❀ Desert Rose Reviews ☯ |
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Posted: 19 Oct 2015 03:00 AM PDT  *Materials & images provided by Xpresso Book Tours.
 ~Published: October 15th, 2015
~Length: 91 Pages
~Publisher: Leisure Time Books
~Genres: Adult, Romance
A young woman longing for a child stumbles upon a Christmas miracle.
Investigative journalist Scottie Darden is photographing the homeless for her Lost Souls series when she makes a discovery that could change her life forever. Under a makeshift tent in subzero temperatures in a downtown city park, she finds a woman’s dead body with her infant child. Without her cell phone to call for help, Scottie makes the split-second decision to take the baby home. Her initial instinct is to provide the baby with food and shelter until her family can be located. But as her fondness for the baby grows, she finds herself facing a life on the run or worse—prison time for abduction.
Curl up with Merry Mary this holiday season. A heartwarming story of the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.
  Ashley Farley is a wife and mother of two college-aged children. She grew up in the salty marshes of South Carolina, but now lives in Richmond, Virginia, a city she loves for its history and traditions.
After her brother died in 1999 of an accidental overdose, she turned to writing as a way of releasing her pent-up emotions. She wrote Saving Ben in honor of Neal, the boy she worshiped, the man she could not save. Saving Benis not a memoir, but a story about the special bond between siblings.
Her Sister’s Shoes—June 24, 2015—is a women’s novel that proves the healing power of family.
Look for Merry Mary this holiday season, a heartwarming story of the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.
 with Ashley Farley
Tell us about Merry Mary in one sentence.
Merry Mary is a heartwarming story about the powerful connection between a caring soul and an innocent child in need.
What do you think readers will enjoy most about your story?
I hope readers, especially mothers, will identify with my protagonist’s desperate longing for a child and empathize with the decisions she makes. I also believe they will enjoy the close relationship Scottie shares with her brother, Will.
Are you working on a new novel?
Yes, the sequel to Merry Mary, which I plan to release in Spring 2016. My currently untitled WIP is a full-length romantic political suspense starring Scottie, Will and the charming Guy Jordan.
Who or what was the inspiration for your story?
I created my protagonist, photojournalist Scottie Darden, out of my love for photography and my desire to see the world. Understanding some of the technical aspects of photography adds credibility to my story. All of my plots focus on familial relationships. My first novel, Saving Ben, which I wrote as a tribute to my brother who died of a drug overdose in 1999, depicts a college-aged brother and sister. Her Sister’s Shoes portrays three middle-age sisters struggling to balance the demands of career and home while remaining true to themselves. Scottie Darden shares a close relationship with her brother In Merry Mary and the upcoming sequel. Certain aspects of their relationship remind me of my brother and me, but mostly I created them out of the special bond between my own children, who are close in age—21 and 20—as well as spirit.
What is your favorite thing to do to get ready for the holidays?
Definitely not shopping. Every year on the day after Thanksgiving, I put my small artificial tree up in the corner of my kitchen, where I spend most of my time, and decorate it with food-related ornaments. I enjoy this tree so much more than the live tree I put up in the living room, which stresses me out and makes me a bah humbug.
Movie?
I’ve seen The Holiday with Cameron Diaz, Kate Winslet, Jude Law, and Jack Black at least a dozen times. Jack Black is lovable. Cameron Diaz wears the most amazing clothes. And Jude Law steels my heart every time when he cries at the end.
Novel?
The Christmas Train by David Baldacci. Disillusioned journalist Tom Langon meets a host of interesting characters as he travels from Washington to Los Angeles by train for Christmas.
Song?
Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You.”
Tradition?
It’s all about the food for my family. We have many traditions for the holidays, but our Christmas Eve meal is the most important. We invite the whole family over for a formal sit-down dinner. Even though we have the same dishes every year, everyone always raves about Emeril Lagasse’s Twice Baked Potato Casserole, which I thought you might enjoy.
10 large russet baking potatoes (about 7 pounds total)
8 tablespoons (1 stick) plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter, at room temperature
1 cup sour cream
1/2 cup heavy cream
2 teaspoons salt
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly ground black pepper
3/4 pound bacon, cooked until crisp and crumbled
1/2 pound sharp white Cheddar, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
3/4 pound mild Cheddar, grated (3 cups)
1/2 cup finely chopped green onions
3 eggs, lightly beaten
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
Scrub the potatoes well and rinse under cool running water. Pat dry with paper towels and prick the potatoes in several places with a fork. Place the potatoes in the oven and bake for 1 hour to 1 hour and 15 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the oven and set aside on a wire rack until cool enough to handle.
When the potatoes have cooled, cut each potato in half and, using a spoon or a melon baller, scoop the flesh out of the skins, leaving as little flesh as possible. Place the potato flesh in a large bowl and add 1 stick of the butter, the sour cream, heavy cream, salt, and pepper and mash until chunky-smooth. Add the bacon, cubed white Cheddar, half of the grated Cheddar, the green onions, and eggs and mix thoroughly.
Butter a 9 by 13-inch casserole with the remaining tablespoon of butter and reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees F.
Place the seasoned potato mixture in the prepared casserole and top with the remaining grated Cheddar. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until bubbly around the edges and heated through and the cheese on top is melted and lightly golden. Serve hot.
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| “The Divide” by E.J. Mellow! *Blitz with Excerpt & Giveaway*
Posted: 18 Oct 2015 05:00 AM PDT  *Materials & images provided by Xpresso Book Tours.
Dreamland #2 ~Published: October 15th, 2015
~Publisher: Four Eyed Owl
~Length: 390 Pages
~Genres: Fantasy, New Adult
Molly finally uncovers the truth about the strange dreams that plagued her sanity for weeks. Now destined to accept a clandestine role, Molly must find the strength and courage buried deep to push forward and succeed. With the help of Dev, the roguish blue-eyed man of her dreams—whose dark past resurfaces to haunt him—Molly prepares to test the limits of her newly awakened powers and set right a world on the edge of being consumed by nightmares. But when an unknown shadow stalks her every step and a shocking revelation about her ancestry comes to light, Molly may find herself forced to make a decision that could leave her alone in the dark and standing on the wrong side of a divide. Don’t miss The Divide—the heart-thumping second installment in The Dreamland Series.  I’m the author behind the NA Contemporary Fantasy trilogy The Dreamland Series. When I’m not busy moonlighting in the realm of make-believe, I can be found doodling, buried in a book (usually this one), or playing video games.
Prologue
HE LEANED AGAINST the wall, studying the bare table before him. The surface was white, smooth, and looked entirely uncomfortable. How would it feel to wake up on such a thing? He couldn’t imagine it being pleasant, but then she’d dealt with worse than lying on a cold surface. Frowning, he wondered if she was scared to come here or if she was entirely fearless as she closed her dark eyes—eyes that he’d seen burn with determination—only to open them to an unknown beginning.
Staying perfectly still, he was unable to look at anything but the emptiness. How long had he been waiting? How long had he been trained to the same fixture? The answer didn’t matter. He would never miss this. He promised her he’d be here, promised he’d never let anything happen to her. A promise he failed to keep with someone else.
“Dev, you can wait outside,” said a soft feminine voice. “You don’t need to stand around counting the seconds. I’m sure you have responsibilities you are neglecting.”
“If I leave, I would be neglecting my greatest responsibility,” Dev said evenly.
Elena sat on the other side of the room, a small smile touching her features. She wore the traditional white robe of the Vigil elders, and her posture was straight but relaxed. Her composure was something that always, ironically, unnerved him.
“Does she return these feelings?”
At her disruptive question, Dev snatched his eyes away from his target and latched on to another. She regarded him collectedly, like she did all things, with an expression that suggested she had seen into his future, flickered through his past, and held his current desires, wondering how much he might know of them.
He stayed silent, both unwilling and unsure how to answer.
“I must speak freely,” she went on. “I am both happy and saddened by your situation.”
His brows pinched in. “What do you mean?”
She tilted her head curiously, looking straight into his soul, and he did his best to seem calm, to not show how her ominous eyes affected him. Terra only knew how her guards dealt with being around her so much.
“I see your path as one that forks. As to which road you follow, that is still to be determined.”
Dev breathed out a laugh. “Aren’t most things in life still to be determined?”
“Perhaps for some.”
“Well then, is it safe to assume the cliché that one of these roads is happy and the other sad?” he asked, quickly growing tired of this vague game of prophecies.
“That all depends.”
“On what?”
She regarded him evenly. “On her.” She paused for a moment. “And on you.”
“Me?”
She nodded.
“How?”
Elena smoothed a nonexistent wrinkle from her dress. “I think the more important question is whether your heart is willing to sacrifice again to find out?”
Dev’s stomach tightened, and he dropped his eyes back to the empty table. Memories he’d buried deep within the ocean of time suddenly gasped for the surface, but he smothered them quickly. A shiver of past regret clicked down his spine. But that’s all it was, the past, and it could no longer bar him from having a future. Is your heart willing to sacrifice again?
He swallowed. “Was it ever willing?”
Elena stayed silent, allowing his question to echo through the room, and after a moment, Dev went back to staring at nothing and waiting for everything.
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Viv Drewa - The Owl Lady 