted.

Yip’s story takes place in Grant City, part of Staten Island, but I thought we’d take a look at the whole thing. For me, Staten Island means summer rides, boardwalks, and amusement parks. Let’s see how my knowledge compares:

The boardwalk…necessary for any summer locale.

Amusements and rides, including roller coasters *shudders*

The ferry and other boating traffic.

A quaint summer home…or perhaps a commuter's.

This veranda would be perfect for lounging on hot days with lemonade.

The botanical …

The International Giveaways Café (40)

Welcome back to the café! Take the café is taking it on the road: to a theme park :p How many of you out there enjoy roller coaster and other thrill rides? Personally, I’d rather take a book and just enjoy the weather (though there isn’t much to enjoy today) and the funnel cakes 🙂 Maybe I’ll step outside my safe zone and try a baby coaster…. Wish me luck!

As for bookish business: Remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Here’s the fine print for entering your link:
Guidelines:
If you have a giveaway you would like to share with our other readers, the rules are simple:
1. The giveaway MUST be available to …

Elements in Lit 201: Ailments and Cures in Historicals

In my reading line up, I have Sacre Bleu by Christopher Moore, which leads off with the shooting death of Vincent Van Gogh. I also have The Mad Lord’s Daughter by Jane Goodger. What could these two books possibly have in common, you might ask? Probably very little, but they got me thinking about the types of illnesses we come across when reading about the past….and the usually scary ways the sickness was treated. So, I thought we’d spend a little time being online doctors today. Who’s with me?

A few other books have caught my attention, namely The Madness of Lord Ian Mackenzie by Jennifer Ashley and Uncertain Magic by Laura Kinsale. These books, along with the two previously mentioned, feature forms of mental illness in their pages (I say Sacre Bleu is included in this mainly because of Van Gogh’s real life issues; I’ve yet …

The International Giveaways Café (40)

Hello all and welcome to the rainy day version of the café (at least it’s raining where I am). I’ve seen mention on Twitter over the last week of a readathon scheduled for today. If you are participating, I wish you the best of luck! I’ve personally not been able to get involved in readathons in the past but would love to. What do you all think about a day of undisturbed, unadulterated reading?

On to the bookish giveaway portion of our day now: Remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Here’s the fine print for entering your link:
Guidelines:
If you have a giveaway you would like to share with our other readers, …

Review: Table for One by Ros Clarke

Format read: ebook
Genre: Romance
Release Date: 14 February 2012
Number of pages: 52 pages
Publisher: Entangled Publishing
Formats available: ebook
Purchasing Info: Goodreads, Publisher’s Website, Amazon

Book Blurb:

When food critic Claudia Thomas gets dumped on Valentine’s Day, she finds herself occupying a table for one at London’s hottest new restaurant. If her job wasn’t on the line, she’d skip the whole affair, but her editor’s waiting for a review—and with luck, an interview with sexy chef Ward Nicholls.

Ward, intrigued by the single woman in a restaurant full of couples, sets out to tease her palate. Claudia has never tasted anything so luscious as the special meal Ward prepares for her, but when the seduction moves from the restaurant to his bedroom, Claudia discovers the only thing more tempting than his food is the chef himself.

Their connection is instantaneous, sizzling, and spicy—until Claudia comes clean about her job, reopening a wound Ward had thought long-healed. Could one accidental …

Explore This! Mendocino, California

I’ve been reading The Wolf Gift by Anne Rice, and in it, her version of the werewolf travels through San Francisco and further on north through California. I thought it would be neat to check out Mendocino, California, being it’s one of the names in her book.

The Wolf Gift takes place (at times) in a remote area on the Pacific Ocean and surrounded by redwood trees that have a particular meaning for some of the characters. The images Rice offers are ones of lush nature but with a certain wild, savage, untouchable feel. I think in searching out some of these images, I would agree, but this area is certainly one filled with raw beauty also. Let’s check it out:

Living alongside the ocean tends to wear homes down that much quicker.

If you've read Rice's book, you can easily imagine Reuben in these …

The International Giveaways Café (39)

Welcome back to the café! How have you all been doing with your reading lately? I’ve been a bit sluggish, I will admit. There’s something about spring air that stirs a restlessness up, making it a little harder than normal to concentrate. Do you all find that or maybe experience the same feeling at a different time of year? For me, I think it has something to do with romanticizing about sitting on a patio with a nice iced tea and a good book. It’s ironic, I suppose, but I’m just itching to get out into the beautiful weather. Ah well, soon enough right? In the meantime, let’s get back to the business of book giveaways:

Remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good …

Elements in Lit: Isn’t that convenient?!

Recently, several of the books I’ve been reading have brought something to my attention and I thought we’d take a look at this today. What is it? Well, it’s the artful way that authors either explain certain character knowledge or they methods they use to push a story along.

It was written in the stars…sort of.

Ah, fate! This is when it seems that all factors in a story point to the inevitable meeting of characters. I found this to be the case in The Marriage Bargain by Jennifer Probst. Each of the two main characters were in need of something and as it turns out, they could solve each other’s problems quite easily together. BUT, and fate seems to always have a twist, there was history between the two which meant that neither one would have considered that particular person as the solution. Fate’s totally funny that way though, …

The International Giveaways Café (38)

Hello all and welcome back for another week of great giveaways! It’s the Easter long weekend here in Canada and in many other countries around the world, so Happy Easter! to those of you who celebrate. For those of you that don’t, it is still a perfect excuse to slip in a little sweet treat for yourself, right? Or a book; that would work too 😉 What ever the case, I hope you all have a great weekend!

Remember to let us know if you’ve won anything recently; the Book Lovers would love to hear! At Book Lovers Inc., it’s our pleasure to share the bookish love! Good luck to everyone and hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend!

Here’s the fine print for entering your link:
Guidelines:
If you have a giveaway you would like to share with our other readers, the rules are simple:
1. The giveaway …