THE SONG REMAINS THE SAME by Allison Winn Scotch

A winner has been selected for this book. Check here: Winner Announcement!

The Song Remains the Same
By Allison Winn Scotch

I've had practically all of Allison Winn Scotch's books on MaNiC and I'm very excited to bring her latest here to you today!

Allison Winn Scotch’s The Song Remains the Same is similar to her other books as it is an absolute page-turner-cannot-put-it-down read. And with this one, this title couldn’t be more on target. Woven throughout are the lead character’s “The Best of Nell Slatery’s” playlist and Scotch chooses these token songs brilliantly to set the tone for each chapter and pulls specific lines from each song to bring to life the point she makes in the scene.

Nell is one of two survivors of a horrific plane crash and what I love about this book is Scotch does not dwell upon the crash, because that would freak me out. Nell loses all of her memory and when bits come back, or from what she’s told, the one thing that comes most prominently in her mind is the fact that her famous artist father deserted their family when she was thirteen. Nell becomes fixated on this and sets out to find the mystery behind his reasons for leaving.

Aside from her father leaving them, she also discovers secrets about her husband, whom she’s not really sure about from the moment she wakes up in the hospital. During the whole book, there are constant surprises that will intrigue the reader. You’ll seriously be like, “Whoa, I did NOT see that coming!” 

An interesting cast of characters carries along Nell’s story, including a likeable reporter who’s out to help Nell find the answers to her reclusive father (or is he?), her sister Rory and her mother Indira, who seem to be keeping way too many secrets of their own in order to protect Nell, and the other survivor, Anderson Carroll, a TV star / B-list actor, who I can’t place in real life, and want to know who Allison crafted him after. Peter, Nell’s husband – well, you’ll see for yourself! And then you’ll also get to meet some surprise guests in The Song Remains the Same that I can’t share with you here or Allison may kill me! This is why you’ve got to read it ASAP!

One thing I was curious about was we get small details on what Nell was like prior to her losing her memory, but I wondered if the plane accident triggered her fixation with her father, and if before that, was she a normal functioning happy adult, not seeking closure about this part of her life? One may never know, unless Allison Winn Scotch were to write a prequel to The Song Remains The Same? Hmmmm.

SEE! You GOTTA READ IT! And one lucky winner can get a copy here by answering this question: What song will bring you back to a moment in time like THAT? For me, the song TAKE YOU HOME by Phil Collins always brings me back to Junior year in high school and to that one boyfriend, and that one party, and that one dark room upstairs at that one party... If I hear that song, I am immediately transported back in time. Actually, that whole album will take me back to that boyfriend and that time we had together. How about you - what song places you back in time to a certain moment that is UNFORGETTABLE? Tell me and you'll be entered to win The Song Remains the Same!

Remember, MaNiC MoMMy is aiming to feature great books each and every week this year, and you’ll have a chance to win those books as well! Please stop by often AND MAKE SURE TO CHECK THE PREVIOUS POSTS as I’m now posting new books more than once a week! Open to US/Canada residents only, and thanks to all the participating authors and publicists for providing the books.

One entry per person as always! Please include an email address or a uniquely identifying user name when entering to win!

THE ONE THAT I WANT by Allison Winn Scotch & THE ORPHAN SISTER by Gwendolen Gross

WINNERS:

The Orphan Sister:

Qweska8402

The One That I Want:

JDSTEC

Please email me your addresses at stephanieelliot@gmail.com so I can get your books to you! Congrats!

The One That I Want

By: Allison Winn Scotch

The Orphan Sister
By Gwendolen Gross

TWO separate winners will win ONE book each. However, you only have to post ONCE and you will have the chance to win each of the books.

Allison is one of those authors who takes the time to connect with her fans, and is also willing to help other writers. She's on Facebook and Twitter - she's very fun to follow, if you haven't connected with her online. She's had the opportunity to interview some very hot celebs, and has freelanced for years as well as written NYT bestsellers. Her latest, The One That I Want is out in paperback next week, but you can win it here THIS WEEK!

The premise:

Tilly Farmer is thirty-two years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high school sweetheart, working as a school guidance counselor, trying for a baby. Perfect.

But one sweltering afternoon at the local fair, everything changes. Tilly wanders into a fortune teller's tent and meets an old childhood friend, who offers her more than just a reading. "I'm giving you the gift of clarity," her friend says. "It's what I always thought you needed." And soon enough, Tilly starts seeing things: her alcoholic father relapsing, staggering out of a bar with his car keys in hand; her husband uprooting their happy, stable life, a packed U-Haul in their driveway. And even more disturbing, these visions start coming true. Suddenly Tilly's perfect life, so meticulously mapped out, seems to be crumbling around her. And as she furiously races to keep up with - and hopefully change - her destiny, she faces the question: Which life does she want? The one she's carefully nursed for decades, or the one she never considered possible?

I'm also very excited about her fourth book, which will be out early 2012 called, The Song Remains the Same! Sneak Peek HERE!

And for all you writers out there with any kind of questions at all, don't forget to check out Allison's blog, Ask Allison, where she is always available to answer your writing questions! It's a great blog, very helpful and inspiring!

The Orphan Sister
By Gwendolen Gross

The next book to give away is one that Allison personally recommends, The Orphan Sister, by Gwendolen Gross, which I am completely engrossed in right now. Allison calls it “a gorgeous portrait of life, love, loss and sisterhood.”

I read five chapters while getting my hair colored today and cannot wait until later tonight when I can escape into some quiet time to continue reading. Gwendolen has written three other books, her most recent was The Other Mother, which I also loved and devoured. Her writing is so fluid and full of imagery, and The Orphan Sister is already so suspenseful and such a page-turner.

Here is the book’s premise:

Clementine Lord is not an orphan. She just feels like one sometimes. One of triplets, a quirk of nature left her the odd one out. Odette and Olivia are identical; Clementine is a singleton. Biologically speaking, she came from her own egg. Practically speaking, she never quite left it. Then Clementine’s father—a pediatric neurologist who is an expert on children’s brains, but clueless when it comes to his own daughters—disappears, and his choices, both past and present, force the family dynamics to change at last. As the three sisters struggle to make sense of it, their mother must emerge from the greenhouse and leave the flowers that have long been the focus of her warmth and nurturing.

For Clementine, the next step means retracing the winding route that led her to this very moment: to understand her father’s betrayal, the tragedy of her first lost love, her family’s divisions, and her best friend Eli’s sudden romantic interest. Most of all, she may finally have found the voice with which to share the inside story of being the odd sister out. . . .

To enter to win either one of these awesome books, tell me if you think you can judge a book by its cover? Is there a certain book cover you love? Personally, I love both these book covers. I love the book covers where you can't tell what the character looks like. I always like to imagine for myself who the character is.

Thanks for reading and being a part of June Blast-O-Books.

I also blog at SheKnows.com Real Moms Guide. Please take a look at my posts over there if you get a chance!

Don't forget to enter for any of the previous books that you may have missed. AS LONG AS A WINNER's NAME is NOT posted at the top of the blog post, then that means a winner has NOT yet been chosen so you can still enter to win that book but ONLY ONE TIME per book entry PLEASE!

If you're new here, check out the rules and other stuff for the June Blast-O-Books there under that highlighted link back there, or feel free to leave me a comment always and I'll answer it in the thread, or email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. It is always at my discretion to change things up, and because of some regulations, I guess I must say that the books I review are given to me by either the authors or publishers or publicists, and I am never paid for my reviews, and they are my own personal reviews, and you know what, because I'm here telling you this anyway, I will also tell you that I never review a book I don't like, because you know what, why waste my time, life is too short to read a crappy book! There. There's my new mantra!

LAST OF THE BOOKS

Well, good morning, happy Monday! Hope you had an AWESOME weekend. I had a fun Girl’s Day Out with Diva (for those of you who haven’t followed along in the "way long ago" of the blog, that’s what I call my almost 12-year-old daughter!). We needed some Mommy/Daughter one-on-one time.

I’ve finally picked the rest of the winners except for SPIN & ARRANGED (I figured I’d give you guys another day or so in case people weren’t around on Friday or the weekend). And to make things even easier, I’ll list the last few winners here:

Two Kisses for Maddy: Michelle Mierczewski

I Think I Love You: Donna W

A Place of Yes: Dawn from CA

Perfection: Buttah (she’s a two-time winner-how lucky is that?!)

And the winners of the books below have still not contacted me yet, and if I don’t get an email from you by Wednesday night, I am wiping away your names from the blog entries and picking new names. Sorry guys, but the names have been up there for quite a while, and I’m listing them here now too!

You’ll Lose The Baby Weight
Annie Begins
The One That I Want
If You Were Here
Falling Apart in One Piece … this one was recently chosen so I'll give this winner a bit more time.

Have winners all received your books? If you recently won them, you may not have gotten them yet, but if you don’t get your books by like mid April, please do let me know and I’ll contact the author/publicist about it.

After we get all this squared away, then I can focus on the big drawing! Sorry it’s taking so long!

For later this month I’ve got Fly Away Home by Jennifer Weiner, and another giveaway from Laura Dave! She’s going to be offering her new one again, The First Husband (in hardback!). I’ll be sharing a great read from Kaira Rouda called Here, Home, Hope, and a fun one called The Baby Planner by Josie Brown that I just got the other day that looks fab! So not to worry, lots more books heading your way!

If you’re a mom to a young kid or need a really fun book gift idea, you might want to check out my review on Real Moms Guide about “Get To Know Your Kid”, and I also just wrote about demystifying The Birthday Octave, which is something I think only my crazy family celebrates!

I’ll share a quick Starbucks story from Friday:

There’s this really cute guy who’s always in there, I mean just a beautiful man and I was sitting near him (of course, I planned that!). Another woman is there a lot of the time, who I’ve come to know a little bit. So the cute guy’s there and I try to peek at him because he’s like a piece of art, just gorgeous and I like to look at beautiful things. He’s reading some book. Who goes to Starbucks to just read a book (well, he had coffee too). I should pay more attention to what he’s reading. I do know his name is Jack – thank you baristas for writing names on the cups!

Anyway, so when he leaves, I say to Beth (because I’ve met her before, plus they wrote her name on her cup too so it helps me remember also!)… I say to her, “Gosh he is just soooo cute!”

She says, “Yeah, I think he’s married.”

And I laugh and show her my rings and say, “So am I! I just like to look at him because he is so beautiful!” I wonder if she thought I was strange because I said he was cute. I think she is strange for not thinking he was cute! Or for not looking at him. Yep, she is definitely strange for completely thinking a guy can’t be cute because he is married.

So is that weird? Of course, I told Mr. MaNiC all about it. And he says he looks at women all the time but that doesn’t mean he wants to have sex with them (although those were not his exact words, he said something a little more crude).

Anyway, I thought I would share that with you because you guys have been sharing so much with me but I don’t even know if that’s something you would want to know.

Have a great Monday, and if you feel like it, you can tell me something crazy you did over the weekend because the only crazy thing I did was THINK about what I would do to that guy in Starbucks if I WASN’T MARRIED!

And yes, I am going back to Starbucks first thing Monday morning.

PeaCe uP!

MaNiC MoMMy

THE ONE THAT I WANT by Allison Winn Scotch

Winner Announced!
Congrats to

Leanne!

Who went to a psychic once and was told about a sister that she actually found later in life!
Please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com with your full name and address and we'll get your book to you! Also, thanks everyone for your patience - I'm trying to keep up with getting winners announced and books posted every day! Thanks to you all for your terrific and fun answers every day as well!

Book: The One That I Want

Author: Allison Winn Scotch

Blog: Ask Allison

What if you woke up one day to all your dreams coming true...but those dreams were more like nightmares?

I love the story about how Allison and I first connected online. Not only is she a New York Times Bestselling author, she is also a very successful freelance magazine writer. She had put out a query for an article she was writing about marriage, something about keeping it fresh, and I answered her questions and she followed up with me and my quotes got in the magazine. At that time, her first book, The Department of Lost and Found, wasn’t out yet, and I didn’t know she was going to be a super-star author.

A while later, I discovered the book, and her name rang a bell. I was like, “WHOA! I know that chick!” Not that Allison’s a chick, well, she is, but she’s classy, and all that … well, you get the drill.

So, I probably contacted her, chatted her up online until she could stand me no more, and here we are, ready to give away her third book! Allison also has an exciting fourth book coming out early 2012, called, The Song Remains the Same! Sneak Peek HERE! 

And for all you writers out there, don't forget to check out Allison's blog, Ask Allison, where she is always available to answer your writing questions! It's a great blog, very helpful and inspiring!

Here’s her latest, and "The One That You Want Today." Hahah. It’s called The One That I Want:

Tilly Farmer is thirty-two years old and has the perfect life she always dreamed of: married to her high school sweetheart, working as a school guidance counselor, trying for a baby. Perfect.

But one sweltering afternoon at the local fair, everything changes. Tilly wanders into a fortune teller's tent and meets an old childhood friend, who offers her more than just a reading. "I'm giving you the gift of clarity," her friend says. "It's what I always thought you needed." And soon enough, Tilly starts seeing things: her alcoholic father relapsing, staggering out of a bar with his car keys in hand; her husband uprooting their happy, stable life, a packed U-Haul in their driveway. And even more disturbing, these visions start coming true. Suddenly Tilly's perfect life, so meticulously mapped out, seems to be crumbling around her. And as she furiously races to keep up with - and hopefully change - her destiny, she faces the question: Which life does she want? The one she's carefully nursed for decades, or the one she never considered possible?

Here’s my question for the comment section: Have you been to a fortune teller? Personally, I have not. I don't want to know what's going to happen in my future. But what about you? Have you gone to one? Yes, no, why, why not?

*****

Please leave a comment, and all those who do will qualify to win The One That I Want! I’ll draw the winner in a couple of days and I will post the winner’s name at the TOP of this post, in the highlighted area.

Come back and read about each book every day in March. Choose the books you'd like to win. Enter for any or ALL the books. Each entry will count as an entry toward the grand prize of winning ALL 31+ books at the end of the month. You can win the book of the day and still qualify to win ALL the books at the end of the month!

PLEASE be specific with your name in the comment section, and IF YOUR NAME is listed as the winner, you must email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com in order to claim your prize. Email me with your full name and address so I can have your book(s) sent to you.

Thanks, and GOOD LUCK! And come back tomorrow to see what book I’ll be giving away then too!

It’s MaNiC MoMMy’s March Madness Book-A-Day Giveaway! Read ALL the Rules and Details Here!

Sorry, only U.S. and Canadian residents only!