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Monday, August 31, 2020

A Girl Like You: The Henrietta and Inspector Howard Series, Book One ~ Audio Book Blog Tour Review & Giveaway!

THE HENRIETTA AND INSPECTOR HOWARD SERIES
BY MICHELLE COX


Genre Adult Fiction (18+)
Category Historical Mystery
Publisher:  Michelle Cox

Release dates: November 2017; April 2017; April 2018; April 2019; April 2020

Content Rating: R: Books 1-2 do not have any sex scenes, though there is sexual reference, Books 3-5 do have explicit sex scenes (tasteful). There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot. There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide, prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.


BOOK ONE: 
A Girl Like You
Narrated by: Jayne A Entwistle
Length: 10 hrs and 21 mins
Genre:  Adult Fiction (18+)
Category Historical Mystery
Publisher: Michelle Cox
Audio Book Release Date: November, 2017
Content Rating: R: Books 1-2 do not have any sex scenes, though there is sexual reference.There is periodic swearing and violence, but not a lot. There are some dark themes (though not graphic examples) of suicide, prostitution, mob involvement, rape, drinking, homosexuality.

Book Description:  Henrietta Von Harmon works as a 26 girl at a corner bar on Chicago’s northwest side. It’s 1935, but things still aren’t looking up since the big crash and her father’s subsequent suicide, leaving Henrietta to care for her antagonistic mother and younger siblings. Henrietta is eventually persuaded to take a job as a taxi dancer at a local dance hall—and just when she’s beginning to enjoy herself, the floor matron turns up dead. When aloof Inspector Clive Howard appears on the scene, Henrietta agrees to go undercover for him—and is plunged into Chicago’s grittier underworld. Meanwhile, she’s still busy playing mother hen to her younger siblings, as well as to pesky neighborhood boy Stanley, who believes himself in love with her and keeps popping up in the most unlikely places, determined to keep Henrietta safe—even from the Inspector, if need be. Despite his efforts, however, and his penchant for messing up the Inspector’s investigation, the lovely Henrietta and the impenetrable Inspector find themselves drawn to each other in most
unsuitable ways.
 Buy the Book:
Audible  ~Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo
~ Google Store

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Book Review: 

HALL WAYS REVIEW: AUDIO BOOK REVIEW: Before I ever started listening to A Girl Like You by Michelle Cox, I knew that I was going to love this story. Why? Because strangely, I have already read (with my ears) the fifth story in the series, A Child Lost, and adored it. I simply had to go back to the beginning and learn how Henrietta and Clive first met. And WOW! I am not disappointed. I devoured this book and listened straight through, resisting the temptation to increase the speed so I could find out the conclusion faster!

"Are you always this flippant, Ms. Von Harmon?"

Part of what makes Henrietta a fabulous character is her sass. She's had a rough life and upbringing, and has a lot of responsibility on her young shoulders. She has earned the right to be sassy and is more than capable of sparring with whomever she needs to in order to get what she needs. She's no shrinking violet, but she also knows how far to push and when to keep her mouth shut. She's street smart and worldly, but endearingly naive and innocent. In Henrietta, author Michelle Cox has given readers a fabulously layered character to cheer -- and fear -- for.

Also fabulously written are peripheral characters who really come to life with the terrific narration performed by Jane Entwistle. Whether it's the annoying Stanley, or the sultry sounding Clive, Entwistle's voicing of the characters perfectly complements Cox's writing. Entwistle tackles male and female, young and old, Chicagoan and Irish, with each having a unique voice and cadence to make it easy to keep up with the wide cast of characters. 

And let's not forget the mystery! There's the nefarious Neptune and his dark world that threatens to consume Henrietta. Cox does a great job of dropping hints that something is off with a situation or a character, but she doesn't show her cards. She gives readers enough to niggle the brain and keep us engaged and guessing. 
"I'm quite mad for you."

Ahhh, and the romance. Perhaps since I know where Henrietta and Clive are in book five, the attraction between them in A Girl Like You is all the richer. The attraction between the two of them is magnetic, and the sexual tension is palpable. Though it's a slow build and then a very fast romantic resolution, it works. Perfectly.  One thing I love about having the book set in the 1930s is the language and diction. While there's often propriety in even the most intimate of conversations, there is also plenty of the coarse, rough talk of the working girls and fellas just trying to make a living -- legally, illegally, or within that gray area between the two. 

I desperately wanted to go right into listening to book two, A Ring of Truth, but alas, it has to wait another week until I get about a million things off the checklist. The anticipation is DELICIOUS, and knowing that when I get my work done I can go back into Henrietta and Clive's world is quite the motivator. This may be my most productive week ever!

Thank you to the author and iRead Book Tours for inviting me to be on this tour. I already had bought the audio book, but the tour pushed it to the top of my listening library -- and for that I am grateful!


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OTHER BOOKS IN THE SERIES:


BOOK TWO: 
A Ring of Truth
Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!
In this second book of the series, Henrietta and Clive delightfully rewrite Pride and Prejudice―with a hint of mystery! Newly engaged, Clive and Henrietta now begin the difficult task of meeting each other’s family. “Difficult” because Clive has neglected to tell Henrietta that he is in fact the heir to the Howard estate and fortune, and Henrietta has just discovered that her mother has been hiding secrets about her past as well. 

When Clive brings Henrietta to the family estate to meet his parents, they are less than enthused about his impov-erished intended. Left alone in this extravagant new world when Clive returns to the city, Henrietta finds herself more at home with the servants than his family, much to the disapproval of Mrs. Howard―and soon gets caught up in the disappearance of an elderly servant’s ring, not realizing that in doing so she has become part of a bigger, darker plot. 

As Clive and Henrietta attempt to discover the truth in the two very different worlds
unraveling around them, they both begin to wonder: Are they meant for each other after all?
  

BOOK THREE: 
A Promise Given
This third book in the Henrietta and Inspector Howard series provides a delightful romp through the English countryside and back. Anxious to be married, Henrietta and Clive push forward with their wedding plans despite their family differences, made worse now by Oldrich Exley’s attempts to control the Von Harmons. 

When the long-awaited wedding day arrives, there is more unfolding than just Clive and Henrietta’s vows of love. Stanley and Elsie’s relationship is sorely tested by the presence of the dashing Lieutenant Harrison Barnes-Smith and by Henrietta’s friend Rose―a situation that grows increasingly dark and confused as time goes on. 

As Clive and Henrietta begin their honeymoon at Castle Linley, the Howards’ ancestral estate in England, they encounter a whole new host of characters, including the eccentric Lord and Lady Linley and Clive’s mysterious cousin, Wallace. When a man is murdered in the village on the night of a house party at the Castle, Wallace comes under suspicion―and Clive and Henrietta are reluctantly drawn into the case, despite Clive’s anxiety at involving his new bride and Henrietta’s distracting news from home. Delicately attempting to work together for the first time, Clive and Henrietta set out to prove Wallace’s innocence, uncovering as they do so some rather shocking truths that will shake the Linley name and estate forever.

BOOK FOUR: 
A Veil Removed
Click to read the Hall Ways Blog Audio Book Review!
Murder is never far from this sexy couple . . . even during the holidays! Their honeymoon abruptly ended by the untimely death of Alcott Howard, Clive and Henrietta return to Highbury, where Clive discovers all is not as it should be. 

Increasingly convinced that his father’s death was not an accident, Clive launches his own investigation, despite his mother’s belief that he has become “mentally disturbed” with grief.

Henrietta eventually joins forces with Clive on their first real case, which becomes darker―and deadlier―than they imagined as they get closer to the truth behind Alcott’s troubled affairs. Meanwhile, Henrietta’s sister, Elsie, begins, at Henrietta’s orchestration, to take classes at a women’s college―an attempt to evade her troubles and prevent any
further romantic temptations. When she meets a bookish German custodian at the school, however, he challenges her to think for herself . . .even as she discovers some shocking secrets about his past life.
 Buy the Book:
Amazon.com ~ Chirp ~ Apple
Kobo
~ Google Store



A spiritualist, an insane asylum, a lost little girl . . . When Clive, anxious to distract a depressed Henrietta, begs Sergeant Frank
Davis for a case, he is assigned to investi-gating a seemingly boring affair: a spiritualist woman operating in an abandoned schoolhouse on the edge of town who is suspected of robbing people of their valuables.

What begins as an open and shut case becomes more complicated, however, when Henrietta―much to Clive’s dismay―begins to believe the spiritualist's strange ramblings. Meanwhile, Elsie implores Clive and Henrietta to help her and the object of her budding love, Gunther, locate the whereabouts of one Liesel Klinkhammer, the German woman Gunther has traveled to America to find and the mother of the little girl, Anna, whom he has brought along with him. The search leads them to Dunning Asylum, where they discover some terrible truths about Liesel.

When the child, Anna, is herself mistakenly admitted to the asylum after an epileptic fit, Clive and Henrietta return to Dunning to retrieve her. This time, however, Henrietta begins to suspect that something darker may be happening. When Clive doesn’t believe her, she decides to take matters into her own hands . . . with horrifying results.
Buy the Book:
Audible ~ Amazon.com
Chirp ~ Apple ~ Kobo


MEET THE NARRATOR : Jayne Entwistle was born in the North of England and lived in a myriad of places (Vancouver, San Francisco, Tucson, Sequim, Seattle) before landing in Los Angeles. She is an avid improviser who hitched her space-work wagon to Patrick Bristow’s company, Improvatorium, where she studied, taught, directed and performed improv. She is an award-winning audio book narrator best known for her narration of the Flavia de Luce series by Alan Bradley. She also received the 2015 Odyssey Honour Award for The Scandalous Sisterhood of Prickwillow Place by Julie Berry and the 2016 Odyssey Award for The War that Saved My Life by Kimberly Brubaker Bradley.   When not inhaling books for work or pleasure, Jayne works in film, television and commercials. The biggest star she has ever worked with is Shaquille O’Neal. He is quite literally THE biggest star she has ever worked with. Ever. He’s really big!

MEET THE AUTHOR: Michelle Cox is the author of the multiple award-winning Henrietta and Inspector Howard series as well as “Novel Notes of Local Lore,” a weekly blog dedicated to Chicago’s forgotten residents. She suspects she may have once lived in the 1930s and, having yet to discover a handy time machine lying around, has resorted to writing about the era as a way of getting herself back there. Coincidentally, her books have been praised by KirkusLibrary JournalPublishers WeeklyBooklist, and many others, so she might be on to something. Unbeknownst to most, Michelle hoards board games she doesn’t have time to play and is, not surprisingly, addicted to period dramas and big band music. Also marmalade.

Website    Facebook   Twitter 
Instagram   Goodreads


ENTER THE GIVEAWAY! 
$100 Amazon Gift Card courtesy of Michelle Cox,
author of the Henrietta and Inspector Howard Mystery Series 
(ends Nov 8)


Tour Schedule:

Aug 31 - Bookish Paradise – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Aug 31 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Aug 31 - Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / guest post / giveaway

Sep 1 – Lamon Reviews – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 1 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 2 – Bookriot – audiobook review for A Child Lost / author interview / giveaway

Sep 2 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 2 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 3 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 3 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 4 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth Sep 4 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 7 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 7 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 7 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 8 – Sefina Hawke's Books – series spotlight

Sep 8 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 9 – Jazzy Book Reviews – series spotlight / guest post / giveaway

Sep 9 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 9 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 10 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 10 - Rosepoint Publishing - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 11 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 11- Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 14 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 14 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 14 - Rajiv's Reviews - audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Sep 15 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Girl Like You / giveaway

Sep 15 - Rebecca Graf on Medium - audiobook review of A Child Lost

Sep 16 – Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 16 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 17 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 17 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 18 - Books for Books – audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 18 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Sep 21 - Books for Books – audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 21 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 22 - Rockin' Book Reviews – audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Sep 22 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Ring of Truth / giveaway

Sep 23 – Book Corner News and Reviews – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 23 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 24 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 24 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Sep 25 – Books for Books – audiobook review of A Child Lost

Sep 25 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Ring of Truth

Sep 28 – Hall Ways Blog – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 28 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Promise Given

Sep 29 - Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Sep 30 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Promise Given / giveaway

Sep 30 - Library of Clean Reads - audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveawaySep 30 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Veil Removed

Oct 1 – Olio By Marilyn – audiobook review of A Veil Removed / giveaway

Oct 1 - History from a Woman’s Perspective  - audiobook review of A Girl Like You

Oct 1 - Amy's Booket List - audiobook review of A Child Lost

Oct 2 – Locks, Hooks and Books – audiobook review of A Child Lost / giveaway

Oct 2 - From the TBR Pile - audiobook review of A Child Lost




Wednesday, August 26, 2020

Slanted Light ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Book Trailer & Giveaway!

SLANTED LIGHT
Jackson's Pond Texas Series, Book 2
by
Teddy Jones

Genre: Literary Fiction / Family Saga / Western Women / Rural Fiction  
Publisher: Midtown Publishing 
Publication Date: August 21, 2020 
Number of Pages: 275

 Scroll down for the giveaway!



Teddy Jones’s earlier novel, Jackson’s Pond, Texas, began the saga of the Jackson family. Now, Slanted Light continues their tale. 

Claire Havlicek’s late night call brings her brother Chris Banks from his home in New Mexico back to the town that bears their family name, Jackson’s Pond. She’s collapsed under the weight of threats to her thirteen-year marriage that have undermined her confidence and her will. Her husband, J. D., responds to seduction by a woman in need; theft and the threat of a forced buyout jeopardize Claire’s two medical clinics; drought imperils their ranch and cattle business; a teenage daughter turns to bulimia. 

When Claire admits her limits, her grandmother, Willa Jackson, and the other members of her family help her learn that being human, weaknesses and all, can be a source of strength and joy.





Teddy Jones is the author of three other published novels, Halfwide, Jackson’s Pond, Texas, and Well Tended, as well as a collection of short stories, Nowhere Near. Her short fiction received the Gold Medal First Prize in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2015. Jackson’s Pond, Texas was a finalist for the 2014 Willa Award in contemporary fiction from Women Writing the West. Her as-yet-unpublished novel, Making It Home, was a finalist in the Faulkner-Wisdom competition in 2017 and "A Good Family" was named a finalist in that contest in 2018. 

Jones grew up in Iowas Park, a small Texas town. She has worked as a nurse, a nurse educator, a nursing-college administrator, and as a nurse practitioner in Texas, Colorado, and New Mexico. For the past twenty years, she and her husband have lived in the rural West Texas Panhandle, where he farms and she writes.
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GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
THREE WINNERS! 
First Winner

Signed copies of both Jackson's Pond, Texas Series books
+ $25 Amazon gift card
Second and Third Winners
Signed copy of Slanted Light 
AUGUST 25-SEPTEMBER 4, 2020 
(US ONLY)


CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE 
FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 
or visit the blogs directly:

8/25/20

Sneak Peek

Chapter Break Book Blog

8/25/20

Book Trailer

KayBee's Book Shelf

8/26/20

Review

Nerd Narration

8/26/20

Bonus Post

Hall Ways Blog

8/27/20

Author Interview

Max Knight

8/28/20

Review

Forgotten Winds

8/29/20

Excerpt

StoreyBook Reviews

8/30/20

Guest Post

All the Ups and Downs

8/31/20

Review

Book Fidelity

9/1/20

Top Five List

Texas Book Lover

9/2/20

Review

The Clueless Gent

9/3/20

Review

Reading by Moonlight



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Thursday, August 20, 2020

Nacho's Nachos ~ Lone Star Book Blog Tours Sneak Peek & Giveaway!


NACHO'S NACHOS
The Story Behind the 
World's Favorite Snack
by
Sandra Nickel
Illustrated by 
Oliver Dominguez

Genre: Picture Book / Nonfiction / Food History / Latinx Interest  
Publisher: Lee & Low Books 
Publication Date: August 11, 2020 
Number of Pages: 32

 Scroll down for the giveaway!



NACHO’S NACHOS is the deliciously true story about how nachos were invented—about what happened when a regular customer asked Ignacio “Nacho” Anaya for something new, and there were no chefs in the kitchen. 

2020 is the eightieth anniversary of the invention, and Oliver Dominguez’s illustrations transport us back to the border of the Rio Grande in 1940, when Nacho’s quick thinking resulted in a snack now eaten everywhere from Texas to Paris to Hong Kong!




CLICK TO PURCHASE:
  Amazon ┃ Barnes & Noble  IndieBound ┃ Book Depository     


Sneak Peek: an interior spread from Nacho’s Nachos
By Sandra Nickel
Illustrated by Oliver Dominguez

"In the Mexican city of Piedras Negras, Rodolfo de los Santos heard about Nacho. Rodolfo was opening a new restaurant, the Victory Club, right across the Rio Grande river from Eagle Pass, Texas, in the United States.

The Club Victoria, as the restaurant was called in Spanish, had its own orchestra, a Moonlight Patio for dancing, and four different menus, featuring everything from steaks to seafood to Mexican specialties. Rodolfo wanted the best music, the best food, and the best people—and that included Nacho."





HALL WAYS REVIEW: DELICIOUS. DELIGHTFUL. DEFINITELY INFORMATIVE. And important point: Ignacio Anaya may have invented nachos, but if it wasn't for the culinary queen, Texan Mamie Finan, asking him to whip up something new and different for her, would he have?! (Ha! I may be trying to give Texas some cred for the world's favorite snack, but it's only a little stretch.) 

Nacho's Nachos is a terrific little story that captivates readers because nachos, yeah, but also because it's about something most have never pondered. Author Sandra Nickel's matter-of-fact storytelling is perfectly complemented by the retro illustrations by Oliver Dominguez, whose attention to detail (those mustaches and perfectly coiffed hair-dos!) and vibrant strokes of color bring the story to life. The words and pictures place readers right in Piedras Negras, and Ignacio's unfolding story.

And BONUS! The end of the story isn't the end of the book. Nickel has provided the original nachos recipe, some biographical information about Ignacio and Mamie (See! She IS integral!), and a great list of sources the author used in her research. 

What a fun book this would be for use in the home or school classroom and/or library. The plethora of possible springboard activities would make this a sure hit with kids and adults alike. (And the publisher has a free teacher's guide with cute activities on the website.) 

Highly recommend Nacho's Nachos as a read aloud, read along, or just an enlightening read. But be warned: read it, and there WILL be a craving for a certain salty snack. 
My nachos are a long way from Nacho's nachos! And this is my #bookstagramfail since I got so excited about taking the nachos pic that I forgot to include the book in the picture.


Sandra Nickel writes books and poetry for young readers. In 2020 and 2021, she has three books coming out: Nacho’s Nachos: The Story Behind the World’s Favorite Snack (Lee & Low), The Stuff Between the Stars: How Vera Rubin Discovered Most of the Universe (Abrams), and Breaking Through the Clouds: The Sometimes Turbulent Life of Meteorologist Joanne Simpson (Abrams). Sandra’s poetry can be found in SCOOP magazine. 

Sandra holds an MFA from Vermont College of Fine Arts and has presented workshops on writing for children and young adults throughout Europe and the United States. Sandra has twice won the Katherine Paterson Prize for picture books.


  Website Blog  Facebook Instagram Twitter  Amazon  Goodreads 

---------------------------------
GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY! GIVEAWAY!
FIVE WINNERS!  
3 Winners: Print Copy + Recipe Card; 2 Winners: Recipe Card. 
AUGUST 20-30, 2020 
(US ONLY)

CLICK TO VISIT THE LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE TOUR PAGE 
FOR DIRECT LINKS TO EACH POST ON THIS TOUR, UPDATED DAILY, 
or visit the blogs directly:
8/20/20
Author Interview
8/20/20
Sneak Peek
8/21/20
Review
8/21/20
Guest Post
8/22/20
Review
8/23/20
Author Interview
8/24/20
Review
8/25/20
Review
8/25/20
Scrapbook Page
8/26/20
Guest Post
8/27/20
Review
8/28/20
Review
8/28/20
Top Ten
8/29/20
Review
8/29/20
Review

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