I'm so excited to be today's stop for the All I Want Blog tour, keep reading to learn about the book, enter the contest, read my review and see today's special top tens list and an excerpt from the book.
ALL I WANT
THREE STORIES. THREE COUPLES. ONE HOLIDAY.
Pretty Near Perfect
by Jolene Perry
The last thing Norah needs is to be attracted to anyone – especially in her deceased fiancé's parents' home. Collin’s starting a new career, and has no business getting involved – especially while staying with his roommate’s family, who very kindly offered to take him in for the holidays. Unfortunately, you just don’t always pick the most convenient time and place to fall for someone.
Six Days of Christmas
by Kaylee Baldwin
When Natalie goes home with her best friend for Christmas, she expects plenty of quiet time to work on a winning ad so she can turn her dream internship into her dream job. Instead, she gets time-consuming Christmas festivities, a house full of children, and Jimmy, her best friend’s brother - someone who makes her question everything she’s always thought she wanted.
Twist of Fate
by Rachael Anderson
When a postcard meant for Kenzie winds up in Ty's mailbox, Ty's faced with a decision. Should he tell her that her fiancé is breaking up with her and let it ruin her favorite holiday, or should he do what he’s wanted to do since he met her - make a move and hope that he can win her over before she discovers there won’t be a wedding after all.
Author Jolene Perry
Jolene Perry is an enigmatic figure. She is most often seen behind her laptop, staring at the words flying onto the screen with reckless abandon.
She survived growing up in rural Alaska, driving like a lunatic, and her husband’s careers in the military, as a perpetual student, and an Alaska State Prosecutor. She also survived as a middle school math teacher using her degree of Political Science and French.
One day Jolene was playing her guitar (probably some-thing juvenile for her kids) when she wondered what it would be like to write a song for a rockstar, and her first book was born. (that book is shelved)
She now lives a very glamorous life as a stay at home mom, elbow deep in dirty dishes and peanut butter sandwiches. She doesn’t even attempt to keep up with the laundry because non-writing time is precious, and her family is sorta awesome.
Links:
Author Rachael Anderson
Rachael Anderson is the author of four contemporary romances: Divinely Designed, Luck of the Draw, Minor Adjustments, and The Reluctant Bachelorette. She's the mother of four, can't sing, doesn't dance, and despises tragedies. But she recently figured out how yeast works and can now make homemade bread, which she is really good at eating.
Links:
Author Kaylee Baldwin
I grew up in Mesa, Arizona, and graduated from Arizona State University
with a degree in English literature.
I currently live in southern Arizona with my husband, Jeremy, and our three children. When I am not writing, I enjoy reading, starting new craft projects, and spending time with my family.
Links:
Tour Giveaway
$25 Amazon Gift Card
Ends 12/24/12
Open to anyone who can legally enter, receive and use an Amazon.com Gift Code or Paypal Cash. Winning Entry will be verified prior to prize being awarded. No purchase necessary. You must be 18 or older to enter or have your parent's permission. The winner will be chosen by rafflecopter and announced here as well as emailed and will have 48 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen. This giveaway is in no way associated with Facebook, Twitter, Rafflecopter or any other entity unless otherwise specified. The number of eligible entries received determines the odds of winning. VOID WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW.
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My review
This is a book with three distinct stories in it, written by three different authors, so I'll kind of talk a bit about each book individually.
First up, Pretty Near Perfect, by Jolene Perry. Norah feels like she's finally moving on after the death of her fiance, she's even been on a few dates. But his family has invited her to spend Christmas with them, in his old home, and she goes because she really has no one else to spend Christmas with. It's even more difficult than she thought it would be! She keeps remembering bits of the Christmas before, when she was newly engaged to Jacob, and she's even asked to stay in his old room, that hasn't been changed really at all since Jacob died. Things are looking a bit depressing, but then she meets Collin, friend and roommate to Jacob's brother Brady. Collin is amazing, she's falling more and more for him every second, but she's in her ex-fiance's house with his family, and Collin just broke up with his fiance, is there a way for them to be together without hurting Jacob's family in the process?
I LOVED this story. Norah was so cute, I loved the way that her personality comes through during the story. I loved the sweetness of her romance with Collin. I loved the way the whole story just felt like Christmas!
Next is Six Days of Christmas, by Kaylee Baldwin. Natalie is a work-a-holic intern at an ad agency. She has a life that she's happy with, a boyfriend that's just as driven as she is, but not very nice, and a best friend and roommate, Janessa who can't stand said boyfriend. It's Christmas time and Natalie is trying to win a full-time job with the ad agency by coming up with an award winning ad for....Magneto Blocks. She's not sure how that's going to happen because she was an only child and has never really been around kids, but she really wants the job, so she knows she has to try. Janessa talks Natalie into going home with her for Christmas, Natalie doesn't really want to, but her boyfriend plans on working through Christmas and she doesn't really want to be all alone. Her only stipulation is that she needs to have time to work. What she doesn't realize is that Janessa's new step-father has a Christmas tradition for the six days before Christmas. He and his family celebrate the way they would in six foreign countries and he expects everyone in the house to celebrate too. Things get even more complicated for Natalie when Janessa's younger brother, Jimmy, comes home for Christmas unexpectedly. Natalie finds herself looking at him in a way different way than she did when they were kids. But can Natalie give up the way that she's planned her life to go, or will she give in to her heart?
This story was so cute too! I loved the characters, I loved the Christmas traditions that I'd never heard of. It was filled with laughter and love. And I really enjoyed the ending!
Last, but certainly not least, is Twist of Fate by Rachael Anderson. Ty McKenzie and Mackenzie Tyler live in the same apartment building just one floor apart. Their names are really similar and that makes it pretty hard for the mailman to deliver the proper mail to the proper address. Ty would love to date Kenzie, she's everything he's ever wanted, but she's wearing the ring of her high school sweetheart, Brad, who's in Madagascar. Ty would love nothing more than to have him stay there... permanently, but he knows that Kenzie is looking forward to her wedding day almost as soon as he comes home. But when Ty gets a postcard meant for Kenzie from Brad, telling her he's met someone else and is not coming home, he has to make a decision. Ruin Kenzie's favorite holiday, or make her fall for him instead of her loser boyfriend. And thus begins the craziness of trying to make Kenzie love him, but will the whole plan backfire on Ty?
This was a cute story too! The romance was so sweet and fun! I loved the way Ty and Kenzie's names were, how clever! I liked seeing this story from both Ty and Kenzie's point of views. I also liked the forgiveness theme of the story as Ty learns to forgive his mom and move on from a hurt that happened before.
All in all you really want to read this book! It was written by three of my very favorite clean romance authors. These ladies all really know how to write an amazing love story!
I was able to read an e-version of this book in exchange for an honest review.
Here's the top ten list that I promised, since it happens to be my birthday I thought that it would be fun to know what Jolene Perry's ideal birthday would be, and following that is the book excerpt from Kaylee Baldwin's Six Days of Christmas. So without further ado...
What Jolene's Ideal Birthday would look like:
one - lie in bed while listening to husband packing lunches and making breakfast while laughing with happy children.
two - lie in bed and check morning email while husband takes kids to school.
three - eat calorie free all day (shush, don't ruin the lie. It's my birthday)
four - take the kind of long, hot shower that I never bother to take.
five - come out of the shower to a breakfast of nothing but different kinds of delicious pancakes (or crepes, I'm cool with those too)
six - listen to whatever music I want on the hour drive to the bookstore (which is an hour away), where husband acts as my chauffeur and spend as MUCH TIME AS I LIKE looking at whatever I wish and loading up a bag or two of books.
seven - Eat two of those really huge Starbucks cookies - you know the ones that have the Reeses Peanut Butter Cups in them? Because forget cake - I'm a cookie girl...
eight - there's this restaurant in Anchorage that has these homemade garlic cilantro fries, and I'd probably eat my weight in those...
nine - dinner and a movie with the kiddos in our pajamas (if there was any room after the cookies and fries)
ten - begin reading bookstore books while hubs rubs my feet from all that walking at the bookstore...
My life really is family, food, books... And I guess that's a pretty happy way to be.
Excerpt from Six Days of Christmas by Kaylee Baldwin:
The girls went downstairs and found warm tortillas, scrambled eggs, and homemade salsa waiting for them on the sidebar. It smelled quite a bit how Natalie imagined heaven smelling. They grabbed plates and started
piling their food high.
“Save some for the rest of us, Natty.” Jimmy spoke right next to her bare shoulder. She struck her elbow back into his stomach, smiling when she heard his swift intake of breath. That had been one of her favorite moves to
use on him in high school, too. Worked like a charm whenever he got it in his brain to flirt with her. Hopefully with so my years passed since they’d last seen each other, she wouldn’t get so flustered every time he flirted or got too
close to her.
“Your elbows are still bony as ever.” He rubbed his stomach.
“And you’re still not a morning person.” She took in his wild hair and thin glasses. That was more like it.
Jimmy piled his plate with the food Stan had prepared. “Hey, lost any underwear lately?”
“Shut up.” Natalie willed the blush away from her cheeks while Jimmy laughed, and she took her seat at the table next to Janessa.
“You just need to ignore him, and he’ll stop bringing it up,” Janessa advised.
Jimmy sat across from them and took a huge bite of his burrito. “I’ll never stop reminding Natty of it, no matter what.”
Labels: Christmas book, Clean Romance, jolene perry, Kaylee Baldwin, Rachael Anderson
