WE INTERRUPT TODAYS BOOK REVIEWS…….

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FOR A RANTING AND BITCHING POST!!!!
Okay, I have been up all night with a horrible tooth ache and I just want to share some little tid bits for everyone.
In case you ever get a tooth ache, please try to remember the following:
1. ORAGEL…..You suck!  This crap does not work like it says.  I slathered it on the tooth that was hurting and the only thing it did was numb my tongue and cheek!  Did it stop the horrible pounding of the tooth?  Hell no!  Instead, I was sitting with drool coming out of a numb mouth, still crying that it hurt!  To top it off, the numbness only lasted about 20 minutes, so if it had worked, I would have had exactly 20 minutes to fall asleep and hope it didn’t wake me up.
2.  Kids stressing you out while you have a tooth ache is not a good thing!  All it does is raise your blood pressure, which in turn, makes your tooth hurt more, which in turn stresses you out more! Are we seeing a pattern here?
3.  Pain pills take forever to work!  I downed my pain pills to help and half an hour later I am still cussing and crying because they are taking forever! 
(PLEASE NOTE: This is about the time you will be cussing at your hubby to pull the damn thing out with a pair of pliers and to just go buy you some dentures!)  Needless to say, he likes the idea of me having dentures to pop in and out,*cough, cough*, but he refuses to play dentist!
4. Yeah, aspirin might work, but if I ever decide to put one on my tooth again please shoot me!  Those things burn like a SOB! I had it there for maybe 45 seconds before it felt like the inside of my cheek and lips were going to dissolve off my face in horrible flames!  Kind of like reading about vampires in the sun!  Hell had moved into my mouth and set up residence there! NEVER AGAIN!
5.  So about this time I am pretty desperate! I am searching the internet for home remedies and I found a trick that might work! My hubby even mentioned it! RINSE WITH LISTERINE!  I tried it, it worked for about 20 minutes again.  Slowed some of the pain down but it still hurt.
6. THEN I find out that if you have vanilla extract in your cupboard, it is a gift from Heaven when you have a toothache!  The internet said to put a couple of drops on the sore tooth and gum and hold it there for about 30 seconds, and then spit it out. About this time, I don’t care if my brain is telling me yeah right. Think about it–VANILLA EXTRACT for a toothache!  Let me tell you, the stuff smells yummy but tastes horrible!  But can you believe it actually worked!!!!  Now I was crying tears of joy! 
7.  Time is now around 12:30 am to 1:00 am and I finally feel those darn pain pills kicking in and start drifting off to sleep.  
After all of this, I woke up asking myself……..
WHY IN THE HECK DID GOD DESIGN TEETH– THAT HE KNOWS WE ARE GOING TO EAT WITH– WITH NERVES IN THEM???!!!!!!
Makes me wonder what people did before dentists!!!???
Sorry for the rant, but I feel better now.  Book reviews will resume later today!  Now where did my hubby hide the pliers????? I wonder if we have any more hard liquor in the house as well???

Q&A with Susan McBride

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Today on My Overstuffed Bookshelf, we have Susan McBride, author of The Cougar Club sharing an interview with us!  I am reading the book now, and loving it! Look for the review to be posted tomorrow!  Lets get started with the interview!
1. Can you tell the readers a little about yourself?

I’m the author of THE COUGAR CLUB as well as five books in my Debutante Dropout Mystery series for Avon and two books in my DEBS young adult series for Random House (there’s a third completed but with pub date in limbo).  I was a St. Louis Magazine “top single” in 2005, which is how I met my husband (we were married two years ago on February 24!).  He’s nine years younger but looks like a college frat boy, which makes for some interesting times when we go out (he gets carded a lot!).  I’m a breast cancer survivor of three years (and counting!), and I’m trying my darnedest to stay healthy.  My writing reflects my sense of humor, which tends toward sarcastic, and my observations about people and the world.  Though my books have little bits of me in them, all the characters and situations come from my vivid imagination.  My hubby calls me “Crazy Brain” because my mind never stops whirling and coming up with stories.  Maybe that’s why never get enough sleep!  
 

2. Can you tell the readers how you came up with the idea of Cougar Club?

 
After my mystery series ended and I was writing my young adult books, I was talking with my former mystery editor who wanted to work with me again.  She mentioned my being a Cougar since I’d married a younger guy and wondered if I’d write about Cougars in a novel.  I thought it sounded like fun!  Pretty soon after, I started on The Cougar Club, and it felt a lot like playing the sandbox!  It was a blast setting a novel in St. Louis (where I live) and coming up with these three women–Kat, Carla, and Elise–who are 45 years old and going through various crises.  Their friendship is at the heart of the story, but it’s also about following your heart, no matter your age. Our society treats women over age forty pretty roughly, and I felt compelled to re-invent what a Cougar is.  I know lots of vibrant, fabulous females who are “medium young” (what I like to call middle-aged!), and they’re not desperate harpies looking for one-night-stands with 20-year-old boys.  They’re successful in business, have raised children, maybe gone through a divorce or were widowed, and they’re open to falling in love again.  If it’s with a younger guy, so be it. Hitting forty can be inspiring–it shouldn’t be depressing!  I wanted The Cougar Club to be funny and hopeful and just a really juicy read.  I hope readers like it!  
 

3.  If I was a fly on your wall, what would I see in the day of Susan?

 
There’s no way I can make this NOT sound boring!  😉  I get up with my husband when his alarm goes off, and I check emails and clean litter boxes while he showers.  I make sure he gets off to work and then I’m at the computer, dealing with business first and then starting on whatever project I’m working on at the moment (right now, a proposal for my next women’s fiction book).  Every other day, I’m either on the treadmill or working out with light weights and my Big Red Ball before I shower and have lunch.  I try to work most of the afternoon, often checking emails, doing laundry, and occasionally running errands in between (the ladies at my local post office know me by name!).  If I have a gig that night, I usually like to start getting organized a few hours before.  If I don’t, I try to wrap up my work before six or six-thirty when Ed gets home.  Then it’s dinner and TV (or a hockey game if the Blues are in town!).  By 10:30 or 11, it’s lights out in our house.  Exciting, huh?

4.  List your favorites of the following: 

Food:    I’m really into broccoli and cheese at the moment!
Drink:  Green tea or water with slices of lime.
Perfume:  I love Shikai Vanilla Bath Gel and their Vanilla Body Lotion.
Color:  Gray.
TV Show:  NCIS and Burn Notice.
Movie:  All the Harry Potter movies.  I can watch them over and over!

 5.  What are 3 things you must have when you sit down to write?

I must have my jammies on, preferably a gray sky outside, and my notebook with all my scribbles lying open on my desk.  
 

6. Do you have a blog or website for readers to keep up to date with you and your books?

 
I have a web site at http://SusanMcBride.com, and I’m on Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Cougar-Club-A-Novel/214091944767).  I blog twice a month with the Stiletto Gang (http://thestilettogang.blogspot.com), and I share a web site with The Book Belles (http://thebookbelles.com).  I’m on GoodReads and LibraryThing, too.  So you can find me lots of places!  
 

7.  Where can we purchase your book(s)?

 
The Cougar Club and my other novels are widely available.  So online booksellers and bricks & mortar stores should carry at least some; and, if they don’t, please ask them to order copies!  I’ve got links to booksellers from my web site to make it easier, too. 
 
Thanks so much for having me, Amy!  Loved your questions!  
 
Thank you so much for joining us Susan!

 



BEFORE I FALL by Lauren Oliver (ARC review)

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BEFORE I FALL
Source: B&N First Look
* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*
  • Reading level: Young Adult
  • Hardcover: 480 pages
  • Publisher: HarperCollins (March 2, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 006172680X
  • ISBN-13: 978-0061726804
SYNOPSIS:
What if you had only one day to live? What would you do? Who would you kiss? And how far would you go to save your own life?
Samantha Kingston has it all: the world’s most crush-worthy boyfriend, three amazing best friends, and first pick of everything at Thomas Jefferson High—from the best table in the cafeteria to the choicest parking spot. Friday, February 12, should be just another day in her charmed life.
Instead, it turns out to be her last.
Then she gets a second chance. Seven chances, in fact. Reliving her last day during one miraculous week, she will untangle the mystery surrounding her death—and discover the true value of everything she is in danger of losing. 
MY THOUGHTS:
OMG! First off, before you read this AMAZING book, you better have a box of kleenex handy!
At first, I couldn’t stand the characters of this book.  Sam was a stuck up bitch, and so were her friends. You know what I am talking about if you think back to high school and remember those perfect little barbie doll type girls walking around with their noses in the air waiting for rain to drown them.  Then as you progress slowly through the book and the story, you start to actually care about Sam and realize why they act this way.  You find your feelings changing for each character involved in the story.  
I didn’t think I would be able to finish this book during the first couple of chapters, then before you realize it, you are sucked into it and you completely forget to fix dinner, give the kids a bath and even sleep!
I devoured this book in less than a day and wanted so much more! I cried.  I laughed. I even swooned at the small love scenes.  I even tried to hold back my tears, but lost in the end.  I was deeply moved by the plot and the writing was wonderful!  A new to me author that I can’t wait to see what else she has out there now and in the future!  Catch me before I fall in love with more of her writing!

MY RATING:


Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading!

CATCH OF A LIFETIME by Judi Fennell

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CATCH OF A LIFETIME
Source: Publisher (Thank you Danielle)
* I received this book free of charge in exchange for an honest review*
  • Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
  • Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca; 1 edition (January 5, 2010)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 1402224281
  • ISBN-13: 978-1402224287
SYNOPSIS:
Mermaid Angel Tritone escapes a shark by jumping into single dad Logan Hardington’s fishing boat. All his young son Michael wants for his birthday is a mermaid, and if his dad will only play his cards right, now he’ll have one…
Angel wants to give Michael his most beloved birthday gift (a real live mermaid) while also getting to know his father and getting him to help her in her mission to stop humans from destroying the oceans. Logan has never met a woman who cared as much about the same things he does, and she’s never met a man who understood her deepest commitment to humanity and nature. When an enemy of conservation shows up and tries to kill Angel, Logan has to choose between continuing the life he’s known, or following the woman he loves to the bottom of the ocean…
MY THOUGHTS:
In the authors third book of the series, she has once again captured my interest in the sea!  Although I still hae a certain soft spot for Reel from the first book,  I enjoyed this book just as much.  This time we get to read the adventure of Angel Tritone.  If you are tired of all the vampire, werewolf, and other paranormal books that are out there, then this is a new spin of paranormal that features mermaids and mermen.  
The author did a wonderful job of intertwining the human world and the paranormal world.  She has witty writing that keeps you entertained, and the perfect romance writing to keep the water boiling!  Another favorite book by a great author that will remain on my bookshelves for re reading time and again.
MY RATING:

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf
For Rereading!

WINNER!!!!

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The contest for Judi Fennell’s Catch of A Lifetime is now closed.
The Winners are:
 
and

 
 
You have 48 hours to contact me with your address for mailing.
Contact me at:
djsfoxylady@gmail.com
Please include in the subject line: CATCH OF A LIFETIME WINNER
If I don’t hear from you within 48 hours, new winners will be chosen. 
Please note: These books will be coming directly from the publisher.
CONGRATS!!!!!