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I have a fail-proof list of books that will keep you entertained for hours (days) and leave you wondering why you didn't read these books sooner...
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https://bookshop.org/lists/15-books-to-stick-with-your-resolution-to-read-more
I
am so excited that THE SECRETS WE KEEP by
Nikki Lee Taylor is available now and that I get to share the news!
If you haven’t yet heard about this wonderful book, be sure to check out all the details below.
This blitz also includes a giveaway for a $10 Amazon GC courtesy of Rockstar Book Tours & Nikki. So if you’d like a chance to win, check out the giveaway info below.
About
The Book:
Author: Nikki Lee
Taylor
Pub.
Date: January
11, 2021
Publisher: Magpie Creative
Media
Formats: Paperback,
eBook
Pages: 288
Find
it: Goodreads, Amazon, Kindle, B&N,
Read for FREE with
a Kindle Unlimited Membership!
Not all mothers are created equal… Some are better at hiding the truth.
Crippled with anxiety, Sophie is desperate to overcome the pain of losing her husband and only child in a freak car accident. Living and working in isolation with only the company of her dog Miss Molly, Sophie agrees to take on a job reviewing the manuscript of an up-and-coming writer. But this isn’t any story. It is one that unearths old secrets and to discover the truth, Sophie must find the courage to embark on a search that will change her life forever.
On the outside, Love Mommy blogging queen Madelyn-May has it all. To her online community she is the perfect mother. She has a successful husband, perfect twins, and an idyllic life. What they don’t know is Madelyn-May also has a secret. When her past collides with the present, Madelyn-May is forced to make a choice that could destroy everything she loves.
Would you risk destroying a family, if it meant healing your own heart? Would you tell the truth, if it meant losing everything you love?
The Secrets We Keep is a confronting look at the complexities of family and lengths a mother will go to for her child.
Excerpt
The blinds are drawn because I
need them to be. There are days the light is welcome, but not today. Today I
need the darkness. It is the best way I know to pull them in close, here in the
dark, in the empty spaces where they no longer exist and yet still take up
every particle of air.
My life. My love. My family.
James and Josh. My husband and son, stolen while I was sleeping, peacefully
unaware at that very moment that the entire world was shattering.
It’s the small things that hurt the most. An unexpected letter with his name on it. A television commercial for Linvilla Orchards – where we picked peaches every July, just the two of us at first, and then with Josh. His familiar scent trailing behind a stranger, its ghostly arms wrapping around my lungs and squeezing. The crisp sting of empty sheets as autumn turns to winter.
Worst of all: the sudden ring
of a child’s laughter breaking the silence and tearing my heart into a thousand
tiny pieces.
I stroke the fur on Miss Molly’s golden head and close my eyes. “I’m sorry,” I whisper, even though dogs don’t understand apologies. “It’s this day, it’s….”
I let the words trail off, unable to say out loud that five years ago my husband and son took their last breath, trapped in a car wreck, and I hadn’t been there. Unable to say that while they were dying, I lay peacefully in bed, useless and selfish, taking an afternoon nap. It hadn’t even woken me. I hadn’t sat up, my instincts kicking into overdrive. I hadn’t experienced so much as a bad dream.
At the time friends told me I should try to forgive myself, that it wasn’t my fault. They brought soup, and sent messages. They held me and promised things would get better. They stood on my stoop and reminded me, “There’s nothing you could have done.”
Therapists call my depression and anxiety a form of post-traumatic stress disorder.
Survivor’s guilt, they say, although that’s not the official term. Apparently it’s natural for parents who outlive their children to experience a sense of blame, but I have struggled to believe there is anything natural about it. Could there be anything more unnatural than for a mother to bury her son?
Then there were the people who told me to have faith. I’ve never been a religious person, but I have stood alone on a rainy afternoon and heard the hollow thump of dirt shoveled onto a tiny white casket. I’ve heard the mournful cry of a loon as people, not knowing what else to say, turned and made the sad walk back to their cars. I have stood as day turned to night, staring at two holes in the ground, hoping my husband and son wouldn’t be cold on the first night away from their beds. Away from me. Having faith would mean believing James and Josh were taken for a reason, that there was some divinity to their absence. There is not. There is only pain and empty spaces.
I get up from the couch and pull the curtains further across. But no matter how dark I make the room, there are always slivers of light that keep me in the place I don’t want to be.
Slivers that never let me bury the one question I still have no answer for.
How do I ever find the strength to step into the light when they are forever lost in the dark?
About Nikki:
Nikki Lee Taylor is a long-time newspaper journalist
turned fiction writer. She is also a dreamer, a doer, a storyteller, a coffee
lover, and fur mum to two golden retrievers Max and Sam.
She spends most of her time staring into space, walking between worlds, and creating out-loud character dialogue that sounds a lot like talking to herself in the shower. She stays up late plotting and planning the lives of characters yet to be created and starts every day embraced by the warmth of a good coffee.
She is a courageous booktrovert who lives life with her right foot in NSW, Australia and the left in a world that exists only in her head.
She reads books out loud to anyone who’ll listen and drives her husband mad spending all her free time with friends who exist only on the page.
Website | Twitter | Facebook | Instagram | Amazon | Goodreads
Giveaway Details:
1 lucky winner will win a $10 Amazon
Gift Card, International.
As I was getting ready to write my 2020 wrap-up, the lyrics from the song Seasons of Love by Jonathan Larson came to mind:
"Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure? Measure a year?"
💟
In one of my recent Instagram posts I asked which book title would represent 2020, and my buddy JenaBrownWrites had the perfect book/answer: A SERIES OF UNFORTUNATE EVENTS. I think that's one title we can pretty much all agree on.
To say that 2020 was a chaotic year is an understatement, but books were the trusted companions that allowed me to travel to different worlds (sometimes crazier than ours), believe that magic is real, fall in love all over again, and help me gain a better understanding of the society we live in...so, in those Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes, I managed to read 75 books (not too shabby), and here are the TOP NINE books that have touched my soul:
FICTION:
Learn SIMPLE strategies to organize, blog, travel and live LIFE as your own adventure!
2020 has proven to be not only a stressful year, but also one that has made all of us (ME) put things into better perspective. There's so much going on and I want to let different voices have an opportunity in this space. If you ever wanted a chance to write for a blog, or have a ton of ideas that you could put together as a blog post, this is your chance!
The truth is, as much as I love this blog, it does takes up too much of my time and I was even considering the possibility of shutting it down. But why shut it down if there’s a chance to publish other reviews?
➡️ Join the Review Team:
You’ll have the opportunity to write reviews for the latest books trending on #bookstagram.
Do you love a certain genre? How about writing about the latest thrillers? Or Romance? Or Books to Movie adaptations?
Best bookclub selections for 2021?
Most beautiful libraries in the East coast? West coast?
Noticed a new trend? Would you like to write about it?
Most wanted bookish accessory?
The above are only suggestions.
Feel free to pitch me your own ideas.
Nothing is too crazy or too trendy :-)
I have a few examples on the blog: “5 Magical Trilogies Worth Binge Reading”, “5 Best Beach Reads of 2019”, and others.
Help me get this new idea off the ground and promote yourself at the same time. If a publisher asks you if you have a blog, you can honestly say you are a reviewer/contributor and send him/her links to your work. It’s a win-win, no?
If you’re really interested, e-mail me your bio with all links and a picture to trendyandsimple@gmail.com
Subject: Review Team
Kiss My Cupcake, an all-new witty, opposites-attract standalone romance from New York Times bestselling author Helena Hunting is available now!
Blaire Calloway has planned every Instagram-worthy moment of her cupcake and cocktails shop launch down to the tiniest detail. What she didn’t plan on? Ronan Knight and his old-school sports bar next door opening on the very same day. He may be super swoony, but Blaire hasn’t spent years obsessing over buttercream and bourbon to have him ruin her chance at success.
From ax throwing (his place) to frosting contests (hers), Blaire and Ronan are constantly trying to one-up each other in a battle to win new customers. But with every clash, there’s also an undeniable chemistry. When an even bigger threat to their business comes to town, they’re forced to call a temporary time-out on their own war and work together. And the more time Blaire spends getting to know the real Ronan, the more she wonders if it’s possible to have her cupcake and eat it too.
Download your copy today!
Amazon US: https://amzn.to/2LhYU0S
Amazon Worldwide: http://mybook.to/kissmycupcake
Nook: http://bit.ly/KissmyCupcakeBN
Apple Books: http://bit.ly/KissmyCupcake
Google Play: http://bit.ly/KissmyCupcakeGP
Kobo: http://bit.ly/KissmyCupcakeKobo
Add Kiss My Cupcake to Goodreads: http://bit.ly/KissMyCupcakeGR
About Helena Hunting
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of PUCKED, Helena Hunting lives on the outskirts of Toronto with her incredibly tolerant family and two moderately intolerant cats. She writes contemporary romance ranging from new adult angst to romantic sports comedy.
Connect with Helena
Instagram: http://bit.ly/2kN5wdZ
Twitter: http://bit.ly/2mloUim
Facebook: http://on.fb.me/Zt1xm5
Facebook Fan group: http://bit.ly/2kN5yCD
Website: http://www.helenahunting.com/
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