Book Blitz and Giveaway: J.C. and the Bijoux Jolis (The Rousseaus #3) by Katy Regnery

Title:  J.C. and the Bijoux Jolis
Author:  Katy Regnery
Series:  The Rousseaus #3
Publication date: November 21st, 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance

Did you fall in love with The English Brothers? Were you hot for the Winslows? Katy Regnery’s New York Times bestselling Blueberry Lane series continues with The Rousseau siblings in 2016!

If the best man and maid of honor are both single, it’s practically an unwritten rule that they should pork.

…so begins a rocky acquaintance between Jean-Christian “J.C.” Rousseau and Libitz Feingold at the wedding of J.C.’s brother and Lib’s best friend. While manslut best man J.C. is surprised when maid of honor Libitz soundly spurns his advances, his curiosity is piqued. The girl he couldn’t have becomes the only one he wants.
So, when he finds a seventy-year-old portrait in the attic of his sister’s mansion that bears an uncanny resemblance to the prickly gallery owner, he enlists her help in solving a mystery seven decades in the making. Traveling from Philadelphia to New York to Marseille, a couple who started off as enemies will discover that even cynics can find true love…and mortal man is no match for destiny.
*All books in The Blueberry Lane Series can be enjoyed as standalone novels.*

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EXCERPT:

“You must be the famous Libitz,” he’d opened, taking his assigned seat beside her, and flashing his sexiest grin.
After all, if she was his chosen conquest for the weekend, there was no time like the present to work his wiles. Wearing a simple black sheath dress with aqua circles, 70s-style mod make-up and oversized silver and crystal chandelier earrings that almost brushed her thin shoulders, she’d turned to him and blinked those wide, all-seeing eyes.
“And you…must be kidding.”
Taken aback, he’d stared at her for a second before chuckling. “Wha—I mean, how’s that?”
“Let’s start over,” she said, cocking her head to the side. “Here’s your line, Romeo: “Hi, I’m Étienne’s brother, Jean-Christian. It’s nice to meet you.” Want to give it a try?”
He cleared his throat, his smile fading. “Hi, I’m Étienne’s brother, Jean-Christian. It’s nice to meet you.”
She locked eyes with his, her lips neutral, neither tilted up nor down. “Hi. I’m Libitz Feingold, Kate’s best friend…and it’s not cold enough.”
“What?” asked J.C., feeling completely turned around.
“It’s not cold enough in hell for me to fall for someone like you,” she said, then shifted back around to talk to the person on her other side.
Well, fuck me, thought J.C., taking another gulp of beer as he tried to figure out if he was insulted or impressed. After a moment, he nudged her in the side with his elbow and she looked at him over her shoulder, her expression annoyed.
“Yes?”
“I hear the temperature’s dropping there,” he said casually, then added, “because they’re expecting a visit from you.”
“Ha!” she chortled, a genuine grin brightening her eyes for a moment before she quickly reigned it back in to practiced ennui. “Is that right?”
He shrugged, tipping his bottle of beer back as he held her eyes, challenging her to come back at him with something clever. “So I heard.”
“From all the friends you’ve got there?”
He almost spit his beer out. Damn, but she was quick.
“Truce?’ he asked, placing his beer on the table and holding out his hand.
She stared at his hand for a moment, then looked away, leaning forward to pick up her champagne glass and bringing it slowly to her lips. “No, thanks. Mama didn’t raise no fool.”
“You’re unreal.” She shook her head, that bored look still in place.
“Nope. I’m real. I’m just not a good target for charming scamps looking for trouble.”
“A target? Shit. Who got to you?” he asked, feeling a little abused by her insta-judgement of him without actually getting a chance to know him in person. Not that she was wrong exactly. But getting into trouble with the right person could be a hell of a lot of fun.
“The list is long and distinguished,” she shot back.
His eyes widened and his lips wobbled.
“Oh, God,” she said, shaking her head as her cheeks bloomed an appealing pink under her make-up. “I walked right into that one didn’t I?”
“Yes, you did,” said J.C. with what he hoped was a disarming grin. “All together, now…”
“So’s my Johnson,” they said at the same time, quoting the rebuttal line from Top Gun.
“Hey, look at that,” he said, still smiling at her. “You do know how to have fun. I was beginning to worry.”
Her smile instantly faded. “You’re not as cute as you think you are.”
“Yeah,” he said, nodding as he finished the last of his beer. “I am.”

Author Bio:

New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Katy Regnery started her writing career by enrolling in a short story class in January 2012. One year later, she signed her first contract and Katy’s first novel was published in September 2013.
Twenty-five books later, Katy claims authorship of the multi-titled, New York Times and USA Today Blueberry Lane Series, which follows the English, Winslow, Rousseau, Story, and Ambler families of Philadelphia; the six-book, bestselling ~a modern fairytale~ series; and several other standalone novels and novellas.
Katy’s first modern fairytale romance, The Vixen and the Vet, was nominated for a RITA® in 2015 and won the 2015 Kindle Book Award for romance. Katy’s boxed set, The English Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1–4, hit the USA Today bestseller list in 2015, and her Christmas story, Marrying Mr. English, appeared on the list a week later. In May 2016, Katy’s Blueberry Lane collection, The Winslow Brothers Boxed Set, Books #1-4, became a New York Times E-book bestseller.
In 2016, Katy signed a print-only agreement with Spencerhill Press. As a result, her Blueberry Lane paperback books will now be distributed to brick and mortar bookstores all over the United States.
Katy lives in the relative wilds of northern Fairfield County, Connecticut, where her writing room looks out at the woods, and her husband, two young children, two dogs, and one Blue Tonkinese kitten create just enough cheerful chaos to remind her that the very best love stories begin at home.

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Review: Of Monsters and Madness by Jessica Verday

First thanks to Egmont USA Publishing and Edelweiss for allowing me to read an e-galley of this book.  I have to say though that this was the 2nd book in a row that just didn't really catch and grab me as I read it.  The idea behind it was intriguing, so I finished it because it wasn't horrible, it just wasn't as good as it probably could have been.  Lots of things that didn't really get explained too well, and honestly, kind of boring, making it take me longer than it should have to finish it.

There have been a lot of retellings lately, most of them have been really good.  I thought the idea of this "retelling" or kind of alternate story about Edgar Allan Poe and his famous poem/story about Annabel Lee would be very unique.  And it was more than a retelling of that really.  It also included another classic story, but I don't want to give the story away by saying what it is here.  I  kind of guessed it as I first started, but wasn't sure exactly what was going on till closer to the end.

As I said, the main character is Annabel Lee and when her mother dies she travels to Philadelphia to live with her father and grandfather, neither of which she's met before.  She comes from Siam, and so the "big city" is so much different for her.  She is interested in medicine, after her mother taught her all about healing remedies.  But her father is a stickler for what is "proper".  And so tells her, no forbids her, to continue her interest in it.  He hires a tutor to teach her all the ways she should behave as a wealthy lady, and also to teach her languages like French.  The tutor seems to have a bad relationship with her father though.  And actually, her father isn't very likeable, he's very rude and hateful it seems to his daughter.  Her grandfather, or "Grandpere" is a much more loving person for her to come live with.  She also forms a friendship with Maddie, who is a maid, and also becomes her personal maid for dressing and such.  Her father has an assistant named Allan Poe.  He meets her at the dock when she arrives on the ship.  There is something about him that she finds very interesting, and he seems to be attracted to her as well.  He is a very polite gentleman, although he won't tell her what her father does in his laboratory in the basement of their house.  Annabel Lee arrives in Philadelphia to the news of a murder.  It seems there is a murderer at loose in the city.  There are many sinister characters around the house as well.  A new guard hired to walk around the estate at night to keep it safe.  And at night Annabel Lee runs into another of her father's assistants.  He is Allan's "cousin", and he is named Edgar Poe. Of course the murders soon seem to have a connection to her father, and so of course her curious mind leads her to kind of question things, and occasionally try to figure things out.

I don't feel she was a normal sleuthing kind of character, but she did do a bit of it.  Overall as I said at the beginning, there just wasn't that connection that I felt with other books that kept me reading constantly and I had no problem putting it down to do other things.  I finished it as quick as I could tonight just so I could move on to my next book which I am very excited about.  So I guess I would say I'm just not that big of a fan of this.  And it ended very abruptly, definitely there will have to be a sequel I would think.  But I will  not be back for a second installment.



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