KEEPSAKE By Kristina Riggle

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Please send your full name, address and title of book you have won to stephanieelliot@gmail.com so I can send your book to you!

Keepsake

By Kristina Riggle

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I got Keepsake and the mail and zipped through the first five chapters. I immediately fell in love with the main characters, hoarder Trish, whose life unfolds exactly like one of the reality folks on the real show Hoarders. I also felt extreme compassion for her sister, Mary, who is the complete opposite, with OCD issues. My heart melts for poor little Jack, Trish’s son, who is living in the mess of Trish’s life and I’m excited to see what comes next in this novel by Kristina Riggle. I have featured all of her books on Manic and I’m always excited to see what she has in store next – her writing is so fluid and real and you can’t help but feel for her characters and the real-life experiences they are striving to get through.

You’ll love Keepsake, and if you don’t win it here, be sure to pick it up, along with all of Kris’ other novels – they’re all fabulous – I promise you will love them all!

Blurb:

Trish isn’t perfect. She’s divorced, raising two kids — so of course her house isn’t pristine. But she’s got all the important things right and she’s convinced herself she has it all under control. That is, until the day her son gets hurt and Child Protective Services comes calling. It’s at that moment Trish is forced to consider the one thing she’s always hoped wasn’t true: that she’s living out her mother's life as a compulsive hoarder.


The last person Trish ever wanted to turn to for help is her sister Mary — meticulous, perfect Mary whose house is always spotless … and who moved away from their mother to live somewhere else, just like Trish’s oldest child has done now. But now, working together to get Trish’s disaster of a home into livable shape, two very different sisters are about to uncover more than just piles of junk , as years of secrets, resentments, obsessions, and pain are finally brought into the light.


If you’d like to win Keepsake, tell me NOT about a keepsake that you hold close – that would be way too easy – tell me if you’ve ever had a hoarding experience or something that you collect too much of? I think I’m a hoarder of books. In fact here are a couple photos of my office right now, and some of these books are the books that will be given to the GRAND PRIZE WINNER at the end of June! So tell me, what do YOU hoard?? Or CRAVE??? If you haven't guessed by now ... I LOVE BOOKS!

 Yep, these are some that you can win during the Grand Prize giveaway right here to the right .....>>>>>>>>> There are some great ones in this batch so you should keep entering EVERY DAY!

You're Entering Every Day for the Grand Prize, Right? You Should BE!

This book is part of the June Promo - enter every day in June for a chance at the grand prize giveaway at the end of the month - a pile of awesome books! - the more times you enter, the more chances you have at winning!


As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID (NO anonymous will be accepted – leave an email address if you don’t know how to post to an account!

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within THREE DAYS from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry ALLOWED per book please. If you scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

MORE LIKE HER by Liza Palmer

Congrats Marla W.

Please send your full name, address and title of book you have won to stephanieelliot@gmail.com so I can send your book to you!

More Like Her

By Liza Palmer

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I first ‘discovered’ Liza Palmer through her first book, Conversations with the Fat Girl, which was an international best seller the first week it came out, because come on, who doesn’t LOVE that title? And it was a great book! More Like Her is her fourth novel, and it's about friendship, survival, grief and love.

Here is the blurb:

What really goes on behind those perfect white picket fences? 

In Frances’s mind, beautiful, successful, ecstatically married Emma Dunham is the height of female perfection. Frances, recently dumped with spectacular drama by her boyfriend, aspires to be just like Emma. So do her close friends and fellow teachers, Lisa and Jill. But Lisa’s too career-focused to find time for a family. And Jill’s recent unexpected pregnancy could have devastating consequences for her less-than-perfect marriage. 

Yet sometimes the golden dream you fervently wish for turns out to be not at all what it seems—like Emma’s enviable suburban postcard life, which is about to be brutally cut short by a perfect husband turned killer. And in the shocking aftermath, three devastated friends are going to have to come to terms with their own secrets . . . and somehow learn to move forward after their dream is exposed as a lie. 

Read an excerpt here: More Like Her

Here’s an interview with Liza on SheKnows Book Lounge you may like to check out!

Fun fact: Liza earned two Emmy nominations writing for the first season of VH1’s Pop Up Video – do you guys remember Pop Up Videos – those were so cool!

Anyway! To enter to win a copy of More Like Her, tell me, is there anyone you wish you were “More like her?” And why? And I don’t mean in a jealousy type way – who do you admire?

You're Entering Every Day for the Grand Prize, Right? You Should BE!

This book is part of the June Promo - enter every day in June for a chance at the grand prize giveaway at the end of the month - a pile of awesome books! - the more times you enter, the more chances you have at winning!


As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID (NO anonymous will be accepted – leave an email address if you don’t know how to post to an account!

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within THREE DAYS from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry ALLOWED per book please. If you scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

HAND ME DOWN by Melanie Thorne

Congrats nancyecdavis

Please send your full name, address and title of book you have won to stephanieelliot@gmail.com so I can send your book to you!

Hand Me Down

Melanie Thorne

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One of the problems of having so many great books to share is that unfortunately, I oftentimes don’t get to finish them before it's time to post about them, as is the case with Melanie Thorne’s Hand Me Down, but what I have read so far is amazing. Thorne writes in the perspective of teenage Liz and about her family, and what happens when her mother chooses to love an ex-con and sends her daughter away, separating Liz from her sister Jaime.

As is the case with Liz in Hand Me Down, Melanie experienced some of the same things growing up and was asked to leave home at a young age. Like Liz, she was also separated from her younger sister at a time they needed one another most. It was that experience that sparked the book idea for Melanie and helped to her find truths and heal. 

Read on!

"A tough, tender, debut novel, in the tradition of Dorothy Allison and Janet Fitch, Hand Me Down is the unforgettable story of a girl who travels between California and Utah in search of her true family, having never been loved best of all."

Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Reid has spent her life protecting her sister, Jaime, from their parents' cruel mistakes. Their father, who'd rather work the system than a job, pours every dollar into his many vices, denying his daughters the shoes and clothing they need. Their mother, once a loving parent, is going through a post-post-adolescent rebellious streak and finds love with a dangerous ex-con. When she chooses starting a new family over raising her first-born girls, Elizabeth and Jaime are separated and forced to rely on the begrudging kindness of increasingly distant relatives.

A string of broken promises that begins with Liz's mother swearing, "I would never hurt you, Liz. You're family," propels her between guest beds in two states searching for a safe home. All the while, Liz is burdened by her stake in a bleak pact with a deceitful adult: to tell the truth about the darkest of her circumstances will cost her the ability to shelter Jaime. As Liz spirals into the abyss of fear and shame that haunts her sleepless nights, can she break free from her bonds in time to fight for her life?

Thorne writes with a command of language that is at once affecting and enticing. Her debut is the kind of voice-driven reading experience fiction lovers crave.

If you’d like to enter to win a copy of Hand Me Down, tell me if there is something in your closet that is a hand-me-down that you love that you wear today. 

You're Entering Every Day for the Grand Prize, Right? You Should BE!

This book is part of the June Promo - enter every day in June for a chance at the grand prize giveaway at the end of the month - a pile of awesome books! - the more times you enter, the more chances you have at winning!


As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID (NO anonymous will be accepted – leave an email address if you don’t know how to post to an account!

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within THREE DAYS from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry ALLOWED per book please. If you scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!

OBJECTS OF MY AFFECTION By Jill Smolinski

Congrats susieqlaw

Please send your full name, address and title of book you have won to stephanieelliot@gmail.com so I can send your book to you!

Objects of My Affection

By Jill Smolinski

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While I haven’t yet had the chance to dive into this one, I’m all about it for many reasons – the concept of hoarding is a main thread, which, if any of you have seen the TV show Hoarders, well, it’s just maddeningly addictive and a great topic for books (which you’ll also see in another great book I’m bringing to you next week!). I also love, as you all should know by now, stories where the ex-boyfriend shows up, and yes, Objects of My Affection has one of those! 

Some of my favorite authors have praised the book: Jennifer Weiner says it’s “Smart, engaging, and as refreshing as a dip in the surf” (however, I wouldn’t put the book in the ocean – or your Kindle cuz we know what would happen then! And Sarah Pekannen calls Objects of My Affection “Simultaneously breezy yet thought provoking, this is a fun read that stays with you.”

So, here’s more! …

Lucy Bloom is broke, freshly dumped by her boyfriend, and forced to sell her house to send her nineteen-year-old son to drug rehab. Although she’s lost it all, she’s determined to start over. So when she’s offered a high-paying gig helping clear the clutter from the home of reclusive and eccentric painter Marva Meier Rios, Lucy grabs it. Armed with the organizing expertise she gained while writing her book, Things Are Not People, and fueled by a burning desire to get her life back on track, Lucy rolls up her sleeves to take on the mess that fills every room of Marva’s huge home. Lucy soon learns that the real challenge may be taking on Marva, who seems to love the objects in her home too much to let go of any of them. 

While trying to stay on course toward a strict deadline—and with an ex-boyfriend back in the picture, a new romance on the scene, and her son’s rehab not going as planned—Lucy discovers that Marva isn’t just hoarding, she is also hiding a big secret. The two form an unlikely bond, as each learns from the other that there are those things in life we keep, those we need to let go—but it’s not always easy to know the difference.

Read excerpt here of Objects of My Affection

To enter to win a copy of Objects of My Affection: Look around the room you are in right this moment – what is the one object of your affection that is NEITHER a family member NOR your phone, computer OR piece of jewelry!! Tell me what the item is! Gotcha on that one, didn’t I!? Time to think OUTSIDE of the box! Heh heh! : )

Do You Read This Every Day?

This book is part of the June Promo - enter every day in June for a chance at the grand prize giveaway at the end of the month - a pile of awesome books! - the more times you enter, the more chances you have at winning!

As with all of the books I post on Booking with MaNiC, thanks to the authors and publicists for providing me with the books. Giveaways open to US/Canada residents only. To enter, leave an identifying unique user name or ID (NO anonymous will be accepted – leave an email address if you don’t know how to post to an account!

Winners will be chosen at random by random.org, within THREE DAYS from the date the book is posted on the blog, and one entry ALLOWED per book please. If you scroll through previous posts and if there is NOT a highlighted note at the top, then feel free to enter to win that book too! If there is a highlighted announcement at the top of a post, then that book is closed to comments and a winner has already been chosen. For comments, questions, suggestions, please email me at stephanieelliot@gmail.com. Thanks for your participation! Good luck!