Special Surprise Announcement: 425 Madison Avenue Season Two in 2020!

425 Madison Avenue Season Two Announcement

We're so excited to finally announce that 425 Madison Avenue is returning for a second season, beginning in early 2020!

This season will feature some new authors as well as some of season one's favs. Back for season two is Allie York, Leigh Lennon, MK Moore, Aubree Valentine, Lauren Helms, and Katy Ames. Plus a warm welcome to KC Enders, Jennifer Rebecca, and Marcie Shumway!

Not only do we have a sexy mix of new and returning authors, prepare for pages packed with new romances, characters, and tropes all from the same well-loved high-rise apartment building in NYC.

To celebrate we are giving away a complete season one set of signed books! One winner will win all nine books from season one, all signed by the authors who penned them.

Do you want this EXCLUSIVE set of books for your bookshelf?

Click here!

Make sure to follow the 425 Madison Avenue Facebook page for more on release dates, cover reveals and author spotlights over the coming weeks.

For exclusive excerpts, giveaways, and news subscribe to our 425 Madison newsletter!

Subscribe now!.

About the 425 Madison Series

Welcome to 425 Madison Ave the perfect place to fall in love. Delicious romances set in fast-paced and sexy NYC just waiting for you to read.

Season One features stories from some of your favorite romance authors: Leigh Lennon, MK Moore, Allie York, Aubree Valentine, Kay Gordon, Lauren Helms, Sylvia Kane, Katy Ames, and C. Lesbirel. Join these authors as they come together, each with a standalone romance for you to enjoy.

Covering all of your favorite tropes: second-chance romance, best friends sibling romance to a good ol' enemies to lovers romance. We've even got a sports romance, a fake relationship and an ugly duckling or two. Don't forget a brother's best friend and falling for your soul mate. Maybe a little love triangle as well. Each tale offers you something new, something different. After all, 425 Madison is the perfect place to fall in love!

For more information, visit the series website.

Check out the Season One and get caught up today!

You can read all nine books for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

This series and all promotional events are brought to you by Forever Write PR - Forever your source for all your writing needs. https://www.facebook.com/ForeverWritePR/

Blog Tour Review with Giveaway: We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler

Book info:

Title:  We Were Beautiful
Author:  Heather Hepler
Genre:  YA contemporary
Release Date:  April 2nd, 2019
Publisher:  Blink YA
Source:  ARC received from publisher which did not influence my opinion in any way
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

It's been a year since fifteen-year-old Mia Hopkins was in the car crash that killed her older sister and left her terribly scarred. The doctors tell her she was lucky to survive. Her therapist says it will take time to heal. The police reports claim there were trace amounts of alcohol in her bloodstream. But no matter how much she tries to reconstruct the events of that fateful night, Mia's memory is spotty at best. She's left with accusations, rumors, and guilt so powerful it could consume her.

As the rest of Mia's family struggles with their own grief, Mia is sent to New York City to spend the summer with a grandmother she's never met. All Mia wants to do is hide from the world, but instead she's stuck with a summer job in the bustling kitchens of the cafe down the street. There she meets Fig--blue-haired, friendly, and vivacious--who takes Mia under her wing. As Mia gets to know Fig and her friends--including Cooper, the artistic boy who is always on Mia's mind--she realizes that she's not the only one with a painful past.

Over the summer, Mia begins to learn that redemption isn't as impossible as she once thought, but her scars inside run deep and aren't nearly so simple to heal ... especially when Mia finally pieces together her memories of the night Rachel died.

BOOK LINKS

Goodreads

Amazon

Barnes andNoble

Book Depository

IndieBound

My Review:

This book was a little different than some contemporaries, but definitely had all the angst as well as humor that makes a teen story work.  I liked all the characters, loved Fig's Italian family especially.  It was also great to see that even as Mia struggled with her own demons of losing her sister, she still made the same mistake of assuming others hadn't been through things anywhere near what she had.  Cooper was adorable, loved the idea of the mural he was making with the tiles.  It was also fun to be experiencing New York City from a teen's perspective, made me want to take a trip out there again myself.  A lot of food that sounded delicious at the restaurant, and then I loved one part where the character even pointed out something that has bothered me for a while now, the fact that fortune cookies rarely actually contain a fortune anymore.  I say they are now just kind of proverb type of sayings, or as this character said, pithy sayings.  A great book for a good spring read. 

About the Author:

Heather Hepler is the author of several books for teens and tweens, including Frosted Kisses (Scholastic, 2015), Love? Maybe (Dial, 2012) and The Cupcake Queen(Dutton, 2009).

She loves tomato soup, fat cats, and hiking. (Not necessarily in that order.) She's lived in East Texas, Alaska, and Death Valley. Currently she, her son, their two spoiled cats, and their ridiculously smart dog live in Downeast Maine.

Website
Facebook
Goodreads
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Giveaway:

• Prize: 5 Finished copies of We Were Beautiful by Heather Hepler (USA only)

• Starts: 4/22/19

• Ends:  5/1/19

 
-->  a Rafflecopter giveaway


Tour Schedule:  

http://fantasticflyingbookclub.blogspot.com/2019/03/tour-schedule-we-were-beautiful-by.html

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Top Ten Tuesday: 10 Bookish Settings that I'd Love to Visit

Top Ten Tuesday is sponsored by The Broke and The Bookish.

Okay,  let's see what are the top 10 places I want to visit because I read about them in a book, and if I can remember exactly which books made me interested.

1.  Ireland 

Hmm, can't remember exactly which books, but I know there were some!

2.  Forks, Washington

 Because of Twilight, obviously.

3.  Scotland

Many books, all of the On Dublin Street series by Samantha Young.  The Harry Potter castle is actually in Scotland as well.

4.  England

So many books take place in England.  A lot of them by Amy Daws.  Of course, the Harry Potter series.  

5.  New York City

Okay, this might be a little bit cheating, but NYC was always on my list, because of all kinds of books, like Spellbound by Cara Lynn Shultz to name one.  And I did get to go there several years ago, and have now been 4 times. 

6.  New Orleans

Another one I've already gotten the chance to visit. And because of books like the Arcana Chronicles by Kresley Cole or the Wicked saga by Jennifer Lynn Armentrout, I totally wanted to go.

7.  Mexico

I've always been interested in old ruins from ancient civilizations, and after the book The Ruins by Scott Smith, Mexico became high on my list.  I made that come true about 10 years or so ago, when I visited the ruins in Tulum.  My first, and so far only, time out of the US.

8.  Egypt

Egypt is one that is from many, many books, among other things.  But a few that I can remember for sure are the Time Travelers series by Caroline B. Cooney, the Blossom Culp series by Richard Peck, as well as newer books like Reawakened by Colleen Houck.

9.  Germany, Amsterdam

I have wanted to see the house, attic really, that Anne Frank and her family had to hide out in.  I also feel like I want to visit a concentration camp, and pay my respects to those whose lives were lost in the holocaust.

10.  Australia

I think the first time I really thought I wanted to go was after reading Pride of the Peacock by Victoria Holt.

So, have you been to any of these places?  Are you from one of them?  What are some locations you want to visit after reading a book that took place in that setting?

Promo Post with Giveaway: The Shadow Ciper (York #1) by Laura Ruby

Book info:

Title:  The Shadow Cipher  
Author:  Laura Ruby
Series:  York #1  
Genre:  Middle Grades Science Fiction
Published:  May 16th, 2017

Synopsis:

It was 1798 when the Morningstarr twins arrived in New York with a vision for a magnificent city: towering skyscrapers, dazzling machines, and winding train lines, all running on technology no one had ever seen before. Fifty-seven years later, the enigmatic architects disappeared, leaving behind for the people of New York the Old York Cipher—a puzzle laid into the shining city they constructed, at the end of which was promised a treasure beyond all imagining. By the present day, however, the puzzle has never been solved, and the greatest mystery of the modern world is little more than a tourist attraction.

Tess and Theo Biedermann and their friend Jaime Cruz live in a Morningstarr apartment house—until a real estate developer announces that the city has agreed to sell him the five remaining Morningstarr buildings. Their likely destruction means the end of a dream long-held by the people of New York. And if Tess, Theo and Jaime want to save their home, they have to prove that the Old York Cipher is real. Which means they have to solve it.

From National Book Award Finalist Laura Ruby comes a visionary epic set in a New York City at once familiar and wholly unexpected.

AMAZON | BARNES and NOBLE | BOOK DEPOSITORY

About the Author:

Laura Ruby writes fiction for adults, teens and children. She is the author of the newly-released YA novel BONE GAP, as well as the Edgar-nominated children's mystery LILY'S GHOSTS, the ALA Quick Pick for teens GOOD GIRLS (2006), a collection of interconnected short stories about blended families for adults, I'M NOT JULIA ROBERTS (2007), and the forthcoming middle-grade trilogy YORK. She is on the faculty of Hamline University's Masters in Writing for Children Program. She makes her home in the Chicago area.

WEBSITE: http://www.lauraruby.com/index.php
TWITTER: @thatlauraruby
GOODREADS: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/73699.Laura_Ruby
FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/laura.ruby.714

Photo Credit: Stephen Metro

Giveaway:

--Giveaway is open to International. | Must be 13+ to Enter

- 7 Winners will receive a Set Copy of YORK: THE SHADOW CIPHER by Laura Ruby

  a Rafflecopter giveaway

 

Review: Forks, Knives, and Spoons by Leah DeCesare

Book info:

Title:  Forks, Knives, and Spoons
Author:  Leah DeCesare
Genre:  Contemporary romance
Published:  April 18th, 2017
Source:  ARC from author for honest review
My rating:  4 stars

Synopsis:

There are three kinds of guys: forks, knives, and spoons. That is the final lesson that Amy York s father sends her off to college with, never suspecting just how far his daughter will take it. Clinging to the Utensil Classification System as her guide, Amy tries to convince her skeptical roommate, Veronica Warren, of its usefulness as they navigate the heartbreaks and soul mates of college and beyond. Beginning in 1988, their freshman year at Syracuse University, Amy and Veronica meet an assortment of guys from slotted spoons and shrimp forks to butter knives and sporks all while trying to learn if the UCS holds true. On the quest to find their perfect steak knives, they learn to believe in themselves and not to settle in love or life.

My Review:
When the author emailed me asking if I'd be interested in reading and reviewing her book, I was definitely intrigued by the synopsis above.  While the majority of this story takes place during their time in college, there is a part of their lives after college that is included in the story.  I really did enjoy the UCS - otherwise known as the Utensil Classification System.  It turned out differently than I thought just from what I'd try to determine each utensil fit as before I read it.  Basically, a knife is the guy you want.  All the other types of utensils have their own definitions.  I liked that it was an open enough classification system that it showed a guy that was a spoon for one girl, could totally be a knife for another.  I know, that's pretty confusing without having read the book, so you need to go ahead and do that.  

I really liked the characters, even if they kind of fell into a bit predictable stereotypes, or sometimes maybe a situation was a bit expected, nothing new.  There were definitely times I was yelling at Amy to figure it out, it was so obvious to the reader what was going on, but then I do that with a lot of romance stories, I know that it is part of the drama.  I also really liked the time period it was set in, the very late 80s and early 90s. Since I started college in 1990, it was totally a walk down memory lane for so many things in the book.  Only having a landline phone, there were no cell phones, at least not for anyone other than very rich businessmen.  The book pulled in so many things that were experiences that are common in college life.  Things that I'm sure are still going on today.  The computer lab bits were funny though, when you consider how each college student usually has their own computer or laptop these days.  

I was rooting for Matt and Amy almost all of the book, but totally understood why she was in love with Andrew.  Then there was the friend who lived down the hall that was basically the very promiscuous girl, not just promiscuous, but also willing to mess with other girls' boyfriends.  There was the girl who went away to college with her high school boyfriend, and it didn't work out, although I think the reason in this story was different than the reasons for the people I knew in college.  

My only issues were really the predictability of the story.  The reason why the promiscuous girl was the way she was, well it was pretty textbook because of her dad leaving, the way her mom was, etc.  You kind of knew that Matt was a possible love interest for Amy no matter what she seemed to think.  I have to say I liked how Veronica's years panned out, and I like the way they were a little different and sometimes I got some unique turns in her story.  I hated the way she was at the end when she went back to a friend's wedding.  I hated the way she said the things she did about her boyfriend.  I also think how upset Amy got about remarks guys were making to their friend getting married was kind of silly, and kinda made her seem a little bit like a psycho girl.  Just me though.  

I still recommend this story as a sweet romantic read.  Pick it up, and then look at the guys in your past and around you today, and can you figure out who are the forks, spoons, and knives? 


 

Release Blitz: An Accident (Andrew Sister's #2) by Lindsay Marie Miller

Title: An Accident (Andrew Sister's #2)

Author: Lindsay Marie Miller

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: March 28, 2017

Synopsis

Amy Andrews is an aspiring young artist living alone in the heart of New York City. With an acceptance letter to NYU in the mail, her dreams of opening her own Manhattan gallery one day appear within reach.

Until Austin Taylor crosses her path. A smooth talkin' country boy from Southern Missouri with a knack for the culinary arts. What starts as innocent flirtation quickly blossoms into a passionate love affair, branded by sweet temptation and burning desire. But when a heavy dose of reality drives them apart, will their whirlwind romance come to an end? Or is their love the kind that lasts a lifetime?   

Spin-Off of An Arrangement with appearances by Benny and Claire Lewis  

*Can be read as a Stand Alone*
 

Purchase your copy today!

Amazon US: http://amzn.to/2nG88ZU
Amazon UK: http://amzn.to/2mKsLVw

More in the series!

Amazon US | Amazon UK | Barnes and Noble

About The Author

LINDSAY MARIE MILLER graduated from Florida State University Summa Cum Laude with a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature. An author of Contemporary Romance and Romantic Suspense, she enjoys writing about strong heroines and the honorable gentlemen who claim their hearts. The author resides in her hometown of Tallahassee, FL, where she is currently working on her next novel.

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Amazon | Goodreads | Mailing List

Review and Release Blitz: All the Frogs in Manhattan by Carrie Aarons

Book info:
Title: All the Frogs in Manhattan

Author: Carrie Aarons

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Release Date: March 5, 2017
Source:  E-galley from Give Me Books
My rating:  5 stars

Review:
What can I say, but I loved this book!  It really reminds me of the books I used to read about 15 years ago that I called "chick lit" and shared with my younger sister who now lives in NYC, where this book takes place.  It was funny, it was realistic, it was so hard to put down when other things in life needed attention.  It really fits today's dating scene though, because it inlcudes a dating app like Tinder, and I think it represents exactly how many of my friends have dealt with their experiences with that app or others like it.  It made me realize that when I have people read the romance novels I am currently working on, I probably need to have a younger opinion.  The people who read my snippet at a writing convention just recently all didn't really get the whole casual sex thing, which is a realistic thing, and yes something that women can do and actually do!  This book talks about it because of the show Sex and the City, which is more recent than from when I was that age, we didn't have shows like that. But when I first saw that show in my 30s, it reminded me of my group of friends in college and our 20s, and I felt that connection with it right away.  

There are just so many little details that fit in to what things people may not realize are actually real things, but one that I made sure to note was the "clothes chair."  In my room, it is not a chair these days, but one of those standing jewelry boxes/organizers that I use to throw clothes on that are not "clean", they've been worn once maybe, but they're not ready to be washed, I should be able to get one more wear out of them, right?  In some bedrooms it might be an exercise machine, and like this books says, a chair.  Am I right?  Don't you have one of those in your bedroom?  

Anyway, this was a fun read, and I hope you all get a chance to pick it up and read it soon!    

Blurb

You know how Cinderella had the whole glass slipper, pumpkin carriage, fairy godmother thing?

Yeah…with foot-destroying stilettos, Uber, and a Twitter horoscope, my life is far from a happily ever after.

In fact, instead of Prince Charming, I end up dating every slimy, scaly, brainless frog in the kingdom of Manhattan. And by frog, I mean all of the stereotypical bad guys that Mom and Lifetime movies warned you about.

The meathead player.
The mommy's boy.
The namedropper.
The cheapskate.

If they suck at relationships, I’ve probably kissed those cold, clammy lips in the hopes of finding love. Until one day, when one man with commitment issues offers to help me find the Romeo to my Juliet.

But what happens when the frog, who was never supposed to turn into a prince, kisses you at midnight? Ok fine, he propositioned me for some afternoon delight after brunch, but not everything can be straight out of a fairytale.

ADD TO GOODREADS

Purchase Links

99c for release day only

AMAZON US / UK / CA / AU

Free in Kindle Unlimited

Author Bio

Author of romance novels such as Red Card and the Captive Heart Duet, Carrie Aarons writes sexy, swoony and sarcastic characters who won't get out of her head until she puts them down on a page.

Carrie has wanted to be an author since the first time she opened a book. She loves spinning tales that include dapper men, women with attitude, and the occasional hunky athlete.

When she isn't in what her husband calls a "writing coma", Carrie is freeing up her jam-packed DVR, starting her latest DIY project, or planning her next travel adventure. She lives in New Jersey with her husband, who is more than happy to watch sports while his wife plots love stories.

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