~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~
Synopsis (from Amazon):Dr. Lissa Morgan has had a crush on her best friend’s older brother since they were kids, but handsome, brooding Cam Taylor has never given her a second glance. When Cam unexpectedly shows up on Lissa’s doorstep bleeding and bruised, his personal life in shambles, things between them take a steamy turn. After an incredible weekend with the sweet, sexy doctor, Cam realizes what he’s been missing. But he’s run from intimacy his whole life, sure he doesn’t deserve a woman like Lissa. He’s doing her a favor by walking away – or so he tells himself. Frustrated and hurt by Cam’s distance, Lissa must nonetheless rely on his private security firm when an annoying admirer becomes a threat. The more time Cam spends with Lissa, the faster his defenses crumble. When the disturbed stalker finally makes his move, Cam will do whatever it takes to save the woman who’s slowly healing his wounded soul. Lost and Found is the third book in the Tactical Solutions International series but can be read as a stand-alone.
Book Title: Lost and Found (Tactical Solutions International, Book 3) by Maggie Clare Category: Adult Fiction (18+), 220 pages Genre: Romantic Suspense Publisher: Wave Equation Media, LLC Release date: August 2020 Tour dates: August 11 to August 24, 2020 Content Rating: R for some swearing, violence, and mature themes.
Maggie Clare is the pen name of award-winning speculative fiction
author Tabitha Lord. When channeling Maggie, she writes all the naughty
things! Her Tactical Solutions International romantic suspense series
features hot hunky heroes, smart sexy gals, and nail-biting narratives.
Count on Maggie to pair great story-telling with an erotic edge. Connect with the Author: Website ~ Facebook ~ Twitter ~Instagram~Goodreads
~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~
Join us for this tour from April 13 to May 1, 2020!
Book Details:
Book Title: Lighten Your Mental Load by Amy Thornton Category: Adult non-fiction, 129 pages Genre: Self-Help Publisher: Tell-Tale Publishing Release date: January, 2020 Tour dates: Apr 13 to May 1, 2020 Content Rating: PG: The author uses occasional mild swear words in the book.
Book Description:
Mental labor, or the mental load, involves the many — and extremely
varied — tasks that are involved in managing a household and/or
workplace. This topic has exploded over the past couple of years,
especially for women. As stated in an October 2017 Washington Post
article, “The constant stress of trying to stay organized — and to
remember to execute so many tasks every single day — is affecting
women's relationships with their spouses, children, friends, and
colleagues. They are experiencing mental, emotional, and physical
fatigue trying to stay on top of it all.”
Lighten Your Mental Load shares real stories of what
this load is like for both men and women across the globe and how it
originated. It offers practical advice on how to lighten this burden
through technology and other methods in the following areas:
• Home
• Shopping and Meals
• Marriage/Partners
• Children
• Pets
• Transportation
• Career
• Birthdays, Celebrations, Holidays, and Vacations
• Volunteering, Church Activities, and Hobbies
• Caregiving
• Retirement
Finally, the book discusses ways to not add to the mental load of others
and how we can more evenly distribute the mental labor between both
sexes for future generations.
Amy Thornton Shankland, GPC, has been battling the mental load for over
29 years. She is a former Dale Carnegie instructor, has been a grant
professional for 18 years, is a columnist for the Hamilton County
Reporter in Central Indiana, and a wife and mother. She also published Joy to You and Me (At Work!) in 2018 through Tell-Tale Publishing.
~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~
BOOK DESCRIPTION:Diets come and go, and the scale needle swings as you drop pounds and then gain them back. But what if there were a weight loss solution for forever? Not another fad diet based on deprivation and restriction, but a holistic system for shedding pounds and maintaining your weight?
In The Permanent Weight Loss Plan, Janice Asher, MD, and Fulbright Open Research Fellow, Jae Rivera, reveal (from their own first-hand experiences) that it’s not just about the food you eat or don’t eat—it’s about a mindset and lifestyle change. After collectively losing 170 pounds and maintaining their weight for years, Janice and Jae share scientific evidence, personal experiences, and practical insights on how you can successfully reframe your relationship with food.
It’s about stopping the shame associated with body size, recognizing instances of disordered eating, equipping yourself with the knowledge of what behaviors contribute to lasting weight loss, and making use of proven strategies. Get actionable tips on how to:
Overcome barriers like stress, shame, and emotional eating
Escape the comfort food circle of hell
Eat food that nourishes your intestinal microbiome and brain
Replace unhealthy habits with new ones that will treat your body well
Boost your metabolism by eating during the right times of the day
Commit to an exercise regime you can enjoy
Transform your kitchen from danger zone to a safe space
Survive potential landmines like holidays and parties
Develop strategies for not gaining back the weight you lose
Stop the cycle of fat-shaming and treat yourself with kindness
Complete with 26 recipes for cauliflower quinoa puttanesca, “umami bomb” roasted portabella mushrooms, blueberry breakfast smoothie, curried lentil salad, and more, The Permanent Weight Loss Plan encourages readers, with gentle humor and compassion, to embrace a paradigm shift and transform their lives for good.
BOOK DETAILS:
Book Title: The Permanent Weight Loss Plan: A 10-Step Approach To Ending Yo-Yo Dieting by Dr. Janice Asher; Jae Rivera
Category: Adult Non-Fiction (18+), 308 pages
Genre: How-To
Publisher: Skyhorse Publishing
Release date: January 2020
Tour dates: January 7 to February 3, 2020
Content Rating: PG
iRead Book Tours: Check out other blogs and tour stops:
Janice Asher is a gynecologist at the University of Pennsylvania. In addition to being a clinician there, she began the MILE (mindful, intuitive living & eating) Program, and the PANDA (Physicians And Nurses Domestic Abuse) Program. She is a co-author and co-editor of a textbook on sexual assault.
Jae Rivera
Jae Rivera is a biological anthropologist specializing in human osteology. She received her BA from the University of Pennsylvania, and continued on to work at the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History. Presently, she is living in Peru analyzing human remains with a Fulbright Open Research Grant. and will begin her PhD when she returns in 2018.
~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~
Synopsis (from Amazon):It’s a bittersweet reunion for Mac Faraday when members of his former homicide squad arrive at the Spencer Inn. While it is sweet to attend the wedding of a late colleague’s daughter, it is a bitter reminder that the mother of the bride had been the victim of a double homicide. The brutal slaying weighing heavy on his mind, Mac is anxious to explore every avenue for a break in the cold case—even a suggestion from disgraced former detective Louis Gannon that one of their former friends is the killer.
When the investigator is brutally slain, Mac Faraday rips open the cold case with a ruthless determination to reveal which of his friends is a cold-blooded murderer.
One (or more) Sentence Summary: I have enjoyed all the Lauren Carr books I have read so far. Crimes Past, falls right into that category. Crimes Past is part of the Mac Faraday series. I recently reviewed the first book in the series, It's Murder, My Son and this is the 13th book in the series. However, you do not need to read them in order. They are stand-alone books, for sure.
Lauren always has lots of characters in her novels. Even though this was the 13th book, the characters (and animals) that were in the first book are introduced in a way for first time readers of the series to get to know them. Even as reader of a previous book in the series, it was not over done. It gave me a refresher of whose who. I don't care for books that take chapters re-introducing characters (this was not the case here).
As typically of a Lauren Carr book, Crimes Past involved more than one mystery (or murder) that Mac is solving. The book starts out with a wedding and a murder that took place 16 years ago at the Inn that Mac owns. Present day, the sister of the murdered bride 16 years ago, is about to get married at the Inn. Mac and his half brother David are determined to solve the 16 year old case. However, who can they trust? There seems to be some bad cops involved in the murder.
Wacky neighbors are another thing that does not add up and Mac knows something is off. Gnarly, Mac's trained MWD dog and the town mayor (yes the dog), is the cause of a neighbors dislike. In trying to figure out the neighbor and her dislike of Gnarly (come on, he is the Mayor), Mac stumbles into another murder.
In the end, Mac solves both murders, but I never figured it out. There are a lot of twists and turns and just when I thought I had the answers, I didn't. Great books with great characters (and animals), lots of things going on (more than one murder to solve) and will keep you guessing.
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns! Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night. Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor. Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs, including the real Sterling, on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV. Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
~ I received no compensation and opinions are 100% my own or my family. ~
Synopsis (from Amazon):What started out as the worst day of Mac Faraday’s life would end up being a new beginning. After a messy divorce hearing, the last person that Mac wanted to see was another lawyer. Yet, this lawyer wore the expression of a child bursting to tell his secret. This confidence would reveal Mac as heir to undreamed of fortunes, and lead him to the birthplace of America’s Queen of Mystery and an investigation that will unfold like one of her famous mystery novels. Soon after she moves to Deep Creek Lake, Maryland, Katrina Singleton learns that life in an exclusive community is not all good. For some unknown reason, a strange man calling himself “Pay Back” begins stalking her. When Katrina is found strangled all evidence points to her terrorist, who is nowhere to be found.
Three months later, the file on her murder is still open when Mac Faraday, sole heir to his unknown birth mother’s home and fortune, moves into the estate next door. Little does he know as he drives up to Spencer Manor that he is driving into a closed gate community that is hiding more suspicious deaths than his DC workload as a homicide detective. With the help of his late mother’s journal, this retired cop puts all his detective skills to work to pick up where the local investigators have left off to follow the clues to Katrina’s executer.
One (or more) Sentence Summary: This was my first Mac Faraday story. I enjoyed all the characters and want to vacation on Deep Creek Lake. Mac finds out his birth mother is a famous mystery series author and that she has been murdered. Oddly, a main character in her books fits Mac to a T. Over night he went from being a cop to being a millionaire, owning a mansion and a hotel. Now he is determined to solve his mother's murder.
There are a lot of characters in the story and at first it was hard to keep them all separate. Once I did, the story moved really fast. There were a few different stories going on at once and I couldn't wait to figure them out. As typical of me, I didn't figure it out and was happy with how everything was resolved. However, leaving the door open for the second book.
Lauren always has a great animal or two in her stories. Gnarly took center stage in It's Murder, My Son. He was a military dog (German Shepard) who was honorably discharged. He is on crazy dog that seems to find trouble.
Would I Read Other Books by the Author:I really enjoyed Winter Frost, Ice and Murder by Perfection. I am looking forward to reading other books by Lauren. If I counted right, there are 12 more Mac Faraday books in the series!
Lauren Carr is the international best-selling author of the Mac Faraday, Lovers in Crime, and Thorny Rose Mysteries—over twenty titles across three fast-paced mystery series filled with twists and turns! Now, Lauren has added one more hit series to her list with the Chris Matheson Cold Case Mysteries. Set in the quaint West Virginia town of Harpers Ferry, Ice introduces Chris Matheson, a retired FBI agent, who joins forces with other law enforcement retirees to heat up those cold cases that keep them up at night. Book reviewers and readers alike rave about how Lauren Carr’s seamlessly crosses genres to include mystery, suspense, crime fiction, police procedurals, romance, and humor. Lauren is a popular speaker who has made appearances at schools, youth groups, and on author panels at conventions. She lives with her husband, and three dogs, including the real Sterling, on a mountain in Harpers Ferry, WV. Connect with the author: Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Instagram
THINKING IN MEALS, NOT IN DISHES(an excerpt from Accessible Fine Dining by Noam Kostucki)
When I was a kid, I remember my dad taking me to restaurants where he knew the chef. The waiter would bring us the menu, and my dad would tell him we didn’t need it. He would ask the waiter to tell the chef that we have this amount of money or that, and to serve us the best for that amount. At first, I was shocked: “but I didn’t even see what’s on the menu? How do I know I will like it? I want to choose my dinner!”. Then, the waiter brought us the tiniest plate of food I had ever seen. There was no way I was going to be full from that dinner. Four hours and thirteen plates later, I was full and amazed. I had tasted so many different things that I was in heaven. Not every single dish was the best, but there was at least one dish I still remember almost 20 years later. It was a Chinese-style spoon filled with roasted duck. The chef asked us to hold the spoon in our hand and walked around sprinkling something on top before allowing us to eat it The barbeque roasted duck sparkled and exploded in our mouths. It was unbelievable. Later that night, he revealed his trick to me, and I was blown away. That’s how I discovered the concept of discovery menus: let the chef give you the best dishes that they can cook. Let them decide what different types of dishes they want to bring you, and it will become a full evening, very much like going to the theatre or opera.
As a result, one of the things I dislike most about going to restaurants is having to choose what I’m going to eat. It feels like a burden. I want to be satisfied and happy, but I don’t want to always eat the same thing. Do I go for a dish I know I will like or do I try something that seems strange and interesting? Most of all, how do I know which dish the chef prepares best? When you go to a restaurant and eat one dish, there is a lot of pressure for that one dish to be amazing. If it’s not, all you have is one plate that you don’t like. By serving people a lot of small dishes, you grab people’s attention, and you keep them awake. The best part is that different guests will have different preferences. That’s why one of my favorite part of dinner is when I ask at the end what is everyone’s single favorite dish. It’s fascinating to see the different opinions people have, and by serving a lot of dishes, you give people something to choose from. If they remember just a single dish from the entire dinner, in my eyes, you have succeeded not only as a chef, but as an artist.
Book Details:
Book Title: Accessible Fine Dining - The Art of Creating Exciting Food in Your Everyday Kitchen by Noam Kostucki, with Chef Quentin Villers
Category: Adult Non-fiction , 128 pages
Genre: Creative Cookbook / Fine Dining
Publisher: Amazon
Release date: Dec 10, 2018
Tour dates: Jan 7 to 31, 2019
Content Rating: G
Book Description:
Six months after opening my first restaurant, one of my dishes was selected as "25 dishes to travel around the world", featuring me next to culinary legend Heston Blumenthal.
Exciting and healthy food doesn’t have to be complicated, and it doesn’t have to cost an arm and a leg. Over the years, I have seen some of the most exciting dishes come from the simplest kitchens and the most modest ingredients. The purpose of this book is to focus our attention away from the distractions of fancy kitchen equipment and luxury produce and instead focus our attention towards ingenuity in the kitchen and culinary innovation.
For some strange reason, cooking is taught in books as a series of mechanical steps to follow and repeat with precision. I see cooking as a creative art like painting or playing music: it is the freedom of expression that is most interesting to me. When we create from an artistic perspective, we give birth to something new and potentially magical.
The purpose of this book is not to teach you specific recipes, because the ingredients you will find in your local organic food market will likely not be the same as the ones we see here. Nor is the purpose to show you how to imitate us. The purpose of this book is to guide you into thinking about your dishes in a way that elevates them to a fine dining level, from ingredients which are easily accessible to you. Naturally, you will find a few recipes, but most importantly you will find a new way to look at food.
We will share how we think about food shopping, searching for unusual ingredients, the combinations of flavors, techniques, textures, nutritional value, and of course, plating. The purpose of this book is to guide you to become a more exciting, creative and adventurous version of yourself in the kitchen. What separates a craft from an art form is the story behind it; cooking is a craft, while fine dining is an art form.
If you want to create fine dining dishes, start to focus your attention on the different stories a dish can tell. Some stories can be told through your cooking, and others are told through words. Taking the time to present your dishes before people eat is crucial to creating anticipation for the food they will eat.
MY NAME IS NOAM KOSTUCKI AND I CREATE SPACES FOR MAGIC TO HAPPEN.
I was an awkward child, so I changed school 5 times. I spent most of my life trying to please others, and be the kind of person I believed everyone else wanted me to be. I wasn't happy and I struggled to get what I want. Everything changed when I started changing.
I spent the last 12 years creating the life I dream of. I've had the privilege to be homeless twice, and to speak at Harvard about entrepreneurship. I have grown to be myself more fearlessly than ever before. I am now surrounded by people I love, and who love me.
I traveled over 40 countries, and I've helped over 25,000 people create magic. For example Patryk Wezowski who raised $500,000 in 8 weeks and Esther Perel who gave the 30th most viewed TED talk. Some less public successes include a blind eyed student who experienced his blind eye for the first time and a journalist who left an abusive relationship.
As a university drop out, I was surprised when my first book (personal branding) became required reading at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, as well as receiving the UK Business Speaker of the Year runner up award, and a honorary degree in Business from Hofstra University. As an artist, I was honored to exhibit my photography at the European Union's Innovation Conference.
My most recent venture is HiR Fine Dining, a jungle culinary adventure. I create a discovery menu of 7 plates per person for groups of up to 12 people. HiR Fine Dining became #1 fine dining on TripAdvisor in Tamarindo within the first month. Within 6 months one of my plates was selected out of 40,000 restaurants by OpenTable as one of "25 dishes to travel around the world for". I was invited to speak at Chateau 1525, Costa Rica's most reputable cooking school and our guest chefs include a blind chef who traveled all the way the United Kingdom.
Quentin Villers
Quentin has been cooking in restaurant since the age of 18. He helped his brother build a restaurant for which they received a Michelin Star. Quentin moved to Costa Rica to consult for hotels and restaurants. He managed 3 of the 4 restaurants at Hotel Nayara in La Fortuna, for which he lead a team of over 20 people to be selected to enter Relais & Chateaux, a prestigious network of unique luxury hotels with exquisite cuisine. Quentin is a regular guest chef at HiR Fine Dining and consults for a number of fine dining restaurants in Costa Rica.
Tour Schedule:
