Spotlight & Giveaway: Kissing My Old Life Au Revoir by Eliza Watson

Event planner Samantha Hunter is prepared for a few challenges when escorting a group of good ole boy beer distributors to Paris, the city of haute cuisine and fine wines. However, she doesn’t foresee being passed up for a promotion because she is too professional and doesn’t knock back beers with her clients. Her focus soon switches from landing the well-deserved promotion to finding her free-spirited sister, who lives in Paris and has disappeared, leaving behind family secrets to be uncovered. A sexy puppeteer helps Samantha search for clues to her sister’s whereabouts and teaches her to embrace her inner child. And a funeral-crashing psychic demonstrates the importance of living life to the fullest. It takes Samantha’s life spiraling out of control for her to finally get a life.

eBook Giveaway! Please leave a comment to be entered to win a copy of Kissing My Old Life Au Revoir. Be sure to include your email address or Twitter/Facebook information so that we can get in touch if you win. The winner will be chosen on Wednesday, August 28th. Good luck! 

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Eliza Watson’s first attempt at creative writing was in fourth grade. She and her friends were huge Charlie's Angels fans, and she would sit in her bedroom at night writing scripts for them to act out at recess the following day. She was Kelly Garrett. The journey from fourth grade script writer to published author wasn't an easy one, but it was always an adventure and the final destination was well worth it. When Eliza isn’t traveling for her job as an event planner, or tracing her ancestry roots through Ireland, she’s at home in Wisconsin working on her next novel. She enjoys bouncing ideas off her husband Mark, and her cats Quigley, Frankie, and Sammy.

Connect with Eliza at elizawatson.com, goodreads.com/ElizaWatson, and facebook.com/ElizaWatsonAuthor.

Kissing My Old Life Au Revoir is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, and Kobo.

New Release: Blogger Girl by Meredith Schorr

What happens when your high school nemesis becomes the shining star in a universe you pretty much saved? Book blogger Kimberly Long is about to find out.

A chick lit enthusiast since  the  first  time  she  read Bridget  Jones’s  Diary, Kim, with her blog, "Pastel is the New Black," has worked tirelessly by night to keep the genre alive, and help squash the claim that "chick lit is dead" once and for all. Not bad for a woman who by day ekes out a meager living as a pretty, and pretty-much-nameless, legal secretary in a Manhattan law firm.

While Kim's day job holds no passion for her, the handsome (and shaving challenged) associate down the hall is another story. Yet another story is that Hannah Marshak, one of her most hated high school classmates, has now popped onto the chick lit scene with a hot new book that's turning heads--and pages--across the land. It's also popped into Kim's inbox--for review. With their ten-year high school reunion drawing near, Kim's coming close to combustion over the hype about Hannah’s book. And as everyone around her seems to be moving on and up, she begins to question whether being a “blogger girl” makes the grade in her off-line life.

 Blogger Girl is available now from Amazon and Barnes & Noble! 

The Power of the Wedding Cake

by Cynthia Ellingsen 

I have a true confession to share with you: When I cry at weddings, it’s not about the romance - it’s because I’m excited about the wedding cake. I think it's the frosting that gets me. The granulated sugar, the buttery texture of the floral accents and oh! The way the fondant just seems so unnaturally snow-white. The cake itself, though, can also be a delightful journey. A light and frisky vanilla interior won’t distract from the frosting. In fact, it’s a great way to cleanse the palate after each and every sugary bite.

In Marriage Matters, my latest novel from Penguin-Berkley, the cake tasting scene is one of my favorites. The three women sit down to an elegant tasting and as the grandmother and granddaughter decide to compete to see who can eat the most cake, the event descends into a raucous, sugar consumption frenzy. And I have to admit, it’s difficult to read that scene without eating a cupcake.

Brides, please know this: As you walk down the aisle in your resplendent beauty, tears of joy streaming down your face, I’ll be right there with you. Rooting for you. But in another part of my brain, I’m definitely clocking the seconds until that piece of fluffy, sugary joy gets passed around the reception.

Excerpt from Marriage Matters

Eagerly, Chloe took a seat at the table, followed by June, then her mother. The pastry chef set out a glass of water for each of them, along with a napkin and a full place setting. To the side of each plate was a small silver bucket. It looked just like a spittoon at a wine tasting but Chloe had no idea what it was for.

“The bucket,” the pastry chef explained, noticing her confusion, “serves as a receptacle. Many brides choose to take a tiny bite of cake and discard the remainder.” She handed them each a piece of paper with a small pencil. “Use this to keep track as you go. If there’s a flavor combination you like, just give it a tiny star.”

In the chocolate column, there was a lengthy list: milk chocolate, dark chocolate, white chocolate, German chocolate, black forest and hazelnut. Below that, the options were angel food cake, butter cake, pound cake, tres leches and (oddly) wedding cake. The specialty flavors included carrot, tiramisu and red velvet.

Many of the cupcakes were frosted with buttercream, whipped cream or raspberry chocolate. The carrot and red velvet cake were, of course, frosted with cream cheese.

Chloe’s eyes scanned the options eagerly. She hadn’t eaten any breakfast, in preparation for this little extravaganza. Suddenly, an idea struck her.

“Hey, Grandma,” she said, kicking June under the table. “Want to see who can eat the most without spitting?”

June already had a cupcake halfway to her mouth. Her face lit up. “I’ll most certainly win.”

“Chloe, we are not at the county fair,” her mother said. “We are selecting cake for your weddings.”

Chloe waved her fork. “Mom, you can either sign on as a judge or vacate the premises.”

June’s eyes surveyed the assortment of cupcakes. “I say we battle for the right to plan the bachelorette party. If I win, Bernice is doing it.”

Even though Chloe’s grandmother was cooler than most, it didn’t mean her friends knew how to throw a good party. What would they do, knit?

“No way,” Chloe said. “My friends are in charge of that. Your friends do not know the first thing about throwing a bachelorette party.”

“Then you better win,” June cried.

 “Done.” Dramatically, she reached for a square of dark chocolate cake. The cake was slightly spongy, with an earthy richness. The whipped cream frosting melted like a roasted marshmallow in her mouth. “Yum . . .”

June’s sharp eyes considered the cupcake in her hand, and she consulted with Kristine. “Should I stay away from the rich ones? Until she’s full?”

Chloe sank her teeth into the piece of tiramisu, sighing happily. “Doesn’t matter what you do, Grandma. I can eat cake for days.” The powdered cocoa on the tiramisu melded with her tongue like a kiss. It suddenly struck her that Ben would have enjoyed this tasting, since he liked tiramisu so much. Too bad they still weren’t really talking or she might have just brought him a cupcake.

“Pace yourself,” Kristine warned. “Old age and treachery beats youth and enthusiasm every time.”

June nodded. “That’s a fact.”

Chloe scoffed. “Keep telling yourself that.” She surveyed the cakes, trying to decide which to try next.

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Connect with Cynthia at facebook.com/cynthiaellingsen and twitter.com/CynEllingsen.

Welcome to Fictionella!

We're finally up and running! Welcome to Fictionella, the new and improved version of The Chick Lit Bee! Everything you love about The Chick Lit Bee can still be found here, plus much more to come, so check back often. Take a look around, and as always, please provide any feedback you have. I'm Nancy Scrofano, the editor of the site, and I manage this website and all the social media accounts. I post all the content, so if you have any questions, just let me know. I'm so excited to share Fictionella with you, and I'm thrilled to start this new chapter in book blogging! Thanks for stopping by!
 

Sunlounger Anthology - The Ultimate Beach Read!

Take a trip around the world with 44 of the hottest writers in Women's Fiction!

This collection of sun-kissed short stories will have you boarding a millionaire's yacht in St Tropez, exploring a sheik's palace in Dubai, swimming with dolphins in Australia, partying in Ibiza, surfing in Hawaii, exploring ancient ruins in Turkey and Cambodia and sipping Limoncello in Italy! 

Whether you read it on your favourite beach (Sunlounger features golden sands from Greece to Thailand) or on your daily commute or coffee break, you will be spirited away on a variety of adventures - some will make you chuckle, some will make your heart pang, others will inspire you to live your life to the max!

Sunlounger has a matching website: www.va-va-vacation.com, which features an author page for each of the 44 fab writers involved:

Katie Agnew, Valerie-Anne Baglietto, Rosie Blake, Alexandra Brown, Laurey Buckland, Abby Clements, Miranda Dickinson, Carrie Duffy, Ilana Fox, Victoria Fox, Emma Garcia, Michele Gorman, Kirsty Greenwood, Kate Guest, Kate Harrison, Lisa Heidke, Molly Hopkins, Pernille Hughes, Margaret James, Belinda Jones, Lucy Lord, Chrissie Manby, Louise Marley, Holly Martin, Nigel May, Martel Maxwell, Roisin Meaney, Kiri Mills, Nicola Moriarty, Tamsyn Murray, Emily O'Neill, Lynda Page, Carmen Reid, Wendy Rigg, Lucy Robinson, Talli Roland, Ruth Saberton, Nancy Scrofano, Cally Taylor, Sasha Wagstaff, Anna-Lou Weatherley, Julia Williams, Lara Williamson, Tiffany Wright

This really is the ULTIMATE BEACH READ! Available now from all Amazon websites!